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Chapter 24: One Step Ahead
Present day…
I was too distracted by the bodies around Moriarty to fight back when someone grabbed my arms and pinned them behind my back in an uncomfortable position. All of them were dead. I never thought Moriarty would take it that far, but he did. I don't know what I expected him to do, but it certainly wasn't this.
The room was big and warehouse like. There were no windows or doors, just a big empty, grey room. It was a long and wide room, like a massive square and we were right in the middle of it. The ceiling was high and dusty, while the floor was smooth and clean. It looked well taken care of but the room was completely unused. Like a school's gymnasium.
I looked over at Sherlock. Two Leviathans were struggling to get the fob watch from him. He was holding it high over his head where the short Leviathans couldn't reach it unless they jumped. They were clawing at his face and arms, trying to reach for it. I could tell that he was bleeding, but he wouldn't budge. Only moments ago he refused to touch the thing, now he was fighting for it. One of them finally jumped and grabbed his arm. They managed to pull Sherlock's hand down into reach and uncurl his fingers from the watch before they had two more Leviathans come over and keep him from running to John's body. His face was a white as a sheet and his expression was a mix of rage and sadness.
Moriarty smiled as he took the fob watch from his Leviathan friend. He closed his eyes and rubbed his fingers all over it as if he was taking in every little detail. I knew that his plan was to open it, but could he actually get the memories from it? The watches knew who was a Time Lord and who wasn't but what did they use to tell? I assumed that Moriarty figured that out already and had a plan to avoid it. But I wasn't concerned.
Moriarty began to laugh, "Here we are, Doctor, Sherlock, and I have won."
"Not yet," Sherlock protested, he was still fighting for breath after his scuffle a minute ago. His skin was glistening in sweat, his lip was bleeding and there were white streaks on his face that showed where the nails had scraped his skin.
"I have the watch that holds all your memories, Sherlock," Moriarty taunted.
"You can't get into it. It would recognize the one it belongs to," Sherlock argued.
"That's why I've been collecting traces of your finger prints and DNA for as long I've known who you were," Moriarty smiled manically. One of the Leviathans brought over to him a small wooden box. He opened it to reveal two thin, plastic gloves. "Over the years I have collected prints for all of your fingers and most of your hands. These are what I've created from them."
As Moriarty pulled the gloves over his hands, they merged into his skin until the gloves were his skin. They just seemed to sink into him. I could believe my eyes. What kind of technology was this? Moriarty then picked up the fob watch, which he had placed in the box while putting the gloves. I assumed that Moriarty had somehow figured out that fingerprints were what the watched used to figure out who was Time Lord and who wasn't. But again, I wasn't that concerned.
Moariarty smiled and looked up at us, "You might want to watch this."
"It won't work," I said calmly.
"Quiet, Doctor!" Sebastian Moran yelled from beside Moriarty.
"It won't," Sherlock agreed.
Moriarty ignored us. Sherlock and I exchanged knowing glances as Moriarty opened the watch. Instead of the bright yellow light that usually shone from inside, the only light was the reflection of the TARDIS light behind Moriarty. When he stared inside it, the only thing he learned was the time and slowly his expression turned from excitement to anger and confusion.
I looked over at Sherlock who was laughing silently and I started having a hard time holding back my giggles. I couldn't hold back my smile any longer so I began to laugh quietly while my eyes watered uncontrollably. When Sherlock started laughing out loud, is when I let my laughter go and our giggles echoed through the room.
"What have you done?!" He yelled and came storming towards me. I struggled for my breath so I could explain but I just couldn't stop laughing. Thankfully Sherlock had a bit more composure than I did.
"You should have seen the look on your face!" Sherlock laughed. Moriarty stomped over to him.
"What did you do?" He said, lowering his voice.
"I already opened it," Sherlock said. Moriarty's eyes went wide but he tried not to show his shock.
"No, you're joking with me. This isn't the right watch is it? It's the Doctor's!"
