Chapter LXXXIV: Overwhelmed

"What did you do to him?"

Yugi didn't know how to answer. No matter how many times Timaeus asked, he still did not know what to say. His head throbbed as he tried to think of an excuse, mouth dry and caked as despair crept through him. The fear came through that Atem might just keep his original oath to him now that Yugi had betrayed him and kill him. Atem had meant Yugi taking a second mate then, but he knew Atem saw most if not all betrayal as a punishable offense.

Yugi didn't even care that Atem might strike him down. It was what it would do to him that worried him so much.

If Atem decided to kill him, it would be a slow and rotting decay which claimed Atem later. It was the curse of mating for life, just as undying loyalty to their mate was the blessing of his species.

"Yugi."

He shook his head slowly. He glanced toward the entrance and hoped Atem would appear. He hoped the God Dragon would come to stop the interrogation and free him from the Wind Dragon. Instead the entrance remained empty and he turned back to find Timaeus standing inches away, teeth bared to show the ridges and his mouth half-opened in a furious snarl.

I didn't do it to hurt him, Yugi thought indignantly, unable to suppress the surge of anger that warmed his blood. His muscles had drawn taut and he shivered with tension, bristling as he drew his lips back and snarled softly in turn. Timaeus glared down at him, a head taller and mouth wider than his own, and Yugi found himself unnerved by the difference in color his eyes possessed. The golden one seemed to shimmer and glow and Yugi was struck with the idea of Yami staring back at him despite the pupil that cracked through the expanse of color like lightning.

"Get your beak out of my business," he spat before he could stop himself. He felt oddly shaken and hot and his entire body thrummed with energy. "You are not part of what happened. Stay out of it."

"Atem is my business. He's my best friend. He was my charge from the moment we crossed paths."

Yugi put his beak closer to his, snarling louder. "And he chose me as his mate."

Timaeus opened his mouth to spit back, but something hit him across the face. Yugi saw him jerk back, startled, eyes huge with confusion, and the smell of something sweet but sour came across his senses. He blinked and looked toward the entrance with wide eyes.

"Atem doesn't care for either of you fighting," he scoffed, shaking himself out as he dropped a mouthful of fish onto the den floor. He took a seat on the ledge and scowled at them both. "What is your reasoning for this argument? I left to fish and then I come back to this."

Timaeus looked over with an annoyed expression. "What happened between the two of you?" he demanded sharply. "What happened that caused you to argue so badly?"

Atem shook his head. "Timaeus, it's a bump like every other issue that comes between mates. It was bound to happen. It's finally here."

Yugi felt stung by the dismissive response. Had Atem always been expectant of a problem between them like this? Had he always expected a problem to arise? His stomach lurched and his hearts twisted. It would have made sense with Atem's cynical nature, but it did not quite add up in his head. He'd thought they'd been happy. Atem had even come to love him, something Atem had thought impossible before and—

Atem looked over and Yugi's body went cold.

Atem was covering for them. He was trying to make Timaeus assume it was not as big a problem as he assumed. He was trying to make Timaeus think things had simply bubbled up from a problem previously contained. He wasn't going to tell Timaeus a word of what had happened but for the idea they were fighting for some reason or another.

"Your reaction wasn't so simple."

Atem turned back to Timaeus. "I'm a Sky Dragon. We mate for life." The words were cold and detached but the teal male seemed to accept them. "And I'm not exactly the pinnacle of a healthy mate, Timaeus."

Yugi didn't know that was entirely accurate. He didn't think Atem was an unhealthy mate. He just didn't know how to process everything that came with being mated. He still sometimes struggled; Yugi occasionally spotted him at night as he tensed and stared at him uncertainly. It wasn't as often as it had been, but it was still present all the same.

"Do not forget to eat," Atem said abruptly, turning around again. "I'll return later. I need a moment alone. I'll see you both when I've sorted through my thoughts some."

