Dear Audience,

Here am I, beginning a multi-chapter fic instead of updating any of my ongoing fan fictions. Yes, I am evil. Yes, I regret nothing. And if you find this story totally incomprehensible at first, you have my full sympathy.

Myself and my co-author, Spinner Beech, were inspired to write this by another fan fiction where the author took a movie and read an elaborate fantasy interpretation out of clues in the background and in what the characters said and did. We happened to be searching Death Note pictures while we read it, and one thing led to another.

For those interested in exactly what we based the ideas for the story off of, we'll be uploading some notes to the chapters we post shortly.

I must ask readers to please review and tell us what you think - we'd like to hear how the Death Note fandom at large receives the story. And without further ado - except the disclaimer - here it is.

~ FairMaiden333

Disclaimer - I do not own Death Note, except in a strictly Pickwickian sense.

Chapter 1

A Guardian Alone

The landscape was bleak: rolling dunes and valleys of reddish stone and sand where ridges of black rock and stark white bone thrust their way up towards a murky sky. Here and there, in the places where the higher ridges sheltered some poor soil, half-dead trees bore withered fruit and leaves on their twisted branches. Everywhere were tangles of bone, great and small, as if the place were nothing more than one monstrous graveyard, unfit for any living creature.

Yet far below, a figure toiled through the deathlike world.

Matt wearily kicked a small skull out of his path with his boot, thinking to himself that the amount of pleasure it gave him to hear it rattle away and break apart against a rock was pathetic. But after more than a week slogging through this hellish place, he'd take any excitement he could get. His legs were aching fiercely from the long trek he'd made, and his stomach was growling and empty, desperate for something other than the shrunken fruit he'd been forcing himself to eat when he got too hungry.

"What I wouldn't give for a cigarette," Matt said under his breath, pausing to lean against a ridge of stone and look back the way he'd come. The sand had already filled in his footprints, as if he'd never been there at all.

For a terrifying moment, the dull, mindless lethargy he'd been fighting ever since he'd found himself in this place swept over his mind, and he narrowed his eyes as he tried to remember. Had he been there? What had he been doing? Almost without realizing it, Matt slid down the rock until he could rest his back against the stone. Why was he bothering to keep going when he could just sit down here and rest for a while…

Mello.

With a jolt, Matt staggered to his feet, glaring at the rock as if it were the reason his mind had betrayed him. "I'm looking for Mello," he told it hotly, his stomach clenching at the disturbing knowledge that, even for one moment, he had forgotten. "I have to find him."

Turning away, he scanned the horizon again, trying to decide which way to go. His Prince was here somewhere, he knew that with an absolute certainty, but it was where 'here' was that was bothering him. Surely - surely this could not be the Shinigami Realm? They should have been transported home when they died, but this place - broken, dead, and desolate - was nothing like what his vague memories and what knowledge he held as the Prince's Guardian had led him to expect. And the strange, forgetful weariness which he was fighting against even now was definitely hostile to everything that he was…

We knew something had gone terribly wrong. We knew that there was some twisted power at work, but this… Matt let out a long, slow breath. We never expected anything this bad. No, we must be somewhere else. But where - no. Can't stay here thinking. First things first. Find Mello. Protect Mello. Can't be too hard, right? Hahaha. Right. Because Mello's always been the kind to stay out of trouble…

Matt directed his steps towards a grove of stunted trees a little distance away, turning over a fresh plan in his mind as he did. As yet, he'd gone out of his way to avoid any of the strange creatures he'd seen every now and then, grouped together in hollows or sitting in what seemed to be solitary contemplation. He had no way of knowing what they were, who they were working for, after all. But at this point, he'd have to take the risk and approach one of them. He'd be no use to Mello if he kept wandering around in this aimless manner.

"Better target one of the solitary ones…" Matt murmured to himself. "It'll be easier if it turns out they want a fight. But first -" he grimaced. "I guess I'd better have lunch - or dinner - or whatever it is. I wouldn't call it food, that's for sure."

After a short and thoroughly unpleasant meal, supplemented by brackish water from a nearly stagnant spring he found half-covered by the withered vegetation, Matt set off again in the direction of one of the rocky valleys he'd learned could be expected to shelter the strange creatures he'd been avoiding up till now.

Fifteen or twenty minutes of walking - a distance which looked deceptively easy until you experienced firsthand how difficult it was to keep moving against the overwhelming urge to forget everything and just let yourself drift into a disinterested stupor - took the red haired Guardian to an outcropping of rock which sloped downwards to form a shallow bowl-shaped hollow. One of the creatures, a black, vaguely humanoid one with an angular head and a frill around its neck, sat by a flat stone near the bottom, lazily playing with a small heap of skulls.

Taking a deep breath, Matt gave a quick glance around to make sure that it had no companions nearby, then half-slid, half-climbed down the jutting stones at one side of the hollow. His shirt was torn in several new places by the time he reached the bottom, but he scarcely noticed, all his attention fixed on the strange figure now only a few yards away. Something about it seemed familiar suddenly… not its appearance, which looked like something from a cheap horror movie, but a certain - something. A feeling.

