Chapter 18: And All The False Gods~
The City below him swam as if it were on fire, and it may be a dream, but he couldn't tell the difference.
He was searching, desperately searching for Magnusson, somehow sensing he'd be in the building. Wanting him even more than he did Pandora.
But it was James Moriarty that he found instead, if only in his mind.
"Oh, Sherlock...It's just you and me again...Always you and me...always just trying to get by. I can't say "staying alive"anymore now ,can I?"
"What?" Sherlock turns, and there's Jim, taking him by the wrists.
"Oh, it's you. Come back to critique all my failures ,then?"
"Come to congratulate you..." Jim purred, suddenly slow dancing with Sherlock.
"Really? Why?"
"Because this once, if only just this once, you've proven to be just as clever as I thought you were...I had faith in you, Sherlock..."
"Why are you here? Now, of all times?"
Instead of a dancer's rose, Jim had a stop watch clenched in his teeth. He danced Sherlock to the edge of the higher up observation deck, nearer the top of the Empire State building, and he bowed him over, letting the watch swing hypnotically in between his eyes.
"I'm just waiting...Always waiting...for you to come back to me...We're going to have loads of fun together...Might make Hell a little school to teach the Devil a thing or two, eh? Might get expelled?"
Sherlock stares at the watch. "And why do you think...that I'm going to play such foolish games with you...for all Eternity?"
"Because...you are me. Because you promised me, don't you remember? That hand-shake in Hell? You didn't disappoint me, and you told me if you had to do this forever...you would...I take things literally ,Sherlock..I've been waiting...impatiently...for you. "
"You will be waiting a very long time, I fear." said a Voice behind Jim.
It was the Teacher.
"Yegads! Not YOU!" Jim shouted, tossing Sherlock back on the rooftop.
Sherlock landed on his chin, his stomach swimming like it had eels made of fire in it. So much pain, so much sick. It would hurt too much to throw up, so he didn't.
"Yes, Jim. Yes, Me. You're not the god you thought you were...and this marks the end of your silent Reign From the Ashes too..."
"I won't give up so easy!" Jim wails, throwing a tantrum like a child. "I'm going to have the last laugh, you'll see. I'm the one who gave life to all the spirits Sherlock's got locked away in the Box, you know...I'll have an army at my side when the Akhlys Hour comes..."
"You do. But Sherlock has something you can never counterfeit, try as you may."
"Oh, really? What's that?"
Sherlock got up on his haunches. He heard a voice in the dark...calling his name.
"Light." said the Teacher.
And just then the Teacher and Jim, and all the other spirits disappeared. The stained glass lenses Sherlock was looking at the world through shattered. And there, surrounded in an aura of angelic light, seven times as bright as the sun, he came. Sherlock's healer, his light.
John.
"Woah , now!" he called...and climbed to him, carefully scaling the edge of the smaller deck.
"A little too close to the edge now, mate." he gasped, horrified, at how Sherlock wriggled about snake-like right at the cusp of the rail of this observation deck. Maybe there wasn't a chance that he could have fallen, but Sherlock and tall buildings just don't mix.
"John! You can't be here! HE WAS HERE!"
"Who? It's...it's ok...It's just a bad dream, all of it's just...It's not real. It's ok... I've got you now."
Sherlock leaped to his feet, tearing at his hair.
"No, don't you see! MORIARTY! JIM! HE WAS HERE!" he spun in a circle.
"He had the time...is waiting me out...If I fail...he'll come for me...and I can't let him...you can't be here if he does!..."
John rushed to Sherlock and grabbed him from behind, arms about his waist, as he teetered and nearly fell again.
"John!" Sherlock gasped, in a quiet voice, suddenly lucid again.
John spun him around, took his face in his hands.
"I'm here...it's ok...yeah? I'm here...You're ok..."
"In my head...The uhmm,...the thing...was only in my head..." Sherlock muttered.
"Uhuh, and it's ok, yeah?It's ok...You're safe now. I'm not going to let him come back for you. He's never going to bother you again, you understand?"
Sherlock nodded, eyes somewhat clear again...
"It was all so real..."
"I know..." John swallowed, trying to smile at him.
"Magnusson's in the building. Has to be, has to be close to enact his plan. Somebody so conceited would put himself at the very top. That's why we're here, that's where I was going..."
"Yeah..." John smiled now , in earnest, guiding his eyes to meeting his own.
Sherlock swallowed.
"John?" he breathed...as if trying to call out to the man. Not saying it,but not needing to. Was very lonesome for the man he had died for in this his time of affliction. Never mind that he was here, he still felt distant.
John wrapped his arms around Sherlock and leaned into his shoulder.
"Shhh..." he whispered, and felt Sherlock's heart tearing at the walls of his chest, like the fingernails of a man buried alive scrape at his dark coffin. Desperate to escape Akhlys. And completely unable to get away...
"I'm going to be here until the last millisecond of Akhlys Hour is up, got it? You're ok. Not gonna let you fall...Not this time. You can't..run off from me again, though, ok? I can't keep up with your speed, this stuff makes you superhuman. We've got to stick together..."
"If I leave you behind...you could be in danger." Sherlock observed, eyes crossing.
John swallowed. Sherlock was always thinking of him first. He had no words for the man at all, and yet he forced himself to speak.
"Well...yeah. I would. And you really would. Please, let me help? You need a doctor...and well...I'm your doctor..."
"Something ...wrong... with me, John?"
"You're sick...You're really, really sick. You need a doctor, and I'm a doctor. You're gonna let me help, right?"
Sherlock looked at John ,shocked. He was the one that was supposed to do all the protecting. Redemption was a foreign concept to him...but to John's utter relief he nodded.
"Ok."
"Good..." John sighed, and held Sherlock close.
"Magnusson..." Sherlock whispered. "He's here...I can...just ...sense it...somehow."
"Shh...we'll worry about Magnusson and all the false gods in a minute. Right now just breathe...Just catch your breath...It really is ok...I promise."
Sherlock closed his eyes against the horror of it all. John had promised to be here till the end of his precarious salvation, and Sherlock believed him whole-heartedly. It was just...they were close to the edge, and a long way from the ground...and Sherlock had fallen before.
The stakes were as high as the Empire State building. This was NOT a game that he had wanted to play...