Disclaimer: Not mine.. Whatever.

Warnings: In this chapter... ? Well all over it is slash. SHALL BE SLASH! (But no lovey-dovey-doo-goodieness.)

A/N: Yay! I updated! I had a little struggle with this, and I have no beta- so please tell me if it sucks. Anyways! Enjoy!

Ja-Ne!

Game Over

Chapter Ten

"History"

-

"You must be either; a total idiot - which I am sure you already know you are-, or you must really have the guts..."

"Hyuk, Hyuk. And why is that?"

"To come back here... After you were banned. What you did was..."

"It was...?"

"You did the unspeakable. Indending to or not, you caused the Lost Land to-"

"Yadda, yadda. I know. I went there, and saw it with my own... eye."

"You went there?"

"Yes."

"That's impossible! Humans are the only beings allowed in-"

"-Unless they are carrying a Note. That naturally brings the Death God."

"... The Note was left in the Human Realm."

"So they say."

"Stop messing around! You're only digging your own grave by doing so! I demand an answer!"

"Of course. Hyuk, hyuk. Your words are my law."

"That's enough. Tell me what happened to the Note?"

"It's in the Human World. Just like you said."

"Then what are you talking about? How can you possibly say you went to-"

"-Because I did."

"Then the Note clearly isn't where you said it was! Are you going to try and trick me again? You're a fool Ryuuku."

"Hyuk, hyuk. So they say. I'm not lying though. Wasn't doing so before either. The Note is on Earth."

"Then why are you allowed in?!"

"What do I gain from telling you?"

"Enough!"

"Clearly your ban is ineffective, since I am here. Nothing happened when I passed through the portal, just like I knew it wouldn't. Besides, the laws of Shinigami haven't been broken, so your threats are misplaced and will have no effect. So, I ask you, what is there for me to gain?"

"... Fine, Ryuuku. What is there for you to gain?"

"Hyuk, hyuk. I knew you'd come around eventually.

"Hn."

"Tell me, King... Do you know apples?"

Ryuk

"Ryuk!"

"RYUK!"

"-kun."

What?

"Yagami-kun..." His lashes fluttered in annoyance when the sound of someone saying his name invaded his head and broke the almost entranced state he was in. He could still hear the echo of his desperate screams for the traitorous Death God, the sound rolling like clouds of thunder through the many hidden chambers and corridors of his mind. However, something else was knocking on his doors now. Something he was more than reculant to let in.

"Yagami-kun."

He squinted faintly, stubbornly refusing to pay attention.

"Yagami-kun, it's getting late!" L's voice seemed to come from someplace distant, although it in reality came from just beside him.

Allright, he couldn't ignore the other male anymore. No matter how much he absolutely loathed to admit it, L was here, and he was too. Ryuk was gone, and he wouldn't come back remotely soon. At least not tonight. Besides, L was right. Darkness had fallen rather quickly, and the only current lightsource was the faint, cold shine provided by the stars.

Stars!

Light tilted his head back so fast he was suprised he didn't get a whiplash.

There!

His jaw almost dropped open when he saw not only stars, but familiar stars! Pictures in the sky that he knew! Star-maps he had seen a hundred of times before! Back home... The sky looked exactly like it did back home!

He and Sayu had often sat in his windowsill together as kids and looked at the stars before bedtime. Ever since she was a mere toddler, he had dragged her into his room in the evenings, placed infront of the window and told her about the sky. Then, as they had gotten older, they both had learned to appreciate these moments, and even though Light reached his teenage years, their tradition hadn't stopped. Sometimes, Sayu would knock on his door at night, asking him if he was finished with his homework, so he could tell her about a recent happening out there in space. More than half of the times, he had felt way too tired to accept visitors, but not once had he turned her down. Somehow, he couldn't tell her it wasn't a good time.

