B: Oooh, go us drinking Arizona tea!~
Aw, you really like these stories that much?... ;v; Thank you... You even cried with Sophia? Ahhh, I'm...sorry?... But still, oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou...!
Did I really get you to like Light, too? ;u; Oh yay. Oh my goodness. Yay.

Amy: Well, here you are~

Mrs. Lawliet: Yet one must love the awkward amusingness that is Sam.

Blargity blarg, I don't have time to edit these anymore.

Enjoy?


The moment I was grabbed, Light stiffened. And when the cloth was shoved in my face, a wave of dizziness swept over him and he had to pause. Mello, he thought. However, as my side blacked out, his senses returned, and he quickened his pace toward headquarters, right ahead. He strode into the main lobby. It had to be Mello. We'd seen this coming. It was the way Mello worked. He may have been unpredictable, but his plans most often included kidnapping someone. (I mean, really. Switch it up a little.) I was related to Kira, so it was only a matter of time until I was kidnapped. It was the timing that couldn't be told; not until it happened. And now it had. But all Light could do for now was alert the old task force, and somehow tell Near or L or both of them what had happened.

He went up the elevator and down the hall, into the main place where he would find Aizawa and Matsuda and the others. "Hey, Light," Matsuda greeted brightly, but Light didn't respond. He was currently set on reaching Aizawa's office. That's not to say he didn't hear Matsuda, he just didn't think it was necessary to respond, and besides, not responding gave him an air of worry, or seriousness, or even urgency, didn't it? And that was correct, given the circumstances. And of course Light was right. When he didn't respond, Matsuda caught something was up and began to follow him. "Light, is something wrong?"

"Natalie was—" He began to explain, but a sharp pain in his shoulder cut him off. Then he continued. "Natalie was just kidnapped."

Matsuda blinked in surprise, pausing in his steps before resuming. "What?!" he cried. "By who?!"

Light didn't reply again and entered Aizawa's office without knocking. He found Aizawa to be talking on the phone. The chief paused in his speech and looked at Light, with Matsuda lingering behind him, trying to figure out exactly what was going on. "Just a moment," Aizawa spoke into the phone, then covered the speaker and looked at Light. "What is it?" He eyed Light's shoulder and furrowed his brow. "What happened to your shoulder; are you alright?"

Light glanced at his right shoulder to find blood seeping through his clothes, and frowned slightly. Damn it, now that shirt was ruined. What the hell were they doing to me, anyway? He knew for a fact he hadn't attained the injury on his own. He looked back at Aizawa. "Natalie has been kidnapped."

Aizawa stared at him, then put the phone back to this ear. "I'm sorry, I have to go for now. I'll get back to you later." He hung up the phone and stood abruptly. "What do you mean she was kidnapped?" His voice was firm and low.

"She was walking down the sidewalk after lunch with Matsuda's apple crisp, headed to headquarters, but she was intercepted on the way and knocked out with what was presumably chloroform."

"Damn it," he muttered, scowling. "And your shoulder?"

"Actually," he said with a frown of his own, "I don't know. Something must have happened to Natalie."

"Right," said Aizawa, "that whole mind sync thing…."

"Please, would you contact L?"

"I can't," he said. "I can only contact Near."

"That'll do as well. Considering it's most likely Mello who is the culprit, it would be good that Near knew the situation."

"Of course…." He pressed a few buttons, trying to get the connection.

"So Natsumi was kidnapped? When?" asked Matsuda in alarm, looking to Light.

"Just before I reached headquarters," he told him.

"Wow…. Good thing you've got that mind sync thing, or we wouldn't know something happened to her until later…. You think we'll be able to catch Mello, if it's him? Natsumi's not gonna die too, I don't think, right?"

"Matsuda," Light said to him, "if Natalie were to die… then I would die too. You know that, right?"

Matsuda blinked. "Oh. Really?"

"Do you think I'd lie about something like that, Matsuda?"

