So this is a light AU to the ZEXAL II plot. If you've seen the anime until the end, it should be fine :D

Warning: All you need to know is that Yuma and Kotori are siblings in this, they had past lives (this is somewhat connected to my drabble "Brothers" - just add in Kotori to that mix - so if you want to understand this better, I'd recommend reading that) and are now Astralian Emperors/Lords. Everything else - nearly - is the same. This fic does not have a happy ending, so if you don't like that, I suggest going back right at this point. Thank you! :)

Not The Answer

"Rio... Rio... wake up." a gentle voice spoke up. "Please, wake up ... I... you are...!?"

Kamishiro Rio slowly opened her light ruby eyes, shocked to see her brother staring at ... him ... in what seemed to be silence and ... acceptance?

"Ani...?"

Ryoga turned to look at her and took her hand into his. Her eyes, still somewhat unfocused, glanced at the pendant around his neck and no fang necklace anymore... that shocked her so much that she sat up quickly, causing the monitors who were attached to her and following her recovery to beep loudly.

"Ryoga... what is going on?"

"Rio... I know that you probably didn't realize, as you've been possessed at the time, but..."

"N-no..." she shook her head, her bangs shielding her eyes for a moment before they fall back into place again. "Are you saying that w-we are...?"

"Barians." the silvernette (whom she remembered to be Durbe) spoke but became quiet again when she shot him a look.

"... I was asking my brother."

"He is right." her brother's words - cold and hard as steel - pierced her foggy brain as she turned to look back at him. "We are ... barians. Our names are Nasch and Merag."

She stared at him, trying to register his words.

"Doesn't that mean that we have to betray them? Him? Ryoga, he's already been through a lot! I..." she trailed off when she realized that his gaze didn't waver and he spoke up.

"It's crystal clear to me Rio... no, Merag from now on... but you saw the vision. I cannot abandon my people." he said and than added. "You should call me Nasch now too..."

She opened her mouth and closed it, wondering what 'people' he was talking about. Yes, she had seen the same vision as he had but those people looked long dead (barely there, transperant...), what was there to save? No, the better question would be... was she willing enough to throw away the life she has known so far for a vision that could be a lie (for all she knew) and for people who seemed to be dead? True, she couldn't abandon her brother (even if his goal suddenly felt so fickle and overdone) but ... could she abandon her life and her friends for the very same goal? The answer was clear to her as she looked down at herself, realizing that she was wearing her normal clothes but with one clear difference - a small little crystal (similiar to the one around her brother's neck now but not quite the same) beneath the bow that she adored so much.

"Ready to go, Nasch-sama?" Durbe spoke up and she looked up to see that he had opened a portal to the... Barian World ... near the window.

"Yes." Nasch - no, Ryoga - spoke, turning to look at her. "Let's go Merag..."

"No." the silence nearly drowned her words as she stared at their joined hands, slowly letting go of his hand as her ring shone in the waning sunlight. "I won't go."

Ryoga gaped at her and began to speak but stopped when they all heard footsteps coming closer and closer to her room. Visitors. She looked at the clock and realized that the visiting hours would end in about ten more minutes or so. Her brother stood up and went to join Durbe by the portal, not even gracing her with his presence anymore.

"Imo-shark? Kotori and I brought some flowers to help you get better faster..."

Yuma's voiced pierced the silence of her now empty room, her brother and their... friend ... having left barely a moment earlier.

"... huh? I thought that I've seen Shark? Why did he leave with that Barian? What's going on!?"

"Rio-san?" Kotori's calm voice made the nearly emotionless Kamishiro princess look away from that spot and into her friend's worried copper eyes. "What happened?"

She couldn't find the ability to speak up. She didn't think she had it in her to crash whatever light remained in Yuma's eyes. Not that it slowly didn't begin to vanish on it's own.

- line break -

She got discharged from the hospital almost a week later.

As Rio walked out of the doors (hopefully for good this time), she clutched the shark-tooth necklace that was now nestling neatly around her neck. After her brother and Durbe left and the other twins arrived, Yuma had nearly lost it (you could see it in his eyes as he sank to his knees, holding onto his head) and, while Kotori was trying to calm him down without alerting any doctors to his freak out, Rio had gotten out of bed and slowly got down until she was sitting. She hadn't realized it the first time around but Ryoga had dropped the fang-like pendant that he would always wear (yet no ring) onto the floor. As she picked it up, Rio wondered if this meant that he had cut his ties with them... with Yuma ... with her. Thightly holding onto it for a moment, she moved to put it around her neck as a nurse came in, politely asking the twins to leave so that she could check on Rio's condition.

"Kotori-san..." Rio spoke up as they walked, Yuma dragging himself somewhere behind him with a downcast look in his eyes as he held onto his Emperor's Key. That seemed to be a trend here... "I'm... on your side." Kotori, who was looking at her brother worriedly, turned to smile at her in relief.

