A/N; So now you get to know why Ryuk's upset you lucky people.
Thank you VirtualDraconium for your excellent beta'ing of this chapter as ever, both in correcting my grammar and dumbing down Ryuk's .
Please read and review!
Chapter 14
"I wouldn't tell 'em where you were," Ryuk muttered, looking down at the floor, "so they started killing everyone."
"What? Why?" Light gasped, he was stunned Ryuk would protect him like that.
"Something like us creating more competition; something about ya being a threat to their mistress so they didn't want it happening again," Ryuk said unhappily, "the other shinigami told me to find you and get you to help, or give you up to them."
"How many are there attacking you?" Lucan said suddenly, sounding far more serious than he ever had in the past.
"Forty maybe fifty, I dunno," Ryuk replied.
Lucan gave a thoughtful nod and went silent again.
"How long has this been going on?" Light asked.
"Well they came a few days ago but we didn't think anything of it," Ryuk said thoughtfully, "but a few hours ago they suddenly began to kill us. They already killed Sidoh, he never did nothing to nobody."
"That coincides with the attack here," L said suddenly, "that definitely means the group that attacked us worked for her."
"Perhaps she realised that I was a threat rather than a potential friend," Light murmured. "This is all my fault."
"No Light," L said suddenly, staring at Ryuk thoughtfully, "it's his fault. I take it that this is the shinigami who dropped the first Death Note?"
"Yes," Light replied, "into the courtyard of my school."
"Definitely sounds planned," L murmured, "I would have been the only one involved in the locating her if not for that act, so yes, it is all this shinigami's fault."
"Eh?" Ryuk said gaping at L, "why me? I was just bored is all."
"Precisely," L replied.
"I've got to do something to stop this," Light said calmly. "This is being done because of me anyway. I take it that the ability of a human to kill a shinigami was another one of your lies Ryuk."
Ryuk nodded, he looked embarrassed; but even to him, his people came first.
L nodded in understanding, he knew he wouldn't be able to talk Light out of this, and Light would never forgive him if he ordered him not to. These were just another series of deaths that Light took responsibility for; at least here he had a chance to atone. L was not about to stop that.
"I have no way of opening a passageway to the shinigami realm," Lucan muttered, "and a vampire loses strength very quickly in such a place. I will not be able to go and neither will L. Light... if you want to help them, you'll have to go alone."
"I can only carry one anyhow," Ryuk added.
"How the hell am I supposed to help on my own?" Light whispered; it was obvious that he'd wanted support in this. "How on Earth do I stand a chance against 50 people?"
"You have magic and are very stubborn," Lucan said blandly. "Oh, and there's the small fact that you are immortal and they are not."
"I still have no idea how to use my magic," Light said hurriedly.
"You will if you drink some of my blood," Lucan replied.
"Oh no, no way in hell am I doing that," Light said loudly, "I am subservient enough to him-" he pointed at L- "as it is, I am not bringing you into this as well. At least he doesn't abuse his power over me I know you would."
Lucan sighed.
"I wouldn't have such power over you; there's too much of L's blood in you for that," Lucan explained, "I would just be passing on knowledge, and expertise. I expect it would even help redress the balance, I'm sure you've noticed that whenever L gets upset you hyperventilate? His blood is making you lose control of your own emotions and preventing you from thinking correctly."
"…" Light said nothing, it was true. Even now he found he was worried about what L was thinking and what his reactions would be. It was as if he was on edge whenever L was nearby, waiting for an order that never came.
"It wouldn't remove his hold over you, but it would stop you acting like a headless chicken," Lucan said smiling, "it's a look that doesn't suit you."
"Stop coercing him into doing something he obviously doesn't want to do," L said softly, he hadn't failed to notice the pained expression that had crossed over Light's face; he rose and went over to Light.
