Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note, Kingdom Hearts, Grand Theft Auto or Final Fantasy. Just my OC's.

Note: I'd like to openly say say for the slight delay. I've been busy with the drawing (I'm not the best artist in the word, but I did ask a friend if she could. Check out my profile for a coloured and greyscale version on my OC. I thank my friend Jessica (Ironic since she's drawing my OC and I started this before I met her) for the drawings. I greatly appreciate it!

Note 2: Also, by next Friday, the 8th, I'd like to get at least 4-5 reviews please? I'm also taking requests for drawings if anyone wants any other pictures, perhaps with the canon's and a certain scene.


Chapter 6: Catalyst

As I walked back to her room after the evening meal (most people including Near and Roger questioned me where Jessica was), I was stopped by yet another individual who wanted to know why the cops were called on he this time and who the new teen was. I rushed past to check on her. And there she was, right where I had left her.

She had curled up in her bed, cuddling a stuffed animal that looked too old to have been made recently. Her face was stained with fresh tear stains, reminding me of my own first week here and how hard it was for me to slowly let go of the past. Something told me that it'd be harder for her to adjust. I sat down next to her, listening to her breathing patterns steadily move. I watched as she breathed in and out, not aware of the trespasser next to her.

Just to be here with her made me wonder what was going through her mind. What questions were being asked. What data was going through her mind. What memories she was reliving. Another tear going down her face. Another wince of the pain as I gently wiped it away. Another squeeze to her toy bear. A final deep breath before her eyes opened, glancing at me.

"I thought you were going to dinner." She said. Her voice was missing emotion, sounding as she'd never be happy again. Oddly enough, her eyes were showing the pain and hurt.

"You must have fallen asleep. It's almost nine. You should be asleep now if you want to be on time to school tomorrow." I murmured, stroking her good cheek. She shivered. I didn't get how that was constantly her reaction. I guessed she wasn't too keen on being touched.

"Who will drive me if you're unable to? Like, if you get sick or something?" Her voice had some worry to it. I sighed, kissing her gently. After pulling back, I thought for a few moments. I wanted to reassure her. Not worry her further.

"Like that'll ever happen." I murmured, taking a chocolate bar out of my pocket, snapping a square off and put it in her mouth before snapping of another square for myself. My voice hid the fact that I was thinking about just how possible it was. "But if that does happen, it'll be either Matt or some other guy." She hesitated before replying.

"Matt doesn't like me much, does he?" She asked, another tear started to form. The stuffed animal got another squeeze. She didn't bother sitting up and hugging me instead. At least I hugged back. "He glared at me when I was in the cop car and then again during the game."

I bit my lip. Matt told me during dinner that he didn't care for her in the least bit. He was jealous that I was spending more time with her then my best friend, but specifically said he didn't hate her. He liked her, only as a person. He didn't like her as my girlfriend. Sorta like how a person likes the way a cake looks, but hates how it tastes. The food analogy made me break off another square and eat it.

I hesitated, wondering how to word that to her though. "Well, he's kinda neutral to you. Just a bit jealous that you're spending more time with me at the moment rather than him. But, I don't think he means any harm to you though. And if he gives you trouble, you come directly to me. I'll set him straight." I said, thoughtfully. It wasn't exactly a lie. He wouldn't touch her. Matt was much too busy worrying over what bosses he had to beat in his stupid video games to wager full out war with the teenage girl lying next me.

"I'd rather it be anyone else then, to avoid any nasty words and dirty looks. R's the one who faced me and lost, right?" She asked, glancing at me. She seemed to a bit relieved about what I said and managed to finally sit up. I broke off another square and gave it to her. I usually didn't share the brown sweet, but this was a serious time for me, and it wasn't as if I was losing a whole bar, or that she was stealing it. She needed to relax, calm down even.

"Yeah. He's generally a nice guy, but the guy gets down pretty quickly. He was really upset that you beat him, but he thinks you're worth hanging onto. Too bad for him that I'm not going to let you go." I said, cuddling her in my arms. I could feel the smooth and softness of her skin through the leather, and I was sure she could feel my skin through it too. It was the only negative thing about wearing it. It was tight, but smooth, unlike cotton or polyester. She gave me a slight glare. "Well, I won't give you up so easily."

She smiled at that before hugging me. "Neither will I." Her eyes went to the clock after we pulled apart after we kissed again and she gasped. "Jeez, it's getting late. I really should be getting to sleep." She said that like she didn't want to but knew it was absolutely necessary.

"Alright. Besides, you're not exactly the only who has to go take lessons tomorrow. Get ready for bed and go to sleep. I'll be waiting for you in the parlor tomorrow morning when you're ready. Just, try not to look too flamboyant. You're going to a private school, not a public school." I murmured, kissing her again.

