Facing the truth

His lids felt heavy when he finally opened his eyes, and his head felt like it was filled with cotton wool.

With a long sigh, he looked around.

'Not again.'

The American struggled to his feet before he adjusted his glasses. The sight of his color-drained surroundings was all too familiar. Only the place of their little meeting had changed again, was neither his beloved Central Park nor his second home, the Mori Detective Agency, but the Kudo Manson. Bell swallowed, holding his still aching head as his feet carried him quietly through the corridors of his old home. He didn't have to think twice to know about where to look for the other two.

The library.

With a frown, he entered the room, let his eyes wander over the walls of endless books, and noticed that all these covers were empty, without a title or the name of the author. The only exceptions were two heavy volumes of Edogawa Rampo and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which were on the lowest shelf next to the desk so they could be taken easily.

In front of these books sat the mixture of these two names itself. The little boy's back leaned against them while his chin rested on his chest.

Bell swallowed; he had trouble keeping his gaze focused and felt the familiar dark fog keep trying to lure his mind into darkness again. His gaze slid to the high school student who had taken a seat in the large armchair.

His armchair...

Bell sighed, let himself slump into the leather chair behind the desk before he let his head sink on the tabletop, feeling how fatigue tried to close his eyes. He ordered his voice to do something about it.

"Something went wrong."

The high school student's gaze turned from the empty fireplace to him. He had to blink a few times to keep the shadows at bay, the hint of a cynical smirk visible on his lips.

"No shit, Sherlock."

Shinichi swallowed; it felt like a cold hand was slowly squeezing his throat while his gaze drifted to the little boy who had been knocked off his feet at the foot of the bookshelf.

"Looks like we'll be soon pushing up daisies, eh Conan?"

The little boy reacted, albeit with a delay, but it looked more as if the primary schooler was half asleep and muttering something to himself that had little to do with what was happening around him. The name, however, that came from the pale lips of the seven-year-old caught the attention of the other two as well.

"Ran."

Shinichi bit his lips, tilting his head back, before he sunk even deeper into the chair, staring at the grey ceiling.

"That's right, kiddo... Ran."

XXX

"There has to be another way."

The FBI agent's voice was bitter, and the two male passengers winced while the little boy just eyed the strange aunt in surprise.

Heiji sighed and made a face. Ten years ago, he might have rolled his eyes because she still didn't want to accept the facts. But time had made him realize how important a private move against these black devils could become for someone.

In this case, however, they had no choice.

Agent Akai also seemed to agree, even if it was no less difficult for him.

'Looks like neither of us will get what we'd hoped for...'

Akai swallowed, looked into the rearview mirror at the little boy, and forbade himself to reach for a cigarette.

"We have no choice, Jodie; a deal is a deal. You should know that." But she was far from finished, rushing around the next corner with flashing blue lights.

"I don't give a shit about this deal. We'll find him anyway, somehow… " A glance in the rearview mirror, however, made it clear that not only Akai but also Hattori thought differently. Since the little boy on his lap wasn't interested in her vocabulary - no wonder, with Hattori as his father, they probably had to wash his mouth out regularly - it was clear where the policeman's scowl must have come from.

They hadn't found him yet, and that wasn't about to change without her help.

The American bit her lips. She could still taste the black grime from the fire in the last hideout of the organization.

"You act as if I don't care, as if I don't want him back just as much. But..." She swallowed, shaking her head as she felt her burning eyes blocking her view of the red light they were about to cross.

"-that's not true."

The two men looked at each other through the mirror, but neither of them could bring themselves to say anything. After all, each of them could understand Jodie's hatred.

Still, they had no choice.

But before either Akai or Heiji could talk about their next step, Jodie hit the brakes, stopping the car in front of their destination with a jolt. While Haikuro squealed in excitement because of the surprising movement, Akai turned to his colleague from Osaka, looking at the little boy in his lap before his gaze wandered back to his father, one eyebrow raised in a silent question.

"Forget it; I'm not letting him out of my sight again." Akai just sighed, preferring to give up the discussion right away, and turned back to Jodie, while Haikuro gave him a curious look.

