Truth and Justice

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

~!~!~!~!~!~

Truth and Justice

Chapter 18: Doppelganger

~!~!~!~!~!~

Pink lines, scattered across his body, stood out starkly against his skin. They were healing, and well, but the scars still looked out of place, like they couldn't possibly be his.

L stepped out of the shower behind him, looked into the mirror, met his husband's gaze. "The difference between the prey and the predator," he said softly, "is action and reaction."

Light frowned softly as L began toweling off and did the same, sighing as he ruffled the towel in his hair, dressed. He wore long sleeves at the orphanage, long sleeves and pants, to hide the scars from the children.

The questions, he had discovered, were not things he handled well. He went to the computer, verified his identity, logged on. He scanned the messages, replied to most of them, until one in particular caught his eye.

A strange case, to say the least. One that Near was looking into, about a serial kidnapper who looked to be a copycat of what Beyond Birthday had done to him. He only kept them for a month, didn't cut them nearly as much, but he followed through on the rape at the end of it, then let them go.

He sent a message to Near and had a reply within five minutes. He pressed his thumb to his lips, turned his gaze to L and blinked when he realized where his thumb was. He smiled a little, pulling his hand away from his mouth. "L, I'm going to America for a little while."

"To work with Near?" L looked up from the book he was paging through, related to yet another case.

"Yeah. It shouldn't take too long to resolve," Light turned his gaze back to the computer, sent another message off to Near. "Do you want to come with me?"

"No. You will need to do this yourself, and Near will know what to do should you have a panic attack," L replied. "I'll miss you."

"Me, too," Light rose, going over to kiss him softly. "I'll leave today."

"Be safe. I'll be here when you return," L promised, smiled at him.

Light kissed him again, let his hand linger on L's cheek for a moment before he pulled away. "You, too," and he turned to begin packing. He didn't need much. He had dyed his hair to keep people from recognizing him, put his belongings into a shoulder bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Love you."

"Love you, too," L smiled. "Your tickets will be waiting at the airport. Use the Toshio set."

There was that charming smile Light was known for, and then he was gone, swiping the proper set of identification and heading out to the airport. Ten hours later, he landed in New Jersey and took a train into New York City. From there, he grabbed a cab and proceeded to the location Near had given him. He scanned himself through security, stepped into the elevator.

When he reached the main floor, he strode over to where Near was stacking matches. "Thank you, for letting me work with you on this one."

"You would have investigated independently if I hadn't, and that would be counterproductive in this case," Near replied, narrowing his eyes as he placed another match. "Please look over the case file I have compiled for you."

Light sat down and got to work.

Light sighed deeply. "Knowing the how and not the who is infuriating."

"Better than knowing who and not being able to prove it. That would really be a dose of your own medicine," Near smirked faintly from where he was slowly assembling five separate Lego sets into a single structure.

The glare didn't have quite as much sting as Light would have liked when he focused it on Near. "I had a supernatural weapon. This guy just has flesh and bone," and then it clicked. "Medicine!" He played footage of a capture they had managed to find surveillance of. "That's it. Pressure syringes. They're not available to the general public yet, not even to very many hospitals because they're all too bulky to be more useful than traditional syringes."

Near looked up, raised an eyebrow. "Medical researcher?"

"Possibly. Let's look up places that are working on developing that kind of thing," Light replied and began looking into it. Within an hour they had a list of employees of the three companies currently working on developing pressure syringes. Eliminating those that were researching a bulky form for it, they focused on the one remaining company.

Two days later, they had whittled down the number of employees to just one.

"Manhattan Medical," Light muttered, frowning when he pulled up the image of their perpetrator. "Got you," his frown slowly formed into a smirk. Was their prey really that stupid? He actually worked on the team that was developing the palm-sized syringe. "Idiot! He must have snuck one out somewhere, or made one at home. Fits with the sores all the victims had."

"Yes," Near agreed, reading the report from over Light's shoulder. "It seems that the problem with the palm size unit is regulating the amount of pressure delivering the medicine, but if you don't care about inflicting another injury, it would be just fine."

"He's the only one with access to the area where it was developed who fits the profiles. What do you want to bet his address isn't bogus?" Light smirked.

"You'll want to suit up if you're going with the FBI. There is transportation in the garage for you," Near replied.

"I'll go now while the warrant clears," Light agreed, heading into another room to get into combat gear, complete with a gun. He went down to the garage, into the small black car that was waiting for him and fought his way through the New York traffic to the FBI post where he was to meet them. He switched cars, settling into the back of an FBI sedan.

"ID," The large man in the driver's seat ordered. Light held up a simple card Near had given him, watched as the man scanned it. "Yagami Light. Almost didn't recognize you."

"Small changes can deceive more than large ones," Light shrugged. "I'm not here to get recognized, I'm here to put a criminal in a cage."

"And because he's a copycat," another man, this one lithe like a whip, replied.

After a moment of hesitation, Light nodded. "I won't say that has nothing to do with it."

"Anthony Carter," the large man introduced himself. "This is Stephen Loud."

"A pleasure," Light replied as they pulled away from the curb, back into the traffic. "We have a plan for this?"

