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The Other Plan	By : sashocirrione Category: Death Note > Yaoi-Male/Male Views: 2817 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 1-The Other Plan
- 2-Elevator
- 3-Script
- 4-Kitty
- 5-Video
- 6-Misa
- 7-Twist
- 8-Bride
- 9-Near
- 10-Exchange
- 11-SPK
- 12-Lies
- 13-Sacrifice
- 14-Names
- 15-Epilogue
- 10
- 11
- 12
CHAPTER 11: SPK

Mello felt so hot inside, practically burning from pent up rage. He could almost imagine steam coming out of his ears.

Near, you asshole. Why did you give Kira any warning at all? Why?

Mello's voice was already raw from shouting at Near, that interfering little pipsqueak who thought he knew better. Mello didn't want to give Near the slight victory of yelling pointlessly until he lost his voice, so he was quiet, for now.

Mello simply glared out at the large room he was in, looking at nobody and nothing in particular, but making sure his disapproval was plastered on his face. His gaze slid across the four people present without sticking, instead studying the computer screens and equipment covering every wall up to the ceiling, though he periodically glared through the gaps in Near's constructed walls of tarot cards to see the pajama-clad boy crouched there.

Boy, because that's what he was. He was eighteen, yes, but he was far more childish than L had ever been, and he looked like he'd hardly aged a year in the years since Mello had last seen him. Near didn't deserve to be called anything other than a boy, a child.

A small, pale hand paused the process of stacking. Without turning around, still with his back to most of the people in the room, Near said, "Release the restraints from Mello's legs. Leave the straightjacket on."

Gevanni said, "Are you sure? Mello is more unreliable than the men you fired at his suggestion."

"Unreliable according to your predictions," Near said, "not mine. I know Mello well enough to believe the present risks are at acceptable levels. Besides, Mello provided ample proof that those men were selling information about the SPK to him. They were a far greater risk."

Heh. They're lucky that the sorts of trials they have will be secret, or otherwise Kira would now be killing them for being willing to betray their employer for money. If Halle weren't collaborating with me purely because she thought it would catch Kira better, she'd be fired as well. I wonder if she's too angry to help me again.

Gevanni said, "He's also technically a rapist. If he gets out of the straightjacket, he could attack any of us."

Though Gevanni had said, "any of us," Mello could tell from where Gevanni's eyes lingered that he primarily meant Near.

Mello spat out, "I would never do that to Near, you fucker!"

His voice ached. It was incredibly close to giving out altogether, and he would not allow Near that satisfaction. Near simply wasn't worth the effort.

Halle said, "He is a rapist. Furthermore, he's a suicidal rapist, and since we've lost the snitches and also sent away the men Mello proved as having names that are too easily found out, this team is not equipped to deal with all of the problems he could create. Would he be better in custody somewhere else? Perhaps he wanted to pare this team down to just four people."

Rester said, "If he's not reliable, then that's all the more reason to keep watch over him personally. Besides, he could be lying about not knowing the names of those who are left. He may know some of our real names."

Near stopped stacking and instead twirled a finger in his hair as he said, "There are three reasons why I would not call Mello a rapist. The first reason is that he has not yet been convicted, and he won't be convicted regardless of what happens until after we're done. We can't possibly hand Mello over to law enforcement while the Kira case is ongoing, or Kira would kill him that way and negate most of the progress we've made."

Mello couldn't hold in his outburst.

"That's bullshit logic, Near! You were taught better than that. The evidence is clear, and I've confessed. I raped Light Yagami. See?"

The effort cost him a coughing fit, but Near ignored the sounds and continued talking.

"The second reason is that Mello could be considered to be operating under the same special powers the American president has granted to us. He is a rogue ally, but still an ally. We have been given the power to kill in needful situations, and what Mello did, although serious, was less than killing. If it truly does end up bringing us crucial clues, and if his actions were brought to the attention of our superiors, he would likely be given that allowance."

