White. Barren. Pristine. It was too bright. He reclined stiffly in the chair, clasping his eyes shut, his vision swirling with more comforting blacks and reds as his blood pulsed through his eyelids. He was righteousness.

Above him, a voice. Firm. "This will be painless. Like going to sleep. You won't feel a thing."

He knew where this was going. He should have seen it from the start. His eardrums were pounding, pounding with each percussion of his increasingly rapid heartbeat. Stupid. Careless.

A needle jabbed at his arm, not yet breaking the fragile surface of skin. He jolted, air hissing through his teeth as he pulled away. His whole body trembled. Gods don't tremble. He was cracking. Humiliating.

"Keep still. No need to worry."

He inhaled the sterile, antiseptic air, slowly. Clearing his mind. Slowly. Why wasn't it working?

If he had protested, or if he struggled too much, it would practically be a confession. For this reason he couldn't back down. But by not putting up a fight, it was as if he was already admitting defeat. Already caving in to his one threat, his one enemy…

He opened his eyes, taking in the whiteness of the room once more. He glanced to his left. There, perched on a chair, was Ryuuzaki. Observant and intrusive as always. Insubordinate. This was his fault. His plan. It had to be.

A voice above him again. "Please relax, Mr. Yagami."

Light nodded, curtly, in some form of acknowledgement. His stomach churned. They had him cornered.

They were going to take away his mind. Turn it against him. Dammit. They were going to steal his thoughts, steal his words. They were going to ring the truth out of him. They were going to kill him. And he would hardly be in a position to stop it.

The needle steadily punctured his skin. There was pressure, like a small pocket of air was being injected into his bloodstream. He eased his eyes shut, the corner of his mouth twitching in discomfort. Then the needle was gone.

"See? Nothing to worry about…"

Damn you.

He was righteousness. He was justice. He wasn't going without a fight. A fight against them, against Ryuuzaki, against his own mind. And he would win…. He would fight back… He had to… he needed to fight… Fight….. S... Sl…Sleep….

…. He needed to sleep…

"I feel kinda funny."

Lawliet studied the suspect sitting in front of him, partly intrigued, partly amused, mostly exasperated. "You're saying that a lot, you know."

"Because it's true. I feel kinda funny. I want to go home."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that just yet."

"Why not? We could just walk out of here."

"If I could take you back to headquarters, I would. But they still have to look after you for a bit."

Light groaned. "Fi-ine…" He trailed off, a sort-of blank expression on his face. Which was unsettling, the detective thought, considering how complex and intelligent his expressions usually were.

Without warning, Light's eyes widened, terrified, his breath becoming shallow, labored. His head swiveled this way and that, as if he was just now noticing his surroundings. "The room is spinning?" he cried out, cowering, sinking deeper into his chair. The cotton in his mouth made his words even more muffled in his hysterics. "Why? Why is the room spinning?"

"Because you're drugged, Light. We've been over this."

Light turned to him, panting, his eyes somehow even wider and more shocked than before. "Drugged? You drugged me?"

"No—"

"You drugged me, Ryuuzaki?" He gasped, the intake of breath now reflecting more offence than terror. His voice dropped to a whisper. A hurt, insulted whisper. "How could you…?"

"I've already told you, twice, it wasn't me—"

"I trusted you." Light moped rather dramatically in his seat, his voice cracking from the strain of his striking emotional turmoil. "I trusted you, Ryuga. After everything we've been through, and… And this is how you repay me?" Tears formed at the corners of his reddening eyes, pooling at his waterlines and glistening off his lashes, the water threatening to break the dam at any moment.

Oh god. Oh god. "Light… Light, listen to me, don't panic, stay calm… Just, stay calm… You're making your gauze fall out…"

It was too late. The tears rolled down his red cheeks, splashing onto the collar of this shirt. "I can't believe you would do that to me… We've been through so much together… Bastard…"

There he sat, a pitiful sight, his face red and puffy, spittle-laden blood dripping from his swollen mouth, mumbling and pouting and wallowing in his own despair. He sat like this for a solid minute, seemingly lost in his own thoughts… Err… rather, lost in empty head-space where his thoughts used to reside.

L just sat there – uncomfortable, more than slightly panicked, completely clueless about what to do next.

This wasn't a part of the plan…

As plans go, it wasn't a solid one. Far from it. It was silly, really. But regardless of how silly it was, it was an opportunity. He couldn't pass it up. Although this was a set-back – he hadn't expected for there to be crying involved.

Light finally wiped the tears from his cheeks, his accusations concerning Ryuuzaki seemingly already forgotten. He crinkled his nose in confusion, as if he had just smelled a particularly perplexing scent. "I feel kinda funny."

"Yes…"

Lately, Light Yagami had been complaining about his mouth hurting. It started when he was in confinement, where he began expressing concerns about a pain in his jaw. Once he was free, the complaints didn't stop – in fact, since they had been chained together, a day didn't go by where Lawliet didn't hear something about how it was becoming increasingly more difficult for him to eat. And it didn't take long for his ache to start interfering with their investigation of the Yotsuba Group.

A quick assessment determined that Light Yagami's newly protruding wisdom teeth were causing all the fuss. But until the investigation was over and Kira was executed, there was simply not enough time to get the bastards removed. The investigating moved on, just like it usually did – this time, with plenty of aspirin.

After several weeks, Higuchi was finally caught (and promptly killed, though that hadn't been their doing). They had acquired the notebook, but criminals were still dying, so the investigation had to continue. They may have now had a Shinigami to show for their troubles, but it was otherwise back to square-one. With nothing to go on, the investigation slowed to a crawl. Their schedules cleared up, just a bit. It was time.

And that's why L Lawliet, the world's first, second, and third greatest detectives of the time, was babysitting a heavily-drugged Light Yagami in a surgeon's recovery room.

And of course, Light Yagami, their prime suspect, was drugged. Impaired by the intravenous sedation. Who knows what secrets might slip out?

Lawliet cleared his throat. "Mr. Yagami?"

No response. He just sat there, almost as if he were beginning to nod off.

The detective had a tiny window of opportunity to seize here – no more than a couple of hours – so there wasn't a moment to lose. He just had to wait for Light to stop behaving like… like this. All pout-y and sleepy and 'oh I feel so funny'. He had to get the ball rolling, and fast.

He slowly reached out and tapped the suspect's arm. "Light?"

The touch broke his trance. "Hm? …Oh!" Light quickly turned to him, with unsettling urgency, as if just remembering something immensely important. "Ryuuzaki!"

Lawliet tilted his head, struck by curious anticipation. "Yes?"

"I-I… I…"

He crouched at the edge of his seat in his eagerness. "...Yes? What is it?"

"I… I feel kinda funny."

Lawliet rested his forehead in the palms of his hand. This was going to be a lot more difficult than he had expected.

AN: I was planning on this being the end, but I may have to continue this... What do you guys think?

Thanks to Vixray for being an awesome Beta-Reader!

Likes, comments, and feedback are appreciated :)