AN: Final Chapter Friday! Wuhu! Although I'm so proud to finally bring this story to an end it's a bit sad :P I really enjoyed writing it. This chapter is a bit short, but I guess it's a nice ending for the story. I hope you enjoyed reading OMR. I'd love to have your reviews, because I really appreciate to hear back from you.

Guest Review replay: Thanks for your review! I like that idea of a sequel that happens during season five. I will write a sequel (or prequel, because there are still a few open topics about their past), but I still have to create a few side plots, twists etc. to spice it up. But you're right, a mini-Marik would be sweet :P Thank you! Hope you also like chapter 18.

Enjoy chapter 18!

FINAL CHAPTER

Revive

They've gotten back onboard of Kaiba Craft 3. Since Battle City was officially over the gang finally had time to relax. The flight back to Domino would take about half a day or longer; nobody mattered about that. Yami had just saved the world from an apocalypse. Their faces were plastered with joy and relief - the nightmare was finally over. As they walked along the hallways of Kaiba Craft 3, heading for their rooms, Joey and Tristan cheered about Yugi's win and recalled his friends most brilliant turns. Tea giggled at their exaggerations; Marik and Jesara walked close behind them - side by side - just listening at Joey's funny statements about Yami Marik's hairstyle. In this moment they just enjoyed being silent, enjoying each others presence again. Jesara smiled sheepishly at him every time she looked at the sandy blonde beside her, meeting his pale lavender pools. She knew that they had so much to catch up on. It was weird that they seemed to do everything in reverse since their arranged marriage when they were kids. After Jesara moved to Domino and got to know the modern world and traditions she learned that a marriage came long after the first kiss, confessing each others love, sharing a home and a bed - at least the rest of the world did it that way. Actually she learned that a wedding was something to put the cheery on the cake in a relationship, for them it somehow was the beginning.

Jesara walked deep in thoughts beside Marik and behind their giggling friends. Her pinky hooked into Marik's; he smiled over to her at the contact.

"Jess?" Tea turned around to face her grey haired friend, giving Jesara her sweetest smile. Her head snapped up at Tea's address, waiting for her to speak. "Soooooo… and what are you two lovebirds going to do after all of this?" Tea asked openly and grinned at the couple. Jesara and Marik grimaced in unison at Tea's awfully direct question. Within seconds the gang took notice and turned back, eyeballing them curiously.

But before Jesara and Marik could even think of an adequate answer Joey's mouth started to work faster than his brain again. "Oh man, Jess… And I really thought we could have a date after all of this…" The blonde sighed, rubbing the back of his head. At his words Yugi and the others face-palmed in unison. "Joey!" They urged.

"Uhm… I-I, no. We…" Jesara stuttered, but couldn't manage to press a straight word out of her mouth. Actually she didn't even had an idea about what to say. She cringed as Marik cut in to answer Tea's question.

"I guess Jesara and me will talk about that." He said friendly but firm; he didn't forget about Joey's crush on Jesara, such as his filthy daydreams he had discovered by using the millennium rod on his mind. Jesara could tell from his expression that cutting off Joey's fingertips was still an option for him. She squeezed his hand softly like she wanted to say ‚Calm down.'

„Oh, hi guys!" a familiar voice chuckled innocently from behind them. It was Bakura who just walked out the kitchen with a banana in his hand. „How are you doing?"

All stared at him with a puzzled look. „Bakura, you're back!"

„Yeah, but I have to say that she shadow realm isn't the nicest place to be." Bakura said, rubbing his chin sheepishly and munching away his banana.

„I'm glad that he's back after my dark side sent him to the shadows…" Marik murmured while he watched the white haired teen walk away like nothing had ever happened to him. He sighed in relief mentally that Bakura came right on cue to avoid Tea's question and Joey's statements about his dating plans.

„Same goes for you, Marik." Jesara said softly, eyeing him from the corner of her amber-olive gaze.

