John and Doctor Stapleton had been waiting in the next lab patiently, not getting past John's questions on Baskerville, but the woman was very close-lipped so John eventually gave up. When Sherlock and Rose walked in, it took longer to process what Sherlock wanted to do because John was too focused on the fact his friend had walked in smiling. While it had started to appear more often, it was still such an uncommon sight that John had to hurry to catch up with the group headed towards the Major's office.
"John," Sherlock instructed as they walked through the door.
"Yeah, I'm on it." John stood closest to the door to keep an eye out while Stapleton sat in front of the computer.
"Project HOUND," Sherlock said, mainly to himself. Stapleton sat at the chair typing in her password. "Must have read about it and stored it away. An experiment in a CIA facility in Liberty, Indiana." A request to 'Enter Search String' came up on the screen and Stapleton looked up at Sherlock expectantly. " D." Doctor Stapleton typed while Sherlock spoke, but when she pressed Enter, a message came up saying 'NO ACCESS. CIA CLASSIFIED.'
"That's as fas as my access goes, I'm afraid." Stapleton spun in the chair and looked at them all apologetically.
"Well, there must be an override and password," John pointed out, Rose nodded and stepped towards Stapleton. He watched her while Sherlock turned away and walked around the office searching for clues.
"I imagine so, but that'd be Major Barrymore's."
John heard Sherlock walk around the room, rummaging through the personal items, but was far more entertained by Rose ushering Stapleton out of the chair and plopping down in it herself. With a few clicks and a new password entered, information on the Project H.O.U.N.D. filled the screen.
"Hannibal; Wellington; Rommel; Churchill's "History of the English-Speaking Peoples" -all four volumes." Stapleton, Rose and John all turned to Sherlock, Rose cleared her throat and he looked up.
"That's- very good, Rose," Sherlock nodded, putting the bust of Winston Churchill down. John saw the signs of slight irritation of being shown up, but was proud of his friend for not acting like a child for once. "The U. N. in UNIT doesn't have anything to do with the United Nations, does it?" Sherlock asked, leaning over Rose's shoulder and glancing down at her with another grin. John wouldn't have believed it had he not been standing there watching.
"UNIT? Never heard of it," Rose replied with a cheeky grin that only had Sherlock grinning wider.
John came over from the door to look at the screen and observe the two better. He had noticed Sherlock growing more comfortable around Rose, but he had thought her slap from earlier had ruined that progress. Once again, he was wrong and thoroughly confused by his friend.
The information on Project H.O.U.N.D. flew past the screen, but luckily everyone in the room was use to the speed of the internet and could easily keep up with Sherlock's research. Sherlock was concentrated completely on the screen, but out of the corner of his eye, John could catch Rose looking from the screen, to Sherlock, to John, grinning happily to herself. A photograph comes up of the project team posing happily together and Sherlock pointed out the leaders amongst the large group and their last name acronym forming the word 'hound'. Everyone, save for Sherlock, grows increasingly more horrified by the information shared on the screen, a few times Rose grumbled under her breath, and Doctor Stapleton had to turn away for a moment after coming across the results of one testing.
"Jesus," John said softly.
"Project H.O.U.N.D: a new deliriant drug which rendered its users incredibly suggestible. They wanted to use it as an anti-personnel weapon to totally disorientate the enemy using fear and stimulus; but they shut it down and hid it away in 1986," Sherlock summarized all the had seen.
"Because of what it did to the subjects they tested it on," Doctor Stapleton summarized.
"And what they did to others," Rose pointed out. "Pure fear causes uncontrollable responses." Sherlock nodded.
"So someone's been doing it again -carrying on the experiments?" John asked.
"Attempting to refine it, perhaps, for the last twenty years," Sherlock said. Rose leaned over his shoulder and started typing on the keyboard, John moved out of her way but Sherlock stayed next to her.
"Those names mean anything to you?" John asked Doctor Stapleton who shook her head.
"No, not a thing."
"Rose?"
"Nope," Rose popped the 'P' with a grin. John saw her eyes were focused on the picture in one spot. Rose zoomed into the photo then stepped back, John and Sherlock glanced at her, Sherlock with narrowed eyes. Rose knew the answer.
"Our friend is somewhere in the back of the picture- someone who was old enough to be there at the time of the experiment in 1986," Rose explained, no longer looking at the picture but watching Sherlock figure it out.
"I spy with my little eye," John joked to Rose, who grinned back.
"Somebody who says 'cell phone." Sherlock finished the phrase, pointing to Doctor Frankland in the back of the picture. "Because of time spent in America. He gave us his number in case we needed him."
