Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

L crouched on a cream-colored armchair in a dark room with over a dozen monitors. He stared unblinkingly at the screens even as he heard a commotion down the hall. He only looked up when a woman yanked open the door to his room, eyes wild and nearly glowing through the lank hair that shadowed her face. 

“I’m going.” She stated forcefully. 

L stared at her expressionlessly. She knew that that wasn’t the way to get what she wanted. 

“B was mine . He was mine, and Kira killed him. I want him destroyed. I-” her voice wavered, and the last words were nearly inaudible. “L, please.” 

“Very well, Zero. But you have to follow my instructions exactly.”

She nodded frantically. 

“Go. We leave in an hour.” L had already turned back to his monitors. He paid no mind to the woman spinning on her heel and darting off down the hall. 

Beyond’s death at the hands of Kira came as no surprise to L. The Wara Ningyo case was famous, and likely very easy to find information on even if you didn’t live in the US. Killing the perpetrator was exactly the sort of high-profile ego boost that someone like Kira would appreciate. 

Still, it made this personal. Even without B’s death L would have eventually answered the summons from the world governments, but it did serve as a catalyst to bring him to action. 

He ate another slice of his delicious cake, knowing he would need every bit of brain fuel he could get his hands on. 

Time to get to work. 

Chapter Text

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” L stated monotonously, fingers in the shape of a gun. The police officers jumped and flinched in unison, with several hands going to empty holsters. “If I were Kira, you would be dead. Let’s try to value our lives, here.” 

It was Chief Yagami who connected the dots first. “Kira needs only a face and a name. You’re right, L. We will do better from now on, you have my word.” 

L slunk by the group to crouch on the armchair, to the great bewilderment of the officers. Zero followed him to stand behind the chair, watching the new men closely. 

“For the sake of anonymity, I ask that you call me Ryuzaki for the duration of my time here.” Zero twitched in irritation at the mockery. ‘Ryuzaki,’ indeed. 

“As you say, Ryuzaki. And who is the…woman… behind you?” Chief Yagami was trying valiantly to pretend that he wasn’t deeply unsettled by her appearance. Zero didn’t know whether to be annoyed or not. She decided to ignore it. 

“Oh, her?” L murmured, as if she were an afterthought. “You can call her Aster.”

Zero inhaled raggedly, all of the air having expelled from her lungs at once.

It felt like he ripped Zero’s beating heart from her chest and presented it to her. How dare he. To use that name, knowing full well what it meant to her… She knew that L had watched the footage from the arena. This was not a coincidence. 

L noticed her stricken face, a mean glint in his eye. “I assume you have no objections, Aster-kun?” His tone was challenging. 

Zero clenched her jaw tightly and gave a negative jerk of her head. 

The officers looked incredibly awkward at the byplay. 

Zero took several deep breaths and reminded herself of why she was here. This was not off to a great start. 

She tuned back in to L replying to a question. “Because I am also childish and hate to lose. That’s how I know.” She exhaled through her nose in amusement. Ain’t that the damn truth.  

He went on to elaborate about the egoistic methods of Kira, and how they could use those to their advantage. Zero wasn’t so sure. If Kira was as brilliant as L seemed to think, then it was highly likely he had figured out that L was the exact same way. They needed to get this guy before he started to learn the best ways to play the game.  

Zero thought a little harder about what L had said. It wasn’t impossible that they were dealing with another genius man-child, but what if… “What if he is a child?” 

The task force members looked at her, aghast. “You think that we’re so incompetent that a child is able to run circles around us like this?!” The one with the large hair demanded. 

L cut him off before he could continue being annoying. “Hm, I was thinking much the same. Kira has a very adolescent concept of right and wrong. If we were dealing with someone who had a fully developed brain, they wouldn’t be so impulsive. They would have a gray area that Kira seems to lack.” The men gaped at him. “It is possible that we are dealing with a student, whether college or high school I am yet to determine.” 

“Is that another reason why you were investigating my children?” Chief Yagami asked as respectfully as he could manage. 

“Another reason why I am investigating your children, yes.” He corrected mildly. 

It was clear that the man was offended. If L noticed, he certainly didn’t care. “Now that I have narrowed down the task force to people I can trust, we can continue with the next step.”

Zero may have zoned out a little when he went into the details of the surveillance and the incredible outrage that followed. She was itching to do something with tangible results, something that she could accomplish with her own two hands. B really, really picked poorly when he chose her as a successor. She had the attention span of a gnat and didn’t care for plans. No wonder he had resorted to hoping for a brute force frontal assault when he spoke of me taking down Wammy House, she thought to herself sardonically. 

God, she missed him. He was hell on earth, but it was a hell that she knew. 

The next few weeks at the hotel were torturously boring. The work they were doing was vital to the case, but that didn’t mean that it was interesting. She was more of a field work type of person, but they hadn’t gotten that far yet. When she came along to help ‘catch’ Kira, what she actually meant was a dramatic showdown that ended with her gutting and eating him. All of this ‘due process’ stuff was going to rot her brain out of her ears. 

If only this case catered more to her only skills: murdering people and committing felonies. B was very thorough in his education, but that did not mean he was very broad. He taught her what he thought she would need to take down Wammy’s House, and little else. 

If it weren’t for muscle memory and the scraps from before, she’d be closer to a wild animal than a woman with amnesia. She paused to eye the closed thermos of microwaved blood in her hand. 

She would be closer to a wild animal than she already was, she corrected herself.

After so long feasting on fresh kills, being domesticated so severely was taking its toll. She felt starving all of the time. No where near comparable to actually starving, which she had an uncomfortable amount of experience with, but more like the slow malnutrition that comes from a poor diet. 

Offerings from Watari are bland, tasteless. He does it out of duty, and not even a duty to her. L’s were far better, but he could rarely be bothered. Despite being in an objectively safer situation now, she felt far healthier and more fulfilled when she was with B. Say what you will about the man, he had a single-minded focus that played well with the supernatural ‘look-at-me’ diet Zero was afflicted with. 

She couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to drink blood donated willingly to her, specifically. Would it be any different from her own kills? She knew it must be different from the blood donated for universal use, as that intention was too vague for her to even consume it without it being offered. 

Operating within the parameters of the law was the worst. Unlike B, who embraced being a criminal like he was born to do it, L liked to tout ‘justice’ as his motivation. Why, Zero wondered, am I always surrounded by liars? A demand for intellectual entertainment and an addiction to winning was what fueled L’s interest in crime solving, not any sort of moral drive. And then to have the audacity to act like she was wrong to want to kill and eat people… 

B was many things, but at least he kept her fed to the best of his ability. Most of the time. 

A call of her name had Zero snapping back to the present. Matsuda flinched as her eyes met his. “Ah, Aster-san. Um, did you want any coffee? I’m making a run.” He finished nervously. 

If Zero weren’t so emotionally stunted, she may have felt bad that such a genuinely kind man was so intimidated by her. She might have spoken up on behalf of Matusda, who L was treating like the idiot intern. Unfortunately, she was, and hearing the cruel alias “Ryuzaki” had chosen for her did little to endear him to her. 

“No.” Her eyes flickered back to the window. 

Matsuda, as a good Japanese citizen, seemed both appalled at her lack of manners and relieved that he was no longer the center of her attention. 

“Ah, o-okay.” He nearly ran out the door. 

From the corner of her eye, Zero saw Chief Yagami looking at her disapprovingly. By appearances, she was a goth, rebellious young adult who had no respect. Darkly amused, she entertained thoughts of his reaction if he knew that she looked like this because she was a cannibalistic monster, and not because she thought it looked ‘cool.’ 

Ah, maybe one day. 

L was finally making his move against the Yagami son. He left for the first day of classes today, and Zero was bitterly jealous of him for getting to leave the hotel. For all that she had ‘escaped’ captivity, she was just as restricted as she ever was. If she were smart, she would be trying to endear herself to the task force. Unfortunately, Zero was petulant, emotionally underdeveloped, and sick of begging for scraps of attention from L. 

She heard chattering around her. L had returned. She appeared at his elbow and followed him from the room when he left. He seemed tense and irritated. Did the first meeting not go as planned? She wondered what she could do to improve his mood. Bad things happened when Master was- 

“I’m not him, you know.” L snapped abruptly. Zero stared in bewilderment at the non-sequitur. 

“What?” 

“I’m not B. You don’t have to follow me around and stare at me attentively. I’m accustomed to solitude, and I didn’t ask you to become my half-dead shadow.” Zero felt a spike of pain pierce her heart. Blinking back tears, she bowed sharply and left without a word.

As if I don’t know that , she thought furiously as she stormed down the hall. As if I don’t already know that I keep dissociating and forgetting I’m not with him. But, sure. Make it all about you. Asshole. 

It wouldn’t hurt so much if she didn’t feel somehow programmed to try and please him. She wasn’t sure if it was the bond from him being her only source of fulfilling attention, or years of being conditioned to impress a man who acted like a more unhinged version of L. 

Oh, you didn’t ask for me to become your half-dead shadow? Well, I didn’t ask to go from one childish sociopath captor to the next. Zero was audibly hissing in rage, to the great alarm of the task force. She thundered her way past them into the room that had been designated for her. 

She threw her meager belongings into the backpack B had gotten her before their trip to L.A., nearly screaming in frustration when she couldn’t find her only other skirt. 

Giving up for now, she crawled under the bed to escape the incessant light from the window. Her old room never had windows, and B had put blackout curtains on the other windows in the warehouse. He was as much of a creature of darkness as she was, herself. She closed her eyes and tried her best to meditate, knowing that she needed more energy than she currently had if she were to try and make it on her own. 

She wasn’t doing any good here. She was no closer to killing that son of a bitch who stole B from her than she was months ago, and she knew that L would do anything in his power to stop her from stealing his perfect victory by killing his suspect. There is absolutely no way that he was unaware of her intentions. She clenched her eyes shut tighter and attempted to focus once more. 

Two days later, she sensed something in her periphery. “Aster.” She ignored him. She wouldn’t answer to that name, not right now. 

An exasperated sigh. “Zero.”

She crawled back out into the room, crouching in a way that made it very clear that L wasn’t to get any closer. She bared her teeth in greeting, instincts feeling overwhelming in her rage.  

“I realized that I misrepresented my opinion, earlier,” L started quietly. 

