John stared at Sherlock and Marie, and Sherlock reassured softly as the lights turned white again: "It's okay. He's dead."
"He doesn't sound dead." John muttered dryly as the lights turned back to red, and Jim's voice explained: "This is a recorded announcement. Please say hullo to some very old friends of mine."
"Hello?" The little girl asked, the call suddenly reconnected to their cell, "I can hear you talking. Please help me! I'm on a plane and it's going to crash!"
Sherlock reached over, placing his hand over Marie's comfortingly as her fists clenched, while the lights turned back to white and Mycroft blurted out irritably: "What is this? We can't do this!"
"Do shut up, dear." Sherlock retorted, shooting his brother a look before staring into space as he listened intently while the girl cried: "Is someone there?"
"Is this supposed to be a game?" Mycroft demanded, still irritated, but Sherlock ordered firmly as he gave his brother a stern look: "Be quiet."
"Please help me!" The girl cried, sounding like she was crying again, and Marie's hand moved to clutch Sherlock's.
He squeezed it back reassuringly as he lifted his head and called to the girl as calmly as he could: "Oh, hello. Um, try-try to stay calm. Just… te-tell me what your name is."
"I'm not supposed to tell my name to strangers." The girl answered, sounding determined even though she was clearly frightened.
Marie closed her eyes while Sherlock answered slowly: "Of course not. Very good. But, um, I'll tell you mine. My name is-"
There was an abrupt click, and Sherlock paused as they heard the sound of static over the speakers.
"Hello?" Sherlock called, and Marie murmured softly: "So, the game begins."
Sherlock nodded as he held her hand tightly in his, before they turned as Eurus's voice said in feigned apology: "Oh dear. We seem to have lost the connection."
The whole group looked over to where a large screen was hanging from the ceiling, just in front of the elevator doors, and which showed Eurus smiling while she sat before what appeared to be the Governor's desk.
"How have you done this?" Mycroft demanded angrily as he stalked over to stand before the screen, behind the glass. "How is any of this possible?"
"You put me in here, Mycroft." Eurus answered, her smile gone as she stared at her eldest brother with emotionless eyes. "You brought me my treats."
Mycroft's eyes dropped slightly before he looked back at Eurus, and Marie frowned; his expression looked almost… guilty.
Apparently John agreed with her as he also looked at Mycroft, asking: "What treats?"
Mycroft glanced at him, looking a little discomposed, and Sherlock also frowned as he glanced at his brother. Mycroft eyes flickered over and he returned his brother's gaze evenly, even though his lips thinned into a tight line as though something was troubling him.
Meanwhile, Eurus lifted a remote, pressing the button and all the lights in their cell turned red again. The screen then switched to show a close up of Jim's face, making John flinch while Marie and Sherlock's eyes narrowed as Jim praised in a fake American accent: "Clever Eurus! You go, girl!"
The lights turned back to white, and John demanded as he looked at his friends: "How can that be Moriarty?"
Before either of them could respond, Eurus reappeared on the screen as she explained: "Oh, he recorded lots of little messages for me before he died. Loved it."
Marie pursed her lips, while Eurus added lightly: "Did you know his brother was a station master? Think he was always jealous."
"The girl, where is she?" Sherlock interrupted, his voice low as he faced his sister. "Can I talk to her again?"
"Poor little thing." Eurus answered in a soft voice, her eyes drifting from Sherlock to Marie. "Alone in the sky in a great big plane with nowhere to land."
Marie narrowed her green eyes back at the woman, while Eurus turned her eyes back to Sherlock as she went on brusquely: "But where in the world is she? It's a clever little puzzle. If you want to apply yourself to it, I can reconnect you; but first..."
She settled back in her chair, before swinging the large backed office chair to the side and revealing for the first time a woman sitting on the balcony outside the Governor's office.
Marie inhaled sharply, while John gasped and Sherlock's hands tightened slightly as they took in the woman sitting out on the balcony, handcuffed to a chair with her mouth taped shut as she struggled in vain to free herself.
"That's my wife." The Governor gasped, his eyes going wide as he scrambled to his feet and came closer to the glass to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. "That's my wife!"
Eurus simply turned her head to look back at the camera as the Governor said in horror: "Oh, God, that's my wife!"
"I'm going to shoot the governor's wife." Eurus announced, and Mycroft turned away, placing his hand over his mouth while Sherlock and John stood in shock and the Governor begged: "Please, no."
He held out his hand to Sherlock, gesturing vaguely while keeping his eyes glued to the screen as he begged: "Please. Help her!"
Marie swallowed tensely, while Eurus explained casually: "In about a minute… Bang! Dead."
Eurus looked back at the camera, looking at them in the screen, and Sherlock said quietly: "Please don't do that."