Heiji sensed the tense atmosphere in the car and quickly loosened the seat belt around himself and his son. "Come on, buddy, let's go outside. Maybe some fresh air can wash that foolishness out of your head. Ya remember what ta tell mum, don't ya?"

But before they could hear the little boy's answer, they were cut off by the closed door. With a relieved sigh, Akai lit a cigarette, smoked, and waited until his colleague finally had enough strength to speak.

He'd expected a desperate discussion, but Jodie did nothing of the sort.

Instead, she pulled on the handbrake, pulled the key out before she opened her own seatbelt.

"Let's get it over with."

"Jodie-..."

"For him."

'You better be still alive, Shinichi, because I'm going to strangle you myself the next time I get my hands on you.' She was about to open the door, but Akai wouldn't let her go.

"Jodie." But she just swallowed. Her damned partner wasn't usually so talkative, so why now? But before he could talk further, telling her things she already knew, she started to speak with a sigh.

"We've all had to make sacrifices for this one, Shuichi; I know that now." She swallowed, trying to keep her composure, but her tense fingers around the steering wheel of the car betrayed her.

"And this apparently is mine..., so come on, let's do this already." With that, she got out of the car and joined Hattori, who was already waiting outside the small café. Akai followed them both with a bitter smile on his lips.

Even from the outside, the little café looked cheap and dirty, so Heiji had taken his offspring in his arms as a precaution, and one could hardly blame him since this wasn't a place for children. The detective looked around, whistling through his teeth as he ignored the glances of the few patrons on his skin, but especially the eyes of the not-so-young waitress at the bar, who seemed to be casting him a different kind of look, before giving him a wink.

'Nope, not gonna happen…' But before he could avert his gaze, she showed him a smile, framed by her gloss-smeared lips, that sent a shiver down his spine before Jodie managed to draw his attention back.

The FBI agent stood at his side with her hands on her hips and looked around with a sharp gaze.

"No wonder we weren't able to find her. We'd never would have looked here." Akai just nodded, spared the comment, and went ahead of the other two into the hidden corner of the café, where she was waiting for them.

Vermouth.

She sat there, her long legs casually crossed under the far too small table, while she wore the dark blue silk scarf around her neck, no longer hiding her blond curls beneath it. The organization member didn't notice them or at least pretended not to, so it was the young teacher who first raised her head in their direction.

And even though she didn't actually regret this decision, a mixture of apology and shame spread across her face and only twisted into a smile when Heiji's little son recognized her.

"NEECHAN!"

He freed himself from his father's grip and ran towards her. He wrapped his little arms around her legs before she pulled him on her lap with a laugh. "Haikuro-chan, what are you doing here?"

"I've been looking for you!" came the proud reply, while Heiji just ran a hand over his face.

"What?" Ran raised an eyebrow at Kazuha's husband, who simply sighed.

"Forget it - it's a long story."

And indeed, Ran didn't ask further, even if that was probably more due to the growing tension that suddenly dominated the room.

Vermouth slowly raised her eyes as if she'd just been waiting for her cue. She looked at the two FBI agents and greeted them with a sweet smile on her lips.

"I don't see any handcuffs? So I guess our deal is still going?" Jodie swallowed, clenching her hands into useless fists, while Akai Shuichi stepped in front of her, sizing up the blonde in front of him with a cold gaze when he started to talk.

"If your information is useful enough, then yes."

Vermouth frowned briefly; that hadn't been the deal, but she knew that her answer would set her free.

"All right..." She sipped her cup of coffee one last time, put it back with a tiny clang before she began to speak with her fingertips drawing circles on the rim of the cup.

"Of course, you have to understand that I'm not going to just hand you a name or address on a silver platter, I may be a traitor, but I'm not that stupid." Vermouth waited for a reply and continued to speak with a sigh when they just looked at her in silence.

"Presumably, our little celebrity has already given you a tip or two, I suppose?" With a nod, her gaze fell to the television, where the reports about the organization and Kudo Shinichi still refused to die down.

Akai just nodded, ignoring the allusion and the smile on her lips.

"Fine. Then let me tell you that the mother crow's song to her seven children references the Boss. I must confess I admire him even now... that someone like him has worked his way up so high in our organization and commands so much respect - despite, or perhaps because of, his colleagues." She smiled, surveying her red-painted nails with satisfaction.

