Return
L's eyes flew open.
And he found himself bodiless, unable to affect anything, helplessly witnessing Kira's triumph and final failure...
L's eyes flew open.
And he screamed at the darkness surrounding him, beating at the coffin he was sealed in till the air was gone and he was returned to death...
L's eyes flew open.
And he found himself in a body that stood too straight, with a tongue that disliked sweets, and as he stared into a mirror Light's horrified eyes stared back...
L's eyes flew open.
And he was huddled on the ground before the cave Light had led him from, with no allies he could call on because they'd all know he was dead, and before he had a chance to face Light again he was killed by a paranoid fugitive, and his last sight was the man who had murdered him dying of a heart attack seconds too late to save him...
L's eyes flew open, scattering the hundreds of unpleasant speculations about what he might find waiting for him.
He stared in disbelief at the familiar ceiling of the taskforce's headquarters. The taskforce's... abandoned headquarters, he realised as he sat up slowly.
It felt strangely appropriate.
He looked down at himself, bemused to see he was wearing a shroud of some kind. So much to find. Clothes. Allies.
And then...
Justice.
"Whoever that is, you can fuck off!" Mello snarled, not bothering to look around and see who had the nerve to disturb him.
"Mello's attitude has not improved with age."
Mello froze at the voice he only knew from recordings, never having heard it unaltered while the person it belonged to was alive. Then he reached for his gun, twisting to face this sick imposter.
Before he could try to shoot, Sidoh spoke up, staring at the imposter in amazement. "Wow... That's an actual thing? I mean, I've heard, but - someone actually brought you back?"
"That's possible?" Mello demanded, spinning to question the shinigami, ignoring how it put the intruder at his back.
Sidoh flinched back. "Apparently, if someone really regrets someone's death." Seeing how unimpressed by the lack of detail Mello was, he protested, "I just know what I've heard, okay? That hasn't been done for - wow! It must be centuries!" He pouted. "Dammit! This means I owe Deridovely four more bones!"
"You had a bet on whether someone would ever be brought back?"
Sidoh shrugged. "Hey, why else would I remember the rumour? Not like it affects me. You know, 'cept for how Notes can't kill someone if they've already died once."
L blinked at the words, his first acknowledgement that Sidoh was talking. "Is Shinigami-san saying that I am now immune to the Death Note?"
"He - wait, you can see him?" Mello demanded, forgetting what he'd been going to say in the shock of L's awareness of the creature.
"He died. He'll be able to see all of us, now," Sidoh explained, before saying to L, "Yeah. I can't see your name at all, even though your lifespan's right there. It's kind of freaky, to tell you the truth."
"Interesting," L mused. He smiled slightly at Mello. "Given this new information, I think we can easily put together a plan for confronting Kira. Does Mello agree?"
Mello hesitated, but not for long. The possibility of getting to work with L - the L - was too much of a draw. But first, he had to know -
"Do you know who brought you back?"
"Yagami Light."
"Damn." Mello sat back, shocked. "I was sure he was Kira."
"Kira killed him once he did."
Mello blinked. "You mean - the guy saying he's Light is an imposter...?"
"Kira ate Light," L said flatly. Mello got an extremely interesting look on his face, clearly re-evaluating L's sanity, but Sidoh interrupted before he could say anything.
"What, that's really what possession looks like if you get the human out of its body? I had another three skulls on that!"
"So... Light's possessed...?" Mello tried.
"Light no longer exists." L shoved away the emotions called up by the memory. "He barely lasted long enough to guide me all the way out of the Underworld."
Mello didn't seem to know what to say to that. He turned to the confrontation they were planning. "Here's my contact in Near's group."
As he negotiated with Near, L sat at a computer, using an art program that he'd pirated from the Net.
None of the colours were exactly what he wanted, but he seemed fairly satisfied with the end result of a barren, rocky wasteland, and a younger-than-real-life semi-transparent Light, crying, with a gaping wound in his chest.