Suddenly Roland, still wearing his signature sunglasses inside the blimp, crashed into the conversation as he came round the corner in a hurry. „Have you seen Mr Kaiba and Mokuba somewhere around here? I've tried to reach them via cell and intercom, but they don't respond."

Joey raised a quizzical brow at him. „Maybe rich boy is somewhere crying that he lost his own tournament?" The blonde shrugged.

„Just in case you didn't get it, Mr Wheeler, but this blimp won't take off without the Kaiba family on board. And there are just 30 minutes left until this island detonates." Roland explained as professional as possible at Joey's suggestion about Kaiba's whereabouts.

„I'm sorry, Roland. But I'm afraid that we haven't seen him either. Don't you have any idea where he could be?" Yugi shot him a questioning glance.

Roland shook his head. „No… We're running out of time. We need to find him and Mokuba within the next 25 minutes."

„We will help you find him. The faster we get off this island the better." Tea said, then the gang decided to split into three groups to search for the young CEO and his brother in different locations of the island. While Joey, Yugi and Tea decided to look for him in and on the duel tower, Duke & Tristan searched outside. Marik, Jesara, such as Odion and Ishizu made sure to look for the Kaiba brothers everywhere on the blimp. But the search turned out to be senseless - it was like they were gone without a trace.

Everyone was quite out of breath as they met again in the cockpit. By now there were just five minutes remaining before the whole island was about to explode. Roland knew that if they don't take off now they would probably die here.

„We can't wait any longer…" He sighed in utter concernment. May his boss didn't want to be found? He was well aware about his boss' big ego, but a murder-suicide? He never expected him to be capable of such a thing. But if Kaiba would have wanted to get off this island, he would be already onboard. „We'll take off now!"

„But what about Kaiba and Mokuba?" Tea asked with a worried voice.

„I'm sorry Miss Gardner… I guess we can't care for that any longer… Maybe Mr Kaiba wants to…" Roland sighed, he didn't want to speak out loud what was on his mind. „Just hope that they got off the island somehow else."

The engines churned to life and just a moment later the blimp took off, raising high into the air and trying to get as much distance between it and the island as possible. They had to watch how the duel tower and the island exploded, leaving just a big cloud of dust. By now everyone was sure that Kaiba and Mokuba didn't survive - nobody dared to say a word, not even Joey.

Suddenly a big dragon-like silhouette raised from the dust cloud, a loud roar was able to be heard in the cockpit. „That's the Blue Eyes White Dragon! But… how?" Yugi exclaimed as he could finally make out what this silhouette was.

„Arrrrgh! Kaiba! That's an aircraft! He was save all the time!" Joey raged when the dragon-like plane flew right beside them. Kaiba sat in the front of its cockpit, Mokuba right behind him on the passenger seat. Both saluted them with a smirk.

„Moneybags! Just wait until I get to you!" Joey shouted, not aware of the fact that Kaiba couldn't hear him. „Who do you think you are!?"

„Calm down, Joey…" Jesara sighed, rolling her eyes. „At least we all made it off the island safe and sound. Mr Rich & Famous has left the building - the show is over. I guess that was enough action for one day, huh?"

The gang nodded in agreement and then Kaiba's dragon-like aircraft sped off into the opposite direction. Joey struggled to calm down his nerves; although he never liked Kaiba he worried about his wellbeing. Who knew what annoyed him more - that he worried about him or that Kaiba made them believe he committed suicide.

But after all they're thankful that they were finally going back to Domino.

xx

Jesara sat on the window seat and stared outside as the clouds passed by rapidly. It was still a breathtaking sunny day - besides the fact that they all had just walked out of the shadow realm and saved the world from the apocalypse. Everything what happened during battle city recalled in her head as she looked down at the ocean; its waves sparkled beautifully in the sunlight of the day.

„What are you thinking about?" Marik asked gently and jolted Jesara out of the daydreaming. His sudden question startled her out of her deep thoughts; she almost forgot that he also was present in her room, sitting with his legs crossed in one of the lounge chairs. His lavender eyes gave her a questioning glance.