A huge, calligraphic N appeared on the screen in Aizawa's office. "Near," Aizawa greeted.

"Chief Aizawa," Near responded. "What is it?"

"Natsumi was kidnapped!" Matsuda cried, and Aizawa held up a hand towards him as if to say, 'shut up and don't interfere.'

"And likely by Mello," Aizawa added.

"…And you know this because of Light, I assume?" asked Near.

"That is correct," said Light, his shoulder beginning to nag at him as the pain sank in.

"I see…. Chief Aizawa, would it be alright if Light were to come to my headquarters?"

"Of course…," Aizawa responded, glancing at Light. "As long as, of course, he himself is alright with it."

"It's fine; I'd be glad to go," Light assured him, then looked up to Near. "Shall I walk there?"

"No… I'll have Gevanni pick you up."

Light nodded. "Alright."

"And… may I ask what happened to your shoulder?"

Light frowned again. "Something must have happened to Natalie. I don't know."

"Jeez, I hope she's alright," Matsuda mumbled.

"I'm sure she will be," Aizawa assured him.

"I will be seeing you soon, Light," said Near. "Please wait outside the NPA building, and Gevanni will be there relatively shortly." He disconnected.

There was a pause.

"Well, I guess you'll have to go wait out there, huh?" Matsuda asked weakly.

Light winced. This time he guessed that I'd bitten my lip. He tasted blood.

"Do you want me to wait out there with you?"

"No, I'll leave you to your work. I should be fine."

"Is your mouth bleeding too?" Matsuda frowned.

"Maybe." He looked to Aizawa. "Thank you for your help."

"Of course," Aizawa responded, and Light walked out.


When I woke up, I found I was in the back of a truck, much like the one Takada had been held in when she was kidnapped. I began to return to myself at a bump in the road, which had brought my teeth down hard on my lip. It was the pain that began pulling me back to reality, and Light's consciousness that kept me there. I blinked away the haziness and grimaced as I tried to sit up. My shoulder hurt. I looked at it to found an old nail stuck in the skin through my clothes. "Oh, that's great," I muttered. I must have landed on it when I was put in here. I sighed. How would I get it out? Just pull on it, I guess. I began slowly pulling it out, grimacing as I did so. My eyes were tearing up. I'm not one for pain, as we all learned back when Higuchi shot me and I screwed up my plan to keep Light from regaining his memories.

"Oh, hi."

I jumped, nearly wrenching the nail out of my shoulder but luckily releasing it. I looked all around the area, making sure there were no cameras. There weren't. I pointed to my ear with my good arm as if asking the shinigami a question.

"What? Oh, they can't hear you."

I sighed slightly. "Ryuk, you scared me," I muttered.

"I know," he replied. "I scare you a lot, don't I?"

I turned to him. "You do."

He snickered. "So what you got there?"

"A nail is stuck in my shoulder," I responded dully. "I thought you could tell."

"Well, sorry for not seeing what you were doing."

I scoffed, then looked at the nail again and began slowly pulling it out, my lips drawn into a thin line.

"Why don't you just pull it?" he asked. "It'd make it quicker."

I looked at him for a second. "…Because that would hurt."

"It seems you're already in pain," he pointed out, always grinning.

I frowned deeply. "Then fine. Pull it out." I didn't really trust a shinigami, but he did have a point, and I wasn't going to be able to do it by myself.

"What?" he asked blankly.

"Just do it, if you want to. Just don't bend it or anything stupid while you're doing it."

"Oh, um, alright…." He crouched on the ground beside me and put two of his black, spindly fingers on the nail. And pulled it out with ease.

I grimaced again, then grasped at my shoulder and looked at the nail that he held between his thumb and forefinger. It was hooked at the end. I scowled. Of course. Thanks, karma. I took a deep breath, and sighed. I'm sorry, Light, I thought, then looked up to Ryuk. "Thanks, I think." I leaned back on the wall of the truck, closing my eyes.

"I'm surprised you trust me with that kind of thing," he snickered.

