7. Divinations of Antiquity
Atem stood in the lobby of KaibaCorp saying goodbye to the Yugi-tachi. "Aren't you coming with?" asked Jonouchi.
"No, Kaiba asked me to stick around to consult with him about a project."
He fondly watched the gang leave, listening to their happy interplay. As the din receded into the distance, he gradually became aware of another presence.
"Why are you still here?"
"Huh?"
It was Bakura … no, it was the spirit of the Ring … Zorc, actually. Atem studied him suspiciously.
Zorc had been destroyed.
Oh, right. This is a dream.
Since Atem had received his own body, he had been having extremely vivid, realistic dreams. He assumed it had something to do with having existed in spirit form for so many centuries. After all, the spirit state is so similar to an eternal dream. Occasionally he found the dreams to be quite disturbing, particularly when he ran into certain people and situations like this.
"Oh, hi, Bakura. Why don't you go back where you belong?"
"You haven't answered my question. Why are you still here? I thought you were planning on joining your little friends."
Atem frowned slightly. Hadn't Bakura seen them leaving?
"It's none of your business, but I'm waiting for Kaiba."
"Are you now?" Bakura laughed. "I thought it was the other way around!"
"What are you—what are you talking about?" But Bakura was so stricken by renewed paroxysms of laughter that he couldn't speak.
"Out! Now!"
"Seto?" Atem didn't realize until the word was out that he had used Kaiba's given name.
Kaiba was so intent on removing Bakura from the premises that he didn't seem to notice. "You'll be dealt with in due time, understand? In the meantime, I won't allow you to threaten my employees, partners, or friends—rivals, either."
This only seemed to make Bakura laugh even harder, but he headed for the door on unsteady feet. "You two …" he gasped. "You're hilarious. Don't worry, I'm going!" With that, he whirled through the revolving doors, leaving Atem and Kaiba staring at each other.
"Sorry about that," said Atem. "Have I kept you waiting?"
"Yes, but I was expecting that. Are you ready?"
"Ready for what?"
"For our duel, of course."
"What, we were going to … we weren't planning on dueling, were we?"
"Of course we were. We've been planning this for a long time—or I have, anyway. We're rivals, aren't we?" Kaiba said this with typical pride.
"Of course, but … I don't remember planning any duel …"
"You wouldn't," he replied evenly. "But we need to decide who duels him."
Him?
Kaiba had cocked his head slightly and Atem followed that indication. Over in the shadows at the east end of the lobby stood Malik … but not the kinder, gentler version.
"The theme of my deck is revelation," he said with an evil grin.
Atem awoke with a start.
Revelation?
Atem dressed quickly and stumbled sleepily to the kitchenette, where he found Yugi fixing breakfast. "Want some tea?" Yugi asked.
"Yes, thanks," he said. "I just had the weirdest dream."
"Tell me about it." Yugi never failed to find Atem's dreams entertaining. After the summary, Yugi asked, "That was a strange one. Do you suppose that came up because of the consulting you're doing?"
"Probably. It featured Kaiba."
"It also brought up a lot of past issues. Does that mean you haven't resolved things with Kaiba?"
"I don't see what couldn't be … unless it's about dueling again. But we aren't going to do that anytime soon."
"But you want to."
"Uhn! How do you know?"
"I know you want to know more about the new Kaiba, why and how he's changed … more about him. And … you … for you, the best way to learn about people is to duel them."
"I can't ask him. Not now. He's—"
"You're too used to having him come after you, aren't you?" Yugi asked. "Too proud to challenge him?"
"No, he promised Mokuba."
"You're too damn proud. He'd probably make an exception for you."
Atem scowled. "We have other things to concentrate on right now."
"You and your pride."
Author's notes:
A quick turnaround this time! I'm not guaranteeing this will happen often, but I wanted to do it for Valentine's Day (not that this is particularly romantic ...) and move it along over this little stretch. Plus! It's a shorty.
Yugi's interpretation is just his interpretation. It might be spot-on, partially right, or completely wrong.
Just a note about dreams: I'm careful about putting in dream sequences. And yet I ended up putting more than one into this (I'd thought it would only be one; the first one I wrote is still coming up). The thing is that they should all be meaningful, which (hopefully) they are.
And a quick preview of chapter 8:
Atem had to take a moment recover because at first he was completely disoriented. He found himself floating above a beautiful mountainous landscape among the clouds.