Matt frowned and took a step closer, purposely scuffing his boots against the rock floor, but the black creature - person - seemed to take no notice. It was playing with the bones as if they were children's blocks, stacking one skull atop another until the teetering pile fell over. Then it gave a half-hearted chuckle and picked them up again. Now that he had a better view, Matt could see that it was dressed in what looked like the ragged remains of a trench coat, badly ripped and torn.

Throwing caution to the winds, Matt strode up to stand in front of the stone where the creature was playing its game, and when it still ignored him, bent down and scooped up one of the skulls before the other could take it. "Nice game," he said conversationally.

The black creature finally raised a pair of murky brown eyes, eyes that were strangely lost and haunted, to meet his and Matt nearly dropped the skull as a sick jolt of recognition ran through him. "A human?" it said vaguely. Definitely a masculine voice. "What is a human doing here?"

"Not exactly a human," Matt said casually, as he fought not to show any sign of the fury and terror racing through him. "Who - what are you?" He had to hear it.

The black figure paused a moment as if trying to remember, and then said in that same vague fashion. "Oh - I am a shinigami. My name is - Barr."

Shit. Shit. Shit. What the hell is going on here? The Realm is - crumbling - unrecognizable, and the shinigami aren't any better - and he isn't just any shinigami. Even in this state, I'm not so incapable that I can't recognize another Guardian of Death…

"And what are you doing, Barr?" Matt asked, keeping his tone light.

"Playing. Stack-the-Skulls." Barr's eyes slid away, his tone almost sullen. "Give my skull back. I was winning."

"But what were you doing before that?" Matt asked patiently. "Don't you have any - duties? Anything you need to do?"

The lost brown eyes met his again. "I don't remember," Barr muttered. "I think I was - looking for somebody. Once. A long time ago." He tried to look away, but Matt held his gaze.

"Were they important? This somebody?"

The shinigami shrugged. "I guess -" and for a brief moment, an almost painful hope flared in his eyes and seemed to burn away some of his disinterest and irritation. "Have you seen them?"

Matt kept his eyes locked on the other's, unwilling to lose the frail connection. "I'm looking for someone too. I think if you come with me, you might find your important person as well. Do you remember anything else about it?"

"No," Barr said, shifting uncomfortably under his gaze. "No. In fact, it was probably just a dream. The King told me so."

"You spoke to the King?" Matt said slowly. "When?"

"When he gave me my Death Note." Barr explained simply, pulling a slim black book out of his tattered coat.

Matt shook his head, feeling his thoughts spinning out of control. Even though he wasn't holding it, he could still feel the utter wrongness of the twisted power that had created the innocent-looking notebook; the same power that must have twisted the Realm. "No. Wait. You said the King gave you that - thing?"

Barr nodded. "The King gave it to me, just as he gave one to all the other shinigami."

Matt frowned. This makes no sense. The King of Death would not destroy his own Realm. Besides, this - warping had already begun before he left the mortal world. Unless… "Barr," he asked quietly. "Was the Queen with the King when he spoke to you?"

"There is no Queen, only the King of Kings," Barr replied shortly. "All shinigami know that."

Matt clenched his hands into fists. Damn it. A false King. Usurper. Traitor! A trap, and we've all walked into it. Mello, you'd better be all right…

Barr seemed a little more alert now; he wore an anxious scowl. "Why are you asking all these questions? You look like a human, but you don't feel like one. You feel like a shinigami."

Matt's fingers were itching for a cigarette again; he put them in his pockets. "I am a shinigami." Risk nothing, win nothing, and he needed his fellow Guardian on his side, even if he had forgotten who he was. He eyed Barr carefully as he added, "I'm also a Guardian of Death."

Barr clutched his Death Note tighter with a clawed hand, stuffing it protectively back into the meager shelter of his coat. "Guardian?" he muttered. "I don't know what you're talking about. But you made me remember something. Something…"

"Barr!" Matt said sharply as the other seemed to be drifting off into a haze of thought. "I must know where the Prince is." He sighed as the brown-eyed shinigami only looked at him blankly and changed his tack. "If this 'King of Kings' had any prisoners, where would he keep them?"

Barr hunched his shoulders in an awkward shrug. "I think I heard somebody mention something - about humans locked up in the caves a little while ago," he said grudgingly. "I was bored. I wasn't paying attention."

"Can you take me there?"

The frilled shinigami stirred his pile of bones with one clawed hand, averting his eyes. "Why should I? It would be a lot of work to get up and go over there…"

"Because if you don't," Matt said, taking great care to emphasize every word, "you will never see that person you were looking for again. You'll sit here for the rest of your life, playing with skulls." He tossed the bleached thing he was holding down onto the rock in front of the shinigami. "Is that what you want, Barr?"

The black shinigami hesitated, and Matt held his breath. He could not imagine anything more insanely painful to a Guardian than knowing they had failed in their mission, but he could also feel the strength of the spell of forgetfulness and indifference weighing down on his mind. Who knew how long it had been since Barr had given way to it?

Finally Barr looked up, and Matt felt a dizzying wave of relief as he saw that the spark of painful hope had reignited in his eyes. "I'll take you there," the shinigami mumbled, pushing himself to his feet laboriously. Standing, he was a full two feet taller than Matt was. "If I could find them - if it wasn't a dream -"

"It wasn't a dream," Matt reassured him.