Blood and Sugar

--ACT II--



Chapter VI: Afterglow



The day had come for the exchange of the Deathnote for Sayu Yagami. There was only two hours to go before Soichiro Yagami would arrive here. Everybody was restless, preparing for any police interference. Mello was monitoring the situation through a PA system, that couldn\'t be intercepted on the plane. "As long as you do what I say, I won\'t lay a finger on either one of you," he said. "I\'ve even thought up an exchange that you will feel safe and satisfied with."



I knew he meant the revolving door at the front of this underground building. It had bullet proof glass, so Yagami could not shoot or be shot sucessfully. Mello bit into a fresh bar of chocolate. I sat restlessly in a couch on the west side of the sitting room, biting my nails. And for the next hour and a half, we all waited in silence. Until, finally Mello leaned into the microphone, and said, "Listen up, Yagami. Before that plane lands in LA, it\'s going to make a pit stop. That\'s where your daughter will be. The plane\'s going to drop you off, and then we\'ll exchange your daughter for the notebook. As long as you don\'t try anything funny, I assure you that both of you will not be killed. The rest of the passengers on that plane are only going to be late getting to LA, and nothing will happen to them either." Mello smirked, and bit off another piece of chocolate.



"Look," he said. "There are two reasons I promise to keep you and your daughter alive. First, I don\'t want Kira\'s eyes on us. I used Takimura\'s death, but we didn\'t kill him. Kira probably did it. But if we you or your daughter, there\'s a chance that we\'ll be Kira\'s next target." He ate another piece and continued. "And secondly," he said. "I don\'t want to get into any more trouble with the Japanese Police. As a result of this deal, Takimura died. But there\'s no reason for us to kill you two and the Police even more enraged. For our own safety, you\'re better off alive. Now, wasn\'t that more believable than some lame excuse?" Mello took a breath and said, "Yagami, I want you to contact L. You should be in a position to contact L. I dont care if you contact him directly or through or one of your men. I want you to get L to stop every media report on flight SE333. If the media reports that you got off the plane alone, Kira might decide to kill you. After I confirm that L has stopped the media, I\'ll send you a picture of how your daughter\'s doing."



Mello made a hand gesture to signal the men to take another picture of Sayu. "Mello," Kal said. "He says they\'ve stopped the media from making any announcements after the inital news report on the flight." Mello slouched down in the Zebra-print couch. "Yeah, I figured. It was hard to believe that Yagami was acting totally on his own." Mello spoke to Yagami again. "Yagami, as I promised, I\'m sending you images of your daughter to the PDA we gave you. If there\'s anything you want to ask your daughter, type it into the unit and we\'ll read it out to your daughter for you. That should tell you for certain that your daughter is safe and sound." Mello pressed a button on the break out box, changing the channel to the intercom in the exchange area.



"Sayu Yagami," he said. "I\'ve got a message from your father. \'I\'m on my way, so don\'t worry. I promise to rescue you. You seem to have your watch with you. Can you tell me what time it is now?\' We allowed him to ask you this question. You\'re free to answer it." Sayu trembled for a moment, and then said, "I-I\'m sorry dad, this is my fault. I\'ve had this watch since I was in Japan, so the time is 2:42 AM in Japan." After a few moments, the ground and walls shook, undoubtedly from the arrival of the plan. Mello bit off another piece of chocolate. "Yagami, you can now use your own cell phone. I want you to order a helicopter with one pilot to pick up you and your daughter. And make sure to tell your friends that anything other than that helicopter comes within two miles of where you stand, both you and your daughter will be killed."



A beeping sound came through on the speaker. "What\'s that sound?" Mello asked, with a piece of chocolate wedged between his lips. "It\'s Yagami\'s cell phone," Kal said. Mello leaned forward to microphone again and said, "Answer it. But I want you to use the ear with ear-phone in it so we can hear the converation too." There was a loud crackle, and then Yagami answered the phone. "Yagami here," he said. A heavily censored voice came through. "It\'s L," he said. My head jerked over. Somehow a little hope sprang up inside me. "Your daughter and your life are top priority. I don\'t mind if the notebook gets into their hands. And I\'ve sent a helicopter controlled by FBI agent McEnroe, just like the kidnappers requested." And with that, my little ember of hope was extinguished. The person was not L. He was not polite or gentle or softspoken. Mello took the chocolate bar dangling from his teeth. "Open the hatch," he said. Kal obeyed and spoke into his phone. "Y462, open the hatch." The ceiling shook slightly as the top hatch was opened. "That\'s the entrance, Yagami," Mello said. "Go in."



