Truth and Justice

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

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Truth and Justice

Chapter 2: Innocence

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The soft click of a gun's hammer was a distinct, metallic sound. One that Lidner had grown quite used to hearing in her lifetime, first as a Secret Service agent and later as Near's Watari. She was one of the "American Officials" that had witnessed Light's supposed death.

She stiffened when she heard that soft click, and very carefully turned her head to get a look at her attacker. When she did, her gaze widened. "Impossible," she whispered, rising, turning quickly so that her back was to the desk, reaching for a weapon that wouldn't be there.

She cursed softly, raised her hand when the finger tightened on the trigger. She knew damn well the man pointing a gun at her wasn't a good shot, couldn't be, but even a child could hit his mark at point blank range.

His hair had changed, his body had grown hard with muscle, but the eyes, the strange eyes would never change. The way that mop of hair curled into his eyes, the way they narrowed when he was growing suspicious.

"It isn't easy to fool me," the words were soft, but deadly.

"I never tried to fool you," she replied steadily. "I don't know how you got here, but if it's help you're looking for, you have it."

The smile she received in reply sent a vicious chill down her spine.

"I only want your signature," Near replied, reaching back with one hand, pulling a small slip of paper from his back pocket. "Write your name on it, and choose the way you die. If you don't..." his smile was dark. "Well, let's just say I learned a few interesting tricks in prison."

Lidner swallowed heavily, but she took the slip of paper, turning slowly and picking a pen up from her desk. She looked down at the paper, wrote her name and, in what she thought would be a stroke of genius, gave the cause of death as 'old age'. Bold now, she straightened and offered the slip of paper to Near.

He took it, glanced at it and laughed. "Let's see if you were ever meant to die that way," and then he began counting backwards. When he reached zero, Lidner collapsed, clutching her chest. "Guess not," Near dropped the piece of Death Note into a mug and set it alight. He left a simple note on the legal pad Lidner had been writing in when he found her.

When he left the room, he didn't look back. He tucked the empty gun into his boot and walked quietly out of the small office building he'd tracked Lidner to, climbed into a simple black sedan and pulled out of the parking lot. He smiled when he heard Ryuk laughing in the back seat, cast a glance into the rear view mirror.

"Now, let's lead L to the real Kira, shall we?" he asked lightly, merging onto the interstate and lent his mind to the task at hand.

"Witness Protection. You're telling me, Mr. President, that you released one of the single most notorious serial killers in history into your Witness Protection Program and you refuse to tell me where she is currently located?" The fury in Light's voice was hardly containable. It was one thing to have a criminal slip through your fingers. It was quite another for that criminal to be set free by an arrogant world leader with a history of belittling homosexuals.

"That's exactly what I'm saying, L. She gave us so much information on other murderers that there was no way to cut her a different deal. She would have been killed within a week if she'd stayed in prison. We have her under close surveillance and she can't so much as scratch her ass without me getting a memo on it," The man replied blandly. "We are bringing her in for you as we speak, you'll simply have to be patient."

Light took a moment to look at L, ignoring the muffled conversation taking place on the other side of the line.

"We have an update," the president said after a moment. "Lidner was found dead in her office. She appears to have suffered a heart attack, and there was a note left with the body. We will have a copy of it faxed to you shortly."

"Is the note written on a piece of paper, or an entire notebook?" L asked before Light could fire off any sort of accusation.

There was another moment of muttering. "It was found written on a legal pad with Lidner's own writing above it."

"Then a photocopy will be sufficient. Thank you, Mr. President," and L cut the line off just as Light was opening his mouth to speak. "It is best to maintain positive relations with heads of nations, Light."

"Doesn't mean I can't get angry," Light snapped back, sighing deeply and leaning back in his seat.

"Maybe this means they'll tell us where Near was last," Matt said hopfully. "But I don't know who he'd go after next. She's the one that got him caught."

"I'm going to look a little closer at Near's kills," Mello said softly. "It's something to do while we're waiting on the Americans, anyway."

Light ran a hand through his hair, giving a soft sigh and rising to pace for a while. "The algorithm hasn't produced anything higher than we would expect for when Kira is inactive. I don't think he's started killing, with the possible exception of Lidner."

