Black and brown eyes met two sets of red, which were staring back at the two lovers who had been working so hard to get to this point. Matsuda stood close by, his gun aimed shakily at Taro Kagami, or Kira as he'd been going by, to make sure the two killers stayed far enough back. Rem lingered behind Light, towering over him. She stared down Ryuk, Kira's shinigami who L and Light could not see as they'd never touched the other notebook. L carefully watched Beyond Birthday, his eyes cold and calculating, trying to predict what the others would do next. BB's own eyes were cold too, maybe even colder. Dangerous. Deadly. He locked eyes with L.

"You should surrender," Light said after a while, and he was the one to finally break the silence out of everyone that was around in the area. He somehow managed to seem calm, even though the fact that Kira was someone who looked exactly like him absolutely frightened him, and now they were face to face, making this all worse. Yet Light kept his cool. His eyes flickered to his watch for the briefest moment before his eyes found Kira's again and they narrowed.

"Why surrender when I've already won?" Kira asked with a tilt of his head. He was smiling maniacally; he almost looked as insane on the outside as he truly was on the inside. "You see, I knew that stupid bitch was lying when she said she wrote my name down. And now she's dead too, and you have nothing- no way to stop me."

"But what makes you think that you've won?" L inquired coolly, tilting his own head. Kira glowered at him, not understanding.

"And why are you so obsessed with me?" Light then questioned with a slight raise of his voice, taking a step forward only to be stopped by L's hand on his chest. Light took a breath and shook his head then, calming himself. He couldn't let himself get too emotional, couldn't allow his guard to lower in front of Kira. He'd surely end up dead.

Besides- he sort of already knew why Kira was so obsessed with him thanks to Miss giving him the information, but he figured that there had to be more to it. There must've been something else he was missing and he needed Kira to tell him why.

Before it was too late.

"It doesn't matter now," Kira muttered, brows furrowed. "Nothing else matters now except for this. You're both going to die here today, and so will everyone else on your side. And then... this world will be mine. Nothing can stop that from happening anymore."

"The shinigami will just bring us back to life," Light argued, trying to seem confident when really he was just terrified. His heart sank when Kira smirked, unfazed by that knowledge.

"The shinigami," Kira began, "can't do anything to help you if you're not killed by the notebook."

At that they all looked at Beyond Birthday, who Light and L had only just realized was brandishing a butcher knife - the very same one he'd teased L with during some of the days that the detective was held captive by him. The sunlight reflected off of the blade when BB tilted it ever so lightly, and he aimed the light beam towards L's eyes, blinding him momentarily.

"Sorry, babydoll," the serial killer laughed. He took a step forward but only stopped when he noticed Matsuda's gun was now pointing at him.

"S- Stop where you are or else! Don't take another step!" Matsuda's hands were shaking and he knew he probably didn't seem intimidating at all, but at least he could keep BB away from Light and L like this.

"Matsuda," L snapped, shaking his head. "Back down. Don't be hasty and irrational; empty threats don't work on him. He's dangerous."

"Whatcha gonna do," BB taunted and L turned the glare towards him instead, "shoot me?" He stepped forward again with an evil, twisted grin directed at Matsuda. Matsuda's hands shook even more, but he kept the gun pointed at the killer regardless.

"I- I'm warning you-"

"-You can't shoot me," BB interrupted Matsuda then. "You're too soft, darling. Too weak and pathetic. You can't do anything, can't protect anyone. Your life is meaningless and worthless. All you can do is sit there, shaking like a scared, defenseless little baby pretending to be a grown-up, and wait your turn to die."

BB took another step forward, hand with the knife raised as he moved towards L.

"Now, L, sweetheart," BB purred, expression sick and twisted. He looked like an absolute monster. "Let's play one last time, shall we?"

The sound of a gunshot was all too loud in everybody's ears.

Beyond Birthday stopped in his tracks and stared down at the center of his chest where there was now a bullet-sized, bleeding wound. Blood soaked through and stained the white shirt he wore, and stained his pale hands too, when he touched the spot and weakly attempted to apply pressure. The knife fell from those hands and to the ground as he took quick, shallow, panicked breaths, his expression now pained, and perhaps... scared.

And then... Beyond Birthday's lifeless body fell to the ground, too.

Matsuda dropped the gun and collapsed, trembling and staring at the face of the man he'd killed. No, Matsuda told himself, the monster. He reminded himself that this was necessary. But still... he found that he was disgusted with himself for taking another human being's life. At this point, he was really no better than Kira.

L was breathing heavily, leaning against Light as he stared at the corpse of his carbon copy. He'd never thought he'd be around to see Beyond Birthday actually die; he'd always imagined that the psychopath would rot in a prison cell far away from him, slowly, over the next several years - not in a casket. If he would even be buried, that is. To see him so still like this was just... odd.