She took a deep breath before her amber-olive eyes drifted over to look at the sandy blonde. „Hard to describe… Let's start with the fact that you turned my life upside down. Again."

„Hopefully in a positive way." He added and took a sip of his Coke, rubbing his temple with his index finger while his elbow rested on the arm of the chair. Since they walked into her room he didn't have the slightest idea how to approach her. Although his dark side was destroyed and everything was actually fine again he felt some kind of distance between them. Marik let out a mournful sigh at the thought that his actions - especially those towards her - had left a huge abyss between them. He knew she forgave him, but nobody's problems vanish away just with a single confession of heart.

„I think so." Jesara gave him a reassuring smile. „But we should talk about Tea's question."

He nodded at her, his lavender pools still fixed on her. „Lovebirds…" He recited Tea's words from earlier with a grin. „What do you want?" Marik swallowed hard before continuing to speak. „For us?"

„Well, it's not like we could just hop into the wife-and-husband-life from one day to the next. Both of us changed a lot during the last two years, especially over the last three days." She bowed and rested her elbows on her knees, cupping her face in her hands. „Don't get me wrong, I know more than ever in my life that I want to be with you. But we have to find a point to start from, you know? Like… normal couples."

„You think that we are not normal?" Marik raised a questioning brow at her, using air quotes at the last word of his question.

„Marik, seriously? You know what I mean. Or do you think that being married as kids and sharing the very first kiss years and years after it is normal?" Jesara asked back with a wry smile.

„So you want to start over completely new?" He stared at her, wishing she would just say what she was thinking about that topic.

„I don't know." Jesara sighed. And again she didn't know what she wanted.

„My dear Jesara, why don't we start with where we want to live?" He asked to get the conversation going. Marik knew that making decisions weren't her favourite parts in a conversation..

„Stop saying this my-dear-stuff, Marik." Jesara urged. „I still attend school in Domino and I don't want to leave my friends behind."

„So you want to stay in Domino? That's fine for me. But you know that you won't ever have to work, don't you? Since you left me two years ago the organisation grew bigger once more and we earned enough money for five lifetimes." Marik explained and nibbled on his Coke, his lavender eyes never broke eye contact with her.

„That may be, Marik. But I'd love to have a sense in life. At least I want to do a job that I really love." Jesara answered, she didn't care for how much money he earned on the black market. "However, I don't want to talk about money - I'd like to talk about us and what to call our relationship."

"Jesara…" Marik stood up from the lounge chair he was sitting in and made a few calculated steps towards her, then crouched down in front of her. "Stop talking around the bush. I got your point. You don't know where we should actually start from, right? Why do you worry about that? We started to get to know each other again the day we met in Domino. We already started over new."

Her amber-olive orbs stared intensively into his pale violet ones at his words. "Maybe you're right…"

"I'm always right." Marik said with a friendly smirk and winked at her.

"Almost." Jesara added wryly.

Marik then stood up again and lifted her up with him. A few of light grey hair strands hung into her face, which he softly stroked out of her face with his index finger. They shared a moment of silence, just staring in each others gaze and enjoying the moment of their reunion. Somehow it was still so surreal.

"Well, Mrs Ishtar…" Marik broke the silence after what felt like an eternity. "What about just going with our flow? Don't care too much about this whole arranged-marriage-thing, okay? We'll grow together."

Jesara nodded sheepishly at him. "Sounds good, Mr Ishtar." His soft thumb stroked gently across her blushed cheek, followed by a thankful smile that played on his lips. Her heart skipped a beat in delight at his touch on her neck and cheek. She never expected to forgive him, but doing so felt just right.

Another moment of silence passed by.

His lavender eyes slowly wandered down to her lips as he placed his hands on each side of her waist. "All that counts is what we feel for each other." With these words spoken he pulled her closer to his chest, closing every distance between them. He lips gently met hers; the touch shot a shiver of joy through her body, which intensified as his hand drifted up her spine - inch by inch.

