The horizon was bathed in golden-orange light as the sun began to slip toward the horizon. Under the fading sun he had stumbled his way into an abandoned warehouse, falling on the steps dizzy and exhausted. Through the sounds of his labored breathing he could hear the soft rhythmic sound of his own blood dripping onto the floor below.

He wanted to sleep so badly…he was just so tired.

It's pathetic…all of it.

Light stared up at the ceiling and attempted to raise himself. But his body stay weighed to the step, unable to move.

I'm a genius…and now I'll die in an abandoned warehouse….alone. Sayu…Mom…Dad…what will they do? My new world has to come! If only I could think…I'm just…tired.

He could only feel that he was tired of being Kira. Tired of running, hiding, deceiving - if he hadn't found the Death Note….if he hadn't tried to change the world where would he be? Not lying in a warehouse dying anyway.

Through his failing vision he could see a glimpse of white at the bottom of the steps. Dark eyes stared back at him, calm and unmoving. The same eyes that he had last seen that fateful day so long ago.

Why would he be here? Wasn't he dead already?

But the vision soon became blurred and faded.

No…it was just a mirage.

I've had enough. Just let me rest.

As his eyes closed the pain faded away into the warmth of the setting sun.

"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!"

Luckily for most of humanity our ears are not nearly sophisticated enough to register the pained utterance that issued from the nether dimensions. Dogs however were not so fortunate…

The great Shinigami King ground his teeth in seething anger.

"That…is so not cool"

Snapping at his closest minion he ordered a communication to be sent out. That man owed him a favor anyway…and now he finally had something worth asking for.

SCREEET SCREEET SCREEET

Light opened his eyes.

He could hear his sister Sayu yelling something about her latest crush to their mother downstairs. Noisy footsteps echoed through the house as she hopped up and down and raced through the halls. Light shut his eyes against the noise.

She's such a girl. He mused. Always on about some boy or something. I really don't think anyone but mom cares. In any case, it's not something the future god of the new world should concern himself with. Once I rid the world of criminals they won't have anything at all to worry about. After all I –

Light sat up, eyes wide.

He'd been shot last night.

Checking his body over he found no sign of bullet holes. He didn't even have so much as a bruise. But he couldn't remember how he had ended up at home in his bed. He could only think that it had all been a dream then. But when had the dream begun? It all seemed real enough.

Had the entire thing…been a dream? All of it?

"The Death Note. Was that all my imagination?"

Then he heard his father's voice downstairs.

"No…no way…dad?"

Climbing out of bed he ran to the door, but stopped before he opened it.

"Wait. There has to be an explanation for this. Ryuk-"

A quick glance around the room revealed the absence of the shinigami.

"Ryuk? You're not hiding out somewhere are you?"

He waited, waited to see the ghastly white face of the shinigami laughing at him or begging him for apples. But Ryuk was nowhere to be seen and Light knew well enough that if the shinigami saw the young man in such a panicked state he'd take the opportunity to rub it in his face.

After a moment of silence Light released the doorknob. Something strange was going on and he needed to think rationally to get to the bottom of it. So Light sat back down on his bed to review the facts.

"Okay…this is really weird. But there are a few possibilities. One is that nothing happened and it was all just a dream. That seems…a bit unlikely seeing as that was a pretty involved dream. I should have been asleep for at least a couple days to have a dream that long. The second possibility is that it actually happened – but that seems even more unlikely. Although, if a Death Note really does exist then if everything else had changed…what about the Death Note?"

Quickly moving to his dresser he opened the drawer and began checking for the unlocking mechanism. Unable to find it he sat in his desk chair, thinking.

"It's gone." He whispered. "And what's worse it looks like there's no evidence there ever was a hidden compartment. It's like it doesn't exist. So maybe it really was a dream."

Looking over his desk he felt mixed emotions welling up inside of him.

On one hand it was disturbing to think that all of it might have been a dream, but more importantly it meant he didn't die. He was alive and there was nothing to fear. No crimes were committed, no deaths had occurred. Life was normal again.

"Light?" His mother called from downstairs. "Are you almost ready? It's getting late."

Swallowing his growing irritation he calmed his voice enough to yell a response downstairs. Then he smiled halfheartedly.

The Death Note was gone.

As he reached for his jacket he took a look at the clock. It was almost time for school and he needed to get going. But on the bottom of the display he noted the date and froze in place.

"Today! But…that's the date I found the notebook at school! So maybe it was a dream of the future? But how is that even possible?"

