Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, they are much appreciated :) Also, let me know if there's anything you're confused about, I'm going to start to answer all of the storylines I've weaved through this, such as what Rem and Misa are up to, but I might have forgotten something.

"Kiyomi?"

Kiyomi turned her battered leather chair around. She did not look pleased. Her arms were crossed and the computer monitor behind her showed several dead bodies.

"Where the hell have you been?" Kiyomi hissed, her teeth bared as she waited for Sayu's excuse.

"I was laying low."

"Why?"

"I saw a cop following me."

Kiyomi Takada's base of operations was very similar to Mello's. She'd packed the room with computers, her only light source came from the monitors and Sayu could smell a faint stale smell in the air. The only difference was that while Mello could afford an entire building, Kiyomi was stuck in the basement of a rundown, abandoned hospital. Stealing electricity from the bank next door.

Kiyomi lifted the cup she balanced on her knee and took a sip. Her fingers impatiently drummed atop the armrest.

"And where exactly is Naomi Misora?" She asked after a long pause. "I saw you leave together."

Sayu shrugged.

"Don't know."

"You should know."

"Try contacting her." Sayu didn't want Kiyomi to know what had happened between Naomi, herself and Light. If Kiyomi knew she'd been in contact with her brother then she'd get involved and take away Sayu's control of the situation. "Perhaps she got a lead."

Kiyomi was still suspicious but she didn't have any actual proof that she was lying to her. In frustration she turned back to the computer screen she'd been watching.

"Another Kira-bot," she explained. "The hackers have managed to infect police made robots now, they'll be getting into government ones next."

"How many dead?" Sayu leaned over to see that there was police tape blocking the roads off. Officers were examining the bodies. "Did the police capture the 'bot?"

"Twelve dead and no, it escaped before they could. I want you to find and bring it to me so that I can check its data log."

"Sure. I can do that." Sayu was glad to be out of here. Kiyomi was brusque, though honest, but there were too many differences between them for her to feel comfortable around the other woman... but at least she knew the other woman wouldn't turn on her like Naomi had done.

Sayu was leaving when Kiyomi called out one last thing,

"Oh, and Sayu?"

"Yeah?"

"When you do capture the Kira-bot I want it straight away. Don't let Mello see it first."

She knew. Sayu bit her lip, nodded and left.

Kiyomi brought her cup to her mouth again, then looked down at its empty bottom.

OOOOOO

"Twelve dead and the robot's gone," Mello told L as he played the recording. "The first victim was the human police officer and the rest were drivers and standers by."

"Play the twenty minutes before the first victim was killed."

The footage rewound and then started playing. Nothing at first, only the mind numbing task of watching traffic go past. L broke off a cube from Mello's chocolate bar before Mello could put it into his mouth. The detective slowly sucked on the chocolate.

Then the motorcycle crashed into the side of the car and the two drivers got out. They were shouting at one another, pushing and shoving until they got closer to the police 'bot. L leaned in so that his nose was against the screen and he could focus on what was happening, the grainy CCTV image flickered across his eyes.

The robot wheeled over to the arguing pair and tried to calm them down. It wasn't working, in fact, the sight of the robot enraged them even more. The biker had knuckle dusters on. He meant to hit the driver in the gut but the robot got in the way. It lay there, unable to get up. When the human police officer came out the two men scarpered.

They hadn't plugged anything into the robot, they weren't the reason for the sudden change. L watched as the pair drove off, then ten minutes later the robot let off a sudden frenzy of violence.

It looked as if neither of the drivers had done anything to the robot. L swallowed the chocolate. He rewound the footage so that it showed the drivers fighting again. Nothing was exchanged or spoken, it was angry words and fists thumping.

He watched the car driver speed off. He didn't do anything abnormal. L rewound once more and watched the biker this time.

The man pulled out his mobile just before he went off camera.

"Is there anymore CCTV footage?"

Mello shook his head.

"That was the only working camera. The rest are dummies - the government have been tightening their belts."

"Typical," Light said from behind them. "We started out in a time where 'Big Brother' was all around us and now it's all just a facade!"

L glanced at him over his shoulder and then returned to looking at the screen. He didn't even smile at Light. The robot walked until he was standing directly behind the detective and leaned over. Their faces almost touched, L could just barely feel the faint chill of the other's skin.

Light didn't say anything about L's sudden cold shoulder, he wouldn't in front of the others. He had to concentrate on the matter at hand - people were dead because of Kira and indirectly because of him.

"Looks like he's on his mobile, though what is he doing? Texting? Calling someone?" Light wondered.

"Maybe even going online," Mello added. "Email, message boards - hell knows who he's contacting."