Zero internally rolled her eyes. Misrepresented your feelings, you mean. She thought sardonically. ‘Oh, I’m sorry for becoming kidnapper 2.0 and controlling your life exactly the way B did, but I still won’t let you fall into habits that are your only source of stability, ’ she mocked silently. 

L continued, unaware of her monologue. “I do not dislike your company. I dislike being compared to others, and sometimes you look at me and only see him. I’ve spent far too much of my life distinguishing myself to appreciate not being seen.” 

His tone betrayed nothing. Typical. Lord forbid the men in Zero’s life show a goddamned second of emotional availability. 

She was disgusted with herself, with her weakness of relying on the acknowledgement of others just to maintain her right to exist. She had found herself in exactly the same position as before - at the mercy of a man that had become the center of her universe. Would she never be able to exist for herself alone? Had she lost that intrinsic right when she had died in her old life, or whatever it was that happened to result in this ghoulish existence? 

“You should stay.” 

Zero stared. 

At her lack of response, his eyes narrowed. This was a man who was used to commanding the respect of every room he was in, physically present or otherwise. In her current state of mind, Zero was not inclined to give it to him. Were he to have been feeding her regularly, this would be an entirely different story. 

“You aren’t taking proper care of me. If you don’t want to pay enough attention to me to keep me alive, then let me go somewhere else.” Zero countered bitterly. 

L raised his eyebrows. “You sound like you are asking to be rehomed.” Like an abused pet . He needed not finish the sentence. They both heard it.

This, for obvious reasons, did nothing to improve her mood. She snarled at him and snatched up her half-full bag, moving to shoulder past him. He caught her arm in a firm grip. They both knew that she could outmatch his strength, but the action was unexpected enough to stall her. 

His eyes burned into her when their gazes met. “I want you here. This case has obvious supernatural elements, and you are the only lead we have from that angle.”

Zero finally realized just what in the hell L had been doing these past few months. He was testing her reactions. Not entirely different from poking something with a stick to see what it would do. She didn’t know whether to rip his throat out for the audacity or to relax under the familiar parameters of mind games and cruelty. 

Perhaps, now that she had shown that she would leave when pushed too far, he would start to make her want to stay. Assuming he was telling the truth, that was. He rarely did. 

“I can’t live like this. I miss him so much that it hurts. I sit here and wither away while you watch, because you can’t be bothered to feed me properly.” she spit lowly. 

“I will do better,” he muttered. His face looked like he was sucking on a lemon. What must it have cost him to ‘lose’ this interaction? 

Zero realized with some surprise that he was serious.

Her face darkened in suspicion. “You’ll let me go outside? You’ll start paying enough attention to me that I don’t feel like I’ll fade back to the aether at any moment?” she demanded.

L inclined his head. “You have my word.”

Zero set down the bag. 

“You will need normal clothes. You can keep the black, but we should at least give the illusion that your general appearance is on purpose.” 

Zero looked at him questioningly. 

“I have an outing planned with the suspect. We will play tennis at the university. You may come along,” he explained. 

Zero was thrilled. 

Finally, we are getting somewhere.

Chapter Text

Zero pulled at the hem of her dress anxiously, well aware of the stares she was getting. She wondered if she was this much of an eyesore before she was transformed into whatever she was now. 

“Stop fidgeting. People who dress like that do it on purpose and aren’t embarrassed about it.” L interrupted her internal panic with his usual bland observations. Zero nodded awkwardly and held her hands still. 

Would this kid get here, already? Kiddie-Kira suspect was late, the bastard. 

“Ryuuga-san!” A saccharine voice called from behind them. 

She turned around to the most beautiful man she had ever seen. She was mildly astonished at how attractive he was, and she didn't even like men. More importantly, however, there was an eight foot tall giant fucking monster floating behind him. Zero stifled a scream, and the two (three!!!) turned to stare at her. 

She tugged on L’s sleeve. “Tell me you see that thing floating behind him,” she hissed into his ear frantically, switching to Russian. 

L whipped his head around to face her fully, gaze piercing. He shook his head at her to indicate ‘not now. Later.’ 

An awkward silence followed. The creature saw her reaction and kept looking between her face and the space over the top of her head…just like B had for the first week after he took her. It squinted at her like she was an interesting bug, and she jumped nearly a foot in the air when it cackled. This time, it was Yagami who whipped his head around to stare at her in astonishment. 

He can see it too, she realized, and her blood ran cold. 

“Who’s this, Ryuuga?” Yagami asked sharply. His voice had only the thinnest veneer of politeness. L looked incredibly interested to know what he was missing. 

“For your purposes, she is my half-sister, Hideki Aiko . She came to support me in our match. Aiko-kun, this is Yagami Light, the Police Chief’s son.” His lips curled into a grin for one and a half seconds exactly, and then fell back into its usual blank state. 

Yagami hadn’t taken his eyes off of her for a second. “Nice to meet you, Hideki-san. Please, call me Light.”

She jerked a shallow bow and said nothing. L, desperate to get this outing back on track, moved the conversation along. “She doesn’t speak much. Anyway, let’s head to the court.”

Yagami gave a smile that didn’t reach his cold, soulless eyes. “Of course, Ryuuga.” he replied cheerfully. 

Zero was quietly having an internal meltdown. Both the Yagami kid and his pet horror clown had yet to take their eyes off of her. They walked leisurely over to the tennis court, though something told her that the game was not at all what anyone was thinking about anymore. 

“We should play doubles.” L said unexpectedly.

What?

Both Zero and Light turned to look at him, startled. Light, unlike Zero, seemed incredibly pleased with the idea. 

Zero looked L straight in the eye. “Please don’t make me play with this lunatic. This is the scariest man I’ve ever met in my life, and I lived with Beyond.” She hoped to god that Yagami actually couldn’t speak Russian, or this was about to get even more awkward. 

L looked incredibly taken aback, but insisted. “If you leave now, he will be focused on you and what you are doing instead of the game. The point of this is to get a better read on his personality. I’d like to salvage what I can from this exercise.” he muttered in the same language. 

Yagami was starting to look mildly peeved at being left out of their conversation. It seems he couldn’t speak Russian after all. He cleared his throat pointedly. 

“Should we get started?” His faux-chipper tone fell a little flat. 

L handed her his extra racket with a heavy look. Zero sighed miserably and made her way to the other side of the court. Yagami was waving down a partner. It wasn’t exactly hard to find a volunteer - apparently the little psycho knew everyone and they all were a little in love with him. 

She couldn’t help but notice the judgemental stares from the students and tensed up again. L jabbed her in the side with his index finger to remind her of their earlier conversation. She did her best not to look so anxious, and focused on the fact that the attention was making her feel a little more healthy despite it being negative. 

The game…went. 

Zero had inhuman reflexes for all that she’d never played a sport before, so she wasn’t the worst partner. She was still holding him back, but it was nothing like if a normal human had attempted to play for the first time.

Yagami’s partner, on the other hand, was the final nail in the coffin that was the futility of this experiment. Whatever L had been hoping to learn from this, it was clearly rendered pointless in the face of an average tennis player. No offense to this guy, she was sure that he was perfectly fine when faced with opponents on his level, but. Yikes. 

L was clearly frustrated, and played twice as hard for it. He actually stumbled at one point and she had to dart in to yank him upright before he face planted in front of ninety strangers and his new arch nemesis. Making a mistake just seemed to irritate him more, to Zero’s mounting anxiety. 

She knew that L wasn’t B, but it’s a hard mindset to break. 

Eventually, she and L won. This was pointless and didn’t prove anything at all due to the interfering elements of both Yagami’s partner and Zero herself. 

L managed to shoo away the extra body before convincing Light to go to a cafe with them. Not that it took much convincing, mind. Like hell would Yagami miss a chance to learn more about Zero after what happened this morning. 

Zero trailed behind them silently as the men postured at one another on the way to their destination. The horror clown drifted closer, and she suppressed a squeak while steadfastly looking the other direction. 

It gave a raspy chuckle. “I know you can see me.” This was said quietly enough that Light couldn’t hear. 

Zero flinched hard at the grating sound of its voice. God, she wanted to be anywhere else. 

She shook her head minutely. 

It leaned even closer, to her disgust. “Name’s Ryuk. I’m a shinigami, but what are you ?” He, apparently, asked with great delight. 

Fearing what he may do should she ignore him, she mumbled a response. “Not sure. I’m Zero, and I just woke up like this one day.”

He wheezed another laugh. She could see Light’s shoulders tensing slightly as he bantered with L. 

Light made a strange gesture with his fingers. Apparently this meant something to Ryuk, as his face went briefly sour. 

“See you around, Zero,” was all he said before flapping his enormous wings and taking off. She stumbled from the air displacement, and the men turned around to look at her in confusion. Light’s eyes bore into her like daggers. L just looked curious. 

She waved them off, mumbling “Tell you later,” in Russian. 

Light’s eyebrow twitched again at the foreign language, but he had to let it go. They had finally arrived at the cafe. After ordering a small mountain of dessert, L tried to steer the conversation back where he wanted it. He started laying out suicide notes from Kira victims to test the boy’s response. This was hardly interesting, so Zero stared out the window again. 

Her stare down with a nearby pigeon was interrupted by Yagami. “Ah, Ryuuga-san, can your sister not speak Japanese? We can switch to English, but I’m afraid I don’t know any Russian.” He scratched the back of his head sheepishly with a close-eyed smile. L and Zero exchanged a look. 

“Oh, she speaks Japanese quite well. She sounds like a native. Isn’t that right, Nee-san?” He smirked at her. 

Zero gave L a filthy glare, but replied. “I can speak Japanese.” She muttered spitefully. 

Light’s eyebrows were nearly to his hairline. 

“Why does she sound like-?”

“I sound like a Yakuza thug because that’s who taught me to speak it,” she snapped. 

‘Taught’ being a relative word for ‘B cleaned out a Yakuza den and I absorbed the knowledge from eating their brains.’ There was more than one reason why the task force had such a low opinion of her. 

Light seemed to be coming to several, likely erroneous, conclusions. “I see.” He really, really did not. 

Their outing was postponed indefinitely by the sudden ringing of multiple cell phones and the knowledge that the Chief was in the hospital. 

Chapter Text

As it turns out, knowing that the main suspect has a pet demon does not actually change anything.

