"For someone with an impossibly high I.Q., you can be so stupid sometimes, Beyond…" Nannie muttered, glancing down wearily at the fuel gauge. She had bee driving for hours into the nearing twilight, and Beyond still lay unconscious in the seat next to her.
"Although, I have to admit, I do find this all rather exciting…" she sighed. "Life up until now has actually been exceedingly boring. I thought offering therapy to the criminally insane would alleviate some of the boredom, but it all became so mundane too quickly…
"Until you came along, anyway. As cliché as it may sound, you were different from my other patient. You actually had intelligent things to say unlike the other half-wit idiots, and you didn't say anything about why you committed the crimes. I had actually begun to respect you, sane or not. But then you had to go and threaten to kill Liam and take me hostage…" she sighed.
Beyond had been awake during the time she spoke, opening his eyes to watch her through his bangs about half-way through her speech. When her gaze dropped, he followed it to the picture still on the console.
"I'd just like to know how he plays a role into your reasoning for killing those people…"
"Where did you get that?" he asked instantly, sitting up.
Nannie jumped, slamming on the brakes and swerving off onto the shoulder. "What the hell! I thought you were still asleep!" she snapped.
"Where did you get the picture?" he insisted. "From the wall?"
"Uh…" She shrank back against the door.
"Do you have anymore?"
"No…"
"Get out of the car."
"W-what…?"
Get out of the car," he repeated. "I'm driving now," he added, snatching up the picture and crumpling it into a small wad.
"Alright…" she stammered, opening the door and stumbling out.
She rounded the front of the car as Beyond climbed over the console and behind the wheel. As she stepped back inside the passenger side, he had taken the cigarette lighter out from the dashboard and lit the picture, and then threw it out the window, replacing the lighter. Once Nannie closed the door and buckled the seatbelt, Beyond pressed down the gas pedal and maneuvered back onto the street.
"… Did you hear what all I said…?" she asked quietly after a while.
"Yes," he answered bluntly.
"Oh…" she muttered, turning to face the window when she felt her face heat up. "Where are we going now…?"
"Japan."
"Really?" she asked, turning to him again.
"Yeah."
"You only came here to kill that guy?"
"Yep."
"Why?"
"He was a bad man."
"By rule of society, so are you, Beyond…"
"Roger took part in that," he said with a slight smirk.
"How so…?"
"You remember the man in the picture?"
"Yes?"
"That would be L, great detective."
"I figured…" she mumbled under her breath.
"At the orphanage, Wammy's, we were taught to serve as backup copies of L, if you will. A, the closest thing I've had to a friend, I guess, killed himself due to immense pressure at such a young age."
Nannie stared at him silently with a deep frown plastered to her face, waiting for him to continue. And with a deep inhale, he did.
"I didn't want to settle with just being a copy, I wanted to be better than the original. That kind of demeanor was condoned, as they didn't think it possible to outrank L. Unfortunately, they were correct in their assumptions. The murders were committed to set up a mystery not even the Great L could solve, in which case I would have surpassed him in intelligence."
"I'm sorry…" she said quietly, still frowning.
"Save your pity," he sighed.
"Why are you telling me all this now when you wouldn't before, though…?"
"The way I figure it, if I don't make it, your memory will be erased off everything that's happened, and if all goes according to plan, there will be no one left to take responsibility if you do tell anyone."
"What do you mean, 'if you don't make it'?"
"If I'm killed before I get a chance to do what I need to."
"What do you need to do?" she demanded.
"Never mind…" he muttered.
"You're wanting to kill L, aren't you?" she snapped.
"Drop it, Nannie…"
"What'll you do after that? Try to kill yourself again?"
"That was the essential idea…"
"Beyond!" For reasons unbeknownst to her, her eyes began to brim with tears.
"Will you calm the fuck down? It will have no affect on you either way. You'll get to go back home with Keelahan and forget this ever happened."
"What if I don't want to go back home with Liam?" she snapped, glaring at him now.
"What the hell are you talking about? Why wouldn't you want to go back?"
"I don't know…" she muttered, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff.
"Dammit…" he muttered, begrudgingly pulling into the shoulder again and slowing to a stop. Nannie continued to glare down at the floor sullenly as he stepped out and rounded the car to her side. He opened the door. "Get out."
He hung his head when she ignored him, but leaned in to unbuckle her seatbelt and pull her out by the elbow. Once she was standing outside the vehicle, she fell against him and began crying. He stared down at her in bewilderment.
