Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL 1. Chapter 1: Damn cats

It was the end of the day and the sun was setting as two girls, Meri and Clearflower were walking along with a boy named Jyoti, Meri and Jyoti arguing about something stupid yet again.

"Meri, you've lived here for 6 months already, why the hell can't you follow the damn dress code like Clear?!" Jyoti growled.

"This body was not meant to be confined to those disgustingly conservative outfits; I swear we look like nuns." Meri complained as she pulled up her knee-high brown uniform skirt.

"First off, what body? You're flatter than wood. Second, they're meant to be conservative. If you want to flaunt your body, go to a strip club." Jyoti hissed.

"Guys please don't fight! We're supposed to be finding Lamia." Clearflower sighed as she looked through a box.

"Yeah, sure no prob Clear, considering we're good at finding people." Meri sarcastically said as she looked through a trashcan, finding a possum who hissed at her and ran off.

"Meri you shouldn't say that! It makes me want to cry that we still haven't been able to find my sons or who's been causing the disturbances for you." sniffed Clearflower.

Jyoti smacked Meri on the head, "You're supposed to support her, not bring her down. God tell me how you two are best friends."

"We were raised together and have always been together… well until Meri got kidnapped." Clearflower explained.

Jyoti snorted, "This chick kidnapped? Who would want her?"

Meri took no time in punching Jyoti in the nose, "Well, you snot-nosed brat, I was only kidnapped because I was caught off guard in my sleep. That bastard Don Thousand forced me into marriage and kept me away from seeing Clear and my Barian world. Now that dick bag is sleeping with mutated, acid-addicted fishies in the Sea of Ill Intent for his little act."

"Oh Lamia where art thou my precious kitty-cat!" wailed Clearflower.

It was at that very moment when a scream was heard in the distance.

"RYOGA! GET IT AWAY!"

Ryoga sighed and was about to shoo it away when he saw a weird crystal on its collar.

"What's up Ryoga?" Yuma asked.

"Hey, is it me or is this cat staring right at Astral?" Ryoga asked as he further examined the crystal which tingled at his fingertips.

Yuma looked over at Astral, noting that he was staring at the cat. "This is getting weird."

The short haired black and light orange brindle cat turned its greenish yellow eyes at Rei. "Meow?" it mewed questionably.

Rei began to sweat a bit as he felt it knew something he was trying to hide.

"Rei, are you okay?" Kotori questioned as Rei shook his head.

"I'm fine." he laughed nervously as the cat walked towards him. He stepped back.

The cat then began clawing his legs. Rei began panicking and tried to shake the cat off, "Uwah! Get off please!"

"Shingetsu!" Yuma yelled out.

"Meow!" the cat growled as it GLARED at Rei.

"Maybe it wants you to carry it." Cathy calmly suggested.

"CARRY IT?!" Rei shouted out.

"You're not afraid of cats too ura?" Tokunosuke sighed.

"N-no not at all!" Rei yelled.

"Are you saying it's a bad thing?!" Rio seethed.

"NO WAY!" Tetsuo covered Tokunosuke's voice.

"Can this get any weirder, eh Astral…Astral?" Yuma asked as he noticed Astral was staring at something or someone in front of him.

"Who could they be?" Astral cautiously said to himself.

"HEY THAT'S MY CAT!" yelled a girl with silver grey hair and crimson red highlights before she tackled Rei, which the cat avoided by jumping to Kotori.

"YUMA-KUN HELP!" Rei pleaded as he landed on the grass with Clearflower atop of him.

"Dammit Clear, can't you save the flirting 'til after we find your cat?!" Meri scowled.

"You mean this one?" Kotori asked.

"Exactly that one deary," Meri said with crossed arms and closed eyes, "Now let's find it."

"We already found it you nitwit." Jyoti said in an annoyed tone.

Meri opened her eyes and blinked in a surprised manner before she began examining the cat, until it scratched her. "OUCH! Damn cat, yep it's definitely it." The cat scratched her yet again.

As Kotori handed the cat over to Clear, she gasped as she looked over Kotori's shoulder, "Astral?"

Astral tilted his head in confusion. "You can see me?"

"Well you're as bright as a street light." Meri remarked.

"You would know what a street light looks like." Jyoti backhandedly said.

"As would you since that's the only place you would ever get laid." Meri grinned triumphantly.

"Astral is that really you?" Clearflower asked with tears in her eyes.

"I'm indeed Astral, but who are you?" Astral asked.

Clearflower jumped off of Rei leaving the cat on his stomach, who looked quite content there, hugged Astral and sobbed. "Astral it's really you! I finally found you after all this time!"

"Astral, who is she?" Yuma asked.

"I don't know, nor do I know how she's able to see or touch me for that matter." Astral coldly stated.

"I'm his mother." Clearflower explained before she glowed and changed into an Astral being that looked similar to Astral save for her eyes and hair.

Meri shielded her eyes, "Great, trying to blind me is she? Well two can play this game sister!"

"You don't mean you're… too late." Jyoti sighed as Meri had turned into her Barian form, dark maroon skin with a deep red adorned dress with her lapis above her heart.

"BARIAN!" Rei shouted fearfully as Meri raised her brow.

"I'll just go out on a limb and say you have amnesia too. That or alzheimer's." Meri spoke through her mouthless form.

"Really Meri? I wasn't trying to blind you, I just glowed brighter than usual because I finally found one of my long lost sons." sighed Clearflower.

"Yeah right, you were trying to upstage me, the Barian Goddess, Meri." Meri scoffed.

"More like Barian drag queen." Jyoti coughed.

"I could destroy you if I wanted to." Meri threatened.

"It would be better than having to keep on living with you." Jyoti sighed.

"Just what the hell is going on here?!" Ryoga shouted as he and Yuma stood in front of the others in a defensive way.

Meri's eyes twitched. "I get you have alzheimer's but that doesn't give you the right to scream at your mother, NASCH!" Meri growled as she bonked Ryoga on the head.

"Nasch?! ... I mean, who's Nasch." Rei questioned.

Meri turned around and glared at Rei, "Not so forgetful now are we, Vector? I should have you both grounded for this and for dragging poor Merag into this!" Meri hissed.

"What in the world do you mean?!" Ryoga angrily asked.

Meri sighed and returned to her human form, "You'll figure it out eventually."

"Hey we shouldn't fight Meri; we should be happy we found some of our children and that they're safe and sound." Clear tried to placate.

"I'm not the one who forgot all about their Barian lives." Meri scowled.

"But Meri aren't you happy that they're okay? Remember how you felt when you could no longer sense them in Barian world." Clear tried again.

"I'd be happier if they had manners, but then again, that's on my part. So hurry up and get your son back so we can start looking into the matter of the little psychos in my world. They're bugging the hell out of me." Meri said.

"But Meri I haven't even found Darku! I want to find _both_ of my boys!" Clear said with a clear steely tone.

"Then we'll have to add that on to the other matter. I seriously doubt we can wait on them anymore."

With those words, the sky turned dark and in the far distance, a black light descended onto the earth and Meri's fears were confirmed.

"It's them. _Șapte păcătoși_, the seven sinners," Meri shuddered before turning to the others. "Listen, the Barians are not your enemies, rather that evil energy is. Be cautious."

"No I thought we had more time until they came!" panicked Clear, who turned back to her human form and looked at Astral as she grabbed the ring on her left pointer finger, whispering, "Ass kicker," before it shape shifted into a wand. She waved it over him and turned him human with clothes already on, thankfully.

Astral was speechless, as were the others. "W-what?!"

"Clear you idiot! Couldn't you tell that he could mask his energy simply by going inside that boy?!" Meri pointed to Yuma.

"Um nope, sorry but my mother instincts kicked in and screamed, "PROTECT YOUR SON YOU IDGIT!" so I listened." Clearflower sheepishly explained.

Meri smacked her own face with her hand and sighed, "Whatever, but we need to get the hell out of here. You guys should probably do the same, and remember that the Barians are NOT your enemies!" Meri reminded as she began darting away from Jyoti and Clear.

"Did she just leave us?!" Jyoti growled.

"Yeah she kinda does that; at least she isn't using me for bait again." Clearflower laughed nervously.

Jyoti had already gone ahead, shouting as he did, "COME BACK YOU TRAITOROUS BITCH!"

"Well good bye and take care; if you need to contact us I'm sure Lamia can find you. Take care my sweet son and you, I'm sorry for tackling you and thank you for finding Lamia, good bye!" Clearflower fare welled with Lamia on her shoulders before running after the other two.

And so began the prelude to the war.


	2. Chapter 2: Like mother like son

Back in Barian world, Durbe and Mizael were discussing the new turn of events.

"I just knew that simpleton was going to mess things up. I just had a feeling!" Mizael hissed.

"Calm yourself Mizael. For all we know, this might not have been Gilag's fault." Durbe said.

"Then Vector must be up to his tricks again." Mizael squinted his eyes in anger while Durbe shook his head.

"I really doubt this has anything to with either of them, besides, that energy was far too dark and evil. I fear it might have to do with the claims of the group that is conspiring against us."

"A group conspiring against us?" Mizael asked.

"_Șapte Păcătoși,_ they've been rather quiet though so we don't have too much information on them." Durbe stated.

"Then what's our plan of action? We can't just push the destruction of Astral world out of the way either."

"I was planning on sending Alit next, but with this, I feel that we too must go down there."

"US GO DOWN TO EARTH?! Durbe, this is surely a joke right?" Mizael chuckled, his face growing concerned as Durbe stayed silent. "Durbe, if we both leave, who will take care of matters here in Barian?"

"I arranged that already, and I also arranged for us to be enrolled in the very same school as that Tsukumo boy to keep a close watch on both him and the _Șapte Păcătoși. _We mustn't let them out of our sight at any cost." Durbe stated as he called for Alit.

"So what's the plan Durbe?" Alit asked.

"We're off to Earth."

Alit chuckled, "Sweet."

"I'm telling you, they can't be trusted." Ryoga scoffed as he walked with Yuma and Astral, avoiding his sister and the others.

"But she claimed to be Astral's mom." Yuma said.

"And then they turned him into a human." Ryoga rolled his eyes.

"I can eat now!" Astral grinned.

"See, Astral's happy!" Yuma smiled along.

"Whatever."

"Don't get snippy, Nasch." Yuma poked.

"I'M NOT NASCH WHOEVER THE HELL HE IS!" Ryoga yelled out.

"Wow, we really need to teach you manners don't we?" Yuma turned to Astral who merely nodded.

"Why did I have to end up liking you?" Ryoga muttered to himself.

Back with Meri, Clear and Jyoti, they were touring around their new campus; Heartland Middle School.

"Wow, this is so much better than that nun school, and these uniforms are so cute! I'm glad I can be youthful!" Meri smiled as she twirled in her new third year uniform.

"Enjoy it while you can you old hag. Show off your thunder thighs and flat chest with those slutty uniforms; they're meant for you." Jyoti scowled.

"You're just jealous because you can't wear cute skirts like this." Meri stuck out her tongue.

"He can but it's called cross-dressing, but I agree these outfits are very Kawai!" chirped Clearflower.

"They do suit you." Jyoti said.

"How come you don't say that about me butt-face?!" Meri growled.

"Because unlike you, she pulls it off without looking like she'd belong in some old man's sick fantasy." Jyoti spat.

"Why you…" Meri was stopped as she saw three boys, two of them obviously looked too old to be in middle school, and was awed.

"Clear look! They're gorgeous!" Meri gushed and fell to the floor.

"You're a pervert." Jyoti stated as he kicked Meri on the floor.

"Excuse me, but are you three also new?" the youngest boy asked with innocent green eyes.

"Yeah we are. We had to transfer from our old school after an 'incident' involving those two and our old school uniform." Clearflower giggled.

"Don't you dare bring it…"

"I stuck the bastard into our girl uniform and hung him on our flagpole from his underwear!" Meri crazily stated as she covered Jyoti's mouth.

Jyoti bit down and pushed her off of him with a blushing face, "SCREW YOU, YOU BITCH!"

"NEVER IN YOUR LIFE DICK BAG!" Meri shouted out before taking note of the pretty boy in front of Clear and then proceeding to jump on him.

"He's so pretty! Can you be my offspring please?! You're so pretty! What's your name?!"

The second eldest began laughing his head off, "Did she just call you pretty?! You must be glad dad screwed up and put us in school with you Mihael."

"Thomas stop!" The eldest ordered and hit his head.

"Oh come on Cris, this has to be funny for you too!" Thomas whined.

"It isn't!" Cris said.

"Please let go." Mihael begged.

"NEVER!" Meri said in a dark voice.

"I've never seen that before, has she snapped?" Jyoti asked.

"No, she just likes pretty things. Meri, if you let him go I'll make you a cake, any flavor you want." bribed Clearflower.

"Hmm…" Meri stared at Clear.

"I'll also keep Lamia out of your room.", Clearflower added.

"Deal." Meri promptly let go of Mihael, but not before pinching his cheek.

"Are you the devil?" Jyoti asked.

"Are you going to shut up?" Meri smiled sweetly.

"And are you going to apologize?" Cris asked.

Jyoti laughed, "Her apologizing? Hell would freeze over first."

To his surprise though, Meri was on her knees begging for forgiveness, "Oh pretty creature, please accept my apology, I just lost my kids and upon seeing you, my mommy instincts took over. I'm sorry deary."

Mihael looked at Meri, "It's okay miss…"

"Thunder thighs." Jyoti coughed.

"Miss, it must be hard to lose your…. Wait but you're my age, you couldn't possibly have kids." Mihael realized.

"You'd be surprised Mihael." Cris sighed.

"But either way, it seems a bit too odd." Mihael said.

"Er… it's complicated hun." Meri sighed.

"Finally she's honest." Jyoti scoffed.

"And it'd be a miracle if you could shut your trap." Meri growled.

"I'm really sorry on their behalf to you three. If there's any way I can make it up to you guys, I would." sighed Clearflower as Meri and Jyoti got into _another_ argument.

Mihael shook his head, "It's okay, really, they're weird but it's a good kind of weird."

"Yeah I'll bet she gets freaky in bed." Thomas muttered to himself as Cris smacked his head once more.

"Er, um I don't know how she is in bed but I'm sure she can answer that better than me." blushed Clearflower as she hid her face with her hair.

"Well she seems busy, how about you answer me how you do in bed." Thomas winked before Mihael hit him the rib.

"Sorry, Thomas doesn't know how to control his hormones." Mihael calmly said.

"Oh yeah I know how that is. Our old school uniforms weren't that bad but they didn't show as much skin as Meri would like to show so yeah." she nervously smiled.

"THOSE WERE FREAKING NUN OUTFITS! AND ANYONE AGAINST CROSSDRESSING IS AGAINST ME!" Meri shouted from the battle with Jyoti.

"She must be happy then, and hopefully you are too." Mihael smiled.

"Oh I'm as happy as a clam as long as I have Meri, recently Jyoti, and now my baby with me." she chirped.

"That's wonderful… baby?!" Mihael's eyes widened.

"Yeah I just got him back after my 'guardians' took him away and I'm still searching for his twin brother that my 'guardians' sent away to his 'father'." she explained.

"My, well I hope you're reunited with him soon. Until then, take care." Mihael took Clear's hand and gently kissed it before walking off with his brothers.

Clearflower blushed until after he left that she realized she didn't introduce herself. "Oh well I guess we were never meant to be important to each other." she sighed before going to break up Jyoti and Meri so they wouldn't be late

That day in class, they were introduced to the entire class.

"So, go on, don't be shy." Mr. Kay urged.

"Crap, he shouldn't have done that." Jyoti sighed.

Meri stood up on the front desk and cleared her throat, "Hello mortals, I am Meri, your fabulous new goddess and in charge of taking care of you all!"

"You forgot to mention the bit about being the school whore." Jyoti deadpanned.

"And here is Jyoti, the in closet cross-dresser!" Meri dragged Jyoti up by his neck, nearly choking him.

"YOU FUCKING MADE ME DO IT!" Jyoti screamed.

"Um I'm Clearflower Astralite, please take care of me and don't mind those too." greeted Clearflower as she bowed.

