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Late night in modern day London….

I snapped my eyes open. I wasn’t sure what had caused me to wake up so suddenly in the middle of the night, but I was drenched in a cold sweat. Looking away from the ceiling, I saw that my bed sheets had been tangled around my legs and kicked. There was an odd noise coming from the sitting room. A noise that sounded like wheezing and groaning. I sat up straight in my bed, heart pounding. I threw the covers from my legs, ignored my slippers, and scrambled to the door.

“Sherlock?” I called, into the darkened hall. I held in my breath, waiting for his response. He’d been missing for half a year now. Mycroft had the whole of England looking for him. Mrs. Hudson was worried sick. Even little Rosie seemed to miss him. He hadn't left a note, or even a text. On the morning he was missing, he said he was going to look at a possible case in Ilford.

I rushed down the hall, but came to a halt at the end. It wasn’t Sherlock. It was a box. A great big blue box, right there, in the middle of the sitting room. The words ‘Police Box Public Call’ shone at the top. I shuffled around it, my eyes searching for the door. I reached out to touch the faded blue paint, when it suddenly opened, knocking me to the floor.

A man, who looked a bit young, stepped out, in tremendously odd attire. He wore a white shirt, a tweed jacket, and crimson bow-tie. He had brown hair that was swept to the side, and hazel eyes, that looked much older than the rest of him.

“Oh!” He shouted, stumbling over himself to me. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to hit you with her! You didn’t show up on the scanners!” He grasped my hand and pulled me up. “Cheers.” I grunted. “Sorry, but who are you?” I narrowed my eyes at him. Who was this guy? He smiled and brushed off my shoulders.

“I’m The Doctor.” The man stood, looked me up and down, and pulled a large gold cylinder out of his jacket. “And you’re John Watson, right?” His cylinder’s tip lit up a bright green, and it made a loud buzzing sound. I took a step back. “Erm, yeah, sorry, but what is that?” I held out my hand as a barrier from this odd man.
“Hmm? Oh, right, This is my sonic screwdriver.” He spun around and closed the door to the box, and scooped his fez back. “Yep, alright. You’re human, yay!” He gave me a big gappy smile.

“I’m human? As though there's an alternative? How the bloody hell did you get in here anyways?!” I moved my outstretched hand to my hip, and stared him down. His happy-go-lucky demeanor melted, and he looked like a hurt puppy now.

“Oh, well, you see, I’m a Time Lord, from Gallifrey. That’s a planet.” The Doctor pointed to the police box. “That’s my spaceship. The TARDIS. It’s a time machine.” He chuckled.
“What? Alright, look, you’re probably just a nutter who is confused. But you’ve got to leave my flat now!”

“No, really, it is.” He opened the door again, golden light spilling onto the carpet. “Do you want to see?” He disappeared inside. “Come on, then.”

He’s got to be bloody mental. Dunno why I followed him. But I found myself taking steps forward. I walked through the doors, and they closed behind me. The room I entered was impossible. There was a seven foot tall box in my flat. So why am I in a massive circular room?

“Alright! So, let’s go then!” The Doctor danced around a huge control panel, pushing buttons and pulling levers.

“I- it’s bigger.” I turned to face him. “It’s bigger on the inside.” He laughed and kept going. “I know!” I spun around in a circle, taking it all in. How is this possible? I must be dreaming. Yes, that’s it. I’m still asleep, and I won’t wake up until it’s time to pick up Rosie from Molly’s place.

“But, how, how does it work?” I was mesmerized by my surroundings. The Doctor danced on, “Well, it’s really a big whole lot of complicated, timey-wimey stuff, but basically, it’s another dimension.” I stared at him. This man who said he was an alien. Who owned a box that was bigger on the inside.

“Okay! Back to the Dalek Asylum!” He pulled a final lever, and the whole place lurched. I was thrown into a dusty red chair. “An asylum? Why would we be going there?” The Doctor looked into a screen that could swing around the whole console. His fez lay forgotten on the glass floor, having fallen off when the room moved. He didn’t look at me when he responded. “Because. Someone sent a distress signal asking for you.” The ship stopped shaking, and emitted a low tone.

“We’re here.” His puppy like behavior was gone, replaced by a cautious man. He took a wear look at me, and stepped forward. “Now, John. We’re about to enter the most dangerous place in the universe. You have to know that.”

“What are you on about?” I laughed, “It’s a box. Outside those doors is my flat. I’ve had one too many drinks. That’s why I’ve imagined all of this. I stood from the chair, and The Doctor strode to the doors. “John, this isn’t a dream. You haven’t opened your mind to it yet. Just, please.” He looked into my eyes. “I think I may have found Sherlock Holmes.”

My heart stopped at the mention of his name. “Sherlock. You’ve found Sherlock. Where is he?” I skimmed the floor to where this oddball stood. “Doctor, where is he?” His eyes bore into mine, hazel on grey. They swirled with so much knowledge. They were endless and lonely. So, so lonely.

“He’s in the Asylum. The Daleks must’ve taken him prisoner.” His face was like stone, but I caught a flash of fear.

