* * * January 24 * * *

Two days had passed since Watari arrived with Near and Matt. Near was currently sitting in front of a computer next to L as he finished up a few formalities for Beyond's case. Watari had brought Mello to a doctor earlier in the day to gauge the progress of his healing burn. Bambi, Soichiro, and Matsuda were gathered around a coffee table going through countless files, but the young woman still found herself unable to concentrate on them. She rubbed her temples and sighed before placing a file on the table.

Matt playfully plopped himself beside Bambi and addressed her in English. "Hey, how's it going over here?"

Soichiro glanced at the teens in curiosity and Matsuda blatantly watched, unable to understand what was being said as Bambi responded in English. "Honestly, it could be better."

Matt nodded before adding, "By the way, you got a bunch of calls while you were gone. I hacked your phone to listen to the messages in case the calls were connected to the case. Know anybody by the names of Kato and Melinda?"

A toothy grin found its way onto her face as she told him, "Yeah, they're my best friends."

Given her lack of ability to concentrate on her task for the Kira case, Bambi decided to see what her old friends had to say. She got up onto her crutches and made her way to the bedroom, followed by Matt.

After watching Matt close the door behind him, Matsuda turned to L. "Ryuzaki, how did you find so many smart people to help with the Kira case?"

L thought for a moment before responding, "Somewhere in the world, there is a place that raises smart children. I picked the three most promising students to work for me."

Matsuda hesitated before asking, "Three? But, there are four of them..."

L let out an irritated sigh. "Bambi is a special case."

Matsuda opened his mouth to ask about her story, but he was quickly cut off by an agitated number-one detective. "Matsuda, get back to work."

After closing the door, Matt mentioned that he was surprisingly unable to trace the phone calls. "These people aren't a part of some secret crime ring, are they?" He joked.

Bambi laughed at the suggestion before explaining, "I made sure to keep them from anything too nefarious." She then sat down on the bed and pulled her phone out of the nightstand drawer.

The redhead sat down next to her and smirked. "Ah, didn't want to involve them with your big time hacks, Miss Robin Hood?"

Bambi's eyes shot wide-open. She whipped her head around to face Matt before asking, "How did you know about that? It's not in my files."

The older teen smiled at her. "Your laptop. The coding is so unique, I immediately recognized it. I've gotta know what happened."

The brunette hesitated before realizing that he already knew too much for her to bother hiding anything. "You'll have to be more specific."

"Y'know, headlines everywhere about the Robin Hood of the new age: 'Hacker Steals Money from CEOs and Gives it to the Needy'. You lasted a few years before dropping off the face of the web. Timing says that L found you, but I have to know, why did you do it in the first place?"

Bambi sighed. "I was so bored when I started." She paused before adding, "I was thirteen years old. My school didn't let people skip grades, and nothing they had for my grade actually challenged me."

She smiled. "Kato had taught me enough about computers for me to figure the rest out. I started with small-time hacks, but as time passed, they became too easy-I wanted a challenge. I wanted to change things."

Matt nodded his head in understanding before Bambi proceeded. "I had seen so many articles about these greedy CEOs. They abused their underpaid workers, and the workers stayed because of the bad job market." She frowned. "Anyone who tried to get involved was paid off to keep all of the evidence that they uncovered to themselves. Journalists started going missing, so everyone else was too afraid to even talk about it. I had to do something."

"Oh, I remember now," Matt mused. "After word got out about 'Robin Hood', it opened the floodgates to all of that. After you stopped, the cops eventually found the evidence to press charges on the CEOs."

Bambi smiled and said, "That was the goal."

Matt's curious gaze prompted her to continue. "It took them a few months to notice, but every day I took a few hundred dollars out of their accounts and sent the money to their employees. As the CEOs started to notice, I took more and more. Hundreds of dollars became thousands. The media gave the cases more attention when I started wiring it to charity. I lost sight of my original intentions and started to put on a show instead." She sighed.

"I made it little over a year in before L started the case. Long story short, he caught up with me when I was fifteen years old. A few interrogations later, I agreed to let Watari give me some tests. My results convinced L to hire me and hide all of the evidence as long as I agreed to stop my work as Robin Hood. The rest is history."

Matt leaned in with interest. "Do you regret it?"

Bambi thought for a moment before responding, "Maybe a little, but it got me here. I'm glad to have been able to meet you guys."

The redhead smiled at the sentiment before realizing something. "Wait, did Near know about this when you were paired up?"

"Yup."

He laughed. "Oh, man. Seriously? I can't imagine that sitting well with him."

She returned the laughter. "Yeah, he was pretty mad about it. Looking back on it, I think that he hated me for a good couple of months. Sometimes I wonder what I did to make him actually like me."

After another bout of laughter between the hackers, Bambi spoke up again. "Back to the topic of my laptop, I trust that you are smart enough not to disclose any other information you found on it."

"Of course, Amelia," he finished with a wink.

She smirked at him and half-joked, "I guess that I'll just have to hack your laptop to get back at you."

Bambi waited for a few moments in silence before realizing something that she should have a while ago.

