A/N: Infiltration chapter! Celebrations~ I bet you're all terrified for Light. Unless you hate him, and are currently drooling in anticipation. XD

I'm really tired today. That is all. :)

Thanks to all the lovely people who reviewed and stuff:

Pinjaoncrack

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and Grell-lover-4ever! I love yous all. X3

Disclaimer: Fate never decided to be nice enough to land Death Note in my hands, I'm afraid. Bitch.

Chapter 19: Deception

Light would have been lying if he'd said he wasn't nervous as he stood just inside the threshold of the SPK headquarters. He was due to return to the Palm safehouse very shortly, and this time, he would be driving alone. Light was just thankful the English drove on the left side of the road as well. L had gotten him a slightly illegal licence early on in their (then non-existent) relationship, and Light had never imagined he'd have to use it before he left the psychologist's custody, let alone for something like this.

He was dressed in inconspicuous, drab clothes that made him itch for a crisp shirt, but he ignored it in favour of worrying about other matters. For example, his pending imprisonment and most likely torture.

Trying to calm himself (and failing, which did not bode well for his recently-ingested tracking device), Light turned to L, who was standing in front of him, looking for all the world as if he wasn't concerned about Light at all. The man always had been an excellent actor.

"What is it, Light-kun?" L asked upon noticing Light's gaze, which was trained intently on the psychologist's face.

Light hesitated, then sighed. "Nothing," he muttered.

L looked mildly curious, but didn't protest when Light refused to elaborate.

Matt hurried into the lobby then, closely followed by Mello, who was looking rather more tired than he should have been, considering he was going to be invading an extremely well-guarded gang prison that night.

"Light!" the redhead called, hastening over to them, "I thought you'd left!"

Light shook his head, smiling ruefully. "I'd rather not leave at all, if I'm completely honest with myself."

Mello rolled his eyes. "Don't give us that," he said scathingly, but not overly-harshly, "You're the one that came up with the idea in the first place."

"That's true." Light smiled at the blond, who didn't return it, but didn't full-out glare either. It seemed progress had been made.

Matt pulled Light into a firm hug, surprising the brunet, but not in an unpleasant way. He returned the embrace whole-heartedly, suddenly overwhelmed with gratitude for Matt's patience and understanding during his turbulent period.

They broke apart after a few seconds, and Mello immediately moved in to stand slightly in front of Matt. His eyes practically shouted 'mine!'. Light chuckled slightly, amused by Mello's over-protectiveness and thankful that Matt had finally found someone to be happy with.

L embraced him then, again shocking Light, but lessening the load on the youth's heart. They hugged for quite a while, neither particularly willing to let go, and while Matt and Mello didn't appear to be especially surprised, they did snicker loudly, making Light's face heat up with embarrassment.

Eventually, L let him go, and with a whispered 'Be safe, Light-kun,' Light was out the door and alone in the cold winter air.

Light's knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel, and it took quite an effort to pry his hands open. He had arrived at the double-yellow-lined parking spot he and Rester had used the day before, but was much too terrified to even think about getting out.

For the umpteenth time, he wondered exactly what had made him suggest this mission in the first place. True, it was pretty much their only choice, and true, he had been sick of being an optional extra, but seriously...

Light shook his head. It was silly to argue with himself in this way. He had decided to do this, and he would do it. He even still wanted to do it, despite being completely petrified. He had to do all he could to help those children who'd had their childhood brutally ripped away from them, much like his own had been.

Steeling himself and taking a deep breath, Light got out of the car.

He remembered the way to the old warehouse without a problem, though his footsteps were slow and hesitant as he gradually drew closer and closer. Inevitably, the foreboding building appeared as he turned the corner, and Light had to don his metaphorical mask again. Looking like a scared kid would be more hindrance than help in this instance.

Reaching the building, he kept an eye out for the watchman that was bound to be on duty tonight. Sure enough, his way was soon blocked by a surprisingly short person carrying a pistol and what looked horribly like a sheathed machete. Light gulped.

The man was stocky, and smelt strongly of garlic. "What's yer business 'ere?" he demanded testily, nearly knocking Light out with the pungent stench of his breath.

"Uh..." Light started, not completely sure whether to stick with his story from the night before.

Luckily, or possibly not, the man saved him from this dilemma. "Wait a sec. Asian, brown hair, thick...yer that kid Dee caught wanderin' around last night, ain't ya?"

Concealing his annoyance at being called stupid, Light adopted his best deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression. He froze for the perfect amount of time before wheeling around and making a break for it.

He got about two metres away before he was hit very hard in the head with what felt horribly like the sheathed machete. He slammed into the ground, winded and stunned, and was promptly kicked in the stomach by the stocky man.

"Oi!" his assailant yelled, "I've got that kid from before!"

Light was vaguely aware of being hauled off his feet and dragged inside by at least three burly men that seemed completely unnecessary, taking into account Light's state.

They came to a halt and the world span for a bit before Light crumpled to his knees. If this was what a concussion felt like, he wasn't enjoying it.

"This the kid, Dee?" a voice asked.

The face of the woman from the night before suddenly loomed into view, inches from his own. Light tried not to flinch away from the strong reek of tobacco.

"Yep, this's the fucker. Had some kind of bodyguard last night, armed an' all. You'd better check it out, see if he ain't there again."

"Who says you give orders 'round here?" Light recognised the voice of the stocky man and noted with relief that his brain seemed to be coming back into function.

"No one, Mick, but you might wanna follow 'em anyway. Or do you wanna be responsible for us being raided by some group of dickheads after this kid?"

