Chapter 35

"Here's your jam," Kat muttered, handing the jar to him, turning around listlessly when she saw his eyes open up extremely wide. Though he was not specifically against them right now, she could not deny (K explained what it meant) that he still held the aura of "Psychopathic Homicidal Murderer."

"Thank you," By the time he said this however, he had gulped down the majority of the jar's contents.

"Slow down, Beyond, I did not bring another one with me, the rest are on the jet…" She muttered, wrinkling her nose up. Why had she chosen him again?

Because Near, Mello and Matt are "under-qualified" and too young to be embarking on such a journey, not to mention having the knowledge that one of their idols is set to die. Plus, none of them possess the sheer brutality that Beyond has, not to mention that he is just about as smart as L or us. K said offhandedly, no matter how much time went; the tenor of despondency was still woven within her voice.

I am aware…Kat muttered mentally, not at all liking the fact that she was the only one keeping her composure…even if they called it "denial."

"We should get onto the jet: China is only about an hour or two away from here…" She said, averting her eyes from his form. She assumed that was the case. Lawliet was usually the one punching in the coordinates, not her. So typically, he had figured a way to type them in while he was no where near them (albeit, with consent from the genius inventor that was Quillish Wammy). It truly baffled her, the things he would come up with. "You are never satisfied with the present technology," She had once said, amused. He of course retorted with something equally arcane to her at the time. "I am never satisfied with present technology, so I seek refuge in the future…"

The memory left a bittersweet taste in her mouth. Shaking her head, she climbed the steps that led into the jet, waiting by the door for BB to climb in so that she could press the code that would cause the aircraft to send a signal to headquarters and inform Lawliet to press in the next set of coordinates. She moved her body so that he could not see the numbers she put in…

She was so naïve…not to mention an ignorant moron. Even back then, when they were seventeen, when she had questioned who was the more intelligent creature out of Lawliet and herself… How could she have even compared herself to him? She could not even discern the hidden meanings behind his words…

When he had said "I seek refuge in the future" he had meant that he would wait for the future, hopefully wishing that both K and L would not be needed when it came…and, (she was still debating the probability of the next one) he was waiting for something big to happen in the upcoming years.

The only outcome she could compute was that, even when they were teenagers, at the hormonal age of seventeen; L Lawliet knew that he wanted to be with her, and had discreetly told her that he had fancied her…

She shook her head furiously. No! I can't get all depressed now! I have to be tough and angered in front of these ignoramuses!

Maybe I should take over kid, before you start bawling like a little new born. K said, trying to be helpful. It was one of the only times that she would not be sarcastic, for she knew that the situation was grave and they needed to treat it with severe somberness.

"Beyond," She called, turning around to a small compartment that was hidden in the jets cabin. I think Lawliet just loves putting hidden compartments in everything he gets his hands on.

"…Yes…?" He answered, red eyes turning onto her form. Something of a dull red color came hurtling at him through the air.

"You can use it if and only if you see me actually getting into a violent fight with the people we are about to meet." She murmured, watching as he unsheathed the shiny dagger.

Beyond paused for only a second.

He did not know this woman well, not at all.

He had seen a few glimpses of her in the orphanage, perhaps while playing one of those games with Suture…

He could only assume from her reputation, the following deduction. "I suppose this meeting we are to have is not expected to be a social one, correct? And judging by the way you give me the weapon and were glaring out the window only seconds before, you most have a personal vendetta against those whom we are about to visit…" He said, wiping his sticky hands on his pants before shoving the weapon into the confines of his jeans.

She heaved a sigh, shoulders slouching just a tad. "No. Not at all. So please prepare yourself."

-

They were not supposed to be like this! They were once prestigious people of society! They had once lived with the security that no one would find them; that they were the smartest there was! But then one of their own experiments becomes their downfall!

To anyone else, the scene that was a bunch of middle aged and elderly people shackled, cuffed and with electric shock collars would look inhumane and cruel. Galant people would most likely be outraged and go off, determined to free them all…

That is, if you could get passed the armed guards.

Some were confused as to why they were all standing there as a jet landed in front of them, others (the older ones) had a perfectly practical theory, while others just whined about the cold. However, as soon as the door to the unmarked aircraft opened, they all waited with bated breath for whoever was to come out of it.

And when they did see the porcelain skin, the emerald eyes narrowed into a glare unbefitting of the feminine features, and the feline aesthetics; a handful nearly had an anxiety attack, the majority spit the ground she walked on and a handful seemed to swell up in pride.

The man, conversely, that followed her, they were completely befuddled as to who he was.

"I see you remember me…." Muttered the feline woman, eyes closing, hands moving to put the thumbs in the pockets, revealing her bandages and sweat pants, previously hidden behind her parka. "But I am afraid that I am not here to discuss the weather over tea…"

Of course she wasn't! What did she take them for; fools?!

"Perhaps we should move inside the facility, that way my jam won't freeze…" The odd man muttered, walking briskly towards the hulking building, but stopped once he saw the electronic number pad.

