Author's Note: This story closely follows the anime, not the manga. I'm sorry for those of you who may be outraged at this. Also, I'm not going to lie, I've read A LOT of FanFics over the years, and I've picked up quite a few cool idea's from a bunch of them. Now, I TOTALLY don't mean to plagiarize, so if you happen to notice that an idea in my story is one that you've had or something to that effect, please tell me and I can either give you credit for it, or edit it from my story if you wish :) I hope you enjoy...

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or anything whatsoever connected to it.

April 13 2012

The footsteps behind me had been following me for quite a while now. It was time to see what was going on, and in a deserted part of town like this I wouldn't have to worry about making a scene. I turned a corner around an old, decrepit building, and waited. The footsteps were getting closer, and closer. 3... 2... 1... Now!

My right hook made solid contact with my would-be-attacker's jaw, and I felt bone crunch under my fist.

A tall, dirty, large muscled guy stumbled back and grabbed his jaw, moaning in agony. A long braided rope fell from his shoulder onto the sidewalk.

"Who are you, and what the hell do you want!" It was at that moment that I happened to look past him, further down the side walk. "Crap." Another two beefy men in greasy wife beaters were headed down my way, and fast. I knew I couldn't take them, not that many, not even with my years of training, and I wasn't exactly up for a fight just now.

I turned to make a run for it but another two scary looking guys were coming down the street from the opposite direction, cutting off any means of escape. Five. Five guys, all of them huge, all of them dirty and scarred; some with bald heads and some with grimy hair. A few of them had random tattoos showing on their arms and skulls. Nice bunch; the kind you'd expect to run into at a Klan meeting, or maybe just a deserted part of town.

Now running wasn't an option, they didn't look like they were all that fast, but they already had me more than surrounded. Now the question became whether or not to fight, or to go quietly.

"Listen girly," one of the ones from down the street said, "you come along nicely and we won't have to rough you up." He pulled a switch blade from his back pocket.

None of them seemed to have guns; that was a good sign. I calculated the odds in my head, and decided I could make a more informed decision if only I knew what they wanted me for; though it wouldn't be too hard to guess.

"That bitch!" The one I'd already hit hollered, as he spat blood onto the sidewalk. "Forget what that kid wants, I say we kill 'er here!" Wait, what?

"Shut up Lee, you walked right into that one anyway. Mel told you not to follow her so close." The guy with the switch blade seemed to be in charge of this little operation.

"What do you behemoths want with me?" I demand of the leader. If I did decide to fight, I'd have to take him down first. That was the rule, leader always goes down first.

"Heh, not us that wants you, the kid said to bring you in. We do what Mel tells us." 'The kid'? What were these guys doing listening to some kid? And to top it off a kid named 'Mel'? Sounded like a chic.

"Can't think for yourselves? Actually, with your poor grasp of English grammar, I don't expect you to be able to do much thinking at all, so it's okay."

"Why you!" the one the leader had called Lee charged at me.

"What? You haven't had enough?" Looks like it was going to be a fight.

I ducked down to avoid his flailing fists, and threw an uppercut right into his gut, he doubled over in an instant, and then the others started coming after me.

Dodging one or two people using basic street fighting techniques was one thing; trying to dodge five, with knives, well that was different. I turned to the wall, ran up it and pushed off, using my force and momentum to carry myself over the attackers who were behind me. It was one thing to fight a group of five men; it was another entirely to have them all coming at you from different directions.

I took an offensive stance and motioned to them with the finger taunt. Thankfully they didn't all come at once, and Lee was still laying on the concrete, so I wouldn't have to worry about him.

Their leader stood back and watched as the two smallest guys (they were still pretty huge) started towards me. The one on the left made his move first, a left hook which I easily blocked and countered with a flat palm to his nose, jamming it up into his face, he stumbled back and the guy on the right came at me next. A round house kick to his gut had him stumbling backwards, but he came after me again. After dodging and blocking a number of their quick attacks, I decided it was time to end this fast. I had way more endurance than any one of these guys, but all of them put together would be hard to beat if it went on for too long. I cupped my hand and swung it at my closest opponent, aiming for his ear. A direct hit had him crying out in pain, but then a ruptured eardrum would have anyone crying out like he was. The other one grabbed my wrist. It wouldn't take them much longer to figure out that they really should attack me all at once. I made a quick two elbow jabs to the face of the one that was holding me, and at the same time, lunged my foot out for a groin kick to the other one.

