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Another Note: Crime Scenes	By : Resting-Madness Category: Death Note > General Views: 2557 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't make money from this work of fiction. I don't own the realm of death note's creation like characters and plot, and world. None of it is mine.

Chapter List
- 13
- 14
"We have to find L," Mello shoved Matt's aid aside and started away only to fall to one kneel, gritting his teeth in pain.
"Shit, you're bleeding," Matt observed verbally. He sees blood dripping onto the dark wood floor staining into the darkness with its darker color, he then touched his gloved fingers to Mello's wound between his legs. "Is it deep?" He assisted the wounded to his feet.
"No. Thank god; that asshole must have had a blade in his boot and used it when he kicked me," He winced as Matt helped him out of the bedroom and down the stairs. "I'm lucky he missed the artery."
The pair are outside climbing into the car Mello had arrived in. The less battered detective looked into the backseat expecting to see his rival but Near was M.I.A.
"Matt," he began but was cut off with an answer.
"The ambulance took him to the hospital,"
"Well get in, we have to go to L," Mello stared confused by Matt's behavior as the techie has yet to climb into the car and take them… wherever the hell the sugar loving detective is.
They could call him and trace the phone location. Knowing L he has a bouncing signal. But he can't see leaving the man alone with that whack-job, no matter how capable he says he is. He probably doesn't know that Beyond is no longer human- if he ever was.
"Matt? Get the fuck in, what's the matter with you?" He watched his partner-in-crime- and justice- climb into the driver's seat.
"Sorry, I got confused." He started the car and wheeled them out to the city.
Mello is on his phone trying L's number but there is no answer from the man, though he's on his fourth repeat of the operator's message. Deciding on a different approach he called Light's number. "Slow down, you don't even know where we're going," he said to Matt while waiting for the callee to answer his phone. Looking over at the techie when he doesn't slow the speed of the vehicle, he shakes him by the shoulder.
"I'm hot," Matt declared before the wheel slanted and caused the car to brush aggressively into another vehicle parked at the curb. "Shit, what was that?" The car stilled when Matt's foot settled on the brake pedal. "I think somebody hit us," he looked over his shoulder for the culprit.
Mello turned Matt's head by the jaw and with his other hand he hyper-extended the technical analyst's eyelids. "I can't see in this lighting," He practically broke the overhead when aggressively turning it on. Tilting Matt's head back he grunted from shifting angles to see his eyes. " Dilated. "Did he inject you with something?"
"Nooo, noo. I think he stuck me with something when I was unconscious,"
Mello balled his hands up to resist punching the dashboard. What else! He wanted to holler. The enraged gunman was brought back to the situation at hand when the car lurched forward from Matt trying to continue driving.
"Wait! Stop the car, I'll drive." It would be a bitch with his injury but better to soldier through the pain and live than to die in a nasty crash because of his drugged up partner. When the car stilled he reached over Matt's lap, ignoring the hand playing suggestively in his ponytail-banded hair, to release the seat so that it lay flat over the backseat.
"I wanna drive you all night long."
Mello rolled his eyes to that comment. The idiot isn't even hard- yet. God help him when they reach help. "Stay back there, I'll take you to the hospital." He needed 'A game' help, not this high specimen.
He scooped Matt's legs from under the wheel and hurled them up and over literally curling him into the backseat. When the giggling techie righted himself enough for Mello to return the seat to its rightful posture, he got situated behind the wheel then maneuvered the car out of its cop situation and sped off up the street towards the nearest Emergiancy building.
"Hello?" Light's voice came over the phone.
"Yagami, where's L?" And he hated that he had to ask the maniac for the whereabouts of his mentor.
"I don't know. He sent me to some safehouse in Guildford, hang on,"
Mello waited for Light to speak again as the callee checked something on his end. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't relieved to hear Light's voice. He thought for sure he'd be behind this somehow, when a Death Note is involved he's likely the mastermind who'd constructed the situation to be so. He's restored his beloved killer notebook to himself once before, what could stop him from doing it again? But it would seem that this was all Beyond's doing. He whispered in his ear that he has a notebook and that there will be a 'Return of the King' and all he'd have to do is hand it to the sociopath.
'If B is going to resurrect Kira, we should head to Light instead of L and stop him. He'd only have to impersonate L's voice to find Light and, because of his posing as Quimby, he already has Light's number.'
This whole thing was going to shit and it was shaping up that there was nothing anyone could do about it. Matt's hopped up. Near's fucked up. And Mello is this close to giving up because what are the odds of finding L or having Light help him? Slim. Like paper.
"Come on, Mel', since when did it matter where we are?" Asked Matt who, for the third time, had his hand removed from palming Mello's crotch that he's reached for from around the back of the seat.
'At least it's just ecstacy,' had Beyond given Matt something stronger he'd be screwed.
