In the main room at headquarters, the alarm had finally stopped blaring. The usual fluorescent lighting had come back on overhead, glaring down upon the motionless inhabitants of the room. Jubilee had not moved from her spot where she was prostrated over L's body, her shaking hands clenched into fists that were half clinging on to his shirt, half clenched together in some semblance of prayer. Tears streamed down her face and onto the white material between her fingertips.

The rest of the Task Force surrounded her, either kneeling beside her or standing a little ways behind, their heads bowed. Perhaps some of them were also praying for the fallen detective's passing.

At last Matsuda lifted his head to look uncertainly at Jubilee, then at the other men. His gaze landed on Light as the closest authority figure to turn to. "Um, Light?" he began hesitantly. "What do we—that is, should we...?"

Light, his head still bowed so that his hair hid his eyes, held up a hand to quiet the other man. "Another minute, Matsuda," he said. "Especially for Julie's sake."

"Ah," faltered Matsuda. "Right—of course."

Jubilee did not hear either of them. Between sporadic, hiccuping sobs, her lips silently moved as she continued to hold on to L's shirt, her eyes squeezed shut. Somewhere in her distant awareness, she sensed the warmth of Hellenos' presence still beside her, kneeling there with her. He seemed to be speaking, but she couldn't understand his words. He was holding one hand comfortingly to her back, and the other over her clasped hands.

And there was another pair of hands holding on to hers as well.

Slowly Jubilee raised her head to look, bleary-eyed, before her. Besides L's lifeless body she could see nothing, not even Hellenos. The sight made any earlier awareness she had had of the angel's presence instantly flicker out like a light. Choking back a sob, she closed her eyes again, burying her face back into L's shirt.

The feeling of Hellenos' presence returned then, more strongly this time, along with the sensation of another set of hands around hers. With her eyes still closed, vision gradually began to flood her mind.

Another figure was kneeling across from her, on the other side of L. It looked somewhat like Hellenos but more feminine. Wings cascaded gracefully down the creature's back, and its hands were cupped imploringly around Jubilee's fists. The hands had a familiar warmth to them, in a strange way that felt like something she had felt before. Briefly the memory of a warmth cupping her right ear, up on the roof, while Hellenos had cupped her left, flitted through her mind. And then another memory came to her.

Why don't you be his guardian angel then, she had snapped irritably at Hellenos.

Because he's already got one.

Good Lord, there are TWO of you?

Through closed eyes, Jubilee clearly saw the other angel now. It flashed her a quick, encouraging smile. Speaking something that Jubilee couldn't hear, it patted her clenched hands once more with its own. Then it reached out its hands to her, palms up, as though in a gentle plea.

Jubilee's hands only tightened impulsively on L's shirt. But then another warmth whispered through her heart like a sweet, distant song.

Trust me, it said.

Jubilee's ragged breathing stilled. Slowly, ever so slowly, she let her hands unclench. Without opening her eyes or lifting her face, she released L's shirt. Then she raised her hands, palms up like the angel's, and laid them back down across L's chest.

So quietly that only Light—who was closest to her—could hear, she repeated in a whisper her words from earlier:

"Dad...not my will, but yours be done."

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L had never known coldness until this moment. He had never known darkness, even after so many years secluded in unlit rooms, nor had he known pain, until the moment that the void closed its black jaws on him and he was sealed into a dimension of eternal nothingness that seemed to rip apart his very soul. He would have screamed except he had no mouth, no voice, and somehow this drove the pain even deeper into his being.

Screams sounded from all around him nonetheless, as though reflecting his thoughts and echoing them back to him over and over again. His very existence was caught in a loop of being endlessly decimated; first like glass shattering into a million pieces, then like fabric slashed into a thousand ribbons, and then like wood incinerated by flames into scattered ash. Yet through it all he remained cold, colder than he had ever known, as though he had been stripped naked and abandoned in a dark, tundra wilderness.

Dad...

The voice from before was weak and distant, and L didn't hear it amidst the all the screaming. Darkness wrapped itself around him possessively, like angry tendrils of ice.

Not my will...

The tendrils stiffened, as though in dread.

...But yours, be done.

There was a moment of tense, fuming silence.

Then, suddenly, a light pierced through the darkness. It cut through the void like a shooting star in the night, lifting the foggy pain from L's consciousness. He felt the tendrils release him, giving a shrieking wail as they did so.

And then something was hauling him backwards, out of the darkness.

Out of the grips of the howling void he was pulled, its furious screams chasing vainly after him as he went. As he exited its jaws, the air around him thinned and became lighter, like he was breaking the surface of a stormy ocean and finding oxygen above its churning waves.

Not my will, but yours be done, the voice repeated all around him, and he finally recognized it again as Jubilee's voice. Yet it was not totally her voice, at least not how he remembered it in life, for now it was loud and powerful and the words were spoken with more confidence than he had ever heard her speak on earth. It resonated and chimed like a thousand church bells, like an otherworldly chorus that had never known any semblance of fear or doubt.