"Yuma-kun!" Rei panicked.

"Don't worry, they're on our side!" Yuma grinned.

"And there is one more student to introduce, please come in."

"Hello everyone, I'm Mihael Arclight and I'll be your classmate from today onwards. Please take care of me." Mihael bowed and smiled.

"No way, III!" Yuma jumped up from his seat in joy.

"Yuma!" Mihael waved, "Oh and please call me Mihael."

"No prob su… Mihael!" Yuma smiled.

"Ooh look it's your pretty boyfriend!" Meri poked at Clear.

"Meri please stop the girls are glaring at me and I just met him today." begged Clearflower.

"Hey bitches, if anyone tries to butt into their relationship, I'll hang you from your underwear on the flagpole, ask this guy, he knows I will fucking do it!" Meri assertively stated.

"Oh she will, and I'll help her." Jyoti said.

"That's if you're not on there for pissing me off." Meri said.

"By the way Yuma, do you know them?" Mihael asked.

"Who them? One of them is Astral's mom and the other one is a Barian goddess or something like that." Yuma explained.

"Astral's mom?! You mean the rowdy one right?" Mihael asked.

"Nope, it's Clearflower." Yuma said, noticing that Mihael grew pale. "Hey are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Just a bit dizzy from all this new info." Mihael tried to smile.

In the office, Akari was battling her way through the school trying to enroll Astral.

"I'm telling you he lost his papers in a flood! He's our cousin dammit! Can't you see the resemblance?!"

"I'm sorry miss but…"

"NO BUTS JUST LET HIM GO TO SCHOOL HERE!" Akari roared, causing the office lady to sob.

Just next to her, a blonde was also trying to enroll at the school.

"Just what do you freaking mean by needing paperwork? Does it look like I would carry paperwork for me or my neighbors?!"

"I'm sorry…"

"Sir."

"Sir, but we need not only your paperwork but your parents too!"

"OUR PARENTS DIED YOU ASS!" Mizael shouted.

"I'm terribly sorry!"

"You better be, I should sue you and this horrid school for this you know." Mizael threatened.

"PLEASE DON'T!"

"Then enroll us here!"

"I CAN'T!"

"THEN I'LL SUE!" Mizael screeched.

"PLEASE DON'T!"

In the back while this occurred, Durbe and Alit sat next to a white haired boy with golden eyes.

"Well he's definitely showing no mercy." Durbe sighed.

"What'd you expect from Miza?" Alit grinned.

The boy, who was actually Astral, sighed, "Akari isn't very peaceful either."

"Then we have more in common than we originally thought." Durbe smiled.

"I guess so, I'll be happy if Akari doesn't tear their throats out." Astral sighed.

"And we'll be happy if Miza doesn't end up sending them to the mental asylum!" Alit laughed, causing the others to laugh as well.

"It seems like you two will have class together," Durbe added.

"Don't worry, I can get him to sit with us at lunch." Alit smiled.

"Sit at lunch? We can eat?" Astral grinned.

Alit put his arm around Astral's shoulder, "Oh yeah man, we can eat as much as we'd like."

"Sounds great!" Astral smiled as Akari and Mizael continued shouting in the back.


	3. Chapter 3: What a small universe?

It was lunchtime, and Meri had just finished hanging her last victim on the flagpole. She cleaned her hands and smiled triumphantly, "Well I just broke my record!"

"Meri did you have to hang Jyoti up there multiple times?" questioned Clearflower bringing down said latest victim, Jyoti, on Lightning her broom.

"Well, he did piss me off." Meri played with her hair.

"HOW DID I PISS YOU OFF?! I WAS HELPING YOU HANG THOSE MONGRELS!" Jyoti shouted.

"Well you weren't doing too good of a job if I hung you up there." Meri sighed.

"WHY YOU…!"

"Guys come on just drop it and let just go to lunch!" yelled a pissed off Clearflower.

"Sounds good to me!" Meri chirped and pranced to the cafeteria.

"She just has it out for me doesn't she?" Jyoti scowled.

"Please Jyoti just go." pleaded Clearflower.

"Alright, if you say so." Jyoti shrugged and headed to the cafeteria.

Clearflower followed and squealed when she sense a now familiar aura and ran to hugged Astral. "Astral you're here!" she smiled.

"Miss?" Astral asked.

"You mean mom." Meri corrected.

"…Mom." Astral said.

"How are you? Are you feeling well? Have you eaten? You haven't had any trouble? Do you like being human? If you don't I can show you how to change back at well." blabbered Clearflower like a mother hen.

"Did you catch that Astral? Cuz I sure didn't." Meri sighed.

"Unlike you, she actually cares about the well-being of her children." Jyoti stated.

"Shut up! I do care about my kids!" Meri claimed.

"Then where are they?" Jyoti asked before being kicked in the face.

"None of your business." Meri seethed.

"Really Astral have you been fine?" asked Clear.

"I've been fine ,and I'm actually pretty content with having my own body now. I even met some friends who also have a scary relative." Astral smiled.

"I know Clear is overprotective but scary is a bit too much." Meri said.

"Not her, Akari. She nearly bit off the lady's head trying to enroll me here." Astral sighed.

"Oh my the police weren't called in were they?" Clear gasped.

"No, from my understanding, they were trying to get students off of flagpoles."

"You're welcome hun." Meri winked.

"So are you going to invite your new friends to sit with your human friend and his." questioned Clearflower.

"I suppose if Yuma doesn't mind." Astral said.

"So where are your friends?" Meri asked.

Astral looked around before he saw Alit and Durbe and waved. "Over there."

"Well they seem…no." Meri muttered.

"What is it Meri?" Clearflower asked.

"Alit, Durbe, it's really them." Meri whispered with a smile on her face before it turned sad. "I doubt they'd remember me either."

"Meri are they… your children?" questioned Clearflower.

Meri nodded, "Kinda ironic that they'd befriend Astral though."

"Well Astral did say they had a scary relative in common." Jyoti said.

"But who?" Meri asked, realizing that her question would soon be answered.

"Durbe! Alit! I found Gilag!" Mizael shouted across the cafeteria.

"No way." Meri gasped.

"Are they also your children?" Clearflower asked.

"Gilag and Mizael… my little prince!" Meri cried out.

"Well don't just stand here woman go greet your babies!" Clearflower urged.

Meri ignored whether or not they'd remember her or not and ran towards them and tackled them in a hug. "Dodo, Ali, Gilly, Miza! My babies!"

"You didn't make any lovers here in the human world did you Gilag?" Mizael growled.

"No way, I've never even seen her." Gilag claimed.

"I'm your mom guys, from Barian world, don't you remember?" Meri cried.

"Sorry girly, but I've never seen you." Alit scratched his head.

"I don't know who told you about Barian, but if you speak another word, you'll be in trouble human." Mizael threatened.

"Miza, you never used to be this aggressive." Meri frowned.

"Please, I suggest you leave it at that, Mizael can be very temperamental." Durbe urged.

"Dodo…" Meri sniffed as they all walked away.

"Wait here Astral, Jyoti and Jyo-yo if I hear you tease Meri right now I'll be very disappointed in you for kicking her when she's down." warned Clearflower as she went and follow the four Barian lords.

The four were walking when the heard, "Hey you four stop!"

"What now?" Mizael groaned.

"You shouldn't brush Meri off like that. You made her cry and she never cry." Clearflower began.

"And I should care what happens to her because?" Mizael coldly asked.

"Because she's _your mother_ Mizael and embodiment of your world, Barian world." she stated back just as coldly.

Mizael looked shocked but quickly shook it off, "You know nothing of our world and I warned her not to speak about Barian!" he was about attack but the others held him back.

"Mizael, cease this at once!" Durbe ordered.

"They don't know what the hell they're talking about! As far as we know it, we have no mother!" Mizael hissed before storming off.

"I know what I'm talking about since I'm the embodiment of Astral world! You want proof turn around!" Clearflower hissed.

"As if…" Mizael was stunned to see Astral marking and jewels on her skin and she was floating a few inches above the ground.

"Proof enough? Now listen." she growled as she landed on the ground and the jewel and marking faded away.

Mizael turned away and walked in angry silence. The others, merely looked on in awe. "You really aren't kidding." Durbe said.

"Why would I be wasting my time here trying to convince you guys when I can be comforting your crying mother who never wanted to leave you guys." she sighed.

Durbe nodded and urged Alit and Gilag to follow him. Before he left, he uttered softly, "I'm sorry."

The four came back to a crying Meri with an awkward Astral and panicking Jyoti trying to cheer her up. "Hey Meri I brought some people who want to talk with you." Clear called out softly.

Meri looked up from her covered face and hid back, "What? You guys want to tell me off too?"

Durbe kneeled down next to Meri and patted her back, "I'm sorry, we now know you're an actual Barian being."

Meri sniffed and looked up at Durbe, "You do?"

Durbe nodded, "Yes, but please forgive us, we still don't feel that you are our actual mother in any way."

Meri nodded but smiled anyways and pulled him down for a hug, "It's okay, I'll make you guys remember one way or another."

Alit and Gilag looked at one another and grinned, "Well he might not agree to it, but having a mom, real or not, has way too many pros. Welcome to the family mom!" Alit shouted gleefully as Meri pulled him and Gilag down for a hug.

"Thanks, thanks you two little simpletons." Meri sobbed with a smile.

"Oh and a bit of a warning don't turn into your Barian form if you can help it now that the Șapte păcătoși is tracking us down. When in our natural form we give off much more energy than in our human forms it like giant neon sign saying, 'Hey we're right here idgits!', for them so no changing unless it can't be help." Clearflower warned.

"The Șapte păcătoși?!" Durbe gasped.

"If that's the case then didn't you kinda alert them to where you were a minute ago?" Alit asked.

"No, I didn't turn into my full Astral form only small things for a short while that would only release a little bit of energy." Clearflower explained.

"Wait, what do you know about the Șapte păcătoși?" Durbe inquired.

" The Șapte păcătoși has been around for longer than you guys think if you were thinking they just recently formed. They're evil Barians who actually approve of Don Thousand's doings. While they hold no special attachment to him, if he revives, he'll likely kill you all and place them in your stead to rule and unthinkable things will transpire." Meri explained, "Their restlessness was actually what awoke me from my slumber and caused me to head over as quickly as I could to Clear's side, but upon doing so, ended up here on Earth, stuck with a loser."

"Oh sure, call me a loser." Jyoti scoffed, him and Astral having joined the small group.

"So they're a threat a greater threat than we thought." Durbe said.

"Yes, and if you continue the war on Astral world, not only will innocent lives be taken, but yours as well, and that's the last thing I'd ever want. You need to end the war and get help from Yuma and the others." Meri stated.

"Never! We couldn't ever accept help from the Astral world, nor would they ever be willing to give it to us rejects." Durbe hissed.

"Um I would be more than happy to help you guys but sadly I don't have any real power over my people; if I did then my son Astral wouldn't have been taken from me to be trained as a weapon when he was old enough and his twin wouldn't have been taken and promptly dumped in Barian world for having Barian powers at birth. Yeah Eliphas is a bit of an ass and he's my 'boss' even though in reality due to my status in Astral world I should be in charge. But it was decided that after Meri was kidnapped by Don thousand that I needed more protection and it only grew worse when it was discovered that somehow he got past their defenses and slipped his 'seed' with the serum they gave me to become pregnant in the first place. But Meri and me were always meant to work together. The person who raised us, our mother in the sense, taught us as a set. She's the warrior yet I'm the healer; we're two sides of the same coin." Clear explained.

"Still think we won't help you?" Meri asked.

Durbe merely stared at Meri and Clearflower before he sighed, "We won't readily accept them, but we won't attack unless provoked."

Meri looked at Clearflower with a happy grin and high fived her, "Sweet!," she turned to Durbe and waved to him, Alit and Gilag, "Take care sweetums!"

"We will ma!" Gilag waved back before Durbe had to drag him and Alit by the ear.

"Well Astral, since it looks like your new friends got some things to think about, how about we go with Yuma, I believe was his name, and his friends." suggested Clearflower.

Astral nodded cautiously and quietly, still shocked at the identity of his friends.

"So they said that the Barians weren't your enemies and that there was a greater evil at force?" Mihael asked in confirmation at Yuma's and the others' information.

"Yeah, and Astral got turned into a human because of them too. I know it's not much but I think we should trust their word, they even transformed into their energy shapes to prove it, even though Meri changed to outdo Clear." Yuma laughed at the last part.

"And I don't buy a single word they say." Ryoga interrupted.

"Of course you don't Nasch," Thomas poked.

"SHUT UP!" Ryoga hissed.

"Are you sure Rio's the girl here?" Thomas provoked even more.

"Meow!" mewed Lamia as she came out of nowhere and landed on Rei's head.

"Rei, your hat is disgusting." Rio glared.

"But Rio-san, I'm not wearing a hat." Rei shuddered.

"Oh my sweetie Mer-mer knows fashion when she sees it, just like me." Meri boasted as she walked down with Clearflower, Astral, and Jyoti.

"Maybe the fashion of a drag queen." Jyoti muttered.

"Eep, Lamia get off of his head!" yelped Clearflower as she climbed onto Rei's lap and leaned in, grabbing Lamia from his head before she smiled apologetically to him. "Sorry about that, it seems she's quite taken with you which is weird since it usually takes her a few weeks to warm up to someone." she apologized to Rei with Lamia in her arm.

"O-oh I don't mind Clearflower, really." Rei's hands twitched, catching Mihael's attention.

"You're growling Mihael." Cris quietly mentioned.

"Forgive me, I just can't stand perverts." Mihael calmly replied.

"Well Clear, I think you can get off him now that you got your cat." Meri coughed.

"Huh? Oh so sorry I didn't even notice I was sitting please forgive me." Clearflower blushed from embarrassment as she bowed apologizing.

"L-like I said it's no problem Clearflower" Rei stuttered.

"It's not like has any problem touching your butt ura." Tokunosuke flat out said, leaving everyone to stare at him.

"He touched my butt? So that groping feeling is what touching someone's butt is. I always wondered what that feeling was when I was walking in the halls of my old school. I just thought that human butts just get those sensations every once in a while. I guess that means that all those boys who walked me to my classes were touching my butt too.", Clearflower pondered.

"Clear, you're an idiot." Meri smacked her face.

"And those guys are dead meat; it's a bit of a drag now having to find all those idiots now." Jyoti sighed.

"Ah oh well; it's in the past, so have you decided to help out or not?" Clearflower questioned.

"We were just talking about it." Rio said.

"And there's no way in hell we're agreeing." Ryoga hissed.

"Calm down Shark, that's totally not what we were aiming for!" Yuma tried to ease Ryoga.

"Then what were you guys aiming for?" Astral asked with raised brows.

"We don't want enemies, and I doubt you want enemies either." Yuma stated, causing Astral to smile.

Astral shook his head, "Thank you Yuma."

"Well it's settled, we're the Șapte păcătoși ass-kicking squad! Holla!" Meri gleefully shouted with her fist in the air.

"You're lame." Jyoti deadpanned.

"SHUT UP HUMAN SLAVE!" Meri shouted.

"Well since we've come to this agreement, do you have any way of finding the whereabouts of the Șapte păcătoși?" Cris asked as Meri and Clearflower stayed silent. "I thought so," Cris sighed as he took out a tech bracelet and pressed a few buttons.

"Cris, is that..?"

"I was originally going to use this to find the Barians, but seeing that they're not going to be our greatest enemies, we can still use it to find these Șapte păcătoși if they are still Barian."

"So how does it work?" Yuma asked.

"We'll need them to come and help us identify their energies, but otherwise, it's like an energy tracker." Cris explained.

"Can Yuma and the others come as well?" Mihael asked.

"I don't travel without my babies or their significant others." Meri stated.

Cris sighed, "I suppose, I just hope father isn't up to his antics when we arrive."


	4. Chapter 4: The Greatest Arclight, BYRON!

After school ended, Meri, Clearflower, and Jyoti dragged the others with them to the Arclight Manor in Heartland (apparently there were many around the world according to Thomas.) After a quick change, they all met up at the corner of the school.

