My Death Battle Attempts

by LittleZbot

In which I take two fictional characters and pit them against each other in a duel to the death. Rules in the first chapter. NEXT EPISODE: Katara (Avatar: The Last Airbender) VS Percy Jackson (Percy Jackson & the Olympians)

5. Light VS Lelouch (OLD)

Episode 4: Light Yagami (Death Note) vs. Lelouch Vi Brittania (Code Geass)

Throughout history, one clear question has remained without an answer: Brain or Brawn? Well, these two anime antiheroes use their otherworldly powers to prove that with enough brain, you need no brawn to be successful. Light Yagami, the mass murderer Kira, and Lelouch Vi Britannia, the masked insurrectionist Zero. I'm LittleZbot, and it's my hobby to analyze their weapons, armor, and skills to find out who might win a Death Battle.

For clarification, only the main manga and anime versions of these two characters will be used. No live-action adaptations or questionably-canon side stories allowed.

There will be a couple instances of minor swearing during the course of this battle. While I try to avoid swearing in my stories in general, this battle is a far more personal and story-driven battle than the other ones, and both characters are known to become emotionally invested in battles of mental prowess, and will often curse when things don't go their way. It's perfectly in character for them to swear, so I couldn't see a way to avoid it without altering their personalities. I apologize if this offends anyone.

Also, holy crap is this a long one. The whole chapter is over 17,500 words long - that's around 7,000 more words than the last battle (enough to fill two to three normal book chapters). The battle feels far more like a fanfiction or story than anything else. Do not expect a fight this long ever again. This battle was very unique. Very. If you don't want to read through the whole story, just read the analysis, last couple paragraphs of the battle (before it says KO!) and post-battle conclusions. Also, much like the last episode, this was supposed to be written later, but was written and released early in celebration of the new Death Note movie and Code Geass Season. And by celebration, I mean "hopes that they won't suck."

Now, let's do this.

Light Yagami:

Light Yagami is… a physically unimposing foe. Though he was once one of the better tennis players in the world, his strength and durability is average, at best, with his most intimidating feature being somewhat-above average height and incredible attractiveness. But hiding underneath this mask of normalcy lies one of the deadliest criminals to ever exist.

Despite doing quite well in his studies and connected in every right way to achieve his dream of becoming a police officer like his father, Light was bored with his life. He found no challenges worthy of his incredible intellect, and the world held too much crime and evil to even be worth living in. But this changed during his twelfth year in grade school, when he encountered the shinigami, or god of death, Ryuk, and, more importantly, the otherworldly weapon known as the Death Note. Barring an enormous number of fairly unimportant rules, the Death Note works as follows: Light writes the name of an individual inside of it, and forty seconds later they suffer a fatal heart attack. Believing nobody else would be suited with both mind and morality to use the notebook properly, Light took it upon himself to rid the world of evil through vigorous use of the Death Note. He would then create a new world free of corruption, where he would rule as God.

However, the Japanese Police and Government recognized his attacks as though he was a murderer, and formed a team specifically focused on stopping the killings of Light, who now went by the persona of "Kira." Leading the charge against Kira was none other than the world's best detective and Light's future best friend and rival, L. Since Light had to know L's name and face in order to kill him with the Death Note, and L had to make 100% sure, with proof, that Light was Kira before arresting him, this pit the two against each other as rivals in a high-stakes game of mental chess. For every move one made, the other countered it perfectly. Needless to say, the Death Note was an invaluable tool in Light's campaign against L.

A Death Note is a shinigami's tool for killing those in the human world, and has sixty-six pages of rules to go along with it. However, most of these rules are rather specific (e.g. A person over 124 cannot be killed by the Death Note) and bore little meaning when Light used it. The most important rules are these: The human whose name is written in the book will die; the writer must write the name of the individual they wish to kill while imagining their face; once a name is written, the person will die and cannot be saved; a cause and time of death may be written, but it must be a viable one and can only occur within 23 days; the person who will die may be controlled by the Death Note up to 6 minutes and 40 seconds before their death (though they cannot do anything that would normally be impossible for them); and that if the owner is killed or gives up the notebook willingly, the next human to touch it becomes the owner. Obviously, this is a very powerful tool, and, with its infinite pages, it was what Light used to kill the vast majority of people during his crusade. And along with the Death Note came a companion: The shinigami Ryuk.

As per the rules of the Death Note, Ryuk, as the former owner of the notebook, must remain at Light's side at virtually all times. He watches everything unfold, and, when it is time for Light to die, he must write down Light's name in his own Death Note. You may think that having a giant scary god of death follow you around would be a dead giveaway that you're Kira, but luckily Ryuk cannot be seen or interacted with by anyone except those who have touched Light's Death Note. He'll phase right through most physical objects and creatures. As the world's only expert on the notebook, he'll occasionally offer Light advice and clarification to make things more interesting, though he is under no obligation to do so. He can also make a deal with Light, trading half of Light's remaining lifespan for shinigami eyes, which can be used to see a person's true name just by looking at their face. However, it should be noted that Light has refused this offer at every point he was given it, believing the price to be too high for what, for him, was just saving a little extra work. Ryuk also likes apples as much as hippies like drugs. So that's a thing.

Light carries two very basic weapons with him at all times. The first is a standard-issue .38 caliber revolver, as used by Japanese law enforcement. While it's technically illegal for him to have it, as he's not a police officer, it's saved his life before, and also he's kind of a mass murderer, so he doesn't really care. The second is a small piece of the Death Note hidden inside his watch. By clicking the knob that sets the watch a certain number of times in rapid succession, it pops open and reveals the corner of a Death Note page, which he will use to kill people in a hurry if his gun is lost and his plan goes astray - which, luckily for him, it rarely does.

With the Death Note in hand alongside his massive intellect, Light has accomplished a lot without the need for any physical feats. Within a few weeks of receiving the notebook, he was already famous worldwide. He's successfully predicted the movements of normal citizens, police officers, special detectives, FBI Agents, and entire government organizations over the course of days, weeks, even months, down to the letter, within a day or so each. He's always one step ahead of everyone else, doing things like walking in crowds if somebody who can see Ryuk is nearby, so that they don't know who he belongs to. He's hacked into government databases, orchestrated the deaths of some of the world's most influential and/or powerful people without suspicion, and even joined the very anti-Kira team that was focused on finding him. He even was eventually able to manipulate his surroundings to, after several months, kill his rival L, supposedly winning the day. Leading the investigation into false leads, he was able to spend the next several years as Kira without any suspicion, even while working with many of the best detectives in the world. He eventually came absurdly close to achieving ultimate power, and taking over the whole world - but he never did.

Unfortunately, Light has a few flaws that were heavily exploited by those who suspected he was Kira, and were ultimately his undoing. His sense of morality, in particular, is very skewered and has only become worse as long as he has used the Death Note. This has led to him making several reckless kills and almost exposing himself during multiple instances. His ego is absurdly huge. He truly believes he is a god and treats everyone else like dirt when he can afford to, which, again, has cast suspicion over him many times. If someone were to threaten his ego, he becomes far more susceptible to potential traps and will do whatever it takes to end that individual. When he becomes enraged, he goes into a bloodlust where he recklessly tries to kill anyone and destroy anything - though while in this state of mind, he was able to throw a person across a room and take multiple bullets to the chest and still stand. He's also been outsmarted by L and a number of other people several times. And, at the end, he was trapped and killed by Near, the successor to L, Light's former friend and rival. Though there are those out there in our world who can't accept this death. There's even an online fan theory about Light never really dying, but instead becoming a shinigami.

Despite his flaws, Light is a serial killer with one of the most dangerous weapons of all time and a mind to match. Kira is not a person anyone would want to cross.

As Near finishes relaying exactly how he had discovered and proven Light's identity as Kira, he shouts out "Let's see you talk your way out of this one!"

There's a moment of silence, and then Light begins to chuckle. The chuckle turns into a laugh, and the laugh into an exposure of maliciousness that stuns everyone in the room. After a good thirty seconds of terrible laughter, Light settles down and speaks five words.

"It's true. I am Kira."

Light Yagami:

Name: Light Yagami

Alias: Kira

Species: Human

Age: 23

Height: 5' 10"/179 cm

Weight: 119 lb./54 kg

Occupation: Detective

Blood Type: A

Will be played by edgy teen in upcoming movie

Best Quote (?): "I was making babies…with the pope."

Abilities:

Athlete-level physical shape

One of the best minds the world has ever seen

When bloodlusted, can throw a man across a room or tank bullets

Items/Weapons:
Death Note

Watch with piece of Death Note

.38 caliber revolver handgun

Feats:

Defeated an enormous range of people with mental prowess alone

Killed an even bigger number of criminals

Fooled L for months

Fooled many of the world's best detectives for years

Killed L

Had several countries running scared as Kira

Killed Mello

Threw a man across a room

Took several bullets, still stood

Almost won. Almost.

Weaknesses:

Didn't win.

God complex

Moral scale is…weird. Dangerously weird.

Outsmarted several times

Can become reckless or lazy

Loves to gloat

…

Lelouch Vi Brittania

Lelouch Vi Britannia is…a scrawny, pale-faced stick of a guy with below-average physical abilities who looks like a stray wind could blow him away. His only threatening feature he could boast would be an icy glare or his above-average attractiveness. But be careful; underneath this mask lies one of the most dangerous minds in all of fiction.

Born to Charles and Marianne Vi Brittania, Lelouch was the eleventh prince of the Holy Brittanian Empire. Life was good, until some assassins showed up, killed his mother, and left his sister a cripple when he was only ten. To top it all off, he went to his father and rightfully accused him of not protecting his mother, and his dad responded the only way he knew how: by banishing both Lelouch and his sister Nunnally to Japan. Oh, and Nunnally went blind. Yeah, life wasn't being good to these kids, and it only got worse. In fact, the only reason Lelouch and Nunnally were even still alive were to be used as political pawns with Japan - and then Brittania and Japan went to war and negated that. Brittania won, turning Japan into Area 11, and forcing Lelouch to take himself and Nunnally into hiding before his father could find and kill them. He adopted the last name "Lamperouge," got a job, friends, and a school, and began living a new life. Several years later, he was given an opportunity to take back everything that had been stolen from him when he encountered C.C. (Pronounce that see-too, not see-see. Sorry, pet peeve.), and, more importantly, the power she granted him: The King's Power, Geass. This ability allowed him to control others just by looking at them. He immediately saw the potential in this ability, and decided to use it to get rid of all the corruption in the world, Brittania in particular, in order to provide his sister with a better life.

