Author's note: You are wonderful, wonderful people. I'm so happy with the response to this fic.
So here's another important chapter: The Reichenbach Fall.
As usual: I don't own anything, please enjoy and review.
A few weeks after the Baskerville case, John decides to make the ultimate move. Win the game once and for all. And to make this happen, after all he's done in the past year – well, there is only one way to make it all even better.
Destroy Sherlock Holmes.
Not as in "kill him" per se; that would be easy and uncomplicated, and after all the amusement the detective has given John in the past months, he deserves a truly great and epic end. Tragic. Unforgettable. And wonderfully funny (for John) of course.
He must destroy his life, personality, dreams, his soul. He must crush the consulting detective until there's nothing left than a memory – a memory that's tainted as well, because having your enemy meet his end in a way that turns him into a hero – now that wouldn't be satisfying at all.
So John has to destroy what Sherlock values the most – his reputation. The man has an ego the size of Europe, after all, and having people doubt his intelligence – oh, it will be wonderful. And, while we're at it, he's going to make him care even more – threaten the people he values the most.
John himself (oh, how wonderful). Mrs. Hudson (the mother he never had). Lestrade (though he doubts the inspector knows how much he actually means to Sherlock).
At first, he thinks about simply destroying Sherlock's reputation and then revealing himself and watching the consulting detective break. But – as before – he begins to question if this would be so much fun at all. What if John, instead, became the only one who still believed in Sherlock?
Of course, this would mean not only destroying his reputation but turning him into a – a criminal (thank you, Sally). Have Lestrade, of all people, arrest him. Watching the one man Sherlock (and John too, for that matter, in a way, it's a pity Lestrade never wanted to join the other side, he could've used a man like him) thinks of as a good policeman starting to doubt in his friend.
Mrs. Hudson, naturally, will never believe any part of a lie that makes Sherlock not appear like the hero she sees him as. But, then, mothers never count in a situation like this. They are supposed to love you and believe in you, that's what mothers do (well, not John's mother, he most likely wouldn't be here if she had been like that, but there's always an exception to the rule).
And Mycroft? Oh, he won't be able to help Sherlock, not even as a moral support, because there's too much bad blood between the brothers, which is sad, because they could have been wonderful enemies – they could have been unstoppable together. Oh, and because they love each other very much, obviously, but John doesn't know much about that, so he'll settle for the "could be wonderful enemies" excuse.
Wait.
Didn't he tell Richie – and didn't Richie still swear, after a few hours of torture (there has to be punishment if you want to hold up discipline; the torture hadn't been done by John personally, of course, Richie still doesn't know and will never know what he looks like), crying and bleeding, that he'd followed John's instructions and knows now quite a lot about Sherlock though not as much as John – only to talk about a few minor of John's operation (which John had explained very carefully to him, in case Mycroft ever got his hands on Moriarty, now, wasn't that clever of him?) after Mycroft had told him Sherlock's life story? After he'd got information about the consulting detective? Mycroft fell into John's trap.
And John learned long ago that people believe any lie, as long as there's enough truth in it to make it seem plausible. Now, if he wants to make people believe Sherlock is a liar and a fraud, he needs to build up the big lie carefully, with a basis on truths – on Sherlock's life story. And when that happens – once the story is out and everyone believes it – there will only be one person responsible for Moriarty's knowledge of Sherlock's life story.
Mycroft Holmes. He will have betrayed his brother. He will have destroyed the brother he cares so much about.
That might be john's best idea yet. God, is he happy. He is so deliriously, unbelievably, unmistakably happy, that even Sherlock notices he's in a very good mood and actually comments on it – but, seeing as they're unusually busy with the Reichenbach case, and the John he knows is an adrenaline junkie, it's only to be expected –
Reichenbach.
Reichenbach. John's German is a little bit rusty (he still prefers French), but in English, Reichenbach means –
Oh joy. Oh, thank you, fate, if you exist, from the deepest bottom of John's not-existing heart. He can't believe it.
Richard Brook is going to be Sherlock Holmes' downfall. Because it won't be John who hired him after all. It will have been Sherlock. Oh glorious day.
That only leaves the public. Turning them will be easy, oh so very easy. He only has to get the story in the papers – and he'll surely find a journalist who's ready to bring down the hero.
Because that's what Sherlock's become; the Reichenbach case, and their next cases, make him more and more famous. He still hates the hat, though (John thinks he looks rather... adorable with it, an adjective he borrows from Mrs. Hudson.
Which gives John more than enough reasons to tell Sherlock to keep a low profile. He knows the detective won't do as he's told, he wouldn't have said so otherwise. But playing his role is still fun.
He wants Sherlock not only to be chased by the good guys, however. No, having both sides go after him would be infinitely more fun. So he slowly, very slowly, begins to spread rumours about a code he – Moriarty – possesses that can crack any security system in the world, and tells everyone who will listen that there'll soon be a demonstration they can't ignore.
Though there is a small problem: He'll need Richie for the demonstration.
And Richie – so nice and easy to handle a few months prior – shows signs of the beginning of a mental illness (or maybe it's just mental disturbance, John can't really be bothered to look it up) after his escape from John, capture and release by Mycroft, subsequent recapture and torture by John; really, now, this young actors of today – they don't know how to take anything. But he's either depressed or manic and sometimes talks to people who aren't there and one day politely asks if he can go know – if that doesn't mean he's crazy, what does?