The guy on my wrist was still holding on though, and that was bad, if I couldn't get him off, I'd have one less hand to fight with. Not good odds. The guy I kicked in the groin fell to his knees, but the one that had come up with him grabbed the ankle of my right foot.

I froze. My Achilles heel, my right ankle; no! I couldn't let them know they'd found my weak spot. I used the guy holding onto my wrist to hold myself up while I landed a kick with my left foot to the guy who was holding onto my right. The weight of my body was too much for the guy on my wrist to support, and he dropped me to the sidewalk.

I landed on my side and was a bit winded, and my glasses came flying off. Crap.

"She's down! Get her now!" Oh no, I may have been down, but I certainly wasnt't out. I reached my left hand into my coat pocket and slipped my fingers into my brass knuckles. Then waited for them to get close. The first guy to reach me didn't even see it coming when I jammed my brass knuckles into his knee cap.

"Ahh, filthy bitch!" he cried.

With my right hand I pulled out my own switch blade and dug it into the shoe of the guy who had been holding onto me; far enough up his foot, so that if he had been wearing steel toed boots, they wouldn't have helped. It would've been a lot easier to fight them however if I'd had my glasses. I could barely make out their shapes without them.

I braced my back against the sidewalk and kicked up at the one in front of me, but he caught my feet and lifted them into the air, flipping me around and knocking me off balance. The other two moved in at once, each grabbing a hand and disarming me of my knife and brass knuckles.

"Lee! Lee, get your ass up and bring the hand cuffs and rope over here!" their boss ordered.

Lee had slowly but surely been working his way to his feet while the fight was going on. What a pansy that one was.

"Let me go!" I hollered, and attempted to wiggle free, thrashing around and throwing my weight from side to side. I attempted to kick out, but had nothing to brace myself against to get enough force behind the kick. "Hey, you West Side Story rejects! Let me go!"

Lee I assumed, came up to my side and, without warning, kicked me hard in the ribs. So he was the one wearing steel toed boots.

"Shut up bitch!" He ordered as I gasped in agony, completely winded. The two men holding on to my arms brought them around my back, and I felt handcuffs being clasped on them. Then Lee used the rope he'd been carrying to tie my feet together.

"Hey Eddy," the leader said as he lowered my legs to the ground, "I don't want to let her go just yet; the blind fold is in my back pocket, get it will you."

"Idiots. I already can't see. I need my glasses." I felt another sharp jab in my ribs, harder than the last time. My eyes started to sting as I fought back tears, and a dark cloth was tied over my eyes.

I could no longer move, I could no longer see. The leader finally let me down, and I could hear him step over to my head on the concrete.

"That the chloroform boss?"

"Yeah."

I started to come around, and heard a bunch of men around me talking.

"...I still don't know boss; she put two of my guys in the hospital. And look at Eddy's face man, he probably shoulda gone too, he's gonna be black and blue for weeks."

"How many did you send?" What? I knew that voice. I was still wearing the blind fold, but somehow, I knew that voice. It was a voice that I knew a long time ago, a voice that had changed with age, but still had an undertone of familiarity.

"There were five of us all together."

"Only five!" Why? Why was that voice so familiar! "I told you to take at least eight other guys with you."

"Boss, it was just some chic, I thought five was excessive as it was."

"Well obviously you see now that she's not just, 'some chic,'"

OF COURSE!

"M-Mello?" All the talking stopped, and I felt countless eyes all turn to me. "Mello, is that you?" I felt a rush of emotions flooding back with all the memories that came at the mention of his name.

"Should've known she'd be coming around by now. Might as well take her blind fold off then."

"Boss, how'd..."

"None of your business, just take it off. Now Jack!"

I heard somebody step around me and I felt the blindfold being lifted off. It took a moment for your eyes to adjust, my glasses were still gone but I could make out enough to get by... barely. When they took off my blindfold I found myself sitting on a large corner couch in the middle of a large room.

