"Akari! Akari!" Someone's voice called out for her. Her ears were ringing, her eyes struggled to open. Her bones and muscles ached like she had never known them to do before. "Akari!" She groaned in response as she tried to move and get her bearings. She felt like she was being weighed down by something, she couldn't move.

Soon after she groaned, light hit her. She tried to move her hand to shield her eyes but she couldn't. "Akari, are you ok?" A voice called above her; she could finally see. It was Zero, it was now obvious that she had become trapped in rubble.

"Who won?" She finally crooked out, causing her to cough harshly. She missed Zero's expression as she looked around herself, trying to figure out how she was going to get out and gain her bearings. Another voice called out to Zero, causing him to look back and nod. Akari still didn't understand anything. The ringing was still going strong and light was to bright.

"Give me your hand." Zero's hand appeared in front of her. She tried hard to move, only just managing to move her arm. She didn't argue with him and held on to his hand, he tried to pull her free but it only caused an agonizing scream from her. He quickly stopped and reassessed her predicament. She leaned back and whimpered, she just wanted to be free. "What's trapped?" He asked her as he pulled more rubble off her. She could hear people running towards them. Her mind panicked, roots appeared around her and Zero ready to attack. "Akari it's ok. It's Cross and Toga." Zero quickly reassured her and in that moment the roots disintegrated. The last thing she saw was Zero's worried looking face.

The next time she woke up, she was staring at a ceiling. It was her old room in Moon dormitory. Her blood froze at the possibility of Rido losing. If Rido had won, he would had taken her home, he would have taken her from Zero. She quickly sat up and saw she was dressed in a large long-sleeved T-shirt, clearly meant for a man. It didn't bother her, she often enjoyed walking around in Rido's shirts. A pair of men's pajama bottoms had been loosely tied around her waist. She looked around the room. It didn't look like it had been touched since she had left.

She moved as silently as she could, listening for any sign of life. She creeped towards the door and listened before kneeling down and looking through the keyhole. Once she was sure it was clear, she opened the door and started to creep towards the front door. "You don't need to creep around." A voice spoke up behind her, making her jump. She turned to see Zero smirking at her.

"What have I told you about sneaking up on me!?" She hissed at him, gently smacking his arm. "Kaname won, didn't he?" She then asked, the playfulness replaced with sorrow. Zero shook his head and her eyes lit up. "Rido, where is he?" She asked full of hope. It killed Zero from within, seeing her so full of hope, happiness and love.

"We need to sit down and talk about what happened." Zero stated and gestured to the loungers and chairs that were set up in the Moon dormitory entrance way.

"What is there to talk about?" She asked confused as she moved to sat down, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Where's Rido?" She asked once more, watching Zero closely.

"Let's sit down." Zero said calmly, trying to keep his face from revealing anything. Akari frowned at him, and shook his head.

"Just tell me!" She shouted at him; she didn't have the patience for games.

"Kaname we know was killed, but we couldn't find Rido." Zero started, hope still gleamed in her eyes. "But there was enough ash to suggest he too was killed." Silence fell over the pair before he heard the most heart wrenching scream. He caught her before she could fall to her knees. He held her tightly as she cried. Zero didn't know how he could ever describe the sound, it was filled with pain, horror, heartbreak and utter deviation. All he knew was that he never wanted to hear it again.

He held her tighter as she tried to run to the front door. But he held her closer, he knew she wanted to run and find him, to see if it was real. But there was nothing to see but a destroyed school covered in dust and ash, buildings crumbling in the aftermath. It was sad to see such a place that once held hope for so many, now it held sorrow and a bitter taste of disappointment and failure. Zero wasn't sure what would happen next, but he knew things were only about to get worse.

It took Akari a few days to pull herself together, out of the grips of despair. Now all that was left for her was to held home and lead the life she had before she met Rido. Her heart ached for him, she knew she would never find anyone else quite like him and no one would ever be able to fill the void he had left behind. However, she knew she had to go back to her old life or be presumed weak.

Much to her surprise, she was met at the gates by Zero. He stood opposite her, his arms folded over his chest and his usual look of distain. "Leaving without a goodbye?" He asked but they both knew neither would leave sleep over her leaving. She choose not to answer him and carried on walking to the gate. "You don't have to leave." He then told her quite plainly.

"And do what exactly?" She snapped back at him as she put her bags down.

"Help us, like you did before." He pointed out and Akari shook her head and held back a smirk.

