A/N: This is my first Death Note fanfiction, so I hope you like it. The next chapter will be up soon since I have already finished it. So enjoy and tell me what you think! (Also, to any readers of my previous Black cat fanfic, I am terribly sorry, but this idea just wouldn't go away! I hope to eventually continue Tainted past, broken Future.

Disclaimer: Rated T just to be safe. may contain mild language and some blood, but not excessive gore or violence. I do not own Death Note or any related content. :3

Divinus Interpono

"Ryuk." The word was spoken in something between a harsh gurgle and a rasping whisper. The Shinigami who owned this name stepped forward at the request, looking up into the face of his king.

It was dark, as the Shinigami realm always was, with billowing clouds lurking mercilessly overhead. But this place was even darker, no longer covered in a muted gray, but hidden under a cloak of black. No true light could shine here, only what little was let over from the open realm beyond.

Bones were all around, stacked in piles of immeasurable size. Skulls were easily identified in their bleached white glow, some kept on spears with a candle inside for torches, the light given off glowing a dull red. Ryuk rarely visited this place... in fact all Shinigami avoided it... unless summoned.

He now stood at the foot of a tall and gnarled thrown made from rotting wood and grotesquely disfigured bones of the dead. There were weeds crawling all over, decaying like everything else, a single large and forsaken tree stretching it's claws across the backdrop. A mist hung low over the sandy earth, no plants able to grow in the festering soil. But this was nothing compared to the creature that sat atop such a thrown.

The King of the Shinigami. So hideous that should any human gaze upon his being, they would instantly die in a slow and painful death, decaying rapidly from the inside and becoming part of his vast hall. The king was shadowed, only parts of his gigantic seething form visible behind piles of dead wood and large masses of shadows.

Huge blood red eyes lined his entire body, with pupils of black slits that held as much care as a snake's. Perhaps less. Skin mottled and ranging in color from a sickly green to a dull gray, with scars penetrating the scaled but leathery skin in long furrows. Spikes dripped with toxins just like his putrid breath, as poison oozed with saliva from mismatched numerous fangs. His claws were a frightening yellowish brown, where not stained with red, and thick wiry hairs covered vast areas of his form in small hideous patches.

This was a being of great power... power to be feared with no exceptions. It had been ten years since Ryuk had first dropped his second Death Note into the human world. Now, it appeared that the King had called him here to deliver punishment for his selfish meddling.

It had been entertaining while it had lasted...

For a long moment the great creature did not speak, simply staring at the lesser Shinigami with it's various eyes, a long and jagged tail curling around itself like a cat's. "You get bored most often... do you not?" The question was so unusual and sudden that Ryuk found himself stammering for an answer. He supposed it was a test perhaps...

Though maybe he had been with that human too long to think of such a thing...

"I, uh well... Y-You could say that! I suppose so..." he gulped, again a rather human trait that he seemed to have picked up in that past excursion, but he couldn't help it. He felt like a coward for being so afraid, yet he would have been a complete idiot to not fear the king.

His leader grinned, misshapen teeth dripping with saliva as the mouth opened and hissed out it's tainted words in a gurgled moan. "Perhaps then you can help me to resolve my own growing boredom." Ryuk was floored, unable to speak as the king continued. "The time you were involved in the match of the human known as 'L' and the human deemed 'Kira' as I watched I began to realize that their world is of greater use to our kind. The humans with their reckless and thoughtless ways are greatly enjoyable to me."

The one to which he spoke slowly nodded, regaining his senses once the parched hissing had stopped. "Yes well... I know I enjoyed it." he cautiously stated. "So, what did ya need me to do? I can't really help with many things, not too great with dealing with people ya know and..." he cut off, but his curiosity was starting to overcome his sense of self-preservation, so he took a step closer.

The worm like creature writhed on it's high pedestal. "The world has been at peace for too long now. Too calm for my liking..." He licked blood from a sharpened talon with a tongue like barbed wire. "No wars, no large numbers of deaths... though the ones humans call 'criminals' continue to operate, it is nothing compared to before."

