~4 months earlier~

Light sat on his bed curled up with his new book in his hand, a detective novel by one of his favourite authors Deneuve the third greatest detective – this book is about his most recent case the Seattle strangler, a man who murdered over forty men and women over the span of twenty years. It took nearly ten deaths until the Seattle police realised that all the deaths were connected and another ten years until they invited Deneuve into the investigation before they narrowed down on a suspect.

He hears the front door open and looks up at his clock – 22:36pm. His father must've returned home. They haven't seen him in months, too busy with the Kira investigation to spend time with his family, not that anything has changed. His father very rarely returns home consistently and when he does, he only has dinner before going straight to bed. Light turns back to his book, it's highly likely that his father will go straight to bed. His eyes return to the line he's reading when a sound catches his attention. Footsteps, multiple. It sounds more than two, three or four maybe.

'What's going on?' Light thought before his bedroom door was thrown open and a group of armed officers storm inside, their faces covered with large helmets. They dragged Light off his bed, handcuffing his hands behind his back whilst another wrapped a blindfold over his eyes.

"Light Yagami, you're under arrest on the suspicion of being the mass murderer, Kira. You do not have to say anything, anything you say will be written down and handed in as evidence. You are not permitted to have an attorney, nor will one be provided. You sick fucker," the officer said. Light didn't recognise the voice, too in shock to properly process what just happened as he's pulled from his room and down the stairs. He can't see his mother or sister, but he can feel their eyes on him.

Light nearly stumbles down the stairs, but the hands holding onto his arms keep him upright. He feels the cold night-time air hit his face. He hears a van door open before he's lifted and secured inside. Light imagines the officers taking their places in the van, their guns aimed at him, watching his every move.

"I can't believe you would do this to me, Light. You've ruined everything I've worked towards," the same voice from earlier said, but this time, Light recognised it. The voice belonged to his father.

Light groaned as he opened his eyes, he hadn't dreamed of his arrest or thought about his arrest in months. He's still in the Shinigami Realm, the Shinigami King watching over him.

"How long was I out?" Light asked, running his fingers through his hair.

"Not long. It is nearly time. Are you prepared?" The Shinigami King said. Light shrugged. He's not looking forward to breaking out of a highly secured facility, practically branding himself a fugitive whilst trying to find Kira and manage the mess the Second Kira will bring.

"I don't have the luxury of choice. It's either stop Kira or die," Light said, pushing himself off the barren ground.

"Then win Light Yagami. I won't speak with you again, from now on you are truly on your own," the king said and Light nearly snorted. He's always been alone, no one ever understood the pain being a genius brought, the loneliness. Even Naomi and Raye, they're smart, they understand him at a basic level. The suffering he's been through at the hands of his parents, L and Kira, but they'll never be on the same level as him, they'll never see the world the same way he does.

His body feels heavy, his vision blurs before he blacks out, he hears.

"Goodbye Light Yagami."

It's been over a month now, and Light hasn't admitted to being Kira. Criminals are still dropping like flies and L is slowly losing the task force's trust in him. Light committed himself to a voluntary silence and whilst L keeps taunting him, telling him Kira had killed anyone in weeks, he can tell Light didn't believe him. The task force doesn't say anything as they watch, but L can see it on their faces, they believe Light's innocent and Light's incarceration has only strengthened that belief. Chief Yagami hasn't said much after his non-fatal heart attack a couple of weeks ago, charging back into work after they discharged him from the hospital.

If this keeps up any later, then L's going to have to free Light. He'd hoped that something would come from this arrest, but nothing. No evidence hidden in Light's room, there's a chance he's kept everything in a secondary location. According to Watari, Light ditched his bags when he fled and, after a thorough search of the area, they still haven't located Light's bags. L pressed the button on the microphone.

"Isn't it time for Kira-Kun to confess? We've caught you red-handed," L taunted. Light suddenly stood up, stomping over to the camera. A look of pure hatred on his face.

"Can't you do any better, L? If Kira really has stopped killing, then why aren't I being dragged into an execution site" Light snapped. L frowned, he can't sentence Light to death until they have absolute proof that he's Kira and he only has his speculations. Even will the UN riding his ass to secure a subsequent arrest and death of Kira, L won't be pushed into killing anyone until he's 100% certain that Light is their killer and currently, he's only 55% sure which still leaves plenty of room for doubt. There is something Light Yagami is hiding that is curial to this case, whether it's he's the murderer, has a connection to them or knows something about Kira, then L or the task force doesn't. He can't do anything until L is certain, which reminds him, that he has a large UN conference tonight to discuss Kira and to announce they had arrested someone on the suspicion of being Kira.