Matt's a recovered addict, it would only take one hit to put him right back in that warehouse that day he shot that cop and landed himself in prison. It didn't matter that he was young, under the influence, nor did it matter that he was one of Wammy's agents. He shot a cop and that was that.
"My mouth is dry," reported the backseat bimbo.
"You can have some water when we get to the hospital," he'd see to Near while Matt gets the drugs salined out of his system. He'd of course get his leg wrapped too. He'd of forgotten all about his injury had it not been for the huge wet puddle he's sitting in.
"Mello, are you there?" Light came back on the line. "I found the address, I'm in Auldbury Manor, I've texted to you. I thought L was sending everyone here?"
"I was out doing something else when L called me. I can't get a hold of him so I called you."
"Why were you asking for L's location? What's going on?"
"Nothing. But if Quimby finds his way to you, shoot him."
"You don't have to tell me, that guy we've been protecting isn't the real Ellis Quimby," Light remembered what he'd found out in the hospital. "I rehydrated the fingerprints off a burned corpse and they turned out to be Ellis Quigley's. I think Quimby might be the unsub, that would explain why we could never figure out how he got in and out of the house. He was already in there; what I can't figure out is why he'd go so far as to pose as the journalist?"
"Because he's suffering of dissociative identity, remember the pills?" Mello feigned dumb, why alert Light to Beyond's presence if he isn't aware. He may not know the man's history but he was sure he'd be clued in fast once they find each other.
"That's some snap, he had everyone going." Light sighed. "L took me off the case, says he's going to be the one to close it. Is he in trouble and no one's telling me?"
"It's not entirely like that," replied Mello mentally going over the recovery time for each other them. Light might end up being their only hope in protecting L from B, that is... if he doesn't side with the reanimated nut. But, as it turns out, he can harbor some sympathy for the Devil. If it were Matt he'd be murderous if the gamer were putting himself in danger and no one was telling him anything. "Listen, I'm on my way to the hospital right now, the unsub got the better of us and we need a bit of treatment. If L calls you, trace it and go to him. But be sure you text me the address… I'll…" He hated to say it but he had no choice. "I'll do the same if I find him first."
"Okay."
Mello hung up the cell phone, dropping it into the passenger's seat; the car sped into the hospital parking lot. And he didn't bother being polite by skipping past the handicapped spots. He's driving with a deep slice in his leg, he figures that's a pretty sincere handicap.
"Come on," Opening the back door he helped the intoxicated red-head out and guided him by limping assistance through the large automatic-revolving front door.
The receptionist didn't have a chance to ask what the reason for the visit was before Mello was demanding stitches for his leg and a detox for Matt, before asking after Near. To which he received the reply that he can't give that information without Mello having some sort of relation to the patient. Mello explained that they're in the same agency and waited for her to look it up, while fighting off a flesh starved techie.
"He's on the fourth floor, room 407." Informed the receptionist. "Please step through the door and follow the red feet to one of the empty curtained areas."
Mello huffed angrily. For all this he could have stitched up himself! "We're federal agents, this isn't something that can wait,"
"I'll see what I can do, for now you'll have to follow procedure."
Embittered, Mello helped Matt into the next hall when the lock on the door was released. The former mob boss shoved his lover into the first vacant chair he saw then stood beside him in wait. Spotting an open door filled with medical supplies he told Matt to sit tight while he looked around. When a nurse came to take their vitals, she asked Matt where Mello had gone to but the intoxicated gamer only shrugged. Tired and struggling to keep his eyes open he sat patiently to be treated.
Mello was back in the car and undressed at the thigh while he sewed his flesh back together with stolen supplies from the treatment supply room. He bared his teeth against the pain and wrapped it carefully and tightly with gauze after cleaning the area. That should do fine. Tugging up his pants he took the car out of the city limits and sped off to Auldbury.
0 0 0
L did not want to believe it when he'd discovered that Backup was behind the murders. It had to be a trick. But the evidence was staring him right in the face with the first crime scene of the mutilated Talbott children and the passively killed mother appearing as though she'd just been looking on as her children met their end.
He and B would have been the twins. The younger boy had stalked him and mimicked him many times when they were growing up, he'd done the same with A. Backup had a real talent at impersonation, and could even fool the adults that they were talking to one another from the hall or over the phone. It wasn't harming anyone at the time, and L wasn't about to comment on it as though he wanted to make it his problem- he had his own life to look after.
Backup did one good thing in his life, he opened L's eyes to how easily the line between good and evil can be crossed; made rancid and sick so that a bad deed could be looked upon as an act of charity. Its disheartening, sure, but it gave him leniency towards Mello, who'd joined the L.A. mafia after he was pronounced dead by Kira to their bureau. The chocolate loving agent walked a dangerous line along that thin thread and would likely need to be evaluated some time down along the line to ensure that he's still alright despite the lapse in judgement. It didn't harm his chances at becoming the next L as some think, L used criminals himself to get jobs done like Aiber and Weri. He wouldn't commit a criminal act himself, but that didn't mean he couldn't if necessary.