Timaeus was quiet for a long moment. "Atem…"

Atem shook his head, glancing at him over his shoulder. "Just give me a little while," he snapped, though the edges of his words were still soft despite everything. He turned and trotted out of the den without a second look.

Yugi watched him go and turned back. Timaeus was still staring at where Atem had left, though he slowly looked to him a moment later with a grimace. Yugi ignored the urge to apologize and shook his head. He'd done it for Atem. He had no plans to apologize for what he'd done to save him. He refused to offer an apology so false.

Yugi glanced down at the pile of fish. Atem hadn't brought much back. He must have been thinking far too hard to care to bring enough back for them both. He'd brought just enough for one of them. He must have gotten spooked by whatever he'd been tossing around in his head. Yugi didn't blame him for abandoning the idea of fishing. He wouldn't have been able to do it, either, had he been unable to stop thinking.

"I'm not hungry," he said softly, shaking his head, "so you can have it. I'm just…tired. I want to go back to sleep."

Timaeus stared at him for a long time. "Atem isn't going to be happy if you don't eat."

"No," Yugi stated simply, "he won't care. Just eat it. One of us needs to."

Timaeus opened his mouth but then stopped, shaking his head and turning back to the pile of fish. He dug in after a long time, and Yugi turned to wander the other way to lay down with his back to him.

Yami straightened and stretched himself out, peering at the water once more. Atem had wandered off to the edge of the territory, sitting on one of the peaks and staring off into the distance. Yami could see the thoughts churning behind his eyes, though he did not know what had caused the change in his behavior. The gem in his forehead changed briefly, darkening, and Atem lashed his tail a few times before getting up and taking flight. Yami wasn't sure it was necessary to know where he might go. He would not seek Dimitri out, which had been one of Yami's biggest fears. The God Dragon had no reason to hunt him down as of the moment.

Yami could guess Atem would find and face Dimitri when the time came. As for where he would go now, it didn't matter. He shifted his weight and cast his attention to Yugi.

The Gandora formed in the water after a moment. He was laying in the den, facing the opposite direction of Timaeus who appeared in the corner of the vision. He lay there, chewing and swallowing a fish every other handful of heartbeats. He looked toward Yugi every now and then, but Yugi refused to return his glances. Yami knew he felt each one, because the Gandora would stiffen slightly despite his closed eyes and feigned rest.

Yami sighed softly and straightened again, shaking himself out.

He debated looking toward the other three God Dragons but he did not believe he cared enough to. He could wait to see what happened later between them and his father. He didn't think he should watch the future so closely at the moment. It didn't mean much to him if it could still change.

And it would change.

Atem alone meant the change of any choice. He moved too quickly. He changed his mind too rapidly. The world could rot based on one small decision he made. The world could flourish likewise.

Yami padded forward, leaving the den he'd chosen for the night and taking to the air. He was on the outskirts of the territory. He could feel Atem like a second sun, a source of power like a burst of heat burning through his body. He moved toward the foothills, slowing only as he spotted the soft smoke of the village. He followed the river where it trickled by with a distinct but distant roar. He saw his reflection but ignored it, taking in the banks of soft river sand. A few stepping stones were scattered about near the entrance of village. The village was placed strategically upon a small sloping hill with strangely sheer walls. On either side the forest was thick and the trees with tall outstretched branches as if they were meant to support the sky overhead. The canopy was dense enough the village homes were almost completely hidden away overhead.

Yami could see the structures built about the tree trunks, some of them using the plants as secondary walls. The huts were covered in straw and fallen pine needles, with walls of stone and mud and hardened limestone. They had no set paths to tread upon, but rather they were naturally formed by the many times they'd all stepped about and traveled through the village. The seer's hut was somewhat secluded, built into the tree where the thickest trunk had been carved so that the overhanging limbs were used to make the roof. The walls were mostly tree and trunk structure itself, and animal pelts had been used to make the structure's entrance and sides.

