A/N: Wheee!! Chapter 10. Double digits, yay!! Ok, crazy obsessive happiness over. No wait, Anne randomly came to visit (which motivated me to start this). And Helen and Sarah are visiting on Halloween, yay! Ok… I think I'm fine now. Uni's started, my project is terrifying, although that seems to be a general consensus, lectures start Monday, and I'm debating whether to change modules. My housemates are all nice people and there's 16 of us sharing a kitchen (oh the horror, oh the piles of dirty dishes… wait there aren't any of those… yet, it has only been a week). I have yet to breach the highly important subject of Death Note with any of them. although most of them have probably never heard of it.

But you didn't come here to read about my life, you came here to read about Beyond Birthday's, so I guess I'll stop rambling and get on with the chapter.

Oh, and big thanks to those wonderful people that commented last chapter. You motivated me to start this instead of doing pointless university work (why bother, lectures haven't started yet).

Disclaimer: I still don't own Death Note. Also spoilers for L's real name.

Beyond had been at the orphanage now for three months. He'd barely spoken a word since he arrived there. He communicated in gestures, by pointing and by nodding or shaking his head when asked a direct question. Nothing they did could entice him to speak, although this may have been helped by the fact that Beyond was smarter than the resident psychologist. It hadn't taken him long to realise that with his mother gone, he didn't have to pretend any more. He no longer had to act like any other child of almost seven. He didn't have to play with them, or talk to them, or act like he enjoyed the same things. He was able to up the level of books he read without suspicion and was often found in the small library that belonged to the large orphanage he was now a member of. He also was able to display his intelligence without fear of repercussions. Whilst he refused to speak at school it soon became obvious to his teachers that his level of understanding was way above average, although the didn't like his bored expression staring at them from the back of the classroom, as if he was demanding silently that they do something more interesting.

Then the day came when the orphanage gave every student a test. Apparently it was a national experiment to find out how orphans performed relative to students from families with both parents still alive. The experiment was being performed by a Quillish Whammy; a famous inventor who was known for his charity towards orphans in the past, and the orphanage Beyond was a member of was all too willing to get everyone of its residents to participate. So of course Beyond did too. He enjoyed the tests, they were a lot more challenging than anything he'd done at school, there were lots of logical problems which he particularly enjoyed, even though he refused to give spoken answers and wrote them down instead. After the tests were over he was surprised to find that the other children, most of whom were older than him, had found the tests incredibly difficult and had not managed to answer any of the questions properly. This made Beyond feel happy, since he knew he'd done well, and if he'd been a different sort of person he might have gloated, but of course he didn't, and not just because he was still not speaking. The tests were compiled and sent off, and no one thought any more of it for the longest time.

Time passed. Beyond fell into a state of seemingly perpetual boredom, and started resorting to more extreme measures to keep it at bay. ("I can sympathise with that" Ryuk had said.) He hadn't slept well since has mother had died, and was more likely to be found asleep at school than anywhere else (but the lessons were so dull, he couldn't help it). Instead he was more likely to spend his nights exploring the orphanage undetected. He often broke into the kitchen in search of his favourite foodstuff. The sticky sweetness of the strawberry jam, cheered him up, by reminding him of happier days and particularly of his mother who had practically raised him on the substance. It helped quiet the aching hole of despair within. He had fun with his secret night time games. As well as the kitchen, he was also prone to stealthily breaking into the rooms of other students as they slept, and rearranging their possessions so they had a beautiful expression of confusion on their faces when they came down to breakfast the next morning. He was, of course, careful to leave no evidence of his wanderings, and no one ever suspected the quietly intelligent boy of doing anything other than sleeping at night.

When he was feeling less devious, he generally found his way onto the roof of the orphanage. It was cold up there at night, especially since it was late winter/early spring and he was generally only wearing his pyjamas, but he didn't mind. He enjoyed the peaceful silence up there, which could only be found when he was isolated from others. He watched the night sky, as the clouds drifted past, blanking out the stars as they flowed by invisibly, causing the small lights to twinkle, occasionally illuminated by the moon, giving it a halo of light. He knew the names of the constellations and would often try to pick them out, telling himself the stories the Greeks had told about the pictures in the sky. Being on the roof allowed him to feel detached from the world, and was the only place he allowed himself to speculate deeply on the events of his past. Eventually he would get too cold and would have to hurry back inside and dive under his covers to warm up.

Ryuk and Natrat had mixed opinions on Beyond's night time expeditions. Whilst Ryuk found it hilariously funny when Beyond played tricks on his unsuspecting fellow orphans, Natrat vaguely disapproved. He worried that Beyond would get into trouble if he was caught. On the other hand he liked it when Beyond went out onto the roof. He felt closer to the poor boy. Natrat was, in a way, the only family Beyond had left, and he wasn't able to be there for him like he wanted. But when beyond stood on the roof in silence Natrat could pretend he was there with him, even though he couldn't see, and had to rely on Ryuk for descriptions. Ryuk on the other hand found these nights's to be dreadfully dull, and preferred to spend them sitting munching on an apple waiting for something interesting to occur.