"You don't expect me to be so reckless, do you Rue Ryuzaki? That would be completely out of character for me…" She murmured, opening her eyes to glance at her creators before falling to all fours and slinking her way over to Beyond, punching in another long sequence of numbers, and watching blankly as the doors opened. "Guards, you are dismissed. I can handle a bunch of elderly…" She commanded, authority and the hubris that was typically associated with K rumbling through her voice.

They all nodded, retreating into the forests of the Chinese facility. Who were they to even think a word against someone with such a harsh record of violence… she was not as gory as some mafia bosses or psychos, but she was not as lenient as the law enforcement….she fit in the middle somehow…

-

A small form slipped into the investigation room, under the nose of all but the raven haired detective, whose mood was nearing cataclysmic, to the ignorance of all but Light.

"I see you made it here, S." He said, grinding his nail against his teeth.

Her eyes opened real wide. "Of course I did, L. It would not have seemed all too polite if I failed to arrive…." She said, her normal voice slipping into an emotionless drawl. It was a sort of habit of all that came from Wammy's. Master the emotionless façade, the polite sarcasm and be a mastermind at creating aliases because no one but yourself could be trusted.

"You could not have come at a more convenient time; one of our members has been captured and is under suspicion of being a spy…"

What would have been the task force, had they not all quit the police, turned to gape at the woman standing at the door. They would have blinked, gaped and yelled profanity that L had lied to them had their not been significant differences…

For the girl standing at the door bore a striking resemblance to the absent cat girl. Had it not been for the fact that the pupils of her contacts were not slit, and her….movements were not so human. The cat girt usually moved with grace and a huntress like quality that was likely to be rare. But, had they not known prior that Kokoro was off somewhere out of the country, then they most likely would have turned around to their first thought, and questioned Ryuuzaki as to whether or not K had a twin that helped her out.

S was wearing a singlet with some baggy sweat pants, emulating the woman she had seen a while ago.

L had half a mind to ask how both her and Beyond had that uncanny habit of doing it but restrained himself, focusing on the task at hand. "Yagami-san, Light-kun, Mogi-san, I'd like to introduce you to S. But, for safety reasons, she will be addressed as Nuime…"

The newly christened Nuime nodded towards the task force, reaching up to play with a loose curl that simply had refused to be straightened when she went after it with her hot iron; "Not to be hasty, but I do believe that we have more pressing matters then simple pleasantries…however, pleasure to meet you, nonetheless."

L refrained from chuckling. Suture was trying to hard. Though she had successfully managed to copy the tenor and tone of Kat's voice (he planned to confront her about copying people's identity later) he saw the subtle differences. Yet he felt that was a given, since he had been around the woman known as K nearly all his life. The fact that Suture had a small curl in front of her face and the amount of thought she put behind her words would have been enough for him to have claimed she was an imposter.

"Right, now back to the task at hand… Matsuda is currently up in Misa's 'apartment' with the rest of the models, Nuime will simply have to come and help Light-kun and myself with the rest seeing as she studied medicine at some point, correct?"

"Yes."

-

"Now, how are we going to go about this?" The self appointed leader of the scientists said with the utmost apathy.

Kat turned to her, eyes flashing between emotions. Beyond merely stayed, turning the knife in his pocket, examining it with his hands where no one could see him do so.

"Do not treat this as you are doing." Biting, no more the slightly mocking tone she had held outside, to make sure that no other human witnessed her severity.

"I believe I do not comprehend." Replied the woman; she was a gaunt woman, gray speckling her ebony locks, skin pulled tight over her cheek bones giving her a pinched look.

"I do not know the emotion, but I know that I do not like it. You are treating this with no emotion! At least feel some pity for the creature that you created!" K spat, twisting around so fast she was a blur to the human eye.

"Then what is the problem we are to advise you on?" It was blatant, and a dull question at that, conversely, K acquiesced. She knew they would remain fighting till the day her death was assigned if she did not otherwise conform with the façade of the scientists and keep a reserved tone.

"My death." Beyond's eyes widened a fraction. He had not told her that they were here to negotiate her death, talk about her death or anything like that! "I came because not even the finest doctors, scientists or chemists would be able to accurately try to put off my death with out prior knowledge to what I am, adding to that, the chances of them exposing me and turning me in to be dissected like some common pest dissuaded me from it as well." She made sure to shoot down any arrogance that she might have created with her facts.

"That seems to be a pressing matter indeed, but what will we receive should we agree?" Asked the scientists, her eyes narrowing.

K's own eyes narrowed. "You get freedom," She paused, almost as if letting the words sink in. "There will be restrictions, but I will allow you to run health checks on any other of my kind that are out there. But, you are absolutely forbidden from creating more of my kind. Now, shall Rue and I start unchaining you in agreement? Or should I just sentence you to death and cope with the fact that my death is inevitable?" She asked coldly.

The scientists turned her head, and K's green eyes flickered over the small nods of the others as she stared them down. The woman turned to her. "We agree, my name is Xao Nuo; now unchain us."

