ANOTHER SIDE, ANOTHER STORY
Rise and Fall
Author's Note: A know there were a few of you out there who decided to just skip some of the chapters that you found boring and whatnot so you could read all the exciting parts like the Andrew vs. Steven and the Steve/Jennie love thing and, of course, the finale. So I decided to make a huge information sheet basically covering the entire story, important plot points that you may have missed, and backstories on each of the characters that might help explain to you why the characters acted the way they did. Because I know I was a little vague with some of the characters backstories, especially Steven's group of friends. So if you don't want to read because you weren't hardcore in love with my story then you don't have to but if you were and can't wait for the sequel, then read up and maybe you'll learn a thing or two.
The Story takes place in Washington State, U.S.A. Most of the story took place at Oliver M. Hazen High School where our main protagonist goes to school. Steven D. Leitch, a senior at Hazen, had to deal with the pains of death long before we met him in our story. Before he went to High school, he had his first, and only girlfriend. Her name had been Michelle Page. Throughout the story there were a couple of very small hints about her (see if you can catch them) When Steven had been going out with her, Michelle had a rough life. Her father was in jail and her mother was abusive and it drove Michelle to cutting herself. Steven tried to help her but she would yell at him and blame him for everything. Eventually Steven got fed up and dumped her. A week later, Steven found out Michelle committed suicide. He blamed himself, of course, for not staying with her and not trying harder to help her. After a while he stopped blaming himself but he never really got over it. It was part of the reason why he liked to help people earlier on in the story, and it even plays a small part in why he gets so attached to a woman he cares about (like Jennie). It's interesting to know this and see that, in the chapter where Steven decides to kill Dez, he does it savagely, saying it's for her own greater good, and making her commit suicide. This is one of the many signs showing that Steven went through a change since the beginning of the story when he wanted to help her with her problems.
When Steven recieved the Death Note, he couldn't believe what he had in his hands. In fact, he bluntly refused to think it was real. But curiosity had gotten that best of him. He felt like he needed to test it out and find out once and for all. So the first person he killed, Ashley Peters, a senior in his sixth period math class, died after he wrote her name in it. If you've read the story, you already know this. What you don't know is that even though Steven was slightly suspicious of her knowing it was him, the truth was Ashley didn't have a clue and Steven was just paranoid. So Ashley died for nothing, though in a way, if she hadn't died, Steven never would've believed the Death Note to be real and this whole story never would've happened so maybe she did die for something after-all. That brings me to my next point. There are a few themes in this story and one of the on-going ones is that everything that happens, happens for a reason. Think about that if you ever do decide to go through the chapters again after you've read this story. It'll make you wonder what could've possibly happened if something, such as, if Jennie never bumped into Steven during the hallway, the whole love thing never would have happened and Steven never would've gone to the picnic and chances are the finale would've been very anticlimactic. Or you think about how if Steven had been a better friend, Zito never would've gotten suspicious and tried to get information out of Andrew and Steven never would've had to kill him in order to defeat Andrew and Katlynn never would've faked her death and, once again, the finale wouldn't have been as climactic as it did. Actually, a lot of what happened in the last few chapters happened due to everything that had been set up perfectly in the previous chapters. Redman. The Genocide. The picnic planning being delayed. Dez dying causing Luke to becoming depressed definately affects the outcome of some of the things that happened in the finale and will carry on into the sequel.
Another ongoing theme that I liked in this story was karma. Steven betrayed Jennie to Mr. Redman and then the Genocide happens and Jennie seemingly forgets about him. Steven kills Andrew and Katlynn gets her revenge by causing the Genocide and making Steven feel miserable. Everything that goes around comes around (I hate that saying because my mom always use to say that to me) is definately something that comes into play a few times in this story and I enjoyed doing so. Phylisophical stuff like that always makes me happy, especially if I manage to pull it off right and I think I managed to do so pretty well.
There is one, small but interesting fact about Steven that was never addressed in the story, at least not directly--He is cynically depressed. Always has been. Of course, he refuses to let anyone know about it. He used to take anti-depressants but soon Steven became mental able to control his depression so that it didn't constantly control his life. However, there were a few times in the story where it got to him and he let his emotions control his actions. Some could argue it's because he's still a teenager and no teenager is a master of their emotions but that is not the case. If Steven wasn't so easily triggered, he would be a master of his emotions. When things get out of hand and everything seems to fall apart, Steven will succumb to tears, as you saw at the end of the Genocide. And why am I calling it a Genocide? By definition, a Genocide is a deliberate act of destruction against an ethical, religious, racial, or national group and a school wouldn't exactly be one of those four things. However, the murder itself on Hazen was deliberate and successful to boot. It was a mass murder of students and teachers, not a specific group of race or religion. Katlynn targeted the school as a whole because she knew that it was being monitered by the government (thanks to Ryoku) and she knew that if she wiped out 80 percent of the school's populace then the survivors would definately be targeted as prime suspects and this action will carry on into the sequel. The "Genocide" triggered future events that will have great importance later on. Another example of everything happens for a reason.
