Author's Note: Sorry for the late update guys, but hey! I'm done ALL my finals! AHAHAHAH :'D SO HAPPY! The decrease in stress after going from two finals to one, was expo-freaking-nential And now to not have ANY! WHOO ;P
And hey, there's only two more chapters after this one ;P Ohmygosh! You have to tell me your feelings on that? Are you happy? Are you sad? Are you crawling up the walls with your marshmallow coated fingers like Spiderman on speed?
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note, or anything remotely associated with it... And hey, please excuse my liberal use of the 'f-word' in this chapter. I know some people might get offended, so here's your heads up :)
August 24, 2024. 1:47 PM...
I started running again; through hallways and corridors until finally I came to an especially dark hallway with one closed door right at the end. I slowed my pace and crept towards it, keeping my breathing silent and my footfalls soft.
I slowed even more as I neared the large, wooden frame and laid my ear against it more silently than a butterfly might have.
"...Ahh, but that wasn't the deal Gevanni. You didn't do your job."
I really tried my best not to jump to conclusions. It didn't go over so well.
I fought to keep the jack-hammering in my chest under control; the pounding and pulsing of blood was so loud in my ears I might have sworn that everybody within a two door radius was hearing it too. But I couldn't be worried about that right now. I had other, more important things to listen to...
"Look I tried! It just didn't happen!"
"You didn't try hard enough Gevanni; that little white rat is still alive. I thought you were supposed to be good at this."
"It wasn't even my fault, and he never left himself open anyway. Please, you don't have to do this!"
"That was part of the deal Gevanni. Didn't I warn you that if you couldn't deliver I was going to have to do something unspeakable?" A gross, guttural chuckle escaped from the door and entered my ear, "Besides, I saw what happened, I was there. It looks like that white haired wretch isn't even a concern of yours anymore."
That was low of him, bringing that up. I was sorry for what I had done to Gevanni. I really was! It was my own selfishness that was now causing Gevanni's pain. Whether I thought Mello was going to show up today or not, I should have said something to Gevanni; I should have at least warned him what might happen... A pang of guilt resonated in my chest.
Sudden shouting in the room had my attention being pulled back through the door. "...I didn't know!"
"If you didn't know about this, what are all those defensive men doing out there with guns? There were so many people around that white headed rat I couldn't get anywhere near him."
"I don't know! I didn't put them there! I swear!"
"You're forced my hand Gevanni. You might have been able to save the rest of them had you only cooperated."
It was time to make my entrance. It was time to get to the bottom of this. I pushed the wooden door open slowly with my weapon drawn and all talking in the room ceased.
"Jewel?" Gevanni spoke first.
"Ahh, the precious little jewel," the other one mocked sarcastically.
"What's going on here Gevanni," I asked sternly, my eyes locked onto the threat in the room.
"Nothing Jewel, you have to get out of here! You have to leave!"
"I want answers Gevanni!" I demanded, gun still trained on the man at the back of the room.
The temperature in the room rose by the second as Gevanni refused to answer me. Finally the one I had yet to be formally introduced to spoke up and answered with, "Well if he won't tell you, I will." Gevanni's head fell and I heard a depressive sigh float out of his lungs. I stole a quick glance at his face and found him to be wearing an expression of total defeat. It was like he had aged twenty years in the past two minutes.
"When I received my calling from my god Kira to destroy your brother and cripple his organization, I knew I would need someone on the inside to help me. It really wasn't hard getting Gevanni here to agree to help me. One little suggestion that you, my dear, might be hurt, and he was totally onboard. He was an ALMOST perfect mole. Cutting camera feeds, erasing tapes, doctoring information and back files. He was a great asset; it was so pleasing when he agreed to help me. Although, I'm sure he's rethinking his decision now; now that in the end you've rejected him and because now we all must die."
"This, this really was all YOUR fault?" I asked Gevanni in disbelief, begging him silently with every fibre in my being that he would deny the accusations made by the other man. Even after having heard what had been said just moments ago through the door, I still didn't want to believe it.
