A/N: Well, I'm pretty sure that this makes the sixth re-write of this particular story… But with good reason.
I reluctantly came to the realization that not only was my main character a Mary-Sue of horrendous proportions, but every cast member was horrifically out of character- hence the re-write. As I have well over two hundred pages to re-do the editing process will be slow, but I'm cutting back chapter length so I can update faster.
And to any of the newer writers out there… never be afraid to delete, re-write and re-do a story, no matter how many reviews that you have. Sometimes, leaving things the way they are, the way that so many other fictions are, just for the sake of reviews, isn't worth it at all.
With that said…
My original purpose in writing this was to realistically portray what would happen if someone from the real world got sent to the beyblade world. Hopefully, I can still achieve that. Please enjoy the story.
Chapter One: The 'Real' World.
"Stupid stick on tattoo…"
The teen grumbled, glaring at herself in the mirror. She and her friends had thought it funny at the time, but then again, her friends had been rather drunk… Blowing out an explosive sigh, she set to scrubbing at it once more.
Most temporary tattoo's, she had found, started to crack and wear away after a few days. This one, however, stubbornly stayed bright and clear, and despite at least ten minutes of scrubbing refused to come off.
Hissing in pain as she touched the tender inflamed skin around the fire-bird, the teen decided to give it up already. It would be easier to let the damn thing come off by itself, she decided, eyeing it off in the mirror.
Even if it was rather pretty… Actually, now that she thought about it, the tattoo looked a lot like Dranzer from Beyblade. Nipping at her lower lip, the girl twisted, shoving her ribs into a better view against the mirror. Located about a hand span below where her heart was, the temporary tattoo was easy enough to conceal.
Still, the unnatural warmth gathering over the area sent goose bumps rippling up and down her spine, making her nervous. At the time she hadn't thought much about taking the tattoo from the gypsy; after all, she'd brought plenty of things from the kind old woman before.
Now, however, she was firmly possessed of the opinion that something was going on. She'd ignored the strange pulses of warmth as her body being weird, and attributed the sense of a foreign entity hanging about her as mere paranoia.
Clapping her hands together sharply, the teen let her shirt fall back into place, and stared at herself seriously in the mirror.
"Nothing weird is going on. I am being paranoid, because it's just a stupid tattoo. Everything is going to be fine, and I don't have to worry."
She knew it sounded a bit silly to be talking to herself, but no one was home to hear it, so she didn't really care anyway. Shooting the mirror one last uneasy glance, she left the room, of the mind to play on her computer.
There where some fanfics simply begging to be read, after all…
---
"…can't wait! I mean, have you seen some of the pictures on the 'net? Hot with a capital 'Take me now'!"
Nose crinkling a little in annoyance, the teen shot her friend an irritated look.
"Yes, we know that you are obsessed with Kai-"
"Aren't we all, including you-"
"But you're making the poor people nervous,"
She finished with a mischievous grin, and her friend gave a put upon sigh, dumping herself into her usual math class seat. Then she shrugged and grinned.
"Man, I wish G-rev was already on T.V…"
"Aw, come off it, Kai might be hot but he's such a sooky angst-y bi-"
The contemptuous words died in her throat as a sudden cramp started up in her left side, leaving her gasping for breath. A flurry of flames seemed to be licking at her skin, setting her nerves ablaze, and she fought for air. Then it was suddenly gone, leaving her lunging for a water bottle to soothe a throat gone dry.
Capping the bottle with shaking hands, she ignored her friends concerned query, eyes staring sightlessly off into the distance.
It hadn't -it couldn't- been from, no way that was the reason, but… She was sure, with a sickening feeling of confirmed suspicion, of what had just happened. Something had lashed out from her tattoo, the one perilously close to her heart, the one that always seemed so warm, the one that just wouldn't go away…
A sudden chill crept over her, and she resolved to seek out some answers when she got home. In the meantime, she'd best distract her friend.
"Tala is cooler, what with the wolf, and ice, and stabby-pointy-things-of-doom!"
"You're a freak of nature! You can't like both of them."
"Uh, well, I do, and more besides. Dearest one, wouldst thou wish me to recite the many-"
"Teacher."
"Oh, shit."
