[ ...This is not how the Pharaoh reacted, last time. The Pharaoh bore it with shock, yes, but also with stoicism....yet Marik hadn't been there to witness the spaces between their battles, had barely given said Pharaoh time. He doesn't regret that. He had a limited amount of time during Battle City, and he had made the most of it. The fact that his enemy would sympathize had never occurred to him. Why would it? An enemy that sympathized wasn't an enemy...

He doesn't fully know what to do with this. Is certain he wouldn't have, before. And can't help but feel a faint whisper tickle his ear, telling him: this man did not do it. Did none of the things Marik had attributed to him.

Yet this man had forgiven him all of the attempted murder. Had learned of the committed murder and decided Marik was still worth saving. So he has to - now -

What is he supposed to -

Answer the question. It doesn't matter why it was asked. It doesn't! He knows the answer, so he'll give it, and then he'll...

How can he use this? How can he use this. (Out of the way, doubt.) He did this for a purpose. He has to get back on track..... ]

Your return was foreseen. We would know you by the Gods you wielded, and we would make you whole again.

Because you were our King.

[ And - that was it. There was never supposed to be an "after", for the Tombkeepers. Their reason to exist ended upon the Pharaoh's return.

Yet here Marik is. And here Atem is.

And he somehow has to pull this back around to Atem confessing to Ryou, which even Marik realizes is a little ridiculous, but that is in turn for the sake of this Pharaoh, returned to glory, liberating them from Ryslig, which is not.

But...what is this pressure from the Pharaoh, really...? What is this...reaction...? ]