My butt was getting sore from sitting for so long, so I got up, and walked over to the Zebra-print couch. I leaned over the side dropped my hands on Mello\'s shoulders. I was watching the monitor closely. It was like the only interesting part of a boring movie. There was a tall man with a mask over his head overseeing the exchange. "Yagami, do you have a gun?" He asked. Yagami, a tall, squared man with glasses responded, "N-no, I couldn\'t get on the plane with it," Yagami said. "Then allow me," said the tall man. He pulled out a handgun and shot the glass several times. Sayu cowered down in fear. "It\'s bullet proof glass," the man said. "A certain syndicate used this place to make deals until a few years ago, and we\'ve made some adjustments to it. I want you to place the notebook through here," he said, gesturing towards a wide, square hole. "As for the hole on your side, it\'s large enough to put both hands through it. So even if I try to take the notebook from you, you can snatch it right back. Once you place the notebook through the hole, I\'m going to unlock this device. Then we both take a step back, and turn the glass door ninety degrees. Then the notebook will come to me, and the girl will go to you. There is a wall sticking out to our left that won\'t let the revolving door rotate any more than ninety degrees either way. Once the girl reaches your side, you can lock the door on your side. Your exit is right behind you." He pointed pointed behind himself. "As you can see, my exit is further back. By the time I get outside, you two should be on the helicopter. And if you don\'t accept this exchange, I will shoot the girl through here," he said, pointing his handgun at Sayu through the hole on the right.



"But, once the glass door rotates, I won\'t be able to shoot her. Now, this exchange should seem safe to you. If we really wanted to kill you, we could have set a bomb on your side, or have a sniper in the desert. This is all up to you, whether you trust us based on what you heard on the plane." Mello sat watching intently with a bar a chocolate between his teeth. "You\'ve got the notebook, right?" the man asked. "Yes, I have it hidden in my suit," Yagami said. "I see, it would have been mighty stupid of you to just place it in your suitcase. Get the notebook out." Mello spoke into his phone. "Y462, start the exchange."



Yagami took the notebook out of his suit jacket. "First, I\'ll test the notebook. Place it through the glass panel on your left." Yagami threw a look of surprise. "Test it? You are going to kill somebody? I can\'t let you-" The kidnapper, getting annoyed, interrupted. "Come on, I can\'t just go on without making sure the notebook is real. Don\'t worry. The guy who\'s going to die is the type that Kira would kill anyway." After a few moments of Yagami\'s hesitation, the man was getting frustrated. "Hey! Do you want your daughter to die? After all these preparations you still don\'t trust us?" Yagami clenched the notebook nervously. "That\'s not it. Even if it\'s a criminal-" The man pressed his hands to the glass angrily. "You\'ve got to be crazy. Didn\'t you come down here to exchange the notebook for the girl? Everything that goes on here is going to be kept a secret." Mello leaned up in his seat, getting frustrated. "You\'re leaving us no choice but to kill the girl," Mello said. "We don\'t have time, kill the gir-" Yagami suddenly jerked the notebook through the slot. "O-okay, don\'t kill her!" he pleaded.



"That\'s a good boy," the man said. "Make sure you keep a tight grip on that notebook," he said as he scribbled a name onto the notebook. And not a minute later, one of the men in the room with us, just behind Mello, cried out in pain, and collapsed. Several men cried out in shock. "What\'s up, Miller? Are you okay?" one said. "Wh-what\'s going on?" another asked, nervously. Mello only looked over his shoulder casually, a piece of chocolate in his lips. "This is what\'ll happen if you sell our drugs behind my back," said a man sitting adjacent to Mello. "He was always an incompetent guy. This is the first time he\'s proven to be useful," he explained. Kal spoke to the man through his cell phone. "Y462, the target is dead."



"Ha, looks like this notebook is real," the man said. "Let go of it, and I\'ll give the girl back." Yagami let it go reluctantly, and the man unlocked the glass revolving door. "Daddy!" Sayu cried as she fell into her father\'s arms. The man came back into the sitting room, clutching the notebook. Kal took it from him. "Boss, I\'m sure you were watching, but I\'ve done everything I was told to do," the man said. "You promised to erase all my past failures." The man who ordered the killing of Miller smirked evilly. "Sure," he said. "I\'ll erase them." He bobbed a head gesture at Kal, who promptly wrote something down into the notebook. The man who performed the exchange collapsed forty seconds later, as predicted. I couldn\'t help but feel a little intimidated about being in the same room with such a powerful weapon.



