Chapter 9 – The End Of The End

(5 hours after the game started)

Ed and Al were listening to L at this point and talking with him like an acquaintance. They told him of Alchemy and the philosopher's stone. "The ingredient is human souls," said Ed grimly referring to the stone.

"How many souls are we talking about, Ed?" asked L curiously as he crouched within Al.

"Hundreds… even thousands…" said Ed with a depressed look on his face.

"Thousands?" remarked L, "That just might be doable. This philosopher's stone sounds useful"

At the time Ed brushed L off as if L didn't understand what he was talking about. Little did Ed know, L did understand…

*****

(Present Time)

Shikamaru came to a clearing in the woods where he saw Gaara standing over Kenpachi's dead body.

Shikamaru froze. "This is not good," thought Shikamaru, "It looks like Gaara is playing."

Gaara turned to face Shikamaru and smiled sinisterly. Shikamaru opened the death note as fast as he could and began to write Gaara's name down but was interrupted by a blast of sand by Gaara flinging him back into a tree. The death note fell on the ground.

*****

Beyond Birthday smiled when he saw that another person had delayed Shikamaru on his radar. Shikamaru was certainly faster then the BB serial killer. This momentary hold-up would benefit Beyond Birthday greatly.

*****

Shikamaru was no match for Gaara. Gaara's sand wasn't affected by Shikamaru's shadow. His only hope would be to finish Gaara's name before Gaara killed him, but with the death note out of reach on the ground that was quiet impossible.

"Think, Shikamaru, think!" Gaara's sand had captured each of his limbs and was holding him like a crucifix in the air. Suddenly Gaara let out a sinister smile.

"This game has gotten me quiet excited Shikamaru," said Gaara speaking his first words for days. "I'm not sure how much longer I can keep my demon under control." Shikamaru felt his arm being twisted by Gaara's sand.

Shikamaru let out a yell, as his right arm was twisted 720 degrees to the point where his very bones snapped and saw daylight through his bloodied skin. He shrieked when he saw his own arm bone shattered to fragments outside of his flesh. Gaara smiled.

"Now what should we do to your other arm?" said Gaara menacingly. Gaara's sand sent nail-sized spikes into each of the joints in Shikamaru's hand, 3 in each of his fingers, and 2 in his thumb. Shikamaru screamed loudly enough for Beyond Birthday to narrow down his position and approach quietly.

After Gaara let Shikamaru feel the pain in his hand for a couple seconds he simply ripped that arm off. In the next 2 seconds Gaara's sand immediately blew out both of Shikamaru's knees, broke his spine, gouged his eyes out, and went up his nose, throat, eye sockets, and into any open sores. Shikamaru died of suffocation and blood loss. Gaara dropped his body on the ground laughing.

Beyond Birthday arrived just in time to see Shikamaru die at the hand of Gaara's sand. Beyond Birthday's eyes saw Gaara's full name. He sat, waiting patiently for the killer to leave.

Gaara turned to leave and Beyond Birthday was careful to hide his breath. His eyes affixed on the death note lying in the open only yards in front of him. When Gaara was at a moderately safe distance Beyond Birthday crawled out and retrieved the notebook finishing Gaara of the Desert's full name into the death note.

Beyond Birthday approached Gaara's dead body 40 seconds later and retrieved an arsenal of supplies. Beyond Birthday took Gaara's sniper rifle, grenades, and German Lugar to add to his collar locater, switchblade, Glock G22, and shotgun. Beyond Birthday was truly a walking arsenal.

*****

"Congratulations!" said Teacher over the intercom. "Beyond Birthday is our last contestant left alive!" Beyond Birthday tucked the death note in the back of his pants and put his white t-shirt over it. He wasn't about to have them confiscate the greatest prize he could walk out of this with. "All of the danger zones have been disarmed, please come to the starting zone for the final procedures."