"Oh my God. Bob Frankland. But Bob doesn't even work on... I mean, he's a virologist. This was chemical warfare." Doctor Stapleton tried to make sense of the evidence, leaning back from the group. John and Sherlock turned away from the computer, both starting to choose the next course of action.
"Gotta start some place though," Rose pointed out, leaning against the back wall.
"He's never lost the certainty, the obsession that that drug really could work. Nice of him to give us his number." Sherlock reached into his pocket and took out Doctor Frankland's card. "Let's arrange a little meeting." Sherlock stepped out of the room to make the call, while Rose and John stood next to each other staring at the computer.
Before either can start a conversation, John's phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket and answered the call despite not knowing the number. "Hello?"
o0oo0o0o0o
"Henry?" Sherlock asked immediately after John hung up the phone, understanding that calling Doctor Frankland was no longer the next step.
"He's attacked her," John explained, slightly shaking his head in worry and exasperation. Rose came up next to him with a concerned look on her face, however Sherlock noted her pink phone was in hand.
"She alright?"
"Gone?"
Sherlock and Rose asked at the same time, John nodded to both of them. Sherlock cleared Doctor Frankland's number off the screen and hit speed-dial, holding the phone up to his ear he waited for Lestrade to answer.
"There's only one place he'll go: back to where it all started." Once the dial tone ended and Sherlock knew he had picked up, Sherlock started talking before DI Lestrade could. "Lestrade. Get to the Hollow."
"Wha..?" Lestrade asked into the phone, sounding groggy. So much for being a good watch dog for Mycroft.
"Dewer's Hollow, now. And bring a gun." Sherlock hung up before having to deal with any pointless questions. He turned to John, who touched his hip and nodded, then to Rose. "I assume as Brigadier you have a weapon somewhere on you." Sherlock hoped she did, he wanted her to see the end of his case and thought asking her to stay here was fruitless, but bringing her into a potentially dangerous situation didn't sit well with him.
"Yeah," Rose answered, she didn't grin like John and also didn't make any indication where the weapon was. Sherlock nodded, then walked out the door, John at his heels- Rose stayed behind long enough to thank Doctor Stapleton.
The three of them raced through the facility, jumping into Rose's military issue Jeep with Sherlock in the divers seat. Sherlock tore out of the facility and down the road, finding it incredibly convenient how close Baskerville was to Dewer's Hollow, however it was unlucky that the road led away from the woods to wrap back around to the front. Finally, the three of them reached the beginning of the woods and parked the car. Rose was the first out of the car, however John and Sherlock took the lead since she didn't know where she was going.
o0o0o0o0o0o
Rose, Sherlock, and John, sprinted through the forest, each of them equally skilled at distanced running, however Rose had more experience running in this terrain and found she had to pull back to allow Sherlock to lead, but once they got close enough that Rose could feel Henry's wired emotions, she didn't hold back and reached the hollow first.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Dad," Henry whispered, his lips against the pistol and his despair, confusing, and fear spiking in the air, drowning out all others.
"No, Henry, no! No!" Rose shouted, barreling into the hollow, practically falling into it, with Sherlock and John making a more graceful but equally hurried entrance behind her, their torches illuminating the dark area.
Henry stood up quickly, then stumbled backwards, waving the pistol in Rose's direction as she was the closest, but John stepped forward and brought the attention away from her. Henry's eyes were wide and Rose felt his fear taking over all his other emotions that had been waging wars against one another.
"Get back. Get - get away from me!" Henry's voice was high-pitched, hysterical, and his fear was growing to such levels that Rose was getting a headache herself. The whole hollow was raising in emotional levels and she found that her empathic powers were hindering her from focusing for the first time.
"Easy, Henry. Easy. Just relax." John spoke quietly, his own gun hidden behind his back while his torch focused on Henry.
"I know what I am," Henry explained desperately. "I know what I tried to do!" Rose took a step towards the scared boy, her arms raised, but when he pointed the gun to her, Sherlock pulled her back.
"Henry," She cooed. "Just put the gun down. It's okay now," Rose promised, hands still raised despite Sherlock trying to pull her further back.
"No, no! I know what I am!" His voice was breaking with anguish that briefly filled the air around Rose, before being squashed by fear again.
"Yes, I'm sure you do, Henry," Sherlock agreed. Rose finally put her arms down while Sherlock stepped in front of her and talked as softly as she thought he could manage. "It's all been explained to you, hasn't it - explained very carefully."
"What?" Henry asked, nearly sounding suspicious.
"Someone needed to keep you quiet; needed to keep you as a child to reassert the dream that you'd both clung on to, because you had started to remember." Sherlock took a step forward again while Henry slowly started to lower his gun. "Remember now, Henry. You've go to remember what happened here when you were a little boy."
