Death Note © Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, all OCs belong to me.

A/N:

Spoilers if you haven't read all of A World of Their Own

You are NOT going to know what's going on in this story if you have not read A World Of Their Own! All 33 chapters!This was written as a companion piece; which deals with what happens to L right after his death and/or his first years in the spirit world. There will only be three or four chapters (unless I get inspired to take this story further), and they will be fairly short ones.

If you want to avoid a lot of dialog between L and Taramik and get straight to the gut of the story.. go to chapter 3 and start from there (once I get it published).

There are a couple of people I need to thank at the end of this for giving me an idea or two about this, but I'll wait until the end so I don't give away the ending.

Also... for those who have been waiting on the LxOC collaboration, The title of it will be To Catch a Sparrow. Please know that I will be publishing it on another fanfic account since it is a collaboration (Under the penname of AgentSparrow08).

He was little more than water vapor being hoisted up into the sky. The air was his vessel; its winds pushing him up into the heavens. It had taken every ounce of strength and will power he had to escape his body, and now he was struggling to hold on to his self awareness. It was the most vulnerable time a spirit of the elements could face. Escaping his body had only been the first step. If he couldn't hold on to his self awareness, then the final death would still consume him.

L had lost the war with Kira. L was dead. 'No… No! I haven't lost the war! This is far from over! L may lose a few battles here and there, but L will NEVER lose a war!' His spirit was very quickly turning hostile and angry. He loathed Kira— he loathed Light Yagami. It was that growing hatred and anger that saved his awareness. It was so strong, there was nothing else. His senses never once strayed to any other part of his life as a human. There was the war between Kira and L… and that was it.

L had no idea how he managed to drift into the realm that he had visited so many times in his dreams— the endless field that was Raine's own private little world. Had he ventured there out of instinct? Had something brought him there? Of course something had brought him there. He could have never found it on his own. The wind spirits had guided him there. They knew his connection to their sister, and they knew that the field was his rightful home.

No sooner than L found himself hovering over that endless field did he hear a familiar voice. "I have to say, I'm highly impressed with all you've accomplished. Your efforts to restore balance to what has been disturbed have not been overlooked, Adian."

It was the entity only known as the Spirit of Judgment— the child who had sentenced Raine to a 150 year slumber of nightmares. The magenta eyed boy stood lazily against a great tree. It was the only full grown tree that could be seen. The saplings that surrounded it suggested that the field was on its way to growing into a forest.

Seeing the child didn't have an immediate effect on L. He was still too stuck in his anger to care about anything else. It annoyed the child that L didn't respond. "Talk, Adian! Try out your new voice! In fact, show me you know how to regain your human appearance. I have no desire to converse with humidity."

When there was still no response from L, the child spoke more forcefully. His eyes lowered into a glare. "You will show me your human appearance and speak. You should have enough energy to do it. I'm practically feeding you the amount of lifespan you need. Don't make me force you. I won't allow you to resume your recovery until you show me you're more than just a useless haze of vapor."

He waited. Nothing. All the child had to do was twitch an eye, and a solid figure fell to the ground. L had been forced into his human appearance. Though he was exhausted, the sight of what looked like his body caused him to pat his hands all over his face. He wanted to feel his own skin, to confirm that it was real. Of course, it wasn't real skin.

L couldn't understand why he had all of his senses without a fully functioning human body. Instead of skin, what L felt was a cold and grainy surface. It was like touching sandpaper that had been stored in a freezer. The shock of it actually caused L to briefly forget his anger. If there had ever truly been a moment when he could say he was 'freaked out', it was now.

L opened his mouth to speak. He saw no reason why it would be any different than when he had talked to the child in his dreams. Nothing was coming out. He could see the child shaking his head. "You can't produce vocal sounds in the same way a living human can. You're not in a dream anymore. You have no body. You will have to use your elemental language to speak until you learn to fabricate a voice that can be picked up by a human ear. As for your grainy solid form, you will learn to make it feel more human as time passes. Your solid form is really little more than a large amount of stray particles that have been forced together. The more compact the particles, the more solid your form will be. I shouldn't have to explain this to you though. Most elementals your age have to learn these things on their own."

