Near wakes with a silent scream on his lips. He can't remember why he was screaming, or who he was screaming too. He looks at his clock. It's 2am. He thinks through the situation, then reasons he can sleep earlier tonight and get up now. So, he does.
In the main room, the only company he has is the humming of the many machines. Sometimes someone will walk by on the CCTV cameras. Every time he sees one with blond hair he pauses the image and hurries over, his pulse racing. And every time he sees one with blond hair, it isn't him, and his heart breaks a little more. Near knows it's stupid, ridiculous, that L would never have let some ridiculous crush get in the way. But Near isn't L, and never can be L.
He gets up, robot in hand, and goes out to the kitchen. He gets himself a glass of water, and brings it back. He sits down, drinks it. It's cold, and fresh, and in his haste he spills a little down himself. He's almost embarrassed though there's no-one else there, and wipes his mouth self-consciously. He slurps some more, then sees another blond. He doesn't even bother investigating. If he had gone a little closer, he would have seen skin-tight leather under a heavy parka, and a scar zigzagging down the side of an angel's face. Then, the door swings open. Near looks up and finds himself face to face with the very man he'd been searching for most of his life. "Near." the blond snarls. Near has just enough time to calculate the percentage of not getting shot in the next millisecond. The odds are not good.
There's a shot, and a glass of water tips over, spilling its contents like life draining away.
Mello looks at the broken body of the albinoteenage boy. Mello looks at his reflection in the CCTV screen. This isn't the guy he wants to be.
"Amen." he says, and he lifts the gun to his head.