A/N: It has been a long time, isn't it? I am sorry for not uploading for a long time, though there had been a few complications. Anyway, here's the long awaited next chapter and I promise I'll try to upload more often. I want to finish it as well, same with the other stories

"Hyuk, hyuk, hyuk."

The monstrous black Shinigami towers over him, grin stretched quite literally from ear to ear, maw full of razor sharp teeth. His yellow eyes bulged, latched onto him as he stares back. He was just as Light had remembered, tall and thin, back hunched over and long, spindly arms hanging from his shoulders, huge clawed hands curled just ever so slightly.

He smiled back, "Ryuk."

A glimmer of something shone in Ryuk's eyes as his grin widened.

He looks down at the Death Note in his hand, his Death Note. The book was just as he remembered, thin and smooth, completely jet-black and harboring the faintest, sweet scent of death. He caressed it lovingly, the precious, loyal book, feeling the familiar smooth cover, not like anything else he'd ever felt, neither paper or leather or fabric, possibly some sort of skin, as he had once wondered about. He flips it open, the pages fluttering, pages and pages filled with neat rows of black names, with some variations in between. The handwriting changed towards the end, before going blank altogether.

He stares down at it for a long moment and promised himself that he will not make a mistake again. Once again, he was given a chance to change things. Visions of grandeur filled his mind, him, sitting atop a pedestal, reveled as a god. Him who holds the fate of the world in his hands, enemies toppling before him.

Him, who will-

The door slammed open.

Startled, he dropped the book and it landed on the floor with a loud smack. Quickly, he kicked the book under his bed where it slid out of sight. He turned, eyes wide and comes face to face with a familiar man, black hair and dark brown eyes who looks upon him with concern.

Mikami.

"Luke? What's the matter?"

Lucian jolts and stares back into the face of his brother.

"What…" he uttered.

"I heard a scream," Mikami- no, Michael clarified, approaching and taking his arm. He looks Lucian up and down, face pinched in worry. "Are you alright?"

"I, um," Lucian stammered, "I'm fine, it was just a… cockroach?"

Michael grimaced, "Oh no, I might have to start putting down traps…" He looks his brother over again, "Alright? Luke?"

Lucian mustered a wan smile, "Yes, I was just startled."

Behind him, he could hear the Death God's low laughter.

Relief filled Michael's features, "Oh, that's, that's good."

There was an awkward pause where Michael still holds his forearm. Lucian began to pull his arm back but his brother's grip tightened, tugging him back.

"Hey, Luke," he started uncertainly, eyes flitting from his face and away, "Can- can we not do this anymore?"

It took Lucian a moment to remember what 'this' meant.

Michael's hold tightened even more like he was afraid his brother might pull away, "Look, I just want to say… I'm really sorry, about what I did to your friend." He chewed on the inside of his cheek nervously, "I had a bad day and one thing led to another. I didn't mean to lie to you about why I fought with him, either. I just… I don't want you to hate me, Luke. You're very important to me."

He set an earnest look upon him, the most earnest Lucian had ever seen him as he pleaded, "Can you forgive me?"

It took a moment but Lucian finally nodded, finding that the whole thing was quite pointless anyway. He was angry, it was foolish now that he thought about it.

He could've also been distracted about the thoughts of Levi and more importantly, about how much he looked like a certain someone, with the same hair and eyes, only smaller and less alien than before.

Then he remembered.

Michael pulled him into a hug just as a huge, overwhelming guilt consumed him. They were mere flashes before his eyes but he remembered the moments before L's death, how those big, black eyes were filled with fury and pain.

How he betrayed him.

Lucian didn't know how he could've done such a thing, take someone's trust and love and crushed it to bits right in front of their eyes, killing them. Sure, there was the whole thing about how L was supposed to be trying to catch him for being a mass murderer.

It took everything in him to not cling onto Michael with the immense sorrow he's experiencing right at this moment. It crushed his heart, consumed his soul entirely. To kill someone who he once loved was so wrong and despicable, he couldn't imagine how he could've went through with it.

He bit his lip to ground himself, to not cry with his brother right here, not even making a sound for that would just alert Michael such that he wouldn't be left alone.

Lucian tried to distract himself, thinking about everything else but L and Levi. He thought about school, about his classes, reciting the details of World War Two by dates, redoing his algebra problems and math equations in his head.

Eventually, the enormous weigh of guilt lifted as his mind strayed and he returned to the present, where he noticed that it was beginning to grow warm.

He pulled away from Michael, who smiled at him.

"I'll see you downstairs, Luke," he said, hurrying out, "I think the chili's burning."

"Uh, right." Lucian uttered.

He waited until Michael had disappeared downstairs before closing his door and locking it. Lucian turned to face Ryuk who still stood in the corner of his bedroom, leering at him. A chill ran down his spine looking at the unsettling features of the Death God, something that hasn't happened before in all the times he peered upon the creature.

