[His sister murdered his best friend, and then was locked in a secure facility. It's like something out of a soap opera, sensationalist and dramatic and wholly ridiculous all at the same time.
How could he have lied to them all? Surely their parents had deserved to visit their daughter, mentally ill as she obviously had been, instead of leaving her to rot under the protection of first Uncle Rudy and then Mycroft himself.]
Vaguely.
[He met her when he was very high and far more focused on both John and Culverton, but he gets where Mycroft is going with this.]
Why would she mimic a therapist on her escape? It seems far more likely that she'd hunt you down.
She was getting information I presume, studying you. She also impersonated the woman you knew as Faith Smith--the one that came to your flat.
[A pause.]
She did get to me, too. She got all three of us--John, you and I. A drone carrying a grenade exploded in 221 B Baker Street when I was having nearly the same conversation with you, besides the part about Victor. After we narrowly escaped--Mrs. Hudson's fine, by the way--we snuck to the island since we couldn't be sure who to trust. It turned out that Eurus had taken over the entire facility and...
...well, Norfinbury isn't too far off from what she did to us. Did to you.
She subjected us to a series of ethical and moral tests that left four men and one woman dead in front of us. One by his own hand because--[A definite hitch in his voice.] You were forced to give a gun to either John or I to shoot the governor of the island to save his wife's life. I could not, and John tried admirably, but he could not either. She shot the wife after he killed himself. She next had you solve a murder with our help to test how you deduce by suppressing your emotions especially under stress, but it still resulted in three men dead as she dropped them into the sea. Another test after that was a phone call with Molly Hooper, we were led to believe she would be killed if you did not get her to say 'I love you.'
You succeeded, but only at her cost of making you say it to her as well. Believably.
[He would think this all had to be a lie, it's so far-fetched, except for Mycroft's unfortunate death price. To know he saved Molly is a small drop of relief in amongst the horrific revelations, though he has no doubt that their friendship will be possibly ruined for it.
Still, if she's alive, that's what matters.
Those others dead though, all because Eurus was intrigued by her big brother? Could he have done things differently and save them? Could he have changed all of their fates?]
She's a monster, but if she is then you cannot have helped by locking her away isolated and alone. You must survive, you're here to tell me all of this, but does John? Do I? Does she?
[Mycroft's breathing pauses for a long moment before he continues.]
Yes. We all do. Not for lack of trying, though. The subsequent test was simply a room and you had a gun, and you were required to shoot either John or I.
I--It was better if you killed me instead of John, obviously. I attempted to sway you by insulting him, trying to get you angry enough to do it -- [Normally he would not say this but he was forced to tell everything--] --you turned the gun on me.
--but then I revealed that Eurus was able to do any of this because I let her have five minutes alone with Moriarty as a 'treat' five years ago...since we used her considerable genius to help us solve various things--she could predict terrorist attacks after an hour on Twitter, we offered he treats to motivate her. She found interest in Moriarty, so...
Once you realized this is what Moriarty's revenge was--you killing me, he predicted it would happen--you turned the gun on yourself. Eurus shot you and John with a tranquilizer dart to avoid you from killing yourself. She locked me in her old cell, and spirited you and John away to the ruins of Musgrave where she placed John in the very same well Victor died in and made you finally solve her song. Which you did. Once the police came and rescued John, they took Eurus back to Sherrinford. She refused to speak, perhaps from trauma, perhaps voluntarily. You visited her time and time again because you managed to get her to play violin with you. You both even performed for our parents and I.
It wasn't long after that I ended up here.
[Mycroft sounds exhausted. He's not used to telling the truth aggressively.]
His hubris in allowing her an unsupervised visit with Moriarty had set off a chain of events that had killed some innocent people, and left all of them irrevocably changed. It's a good thing, though, the confirmation that Mycroft can't fool him in matters of emotion and that he would choose to take his own life over either John's or Mycroft's. Of course he would. He's always been willing to sacrifice himself for the people he cares about.
All of this is a lot to take in, though, and that's an understatement.
A sister, a murderer, a traumatised woman. Eurus Holmes and Victor Trevor, two people he still doesn't remember properly. The only sound that Mycroft will hear is the shuddering exhale of a breath that seems near tears, before Sherlock hangs up on him. He doesn't want to talk to his brother any further right now.]
[It's too late. He hung up. Mycroft sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose, slouching, as if all that was holding him up had been cut.]
I'm sorry.
[Everything. Everything he has worked his whole life for, to protect, to shield Sherlock from the worst parts of his life...to shield the world from their sister and vice versa...all the lies--
Then he's very limited. Mother was right.
