A/n: And on with the final round! There's going to be an epilogue after this probably, so you can all look forwards to that. Yeah!
Enjoy!
Now on the last floor, Sherlock and Jim were going to face off in what had been called the 'Fight For Freedom'. This didn't reveal much, other than that somebody liked alliteration. Between them were the trapdoors that they had been pretending to use to reach the next floor every time they changed task. It was open already, and over the top of it dangled a large key, 'probably our method of 'escape' then' Sherlock thought.
"Unfortunates," for the last time The Voice started to speak, "This is your fight for freedom. The unfortunate with the most correct answers will be the winner. You have 60 seconds to prove yourself. Let the challenge begin... now."
Sherlock grinned. Against any of the others this last task would have been easy and boring. Against Jim, he got the feeling it would be a lot more interesting, not to mention challenging. Hell, he wasn't even sure who was going to win!
The clock began ticking on the 60 seconds answering time. The Voice went to Sherlock first, asking the easy question "Who voted themself out?" to which Sherlock instantly replied "John" with a small smirk.
"Jim, how many times was Greg bitten by the snake?"
The answer came without pause for thought, laving Sherlock slightly curious about exactly how much attention the boy had been paying to what had been going on, seemingly in a trade for actually taking the time for active participation in them. This was something Sherlock directly opposed him in, having done the opposite himself. "Twice."
"Correct." It had taken all of ten seconds to answer the first two questions. "Sherlock, who was the saboteur on floor four?"
"G..." He took a few seconds here to think. 'It definitely began with a G... Gary, Goldilocks... Oh!' "Greg!" he shouted quickly, anxiously waiting for the confirmation that-
"Correct." -yes, he had remembered it correctly. 'Obviously' He thought, with faked confidence. "Jim, what was the game on floor five called?"
"Spooked." He said without pause. The instant responses were starting to make Sherlock suspicious. 'Could it be that he's... actually as clever as me? Genuinely? Not even faking? Wow' He marvelled at the idea of finding another of his age who would be capable of providing him with the intelligent conversation he needed, nearly missing the next question that came his way as a result.
Thankfully he managed to regain his ability to pay attention just before The Voice started speaking. "Correct. Sherlock, who was trapped in The One Eyed Watcher?" She asked.
"John" He said with another smirk, still not having got over the earlier incident.
"Correct." Time was slowly running out, with thirty seconds having gone, meaning that they were halfway through the questions. Currently the score was tied in Sherlock's favour, with him on 3 and Jim on 2. "Jim, who did not get past floor six?"
"Sally." Jim answered again, in record time. 'Clearly someone's been taking quite a few mental notes. Does he even watch this show?' Sherlock wondered. 'He must have done at least once, to have known something like this was going to happen.'
"Correct. Sherlock, what was the name of the challenge on floor three?"
"The One Eyed Watcher." Sherlock was now sure that the abundance of questions directed towards him that were related to John's time as the saboteur was not a coincidence. It was cruel, really, trying to make him laugh so much. If he did then surely he would be unable to answer. 'It's clearly all the work of Jim' The conspiracy theorist in him said, 'I can see it now, "Jim Moriarty, master criminal, commits to a life of crime after cheating on children's game show!"' He almost laughed yet again at the utter ridiculousness of it all.
"Correct. Jim, who was the saboteur on floor five?"
"Me." It made sense that this response didn't take long, all he had to do was remember what task had happened on floor five and he could have got the rest easily.
"Correct. Sherlock, who got the most votes in Snake Attack?"
"Greg." Obviously it was him, after outing himself as the saboteur in a way only slightly more subtle than John's.
"Correct. Jim, what was the colour of the cups in One Eyed Watcher?"
"Gold." It was an obscure thing to remember, really, but the task had not happened that long ago. Sherlock noticed that Jim was grinning widely, despite the fact that the score was tied and Sherlock would pull ahead in the next question. 'What's he done? Or what's he doing, I suppose.'
"Correct. Sherlock, what was the name of the first task?"
"Wall of Sorrow." Sherlock said as quickly as possible, knowing that time was running out and wanting to finish with a definite win, not going to a tie. Ten seconds remained on the clock and continued counting down, getting to five seconds by the time The Voice started her response.
"Correc-" The Voice stopped as time ran out. "Sherlock and Jim, your time is up" She stated needlessly, "Sherlock, you answered six questions correctly. Jim, you answered five questions correctly." Sherlock smiled slightly, glad to have won. "Sherlock, you are the winner. Congratulations."
Jim was then asked his opinion on being trapped, to which he just replied with an even larger smile. He was informed that he was trapped, but wasn't too concerned by this. Then Sherlock had been given instructions of his own, namely to get out of there before, in her words, "I change my mind".
Sherlock looked at Jim, who still had yet to stop grinning. He appeared genuinely happy to have lost, for some reason. Deciding against reading into it, Sherlock shrugged before walking up to take the key, jumping into the trapdoor as instructed. When he got out of the trapdoor he was in an area that he was supposed to use the key to escape from, then hold it aloft in a victory pose. He did the first thing, but refused to do the second, tossing the key aside and walking off to find Mycroft. Sherlock did not want to be here for any longer than necessary.