This is another alernate universe and alternate story line fan fiction from the Yu-Gi-Oh realm, this one focusing on Zexal. Now before anyone complains, I am actually quite impressed with the thought put into the story line of Zexal. It's not the original that's true, but the story in itself isn't that bad. So I decided that I liked it enough to create another alternate story line with this story as well. Might as well branch out while I can right? I don't promise this to be good though.

This story is from an interesting perspective, though it will change perspective more than my last one. This one though involves Black Mist / Number 96 as one of the main characters. And guess what? He's not evil. It's kind of an odd take on his character, but again, this is an alternate universe Fan fiction.

I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal. This is a non profit fan made fan fiction. Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal belongs to Kazuki Takahashi, Nihon Ad Systems, TV Tokyo, Studio Dice, Shonen Jump, and (possibly) 4KIDS Entertainment.

Other details:

Possible tentacleshipping later on, rated T for blood, gore, mentions of torture, sweaing and rating may change, Alternate Universe and story line, Post Apocalyptic world, and it will end up being a rather long story.

Anyway, please enjoy and feel free to leave a review down below. Don't like Zexal? Please don't tell me it sucks because of that. If you don't like then don't read. Thank you.

Chapter One: Key of Darkness

Yuma gasped, running towards the smoking ruin that had been his house. This couldn't be happening! He had gone out to get their rations. Their town was one of the few that still gave out rations and hadn't descended into chaos. Most places after the collapse of internet and the wars that had raged across the planet were now full of people who were desperate and had become cruel because of this. Their town had been relatively peaceful, or at least as peaceful as it could be in a world that had fallen apart and was decaying slowly.

That was of course, until Yuma had seen the smoke rising from the marketplace. He had grabbed his things and ran back as quickly as he could. What he had found froze his blood, even tough the heat of the flames bathed across his face and burned his skin. Without thinking of his own safety he dropped his bags and ran towards the still smoldering house.

He slipped in the rubble and fell, leaping up with a yelp as he received several burns from the fall. It hurt badly, but he wasn't about to just give up. He had to know where his parents were, and where his sister was. He refused to believe that they were dead. They couldn't be! They had moved here when he was still a child, during the time when the world had begun collapsing, and he didn't have any friends here. He hardly knew anyone. If they were gone then he would be all alone.

He ran first to his sister's room. It was completely destroyed, and so was his room. He searched through the rubble, wincing as the hot wood and destroyed possessions stung his face and his hands. He couldn't find any sign of her, and that gave him a little hope. Maybe she was still alive! Though he wasn't sure where she could have gone, or why she hadn't come to find him to tell him that everything was alright. He ran to the room that his parents shared, and he began to dig through it as well. There was nothing here either that said that they had died.

Now he was completely confused. What had happened? It seemed like arson to him, though he was sure that no one in the town would ever consider breaking the fragile peace that they held here that way. And why was his family not here? Did someone take them then? And why for? Yuma couldn't piece together anything from the odd puzzle. What was he supposed to make of something like that? He was unsure what he was supposed to do. What was he going to tell anyone? Surely someone else would have noticed by now. Maybe they would come and help him figure out the odd puzzle that he had just ended up in. Or maybe they would think that he did it.

Yuma looked around again, feeling tears in his eyes. He was pretty short for his age, but he was only thirteen after all. His hair as black and oddly spiked, and there were red spikes coming off of his bangs, and that gave him an odd look. His eyes too were a crimson color, giving his innocent eyes a strangely sinister look. He had become a bit of a cry baby, but then again he had watched his grandmother and several other members of his close family murdered right in front of him. He and his immediate family had managed to escape, and they had run as far away as they could before settling down in this peaceful town. They had been here for about five years. Yuma just couldn't understand why on earth it had to be shattered now.