He was traveling faster now, going upwards in a gradual and sweeping arc. As he did the voice continued to speak, in that same unearthly tone that seemed to resound throughout all of time and space.

You can have him, it said. I give him to you.

The voice was at once soft and yet all-encompassing, like the sound of a gentle wind rustling through the branches of an endless forest. Faint colors returned to the air around L as he continued to be pulled upwards. Reddish scarlet and then coppery orange whizzed by his field of vision.

I love him. I love him, Dad. The voice carried a tone of heartbreaking sorrow now, and it simultaneously wrenched at L's soul yet brought a cathartic sense of release with it as it continued, But...he is yours.

Bright yellow flew past him, warming him as it did so. Vaguely he felt a sense of wonder as a new realm of understanding began to open up to him. Love. He had known, in his mind, that he had been loved—by Watari, and then by Jubilee in the end as well—but now he could feel it on a deeper, unexplainable level. The air around him continued to grow warmer as an unfamiliar sensation of lightness filled him. Was this what it was like to be loved?

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And, the voice continued, sweet and melodic, I know that you love him even more than I do.

The yellow around him turned into a vivid, emerald green, interspersed with bright, starry streaks that continued to fly by him.

I know you, said the voice. And I know...that you don't want even one person to be lost.

In rapid succession the emerald hues turned into blue, then indigo, then purple, all tinged with a shimmery, ethereal gold. His trajectory suddenly veered sharply upwards into a straight, vertical shot.

So—Father. The voice turned from one into many, interwoven with rushing waters that sang like bell song and with whirling winds that chimed like tinkling crystals, into an orchestra of a thousand voices. The sound engulfed him like a pair of warm, welcoming arms. Into your hands...I commend this spirit.

A million colors suddenly exploded into white, blinding light. L stumbled forward onto a pair of feet on solid ground. Except it wasn't solid, not quite. It was as though he was standing on pure light. Stunned, he looked around to take in his new surroundings. Everything was bright, too bright to make out any details. Then, before him, a figure slowly came into focus. It took a slow, surprised step towards him, then suddenly ran at him full force, wrapping him into its arms as it collided with him.

"My boy?" it cried, in a familiar sounding voice.

L stared up into a bright face. "Watari...? Is that you?"

The old man's features sharpened and became clear before L's eyes. He was smiling. "It's Quillish again, here—L."

L could hardly believe what he was seeing. "What—am I...how is it that—" For once he found himself at a complete loss for words. "Why am I here?" he managed at last. For he knew where it was that he must be.

Quillish Wammy beamed at him. "Grace," he said simply, his face aglow with joyful radiance. "Love. Just like I've always told you, dear boy."

"Love?" echoed L dumbly, for perhaps the first time in his existence. Around him, colors began to gently swirl, becoming one with both him and the man in front of him.

"Yes," affirmed the old man, who didn't quite look so old anymore. His hair was still gray, but now it glowed like silver, and the wrinkles that had once been on his face were now smoothed away. "Yes, indeed," he said again, laughing happily as the otherworldly colors danced around them. "Would you like to meet him?"

L could formulate no response, too caught up in the shock of everything that was happening. The colors, most of which he had never seen before, had begun to take on a melodious sound—or perhaps they had always had sound, and he was only just starting to gain the ability to hear it—that sounded akin to the chorus of impossible harmonies which had projected him upwards earlier.

Watari gazed upon him with a look of warm affection. Reaching out a hand, he placed it fondly on L's head. "L...my dear, dear boy," he said, his eyes crinkling with emotion. "I am so happy that you are here."

Then he removed his arms from around him and stepped back. L was about to protest at the sudden distance, when the melody around him exploded into a loud orchestra of harmonic sound, all at once a voice and a song, a roaring fire and a rushing wind. The colors twirling about him intensified and combined into a prism of light. And in that light there stood a figure.

It was tall, and yet at the same time it seemed to have no determinate size. It was like a column of flame, and yet it also looked to be human. The figure stretched forth its arms to him, opening them wide. And then it began to speak.

Its voice was not one that L's mind was able to comprehend, and this incredulous fact alone was enough to make him stagger on his feet. The figure reached out a hand to catch him as he fell forward, steadying him. It continued to speak, its voice a mixture of thunder and fire, wind and rain. In its sound was the chorus of every newborn's first breath of life, every child's laughter of delight, every man and woman's exclamations of love.

Love. This was what was rolling off of the being before him in endless waves. But instead of drowning him, like the dark waves of the void had tried to do, these waves buoyed him upwards, filling his lungs with fresh new air. For the first time since he had been a child, he felt tears sting at his eyes. Yet somehow, in the presence of this being, they were unable to fall.

