I fell. But it felt more like I was being pulled. Or sucked in. Like a black hole. For the first few seconds I was worried I would just fall and die. I was worried that Ryuk had lied. I situated myself into a good falling posture. The sensation was terrifying. I was filled with adrenaline and fear. I made myself go limp and eventually I was spat out of the portal. I landed rough. I rolled and got a few scratches.

The air around me was stale and dusty. The ground was soft, rough, and dry all at once. I looked around me. I was in a desert. A sea of bones and dust and nothingness. Many of the bones were unfamiliar to me. They resembled nothing I'd ever seen. A few of the bones I recognized as human. Apparently I was not the first human to set foot in the Shinigami World.

I heard a noise behind me and a small grunt. I turned around.

"L!" I got up and ran over to him. "What are you doing!? You shouldn't have come!"

"Of course I came, Aceline." He said in a tone that said I shouldn't have thought he wouldn't. "You disobeyed my order!"

"Ack!" I backed up. "I did not! You said I wasn't to come to the Shinigami world. So I went to the Shinigami world. If you wanted me to stay out you should have ordered me not to enter the Shinigami World. Duh." I smiled, pleased with myself.

L scowled, not pleased with me.

"Aceline," He shook his head and sighed, "Did you get hurt?"

"Not too bad. Just a couple of scratches."

"Aceline, we don't know what kind of contaminants are in this world. If you get scratched you might not be immune to the bacteria that enter it and it might get infected and you might die!"

I blinked twice.

"Lawliet, that's a little scary…"

He put his hand out. "Let me see."

I gave him my arm. There were a couple of scratches there and on my leg.

L reached into his pocket and pulled out disinfectant wipes.

"What the hell, L!?" I looked at him. "Why would you have those?"

"In case of scratches."

L rubbed the scrapes on my arm with the wipe. When he was done with my arm he knelt down and started wiping the scratches on my leg with a different wipe. I blushed and clutched the hem of my skirt.

"Don't you dare look up!" I warned. The skirt was short and white. It matched well with the lavender tank top I was wearing, not that I'd paid much attention to what I'd thrown on when I left. I was in a hurry after all.

L looked up and smirked at me.

I slapped him.

"Ouch." L rubbed his face. "One for one."

I looked down at him. "You earned that one you lascivious pervert!"

L looked at me, "A…pervert…"

I nodded. "Let's go, perverted detective."

I turned and started walking, L followed me, smirking. I wanted to slap him again to make him stop.

"Do you have a plan, Aceline?"

"Uh, no. I figured I'd just make things up as I go."

L gave a short laugh. I stopped and looked at him.

I smiled. "It's been awhile since you laughed."

He inhaled a bit sharply. His cheeks colored a bit. "It has been."

"I've missed you." I turned and started walking again.

L was silent for awhile. "You make me worry."

"Huh," I snorted, "You're giving me grey hairs!"

I felt something tug my hair. I looked over and L was holding some of my hair.

"You're right."

I snatched the hair from him. "What?!?!? Where?!" I looked at my hair.

L laughed. It was a very pretty sound. Kinda sexy too… *cough* Bad mind bad! Now is not the time, Aceline. But I couldn't help laughing as well.

"So what are we going to do?" I said, suddenly serious. It was nice to laugh, but we were in the world of Death Gods. There were more important things to think about. Like keeping the Death Note from causing more trouble.

"Hide," He said and dragged me to a pile of dirt and bones.

That was when an Indian walked by. I almost laughed. It was scary but comical. It wasn't, well, it sort of was a real Indian. He had feathers and stuff.

"Follow him," L whispered. His lips brushed my ear, he was so close!!! I blushed and nodded. L and I stalked the Indian. Hiding behind piles of bones or rocks, whatever we could find. Soon enough the Shinigami led us to a group of them. It was strange how few there were. But they were all scary looking. I wanted to close my eyes.

L and I watched for awhile. The Shinigami appeared to be gambling. Nothing much was happening. They mentioned Ryuk a couple times. I also heard Rem's name once. It made me a little sad she was dead. She had seemed nice from surveillance. And she'd only killed L because she was protecting Misa. I didn't like Misa but it was sweet of Rem to feel that way for a human. Ryuk obviously didn't care.

Nothing was happening here. The Indian was moving again so we decided to follow him without discussion. We were in sync. On the same page, there was no need for discussion.

There were death gods who looked like slugs, ones with lots of eyes, there was another that looked like a bug. I was counting on having nightmares. I glanced at L. He'd be fine he didn't sleep. We continued following our Indian. We saw a Death God I decided to name Tex. He had a cow skull looking head.

