Disclaimer, warnings, ect, ect in chapter 1.
A/N: This is the last chapter of this story. Whoot! Hope you enjoyed! I know I did
I woke up and I was sore, tired, and my vision was still a little blurry. I was aware enough, however, to know that I was not alone. A quick glance showed that Sora and Olette were awake as well and I was nearly positive that Riku was with us. The door of the room opened and a silver haired man walked in.
"Kadaj?" Riku said in a whisper as our captor entered the room, "They were right! You were in on this!"
Kadaj gave a small sigh, "I am sorry little brother, I didn't mean to get you all caught up in this."
"Why?" I asked.
"Why what?" Kadaj replied.
"Why did you kill Sora's parents?"
Kadaj gave a small smile, "That's a long story, but since we have some time before your parents arrive, I may as well tell it."
He paced around our circle of chairs. I was in between Sora and Olette and Riku was between them on their other sides. We all had our backs to one another, our hands and feet tied and bound.
"Our mother left us," Kadaj started off, much to our surprise, "None of us knew why. She was just gone one day without a word. So I went searching for mother."
He paused and I took the time to glance at Riku who was staring at his brother with fascinated horror.
"Along the way I ran into the most interesting couple," Kadaj continued, "A man and a woman who had just lost their only son," I clenched my teeth, "I went to them with hopes that they had seen mother. They had."
I heard Riku inhale sharply at those words and I could guess what had happened next. Kadaj continued his story.
"They told me that they would tell me where mother was, if I did something for them. Could you blame me brother? I asked them what I had to do and they told me that all I had to do was get rid of the Strife father and on top of that they would give me $5,000 to help me get to mother."
He closed his eyes for a moment, a smile gracing his lips, "I agreed. It was so easy to do. They had already taken care of the wife so all I had to do was get into the house. An easy task, all I needed was an excuse and it came to me in the form of Riku. You were their youngest son's best friend and you had stayed the night there the night before so I pretended that you had left something there and that I was picking it up. I went up the stairs but didn't go to Sora's room, oh no. I went into the man's bedroom and grabbed one of his ties. I went back down the stairs and he was caught up in some paperwork that he was reading. I put the tie around his neck and tightened it. He started to choke and I pulled him to the top of the stairs. He fought with me but it was no use. He pushed me against the railing so I tied the tie to the top of it and moved out of the way. A gentle push was all it took."
I could see Sora's shoulders shaking next to me and knew that he was crying. I could feel Riku shaking behind me and Olette was looking down, her eyes closed.
"Why?" I snarled at him again.
"Why what?" he asked me again.
"Did my parents want them dead?"
"Oh," Kadaj said as though this had never occurred to him, "That is very simple. They knew that your parents were lying about your death. Isn't that right, Roxy?"
"Don't!" Olette hissed at me and I felt myself calm a little.
"How did you know?" Sora asked in a thick voice.
"Know what?" Kadaj asked.
"Where we were, what we did, that Roxas was here," Sora offered.
"Ah yes," Kadaj said as he started pacing around us agian, "Roxy, do you remember the cops who caught you?"
"Don't call me that!" I snarled.
"There was one man who had silver hair, wasn't there?" Kadaj continued and I thought back to that day and I did remember a man with silver hair, "that was my cousin, Loz."
I felt my jaw drop and he smirked, "He was the one who ensured that no one found out who you really were. Sadly he couldn't keep you from going to join Cloud and Sora, but we were able to alert your parents of your arrival. From there it was a simple matter of keeping tabs. Loz has a brother who was able to see that you hacked into your parents' bank account while keeping an eye on Cloud. He was the one who pulled Cloud away on business. We had been planning on breaking into the house anyway, you just made us do it sooner with your hacking."
He paused and smiled at Sora, "I commend you on leaving Riku in the dark to make sure he never said something to me that would give you away."
Sora growled at the man standing before us, "So who broke into the house?"
"And who was in charge of the hit and run and the shooting, and burning the house down?" I added.
Kadaj smiled and took a bow, "That would be me."
"How could you!" Riku screamed at the boy, "You could have killed them!"
Kadaj shook his head, "You misunderstand brother... it was supposed to kill them."
"When the police get here-" Olette started.
Kadaj laughed, "The police are busy with Sephiroth. By the time they realize you're gone, it will be too late."
"Well, it would have been, had we not seen what had happened and called Cloud ourselves."
"Axel!" Olette said, sounding relieved.
"That was a nice confession," Zexion said, his arms crossed, leaning against the wall.
"Yeah," Demyx agreed, swinging a tape recorder around his finger, "I'm sure the rest of the PD will love to hear it."
"Who are you?" Kadaj asked, angrily.