Thirteen sets of bloody irises and their pupils dilated as his massive body leaned in closer. "This insufferable imbalance can only be mended with the glory of uncontrolled chaos." He shrieked with what one could call untamed anticipation.

The creature grabbed in it's mighty claws a set of skulls from the pile that lay beneath. In one swift movement the items were crushed, the pieces of dust and debris slowly slipping through a taloned grip. The sand flowed away on the wind like ashes, disappearing in a glitter of white behind the shadows.

"You of course know of the rules of what humans refer to as the 'Death Note' correct? I should have no need to remind you of them." Ryuk quickly nodded. "And you are aware of what happens to a human when he or she dies?" A second nod, this time more straight forward.

The king motioned with one of many mottled arms and suddenly from beneath piles of bones, thirteen large black spheres appeared, coming towards his great form to hover around in a circle. It reminded Ryuk greatly of a flock of crows, hovering around the corpse of a fallen body, waiting to dive in the moment your back turned.

"Human souls are sent to 'Mu' a nothingness, an endless void between life and the abyss. We Shinigami have known this from the moment we came to be. All humans are judged in equality, none greater or worse than the other. To us, they are all nothing more than simple worms... Though I have found that their sins can be reflected on their souls." One of the large black orbs was snatched away, held in a clawed hand like nothing more than an ornamental bauble.

The king seemed to admire this particular one for a moment, turning it around from side to side, as if he could see beyond the blackened glass, inside. Perhaps this creature of such power could in fact see what Ryuk could not.

But this Shinigami's attention drifted easily, never satisfied for long. So now, he raised an eyebrow. "Uh yeah... so? Everybody knows that stuff, so why bother mentioning it? You don't need to quote the rules, unless you think I did something wrong?" He may have been in the the presence of the supreme king, but Ryuk was still Ryuk, and boredom came on swift wings.

The king did not hesitate to reprimand his inferior. The great beast was suddenly inches from Ryuk's face, slime oozing onto the ground at the lesser Shinigami's feet, the giant writhing form moving in and out with each breath of air taken. Ryuk froze, noticing his leader's breath was hot as lava as it drifted like steam over his face.

"Fool! The humans know better than you do how much the world needs its balance! Where there is life, there is death, where there is death... there must be life." He rasped, clawing closer as Ryuk backed away, sending skulls rolling across the ground, many smashing beneath the gruesome body. A trail of sludge and death was left in the giant's wake, only increasing the decay that lay like a blanket across the area.

The King stopped as Ryuk's back hit a large stone crag. "It is a lie... a lie that human who die must stay so forever! Whenever a human dies, anther is immediately born. The balance stays. Should two children be born, two humans will inevitably die. Not that moment, possibly not that year... but oh yes, they will die." Ryuk gulped.

"You know better than all the Shinigami who reside here how easily the balance can be tilted to a side of our choosing. You meddled ten years ago by bringing a Death Note to the humans' world!" The Shinigami King paused, backing a way slightly, though his mass still loomed above. "Just as a Death Note can be used to intervened... so can other things."

Something appeared out of nowhere, falling at Ryuk's feet as if from the immortal sky itself. It was a black notebook, much like any other Death Note. Ryuk grinned slightly at the sight of it, old memories resurfacing of a world of chaos, the humans all pawns on a chessboard to either one faction or the other. Eyes still watching the Shinigami King, he bent down and picked it up.

Immediately, Ryuk could feel that something was wrong.

"Wait a second..." He had gotten a good look at it's cover now, and this one was not like the others. A book as black as tar with letters in untainted white, the writing looked more like scratches from a bird's beak than hand writing... yes it fit the description, but the words themselves... this was certainly unusual.

"What's with the writing?" Ryuk dared to ask, opening the cover of the Death Note. He immediately regretted bothering to ask as there was no longer a need for explanation. It was all there, everything he needed to know, printed out as rules in the tongue of the Shinigami.

"Oh..." he mumbled. "I see..."

A chuckle escaped the king's jaws, a laugh marred with the sick wheeze of a dying creature. "Indeed... you see." He stated, slithering back onto his thrown, the black orb still clutched close. "So, perhaps now you will agree to do as I see fit? Unless... you need further persuasion?" There was a flash as claws tightened and suddenly the orb shattered.

