Disclaimer: I, Strange and Intoxicating -rsa-, do not own Death Note or Final Fantasy VII (or their compilations/spin-offs). This is a work based on too many hours of class work and the inability to play well with other children.

"And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."

--Genesis, Chapter Four

Chapter One

Reno wearily scratched his nose, looking over from his computer to Tseng. Sure, he admitted as he leaned further back, the two front legs of his chair jiggling upwards--this wasn't exactly what he wanted to be doing on a Saturday morning. There were people to do and things to see, and being cooped up in the Turk's main office on level 54 of the Shinra building wasn't his ideal way of spending what was supposed to be his weekend. Fucking Tseng. It wasn't Reno's job to be mucking with the computers anymore…especially when he could be having sex with that pretty thing that started working on level 20.

"You sure I gotta be doin' this? Ain't it better to have the newbie screwin' around with the damn thing, since he doesn't do anything but play computer-whiz?" Reno asked as he popped his knuckled.

Tseng twitched and looked up from his computer screen. He was dressed impeccably even though he had bruising around his eyes. He was downing another cup of coffee--his fifth in the past hour, and was beginning to look more and more like death. "He is busy at the moment, going over data that the Science department faxed in last night. They had a minor breech in security and they need him to fix the malfunction."

"What happened?"

"Hojo mutated a few common plants."

Reno resisted the urge to wince. "Ouch. Crazy mutant trees stalking the Science department. I'll guess they sent in some big-guns to whack them before he got there."

Tseng rolled his eyes and tapped his fingers mutinously on the keyboard before taking another swig of his coffee. As the First-in-Command, the poor bastard did more work than he should. The Turks weren't exactly under-staffed, per se, but occasionally Reno wondered whether or not things would be better if they had another rookie that actually left Shinra's headquarters. Sure, the guy may have been a genius and one of the best hackers that Reno ever met, but it was beginning to wear down on Tseng and the others.

Like him. Fucking weekends.

"You know, boss," Reno started, but before he could finish his though Tseng interrupted.

"Do not start with this again, Reno. You know that L is one of the best Turks we have--"

"He's a fucking recluse, Tseng. And we're all getting hit hard with his inability to leave the building. What is he? A germaphobe? Maybe an Anthropophobe? Sociophobe? It's one of them phobe's, and I don't care which one as long as he leaves this motherfuckin' room once in a while. You haven't slept in wha'--six months? This is getting annoyin' and he's startin' to fuckin' smell, I swear to Gaia."

"Reno, L does not smell. He showers quite regularly, in fact. More than you do, but that isn't too hard of a task. But, besides that point, L is one of the best Turks we have, and… there are many reasons we cannot dispose of him." Tseng stared pointedly at Reno, his gray steel eyes bright and Reno could have swore there were little pits of fire in his boss's eyes. "Leave him be; do your own job once in a while and things would not come down upon your head at an inopportune moment. Understood?"

Reno knew when his boss was open for suggestions or comments (which happened about as often as he tied his tie and starched his shirts) and this sure as Holy wasn't one of them. So, without wasting anymore time, Reno tapped his foot on the floor--loud enough for the people downstairs to hear--and set back to reprogramming the sumthin-or-other L the Newbie was too fuckin' busy to play with.

Little prick.

L folded his hands together under his chin and stared with complete impassivity at his computer monitor. There were two faces and short descriptions underneath the black and white photographs; L bit back a harsh retort at the one on the left. His tongue felt like sandpaper that was covered in cat fur as he glanced over the very familiar features--he should have remembered them, as they were the last things he saw before his death.

Light Yagami; student slash Kira slash mock God; too young to be playing with death.

Midgar, Gaia, Shinra--L didn't know what happened, how everything fell into place, and whether or not this was some form of waiting area for the afterlife (L wasn't sure, because the people around he seemed very capable of dying, and ghosts and spirits couldn't die.) All he knew was that when he woke up six months before in the middle of an unfamiliar city with unfamiliar sounds, and all he could smell was death and blood around him, even though he was very much alive. A voice whispered in his ear, caressed his cheek, and if L had really been religious, he would have sworn God had come down from his internal heaven to kiss his ear with soft sounds.

He stood alone, staring at the people who passed by. At first it was difficult to hear them, as they were moving and running so very fast, but once L stopped panicking over "Why am I not dead, why am I in a place I have never seen before?" he listened.

English. His mother tongue. That was the language they were speaking, all around him. His ears had become so accustomed to Japanese over the past several months on the Kira case, and before then with French, that the sudden switch back to English was a little jarring.

Midgar--Mako--SOLDIER. These things didn't exist on Earth, that much L was sure of. This was not home, though the people did look very much like humans, and they seemed to speak English of all things. Too many ideas--separate worlds, galaxies, milky ways, alternate dimensions, time warps, different, different, different. Yet all the same, everything so customary and homely, even though he had never spent a moment on this Gaia before in his entire life.

Then again, should Shinigami--death gods--exist on Earth, then what else could exist without L's prior knowledge?

But, what L did believe (and rightly so, according to the new documents that were flashing on his screen) that if he could fall into this world upon death, then so would Light Yagami. His three successors would come up with an ingenious plot to bring Light down, and it would be a beautiful, painful death. He almost felt pity, because Light had been his first friend. Almost.

That was no longer important to L, however. Now, there was something so very much more important than Light in himself.

Two months ago a boy who spoke fluent Japanese, or Wutaian according to the people of Gaia, was found in the middle of a Shinra camp on the coast of Wutai. From the intelligence the other Turks gathered, one moment the space was empty, and the next he was there, clutching a book to his chest. He whimpered like a child, and L could almost taste death on him.

For all intents and purposes, Light should have been murdered on the spot--a boy who fit the description of a suicide bomber laying in the middle of the enemy's camp.

Picture on the right--Broad shoulders and slanted, catlike eyes. L saw them up close once, and they were a silvery hue that would go poison-green without a moment hesitation. Long silver hair (very uncommon in this world, too…) and that sneer. General Sephiroth could kill with that sneer… now that he had Light and the Death Note on his side, that is.

There were dozens of stories during the beginning of the war, about Sephiroth's power. But two months ago the body count tripled and the Wutaian Army began to crumble as major military officers were picked off, dying in their beds from heart attacks. They had met with Sephiroth recently--always. It was how the Death Note worked, afterall.

L could not assume reason for why Light would side with Sephiroth other than for protection. He was supposed to be murdered for trespassing, should have been killed on sight, but was spared. And now Shinra put a name in the system. Just a boy, perhaps some orphan Sephiroth took under his wing (others scandalously thought perhaps a lover, but L knew that Light was more asexual than anything, even with his precious Misa-Misa.)

They called him Light Lawliet.

Little prick.

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