Mello gritted his teeth at the continued illogic of Near's reasoning.

Halle said, "And the third reason?"

"It is extremely likely," Near said, "that if put on trial he would be judged not guilty by reason of insanity."

At that statement, Near turned to glance over his shoulder and at seeing the hollow, blank look in Near's eyes, Mello was inflamed.

"You little shithead! You fucker! You fucker, fucker, fuck-"

Mello's voice cracked. His throat felt as if it were bleeding inside, but he took a deep breath and continued shouting, hardly able to get an entire word out, but he kept going with the obscenities anyway, his voice getting raspy and quieter until at last it was gone and he was simply breathing and feeling the sweat running down his back.

Near got to his feet with a satisfied smirk barely visible on his face. He looked so similar to L that Mello wanted to kill him for being such a copycat. Mello could only console himself with the thought that Near had gotten the posture wrong. Instead of L's slump, Near had arms that hung in a weirdly listless posture whenever he wasn't curling a finger in his hair or holding a toy.

Near said, "Now that Mello has lost his voice, go ahead and release his legs. Mello won't attack us because it isn't in his interests to do so at this time."

Mello knew it was true; it was in his best interests to remain cooperative. Still, as Rester approached to untie his legs and began working at the ropes, he couldn't stop his mind from going over various plans of how to disable everyone in the room. He only needed to knock one of Near's employees to the ground and use his feet to draw that employee's gun and aim it, taking everyone hostage.

But all of them had extensive combat training and knew exactly how to act in a hostage situation, and there were other guns in the room as well.

It was useless anyway. It was best to stay in place in case Light Yagami killed him, so Near would certainly have the evidence with no trouble involved in obtaining it.

Though Near only thought he was in charge. In reality, Near was just a small cog in the larger workings of Mello's master plan, no matter what Near tried to tell himself about it. When Light Yagami was caught, it would be because of what Mello set in motion, not Near. Near was a pawn, an assistant who was merely adding a few completing strokes to a master's great painting.

With a few last tugs, Mello's legs were free. He stumbled upright, a little wobbly, wanting to do something. He was restless, arms chafing against the snugness of the straightjacket. Waiting to die was a bitch.

Near said, "Mr. Gevanni, please escort him to the cafeteria and spoon-feed him."

Following Gevanni was easy. It wasn't so easy to sit there while the agent fed Mello like a baby, but Mello endured it. He had to. At the end, he even managed to nod gratefully after Gevanni said, "Near told me you'd appreciate ending the meal with chocolate."

He really wanted two or three bars, but that one he got did go down very well, a smooth comfort for his mouth and throat while he waited for the death that could strike quite soon, though it was probably a few days away.

That night, he was finally let out of the straightjacket when he was locked into a small, cell-like, very plain room. He rubbed everywhere he was stiff and sore, then stretched out on the bed and tried to calculate how long it would be until Near made his move.

Hours later, he was startled awake by the light coming on. Near was half-crouched in a chair next to his bed, one foot on the seat and the other on the floor. As usual, that finger was busily circling a single lock of hair.

"What do you have to say, Near?"

Mello's voice still felt slightly sore, but at least it was back. He could pretend he'd never lost it.

Near fished a folded sheet of paper from his pajama shirt's pocket and handed it to Mello.

As Mello unfolded it, Near said, "We have been communicating with the Japanese investigation team. They have sent us a copy of a sheet of paper that the real L's hired thief retrieved from the Yotsuba corporation's shredders years ago and taped back together. It is a list of a number of limitations on Kira's power that the Yotsuba group discovered, such as being unable to specify a time of death more than twenty-three days in the future."

Mello's eyes scanned the simple statements, quickly memorizing them for later use.

"Rules?"

"Yes, though I am sure there are other rules as well. For example, none of the rules that are written in the murder notebook are on the Yotsuba sheet of paper or vice versa."