"You don't think he killed her?" L dropped five sugar cubes into his tea.

"No," Light agreed. "I'm willing to bet that he forced her to write her own name, and I don't think he would have given her the whole Death Note to do it, either. He would have given her a piece, destroyed it at the scene. You should ask if there were any unusual traces of ash found at the scene."

"I will request that information when the time comes. For now, it seems the fax is coming in," L rose from his seat, crossing to the small fax machine in the hotel room, lifting the page between two fingers and squinting it.

Light came up behind him, letting his gaze rest on Near's message. "That... is peculiar."

"And very, very dangerous," L replied softly. He returned to his computer, pressed a button on the microphone. "Watari. Determine the location of B."

When both Matt and Mello stopped what they were doing to stare at L, Light knew he was missing something big.

"The B?" Matt all but whispered the name.

"The crazy one?" Mello put in.

L sighed deeply. "I had hoped that I had left Beyond Birthday in my past, but it seems that I simply cannot shake him. A bit like Kira is for you, Light."

"It seems that you need to fill me in on this little chapter of your past," Light decided.

"Yes, it would seem so, wouldn't it?" L sighed and drew his legs up into his chair, quietly retelling the tale of how Naomi Misora had helped him with a particularly vexing case.

A few moments after he finished, Watari returned the call. "B was reported dead in a hospital fire a little over ten years ago. His body was never found."

"Which means he is still alive," L replied. "Thank you, Watari." He turned to look at Matt and Mello. "See what you can find out about someone who entered the mob at around that time. He would have peculiar habits, but be extremely adept in killing."

"You used the same name he did," Light said with a frown.

L shrugged. "It was a useful alias, and the first one that came to mind when it came time to enter the case."

"I made you think of that... person?" Light shook his head.

"I thought of you as Kira. As Kira, you reminded me of B. You were extremely clever, very difficult to trace, even though I had known it was you almost as soon as your name entered my mind. A similar problem," L sighed. "There is no sense in being so upset about it."

"I'll be upset about whatever I want," Light cocked an eyebrow, turning away to pick up the next paper that came through the fax machine, also from the American authorities. He frowned at the report. "So that's why they didn't want to cooperate. She told them about the Death Note."

"God forbid anything with any sort of power fall into another country's hands," Matt scoffed as he hung up. "I've got a thread on a guy, eleven years ago, got involved with the mob. Did a few brutal killings and they decided he deserved to get all that nasty, full-body scarring taken care of. He got the best, state of the art plastic surgery and remodeling techniques. Brand new eyelids, too. I asked the guy to get a picture to my office, we'll have it in a few hours."

"Awful willing, isn't he?" L raised an eyebrow.

"Let's just say I kept his ass out of a sling a few times," Matt grinned. "I don't let my sources get named, so he's got nothing to lose. Besides, he's practically running the whole operation now, so the information's coming right from the top. He said the guy cashed out right around the time Near got locked up. Just took his money and vanished. He had enough to get a new face and still live more than comfortably for a few years."

"Well that's good," Mello replied, "because I've got another little tidbit. Most of the criminals that went down when Near was Kira? Their names were published separately from their pictures. It was one of the anti-Kira precautions conservative news agencies picked up after the first Kira emerged. The name never appeared in an article that contained a picture of the accused."

"Which implies that Lidner had the shinigami eyes," Light agreed.

"Then why didn't she kill Watari first?" L narrowed his eyes. "Why not kill the only one that could have caught her writing the names, if she could see it? Ownership of the Death Note has always remained with you, Light."

"And Near knew Wammy's name to begin with," Mello replied quietly.

And that, L decided, was a very, very large loophole in their case. His mind returned to that day, so many years ago, when he had arrested Near at gunpoint.

When he had received a drawing from an artist, a rendition of someone nondescript. A simple, forgettable man that had claimed to work as an intermediary for one Hideki Ryuga.

"Matt, I need to know exactly how much money B had with him when he left," L said softly, and began chewing on his thumb restlessly. It was a good thing he had taken proper precautions already.

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A/N: And we have the first major turn of events. =3