Lots of small reveals this chapter!

Marik explained to Mabon the part of Domino he currently resided in, and, thankfully, Mabon seemed to know exactly how to get there from where they currently were.

Mabon parked along the street edge near Kat's house.

"Thanks for the ride…and the advice," Marik said as he began to exit the vehicle. He noticed Mabon staring at the house.

"It was nothing. I'm glad I was able to help," Mabon said, sounding almost sad.

Marik paused in his exit. "Is there something wrong?"

Mabon had taken to tracing his scar again.

"No. I'm simply remembering something painful. It happens from time to time whenever I encounter something that reminds me of the event in question. I've learned to simply endure the memory then carry on."

Marik found himself relaxing back into the passenger seat. "I take it that the memory isn't a good one."

"Not really. But it is what it is. I used to have nightmares, and for the longest time I lived in fear of that particular memory…but not anymore. It is simply a moment just like any other. I am no longer afraid…just sad. I'm certain that, with time, even that particular emotion will not surface. I'm certain at some point the memory will be nothing more than a quick glimpse of something that happened long ago."

"How long did it take you to overcome the fear?" Marik questioned.

"A very long time. Mostly because I refused to face the source of my fear. Honestly, I still haven't. Facing the thing you are afraid of helps you to overcome it much more quickly."

"If you haven't faced the source of your fear, then how do you know you're over it?"

Mabon appeared somewhat surprised as he turned to look at Marik. He then smiled lightly and chuckled. "I suppose I am still very much afraid in that regard. The memory itself no longer frightens me, but the source is…terrifying."

"Why is that?"

The smile faded from Mabon's face. "Because the longer that I avoid the source of my fear, the worse I make it for myself…and the worse I make it, the more I fear facing it."

Marik lowered his head a bit. "Makes sense. I know what it's like to fear something and not want to face it again. I cast aside my own fear temporarily, but it's recently resurfaced."

"Do yourself a favor. Don't make my mistake. If the fear has returned, face it again. Face it as many times as you have to until that fear no longer returns. Delaying it only adds to the problem," Mabon stated.

Marik lifted his head and smiled lightly. "Sounds like a sound idea. I think I'll do just that."

"You should get on with heading inside. Based on the way you described your departure earlier, I'm certain your 'fire' is worried about you."

Marik nodded. "Thanks again. Maybe we'll run into one another out in town. Hopefully under better circumstances."

"Let us hope."

Marik exited the car, shut the door, and watched as the vehicle drove away. He then turned and faced the house, took a deep breath to prepare himself, then made his way to the front door.

As Marik entered the house, he expected to see Kat rush up and start asking him where he'd been. Instead he saw Atem pacing worriedly, his head jerking up at the sight of the Tomb Keeper entering the house.

Atem rushed over. "Where have you been?!"

Marik opened his mouth to reply but was quickly interrupted by Atem shouting for Bakura. The elemental quickly appeared, looking just as worried as Atem.

"What's going on?" Marik questioned, extremely puzzled.

"No time to explain, Tomb Keeper," Bakura said quickly as he shoved the Millennium Rod into his hand.

Marik began to protest, but Bakura interrupted him. "Just take the damn thing. Where we're going, you'll need it."

Marik was still trying to process everything when Bakura transported them without warning to someplace else.

"For fucks sake, Bakura! Give me some warning!"

"What part of 'No time to explain' didn't you get? Now follow me," Bakura said sharply as he began dragging Marik along behind him.

Marik jerked his arm out of Bakura's grasp. "Can I get a second to catch my fucking breath!?"

Bakura impatiently tapped his foot a couple of times, then grabbed Marik's arm again. "Your second is up, let's go."

"I need to talk to Kat," Marik stated as he reluctantly followed the elemental.

"Good, because that's who we're going to see," Bakura said as he continued to rush along.

"What?"

Bakura stopped and whirled around. "Tomb Keeper, do you even know where the fuck you are right now?"

