Author's Note: I've made a slight mistake. I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I said I was going to be starting the Canon now, and I am, however, I've realised something; the dates I've used, leave FAR too long of a gap between Jewel's entrance into Japan and the kidnapping of the Director of the NPA. It's almost three months that she would've been in Japan, and I didn't want to leave her there that long. Mostly, and if in fact for no other reason, than I have nothing for her to do there for that long. I can't have her following Light for over three months, that's just ridiculous. So what I've done, if you haven't noticed, is I've gone back and edited the dates I've used. I know it's not THAT big of a change, but I just didn't want anybody to call me on it, lol. I hope it doesn't confuse anybody :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

Spoiler Alert: This chapter contains material from episode 27. If you haven't seen it yet, well it's your call as to whether you want to read it or not.

Mello, one of the beefier guys in a white sport coat and I descended the long, narrow, rusted stairs to the basement of the facility. It was the kind of place that would remind you of a dungeon or maybe even the depths of hell... if it weren't so cold I mean. I'd left my hoodie on the couch upstairs and so I was left with rubbing my arms raw to try and keep them warm. Mello had on a huge coat to keep himself warm; it looked cozy.

The whole feel of the place was mildew-y and the echoing around us was astounding, no effort to sound proof here. I don't think I'd ever been to the basement, and it wasn't hard to figure out why I hadn't had the desire to go check it out. The door creaked open when we reached the bottom of the stairs. I didn't remember anybody opening it, and was instantly reminded of all those haunted houses where the door always closed behind the victims. At least this door was opening in front of us instead of slamming behind us. Mello took a large bite of his chocolate and the crack that emanated from it seemed to last years before it could no longer be heard.

We walked into the rather large room which covered the whole area of the basement. I saw two more mafia members surrounding a guy who was bound by ropes to a chair.

"Has he decided to say anything yet?" the guy behind me asked. What was his name? Rod? Ross? Rod Ross?

"He told us the Japanese police have decided to wimp out on Kira. Looks like right now the only ones who are officially working for L are: Soichiro Yagami, Kanzo Mogi and Tota Matsuda. Isnt that right?"

What about Aizawa and Ide? I asked myself. Had they quit? Had they left after L died, as I had? I didn't know who was left on the team for after L died, not only were most of the files wiped, but very few new ones were uploaded and of course fake names would've been used.

"Yeah," a harsh gasp came from the hostage. "There was also Ukita, but he was killed by Kira." Weddy and Aiber had also been killed by Kira right after L died. There was no way THAT was a coincidence.

"Right, and as top cop you somehow had no idea that this Notebook even existed, or that you had it."

"Ha-ha-ha, Japanese cops must be a joke," the two men guarding the prisoner taunted.

Mello walked forward, "Of all the investigators on the task force, deputy director Yagami would be the highest ranking right?"

"Yeah," the hostage croaked again; Mello took another loud bite of his chocolate. I thought Light was running things now? Oh well, he probably just reported to his father for seniority reasons.

"My theory is that there are two Notebooks out there," Mello began, raising his non-chocolate hand dramatically. "One of them is in Kira's possession, and the other is with the NPA." I could've told him that [1]. Mello brought his hand down clenched in a fist, "We're going to take both of them." Wait just a minute! Now he wanted to take BOTH!

An air of uncertainty seemed to spread among the men, and grunts of disapproval hung in the air.

"Don't worry, so long as we do what Mello says there'll be no mistakes. It's been a year and a half since he joined us and in that time he's never been wrong about anything," the white sport coat guy said. One day I'd take the time to remember their names. Assuming I stuck around long enough this time.

"Yeah but that's what's so weird, if he was able to bring us the head of a mafia boss that even Kira himself couldn't kill, why the hell would he even need the Notebook to begin with?" Whoa, Mello did what? Well, he was a super genius... but still only nineteen.

"It's not just the Notebook I'm after," Mello chimed in, "I want to eliminate my competition. I will be the best. I don't care what it takes; I'll beat Near by any means necessary." Of course this wasn't just about Kira. It never would be with Mello.

The new information presented, I'm sure this didn't mean much to the men around us. I'd bet my life savings they didn't even have a clue as to who Near was; he could've been the leader of another Mafia syndicate or just some rival student from school... Was it just me, or would everyone feel that it was a little childish that it was the later of the two?

We left the two mafia goons guarding the director of the NPA and went back to the main room.

Back upstairs it was taking every ounce of strength I had not to leap across the room and tackle Mello; I bit down hard on my lip. Mello was sitting on the top of the couch with one leg up beside him, eating chocolate. I tried desperately to focus my gaze elsewhere; I was going to get myself into a lot of trouble if Mello insisted on wearing leather all the time. I hadn't realised how much I'd missed him the month I was in Japan until I'd gotten back.

