Law and Right

Warnings for this chapter: Violence, language, WIP.
SPOILERS: All manga, all anime, L's true name.

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Law and Right

Chapter 24: Revelations

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This, Ryuk decided, had been his best idea yet. He hovered in the church, laughing loudly as he watched Matt, Mello and Light move into position, make their communication checks. He didn't know how it would end yet, but he had his suspicions, and he hoped he was surprised when the end came around. Dealing with L and Light had always been a surprise and that was why he'd chosen the next Kira as he had.

The information Ryuk had given to the new Kira was accurate, as always, but it never included the surprises Light liked to throw into things, and Ryuk knew that the three had been scheming whenever he was gone. It had all the makings for a great, exciting ending, and his laughter rose higher and higher.

"Shut the hell up, Ryuk," Light snarled without taking his gaze off his scope.

"You don't own the Death Note anymore, Toshio-kun," Ryuk hyuked back. "But this is gonna be good."

"Then don't distract me, so I can make it even better," Light scolded. "It's like you've completely forgotten what I'm capable of."

"Hyuk, hyuk. Oh, I remember. That's why I chose who I did."

Light could feel the grin on Ryuk's face and suppressed a shiver. "Fucking creepy shinigami," he growled to himself, then fell silent as Ryuzaki spoke into a radio, cutting into their frequency.

"Mello, Matt, Kira. It is in your best interests to turn yourselves in now."

There was silence on the line as the three inside the church switched frequencies. "We'll hold. Next frequency is C," Mello said and they returned to the original frequency.

"We decline," Matt said cheerfully.

"Very well, then we will be forced to take you," Ryuzaki said dryly and gave the signal.

As the people from the southerly cars began their run for the building, Mello and Matt abandoned their windows to their second posts.

Light took careful aim, fired off one shot, then two. The tires on the northern car burst loudly and one person left the safety of the vehicle, joined the other four on their way in.

That was when Near made his move. He pulled up his own radio. "Watari. Execute the plan."

Fourty seconds passed and by that time, Mello, Matt and Light were being held at gunpoint. They were surrounded by the taskforce members, plus Aiber and Wedy. Light wasn't quite sure when Ryuzaki had called them in, but he was smiling as he removed his helmet. "Long time no see."

It was all he got out before his expression changed. He gasped, dropping the helmet and falling to his knees, holding his chest and grimacing. Matsuda had gathered Light into his arms by the time he closed his eyes.

"Ryuzaki! Ryuzaki! Light's dead!" Matsuda all but shrieked into the radio.

There was a soft click from the back seat as Ryuzaki pulled back the hammer on the gun he was carrying. "Thank you, Matsuda-san," he said softly, his eyes narrowed behind the helmet. "Watari, your status?"

"I've got her in handcuffs now," Watari replied.

"Mogi-san, Aizawa-san, please come down here and restrain Kira," Ryuzaki said softly.

"Kira?" Wedy asked, bewildered as Aizawa and Mogi left the building.

"Near is Kira," Ryuzaki said firmly. "You may release Matt and Mello," he added almost as an afterthought. "And Light, when he comes around."

Light groaned weakly. "Light!" Matsuda yelled, hugging the younger man tightly.

"Ah... Matsuda, stop," he coughed, rubbing his chest and slowly trying to sit up. "Shit. It hurts."

"That is to be expected, Yagami-kun. Your chest is injured," Ryuzaki replied over the radio as Mogi secured Near's wrists in cuffs.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do, Ryuzaki," Aiber said dryly, looking down at the impossible.

"Yes, but that can wait until we return to the headquarters," Ryuzaki agreed. "Watari, did you find Yagami-san's name in the Death Note?"

"No. The accident appears to have been natural," Watari replied easily.

"Accident? What happened?" Light asked as he was helped to his feet, shaking his head weakly and rubbing at his chest.

"Your father was in an accident after you were kidnapped. He is in a coma at the hospital. I'm sorry, Light," and the softness of Ryuzaki's voice spoke volumes.

"I'll want to see him, if I can," Light sighed.

"After you've been given a physical," Ryuzaki agreed.

Ryuk was laughing still. "Just gets better and better every time, hyuk, hyuk."

An hour later, the taskforce, minus Near, his Watari and Soichiro, were all gathered on the main floor of the headquarters in the sitting area. Tea was served all around and Ryuzaki patiently gave his explanation.

"The turning point in the investigation was when Mello's name appeared on the test scores list," Ryuzaki said, not even noticing that Light had curled an arm around him. "I knew that Mello would never do this, even to mislead me, but I couldn't equate Near with doing it, especially when he had left a way to be contacted."

"And I wouldn't have ranked myself second-best in the nation, either," Mello snarled.

"So you brought Near in to watch him closer," Light added, giving a small nod. "Just like you did with me. Keep the potential enemies close. Let them know they're being suspected."

"Near had used a civilian to transport the piece of Death Note to Sakura TV. Or rather, he had his Watari use the civilian, giving orders so that he wouldn't have to dirty himself with writing in the Death Note. That was our delivery man. He turned up dead the next day, a suicide," Ryuzaki said softly. "He also knew that Misa was the second Kira and took care to take her out of the picture because she would have happily done the eye trade again if it had become possible."