Mycroft turned to look over, his brows furrowed, while Eurus said coolly: "Well, you can stop me."
"Sherlock." Marie murmured, but he asked anyway: "How?"
"There's a gun in the hatch; take it." Eurus ordered, and Sherlock let go of Marie to walk across to the hatch on the side of the glass.
The hatch slid open as he approached, and Sherlock reached inside before pulling out a pistol inside and walking back as Eurus informed them: "You want to save the governor's wife?"
Sherlock stepped beside Marie once more, just as Eurus told them: "Choose Dr. Watson, Mycroft, or Victoire to kill the Governor."
John turned away, a mirthless smile on his face while Mycroft lifted his head in shock at Eurus's command. Marie didn't even blink, having anticipated this, while the Governor gasped: "Oh... oh God!"
John turned to face the screen once more, while Mycroft stared at Sherlock with wide eyes as Sherlock stood still beside Marie, staring first at Eurus and then at the Governor.
After a beat, Sherlock started to take a step towards the Governor, but Eurus cut in flatly: "You can't do it, Sherlock. If you do it, it won't count. I'll kill her anyway. It has to be your brother, your friend, or your wife."
Mycroft shot Eurus an incredulous and – ironically – disturbed look, while the Governor turned to Mycroft as he said in a hushed but urgent voice: "You have to do this."
Mycroft looked at the Governor in wide-eyed horror, while the Governor turned to Sherlock as he begged: "Eurus will kill her."
Marie pursed her lips while Sherlock's gaze dropped thoughtfully for a long moment.
Finally, he shifted the gun so that he was holding it by the muzzle while he muttered: "Doesn't appear we have a choice."
Marie glanced at him as he walked across the cell towards his brother, and Eurus smirked: "Right, then. Countdown starting."
Sherlock held out the gun to Mycroft, stopping a few paces before his brother who stared at Sherlock as he asked his sister: "How long?"
"No, no, no. The countdown is for me." Eurus answered, sounding bored.
Sherlock held the gun patiently before his brother as the Governor stared at Mycroft pleadingly while Eurus continued: "Withholding the precise deadline will apply the emotional pressure more evenly."
John had his eyes closed and his head bowed, and he began shaking his head as Eurus went on: "Where possible, please give me an explicit verbal indication of your anxiety levels."
Sherlock tilted his head slightly towards the screen, though he wasn't looking at it as Eurus went on: "I can't always read them from your behaviour."
"Perhaps because you lack personal experience." Marie noted coldly, and Eurus just smiled.
"Yes." She acknowledged.
John lifted his head, while Sherlock's grip on the gun tightened just slightly, when Mycroft said quietly: "I can't do this."
Sherlock looked back at his brother as Mycroft insisted, shaking his head slightly: "Can't. It's murder."
"This is not murder." The Governor interjected pleadingly. "This is saving my wife."
Mycroft glanced at the man, indecision dancing all over his face as he licked his lips, while Eurus added nonchalantly: "I'm particularly focused on internal conflicts, where strategising around a largely intuitive moral code appears to create a counter-intuitive result."
Marie pursed her own lips while Mycroft said grimly as he stared down at the gun Sherlock was offering him: "I will not kill. I will not have blood on my hands."
"Yes, very good." Eurus said, sounding almost bored as she turned away from the camera. "Thank you."
"Killing my wife is what you're doing." The Governor urged, but Mycroft took one more look at the gun in Sherlock's hand before he physically backed away, shaking his head.
"No." Mycroft repeated, his voice actually shaking as he looked at his younger brother.
Sherlock held Mycroft's gaze for another moment before he lowered his eyes and turned away.
"Okay, fine." He muttered, before turning and holding the gun out to John.
"John." He called, though there was so much more to the simple word.
John was staring at Eurus, his hands behind his back and his lips pressed into a thin line, but he let his mouth open as he turned to Sherlock. He paused, unable to bring himself to answer, and the Governor stared at John now tearfully.
"Dr. Watson, are you married?" The Governor pleaded, and John replied shortly while still holding Sherlock's gaze: "I was."
"What happened?" The Governor asked, his voice breaking, but John's voice was even as he answered while still looking at Sherlock: "She died."
Sherlock met his gaze evenly, while the Governor pleaded as he walked closer to John: "What would you give to get her back? I mean, if you could, if it was possible?"
Marie, John, and Sherlock turned to look at the man as the Governor stopped before John, whispering: "What would you do to save her?"
John met the man's gaze evenly, though uncertainty danced in his eyes and the Governor begged as he gestured at the screen behind him: "Eurus will kill me. Please save my wife."
John hesitated, but Eurus suddenly chimed in: "There will, I'm afraid, be regular prompts to create an atmosphere of urgency."
