Chapter XXXVII: Divine

"You don't need to be related to your parents to love them," Akunadin murmured, cutting through the hush in the clearing. "And you have no need to point out a lack of familial ties, Dimitri."

The Alternative Dragon ducked his head but did not apologize. Instead he smiled sheepishly at Yami. Yami supposed he didn't want to make the situation worse by apologizing in front of everyone. He was sure Dimitri found the attention just as intimidating in hindsight. But Yami could see the cold glint in Atem's eyes and the way Yugi struggled not to snarl with mounting frustration.

"You're lucky to know your parents," Yami said after a moment, attempting a more graceful response. He suppressed a look at Atem and Yugi, fearful any stray glance might give them all away. He smiled again, standing taller. "It doesn't matter, though. Yugi and Atem are the best parents I could have asked for."

"I'm sure they are," Akunadin agreed. Yami glanced behind him as the Clan leader rose to a stand. He shook himself out and turned back to the rest of the dragons surrounding them. "Let's leave the siblings to play amongst themselves. They don't need us watching so closely."

Kisara looked to Atem after a moment, then to Yugi and back. "I'd like to remain here with them if that's okay?"

Yugi had taken a seat, but gave her a small smile. "You can stay here."

Akunadin had ushered most of the others away, though a few took spots nearby to watch the interactions and others disappeared back into their dens. Yami glanced at each of them and then away, settling on his parents and Timaeus. The Knight Dragon lay stretched out, watching Seto's clutch as they began to tumble about and play fight once more. Atem had not taken his eyes off Dimitri, curious but apprehensive as well, as if the question about Yami's heritance had stirred an instinctual malice in him. Seto came forward, moving to Yami's side. When he lowered his mouth toward him, a snarl made him falter. Yami looked over to see Timaeus with his teeth bared, muscles taut, and wings half-folded into his sides as he prepared himself to stand.

Atem and Yugi had both turned to watch Seto, and Yami could see Timaeus had taken the direction from Atem. The God Dragon had stepped closer, head slightly lowered and eyes glowing with anger. Yugi was on his paws, bristling but silent as he stared at Seto suspiciously.

"What are you…?" Seto blinked, then scowled and raised his head. Atem raised his immediately after, staring at him coldly, and Timaeus lost his half-risen stance. Yugi was the only one who remained exactly as he was, standing statuesque and staring. "Fine."

"He came as a favor. Don't overstep by presuming you're owed anything more." Atem bore his teeth and stepped forward, until they were almost beak to beak. "Watch your step. I won't warn you again."

Seto blinked and backed up obediently, appearing more flustered than angered. His eyes flickered to Yami and back before he lowered his voice to a hiss. "You're drawing unnecessary attention."

"Amazing of you to notice," Atem answered. "Now, you may address him, but do not put your mouth anywhere near him."

Yami raised his head and thought for a moment to object, to say Seto hadn't planned to hurt him. He would have jumped away or called for help the moment he'd gotten so close. But he stopped short and settled into a seated position. Timaeus was watching Atem and Yugi, and the Gandora had taken a seat to watch the hatchlings tumble about once more. Kisara looked agonized, studying Atem with wide eyes.

"Fine. Fine. You have my word," Seto snapped. He huffed and turned to Yami. "Well?"

He shook his head. "I don't sense anything." He did. But it was something he didn't know how to describe. And he wasn't sure it existed. It was nothing but anxiety on his end. He could have easily made it up in the midst of his growing confusion and the abundant flares of more pronounced panic. Yami wasn't sure. He didn't know who was clawing at his thoughts. He didn't know who was trying to scare him. He didn't know who was succeeding in it.

"Nothing?"

He shook his head again. His eyes flickered to Atem. He wondered if his father still felt that pressure on his flesh or the trickle of distress from earlier. Did he still feel as Yami had initially? He felt almost dizzy. What if they had ceased messing with Atem and turned solely to him?

"Do you…have any ideas?"