Burying her nose into her text book, the teen shot her teacher a sheepish smile. Quirking one eyebrow dryly in the return, the older woman simply took a large gulp of her coffee, and then turned to address the class.
"Now, how you lot got quantum physics out of algebra I'd love to know, but a few somehow managed it..."
---
'What do you wish for?'
Lots of things, I guess…
'But what do you want?'
Well… it's silly, I know, but…
'Is it something that you want?'
You could say so, I guess.
'Then you want it.'
Not-well, yeah, but…
'…'
'Yeah, I want it. I mean not like must have it NOW want, but, you know, it'd kinda be nice if I could have it type of wanting.
'Do you wish for it?'
With this type of thing, it's all you can do.
'Do you dream of it?'
It is only a dream…
'Then you want it.'
Yes. I want it.
'Will you take it?'
Take what? You're just a voice in my head…
'Will you take it.'
Um, if I knew what 'it' was, I might…
'You want it. You wish for it. You dream of it.'
…yeah…
'Then take it.'
Okay. What do I have to do?
'…you have to believe in it…'
Well, that's easier said than done.
---
When she woke up, she was cuddled in his arms. It felt right to be there, curled up in the circle of safety he made, even though she knew it would break when he awoke. It felt Right to be here, in this Place, with Him.
But… he didn't like people. And, after all that stuff he'd been through, surely he'd notice someone sleeping on top of him, it was really pretty obvious-
When she woke up, she could smell him. The pleasant scent drifted to her from so temptingly close, and she knew she only had to reach out and touch to have him. It felt so Right to be so close, to know that He was there, protecting and guarding her in this new Place.
But why would he sleep so close, and what did he smell like, anyway? Her perception might be old spice and chocolate, but if someone else was in this position, surely he'd smell totally different, and what was with assigning scents anyway-
When she woke up, sunlight pooled over her body. The warmth made her feel lethargic and sleepy, urging her to ignore the shocked shouts from somewhere Beyond the warmth. The glorious sunlight tickled her bare legs, which had gone from slightly prickly to incredibly smooth, and little sunbeams smoothed along her glorious mane, the colour of an autumn sunset.
But she didn't like sleeping when it was so bright. She hated it in fact, and invariably woke up when even the smallest of beams shone past her thick drapes. So how come it was so bright? Her room was dark, and she'd never normally sleep so deeply with strange people around-
When she woke up, it was dark and warm. The sun beat at the window, but only its warmth drifted into the small room, and the only voices she heard where those of her cousins raised in some form of argument.
Sleepily rolling further into her blankets, she recoiled; was there someone there? She knew there was supposed to be someone there; and then forced herself to relax when she felt the silky coat of a cat.
Alright. This felt right, not strange with jarring oddness and creepy inconsistencies. Her room was as it should be, not some bright, airy Other place. Her hair was not long and silky, it was tangled and knotted and snarled around her shoulders, sticking in her face and crawling up her nose.
Prickly legs reminded her that she needed to shave, and when she cracked one bleary eye open, the net of hair obscuring her face was a familiar nutty blonde. There. This felt Right, to be here in this Place, even if there was no Him; but He would be here soon, she just knew it…
And then she woke up, breath hitched in her throat, terror stealing away her voice, body shaking, eyes sightless in the darkness. She gulped a breath down, scraped her hair from her face and twisted in her bed sheets, ignoring the fiery ache beneath her breast bone.
The tat- no. Nothing was there to provoke the lashing tongues of fire that scorched her body, nothing was there to draw the inferno blazing at the edge of her sight (howdiditgetsoclose?) and nothing was slowly eating its way through flesh and bone.
Right. There was nothing there because she was nothing, and it was only Right that she become filled, pure and bright and achingly hot, a vessel of flame for Him who's right it was to have her-
This time, when she woke up, it was not for long, and she fell immediately asleep once more, mind weary beyond belief. So there was no Reality to puncture the Dream, no cool logic to smother raging enthusiastic imagination, and nothing to stop the changes being forced upon her.
So she slept in the passage between worlds, and slowly but surely moved from one to the next.
---
In the end, it was the most prosaic of needs which brought her back to the land of the living.
