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From:

solvethepuzzle

[He blinks, hearing that. What happened, exactly? A bad Echo, perhaps?]

If you're sure . . . May I ask what brought this on, though?

From:

enflammen

Yeah ...

[A very bad Echo, in fact.]

I, um. Got back the memory of how he died.

From:

solvethepuzzle

[There is a noticeable pause on his end. Oh. That is . . . Well, yes that certainly is bad. Part of him wants to know what could have possibly brought that one on, but this probably isn't quite the right time.]

Oh . . . Are you alright? I do have the memory of that happening to him.

From:

enflammen

Yeah, I'm ...

[Fine, he wants to say, but it's not exactly true, is it. He's unsettled, in a helpless way he can't remember feeling since he was very small. Micah makes a point to stay in control of situations, but he can't control this, because it's in the past. He laughs, quiet but dark-edged and sharp.]

I mean, you know they died, somehow. That's what a reincarnation is, right? But - feeling it happen, that's different.

[Micah chews his bottom lip for a silent, tense moment.]

He knew it was coming. He thought he was ready for it - ready to die, like that, but - he wasn't. Not really.

From:

solvethepuzzle

[He can't imagine anyone would be fine, having that experience. It isn't something that Nathan has. Logically, of course, everyone's Other has died at some point. But not all of them remember it happening; Nathan does not. What he does have are memories of a lot of other people dying. Mello included.

[... He knew?] I admit I do not know much of the circumstances around it; all I have is the memory of the news report that the church was on fire, and Near's knowledge that Mello was . . . dead inside of it. [The irony of church and fire being things significant to Micah in this life is not lost on him.]

I do not see how one could be fully prepared for such a thing.

From:

enflammen

Shit.

[Fire ... he'd been spared that part, the memory ending with Mello slumped over the wheel of the truck he'd driven into the abandoned church, his field of vision fading to black with his final breath. Micah gets it, though, the correlation between his Other's life and his own, like some cosmic joke that isn't actually funny at all. He sits back in his chair, deflated, slowly tracing his fingertips over the line down his face where scar tissue meets undamaged skin.]

This doesn't make any sense, Nathan. It was a heart attack that killed him, but he knew it was coming, and he just kept thinking, "It has to be me, I have to do this so Near will know." I mean - how do you know you're going to die of a heart attack? He wasn't on drugs, he didn't have a weak heart - he knew that someone was going to kill him with a heart attack.

[And that's just not a way people kill each other, from Micah's understanding - it conflicts with everything he thinks he knows about the world and how it works.]

You said ... Mello and Near, they didn't get along at all, right? It doesn't make sense ... why would a guy like that give up his life for someone he didn't even like?

From:

solvethepuzzle

[There is a great deal to process in all of that, but it is the last of it that hits him the hardest. What? That . . . But . . .

[The confusion is evident in his voice, breaking that usual monotone. He does not even stop to realize that this is going to trigger an Echo.] They didn't . . . Mello almost shot him once. [His fingers start curling into his hair.] I . . . do not understand.

[A slow, deep breath on his part. He has to think about the rest of this. Heart attack was the cause of death, not the fire. Unnatural cause. Murder. This much, Nathan does understand. Even if the concept itself seems nonsensical.

[After a moment:] That was . . . the way that Kira, the murderer they were both pursuing, killed their victims. Heart attacks. By writing their names in a notebook -- the Death Note.

From:

enflammen

[While Nathan is thinking everything over, Micah is overcome with the first of two Echoes, a vivid memory of standing in a room full of monitor screens, surrounded by two men with drawn guns while he points a pistol at the back of Near's head, his entire body taken over by a wave of white-hot fury.]

"I'm not a tool for you to use to solve the puzzle."