Along the side of the trunk and its home structure, there was a small cavern carved into the sheer rock that tapered several feet into the mountain yards back. He could see a few eyes blinking, glowing where the sunlight touched them, as he took to landing there before the hut. The dragons in the shadows cast there did not move to intervene and Yami studied them a moment; the Tyrant blinked at him and the female beside him lifted her head to peer at him curiously. Yami paused, studying her with interest. She was new. She hadn't been there when he'd last visited; he would have remembered that intent stare.

Yami did not recognize her species immediately. She was a strange mixture of pink and red, glittering like a gem where the sun touched her but cold and dull where she remained in the shadows. She was taller than him where she remained hunched there, though Yami could see she lacked front paws. Her wings were attached and there were three claws at the junction of what seemed immense appendages. Her forelimbs were well-defined and her chest seemed slender but muscular when she raised her large head and shifted her long neck. Her face was framed with feather-like features, her jaw pink like salmon but her upper jaw and cheeks black like soot. The crest of her head had a brilliant blue gem in the center and the scales behind it stood like a shield, a soft sea-green with gold woven upon the edges of each.

Yami recognized the species only after a minute of staring.

Yugi had fought one at the cliffs in the Badlands when Keith had gone after Atem. She'd been stronger than she should have and she'd been capable of taking several blows that should have killed her. But he recognized her all the same now.

She was a Harpie Dragon, a strong but easily overpowered Wind Dragon.

Yami peered at her a moment longer.

Keith's daughter had been a different beast entirely. She'd been stronger than natural due to her father. Yami didn't even know what to make of the female staring back at him in the dark. She seemed curious but skeptical. And Yami heard her when she leaned toward the Tyrant.

"That's not the God Dragon."

The Tyrant snorted. "No. He looks like a species I should know of, but I don't remember what…" He laughed softly. "He definitely looks like the God Dragon from a distance. But the God Dragon has two mouths and they say his scales are bright red like fresh blood, not dark like drying blood."

The female stared at him a moment, then glanced at her companion. Again Yami wondered what she was doing there and why. "He's bright red, too. I suppose a Slifer would be brighter in color, though. He looks darker than one."

"Have you ever met a Slifer?"

"In passing. I've never made friends of one, but I've seen them in passing." She looked toward Yami again. "I heard the God Dragon here took a hybrid as a mate. Is that true? A Fire Dragon mix?"

The Tyrant was quiet for a long time. "A Gandora," he finally mumbled. "He's a Gandora. He's a lot younger than the God Dragon of the East and if I'm not mistaken I know him. I met him once. I went to the gathering place in the Badlands where usually the Fire Dragons will meet up for mating season to hold competition for courtship. He demanded to know where the God Dragon had gone after asking me if he had eyes without pupils and two mouths."

The female blinked. "Eyes without pupils?" she hissed. "What dragon doesn't have pupils?"

The Tyrant snorted and gestured. "That one right there doesn't have them, either."

She looked at Yami for a moment, squinting, and then bristled when she realized he was right. "That's not normal. That's just…odd. Why wouldn't he have pupils? That doesn't make sense."

Yami shook himself out and straightened to his full height, picturing the human body he'd borrowed through Yugi and Atem's memories. It was not hard to summon the magic necessary to change. It didn't hurt and it barely took any concentration whatsoever. He didn't know if it was so easy for every dragon or if it was because he'd done it before. It didn't matter as far as he was concerned. All that mattered was that moments later he stood as a human.

The Tyrant looked puzzled and the Harpie visibly bristled, eyes sharp and glittering. Yami didn't look at them any longer, hesitantly touching the thinner pelt that made the entrance of the teller's shack. His nails made a strange almost grating noise despite the softness. He wondered if Ryou saw his shadow from the other side, or if he was too caught up in something else to notice he'd come again. A long moment passed before the pelt was slowly drawn upwards as if rolled by an invisible hand.

Ryou was still seated toward the back, behind a small tree trunk that had been carved into something of a flat platform. Yami counted twenty rings even as he came forward to approach the seer. Ryou didn't immediately respond to his presence, but the pelt door shivered quietly behind Yami as if the wind had disturbed it somehow.