And eventually something very interesting, from all three of their perspectives, occurred…

It was a dull Thursday afternoon when the man arrived at the orphanage. He looked to be in his early sixties and was sensibly attired. He called himself 'Wherever Wellington' and claimed to be a relative of Beyond Birthday. He said alliterative names were a tradition in his family, and it was quite frequent that parent's chose more… unusual names for their children, finding the range that were available to be quite restricting. Hence 'Wherever' and 'Beyond'. He said he wanted to take Beyond to come and live with him. He also had all the paperwork necessary to prove that he was indeed a relative of the boy, and the administrators at the orphanage had to admit it looked genuine enough, and he was on the system. So they allowed him to meet the boy to see if Beyond wanted to go live with the man.

Beyond was introduced to him. A quick glance above the man's head showed him that the name he was using was not his actual name. It was a fake; the man's real name was 'Quillish Whammy'. Beyond remembered that name as the one belonging to the man who had set the tests he'd done a few months before. He decided the man was interesting enough solely for this reason.

The man who called himself Wellington, but was really Whammy, spoke at length to Beyond before the watchful eyes of the orphanage staff, telling him how they were related, and all about the place where he lived and where he would take Beyond to, if he wanted, and this was what the local school was like, and there was such and such interesting things for him to do, and there was a big library because he'd heard the boy liked reading. And Beyond nodded and smiled and made appropriate faces of wonderment as and when required, whilst in his head he knew everything the man said was a lie. Because on his face, which was turned away from the other adults and faced the boy was an expression that said 'this is all a lie, but if you come with me, I can give you a life that is a lot less boring'. And Beyond believed that face. It reminded him of his grandfather for some reason. Beyond couldn't really remember any of his grandparents, but the man in front of him seemed to radiate 'grandfatherliness'. He wanted to go with the man, since he seemed intelligent and seemed to promise interesting things. Beyond made no protest about the man or his fake identity, and in return the man did not seem to require Beyond to speak.

It took no longer than half an hour before Beyond was upstairs packing his meagre belongings to take with him. That was all he needed to do before leaving. He had no friends to say goodbye to and no form of attachments to building or anything or anyone within it. He hurried back down the stairs with his stuff. And after watching the man sign a few papers with his pretend name, he followed him out of the orphanage.

The man had loaded Beyond's belongings into the back of a very fancy looking black car, and opened the front passenger door so he could climb in. then he got in the drivers seat himself, and before driving off he reintroduced himself to the boy.

"Well, as you might have guessed, being an incredibly smart boy, Wherever Wellington is not my real name, nor am I a relative." Beyond nodded to show he had figured this out, and had already accepted this fact, and was still willing to accompany the older man. The older man started the engine of his car and they set off.

"My real name is Quillish Whammy and I have recently opened an orphanage myself. Only my orphanage is special, it's not like the one you've been in. we only take on the most gifted individuals, and I've searched the country to find the best of the country's orphans. And out of all of them, you performed the second best." Beyond twitched slightly in annoyance at the thought of someone beating him. "He and you will receive more training and lessons than the other students, with the ultimate aim of becoming worthy of the title of L, who is the world's greatest detective. Or at least he will be after he's solved a few more cases and is a bit better known. L will become a symbol of justice across the world, although it's more like 'L is Justice' or at least that's how we want him to be seen. And you will be trained to take over should anything happen to him."

Beyond's red eyes sparkled. He could be justice. If he worked hard and did well enough at this place, he would be able to do what his father had always wanted him to do, which was help people. This was an opportunity he couldn't afford to miss, and was proud that he'd been picked out for it. He smiled at Mr. Whammy.

"Do you accept the responsibility of this task?"

Beyond nodded.

"Well in that case, from this point forward you shall have to give up your name. We keep your identity secret whilst you stay at the house, and you must not tell your real name to anyone. Do you understand?

Beyond nodded again. Of course your identity was always a super-hero's biggest secret, so it made sense for a super-detective, or a super-detective in waiting to do the same.

"Ok, from this point forward you shall be known as 'B'. Although we'll give you another name to use when we get there. The other boy will be going by 'A'. Oh, and my alias, the one I use when I work with L is Watari."

Beyond accepted this quietly. Whilst he didn't mind the name B, he didn't like that the other boy was 'A', it implied he was superior, that he came before him. Although he supposed it could be that his name began with an A. Maybe this L's real name began with an L too. He supposed he'd find out soon enough.

The two were silent for the remainder of the drive, which was mainly by motorway. Beyond watched out the window looking at all the traffic. It had been a long while since he'd travelled this far by car. Eventually they turned off at Winchester, and drove for a short distance, although Beyond wasn't quite sure of the exact route as it was getting dark. Eventually the car slowed to a stop outside a large building. In the fading light, Beyond could make out a clock tower at one end of the stone building. When they'd stopped he climbed out of the car tiredly, hoping that whatever it was there was left to do today, that it could be done quickly.

As Mr. Whammy unloaded his possessions, Beyond heard a shout of "Watari" from the entrance of the building. He turned to see a boy, a few years older than himself running towards the man. The boy's black hair was in disarray, and he wore no shoes. Beyond wondered if running on the gravel was hurting his feet. He also wondered if this was the other boy Mr. Whammy had mentioned. But no, after giving the old man a brief hug, the boy turned to look at him piercingly. Beyond could easily read the letters over his head. 'L Lawliet'. He was surprised it was that easy. The detective L's name was L. he almost laughed, but held it in as he contemplated the young age of the detective.

L took a step forward and offered his hand "hello. You must be B. Watari said he was going to fetch you. I'm L."

"L?" said Beyond, the first word he's spoken in six months. Then asked, contemplatively, "You're Justice?"