Jesara could sense how he smiled into the kiss they shared - time seemed to stand still for a second. The more their kiss intensified the more she realised how much she missed that during the last two years of separation - how much she had missed him.

"I love you." He whispered into the kiss but didn't stop. Instead Marik scooped her up, turned and gently sat her down on the table in the middle of the room. "I love you too." Jesara whispered back, a bit out of breath.

Her palms rested on his chest now while her lips didn't want to leave his. Even as he tried to break it she pulled him back to her again. Jesara's heartbeats echoed in der head - she didn't want him to end this moment.

"Sure that you don't want to hop directly into that wife-husband-thing?" Marik chuckled gently as he managed to get a bit of distance between his lips and hers.

"You wish." She spoke under her breath and stared intensively into his lavender gaze. "By the way… I love the idea of a man who kneels down and proposes to the girl he loves."

"I'm afraid you watched too much telenovelas with Tea during the last two years, huh?" Marik sighed and smirked at her in sarcasm. Jesara nudged him softly and grinned sheepishly at his statement, but he was actually quite right.

"That's what I meant by being a normal couple." She stated and rested her palms on the table she still sat on. Her cheeks blushed as she realised that her legs gently embraced Marik's hips, who still leant down towards her.

"So you want me to kneel down and ask you to become my wife?" He questioned with a curiously raised eyebrow; his face still just an inch away from hers. "Although you technically already are?"

"I warn you to do that now." Jesara urged at his question. "But yeah, it would feel normal. In a few years maybe. Whenever we feel right for that." Her cheeks now turned into the colour of a beetroot.

"Got it memorised." He said with a wink and pressed his lips onto hers again.

They spent the rest of the flight back to Domino talking about everything that happened while they were separated. Jesara told him how she came to know Yugi and the gang, their adventures, about the culture in Domino, favourite movies, food, music and activities. Since she left Egypt Jesara had discovered a lot of new things and traditions. It almost felt like they're having their first date, what still seemed a bit weird for both of them, but still it was the best moment they shared together for a long time.

After hours and hours of talking and cuddling in between the day turned into night. Eventually they both dozed off in each others embrace.

xx

Knock Knock

Jesara let out an annoyed moan and stretched herself in the bed as the knocking at her door woke her up from her dreams. Who was disturbing at such an unholy hour? It was dark outside and the blimp was still on its way back home.

Knock Knock

"Jess?" A familiar voice could be heard outside her room. "Wake up! We're landing soon!"

''Tea?' Jesara thought as she wanted to lift up from the bed, but then she heard a low murmur behind her. When Jesara felt a muscular arm that embraced her waist from behind her, she remembered that Marik and her fell asleep after talking hours and hours until late at night. She removed his arm as softly as possible from her waist to avoid waking him up. A thankful smile crossed her face as she looked back at him over her shoulder. Marik never looked that peaceful and sweet with his ruffled hair in a long time.

She stood up from the bed and lurched towards her rooms door, still a bit dozily. 'How long did we sleep? What time is it…?' Jesara asked herself mentally and pushed the button to open the door for Tea.

"Hey…" Jesara murmured and rubbed her sleepy eyes.

"Good morning, Jess." Tea grinned, but then her blue eyes drifted over to the bed in her room. "Oh my god! Is this…!? Did you-!?" She squeaked in surprise as she saw Marik still sleeping peacefully.

"Psss!" Jesara fizzled with her index finger in front of her mouth and shoved Tea out of her room. After the automatic door slid shut again behind them Tea gave her that well-known 'tell me everything'-smirk.

"It's not what you think, Tea." Jesara sighed and rolled her eyes. "We were just talking the whole night and then we fell asleep eventually."

"Oh come on! You talked the whole night? That's all?" Tea raised her eyebrow curiously, not believing Jesara a single word. Marik was right, they've watched too much telenovelas. But obviously Tea had an overdose of kitschy love stories.