A painfully full bladder pressed against her abdomen, and she whimpered, cautiously uncurling herself, and shaking the heavy –but why did it feel so light?- quilt from her shoulders. Lurching upwards and squinting at the bright light, she stumbled to where something was urging her that the bathroom was.
Her feet travelled over slick wooden floorboards and old and worn steps, and she began to feel vaguely concerned when they carried her up a small flight of stairs. But her head felt like it was full of wool, and her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth.
Too tired to care, she attended to her business and then washed her face in front of the mirror. Habitually reaching for the towel as she straightened up, she frowned when her hands met not scratchy cotton, but smooth skin. Forcing her way past what felt like hang over, she shook herself awake.
Mind jolted into awareness, she stared up, and up, jaw dropping open in shock. Her knees felt like jelly, and she leant heavily on the vanity sink, a roaring white noise blurring all sound travelling to her ears. Blinking past the black fog creeping across the edges of her vision, she carefully turned around again.
She looked at the other person, slowly and critically, and she felt the tattoo against her breastbone give a triumphant throb.
"Sweet goddess, you're real,"
She whispered, then succumbed to sweet temptation as she never had before in her life, and fainted.
---
He hated it when she was right, Tyson decided.
No, scratch that- he absolutely hated it when Hillary was right. Because then she gave him those stupid triumphant little smiles, nose tilted in the air, garnet eyes flashing with victory. Then she did that stupid little victory dance, flashing him a 'V' sign and wriggling like a maniac-
The current World Champion of Beyblading blinked himself out of the little daydream, and firmly told himself to concentrate on what really mattered.
Like Hillary being an utter cow when she was right.
"See?"
She crowed, giving her short auburn curls an airy little flip.
"My horoscope has been foretelling unusual things all week, but did you listen-"
"Like we had any choice,"
Tyson muttered as an aside to Max, and the blonde fought to keep his grin from showing.
"-to me at all? No, when you should have! Kenny, tell them."
Hillary demanded, hands planted firmly on her hips, red eyes shooting a challenge at the four other boys in the room, most of who refused to meet her stare; doing so would be dangerous. Tugging nervously at his tie, Kenny, resident genius and computer whiz, tapped anxiously at his lap top.
"Absolutely impossible, I mean-"
He muttered, raking small hands through thick brown hair, disrupting the careful placement of his glasses. Look a little wary now, Hillary circled around the couch, absently tugging at her short shorts as she peeked at the lap top screen over Kenny's shoulder.
Brown eyes lit up and Tyson shot Kai a lecherous grin, bobbing his head in Hillary's direction, where her most admirable rump was waving a little as she discussed something with Kenny. The team captain scowled horribly, but well used to the slate haired teen's anti-social behaviour, the teen simply laughed it off.
Rei, golden eyes curiously intent, was the only one not involved in the mini drama, as Max and Tyson began to silently jeer at Kai, hoping to coax a reaction from him; or, more to the point, to make the older teen blush.
When he'd gotten up that morning and gone to the bathroom, he'd automatically assumed the girl staring at herself in the mirror had been Hillary. Then he'd noticed that this girl was taller than her, shaped differently- and staring at him like he was an alien.
The brush of her hand against the bare skin of his hip, exposed when he'd rucked up his shirt to scratch at his stomach, had been like being zapped by Galeon's black lightning. But not quite as painful, the Asian teen hastily amended.
And of all the things to do, she'd then fainted, leaving him to carry her downstairs and round everyone up. Then, of course, Hillary and Tyson had started arguing, and he'd been left to take care of the loose ends as usual.
Shifting the damp cloth on her forehead, he flicked his long braid of hair back over his back, noticing with no small amount of irritation that the bindings had loosened. With no time to put his bandana on, his bangs flopped every which way across his face, greatly hampering his vision, and he'd spent the last five minutes blowing heat-sticky strands of hair away from his face.
One could say that Rei, taken by surprise in regards to the sudden heat-spell and their new visitor, Was. Not. Happy. But that could be likened to saying Kai had an immense range of facial expressions, Tyson never ate very much at all, and Max only like the colour orange as much as anything else.
So when a sleepy hand batted his hand away, his first reaction was to smack it back. Sleepy grey eyes blinked at him reproachfully, before widening in shock. Gasping, the teen he had been tending to surged up and backwards violently, tossing the cloth skywards, and promptly smacked her head on the arm of the couch.
