Fic update: Death Note - Broken Hallelujahs - Chapter 15

[tallulahgs]

[Title] Broken Hallelujahs
[Rating] PG-13 (slightly above that language-wise)
[Fandom] Death Note
[Story Summary] AU. Neither Raito nor Near's victory went as planned. Now the task force and the SPK are on the run with Kira's notebook and all the power of the new world against them.

Tricky moral choices abound, although will people have the time to make them?

There was this story Gevanni was made to read in school once. He's been trying to remember the title for the past couple of hours. This guy who's going to get hanged, but the rope breaks and he falls into the water, and he tries to get back to his family. Of course it turns out to be all a dream. A last-second hope before his neck broke. It's not like Gevanni particularly remembers liking it, has not in fact thought of it for years but you know what, suddenly it's become relevant. It was a way of shrinking down what was going to happen to him. Like, if someone could write a story about it, then maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal. Or at least it wouldn't be so overwhelming as you'd think. It'd be just like words on a page.

Except that now Mikami is standing in front of him, holding out pages from the notebook, and he's got this horrible feeling that any moment now his heart will lurch like an out-of-control car and then he'll wake up only there'll no longer be anything to wake up to -

"God?" Mikami's voice is shaking. "I don't... is this not what you wanted?" He's already looking twitchy, so Gevanni hastily takes the papers and the pen, tries to smile at his benefactor. "No, this... this is good. Did you take them off -"

"Yagami-san struck down Takada, and then I saw that Kira had simply appropriated power from the true God." The words spill out, almost too fast for Mikami to pronounce them. "I thought at first he should die but then I remembered. It was always all about writing names! And so I brought these to you, you're the one who should have the power - I didn't realise, I forsook you and I have failed so many times but... but now..."

"It's all right." (Reassuring him is not a problem.) But the logical, grown-up part of his mind is saying soothing things and acting like everything's going to be all right while the rest of him - well, actually for at least a few seconds he's just giddy, almost high, at how funny it is things have turned out this way. Like he set out to do this all along! Matching wits with the intellect of Raito Yagami, usurper of L's title, killer of thousands. And now he's just standing there holding pages from the murder notebook and he could kill anyone he wanted. Just now. Just for the fun of it. When a few minutes ago he was expecting to be one of the first participants on some sick cross between a reality TV show and death row. This entire case has been insane, why should it stop now?

There's blood, drying now, on the pages. He glances at it and Mikami says, "We were both wounded. Of course he fought to hold onto his power."

"How badly hurt was he?" That's not Gevanni, that's Rester, who is grey with the effort of standing up and is still managing to be more competent than Gevanni is right now.

"I don't know." Mikami sounds absent by now, resigned. Relaxed. "There was some blood. Amane was with him."

"And - what happened to her?" That's Mogi, and Gevanni's grateful for someone else showing their unprofessional side, even though he can hear Mogi's trying to keep his voice steady. Mikami only says, "I didn't see. I pushed her away."

"You said you were hurt?" Gevanni finds himself back in the conversation suddenly like when your head breaks the surface of water. Mikami takes his other hand out of his pocket. It's sticky red, and curled into a fist. The ends of a bloodstained piece of cloth are visible at either side. Gevanni tries to think what you do in this situation and then he wonders why he expects there to be an accepted way of acting. It's not like most people find themselves holding pages from a killer notebook given to them by somebody who thinks they're God. He is thinking too much, he knows it, like believing he was about to die had meant he could stop pacing himself -

"We can deal with that later," Aizawa breaks in. "I'm more concerned about what you're intending to do with that." He indicates the pages.

"There's confusion about that part?"

That's Ide, and Gevanni starts to think properly, not how funny this is but what it actually means.

"We could kill Kira," he says, just to make sure everyone's on the same page.

"Of course we can fucking well kill Kira!" Ide almost yells it, hastily drags his voice down just in time. "What - I don't see why there's even any doubt about it, after all the shit he's put us through - we know he's Kira, he confessed to us all, multiple counts of premediated murder -"

"Don't start pretending this is legitimate," Aizawa says. "We'd be saving our own skins, that's all. Or seeking revenge."