"But on the other hand, some people simply allow themselves to be blinded. Maybe the shimmering armor of your knights simply reflects too much sun and makes you ignorant of everything around you. After all, there must have been something to Holmes' words, who declared that the police were blind. I guess it's true after all - these knights were apparently too blind to see that they were surrounded by demons, while they did not even notice that they themselves were doing the devil's work."

Vermouth smiled, slowly pushed the chair back from the table, and rose from her seat.

But Jodie's frantic voice made her elegant movements falter.

"WHAT, THAT'S IT?" The American woman's jaw dropped, nothing but things they already knew and meaningless riddles. She sold her revenge for this crap? But Vermouth only gave her a silent look, shook her head, and put his sunglasses back on.

"I'm afraid so."

This time, however, it was Ran who simply couldn't accept the answer. Her voice held a pleading undertone. She really had hoped that she would tell them where to find him.

"Can't you at least give us a clue as to where Shinichi is being held?"

Vermouth only swallowed, shaking her head with a hint of regret.

"As I've said, that's all. But if you find him, you will find Kudo." She bit her lips, risking smearing her gleaming white teeth with her red lipstick, as her voice took on an urgent tone.

"I advise you to hurry. The research has stopped, the search for eternal life is over, and has brought more ruin than prosperity to the organization." She sighed while her voice became serious again.

"God is out of the game for a long time now, and the devil is willing to do everything in his power to gain this last soul, to take it down to hell with him."

Vermouth swallowed and looked back to Ran one last time.

"Good luck, Angel. I hope the arms of our silver bullet are still strong enough to catch your fall."

With these words, she strode past the small table, feeling her angel's eyes bury deep into her shoulder blades so that for a moment, the guilt caught the breath in her throat when she took the first steps into her new life.

'A new start... maybe that's the biggest chance an angel and her hero could give me. I'm fleeing through the hole of the bullet. I just hope there's enough silver left to build up and heal again.'

She inhaled deeply that somewhat musty scent of freedom and began to move away from the little troupe. Jodie did not look at her. She saw her knuckles turning white in clenched fists. Nevertheless, she remained standing next to the agent, thinking for a moment before she spoke.

"Some things need to be done. I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm not sorry for what I did back then. I did my job as you do yours now, as your fate led you to quite a similar organization. It's your turn, now, to either follow your instructions or leave before you do something you'll pay for." She swallowed, looking over the rim of her sunglasses with a grim gaze.

"One last piece of advice. Find him… find him fast."

XXX

"Looks like we really won't be seeing her again, either of us."

Shinichi remained silent, pressing his lips firmly together until he had sorted his thoughts to form a hesitated question.

"She was there... wasn't she?"

Bell nodded briefly, was about to say something when a thin voice interrupted him.

"Then why are we still here... if Ran is there?"

All eyes turned to the primary schooler, who had picked himself up a little, looking less lifeless as he leaned against the wall of books.

"You're awake?" But Conan only rolled his eyes. "How can I sleep if you two don't? One without the other doesn't exist... you should know that by now." Bell frowned, giving the little one a doubtful look.

"It looked like it, though." Shinichi nodded. "You even talked in your sleep..."

"Really?" the little one muttered as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"What did you see, Conan? What happened to Ran?"

The name of his "neechan" made the fine hairs on his arms stand up. Only reluctantly, he tried to explain himself to the other two.

"I didn't see her, not directly. I- it was more like a feeling. I heard her voice, but it was far away, kind of not real... but she- she was crying. "The little boy swallowed.

"I, I tried to help her, but I couldn't. Whenever I would get close, she'd suddenly disappear... as-as if she wasn't really there."

"Not there?" But the synchronized question from both Shinichi and Bell just caused more confusion until the high schooler decided to continue their conversation.

"We're missing something, something important... but what?"

Bell just shook his head wearily, ran his hand through his hair, and kept it there, propping his head up like that while his elbow rested on the desktop.

"I don't know..." He swallowed, biting his lips in annoyance.

"I can't think, I can barely concentrate, it feels like someone has stuffed a fucking bag of cotton between my ears, and there's a pointy nail in there somewhere, but I just can't reach it."

