"What are we going to do?" Bailey whispered, shooting furtive looks back at Godrick.

"I know. Can he just quit like that?" Zack threw out his hands, but Bailey gave a hard jerk of her head.

"No. He looks like shit. He can hide from our classmates maybe, but what is he going to tell his mother?" She asked.

Zack's mouth hung open, and he gave a long shake of his head. "I don't know."

"I'll think of something." Godrick croaked from his bed, "I'm smart enough for that." He gave a hard grimace. Kennedy was studying his scars.

She went into the bathroom and began to wet a washcloth. Bailey followed her, looking for band aids or first-aid supplies in the cabinet behind the mirror. Godrick mutely let the two women wash and care for his wounds. Splinter, Camden, and Zack exchanged looks.

"Should we find Sophie? She seemed really upset." Splinter frowned, and he gave a glance over his shoulder.

"What is she going to do? Track Gemma down? We've all been trying to do that anyway." Zack gave a shrug, and he was more annoyed than anything. Sure, now that Bailey was dead, she couldn't be hurt. Yet, that didn't mean others that he cared about couldn't still be harmed.

It just made him want to continue even more.

His phone beeped and it was Maya. She was looking for him. Splinter saw his face, and gave a raised eyebrow.

"You still haven't ended things?" He asked.

"It's been quite the couple days. It's not like I want to stay with her still." Zack said under his breath as so not that Bailey would hear.

"Hey, look. All I'm saying is it's going to make life hell for her, but she'll be more upset if you lead her on. She's that sort of girl." Splinter said.

Remember when you chased her so hard and she wouldn't give you the time of day? Camden was laughing to himself behind his board and Zack gave him a hard glare.

"You should find her now." Splinter advised. Zack contemplated his courses, but finally nodded.

"Yeah. You're right. I agree." He said, "Bailey…I'm going to go and…" He coughed, and Bailey's eyes narrowed in quiet understanding.

He went back to his room, and once he was relaxed, he texted her his location, and waited for her to come to him. He had his laptop on his lap. After a moment's consideration he pulled up Google search and typed 'how long is it okay to break up after your girlfriend's best friend dies?'

As expected, not many results showed up.

"Hey babe. What's up?"

She seemed to come out of nowhere and Zack hastily slammed the top down with an audible slam.

"Homework." He said, deadpanned, and Maya laughed.

"Okay, sure." She rolled her eyes, "You don't have to lie about porn, Zacky. Although you know you don't have to go there to relieve yourself." She said, sitting almost in his lap.

"Right." Zack grumbled, and bit his lip, " So…Maya…"

"How are you?" She asked suddenly, "I mean, you were so understanding about Kennedy yesterday, and I forget that your brother's girlfriend died. I mean, you guys would have been siblings in laws one day."

Zack tried not to let himself wince at the comment, but could not stop himself from saying, "I really miss her."

Maya nodded. "I always knew you didn't hate her. It was just…" She shrugged, "Friendly hatred."

"I don't think that's a thing."

"You must be spending a lot of time with London and Woody and all, I hardly see you around anymore. I get that it must be comfortable around them, though." She said, and Zack couldn't help but feel like she was fishing for something.

"Actually no. I've hardly talked to them since…" He bit his lip, "Since the games began. I've made other friends."

"Oh?" Maya asked, and Zack felt a little hurt that she hadn't noticed his new group. Not that he was an overly sensitive guy, but it wasn't like they snuck around after dark!

"Yeah, you know, Splinter and Sophia." He said, "Splinter's become a really good friend."

It was the first time he really admitted it. He'd always had a best friend type with him, his brother. Cody had best friends in school, Zack had female fans and followers.

"Just friends?" She asked semi-playfully.

"No!" Zack rolled his eyes, the whole 'gay thing' now seeming so much farther away and insignificant; "Although without that…we wouldn't have become friends, so I suppose…"

"Wow. Zack finally sees the value of a friend."

"His family lives in Colorado near the mountains, and he wants me to come visit during winter break." He said with excitement.

"I don't know if I'd be comfortable going to his house though." Maya said uncertainly, and Zack opened his mouth, but closed it. He wasn't going to be a prick and come out with it and say 'You wouldn't be invited because I'm breaking up with you'.

Maya continued, "Besides. I've already planned for us to go and visit my grandparents in Ohio over spring break."

"Oh." Zack crinkled his nose. Maya looked stricken.

