Author's Note: Whoa, here we go again! Excited? The third instalment to 'Chocolate and Bubblegum.' Whoop, whoop :D The sequel! The final chapter (per say)! Here it is! This WILL be the last Fic I write for this series, so I hope you guys enjoy it! In my own opinion this one is going to be pretty intense! The time line for this is less than one month long, just over three weeks, that's it! Don't think I can get a whole lot in, in less than a month? Wrong! Just you wait! :D

...Just a side note: As it is, I wanted to have it a full four weeks for this story, but the dates were off somewhere in there, *shrugs.*

So, wholly this is a long chapter... Might have to do this one in a two part-er. Yeah, I think I just might do that ;P

Enjoy all :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it.

August 1, 2024. 1:00 PM... 23 Days Left.

"Jewel? Jewel are you with us?"

"Huh?" I looked up from the piece of paper I had been aimlessly doodling on. Eleven pairs of eyes were all trained on me, they were all waiting for some sort of response. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was listening." Not really...

"You've got to pay attention, this plan is crucial."

"Shut up Gevanni, I know what I'm doing," I snapped.

"Do you?" he asked, "'cause you've been zoning out this whole meeting." My lips curled back into a tiny snarl, I was losing my temper so easily these days, but I couldn't care less about that at the moment. Gevanni turned to Near and asked him, "Are you sure it's such a good idea to be sending her in on the front line? She's a loose cannon." I bared my glistening white teeth at Gevanni and then turned to face my brother, daring him with every ounce of my being to take me off the case.

"She's been trained for this, she'll be alright," Near stared straight at me as he answered Gevanni. He was daring me back; daring me to screw up the mission.

"It's your call Near," Gevanni relented. He knew as well as anybody else in the room that it was pointless to argue with my albino of a brother.

The room settled back down and chatter resumed. I didn't see the big deal in it all; it was just a standard operation. L wouldn't have even sullied his hands with this back in his day. L would've let the police take care of the mobs in the U.S. Near seemed to have a special interest in this particular mob though. I didn't know why, and I didn't really care why either.

After the disappearance of Kira all of eleven years ago, organized crime rates had gone through the roof and Near had more or less decided he would pick up the slack from what the police couldn't handle. I didn't really care either way what he did with his time; I had a job, I was making a living, that was all that mattered.

"If you screw up we all go down here! We're dealing with a bomb!"

I smashed my fist on the table in front of me, "We're always dealing with a bomb! Or, or a biowarfare weapon, or a killer Notebook, or something that's going to bring the world to an end. Get over it."

"Just because you're ready to die, doesn't mean the rest of us are."

"I'm not ready to die idiot; I'm just resigned to my fate."

"What's the difference?"

"If you think..."

"Excuse me," Near cut in at the head of the table, "if you two don't mind, would you mind taking your differences outside?" It wasn't a question, and Near had quite perceivably overemphasised the word 'differences.'

Gevanni and I both backed down and I went back to staring at my paper. Eleven years and I still couldn't get it right. Eleven years and I still couldn't draw what I wanted to see the most. I crumpled my paper quietly and glanced around the room.

Another office building in another city. They were all beginning to run together, they were all beginning to look the same. When I'd first signed on with Near I could pick out the subtle changes from building to building. I still could, there just wasn't much of a point to it I'd come to realise. I pushed my glasses further up the bridge of my nose and started picking non-existent threads from my clothing.

"There see! She's zoned out again!"

"I know what I'm supposed to do Gevanni," I called across the table without missing a beat. "I know my job. Now go do yours and leave me alone." Nobody else in the room was daring to speak up. Nobody else was going to question Gevanni's or my authority. Everybody else in the room was fairly new as far as it went; we had seniority on them, a lot of it. Sure they'd been here for years themselves, but Gevanni and I had been here from the beginning; we were the only originals left.

Halle had been killed by a stray bullet two years last April and the others who had worked with us on the Kira case had just decided they didn't like the pressure of working for the new L, or whatever else their reasons were. Maybe they had all ended up joining therapy groups.

I started chewing on my nail again, and realised that I didn't have any gum. I blamed my edginess on that - even though I knew that that wasn't the reason – and frantically searched my pockets but knew I wouldn't find anything sweet and bubbly to sooth my nerves.

"Alright, let's go over the plan one more time. This is going down tonight and we can't afford any mistakes." The room came to attention as a map of the city flashed up on the 72" monitor behind Near's head. "The deal is taking place at this warehouse at eight tonight," Near hit a couple buttons on the laptop in front of him and a glowing red circle appeared outside a small gray box on the map and the screen zoomed in. "It's a straight deal, a bomb for cash. Our objective is the bomb, not the money." Near waited to make sure he wasn't going too fast and everyone was paying attention. "We haven't been able to tap into any security at the warehouse and so we do not believe that there is any, however we will proceed with the utmost caution." Near turned his attention to me, "Jewel, you're going in first, we're sending you in at five so we can have eyes and ears in the place when the deal goes down."