While John ponders over this problem, he realizes: He can get rid of Sherlock Holmes and Richie all at once. A big climax, and the two foes who've destroyed each other – gone. How wonderfully dramatic.
So he calms Richie down and tells him that the next assignment is going to be his last. Not that Richie knows it's going to be his very last, of course, but it ensures he does a she's told and gives a wonderful performance at the Tower (John almost envies him there for a moment; who doesn't want to pose with the crown jewels once in his life?) and sends the right texts to the Bank of England and the Pentonville Prison. Isn't it wonderful to have men everywhere? These particular men have been in John's employment for years – he's always figured he could one day steal the crown jewels, if he happens to be very very bored.
After that, he only has to make sure Richie walks – which is annoyingly easy, really, you'd have thought somebody would notice how impractical it is for jurors to have television. The trial gives him Kitty Riley, though, so he tells Richie to go and talk to her - if it's necessary sleep with her – tell her the story in any way that'll make her believe him.
After he's paid his little visit to Baker Street, for which John has once again written the script. He needs Sherlock to know Moriarty's plan, he needs him to believe there is a code, and he needs him to believe that Moriarty has somehow managed to sneak a camera in the flat (maybe when he put this video on his blog almost three months ago, of Richie snooping around 221B; Sherlock hadn't been at home, John had watched from a distance to make sure Richie left no traces). Of course, it's John who put this camera there this morning.
This time, John has Richie wearing a microphone so he can listen to the little tea party. He hasn't been this amused in at least a week.
Though it's not as good as Mycroft telling him "I screwed up, so please look after my brother" in a way only Mycroft can. Thank God John remembered to make a scene; he's known about the Diogenes Club for so long he automatically wanted to use signs instead of words, but that could have made Mycroft suspicious.
Then he has the children of the American Ambassador kidnapped – really, you'd have thought such an expensive boarding school would keep a better eye on its precious charges – and, before they get even a bite to eat, they are trained like pavlovian dogs: pictures of Sherlock, films, his voice, then a particularly brutal scene of one of the many tortures John has always been careful to film (you could never identify him, if the film fell into the wrong hands, of course, but it's nice to have something to watch when there's nothing on the telly). He's glad he read A Clockwork Orange at school.
It's wonderful to see Sherlock smile once more because children have been kidnapped – and to reprimand him for this. In fact, John thinks he will actually miss this.
Naturally, it's Sally Donovan who begins to doubt and before long, Lestrade has to do what he doesn't want and arrest Sherlock. John makes sure he's arrested as well – wasn't hard, just hit the highest-ranking policeman you can find – but being handcuffed together is an added bonus. He hopes Sherlock likes the little touch with the graffiti.
By this time, he's brought back Richard Brook, and so they meet him at Kitty Riley's house, and John shouts and Sherlock is so wonderfully convinced he knows what's going on, but he doesn't.
John does what any best friend in this situation would do – he searches, finds and accuses the culprit, the man who's responsible for all of this. But because he can't very well shout at himself in a mirror, he reduces Mycroft to a sorry mess. Oh, this is priceless. The Big Brother himself desperate – John will cherish this moment all his life.
By this time, he's brought his snipers in place, because he has decided running Sherlock is not enough: he wants him to destroy himself. He is going to force him to commit suicide.
And Sherlock seems to know the end is near. Do he and Molly really think he can't hear them? They're in the same room... Well, it's going to end soon anyway, so John doesn't car that Sherlock acts stupid. As soon as Sherlock sends the text, Richie has to call John so he can leave, and he does. He is a good actor after all; sadly, he won't see another day.
Before he leaves, though, he and Sherlock have their big final scene – a fight, of course, it has to be dramatic. Yes, Sherlock can be a machine – the problem is only that he is like the Tin Man from Wizard of Oz, there is a heart beneath the metal. And it's his downfall.
He goes to look how his killer's doing at Mrs. Hudson's (always have an alibi) and leaves again. Over his microphone, he can hear what's going on. It's the best play he's ever heard, and he enjoys every minute of it. He hasn't told Richie that the gun contains real bullets instead of blanks, but once Richie finds out, he doesn't have to think about it anymore anyway.
And then Sherlock calls John – which he hasn't participated, but boy, does it feel good – and jumps. He falls and he falls and he falls, and John gets hit by a biker (he always preferred cars; all or nothing, walk or drive), and he takes Sherlocks' pulse and it is over.
The Game is Over and John has won.
He still plays his part, though, going to his therapist, hating Mycroft, blaming Lestrade, crying with Mrs. Hudson. But he has to admit that he, in his own way, misses Sherlock. He was the best distraction John ever had.
So the tears at Sherlock's grave aren't that fake after all, because John cries for himself a little, and that's the only tears he's ever known.
Then he sees Sherlock. Just out of the corner of his eye, and it's more a shadow than anything else – but John knows what he saw. So Sherlock managed to fake his own death. He's impressed. And happy because this changes everything.
Sherlock will most likely try to bring down Moriarty's empire – so he shall, John won't stop him, a spider can always build a new web.
And then, when Sherlock comes back and expects his best friend, he'll find his worst enemy. John will ait and then he will triumph. And it will be delicious.
John Watson is, right now, the happiest man in London.
The Game is still on.
Author's note: At first, I wanted this to be the last chapter: Just John thinking "hahaha, when he returns..." But then I realized that not only Sherlock and John, but all the readers I have (I can't believe I have more than one) deserve a real ending, so there'll be another chapter.
Meanwhile, I really hope you enjoyed this one.