L, Mello… and…
Take a wild guess.
Yes, alright, you've guessed it already. Near's here. It just wouldn't be the same if the Ghost of Christmas Future was anyone BUT him.
So, I'll stop my blathering and get on with it.
You'd better watch out…
Disclaimer: Look at the name of the site. It clearly says FANfiction. I think that goes to show that this stuff isn't originally mine.
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Past, Present, Future
Chapter Four: Future
The veil was lifted.
And before Light sat a small, pale, white-haired boy. Well… "boy" was the first assumption he made. In fact, it was very difficult to determine the person's true age: he was youthful in his overall appearance, and yet… his blank eyes, his deathly pallor, his mannerisms – all of these indicated someone much, much older.
"Mm," the person said, with the cracked, bored tones of someone who has only recently woken up, "I see. I was expecting him to look a little more impressive than this… but then again, appearances usually are deceptive. A fact I'm sure he's been relying on for quite some time." He nodded his head slowly, and twirled a piece of pure-white hair between his fingers.
As the strange person did so, something cold and metallic slipped around both of Light's wrists. There was a click, and the jangle of a chain.
Handcuffs. No smart remark, no emotional blackmail… whoever these people were, they meant business.
"We wouldn't want Kira to get any ideas, Commander Rester," the white-haired person croaked, staring at his own feet. "Do you think the handcuffs are enough?"
Light shivered. The handcuffs were cold, the room was cold, his reception was cold… and by the sounds of it, there was very little point in hoping that this feeling would be alleviated any time soon.
A ghostly vision, a kidnapping, a beating… and now this.
Even he had his limits.
"Wh-what's happening…?" he whimpered. "Who… Whe-where…?"
"Near – what do you propose we do with him?" said a voice from behind him, disregarding his presence almost completely. "Considering the current social climate, do you think we'll be able to turn him in to the police this easily? And if we expose him… Kira already has quite a lot of supporters – it might be difficult for us to…"
The white-haired person glared at a point above Light's head. It was not a pleasant glare. "Kira has three kinds of supporters: those that believe his actions are an act of divine judgement, those that are too afraid of stepping out of line to disagree with him, and people that want to have an excuse to carry out criminal acts 'in his name'. If we exposed him, the first type would realise that it wasn't an act of divine justice and therefore resent Kira; the second type would have no reason to fear any repercussions; and the third type wouldn't care at all. I hope that… clears up your query."
A tall, heavy-set man stepped into Light's point of view from behind him. This, he assumed, was the elusive 'Commander Rester': he looked like he was built – not born, actually built – for military services. However, underneath his matter-of-fact expression, Light could sense the embarrassment… and, oddly, a little fear within him. To imagine that such a heroic, brave-looking man was scared by the tiny white waif that sat in front of him would have been quite amusing… if it weren't so foreboding. The situation Light was in…
He could only sit, and watch, and wait in terror. For a man like Commander Rester to have such respect and fear for this person… It didn't even bear thinking about.
"… Still," said Rester, shuddering a little, "we need to be careful about how we deal with this. I imagine you have a plan, though."
"In a manner of speaking."
"Who…?" said Light, in vain. "Wh-what…?"
"What we do," said the pale man, "is wait. We sit, and watch, and wait."
There was a painful silence.
"… because… judging from the actions that Kira has taken," he continued, "… I would expect that the one thing he hates more than anything…" another agonising pause, "... isn't competition. It isn't the threat of being caught, or being defeated. The thing that motivates him to take his plans to such a grand scale… is…"
He trailed off.
…
And seconds stretched into years.
…
Light stayed still, trying not to feel the time trickling past… but as hard as he tried, the more he felt it. Precious minutes flew by, and still… with his hands bound behind him… He could do nothing to stop it.
He could do nothing.
…
Alone.
And even he had his limits.
Fear turned to sadness. Sadness turned to hatred. Hatred turned to rage. Light's nerves began to burn. The hairs on the back of his neck prickled. Logic melted away, and in its place the vicious, ruthless lust for action bubbled upwards.
It exploded.
"Just tell me what's going on!! Just tell me!! TELL ME!! TELL – ME!!! I deserve to know what's going on, I do not deserve this kind of treatment! I am Kira – I shouldn't be packed up in some car, or beaten, or chained up like this!! How dare you treat me this way! You can't do this to me!! You CANN…"
"… his impatience… and his desire to control a situation," the pale young man concluded. "Thank you for proving my point, Yagami. Now, Commander Rester, if you please – tell Gevanni to stop recording. We have what we need."
Light choked. "What?"
"Recording," the person said, as a strange, horrible little smile spread across his lips. "We needed definite evidence to present before we announced your sentence."
"Announced my… announced… My what?"
"Do I really have to repeat everything I say, Yagami?" he said, his smile broadening further. The line sounded familiar… "Your sentence. That is, the sentence you will be serving for murdering all those criminals, not to mention all the innocent individuals you've ruined the lives of, or killed because they were getting in the way of your plans."
"But… but…" Light stammered, "… I… You can't just say that because I said I was Kira… that I really was… I mean… You can't base your case on me saying that I'm Kira. Because… I mean… So many other people have said they were Kira, I didn't say that I killed anyone, or give you any other evidence… I… I just…"
"Hmm… I suppose you are right about that. We can't just base all this on word of mouth," the pale young man said, "… In order to convince a court of law, we would either have to have a confession from you saying that you had killed all of these people… or physical evidence. Like the Death Note we seized from your room this afternoon, when Miss Amane went out."
The world froze.
And shattered.
"But… you… You took… But that's breaking and entering! You can't do that, you're trying to enforce the law, aren't you?!" Light shrieked.
"Technically, we are. But technically, so are you. And you murder people. That's much worse than breaking and entering."
"Nn… But… You stole… Even…"
"We stole a book. We didn't steal lives."
"… But… but it's MINE," Light screamed. "MINE!! YOU CAN'T TAKE THE DEATH NOTE AWAY FROM ME!! I'M USING IT TO HELP THE WORLD!! You're… You're… YOU'RE THE CRIMINAL HERE!! You're letting all those idiots live, you want to pollute the world with evil, and I'm… I AM JUSTICE!!"
"… Again, thank you for helping us, Yagami," the pale young man smiled. "Now we can really stop recording."
Light's jaw dropped.
"Oh, you didn't think that we'd finish before we actually got you to admit to everything, did you? Now we have you on record, telling the world that you owned a Death Note. Of course, we haven't really entered your house and taken your Death Note – I said that to see how you would react. And now that we have sufficient evidence to get a search warrant…"
Light stared on. "… No," he gulped. "No, no, you can't. No… this isn't… you haven't… no…"
"There really is no point in worrying about it now," the white-haired man said, without feeling. "It's over. You've lost."
"But I can't lose…"
"Everybody loses. It's just a matter of when."
"But…"
"No buts. No arguments." The heavy hand of Commander Rester landed on his shoulder. "You've lost."
He could feel a familiar grip tighten around the back of his collar. "You've lost," said M.
And, through the corner of his eye, something pearlescent and ghostlike shimmered. An icy hand oozed onto his other shoulder. "You've lost," said L.
He had lost.
Kira had lost.
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Author's Note: Yeah, okay, a little depressing there… I mean, what a downer to the story. And it's CHRISTMAS. I mean, I really should have put more effort into making this happy, shouldn't I?
Oh, wait, what's that? One more chapter?
Okay then. XP