Zero gaped at L in disbelief. 

“I, what?! So you kept me around for the supernatural aspects of this case, but when I find irrefutable evidence that this is our guy, it doesn’t matter.” Her tone was flat, but her eyes promised violence. 

“It is in no way irrefutable,” countered L. “And I was already certain about Light being Kira. You are the only one other than him who can see this creature, and the point of this is to gather enough evidence for a conviction. Otherwise, I lose.” he finished succinctly. 

Of course. Zero had briefly forgotten who she was dealing with. This wasn’t about stopping the murders for him; it was about winning and losing. She knew now that L would see this case through if it killed him. He had never had a worthy opponent before. Even B was too unstable to be a threat to L, she thought regretfully. 

Zero didn’t much care about the deaths of strangers, being the cause of many deaths herself. If that was what L wanted, then so be it. But she’s going to be livid if L lets the demon clown kill her. 

“As you say, Ryuzaki.” she replied noncommittally. She was over this case already. Her promised vengeance would remain out of reach forever, it seemed. 

L’s eyes sharpened. “If Light-kun comes up missing, I will know it was you and I will make you regret it.” 

Zero scoffed, offended. “When have I ever disobeyed you?”

A strange expression crossed L’s face. Likely, he was seeing the similarities between his relationship with Zero, and Zero’s previous relationship with B. He clearly put it off as a problem for another time, because he soon dismissed her. 

She interpreted this order generously, and waited outside the door. She remained there, meditating, until yelling and slamming doors roused her. L gave her a disgruntled look when he saw her position, but said nothing as he walked quickly to the room where the rest of the taskforce was working. She followed close behind.

“Something is happening on Sakura TV!” one of the officers exclaimed. Zero hadn’t actually learned all of their names, despite their small number. 

The screen depicted two reporters with grave expressions, explaining how they were being held hostage by someone claiming to be Kira. 

Something must have occurred to L, because he sat up straighter and, in the most serious voice she had ever heard him use, said “We must do everything in our power to stop this broadcast!”

While the men started making a dozen phone calls to the higher ups, Zero approached L. “I can do it.” 

“No.”

“L, I can do this. You’ve read his journals; you know what I’ve been trained to do. There is minimal risk to my person. I don’t even have a name, assuming that whatever power this is would work on something like me. Legally, I don’t exist. There is no one less vulnerable to Kira than I am.” she implored. 

L eyed her, mulling it over. “Actually, I don’t think that this is Kira at all. I’ll elaborate later. More importantly: keep the casualties to a minimum, Aster-kun.”

He said yes. He said yes ! Zero was ecstatic. 

The others, not so much. Nearly in unison, protests rang around the room. L cut them off sharply. “She is the most capable of dealing with this threat of everyone in this room. I won’t hear any more about it. Aster, what do you need for this to work?”

Zero was floored by his unexpected support. “I need a weapon, a helmet, and a motorcycle.” She hoped a weapon wasn’t pushing it too much. She didn’t really need one to be dangerous, but she was trying her best to keep the powers under wraps. 

To her surprise, L nodded sharply. “Watari.”

“On it, sir. ETA is three minutes.”

That was barely enough time to take the elevator to the lobby. Zero sprinted out the door and booked it to the staircase. She hoped that no one was watching the security footage, because the shit she did to get down that fast was strikingly inhuman. 

She skidded to a stop to see the promised motorcycle, helmet, and weapon. They had given her a gun. It was even loaded. Her training had mostly focused on assault rifles, snipers, and knives, but B would have been a pretty pathetic teacher if she couldn’t handle a pistol. 

She grinned wildly, gun in hand. She mounted the bike and took off at unwise speeds, already needing to dodge several dozen pedestrians in the first minute and a half.

She wove in and out of the heavy traffic, and would be dead six times over if it weren’t for her unnatural reflexes. 

God, this brings back memories. Her mind flashed to the bridge, and her smile turned bitter. 

She loathed the helmet and how it prevented wind on her face. She shook her head and turned the throttle as far back as it would go. The bike roared as she flew through the night. 

With the smell of burnt rubber in her nose, she slammed the bike to a stop outside the station. She didn’t bother trying the door handles, instead using the butt of the gun to smash the glass. She hoped that no one watching this on the news looked into that too deeply, because that absolutely should not have worked. 

Running through the building, she leapt over every obstacle in her way. She reveled in the enormous mess that she was making of this place as papers flew everywhere. Finally reaching the studio room, she made like a human-shaped battering ram into the men trying to block her path. 

She ripped the cassette tapes from their place, cutting off the mechanized voice mid-syllable. Knowing L would want them, she shoved them into one of the deep pockets of her ratty skirt. The reporters and other staff screamed, but there was one man who wasn’t intimidated. 

“What do you think you’re doing?! This broadcast is going to keep my studio on the map for the next decade!” he screamed. 

Zero gave him a once over before leaping at him. She grabbed him by the back of the neck, shoving the barrel of her gun against his skull. She pushed the both of them in front of the camera, the previous reporters long gone after her dramatic entrance. The man was quiet, his rotund frame shaking. It seemed that he wasn’t so brave after all. 

Zero looked into the camera with her helmeted face and tilted her head in greeting. 

“Hello, Kira.” 

She shot the camera lens dead center.

Chapter Text

Seconds later, an earth-shattering crash echoed through the building. Apparently someone thought that her point of entry wasn’t wide enough, and decided to drive an entire bus through the wall. 

Two dozen special ops agents poured into the room, guns trained on her. Fuck. 

Zero immediately raised one hand in the air, gently placing her gun on the ground and then letting the second hand join the first. 

Wait, wasn’t that the Chief?!

Oh my god, he doesn’t know it’s me . Zero moaned internally. 

A voice crackled in her ear through the helmet. “Stay calm. Surrender to the police, but don’t say a word. I’ll have you released within a few hours, but saying that you are associated with me would cause a lot of problems right now.” 

It was L. Of course. She was stupid not to realize that any equipment he had on hand would be bugged to hell and back. 

She hummed her assent, and let herself be forcefully maneuvered into handcuffs while furious officers shouted in her ear. 

Hours later, Zero twiddled her thumbs where she was chained to an interrogation table by her wrists. 

These people must think that she was some sort of die-hard career criminal. Between her frightening appearance and her refusal to speak or accept even a glass of water, Zero was quite sure that she came across as a lunatic. She wished L would hurry it up. He had asked her not to say a word, and so she wouldn’t, but that didn’t mean that she wasn’t bored out of her skull. 

Maybe she should become a career criminal. It sounded like a lot more action and entertainment than she was getting now, anyways. 

She entertained thoughts of this nature until she heard the unmistakable sound of the door being unlocked. Chief Yagami was waiting outside, looking haggard. 

She wriggled her fingers in greeting, not sure how literal L meant his order not to say a word. 

“Aster-san. Ryuzaki has arranged for your release. Please follow me.” It was frankly obvious that the man didn’t want to be here. She wasn’t sure if it was personal, or just because he should still be in the hospital. 

She gave him a pleased grin, not remembering her sharp incisors until the man grimaced. 

Luckily, the Chief had managed to snag the tapes she recovered before the police could get to them. She followed the man to the car waiting outside, not hesitating to climb in. He didn’t say a word until they got to the hotel.

“I didn’t expect that from you,” he admitted gruffly. 

Zero raised her eyebrows at him, cocking one hand on her hip while letting the other cradle her recovered helmet. “Why do you think he keeps me around? It’s definitely not for my charming personality.” she replied, amused. 

“Still. It was a brave thing you did back there. I was planning something similar.” He nodded his head at her silently as he passed her into the room, bag of tapes in hand. 

His arrival was greeted with a mix of cheers and concern for his health. The room quieted a little when she walked in behind him. The task force was looking at her with the type of evaluating stare that they hadn’t bothered with before. It seemed that she had proved something tonight. They likely took this as proof that Zero was just as devoted to the case as they were. 

She would let them keep thinking that. She felt warmed by their regard. Supernaturally warmed, that is, because she didn’t care about their personal opinions of her. 

L’s opinion, on the other hand…

“Aster,” he greeted. “well done.” He gave her one of his rare smiles, and she flushed, pleased. 

After watching the tapes, L sent one off to be played by Sakura TV. Zero wondered what he was planning, and hoped it would involve more missions like the one she had just been on. 

One could only hope. 

Chapter Text

Zero almost danced in glee when they told her that she was getting to go out again. She was grinning so hard her face hurt, eyes shining. 

L couldn’t resist the chance to mess with her. “And Light-kun will be accompanying you.” he told her smugly.

The grin was wiped off of her face, and her impossibly pale skin went three shades whiter. “Please tell me you’re not serious.”

He made an expression of contrition that did not fool her for a second. “He has to go, Aster-kun. The people you’re going with are all his friends, after all.”

Zero prayed that Yagami had somehow forgotten that she could see the clown demon. 

There was a soft knock on the doorframe, and Zero nearly jumped when it was Light. Speak of the fucking devil…

“Ready to go, Hideki-san?” His expression was pure innocence. Eugh. 

She mumbled an affirmative, trudging out after him. She shot a deliberate look over her shoulder before she left the room. 

The short ride was painfully awkward. Light kept trying to lead her into conversations, and she kept shutting them down in return. The resting friendly expression was put to the test. Zero swore she saw his eye twitch.

“Have I done something to offend you, Hideki-san?” His voice was sad.  

“I’m not much for conversation,” was all that Zero was willing to give him in reply. 

Zero felt the car slowing to a stop. Finally, they had arrived at the meeting point. She scrambled to get out of the car, nearly elbowing Light in the face to get away from him. 

She hissed in displeasure upon her escape. She had forgotten how bright it was out here. 

She heard a tentative clearing of a throat behind her. She turned to see a group of maybe seven teenagers and Yagami staring at her strangely. Yagami, the perfect gentleman, took it upon himself to introduce her. 

“Thanks for agreeing to hang out with me.” A chorus of enthusiastic greetings met his words. “This is Hideki Aiko, the sister of a friend of mine.” 

The group turned towards her expectantly. Here was the question: should she respond and out herself as some sort of criminal lowlife, or should she commit the incredible faux-pas of not introducing herself? 