Yami looked over again. "No, I…I don't know anything about the camp or the dragons here. I couldn't tell you anything because I don't know anything."

"And you can't sense anything, either? What happened to reading thoughts and sensing emotions? You don't feel any guilt or malice or anything?"

"The only malice I sense is from Rafael toward Atem, because Atem embarrassed him before. He wants to beat Atem senseless and mount Yugi in front of him to break him," Yami snapped. He bristled and tossed his head. "I don't sense anything right now! No one else is as strongly opinionated. Or, if they are, they're hiding it well."

Seto flicked his tongue with disgust. "Rafael might be an idiot but he wouldn't have hurt his own hatchlings just to cause problems in the camp." He sighed and took a seat. "He's not exactly…sad that they passed, but he wouldn't have hurt them himself. I don't claim to know whether he loved them or not, but I do know he didn't mean them any harm."

Yami shook his head. "No, it wasn't him. He's tired and angry, but the anger is only toward Atem."

"He's not angry his nest is nonexistent?"

"No," Yami answered, looking to Timaeus. "He's only upset that Atem embarrassed him before."

"Disgusting."

Yami didn't feel the need to point out that Seto wasn't exactly sad his mate's sister had lost her hatchlings. He'd only become so upset when the blame had been tossed his way. Although, why Jaden had come to the conclusion it was one of the hatchlings in the nest was something else entirely to Yami. He wouldn't have suspected other hatchlings as the reason a nest had been wiped out. It didn't make sense.

Had Jaden convinced himself of it because of Atem? He remembered Atem saying that Jaden thought it likely because the perpetrator seemed blind to them. Atem was, after all, the only dragon they knew of to be capable of hiding from them, and if the gene was recessive it could have easily passed to Seto's clutch.

Yami wondered if he was a blind spot as well, or if he was sheltered by his proximity as Yugi seemed.

It didn't matter, he realized. He turned to Seto again, then Atem. His eyes flickered to Yugi and back and then finally settled on Timaeus. "I don't know what I'm looking for," he finally mumbled, shifting his weight. The Knight Dragon peered back at him with a warm, curious expression. "I don't know what I'm supposed to see and what I'm supposed to search for."

Seto snarled softly. "Anything that helps prove your siblings are not the ones that killed Rafael's hatchlings," he spat. "Tell me you're of more use than your father."

Timaeus chuckled. "Seto, if you were of any more use to this cause or yourself, you'd be able to lick my paw," he sneered. He got up after a moment, shaking himself out, and stretched lazily. "Look, if you can't give Yami even the smallest inkling of a direction to follow or where he might focus his efforts, then you're more useless than a rotted egg."

Yami shivered, startled by his hostile tone. "Timaeus…"

"He was brought here to find out. He wasn't brought here because I have answers," Seto snarled, though he kept his voice low to avoid attracting attention. He bristled and bore his teeth, shaking his head. "Why would I have had him come here if I had the answers? Do you listen to yourself?"

"Don't start a fight," Atem said quietly. "I'd rather not bloody my claws on your carcass just because you can't refrain."

Timaeus snickered and shook his head. "That might cause a few problems," he laughed. But he turned to Yami after a moment, butting him gently in the flank. "You do what you can and don't worry about it otherwise."

"He's here to find out—"

"He'll find out what he can," Timaeus said more sharply, raising his head and leveling Seto with a glare. "And if he can't find what you need, then I suggest you grovel to Jaden so he doesn't eat your clutch in front of you."

Yami bristled slightly. "Would he do that?" he whispered.

"It's an expression," Atem reassured him. "He wouldn't eat them."

But he'd truly kill them? He'd truly destroy them because he felt the need to keep the balance? But what was the balance? Between Yugi and Atem, he wasn't sure what the term truly meant. Yugi believed it to be good versus bad, but Atem thought of it as an overall concept that required a thousand small things to align properly to keep it from collapsing. He thought individual actions and concepts made the balance stand and keep firm. Yugi thought if good deeds outweighed bad, then it kept the world where it was supposed to be.

