Rem wriggles over to the side of the pit and watches as the death notes all around her light up and start burning, and the glass near the hole starts to melt. She reflects that she was supposed to die twice already…once when she tried to save Misa, and again while she was chained up in the tower. If she could die with dignity then, then she can certainly die with dignity now. But then the flames surround her, and the pain is incredible…much, much worse than being cut with blades…and it takes her a while to realize that she's screaming anyway. Meanwhile, the King is standing up high, laughing as he watches the flames surround Rem and the hole in the glass floor gets larger and larger…Daril's starting to shake again, so Justin grabs her hand again. He looks away from the vent and into the crowd of shinigami, then he looks up to where their eyes are all fixed…it's Ryuk, getting lower and lower, heading towards them…the King notices that something's up, and he starts to look, but right then, Nu pops up right in front of him.

"MURDERER!" she shrieked, and every single shinigami cringed and covered their ears at the sheer volume that came blasting out of the little rock…she sounded like a high-powered jet engine.

"Where the hell did you come from?" the King shouted, though no one heard him through the muffled ringing in their ears.

"YOUR TIME IS NIGH, MOLOCH! LOOK BACK ON YOUR DEEDS AND WEEP, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!"

"Why aren't you in a cage, you little…!"

"SLAUGHTERER OF THE INNOCENT! YOU SHALL PAY!"

The King picked up his scythe and got a firm grip on it…those rocklike shinigami could be tough to cut through…but suddenly, all the wind was knocked out of him. The King dropped his scythe, watched it fall…as he did, he couldn't help but notice the knife that was sticking out from between his ribs. He fell to his knees, looking at it in mild confusion.

Of course, Ryuk dashes off into the flames to get Rem; he rips the heat-softened chains off her, but he doesn't notice until later that he's burned his hands. He gathers her up and flies her out of there just as his feet start slipping when the floor melts underneath them, and flops down on the sand until the feathers on his wings stop burning. Rem's just lying there, covered in translucent glassy patches…

"Damn it, Rem! I just jumped into a fucking pit of fire to save you! If you die anyway, I am going to be SO PISSED at you!"

Rem's eye cracked open just a sliver. "It…hurts…" she whispered, before it closed again.

The King grabs for her, so Ryuk scoops her back up. The King rants and raves for a little while, and then he dies and turns to sand. Nu says something along the lines of "Ow. That was loud," then closes all her eyes and topples over. It's hard to believe, but the cheer that comes from the crowd triples the amount of volume that Nu managed. Daril yells for someone to get the keys out of the King's sand pile and unlock everybody's cages, and they do so; it's a great big frenzy of the King's supporters grabbing for keys and unlocking their buddies (Gukku and Deridovely probably hug when one releases the other), with Ryuk standing out of the way so they don't trample him or Rem. Gukku and Deridovely run up, of course yelling stuff along the lines of "Whoa, Dude! You kick ass! You're fuckin' insane, but you totally kicked ass!"

Someone unlocks Daril, and she turns around and unlocks Justin. They probably do and emotional hug as well, until they see that Nu's about to be trampled and pick her up. Kinddara is just been standing there, watching the King's sand pile blow away in the wind and get stirred up by shinigami grabbing for keys…then she launches herself at Ryuk with the most furious scream anyone's heard yet. Ryuk falls back and out of the way b/c Rem's weight is throwing him off, and this makes it so that Kinddara's making a beeline for Gukku…but Deridovely jumps in the way, and Kinddara slashes him in the throat before dashing away into the desert…

Cut to Ryuk, up in that big rock by with the ledge that looks out on the tower. He's taking care of Rem (found her something soft to sleep on, went and found her a few shenzu nuts), and Justin and Daril come by to say that Deridovely's been taped up with the duct tape that Daril had, Nu's regained consciousness and disappeared again, and they'd like to know how Ryuk got free…

"Well, Sidoh…OH, CRAP! I FORGOT! SIDOH!"

"What?"

"Sidoh! Sidoh's hurt! We gotta…I gotta…but Rem…it…I…!"