Mello would be a dangerous criminal, but not, perhaps, as dangerous as Backup. Mello has someone he cares dearly for, he would never turn his back on Matt. B, however, has no one holding him moral or sane. He's just a man uninhabited. The only good fortune in the situation is that he may well have snapped and can be talked down for stagger so one can proceed to victory.
L was prepared for either outcome of victory or defeat. He was sure he'd die today, but so was he sure that B would as well. A stalemate to the death. That was always Backup's end game. L would prefer to live, with his plan B waiting in the wings he was going to need to live to talk the next lunatic from the ledge. Best case scenario he wouldn't have to… But it wouldn't be just a call of judgement he'd be battling, it'll be addiction. Fixation. Possession. Kira the first. Misa Amane was a psychopath but ultimately a dolt of a puppet. Teru Mikami was a sycophant that couldn't stop himself from wantin to please Kira. And Kiyomi Takada was much the same, although she didn't simply want to please Kira, she wanted to be queen. Any one of them could have usurped the manmade God, but they followed him like lambs to the slaughter because where are they all now? Dead. And Kira? Reborn. Redeemed only due to ignorance of his former glory. How would things go if he were to get his hands on a Death Note and a chance to get it right?
L checked the time. He gave Light specific orders to follow at 9 o'clock. It's now 7:44 pm. He'll have to end this confrontation with Backup so he can call off plan B and everything will resume with 'as per usual'.
Climbing out of the small car, he looked at the large unassuming building. It wasn't hard to track where B was holed up, the area address was in the crime scene photos. The Talbott's house number, the serial number on the wine bottle. And here he stands waiting for battle and armed to the teeth with verbal assault weapons and little else. It's likely that any psychical weapon he'll need will be happened upon from the home.
He approached the large gothic red brick building, watching it grow and swell like a water balloon with no burst point, but it can still deal maximum damage to the victim due to weight magnitude. The black roof is rough on the glance and appears more of a compiling of dead bats and rats rather than shingle. Despite the foreboding appearance due to nerves the building was actually quite beautiful. Clean. A garden of Fox Gloves and Lily-of-the-valley, trees, of what he could see peeking about the sides of the home are strychnine. Each plant was poisonous, of course. An utterly toxic person living in an utterly toxic home.
L's attention moved from the foliage as he looked up at the ghostly faces watching out the Lancet style windows. Worshippers? It's entirely possible, because for all of Backup's bad points he's got good ones. He can be personable and blushably kind with his attention at you- if only for his own amusement. But, regardless to the farce, the time spent would be considered a good memory to the person whom B has decided to care upon.
He grabbed the long vertical door handle of one of the double doors and gave it a test shove pushing it right open. L caught his breath when before him an elderly man lay his arm across his chest as though he were about to say pledge then he tipped forward to bow.
"Qui…" He couldn't say it. It's too impossible to be real. Right?
"Welcome Errol, it's been some time, though perhaps not long enough." The familiar man said as he straightened. "Right this way, I'll take you to Beyond."
The large door slid closed back inline with the other leaving them in a near perfect black. L kept his composure even when a fly whizzed past his ear with a loud buzz!
"Allow me." A disembodied London accent informed, before the lights came on in the foyer via electric candles.
Despite it's old world Victorian gothic style, the home was modernized with electricity. However it was decorated hideously. Never mind the white and paisley square checked polished flooring, and the lovely deep wood walls, and the long staircase leading to the upper rooms placed in the center. No. That wasn't the recoil, it was the scattering of mannequin parts dropped or hanging all around the room. Men, women, even children. As L followed a ghost to an area beneath the large staircase he sees where the flies are coming from. The corpse of a young woman lay swarmed with them. An actual body.
"That is Miss Laurel George; she was going to be the last of the clue offerings, but it turns out she was not needed." Explained the ghost before getting a hold of the double doors beneath the space behind the stairs. "A pity really."
"Watari, why are you here?" L asked looking into the face of his believed dead mentor. It would seem that resurrection is having the time of its life these days because everyone is getting in on it.
"Beyond needed me, just as he needed me then; however, he was neglected to further the creation of you, L."
L felt his heart tug. Not for Backup, but from the familiarity of the man. This ghost sounds like Quillish Wammy, is an exact clone in appearance, but in no way could be the man he's admired, bested, was bested by, and had come to love.
"Shall we?" He pushed open the door and gestured with his arms that L go inside.
L looked at the man for a long moment before stepping through the entryway. The doors closed after him leaving him alone with whatever awaited in the room.
"Welcome." Greets Beyond.
He's seated at a small round table in the center of the room, the scent of freshly brewed tea and baked desserts clings in the air completely overtaking the rotten stink in the foyer made by Miss George's decaying body. The host pointed to an empty seat before his own chair and waited until L crouched into the comfortable armchair to speak again.