A twitch on K's side; the hell were they to command her? She tossed a set of keys to Beyond. "Feel free to hurt them if they provoke you, Rue, she muttered, setting off to start unchaining the people, muttering something about 'scientific degenerates thinking they rule the world.'

Beyond nodded, silently taking all the heavy metal chains off of the scientists. His eyes glanced above every person's head as he freed them from their binds, eyes scrunching together when he found that some of them were destined to die not even a month from now. He new their names before they even uttered them, so he had no reason to introduce himself for he had all the information he needed.

He spared K a glance, his eyes drifting above her head, in between the two feline ears. The name would switch every now and again…and when he glanced at her eyes and face, he would see the flash in her eyes and the expression changes, almost as if she was having a conversation. But the emotions varied too much for it to have been even a whispered conversation, her lips were not even moving so it was obviously a moot point. His eyes returned to the names: Kew Keikan, Eve K, Kitten Tomo, Kat Kokoro…never in his life of having shinigami eyes had he ever witnessed such a thing.

Well, once actually. But it was in a case where he met a child on the street, his eyes had an unusual iridescent quality and his movements were predator like as he weaved in between the bystanders of Los Angeles. It was during that case with Naomi Misora and L. He had just finished running away from the FBI agent after testing her fighting and as he ran he found a boy, with amber eyes and oddly dark gray hair in rags, stalking after a mouse with a stony face.

And as he ran he looked above the child's head at almost the same time the boy looked straight into his eyes and fled the scene.

The name above his head alternated from a combination of numbers and letters, to "Kai" and back to the numbers…he did not get a chance to see his life span before the child had run off though…

Chances were that that was one of the escaped of K's kind. It was not a far off thought; if all of the guards and scientists had been captured (which he doubted they could have apprehended all of them: there always was at least one leftover) then that would have given the experiments a chance to escape.

"All right," K muttered as she finished the last one off, dusting her hands off. "Now. How are we to go about this?"

"We must test. We do not know how far you have progressed or regressed. Therefore, we must make sure that all the predictions that were made decades ago were not invalid." One of them spoke up bravely when he saw that no one else felt at ease with being commanded by their creation.

"How much of a probability is there that the prediction that I am set to die on November 5th was miscalculated?" She asked, a small glimmer of hope in her voice.

"About three percent, your body will have not have changed as much, so that means that chances of our hypotheses being correct is almost a sure thing," He said, pushing his glasses up his nose.

She slipped into a slouch. "But there is still a three percent chance that it is wrong. I will be optimistic for a change. I will hope that you all were wrong, I will even go as far as foolishly think that I might live past November and see the December snow in London…" Because I love you, I am trying to prolong my life, because I want to keep loving you!!! Those words kept her going. She truly wanted to keep living, even if just a little bit. She wanted to see the Kira case end so that L might have a chance of loving her (and her him) without having a lingering task force on their tails.

"That is fine. I suppose we shall have to do some physical exams, followed by the usual mental stability and some psyche testing. What do you do in life, by the way?"

"I am agent K. I do suicide mission no one else would willingly take. I help out Detective L, Eraldo Coil and Deneuve…" She said, brushing her bangs out of her face, eye half lidded in a show of annoyance. Beyond noticed the sudden changed in her attitude, matching the name with the mood. This one was Eve K.

"And what case are you currently working on? Or mission?" Asked another.

"The Kira case." She said. "We have for nearly a year. There has been no progress. Beyond that I cannot say. Details are strictly confidential unless you are approved by both L and I that you are worth our trust and are not, in fact, Kira. So, seeing as L is not here, please do not ask me for details." A tape recorder. That is what she sounded like; the way she recited it, as if she had said it one too many times for her liking.

"I see. Are the labs in good condition for testing?"

Kat nodded. "Even if I was wary of it. Everything is in top shape. Please be aware that extra security cameras have been installed everywhere, so if anything is deemed suspicious, we will not hesitate to kill you. We would rather kill then ask questions."

And with that, she started off through the corridors, on the inside both Kat and Kitten shrank away from the hallways, flashes of horrific memories ready to flood her consciousness. But they suppressed it…they would have to confront their fears some day…not today, as to the reason why K and Kew were the ones that had taken wheel of the body to speak, they could stall for a while longer…

A/N: Okay people. I have miscalculated. I simply cannot find away to end this story in a chapter or two. It seems impossible seeing as my fingers are more in control than my mind. The story is coming easily with only a few road bumps. And frankly, my mind is still searching for a … nah. I say that word I'll ruin everything. This is a change from the depression that I violently threw you guys into, ne? And I have a question for you guys; did any catch onto the whole "No regrets" thing I put in when Kat confessed to L (that was L saying 'no regrets' not Kat)? And the fact that she woke up and had to keep the sheets around her chest? No? Okay. Then those who did not catch up are going to have a wake up call sooner or later. Sorry for the lateness by the way, I was being screamed at by my teachers, the whole "responsibilities and priorities" spiel that they seem to have memorized. I am working on some stuff for my other stories and this one. Well, Ja ne! My mother is kicking me off the computer! Oh! And my story is longer than a few of the Harry Potter books as of now. :D