Then we spotted a throne made of human bones and skulls. Sitting on it was a Death God covered in Jewels. He himself looked like a skeleton.

Then without a thought I walked over and stood in front of him.

"Excuse me." I said politely I smiled and waved at him. I was nervous and scared but I had to do something. I thought about pushing the hair out of my face but decided I liked it there.

After a small pause there was quite a lot of commotion. Things like:

"Humans!"

"Eh? She's speaking to Jastin."

"How did they get here?"

"Should we kill them now?"

"She hasn't got a name."

I lifted my head. It was the throne Shinigami who said it. Jastin.

"Excuse me?" I said. "What do you mean I haven't got a name?"

"You have no name." He pointed above my head. I looked up but saw nothing.

I looked at L who had come to stand next to me when I rushed out of our hiding place.

"I'm sorry I don't understand what you mean by that, sir." I said.

Jastin looked at me. "You. Have. No. Name."

He was treating me like an imbecile. "How is that possible?"

"How old were you when you were named?" He demanded.

I ignored the voices around me.

"I was probably four. I have no recollection of having been called anything before that."

Jastin nodded. "A name doesn't set for a human until they are seven hundred and eighty days old. You were named afterwards, so you do not have a name."

This was shattering news to me. I had no name. I was nameless. I had no identity. I felt weak. My knees gave out but something caught me. I looked up. L had his arm around me, he was supporting me.

"Aceline," L said, "Her name is Aceline Spade. That is her name." He looked down at me.

I found strength. L was right. It didn't matter if I had a name. It just meant they couldn't kill me with their death notes right?

"Are you the leader?" I asked, with surprising strength. I was scared, really scared. I was glad I wasn't shaking.

"You cannot see the King of Death." Jastin informed me.

"Why not?"

"You would go insane. He is far to terrifying for humans."

"I'll wear a blind fold. I don't need to look at him. I want to bargain."

The Death God chuckled, all of them did.

"Little girl what have you to bargain with?"

"You have nothing of interest for the King!"

"Why don't we just kill them now?"

Jastin spoke up. He held up a book. "We cannot kill the nameless one. It is against the rules to kill a human without a death note. And the male has all ready been killed by the Death Note. I am curious to know why he stands."

Aceline dug in the bag she'd brought and pulled up the small chunk of eraser. "This."

"An eraser?"

"I got it from Ryuk. It erased Lawliet's name from the Death Note."

"The Death Eraser!!"

L looked at the eraser. I suppose I'd forgotten to tell him how he came to be breathing. Like how I kept forgetting to.

"He gave that too you?" Jastin asked.

"No."

Jastin, well, it looked like he was smiling. Sort of.

"Meadra, do we have anything to cover the eyes of these humans?"

Had I just earned the respect of a Shinigami for tricking a Shinigami?

Some of the Shinigami gasped, some of them didn't care anymore and weren't paying attention any longer.

Meadra brought some strange, dirty, ragged cloth.

"Gook," Jastin demanded.

I recognized the one I'd named Tex. He took the cloth from Meadra and brought it to me. He got behind me and dragged the blindfold over my face. I froze up. It was against the rules to kill a human without the Death Note. Jastin was holding a rule book.

"Wait! Um, uh, Jatin?" I glanced over at L. He took my hand gently. It seemed he was leaving this case to me. "Can- Can I see the rule book?"

Jastin shrugged and handed it to me. I flipped through, scanning the pages. The rules were written in Italian. I could read Italian really well though I had trouble speaking it. I speed read through the rules, reading everyone. I finally found what I needed to stop the Death Note. If there were six Death Notes in the Human World, only the first six would work, any Death Note dropped after that would be just a note book.

"Thank you," I handed the book back. I knew what I needed. Now I just had to get it. I let the Shinigami continue tying the blind-fold.

"I assume your male is coming as well?"

"I'm coming." L said. At the same time I began to correct what the Shinigami had said.

I clutched L's hand tighter. I couldn't see and I was surrounded by monsters. It was every child's nightmare. To know that monsters were there but you couldn't see them. I shuddered and L squeezed my hand.

We didn't have far to walk. Jastin introduced us and apparently left. We were left alone, in front of a monster so terrifying we couldn't even begin to imagine it.

"E-Um," I was seriously freaking out now.

"We came to stop the Death Note." L said beside me. His voice was normal, as if he were completely unafraid.

"Why?" came a haunting voice.