Eyes flashed in his mind. Yes they were eyes, but unlike anything he had ever seen. Where the white of the eye should be was a dark black color. One was a golden color, and one was a gray color, dully shining like it had once been silver, though now it barely stood out against the darkness of the rest of the eye. Yuma leaped up, his heart hammering, and he looked around. He was almost sure that there was someone watching him. But there was no one. All of the other houses were abandoned now so that their owners could go and get their rations.

Slowly Yuma turned, looking through the rubble. He wasn't exactly sure why, but he felt like there was something there that he needed. Again those eyes flashed in his mind, and it startled him. But he felt like someone, or something, was calling him. He followed the call, though it wasn't a physical call, more like something he could just sense. He trudged on through the rubble, slipping a little and burning his hand more. But as he fell, he felt his hand brush something surprisingly cool.

He winced but plunged his hand into the rubble and pulled it out, gasping at what it was. It was the key. Or at least, that's what his father had told him it was. His father had loved going on travels before the apocalypse had happened. One day he had brought back this odd little thing, which was now hanging on a thread. How had it not burned up the string? What on earth was it?

Again those eyes flashed in his mind, and he felt the call stronger than ever. His father had brought home this odd key and people had warned him that it was nothing but trouble. Something like this had an odd air about it, not really evil, but sinister would be a better word. There was something haunted about it. But this key was from the last travel that he'd ever be able to go on, so his father had insisted on keeping it. He had left it in the small living room in the tiny three bedroom house, and ever since Yuma had first seen it he had been oddly drawn to it. He was always glancing at it, always creeping close. He had never touched it before, and now that he was he felt odd. He wanted to throw it away, but at the same time he felt like there was something precious in it. He again felt like he was being watched.

"Who's there?" he asked.

There was no answer. Of course there wasn't. But instead of finding the sound of silence comforting, he felt a little frightened by it. He looked down at the key again. It was a dark color, almost a dark purple, and it shone brightly. It was cool to the touch, though it was metal and had just been through a blazing fire. The cord it hung on was undamaged by the flames as well. That didn't make any sense! How on earth was it sill intact? Yuma stared at it a moment. And then he was taken over by a strong urge to put it on, like a necklace.

He slipped it onto his neck, and as it fell onto his chest he gasped. It felt like a heavy weight had settled onto his chest and mind. This time when he looked up, it wasn't at the wreckage that used to be his house. He was in a place that was full of darkness, and there was a long and narrow path. He shuddered, but he felt as if the key was calling him forward. He walked forward carefully, one step at a time as he watched his feet. He was terrified of falling, and he wasn't sure where he was going, but he kept on walking.

He neared a place where the path grew a little wider, and he looked up. He gasped a little as he saw the door. It was a huge and sinister looking thing. It had a face on it, twisted as if in fury, and chained shut with multiple chains that Yuma was sure he couldn't lift at all. The door seemed to be watching him a moment, and the eyes flared red. A voice seemed to float out of the darkness, the voice of a woman. And he could only stare, clutching at the key.

Welcome traveler, the voice said, the kind voice of a woman. You have the key.

Yuma gasped and looked down at the key in his hand. He quickly took it off, still clutching at the metal. The image didn't disappear. Instead he was left staring at the strange door and wondering what on earth was going on.

You have nothing to fear, she said, and her voice was a calming one, that of a mother. You must open the door. You are the only one who can. For that key to choose you, your heart must be pure. That were the conditions set for sending him to earth.

"Him?" Yuma asked, "Who is He? And what's going on."

I cannot tell you young one, the voice said, and she truly sounded sorry. Just know that this is of great importance. You must go and search for the numbers, but be warned. This power may yet come at a terrible price. There is a beast within, and you must tame him.

Yuma took a step back. A beast? He didn't want to go on some quest searching for...numbers? What the heck were those anyway? What was he supposed to do? His family was missing, why should he unlock some door and unleash some monster?

No please, the voice cried. Please you must open the door! You must release him! You are the only one who has a chance to make him what he once was!

