Gods of Arena
Who Killed Todd? 2

*“You can go ahead, Todd. I will keep my eyes on you and if you make any suspicious move-..... if I just THINK it's suspicious, trust me Todd, I will kill you like a coward"**

"Are you going to deny that?"

"I said that but I didn't do anything", Dan said, quickly. "I swear"

"King has asked to see who did this. He'll soon ask for you and no one will be able to protect you from him", Ana replied. "I am really sorry"

"Please, Ana. You have to believe me. I didn't do this!"

The door opened and Kwei walked in. "Well done, Ana", he said. "So he's probably innocent, after all"

Their eyes darted at him. "How do you mean?", Ana asked.

"I was examining the bodies and I found a bullet in his head", Kwei said. "Whoever did that is definitely among us"

The soldiers pushed him into the hall, through the passage. He glanced left. The fighters were seated for Lunch already. "You are still being watched", a soldier said and took the cuffs from his hands.

All eyes were on him. They definitely knew why he was arrested by the soldiers. Those faces had a glint of fear on them. As much as he wanted to change the perspective they had of him, he loved having the people fear him. "So you killed him?", Romeo asked.

"Really?", Dan muttered and sat down. "I didn't. They found a bullet in his head. It's one of the Larger Figures"

"I almost thought the cameras caught you", Romeo said, staring at a camera at a corner of the hall. "They didn't bother checking the cameras?"

"Apparently, the camera didn't catch it", Dan replied. "At first, they believed one of us- actually, I- can control technology and affect the cameras... Turns out one of the Larger Figures might have turned off the camera while he did the act" "Alright. That's totally weird and definitely not understandable but it's alright"

Dan glanced at Kang's table. It was totally empty. "Have you seen Kang since I was taken?"

"Just once. He walked into the room and I doubt if he's stepped out some then" "Oh", Dan muttered. "Alright"

****

Ana walked in and closed the door behind her immediately. Her eyes met with Dennis's. Dennis could probably sense the accusation in her eyes.... Or probably not. "Is there a problem?", Dennis asked. "That look's not perfectly normal" "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?", he asked, casually. They stared at each other for a short while. He already got the hint. "Wait! You don't think I did that, do you? How is that even possible?"

"It's possible in a lot of ways. They found a bullet in the fighter's head. You are a larger figure, Dennis, and you have a gun"

"You have the gold strap. You could have done it too. What's the accusation for?", Dennis said, loudly, and giggled. "Come on. This is a joke"

"I can choose to make this loud, Dennis. I'm sure you don't want them investigating every move you made-"

"Come on. If they do that, King will know I went into the hall and joined the fighters. He's going to do something"

Ana stepped closer and sat in front of me. "Well, you will have to say everything you know. You were the only that went among the fighters so you could have done that. I did some checking. The same dead fighter, Todd, was the one you hanged out with the most. You might have had a grudge which led to his murder. How about that?"

"First, the person I hanged out with most often wasn't Todd. It was Leon-", Dennis paused, abruptly. "Come to think about it, I forgot my gold strap in the room."

Ana nodded slowly. She didn't think about that, earlier. The fighters had a Shin Zhu with which they fought. That was the main damage on Todd. Whoever killed Todd had either used a Shin Zhu or brutalized his face and body with a knife to make it look like a Shin Zhu fight. "So anyone could have used the gold strap?"

"No. Leon could have used the gold strap"

"Alright", she sighed and stood up. "I will get the soldiers to-"

"No, Ana", he stood up. "Leave it to me. I will get the gold strap from him and make him own up to the crime."

****

"Kang?", Dan called, knocking gently. "Kang, come on. Should I come in?"

"What is it?"

"Well, I think we should talk about this. You don't have to sulk over it for so long", Dan said and pushed the door open.

"I didn't ask you to come in"

"I saved you the stress", Dan replied, walking into the room, and sat on the second bed. "I'm expecting you to do the same thing Romeo did"

"What did Romeo do?", Kang asked, staring up at the ceilings. His eyes were reddened and shadowed.

