Oh yeah, I'm back! Didn't take very long, did it? Should I have built up the tension a bit more to make more people want to read...? No. I was looking forward to this too much. This is going to be the last story in the LAWLIET trilogy, I'm afraid. If you want any more LAWLIETs (aside from spin-offs 'Scorpios Can Be Murder' and, 'An Inquisitive Mind'), you're going to have to PM me to request them, because I have other fanfic ideas too (written up on my profile). I am actually loving this already... oh, sorry, you haven't read it yet. Don't want to spoil it. What are you waiting for? Go on! Read it!


The dark room was filled to the brim; there was an undeniable tension that weighted the atmosphere. The audience decided to chatter amongst themselves, most likely in anticipation of what was to come. Surprisingly, nobody working at the hotel had come to wonder why there were around sixty-something people of varied ages and races all gathering together in a hotel room in Winchester.

Everybody, regardless of where they were in their conversations, went silent as a red-haired woman and a red-eyed man entered the room. The man took a seat at the front of the room, putting his feet up on another chair. The woman stood at the front beside him confidently, her expression one of somebody that did not have trouble giving orders – or having her orders followed. She scanned the crammed room, ignoring some of the audience's claustrophobia. The light of the room was pretty much violet, shaded by the curtains.

Finally, one of them spoke.

"Is everyone here?" The accusatory looks that flitted across her expression made most of the audience flinch. "Zero?"

The silver-haired boy in the front row raised his hand, wary.

"Eve Skeleter?" she called out.

A girl with curly hair she had deliberately dyed black waved once, face somber. It was nothing new. She always looked somber.

"Sky?"

A handsome young man closer to the back of the room mock-saluted, a smirk playing on his face.

"Nancy?"

A petite, pretty blonde girl standing beside the one named Sky lifted her hand, fluttering her fingers in some form of light, feminine, acknowledgeable wave. The woman examined the room again and scowled.

"Where is Rebel?" she demanded.

"T-the g-g-government," Zero stammered, shaking. "T-they got to h-her! We're next!"

"How unobservant you are," a cool, collected voice murmured from the back of the room.

Shrouded in darkness, a brown-haired eighteen-year-old girl leant back nonchalantly against the wall, arms folded and head lowered. She would not give her 'guardians' the privilege of seeing her face fully. All that was visible was the cold, careless smirk on her lips. Suddenly, her lips pulled back into a scarier smile, one that showed perfectly white teeth. She raised her head, taking a step into the light.

"I believe I know why you have called us all here," 'Rebel' stated icily. She had an American accent. "And we are aware of the risks; you have hammered them into us over the past two years."

"I don't care about the risks," the redhead countered. "It is the goal we are most concerned with. You of all people should know just how murder works, Rebel."

Rebel rolled her eyes.

"You're missing the point," the red-eyed man snapped. "We all know why we are here. We are here because at some time or another, we have been cast out as freaks by somebody, despite us being stronger, faster, smarter, better-looking and all around better than our alternatives. Zero here we found with only a number for a name because he apparently suffered from paranoia – look at him now! He is one of the world's best tails, noticing everything around him!"

He looked around the room and pointed to a fair-haired girl. "Sandy, Mandy and Thandie all are discriminated against, treated as one individual, when all three possess unique skills. Still, it is said that Sandy, Mandy and Thandie suffer from dissociative identity disorder, or multiple personality disorder. We disagree. There are three personalities, therefore three people. Three people who consider all sides of a strategy before initiating it."

Sandy, Mandy and Thandie nodded in unison.

"Then there's Scarlett, told she is a nymphomaniac, when really all she has is a taste for promiscuity. And it is hardly a bad thing, is it, that she can keep people distracted for so long?" the red-eyed man shrugged. "Ponder that now as you consider the possibility of aiding us. If we achieve what we set out to achieve, there will be nobody left to take us down. Crime levels will shoot up again after a few nervous fluctuations and this time, they will be the freaks. M, explain the plan."

"You have each been assigned to one person you must focus on," M told them. "I would have said that there was one major threat in Wammy's House besides L, but she left years ago and is no longer an active detective. Basically, you older ones, your job is to infiltrate your person's life by any means necessary. And I do mean any means necessary."

"You want us to seduce them," Rebel said bluntly. "Original, I'll admit that."

"Thank you, Rebel, for never shutting your loud fucking mouth," M said sarcastically.

"Wa-ay!" laughed the others.

"You are so fucking immature," Rebel muttered.

"Well, it's lucky you so obviously are the most mature person in the room," M grinned, "considering who you have been assigned. You have been given the former number one successor of L. We haven't checked in for two years, but you can safely bet that he'll have crept back to the top again at some point. Slo, an abbreviated of 'Sophisticated Little One', now your age. Don't worry; you're not an acting pedophile."

"Halle-fucking-lujah," Rebel sighed. "Because I always enjoy wasting my time with stuck-up little British brats."

"Oh, wake up and smell Beyond's B.O.," Sky muttered. "At least you got somebody intelligent."

"You say that, rape-boy, but you've got an actual relative of L's," B teased. "So you can kiss my-"

"Her name's K, and she's fucking stubborn. She's L's sister's daughter, also a product of a mass murderer called Kira, so don't underestimate her," M warned. "Not the Fifth Kira, you dummy, the first one. She is, in my opinion, a frigid little bitch. Good luck, boy. She'll chew you up and spit you out."

"At least I'll be in her mouth," Sky commented off-handedly.

"Scarlett, you get somebody difficult, because I know you can do it," M told her sweetly. "You get some delightful little cherub called Mello. He's probably gay, so give it a shot and pray it works, 'kay?"