Catching his breath again he quickly pulling on the jacket and headed downstairs to join the family at breakfast. He couldn't afford to act anything other than normal until he knew just what was going on.

Light stared out of his homeroom window, waiting for a miracle that never came. As he left the happy calls of his classmates behind and walked along with the setting sun he could feel the weight of disappointment on his heart.

"It didn't come. Damn it…why didn't it fall this time?"

There was no Death Note. There was no Kira. There was no new world.

Taking a deep breath he looked up at the sky.

Ryuk could be up there somewhere and he would never know. He couldn't see him, couldn't hear him, and couldn't feel him. For all he knew Ryuk might have never existed in the first place.

And Light couldn't help feel that just maybe it had all been a long dream.

Continuing on his way he watched a couple race by, laughing to one another.

"Life is going on the way it always has. In this world, Kira never existed."

Coming to another stop he leaned against a fence.

He was alone in his pathetic, boring life again. But it meant that he was safe again as well. There was no need to hide himself from the police. His father was alive. His family was okay.

That night when Light came home he found a warm dinner, and his family to eat it with. Once the meal was finished he absently grabbed an apple from the fridge and retreated to his room. With a sigh of relief he clicked the door behind him and looked around.

Oh yeah…Ryuk's not here…

Placing the red fruit next to his textbooks he flopped onto the bed.

I did this exact same thing the day I found the Death Note.

As he began to think back on what he was sure were years spent with the notebook of the shinigami Ryuk he came to a fact that dawned on him with increasing revulsion.

He'd become the very thing that he was fighting against.

He'd become the corrupt murderer.

He'd become the one who needed to be killed.

"What the hell was I thinking? I let myself become that? I'm glad Mom, Dad and Sayu never found out the truth. Who would be able to even acknowledge someone like that?"

Words floated through his memory and he found himself sitting up, eyes wide.
"L! What happened to L?"

Gathering his thoughts, Light began to pace to and fro across the floor of his room.

"Wait…if this is before the time when I received the Death Note…then L is still alive out there somewhere. That is…if L really does exist."

For a moment he felt relief, then a deep uncertainty.

If L remembers everything as well…then no doubt he'll confront me. And if he confronts me it means it wasn't a dream after all. But if he doesn't it means I might have imagined the whole thing. L…just what will you do if you've awakened in this world?

L stared at his cake. He jumped off of his bed and walked around the room. He opened the window, squinted at the light and then closed it again. L had unexpectedly found himself back at Whammy House. He should have been six feet under.

"L? Is something wrong?" A voice from the doorway asked. L turned to see Mello, standing there with a bar of chocolate in his mouth.

"No. Nothing I guess."

Leaving it at that Mello wandered off, leaving L to his thoughts. After a few moments of idle standing he moved from the room to walk the halls of his home.

Everything was just as he remembered it and that made him feel warm as he looked over the paintings and the chandeliers and the little scratches in the wood where children had played too roughly on the floor. He was truly home. And it scared him half to death.

Death… he should be dead. He was dead, this was heaven.

Why would he come to heaven now after all this time though?

Wandering to Watari's office he snatched a mint from the bowl that always sat at the corner and took a seat opposite of the older man. Watari gave him a kind smile.

"Why L, what brings you by? Are you bored with no new cases coming in?"

"Actually, I was feeling a bit bored. You haven't gotten anything?"

Watari sighed with a laugh. "Nothing interesting. Why do you ask?"

L took another candy. "Well…I was wondering if you'd heard of a name. The name is Kira."

"Kira?" Watari rubbed his head. "No…I'm afraid I haven't heard of the name. Is it some kind of candy?"

The thought of Light being candy caused a weird image in L's mind and he wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. "No. Not at all."

Standing up, L shuffled his way across the room before he turned around.

"Watari?"

"Yes L?"

"I'd like you to make arrangements in Japan."

Watari pushed his work aside. "Whatever for, L?"

"No reason…I just always wanted to go."
With a tight lipped smile Watari looked at the young man. He knew L better than that. After a moment he nodded. "Of course."

L nibbled on the end of his thumb. Japan. Something was going to happen.

When I get there I'll be able to confirm if this whole Kira incident was in my head or if something else is behind all of this. My first priority is to find Light Yagami and ensure that he no longer has a death note. If, by some trick of the universe I've gone back to before Kira existed then I have a chance to stop everything from happening all over again.

With a smile he continued on his way.

It wasn't often he got a chance to not make the same mistake twice.