"What the heck, Zack? That's not a nice response!" She said.

"What's in Ohio?" He groaned.

"My grandparents!" She reminded sternly, and Zack made another groaning noise, to which Maya leapt up.

"Really?" She demanded hotly. Zack hadn't intended this to end with a fight, but perhaps that was best, so it didn't seem so one-sided. It wasn't like Zack had to act either, he didn't like her just flippantly planning things that he didn't want to do. He told her that.

"Couples do things together Zack!"

"No, couples plan things together. I have no desire Ohio over my spring break."

"Excuse me? These are my grandparents. My family. And you are being disrespectful right now."

"What's disrespectful is you planning an event that's still like seven months away! Who knows what the heck could change? Besides, I don't like being told I'm doing things." He said with a huff.

"You're planning to go to Splinter's already!"

"We're guys," Zack shrugged, "It was a passing comment. He's not holding me to something seven months away and wouldn't get pissy about it if I didn't come." He said, crossing his arms, "So there!"

Perhaps he was goading her a bit, using all his childish tricks he knew, and it was working.

"Oh? Okay? Maybe I don't believe that you're not actually gay because you would clearly spend a winter break with him snuggling up in the snow than snuggling up to your girlfriend!"

"It's probably to hot to snuggle in Ohio anyway!" Zack pointed out, loudly and obnoxiously, "Because who the heck knows anything about Ohio?"

"I do! My family!" She pulled her hair, "Either you agree to come to Ohio with me or…or…" Zack could see freedom in his reach.

"Or what? You're going to break up with me? Over a stupid state?" He asked.

"It's not about the stupid state Zack! It's about family!"

"Fine? What if I wanted to see my family instead?" He asked. Maya gave a sharp bark of laugh.

"Please. What family? You have a brother and two divorced parents. Two dead grandparents, two missing grandparents and no aunts or uncles. Who the hell would you be seeing other than who you'll be seeing all summer and school year?" She asked.

That was a rather low blow for him. First, she was wrong. His grandparents on his mother's side were not missing they just lived in Europe and held little contact with them, other than the occasional birthday card. And he had a few aunts and uncles and even cousins scattered everywhere. It just really showed that perhaps Maya and he were that much more incompatible, considering she never bothered to listen to his family's lives.

"Leave." He said opening the door, "I'm sure as not going to Ohio now. Not with you, not ever. I'm not going anywhere with you!" He said as a final word.

"Fine! I don't want you going anyway." She shrugged arrogantly, and didn't slam the door against his door on the way out by accident. He was pretty sure that the idea of the breakup was there, because Maya wasn't an idiot.

Maya probably assumed he would be in his room wondering what the hell he had just done, but instead he flopped on his bed, and the utmost feeling of relaxation cooled over his whole body. That had been coming to their relationship for quite a long time now. Perhaps it was already the beginning of the end from the start, and they were both too stubborn to see that they weren't made for anything more than a one-night stand.

He felt he should celebrate.

And for everything that he was annoyed with his brother sometimes, really, he felt that his brother deserved a nice night out without the interruption of a dead girlfriend or depressing things. It had been a long time since they'd seen eye to eye, talked as brothers, or done something together. They were previously preparing to separate the most they ever had, but for once, he craved the familiarity of his closet relative.

He went to search for his twin.

Cody was having an intellectual argument with Sophie.

"Ghosts, please." He scoffed, "And here I thought you were a reasonable person, Sophie." He said, the insult biting and acidic.

"You're just being unreasonable and thick-headed." She said calmly, "Cody, if you just believed-,"

"Believing. Like in Santa Clause. Or the tooth-fairy. Believing isn't going to bring my girlfriend back or your best friend."

"Well…" Sophie licked her lips, "Sorta…"

"No." Cody said in a hard sort of way, "Stop being so cruel. Bailey is gone. There's not souls that stick around behind, and it's not funny anymore."

"You think that I think it's funny?" Sophie stepped back, "It's not just your girlfriend, it's my best friend."

"Then perhaps you should be more respectful and not talk so poorly and childishly of her." Cody said with an air of regality, which Sophie shook her head.

"You think you know everything." She said, getting close to him, inches away, "You think that there is nothing compared to the brilliance of Cody Martin. But Bailey was. And there are things that your narrow-minded head could not comprehend." She stalked past him in a huff, and Cody hissed expletives at her retreating figure. The nerve!