Mello growled, "That's because Higuchi didn't want the others to realize Kira's power came from a notebook or from writing, dumbass. Also, the two rules written on the inside of the back cover are so convenient that I wonder if they are actually real, or if someone just wrote them there."

Near said, "I had already deduced those things. The 13-day rule is currently being tested by watching those of your men who wrote in the notebook and are still alive. In addition, I have already confirmed that a piece of paper removed from the murder notebook works just as well as the intact notebook, a fact which is not written in either set of rules."

"I proved that before, you little shit!"

"Confirmation is still necessary."

Mello stared at Near, trying to read his body language, to tell from the tilt of his head and his blank stare and the movements of his restless fingers whether now was the right time. In a few moments he was almost sure of it.

"Near, you didn't come here to talk about these things. You came here to see what I'd say off the record. You turned off the surveillance, didn't you?"

After a pause, Near said, "Yes."

Instantly, Mello had launched himself from the bed at Near. It was a simple matter to clamp a hand firmly across Near's mouth in case the room wasn't soundproof, and to wrestle his lightweight form onto the bed and tie him up with the bed sheets. Near's eyes went very wide during the process, but he barely struggled.

Mello straddled Near on the bed, waiting for the door to burst open and Near's employees to attempt a rescue.

When it didn't happen, Mello let out a low chuckle and said, "It's true then, we're all alone."

Although Near's eyes were as blank as Mello had ever seen them, almost completely dead of any emotion, he could feel the body underneath him trembling slightly. Near had probably never faced a more dangerous situation in his life. It was enough to make a disgusting sort of pity twist in Mello's stomach.

Just because Near really was that pathetic, to need to be reassured like a little kid, Mello said, "Near, don't be afraid. The only person I want to rape is Light Yagami. Now, we're just going to talk. If you scream, I'll hurt you."

Mello removed his hand.

Near blinked slowly a few times and then said, in an almost normal voice, "I assume you want to make a deal off-camera?"

"Of course I do, Near. You decided to derail my perfect plan."

"I did so only slightly, and this way saves the lives of at least Soichiro Yagami, Touta Matsuda, Kanzo Mogi-"

"Near," Mello said, "compared to Kira's thousands, a few deaths more or less doesn't matter either way. Besides, you don't care about those people in the slightest. They're complete strangers. You're not soft or sentimental. The important thing is catching Kira, and you know it. If Kira risks the lives of those closest to him as he goes down, it's regrettable but merely the cost of doing business."

"I can guess what you want, Mello. You want to die so you can have your meaningless sacrifice and believe you're doing what L would do."

"Near, you're just so pissed I 'm better than you that you've decided to sabotage a plan that was guaranteed to catch Kira. Admit it."

Mello twisted the bed sheets a little tighter around Near's wrists, producing red marks. Near hissed but otherwise had no reaction. Mello wanted a real reaction, a big one. That was the worst thing about Near, his cold, robot-like mannerisms.

Near said, "You'll hurt me if I don't agree. How immature of you, Mello."

"Whatever. L was childish too, you know. Now, let me tell you the new plan. You're going to tell Light Yagami and his team that I escaped, stealing the notebook in the process. It'll be the perfect bait. He won't be able to resist it, even with the risk. Hell, he probably won't be able to even wait very long. He would need to control me into giving his precious notebook back before anything worse happens. If I can't perform the controlled actions, I'll die of a heart attack. Either way, there will be absolute proof when I die that Light Yagami and nobody else is Kira."

"Technically, the evidence you've gathered could also be used to say that Sayu Yagami is Kira."

He's being deliberately difficult. Near isn't this stupid.

Mello replied, "Near, I'm sure you've already taken measures to make sure that Sayu Yagami will never have access to that video, so that when I die it will clearly be a result of Light showing my videotaped face to the second Kira."

"We still don't know how the second Kira kills with only a face. Nothing about it is said in any of the rules we've found."

Mello said, "Ask the task force. I bet they know more than they've told you so far."

After a short hesitation, Near spoke in a cold, even voice.