"Nannie, this is ridiculous," he sighed at last. "Just get in the back and lay down until we get there."
"Only excitement I'll…ever get, and you're…going to take that… away from me…you ass…!" she choked out in small sobs.
"Nannie, get in the back."
"No."
"In the back."
"Nuh-uh."
"Right now."
"Bite me."
"Nannie, look at me," he sighed, cupping his hands around either side of her face to force her to face him. Her eyes were red and her cheeks wet, forehead furrowed into another glare. After a moment's pause, Beyond leaned his forehead down against her own. "Please get in the back?"
"Nuh-uh…" she said, this time with less conviction.
He sighed inwardly, closing his eyes and shaking his head lightly. Nannie stared up at him uncertainly until he pressed his lips against hers. And just as suddenly as he had kissed her had he slapped the back of his hand across her face.
"Get in the back," he said again.
"O-okay…" she said quietly, holding a hand to her stinging cheek, and obediently climbed inside the car when he opened the door for her.
Mello had easily been able to trail them this whole time, and now found his chance when they had stopped. He drove the bike into the shoulder and then into the grass before cutting the engine. He dismounted the bike and carefully laid it down in the grass, along with his helmet.
He retrieved his pistol from one of the small cargo bags on the side of his bike and screwed on the silencer before stalking over towards the car.
While they were distracted, he crept to the trunk and held the muzzle against the lock and pulled the trigger. The lock popped off and the trunk open. He lifted the door slightly and slipped inside, closing it lightly again as Beyond helped Nannie back inside the car.
~*~
Liam sat in the computer chair with the side of his face down on his fist and his elbow on the desk beside the new computer. He was staring at Matt, tapping his foot up and down a little impatiently.
Matt had pulled a chair from the kitchen to the doorway of the study. He sat in it backwards and was in the process of calling Roger.
"No answer," he sighed, flipping the phone shut.
"We matched some of the finger prints with Nannie, shouldn't that be enough?" Liam asked.
"No, not really. We don't know if he traded her off to some other guy to hold while he goes off to do whatever he needs to do. It's better to know everything before taking any actions," Matt explained, flipping open the phone again. He held down the star button before holding it to his ear again.
"Watari."
"What's going on --- this is Matt, by the way --- Roger's not answering the phone."
"He's been reported dead, Matt."
"Dead? How did he die?"
"I'm not sure. Mello hung up immediately after telling me so."
"When was that?"
"Last night."
"Damn… I had some finger prints for him to analyze for me…"
"Ask L to do it, then."
"What…? Uh, no, that's alright…"
"He has a favor to ask of you anyway."
"A favor…?"
"Yes, hold on," Watari said, and with a faint "Ryuzaki," the phone was handed off to L.
"Hello."
"H-hi…" Matt muttered.
"Are you in company?"
"Yeah…"
"Answer in Japanese, then. What is it you need?"
"Uhm… Kimi wa shimon o miyaru."
"Very well, under the condition that you do something for me while Watari is away."
"Hai."
"Retrieve all the records from every known airport in California. Can you manage that?"
"Ano… H-hai, so desu."
"Thank you."
"Do itashimashite."
"Will that be all, then?"
"H-hai."
"Very well. I need to be going then."
Matt nodded wordlessly and shut the phone.
"Was that Japanese? Where'd you learn to speak that?" Liam inquired.
"Back home," Matt answered absently, dialing another number on the phone.
"Are your parents education Nazis? … Now who are you calling?" he groaned.
Matt ignored him this time and waited for the other line to pick up. "Mello!"
"Hey, I can't exactly talk right now…" Mello said in a hushed whisper.
"What? What's going on? Watari just told me---"
"That Roger's dead? Yeah, B came back to Wammy's…"
"B…?"
"Yeah. I've been following them since then, but it still isn't clear where they're going."
"Them? There's someone else with him?"
"Yeah, some girl."
"Shit… Where are you now?"
"I can't exactly tell at the moment…"
"Why not?"
"I'm in the trunk."
"…What?"
"Just go to Japan, alright? You can intercept him if I somehow lose him here."
"Fine… Just don't get killed…" he sighed wearily, shutting the phone again.
"Now what?" Liam asked irritably.
"I have to send L some files, and then we're going to Japan."
"They've been spotted there?"
"Something like that."