A/N: Written for the Death Note Flash Bingo on the For Death Writers Forum (link's in profile), #016 – Near.
The quote from L is paraphrased from the Death Note Special manga.
Rivers o' Similitude
Near would rarely admit it, but he thought of Mello the same way L thought of Kira. That was good in a sense; it made him feel more like L, more like he could achieve the image L had been, the image he had looked up to the moment he had heard his name through the monitor – along with Mello's.
'You two were the only ones who didn't ask any questions.'
L had recognised the pair of them as having that higher order of intellect. Just as he had recognised Kira to be a worthy rival. Just as Near has recognised Mello as his rival, and Mello had recognised Near.
Though Mello and Kira were criminals and Near and L were the voices of justice, to Near and L, Mello and Kira were something different.
Even Near respected Kira's level of intellect. And he didn't think justice had won. Justice was the police force that clung to their ideals. Near and Mello had simply done what L and Light could never have done: they teamed up to defeat the common enemy, and so Near won.