AnimeKiwi369: Considering that I got 14 reviews for the prologue, I'm going to update.

Copper: Oh, that's good.

AnimeKiwi369: Yep! And I'm feeling a lot better!

Copper: That's really good.

AnimeKiwi369: Yeah. Okay. So the story picks up,weel, thirty-seven years after Zero Reverse and twent after the Signer-Dark Signer war and a few weeks after TWENTY YEARS AGO and REMINISCENCES.

Copper: All right.

AnimeKiwi369: It starts out a bit slow, though. I really doesn't pick up until chapter 3.

Copper: Like last time.

AnimeKiwi369: Yeah, kinda. Onto the disclaimer. I don't Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or its characters. I only own my own characters (OCs) and the storyline.

Chapter 1

Back to the Routine

Thirty-Seven Years Later…

Fourteen year-old Cyli-Elizabeth, better known as Copper, Fudo, turned off the alarm clock as it annoyingly went off and threw her pillow over the back of her head, trying to go back to sleep. Her waist-long dark hair that was shot through with red lay in tangles down her back. She slept on her stomach, ignoring the pain in her ribs that were still healing after her duel with Sayer when she had gone twenty years into the past a few weeks ago. Her wrist was still in a splint as it healed from its severe sprain. Although her blue-indigo flecked with dark amber gold eyes were closed, she couldn't fall asleep again.

"Copper, wake up, sweetie." Her mother, Akiza, called through the intercom. She was downstairs in the kitchen, making breakfast. It was Sunday, luckily, so both of Copper's parents were home for the day. She didn't respond to her mother, "C'mon, Copper, it's time to get up; I know you know you have an appointment today to see how you're healing. Get up."

"Make me." She replied with her words muffled.

"If you don't come down I'm coming up with Rose Tentacles."

Copper lifted her head a little and pressed the intercom button on the speaker on the wall, "You wouldn't do that."

"Maybe." Akiza responded slyly, "I will come up there if you don't get up. And if I don't your dad will. You don't know his methods."

Copper didn't respond. She just stuffed the pillow back over her head. Her mother didn't say anything else, but Copper did hear someone come up the stairs. She heard her door open and a pair of footsteps approach her. She felt her mattress go up a little as one of her parents sat down on her bed. They lifted her pillow and then hit her in the head with it, playfully before they put it back on the back of her head. Copper grabbed her pillow and hit her parent in their chest as payback. She rolled over onto her back and opened her eyes at her father sitting next to her. He had on his normal black jeans and brown, leather riding boots, and had a black v-neck tee-shirt on; he didn't have his jacket on, so his Dragon Head Mark was exposed and his black hair with gold highlights was in its normal messy, strange style. She sat up.

"You have strange methods." She commented, "Fine. I'm up."

"About time, baby." He told her and kissed her forehead, "Now get dressed. Your mother almost has breakfast ready."

"All right." She responded with a yawn, attempting to stretch, but immediately regretting it and grabbed her ribcage. Her father rubbed her back in a soothing manner. Copper kissed her father on top of his marker, "Thanks."

Yusei kissed his daughter's forehead again, "No problem. I'll be downstairs with your mother, okay."

"All right." She responded again as her father got off her bed and left the room. Copper slowly got off her bed and went over to her dresser. She dressed in a pair of jean shorts, a red off the shoulder shirt, black stockings similar to her mother's and riding boots similar to her father's. She hadn't been able to wear her long black gloves since she had received her splint the previous week. She looked at her right arm, trying to study her new overlapping Marks she had gotten when she controlled both her parents' dragons during her duel against Sayer; however, the splint covered most of them. She put her energy stabilizer bracelet on her left wrist. She tried to mess with her hair, but eventually gave up. Ever since she got back to her own time she hadn't been putting it in her usual braid as often.

Copper walked downstairs slowly and into the kitchen where her father sat at the table with a runner schematic in from of him; her mother's back was to her as she prepared breakfast for each of them. Her mother had on a knee-length dark red skirt and short-sleeve white blouse with her normal black stockings, necklaces, bracelet, and red heels, but she didn't have her gloves on, so her Dragon Claw Mark showed. Her red hair was styled how she almost always had it.

