End Transmission

AN: This chapter has split POV for obvious reasons, i will only tell you that Matt's POV happens in time before Mello's. May be days, may be hours or minutes.

Suggested Listening: Diamond Eyes by Deftones

Interlude: Part Three

Mello shoved his keys into the jacket and waited irritably in the elevator as it rose to correct floor. He had been gone longer than intended and was tired, pissed off, and in desperate need of a shower. But he still held a devious grin.

He would soon be implementing a plan to attack L, and he would win no matter the cost. He entered the security code as he opened the apartment door, already hearing Matt's furious typing for whatever game it was that he was playing.

Mello immediately knew something was wrong when he spotted Near typing away at Matt's laptop with the redhead nowhere in sight. No matter how close Matt was with them he still never allowed them access to his laptop willingly when they each had their own.

His eyes narrowed as Near glanced up at him for a second only for the single eye to quickly dart back to the screen; Near was tense.

Wanting to know just what the hell Matt had done to upset the usually stoic seeming albino Mello pulled free his phone from the confines of his leather jacket and speed dialed Matt's number.

The feeling in his gut grew even worse when the call immediately cut off and a recording reached his ears 'Your call can not be completed at this time-'

He dialed again.

And again...

.

.

Matt spat the blood from his mouth and stared defiantly at his captors, his eyes glowing with rebellion despite not quite being able to lock onto their forms. They had taken his goggles in the beginning but it didn't seem they had realized he was mostly blind without them. It was the little things right?

He had quit paying attention to what they were saying long ago. They didn't know who he was, only that he was close to one of the Russian Mafiya boss's, and that had been all Matt had needed to know.

Mello was safe, as safe as he ever could be, for the moment.

At least until L got a look at him. He could only hope for death as he wasn't sure what he could take, they were getting bored with simply asking him questions and smacking him in the face.

The manic grin on the thugs face suggested that he might be begging for death by the end of all of this.

.

.

The phone dropped from his fingers to deftly clatter on the floor, unbroken.

Near had just said... no he had to be wrong. Matt couldn't have...

L could not have Matt in his possession!

Mello couldn't think, could hardly breath. L had... L had Matt? Matt the one he had tried so hard to protect. Matt his best friend. Matt, the boy he loved. L had him?

"Mello...?" the albino questioned.

He clenched his fists and grit his teeth until he could almost hear them grinding together. The words just didn't make sense. How could... how could this have happened?

.

.

Matt opened his eyes, blurrily, to find himself strapped down on a table. His head felt... clouded. It was difficult to think, to reason.

Without his goggles he could only make out the fuzzy and distorted blurs of the lights above him. Almost as though he were in a hospital.

If he was he hoped to god he wasn't still with 'them'. He felt blood trickle down the side of his face and grimaced as it slid into his ear.

The things they had done... probably could have been worse, if he thought on it.

Matt was getting a headache from the constant shift in lightning and let his eyes fall shut, he couldn't see much of anything anyway, so what did it matter? All he knew, was that he hadn't told them anything... or at least he couldn't remember it if he had.

.

.

Mello was furious.

No, furious didn't begin to cover it. Matt and Near had gone behind his back and altered his systems, made them better he thought to himself, and Matt had gotten abducted because of a breach, because he hadn't even known about it.

Near had even called him as soon as he had lost contact with Matt, had called him many times in the past few days, but Mello had been too busy and had shut his phone off. He had lost valuable time because of a fuckup.

"Mello left us no other options..." Near commented softly.

Mello's lips curled frightfully and he nearly slumped against the door. No, no he hadn't and look where it had gotten them. Gotten Matt...

He clenched the rosary around his neck tightly.

.

.

They eventually stopped and the nausea that had bubbled up inside of him from the constant motion began to subside. Matt believed they had given him a concussion; that or it was the side-effects from whatever drug they had dosed him with.

He heard the soft clack of something being undone and winced as the pressure around certain parts of his body was released. He hadn't even known he had been restrained. His fingers twitched when he thought about moving them, but nothing more.

Matt found that, even unstrapped, he could hardly move; his limbs having the feeling of being weighed down by bricks. Even moving his fingers had been a challenge, one that left him exhausted.

His head lolled to the side and he felt his heart sink at the sight that greeted him. He closed his eyes again and sucked in a deep breath. He was lifted into a pair of arms, limbs dangling, and couldn't do anything as he was placed, unwillingly but unable to even voice his complaints, into a heavy wooden box with a nicely waxed finish.

Whatever happened to him, he prayed that Mello wouldn't do anything stupid.

.

.

He sent out a silent prayer, something he hadn't felt the need to do in so long, but it didn't help quell the emotions that flooded him. Horror, the thought of losing Matt permanently; Shock, that Matt had been taken in the first place; Anger, at himself; Fright... Guilt...

"We will get him back... if Mello can harness the correct emotion." Near commented, though his fingers hadn't once stopped typing, and Mello knew that the albino was still attempting to find any leads on Matt's location, tracing the phone or otherwise. How long had Near been at it?

Near didn't look as though he had slept at all, not even his usual odd naps; he looked haggard and had bags under his eyes. Near was, and had been, doing more for Matt than he was at the moment.

Mello felt something well up inside of himself and he lifted his head fully and grinned; it was a twisted grin, one full of malice, and let his anger burn inside of him. Near was right, as usual, it was not the time to fall apart, he could do that later, on his own time. Matt needed to be saved, and soon. It was time for him to be the Mafiya boss he was, and not the scared child he felt like. He had resources of his own, and he would use them.

"Let's get him back." he growled. Near looked up at him and smiled in his creepy way.

L would regret the day he had crossed Mello.

And if L wouldn't come out to play, then Mello would burn the world down around him until he had no place left to hide.

I'm coming to get you Matt, just be alive when I get there.

-End Interlude Part Three-

AN: So yeah... i'm sure by now you at least have a guess about how long L's hired help has had Matt. I will give you a hint, it is more than a day but less than a week, ya? I will however not tell you when each of Matt's little clips have taken place. :) bwahaha. Yay for cliffy?