Raiden: I blinked, how many chapters of this are up?
Axel: This is ten.
Raiden: You know, you could've used the time spent on this to continue writing A Metal Gear Christmas Carol.
Mars: Just looked that one over...I think it needs to be purged.
Snake: There goes all the Metal Gear stories that you have on here.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters in this story.

Winter Cabin Conundrum
Part II - Chapter 3

Once again, Braig and Dilan put us all on lockdown, but that didn't make me feel any better. I knew me and Riku were safe since Roxas and Axel weren't going to kill us. But I was worried about Kairi, she shared the room with Naminé and I wouldn't put it past her to try and kill her again. Then again, she didn't kill Aqua yet, so she doesn't have reason to do anything to Kairi or Xion. But she could've killed Xehanort. Everything about the situation was starting to give me a headache, so I laid down on the bed. Riku noticed I was acting weird so he asked me about it.

"What do you expect?" Axel butted in. "Our host was killed and the only person it could've been was one of us. That's reason enough to be acting weird."

"I mean since we got off the bus," Riku said, wanting Axel to mind his own business.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I told him.

The story was pretty hard to believe. The only reason Braig believed me was because he knew Xehanort somehow. Riku, Roxas and Axel had no reason to believe me.

Axel sat up on his bed, "Well I'm the in mood for a fantastic story, tell it anyway."

So I did. I told them all about how Braig killed Xehanort, Naminé killed Aqua, Roxas killed Ienzo and Saïx went on a rampage killing Axel, Demyx, Dilan before we all banded together and went looking for him. I decided to leave motives out of the picture because if I did we'd be up all night. Of course, Riku and Roxas didn't believe me, but they played along like they did. But Axel seemed like he actually believed it.

"And I bet you think Saïx killed Xehanort," he pointed out.

"Well, yeah, him or Naminé could've done it," I said.

"Hate to disappoint you Sora, but they could've have done it."

"What!"

"Xehanort is Saïx's supplier, and it's not a good time for him to keel over and die," he explained. "You do know what I'm talking about, right?"

"Yeah, Saïx is a drug dealer."

"He is?!" Riku's jaw dropped.

Roxas was confused, "You don't know that…but you do?"

I could tell they both were starting to believe me, at least a little.

Axel continued talking, "Saïx has every reason to go on a murder spree. With his supplier gone, he's about to go out of business. And if he's going out of business, people are going to talk."

"Like you and Demyx," I finished.

"Exactly, we've been looking for a way out for a long time. With Xehanort gone, we can come forward without any real consequences."

It made sense, but it gave Axel and Demyx motive to commit the murder. The fact that he was willing to admit to me that he has motive means that he probably didn't do it. Besides, I knew that they didn't do it because they said they'd destroy the evidence so they wouldn't get caught.

That's when Vanitas came in, gave us our dinner and told us that we weren't allowed to leave until Braig or Dilan told us so. Axel grumbled, Riku retorted, Roxas chimed in and Axel interrogated Riku, just like last time.

"Come on, Riku didn't even meet Xehanort before today!" I pointed out.

"True," Axel backed down. "But then who did it this time?"

"Larxene and Marluxia are reasonable suspects," Roxas started to list names.

I was wondering what motive could they have against Xehanort, so I asked.

"I don't actually know that," Axel told me. "All I know is that they hate Xehanort and they're sociopaths—well Marluxia is, Larxene's ax-crazy."

That didn't really give me much to go by, so I couldn't really put them on a list of suspects. I figured there wasn't anything I could do, but then I remembered Aqua! I had to stop her from meeting Luxord on the roof so Naminé could kill her. I ran to the phone, but I didn't know what to dial to call her room.

"What's Aqua's room number?" I asked.

Roxas didn't know, "Who's Aqua rooming with again?"

"Larxene and Marluxia," Axel told him. He turned to me, "That's four-eleven."

I punched the numbers in and waited for someone to pick up.

Larxene answered the phone, "What do you want?"