It wasn't only the stars that interested her. He had told her all about meteorshowers, eclipses, northern lights and other solar systems. They had discussed the possibilites of aliens, flying saucers and black holes leading to other dimensions, and more than once a heated discussion ensued, because she refused to believe his always logical answers. They had been sitting there, back to back in the windowsill, pointing, laughing, talking loudly in discussion. Loud enough for Soichiro and Saichiko to shake their heads in unison and laugh silently downstairs.

He managed to mentally rattle himself out of the memory. This was a lot more important that dreaming away.

"L!" He all but shouted, "have you seen-"

"-The stars?" The detective cut him off, obviously relieved that Light wasn't ignoring him anymore. "Yes. I saw it too, Yagami-kun." There was a strange awareness evident in the dark-eyed man's voice. "I noticed when they first started to appear. Venus is almost at the exact same spot as it was back in Japan."

Excuse me?

Light couldn't believe what he had just heard. "And you didn't tell me?!"

He turned to look at the detective, whom was now biting his thumb while gazing up at the endless, black space above them. "No." He answered simply, gnawing slowly on his finger, "you seemed to be occupied." He paused and then added, "with yelling at the Shinigami and all..."

"..."

His blazing scowl seemed to have no effect at all on L.

"What do you suppose it means?" The detective's tone was solemn, and Light could tell he wasn't trying to mock him by asking questions. He realized that even though L hadn't told him about this observation earlier, the raven haired man didn't know more than he did himself.

He gave a sigh. "I don't know, L."

It felt somewhat irritating not being able to come up with an immediate answer to this. Ever since he arrived at this place, he had been at a loss of knowledge and his intellegence didn't seem to matter at all. Coming here was like being reborn. He was without all the vital information he needed to make up his mind about where they were and what was happening. He only knew the basics. And they weren't even that much to brag about. He knew he was here, that he could feel, smell, think, hear and see. He knew he could get hurt- although not vital, and that he still harbored all the emotions he had back when he was alive.

He knew L was here, but, he didn't actually know if the detective, or anything else around him was real, or just fragments of his own imagination. He had never died before, nor did he know anyone that had ever died before, so he had little to no knowlegde about the brain's activity during the process of dying.

If the state of mind and body occuring just before death was anything like falling asleep, he could very well be dreaming right could, in fact, all be in his own head.

Glimpses of a made up afterlife that flashed through his fading mind moments before he slipped into eternal darkness. Dreams.

Hell, for all he knew, it was possible that he wasn't even dead! He could be in a coma somewhere at some hospital, and this could be nothing but a chain of twisted, horrorful nightmares.

He could even go as far as thinking- correction; hoping- that everyhing that had happened the past years were nothing but dreams (and now he confused himself again, because according to Ryuk -who could potentially also be a part of the nightmares-, ten years had passed already).

Suddenly he felt lost.

All these thoughts... they were tearing him apart from the inside. He had to stop debating with himself. He couldn't walk around making up theories about... yes about what exactly? He had no clue. Light Yagami, top student, genius, self proclained God of the New World had absolutely no clue.

"We should find a place to spend the night." L's hushed words interrupted his depressive thinking.

"What?" Light mentally smacked himself when he heard that his voice came out a lot less composed that he inteded it too. Damn! He couldn't start falling apart in front of L! Much less let it show! This was what all those silly thoughts led to. He needed to stop over-thinkin things in order to get his game straight. He was Light Yagami, damn it! He was Kira!

Kira never lost face like this.

"I said," L sent him a somewhat pointed look, as if he was trying to silently tell Light that he was acting weird -which he undeniably was, "that we need to find somewhere to camp."

"Oh..."

The detective sent him another weird glance. "I suggest we head back to the forest. It's getting rather cold and the trees will prevent us with shelter."

Light had nearly snapped "Oh yeah? And who's gonna shelter me from you?" But with the help from a great deal of goodwill he managed to keep his thoughts to himself.

"You're right." With practiced ease, he changed his tone to one of composure. "Let's go."

-

During their search for shelter, while they were all but dragging their sore limbs through the tacky area, Light found himself thinking of of Misa and what the Ryuk had told them.

