AnimeKiwi369: Eh...Ugh...Er...Ngh...Oi...

Copper: What are you talking about?

AnimeKiwi369: Brain fried. Can't think to say anything. Uh...

Copper: Finals?

AnimeKiwi369: Finals. *Becomes more alive*. But I'm now on winter break!

Copper: That's good. What's the chapter about?

AnimeKiwi369: Oh, you'll see. But the others are in it more!

Copper: Finally.

AnimeKiwi369: Oof... Do disclaimer.

Copper: Fine. AnimeKiwi369 doe not own Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's or its characters; she only own her own characters, like me, and the story.

Chapter 3

Relative Shock

Copper leaned back on the park bench as she and Raven stopped momentarily after practice. They were on their way to the hospital to see one of their friends that hadn't been able to go to practice, due to a tonsillectomy. Everywhere on the dark-haired girl hurt. I am going to get the scolding of a lifetime when mom and dad find out. Martha would probably kill me if she found out or dad for letting me go. She thought, almost chuckling. She took a long drink from the bottle of water she had brought with her and poured the rest on her head, trying to cool down.

"Tired?" Raven asked breathlessly.

"Yeah." She responded, taking out her gloves from the mini backpack and put them on, "Oh, I shouldn't have done so many dives."

"But it's a natural reaction for you." The ginger pointed out, "Like blushing."

"Blushing is not a natural reaction for me." She shot back, looking at her friend, "That's almost like saying John Atlas isn't arrogant."

A blush spread across her friend's face, contrasting her carroty hair color, as their blonde friend's name came up. Copper's eyes widened slightly as she realized who her best girlfriend liked. The dark-haired girl laughed and laughed until her sides began to hurt more.

"C'mon Copper!" Raven begged.

"Sorry. It's just that you teased me about liking Lane last night and you like John."

"I don't like—"

"Stop right there." She commanded, "You shouldn't deny when the truth is written all over your face. I didn't deny last night."

"Yes you did." Raven argued.

"Not for very long." Copper shot back playfully and looked at the watch she had put on after practice, "C'mon, Raven, we better get going if we wanna make it in time for lunch with the guys."

"Yeah." She agreed.

The two girls got up and began to walk again. It took a while to get to the hospital, but by the time they got there, it was about quarter to one. They walked down to the elevator and went up a few floors. The walk down to the end was silent. As the two new female Signers' were about to go into their friend's room, when something caught Copper's eye. It was the name on the nameplate right across the hall.

N. Fudo.

Fudo? Who was it? 'Fudo' wasn't a common last name in Domino, but she didn't know about anywhere else. Was it possible that…that either her father's mother or father was...alive?

She shook her head as she noticed Raven tugging on her long hair; it was probably just a mistake. Just some typo a nurse made while making the sign for the nameplate. Nothing more. But still… It didn't feel like a coincidence. She took her eyes away and went into her friend's room.

East was a lying in the hospital bed, smiling weakly. She had light shoulder-length, brunette hair that was spread across the pillows. She had chocolate colored eyes that were tired.

Copper sat in a chair that was by the bed opposite of her ginger-haired friend. Though she did want to see her friend, after seeing that nameplate, that was all she could keep her mind on. That and she really, really didn't like hospitals much since she had returned. It reminded her too much of what Sayer had done to her father during that duel. She sighed a little. But if that never happened mom would've never told dad how she felt about him. And then I'd have a slimmer chance of being born. She argued with herself.

"So how've you two been?" East asked them in a hoarse voice from the tonsillectomy.

"I'm good." Raven answered, "My parents are expecting even more again."

Copper stayed silent. She wasn't sure how she should put what had happened to her in the past few weeks. It wasn't exactly easy to explain. It wasn't even easy telling Martha and her grandparents, Hideo and Setsuko Izinski, Akiza's parents. It was difficult to tell her grandparents that Sayer had returned. They hadn't been happy about it; they hated what he had done to their daughter before the war and what he had done to their son-in-law. And now what he had done to their only grandchild. But they had been glad that the dark-haired girl had been all right. It was actually a bit difficult to retell her story to them without tearing up. Luckily, her parents had been by her side the whole time, holding her whenever tears fell. That night she had eventually fallen asleep with her head in her father's lap again.