Beyond Birthday didn't let up his guard but headed towards the center nonetheless. As he was about halfway there a man in a suit of armor and a blonde haired boy with a mask on jumped out of the woods and attacked him. "Damn, I can't see either of their faces." Thought Beyond Birthday as he jumped back and removed his shotgun off his back and taking aim at the one without the armor.

Ed quickly jumped behind his brother Alphonse and was shielded from the shotgun spread. Beyond Birthday didn't wait but pumped his gun and pulled off another round into Al. This is when Beyond Birthday noticed, that the smaller one had a collar around his neck. Beyond Birthday glanced at his collar locater and nothing appeared to be around him.

"Faulty collers?" said Beyond Birthday turning up to face his opponents. The three were stopped by a loudspeaker announcement by Teacher.

"It appears that the Elric brothers have cheated somehow in the Program. I'm sorry Beyond Birthday but you will need to hold out long enough for support to arrive. You are the rightful winner and those two will be put to death upon capture."

Beyond Birthday snarled at the two who squared off against him. There were 4 more shots remaining in his shotgun. He'd have to make the best of them. Beyond Birthday aimed low at Al's legs and fired blowing Al's right leg yards back. Beyond Birthday was rather surprised by the fact there was no blood, no crying in pain, and most importantly, no leg in the leg piece.

He didn't stop there, Beyond Birthday blew Al's left arm off as Ed darted from behind Al's armored body clapping his hands together. Ed grabbed onto Beyond Birthday's gun and transmuted its barrel closed. Beyond Birthday and Ed engaged in a scuffle, which ended with Beyond Birthday on the ground and Ed on top of him with his automail arm's knife at Beyond Birthday's throat.

Beyond had however managed to grab his Glock G22 and aim it up towards Ed's artificial arm. Beyond unloaded his entire gun into Ed's automail before Ed could cut him.

As Ed was shocked Beyond Birthday took out his switchblade and stabbed him in his real leg. Ed winced with pain and fell off of him. Beyond Birthday smiled and removed Ed's mask he had been wearing. "Edward Elric huh?"

Beyond Birthday walked over to Al with a grenade at hand. "Well Elric brothers, it appears that I am the victor." Beyond Birthday took out his death note as he went to remove the immobile Al's helmet. Al fought back with his other arm a little bit so Beyond Birthday shot it off with the sniper rifle at close range.

As Beyond Birthday lifted Al's helmet off his head his eyes opened wide. "Oh my God…"

*****

Back at Teacher's headquarters everything was frantic. The winner had just died of some unknown cause. They heard some gunshots over the microphones they inserted into Beyond Birthday's collar but the satellite view was blocked by the trees overhead.

The backup intended to help Beyond Birthday arrived just then. Ed and Al were both 100% healed and repaired. Ed slapped his hands together and placed them on the ground much to the horror of the soldiers. The soldiers were all destroyed by a huge earth tidal wave created by Ed's alchemy.

"That was good thinking L," said Ed to L who was hiding inside Al with a submachine gun. "I honestly didn't expect you to know how to fire a gun."

"Yeah, how can we ever thank you for the materials needed for the philosopher's stone?" continued Al looking at the little red stone in Ed's hand.

"Oh, I'm not the one you should be thanking," replied L. "The one you should be thanking is a young man I knew named Light Yagami. He was the one who harvested all those souls with the death note you used to make the philosopher's stone."

"Al, you know what this means? After this is all over with, we can get our bodies back," said Ed tearing up.

"Yeah…" said Al, "When this is all over…"

*****

The official registered winner of the 2040 Program was Beyond Birthday, the infamous BB serial killer, but most believe L triumphed over B once again with the Elric Brothers this time.

L and the Elrics did escape using the philosopher's stone's powers. Shortly after that they used its power to get their original bodies back. Since L was dead in his universe and couldn't return the Elrics brought him to their universe using all the remaining power of the stone. Their adventures were just beginning.