Chapter 9

Matt's footfalls echoed on the damp cavern walls as he shuffled closer to the light. It wasn't the flickering light that intrigued him so much as it was the faint crying sounds in the distance. The darkness surrounded him like a cold blanket, gripping him with it's icy claws. His back was tight, his skin taut. He was on edge, never knowing what he was lurking towards, or what might be lurking behind him. He didn't know how he had gotten there, other than the fact that he'd been walking for about 10 minutes in one constant direction, an eternity to someone this isolated.

The cries were louder, more recognizable. They were human.

Near?

He stopped for a second to analyse the sounds scattering on the rocky structure. Even his own sharp breaths drowned the cries out. It couldn't be Near he decided. Near had a somewhat high, dainty voice but not to this degree. It sounded like... a child.

The potential of a child being in peril drove Matt onwards, a bit more fervently than before. His careful shuffle was replaced by a fast paced trot on the tips of his toes, bounding along the cavern. He rounded a bend, where he saw the light from a fire flickering on the grey stony walls. A small boy, was facing a fire situated at the mouth of the cavern. His shoulders quivered with each sob.

Matt approached carefully, not wanting to frighten the already distraught child.

"Hey." He said quietly, kneeling downwards to the boy's level.

The dark haired boy quickly turned around to face him, he looked to be about 8 or 9 years old. His face was pale. His eyes were dark and wet with tears, a few strands of black hair fell around his forehead. He stiffened with fear as Matt approached. This boy was familiar. Matt nearly fell over when he realized who he was looking at.

"My name is Matt. What's your name?" Matt said, the gentle tone in his voice made the boy relax a little.

"L...Lawliet." The boy whispered between sniffles.

"Why are you here? Why are you crying?"

"My...my family... The monster hurt them." Lawliet said, turning around to the opening of the cavern. It was somewhat dark outside, and Matt couldn't see what, if anything the boy was pointing out. There did appear to be some random objects on the ground in the distance, but it was impossible to tell what they were.

"What monster?" Matt asked.

"The monster that's controlled by the white one. It's his pet."

"Who is this white one?"

Matt's question was cut short by a deafening screech from outside in the distance. Lawliet clasped himself around Matt, burying his face in Matt's shirt.

Matt stood slowly, holding Lawliet tight to his side.

"Lets get out of here. We're sitting ducks."

Matt walked slowly with Lawliet outside the cavern, looking around carefully. He then also took notice of the objects strewn around the ground, once unrecognisable from inside the cavern. They were body parts, shredded, bloody and torn. It was Lawliet's family, no doubt. He placed his hand over the boy's eyes, shielding him from the horror, while carefully stepping around the randomly placed gore.

He needed a destination, a safe place to run. There was a rock face about 100 yards to his right, and figured he could dash behind it. He started to turn in that direction, but was met by resistance from Lawliet, who was pulling him away.

"What's the matter..." Matt was drowned out by the screech again, which obviously was coming from that direction, likely behind the wall he was about to run towards. He froze, staring intently. The screeching settled down to a dull roar, a chill went up his spine as he thought of what possibly could make a sound like that.

He turned in the opposite direction, and ran, holding Lawliet's hand, dragging him along. He was trying to get as far away as possible before the thing emerged from the shadows. He tripped, and and both of them tumbled to the ground. Matt had landed face down on the silty ground with Lawliet next to him, facing upwards. Matt felt a small hand grasp his shirt frantically, almost taking some of his skin with it. Matt turned his head and saw a gaping steel grey maw descending towards him. He turned around quickly, sitting up on his hands. The dragon wailed again, forcing the two males to clasp their hands over their ears, for fear of going deaf. The sound could be felt in their chests almost as strongly as it could be heard.

The dragon closed it's mouth, leaving a chilly silence behind. Matt looked around for an escape, as futile as it seemed at the time. His eyes focused on a white figure behind the creature. His eyes were dry, and he blinked a few times, squinting to focus.

Near?!

Near stared back with a pained expression of disdain in his eyes. His look in his eyes was indescribable. Black with hatred, his lips pursed.

"Near! What...what are you doing?!" Matt cried out.

Near angrily extended his arm and pointed in Matt's direction. The dragon responded by lowering it's head inches from Matt's face. He could feel it's cold breath on his cheek, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. Lawliet was shaking, hiding his face behind Matt's shoulder.

"Why?" Matt whispered. He hoped his voice wasn't too loud, afraid of what might happen next. His heart clenched, wondering why the person who he loved more than anything in the whole universe would threaten him in this way.

"Don't you DARE." Near replied, with a voice unlike anything Matt ever heard before from him. Matt gasped at the words.

Near stared at the man laying on the ground beyond the demon which was under his control. He wasn't sure what the creature was to him, he figured it was a figment of his subconscious. But he was glad for it's presence. His stomach turned sour as he stared at the person who he hoped he'd never lay eyes on again.

"How arrogant of you to show your face to me again. Why did you come here?" Near growled.

The man cowering on the ground moved to speak, but broke into a single terrified sob as a simple tightening of Near's arm muscles caused the monster's blood stained steel teeth to part, gently scraping it's bicuspids along his cheek, leaving a light trail of blood in it's path.

"One fucking move. One fucking word out of you, and I'll have it tear your neck from your head...Kira."

Light's eyes bulged with surprise at the words.