Overlong sleeves dangled and hid her face as she wrapped both arms around her sore skull, and proceeded to hiss a litany of curses that would have impressed Rei if he hadn't heard Tyson use worse when Kai refused to let him eat take-out four nights in a row. They only increased in volume when the damp cloth smacked into the side of her face, and she flung it away in supreme irritation.
As he did with most things, the golden eyed beyblader waited (somewhat) patiently, and the girl presently uncurled herself, shooting him a wary look. Then his store of patience ran out when she attempted to scooch backwards again, acting like he had some sort of highly contagious disease.
Raking his bangs back with a heavy sigh, he forced himself to block out the shrill sounds of Tyson and Hillary fighting, the casual comments of Max egging them on, and Kenny's worried interjections.
"I'm not going to bite,"
He told the girl calmly, smoothing the irritation from his voice as best he was able. One hand extended, he watched closely as she timidly grasped it, allowing him to draw her to her feet.
Then he turned around, stuck his fingers in his mouth, and whistled as loudly and sharply as he possibly could. At his side, the girl recoiled from the sound, but the firm grip around her wrist discouraged her from running.
"How about we all try to figure this out calmly?"
Rei announced into the sudden silence, and the spark in his eyes warned them all to do exactly as he said. Cowed into temporary obedience, Tyson sat back down again, Max grinned and shut his mouth, Hillary huffed and threw herself down next to Kenny, and Kai just smirked a little.
Firmly resisting the urge to dig himself into a hole with several painkillers and a bottle of alcohol, Rei shoved his temper down carefully.
"This is what we know so far. I found this young lady in the bathroom this morning, and she fainted upon seeing me. Kenny has noted strange readings coming from her, and Hilary's horoscopes apparently predicted this event. Kenny, tell us what you found."
Gently pushing the unprotesting girl into the one seater couch, Rei took up a position behind it, to guard from her bolting (though where'd she go dressed in pyjamas, he had no idea) or possibly going fan girl and attacking everybody there.
Fussily adjusting his glasses, the diminutive genius tapped a few things into his keyboard, cleared his throat, and began to speak.
"Well, I was running a few simulations this morning when my lap top registered a sudden surge of unknown power. The anomaly seemed to have a sacred spirit powered origin, so I started running an analysis."
If having everyone stare at him was making him nervous, Kenny didn't appear to notice, and bravely forged on.
"My program noted that the power structure seemed to be a gateway of some kind, which immediately disintegrated after performing it's purpose; which I can correctly assume was to deliver the…the…"
Lost for words as he attempted to describe the teen, he cast about helplessly for a moment.
"Young lady?"
She quipped helpfully, and he seized on the phrase.
"Right. Too deliver the young lady here for some reason. I did take into account that she could be a crazed fangirl, but as my laptop is still getting strange readings from her, I would assume that this is not so, and my initial thesis is most probably correct."
Everyone digested this in silence orf a few minutes, before Max broke it with a comment, blue eyes darkened with thought.
"Is she emitting this power steadily, or is it fluctuating?"
"Fluctuating, and steadily disintegrating. My estimate is that this power will have completely disappeared in three days time."
"Huh. So is it just like a bit beast, or actually a bit beast supplying the power?"
Kenny gave an irritated shake of his head, raking thick brown hair from his face as he agitatedly adjusted his glasses.
"It appears to simply be power left over, or maybe left behind, that has sacred spirit origins. There doesn't seem to be any sort of actual presence near her."
"Huh."
"So… was it caused by a bit beast, then?"
"Sounds like it."
The team mused on the possible ramifications on this, thinking very seriously about wether or not the girl could be a new enemy, when a strange noise interrupted them. Stomach gurgling loudly, the girl in question blushed beet red and refused to look at any of them.
"Oh! Have you had breakfast yet?"
Hillary enquired kindly, and the girl blushed again, fiddling with her long sleeves. Silence stretched for a minute, and then the auburn haired teen bounced to her feet, determination stamped across her face.
Marching across to the couch, she took the teen by the arm and drew her up, propelling her into the kitchen. Ruby eyes narrowed in silent warning, and the boys whistled and look away, unwilling to argue with the girl when she was in one of her 'moods'.
