Thirty two years before episode three series three "His Last Vow" Charles Augustus Magnussen makes what he would call "the businessman's blunder!"
He builds up an intimate relationship with his then private secretary Abertha Jones, who sees Magnussen more as a prospective husband than her employer. The reason why he falls for her is that she talks of the Magnussen name and the prospect of immortalising it, thus with her falling in love with him suggests the idea of him conceiving a child. There are many frustrating arguments but after Magnussen has a "near miss" with one his "assets" he reconsiders her suggestion. They arrange to secretly have this child; Magnussen puts on a front that he needs to do intensive research away from London about a prospective "explosive" story, and that he can only take his PS, (part of this true as he knows certain engineers maintaining the Challenger Space Shuttle), although really he and Abertha's plan is secretly honoured above that.
The secret child is born, a baby boy, and both Magnussen and Jones are elated, however their family like bliss is short lived. During their first year of being parents, Magnussen starts to be paranoid in thought as he thinks that Jones wants Magnussen to be "more human" a have a more natural bound with people through joyful happiness rather with ruthless opportunism. This makes Abertha realise that although she was only trying to do good, she has awoken a much darker side of Magnussen. With this, four years of heart aching turmoil is endured and Abertha decides that she can no longer go on and fears for her son's future as she no longer feels strong enough to protect him. She comes to the conclusion that she danced with a snake and no longer wants his slime, so commits suicide (or to her, sacrifices herself) with the last word's form Emperor Claudius "let all the poisons that lurk in the mud hatch out." Her body was found at the site of rubble of The Challenger Space Shuttle on 29th January 1986, but could not be recognised. Magnussen himself realises that the fact he has a child; he would pose a great threat to his achievements and therefore would be his own "pressure point". Magnussen like Cronus punishes his son not with easy death but with incarceration and ignorance.
Magnussen instructs to some long suffering "assets" who are part of the American Special Forces to take his son into their control, to a maximum security facility (similar to Sherrinford). Magnussen caries the child in a blanket with his initials on it to somewhat brand the child to be his. Upon asking for the child's name, Magnussen looks down at one of agents belts with a compass key ring with a pointer pointing west. Magnussen replies "Zephyrus." He then leaves his son and coldly erases him from all existence. The agents agree and his incarceration codename is "Zephyrus"
Zephyrus –
Over time Zephyrus has learned the ways of a Special Forces agent, although learning this was not his purpose at all, but with "playing around" during youth he has built up soldier like stamina and ingenuity of the highest standard.
The only comparable trait that he shares with his father is his aptitude to charm people, so over the years he has amassed alliances with agents from all over the globe, who are complimentary towards him as they are impressed with how much has learned at such a young age. He also forms an intimate bound with a girl cadet, Armina who visited him on occasions and they became good friends.
As technology improved, Zephyrus' thirst for knowledge grew, so he became enthralled with the world of literature both fiction and non-fiction. He realised that brawn was only one side of the coin, so he had to explore the world intellect to give him a solid chance to create the best skill set that he could have to combat anything in the future.
Twenty five years have passed and Zephyrus is somewhat a super soldier, his brain match only by his brawn, but to him there are big gaps in his life, certain questions that need answering like – why am I here? Where did I come from? Who are my parents? What is this rag? What is CAM? When he asks these certain questions to guards, agents, directors and even a visiting Secretary of Defence, they sheepishly avoid answering them and immediately change the subject. His frustration to not getting these answers Zephyrus decides to do something that he is ready to do now. Escape. He charms Armina who is daughter to one of the directors to become his confidante and flee together she reluctantly agrees. After five years of intricate planning they make their escape. They make it outside the perimeter by the skin of their teeth and they huddle themselves on board a shipping vessel which is on its way London.
They arrive in London on 12th January 2014 and Zephyrus's first port of call is to find the answers to the questions that have been cascading inside his head. However Armina and he are drawn to a big news story. Media tycoon Charles Augustus Magnussen has died at his Appledore mansion. Zephyrus' photographic mind sees his name but see and recalls the rag that he saw back at the facility. He dismisses this as a passing coincidence.
After nearly two years of being in London Zephyrus and Armina learn of a great deception and life threatening discovery, a corrupt member of the nobility Count Sylvius has stolen the Mazarin stone. The reason this plan is life threatening is that the Mazarin stone that people believe that is safely returned is a mere replica and the original stone is with Sylvius. The original stone is not a diamond but is a smoothened off lump of quartz, which is the keystone to a missile that has the capability to level an entire city. With the Count's disappointment with Sebastian Moran's Palace of Westminster explosion fail a few years ago it would seem that he has only one city as a target, London. However Zephyrus and Armina only know half the story as a certain consulting detective knows the other. Sherlock Holmes upon examining the Bruce Partington missile plans in a previous case shone a UV light over pages three through five and discovered that there was a secret plan of another missile that could be timed and use infrared technology powered by a lump of quartz, and has a more powerful blast than that of the missile that was written clearly and not concealed Sherlock took a photo on his phone of the concealed plans as a reminder that another game maybe afoot!
