So, you guys are finally getting to see a hint of the main plot, which I didn't actually come up with until I was writing Chapters 9, 10 and 12. Yes, I'm skipping 11 in that. Yes, there is a good reason for that. No, that does not imply there will be any citrus in this story. But yeah, you get a hint of it. Also, I'd just like to say one thing: Sometimes the best way to lie is to lay all the facts bare. Chances are, the other person is going to get so confused that they're going to forget what they were saying.

Disclaimer: You' don't wanna see what Death Note would've been like if I'd written it. This? About a fourth as crazy as that would have been, plus there'd have been large amounts of visible blood, guts and gore. Yes, I have major problems.


Chapter 7 - Light's Medicine and Aryn's Flashback

An hour later, Matt was still going strong and L had been reduced to little more than a pile of flesh. Matt was just good at lectures like that, able to get under even L's skin. Light felt seriously guilty for setting Matt on L.

Then Matsuda and Mogi came in, worried about reporting their failure to find the thing with the long name they couldn't remember to L. And they stopped stock still, failure at their task no longer the first thing on their minds.

"W-why are there strange people in the lobby?" Matsuda asked, slightly befuddled, before he recognized them, "Hang on. You're Light's friends, aren't you? The ones who were in the cab yesterday?"

Mello turned disbelieving eyes on Light. "You took him along with you...AND YOU DIDN'T WIPE HIS MEMORY?!"

Light winced. "Maybe?"

Aryn sighed. "Guys, maybe we could go somewhere a bit more comfortable than the lobby. Say...somewhere with chairs?"

Light perked up. "This calls for...Agent Mente, defender of-ACK! Mah tongue! Ah need mah tongue!"

Near glared at him, having grabbed Light's tongue in the middle of his tirade. "Then don't launch into a bad parody of shoujo anime characters. I don't even know why you watch them. They have no plot."

Light glared, then turned his attention to Matt and L. "Fine. MATT! I need you to stop RYNO-ing L! I need to scan and find somewhere we can flash to that will be more comfortable."

Matt looked over at him. "Sure, but I'm starting up again afterwards. The idiot has no idea how dangerous it is for any of us to be without our meds. Speaking of which..." Matt searched through his pockets, found what he was looking for and tossed a small bottle to Light. "There you go. A four days worth supply of your meds."

Mello grinned and ruffled Matt's already messy hair. Matt glared and attempted to get it to fall in some semblance of order. (He failed miserably.) "That's our Matty-boy! Looking out for everybody, and being kinda creepy in that he manages to get at least five different bottles of what to a normal human is poison onto an airplane!"

"Poison?" Aizawa asked, still a little unclear on the details, but having figured out that the three boys were L's heirs, the girl was Light's twin sister, and somehow they all knew each other and were best friends. Oh, and they had magic. Mustn't forget that they had magic.

"Yeah," Mello flapped his hand dismissively, "See, none of us are human. Matty-boy and I are half-human though, and Aryn and Light are, near as we can figure it, bout a quarter human. Near ain't human at all though. He's some sort of-"

"Aryn," Near interrupted angrily, "are you absolutely sure that it is wrong to hurt Mello because he is being an idiot?"

"Near," Aryn chided, "we've talked about this. You can't hurt Mello severely in front of an audience."

Mogi, Matsuda and Aizawa stared. Were these kids absolutely insane? Well, they did know L while growing up. Of course they were. As one, they looked from the quintuplet of arguing teens to L, who was sitting in a corner, staring at the world with a (more) vacant (than usual) expression.

"Do you think they broke him?" Matsuda whispered. All three took a moment to think about the possible implications of the Great Detective L getting broken while they were in the room.

All three shuddered in horror at the exact same time.

"Kami, I hope not," Aizawa replied, "Also, Mogi, I think you're the one who has had the least experience with these people, judging from the fact that Matsuda recognized them. Be prepared for everything you ever knew to be proven wrong."

Mogi looked at him, not saying anything. Then again, he rarely ever did. Aizawa had worked with Mogi often enough to be able to tell that there was a hint of fear in Mogi's gaze.

"ALRIGHT!" Light yelled, startling the trio of detectives out of their thoughts, "Enough arguing! I agree with Aryn's earlier sentiment, that we need to go somewhere more comfortable. So, let's do that."

"But you doesn't have any idea where anything is in the building," Matsuda pointed out.

Light looked over at Matsuda. "Hmm, forgot about you people."

Sweat-drops all around!

"Anyway, I don't need to know where anything is in this monster of a building." Light gestured grandoisely. "As long as someone does, I can find out pretty damn quickly. See, there's a reason my code-name is Mente. I deal in minds."