"Have a treat, won't you," he lifted the plate of cookies. "I baked them myself." Setting the offering down, he then raised the teapot and poured a cup for himself then L. "And the tea, sweetened to your liking."
Despite the odds stacked against him that this would all end all right, L couldn't help swallowing the want for the fragrant treats. His nimble bony fingers reached forward grabbing a hold of a Linzer cookie. Instead of jam of some sort the sandwich cookie showcased a custard that has been sugared and burnt like a crème brulée. And the taste brought tears to the detective's sleep deprived eyes. He was in such disbelief that he took pause and looked down at the pastry as if it were a being from another planet.
"This is the most perfect thing I've ever put in my mouth," He confessed with honest ease. It even had a light dusting of powdered sugar that blew against his fingertips when the sweet came back up to his hungry lips.
Beyond's expression remained waxen but his delighted tone was obvious. "Thank you. Although, I'm sure that's the last thing Light would want to hear."
"I suppose that's true."
They chuckled as if they were both in on a secret between themselves and Light Yagami's ego. But, Beyond doesn't know, and truth of the matter; he doesn't even know L in vice versa. He and B lived together but they lived worlds apart at the same time. Not many conversations were shared or delightful times stored away for the 'he's not so bad' pile. They could very well be perfect strangers. Though, L noticed, Beyond seemed to like borrowing things from people. You could never live completely blind to another person's habits, after all. And it wasn't like assuming another detective's code, this was… invasion of personal inner space.
The murderous deserter is wearing his blue jeans, is comfortable in the loose draping of his plain white shirt, and seemed completely at home with his feet firmly planted in the armchair where his rear end should be. He's even got his hair styled in the same fashion, although it's too dark to know if B had dyed it, but if he'd only recently been impersonating him back at the manor, it was likely dyed black from the dark roast coffee brown it naturally is. It's as if he's having tea with himself.
"Do you like the house?" Asked Beyond going into small talk. "I had to make a few alterations but the place was mostly up to my standards from the start."
"I like a few pieces that you have here, the Watari…"
"Lifelike isn't it? But," he tapped the spoon he'd been stirring his tea with against the delicate bone tea cup, setting it down he then took a sip before continuing with what he was saying. "don't remove your sangfroid, I didn't desecrate his grave. I modeled it after the real Quillish. I modeled all of my dolls after the real thing," his gaze shifts to the right.
L turned his head to look, ignoring the 'daymare' of falling for some lame trick and having Beyond lunge at him and strangle him to death, and there where asked without words to look he sees Light, or a Light Yagami clone seated and watching them. He's so lifelike even from the distance. It seemed as though he would move.
"However, the door knobs are the genuine thing, I took the heads of stillborn quadruplets from the hospital morgue." He grinned from ear to ear awaiting L's angered reaction of his disfiguring infant corpses.
He was going to have to be disappointed because L didn't bat a lash. "How sad to be so lonely,"
"I'm not lonely. I'm just daydreaming about what was taken from me because of favoritism."
"Mmm? Perhaps I needed the most work?" L countered before breaking a bite of cookie into his mouth. He voiced his opinion of them through 'mmms' and a quietly spoken 'delicious'.
"I don't disagree," Beyond lifted a cookie from the plate and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth.
L stole glances at the younger man while sipping his tea sweetened with sugar and marmalade, it was Heaven, even the hints of spice were appreciated. It warmed the chill of death from his bones; but L had suspected that he is not sitting with the real B, talking to, sure, but not sitting with. Every sip of tea seems like a show and anything he eats is never really chewed, it was more like he was eating like a snake and boa constricted the food into his stomach by swallowing it whole.
'He must be a marionette doll like Watari and Light, but where is the real Backup?' He glanced around the room lit with the dimness of a setting sun. That Light marionette was concerning him each time he saw it.
"I wanna know, Sweets," Beyond said breaking the silence between them. "You know you're going to die tonight, what's going through your head?"
L feigned interest in the question, a finger touching his lower lip as he cocked his head from side to side. "...I'm wondering a lot of things; what's going to happen to everyone once I'm gone? What purpose does my death serve to you?" That received a snort from his host. "I guess I'd like to know if I was ever happy in my life?"
L looked at his watch barely able to see the time even against the white surface. But he knew it wouldn't be long before Light touched the Death Note, becoming Kira again… Would he follow his instruction or kill him where the white Shinigami had failed? Light won't know his real name, if Death Notes work as he believes them to.
Kira doesn't know it, but he'd already conducted tests with the killer notebook the night they'd taken it from Higuchi. He'd read the instructions and asked the shinigami attached to it many questions, then that night, uncuffed from Light, he'd tested it out. Writing the names of two prisoners on death row, one the prisoner's actual name and the other he'd only studied his face while writing a different name down. Prisoner 1 died of a heart attack, prisoner 2 remained alive. The Death Note doesn't kill just by knowing a face, and you can't use a name that isn't real to just kill anyone you see.