L didn't want to talk with the child. He felt he was too weak to stay awake for much longer. He was also aware that there was no way the brat intended to let him go until their little chat had been completed. In his elemental language, L finally gave in. "Why are you always here? Do you not have anything better to do with your time?" L thought it was odd. Why would someone as powerful as that strange little child want to hang out in a boring field?

The child smiled slightly. "I just happen to like it here. It's quiet. It's not like I can't see what's going on in the other worlds. I have thousands of eyes. It also gives me the means to annoy your lover until she breaks. I enjoy annoying her. She's so animated when she's angry."

"…Raine…" It was like he had just recovered a long lost memory. L could swear his soul (which supposedly had no nerve endings for feeling stimuli such as pain) had suddenly started to ache. "How is she handling this? I can go to her now, can I not?"

The boy yawned as he stretched."You don't have the strength to go anywhere. You can't even manage a dream tap in your current condition. It will be years before you fully recover. The only reason you're awake right now and in your solid form is because I'm giving you the energy."

"Then you can spare me enough energy to contact her."

"No. No, I will not honor any request that concerns a criminal who has yet to serve her full sentence. If she decides to stop avoiding it and return to the spirit world, then perhaps I shall show her a little more compassion. I will however, grant you a single request. The sacrifices you've made have earned you one."

"It was all a game to me. I should assume you're aware of that."

"It was a game to you in the beginning, yes. Once you realized what you were truly dealing with however, it became much more to you. It became your very reason for existing. Goodness knows you needed a reason to exist. You certainly weren't supposed to exist." A hint of a smile crossed the child's face.

L glared hard at the boy. "I had other reasons to exist. I was the world's greatest detective. I was in love. I had the privilege of calling Quillish Wammy my adoptive father. I was an inspiration to my orphan brothers and sisters. I had more than enough reasons."

The more he thought about those things— and the fact that his battle with Kira had stripped all of those things away from him— L could feel his anger starting to return. He was no longer the world's greatest detective. That would be passed down to Near or Mello. Watari was dead— dead because of the game L had played.

And then there was Raine. They had planned on living happily ever after in the UK and raising a family. Death wasn't supposed to knock at their door this soon. Now she was alone, and he was no longer in a position to protect her. How could he? He couldn't even stay awake without the assistance of the red-eyed youth. He now had to put all of his faith in those at Wammy House. They were all Raine had left. They were all the world had left.

"What is your request, Adian? I may have an entire eternity to wait, but that doesn't mean I will."

L ignored the question. "What did he do with my body? What did he do with Watari's body?"

"Light Yagami (and the men who now work under him) have arranged to have you and your associate buried in a nearby cemetery. Your body has been lying in a morgue for the past week. They weren't sure what do with either of you. You don't exactly have a known next of kin. Would you like me to show you something interesting? I'd give absolutely anything to see your reaction."

"I assume it's something that I'll find upsetting, or you wouldn't be so eager to show me."

The child's face suddenly softened. For the first time, L saw a grin on the boy's face that actually made him look like a typical little boy (save for the eyes). It was a mischievous grin, yet there was also a childlike innocence to it. "Soichiro Yagami has arranged a small funeral for you. I bet you can't guess who's there to say goodbye." He was sounding more and more like a true child instead of monotone and indifferent.

L's eyes narrowed. "You find all of this amusing, don't you?"

"Yes… yes I do."

"You could put a stop to Kira without even blinking."

"Yes… yes I could." The boy looked at L thoughtfully.

"You're laughable. You had no problem stripping Onasisk of his existence or sentencing Raine to a century and a half of misery; but you refuse to stop a mere human who is obviously breaking the laws of balance by means of a forbidden power that he isn't suppose to posses. You're more than just laughable… you're a sorry judge. You're system is just as pathetic as the system in the human world."

