"W-what's happening?" Matsuda asked. "A Power cut?"
I didn't answer, just turned around, instinctively. Sure enough, Rem wasn't there anymore.
"Damn!" I thought, running to the back of the room to make sure she wasn't there. However, there was no doubt. She was gone, and she was up to something. I felt a shiver of fear run down my back as I turned to the screens once again.
"Watari." Ryuuzaki said, and I heard the ring of worry in his voice. "Watari!"
"All data deletion?" I gasped, as the words appeared in all the screens. This was bad, bad, bad. And still, thunder rang around the room.
"I instructed Watari to delete all the data if something were to happen to him." Ryuuzaki explained, and I felt the chill of fear in his voice. I knew what was coming, and so did he. And there was nothing we could do to stop it, except hope… I ran out of the room, shouting.
"Rem!? Rem, where are you? Don't do it, please, don't do it!"
She appeared in front of me, with a terribly sorrowful expression on her face.
"He won. I'm sorry, Nilla. Please forgive me." The Note was on her hand. I snatched it from her, and in the red light, I saw it. On the notebook was written the name L Lawliett.
"No…" I whispered, in complete shock. "How could you?"
"Please take care of Misa for me. That is my request." She whispered, and disappeared.
"Rem! No! this wasn't what we wanted! I understand now… and this is wrong! Completely wrong!"
There was no answer, and suddenly, I felt Death's touch upon my shoulder.
I ran back to the room where everyone was, and arrived just as the great L was falling.
I lunged forward, but Light was faster than me. He caught Lawliett in his arms. I jumped over him and positioned myself on L's other side and knelt on the floor.
"L… Ryuuzaki… Get a hold of yourself!" I said in half a whisper, half a desperate shriek. "L…"
The light in his eyes was fading, even as he kept on fighting for his life. I could see it, the way he was trying to keep himself alive. His eyes focused on me for a last time, and there was the faintest movement on his lips.
"No.. no…" I put my hand in his and closed my eyes, concentrating on giving him energy as I had done many times before. There was just a faint flicker in his eyes that then began to die away, like the rest of him. "No…" His head shifted slightly, and I gasped. Reflected in his now lifeless eyes was the most terrible smile I had ever seen, full of hatred, venom and evil, in Yagami Light's face.
Light was Kira. There was absolutely no doubt about it anymore.
As this knowledge sunk in, L seemed to relax. His head moved a little again, and from this angle his eyes didn't reflect Light's expression any more. His eyes became completely lifeless, and for the last time, his lids closed over them.
"No… no… no…" I whispered once again, as tears began to flow freely down my face. Absolutely no coherent thought went through my head. This was impossible… Impossible!
"Oi, Ryuuzaki… what's the matter? Get a hold of yourself!" Light shouted, shaking L a little. All at once, I became so angry my whole body was shaking.
Light began to scream.
"Watari, Ryuuzaki, and now us! We're all going to be killed!"
Aizawa fell to the floor in a panic, and Matsuda began to whimper as an expression of panic appeared in Chief Yagami's face.
Light began shouting something about the Shinigami, but I paid no attention. I was trying to organize my thoughts. I couldn't accuse Light of being Kira without proof. I needed a plan.
Suddenly, Light ran off to look for Rem. I bent down and kissed Lawliett's forehead tenderly, then jumped up and ran behind Light. I followed him, leaving some distance between us. I made absolutely no noise, and he didn't seem to notice I was behind him. He went inside a room.
It was strange, there was a pile of silver sand in the middle, and half buried in it was a notebook. Rem's Death Note, I guessed. Light picked it up, cleaned off the sand, and was about to hide the notebook in the back of his pants when he spotted me.
"Nilla." He said my name calmly, but knew that, with a wrong move here, he would be caught.
"I know you're Kira, Light." I said, stopping at a safe distance from him. "I was worried I couldn't prove it, but now you've given me all I needed. I must thank you."
"Me? Kira? What are you saying?" Light put on a mask of shock. "You are Kira. It is no secret you were a good friend of the Shinigami's, and quite close to L too. In fact, Matsuda, my father, Aizawa and I already suspected you of being Kira a long time ago. The only one that didn't was L himself. However, whenever any of us touched the subject with him, he always just said it wasn't you, without giving his usual brainy explanations. We guessed it was because he was so attached to you he knew you were Kira, but was looking for someone else to blame. Too bad it led him to his death." Light shrugged. "You are a murderer, Nilla. You are Kira."
I was left speechless. The bastard had been preparing this for a long time… There was no doubt about it. He had planted suspicions of me in the others' minds, and I knew I had helped, in my foolish intent to keep my true nature hidden. The only ones that knew about me were L and Rem. Not even Watari knew, L had promised he wouldn't breathe a word.
I felt the knife L had given me in my pocket. He didn't give it to me with a murderous intent. What he had wanted was to please me, since it was so beautiful. The hilt was decorated in leather, and there were delicate patterns of dragons in the blade. It was ornamental, but also quite deadly. I analyzed my options. I could jump Light and kill him right here, right now, condemning myself for all eternity. I could try to convince the others I wasn't Kira, but I knew Light was too smart for me. It hurt to admit it, but although I wasn't stupid, I wasn't a genius like him either. He could only be battled by someone on his own level, and I knew I wasn't there. My third option, and the smartest one, was to go back to the orphanage Watari had founded and try to unite Mello and Near. That was the only chance humanity had. I turned and ran to the door, but just then the others appeared.
"What… what is this? Sand?" Matsuda asked, spotting the strange mound on the floor.
"I don't know. Why don't we ask Nilla, since she seems to have all the answers?" Light asked, pointedly. "Don't you, Nilla?"
I turned to him angrily.
"I don't know what you are talking about. Now, if you excuse me, I want to go back to Ryuuzaki."
I tried to go out the door, but Aizawa-san's arm blocked the doorway.
"Aizawa-san, please let me through."
"I don't think so, Nilla. You have some explaining to do." His voice was serious, with no hint of the playfulness he usually treated me with.
"Aizawa-san..." I began, but Chief Yagami interrupted me.
"Nilla, you cannot hide it any longer. We know you are Kira, and that you ordered the Shinigami to kill Ryuuzaki and Watari." The sadness and disappointment in Yagami-san's voice was terrible to me.
"But… Yagami-san… I didn't do it! I'm not Kira…"
Yagami-san just shook his head.
"You ran after the Shinigami. I know, I saw you and I followed. You said that you understood what you were doing was wrong… I know you didn't want Ryuuzaki to be killed, but that doesn't erase the fact that he is dead, and so are other people. I don't know what deal you made with the Shinigami, but it seems she abandoned you."
"Yagami-san, you got it all wrong…"
"I refused to believe you were Kira, Nilla-san." Matsuda said sadly. "However, it seems Light-kun was right. Everything you did, every day, seemed very suspicious, and the few talks I overheard with that Shinigami…" Matsuda couldn't say more.
"But…"
"I refuse to believe she is Kira." Light said. "There is not enough proof for that. However, we must look for it in her apartment. She must have a Death Note there, so I suggest we look for it tomorrow morning."
"Why in the morning?" Matsuda asked.
"Right now, we are too tired and we had a hard day. We best do it when we're in complete control of our senses. Nilla… I really hope you are not Kira." Light put his hands on my shoulders in what seemed to be a reassuring manner. However I knew he was condemning me. I had to get out. He was going to plant the Death Note on my apartment, I knew. I was going to be accused of being Kira and executed.
Aizawa grabbed me by the shoulder.
"Come. I'm going to lock you in for the night."
Feeling faint and depressed, I did absolutely nothing to stop him.