August 2001

Winchester, England

After months of careful planning and watching, he was finally ready to make his move. Like a lion stalking its prey, he watched him; learning his habits, taking careful note of the things he did and places he went. It was odd really, how the young man once dreamed of being greater than the man he stalked and watched, now turned to thoughts of taking him out of the picture and erasing his very existence from this plane. Something inside of him hated the elder man with enough fury to drive the younger into murder and torture...

Roger had been watching with growing concern about the young man crouched in a chair, staring out the window like a child waiting for someone they loved to come home. What worried him the most was not how the man sat nor the habits he had, like biting his thumbs or his appetite for sweets... but the fact that days before, he had recieved death threats from an anonymous person who went by the name 'Eternal Dante'. Normally Roger would have passed it off as a prank done by one of the children to try to get the young man's attention from his work, but when he took a closer look at what the letter was written in, he knew that this was serious.

"Roger," the teen said, not looking back at the elderly man, "How long do you plan on standing there, watching me?" Roger cleared his throat.

"It's not safe for you to be looking out the window like that," he said, "What if this 'Eternal Dante' person sees you?"

"I'm not afraid of anyone or anything... and you know that."

"Could you at least focus on your work for a while? We need to figure out what to do about those missing Wammy's." He looked over at Roger and turned his chair so he faced the desk.

"A and B are lost causes. A's death only meant he couldn't handle the stress of being my successor, as with B running away. C is currently working on a case somewhere in Asia," he said, holding up a piece of paper between his thumb and forefinger, "D, E, and F are all still here, at least. I have one successor to my name already. The other three can wait."

"Are you sure? What if something were to happen to you before C returns, L?" The young man looked up at Roger before unwrapping a cherry lollipop and licking it.

"I'm 100% sure, Roger," he said, "Now, leave me to my work in peace." Roger nodded and left, closing the door as silently as he could. He sighed and went to gather the children from outside to get them ready for bed. L began to look over the paper work that was on his desk as he sighed. A light breeze came into his office and made the curtains wrap themselves around his shoulders. He placed the papers in a manilla folder and continued to eat his lollipop. The warm, summer breeze felt good compared to the ice cold breeze of the air conditioning units that kept Wammy's somewhat about freezing during the warmer months. As he finished the candy and dropped the stick into a nearby garbage can, he heard footsteps from behind him. He tried to turn to see who had came in through the window and opened his mouth to call for Roger, but a rag-covered hand clamped over his mouth. He tried to kick out, tried to get away from the person attempting to kidnap him... but things started to fade away. He was being overcame with a lethargic feeling and slowly stopped kicking and closed his eyes. He heard someone chuckling above him; he could have sworn he felt his hand connect with someone's cheek, but he was losing feeling in his arms and legs. Soon, he lost consciousness.

---

Beyond couldn't believe his luck. Not only was the window to L's office was open... but there was no one there to stop him from kidnapping him. His cheek was sore from that last attempt L made to break away, but it was too late; the home-made chloroform had done its job perfectly. He stuffed the rag into his back pocket and pulled out a blindfold out of his front left pocket. He quickly tied it over his victim's eyes and lifted the man over his shoulder. He got out bare foot on the window sill when the door opened up.

"L, I brought- -" Roger said, noticing the empty room and the open window. He dropped the tray filled with cakes, tea and sugar cubes and quickly ran into his office, not thinking about the loud clash of aluminum and porcelain that could have awoken some of the younger children.

As soon as he got into his office, he dialed a number and prayed under his breathe that he would get in touch with the man he needed to speak with.

"Yes?" he heard a more elderly male voice say on the other end.

"Watari, I have to tell you about L. He's been kidnapped." Watari went silence for a moment before speaking again.

"Don't worry about a thing, Roger," he said, "I'll handle this."

"Thank you, Watari..." he said, calming down by a considerable amount before hanging up. Watari, who was in London, called a secure number and waited for a distorted voice to speak.

"What is it, Watari?" the voice asked.

"The bait was taken," he said, starting his vehicle.

"Excellent. Please follow the signal as best as you can and recover what information you can."

"Right away," the man said, hanging up and heading back to Winchester.

---

Inside an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Winchester, Beyond was beside himself. He got there without a single person noticing what he was doing and the man was still out of it. Beyond chanied the man up by his wrists with the rusty chains that hung from the ceiling, leaving him a good 6 inches above the filthy floor littered with bits of rusted metal and dirt. "Now... what should I do to you, L?" he asked himself, grinning from ear to ear, his ruby red eyes sparkling in anticipation. "Oh? What was that?" he asked, putting an ear closer to him, "You want me to cut you? That's exactly what I was thinking!" Beyond left the main room for a moment before returning with a cleaver, machete, a butcher's knife, a small switchblade and a sharpening block. He sat on the floor, sharpening the cleaver, grinning like a small child.

"Still sleeping, L? This really isn't like you," he said, testing the sharpness of the cleaver on his thumb. When he felt a trickle of blood running down his thumb, he licked it up and looked up at L.

