Me: 'SUP YOU GUYS. LOOK, ANOTHER CHAPTER THAT PROVES I AM STILL NOT DEAD :D

Matt: She's moved up in the world to be a zombie now. Y'know, just chillin' with Michael Jackson...and Mello.

Mello: Again, I don't see my point in being here, since I died like TEN CHAPTERS AGO.

Me: IT WASN'T THAT LONG AGO. And you live with me so you do as I command. LIKE FEATURING REVIEWS FOR ME. Here's the "best":

kao-dreams: WHAT. WAS. THAT.

Me: INCEPTION. I FUCKS WITH YO MIND *waggles arms* As well as with Mello *waggles eyebrows*

Mello: That is not amusing. RAPE OF ANIME CHARACTERS IS NO LAUGHING MATTER.

Me: YOU KNOW YOU LIKE IT.

Matt: Misseh does not own Death Note or it's characters, but she does own the OC, Fee :D

Mello: I swear when they develop the technology for death rays...ONE DAY.

Twenty-Nine: Rebirth

The blinding white light that greeted a groggy Matt made him wish he had never opened his eyes.

He groaned as he tried to become more aware of his surroundings. As he attempted to sit up, a sharp pain radiating from his right side made him flop back down again on what felt like a soft mattress.

"Wh…Where am…"
"Good morning, Sunshine."

Slowly, Matt turned his head and tried to focus his blurry vision to someone in the room with him. Once he could see clearly, he frowned at the presence of a familiar albino with a doctor standing beside him.

"I don't suggest trying to move around too much. Your stitches will come out," Near said in his regular monotone, lacking empathy for Matt's condition. The redhead blinked twice before his eyes widened in realization.

"Fee…F-Fee! Where is she?" he said, his voice strained in panic. Near opened his mouth to tell him to calm down, but Matt was already halfway out of the hospital bed. Ignoring the pain, he took off, running aimlessly around the intensive care unit. He opened the doors to each room carelessly, searching for Fee while simultaneously escaping from Near and a line of his personally hired nurses who attempted to sit him down.

In the very last room of the I.C.U., Matt finally found what he was looking for and stopped short.

"Matt," Near began tentatively. "There's something I must tell you fir-"
"Shut up," he said in a hushed tone, watching the scene before him from the doorway in slight shock.

Fee sat calmly on a soft hospital bed, her eyes staring far into the distance. Nurses spoke to her as they checked the monitors she was hooked up to, but it seemed as though she was too distracted to listen. Her frazzled blue hair was hidden under heavy bandages that were wrapped securely around her head. Every so often she would play with her thumbs, her bright cerulean orbs shining with a kind of strange naivety.

What…happened to her? he thought, his stomach sinking.

Once Matt found the strength to move his legs, he sprinted towards her and embraced her tightly. To feel her warmth-her actual presence-was euphoric for the boy who thought he'd lost his life and the only person in it that held any meaning.

However, his heart nearly stopped when he felt a pair of small hands suddenly shove him off her. He stared blankly at Fee, who glared crossly right back at him.

Placing her hands dramatically on her hips, she huffed. "Excuse me, but just who the fuck are you?"

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It was hours before Matt had calmed down enough to hold a conversation.

He sat curled into himself against the corner of his own hospital room with Near sitting calmly close by, struggling to control his breathing. His eyes were rimmed red from sobbing until he had no tears left. The contents of his room were strewn about on the floor from his emotional outbreak.

"…How long?" he asked quietly, his voice cracking. "How long was I unconscious for?"
"Three days," Near replied curtly. "Miss Fee has been awake for two, including today; long enough for us to fully assess her condition. I tried to tell-"

"Then tell me. Tell me what the hell is going on," Matt seethed, his jaw clenching. Near sighed deeply, motioning for the doctor standing safely by the doorway to come inside. The doctor straightened up his long, white coat before clearing his throat and pulling out some x-rays from a manila envelope.

"Though you may not be aware of this, Matt, your friend attempted suicide by shooting herself," he said softly, pausing after he said this to give Matt time to soak in the information. The redhead's hands clenched into fists, but he kept silent. Clearing his throat once more, the doctor continued, now pointing to certain areas on the scans.

"She was lucky that her aim was poor. The model of the gun uses small bullets, and her shaky hand created the situation where the bullet entered her skull on a sharp diagonal and lodged, fully intact, within the bone. We were able to remove it successfully."