He just couldn't believe Misa was dead. Her! Out of all the people... He couldn't even wrap his mind around it.

Sure, more than once, he had wished her far, far away- dead even, but he had never really tried to picture it. He'd just created space between them, and told his human dog to give him some much needed peace. Of course, he'd done it with grace and fake affection just to make sure that she wouldn't actually leave him because the thought he didn't love her anymore, but she had left, and his methods hadn't seemed important as long as he had reached his goals.

True, he had been playing with her emotions, but not out of amusement or cruelty. He had done so because he needed her. The world needed her! She had the eyes, and without her, killing L and his other opponents would be an almost impossible task. (Oh well, he thought with an arrogant head-toss, he surely would have figured it out sooner or later anyways, brilliant as he was.)

The bottom point was that Misa had been very useful, despite her abolity to drive him up the wall with frustration. He had to give it to her though, just that, the fact that she had been able to affect him and his normally balanced state of mind so severely was pretty amazing actually.

Light usually mentally ignored whoever he wasn't remotely interested in, and God forbid he was ever interested in Misa!

Still, the petite girl had been all but ignorable more than once during their relationship, and her bubbly, almost spastic behavior had been enough to make even the ever calm Light Yagami drop his ice-mask and have an anger fit. At that point no one but L had ever managed to do that. No one but L- and her.

No, he thought with a sigh, Misa Amane just wasn't the person to die. She was too happy, too loud, too energetic, too... alive.

And yet, now she wasn't. She was gone.

And it was, if he had to be completely honest with himself, his fault.

-

Later, Light couldn't recall how they had managed to create a fire, but he was pretty sure it was him, and not L who did it. Not only did his hands, dirty and somewhat splintered from the wood he must have rolled between them, witness of that, but he had been a boy scout after all. Back in Japan, until he reached the age of twelve.

Apart from his regular Boy-Scout activiteis, Soichiro had also used to take him camping at that age, as a father-son activity. They would spend a weekend or two each year on the forest, on the moutain or by a lake. They would fish and hunt while building rafts and little shelters, only the two of them.

They would sit around the fire at night, huddled together, and Soichiro would tell Light about his work, and about the importance of being a importance of doing the right thing.

He had listened with a burning heart, at those times, secretly wanting the same thing. His passion only grew with the years, and the more his father spoke, the more fuel was added to the fire that lived within him. Of course, even at that age, Ligh Yagami knew he was going to become something great. He knew that some day he would use his intellect in fighting crimes, ridding the world of evil. He would become a servant of Justice. Just like his father.

Now, trapped in another wilderness, around another fire, those years seemed to lie within another lifetime- well technically they did- and he found it hard to believe almost that he, Light Yagami, Kira- had once ran around in the forest with other kids his age, all carefree and happy.

Before he knew anything about Death Notes, Shinigami or Task Forces.

He wasn't yet tainted by the blood in his hands and even his father hadn't expected of him anything that wasn't normal. Back then, he was nothing but a mere child, not bothered by the problems or sorrows in the world.

He had been free.

A loud snap caused by a piece of burning wood caused him to snap out of the almost entranced state he was in and he realized that he wasn't shuddering from the cold anymore.

The warmth from the crackling fire was slowly but surely settling in hos body, the raw, semi-wet clothes that had previously clung to his skin were starting to dry and the smell of burning wood and hot stones was filling his nostrils.

His limbs, still sore from their violent descent from the stony, not to mention hostile, mountain hill- were aching dully as a response to the heat, but it seemed that all his major wounds and injuries had healed. Just like he had assumed earlier this place held some kind of magic, allowing broken bones and wounded flesh to grow back together both extremely fast, and rightfully.

Briefly, he remembered the fact that L hadn't been limping at all on their way back to the twisted, jungle-like forest, something which indicated that even his severely harmed leg was mended too. As expected, the though brough him little to no happiness.