The other two nodded wearily, sharing the dull feeling in their heads with him. No wonder.

Conan, however, gulped, the little boy's voice suddenly sounding anxious, for once matching his appearance.

"I think that's it…"

Bell bit his lips, he would have liked to tell the little one something else, but he also noticed how his mind was drifting further and further away from him; it was difficult for him to hold on to it in any way.

"I'm afraid... that you're right."

Shinichi just sighed, staring at the nameless grey books around them.

"I wonder which one of us will die first..." But the high school student's sarcastic comment was quickly followed by Conan's somewhat anxious question.

"What do you mean?" Bell nodded in agreement, looking at his second self questioningly.

"Yeah? I thought we were all... Kudo Shinichi, of some sort of."

Shinichi swallowed, shaking his head with a tired smile.

"Do you really believe that?" He stood up, pointing to the empty library where they were sitting.

"Have you looked around lately? I mean, do you think it's a coincidence that the three of us are here?"

The other two, however, remained silent, perhaps afraid to answer their counterpart's question.

"The locations… first the Central Park in New York, then the Mori Detective Agency, and now this?" Bell nodded, scratching his chin broodingly.

"No... that's hardly a coincidence."

"So what? That actually fits, doesn't it? Otherwise, there probably wouldn't be three of us having this discussion now." But Shinichi only frowned, turning away from the two to block out their reactions to his words.

"True, but that is exactly what worries me. Our memories and thoughts are melted back together, while at this moment, we are definitely of different opinions. We are three different sections of Kudo Shinichi's life, three personalities that belong together somehow, and then again we don't." He bit his lips, shaking his head.

"But I'm afraid we're wrong about one thing."

He swallowed, looked around with a heavy sigh.

"We are not Kudo Shinichi."

XXX

"What do we do now?"

With this question, the young woman looked around the hotel lounge they'd chosen as a headquarter in the city, while little Haikuro drew little circles with his car on the squiggly carpet.

But Heiji, who was pressing his mobile to his ear, just raised an eyebrow in bewilderment.

"We? We're not doing anything, Ran!"

The teacher swallowed but didn't avert her eyes, while the Osakan was obviously more than annoyed, massaging the bridge of his nose as he marched up and down the room.

"The police and the FBI are not going to allow that..."

"HEIJI!"

Kazuha's voice echoed shrill and loudly through the room. Reflexively the detective held the mobile phone away from him while he tried to get through to his wife's shouts.

No less loud, of course.

"KAZUHA! Kazu-..." He sighed, still holding the phone as far away as possible while he tried to rub the tinnitus out of his ear with his other hand. Only when his wife's voice became quieter again, he dared to let the phone get closer to his ear. He sighed, hearing her sobbing on the other end of the line.

"It's all right. Don't shout."

His gaze wandered to his son. The little one hadn't even looked up, already knowing that his parents sometimes got a little loud when they talked to each other. Probably because adults just didn't hear well, that's how it had to be.

"Ya, he is here. He's fine... and so is Ran." He swallowed as Ran felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment once more as Kazuha's voice was still tearful from the receiver.

"Sure thing. Hey Haiku, your mum's on the phone."

The boy blinked in surprise, torn from the middle of the colorful world he'd build in his mind, as he jumped up and ran towards his dad with a joyful grin.

"Mum!"

The three-year-old reached for the mobile phone while his father held it for safety.

"We found Neechan, Mum, do ya hear?" The little boy grinned from ear to ear.

"So you don't have ta cry anymore. Tousan doesn't cry anymore either," he squealed and looked up at his father with a meaningful look. This sentence seemed to be enough to arouse Kazuha's suspicions, but before Haikoru could blab away completely, Heiji took the phone from him.

"What? Well, there was this bad man, and he was-..."

"That's enough, Haiku." He frantically put the mobile phone back to his ear, laughing nervously while Kazuha pestered him.

"What? No, what makes ya think that? You know our son and his fertile imagination." But once again, his wife's voice on the receiver grew louder so that the detective, who was sweating by now, instead preferred to end the call.

"How- uh, well I have ta hang up now Kazuha, see ya."

