A/N: Here is the final chapter, it serves as an epilogue. I'm sorry to anyone who thought this was going to end with L and Light being together. When I wrote this originally, that was the intention but then it took turns I didn't even predict. Still, I hope you enjoyed the ride and thank you for reading. Enjoy!

Light and Beyond glare at the shinigami, who is clearly enjoying the fact he caught them in the middle of an intimate moment.

"Am I interrupting?" he asks with a raspy laugh.

Beyond frowns. "What do you want?"

"L has Mikami," replies Ryuk casually. "He's trying to get him to confess but he hasn't yet."

"Great, that doesn't explain anything," snaps Beyond and Light nodded in agreement.

Ryuk rolls his large yellow eyes. "L's apparently getting pretty desperate; he had some young kid dress up as Light and try to seduce Mikami into confessing."

Light snickers, recalling one of her last conversations with L about Mello's cross-dressing interests.

"Hardly surprising," says Beyond with a shrug. "Does Mikami want me to come get him or something?"

Ryuk shakes his head. "No, actually he gave up ownership of the notebook. He doesn't have any memory of possessing it."

Beyond rolls his eyes. "What a useless fool. Does he really think that claiming memory loss with make L release him? Please, if I were in that situation, I would have done something different. I would've done a lot differently, now that I think about it."

Light sits up and looks at him. "Why don't we?"

"What?" asked Beyond as he looked at her curiously.

"Why don't we do things differently?" she reiterates. She moves out of his arms, careful to keep the blanket pressed against her chest and sits so she can look at both Beyond and Ryuk. "We both know that Mikami made mistakes, some rather crucial ones to be honest. Why don't we try to do better?"

Beyond is now very confused. "You know that would mean killing people, right?"

"Killing criminals," she corrects. "I'm not going to do like Mikami did and kill innocents."

"Well, those thirty-six were my idea," says Beyond a little sheepishly. "There weren't enough criminals for the purpose of calling L out the way I intended."

Light hardly seems to care. "You know now that it was a bad idea and you won't make the mistake again; Mikami didn't understand that innocents shouldn't be sacrificed like they were and that's where he really screwed up. Killing the patients in the hospital was a terrible idea, even if it was designed to shake the public's view of L."

Beyond sat forward. "Are you saying that you want to become Kira, Light?"

"Obviously," she says as she looked at Ryuk. "I've read that notebook from cover to cover several times the last few days. I know the rules by heart and I know how people can be killed with it. I know how to make deaths seem unrelated." She squares her shoulders. "Mikami started out with noble intentions, a crime free world is a great idea, but he went way off base in his quest to destroy L and become a god." She looks at Beyond. "I know that you didn't knowingly set those explosives in the hospital, that you thought they were for a different purpose. That's how I know Mikami was behind many of Kira's shortfalls and failures and that you were only acting as a consultant of sorts."

"I see," says Beyond, very intrigued by the direction of this conversation. "But who's to say you won't lose your way in your quest to cleanse the world, my dear? Absolute power corrupts absolutely, you know."

Light smirks. "I know I won't because I'll have you with me. We'll both act as Kira and work together to help the world. We'll keep each other in check and not do anything that might jeopardize our situation."

"What's brought this on, Light? I didn't think you were even interested in something like this," asks Beyond curiously.

"I've thought about this a lot, actually," she admits, glancing at her lap. Ever since she was given the title and power of Denueve, she contemplated ways of ridding the world of the evil that lurked within, until now she never saw an easy means. "I've always thought there were people the world could do without, especially criminals and other scum who make like difficult for the others."

"You know you just described me," says Beyond, obviously uneasy with her definition of scum.

Light shakes her head. "I used to think that about you, but now I know the truth and there are many other criminals like you who were shaped by their environment. I'm not saying that we should kill all criminals, just the one who are truly evil and will do nothing but hurt others even if they're released back into society." She looks off in the distance. "Yes, it could work."

Beyond's lips curl into a slight grin. "I had no idea you were so righteous, Light. You know if you started killing, it would make you a criminal, too."

"My soul for the wellbeing of the world? Seems like a fair trade," she says with a shrug as if she were not talking about her place in the hereafter. "Do you have any objections, Adam?"

"Not really," he says casually. "The only reason I ever killed was to get back at L, and if I can do that while serving a higher purpose, I'm fine with it." He reached for Light's hand and held it tightly. "And with you acting as Deneuve, we could easily keep L away from the murders if he ever thought there was something suspicious about them."

Light raises an eyebrow. "How did you know I'm Deneuve?"

Beyond cackles. "Please Light, remember who you're talking to. Alex and I both served as Deneuve and Eraldo Coil at some point in our lives. I knew the second it was announced what L was doing."

"But how did you know I was working with him?" she asks, more than a little impressed.

"I saw Wedy following you one day while you were out with Mikami," he replies with a shrug. "I knew her from my time with L. When I saw her, I figured you were either working for L or at least under his protection, and now you've just confirmed my theory."

Light rolled her eyes. "Fine, yes I was working with him and now I'm Deneuve."

Beyond smiles cheekily. "So you'll be the world's greatest detective and the world's greatest serial killer. I must say Light, when you aspire, you go for all or nothing."

Light smiles widely. "I never do anything by halves, Adam."

