O.O I am so sorry for the freakishly long wait! My teachers this semester are best friends with textbooks and homework. I never had a chance. DX But on a better note, here's another update! I would have put it up last night, but my internet was acting up and wouldn't let me do anything but log in and out.

Thank you for all of the reviews! You make my world a much brighter place. ;)

at AnimeVamp1997: She might have to steal one a few more times, but she's done for now. As for getting stuck in England... one of her missions went wrong and her pilot crashed in the Atlantic Ocean. I didn't know what Never Have I Ever was until my friends brought it up during a game of How Do I Do This, Again? (Two people play a game, tell the others what the name of it is, then the other players have to guess the rules. If they get it right, they have to add their own lines. It's actually a really fun game. I learned Never Have I Ever, Green Glass Door, the Party Game, and a few others. Excuse my rambling, please!)
at DiamondRainbows: Thank you! :)
at ProfessorMoriarty221: Thanks, and I'll do my best!

During my hiatus, I did not suddenly become the owner of Death Note. Sadly.

Stones and Apples

A pounding headache awoke me the next morning. I opened my eyes with a soft groan and glanced around.

What the-

For some reason, I was lying sideways in a lawn chair on the balcony, feet propped up on the table where a jar of jam- minus a knife- sat, staring me back in the face. I rolled to the concrete floor, landed stiffly and staggered to my feet.

Ugh, why the heck am I outside..? I racked my mind, trying to conjure up some memory of the night before. There was Never Have I Ever... eating jam and remembering the diner in Arizona... and... there!

There it was. One of the most important memories my mind held.

L.

I smirked. Oh, yeah. It was so on.

And then the rest of my memory returned and my hopes dropped a level.

Oh, yay, fun... So now we get to look for the world's best detective.

Hey, he's on top! That's a healthy way to look at it!

I almost facepalmed. Trey, is it really necessary to quote The Top of Number Ten, or whatever it was called? That didn't even make sense.

The loctopus simply sent me a cheerful smile. Slowly, I allowed the remainder of the night's events to replay in my mind.

"So Wammy's House is basically where they make little L's so that, to the public, L never dies?"

"Correct," the serial killer smirked. "They train us to be like him so that one day, one of us can take his place."

"And they went in order according to the alphabet, starting with A. So there was Alternate-"

"-who committed suicide-"

"-Backup-"

"-me, who ran away-"

"-and then they continued from there out," I finished. He nodded. "What about the other Wammy kids? Would C still be next in line?"

"Connect was a pushover. He was never good at anything."

"D?"

"A shy little pipsqueak. Most likely dead by now."

"E?"

A twisted smile curled the edge of Beyond's mouth. "You wanna hear what Roger knows or the real story?"

"Let's skip it," I sighed and rubbed my forehead. "F?"

"Fortnight... I don't remember much about her. She was the oldest of us all, maybe just a few years younger than L... But she wasn't as smart as the rest of us, probably because she hadn't been brought to Wammy's House at a young age, like the rest of us."

"You keep saying 'the rest of us' like there were a lot more of you," my eyes narrowed.

His dark chocolate eyes stared out at the city, memories flashing through them. A coy smile gripped him as he turned to face me. "We were at Linda before I left. She was the newest addition, having only been there for a week or so, but she'd seen L in person and sketched him out for me."

"I'm guessing it would be pointless to ask where the sketch is now."

"Correct. I ran it through a shredder- twice- burned it, and left half in the Atlantic Ocean and half in the Pacific."

Jeez. Sounds like something I would do. "Back to L... what are all of the cases he's taken on?"

"The Kira case, obviously, mine, and around 3,500 more."

I blinked. "Jeez Louise... So, is there anything else you can tell me about him?"

"How about you tell me what you know and I'll deduce from that?"

My eyes narrowed even more. "How would that help either of us?"

"Both sides of info out in the open." He shrugged. "Two minds are better than one, right?" He flashed me a grin and he slipped the dagger from the empty jar, licked off the remaining jam and began to twirl it between his fingers.

I eyed him warily. Tell him all I know... either he's lying and just making the Wammy House up; or he's telling the truth and wants to give his two cents; or he's secretly plotting to slit my throat, run off with the information and go kill L; or I'm just being paranoid- again. Oh well. I've already taken an insane quantity of risks, why stop now?

Because your mind is slowly deteriorating? offered Trey helpfully.

Because you have a job to do? I shot back snidely. Unless you have constructive comments, hush it.

I slowly gave Beyond a shortened version of what I'd witness in the plaza, and then my own deduction from it all.

"Hmm... L took a risk for once," B mused, "even if he was still hidden behind the screen. And his other tactics... I can see why you want to meet him."

I blinked. When did I ever say I wanted to meet him? Did I even want to meet him? "Huh?"

"Spacing out again?" there was a twinge of irritation in his rough voice. "I don't talk for the joy of hearing my own voice."

"No, you just surprised me," I waved it off. "When did I say I wanted to meet him?"

"Double meanings, Ms. Carpender."

"KC," I corrected automatically. "And how the hell do you know my name in the first place?"

"How is it that you were born just this year and are a full-grown woman?" he countered. The twirling of the blade grew faster, as if it were daring me. "An eye for an eye, KC."

Now he's just taunting me. I smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"We're never going to get anywhere if we keep hiding secrets from each other," he growled and sat in the chair, pulling his knees to his chest and eying me.

I glared at him. "And sitting like L is going to change anything?"

