Inspired by a gif set I found on tumblr:
narcomanic . tumblr post/ 34989508209 / youre - right - sherlock - youre - a - genius - and - the
The beginning isn't great I'll admit but the ending I'm very happy with! Please give it a chance!
John blamed himself. He shouldn't of let Sherlock go off on his own.
When Sherlock had first introduced his childhood friend The Doctor John had been skeptical. Naturally once he'd stepped inside the TARDIS all that doubt was gone and for the last year they had been on again, off again passengers. Sherlock called whenever there was a large gap between interesting crimes and the Doctor was always happy to pick them up and take them somewhere.
A few months ago he'd taken Sherlock to see Jack the Ripper and the detective had been bouncing off the walls with excitement. Almost literally.
That had been fun, however what came after was not.
They were on some planet John was not able to pronounce the name of, in the middle of the main city. The Doctor was investigating some strange distress call and had instructed them to see the sights while he did so.
Both Sherlock and John knew that was code for 'something serious is happening and I don't want to involve you'. So naturally, they followed him.
The call was coming from a large factory which seemed to be out of commision. The call lead them down many flights of rusted stairs and into an empty room. A fake call, a simple sub space transmitter being set automatically and left in the corner of the room. Sherlock was enthralled.
'What does it all mean John? A mystery!' he'd exclaimed gleefully.
The Doctor began to lead them out, John could tell he was worried. They had just arrived back on the ground floor when it happened. A firing of lasers that had The Doctor and his companions jumping behind storage boxes for safety.
"I know that sound." The Doctor muttered darkly.
John had been about to ask when and where but then a crackling, artificial voice answered that for him.
"COME OUT NOW WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!"
John had never met a Dalek in person but he knew enough. Sherlock had told him about them when the Doctor refused to fill in the gaps. The detective had encountered them once before when he was a child, in fact it was how he'd met the doctor in the first place.
"We need to draw their fire and head for the doors." Sherlock surmised.
"I'll do that, you two head for the door to the let and get back to the TARDIS." The Doctor nodded, "Don't wait for me."
"We're not leaving you here." John argued.
"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!"
"I'll distract them." The Doctor hissed, "If they hit me I'll regenerate. If they hit either of you, you'll die."
"And if you regenerate here they will shoot you in the process and kill you permanently." Sherlock argued, "Make sure he's not harmed, Doctor."
Then before either man could stop him Sherlock had run pout from behind the box, arms spread wide.
"Look at me I'm a target!" He bellowed, before jumping behind another box.
"Sherlock!" John cried, he moved forward to follow but the Doctor pulled him back.
"We follow him now it will all be for nothing." He hissed, "Come on!"
Reluctantly John had followed the man outside, he could hear the Dalek's coming after them.
"We can't just leave him there!" John yelled, "I wont!"
"We'll get the TARDIS to materialize around him," The Doctor panted as they ran, "We just need to get there."
John had never run so fast in his entire life, finally they were back in the TARDIS and the Doctor wasted no time and immediately began to fix in on Sherlock's co-ordinates.
"Argh!" The Doctor growled, "They're interfering, I can't materialize with him inside, we will have to open the doors and let him in."
"Just do something!" John yelled.
The minute the TARDIS had landed John practically barreled out the door. He was back in the warehouse, but in the south end, he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Sherlock, very much alive, crouching behind some machinery.
"Sherlock, here!" He hissed, the detective turned to him but instead of smiling he looked horrified.
"John, move!" He yelled.
When the doctor failed to heed Sherlock's warning due to shock the detective moved forward, slamming John backwards to the door of the TARDIS where the Doctor was just appearing. It was then that he saw what Sherlock had been talking about.
On the floor where John had been standing seconds earlier was a circle, slowly growing brighter, a transmat was charging. John could only watch as it activated when Sherlock landed over it and the Detective was gone.
A few moments of silence confirmed all Dalek's in the area were gone as well.
Now, three weeks had passed. The Doctor had the transmat beam's signal but could not translate it into a language the TARDIS could use. It was too scrambled.
"They wanted me," The Doctor growled, "Sherlock is not as intelligent as me but he is still a genius, they must of settled for him."
"Then why lock the trasnmat onto me?" John sighed, he felt awful.
"They know they only needed one of us. They know we'll look for him."
The TARDIS was silent for a few moments before John finally got the courage to ask a question that had been burning in his mind since the day of the incident.
"What...what will the Dalek's do to him?" he whispered.
The Doctor tensed.
"I don't know." He admitted after a while, "It's not like them to take prisoners, they must need him for something."