He sighed, looked at his son with half-moon eyes, but he'd simply returned to play.

'Thank ya very much.'

Ran, however, had also turned pale because of what she'd understood, for the first time asking herself the legitimate question of what the Hattori's son was doing here in the first place. Her gaze anxiously wandered to Heiji.

'He'd cried?'

She swallowed, looked up at him questioningly, and noticed that he was already avoiding her gaze again.

"Heiji-kun?"

He had already opened his mouth to prepare a suitable explanation, though he was only half as adept at it as Shinichi. The officer finally sighed, dropped into the hotel's soft sofa, and closed his eyes for a moment, only to open them again when he felt exhaustion and fatigue trying to carry him away on the spot. He leaned forward and propped his elbows in his lap while his eyes drilled holes in the tabletop.

"Haiku wanted ta help look for ya. In all the hassle, I didn't notice that he must have sneaked into my car, damn…" Heiji swallowed, then looked up at her with a serious expression.

"Gin."

Ran felt goosebumps make their way from her fingertips up her arm to the back of her neck.

"After all the trouble died down, Akai had Vodka in his grasp, then he showed up... along with Haikuro."

"What? But-..." Heiji blocked her panic before it could develop further.

"Nothing happened to him. It's over..."

'This guy won't hurt anyone anymore.'

Heiji sighed, sank back deeper into the sofa, and ran his fingers, trembling from the memory, over his forehead.

"I'd rather you let me tell this ta Kazuha."

'Although it probably won't make any difference. When she finds out, I'm as good as dead anyway.'

Ran nodded, and for a brief moment, a thick silence fell over them.

"Where do we go from here, Heiji? I thought... I thought the information would be enough to finally find Shinichi. I don't understand..."

"The coup from today is still going, so we can't pull too many people from it, and since we don't know what's waiting for us, we have no chance but to wait until tomorrow. Acting rashly when dealing with tha organization is... fatal. But I don't have ta tell ya that anymore, do I?"

She just shook her head.

"But if it makes ya feel better... I'm sure Vermouth didn't sell herself short. Once we crack her riddle, we'll find him. I'm sure we will."

Ran, however, only swallowed.

"I was just hoping to find him; even if one of those people had caught me, at least I would have been with him. I know I can't help him, but at least then we would have had a chance. We would have been together no matter what-..."

She bit her lips as the unpredictable stubbornness returned to her eyes.

"I almost lost him once before, Heiji-kun, and I certainly won't let anything like that happen again. I didn't know what was happening then or what he was up to... but this time, things are different." She looked up, a determined expression on her face.

"You can't expect me to sit around somewhere - waiting and twiddling my thumbs. I can't and I won't!" Ran's voice was little more than a hoarse whisper in the end.

The detective looked at her for some time, then shook his head with a long sigh.

"I know... and if it makes you feel any better, I think Vermouth's willingness to cooperate is due to you. She has a soft spot for you, Ran... whether you like it or not. True, she never really had Kudo in her sights either, but you..." But Ran voiced what he was thinking.

"Angel." The small, seemingly harmless word left her lips and yet meant everything.

"I think she has told us the truth... we just have to find it in this tangle of lies and secrets." Heiji sighed, running a hand through his already disheveled hair.

"And as long as the FBI and the rest of Megure's officers are still cleaning up this morning's mess, we have no choice but to wait, Ran." His gaze fell on his son, who had not stirred on the brightly patterned carpet for quite a while now, his head pillowed on his stuffed animal while his little rear end stuck up in the air. He simply fell asleep on the spot.

Mori's daughter, however, was still looking at the ground with a stubborn gaze. He could understand it, there was nothing he hated more than sitting idly by, but in this case, at least it made sense somehow.

"Kudo needs us rested. We can't afford a mistake. Not now."

She looked up and nodded slowly. Heiji had followed the organization's leads for the past ten years, had always wanted to finish it for Shinichi. He was probably right.

Even if she doubted that she'd get much sleep.

XXX

Of course, the next morning came equally too early and too late. When the detective's mobile phone started ringing, it also finally gave Ran in the adjoining bedroom the signal that she could get up after she had been staring at the ceiling for hours.