"We might get an idea if we 'acquire' his phone," Matt helpfully supplied from the other side of the room. He was currently on another computer, searching through message boards, chatrooms and websites for any information that hadn't been released on the news. "It'd take me ten minutes to find out what he's been doing."

"Ten?" Mello muttered. "You're slipping, Matt."

Mello's phone suddenly beeped and his attention was focused on the device, leaving it up to Light and L to decide on what to do.

"Is there a clear picture of the biker's face?" Light asked. The footage went back two minutes.

The biker's face was turned towards the camera, his teeth were bared in anger and his eyes narrowed slits. The man's arm was half raised, about to punch the car driver. Years of recording in the rain, snow and mind melting sunshine had caused the camera's lens to become grainy and unclear.

"Think we can get a match on that?"

"Of course," L icily replied. Light's lips fell into a thin, frustrated line.

Mello was busy texting back whoever had messaged him, in a bid for privacy he left his chair and wandered into the hallway. Light sat down next to L and the pair booted up the face recognition program that Matt had harvested and changed from L's computer system pre-Rebirth time.

"I was surprised to find a breeze in here," Light griped, looking at L out of the corner of his eye. "You'd think the cold would stay outside."

"Perhaps Light-kun left a window open."

Light resisted grinding his teeth at the return of -kun at the end of his name. Now that Mello wasn't in the room Light felt much more comfortable with discussing - having a go at - why L's mood had become standoffish. Matt didn't matter, the gamer cared little about other's affairs.

Matt quickly put some headphones on in anticipation of a shouting match.

"You know what I'm talking about," Light began.

"Do I?"

"I can't do anything right if I don't know what's wrong." Then Light had an idea, Sayu had been uncertain if Light was real or just another machine, was L now wondering if the person he had kissed and held was merely a bit of metal? Light rubbed his forehead. "L look at me."

L turned so that they were face to face. Between them the two computer monitors flicked through the many photographs of Japan's citizens and tourists.

"I know there's no way to prove I'm the Light you knew before. However -"

"It isn't that," L interrupted. "Light-kun, could you smile for me?"

There was a brief moment of quiet as the pair stared at one another.

"What?"

"Smile, Light."

Light smiled once then scowled at L. Was this a game?

"Not a very happy smile." Light rolled his eyes at L's words.

"I am programmed to mimic the facial expressions of my human self, perhaps I'm not in a happy mood?"

"At least it isn't the barracuda smile."

"Barracuda?" Light queried.

L rubbed his feet together and leaned back in his chair. He missed having an infinite supply of sweets and chocolate. Now he was forced to ration whatever Mello brought back for him. He wished he had some chocolate in his mouth.

"I've remembered a little more about our time during the Kira case."

"... and that is?"

That last memory. All he had seen was Light's smile. More of a snarl than a smile. Like a tale about demonic possession, as though a creature stirred underneath his skin.

"You were very pleased when I died."

Light couldn't look at L, he turned to the computer screen.

"You were in the way. Kira's way."

"And Light-kun's way?"

"... no, L. On that day I lost a friend but I just hadn't realised it then." Light sighed. "I can't change the past. I'm not a God, though I thought I was."

"You still have that intent," L countered. "Should the Death Note come into your possession again..."

"Then I would most likely become Kira," the robot said and shrugged. "I'm not going to lie and say it wouldn't happen. The Death Note is - was - addictive. The power -"

"It is a cowardly weapon."

"Do explain, L." Though Light had a good idea as to what he was going to say.

"You would never use a gun to kill someone."

"No, far too messy an outcome and traceable."

"Would Light use a knife?"

"Only in self-defence."

L nodded to himself.

"That is why the Death Note is a cowardly weapon. There is no way forensically to link the death back to you, no mess, and it feels almost unreal."

"So you're saying Kira is a coward?"

"It's the only conclusion I can come to. The Kira deaths remind me of an internet phenomena - trolling. Because of the annoyminity of the internet trolls feel no remorse, yet they wouldn't dare to say it to someone's face."

Light tipped back his head and laughed.

"I think I would have wrapped my hands around your throat if I was still Kira."

"Then I'm glad your homicidal impulses are only at 50% when you are not under Kira's influence."

"Still using the percentages? ... Had your seven percent of sugar yet?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Light. You should know by now that it's 95%."

"With 5% for strawberries?"

"Of course."

L was being entirely serious but Light couldn't help but smile. It was just like before, when he was ignorant of his time as Kira and helping L. Now he had both sets of memories, two separate files. He could access them whenever he want to - the 'Kira M' file wasn't the Kira personality but it was like looking in on someone through a window. He'd shucked off the skin of a murderous creature and it hung on the coat rack, watching him, daring him.

His fringe fell over his eyes and he pushed it away. It wouldn't do to spend forever going over again and again what he had done. They needed to stop the latest Kira, find the Death Note they were using, and get L out of this strop.