"I thought it had got my dad - the hound," Henry begged them to understand, speaking slowly but desperately. "I thought..." Henry raised his hands in anguish and began to sob and scream. "Oh Je.. oh Jesus, I don't - I don't know any more!" Henry shoved the gun down his throat in hopes of giving up, but Rose had already moved around Sherlock to get to the grieving child she know viewed Henry as.
"No, Henry!" Rose cried, her arms outstretched as though she would embrace him, but Sherlock caught her around the waist as Henry looked back up with a delirious expression.
"Henry, for God's sake!" John cried.
"Henry, remember." Sherlock spoke around Rose, who struggled a moment to be released from his death grip, he put her down behind him once again, still continuing his explanation to Henry. "'Liberty In.' Two words; two words a frightened little boy saw here twenty years ago," Sherlock spoke quickly and urgently, gripping Rose's hand when she stepped away from him. Rose stopped trying to reach Henry when she could finally understand the emotions running wild and understood Sherlock was scared for her.
"You'd started to piece things together, remember what really happened here that night. It wasn't an animal, was it, Henry?" Henry looked up at Sherlock as the gun is taken out of his mouth, Sherlock smiled softly at him, no doubt trying not to relish in solving the case. "Not a Monster. A man. You couldn't cope. You were just a child, so you rationalized it into something very different." Henry gaped at Sherlock in a mixture of awe and terror as his memory realigns. His gun had finally lowered and John stepped forward to slowly take it from Henry's hand. "But then you started to remember, so you had to be stopped; driven out of your mind so that no-one would believe a word that you said."
"Sherlock," Greg's voice called out in the dark. Rose twisted around, Sherlock's grip on her hand loosening as he did as well. Behind them, John was taking care of Henry as his mental state was still up in the air and his grief was overcoming him.
"It's okay, mate," John whispered.
"But we saw it, the hound, last night. We did, we s.." Rose looked up at Sherlock, not at all surprised to feel a spike of happiness from him as he grinned at Henry's question.
"No, but there was a dog, Henry, leaving footprints, scaring witnesses, but it was nothing more than an ordinary dog. We both saw it - saw it as our drugged minds wanted us to see it. Fear and stimulus; that's how it works." Henry stared at Sherlock in confusion, and Rose was quite impressed when she saw Sherlock return the look sympathetically. "But there never was any monster."
Nearly, immediately after Sherlock finished his speech, snarling and howling filled the forest and all the men looked up and around the hollow for the source. Rose however, was stuck with a blaring headache as all emotions in the hollow turned to pure fear that tasted wrong. Had she not already believed Sherlock, just having a slice of the emotions in the air would have proven to her they all had to be drugged.
John and Greg aimed their flashlights upwards to the top of the Hollow where a low shape could be seen slowly stalking along the rim, snarling at them. "Sherlock," John called, waiting for an explanation no doubt.
Rose turned to Sherlock to catch his expression of disbelief as Henry turned towards the detective as well. "No." Quickly, Henry's emotions grew to effect the others in the hollow as his panic rose. "No no no no!" Sherlock kept a calming hand toward Henry while keeping watch on the animal, Henry backing up at the same time, shaking from head to toe.
"Henry, Henry..." Sherlock started, failing to explain the situation.
"Sherlock..." John's emotions had started leaning towards panic as well, and Rose could feel the drug effecting her calm mind. Her hand hovered around her back, unconsciously prepared to pull out the miniaturized cyber-man gun that Rose had never needed to use on a case.
"No no nooo!" Henry was screeching and crying, collapsing to the floor in a fluster of emotions.
"Henry!" John called, managing to stay nearly level-headed while the animal turned toward the Hollow and looked at the group with glowing red eyes in the torchlight. Henry continued to wail while the rest of the group tried to make sense of what they were seeing.
"Shit!" Greg exclaimed, staring up at the rim.
John turned to Greg in surprise, shinning his torch in his face. "Greg, are you seeing this?"
Greg didn't have to answer of course, his expression was the same as all of their's. Sherlock took a quick look to examine the inspector to see his face then turned to stare at the hound. Rose was caught between acting on drugged instincts to shoot the threat down, or staying behind the men to be closest to which ever entered immediate danger.
"Right: he is not drugged, Sherlock, so what's that? What is it?!" Rose was too distracted by Henry's moaning, to try to calm John down, despite not being in any condition to do so anyways.