"Yeah, so? Don't tell me that's not good enough for you." Ide scowls at him, but Gevanni sees he doesn't quite meet Aizawa's eyes.

"Which makes it murder, and you know that! He's been injured, and he's going to find it a lot harder to kill. That gives us a chance to -"

"What?" Ide snaps back. "Turn the tables? Arrest him? That's what we tried last time, if you remember, and look where it got us. This would be self-defense, and - and it's justice and... okay, what do you lot think?" He's staring round at them all now. "Come on, give me one good reason why we should be letting him live!"

Gevanni sees Lidner glance over at him. He wonders what he'll do if she starts going on about Louise. Or Mikami mentions it. He already feels like he's lost a layer of skin, like any words in his direction are going to be sending him reeling. But then, of course, he catches up with himself, he doesn't need to say anything about what he thinks, he can just - "Hey, Aizawa-san's got a point. I mean, it's not like he's threatening us right this second." He actually sounds halfway normal, but once he's spoken, the words rush away from him and he hopes like hell no one else asks him to carry on. It would be murder, no matter how much Yagami deserves it.

"I agree with Ide," Lidner says, calm as always. "We can - talk about the morality of it all we want, but we know that he's Kira and that he wants us dead. It isn't like we're able to act completely within the law on any aspect of this case."

"There's a difference between being forced into the moral grey zone and... and just ditching the rules because it's too much effort to follow them." Aizawa's scowling. "If we did, we'd have got out of this case earlier and the last few weeks would've been a lot better for all of us. We've come this far." His gaze flicks to the door, though, as if he's thinking who might come through it, what they might order to be done.

Two-one. Gevanni nearly says it out loud. Not that he knows what he wants the result to be. If everyone else wants Kira to die, then democracy means Gevanni has to throw his hands up and yield, right? Except that that doesn't work so well when it's someone getting killed. And it leaves a bad taste in his mouth anyway, like, oh, you didn't have the guts to avenge your sister so you just sat back and let it happen like you always do. If he wants Kira dead, he should... be honest about it. Or something. Mikami's looking at him - wary, probably trying to scrutinise every little action so he can read his God better. Mikami decided that the notebook shouldn't be left in Kira's hands. Mikami, whose view of morality is even more black and white than Kira's own. He's not thinking straight. He's not able to, not any more. Planned it all out, didn't you? No, stop it, he has to listen -

"- I don't know why the hell not," Ide is saying to Mogi. "I mean you'd be there for Amane, shoulder to cry on." So Mogi thinks they should hold off. Two all. "Or is it you think she'd call you on it? Is it too obvious?" He's shaking - Ide, this is, Gevanni isn't shaking but he feels sick and like everything is too bright and too loud and even watching it hurts. Ide's scared, Ide needs the rest of them to agree with him. Lidner doesn't seem bothered at all. Well, she knows Mello would validate her decision and perhaps that's all she needs. Mogi's face has tensed a little but he doesn't answer and now Rester is saying, "I don't... I don't like it. Near said... and using it ourselves makes me sick, but... it's not just our lives we'd be saving. Anyone who gets in his way is a target now. Look at Takada. Why are we pretending we've got a choice?" Three-two in favour of ditching the moral high ground, and Matsuda certainly didn't look in much of a state to decide about anything.

"Gevanni?" Lidner says.

Think. Just -

What the hell did you get into this for, if not to kill Kira? Really?

To do his best to save his sister's life. Well, that didn't turn out so well in the end, did it? So why are you still bothering now you dropped the ball? Why didn't you just quit when you found out? Because it was his job. Because what was he going to do, walk away and go back home and go to a funeral and comfort his grieving parents knowing all the time that he could've prevented this?

So it was all about you. Just like joining the FBI in the first place was only to give you a fucking change of scene. And now you turn this case into your own personal vendetta. It would be murder. Gevanni has managed to carry on through this case without lashing out at anyone who laid claim to the title of Kira. Why would his motives for killing Yagami be any better than Mikami's for killing people who do no good for the world? Everyone thinks their own reason is perfect.

"I can't... I can't do it." He blurts it out, sounding sulky more than anything else. "It would... don't get me wrong, I'd be happy if he ended up dead, but I can't just go ahead and - and wipe him out."