THUMP!

"Light, you really need to work on how you phrase that," Mello quipped as he looked at the fallen form of Matsuda.

"Yeah. Light, when you put it like that, it sounds like you're gonna kill someone, steal their mind and sell it to someone," Matt added, smiling a little at the fact that while Light may be jaded in so many ways, he was still able to act like a child sometimes.

Admittedly, an insane child who took joy in pranking others and had driven several shrinks to visiting their colleagues, but a child nonetheless. It was nothing short of a miracle, given what he and Aryn had been through in their lives.

Light frowned. "What an absolutely disgusting idea. Who would want to buy something like that anyway?"

Ner sighed. "Light, that's exactly what we mean. Maybe you could try 'I have an affinity for mental magic.' That sounds far less homicidal," Near pointed out.

Light pouted. "But that makes it sound like I'm...an emotionless robot or something! No offense, Near."

"None taken," Near assured him, "however, I do believe it is time for you to take your medicine as your mental state becoming very flighty."

"Right," Light said, shaking out three pills. They were small, orange and appeared to be glowing slightly. Mogi twitched, fearing the worst, given what that blond kid had said about poison, but held still as Light gulped down the pills.

And then he belched out a tongue of flame. The detectives stumbled back, L-5 just continued on with what they were doing and L shuddered in his corner. (He had become untied at some point.)

"Much better. Good for the sinuses. Now," Light rounded on the L-heap-in-a-corner. "I think it's time that we moved this party elsewhere. Now, L, this won't hurt a bit."

Light grabbed L's temples and moved L's head so that their eyes met. Auburn stared into dark gray as Light scanned L's mind for the layout of the building they were in. (NO, he did not scan anything else. No matter how tempting it might have been.)

"All right! I found a place that is a fully-equipped apartment in here! There are only three bedrooms, but it's not like we can't change that, right?" Light asked of L-5.

Aryn grinned. "Of course! Near and I can share a room, and Matt and Mello can share a room. You can sleep alone, Light, since we all know how bad it gets if there's anyone in the same room as you when you try and sleep."

"Not what I meant, Aryn! But, I suppose we could set it up like that." Light conceded, before turning to glare at Near. "But I better not hear any noises in the night. I value my sleep."

Both Aryn and Near flushed a shade of red normally found only Matt's hair (which, with the aid of magic, was even redder than a tomato). Almost unnoticeably, Mello flushed as well.

Matt grinned. "I think ya broke em, Light."

Light inspected Aryn and Near, who were standing stock still in shock, and did indeed appear to be experiencing the mental equivalent of a Dreaded Blue Screen of Death™. "I think you're right."

"Now see here!" Aizawa found his formerly missing voice. "Light, you're supposed to be in a cell, proving you aren't Kira! And how dare you presume that you people can stay here?"

For a moment, Light and Matt stared. Then they laughed.

"You actually believe that you can have any say in where we stay?" Matt asked.

"Let me answer that in four words. No. Way. In. Hell. This is the first time in six months that we've all seen each other without having to go to a battle or political meeting of some type right afterwards. Where one of us goes, the others go. Well, with a few exceptions. I ain't into incest, and none of us are into orgies. Well, I ain't. And I don't think Aryn is. But I ain't gonna speak for the rest-Ow! What was that for, Matt?" Light rubbed the back of his head where Matt had smacked it.

Matt glared at him, orange goggles making his eyes appear demonic. "You were rambling about sexual tendencies. I would prefer if you didn't."

Mello glared too. "You really don't have to make us out to be some sort of sexual deviants or something."

"But you-" Light began, but was cut off by a message Mello sent via the mind connection. (The reason they didn't use it all the time was that it required large amount of concentration, something which was lost when the entire group got together. Well, that and the fact that if they used it too much, the bond would snap like a rubber band and instead of five minds, there'd be one.)

Finish that sentence and DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mello smiled sweetly at Light when his mouth snapped closed with an audible click. "Oh, by the way," Mello looked over at the near-catatonic L in the corner. "you might want to fix him before Watari sees him. The man did used to be in SWAT after all."

Aryn laughed, having managed to re-boot her mind from the shock and embarrassment. "And he grows a Hitler-caterpillar on his face!"

Light looked over at the quivering lump in the corner, having been attempting to block the fact that he was the reason for the normally strong detective to reach such a state out of his mind. "Yeah, you're right. Hey, what do you guys think about letting them in on what we are and what we do?"

Near nodded. "I think it would be a good idea. It is getting rather tiresome having to explain away bruises and broken bones to Roger, simply because the healings are starting to slide off a little."