I nodded, that was my mission. It was a stealth trip for me, but there was more. "It's your call if we go in or not. Yes, I'm going to be receiving the feeds, but you're going to be there. If anything seems off key, we walk away like it never happened. Got it?"

"Got it." I replied.

At four thirty I started getting ready. I curled my waist length silver braids into a bun at the back of my head. They'd get in the way if I wasn't careful; they were always getting caught in things as it was, but I couldn't bear to cut them. I slid out of my blue denim bellbottoms and slipped on my black, cotton cargos. I grabbed a pair of black ankle socks from my drawer and pulled my black steel toed boots from the closet. I replaced my baggy hoodie and black t-shirt with a tight black, ribbed muscle shirt. I pulled it long and low over my cargos. Finally I picked up my leather gloves from the top of my dresser. And then something caught my eye, something that WASN'T black; well, not anymore. I picked up the delicate, charcoal gray fabric and just held it for a second.

This wasn't healthy, I knew that. If nothing else I ought to put it away; deep in a shoe box, buried in the back of a closet or under a bed or in the attic. I should get myself a new scarf. I didn't even wear the one I was holding any more. Any rough handling would send it unravelling in a second.

I set the scarf back on the dresser with a sigh, and went back to my closet. I pulled off a hanger my zippered vest with the high collar. Unfolded, the top of the collar would come to rest right below the tip of my nose; perfect. I pulled a toque from a shelf to the side and used it to cover my silver hair. I was ready.

I adjusted my glasses; cracked my back, neck and shoulders, and stretched. It was time to go.

It took me less than fifteen minutes to make it to the building I was supposed to infiltrate. I stalked over to the warehouse and found the emergency ladder on the side of the building. It wasn't a full-on fire escape, just a tall, thick ladder. The bottom rung was maybe six or seven feet off the ground to discourage passersby or teenagers looking for a cheap thrill from climbing it. I took a running leap at it and easily caught the last rung. I clambered up the ladder and onto the roof.

There wasn't a door or a shed leading into the building, there weren't skylights waiting for me or a covered stairwell, there was just a little hatch in the ground. I curled my lips in annoyance. I'd had to deal with these many times before. There was probably going to be a padlock on the other side of the hatch to keep people just like me out, probably even an alarm system. Great.

I took each of my hands in the other, in turn, and cracked my knuckles. The whole system would be an annoyance, but nothing I couldn't deal with. I proved that without much difficulty.

Sixty seconds later I was inside the building.

I had to crawl down a step or two in order to make it onto a gridlock of I-beams crisscrossed along the whole length and width of the building. The iron girders were about six feet from the ceiling and about thirty from the floor. I tried not to think about my fear of heights as I steadily placed one foot in front of the other to make my way towards the center of the matrix. Hanging from the ceiling at five foot intervals were dome lights that came down about a half a foot below the I-beams.

An idea came to me then; if I were to position myself above the center of the room and right over top of one of the dome lights, I could see everything I needed too and be all but invisible at the same time. I remembered back to all the years of sports I used to play, particularly baseball. Whenever a fly ball was hit into the sun it would become untraceable until it fell out of the light. I would have the same effect in hiding behind one of the hanging lights. Anyone with enough sense to look up would get an eye full of light, and nothing else.

I skirted gingerly around the I-beams, trying to find the most optimal location to station myself. All my panning was based on the hope that both groups of people coming to make the exchange would meet in the center of the building. There were hundreds of boxes and crates piled high against each wall of the warehouse, so in theory the middle would be the best as there was a large area of clear floor space.

I got myself set up, I laid down flat against one of the beams and felt grit and rust rub off on my clothes and exposed skin. Highly unpleasant for the time being, but nothing a shower and some washing detergent wouldn't fix later on.

"Can you guys see everything?" I whispered into my miniature mic.

"We can see, and we're reading you loud and clear," Near came back.

"Alright, I'm breaking communication until I need to."

"Ten-four."

So I waited, a long time. After twenty minutes I was uncomfortable, after forty I was squirming and after ninety minutes I was ready to throw myself off the I-beam. I kept telling myself it was worth it though. It was better to get in early and wait than to not get in, or have some unexpected trouble and be late.

Author's Note: So yeah, it's a little different than the Teaser I replaced, but it's more or less the same. Chapter 2 should be up already, it'll take you to about the same place the teaser ended, but yeah :) Hope you liked it!

Review :D

...And if you guys have any pointers for me, any ideas, or any way you think I can make my story better, don't hesitate to let me know :)