A/N: Three more days until spring break guys! Which means way more chapters will be coming out next week. :D

Well, anyway, hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

Reviews always appreciated!

(Near P.O.V)

A few weeks had gone by since I'd last spoken to Matt. I had hoped it meant Mello had recovered, but I decided not to concern myself with this. I had bigger problems to attend to.

For one, it would seem Kira was killing at a more rapid rate than before. Quite interesting, considering one of L's successors was incapacitated at the moment. This led me to believe full well that this fake L was more likely to be Kira himself. But then, how exactly was he managing to kill so many people under the radar of his group? Surely one person of his team would have been able to detect some notion that he was writing down names in the killer notebook. Yet, he was getting away with it. How odd.

This second L… I was almost too sure that they were Kira. But how I'd go about catching him was the real issue.

Not only did this concern me, but it would seem that my investigation was at a standstill. No word from the fake L had come, and everything Mello had sent me for my investigation was leading me nowhere now. The most I could believe right now, was that this 'Light Yagami' was more likely to be the fake L I was in contact with. Still, I couldn't be too positive about this.

Playing with my toys, in the silence, helped me to relieve my stress just for a bit. To stop working for a while and just think. However, it would seem that it wasn't good enough for some.

Commander Rester had come to me, asking what I'd thought about all this. He was interested to hear what my thoughts were concerning the case.

That's good. Questioning what we were doing was better, but this would suffice. Only an idiot would follow others blindly and not question. It meant you had a brain, knowledge, and understanding. At Wammy's, if you didn't question anything, if you didn't look on both sides and were only able to argue for the one side you'd yourself had chosen… you were stupid.

If L taught us anything, it was always to be on the fence between what you believe, and what others believed. In the end, when following the detective career, your opinion didn't matter too much. All that mattered was to do your job. But being able to influence others was a better skill than you'd believe. Both Mello and I had this talent. It's the main reason we were the top students at Wammys.

To answer Rester's question, I simply stated, "The current Kira was foolish and overconfident, not to mention unusually cooperative with the task force. So much so, that I suspect that he's working hand-in-hand with them. That would make the second L and Kira… one in the same person."

"What? That can't be. Are… are you serious?"

"Yes, I am. Having said that, I'll admit that I'm only seven percent certain." Silence followed and I knew it was because Rester was uneasy with my statement. "Don't worry, Commander Rester. Making assumptions is part of any investigation. If we're wrong, all it'll cost us is an apology."

"I… suppose you're right. Still, I don't like to think that we're working alongside a serial killer."

"Like I said, I'm only seven percent certain. But you should realize that you're always going to be working beside potential killers, Rester. I mean, we all carry the nature to do so. Its human beings at their 'finest'."

"What do you mean?"

I turned my head a bit to look at him. "We all possess the urge to kill. The only thing that stops us is societal issues. We all believe it's wrong to kill, to maim, to hurt and torture. So then, why is it still around?

"Because we can do it. Society will just hate you for it. Because we're all trying to make an impression on people we don't even know. Because we're all being judged, however much we try to avoid it, you can't stop people from judging you, good or bad."

"I guess Mello never cared about society then." I heard Gevanni say under his breath.

I wanted desperately to throw something at his comment, but decided to put him in his place mentally instead of physically.

"You're correct, Gevanni. Mello never cared about what society thought of him. I suppose that makes him smarter than you by a tenfold."

He looked back at me from his monitor. He didn't look angry, but more baffled. "Uh… e-excuse me."

"You heard me, loud and clear. But I suppose you'd like me to explain why.

"Allow me to put it this way. If I gave you a gun and asked you to shoot someone that you hated, would you do it?"

"What! Absolutely not!"

"Not even if you knew that you'd get away with it?"

"No, not even then! It's still a human life, Near!"

"Alright then. So what if it was someone you liked, but they had committed several crimes, all of them more heinous than the last? Would you end them then?"

He was silent for the longest time after that. When he did answer, I wasn't the least bit shocked.

"I… well, it would depend on the crimes…"

"Hypocrite." I mumbled aloud. "Honestly, what a pathetic way to think. You'd kill someone simply because of the crimes they committed. You're nothing more than a 'regular' human being."

"Well, what is the answer then?"

"Yes, Near." Rester chimed in. "I'd like to know as well."

I began playing with my toys again. "The truth is, there is no real answer. There are only the smart ones, and the stupid ones.

"I couldn't tell you what my own answer would be, because I have yet to be put into such a situation. As for L and Mello… I can tell you exactly what they would do."