Mogi twitched. His little sister was about these teens' age, and she had never broken a bone in her life! What could these kids be doing that would lead to them being able to dismiss a broken bone as a matter of course and troublesome to explain?

Matt turned to Aryn. "What do you think Aryn? This is a big decision, one that needs to be unanimous. Near, Mello and I have reason to want L to know what we do, and so does Light, but you have no such obligation. So, it's up to you. Do you want to risk it?"

Aryn blinked, processing what Matt had just said, before she laughed. "Matty-boy. You really need to curb those mother-henning tendencies. You know Light and I share a closer connection than the rest of us. Do you honestly think that he would have suggested it if he thought I was going to be angry? I'm fine with it. You know I'd be fine with anything as long as it helps us."

Mello sighed. "What happened to getting us a room? I dunno bout you, but my body is saying it's about midnight, and I am sleepy!"

"Oh yeah!" Matt rummaged through his pockets again, before finding the bottle he was looking for and tossing a pill to Mello, Aryn and Near and popping the last one for himself. "Jet lag pills," he explained at seeing Matsuda (who had recently been revived from his insensate position on the floor) look at him questioningly. "Guaranteed to keep you awake until the sun sets."

"Mello was right though." Aryn frowned. "I can't keep up the shrinking much longer, and I don't really want to be crushed under large amounts of luggage. Plus we really need to introduce ourselves to these poor detectives. Remember how you guys felt in the beginning?"

"Yeah! How could I forget? I thought we were being filmed by a hidden camera crew a starring in some new TV show. Fuck My Life! You can watch poor innocent people returning to their home country get assaulted by fourteen-year-old government agents!" Mello threw his hands up in the air and glared at Aryn.

"My point being,
you were confused as all hell and thinking there was something going on, other than the truth. They're older than you were and-"

"-right here and able to hear everything you are saying."

Aryn squeaked and turned around, staring at the corner, where L had recovered from his Matt-lecture/magic-exists induced coma. Well, he was standing up and looking at the world with a spark of life, at least. However, L was most definitely not what Aryn was seeing.


"Light, we have to get out of here. I don't think Lujayn is going to be able to keep it together much longer. The captors are-" Eleven-year-old Aryn whispered frantically to Light, glancing worriedly over at the corner where their best friend, Lujayn, lay. she'd just been taken for another session of 'serving' their captors. It always left her near catatonic, and Aryn felt horrible for thinking this, but she was so glad that she wasn't anywhere near as pretty as Lujayn.

"-right here and able to hear everything you are saying." A perfectly emotionless voice stated from right behind her. Aryn turned around, eyes wide with fear as she turned around slowly, praying it had been her imagination. It wasn't.

A six-foot-tall man stood over her. Aryn knew he wasn't human, but it still hurt, even after nearly five years in the cell, to see her father's face staring down at her with such hate and disgust.

"I think that you are finally old enough to serve us. Just like your little friend over there." The absolute monster jerked his thumb over in the direction of the catatonic Lujayn, an ugly leer covering his face.

Light stared worriedly after his sister as she was dragged away, already knowing that it would pointless to try and save her. Their captors were just too strong. He would have to settle with comforting her afterwards.


Aryn began to shake slightly and a windstorm whipped around her as she stared through L.

Near was also looking at her in concern, wanting to go over a comfort his girlfriend, but knowing that he wouldn't be able to help.

Light groaned. "Oh hell. A flashback." He turned to a hyperventilating Aryn and grabbed her shoulders, looking deep into her eyes. "Aryn, listen to me. We are not in the cell. We escaped, remember? Matt? Mello? Near? Remember them? T-2? L-5? Kira-bastard? Don't worry. The bastards are dead. They're never going to hurt anyone again."

Aryn shuddered and collapsed against Light, sobbing quietly. Light kept on soothing Aryn gently as he looked up and saw Near, Mello, Matt, L, Aizawa, Mogi and Matsuda staring at them, but with different emotions.

Near, Mello and Matt knew about the twins' five-year-long imprisonment by demons after they were forced to watch their parents get murdered, and they figured that something about L's voice had triggered a flashback. Thus, they all looked conflicted, wanting to go and help Light comfort Aryn, but knowing (from painful experience) that if one valued one's health, one did not get near Aryn when she was in a flashback unless one was her twin.

L looked vaguely startled, as if he was trying to figure out what exactly he had done that had warranted such a reaction. (Well, that and the bastards being dead thing. That was just confusing, and definitely adding to Light's Kira-points, damn the fact that this was likely all in his head. And also wishing that he had had someone to comfort him like that when he was younger.)

