A/N; Ta dah! More plot look, I would say I am being nice, but I am starting with Beyond.

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Chapter 52

All in all Beyond decided he was fond of his new pet. It hadn't taken long until the man had begun to tell him everything, anything at all Beyond wanted to know. As he was a techie, Beyond had informed him, he had been kind and left him his main fingers and kept his hands symmetrical. It hadn't stopped Beyond from inflicting damage on the rest of the man's body.

Cuts ran everywhere, curving and arching across his back forming, what was to Beyond; a delightful representation of the letter B, capital of course, in Cloister Black font. He had cut deep enough for it to scar, but not deep enough to have the man bleed to death. Techies were far too useful to kill. Besides having someone kneeling at your feet was nice when you were working.

Beyond knew the reason why the man couldn't stand, he had been the one to inflict the damage. However he knew that if he were to but ask the man would try, and continue to try, until Beyond told him to stop or he passed out. Beyond wouldn't ask him though, he was kind to his pets as long as they were obedient and he trained them very well to be so.

"Give him back," Mark hissed, "we agreed to work with you, not to you assaulting our people; you prick."

Beyond's resultant smile evidently scared Mark.

"Jason," Beyond said calmly, "do you want to leave?"

The broken man, a man who had once been an assertive and charismatic young man, whimpered and suddenly clung to Beyond's trouser leg. His beaten and broken body actually shook with the terror of leaving Beyond. Beyond had always said he was definitely a top, in fact he was so much of a top Everest looked small in comparison. It helped that he could tell his victims just when they were going to die and then promising them that they would never be able to escape his clutches till then. People always acquiesced to his demands after that, by the time he used the power his eyes had gifted him with they already knew Beyond didn't go back on his promises.

Beyond smiled winningly up at Mark.

"You see he doesn't want to leave me," Beyond said his voice overly kind, "He also told me all about you Mark, didn't you Jason."

Jason nodded hurriedly, a smile appearing briefly on his haunted looking face as Beyond actually patted him on the head. Mark was beginning to look repulsed, but Beyond could actually smell his fear. A smell of fear that increased as Beyond slowly pulled the gun from the desk drawer. To Mark's obvious surprise he handed the gun to Jason.

"Go on," Beyond said, talking as though to a skittish animal, "you can do what you want with it."

Jason's next move was instantaneous, his hand gripped the gun tightly and his head whipped round towards Mark. A second later the gun was pointing at Mark. Even though his eyes shone with the want to remove Mark from the world, he hesitated and almost glanced back at Beyond.

"I said you could do what you wanted with it," Beyond said calmly.

"Now hang on a min-"

Jason pulled the trigger and the bullet went cleanly, as cleanly as any bullet could, through Mark's head and buried itself in the wall behind him. His body fell lifeless back to the floor, his blood seeping out to pool on the floor.

"Bastard," Jason whispered through his teeth, flinching until he heard Beyond's laughter.

You see to Jason, Mark was the cause of all his pain not Beyond. Mark had been the one who had told him to spy on Beyond and it was Mark who had therefore forced Beyond to do what he had to Jason to get him to talk.

"Feel better now Jason?" Beyond asked his evil smirk hidden from his new pet.

"Yes," Jason whispered, "thank you."

Beyond went back to his work as the body cooled on the floor, his mind filled with daydreams of the one kneeling at his feet to not be Jason, but L. Or even Kira, aka Light Yagami, to have Light broken and kneeling at his feet would almost be as good; that would break L as well.

L sat with the two shinigami watching them go through the footage of the museum. They had found Beyond several times already, but the face was always obscured. Even though he was likely to be in make-up both he and Light had noticed the similarity between Beyond's two recent victims, and to their great happiness the cellmate Beyond had in prison. It meant that underneath his make-up, Beyond had to look similar to them. At least they hoped that had to be the case.

If this was so, there may be enough similarity for the Death Note to work. It was a long shot, but it was worth it. As Light had said, L had travelled all the way to Japan for the sake of 1 percent; anything that could be done should be done. After all this could allow them to sleep well at night for once; it would remove Beyond permanently.

L debated whether he should or could change the new developments at Wammy's. Overall he thought it would be best to leave everything as it was, if anything changed it would only alert Beyond that he knew that he knew. Yet still he wanted desperately to protect the children here, but he knew also that they wouldn't truly appreciate it, they were like him after all. They weren't children but miniature adults; they would hate to be coddled, even for their own protection. They would hate him for it.