Light saved her from deciding, surely thinking that his social life would take a heavy hit from associating with someone perceived as a criminal. As it was, he looked like a sweet boy trying to do a favor for his friend by taking his loser of a sister out on the town. 

“She’s very shy, and doesn’t talk much, but I’d appreciate it if you treated her kindly.” This was said softly, as though she couldn’t hear him. His explanation seemed to satisfy his friends. 

She flushed hideously in anger. He makes me sound like a fucking foster puppy that he’s trying to socialize, she thought incredulously. There was nothing for it. Unless she wanted to correct him and sour the whole outing, she would have to deal with it. 

The group had fortunately taken her angry flush as confirmation of how shy she was. She bowed at an appropriate depth and went to stand with them. As they made their way through the crowds, going from store to store for most of the day, Zero started to doubt that this second Kira was going to show after all. 

She felt a prickle on the back of her neck and knew with dead certainty that someone was watching her. Desperate for something interesting to happen, she muttered to Light that she was going to the bathroom and vanished before he could protest. 

Away from the bulk of the crowd, slim, manicured fingers attempted to pull her into an alley. She didn’t budge, instead whirling around to press her attacker to the wall by the throat. Her eyes widened as she took in the enormous blue eyes, soft features, and blonde hair peeking out from an expensive wig. This was not what she had expected someone who pulls women into dark alleys to look like. 

The woman spoke, her voice bell-like and high pitched in worry. “Wait! I’m so sorry to approach you like this, but I had to get you alone. You’re Kira! I’ve been waiting for you!” There were almost literal stars in her eyes. 

You have got to be shitting me. How, in god’s name, had Zero managed to stumble her way into the person they had been looking for out of the ten thousand people in this shopping district today?

She flinched and released her immediately when a raspy voice sounded from behind her. “This is no death note wielder, Misa,” it rumbled. 

Zero backed away nervously. Another shinigami?!

“This is something else.” It finished. The creature, obviously feminine when inspected more closely, eyed Zero threateningly. Zero hoped that she could make up for her abysmal first impression. A vengeful death god was not something she needed right now, or ever. 

“What do you mean, Rem?” Misa queried.

“This is no human, but it does not carry a death note.”

“I don’t know what I am. My name is Zero.” she volunteered, bringing the bright blue eyes back to her. 

Those eyes squinted at her. “You’re not going to tell, are you? It’s pretty obvious that I’m the second Kira.” 

Zero sweat-dropped at how easily she admitted that. “Ah, Misa-san, you should be more careful about admitting stuff like that. What if I had been wiretapped?” 

Misa gasped, clearly not having considered that.

Making a snap decision, Zero blurted, “I’m not Kira, but I know who is. If you agree to hear me out, then I’ll tell you.”

Misa nearly swooned at this information. “You will?! ” she squealed. 

The shinigami chose this moment to speak up. “If you are lying, you will not live to regret it.” Her yellow eyes were severe. Zero didn’t doubt her. 

“I’m not! I promise. It’s complicated, but I’m interested in you.” She flushed in mortification when she realized how that sounded, but it wasn’t even misspoken. Lord, save me from beautiful women. 

Misa gave her a once over and looked incredibly flattered. Apparently, the crypt-monster aesthetic held a certain appeal to the goth subculture. 

“Oh. Oh! I see. Well, that’s okay then!” She pulled a shiny red phone from her purse. “Here, take this. That way, I’ll be able to contact you.” 

Zero hadn’t been trusted with a cellphone since Beyond. She wasn’t sure if L thought she shouldn’t have one, or if he just didn’t see a need since she had no one outside to contact. 

She accepted it gratefully. “I must warn you, the person I am living with is not someone that can know about your identity. We’ll have to speak in code. Only talk about hanging out and meeting up when you contact me outside of face-to-face.”

Misa nodded seriously. “Of course! I can be super sneaky,” she assured. Zero hoped that this was true. 

Realizing how long she’d been gone, she said her goodbyes to Misa and promised to see her soon. 

Light was incredibly displeased with her. He tried to conceal it with his usual facade, but Zero was certain that she was correct. He excused them from the group, saying that they needed to go buy something personal for her brother. 

Light jerked his chin pointedly at a less busy area a few meters to the right. She sighed, but ultimately followed. “Yes, Yagami-San?”

The harmless guise was almost entirely absent, the only remnant being Light’s carefully controlled expressions so as to not alert any passerby. “Don’t play stupid,” he said pleasantly. “Why can you see Ryuk? I heard you talking, and he told me that you aren’t human. What are you, and how much do you know?” His frigid glare flashed red, and Zero raised her eyebrows. Yikes. 

She gave up the pretense as well, deciding that she was tired of this. Shinigami may be scary, but this boy wasn’t. “I don’t know why I can see him. And I don’t know what I am. As for what I know, it doesn’t matter.”

Light’s scoff interrupted her, and she glared at him. “This game is between you and him, so leave me out of it. I only do things that L asks me to do and whatever seems the most entertaining at the time, and that’s all you’re getting out of me,” she finished firmly. 

“So, what, you expect me to believe that you haven’t told him what you saw before our tennis match?” He didn’t believe her for a second. Zero didn’t care. Whatever power he held, she was willing to bet her life that it wouldn’t work on her. 

“Would it matter if I did?” she countered. “Deciding if you are or aren’t Kira has never been what this game is about. L knows you are Kira with a bone-deep certainty, he just can’t prove it yet. You’re thinking of this the wrong way. You can’t convince L that you aren’t Kira, so what you can do is be less goddamned suspicious.”

Light looked wrathfully offended, then solemn and contemplative. She wouldn’t want to see the inside of this guy’s head; there’s no way that he wasn’t at least as crazy as B. 

Zero wasn’t sure what had gotten into her. A part of her hated Kira for killing B, but another part of her was so bitterly angry at L for being the one to truly steal him away. L was the one who made him Backup, L was the one who drove him to madness trying to surpass a mythic legacy, and L was the one who had him arrested and put on Kira’s radar. Who was really responsible? For that matter, was she angry that B was dead, or angry that she didn’t kill him herself as she was meant to? Zero didn’t know. 

She couldn’t make up her mind on how to feel about L, and his oscillation between treating her kindly and pressing her buttons was making it much harder. She didn’t know him like that. It just made her think of B, which made her even more conflicted. 

“I see,” he finally replied. “You know,” and here comes the recruitment pitch, “I could use someone like you. L trusts you, and you have a lot of skills that could solve some problems for me.” His voice became honeyed; his eyes were dark and inviting. 

Buddy, you are so barking up the wrong tree right now. This was almost hysterical to Zero. She wasn’t sure if she should play along to see where this goes, or enjoy the truly priceless expression on his face when he realizes that his tried and true method had failed him. 

She chose the second. She really couldn’t resist. She leaned closer, seemingly entranced. Her lips parted, and victory flashed in his eyes. 

She snapped her teeth in his face, and he flinched so hard that he nearly fell over. Her laugh was painfully shrill. God, she would remember the look on his face for the rest of her life, even if she lived a thousand years. 

Now he was really, truly angry. A boy with an ego like that didn’t take well to being mocked. 

“L doesn’t trust anyone, and you’ve not convinced me that sticking with you comes with a retirement plan, kiddo.” 

He looked ready to throttle her. “You-” he snarled, hands reaching for her with violent intent. Wow. She wondered if he was always this unbalanced, or if the death note had made it worse.  

“Careful, Light-kun! What would your college buddies say if they caught you manhandling your friend’s shy, helpless sister?” She now understood why B did this. The high was incredible. 

Serenity slid over his features like water at the reminder of the public venue, and it was quite frankly a terrifying display of how calculated this guy really was. “Of course.”

“Let me know if you have something you want me to do, though. If it’s funny or incredibly violent, I may even agree.”

Light hummed, murmuring “definitely related to shinigami,” under his breath. 

He took her arm with a grip that was just a little too tight, and they spent the rest of the afternoon walking around like that. He definitely wouldn’t let her out of his sight again if he could help it. She was proving to be a threat in ways he hadn’t imagined. 

They never did come across that second Kira. Pity. 

Chapter Text

The ride back to the hotel was, impressively, even more tense than the ride before it. Light hadn’t said a word, but his stare drilled holes into the side of her head. She sure hoped that his shinigami was less fond of him than Misa’s was of her, or she was in trouble. 

They entered the room to share the unsurprising news. Zero had already decided not to tell L about meeting the second Kira. Considering how he dismissed her the last time…

Fine, then. 

She approached L where he was working. “Yes, Aster-kun?” He asked boredly. 

“I made a friend, and I want to see her again. She gave me a phone to call her.” If she tried to hide it, it would only draw attention to it. 

L looked shocked. Zero was mildly offended. She wasn’t that frightening and unapproachable, was she?

Yeah, okay. Maybe she walked into that one. 

“Unexpected,” he muttered. “I don’t see the harm, provided you use common sense.”

Why does this sound like I’m asking my dad for permission? Zero shuddered at the mental image she had just created, but smiled weakly in thanks. 

Two weeks later, there was still no video response sent in from the second Kira. L theorized that either the second Kira didn’t manage to find the first in Aoyama, or they did meet up, and the first Kira was now controlling the second. Or maybe had killed them. He didn’t have much to go on, and he was devoid of his typical certainty. 

The task force was growing restless. The deaths had continued, even more so than before now that there was another player on the field. They were playing a waiting game. While the tapes had DNA evidence, that didn’t do anyone any good if there was no match in the system. They’d have to narrow down suspects by the traits that the killer had shown, age, sudden changes in behavior, and presence at Aoyama on the 23rd. 

L had managed to determine that the suspect was a young female with a traumatic past, likely involving assault. He claimed that this was because the profile of the newer victims were all men who abused vulnerable people.  He said that to kill at this scale, this was a personal grudge, hence the traumatic past. As for being young, they had already established that the Kira ideology was the type only held by those who hadn’t seen much of the world yet. 

Zero was admittedly impressed with him, as she was the only person who knew that he was exactly right. She didn’t know anything about a tragic backstory, but L’s reasoning made enough sense that she was certain there was one. 

Finally, the day had come where she was to meet Misa. She had picked out a cute cafe that Zero never would have picked for herself, but could definitely see Misa enjoying herself at. Zero rubbed at her skirt and pulled at the ends of her braid while she waited. 

