Sherlock's POV

I smelled a familiar perfume.
"Why do I know it?" I said aloud.

John and I were in Magnussen's place, and I had realized that the man was still here, though he should have been at dinner.

"Mary wears it," John replied to my question, although I was talking more to myself.

"No, not Mary, somebody else," I said, looking around the room.

I heard John say, "Sherlock!" as I ran out of the room.

Magnussen was speaking. "Coming here? What...What would your husband think? He...Your lovely husband. He's honorable."

I peeked around the corner as Magnussen continued, "What would he say to you now?" I heard a gun being cocked and saw a woman holding a gun to Magnussen's head. Her back was to me.

"You're doing this to protect him from the truth?" Magnussen was still speaking, "What is this obsession here with honesty?"

I stepped out and said, "Additionally, if you're going to commit murder, you might consider changing your perfume, Lady Smallwood," although I still hadn't seen the woman's face.

"Sorry, who?" Magnussen asked me, "That's not Lady Smallwood, Mr. Holmes." I was confused, I had never been wrong before.

The woman turned around and I saw that it was Mary, John's wife. All my memories of her flashed through my mind, ending with the word "Liar" flashing in my vision.

Mary asked, "Is John with you?"

"He's, um..." I started to answer.

"Is John here?" she asked more urgently.

I replied, "He's downstairs." She nodded.

"What about Alebony?" Mary asked.

"She's not here, she's with Mycroft," was my answer. Mary nodded again.

Magnussen spoke up. "So, what do you do now?" He was talking to Mary. "Kill us both?"

I spoke to John's wife, "Mary, whatever he's got on you, let me help." I started going closer to her.

She ignored my words. "Oh, Sherlock, if you take one more step, I swear I will kill you."

I said calmly, "No Mrs. Watson, you won't." I took a step towards her.

She shot me.

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I looked down at the wound in my chest, shocked, more than anything. Blood started spilling out.

Mary said apologetically, "I'm sorry, Sherlock. Truly I am."

I looked up and said, "Mary."

She turned around and aimed the gun towards Magnussen. An alarm started going off.

I was walking down a staircase.

I was back in Magnussen's place. Molly was there. "It's not like it is in the movies." Molly said. "There's not a great big spurt of blood and you go flying backwards."

Then Molly was in a lab, still talking. "The impact isn't spread over a wide area, it's tightly focused so there's little or no energy transfer." I noticed that she was walking around a body that was covered with a sheet. She pulled back the sheet and it was me. Suddenly Alebony was there too. She spoke, "You stay still and the bullet pushes through." I could see the bullet hole in my dead body's chest. Ale continued, "You're almost certainly going to die, so we need to focus!"

My sister slapped me and I was suddenly back at Magnussen's place again. I saw Mary pointing a gun at Magnussen's head. Molly spoke this time, saying, "She said, focus!" Ale slapped me once again.

Now I was in the lab looking at my dead body on the table. Molly continued, "It's all well and clever having a mind palace but you've only got three seconds of consciousness left to use it. So come on, what's going to kill you?"

I looked at my dead self and said, "Blood loss."

Alebony replied, "Exactly. So, it's all about one thing now, forwards or backwards. We need to decide which way you're going to fall." I was back at Magnussen's again.

"One hole or two?" Now Anderson was here.

"Sorry?" I said, turning to look at him.

Molly answered, "Is the bullet still inside you or is there an exit wound? It will depend on the gun."

I started analyzing guns in my head. "That one, I think," I said, picturing Mary's gun and comparing it to a type of gun. "Or that one," I continued, picturing a different type of gun.

"Oh, for God's sake, Sherlock, it doesn't matter about the gun, don't be stupid." I turned to see Mycroft, sitting at a desk. "You always were so stupid," he continued, as I saw my younger self, "Such a disappointment."

"I'm not stupid," younger me said.

"You're a very stupid little boy," Mycroft said angrily, "Mummy and Daddy are very cross, because it doesn't matter about the gun."

Younger me was angry, too. "Why not?"

Now a young Alebony was there, she said, "You saw the whole room when you entered it. What was directly behind you when you were murdered?"

"Not been murdered yet," younger me said.

"Balance of probability, little brother," Mycroft answered. I was my regular age again, and I turned around to see...a mirror. "If the bullet had passed through you, what would you have heard?" Mycroft was still talking.

"The mirror shattering," I said.

Mycroft responded, "You didn't, therefore..."

I turned to walk past Mycroft, saying, "The bullet's still inside me."

Anderson spoke up, "So we need to take him down backwards."

Molly replied quickly, "I agree. Sherlock, you need to fall on your back."

Anderson spoke again. "Right now the bullet is the cork in a bottle."

Alebony now, "The bullet itself is blocking most of the blood flow."

Anderson, "But any pressure or impact on the entrance wound could dislodge it."

I was standing completely still as the three of them walked around me.

Molly continued, "Plus, on your back, gravity is working for us. Fall now!"

The whole world tilted as I started falling backwards.

Then I was in the lab again, still falling. I fell against a wall that had the cabinet things that dead bodies are stored in. One of the cabinets opened and my dead self came out, as I exclaimed, "What is that? What's happening?" I looked and saw the dead me come out. I was a bit freaked out.

I turned to see Molly. She said, "You're going into shock. It's the next thing that's going to kill you."

I asked, "What do I do?"

"Don't go into shock, obviously," answered Mycroft. He continued, "Must be something in this ridiculous memory palace of yours that can calm you down." His voice echoed through the room. "Find it." I closed my eyes, focusing.

I was walking down a staircase.

Mycroft spoke again, "The east wind is coming, Sherlock. It's coming to get you."