"No Jewel, please. I was only trying to protect you. He only wanted Near. I didn't have a choice. He was going to kill you unless I handed over your brother. That was the deal, all the rest of us would be left alone if I gave them Near."
"So all the attempts on MY life, were really attempts on Near's?"
"She's a little slow this one, isn't she," the maniac stated, jerking his thumb in my direction. "Yes, they were attempts on Near's life. But Gevanni here failed each and every time in his attempts to destroy Master Kira's opponent."
I thought about his words for a moment as a thought occurred to me, "That fucker knew!"
"What?"
"My idiot brother knew! And..." a tiny little memory worked its way back into my mind. "Did Marsh know? Was Marsh in on this!" My little girl had tried to tell me something a couple weeks ago. There had been something on her mind when Gevanni had interrupted us.
Gevanni gave me an apologetic look for a moment, and then said, "I'm sorry. She overheard a conversation between myself and this guy. She knew what was happening, but I told her she mustn't tell anybody or you'd get hurt."
"You left that burden on her shoulders? You made that poor girl carry that secret with her? That's terrible!" I shouted. "Why didn't you just tell me? We could have fixed this a long time ago. We could have stopped this before it all got out of hand."
"I couldn't tell you Jewel, they had me watched, they had me bugged all the time. I couldn't tell you and I couldn't warn Near. If I tried to tell you they told me they would kill you." Gevanni's complacent manner melted in front of my eyes as he pleaded with me, as he begged me to understand.
"Well Near knew anyway. He had to have known. That idiot did everything he could to let me take the fall for him. Giving me his food, letting me take his car, his place in the warehouse raid..." I shook my head again. It was obvious now that Near was supposed to be the 'fourth' guy they were waiting for that night.
"I'm sure he didn't want you to get hurt Jewel," Gevanni assured beside me.
"No, I'm sure he was just using me as his guinea pig. Using me as a medium to solve this case. It was because of everything that happened to me that Near was able to put everything together. That explains all those men outside with guns too. Near knew we were walking into a war zone by coming here today. He hired his most trusted people to come along and be his body guards. It's the only explanation if you didn't tell them to come here." I took a minute to remove myself from my displeasure at my brother and then asked, "So, what happens now?"
"Well that's easy," our suited nemesis said. "We all die."
"Wrong," I responded without missing a beat. "Try again."
"We. Are. ALL. Going. To die," he repeated.
"That wasn't part of the plan," Gevanni cut in.
"But the plans have changed Gevanni. Look at this, they're all here; even that painter chic." The psycho made a wide, sweeping gesture with his arms to indicate the courthouse that we were all trapped inside. "It's one big Wammy's family reunion up in here isn't it? I don't have to take out just Near anymore. I can take out everybody who had a possible chance to replace him. I can take out the second and third in line... I can take out the next generation."
I could have sworn the stoppage of my heart was audible. Everything I was seeing instantly started turning red and I tasted bile in my mouth. My maternal instinct had me baring my teeth.
This guy wasn't getting anywhere close to the 'next generation.'
"Kira will be so proud of me. He will applaud my initiative. I will be Kira's right hand man when he becomes god of the new world."
"Buddy, there is one major flaw in your plan." He shot me a quizzical look, so I continued with, "If we're 'all' going to die, you won't be around to be Kira's right hand man. And oh yeah, the other glaring problem, Kira himself, is dead. If you kill us, we're all going to have died for nothing,"
"No! I will die a martyr."
I turned to Gevanni, "It's like he can't even hear me." I shrugged and shook my head.
"You take me and my threat too lightly miss Jewel," our maniac cautioned. He bent down and his arm and shoulder disappeared for a moment under the desk he was standing beside. When he straightened back up he had a black briefcase in his hand. I didn't even have to ask.
Another freaking bomb.
"You know, why didn't you just shoot him?" I asked frankly. They both looked at me like that was the craziest idea anybody had ever thought of ever. I imagine it was the same look Galileo would've gotten when he suggested the Earth orbited the sun instead of the other way around. After another awkward moment of them staring at me, I turned to Gevanni and asked. "How did you not say anything when this guy was our officiate? I mean, you just let that guy stand up there and pretend to marry us?"
