Rem stood alone in a shadowy corner of the shinigami realm. In the distance, the sound of screaming sobs echoed from a deeper part of the realm. Rem ignored the noise, instead contemplating the recent events on earth. In the last couple days, criminals had begun dying again—Misa was back at work as the second Kira, using her Death Note according to Light's orders. Rem's clawed fingers balled into a fist at the thought the boy.

He was using Misa. He had been using all of them all along.

She thought back to the last conversation she had heard while on the earthly dimension, between Light and the other man, the pale one who they called detective.

"For the hundredth time, Ryuzaki, Misa has nothing to do with the deaths," said Light, sounding exasperated.

L arched an eyebrow at him from where he sat crouched in his chair. "The killings started up again almost immediately after she was released. Are we supposed to be believe that that is just coincidence?"

Matsuda piped up. "But Ryuzaki, you know what the rules of the notebook said! Misa can't be the first OR second Kira, or else she would have died during confinement!"

L slid a thumb between his lips and chewed on it. "Yes, so it would seem," he murmured around the digit. Then he swiveled around to face Rem, who was standing at the back of the room.

"I have a question, shinigami," he said.

Rem lifted her eyes to him in an impassive gaze.

"Could one kill by writing names onto paper torn from a Death Note?" asked the detective.

Rem gave him a long, silent look. Though her face betrayed no emotion, inside of her fear, anger and worry churned. How long was Light going to let this go on for? He had promised that Misa would be safe, but she was in more danger now than ever of being suspected. And, even worse, her lifespan had been halved yet again—the last Rem had seen the girl over surveillance, the space above her head had shown a quarter of the time left to live than when Rem had first met her.

"That I wouldn't know," she said at last. "I've never used the notebook that way."

It wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't a complete truth either. To be more accurate, it was both a truth and a lie...she had indeed never used the notebook in such a way, but she knew perfectly well that both Light and Misa had.

A few feet next to the men, the girl—the marked one—narrowed her eyes at Rem. There was a shrewd and knowing look on her face. No doubt she could tell that Rem was hiding something.

Light was giving L a look. "What are you thinking?" he asked the detective.

L swiveled back to his computer, still chewing on his thumb. "About a hundred things, Light, most of which would be an inefficient use of time to relay. However, you should know that I am planning on testing the thirteen-day rule which was outlined in the notebook."

Light's brows furrowed. "And how are you going to do that?"

"Simple." L removed his thumb from his mouth. "I will have a criminal from death row write the name of another criminal from death row into the notebook. After thirteen days, during which time both of them will be under maximum security and surveillance as usual...we shall see whether or not he dies." He delicately picked a strawberry off the slice of cake sitting beside him and held it aloft between thumb and forefinger. "It is all already arranged," he finished, popping the fruit into his mouth.

Panic filled Rem then. At this rate, Misa would surely be caught and convicted! What was Light thinking, having the girl use the notebook so blatantly and without reserve? She cast angry eyes over at the sandy-haired boy, willing him to take note of her displeasure.

He was already looking at her. For a split second, as he locked eyes with her, the expression on his face switched from one of exasperated worry into a smug smirk. In a flash it was over and he had turned back to the detective. But in that moment, Rem suddenly knew.

Light Yagami had planned this all along. He had planned to put Misa in danger of suspicion again...because he knew what Rem was willing to do in order to save her.

Rem closed her eyes, suddenly knowing what had to happen.

And what would happen to her, as a result.

Back in the shinigami realm, Rem gazed sadly at her surroundings—at the place she had, by default, considered home. But had it ever been home, really? It wasn't until she had found Misa, the girl who smiled at her like she was a trusted friend instead of an ugly monster, that she had ever felt at home. No, this place wasn't home—it was hell. Literally.

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Even so, it made her uneasy to think that she would never lay eyes on it ever again. Or anything, or anyone, for that matter. Had Gelus, the shinigami who first saved Misa's life, felt this way before the end?

Briefly she considered going to the shinigami king, to perhaps inquire after some kind of reprieve or favor from him. But she knew that it would be a fruitless endeavor.

Ryuk was right. Love was for humans. It had no place here.

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It was raining outside. Jubilee could hear the pitter-patter of raindrops against the building, sloshing against the big glass windows like angry tears. It was Saturday—a slow day, for most of the task force members had taken the day off and returned home. Today, only Light and Soichiro had stayed behind. Jubilee herself had slept in, coming downstairs to the main room around noon. L, however, was nowhere to be seen when she arrived.

She opened her mouth to ask where he was, then closed it again, feeling loathe to ask Kira himself where his arch nemesis was. So instead she grabbed a donut from the refreshment cart, poured herself a cup of coffee, and set off to find him on her own. She poked her head into the kitchenette, wandered around the big room for a bit, and then checked the stairwell.