Flicking some of his hair out of his eyes, he let his gaze travel to L, whom was currently sitting on a flat stone on the opposite side of the fire. The insomniac sat in his usual hunched position, with his jeans clad knees drawn up under his chin, staring into the flames with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Small particles of glowing ash swiveled up towards the velvet sky where they gradually went out with a faint poof or dissappeared silently. Through the gloom, they looked like crispy, surreal snowflakes- and at the sight of them, Light suddenly wondered if it would ever snow in this place. It appeared to have the same type of climate as back home, but for some reason, he had a hard time picturing the overgrown forest covered in snow.

He noticed that few of the little flakes had had already landed in L's dark hair, and for a split second, Light felt a strange urge to walk over there and brush them away.

With a sudden, impulsive grin, he tried to picture how L would react if he actually went and did such a thing. Knowing the insomniac detective, Light imagined he would probably fall straight of the stone he was sitting on in sheer suprise. L's mind was calculating and predicting, and if something completely unforseen happened, he was flipped of the board quite easily.

He barely just managed to hold back the amused chuckle that had threatened to spill from his lips at the inner vision. He had seen L fall out of his chair in shock once, and therefore it wasn't an impossible task to picture it again.

Light felt his grin widen even more, and before he could stop himself, he had already openened his mouth and uttered the first syllables.

"Ryuuzaki?"

L seemed suprised at the light tone. "Yes?"

Deep, black eyes, reflecting the orange, dancing flames glimmered at him underneath raven bangs. Suddenly Light noticed that L looked much... healthier now than he did when they were back in Japan. His skin, although still pale, appeared somewhat more tan, as if the day outside in the rain had rattled his system, causing his bloodstream to speed up and grant his cheeks some color. The bags underneath his eyes weren't such a contrast to his white features anymore, and even his lips seemed to be rosier.

At closer thought, Light would even say he looked normal.

"Why did you decide to become a detective?"

The question was taken right out of the air, and in reality, Light had absolutely no idea of what had possessed him to ask L such a thing. He hadn't intended to ask anything at all really, and definitely not something like that. He didn't want to know. Nothing about the insomniac was important to him. In fact, he wasn't even remotely interested in the man. Not his past, not his thoughts or his-

"-I didn't chose it for myself, Yagami-kun."

Wait, what?

All of a sudden, Light disgarged all his previous thoughts. Who was he even trying to kid? If anyone peeked his interest at all, it was L, and this, he had not expected. Did he just say he didn't chose to become a detective himself?

Yes, he did!

Light eyed him sharply. "What do you mean?"

L simply shrugged. "When I came to Whammy's House with Watari, I didn't know what I wanted. I had merely turned five, and both my parents were dead."

Dead?

L's parents were dead?

Light felt his gaze narrow.

So that's why he was brought to an opphanage in the first place.

This was in fact a bit dissappointing, because in the back of his mind he had somehow always believed that the reason for this was because L's biological parents had been so creeped out by what a freak of nature their son was that they had willingly given him away. Well, he hadn't really believes this, but the thought had brought him a lot of satisfaction and amusement.

"I had already spent half my life in oprhanages, but I always proved to be too much for them every time, so they kept sending me away- telling me that the next place.... That's where I was going to find a new home."

See? Light mentally gave himself a rewarding pat on the shoulder.

You were right, he was too much of a weirdo to be adopted by anyone.

A small sigh left the insomniac's lips. "No one ever claimed to want me. They would always pick the happiest, chubbiest or most invading child and exclaim loudly that they had finally found their long-awaited son or daughter."

The fire made another loud pop.

"The last place I was sent to were about to give me up, telling me frequently that I was too much of a challenge for them. It was in the middle of the winter..." His expression changed to one of rememberance. "I had just turned five and I didn't want to travel again. I was sick and tired of switching places to live, and even thought I didn't like the orphanage that hosted me that time, I felt very reculant about leaving, because I knew that wherever I went it would be the same old sotry repeating itself."

Light could only nod slowly. "Yeah."

"Well," something new ascended in the detective's eyes. Something he could only define as a small flicker of warmth, "that's when I met Quillsh."