"Art therapy?" Matt suggested facetiously.
"Memory," L replied.
No one quite had the nerve to ask how much of being dead he remembered, after that.
L smiled bitterly at their silence, and deleted the program he'd used.
The location for the final showdown was carefully chosen, cameras placed so that the more vulnerable members of the taskforce - meaning everyone but L - could see what would happen without risking themselves.
Light strode in with all of Kira's arrogance, called out his accuser with a vicious grin, mocking the suggestion that he could be stopped - "Not even L managed to prove it, and you say you can? Come on! Let me see who I'm dealing with," he challenged.
("Yeah, take a good look," Mello laughed.)
L stepped out of the shadows.
Light froze, staring. "You," he gasped.
(Mello stopped jeering at the screen. The others wouldn't understand why until later, watching the recording again, they spotted what he'd already noticed - the sheer relief that shone on Light's face for a moment before it twisted into Kira's desperate fury.)
"I thought Kira-kun would remember Light-kun bringing me back, given his presence for it," L said.
("The fuck?")
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
L tilted his head, watching Kira with expressionless eyes. "'I wonder if you'll be a ghost, doomed to haunt the world forever, or if you'll wake in your coffin. This might almost be worthwhile if it means that's what will happen to you.' Does Kira-kun really not remember saying that as Light-kun was guiding me back?"
(The observers cringed. L seemed unaffected by the cruelties he repeated.)
Kira's face twisted horribly. "No - That wasn't real -" he protested.
L spread his arms slightly. "Real enough." A cold smile raised his lips. "And since I have already died by the Death Note, I cannot be killed that way again, making me the only one fit to face you here - wouldn't you agree, Kira-kun?" He drew the gun that had been concealed by his baggy shirt, staring into Kira's eyes. "I hereby execute you for multiple cases of homicide."
Kira didn't even have time to protest before the first bullet went into his skull.
(Matt was ashamed that he tried to protest for him. Near's silence was filled with approval of L's actions. Mello's... wasn't.)
Unobservable through the cameras, Ryuk howled with laughter. "Damn, and here I thought you'd be rescuing him!"
"Light-kun was already destroyed, Shinigami-san."
("Wonder which one he's talking to?" Matt mused. Mello stayed silent, but one hand reached over and locked tightly around Matt's wrist, making both the other Wammy boys look at him in confusion.)
Instead of being put off, Ryuk just cackled louder. "Well, yeah, but spirits grow back pretty fast as long as the human's still alive. I mean, look how fast his grew back the first time he gave the Note up!"
L froze. Those words, what they meant... Light had been eaten so very fast when he was guiding L out of Tartarus, how had he been so solid when he got there after being Kira before... unless...?
"You know, there's a rumour that if a human has and gives up a Note too often, they stop being able to remember using it at all," Ryuk taunted. "I was kind of hoping to see if that one was true." He laughed again. "Guess I'll never know, now!"
Immunity, L thought immediately. Vaccination, repeated exposure to - and recovery from - a disease...
Part of him was amazed by how steady his voice was as he called in the clean-up team hidden nearby, trying to ignore Ryuk as the shinigami told him, "You know, I think Light-o brought you back because he was hoping you'd save him. I mean, he couldn't save himself - kid proved that real fast." Ryuk's grin stretched wider as he dropped his final words before flying off. "Shame he overestimated you, huh?"
L returned to the life he led before Kira, solving cases, burying his humanity under his self-created mythology. He rarely slept.
He didn't dream of searching through the Underworld for Light. It only made sense, he reminded himself each time he woke up.
There was nothing to find.
Light's spirit had never had a chance to grow back from Kira's destruction.
On the edge of Nothingness, an object flickers. If size meant anything in that place, it would be quite small - about the size of a clenched fist.
Sometimes, the object has the shape of an apple.
Sometimes, the object has the shape of a heart.