"Takashi, goddammit we told you to change!" Meri shouted, now changed into her long sleeve, metallic yellow, lamé button up blouse, tucked into a velvet, dark teal, frilly, high waisted (and rather short) skirt held up by black suspenders. Black thigh high stockings held up by garters, black oxford booties, a dark teal bow with a Barian Lapis clip, and an Astral crystal pendant that had been given to her by Clear adorned her outfit.

"SORRY MISS MERI!" Takashi cried.

"Meri don't make him cry!", Clearflower begged, now wearing a silk lilac cropped top with a faux leather silver skater skirt, lilac thigh high tights, silver converse, her silver circle amulet with an amethyst jewel in the center, a simple sliver ring on each hand pointer finger with the right having 'Ass Kicker' engraved and 'Lightning' engraved on the left, Astral crystal earrings with a small Barian Lapis above her belly button, and her crimson red framed square glasses.

"Well he needs some variety in his life and if he isn't going to wear something else then I'll give him something else to wear!" Meri shouted as she began taking off her skirt.

"WHOA STOP!" Takashi yelled.

"I'd say he needs more than just a skirt, how about your blouse too." Thomas purred before Meri sent her shoe flying at him.

"You know changing your shoes really changes your look, so shut up! Besides, I'm wearing shorts underneath." Meri puffed in triumph as she held out her skirt, thankfully wearing black bloomers underneath.

Jyoti sighed and took off his black fedora and placed it on Takashi head. His outfit consisted of a dark maroon leather jacket with black and yellow triangles at the shoulders, a black, dark red, and yellow polo shirt and black pants. An emblem made of both Baria and Astral crystals adorned his neck. "You'll thank me for this later."

Takashi blushed and bowed his head in gratitude, "T-thank you."

"Anything to keep an innocent guy from having to cross-dress at her hands." Jyoti said.

"Boo, you're no fun." Meri pouted as she slipped her skirt back on.

"So are you all ready to go to our manor?" Cris asked as he returned with a large black vehicle.

"Hell yeah!" Meri shouted.

With that, they were on the road towards their manor, a rather large one next to the river. Upon arrival, they were greeted by the sight of someone who never answers his phone: Kaito.

"Kaito! You butt, why don't you answer your calls?!" Yuma huffed.

"I didn't answer this time." Kaito coldly replied.

"I did and he didn't waste any time in getting here either once he heard it was from Cr.."

"If Cris was the one calling then it had to be important." Kaito quickly interjected Haruto's teasing.

"Now that's the power of love!" Kotori whispered to a nodding Rio and Cathy.

"So where do we begin finding the Șapte păcătoș?" Astral asked.

"We need to begin by…"

Cris was interrupted by the appearance of his father riding on Faker's back. "FASTER MY SLAVE!"

"GET OFF OF ME BYRON!" Faker screamed.

"Was that.."

"Yes Yuma that was our father." Cris grumbled before pulling Thomas to the side, "I thought you gave him the pill."

"I did! He's just too damn energetic!" Thomas said.

"Over there Legacy, to the cute but slutty one wearing lamé!" Byron ordered.

"I'M NOT YOUR HORSE!" Faker shouted as he flung Byron right into Meri's arms.

"Well hello there." Byron purred before Meri dropped him on the floor.

"Who is he? You little brother?" Meri deadpanned.

"No, he's our….dad." Mihael sighed as Byron jumped up from the floor.

"And the greatest damn dad ever! Who else would be so close to their kids' ages than me?" Byron boasted.

"We would actually," Meri said.

"Oh, well then we have a lot in common my dear." Byron said.

"By the way, dad, you put me and Cris in the wrong fucking grade level! Cris isn't even supposed to be in school anymore!" Thomas hissed.

"Did I now? Whoops, it must be the alzheimer's!" Byron grinned innocently.

Meri pulled Clearflower to the side and whispered, "Do you sense it too?"

"Hmhm, your world's magic is literally all over him." Clearflower answered.

"Think you can change him back? He's kinda creepy with that whole kid façade. Plus, I doubt what's behind that mask is pretty." Meri shuddered.

"Sure can do. Hey, Byron is it, can you come over here please?" Clearflower asked.

"Of course, is there something you or your cute friend would like to tell me? Maybe pinch my cheeks or something?" Byron pranced over to them.

Meri scoffed and closed her eyes in a pompous manner, "As if I would ever think of you as cute. I'll bet you'd look about as bad as the vampire dude aged up, or worse."

"Ass kicker come forth!" Clearflower yelled as she touch her right ring. A silver with red ivy design and amethyst globe tipped wand appeared in her right hand and she shouted while waving her wand at Byron, "Ad normalis!", as he was incased by a pale blue glow.

"My dear, I hope you start preparing to eat your words up," Byron chuckled.

"Never." Meri hmpfed.

"Meri, you can open your eyes now." Clearflower said as she place her wand behind her right ear like a pencil.

"Let's see how…" Meri was left agape as she saw Byron turn back into his older self and was actually charmed. "Omg, Clear, Clear look at him, I- I can't man, what?!" Meri babbled, her face red.

"What's wron- OH MY ASTRAL WORLD HE'S NAKED!" eeped Clearflower as she hid herself behind Mihael who was close to her and covered her red face.

"What? Aren't you used to seeing naked men?" Thomas teased.

"No I was artificially inseminated by the scientists back on Astral world to get pregnant with my sons! I am still a virgin and have never seen a naked man before! Plus if you didn't notice, Astral beings don't have 'those' parts!" Clearflower shouted as she buried her face into Mihael's back.

"And here I thought Mihael would get an experienced girl," Thomas sighed.

"Be quiet you idiot!" Mihael snapped.

"Fine, don't need to be so hormonal or anything." Thomas muttered.

"Byron, go get dressed!" Faker demanded as he tried pulling Byron away.

"But I enjoy this freedom back in my old body, wouldn't you say so…"

"Meri, I'm Meri, Barian goddess but who cares about that," Meri toyed with her hair and smiled.

"Well, the sad thing about being back in this body is that I can't hit on you without going to jail, how sad." Byron sighed.

"Oh you won't go to jail, promise. I'm hella old, yep, who gives a damn about age and is it me or is it a little hot here?" Meri fanned herself.

"God, is she flirting? That old hag still has it in her?" Jyoti said.

"Well my dear, I could show you to my room where it's nice and cool there…"

"BYRON NOW!" Faker yanked Byron away and Meri was left in a trance.

"He's so dreamy."

Thomas nearly gagged, "Oh sure go for the old guy but leave the young fresh one here."

"Meri usually always goes for older guys so don't be disheartened by it." Clearflower tried to reassure.

"I do not! But did you see him?! He was so… so…"

"If you say hung I'm going to gag." warned a queasy Clearflower.

"I don't know what that is, but just… I want to become the new Arclight mommy!" Meri declared.

"I don't know what's weirder, the cute but quiet chick knowing sex terminology or that the cute but slutty one wanting to be our new mom and getting it on with our dinosaur dad." Thomas groaned.

"It's weird either way." Cris coughed.

"What's hung?" Mihael asked as Clear, Thomas, and Cris cringed a bit.

"Having a big dick." Jyoti straightforwardly said as Mihael covered his mouth.

"Oh dear."

"Yep," Jyoti said.

After a while, they all went down into the basement where the entire tech was.

"Wow, it looks like a robot had lots of sex here and made an entire lab." Meri awed.

"You're just in heat you dirty old hag." Jyoti muttered.

"Hey he's the one who started all this!" Meri claimed.

"And you can easily stop this." Jyoti countered.

"Is it really that easy?" Byron asked, now back and clothed.

"Great, it's you again." Jyoti grumbled.

"And better than ever thanks to Meri." Byron smiled.

"Oh it was actually Clear but you know, I may have suggested it and oh whoops!" Meri yelped as she dropped a glass container, "Oh no, maybe I should change and make sure this chemical doesn't hurt me. Could you show me a place to change Byron?"

"That's water you dumb bimbo." Kaito said.

"Shut up and make-out with Cris!" Meri replied.

"Oh I'll show you afterwards, but for now, I think my uptight son would prefer you to stay and just point out the Șapte păcătoși energies." Byron kissed Meri's hand.

"Gross." Jyoti gagged.

"I feel the same way." Kaito sighed.

At the very back, Cris began pressing some controls and a world map appeared in holographic form.

"Great, not another geography lesson." Meri groaned.

"This map shows places on this planet with high concentrations of either Astral or Barian energies. We can even zoom it in to Heartland to better see these energies." Cris explained.

"What are those seven dots in Italy, Columbia and.." Jyoti asked.

"We don't know yet, but we can investigate that later," Cris said as he zoomed into Heartland, showing many little dots of energy. "There are six dots here with us here… but there are only three energy beings here."

"What if those extra three dots were our bracelets? They have Barian energy don't they?" Mihael asked.

Cris contemplated that and nodded his head, "I suppose so, though I didn't think they would register enough energy here. Perhaps it could be that their powers are increased with Meri's presence."

"There are four dots in the school right now, could those be some of the Șapte păcătoși?" Faker wondered.

Meri shook her head, "That's probably my little twerps, though why they chose to live in a ruddy school basement is beyond me."

"Maybe they don't have anywhere else to go. Oh we can invite them to live with us if that the case!" suggested Clear.

"NO!" Jyoti shouted.

"Hell to the yeah, but I doubt they'd agree." Meri sighed.

"Thank god," Jyoti breathed a sigh of relief.

"But then again, maybe Alit and Gilag won't be so opposed, Durbe would want to go but he can't leave Miza. Truth be told, they're not biologically related to each other so if they start frick-fracking each other, it would totally be okay." Meri explained.

"Great, we'll talk about why you can't invite your kids to my house later, but does anyone else see that there are no other dots in Heartland. Maybe this thing really can't tell where they are." Jyoti said.

"It can too! If it can pick us up, it surely has to be able to pick those evil motherfuckers up." Meri shouted.

"Maybe we should tell them what we know about them to help narrow the search?" Clearflower suggested to Meri.

"Sure, anything at this point." Meri sighed.

"Meri the floor is yours so please explain." Clearflower gestured to Meri.

Meri cleared her throat, "So, as you all know, the Șapte păcătoși is a group working against the Barian lords, working towards the revival of Don Douchebag, my ex-husband. What you don't know is that upon his revival, he will likely kill the current lords and place them to rule as his little watchdogs, all seven of them. If you guys were told that Barian world is bad, then please clean out your ears because actual innocent lives exist there. They've all been through a rough time and were placed there as such. The seven lords are actually good rulers, even Vector, and they would never let Barian go through hell like that."

"The Barian Lords care about their people while the Șapte păcătoși are only loyal to Don Thousand and do not care about spilling innocent lives. Once they kill the embodiment of Barian world, Meri, and replace her with Don Thousand they will move on to Astral world and do the same; kill its embodiment, me, and place Donny K as its ruler too. That's why we must take them down before they fuck with the universe's order. There seven of them in all and all of them are very deranged. We have no idea what their human forms look like, but we know how their Barian forms look like.", Clearflower explained as an image of a Barian man with a yellow and black color scheme appeared. Even from that image, he gave off a foul energy. Standing next to him was what appeared as a female Barian in a warm grey color scheme and black armor. There was also a maroon being, who looked to be the oldest and tallest of them all, a tiny girl with magenta and white colorings, a boy with a light blue and celeste color scheme, a red and green being, and a final pink pig tailed female Barian with different colored eyes, adding to the crazed energy she gave off.

"I see, but I doubt these images will help if they're disguised as humans," Cris sighed, "Besides, from the map, it looks like they aren't here in Heartland."

"Then I guess there's nothing left to do here…" Meri sighed before she jumped into Byron's arms, "Well toodles, oh and if you can write a doctor's excuse for me, I'd appreciate it Clear." Meri winked as she was whisked off upstairs.


	5. Chapter 5: The issue of mothers

The very next morning, Meri woke up next to Byron holding her in his arms. She yawned and stretched before she grinned and fell back to bed, "I love this!" After five more minutes, she got up and took the liberty of putting on Byron's shirt and waltzed over to her new sons' rooms. "Oh Cris, wake up sweetie!" she poked at Cris.

"No…"

"Oh yes." She winked before she went over to Thomas's room. "Tommy dear, wake up please!"

Thomas groaned, "Is this still my sex dream?"

"If you dreamed your father and I roasting the broomstick, then yes, and it's not a dream."

Thomas fell back to his bed, "Dammit all."

Finally, Meri went into Mihael's room where she found him sound asleep with just a bit of drool coming out from his mouth.

"Oh snookums, you have a bit of drool, don't worry, mommy's here!" Meri said as she wiped his face.

"Mommy?" he muttered sleepily before realizing it was Meri. "Didn't you go home with Clear and Jyoti?"

"Oh you're funny, I stayed the night." Meri smiled.

"But nothing happened right?" Mihael asked.

"Oh I'd say a lot happened." Meri winked as she heard Byron coming in.

"Good morning Meri, I see you've already started on your first job." Byron chuckled as Meri hugged him.

"First job…" Mihael uttered.

"As your new mom! I even have the bruises on my thighs to prove it!" Meri cheered as Mihael 'fell back to sleep'.

"Oh that boy, he'll be late if he doesn't wake up soon!" Byron sighed.

"That reminds me; I need to start breakfast!" Meri gasped as she ran over to the kitchen. The Arclight Manor wouldn't be the same.

Clearflower and Jyoti were at school when they ran into the Barians. "Oh um hi you guys." Clearflower greeted.

"Where's ma?" Gilag asked as Mizael twitched his eye.

"Yes, where is that psychotic woman?" he asked without giving a care.

"Oh well she's having an…injection for something at the doctor two towns over." Clear chuckled as she blushed.

"She's getting fucked by a former man-child." Jyoti deadpanned as the Barians, save for Mizael, were taken aback.

"W-WHAT?!" Durbe gasped.

"Oh so she claims to be our mother but she's going off with men willy nilly to get f-u-c-k-e-d, just wonderful." Mizael hissed.

"What's fucked?" Gilag asked.

"When two or more people decide to have kids, or just have sex, they get naked and stick things inside their reproductive organs. In this case, the Arclight father decided to stick his…"

"JYOTI! I don't think Meri would appreciate it if you give her kids 'the talk', which reminds me, I have to have that conversation with Astral and, after I find him, Darku.", Clear interrupted.

"Either way, she seems to be a vile creature." Mizael scoffed.

"Well maybe you aren't such a stick in the mud as I thought you'd be." Jyoti said, infuriating Mizael.

"You're nothing but a lowly human; I could easily destroy you." Mizael seethed.

"And you're a foul mannered drag queen like you mother." Jyoti calmly said. Lucky for him, Durbe and Gilag held back Mizael from ripping his throat off.

"I'LL KILL YOU FOR INSULTING ME, THE GREAT MASTER OF THE GALAXY EYES!" Mizael hollered as Durbe and Gilag dragged him away.

"He's definitely her kid; he even subconsciously defended her if you look at it in a certain way." Jyoti grinned.

"Must you pick on him?" Clearflower asked.

"It's kinda boring not to have someone to pick on." Jyoti explained.

Off in the hallways, Alit was getting rather bored with the school. He had already taken on the boxing team and beat every single one of them. "Man, if heaven could send a sign about how to fix my boredom, I'd be so thank-"

Alit fell to the floor as he bumped into someone, a green haired girl with amber eyes. "Watch it would ya?!"

"S-Sorry!" Kotori apologized and knelt down to help Alit.

He had to admit that Kotori's appearance was angelic and her voice was soft. Was this what they called love at first sight?

"Are you okay?" Kotori asked again.

Alit merely stared at her and nodded his head before running off, his heart going at a thousand miles per hour. "What's this I'm feeling?"

After school a little thin pale boy of seven years with short celeste blue bangs and sky blue hair that curled a bit at the ends, big indigo blue eyes with scarlet red specks, dressed in a grass green long sleeved button up shirt, brown shorts, a white ribbon bow tie, black socks, and brown loafers, was sitting in an alley way next to the trash can watching as people passed by when a group of teenagers walked by.