I took a deep breath. "We cannot allow it to be used in the Human world by humans. A Death Note recently found it's way there. I-I believe it changed the person who picked it up. It is evil. It holds a power that should not be allowed in human hands. I believe it is best to leave its powers where it belongs. Here, in the Realm of Death Gods and in their hands."

"Well said," The King chuckled. "How do you intend to keep my note books out of your world? I don't believe you would be able to stop my children from dropping their notes if they pleased."

"With all due respect, sir, I never said I was trying to keep the Death Notes out of our world." I felt L stiffen in surprise beside me.

The King laughed. "What is it you intend to do?"

"I would like you to give me six Death Notes. I intend to flood Earth with them so that any additional notes would be rendered useless in human hands. I would lock the Death Notes up and make sure they were protected from any harm."

"You expect me to give you six Death Notes?" The King asked with disbelief.

"No, but I am begging you to. I will do anything I can in order to get them."

"Would you give me your companion?"

"That is not something I can do, sir. I will not sacrifice another being for something I want."

"That's an interesting thing for a human to say."

"What do you want for the Death Notes?" I asked timidly. I wanted this to be over. I was so ready for this to be over.

"I will give you the Death Notes, if you stay."

"NO!"

The voice wasn't mine.

"I will stay, if you give the six Death Notes to Lawliet and make sure he gets back to Earth safely."

"NO!" It came again.

"It would seem your companion is not happy with this deal."

"He is not the one making this deal."

"Aceline, I cannot allow this. I will stay in her place!"

"Lawliet, stay out of it!" I yelled at him.

The King was chuckling again.

"Lawliet, why would you care if she stays or not?" asked the King of Death.

"Because I am in love with her." L said with warmth and without hesitation. I gasped.

"Why is this relevant?"

"When you love someone you would do anything to protect them. I'm not sure if you could understand the way humans think or feel, but for humans, love is the most important."

"Sir, please ignore him." Please shut up, please shut up, please shut up! If Lawliet continued like this I was going to flake out and scream and hide and completely fail what I'd come to do.

"Humans are so interesting. I can see why Ryuk went to cause trouble."

"Sir, do we have a deal?" I asked. This was getting exasperating.

"Yes."

And then I was being held. Not held, clutched, it felt as though Lawliet didn't intend to let me go.

"Sir, you cannot have, Aceline." Lawliet's voice was low. There was a pitch to it. Was he about to cry?

"You would sacrifice the safety of your world for this one girl?"

"Yes."

I was shaking my head.

"Explain please."

"Sir, my world is always in turmoil. The Death Note is a dangerous and evil thing, yes. But I can stop it. Or the other Children of Wammy's can stop it. Every time. We can find different ways to guard our world from the Death Note. I will not give up Aceline when I have other choices."

"What are your other choices?"

"Wammy's taught us, to change the world. We work for a world of peace. We can achieve this. My choices are simple. And the decision is obvious. I can give you Aceline, or we can both go back and spend our lives and train other generations to find the Death Note and user when it arrives on Earth. It is much harder, but giving you Aceline is impossible for me."

"I don't want her. I have no use for a human." The King of Death laughed. It was a haunting laugh that chilled me to my bones but it sounded genuinely merry as well. All in all, a terrifying thing.

I pulled away from Lawliet's embrace, though I didn't want to. "Then what can I do for the Death Notes?!"

"You can have them."

"J-Just like that?"

"Yes."

"Ho-Uh, I don't mean to say I don't want this sort of thing. But, um, why?"

"I have had many Death Gods die over the millenniums; from sheer laziness or punishment. When they die they leave ]behind their Death Notes. When I create a new Death God a Death Note is created with them, from their own flesh and power. I have many Death Notes. I will give them to you in return for the entertainment you have provided for my children and I today."

"Th-Thank you! Thank you so very much!" I felt the tension leave my body. I nearly couldn't breathe because of my joy. I felt Lawliet squeeze me tightly. It seems he was relieved as well.

*^*%*^*

We were back in our hotel room. The King of Death had not been what I'd expected. He hadn't been like any of the other Death Gods we'd ever met. Sort of a mix of all of them. Somewhat sympathetic, very intelligent, and very curious. We'd probably caught him in a good mood. He had seemed as if he could have swung either way.

I was looking at the Death Notes. We had a white one with black letters and a red one with black letters and then there were four black ones with white letters. They were all written in different languages, English, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, French, and Russian. It was interesting.

Tomorrow Lawliet and I were going back to England. I would take the Death Note to Wammy's House where they would be kept and protected. Probably in a vault and guarded by Roger and whoever took over after him and after him and after him and so on.