Another pause.
"When he find him..." John refused to use the word 'if', "He'll be in a bad way, wont he?"
The Doctor didn't reply after that.
Sherlock sighed and tried to drown out the sound of Dalek's pounding against the heavy steel door. He'd been down here the good part of three weeks, ever since he fled the transmat pad and found his way down into the basement of where ever he was.
He'd effectively locked himself in the room within a few minutes. Simple computer skills really, he was lucky, the room he'd run to was obviously the old barracks of some humanoid species. Small, five meters by four, but it had a bed, a central computer and some science equipment. After closer inspection he'd even found some dry food stashed in a box under the bed.
Once he'd secured the door via the computer he quickly wrote a code that even the Dalek's couldn't crack in order to keep himself safe. After that things had become dull, sure the Dalek's couldn't get in, but he couldn't get out.
He passed the time solving puzzles on the main computer. Every day several new encryption pieces were loaded and he spent time unlocking them. They disappeared once he'd done so, obviously they were training exercises of some sort, not actual keys.
He missed the Doctor, he especially missed John.
But he'd be patient. Eventually the TARDIS would materialize within the walls and he'd be off home.
The Dalek's began to pound on the door again, much louder this time. Sherlock covered his ears and sighed.
He wished his doctors would hurry up.
"I've found him!" The Doctor cried shaking John awake, "A Dalek outpost on Camarie 4, their central information processing plant for that sector."
John rubbed the sleep from his eyes, his drowsiness was gone in seconds.
Sherlock. We're finally going to find him!
'Why would they take Sherlock to a processing plant?" John asked as the Doctor flipped switches and dashed about the console.
"I don't know, but right now let's focus on getting him back."
John couldn't agree more.
Like most things Dalek the outpost was bleak.
The Doctor had them materialise in a cupboard of some kind, the two men poked their heads out to check their surroundings are found them eerily quite. No Daleks.
"This is a processing plant, they'll be working around here somewhere." The Doctor explained as their cautiously made their way into the hall, "The Dalek's have a hive mind of sorts, when ever one learns something they send it as a transmission to the nearest outpost, the Dalek's working here then decrypt the information and send it out to the rest of the hive mind."
John didn't like this at all. Why bring Sherlock here? Why not somewhere more heavily guarded?
"Maybe this is a trap." John suggested as they made their way through the hall, "They want us to travel away from the TARDIS and then they trap us here as well."
"Maybe." The Doctor replied, "You could always go back and wait for me."
"Never."
John would never be so cowardly, Sherlock needed him and he would die trying to find him if he had to.
Besides playing with the old encryption keys Sherlock passed the time hacking into various parts of the Dalek computer base. He'd long mastered the security cameras.
Idly he flicked through each one, he did so a few times a day, nothing ever changed. Dalek's in their little bays working away, some rolled down the halls every now and then but other than that nothing. He no longer checked the camera suspended over the door of his room. Either it showed several Dalek's pushing at it, or nothing but an empty wall.
Both made him depressed.
Then he saw something that made his heart sore. Human figured, walking through the upper halls of the outpost. And not just any human figures. John and The Doctor! They were finally here to get him out! He quickly began typing, it took him a matter of minutes to hack his way into the speaker system.
"About time you showed up." He grinned.
The suddenness of his voice made the two men jump.
"Sherlock!" John exclaimed, "Where are you? Ae you alright? Have they hurt you?"
Sherlock felt a strange warmth fill his chest at John's worry. It was nice to have somebody really care for him, not that Sherlock would ever admit it.
"I'm fine." He replied, "Escaped first day here, I've locked myself in a room on the bottom floor. Dalek's can't get in."
"You hacked their security?" The Doctor gaped, Sherlock smirked.
"Yes, it's quite easy, now you two need to hurry, the guards will be rolling around your corner any second, I'll open one of the bulk heads to your left. Get inside quickly." Sherlock instructed as he typed.
"Hacking Dalek technology isn't easy it's impossible!" The Doctor argued as he followed John under the now open bulk head and into the next corridor.
"Yes, but I am a genius." Sherlock countered smugly, he saw John smile at the security camera.
"Modest too." John chuckled.
Before he'd met John Sherlock had revelled in solitude. However now he had come to crave human contact, these three weeks without anybody else to talk to, no cases, no tea, no violin and no John had gotten to him. It was so wonderful to see his friends again, even if it was through grainy film. He reminded himself that it would only be a short time until he was free again.