Did she not know he would be going to Yale, and then most likely running the Tipton family business because London was a insufficient heiress to run an empire? He was going to do great things within the realms of this world, and not spend his time being so depressed that he literally began to imagine his dead girlfriend. He was seriously thinking about contact the nurse to see if she showed symptoms of insanity or delusions.

He quite literally walked into his brother.

"Hey, wanna grab some lunch?" Zack asked, in a particularly chipper mood.

"You hang out with Sophie, right?" Cody said, and Zack looked a little afraid.

"What happened?"

"She was going on and on about how Gemma, Kennedy, Camden, and Bailey were actually still around as ghosts and waiting for vengeance." He said, and Zack felt his whole body freeze.

"Do you…" He began. Cody threw him an incredulous look.

"Believe it? Hell no! She's crazy! That's what I was going to ask, if you noticed her going mad, because really it's annoying and rude!" He said. He gave his brother a glance, and Zack thought quickly.

"Yeah, none of us really believe her either. Few screws loose, right?" He lied, "Don't take it to heart."

Cody gave a loud snort. "Trust me, I won't be."

Zack didn't bring up that once indeed that had seen a ghost, in New Orleans, and Cody didn't doubt it then, but that was seemingly years ago, and now his brother held a persona of a child desperately trying to be an adult.

"So lunch, you were saying?" Cody prompted.

"Yeah! Lunch. I'm starved."

They found room at one of the less expensive, more relaxed places on the ship. After the waiter came by to get their orders, Cody frowned.

"I thought for sure Maya would be joining us." He said, "You two seem close."

"I sure as hell hope not. I just broke up with her." He said.

Cody studied him. "Thus the happiness. But I don't get it. You two seemed…real?"

"It was more or less a farce and one of us might have been drunk or high off something. It was far from good, and I just realized it. The last straw was when she came around demanding I go with her during my winter break to Ohio to see her grandparents, without asking me what I wanted to do." Zack described animatedly.

"What the heck is there to do in Ohio?" Cody asked, and Zack felt almost moved to tears.

"Cody…you get me." He said, touching his heart, "I knew we were related somehow." He reached out to tenderly, and jokingly, grab his brother's hand.

Cody brushed away his brother's hand that had reached out for his with a light laugh. "Besides. I knew you couldn't handle a real relationship for much longer."

At any other time, perhaps Zack may have been offended. Today, he just smiled and nodded. Their food came, and Zack gave a thoughtful hum.

"I think I grew during it though." He said with a perk of a smile. Cody paused from slathering his plate in ketchup to look up.

"Really?" He asked, and gave a smile, "I mean, that's really good, though!"

"Yeah. I re-grew my balls. I was so whipped when I was dating her!" Zack finished and Cody promptly threw a French fry at his face.

"You're incorrigible Zack." He sighed.

"I don't know the meaning of the word." Zack announced in a manly tone. Cody raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, I seriously don't doubt that." He paused, "Let's be serious, though. I'm the one whose going to marry and create smart children and you…" He shrugged, "Well I remember quite vividly your opinion on marriage. I think once you called it the 'death of all joy'." He chuckled.

Yes, Zack recalled, a year or two previous, he had believed that marriage was the last legal form of slavery, the worst mistake any man could ever make, and yada yada yada. It wasn't like he really changed for Maya, did he? He once saw them together for a period extended past high school, but marriage? The idea was revolting to him, even at the time that the were semi serious dating.

Now bailey, if she were alive…

He couldn't even imagine, because she wasn't. It was all nice and romantic to imagine now he'd want to change and get married to her- outside like she wanted- but even he couldn't know that.

"And?" Zack asked, shaking away his thoughts.

"I guess I knew it wasn't going to last." Cody shrugged, "The more I think about it, and the less surprised I am. And I'm here for you bud. Even if you broke up with her, there are still a couple months of bonding and relationships you shared." Zack found the support nice, but a little creepy at his romantic ideals.

"Thanks." Zack said shortly, "And…" He sighed, "I'm there for you too."

Cody's eyes watered, and Zack berated himself. His brother was a water-bomb ready to blow at the slightest thought of Bailey. What was he doing bringing her up again? But then his brother caught himself, fanned his eyes with his hand a couple times, and composed his face.

"Thanks. I can't imagine going to Yale without her. It was our dream." He shook his head, "I'm a wreck without her."

