Once again, somewhere, somehow, there was the sound of fingers typing against the keys of a computer's keyboard.

She jolted into consciousness with a gasp, breathing in and shuddering, hands shaking as she looked down at them covered… Covered in blood, tenderly, she reached up to her own forehead where blood trickled down, out of the hole that the bullet had left behind.

Slowly, too slowly, she let her fingers fall and she stared out at her surroundings, a great white space with nothing inside it, then, looking over her shoulder…

A doppelganger, none other than Anna Jones, a younger less tried Anna Jones who had yet to be imprisoned, sitting in a chair, a laptop in front of her, staring down at her other, bleeding, self in condemnation.

The doppelganger, suddenly, sighed in aggravation, and declared without context, "And it was going so well too, you just had to ruin it, didn't you?"

"I…"

"Don't get up," the other Anna Jones stated, and then with an incline of her head another chair appeared, the bleeding Anna Jones sitting inside of it, even as she tried to put pressure on the wound in her head, stopping the warm blood from oozing out of it.

Oh god, the blood oozing out of it…

"What happened?"

The other Anna Jones blinked and looked somewhat alarmed by the question, "What happened? You were shot in the head, what do you think happened?"

"I was…"

The other interjected, talked right over her, "Shot right between the eyes by Matsuda along with everyone else, L included, and the whole story's ruined because of it."

A vague hand motion was waved, as if scrapping this, Anna Jones, her bullet, Matsuda, the story, "Actually, the whole story has been going downhill for a while. If you had just played your part properly then we wouldn't be in this mess!"

Whether it was because there was a bullet in her head, and she was somehow alive and thinking even with the bullet, or was dead and thinking, but she found it hard to follow what was being said. She felt like she was on the verge of coming to some important, necessary, conclusion but she just couldn't do it…

Where was Light, she couldn't help but wonder. Where was L and Light and anyone? Why was she… Why was she here by herself, and more importantly…

"What are you talking about?"

Her doppelganger pointed towards her with a pale accusing finger.

"You, Anna Jones, fictional character created by me," the other Anna Jones explained, motioning to her then back to herself again, looking completely upset, far more upset than Anna Jones herself, "And I had so many great arcs planned, oh we were going to explore your past as L's successor at Wammy's, we had to meet Mello, Near, and Matt still, Light had to rehabilitated… And now look where we are now! It's a damned travesty!"

"You," she said slowly, the thought dawning on her, that somehow face to face with herself she was really face to face with something far worse, "You're the god, you're the…"

"I'm the author," the other Anna Jones corrected, in a strangely smug sort of tone as if she took this role far too seriously, "You're, well, me in fanfiction, except you're doing it all wrong!"

"No, no I'm not…"

The other Anna, the author, didn't seem to have any patience for this, "Yes, you are, honestly, is it even that much of a surprise? Why am I even arguing with you? Anyways, I just thought I should let you know that it's done, it's over, I'm not writing this anymore."

"Not…"

The author didn't even seem to pay attention, continuing, "I am moving onto greener pastures, have a good LxLight fic in the works, may get into LotR territory, I have a great idea for an SIxLegolas fic in there that I've just been dying to try out…"

"What are you talking about?!" Anna screamed, the words echoing in this empty white space, but god, the author, just looked at her somewhat blankly.

"You're not real, and honestly, I'm kind of tired of you," the author explained, and her face it was so, so indifferent, "People have been flaming me left and right, they say that you're a Mary Sue, and I know you're not, you're sassy and afraid of Light, but that just gets to me. I mean, not many authors stick the SI with Light first, I haven't seen that around! That's not a Sue thing to do! And I really wanted a LightxSI and LxSI love triangle, and it was going so well, but then you didn't go and play your part! But I didn't want to leave anything unfinished either, and even though I hate it, it's really the only way to end it…"

"I'm… I'm not…" she trailed off, unable to complete that thought, tears gathering at her eyes and mixing with the blood running down her face.

She had always wondered, in her darker moments, if she was real or not. Somehow, she'd forgotten those thoughts though, moved past them, but oh, oh it was like a knife through her heart to hear them, to hear that they had gotten tired of her and that everything, everything she was and had been through was nothing more than… Than goddamned fanfiction!

"So, I went through all of this, all this…" she motioned down to the blood covering her, a crazed grin on her face, "Because you got tired of me? Do I… Do I even have a name other than Anna Jones?"

Did she… Did this god even realize what prison had meant? What facing her death, on two occasions, had felt like? Did she even realize the horror of realizing that you had no name? That you were a shadow of your own existence?!