"When I had the dream about Jae killing me, he told me to use the fear to fuel my strength.... He had fueled his strength with his anger"

"I trusted too much", Kang muttered. "Even Jin trusted too much. This would never have happened. Dea betrayed him"

"Who's Dea?"

Kang raised his back and sat up slowly. "When I got here, the first goal on my mind was to survive. That didn't seem easy, meeting Jae for the first time.... Jin came in and he seemed like my only chance of survival... The goal changed. Jin was planning to get out of here and that became my goal too. Whatever he did and wherever he went, I just had to be there.... When Dea told me Jin had grown strong enough to be set free, I kept that at the back of my mind. I trained harder to get stronger."

"It seems you are back to the start again. The goal is just to survive. Everyone but you is an enemy of you"

A masked Larger Figure walked into the passage, followed by two soldiers. He looked around, shortly. The fighters stood still, staring at him angrily. He ignored them and walked to one of the rooms.

"Stay out here", he ordered the soldiers, silently, and walked into the room. The soldiers held their guns firmly and stared back at the fighters.

It was Leon's room. He jumped up, immediately. "Who are you?"

"No need for an introduction. You already know who I am", he replied and pulled off his mask. He glanced at Dylan, who sat on the second bed, staring blankly. "Dylan?"

"Sorry. The name is Dennis"

"I didn't think the name would be correct either", Leon said and sat on the bed. "What do you want now?"

"The soldiers are waiting outside your door", Dennis said and stepped closer. "I'm here for the gun in your possession. The gold strap I left behind"

"What gold strap? You didn't give anything to me"

"As I said earlier, there are soldiers waiting outside. I'm not here to beg you to return it", Dennis said and stepped back. "I know you killed Todd and the soldiers are here to arrest you. Come in, guys!" Dennis knocked twice on the door and the two soldiers rushed in with their guns. "You don't want to do this, Dennis"

Dylan remained on the bed, calmly staring at the scene. "Seize him!", Dennis ordered.

They held him tightly, cuffing his hands behind him immediately. "I bet you don't realize what you're doing. If you take me out there, I will make sure everyone knows the secret.... Including King" Dennis laughed. "You really think that trick works for me? No, Leon. You have no secret of mine", he said and turned. "Come on"

"You want me to say it to the hearing of the soldiers?", Leon said, loudly. "You really want them to hear me say it? 'cause I bet they'd be seizing you in no time"

Dennis turned immediately. His eyes met with Leon's and they glared at each other. Leon definitely knew something. He had Todd's confidence in him; the only thing Dennis really hated about Todd. "Uncuff his hands and leave the room, guys. Give us a minute"

The soldiers removed the cuffs and walked out. "Sometimes, I wonder how Todd happens to know a lot of things about everyone. It's a great gift. You could get so much out of it", Leon said. "I'm sure you don't want the others to know you ever came here pretending to be a fighter.... Yea, Todd told me before he died. You hated him for figuring out so much. You probably killed him for it"

"Shut up, Leon. You killed him and everyone will know it"

"You can't prove it", Leon said, wearing a wry carefree smile. "And you really don't want everyone to know anything.... 'cause they will know it all. I'm not giving you anything. You can report whatever you want but I'm not going with you" "I will get you, Leon", Dennis nodded. There was nothing he could do, if he wanted to keep the secret safe. "It's not now but I will get you".

He wore his mask, as he turned and walked out the door. The fighters stopped and glared at him again. He tapped the soldiers and followed him, as he walked through the passage.

"So you killed that Todd guy?", Dylan asked, with a confused look of terror all over his face.

"Come on. I didn't do that", Leon replied and dropped on the bed. "They don't actually care who did that. He just wants his gold strap"

"So you have his gold strap with you?"

"Yea, whatever. It's useless but he's not having it"

"You sure you didn't kill that Todd guy?"

"I swear I didn't"