Akiza turned around, looked at daughter, and smiled a soft smile at her, "I see you finally decided to join us, honey."

"I'd join you eventually. I'm just tired today." She responded, stifling another yawn as she went over and hugged her mother. Copper was very close to her parents; they'd been even closer since the whole 'Sayer incident'.

"How late were you up, exactly?" Yusei asked, not looking up from the schematic.

"Two-thirty." She told them a bit sheepishly as she sat down at the table.

"Why?" he asked.

"I was going over my runner and I had the TV on. And I had on an episode of Masterpiece Mystery."

"You really get into those, don't you?" her mother inquired setting a plate in front of her.

"Yeah, when they're on, anyway." She told them with a wink and tossed her long hair behind her shoulder. Both her parents laughed a little bit and her father put the schematics away for the moment as his wife set a plate in front of him before sitting down across from him. A comfortable silence fell upon the three occupants of the kitchen. As Copper helped her mother clean up, the phone rang. The dark-haired Signer was closest to the phone.

"Hello?" he asked, not looking at the caller ID.

"Hey, Yusei." Kalin greeted on the other end, "Do you think you guys' could pick Lane up after you're done at the hospital? Misty's at a photo shoot and I have to take Mikaylan to the movies before I get the groceries with Gabe. And his runner needs a tune up that I'm gonna fix later. I'm swamped today and I know that Copper and Lane have practice today."

"Yeah, sure. We can do that." He responded.

"Thanks."

"No problem, Kalin. Bye."

"See ya, later." Both the duelist hung up the phone.

"What does Kalin want, dad?" Copper asked as soon as the phone was back in the handset.

"Kalin wants us to pick Lane up after we're done with at the hospital for your guys' practice. He's got a lot to do today."

"Oh." She responded and looked down to hide the blush forming on her face. Ever since she had gotten back, she and Lane had been a bit distant, but also closer at the same time. Back when she had been in the past, Martha had teased her about liking the former Dark Signer's son, which she had denied. But she did like him.

"Something wrong?" her father asked noticing her face was a bit red.

"It's nothing, dad." She told him, smiling brightly.

"You sure?" Akiza inquired.

"Yeah, mom." Copper replied, "I'm perfectly fine. We should get going." She told them, looking at the clock.

"You're right." Her father admitted and got up to grab a set of keys. He walked into the garage with two of his favorite girls in tow.

Just back to the normal routine.

Copper slid into the back seat and leaned back.

"I really hate hospitals." She commented as her parents got in. Akiza chuckled a little bit.

"I'm pretty sure nearly everyone does hon." She told her daughter, "Trust me; I really don't care for hospitals either. Especially after your father was in that surgery for over eleven hours."

"You weren't the one stuck in the hospital for over two months." Yusei commented as he pulled out of the garage, "That was torture."

"I know that." Copper sighed, "I was really worried about you, but not more than mom."

"I was really worried." Akiza agreed and touched her husband's arm, "But that's behind us now."

"Yeah." He agreed.

The rest of the drive to the hospital was in pleasant silence again. They waited in the waiting room for several minutes until they took Copper to go she how she was doing with recovery.

"She's doing very well, but she still has a long way to go with her ribcage, but her wrist should be completely healed by next Wednesday." The doctor told her parents as they looked at the x-rays, while a nurse changed out the bandages around her abdomen. She really wanted to be rid of these injuries already. She held her hair up as best she could, so it didn't interfere with the nurse's steady hands.

I really hate that guy. Copper thought vehemently, thinking back to that duel. It had been so close and Sayer had, had the upper hand for most of it. But thanks to her parents' and her dragons, she had won.

The nurse led her back to her parents and they left quickly. Copper began to feel uneasy as they approached at Kessler/Tredwell-Kessler apartment. She felt another blush form on her face as Lane got in the backseat next to her. She moved a little closer to the door. An awkward silence filled the backseat as they drove back to the Fudo household. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Lane did and their hands brushed. Both pulled their hands away from the other faster than someone could say the word 'dragon'.