He then recruited the best and most driven rebel Elevens, or Japanese, into his own organization that fought against terrorists, criminals, and Brittania. Mostly Brittania. He called them the Black Knights, and he was their leader. Hiding under a mask that can somehow take a bullet and not break, along with a kevlar-based suit and cape that's also quite stylish, he calls himself "Zero." Or the Demon. Or the Black Prince. And then there was the time he did that stint as Julius Kingsley- you know what? Let's forget all his other alter egos and just go with Lelouch and Zero. Anyway, Britannia recognized these attacks as terrorism, and so sent out a team of giant Knightmares (which are basically giant robot mechs) to stop Zero and his own team of Knightmares. Leading the charge against Zero was the Lancelot, piloted by Lelouch's best friend and future rival, Suzaku Kuruyugi. The two would battle again and again, with Suzaku's far superior skill doing its best to counter Lelouch's absurd intellect and strategic prowess. However, almost every battle always went Lelouch's way - though he did always seem to find another intellectual equal he had to defeat. Luckily, his Geass really helped him out.

Geass is a special power that can only be granted to individuals by members of the Code, an immortal race of- actually, that's huge and complicated and unnecessary, so let's just skip that. Anyway, all Geass has to do with the mind and altering or affecting the minds of others. Lelouch's Geass can manipulate others' minds to follow Lelouch's commands. It is considered to be the most powerful Geass by many, and is used to its fullest by Lelouch. The Geass can affect others just with eye contact, and will force that person to do whatever it is Lelouch next orders. Immediately after doing so, the person forgets everything that happened before they were brainwashed. Geass will last forever unless it has completed its specific goal, as shown multiple times through the manga. However, the Geass can only be used on somebody once, has a range of 272 meters before it can't be used, and commands must be spoken aloud. In addition, after using the ability far too freely for a long while, Lelouch developed the condition known as "Runaway Geass." Because of this, his Geass is constantly active and will affect anybody who looks at his eyes. Lelouch has special contact lenses to block the Geass, but if they're removed, everyone around him is in danger of being affected. Finally, if the would-be victim is wearing a reflective surface, like glasses, a visor, or a mask, over their eyes, Geass will not go through it and will not work on them. Still, this ability is so incredibly powerful that it's well worth any downside. And along with the Geass came a companion: The Code member C.C.

C.C., being a member of the Code, is immortal and has lived for several centuries. Naturally tired of her immortality and all the pain and sorrow she suffered in her life, she wished to finally die, but she can only be killed by somebody with Geass that is advanced enough to be present in both their eyes. Anything else from anyone else, and she'll just regenerate back. So, after granting Geass to Lelouch, she chose to live in his apartment and wait until his Geass was advanced enough. But things didn't quite work out like that. She began going on missions with the Black Knights, posing as Zero's mistress, when she was instead there to offer advice, both about the attacks and Geass, and take his place when he wasn't available. As they went on missions together, the two actually became good friends, and ended up really caring about each other. And C.C. may or may not have fallen in love with Lelouch - that was never fully specified. Regardless, after Lelouch's Geass advanced to the point where it was in both eyes, he didn't kill her - instead, he ended up saving her life and showing that there might be some things worth living for after all. As a good friend/possible lover of Lelouch, C.C. offers up any advice she can to help him accomplish his goals and will willingly take part in his schemes. She also likes pizza as much as hippies like drugs. So that's a thing.

Aside from his Geass, Lelouch's best weapon is his mind. Oh, and a .40 caliber laser-guided pistol that he's a crack shot with, but mostly his mind. He's outmatched several strategists that should be his intellectual equals, programmed and implemented a countermeasure to an electronic super nuke in nineteen seconds flat, and once saved his sister's life from a mentally unstable Geass user by using his Geass on himself in order to forget certain memories. He lasted more than five seconds in hand-to-hand combat with Suzaku, who could dodge machine-gun bullets and anti-tank fire, destroyed Tokyo, and defeated the world's greatest army with far fewer and less powerful forces several times, even when the opposing army had their own master strategist leading the attack. His plan for the Zero Requiem required the prediction of virtually every government, army, and individual member down to the letter for the next two years (it succeeded, by the way), and he took down a corrupt and brilliant, but insane, powerhouse by making a recording of himself answering every one of the questions the individual would ask, so as to seem like he was on live video when he was really somewhere else. Twice. He was even able to defeat his rival Suzaku on multiple occasions, and, after being betrayed by the Black Knights, manipulating God with his Geass, and killing his father and resurrected mother permanently, he just straight-up took over the entire Brittanian Empire and recruited virtually everyone who once fought against him, including Suzaku. He eventually achieved ultimate power, and took over the whole world - for a few hours.

Lelouch may be incredibly impressive, but he's not exactly flawless. His sociopath tendencies and utter disregard for what innocents get caught up in his plans makes it difficult for people to trust him, giving him less reliable resources. His above-average ego is responsible for at least one or two failures, as he consistently underestimates his opponents. He may be emotionally unstable at times, and he rarely takes enough care to ensure nobody finds out he's Zero, doing things like accidentally leaving his mask out in public or proclaiming C.C. as a friend, while she's known to others as Zero's mistress. His biggest weakness, however, is Nunnally. He will do virtually anything to protect her, and this had led to him making reckless decisions that cost an enormous amount of lives - nearly including his own. And when he believed she was dead, he became incredibly apathetic toward everyone, and lost his ability to care whether or not he lived or died. Which kinda led up to the point where he did eventually die. He was killed by Suzaku, Lelouch's former friend and rival - though it should be noted that this was a part of Lelouch's plan all along, and ended up pretty much causing world peace, so he did, in the end, win. Though there are those out there in our world who can't accept this death. There's even an online fan theory about Lelouch never really dying, but instead becoming a member of the Code.

Despite his flaws, Lelouch is an insurrectionist with one of the most dangerous weapons of all time and a mind to match. Zero is not a person anyone would want to cross.

Lelouch hangs up from a friendly conversation with Suzaku, then sits back inside his Knightmare as he watches Tokyo suddenly fold in on itself, killing hundreds, if not thousands. He speaks. "These hands of mine have been dirtied for a long time now, Suzaku. Your coming to face me doesn't matter at all. Hell, I welcome it, even. I mean, of course, you and I are friends."

There's a moment of silence, and then Lelouch begins to chuckle. The chuckle turns into a laugh, and the laugh into an exposure of maliciousness that, had anyone but C.C. been near him, would have stunned them all. After a good thirty seconds of terrible laughter, Lelouch settles down and speaks two words.

"Now, then."

Lelouch Vi Brittania:

Name: Lelouch Vi Brittania

Alias: Zero

Species: Human

Age: 18

Height: 5' 10"/178 cm

Weight: 123 lb./56 kg

Occupation: Student

Blood Type: A

Loves chess. Like, a lot.

Best Quote (?): "I'm not mad! I just don't understand your outfit! I don't!"

Abilities:

Passable hand-to-hand combat

One of the best minds the world has ever seen

A great shot with a handgun

Items/Weapons:
Geass

.40 caliber laser-guided pistol

Kevlar-based costume

Feats:

Defeated an enormous range of people with mental prowess alone

Killed an even bigger number of Brittanians and/or criminals

Fooled the entire world for months, twice

Killed Charles Vi Brittania

Had the world running scared as Zero

Killed Schniezal

Took a bullet, lived

Survived hand-to-hand combat with Suzaku

Destroyed several cities

Defeated several empires

Created his own country

Took over the world

Won

Weaknesses:

Superiority complex

Moral scale is…weird

Outsmarted several times

Too attached to Nunnally

Sociopathic

Loves to gloat

…

All right, the combatants are set. Let's end this debate once and for all! It's time for a Death Battle!

…

The Guren Mk-II smashed through another wave of Brittanian Soldiers and gripped the nearest Knightmare Frame with its right hand. A powerful surge of red energy burst out from the hand, crumpling the opposing Knightmare in seconds. The mech's pilot, Kallen, tapped a button on her earpiece and began to speak. "Okay, Zero, we've cleared the path to the building. What now?"

"Good work," came a slightly modulated voice from the other end. "Go ahead and enter, but make sure not to kill the ambassador. It's very important that we have him alive."

"Understood." Kallen effortlessly broke through the side of the building with just a swipe from the Knightmare's hand.

Zero was watching, as he always was, from a distance. He was standing on the third floor of a recently-abandoned building in full costume, staring out the window, expecting the news of the ambassador's capture at any moment. He had planned this well - it had taken him some weeks to deduce the exact location he would be in, and another week to perfectly plan the attack. This would be an enormous victory for the Black Knights.

Then he heard Kallen's voice in his ear. "Zero!"

"What happened?" he replied in a stern, but determined fashion.

"The ambassador…he's dead!"

Zero's eyebrows rose, though nobody could see this.

"None of us did it, I swear! He was right in front of me, and he just collapsed!"

Kira. The lights suddenly shut off around him, and Zero whipped around.

"Zero," came a modified voice from the darkness.

"Kira," Zero replied. It was obviously he, for who else could have killed the man without lifting a finger when he was surrounded by two small armies? "You killed the ambassador."

"Yes," the voice replied. "He was a criminal of the highest degree, doing nothing lawfully wrong, yet still ruining thousands of lives with every breath. He deserved to die."

"And yet you waited this long to do it?" Zero made sure his voice was smooth as silk. He needed information, but he couldn't give away any of his own.

"I waited to do it in front of you. We're quite like-minded, Zero. Both of us rise above all others, taking out the real terrors of the world that nobody wants to see, and all cloaked in the darkness. If you join me, I may be able to secure you a place in my new world. But, if you don't, you've seen how easily I can end your life."

"You have not studied me as thoroughly as you believe," Zero replied. "The Black Knights stand against all who wish to impose their will upon the less fortunate, not just Brittania. You fit that description better than most, and now you've put yourself in our way. Let me put this bluntly: do not disturb us again, or I will kill you myself." Secretly, he just wanted to get Kira talking more. He almost had a perfect fix on where he was. His hand slowly moved under his cloak and grasped the handle of his pistol.

"You're a fool, Zero," Kira snapped. "You've seen how easily I can end your life."

"You require my name and face to do so, and I have taken care to hide them since I began this crusade."