Steven's progression through the story was a dark one. In the beginning he wasn't sure if he wanted to use the Death Note but decided that the world was a dark one that needed to be enlightened and that he could be the one to do it. To make it great--his utopia. He never really did have a successful life. Very few friends. Never accomplished or won anything. With the death note he could change all of that. But does that make him greedy? In a way, yes. In the beginning of the story, he never would've sacrificed his friends for the "Greater Good" as he calls it. But towards he end, he killed Zito just to get to Andrew and he killed Dez because she was living a troubled life. And he didn't feel remorse for what he did. Does that make Steven the protagonist or the antagonist? Truth is, in this story there is no protagonist or antagonist, not really.
Now I would like to talk about the Steve/Jennie relationship that went on throughout the story. As I told you, Steven was progressing slowly into darkness (killing friends, betraying, lying) in order to succeed in creating his "Greatest Good world" or "Utopia". And then Jennie was introduced and Steven felt something he'd never felt for someone before. Love. Jennie was Steven's light and possibly on chance of bringing him out of this darkness because she was literally the only person Steven would never kill in order to succeed with the Death Note. He even states (in his thoughts) that the Death Note came second only to her. And like I said earlier, karma plays a part in this story heavily. When he finally goes on that picnic with Jennie, he finds that she had a boyfriend this whole time. And Steven is heartbroken. The end of any chance of redemption. Because he felt so strongly for her and to have it taken away so forcefully, he killed her boyfriend and broke her heart. This was Steven's fall into the abyss. And he realized that what Zando had said was true. The whole story Steven was building up to this moment where he would have to chose between being the Death Note's master or loving Jennie and he knew in the end he couldn't have both. He felt guilty, yes, but you could also say that Steven has become much more of a villain than a hero, despite what he believes. He even murdered Katlynn out of anger and desperation without a second thought.
That was the basic phylosophy throughout the story and I hope you all enjoyed it. Now for some more in depth about some of the characters, in case you missed it.
Luke Bardsley: Steven's best friend. Dropped out of school because he didn't pay attention in any of his classes and deemed them as "not worthy" of his time. His intellegence is much higher than most kids his age and it could be argued that he may be even more adaptable to surprising situations than Steve is. He has severe ADHD and OCD problems which is both a good and bad thing for him. He's able to be super creative because of this, only when he goes into his trances he doesn't pay attention to what's going on around him and is therefor vulnerable. He is a mormon though he hardly is very religious (unlike the rest of his family). He goes to church but doesn't pay any attention because it's all things he's already thought over in his mind during his OCD spasms.
Joshua Zito (Deceased): Steven's other best friend. Not the brightest individual and is prone to be a follower when with his group of friends and will sometimes copy other people's traits. He trys his best, in a way, to fit in and doesn't realize that if he was just himself he wouldn't need to do so. In the end, he was a perfect tool for Steven to use. But there is a reason behind this. When Zito was younger, he was abused by his mom and even though he's happy living with his dad, his dad can be very unreasonable with his punishments and will sometimes push Zito around. He didn't grow up easy and therefor has a problem adapting to social situations with others. He was known as the jackass of the group, as you may have noticed, for his immature opinions involving girls, politics, etc.
Andrew Craddock (Deceased) : Steven's rival in the beginning. Andrew grew up just like Zito with an abusive mother. Only difference was that Andrew had no male role model because his dad had abandoned them. He has a sadistic mind and when he was younger, went out with Catheryne Baker for a while, making her think that she loved him before he dumped her and went out with Katlynn instead. Katlynn is three years younger than him and after dating her for a year, he dumped her to go back out with Baker (who was still in love with him and accepted) and they dated for a while before he dumped HER for Katlynn (who accepted because she thought that she still loved him too) In the end he is good and persuading girls to love him so he could use them in the end for sex. He tried to use this power on Steven, but Steven was too smart and in the end, Andrew was killed.