"It's been over a thousand years, L-chan, I think that's the longest time a grudge has ever been held."

"Grudge? I think grudge is a little too simple a term to -"

"It was just a cookie. So what if I ate it?"

".. excuse me?"

OOOOOO

Pre-Rebirth

"They're specially imported from England?" Matsuda asked, he held one of the mini masterpieces.

"Yes, Matsuda." L quickly snatched the cookie and put it, in one go, into his mouth. The rest awaited him, wrapped up in a checkered cloth and inside a basket. Each one had been glazed with syrup, peppered with fudge and caramel, and the dough had been mixed with cocoa powder. A sumptuous treat for a sugar loving detective - to anyone else it would be far too sickly.

So why exactly, an hour after L had received his cookies from Watari, was Light now standing with one of these cookies pressed tantalisingly against his lips? Light hated sweets!

Of course it was because of an argument.

Something L had said had riled the other up and so Light had pinched the very cookie hanging out of L's mouth, jumped over the photographs that were spread across the floor, and stood on a chair, a hand on L's head as he kept him away.

L flailed against Light, telling him to come down this instant before he kicked his legs out from under him.

"Take back what you said," Light told him.

"No, I will not lie to soothe Light-kun's ego! His name spelled backwards does say -"

"Fine." Light tipped back his head, opened his mouth -

And promptly gagged at the cookie's sweetness.

OOOOOOO

"Yes, if only you hadn't eaten that cookie," L shook his head. "What a sin!" He smiled.

They were both facing one another. L leaned over first and then Light met him. The robot's lips were soft but dry, while L's were sticky from chocolate.

"Oh, for # #%$ sake! I leave for one minute - one minute!" Mello's voice boomed across the room. Matt pulled his headphones off.

"So, they made up?" He asked.

"Looks like it," Mello grumbled, still fiddling with his phone as he shut the door. "Gotta throw it in everyone's faces, not as if we do that, Matt."

Light and L ignored the ranting blonde and once Mello had run out of steam he grinded his teeth and gave up. He finished the text he was writing and pressed send.

OOOOOOO

Bring it to me later - M

Sayu deleted the text and slipped the phone back into her pocket. Her side vibrated and she pulled it out again with a huff.

Before Kiyomi - M

"Yes, sir," she muttered to herself as she stabbed down on the 'delete' button. Once again she pocketed her phone.

There was snow spiraling in the air but before it could touch the ground it melted away into nothing. The temperature constantly changed. Over her tank top she wore a lined jacket. Her wooly hat was pulled down tight over her ears.

Sayu wobbled slightly from her crouched position atop the edge of the tallest building in the district. She could see everything from here.

So... she was on the hunt for a glitched robot who thought it was meting out Kira's 'justice'... where would one begin to look? She could try finding the two drivers but she had no idea who they were. She'd have to start at the crime scene and work out what route it would have taken -

"Sayu!"

Sayu winced and pressed her finger into the earbud she wore. It crackled loudly and it didn't help with Kiyomi shouting like that.

"What? I can bloody well hear you!"

But Kiyomi couldn't hear her, there was no microphone. Kiyomi preferred bossing her around without back chat. Sayu still enjoyed sniping back.

"I've mapped out what paths the Kira-bot might have taken."

"Go on. Tell me."

"There's a blocked off alleyway a mile from the crime scene. From aerial shots I've seen that another blockade has gone up - stopping anyone from reaching it - go there."

Phone again. Kiyomi had sent her a map of the area.

No rest for the dead. Sayu zipped up her jacket and jumped.

Now she had to focus on not phasing through the ground.

Sayu wasn't even out of breath when she reached the area.

Someone had been destructive. Rubble and trash had been piled up to stop anyone from getting past. Didn't smell pretty either. Sayu waved her hand in front of her face and wished she hadn't retained her sense of smell.

She touched a sign that was in her way. Her eyes closed and she simply let go. Sayu's finger's phased through, then her arm and entire body.

There was no such thing as a locked door to a ghost.

When she came through the other side Sayu shook her head. It always was a nauseus, dizzying experience.

As her vision cleared the first thing she saw was the two dead bodies. She swallowed thickly as she recognised both the car driver and the biker. The latter had been shot in the head while the biker's face was horribly contorted - it made Sayu cringe - and his fingers, claw, talon-like, clutched his chest. Heart attack.

She knelt next to the bodies, searching for anymore clues, but her head jerked up quickly when she heard a solitary 'beep'.

It was the Kira-bot. The gun was still in its hand.

Sayu felt the cold shiver of the knife she kept in her boot. Her muscles tightened, she crouched like a house cat gauging its prey.