Yuma froze. There was something about that voice that made his heart ache to hear it. It was again the voice of a mother, the voice of a desperate mother that was looking for some hope to have. Yuma thought of his own mother suddenly and felt a deep sting of pain and loss. He didn't even know where she was, and he felt lonely suddenly. The desperate tone of the other voice was what changed his mind. He stepped forward and raised the dark key in his trembling hand.

He found the key hole, which was as large as his fist. He slid his hand into it, and the key slipped into the key hole. Then he took a breath. He could feel those other eyes, stirring, looking at him. He steeled himself, and then turned the key hard. It nearly got stuck once, and he almost had to force it to turn the rest of the way. But he managed it. With a clunk the door opened.

Yuma sprang back as the chains burst apart and the door opened. There was nothing but a dark blackness inside of the door. He just stared at it a moment and felt those eyes on him again. He gasped and looked up again.

He looked around, confusion in his gaze. The key was still resting on his chest. He was staring again at the still smoking wreckage that was his home. What had happened? How long had he been gone? Was it all just a dream? He looked around carefully, trying to figure out what had happened.

"This certainly is a mess," a dark male voice observed.

Yuma gasped and whirled around. There was a boy FLOATING behind him. Well, he assumed it was a boy. He was naked, but it certainly didn't seem like he needed any clothing either. His body was all black, with hair that was spiked up and curled forward slightly. His ears were pierced with some odd earrings that dangled in odd but elegant shapes. There were green marks all over his body, and blue gems. Then on his face was a red mark that curved down his nose and hooked over his eye brows, almost like horns. He was the one with those odd colored eyes, one gray and one gold settling into those dark black orbs.

Yuma screamed. He was startled, and he had heard tales of aliens, but he'd never seen one before. What else could this thing be but an alien? Those eyes suddenly grew hard and fierce, and he turned his eyes to him. Dark black tentacles sprouted out of his back and grabbed the terrified boy. They pinned his arms to his sides and his legs together so he couldn't move, and then one of them wrapped around his mouth to keep him from screaming again. Those sinister eyes leaned in close to his face, peering at him with anger.

"Shut up," the creature growled. "Do you want someone to find us? How are you going to explain me, and all of this to anyone?"

Yuma paused. He hadn't thought about that. He looked at the creature nervously. Was this the beast that the woman had been talking about? He certainly could see why she called him that. There was something tensed about his body language, something haunted in his eyes. But more than that, there was something insane in those eyes, something that had snapped that made him a beast. Yuma just stared back into those eyes. The strange being sighed and looked at him piercingly.

"What happened?" he demanded. "And who are you?"

For a minute he just sat there, letting it sink in to Yuma that he was not in the mood to be lied to or trifled with. Not like Yuma had much of a choice but to tell him what was going on. He was sure that this thing would kill him if he gave him an answer that he didn't like. The tentacle slipped off of his mouth, and Yuma gasped a bit for air, then looked at the creature nervously. It's arms were expectantly folded in front of him.

"M-My name is Yuma," he said, not sure at all how he could understand the Alien. "I'm not really sure what happened. This is my home, and it was destroyed when I got here. But I found that key on the ground and I saw some sort of door. There was a woman there talking to me, and she told me to open the door. So I did and you showed up. Were you the one behind that door?"

There was silence from the alien. He just stared at the human who was nervous under his gaze, but not screaming and struggling anymore. A human? Why a human of all things? They were such a stupid people compared to many other races in the universe. But there was no deceit in his eyes, no trick. It was only a waiting stare, and a scared one. He still said nothing for a while. It was not in his nature any more to trust anything.

"I don't think you're lying," he at last announced. "But I still don't understand why. I was sent here with a mission and a promise. But why you? Why did my key call to you of all people? You seem easily scared and much too innocent for such darkness."

"I don't know," Yuma cried. "The woman just told me that I needed to open the door and look for something called Numbers. She said that I was the only one who could have done it, something about conditions set on it."