"Copper?" East's scratchy voice asked.

"Hmmm?" she asked, coming out of her thoughts, "Oh, I've been all right, I guess."

"Well, what's happened?" the recovering girl inquired.

The dark-haired girl looked at the ginger for help, unsure what to say, "Well, it's a bit hard to explain. Let's just say that I had a little adventure that ended in this." She answered cryptically as she pulled down her glove to reveal the overlapping dragon head and claw patterns, "Not to mention several broken and cracked ribs and a severely sprained wrist."

"So does that mean that you've become a Signer like your parents?"

Copper nodded again, "So did Raven, John, and Luna's daughter, Zoey."

"Wow. That's amazing." East commented. The psychic nodded again. She didn't know what else to do. She didn't know how she should respond, "How did you get the Marks? Did they just appear?"

"I used both my parents' dragons in a duel. After I summoned my dad's they just appeared. I'd rather not talk about this right now. My head's not with me lately. Especially right now."

"Okay, it's fine. Some other time then?" the brunette suggested. The mostly blue-indigo-eyed girl again nodded. The three girls, mainly East and Raven doing it, talked for about an hour before the two that had their parents' Marks had to leave. The girls said their good-byes and the new Signers left. As Copper saw the nameplate again, she couldn't help but let her curiosity take her over.

"29, ain't ya comin'?" Raven asked as she saw her friend approach the door opposite of their ailing friend.

"In a minute." She responded in a daze. The door was open, like most were. She had to find out if it really was one of her grandparents that she and her dad had believed to be dead for so long. If it was, everything was going to change.

The dark-haired duelist went into the hospital room where a single hospital bed was. She went by it and looked at the single occupant of the room. It was a woman. Probably in her early sixties. Her skin looked delicate and had a similar shade to her and her mother's. There were nearly invisible scars on a few places on her cheeks. The woman's hair was about medium brunette that was shot through with bits of gray that lay in long tangles. She didn't look like she was very tall.

A few wires were attached to her. Her wrists were wrapped up to keep the wires and tubes in place. A heart monitor stood nearby as well as a brainwave activity monitor. The woman's chest moved up and down rhythmically, like it should've been. An oxygen mask lay nearby. The slow sounds emitting from the machines put the new Signer in even more in shock.

Copper couldn't believe it. She had seen this woman many times before. Almost every day she saw her in a photograph, in the hall; she had even seen it in the past! She couldn't believe this. She slowly began to back away. She wasn't sure what she should feel. Maybe her eyes were betraying her. Or something like it. The dark-haired girl fell backward a little bit and her ginger-haired friend caught her. She looked up at her friend.

"Raven, get me outta this place, before I require one of these rooms."

Half an Hour Later

Copper kept staring at the table of the pizzeria that she and her friends had gone to for lunch. The restaurant was actually owned by Dove's one and only brother, Raven's uncle, Randy. He was one of the few people in her immediate family that didn't care about her tennis career, but her.

The dark-haired duelist just couldn't get her mind off of it. Her father's mother was actually...alive. It was…It was…a lot to swallow after all of them had believed her dead for so long. Yusei had lived his entire life not knowing that the woman who had brought him into the world was still alive. How was that possible? And why hadn't she come looking for her son when he had been all over the news nearly twenty-one years ago as he became duel champ? What was even her name? All she knew was that is started with an 'n'.

Her grandmother had been alive for thirty-seven years without anyone knowing. What had happened to her in those nearly four decades? Had she gotten remarried? Had a new family? Or had she missed her husband and Yusei so much, that she just couldn't commit herself to another man and another family? What had she done? Why was she in the hospital? What had happened to her?