But if Jaden thought to kill clutches because he was afraid, then what did that mean for his understanding of it? Did he see it as Atem did, or Yugi? Or did he see it as something else entirely? Was it a code of laws or was it something else?

What managed to motivate him to take action?

"I'm not scared of Jaden," Seto snapped. "I'll kill him if he lays a paw on them. I want to clear this up so that they have a better chance at survival. If Jaden forces his will on everyone else, the first thing that will happen is he'll have the clutch banished from the Clan. It's easier for them to die out of sight, out of mind rather than bloody his claws. And then what will happen? They'll hunt them like deer. Or they'll starve to death on their own."

"I wasn't aware," Atem scoffed. "You're forgetting I have more to lose in this than you—apologies, Kisara."

The Blue-Eyes was staring pointedly at her paws. "You're right."

"And what of your loyalty, Seto?" the Slifer continued coldly. "What of your inability to accept your own weaknesses and stupidity? What of the matter if this doesn't help? If Yami can't find answers, what happens then? Do you turn on me in your frustration and get him killed? You speak a word of his existence to the wrong dragon—to Jaden himself—and Yami is killed for it."

Seto fell silent. "I had no plans to ever mention him to Jaden."

"You're not known for your levelheadedness when things go wrong."

"I won't tell Jaden about Yami," he snapped. "I never planned to! He's not mine. And I… Yami is a Divine Dragon. Why would I threaten him?"

Atem narrowed his eyes and glanced at Yami and back. "To get back at me when you feel I've failed," he hissed. "You've always done that. You've never managed to fess up to your own problems. And when you decide to take it out on someone, your usual victim is me. Even when I was not there, you always tried one way or another to force your problems onto me. And if things go sour now, do you think I'm stupid enough not to know you are the biggest threat posed to him?"

"Believe what you want," Seto snarled. "I don't care. I won't justify myself to you. What I need is for Yami to see if he can find answers. If he can't I'll figure it out for myself. Although, his inability is your fault. You have no power. And he has so much. Of course, you have no idea how to help him. Of course, you and your Gandora are worthless in helping to train any abilities he has."

"Enough," Yami snapped, cutting Atem off from answering. He shook his head sharply. "Stop fighting."

"He deserves what he gets," Yugi said quietly, but didn't try to further the argument. Instead he turned to Yami with bright eyes. "Here, come with me. We'll see if we can find anything, okay?"

Yami shifted his weight and tried not to say he knew what Yugi was trying to do. He wanted to take Yami away from the situation so that he didn't become further upset. But he was trying to help as well. He wanted to get Yami away so that he didn't feel the conflicting emotions rising between Timaeus, Atem or Seto. He didn't want him to become overwhelmed and tired and panic as he might have otherwise, and he was curious as to what Yami could see.

Yami hesitated, but sprang forward all the same. The other hatchlings had ceased play a while before, but they didn't seem upset. They didn't seem as if they'd understood the argument around their own games. They were watching Yami and Yugi now, curious. Only Noah was watching Atem, Timaeus and Seto with an intense stare. He was tracking the conversation without a single problem, and as Yami glanced back at him, he seemed almost to be explaining half of it to Zigfried. Dimitri had moved to Kisara's side at some point, laying beside her and sleeping.

He turned back to Yugi. "Where are we going?"

Yugi smiled and licked his forehead, leading him forward. "Atem said that there were blood marks on the stone over here when the first death happened," he said so softly Yami had to strain his ears to hear. He focused intently on him, his voice, and tried to hold the timbre in his head. When Yugi continued, his voice was louder to Yami but just as soft aloud to everyone else who might have overheard. "I thought…maybe if you felt the spot they were in and saw the wall and ledges they fell down, you might…be able to sense something."

Yami had never considered it before, but it made sense. He nodded. "Okay." He padded forward to his side and Yugi scented the stone a few times before smiling again.

"Do you think you can do that? We've never tried this before. But I figure if you can…see the future or the past, maybe this can help us train that ability."