"I didn't know."
"You didn't know?"
"I never met him before. I only ever talked to him on the phone when he was giving me orders."
"Yeah but you hired him."
"That, I can promise you, was a coincidence. I called somebody and asked them to appoint a judge to be our officiate. End of story."
"So, is this guy actually a judge then?"
"I don't know."
"Uhm, hi. I'm standing right here," the psycho interrupted.
"I'm not talking to you. You're dumb and you annoy me." I turned back to Gevanni, "Something else is going on around here, don't you see that?"
"What do you mean?"
"Assuming you're telling me the truth, you didn't know those men were going to be here today. You didn't hire this guy, you thought this was really over when we found the bomb right? But look at those men with Uzis out there," I said gesturing back to the door. "They're from the organization, and yet they're working for him. We were finally supposed to have the bomb in our possession, but now he has it. You know what that means? There's someone else behind this! There's someone ELSE pulling the strings INSIDE the organization! And, and this guy knows about Wammy's. How can you explain that? Judge or not he shouldn't have access to that kind of information."
"You think there's someone else we need to look for too?"
"I think we're already acquainted with who it is," I said knowingly.
A sudden movement in the corner of my eye had me once again turning towards our bomber. I only got a half second glance at what was in his hand before a gunshot split the room and a tearing pain ripped through my arm.
The force from the unexpected bullet knocked me back hard onto the ground. I twisted and turned in pain as the psycho made a mad dash for the back door of the room. "Go! Go after him!" I ordered as I writhed on the floor, clutching my bleeding arm. Gevanni didn't need to be told twice. In an instant he was through the door and after the bomb.
Suddenly Mello exploded through the door behind me as I slowly picked myself up off the ground. "Jewel, I've been looking all over for you! We have to get out of here now!" he demanded, grabbing my non-wounded arm and lifting me off the floor. "There's no time! The bomb is set to go off at two o'clock! There's less than five minutes!"
"Gevanni's gone after that guy! I have to get him!"
"Leave him Jewel! He's the cause of all of this!"
"He only wanted to keep me safe!"
"Okay Jewel, then for him, keep yourself safe and let's get out of here!"
I tore loose from Mello's grip and ran in the direction I'd watched Gevanni leave in.
"Jewel don't!" Mello called as I heard him chasing after me.
"Just go Mello. I'll get Gevanni and we'll get out. I promise!"
"I'm not leaving you Jewel!"
The two of us raced through doors and hallways and up stairs after Gevanni and the man with the bomb. After only a moment we came to an open door at the top of the stairs.
If Gevanni and the bomber had been talking before we'd gotten there, they weren't now. The man looked menacingly at each of us in turn and held the briefcase up in his hand.
"What happened Mello?" I asked without turning back to him. My tunnel vision wouldn't let me focus on anything but the briefcase. "We were supposed to have it."
"I'll tell you about it later. Right now we have to go."
The man raised the briefcase higher in a show of power. Mello not so subtly positioned himself protectively in front of me and began slowly stepping backward, forcing me back towards the door.
"Jewel, we have to go NOW!" Mello whispered harshly.
"Gevanni! Let's go!" I pleaded.
"Jewel!"
Mello's cry was the last thing I heard before an earth shattering explosion knocked me off my feet.
Author's Note: Oh my gosh, ha-ha I felt like those old Batman shows, trying to come up with names for that guy with the bomb that didn't actually involve me naming him. I hate giving names to most of my characters so I had to distinguish him by saying things like, 'suited nemesis.' LOL
So, alright guys, Jewel's afraid of fire; what're all of you afraid of? Two of my top five fears are spiders -arachnophobia- and heights –acrophobia- (I think it's funny how similar those words are.) ...I'd tell you the others, but then I'd have to kill ya ;P
Anyway, I'd like to give a shout-out to those, who predicted weeks ago, that it was all going to be Gevanni's fault. Lol, I was reading the reviews and I was totally killing myself laughing cause it was so spot on ha-ha :'D