Katlynn Howser (Deceased) : A sophomore at Hazen High School. She dated Andrew when she was a freshman but was dumped by him at the end of the year so he could go after Catheryne Baker. Because of this, Katlynn had a grudge against her and blamed her for breaking them up. When Andrew dumped Baker and asked Katlynn out again that summer, she humbly accepted because she truly believed that they were soul mates and that she was in love with him. She isn't to fond of Andrew's friends except for Steven. They were somewhat close buddies for a while until he got a Death Note and the battle between him and her boyfriend began. It's sad to look at the beginning of the story when Steven was actually concerned about Katlynn's well being--And then looking at the end of the story when he ends up killing her with his bare hands.
Jacob Allen: A good friend of Steven's. There is a constant joke between the group of friends at school who say that Jacob has "Murder Tourret Syndrome" because of his love for fighting. Jacob is easily the strongest (and nerdiest) of the group. His likes include Nintendo, Martial Arts, and perverted jokes. Which is ironic because whenever he's faced with a lady he becomes quite the gentleman.
Cameron Ball: A quiet one in the group. He and his twin, Bryce, used to be neighbors of Luke's but when they went to Hazen they had to move halfway across the city. He is the same age as Katlynn and has a very pessimistic outlook on life. He also has a tendancy to be the barer of bad news and reports to the rest of the group whenever something bad happens.
Catheryne Baker: "Baker" is what the group calls her, much like how they called Joshua Zito "Zito". She became friends with Steven in their junior year and when she went out with Andrew, Steven had tried to look out for her and tell her that she was making a mistake but she didn't listen and in the end was hurt by Andrew. It is because of this, that Steven's hatred for him began. He considers Baker like the little sister he wish he had (instead of the bitchy, annoying one he does have, Amanda).
Jennie Kofford: A popular, attractive girl that goes to Hazen. She met Ben at the end of her sophmore year and soon the two became lovers. Ben, despite his age, was the perfect man for her and soon she fell for him. She had a rough life growing up, with five syblings and a single mother looking after them. Unlike Cameron Ball, she has a very optimistic outlook on life and believes that everyone deserves forgivness. She's a Mormon and, like Luke, doesn't always follow their strict beliefs and will occassionally skip out on church and let loose and curse or two. She was essentially the perfect girl for Steven and she caught his eye without meaning to. And unknown to Steve, she is suspicious of his feelings toward her. It is unclear the future holds for the two of them at the moment.
Henrick D. Redman: A Government official with a mysterious past. I can't tell you too much about him yet. But as you saw at the end of the story, he is working under the orders of the four young boys he calls "The Fates". He interogated Steven when he went on his mission to search Hazen High School for suspects of Kira. He never truly suspected Jennie of being Kira and used this as a tactic to try and draw out Steven and get him to admit that he was Kira. But after talking to him a few times, he now believes that there isn't a chance that he can be the Kira they're after. In the end, he remains fooled. But for how long? At the end of the story, he brought up the idea to the Fates that they could use Steven to help them investigate Kira further.
The Fates: F, A, T, E. Those are their code names. Remind you of someone?
Zando: The Shinigami criminal behind the whole story. He dropped his Death Note on the earth for Steven to find and when he did, he came to him and told him everything. At the beginning of the story, Zando wasn't sure if he could trust Steven to uphold the powers that the Death Note carried and didn't want to offer him any help. But the more they spent time together, the more Zando grew to become friends with him and soon he was helping him defeat Andrew by spying on him. He was a criminal for his radical beliefs of changing the "Boring" human and Shinigami worlds. He was hunted and taken down by his old friend, Ryoku, and was taken into the sky where his current fate lies unknown to the rest of the world...
Ryoku the Hunter: Ryoku reasearched humans extensively before getting his Death Note and later he became a Hunter because of all the knowledge he had stored up in his head. Because of this, he is able to understand humans a lot more than any other Death God can, and would offer advice to Andrew and Katlynn whenever he was alone with them. It is a mystery as to whether or not the Hunter feels love toward Katlynn or not, but it is stated by Zando that all of the Shinigami in Ryoku's blood line had the curse of falling for a human at one point in their past.
Those are all the main characters that had a role in this story. I would make sub character profiles but I don't care about those people so I won't. And I hope you read this and if you enjoyed the story overall, that you learned a thing or two from this and maybe you'll go back and read it again someday with a new light on what was going down. The sequel won't be up for quite a while because I'm currently writing other stories at the moment but I promise you there will be a sequel.
I had fun writing this story and I hope you had fun reading it. I know it's nothing like the original but I wanted to make something of the same concept on my own and I did. So yeah. I'm not good at awinspiring conclusions to these kinds of things sooo...
May the force be with you!
P.S. I didn't spell check this thing so if there's spelling mistakes (which I undoubtablly believe there must be) then don't hate on me for it please.