This seemed to surprise the other being a little bit. He looked down suddenly, thinking, but his hold on the other boy didn't loosen at all. He could tell that he was getting nervous again. He was starting to struggle a little against him again. The woman could only be one person. His mother. There was still some sane part of his brain, somewhere in the back, the part that hadn't been affected by his...condition. He was wondering why on earth she would force this boy to be with him. They already all thought he was evil. He was just protecting himself, and he'd kill anyone to do it. And he wanted revenge as well, against his family, against his people, and against the people who had hurt him. Surely this spirit would be tainted by his own? There was nothing remotely strong about him. He looked up again at the human, looking him straight in his eyes.

"Listen," he said. "I won't repeat myself. My name is Black Mist, and I come from the planet Astral. My job was to come here and search for the missing Numbers that had been chased here by the Barians and are now scattered around on Earth. To defeat the Barians who have started a war with us, we need the help of the other Numbers. But I hate my family and the Barians, and if you get in my way I won't hesitate to kill you. Got it kid?"

"M-My name is Yuma," Yuma replied, unsure what to make of it. Barians? Astral? What on earth was going on?

Black Mist watched him for a moment more, his haunted eyes watching him for any sign of something to mistrust. If he saw anything then he would not hesitate to kill him. He wouldn't be taking any chances. But that was just it. He saw nothing. It confused him. He'd never met anyone without any darkness in his heart whatsoever. Without a word he released the boy, letting him fall to the ground with a hard thud and a yelp.

Yuma stood again carefully, watching the creature. Black Mist seemed to have lost interest in him completely, and his sinister eyes were looking over the wreckage. Yuma looked at him a moment, clutching at the key as if it could protect him, though he was almost sure that this wasn't the case at all. He looked at him a moment.

"U-Um," Yuma said. "Black Mist?"

Black Mist turned his head slightly to regard him a moment. He didn't even really look at him, but he was letting him know that he was paying attention to him, even if he was doing so in annoyance. Yuma paused a moment, but then looked up and met the strange creature's eyes.

"What's going on here?" Yuma asked. "Why wasn't the key destroyed in that fire?"

"I don't know," he replied. "It should have been. Maybe since the key had chosen you it had used some of my own power to keep itself in tact, knowing that you would pick it up soon. It is a powerful magical object after all."

"Magic?" the boy asked. Black Mist looked at him a moment.

"You know of it?" he asked.

"Well sort of," the boy replied. "We used to play this game called Yu-Gi-Oh with cards, but weird things just suddenly started happening. To play the game people use magic now, and a lot of people use it for bad things."

"Weird things?" Black Mist, seeming a little confused.

"Yeah the apocalypse kind of happened," Yuma said. The alien seemed extremely surprised now.

"What?" he gasped. "But the end of the human world wasn't predicted until several millennium after this!"

Now it was Yuma's turn to be surprised. Why was an Alien race predicting the end of his world? And just how long did they have left? Several could be a lot or just two. Black Mist seemed to ponder something a moment, and turned to look at the human.

"This is strange," he said. "Whoever came here knew exactly what this key would do, though not which one it was. They came looking for it, and whenever they couldn't find it they burned it down and then took the others that were here. Also the fact that your world has ended is something to think about as well. There are very few that know of the existence of the keys."

"There are more of these things?" Yuma exclaimed.

"There is only one other one," Black Mist replied, giving Yuma a calculating look. "The one that seals my twin brother Astral. That is the Emperor Key. My key is the Darkness Key. The Numbers are the only thing that can save these worlds. That was what they were created for."

"And we're supposed to go find these Numbers?" Yuma asked.

"That depends," Black Mist said unhelpfully. "I don't really want to work with you. You're weak and spineless. You're going to have to find someway to prove to me that you can be my partner. You're the holder of my key after all."