Even though it seemed a total change of character, it didn't really surprise L that the boy started laughing. He was quickly learning to expect the unexpected from the childlike creature. It wasn't a mad cackle, but rather a hysterical laughter that would come from someone watching a slapstick comedy.

It took the boy less than a minute to regain his composure. "And yet another reason I've become so fascinated with your little clique of elemental outcasts. You're no different from the earth and air spirit. Though I am one whom you should fear, you show absolutely none. You challenge me and disrespect me without giving it a second thought, regardless of knowing I could destroy you if you rubbed me the wrong way. I find that very intriguing. Please, continue. That's the first time I've actually laughed in centuries."

"So wonderful to know you find my anger amusing. Show me what you intended on showing me or leave me alone so that I may sleep." L had never sounded more annoyed.

"I want you to see what I'm seeing right now. You won't be able to hear what's being said, but the visual should be enough." The boy's magenta eyes started to glow brightly. The beams they created reflected a type of hologram. It reminded L of a scene in Star Wars. He had been forced to watch the movie as a child during his time at one of the orphanages.

The hologram displayed a small group of familiar faces. The angle was slightly creepy. L was seeing the task force of the Kira investigation (which included Kira, himself) looking down at him. It was as though he was looking back up at them from his grave.

The boy had been right; the visuals were more than enough to rattle L. Light Yagami had stayed behind after the other men had walked away. When he was sure they weren't watching him, he broke into a mad fit of muted laughter, falling to the ground and pulling up clumps of loose soil.

L could tell that Light was shouting in his hysterical fit. It wasn't a fit of mourning, but a fit of triumph. The former Light Yagami— the straight A student with a promising future who knew nothing of Death Notes— was gone for good. Just as L had predicted, his growing power had created a madness that now consumed every piece of him. There was no Light Yagami anymore. There was only Kira.

The hologram slowly faded away, and the boy was eagerly studying L for some sort of reaction. He had apparently forgotten that L was a master of not showing a reaction, despite what his feelings were. The child looked annoyed at first, but then smiled slyly.

"Your little trick of indifference won't work with me, Adian. Your visible actions don't have to speak. I can feel all of your emotions flowing around your core. You no longer have a body to conceal them. Your anger has never been as strong as it is now. You're about to break. You despise Light Yagami. You want to see him destroyed before your eyes. You want him to feel the same agony of defeat that you're feeling right now. Admit it."

" …I… want you… to get me out of that damn grave…" L was struggling to cut through his anger long enough to speak. "That… is my request. Watari's body… will eventually be claimed by Roger. I will not be so fortunate. I want… my body to return to its rightful place among the elements. I don't want my remains to rot in a metal box while Kira stands over it just to taunt me!"

The boy raised his eyebrows as he spoke. "I suppose I could do that. You'll never be fully complete until your body has been properly disposed of anyway. As long as that former part of you is separated from the elements, you're little more than a lost ghost at best. What an excellent choice on your part."

L's allowed his anger to subside enough to think. He remembered the day he had accompanied Raine to a cemetery in New Orleans. There, they had argued about the significance of a human body being trapped behind man-made walls. It was true that he was no longer connected to his corpse, but it had once been a very significant part of his being— and that was something he couldn't let go of.

L suddenly realized how strong his desire was to see that former part of himself create new lifespan. His body had to become part of the soil. The rain had to saturate it so that it might take what it needed back into the atmosphere. He could become fertile soil. It was part of his final purpose— not as a spirit of the elements, but as a human. It couldn't recycle itself if it couldn't reconnect with its origins. Just as Raine had compared a corpse to a plant that could feel without being aware of it; L was now thinking of a lonely flower with no sunlight to nourish it. '…My poor …lonely… flower.'

It wasn't the same in that a flower was part of a living organism and a corpse was not; yet, at the same time, it was very much the same. His body was his flower, and he wanted it to feed the soils that molded new life—not remain trapped as an empty shell of dead mass. He had to make sure it wasn't sealed away. If anything, he had to return his genetic code to the soil, or he could forget about recovering it when —and if— he desired to live as a human again. 'I didn't understand it back then, Raine. But now… now I finally understand.'

