WARNING: Spoilers for up to Chapter 74/ Episode 29
Bomb
It was an easy decision for him. He had always known it would be, when it came down to it. Stand strong or give way. Kill or be killed.
He could feel the barrels of their guns, like so many cold steel eyes, aimed at his back. He didn't have to turn around to know that there were too many of them for him to deal with alone. The nearest gun was out of his reach, in the now limp fingers of the last man to be killed, and there was no way he would be able to take them on without a weapon. All that he had was the detonator in his hand and the buttons at his fingers.
The stench of the mask covering his face was overpowering- a sharp, bitter, burnt-rubber tang- and yet he felt strangely calm, as if he had always known this was coming.
In a way, he had.
The men's voices were harsh, strained. They tried to sound commanding as they barked their orders and threats at him, but their uncertainty was audible, and Mello knew they would never kill him.
But prison? Prison would mean an end to his ambitions, as clean and efficient as if they shot him here, or wrote the last few letters of his name in the murder book. He glanced at it where it lay on the ground, its pages crumpled, crushed beneath the weight of Yagami's still, bleeding body. The old man would not live, he thought. There were too many bullets in him. Perhaps to another person, this thought would have been reassuring- at least his attackers would not escape unharmed- but Mello had not meant for the man to be killed. Death was waste, and waste was his enemy.
He glanced over his shoulder at the men behind him. He had never expected that any member of the NPA would make the eye trade, least of all Yagami, who had seemed to genuinely loathe Kira's powers. Perhaps the deputy director had been lying all along- but it didn't matter at this stage. For him, this was only about one thing.
Pride. Defiance. Win or lose.
The detonator was still in his hand, cold and heavy. There was a pause the length of a nanosecond as the button clicked into place-
And then, there was fire.
Author's notes: I know that this is very short, but I was testing the waters: this was, strictly speaking, my first ever Death Note fanfic. (I decided to publish my L/Light miniature series first, for reasons that I can't quite remember right now.) I think I have longer, hopefully better DN fics in me, but I hope you enjoy this one anyway. Please leave a review if you have the time: critique makes me delirious with joy. :3