As soon as the car pulled into the garage, Copper hastily got out of the car. She went up to her room and changed into her practice dance shoes and more flexible clothing. She quietly went back downstairs to find her parents curled up on the couch comfortably. Akiza laughed a little bit as Yusei kissed her where her neck and shoulder met. Copper smiled a little; her parents still acted like newlyweds sometimes. They were so cute together.

"I'm going to assume Lane went down into the basement." She commented, causing her parents to look up.

"You'd be right, as usual." Her father told her, beginning to kiss his wife from the temple down to her jaw line.

"Thanks." She responded and left for the basement.

Yusei continued to kiss Akiza down her neck and to her shoulder as she laughed softly. She detached herself from him a little and kissed him deeply on his lips placing her hands on his chest.

"You still owe me." He told her as they paused for a few seconds before he returned her kiss. She took off her shoes and stood up.

"Catch me." She challenged, touching an exposed part of his chest and quietly dashed upstairs to their bedroom.

"Oh, you already know I can." He responded, taking off after her.

Copper heard footsteps go up the stairs as she descended the stairs to the basement. So glad that nothing above the first floor can be heard in the basement. She thought smirking. Her parents had been a lot closer to each other in the past few weeks.

Lane was in the basement, stretching to prepare for practice. Once a couple of years ago, he hadn't stretched and ended up pulling a muscle. Copper laughed inwardly at the memory a little. It wasn't funny at the time, but in hindsight it was. The dark-haired girl felt her face heat up a little as she met the ice-blue-haired boy's gaze as she stretched a little bit. But it was painful because of her still-healing ribcage.

"Ready?" she asked after a few minutes, but he didn't answer at first, "Uh…Lane?" she asked and saw his face flush.

"What? Yeah." He responded, "Let's get started."

Copper turned on the stereo with a remote and stuck it in her pocket of her shorts. She took Lane's hand and placed the other on his shoulder, as well as stepping closer to him, while he placed one hand on her waist, causing both to blush deeper. They looked away from each other as they started dancing. They had been working on the routine for a couple months and had the steps memorized, but it wasn't as good as it normally would've been.

They weren't connecting like they always had. Since they were little, they had always had a connection. The first time they had ever danced with each other was at Luna and Daniel's wedding when they were six. It had just been for fun, but it had soon grown into doing competitions. And they had always had chemistry with each other. Almost like the chemistry their parents had.

This is so awkward, Copper thought as she missed the step she had down the best, causing both to stumble and fall. The dark-haired girl ended up on her back, pain filling her ribcage. She winced at the pain and looked dazed at the ceiling. She felt something heavy on top of her and looked to see Lane on top of her, his face just a few centimeters away. She felt a deep blush form on her face as well as his.

"Umm…" she trailed off awkwardly. Correction, this is even more awkward.

"Uh," he responded, his longish hair tickling her face.

"Could you maybe, umm…get off?" she asked slowly and embarrassedly, "I'm, uh, still healing."

"Uh, right." Lane responded and pushed himself off of her. He extended his hand and the dark-haired girl had a brief flashback of when Kalin had done the same thing back in the past when he had startled her. "Copper?" the older of the Kessler boys asked, snapping the said girl out of her thoughts.

"Huh?" she asked, looking at his extended hand and then realized what he was offering, "Oh, yeah."

She took his hand and he helped her up. The high dance heels she was in, caused her to stumbled a bit, but she was able to keep from falling. And able to stifle her blush from deepening any further. She turned the stereo back on and the two restarted their routine, ignoring the pain still in her ribcage.

A Couple Hours Later

Copper gratefully took off the high heels as her and Lane's practice ended. She let out a sigh. She was exhausted. Normally, she wouldn't have been, but because of her ribcage, she got winded a bit easily. And her ribs still ached from that fall.

"What now?" Lane asked. The young, new Signer looked at the clock.

"I guess we could eat lunch or something." She responded a bit awkwardly; she wanted for him to leave because of how they had been feeling towards each other lately, but she didn't want him to leave at the same time. They headed up the stairs and heard running water from up above. Guess mom and dad are taking a shower. She thought quietly and absently. She felt a hand close around her arm and she looked at Lane, "What?"