It meant nothing, of course, until he recalled B. The only person since Quillish Wammy brought him to the orphanage to have ever called him by his real name, Errol Lawliet, was B. He has special eyes that can see names and dates of death. Shinigami eyes. But that also didn't mean much, he needed more knowledge on the subject and so he planned to force Kira's hand. If the rules in the notebook were true he'd be dead in thirteen days anyway, so why not go all in? He told his plan to Watari, but he didn't factor in the otherworldly creature helping Kira, he thought that his plan would amount to the serial murderer being caught doing something scandalous and desperate. But it didn't turn out that way. And for his mistake Watari died. Had the shinigami not used his real name he would have died as well.
But, to L, he's become L. There was no more Errol. He couldn't figure it out, what had happened. He saw most of his real name written out in the claimed notebook, but why hadn't he died? He could only conclude that if you decide yourself as someone else, soul and mind, you will be that person.
"I often wonder that same thing, about being happy," Beyond confesses, once again, he pretends to eat a cookie. "I watched my parents walk out the door and said nothing to them about the dwindling numbers of the counter over their head. I could have warned them not to go out, but… I don't know, I call it morbid curiosity."
"And the rest of the people you've killed? How many more times do you have to kill to satisfy your curiosity?"
"Many."
The honesty sat there, like a diamond uncut and telling about the man before him- doll or not- Beyond is a serial killer. And he no longer cared. If he ever had.
"Did you know that my mother possessed a Death Note?" asked the murderer. "I met the god of death she was attached to, she approached me in the otherworld when Kira killed me in prison." He took a mock sip of his drink. "I found out that when she made the eye deal it wasn't given to her, she asked that it be redirected to me."
L couldn't hide his shocked reaction about that. One, the other world really exists and two, that Beyond's mother possessed a notebook. Did she use it? How many times? And on whom? Was that entire family a breed of serial killers?
"Do you know what it's like going through life seeing numbers rolling around over people's head, and names? It messes with you in some ways while liberating you in others. When one parent revealed an answer to my confusion, I could have saved the other but I watched as my mother walked out to board a train that later crashed and took her life." Again, he shrugged as if he'd admitted to stepping on a bug. "I was curious, then, of how she'd die."
L could understand it from a morbidly curious stand-point, here you have this freaky ability to do something that no other can and you don't know or understand why, you begin to see people meeting their end when a mysterious set of numbers says so… It's enough to damage anyone, especially at such a young age. But to become so morbid as to see a counter going down and to wonder only how that person will die rather than how you can stop their death from occurring is just sick.
"A boy in my class in grade school wound up dead in a ditch by a man strangling him when he'd gone to a park to play. I'd been watching him all morning and even watched as he was lured away by his murderer…"
"Did you alert the police once your voyeuristic need for death was satiated?"
"I did. I left no name, just the location of the body and the name of the man who'd done it. Noble? No. Because I wanted to see if his counter would change if he was sent to prison."
"And had it changed?" He was sincerely curious; brought into Beyond's dark mind like the Pharaoh listening to Scheherazade. Drawing him in, bringing him close, keeping him interested. And when Beyond nodded, he then replied. "You could have used your eyes for good had you kept that up; what changed?" He took his eyes from the empty plate to look into the dead gaze of the Beyond Birthday doll, a sudden movement caught L's shifting gaze.
Above them lining the room is a catwalk with bookshelves flush against the wall, and chairs lining the spaces between each literary wall, but in the corners where the shelves could touch- if they had been shoved into the corner of the wall was a space, and occupying one of those spaces, L concluded, was the real Beyond. But why did he give himself away?
The double doors opened and the false Watari walked in with a cart of sweets. Once again L sees a slight movement from above him in the room.
'So he's manipulating the marionettes,' he doesn't take his eyes off of the doll as it serves them another plate of sweets.
This time it's a naked layered cake of fresh strawberries mixed into a piping of cream cheese with a rich drizzle of chocolate running over the top and bare sides of the confection. It took all that L had not to grab the man by the hand, as it moved before him to set the serving down on his plate, and insist that he become real. But it was not to be. Some people don't come back.
When the fake Watari left the room the visible movement returned to nothing as the murderous deserter moved his double with ease.
"I opted to specialize in locating stolen goods because I like beautiful things," he looked at L. "Antiques, relics, things buried and dead, Quillish thought it was a perfect idea because it kept me away from people; he could tell Lawlie, he could tell what I was… But he never tried to stop me. No matter what I said or whom I didn't help, he never stopped me."
"I can't say I'm going to cry about it,"
Snarling, Beyond spat. "I don't want you to! I just want you to see my rise and your fall… Quillish wanted me bad, all good needs evil, and rival!" He raised his arms up over his head as if the angels would sing or perhaps the dead would rise. "I'm going to have it all."
