"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Mello demanded, nearly folded in half as Mogi yanked his hands behind his back. "Don't tell me you're actually going to arrest me for killing fucking Kira!"

The murder weapon lay discarded by Light's slain body. Matsuda, still sniffling, began to reach for it.

"Don't you dare fucking touch that," Mello snarled, writhing in Mogi's grasp as the cuffs were slapped on. "I'm serious, asshole!" When Matsuda didn't pay his warning any heed, Mello kicked out, aiming for the policeman's head as he grabbed the murder weapon. Mogi pulled him back and the blonde teetered, off-balance, his flailing leg missing its mark entirely. The blonde gave a yell as he was dragged away from Matsuda, who was trembling.

"Will somebody please tell me what the fuck is going on?" Mello bellowed, his voice echoing throughout the abandoned warehouse."I should be a fucking hero here! Why are you apprehending me?"

"You... the chief..." Matsuda choked unintelligibly, as Mello fixed him with a scathing look.

"You're a wanted man, Mello," Aizawa said, his voice superbly disdainful as he watched Mello snarling at the others through an uneven fringe of dirty golden hair. "Although we appreciate your help on the Kira case, we can't overlook the crimes you have committed while operating as a yakuza boss. We're bringing you in for the murder of Soichiro Yagami."

"Are you fucking serious?" Mello raged. He made a move, as though to advance upon the elder man, before Mogi seized him by the hood of his jacket and wrenched him ungracefully backwards. "Near!" His azure gaze flicked to younger prodigy as he stumbled unsteadily on his feet. "Are you really going to let them do this to me?"

The younger prodigy stared up wearily from his position on the floor, the members of the SPK surrounding him like a wall of bodyguards. "Don't just sit there, you albino fuck, call them off!" When the fair-haired child did no such thing, Mello emitted a sound not unlike a cat's angry yowl.

"You son of a bitch!" Mello spat wrathfully. "This is how you repay me for all my work on the case? You dirty backstabber!"

"I'm afraid I don't know how to help you, Mello," the younger boy finally spoke, as Halle and the others drew in even more impossibly close, further shielding him. "I can't absolve you of your prior crimes. The jurisdiction does not lie with me."

Mello gave a mirthless scream of laughter. "You can't absolve me? You're fucking L!"

"Who is a detective, not a judge," Near reminded him, completely unruffled by Mello's dramatics. "No one is above the law, Mello. Not even you."

--

"I want my fucking phone call!" Mello yelled, as he was unceremoniously thrown into a cell with his hands still bound behind his back. Mikami was already waiting for him there, curled up in a fetal position on a cot opposite to him. The sight of his prone and quaking form disgusted Mello, who immediately turned his back on him.

"I'm cell-mates with this bastard? This is an insult!"

"It's only temporary," Aizawa told him coolly, his back to Mello as he rummaged through a nearby filing cabinet. "Once we confine you to an actual prison, your living arrangements will change. But we have limited space here in the station, so this is how it has to be in the meantime."

Mikami lifted his head from his position huddled against the wall, and Mello narrowed his eyes.

"Looking at my lifespan?" Mello sneered. "Like what you see? You'd better turn around if you know what's good for you." Surprisingly, Mikami did not cower in response. Instead, his gaze hardened as his back stiffened, like a dog getting its hackles up.

"You're nothing but filth," Mikami whispered darkly.

"And you're about to be nothing but a bloody smear on the floor," Mello snarled, his eyes full of blazing hatred. He had never been so angry in his entire life, and Mikami was only adding fuel to the already raging fire. "If you don't do as I say and turn. the fuck. around."

Even weaponless, with his arms bound behind his back, Mello knew he was still a force to be reckoned with. Mikami wisely backed down from the challenge, and did as he was told.

That's right.

--

Matt's phone chirped in his pocket, some two hours later.

He fumbled with the compartments in his vest, frowning at the caller ID when he finally managed to retrieve it from the depths of his clothes. This isn't a number I've ever seen before, Matt thought, feeling familiar surge of worry and dread. Sayu had swung upright from her position splayed out on the futon upon Matt's scrutiny of the number, peering at the redhead anxiously from across the room.

"Who is it?" she demanded. Matt didn't answer, flipping the phone open and putting it up to his ear instead.

"...Hello?"

"Matt? It's me!" came the familiar voice of Mello through the speakers, and Matt couldn't help but exhale audibly in relief.

"Oh Jesus Almighty, I thought something terrible had happened for a second." Sayu immediately perked up at Matt's words.

"What--" Sayu began concernedly, but Matt halted her onslaught of questions by waving a hand irritably in her direction. Sayu narrowed her eyes at him, but obliged, folding her slender arms across her chest as she tapped one foot on the dirty floor impatiently.

"Something has. Listen, Matt, I--"

But Matt is only half paying attention now, too wrapped up in his own relief to hear the underlying panic laced in Mello's words. "Where the hell are you calling from, anyway?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, you twit. I'm in jail."

The phone slipped free from Matt's grasp and clattered loudly on the floor.

"Matt!" Sayu admonished. She reached out to grab it, but Matt was faster, snatching it out from beneath her fingers and shoving it back against in his ear again.

"Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm fucking serious. Anyway, Matt, I--"

"But why?"

"They've brought me in for killing Soichiro Yagami. But they're telling me that because of my contributions to the Kira case--" Mello laughed here, although it was obvious his heart wasn't in it, "--they'll bring the charge down from 'murder' to 'voluntary manslaughter'." Matt heard muffled voices from behind Mello, and the blonde swore under his breath. "Listen, I have to get off the line here, but... tell Sayu that I love her, alright? And that I'm sorry. I'm at the station right now but I think they're supposed to be moving me tomor... Alright already! I'm hanging up now! Christ! ... Matt, we'll get in touch later. There's no fucking way I'm going to put up with this kind of blatant disregard." And the line went abruptly dead.

Matt stared ahead blankly, the receiver still cradled against his ear. Mello, arrested? But what about Near... or even Kira? Wasn't today... did they really...?

Matt jumped as Sayu's own cell phone began to sound. Sayu was still regarding Matt a little mistrustfully as she flipped the phone open and answered it. "Hello?"

Matt could hear Mrs. Yagami's voice on the other line, tinny and distant over the speaker. "Sayu!" she managed to heave, in-between sobs. "Your brother--Light--"