"This is Sora," I said. "Can I talk to Aqua?"

Aqua's voice was the next one I heard, "Sora? What is it?"

"Aqua, I was wondering if you could come to my room first thing in the morning."

"Why?"

"I wanna talk to you about Xehanort's body."

"Oh, okay. First thing tomorrow morning?"

"Yeah, after Braig and Dilan let us out our rooms."

"Alright, I'll see you then."

After I hung up Axel complimented me on questioning Aqua about Xehanort's body, while Riku was still skeptical.

"Sora, should you be looking into this?" He wondered. "If what you said was true, and you went back in time, what makes you think investigating won't set off more murders?"

"Riku, if we don't figure out who killed Xehanort and expose them, then nothing's stopping Saïx from going on a killing spree just like last time," I explained.

Riku gave up, "Fine, we'll look into this. But we should tell Kairi so she won't be in the dark."

He went over to the phone and called her room. He told her to come to our room first thing in the morning so she can be there when we talked to Aqua. The rest of the night was uneventful until the phone rang. It was about two in the morning. Roxas answered the phone. He was half-asleep until something someone on the other line said something that woke him up.

"I'll be there," he told the person.

He got up, put his shoes on and went for his coat. Of course I wouldn't let him leave in the middle of the night with a murderer on the loose.

"What are you doing?" I questioned him, half-asleep.

"Go back to bed Sora," he said to me.

"No, you're up to something, and I can't let you get yourself into a dangerous situation."

"It has nothing to do with you."

"It has everything to do with me, I'm the one that has to go back to this morning if Kairi dies."

Roxas paused to think before he continued, "Watch out the window for me."

Then he left. I took a chair and put it in front of the window so I could watch. I saw the snowstorm had already begun. I saw someone come out of the front door and walk around to the back of the cabin. I couldn't make out who they were, the storm was too strong and I was too tired. After a while, Roxas came out and went around the back. Then I fell asleep in the chair. Riku had to wake me up, he and Axel were standing over me, wondering where Roxas was.

I was shocked awake, "He didn't come back?!"

I looked around the room and I saw that he wasn't in there. That means I failed and someone killed Roxas. If I didn't fall asleep, maybe I could've seen that he was taking too long to come back, maybe I could've helped him. I told them what happened, how Roxas got a phone call and went to meet someone behind the cabin and how he wanted me to watch the window.

Braig and Dilan came into our room and told us to come to breakfast and that they had an announcement, just like last time. But they noticed that Roxas wasn't in the room and asked where he was. I didn't know what to tell them. Riku told them that Roxas snuck out last night.

"That fool," Dilan grumbled.

"If you see him, tell him to expect a week—no two weeks' detention," Braig told us.

"Snitch!" Axel accused Riku after they left.

"Roxas is better off in detention than dead," Riku snapped.

"That's why we'd better go look for him."

Axel put on his shoes and got his coat, preparing to go outside.

"Wait, I'll go with you," I said.

I went to get my shoes and jacket but Riku stopped me.

"Sora, what about Aqua?" He asked.

"You and Kairi can talk to her," I told him as I ran out of the room after Axel.

We ran downstairs and out the front door into the blizzard. Since we were in our pajamas, it was pretty cold. I led Axel to the back where I saw Roxas and the person he was meeting. We were walking around when my foot kicked something. I brushed the fresh snow away to see what it was, and it was the tip of a shoe. I shouted for Axel to help me while I dug the person out of the snow.

It was Roxas.

Axel: Oh, so it wasn't enough to kill me but kill my best friend too.
Snake: I killed my best friend once. He was brought back as a cyborg ninja.
Axel: That...sounds pretty cool actually.
Raiden: It's not, I mean, you can kick all sorts of ass, but it's pretty painful to go through.
Mars: Snake, Raiden, get out of my Kingdom Hearts fic.
Snake: Well why don't we go to a Metal Gear story of yours? Oh wait, THERE IS NONE.