"I'm not... I'm not... It's me! Near! It's ME!" He stammered. His jaw was shaking as he fought to get the words out.

Near cocked his head and narrowed his eyes menacingly. He clenched his fist, causing the metallic beast to stir instantly. Near wanted to see blood.

The dark skies suddenly changed to a blinding white.

OK. Enough guys. I'm stopping this now.

Mello's voice echoed through Near's head. The dragon was gone, and all that Near saw was Matt's tear stained face. Near fell to his knees at the realization, almost sickened at what he almost did.

Cmon, lets pull out...take a break.

Near closed his eyes and leaned backwards, feeling his consciousness zoom back into his own body. He opened his eyes, breathing heavily with strands of his white hair stuck to the beads of sweat on his forehead. He released L's arm, and locked eyes with Matt, who's face still showed evidence of the horror just moments ago.

"Matt!" Near whimpered as he wrapped his arms around Matt's body, burying his face in his chest. Matt responded by placing his hands on Near's quivering back.

"shhh... it's ok... I know... I know what happened."

"I... almost killed you." Near cried.

"Mello! What the fuck took you so long to stop it! You had control over the whole thing! L told us that if you get killed in there, you die for real!" Matt barked, his heart still clenched from the experience.

"I'm sorry... I don't know." He replied, staring at the floor.

Mello heard a sniffle. He turned to look at L, who wore a horrified expression, clutching his legs to his chest. His eyes were red and wet.

"L?" Mello asked.

"Wh...Where am I? Who's L?"

Mello lowered himself down to L, who jerked his head backwards, fearful of the blonde.

"What is your name?" Matt asked.

"Lawliet."

The three of them looked at each other.

"Who's Lawliet?" Near asked.

"You didn't see him?" Matt asked.

"No... Where was he?"

"He was standing right next to me. It's...L...his inner child I assume."

Mello put his hand on the bridge of his nose, scared that they permanently damaged his lover in some horrific way.

"What do we do?! This was just supposed to be a fucking training exercise!" He said.

"Lawliet... We're not going to hurt you..." Matt said, soothing the boy trapped inside, he turned to look upwards at Near and Mello, "We have to go back in. We have to find L, and put Lawliet back where he belongs."

"I don't want to go back!" L screamed, grabbing Matt's hand, making Mello's eyes widen with surprise.

"Lawliet. I promise I wont bring you back to that monster. I promise it will be ok." Matt said.

The word monster made Near's blood run cold, being that he was the one in control of it.

"How are we going to do this?" Mello asked.

"I know of a place to bring him." Matt said, "Lawliet, hold out your arms. I promise we wont hurt you."

L reluctantly held his arms out, and nearly retracted them as they each grasped his arms gently. Before they knew it, they were back inside L's consciousness. Lawliet was back to his normal 9 year old self, grasping Matt's hand. They were in a large darkened room. The black walls were lined with doors. Every one of them was closed, and had a shimmer of light that shone brightly from the gap underneath.

Which one... Which one did I open...

Matt walked around the room with Lawliet in tow, trying like all hell to remember. He was only there once...

"I think this one is it." Matt said, reaching for a door handle. He closed his eyes and increased the firmness of his grasp on Lawliet's hand before turning the handle. He pushed the door open and breathed a sigh of relief as he found what he was looking for.

He entered the room, which was bursting with white, red and pink. Lawliet's eyes widened and a smile crept up on his face as he witnessed conveyor belts of candy whiz past. Racks of chocolate cakes, ice cream fountains, and gumball dispensers the size of cars surrounded them. Matt released his hand, and he boy took off on his own, jumping on top of a conveyor belt, letting it carry him around while he grabbed fistfuls of candy.

"Thanks!" He called out to Matt, who looked onwards with an errant tear escaping his eye. He slowly turned around and walked back through the door, closing it behind him. He was back in that darkened room, looking downwards at the ground, revelling in the innocence he had just witnessed. It brought a crooked smile to his face. He looked up slowly to see Mello and Near standing across from him.

"You're so sweet." Near said, walking to Matt and kissing him on the lips, draping his arms around his neck.

"Ok...Ok... Lets get back. You can do this later." Mello said with a voice of exasperation, rolling his eyes dramatically.

Near pulled away from Matt, looking deeply into his eyes. They felt the rush as they transferred back into their own consciousnesses the blinding light of the room flooding their eyes. They released L's arm.

"That...was interesting." L said, his voice carrying his usual inflection.

There was a collective sigh from Matt, Near and Mello, a sigh of much needed relief. Mello unabashedly wrapped his arms around L's neck and kissed him gently on the lips. Near scrunched his nose in surprise at the sight.

"I'll explain later." Matt said. Near turned to him and looked deeply into his eyes once more before kissing him.

"I love you Matt."

A/N: This wasn't originally planned, but it just came to me so I did it. I thought it came out pretty good, but I'll let you, my wonderful readers (who don't review worth a shit. hint hint) be the judge. I've got the rest of the story written at this point, I'm just doing editing to the final chapters, so updates should come more frequently.

Oh and of course I have to pimp Matt (not like he needs it LOL) Matt is a very good friend of mine who's been helping more people find out about my stories. He writes some fantastic Naruto fanfics, and I highly suggest them. If you don't know who he is check him out here /u/1036563/. I love you Matt! (amusingly that was also the last line of this chapter).