“And, Daleks are bad, yeah?” My left hand went searching for my gun, but found nothing. I’d left it at home. I only had a jumper and jeans. The Doctor’s head tilted slightly, and he took on a grave tone. “A Dalek is the most evil thing in the universe. All they know is hate. They are the most foul beings, and will stop at nothing to kill anything that isn’t Dalek. They destroyed my planet, and my people. They kill with no mercy. These Daleks are more dangerous. They can’t be controlled. That’s why they’re here. But I know that your Sherlock is alive. And, if my calculations are correct, he should be right outside those doors.”

If Sherlock was in there, with those things, I had to save them. “Doctor, open the door. Now.” He obliged. He pulled the doors towards him, and we stepped out. As soon as we did, The Doctor let out a cry of alarm, and held his arm in front of me. Some kind of robot was sitting there, with a whisk and a plunger pointed at us, and it’s bright blue eyestalk glowed at us. The Doctor flipped out, even though there was a chain wrapped around it.

“John, get back! It’s a Dalek!” He pulled out his sonic screwdriver, but before he scanned it, a monotone voice, that sounded like sandpaper, came from it.

“John? John, is that you?” It didn’t sound human, but I knew where it came from. “Sherlock!” I shouted, pushing past The Doctor. “Blimey! Where were you? How did you get in there? Why were you away for so long? Who took you?” My worries flooded out of me.

“John.” The Doctor said quietly, “John, listen.” I waved him away. Sherlock spoke again, “John, I- I don’t know where I am.” I peered into the eyestalk.
“Sherlock, can you see me?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know how you got in there?”
“No.”

The Doctor spoke up again, “John. I need to tell you something, it’s very important.” I lost my nerve at this. “What?! What could be so important?! I’ve only just found my best friend, who’d been missing for half a year! What could you possible need to say?!” I was shaking. The little robot that somehow held Sherlock was silent and still, it’s eyestalk glowing in the dim lighting.

“John, Sherlock isn’t inside of it. The Daleks turned him into one of them. I’ve seen it before. Poor Oswin didn’t know what’d happened to her. She thought she was on a crashed ship. They took Sherlock’s brain, and they put it into a cold metal shell. He doesn't know what’s happened to him. He’s in a state of shock.”

Sherlock. Inside of a Dalek. No, that can’t be true. He’s wrong. He’s just some nutter I’ve made up. Sherlock is still out there. Mycroft said he might have some luck in Moscow. I’m going to wake up soon. That’s what’s going to happen.

But I knew it was true. The metal salt shaker was too small for Sherlock to fit. He said he didn’t know where he was. The voice said thing that only he would say. He said my name, rather than ‘help’. The way the ‘head’ and the eyestalk moved. It wasn’t all machine. Sherlock was no longer human. Sherlock was a Dalek. Turning back to face my flatmate, I felt tears biting at my eyes.

“John, what did the other man say?” The terribly wrong voice came again. “I can’t- I can’t.” He didn’t finish his sentence. “Sherlock, The Daleks, or whatever it was that took you. They did something to you. You’re a machine.”

“John, I know that I’m not good with the delicate, and quite frankly fragile, feelings of other people, but I am capable of emotion to a certain extent.” His whisk moved to the sides than back into place. Tears spilled from my eyes. My throat constricted. I couldn’t do it. I turned to The Doctor.

“Sherlock.” He said, taking my place in from of the bronze metal vessel, as I silently cried. “I’m The Doctor. I noticed your distress signal. Sherlock simply turned his ‘head’. “The Daleks have turned you into one of them. Their problem is, that they can’t control you. They’ve spliced your bran from your head, and put into the cold metal shell of a Dalek, and-”

I stopped hearing him. My stomach was in knots, and my heart had dropped impossibly low. But now my body sized up. While The Doctor spoke to Sherlock, I’d taken a look around his prison. It was just a small empty room with gray walls. But in the corner, behind the Dalek the housed Sherlock’s brilliance, was a huddled mass.

I forced my legs to move, and carried myself over to it. The lump was a body. A body with fair skin, blue green eyes, and tousled black hair. It wore a black suit with a maroon shirt. It was Sherlock. His eyes were cold and empty. There was so much dried blood behind his head. His skin had taken on an awful greyish color.

“No.” I whispered. “It’s real. It can’t be, but it is.” The tears flowed faster, and it felt as though something was slowly compressing my chest. I fell to the floor and wrapped my arms around his body. It was like ice, but I buried my face into his hair. I was sobbing now. A terrible sound came from me, causing The Doctor and Dalek Sherlock to look at me.

I took a deep breath and screamed, “SHERLOCK!!!!!” I kept screaming. I didn’t stop. Next thing I knew, The Doctor was pulling me up, saying something about more Daleks on the way, and how we needed to leave.

I let him drag me from the body. “John!” Sherlock’s true voice came from the hunk of metal. I looked up. “Sherlock.” I rasped. “Sherlock!” I ripped myself from the Time Lord’s hold. “John, no!” he shouted.

The wall was blasted apart. Four more Daleks came through it, all looking at The Doctor, then to me. “It is The Doctor! We must exterminate him!” They shot bright green light at him from their whisks, causing him to yelp and dive into the TARDIS. He shouted for me to follow, but I didn’t listen.

One Dalek had aimed for Sherlock. I dove to his side, and flung myself over him, his new metal pieces jabbing at my sides. Sherlock shouted for me to go with the Doctor, but I just held on tighter.

“The human is irrelevant. EXTERMINATE!” The Dalek shot a beam of bright green light at me, and I was engulfed in numbing darkness.

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