Yuma got the distinct expression that what he had just said wasn't how this worked at all. But he could tell that Black Mist was unlike anything that he had ever encountered before. Who knows what he could do. He would rather have him as an ally, even an unwilling ally, than face his wrath. He just didn't care anymore. Something had made him snap. Yuma sighed.

"I guess I'll have to find a way then," he said. "But we need to get out of here now. Or we'll be forced to explain some things that won't be pleasant."

Black Mist paused a moment, seeming to stare at the boy a moment. His face was impassive, unreadable, but those beastly eyes were a little small and watching him, calculating. He was thinking, sizing the boy up. Yuma thought of the strange creature's tentacles again and had to fight not to shrink under his gaze. He did not want to be caught by that again. He had not been gentle with him at all. If he angered him, how much worse would it be?

"Fine," Black Mist said, much to Yuma's relief. Black Mist was far too much like a live wire. "Let's go. I'm stuck with you for now anyway."

Yuma nodded and then turned, scrambling back over the debris to escape the charred skeleton of his house. He didn't really know where they were going, or how they were going to do it. Yuma's dueling magic had never been very strong, and he'd never been a very good duelist anyway. His family was missing and apparently kidnapped, and he was stuck with a completely insane alien that floated along after him. Black Mist snickered a little in amusement as Yuma nearly fell. Yuma felt his cheeks burning with embarrassment. But he leaped free and turned to walk away.

Only he paused, much to Black Mist's annoyance. He had seen some sort of symbol carved into the ground. It was like nothing he had ever seen, complicated and drawn with curving and straight lines. He looked down at it, and then up at the annoyed alien, who was floating along on his back with a slight blue glow surrounding him.

"Black Mist do you know what this is?" he asked.

Black Mist made an annoyed sound and then turned to look. Instantly he froze, and Yuma could tell that he did indeed recognize it. He sat bolt upright, floating as if he would be standing now. And Yuma could almost see a little...terror? Black Mist was scared. But then he snarled and bristled, and Yuma could see why the woman had told him that he was a beast. He certainly looked like one now.

"I should have known," Black Mist snarled. "It's the Barians. They're the reason that this world is ending, and why the Numbers are missing. They were looking for my brother's key, and maybe even mine though I don't know why. Well kid, looks like you're going to be my partner after all."

"What why?" Yuma asked. "Why the sudden change in heart?"

"Because," Black Mist said, a slightly sadistic smile playing on his lips for a moment. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. We're going to get those Numbers and we're going to put an end to this."

"I thought you said you hated your family," Yuma said. Black Mist turned his eyes to him again, and Yuma was reminded that he had threatened to kill him too.

"That's true," he said. "But I hate the Barians more. Much more. I'd do anything to stop their plans. They will pay for what they did to me. So you're going to be helping me. I hope you can stand up to my magic kid."

"It's Yuma," Yuma cried again, getting tired of getting called kid by the alien.

Black Mist just stared at him in his insane, calculating fashion, and then he disappeared into the key, making it glow on Yuma's chest. He jumped and looked down at it, but it returned to normal and hung at his chest as if the creature hadn't existed at all. But Yuma could feel those watchful eyes and knew that he was indeed still there. He looked around quickly, but he knew that soon someone would figure out that something was wrong and would come running. He just knew that he had to get away, but he had more questions than answers.

Note: these people can use what is called dueling magic, but they can very rarely summon more than a few monsters because it naturally takes a higher toll on them than playing the game. Yuma however with Black Mist's magic will have the ability to summon many more monsters than just those few because they will be collecting the Numbers and his people have been dueling this way in this universe for quite a while.

There are probably some questions about this story, and so feel free to leave a comment below telling me how you think I'm doing and asking questions. If you think Tentacleshipping (lemon sorry) would be cool in this story then tell me below. Also, I'll be changing quite a lot in this story but again, it's an alternate universe story.

I hope you enjoyed!