He knew all of this was his fault.
And now he was here in this place...well. Fitting, he supposed. If anyone deserved it, it was him. He'd failed everyone he ever cared about. Sentiment did him in again.]
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How could he have lied to them all? Surely their parents had deserved to visit their daughter, mentally ill as she obviously had been, instead of leaving her to rot under the protection of first Uncle Rudy and then Mycroft himself.]
Vaguely.
[He met her when he was very high and far more focused on both John and Culverton, but he gets where Mycroft is going with this.]
Why would she mimic a therapist on her escape? It seems far more likely that she'd hunt you down.
CW: Suicide
[A pause.]
She did get to me, too. She got all three of us--John, you and I. A drone carrying a grenade exploded in 221 B Baker Street when I was having nearly the same conversation with you, besides the part about Victor. After we narrowly escaped--Mrs. Hudson's fine, by the way--we snuck to the island since we couldn't be sure who to trust. It turned out that Eurus had taken over the entire facility and...
...well, Norfinbury isn't too far off from what she did to us. Did to you.
She subjected us to a series of ethical and moral tests that left four men and one woman dead in front of us. One by his own hand because--[A definite hitch in his voice.] You were forced to give a gun to either John or I to shoot the governor of the island to save his wife's life. I could not, and John tried admirably, but he could not either. She shot the wife after he killed himself. She next had you solve a murder with our help to test how you deduce by suppressing your emotions especially under stress, but it still resulted in three men dead as she dropped them into the sea. Another test after that was a phone call with Molly Hooper, we were led to believe she would be killed if you did not get her to say 'I love you.'
You succeeded, but only at her cost of making you say it to her as well. Believably.
CW: Suicide
Still, if she's alive, that's what matters.
Those others dead though, all because Eurus was intrigued by her big brother? Could he have done things differently and save them? Could he have changed all of their fates?]
She's a monster, but if she is then you cannot have helped by locking her away isolated and alone. You must survive, you're here to tell me all of this, but does John? Do I? Does she?
CW: Suicide
Yes. We all do. Not for lack of trying, though. The subsequent test was simply a room and you had a gun, and you were required to shoot either John or I.
I--It was better if you killed me instead of John, obviously. I attempted to sway you by insulting him, trying to get you angry enough to do it -- [Normally he would not say this but he was forced to tell everything--] --you turned the gun on me.
--but then I revealed that Eurus was able to do any of this because I let her have five minutes alone with Moriarty as a 'treat' five years ago...since we used her considerable genius to help us solve various things--she could predict terrorist attacks after an hour on Twitter, we offered he treats to motivate her. She found interest in Moriarty, so...
Once you realized this is what Moriarty's revenge was--you killing me, he predicted it would happen--you turned the gun on yourself. Eurus shot you and John with a tranquilizer dart to avoid you from killing yourself. She locked me in her old cell, and spirited you and John away to the ruins of Musgrave where she placed John in the very same well Victor died in and made you finally solve her song. Which you did. Once the police came and rescued John, they took Eurus back to Sherrinford. She refused to speak, perhaps from trauma, perhaps voluntarily. You visited her time and time again because you managed to get her to play violin with you. You both even performed for our parents and I.
It wasn't long after that I ended up here.
[Mycroft sounds exhausted. He's not used to telling the truth aggressively.]
CW: Suicide
His hubris in allowing her an unsupervised visit with Moriarty had set off a chain of events that had killed some innocent people, and left all of them irrevocably changed. It's a good thing, though, the confirmation that Mycroft can't fool him in matters of emotion and that he would choose to take his own life over either John's or Mycroft's. Of course he would. He's always been willing to sacrifice himself for the people he cares about.
All of this is a lot to take in, though, and that's an understatement.
A sister, a murderer, a traumatised woman. Eurus Holmes and Victor Trevor, two people he still doesn't remember properly. The only sound that Mycroft will hear is the shuddering exhale of a breath that seems near tears, before Sherlock hangs up on him. He doesn't want to talk to his brother any further right now.]
CW: Suicide
[It's too late. He hung up. Mycroft sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose, slouching, as if all that was holding him up had been cut.]
I'm sorry.
[Everything. Everything he has worked his whole life for, to protect, to shield Sherlock from the worst parts of his life...to shield the world from their sister and vice versa...all the lies--
Then he's very limited. Mother was right.
He knew all of this was his fault.
And now he was here in this place...well. Fitting, he supposed. If anyone deserved it, it was him. He'd failed everyone he ever cared about. Sentiment did him in again.]