Light couldn't believe what was happening. For the first time he could remember, he actually had to fight to keep his cool. He was God; they could not be defying him! What kind of joke is this? He thought desperately, is this another trick of his to make me admit I'm Kira? Light knew he was lying to himself. He knew there was no way this was a joke, especially when Near had admitted to knowing so much. He was defeated.

Think, he ordered himself, just think, dammit! There has to be a way out of this. There always is… He took a deep breath and decided on a plan. If he could just get far enough away that they wouldn't be able to get to him before he finished writing Near's name… yes, that would work. He just had to get farther away.

Light continued talking, rambling hopelessly to kill some more time and maybe even make an impression and get through to some of his dim-witted associates. He was far enough away. Feeling slightly more confident and looking as calm as was humanly possible in this situation, Light carefully slipped out the piece of Death Note he had hidden in his watch. Trying to look nonchalant and to keep his hand hidden behind his body, he started writing the name as fast as he could. Nate… BANG. For a second he didn't know what was happening. He'd felt a horrible pain in his hand just before he heard the noise, but it hadn't registered with him as being a gunshot until after he put the two together. Who had had the nerve to just shoot him?

Light whipped around to look at who had dared shoot KIRA, and saw none other than Matsuda. He stood like that for an unbearable millisecond and then started screaming. "Matsuda…?" was all he could think to say at first, "YOU IDIOT! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE SHOOTING, MATSUDA? DAMN YOU! IF YOU'RE GOING TO SHOOT SOMEONE, SHOOT THE OTHERS!" Light was breathing heavily now. His former accomplice's ignorance was simply beyond belief. "What do you think you're doing…?" He repeated. He knew it was all in vain but he couldn't help needing the last word. "I thought you were the only person who understood me! Kira is righteous! Kira is needed!" He was only speaking his thoughts aloud but it was at least mildly productive in the respect that it was buying him time. He continued talking for no real reason other than to defend his pride against that idiot Matsuda. Light had calmed down slightly and, still desperate to kill Near and get back to fixing his world, he started writing his last name in his own blood. He just had to finish… three more letters… he knew this would work, but his hand moved so slowly and painfully… two more letters… one… BANG!

He almost blacked out. On top of his momentary deafness from the gunshot, Light was so sunned that for a second the world grew into a painful silence. He saw blood—his own—and he didn't want to know what had happened, but he had to. He might still have a chance if he could just stay conscious for long enough to think. He could do this…

He fell to the ground. His own blood was pooling around him and for the first time in his living memory he was feeling utterly defeated. There HAD to be a way out of this. He was Light Yagami… Kira… God: if he couldn't get out of this… well that was an impossibility. He had to get out of it, so he would.

The world shifted around him again, and he held on for his life. He could do this. He had to do this.
"MIKAMI!" he cried desperately, "What are you doing? Help me write their names down! KILL THEM!" But Light had lost yet another loyal idiot to Near. Near who was calmly watching as he bled to death, making arrangements for him to be taken to jail. "M… Misa…?" He tried, but Near—once again disgustingly calm—explained how she wouldn't be helping him.

"Takada?" But Near calmly informed him that she was dead… dead, had he done that?

"Ryuk!" he cried, finally having come up with something, however desperate. "I know… Ryuk, you can write the names down! Write their names down in your notebook! WRITE IT, RYUK! HURRY!" He was begging. It was completely unlike him, but he had no other choice. Unable to hear what Near was saying, he thought about how the only possible way for him to live through this and not end up in jail was to beg mercy from a Shinigami. He shivered at the thought of it…

"Sure… I'll write it," Ryuk told him. He was smirking, and Light would have recognized this had Ryuk not been his only hope. Instead of wondering why his Shinigami was smiling, like he should have been, he let himself smile and hope that maybe he HAD found a way to get out of this. Sure he would still need to go to a hospital, but maybe with Near gone and Ryuk on his side one of the others would consider helping him. Light Yagami truly was God, he realized. He had managed to get out of what no one else would have even hoped to, by means no one else would have thought of. But then he was brought back to the reality of what Ryuk was saying… He realized that he hadn't won… far from it, in fact. And now HE was going to die… He couldn't believe it. There was no way this was happening. He, Light Yagami, Kira, could not have been defeated. He was too lost in his thoughts to realize what else Ryuk was saying, but he knew what it would be.

He had forty seconds left to live. The utter melodrama of the moment was unbelievable. Light still couldn't quite believe that he had lost, that he had failed the world and would never be able to give it the utopia he'd promised…

Thirty seconds left. He tried to accept it, but couldn't. He was over. Everything was over. Ryuk had said that a human would simply vanish into nothingness after they died, and Light was about to experience that for himself. He couldn't imagine not seeing… hearing… thinking anything. But, again, he couldn't.

Twenty seconds. Time swam by both immeasurable fast and inconceivably slowly. Nanoseconds stretched into hours into eternities which were pressed into no time at all. And God was dying…

Ten. In ten seconds, the world would begin regressing. He knew the notebook would be burned or otherwise made unusable, and the second people realized Kira had disappeared they would go back to their old ways.

Nine, eight… No one would take over for him. His efforts would all be for nothing.

Seven, six, five… And the criminals would run wild, the years of crime he'd been holding back flooding over the world, and innocent people would drown with no sense of justice to keep them afloat.

Four, three… And he, Light Yagami, Kira, GOD, would be dead. And there would be nothing.

One…
And there was nothing.

At least, there was nothing at first.