No, she certainly did not.

Light smiled to herself as she recalled that day almost eight months ago now. It was the beginning of their new world, a world where people could walk the streets without fear, who knew justice would be delivered, who only feared evil if they did it themselves. Already people were responding to the new way, although they were cautious to admit as much out loud, as if afraid someone might swoop in and stop the progress. No one will, not if Denueve has anything to say.

"The perfect set up," she mused as she pulled the Death Note out of her desk drawer.

The day she "escaped" from Beyond's apartment, she left with a working copy of the original notebook. She and Beyond removed the pages that Mikami wrote on and put it in a black leather binding they made themselves with materials Matt provided and that Ryuk delivered; the shinigami cooperated only because they promised things would become more interesting this way. It was a gamble to trust him, but it was one she was willing to take.

Using Beyond's knowledge of what L knew, they wrote his pseudonym in the back of the notebook in Mikami's handwriting, which Light mastered in only a few tries. The man was anal about a great deal, including his handwriting, which only made it easier for her to copy. Apparently when he came to the orphanage, Beyond's name was changed and L never knew about his real name, assuming that it was a permanent change. This allowed for a loophole in the rules of the Death Note.

Beyond never accepted his new name, which was a requirement for it to be changed in the eyes of a shinigami, even if it was changed on every official ledger and document. So, even though Beyond Birthday was his name on paper, using it would not kill him because he himself did not accept the name change and fake names could not be used to kill.

In the official Death Note, they wrote that a man matching Beyond's basic description would die of a heart attack in the apartment before being consumed by a fire at a certain time. The man was a criminal, not a well known one, so they forwarded his information to Matt who hacked the system and switched Beyond's DNA profile with that man's so if the body was tested, it would come up as him. The fire was also enough to erase any and all traces of the Death Note from the apartment, just in case. Beyond took the Death Note and hid with it someplace only he knew about until Light gave him the all clear, then he came back and gave it to her, the rightful owner since Mikami gave up ownership before his death.

Light sighed happily as she flipped through the pages. There were not nearly as many deaths as before and that was her plan; she was spacing them out and killing by other means so they did not seem as suspicious. It was the only way to keep L from noticing.

She frowned a little as she thought about L. In her heart and in the view of many others, she and he were no longer together; she said it was due to trauma sustained from being with Beyond, that seeing him reminded her of her days in captivity. She even had a psychiatrist diagnose her with PTSD. Despite this, he still remained steadfast in the belief that she would eventually come back to him, even though as of right now she had not given any indication that that was the case. L did not know when to quit.

Matt returned to the UK with Mello, Near, L, and Watari. He wanted to stay with Light and Beyond, but they both thought it would be a better idea to maintain their mole in his organization. He frequently sent them updates on L's current status and his movements; he did plan on visiting them for the summer though, as part of a training exercise Light set up for him.

The Kira Case was officially solved and closed by Denueve, cementing her position as the greatest detective in the world. It was a little complicated to explain why Mikami dropped dead, but with Matt's help again, they were able to rewrite Mikami's medical records to say that he had a heart condition. The stress of being found out as Kira caused his heart to fail, according to the official report. The fake notebook was burned in front of the world leaders and they praised Denueve as a hero and shunned L as a disappointment.

Light chuckled to herself. L was doing exactly as she thought and attempting to rebuild his reputation by creating an organization of Ls. She hardly cared right now, they were little more than a start up business marred by the reputation of their weak leader, while she was standing in the spotlight with a number of cases under her belt including the one L could not solve. She was sure they would eventually pose a problem but she was working on a few contingency plans for that day.

"Hello my beautiful wife," said Beyond as he entered her office, wearing a white medical coat.

'It must be later than I thought if he's already home,' she thought as she rose to greet him. "Hello my wonderful husband." She put the notebook on her desk.

He spotted it and grinned. "Working hard today? I daresay you're the hardest working woman in the world."

Light smiled as they embraced. "There's no rest for the wicked, my love. How was work at the clinic?"

"Wonderful," he replied as he kissed her cheek. "I love working there, there's always something new to discover and someone new to breakdown to their molecules."

"As long as you aren't actually breaking anyone down," she said with a warning in her voice and Beyond chuckled.

"Always suspicious," he said with a wide grin. "No, I haven't harmed a single soul since I started working there. I promise."

"I know," said Light pleasantly. "I'm sure it would've made the news."

"I don't do anything halfway," he said, repeating her words from that fateful day.

"And that's why we work so well together," she said as she rested her head against his shoulder.

It was amazing how much Beyond changed in just two months and not just physically either, thanks to some excellent plastic surgeons and a haircut. Beyond was now interested in helping people and did so by making use of his skills as a physician, now he had a reputation in the city as one of the best up and coming doctors. He often said that he and Light made an excellent team as they both worked to keep people safe from harm, although he was not above violating his Hippocratic oath by writing names down in the Death Note whenever Light was unavailable.

Everything was perfect.

"Adam," she said, pulling away so she could look up at him.

"Yes?" he asked, brushing some hair out of her face.

"I'm pregnant," she said with a smile and his stretched to the widest she had ever seen.

They embraced each other tighter, both of them looking forward to the future and what it might entail for them, their child, and the world.