"Now then..." he said, standing up and walking over to him, "Let's get rid of that clean white shirt of yours, shall we?" Beyond slid the knife carefully under the three-quarters shirt and split it up to where a collar would be; something caught his eyes. Clean white bandages were tightly wrapped around his pale chest. The jam-lover curiously looked over the bandages and gently poked them with a finger.

"Oh? What's this, L? Did something happen to you before I got my hands on you?" he asked, running in hand over tha bandages, "Let's get these off of you." Very careful not to cut him, Beyond cut the bandage and let it fall to the ground, unwrapping itself from the detectives body. As the last bits of it fell and Beyond looked up again, his eyes grew wide in shock and started to back away.

--

"You're telling me that the person who was kidnapped wasn't L at all?" Watari heard Roger ask on his phone.

"That's correct," he answered, "The person who was kidnapped was a proxy for L... a former Wammy."

"Do you know who is behind this?"

"I have my doubt... but judging on what you said, it must be him. And if that's the case, I have to hurry."

"Please do, Watari. Who knows what he might do when he finds out that he didn't really take L." Watari hung up and stopped his car a block away from a warehouse. He opened his laptop and saw a signal coming from the nearby warehouse. Watari silently prayed that it was not too late. Even as a small child, Beyond showed some psychopathic tendencies after A's death that often caused him and Roger to worry about the safety of the other children around him. He had to approach this situation very carefully.

"What... the... hell...?!" Beyond yelled, dropping the cleaver. Underneath the bandages were two A-cup breasts and very subtle curves of a young woman. Beyond felt his eye twitch as he reached up and pulled off the black wig, revealing short dark brown hair that fell just short of her shoulders. He growled and lowered the blindfold, immediately seeing a name and numbers above her head. "You're not him at all..." he said, backing away. Beyond felt sick to his stomach and quickly ran out of the main room. In the hallway, his hands began to tremble. Not only had he kidnapped the wrong person with the intend on killing them... but the woman was someone Beyond knew from his childhood at Wammy's. He never knew her codename or her real name since she was always in disguise, but she was right behind him to be L's successor. Without thinking, he started to run; out the warehouse and out of England, heading West to America... hopefully away from the memories that still haunt him and to start his search once again.

Watari opened the rusted door to the warehouse and looked around. The windows that lined the ceiling didn't provide enough light to see all the way to the back but the light shining behind Watari did. He saw the woman still hanging from the ceiling, still sleeping from the chloroform. He sighed in relief, seeing that she was unharmed. Quickly untying her, he wrapped his jacket around her and carried her back outside and laid her down in his car. Getting into the driver's seat, he dialed the secure line again and waited for the voice to speak.

"Were you successful, Watari?" the voice said as he began to drive away.

"Yes. I found her. She's alive, but unconscious. I suspect that BB knocked her out with chloroform or some other agent."

"Alright. Bring her back to Wammy's to recover and be sure to reassure Roger about what happened."

"Understood," he said, hanging up. Watari looked at the slumbering woman in the back and smiled. He remember when the woman showed up at the door of Wammy's as a three-year old girl. She had a very unique talent that even L recognized and nurtured; she had the ability to mimic whomever she saw perfectly to a certain degree. When she was old enough, L decided to let her work for him as a proxy; to be his hands and eyes. She really came a long way from mimicking the other children of Wammy's and pulling pranks.

---

Several days later.....

The woman, now dressed in short sleeve shirt and dress pants, walked through the familiar halls of Wammy's, waving at the children that were there. She stopped at a door and knocked. "Come in," she heard a voice say as she opened the door. A young man with large dark grey eyes and messy black hair sat behind the desk, wearing a three-quarters white shirt and baggy jeans, looked up at her.

"It's good to see you again, L," she said, sitting down. The young man nodded and ate a strawberry dipped in chocolate.

"I see you're alright," he said in tone similar to a robot's, with no emotion behind it, "I hope B didn't harm you in any way."

"He didn't. All he did was knocked me out and that's all."

"So, is there another reason why you're here to see me?" She nodded. "I... I no longer want to work for you," she said, looking him in the eyes.

"Is there a reason why?"

"As a child, I had wanted to be your successor and do whatever in my power to help you... but now that I'm older and mature, I feel as though, I want to live my own life instead of yours or someone else's. I hope you understand." The young man nodded. "I understand, Carol," he said, standing up and walking over to a file cabinet, "Consider everything connecting you to me and Wammy's destroyed. But are you absolutely sure about this?"

"I am," she said, standing up, "Thanks for letting me go, L." He pulled out a folder and handed it to her.

"This is it," he said, "All your personal information papers and new home address. I wish you the best of luck." She took the folder and nodded.

"I wish the best of luck to you with all your cases." As she walked out, waving goodbye to the children, L opened his laptop and began typing on it.

Cassandra Thorn

Codename: Carol - C

The Woman with a Thousand Faces...

...Of her own choice, left Wammy's in 2001 after a run-in with B.

She seemed somewhat happy...