Today was the day, today or never.

She pulled on the bathrobe provided by the hotel, which felt fluffy and warm against her skin, and for a moment was able to forget the haunting memories of the night.

She heard Heiji's voice through the closed door before she entered, but the officer had no eyes for her at that moment, so she sat silently on the narrow back of the sofa, listening and waiting.

"That's all... we know about her. However, the thing with the devil made me wonder; I've heard that somewhere before... Kudo said something back then..." He heard Megure gulp on the other end of the line, but the older officer gave him time to think. He rummaged through his memories until he found the right piece of the puzzle. The commissioner's voice sounded hollow as he spoke more to himself than to his colleague.

"We can be both, god and the devil..."

"What?" Megure's voice was rough in his ears.

"That phrase is from Vermouth, Kudo told me about it when he happened to stumble across it." He swallowed, his voice little more than a hoarse whisper before he swallowed. An idea, a thought formed in his mind, but Megure beat him to it, his tone sounding brittle, his words uneven and rough.

"Kudo worked against the organization, didn't he? Ten years ago, shortly after he left Japan, together with the FBI."

Megure's voice made the hairs on the back of Heiji's neck stand up slowly. Something told him Megure was thinking along the same lines as himself.

"As far as I know, they did. They must have managed some powerful blows against them, so the guys had to lay low for a bit." Megure's voice sounded dry; Heiji could make out the scratching of his mustache on the receiver. A deceptive silence settled over the tense group while Heiji waited for the right moment to speak again.

"Megure-keishi, do you think..."

But his counterpart on the phone only sighed.

"I have an idea, Hattori-kun, and even though I want Kudo back here safe and sound as much as you all do, I really hope I'm wrong." The policeman's voice failed him.

"It can't be..."

He heard how Megure cleared his throat and suddenly dismissed him. "Please wait a moment, Hattori-kun; I'll get right back to you."

"What? But-..." But he got no more than the booming dial tone in reply.

'Megure.'

XXX

The chief inspector also stared at the now silent phone in his hand that suddenly seemed heavier than before. With a sigh, he brought himself to dial an old but familiar number.

The dial tone was pounding in his ears. He sat there silently, not moving, while pure chaos reigned inside him.

'Please, tell me that I'm wrong…'

"Kudo Yusaku here, who's speaking?"

"Yusaku-kun..." But the chief inspector's voice died away, and he had to clear his throat before he could continue.

"Yusaku-kun, it's Megure. I know it's probably not very appropriate to bother you with this, but-..." The writer interrupted him before he could finish his sentence.

"So you too..."

"Huh?"

He heard the author sigh on the other end of the line, could literally see him in front of him, running his hand over his blue eyes that looked far too similar to his son's.

"I've been awake thinking about it, but I can't find another fitting conclusion. If we believe what Vermouth told us, it's the only possibility. Even more so when you consider that ten years ago he-"

"I see." The chief inspector swallowed; silence settled over the two old colleagues like a shroud.

The chief inspector slumped in his chair, put his hat down, and ran his hand through his thinning hairline.

"I'd rather hoped you might say that my guess was wrong, Yusaku-kun…."

The writer's voice, however, had regained its composure by now. No matter how much of a shock it might be for the police and the whole of Japan, this was about his son.

"I'm afraid it's the only logical explanation we have left. Do you know where we can find him?"

The chief inspector nodded, slowly growing pale, forgetting that Yusaku couldn't see him, so it took a moment before he answered him properly.

"I have a pretty good idea. I'll have my people confirm it right away and –" But Yusaku interrupted him again. "All right, I'll pass the information to let the FBI know they should call you for further information." He swallowed, listening into the uncomfortable silence while the fear for his son choked him.

"Juzo, please… get him out of there."

Megure bit his cheek, realizing again how inappropriate this call had actually been, but what could he do? Old habits were hard to break. Yusaku himself was concerned - it was his son, and in this case, he was nothing more than a worried father.

"Of course."

With that, he hung up, staring down at his mobile phone, before his gaze fell on the empty seat at the conference table where he had been sitting just two days ago. He furrowed his brow while bitterness boiled up in his throat.

So bold, devious, and… damn confident.

'This fucking bastard...'

