...The bells. All he can hear are the bells, ringing, clanging in his head. On the roof, in the halls, and now where he sits, all day, all day long.

It's nearly enough to distract him from the stabbing feeling in his chest.

Commotion, people shouting, the screens going blank, red lights, Watari? It's distorted, the sounds are unclear. The bells clang again, making it feel like his skull is splitting.

Suddenly, he's falling. The chair slips beneath him, the room turns on his side.. Yet it feels almost dreamlike... Except for the one who catches him.

Light.

Kira..

The act is up. He's lying helpless in his killer's arms, listless eyes fixed on his, dead eyes now dying. One of the many sacrificed in Kira's ascent to power. Reduced to just one in the thousands... Brought down by the power of a name. A foolish name, something he had hidden from the world all those years.
That's all it took to remove Kira's greatest obstacle.
Kira's greatest enemy.

The bastard is smiling at him, sneering. Smirking in his victory, God. There is no remorse. There is no regret, no sadness, only a smug childishness.

Light, Kira, Kira, Light.. No more uncertainties, no more guessing, no more mind games. It's over. L lost. Checkmate.

Fin.

But wait... There's still a chance. Mello, Near? Too young yet, too inexperienced, but they can do it, they have to!

The bells... They clang louder. He sees stained glass, like a kalaidoscope, children playing, children crying, children.. His own childhood.
He sees Light.
Not Kira.
Light.

He remembers the days and nights together, close, minds working as one. That time he seemed so innocent, unable to comprehend Kira's evil. Calling him a friend, secretly despising.
The second L.
Kira.

He wants to say it's wrong, he wants to condemn Light, but he can't. He's too weak now.
Light..
There is no light. His eyelids are drooping, there is only a swallowing blackness, an engulfing silence. Even the bells are soft now, whispering in his mind.
Sinking into emptiness... Nothing but Kira's madness, his insane sneer, imprinted on what's left of L's consciousness. A shudder from one of the world's greatest minds, a single, last breath.
And now, there is nothing.