"So Kotori, you have to tell me more about this guy!" Rio gushed.

"N-Nothing happened! I bumped into him for being a klutz, I helped him up and he ran off. End of story!" Kotori explained as her cheeks tinged pink.

"Obviously there's more, but it's okay if you don't want to tell me the naughty bits right now." Rio winked.

"God Rio, you're going to scare her away if you keep that up." Ryoga sighed.

"Oh please, I'm surprised Yuma is still by your side despite being so scary." Rio scoffed.

Before Ryoga could say something the little boy, who until now was hiding, ran out and hugged Rio.

"Um, may I help you?" Rio asked.

"Hm?" hummed the boy who buried his face into Rio stomach.

"He's probably lost or something. We should leave him here before his parents start panicking." Ryoga suggested but as he tried pulling the boy off, the boy bit his hand, glaring and growling possessively at him, backing away a little but keeping his grip on Rio.

"That little..!"

"Ryoga stop! He probably bit you because you scared him!" Rio yelled before she knelt down and faced the little boy, "Hello, I'm sorry if Ryo-chan scared you. What's your name?"

"Errai.", he replied quietly while looking down at the ground and twiddling his fingers as he shifted on one foot to the other.

"My, that's a really nice name. I'm Rio. Where are your parents?" Rio asked as sweetly as she could.

"I don't have any. I never had." he whispered.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"

"It's all right, I'm used to it.", Errai mumbled shyly.

Rio stayed silent for a bit before asking, "What are you doing here all alone?"

"I'm always alone, as for why I'm here I'm hiding from a pedophile since the person who usually keeps him away isn't here." he explained.

The group was shocked. "Ryoga, we can't just leave him here!" Rio stated with a bit of a shiver in her voice.

"I guess we can't anymore, but…"

"No buts Ryoga," Rio said as she picked up Errai, "He's staying with us whether you like it or not!"

Ryoga stepped back a bit, "I've never seen her this scary."

"Kotori says it's called a motherly instinct. I guess this is what happens when moms get overprotective." Yuma shrugged.

"So like when my mom turned me human?" Astral tilted his head.

"I'd call that a blonde moment ura." Tokunosuke said.

"A Kaito moment?" Astral asked, causing the others to laugh.

"Sure, why not?" chuckled Ryoga.


	6. Chapter 6: When two blondes meet

"Those stupid assholes, making me go to the stupid store for their idiotic 'needs'. We're Barians dammit, we don't need 'Kool-Aid' or whatever the hell that is. Though it would be wise to buy some anti-odorant for Gilag and Alit's after work-out stench," Mizael sighed, "Why won't Durbe agree to get a better place, or at least leave them here on Earth while we go back to Barian. Those Șapte păcătoși aren't doing anything yet." As Mizael uttered those last words and his hand reached for the last pack of Kool-Aid, another person had already gotten to it.

"Sorry, out of luck this time." Kaito said.

"Out of luck? You know, I could kill you right now if I wanted to, mortal." Mizael smirked.

Kaito turned around with one of his eyebrows raised. "Did you just threaten to kill me?"

"I sure did."

"Over this little packet of water flavoring powder? " Kaito asked as he shook the packet.

"Are you deaf?"

"No, just thinking that you must be very stupid to get your ass kicked over a packet of Kool-Aid. You know what? Here, have it. There's always other stores." Kaito threw the Kool-Aid at Mizael.

Mizael stared at the Kool-Aid and growled, "How dare you insult me the great Galaxy eyes master?!"

Kaito now looked at Mizael with interest, "Galaxy eyes master? Are you mistaking yourself for me?"

"Oh no, you totally didn't you simpleton human!" Mizael hissed as he took out his duel disk, "Duel me!"

Kaito stared blankly at Mizael before chuckling, "Well, after you miss."

"You'll pay for this dearly!" Mizael shouted as their duel commenced outside the store.

Meanwhile…

"So why do I have to come with you to get your damn birth control pills?" Jyoti sighed.

"Do you want my kids to run around your house?" Meri asked.

"Good point."

"Really Jyo-yo? Meri's kids are pretty well behaved compared to most people's.", sighed Clearflower.

"I'LL KILL YOU, YOU SON OF A…!"

"Miza-chan!" Meri jumped with glee.

"So you were saying Clear?"

"Most of the time." she added,

The three ran to the scene of Kaito and Mizael's battle. It seemed that Mizael was winning duel wise but poorly lagging in insults.

"Is that all you got priss? Maybe you are titled to be the Princess of the Galaxy eyes." Kaito taunted.

"And you're the king of onions so shut the hell up!" Mizael screeched.

"Miza! Miza honey it's me!" Meri yelled as she waved.

"Oh god not her," Mizael groaned to himself.

"Oh look, Mrs. Arclight is here. Is it correct that she's your mom too?" Kaito added.

"Never! A harlot like that could never be my mother!" Mizael stated.

"Are you and the others fine? Do you need munchies or condoms? Just tell me and I'll get it!" Meri yelled.

Mizael scoffed and pulled back his Tachyon Dragon and duel disk, "We'll finish this another time…"

"Tenjo, Kaito Tenjo."

"Dickbag. I'll finish you next time." Mizael then retreated back into a Barian portal.

"He forgot his groceries, that idiot." Kaito sighed.

"Don't you dare call your future brother-in-law that! Besides, I could drop them off. You should probably go and make-out with Cris or something." Meri said as Kaito grew red.

"You know nothing."

"Oh don't I?" Meri then took out an old familiar journal and began reading from it, "Today, Cris told me I was growing really strong. I wonder if maybe then he'll notice me as more than just his pupil…"

"Where did you get that?" Kaito asked, his face pale.

"Thomas's room. Aren't you glad I confiscated it from him? He could have used it to black mail you." Meri winked, "I could do it if you don't make a move on him soon."

Kaito growled, "I'm going to kill Thomas." Then he flew away with Orbital.

"Think he'll actually pull a move?" Jyoti asked.

"I don't know but I guess Meri well find out if he does.", Clearflower hummed.

"I'll leave Cris's window unlocked tonight." Meri smiled.

As Mizael appeared at the door of the basement, he felt an incredibly uneasy feeling go through his body. He noticed he was shaking, "What am I even doing? I'm a Barian, no human here can possibly do anything to me."

His heart jumped as he felt a hand run through his hair and a suave voice whispered, _"You grew up quite nicely my __bijou précieux.__" _

Mizael immediately went inside and closed the door frantically behind him.

"Mizael?"

Mizael jumped but upon realization that it was Durbe, he sighed, "Durbe, it's just you."

"This isn't like you, you're shaking. Did something happen?" Durbe asked with concern.

"I'm completely fine, just leave me alone." Mizael seethed as he walked away, his body still shivering.

"Mizael…"


	7. Chapter 7: A cat and a carrot

All day long Rei felt someone was watching him and by the time lunch rolled around he was very jumpy.

"Rei are you alright?" asked a concerned female voice behind him making him jump.

"Yes I'm perfectly fine!" Rei replied in a jittery manner.

Clearflower looked at him clearly not believing him. "Sit down Shingetsu." she ordered.

"But Clearflower, I'm fine, just fine!" Rei reiterated.

"Just sit!" she yelled as she forced him to sit down and sat behind him. She began messaging his shoulders. "God Rei you're really tense!" she exclaimed with a frown.

"U-Uh I don't know what you're talking about!" Rei's hands twitched.

"Stop getting all twichy it just a message that it! Have you been stressed out lately?" she asked.

"Well you know how hard Mr. Kay's tests are." Rei chuckled.

"That's not the only thing that's hard." Meri arrived and laughed.

"What are you talking about Meri?" questioned Clearflower as she tilted he head to the side questionably at her.

"I dunno, ask _Rei_." Meri teased.

"What she talking about Rei?" asked Clearflower turning Rei head to look at her. Violet with black outline eyes meet lilac hidden behind square crimson red framed glasses eyes.

Rei began blushing, "I don't know what she's talking about! I swear!"

"Cut the crap would you?" Meri sighed.

"How about you first?!... I mean stop!" Rei pleaded.

It was this point that the other (being Yuma and his friends, Jyoti, Errai, the Arclights, and surprisingly the Barians) came in.

"Rio what going on?" whispered Errai.

"I don't really know." Rio replied.

"That guy looks familiar.", Alit said to himself before realizing he was next to none other than his angel Kotori.

"Oh, it's you from yesterday, I didn't get to apologize properly." Kotori said.

"But why would an angel apologize for giving me a blessing?" Alit quickly and suavely replied.

"Aw that's cute, but I think the bigger matter at hand is this guy going ballistic." Jyoti interrupted.

"SHOW YOURSELF DEMON!" Meri demanded as she brought out some holy water (how she had it, no one knows.)

"STOP!" Rei pleaded.

Suddenly Lamia jumped out of the shadows and attack Rei!

"Lamia! No! Stop it! Bad kitty!" yelled Clearflower who tried to catch the cat but kept missing.

"Of all the times to not control your cat, it's now?!" Meri shouted as she continued pouring holy water at Rei.

"I don't get it! Lamia like Rei so why is she attacking him now!" screamed Clearflower.

Suddenly the Astral crystal on Lamia collar glowed and Rei was transform into a…Barian! A very familiar Barian to the other Barians.

"No way…" Alit gasped.

"It's…"

"VECTOR YOU ASSHOLE!" Mizael shouted.

Vector, merely chuckled before breaking out into maniacal laughter. "Yeah it's me, so what? Jealous you can't come out too Miza? Are you and Durbe still beating around the bush?"

Before he can continue he was hit in the head by in old fashion broom by none other than Clearflower who had an annoyed expression. "Really Rei I mean Vector do you have to laugh like you have a couple of screw loose up there? You're scaring the boy." she sighed as the broom turned into her left ring with Lamia draped over her shoulder.

"Boy? What boy?!" Vector asked crudely.

"Errai! You made him cry you… you…!"

"Ass?" Ryoga supplied.

"Thanks." Rio tried to regain her composure.

"Now sit down and let me finish getting all those knots out of your shoulders." ordered Clearflower as she sat back down Indian style with her arms cross.

"For the last time, I ain't stressed!" Vector said.

"Not yet." Mizael cracked his fists.

"Oh Miza-chan! How nice to see you again!" Vector fakely greeted.

"Do you know just how much trouble you've caused?! Plus the paper work is nearly flooding into my room and we've been forced to do your paperwork!" Mizael shook Vector.

"But come on, your boyfriend doesn't mind!" Vector said before Mizael slapped him.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT! YOU ALSO FUCKED ALL OUR PLANS UP AND TRIED TO USE A LITTLE KID AS A MISSLE AGAINST ASTRAL WORLD! DO YOU NOT SEE HOW MORALLY WRONG THAT IS?!" Mizael screeched.

"But I didn't use the little kid in the end and that's all that matters." Vector stated before Mizael slapped him again.


	8. Chapter 8: The awakening

"99 bottles of beer on the wall! 99 bottles of beer! We take one down! Pass it around! 98 bottles of beer on the wall!" sang Clearflower for the third time.

Meri was just about done with Clearflower's antics. "You know if you're going to sing about alcohol we might as well have some."

"But aren't you too young to drink?" Yuma asked.

"That's not what Byron thought." Meri waved her finger.

"And there's more blackmail material. Now I think I can get whatever I want with this." Thomas grinned as he stopped a voice recorder on his phone.

"Oh please, Byron has way more black mail material on you than you could ever imagine." Meri snapped her fingers sassily.

"Well I'm bored. Miha-kun how much longer till we get there?" asked Clearflower as she put her head on his lap and looking up at him.

"I don't know, but I hope we get there soon. I imagine they'll be really pretty and amazing and… I'm talking too much aren't I?" Mihael sadly said.

"Nope, I like history too. I may have been alive while it was happening but due to being basically kept prisoner in my own palace for my safety I couldn't experience it. These last few months have been the first time I ever step foot outside since Meri was kidnapped so I like experiencing life and learning the past that I miss out on." she giggled.

Mihael's face completely lit up, "You're the first person to say that you like history."

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it so it best to know it plus it interesting what you can learn." she explained as she sat up and smile at him.

"Accident! Abort mission! Abort mission! Everyone go to the emergency boats!" Yuma overreacted and yelled across the ship.

"First off, we're in the threshold between all three worlds. Second, the ship is still intact. And here I thought you were mature enough to drive the Yuma Express." Astral sighed.

"So we're not going to die?" Yuma asked.

"Nah, not now at least." Meri crossed her legs and stretched.

"Well that's a relief, I wonder what we crashed into." Yuma pondered.

Meanwhile, near the ruins…

"That's the last time I let Durbe take the wheel." Vector rubbed his head.

"Well whose fault is it that they kept singing Durbe take the wheel?" Durbe muttered as Vector, Alit, and Gilag began singing again.

"TAKE IT FROM MY HANDS! CUZ I CAN'T DO THIS ON MY OWN!"

"STOP YOU SIMPLETONS BEFORE YOU TEAR MY EARDRUMS!" Mizael covered his ears.

The nearby bushes began rustling as a young woman, no older than 16, with her black hair pulled back into a braided chignon. She wore a black long sleeved pencil dress with great and ornate gold detail at the neck area. Her cold blue-gray eyes stared directly at Durbe.

"I couldn't help but hear the commotion here. Is everything alright?" she asked in a cold voice.

"We're fine, we just came here to visit the ruins on vacation."

The woman looked at them, "A leather jacket, long sleeve shirts, and someone wearing uniform. That's rather believable."

Durbe laughed awkwardly, "It was rather unplanned."

The woman merely turned around and began walking away, "I suggest you follow me if you don't want to get lost. This jungle is unforgiving to those who intrude on it like you did."

Durbe stared at her before deciding to follow her. He was unaware of Mizael's dislike of her.

"Are you growling? How uncouth Miza dear." Vector teased as he went along.

"There's something about her I don't like." Mizael said to himself before finally following the rest.

It took a while, but they finally caught up to the woman. However this was only because there was a giant bear in her way. It roared in a frightening way, but the woman merely stayed calm.

As it was about to attack, Durbe stepped in and took the blow, "MOVE!"

"DURBE!" Mizael yelled out as he ran to Durbe's side, noting that the woman still didn't move. _"What's her damn problem?!"_

"Never fear, Yuma is here!" Yuma said as he and Astral stepped in front of the bear, holding their ground and staring at it until it went away.

"Hey that's my line Yuma!" Vector whined.

"It suited the moment!" Yuma said.

"Oh no, Dodo, you're hurt!" Meri panicked as she joined Mizael by Durbe's side.

"Get away!" Mizael hissed.

"This isn't the time to go all over protective boyfriend on me! So just pipe down and let me and Clear take care of this!" Meri ordered.

"Ass-kicker come forth!" yelled Clearflower as her wand appeared and she ran by Meri side and knelt down next to her. "Sana." she whispered as she waved her wand over Durbe wound that glowed silver before disappearing and his wound was gone. "There is that better?" she asked as Ass-kicker transform back into her right ring.

"Yes, thank you." Durbe thanked as Mizael and Meri helped him up.

"So who's your friend? She seems a bit quiet though." Meri said.

"I am Becrux, a native tour guide and I was helping them through this forest." Becrux explained.

"But if you wanted to help lost travelers, you wouldn't lead them to the ruins would you?" Meri questioned.

"I planned for them to see the ruins after all their trouble and then lead them back." Becrux stated as she walked forward, "We are nearly there."

"Damn I'm shivering just looking at her." Jyoti shuddered.

"That's a woman for you." Meri said.

Just as they saw the ruins, two screams were heard.

"Oh no, Kotori and Rio!" Yuma panicked as they ran inside, surprised to see who was screaming.

"GET THEM AWAY!" Thomas screamed as Mihael calmly examined the ruins. Kotori and Errai clung on to a composed Rio.

"Oh look at mister macho go…AH!" Meri screamed as a snake neared her and she jumped on Jyoti's back.

"Get off me fatass!" Jyoti pushed her off.