L hadn’t believed his eyes when she came into the room all fixed up.  All he had to say was, “Ah. So it’s that type of friend.” He then smirked at her. 

The bell rang over the door. Unlike the last six times she looked at it hopefully, this time it was Misa who walked through. She was breathtaking, despite the comically large glasses that hid her face from her adoring fans. Zero was astonished when she realized just who the second Kira actually was. She wouldn’t have guessed an actress-supermodel bombshell. Today’s outfit was all black ruffles and lace, and she could feel her face turning unflattering colors as she blushed. 

“Misa,” she greeted quietly with a shy smile. 

Misa looked just as happy to see her. “Zero-chan! I wasn’t sure you’d call. You seemed really sincere when we met, but then I totally started to worry.”

“I did promise,” Zero reminded her. “Where’s Rem today?”

Misa waved her hand dismissively. “Oh, we don’t spend every second together, you know. She’s around here somewhere.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “More importantly, you promised to tell me who Kira is.” 

Oh. Right. The reason why Misa actually gave her the time of day. 

“And I will. I just beg of you to stop and think about what you want from this before doing anything.” 

Misa frowned deeply. “Why does everyone always think I don’t know what I’m doing?” she demanded.

Zero tried to calm her. “I don’t think that you are incompetent. I think that you are passionate, and sometimes that means leaping without looking. I’m the same, so that’s why I wanted to tell you like this.” 

She looked mostly mollified, thankfully. 

“Kira is a boy named Yagami Light. He’s the son of officer Yagami Soichiro. But the reason I’m warning you is because he’s not what you think he is.” Misa looked ready to protest, and Zero had to remind her that she promised to hear her out. 

She hoped that Misa would devote her passion to someone who wouldn’t abuse it. She shone so brightly, and Zero couldn’t help but admire how much she cared about the suffering of others. It was an unfathomable mindset to someone as jaded as her. 

“He is a manipulative liar who would sell out his only family in a heartbeat to avoid getting caught. He acts sweet, but behind those eyes is a monster. He only cares about winning and his own ego.” Despite how relatively sheltered she was, Zero had absorbed quite a bit of life experience from the many thugs she had eaten. They weren’t exactly the best role models, but her only other role model was Beyond Birthday, so it kind of evened out. 

Misa looked devastated. “You’re wrong!” she nearly shouted, eyes tearing up. Zero frantically shushed her as the other patrons turned to look. “That can’t be true,” she insisted, quieter. 

Zero gentled her tone. “I’m only telling you what I have seen. I don’t want you to accept what I’m saying as true; I want you to keep it in mind when you meet him so that he can’t manipulate you or take you by surprise. You can kill with only a face, so you would be invaluable to him.” 

Misa looked touched, her mood flipping near instantly. “Thank you for looking out for me, Zero-chan.” she sniffled. 

Zero was a little disturbed about how strongly she reacted to someone trying to let her decide things for herself. Just what have they done to this girl? she wondered darkly. 

“You just can’t be right about Kira. He avenged my parents. I owe him.” 

And here’s the tragic backstory L promised, Zero thought to herself. 

“Why do you owe him? He didn’t do it for you.” Misa opened her mouth again to argue, but Zero spoke up first. “I understand needing to have a purpose. I have the same problem - all I want is to find a person to devote myself to that will be just as devoted in return. But you won’t find that with him. He’ll use you and never give anything in return.”

Misa was quiet, now. “I don’t wanna talk about this anymore,” she muttered. 

Zero rather agreed with her. “What would you like to talk about? We could go to the park, or to a movie, or the mall?” she offered hopefully, not wanting her time with Misa to end so soon. Her undivided attention was a heady thing, and Zero felt better than she had in weeks. Perhaps Misa could be her new person. 

Misa brightened at the change of subject. “Totally! This was getting really depressing. Let’s go to the mall! That’s the same skirt you were wearing last time I saw you. Do you only have one outfit or something? I can fix that!” 

Oh boy. 

“Oh, um, I mean-” Zero stammered. She was interrupted by a soft hand grabbing hers and leading her quickly out the door. Zero was struck dumb, face steaming. Misa giggled when she looked back and saw the expression on her face. 

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.  This will be loads of fun!” 

She then proceeded to drag Zero through nearly every outlet in the mall, even stores that she never in a million years would have guessed Misa shopped in. “So many people think that fashion comes pre-built on a mannequin, but that’s not true. A personal style is made up of lots of different things from lots of different places, otherwise you just look like everyone else,” she finished passionately. 

“So what do you think my personal style is?” Zero asked curiously. She was enjoying the chance to learn more of Misa’s interests. Her eyes glittered when she spoke, hands gesticulating wildly.

Misa hummed thoughtfully. “There’s something about you that’s just so classic goth. I could totally see you haunting some western-style graveyard somewhere.” This was said like a sincere compliment, despite how it may have sounded. 

Zero smiled at her, teeth glinting. “I appreciate you doing this for me, Misa. You didn’t have to, and it means a lot.” 

“Anytime, Zero-chan. I can tell that we’re going to be best friends forever.” 

To Zero’s surprise, Misa then invited her to come hang out on set at some of her shoots. “Not all of them, obviously, because some don’t allow it, but most of them do! We can hang out in between outfits and you can help me get dressed. It’ll be awesome!” 

This has got to be a come on. Please tell me this is flirting. I know that she knows that I’m attracted to her. Zero was facing the classic lesbian quandary of ‘is this girls being girls, or does she want to date me?’ 

“Of course I’ll go, Misa.” If her voice was slightly hoarse, Zero hoped that it wasn’t noticeable. 

Misa beamed at her. 

“I have to go now, but we should do this again.” Looking resolved, she stepped forward to press a gentle kiss to Zero’s cheek. Zero wasn’t sure she’d ever recover, jaw hitting the floor and face boiling hot. 

Misa giggled sweetly and all but ran away, leaving Zero near catatonic at the railing overlooking the bottom floor of the mall. 

After a moment, she cursed as she realized how far she and Misa had managed to get from headquarters. When Zero finally stumbled her way back to the hotel she was still giddy. 

L waved her over when she was buzzed into the room. “Aster. I won’t bore you with the details, but we have narrowed down our suspects considerably. There is some field work that needs to be done to cross-examine some of them, so I’m assigning you. The others insisted that I shouldn’t send you by yourself, so you’re stuck with Matsuda. Congratulations,” he deadpanned. 

He paused to really take her in, noticing the joy that she couldn’t manage to hide. “What’s got you so upbeat?” Zero knew that he didn’t care about her personal life. What he really meant was, ‘did you do anything that would compromise us while you were out?’ 

Zero didn’t let it get her down. “She’s amazing,” she breathed, gazing dreamily into the distance.

L stared at her like he’d never seen her before. “How strange,” he muttered. “Back to relevant matters: you leave with Matsuda at 0800 tomorrow. Don’t be distracted.” 

Zero nodded and nearly floated past the task force to her room. They stared at her in disbelief - they had never even seen her smile. 

As she closed the door behind her, she heard a barely muffled conversation. 

“What was that? She was so scary. How is someone scarier when they’re happy?!” Matsuda asked hysterically. 

No one answered him. 

Chapter Text

Zero had lost interest in the Kira case, and L could definitely tell. “You could help,” he said pointedly. 

Zero gave him an uncharacteristic shrug. So much for ‘having his word’ that he’d do better. He had been neglecting her for weeks now, and Misa had enough manic devotion to fuel a small country. She was coming to realize that she didn’t necessarily want to mend their relationship, either. He was a poor substitute for B, and didn’t have any strong feelings about her. 

Sometimes Zero felt that if she were to just vanish, L wouldn’t notice until he needed something from her. She wasn’t sure if he was aware of her drifting away, or if he just thought that she was bored of the case. 

“Help with what?” she finally replied. “I’m no good at anything but field work, and you’ve already assigned me something.” 

L just shook his head at her. “Why did you come along if you don’t care?” 

“It was something to do,” she answered honestly. “I needed a goal, and vengeance is a powerful tool. I needed orders to follow, and someone to serve. I don’t know anything else.” 

Even with the bond so weak, it was hard to lie to him. Zero hoped that he never asked her directly about the second Kira. Her emotions were a disaster. She hated B, she hated L, and yet she held both of them in high regard. She was actively aiding someone who wanted L dead, yet she still sometimes struggled with a desire to avoid disappointing the man. 

L didn’t look satisfied by this response. “There’s more to it. Something else.” he insisted. 

He was right, but Zero wouldn’t tell him. It had been too long since he had last fed her, and far too long since she had seen Misa in person. Zero hadn’t heard from her since she told the woman who Kira was, and she feared that that was all that Misa had wanted from her. 

“I’m going out,” Zero muttered, walking past him. 

L watched her go, saying nothing. There was no telling what he was thinking, or if he devoted any of his considerable brainpower to her at all. 

Five miles from the current headquarters, Zero bound her hair and face with a plain scarf that Misa had gotten her. She didn’t plan on leaving any witnesses, but it never hurt to be careful. She was quite memorable, after all. As she prowled through alleys, she couldn’t help feeling a small thrill. 

I’ll be a vigilante serial killer, just like Misa. Except that neither Kira ate their victims after killing them. Zero didn’t bother herself with the semantics. She hated that Light was such an irredeemable bastard, because she may have otherwise joined his crusade just for how interesting it would have been to fight L under his own roof. 

She paused, realizing that she was slipping into B’s mindset again. That had been happening more and more lately. Thinking about beating L at his own game was a very particular brand of crazy that she thought she had left behind. Zero wondered if she was broken. Now that she could think beyond imminent threats to her life, all she cared about was being well-fed and entertained. She lived very much in the moment and had no long term goals. It was unhealthy, and it was wearing on her heavily. 

In such a populated city, it didn’t take long for her to find a crime taking place. Kira had spread fear to criminals far and wide, but there were always those too stupid to live. 

She came across a sex worker and her client in a dingy alley. The woman had seen better days, her eyes bloodshot and blackened. Zero didn’t particularly care about the semantics of consent, and beamed the man in the head with a rusty metal can hard enough to knock him out. As he slumped, unconscious, the woman let out a shrill scream and sprinted off. 

Zero felt reasonably confident that an illegal prostitute wouldn’t report her to the police, but resolved to get out of there quickly just in case. She looked around for something to put her meal in, eyes almost passing by a filthy storage tote just big enough to fit the body. Well, big enough to fit the body as long as she…disassembled it, anyways. 

