My wonderful reviewers at last I have returned! I am back from the land of the online-dead. and a little early too...

Its been such a long time... but now i can go back to working on this. I will be going back to my regular-ish updates now.

I have many updates for the masses and now that i have gone through my plan, these updates should come quite soon. The next 2 after this will be up at some point later today or tomorrow. Whenever they get done...

So just read, relax, enjoy... and review (if ya want) i hope you like my portrayal of L.

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7 - Payment due

Yes, L was indeed a bat. He had been a bat for many years now. He had long ago lost count of exactly how many years it had been and had long ago given up counting. He decided that he would enjoy his new afterlife, even if it wasn't quite what was supposed to have happened. This was L's new world – a world in which it was always night and the stars shone in the sky like diamonds over the vast desert that sat below.

There was no sun here, but then again, L wasn't too particularly fond of the sun. It wasn't that he hated the sun, it was just that he preferred the night. And nothing made him happier than being beneath the moon as it shone down upon him, especially when it was full. And as such, L enjoyed being a bat. And what a fine bat he was.

L was a wonderful bat, or so he thought. His wings were dark, as was much of his body. His clawed feet made excellent weapons for hunting, along with his sharp fangs, and he had large imploring eyes that seemed to reflect the moon and make his eyes shine with a charm and uniqueness that one could only ever see in a nightmare. Agreeingly, L made good for a bat.

He found himself flying through the eternally night sky when he noticed a rather large crowd of hollows had gathered.

"Now this is strange..."

He muttered to himself as he swooped down and hovered above the crowd, intending to find out what all the commotion was. But he couldn't really see and he needed a better view, deciding to perch himself onto one of the tusks of a rather large mammoth type monster so he could see. It didn't mind.

"What's going on? Why is everyone here like this?"

"It appears a shinigami has come."

"Hm? A shinigami?"

L paused, tilting his head. This made no sense, what would a shinigami be doing here?

"But I thought the shinigami lived in that soul society place. What is one of them doing here?"

L stretched his neck and tilted his head so he could look over the masses of hollows in order to get a better view of this shinigami. He tried to look over the heads of the many hollows that were there and eventually managed to get a glimpse of the shinigami that had appeared in their world. L recognised him instantly.

"Is that the man with the glasses?"

"What?" the mammoth hollow snorted, quite surprised, "You know him?"

L didn't answer, but instead he kept looking at the shinigami intently, the excitement in him starting to build.

"Yes, it's him! I know it is! He's the one that sent me here instead of killing me!"

He had changed in appearance but L was sure it was him. Many years had passed since he had last seen the man with the glasses and both of them had changed so much during that time, but L was certain it was him. L himself had become a bat and the man with the glasses had appeared once again before him, along with two others. Possibly his friends.

It was the man with the glasses that had come into the hollow world. His hair was slightly different and he didn't have his glasses any more, but it was the one that had saved him. He had come back.

L was hovering over the crowd now and watching. Watching to see what would happen. And it was then that he noticed him. The shinigami and the bat had locked eyes. All fell silent at that moment as the shinigami, now without his glasses, stretched out his hand towards him.

"Come here... L"

There was an awed silence at the very sound of his name. L could hear their muttered voices, shocked at the very notion of a shinigami knowing a hollow specifically. And L knew this shinigami. They kept saying "He knows this shinigami?" and "his name is L?" and "L knows this shinigami, our enemy?"

Deciding to ignore them, L complied. He stretched his wings and flew over to the shinigami, hovering now above his shoulder. This was undoubtedly the man that had saved his life.

"Payment due Mr Lawliet... I am here to collect."