Lamia, who snuck away in Clearflower backpack, came towards Vector with a dead beheaded light green snake in her mouth and left it at his feet and meowed before jumping and draping herself on Clearflower shoulders before she fell asleep.

"Uh, what's this?" Vector poked at it with his shoe.

"A dead snake and her way of apologizing to you for you know attacking you." explained Clearflower as she pick up the headless snake by it tail.

"Gross, but thoughtful, at least your cat has more manners than a certain blonde I know." Vector chuckled.

As Clearflower picked up the snake she got a mischievous look on her face and then threw the headless snake on Thomas.

"AH! GET AWAY!" Thomas screamed and ran around as Yuma and Ryoga calmly got rid of the other snakes.

Finally, Mihael took note of his surroundings and easily took the snake off of Thomas, "You're worse than Cris you know." He giggled.

"Well it's not my fault your girlfriend is crazy!" Thomas pouted.

"Girlfriend? But I'm the one who threw the snake." stated a confused Clearflower.

"Anywho, who's the babe?" Thomas asked now that he regained his composure.

"No one for you." Durbe said, causing Mizael to twitch.

"Oh ho, so you _are_ into girls." Thomas teased.

"Silence yourself!" Durbe hissed.

Becrux merely stared at Durbe walk away before she acted, "Look out!" She flung herself to save Durbe from a closing wall, trapping them away from the others.

"DURBE!" Mizael screamed as he pounded on the wall.

"We're fine, go on without us!" Durbe's muffled voice ordered.

"But..!"

"Trust me Mizael, it's the only way we'll be reunited as a group."

With that, the group had no other choice but to go on ahead.

On Durbe's end…

It was silent; complete and utter silence between the two as they walked along.

Durbe stared at Becrux. "Are you going to continue staring at me like that?" she asked.

"Forgive me, you just seem familiar." Durbe apologized.

It went back to silence before Becrux spoke, "You aren't really vacationing here, are you?"

"What gave it away?"

"Who wears a scarf to the jungle?" Becrux stated as Durbe began laughing.

"I'm known for wearing superfluous things." Durbe said but Becrux stayed silent. "You aren't really a tour guide, are you?"

"… What gave that away?"

"Black and heavy fabrics aren't favorable in the jungle." Durbe said.

"It may not be appropriate for being a guide, but it is more than appropriate for my task." Becrux coldly uttered as she walked.

"What would that be?" Durbe asked but got no response. He would have to endure the rest of the walk with that question in mind.

On Meri and Clearflower's end, Mizael was very restless.

"Oh, is Miza jealous of a woman? Don't worry he won't leave you… if he's not bi." Vector teased as Mizael punched him on the nose.

"Don't talk to me!" Mizael warned.

"When will you ever learn?" sighed Clearflower as she help Vector up and fix his nose.

"That's what he gets for poking Miza at a time like this. I just hope Miza knows that Durbe is a lot more loyal than he thinks he is." Meri sighed.

"So you know more on this matter than you let on? Did you find out through reading their diaries?" Jyoti asked.

"No! I may read my son in law's diary, but that's to advance his relationship with Cris!" Meri stomped before calming herself and smiling, "I know he loves Miza so much more because…"

"Halt! If you're here to seek the number here then you must defeat me in this duel, but mind you there are cautions to be taken." Said a tall armored blonde man that appeared. "I am Mach."

"What do you mean cautions?" Astral asked as a screen showed Becrux and Durbe on the other end, now struggling with booby traps.

"DURBE!" Mizael screamed.

"You can't help them from this end without dueling me… you must fight with their lives on the line. Are you prepared to do so?" Mach asked.

"Yes!" Yuma answered before Mizael could respond.

"Do you think I'd trust Durbe's life in your hands?! Let me take over you stupid human!" Mizael hissed but the battle had already begun. "Stop this before he kills him!"

"No can do, besides, Yuma and Astral are perfect for this duel." Meri said.

Not even two turns in and already Yuma was down to 1200 lifepoints.

"He's perfect for this duel my ass!" Mizael hissed as he shook Meri.

"Don't worry, he'll win." Meri calmly stated.

Durbe was not as calm. He and Becrux needed to have each other's backs as the ruins fell apart and the traps were set off. It felt strangely familiar to be by her side. "Over there! There is writing on the wall!" Durbe pointed as he and Becrux headed in the direction of the writing.

Upon seeing the writing, Durbe realized it was a story; the story of a knight and his Pegasus.

"Yuma, you must never leave your monster." Durbe ordered from the screen.

"Durbe?" Yuma said.

"This story, it has a connection to your duel."

"What do we do Yuma, trust him or continue fighting the way we have been?" Astral asked, now back in his Astral form.

"I say we trust him. It doesn't hurt to try." Yuma grinned.

As they continued, Durbe found out more and more about the knight but when he got to the end of the story, it was nowhere to be found. "Damn, if only we could find the rest." He cursed.

"The knight was about to be killed when his loyal Pegasus stepped in and sacrificed himself for the knight. Upon seeing his dearest friend slayed, the knight allowed himself to be killed as well. They died at each other's side. Upon seeing this noble act, the knights put down their swords and buried them both. The kingdom was at peace afterwards for a long time." Becrux said.

"Becrux…" Durbe didn't realize it but he was about to fall into a bottomless abyss, Becrux saved him by grabbing his hand. "Go! Leave me!"

Becrux struggled but in a last attempt, turned into a Barian underneath a grey and black light. As she helped him up, she spoke "Don't take this as a gesture of friendship." Under the same grey-black light, she disappeared.

Stunned, Durbe was left sitting down in a daze before Yuma and the other's calls broke him from his trance.

"Durbe, we won!" Yuma looked around, "Where's Becrux?"

"You didn't see? She turned into a Barian…and left." Durbe said.

"A Barian?" Mizael's eye twitched.

"Oh crap, it can't be…" Meri shook.

"What's wrong?" Jyoti asked.

"I shouldn't have allowed her to return here, especially not with my master here too." Mach spoke from within the card.

"What do you mean?!" Durbe asked.

"S-She's one of them, the șapte păcătoși, and she's the second in command, Becrux. Dammit why didn't that name ring a bell?!" Meri panicked.

Errai's eyes widen and he began shaking as he tightened his grip on Rio shirt and hid behind her.

"Errai?" Rio asked with concern.

"Can we leave please? I don't like this place." he asked with fear in his voice.

Rio nodded, "I want to leave too. These ruins don't sit right with me either."

"Well what's keeping us here? Let's get the hell out of here." Vector said.

"Hey, if we're going to the same place," Yuma began.

"Oh no." Ryoga groaned.

"Why don't we go together?!" Yuma cheerfully asked.

"NO!" Mizael and Durbe said at the same time that Alit, Gilag, and Vector said "YES!"

"Majority rules bitch," Vector teased as he and the others boarded the Yuma Express.

As they did, Durbe's gaze was still glued onto the ruins.

"Durbe…"

"Yeah, we should go." Durbe said as if he were caught off guard.

"Just what the hell happened in there?" Mizael wondered as he gave one final glance back at the ruins.

As Durbe boarded, Yuma handed him the number card. "As a sign of friendship, here."

Durbe was stunned but smiled, "Thank you, but you offering to drive us around is as great an offering as anything."

"Take it anyways, it just seems like it was meant for you." Yuma smiled.

Upon grabbing the card, Durbe was hit with a wave of immense memories, of a knight and his Pegasus, and eerily enough, a woman standing in front of him with a bloodied sword. "What… what was that?!" Durbe wondered.

Yuma worried, "What was what?"

"Nothing, I'm fine." Durbe reassured, still deeply troubled by the memories. It seemed as if the knight resembled him.

Inside the Yuma Express, while Vector, Alit and Gilag sang "YUMA TAKE THE WHEEL…!", Meri was contemplating and shuddering, "I didn't sense her. Dammit she could have easily killed anyone of us. Why didn't we sense her?!"


	9. Chapter 9: Becrux

"99 bottles of beer on the wall! 99 bottles of beer! We take one down! Pass it around! 98 bottles of beer on the wall!" sang Clearflower for the third time.

Meri was just about done with Clearflower's antics. "You know if you're going to sing about alcohol we might as well have some."

"But aren't you too young to drink?" Yuma asked.

"That's not what Byron thought." Meri waved her finger.

"And there's more blackmail material. Now I think I can get whatever I want with this." Thomas grinned as he stopped a voice recorder on his phone.

"Oh please, Byron has way more black mail material on you than you could ever imagine." Meri snapped her fingers sassily.

"Well I'm bored. Miha-kun how much longer till we get there?" asked Clearflower as she put her head on his lap and looking up at him.

"I don't know, but I hope we get there soon. I imagine they'll be really pretty and amazing and… I'm talking too much aren't I?" Mihael sadly said.

"Nope, I like history too. I may have been alive while it was happening but due to being basically kept prisoner in my own palace for my safety I couldn't experience it. These last few months have been the first time I ever step foot outside since Meri was kidnapped so I like experiencing life and learning the past that I miss out on." she giggled.

Mihael's face completely lit up, "You're the first person to say that you like history."

"Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it so it best to know it plus it interesting what you can learn." she explained as she sat up and smile at him.

"Accident! Abort mission! Abort mission! Everyone go to the emergency boats!" Yuma overreacted and yelled across the ship.

"First off, we're in the threshold between all three worlds. Second, the ship is still intact. And here I thought you were mature enough to drive the Yuma Express." Astral sighed.

"So we're not going to die?" Yuma asked.

"Nah, not now at least." Meri crossed her legs and stretched.

"Well that's a relief, I wonder what we crashed into." Yuma pondered.

Meanwhile, near the ruins…

"That's the last time I let Durbe take the wheel." Vector rubbed his head.

"Well whose fault is it that they kept singing Durbe take the wheel?" Durbe muttered as Vector, Alit, and Gilag began singing again.

"TAKE IT FROM MY HANDS! CUZ I CAN'T DO THIS ON MY OWN!"

"STOP YOU SIMPLETONS BEFORE YOU TEAR MY EARDRUMS!" Mizael covered his ears.

The nearby bushes began rustling as a young woman, no older than 16, with her black hair pulled back into a braided chignon. She wore a black long sleeved pencil dress with great and ornate gold detail at the neck area. Her cold blue-gray eyes stared directly at Durbe.

"I couldn't help but hear the commotion here. Is everything alright?" she asked in a cold voice.

"We're fine, we just came here to visit the ruins on vacation."

The woman looked at them, "A leather jacket, long sleeve shirts, and someone wearing uniform. That's rather believable."

Durbe laughed awkwardly, "It was rather unplanned."

The woman merely turned around and began walking away, "I suggest you follow me if you don't want to get lost. This jungle is unforgiving to those who intrude on it like you did."

Durbe stared at her before deciding to follow her. He was unaware of Mizael's dislike of her.

"Are you growling? How uncouth Miza dear." Vector teased as he went along.

"There's something about her I don't like." Mizael said to himself before finally following the rest.

It took a while, but they finally caught up to the woman. However this was only because there was a giant bear in her way. It roared in a frightening way, but the woman merely stayed calm.

As it was about to attack, Durbe stepped in and took the blow, "MOVE!"

"DURBE!" Mizael yelled out as he ran to Durbe's side, noting that the woman still didn't move. _"What's her damn problem?!"_

"Never fear, Yuma is here!" Yuma said as he and Astral stepped in front of the bear, holding their ground and staring at it until it went away.

"Hey that's my line Yuma!" Vector whined.

"It suited the moment!" Yuma said.

"Oh no, Dodo, you're hurt!" Meri panicked as she joined Mizael by Durbe's side.

"Get away!" Mizael hissed.

"This isn't the time to go all over protective boyfriend on me! So just pipe down and let me and Clear take care of this!" Meri ordered.

"Ass-kicker come forth!" yelled Clearflower as her wand appeared and she ran by Meri side and knelt down next to her. "Sana." she whispered as she waved her wand over Durbe wound that glowed silver before disappearing and his wound was gone. "There is that better?" she asked as Ass-kicker transform back into her right ring.

"Yes, thank you." Durbe thanked as Mizael and Meri helped him up.

"So who's your friend? She seems a bit quiet though." Meri said.

"I am Becrux, a native tour guide and I was helping them through this forest." Becrux explained.

"But if you wanted to help lost travelers, you wouldn't lead them to the ruins would you?" Meri questioned.

"I planned for them to see the ruins after all their trouble and then lead them back." Becrux stated as she walked forward, "We are nearly there."

"Damn I'm shivering just looking at her." Jyoti shuddered.

"That's a woman for you." Meri said.

Just as they saw the ruins, two screams were heard.

"Oh no, Kotori and Rio!" Yuma panicked as they ran inside, surprised to see who was screaming.

"GET THEM AWAY!" Thomas screamed as Mihael calmly examined the ruins. Kotori and Errai clung on to a composed Rio.

"Oh look at mister macho go…AH!" Meri screamed as a snake neared her and she jumped on Jyoti's back.

"Get off me fatass!" Jyoti pushed her off.

Lamia, who snuck away in Clearflower backpack, came towards Vector with a dead beheaded light green snake in her mouth and left it at his feet and meowed before jumping and draping herself on Clearflower shoulders before she fell asleep.

"Uh, what's this?" Vector poked at it with his shoe.

"A dead snake and her way of apologizing to you for you know attacking you." explained Clearflower as she pick up the headless snake by it tail.

"Gross, but thoughtful, at least your cat has more manners than a certain blonde I know." Vector chuckled.

As Clearflower picked up the snake she got a mischievous look on her face and then threw the headless snake on Thomas.

"AH! GET AWAY!" Thomas screamed and ran around as Yuma and Ryoga calmly got rid of the other snakes.

Finally, Mihael took note of his surroundings and easily took the snake off of Thomas, "You're worse than Cris you know." He giggled.

"Well it's not my fault your girlfriend is crazy!" Thomas pouted.

"Girlfriend? But I'm the one who threw the snake." stated a confused Clearflower.

"Anywho, who's the babe?" Thomas asked now that he regained his composure.

"No one for you." Durbe said, causing Mizael to twitch.

"Oh ho, so you _are_ into girls." Thomas teased.

"Silence yourself!" Durbe hissed.

Becrux merely stared at Durbe walk away before she acted, "Look out!" She flung herself to save Durbe from a closing wall, trapping them away from the others.

"DURBE!" Mizael screamed as he pounded on the wall.

"We're fine, go on without us!" Durbe's muffled voice ordered.

"But..!"

"Trust me Mizael, it's the only way we'll be reunited as a group."

With that, the group had no other choice but to go on ahead.

On Durbe's end…

It was silent; complete and utter silence between the two as they walked along.

Durbe stared at Becrux. "Are you going to continue staring at me like that?" she asked.

"Forgive me, you just seem familiar." Durbe apologized.

It went back to silence before Becrux spoke, "You aren't really vacationing here, are you?"

"What gave it away?"

"Who wears a scarf to the jungle?" Becrux stated as Durbe began laughing.

"I'm known for wearing superfluous things." Durbe said but Becrux stayed silent. "You aren't really a tour guide, are you?"

"… What gave that away?"

"Black and heavy fabrics aren't favorable in the jungle." Durbe said.

"It may not be appropriate for being a guide, but it is more than appropriate for my task." Becrux coldly uttered as she walked.

"What would that be?" Durbe asked but got no response. He would have to endure the rest of the walk with that question in mind.

On Meri and Clearflower's end, Mizael was very restless.

"Oh, is Miza jealous of a woman? Don't worry he won't leave you… if he's not bi." Vector teased as Mizael punched him on the nose.

"Don't talk to me!" Mizael warned.

"When will you ever learn?" sighed Clearflower as she help Vector up and fix his nose.

"That's what he gets for poking Miza at a time like this. I just hope Miza knows that Durbe is a lot more loyal than he thinks he is." Meri sighed.

"So you know more on this matter than you let on? Did you find out through reading their diaries?" Jyoti asked.

"No! I may read my son in law's diary, but that's to advance his relationship with Cris!" Meri stomped before calming herself and smiling, "I know he loves Miza so much more because…"

"Halt! If you're here to seek the number here then you must defeat me in this duel, but mind you there are cautions to be taken." Said a tall armored blonde man that appeared. "I am Mach."

