Cloak and Dagger

Chapter 36

I sit outside Mello's hospital room, playing nervously with my pendant. I used to wear necklaces all the time just for this purpose. It's a comforting thing for me, somehow. I stare at the floor in front of my shoes, trying to play connect-the-dots with the patterns on the linoleum. Of course, the nerves kick in after about thirty seconds and I lose it entirely.

"Ellen?" Watari calls my attention, poking his head out of the door.

"How did it go?" I ask shakily.

"They all want to see you."

I stand up stiffly, eyes still fixed on the floor. I feel them staring at me – the three Shinigami, Touta, Misa, Near, Matt, Mello, and L. Everyone who I feel needs to know the truth. I don't speak as I move to Mello's bedside. It's the first time I've been in his room, and I need to see him. I slowly raise my eyes to the side of his bed, then the white sheets, then his arm, and at last his face.

He's covered in bandages. One big, ice blue eye stares at me from beneath the hood of a bandage used to hold the rest tight against his face.

"I'm so sorry." I mumble.

"Sestra?"

I flinch. Mello reaches out with his good hand, clasping my own. I stare at his tanned, rough fingers as they curl around my own.

"What would have happened? If you weren't here?" Mello asks in a raspy voice.

"You guys don't need to –"

"Ellen-chan, we do need to know!" Touta cuts in. "We have a right to know what you changed!"

He's right. That's happening more and more often, when I think about it. I sigh softly.

"Kira... would have killed Ryuu and Watari-ooji, through Rem-sama's protective instincts over Misa-nee." I murmur. "Misa-nee was threatened to be outed as Kira, and executed. We all know what Rem-sama thinks of that. So, she sacrificed herself to extend Misa-nee's life once more. And nobody would have known who Kira was. Misa-nee would follow him, believing that he had come to love her because she made his plans work. Wedy and Aiber are killed by a motorcycle accident and liver cancer, respectively, both events written out by Kira to eliminate them without using his signature method.

"Mello and Near would be informed of Ryuu's death and offered the opportunity to work together. Mello refuses, leaving the Wammy's House Orphanage. Mello eventually meets up with Matt again, and they live on the outermost fringes of the law in order to facilitate their own actions to fight Kira. Meanwhile, Near becomes the new L. In Japan, however, the NPA elect that Light acts as L to prevent mass hysteria.

"After five years, there are no leads on the case. Near is working with the American FBI, while Mello is using connections he's made to the mafia in order to make his own plans work. Matt is his tech guy, running surveillance on Near's team and their progress. Matt is shot dead after a car chase, and Mello gains these same scars before being killed by Takada Kiyomi, who has become Kira's other girl and revels in the fact that Misa-nee is heartbroken by this.

"Near eventually arranges for a confrontation between himself and his forces and Kira, who is joined by Teru Mikami. Prior to this meeting, Near switches out the Death Note with a fake. Kira hands the Death Note to Mikami-san, who attempts to write the names of all of Near's forces. Believing he has won, Yagami Light dramatically confesses, as though in some kind of twisted theatre play. Touta-kun shoots him in a blind rage, unable to comprehend Light's acceptance of the fact that he caused the death of his own father. Kira waits for Mikami-san to write out the names, but they do not die. Mikami-san flies into a panic and reveals himself, but Kira acts as if he doesn't know him. Mikami-san then commits suicide by stabbing himself with a pen.