The staircase seemed to go on forever and ever.

A door opened and Mary was standing there, wearing a wedding dress and holding a gun. She fired the gun and I yelled in pain, falling backward.

There was a long hallway that I was running along. I went through one of the doors to see a dog sitting there. It was my dog. "Hello, Redbeard. Here boy. Come on, come to me." I started patting my knees, trying to get the dog to come. "It's okay, it's alright."

Then I was a young boy. "Come on, its me. It's me, come on," I said.

I was my regular age again, "Come on."

Young, "Good boy, clever boy." The dog was running toward me. It ran into my arms.

Regular age, "Hello, Redbeard. They're putting me down, too, now." I said sadly. "It's no fun, is it? Redbeard." The world started to spin, as I fell backwards.

Then I was back at the place where I had been shot, still falling. As I hit the ground, I heard my older sister say, "Without the shock, you're going to feel the pain." I started convulsing, it hurt so badly! Ale continued, "There's a hole ripped through you. Massive internal bleeding." I started screaming in pain.

"You have to control the pain." Molly's voice surrounded me as I was once again walking down a staircase, I was farther down than I had been last time I was in the staircase. I kept going down, and down, and down the stairs.

I entered a padded room, there was a man in the corner, on his knees. I screamed at myself, "Control, control, control!"

I looked at the man. "You," I said, realizing who he was. "You never felt pain, did you?" I was breathing hard, the pain was excruciating. I continued, "Why did you never feel pain?"

The man said, "You always feel it, Sherlock," as he turned around, revealing that he was Moriarty. He lunged at me. "But you don't have to fear it!" he screamed. His eyes were crazy.

I groaned, the pain coming back worse than before. I fell to the ground as Moriarty stood over me, saying, "Pain. Heartbreak. Loss. Death." The pain was unbearable, I didn't think I would make it. He continued, "It's all good. It's all good." The world started spinning, Moriarty was spinning too.

Third Person

John stood over Sherlock, patting his face. "Sherlock? Sherlock, can you hear me?" he said. "What happened?"

"He got shot," Magnussen answered.

"Jesus," John said, leaning over and removing Sherlock's shirt to better see the wound. "Sherlock! Oh my..."

Magnussen picked up his glasses as John sat up quickly, asking, "Who shot him?" John pulled out his phone to call the emergency number.

Sherlock's POV

I was shaking as Moriarty sang, "It's raining, it's pouring. Sherlock is boring.

Third Person

The paramedics were carrying Sherlock to the ambulance.

Sherlock's POV

"It's raining, I'm crying. Sherlock is dying." Moriarty sounded almost happy.

Third Person

Sherlock was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

"We're losing you. Sherlock!" John was worried about his best friend.

Sherlock's POV

Moriarty leaned over me, putting his face right above mine. "Come on, Sherlock. Just die, why don't you? One little push, and off you pop.

Third Person

The machine flatlined. Sherlock was dead.

The medics were still working on him, trying to bring him back, but it wasn't working.

Sherlock's POV

"You're going to love being dead, Sherlock. No one ever bothers you." Moriarty was still talking, why wouldn't he stop talking? "Mrs. Hudson will cry. And Mummy and Daddy will cry. And the women will cry, and John will cry buckets and buckets. It's him that I worry about the most. That wife... You're letting him down, Sherlock. John Watson is definitely in danger. And don't forget about Alebony! Your dear sister who you completely forgot about. She deserves to be sad, though. She was a criminal. A criminal Sherlock! The exact kind of person you try to punish. So punish your sister! Let her lose you! Make her cry," he said cruelly. "The poor, dear girl finally gets to see her baby brother after 20 years, and he has to go and die! Oh how she'll cry. And she's most definitely in danger too, just as much as your dear friend John."

My eyes opened. John! Alebony! I couldn't leave them, I had to help them. I groaned as I tried to get up. I put one hand on the ground to push myself up.

Third Person

There was a spike on the heartbeat machine.

Sherlock's POV

I put my other hand on the ground and started to get up as Moriarty said, "Oh, you're not getting better, are you?" I stood all the way up. Moriarty continued, "Was it something I said, huh?" I opened the door and started running away from that room as Moriarty cried out after me, "Sherlock!"

I found the staircase again and reached up to grab the railing.

Third Person

There was another spike on the machine, as Sherlock's finger twitched.

Sherlock's POV

I started laboriously climbing the stairs, groaning, determined to get back to John and Ale.

Third Person

Another spike in the machine. This time, a medic noticed.

Sherlock's POV

It was getting increasingly harder to climb the stairs, but I kept going, taking them one step at a time.

Third Person

Another finger twitched on Sherlock's otherwise limp hand. The medics started getting back to work, trying to keep him alive again, not knowing that Sherlock was the one climbing the staircase to come back to life.

Sherlock's POV

More stairs. Would they ever end? The past events of my life flashed before my eyes, ending with the image of the 221B on my front door, and then the image of John and Alebony's faces. It kept me going.

Third Person

Sherlock's eyelid fluttered open as he fully came back to life.

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A/N It's done! This took me forever to write, so I hope you enjoy it!

If you haven't realized already, I used the last episode in season 3 of Sherlock, His Last Vow to write this chapter. I won't be using the episodes for any of the other chapters, though, I will have to rely on memory and hope they turn out okay!

This chapter is really long! I really hope you enjoy it, because I spent a lot of time on this chapter! And then I had to go back and add Ale into it!

Hey, I got this chapter up pretty fast, didn't I, despite it taking me forever to write!

Please vote and comment!

Thanks for reading!

- Maria