Light gulped slightly as L looked up into his eyes through his fringe. His mind whirled as he franticly tried to think up scenarios as to what L was planning. Much to his surprise though L raised a hand and ran it through his hair. Light shuddered slightly and leaned into the hand, already he feeling his nerves loosen and his panic ebb away.
"I don't think I ever expected to see you cry Light," L murmured, "but you cried over the possibility of me dying twice. Do what you have to do though Light, I know you want to go help them. Lucan's blood is the only way. I wish I could go with you but I can't. Please don't do something that would mean I would have to cry, I haven't had that much practice."
Before he realised what he was doing Light pulled L into an embrace.
"When did you become so understanding?" Light whispered.
"When you started listening to me, and doing what I told you for once," L murmured, twisting his head so he could plant the softest of kisses on Light's cheek as he pulled away.
Ryuk looked at the two of them in shock, he had never expected this.
"You're a couple?" Ryuk laughed, "Oh this is all too funny."
"Even while his world burns he still finds time for humour," Light sighed, he looked at Lucan and nodded nervously. How exactly did one go about this? he thought.
His unspoken question was answered as Lucan came close to him. Light swallowed, his heart pounding as his mind went over the last time he had been given blood. That hadn't been enjoyable at all.
"Light, relax," Lucan sighed, "it's not as if I'm going to bite you."
Much to their surprise L growled at this and moved closer to Light. Both of them turned to him in shock and found that he too looked stunned by his own actions.
"See," Lucan said smiling as he ran a fingernail along his wrist, "his blood has quite a hold on you, and yours has a hold on him. I suspect bringing him back the way you did only served to strengthen it. Now drink."
Light took an unconscious step backward and Lucan rolled his eyes before shifting quickly to stand behind Light and pull him into his arms his wrist before Light.
"Do you want me to order you?" L whispered staring down at the floor, he was fighting desperately with the urge to attack Lucan; somehow seeing them doing this was extremely aggravating.
"I think that might help, yes," Light replied, even while Lucan gave another small sigh.
"Then for the next five minutes I order you to obey Lucan," L said coldly, he turned away from them as he heard Lucan tell Light to drink.
Barely a minute later and Light was allowed to stop. He was glad Lucan was holding him as his mind was assailed by the accumulated magical knowledge of over 3,000 years. Images of riverside temples, sailboats, golden statues of unknown gods and unfamiliar costumes flitted through his head and an insistent whispering of voices in his ears speaking unfamiliar tongues. Then he knew, it was almost instinctual, but suddenly he knew what they were saying and how to use his magic. Everything suddenly seemed so evident. There were holes in the information certainly, but everything made sense.
He couldn't have told anyone how, but it was there.
"I see," Light exclaimed, "this is amazing."
L's head jerked round to stare at Light, and Light frowned even as Lucan laughed.
"It seems you've learnt Ancient Egyptian as well," Lucan explained, as he released Light, "I apologise about that, but it's exceedingly difficult to pass on information precisely."
Light repeated what he'd said, and now he realised what was happening he could hear the foreign words as he said them. Of course it didn't change the fact that it was true though; the realisation of knowledge was amazing even if he couldn't quite bring it to the fore; somehow he knew that would happen.
Light laughed then as he realised just what he could do with his magic then.
'I love you L,' Light thought at L, he smiled as L's eyes widened in surprise, before rocking back on his heels as L appeared in front of him pulling him into a kiss. Light responded fervently to the kiss, fighting with L on every level, his arms pulling L close to him.
L laughed slightly as he pushed away from Light.
"That's more like you Light," he whispered, "you don't seem scared of me any more."
Light blinked as L's words registered, and he realised it was the truth. He had been scared of L; the possibility now seemed absurd. He wondered just how much the vampiric blood in him was changing him; how could he know he truly was himself?
"Are you going to go help the poor shinigami?" Lucan sighed, "or are you just going to stand there gazing at L with a puppy dog expression?"