And he found himself bodiless, unable to affect anything, helplessly witnessing Kira's triumph and final failure...
L's eyes flew open.
And he screamed at the darkness surrounding him, beating at the coffin he was sealed in till the air was gone and he was returned to death...
L's eyes flew open.
And he found himself in a body that stood too straight, with a tongue that disliked sweets, and as he stared into a mirror Light's horrified eyes stared back...
L's eyes flew open.
And he was huddled on the ground before the cave Light had led him from, with no allies he could call on because they'd all know he was dead, and before he had a chance to face Light again he was killed by a paranoid fugitive, and his last sight was the man who had murdered him dying of a heart attack seconds too late to save him...
L's eyes flew open, scattering the hundreds of unpleasant speculations about what he might find waiting for him.
He stared in disbelief at the familiar ceiling of the taskforce's headquarters. The taskforce's... abandoned headquarters, he realised as he sat up slowly.
It felt strangely appropriate.
He looked down at himself, bemused to see he was wearing a shroud of some kind. So much to find. Clothes. Allies.
And then...
Justice.
"Whoever that is, you can fuck off!" Mello snarled, not bothering to look around and see who had the nerve to disturb him.
"Mello's attitude has not improved with age."
Mello froze at the voice he only knew from recordings, never having heard it unaltered while the person it belonged to was alive. Then he reached for his gun, twisting to face this sick imposter.
Before he could try to shoot, Sidoh spoke up, staring at the imposter in amazement. "Wow... That's an actual thing? I mean, I've heard, but - someone actually brought you back?"
"That's possible?" Mello demanded, spinning to question the shinigami, ignoring how it put the intruder at his back.
Sidoh flinched back. "Apparently, if someone really regrets someone's death." Seeing how unimpressed by the lack of detail Mello was, he protested, "I just know what I've heard, okay? That hasn't been done for - wow! It must be centuries!" He pouted. "Dammit! This means I owe Deridovely four more bones!"
"You had a bet on whether someone would ever be brought back?"
Sidoh shrugged. "Hey, why else would I remember the rumour? Not like it affects me. You know, 'cept for how Notes can't kill someone if they've already died once."
L blinked at the words, his first acknowledgement that Sidoh was talking. "Is Shinigami-san saying that I am now immune to the Death Note?"
"He - wait, you can see him?" Mello demanded, forgetting what he'd been going to say in the shock of L's awareness of the creature.
"He died. He'll be able to see all of us, now," Sidoh explained, before saying to L, "Yeah. I can't see your name at all, even though your lifespan's right there. It's kind of freaky, to tell you the truth."
"Interesting," L mused. He smiled slightly at Mello. "Given this new information, I think we can easily put together a plan for confronting Kira. Does Mello agree?"
Mello hesitated, but not for long. The possibility of getting to work with L - the L - was too much of a draw. But first, he had to know -
"Do you know who brought you back?"
"Yagami Light."
"Damn." Mello sat back, shocked. "I was sure he was Kira."
"Kira killed him once he did."
Mello blinked. "You mean - the guy saying he's Light is an imposter...?"
"Kira ate Light," L said flatly. Mello got an extremely interesting look on his face, clearly re-evaluating L's sanity, but Sidoh interrupted before he could say anything.
"What, that's really what possession looks like if you get the human out of its body? I had another three skulls on that!"
"So... Light's possessed...?" Mello tried.
"Light no longer exists." L shoved away the emotions called up by the memory. "He barely lasted long enough to guide me all the way out of the Underworld."
Mello didn't seem to know what to say to that. He turned to the confrontation they were planning. "Here's my contact in Near's group."
As he negotiated with Near, L sat at a computer, using an art program that he'd pirated from the Net.
None of the colours were exactly what he wanted, but he seemed fairly satisfied with the end result of a barren, rocky wasteland, and a younger-than-real-life semi-transparent Light, crying, with a gaping wound in his chest.
