A lot is happening in this chapter.

"Oh, for fucks sake…" Kat said as she turned her car onto the street where she resided. Two white dragons were hovering in the approximate vicinity of her house.

"I'm surprised Kaiba managed to wait this long," Marik commented, not the slightest bit surprised at seeing the life-like holograms.

Kat groaned in annoyance as she tried to pull into her driveway.

Kaiba and Atem were dueling right in the middle of the street where a crowd had formed to watch. Mkhai and Mokuba were off to the side, each keeping track of the duel on their datapads.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" Kat shouted as she slammed her car door.

"Job interview," Mkhai replied without looking up.

"Jo-...?" Kat's mouth fell open momentarily. "What fucking job?! He doesn't need a job!"

"He wanted out asap. This is his ticket. And before you chew me out, he agreed to it."

Kat clenched her fists to her sides, hair bristling as she looked over at her ex who was glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"Atem! You're a fucking moron!"

Atem appeared amused by her reaction, smirking as he returned his gaze over to his opponent. "I believe it's your turn, Kaiba."

Kat glanced over at Mkhai's datapad. "What's that?" she asked, pointing at a fluctuating marker on the side.

"Remember that 'something' I needed to link Imhotep, Atem, and me together? That is what that is. Not entirely certain what it is, but it's a start," Mkhai replied in excitement. "Oh, and guess what?! Yugi has it too!"

He shrunk the duel stats on his screen to bring up a new window that showed Yugi's genetic tracers alongside the other three with the same mystery marker. Out of the four images on the screen, Atem had the highest levels.

"I didn't give you permission to turn Yugi into one of your guinea pigs!" Kat shouted in anger.

"It's not his fault! It was my idea!" Yugi called out, rushing over with Imhotep right beside him. Both had been standing a little ways down with the crowd.

Kat furled her brow. "Do you have any idea what you've agreed to?" Her gaze quickly flitted over to Imhotep. "You should have dissuaded him."

Imhotep lowered his eyes and looked away while clenching his fists.

Yugi scowled. "It's not Imhotep's fault either. It was my own decision."

A holographic explosion went off beside them as the duel progressed.

Kat made a sound of frustration. "I don't fucking care! Gods! Do you really have to be as stupid as At-"

Her frustration quickly died as she saw Yugi's brow rise from a scowl to an expression of hurt.

She relaxed and lowered her gaze. "I didn't-...you're not stupid," she said apologetically.

Kat dared to look up, feeling guilt at the sight before her. Yugi still appeared hurt as he stared at the ground between them. There was nothing she could say or do to fix what had already been said.

"I'll be going now," she said despondently.

She turned to head towards the house, but was stopped by a hand firmly wrapping itself around her wrist. At first she'd thought it was Yugi trying to stop her, but was surprised to see the hand belonged to Imhotep instead. His eyes glared bitterly into hers as he breathed heavily, appearing extremely upset.

"You can't leave," he said firmly.

She tried to remove herself from his grasp, but he held tight.

"Let go," she demanded.

Imhotep scowled. "No."

"I said LET. GO." Her words were a warning at this point.

"NO."

Her temper flared, and she lashed out with her free hand in the form of a fist. Imhotep easily avoided the swing, making it obvious that he'd expected it.

"Dammit, let go of me!" she shouted, swinging again.

Imhotep caught her hand, then brought her in close, keeping her arms crossed between them so she couldn't wriggle out of his grasp.

"You tell me all the time to face my fears head-on, yet all I ever see you do is run from yours. That makes you a hypocrite, just like all the gods you loathe."

Kat found herself suddenly struggling to grab hold of a single emotion. She was both shocked and enraged, her mind teetering back and forth between the extremes at play as it tried to figure out which to act upon.

More holographic explosions went off as the crowd continued to watch the duel, breaths held in suspense.

The tension in the air was not helping Kat's current state, and in a desperate attempt to free herself, she headbutted Imhotep in the face hard enough for his nose to bleed. He instinctively let go, giving Kat the opportunity to flee into the house.

"Fuck! I can't believe she did that!" Imhotep shouted while wiping away the blood from his already healed nose.

"Why didn't you just let her go?" Yugi asked, shocked by what he'd witnessed.

"Because it's not right! She spent all these years wanting nothing more than to be a part of your life, but now she can and all she does is run away! She can't even look you in the eye and say the words 'I'm sorry'!" Imhotep said loudly.

Several people turned their focus away from the duel, distracted by Imhotep's raised voice.

He noticed and glared at them. "Eyes back on the duel! What's going on over here is none of your concern!" he shouted irritably.

The people quickly rediverted their focus back to the duel.

"Uhhh…what happened to your social anxiety?" Yugi asked in confusion.

