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.
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal
Story: Countdown: Chapter 10: Fourth-1
Romance: Nasch x Durbe/Durbe x Nasch (also some other 'ships)
Word Count: chapter: 1,640||story: 16,670
Genre: Romance||Rated: PG-13
Challenge: Diversity Challenge, J14, a multichap with chapters between 1000-2000 words; Pairing Diversity Challenge, 09, eternal; Catch the Barian Emperors: Nasch
Notes: This contains some of my headcanons about the Barians post-canon.
Summary: In this world, a counter on one's arm marks the time until soulmates meet one another for the first time. Nasch and Durbe have met one another for the first time many times.

His head hurt. More than that, everything he could think of hurt, and he suspected some of what he couldn't identify off the top of his heart hurt as well. As rebirths went, this one in Nasch's experience rated fairly low on the 'pleasant' scale. All the ones that he could remember hadn't hurt nearly as much.

Slowly he blinked, trying to put everything together. How had this happened, anyway?

Oh, wait. He knew. There was only one way that it could and one person who would've done it.

That idiot.

Yuuma.

He let out a low groan and considered if it were worthwhile trying to sit up. The more he became aware of himself, the more he knew that there were other people in the area. He didn't know what the area was or who they were, but they were here and they were there.

One of them was Merag. Rio. The name didn't matter, his sister was there, and that went a long way toward improving his mood. As much as it could be improved in the first place.

He lifted one arm to rub at his face and blinked when he saw a countdown glimmering on his wrist. Huh? Oh. Soulmate marker. The information slotted nearly into his mind, along with memories from lifetimes before. One did not touch one's soulmate unless the agreement were mutual and considered beforehand.

That much had actually survived to the present. His last two encounters with Durbe hadn't been willing and mutual on both sides, but only out of ignorance on their parts. What they were ignorant of changed but that wasn't the point.

Durbe. Something else clicked into his mind and he took a second look at the counter. Less than a minute remained. Durbe was there. He was going to meet Durbe again in only a few more seconds.

Another groan sounded, far closer to him, and now he snapped to his feet, looking around. They were there. All of them, Merag and Alit, Gilag and Mizael, and… oh, great. He'd even brought Vector back.

He needed to talk to Yuuma about choices. The fact Vector had been Don Thousand's pawn even longer than any of them didn't make a single bit of difference to him. He still pitied Mizael for being the one bound to him, something that hadn't changed, if the identical counters on their arms were anything to go by.

"Nasch..." Durbe's voice. His name. The first word in this new life was his name, and if Nasch had ever stood a chance of resisting Durbe, that melted away with that one word.

He turned. Only a step or two away from where he himself had woken up lay the former knight, the former Barian Emperor, the current and eternal love of his every life.

Nasch took those steps and started to hold his hand out, even as the counters on their arms counted those last few seconds. Then he pulled his hand back, tense.

"Only… only when you want to," he murmured, his mind still half-fuzzy by death and rebirth, and started to pull his hand back.

Durbe looked at him, the same sort of confusion in his eyes before he looked at his wrist and saw his own counter glimmering there, down to zero once again. He blinked a few times, then started to push himself to his feet.

"We're alive," he murmured, as amazed by that fact as Nasch himself was.

"Yeah. Pretty sure we have Yuuma to thank for this." Nasch wasn't certain if 'thank' or 'blame' was the right way to put it, but it was Yuuma all the same. He didn't need to be told. He just knew.

The way he knew that he could still become a warrior of rock and stone if he needed to, the way his power still flowed under his veins, because he was Nasch and whatever Nasch had been once, he was a Barian now, and always would be. Even the Numeron Code couldn't rewrite reality to that extent.

What was different was that he, and all the others he believed, could write their own destinies now, make their own choices about how they used that power. He didn't know if the Barian World still existed or not, but they could look into that once they were settled and had a better idea of what else changed.

Durbe stood on his feet now, taking careful steps, each one a little stronger than the one before it. All over the area, which Nasch didn't even recognize at the moment, the others were starting to wake up and become aware of themselves again as well.