"What do you mean cautions?" Astral asked as a screen showed Becrux and Durbe on the other end, now struggling with booby traps.

"DURBE!" Mizael screamed.

"You can't help them from this end without dueling me… you must fight with their lives on the line. Are you prepared to do so?" Mach asked.

"Yes!" Yuma answered before Mizael could respond.

"Do you think I'd trust Durbe's life in your hands?! Let me take over you stupid human!" Mizael hissed but the battle had already begun. "Stop this before he kills him!"

"No can do, besides, Yuma and Astral are perfect for this duel." Meri said.

Not even two turns in and already Yuma was down to 1200 lifepoints.

"He's perfect for this duel my ass!" Mizael hissed as he shook Meri.

"Don't worry, he'll win." Meri calmly stated.

Durbe was not as calm. He and Becrux needed to have each other's backs as the ruins fell apart and the traps were set off. It felt strangely familiar to be by her side. "Over there! There is writing on the wall!" Durbe pointed as he and Becrux headed in the direction of the writing.

Upon seeing the writing, Durbe realized it was a story; the story of a knight and his Pegasus.

"Yuma, you must never leave your monster." Durbe ordered from the screen.

"Durbe?" Yuma said.

"This story, it has a connection to your duel."

"What do we do Yuma, trust him or continue fighting the way we have been?" Astral asked, now back in his Astral form.

"I say we trust him. It doesn't hurt to try." Yuma grinned.

As they continued, Durbe found out more and more about the knight but when he got to the end of the story, it was nowhere to be found. "Damn, if only we could find the rest." He cursed.

"The knight was about to be killed when his loyal Pegasus stepped in and sacrificed himself for the knight. Upon seeing his dearest friend slayed, the knight allowed himself to be killed as well. They died at each other's side. Upon seeing this noble act, the knights put down their swords and buried them both. The kingdom was at peace afterwards for a long time." Becrux said.

"Becrux…" Durbe didn't realize it but he was about to fall into a bottomless abyss, Becrux saved him by grabbing his hand. "Go! Leave me!"

Becrux struggled but in a last attempt, turned into a Barian underneath a grey and black light. As she helped him up, she spoke "Don't take this as a gesture of friendship." Under the same grey-black light, she disappeared.

Stunned, Durbe was left sitting down in a daze before Yuma and the other's calls broke him from his trance.

"Durbe, we won!" Yuma looked around, "Where's Becrux?"

"You didn't see? She turned into a Barian…and left." Durbe said.

"A Barian?" Mizael's eye twitched.

"Oh crap, it can't be…" Meri shook.

"What's wrong?" Jyoti asked.

"I shouldn't have allowed her to return here, especially not with my master here too." Mach spoke from within the card.

"What do you mean?!" Durbe asked.

"S-She's one of them, the șapte păcătoși, and she's the second in command, Becrux. Dammit why didn't that name ring a bell?!" Meri panicked.

Errai's eyes widen and he began shaking as he tightened his grip on Rio shirt and hid behind her.

"Errai?" Rio asked with concern.

"Can we leave please? I don't like this place." he asked with fear in his voice.

Rio nodded, "I want to leave too. These ruins don't sit right with me either."

"Well what's keeping us here? Let's get the hell out of here." Vector said.

"Hey, if we're going to the same place," Yuma began.

"Oh no." Ryoga groaned.

"Why don't we go together?!" Yuma cheerfully asked.

"NO!" Mizael and Durbe said at the same time that Alit, Gilag, and Vector said "YES!"

"Majority rules bitch," Vector teased as he and the others boarded the Yuma Express.

As they did, Durbe's gaze was still glued onto the ruins.

"Durbe…"

"Yeah, we should go." Durbe said as if he were caught off guard.

"Just what the hell happened in there?" Mizael wondered as he gave one final glance back at the ruins.

As Durbe boarded, Yuma handed him the number card. "As a sign of friendship, here."

Durbe was stunned but smiled, "Thank you, but you offering to drive us around is as great an offering as anything."

"Take it anyways, it just seems like it was meant for you." Yuma smiled.

Upon grabbing the card, Durbe was hit with a wave of immense memories, of a knight and his Pegasus, and eerily enough, a woman standing in front of him with a bloodied sword. "What… what was that?!" Durbe wondered.

Yuma worried, "What was what?"

"Nothing, I'm fine." Durbe reassured, still deeply troubled by the memories. It seemed as if the knight resembled him.

Inside the Yuma Express, while Vector, Alit and Gilag sang "YUMA TAKE THE WHEEL…!", Meri was contemplating and shuddering, "I didn't sense her. Dammit she could have easily killed anyone of us. Why didn't we sense her?!"


	10. Chapter 10: Navi

Deep inside the keyship, Black Mist was growing bored, "Damn that Astral, he hasn't come to play with me recently. Maybe I should pay him a little visit." He chuckled as he easily broke through Astral's defenses.

Meanwhile everyone was eating lunch that Clearflower prepared (and thank god not Meri!) with Rio sitting between Errai and Mizael who was trying to get the timid little boy to open up with him.

"So… do you like dragons?" Mizael awkwardly asked.

"Dragons? How do dragons even look like?" he softly asked.

"You don't know what dragons are?! Where have you been hiding all this time?!" Mizael asked, now determined to show Errai what a dragon was.

Clearflower was about to sit in the only place available (which was between Vector and Mihael) to eat her lunch after serving everyone when she sense a familiar but long time unfelt energy. "Darku." she whispered with tears already gathering in her eyes.

"He's here?!" Meri stood up.

"I can feel him coming. I can't ever forget my son energy even if I hadn't felt it since the day I gave birth to him." Clearflower sniffed.

"Hello, Astral, thought you could leave me alone did you?" Black Mist appeared behind Astral.

"Go away Black Mist; we're having lunch." Astral shooed.

"Lunch? You can't eat! You're…. a human?" Black Mist tilted his head in confusion.

"Darku, is it really you?" Clearflower asked.

"Darku? I'm Black Mist lady…"

"Don't talk to my mother like that!" Astral hissed.

"Whoa, I knew I shouldn't have taken that pill from that carrot head." Black Mist groaned.

"YOU GAVE MY SON DRUGS!?" screeched Clearflower.

Vector dropped his sandwich and grinned innocently, "No, Rei Shingetsu did."

Clearflower slapped him in the back of his head and ran towards Black Mist, not noticing Mihael grinning victoriously at Vector.

"Me one, you zero." Mihael giggled.

"Well well, this should be interesting." Meri grinned.

"What? Seeing your sons fight or seeing you go to jail for A+ parenting?" Jyoti said.

"How about seeing your mouth go shush before I tear it off?" Meri grinned.

"Darku are you all right? Those nasty drugs aren't hurting you are they?" Clearflower asked as she checked Black Mist like a mother hen.

"Uh, no. Human drugs don't do shit to me." Black Mist scoffed.

"Oh thank Astral _and_ Barian world that you're okay. Now let me get a look of your face. You still have the same eyes and marking that you did the day you were born and you lost all your baby fat too." she sniffed.

Astral snorted a bit, "I'm sorry, but did you say baby fat?"

"Yep, you did too. You both had such plumpy pinchable cheeks, at least that what Ena the midwife that delivered you two told me. To me you both were perfect in my eyes." she smiled.

This time, Yuma and the others were laughing.

"Oh shut up!" Black Mist snapped.

"I suppose this is my punishment for laughing at you; it was worth it." Astral sighed with a smile.

"So, what else is new? I sensed some freaky energy from deep inside. I have to admit they even scared me." Black Mist said as he stole Astral's sandwich.

"Darku give your brother his sandwich back. I'll make you one too. Oh before I forget." Clearflower ordered as she pointed her wand at Black Mist and turned him into a human (with clothes on thankfully we don't need a repeat of Byron) who look exactly alike to Astral but with black hair.

"What just happened?! Where's my tentacles?!" Black Mist panicked.

"That's what he said." Meri giggled as Thomas high fived her.

"Sorry sweetie but it safer for you to be like this least you be found and attack by the șapte păcătoși by your energy." Clearflower explained apologically.

"Bless you?" Black Mist raised his brow.

"No she didn't sneeze, the șapte păcătoși is a group of Barians working for Don Thousand. Simple as that." Meri explained.

"And I should give a damn because?"

"He's Meri ex-husband and your and Astral's biological father and they're all plain evil." explained Clearflower as she placed his lunch in front of him before going back to her seat.

"Well, you in or not kid?" Meri asked with crossed arms.

"Eh, I've got nothing better to do," Black Mist shrugged as he took Astral's sandwich away again.

At the ruins, the air of evil and malice protruded through its walls.

"This air is just beyond nasty, someone evil must have died here." Jyoti coughed.

"Well we'll find out when we go down there, won't we…" Vector stopped dead in his tracks and his entire body began shivering. "Who the hell turned on the ac?"

"Vector-kun are you all right?" Clearflower asked with concern as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Me? Tch, a place like this won't scare me." Vector scoffed as he continued down the stairs.

Lamia jumped and draped herself on Vector shoulders like a scarf and purred comfortably to him. "Vec-kun, wait for me!" Clearflower shouted as she ran after him and grabbed his hand in her's when she caught up. "_You_ may not be scared to go down by yourself but _I am_." she told him.

Vector hid his face, "Fine, stay close to me."

"Man Clear is really getting lucky right?!" Meri exclaimed to Alit and Gilag.

"Sure, I guess." Alit shrugged.

"Oh don't tell me you haven't gotten lucky either. That Kotori girl is really cute you know." Meri giggled as Alit's face grew red.

"S-so what if she is?! She's got…"

"Nope, hun, Yuma is totally hot for Ryoga. She's open game." Meri whimsically said as she disappeared, Kotori appearing walking next to Alit.

"Oh, it's you again, Alit was it?" Kotori asked as Alit nodded his head.

"Yeah, and you're my angel Kotori." Alit suavely said.

"_He's going in for the kill!"_ Gilag thought.

"Angel?" Kotori blushed.

"And I was wonderinf if you'f wanf fo go ouf wiff me?" Alit stuttered horribly.

Gilag smacked his head, "Well I guess that's what he gets for trying to ask a girl out in some creepy ruins."

"Well I don't see the creepiness here. These ruins are actually safer than the last ones!" Meri exclaimed as two screams and a startled hiss was heard from up ahead.

"Thanks for jinxing it." Jyoti sarcastically said as he and the others ran towards the screams.

"Come forth Lightning!" yelled Clearflower as the same broom that she used to hit Vector appeared. "Vector do you trust me!?" she asked.

"For the time being, YES! JUST GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Vector screamed.

"Then you'll want to hold on cause it going to be a bumpy ride!" she warned as she jumped onto the broom and pulled Vector on behind her.

Despite being a bit of a pervert, Vector actually had no time decide what to grab on to and groped Clearflower's chest unwillingly. His stomach churned as they flew through the air. It didn't stop until they went into a little crevice in the walls. However upon stepping on some switches on the ground after Lightning was transformed back into a ring on Clearflower finger, they fell right into a chute that landed them in a prison.

The three landed with a thud with Vector on his back and Clearflower on top of him with her arms around his neck and her face buried in his chest and Lamia on her feet a bit away. "Is it over?" whimpered Clearflower with her eyes closed tightly.

What answered back was not Vector. Rather, a single light illuminated the stage in front of the throne and a girl with peach color hair in pigtails, a tight, high necked, pink sleeveless top tucked into a white and pink polka dot body-con skirt appeared. A big white bow, black wedged shoes, fingerless black gloves, and a triple rectangle necklace adorned her outfit. She was dancing with an invisible partner on the throne.

"Oh cruel fate separated me from my king once, and it finally decided to right that wrong today. What a happy day… at least it was supposed to have been." The girl eerily said.

Vector shivered at her sight, and not in a good way. "Who the hell are you?"

"Oh my prince, I always loved it when you spoke to me like that! But I can't forgive you for bringing along another wench like her!" the girl pointed at Clearflower.

Clearflower nuzzled closer to Vector to hide from the girl hateful gaze whimpering.

"You leave Clear out of this! If you want a fight, then I'll fight you!" Vector spat.

"Oh I'll fight you another time, but for now, how about I bring out our guests, if you don't mind my lord." The girl smirked and the wall moved to reveal the others.

"CLEAR!" Meri yelled, careful not to fall from the incredibly thin area they had to stand on.

"MERI ARE YOU AND THE OTHERS OKAY!" Clearflower shouted to them.

"Barely, but how about you?! That bitch hasn't harmed you yet right?!" Meri responded.

"No not yet but she called me a wench!" yelled Clear.

"Oh that does it" Meri growled as she flung herself to the nearest object, a large swinging axe and jumped onto the stage, landing a punch on the girl's face.

"HOW DARE YOU YOU HURT NAVI!" Navi hissed.

"That's for bringing my weight into this with the ledge," Meri picked her up by the collar, "And this is for Clear!"

Just as Meri was about to punch her again, Navi slipped from her grip into a portal. "I guess we'll settle this another time. As for this useless paper, you can have it to reminisce on our adventures, my dear prince." Navi kissed the card and then sent it flying towards Vector. Memories of a bloody prince flooded into Vector's mind and he struggled to keep his composure.

"Vector! Vector please answer me! Vector please say something!" sobbed Clearflower as she shook his shoulders still in his lap.

Vector shook his head before looking at Clearflower, "What just happened?"

"I don't know you just zoned out and when you didn't speak when I was talking to you and I got so scared and-" Clearflower babbled until Vector kissed her on the lips.

"I'm fine, you should concern yourself on getting out of here." Vector calmly said.

"Uh yeah." Clearflower replied in a daze.

"CLEAR, VECTOR, YOU HAVE TO GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!" Meri screamed as the floor began crumbling beneath her. "MIZA, SUMMON TACHYON!"

"WHY SHOULD I?!" Mizael shouted.

"DO YOU REALLY WANT TO DIE HERE?!" Meri yelled as Mizael finally summoned Tachyon Dragon.

They were about to go after Clear and Vector, but the floor completely disappeared and they vanished.

"CLEAR!" Meri wailed.

"Dammit not her!" Jyoti cried out.

"Can't we go after them?!" Meri pleaded.

"It's dangerous enough as it is! We need to leave before we end up like… them." Mizael turned away.

"No… no…" Meri cried, the others saddened as well.

As Clear and Vector were falling, a figure appeared.

"KAITO!?" yelped Clearflower as he grabbed her's and Vector's wrists.

"Thank me later, we need to get out of here! Orbital!" Kaito yelled.

"U-Understood!" Orbital replied as they hightailed it out of the falling ruins.

Outside, Meri was completely silent while sobs resounded behind her.

"…There was nothing we could have done." Jyoti comforted.

"That's a lie, the idiot had her broom but I forgot to remind her in time. This is all my fault! WHY DID I HAVE SUCH A KLUTZ FOR A FRIEND?!" Meri wailed.

"Meri look up!" yelled Clearflower voice.

"I could still hear her now, being an idiot and whatnot." Meri sniffed.

"LITERALLY JUST LOOK UP YOU IDIOT!" Vector shouted.

"I don't remember her voice being that deep or aggressive." Meri said in a confused tone before Clearflower and Vector landed on top of her. "Goddammit you two need to go on a diet!" Meri gaped as she pulled herself from underneath them.

"That's on your part mom," Vector teased.

"But who saved you? Did you remember your broom after all?!" Meri shook Clearflower from her shoulders.

"Kaito did and no I forgot." laughed Clearflower sheepishly.

"Kaito?!" Everyone shouted in unison.

"Yo." Kaito said calmly.

"You…." Mizael hissed.

"Well it looks like you're still on your period." Kaito chuckled.

"And you still have that stupid hair!" Mizael spat back.

"Is that the only thing you can say about me? While I appreciate the compliment, I'm taken." Kaito smirked.

"FINALLY!" Meri shouted in praise.

"I was actually just coming from that." Kaito blushed.

"Oh like mother like son, now if this one can do the same then I'd be so happy!" Meri pointed at Mizael.