Watari had left Wammy's House to me. I transferred complete ownership to Roger. Also, it seemed Near was chosen as Lawliet's successor. We were going to leave the Kira case to him and Mello.

Things felt a little calm. The world was changing around us. Japan was a place of fear. But it's always darkest before dawn right? It would be hard for a couple of years but things were definitely going to get better. Justice will prevail.

I gathered the Death Note's into a stack and put them in the steel combination box Lawliet had bought. After a moment's thought I threw the chunk of Death Eraser in too. I closed it and locked it back up.

"Aceline!" L opened the hotel door and came in. "Are you ready?"

I smiled up at him, "Yeah," I got off the bed and picked up my suitcase. We were going to take a public plane! Neither of us had ever been on a plane with other people.

We had bought first class tickets but not on purpose. Lawliet had thrown a wad of cash on the counter and the lady had just given them to us. We traded with a honeymooning couple for their middle class tickets. We wanted to be around people.

It was an interesting experience. I slept most of the way, leaning against Lawliet.

*^*%*^*

I stretched and hopped up the steps to Wammy's House.

"Hellooooo?!" I called out. Lawliet was at the cottage we'd bought, where I'd told him to stay.

"Aceline!" A few little kids ran up to me and hugged my legs.

"Hello X, hello C." I smiled and pet their heads. "Is Roger in?"

"Yes," C nodded. She was a cute little girl, around seven years old. She had pretty platinum blonde hair and eyes that were so light blue they were almost white.

"He's holed up in his office." X told me, he was twelve. He had black hair that he kept shoulder length and black eyes. He and C were always together. They had been together since before they came to Wammy's House.

"Aceline!" I was glomped by another child. I turned my head.

"Hey, Salvador," Salvador was a protector. He was named Salvador at birth. It was a very appropriate name for a Protector, savior. I pet the fourteen year old on the head. "How is your training?"

"It's easy!" He said haughtily, "But S isn't doing so well. He got sick yesterday."

I smiled, "Then shouldn't you be with him, helping him get better?"

Salvador looked up at me, "I'm giving him a present."

"Okay," I smiled and then waved goodbye. I had to bring the Death Notes to Roger.

I knocked on the giant door.

"Come in," came a grumpy voice.

"Roger," I came in and sat in the chair before his desk.

"Aceline!" He seemed shocked, "I can't believe you're here. A- Are you all right?"

Oh yeah, Lawliet's dead.

I made myself look sad and subdued. "I'm fine. I have something for you." I put the case on the desk. "The contents must never be harmed. They must exist here forever."

Roger opened the case and nearly choked. Old guy was gonna give himself a heart attack!

"A-Aceline, how did you? Are these, uh, real?"

I nodded seriously. "They must be protected. With this many notes any further Death Notes will be useless. This will keep Earth safe."

Roger nodded.

I stood up and left. I saw no one on my way out. I looked back at the place I'd been raised for a short part of my life. At the first home I'd ever had. I smiled, then left.

*^*%*^*

"Aceline," Lawliet came in to the living room. I was reading a pastry cook book.

"Yeah?" I asked, not looking up from the recipe.

Lawliet knelt on the ground before me. I lowered the book and looked at him.

"Lawliet?"

He held his hands up and gave me a little box. He was blushing. My eyes widened as he opened it. There was a dainty ring in the box. Opal surrounded in small stones of onyx inlaid in a golden ring. The band was designed into vines and leaves.

"Aceline," The blush deepened. "Will you marry me, please?"

He took my left hand and put the ring on my ring finger.

I hugged him, "Yes, Lawliet!" He kissed me.

"Hey, where did you learn how to propose?"

"Um, Watari taught me one day. When I was younger."

Wa-Watari……..

"Do you think he-?"

Lawliet looked at me, "I think that is a 92% possibility."

We both laughed.

I was doing what I'd never imagined I'd be doing. I was kissing my fiancé.

I am important, to the most important person in my world. I am his Protector, his lover.

And his friend.

Thank you everyone!!!! I'm so happy! ^^ Thank you for reading this story! It was so much fun to write! This would never have turned out so well if I hadn't had so many readers to encourage me!

Thank you for your support!

Also! I have draw pictures of Aceline. I am currently coloring them on paint. I will post them to my deviantart as soon as I finish. Please keep checking IceAngel262 on deviantart to see if I've posted the pictures yet!

If you want the uncolored pics just pm me and I'll send them to you via e-mail or another website! ^^

Thanks again! Arigato Mina-chan!!!!! =^.^=

-IceAngel262