L listened to B explaining his plan with flare, so much flare the caught sight of the strings that manipulate the doll. It would take some strength, but he could pull him down to his level and end this before it begins.
"And when everyone sees Kira's return after the great L supposedly brought him to an end… I will swoop down and take your place. My rightful place."
"That isn't going to happen, B,"
"Why? Because of your fail safe? Hn," he giggled into hands folded over each other. "You think he'll remember all the good times you've had recently and choose love, then kill me with the notebook? Kira's too greedy for something like that and his existence as Light Yagami too soft to overthrow it." Beyond grinned in such a hyper-extended way L thought his skin would tear. "Giving him that Death Note, my job is more than a quarter away from done, I need only kill you and show myself to him as a loyal servant."
"For someone who's more in touch with humanity than I, you underestimate how much people can care for each other."
It was the perfect distraction because that sentiment made Beyond laugh, and he laughed long and loud. The doll stooped forward beating on the table as it mimicked humanity, and L made his move. Leaping from his seat he grabbed at the airspace until strings brushed against his hands and latching on he gave them a firm, jarring tug pulling the monster free from hiding.
0 0 0
Mello arrived in Guildford as fast as he could. He expected Light to be exiting the home and demanding that he take him back to the city, but he found the former serial murderer sitting calmly in the den reading and sipping tea, from the smell of it. The sight unnerved Mello, to say the least. No one should be this calm. Could Beyond have already gotten to him, is he too late?
"What are you doing?" He asked without meaning to. It was a needless question.
"L told me what to do, so I'm waiting here to do it." Replied Light setting down his cup.
Mello took a moment just to stare at the person who'd just said something so unusual, it gave him pause, then he limped over to the sofa to sit and rest his injured leg and use his phone. "What did L tell you to do?" He asked while dialing the detective's phone number.
Light shrugged a hand, he wasn't sure if he wanted to share it. If L trusts him better than his own agents, why let them try to take over his assignment. He finally felt useful to the detached detective. Although, he had to admit, he wondered what kind of job involved such care that he had to absolutely wait until 9 o'clock to do the deed and no time before? A top secret button to be pressed that would make any situation a victory? Or perhaps it's the world's greatest escape trick, though that seemed unlikely since it isn't with the person that needs to escape.
"He's not picking up, where the hell is he?" Mello wanted to toss his phone but instead he looked up the number for the hospital holding Matt and Near. "I'm checking up on two of your patients, their names are Near and Matt there's no surname. That's right… Tell him to come to the phone then,"
Light eavesdropped without intending to, from what he can tell Matt and Near are in bad shape so much so that they needed a hospital stay. With the way Mello limped in he was no better off, but was dealing with it.
"Matt, gimme your status- how's the brat?"
"How do I know you're not Beyond checking up on his dirty work?" Wondered Matt. "What's our code word?"
Glancing at Light, who he knew was listening in he switched to Russian. "Na kukhne yest' krysy."
"Good." He said 'word' to throw off the possible impersonator when in fact they have a sentence. 'There are rats in the kitchen'. "I haven't checked on Near yet, I just got control of my eh… anyway, I'll check on him and call you back within six or so minutes." Matt then recalled and asked. "Where are you?"
"In Guildford, I texted the address to you, but then I remembered your phone was left in the car." Telling him the address he knew he didn't have to tell him to write it down. Wammy's don't have to. "I'm with Light, we're waiting on some instruction from L."
Light wondered when he said he'd let Mello in on it, but he returned to reading his book without even a muted show of word.
"Do you think you could hack my phone line and find the last placement L was at?"
"Hey, there's an idea, yeah," Matt told him he'd get back to him with information of Near and L's location.
Mello took in a breath then sighed. "I hate sitting around,"
"You can't pace on that leg, want me to wrap that for you?"
Mello looked disgusted at the thought. "It's fine. Thanks." He limped over to the window watching the shadows of night lean over the city. "Have you eaten yet? I'll go get us something, what do you want?"
"I don't care, I'll eat whatever."
"Okay." His handicap didn't stop him from exiting the building with the latent psychopath as quickly as he could.
"I'll take the call if Matt calls back before you return,"
"Yeah," he waved a hand to that then closed the door.
Light closed his book then walked to the window watching Mello depart. He was even more concerned and even more interested in what was going on. Why did they insist on being so secretive? Is he really such a threat to them?
Going upstairs he walked into the bedroom L told him to go to at nine. He looked at the small bedside table and wondered if he should sneak a peek at L's plans while Mello is out of the house. He could hold onto it and tell Mello where whatever it is should be, then use it once he's off and searching for it. It's better than having him swipe it.
Rolling back the carpet he then grabbed the small table and lifted it up. The floor beneath the legs was stuck to it and pulled free from the rest of the wooden planks to reveal a secret space. He could feel his pulse quicken as he looked down into the dark space.