He pointed in front of her and she saw she had about to run into a wall. Her head just wasn't with her today. At least since Lane showed up anyway. She sighed and pulled away from him, heading into the kitchen. She took a couple aspirin before she started cooking to attempt to get rid of the pain. Copper had pretty good culinary skills, since she did cook a restaurant-style meal for her parents on their anniversary, but she fixed herself and Lane simple sandwiches.

The two duelists ate in silence, feeling more uncomfortable than ever. They snuck glances at each other when they thought the other wasn't looking. But they noticed. When they had been younger, their parents had joked that they would be cute together. Neither one thought it was a joke anymore.

She found herself beginning to stare at Lane. He looked so much like Kalin...And he was awfully handsome...

She snapped herself out of it when her eyes met with his and another blush formed on her face. She noticed a blush on his face again, too. Copper put the dishes away as her parents came into the kitchen, their hair damp from their shower. Yusei had his arm around Akiza's shoulders as they came in. She smirked slightly at them as their eyes met, forgetting Lane was there.

"So, uh, how was practice?" Copper's father asked a bit flustered from what his daughter knew. She was too smart sometimes...

"Fine." She responded hastily while Lane stayed silent.

"Is something wrong?" Akiza asked noticing the awkwardness between her daughter and Misty's eldest son.

"It's nothing, Akiza. Really." Lane insisted.

"Although we did kinda trip at the beginning, but we're all right…I think." Copper said quietly, rubbing her head.

"What do you mean 'kinda'?" Yusei asked, putting a hand on his daughter's shoulder.

Copper looked down, to hide her blush from the memory, "I missed a step and we fell back onto the floor. And I landed on my back."

"Are you all right?" Akiza asked, wrapping her arms around her daughter in a heartbeat.

"Yeah, I took some aspirin about ten minutes ago. I'll be fine."

"Sometimes I wonder if your resilience is a good thing or a bad thing." Her mother told her and then looked at Yusei, "She gets that from you and the same applies to you."

"It must be another Fudo trait." He stated.

"It must." Copper agreed, half-joking.

"What are you guys going to do now that your practice is over?" Yusei asked. Copper looked at Lane, who merely shrugged.

"Don't know, dad." She responded.

"You could go meet up with Raven and John somewhere—" Akiza began suggesting, but the phone cut her off and she grabbed it, "Hello?"

"Hey, Akiza." Dove greeted on the other end.

"Oh, hey Dove." The female Signer replied as Copper came beside her mother and listened in.

"Is it all right if Raven stays with you guys overnight since she and Copper have volleyball in the morning and Crow and I have the ultrasound in the morning?"

"Raven and I wanted to go see one of our friends in the hospital, too." Copper whispered.

"Oh, sure, Dove. It's fine." The redhead replied, "Just bring her over whenever."

"'Kay. Thanks Kizi!" the other woman chimed using a nickname she had given the female Signer a while ago before hanging up.

The older psychic hung up the phone and looked at her husband, "The only ones we haven't heard from today are the Atlas' and the twins." She said nonchalantly.

Copper laughed a little and twirled her hair, "True. How true, mom." She laughed.

Lane couldn't help but stare at one of his two best female friends. The way her gorgeous blue-indigo flecked with dark amber gold eyes twinkled with amusement and the way she would twirl her dark, streaked with red hair. It always curled gently at its tips when it wasn't in her usual braid. Her laugh was so melodious it was mesmerizing. All of it was very cute. Wait! Why was he thinking all of this?

The ice-blue-haired boy felt a hand on his shoulder and looked at Copper's father. He felt another blush form on his face; he looked around the kitchen. Neither of the Fudo women was there.

"Uh…" he trailed off awkwardly.

"They went to go see if Copper's ribcage is sensitive at all from that fall." Yusei answered, as if reading his mind. The aging duelist sat down in the chair his daughter had been sitting in earlier and looked at one of his best friends' sons, "You like my daughter, don't you Lane?"

