Villains Ch 18 Saving Matt

[reaperlight]

AN: I own Nothing!

***



Six Months Ago

"Wait, so what you're saying is you want to use Agent Ukita as bait?" the young man said into his head-set "DAMN that's cold!"

Near gaped at the speaker from his hiding place behind the sofa-a certain red headed, be-goggled young man that was very much alive.

"Is there a problem?" asked his boss.

"No, ma'am." Matt cut the transmission and returned to the hack he was running on the target's personal information...

Near was about to make his presence known, when he stumbled on a discarded carton of cigarettes. Well that could have gone smoother.

Matt whirled around, a pistol in his shaking hand. "Who's there? How the hell did you get in here?"

Matt regularly checked-that monitor was up on his screen along with his homemade hacking program and an online game of Tetris-not a single one of their precautionary alarms or traps had been tripped. Yet someone had infiltrated his hacker cave...

Near raised his hands above his head, "Matt... it's me…"

"No! That's impossible! What are you?" Matt demanded "A shapeshifter? An illusionist?"

"Matt-it's ME, it's Near!" Near considered for a moment how he was going to prove it to Matt who seemed to have suddenly developed quite a case of paranoia. For that matter, are you really Matt? Just what happened to you? Near twirled his hair "Who else knows about that one time… That it was you not Mello that flushed sodium down the toilet like a total moron?"

"N-Near... no... You could have read my mind or something..."

Near sighed apathetically and sat down in the middle of Matt's floor. He began to engage in a game of solitaire as Matt kept the gun trained on him. "Fine. Don't believe me. I'm just trying to save your life."

He looks like Near... he acts like Near... He knows what Near knows...

"If you are Near... how did you get here? I know where Near is supposed to be..."

"...Winchester England and I'll still be there if you check because I'm from the future. That's my power Matt, I bend time and space."

Matt gaped at him. Then he began to laugh. "Oh man… this sounds like something that Mello would do. Did he put you up to this somehow?"

"I'm telling you the truth."

"Prove it."

In the blink of an eye, Matt's entire apartment was covered in Near's LEGO towers and Near had returned to the same position, on the floor playing solitaire, that he was in before he stopped time. Matt's jaw dropped as he wandered around the room, touching the towers trying to decide if they were real...

"You could still be an illusionist..."

"When did you get so paranoid? Here..." Near reached into his white pajama tops and tossed Matt a bag. Inside was a box of cigarettes, "Just got them from the shop down the street-check the time stamp on the receipt. Smoke them and tell me that's an illusion. Just do it outside. Unlike you, I'm not trying to die a slow death of lung cancer."

"Is it really you, Near?"

"Yes. That's what I've been trying to tell you." Matt finally put his pistol away. He embraced Near in an awkward hug. "Matt... Why did you leave?" Near asked, "Why did you let us think you were dead?"

Matt left Near's question unanswered. "Near, why are you here?"

"I'm here to warn you. You have to get out of Japan..."
***

"Matt... there's that thing which we talked about..."

"Yeah, sure... just one more..."

"MATT!"

"Just one more, I promise... You know this would go faster if you helped me with this..."

Near sighed and joined Matt on the couch.

***

"Near, move!"

"I'm trying, it's stuck!"

"To your left, jackal, JACKAL!"

"Yeah, I see it!"

"Dammit, Near! Every time? You drive us off the cliff, EVERY TIME!"

"I'm sorry-This is my first time... I mean I don't play this as much as you do..."

"Give me the Warthog!"

"But..."

"Just give it!"

Onscreen the pink Spartan traded places with the white one in the driver's seat.

"I'm not really good at shooting either you know," Near complained.

"If it moves shoot it-ask questions later."

"What if I hit our guys?"

"No chance of that happening on this level, trust me. It's just legions of heavily armed aliens trying to kill you..."

Near panicked when he saw that Matt was right...

"Hey, watch where you're throwing that!" Matt yelled when Near pushed the wrong button and threw the glowing blue grenade at Matt's pink Spartan character. "Oh Crap it's the sticky kind!"

There was a blinding flash and then just the aliens laughing malevolently over the corpses of their avatars.

You Have Died. Game Over. Would you like to try again?

Near sighed and put down the X-box controller. "Matt, did you consider what we talked about at all?"

"What's there to talk about?"

"Think about it, there's a Gaming Convention in L.A. we could go to... or..."

"Near, I can't leave. I have too much work to do here... and it may very well be my last chance."