"And how long will it take me to find your name? How long, Zero, do you think you'll survive before I catch you? Before I kill you?"

"Long enough." Zero threw out his arm, pistol in hand, and fired. There was the sound of a gunshot, and then silence.

Zero walked over to the wall he had aimed for, only to find nothing but a simple highly-sensitive walkie-talkie taped to it, a bullet hole cleanly through the speaker.

Zero put his gun back. He'd been tricked. He couldn't afford to let that happen again. He had to find Kira and kill him.

Before Kira found him.

-FIGHT!-

Light sat back in his chair, smirking. He lowered his own walkie-talkie. "Oh, Zero, you really should have thought about this a little longer. Not that I need you to become God, but you might very well have been a useful stepping stone."

Ryuk was watching from behind him with decided interest. "So, what now, Light?"

"Now?" Light seemed to consider the question ridiculous, as if it had the most obvious answer in the world. "I make good on my threats, Ryuk. Behind every mask is a man, and this man does not have long to live."

"Oh? You mean you know who he is?"

"Not yet." Light smiled in a dangerous way. "Give it three days. If I don't have his name and face within three days, I'll be disappointed in myself."

Ryuk fingered an apple from a basket next to Light before picking it up and taking a bite. "Then," he said between mouthfuls, "where will you start?"

"I should think it would be obvious," Light answered. "There's only one man in this whole country besides me who is capable of figuring out who Zero is. I'd be surprised if he hasn't done so already, just for the hell of it." He scooted his chair back and stood up. "Tomorrow, we're going to pay L a visit."

…

Lelouch opened the door to his apartment, now dressed in his normal student attire. In front of him, he saw Nunnally attempting origami at the table. Interestingly, the figures she was constructing weren't the usual swans or doves, but rather miniature versions of Godzilla, which explained the newly-found trouble she was apparently having with her favorite activity. He took a step forward.

"Hello, Lelouch," Nunnally said happily. She'd memorized the sound of his footstep a long time ago. When they were kids, it was one of the few things she had left in the world.

Lelouch smiled softly. "Hello, Nunnally. Did you have a good day?"

Nunnally nodded, grinning. "Sayoko taught me a new figure! Though," she admitted, "I'm having trouble getting it down."

"I can see that," Lelouch replied lightheartedly. "Where's C.C.?"

"Oh, she's up in your room."

Lelouch nodded, realizing a moment later that his sister couldn't see that, and ran up the stairs to his room. When he opened the door, there was the green-haired girl, eating pizza while lying down on his bed. Upon noticing the door opening, she sat up.

"How did it go?" she sounded somewhat disinterested, but Lelouch had learned that this was just her way of speaking. It meant nothing to how much she actually cared.

He sat down in an armchair. "The mission didn't go through. It was foiled. By Kira."

"Oh?"

"He killed the ambassador before we could reach him, and offered me an ultimatum. I replied in kind."

"And now one of you will be dead within the week, and you want me to help you make sure it's him and not you," C.C. finished.

Lelouch chuckled. "You catch on quickly." He frowned. "I should have made catching Kira a priority the moment he appeared. Now, he runs a great risk of ruining everything. I can't let that happen."

C.C. raised an eyebrow. "I'll follow your lead, Lelouch. Where to first?"

"What better place to start," Lelouch replied, "than with those who have been trying to catch Kira since the beginning?" He smiled. "Tomorrow, we're going to pay L a visit."

…

Light showed up far earlier than usual to the Kira Task Force building. The only ones there were his father, Watari, and L himself. His father, Soichiro, was standing to the side, tapping his foot on the floor, as if he were expecting something. Watari had just entered the elevator, and was apparently leaving to go downstairs. L was in front of their largest monitor, as he always seemed to be. He crouched in his seat, feet firmly planted on the chair, and stared at the screen haggardly. On the monitor, there was a series of seemingly unassociated symbols. Seemingly. Light, however, saw the hidden pattern immediately.

"Hello, Light." L said calmly, eyes never moving from the screen. "You're up early."

Light gave a fake smile. "Couldn't sleep," he replied in apparent admittance. He turned to face his father. "You too, dad?"

"After Kira killed that ambassador," Soichiro acknowledged, "it struck me again just how easy it could be for him to kill any of us. I couldn't find rest when I knew I could be here, doing something to catch him."

"Believe it or not, Mr. Yagami," L spoke in a monotone manner, "you are already helping a great deal just by being here. It is always a comfort to know I'm not alone in this fight."

"Hmm, I just wish I could do more than that," Soichiro replied sullenly.

"Yes, I saw that Kira had killed him on TV last night," Light continued the original conversation, hoping to lead to a certain point. "I'm surprised he would do such a thing when the Black Knights were about to do it for him. It can only lead to more evidence against him."

"There's no evidence to say that the Black Knights ever intended to kill the ambassador," L murmured. "In fact, there's a fair amount of it going against that idea."

Soichiro's head snapped up. "Do you think Zero and Kira are working together? That could explain how Zero rose to power so quickly-"

"No," L interrupted. "It's a possibility, but an incredibly small one. I find it highly unlikely that either Zero or Kira would be able to stand working with a partner just as powerful as themselves."

"What about the second Kira?" Light questioned. "I thought we'd established that he or she is currently working with the first Kira."

"Nothing is ever certain, Light," L reminded him, "And I wasn't talking about the power to kill. It's been obvious from the start that the second Kira is nowhere near as intelligent as the first Kira, and is acing far more like a pawn in his game. No, I believe that neither Zero nor Kira would ever like to work with someone as intelligent as themselves. They would always be too afraid that the other was going to steal their power from them."

"And how do you know this?" Light questioned.

"Because, Light," L answered honestly, "I'm always afraid that you will steal my power from me."

"Ryuzaki," Light replied in fake shock, referring to L with the name he had previously requested, "I would never do that!"

"Sometimes I wonder. As I've stated before, Light, nothing is ever certain."

Light backed up the conversation. "Well, okay, if Kira and Zero aren't working together, then what is going on? I can't imagine that little encounter didn't have consequences."

"That's a simple matter," L told him. "It appears to me that Kira had been eyeing this man for some time, but knew that Zero would get to him eventually. He waited until the moment he deemed perfect and then, and only then, did he kill the ambassador. This serves three purposes: it publicly showcases another important figure killed by Kira, increasing his reach among the people of Japan, it sent a message to Zero of Kira proclaiming his superiority, as he was able to kill the man in a mere moment, while it took much longer for Zero to reach him, and finally, it caused Zero to finally decide to take notice of Kira. All he now has to do is make a mistake, and Kira will be able to end the threat of Zero once and for all."

As had happened many times before, Light was amazed at L for being able to come up with everything he had thought of in such a short amount of time. This, however, just made L even more dangerous, and he continued to grow on Light's priorities. If only he could find his real name…

"That's an interesting theory, Ryuzaki," Soichiro acknowledged. "How did you come up with it?"

"Initial police reports yielded plenty of interesting clues," L answered, as it suddenly occurred to Light that he had forgotten to stop by the area and pick up the ruined walkie-talkie, "and they helped quite a bit. However, I am only certain, or as certain as I can be, of this idea because of one thing."

"And that is?" Soiciro asked.

Light paused. "Because if you were Kira, you would have done the same," he stated with realization.

L turned slightly to nod at Light, the only movement he had made since Light had walked in.

"Then, on the same subject," Light asked, seizing his opportunity, "who do you think Zero is?"

L opened his mouth to respond right before the monitor began distorting. He started, and Light and Soichiro ran up to him.

"What's going on?" Soichiro demanded.

"I believe," L said as the screen came back into focus, "that we're about to receive a message."

Displayed on the screen, in front of all three of them, was a live video of Zero himself. He spoke. "Hello, L."

L nodded in acknowledgment. "Zero. May I ask how you found this place?"

"The greatest detective in the world wishes for me to explain something to him?" Zero sounded amused. "Very well. Finding the city you were in was simple enough. It just required a series of logical questions that any normal man may have followed. After that, your building is the only one in the city that has two sub-levels not connected to the main network, but still running a networking system. You couldn't be connected to the main network, or else Kira or other terrorists could discover and hack into your systems, but you could hardly catch Kira without access to the internet or some electronic substitute. This is the only building that qualifies, so logic dictates you were working out of here."

"I'm impressed," L told him, though he didn't sound impressed at all. "What is it you need?"

"Just by your all being there, you've already answered many of my questions," Zero replied. "As for what I need…I need everything."

The image fizzed out and was suddenly replaced by a blue screen processing hundreds of lines of code at once. Light jumped into a chair and began typing in his own lines of code. "He's hacked into our system! I don't know how, but he did!"

L was typing away furiously alongside him, his thin and sallow physique belying his incredible nimbleness with his fingers. "Anything that's electronic can be hacked. All he needed was a bug or delivery system that could do it."

"Then let's make sure he doesn't leave with anything intact!" Light shouted, slamming his finger on the "Enter" key. The screen vanished, and Light quickly ran through the lines of code again.

"Did he take anything?" Soichiro asked anxiously.

Light looked up, biting his lip. "It's not good. He took our list of suspects for both Kira and Zero, and he took our footage and listings of every murder we suspect Kira in."

"Along with Matsuda's personal collection of home videos," L added dryly. "At least he will be tortured for his crime."

…

Lelouch took out the USB Drive and carefully wrapped it in a piece of linen before taking off his helmet.

"Did it work?" C.C. asked from the bed as she folded a piece of paper.

"I believe so," Lelouch replied. "I never actually thought Nina could be useful for something beyond a false friendship to give my life here more ground, but this virus she created some time ago has really come in handy. I was even given a special bonus I had not expected."

"And that would be?"

"When I was in the building across from the house we were, ahem, reconstructing-"

"You mean destroying?"

"Destruction always comes before creation, C.C." replied Lelouch. "Regardless, Kira tricked me into believing he was in the room with me. Instead, there was merely a walkie-talkie. But it wasn't just any walkie-talkie - it was a very advanced one capable of broadcasting a voice nearly as clearly as if they were right next to you, and could even pick up every word I said from several feet away. It wasn't dissimilar to the kind typically used by the city's police force, but was clearly altered."

C.C. finished folding a dove and set it on the bed next to her. She began work on another. "I assume you're going somewhere with this."

"I saw the exact same type of walkie-talkie in the background while talking to L. Whoever Kira is, he has a connection to someone in that task force."