Oh... So that's why he looked so content all of a sudden.

Quillsh Whammy.

Watari.

"One morning he was simply standing in my bedroom, telling me that he was going to take me with him. He said we were going to a place where there were others like myself and where I would fit in."

He paused, his gaze gaining a faint hint of sadness. Light actually had the shame to cringe a little inwardly. No matter how much he despised L, he knew how it must have felt to lose someone who was practically the only father figure in one's life.

He regarded the other male in silence, somewhat afraid that L would pick up on those thoughts and accuse Light for murder again instead of continuing with the story. Something, which he, to his enormous suprise felt would be worse than the actual accusation.

To his relief, L hopped off whatever train of thought he was on.

"Watari claimed that he saw something special within me from the start."

Light almost snorted at this. No shit? When it came to L, a slow five year old would see the rareness.

"Like you said yourself, Whammy's House was a place for gifted children, and most of them were trained from the early years to do great things, all depending in what kind of intellect they had. Some would make splendid canditats for government positions, while others were more of the scientist type. There were children who functioned well socially, and those who... didn't."

He trailed off, a small frown evident on his features, something which almost made Light crack a grin.

"And I suppose you were in that cathegory?"

At this, L actually did smile. "Yeah..." He twirled some of his hair around a bony finger, for a split second reminding Light of Near, (of course, he strangled the mental image before his mind gave fully birth to it) and looked up at the star-dotted sky.

"I didn't get along wih them. The other children, I mean. Not because they were being mean or hostile towards me or anything," He explained in a low, emotionless tone, "they were all very polite actually. Whammy's didn't tolerate rude or obscure behavior." The shadow of a smile slid accross his features, "well, until Mello came along, that is..."

Light wathced as the detective's expression changed rapidly once more, the amusement he must have felt at the memory soon fading into something that was only portayed as a small flicker of pain in his eyes. Probably at the thought of the blonde's death. Again, the young japanese man felt something akin to a sting in his belly. A small sign of... regret?

No, responsibility maybe. Because he knew he was the one to blame for L's loss.

He looked away. For some reason it was impossible to meet that onyx gaze just at that moment. First the reminder of Watari, and now Mello.

Even thought Ligh hadn't really liked Watari and absolutely detested the chocolate addict, he knew wery well that L begged to differ, and the look in the raven haired man's face...

He was almost suprised when he heard L speak up again.

"I mostly kept to myself. At times I would spend several days, maybe weeks in my room, not talking to anybody but Quillsh. Some days I wouldn't even eat."

He bit his thumb. "I could go without eating and drinking until I passed out, and only when I was unconsious would they feed me through intravenous treatment. Then, Quillsh found out that I responded nicely to sweets, and he tried feeding me that instead of the regular meals they served."

Light raised a delicate eyebrow. "You didn't eat... at all?"

He was rewarded with a blank look. "No."

"Okay..." He resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "go on."

"Roger, the manager of the Orphanage, called Quillsh a fool, and tried to call me into his office a few times, probably to try and figure me out by himself and put a stop to my so called "nonsense", but I merely stated I didn't want to go. They all tried to motivate me to eat other things than candy as well, but after some time they gave up and stated that as long as I at least ate something..." He trailed off, once again looking somewhat down.

Light had been sitting completely still in disbelief, not moving as much as a muscle.

Why would L tell him all this? Why on earth (or wherever they were) would he share these things with him, of all people? This was his childhood. His memories! L never told anyone anything about himself, and especially not anything concering his past. He was a walking mystery. A person without history, without a tail of events following him! Ever since the beginning of their relationship, L's life had been hidden behind a brick wall, not showing through the tiniest hole. The texture of that wall was absolutely complete, and there was no way around or over it.

No traces were left behind him on his path, and it was impossible to make out where he was heading. He was nothing but an unmoving, blank slate. He had no identity, no persona. He was just a mask. A character in a play. An actor. The real person behind the alias L had never been visible.

Until now...

No!

That was impossible!