"What will you do if I don't cooperate with your new plan?"

"I think you will. However, if you don't, then I'll just have to make it come true myself. I'll manage to steal the notebook and disappear, and I will make sure that knowledge of this situation is leaked to Kira. The end result will be exactly the same, except that it'll be more trouble for you. You have the choice whether to make this easy, or make it difficult."

Near blinked three times slowly, and then said something Mello had never expected to hear from Near.

"What about your immortal soul, Mello? Don't you want to go to heaven? Suicide is a mortal sin, so you would never get a chance to repent and therefore you would end up in hell."

Mello snarled, "Don't pretend to respect my beliefs. You have no idea what it's like to have faith, no concept at all. You don't understand the first thing about religion."

I'm going to hell anyway. I may as well go out with a bang.

After a moment, Mello spoke again, more quietly.

"Besides, only an idiot like you would classify what I'm doing as suicide. Putting yourself in danger in order to save others is never suicide, even if the chance of dying is nearly one hundred percent. Would you say it had been suicide for a firefighter who had rushed into a collapsing building to save a trapped child, but died in the process?"

Without waiting for an answer, Mello squeezed Near's wrists again and said, "If you have any heart in you, you'll make sure my last days are filled with plenty of chocolate. I don't care if you have Gevanni spoon-feeding me, as long as-"

An alarm began to sound.

Near whispered, "The safe."

With a single yank at the knotted sheets to release Near's hands (the little fucker could untie his feet himself on his own time) Mello jumped from the bed. A few moments later, he had the door open. As he'd guessed, Near hadn't locked it, obviously to give himself a way out.

Mello crept down the semi-dark hallway in the direction of the sound, hearing it get steadily louder as he approached. He kept his head down and his hands up as his eyes scanned everywhere, hyper-alert and mindful of the fact that one of Near's underlings could appear and decide to shoot him at any time.

It didn't look good for him to be loose and Near missing. They could easily panic and try a 'shoot first, ask questions later' tactic, which would waste so much time and effort.

When he reached the main investigation room and tried to stick his head around the corner, a person suddenly tumbled over him in an elegant flip, so fast he couldn't tell who it was, and then cold steel was being pressed just behind his ear.

Halle's voice said, "Stop right there, Mello."

Mello didn't dare turn his head, but he made sure his hands were held high and said, "It wasn't me. If Kira is attacking this place, if any of you messed-"

From inside the room, Rester's voice said, "Bring him around the corner. We'll cuff him here. Something has happened to the safe."

Halle's hand on his shoulder and her gun both pushed him forward with a sure pressure, steering him around the corner and then pushing down, insisting that he sit in a chair.

Mello obeyed, and felt himself being cuffed and tied in place as he watched Rester watch the safe.

Nothing seemed amiss except for the blaring alarm. Everything was exactly the same as it had been the last time Mello had been in the room, except that Near's tarot-card walls and towers were gone.

A few moments later, Gevanni entered, escorting Near and with his gun drawn. He said, "As far as I can tell, nobody is tapping into our surveillance system and there have been no breaches."

Near said, "Well, it is obvious that something disturbed the safe."

There was a tense feeling in the room, with all of Near's underlings with their guns out but not sure quite where to point them, wavering.

And then Near went forward in his characteristic duck-like walk, feet turned a little outwards, and crawled into a chair in front of the nearest computer. He turned it on. Quickly, all the screens in the room filled with the same image: the inside of the safe, with the notebook moving by itself, hopping in place, smacking itself against the safe ceiling and then dropping to the floor. There were scratches in the metal on the inside of the safe, and as they all watched, more scratches appeared.

What is this? Kira is trying to get his notebook back by supernatural means? Or is something else happening?

In a musing voice, Gevanni said, "It jumps by itself, and it gouges metal without directly touching it."

It's a notebook that kills people. What do you expect? There's something oddly consistent about those marks, though.

Mello said, "Near, zoom in on the scratches."

