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Chapter 20

Moriarty sat back in his chair, twirling a little dart in his hand, looking at his connection map with all the people on it. He had replaced Marley's string that he had cut before. Her string was red now, mimmicking John's, Lestrade's, Molly's, and Mrs Hudson's. Mycroft's was green, signaling a connection between Sherlock and himself, as well as Moriarty.

Marley's string was a darker crimson because she was like Sherlock to him. She was another target that he wanted to destroy.

Moriarty heard his door open and the clicking of dress shoes emerge into his office. "Please, sit down." Moriarty offered, yet almost demanded in his quiet, yet confident tone. Sharp quickly took a seat in the black, stiff, leather chair. He sat up straight and looked at Moriarty, urgently waiting for any orders that would give him 'points' towards Moriarty's alliance. He was the weak link of the triad and he needed to get stronger so he couldn't be used as 'collateral damage'.

Picasso took a little more time, sitting in the other one, leaning back in it and messing with his little dagger in his hand. He was confident in his usefullness to Moriarty and he knew that he wouldn't be the first one to go if something happened. His sadist beliefs helped him keep leverage in the triad because he was the one who dealt with the 'rogue' prisoners, because truthfully, all of these kids were prisoners.

As Sharp had to get people to do the dirty work, Picasso was solely there for that purpose... He enjoyed it. And his favorite person was Marley. She was strong and it was exciting whenever her got to work with her because he could see her trying to fight back without breaking.

"Why are we here Boss?" Picasso asked non chalantly.

"Marley and Nan are getting nosey... As you know." Moriarty was speaking directly to Picasso, making Sharp jealous and hurt. "The little stunt with the PT test almost worked, but I have a plan."

"And I have a quick question, if it's not too much to ask. Why has Marley's string color changed?"

"This is precisely my plan. First, we need them tonight. Picasso, you are up. Break Marley. Do anything you need to. Even if it involves hurting Nan. She isn't our target, but she is a necessity in our plan. Go." Moriarty pointed to the door. "Don't let me down. I'll be in the room, waiting for our guests."

Picasso nodded and stood up, smirking, and headed out of the room.

"Oh, and Picasso," Moriarty interrupted. "Don't cut up her face too bad. I don't want our work to be too obvious."

"Yes sir." Picasso flipped his dagger in the air, caught the blade, and walked out of the office.

Mr Sharp motioned to get up, but Moriarty stopped him. "Sharp." He paused, and looked at Moriarty. "Sit." He quickly sat back down, nervously looking at his boss.

"You have something over Nan. She knows that Marley is the target and that Picasso sees her as his little project. That means that your job is to make sure Nan doesn't let Marley feel safe. Marley works better with Nan, as you could see from today's events. Keep her seperated and silent. Just make sure it looks like Nan is helpless because if she is helpless, Marley is helpless. And we need Marley helpless in order to break her.

"Yes sir." Sharp was delighted. Moriarty believed that he could be trusted.

"I am fighting against all of my common sense to just relieve you of your duties but you are actually beneficial to this facility surprisingly." Mr Sharp stood up and went to walk away, but Moriarty stopped him. "Just remember, stay out of Picasso's way."

Sharp nodded and stalked out of the office, his feelings hurt... again.

Moriarty spun in his chair, quickly letting go of the dart and hitting Marley's picture, just narrowly missing the string, shaving off a few strands of it. "Let the game begin Marley."