She turned to the redhead. "Matt?"

He leaned back. "Yeah?"

"Why are you really here? It can't just be about my old habit."

Matt laughed before reaching into his deep jeans pocket and pulling out a device with a screen and several buttons. It appeared to have been taken apart and put back together.

"We still need to find that tracking device," he said, causing her to wince at the thought. "I spent yesterday modifying it to be more specific and like a metal detector. It will work best on bare skin, so you should change into a tank top and shorts," he instructed before getting up to leave. "I'll go get a marker. Let me know when you're ready." With that, he walked out the door, closing it behind him.

Bambi got back up onto her crutches and made her way over to her suitcase. She had stopped unpacking at each hotel since it was such a hassle to repack her belongings every few days with her injuries.

The young woman picked out a light shirt and shorts before making her way back to the bed. She sat down on the bed, leaning her crutches against the nightstand before taking off her shirt and any excess layers she had on. She then put on the tank top.

After that, she took her shoe and socks off. As she reached down, she saw her bare arms. The stitches did their job to close all of the wounds, and some had already fallen out. The anti-scar cream was helping the healing process, but it hadn't completed it's job just yet. Bambi changed out of the rest of her clothes and carefully slid her shorts on.

Just then, she heard a knock on the door and Matt called out, "Hey, are you ready yet?"

"Yeah, you can come in now."

Matt opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind him again. He had a marker in his hands and his goggles sitting on top of his head. When Matt turned to face Bambi, he stopped in his tracks.

His shoulders drooped, and his lips dipped into a frown as his breath got caught in his chest. His softened gaze traveled from the scars on the brunette's arms to her legs. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, bringing Matt out of his stupor.

As he walked up to her, he explained, "We'll check your exposed skin first and hope for the best. I'll start with your legs so you won't have to stand for too long. You're crutches will get in the way, though, so I'll need you to balance against the wall. Okay?"

"Okay."

Upon Bambi's agreement, Matt helped her up, slipping his arm around her waist as she slung her arm over his shoulder. He helped her over to the wall, as she hopped on one foot. After making sure that she was holding herself up with her hand against the wall and all pressure on her good foot, Matt let go and kneeled down with the modified tracking device.

He started with Bambi's right foot before slowly moving the device up and down in front of her leg. He made sure to check each side before moving to her other leg, careful not to touch her injured ankle.

After being sure that the microchip was in neither leg, he stood back up and helped the injured woman make her way back to the bed, where she sat down again. Matt sat down next to her and held her arm up to make it easier to check. As his hand gently touched some of the stitches on Bambi's arm, the same sad look returned to his eyes. His lips tightened into a thin line as he stared at the scars.

A soft frown settled on the brunette's face as she observed his expression. She sighed before speaking up and trying to ease his apparent feelings of guilt. "Matt, please, don't think that this is your fault. He was way out of our league," she tried to explain as he looked up at her. "Nothing you could have done would have stopped him."

He gave her a soft smile before giving her an unconvincing, "I know."

A few moments passed as she looked away, her thoughts turning back to her kidnapper's final words. "Can I ask you something?"

The redhead carefully lowered her arm, his tone soft. "Sure."

"Who was Alice?"

When she looked up, he was frowning. "From what I understand, she was L's first successor. Kinda like how Mello and Near are ranked two and one respectively, so were Beyond and Alice when they first came to Wammy's." Bambi couldn't help but wince when her kidnapper's name was brought up, prompting Matt to hesitate. "Apparently they didn't really know how to treat kids back then, and she ended up killing herself from the stress and lack of available counseling. He ran away after that, and it looks like she was a big part of his motive to kill L... and do everything else..."

The brunette pursed her lips and nodded before shifting her arm, indicating for the techie to continue. After a moment, Matt gently took her arm and began moving the tracking device from her finger tips and upward. When he reached a few inches above her elbow, it sounded off. Bambi shuddered at the renewed idea that there was a tracking device implanted in her body. The older genius reached for the marker and marked the exact spot. He then moved the device to the adjacent side of her arm, keeping it perpendicular to the surface so that he could mark the exact cross section.

After making the second mark, he stood up. "I'll go let Ryuzaki know that I found it. The surgery will probably be tomorrow or the next day, knowing how impatient he is."

Bambi couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, it probably will be."

With a smile, he turned toward the door and walked out, closing the door behind him to allow the brunette some privacy so that she could change back into more winter-friendly attire.

After changing, Bambi decided to pick up her phone and listen to her voicemails like she had intended to when she first went into the bedroom. After she entered her password, she put the phone to her ear and listened.

First came the familiar voice of a young man, Kato. "Hey, Boss. We're just calling to see how you have been, but you're not answering, so-oof!" Bambi heard the phone being transferred into someone else's hands before hearing the jovial voice of her oldest friend, Melinda. "You haven't called in forever! Please come to graduation, we miss you~." The message ended.

A short laugh escaped Bambi's lips. They certainly haven't changed a bit.