Marik looked around. He couldn't place any of the architecture. It seemed to be a strange combination of only the most elegant structures from several ancient civilizations. There were some buildings that appeared to have been designed with ancient Egypt in mind. Others looked like they were from ancient Greece and Rome. The vast majority looked like they were from ancient Mesopotamia.

"I-...I don't know…"

Bakura stepped back, his arms outstretched as if greeting. "Welcome to the Godaeshan capital, Sumar."

Marik's eyes widened. "Godaeshan capital…as in, we're in the realm of the GODS?!"

Bakura chuckled. "It's not the Halls of Osiris, but it's still pretty impressive, right?"

"Why would Kat be here? Wait…she hasn't been summoned for what she did to Anubis has she?!" Marik asked worriedly.

"No, but I have a feeling things are going to be expedited. Now come on." Bakura grabbed Marik by the wrist and began dragging him again.

"Can you at least explain why she's here…and why I'm here?"

"After you left we decided to let you have some time to cool off. When it started to rain, Kat decided to go looking for you. She became worried when she couldn't find you. She really started to panic when your phone started going immediately to voicemail and Mkhai wasn't able to track its location."

"Yeah, my phone kinda died. I haven't charged it since before Atem's revival."

"Well, that explains that, but it doesn't explain why we couldn't find you. She and I both searched every bit of Domino, looking for you through our elements."

Marik let out a light chuckle. "Not all of it, obviously. A stranger took me into his home after he splashed me with his car. I accidentally stepped on a bird and he helped fix its wing."

"You shouldn't be going anywhere with strangers," Bakura chastised.

"I'm not a little kid, Bakura. I used to be a crime boss. I think I can handle myself," Marik stated grumpily.

"Not the point. There's a hole in the barrier around Domino. Kat has made a lot of immortal enemies. They know she's difficult to take on directly…but if any of them discover the nature of your relationship with her, they'll use it to their advantage. Combine that with a way to sneak inside the barrier undetected…it's a recipe for something bad."

"That still doesn't explain why she's here."

"Apparently you brought up in front of Atem that Ra was at the school today. When we couldn't find you, he asked me about it…in front of Kat. Now take a wild guess what kind of leap her unstable mind made?"

Marik paled. "Wait…she thought that Ra kidnapped me?"

"Ra doesn't 'kidnap'. He tries to eradicate. Don't forget, you have his Ka…and he's not pleased about it."

They approached a large group of very tall entities that appeared to be circled around some sort of fight, or at least that's what Marik assumed based on the shouting and cheering coming from the crowd gathered, and the sounds coming from the center. He couldn't see through the thick throng of extremely tall beings, but taking a closer look at them he found he could easily recognize the different pantheons each appeared to belong to. Some were anthropomorphic animals dressed in the ancient Egyptian style, marking them as Kemetic. Some were just really tall humans wearing Greek chitons or Roman tunics and leather armor. He swore he saw a few, that for the most part, appeared like they were tall humans, but with multiple extra limbs.

A pair of extremely large bull-like creatures approached Bakura and Marik. The creatures had the head of man with giant bull horns protruding from the forehead, very long, bead adorned beards hanging from their faces, and large wings coming out of their backs.

One of the creatures spoke in a very deep voice, speaking only in the immortal tongue.

"Shit," Bakura said under his breath.

"What are they?" Marik asked in a whisper.

"Lamassu. Protective deities from ancient Mesopotamia. They've sort of become the 'police' of Sumar," Bakura quickly explained. "Don't talk, I'll handle this."

Bakura quickly shifted into his full Godaeshan form, forcing Marik to quickly take a step back as he tried to avoid getting knocked over by the wolf-dog's tail that had suddenly appeared. The Lamassu put their focus on the white beast as he began speaking to them, his familiar smirk in place as he obviously tried to charm his way out of the situation he'd found himself in.

Standing so close to so many large and powerful entities, Marik suddenly felt very small and insignificant. He was descended from a literal god, yet in the grand scheme of things, he was still nothing more than a tiny, mortal teen. Even the Millennium Rod he clutched tightly in his hand meant nothing compared to the beings that he stood beside.

