crack_van | Selfish Mercy by joy in the dance (rated R)

Fandom: DEATH NOTE
Pairing: L and Light
Length: ~11000
Author on LJ:

joyinthedance
Author Website: Joy's Fanfiction
Why this must be read:

The author's summary is: "L has his own dark secret. Perhaps this is why, in a strange way, he feels for Kira."

What is that secret? Well, it's a surprise, so I'm not telling you, but I can tell you that it's the kind of secret that usually comes off as cheesy in fan fiction, but Joy makes it work with excellent, believable writing. I was surprised at how well this secret fit with L, but the story simply sucked me into its world and made things seem to fit perfectly. This is a quality piece of writing, no doubt about it.

Selfish Mercy is a divergence AU. It just jumps directly into canon events at the midpoint climax, and then takes them in a different direction, in the course of things putting a different interpretation on canon events that had happened previous to the fanfic's beginning, but not changing them.

Because it assumes the readers know canon and because it opens in the middle of an action scene, it contains tremendous spoilers for any readers who are not familiar with canon, and it would be incredibly confusing as well. You really do need to know what happened in canon previously to this action scene for the fanfic to make any sense.

So, if you've read the manga or watched the anime, go read it for an excellent experience of fan fiction that takes cheese and turns it into a gourmet dish!

Selfish Mercy