"All right," Sherlock exclaimed, flustered as well. "It's still here. But it's just a dog. Henry! It's nothing more than an ordinary dog!" Rose watched Sherlock manage to pull himself together enough to comfort his friends and the delirious man, and started to do the same, taking steadying breaths and walking out in front of the group of men with hands on their guns. The animal raised its head and lets out a long terrifying howl.
"Oh my God." Greg stumbled backwards, Rose now in front of the group and still advancing. The Hound turned and leapt a short way down the slope, it's eyes flashing red in the torchlight.
"Oh, Christ!"
"Rose!"
Rose ignored John and Greg and continued toward the animal, continuing to take deep breaths and breaking away from the other's emotions. The animal was now on the same level as her, it eyes staring at her with an open mouth that revealed a mouthful of long pointed teeth. It snarled at her, and with a blink of her eyes, Bad Wolf snarled back.
Bad Wolf stared at the dog until it laid down in front of her with a whine. Her addled mind calmed, as well as the threat. Bad Wolf blinked and Rose turned away from the dog to the men behind her. She took them in, Sherlock staring at her with his arm still partially raised. Henry sobbing. John taking slow, quiet steps toward her. Greg raking a hand through his hair.
A Dalek behind them.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o
Rose turned away from the dog, that they could all see as a domesticated dog breed and not another canine. Despite getting over his fear from watching her walk towards what his addled brain thought was a monster, Sherlock couldn't distinguish the other emotions that went through him now that Rose wasn't in danger, but was facing him with a ghost of a smile and something that was fading from her eyes. Adrenaline, an unknown drug, and fear kept him from thinking thoroughly, but it was there again.
Wolf. Goddess. Wolf.
Sherlock lowered his arm as he watched Rose watch them, taking them in as the fear ebbed away. But just as quickly as it left, it returned as Sherlock watched all the color drain from Rose's face. It was as though she gave up in front of him, her shoulder drooped, mouth parted, and eyes widen slightly with relaxed eyebrows. It wasn't fear, it was horror, unadulterated horror written on her face.
"No," she whimpered.
Sherlock tore his eyes away from the blonde woman, as did John and Greg, while Henry slowly approached the whimpering dog. Stalking toward them, slowly with quiet steps, was a man in a gas mask, however that wasn't what Rose was seeing. While she could see past the dog, she too must have been drugged because there was something she saw that elicited an amount of fear Sherlock was sure only Henry could relate to.
"Rose, it's okay," Sherlock promised, starting to walk toward the gas masked man, glancing over his shoulder to find the horror was gone from Rose's face. Instead, Brigadier Tyler stared past him with an expression of both acceptance and determination with an odd shaped gun in her hands.
"Sherlock, get away from it," Rose demanded, following Sherlock's steps.
"It's the drug, Rose, whatever you see, it's.. not.. No." Sherlock had finally reached the gas masked man, and gripped his shoulder with the intention of bringing him before Rose, however, upon holding his shoulder, Sherlock caught a glance of the face inside. Ripping the mask upwards, Jim Moriarty grinned manically back at him.
"No!" Sherlock said in horror. Moriarty's expression was intense, nearly murderous, but his head was shaking back and forth. Before his eyes, Sherlock watched the face morph between two, so quickly Sherlock closed his eyes and shook his head. "It's not you!" Sherlock opened his eyes frantically. "You're not here!" He grabbed Moriarty and spun him around and head butted him. Moriarty crumpled and raised a hand to his face to wipe of the blood, but then the man in front of Sherlock wasn't Jim Moriarty, but Bob Frankland.
Sherlock grabbed onto Frankland's jacket, his breathing panicked. Sherlock shook Frankland, prepared to beat the man to keep him from transforming back into Moriarty, but then her focused on Frankland's lack of defense or offense. The doctor had clamped his hand over his mouth and nose and the mist hit his newly exposed face, and then it clicked into place.
"The fog."
"What?" John asked from behind Sherlock.
"It's the fog! The drug: it's in the fog! Aerosol dispersal that's what it said in those records. Project HOUND - it's the fog! A chemical minefield!" Sherlock said all of this into Frankland's face, then spun around and sprinted to Rose. She was still staring at Frankland, the gun poised to shoot, so Sherlock stepped in her view and cupped both of her cheeks to get her to focus. "It's the fog, Rose," Sherlock whispered to Rose, watching slowly, as the color returned to her cheeks and her eyes flitted away from Frankland to focus on Sherlock.
"The fog," she repeated, lowering her gun.
"You bastard!" Henry screamed behind Sherlock, tearing his and Rose's eyes away from each other. Sherlock's hands were still on Rose and could feel her heart rate lowering from where it had been, but still higher than usual. Somehow, he managed to move away from her to finish this case. But once this case was finished, he was determined to solve Rose Tyler.