A/N: I OWN NOTHING! EVERY BIT OF YU GI OH 5DS GO TO THEIR CREATORS! THE ONLY THING I OWN IS MY OCS!

Chapter 37

Casualty- Part 2

Third Person POV

Jack, Crow, Bruno, the twins, and Akiza looked up as the two Dragon Protectors hovered across from each other, preparing to make their move.

"I don't like this," Luna muttered. "In duel monsters, Ancient Fairy Dragon has a lower attack power than Black Rose Dragon. And I don't want to see Ancient die."

"Is it possible Rose has the Earthbound Immortals' power in her and controlling her?" Bruno asked.

"I haven't sensed it. And being connected to her like a normal, full Dragon Protector to Signer bond would be, I probably would sense it," Akiza replied.

"So whatever Rose has against Jayla is personal and Arch and Wing dying when Jayla returned only fuels it," Crow deduced.

"No offense, Akiza, but if it comes down to one of them living, I would rather it be Ancient," Jack told her.

"I somewhat understand. I've never thought Rose could get like this, but I can't stand the fact that she keeps hurting Jayla in every way she hand," Akiza responded. "As much as I want her to live, Ancient is the only Dragon Protector who we can trust to keep Jayla calm and not able to be controlled."

"Because Rose has been a big factor to Jayla being controlled each time," Jack reasoned.

"Exactly," Akiza responded. "I do care about Rose, but I'm not sure if she's going after Jayla for my safety alone anymore. I would be able to understand if it was protectiveness driving her to be so tense around her, but everything she's been doing… there's something else there. And I can't sense it or know what it is."

"Let's just hope this doesn't end in death, guys," Luna commented making them turn to her. "We don't need anymore Dragon Protectors dying. No matter what, it isn't right."

"She's right," Akiza agreed.

"Yeah," Crow followed. "Arch and Wing wouldn't want anymore Dragon Protectors dying today or ever again." They nodded and looked to the sky where Rose began to raise her thorn covered, whip-like vines.

. . .

As he drove, Yusei looked at Jayla who seemed tense and in pain. 'The Earthbound Immortals are making another move, aren't they?' he thought. He heard a growl and looked towards where he came from and saw Rose and Ancient getting ready to fight. 'This is getting worse and worse. I'm not sure if the Earthbound Immortals are influencing Rose at all or if they're doing something to make this in-fighting get worse and worse, but this is going to far. Ancient is defending Jayla and trying to protect her from Rose. But if Ancient dies, none of us are strong enough to protect Jayla from Rose and this unpredictable wrath against Jayla that she has. Ancient, you need to stay strong. If for anyone, for Luna and Jayla.'

Yusei heard Jayla whimper a bit and looked at her. The blood that she was losing was getting to be too much. He knew he had to get to the hospital as fast as possible. "Listen to me, Jayla. I'm right here. Hold on just a bit longer, alright? We'll get you some medical help and I'll make sure the Earthbound Immortals don't get control of you," he told her gently.

"O-Okay…" she whispered, obviously barely able to make it out with the pain.

Yusei grabbed her hands that were locked tightly around his waist to try to comfort her. "You'll be fine, I promise," he called to her soothingly and gently. One of her hands grabbed his for reassurance that he was there.

. . .

The six onlookers watched as Rose shot her vines at Ancient. The blue dragon brought her wings out even more and light shot around the area blinding all of them. Rose immediately withdrew her vines and closed her eyes tight, trying to block out the light.

Suddenly, she cried out as Ancient flew up to her, still blinding everyone, and cut off all of vines. They fell to the ground with a hard crash. Ancient flew away and finally dimmed the lighting for everyone to see the vines slowly growing back.

"You know very well that my vines will regenerate," Rose told Ancient angrily. "You won't be able to beat me. You know that well."

Ancient growled. "All I need to do," She grabbed Rose by the neck and flung her onto the ground, "is for you into submission!" She went to slap her tail on Rose's head to knock her out but Rose barely managed to avoid it. Rose growled, getting back up to Ancient's height.

The six humans turned as Trudge and Mina ran up. "Okay, what is going on here?" Trudge asked.

"Ancient and Rose are fighting," Crow answered, standing up and holding his arm.

Mina ran up. "Crow, are you alright?" she asked.

"I would've been worse," He looked at Wing's corpse, "if it weren't for Wing."

"Oh, no," she whispered.

They flipped to the battling dragons as Ancient cried out for a second to see Rose biting her neck hard.

"Ancient!" Luna called frantically and worriedly.

The blue dragon grabbed the petaled dragon's neck tight forcing Rose to let go and threw her to the side. She was panting a bit as blood dripped down her body.

"That doesn't look good," Trudge commented. "Is Rose trying to kill her or something?"

"I don't know what's wrong with Rose, but we can't let this go on," Akiza commented getting tense. "Rose! Stop this now!" But Rose's anger and attention was fixated on Ancient. "Rose, listen to me!"

"Rose, why are you doing this? What good do you think you're going to do by killing me? Or killing Jayla?" Ancient asked her. "It is because of you that Jayla keeps getting closer and closer to being controlled with no hope of returning. Even if you kill Jayla, what good will that do for the rest of the Signers? You should know that Akiza still sees Jayla as her first true friend. How would Akiza feel if Jayla died again? And how would Akiza feel about you if you were the one that murdered Jayla?"

