Truth and Justice

Warnings for this chapter: Angst, Language, Reference to N/C, WIP.
SPOILERS: All manga, all anime, L's true name, Another Note, Law and Right.

Important terms
JST -- Japan Standard Time. The time zone that Tokyo is located in. (And all the rest of Japan, for that matter.)

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Truth and Justice

Chapter 14: Balance

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Light was exhausted, despite how much sleep he'd been getting lately. It took a lot, to heal so many cuts that, alone, wouldn't have caused him to break his stride at all. He was glad that there was an elevator, happier still when he was allowed to dress in something a bit less humiliating than a hospital gown.

He was still on a saline drip, with a few extra vitamins added in, but otherwise he was free from the machines. There were bandages over the worst of the cuts, over the stitches that rested in uncomfortable areas. All things considered, Light felt far better than he had expected to. The reality of the situation still hadn't sunk in yet, but it was starting to and he supposed that would be the hardest part of it all.

He was settled into an armchair on the main floor, a blanket hung over the arm of his chair, should he get cold. He'd been taking in liquids since the ventilator tube had come out and he was just beginning a bland foods diet.

He was eating a small bowl of rice porridge when the first of the guests arrived. By the time everyone had assembled, he'd finished it off, set the bowl aside.

There were more people than he expected there, and one missing. Mello, Near, Lidner, Aizawa, Mogi, Matsuda, Aiber, Wedy, Wammy, Mikami. He was relieved when L sat down near him. It meant that everyone had arrived, that his mother and sister wouldn't be coming.

It was a small consolation, he knew full well he would have to face them sooner or later.

"Where is Matt?" Light turned his gaze to L.

"If that is where you would like to begin, then I will tell you that we have discovered that Matt was Kira," L replied.

Light raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"That was about the reaction I had," Mello grumbled.

L sighed. "Yes, Matt was Kira. There was a small thing overlooked in Mello's story during the previous investigation. Near had begun studying your case, Light, and sometime around then, Matt acquired a Death Note. From Ryuk."

"He claimed to have seen me looking up criminal names and writing them in a 'strange notebook'. However, without any previous knowledge of the Death Note, this would not arouse suspicion," Near tugged on his hair, drawing one leg up into his chair, his head tilted to the side.

"He told me about it, and we went to America to check out the death of the previous Kira. That was where we got in touch with Lidner," Mello jerked his thumb at her, took a vicious bite from his chocolate bar.

"Matt came in contact with me, told me to make myself available to a Roger Ruvie, that there might be someone who could use my services there," Lidner's gaze slid to Mello. "Told me that if I didn't follow through, or make myself look damn good to them, that he would expose the fact that Kira was still alive. I got into contact with Roger and he mentioned that someone was in immediate need of such services."

"And she became my Watari," Near finished. "Matt had already pieced together that you, Light, were spared by L so that you could work alongside him. He knew that, because you two were working together, it would become possible for him to become L's heir with Mello once the world began to understand that L was two people. Thus, he began to plan my downfall."

"And he fuckin' used us all. He and I split up to cover the people involved in the Kira execution and I just took his reports as truth. More brains than even I gave him credit for," Mello put in, sighing irritably and rubbing his fingers over the scar on his face. "I got this fucking scar protecting him."

"He had Mello's name planted in the lists by taking the test himself, intentionally scoring just one question beneath perfect," L continued. "He knew from looking at the practice test scores that this would be enough to put Mello's name in second place or lower, thereby confusing the investigation."

"He passed the Death Note to a number of associates and managed to keep it hidden from me all the while. He never wrote a name in it, but he was responsible," Mello was all but pouting. "So he had it passed around until L had decided it was Near and got ready to make his move. That was when he had it sent to Lidner, had her write in it. She never made the trade for the eyes, so she didn't know the names that Matt didn't send to her."

"And since he only wanted Near to be taken down, and he already knew of the plan beforehand, he knew what names and faces were safe for her to know," L added. "What he did not know, however, was that the Death Notes had never been switched. Instead, Watari and I each incorrectly wrote everyone's name two times, for a total of four. Therefore, no one in this room was able to be killed by the Death Note. With the exception of Lidner, unfortunately."

"And it hurt like hell, too," Lidner scowled. "Still don't know how I survived, exactly."

"It's simple, really," Near smiled over at her. "If you write your own name in the Death Note, you will not die. Ryuk informed me that it was 'not recommended' to try it, so I knew you would not die, but I knew that it would be unpleasant. Therefore, I had you sign your own name and left you the note requesting information and giving orders about faking your death with the help of the United States Government."

"But you just couldn't leave me an open line of communication," Lidner sighed irritably.

"That would not have been safe, considering the fact that I was a wanted fugitive," Near agreed.

"Anyway, Matt had the Death Note passed around, gave orders while I was sleeping, and made sure to keep tabs on Amane. We'd discovered enough about her in the course of our own investigation for him to know she'd be a pain in his ass, so she had someone tail her and ordered her killed if anyone that walked like a cop and wasn’t a known associate picked her up," Mello took another bite of his chocolate, lounging in the chair with his ankles crossed.

"And through that time, he had Ryuk appearing to confuse us, made sure to send us messages in a similar fashion to you, Light," Aizawa said smoothly.

"Matt made the red herring about the baseball players because I liked watching the team that Takada's boyfriend was on," Mello added. "He knew I'd pick up on it, and because it would come from me, it wouldn't make him look suspicious. We also knew Near was in confinement, so changing the pattern at that time would make it look like someone was Kira by proxy."

"And that made me a natural suspect," Lidner replied. "Apparently, I actually was one of the people that wrote in it for Matt, but I don't remember a bit of it.”