Justin didn't wait for Ryuk to calm down and get coherent. "Daril! Take the duct tape and follow Ryuk to where Sidoh is! I'll stay and watch Rem! Go!"

So, they're off…Ryuk takes off right off the ledge, and looks back to see Daril running behind him…oh, right. He lets her ride piggyback; they get to Sidoh, who is a little dizzy from sand loss, but delighted to see that Daril and Ryuk are alive.

Everyone(i.e. Sidoh and Rem)'s feeling in reasonably good health so they head to the front of the tower to hear Justin talk. He says they have two big issues right now-the fact that after the burning, there were only eighty death notes salvaged for about four hundred shinigami, and the fact that they have a murderer (Kinddara) on the loose.

"Well, you should be able to figure something out, shouldn't you, Justin?" said Ryuk.

"It's not my job to figure that out. Now that the Old King is gone, my work here is done. I'll be happy to advise the new King, though, once we choose him or her."

"What are you talking about, Justin? It's obvious the new King's gonna be you," said Daril.

"No. No, it's not."

"Who the hell else would we choose?" said Ryuk. "Come on…who wants Justin for King?"

Justin grimaced as the crowd roared its approval.

"No! I am dead serious, I don't want to be King!"

"Why not?" said Sidoh.

"Haven't you noticed what tends to happen to Kings in this realm?"

"Come on, Justin. That's the lamest argument you've ever made," said Daril.

"Look, it's a lot of responsibility, and a lot of work. I am neither capable nor interested."

"If you're not capable, who is? You've already proven that you can think under pressure, and these are some tough times we're gonna have to get through. We need a King like you."

"We'll even make it official," said Ryuk. "Everyone who wants Justin for King, raise your hand."

A sea of hands shot up into the air.

"There. It's official. You're King, Justin."

"Hold it! I don't…" Justin shouted, but he was drowned out by the collective cheers of the shinigami. With a sigh of exasperation, he waited out the cheering…it went on for at least five more minutes.

"People…please. Now that the King is gone and the danger is past, all I want to do is go back to my chair and my life as usual. I'm sure you can find another perfectly acceptable King…"

"Justin, we don't need a King who's just acceptable…we need a great one," said Daril. "Come on. Who knows the rules of the realm better than you?"

Justin didn't answer.

"I thought so. Does anyone else in this realm have any leadership experience?"

"You do."

Daril snorted. "Me? King? Yeah, right. You didn't buy into the King's crap, and you kept about a hundred shinigami safe and moving forward with plans for months. If you're not good enough to be King, Justin, name me someone who is."

"I am not interested in continuing this discussion any further…"

"Well too bad, because we are. We get that you're not interested, Justin. In my opinion, that's the most important reason for making you King. The best one to trust with power is the one who doesn't want it. It means you have no need and no desire to be worshipped or feared, you have no hidden agenda. You're perfect."

Justin glared at his own feet.

"Justin?"

"Fine," he sighed. "But just for a little while. The instant you call for me to step down, I'll do it."

The cheering broke out again. Justin rolled his eyes.

"All right, all right, enough already."

So Justin goes on and talks about what to do about Kinddara. Rirst of all they need to find her. Sidoh and Daril volunteer to track her down. Justin says that Kinddara's crime was an extreme one, so she'll have to be executed…and since he's King, unfortunately, the duty falls on him, but he refuses to torture anyone. Ryuk volunteers to kill Kinddara instead. "Even if they are evil, psycho assholes, killing another shinigami isn't fun. It…kind of…changes you. It's too late for me, though…I've already done it, so I might as well do Kinddara, too, and save you from having something like..well, you know…on your mind."

"…Ryuk…are you sure?"

"Yeah."

Justin tells the shinigami that until they catch Kinddara, they should stay alert, and try to stay in groups. But before Sidoh, Daril and Ryuk go get Kinddara, Justin leads everyone into the tower to divvy up the remaining death notes to groups of shinigami, and see if that works (having more than one shinigami per death note).