After I pulled back, I murmured goodnight and left, allowing her to get the rest she needed. It certainly made me think when I headed back to my bedroom. It was a disaster, littered with clothes, chocolate wrappers, various video games Matt had brought in here to play on my TV when he wanted to spend the night, papers and books. Matt wasn't in there. Just my luck.

I cleaned up for a half hour, throwing clothes every which way. I wasn't exactly sure which were clean and which were dirty, so I decided altogether to steal one of the folded striped shirts and blue jeans on my dresser my red haired friend had left there from the past night. Then, I organized the papers. That was until the gamer came in himself, probably to get one of his games.


"Mello? Cleaning? That's unheard of. And slightly disturbing." Matt said, looking at the blonde, smirking as he looked up from his PSP. Mello only responded by throwing a game case at his head. "Sheesh, someone's in a fowl mood. Roger making you clean this trash heap?"

"Shut it." Mello responded glaring at his friend. "Haven't you done enough? I just- ugh!" He kicked a book, displaying his anger to his friend. He had never wanted to hurt a person this much before.

"Dude, what the hell's your problem? Did someone run out of chocolate again? It explains the wrappers all over the place." The gamer responded before seeing the glare in the leather-clad teen's eyes. "Um...Why are you staring at me like that?"

"You should apologize to her. She thinks you absolutely hate her by the way you've been treating her. What has she done to you? When I went to check on her, she was bawling her eyes out. You should say something to her." He replied, turning to pick up the candy wrappers.

"Like what?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry works. But don't even think about trying to suck up to her. That would be my job." Mello replied, looking at his friend for a mere moment. "She's better then you put her up to be. If it helps you two gain a better relationship, she likes DDR, the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games and just so happens to know a few codes to glitch your Grand Theft Auto games."

Matt's head perked up at that. "She does?" He thought for a few moments before smirking at his friend. "This could be the start of a beautiful relationship between her and I. Heh, she can be my little sister. I mean, her birthday is March 24th, making her exactly one month and 23 days younger than me. She can be my 'little sister.'"

"Little sister?" Mello asked, giving his friend a weird look before going back to work.

"Yeah. I figure, I've always wanted a little sister, and I mean, I got two brothers already. I think it's probably time I had a sister too." Matt responded, only to get a second weird look.

"If she's your sister now, who are your 'brothers'?" The blonde asked, throwing out the old wrappers in a garbage bag.

"Obviously, you're more or less my older brother, man. I mean, come on. We're best buddies!" The goggled boy pointed out, shugging his shoulders.

"And the other?"

"Let's just say you wouldn't exactly like it."
"It wouldn't happen to be that albino freak, would it?"

"Oh Mello, you're a mind reader, I swear."

"Whatever." Mello responded, getting annoyed by his friend's words.

Matt decided to try again for his first question. "So, why are you cleaning up your room? Got a hot date coming in here?" That question earned Matt a whack to the back of his head from the blonde who looked about ready to kill a smirked. If anything, Mello was going to make his relationship go by quickly. It'd be over before it even started, knowing Mello.


It felt like I blinked. One second, I'm looking at a darkened room, the next complete darkness and afterward back to the dark room, but with the alarm clock saying 5:59 am rather than the old time of 11:30 pm. I got up before it went off, hastily doing so before its annoying sound could wake up my father. I hoped what had happened had been just a dream.

I told myself as I got dressed and ready that it was just a dream. Matt didn't hate me, Mello and I hadn't shared several kisses, I didn't have a bruise across my face and my father was not in prison. I was at home, about to get ready for another average day of school.

I also hoped that when my eyes opened every little thing that had happened the past few weeks wouldn't have happened. Mom would be downstairs making breakfast as I ran down the stairs. I'd walk to school with a friend and hear the latest gossip over what had happened while I was in bed. We'd exchange homework, copying from each other and eat breakfast. How much I hoped I had my regular life back, straight down to the last detail.

As I looked in the mirror, I saw the bruise and knew it was reality. I used cover-up to hide the bruise, making the makeup match my skin tone as best as best as I could, blending the colours and waited until it looked perfect and didn't leave a line. It was close enough. I hated having to do this- to lie behind a mask to my new peers. Exellent way to start off in a private school. Not.

I opened up the bedroom door after getting my hair up and straightening my uniform, a black polo shirt with the school logo, a khaki coloured skirt, black leggings and black dress shoes. My hair was being held back by a headband with the country flag on it. At least it made me feel a bit better about my appearance. I was never the new kid before. I wanted to blend in the best I could, even if it meant dressing like all the other girls there. As long as I wasn't going into this alone.

I quickly and quietly headed to the parlor around 6:07, but Mello was nowhere in sight. I waited. Ten minutes became twenty. Twenty became thirty. He still hadn't showed up. I paced. I was starting to get worried. I picked up my phone and dialed his number. No answer. I sighed and checked my watch. It was indeed Monday. At least, that's what my alarm clock had said when I left the room. I was going to be royally pissed if it wasn't and someone- being Matt- messed with my alarm clock.