"Zero, I never helped any of you, I used you and the others to rid myself of Kaname." She stated, looking him in the eyes. "It did however backfire a little and I no longer have Rido bit we both knew that was a possibility." She then added with a sigh, holding back her own emotions. She hated speaking about Rido in that way, as if he meant so little to her.

"Even if that was your only goal, we can still work together to save humans." He countered, clearly hoping to keep her around. Akari wasn't too sure as to why but her best guess was that they needed someone to help them navigate their way through vampire politics during this time. Currently, the vampires had no king or queen, simply the Vampire Council. However, despite their obvious rise to power without a royal family to interfere, their were those how would fight to stop them and place a new heir on the throne. It was now the start of a very turbulent time for everyone.

"You just don't get it!" She huffed at him; she was fed up of playing nice. "The only reason I'm in this mess is because when it comes to women, Kaname thinks only with his dick. If he hadn't bit me, Rido wouldn't have killed Juri and Haruka. At least not anytime soon." She sighed to herself and rubbed her face. "He caused Rido to lose it. He came to me and Kaname followed, thinking with his dick again. I was never going to come here, but Rido in all his wisdom thought it would be an excellent way to spy on Kaname." Zero watched as different emotions ran across her face as she explained everything, anger and frustration flared though her as she spoke. "And then Kaname got a little too close for comfort, not just for me but also for Rido. So, what do you think the genius did?! He wrote a letter pretending to be my dead good for nothing father and then pretend kidnapped me. But it did leave a window of opportunity for Rido to kill Yuki, I will give him that." She smirked as Zero teased, his head almost reaching for his Bloody Rose. She knew she had stepped on a nerve, but he needed to hear it, he needed to know how wrong he was about her; how wrong he was about Rido. Now she looked him dead in the eyes. "After Kaname tried to force me back here, you arrived. You presented me with a golden opportunity. You see everyone knew about your twin, purebloods at least. And Shizuka had always been a thorn in my side. So how best to deal with her?" She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Ah, yes. I told you about your precious twin. You kill her and I temporarily gain your loyalty." Zero growled at her, he should have known she would use him. But he still hoped there was some good in her or he could use his own loyalty he had to her to earn a favour. To have her help them. "To be honest, I wasn't expecting you to return to me, I had expected you to go back to Cross." Zero suppressed a smirk but Akari had already spotted the faint twitch at the corner of his mouth. She smirked. "But I already knew you had been back, Rido's followers had seen you." Zero froze, if she knew, why didn't she say anything? She had played him. "I guess Cross must be just as good as Kaname at playing chess or Cross was no more than a puppet." She theorised.

"Kuran had no hand in that." Zero spat. He knew what she was hinting at, he had always felt that Kaname used people much like a chess piece, mainly as pawns. But he never felt that Cross would ever do the same to him or anyone else for that matter.

"Interesting." She hummed before getting back on topic. "It was clear by the way you hoovered and watched Rido, that Kaname had suggested something to you all. It was more than simply; he was the bad guy. Rido told me about your small little chats and it was clear that Kaname had suggested that Rido was abusive. To be honest, I was outraged at first, Rido had to stop me from setting you and everyone else straight. Instead, I then chose to play on it. A perfect distraction, you were all to concerned about little old me, Rido was able to arrange his forces in a very small amount of time."

"You lied to me." Zero hissed at her.

"Oh don't look all surprised Zero!" She shouted at him annoyed. "I'm a vampire, a fucking pureblood! What else would you expect? Did you really think I'm that weak or blind to what was going on!?"

"No, we just thought you were turning a blind eye to it all." Zero explained. "Why leave after all of this?" He then asked, there was nothing left at her home for her anymore. He was sure that staying was her best option.

"Because I don't want peace with humans or vampire hunters." She stated simply. "No tablet will change that. It may curb the hunger but it's not the same. Besides, without vampire hunters, who would get rid of the weak and stupid?" She went onto explain.

"Toga was right about you." Zero admitted. Akari smiled and picked up her bags.

"You should listen to him more often." She told him as she stepped passed him. Zero let her pass, he saw no point to fight her. Without Rido, she had no reason to bother with them anyone. But he would always keep an eye out for her. He had learnt that she could be as equally cunning and dangerous as either Kaname and Rido. But unlike those two, she didn't act unpredictably or with emotion, at least rarely. If she interfered with them, she would have reason to.