Yami nodded again. "Okay." It seemed simple in theory. He should have been able, he felt. But he'd never actively tested it before. He'd never tried to follow through someone's memories to different thoughts or to bring things to the surface that they'd hidden prior. He'd never even tracked prey before. It seemed almost…foolish he'd overlooked the possibility.

"What's a Divine Dragon?" he asked, turning to Yugi abruptly. His dad blinked from where he'd propped his paws against the sheer stone and strained his neck to sniff at the dirt. "What does that mean?"

"It's a second generation God Dragon. Usually the term is only used when two God Dragons produce an offspring—which makes them far too powerful—but it's also used in a smaller sense for one parent being a deity and the other a normal dragon." Yugi paused. "Usually a Divine Dragon is considered more powerful than the existing God Dragons, and there's usually more than one if there is a Divine Dragon. Just like there are four God Dragons, there's usually one or two other Divine Dragons."

Yami frowned. "But I'm not stronger than Atem."

"We don't know that."

"I do," he insisted. "I'm not as strong as Atem. Atem is…unmatched. His abilities are…amazing. I have nothing as great as his. Mine are…smaller and easier to control, but they don't compare in the slightest."

Yugi studied him. "What does that mean? What are his abilities? He doesn't know them and I couldn't say for the life of me what they are."

Yami opened his mouth, but his stomach churned violently and the air in his lungs felt heavy. He turned away. "I can't tell you," he murmured. "Atem can't know about them. It might change too much."

"Ironheart said something similar. Is that where you got the idea?"

"Partially, but… Every time I think about saying something, it makes me feel sick." Yami shifted his weight and pressed his paws closer to himself, wrapping his tail around his limbs. "Do you smell anything?"

"I do. It's here." Yugi pointed with his beak to the spot. "Try smelling this and see if you can get an idea of…something."

Yami smiled faintly. "Something?"

"I don't know how any of this works," Yugi laughed, "so I can't tell you what you're supposed to do."

Yami smiled as Yugi licked his forehead. His eyes glittered as he stepped back and allowed Yami room to move forward. He hesitated for a moment, then went to Yugi's side. He scented the ground, struggling for a long time to find anything. He shifted some stones about, then dug gently at the dirt. And then, as he breathed in again, he finally caught it. It was a sharp metallic scent, cold and stinging.

He drew in a few breaths, holding it. The scent was cold and burning, stale but present all the same. He flicked his tongue slightly, then raised his head. The scent made his lungs ache. He tipped his head further up and narrowed his eyes slightly. His eyes narrowed as he concentrated, focusing intently on the smell he'd managed to gather. It swelled in his lungs and tingled there, until finally he couldn't hold it any longer. He exhaled and looked the walls over again.

Nothing came to him for a long time.

"What did they look like?" he finally asked, turning to Yugi.

"Echo was a standard female Blue-Eyes and her sister Patty was a Blue-Eyes with the coloring of a Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon and the wings and body of a Galaxy Serpent," a new voice commented. Yami looked over his shoulder in alarm, startled, and found himself relaxing when he saw Kisara. She looked exhausted. "Rafael is a mix of Guardragon Garmides and Judgment Dragon, so he's a good judge of what she looked like aside from the silver tinge and the wings."

Yami nodded and pictured Rafael in his head. He was tall, standing almost at the same height as Atem. He had darker scales, gray and black like slate stone. Along his feathered wings, the tops were brilliant white and the bottoms gorgeous sapphire like crystals. In the center of his chest was a bright gold formation, and from behind it the feathering of blue gem-like scales began. Traces of gold circled his chest, paws, throat, and face, lacing around the long black horns above his cheeks and behind his eyes. His tail was pale gold, gray, and the scales turned white along the edges. Each paw was larger, the toes shorter but the claws sharp and long. He was well-defined in muscle mass, but he had a serpentine body as well, as if to somehow prove he was still related to the Leviathan.

Yami focused on that for a long time, then pictured Leon. He tried to merge the two images in his head, working to combine enough of their features to understand better what she looked like. It didn't work well enough that he could actually understand what features she did and didn't have. He struggled, sorting through to figure out what she truly looked like.