"Should we go back to the TARDIS?" John asked, "Sherlock can tell us exactly where he is and we can materialise there."
"No good." Sherlock countered, "The guards will be circling the upper level for another twenty minutes, in that time you can come and get me and we'll make our way up together."
"He's right, John. We can't stay still for too long without being discovered." The Doctor whispered as they made heir way along the new corridor.
Sherlock proceeded to point them in the right direction and open bulk heads as they went.
"Sherlock, if you've been hiding the entire three weeks how did you eat? Even you can't last three weeks without food and water." The Doctor spoke up after a while.
"This place wasn't made by the Daleks." Sherlock replied, still typing away, "I'm in a bunk house of sorts, there is food and water here and a computer. I've been solving algorithms and encryption keys to pass the time."
"Miss your violin?" John grinned.
Sherlock smiled, it was good to have his usual banter with John back once more.
"Alright." He said seriously, "You're almost to me, but I can't get this bulk head open without raising the alarm, I'm going to send a magnetic pulse through the computers, it will disable the Daleks for about ten minutes, in that time you need to get to me and we'll leave. I just set up a route for us to take."
He typed away furiously, opening the final bulk head and sending the pulse through to the other Daleks.
"How are you doing this Sherlock?" The Doctor exclaimed, "It should be impossible for you to hack these systems so easily!"
He never did focus on the most important aspects did he?
"We're coming Sherlock, which door?" John asked.
"The one at the very end of the hall." Sherlock replied, he could feel the excitement building in his chest.
Finally he was going to get out of here! Finally!
He grinned when he saw John and the Doctor open the final door, appearing just in front of his own steel door, he need only unlock it and he'd be free! He typed away but for some reason the door wouldn't open. He glanced up at the screen showing the security footage, John and the Doctor were standing, staring at the door waiting for him.
"I can't unlock the door." He growled, "Something must of gone wrong..."
"Sherlock..."
The detective stopped at that. John's voice had cracked half way through his name, he sounded distraught.
"John what's wrong?" He asked, "Doctor, can you use the sonic to open the door for me. It's not working."
"Afraid I can't." The Doctor replied slowly, what was wrong with them?
"Why not?" Sherlock asked feeling a small amount of panic, "You can't leave me here! Help me open the door!"
"Does it look real, Sherlock?" the Doctor asked sadly, "What you're seeing, does it look real?"
Sherlock raised an eyebrow and glanced about the room.
"Of course it does, it is real." He scoffed, "Now open the door."
"There is no door, Sherlock..." John breathed.
"What do you mean there is no door?" Sherlock asked turning his head to face it, "Of course there is, I'm looking at it right now!"
"It's a dream, Sherlock." the Doctor muttered, "A dream your mind made up because the truth is too terrible."
"What are you talking about? Where am I?" Sherlock asked.
"WHERE AM I?!"
John felt like he was going to be sick. It couldn't be real. It just couldn't. It was some sort of trick, it just had to be.
It had been Sherlock's voice guiding them here through the speakers, making sure to only play through one at a time so the Dalek's couldn't hear. But now, since they'd entered the room the voice was high, metallic. The voice of a Dalek.
The room Sherlock had described was not there, instead there was a single Dalek, sitting in the middle of the room, wires were hooked up to it and it was chained to the floor.
"WHERE AM I!?" the Dalek demanded, it sounded slightly panicked, not like a real Dalek. Like a human using a Dalek's voice.
"You. Are. A. Dalek." The Doctor growled, in that voice he reserved for talking to scum.
"I AM NOT A DALEK. I AM HUMAN!"
Oh Sherlock...
"It's a trick right?" John cut in, "He's okay."
"You're right Sherlock, you are a genius." The Doctor said coldly, "And the Dalek's need genius. They did a full conversion"
"So? We can change him back!" John exclaimed, "We can can't we?"
"I AM NOT A DALEK! I AM HUMAN! I'M HUMAN..." Sherlock cried.
"You haven't been human for a while now Sherlock." The Doctor replied sadly, "I'm sorry."
Sherlock was close to panicking. He wasn't a Dalek! He was human! What were they talking about!? He looked at his hands, he ran them through his hair. he could feel them. Dalek's didn't have fingers or hair or skin. He did!
"You couldn't handle the truth so you created a place within your mind. Protect yourself." The Doctor explained, "You didn't get away."
Suddenly flashes, memories of when he arrived on the transmat, he'd tried to run but he had been trapped. They'd back him into a room, hooked him up to more and more wires...
"Let me go!"
"I'm not one of you!"