Perfect.

She shoved the man torso first into the bin, his head snapping at an unnatural angle as she shoved down at his torso to make it fit. The other limbs were similarly manhandled, joints giving way easily as she folded him into the box. The snapping and cracking sounds made her mouth water, and she couldn’t wait to get started. 

She placed her outermost jacket over the top of the container to act as a lid, and then power-walked out of that alley like the hounds of hell were on her heels. Thirteen blocks later, she found a suitably abandoned area and set down her prize. 

Yanking the head up by its greasy hair, Zero wrinkled her nose in disgust. Maybe she should… there. She spotted a water spout nearby and prayed that it was still connected. Luckily, it was, and she gave her meal a thorough rinse. 

Look at how spoiled I’ve become, she thought sardonically. Before, I ate thugs whole as soon as I beat them in our sparring matches, and God knows where they had even been. 

Stomach cramping, Zero extended her talons and speared an eyeball right through the cornea. She popped it into her mouth, slurping the attached nerve like it was fresh ramen. Zero nearly moaned aloud. She had missed this so, so much. She cursed L for keeping her from indulging in her true nature. She briefly fantasized about putting the man on an equivalent of her diet: a liquid only meal plan of chalky protein shakes that tasted like artificial chocolate. Zero giggled meanly. 

A little while later, Zero heard her phone ring. She froze at once, her hand hanging limp in the air where she had reached for another rib bone to gnaw on. She scrambled for the phone, hands slick with blood making an even bigger mess of her clothes. Swallowing thickly around the flesh in her mouth, she answered it. 

“…Misa?”

A sob was her only response. 

“Zero,” she all but wailed, “you were right.”

“I was what?”

Quieter, Misa repeated herself. “About Kira. You were right,” she finished miserably. 

Zero was now alarmed. “What happened?! Are you okay? Did he try to hurt you?” She could feel her eyes flashing at the thought, and the rib that she had absentmindedly picked up turned to powdered shards in her hand. 

“No,” she sniffled. “He didn’t try to hurt me. But it was just like you said, he was obsessed with the idea of using me for my power and even tried to manipulate my feelings for him to do it. If it weren’t for you and Rem, I wouldn’t have even noticed. I’m such an air-headed moron.” 

Zero was appalled at how certain Misa sounded when declaring her own idiocy. “You are not a moron, Misa,” she snapped. “You are gorgeous and clever, and Yagami Light is a master manipulator with an IQ higher than mine and yours put together. The fact that you saw through it at all is commendable.”

Misa inhaled shakily. “Thanks, Zero-chan.”

“Most importantly,” Zero continued, “how do you want to proceed? Do you want to give up being the second Kira? Do you want to usurp the original? Do you still want to try and work with him?” 

“Can I see you?” Misa asked abruptly.

“I… Of course you can, Misa.” 

After agreeing, Zero used the water spout to clean up and found a place to hide her new friend. She took the teeth with her to scatter somewhere else. Over an hour of walking later, Zero finally made it to what must be Misa’s apartment complex.

She texted Misa her arrival and the elevator doors opened swiftly. Upon knocking, the door swung open instantly and Zero had an armful of sobbing serial killer. At first she stiffened, but she soon relaxed into the hold, stroking Misa’s back in an attempt at comfort. Misa clutched her tighter in response. 

Rem hovered silently in the background. She was clearly out of her depth. “It was good of you to come.” Zero inclined her head respectfully as a reply. 

Eventually, Misa calmed down enough for them to maneuver to the couch. She shivered when Zero started petting her hair softly, eyes fluttering shut. They stayed like that until Misa fell asleep.

Hours later, Zero was roused from her meditation by the distinctive vibration of her cellphone. The screen flashed ‘unknown caller,’ but that could only ever mean L. 

She answered. “Ryuzaki?”

“Are you alone?”

Zero eyed the woman in her lap and the god in the corner. “Yes,” she lied decisively.

“We’ve narrowed the suspects for the second Kira down to a single modeling agency. Be at headquarters in two hours.” He hung up before giving her a chance to respond.

Asshole.

It looks like the time to choose was closer than she thought.

Chapter Text

“Oh, and then what happened?!” Her eyes were shining in anticipation. 

Misa could be rather morbid at times. 

Not that Zero wasn’t grateful. If she weren’t able to talk about her past at all, this wasn’t going to work out anyways. 

“And then I ate him, obviously. It was me or him, and I’m still here, so…” Zero raised her eyebrows meaningfully, grinning. 

Misa stuck her tongue out in response, and Zero went as red as the apples that godforsaken murder clown of Light’s was always whining about. 

This was not missed, and Misa smirked at her. 

“You know what I meant, meanie.”

“What happened next was rather dull, all told. I overpowered him and got a meal out of it, then B patted me on the head and took me back to my room.” Zero fingered the ‘BB’ pendant of the collar that she never stopped wearing, drawing Misa’s gaze. Her eyes narrowed in jealousy. 

“Why do you still wear that?”

Zero stiffened. She knew that it would come up eventually, she just hoped it wouldn’t come up until she actually had an answer for that question. 

“It’s hard to explain,” she muttered evasively.

“Try,” Misa insisted. It must mean a lot to her if she was forcing the issue so much. 

Zero sighed. “He was my entire world, Misa. I don’t even remember my life before I met him. I don’t know how to be anything else besides ‘B’s pet successor.’ 

A truly terrifying expression crossed Misa’s face. “That’s not how it works, Zero! You can’t tell me that I’m not allowed to think badly of myself, and then turn around and tell me that you’re less than a person!”

Zero was incredulous. Misa hadn’t been this angry with her even when she insulted Kira. 

“Misa, I’m sorry. You’re right. I guess I’ll…try to be a little kinder to myself.”

She seemed appeased, her bubbly demeanor returning. “You’d better!”

“Come on, Zero-chan, or we’ll be late for my shoot this afternoon.” 

Hours of staring at Misa in Lingerie and crop tops? Yes, please.

Zero took the lead from where Misa had grabbed her hand, nearly dragging her out the door. Misa cackled. 

When they arrived, Zero dutifully followed Misa to her dressing room, bags in tow. On the way, they passed a decently pretty woman with cherry red hair. The woman’s eyes narrowed as she sneered at Misa nastily. 

Misa blew a kiss in response. 

The woman bared her teeth in a vicious snarl and stalked off. There was a boiling hatred in her eyes that far surpassed mere competitive spirit.

Misa pranced the rest of the way to her dressing room, apparently having won that altercation. Or whatever you wanted to call making faces at each other as grown adults, anyways.

Noticing Zero’s alarmed confusion, Misa explained. “Modeling is an incredibly competitive industry. Karana-san was slated to be the front cover of every teen fashion magazine for the next five years until I was discovered. She hates me with her entire heart, but she can’t beat me. At first she tried to scare me off, but I’m tougher than that,” she finished smugly. 

“Scare you off?” Zero asked sharply. 

Misa waved her off. “Don’t worry about it, Zero-chan. It was ages ago, and it was mostly just gross. Like, messages on the wall in blood and other ‘spooky’ nonsense.”

Zero clenched her jaw, but let it go. No need to make a scene over something from so long ago. That said, this ‘Karana’ was going to lose body parts if she made a move against Misa with her around. Zero ever so loved eating eyes, and hers were a lovely shade of gray. 

The other photoshoots she had been to with Misa had models that were catty, but none so overtly hostile. It set Zero’s teeth on edge.

Several hours later, an exhausted pair made their way back towards Misa’s apartment. Misa was bouncing foot to foot, giggling with every second breath. She had been offered what was, according to her, a once in a lifetime opportunity for a feature in some world-famous magazine. About a block out, Zero’s phone went off. 

Unknown number. Typical. “Hai?” 

“Return to headquarters for a progress report.” For once, it was Watari instead of L. L must be too busy today. Apparently L had learned his phone conversation skills from the best, as the man immediately hung up without waiting for a reply. 

Zero scowled at the ground, furious that her time with Misa was over. Misa squeezed her hand where she had already been holding it. “Hey, it’s alright,” she comforted. “I’ll see you again before you know it! You won’t get away from me that easily,” she finished, the last half of her statement ominously possessive. Zero smiled, making no secret of her enjoyment of Misa’s obsessive tendencies. 

“I would follow you anywhere,” Zero breathed fervently. Misa’s eyes darkened. 

The pair both flinched as someone bumped into them where they were standing in the middle of the sidewalk. Oh. Right. Not exactly a private place, here. 

After exchanging slightly less intense goodbyes, the two parted. 

Chapter Text

Zero stared at the underside of her bed from her place on the floor. Shadowing her assigned model had led her to the conclusion that this must be the most boring, vapid woman on planet earth. The coffee and cigarettes breakfasts and incessant fake laughter were driving her insane. Plus, Zero had her work cut out for her trying to also hide from the fans that clamored to meet the model each time she was recognized. As the woman was trying to boost her popularity, she was recognized almost constantly, to Zero’s great displeasure. 

A knock at the door was followed by Matsuda’s nervous voice. “Aster-san? There’s been a new development in the case! It’s on the news and everything!” 

Zero tensed, hoping that Misa hadn’t gotten herself caught in the scant few days they had been apart. Walking quickly into the main room, she found the rest of the taskforce gathered around the television. 

Despite her fears, Misa had not been caught as the second Kira. No. This was much, much worse. 

“-famous fashion model Amane Misa, known most commonly by her stage name Misa-Misa, was reported missing two days ago by her agent. Despite several strong leads, the police have so far been unable to locate her. An emerging powerhouse in the teen fashion sector, Misa-Misa has-” L cut off the broadcast after the reporter stopped giving relevant information. 

He hummed under his breath, biting at his thumbnail thoughtfully. “An interesting development. While normally I’d leave this to the police, the fact that the killings most in line with the second Kira’s M.O. have stopped completely in the past two days means that we must take direct action.”

Zero’s blood went cold at the insinuation. Her hands shook, and she was having trouble controlling her breathing. This did not go unnoticed. 

After assigning tasks, L pulled her aside. “What do you know about this?” he demanded lowly. 

“I don’t!” L arched an eyebrow at her, face cold and forbidding. “I don't know! I met her when I was stalking one of the other models. We’re … friends.” she finished quietly. 