0 0 0
The puppet fell limp against the table as L watched the scrawny Beyond come sailing over the railing of the catwalk to land noisily on the floor with an inhuman clatter. It was at that point the detective realized that he'd made a mistake, and as with any mistake it was costly.
The assumed doll reanimated and stood up on the chair. Grabbing the back of the armchair for support he swung his right leg around the seat landing a kick to the side of L's head, he then rolling his hips like a gymnast on the Pommel Horse and expertly slammed his other foot into the sideways staggered detective. Beyond swiftly released the back of the chair ending his routine landing both feet on the floor just behind L. The detective couldn't recover before taking Beyond's entwined hands balled together as a fists to the center of his back.
L wasn't going down for the count from that, and he countered the blow by shooting his long legs upward like a bucking bronco, powerfully kicking his opponent under the chin. The capoierista combined the kick with another counter by shoving his feet between Beyond's legs since the aggressive childhood was thrown off balance while trying to keep himself standing up straight after his head snapped back from the kick to the chin. L parted his legs in a spread eagle causing the deserter's to splayed out in the same which knocked him to his butt, giving L a chance to get the upper hand and stand.
He was battle ready; with only ten minutes left before 9 o'clock he had to work to stay alive or perhaps Beyond had deduced correctly and he was really only delaying a death that was going to happen, though not by his hands, but Kira's. Perhaps the relationship had changed him more than it had changed Light? He would soon see.
Beyond slid a knife from his pant leg and hurled it at the detective then another and another as they were dodged by the intended target. Though he's younger than L by a couple of years he's bigger than him and using that he got up from the floor and charged him like a bull for a red cape. L took the hit but held Beyond's arms down as he pushed him with ease across the room and into a table where a casket has been placed.
The table fell over and knocked the heavy wood to the floor, luckily L's plan had worked and he was able to grab one of the stray knives that he'd dodged from the floor. Had he just reached for them Beyond would have attacked him, he'd never assume he would go for them if he's recovering a blow.
Beyond growled when the knife stabbed into his side, nicking his upper rib when it was turned then pulled free though diagonally rather than straight out. L shouted in pain at the returned serve that sank Beyond's teeth deep into his shoulder. The inhuman murderer let go due to crying out in pain because of the knife cutting clean through his cheek as it parted flesh with ease and bashed into teeth in search of exit from the other side of his face. L was punched repeatedly to the side of his head before he was grabbed up by the collar and lifted off his feet and thrown over the toppled table.
The detective groaned from landing on something blunt. Looking at it through the darkness he saw a marionette of himself lying lifelessly half in and half out of the coffin. Stilling himself on the floor beside it, he hoped Beyond would make the wrong choice as he walked over the table up onto the coffin and down to the floor. Removing another knife from his pant leg he points the tip at them as he said.
"Eeny meeny miny moe,"
Picking up the dummy he turned its head abruptly enough to show that he'd intended to snap L's neck, when in fact he was releasing a compartment of knives. Kicking the real L over onto his back he tossed the dummy down over top of him then stomped on its back which presses the cutlery deep into the detective's body just as his watch beeped.
It's 9 o'clock.
Light stood in the bedroom over by a mirror where the light of the moon glowed brightly enough to see the package he'd fished from the hole in the floor. He wanted discretion in case Mello was looking for him. Why make it easy? There is a letter stuck to the front of the package that has his name on it. He opened it and read it.
Light,
I want you to study the photo attached to this letter and write the name on the back of the photo down in the notebook. He's a madman and he's going to kill not only me, but you as well, if he isn't stopped. Afterwards… please, wait for me there.
L.
'What a strange note,' Light turned the folder around then tears open the package.
Inside was a notebook that read: Death Note on the front. The notebook has been placed inside of a ziplock baggie as if it were a 'this is your last chance to change your mind' option. Light pulled the plastic open and pulled the notebook out.
It was as if a bomb had gone off in his head! All things pain and bliss swarmed around in the explosion as memory upon memory came shoving into his mind. The book almost dented with perfect imprints of his fingertips as he held onto it with all of his might. Light felt a tug at the corner of his lips as he held his beloved notebook in his hands one again. He looked like a naughty child who'd snuck a gift from under the Christmas tree and used it discretely in the night then returning it under the tree perfectly by morning, with no one the wiser. Then the note from L hit the floor…
Light looked down at it with pause. 'L.' Opening the notebook he remembered L's name half written in Rem's notebook. But, he paused. The simple pen that was in the package along with the notebook hovered with need to write down something- anything! 'Mihael Keehl.' He recalled Mello's real name. 'Nate River.' He growled Near's. He could kill any one of them. And he'd only have to write it down.
Taking the notebook to a desk across the room, he switched on the sconce light above the desk and set the book down on the tabletop. Then he wrote…
'Beyond Birthday.'
