Guest Reviewer: I feel the same way you do about this story! AU Light is easily a big favorite main character of mine. I can't get over how adorable he is, LOL. (I even made an account for him at Livejournal to roleplay write with, because I love this muse so much.) I'm very sure he will at some point ask poor paranoid Sim if there's anything else she might want to tell him, if she's hiding anything... That's a very interesting theory you have there about L! Sim, with Soichiro's help, has yet to get in touch with someone who could contact Watari first though. That's all I'm going to say about that. Don't want to kill off any of the building suspense that's soon to come.

Insane Shadow Pancake: I like your username, hehe. Okay, now that's out of the way. XD Thanks for your feedback! I know right? You have to search through mostly junk to find the good treasures for fanfics. It's worth it, but it does tend to get annoying too. I do agree that there's so much potential to be had. It's only going to get more exciting in places, and dramatic and there may be even some chapters that might make me shed tears as I write them! I intend to be as real as I can about what everyone is going through.

What are some of your other favorite bands? I listen to so many! I love my electronica tunes, soundtrack stuff, and show tunes as well.

Thanks for favoriting, Detective S.C. Holmes, Fiare, Alexandria Volturi, NilaStar13 and xxErinCullenxx! I'd like to encourage you all, as well as the other readers that follow and favorite, to at least say hi. Leave me a PM, and I'll PM you back. I'm going to make a habit of putting up responses to the latest feedback I get, any positive feedback I get. I also encourage you to share any thoughts, predictions, speculations, anything to do with the story really. I'm curious. You guys and gals help keep me motivated to write this story. Your excitement and anticipation is what I absorb as I become excited and get thinking as to what happens next! Who knows? Some of you might inspire me, aside from SmileWave who already gave me some ideas to write in later on. Check out her cute Let's Play! fic. You might like it.

Any other rock fans out there? "Animal I Have Become" by Three Days Grace fits Kira-Light like a glove, and I'm a little over halfway done on this badass AMV that centers around him. (I know this song has been used before for Kira-Light AMVs, but I don't believe it's been done the way I'm doing it. I got this certain vision for it.) Next week, I'm going to watch more of the anime and add more to my AMV. I so want to get this done ASAP, and upload it onto my YouTube channel so I could get the next Death Note AMV started. I go by the same username on there, only all the letters are lowercased. I have other music videos on there, as well as home videos of tabletop gaming, DS gaming, and stuff-including a video tour of my bookstore, and what I look like. Sim's appearance and where she works would be exactly the same. :) So, when the updates start to get a bit slower, you have that stuff to look at, among tons of stuff I sorted into playlists. ...Hmn. I should put together a YouTube vid playlist of Collide's soundtrack sometime.

I don't have internet over where I work, and that's when I could get chunk by chunk of writing done, and I'm less likely to get distracted.

Okay, onto the next chapter! 3 POVs this time...and one of them introduces another character! Can you guess who it is? :P Oh, and remember, italic quotations are translated foreign languages. Only Japanese so far though!


Chapter 7: From Above

The guilt felt like a weight inside Marianne's chest as she was followed Dr. Suki down a long hallway. As she felt worried and so guilty, she also held a bitter hatred for a number of things; having amnesia, having to lie to and hide from all these good people who wanted to help her, the bandage around her head that was starting to make her forehead itch, not being able to hear or see her loved ones back home... She felt most especially terrible for Light, Aizawa, and Mr. Yagami right now, and didn't like herself for being dishonest. She knew that contacting anyone she knew back in her world wasn't going to be possible. Unless whoever or whatever was going to provide a freaking miracle, it just wasn't going to happen. For at least a while, she was going to be here-and Mom and Dad would start to worry like crazy about her, if they hadn't already.

If Light Yagami hadn't been so clever, sneaky, and insane in the manga, then she wouldn't have felt any worries about him. None! She would have told them everything, and not hold back! She'd feel so much safer, and it would've been much easier to tell Light and company to not write anything into the notebook ever.

Alas, for Tsugumi Ohba originally intended Light to be corrupted by its nasty dark powers, and have so many killed. It was a major reason why she was so drawn into the fandom in the first place. Ironic, for I also have a knack for writing twisted fiction, but in my spare time-even as I've done writing roleplay online with my writing buddies. Now this is for real, and I'm stuck in the middle of it, came a sardonic thought, to which shifted back to the focus on who Light was now, since she told that little lie to be the Death Note's owner. She never felt all that great about lying, mainly because he had saved her life. This was never something to take for granted! He had also been sincere, and Marianne remembered how her little panic attack had freaked him out a bit, causing him to be so determined on helping her. She really, sincerely preferred he'd pursue the path to becoming a great detective. And there I was thinking the worst of him...