As if sensing his darkening mood Rigel's head butted against his neck and a small mewl resounded in his ear. He started, still unused to having his shoulder occupied by a living creature. Grudgingly he smiled and raised a hand to pat the little kitten on the head.

"I know Rigel," L murmured, "you are just like Light you know, never letting me dwell in my emotions if you find them unsuitable."

L noticed that the two shinigami were watching him instead of the screens. He blinked once as if shocked at what he saw and, as usual, they immediately turned back to the screen.

The trio were smart, everything was easy for them. Compared to the others at Wammy's they barely had to work, or wanted to. They hardly ever had to work at something for long, and more often than not spent their time playing. Which, of course, was why this current problem was so irksome; they hated not knowing how to help L and Light. They had come to view L and Light in some strange way to be their parents, not that they would admit to it; guardians, helpers perhaps, but it was beneath their self-respect to admit that they wanted parents of all things. They didn't want to lose the familial feeling they had only just recently gained, it was something so precious that they had never experienced before.

But they had no way of helping.

They couldn't even see the shinigami and only had to assume that they must be there through all the one way conversations L and Light kept having. This lack of ability wasn't through lack of trying, but it seemed L and Light seem to have psychic powers when it came to the trio and their proximity to the Death Notes. The closest they had come to actually examining it had been on the rare occasions Light was able to write perhaps a handful of names down. A process that lasted all of five minutes before it vanished again.

What could they possibly offer as help to the stricken duo?

They knew L and Light had little success in tracing Beyond, but perhaps there was another way they could do it. Perhaps they could mirror Beyond's actions in one way; using the underground crime gangs to draw out Beyond. They had the connections after all, well Mello had the connections.

To be precise Mello had mafia connections, in fact he was quite well known in certain circles. Matt and Near knew that without L giving Mello some form of legal goal, and their support, it was unlikely Mello would have stayed on the straight and narrow. Neither knew why he had the connections, but they knew that he had something hidden in his past about it. It was always unnerving for them whenever they went outside Wammy's with Mello, they always had a tail provided by the mafia.

Oh yes, the mafia knew of Wammy's house and what its purpose was. Apparently they either didn't care or in some way approved. The mafia rarely did anything large enough to warrant L's attention, and it was that attention that removed the riff-raff, as they saw it. In some ways L was actually rather approved of, particularly by the British mafia circles; it seemed they were rather proud of the fact he was British.

L knew nothing of this; even the heirs only knew what Mello had told them. Despite these connections though they still trusted Mello, they had good reason to. In the past when they had been rather less than sensible genius 'brats' they had got into trouble with a local hard-headed criminal. Their tail had quietly stepped in and removed said problem, nodded at Mello and walked away; but only after they had all had their asses kicked.

It was these connections they could now put into play. The mafia had a wide range of contacts, it would be relatively simple to use those to spread the news that working with Beyond would be a terminal idea. They hadn't done this till now though because of its criminal nature, they knew L and Light would have disapproved heartily against it. Now though the rules had changed again.

They sat impatiently watching L and Light having breakfast, their voices sounding through the speakers as they discussed through their plans for the day, and what other ideas had occurred to them; these were few and far between. That reassured the trio that they had to act, but still didn't make them feel secure in their future.

"Are we sure we want to do this?" Near asked.

"It's not like you to have doubts," Mello commented, chocolate-less for once; a sign of his own inner turmoil.

"I don't usually face such definite trouble," Near sighed.

"That is the one thing we can guarantee will happen," Matt said calmly, "We still in agreement over who to confess to?"

"Light?" Mello asked.

"Light," Near agreed.

They had to pick Light, if it had been L they knew the Detective would have never felt entirely secure again knowing an entire crime syndicate knew of his sanctuary; even if they too wanted to protect L. No, L's pride would never have taken such a beating and not from such a source. They had to go to Light, they dreaded what his punishment would be. Whatever it was it was definitely not be good.

As they watched L leave to finally begin his work once more, they too rose to their feet. Matt's fingers shook as he picked up the laptop, the only sign that morning of his inner turmoil.

Light was sat still reading the morning papers as he drank his tea when he heard the knock at the door. His eyebrow twitched in curiosity, this was quite a rare event.

"Come in," Light called, his hands deftly folding up the paper once more before letting it drop to the table. His curiosity was peaked further as the trio shuffled in. After a moments silence, and more shuffling of feet, Matt was shoved to the fore.

