'What would you have done?'
Summary: Light and L meet one last time before they both depart to separate worlds.
Author: Dancing Turtle
Disclaimer: I don't own ANYTHING
The blistering heat would have been scorching to some, a forceful white light that refused to retreat in to the hazy dream tinted sky, but Light Yagami welcomed it like an old friend that had been gone for years, the overwhelming warmth throbbing away at his dead desires and failed hopes for an ultimate utopia.
At that moment nothing could have felt better, not the return of the book, not the erase of events over the past half hour, or even the victory over Near, Mello, L, everyone.
He wanted only the presence of the adamant sunlight, boldly forcing its way through the collapsed gap in the shattered ceiling.
How did I get here? he thought. He couldn't even feel the forceful sting of the bullet shots anymore, yet he could sense the slow seeping of blood into his punctured lung from the shot in his chest. The smell of dried blood, burnt wood, and the stench of rotting carcasses hung in the air and the only sound present was the shamed silence taking over his life and present state of mind.
It was deafening.
The realisation of his actions and judgement had finally begun to hit him; after all the deaths, the lies, heartbreak, crimes…it was finally sinking in.
But what was I meant to do?! he silently protested. The Death Note fell in to my hands! Me! Light Yagami! Only I would have had the courage to carry out something as crucial as the abolition of the murderers of the human world!…He violently spat and coughed as some of the dried blood in his throat choked itself out of his mouth and wheezed painfully.
…The Death Note falling into my hands was divine judgement! I was the one assigned the task of ridding the world of scum…power of that level would have just been abused or misused in someone else's hands…
But then, wasn't that why he was lying there? Because he had misused an immense power? But technically, if you had used the power the way it was intended to be exercised, then it couldn't still possibly count as being misused could it?
Light couldn't make sense of it. The penetrating brightness that shone on his face now seemed questioning, angry, and demanding of answers.
"It is amazing, Yagami Kun, that even after being bullet riddled, shunned by family, friends and colleagues, and even minutes from death, that you have yet to understand how what you did is wrong."
He knew that voice. It was distant, as if echoing through a shallow vacuum. It brought to mind resentment and despise, yet its familiarity made it the only friendly figure he could recognise at this time.
"…L?…is that you?…I thought…that you-"
"I am," he cut in. "I'm not even really here. Right now you're just going through the stages of final judgement. Once it's been taken in to account your use of the Death Note, you'll disintegrate forever. You won't even have the justification to go to hell. The only reason I'm here is to say goodbye…because you obviously didn't have the good grace to let me before."
Light tried to turn over to look at him but his body seemed to be frozen in a paralysed state and the tiniest bit of movement sent him wincing with agony.
"Don't try to look at me. You wont be able to anyway in that state."
Nothing but agonising silence followed, and event though he was only minutes from death, Light still couldn't mistake the hostility in the air being vented out from his once 'friend'.
"Tell me Yagami Kun, did you really truly believe that you would win? The world has a way of making what is meant to happen go ahead, regardless of the interference of humans."
"What the hell does that mean?" Light whispered, frowning.
He replied with slightly more emphasis, "you of all people should have the capability to understand why humans aren't born with the gift of divine judgement…because we can't handle the consequences., Yagami Kun."
"I...I...how dare you…" Light tried again to move again. L laughed. Light had never for as long as he knew him heard him laugh. It sounded eerie and unnatural.
"do you see how stubborn you are? You let your ambition to win the battle with Near take you over that you didn't even see that twist coming.
Humans are greedy. They think they're invincible but eventually they fail because in the end, they are nothing but mere mortals. You simply couldn't handle it."
A single tear drop ran quickly across Light's bloodstained, flushed cheek and fell down the side of his cheek.
"I…I only wanted a better world…that's all I ever wanted…" his voice eventually turned to a weak whisper and he kept muttering the same flimsy excuse over rand over until his voice fell to an inaudible sound.
"I have to go now," L muttered and turned, not wanting to see what remained of his once former friend in his unsettling demise.
"L…what would you have done had the book fallen in to your hands?"
The question caught L off guard. His eyes widened.
"I…I think you know, Yagami Kun," he simply replied. "I would have turned it in."
"I think you lie, L," this time Light's voice was full of venom.
After a long agonising silence, L decided no to answer. Instead he reached out and touched Light's hand. "I'd take you to where I am, but…well, you don't deserve it after everything, do you?" his hand slipped away and he faded to blackness.
"L?" Light called out when he realised he'd gone, he helplessly moaned. Suddenly from out of nowhere, his insides felt as they were crawling with a million tiny ants and his body was overtaken by a sudden rush of shivering and his skin erupted in goose bumps. What came with the unexpected sensations was also an overwhelming gush of fear.
I'm…I'm disintegrating.
With his last thought, Light Yagami collapsed in to limbs and body parts, and then slowly his skin started crumbling away to dusty remnants. Once the sandy grains had finished dispersing, a light gust of wind blew through a crack in the rusty wooden wall and picked up what was once Light Yagami and carried him away in to the hazy warmth of the serene atmosphere where nothing could disturb him.