That's when he remembered the relic in his hand. Bakura had said he would need it. Was being in Sumar like being in the Halls of Osiris? He stared at the relic. He feared it in a way he couldn't describe, yet it was the very thing keeping him alive it seemed. He wondered if there were other benefits to keeping it on him. He recalled Ra's words at the palace.

…those accursed relics were a bit more unpredictable than I had expected. No wonder the Akkadian insect always kept one close.

Bakura must've known that they protected the wielder. How? Marik knew that getting a straight answer from Bakura wouldn't be easy, but now obviously wasn't the time to be asking.

"(Excuse me,)" said a tiny voice from beside Marik in a strangely accented version of Kemetic.

He looked down to where the voice had come from, surprised to see a young girl standing beside him. She was covered in a dark robe, the hood obscuring her eyes from view. The bright red ends of a few strands of hair fell forward, a thin braid among the waves that appeared to be fraying at the ends.

He stepped back to allow the tiny girl to pass. She stopped just behind the wall of Godaeshans, reaching out a pale hand towards Marik.

"(Take my hand. I'll lead you through,)" said the tiny voice.

Marik looked over towards Bakura, who was unfortunately getting nowhere with the Lamassu.

"(Don't worry about him. He'll be fine. Now take my hand,)" the girl demanded.

Marik felt Apep's movement in the back of his mind.

She is trustworthy. Go with her. She will lead you to our vessel.

Marik nodded internally and did as he was told. The girl tapped the calf of a large anthropomorphic ram. It turned and looked down at the two tiny creatures, quickly backing away with a polite bow, and tapping the other entities near it to alert them to the girl's presence. The throng quickly parted, forming a path to the scuffle in the center. As the girl began to lead him through, Marik glanced back to see Bakura having caught sight of him and trying to follow. The look of shock and fear on the elemental's face was not very reassuring as the Lamassu blocked the way between them with their massive wings.

He looked ahead to see what the massive group of Godaeshans had been so interested in. There was a very large, dark creature facing off against what appeared to be a metallic, falcon-like humanoid with purple glowing eyes. Marik was able to quickly deduct who that was. He took a closer look at the large creature standing opposed to Ra.

The creature appeared to be a giant leopard, but in the place of a face was a large, black skull attached to the rest of its body. The large sabercat-like fangs confirmed the feline nature of the beast. The dark body itself was made up of dark coals, glowing cinders appearing as rosettes. A dark spine protruded from the creature's back, along with two charcoal black wings, the feathers being replaced by bright orange flames and ash. The ground beneath the creature's semi-skeletal paws became scorched, and as it moved, bits of coal fell from its body to reveal an intense flame burning within the creature's heart. Looking back to the dark, skeletal face, Marik could make out the bright blue embers that burned in its otherwise empty eye sockets.

The dark entity lunged at Ra, who managed to only hold it back with the shaft of his spear as it pummeled him to the ground. The spear shaft was the only thing keeping the beast from devouring the sun god's head, becoming lodged between its jaws as it pressed down in an attempt to tear apart its prey.

Ra's head was turned to the side as he attempted to pull away from the jaws that were pressing closer and closer as his arms began to give against the weight of the creature bearing down on him. He spotted the Tomb Keeper and called out to him.

"Get her off of me!" he demanded.

Marik looked at the giant being again. He'd known exactly who the creature was the moment he'd taken a closer look.

"Why should I? You wanted to kill me, remember?" Marik asked casually.

Ra made a sound that Marik could only assume was one of irritation. Kat clenched down tightly on the spear shaft and jerked it out of Ra's hands, holding the spear between her skeletal jaws and pressing down until it snapped in two and tossing the remains off to the side. She glared at Ra, emitting a leopard-like growl as a warning before turning away and walking slowly up to Marik and laying down in her massive form before him, the burning embers of her eyes looking directly at him.

The small girl took the hand she still held of Marik's, and directed it towards the feline's forehead.

"Wait! She's made of fire!" Marik said in a panicked voice as he realized the girl was trying to place his hand directly onto Kat's elemental body.