"Mm-hm."

"Night…"

"Fear me!" Night yelled from the third row. "I am the son of Death!"

"Yeah, okay, we're fucking shitting ourselves in fear," M grumbled. "Come on, man, we have business to attend to."

"Sorry."

"As I was saying before being so rudely and stupidly interrupted by the son of Death, you are going to be infiltrating the life – sorry, death – of Io, Wammy's resident emo. You'll be able to pick her out easily. She's middle height, about five foot five, ridiculously pale, wears a hell of a lot of black eye makeup and looks like she stepped out of some really bad Victorian-gothic movie. She might be easy to manipulate. After all, for Slo's sixteenth we told all the girls he had fatal AIDS and she was the only one who offered to screw him. She's that suicidal," M pressed. "She just hasn't quite gotten round to killing herself yet."

"Mm-kay. Io. Got it."

"What about L?" Nancy called out.

"Why, you offering?" B cackled.

"No, he's Tanya's. He'll be a tricky nut to crack, I'm telling you, and Tanya's probably cracked a fair few nuts in her time. Hell, her middle name is probably Nutcracker. But this one… he gets a whole fucking level of his own. He loved a girl for seven years, never told her and let her walk out on him. The same girl hasn't spoken to him for two years, let alone see him. He's probably still pretty broken up about it. You know, normal people never really get over the whole 'true love leaving you' thing."

"Ouch," Sky laughed.
"Good girl, getting out while she still could," remarked Nancy.

"Hang on," Rebel said sharply. "You said two years ago, she left. That would be the same time that C left Wammy's, right?"

"Finally, someone picked up on it," B said. "Nice job, Rebel. Yes, that would be around the time that C left. Yes, I know you've probably all seen the forums and stuff that implies L and C were having a relationship. The truth is they most likely wanted to, and neither of them had the guts to make the first move, so they just stopped working together and C hasn't really been mentioned in the news for quite a long time. She could have died and you wouldn't have known."

"Wait… C's a woman?" Tanya stared at him.

Rebel shook her head, puzzled. "Seriously, how are you even here?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tanya retorted. "We can't all be M's protégé."

"I see you have enough mathematical skills to deduce that much, since there is only one of M," Rebel sighed. Replying was probably just too much effort in itself. Putting any emphasis behind the words would be going overboard.

"Oh, leave your fucking domestics for outside," M barked at them. "If you're going to act like children, I'll bloody treat you like children!"

"Her fault," Tanya muttered under her breath.

"Can it, Blondie," Rebel shot back quietly.

"Let's move on, shall we? The plan will take action at precisely midday tomorrow… maybe a bit later if you guys feel like eating lunch early. We'll move in, and then we'll begin the ultimate process of breaking up everything around us. You know the protocol with relationships and seduction, people: break ties already established and then you can continue to form your own. Except don't get too attached. It'll be a pain in the ass if you turn against us."

"Not going to happen," Nancy giggled.

"Nope. No girl's getting to me," Sky agreed.

"I hate you anyway," Rebel shrugged.

"Excellent," M smiled.

"Wammy's has not got a chance," B sniggered.

XXX

In aforementioned house, the man named L Lawliet (known only to his closest friends, his single worst enemy and his remaining family) was typing up a new report for his latest case – finished just ten minutes ago. In that ten minutes, he'd consumed three cups of syrupy coffee and demolished a carrot cake from the local bakery. He felt full, but not full enough to get rid of the empty feeling under his ribcage.

L's successor, second in line, entered the room without knocking. He knew he didn't need to knock. They both knew secrets they would never be able to divulge with the outside world for fear that L's remaining family would be treated like some evil monster, something she was no longer. Slo was a good friend of K's, and ever since the Fifth Kira case two years previously, he had protected her with the ferocity of a big brother. Even if once he had harbored a crush on her, he was through with that stage. He was currently dating the ex-Wammy's girl Callie Wood five years his senior. It didn't make a huge difference to life at Wammy's. She wasn't a PSHE teacher or anything anymore. She just happened to live at Wammy's House, where she'd spent most of her childhood and teenage years.

Slo sat down next to L. Neither spoke for a moment.

"Have you talked to her yet?" he asked.

L took a deep breath. "No."

"Are you going to?" he pressed.

"No. She'll call when she's ready."

"You've been saying that for ages now, you know that?" Slo sighed. "Come on; she hasn't even picked up her Yamaha. For all you know she could be dead."

"Since when did you become so morbid?" L asked.

"Probably since K," Slo admitted. He ran his fingers through his hair. "She knows you love her, right? You did tell her?"

L knew he wasn't talking about K anymore.

"Of course."

"And still…?"

"Nothing."

"Damn. That's too bad. She did say she wanted independence, though. I suppose it's only to be expected that she stays away. She'll be all right, L. She always is. She survived seven years with you, didn't she?" he laughed.

"Barely. Poisoned, stabbed, blown up, cut by glass, handcuffed and attacked by Kira? I cannot say I am surprised she has not contacted me yet." He typed roughly one hundred and fifty words more into his report before he spoke again. "Still, you are correct. She will be fine."

"That's the right way of thinking, mate," Slo encouraged, standing up and patting L on the shoulder. "Who knows what the future holds? I think I feel a change in the air."

"A pleasant change, I hope."

"L… change is never pleasant. Humans fall into routine so easily it is hardly pleasant when something is altered so quickly." He glanced towards the door. "Don't worry. I'm sure she will be in contact."

"I don't know," L murmured. "Like you said, it has been a long time."


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C.