0 0 0
"I'll bet you thought you had a chance," Beyond stomped the marionette once again then again. Ceasing the pounding he bent over and ground out. "Oh well,"
"I'll bet you thought you chose correctly," L launched up from the floor where the Beyond doll had originally fallen and stabbing feverishly into the murderer's chest with two knives, one going in on each side imitating pincers. "Oh well,"
Beyond had meant to shove L off of him but suddenly he clenched his chest at a pain before collapsing forward against the detective's body. L looked surprised, not by Beyond's death but that he actually was killed. Light came through!
Thin hands held the deserter by the cheeks and he raised his head to look at him, or what's become of him. He looks so much like himself... in some ways.
"Could we have been friends, Backup?" L blinked thoughtfully then corrected himself. "Beyond..." He thought about Near and Mello, so much like himself and Beyond. "I'm sorry."
"So'm I." Beyond wrapped his arms around L and pulled him into a tight hug.
L thought that Beyond had planned to break his spine or even crack his ribs, what he hadn't expected was to be pierced with what felt like thousands of little spikes. B laughed merrily in the detective's face as he kept a good hold of him and stood from the floor. At this angle the spikes stuck in deeper causing L to spit and sputter blood from his mouth.
Beyond spun around the room as if he was dancing, and he sang softly a song he made up himself on the spot. "He called me sooorrooow, but his care was misplaaaced, now his life is faaadin' against an iron maaaideeeennn!" He laughed again, dancing on red rain drops dripping at his feet from L's limp body.
"Beyond, please," the detective whispered into his ear, it was about all he could do as Beyond's song had stated his life is fading. "I can't die,"
"Oh, and why's that?" he continued to whirl humming now and then. "Because people need you? People need an L, but not specifically you. So, you can dieeee."
"Light needs me," L whispered then coughed. "You need me."
That got him to stop whirling and whistling. "I'm listening?"
"We never got to know each other. I wanted to know you…" He tried wrapping his legs around B's waist to lessen the pain and remove the spikes punctured into him but he fell heavily back down.
"You… did?"
This had to work. Match crazy with crazy create a scenario and sometimes you come out ahead. "Please call for help, someone tried to kill me,"
Beyond looked confused by those words. "You're bleeding," Removing L from his grip he held the detective bridal style and carefully walked him over to the armchair setting him down. "I'll get whoever did this,"
"N… call an ambulan.." He coughed up a spat of blood and struggled to catch his breath around the pooling liquid.
"Of course," he dashed off to get the phone and with it he called for an ambulance. But when the operator spoke to him the moment of sanity lapse faded and he dropped the receiver. "I'll be off now,"
The last thing L saw was a large pair of wings growing from a spiked Frankenstein's back before everything went black.
Light was in the middle of wondering what had happened to him when the mirror caught his attention. Something was fazing through, covering his reflection with a pale face under a swath of black hair.
'Ryuk.' Light awaited his shinigami's full arrival.
But it wasn't Ryuk's grinning, skeleton rat face he wound up looking into. But another's. He took a step back to allow this new shinigami entrance to the room.
"Kira…" Beyond sat perched on top of the writing desk. "Word on the street is that you tried to kill me,"
The serial murderer, Kira, blinked at the statement. 'Kill him?' Noticing the name he'd written in the notebook he looked into the death god's impossibly dark brown eyes, eyes that could look a blood red in the right light, and wondered out loud. "Beyond Birthday?"
"Not much good that'll do when you don't know what I look like," he raised a snatch of flesh up from his patchwork skin-quilt of a face and held it there. "Does this help? Hmm? Wanna try for it again?" He took Light's hand with the ink pen still within it and in the notebook he wrote down his name, never taking his eyes from Light Yagami and Light never taking his eyes from Beyond Birthday. He who looks much like L.
40 seconds and Beyond froze dead. Then he cracked his neck. "Well, that didn't work… What will you do now, Kira?"
Mello was walking up to the house with a bag of cheeseburgers and a carton of double mocha cappuccino coffees for them when the window broke from upstairs. He jumped back when looking up; dropping the bags at his side just incase he had to catch Light from falling- he was possibly shoved from the home, because he doubted the pretty boy, Mr. Perfect would jump to his death due to pressure of responsibility. Although it wouldn't really do much for damage control, at least the jerk wouldn't be dead.
But rather than seeing a battered Light falling to his doom, he sees a the strangest sight of Beyond Birthday fleeing the home carrying Light Yagami… Who's holding a Death Note…
He's done it. He resurrected Kira.
To be continued... Or the end?
x x x
Commentary: Thank you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed it and will read the next story I do- not sure when- even though most people aren't Near fans I dig him. Have a good weekend! I'll be doing a Yu Yu Hakusho and probably Final Fantasy after this.
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Another Note: Crime Scenes