A little miffed by no one challenging her, Hillary tossed her head again, and slammed the interior door behind her.
The girl she was towing along seemed a little in awe of her, and didn't protest when she was unceremoniously shoved into a corner as the other girl bustled about the kitchen.
Red eyes shot her way occasionally as the teen moved with purpose, assembling the makings of a quick breakfast. Spoon clattering inside the bowl, she plonked the two before the girl, and then added a bottle of milk and a box of plain muesli cereal.
"Right, here you go. Eat up,"
Hillary added kindly, when wary grey eyes shot her way. After a moment the girl carefully picked up the spoon and began to eat, other hand smoothing her knotted mane of hair back over her shoulder. Straddling the chair, Hillary placed her arms along the back, chin in the crook of her elbow, and watched her.
She wasn't much to look at, the teen noted critically and with no small amount of dismay. Hillary had hoped that the results of the strange readings she'd been getting from both her horoscope and tarot cards all week would be, well, more impressive.
This girl was taller than her, and Hillary estimated that the top of her head probably fit under the others girls collar bone. That didn't really bother her though, because she was used to being classed as quite small, and the girl didn't exactly come off as threatening. Her long flannelette pyjamas hid any other details from her curious eyes, and Hillary blushed at the turn of her thoughts.
Grey eyes flicked up as the stranger noticed that she was being stared at; Hillary stared boldly back, ruby eyes faintly challenging, but the girl simply shrugged and went back to her breakfast. Drawing her lips into a pout, the auburn haired teen continued to watch her.
Unlike her own hair, which flicked around her face in a stylish bob, the other girls seemed quite long; even knotted, it just about brushed her elbows. And it was an odd colour, too; not quite blonde but not quite brown either, middling into a shade between the two.
Sighing out a long breath, Hillary continued watching her for a long moment, before the low sound of murmurs from the other room caught her attention. Shooting the taller teen a quick look, she got to her feet and snuck over to the interior door, pressing her ear against it.
--
"…can't just let her wander around."
Feeling much calmer now that he'd actually woken up, Rei nodded, frowning thoughtfully.
"Well she can't be from all that far away, as she isn't speaking a foreign language. She looks lost- we should try and take her home."
"But what about the strange readings Kenny got off of her?"
Max reminded the other teen with a frown, one hand raking through his thick blonde hair. The American teen was lounging across the couch, and involved in a not-so-subtle war with Tyson for the rest of the space. Jabbing his friend in the ribs with his foot, the teen in question turned to face the rooms other occupants.
"So have her stay here where we can keep an eye on her then,"
He offered, squirming as the blonde launched a sneaky tickle attack. Jumping up off of the couch with a scowl, he circled it in wait for an opening and tossed out a hasty reminder as he pounced on Max.
"Grandpa is still at that old guys spa weekend thing, so he wont be home for a few more days."
That said, the indigo haired teen returned to what was swiftly evolving into a battle, as Max shoved a foot in his face and moved to shove him off the couch. Tyson retaliated by grasping the foot and trying to drag his friend off, whilst maintaining a tenuous contact with the couch himself.
Gold eyes rolling expressively, Rei turned back to Kai and Kenny, who where ignoring the antics of the other two teens with the ease of long practice. Dark eyes narrowed in thought, Kenny was tapping at his keyboard, every now and then breaking into a frenzy of typing before suddenly stilling, only to repeat the pattern once more.
Garnet eyes veiled by long hanks of ice-blue hair, Kai was leaning against the wall as he was apt to do, face lost in shadow. The Asian teen considered him for a long moment, waiting patiently, and after a moment the team captain looked up, face twisting into irritation.
"Someone needs to find out who she is and how she got here. Keep an eye on her at all times,"
The teen added after a moment, tone thinly veiled with sarcasm, before pushing himself away from the wall and stalking from the room. Tyson paused in the motion of suffocating Max with a pillow to cheerfully wave goodbye at the older teen, and was promptly thrown from the couch in his moment of inattention.
"I win."
Max announced smugly, blue eyes twinkling, just as the interior door opened and Hillary lead the stranger back into the room.