As for Mr. Yagami and Aizawa, there was no ignoring how much it hurt for them to see her so uneasy, nervous, hurt, and upset-and so far away from home. Aizawa was having a bit of a tough time holding it together, but he did his job in asking the right questions and helping the Yagami's at different angles at the time of what had to be some kind of attack. They didn't know what, but it definitely didn't happen on the bus she'd take to work three times a week.

She couldn't think about what might have happened if Light didn't happen to look down to see both herself and the Death Note in the same place. She tried at first, but shuddered and stopped before she could really start. No, it wasn't worth her time to worry about that. There was an overwhelming amount of other problems that hovered over not only herself, but everyone she had met.

That's right, she had to stick to the only solid fool-proof plan she could come up with, or rather partially thought-out plan. L and Watari were the ones to reveal everything to. The fourth wall would come down, and they'd be astonished to hear about them being represented as fiction where she came from, in the least. Showing L the Death Note would help a great deal, along with him to witness her being very, VERY firm on not letting him test it. L, as the skilled investigator he was, would of course ask her a lot of questions too.

She felt confident on how that could work out. However, as soon as she felt just a teeny bit better, a stray thought made its way to the surface of her thought processes. ...Would Ohba even know how much I've screwed everything up?

This caused her to curiously think further. Huh. Now that is a good question. Things aren't going to be the same as they were. He'd have to understand if he did know, right? Unless... WHAT? NO! That can't be it! Why the hell would Ohba do this to one of his fans?! He doesn't even know me... It's not possible. Manga writers can't just abduct people and dump them into their work!

Marianne glared at nothing in particular as she hated her paranoia. It was fighting to take over again. She hated the way she was stretching her mind so much. She could feel this constant, never-ending urge to search so deep in there to figure out how and why she was in this alternate reality. It was like she had to have the answers now, RIGHT NOW, before something worse could happen, before someone would find out she was keeping things from them. Those lost memories she felt shouldn't have been lost in the first place! Not being able to remember something so big and important was making her feel hopelessly insecure, and it certainly wasn't helping her with anything. She didn't initially want to wait for what was lost to come back, but it wasn't like she could apply the willpower and remember, just like that.

Someone else wearing a hospital uniform was approaching, and Marianne broke out of her tormenting reverie. This was a narrow corridor, and she with Dr. Suki had shift the way they moved so they wouldn't bump into the man, who looked fit in his thirties and also wore a white coat. She didn't really pay much attention to him, as the doctor she knew gently guided her down the hall a bit more around a corner.

"You're very quiet," Dr. Suki noticed. "Are you feeling all right?"

She really was a sweet and pretty young woman, probably a little younger than Marianne was. She understood Dr. Suki was very compassionate about helping people feel better, and this made her want to restrain herself from saying anything snarky. "I just don't have much to say right now. I'm not taking this memory loss situation very well." She had forced herself to calm down, somewhat, keeping all her previous thoughts to herself. "How much further?"

"We're here," she said, opening a door and holding it open for Marianne. "I realize how upsetting that must be for you, Mari-san, but you must give yourself time. As much as we all want to know what happened, that information is locked up inside you. The stress you're feeling, I believe, is just causing your mind to continue to repress your lost memories... Does that make sense? I'm not a psychologist, but it's been easy to see you have gone through something terrible."

No shit? Marianne mentally shoved that smartass remark far away from entering her voice, and considered Dr. Suki's explanation. "I get what you're saying, but I'm still very uneasy about it. It's just... It's never happened to me before," she replied before walking into the room. She could see that it was mostly dark, except for the window revealing that evening had come. During that time of day, normally, Marianne would be at home, having dinner with her folks. Mom, Dad... Looks like I'm going to be stuck here for a while.

The switch was to her right as she flicked it on. Florescent lights flickered on, steadily coming on brighter, so it was easy to adjust to the light. In the middle of the room was this bulky looking machine thing that had to be the x-ray, that was almost cocoon shaped except that the top part was a bit more of a dome. Marianne noticed that there was just one of these things, and a cot was out of the open end of the x-ray.