"You're doing better than I thought you would." Zack said, "if that's any consolation."

Cody let out a low breath. "A few weeks ago, I thought I had it all planned out."

"Mh?" Zack asked as they got up, paid the bill, and started to walk back to their rooms.

"Yeah. Bailey and I would go to college. I would learn business and take over Tipton Industries beginning in a couple months. Bailey would become a nuclear engineer like she always dreamed and we would accomplish great things. You would probably bounce around, go to a school known for it's basketball or football, and get a decent degree but ultimately end up in the military. You would date Maya until you couldn't stand it anymore or until she got wildly popular as a graphic designer for some big company and dump you." Cody gave a frown, "How did all that change?"

"I may still end up in the military, don't count that out just yet." Zack saluted his brother, "Hey- I have a couple cases of beer hidden under my bed for emergencies or celebrations. May as well drink them now that we're going to be docking soon. Want to join? Bring Woody and London and Addison. It will almost be just like before."

Cody looked like he was going to reject the offer then he glanced to Zack's door. "What the hell. Why not? I may as well try my first beer!" He said. Zack lightly punched his brother.

"And this is why I never have to worry about telling you where I keep my drinks."

Zack didn't even think about inviting Splinter or anyone else in that moment. He wanted it to just be like before, free of ghosts and complications. He figured it was the last time he'd be with these people again, and didn't want to complicate it. No matter, Splinter was onto something.

He was alone when it all begun to make sense. Bailey was off looking for Sophie, which may be awhile. Splinter knew she had recently switched her reading spot since people clearly found her there. Camden and Kennedy were probably off doing something romantic or crude, neither of which Splinter wanted to think about. Reina was in her room resting. He figured that Zack must have broken up with Maya by now, almost three hours later, and was probably partying with Bailey in joyous pleasure, and he wasn't offended to not be invited.

To be honest, it was a quiet moment in his room of which he had not felt in a couple weeks. With two days left until they docked, he looked at his unruly closet and took the assumption this may be his only free-time left to pack. He pulled out his suitcase and looked at his closet. He may as well begin with the items that were still nicely packed at the bottom of the closet- underwear, socks, and his 'fancy clothes' his foster mother insisted he bring in case he meet a girl or decide to go to prom.

Splinter had made the decision not to attend, and spent it eating room service and watching movies, which to him was so much better spent.

As he was scooping out these items, his fingers touched something shaped like a glass bottle that he was fairly sure that he didn't put there to begin with. He pulled it out, and dropped it on the floor.

It was the wine bottle that had supposedly been drank by Kennedy and Reina, expect here it was perfect and still un-opened. Was he just imagining he had given it to her? Of course not. He had been the one to put the note on, and he was a bit giddy and over-excited, so perhaps something slipped his perception. He knew that he had to find Reina.

He marched down to her room, and banged on her door until she opened. She saw the bottle in his hand, and her eyes widened.

"What the hell is that." She asked, fear tinting her voice.

"The bottle I was supposed to give you. Where are they keeping the evidence for Kennedy's murder?" He asked, and Reina had thrown on clothes before he finished his sentence.

"Mosby's office. Kennedy told me." She said, and winced in the light, "That explains why it was poisoned. You think it was a replica?" She asked.

"I don't think it was the exact same brand, considering this is from Italy." He scoffed, "How could I have not seen it?" He asked.

"Love." Reina replied with a little chuckle, shaking her head, "Lucky for you, I am a master at picking locks." She announced proudly, and pulled two bobby pins from her hair.

He didn't believe her, until he heard the telltale click of the door as it swung open.

It wasn't hard to see where Mosby was keeping it, because it was marked in red lettering in a box. Clearly he thought that the killer (or snooping children) wouldn't be in his office to interfere. He may have been right about the killer, but Splinter was here for a different reason.

The bottle lay at the bottom, along with pictures and other samples from Kennedy's room.

Reina took the real bottle from Splinter, and he pulled on a pair of gloves from his back pocket, and lifted the fake out.

Now that he examined it, the label was a darn good representation of the real one. Unluckily, the label had been fairly abstract with simple colors and patterns, making the fake convincing from afar. The bottle was not exactly the right color in glass, which one would only notice when the two were put side by side, and the foil on top was something anyone could buy from a drugstore.

