Protège-Moi
Disclaimer: Death Note belongs to Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Title inspired by the song Protège-Moi by Placebo.
Protect me from what I want
He was running. It was too late now, game over.
'It can't end like this...' Light Yagami thought as he raced from the inevitable, his legs carrying him far away from his enemies, lungs breathing in air that, with every step, brought him closer to freedom.
"Shoot him in the leg, make sure the bullet goes through," L murmured to the police officer beside him, thumb in his mouth as he bit at the nail. The officer regarded him with a curious look before getting down into a sniper position, gazing through the sight of his rifle to find the perfect spot.
The shot rang out, and Light screamed as the bullet tore through the skin of his calf, making him stumble and lose his balance as his knees buckled and he collided with the ground. His chin connected with the pavement, hands scraped raw from the landing, making him cry out again.
'I can't stop now...so close, I'm so close…' he thought, trying to raise himself up on his arms. He crawled forward, leg dragging behind him, leaving a bloody trail like bread crumbs for those who would follow.
"Shoot him in the arm."
His body slammed to the ground again as his right arm gave out, a hole in it from the bullet that severed nerves and chipped away at the bone. He could feel the tears pouring down his cheeks, face wet. Slowly, he reached out with his left arm, hand searching, fingers spread.
"Ryuk…" 'Save me...'
The shinigami was perched atop a rooftop, the setting sun shining down upon the scene below in orange and yellow. It bathed Light in godly colors, painting him as an angel. The god of death raised pen to paper of his Death Note, etching the name of the human attached to him on its pages.
"Shoot the ground in front of him."
A bullet hit the ground right in front of his splayed fingers, spraying asphalt and debris into Light's face as he shrunk away. The hand reaching out suddenly seized as tremors overtook his body. He clenched his chest as pain spread through him, gasping, throat closing around his dying screams.
"Shit, he's having a heart attack!" L yelled, darting forward. "Call for medical assistance, we can't lose him now!" he called, running forward. 'I need to take him in alive, I can't let him die now...why? Why would the shinigami write his name?' the detective thought as he dropped to his knees, wrapping his arms around the killer bleeding out on the ground.
Choking, pained sounds were coming from Light's gaping mouth, his eyes wide and seeking redemption in the heavens above. He took a deep breath, making the searing pain increase. "It hurts…" he wheezed, shaking and coughing. His eyes found L's. "Make it stop...I don't want to die…"
Kira's voice was no longer menacing or even slightly as bone-tingling as L imagined in his mind every time he thought of this confrontation. It was small and scared, weak and fading. Light squeaked like a mouse caught in a trap, or between the sharp teeth of a cat smirking at its victory as it clenched, snapping bone and crushing organs. In a sense, L was the cat holding Light the mouse in his mouth, the only thing standing in the way between life and death, execution and the deal that would save a brilliant young man's life.
But it was too late now, game over.
As Light's eyes darkened, going dull as the life ebbed out of him, L felt remorse the likes of which he never quite experienced before.
"No, stay with me Light-kun," he pleaded, a knot forming in his throat, hands tightening their grip around Light's prone form.
The medical crew arrived just as Light's hand, once lifting toward the sky, dropped back to Earth with a thud. L's eyes were wide, and he refused to be moved out of the way as the medical crew swarmed the area, checking for a pulse and attempting resuscitation.
"He's gone," one of them declared.
L screamed. It was feral and raw, leaving his throat hoarse and dry. He bent over Light to sob into his chest, waiting for the beat of his heart to return. But Light's eyes were as dead as his future, staring up into nothingness where his soul now resided. No heaven or hell for the killer of thousands, only a dying sunset and his enemy's sobs wracking his body.
There was silence as they watched L mourn, stepping away in vigilance, a respectful reverie for the memory of a boy who grew up too fast and never learned to slow down. The silence was broken as L looked up, seeing the shinigami preparing to take flight, black wings spread out and shining in the faint light of the sun.
"Why did you kill him?" he breathed, voice something between a growl and a plea, rough and low from grief.
The shinigami turned to him, eyes staring, seeing an entire lifetime and the name that could have turned this entire situation upside down if only he had given it to the one who asked. The name Light died for, yet having never known.
"It was his time, L. Lawliet."
"No!" L argued, shaking his head, still clutching and clinging to Light even as his body grew cold, the warmth seeping out as his soul slid away, slinking off into the night to wander the empty streets forever. Alone and abandoned, betrayed, desperate for answers it would never receive. If he were a ghost, L knew Light would be the wailing kind, emitting a beautiful sound fit for a banshee, calling out the death toll of the names written in a black book.
"He still had time...he could've lived…"
Ryuk shrugged. "He was going to get caught. What does it matter whether he dies today or tomorrow? You were going to execute him anyway."
"No…" L whispered. "No, I wasn't."
The vision of their life, their future, clouded his vision. Such a beautiful mind, such a waste of a brilliant life. It wasn't fair. It wasn't just, or righteous. The paperwork had just gone through for the deal: a lifetime sentence of house arrest in exchange for Light's cooperation with future cases. L had the building prepared with surveillance and living arrangements, but it would now be empty. Everything there would remind L of the mouse that never had a chance to survive the cat's claws.
He had won, but the cost was too much to pay, the price too high. It was a hollow victory, as hollow as his chest, as hollow as the body in his arms.
'Misa was right,' L thought to himself. 'The world is awfully dark without Light.'
The sun went down, disappearing beneath the horizon, shrouding them in darkness. The God of the New World was mourned.
Protect me, protect me
Author's Note: I'm not crying you're crying.
This scene came to me while at work so I wrote it down and decided what the heck. This also inspired the creation of a series for all of my alternate endings: In Another Universe, You Would Be Mine. Because there will be more, eventually. A hint for the next one is in this, if you squint hard enough. It will probably be a bit longer, depending on how I want to do it and what exact situation I decide upon.