---
She was trying to convince herself that this was all a dream. Seeing characters from a cartoon show and thinking she was actually in it meant that it had to be a dream; there was no way it was real. On the other hand, the sensations she was feeling were to real for this not to be reality, and she'd never done something so mundane as eating in a dream before.
There lay only two choices for the teen, as she saw it; either accept the current situation and make the best of it, or deny the truth and eventually go insane. It was with a great deal of reluctance that she chose the former option, in the time it took the strange girl –Hillary, she knew- to place the raw materials for breakfast before her.
Rather unhappily, she began to eat. Everything spiralled in her mind, a whirlwind of confusion that was slowly eating away at the numb barrier of detachment she'd put up around her heart. Desperately shying away from the painful thoughts of her family, she searched for something else to concentrate on.
Hillary quickly proved a distraction as she got to her feet and snuck over to the door, obviously going to eavesdrop. The grey eyed teen frowned a little, concentrating. The voices on the other side of the door seemed weird, even more so than usual.
Since she'd woken up from her faint it was as though she was hearing everything from a great distance under water, with words and phrases occasionally making themselves clear to her. And the double-toned sibilance of everything didn't help either, as it sounded as though someone else was repeating the same words at the same time as whenever someone spoke.
She had a notion of what these auditory hallucinations might mean, and she shied away from them, refusing to think about the subject.
Idly stirring her spoon through the pale mess of milk, dried oats and fruit, she snuck a hand up her shirt, letting it rest against her chest over the tattoo. Apart from that moment in the bathroom she hadn't felt anything from it, and didn't know wether to be grateful or scared.
Settling on not thinking on it again, she licked the last of the milk from the spoon, having finished up her breakfast as she thought. Hillary failed to notice this, and reacted only when she got up and moved to the sink, rinsing the two dishes.
A calm ruby gaze regarded her in a speculative manner and she forced herself to stand straighter, refusing to be cowed. Hillary blinked in mute astonishment and the shrugged, turning around.
"C'mon, I'll introduce you to everyone,"
She offered, and led the taller teen back into the other room. As she carefully closed the door behind her, the teen became aware of the sudden hush and knew that they'd been talking about her. But as four pairs of males eyes fixed on her, she suddenly become more aware of the fact that she was dressed only in her pyjamas in a room full of attractive male teenagers.
Going bright red, she crossed her arms over her chest defensively, and blushed a brighter red when several eyes dipped lower. Lowering her arms to her sides, she clenched her fists and tossed her head angrily, dismissing all thoughts of her state of undress and the messiness of her hair.
"W-what…"
Swallowing to ease the sudden dryness of her throat, she tossed her head again and met each of their gazes in turn.
"What have you decided to do with me?"
The teen demanded, hiding her fear behind stalwart determination for answers. Behind her, Hillary regarded the boys with a puzzled frown, already knowing what they'd decided. Ruby eyes flickered over each familiar face before her eyes narrowed dangerously, and she stomped over to stand in front of the taller teen.
"PERVERTS! Out, OUT!"
She screeched, arms flailing as she fought to express her supreme annoyance and disgust. Four faces paled in shock, and then suddenly the boys where clamouring for forgiveness.
"I w-wasn't, I s-swear-"
This from a chalk faced Kenny, laptop clutched before him protectively. He stumbled and almost tipped over, only Rei's grip on his shoulder keeping the smaller teen upright.
"Hillary, it's not what you think-"
Rei began, only to be cut off by the dual protests from Tyson and Max.
"No need to get so angry, you know we wouldn't-"
"Whatddya mean, perverts?! I so was not-"
Hillary super ceded all of their protests by pointing at the door to the backyard and screaming 'out!' again. This time the boys didn't argue, instead choosing to scamper from the room. Breathing heavily, the auburn haired teen stomped back over to the stranger.
"Woah,"
The other girl muttered, and Hillary blinked, a little surprised, and then gave a sheepish laugh inwardly berating herself for her show of bad temper. Forcibly calmly herself down, she shot the other girl a tentative smile.
"Aahh… I think I'll introduce you to the boys later, but my name is Hillary Taichibana, very nice to meet you."
Grey eyes blinked for a moment in shock, before the other girl replied in a shaky voice,
"Amaya Davis, and there is no need for introductions. I already know who you are."
--
Please feel free to review/critique/ offer advice on how I can improve this.