Lidner's eyes widen, but thank god, she doesn't say anything. Rester doesn't look particularly surprised - like he expected Gevanni to be unable to make the call. No, it's not unable, it's unwilling. Damn it, he could argue it was the most practical response, to get rid of Kira, but how would he ever know it wasn't really because of Louise? And yet at the same time he feels like he ought to have done it, or at least said he would. Admitted what had happened, shouted the bastard killed my sister and then hope someone else held him back. Instead he's being so reasonable, so careful. Doing the right thing, confronting his own flaws. At least when Mikami's god was Kira there was a sense of personal outrage involved. Of doing something because some people couldn't be allowed to get away with what they'd done. Or because you were frightened and wanted to protect yourself.

Maybe it was all lip service after all -

Mikami cries out.

Gevanni turns and sees him doubling over, choking, gasping, and for what seems like ages he's not even sure what's happening. When he gets it Mikami is already on his knees, struggling for breath, and too late, always too late. Gevanni drops down next to him, grabs his arm. "Mikami - come on -" Come on? Like you can snap out of a heart attack with enough willpower? But this can't - they have the pages now, that's the whole point, this can't be happening -

Mikami is clutching at him, and he's trying to say something but Gevanni can't work out what it is and he tries, he tries so damn hard to say the right thing but all that comes out is "I'm sorry, I'm sorry -" and the next second Mikami's grip is slackening and his head falls sideways, drool glinting on his lips, and that's it, he's suddenly a dead weight against Gevanni and everything is quiet.

"What the..." Rester is beginning, and then he curses: "The piece he had in his watch - the piece he killed Near with -"

"Exactly!" Ide yells. "Anyone think it's still a good idea to leave him walking around free?"

"He's had that piece all along!" Aizawa snaps back. "If he was going to kill us with it, he'd have done it while we were still on camera -"

"Not if he was distracted by Mikami attacking him! Now that's out of the way, he could be writing down our names this second -"

"That piece was tiny -"

"Face up to it! We are dead unless we kill him first!" Ide has leant over and grabbed the papers and pen out of Gevanni's hand before he can react. Not that he has much reaction left in him. How many times can you screw up and have people dying in front of you? Louise; the rest of the SPK; Near; Mikami, once is an accident but two looks like carelessness, which would be funny except that it's not, it's really not. He just wanted to do the right thing. Except he didn't, did he? Not when it came down to it. It was Mikami who would do anything when it came to morality, and okay, his actions were messed up, he was messed up, but you couldn't deny he sacrificed everything -

"Don't even think about it," Aizawa says, taking a step forward.

See, see the thing was, back in the day Gevanni always used to figure he was kind of smart. Not astrophysicist level or whatever, but, you know, good grades, a consistently positive report card to make his older sister roll her eyes, reputable college, career rather than a job. Then he met Near and he felt pretty dumb for ever thinking he was anything special because, you know, Near. A lesson in humility. Off to the other extreme, that he had some natural talent at lock-picking and spying but he was basically a regular guy and definitely not smart enough to out-think Kira on his own (and of course that justified his failure to save Louise, like what the hell was he even thinking?)

And so he just carried on through as everything fell to pieces around him and he didn't bother to think ahead, why would he care about doing that? He just carried on co-opting Mikami into his own plans and figured using him as a last-ditch attempt to stop Kira was worth it. And now he acts surprised the guy's ended up dead?

Ide is glaring at Aizawa but he's not actually making a move to start writing.

"We don't have time to waste," he says through gritted teeth. "Raito is going to kill us, Aizawa, why are you not getting this?" There's almost a pleading tone in his voice. "Even if you want to take him down some other way, what exactly are you thinking of doing locked up in here?"

"I -"

But suddenly the door is being unlocked again. The others are stepping back; Gevanni sees Ide shove the papers into his jacket pocket. He knows he should get up - the bodyguards are already in there, levelling guns at him, and one of them yells at him to keep his hands up and get away from the corpse. Wait, wait, this isn't what it looks like. I had nothing to do with it. It's a coincidence I was standing over his body holding the murder weapon. This is just chatter while the rest of his mind screams at him do something, for once in your life don't just stand there watching - But he doesn't do anything; just kneels there, hands raised - they're shaking, he can see it. One of the bodyguards calls to Mikami, shakes him a little, checks for a pulse, but it's all cursory; people don't bother trying to resuscitate Kira's victims any more.