"Why me," Matt hissed.

Light had to hold back a chuckle, this was all very amusing.

"Because you know where they all are," Mello said back.

"I'm waiting," Light said kindly, he had never seen the trio act like this.

"W-We have something to confess," Matt said quietly, he took a deep breath before adding quickly, "Webeenfilyou."

"What was that?" Light asked, hoping to hear at least a recognisable language this time.

"We've been filming you," Matt said plaintively.

Dark silence descended in the room as Light's face became completely unreadable. All three cringed at the sudden change in Light's eyes, instead of their usual honey brown they were almost black with anger. It seemed Light had understood the full depth of Matt's words.

They flinched as Light rose from his seat and came to sit in the sofa in front of them, sat almost like an imperial emperor his face stern.

"Explain," Light said coldly, one hand supporting his head, fingers steepled round his eye.

If it had been any other occasion Light's pose would have been amusing, but now with the knowledge of what they had seen, they were terrified. For once they could truly understand how L could so easily submit to this man, and just how powerful he was underneath his affable exterior. The Death Note it seemed had merely added to his prowess. Matt realised with horror that he was trembling.

"I'm sorry," Matt said suddenly before he could stop his brain.

"Apologies and punishments later," Light said calmly, "Explain first."

At the word punishment Near dropped into his usual sitting position; as far as Matt knew Near had never been punished for anything in his stay at Wammy's. He realised then that Light's gaze was fixed firmly on him and he gulped, stepping closer to Mello as he did so. Mello soon joined Near on the floor though, much to Matt's annoyance.

"I'm waiting," Light sighed, "I'm not going to kill you if that is what you are worried about."

It wasn't, and in fact death seemed like the easy option to them as Matt finally began to explain the whole affair, leaving nothing out; especially not his attempt to escape and lock Mello and Near out of the camera system. Light said nothing, didn't even make a single sound as Matt talked, his gaze just flicked between them as he weighed their words; to Matt's chargrin though he was mostly the victim of Light's cool stare. Finally Matt finished and sagged to the floor as Light's gaze shifted away from him at last; it was as if Light had been forcing him to stay standing throughout the whole ordeal.

"I see," Light said quietly, his hand slipping so he could run his index finger over his lips, "Well I am extremely disappointed in you three. I had expected better from you, but because of this whole affair I can't see why."

"I'm sorry," Matt mumbled, staring dejectedly down at the floor, he knew this was going to happen.

"You have already said," Light sighed, "so far the other two seem strangely mute."

"I'm sorry as well," Near whispered, "I was just curious."

"No excuse, you invaded not only my privacy, but L's," Light said in reply, "curiosity is no excuse for abusing his and my trust in you."

Light's gaze shifted away from Near towards Mello.

"Sorry," Mello sighed, hand reaching for his chocolate that wasn't there.

"Now tell me why you have picked today to tell me this," Light said calmly.

"We can help you," Mello said quickly, "I have Mafia connections, we could use those to bait out B, use his trick against him. He is only using mediocre criminal groups, but this way you have control of the best."

"You have mafia connections?" Light asked, this was not the sort of thing he had expected to hear from a Wammy's resident.

"Yes," Mello replied, "I suppose you want details."

When Light nodded Mello rose and came over to whisper in his ear, pointedly ignoring the annoyed expressions of his two friends.

"That makes sense," Light said calmly, "now tell me the rest."

"We came to you," Near said slowly, "because we knew you were more prepared to listen to more unconventional methods of justice. We knew L would never countenance such a plan, so we came to you. With you we were less likely to be thrown out of Wammy's as well."

Light nodded thoughtfully; from his expression it was obvious he liked the idea.

"I understand," Light said finally, "do it. How sure are you though that they will do as you ask?"

"Oh I'm sure," Mello said smiling.

"Good," Light replied, "now about your punishment for spying on L and I."

The three teenagers had been relaxing slightly in the less than angry emotions Light had been emitting. Now though they were staring at him wide-eyed.

"First," Light said grinning, "you will remove every single camera and destroy it. I don't want them to be usable ever again. Second; dresses. All three of you will be in dresses, of my choosing, for a whole week. Accessories included. No skipping lessons either. You will not argue with me on this."

"What?" Mello said stunned.

"Oh," Light said, his voice overly cheerful, "you'll do it. You've seen what I am capable of. Imagine what I could do if I had to pick something else."