"Sure, you do," the author answered, "We just hadn't gotten to that part of the story yet."

Well, Anna didn't know what it was, whatever it was it… She'd always known there was some other name, but had she ever thought about it or where she came from? She'd always thought, "Thank god he doesn't know my name" and then had been afraid when Misa had seen her but… But had she ever whispered to herself or thought of it at all?

Had she ever thought about her family?

She closed her eyes, squeezed them shut, willed herself to move past this, past this and onto everything else her author and god had just told her, "And a love triangle?! How could you ever think that I could ever… With either of them, god, I can't… And Matsuda shot us because…"

"Well, Matsuda was being controlled by Mikami, it'll all make sense," the author said with a nod, "I think it's a beautifully tragic ending, you know, for what it's worth."

"But… But that's not how the notebook works!" Anna cried out, grasping at something, anything, feeling desperation burning against her throat, "You can't control the death of another person through someone else! Otherwise Light could have killed off L ages ago…"

"Well, Misa knows all the policemen's names, and she could have gotten the eyes again and looked at you and L, and I don't have to justify myself to you!" the author, indeed, didn't seem to care about this at all, had never seemed to care about bending the rules of Anna Jones' reality, this strange alternate universe of Death Note that didn't even bother to play by Death Note's rules.

A world that was now… That was now somehow ending.

"What… What will happen to me, to Light, to everyone?"

"I don't know," the author said raising her hands, no Anna Jones' hands, because this might not even be what the author looked like, "I don't care anymore either, maybe this will teach the flamers not to flame, I think I might even remove the story, that'll show all of them…"

"But, where will we go?" Anna continued, what was death for a fictional character, what about the world itself, would it just stop? Just like that.

"I don't think you go anywhere," the author said, "Like I said, if you have a problem with it then you should have been a better character."

You should have been better, but what was she, was there anything real to her at all? If this was her world, if this was the truth, if she dared to accept this then… Then what was Anna Jones even?

Anna stopped, shook her head almost desperately, motioning down to herself then back at the author as the bitter truth of her existence seeped in, "But I'm your character… I don't… I don't have free will, everything I've done must have come from you, so if you want me to do something then…"

"That's not how it works," the author sighed again looking rather put upon as she explained, "At least, that's not how I write. Maybe everyone else writes like that, but I don't really know."

"What are you talking about?!" Anna cried, tearing at her hair, leaning forward, trying desperately to understand, to force the truth of her existence down her own throat, a bitterness she couldn't even deny because god it did make sense, "You've scripted all of us you can make it…"

The author held up a hand, stopping Anna Jones before she could even start.

"Look, it's like, you have an idea for a scene, like say I want you and L to cuddle, so I put you and L in a room, and I say, well Anna Jones and L, talk to each other, play coy about Anna Jones' secret past," the author, she looked… It was like looking in a mirror, as Anna Jones explained something, the hand gestures were all the same, the spark in those blue eyes, the slight rise in voice as she became excited on a topic.

Anna felt bile rise in her nonexistent throat.

"And I have an idea of what you guys say to each other, what I want you to say to each other, but sometimes, when writing, it's clear that you won't say that to each other. The scene has to flow, the dialogue has to flow, and sometimes you end up with a scene you don't want at all. It's like… It's like method acting, you throw these ideas of people together, and sometimes they don't do what you think they should do. Sometimes, you and L don't cuddle or be fluffy or do anything, even though, oh it's all fine with Light, you love to cuddle with Light!"

Oh, oh that was too far, because now she looked back and could see it, could see these contrived Yotsuba arc scenes of her and Light and L all alone, and how she and Light gravitated towards each other, and how a wall always seemed erected between her and L…

More, that moment, when he'd told her that she was his only successor, was that a moment where she was supposed to lean forward and kiss him? Was that a moment where she should have somehow seen past everything he was and be truly touched?

But how could she have been? Even now, when she thought about him, she looked at him and she hated him. She hated everything he stood for, everything he was, she looked at him and she loathed him in a way that still frightened her. How could she look at him and see anything but those cold black heartless eyes?

Still, was every situation she'd ever been in, just a contrived means to throw either her and Light or her and L together?

And what of her, then? What was she then in all of this? The smartest exchange student Japan had ever seen, fluent, someone with equal deductive abilities to L and Light…

Of course, of course she had never been real in the first place. What other explanation could there possibly be for something as absurd as that? How had she never realized it even as she'd discussed philosophy with Light, about his own fictional existence, how had she ever considered herself different from him?!