"Have you been to an x-ray room before?"

Mari looked to Dr. Suki, and nodded. "Once, a long time ago. It for was a sinus infection."

The younger lady nodded, her expression understanding. "Those tend to get very bad and annoying. My mother had two of those."

"Ouch. I hope she's doing all right now."

Dr. Suki placed a hand to her shoulder as they walked to stand beside the machine. "She's doing fine where she is, Mari-san. Thank you." There was a bit of sadness there in those gentle dark brown eyes as she said no more about the matter, and just smiled.

Seeing the way her eyes looked caused Marianne to feel her heart sink. Oh, no. Did her mom die? Hopefully not by sinuses. That wasn't really any of Marianne's business as she respected the doctor's personal life, but she did feel sorry for her. Instead, she recalled back from her first-time experience to get her head x-rayed. "I remember being asked if I was allergic to iodine, this chemical that's in food such as shrimp. I'm not, and I really like shrimp... I also remember being told that it was going to feel like I was about to pee, but not really."

Dr. Suki nodded. "I see you understand the proceedure very well. Do you have any jewelry on, or have any sort of metal objects you might need to remove?"

The answer Marianne gave was almost automatic. "No."

"'All right. Would you please lay down over here?" Dr. Suki moved her arm to indicate the cot part of the machine.

"Yep." She calmly stepped over, then sat and shifted herself to lay on her back. She was going to tell herself to relax, and worry about Aizawa, Mr. Yagami, and Light once this was all over. Although, she'd have to consider how to respond once Mr. Yagami and Light will say about being unable to reach anybody.

Marianne took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. As long as I don't say anything to endanger myself in front of them, then Light will stay the way he is. Things will work out... Gotta mention L soon. I have to get to him...through them.

You mean use them to do it, replied a grim inner voice.

No! Shut UP brain! It's not like I'm being evil about it! I don't really want to hurt them. I don't! I just need their help and connections to go see L-without any Kira shit happening. That's all.


Aizawa couldn't really afford to spare a second as he moved past through the lobby inside the NPA building towards the hall to the left. All he could do toward the friends and colleagues was say hello or very short responses on the way to his little cubicle of an office. He wanted to make haste and help that poor woman make contact with her family. What she said about them, and how shook up she was-this new case about Mari had his heart in a vice-like grip. This polite and sweet woman needed her family, because she was scared and very worried about them, her father especially. Who was he to deny that? Not only would she feel better, but it would benefit them all to find out if he had noticed anything out of the ordinary, or learn more about the Markham family's background.

What Chief Yagami had briefed him sounded terrible enough, but to see her in that room, with that big bandage wrapped around her head... He had to help her. He'd never forgive himself otherwise. The memories of today would just haunt him, and it would go against his morale as a cop if he broke his word.

It really was extremely bad luck to know that Verizon phone company turned off the home phone, and that her mother's pre-paid phone had run out. That shouldn't have happened, but what else could be done? He knew it wouldn't do any good to rave at those Verizon scumbags, for that would have wasted more time. Both the chief and himself both wanted to help her, very much. Whoever the bastard was, whatever happened, it was very serious. This sick individual who commited this crime wasn't going to get away with this. Aizawa knew he would see to it!

As he kept it up in his fast walk to the room where twenty uniformed men and women worked, sitting at their cubicles, either focused at their computers or doing small talk among themselves. Aizawa didn't pay much attention to them at all as he continued onward to his office. Hirokazu Ukita, a friend and partner on the force, was at the cubicle behind and across from his. He turned around upon hearing Aizawa's brisk footsteps. "Someone's in a hurry."

Aizawa kept his explanation brief as he started to unplug his laptop. "New case, about this young American girl at Tokyo Medical University Hospital who had been attacked. Mari Markham-san can't really member what happened, and is freaked out of her mind about it. Right now, we're having problems in trying to get one of her parents on the phone."

His partner's tone changed from being in jest to concern. "Oh wow, that doesn't sound good."

"It's no good at all... She says there are relatives that have Facebook accounts. Maybe we'll have better luck there. It's why I'll be needing this." Aizawa raised the cord and placed it on his desk before kneeling and retrieving the carrier case from the lower drawer. "The chief and his son Light are over there with Mari-san now, attempting to call her family's friends." He sighed as he began to pack up the computer, moving efficiently as he had to move some of his pencils, small notepad, a coffee mug, and framed pictures of his family aside. That broken-hearted sad look on her face and what she said about her father wouldn't leave his mind as his gaze drifted a second to a family photo, his little girl laughing as she sat on his shoulders. Saya took the picture herself. I hope Chyio will say similar noble things about me, one day.