[Micah repeats his Other's words through clenched teeth, head resting in his hands as the dizziness washes over him and subsides. He thinks it's over, but the second Echo comes quickly on the heels of the first, when Nathan speaks the words Death Note - a memory of holding a thin black notebook with those same words scrawled on the cover in one gloved hand, the other pressing a phone to his ear while he tells the party on the other line You probably can't believe it, but this notebook has the power to control and kill people.

He's silent for long, tense moments after, swallowing down the nausea rising up in his throat.]

This guy had a lot of nerve calling himself Mello.

From:

solvethepuzzle

[He curls up a little when he hears those words, exact words he remembers from nearly two years ago. That had been the first time he'd ever gotten an idea of Near's personality, and he's never liked what it seems to mean. That he was distant, cold, even callous.

[But . . . if other hints are to be believed, also fond of Mello. He prefers to think that Near found Mello's death upsetting. It would make him more human, less some soulless automaton that cared nothing for anyone.]

Yes . . . that time. [A brief, awkward pause as Micah points out the obvious irony of his Other's alias.] ... I did always wonder where Near came from.

From:

enflammen

[Micah exhales sharply through his teeth. This would be a lot to process on the best of days, and he's already been thoroughly shaken by the memory of Mello's death. Still, he did ask to be told everything Nathan knew.]

I guess that does explain the heart attack, at least. How he knew it was coming.

[But it doesn't explain why he'd sacrificed himself, to make sure Near knew ... what, exactly?]

You said you got back a memory of the news report, right? Was there anything else? Anything about how that was supposed to help?

From:

solvethepuzzle

[He shifts a little uncomfortably, even though he isn't sure he has a right to. Micah is the one trying to process experiencing death; he is just hearing it.]

No . . . I don't have anything beyond the report. Mello hadn't even been mentioned; Near just knew. Given how they were raised, very few people would have known who either of them were. [There had been a name mentioned, and he hadn't put it together until just now -- the Echoes had been so far apart -- but it's one he's heard in more than one.]

Ah . . . [He begins, a little unsure. Should he ask this now? Perhaps he should get permission first; this is a lot that Micah is dealing with.] May I ask about a certain name? I know you said you want to know everything, but this seems like a lot for you . . . [For both of them, really.]

From:

enflammen

[Near just knew. He knew what Mello was doing? Did he try to stop him?

Would it have made any difference? Micah doesn't know.]

A name? Sure, go ahead - what name?

[Whatever's ahead of him, he's fiercely determined to take it and still remain standing.]

From:

solvethepuzzle

Alright . . . [He's bracing to cause another Echo here, and if he does, he imagines Micah's answer will cause one in turn for him.]

Kiyomi Takada. Does it mean anything?

From:

enflammen

[Another memory flashes in front of Micah's eyes - his hand, holding a gun again, only on a Japanese woman this time, in an enclosed, metallic space - the inside of a trailer, from what he can see. And Mello's thoughts, that same desperate strain of I have to do this, because ... ]

... She's connected to Kira.

From:

solvethepuzzle

[It's a small statement, something he'd sort of suspected but had no confirmation of and hadn't thought of in months. But it's enough to make his stomach drop briefly, heart beat in his head for just a second.]

Their spokesperson in the media. [That explains why one of Near's agents went undercover as a bodygaurd for her.] Possibly a direct connection, even.

From:

enflammen

Yeah ... that's why he did it. To force Kira's hand. Like - like one of those moves you make in chess.

[He doesn't know a lot about chess, but he has paid attention to what Lazarus told him.]

She was an important piece on the board. That's why he targeted her.

From:

solvethepuzzle

[Nathan does know chess, and there are a few terms that can apply here, given what generalities he can piece together of the situation.]

... Zwischenzug. [A beat before he realizes he probably needs to explain that.] An intermediary move that responds to a threat by becoming a bigger threat to the opponent, thus forcing an immediate response.

If . . . if Mello knew he would die doing this, but thought that Near would learn something from it, then that would make it a positional sacrifice.

[Though that still does not answer why Mello would do that when he'd disliked Near so much, wanted to be better than him.]