"That would be interesting indeed," C.C. replied, folding a corner carefully under the dove's stomach.

Lelouch glanced at his watch. "I have enough time before classes start to take a look at the lists." He inserted the USB Drive into a small laptop next to him. It was a wireless laptop with no connection to any other electronic device, including the internet, so there was no way of tracking it from the outside - perfect for reading stolen bits of information. The folder popped up right away, and Lelouch opened up the file of Kira suspects.

He eyes grew slightly larger, and he began scrolling. It took him ten full minutes just to get to the bottom of the list of names.

"This is ridiculous," he cried out. "L must suspect over half the people in the Konto region!"

"The Konto region contains over 42 million people," C.C. commented, setting her newly-folded dove next to three others. "It takes nearly ten hours just to scroll through one million lines. I would say that L has it very well narrowed down."

Lelouch chuckled. "I can't argue with that, C.C." He sat back and closed his eyes, doing a little math. In less than a minute, he opened them. "So the list is about 17,500 names long. I suppose, when you think about it, that's a very short list indeed. Consider me impressed, L." He scraped his thumb over the top row of his teeth. "One of these names is yours, Kira. I'll find you yet." His eyes flicked over to the clock, and he stood up. "But, first, I have some classes to attend. He laughed mirthlessly. "I wonder if you have to do the same."

…

"What do we do now?" Light demanded. "We can't just let this go!"

"Hmm," L hummed. He was writing.

"Ryuzaki, we need something to do!" Soichiro shouted.

L raised a finger. "Quiet."

Their voices dropped instantly.

After a moment, L turned around in his chair. He ran his thin fingers through his greasy hair and laid out a plan.

"If Zero knows where we are, our first priority is to move the headquarters of the Kira Task Force. We can keep this place up as a front, but from now on all serious work must be done somewhere else. It's too dangerous for us to work out of here."

Soichiro raised his hands. "That sounds all right, but where do we go?"

"Let me figure that out. We have other concerns."

"Yeah," Light chimed in, hoping that this was going exactly where he needed it to be, "like how we can continue without the information Zero stole, or how we can stop him from stealing it again."

"Exactly," L affirmed. "Mr. Yagami, why don't you see if your former friends in the police department can get you copies of the tapes I've written on this note. I'm sure a few of them owe you favors."

Soichiro stepped up and grasped the note. "I'll do what I can."

"Light, I have another job for you, one that is equally as important."

Light stepped up. "I'm happy to help."

L reached into his pocket and fished out a computer drive. "This is a duplicate copy of my list of suspects for Zero, along with videos of nearly every event he was sighted at. I had intended to use it for something else, but that's currently irrelevant."

Light took the drive and willed his face not to betray his thoughts. "Why are you giving me this?"

"Because I need you to find out which one of them is the real Zero. We can't afford to let him run loose anymore. If we're checking Kira, we must be checking him, as well, before his work nullifies the effect of the work we're doing."

This was going better than Light could have possibly dreamed. He struggled to maintain a straight face. "But how do you know he won't find Kira first?"

"I had cut down the number of suspects I had for Kira by quite an amount, but there are still 18,000 names on that file. It should be short work if he's as intelligent as I believe, but I'm willing to bet that you'll make shorter work of finding Zero. Because of his public image, he's much more identifiable, and the list of names for him is a mere 15,000."

Light started. "15,000 suspects for Zero? And eighteen for Kira?" He was trying to make it sound like he thought of that amount as a lot, but secretly, he was incredibly impressed, and a little worried, that L had managed to narrow it down so much. A thought crossed his mind. "Then earlier, when you said you were 7% sure I was Kira-"

"For there to be a 7% likelihood of it being you, the vast majority of the names had to have a far smaller number." L replied. "In fact, over 95% of the list had less than a 1% chance of being Kira. So you can see why I was nearly convinced of it being you."

"But we've already crossed that bridge!" Soichiro reminded him. "Light can't be Kira. You said it yourself!"

"I never said anything of the sort. As I have mentioned many times in the past hour alone, nothing is ever certain."

"Are you certain of that?" Light joked.

"No," replied L in a serious tone. "But regardless of whether you are Kira or not, I trust you. I need you to find Zero's name while I work on…other projects."

"I'll start right away," Light replied.

"No, you won't," L corrected. "We both have somewhere to be."

Light laughed. "Sometimes, in light of what we're doing here, I forget classes exist entirely."

"I had noticed that," L affirmed.

"So have I," Soichiro chimed in.

…

School seemed to take forever for both Lelouch and Light, and neither held any interest in what was going on. The minute classes were over, both rushed home for their own purposes.

Light ran upstairs to his room after a quick "Hello" to his mother and sister and sat down at his desk. However, he did not immediately bring up the list of names. Instead, he took out the Death Note, watched the news, and set up killings all throughout the next three days. He couldn't let L, or anyone, believe Kira had become inactive, and hunting down Zero would take all his attention. This took a full hour, but it was eventually done. With that accomplished, Light hid the Death Note in its usual place and finally brought up the list.

"Now," he murmured. "Which one of you is Zero?"

He opened up the video files and began watching them through. He was looking for any clues, any hints, anything he could use to narrow the list down. It took an additional three hours before he finally noticed something.

"Something isn't right," he said aloud, going back to the first time Zero appeared on camera. "After that enormous display, Jeremiah still claimed that he remembered none of it. This wouldn't be unreasonable for an insane man…" he paused to look up Jeremiah Gottwald's official record, "but this man was anything but insane, and claiming memory loss would have done nothing to help him." He clicked through several other videos, and took another hour to go through them and confirm his suspicions. "Many guards and soldiers also reported memory loss after encounters with Zero, and at each point they only don't remember certain instances where they did things that benefited Zero in the long run." His eyes hardened.

"Oh?" Ryuk asked casually.

"Ryuk," Light questioned. "Is it possible that Zero has a Death Note?"

Ryuk lifted his hand and began counting his fingers. "There can only be six Death Notes active on earth at once. There are four here right now."

Light nodded. "Mine, yours, Misa's, and Rem's. If Zero had a Death Note, his shinigami would need one as well, filling up all six slots. So, while it's possible, it's unlikely."

"A shinigami getting two Death Notes is unlikely enough, and it's usually considered a ridiculous idea to drop one in the human world. That's why it happens so rarely." Ryuk confirmed.

"It was just an idea, anyway," Light mused. "Memory loss and complete control over an individual are two very specific signs that a Death Note was involved, so I was curious. However, once a name is written in the notebook, death cannot be avoided, and the thirty-day limit is up for more than one of these cases. Therefore, it's impossible for Zero to be using a Death Note. It's unlikely he even knows of their existence." He smirked. "If L hasn't figured it out by now, what hope does Zero have of doing it? He could never compare to either of us." He frowned, and anger seeped into his face. He stood up and pounded his fist onto the table. "Damn you, Zero! This is a battle between me and L alone, and curse you for getting involved!"

Ryuk backed off slightly. He had known this to happen to Light many times. Ever since receiving the Death Note, the boy had become somewhat emotionally unstable, becoming angry, depressed, or joyously happy for no real reason. Ryuk had learned that when this happened, he shouldn't interfere. Not for his own safety, but because Light may lose it completely and begin shouting at him, exposing him completely as being Kira, and thus ending Ryuk's entertainment. That'd be a very disappointing finish to what promised to be a most interesting battle.

Light began to chuckle. "Oh, you'll suffer for it, Zero. I'll make sure of that. Once I figure out who you are and how you do what you do…" He paused. "Ryuk, it's clear that some otherworldly force is at work, even though it's not a Death Note. Can you tell me what it is?"

Ryuk hummed. "Oh, I have an idea, all right. But I think it would be more fun for you to figure it out on your own."

"Damnit, Ryuk!" Light stood up. "We don't have time for that! Don't you see? I may be searching for him, but he's searching for me, too! Or did you think he just stole the list of Kira suspects because he wanted to put it online for views? That man is smart, Ryuk, and desperate! And so am I! So I need to find him before he finds me, or that's the end of your entertainment, the end of your stay on earth, and," Light's eyes glinted dangerously, "the end of your apples."

Ryuk spread out his hands. "Okay, okay! I'll tell you. Well, what I know, anyway."

"What? What is it you know?"

"Shinigami are gods of death, Light. Don't you wonder why you haven't seen any gods of life?"

Light turned to face his computer numbly. "You mean, there are other gods out there? Ones that could cancel out the effect of the Death Note?"

"No, no." Ryuk shook his head, then stopped for a second. "Well, yes, but that's not what I'm talking about. Our Death Notes can kill any normal human, but there are those it can't kill."

Light turned back to Ryuk. "Who?"

"They've existed for centuries. Millennia, perhaps. Shinigami will run into them every once in a while when we're on earth. They were granted a very powerful gift a long time ago - eternal life."

Light put his fingers on his chin. "How much more do you know about them?"

Ryuk shrugged. "Not much. We keep our distance whenever possible, and they don't claim our Death Notes. I do know, however, that they can give some people certain abilities." He gestured to the screen. "Like the ability to erase memories or control others."

"So that's what Zero has. The ability to control any individual…" Light lowered his fingers and laughed pathetically. "That almost makes me feel cheated. Like I got the short end of the stick."

"It's not all good." Ryuk pointed a bony finger at the Death Note. "This power, Geass, it's called, can be protected against. The Death Note can't."

"How?" Light instantly demanded. "How can I protect myself against it?"

Ryuk cackled. "Just wear a helmet. It can't work on you if the user can't see your eyes."

Light sat down, and relief washed over his face. "That's easy enough. But still, to think there are other humans with powers like mine, perhaps even greater…"

His screen suddenly washed out, and Light whirled his chair around to face it. In seconds, it had reformed itself, and on his screen was, again, Zero. Fully costumed, and up on a stage. Light ran over to the window to see that the video was plastered over every screen outside. So Zero hadn't found him yet, after all.

"Attention, people of Japan!" Zero shouted. Light had always found it interesting how Zero always referred to the place as Japan instead of Area 11, it's designated name. It was a simple thing, but it made all the difference to many of his followers. It was a clever, and very bold, move.

