Marik glanced at the door upstairs, adjusting the bag on his shoulder…again.

"She'll be alright…right? You won't let her out of your sight?" he asked worriedly.

A pair of hands grabbed his shoulders and turned him on the spot so he was now facing the door.

"You're going to be late for school if you don't hurry up and get going," Malik said in annoyance while opening the door.

"I can skip today. It's really not that big of a-"

He was shoved outside, the door slamming shut behind him. A very audible 'click' informed him that Malik had locked the door so he couldn't change his mind. He was certain the Ishtari had confiscated his house key as well.

Marik sighed, then began trudging his way to the spot he'd agreed to meet Imhotep. His usual method of getting to school in a timely manner hadn't returned from…wherever it was that Bakura had vanished to. Kat seemed to know, but she was keeping that knowledge to herself.

He was worried for her. Kat had become very quiet and withdrawn. Yugi had attempted to lift her spirits by reassuring her that he knew she didn't mean what she'd said to him, but her mood had remained the same. She'd refused dinner…and leaving her room in general.

He was at a loss on what to do. Even that night she'd kept her distance from him. Was she that upset about having the Rod used on her?

"Today would be nice…"

The sound of Imhotep's voice brought Marik out of his thoughts. He hadn't even realized he'd already arrived near the secluded meeting spot.

"Sorry," he said while stepping behind a tall pair of bushes. "Just worried."

Imhotep placed a hand on his shoulder and transported the two of them near the school.

"You're not the only one," Imhotep commented as they began walking in stride beside one another. "I thought for sure she'd have at least told you what was going on."

"I think she's mad at me. I know using the Rod was the right thing to do, but I'm wondering if she thinks I'll take advantage of the fact that I know the way in now."

"Hmm…maybe. Hard to tell with Shae when she's like this."

"Any ideas on what I can do to help her open up and talk to me about it?"

Imhotep scrunched his face in thought. "That you can do? I can't think of anything that you probably haven't already tried. I wouldn't stress about it too much. I'm sure the Ishtari knows a trick or two. If not, she's still in good hands with him. From what I've seen in-" Imhotep stopped walking, his head falling a bit.

"That's still bothering you, isn't it?" Marik asked knowingly. He could only imagine how hard it must be for Imhotep to change how he viewed the one person he'd highly admired.

"I just want a reason."

"So, ask him."

Imhotep shook his head. "Even if I knew where he was staying now, I don't know how to ask why he left at a time like that without just screaming at him."

"Screaming at who?" Yugi chimed in, walking around to meet them.

Imhotep remained silent, his jaw clenched as he continued to look at the ground.

Yugi's eyes lit up as though he just realized something. "Oh…"

Imhotep closed his eyes tight while grabbing his head in frustration. "Dammit! I wish I knew how not to do that!"

"I'm sorry! I don't know how to stop it either!" Yugi said apologetically.

Marik looked back and forth between the two in mild confusion. "What are you two talking about?"

Yugi sighed in exasperation. "It seems whenever Imhotep gets too stressed or upset, he thinks a bit on the 'loud' side…and I can hear it in my head. According to Mkhai, it'll only happen if we're within a certain proximity to one another."

"Interesting. Have you mentioned it to Kat? She was a twin. Maybe she'll have a few suggestions."

Yugi shook his head. "Imhotep and I had planned to…but then things happened. We didn't want to upset her even more by bringing up something that would remind her of her own twin."

"Makes sense."

The three stood in awkward silence for a long minute.

"C'mon, we should make our way to class," Imhotep said halfheartedly.

The other two nodded, the three making their way through the front gates where they were greeted by the others.

In Marik's opinion, the end of the school day couldn't come fast enough. Bakura was still MIA and Malik hadn't answered his phone at lunch. All he had to go on was Imhotep's repeated line of 'She'll be fine' when he'd asked the other teen to check in on Kat.

How could Imhotep show so little concern? Less than twenty-fours prior he'd admitted that for the first time in his life he'd been afraid for his mother…yet now he was acting as though her current demeanor were normal?

Marik bolted as soon as the final bell of the day sounded. He didn't want to wait while Imhotep stuck around to chat with the others. He'd run the entire way home if it meant getting there faster.

He'd barely made it to the front gate when the roar of an engine accompanied by the sounds of rubber screeching on asphalt caused him to stop in his tracks. A black muscle car slid into view, stopping as it whipped sharply around to face the direction it had come from. In the driver's seat was none other than the one person that had been on his mind the entire day.

"Check it out! Isn't it amazing!" Kat shrieked excitedly, her eyes glittering wide. "I think it's even better than before!"

Marik stared in blank bafflement.

"Sweet! You finished it!" Imhotep said excitedly as he and the others approached the front gate.

"I did! Oh, and check this out!" Kat said, nearly bursting at the seams. She turned a knob near the center of the dash causing the car's radio to burst to life, the bass from it vibrating the glass in the windows.

"Niiice," Imhotep said smoothly as his mother rocked her head to the beat.

Police sirens sounded from a few blocks down.

"Uh-oh. They finally caught up. I'll see you guys in a bit!"

Kat tromped on the gas, lurching the car in reverse down the street a ways before it whipped around with a screech in the direction she was heading. A maniacal cackle along with the words 'You'll never catch me!' were heard moments before the car turned sharply onto a side street as police cruisers flew past the school gate.

Marik blinked a few times in the direction that the whole train of chaos had gone. "...I think I'm dating a madwoman…"

"Duh," Imhotep scoffed sarcastically. "I told you she'd be fine."

Marik covered his eyes with one hand. "Can you just…take me home directly…no detours. I suddenly feel very exhausted and I just want to lie down for a bit."