The fragments spread in a great circle in what seemed like a wave of obsidian. The pieces however vanished as smoke the moment contact was made with the ground, the swirls creating the appearance of a shadow garden temporarily. The King's clawed fingers slowly opened up to reveal a thin and pale body laying inside.

It was a human soul, presumably anyways... For what else could it have been? The form was male, having only a towel like cloth wrapped around the waist, and had a look of serenity about his feature's. The eyes were closed as if in sleep, but Ryuk knew that this slumber would never cease.

But something seemed almost familiar about this particular human as he lay cradled in the King's massive paws. He went closer, no longer under threat by the king, and quickly realized that he indeed knew who that soul had once belonged too.

"Wait... is that?" He began, looking over the limp form as it lay in the demon's palm. The king only laughed once more, the sound grating on Ryuk's ears, and lowered his hand to give the Shinigami a better look.

Ryuk would know that form anywhere, lacking in proper attire or otherwise. The hair as it always had been, though the eyes could not be seen under the peacefully lowered lids, the face was unchanged as it had been in life... Yes, he definitely knew that face.

"You must do it." Ryuk jumped slightly, his stupor broken by the voice. The king retracted his arm, bringing it close once again as a second hand reached for another of the remaining twelve orbs.

As the rotation continued, he snatched out the sphere and this too was crushed beneath his talons, leaving it to rain darkness once more. This one, did not hold the form of a single young man inside as the first. No, this was far more... intriguing.

"Things will not be as they were Ryuk." The creature stared at it's subordinate, gesturing to the contents of the second orb. "As you can very well see for yourself. You alone are capable of finding someone to carry out my wishes in the human realm, as you once did for personal gain. Do it, and I assure you...we both, shall be entertained a while."

Ryuk's gaze fallowed the contents of the King's hands as he withdrew them, amazed at what he saw. Had such a thing ever happened before? It shouldn't have been possible. He wasn't sure if even the king knew the answer to such a question. But, he did have one answer.

The Shinigami took the new Death Note and stuck it securely in his pouch. "Oh yes..." He answered, a grin coming over him that he remembered only too well. "I can do that." He need not have asked to be dismissed and therefore did not do so.

Black wings unfolded as he took to the sky, climbing higher and higher to gaze upon all that was the Shinigami's land. This place was so sullen and dull... but the human world, was just about to get exciting.

Ryuk took out the book again. "I suppose I should rename this thing when I translate it." He mumbled, looking over the cover. "Not a very creative title, but let's just call it the Eton Htaed. As for it's new owner..." An image flashed into his head of the many people he had come into contact with during the time he had stayed with that human.

"For what the King is wanting, I know exactly who to take this to." With those words spoken, his dark and grueling form dove out into the cloud line above and disappeared from view, silence blanketing the realm once more.

All fell silent in the Shinigami world once more, sand drifting past the feet of the king as the dull gray took over again. But, though lifeless as it was, a spark remained in the plan the king had conceived. The gruesome creature held the forms in his hands close to it's great eyes, examining them as if they were a doll in his collection.

"You won't be here much longer, so enjoy your rest." he hissed. "It's only a matter of time before the human world is sent back into the roiling chaos as it was ten years ago." A laugh built up and gurgled from his great jaws echoing across the baron landscape.

The Shinigami that resided elsewhere within the void that was their home turned their eyes to the darkening sky. When the King laughed, nothing ordinary had ever come of it in the eternity they'd existed, and even the dullest of their kind could feel that something of enormous significance lay on the horizon.

X X X

A/N: First off, Divinus Interpono roughly translates from Latin to Divine intervention. More will come soon, and I hope to update with at least one chapter every month at minimum! There is some symbolism here such as the thirteen orbs, 13 being the number of bad luck and I just ran with my imagination when describing the throne room and Shinigami King. I hope you like it!

Also! The first one to guess whose souls the King is holding from the first and second orbs gets a sneak peek of chapter 1 before I put it up! So please review!