Of course, when the shinigami get into the cathedral room on the way to the death note room, they get curious and start touching stuff, and family trees start lighting up all over the place. (Someone tells Sidoh he has an older sister, and he finds out with some shock that it's Nu…says to Daril he was kind of hoping she was his sister. She says she kind of thought Sidoh might have been her younger brother, but it turned out to be Thruk…she supposes it's just because Sidoh's felt a lot like her little brother lately. Sidoh says he'd be happy to have her for an older sister.) A lot of shinigami want to know who Moloch's kid is, but Justin stops them from touching the portrait. Justin declares that the King's picture will be demolished, as no shinigami deserves to live with the burden of knowing he or she is the spawn of the king. However, out of curiosity, he touches it when he's alone, but Rem comes in while he does…conversation about whether to tell Ryuk ensues.)

Now they're hunting down Kinddara…Daril's riding piggyback on Sidoh's shoulders, and he's running, because neither of them can fly with Sidoh's wing injury. Ryuk is flying, and following behind. They find Kinddara sneaking up on Justin, muttering "not King, not King…vengeance, kill…"

"Okay, Sidoh, on the count of three…"said Daril.

"I don't know if I can do this, Daril," he whimpered. "I can't fight Kindarra…"

"Yes, you can. Now, one, two, three, go! …Go! …Come on, Sidoh!"

Sidoh remained crouched, unspeaking and petrified. Kinddara was right behind Justin's throne, and was slowly rising to her feet.

"We don't have time for this, Sidoh! Come on! Please!"

Sidoh didn't reply, and his eyes remained still and unblinking. Kindarra raised her knife!

"Sidoh! You can't…oh, no…NO!" Daril screamed as she launched herself at Kindarra, knocking her down as she knife stabbed downward, narrowly missing Justin's neck. Justin yelled in surprise, leaping to his feet.

Daril and Kinddara fight, and Daril notices that Kinddara is fighting with the most ferocity she's seen yet, "but she still doesn't have the technique…" This thought is interrupted as Daril falls backward when Kinddara slashes her all the way down her chest. Daril watches as Kinddara moves in for the final blow screaming with a pitch high enough to break glass as she goes in for the kill. Suddnely, Daril hears another roar behind her, a low baritone in comparison to Kinddara's screeching soprano, and watches as a flash of gold flies over her and into Kinddara, knocking her over. Justin crawls back and crouches over Daril defensively, who's starting to bleed heavily. Sidoh snaps at the sight of Daril; he rushes up and attacks Kinddara, wins the fight, pins her down...Daril yells at Ryuk to do it…Ryuk hesitates, but when Kinddara shouts a vow to kill Rem for what Ryuk's trying to do to her, Ryuk does it. Kinddara doesn't die quietly like everyone else; she struggles even as she's dying, and sand flies everywhere. Ryuk and Sidoh have to duck and shield their eyes until it's over. Sidoh rushes over to Daril to ask if she's all right, and watches as Justin duct-tapes her wound up. Daril slowly sits up with Justin's help.

"Daril! Did you see me? I did it! I fought someone! I really fought someone! And I WON!" Sidoh cheered.

Justin scoops her up, and Daril smiles at Sidoh. Her voice is weak and pained, but it sounds very happy nonetheless.

"I always knew you had it in you, Sidoh," Daril whispered.

"Good work…everyone. Thank you. The shinigami realm is in your debt. I am in your debt," said Justin.

"Justin…is she gonna be okay?"

"What do you think, Daril? Are you going to be all right?"

"Don't worry, Sidoh. I'll be fine."

"There you have it. I've already got a room for injured shinigami set up in the tower, with food and extra duct tape…she can rest there until she's better."

"Can I come? I'll help…"

"I don't see why not. Are you all right, Ryuk?"

"Yeah."

Ryuk was kneeling in the exact same position from which he'd killed Kinddara, staring at the knife he'd dropped.

"Are you certain?'