"Thank you, Rio-san... or should I call you Merag-san now? ... I know how hard this must be for you..."

"It's still Rio." the bluenette said. "I may be Merag but I'm also Kamishiro Rio. I have my own thoughts and wishes. I will find my own way."

Her words brought a smile onto the younger ('was she really younger?' Rio thought, remembering their story) ones face as she nodded.

"Yuma and I are thankful to you... and we..." she stopped talking as everything around them started to shake, Yuma falling onto his behind out of shock and surprise at the sudden turn of events. "What...?"

Rio watched as everything slowly began to turn red and closed her eyes, opening them a moment later as she sighed.

"They are coming."

- line break -

Hours passed. Or was it days? weeks? Maybe even months or years?

She couldn't really tell anymore. Their side had already suffered so many sacrifices (III... V... Kaito... IV.. oh IV... just to name a few.. or were they merely victims of a pointless war?) but their side wasn't faring any better. By this point, Gilag, Alit and Misael were already gone, Vector was MIA (which worried her since neither side knew where he was), Durbe was somehow still around and so was her ... brother. Rio bit her lip as she carefully treaded over a stoney surface along with Yuma and Kotori. They were going for a somewhat neutral to the war area, where they thought that Vector might appear in a desperate attempt to steal whatever chaos energy had remained (Rio had figured that out when they found Alit's dying body and his last words to her weren't exactly painting Vector as an innocent person... alien... in this war) and Yuma, being Yuma, had decided that they should head there as that place was mostly open and free to be attacked from any angle. The perfect spot for the insane carrot-head to find them and kill them ... well not the 'kill' bit if Rio had any say in the matter. So they arrived there and waited for a while and, just as they were about to give up and keep looking for him on foot, someone appeared. But it was not Vector. No... it was Rio's worst nightmare.

"Ani..."

Indeed, Kamishiro Ryoga (or Nasch as he liked to be known lately) was standing in front of them with his arms crossed, his usually warm blue eyes (at least when they were focused on her or his best friend Yuma) were cold as death as he slowly began to prowl towards them.

"Merag, this is your end." he said simply. Shocked, Rio walked up to him and stared.

"What? I'm your sister ... I thought that..."

"... I wouldn't harm you, even if it meant saving our world, just because you are my sister? Merag ... no, Rio ... you've sided with the enemy... as such.."

"Enemy!? Don't you know, ani? The Astral and Barian Worlds..." Rio started but was stopped when Ryoga backhanded her across the face, causing her to get thrown all the way back to Yuma and Kotori's feet.

"Rio-san!" Kotori cried out, hurrying to her side with worry in her warm eyes. "Rio-san!"

"Shark, how could you!? Your own sister..." Yuma's rant was stopped by the elder's glare.

"Shut up and take out your duel disks..." he ordered as his eyes were taken over by an ancient, evil red glow, the pendant around his neck slowly morphing into something else as he did. "... for the last duel of your lives."

As she readied her duel disk, Rio got back onto her feet quite shakily.

She knew that this wouldn't end well.

- line break -

He walked carefully across the graveyard, the usually silent graves seemingly calling out to their King as he nearly floated by, anguish on his now human face.

The war was over. Had been so for over a week. Yet he...

"Nasch-sama..." Durbe silently spoke up. He almost forgot that his ever so loyal knight was still at his side, as silent as his shadow. "I believe that Merag-sama would like the daisies, Yuma-san the yellow roses and Kotori-san the freesias ..."

"Thank you." he took the flowers from the other's human hands quite unsteadily and shook his off when he moved to help him. "I will be fine..."

"But..."

"Fine, Durbe." Nasch bit his lip and kept walking, the silver-head with glasses remaining where he was out of respect for his king's privacy. As Nasch slowly but surely walked towards the three marked graves, he wondered how it came to this. Why had he been so stupid? Why hadn't he listened to her when she had tried to explain? Why was he so easily manipulated?

Falling to his knees, the former king could only stare at the stones that would stand the passing of time and space, that his sister's beautiful face, her friend's kind one and his friend's innocent and pure one. "I'm sorry..." he whispered, in a broken stupor. "So sorry... I know that I will never forgive myself for this but... oh god, please, give them back to me. Please..." the flowers dropped onto the center grave and, as he sobbed, rain began to fall, trickling down the embed names and post scriptums in order of...

To Kamishiro Rio, also known as Merag, beloved sister and friend

To Tsukumo Yuma, also known as Aker, dear friend and lost soul

To Mizuki Kotori, also known as Isis, dear friend of my sister's and lost soul

May you all rest in peace, dear ones.

And that's it!... yep, surprised that I wrote over 2k words? So am I ... well, if you stuck around until the end, thank you again. So... yes... :/