Copper remembered something that her father had told her when he had told her about his and her mother's wedding day back when she was six. 'I'll never forget how I saw my parent's spirits as your mommy and I looked out among our friends and family. But my mother's spirit was different somehow. I don't care about that though. Just the fact that they had seen the ceremony filled my heart so much. I'm never going to forget that.' That had been the one week it had been just her and Yusei since Akiza had to go out of town to help out at a wedding.

If her father's mother's spirit was somehow different, then what was it? Was it possible she had been in a coma for thirty-seven years? That couldn't be possible, could it? That might explain why she was in the hospital.

This is going to change everything so much…she thought, still dazed.

"Hey! Copper, why are ya spacing out? You never space out." John's slightly Australian accented voice demanded, breaking her thoughts.

"Huh? What?" she asked, bringing her head up to look at her friend across the table. He and Raven sat next to each other across from her and Lane. Lane? Had she been so spaced out and distracted that she hadn't noticed her ice-blue-haired friend sit next to her? Or had one of her other two friends pushed him into that seat? She didn't know. She was too distracted to think about it.

"What's wrong with you today?" the blonde demanded, "You're not yourself, Elizabeth."

Copper glared at him ferociously at the use of only the second part of her first name, but it faded quickly. She wasn't in the mood to fight with the oldest of the Atlas children. The dark-haired girl sighed and put her head on the table.

"29, what got you so rattled up? You've been acting strange since the hospital." Raven commented.

The double-Marked Signer mumbled an 'It's nothing.' Her friends didn't believe her for one second. The other three had known Cyli-Elizabeth Fudo their entire lives and they had never known her to act like this. It wasn't common for any of the Fudoes to act like this. Why was Copper so distracted?

"Liar." John commented.

"Shut up, Johnny boy." She replied, half-heartedly using the little nickname she used to get him rattled or just for fun.

Martha was the main one to use that name. It was fun to mess with the Atlases, but seldom possible. It was a bit difficult to rattle John, since he was so much like Jack, although Raven was easy to unnerve, considering her dad was too. She almost felt like chuckling at the thought of what would happen with their fathers if the blonde and ginger second generation Signers ever got together. Well, that might a good way to mess with them...

"C'mon, Copper, tell us what's wrong? You're not yourself." Raven asked in a caring tone.

"Guys, if Element doesn't wanna talk about it, she doesn't have to talk about it." Lane told the other two, taking the dark-haired duelist's feelings into consideration. Normally the only child without siblings of the group would blush when the ice-blue-haired one said something like that.

Copper couldn't though; her mind was too focused on the news to feel a rush of heat to her face. How would her parents take the news? More specifically, how was her father going to take this? Was he going to be in as much shock as she was? Was he going to be excited? Or angry because he hadn't known sooner? Or…Or…Would he sad because his mother was in the hospital and hadn't known sooner? Or would he be angry at his mother for not trying to find him? Or would he feel guilty for not trying to find his mother and think of his foster mother as his own his entire life?

How was her mother going to take this? She'd probably be ecstatic and happy for her husband. Or would she end up in shock, too? The dark-haired girl didn't think twice about how her grandparents and Martha would take it. She knew they would be more than happy for their son-in-law or foster son, respectively.

"Why do you have to be like that, man?" John asked Lane, snapping the distracted girl from her thoughts again, "You're only saying that because you know you li—" he was cut off by Raven slapping her hand over his mouth before he could embarrass Kalin's oldest son any further. The daughter of two Signers vaguely noted a faint coloring on the son of two former Dark Signers face. But it was fading quickly.

"Just stop talking, Jonathan." The ginger commanded.

"Why should I?" he demanded, glaring at her; the dark-haired girl wished that they weren't so much like their fathers, "We all know that they like each other."

"Just shut it, Atlas, before I make you." Raven told him threateningly.

"Will both of you stop fighting...please." the other girl asked of them. They both looked at her. The bird-named girl nodded, while the blonde glared at her for a few seconds, but eventually nodded.

She didn't want to deal with those two fighting right now. She didn't know what was going to happen now. She wished she did, but she didn't.