Light felt himself biting his tongue to the point where he was sure he was going to bleed.

L didn't have a past! Couldn't have one! At least, Light couldn't know anything about it! That would make the insomniac human! It would make him something less...

Yeah, what exactly?

He realized he was afraid of the answer.

"Oh well!" L exclaimed suddenly, making Light jump roughly and tumble out of his thoughts. "That's not important. You were asking about why I became a detective, didn't you?"

The brown haired man scoffed. L knew very well that he had been asking about that.

Tche. Back to the act.

He is just going to pretend that he never told me anything, isn't he? What game is he playing now?

"Like I stated earlier, Quillsh or Watari as you know him as, tried to make me interact with the other children, but I didn't feel like it. So instead, he let me observe them from my window. When he came and talked to me about my observations before bedtime, he noticed that I frequently used the words "right" and "wrong" to define their actions and behavior towards one another."

His gaze met Light's.

"And that's when he decided to start lecturing me in order to make me become a detective. Because of my sense of-"

"-Justice." The word had left Light's mought before he even comprehended he was the one talking.

"Do you believe me?"

The young male gave him an almost questioning look. Of course it was nothing but a shadow, due to his lack of expressions. His eyes still didin't portray whatever he was feeling inside. If he had feelings at all that was.

"Believe you? I am listening to you, aren't I? It doesn't matter if I believe you or not." He shrugged. "Even if I thought there were reasons to believe you, you haven't offered me proof," the ghost of a smirk played in the crook of his mouth, "so your question isn't really valid."

The Death God blinked dumbly at him. "What?"

The boy didn't reply, so they regarded eachother silently for a couple of seconds, before the Shinigami tilted his head. "Are you saying that your body doesn't respond illogically to anything? That you need solid proof even to feel?" For a split second he actually sounded shocked.

He realized the kid must have picked up on his state of mind, because when the boy opened his mouth to speak, his upper lip was slightly curled, as if he was about to smile. "Of course not."

This reply earned him another confused look. "Then what are you saying?"

The Human ignored his question.

Instead of answering, he walked over to a small, wooden cupboard in the far corner of the room, opened it and slipped out a bowl of something the Death God reckognized the smell of even before he could get a glimpse of it.

Apples.

Red, fruity, delicious apples. Waiting only for him to eat them. Strutting their juices at him, like they were challenging him to take a bite.

The Shinigami felt his eyes widen and twitch. "Are those for me?" His mouth started to water as the white haired boy closer the cupboard again, still holding the bowl of apples in his right hand.

He eyed him intesely as he moved accross the floor, to sit down by his desk to calmly his chin on one of his propped up knees. The bowl was carefully placed on he table-plate before him, and with an almost feline grace, the white haired teenager reached for an apple, grabbed it, and held it out in front of him.

"Shinigami..." He said slowly, distant, as if he wasn't really aware of the fact that he was saying his thoughts out loud- which of course he must have known, seeing as he had already adressed the Death God, who's mouth was now watering from the mere sight of his favorite dish.

"Did you know apples were considered a source of eternal youth in northern mythology?"

"No-"

"-While they in Greece mythos exclaim that the inscriptions on a golden apple indirectly caused the Trojan war?"

The Shinigami, now even more intrigued than before simply shook his head. He didn't know what the kid wanted him to say so he decided to keep quiet and not interrupt him. Maybe his silence would eventually earn him an apple. So, instead of speaking, he watched simply watched as the kid let a slender, pale finger slide over the fruits flawless, ruby skin. Bones and blood... Red and white. The Death God licked his lips.

"Christians define it to this date as the Forbidden Fruit..."

Misty, gray eyes lifted to meet surreal golden ones. And an almost suffocating silence settled as their gazes locked.

"...growing on The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."

He let the sentence linger in the air for a few seconds before speaking up again. "And..."

There was definitely something new in his voice now. Something the Reaper couldn't identify. Something that -had he been a human being- would have made the little hairs on his back stand straight.

"...Shinigami loves apples, right?"

-