"I'll be fine in a minute. Like I told you, killing a shinigami is different from killing a human…it's not fun."

"You've done well, Ryuk. Thank you for shouldering that particular burden."

"No…problem. Anyhow…I should be getting back to Rem. She isn't completely better yet, either."

Ryuk got up and flew off to the rock, while Justin carried Daril over to the tower, Sidoh following close behind.

"Shouldn't Rem be in the recovery room, too?" Daril whispered.

"We offered to move her, but she says she wants to stay where she is," said Justin.

After getting Daril set up and comfortable, Justin goes to check on Deridovely and leaves Sidoh to watch Daril for a bit. Zellogi and Gukku are waiting with Deridovely. They've duct taped him up, but he can't eat, and thus can't get better, and sand still makes its way out underneath the tape. "Isn't there any way of getting food in him?" Gukku pleaded.

Justin couldn't look Gukku in the eye. "…no. If he can't eat, he can't replace the matter that he's losing, and eventually, he will die. The sand is leaving him very slowly, though…he may have a few years left."

Justin, Gukku, and Zellogi jumped in surprise when Deridovely moved, drawing in a rattling, laboured breath through his broken throat; they'd though he was asleep. It took him more than fifteen seconds to draw in enough air to speak.

"I don't wanna wait that long." He sucked in another breath. The trickle of sand running out from beneath the tape increased to a stream whenever he forced himself to breathe or speak.

"Just take the damn tape off."

Gukku looked at him in horror. "No way, man! You can't! You'll die…"

"…quicker. I don't wanna wait years…" Deridovely felt at the sand that was oozing out from underneath his futilely taped throat. "I hate this. I hate how this stupid thing hurts, and if I'm gonna die anyway…get it over with."

"No…no way, man…"

"I'm ready. I did something sort of useful before I died."

There was a long, solemn pause. Finally, Justin spoke.

"You've been thinking about this carefully, haven't you, Deridovely?"

In lieu of searing his throat with more air, Deridovely nodded.

"…I can't deny that you're…probably right. I'm sorry…I'm so sorry I can't do anything to help you. If it's what you wish…then I…I suppose can't let you lie here and suffer for no reason, against your will. Do you want to see anyone else, before…?"

Deridovely smiled. Shook his head.

Everyone stood there for several minutes, saying nothing, not moving.

"Well…?," said Deridovely, semi-annoyed.

Another moment of stillness, then, as slowly as possible, Justin reluctantly began to raise his hand, moving it toward the tape…

"Wait!" said Gukku. "If…if you're gonna…then wait a minute. I gotta tell you something, Der…it's kinda cool. You know what I found out in the tower, in that room with all the portraits?"

"Hm?"

"We…well, we're…we've got the same parents. You're, like…my brother, or something."

"So am I," said, Zellogi, quietly, almost to himself.

"Yeah…the three of us. We're brothers. Who woulda thought, huh?"

Deridovely looked at Zellogi, then back at Gukku, smiling again.

"Cool," he said, with one last breath. There was a long pause, everyone silent.

Justin reached out to put his hand to the side of Deridovely's throat, but Zellogi got there first.

"I'll do it," said Zellogi. "He's my stupid brat of a brother…it should be my job to take care of him, at least once." Zellogi got a grip on the end of the tape. Gukku grabbed Deridovely's wrist, and didn't let go.

Zellogi started to pull on the tape…stopped. Took a moment to build up his willpower, started pulling again…stopped again.

"What's the matter, Zellogi? Chicken?" Deridovely snickered.

Zellogi didn't let himself think, this time. He just looked away and ripped the tape off in one lightning-quick motion, milliseconds before he lost his will and wouldn't be able to do it. Zellogi looked back in time to see Deridovely's shape one last time before it dissolved into a shifting pile of sand and rust with a relieved, ghostly sigh. Gukku watched the handful of sand he was holding slip through his fingers. Zellogi and Justin bowed their heads in silence as Gukku clutched at the side of the table, overcome.

It was the third time in his life that Justin had heard a shinigami cry.