"Nn." I didn't really respond. I was allowing my mind to drift to Light's consciousness...

I was sitting on a bench outside NPA headquarters, pulling out my cell phone.

Light dialed Mikami's number with relative ease, then put the cell phone to his ear, listening to the tone ring but once before Mikami picked up his own cell.

"Hello?" his tone was ever so slightly surprised.

"Hello," said Light. "This is Light."

"Yes…." He seemed honored that it was actually God who had called him this time, not his right-hand Goddess. And to be honest, I didn't consider myself a Goddess anyway.

"I understand that Natalie has called you recently, but I have to speak with you. Soon after she talked with you, she was kidnapped, most likely by Mello."

"Mello kidnapped her?" he asked seriously, immediately calm and cool about the situation. Thinking of the options. "Should I kill him?"

"No, no. Don't kill him. We'll let him take her, but I have to ask you to do something for me."

"Of course, God…."

The corner of Light's mouth twitched upward ever so slightly. Such loyalty. It was a nice feeling. The expression disappeared. "Natalie and I will be forfeiting. We will be getting our memories back at one point, but I cannot tell for sure when. Once we forfeit, Mikami, you may be the only Kira left." He left out Sierra only because she obviously had time restrictions, and we were still not completely sure on where she stood. "When you are the only Kira left, you must act on your own. Continue to kill criminals as much as possible, and remember to make the time of death at the right times. If something happens, I'm going to have to trust you to act on your own judgment. I'm going to hope that you won't make any mistakes this time…."

"No, no, I won't," Mikami assured Light. "I'll do all as you said. I'll work at my hardest and make sure my decisions are good ones."

"And you won't stray from Kira's idea of judgment?"

"Yes; no slackers or criminals who have atoned for their sins or people who killed out of self defense…."

"Good," Light said with a nod. "And I hope you'll do as you said, because I will be back…."

"Of course…. I wouldn't stray from your path. Not ever again."

He smiled slightly again. "Alright. I'll take your word for it. Goodbye, Mikami." He began hearing Mikami's own farewell in return, but flipped the cell shut.

I opened my eyes. "Ryuk," I asked, "we need you to do something for us."

"Oh?" he asked. As I looked to him, I was glad I caught him. He seemed like he was about to leave. "What's that?"

"We want to forfeit."

"What? Aw, really?" He turned to me.

"We'll be getting the notebook back; I assure you. You should keep watch on us and once I am free and no longer imprisoned by Mello, we want you to drop your notebook in a way that we would find it. We don't have the time to find any special hiding places or anything like that. Would you do that for us?"

He seemed to grin tauntingly at me; I held my gaze firmly. "I told Light once that—"

"That you're on neither side," I finished with a frown. "We know…. Well, helping us is beneficial to you in the fact we ease your boredom, don't we? We know you're neutral here, but do you really want your fun with us to end?" I smiled a little bit at the end there. Ha, to think this was all just some kind of entertainment for him.

"...You know, before you two, I never met a human who talked to me like that."

I smiled at him.

"…Fine; sure. Only because you guys really do ease my boredom."

"You know, actually…." I frowned slightly in thought. "Give the notebook to Mikami. That way you don't have to go back to the Shinigami Realm. Check on us occasionally to see if I'm free. Give the notebook back to us when I am."

"Oh, okay."

"Now, Ryuk, Light and I are going to forfeit at the same time. Is that possible?"

He thought about it a second. "Uh…. Maybe…. I think so."

"Good."

"Alright," he said. "I'm gonna fly to Light to confirm he wants to forfeit…. You know, couldn't you just forfeit one at a time? This is annoying."

"No, Ryuk. With where we're at in the mind sync, we don't know how it would affect us if only one of us lost our memories. And Ryuk, at the final stage, I can speak for him. We don't have any time to waste."

"Fine, fine, I'll just take them. Just say you forfeit at the same time, and maybe then the Old Man won't think I'm doing something illegal."