"She had proved a major problem for me when I was Kira, and Near studied the case extensively. Enough that he would have easily realized what a difficult variable Misa was to control," Light's fingers slipped into Ryuzaki's hair absently.

"He had already put her under surveillance and simply killed her when he saw she was picked up by Mogi-san," Ryuzaki continued. "Then he gave me a message. Decide. The next day, when Mello's name turned up, it was quite clear that one of the three had become Kira."

"Then we found out they had left, Mello and Matt first, with Near following behind," Light smiled faintly. "After speaking with Roger Ruvie, we discovered that Mello had, in fact, given a reason for leaving that was only to be given to Ryuzaki. Matt had seen Near with an unusual notebook, and when he hacked Near's computer, he discovered that Near had been looking up criminals."

"Yeah, so he told me about it and we decided to look into the old Kira case," Mello leaned back, put his boot-clad feet up on the coffee table, crossed them when he watched Aiber wince in sympathy for the glass table. "We went to America, to see if the last Kira really did die. Obviously, we found the yanks that L paid off and managed to get a name."

"Took an awful big chunk of change," Matt grumbled, stabbing his PSP with his thumbs as he fought a particularly nasty boss.

"We came to Japan as soon as Roger let us know we'd been asked after. We didn't beat Near to the headquarters, so we gave them information on the baseball players we'd discovered were dropping like flies," Mello snapped a piece of chocolate off his bar.

"At that time, Near was already in confinement, but the killings had not stopped. It was at Near's release that Yagami-kun mentioned the idea of being Kira by Proxy," Ryuzaki continued.

"I suspected Near from the beginning, simply because he pressed the Mello angle too hard. I had used Misa as a proxy during my own confinement, so why would Near be unable to do the same? In fact, why would he even bother writing the names if he understood the implications before he ever wrote a single name? I didn't have the benefit of that knowledge, nor anyone I would have trusted it with, even if I did," Light turned his gaze to Ryuzaki with a soft smile.

"It was Matsuda who found the true red herring, though. After examining the baseball deaths, he was able to discover the connection to the NHN television station. Near was attempting to frame Kiyomi Takada, or at least get us looking at her while he was in confinement. After looking closely at the data, the baseball players had not started dying until the day after Near had been confined," Ryuzaki said calmly. "That was when I began having Watari keep tabs on Near's Watari."

"A woman by the name of Halle Lidner, a former member of the American Secret Service," Mello supplied. "She isn't afraid of getting her little hands dirty. Roger gave me the information when I told him what I knew about Near."

"He also passed the information along, securely, to Watari. My Watari," Ryuzaki smiled faintly. "Through Roger, we arranged for you, Light, to be kidnapped."

"And you informed me of this by passing a note into my hand on the rooftop, where the surveillance is weakest. I began taking walks with my father on a schedule, so that it would be easy for Mello to pick me up without alerting Near," Light smiled faintly. "I must admit, that gun was a nice touch," he nodded to Matt.

He grinned. "I don't get much occasion to bring the big boys out. You can't blame me for it."

"It was a good thing you did. Ryuk was in the van," Light replied. "Keeping tabs on us, bringing information back to Lidner."

"Meanwhile, we as an investigative team 'failed' to find Mello's new hideout," Ryuzaki replied. "Done in part by a filtering program I had Watari add to the network, blocking all user names except for Near's. We also had him 'accidentally' reveal Mello's location to Lidner, as if he were trying to protect Mello on a personal level."

"And then he found the hideout by killing some little old lady," Mello rolled his eyes.

"Who had done nothing wrong at all. I checked," Ryuzaki pressed his thumb to his mouth, let his gaze slide to Light. "And then we moved in on the base."

"There was a small charge placed inside my body armor, over my heart. It would deliver a shock powerful enough to make my collapse seem real. The control, however, was with Mello, so I wouldn't be able to brace myself against it," Light rubbed his chest a little.

"So, when Watari witnessed the name being written, I hit the charge. We were all suited with them, except L, and each person held someone else's trigger. It all depended on what name Lidner wrote first in the fake Death Note," Mello put in. "Watari had already replaced it, once he discovered where she was hiding it."

"Lidner wrote Light's name first, so he was the one who had the false heart attack. Watari passed the signal over a secondary communication system, thirty seconds were counted, and Light was shocked," Ryuzaki said smoothly. "After Matsuda confirmed the false death, I put Near at gunpoint and that was the end of it."

"You just had to go for the dramatic wake-up," Matsuda rolled his eyes at Light.

"I didn't fake passing out," Light replied with a frown. "The shock was stronger than I had anticipated."

"That was the point. The shock was actually set higher than I had said," Ryuzaki pushed his upper lip to the side with his thumb, giving an impish shrug when Light glared at him. "Making it appear real was necessary."

"And here we are," Aizawa finished, sitting back in his chair with a sigh.

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A/N: And so the Kira Arc nears its end, just two chapters ahead of schedule. =3 I had been hoping to make each arc 13 chapters long, but I think this one will only be 12. Also, when I complete the fic, I'll post two bonus chapters. One will contain the origin of each chapter title and the other will be a timeline of events during the Kira Arc. I hope you were all pleased with who Kira turned out to be! And I also hope it was difficult for you to guess before it happened. :3