"What did he tell you?" one of the other men yells. He's white and clammy behind the sunglasses. "He said he had a message from Yagami. What the hell did he say to you?" The gun is levelled at Gevanni's face and he wonders how stupid it would be just to employ a policy of passive resistance and die that way. At least it would be something obviously stupid. But he's not that far gone, he's not going to be seeking death any time soon.

"He said..." His voice is dry, like he's been yelling. "He said that Yagami didn't... didn't understand Kira's power."

"And?"

"Just that. He'd... he'd just got it. He'd come to us to see if we could protect him from Kira."

"Yeah, right," the guy says. "Why'd he come to you?"

Gevanni finds himself smiling, though it feels like a wound, something torn open. "Well... we're still alive, aren't we?"

There is something he can do. He's seeing another step, at least. Remember that ship he smashed after Louise died? Ground into splinters, a paste of broken wood. You can't just crush it all down like that. You have to keep looking for the individual steps, otherwise you'll just wreck everything because you don't know what else to do. Blow yourself up rather than let the bastards take you alive. Near placing matchsticks on top of each other, piece by piece by piece. "Can you get Satake-san to come and talk to us again? He... he should know about this."

"Right," Ide says from above him. "He might want to reconsider his choices. Seeing as Yagami clearly miscalculated Kira's intentions, right?"

The bodyguard looks like he wants to tell them to give it up just on principle, but he and his colleague are still looking wary and their eyes keep flicking to the corpse on the floor, and the next moment one of them is speaking into his earpiece, telling one of his counterparts to get Satake. "The fugitives want to -" and then, "Yeah, well, Yagami might will probably want to hear about it too when he gets here. If he doesn't snuff it en route."

So Yagami's actually going to show up in person. Well. Good. Gevanni's sick of the guy hiding behind other identities or at the end of a phone line. If everyone thinks I should be seeking revenge and striking down the wicked and not just watching things happen - well, it'd be good to have the real bad guy in front of me, right? Except that's a stupid thought as well. Dress it up in ideology, it's still murder. Do something. Except that's what got Mikami killed, and yeah, how does he know that wasn't what he was after to begin with? All along? Just stand back and watch and everyone dies...

"Don't do anything stupid," he hears Aizawa whisper to Ide. "If they find out we've got those pieces - look, we can still work this out, okay?" Ide doesn't answer. Gevanni can't blame him for being dubious. He's pretty sure that Yagami's only holding off on killing them for the laughable reason that he might not be able to fit all of their names onto one scrap of paper. Or wants to reassure himself of his power by getting NHN to do it instead. You cannot drop the ball on this one. You've been given one more chance, you screw it up this time that's it. Better than dying live on TV, but not by much. Establishing shots of their corpses might well still be broadcast, just to make the point that NHN was clearly in the right. We can still work it out. There's an angle to play, there's got to be.

Like there was with Mikami?

Eventually - it feels like ages later, but Gevanni suspects his perception of time's going as well - Satake appears in the doorway, looking even more exhausted than he did previously. His hair is tangled and his tie and jacket are crumpled like he's been yanking at them out of nerves. When he sees Mikami he mutters something under his breath and then doesn't look at him again. Fair enough. Gevanni doesn't particularly want to look at the body either, it's just it keeps catching the side of his gaze. He encouraged Mikami to think of him as a god, that has to be a little messed up, right? Oh, sure, it's great Mikami came round to the side of good, but he never would have risked everything for it had he not been encouraged to latch onto Gevanni instead of Kira as the centre of his universe.

"Certainly looks like a heart attack," the bodyguard is saying to Satake. "This lot didn't have any weapons on them, that's for sure."

Satake nods, rubs a hand across his face, and scowls at Gevanni. "He came to you asking for protection from Kira?"

"That's right."

"Yagami just got here. That's not what he says -"

"You'd believe what -" Ide begins, but Satake carries on, louder: "Excuse me; he says that this man was with him watching the broadcast. When he saw this gentleman here -" His eyes meet Gevanni's again. "When he realised you were one of the accused, he lost it, started saying Kira was wrong and should be stopped. He became violent, attacked Yagami, and then came here."