"We'll go in, restrain the suspect. You'll come in when we call the all clear and handle the vic," Loud replied, glancing into the back. "I knew Penber and Misora."

Light's eyebrows shot up and he let out a soft sigh. "I'm sorry. They were both good agents."

"And how would you know that?" Carter demanded.

"Because together, they nearly caught me. Misora, especially. She had the true scope of my power all figured out, could tie me to Penber. If she'd been five minutes earlier or later, it would have ended then and there," Light replied, leaning back in the seat. "L made the connection himself, but it took a while. Misora would have broken the case wide open and had me in a cage inside a week of visiting the police."

"She was sharp as hell," Loud agreed, sighing softly. "Anyway, we have the locals playing backup. They'll move in and surround the residence when we get there. Have your weapon drawn in case he makes a run for it."

"I have no intention of getting killed today," Light agreed.

"Don't fire unless he's damn well trying to kill you," Loud added. "You have no idea the kind of paperwork associated with that."

"I can only imagine," Light smiled lopsidedly. "I've worked with the FBI before."

"As L?" Carter asked, merging into another lane of traffic.

"With him," Light corrected. "He and I are a single unit."

"And yet you're here with Near," Loud pointed out.

"As you pointed out, this case has special interest to me, and L is otherwise occupied. He couldn't spare time from the rest of his obligations," Light shrugged. "It's the first time I've worked a case without him since I was Kira."

"Sounds like a big deal," Loud frowned as they got stuck behind a city bus, belching dark smoke.

"Being out in the field with people I don't know is more frightening than it is dangerous," Light replied quietly. "I don't go outside much, after all that's happened. Three times I've been attacked or kidnapped on city streets, and I've only been on them twenty times or so. Almost always with someone I trust."

"Well, despite what you've done in the past, you're safe with us," Carter said gruffly, pulling around the bus. "We're almost there."

The raid was quick. The man went down fast and quiet, and Light was with the victim as soon as the cuffs were on. He freed her deftly, gave her a careful once over and helped her out to the EMTs, promised her that it would be all right.

"Watari," she whispered as a blanket was wrapped around her.

Light's eyebrows jerked upwards, but he smiled. "Yeah. You're safe now. I'll make sure Roger knows."

"H, my letter is H," she told him, squeezed his hand. "He took me yesterday. I lost my briefcase. It was white and green."

"I understand. N and I will take care of it, so don't let it worry you. I'll make sure to contact you as soon as we've got it back," Light assured.

"N? I thought you worked with L," she pointed out.

"Usually, yes. This case had special interest for me, so I asked N if he would let me help," Light smiled. "Don't worry. He's more than capable."

"Right. Of course. Sorry, it just surprised me. I'll go now, to the hospital. Get checked out," she ran a shaky hand through her hair.

"Just remember," Light said softly, tapping her arm below the four cuts he'd given her in captivity. "Tiger stripes, not zebra."

That, H thought, was the weirdest thing she'd ever been told, but when she looked at the bloody cuts it made her smile. "Tiger stripes," she agreed. "Just like yours."

And his smile made her feel even better. She was carted off into the ambulance then and Light pulled out his cell phone, turned off his earpiece and microphone.

"N here."

"The last victim abducted was H. When she was taken, she dropped a briefcase. Code white and green on the homing device," Light replied.

"I'll start tracing it immediately. H was working on dismantling a drug ring, if I'm not mistaken," Near tugged at his hair as he found the homing signal for the briefcase, engaged it.

"Why would that have code white information?" Light frowned.

"International, celebrity drug ring."

"Ah."

"I've got a lock on the briefcase's location. Integrity check comes back positive with attempts at tampering. I'll send you the coordinates so you can fill Carter and Loud in on the way to pick it up," Near confirmed.

"Fill them in?" the blinking was almost audible.

"I trust them," was all Near said, but it was enough.

"Right," Light replied.

"Raito," Near smirked when the line went dead. He knew that one would have Light rolling his eyes. He transmitted the coordinates to the GPS system on Light's phone.

Half an hour later, Light arrived back at the headquarters, briefcase handcuffed to himself as he rode up in the elevator.

"Any problems?" Near asked when Light walked in.

"No. Someone tried to break into it, threw it in a dumpster."

"Which explains why you smell," Near smirked.

"Do you really enjoy insulting me so much?" Light frowned as he unlocked the handcuffs, set the briefcase on a table.

"It's a small pleasure," Near agreed. "A small way to show my irritation with the part you played in my capture and arrest."

"Well, I'm sorry. I'm not perfect, no one is. A mistake was made and there's really nothing we can do to make it right," Light shook his head.

"I can think of one thing," and Near's tone of voice frightened Light a little.

~!~!~!~!~!~

A/N: The next chapter will (finally) be the last! These stories are addictive for me, so there will be another one, Matt and Mello centric. Not a sequel so much as a companion story. =3

Adele: Awww, I'm so glad! I try to write at least one chapter a day, just to keep the story flowing properly through my mind so I can actually get it out. If I wait too long between writing pieces, I tend to lose the ideas between the beginning and the main plot arc.