"Yes, that's all. We're just starting to get to know each other new. It's not like we're going to the limits immediately. What the hell are you thinking?' Jesara narrowed her eyes at her brunette friend.

"Ahhhhhh that's so sweet!" Tea exclaimed with a girly grin. Jesara grimaced at her friends reaction and let out another sigh. It was time to change the topic ASAP.

"You said we're landing soon? What time is it?" She asked.

"It's almost 6 am, we're probably landing in about 30 minutes. Roland wanted to get us back to Domino as fast as possible." Tea explained.

"Oh that's fine. I'll go and grab a coffee from Kaiba's fancy espresso machine." Jesara said with a smile and pointed into the direction of the kitchen. "Do you come with me?" Tea nodded, still hoping to get some insider information about Jesara's and Marik's night together.

Impossible. For now Jesara wanted to keep the relationship stuff just between him and her.

xx

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Jesara whispered and stroked through his sandy blonde hair. "Time to wake up."

"Mhhhhhh?" Marik moaned as he half opened his pale violet eyes slowly. He then propped himself up on the bed and glanced half asleep at Jesara, who sat on the bed beside him and held two mugs with the Kaiba Corp logo on it.

"We're almost back in Domino. I thought you could need a black tea to wake yourself up?" She smiled at the weary sandy blonde and offered the mug with the steaming tea, which he accepted thankfully.

"So no breakfast in bed?" Marik chuckled and took a sip of his tea. "What a pity."

"We'll have a lot of time to have breakfast in bed, Romeo." Jesara smirked at him and also took a sip from her cappuccino. "But after those quite intense past few days it's your turn to serve me breakfast in bed first." She said with a wink. Two years ago it was out of question that he'd probably serve her breakfast in bed. Jesara grinned wryly at that imagination of him doing so.

"I'm afraid I'm a horrible cook. You'll regret that." Marik bantered back.

"I guess that also you can manage to cook scrambled eggs." Jesara blinked and gently stroked a hair strand out of his face. "I have to warn you. Tea came to wake me up earlier and she saw you sleeping in my bed. I'm afraid she thinks you-know-what about what we did last night. Just be quiet; Tea could be very persistent if she wants to get informations out of somebody."

"Mhhh. Interesting. I have to admit that you-know-what would have been pleasant." Marik said, wearing his typical smirk. At those words Jesara's cheeks blushed into a deep shade of red and nudged him in admonishment.

"Very funny, Mr Ishtar."

/ DOMINO HARBOUR

After landing Yugi and the gang decided to accompany Marik, Ishizu and Odion to say good bye. The sun was already raising and bathed the harbour in warm, golden shades of light.

"Pharaoh, I can't describe to you how deeply indebted I am to you. Thank you for everything." Marik said as he offered his tanned hand for a shake, which Yugi accepted.

"Nothing to thank for." Yami replied with a slight smile. "So, you're going back to Egypt?"

"Yes, we need to go back to the tomb and see if everything's alright there." Ishizu cut in. "I hope you and your friends can come to Egypt during the upcoming summer holidays to learn more about your ancient life and fulfil your destiny."

"Sure we will! First class!" Joey cheered, he heard that Egypt was a great place to be for a beach holiday.

Yami, Tea and Jesara rolled their eyes in unison before Jesara spoke up. "But Marik… didn't you want to stay here?" She gave him a curious glance, hoping that they won't have to separate again - even if it may be for just a few weeks.

"Yeah…" The sandy blonde rubbed the back of his head and shot his sister a meaningful glance. His lavender eyes and expression left nothing else to say. Ishizu let out a sigh when she understood the unspoken question.

"What else did I expect? I knew you won't let her alone after you two found back together." Ishizu said and smiled wisely at her brother. "Odion and I will go back to Egypt and prepare for the pharaoh's visit. As soon as school ends here you and Jesara can follow."

"Thank you, sister." Marik nodded at the black haired egyptian woman and step-brother. His hand held Jesara's in a tight clinch.