Kira was trembling with rage, hands shaking as he moved over to the corpse of his pawn and picked the knife up from the bloody grass. He ran his fingers over the blade, looking at his reflection.

The reflection that looked identical to Light Yagami's.

"I wish you didn't exist," Kira whispered. His fingers tightened on the handle of the knife as he looked over towards the other three. Light was staring at him, and L was staring at Birthday's body while the guy who killed Birthday sat there looking lost and distraught.

Kira threw the knife towards them. Light pushed L out of the way and closed his eyes. But pain never came.

No, a resounding shout came from behind him, and when Light opened his eyes again and turned, Matsuda was clutching at his now bleeding shoulder, hands curling around the blade of the knife as if he didn't know whether or not to pull it out.

"Don't!" Light told him, reaching down to help L back onto his feet. "Matsuda, I know it hurts, but you can't take it out or else you'll end up bleeding to death. Keep it in and help will come soon."

Matsuda, looking awfully pale, nodded and left the knife alone. Kira laughed, drawing Light's attention back toward him.

He had the Death Note in his hands, a crazed look in his burning red eyes. He practically whispered his question, "How do you want to die, Light Yagami?" He laughed again, eyes narrowing. "What about you, L? Come on, tell me! I'll make sure you both take your last breaths at the same time- it'll be romantic. So come out and say it, because neither are you are leaving here alive today."

Light swallowed and looked down at his watch, waiting and watching as the big hand moved over to the twelve. It was now 6PM on the dot exactly.

"Actually, Taro Kagami," Light said, locking eyes with Kira, "You're the one not leaving here alive today."

Kira frowned and L looked questioningly over at Light. "W- What...?" the doppelganger breathed, blinking rapidly. He swallowed, once and then twice, eyes darting around, before he finally felt a stab of pain in the left side of his chest, pain in his arm.

He was having a heart attack.

Light held L close as Kira fell to his knees, the Death Note he previously held hitting the dirt. "I wish..." the killer murmured, breathing ragged and pained and uneven, "...that you never... e- existed..."

He glared at Light as he continued on brokenly, "Your very... existence... r- ruined my life. I... wish I never... found you. I- I wish that you... were never born. Maybe my life... wouldn't have turned out... th- this way."

Kira collapsed to the side, staring up at his carbon copy as he took one last breath and the life faded from his eyes. The fire that had burned within was now put out forever.

Kira was dead.

Light, L and Matsuda stared on at the body for what felt like a very long time.

"L- Light-kun...?" L whispered, turning to look up at his lover. Light refused to look at him, a guilty expression in his eyes. "Light-kun, what... what happened? What the hell did you do?"

Light swallowed before pulling the Death Note that had belonged to Misa out of his coat, opening it to reveal his messy handwriting on one of the pages.

'Taro Kagami - time of death: 6PM'.

"I'm sorry," Light whispered, not looking anywhere near L. "It was the only thing that I could think of to do to get rid of Kira once and for all. I'm so sorry."

Light felt tears pricking at his eyes. He truthfully felt about the same as Matsuda did then- no better than Kira. But it had to be done. Light knew that, he knew that L knew it, too. Everyone knew it.

Kira wouldn't ever go down unless he were dead. It's just the truth.

L looked like he wanted to be mad. And he did, of course he did, but deep down, he knew that Light was right. It was for the best and it was all that really could be done to rid the world of Kira forever. Everyone knew, deep down, that prison wouldn't have been able to cut it, but they were blind and they'd tried to believe they could catch him. They were trying not to sink to Kira's level.

They did anyway. It was all they could do.

L pulled Light in close, and, uncaring of Matsuda seeing them and trusting him to keep his mouth shut just this once, kissed Light gently on the lips and held him in his arms while he cried. And god, did Light cry.

He... he killed someone. He played God and took another person's life, watched the light fade from his eyes.

Light really was no better than Kira, was he?

Because it didn't matter that Taro Kagami was a horrible human being that took hundreds, thousands of lives, and deserved death or worse than it. He was still a human being and Light knew he had no right to take his life. But he had no choice. They were out of options, and coming to meet Kira without writing down his name would've been suicide.

And... at the same time... it was finally over. Finally. The Kira case was finally solved and could be put to rest.

It didn't matter right now though.

Nobody felt good about what had happened here today.

The rest of the task force had joined them after a little while, after L had told them to come. L then vaguely filled them in on what happened after they'd arrived. They all knew they were going to have to keep their mouths shut about what really happened and hide the actual evidence, and just do nothing more than confirm to the world that Kira was dead.

Although it didn't really feel like it, they'd won. Kira was no more.

-

I think it's been almost a year since I updated an actual chapter (09/20/19??) and if so I'm sorry !!! but this is it, after chapter 30, it's over ! <3