Realization passed through his eyes. “So this is who you kept sneaking out to meet,” he muttered. 

“Not always,” Zero lied. “We’ve only met up a couple of times, but she was really kind to me. Considering my background, I value that.” Her last statement was pointed. L did not have the grace to look regretful for prying. 

“Regardless, I will not allow you to compromise this operation. Are you able to operate without allowing your emotions to cloud your judgment?” 

“Obviously. Why is that even in question? As I’ve said, I only met her twice.”

L searched her face, his charcoal eyes seeming to peel skin from their intensity. Whatever he found seemed to satisfy him, as he nodded to himself. “Good. You’re with Light.” Zero was so upset at this situation that she didn’t even snarl at being paired with kiddie-Kira. 

Storming past Light, Zero jerked her head for him to follow. Something wrathful flitted through his eyes at being beckoned in such a manner, but he soon came after her. 

They spent hours following threadbare leads. Zero had a suspicion that L had given them background tasks to keep them busy instead of dividing up relevant information amongst the force, as he had said he was doing. They were no closer to finding Misa, and it had been days since her initial disappearance. Zero was at her limit. 

She yanked Light into an alley and pressed him against the wall with her forearm to his throat. He gave a startled yell and fixed her with a scathing look. “ You-”

Zero cut him off, her voice barely above a growl. “What the fuck did you do? Where is she?!” 

Realizing what this was about, his expression changed to one of cruel mirth. “I don’t know, and even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you,” he hissed. The cruelest part of his statement by far was that it was the honest truth. 

Zero’s face contorted in dismay. In her distraction, Light was able to shove her off. “My, my. So there is a way to get to you after all. Has L really been that bad of a master?” he mocked mercilessly. 

Zero barely heard him, leaving him behind in that alley without a glance back. She had tried the human way, and gotten fuck all for her efforts. It was high time to try her own methods. With how strong the bond between them had become, it was possible that she would be able to sense where Misa was in the city if she meditated long enough, and had enough power. 

This would take more than a half-starved john. Zero needed someone strong, healthy, and with a long life ahead of them. She took off at a sprint, heading to the wealthier district. Anyone she took from here would be missed, but that was a problem for the future. Right now, her only priority was finding and recovering Misa. 

She had finally staked out a target when she heard the unmistakable voice of a Shinigami. “Ghoul! You must help Misa.” Even if Zero hadn’t cared for Misa at all, that tone was enough to get her on board with whatever the hell Rem wanted her to do. 

“Rem!” Zero could cry with relief. Her plan was a long shot and based on nothing but conjecture. Rem, however, could lead her directly to where she needed to be. 

Zero nodded her agreement. “Lead the way, but remember that I don’t have wings.” 

The creature turned and floated at great speed. Zero, who could not phase through foot traffic, was having a hard time keeping up. She ran as fast as could be mistaken as human for at least six hours before Rem finally slowed. She lifted a long, terrible finger to point at a condemned apartment complex two hundred yards away. 

“How many are in there?”

“Many. You must hurry. They keep her on the top floor.”

Zero grit her teeth at the lack of intel. She didn’t even have a weapon. Her body was formidable, but she wasn’t faster than a bullet. 

She crept her way towards the building, noting the blind spots in the cameras. There weren’t many, and those that she found were manned by men, instead. Zero wasn’t sure how to play this without it turning into a firefight and endangering Misa. 

Something occurred to her at that moment. The cameras were focused on the inside. Other than the entrances, there were none that could see the exterior walls of the building. In theory, she could use her talons to scale it. Zero materialized them, turning her hand around to watch them glint in the dim light. It would have to be incredibly slow-going. Punching holes into bricks, no matter how small the holes were, was impossible to do noiselessly. 

She managed to get to the building without being spotted, by some great miracle. It was not as easy as the movies made it look. She started the process of dragging her way up the wall, each inch scraping uncomfortably against her palms and making her tense in fear of being caught. There were only three stories to this apartment complex - it must have been something else before it was turned residential. 

Zero nearly blew the entire operation when she passed too close to a window. She could make out a muffled argument, one voice significantly louder than the other. The quieter voice was coming from a phone, and belonged to a familiar woman. 

“You weren’t supposed to take it this  far! I said to ruin her career, not create an international manhunt by maiming and kidnapping!” Karana was incandescent with rage. 

The woman in the room, who was either at least fifty years old or a devoted chainsmoker, answered her. “You said to make her pay, and you also said that you were willing to do whatever it took to make sure Amane never stole another role from you again. Well, girl, this is what it takes. You shouldn’t have pulled on daddy’s connections if you weren’t ready for what it means to hire people like us.” her tone was dry, but Zero could tell that the backtalk was getting on this woman’s nerves.

You’ve got to be fucking shitting me. Zero could not believe this. None of it had anything to do with Kira at all. Misa was in very real danger of dying due to the vendetta of ‘daddy’s little princess.’

“How dare you!” It was like watching a train crash in slow-motion. 

“No. Here is what’s going to happen, little girl. It is far, far too late for your bellyaching. If we let her go unharmed, or even maimed, this is going to create a case that will eventually lead back to you, and more importantly, your father. You’re an ungrateful brat, but I respect your daddy. You made this bed, now lie in it.” The woman hung up, still snarling under her breath. 

A piece of brick that Zero had knocked loose with her climbing fell as she shifted her hands, clanging off of the metal window-basket and making the loudest noise possible. Zero silently choked in horror, unable to do anything to stop it.

The woman grabbed the gun off the desk and leaned out of the window. This was the only chance Zero was going to get. She tackled her through the window, the gun firing into the air in their struggle. She yanked on the arm with the gun so hard it tore off, but that did nothing to help the situation. As a fantastic addition to this miserable night, the woman was now screaming. 

Fuck . She still hadn’t laid eyes on Misa, and now an old lady had alerted everyone in the building before she could manage anything worthwhile. Zero screamed her own frustration as she snapped the woman’s neck, knowing silence was futile now. She grabbed the gun, counted the bullets (few), and stalked into the rest of the building. 

She came across someone almost immediately, to no-one’s surprise. The man was well-trained enough to nearly hit Zero had she not seen him first. Unluckily for him, Zero was both well-trained and had inhuman reflexes to guarantee her win. 

Don’t get cocky, she reminded herself sternly, this isn’t like the cage fights - guns can hurt me just as well as a normal person. For all her healing factor, she still wasn’t bulletproof. 

She leaned back around the doorway and fired a shot that managed to clip his shoulder. It wouldn’t impact his aim much, as it was his non-dominant arm. She grit her teeth painfully at the failure - Misa was counting on her. She could feel herself slowing down, and knew she had to hurry. There was no time for her to feed and regain strength. 

After finally managing to take him out, she came across more resistance when she got to the stairwell. Unfortunately for them, Zero was on a tight schedule.  She had already wasted precious minutes in a firefight with the other man, and she wasn’t sure what these people would do to Misa if cornered. 

She tore her way through four more people, taking a knife to the arm and two bullets to the torso for her trouble. If she were human, she would be long dead. As it was, she was a week out from her last meal and had spent the last day burning energy like it was going out of style. She wouldn’t have been in top form even if they hadn’t shot and stabbed her. 

She smelled blood that didn’t belong to those in the stairwell. A pained whimper sounded through one of the dozen doors that lined the hallway. 

Ripping the door off of its hinges, she was greeted by the sight of Misa: bruised, bloody, and with a knife to her throat. 

No .

“Drop the weapon, or the girl dies.” The man’s voice was even. He wasn’t intimidated despite the fact that he must know she had slaughtered everyone else in the building to get this far. 

“Misa!” she gasped, agonized with indecision. She made eye contact - Misa was in pain, but she was not cowed. The other woman’s eyes were hard and angry. There would be no surrender. 

The man yanked her head back by her hair harshly. “I said -” Zero shot his elbow mid sentence, knowing that his hand was too close to Misa’s face to shoot at. 

She had miscalculated. Gravely. 

The man’s hand, which had gone a few inches away from Misa’s neck when he pulled back her head, spasmed upward without releasing the knife. Instead of her neck, the blade sliced a curved line right through her eye. Misa screamed so loud that Zero’s ears ached, and she fired a shot into the man’s head reflexively. 

Zero rushed to catch her, unbalanced as she was from her bindings. “Misa, oh my god, oh my god I’m so sorry, ” Misa was a frightening sight, blood as well as clear jelly from her punctured eyeball running down her face. 

“Take it.” she murmured, clearly in agony. 

“What?!” 

“Take it!” she screamed hoarsely. “You can heal - fix it!” 

Zero was nearly as hysterical as Misa, seeing the fruit of her idiocy and impulsive decisions. “I don’t know how to!”

Misa used her newly freed hand to snatch Zero’s chin in a punishing grip. “Shinigami eyes only come in pairs - if one is dead, so is the other. I gave half my life for this, Zero. Don’t you dare let it go to waste.”

There was nothing Zero could do but comply. 

Without breaking eye contact, Misa handed her the gag that had been used on her. Zero put it in her own mouth with a shuddering breath. Taking a firm grip on her own eye, Zero bit down hard on the cloth and yanked.  

Her own agonized scream echoed through the building. Knowing that she didn’t have much time, Zero finished detaching Misa’s butchered eye from her head. She took it carefully, and put it in her own empty socket. 

In any other circumstances, this would be beyond lunacy. This is not how any of this works. But Zero knew at once that she was always meant to have these eyes - the eye wanted to be in her head. The connection formed so fast that it made Zero dizzy. She saw the world with new clarity, and Misa looked even more lovely in the red haze that now surrounded her. 

Struck with inspiration, Zero took her own eye and gently attached it to Misa’s socket, to her confused protest. If Zero could heal half of an eye in seconds, then surely the blood and magic in her own fully intact eye could bond with Misa.  

Misa clenched her split eyelid shut over her gifted eye. “I can see a little, but it hurts.” Zero wasn’t concerned. If it had connected at all, then it would heal in time. 

“Don’t worry, Misa. It has my blood - I know that eye will work for you.” Zero didn’t know what else to say. What do you say to someone when your rescue attempt goes so sour that someone loses an eye? How do you comfort someone who has gone through what Misa just had?