Between Mello and I sat, what was his name, Rod? He had two girls on either side of him, and they were getting pretty friendly. I wished they'd get a room! Then again, I wish Mello and I could have our own room... No! Must. Keep. Focused... Mello was a jerk anyway. He was always so mean to me. I shouldn't like him, I knew that.

"BOSS!" one of the men came bounding up the stairs out of breath; knocking me from my internal fantasy.

"Shut up, can't you see that I'm busy?" the big guy asked, playing with the brunettes hair.

"I'm sorry, but Eddy and I were talking for a minute and, looks like Takamura hung himself with his tie or somehow." Yeah, I'm so sure he hung himself willingly. I'm sure Kira had absolutely nothing to do with this 'suicide.'

Jeeze, Kira was onto us already. Just great. It was exactly as I'd predicted; Kira now knew we were working on him, he now knew we were after him. I heaved a sigh.

"What's wrong with you! Just great! What are we supposed to do with a dead hostage?" Rod hollered (yup, his name was Rod, and if it wasn't well that I was what I was going to call him.) The two girls were becoming a little uneasy.

"No," Mello cut in, "this'll be just fine." Was he nuts! He was as mad as a hatter if he thought this was going to go off well. He seemed to zone out for a moment, as if checking the future based on his new calculations. I half wondered if maybe he really could see how things were going to turn out in the end. Mello's bar of chocolate was frozen just outside his mouth, more like he was debating eating the chocolate instead of what they were all going to do next. In any case, the rest of the men seemed to accept his judgement.

"So what're we going to do Mello?"

"I'll tell you what we're going to do! We're going to kidnap Soichiro Yagami's daughter, Sayu Yagami." Okay, maybe he HAD been debating more than the chocolate.

I felt like screaming at him and asking what the hell he was talking about, I wasn't totally sure I was willing to accept Mello's judgement as quickly as the others had. Was he serious! SAYU YAGAMI! Mello wasn't just playing with fire now, he was playing with fire AND gasoline... and maybe napalm or C4 too. This was going to blow up in our faces.

Mello wasted no time in getting his plan together. I may not have known Sayu when I was back in Japan, but I had known Soichiro Yagami and of course Light, so I actually had a bit of a part to play in the caper this time as well. I suppose I was at least glad I could be of some use to Mello [2]. I was put back on a plane to Japan with Mello's mafia cronies. I was lucky that they were at least behaving themselves. It could've gotten really uncomfortable traveling with them... well, MORE uncomfortable.

When we went to pick up Sayu I insisted that we all wear ski masks to hide our faces. I wasn't taking chances with the Yagami family. I had a feeling Light could manipulate anyone into doing his killings for him. If he ever found out our names, and Sayu knew our faces, well hell, that'd be the end of us.

When we had Sayu on the plane, I used my laptop to connect to Mello's phone call to Soichiro:

"Look, about trading the director for the Notebook, the deal's been cancelled! Takamura is dead." For whatever reason I could only listen in on Mello's side of the conversation, "It's only cancelled though regarding the director, the new deal is this, the Notebook, for Sayu Yagami." I wondered how Mr. Yagami was taking this; I didn't think it was well. "Seeing as how you're the director of the Japanese police it would be stupid to ask you not to call the cops, but you had better handle this on your own. Without backup! If I see the police making any big movements in the next little while, I'll kill your daughter. That's right; just as easily as we killed the director. I'll send you a photo of Takamura's corpse to show you we mean business. Take a good look. I'll contact you tomorrow." I could've accessed the photo Mello sent on my laptop, but looking at a corpse really wasn't on my To-Do List.

We got back to L.A. a little later the next day. I was exhausted from all the travel and jetlag the past couple days; I couldn't remember the last time I'd slept. At least Sayu hadn't caused any problems for us. She'd come along without a struggle; poor thing must've been too scared to try and get away. I wasn't totally agreeing with kidnapping a girl no older than I was, but it's not like Mello couldn't have done it without me, and maybe having another girl with her might've relaxed Sayu a little. I'd taken the liberty of having some specialty contacts sent down; solid black. Between Mello, the mafia and myself, we had enough contacts around the world to get us whatever we wanted at a moment's notice. It would've been suspicious if we'd boarded the plane with masks, or if Sayu had been wearing a blindfold, but this was perfect. She couldn't see our faces and no one was the wiser.

Sayu, the mafia and I were in the room while Mello made his call to Yagami.

"Your daughter has finally arrived. It's about time." ... "You already have a pretty good idea of where we are, don't you? We'll make the exchange here, come to L.A. in two days, by yourself, and of course, bring the Notebook with you." ... "How about this, I'll send you another photo; that should satisfy you." Mello turned, snapped a picture with his cell and sent it off.

