Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note or anything else in this story that clearly isn't mine.

A/N: Alright, this is my first-ish foray into the lovely world of Death Note. I'm probably the fifty thousandth person to write the Matt/Mello reunion, but oh well. I'm going to have the next chapter up within a day, since it's already written. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1: Victory and Disaster

The SPK was not hackable. This was one of the indisputable facts of life, and ranked right up there with the fact that fire will burn you and the fact that water is clear.

Well, no, those are terrible comparisons, since fire doesn't burn you if you have rubbing alcohol on your hands, and water takes on a blue tint in large quantities, but the point still stands: the SPK is unhackable. Even people on the FBI's hacking watch list couldn't hack the SPK. It was impossible.

That was why I jumped off the couch and did a victory dance that resembled a cross between Link's item-finding dance and Sudowoodo from Pokemon Colosseum when I finally managed to hack the SPK.

Then I had to sit back down and type like my fingers were on fire to make sure that they didn't know I was in their system. I didn't want to go from being The First Person to Successfully Hack the SPK to being The First Person to be Arrested for Successfully Hacking the SPK.

Once I'd covered my tracks and made my link to their system as secure as it could get, I set the laptop on the other end of the couch and stretched. If I ever met the people who had designed Near's computer system I would give them my utmost congratulations. That system had taken me two months to crack. The old record for uncrackable was a week and a half. Kudos to them, whoever they were.

I picked the laptop back up and looked through Near's files. They were clearly meant to foil anyone who might hack the system – somebody like me, in other words. That was alright, though. I was a genius, and I'd lived with the fluffball for a fair bit of my childhood, so I knew how he thought. In no time flat I was sifting through the files that were actually important. Some of them were records of conversations with the second L, which I ignored for the time being. I'd get to them later. Right now I was looking for something different.

"Come on, Near," I muttered to the computer screen. "You've gotta have something on him, you know he's out there, you wouldn't ignore him…"

It was six thirty in the evening before I was finally forced to give up and admit at least temporary defeat. "I'll get you yet," I told the computer screen as I set the laptop on the floor. Then I sprawled on the couch, made sure my goggles were on securely, threw one arm over my eyes, and fell asleep.

I woke up later to my computer talking. I mumbled at it to quiet down, then sat up and adjusted my goggles. The computer was still talking. Still sleepy, I looked down at my poor computer, which had probably been traced and ki –

Oh, hello. That wasn't on my computer when I went to sleep. It looked like…satellite feed? And radio chatter, by the sound of it. Well, that certainly hadn't been there when I went to sleep.

I yawned again, then grabbed the computer and started tracing the satellite feed to find the coordinates. The radio chatter was still going on in the background, but I only half understood it – Japanese was my fourth or fifth language, so I couldn't really understand it while I was typing.

A minute and a Google map later, I had the location narrowed down to an ld warehouse about twenty miles outside of LA. I adjusted my goggles and set the laptop on the couch next to me, focusing on listening to the radio chatter. I got the distinct impression that I had missed a crucial part of the conversation, because they were talking about eyes and names and deals and I had absolutely no clue what was going on. I knew I should've gone through more of Near's files before I went to sleep, but it was a little late to do that now.

I had just lulled myself into listening to the quiet mutters and occasional silences when things started exploding and people started yelling. I grabbed the laptop to check the satellite feed again, but by the time I had the image up, all the action outside the building was over, and all I had was shouting and banging and the occasional Japanese swearword.

After a few minutes, I was getting very bored of listening to halfway unintelligible radio chatter, but the good news was, they seemed to have gotten their all-important Note – I still didn't know what that was, I really needed to look that up – and were almost done what they were doing.

"L, we've captured two of them and the notebook is secure!"

"We're returning now."

"No. Not yet. We haven't found Mello, but he's definitely still lurking in the building. We've come this far – let's find him."

I froze. Mello.

I needed more time to put this situation together, to find out what was happening, to see what I needed to do. Unfortunately, life's not like Nintendo – there's no pause button.

I was thinking about what I had to work with so far when I heard him.

"Don't move! I've already destroyed both entrances. This is your only warning. The next bomb will destroy the entire building. Do as I say."

Mello. It had been a long time since I'd heard him.

"Ah, Yagami again. I should have killed you when I had the chance." Instinctively, I made a note of the name – one more piece of a puzzle that I knew nothing about. "I never would have thought you'd show up again looking for the notebook."

For a moment I lost track of what was being said, since it didn't sound like any Japanese I'd learned. But I understood what was said next.

"Your real name is Mihael Keehl."

There was silence. Something had happened, something important, and I had no clue what. Cursing, I picked up the laptop and pulled up Near's files. I had to find out what this damn Note was, because it seemed pretty damn important to understanding this whole deal. I didn't want to lose track of the conversation on the radio, but I decided that if anything important happened I'd know – Mello would never go quietly.

I was still trying to break Near's note-taking code when I heard gunfire and yelling. I opened the satellite feed again, but whatever was going on was happening inside the building, where I couldn't see.

A few seconds later all my concerns about not being able to see the action were rendered moot as the building shook under a massive explosion.

It took me a moment to react. Then I was out of my seat, grabbing my vest and my car keys. Mello was in there. Hell, he must've been the one who blew the place up. For somebody so intelligent he was a stupid bastard sometimes.

If he was dead I'd kill him myself. I'd been searching for him for almost five years; if he'd killed himself five minutes after I'd tracked him down, I'd be pissed.

Please be alive.