Durbe started to say something, but Nasch hushed him with a quick shake of his head, something else having caught his attention. Mizael and Vector both were on their feet now, and slowly their eyes met. Everything remained absolutely silent for a few seconds. The five other Barians simply watched. Part of Nasch wished he had popcorn on hand. Mizael and Vector's meetings had always been fascinating to watch. This likely wouldn't be any different.

Vector's gaze went down to his counter, then over to Mizael's. He snorted a little. "I suppose we might as well get it over with. Again."

Mizael brushed himself off, looking around to the others before turning his gaze back to Vector. "You'll just nag me until I do if I don't."

"You know me too well." Vector shrugged and laughed. It didn't entirely sound like his usual laugh, lacking a small hint of that dark edge. It didn't sound like the one he'd used as Shingetsu, either. Nasch didn't know how to place it offhand. It almost sounded...genuine?

"Unfortunately." Mizael let out a long sigh and looked at Vector. "This still doesn't mean anything."

"Of course not. We're only soulmates, bound together throughout time and space, not even letting death part us." Vector threw back his head and laughed. This one sounded a lot more like the one Nasch was used to hearing from him. "That can't mean a single thing."

Mizael rolled his eyes. "Shut up." He reached out and grabbed hold of Vector's arm, the tension in his shoulders clearly reading that he'd rather shove his arm into a bonfire than actually touch Vector. Nasch wasn't as good at reading Vector as he was at the others, given Vector's nature of lying to everyone up to and including himself, but he thought the redhead looked a little...less annoyed than usual?

"I do wonder why those two, of all people," Merag murmured, her own fingers pressed against her counter. "I'd think someone like Yuuma would be more likely for Vector."

Nasch shrugged, eyes flicking over to Alit. "I think Alit would've broken something at the thought of having to share Yuuma with anyone else." Finding out that Yuuma also had two counters and exactly who those two marked the time for had been more than a little surprising.

Durbe moved a little closer. "You're probably right. I think we might just have to trust that the universe knows what it's doing."

Nasch didn't think they had that much room to argue themselves. He looked toward Merag. "What about you?" He wasn't entirely certain of what he meant with that. How much time on her counter? What did she think of all of this? Something else entirely?

She shrugged, dropping her arm so that the counter lay hidden against her side. "I'm going to go find Kotori later. Right now, I think we should go home and get some sleep. I don't know about you, but dying takes a lot out of me."

She turned her attention toward Durbe, a thoughtful quirk to her lips. "And you two better hurry up and follow their example. You know you're going to do it. Why wait around and torment yourselves for no good reason?"

"You mean there's a good reason to torment someone?" Nasch replied with a hint of dry sarcasm.

His sister shrugged. "It depends on who it is. I can think of an option or two." Her gaze flicked back to Vector, eyes darkening some. Nasch wasn't surprised. She had never been the forgiving sort, not without some kind of huge pain involved between the offense and the forgiving. Vector had quite a lot of offenses stacked up.

He looked back at Durbe, though. They could handle Vector another day. He would always be there, like a cursed coin that one couldn't entirely get rid of.

Durbe looked back at him, and that wonderful smile of his gleamed there now. Whatever else Yuuma did, the war was over. They didn't all have to be on opposite sides anymore. There would be people who might look askance at them, but there always had been, even in his old kingdom. Some hadn't approved of their prince being attached to a foreign knight. Now he also knew that part of Durbe's troubles in his own kingdom had been because of his bond to Nasch as well.

But like with the war, all of that was over. He squared his shoulders. He hadn't liked people getting involved with him because he needed to solve his own problems. He always had. But this wasn't a problem and even if it had been, it was one Durbe shared with him, one that they could only solve together.

He held his hand out. It would still be Durbe's choice to take it. He'd made his own in offering it.

Be it flesh or rock, Durbe's hand held a special warmth to it. Nasch had noticed that many times over their lives together. As it closed around his now, he could feel the timers reshaping once more into the wing and the wave, the bond they shared reaffirmed for one more lifetime.

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.