"What?" he exclaimed, "No, no! We're just friends. I don't like her!" he insisted, "No matter how cute she is and acts." He added in a low tone, looking away and down.

Yusei chuckled a little, "Denial. The first sign."

"What first sign?" Lane asked, confused. He was a bit afraid of what the man before him was about to say. Yusei leaned back a little in the chair and looked at the ceiling.

"The first sign of how you can tell you like someone." The dark-haired Signer answered, closing his eyes, "I can't even count how many times I denied liking Akiza when I was younger. Time flies so fast! It's been so long ago since I denied liking my wife. Most people deny, but not all. Crow didn't with Dove and neither did your parents or John's. But most people do go through denial." He said, opening his eyes before looking the boy straight in the eyes.

"I'm not in denial." Lane objected, but the blush across his face gave him away…Again.

"I'm sure you two will admit it when you're ready." He responded, getting up, definitely not believing Kalin's eldest son, and began to head towards the garage, "Who knows? Maybe it'll be sooner than you think. Oh, and Lane?"

"Yeah, Yusei?"

"No kissing until you two are at least fifteen." He said, "Or 'messing around' until you're married. And no matter what, she'll always be my little girl."

Lane sighed and hit his head on the table as the door to garage closed, with the sound of an engine beginning to be worked on faintly sounding.

"Parents." He muttered, "They know too much."

Up with Copper and Akiza

The dark-haired psychic winced as her mother's hand ran around her back, trying to find any sensitive spots. Akiza looked at her daughter's pained face and began to look through the medicine cabinet for something to put on it. They were in Copper's bathroom and the said girl kept having to hold her hair over her shoulder as the female Signer gently began to put some medicine on her ribcage. She bit her lip to suppress a cry of pain as it was put over the most painful place on her back.

"Sorry." Akiza apologized as she finished rewrapping the bandages on her daughter, "Sometimes I wish you were more careful."

"Sorry, but we got kinda distracted." Copper told her mother, trying to suppress a blush.

"How did you get distracted, sweetheart?" the redhead asked.

"We're kinda distant lately, mom." She admitted; she had always been able to open up to her mother easily. Ever since she had been little, she'd always been to tell Akiza what was bothering her or what she was afraid of. The only time they hadn't been very close was when Copper developed her powers; both had been afraid, but had quickly gotten over it with Yusei's help. Copper and her mother had a very close relationship.

"You like him, don't you hon?" the redheaded psychic asked and another blush spread across Copper's soft features.

"No." she responded bluntly.

"You like him, don't you?" her mother repeated with an amused smile on her lips.

"Kinda." She admitted, "But I'm not sure if I should tell him."

Akiza took her daughter's hand and gave it a gently, reassuring squeeze, "You'll be ready to tell him in time. However, there is a ground rule—" she started.

"I know mom." The young girl interrupted, "No kissing until I'm at least fifteen. Or 'messing around' until I'm married." She said, pulling her shirt back over her head, "And no matter what happens, I'll always be your and dad's little girl."

"Does your back feel any better?" the female Signer asked, going back to one of the initial subjects.

"Yeah, but it still hurts." The dark-haired girl responded.

"And it will until you learn to be careful. Are you sure you should do volleyball tomorrow?" she asked.

"I need to brush up on my skills. Plus, I really want to get out of the house." The dark-haired girl replied.

"Still, I wish you'd learn to be more careful." Akiza reiterated and laughed a little, "Which may never happen."

"And why's that?" Copper inquired, playing along. Her mother kissed her cheek gently.

"Because you're a Fudo."

AnimeKiwi369: Yeah, sorry if Yusei and Akiza seem out of character. Or if Copper and Lane are blushing too much.

Copper: Whatever.

AnimeKiwi369: Oh, don't be like that. You know you like him.

Copper: I hate when you're right.

AnimeKiwi369: I don't know when the next chapter will be up, because I'm going to be crazy busy this week doing catch-up and make-ups and I have a play, so I'm swamped.

Copper: All right.

Animeiwi369: Please be kind and please review. And I appreciate everyone who does/did. So please review! ^^