"Let me go NOW!"
"Those encryption keys are Dalek thought patterns, you've been relaying them to the hive mind without even knowing it." The Doctor sighed.
"I'm HUman I am NOT a DaleK!"
"I am not A DALEK! I AM HUMAN!"
John knew the Doctor could be cruel, but never to Sherlock. Saying those things, yes they were true but even John could tell Sherlock was suffering now.
"Doctor stop it!" He hissed, the Dalek, Sherlock, was silent.
"I'm sorry, but he cannot come with us. He's a Dalek." The Doctor turned to leave, walking out the door signalling that John should follow.
"EX..."
"Sherlock?" John took a step forward.
"EX-TER..."
John's eyes widened.
"EX-TER-MIN-ATE!" Sherlock buzzed slowly.
"Sherlock!" John jumped backwards as the Dalek who had once been a consulting detective began to pull until it was free of the chains and wires, it's blaster shifted toward the army doctor.
"EXTERMINATE!"
"John!" The Doctor cried but Sherlock activated the door and it slide shut, effectively trapped John on one side with Sherlock and the Doctor on the other.
"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMIN...ATE..."
Sherlock pressed forward until John was pressed up against the door with Sherlock's blaster pointed right at him. The malicious words faded into a strange buzzing and clicking, it took a few moments for John to realise Sherlock was crying.
"GET ME OUT OF HERE, JOHN." He pleaded, "I JUST WANT TO GO HOME..."
"I know..." John whispered, laying a shaking hand against the head of the cold shell that housed his friend. He wondered if Sherlock could feel it.
Sherlock felt like a child, but he didn't care. He was curled up with his head in his hands against the door of his room. A door that only existed in his mind.
"Please...I'm not a Dalek...John you know I'm not." he pleaded, looking up at the screen.
What he'd thought was a security camera was actually the view from his eyestalk. Oh God...
He could hear the Doctor banging on the door John was up against, trying to get in. He thought Sherlock was going to kill his friend.
"He hates me now too..." Sherlock muttered, "He's turned on me just like everybody else..."
"I'm still here." John smiled weakly, patting the metal shell.
Sherlock curled in on himself, he was never one for physical contact, he found it unnecessary and annoying but now he'd do anything to be able to feel John's hand.
"I can't leave, can I?" he half sobbed.
"No."
He took a shaky breath.
"You need to leave." Sherlock ordered, "The...others will be waking soon, I can sabotage the plant, it will take me a few extra minutes but I can overload all the circuitry and blow the building to kingdom come, along with all the Daleks. You need to leave..."
It almost killed him to say those words. He wanted John to stay more than anything.
"John! Are you alright!?" The Doctor's voice came through the bulk head.
"I'm fine. He's still Sherlock." John replied before turning his attention back to Sherlock, "I need you to be completely honest, alright?"
Sherlock nodded, but then remembered Dalek's couldn't nod and let out a shaky 'yes'.
"When you blow this place up, you'll die?"
"Yes."
"Is that what you want? To die?" John's voice broke then.
"No." Sherlock sobbed, "I want to go home, but I can't...I'd rather die than live a Dalek."
"Do you want me to stay?"
Sherlock's mouth fell open at that, not that John could see it.
"You'll die." The detective protested, John smiled.
"I'll die knowing I left you here to die alone."
"John!?"
"Doctor!" John cried out with a slight crack in his voice, "You'd better get going, Sherlock's blowing the place up soon and I'm not letting him do it alone!"
Sherlock heard the Doctor arguing with John for a few moments but he didn't listen, he began working on the magnetic pulse that would overload all the wiring in the outpost. He needed only to press a button.
"I am sorry. Both of you." The Doctor said sincerely, and then he was gone.
Sherlock waited until he made it back up the TARDIS before hitting the key to start the countdown. He curled up on the bed to wait.
10...
"Thank you." He whispered finally.
9...
"I told you, I'm not letting you die alone."
8...
"No, I mean for everything. You made me better you know, everybody says so."
7...
"You made me better too." John replied, "I'm glad I met you Sherlock."
6...
"I wonder what everybody will think happened to us..." Sherlock muttered.
5...
"We'll be an unsolved case." John grinned, Sherlock smiled weakly.
4...
"I like the sound of that...John?"
3...
"Yes, Sherlock?"
2...
"I'm afraid..."
1...
"Don't worry Sherlock, I'm right here. I'm never going to leave you."
0.
So once I saw the tumblr gifset I just had to write this. Okay the first part isn't great but I loved how I finally got the ending right.