"You didn't tell me," he choked out. "You didn't… why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "I'm so, so sorry… I didn't mean to… I didn't think about-"

"Well, that much is obvious," he said coldly. With that, he stood and moved away from her, towards the door. Her shoulders evidently slumped, as if he'd just slapped her. She just didn't have the strength for it anymore. She bowed her head so that her hair masked her face. M looked infuriated, both at being lied to and L being so quick to abandon her friend.

Another gunshot rang out, making Nancy jump, and a little smoke protruded from the hot bullet hole in the wall by L's torso. His head snapped back around so he could face her. His expression echoed a thunderstorm, which helped prompt him to stomp towards her and knock the gun from her hand. She was so surprised by his sudden anger that she did not retaliate.

"Stop it," he growled. "Stop thinking you can control everyone!"

"I can!" she barked. "That's what you've never been observant enough to realize! Every single one of these kids we brought with us was designed to bring you down! To bring down your successors the only way we could – emotion!"

The Wammy's kids in the room froze. Slo stayed sitting, his mind working through what M had just said. Rebel could only stare at him, awaiting his reaction. Damnation stood up, launching himself away from Nancy, who began to cry, trying to hold onto him. Damnation didn't look upset; his heart only left room for anger. She begged him to listen to her, to hear her out, that things had changed, that she really meant what she felt for him.

"You used me," he snapped, "like you would use anyone else. You… you bitch."

"Please," she sobbed. "Damnation, please, I promise you-"

"Your promises don't mean shit," he said through clenched teeth. "Not to me… not to anyone." He turned his back on her.

K stood up shakily, her face expressionless for the most part. They had not changed her clothes after her attack, fearing they might jar her wound, and blood that had been spilling from her injury spattered her clothes. She laughed a little without humor, her face still unchanged. She ran her fingers through her hair and staggered for the door.

"K, stop," Sky murmured. "You're not well."

"I am… so sick…" she said quietly. "I am so sick… of you." She spat the last word out as though it tasted bitter as blood to her. With a disgusted expression, she faced him. "You fuck with people's heads, and then you… you act like you fucking care."

"K-" He reached to support her, and she clawed at his skin.

"Don't touch me!" she shrieked. Her palms were clutching other side of her head, her fingertips curving around the edge of the gauze. Her breaths coming in short little gasps, she yanked sharply on the bandage, tearing it away from her skull. Her voice became a whisper. "Don't… touch me."

Slo finally looked up at her, seeing how pale and broken and enraged she truly was.

"It's people like you," she said in a low voice, "that made me Kira."

She appeared drained of energy, and staggered forward. Sky put his arms out to catch her, placing a hand behind her head and holding onto her waist. She did not have enough strength to push him away this time. Her lips found his ear, and in a breath, she managed to whisper:

"Congratulations. You broke me. You won."

"K," Damnation gasped, going to take her from Sky. Sky glared at him, yet still let her go. "It's okay… it'll be all right. We're here. Me and Slo, we're here."

"Oh," M said, startled. She smirked at Sky. He glowered back. "Sky, is there something you want to tell me?"

His fists were clenched.

"Well, look at that," she sneered. "Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce James Blue, first-in-line to become one of the greatest murderers in history, and Keira Yagami-Lawliet, first-in-line to become one of the greatest detectives in history. If ever there were a pair of more star-cross'd lovers, let them speak now or forever hold their peace. Forbidden love, is it, Sky-?"

"She doesn't love him," Slo insisted. "She never did."

"She doesn't love you, either," M interjected coolly. "And she never did. Not even as a brother, I don't think, so don't get your hopes up."

C finally got to her feet. "That's enough now, M. Let us go."

"We haven't finished our Circle of Honesty, C!" M said firmly. "We haven't quite rounded everything off yet. Is there anything else anyone wished to share? I'm all ears, believe me."

"M, let it go," C responded.

"I'm leaving," L said sharply.

Beyond stepped in front of him. "You leave when we say you can leave."

"I am not in the mood to have to deal with you, Beyond," L snarled. "Get out of my way."

"I don't think so."

The two men were squaring up to one another, meaning C stepped between them, pushing them apart. Her expression was furious.

"Can you just not fight?" she yelled. "Jesus fucking Christ!" She growled in frustration. "You shouldn't hate each other! You are so fucking alike, and you are both so… ignorant!"

"Excuse me?" L hissed.

"L, I have been pregnant for about nine fucking weeks now, and you haven't even noticed. B never noticed how I was never in the same room as him when he came back, say for at the airport, and he was distracted then! Neither of you, when people said you looked similar, or even got you confused for one another, even contemplated the fact there might be a biological reason for your appearances!" she shouted.

"C-"

"You're brothers! Bloody hell!" she barked. She exhaled in a sound like a whoosh. "I'm not even upset or anything anymore, I'm just so pissed! You two are the fucking stupidest people!"

"Brothers," gasped L.

"Rin was Beyond's twin sister," C breathed. She looked at Beyond. "L is your big brother."