"So?" Ide says, but Gevanni can hear him swallow.

"So, I don't think this changes much." Satake's not looking at them now. "Yagami's still alive. This man here, he was obviously hoping to disrupt this broadcast. And Takada... I don't know why she was killed, but now I think about it, she did start backtracking and saying you lot could be innocent, before. Now, I'll have someone remove the body from here, I can see you don't want to be stuck with it -"

(Think. You know he isn't happy with this, you saw that earlier, you saw -)

"Yagami says Mikami was accusing Kira of being wrong?" His voice is dry. They don't have time, Yagami could be doing anything out there - "Rather than Yagami himself?"

"Misa Amane's here too, she backs it up."

"Of course she'd back it up!" Ide yells. "She worships the ground he walks on, or are you too blind to pick up on that?"

Satake raises his eyes to heaven. "Look, I'm doing you a favour. Do you really want to wait out there? We're still broadcasting, you know. If the worst happens, you don't have the entire country watching. I'd have thought you'd be grateful to me."

"You said you'd give it an hour," Aizawa says. He sounds hoarse. "It's not long to go, what difference does it make?"

"I'm sorry." Satake doesn't sound like he really means it, or even like he's considering what he's saying. "Considering the new information we've got, and - and this... this latest... judgement... I just don't think things are as clear-cut as they seemed before." He's turning to address the bodyguards now. Really not a good sign. "They're to stay here until further notice, okay? And let me know right away if - if anything else happens."

"No," Ide says. "You knew - you realised how screwed up this is - how can you -"

From the back of the room, Mogi says, "Quiet - listen -" and, perhaps because he's so quiet normally, everyone actually does quieten down. Gevanni looks round. Mogi is staring up at the TV in the corner, the one tuned to NHN. The presenters up there earlier have disappeared. Now, Raito Yagami is standing there, staring out at them.

" - will find them," he is saying. One arm is in a makeshift sling; blood speckles his face and shirt. "They think they can escape. They think they can get others to attack us and strike us down! There's no way they'll escape Kira's wrath if his followers assist him. Do you hear? Kira's supporters could be fleeing, but instead they are locking down the building and making sure none of these criminals escape. If you want to help Kira, come to NHN. Guard the streets. Stop the fugitives escaping that way. And if any of them are watching this -" He's walking closer to the camera. He's dead white; his mouth is twisted with pain, but it fights its way into a smile anyway. "Give yourselves up and save us all the struggle. You're already dead."

And Gevanni realises he can hear shouting, running footsteps.

"If you keep us here," Aizawa says to Satake, "we'll be torn to pieces in front of your eyes. You're just going to stand and watch? Putting us out there for Kira is one thing, but this -"

"I didn't authorise this." But Satake sounds peevish and he's talking to the bodyguards rather than anyone else. To people he doesn't expect to be dead in the next half-hour. "All right, there's no point in trying to contain things now. They'll find their way here whatever, so radio for backup and - yeah, take this lot back to the studio -"

"They'll murder us," Lidner says, coldly. "You know that. Hardly divine judgement, is it?"

"Kira - Kira will deal with it if he wants you dead some other way!" Satake shouts it; specks of drool glint in the light. He's run a hand through his hair again, seemingly unaware that he's doing it. "If he wants me to act he's going to have to make things a bit more obvious! Now shut up!"

"You said yourself," Gevanni says, "you said yourself if Kira wants us dead, we'll die." Which is looking even more likely now. The only comfort is that Satake's clearly as unhappy about the situation as they are."It doesn't matter if - if that happens here or not - he clearly didn't want us dead on live TV, so -" The words aren't lining up properly; he feels stupid, like he's giving a speech he hasn't prepared properly. The mob is coming this way and why the hell should Satake make himself into a target as well? "It wasn't Kira that Mikami turned against, it was Yagami -" His mind is actually yelling at him to shut up, stop drawing attention to himself, like sounding so stupid makes him guilty of something after all. "You have to -"

"I can't -" Satake cries out, "I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do - if you go back out there, Kira might kill you quickly, that - that's something -"

Gevanni opens his mouth but he sees, suddenly, Lidner's eyes widening; like Yagami's just issuing some even worse order. But she's not looking at the TV, she's looking at the others, at Aizawa and Rester, and, behind them, Ide. She stares from them to Satake and he looks helplessly at her and says again, "There's nothing more I can do -"

And then he stops. He stops and he clutches at his chest and as his breath starts to stick in his throat he's frantically clawing at his tie like the problem is that it's choking him. One rattling breath in, one out, one strangled cry for help, and then he collapses full length on the floor.

