Marik paid the cab driver then made his way up to the house. It was plainly obvious by the time they'd returned to the school earlier that morning, that Imhotep wouldn't be a source of transportation for a while.

He stuck his key in the lock (which Malik had thankfully returned), and opened the door to see the living area filled entirely with stacks of books. He carefully closed the door as a dark, furry tail snaked its way between some precariously towering tomes. Moments later several books toppled over in a mini-explosion as Kat transfigured back into a human between them.

"Dammit...I know I put it over in this area…" she muttered loudly to herself.

"Would you like some help?" Marik questioned.

Kat waved him off. "No. Just…go do your homework…or something. I'll put this all away and spend time with you as soon as I figure out where that book wandered off to."

"What's it look like?" Marik asked while casually picking up a nearby tome and thumbing through it.

"Bitey," Kat replied without turning away from her search.

"Bitey? What does that m-"

Marik had picked up another book, and just cracked it open, when a dark energy erupted from its pages. He quickly slammed it shut.

"Nope. That's not it," Kat commented, still focused on her search as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened.

Marik gently set the book back where he'd picked it up from.

"The one I'm looking for has scales and teeth."

Marik took a cautious step back from the stacks that filled the room. "I think I'll just stay out of your way…and head upstairs."

"Okay. Shouldn't be long. I know it's here somewhere…"

Marik glanced up from his textbook to again look at the newest addition to his and Kat's room. It was the strange chess table Malik had shown him at the palace. He wasn't sure if he liked its presence, but at the moment he felt it was an improvement over the giant stuffed cat that never blinked.

He could see from where he sat on the bed that several of the opponent pieces had changed in appearance, and he didn't recall there being so many branches off the main platform. He'd be lying if he said the strange board didn't intrigue him.

Curiosity won out, and he closed his textbook to go study the strange object. Like before, there was still a singular 'Queen', along with three 'King' pieces.

One particular King was placed on a different platform, with the Bishop placed nearby. It was obvious, based on the information Malik had given him before, that those pieces represented Atem and Bakura.

Another King was placed on a level near the main board, along with the strange piece that Malik said was most likely Imhotep. That King had to be Yugi.

The final King was placed fairly close to the Queen, with the Knight placed in a way that it could aid the Queen or the Bishop.

Marik lifted the piece off the board as it slowly dawned on him who the third King was.

"Me?" he said quietly as he stared curiously at the piece in his hand.

A smile slowly found its way forth as his realization expanded further. It was nice to know that she thought of him as a 'King', and that she preferred to stay closest to him.

He placed the piece back on the board, but as he did it changed shape. Several new levels had appeared, branching off randomly from the other levels.

"How did you…?"

Marik startled and spun around at the sound of Kat's voice behind him.

He held his hands up, having been caught red-handed playing around with the board. "I swear, I just touched one piece! I put it right back!"

Kat set the armful of books she'd brought upstairs with her onto the bed. She glanced between Marik and the board as she made her way towards him.

"You shouldn't have been able to make it react," Kat said as she moved the piece one space to the left, causing the board to revert back. "It normally only works for gods."

"So what does that make you?" Marik asked, catching onto her phrasing.

Kat stared sadly at the board before turning away. "Someone who refuses to ascend."

"Ascend? You mean like how you told me you were 'worthy' of being the one to replace Anubis?"

"Well, there's that too…but no. To Ascend is to take your place within the pantheon. Unlike Mal and Kura, I was created with a purpose in mind."

Marik recalled what Bakura had told him. "You mean bringing about the End…"

Kat plopped down on the bed, folding her hands in her lap as she fixed her gaze towards the floor between them. "Let me guess…Kura?"

Marik nodded. "Yeah."

"I'm not meant to destroy the whole world like Apep or anything…just reclaim it for the gods. Basically I'm a 'We fucked up, time to wipe out humanity so we can try again with humanity 2.0' option."

"Sounds like a heavy burden," Marik stated while sitting down next to her.