Near obeyed, and when Mello got a better look, he was sure of it. But Near voiced Mello's deduction before Mello could.

"It's an invisible creature. The gouges were all made by the same sort of appendage."

Gevanni said, "You mean there's a creature living inside the notebook, and it's trying to escape?"

Halle said, "Years ago, the second Kira's video mentioned a shinigami. That has to be it, right?"

If this thing is intelligent, it can't be on Kira's side, or it would have already helped Kira destroy all his enemies. Is it Kira's prisoner? If the shinigami talks, we could learn things that would be extremely useful.

Mello said, "Shinigami, tell us what you want, and we won't hurt you. We might even help you."

All the screens showed the notebook suddenly stilled. New scratches no longer appeared.

Near said, "Mr. Shinigami, if you can scratch, you can write. Communicate with us."

Seconds later, a pen jumped from a nearby countertop and flew through the air to a stack of reports. The stack flipped over, some spilling onto the floor, and the pen moved across the backside of one flipped-over report, writing something that Mello couldn't see.

Near rolled his chair close to the proceedings, and when the pen had stopped writing, Near said, "Mr. Sidoh, that is not acceptable, for any unauthorized persons to access the notebook. Especially not any of those men we have imprisoned below."

Sidoh, is it? And Sidoh doesn't want to help Kira; he instead wants to help my former mafia cronies?

Halle, Rester and Near gradually drew closer, their movements cautious, and as they gathered around the stack of reports they had an entire half-private conversation with the wielder of the floating pen. Mello could only catch the spoken parts and had to deduce the rest. He could tell it was some kind of dispute about a shinigami stealing a notebook that another shinigami had dropped. Sidoh currently had no ability to kill people, and he was very concerned about getting his notebook back so he could steal years for himself from the lives of humans.

There was also something about an ownership deal, a pact between a shinigami and a human. Sidoh apparently was claiming that he couldn't become visible until the owner touched the notebook once more, and then after that happened any humans who touched the notebook would be able to see and hear him directly.

But, apparently, the owner could verbally give up ownership or die, and then any human who was touching the notebook at the time would become the new owner.

That provoked a long discussion about what to do with the ownership deal. If nobody owned it, Sidoh could simply take it and leave. The notebook apparently would become incorporeal in that case and could simply be taken through the wall of the safe.

Though Near didn't mention anything about it, Mello was sure that Near had already thought of exactly the problem that Mello himself had thought of: why hadn't the stupid shinigami just gone to the basement, threatened the owner into giving up ownership, and then grabbed the notebook and left? Sidoh was obviously an idiot for not doing that first, but there was no telling when Sidoh might suddenly think of that tactic.

Mello was certain Near was thinking the same thing. It was too obvious. Perhaps everyone else was thinking it too. It was pretty damn clear that ownership needed to be transferred to someone other than an unstable criminal, someone more convenient.

Near came up with a bogus reason to transfer ownership to someone in the SPK, and the shinigami seemed to accept it perfectly.

Then Near said, "Just in case the murder notebook has some insidious power to take over its owner's mind and corrupt that person, we want to give ownership to the one of us who is the least likely to be able to successfully steal it when opposed by the others."

At the same moment, Halle and Gevanni both said, "Rester."

To his credit, Rester didn't look offended but simply nodded. A few minutes later, the transfer was done. Rester was shaking in his shoes, looking at empty space. One by one, the others touched the notebook too and they all had their gasps of surprise, their hands hovering nervously over their gun holsters.

Up until that point, everyone had seemed to almost forget that Mello was still in the room, but then Near gave an order.

"Commander Rester, please tap Mello with the notebook."

With only a slight grimace as if he was thinking of voicing opposition, Rester obeyed, and there was suddenly a thing standing there. Mello's eyes were glued to it.

Holy shit!

Sidoh was tall, with a pumpkin-shaped head covered in bandages and a body swathed in layers upon layers of tattered robes. Insect-like arms protruded from the depths of those robes and clicked against each other. Sidoh looked... scared, meek, with a deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face.