"We have a message for you," Zero continued. He moved flamboyantly on the stage. "The Black Knights don't stand against Brittania. They stand against corruption, against terrorism, and against using your own power to make others suffer. These are all traits Brittania embodies, so we must stand against them in turn. However, we have recently been reminded that they are not the only ones who embody this horrible ideal. The people of Japan have been plagued by someone who uses these traits to the fullest, and can and will end your life without a second thought. It is long past due that somebody did something about it. So, I would like to reveal to everyone the existence of the Kira Task Force, a thus-far secret society led by none other than L himself to find and capture Kira. They need be secret no longer! The Black Knights officially join their efforts, and now mark Kira as an enemy, and they, and I, will make it their goal to see his reign of terror ended!"

There were scattered, but loud, cheers from the crowd in the streets, along with one or two boos. Most people fidgeted and didn't do anything, afraid to pick a side in fear that the other would kill them instantly.

"Kira, I know you're watching this." Zero spoke in a more personal tone now. "We already know there are some you are unable to kill. Am I one of them?" He raised his hands. "Let's find out. Kira, if you can, then kill me! Right here, right now!"

Light sneered. "Zero, you ignorant fool. What are you hoping to do, garner support? The task force never accepted your help, and they never will. Look at those people. My people. They'll never support you, and those that do can cry over your rotting corpse. But not yet. Even if I could kill you now, I wouldn't. There'd be no point to it. You're stuck in this state where you have to be out there constantly, and that could prove far more useful to me than you think. No, I'll kill you, but not yet."

Zero lowered his arms. "I know what you're thinking, Kira. You're telling yourself that you won't kill me, whether or not you can. That it would serve no purpose, or that I could be useful to you in the future. And, to tell you the truth, Kira, I'm counting on that."

Light's eyes widened slightly.

"Many have thought to be able to play me for a fool, but I am no fool, Kira. I will remain a thorn in your side until either I kill you or you decide to pluck me out. And even if you do that, there are others who will take my place. Zero is not a person. It is an idea. An idea of freedom. And the more you try to kill freedom, the stronger it becomes. I know I can fight you, and I know I can fight Brittania. Because I will never die, Kira, and even if I do, you won't be there to see it. Not even you has that much power. You may be inhuman, Kira, but you're no god."

Light's face scrunched up in a show of rage. He spat furiously. "No, Zero! That's where you're wrong! I will be God! I must be God! Who else will be fit to rule the new world? You…you aren't even worthy to tie my shoelaces! There will be a new world, Zero, but you won't be in it!" He took out a wireless disposable phone and dialed a number. It only took a few seconds before it was picked up.

"Watari," Light demanded, "Get me L."

…

Suzaku was getting a Lancelot a tune-up (which always, oddly enough, seemed to include an upgrade) when Zero appeared. He watched the announcement with more interest than the others around him. As Princess Euphemia's personal knight, he had a personal stake in the matter of not only the Brittanian Empire, but in Zero himself as well. However, as he continued to listen to Zero, he found his thoughts shifting.

"Hmm, there he goes again," muttered Lloyd Asplund, creator of the Lancelot and also the only person Suzaku trusted with it, "trying to convince the world he's on their side."

"Hey," Suzaku questioned, "I know Zero is a terrible person, and he's destroying the empire-"

"And, for some reason, the emperor still doesn't consider him a threat," Lloyd went off of Suzaku's statement.

"Yeah, I know, but…what about Kira?"

"What about Kira?"

"Well, he's not exactly much better, but nobody is taking any action against him. They're all focused on Zero."

"As you should be," replied Lloyd. "That's your job. Besides, the Kira Task Force has that handled."

"Unofficially. They aren't even supposed to exist. And If they're working with Zero, I doubt they have it handled."

"Hmm, well, what can you do?" Lloyd asked the question rhetorically, and continued with the tune-up.

"Maybe nothing," Suzaku muttered. But there was someone who could do something. "I'll be back in a few seconds."

"Yes, yes, take your time," Lloyd answered disinterestedly.

Suzaku walked out of the room, brought out a phone, and placed a call. Seconds later, it was picked up.

"Suzaku? I was about to call you."

"Hey, Lelouch," Suzaku replied. He glance back at the TV. Zero was still going strong. There was a time when he suspected Lelouch could be Zero, but there were too many pieces of evidence against the idea. Besides, he really didn't want that to be true. "I need a favor."

"Anything."

"I'm doing some work with the empire-"

"Oh, yes, you're Euphie's royal knight now, right?"

Suzaku bit his lip. "You weren't supposed to know that."

"Just because I don't support Brittania doesn't mean I don't keep tabs on my siblings. You better treat her well."

Suzaku nodded, even though Lelouch couldn't see it. "Of course. But this work has its…limits. I'm not allowed to touch the Kira investigation."

"You say that like there is a Kira investigation."

"I know, we haven't done much, but we have done some things. What I'm saying is…look, if you meet me at the school in an hour, I can give you some files. Everything we have on Kira."

"Why?"

"Because I believe that you stand a better chance of figuring out who it is than all of us over here combined. And because you're not associated with anyone, you can work freely. If you could even get a few suspects, I could probably work something out. I know, this is asking a lot, but-"

"I'll do it."

"Wha- really?"

"Nobody else is doing anything, and if the Task Force, if there truly is one, has sided with Zero, that means they can't be trusted, either. It's a little dangerous, but I've known danger all my life. Kira doesn't scare me."

Suzaku sighed in releif. "Thank you, Lelouch."

"Of course. That's what friends are for. Don't worry, I'll be careful."

"Okay. I'll meet you at the school in an hour."

"Right. See you then."

…

Lelouch hung up and watched from his home as the recording he'd made was broadcast everywhere. It was amazing what people would believe was live just because you put the word in the top-left. "The plan worked. I've moved four ways against Kira. Let's see which way moves back first. Then, we'll know where he is."

"This could backfire, you know," C.C claimed. "What if he discovers the name of another Black Knight? How much are you willing to lose to stop him?"

Lelouch narrowed his eyes. "A long time ago, I had to decide whether the means could justify the end. I decided they had to, for otherwise nobody could ever act out against oppression like this. I will sacrifice as much as I need to in order to see Kira either captured or dead." He shifted his focus away from the screen and to her. "Speaking of Kira and Death, how is it that Kira kills without having to be there? A first, I thought it was a form of Geass, but my studies of the killings have shown this to be physically impossible. He must have some alternate way of doing it."

"Yes, he must," agreed C.C. "Besides, if it was Geass, I likely would have heard of it by now."

"So, C.C. You've lived for centuries, and know more about Geass and otherworldly powers than anyone I know, including other members of the Code. Do you know of anything he could be using?"

C.C. shifted around and frowned as a thought crossed her head. "As a matter of fact, there is something. I hadn't thought of it before, because one hadn't appeared in so long…"

"What hadn't appeared?"

She met his gaze. "You already know about God. And you know about us. We act as gods of life, essentially. But there are gods of death, too."

"Other beings that can bestow powers beyond the Code?"

"Yes and no." She sat up. "Shinigami live in their own world, where they watch over many planets like this one. They can kill a human just by knowing their face - though they can't kill a member of the Code. Every once in a while, though, a shinigami will come to earth itself. They're invisible to human eyes, but will still change the course of history. The Code have known about shinigami for millennia, but they are so rarely seen it doesn't matter that much."

"What more do you know about them?"

"Not much. The Code and shinigami keep their distance from each other. But I do know that sometimes, when they come to earth, they will give their powers to a human."

Lelouch stuck his tongue in his cheek. "Granting the human the ability to kill any other human." He laughed. "What I wouldn't give to have received that…"

"It's not all good," she claimed, pointing a milk-white finger at his eyes. "Geass is imbued into a person. Besides killing that individual or having them kill one of the Code, they can't get rid of it. However, the shinigami must use a certain weapon to kill."

"A weapon?" Lelouch's eyes lit up. "A weapon can be stolen or destroyed. Theoretically, we could take Kira's power away from him without even laying a finger on him. What kind of weapon is it?"

C.C. shook her head. "That's the problem. I don't know. Very few of us do."

Lelouch nodded. "But still, I imagine a god of death is easier to find than the person. We find the shinigami, we find Kira."

"Remember, you can't see him."

"Everything leaves a trail. It's possible his is easier to track than Kira's. It's worth looking into." He looked at her. "Thank you, C.C." And he sounded genuinely grateful. C.C. just nodded in turn.

…

"Alright. Thank you, Ryuzaki." Light hung up. He chuckled. "Oh, Zero. Making that video was the biggest mistake of your life."

Ryuk hovered beside him, clearly curious about their conversation. "So, what's the news?"

Light was only too happy to have someone to explain it to. "I suspected from the beginning that the video was fake. That is, that it was a recording instead of being live. I simply had to ask L to run it through a desconstructor to discover the truth. Lo and behold, the 'Live' symbol was edited in after recording. Zero was trying to mislead me. But why, I asked? Well, that's simple. He knew the first thing I would do would be to check to see which of my suspects was unaccounted for during the broadcast, narrowing down my search to only a few. Since that search still had to exclude him, he would make sure to be busy just enough to seem innocuous, but not busy enough to seem suspicious, especially considering there's a terrorist on every screen in the country. The simplest and most elegant solution was to arrange for someone to call him. I knew he would do this, so I also asked L to look through our composite cellular data dump and see every name called during the broadcast. He sent the list to me." Light's phone beeped. "And here it is," he continued.

He connect the phone to his computer with a charger, imported the list, and set up a quick code to cross-reference it with the list of suspects. Within five minutes, it was done. Light looked at the names once. "And thus, 15,000 becomes 300." He cracked a smile.

"Doesn't that seem risky? To just dismiss that many people on a hunch?" Ryuk asked.

Light looked hurt. "Ryuk, I'm disappointed. Have a little more faith in me. I've been studying Zero's personality well before this all began. Trust me, he's one of these 300."

"And if he's not?"

Light shrugged. "Then I'll die. But I'm not worried. I'm positive that one of these names is Zero's real identity." He rubbed his hands together. "And the list is so short now," he mused. "We're getting close to the end. I can feel it."

…

Lelouch closed his eyes. It'd been two hours since the broadcast ended, and Kira had not taken the bait as well as he hoped he would. He had already received the disk from Suzaku, but he wanted to wait until he had more of his own data before he jumped to conclusions.

"Well," he declared, getting up, "this has gone on a little too slowly for my tastes. I'll be out visiting, C.C. When you see Sayoko, please tell her I've gone to see a friend, and to take care of Nunnally's bedtime requirements."