"You think I wouldn't put it past you to convince UN officials and the Japanese government to agree to kill me without a trial? Tell me L, why am I still alive? Why haven't you killed me? Why aren't I…" Light trailed off. His body tilts slightly as if someone had cut his strings, and then Light crashed to the floor.

"What the…" Matsuda said as members of the task force came over to look at the screen. Light still hadn't moved his eyes wide open, staring up at the camera, they looked empty… dead. Light looked dead. His skin was nearly white, his chest still and his eyes blank.

Watari charged into Light's cell, his fingers going straight to Light's wrist, looking for his pulse. The look on Watari's face told L as much.

"No pulse, I'm starting CPR," Watari said. L watched as his mentor linked his hands on top of Light's chest and started doing chest compressions. He felt everyone's eyes on him, all waiting for him to say something to confirm or deny what their eyes were telling them. Is Light dead? Was it Kira? Or by sheer dumb luck, Light died from some unknown health condition.

"Aizawa, turn your phone back on. I'll assist Watari, I want you to send me updates," L said, jumping up off his chair, shoving his feet into his battered trainers and darting out. He doesn't want to think about his prime suspect dying, he hadn't planned for this, Light's young only 18. He's got no signs of a previously unknown medical condition or diagnosed medical conditions that L wasn't aware of. No, he doesn't have time to guess what's happened. There's still a chance they can save Light.

Pulling his phone from his pocket, L dialled Aizawa's number.

"Any changes?" L asked when Aizawa answered.

"Watari is still doing CPR, but Light hasn't… wait," Aizawa started before pausing. L stained his ear, but he couldn't hear what was happening on the other end.

"Watari's officially declaring Light as dead. Watari's taking Light out of the cell, he said he'll arrange a post-mortem to see what Light died off and shit!" again Aizawa goes quiet on the end of the phone. Unknown to the task force, the building L's keeping Light in wasn't far from the hotel room. It meant Watari can still help the task force whilst monitoring Light. L scanned his card to the building and charged inside, it's quiet.

"Watari!" L shouted, heading down the stairs to the lower basement where the cells were.

"L, it's Light. He's alive, but he's knocked Watari unconscious. He's grabbed some card from Watari and used it to escape the cell block," Aizawa said. L hung up, shoving his phone back into his pocket before hurrying down the rest of the stairs. Swiping his card again, L pushed the door open, and there stood in front of him was a panicked yet very alive Light Yagami.

Light wasn't fully in control of his body when he woke up, arms flailing as he pushed whoever had him off. Taking in a breath, Light tried to calm himself down, which is when he noticed the unconscious man laying crumpled but alive on the floor, above his name floated the name Quillsh Wammy and in his hand was a white security card.

"I'm so sorry," Light said as he took the card from Wammy's grasp. He doesn't hear any charging footsteps of guards coming to subdue him and he didn't want to hang around any longer to find out. Light ran to the end of the corridor, swiping the card underneath the scanner to open the door. He comes into a small corridor with one door at the end, darting towards it, Light suddenly freezes when it opened and out steps a young man.

He's slim, pale, and ridiculously tall with messy neck-length black hair and large, panda-like black eyes with obvious shadows beneath them. He's wearing a pair of blue jeans, a long-sleeved white shirt, and battered trainers. He isn't the type of guard Light's expecting in this facility unless the baggy white shirt is hiding what he's packing, and Light doesn't mean abs. Damn, he's hot though, in a really weird way, like Light probably shouldn't feel attracted to, but he is. Again, he lets his eyes wander up and fuck… no fucking way – L Lawliet. Is Hot Guy, no stop, Light really shouldn't be refusing to the man who killed him as hot. Shit, Light needs his body to sort out its priorities right now. He's half dead or half alive, he really shouldn't be feeling slightly turned on or even remotely attracted to the man in front of him. No, don't think about it Light, you're trying to escape the building so you can find Kira.

Looking back down at L's face. Light shoved this sudden realisation down to the deepest depth he can find.

"L Lawliet," Light says because he's stupid. Why say L's name? Why is Light acting suddenly dumb at this moment? "You're L."

Light wants to punch himself in the face because how will this help him, L's not going to let him go because he knows suddenly knows his true name and face, which to be fair is more than Light got last time. Yet, it did. L stared at Light, shocked, frozen to his spot as Light cautiously approached. He did nothing as Light pushed past, scanning the card, and opening the door. L stayed frozen to his spot as Light fled up the stairs and out of the building.