I smiled. "No problem."

"Well… bye," he said, then flipped his wings before shooting up through what I'll call the ceiling.

I waited a moment before closing my eyes. "I forfeit," we said together. The fact that he was nowhere near me didn't matter. At first, nothing happened. But then…. For a moment, there was the odd sensation of being released, of losing something that was somehow dark. It was a feeling of gaining something back, too. But the feeling was fleeting and was soon forgotten.

You know, I really don't get why Mello kidnapped me, I thought idly, and giggled. Light stood up and began to pace, somewhere else. His unease wasn't very comforting, but I was fine, really. My shoulder just hurt. Sorry, Light. "Figures that of all things they had to do to me, it was drop me on a nail. A hooked one, no less." I laughed. "Oooh," I squealed, "I just realized. I'm kidnapped; how fun!" And I laughed some more. Wow, what a fun, eventful day.

Light, meanwhile, looked up as a car pulled to the side. Gevanni rolled down the window and gestured for Light to get in. Light nodded and obeyed, getting in on the passenger side. By car, it didn't take as long to get to SPK headquarters, and soon Gevanni was escorting Light into HQ with Near, Halle, and Rester waiting. "How is Natalie?" Near asked without looking up from his tower of matches.

"She's awake," Light told him. "We also found out it was a nail that was in her shoulder."

"We'll take care of your shoulder," said Near, looking up. "If you may, I'd like you to keep me posted on what is going on with Natalie."

"Of course," Light responded.

"Halle will tend to your shoulder," Near told him, and he nodded. Halle stepped forward and gestured to Light, and he obeyed the command without objection. She led him through a doorway in the back of the room into another hallway. To the left they went, until they reached a small room (also on the left) with a low metal bench along the left wall and a counter at the right. There was a cushion atop the bench.

"This is just a room we keep just in case anyone gets hurt," Halle told him as she walked over to the counter. "It's really only a formality, though. We don't really need it, but it is, at least, a good place to keep any medical equipment we have." She looked at him. "You can sit at the bench for now if you want. You might want to take off your shirt; I won't be able to help you otherwise."

Light nodded and headed to the bench, beginning to unbutton his usual dress shirt.

"Alright," she said as she opened one of the cupboards and pulled out some gauze. "I'm going to treat this like any other wound, even though I know it's not technically your wound." She walked over to him and set the equipment beside him just as he pulled off his shirt. "I'm going to clean the wound first, and then—"

"I'm aware of the procedure; thank you," said Light.

She frowned.

"I'm sorry," he smiled to her at the frown, "I'd just rather you get this done rather than have you explain what you're going to do."

"Right," she responded, then began cleaning the wound and disinfecting it. The puncture wound actually didn't look so bad once the blood was cleared, which I'm pretty sure is a good thing. She finished by wrapping the gauze around his shoulder, covering both the fresh wound and the scar from Matsuda's bullet at the warehouse. "You're good," she said, tying the gauze in a knot, and Light nodded before grabbing his shirt and sliding his arms into the shirt sleeves. He was buttoning it up as Halle began putting the medical equipment away. "Are there any other injuries I should be worrying about?"

Light shrugged, then frowned. Shrugging wasn't so comfortable after being stabbed with a nail. "Natalie bit her lip, but other than that, we're fine," he said. She nodded, and he stood, tucking his shirt back into his pants.

"You ready?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, and they began walking back to the others.

As all of this played out, I continued to lean against the wall of the truck, waiting for nothing and amusing myself with what I had. I hummed to myself idly an old song I once listened to all the time. It was kinda depressing, though, so I attempted to remember an amusing one. I giggled. 'Take Me or Leave Me' from Rent. Oh yes. Sam and I used to love that song…. Then the nieces and I used to sing it together, though most often it was just Sierra and I singing because Anna couldn't remember some of the words. From there, I hummed that happily before reverting back to rock songs in my head. Hooray for mental playlists. Though most of the time, despite humming through a majority of it, I was simply zoning out. It felt nice.