"Of course," replied C.C. She was eating a slice of pizza, of course - when she wasn't making origami, that was always what she seemed to be doing.

Lelouch walked out of the building. On the file he had stolen were the personal home videos of a member of the Anti-Kira Task Force by the name of Matsuda. By paying careful attention to the videos, he'd extrapolated a location for the house. He already knew Kira knew someone inside the Task Force or could even be someone inside the task force. He just needed to know how wide that circle was.

He took a train and arrived shortly. He knocked sharply on the door three times, and, when it opened, did his best to look like a bright-eyed, hopeful student.

"Hello! My name is Lelouch Lamperouge, and I'm studying at Ashford Academy."

"Oh," the man was somewhat pale-faced with disheveled hair, but looked pleasant enough. He had a kind of awkwardness about him, like he never quite knew what to say or do at any given moment. "You're a Brittanian."

"That's right."

"Then you don't want anything to do with an eleven like me."

"On the contrary. I'm doing a report on Area 11's central police force, and I'm trying to get some exclusive interviews with former members. Can I talk to you?"

"Oh, uh, sure, I guess so! But some of that stuff is top secret, and I can't tell you about that, obviously."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't pry." Lelouch smiled. "If I could step in-"

"Of course!" Matsuda opened the door up to him.

Lelouch and Matsuda went into the living room, where Lelouch sat down on a chair, and Matsuda sat across from him.

"Now," Lelouch said, and appeared to rub his eyes, "tell me whatever I want to know." As he said the last half of the sentence, he lowered his arm, revealing his red eyes with the symbol of a bird permanently locked in.

His Geass ran into Matsuda's mind, who then sat up straighter and declared "I will tell you whatever you wish to know, my king."

Lelouch replaced the contacts and began asking his questions. "Name everyone on the Anti-Kira Task Force."

"L, though we call him Ryuzaki, Watari, Chief Yagami, his son Light, Aiber, Wedy, Hideki Ide, Mogi, Aizawa was gone for a while, but now he's back, Ukita was killed by the second Kira, and me."

Lelouch frowned. "The second Kira?"

"Yes."

"There are two Kiras?"

"Ryuzaki thinks so."

Lelouch sat back. "You know what? Why don't you just tell me everything about the Task Force, starting from the beginning?"

Matsuda nodded and began.

…

"Oh, what is this, Zero? Have I found you?" Light questioned.

"What is it?" Ryuk asked, chewing loudly on an apple.

Light smiled maliciously. "On a hunch, I decided to look up each of these names in the national registry. If I know Zero, and I do know Zero, he's a little too overprotective." He clicked a link, bringing him to a page in the registry. "And it may very well have cost him his life."

"Lelouch Lamperouge? What's so special about this guy?" Ryuk wondered aloud.

"What's so special is that this is the only one out of all of the names without a picture. Every name on the registry legally has to have a dated picture, but somebody has removed this one."

Ryuk bit into the apple again. "And you think he removed his?"

"He knows I can't kill him if I don't know what his face looks like. It seems as though he decided to remove his face from the national record."

Ryuk laughed. "Seems like a rookie mistake to me. Are we sure it's not coincidence?"

"It could be, but I don't think so. And it's hardly a rookie mistake. If I were any less intelligent, I wouldn't have even thought to look for his face here, much less for the lack of one." He stuck his thumb in his mouth. "Regardless, Lelouch is now our prime suspect. I'll check for anything to confirm this tomorrow. In fact, I may pay him a little visit. I'd say it wouldn't be undue."

…

Lelouch walked home thoughtfully. After he had asked all of his questions, he was able to somehow take down the Geass by saying "that's enough" and then asked more questions about Matsuda's former police work so as to not leave any gaps in his memory. However, that was merely a safety precaution. He already knew every single thing he would ever need to.

Light Yagami was Kira.

He wasn't 100% sure, but he was, by far, his best suspect. Even after running the list through every modifier based around Kira he could think of and even the very short list Suzaku had given him, Light Yagami was still a suspect, and everything Lelouch had heard about what Light did in comparison to what Kira did reminded Lelouch of himself. If he were Kira, he would have done those exact same things. As would have L, he imagined, which could very well have been a big reason L suspected him so much. L, however, had a disadvantage: he didn't know about Geass, Shinigami, or anything like that. He didn't even realize there were forces above natural at work in the world. But lelouch knew. And because he did, much more made sense to him - including the period of some months when Light had gone through the procedure that had convinced everyone, even L, that Light couldn't be Kira. That could be explained away as forced memory loss on Light's part using his otherworldly powers. Lelouch had done something very similar himself when facing Mao for the second time

So, yes, Light was Lelouch's number one suspect. And even though he wasn't certain, a little visit couldn't hurt. Tomorrow, Lelouch would stop by the Yagami household. He would get his proof then.

…

The next morning, Light took a slightly different way to the university. This way brought him past Ashford Academy, and he stopped to look in a little.

"Look at that, Ryuk," He pointed across the yard, where a girl was making a mark on the school wall.

"So, she's marking the days of school. So what?" Ryuk asked.

Light shook his head. "If you add up the marks and go backwards, that day is well past the beginning of the school year. In fact, it's hardly significant at all." He paused. "However, it is only a few days before Zero revealed himself to the world, and only a day after Clovis' death. If I were Zero, and I were attending this school, I'd want to know as much about my new abilities as possible - including how long they last." He gestured again to the girl, who, by now, had finished marking the wall. She noticed his wave, giggled, and ran off. "A very smart move." He laughed. "Unfortunately, it's also a costly mistake. Come on, Ryuk, we don't want to be late."

…

After school the next day, Lelouch went to his apartment, made sure everything would be fine for Nunnally until later, and then left to visit the Yagami household. Little did he know that Light himself had just left to visit Lelouch's own apartment.

Shortly after Lelouch knocked on the door, it was answered by a cheerful young girl with laughter in her eyes. "Hi!" she said happily.

Lelouch smiled. "You must be Sayu. Light talks about you quite a bit."

"Yep, that's me!" Sayu beamed. Then she stopped in surprise. 'Wait, my brother talks about me with his friends?!"

Lelouch laughed lightheartedly. "Don't worry, it's all good things. I'm here to visit Light. Is he around?"

"Oh, no, you just missed him. But you can wait up in his room, and he should be back soon!"

Lelouch nodded. This was a better outcome than he had expected. "I would like that very much, thank you."

After being shown up to Light's room, Lelouch watched Sayu go down the stairs before cracking open the door. But the moment he turned the handle, he saw a piece of paper lodged between the doorframe and the door itself. Lelouch bit his lip. That was too simple a trick for someone like Kira. If Light was Kira, this would just be a distraction. The real trick to see if someone had been in his room would be something else. He opened the door and let the paper flutter to the ground. As he opened it, he listened carefully, and then he heard it - a snap, like something very small was breaking. His thoughts immediately turned to the door hinge, and he turned to inspect them. Surely enough, inside one of the hinges was a now-broken pen. Luckily, Lelouch knew he had a pen of the same make in his school bag. He fished around for it, brought it out, and swapped the broken one for it.

Now he turned around to inspect the rest of the room. It was very dark, so he turned on the light. It shone brightly, like the bulb was brand-new. The first thing his eyes fell upon was a key inserted into a locked drawer in his dresser. Carefully opening it, he found nothing but a diary inside. He took out the diary and skimmed it, but there was nothing of interest inside of it.

No, he thought. That can't be it. But, try as he might he couldn't find a fake bottom, secret panel, or anything of the sort - though the was a slightly off scent in the air, a little like something was burning, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from. He looked at the top of the desk. Some basic homework materials, and a couple pens neatly tucked away. He casually picked one up and tried to write on his hand with it, only to find it was out of ink. He shrugged. He investigated the rest of the room, but turned up with nothing, until he finally sat down in a chair and began to think.

…

"May I get it?" Nunnally asked C.C. when there was a knock on the door.

"That wasn't Lelouch's knock," C.C. reminded her.

"I know, but just because I'm blind and can't walk doesn't mean I'm useless. I can still get the door."

C.C. nodded. "Very well, then."

Nunnally wheeled over to the door and opened it, to be greeted by a strange young man. He lifted his hands behind his head and laughed nervously. "Um, hi. My name is-"

"Light Yagami," C.C. finished for him.

Light's eyes narrowed. "Do I know you?"

"No, but I know you."

Light stared, a thousand thoughts going through his mind before she finally said "You had a perfect score on the To-Oh University Entrance Exam. There are few who have accomplished that."

"Oh," he replied. He smiled weakly. "Well, it wasn't that big a deal. Besides, another guy did it, too. On the same day." He bent down to Nunnally. "I'm here to see Lelouch."

"Oh, you're one of my brother's friends? That's great! He's not here right now, but he'll be back soon. You can wait for him!"

"Oh, I'll just wait a little while," Light answered. In truth, he was elated. This had gone far better than he had hoped.

Nunnally wheeled out of his way. "My name is Nunnally, and this is C.C. She's my brother's fiancée." She giggled.

Ryuk coughed heavily, and Light glared in his direction, but his face softened as soon as he heard the next words out of Ryuk's mouth.

"Light, C.C. is an immortal's name."

Light made his way over to C.C. and smoothly took her hand. He smiled. "A pleasur eto meet you. What a…unique name."

"Thank you," she said somewhat disinterestedly. Her eyes seemed to pierce his soul, as if she knew everything about him from a glance. Light suddenly found himself uneasy. There were very few people who could do that.

"Take a seat here," C.C. told him, patting the table.

"Ah, yes, thank you. I won't be too long." In truth, Light had already found more than he'd ever need. He was convinced.

Lelouch Lamperouge was Zero.

…

Lelouch only stayed an hour longer in the room before deciding to head back. He requested Sayu to not tell Light he'd been there (it was supposed to be a surprise, he'd said, but he could do it another day), and was fairly satisfied with what he'd already seen. He was convinced that Light Yagami was Kira.

With that in mind, he still had two stops to make. He could make one of them now, in fact. He found a phone booth by the street, stepped into it, inserted the money, and made a call. The phone rang, and then was picked up.

"Hello?"

Lelouch tried to make his voice sound desperate. "Suzaku, it's Lelouch."

"Lelouch? You sound like you're in trouble."

"I've been looking into what you gave me, and I think I have a lead - but it could turn out to be dangerous."

"Lelouch, a lead is all I asked for. You don't have to go any further!"