It hurt. In a place the chief inspector had never expected, this realization burned a hole in his stomach. He'd always worked faithfully for him, always looked up to him a little, and had always tried to do everything to his satisfaction while he himself...

How often had he abused Megure and the rest of his colleagues for his own purposes? How much had they missed because he'd turned things the way he needed them?

Holmes was right... they really were blind.

Bile slowly crept up his burning throat, and his fingers pressed harder than necessary on the buttons of his mobile phone to call Hattori back.

It rang only once before the detective picked up, obviously waiting for the call.

"So?"

Megure swallowed before he forced his lips to say what his mind still refused to comprehend.

"It's Matsumoto."

XXX

The FBI had ordered them to wait.

So they did, for two fucking hours already, nothing but wait. He had had enough. Kudo had lost enough time; one night of useless sitting around was more than he could bear.

Heiji sighed. They had deliberately avoided the police headquarters, not letting any information leak out to someone else. That was how it would stay until they knew for sure because the last thing they needed was more uproar and mistrust among themselves.

So their group consisted of no more than Megure, Sato, Takagi, and him, the only ones to deceive the Japanese police on this case. At the same time, the FBI had already gathered their troops around the scene and were monitoring the situation until they were finally allowed to intervene.

His gaze fell on the clock before he grimaced in annoyance.

'What's taking so long?'

He turned energetically in the other direction, measuring the room in long strides before turning around again. The others had already stopped following him with their eyes, even though nausea still continued to creep up Takagi's throat as he continued to watch Hattori pacing back and forth while his wife still refused to give him her hand. Sato didn't want him here, didn't want anything to happen to him and have her daughter grow up just like her, without a father. They had both been working to the bone the last few days, but luckily a few scrapes and bruises were all the couple had suffered. She could only hope it stayed that way.

She sighed, finally taking Takagi's hand in hers and feeling his cold fingertips under her skin.

No wonder she couldn't stand up to his stubbornness. After all, it was one reason why she'd fallen in love with him.

And they were both police officers, too much connected to Kudo Shinichi, to Conan, to let this slip away now, as bitter as the situation had become for them.

For the whole police force. For the whole of Japan.

For him.

'Megure...' The commissioner swallowed, trying in vain to catch Megure's gaze, who still preferred to continue burning holes in the ground.

Chief Superintendent Matsumoto.

They had to come to terms with it, as hard as it was.

So, they waited for the FBI to finally show up. However, the first who crossed the threshold when the hotel door was opened in response to her knock was Kazuha, who took her stunned son in her arms with a joyful cry.

But it was not the overjoyed young woman who caught everyone's eye when she entered, but the female FBI agent who stepped into the room with a small Styrofoam box.

Ran's eyes were glued to the small white box as she felt her mouth slowly go dry.

That was it, the antidote that would bring Shinichi back... that would give him back to her.

Hopefully.

Tracy avoided their gazes, her fingernails clawing into the white styrofoam, while her voice wavered uncertainly around the room.

"We should hurry..."

"She's right." Akai's voice raised tension again, eventually causing the chief inspector to avert his eyes from the box and clear his throat. Back to reality.

"Let's go then." Heiji swallowed, nodded at Akai with a frown before looking around for Kudo's girlfriend.

"And Ran, you-..." But the agent's calm voice interrupted him again. "She should come with us."

"WHAT?" Not only the commissioner but also his three colleagues looked at the FBI agent in more than astonishment.

"I don't want to risk her running away again. We don't know if the whole thing isn't just a trap; we can't have such a mess again. She comes along and stays in the car until it's all over. Understood?"

Ran just nodded. While the others passed her to leave the building, she stopped Akai briefly by the sleeve of his jacket.

"Thank you."

But he only sent her a stern look that caused a shiver to run down her spine.

"You stay in the car until the coast is clear." Ran swallowed but forced herself to nod before hastily following Takagi and Sato out the door.

Heiji, however, was still looking at the agent in surprise.

"Kudo won't like that at all." Akai just rolled his eyes, pointing at Ran in the background as he disappeared out the door with a low grumble.

"If I have a choice between her or Kudo, who is going to kick my ass because something happened to the other, it should be clear who I choose."