Reina was the one who found the most interesting point though. "Look. This was the real one you gave her. The note is still a little bit on it, and there's residue from where you taped it." She said, lifting the real one.

"Which means they were switched out after I gifted it." Splinter realized, looking at Reina, "I knew that I would have noticed!" He said with a snap of his fingers.

"Which means that the killer really was going for Kennedy…" Reina said in a hurt tone.

"Whose had access to Kennedy's room?" Splinter asked, and Reina shrugged.

"I'm not her roommate. Besides, she has a ton of girlfriends and isn't the most loyal dater. She has a lot of men in there too." Reina winced.

Splinter stole a piece of pen and paper from Mosby's desk, sat against the back, and begun to make a list of all the evidence or clues they had that weren't fitting together.

"I need to find Camden and ask him about his death again…" Splinter murmured to himself, "Do you want to come?" He asked. Reina was shaking.

"As fun as this is…I'm tired still, and there's a little to much…excitement for one day." She said, and he could tell that this was terrifying news to her, and didn't blame her.

"Okay. Rest well, Reina." He said, and they relocked Mosby's room, replacing the fake bottle back where they found it.

He found his door unlocked and slightly ajar when he came upon his room. He assumed it to be Sophie, because she spent more time than anyone else in his room, and he had given her Camden's room key. Did he maybe have a little thing for Sophie? Perhaps.

"Yo Sophie, you left the door open. Don't want just anyone walking in here." He jived as he swung the door open. But it wasn't Sophie. It wasn't anyone, actually. His room was torn to bits.

No, it was just his closet. He looked at the wine in his hand. The killer had come back for the one piece that would ruin her, and found it gone. A chill ran down his spine. She knew he had it; and now he wasn't safe. Where could he go? Mosby? Yeah, right. The safest option for him was to figure this out tonight, for his own safety and the safety of his friends.

He set the wine bottle on his desk, and took out the piece of paper and flattened out the folds he had made and stared at it, waiting for inspiration.

Perfume

Shirt

Camden's Death

Assassin

Wine

This girl was careful and precise. Four deaths, hardly four clues. She was careful and covered her tracks with precision. They hadn't really ever figured out the perfume thing, but that was for sure a hotspot, because Godrick hadn't been indicating any other clues when he was doing reconnaissance.

Godrick had relinquished the notebook that he'd been working out of, stating that for his own safety, Splinter should stop trying but nevertheless gave what he'd collected.

There were only a few girls left on the list of Zack's girlfriends that Godrick hadn't tracked down yet. He knew most of them vaguely, but none enough to track down right now. Except Maya, but he didn't think she would want to be bothered right now.

He first found Sophie, back in her original corner where she'd once hid.

"Haven't seen you all day." He said. She glanced up.

"Gemma wouldn't do something like that. She doesn't have it in her." She said, "But it's just going to be like her death all over again…"

"I don't know if she did or didn't, but I need you to do something." He said, being purposely vague. He would do this as much by himself as he could, because he didn't want anyone else to go down with him if he failed. This time, a life wouldn't be spared.

Sophie, intrigued, followed Splinter to exactly where he knew Camden would be with Kennedy. A janitor's closet.

How did he know? He'd made out with Kennedy here, and she told him that's where she and Camden used to go, and it gave her a rush of adrenaline. Kennedy wasn't the most honest or loyal girl, but she was attractive and a little manipulative, but that was all in the past. Splinter knocked, and gave them a minuet to adjust themselves.

Camden glared at Splinter meaningfully.

"I've almost got it." Splinter announced, "But there's some things I need to follow up on." He pulled a notebook and a couple pens from his bag, "Camden, I need you to write down exactly what happened the night you died- everything you remember and everything you remember seeing yourself as after. You saw it and then disappeared for a bit before scaring the living hell out of me, right?"

That was satisfying.

Camden agreed, but then he frowned, and wrote: All of it? Everything? Splinter could almost hear his whining. If he could simply talk, it would take maybe five minuets. It was strenuous asking him to write it all out, every last detail, but Splinter nodded.

"It may bring everything together." He nodded, "Sophie will sit here with you so you stay solid enough to write it in there. I'm going to ask someone else something."

Sophie gave a minor complaint, but opened her book. "Fine. You owe us one. I don't like being left in the dark."

"If I figure it all out, we'll all know. The whole ship will know." He assured.