Ryuk and Rem are talking away in the ledge-rock, after Rem reveals she saw the King's family tree.

Ryuk asks Rem a whole lot of questions, rapid-fire, until…

"Who's the King's kid?"

"…It's…"

"Who, whoa, whoa, Rem! I didn't expect you to actually fall for that!...I'm not sure I want to know that…I mean, what if it's someone I know?"

Rem pauses, doesn't answer.

"You can't be serious."

Rem still says nothing.

"Really? Wow." Ryuk looks dumbfounded, takes a while to get his voice back. "So…who is it?"

"Fair warning, Ryuk. If you ask, I will tell you, but you won't like the answer."

"I gathered as much. So, who?"

Rem closes her eye, looks pained. "You're his son, Ryuk."

Ryuk does a twelve-take…

"…That's not funny."

"I know. It's not funny at all."

Ryuk asks if Rem hates him now, and she says no…if she were to hate someone purely on the basis of who their father was, she'd be doing exactly what Moloch did to her. Ryuk isn't Moloch…he's still the same Ryuk who's saved her life more than once. Rem's almost feeling good as new, but she lies down for one more nap. Ryuk watches her, wonders what's going to happen now that it's all over. He and Rem didn't see each other at all before…not until that incident in the human world. Ryuk wonders…things are probably going to go back to normal, just like they're already starting to do…Ryuk will hang out with his buddies, Rem will go do whatever it was she did before, and they'll go their separate ways?

With a horrible, sinking pessimism, Ryuk feels that this will almost definitely be the case. He gets a good look at Rem's face one last time…brushes her hair out of her eyes. Kisses her on the cheek. Jumps away in horror when he pulls back and sees that Rem's eye is wide open. Ryuk stammers out wild apologies…
"There's no need to apologize."

"I didn't mean!…I was just…wasn't thinking!…huh? No…need…what?"

"In the last nine years, I've been bled to the brink of death multiple times, lit on fire, accused of murder, insanity and self-mutilation…after all that, how could I be offended by something like a kiss?"

"Oh…huh," said Ryuk, stuck for words.

Rem sat up, but she didn't say anything more…Ryuk could tell that she was in one of her thoughtful moods again. When she spoke again, it was in measured, careful tones.

"Do you know something, Ryuk?" she said.

"I know a lot of 'somethings', but probably not what you're thinking about, unless you'd like to spill."

"When I first heard what the King told me in that tower, about having a father, I didn't believe him. Even when Justin started speaking as though he had memories of parents, I was still more sceptical than not. It just didn't sit right with me, the idea of shinigami choosing mates and producing children…I only accepted it as fact a few months ago."

"I suppose this is the part where I ask why you changed your mind."

"…I suppose it could be."

There was another pause. Eventually, Rem stopped looking at him and stared down at her knees instead.

"…So…why'd you change you mind?"

Rem's head snapped back up, but she went back to looking at her knees before she replied. "Something similar to the reason Justin changed his. Something within my own conciousness confirmed it."

"You remembered your parents?"

"No. Not at all."

"Then what?"

"…Something within myself…I finally understand…I can finally empathize with why Misa was so loyal to Light, even knowing that she was only being used…I finally understand how she must have felt…"

Finally, Rem's head tilted upward, and she looked him in the eye. Ryuk stared straight back. He wondered who was going to break eye contact first…actually; it was probably going to be neither of them. Or both of them at the same time. Ryuk didn't really know how this kind of thing worked.

"Ow!" both shinigami cried as they bonked foreheads.

Ryuk burst into a fit of uncontrollable "hyuk"s, and Rem followed soon after with giggles that were still way too sweet to belong to a shinigami. She may have been way smarter than him, but when it came to this, turns out she was just as ignorant.

"…How about a do-over?" he said as the laughter died down.

They kiss.

END

Hope you enjoyed, and that this is satisfactory to those of you who've been following along, wanting to know how it all ends. Thank you for reading, and for the reviews; I figured for all the support you've given, you all deserved to know how it ended!