After that it was my designated job to watch over Sayu. I took her to one of the empty rooms in the complex. It had a pair of small loveseats. I took one and sat her down on the other. After watching her for a moment I realised she was still wearing the contacts. I couldn't imagine contacts being too comfortable for someone who'd never worn them so I removed them carefully and replaced them with a blindfold.

We sat in silence for a moment before Sayu spoke up. "Uh, excuse me," she started timidly, "who are you? W-why are you doing this?"

It was a valid question for someone in her position. I figured she at least deserved to know what was going on, this wasn't fair to her. "We're working on the Kira Case," I informed her. "The task force that your father is running right now has something we need to solve it."

"W-what is it?" she tested.

"The means of Kira's killing. We're going to use you to get it. you're our bargaining chip." I tried to not make it sound so terrible to her.

"W-who are you?"

"Do you really think I would tell you that?"

"No, I guess not." she sighed.

I don't know what came over me next; maybe I felt sorry for her, maybe I was just tired of hiding, maybe deep down I'd realised that her knowing wouldn't make a difference. "My name's Jewel," I said quietly.

A small, but sure smile appeared on Sayu's face. We talked easily after that.

*Mello's POV*

The call was in; everything was going according to plan. I decided to check the audio/visual feeds from the room where Jewel was holding Sayu.

"...He's really not so bad ya know," Jewel said to Sayu. "He's just... misguided I suppose. All he really wants is to catch Kira, before a friend of ours does."

"W-why before? Why can't they work together?" Sayu asked cautiously.

"Oh, who knows? They never really got along. I think he just wants to prove that he's worth something too, ya know. He's always been second best... well, as far as some things go I guess."

A small, knowing smile played on Sayu's lips. "He's not second to you, is he?"

Jewel looked up to meet Sayu's gaze, assuming she hadn't been blindfolded. A soft, kind smile spread over Jewel's face, and the crests of her cheeks gathered a rosy hue. "No," she said quietly, "never has been second, never will be second. Not to me."

"You love him," it wasn't a question.

"I love him."

She... she loved, ME? Maybe I'd been misunderstanding, maybe the whole time they'd been talking about someone else. She'd said it before though as well. When I'd first picked her up to help me with this case. But she couldn't still mean it could she? I'd been doing everything I could to push her away. The last thing she needed if she was going to be working on this case was a distraction. She was going to get herself killed if she didn't stay focused, and if I had to waste time worrying about her instead of focusing on what I needed to, she was going to get us both killed.

I thought about that for a moment and I ended up being absorbed with that concept; the idea that we might both die trying to solve this case. Then there was that annoying little problem, the fact that no one's going to live forever anyway.

No! I wasn't going to allow myself to think like that. I would not allow myself to be destracted. I tuned back into the monitor.

"...you sound so determined to beat Kira."

"I am. Kira has killed someone very, very close to me. And the lives of those I care about are in jeopardy every day. I will not rest until I see justice served."

"You'll keep fighting even though your own life is in danger?"

"I will keep fighting until the lives of those I care about are no longer in danger. And I'm going to win too."

"How can you be so sure?"

"My purpose is greater than Kira's. Kira just wants to play god, I desire to protect my friends. It's a belief I have Sayu..." Jewel continued, "when you have something to fight for, when you have someone you desire to protect, when their life means more to you than your own, you can't lose. There's something inside yourself that just won't let you quit."

Author's Note: Yay canon. I hope you guys are liking it! Things are going to get really heated between Mello and Jewel in the next couple chapters ;P I mean it! Anyway, here's just a quick couple footnotes for the story:

[1]: for those of you who are interested, there were actually 4 (REAL) Death Notes in the story!

Ryuk's Death Note: never handled by humans

Sidoh's Death Note: taken by Ryuk, Light's original Death Note

Sidoh - Ryuk - Light - Yotsuba - Japanese Police - Mello - Light - Sidoh

Rem's Death Note: taken by Light after Rem's death

Rem - Light - Misa - Light - Japanese Police - Near

Gelus's Death Note: Misa's original Death Note

Gelus - Misa - Light - Teru - Near

I get a little mixed up with Rem's and Gelus's Death Notes, because Light and Misa switch Death Notes so many times throughout the series, however, this is the general idea. Let me know if I've missed something, or if I made a mistake.

[2]: it may be hypocritical of me to say this, but while I was watching Death Note, I would always give Misa heck for saying things like that to Light. Things like, 'I just want to be helpful to you.' Especially because of what Light was doing; but as I was writing the above, I could kind of understand where Misa was coming from. When you love someone so much you don't care what they do, just so long as you can be there for them.