Later on, I was laying down in my bed, thinking. In the last week, my boyfriend turned out to be L, who then died. I got entangled in an elaborate blackmail scheme with the greatest mass murderer in the world, and then became romantically involved with someone who is powerful enough to control the mafia. I was so encumbered in dreaming, I didn\'t hear the door open and close. "Touta Matsuda," came a voice from across the room. "What?" I said, looking over. I saw Mello standing next to the door. "Touta Matsuda is the new L that the Japanese Police set up. But apparently he\'s just the voice, not the brain. If I could get his face, I would kill him," he said. I looked away from him. "Why do we have to kill him? We just killed two people working with us, most of the SPK, is it really neccesary?" I asked. "Morgan," Mello said. "Sometimes to catch a criminal, you have to be one," he said, licking his fingers. "And," he was now unwrapping a new bar of chocolate. "I\'m working out a deal with the American president to grant us amnesty, and access to the tools we need to catch Kira and beat Near."



"Is it really all about winning?" I asked. "Really. If you forget trying to win, and focus on saving lives and dispensing justice, we\'ll have a lot better chance of succeeding." Mello took a bite from his chocolate bar. "That\'s what the cops are all about, and they haven\'t gotten too far," he said. "But I do admire your high sense of morality, I always did. But this isn\'t about right and wrong, either. Why do you think Kira kills people?" he asked. "Power," I said. "His guise of trying to destroy evil is just a weak justification." Mello smiled at me. "Exactly," he said. "There isn\'t real good and evil. There\'s just power, and those who use it for compassion, or selfish means." I sat up on the bed, and stared down at my feet. "So I guess, you and L are the kind of people who use power for compassion?" I said. "Me, possibly," he said. "But L? No. Think of this; he only used his deduction powers in cases he cared about. They were selfish intentions that just happened to do good for some innocent people. It more about winning to L than it ever was for me."



"Well, damn, that\'s pretty depressing," I said. "So L was doing a good thing with crappy intentions? And you\'re doing bad things with good intentions?" Mello bit off another piece of chocolate with a loud crack. "Pretty much. We may have killed a few people, but in the end it will be worth it. Sacrificing a few to save thousands. You can\'t have your cake and eat it too." I looked back up and stood up. "Have you found out anything about the Deathnote, aside from the obvious killing power?" Mello grimaced a little. "They\'re claiming to know nothing about how Kira could kill with just a face, but I know they know. And I will coax it out of them, mark my words," he said. "Consider them marked," I said. He then pulled me into a hungry kiss, but somehow I wasn\'t feeling the moment.



His hands started roaming over my body, but I just wasn\'t in the mood. "Do you want to?" he asked, gesturing towards the bed. I sighed. "Honestly? I\'m not sure I\'m in the mood." He frowned, and moved his hands. "Is it me?" he asked. "No," I said. "It\'s been a long day today, and I\'m just feeling a little confused." Mello scratched his head, and said, "We just got done talking about this." "It\'s not that," I said. "It\'s other stuff. I think I need some rest right now. I feel...emotionally tired." He nodded, and reached for his chocolate again. "I understand," he said. "You\'ve just been thrown through some loops, I guess." I smiled, and took him into a warm embrace. "I love you," he said. I kissed him softly and let him go. But he kept standing there like he was waiting for something.



"Forgetting something?" he said anxiously. "What?" I asked. "What did I forget?" Mello clenched a peice of chocolate between his teeth. "Three words. Starts with I," he said. I sighed again and started another locked in gaze at my feet. "I really care about you, and I like you, a lot...but this is going to take time for me," I said. "So you\'re just \'in like\' with me? But I guess you\'re right," he said. He started out the door with a wounded-puppy look. I felt terrible, but I couldn\'t commit to that sort of emotion. It had let me down, and right now I didn\'t want to deal with it.



----

Author\'s note: Holy hell of a long ass chapter. This took me four hours to write. It was very tedious, because most of the dialogue came from volume 8. BAWWW. Enjoy.