The second message began playing. Melinda sounded elated as her recorded voice cried out, "We did it, Boss! I made it into my top choice for college and Kato did too!" Bambi heard muffled cries of protest from Kato in the background as their red-haired friend continued. "He doesn't want me to tell you, but he got into MIT! Isn't that great? Call me back when you get this message~." The call ended and the next one sounded off.

Kato's voice rang through this time, sounding frustrated. "Please disregard what Melinda said. They didn't give me a big scholarship, and my parents got angry with me when they found out that it would cost so much. I'm not going to go to MIT." He ended, sounding disappointed.

Bambi frowned, knowing that he had his heart set on the university for most of his life. The fourth and final voicemail was from about a week ago.

Kato's voice was shaking as he softly began, "Amelia? I... I saw an article. It didn't mention your name, but I know it was you from the picture. I, uh... I didn't tell Melinda yet-you know how she is about blood." He laughed dryly, no emotion backing it. "I couldn't find your name in the hospital's database, so I know it was work-related." He paused, inhaling sharply before continuing, "Just, please, um... call me when you get this message."

The call ended, and Bambi slowly lowered the phone to the bed. Her eyes were wide as she took in his words. She put her head in her hands as she fully grasped the situation.

"Son of a bitch."

* * * January 27 * * *

A young man with brown eyes and messy, black hair sat at his desk in the computer department of a high school in the United States. As president of the computer club, Kato Nakamura had the key to the club room, which he often used during breaks and after school to leisurely browse the web. Today, however, Kato was on a mission. With dark circles lining his eyes, the Japanese immigrant tirelessly searched for any articles about Beyond Birthday and the fate of his close friend and mentor, Amelia. He had several tabs of research up already, but the most recent information he could find was from about a month ago, when she was in the hospital with the young blond man who led her rescue team.

While focusing on his research, Kato heard his name being called out. He looked up to see his red-haired and freckled friend, the always upbeat Melinda Carter, as she walked up to him. Kato slowly closed his laptop as the blue-eyed girl approached.

She briefly glanced at his laptop before stopping next to his chair and asking, "Did you find any interesting news today?"

Kato shot out a quick, "No."

Looking unimpressed, Melinda raised an eyebrow incredulously as she folded her arms. "What did you really find?"

The young man began to sweat a bit under the pressure as he tried to change the subject. "So, have you decided which school you want to go to yet?"

Melinda huffed. "I know what you're doing, Kato, and it won't work. I know your tricks and Bambi's too."

"What?" He asked innocently. "I'm not doing anything, I'm just genuinely curious. I know you weren't sure, so I was wondering if that changed."

She hesitated before perking right back up as she nonchalantly leaned against the desk. "Well, I like California's weather better than Boston's, since it's much warmer and-" She dashed off, Kato's laptop in hand.

Kato's eyes widened like saucepans and he scrambled out of the chair, racing after her. He banked down the hallway to the left as he called out, "Melinda, give it back!"

She sent a smirk in his direction as she kept running down the hall past other students. Kato increased his speed as he weaved in and out of the students in the hallway.

He brushed past a freshman. "Excuse me!"

He ran through a conversation. "Sorry!"

"Melinda!" He cried out as he started gaining on her.

Kato reached his hand out to grab her arm just as she took a sharp right and entered a room. Kato stopped in his tracks as he read the sign: 'Women's Restroom'.

Kato let out a frustrated groan as he banged on the door and complained, "That's not fair, Melinda! Come back out here and give me back my laptop!"

Inside the restroom, Melinda sat on the closed toilet seat, ignoring him as she opened the laptop to see what her friend was hiding. The first tab was a Wikipedia page on a man called 'Beyond Birthday.' The teen acknowledged the strange name before skimming through the overview.

The article described a man with a mysterious past who was responsible for a set of murders several years ago. He was caught by Agent Naomi Misora of the FBI and was eventually sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The article went on to report that the serial killer escaped from prison and was suspected to be responsible for another series of murders in Los Angeles and a kidnapping, the most recent of which happened a month ago. His current whereabouts were unknown.

Melinda stared at the article as she processed the information. When she looked up at the other tabs, she could see that several of them had similar titles. As she clicked through them, she took note that they were all recent articles about the suspected murders.

As she continued glancing through the tabs, she mumbled, "Why would he be researching this much into a serial killer?"

The next tab she clicked on was an article by a Californian newspaper. As the image loaded, Melinda read the caption: 'Pictured above is the young woman being rescued after three days of captivity.'

When the image loaded, Melinda's eyes went wide. The image captured her best friend, unconscious and covered in blood, being carried by a man with blond hair who had recently sustained horrible burns on his left side at the time the photograph was taken.

She jolted up, letting the laptop crash to the floor as she covered her mouth with one hand and leaned against the wall with the other. Tears spilled from her eyes as she moaned out, "No, Amelia. Oh my God."

Outside of the restroom, Kato heard the clatter of his laptop on the tiled floor and Melinda's sobbing. He flattened his palm on the door and looked down at his feet.

He sighed, disappointed in himself, before softly calling out, "Melinda?"

Nothing but quiet sobs came from the other side of the door.

Kato closed his eyes as tears began to accumulate. "I'm so sorry."