Misa just nodded silently. She clutched Zero close, leaning up to press a chaste kiss to her bloody lips. Zero’s eyes went impossibly wide, and she opened her mouth to speak. Misa shook her head, and Zero abandoned anything she was going to say. 

“Thank you.”

Zero nodded grimly. She hoisted Misa up, and they leaned on each other as they crept down to the first floor. She wasn’t sure what to expect. About seven people didn’t seem to account for the ‘many’ that Rem had mentioned, and no one had come up behind her in the stairwell despite the fact that Zero was absolutely certain there were people on the ground floor. 

It was so quiet that Zero was vibrating with anxiety. Something was wrong. 

They came across nothing and no one on their way out. Shakily pushing open the door, she and Misa made it only as far as the front step before a blinding beam of light nearly sent her to the ground. 

“PUT YOUR HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEAD. YOU ARE SURROUNDED.” The noise was ear-splitting. Zero’s eyes adjusted to see at least forty men in tactical police uniforms, armed to the teeth and fully helmeted. 

No no no no no!!!!

A familiar whistling sound - if she dodged, it would hit Misa. She braced herself. 

A sharp pain in her neck, and Zero was down. She crumpled like a rag doll, taking Misa down with her. Through darkening tunnel vision, she saw Misa being handcuffed roughly, her purple and blue eyes flashing with fear in her beautiful face.

Chapter Text

Her head pulsed with pain as she slowly gathered her thoughts. Her eyelids fluttered, opening to a dull beige ceiling. Her arms were restrained behind her back, and she was lying on something soft. 

“You disobeyed direct orders.” Zero jerked her head around at the sound of L’s voice. His tone gave nothing away. 

He sat in his typical crouch, watching her closely. His name and extremely short lifespan floated above his head, and his gaze sharpened when he noticed her looking above him instead of at him. “Beyond always did that.” 

“What?” she muttered. 

“He always looked at me like that - like he wasn’t looking at me at all. He told me about his eyes, once. I never believed him. Perhaps I should have.” 

Zero didn’t reply.

“Why am I restrained?” she asked instead. 

“You were violent in your sleep. You attacked anyone who tried to touch you indiscriminately. I will remove your binds now that you are awake.” L uncurled himself and did as promised. 

The silence stretched between them. 

“Did you know that Amane was the second Kira when you went to rescue her?” he asked suddenly. 

Zero flinched. “I … suspected. But you told me not to interfere, and you already were investigating her. I didn’t deem it relevant. Where is she, anyways?” 

She gave far too much away just by asking that. 

L watched her face closely, seeming to have made up his mind about something. “She’s been arrested, as you saw yourself. It is no longer your concern.” 

“No longer my concern? ” Zero parroted incredulously. 

“No,” he confirmed. “I’m taking you off this case. You’re a loose cannon and too close to the suspect. I’m sending you away - not to Wammy’s. By coincidence or by design, you are much too similar to B for me to let you near that place. You will go to a safehouse in Europe until I send someone to retrieve you.”

It was clear that L looked at her and only saw the ways he had failed Beyond Birthday. 

Zero could only stare at him, lips parted in shock. “L, wait, I-”

“No.” L replied with finality. “Go get your things.” 

She obeyed, grabbing her bag sitting nearby. This wasn’t the hotel - she didn’t know this place. Thoughts raced through mind as she tried to figure out what she was going to do. Leaving Misa was out of the question - Zero had made her choice a long time ago. She would find Misa and get the hell out of here, and she didn’t care who had to die to accomplish it. 

“Where are we?” 

“The new building for headquarters was finished while you were sleeping.” L gave no indication as to how long that was. 

Zero followed him, taking in as much of her environment as possible. There had to be some clue where they had taken Misa. She couldn’t give away just how far she was willing to go, or she would never get close. The only reason she was not already arrested herself is that her reckless actions were in line with what L wanted, and had luckily been interpreted as her getting impatient and doing the mission her own way. Anything she did now would be enemy action, and treated accordingly. 

L led her to a room filled with desks, all of which sat empty at the moment. “Wait here.” He walked away. 

Zero’s blood burned at how assured he was in her obedience, at how he was so, so confident that he had nothing to fear from her. That had not been true for a while now. Zero found her purpose in Misa, more than L or even Beyond could ever hope to match. There is nothing that she would not do for the woman who made her feel like the center of the universe. 

She set down the bag and took off down the hallway. Distantly, she heard L’s voice. It sounded like he was interrogating someone, but there was no reply to anything he asked. Zero ran faster. 

“Will you confess?” 

This was met with an enraged hiss. Misa’s enraged hiss. 

“Like hell!”  

L noticed immediately when Zero ran into the room, but she only had eyes for the woman on the screen. Misa had been strapped to a table that was leaning at an angle, blindfolded and unable to do so much as twitch her fingers. All the air was pulled from Zero’s lungs, and she rounded on the man responsible. 

Zero’s newly mismatched eyes were glowing in fury. L subtly pressed a button on the underside of the desk. “You’re worse. How are you worse than B?! What possessed you to think that you have the right to treat her this way?!” 

“Calm down, Zero. This is the only way to ensure that she cannot hurt anyone. We still don’t know how her powers work.” This was clearly the first time that L had tried to soothe a woman in his life. ‘Calm down…’

“I. Don’t. Care.” Zero spat, enunciating each word with violent shakes to L’s person. When had she picked him up? Zero couldn’t recall. 

Watari burst into the room. Without looking at him, Zero used the hand that was not lifting L to grab the fork on the desk and throw it like a kunai. L shouted in anguish as it imbedded itself with a sickening sound deep into his guardian’s forehead. 

The man collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

“You made a mistake, Lawliet. I love Misa more than I respect you.” Despite her words, there was only resignation in her voice. 

For the first time, there was true fear in L’s eyes.

 “ Don’t.” 

It was no plea - this was a command. Even with his death before him, L would not beg. Zero could respect that - you only know who man really is when he’s dying, after all. Let it be said that L Lawliet was no goddamned coward. 

Zero stroked his face tenderly with the back of a talon. In another life, this man could have been her salvation. 

“You have no power over me anymore,” she crooned, ever so gentle. “ And you never will again ,” she snarled, ripping his beating heart from his chest. L went limp, eyes glazed and unfocused. This must be the only time since he was born that they did not hold the glint of his inhuman genius, Zero pondered. 

Releasing his throat, Zero cradled him to her chest and set him gently on the floor. She left bloody fingerprints as she closed one eyelid, then the other. She would need to consume his brain to fulfill her oath to Beyond. It was her only hope of ever destroying Wammy’s house. But first, Misa. 

She found a handgun in Watari’s pocket, his hand curled around the handle where he went to draw it. That split second of hesitation as he assessed the situation was enough to doom him. It was a shame. She knew that he was the one who was responsible for the hellhole that created B, but that was always a distant thought in the face of his bland nature. Staring at him now, killed by the cake fork that he himself had given to L, she couldn’t bring herself to regret it. 

L, however… 

Zero had been in an incredibly vulnerable state after her rescue. Instead of providing her with human connections and teaching her how to live as a person, he left her all alone and fed her scraps. By the time he decided to do anything differently, it was too late. Zero’s only care was for fulfilling her Master’s greatest wish. In the absence of direction, she reverted to the purpose B had raised her for. It was all he had ever asked from her, and time had dulled the memories of the horror he caused her. 

Killing L…It was a betrayal. It was inevitable. It could have been so many things. They could have been so many things. They would have made an unstoppable team. Zero would have protected him to her dying breath, had he only deigned her worthy of his attention. Now, he was nothing at all. 

She grabbed Watari’s gun, knowing that the time for playing neutral was long gone. Even were she not covered in blood, Zero was not willing to allow these people to so much as humor the idea that she was on their side after what they did to Misa. 

Now, Misa was all that mattered. Zero set off down the hallway at a sprint, her bare feet softening her footsteps. Unlike before, she really could sense exactly where Misa was. The power in her blood had made Misa something beyond human and, more importantly, inexorably bound to Zero. She couldn’t pretend the idea didn’t please her. 

She found no resistance in the halls, unlike last time. It wouldn’t last. Someone was bound to notice that L had gone radio silent, and the task force was definitely somewhere in this building. The only reason this hasn’t devolved into yet another firefight is because L was so paranoid about people knowing his location that he didn’t even allow armed guards. 

Approaching the door, Zero cursed her shortsightedness for not stopping to find the release for the alarms when she was in the control room. Tensing in anticipation for how quickly she would have to move, Zero put her entire body into peeling away the cell door. The noise of the thick metal giving way was indescribable - what the hell was L expecting to contain?

Misa’s head twitched toward the noise. “Zero.” There was no doubt in her voice. 

“Misa, I’m here. ” She hurried to rip open the clasps that held Misa down. Upon freeing the last one, Misa pushed off the blindfold and used both hands to cup Zero’s jaw. 

“My hero,” she smirked at her softly before bringing her mouth to Zero’s in a passionate kiss. Zero melted into it, her tired body deciding to imitate jelly. She felt a tingle from the top of her head to the tips of her toes, and her stomach curled with warmth. 

It felt so good, so right, that she could almost ignore the incessant blaring of the alarm. Almost. 

“Misa,” she gasped breathlessly, dazed, “We have to go!”

Misa nodded sharply and abruptly stood. After taking a moment to regain balance, the pair began running towards what they hoped was the exit. On the way, something occurred to her. “Where the fuck is Rem?!” 

Misa choked out a laugh. “I sent her away. I couldn’t have her killing herself for me, ya know. She’ll totally find us later, don’t worry.” That Misa was slipping back into her bubbly persona could be a very good sign, or a very bad one. Zero hoped it wasn’t the latter. 

Ahead, Zero could have cried with relief as she saw the sign above the door. She had found the exit staircase. Barrelling their way down to the ground floor, Zero stopped short at the sight of the metal shutters blocking the way out. “This is so not approved by the Fire Marshall,” she muttered inanely. Misa giggled in incredulity at the places her mind went when in a situation this dire. 

Backing up for a running start, Zero rammed the door headfirst as if she had actual horns. It hurt like hell, but the shutters crumpled inward enough that she could find purchase and tear them down the same as doors with their convenient hinges. Misa whooped quietly in triumph. 

After ripping through three fucking layers of metal, she finally saw it. Sunlight. 

They were going to make it.