All Copper Fudo knew was that her family's whole lives were going to change…forever.

Later that Day

She held the photograph in her hands as she studied it. It wouldn't be too much longer until her mother got home. She had been staring at the photograph that had been taken before Zero Reverse since she had gotten home three hours ago. She stared at her father's mother, who was holding her father in her arms. She had a smile on her face that would reach her eyes if they had been open. Her hair was neatly up in an odd-looking bun. But it was cute. Her father's father had his hands on her shoulders as he looked at their infant son reaching up at them. Her father. It was such a sweet family moment.

Copper couldn't believe that one day it could be like that and then the next it was gone. She couldn't believe how horrible Roman had been to cause what he did. She sighed. She knew that the elder of the Goodwin brothers was just doing what he thought was supposed to happen with destiny and all that stuff.

She put the photo down and lied down on the couch she had been sitting on. The dark-haired girl sighed again. She had recovered from the initial shock, but there was still a lot in her system. The young girl wished both her parents were home already.

As if to answer her wish, she heard the door the large garage door open and heard her mother's car pulled into the garage. She sat up from the couch slowly. Her mother came in through the garage door that led into the downstairs hallway which led to the kitchen in one place. The dark-haired girl rushed into the kitchen, sliding a little across the hardwood flooring. Her mother caught her before she could run into anything and hurt herself more.

"Why are you rushing, Copper?" Akiza asked her daughter, "And how many times have I told you not to run in the house?"

"37 times, but mom, I have to tell you and dad something." She responded hurriedly, standing up straight, "Something really important."

"What is it, sweetheart?" her mother asked as she placed her keys to her car on the rack of keys. She looked at her daughter with worried eyes at the tone of voice the girl was using, "Is something wrong?"

"Not exactly." She responded, "Well you know how dad's parents died in Zero Reverse?"

Akiza nodded. She couldn't forget that. She couldn't even begin to count how many times she had consoled Yusei over that, in more than one way, because he was missing them. Each time brought them closer, but she hated seeing her husband like that. It was horrible. He was always the strong one. It was terrible to see him when he was so broken and distracted like that. The burgundy red-haired woman wished he didn't get like that. But she knew she couldn't change him. He didn't get like that often, though. She could understand it, though. He missed his parents, just like any other orphan did; but he had his friends and his, Jack, Crow, and Kalin's foster mother, too.

"What about it? Is your father missing them again?" Akiza asked; the dark-haired Signer hadn't missed his parents as severely as a few occasions in about seven years. Copper shook her head.

"No, but when Raven and I went to the hospital to see East, I saw something that put me in a kinda shock."

"'Shock'?" her mother repeated, becoming concerned, "Why? What did you see?"

"Well the room across from her…" the dark-haired girl trailed off, looking at the ground.

"What about it, honey?" Akiza pressed, tipping her daughter's chin to look at her in the eyes.

"The nameplate said 'N. Fudo'." She responded.

"Really?" the older psychic asked and the younger one nodded, "So who do you think it is?"

Copper pulled away and got the photo from the living room. She went back into the kitchen, where her mother was sitting at the table. She sat next to her mother, "I don't think. I know. Afterward, I went to go see who it might be, since it had me so distracted. And it was…it was dad's mom. Although she does look a little different, I recognized her from this picture."

Akiza stared at her husband's mother from the picture, "I can't believe it. This is great. Did you speak to her at all?"

The dark-haired psychic shook her head, "She was unconscious. I think she might be in a coma or something. If she is, that would explain why she never tried searching for dad when he was all over the news after The Fortune Cup or any of those other times he's been in the news or paper."

"So what exactly are you saying, dear?" her mother inquired, "You think your dad's mom has been in a coma since Zero Reverse?"

Copper nodded, "Yeah. I don't know how it's possible. But that's my theory. I'm not sure how daddy's going to react. All he's ever known is that his parents died in Zero Reverse. And he knows that his father is dead because he's even spoken to the spirit of his father several times. And I think one time was when I was three." She told her mother, "Remember when we didn't know what was wrong that one time, in November, I think. But he hardly said anything. Remember mom?"