The figure reached out and cupped a hand to L's cheek. It spoke once more, the song of its voice rising and dipping like a graceful dancer. Suddenly L was a little boy again, and it was Watari's face that was smiling down on him with love and encouragement as he was led through a set of tall black gates; then he was a grown man once more and the face became Jubilee's, her hand brushing against his cheek as she bandaged his cuts with attention and care; and then he was an infant, held in the arms of a woman with long, wild black hair, her brow glistening with the sweat of having just given birth, gazing down upon him with a look of utter adoration.

In that brief moment, L thought he could make out the sound of words.

You are loved, my son, he thought he heard, in a voice that was many voices and that was in no language he had ever heard before. Always remember.

Then the figure stretched out its other hand towards L's chest, reaching straight through his sternum and into his core. L looked down in wonder just as he felt the fingers curl gently around his heart. As they did, infinite rays of light suddenly shot out from the center of his being, bursting into a thousand different colors that were imbued with hundreds of different melodies.

The sound, the color and the light all became one, dancing within him and around him, intermingling with the song of the voice and with the radiance of the figure before him. L felt his heart give a sudden, powerful thump.

And then the whole world around him dissolved into a shower of colorful, fluid swirls, like a dreamscape melting back into reality.

His last thoughts before it all faded away were:

I will remember.

I promise.

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When L opened his eyes again to the glare of fluorescent lights, he instantly thought to himself that it was the ugliest, most horrible thing he had ever seen. The stark contrast of earthly light, of earthly color and air, of earth itself, against all the otherworldly beauty that he had just experienced, felt almost as painful as hell itself. An unfamiliar longing tore at him and he closed his eyes again, wishing more than he had ever wished for anything before that he wasn't back in this place.

Somewhere at the back of his mind old, familiar thought processes kicked back into gear. He immediately deduced that the emotions he was feeling must be due to the abrupt transition between the heavenly and earthly planes, from an infinitely high dimension back down to the third dimension, from a celestial body back into a physical one. Regardless of the scientific explanation, however, it undeniably, unmistakably sucked.

Also, his shirt was wet. Why was his shirt wet? He'd had a heart attack, not been stabbed in the chest, for heaven's sake.

The sound of sniffling reached his ears then, and he realized then that there was a warm weight on his chest. A person. Someone was crying over him.

Crying. That was the other thing about earth. People cried a lot in this place. They also died a lot, and then more people cried as a result, and then the cycle repeated itself over and over, and why was he back here again?

He gave a groan. His heart hurt. Earthly bodies were a huge pain, especially after cardiac arrest.

Gasps sounded from all around him, one of which was close beside him.

"Ryuzaki!" cried several voices.

Who? Oh, right. That was him.

He felt something tickle his face then, and the feeling of light, warm breath ghosted across his skin.

He didn't want to open his eyes again to see what it was. Why should he? This place was awful. He just wanted to go back home. And home was not earth.

"L?" whispered a soft, gentle voice.

He opened his eyes then, surprised to hear his true name. Above him hovered Jubilee, her long brown hair dangling down onto him. Her cheeks were tear-streaked and her eyes red, filled with a mixture of worry, wonder and shock. She looked pale from fright, and her features were pinched from crying. Yet in that instant, her face became the same face as the figure who had reached into his heart and brought him back to life.

The pain in his brain, that of two clashing dimensions trying to be reconciled within his soul, finally settled and then dissolved. Jubilee's face became clear before his vision again, and he thought vaguely to himself that, unlike before, this was a sight that did not hurt to see.

Slowly he moved to prop himself up on one elbow, the rest of him still sprawled out on the ground. It registered with him that there was a bit of a ruckus going on all around him; some continued gasps of awe, men asking each other excited questions, a frenzied phone call being made somewhere in the background. Before him Jubilee sat back on her heels, allowing him some space while still staring at him in shock. A foot or so behind her Light Yagami also stared, a look of barely disguised fury blazing beneath his eyes.

At any other time, L Lawliet would have liked to take this moment to gloat. To bask in the satisfaction of having a victorious bounce back from a perceived checkmate. But at the moment, he didn't care about Kira. He didn't care about the case. The logical part of his brain knew that he probably would later. But right now, his mind still whirling from the revelation of a place and a person that encompassed a whole new dimension wherein there were no pain or problems, no sorrow or striving...he could only think about one thing.

"I...saw it," he croaked, his voice a low rasp. He stared at Jubilee, and for a fraction of a second it almost looked to him as though she were glowing with the same light as the place where he had just been. Clearing his throat, he continued, "I saw—what you saw."

Jubilee gazed at him with wide brown eyes. A flurry of different emotions passed through them—stunned wonderment, unimaginable relief, boundless and ineffable joy. With a stifled sob of happiness, she pitched herself forward and threw her arms over him, wrapping them around him tight.

L wobbled in surprise under this new weight. Jubilee's body felt warm around him, and for a moment he was reminded of the warmth of heaven. For a long beat he did nothing but stare down at the girl who was hugging him.

Then, slowly, he brought an arm up to wrap around her shoulders, and returned her embrace.