"You know, I was actually growing to respect you after that spectacle with Navi, but this just broke that completely." Mizael hissed.

"And I wish you could get broken completely by Durbe." Meri sighed as Mizael turned red and away from the others.

"Well, welcome to the club Kaito." Meri grinned.

"What club?" Kaito raised his brow.

"The șapte păcătoși ass-kicking club!" Meri and Clearflower shouted in unison with Jyoti unenthusiastically yelling woo hoo in the back.


	11. Chapter 11: Vega

That night Clearflower couldn't sleep at all and finally got out of bed and walked to Meri room in only an oversized grey T-shirt and purple pajamas pants. "Meri I need to talk with you please?" Clearflower said through the door.

"Does it have to be now?!" Meri groaned.

"Yes, does it have to be now? She was just about to show me something naughty." Byron's voice was heard.

"Sorry but it's kinda important!" she shouted back nervously.

"UGH! Skype me later honey," Meri said as she gave Byron a kiss through the screen and then walked out in a slutty nerd outfit, complete with the super cropped button up and short plaid skirt.

She took one look at Clear and knew just what was the problem was and walked toward the room where Mihael and Vector were at and glaring at each other. She sighed and began, "Yo, Clear just interrupted me in the middle of my little chat session with Byron just so she could talk to me about you two nitwits. Here's the solution: share. That's what me and Byron would do so I expect my children to do the same! Now go have a threesome and leave me alone to my hubby!"

By the time Clearflower entered, Meri had already finished and walked back to her room and slammed the door shut.

"Share?" Vector scowled.

"Threesome?" Mihael scowled as well.

"NEVER!" They shouted as they faced away from each other.

"Guys please stop fighting." begged Clearflower.

The two simply huffed and ignored each other.

"I'll stop when this buffoon stops being a pervert to you." Mihael scoffed.

"And I'll stop when you stop acting all high and mighty, princess." Vector taunted.

"If you guys love me than you would put aside your differences for me!" Clear yelled.

Mihael was the first to reply to this and sighed, "I suppose I can try to not get mad at him."

"Eh, it doesn't matter to me now that I think about it. I can have cutie and a bitch." Vector smirked.

"Why you…! Ugh, you're despicable!" Mihael growled.

"It a start I suppose. Goodnight boys." Clearflower sighed as she kissed Mihael then Vector on the cheek before going to bed.

The next day, everyone was taken aback at the peace between Mihael, Vector, and Clearflower.

Meri emerged from her room in her favorite sleepshirt (Aka, Byron's) and yawned. "Whoa, did they have sex?"

"No, but did you? It was pretty annoying to hear you do it through a screen." Jyoti groaned.

"That's the sweetest sound you'll ever hear son, but seriously, why did they not frick frack?!" Meri asked.

"We still have some conflicting personality and we like to get to know each other first before we take it to _that_ level." Clearflower explained calmly with a blush.

"Please, me and Byron are still getting to know each other. Like did you know he likes classic cartoons? I didn't and I think that's fucking hot!" Meri cheered as Thomas groaned.

"How is it my dad is currently banging someone while I'm not?!" Thomas cried.

"Why not a threesome? It'd be weird, what with him being your dad, but hey we're all up for experimentation!" Meri grinned.

Thomas had to think about it.

"THOMAS!" Mihael yelled in horror.

"Well I mean look at her, sure she's flat but she's still a hot piece of ass. Besides, you're going to have to get used to threesomes too. You're lucky none of them are related to you." Thomas sighed.

"We're eating you asshole!" Kaito hissed as he slapped Thomas behind the head.

"Hey don't get jealous, you can have your own threesome with Cris and that blonde." Thomas groaned.

"Correction: it would be a foursome since Durbe wouldn't want to let go of his hot piece of ass without being there." Meri stated as Durbe nearly choked on his coffee.

"WOULD YOU STOP THAT?! WHAT TYPE OF MOTHER ARE YOU?!" Mizael yelled with his face red.

"The best." Meri said in her interpretation of a cool voice as she took Jyoti's sunglasses and put them on, "Raybans always did suit me better."

"Give those back!" Jyoti struggled to retrieve them.

"Man that Takashi guy must be blind to like you." Meri commented as she threw them at Jyoti while Yuma nearly choked on his orange juice.

"TAKASHI LIKES HIM?!"

"Yep, I'll bet he's thinking about him right this second!" Meri grinned as Jyoti pushed her off her chair.

"Shut up you dirty old hag!" Jyoti spat.

"I object to none of the insults above." Meri stated as she pulled herself back up.

A tan teenage boy with freckles on his arms and cheeks, short curly red hair, a black muscle shirt with a sleeveless white hoodie, olive green jeans, red and orange vans, and with headphones and a couple of necklaces around his neck was lying down under a tree next to a lake open one golden eye. "Yare yare when will they get here man? I've been waiting for years!" he groaned.

Becrux arrived looking for someone before she spotted the teen and walked up to him. Her arms were crossed and her black patent heels was tapping on the ground, "Get up Vega, you're supposed to be keeping post."

"I am BeBe; it's just that nothing's happened. You try watching over a stupid lake." he yawned.

"I don't care if you have to watch over growing grass, just be more alert. You wouldn't want to be in Navi's place right now." She looked down, "Altair is not a forgiving person; nor is Deneb merciful in her punishments." Becrux cringed as she held her arms tighter.

"What did the psycho do to your sweet ass BeBe?"asked Vega in a bored tone.

"Nothing that concerns you. I'll warn you once more; keep post or suffer Deneb's wraith." Becrux warned before she disappeared.

"Yawn, I'm going to take a nap until something exciting happens." he mumbled before zapping a singing bird that was unfortunate to be flying overhead with an energy ball.

"Hey guys, why don't we go see this?" Yuma awed as he saw the announcements for the wrestling duelists.

"It's all rigged kid." Jyoti sighed.

"But…"

"We are not seeing sweaty wrestlers; end of story!" Mizael huffed.

"I'd like to go." whispered Errai shyly.

"Then let's go, maybe they'll have dragons like Tachyon. I hope she made you happy." Mizael completely changed personalities as Errai smiled.

"God he's unpredictable." Kaito cringed.

"You get used to it really," Durbe shrugged.

"Aw yeah we're going to see the fight! I just hope…"

"Hope what Alit?" Kotori asked as she and the girls returned from shopping.

"How are you not dying?" Jyoti asked as he saw all the bags Meri had.

"A real woman can carry a hundred times her weight in food and cute clothes." Meri explained as she wore her new sunglasses, ironically the same as Jyoti's.

"Meri why did you make me buy all that lingerie?" Clearflower asked in confusing.

"They increase pleasure in sex. I didn't believe it but it works. It gets the kinky out." Meri winked.

"RIO!", Errai whooped as he hugged her waist, "Rio guess what we're going to see the wrestling duelists!"

"That's great! Did you guys buy the tickets already?" Rio asked as Ryoga returned with a handful of tickets.

"Got em, just don't ask for snacks." Ryoga muttered as Rio smacked him.

"Ryoga! Don't be rude!" Rio scolded.

"It's okay, even if this loser here wouldn't offer to buy you anything, your big brother Miza would." Mizael said.

"With what money Miza?" Gilag asked.

"I don't know." Mizael groaned.

"Heheh, if you would accept me being your mom, you could get your allowance." Meri snickered.

"Like hell I would!" Mizael hissed.

"Fine, then I'll give an allowance to Alit, Gilag, Vector, and even Durbe."

"Durbe?!" Mizael shouted in surprise.

"Well, the idea seems really nice to have a mother and all." Durbe nervously explained.

Mizael sighed and crossed his arms. "Great, now they all have money save for me."

At that moment, Ryoga's phone went off and he looked confused as he read out loud, "For Mizael, turn around. Since you've been good, I'll give you your allowance early, just turn around my bijou précieux…From A… The hell?"

Mizael felt the color drain from his face as he found a bundle of bills wrapped in a red ribbon.

"Look, someone was nice enough to.."

"Don't touch it Alit!" Mizael yelled almost pleadingly.

"Alright I'll just…"

"No! I won't accept it!" Mizael shivered as he knelt down.

"Mizael!" Durbe yelped as he knelt next to Mizael.

"I'm fine… I'm… fine." Mizael repeated as he composed himself.

"Meri I think Miza has a stalker." whispered Clearflower to Meri.

Meri shook with anger, "Is that true?"

"I don't have a stalker! Even if I did, he couldn't possibly do anything to me!" Mizael stated, the fear painfully obvious in his voice.

"You don't have to deny it," Durbe comfort.

"I'M NOT DENYING ANYTHING!" Mizael snapped… realizing too late that he had snapped at Durbe. "Please leave me alone."

Durbe nodded and went with the others, angry with himself for not being able to do anything for Mizael at the moment.

"…He said he was A… I'll teach him not to toy with me… that bastard." Mizael hissed through choked sobs.

Errai had whimpered and hid himself into Rio side looking frantically around.

"Errai, if he even comes near you, we'll kick his ass, so please calm down," Rio cooed as she ran her fingers through his hair.

"O-okay Rio. Ho-how about we g-go see that du-duel.", he stuttered.

"Errai… let's go." Rio walked him over with the others, making sure to keep Errai close by her.

During the duel, they realized that one of the duelists was none other than Gauche, now known by his stage name, Gauche the Starman. They decided to give him a visit after the show.

"Hey Yuma, I heard we were going to have some familiar company." Gauche laughed as Yuma and Kaito greeted them.

"It's nice to see you all," Droite greeted.

"Hey, Ryoga, I didn't know you had a little brother." Gauche remarked.

"Are you talking about Rio?" Ryoga laughed as Rio's cheeks tinged pink.

"No I mean the actual little boy behind her. He looks quite a bit like you guys." Gauche smiled as he knelt down and held his hand out for Errai to shake. "Nice to meet you, I'm Gauche and that pretty lady over there is Droite."

Errai looked at the hand then to Ryoga and Rio for reassurance to introduce himself and shake Gauche's hand.

"Go on." Rio urged with a smile while Ryoga merely smiled.

"I'm Errai, hello." he whispered as he took Gauche hand.

Everyone smiled at this gesture, as they all knew that Errai was usually not like that. "You know, I think you're a good influence on him." Ryoga put his arm around Rio.

"Only because you're a good influence on me… sometimes." She giggled as she nuzzled herself against Ryoga.

As for the others, all the little details that they previously missed were becoming obvious. Errai blue eyes with heterochromic red specks, blue hair and pale complexion like the twins'.

This was short lived as a tremor gave Meri and Clearflower a trace of unknown Barian energy.

"Clear. One of them is here." Meri seriously stated.

"I know I sensed it too." she replied.

"Then we have to act soon." Meri said.

"Wait, don't you guys want to rest up a bit before heading out? I doubt you'll want to face them tired." Gauche offered.

"I suppose." Meri sighed as she agreed to Gauche offered.

Before going to bed, Droite called everyone to the living room in their house.

"I like what you're wearing." Thomas winked.

"And I'd like to murder you. Now hush," Droite began, "There is a legend about the lake that long ago. A brave gladiator would fight many enemies in the stadium that is now underwater. He was the rival and best friend to the prince and they were inseparable. But one day, the gladiator was framed for a horrendous crime and executed in front of an audience. The prince realized only shortly after that his best friend had been framed and his legend has been passed on since then."

"How sad." Kotori said softly.

"It's okay Kotori, don't be…" Alit stopped as he felt a tight sensation at his neck; a choking burning sensation that caused him to stop dead in his tracks.

"Alit!" Kotori screamed.

"Don't worry angel, I'm okay." Alit smiled and took Kotori's hand, kissing it gently.

Meri was about to kill Jyoti because of her excitement. She had been repeatedly hitting him in the back as she looked at the scene before her. "They're so damn cute! Just have babies already you damn cuties!"

"You don't have to break my spinal cord because of it!" Jyoti complained.

"I think we should head to bed guys. Goodnight." Clearflower suggested as she looked at Errai who was practically sleeping sitting up and hugged Meri and Jyoti, kissed her sons foreheads, and kissed Vector then Mihael cheek goodnight before heading to bed.

"I can kiss my kids too!" Meri stood up and took on the daunting task of kissing Durbe, Mizael, Gilag, Ait, Vector, Rio, Ryoga, Mihael, Thomas, (and for the hell of it, her in-laws), Yuma, Kotori, and Kaito.

"God that was awful." Kaito groaned.

"Night dearies!" Meri waved as she disappeared into her room.

"I should probably tuck Errai in to bed. If both you and Mizael take care of him tonight, I'd appreciate it Ryo-chan." Rio said as Ryoga and Mizael nodded.

"Why can't we be trusted?" Gilag whined.

"You and Alit are kids yourselves; Vector is Vector so sorry Mihael. Thomas… do I need to explain? Yuma's out, Black Mist is out, Jyoti's out. So do you see what I mean dear Gilag?" Rio smiled coldly.

"Uh.."

"Exactly."

"I'll head over to bed already; I'm kind of sleepy what with Meri dragging us all over downtown to shop." Kotori giggled and gave Alit a kiss on the cheek before heading to bed.

"You're doing great man!" Gilag hit Alit on the shoulder as Alit grinned.

Kotori had barely gone inside when she noticed that Meri was already fast asleep. "It must take a lot to be a mom. I wonder if I could be a mom like her someday." She yawned and was about to go to bed when a hand covered her mouth, so she was completely unable to scream. She only caught glimpses of her attacker before being knocked out.

"Sorry Kori but I'm bored and if you're gone then Alit will follow and things may finally get interesting." muttered her captor before leaving a note on her pillow and disappearing through a portal.

"Kotori, do you have any… Kotori?" Rio asked in the dark and as she turned on the light. She grew terrified as she didn't see the green haired girl anywhere, "KOTORI!"

"What's wrong here?" Droite ran over.

"Kotori, she's gone!" Rio quivered when she had just seen the piece of paper on the bed. "Alit, meet me by the lake, signed an old friend…"

"We have to tell the others." Droite said, leaving Meri to sleep.

Meanwhile Alit was having a conversation with Gauche.

"So you're interested in being a dueling wrestler? You know it's not just about the fame and money kid." Gauche said.

"I know, I saw all the little kids who looked up to you from the stands. It seems like it would be such a cool thing to be their hope. That and it's a mixture of fighting and dueling with cards, make it duel boxing and I'd be in heaven." Alit laughed.

"That exists."

"REALLY?!"

Gauche laughed, "I'm kidding, but you have a good heart. You know, if after you finish studying and you're still interested, I could get you a gig here." Gauche offered causing Alit to grin.

"You could?!... Wait, I'm a Barian, I won't even be here on Earth." Alit sighed.

"Then maybe when you come down on visits, you can have exhibition matches with me?" Gauche grinned.

"Sounds good to me." Alit laughed.

It was then that Droite entered, "Kotori is missing."

"My angel!" Alit gasped as he ran off in search of Kotori.

"WAIT! There was a letter you idiot!" Rio yelled, being ignored by Alit.

"Kotori, Kotori! I'll kill that bastard for even laying a finger on her!" Alit growled as he ran through the city in search of his angel.

"Alit hold up!" Gilag yelled as he began running beside him, "You know I've got your back!"

"Thanks."

"Yo Alit! This'll be a lot faster!" Yuma yelled as he and the others appeared next to the two in a car, "We can't save my bff with you're going at the speed of a snail!"

Alit and Gilag jumped on to the car, "Thanks man!"

They had finally arrived at Kotori and her captor's location and Alit immediately wanted to jump in to kill the bastard that stole his angel. He was about jump in when Kaito stops him.

"Wait, we could use this time to find out who he really is. For all we know, he could be one of the șapte păcătoși. I say we tune in to his conversation." Kaito said.

"But!"

"Orbital, tune in to their conversation and record it too." Kaito ordered.

"Y-yes Kaito-sama!"

Kotori was just waking up, "Where… you! Who are you?!"

"Really Kori I'm hurt. How can you forget your old friend Vega?" Vega asked in a fake hurt and bored tone.

"I've never seen you in my life! And I'm Kotori, not Kori if that's your lazy nickname for me!"