The female Signer nodded. She remembered that day well. She remembered how quiet he had been. And she remembered how later that night, she had woken up a little, feeling Yusei put his arm around her, pulling her close. She had asked where he had gone and he had responded he just needed to clear his head.

"I think that when he told me he needed to talk to someone he needed to, I think that was his dad." She told her mom.

"I think you might be right. I think he's spoken to his father more than either of us knows. You remember how I told you both your father and I were nervous when we first found out about you?" Copper nodded, "Neither of us slept easy, but I think he spoke to his father. I think that's how he was able to help me."

"That would make sense from what you've told me…" the girl trailed off. She remembered things very well. Especially things her parents told her about the past, when she was younger, or about when they told her about the nine months Akiza had carried her, "I still can't believe that his mom's back. I mean I'm happy, but you know what I mean, right? That it's just so unbelievable that now—thirty-seven years after Zero Reverse and twenty years after the Signer-Dark Signer war—she's back."

The female Signer nodded, "I know what you mean, honey. It's great, but shocking."

The two stayed silent for a very long while. Copper was just still in some shock and Akiza was letting this information sink in. This would change things so much. She wondered how Yusei was going to react. Probably how they were. Shocked and excited. But it would probably mean even more to him because he had been the only one of the three in the house that didn't know their birthmother. Of course Copper knew hers, and although they hadn't been very close for the longest time with The Black Rose events, Akiza had always known her mother. Yusei had only known Martha as his mother, since she had taken him, Jack, Crow, and Kalin in as adopted sons.

The burgundy redheaded psychic looked back at photograph. Her husband's mother looked so sweet and kind. As did his father. Maybe that was why he was so sweet and caring. From his parents. At least partially anyway. The dark-haired Signer she loved with all her heart just had a sweet heart; having grown up in Satellite before it was renovated to how it was today, he had, had a tough life. That had made him strong with a kind heart for others, unless they hurt his friends. Or family for that matter.

Akiza wondered how Yusei's parents would like her if they were alive. She had once asked Yusei that while they were engaged and he was thinking about his parents as they went over wedding plans. After she had asked that, he had simply taken her hands, looking at her with kind and slightly sad eyes. He had then kissed her on the lips softly and told her that if his parents were alive, he was sure they would love her.

He had struggled to keep his emotions under control, something that rarely happened. In response, she had wrapped her arms around his neck and embraced him tightly. She had almost starting tearing up herself. Yusei had kissed her again, after pulling her back and wrapping his arms around her waist. He told her he loved her. And that he was glad that she was his one and only; that she was the one he was taking as his bride.

Akiza had smiled gently at him and kissed him, saying that she felt the same. They hadn't gotten much done that day with wedding plans. But they had been brought closer together. The female Signer remembered that day as clearly as they day her daughter had been born.

"Mom?" Copper asked, snapping the Signer out of her thoughts.

"Hmm?" she responded, "What is it, hon?"

"How should we tell dad?" her daughter asked.

"I think we should just tell him straightforward." She replied.

"Tell me what straightforward?"

AnimeKiwi369: Long chapter. Brain overload. Turned to mush.

Copper: Wow. Finals did this to you?

AnimeKiwi369: I forgot to mention, I've been gettin g to bed late and I bake for six hours yesterday. Never. Again. And never again will I eat a cookie!

Copper: You are so messed up.

AnimeKiwi369: Know that already. Hope you're not mad with the cliffhanger.

Copper: Not really this time.

AnimeKiwi369: Clever chapter title, huh?

Copper: Yeah.

AnimeKiwi369: Have a good winter/summer break wherever you are. Next chapter will be up soon. Merry Christmas if I don't update by then. Copper, review request.

Copper: Please be kind and please review chapter three. We both appreciate it.

AnimeKiwi369: 'We'?

Copper: The story's about me mostly, isn't it?

AnimeKiwi369: You're right. Please review and thanks to those reviewing so far.