"Master Marik." Odion spoke up to catch his attention, but was immediately cut off by the sandy blonde.

"Odion, stop calling me master. Those times are over." Marik's expression was firm, but still soft at the same time.

"Marik." Odion corrected. "I have something for you and I think now is the right time to give it back to you." The bulky egyptian searched through his pockets until he found what he was looking for. It was a little pouch made from violet velvet. "Ishizu told me about how you paid for Jesara's medicine when she was sick."

Marik turned to look him in the eye, raising a brow in curiosity and wondering what this was about. "What do you mean?" He asked, although he already knew what Odion was about to say.

"After Jesara left you've been bummed out and I saw how much you craved for her to come back. Then I remembered that you never bought back your wedding band from the market. So I decided to buy it back for you and store it until the time is right." Odion explained and handed the little pouch over to Marik. Jesara stared at Marik beside her and remembered that he swapped it for her medicine a long time ago. And she was certain that he'd never see it again - until now.

"Thank you, Odion…" Marik exhaled with a smile. "I can't tell you how much that means to me." He then opened the little velvet pouch and looked at the golden jewellery in his palm.

"You're welcome." Odion said and nodded. Ishizu also gave him a thankful nod.

"Awwww, that's so cute!" Tea exclaimed as her palms cupped her cheeks. Joey grimaced at the scene in front of his eyes - this was far too kitschy for his taste.

"D-Do you want to wear them?" Jesara asked almost whispering as she rested her chin on Marik's shoulder and stared at the golden ring in his hand. Since she was a bit smaller than him she had to stand on her tiptoes.

Marik looked at her from the corner of his lavender eyes, surprised by her question. "That's up to you. But I thought you want to take it slowly?"

"I know." She sighed and didn't know what else she could say. Actually she didn't really know why she asked anyway. But beside being wedding bands they were full of old memories and some kind of a keepsake.

"I still can't believe that they're back together." Joes sighed under his breath, low enough that just Tristan and Duke beside him could hear him.

"That wouldn't have worked anyways, Joey. Jess isn't your league." Tristan whispered back and crossed his arms behind his head.

"True… True…" Duke agreed with his signature playboy smirk. By that Joey let out a warning growl at his two friends.

Marik turned towards her and and gently unclipped her necklace from her neck. "Let's see if it still fits…" He whispered into her ear as he did so. A joyful shiver shot down her neck as his breath met her skin.

"Jesara." He said as he made a calculated step back and fiddled her ring off the golden necklace. She stared at him with quizzically eyes, nervous about what he was doing next and wondering why he took her ring from her. "Maybe I need to thank Tea for watching so much kitschy telenovelas with you." He gave Tea a short smile in his typical charming way. At this Tea's cheeks blushed a bit, but didn't know why he said that. Maybe an inside joke?

"Marik, what are you talking about?" Jesara raised an eyebrow in concernment; her heart started to beat faster and faster with every second that passed by.

With that he slowly got down to his knee and held both rings in his palm for her to see. He cleared his throat before he spoke. "Will you marry me? Again? This time because of love and not because of ancient traditions?"

Jesara gasped as her heart skipped a beat; her palms covered her agape mouth as his words slowly sank in. Also Yami and her friends stood with their eyes wide open and mouths agape in surprise. They definitely didn't expect that.

Ishizu and Odion grinned at each other with a wink before their gaze went back to Jesara, who still stared down at Marik in puzzlement. Tears of happiness gathered in the corners of her amber-olive eyes. For a moment they all stood in silence, just the sounds of waves and seagulls filled the atmosphere. As her palms slowly left her lips they revealed a smile, full of happiness and joy. Jesara took a deep breath while her eyes were still locked with those pale lavender orbs she lost herself in the day they met. This time it felt more than right.

"Yes."

AN: Hope you all won't die from an overdose of kitsch! :D The sequel / prequel is already on my bucket list. I hope you enjoyed OMR.

Leave a review and ket me know how you liked this kitschy happy ending!

Merci!