And then it seemed to appear.

She was small, with dull claws and teeth. Her eyes were wider. Her face was smooth and soft. She had softer-looking wings and bright blue scales as if she were made from crystals. Her face was more like an Azure's, with a familiar skull shape and coloring around her jaws and belly.

Yami looked up to the top ledge and tried to picture her there. It took a moment and he found himself almost anxious as time passed. It was only a heartbeat, but it felt like a lifetime. Yami pictured her falling, smashing against the sheer stone and dropping down each of the ledges. It would explain the blood he could smell now as he tried to recreate the image in his head.

He wasn't sure he'd gotten the blood splatter correct, but he figured it was good enough. It wasn't as if he were going to recreate it physically. He peered up at it, traced the path he assumed she'd fallen in, and then the spot she'd landed.

He sprang atop the ledge closest him, then to the next, sniffing and finding the spot she'd touched. He continued a few more times, then got to the top. He sniffed about the ground toward the nursery tunnel. Then he shook himself out and looked down, tracing the path from there as well.

And, just as suddenly as he had thought it before, Yami had the split second idea he'd fall and recreate it easily enough. He blinked, then flattened himself to the ground. Why had that thought crossed his mind? It shouldn't have. It never should have the first time, let alone a second. Yami curled his paws toward his chest and looked at Yugi.

His dad was watching him, puzzled but patient. Yami considered the drop again, then mumbled, "I don't sense anything."

"Maybe you could recreate it?" Kisara asked quietly. "I don't mean hurting yourself, but…"

Yami shook his head, a new thought crossing his mind. "No, I can't," he answered, and realized with clarity just how wrong the suggestion was, "because she was attacked. She didn't fall."

Yugi bristled. "Can you tell who by?"

"No." He shook himself out and picked his way cautiously down to Yugi's side again. There had been a small little voice in the back of his head telling him he'd fall, and Yami wasn't sure what to make of it. It almost seemed an insecurity, but he doubted it somehow. He'd never feared falling before. He'd never feared being stared at before. He'd never feared…much of anything. Maybe it had been Atem's close proximity that gave him so much bravery, but now he was far from Atem and he didn't feel that security any longer. "I didn't see or feel anything."

Yugi nodded and licked his forehead. "Okay."

"Where was Echo killed?" he asked, turning to Kisara.

She blinked and considered him before turning away and gesturing to the other side of the camp. "She…was led further along to the other side, almost to Akunadin's den, actually." She shifted her weight and flexed her claws, clearly anxious. She lashed her tail and turned to him. "I don't know why she was led so far—or how, or even if she was led there. Someone said they thought they heard her saying Patty's name, but no one knows for sure. It's all up in the air as far as what anyone actually knows and what might be exaggerated."

"Exaggerated?" Yami mumbled. "Why would anyone exaggerate it?"

"She means in the way of someone believing they remember something but not being sure." Yugi took a seat and watched him with a small smile. "Sometimes when you're scared or excited about something and you're not thinking clearly, you exaggerate details. So, someone might think they heard something and assumed it was tied to Echo. Or they might have thought they heard a word and been certain it was her because she died when it happened. They could be entirely wrong, but it might make sense to them."

"Oh, okay." He guessed that made sense. And everyone at the camp had to be anxious after the loss of Patty. No doubt they'd been just as upset—or more—by Echo's. He shifted his weight and looked around again. Dimitri had gotten up and moved at some point to curl up closer to Noah and Zigfried, who were still listening just as intently as before. Atem wasn't talking, but Timaeus had taken a position to bar Seto following Yami and Yugi. The Knight Dragon was statuesque, likely staring straight at the Felgrand. Atem had taken a seat, watching Timaeus instead, and Seto was—from what little Yami could read of his mouth moving—pleading with Atem to let him past Timaeus.

"Are you okay?"

Yami nodded and smiled at Yugi. "I'm okay!"