"Not mine," I gasped for breath.
"Apparently I should get into acting. Am I right Doctor?" Sherlock asked, I nodded in agreement through the tears.
"As soon as I found out what you were going to do, I made Sherlock open it," I explained. "In the TARDIS after we picked up Sam and Dean."
"I still killed your friends!"
"Yes, they were very friendly and quite helpful too. But not the friends you were going for," I said, my smile finally fading. "My real friends are safe and sound, somewhere you will never ever find them."
A few hours earlier…
I burst into the TARDIS and flew over to the console. I now knew who the second Time Lord was, well half of it at least. It was either Sherlock or John.
The two words that Moriarty had used to taunt me with the identity of the second Time Lord had been: consulting and detective. It just so happened to be that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's two word description of John and Sherlock had also been: consulting and detective. I had always assumed that Sherlock and John were simply detectives for the British Government, but a Consulting Detective was a completely different job. Had I simply asked, this case would have been solved much sooner. But I admit it would have been a lot less fun.
The next step in my plan was to let Moriarty believe that he was winning. I already knew that he was working with Leviathans, and their twin planet happened to owe me a favor. The planet, called Ferrania, was basically the same as Leviania. The only difference was that they were once one race, when they divided up among themselves according to their beliefs. Leviania had always been the more violent and ambitious of the two. Since they were the same species, they had the same abilities, and if I could convince them to help me then I would have a huge advantage against Moriarty. I started up the TARDIS and set destination for the Gaun Galaxy.
"Alright so, get a team of them, maybe a couple hundred, bring them to Earth. How, how to I get them to Earth? TARDIS? Not with that many, no. How then? Space ships? They must have space ships," I said to myself while waving my hands around ridiculously. I suddenly felt lonely when I realized that there was no one there to listen to me.
The TARDIS landed and I peeked outside. I nearly slammed my face into a wall when I stepped out.
"Of course I'm in a cupboard, why do I always land in cupboards?" I said to myself.
I squeezed around the TARDIS until I found a door. I was grateful when I pushed it open and breathed in the open air. I was in what looked like a very, very big room. On the other side of it, was a short man in a black suit.
"Hello there, I'm the Doctor," I introduced as I approached. He made no effort to get away but just simply looked shocked.
"What are you doing here?" He asked in a funny accent.
"Take me to your leader," I said, flashing my psychic paper. I'd always wanted to say that.
"You have come to the right place, sir," He saluted. "This is the home of our queen."
"Oh don't salute!"
"Yes, sir. Right this way, sir," He said, leading me up a flight of stairs to a big wooden door. The little man pounded hard on the door.
"Who is it?" Someone asked from inside.
"It's the king of planet Earth, m'am," The short man replied.
"The king of Earth, really?" I looked at my psychic paper but I still saw nothing.
"Oh, do come in, sir," The voice said. We opened the door and stepped into a room where a small woman was standing behind a wooden desk. She had a lot of pretty makeup on and was about the same size as my little friend.
"And who are you?" I asked.
"Excuse me, sir? How could you have stumbled on the queen of the planet's home and not known who I am?" she asked.
"Right, queen of the planet! You were queen who again?"
"Queen Zuzara of planet Ferrania," she explained.
"Yes, of course. Now I don't know what the psychic paper told you, king of Earth or something, but I am the Doctor, and your people owe me a favor."
Queen Zuzara's face went pale, "You have changed your face again."
"Yeah I tend to do that quite often don't I," I muttered.
"What do you want?" She sighed exhaustedly.
"I need an army of Ferrathans to come back to Earth and help me with something. Your twin planet Leviania is giving Earth some… problems."
"Them again? I swear there's no way for them to get to your planet anymore! We've got them under highest security!"
"But they can't die on Earth. Earth doesn't have what is needed to kill them, so they just keep coming back," I explained.
Zuzake sighed, "I'll have an army ready for you by morning."
"The best way to find out if you can trust somebody, is to trust them."
-Ernest Hemingway