Beyond and L stared at one another for a long time. The man each of them had hated for so long, and both had feared for just as long, was bound to them by blood. L frowned, loathing that he would have to connect himself to Beyond in that way, whilst Beyond suddenly snapped into the facial expression of a man who had just witnessed a car accident. His mouth became dry.

"That means…" he choked out. "That means… Rin… and I…"

"You and Rin what?" L growled.

XXX

They all heard the second gunshot. Callie led the visitors through to the conference room where they could convene, and asked them to place their work on the table. She took a file concerning the California case from a filing cabinet, dropping on the polished wood and feeling her stomach lurch as she heard a throaty scream of a warning, a warning that someone should not touch.

She had seen Slo run into the room with Rebel, Nancy and Damnation, seen Sky lift K up the stairs to get to their destination. Yet somehow, it was not the thought that they were in trouble that made her feel sick. With the gunshot, she saw a flash of the drawing that had been done by Alternative – the one that portrayed a boy with red eyes, a boy with devil horns. Her chest began to ache.

She sat down with the group, studying them each in turn in order to distract herself from the horror of what was going on upstairs. She recognized Bess from one of the group photos of the first generation (it was hard not to with her bright bubblegum-pink hair), and Ludo, the sandy-haired man with the circular spectacles, who had stood next to her. Irina, the dark-haired woman, had remained quiet for the most part after being so rude to Callie before, whereas Flint had loosened up and begun conversing with the blonde quite casually.

The only one from the arrivals that appeared concerned by the gunshots was Jenna. She too had heard the scream, that had sounded so heart-wrenchingly painful it made her wonder what on earth the person that had been screamed at had done to cause it.

"So what was it that you wanted to share with L and C?" Callie asked, diverting conversation from upstairs. "You guys look like you've been working really hard considering all of this paperwork."

"They did most of it and emailed it to us through an über-secure network," Bess told her. "I think Matt fixed it up, but Irina keeps saying that she did it. Ah, well. It's all officially here on the lab results, on page twenty-four…" She rifled through the paperwork, all numbered, logged and categorized, and finally reached the desired page. She handed it to Callie.

"Can you fill me in on this?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm afraid it looks like a whole jumble of names to me. I haven't been informed of any expected data."

"How are you in Wammy's?" Irina said coldly.

"I see relationships, though that's none of your business really, and if you give a damn about what Wammy's is and what it stands for you'll shut up and let us work," Callie snapped.

Irina had never been spoken to like that before, and never had her loyalty questioned. It was like a slap in the face, and it made Callie shoot up in her estimations. Nobody ever made her feel guilty.

"This right here is what we've got," Jenna said.

Irina said nothing. Her eyes flickered to the clock. She just wanted to leave now she was there.

"This here is a list of schools," Jenna explained. "It's a list of schools in California that stock radioactive equipment, or deal with radioactive substances. When the kids are in about freshman year, they learn about the three different times of radiation: alpha, beta, gamma. Alpha doesn't penetrate paper, but it causes the most damage if inside the body. Beta can't get through aluminium, but the effects are still pretty bad. Gamma is usually stopped by thick lead, but it's the least ionising."

"Okay, so the names at the top stock all three substances, the names in the middle stock two, and the names at the bottom stock one," Callie deduced. "Why do we have this list?"

"Deanne Hounsfield, killed by a poisoned apple," Ludo interjected. "The apple was made radioactive."

"With what?"

"Polonium-210."

"Like that Russian ex-spy guy…" Callie recalled.

"Alexander Litvinenko," Flint filled in.

"Polonium-210 is an alpha emitter," Jenna added. "A few bites of that and your condition will gradually deteriorate. A large quantity of radiation in a small concentrated area and you could be dead within a day. If Deanne Hounsfield ate the entire apple, not counting the core, then she wouldn't have had a chance. But she must have taken the apple from someone she knew, someone she trusted."

"So you-"

"We got a positive hit on a school in Los Angeles. I was contacted by the principal and she said it was the school Deanne Hounsfield had been to, before she started bunking off. She said she always thought it was a child rapist that had gotten to her or something, someone that had been watching her when she playing truant, and for a little while we wondered if she was right. Deanne Hounsfield seemed like the type who would have gone off with any man that would make her feel good." Jenna sighed. "We looked, and then we got it. It must have been a guy inside school, who saw her everyday."

"A cool teacher," Bess said.

"A young one," Ludo agreed. "One that made her laugh, made her smile."

"Our killer must have been in Los Angeles a decent amount of time," Callie gasped. "To be a teacher, or a janitor or someone like that."

"A real 'people' person," Jenna confirmed.

"So the killer stole the radioactive substance from Deanne's school, and then he prepared just the right weapon for her," Callie said. "The only question now is… who was it that killed Deanne Hounsfield, and all those other people?"

"No, one more," Flint said. "There's one more story to finish. The real question is, 'who's next'?"

I can't believe I'm up to chapter 37. Damn, I didn't think I'd get this far. Thank you, guys, for being patient enough to read this stupid thing.

Preview

Athena turned around to see Romeo standing behind her. He was frowning, yet that was wiped away when he saw her expression.

"What's happened?"

What's happened, indeed? What do you think? Three guesses in each review maximum!

C.