"Yami…" Ryou looked up after a moment from where he'd been making what looked to be a bowl of herbs. Yami wondered if he was going to perform another ceremony and use the herbs to see things. Humans needed aid to see the future from what Ryou had told him. Dragons either waited for it to happen or they used water to peer into what would be. "I didn't summon you."

He tilted his head. "No one did. Was that a necessity of me being here?"

Ryou blinked. "No, but I wouldn't have thought you'd return so quickly. I thought you'd save your mate and remain with him instead."

Yami felt a small bead of warmth at the word, but the instinct came as well to deny it all the same. He and Timaeus were not mated. And who knew that Timaeus would even wish to pursue that relationship with him when he realized all that had happened? Would he even care to consider it when he realized Yami had inadvertently caused his death? Or that he'd lied to Atem and made his faith in Yugi waver so completely?

Yami couldn't imagine Timaeus would want much to do with him when it was all over.

"No. He's too close to my father and I can't afford to risk him learning something prematurely. Things will take time to figure out and unravel and I can't allow it to come too soon." He paused. "Should he learn too soon, before he realizes it on his own, there will be need of a new God Dragon of the East."

Ryou stared at him as if he'd lost his mind. "A new God Dragon of the East?" he echoed softly, blinking huge eyes. "You mean to say his discovery too soon will lead to his death?"

"Yes." Yami looked away when Ryou blinked again and shook his head slowly. "If he should find out too soon, there's a series of events I have seen happening no matter what I've imagined as the scenario. Every path I've tread using my ability to see, there are three events to follow. He will find out from another dragon before he is ready, his sibling comes for him and overpowers him as he grapples with his shock, and he is killed for his inability to trust his abilities or to think straight during the battle to come. His heart is eaten and his sibling wages absolute war."

Ryou visibly paled as they looked at each other once more. "How? God Dragons are supposed to be naturally immortal. Isn't that the power each of them possesses?" he blurted. "The God Dragon of the East is by far the youngest as well… How might he die so soon?"

Yami shook his head. "Choices influence more than worship," he muttered. "And choices influence far more than age. It's my choices which balance his for the moment. His mate is…in trouble with him currently and his usual definitive grip upon his destiny is weakened. For now… I must keep my choices more open and fluid to compete with his and keep us both from being killed."

"That's a lot of responsibility to assume."

"He's my father. I won't see him dead."

I won't see him dead.

Yami shook his head and looked at him. "But is…everything I see in the water a truth? Is every path I've considered likely to bring what I've seen?" he hissed. "Is it…definitive?"

"You just said you've seen it change based on your decisions."

"Yes, but this…one thing… It remains me without alter. It continues on no matter how hard I seek to change it. Is there absolution in visions, Ryou?"

His friend fell quiet for a long time. "I don't know. I don't believe so. But I'm not a dragon, especially not a Divine. And I don't know that changing something might cause the ripple effect you're looking for. I'd like to say whatever it is could change, seeing the fear on your face; I'd wish for nothing else. Whatever strikes such fear in you… I hope it doesn't come to pass."

Yami suddenly wondered why he'd bothered coming here. Ryou did not lie to him. He had always made a point in the year they'd known each other not to cause problems or say things he knew weren't true. Aside from teasing and the occasional prank to be played, Ryou was always straightforward in whatever he said and did not care to offer false comfort.

Yami had the impulse to ask him to do it anyways, to tell him no matter what that somehow the fear in his head could be conquered. His stomach rolled painfully and his eyes felt as if they were burning in his skull. He forced himself to nod after a moment.

"Maybe there's something I missed."

"Or maybe there's something you're missing."

Yami blinked twice, curious, but it was possible. He could have just lacked something to change it. Maybe he didn't know something that he needed or maybe it was something he couldn't do yet, being so young. But if Dimitri was active now, how long did he have before things got out of hand? What time did he have to learn?

And what did he have to learn if he had no idea what could change the outcome?

Yami wanted to laugh. It seemed almost overwhelming.