"If I don't, this lead could be lost forever! Look, Suzaku…if I die in the next two days, Kira's real name is Light Yagami. Tell L. Tell him Lelouch Vi Brittania said so."

"You want me to use your real name?"

"If I'm dead, it's not like I'm going to be using it. Besides, something tells me that name will have more sway."

"Lelouch, you're not going to die. I won't let-"

"Suzaku, sometimes things happen that we just can't control. I know that more than anyone. Just…promise me that if I go, you'll take care of Nunnally."

"Lelouch-"

"Swear it, Suzaku."

"I swear. I won't leave her alone."

Lelouch sighed in relief. "Thank you, Suzaku. I'll see you tomorrow, if I'm still around to see you." He hung up.

Perfect.

He continued walking, heading straight for home. Heading in the exact opposite direction, directly in front of him, was none other than Light Yagami himself. The two passed each other, and if either noticed, they didn't show it.

…

Light got home and immediately went upstairs. His paper was there, and he opened the door a crack, and his pen was there - or was it? The handle of the door hadn't been the five degrees south he always set it at. That's why the paper and the pen were there. He opened the door fully and took another look at the pen. He laughed derisively.

"It looks like somebody tried to prevent my noticing they entered this room. But they forgot something. The pen I always put in here is exactly half empty. Never more, never less. That's to prevent a situation just like this. This pen is almost full, and it doesn't have the same scratches as the other. Somebody replaced this pen." He took the pen out and opened the door. "Sayu, was someone here while I was gone?"

Sayu skipped up to his door and shook her head. "Nope!"

Light laughed. "Sayu," he teased, "you're a terrible liar. It's written all over your face. Lelouch came by, didn't he?"

Sayu's face fell. "Aw, man. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to spoil the-"

"It's quite all right, Sayu." Light smiled. "Thanks for trying to keep the secret."

She left the door, and he closed it. Then he punched the wall. "I'm such an idiot!" he seethed. "I leave the Death Note here, unprotected, while I'm being hunted by Zero himself. And then I leave and let Zero into my house and into my room!"

"Hey," Ryuk told him, "before you get all whiny, why don't you see if the Death Note is still there? You hid it well, after all."

Seeing he was right, Light seized a pen from his desk. He unscrewed the cap and took out the tube. He then used the tube to push up through a in the bottom of the drawer, opening a false bottom. Underneath the bottom was the Death Note, surrounded by wiring that would erupt into flames if the bottom was opened by anything but the inner tube of a ballpoint pen. The Death Note looked completely undisturbed. He took it out and inspected every inch of it, then breathed a sigh of relief.

"Nothing's wrong. Nothing's changed or missing, and it has no markings that form when a page vanishes. It's like he didn't even touch it. Which I hope he didn't." Light placed the Death Note back in its place and covered it all back up. He scrunched up his nose. "Something was up at that house. They were hiding more than one secret. Why do I feel like if I wrote "Lelouch Lamperouge" in the Death Note, he still wouldn't die?"

"Maybe because you still haven't seen his face," Ryuk suggested.

Light eyed him wearily. "Yes, that's true. Well, we have the whole night ahead of us to figure that out. Tomorrow morning, one way or another, this ends."

…

Lelouch woke up bright and early the next morning, finding, somewhat to his surprise, that he was still alive. But he wasn't prepared for the grisly sight that greeted him when he looked out the window. Four other students were sprawled out on the ground, dead, with their blood painte don the ground spelling out a clear message.

I know the truth of who you are. Meet me at 9 AM where you first killed the mind-reader. Go alone. If you don't, I will kill whoever you bring, and then I will kill Nunnally. I want to watch you die.

He grit his teeth. "Damn you, Kira. They didn't have to die." He set his eyes. "But you do."

…

Light was wearing a mask, and was at the old, abandoned amusement park at 9:00 sharp. Lelouch wasn't. Light checked his watch. The fact that Lelouch hadn't shone up yet surprised him. He thought he would be more concerned with-

Suddenly, the large jumbotron-like screen behind him lit up with Zero's mask on it. Light turned to face it.

"You'll forgive me for not showing up in person, Light. Or, should I say, Kira."

Light chuckled. "Well, I suppose I don't need this. You can't use your Geass through a screen." He took off his mask, revealing his face to Lelouch for the first time. Finally, Lelouch stared his greatest foe right in the face. "Yes," Light said, "I know all about your Geass."

"I figured you would. I know all about your shinigami."

"I figured you would. Do you want to take off that mask, so we can finally see each other face-to-face?"

"No, I think I'll leave it on for now."

Light laughed. "Banking on the fact that I can't kill you if I don't know what you look like. But I do know you, Lelouch. And I know who you are."

"Then I suppose you expected this?" Lelouch held up a piece of lined paper with a single name: Sayu Yagami.

Light's eyes widened. "A paper from the Death Note? But…how?!"

"It's incredible the skills one can pick up when they're needed most. You see, Light, you hid your Death Note cleverly, but you made three simple mistakes. The first was leaving that key in the drawer. After the lengths you went to in order to see if anybody had entered your room without you knowing, it was impossible for you to do something as foolish as leave a key locking up your diary inside the drawer it was supposed to lock. That told me the dairy was a red herring right away. The second was your use of copper wiring for the emergency electrical system. While it is cheap, easy to set up, and creates quite the explosion, it also gives off a particular odor when electricity is running through it. I noticed this right away, so I knew there was a false bottom in that drawer and a failsafe so I could never open it without knowing exactly how. Your third mistake was the empty pen. Why would you keep an empty ballpoint pen on your desk when everything else was so neat and orderly? The only reason I could think of would be if the pen being empty benefited you somehow. And that's when I remembered that a plastic tube was well-suited to halting a flow of electricity. A simple push later, and there it was. A shinigami's weapon. The source of your power, at my fingertips. And inside, all the proof in the world. However, there was still the tiniest possibility of you not being Kira, and the notebook being planted there. If you weren't I couldn't afford to let you die, since you were likely our best shot at stopping him otherwise. So I didn't write your name right away. But I knew you were Kira, 100%, the moment I passed you later in the street and saw you had your very own god of death following you everywhere. By the way, hello, Mister Shinigami."

Ryuk laughed heartily. "He got you good!"

Light fell to his knees. "So…you just killed my sister?! Just to what, prove a point?"

"I didn't know you cared about your family," Lelouch mused. "I certainly don't. And now that I've seen your face, I can kill you, too. It's over, Light. Kira."

Light hunched down and began to shake. He was shaking so hard, it looked like he may have had a heart attack.

"Um, Light?" Ryuk tried to get his attention. Light raised his head, and, to everyone's surprise, he wasn't shaking out of fear or sorrow.

He was laughing.

"Oh, Lelouch, you think you won, don't you! Think you got it all figured out? Well, you don't! His eyes glinted. "Go ahead, write my name."

"Enough!" shouted Lelouch. He raised the paper and began to right, only to suddenly freeze halfway through. "Wha-what's happening?"

"The history of the royal Brittanian family is so interesting!" Light was laughing like a madman now. "A brother and sister, named Lelouch and Nunnally, banished to Japan, only to vanish, and then suddenly another brother and sister named Lelouch and Nunnally appear out of nowhere! Not to mention the brother has the exact same physical features and the sister is paralyzed and blind! Did you honestly think nobody would see any kind of connection? You thought I would just write "Lelouch Lamperouge" and be done with it? No. It was so easy to figure out your real name and plan this all out to the very last moment, Lelouch Vi Brittania."

"But…my face-"

"Modern technology is so wonderful. Did you know there are dozens of websites out there who can easily take a picture of a child and figure out exactly how he will look as man? You may have cleared your photo records as Lelouch Lamperouge, but Lelouch Vi Brittania remained. All I had to do was take the extrapolated picture and imagine it as I wrote your name, and lo and behold, it works!" He laughed further. "You still don't get it, Lelouch. I am God. And you can never, and will never, change that."

"You planned all of this?" Lelouch gasped, holding one hand over his heart. "But…your sister!"

"Collateral damage." Light waved it off. "You were right, Lelouch. I don't care about my family. What does God need with a family? With friends? With anything?" He laughed. "Oh, Nunnally is going to be devastated when she learns you're dead. The one person in the world she has left is gone. But don't worry; I'll take good care of her."

Lelouch summoned all his energy into one final phrase. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Light's smile widened so large it could fit on the planet. "No, I'm not a son of a bitch. I'm the son of a policeman and the heir to God's throne."

Lelouch finally gave out his last gasp and collapsed.

He was dead.

Light had won.

Light laughed, and laughed, and laughed. "Yes, you were a thorn in my side, Zero. So how's that for plucking you out?!"

He was suddenly tapped on the shoulder. He whirled around, and was suddenly met with a command of "Be still!"

Lelouch's Geass ran into his mind and settled. Light was still.

Lelouch calmly reached down and plucked his bag out of his hand. He put his hand into the bag and took out the Death Note. "I'll take this." He smiled scarily at Light. "It was an excellent performance, wouldn't you say? Ironically, I tried the same trick on Mao the first time I was here. After you found out that the first announcement was little more than a recording, I thought you'd be harder to fool. Clearly, you were not."

"It…was a recording?! But that's impossible! You answered all my questions!"

"Madmen are so easy to predict. Just like I knew you would find my real name. But I picked up a little something from your Death Note." He opened the book. "Look at this. This woman you killed went by her married name. And this man, here, he had his name changed not that long ago. So it's not the name you're born with that matters. It's what your name becomes. With that in mind, all I had to do was legally change my name, and suddenly, I was safe for the night. And, not that you would care, but your sister is perfectly fine. There was no physical way to steal a page from your notebook without you noticing. That paper was from a ordinary notebook."

Lelouch continued to gloat, explaining further points of what he'd done, but Light wasn't listening. "Ryuk," Light whispered, just low enough so Lelouch wouldn't hear him. "The eye deal. I'll take it."

Ryuk showed slight surprise, but nonetheless made the deal quickly.

And Light saw Lelouch's real name as it currently was: Julius Kingsley.

Lelouch's command was vague enough. Light couldn't move his arms or legs, but could talk and move his fingers and toes. And because of the position he'd been frozen in, that's all he needed. While Lelouch was still gloating, he moved his forefinger and silently clicked his watch three times. Out sprang a small piece of the Death Note. He dug the spindle into his skin, drawing blood, and passed the blood between each of his fingers until it reached the bottom two. Then, desperately, he quickly, and quietly, tried to write the name on the paper-

He screamed in pain as suddenly the note, and his wrist under it, had a bullet hole right through it. He couldn't write on it ever again.

