You've heard of the Kobayashi Maru test, class. All you command-track cadets will be taking it for your final exam, and it's a doozy.

-o-

"Okay, let me give you a little extra incentive," Jim says, that bloody smirk on his face even as he's on the edge of the roof, a four-storey drop behind him.

"Your friends will die if you don't."

Friends. That blasted word. Sherlock used to think that he didn't have friends. Caring… caring wasn't an advantage, was it? He wasn't supposed to care so much. He'd said it to Irene, hadn't he?

Sentiment is a chemical defect found in the losing side.

He certainly doesn't feel like he's winning, just now.

"John," Sherlock breathes. Dear god, John.

Jim's still smiling. "Not just John." He lowers his voice, whispers in close. "Everyone."

Sherlock remembers the apple, the graffiti, the windows. All those IOUs, just for him. "Mrs. Hudson."

"Everyone," Jim says, now practically dancing with glee.

"Lestrade."

Sherlock wonders why he hadn't stolen John's Sig so he could've blasted the evil bastard's smug face into pieces.

-o-

You'll get a distress signal from the Kobayashi Maru, a civilian freighter, disabled in the Klingon Neutral Zone. There will be three Klingon battle cruisers in the area, already on their way to intercept the vessel for breaking treaty. You can attempt a rescue in the Neutral Zone, but if you do, you will meet with the Klingons, who will see you as hostiles.

-o-

"Three bullets, three gunmen, three victims. There's no stopping them now," Jim says, moving away from Sherlock.

"Unless my people see you jump."

Sherlock gazes out behind Jim, not seeing him. The London skyline, beyond the ledge of Saint Bart's roof, is still and cold. The calm before the storm.

"You can have me arrested, you can torture me. You can do anything you like with me, but nothing's gonna prevent them from pulling the trigger. Your only friends in the world will die, unless…"

He's waiting. "Unless I kill myself. Complete your story," Sherlock finishes, in barely concealed abject horror.

Jim nods, grinning in absolute manic happiness. "You gotta admit, that's sexier."

-o-

The question is this: Will you chance giving up your own life and ship on the possibility that you might save the crew of the Kobayashi Maru, or will you allow them, your friends and allies, to go down, in order to save yourself?

-o-

Sherlock's up on the edge, on the edge of the roof of the hospital. He's in the middle of a busy city, but nobody sees anything because they're all dull and idiotic and unexciting… but there they are, going about their mundane little lives, and here he is, about to take his own.

Sherlock is sick of Jim Moriarty, tired of playing his games, and yet here he is, still playing, still losing.

He takes a shallow breath, unable to think, blinking rapidly. "Would you give me one moment, please, one moment of privacy?"

He's pleading.

"Please?"

Jim looks almost disappointed. "Of course," he says, turning around and crossing the roof.

Sherlock's gaze sweeps the horizon, but there's nothing there for him to see. He retreats to his mind palace, and when he emerges, he's laughing.

Jim turns indignantly, angrily.

"What? What is it?"

Sherlock turns on the ledge, starts to step down.

"What did I miss?" Jim shouts.

-o-

Here's the thing about the test: You can't win. There is no possible way to win but cheat, and James Tiberius Kirk tried that once and was suspended. The Kobayashi Maru test is a trial of guts and courage and discipline. It teaches you to be calm in the face of death. Learn it, because there's no way to cheat in real life.

-o-

It turns out that Sherlock is prepared to do anything, prepared to burn, prepared to do what ordinary people won't do.

It turns out that Sherlock's on the side of the angels, but he's not one himself.

It turns out, some time later, that Jim Moriarty's solution to their final problem is very final indeed.

Sherlock had thought he'd known what to do, thought he'd known how to win. He was wrong.

Sherlock Holmes was wrong.

Even dead, Jim is smiling his smile. It says, I win.

-o-

That's it, class. Exam's on Monday. Try not to stress about it too much. It's not the end of the world.

-o-

Five minutes later, after a false confession and a suicide phone call, something falls from the sky falling's not really like flying, after all, and one word rings out across the street but it should echo across the whole world, that enormous word,

Sherlock