"It will be if you don't leave Japan!" Near finally snapped. He was at his wits end at trying to get Matt to care about his future.

"Near... you asked me why I left the School and had them tell you I was dead..."

"Do you have any idea what that did to Mello?"

"It's because I am dead... or might as well be. I didn't want to deal with all that emotional drama. I just wanted to get it over with. I'm dying. I have a blood clot in my brain. I wasn't even supposed to last this long. The doctors gave me six months at most. So as you can see," Matt laughed "it doesn't matter how much I smoke. I'm not going to make it to fifteen. I just wanted to go on one mission for the House before I kicked it."

"But... I'm supposed to save you."

"You already did... Damn the consequences. I've had more fun, and felt more alive than I've ever..."

Near closed his eyes to wipe away the moisture from his eyes... And when he opened them Near found himself outside of a toy shop in Winchester.

"No! I teleported! NO! NO! MATT!"

Near jumped backwards in time... he jumped forwards... He tried again and again...

But try as he might Near couldn't find his way back to Matt...

***

"Yes, everything is still proceeding according to plan. By tonight we'll have the catalyst..." Daisuke Matoba gave his report back to the House.

"Excellent work Matoba. Oh and Linda painted something interesting. Something previously unforeseen... but nothing we can't handle. Matt's hiding something from us. Use any means necessary to get it out of him."

"Very good K."

***

"Who are you hiding?"

"No one! I swear! PLEASE! I AM LOYAL TO THE HOUSE!" Matt cried as Matoba's underlings struck him again.

Matoba sighed already bored with watching Matt suffer and left the management of Matt's torture to his minions. He turned to speak with one of his underlings who had come in to give his report on his "totally legitimate" business. Yonegoro Nusumi removed his ever-present cowboy hat and bowed deeply upon entering the room. He then gave his report… as an afterthought he added at the end:

"Oh, one of our meth labs was destroyed. There was a survivor but he was crazy, raving on about a monster or something..."

Matoba paused in his highly symbolic megalomaniacal globe spinning session with a look of concern "What did he say?

"He just kept repeating 'kira-kira' or something. I think he must have been sampling the stuff..."

"Tell all the guys to keep an eye out for this monster."

"You can't be serious..."

"This is very serious Nusumi. Let me know if you hear anything more."K will be pleased to know that the forecast is still on track… but just what's this guy after?

"As you wish, sir..." As Nusumi turned to leave he noticed Matt. "That's a fine piece of ass..."

"What him?"

Matoba noticed Nusumi looking like he wanted to eat Matt. Nusumi restrained himself.

"Sorry, meant no disrespect, sir." Nusumi said when he saw Matoba eyeing him critically.

"No, its fine... he's just an underling that has failed me. I was just considering his punishment... Yes, do with him whatever you please..."

***

Present Time

Mello looked up in relief when Near returned through the door of the Karaoke bar. It was going on twelve hours since Near vanished.

Near's eyes were downcast. "I couldn't save him..."

"I kind of figured-since history hasn't changed or whatever." To Near's surprise Mello got up and embraced him. "I'm just glad your okay."

***

The next day Near and Mello stood beneath the blood-stained banner bidding them "Welcome to the East West Pop Music Festival."

"I couldn't save Matt. And now the supermodel is dead too!" Near groaned after, learning of the death of Kiyomi Takada.

Mello had never seen Near looking so depressed... or so emotional, for that matter...

Though it made sense; Near certainly wasn't used to failing. He succeeded at everything he did. This made these current blows particularly hard.

"Hey, maybe it's save the supermodel, then save the world?" Mello suggested though he knew he was grasping at straws…

"No it's obviously an if-then statement..."

"How would you know?"

"I said it!"

"Future you isn't the same as you!"

As they argued and wandered the halls of the abandoned Festival building they heard someone loudly clearing his throat behind them, they turned around to see an elderly gentleman looking at them sternly.

Mello and Near turned in unison to see...

"Mr. Wammy?" Near squeaked.

In a moment of detached terror Mello wondered if he could submit "Synchronized Gulping" as a new Olympic sport.
***

A/N: As a prerequisite for this AU being in the style of the Heroes-verse characters must be inflicted with ridiculous levels of trauma. You may have noticed...

The chapter title comes from the Heroes spin-off novel "Saving Charlie" which (spoilers) also ends in failure. Sorry for everyone who wanted a happy ending-but on the bright side I just saved you seven bucks.

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