Disclaimer: I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
Fandoms: Yu-Gi-Oh ZexalBR Series Title: Hating Humanity
Title: To Find The Lost Ones
Characters: Ryouga, Rio, Durbe
Romance: Nasch x Durbe/Durbe x Nasch
Word Count: chapter 8: 1,130||story: 8,794
Genre: Drama, Supernatural||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, section I19, a multichap with chapters between 1000-2000 words; Written for the Advent Calendar 2015, day #12, write a gift-fic (this is for SilvorMoon)
Notes: This begins shortly before the duel between IV & Ryouga, pre-canon.
Summary: Durbe wanted to find Nasch so much that he made his way to Earth far sooner than expected. What he did not expect was to run across Kamishiro Ryouga at the worst time of his life.


A flash of fire across a sky of blood-red.

Crystals rising from the scarlet-stained ground.

He could see through the crystal that wrapped all around him. He could feel strength coursing all through him, strength unlike any other that he'd felt before.

He didn't remember if he'd felt strength before. He simply knew that what he felt now was greater than any.

Around him, crystal shattered, and he fell forward, trembling from head to foot. He was born. He was new. He was a Barian. He was a Barian Emperor.

He was Nasch. He was the leader of the Barian Emperors. Whoever they were.

Nasch stumbled to his feet, fingers flexing. He stared down at them, realizing that he was made of stone. He could move easily enough, but he was rock given flesh, flesh wrapped in rock.

He was alone. He was not supposed to be alone. He moved along, a little unsteady at first, but growing more skilled and graceful as he practiced.

She lay in her crystal only a short distance away from him. He stared down at her, his mind still not as quick and agile as he knew that it could be, but speeding up as he adjusted himself to his new awareness.

Nasch rested a hand on the crystal. "Merag," he said, and he could not have said if he spoke with his voice or his mind. Perhaps it didn't matter. A pulse of energy flared from where he touched and within the crystal, Merag's eyes opened.

He could feel her awareness sharpening the moment their eyes met. She knew his name. She knew her own name. The crystal around her flexed in response to her will and shattered. None of the shards cut him, not even the ones that sliced toward him. Rock was harder than crystal, at least his rock was.

Slowly Merag worried her way out of the crystal and brushed the broken pieces off of herself. She looked at herself much as he had, then looked up toward him.

"Where are the others?" They knew there were more of them. They were not the only Barian Emperors, only the first. The leaders. One in particular lay close to their hearts, though neither could've put a name to that one. But they wanted to see him again.

Again? At all? Did it matter which?

"I don't know. But we'll find them." They were the Barians. They had to stick together, no matter what. Their world needed them. Their people needed them. Only by fighting together could they survive. This knowledge wove into them the same way the ability to walk and talk did, the same way that they came to know that dueling was their way of life, their hope for the future.

The same way they knew that their world was dying and the only way they could save it would be to defeat the Astral World, when the time came. It was what they knew. It was what was true.

The others came, in due course. And first among those was the one they had waited for, whom they knew was as close to them as they were to one another, if in different ways.

He was Durbe. They helped him out of the crystal he appeared in and the touch of his hand on Nasch sent thrills through the great Emperor like nothing else in all of his memories ever had. Each gazed into the other's eyes and while they could not remember if they had ever met before, they did not care.

It took time for others to arrive. In the time between Durbe and the next, Nasch and Durbe took the time to get to know one another. They trained in fighting, both in dueling and in fighting and in the use of their powers, sparring endlessly against one another. Every time held a different flavor to it, and they enjoyed it to the hilt. Merag sparred as well, her skills different but great in their own way.

Next came Vector. He appeared without any help to emerge from his crystal and his laugh echoed over the world as he lounged on a rock, kicking his heels up and watching as they circled one another, learning the things they needed to know.

He could fight too, but it quickly became clear that his greatest skills lay in other areas. There were no other factions or lands in Barian World; all lay peacefully under Nasch's reign, but had there been, it would've been Vector who watched them, keeping them under surveillance so the Barians remained safe.

One by one the others appeared, each slotting themselves where they belonged in the world and in their lives. Proud Mizael, who gleamed bright gold. Alit, as rich scarlet red as the rocks all around them, quick as a flash and with blood as hot as flame. Gilag, with a punch that could shatter stone and muscles that put their stone world to shame.

No one questioned that Nasch was their leader, not even Vector. Nasch did not quite understand why, but he felt if any of them would have questioned it, it would've been Vector. There were occasions when he caught sight of the winged Barian watching them from a distance, but he did that to everyone. He didn't quite feel threatened.

Time ticked by, and through all those years, the one Nasch truly felt closest to, aside from Merag, remained Durbe. While no one said anything specific about it, everyone knew that Durbe was next in line in power after Nasch and Merag, and Nasch always listened to Durbe's advice, whatever it might be. He did not always follow it, but he listened to it, and that could not be said for all of the others.

Other memories slipped into place, each where they belonged, of a long day when only Nasch and Durbe were together, the others all busy with their own projects, and their fingers wound around one another, hearts beating in tandem underneath their rocky exteriors. They learned of what it was like to bring pleasure to one another, and that it was not a wise idea to go out among others without some time to rest afterward.

No one asked how Vector knew what the signs of two Barians having made love to one another were. There were things that no one actually wanted to know.

But it was worth everything to know that they were that close to one another, and wished to be so for as long as they possibly could. Nasch had wanted to defend his world and his people from the moment he opened his eyes and he could not think of wanting anything else.

And so it would ever be.

To Be Continued

Note: Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the chapter. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.