"I'm too pissed off at the moment to worry about what others think!" Imhotep replied as he continued to shout.

He looked over towards his mother's car where Marik still stood and marched over, quickly grabbing the Tomb Keeper by his shirt and roughly slamming him against the frame of the purple Mustang.

"What the fuck did you do?" he growled through a clenched jaw. "Why is Shae so pissed off?"

Marik scowled momentarily before sighing exhaustively. He reached behind his back and held up the Millennium Rod as a reply.

Imhotep tightened his grip on the Tomb Keeper's shirt. "Why the fuck is that back in your possession?"

"Trust me when I say it wasn't my idea," Marik replied tiredly. "It keeps getting thrust upon me every time I end up in another realm."

Imhotep's grip didn't lessen. "You shouldn't have needed it for the Fae realm," he stated bitterly.

"Fae realm, no. The forest within, however…"

Imhotep finally relaxed his hold. "Why would she take you into the forest? It's the most dangerous part."

Marik suspiciously narrowed his eyes. "First, tell me how you knew Kat and I went to the Fae realm?"

Imhotep fully released the Tomb Keeper and took a step back while awkwardly attempting to avoid the suspicious gaze burrowing into him. "I might have suggested it," he squeaked while fidgeting with the back of his neck.

"I see…" Marik said while continuing to observe him.

"I answered your question, now answer mine," Imhotep stated with resurfaced irritation. "Why were you in the forest? I can almost guarantee you didn't make it that far across the fields before Shae felt it was too dangerous for you to be there."

"You're right," Marik replied earnestly. "Between the chicken-dragon thing and Puck, she was more than ready to get out of there…but there was gold deer waiting beside the way back…for me."

"You?" Imhotep asked in confusion. "Why would it have been waiting for you?"

"No idea. Neither Kat nor myself have been able to figure that part out. We followed it into the forest, and that's where things went to shit. It started with me passing out because apparently the magic there was too intense…which is how I ended up with this stupid relic again…then I got pissed about it and fucked things up."

Marik removed the hidden blade from the Rod's handle. "I pulled this out in front of her while going off on a rant."

Imhotep's eyes went wide in realization. "Oh…that's bad. That's really, really bad."

"Yup," Marik said while re-sheathing the blade. "I found that out after."

Yugi looked between the two with confusion. "How is it bad?"

"Well…" Imhotep began uncomfortably. "The blade inside the Rod is what was used to kill our old man…and Shae's brother. I don't think I have to go into much more detail than that."

Yugi's eyes lit up in realization just as his twin's had.

"Okay, now that everyone is on the same page…please tell me that was the worst of things?" Imhotep asked while silently praying that the blade's presence was indeed the worst part of Marik's recounting.

"I wish," Marik replied with an exhaustive sigh.

Imhotep's head fell forward as he internally cursed and groaned.

"We were led to the nest of the Phoenix."

Imhotep perked. "The Phoenix was reborn? And you got to see it?! Gods, how'd you get so lucky?!"

"Yeah…so…that's the part that made things worse," Marik said slowly.

"How?!" Imhotep asked in annoyance. "You got to witness an extremely rare thing!"

"That's just it…we didn't. Nothing happened."

Imhotep stared blankly for a long moment. The only sounds filling the awkward silence came from the duel taking place.

"Come again?" Imhotep asked in bafflement. "What do you mean 'nothing happened'?"

"NOTHING. HAPPENED." Marik reiterated. "We got there, the egg stopped glowing, and then it just fell apart. No Phoenix 'rising from the ashes'. No grand display. It was just…nothing."

Imhotep furled his brow in mass confusion. "So…what? It just up and died?"

Marik lifted his palms as he shrugged his shoulders, looking just as confused.

"Was that it? Anything else?"

Marik shook his head. "Nope. We left and came back here after that. I think she wanted to relax and push the incident out of her mind, but then…" He gestured towards the duel taking place.

All three looked towards the road. Atem had managed to get rid of one of Kaiba's dragons on the field, leaving him with only one.

Imhotep groaned. "Great. Now Shae is in an even worse mood. It's a wonder she hasn't come out and tried to kick somebody's ass yet just to vent her frustrations."

As if on cue, Kat came storming out her house, rage beginning to emanate around her in the form of Shadows.

Imhotep's face fell. "…I spoke too soon…"

Kat marched over to the road, standing between the two duelists. She looked first to Atem, then to Kaiba, her jaw and fists clenched and hair still bristling.

"Fuuuck," Imhotep called out in exasperation as he rushed off in the direction of his very pissed-off mother, who was now marching towards his father.

Imhotep's temper kinda matches his mom's, but on a less grand scale with him being able to step back instead of warping things and becoming even more pissed off. And Marik is a bit too exhausted (mentally and physically) to return attitude with attitude.