He knelt down beside the bed and sees the Death Note sitting innocently in the middle, not at all like the menacing instrument of death he had once wielded in his hand. He reached out for it, pausing when he sees his own hand, so familiar yet unfamiliar against the darkness of the notebook.

He isn't Light.

Yet…

Lucian shook his head, dislodging the beginnings of confusion as his hand lands on the Death Note, pulling it out.

Despite all the names that had been written down in this book, it was still as thin as ever. He studies it and thought that the Death God must've retrieved it at some point, sure that it must've been destroyed after his death. He flipped it open, watching the names flitting past his eyes and no longer feels the sense of achievement that comes with seeing them.

Instead, he feels dread.

How could there be such an instrument of mass destruction? If it landed in someone else's hands, someone without morals or remorse, he couldn't even imagine the scale of chaos and death that it will inflict upon the world. It is far too easy, to go on social media and start there, for people tend to put their real names and faces. Far too easy to kill someone without even being near them, or having met them at all. They'll perish without the killers ever lifting a figure. He isn't meaning that he, or rather, Light, wasn't destructive either, it was merely targeted at criminals.

Still, he wasn't right either, to be killing all of them.

Or, was he? Would the world actually be a better place without people who stole, killed and raped? If they all just dropped dead one day?

The names did not make him feel good, not at all, not with all this confusion lingering in his mind.

He shut the book and set it down on the floor, staring at it.

"So…" The gravelly voice made him jump, he had momentarily forgotten that the Death God is still here.

He looks up at him, where he grins, "Apples?"

Lucian suddenly remembers his- no, he remembers Light's death, how Light's heart throbbed painfully as he lays, bleeding on a set of rusted stairs, in a desolate, crumbling place that he couldn't quite remember. His death, done by this grotesque creature's hands.

He composed himself, keeping the fear out of his voice as he said, "We don't have any."

Ryuk's smile faded a little, the grin still there but more subdued, Lucian staring at the needle-like rows of teeth. He couldn't imagine how he could've had an amiable relationship with this hellish being. Talked to it, tolerated it, even treated it like a friend, maybe. Light had gotten used to it, but he wanted nothing to do with it.

It would still be so easy for it to reach for its own book and write his name in it if he so much as displeases Ryuk.

"I could go buy some, if you want," Lucian offered.

Ryuk's grin widened again, revealing so much more fangs.

"Yes, yes, of course… Luke-y."

Lucian grimaced upon hearing that name out of its mouth, so unfamiliar and so terrible.

He got up, picked up the Death Note and after a moment's consideration, pulled open his desk drawer. At the sight of the Death Note right beside his black notebook, how much it resembles the real deal makes him uneasy. Just how much of the past was in the present? Manifested in some form or other, like echoes, similar but not quite.

He lifted his notebook and placed the Death Note right under it, hiding it from view. It is flimsy but it's not like anyone is going to mess around with the stuff in his drawers.

Lucian pushed it shut and glanced at the Death God who still stares at him, grinning.

He reaches into his pockets and found his wallet. He opens it and all there was is a measly five-dollar note inside.

It was enough for an apple or two.

He places the wallet back into his jeans pocket and looked at Ryuk, hesitantly nodding to him before turning to his door.

Lucian walks down to the first floor, passing the kitchen where Michael was busy cooking dinner and Andrina appears to be helping him, though, not so much as she was merely awkwardly standing with a bowl of tomato wedges in hand.

He stops, gets their attention and said, "I'm headed out for a bit."

Michael looks at him, "Where are you going?"

"To the store," Lucian answered, feeling the dark presence of Ryuk behind him.

"Okay," Michael said after a moment, "Don't be too long."

Lucian nodded and quickly headed out the front door, hearing the light flutter of wings behind him.

He was back twenty minutes later, the Death God sated with two whole apples and floating languidly behind him.

Lucian tried his best to ignore him and went back into the house, pausing when he sees a man sitting on the couch with Andrina for company, the latter looking both nervous and happy at the same time.

At the sound of the front door opening, the man turns to face him and Lucian recognized him, having seen his face a few times in pictures and photos.

It was Baxter Roberts.

Next to the couch he's sitting on are a couple of travel bags, those that he didn't even want to start imagining the implications.

Baxter looks upon him and stood, his expression neither cold or kind as he approaches and extends a hand.

"Hello, you must be Lucian. I'm Baxter, Michael's father."

Lucian shakes his hand, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Roberts."

Baxter's expression was entirely neutral, "Please, just call me Baxter."

Lucian conceded and behind him, Ryuk lets out a short cackle and floats to the ceiling, lounging right under it and watching everything that goes on beneath him.