She clicked her remote again, switching the lights in the cell to red, and suddenly the screen changed to show another close-up of Jim Moriarity's face as he said in an over-exaggerated whisper: "Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-"
The lights turned back to white, showing Eurus on the screen for a few seconds, before it switched back to red again and Jim's face returned as he repeated: "Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tock, tick-tock-"
The lights turned back to white, and the Governor stared at John with tear-filled eyes.
Sherlock also looked at John, waiting, but the blond man looked over at Marie. She was staring at the screen where Moriarty had just been, her face unreadable to most.
But John wasn't most and he squared his shoulders and turned back to Sherlock, who jerked his head slightly at the gun, his eyes dropping from John's as he made his silent plea.
John took the gun firmly, and Sherlock met his gaze briefly, neither gratitude nor sorrow in his eyes before he walked out of the way. Mycroft turned away, his hand over his face as he was unable to watch, as John faced the Governor once more.
"What's your name?" John queried, his left hand flexing unconsciously, and the Governor answered quietly: "David."
"And you're sure about this, David?" John asked seriously, and David retorted even though he stood tense and trembling: "'Course I'm bloody sure."
"Nearly there." Eurus mused, her eyes fixed on the screen as she watched avidly.
John hesitated for a moment, before he said determinedly: "Right. D'you want to ... pray, or anything?"
"With Eurus Holmes in the world, who the hell would I pray to?" David asked, a bitter smile appearing on his face as he stared at John with teary eyes.
John's eyes moved to the screen behind David, where he could see the man's wife struggling desperately against her bonds.
He then looked back at David as he said firmly: "You are a good man, and you are doing a good thing."
"So are you." David answered in a soft voice, smiling at John, who answered flatly: "I'll spend the rest of my life telling myself that."
David could only smile a little before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as he awaited his fate. John turned to glance once more at Sherlock, who just nodded slightly, his face grim and more serious than he'd ever been before. Then again, this was likely the worst situation they had ever landed themselves in; for nothing, not Moriarty, not Magnusson, not even finding out Eurus Holmes existed, could hold a candle to taking an innocent man's life.
Mycroft looked away again, while John turned, unable to look at Marie as he raised the gun to point directly at David.
John held his finger on the trigger, but his hand shook as he hesitated once more. Mycroft glanced over when nothing happened, while David pleaded tearfully: "Please!"
John's left hand clenched into a fist and he took a deep breath, trying to work up his nerve while he pointed the gun slightly lower on David's chest.
Unable to bear watching – or perhaps trying to save John the pain of looking at his face – David turned around, showing his back to John as he started to cry. He backed closer to John, who took a deep breath.
Hesitating for a moment, he glanced at Sherlock and then at Marie, who was watching him with a strangely bitter expression.
Quickly turning away, John reached out to David, hesitating once before placing his hand on David's shoulder.
The man flinched, gasping in fright as he made to glance back but John tapped his shoulder and the man understood. Shakily, David got down on his knees, choking when John pressed the gun more firmly against the back of David's head.
Mycroft turned away, unable to watch, while John murmured softly to David: "I know that you're scared, but you should also be very proud."
"Just do it." David pleaded, starting to cry as his brave front crumbled.
John patted the man's shoulder once more before straightening up again and taking aim yet again.
"Be quick!" David begged, and John adjusted his position, holding the gun tightly with both of his hands now instead as he pointed it at David's head.
The room turned red once more as Jim whispered from the screen, his head tilting side to side rhythmically with his words: "Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick."
The lights turned white again as Sherlock closed his eyes before looking back at John as the blond man took a deep breath through his nose.
"This is very good, Dr. Watson." Eurus sighed, before adding regretfully: "I should have fitted you with a cardiograph."
John's hands had started to tremble yet again, and he muttered quietly and tensely: "Goodbye, David."
David whimpered as the lights turned red once more, and Jim whispered, harshly this time: "Tock-tock-tock-tock-tock-tock-tock tick-tick-tick."
The lights turned to white once more, and as John tried to work up his nerve, David cried out: "Please!"
And John dropped the gun.
"I can't." He whispered, turning away. "I'm sorry." He looked at Sherlock. "I can't do it."
David sobbed, while Sherlock began: "I know. It's all right."
David turned and cried: "Why?! Why-?!"
He stopped when there was a click, and Sherlock's lips thinned while John whirled around with wide eyes to see Marie holding the gun to the back of David's head.
When she'd moved or grabbed the gun, he had no idea, but John could only gape as Marie said quietly: "I'm sorry, David. You were a brave man."
"Remember me." David whispered, and she promised grimly: "Always."
"Wait, Marie, stop!" John shouted in alarm, but David closed his eyes and relaxed just before Marie shot him in the head.