The detective laughed hollowly. He could understand the argument. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, he turned to his wife, who was still eyeing him and had not yet said a word to greet him. Heiji swallowed, stepped in front of her with an apologetic gesture. "Listen, Kazuha, I know ya want ta rip my head off right now..." But his wife just shook her head, took a step towards him to adjust his tie before looking up at him with a sad smile.

"Be careful."

"What? But I thought-..." Kazuha rolled her eyes, smiled at him.

"Don't worry about that right now... I can always rip your head off when it's all over. Right now, they need you in one piece." Heiji blinked, swallowing at the evil foreshadowing in Kazuha's voice. His gaze fell to his son in her arms, gently stroking the little one's forehead.

"Don't lose him again."

"As if -..."

But Hattori's lips stopped her in mid-sentence. She was enjoying the moment and would have preferred not to let him go at all. But when he broke away from her, his green eyes were serious. "Don't lose him."

She swallowed, then nodded and watched as he was the last of the small group to leave the room, the door slamming shut behind him so that no one could hear her quiet words.

"Please stay safe..."

XXX

The basement was tinted in the pale light of the dawn that squeezed through the small windows and gave the room a dubious atmosphere, making it seem even colder with all the instruments and aluminum cabinets.

The irregular dripping, mixed with the moans of his prisoner, was all he heard.

He had made his calls. All prepared.

Now he had to wait; there was nothing else he could do right now.

Nothing.

In the end, the darkness had reached him after all.

Matsumoto sighed, letting his gaze wander over the small private laboratory.

Empty, abandoned, and useless.

Just like Kudo.

'Well... not quite.'

A slight grin flitted across his features as he let his gaze sweep over the detective again. The wet film on his skin got an even more unhealthy sheen in the grey light of dawn, while the dark circles under his eyes betrayed the fact that even though he seemed to be asleep, the darkness didn't seem to bring him any peace. Each new drop made his muscles twitch reflexively, individual strands tightened again and again so that his fingers twitched as if they were playing a soundless song on an invisible piano.

A hint of regret crept across the face of the aging head of the police and the organization. They had both been under his command, and this boy, this high school student, had changed everything.

He had taken everything dear to him.

He would never have thought that Kudo Shinichi, of all people, would be capable of such a thing. He had seen him as a small child, hanging on to his father's coat-tails, who wasn't concerned to have the boy run around a crime scene.

Of course, he had soon noticed that Kudo had a dangerous mind, a mind that might even have been in good hands in his organization, but with way too much moral in the way. Where he had always believed that Kudo's arrogance would never allow him to be truly dangerous to them, it had been his poison of all things that had taken that trait away from him and made him a serious opponent. He laughed bitterly, shaking his head as his image was reflected in the dirty pool of water at the head of the table.

Only this transformation had made him the dangerous weapon he had now become. The silver bullet hardened by the hammer of pain and loss to bring the beast to its knees.

'Light and shadow...

Looks like that applies to you too, eh, Kudo?

Only through your dark lie, you were able to become the dangerous light that could destroy us.' He smiled wanly as his gaze slid out the window so that the pale light of the sun's early rays, which had made it through the mist, cast dark shadows on his face.

'But it's not over yet, also thanks to you Kudo Shinichi...'

His gaze once again swept over the seventeen-year-old on the experimental table, whose breathing slowly became shallower while his lips formed words that no one but himself could understand.

A satisfied smile settled on his features as he placed something in the detective's palm and closed his fingers carefully around it.

"For where there is light, there is also shadow..."

Hey everyone,

Again I am very sorry for the delay and for not answering your reviews! I still do love them and I would love to talk to you about them, but I just can`t find the time to. Work is drowning me (which is good since it's my own business) I hope as soon as I get another vet to work along with me, everything will get better.

Anyway, I am NOT dropping this story or you, never would! I'll try to update once a month.

So thank you for saying with me, being patient and kind and of course for your reviews too! They help a lot to motivate me to write!

Thank YOU!

And of course, a huge thanks to Tobina! It's amazing that she always finds the time to beta those big chapters for me and you.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter, please leave a comment if you did!

Have a nice day!

Till next time,

~ Shelling