Arcadia - (A WhoLock Fanfiction)

:Chapter 25: Play The Game:

"You see, last time you and I played a game, Sherlock, you didn't follow my rules. The game was to die or for your friends to die and as I conveniently have all your dear ones here, I thought we might try it again," the menacing voice echoed around the room for all to here, but his voice was not as calm as usual. It was almost as if he was excited, anticipating something.

"Unfortunately, we don't have any large buildings for me to fall off," replied coldly, trying to mask his worry with a confident voice.

"The most fun part about my game, Sherlock, is that you can't do anything. Your exactly where I want you to be. What I want you to do for me, Sherlock, is to work out her secret," he says as he points at me.

"My secret?" I say to him, breaking Sherlock's shocked state, and he turns to me.

Sebastian grins to himself, adjusting the gun higher in his hands, "Don't worry, Kitten. Not even you know your secret. That would be too easy. You could tell him right here."

"Kitten, here, is special. She has something that I want, something that would be very useful to me. Can you guess what it is?"

"How am I supposed to work out a secret?"

"Fine, then, for encouragement, you don't work the secret out ... aaaaaaand we'll shoot her in the head!"

My blood ran cold when the words left his mouth. This was it, I was going to die for Sherlock and his friends, or family more like. I closed my eyes sucked in a deep breath and mentally prepared myself for the blackness I had seen so many times before.

Sherlock was visibly panicking now, he hadn't planned for this. With Aria around recently he hadn't been thinking straight, he hadn't seem Moriarty coming. Now, he had no advantage, and Aria was going to die because of it. His mind searched and searched for a way to get out of this, but there was no way to reason with Moriarty, to get Moran to lower the gun.

One option left then, find the secret.

*Moran had said that Aria herself didn't even know the secret. This means he must have gotten the information from another source, most likely another hostage. The Doctor was the one who knew the most about the girl, aside from Sherlock of course. This means that the secret must be something about her time on Gallifrey, a secret that only another Time Lord would know. Something that only Time Lords could do... Something only she could do...*

The gun shot ran out in the distance from him, pulling his senses into the present. Aria's body lay slumped on the ground, the chair she was tied to had fallen over from the impact. It was silent apart from the muffled cries of Clara and John, looks of despair on the faces.

...

"Did you work it out, Sherlock? Where you close to working it out?"

"Why?" Sherlock whispered quietly to himself.

"What's that, Sherly? I can't quite hear..."

"Why would you kill her if you needed her visions? That doesn't make sense."

"Oh, do you think that was the secret? That's what I needed her for? Oh no, Sherlock. You still haven't worked it out. Maybe now, you'll spend the rest of your days wondering what it was. How could you have missed it? And when you do figure it out it will be too late."

"What do we do with the hostages, boss?"

"Leave them here, Sherlock know there's nothing he can do to find me if I don't want to be found. I'm dead, remember! I shot myself in the head on the top of the hospital. I'm a ghost now, Sherlock. Be grateful that your friends remain alive. You'll see me again, Sherlock. Very soon."

The two of them walked calmly out of the building, as if they hadn't just committed a brutal crime.

"Lousy aim, Moran's got. He completely missed the brain! Lucky for us!"

Sherlock stood there absolutely shocked as he saw the Doctor, out of his restraints and examining the damage to Aria's body, and most of all that he was making jokes and was completely unbothered by the lifeless body of a person he once knew.

"Lucky? How are we lucky, Doctor?"

"Calm down, Sherlock, she'll be alright,"

"Alright? Have you gone completely mad?"

"Sherlock! She's okay, she's going to be okay," the Doctor said firmly as his hands started to glow orange, the same golden light he had seen before.

"What are you doing?" Sherlock said, calmer and moving towards the both of them. Clara and John had already gathered closely to them as the Doctor picked up the lifeless hand.

"I'm triggering the healing process."

"Healing process?"

"Time Lord's regenerate. Aria's not a Time Lord but she spent so long living on Gallifrey that she can most likely heal herself." He explained as Aria's hands started to glow with the same golden light.

Aria's eyes flew open, her irises now an unfamiliar golden colour. She gasped for breath and looked up at the relieved faces above her. She could feel the light flooding through her veins and on her skin. She took a deep breath in as she realized that she had not died. She had survived. How on earth she had managed that, she did not know, but right now that didn't matter. What mattered was the smiling faces above her, so relieved and happy that she had survived.

Now that she thought about it, after everything she had been through, survived through, she deserved to go in a better way. Not as a piece in a puzzle or a game. Not a victim of Moriarty's cruelty. She knew that she would easily take a bullet for any of these people, but thank god that a bullet could not kill her. She felt like a superhero.

Yes, any of these people. She would save any of of them and any of who mattered anything to them. If she was a super hero then she had to keep these people safe.

Her family.

______________________________________________

So... how was that?

This is most likely not the very last chapter in this story but I thought this was a nice place to leave it.

Writing this story has been amazing and I'm so glad that there are people who like it

Let's hope I can write an epilogue or something before you guys get sick of me :)

x Rose