"Because you lost ownership," Light finished. "It makes sense. Making Near look even more suspicious was because of the tactics both L and I took up to smoke him out, as it were."

"Exactly," L smiled, pressing his thumb to his lips. "So, Matt was Kira. This was discovered by Lidner and Near. Near and I initially believed it to be Mello, but when Lidner was able to uncover the connection with Matt, it was clear. When I asked Mello about Yakuza connections with the excuse of using them to see if they'd heard anything about Light's capture or B's current whereabouts, he told me Matt had all the connections and he would put him on it."

"That would have settled it, then," Light agreed, shifting a little and pulling the blanket over his legs. "All right, since that's cleared up, what about that Eraser?"

"That part goes back nearly twenty years," Mikami smiled. "The Death Eraser is the only thing that can resurrect someone whose name has been written in a Death Note. It was given to me by Ryuk after I came into possession of a Death Note. It seems that he only had one, so I am the only one who knew about this particular artifact. It was the key to getting you away from B."

"It turns out that B had a plastic surgery clinic fake the papers for his procedure to make himself look like me," L said dryly. "In any case, we'll start at the beginning. After your capture, when Mikami had the next chance to speak with me, he told me about the eraser. He knew Watari and I had written the names in the Death Note, so he suggested a very... risky plan."

"We erased one copy of your misspelled name with the Death Eraser, and L wrote a very specific cause of death. When there was no more time to find you, to free you, he wrote your name," Mikami explained.

"Which is why B left the knife. Why I had the chance to use it, why I got the idea, where I got the energy," Light nodded. "It was... strange."

"I did not write your name until after B had left the knife, actually," L replied. "However, while writing the conditions of death, I was thinking of you, so it is possible that it was caused by the Death Note."

"And what were, exactly, the conditions of death?" Light asked.

L produced a piece of the Death Note, handed it over.

Escapes confinement and notifies police of his captor's whereabouts to the best of his abilities. Dies peacefully in transit to the hospital from oxygen deprivation at 11:15 am JST.

Light handed the piece of paper back with a soft nod. "It worked perfectly. Revealed my location, let me die in a peaceful way and, if my assumption is correct and B would have raped me at eleven am, then it also ensured he would not have enough time to do so. And then, Mikami must have erased my name from the piece of Death Note, or you did... and that was how I was able to be revived."

"Exactly," L replied softly. "We have since found the connection that we had been missing. It was masked by the fake procedure, but B was an instructor in the computer science department of the university where the photographs were on display."

"And a computer science instructor wouldn't get much, if any, attention from the art students. She didn't even realize he taught at the school when she sold the negatives to him," Mello put in, sighing deeply.

"The last piece of the puzzle was the proof that B had been the one to rape you in the first place," L said quietly. "He videotaped it. I can only assume that he altered the condom holding the accused rapist's semen in it so that it would leak somehow. That was how we obtained a semen sample in the rape kit."

"That's everything, then," Light agreed, sighing softly. "I can only hope that this is the end of the Kira cases. I was contacted by a Shinigami last night. She was sent on behalf of the Shinigami King to take back the Death Notes and the Death Eraser."

"But your memories!" Matsuda all but exploded.

"No, they have a way around it, apparently. Mikami and I have been promised our memories will remain intact," Light shook his head.

"And since I had not written in my Death Note, my memories are no problem," Near tugged on his hair again, tilting his head a little more. "The only question is why the Shinigami King only now took notice."

"I can answer that one," Light smiled faintly. "The Shinigami King was speaking with me when I was revived. It was unexpected for both of us, and I'm willing to bet that it's against their laws for a Death Eraser to fall into the hands of humans. Worse than a Death Note, which Ryuk had gotten away with up to this point."

"I've got a question," Aizawa smirked faintly. "Why are we even here?" he gestured to Mogi and Matsuda.

"You were an integral part of both Kira investigations," Wammy answered. "We all felt that you deserved to hear the truth, though you took very little part in the most recent investigation."

"It's such a relief to know that the world is going to be free of those horrible weapons soon," Wedy sighed softly, crossing her legs again.

"It is," Light agreed with a soft nod. "Now, there will only be the issue of handling the media and recovering."

"No shit," Mello grumbled.

Near reached out, giving a bit of Mello's hair a yank. "If L can survive falling in love with a Kira, you can survive discovering that the man you already loved was a Kira."

"Who ever said I loved him?" Mello demanded darkly. "There's a difference between love and sex, you know!"

"Is there?" Near's smile grew impish. "Tell me." He ducked deftly when Mello lashed out with his chocolate bar, and managed to snatch the candy from his rival's hand. "Why, thank you."

Wedy pressed a hand to her lips to hide her laughter, but Aiber didn't even bother. He threw his head back and laughed, letting his arm curl around Wedy and yank her close. "Don't bother trying to hide the laughter."

Matsuda snickered at the color that crept into Wedy's cheeks.

"I'm married, you lecher!" Wedy scolded, pushing Aiber away from her. It only made him laugh more.

The meeting dissolved into warm conversation and laughter. It was just what Light needed, even though he fell asleep not long after, curled up in the arm chair. L quietly tucked the blanket up over him and stood silent watch.

When Nu returned some time later, L handed over the piece of Death Note he still carried and she took the Death Notes from the secure room on floor thirteen.

As Nu made her way back to the Shinigami Realm, the world returned to its proper balance.

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A/N: And so we have the Big Reveal. A chapter late, but that is the way life goes, no? I hope that covered everything! (Except, of course, how I figured Mikami to be the kid from the pilot chapter. That will be covered in the Bonus Materials, since it's not something the characters would, you know, be conscious of. XD;)