Zephyrus meets Sherlock –
Zephyrus and Armina upon realising the phenomenon of Sherlock Holmes and his past accomplishments, they knock on the door of 221B Baker Street and tell both Holmes and Dr. Watson of their discovery. Holmes recounts of certain photos he took with his phone and upon analysis he is as happy as a child at Christmas as a brand new game has been started. Both Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes are furious at this oversight however, they and Dr. Watson underwent the Trails of Sherrinford orchestrated by Eurus, which was not a game but a lesson that in the end was learned, (although in the case of Sherlock relearned). London is put on a red terror alert immediately. Armina concurs with the Sherlock's suggestion that Mrs. Hudson should have peace of mind of security, so Armina stays at Baker Street with her whilst Sherlock, Dr. Watson and Zephyrus go to investigate. Dr. Watson has to return to his daughter Rosie due to her having colic. Therefore Sherlock and Zephyrus are a temporary new pairing for this investigation.
During their collaboration Zephyrus and Sherlock discuss about the voids in the lives. Sherlock forgets that all the way through their activity so far that he has forgotten to ask Zephyrus for his name. "Zephyrus" is the response. Sherlock is a little dumbfounded as when they start to share voids he tells that his sister is "Eurus" so he now been acquainted with both the east and west winds. Zephyrus tells Sherlock of his ulterior motive, that not only has he come to tell Sherlock of the Mazarin stone, but to ask for his help, in order for his questions about his origins to be answered. Sherlock asks Mycroft to do a background check on Zephyrus, and no birth certificate or any document of identification is found on him, but to Mycroft's shock the only piece of classified information on Zephyrus is that he broke out of a maximum security facility and is one of America's top ten most wanted, and the only photo identification they have of him is thirty two years old of him in a blanket with the word CAM on it. Mycroft realises that there could be a link with between Zephyrus and Charles Augustus Magnussen. There has been no threatening indication from Zephyrus to Sherlock yet upon the surveillance conducted by Mycroft; however suspicions are confirmed to Mycroft as his infiltrated the databases of CAM media and reads shocking diary entries by Abertha Jones private secretary to Charles Augustus Magnussen. He cross examines this data with the disappearance of a CAM media employee thirty two years and the unidentified body found at the Challenger Space Shuttle site. Mycroft realises that Zephyrus is Charles Augustus Magnussen's son.
After many months investigation a piece of luck comes to Sherlock and Zephyrus' aid, a clumsy shipping move is made by Count Sylvius. Sherlock and Zephyrus are able to locate the Mazarin stone and the Count so they can return the stone to safety and imprison the callous nobleman. However upon instructions from Eurus, Sherlock is to go to Sherrinford so that he can be told something of a revelation. Instead Mycroft accompanies Zephyrus to catch the Count and the Mazarin stone.
After the success of their sting, Mycroft sits Zephyrus down in his office at the Diogenes Club, and delicately starts to answer his lifelong questions. Zephyrus is in wrathful disbelief and begins to destroy the office whilst wailing at the realisation of the truth. Another piece of information that Mycroft adds is that Charles Augustus Magnussen was in fact murdered by Sherlock Holmes; it is made clear that Zephyrus has been working with his father's murderer. Whilst Sherlock was at Sherrinford, Eurus and Sherlock were having the same conversation about who Zephyrus really is.
Upon finding out his roots and the horrible deeds that led to his mother's suicide and through his blackmailing the suffering of many other people, Zephyrus like he father decides to write a different story, where the name Magnussen is not feared and reviled but trusted and respected. Zephyrus returns to Sherlock at 221B Baker Street and confronts him with what he has learned and Sherlock reciprocates the information he has learned. Zephyrus in an awkward statement but in a gallows like humour says to Sherlock "In my opinion Sherlock, the best thing you have ever done, was killing my father!"
Zephyrus and Mycroft discuss a secondary surveillance scheme to aid the British government's terror watch, Zephyrus has his terms and conditions that his is granted full access to all areas of surveillance and that his can use Appledore (his forgotten birthright) as his headquarters for good and not as his father used it like a tyrannical castle. After careful consideration and parliament passing a new bill Mycroft and Zephyrus with haste set their new plan in motion. At last a world where Magnussen and Holmes can be allies!
Zephyrus and Armina as his deputy recruit the best of the best to uphold the safety of the British Isles, with their requirements being of their highest of stringency. These trails to find people to amass this new secret force over the following years will be known to be of a very bloody nature, but they leave an important mark in their minds of how impenetrable each soldier must be. For this reason their new force is called "TRL" ("The Redheaded League").