"Whoopsie daisy. Old habits die hard. Guess it's slowly coming back, lack of straitjacket and all," the serial killer made no move to alter his posture. I almost deadpanned at the childish saying. Almost, but not quite.

We sat there in silence- well, I stood, but you get the picture.

After a few minutes, Beyond broke the silence. "How about you start with that spider thing on the back of your neck?"

I just barely managed to refrain from gaping at him. Instead, I stared at him suspiciously. "How did you-"

"You threatened to 'throw it from the balcony into the pool,' if I remember correctly," he smirked.

"Oh." Definitely not my shining moment. I scratched the back of my head with a roll of my eyes. "Yep. And I would have, too."

He raised his eyebrows, encouraging me to continue.

"Okay, so... um..." Oops. I guess I kinda forgot what I was going to say...

Trey sent me a helpful picture of Susan, Alpha General and the rest of the mafia representatives heading their desks multiple times.

"Oh!" I jumped, suddenly making the connection. So that's why it never bother me! Beyond's-

"What?" B asked placidly.

"Huh?" I blinked.

"You said 'oh.'"

"I did, didn't I..?" I mused. Huh. Beyond's voice sounded almost identical to Team Alpha's leader's voice. The same, once-deep sound hidden behind permanently scarred vocal cords. (At least, I think Beyond's was permanent...) "Nothing, just realized something unimportant."

"Like what?"

I shot him an annoyed look. "You were asking about the loctopus..?"

He snorted. "The what?"

"The loctopus, Trey."

The heck! What ever happened to 'don't tell outsiders about the poor, little loctopus? Am I just an unwanted piece of-

Trey was broken off as I moved my hand from scratching my head to the base of my neck, grabbed the spider-like mechanism and tossed him lightly onto the rickety table. Trey hissed in my mind as he rolled around on his back for a moment, then managed to flip himself back onto his legs. He whirled around, his main cameras focusing on my face.

I shrugged. "Don't glare at me."

The loctopus flipped me off and started to do something else before Beyond reached across the table and picked him up between his forefinger and thumb. I watched, amused, as the eight legs flailed around, desperately searching for a grip while the loctopus proceeded to cuss me out in every language the two of us knew.

"Interesting," the serial killer's eyes widened a hint as he set the mechanism back on the table. Immediately, the loctopus fled to the jar and hid behind it. I snorted.

"He's a coward."

"How does it work?" B eyed Trey but made no move towards him this time.

I hesitated, but what the hey? Why not just spill everything? (Well, everything that I have an answer to, anyways.)

I gave him the shortened version of the mechanism. Whilst I was talking, I noticed his smirk growing wider by the second, so that when I finished, I was half blinded.

"What are you so smug about?" I broke off my current sentence- my crappy summery- and stared at him.

"That explains why you always seem so distant," he replied.

From there on out, my memory had gotten more and more patchy, and the last few minutes of conscientiousness had blurred together completely. We made small talk about something, then something else- Argh! What a time for my mind to fail me... Ugh. At least we didn't go off and kill someone.

At least, I hope we didn't...

I limped back into the hotel room, more from my left ankle refusing to hold my weight than the odd pain in my side. But between the two, I felt like the entire world's weight had suddenly been transferred to my right leg and I had somehow ended up walking sideways on a wall.

"Rough night?" Beyond was eating jam with the dagger while Autumn was typing away on a Toshiba. The schizophrenic eyed me, his trademark smirk widening slightly when I came to an unsteady halt.

I ignored him and turned to the girl. "Yo, kiddo. Where'd you get that?" I motioned to the laptop.

"A man traveling to Florence, Italy will be missing it in roughly two hours," she replied brightly.

My eyebrows shot to my hairline. Don't say a word, KC. Don't don't open your mouth. But I'm not the best person at listening to my own advise. "Do I want to know?"

"Nope!" she giggled.

"Well then," I clapped my hands together and rubbed them in a cliché move. "Let's get this party started!"

B shot me a look that clearly said, 'are you insane?'

I smirked. Oh, yeah, buddy. If you think this is bad, try me after I've inhaled ten energy drinks, five bags of Pixie Sticks and two six-packs of Mountain Dew. (And Susan had never trusted me with Amp since.)

"So, first thing's first: We. Need. Aliases. I researched a little and found a few names that could work. Rue, you're keeping yours. If L recognizes it, we'll use you as bait to lure him in so that we can find him. Kid, you name's Kyona from now on, and I'm Ishi."

"So we start calling each other by our Japanese names now?" Beyond eyed me as he licked the jam-coated blade.

I nodded. "Even in our hotel rooms. There's a chance they could be bugged."

But Autumn saw another problem entirely. "What about our last names? We all look pretty much the same; we could prob'ly pass as a family-"

"Except for that neither you nor Rue can speak Japanese, much less put on an accent. You're Rue's niece, and I'm his fiance," I ran over what little details I could remember from the fuzziness of the night conversion. "You're parents died so you came to live with your uncle, but you were both born in Tokyo, thus your Japanese names. Only give out this information in dire situation."

"What about you?" Autumn frowned.

I blinked. Jeez... is this even the same kid? I could have sworn we've not been together all that long, and she's already warmed up to me? It makes you wonder...

I shot her a wink. ",Kodomo o shinpaishinaide kudasai. Watashi wa daijōbudesu."

"Okay!" she beamed and returned her gaze to the laptop. Jeez... It really doesn't take a lot to convince her, does it?

"So, any questions?"

Yeah, why couldn't I get a word in edgewise?

Because you're annoying, that's why, I smirked. For once, it seemed like things might actually be going my way...