The bodyguards stare at each other and then at Satake's corpse and then one of them just turns and runs. The other hesitates, glances at them and then stammers, "What the hell am I supposed - I'm not holding back a crowd, if Kira wants to he can do it himself -" and then he takes to his heels as well.

Behind Gevanni, everyone else is silent.

Ide is dead white and he's staring at Satake's corpse and then at the paper he's clutching in his shaking hand. Gevanni can just see the name scrawled on it.

"I - I had to," he says, at last. "He wouldn't - he wasn't going to -"

"Like hell you -" Aizawa is beginning, but Lidner cuts across: "We need to get away from here. They know where to start looking for us -" She glances at Rester, then Gevanni, and Gevanni sees the hastily suppressed realisation that there's no way either of her colleagues will be able to outrun an angry mob for more than a few seconds. Really, he should have worked that out himself before now.

The noise is growing louder. Shut the door, barricade it, that'll give them what, ten more minutes to live? Might as well just write their own names down on that paper, it would probably be a bit quicker. Maybe -

"Give... give me the papers," Rester says.

"Huh?"

"Those of us who can't run will stay here. If it comes to it, we might be able to - time it. Take Yagami down just as he asks Kira to prove he's in the right. Either way, you should get going."

The task force look back at them, but they don't hesitate. Ide has dragged Matsuda to his feet and then the four of them have gone. Lidner doesn't follow. She slams the door behind them, slides the lock across, grabs one end of the table, and says to Gevanni, "Help me with this."

"You're -"

"We need -" She sets her teeth as they carry the table over to block the door. Her injured hand is hanging loose at her side. "We need time to write down his name. Then to destroy those things before -"

Before they get in and kick us to death. Right.

"Huh. If you wanted to - to be the one to kill him so bad, why didn't you just take the papers and run?" The chairs, the water cooler, all up against the door, and that's it, just an empty room and the three of them and Mikami's corpse and now they can hear running footsteps, slamming doors, someone calling back to others. Lidner sits down on one of the chairs; Gevanni joins her. Rester takes a few steps towards them and his leg buckles underneath him and he slumps onto the floor, resting his head in his hands.

"Like Rester said," she says. "Timing. Even if he dies right now, that might not stop this. It might even make things worse."

The door rattles as someone wrenches at the handle.

"The entire thing's being broadcast." Gevanni glances up at the TV again. Yagami's gone; instead one of the presenters from earlier is back. She looks terrified, her face tearstained, her mouth wrenched into a desperate smile. Gevanni wonders what happened to her co-presenter and then figures he can make an educated guess at the answer. If Yagami's got that tiny piece of the notebook - although how can he be using it with his injuries? But Satake mentioned Amane. So if the SPK prove too difficult to reach, Amane will probably squeeze a name or two onto that page. You're already dead. Louise had always avoided talking about Kira. Well, you would, wouldn't you. Living with something that could kill you literally at any moment with no warning. He should probably have made peace with the idea of his own death before now. Behind him, people are shouting: calling Satake's name - of course, the body is right outside the door - calling others, "They're still in here! They've locked the door -" Lidner is pale; she runs her fingertips over the swollen, red-purple skin of her damaged hand. Gevanni remembers the attack in New York. Near seeming so calm, clutching toy robots in his arms. No one left to drop money from the sky now.

And then, suddenly, Yagami's voice, horribly close: "You see? Remember he told me Kira didn't want them dead?"

"He was the one who got them all offstage!" someone else says. "He was the one who tried to stop it going out live!"

"Exactly. Kira is watching us all. Kira wants us to get that door open and carry out his will."