Aizawa was rather worried. He'd seen reactions like this when there was a survivor to a homicide. Admittedly, none of those people had magic, or were snapped into shock by the voice of the best detective in the world, but the basic premise was there. Light's twin (from what he'd been able to gather) was going into shock due to some unknown trauma in her past because of L's voice. Aizawa suddenly had second thoughts (Well, more like forty-fifth, but second sounds better.) about working for L. Was the man at all related to whatever had happened to the teen before him?

Matsuda just sighed. For all that his co-workers all thought of him as a bit of a ditz, he was really gifted when it came to knowing when to go with the flow and when to kick out on his own. This was one of those times when he needed to go with the flow and wait for answers. Besides, if you pushed anyone in the Yagami family, you were likely to be the one getting pushed out of the way. It was rather like the 'Unstoppable force meets immovable object' saying. The unstoppable force wins. So, Matsuda settled down and waited.

Mogi really had no clue what was going on. He felt like everyone else knew more than he did (They did.) and was therefore rather disconcerted. So Mogi settled for a concerned glance at the girl holding onto Light Yagami, who appeared to always be at the center of whatever it was that was going on.

Light sighed in frustration. Aryn didn't seem to be responding at all to what he was saying. This was the worst flashback than she had had in a long time. He was going to have to try to coax Aryn to follow his mind to the others, hopefully snapping her out of it. Unfortunately there was rather a large chance that he would end up getting sucked into a flashback, which was the reason that that method was only to be used as a last resort.

"Okay Aryn. I want you to listen to my voice. I'm going to reach out and touch your mind. When I do, I want you to follow my mind. You can trust the people I'm going to lead you to, okay?" And so on and so forth. Light kept talking as he slowly and carefully reached out with his mind and brushed it against Aryn's. He gently led her mind to the other parts of the bond, where the twins' combined mind found Matt, Mello and Near. Aryn recognized the feel of their minds and finally snapped out of her flashback.

"Better now?" Light asked, concern for his twin dancing in his eyes. Aryn nodded. "That's good. That was one of the worst ones you've had in a long time."

Aryn nodded. "Yeah. Th-I'd heard those words before. And they led to the worst hour of my lives."

Light hissed through his teeth. "Odin's hellfire, I'd forgotten about that." He pulled Aryn closer to him. "Don't worry. No one is ever going to do that to you again."

Near cautiously walked closer. "Are you okay, Aryn?"

Aryn smiled shakily at Near. "Yeah. Hold me?"

"Of course."

And just like that, the detectives and L got to see a different side to Light, Matt, Mello and Near. Instead of seeing five different teens who take joy in turning world views upside down, they were seeing five teens with broken pasts and dangerous futures as they consoled each other and reaffirmed the fact that they were there for each other.

And then the quartet of adults saw something they most definitely were not supposed to see just yet.

L-5 let go of their glamours.

Suddenly, they weren't just a group of teenagers consoling each other. Each was strange and magnificent and frightening and deadly, but they were no longer human.

Light and Aryn were botth sporting a pair of dark brown/black feathery wings that glittered red in the lights. Near had grown a pair of black and red bat wings while Matt grew a pair of black wolf ears and what looked like a tail. Mello didn't seem to have any visible changes, but one could tell just from looking at him that he wasn't human; there was just something subtly wrong with him.

For a moment there was silence, and then...

THUMP!

Apparently Matsuda wasn't one for shocks of that magnitude, especially at ten in the morning.

The second Matsuda hit the floor, all five teens snapped around, ready for a fight, and the rest of the changes could be seen.

Near had gained a pair of vampire fangs while Mello now had slitted yellow eyes and snake fangs.

Aizawa joined Matsuda in blissful unconsciousness at the sight of glowing yellow eyes and poison-green fangs. Mogi just shrugged, having always been one to accept the world around him as ever-changing, and headed on in. Kira had to be caught, whether magic was real or not after all, and none of the others seemed to be in any condition to do anything about him/her/them. Whoever or how many Kiras there actually were.

L-5 blinked as one as they relaxed out of their fight-ready posture, and then Mello voiced their thoughts rather succinctly.

"Well, shit."


I will congratulate anyone who can successfully guess what either Matt, Mello, Near, Aryn or Light is. They're really random, but still awesome.

Yes, Aizawa is afraid of snakes, which mello quite resembles at the moment.

Also, can you tell that I'm slightly sadistic? I always give my characters traumatic pasts.

Have to go. My friend is kidnapping me for the weekend soon.

Ja ne, minna-san!