L turned his attention to the boy. "That's the reason you wanted me to see this, isn't it? You guided me to the right request. Why? Why are you helping me? You have no reason to. You have nothing to gain from it."

"One thing you will learn as your spirit grows older and more bored with existing is that an action doesn't always require a reason. Regardless of popular belief, the effect doesn't always need a cause."

"I'm not sure I agree with that."

"Of course you don't. You're still an infant. You understand nothing."

"I hope you realize you're speaking with a genius. Not just a genius, but a superior genius. I can figure out a lot more than you give me credit for. Every effect has a cause. The effect of you assisting me is caused by your own boredom. You hid the cause inside of your initial response."

The boy only smirked. "You're an egotistical bastard, aren't you? I find it amusing that a superior genius was defeated by a lower ranking human. Not just any lower ranking human, but a teenager— a child."

L had heard enough. He actually growled as he spoke. "I haven't lost the war! I WON'T lose the war! My traps have been set! Kira will never see his perfect world! Kira will fall before he can claim the throne!" L turned away from the boy. He had to fight to keep himself away from the madness that threatened to engulf him. "I have nothing more to say. If you try and interact with me anymore from this point on, I will only ignore you."

"Aww, and I was having so much fun. I guess I'll just have to go watch someone who's more entertaining— like… Kira."

Another growl escaped L, but he stayed true to his words. He had nothing else to say. As he laid there in his new home and wished for the annoying child to leave, L realized something. 'The enchantment of this world doesn't appear to be working. I haven't moved since I've arrived and the dark forest has yet to appear.'

"I can hear what you're thinking, you know." That irritating child just didn't give up. It provoked yet another half growl from L— which only made the boy laugh again. "You aren't seeing the enchanted forest for a reason; but since you're a superior genius, I shouldn't have to explain why. You should be more than capable of figuring it out on your own."

Instead of arguing, L decided to whine instead. He didn't feel anything like himself. L was indeed dead. Whatever he was now… wasn't what he once been. Just as Kira had consumed Light Yagami, the spirit of Adian was consuming L Lawliet. Adian's alter ego was fading away. That's all L Lawliet had ever really been— an alter ego for Adian— a way to cope with his personal demons. Despite his anger, all Adian really wanted to do was sleep. "Please, go away. I'm so tired. What will it take to get you to go away?"

"You can thank me, for starters."

"Very well. 'Thank you'. Can I please sleep now?"

"You don't even know what you're thanking me for."

"For honoring my request— assuming that's what you intend to do. Must I truly beg you to leave me alone? I didn't enjoy small talk when I was alive and I don't enjoy it now."

Instead of responding with another taunt, the child held out his hand. A blue-green sphere slowly formed in his hand. Though Adian didn't know it, the child was holding a water orb. Elemental orbs were essential in making and maintaining worlds. Normally, the element spirits made them on their own, but the child had no problem making one without actually being an element. His power greatly surpassed the elementals.

"Since you're so new to all of this and none of your fellow elementals are here to greet you into this phase of existence, I will help you get started. And to think, your mate insists that I have no compassion. I enjoy proving her accusations wrong, again and again. This is an elemental orb. Orbs are used to create and maintain, but they are also used as safe havens. You will sleep inside of this until you have regained your strength. This simple gesture alone is what you should be thanking me for; and I assure you that once you wake up, you'll be thanking me for even more."

Adian could actually feel himself reverting back to water vapor. He was beginning to fall into a deep sleep. "Who… are you? You're more than just a spirit of judgment. Who… or what… are you?"

"If you insist to know 'who'; then you can call me Taramik. It was my name back in the beginning—when I actually needed a name. Just so you'll know; I normally don't give that name out so freely. Because of such, if you fail to remember it once you wake up, I'll have to punish you for it. That should be fun."

It was unclear if Adian had actually heard anything the boy had just said. He had already absorbed into the orb. Adian had fallen into his sleep of recovery. Completely oblivious to anything happening around him, it was a sleep almost deeper than death itself.

Until next chapter... =)