He left the two ghosts and Sophie to find Reina. She, thankfully, was not sleeping but watching an episode of something on her laptop. Addison was out, she said, with Woody. It wasn't much of a bother to him. Addison wasn't the brightest bulb in the bunch, and if he spoke carefully in front of her, he was quite positive that she wouldn't have any idea about what he was talking about.

He immediately went to her closet, and found her shirts neatly stacked. "Uh…?" Reina growled with a raised eyebrow.

"This shirt." Splinter caught the bottom of the polo he knew she had, and pulled it carefully from the pile. He went and sat next to Reina's reclined figure, and she paused and set the laptop down.

"That shirt." She repeated, looking at Splinter for enlightenment.

"The day that Gemma died, Zack and I snuck into her room right after they found her. We found the perfume, and we found this." He pulled out the little slip of fabric from his wallet that he'd carried on him since that day. He turned the shirt around until he found the place where the insignia had once been, but carefully mended by Cody, "I don't think ti was you in Gemmas room that day." He said.

Reina shook her head. "That shirt re-appeared only recently." She said softly, "I wore it to a girl's night, and things often get stolen accidentally. Usually they show back up in people's suitcases or purses the next time people realize that it's not theirs. I was a little miffed it was ripped, though." She recalled.

"And any idea who could have taken it?" He asked.

"I never noticed any of my friends wearing it. I mean, it's a pretty common shirt that nearly all girls have. I just know it's mine because of this." She flipped the shirt over, and across the bottom seam in tiny letters was her initials in fine calligraphy sewing, "My mom's doing. She's artsy like that, and paranoid about people taking my stuff."

"Can you list for me the girls at the girls night previous to your shirt returning?" Splinter asked, taking out his pen and paper- previously Godrick's little notebook.

"Me, Kennedy, Addison, London-she doesn't usually attend, but she was there for some reason, Maya, Valisa, Tiffany, Bernadette, and Gemma." She listed, "The next time, everyone was there, besides London. Oh and Maya. She stopped by for just the beginning, because she had something going on."

"Thank you." Splinter said, closing the book, "You've been very helpful." He assured. He glanced at the screen, "You'll love the end of that episode." He chuckled. Reina gave a tentative smile.

"The good guys win, right?" She asked a little teasingly. Splinter nodded.

"Yeah. They always do."

He went back to the closet, where a very gruff Camden was waiting with a couple filled pages of notebook. "Sophie left because he was finished. Can you please leave now?" Kennedy asked pointedly.

I'll be in tonight to see if you have it figured out or not.

Camden's note was more polite. He nodded, and took everything back to his room.

Camden's notes were detailed, even after all this time, because who could forget how they died? He had come home angrily after the whole thing about Splinter and Kennedy. He'd confronted her, and she had denied everything, and it made him doubt if Splinter had been telling the truth. When he came to his room, he saw the door wide open and thought maybe the cleaners were late or Splinter had left it open carelessly. He was tired and knew he had a major test tomorrow, so he decided to go to bed early. The person, which now he realized was clearly a girl, jumped him from behind. They were wearing a pair of baggy sweatpants and a sweater to hide the curves, and a mask with a lump on the side, which now he decided was her hair. She had gloves on, and yet she saw sloppy, but went right to cutting him to try to weaken him. The toe had been an accident, and she'd taken it assumedly after he died, because Splinter had never found it (thankfully) in his room. She'd seen Splinter's arrows against the door and he wasn't sure if it was to blame Splinter, or because the knife had been knocked under a bed. He was already loosing a lot of blood because of the arrow embedded in his neck, when she'd taken the tie from around his neck and dragged him to the closet. He'd been to weak to do anything, and when he woke up, he was dead hanging there, just as Splinter had found him.

He made a note at the bottom, commenting how she'd said (in a deep garbled tone) how she was doing this for Zack and Splinter twice, but Zack's name came first.

Splinter leaned back on the chair, and he thought of Bailey's death. The message on the arm. The killer was someone who was competitive, or felt like they were competing for something. He wasn't throwing out mental insanity and the idea that this really was a whole big game, but he assumed it was meant to be symbolic- the person felt like she was competing for something, for someone.

Splinter sized the lists of the perfume and the shirt and compared them. He thought of something Cody had talked about earlier, about what he was going to do when he grew up, and even back further, how once Gemma had shown him the list of what everyone said they wanted to do as their careers in the future.