Grumbling, Mick shuffled off.

"Right, then." The woman called Dee grabbed a handful of Light's hair and jerked his head back to face her. "Who are you and what the fuck are you doing here? And don't even try giving me that bull from yesterday; you ain't no fucking tourist."

Light didn't bother to say anything, and committed himself to becoming the most infuriatingly uncooperative torture victim the underworld had ever seen.

The woman's eyes narrowed. "We have some people here that can speak Chinese, y'know. Or Japanese, Korean, whatever." Evidently she couldn't tell the difference between Asian nationalities. Ignorant bitch, Light thought uncharitably.

"I speak English," he said aloud, keeping his voice aloof and disguising his accent as much as possible, so as to be as irritating as possible.

"Why am I not surprised?" Dee growled, looking irate. Evidently his holier-than-thou persona rubbed her up in exactly the wrong.

Light had to suppress a smirk. Being killed now would not be helpful.

"Well, seeing as you don't 'ave an excuse not to answer now, let's ask again, shall we? What're you doing here?" she demanded, grasping his collar.

"That's confidential," Light informed her, earning himself a stinging slap across the face.

"Try that again and you'll get much worse," the woman hissed, her hand ready to hit him again. "But fine, we'll leave that 'til later. Who are you?"

"Inoue Kyosuke," Light lied easily, using common names that would be almost impossible to trace, especially if certain ignorant Westerners assumed the family name always came last.

"Right." Light had to admit he may have misjudged the woman slightly; she seemed intelligent enough to suspect he was lying. "So who do you work for?"

"No one." Not exactly a lie, but delivered in a way that made it seem completely false.

Another slap, this time on the other cheek.

"Who do you work for?" she asked again, more threateningly.

"Nobody," he repeated, and this time he got a fully-fledged punch in the mouth.

Spitting blood, he heard one of the men behind him say, "Careful, Dee, we're gonna want this one to be able to talk."

"Maybe it'd be best to hand him over to Damiano," another suggested. "He's better at getting people to spill."

Dee shot a disparaging look over Light's shoulder, presumably at the owner of the second voice. "Sure, and 'ave him a gibbering wreck by the end of the hour – that's really what we want. Nah, we'll wait for a bit; maybe he'll crack over time. How's a few weeks without food sound, huh, Chink?" The last sentence was directed at Light, who didn't bother to tell her he wasn't Chinese.

During his silence, Dee seemed to make up her mind. "Right, well that settles it, then. Chuck him in with the rest of the brats, but don't give him any of the Big O. We want him conscious for this." Her voice was gleefully sadistic, and despite himself, a shiver ran down Light's spine.

This seemed to please the woman, as she grinned evilly and hauled him to his feet with alarming strength. She shoved him roughly over to one of the men, who caught him before he hit the ground.

"Drive him to the clink. And remember to do it as violently as possible," she said.

The man holding him snickered unpleasantly. Light didn't like the sound of it, but was glad he was getting out of Dee's clutches so quickly, and relatively uninjured.

The guy effectively kicked Light out of the building, a couple of times pushing him so impatiently Light feel to the ground. He felt his ankle twist and winced.

When they reached the back of the safehouse, Light caught a brief glimpse of a nondescript car with tinted windows before a blindfold was tied painfully tightly over his eyes.

"Don't even think of takin' it off, else I'll cuff you as well," the man warned, opening the car door and shoving Light inside. The youth heard his footsteps walking around the car to the driver's door, through which he got into the seat next to Light.

The drive was silent, and though Light tried to keep track of how many lefts and rights they were taking, he soon got so confused he gave up. He detested being blindfolded, but the threat of being handcuffed as well kept him from trying to untie the black cloth.

Eventually, they stopped, and the man got out of the car, promptly hauling Light out as well. He was lead quickly, limping, through a series of corridors, and then the blindfold was off and Light could see everything in front of him.

He was in a room packed full of children. Except they were really more shells than humans; their eyes were blank, and some of them rocked slowly on their haunches, while others sat so still Light couldn't be sure whether they were alive or not. None of them looked at Light as he was shoved through the entrance.

The man, who Light realised was carrying a bag he hadn't noticed before, followed him in. He then impatiently ripped Light's jacket and T-shirt off, then his trainers, socks and trousers, paying no heed to Light's attempts to stop him. He chucked a filthy pair of what looked like pyjamas at his head, told him to 'get dressed if he knew what was good him', and left, slamming the door behind him.

Light pulled the hideous-smelling garments on gingerly, then turned to the child nearest to him: a girl of about fifteen.

"Hello?"

No answer. She didn't even react.

He tapped her shoulder lightly. Nothing.

Desperate, Light pushed her harder, and she toppled over onto her side. Light felt bad for a second before he realised she had finally seemed to notice his presence.

"Can you understand me?" he asked, speaking clearly.

She did not answer, only sitting up again and beginning to rock back and forth. It put Light on edge. He gave up and tried another child, this one appearing slightly older.

"Hello? Can you hear me?"

He tried child after child, but drew a reaction out of none of them. Eventually he gave up, resisting the urge to vomit at what had been done to these children. He curled up in a corner, facing the wall so as not to have to look at the horrifically blank faces of his cellmates.

He wished the rescue team would hurry the hell up.

A/N: Wow, happiness abundance there. XD At least Light's not dead yet, though, right?

It's the real action chapter next week, and after that the tinily (is that a word) short epilogue. Looking forward to seeing you there!