Kat continued to stare sadly at the floor. "Do you have any idea what it's like to delight in something that you know is morally wrong?"

"I led a criminal organization full of mind slaves…"

Kat smiled at the comment. "Point taken." She leaned into her boyfriend's shoulder, simultaneously wrapping her arms around him.

"So…did you ever find that book you were looking for?" Marik asked while placing an arm around her and pulling her in even closer.

"Hm? Oh! The bestiary! Yeah!" Kat said enthusiastically while leaping up and rushing over to where she'd placed her pile of books. "Right here!" she said while holding up a book covered in dark scales.

"You called it 'bitey'..." Marik said in reminder, feeling somewhat leary of the tome she held.

"Of course I did," Kat said with a cheery smile. She stroked along the spine, and a large, slitted eye opened on the cover.

"Holy shit…it's alive…" Marik said in disbelief while quickly getting up to put distance between him and the book.

"Well yeah…it's a bestiary. It makes sense that it's alive," Kat said with an eye roll, obviously not seeing the problem with having a living book.

"Uh…hate to break it to you…but most bestiaries aren't."

Kat gave Marik a very puzzled look. "There are legit tomes written by people about mythical creatures? How does that work? Mortals barely have the mental capacity to understand the complexities of magic…how can they write books about creatures that are made of pure magic?"

Marik couldn't help but stare blankly for an uncomfortably-long moment. "You're just messing around with me…right? There's no way you don't know…"

Kat held the living tome close to her chest, looking away uncomfortable. "Kura and Mkhai are the literary nerds…I only crack open a book when I need to find something. I guess whenever mortals mentioned bestiaries, I assumed they were referring to draconic beings that hoard creature knowledge like the one I'm holding."

Marik furled his brow. "That's a DRAGON?"

Kat quickly nodded her head. "Uh-huh, wanna see?"

She spoke in a babied tone towards the book as if coaxing it. The eye on the cover appeared to relax as the tome opened up, allowing a spindly draconic body to unfold from between the pages as Kat set the creature on the bed. Apparently the 'book' was its head, with its limbs acting as 'bookmarks'.

"This particular little guy goes by the title 'jaci svaust vucotic aijidvat fueryoni'...'he who knows mythic beasts'."

"Simple and straight-forward, nice," Marik commented, debating on whether he was comfortable approaching the creature. "So…you needed a bestiary because…?"

"Oh…I was hoping to find more information about the Phoenix…" Kat replied quietly, averting her gaze.

"Its disappearance still bothers you, doesn't it?"

Kat wrapped her arms around herself while turning her head away. "It doesn't matter. I didn't really find the answer I was looking for anyway."

"Okay…" Marik didn't like the level of discomfort his girlfriend was currently displaying. "So…what's with all the other books? I assume you brought them up for a reason?" he asked, as both a small distraction and because he was genuinely curious.

Kat said something to the bestiary (Marik assumed the language was Draconic), then offered it a small snack that she'd apparently kept hidden in a pocket. The dragon quickly devoured the snack before vanishing in a puff of smoke.

"I assume you know that Nephthys helped in creating the ritual that revived Osiris," Kat stated as she sorted through the books that remained on the bed.

Marik nodded as he warily re-approached the bed. After the dragon-tome, he didn't want to chance running into any more surprises.

Kat lifted a tome covered in glittering runes that looked strikingly similar to the hieratic texts Marik had spent most of his life studying.

"Nephthys also created the spell that preserved Atem's body, with Kebechet and I being the casters. My grandmother also edited the original resurrection rite so that it could be used to restore Atem's soul to his body. The one key ingredient she unfortunately couldn't omit was the blood of an heir, which is why I ended up with the issue of not being able to revive Atem sooner."

"Okay…" Marik said as he seated himself beside the pile of books. He could tell his girlfriend was struggling to get what was currently weighing on her mind off her chest. He assumed it was because she was still getting used to the idea that she could talk about this sort of thing with someone outside of those she'd spent millennia with.