"You're younger than when you were last time, less shapely as well. Don't get me wrong you're still cute but before damn! I always was jealous that Alit had you on his arm. Always calling you his angel and shit and then when that kid, what's her name, ah yes, Estella, came along and you three made such a cute happy fucking family. I'm gagging just thinking about it." Vega continued as though Kotori didn't say anything.

"W-What are you even talking about?!" she shuddered.

"Your past life Korina, back when you were engaged to Alit and you both wanted to take in that orphan street rat little girl as your kid. You all were so happy. You used to take her on picnics under the night sky spending all your time either counting the stars or teaching her the constellation or making up your own funny ones. You both called her your little star. Tch, it was nauseating watching it all on the side. I nearly gouged my own eyes out just so I couldn't see it anymore." Vega scoffed.

"Past life?! No, Alit is a Barian he couldn't have ever been human." Kotori quietly said.

"He wasn't always. All Barians were once human with bad memories. When we die we become Barians, our memories wiped clean to start brand new, unless you're like me and are a favorite of Don Thousand, then you keep your human memories. You know I think Estella would be saddened that you forgot about her, that you spit on her memory like that. I mean I remember her and I'm the one who murdered her ;what does that say about your so call 'love' for her," laughed Vega.

"STOP IT!" Kotori cried, "I don't remember, but just don't talk about an innocent girl you killed like that. Stop!"

"It was your and Alit's naivety that got her killed. You both never thought anyone would hurt her since everyone knew she was practically your baby. She didn't even see it coming. She just smiled at me and greeted me like normal, 'Hi uncle Vega!' You should have seen her face when she saw the knife. She actually tried running away but I was much stronger and faster than her. She didn't even have a chance. She screamed, and oh how she screamed, 'Alit will come! He'll save me! Alit will come and save me!'. She was a fighter too. Never once did she beg me to end here or to stop, no she just fought harder until I cut her heart out. You know her last word was 'Daddy!' in a long agonizing shriek. That was the only time she ever called Alit 'daddy' since you guys were still in the process of her feeling comfortable calling you two such titles. Sadly, I couldn't take a good enough trophy to show my kill because Alit heard that last cry and came to save her like she said he would, only much too late to be any help. I hid in the shadows as I just watched him break down and cradle her mutilated corpse to his body. Tears rolling down his face and blood, _her blood_, getting all over his clothes; that's how the guards found him. Well they automatically thought he killed her and the next day he was executed for his 'crime'. I was going to have my fun with you too but that stupid Prince realized the mistake and killed me immediately for trying to kill and rape you. You know now that I think about it I killed her with this very same knife I have here." chuckled Vega.

"Dammit all, we've heard what we needed to hear, I can't let this go on any longer!" Alit growled as he jumped and tried landing a punch on Vega, but he dodged.

"Yawn, are you even trying old friend?" taunted Vega.

"A twisted fuck like you is no friend of mine! I don't know how you managed to do it, but you came up with the sickest story I've ever had the misfortune of hearing on the spot. I should kill you just for that." Alit hissed.

"Still denying Estella? Maybe this might help you remember and until next time, farewell old friend, Kori." he smiled as he threw a card at Alit and stepped through a portal.

As soon as Alit touched the card, his worst fears were confirmed and that burning tight feeling around his neck intensified making him to lose his ability to breathe.

"ALIT!" Kotori cried as she saw Alit convulsing on the floor.

"We're coming Kotori!" Yuma shouted as he began undoing the rope on her.

Alit was experiencing the worst pain ever thought possible. He saw the axe come down on his neck and he saw his disembodied head desperately gasp for air. Worst of all, he saw Estella… and Kotori. They were so happy… until he came across her body. The guards found him crying beside her… and then he saw the prince, his best friend. But it wasn't him, his friend didn't have cold eyes like those. He was executed the next day…

"ALIT! ALIT STAY WITH ME!" Kotori cried as she held on to a trembling Alit.

"Hey buddy stay with us!" Gilag shouted.

"W-WHAT WAS THAT…WHAT THE HELL, WHAT THE HELL?!" Alit cried out and covered his face in agony.

"Alit, Alit it's over…" Kotori hugged him and cooed, tears streaming down her face.

"I-I saw her…Our little Estella…Our…OUR STAR!" Alit wailed as he held on to Kotori tighter and trembling with more intensity.

"And that's how I tamed Tachyon." Mizael smiled as he sat at Errai's bedside.

"Wow." whispered Errai.

"Yep, and she's been beside me ever since." Mizael sighed as he looked at Tachyon with concern.

"What's wrong?" Errai asked.

"I've been getting an uneasy feeling lately, and Tachyon senses it too. I hate it." Mizael said as he pounded his fist against the wall.

"Is it about…A?" Errai asked.

Mizael turned abruptly to face Errai. "What do you know about A?"

"I don't know about him but before I met Rio and the others I was hiding from a pedophile who sounds like him.", shuddered Errai, "He calls me his petite cloche bleu and he's really creepy."

"That sick psycho, if he ever comes after you, he'll have hell to deal with through me!" Mizael clenched his fist.

"_Oh how cute, my __bijou précieux __is going to try and defy me. I doubt you'll have much luck with that so just submit and be mine. I've been patient for so long you know." _

"W-WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" Mizael questioned as Errai hid beneath the covers, shaking like a leaf.

"_Just someone who adores you. You'll know my identity soon my dear sweet Mizael."_ The voice chuckled.

The final straw came when Mizael felt someone breathing on him, grasping his hair and he screamed, "GET AWAY FROM ME!"

The voice merely laughed as it faded away.

"Get away from me… get away from me!" Mizael sobbed as he curled into a ball on the floor.

"Th-that's him! T-the creeper guy who c-call me pe-petite cloche bleu!" sobbed Errai as he crawled towards Mizael with his blanket.

Mizael simply hugged Errai and cried alongside him, too terrified to do anything else.

"Mizael, is Errai fine? Mizael…" Rio asked as she walked in to the pitiful sight. "Mizael, Errai, what happened?!" she frantically asked as she knelt down and tried helping them.

"STAY AWAY!" Mizael cried as he tightened his grip on Errai.

"Someone please help!" Rio cried out and Durbe being the first to arrive to her call.

"Mizael! What happened here?!" Durbe panicked.

"I don't know, but they're both terrified of something."

"Durbe?" Mizael weakly cried out, "Durbe!" He flung himself around Durbe, allowing Rio to get to Errai.

"Miza, don't cry, we're here now." Durbe cooed.

"It doesn't matter… he'll still get me… he'll get me." Mizael shook.

"Who? Who will get you?!" Rio asked wanting to know.

"The pedophile I was hiding from when we met, he's also Miza stalker, he's A!" sobbed Errai.

"No…" Rio sobbed as she held on to Errai as he cried as well.

"That bastard… I'll make him pay for hurting them." Durbe seethed as he still held on to Mizael.

"Sadly it won't be that easy." Meri said from the doorway, "You haven't properly faced this A guy, and already he's caused this sort of damage. It's hard to fathom, but even the ones we've already met have given literally no energy to taunt us and observe us."

"Then what can we do?" Rio sadly asked.

Meri knelt down next to them all on the floor, "Just leave it to momma. Those sickos will pay for ever hurting you, even if it costs me my life."


	12. Chapter 12: Alcor

After that traumatic night, it was decided that Alit and Kotori would sit out the next set of ruins. Gilag and Yuma offered to stay with them to help. Meri had highly suggested that Mizael sit the next one down, but he stubbornly refused. He did however miss out on the explanation Meri was about to give.

Meri sipped her coffee before placing it down, "I know what you guys want to ask… and I guess there's no other choice but to come clean."

Durbe began, "So, it's true that we were once human?" Meri stared at her coffee. "Answer me please!"

"The answer is… yes. You all were once human, even the șapte păcătoși." Meri sighed.

"Why didn't you tell us before, _mom_?" Vector asked with a rude tone.

"You don't even believe I'm your mom, would you have believed me if I had outright said you were once human? Besides, it's better not to speak of those horrors. It's a shame such noble souls had to go through hellish ordeals all because that Ass Thousand wanted to use your powers to revive and take over Barian!" Meri pounded her fist into the table.

"Well now that that's out, is there anything else you want to let out into the open?" Ryoga asked.

"That you're actually Nasch and Rio is Merag?"

"I mean something true." Ryoga sighed.

"Don't come to me crying about this later then. I suppose there are two things I've kept from you two. The biggest of these being that Don Thousand has been revived."

"Don Thousand revived?! But I thought they needed a vessel to hold him!" Vector stood up abruptly.

"Apparently that rule doesn't apply to them, the damn cheater. Any who, the second thing is that these șapte păcătoși each have a past with your human selves. Their hatred for you guys must have carried over into their current selves and is fueling their rampage. This has been proven with Vega's sick backstory with Alit." Meri lowered her gaze, "The only other thing I could tell you is your past lives' stories, but please don't make me do that. It's too painful."

Durbe and Vector nodded. "You said that they are significantly stronger than us, do you know the way to beat them?" Durbe asked.

"In any other way that isn't traditional ass-kicking? Sorry but no dice. I'm actually not even sure if Clear and I are enough to take them on by ourselves." Meri sighed

"Don't we have the strength to beat them?" Kaito asked with his arms crossed.

"That's just it. They're in control of some messed up cards with monstrous abilities. They're called the anti-numbers, starting from negative one to negative seven. If the over-hundred numbers were tremendous, these just killed it." Meri whined.

"So we stand no chance against them? Great." Thomas groaned.

"I'm not saying we don't stand a chance, but it'll be a miracle if you can withstand them even for a single turn. Even if there was a way around their effects, what's to say they won't get in your head beforehand and destroy your very sanity? Alit is suffering now just because of Vega's words… I don't even want to imagine if they had actually battled with Alit's psyche in that condition." Meri sadly said.

"Is it me but is each of the Sapte Păcătoși that we're facing just keep getting more creepy? If so I can only imagine how much more worse the next one were going to face is.", shivered Clearflower.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Meri shrugged.

"We're here." Jyoti said as the Yuma Express was lowered to the ground.

On the ground, they were all rather surprised to see nothing but steep rocky…

"Rocks. Nothing but tall damn rocks. Are you sure this is the place?" Jyoti growled.

"This is totally the place… thing is we have to climb to the top of… this one right here!" Meri pointed at a specific steep mountain.

"Then when the hell didn't we just land the damn ship up there?!" Jyoti spat.

"The guardian in charge is such a fussy person, I doubt he'd like it if we just landed a big ship on his site." Meri crossed her arms.

"Then stop talking and let's get up there… luckily we still have our Barian…"

"It won't work Miza… which by the way, if you're still feeling uneasy, you can stay here." Meri urged.

"Why?! I'm a Barian, not a coward. If I can't use my Barian powers here, then fine!" Mizael huffed as he stomped away.

Meri pulled Durbe to the side and whispered, "Durbe, I don't want Mizael to be alone for a single second here. I have a bad hunch about this place."

Durbe nodded, "Would this have anything to do with A?"

"Maybe… but even if it didn't, I doubt he's feeling alright and it would do him good to be near someone like you." Meri smiled reassuringly before proceeding to the mountain. "Well, this thing isn't going to climb itself."

"That's what she said." Thomas snickered.

"Oh you know it hun." Meri winked.

At the top of the mountain, they were greeted by thick and ominous fog. They couldn't even see their hands.

"Mizael, are you alright?" Durbe whispered, patting a shivering Mizael.

"I'm fine… I'm sorry for my behavior recently." Mizael softly said.

"You have nothing to apologize for. I know this is a bit difficult for you."

"Not that! My behavior with you. You've been nothing but kind to me and all I've done is scream at you." Mizael apologized. Durbe chuckled. "What's so funny?" Mizael pouted.

"Nothing, it's just that you've never apologized for being yourself before."

Mizael blushed and covered his face, "So you're saying I'm a foul mannered jack ass? Great… just great."

"Not at all! You're just always outspoken and I'm used to that." Durbe responded, his face growing hot.

"Durbe…"

"Just keep being yourself. You're a lot cuter like that." Durbe said.

Unfortunately, the couple's sweet moment was broken by the sound of pained grunts.

"Mizael! What's the matter?!" Durbe frantically asked.

"No…" Mizael shook.

"Miza baby, what is the matter with you? I thought you of all people would be happy to see me…" A's voice chuckled and terrifyingly enough, Mizael felt his hair being touched.

"GET AWAY!" Mizael screamed.

"Funny, you said the same thing in the past. I thought it would be different this time." A tall man with short wavy brown hair wearing silver rimmed glasses, a navy suit over a purple vest with a white ascot tucked into it chuckled. His green eyes stared lustfully at Mizael as the fog cleared.

To Mizael's and the others' horror, he was no longer beside Durbe, but rather right in front of the man.

"Still as beautiful as ever," he wrapped his arms around Mizael, trapping him and burying his head in Mizael's hair as he toyed with it, covering Mizael's eyes, "How I longed to hold you like this."

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" Durbe yelled.

Completely ignoring Durbe, the man proceeded to ghost his fingers along Mizael's body, "Just a little longer, bijou précieux, just a little longer before I can make you mine completely…"

To his surprise, an attack released his grip on Mizael, allowing him to run back to the others' side.

"Alcor you sick son of a bitch, I should have killed you back then!" A bloody old man hissed, barely able to stand.

"JINLONG!" Meri yelled out.

"Jinlong you insolent old fool, you know as well as I do that if you would have laid a single claw on me that you would have died as well! How pitiful that you spent your last breaths trying to protect Mizael's body when I made a contract with Don Thousand. Now you'll die without having the honor of saving your precious master and the closest thing you ever had to a grandson!" Alcor laughed as he ordered an attack on Jinlong from his Behemoth monster.

"AS IF I'D LET YOU!" Meri shouted as she summoned her own monster, a great monster from the deep, Ruby Hydra.

"Damn you!" Alcor cursed as he called back his monster. "Mizael, I'll be back for you. Until then, I urge the knight to keep his hands off of what isn't and never was his." Alcor hissed as he disappeared into a portal.

"Damn him!" Meri cursed before turning her attention to Jinlong.

"I'm on it!" shouted Clearflower already knowing what Meri was going to ask and started healing Jinlong.

"Well, it's good to know you're not dead yet." Meri joked.

"And you're still as slutty as ever. I would have thought the Barian Goddess to be much more dignified." Jinlong huffed, now recovered from his wounds.

"I would have thought a thank you would be enough, but I'm a fool for even thinking that." Meri sighed, looking back at Mizael who was staring blankly at the ground. She knelt down and placed her hand on his shoulder, to which he jumped a bit. "Mizael, I'm sorry, if only I had been more careful. It's my fault he got to you…"

Mizael looked at Meri with widened and blank eyes before he hugged her. "Momma.. I was so scared!" he cried as Meri cradled him.

"It's okay now, he won't touch you ever again. I promise…" she cooed.

Back at the Yuma Express, a scream was heard from Mizael's room.

"What's wrong?!" Ryoga said as he saw Rio shaking and crying.

"Ryoga! L-Look…!" she pointed to the bed where a disembodied finger with a silver dragon and ruby ring was lying next to a note.

"What the hell…" Ryoga shook as he unwillingly picked up the card and read its contents. _"This is a gift for you dear Mizael, my promise to come back to you. I suggest you hold on to it for future encounters, until then, farewell my __bijou précieux.__"_

Upon getting there and seeing the finger, Mizael fell to the floor, dizzy with fear.

"R-rio?" whimpered a small scared voice from a shadow corner of Mizael room.

"Errai!" Rio ran to him and hugged him, "Errai are you hurt?! I should have kept a better watch."

"I wa-was going to le-leave this p-picture I drew for M-miza and HE w-was here! Th-that man was here! The one w-who sta-stalking me a-and Miza! He s-said that af-after Miza I…I…I'M NEXT!" he sobbed.

Rio hugged Errai tighter and cooed, "He won't hurt you… I won't let him Errai… I won't." Her tears fell down onto Errai's forehead as she promised over and over.


End file.

Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL, Adventure, Romance