"Friends," Leon said, walking in with his gunblade resting on his shoulder, "And you, Kadaj, are under arrest."
Kadaj shook his head, "Oh no, I'm not going down."
He drew out a double bladed sword from his side, but it was rather suddenly removed from his grasp. A wheel shaped weapon hit his hand and sent the sword flying.
"Uh -uh," Axel said, waving a finger at him, a matching chakram sitting in his left hand, "we can't have you hurting the kids now, can we?"
Kadaj went to grab his sword but found a huge sword in front of him, Cloud being the wielder.
"Cloud," Sora said, sounding relieved.
"You're a lot like Sephiroth, Kadaj. It's going to get you killed," Cloud said quietly.
Vincent walked into the room, swinging handcuffs from his own fingers.
"Damn," said Cid, "I was hoping we could kick his ass."
I jumped a little as I felt someone behind me and shifted to see Yuffie and Tifa untying us. I muttered a thank you and stood, rubbing my wrists. I looked around the room and frowned a little.
"Did you guys get my parents?"
Leon looked over, "No, not yet. We have the rest of our team looking for them right now. Common, let's get you guys somewhere safe."
My parents were caught by Zack (who had just been released from the hospital), Barret (another friend of Cloud's), and (surprisingly) Aerith. A trial took place and it was a very short one since they had a confession on tape (thank you Demyx) not to mention the fact that I was very much alive, thank you very much. It also helped that we had the evidence that we found and eyewitnesses (Axel, Demyx, and Zexion) who saw Kadaj putting us into his car. They had tailed Kadaj at a distance and called Cloud (Vincent and Leon had given everyone Cloud's cell phone for emergencies).
We ended up staying at Zack's since our house had indeed been burned down. We were looking for another one (Cloud had really good fire insurance since he ran his business from home). We finally got Cloud to explain to us what on earth the Turks and AVALANCHE were.
The Turks were a secret organization that was similar to the FBI only much more low key. Apparently Vincent used to be a Turk, which is how he knew Reno and Rude. AVALANCHE was made up of almost everyone who had been popping in and out of our lives the last few days (Yuffie, Tifa, Cloud, Barret, Cid, Vincent, and Aerith).
That would explain why a bar owner, our English teacher, Naminé's foster sister, and a bartender/locksmith came to our rescue.
AVALANCHE was another secret society that had come to life in some sort of revolution that had left Midgar in the state it was in. Apparently some big power company was going too far and the society shot them back down. The Turks used to be the security for the company, but they have their own agency now that's separate from the company.
Zack, Leon, and Vincent all used to work for the same policed department a few years ago when Sora's parents were killed. That case caused Leon to go off and do his own thing and Vincent and Zack went to different parts of the department. Apparently all three had been secretly working on the case for years, but could never get very far without reopening it and never had the evidence they needed to reopen it.
Glad to be of assistance.
Riku was being more friendly now, which is something that Sora was thrilled about. I had already told Vincent that he should start looking into Riku's father now since Sora and I were already forming a plan to take him down next.
"Aw, common Hayner! That was a cheap shot!"
Hayner, Pence, and Naminé more or less lived with us on the weekends. Cloud was already loudly complaining that they were not going to be here all summer and that we were going to have to find somewhere else to spend our days. Zack, on the other hand, usually ended up playing games with us (and losing horribly).
"That was not a cheap shot, that's how you play the game!"
Sora's wrist was healing nicely and my shoulder was back in its right place and not longer hurting. Cloud had got a new car (again, he had some really good insurance) that he said Sora and I could share once one of us got a license since he normally used his motorcycle anyway (you think he drives a car for his deliveries? That would take forever).
I looked around the room at everyone (Cloud standing off in the corner pretending to be annoyed at us all, Zack sitting next to Hayner trying in vain to beat him at a game, Sora leaning against the back of the couch with Kairi and Riku on either side of him, Naminé in the armchair her sketchbook in her hand and her pencil moving furiously across it, Pence and Olette were watching the game from the other couch, Axel sitting on the armrest of the same couch, and Demyx and Zexion were sitting on the barstools of the breakfast bar) and couldn't help but realize that in a very short amount of time, everything had been made all right.
Sora had been right all along (something he was making a habit of, much to my annoyance). I had my gang, I had new friends, and I had a family. Sure we were a bunch of fuck ups (Olette still screamed in the night, Zexion was indeed a cutter, we recently met one of Demyx's other personalities, I was still having nightmares about my parents, Riku was still stuck with his father at the moment, and Sora had been waking up in the middle of the night from a nightmare of some sort) but we were all getting better.
Despite everything that happened to me over my lifetime, I was glad it all happened. I had been given my second chance, and I have never been so glad that I listened to Sora.