The truck eventually came to a stop, and I looked around, stopping short in the middle of a song by My Chemical Romance. "I wonder if we're here." I paused. "Where is here, anyway?"

The back of the truck rolled up, and I squinted in the light. "Oh, hi guys!" I greeted, easily recognizing Matt and Mello. I was about to continue speaking, intending to tell them about the nail that they'd set me on, but Matt stepped forward with the cloth before I could say a word. "You meanie poop," I muttered around the sweet-smelling thing.

"Sorry," said Matt as my vision blurred again.

"You're really no fun…," I mumbled as the dizziness swept over me and I spiraled into darkness yet again.

Light closed his eyes in SPK headquarters, making sure he was steady.

"You alright there?" Gevanni asked with his eyebrows raised.

"She was just sedated again; I apologize," Light responded, opening his eyes as mine rolled back into blackness. "Please continue, Near."

"…Did she see the culprit?" the albino asked, and Light nodded.

"It was definitely Mello and Matt."

"Yes; I thought so…." He smiled slightly, and Light frowned.

"What are you smiling for? Natalie was just kidnapped!"

"I am smiling because I knew this was coming." The smile disappeared. "Alright. Now, as I was saying…," he said, and continued talking to his team.

Light kept an ear open to hear what was being said, but he was focusing more on the fact that something just wasn't right. I had been kidnapped. It was true that we were being suspected as Kira again, but he knew that they were wrong and we were innocent. Light hadn't done anything this time, or at least, he couldn't remember doing it. And if he were Kira right now, he'd have his memories, right? And anyone could say that the reason L, Near, and Mello suspected us was because Light had been involved last time. But there was something else, too, and that something began to worry Light. He thought of their logic. One month after the warehouse, after Light should have lost his memories for good, Kira returned. It's all too likely that someone that had been involved was the one who brought Kira back. Mikami was in jail; Natalie hadn't been involved, he was sure; Misa wasn't smart enough; and Takada was dead. That left only him, didn't it?

It was highly unlikely that another shinigami were to drop another notebook so soon, and that it would happen to end up in the hands of someone who'd judge exactly as Kira did. Of course, a majority of the population supported Kira, that was true, but to be honest even if a Kira supporter were to pick up the notebook, they'd do something ever so slightly different from the original Kira. Light just couldn't see the difference…. It was all too similar to the first Kira, the Kira that he was, but couldn't remember being. And thinking in the frame of mind of the Light he used to be, he could say that he probably would find a way out of losing his memories forever, and after all, he could read my thoughts and emotions then, too. But if that was the case, then why couldn't Light remember any of this? Surely at this point he would stop forfeiting and keep his memories in order to ensure he had complete control over what was going on. He thought deeper. What would the Light that was Kira do if I were kidnapped? Because of course I had to be involved with Kira if he was, especially considering we were at the final stage of the mind sync. He thought that, if he had at least one backup Kira, he and I would forfeit to ensure nothing could go wrong while I was in Mello's hands. He couldn't see who could possibly be the backup Kira with Misa dead, but… at this point it seemed the most likely scenario.

Light shifted uneasily. Could he really be Kira, and not know it? His mind had betrayed him before…. The facts were against him. Knowing all of this, it was painfully clear to him that he was likely acting as Kira again…. But I can stop this while I can, he thought, and looked to Near. "Near?" he asked.

Near looked back to him. "Yes?"

"Please, if you would…. Keep me here and keep close watch on me at all times. Make sure I don't…." His voice trailed off and he frowned.

"Don't worry," Near responded with that special monkey smile of his. "I was already planning on doing that, Light Yagami."

Light blinked at him; he shouldn't have been surprised. Then he smiled. "Right."


Asdfghjkl alright, so, here's original Natalie back! Yay?

Fun Fact: We still sometimes sing Take Me or Leave Me together.

Review? For Original Natalie? Ahaha...