How could she have so much hubris…

"Anyways, I wanted to write an LxSI and LightxSI fic, and it just isn't working out, and I'm frustrated and I've decided to move on," the author said, "So, this is it, it's over, finished, and I'm going to go think about Legolas for a while and how romantic elves are and how a normal sassy girl will go about it in Middle Earth, joining the fellowship and being friends with everyone…"

Anna Jones barked out a laugh, wondering, for an absurd moment, if that was what she herself was supposed to be. If she was everything she had always hated… Would it be another Anna Jones in this Lord of the Rings fanfiction this fickle and indifferent god created? Would it be her? Would that Anna Jones even realize…

She felt her voice catch in her throat, a jerking tearing sound, leaning forward tears began to fall down her face, the author indifferent and typing as her work of fiction curled in on herself, thinking of everything that had happened, to herself, to Light, and even to L.

All that suffering, and the world, ending, just like that. Even if she was fake, no, because she was fake. If the story ended, if it ended because of her, then she held the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Anna Jones, in whatever capacity was available to her, had destroyed the world…

And she just kept seeing Light's face, his horrified face in those last moments as he'd looked across from her and she'd looked back at him, knowing even then that she wasn't going to make it, that she was going to join L on the floor and…

"I don't…" Anna stopped, closed her eyes, daring herself to say the words, "I don't want to die, I don't want the world to end, I don't want… Please, I'll do it, I'll do whatever."

The author looked up, questioning, looking honestly a bit confused, like she had no idea what her creation could possibly be asking about, "You'll do what?"

Anna swallowed, forcing it down her ragged throat, then forcing the words to come out, "I'll… I'll date Light, I'll date L, I will fuck either of them, both of them, at the same goddamn time if that's what you want. Just… undo this, please, if you're the author, if you're god then rewrite it and I'll…"

It wasn't prostitution, even if it wreaked of it, even if the very idea, with either of them, even with Light, Light who was the closest to her at the end of things, the only one close to her… No, no, prison had taught her that much, Light had taught her that much.

You did what you had to.

And if this, if this is what she really was, if this was what she was forced to accept, perhaps her own acceptance deemed by this author who thought it should be such an easy concept for a person to accept, then she had to do it.

For everyone's sake.

"Rewrite it?" the author asked, orange eyebrows raising to her hairline, a truly surreal sight that at any other moment would have had Anna Jones balking, "No, no, we're way too far in and I don't want to…"

"Please! I'll do it, I promise I'll do it!" she pleaded, because at least it seemed to be a possibility, and if it was a possibility it was one she would take, god would she take it, "And I'll, if you let me remember this, then I'll do it, just, rewrite it, to wherever you want just… Keep us alive, please."

The author hissed out a sigh, "Well, I suppose it doesn't hurt… I can always just write my SIxLegolas fic at the same time… But I'm only rewriting the Yotsuba arc, it was fine before that point, I think."

"Fine, yes fine, that's fine!" she assured, not even caring at this point, just so long as it wasn't that end, just so long as it wasn't Matsuda's dulled eyes and a gun in his hand, "I'll, I'll do it better, this time, just… Just tell me what to do and I… I'll do it."

"But if I start getting flamed again then I'm taking the story down immediately!" the author exclaimed, "I do have better things to do with my time, you know."

Like, apparently, Legolas shacking it up with some poor mortal fool from another dimension. But that was fine, if this was her reality, if this was the world she lived in, then by god she would accept it. She would accept it and she'd move on and she'd do whatever she had to do.

She'd think and scream and curse about the implications later.

But for now, for herself, for Light, she'd do what she had to.

"That's… That's fine, I'll be better, I promise," she said, and that seemed to be enough, because as she squeezed her eyes shut she felt the air around her shift, grow colder, her clothing change and the blood disappearing from her forehead, her body tied against a board.

Then light, the blindfold was taken off, her restraints were removed and she stumbled forward, limbs weak, shoved forward by some unknown person whose footsteps haunted her memory, Watari, then, at the end of the hallway, pushed through and strapped onto a table, and her heart thudding a staccato in her chest.

And then, there, Light's voice, "Anna."

And as his face drifted into blurred view, with a pained, grim, smile, she began to sob.

"Light, thank god, Light."

Author's Note: I told you it would get surreal, but yes, we have finally met the author ladies and gentlemen, who, is, well, obviously not me. And that said, take everything she says with a grain of salt, as, obviously, I have not been flamed nearly as much for Mary Sues as she has. Yes... Exciting stuff. Prepare for Yotsuba arc round two.

Thanks to readers and reviewers, reviews are much appreciated.

Disclaimer: I don't own Death Note