The doctor's tone suddenly lowered. "However…due to the circumstances…she has developed a case of amnesia due to post-dramatic stress. Though difficultly, we've managed to interview her and gather as much information about what she knows as we can. She has retained all her personal traits, and most of her long-term memory. However, when Near specifically asked her about yourself, she couldn't recall a thing."

Matt's eyes widened, his expression now a mixture of anger, distress, and pain. "W-Why? Why can't she remember me?"

The doctor sighed, straightening up his coat once again. "That was something my team and I wondered ourselves. After some more digging into her past, we discovered that she seems to have a more vivid recollection of memories she wasn't able to remember clearly before the shooting-painful memories of her childhood. You both attended the same orphanage for gifted children, correct?"

Matt nodded slowly, his train of thought completely wrecked by this overwhelming revelation.

"She seems to remember everything up until 9 months of her life at the orphanage…which should be around the time she met you, correct?"

Memories of their first encounter came flooding back to him. His fingertips became ice cold and the color drained from his face, leaving Matt nearly as pale as Near.

"It must have been around that time that she fully accepted 'Fee', as Near has told me her name was, to be her true identity. Now, however, it seems that she has reverted back into the person she was before that time. This has happened to her before. By assuming different identities, her brain essentially 'protects itself' from memories that are too painful or traumatic. The possibility of your death was so crushing that her brain tried to forget any memory regarding you in order to shield her from suffering in the aftermath."

The doctor's brows furrowed in concern as Matt stared intently at the floor, his body shivering slightly.
"B-But," he quickly added. "The ease with which her brain manipulates her memories means that this is not permanent. With effort and much patience, you may be able to remind her of who you are by reenacting memories of great significance."

Matt's eyes slowly wandered upward until his piercing stare was directed at Near, who sat in his normal position while twirling his hair carelessly.

"…What's her real name?" he said in a low tone. "She reverted back to who she was before. Who is she now?"

Near stopped twirling his hair and slowly set his hand down on his knee. "Fiona Blaise."
Matt leaned against the wall for support as he stood up. He shuffled slowly towards the last room in the I.C.U., his mind in a daze. Near followed from a safe distance behind him.

Cautiously, Matt opened the doors to her room, but took a quick intake of breathe once he saw no one but nurses in the room. He threw the doors open and stormed into the room, the veins in his neck popping out as his face became completely distraught.

"Where is she? Where the fuck is Fee?" he yelled. The nurses stared with completely confused expressions as him, slowly backing away.

"Fee!"

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"Two years ago, the same date as today."

Near peered upwards from behind a tower of cards he was building. The amount of free time he had acquired since Kira was brought down left him bored to death. "Excuse me?"

Matt spun around in his chair at his desk at the SPK. He propped his feet up and leaned back comfortably. "That was when Fee disappeared. Today marks the second year. And I still haven't made any fucking progress…"

Near turned his attention back towards the card tower. "She's been surprisingly mobile. My agents that I have stationed all over have sighted her at least once, but she vanishes before there's time to arrive there. So far we've recorded her being in Japan, the United States, Germany, France…"

Matt smiled a bit. "She was never one to really stay put. She must be trying to find herself…But it's frustrating."

Near opened his mouth to reply when Halle rushed into the room, interrupting him. "N-Near, there's a call on line 4."
"Put it on hold."
She shook her head, sending wisps of blonde hair flying into her face. "It's urgent."

With an exasperated sigh, Near picked up a remote near him and pressed a small red button, turning on a speaker phone that could be heard by all in the room.

"This is N."
"Near…It's been a long time."

Matt nearly fell out of his chair after immediately recognizing the voice. "R-Roger? You're alive? I-I mean… you're alive!"
"Is that you, Matthew? Still as rude as ever, I see. I'm not that old, you miscreant."

"What's your purpose for contacting me so suddenly?" Near interrupted, lolling his head to the side. Roger paused for a moment on the other line, taking in a breathe.

"I would have called you sooner, but I wanted to make certain that this stay was going to be permanent," he murmured. "It would seem that we have a very important visitor here."

Matt's fingertips went cold as his eyes widened with familiar realization. "…Y-You don't mean-"
"Perhaps it's time you two come back for a stay at Wammy's," Roger stated.

Matt straightened his posture as he looked at Near with determination. "Near. You know what this means."
The albino sighed heavily for the umpteenth time. "Unfortunately, yes."
Matt made a fist and pounded his chest. "We're going to England…to Wammy's."

Back to where it all began...

"You treat me just like another stranger. Well, it's nice to meet you sir, I guess I'll go, I best be on my way out. Ignorance is your new best friend..." - "Ignorance" by Paramore.