To his surprise his eyes opened after he closed them, waiting for death.

After Ryuk wrote his name in the Death Note he died of a heart attack and everything went dark before his eyes. Now he appeared to be awake again and he felt alright.

Where am I?

Light looked around to get a better look of his surroundings. Much dry sand, rocks, dead plants and trees. If he didn't know better he thought this looked like the place Ryuk described as the "Shinigami Realm".

Wait… does this mean Nothingness is actually the Shinigami Realm?

He tried to get on his feet, but fell flat on his face right after. He felt strangely out of balance.

'Nice face plant, Light!' a voice said chuckling.

His head shot up when he heard the voice. Of course he shouldn't been surprised. If he was here because he used the Death Note then…

Someone helped him up and he managed to keep his balance, although his knees almost let him down when he saw it was true.

B!

'B… you… you are…' he said breathless. 'Alive.'

'Hmm, I wouldn't call it that. We are very much dead. We're only on our way to be a real Shinigami.'

Light's eyes widened. 'What?'

Then he began notice more details about B after the first shock of seeing his friend again went away. B looked almost normal like he always had. The only thing that changed were his eyes and the bat like wings that came out of his back. Now his eyes had always been a little bit odd. A dark brown, but with a hint of red if you looked closely. Now his eyes were radiant blood red.

B saw him looking at his wings. 'I know, isn't it awesome? I have freaking wings! You can actually fly with them like Ryuk and Rem did. They're amazing.'

'Your eyes changed too,' Light said. He saw confusion in B's expression. 'You didn't know yet? They turned blood red.'

B slowly shook his head. 'No… no one told me that before since I got here.'

'Are you here since you… died?' It was hard to think of the sight he saw when he saw his friend dead on the ground in a pool of his own blood.

'Yeah, pretty much. If I'm right you died about a day later since you appeared here just now.'

Light nodded. 'About a day I think. My sense of time went away in a cell without windows.'

'Did Ryuk…?' B let the obvious question hang in the air.

'He did. I don't blame him much. My time as Kira was over and he told me he would write my name in his Death Note if I was about to die or going to prison for life, that would be too boring.'

B rolled his eyes. 'That sounds like Ryuk. By the way Light, there's something different about you too. Your hair color changed into dark red… wine red or burgundy or something. Not to forget the wings you got of course…'

Light gasped. 'I have wings too?!' He turned his head to see indeed a pair of wings attached to his back.

That explains why I lost my balance earlier…

B snickered softly. 'You saw I had wings, but you didn't think about yourself? If I were you I would've looked immediately if I had them myself.'

Light ignored that statement and inspected his wings. They were different from B's. His were graceful and soft. Black feathers adorned both his wings as if he was a dark angel.

Godlike wings for a fallen Godlike human…

'I like them,' he stated.

'Well, don't you gonna test them? Go on!' B said excitingly.

'Uhm…' He felt the wings connected to his body as if they were a part of him like his arms, but it felt odd to have something to move on your back.

He flapped slowly. 'Like this?'

'Yes! Now faster until your feet come off the ground. It's pretty easy.'

Light flapped his wings harder, but didn't seem to get a grip on flying as fast as B. His feet went off the ground for maybe a meter of three or so, but not very much longer he lost control and fell down… right on B who was watching him from the ground.

He pushed himself up with his elbows. 'Argh… sorry it looked like it went well at first, but-'

Light stopped in the middle of his sentence when he noticed the position the two were in. He was lying on top of B while B blinked in surprise beneath him. After the surprise went away Light saw a very familiar glint in the red eyes and a large grin spread across his face.

Light's eyes widened and jumped off his friend. 'Oh no! You're not going to mention anything about what I think you're thinking!'

'Aww, but Light~'

'NO!'

B pouted. 'Fine, you were never going to be on top anyways. Did you know I'm a very aggressive top?'*

Light blushed and groaned. 'This is not something I want to hear from you. You've changed nothing.'

B smirked. 'Nope and so have you.'

A cackling laugh broke through and they turned around only to see Ryuk flying towards them. 'I see you two found each other already… what a pity I missed it.'

Ryuk came down and landed next to the two boys. 'How's your heart doing, Light?'

Light huffed. 'Very funny… you know how it is.'

The Shinigami shrugged. 'You can't blame me. It would've been boring if I must've stayed with you for your whole imprisoned life.'