"If Jayla dies, no one will be at risk from her murdering them again! Akiza won't, you won't, Luna won't, no one will be hurt by her!" Rose replied. "I'll be protecting all of them from that… thing!"

"Rose! Jayla may not be a full Dragon Protector anymore, but the Crimson Dragon brought her back so all the Signers, and Yusei especially, wouldn't be so badly tormented over her death," Ancient tried. "Let's stop this fight like our mistresses want before we both end up dead!"

"I can't believe you! After everything she's done since returning, even after she nearly killed Yusei that first time and hurt him recently, you still side and protect her! If she manages to kill Yusei, she'll no doubt go after Akiza and the others next! Can't you see that?!" Rose argued.

"And can't you see that Jayla's been fighting the Earthbound Immortals every time they try to control her? And that every time they get control of her for that bit of time is because she was too weak to fight them? And those times are because of you, and the weakness and fear you put into her heart," Ancient retorted. "If anyone is a danger to everyone, it's you!"

Rose lunged at Ancient. She grabbed the blue dragon with her fully regenerated, thorn covered vines which wrapped around the joints of her wings and her neck. The thorns dug deep into Ancient's flesh and more blood began to spill out.

"Ancient!" Luna called fearfully.

"Rose! Stop!" Akiza tried again. "Please! You don't want to do this! I don't want to do this! Just stop! You're going to do more harm than good!"

"Listen to them, Rose! Do you really want to do this? You'll just be helping the Immortals!" Ancient tried. Two more vines sprung out and grabbed the dragon's arms and held them apart, like an execution getting ready to take place.

"Ancient! Do something!" Luna called. But it was obvious that Ancient was stuck and the overwhelming amount of blood she was losing wasn't going to help her at all.

Akiza turned to Jack. "Jack, give me your Red Dragon Archfiend! Now!" she ordered. He didn't hesitate and gave it to her. The eldest female Signer summoned it with her powers and boarded it before taking off. Red Dragon Archfiend fired at Rose who merely fired back and deflected the blast.

"Is Rose really that blinded by anger right now?" Crow wondered in shock. "If she had fired directly at Red Dragon Archfiend, she could've killed Akiza!"

Ancient was obviously beginning to black out from blood loss and Akiza knew if she did, there was only a slim chance she would be waking up again. Red Dragon Archfiend fired at the vines this time and burned them off.

Ancient immediately fell, the injuries to the wings making it so she couldn't fly and the blood loss making it all the more difficult. Red Dragon Archfiend caught the injured, blue dragon and gently set her on the ground.

Luna immediately was by Ancient's dragon head and grabbed it. "Come on, Ancient. Wake up…" she tried.

Ancient shakily tried to get up, but her arms were injured as well and couldn't support her weight. "I… I'm… fine… Mistress," she told her through raspy breaths that held the restraining sound of pain in them. She switched into her human form and it showed that the gashes from the battle were on their as they were from her dragon form. "I'm… fine."

Akiza flew back up to Rose and glared at her. "I don't know what's wrong with you, Rose, but this needs to stop. Now!"

"Jayla is a danger to all of you! If Ancient is defending her, she is just as much of a danger to you!" Rose responded. "I am protecting you!" She tried to get Ancient again, but Akiza commanding Red Dragon Archfiend to burn the vine again.

"Rose, killing Ancient and Jayla won't protect me!" Akiza tried. "Jayla is trying to protect us from herself as it is. It isn't her fault this happened to her. And it isn't Ancient's, either. Ancient is protecting Jayla because we need Jayla to protect all of us from the Meklord Emperors. We need all three of you."

"Ancient?" came Luna's worried call. They looked to see Luna holding Ancient's unmoving body. "Ancient, wake up! Please!" The young Dragon Protector didn't move or show any signs of life. "Ancient!" The young Signer leaned over her Dragon Protector and tears began to stream down her face.

"Rose, look at what you've done," Akiza told her. "You killed a Dragon Protector who was just trying to do what was right! Ancient wasn't going to kill you like you were going to. She knew it would've been wrong on all levels to kill you. But you were so blind that you couldn't even see the truth and killed a fellow Dragon Protector!"

"I… I…" she stopped.

"What's happened to you, Rose?" Akiza asked. "The one I met would never do this. Not for any reason."

"I…" she stopped. It was almost like she had absolutely no clue what she was doing in the first place.

"I don't know what's going on with you; but until you have all this sort out and you're back to your normal self, I don't want you near any of us. Right now, I don't trust you to keep a clear mind towards any of us," Akiza told her sternly. Rose went wide eyed in shock. "If you went at Ancient for trying to protect Jayla, how am I supposed to know you won't go at Yusei or any of us next? Jayla's not the danger here right now, Rose. It's you. So go. You can come back only when you've figured out what's happened to you and how to control yourself."

"I…" Rose closed her eyes in submission. "Goodbye, Mistress." She then flew off in another direction.

The others weren't really sure what happened between Akiza and Rose, not being able to hear since they were up a good height and being focused on Luna crying form over Ancient's dead body, but they knew whatever just happened had and would continue to have a serious impact on Akiza.

All they really knew, though, is that the only Dragon Protector they had left that was trustworthy enough was Jayla. And they were certain that this wouldn't happen again.