"Waiting for someone?" Asked a shockingly familiar voice from behind me. I prayed it was Mello, but it was not. In fact, it was the person I least wanted to see. Matt. Absolutely brilliant.

"Where's Mello? He was supposed to meet me here at 6:10." I asked, hiding the worry in my voice. "Is he okay?" Matt burst out laughing.

"Apparently, you didn't wind your clock back an hour last night. It's like, 5:30 in the morning. Not 6:30!" He cackled while I flushed a dark shade of scarlet. It was embarrassing. I had forgotten to set the alarm clock to the time on my phone. Matt must have thought I was a real moron. I wasn't exactly perfect. I had my pros, but my forgetfulness was my worst con.

. After a few minutes, Matt was beaming. "You're alright, Princess. Even if you are dating Mello." I flushed harder. Dating? Were we technically dating now? I didn't push for answers like usual. Instead, I acted as cool as I possibly could. I guess that was his version of an apology. I figured the blonde himself must have talked, or hit, some sense into the goggled teen before he went to bed.

"That's not what Mello said, but I'll take your word for it." I replied, smiling slightly. Even though I was still tired and felt like a truck ran me over, I wasn't about to completely call today bad. It seemed as if day was already promising me good things. A truce between Matt and I was promising enough.

"About what? You and Mello dating? Trust me, you two were from the very first kiss, girlie." He said, taking out his DSi. After a few minutes, all one could hear was Matt pressing buttons with rapid fire and myself pacing until 6:05 came for real. There was no talking between us. I stopped pacing and waited. I hated waiting, it made me feel antsy and time always seemed to move fie times as slowly. Matt must had thought time was flying with his little game.

I wasn't paying attention to the door, nor was I paying attention to my back. I jumped when a familiar set of arms, wearing leather, wrapped around my waist, drawing me closer to him and the faint smell of chocolate. I heard him chuckle softly. "I thought you were to meet me here, not the other way around." Mello laughed, letting go which allowed me to face him.

"I got up a bit early." I replied, hugging him. I heard Matt snicker at my phrasing of the term 'bit'.

"More like extremely. She got up at 5 rather than six. She forgot to set her alarm clock at the right time, Mel." Matt replied, chuckling. If Mello weren't holding onto me at the moment, I would have kicked him. I could feel the anger bubbling up inside of me.

"Really? Jessica, what am I going to do with you?" He murmured, shaking his head. Matt shrugged. I pulled away and walked back over to Matt, grabbed his goggles, pulled them forward so they were a distance from his face and released, making them snap back onto his face. Pain reflected in his eyes.

"After everything that happened yesterday, I don't think I was psychologically in the right state of mind when I went to bed last night though, Matt. It's not exactly every day I find out that I've got no family to back to. It's not a pleasant experience either" I replied, my eyes were hard and cold, like the daggers they so often were. Mello made a grab for my arm.

"Come on, Jess. Matt was only being an ass. Don't blame him because you clearly have a very small sense of humor." The blonde said, pulling me towards the door.

My father dragged me along the darkened halls. I knew where I was being pulled to. It wasn't the morgue, but for those that they knew it was too late for. It was the hall of which death was quickly happening amongst most patients. My father's grip tightened on my wrist. My eyes were looking every which way and I could smell the very smell of death down the halls. My heart stopped as he stopped in front of a darkened room, my mother's. He pulled me in, not following behind me.I felt like I was six rather than fifteen going on sixteen. Fear was lighted in my eyes as the door shut and my mother weakly called me over and told me her last wishes: to stay safe and not make the same mistakes that she did. Traslation at the time: don't get married to a drunk, have kids early and be the stronger woman. Take charge. And after stating that one little request, my mother died with me by her side. All I could do was cry.I lost my best friend that day.

I froze, recalling the memory. I let him drag me to the garage, to the motorcycle and got on with out an argument. I could feel my heart in my chest, feeling as if it would explode. I was holding on tightly as the world flew by me, but even though I was, I felt like I was falling. Deeper. Deeper. Even deeper and when the motorcycle parked in front of the school, I blacked out. Not to awaken and not to understand what was g oing on around me.


As I pulled up to the school, I could feel Jessica's arms losing their grip slowly, as if she was falling asleep. I caught her as she started to fall off. Her skin was pale and I could see exactly were she had covered up the bruise with cover-up. As my skin brushed against her own, I felt just how cold it felt. But she was breathing and her heart was racing. Was she having a heart attack or a stroke? I was really unsure. I picked up my phone and dialed Matt's number. He picked up on the first ring.