'I don't blame you,' Light sighed. 'I know it was going to happen anyway… and now I know what Nothingness is, I'm happy to be here instead of imprisonment.'

'Wait,' B spoke to get the attention. 'What happened to L? Did he die of his wounds?'

Light didn't want to destroy the sliver of hope B had, but it wasn't right to lie. He was going to figure out eventually.

'I'm afraid not, B…' Light answered. 'I haven't seen him after I was taken away, but he didn't look like he was going to die of his wounds.'

B lowered his head in disappointment. 'Goddamnit,' he muttered.

Light watched his defeated looking friend. It was bad enough he couldn't create the world he wanted. Now B's goal failed too. But now they were both dead nobody would continue what they wanted to… wait a minute!

We are Shinigami now! Of course we can kill that bastard!

He grabbed B by his shoulders. 'B! We are Shinigami's now, right? We can write L's name in a Death Note!'

B raised his head with wonder sparkling in his red eyes. 'You're right. I got my own Death Note from the Shinigami King not long ago. You can get yours too!' He let out a laugh. 'We can make an end to L despite being dead!'

'No, you can't do that.'

Light let go of B and together they turned to look at Ryuk. 'What do you mean by that?! We're Shinigami's!' Light said irritated.

Ryuk shook his head. 'Nope, you are half Shinigami and still half human. It takes a lot more days for you to get rid of your human memories and become a full Shinigami. Didn't you think it was strange for you to look still so human while we look like we do?' He cackled a short laugh. 'You can't write the detective's name anyway in a Death Note. It's against the rules to write someone's name if you knew them in your human life. Or any name of someone close to that person by the way.'

B's face flushed with anger. 'WHAT? Why does such stupid rule exist?!'

'To prevent the new Shinigami's from killing everyone off as revenge. It has probably happened in the past for such rule to exist. The Shinigami King must have thought it was wrong and made the rule. After all… this isn't Heaven where all your dreams come true. Too bad for you.'

'Then I'll kill him with my bare hands!'

Ryuk looked amused at the angry young man. 'That's also against the rules… you can't kill in any other way than with the Death Note.'

At this point B looked ready to explode. 'WHAT! Bullshit!'

Light thought about what Ryuk had told them. They couldn't kill without the Death Note, but it wasn't permitted to write a name of someone you knew in your past life or someone close to that person. They had a certain amount of days before their memories would disappear and they would turn into a full Shinigami forever.

I think I got a plan…

'B, calm down. I think I got something,' Light said reassuringly. 'But first I have to know how many days we got before we lose our memories. Do you know that?'

He took a deep breath to calm himself and nodded. 'Yes, a Shinigami named Zellogi found me just after I woke up here. He told me it takes 168 days before the memories disappear.'

Light grinned. 'That's good enough!' He turned to Ryuk. 'Ryuk, are there more rules that only apply to new Shinigami's like us? Like entering the Human World?'

'Uhm… yeah. Because you are still half human you can enter the human world and stay there for as long as you like without needing a human who has your Death Note in possession.'

B raised an eyebrow. 'I'm really curious now about your plan. What is it?'

Light smirked. 'We have about 168 days and we can stay all that time in the Human World. We can't kill L and the ones close to him, but we can make his life as miserable as we can. What if we, for example, would drop a Death Note and let one of his present successors find it? You said you were his successors a long time ago, so he has to have new ones now, don't you think?'

A wide grin spread over B's face. 'I know just where to find them… Wammy House.'

'Uh… not to interrupt your interesting plan, but don't you need an extra Death Note for that? Or do you give the kid one of your own?' Ryuk questioned curiously.

Light shook his head. 'Of course not! Don't you remember we had three Death Notes back in the Human World? The one I picked up myself, Misa's and Rem's…' He saw B understood where he was going. 'They destroyed mine and Misa's, but Rem's Death Note is still hidden by B, because I told him to keep it should we needed it in the future.'

'It should be in the apartment I lived in!' B said excited. 'Since no other human touched it, it should be alright for us to pick it up.'

'Then we know what to do,' Light said.

'If I were you I would go to the Shinigami King first to get my own Death Note,' Ryuk commented.

Light nodded. 'Yes, but after that… we're going back to Earth.'

Do you think you're rid of us, L? You have no idea what's coming…

* In Another Note: The LA Murder Cases, B says to Naomi Misora that he's an aggressive top and never once been submissive… not even for a traffic light.