Nothing.

A sense of unease filled her. She shook it off and glanced towards Hellenos, who was beside her. During the last few days it had taken a bit of effort to see him, but as long as she took the initiative to remember and look for his presence, he had been visible.

"Where is he?" she asked under her breath. There was no need to specify who.

Hellenos lifted a perfect eyebrow. What am I, your personal tracking device?

Jubilee huffed to herself. Honestly, what good were angels anyway?

I heard that.

She ignored him and skipped back up the short flight of stairs to the elevator landing. Perhaps the detective was simply catching up on sleep, for once. Still, she couldn't completely shake her worry. She thought of the last time she had seen him, shrouded by a hopeless gray shadow. It was the sort of shade she had only ever seen in two types of people—those who knew they were close to death, or those who wanted to be. She jabbed impatiently at the elevator buttons.

Hellenos hovered beside her. Where will you look?

"Wherever I have to, until I find him."

The angel smiled. Like Father, like daughter, he said. How far you have come.

Jubilee flushed slightly at the sound of pride in her guardian angel's voice, "Yeah, well, save it for when I actually find him," she muttered as the elevator doors opened and she stepped in, the angel following. "If I end up having to scour the entire building for him and he's not either dead or about to kill himself, I'll be pretty pissed. And that's probably not very Dad-like."

Half an hour later Jubilee decided that she had spoken accurately, for she had run down every floor of headquarters without coming across L, and her patience was starting to run thin. Hellenos had become just a dim glimmer beside her.

"If he's just sleeping, I swear—" she growled, clenching her fist. Where did he sleep anyway, when he slept?

She had reached the top floor where her room and Watari's office were. With a groan she realized that she should have just come to Watari from the start. He had surveillance of the entire building, after all. What's more, where Watari was was where L was most likely to be in the first place. She had been so worried about L's absence that she hadn't stopped to think logically. So much for getting better at deductive reasoning.

Grumpily, she marched up to Watari's door and was about to knock, when something made her stop. A distant warmth somewhere above her head, like the sun behind a cloud, made the top of her scalp tingle. She looked up and gasped.

Somehow, she could see straight through the ceiling and beyond it, to where swirls of gentle, colorful light emanated from a glowing ember she recognized to be a human soul. A soul that she had come to know well.

L was on the roof.

Whirling around, she ran for the stairwell and then took the steps two at a time.

When she finally burst through the exit and out onto the roof, the downpour enveloped her immediately, drenching her hair and her clothes. Through the veil of rain there stood a small, hunched figure near the edge of the cement rooftop, staring off into the horizon. He didn't turn around as the door slammed closed behind her.

Jubilee's heart beat hard as she took in the sight of L before her. Was he thinking of jumping? No, the gray haze around him exuded bright light and color, trailing around his slouched form like dancing ribbons. Surely, if he was contemplating suicide, she would only see a dark grayness around him. Even so, the colors around him held a silvery, faded quality, as though they were tinged with a sad nostalgia.

She approached him slowly. As she got closer, she saw that he was soaked to the skin—his usual white shirt stuck to his body and was nearly translucent from the rain, and his dark black hair was matted and slicked down to the nape of his neck. How long had he been standing out here?

He finally turned his head to her when she reached him.

"Good afternoon," he said simply.

"Hi," she said softly.

Every prior intention she had had of yelling at him for making her worry melted away as she took in the look in his eyes. It was a look of peace mixed with sadness—the look of a man resigned to meet his end.

He turned to look back towards the sky. "Can you hear it?" he asked, his voice quiet.

She gazed at him blankly. "Hear what?"

He said nothing for a beat. Then, as though disappointed, he murmured, "No, I suppose not."

She looked at him a moment longer, then over at Hellenos in helpless confusion. The angel stood a couple feet away from them and, unsurprisingly, looked completely unaffected by the rain. Well? he said, indicating the direction L was looking in with a tilt of his head. Can you or can't you hear it?

Still unsure what exactly she was supposed to hear, Jubilee strained to listen. She could detect nothing but the loud hiss of falling rain. But then, faintly, she thought she could hear...something.

"What is that?" she asked, brow furrowed as she stepped forward, closer to L.

From her left Hellenos reached out and cupped a warm hand to her ear. At the same time she felt a warmth upon her right ear as well. The unexpected sensation would have startled her, except that her attention was suddenly riveted by a loud, resonant chiming. She gave a start and Hellenos withdrew his hand

"I—I hear them," she said in awe.

L had turned back to her, gray eyes wide as he gazed at her. "Hear what?"

She faced him, a look of wonder on her face. "The bells."