"I've never been to America, but I'm damn sure the guy who kidnapped her is on the run. He's probably somewhere in Japan right now."

"She cannot remember who attacked her? At all?"

"No, she really can't."

Irritation was heard in Ukita's voice. "Damn. That animal... You know I have your back on this one, Aizawa. Anything you need me to do, just say so."

Aizawa turned to his partner, and considered. "Could you stay here? If the chief and I can't get a hold of her parents on the phone, then we might need to look up the billing on her family's LAN line... Might have to give you a call if it comes down to that."

Ukita gave a curt nod, with a look that made him look older and more mature. "You got it."

"Thanks." Aizawa lifted the carrier case off the desk. "See you later, Ukita."

"Good luck. Hope you get in touch with Mari-san's folks."

Aizawa nodded. "Thanks." It's not right, whatever that bastard did... A beat later, he turned to leave. "I should go."

"Yeah, you should. Update me about this later, all right?"


This chick? This Marianne Markham? She amused him. Fascinated him even, because not only did she show up so fast, out of nowhere from this white, flickering flash of light that happened just before the Note he purposely dropped had hit the ground of the human world. She was full of secrets, it seemed, not all of them he couldn't begin guess at just yet!

He had chuckled when watching her lie rather quickly about reading the rules that were barely mentioned to her, from where he crouched looking down into one of the holes that showed the earth down below. He had seen her tell that Light Yagami kid the notebook was something she found the other day, to keep as a "writing journal". "Heh heh heh hahaha! Such a riot, she is..."

Also, for some reason, when that same kid told her his name, she became very afraid of him for a little while. Why? Did she recognize him, or something?

The lies and secrets didn't seem to stop there as she only revealed a part of her whole first name to those police officers and that doctor woman. Why was that, exactly? Why lie and then look so guilty about it? If she really needed their help, then why wasn't she being fully honest with these poor saps?

The expressions she hid from everyone while inside that building, whatever thoughts she had locked in that interesting, deceitful mind of hers-just what did she think she was doing? What was she hiding from everyone? What was she so worried about? He couldn't really help but be so curious about her, wondering where she came from, and why she arrived in such a strange way. He wondered who or what gave her that clean looking bloody cut on her forehead. If she didn't know any of this, who would? Out of all the thousands of years he's lived, he's never heard of any human appearing like that. No, certainly not. In overhearing the stories about these creatures from the other shinigami, there had never been any incidents of humans that mysterious and strange appearances like this!

Perhaps they could find out together soon, about Marianne Markham's point of origin, and why she appeared like that.

Things are getting so interesting so fast, much more than I expected... This will be FUN!

He continued to observe her, snickering as that x-ray thing hummed to life. I do hope you'll hold onto that Death Note, Marianne. Think of it as my gift to you. Why, I'll let you have a long look through the rules first, before we meet...in four days!

The King wasn't all that strict to enforce the rule of flying down into the human world. From what he heard, humans didn't necessarily have to write into the Death Note for the shinigami to enter and make contact with them-to which was just fine by him! Waiting for five days made sense though. There were some who would just pick it up, only to throw it away and disregard it without second guessing.

This shinigami was looking forward to leaving this barren place, for it's been so damn boring here. He had a hunch that girl was going to hang onto the Death Note, but one could never be really too sure about humans. They were unpredictable.

Even if she did decide to throw it away, within five days, he could always drop it near her again-to mess with her! Really, in comparison to several thousand other humans, he was just too interested and curious in this one. Marianne was as interesting as it got when it came to humans, and he didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to have some fun with her.

Before he could laugh out loud over this idea, he knew there was something else to look forward to in the human world a well; those red, juicy apples. It's been so long since the last time he had one, but he never forgot how tasty they were...

"The only problem about this entire thing is the waiting," he said to himself. Then, he chuckled at himself. "Wow, I've never been this excited about anything..." He kept his voice very, very low, so all those nosy, lazy, and pathetic gambling shinigami wouldn't overhear. Marianne Markham; she was his discovery, the human for his enjoyment, his ticket to the good life.