"Art therapy?" Matt suggested facetiously.
"Memory," L replied.
No one quite had the nerve to ask how much of being dead he remembered, after that.
L smiled bitterly at their silence, and deleted the program he'd used.
The location for the final showdown was carefully chosen, cameras placed so that the more vulnerable members of the taskforce - meaning everyone but L - could see what would happen without risking themselves.
Light strode in with all of Kira's arrogance, called out his accuser with a vicious grin, mocking the suggestion that he could be stopped - "Not even L managed to prove it, and you say you can? Come on! Let me see who I'm dealing with," he challenged.
("Yeah, take a good look," Mello laughed.)
L stepped out of the shadows.
Light froze, staring. "You," he gasped.
(Mello stopped jeering at the screen. The others wouldn't understand why until later, watching the recording again, they spotted what he'd already noticed - the sheer relief that shone on Light's face for a moment before it twisted into Kira's desperate fury.)
"I thought Kira-kun would remember Light-kun bringing me back, given his presence for it," L said.
("The fuck?")
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
L tilted his head, watching Kira with expressionless eyes. "'I wonder if you'll be a ghost, doomed to haunt the world forever, or if you'll wake in your coffin. This might almost be worthwhile if it means that's what will happen to you.' Does Kira-kun really not remember saying that as Light-kun was guiding me back?"
(The observers cringed. L seemed unaffected by the cruelties he repeated.)
Kira's face twisted horribly. "No - That wasn't real -" he protested.
L spread his arms slightly. "Real enough." A cold smile raised his lips. "And since I have already died by the Death Note, I cannot be killed that way again, making me the only one fit to face you here - wouldn't you agree, Kira-kun?" He drew the gun that had been concealed by his baggy shirt, staring into Kira's eyes. "I hereby execute you for multiple cases of homicide."
Kira didn't even have time to protest before the first bullet went into his skull.
(Matt was ashamed that he tried to protest for him. Near's silence was filled with approval of L's actions. Mello's... wasn't.)
Unobservable through the cameras, Ryuk howled with laughter. "Damn, and here I thought you'd be rescuing him!"
"Light-kun was already destroyed, Shinigami-san."
("Wonder which one he's talking to?" Matt mused. Mello stayed silent, but one hand reached over and locked tightly around Matt's wrist, making both the other Wammy boys look at him in confusion.)
Instead of being put off, Ryuk just cackled louder. "Well, yeah, but spirits grow back pretty fast as long as the human's still alive. I mean, look how fast his grew back the first time he gave the Note up!"
L froze. Those words, what they meant... Light had been eaten so very fast when he was guiding L out of Tartarus, how had he been so solid when he got there after being Kira before... unless...?
"You know, there's a rumour that if a human has and gives up a Note too often, they stop being able to remember using it at all," Ryuk taunted. "I was kind of hoping to see if that one was true." He laughed again. "Guess I'll never know, now!"
Immunity, L thought immediately. Vaccination, repeated exposure to - and recovery from - a disease...
Part of him was amazed by how steady his voice was as he called in the clean-up team hidden nearby, trying to ignore Ryuk as the shinigami told him, "You know, I think Light-o brought you back because he was hoping you'd save him. I mean, he couldn't save himself - kid proved that real fast." Ryuk's grin stretched wider as he dropped his final words before flying off. "Shame he overestimated you, huh?"
L returned to the life he led before Kira, solving cases, burying his humanity under his self-created mythology. He rarely slept.
He didn't dream of searching through the Underworld for Light. It only made sense, he reminded himself each time he woke up.
There was nothing to find.
Light's spirit had never had a chance to grow back from Kira's destruction.
On the edge of Nothingness, an object flickers. If size meant anything in that place, it would be quite small - about the size of a clenched fist.
Sometimes, the object has the shape of an apple.
Sometimes, the object has the shape of a heart.