"Don't respond, he's only trying to wind you up; besides, I think you look cute," L whispered, as he smiled at Light before moving away. Light forced back a smile at L's words and turned towards Ryuk. As he did so Lucan spoke again.
"You'll still need to find a physical weapon to fight with; your magic will not support you indefinitely."
"Don't you have one I could take then?" Light sighed; surely Lucan knew he'd sent this information in the blood. Then he remembered that Lucan had been shocked he'd given Light the ability to speak Ancient Egyptian.
"No," Lucan replied, "I don't have one, but you should easily be able to find one there I should imagine, the shinigami realm is an old battleground. All of it was a battleground."
"Lightoo," Ryuk cried almost desperately, hopping from foot to foot as Light paused to look at Lucan and L. Light gave a small cry of shock as he ended up on Ryuk's back.
"Hey," Light growled, "give me some warning."
Ryuk took off towards the ceiling, and Light gulped as he realised they were about to go through the ceiling. Travelling in such an undignified manner was appalling.
"Don't you even think about dying," L ordered suddenly his voice suddenly betraying his inner turmoil.
L saw Light turn back to him in shock and sudden sadness, his eyes boring into L's, and then he was gone.
…
Light felt his chest tighten as his mind dwelled on the sudden panic L had shown. To know that L actually cared for him like that had weakened his resolve; he didn't want to put himself in danger now. To do so would mean that he could get hurt and that would hurt L.
He was quickly distracted though as Ryuk shot up into the air and out through a hole in the world. He forced himself not to cry out, to be surrounded by such a void was quite atrociously terrifying, stars flitted about above and below and Light had to force himself to breathe. So much of his body was telling him there couldn't possibly be air here and his senses swirled as he lost track of what was up and what was down. Only Ryuk gave him any sort of grounding in the alien environment.
When they finally emerged into the shinigami realm Light had never been so grateful to see ground beneath him. As they got closer, Light saw that it was a desert filled with the bones of ancient creatures; some of the bones were larger than even the dinosaur skeletons he had seen as a child. The war that had been fought here must have been terrible to bring down such creatures.
Light shakily dropped to the sand as Ryuk landed and he took in his surroundings once more.
"This is horrible," Light gasped, before wanting to kick himself for such rude honesty.
"Heh, try it for a few hundred years," Ryuk sighed.
Light could already see why Ryuk had become so bored; he couldn't see any form of vegetation in any direction, well, any vegetation that didn't look as though it'd been on fire for centuries.
"Where is everyone?" Light asked quietly, "we can't be too late surely?"
"They're here," Ryuk replied, "Expect they're scared of ya."
"I thought you wanted my help," Light replied.
"Don't mean they feel comfortable about it," Ryuk sighed, Light was astounded at the change in Ryuk, it seemed the moment they'd returned Ryuk had become much more serious and alert, "All a bunch of useless ingrates if ya ask me."
"Useless are we?"
Light frowned slightly as Ryuk flinched, and he turned with him to find another shinigami stood behind them. Looking slightly Indian and with a black shawl and beads, Light could only assume this shinigami was female.
"Ah," Ryuk said hastily, "I meant the others not you obviously. Deridovely and the others, not you."
Light smiled as the other shinigami rolled their eyes; it was nice to see someone else had to put up with his excuses too.
"So you must be Light Yagami," the shinigami said, "I am Daril Ghiroza. The shinigami king wants to see you."
Light took a hasty step away from Ryuk as the shinigami flinched.
"You have a king?" Light asked.
"Oh yes," Daril replied, "though of course if you'd only met Ryuk you would think we were not organised. You have time to see the king; the invaders seemed to have gone after the lesser shinigami. Everyone else has gone to ground, we should be safe for a time, as we're quite a distance away from them. Now come with me."
Light followed after her, his face ashen from the desolate scene around him and the occasional panicked noised he kept hearing from Ryuk. Why did Ryuk seem so scared about going to see a king?