Chapter 9

Noise filtered in and out like white noise, fuzziness filling his brain and clouding any judgement he had as to who he was, let alone where or how.

"He's waking up, boss."

"Then give our little birdie the first dose, I want him to feel the power begin to corse through his veins. I need to see how much pain Drug M causes, before I try any of it on myself."

There was silence, before a slight pinch met the crook of his elbow, causing him to groan with pain, before he fell back into unconsciousness once more.

There were a few more doses of the drug before Merlin began to feel different. His blood felt tingly, warm, and his eyelids burned, as though there were suns behind them rather than eyes. And then there were all the mysterious breakages...

As he opened his eyes, his vision swam gold, and an icy breeze seemed to circle around him. He shivered, fearful of what was happening and hoping it wasn't a hallucination caused by whatever drug was being pumped through his veins, although at the same time, perhaps it was better for it to be a false reality, for the alternative seemed all the scarier.

"Fascinating," declared Moriarty. "And this is without any conscious effort. Think about what he could do when stimulated." He grabbed Merlin's wrist in a crushing grip, only to be thrown backwards by the wind circulating around him.

A dazing blow was driven forcefully into the back of Merlin's head, sending him straight back to the brink of unconsciousness.

"Are you ok, boss?" cautiously asked Moran, Moriarty's lackey, although to be honest he was more like Moriarty's bitch, Merlin thought to himself through the sea of grey that danced across his vision.

"I'm fine," Moriarty heaved, and with smug satisfaction Merlin thought he heard the man hiss a little in pain. Good, serves the evil psychopath right for what he's doing to me.

"I think the dosages are almost done with, we can soon start work on my transformation," the man continued. "All that's left now is for us to get ourselves all dolled up for when Sherly arrives, after all, it's only a matter of time now."

Sherlock's coming, Merlin thought hazily, but the news was not enough to stop him from falling back into the deep sea of black that surrounded him, his last conscious note being that he felt someone cut the chains around his waist.

A sea of people surrounded them, making Arthur feel agitated and cramped, especially when he compared it to the private jet they had arrived in Mumbai in. Apparently working for the British government had its perks, seeing as it only took a five minute phone call to organise the flight and any accommodation they might need, although it did leave them with only four hours to search the whole city.

"So where are we headed this time?" John asked calmly, although the slight limp in his leg indicated to Sherlock that John was uncomfortable with both the crowded space of the airport and the stressful tension of trying to find Merlin.

"We'll stop off at the hotel first, see if anyone knows of any suspicious behaviour, that way we can narrow down our-," Sherlock began, before freezing to a halt.

There was a man stood in the arrivals lounge holding a sign saying "Sherlock Holmes, M."

Tanned skin, dark hair, possibly Caucasian, but the four leaf clover pinned to his jacket indicates a more Irish origin. Build and stature suggest guard, plus the scar along his right eye is clearly the result of a knife, although the jagged edge indicates it took more than one stab to generate it. Black suit and tie, make Westwood, clearly their employer has a lot to spend. Not surprising really when the paper corresponds with the paper found in both the letter and the note in the Cornwall warehouse. That and the rather obvious calling card M all indicate to one obvious thing. Moriarty clearly wants me to go somewhere.

The detective took a step towards the concierge.

"Mr Holmes?" asked the tanned man. Accent indicates definitely Irish then, clearly someone who knows Moriarty well, possibly even a member of his inner circle, although even then Moriarty would distance himself from him.

"Yes, you're here to take me to meet Jim I suppose."

The man ignored his response and continued. "If you and your colleagues would like to follow me."

"And what if we don't?" Arthur asked, clearly wary of the threatening looking man.

"Let's just say my employer would be very disappointed and would have to dismiss his other guest, which would be a real shame," the man stated bluntly, although there was a glint in his eye as he mentioned the other person, who could only be Merlin.

Arthur clenched his fists, before relaxing and nodding slightly.

"And how do we know you aren't leading us into some sort of diversion?" John asked curiously.

"You don't," the man smirked, and he began walking away before turning and saying, "This way, Sirs."

As the car pulled up to a murky dock, John felt very tense about how out of control the whole situation was. "Well, Sherlock was right about two things, India and a shipping dock," he muttered under his breath, causing a quiet groan of exasperation from both Mycroft and Arthur, whilst Sherlock had a smug smirk on his face.

"Am I not always right?" he asked.

"No," came the immediate reply of all three others, much to John's amusement and Sherlock's annoyance. The four of them laughed a little before becoming more serious again.

"Do you think we'll find Merlin in there?" Arthur asked, sounding more like a vulnerable little boy rather than the young man he was.

John clasped his hand encouragingly. "There's really only one way to find out."

They took their first steps into the metal shipyard, and the possible location of Jim Moriarty, and hopefully Merlin too.

Hello again! So this chapter didn't turn out quite as I had originally planned it, but it does mean you are all getting an extra chapter! Also, I miscalculated when Bar Mock was, it's actually next weekend, so that coupled with the fact that it's the 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who, means it's very unlikely you will be getting the final chapter next week. Sorry but David Tennant takes priority! :) Also, I'm sorry that I didn't upload this yesterday, I was at a cast party till about 1 in the morning and I was at a Depeche Mode the night before till about 1. Essentially I'm very sleep deprived. But don't let that stop you from reading and reviewing, and I'll send you virtual cookies! Yummy yummy! :) See you all soon! :)