A crash, making Gevanni's teeth rattle as something slams into the door, but Rester is already scrabbling for the pen lying near him, struggling to write. His fingers are swollen and twisted and it hits Gevanni that he's the only one with two fully working hands - and he's ducking out of doing what needs to be done because - what? Because he wants to kid himself things are that simple?

More crashes, on the other side of the door right next to his head - and then lower down, against the edge, against the lock -

No more time. If this is revenge, fine, it's revenge, but they'll all be dead otherwise, and doesn't that make it something else, at least a little bit? He scrambles off the chair - "Rester, let me -"

There's a crunch and then the door lurches, throwing Lidner a few steps forward, and Gevanni looks round and hands, arms, are clawing through the gap, like a fucking zombie movie, and he shoves the furniture forward again, hears people cry out as it crashes against their fingers. Damn it - write the name, you idiot, why didn't you write the damn name - Rester fumbling with the pen, grey-white, face shiny with sweat -

Gevanni's knocked off his feet. Lidner screams. And the next second the room is full of people and he doesn't even get to think please God no before someone kicks him in the stomach and the world crushes the breath out of him.

The floor is covered with water. The cooler - got knocked over - people are slipping, and Gevanni pushes himself up on damp hands and scrambles towards Rester but the other man isn't looking at him but at their deaths coming up behind.

And he dives forwards but he isn't aiming for Gevanni, but for the plastic bottle still pouring water and even as they jump on him he's shoving the pages right into the path of the flood. He's kicked back the next second, but Gevanni sees he let go of the pages, that they float in the pool covering the floor, and the next second someone's foot has come down on them. Then they're just swimming fragments of mush, which is something at least. But not much, not now that Yagami's reached the doorway, stands looking down at them.

[Chapter 15 on Fanfiction.net]

[Chapter 15 on skyehawke.com]

Comments

[fatalna.livejournal.com]

five thousand more words
when Raito bursts in the room
death note is drowning

This short chapter pulled the rug from under me!

When there is no immediate threat (or maybe because the threat was already so immediate that it can't be any more), Gevanni has the luxury to put the use of the pages up to a vote (well, in his head mostly), but in the face of immediate danger all of that is superseded by the single command – write the name, you idiot – to stay alive. How powerful it is, that instinct to cling to life. Ide has already acted on it. The same impulse drove Matsuda to shoot Sato. And now the SPK.

barricade will fall
they scramble into action
penmanship matters

[tallulahgs]

Okay, you ACTUALLY wrote haiku reviews. You officially win the Internet :D

*squeaks happily*

Glad the chapter, erm, BLEW YOUR MIND? And as always, I love hearing your thoughts.

[mayfic.livejournal.com]

First off, wow, this was a short chapter and a lot happened. I was totally unsure about where everyone was going to go from her, and I am in the same situation after this weeks.

Light clearly moved quick enough to save the gravitas he carries. Although how long he's got, now that the death note is dissolving remains to be seen. The SPK may not survive this, but Light could be damaged, once again.

I find the concept of Kira having a rabid mob terrifying, though, in-series as well as here. I mean, they're almost mindless, this way. The other thing is that they might stay that way long enough for Light to find some way out of it?

I really liked the part about Gevanni considering how smart he thought he was and then how Near made him feel stupid. I feel like that's a big part of the various relationships of the geniuses within the series. The people around them can't quite be like that. Of course, strangely enough, I feel like some people might be less bothered by it because they're used to not thinking of themselves as terribly clever, anyway.

[tallulahgs]

I am glad the story is remaining unpredictable! :D?

Yeah, the rabid mob stuff freaks me out too. I was pleased they included it in canon, though, as I think it makes an important point.

Definitely. (I know in real life I think of myself as "kind of smart, got good grades" but when I play the "if I were in DN" game I'm all "haha, TOTALLY Matsuda". But yes... I think often it's as difficult, if not more so, for the geniuses. Actually DN doesn't seem to have many people who desperately aspire to be that clever. Mello does, but he already is, if you see what I mean.)

[mayfic.livejournal.com]

:D!

Mm, totally. Kira's supporters kind of show what kind of world it has become.

I know what you mean about Mello. It's part of what endears me to him. It's like he doesn't take his own brains for granted because he's consistently aware that people are better than him.

[tallulahgs]

Yes. He's the insecure one! *pats him*