"(Don't you trust her to not burn you?)" the girl asked.

Marik looked straight ahead into those blue fiery embers. Did he trust her? At one time he would have said 'yes' without a second of hesitation, but the events of earlier had left him questioning.

He thought back to the conversation with Mabon. The man had helped him realize that Kat had never intended to betray his trust, and that she knew the risk of telling him about that betrayal. She had yet to lie to him…and she obviously didn't want for there to be more secrets between them. Was it because of his acceptance and understanding of even the unpleasant things he had encountered with her?

As Marik continued to contemplate whether or not he could say 'yes' to the question in his mind, the bright flame that glowed within the elemental being became extinguished. Lying before him now was darkened charcoal in the shape of a massive feline with a large golden spear sticking through its side into the ground below. He looked to the golden falcon entity that was still holding the spear shaft, suddenly feeling nothing but anger.

Marik jerked his hand from the tiny girl's hand, then marched up to the large sun god and let loose a punch into the god's metallic thigh, cursing at the pain he had created by doing so.

Ra stared down at him in astonishment. "You dare to lay your filthy abomination hand on ME!?"

Marik scowled up at the self-absorbed god. "That's the second time I've witnessed you kill my girlfriend."

"She attacked me first," Ra said defensively.

"You struck when her back was turned. And don't forget you commanded Malik to kill her when she was only trying to get through to him. She was not a direct threat to you in either instance."

Ra scoffed. "You act as though you know how things work with our kind."

"I might not, but I do know that attacking someone from behind is a cowardly move," Marik stated bitterly. "Bakura was right. You really are a pathetic god." He turned on heel and walked over to where the spear stuck through the blackened being, crawled up, removed it with a great deal of effort, and tossed it off to the side as best he could. He then went back towards the head and waited.

He knew the answer to the question now.

Marik saw the small glow of flame ignite within through one of the spots where the coals had flaked off. He placed his hand on the dark skull, holding fast as the fire ignited through the rest of the body and the blue embers re-ignited.

"Welcome back, Habibty," he said with a smile.

He watched as the embers appeared to 'blink' as she rose and pressed her massive skeletal forehead to his while loudly purring.

"Wait…did you say girlfriend?" Ra asked in confusion.

Marik glared over at the god that appeared to be in a state of bewilderment.

"Yeah. Is that a problem?" he asked bitterly.

Ra turned his gaze over to the small girl, shouting something in the immortal tongue. Marik heard several gasps, and suddenly remembered where he was…and realized he had punched a GOD in front of several others.

The crowd nervously glanced back and forth between Ra and the tiny girl. She spoke, and as she spoke, Ra's metallic feathers ruffled in agitation. He shouted back, pointing at Marik. The closest members of the crowd stepped back, appearing nervous of the tiny mortal's presence.

Kat stepped over top of Marik so that his body was beneath hers, her wings outstretched and her entire body poised in a protective manner as she emitted a growl towards the solar deity.

The tiny girl turned her hooded head towards Marik, speaking in her strangely accented Kemetic again. "(Ra is demanding that I have Sanura imprisoned on the basis that she attacked him unprovoked. He claims that your words about using his heir to kill her are naught but lies. He also demands that you be destroyed, as you have been attempting to turn his followers away from him so that you can weaken and usurp him. He claims that once you are done with him, you will do the same with the other gods. Do you have anything to say in your own defense?)"

Marik was left temporarily speechless at the list of false claims. He quickly glared over at Ra, having regained his ability to speak.

"Why are you so fucking hell-bent on trying to get rid of anyone you don't like?! Let's see, there's me, Malik, Bakura, apparently Kat…" He felt the agitation of the serpent in the back of his mind. "Oh, let's not forget Apep! I'm willing to bet they aren't nearly as bad as the old stories make them out to be!" he added.

Ra's eyes went wide. "What did you just say?" He then glowered bitterly at Marik. "It was you that gave form to that treacherous serpent, wasn't it?"

"So what if it was?" Marik scoffed.