Lelouch breathed heavily. "That was close. I nearly didn't notice until it was too late. That just goes to show I can't be too cocky." He smiled and reached into Light's coat, pulling out his .38 Revolver. He made a tsk-tsk sound. "Don't you know this is illegal to carry around? Well, one more crime you'll pay for now." He pointed the gun at Light's head.

"Hey, hey!" Ryuk stopped him. "Sorry, but the rules say I have to be the one to kill him using my Death Note, since I'm the original owner of his."

"Then, Mister Shinigami," Lelouch replied cooly, "Write: Light Yagami dies after being shot in the head in five seconds."

Ryuk shrugged, pulled out his notebook, and began to write.

"No, Ryuk!" screamed Light. "Write his name! What about your entertainment? What about your apples? When I'm God, you can have all the apples you-"

There was a gunshot, and Light was silenced forever.

-KO!-

Hours later, Lelouch, dressed fully as Zero, arrived at the former headquarters for the Kira Task Force. Only one person was there.

"L."

"Lelouch," replied L.

Lelouch was shocked. "You know?"

"It took a bit to figure out but, yes, when I put my mind to it, it was obvious."

Lelouch took off his helmet and shook his head. "You really are as good as they say."

"You've killed Kira, I assume, considering you're still standing?"

"Yes."

"How unfortunate. I truly wanted to see him before he died. To know what kind of a person could do what he did."

"Do you want to know who it was?"

"Was it not Light?"

"No, it was."

L dipped his head and sighed deeply. "I suppose it couldn't be helped. Why have you come here?"

"To give you this, as a sign of goodwill." Lelouch handed him the Death Note.

"As a sign that you don't want me interfering with your plans to kill yourself, you mean." L corrected.

"You discovered that, as well?"

"You can hardly have one without the other." L glanced at the notebook. "What is this?"

"Kira's weapon. What he used to kill people."

"Would you not like to use it yourself?"

Lelouch shook his head. "I saw what it did to him. I can't do that - become that. At least, not to myself."

"I suppose," mused L, "that there are prices even you won't pay." He turned his chair around, looking Lelouch straight in the face. "Good luck, Lelouch."

"And to you as well." He smiled. "One day, just for fun, I'll find your real name."

L raised an eyebrow. "I look forward to it."

Lelouch replaced his helmet and left the building silently.

L turned back to the monitor. "What a shame," he sighed unhappily.

…

Well, I guess Light wasn't the apple of Ryuk's eye. Hah, get it? What do you mean it's not funny? I spent six hours coming up with that one!

Both Light and Lelouch were incredibly similar, to the point where it's almost impossible to call this one. However, Lelouch held a few key advantages - and his powerful mind was specifically attuned to find these advantages and use them perfectly.

Both were average physically, unless you count tennis-playing skill, but this wasn't a physical battle. It was a battle of the mind - and Lelouch's mind has accomplished far more than Light's had. Let's compare some of their most impressive feats: In terms of long-term planning, Light was able to predict many of his own movements and the movements of two organizations over the next several months in an enormous plan to get the Death Note back after convincing everyone he wasn't Kira. Lelouch, however, predicted many of the movements of every military force in the world, including his own, most of the countries' leaders and nearly every one of the world's best strategists over the next two years in an elaborate plan to, well, take over the world and destroy all the anger and hatred in it with one blow - a far more impressive feat. In terms of short-term planning, Light was able to predict and construct the basic movements and thought patterns of an FBI Agent within a few hours, and used this to kill every FBI Agent sent to Japan in one fell swoop. In the same amount of time, Lelouch predicted every single word and response by a mind-reading geass user who also was completely insane and supposedly unpredictable, including how long it would take this person to say those words, and plan all of his responses accordingly, then record himself saying all of this to create the illusion that he was talking to the mind-reader over live video - a feat not even the best detectives in the world could boast. And Lelouch performed this feat twice, the second time against Schniezal, a strategist who could have very well matched Light in intellect. When it comes to opponents, Light only ever faced two strategists with anywhere near his intelligence, and only defeated one of them, while Lelouch faced at least four, and defeated all of them. At his prime, Light had a few countries running scared. At his prime, Lelouch had the entire world running scared. In the end, Light was outmatched and eventually killed well before his full plan could come to fruition, and Lelouch's plan, well, did come to fruition completely despite the best efforts of the entire world. He only "died" at the exact moment he predicted and needed to in order for his plan to be complete.

Besides Lelouch being somewhat mentally superior, his Geass is a far more viable tool than the Death Note. Even ignoring most of the lesser known of the dozens upon dozens of the Death Note's many rules and restrictions, it still requires a victim's name and face and enough time to write it down before it will kill that person, while Geass merely requires fleeting eye contact and a few words. The Death Note can only kill somebody and somewhat control them in the moments before their death, but Geass can force that person to do, or try to do, pretty much anything. Heck, the Death Note can't even force someone to do something they would never normally do, and Lelouch's Geass forced Euphiemia, a.k.a. the world's most innocent, loving, peaceful soul, to kill every Japanese she could find (including the man she was in love with), and only elicited a few moments of struggle. Yes, Geass can be cancelled out and the Death Note can't, but only by certain devices created after some years of studying using technology that isn't available to anyone in Light's world. It's pretty much impossible for Light to get his hands on anything that could cancel it out.

Lelouch also has a few other slight advantages. He's fallen into traps less often, has far more experience in combat, and has more experience with his abilities than Light has with the Death Note. His costume offers more protection than anything Light has, and while both have handguns, Lelouch is a better shot. Not to mention that Lelouch's true name is hidden three times over, and his face is almost always masked, making it that much harder for Light to kill him with the Death Note. And when Lelouch discovers the Death Note, as he will just as inevitably as Light would discover his Geass, there are an assortment of loopholes Lelouch would instantly think to take advantage of - that's kind of his specialty. However, there are very few things Light could do to protect himself from Geass except for wearing a mask - which is already something most of Lelouch's enemies do. Even when it comes to their respective experts on their otherworldly powers, Ryuk held no care for who lived and who died. He was just there to watch everything play out - and maybe eat some apples. However, C.C. had a decided interest in keeping Lelouch alive for multiple reasons, and so would assist him in any way he wished. And while Ryuk is a shinigami, so it's unlikely Lelouch's Geass would work on him, C.C., being a member of the Code, is immortal by any physical means except under very specific circumstances, so it'd be unlikely the Death Note would work on her, either. Not to mention that C.C. isn't even her real name, so…

When it comes down to it, Lelouch just had the right advantages. He was a better strategist, his abilities were more applicable, and he had more experience both in combat and when facing other brilliant minds and foes with otherworldly abilities. Plus, if I wanted to include his full arsenal, I could have always just given him his Knightmare, with which he could kill Light any one of a million different ways in seconds.

It appears that Light was forced to relive his Near-death encounter.

The winner is Lelouch Vi Brittania.

…

Next time, on Death Battle…

A yellow-green turtle launches his fist at a red man, sending him flying through the air and landing several miles away.

VS.

A yellow penguin launches his hammer at a pink puffball, sending him flying through the air and landing several miles away.

(Bowser vs. King Dedede)

…

It's time for the first round of:

Why That Matchup?

In this mini-series that I'll do every few episodes, I answer the unspoken, and spoken, questions about why I chose to have a certain character fight certain characters over others. Confusing? Don't worry, you'll get it pretty quickly here:

The Meta vs. Black Beetle:

Q: Why did the Meta fight Black Beetle instead of fighting…the Predator?

A: While the Meta and the Predator have similarities, and this was the Meta's most highly requested fight, in my research, I found it way too one-sided. Let's put it like this: Battle Starts, and the Meta activates his Temporal Distortion. While time is slowed, he beheads the Predator using his cuts-through-titanium-with-ease Brute Shot. KO. Or: Battle Starts, Meta puts up Overshield, literally nothing the Predator has can get through to him. The Meta saunters up and kills the Predator however he wants. KO. Or: The two ignore their weapons and enter a fistfight. The Predator's punches do nothing to the sniper-bullet/mine-field tanking suit, and the Meta decapitates him with a single 300 ton punch. KO. See what I mean? The fight against Black Beetle still held many of the same similarities, but was far more even.

Q: Why did the Meta fight Black Beetle instead of fighting…Fulgore?

A: The Meta is literally everything Fulgore is and much, much more. The winner would be obvious from the start.

Q: Why did the Meta fight Black Beetle instead of fighting…the Heavy?

A: The Heavy dies in one shot with a rocket launcher. Need I say more?

Q: Why did the Meta fight Black Beetle instead of fighting…Deathstroke?

A: Actually, The Meta vs. Deathstroke would be an incredibly epic fight. But so would be/was a fight against another DC villain, Black Beetle, and while Deathstroke is more popular, the Meta has a lot, and I mean a lot, more in common with Black Beetle than he does with Deathstroke. In fact, The Meta and Deathstroke share almost no ties to warrant a Death Battle. What a shame.

Q: Why did Black Beetle fight The Meta instead of fighting…uhhhhhh…

A: Yeah, nobody cares enough about Black Beetle to suggest battles for him anywhere on the internet. Oh, well.

Q: Why The Meta vs. Black Beetle at all?

A: In addition to having been great soldiers for powerful military forces whose minds were taken over by sadistic A.I. Implants, the two also shared several other similarities, like insane durability, building-level strength, the ability to process the world at a far faster rate than anyone else, and both are skilled with powerful bladed weapons and powerful guns. They were also both mostly made by their armor and the extra abilities it granted them. Without it, they're rather weak. Both were once mercenaries in dubiously canon material, both have similar fighting styles, and both only speak through their A.I. Implants. Plus, they're kind of mirror matches to each other. Black Beetle is the strongest villain in a kid's show starring a bunch of superheroes, and the Meta is the strongest villain in an adult's show starring the most useless people ever. Of all time. Oh, and Black Beetle tends to call everything "Meat" which is an anagram of "Meta," so all around it seemed like a match made in heaven. A terrible version of heaven where everyone battles to the death.

There you go! I hope this answered some subconscious (or conscious) questions! I'll probably do one on Kamek vs. Twilight Sparkle later. Probably.