From:

enflammen

It just doesn't make any sense.

[Micah doesn't know much about Mello, but he thinks he knows enough to believe that this action flies in the face of all logic.]

I mean - is there anything else you know about this guy? Anything else you've picked up? You've been at this a lot longer than I have.

From:

solvethepuzzle

I do not have many specific memories of him, and some of those have come from interactions with you, so you know what those are. You've been told the other things . . .

[Though there is one thing they never got to, now that he thinks about it. It isn't anything from Mello's perspective, but . . .]

The only thing I can add is that . . . things I have gotten back suggest that while Mello hated Near, Near may have been fond of Mello. [Which is another thing that does not make sense, especially given the memory of that tense moment with the gun pointed at him.] But I can't say if Mello knew that or not, or whether it would have had any effect on his decision.

From:

enflammen

... Really?

[That's even more surprising, though maybe it shouldn't be, since all Micah has to go from as far as Mello's direct interaction with Near is his lack of reaction at having a gun pointed at him and his callous proclamation about losing when told of L's death. It's not the most well-rounded of pictures.]

I don't think he did. Knew that, I mean. I think - that's something I would've picked up on.

[What he had picked up on was an awful, gnawing loneliness. It's something Micah is all too familiar with feeling. Maybe ... if Mello knew that someone cared for him, he wouldn't have felt such deep desperation.]

From:

solvethepuzzle

[No, it really should be surprising.]

I had never . . . picked up on any particular impression. Based on the memories I have, I'd assumed indifference at best. It doesn't seem he treated Mello very well, given what Mello said while pointing the gun at him . . .

But. Some months ago, I Echoed back a photograph of him -- of Mello -- as a young teenager. The words 'Dear Mello' are written on the back.

[Naturally, this had been very confusing at the time, and to this day, Nathan cannot precisely say that he understands it.]

From:

enflammen

[As Nathan describes the photo, another memory comes screeching through Micah's mind, heralded by another wave of dizziness and nausea. He sees the photograph of his younger self in his hand - it could be a school portrait from any year, the boy clothed in plain black and a defiant refusal to smile. He hears Near's voice, so similar to Nathan's and yet strikingly different: "It's not a hundred percent perfect, but but I think it's safe to say that you won't be killed by the notebook."

Then he sees his gloved hand flip the photograph over to reveal those two words written on the back. Dear Mello. He feels a heavy weight drop and settle in his stomach, and he feels a flash of anger prick all the way up the back of his neck. Micah struggles with words through the disorienting mix of sudden emotions.]

He thought ... he was being played. By Near. All of it.

From:

solvethepuzzle

[No new memory comes flooding into Nathan right now. He just . . . keeps playing with his hair, trying to figure things out. These people were so strange, and they make so little sense sometimes.

[To hear that statement is saddening, but he cannot really fault it.] Honestly, I'm not certain I would put Near above that kind of behaviour. [He sounds uncomfortable, almost apologetic about that fact. It may have been the kind of person he was in that other life, but it isn't the kind of person he wants to be in this one.]

But when we get things . . . they are almost invariably things that were important to our Others, or had some importance in something that happened to them. If that photo weren't important to Near . . . I do not think I would have gotten it.

[The fact that he has the photo, more than anything, lends Nathan toward believing that the statement had been genuine. So much of Near's other behaviour doesn't seem to bear it out, but with the way Echoes work . . .]

From:

enflammen

[The photograph was important? But how ... as a bargaining chip of sorts, maybe - that's what Mello thought, that Near must have known they'd meet and that's why he held onto it, why he let Mello know he had it.]

And you still have the photo?

From:

solvethepuzzle

[That could explain it, yes. But it would not explain the writing on the back. It doesn't seem like Near could have reasonably expected Mello to think it was genuine.]

I've kept every object I've Echoed. [Because they are important. Because he thinks that maybe they will help him understand.] My house wasn't too badly damaged by the fires, so all of them are still intact.