Author's Note: There will be spoilers for both the manga and the anime. So, if you don't want it to be ruined, DO NOT READ. Also if the readers want there to be any sort of romance, request it, and I'll see what I can do.
Summary: Before dying, Raito is given one last chance to set things right and unexpectedly gets sent back in time to when he first received the death note.
THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED AS OF 3/22/09. PLEASE RE-READ!
VINDICATED
Chapter 1: Prologue: Hope Dangles On a String
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//If you had the chance to undo the past, what things would you do differently?//
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Raito was dying.
In the background there was shooting and yelling and vaguely, he heard someone begging. Only to find that it was his own voice—he was the one begging and that shocked him.
He wasn't the type to beg.
"I don't want to die! I don't want to die!"
When he was younger, he had always thought of dying a heroic death, one where he'd die knowing that he saved someone, or for something he believed in.
At the moment, Raito was screaming, pleading for his life at the feet of his very enemies. He was a murderer, a liar, and a fraud. There were no friends by his side, only those he had betrayed and manipulated at one point in time.
This wasn't how he wanted to die.
But he could feel it coming. Death, that is, imminent and inevitable. And he wondered if this was how all of his victims felt in those mere forty seconds; in the back of his mind, he wondered if this was how L felt.
L.
There were few things that Raito would admit to regretting. Murdering innocent people. Betraying his family. Killing L…
'If I was given the chance…'
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
'I would do things differently.'
Yagami Raito closed his eyes and saw black.
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//We shall give you the second chance you long for.//
Author's Note: The truth is, I didn't like how Death Note ended. Hell, I didn't like the fact that L died in the first place! So this is my little AU fic about a 'what if' sort of thing.
3/22/08: Not too many changes in the prologue, just a few cases of re-wording.
Please review! Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.