"Well, we still gotta take a small detour. I don't feel like getting yelled at for using my magae out where everyone can see, even though I'm certain Mkhai's voice will be non-existent before the end of the hour."

Marik lowered his hand and nodded. "Just get me out of here," he said exhaustively.

"Ohmyfuckinggods! Am I NOT allowed to have a bit of fun?!"

"ONE DAY. You couldn't make it ONE. SINGLE. DAY. Why do you hate me so much?!"

"I don't hate you! I just-…I'm sorry, okay?!"

"If you were 'sorry', you wouldn't keep doing it!"

Marik raised his head from its face-down position on the bed, glancing over at the time on his phone. Kat and Mkhai were downstairs, and had been screaming at each other for a solid five minutes.

He let his face fall back into the comforter.

The screaming quickly gave way to pleading as Kat tried to worm her way out of her 'punishment'. Marik still wasn't entirely sure how spending an entire day marathoning a couple movie trilogies could be a 'punishment'. He hadn't seen the movies in question, but he'd heard of them.

After some more pleading, and a counter-offer to do what sounded like a series of in-game chores, the two siblings finally came to some sort of agreement.

Feet stomping loudly up the stairs warned Marik of his girlfriend's approach. He didn't have to look to know when Kat had finally entered the room, because the door was slammed shut just after the stomping came to an abrupt stop.

Kat made a very loud sound of frustration, followed by what Marik could only assume to be a string of profanity in the immortal tongue.

He rolled onto his side, propping himself up on an elbow as he watched his girlfriend process her way through her tantrum. Once she'd calmed enough to at least speak again, she turned towards him.

"You get where I'm coming from, right? I made sure no one got hurt, and I didn't use any forms of magic. It was just a fun little game of 'catch me if you can'."

The expression on Kat's face made it obvious that she didn't see leading police on a wild chase through a city full of people as a bad thing.

He hated that he suddenly understood some of the things Odion used to do with him during his own temperamental outbursts.

He slowly sat up straight. "I'd rather not take sides," he said uncomfortably.

Kat's gaze lowered before falling to the floor, her legs splayed outwards at the knee, said all that needed to be said in regards to how she took his answer. He watched her eyes shift back and forth in thought, obviously trying to work out if she'd actually been in the wrong.

After a few minutes of thinking, Kat's head fell even lower. "I wish I wasn't like this. Why can't I be more like you?"

Marik stared blankly for a long moment before answering.

"Me?" he asked in disbelief. "Seriously…ME? Are you forgetting that I was a massive control freak that took countless lives? You even said it yourself. You considered me enough of a threat that you contemplated the idea of killing me."

Kat lifted her gaze, her face showing annoyance. "Well, I obviously didn't mean like that. I meant with how you obviously think things through."

Marik threw his head back in a mocked roar of laughter. When his head came back down he looked his girlfriend straight in the eyes. "I do not think things through. I just do whatever pops into my little head. How the hell do you think I ended up here after the arcade? It definitely wasn't because I 'think things through'."

"So? Things still worked out for you. No one is going around screaming at you for doing something stupid," Kat argued.

"Oh, there's someone screaming at me alright. Me."

The new expression that appeared on Kat's face was loud enough that Marik didn't need the Rod to know what was going through her mind.

Kat looked dejectedly towards the floor. "You've finally come to regret being with me…"

"Wrong." Marik stated firmly. "Aside from my brother and sister, I've never cared about anyone else to the extent that I'd be worried about them. I have been literally sick to my stomach with worry after what happened yesterday. Add to it how you started acting towards me afterwards, I thought maybe I'd done something stupid and that now you were mad at me."

"Mad? Why would you think I was mad?" Kat asked in confusion as she lifted her gaze once again.

"You stopped talking to me. I get that you needed some time to process everything that had happened. However, it seemed that the moment you discovered I'd used the Rod on you, you shut me out."

Kat's confused expression twisted to irritation. "Have you ever had someone take an actual hatchet to your skull?"

"Does it look like I have?"

"Obviously not. Well guess what? I have. It's extremely painful. Guess what else? Due to my near-instantaneous healing abilities, I usually don't have to endure that pain for long. Now imagine, if you will, me having to endure that level of excruciating pain and it not going away. I wanted to throw up." Kat curled her nose. "Actually, I did throw up. Just after you left this morning. It wasn't fun, but at least afterwards I started to feel better."

"That's a relief," Marik sighed, feeling suddenly lighter. Kat's quickly scrunched face undid that. "About you not being mad at me! Not about you getting sick!" he quickly added.

Kat lightly shook her head. "I can't believe you thought I was mad at you. Am I fond of the idea that you used the Rod on me? No." She lifted herself off the floor and crawled onto the bed, straddling herself across Marik's lap while lazily wrapping her arms over his shoulders. "But I know you only did what you felt was necessary." She leaned her forehead on his. "Besides, it's comforting to know that you had some difficulty getting in. I didn't like the idea that Mal claimed it was fairly 'easy' the first time."

"Honestly, once I figured out the weak spot, it wasn't really all that hard to get in. The splitting headache is probably from me trying to find that spot."

Kat brought her head back. "What weak spot?"

Marik grinned playfully. "Sorry, can't share that info. What if I need in again? I can't have you changing out the locks."

Kat pursed her lips in annoyance. "You do know that I can get inside your head to get the answer, right? I don't need a relic to do it either."

"Oh, so it's okay that you have a key to my mind, but I'm not allowed to have one to yours?"

Kat's pout intensified. "Well since you put it that way…"

Marik wrapped his arms around his girlfriend's waist and pulled her in closer. "Don't worry, habibty…I have no intention of entering without permission or unless it's an emergency. I only ask the same in return."

Kat's pout changed to a playful smile as she leaned her face close to his. "Deal."