"How?" Ra demanded to know.

"Sorry, that secret belongs only to me."

Ra shouted out to the crowd while pointing at Marik again. The crowd suddenly broke into a series of loud murmurs as they glanced down at the teen.

("Ra claims that your open mockery of him is proof of his claims. He also claims that you intend to release the Serpent of Destruction on the Godaeshan realm,)" the tiny girl translated.

"He can spread whatever lies he wants. And if anyone here is stupid enough to believe those lies, then maybe they shouldn't be gods anymore."

There were more gasps and loud whispers. A flash of white fur draped in crimson broke through the crowd, coming to stand quickly beside Kat and Marik.

"Tomb Keeper, have you lost your fucking mind!" Bakura whispered loudly. "You are openly insulting GODS!"

"So? I've come to finally realize that the gods are dumb," Marik stated casually.

Bakura glanced around nervously as the whispers increased.

"Fuuuck…how the hell did you end up with the same mentality as her? We are so screwed!"

The tiny girl held up a hand, then spoke in a loud authoritative voice. Bakura appeared to hold his breath as he stood up straight. Once the girl had finished speaking, everyone bowed respectfully, even Kat in her massive form. Marik followed suit so as to not appear disrespectful.

Ra didn't appear too pleased with whatever was said as he quickly stood straight and retrieved his spear before taking flight.

The crowd began to disperse as the hooded girl approached Marik and the elementals. Bakura and Kat stepped back, coming to stand behind Marik.

"(I wish to apologize on Ra's behalf. I pray you will change your mind on how you have come to view us, though I respect that you are honest in your words. It is not often someone raised in the mortal realm is able to so quickly cast aside their awe of our kind.)"

"Thanks…I think? And don't apologize for Ra. He created his own mess. Let him clean it up himself," Marik stated.

Bakura tapped his shoulder, trying to get his attention, but the tiny girl held up her hand, forcing him to quickly step back.

The girl giggled. "(I like how straight forward you are. It is refreshing. Not many speak to me as you do.)"

"I take it you are someone important here?"

The girl nodded. "(I am often referred to as the Elder, because I have been around longer than most. Many from my era are no longer around, their names barely even remembered. Without anyone to speak their name and believe in them, their power waned, leaving them in a weakened state. They were easily killed, their pantheons eradicated, and their domains taken over by others who lusted for power and territory.)"

"You're the Elder?!" Marik asked in astonishment. "But you're so young!"

The Elder giggled again. "(I appreciate the compliment.)"

Bakura nervously raised his hand.

"(You may speak, Naram-sin.)"

"My Lady, not to be rude, but I think we should be going. I provided Marik with the Millennium Rod as a tether to the mortal realm, but it has its limits."

The Elder nodded. "(Very well, you and he are permitted to leave. I must speak with Sanura privately. I promise you that she will return shortly.)"

Bakura bowed politely, Marik doing the same before following the elemental away from where the smoldering feline and tiny Elder stood. An obelisk appeared before them and they passed through, emerging from the other side in a now very familiar part of Domino's park.

Huge shoutout to my amazing sister for all the help with creating Kat's elemental form! So many Pinterest images shared back and forth lol

Ra's full shift appearance based on Horus from Gods of Egypt.

Hmmm...anyone else sensing some similarities from past events? What has Marik gotten himself into?

Sadly it will be a while before I fully reveal the origins of the Millennium Items in this AU since their creation came about differently. Sorry. Why Bakura keeps his close is part of it.

To clarify the language thing while in Sumar: Part of being Godaeshan is knowing all languages. When interacting with others (specifically mortals), they have a habit of responding in the language spoken in the vicinity. This is why Atem and Marik were able to understand Ra back in Chapter 37. Malik had been the first to speak, so Ra immediately began speaking in the same tongue. Switching languages actually requires a conscious effort (like when Kat and Malik intentionally switched to Arabic, or when any of them switch to Godaeshan). The Elder is using Kemetic with Marik for a reason. That reason will be revealed much later, just like the origins of the Items.