"Matt, I need you to get down here. It's Jessica, she blacked out as we pulled up. I need help getting her to the hospital." I pleaded, never sounding as desperate as now. All I heard in the background was the roar of his car. I hung up and waited. Thank God it was too early for a crowd to form.

I was grateful when the cherry red Chevelle pulled up and I put her cold, motionless body in the backseat and sat with her. "What the hell happened to her? She's looks like freaking death, or at least like as pale as Yuffie in Advent Children." he commented, making a quick spin in the other direction.

"Be careful. I don't want to get killed today." I hissed, wiping away the cover-up on Jessica's face, showing that the bruise looked worse than it had the night before. Why didn't she alert me about this? I would have told Roger quickly. Maybe she was scared on what would be said.

"So, you want me to get to the hospital as quick as I humanly can while being careful? Picky, picky Mello. Always gotta have things your way, don't you?" he taunted, smirking as I sent him a dirty look. Matt was lucky I was too busy trying to make sure Jay had a steady pulse to hit him. I'd settle for hitting him upside the head much later.

"Just shut the fuck up and drive." I yelled, directing this straight to Matt. "Just please." That I said in a begging voice. Right now, I was praying we didn't pulled over by any cops as we dashed through the red light. Many of the cars waiting at the intersection honked loudly as we did, causing several people to slam on their brakes. Hoped nobody got our lisence plate number either. Last thing we needed was to have to pay for a ticket.

"Please? This must be bad if you've started to say that word." He said, increasing the speed remarkably, turning, skidding to a halt near the emergency room. Matt opened the door, allowing me to get out with her in my arms. As I walked in, Matt was parking the car in the closest availible spot in the parking lot, being in the farmost corner.

I went to the counter to sign Jessica in, but the nurse at the counter was too busy talking to another nurse about her husband to worry about a deathly pale teenage girl lying limp in my arms. It was a doctor that saved me.

The second he saw my female companion, he immediately yelled at the nurse for not paying attention, asked for her name and then finally my own. I used the name Roger asked to me use if something had happened to me or her. Jessica's code name was Vanessa Herrin and I went with Mason Kather. I could hear him on the hospital phone call Roger after I gave him the number.

"Yes, this is Doctor Carter at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital. Yes, I'm calling about Vanessa Herrin. Yes, she's here with Mason Kather. No, I thought we'd let you know that the two are safe here, however it appears that she may have a concussion, possible internal bleeding, and perhaps a broken cheekbone. It appears as if she passed out from the pain or she was suffering a panic attack or even went into shock. Of course. I'll put on now." The doctor walked back to me, handing me the phone as I sat by Jessica's side. I told the doctor I wasn't about to leave her side, but took the phone reluctently.

"Hello? Roger?" I asked into the phone. I frowned at the voice on the other line, not being who I planned it to be.

"Unfortunately, no Mello. But, I feel as owner of the establishment, I have a right to know what happened." Wammy's voice filled the other line. I was hoping for Roger or Near even. This was the absolute last person I wanted to talk to. Roger knowing of my wrong-doings and hospital visits was one thing. With Wammy, it was a completely different situation. Now, I had to worry that I wasn't trusted with her.

"I don't know. One second, she's fine. The next, she's unconscious in my arms. He's saying she could have gone into shock, but she's rode with me before. I swear, I didn't do anything to her aside from a hug and a few kisses." I replied, worry spilling out of my voice, clear as a note.

"I see. Has Jessica mentioned having flashbacks of mere memories or pains?" He asked, pausing after the first sentence.

"No. Why, did she mention it to you while I was at dinner?" I asked, glancing as two nurses entered the room and put her on a gurney. I walked with them down to the x-ray room, still with the phone in hand, my boots clanking with every step taken.

"No, but her father over the phone mentioned it when I was talking to him before his arrest, passing on information about you being with her. He said Jessica has been having flashbacks since her mother's death. She was close with her mother, and being with her during the death may have traumatized her into this." Wammy stated, his voice sounding dry. "Something being done may have made her flashback to something and send her into a state of shock."

"Well, she was extremely quiet after I led her out this morning. She kinda paused when I took her wrist since I was unable to get a grip on her hands. Do you think that may have been what caused her to go into shock?" I asked, elaborating it in my mind and all the thoughts that could have been going through her mind.

"It might have been. Well, Mello, it seems you have a case of your own to solve. Don't worry about contacting the school, Someone else is already done so. they're going to collect her homework she missed and relieve you when they make their rounds."

"No, it's fine. I want to be with her until she wakes up. She's my responsibility. It's my fault." I replied, waiting outside as the x-rays were being taken.

"It's nobodies fault, Mello. You're letting your emotions get the better of you. Well, I must be off. There are other things I must attend to. Good luck." And then there was a click. I sighed as I waited next to her bed minutes later, counting the seconds until she awoke.


I'd like to thank my friend Sara for helping me edit and revise this chapter as well as those who view it. You guys rock!