May as well try for the big stuff.

Mello said, "Sidoh, who is Kira?"

Instead of answering, Sidoh retreated towards one wall, pulling a scroll out of his robes as he turned his back on everyone. Using his body to mostly block sight of what he was doing, he unrolled it, peered at it, and then quickly rolled it up again.

Mello said, "Let me see that!"

"It isn't allowed for humans."

Sidoh tucked the scroll deep into the folds of his tattered clothing.

Sidoh said, "I have no idea who Kira is."

"Yes," Mello said, "you do. Otherwise there wouldn't have been any hesitation. What did you look at on that scroll?"

The thing had a strange face and a strange voice, and yet Mello thought he could read the shinigami well enough to tell that it was terrified at being asked that question.

Sidoh repeated, "I have no idea who Kira is."

A sudden inspiration came to Mello, and he said, "That scroll, it's a list of orders, isn't it? You have a purpose, a mission. Tell us the truth or it won't go well for you. You'll die without our help. We could keep the notebook from you until you're dead."

"Please don't do that," Sidoh said.

What a spineless pussy. And yet everyone else here is too scared of Sidoh to push him around.

Mello gave Sidoh his most terrifying glare. Sidoh began fidgeting, and then suddenly blurted out, "I can't help you. It's a list of rules but I can't let you read the list or I'll die. There are many things I cannot tell you or it would break a rule and I'd die."

"Are those rules that Kira made for you?"

"No, they're rules that all shinigami have to follow."

"Can you tell us the rules?"

"I can tell you some of them, but you still cannot read the scroll."

If Near won't follow my plan, I could force the issue by manipulating the shinigami. It wants its notebook back. If I promise to help it, it will probably help me, up to a point.

Near said, "I can tell what you're thinking, Mello. Mr. Gevanni, please separate Sidoh and Mello, and make sure they stay separated. We will continue the questioning without Mello."

A/N (Author's Note):

Wedy getting the shredded piece of paper from Yotsuba was something that happened in the manga but was omitted from the anime. There is a scene in the manga where L shows it to Misa to help convince her to chase the Yotsuba Kira.

With this chapter, I wanted to do a little more with Mello and Near, and to clarify the story by showing some of what the SPK is doing before returning to Light's predicament.

This chapter has been slightly revised from its first version in response to problems pointed out by Miss Bright. Thank you! Feedback is appreciated. Anything that is unclear or wrong from one reader's perspective probably caused problems for a bunch of readers that I never heard from, so I'm always glad to be told of those things!

I ejected from the story some canon extremely minor characters that you might have otherwise expected to see: the extra members of the SPK that are barely shown in canon (particularly, they are barely shown in the anime, but even in the manga we know very little about them). In canon, we hardly see anything of these guys before they get killed by Mello, but in my fanfic, Mello probably didn't have enough time to get a chance to physically touch the notebook before the SPK grabbed it, and he also had less motivation to kill them since he needed the SPK's cooperation.

What happened to them in my fanfic? At least two of them were snitches in my fanfic (in the manga canon, at least one was a snitch, Ill Rat, though this snitch/spy subplot was just in the manga and was never mentioned in the anime).

The rest of the extra SPK members in my fanfic that weren't snitches were sent away because, with their names too easily found out, they were security risks for the others (meaning that Kira could control them).

How many of these extra SPK agents are there? I am a bit confused about them, and the differences between the various canon versions of the story don't help. There are at least two or three extra, and possibly a whole bunch. The anime's episode 28 shows at least eight bodies sprawled around Near, probably at least ten if you count extra legs poking into the frame (though in a possible continuity error there didn't seem to be any sign of these extra agents earlier in that episode in that same room, as if they had all walked in from other rooms to suddenly die in front of Near). Also Near refers to this as "the majority of the SPK's members" which strongly implies that the surviving four are outnumbered by the dead.
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The Other Plan