"Was anybody smart enough to bring my glasses back?" I asked rudely. It probably wasn't such a good idea to start talking disrespectfully to them, considering I was still tied up and I wasn't exactly looking forward to another kick to my side, but seriously. I could make out the shape of a blonde head giving a nod on the far end of the couch and then someone put my glasses back on for me; they weren't going to take any chances by untying me so that I could put them on myself.

The world became instantly clearer... and instantly more complicated as I took in my surroundings.

I took in the room. It was pretty run-down, it felt old and musty. There were some computers set up in the corner, and a make-shift bar to my right. Cigarettes and ash trays were lying all over the place, and empty beer bottles were scattered all over the floor and tabletops.

I took in the people next. There were a bunch of goons with an IQ equivalent to that of the highest roll of two dice. Some of them I recognised from the street, some of them were new, but all had the same 'I could eat you alive' look in their eyes. Nice.

I was avoiding what was coming next, but it was inevitable. I turned my gaze to Mello. My heart started beating faster and faster in my chest and my lungs strained to keep up. A cascade of emotions flowed through me.

First elation: I was beyond euphoric to see Mello again, to see Mello after all these years.

Second sadness: Why did he leave? No 'good-byes,' no 'I'm sorry's.'

Third anger: How could he do this? After all these years he drags me back like this? He had some nerve.

I decided to stick with anger for what I was about to do next. I needed every advantage I could take, I needed the upper hand in this screwed up situation; and an emotion like sadness was only going to weigh me down.

"What's this all about Mello! You've got some nerve dragging me here like this!"

"Actually, I require your assistance in something," the way he spoke, his tone of voice... we hadn't seen each other in over four years, and it was like he could care less. But I wasn't about to let him know how much that stung.

"YOU, the great Mello, require MY assistance for something?" He'd always looked down on me at Wammy's, he'd always hated me and I didn't understand why. I knew why he hated Near; he hated Near because Near was better than him. But me, why did he hate me? I was barely fifth, and in no way any competition for him. Maybe he just hated me because Near...

"Actually, this is the one area where you are more experienced than I am," Mello said, interrupting my thoughts.

"Heh, the 'ONE'? Wow, I feel special. I finally know more than Mello," I sneered, my voice dripping with as much sarcasm as I could muster. I was still moderately freaked out at this whole situation. Where was I? What was going on?

"It has to do with the Kira investigation." That did it. My heart stopped cold, and I almost had a heart attack right then and there. I couldn't find my voice, I couldn't even find my breath.

BREATHE! I ordered myself, and slowly I started to come down from my shock. "Forget it Mello," I all but hollered, "I was done with Kira years ago, I am NOT going to mess around with this case anymore!" I asserted, biting my lip.

Lip... mouth... my mouth was dry. I needed some bubblegum. I pulled my knees up to my chest so that my feet were on the couch, arched my back, and slid my handcuffed hands under my butt, and under my feet so that they were resting in my lap. I lowered my feet back to the floor and twisted my shoulders so that I could fish in my right hand pocket for my bubblegum. I placed a huge stick of bubblegum as the motley crew in front of my watched with bemusement.

"Now..." I started again, but Mello once again felt the need to interrupt.

"Just listen, all I need is some background information on the case. Give me that and you can go."

"So that's it!" What a jerk! "You're just going to use me for some information and then forget I exist again?" All these years and he just wants me for information? He just wants to use me? And of all the things to use me for; I knew what this was about. This wasn't about catching Kira for him; this was about beating Near to catching Kira. He was going to use me to surpass my own...

"Jewel, are you going to help me or not!" he demanded, and I sensed that all the other guys in the room were growing uncomfortable. They must have figured we had some unresolved, rocky history together. They wouldn't be altogether wrong.

"Give me one good reason why I should!"

"I'll give you two. One: this is to help catch Kira, and Two: I'm not letting you leave until you do." He smirked at me like he had the upper hand, and I couldn't stop myself from realising just how attractive he was with that sardonic grin on his face.

"You're going to keep me hold up in this rat trap until I tell you what you want to know."

"Yeah, that's about it."

Author's Note: Well there you have it, the first chapter. Hope you enjoyed it. I should have the next chapter up soon :) Review :)