He thought of motives for killing the four ghosts, and everything made sense.

He grabbed his phone, and texted Zack, and everyone else. This wasn't something you said over text message. This was something everyone needed to hear in person.

Back in Zack's room, the party was just finishing. Zack felt pleased with himself for a final hurrah before they all docked. They had even Skyped Marcus from wherever he was now, all big and successful, and he'd talked for an hour with London alone. Now, everyone was just sitting in a circle, half-drunk, and talking with each other which usually ended in slap-happy laughter.

Half an hour later, they were still doing just that. It was nearly two AM, and there was a knock on the door. Zack got up, assuming it to be Mosby, but was going to use his suave words and invite his sometimes friend for a drink with them. That's what people did with cops, right? Instead, he opened to find Maya. He expected a slap, perhaps, but not a kiss.

"What?" he gaped, "It's two AM."

"And I couldn't sleep without saying this, Zacky. I'm sorry. I was wrong. We'll decide together where we want to go, you won't go to Splinter's and I wont go to Ohio."

Zack stood, flabbergasted, as she continued, "And I know maybe you still need time to realize that I forgive you, and we can move on."

"Oh no, no." He shook his head, a little sloppily, "There's no 'we'. We broke up." He said, motioning between them. She gave a smile.

"We were in the midst of a fight. I know you didn't mean that. We'll overcome." She said positively, and kissed him on the cheek, "I should go. Goodnight baby." She said and scurried the other way. Zack slammed the door with an audible bang.

"Tell a girl we're breaking up, she thinks you were just 'angry'." He shook his head, "Dammit." He didn't want to go through this again, but he wasn't going to risk his neck and go track her down at this hour, so tomorrow he'd have to sit down and have a serious talk with her.

He started ending the party, as he was a little tired and Bailey had suddenly appeared through the wall (looking beautiful of course) and everyone had left within the half-hour.

He turned to ask Bailey something sexy, but her eyes were glued to the phone.

It was a text from Splinter. Dude I figured it out, but I need to tell you first, just you. Your clues put it all together. Meet me in the spot.

"Should I go with?" Bailey asked, "He sent that not long ago." She noted the time, "Fifteen minuets."

Zack contemplated things. "No." He sighed, shaking his head, "I think when he meant alone, he was serious. We'll all know soon enough, right?" He kissed her head, and made the careful journey down to the bathroom and opened the door.

He didn't speak as he made his way down, and at first didn't see Splinter in the dark. All the lights were off, and he wondered if he misread their 'spot'. Then, he saw a shadow to his left out of the corner of his eye.

He found the light switch with a growing dread, and somewhere deep inside of him, Zack already knew what he would find. And he was tired of it. He was done.

Because Splinter was lying on the ground, and in front of him in chalk lay the words 'He didn't have a target, but you could be my next.' Next to the words was a crumpled sheet of paper, with a wide red 'X' drawn through it. Underneath the 'x' he saw the instructions to the assassin game with he bolded words indicating the target to be Jonas S. Daniels.

Zack had never questioned Splinter on his real name, honestly because he thought there wasn't one, but in reality, he knew there had to be something. And he knew Jonas was Splinter, and the 'x' meant that this person was eliminated from the fucked up game.

"Jonas?" Zack called, as if saying his real name would suddenly spur him to life again, or his ghost. He turned Splinter over. He almost had no signs of his death on him, his flesh was still warm and face not quite too pale, except for the growing pile of blood from a wound over his heart.

"Dude, you gotta wake up." Zack said, his voice clogging, "C'mon, please. You know who it is. You gotta tell me. You have to. So I can kill her for you. For Bailey." He pulled Splinter's head into his lap, "Dude…" He spat out painfully, "Please. Splinter, where are you?" He looked around.

His whole body was numb. It was almost worse than when Bailey died, because she was there the whole time. Now, there was the feeling of emptiness, of nothing left of Splinter anywhere.

Zack sat there all night, and didn't sleep at all. He didn't move Splinter's head from where he had held it, or wipe away the blood that was turning brown and crusty underneath his nails. He waited all night for Splinter's ghost to appear, but it did not.

That's when Zack realized he didn't want the ghost for revenge, he wanted the ghost because he wanted his best friend back. And the rebellion to find this person, to bring justice that Splinter had spearheaded the whole time, died.

Does anyone know now who the killer is? If you don't, you'll just have to wait for the last chapter!