I set down my toys to look directly at Gevanni. "L cared for human life, as does Mello. They care for the safety of others, even if they happen to be criminal lives as well as 'innocent' lives. But, when push comes to shove, L would do anything to catch his target. Even if it meant another's life. Mello is no different, seeing as how he killed off more than half the SPK. He wanted to be first, so he got there by any means necessary. L wanted to find out the gist of Kira's power, so he sacrificed a human life on television during the beginning stages of his investigation.

"In the end, the lives of others were sacrificed for selfish desires, yet were also beneficial to mankind. L got closer to finding Kira with his sacrifice, and Mello obtained the notebook with all that he sacrificed. Sure, looking at it in a societal point of view, they were wrong to do so. But it was the smarter idea."

Gevanni stared at me then, his eyes shaking with a bit of fear. He still tried to make an argument though. "But it's still human life, Near. And many people are losing loved ones because of actions like that."

"I'm fully aware of that, Gevanni. But once, in my entire lecture just now, did I say it was right to be killing people?"

He looked to be thinking it over, then shook his head.

"Because it isn't right to be killing people." I added. "I only said that it was a smart choice on both L and Mello's behalf. They are not part of society, and would do anything to get what they want. Sometimes it would be a difficult decision for anyone, and I doubt L was inhuman enough to kill the one's he loved most. L cared for us like an older brother… like a family. There's a difference between killing family, and killing people you know."

"But it still happens." Rester spoke up.

This got me thinking about Yagami once again. His daughter, so I'd been informed, had been kidnapped for ransom. This happened because the Deputy Director had been killed, and so Mello took in a new captive. Strange. How did I not see it earlier?

"My seven percent has been raised to eleven percent, commander."

"Huh? Why?"

"Don't you remember? The Yagami girl. Mello had kidnapped her and she got out alive. Why do you think that is?"

When no answer arose, I continued.

"Because it's possible that Light Yagami, Soichiro Yagami's son, is more involved with this case than I first thought. The Deputy Director gets kidnapped, and suddenly dies around two days later. Sayu Yagami gets kidnapped, same amount of days roll by, and she comes out alive."

"But I thought Mello was the one that killed Takimura." Gevanni spoke up.

"Or it was a clever ruse by Mello to get Kira amped up. What if it was Kira that killed Takimura, and Mello just wanted to make sure his assumptions on who Kira was, was correct?"

Gevanni's eyes widened a bit. "That's… ingenious! With that he'd had a possible suspect, and a motive to research more on this guy!"

"Exactly. I'm a little sorry I didn't see this sooner. Then again, the second L hasn't been too cooperative with me all that lately."

All of a sudden, a connection feed was brought up on Gevanni's screen. It was Lidner asking us to turn on the news. The President of the United States was holding a press conference.

We did so right away, but I was disgusted by what I'd heard.

The President… no, that scum was bending knee to Kira now. He was giving up trying to catch him and was leaving the SPK to fight on its own. How dare he? How dare he cower and allow millions to die at the hands of a serial killer.

When it was over, Gevanni became worried. "So what's going to happen to us now?"

I picked up one of my toys, still feeling enraged by the lack of courage this so called president had.

"It looks like we've been disbanded." I bent the head of the toy. "Chicken President."

My grip tightened. "No, he's not even a chicken." And the head came off. I dropped the head beside me, not caring about it being broken. "He's less than a maggot."

I tensed up then. I wanted to throw a fit and break every toy in front of me in anger. But I kept my cool. I needed to stay calm.

"Gevanni, call Lidner back and ask if she's found anything new for me to lead on."

Gevanni was about to argue about something again, but I suppose he saw the seriousness in my eyes. He did as told and got back to work.

"Rester," I directed, "get me in touch with Matt. He'll need to know that I can't continue to fund for him anymore, thanks to our friend the President. That credit card will have to be cancelled right away."

What about the savings L created for this?" He reminded. "I suppose we'll need to dip into that fund?"

"Yes, in fact we'll need most of it. The President had funded us until now, so paying off Matt's fines were easy. Now, however, he'll need a limit."

"Understood. I'll make the call right away."

Commander Rester went about his duties and I was left once again with my toys. Twirling my hair, I mentally screamed in anger. It reminded me of the times I was told to show some emotion by one person or another. But I couldn't lose my patience. I just had to keep moving forward and hope for the best. I only hoped Matt wouldn't need so much funding anymore, and would be alright with the limit I set for him and Mello.

Kira had won the battle this time. But I planned on winning the war. Hopefully, this would all end soon.