Kat took a deep breath as she sat beside him, still holding the book in her hand like it was an anchor of sorts.

"I need to know if not being prepared for the ritual messed something up. Maybe there were some sort of adverse effects to his body being dead for five millennia. Or what if sealing away his memories while he was still trapped had some sort of permanent repercussions? There are so many possibilities that could explain the things that have been happening with him. I just…I have to know if it was something that could have been avoided."

"Why? If it's already done, how does scouring for answers on how it could have been prevented in the first place do any good?" Marik questioned. "I thought maybe after the other day you'd have figured out that lingering with your mind on the past and all the 'what ifs' only pulls you down into the darkest parts of your mind."

Kat sat in silent contemplation for a long moment.

"Do you not dwell on how you might have changed things?" she asked quietly.

"Nope. Do I feel guilt? Yes…but what's done is done. I can't undo it. I can only move forward and try to prevent myself from walking that path again," Marik replied, trying to hide his annoyance. "I have to admit, it baffles me to no end that beings that live forever spend so much of their time wrapped up in the past."

Kat's brow furled bitterly. "I spent millennia looking forward to a future that never came. I have nothing else to look at except the past."

Marik felt his heart drop as jealousy began to surface. Kat had chosen him over Atem, but for some reason she made it feel as though he came second to the former Pharaoh.

"What about the present? Is focusing on what's right in front of you not enough?" he asked while trying to keep his current emotion under control.

The dawning realization in Kat's eyes as she spun her head towards him made the jealousy he felt quickly transition to guilt.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for that to come out the way it did," he quickly apologized.

"No, you have nothing to apologize for…but I do," Kat said as she set the book she still clutched off to the side. She lifted a hand and rested it on his cheek. "I don't mean to make you feel as though Atem is more important."

Marik leaned into the hand on his face, enjoying its warmth as he brought up his own hand to wrap the fingers around hers. "I know you don't," he said, meeting her gaze. "And I know he was important to you for a very long time…but it's hard to not be a bit jealous some days. You two will always have something that binds you together…and it makes me wonder, what do we have that's special between us? A thousand years from now, if I'm gone…what would make me stand out from all the other faces in your life? Would you even miss me? Or would I just be another long-forgotten lover?"

Kat's face softened as she gazed fondly up at him. "If you part from this life, I would look for your reincarnation in hopes that maybe you'll still look at me with eyes that see me. That you would still be remarkably understanding and patient. You and I…we might not have been childhood friends, but that doesn't mean there's nothing special between us."

"So what do we have?" Marik asked, still wondering what they had, that she and Atem didn't.

Kat was silent for a long moment as she appeared to think of an answer. "What about the fact that we're both navigating new territory together? You've never cared about someone in the way that you care about me, and you are the first person outside of Atem that I've ever cared about on a romantic level."

Marik felt disappointed by her answer, even though it was true.

"That's not what you wanted to hear…is it?" Kat asked.

His face must have given away how he felt. "I don't know what I wanted to hear," he said despondently.

Kat tilted her head in observation. "You want more. You want lasting memories to look back upon."

Marik brought the hand on his face down, keeping hold of it as he stared at the space between them. "Yeah. I guess I want to have the kinds of memories Atem has of you. Even though things didn't end up the greatest between you, he still smiles when he thinks about the two of you doing things together."

"So then let's go do something that's guaranteed to make both of us smile. That no matter how shitty it might turn out, we'll still have had fun and walk away in good spirits."

"Do you have something in mind?" Marik asked halfheartedly.

Kat maneuvered her head so that she could look him in the eyes while smiling knowingly. "Wanna see my motorcycle collection and take a few out for a spin?"

Marik couldn't help but smile at the suggestion. His girlfriend knew him too well. "What kind of a question is that? You already know the answer."

Kat leaned forward so that her nose touched his. "Then hurry up and get changed into something more appropriate."

I used draconic. twilightrealm to create the translation for the bestiary title.