Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to...whatever this is. I am Yurei Hanatuski, and I shall be your guide through this attempt at my first ZEXAL fanfiction! I'll try to keep this opening spot short, with answers to reviews and random announcements here. Without further ado, here's Barian and Back Again! (And there was much rejoicing.)
Durbe of the Barian Emperors had thought his first foray into the realm of humans was…strange, to say the least. He crashed into the airship of his world's mortal enemy and said enemy's companions; his Baria Lapis broke, thus denying him his ability to revert to his original form; then there was everything that came after nearly being mauled by a bear.
How did he end up in the company of his enemies? Why did one of them insist on bandaging his injured arm, and then resort to wrestling him to the ground and sitting on him to ensure that task was completed to their satisfaction? But most importantly: how in the worlds did he know what those murals depicted? Even the fact his Lapis somehow magically repaired itself when he aided the human known as Ryouga Kamishiro wasn't as pressing as the matter of the murals. (Though he had to wonder why he was inclined to help his enemies, too. Saving Ryouga and giving Yuma Tsukumo the key to solving their particular challenge. He could have let them die, after all, so why didn't he?)
When he returned to Barian World that day, the questions only swarmed his mind, bringing no answers. They did, however, bring with them a migraine bad enough that he had to retire to his chambers for the night. Like the others, he had no idea as to what Vector had done, nor was he aware of what the Mad Prince was about to do.
[Insert Intermission Music here]
Commercial break time! Check out The Chaos Racket, a 20's Noir AU collaborative piece by the dynamic duo of ProbablyImpossible and Durbe the Barian! Abyssinia!
It began with what was supposedly a simple question, posed by Don Thousand from the depths of Vector's mind: What would it take to turn a living human into a Barian? When asked about it, the Don explained that Barians were born when humans died with the power of Chaos in their hearts. What Don Thousand was looking to do, however, was make Barians out of humans who were still alive. His theory was that a still-living human turned into a Barian would become the ideal sleeper-agent; one able to gather the Numbers in the Human World, and then transport them to Barian World for the Emperors to utilize as they saw fit.
Needless to say, this piqued Vector's interest. Very much so. But while he was chomping at the bit to test Don Thousand's idea out, he had to focus on procuring the Legendary Numbers first. Unfortunately for both Vector and Don Thousand, their plans all began with a spur-of-the-moment decision, and a very poor one at that.
The ruins of Number 65: Djinn Buster had begun to implode, for want of a better word. Yuma Tsukumo and Astral were on the Central platform, while most of the friends who accompanied him were escaping the cell they had wound up in at the beginning of this madness. The odd one out of that group was on an unstable platform; a young girl around Yuma's age. There was a clear scowl on her face, like one who was behind the eight ball and absolutely knew it.
Vector barely recognized her from his time spent as Rei Shingetsu. Her name was Arianni Hisoka. Not so much a friend of Yuma Tsukumo's as she was of the older two in the group, the Kamishiro siblings. Part of the Archery Team, she got along surprisingly well with Alit. Though he'd never seen it for himself, he knew she was capable of dueling and was assumedly decent at it. There was one thing about her which stood out, though: she was apparently immune to Girag's attempts at brainwashing through Rank-Up Magic: Barian's Force. At the time, Vector couldn't think of anyone better to experiment on.
Arianni had been waiting for the right moment to jump from her compromised perch to the relative safety of the central platform with Yuma and Astral. She was too focused on that, assuming that Vector and Number 96 were focusing on or already escaping, and was unable to evade Vector's ghost-like hand in time. Before she could properly ken what was happening, Vector had brought her to his and Number 96's side. This shocked Yuma, Ryouga, and even the recently-arrived Kaito. Struggling to escape the phantasmal hand, Arianni looked over her shoulder as she heard her name being called.
"Arianni, NO!" Yuma cried, memories of Rei in the same situation flashing through his mind, as Kaito did what he could to hold the partner of Astral back. It seemed everyone but Yuma realized that there was nothing they could do. Arianni glared at her friends, still struggling to escape.
"Yuma, Astral, forget about me for the moment and focus on getting the Legendary Numbers before this creep and his friends do!" She hollered. A tactician by nature, Arianni knew that her struggle was pointless at best. Didn't stop her from trying, but she knew she was good as caught.
"Hurting my feelings here, Ari-chan…" He said condescendingly, using the nickname he knew she hated, "Name calling when I just saved your life?" Arianni spat in his face for that, making him scowl. The scene amused Number 96 somewhat, apparently.
"Feisty one, isn't she?" Black Mist mused, chuckling as an overlay portal opened behind them. "Come along, lackey, we don't have all day." Arianni noted the glare Vector sent the rogue Numbers' way before she was blinded by the overlay portal, the cries of rage and grief from her friends growing fainter by the second.
Short, yes, I know, but it's the Prologue. (Or Forward, if you will.) Anyways...This story is kind of AU-ish for the fact that Donny-boy never considered this question to our knowledge in the series. He was too busy being straightforward about getting those Legendary Numbers.
Before you go and read other fics, like The Chaos Racket, please be sure to leave a review. Comments/suggestions appreciated, Advice offered will be contemplated, and flames will only be stared at. (Because, you know, fire is pretty and all.)