Chapter 6
Yomi had woken up. Confused and bleeding, she had sat up to see her first and oldest friend a step away from killing a man in a weird looking suit.
A single cry was all it took to divert her attention to herself, leaving her under the stoic gaze of two beautifully ringed, amber eyes. The saw-like wheel had landed next to the man's neck, a single millimeter away from severing the carotid artery.
"Kagari-chan," she whispered.
"Yo-mi," replied Kagari with a voice like a broken record, "you're-o-kay."
She blinked. Twice. And looked around. She seemed surprised by her surroundings, as if she had just arrived.
Then she looked down.
"Wh-wh-what? Why-!? How did I-!?"
She slipped, falling on her rear. The wheels suddenly spun backwards, skidding her into the wall behind her.
"Wh-what happened to me!?" she clutched at her claws, trying to remove them.
"Calm down," called Saya, "don't be scared Kagari-chan. We can help you."
"What happened!?"
She flinched back at the sudden touch of her overgrown spider.
"Mary," she whispered and flinched again, "why do I know her name!?"
"Kagari, you have to calm down! You fused with your otherself. Everything will be fine," I hope.
"B-b-but-!"
"Kagari-chan," said Yomi, shutting her up instantly.
She stood up shakily, walked to her friend, and hugged her, taking care to avoid her claws.
"Breathe. You'll be fine. I promise."
"Y-Yomi," whispered Kagari before she took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "ok."
"Ok?"
"Ok."
"Ok then," finished the greenete, "now. Will someone please tell me what's going on?"
"We would like more information as well," commented Starfire.
Saya sighed in defeat while Mato slowly picked Yuu up on her back.
"Is there someplace we can talk privately?"
"How did she escape the Otherworld?"asked Raven.
"You know these things?" asked Cyborg.
The ten of them had made their way back to the tower after being flown (Kagari), teleported (Yuu and Beast Boy), or driven there (Yomi, Mato, and Saya). Yuu and Beast Boy were still unconscious, or rather sleeping if their snoring was any indication. Beast Boy was in his room but Saya refused to let Yuu out of her sight and had opted to let her sleep on her lap.
Kagari had refused to separate from Yomi since their arrival. She had not been allowed into Cyborg's car for fear that her claws would ruin the leather seats and did not want to ride Mary over, mainly because it couldn't float and had made its way to the garage through the submarine entrance. Mato would have received the same treatment had her eye not put itself out.
Yomi now had a bandage around her head and was being fussed over by Mato, much to Kagari's chagrin.
"I've run into them before," replied the grey-skinned beauty, "but she shouldn't be here. They are nothing more than mental constructs. Even if one managed to step into the real world, it would fall apart in seconds."
"But this one was formed around its host," pointed out Saya, "Chariot is Kagari's otherself."
"Has that happened before?" asked Raven. She was not aware that such a thing was even possible.
"Sort of," she replied and pointed at her lap, "Yuu once switched places with her otherself, Strength. She was going through a difficult phase at the time and she couldn't stand the pain anymore, so she forced a switch. Mato here once visited the Otherworld to fight her own otherself."
"And Kagari?"
"That's what confuses me," replied Saya, "Kagari has never made contact with her Otherself."
"So what am I?" asked Kagari.
"Otherselves are pain given human form," she explained in Japanese as Starfire translated, "whenever you feel pain in your heart, it means that your otherself is fighting for you. If it dies, then your emotions for the person that caused that pain die with it."
"What does that mean?" asked Starfire.
"Let's say that you are in love with someone," she replied in English, "but you get into an argument with them. If your otherself is killed, then you will be overtaken by the pain that formed them and forget whatever emotions that you felt towards him or her. You forget that you were ever in love with them until the otherself comes back to life."
"So I'm pain?" whispered Kagari.
"Guy's I can't understand a thing anyone here's saying," cut in Cyborg.
"Oh, my apologies," replied Starfire as she walked over to Mato and turned her head towards her, "I will transfer the language."
That caught Robin's attention.
"Wait, don't you have to-?"
"Mmph!"
The Boy Teen Wonder trailed off when his green-eyed girlfriend grabbed the smaller girl and locked lips with her. Mato's startled yelp was drowned out by the orange-skinned beauty's lips as her eyes began to glow green. The two ignored their friends' shock as information was passed from one mind to the other… alongside a rather long (and sultry) moan.
"Ugh, anyone get the plate of the train… that… hit… me?" asked a voice to the right.
Beast Boy was awake. And sore judging by his stiff movements and the hand on his head. Still, there were worse sights that one could wake up to.
"Dude, when'd Starfire go lesbo?"
Kagari and Saya merely looked in shock while Yomi appeared to have passed out. The rest of the team should have gotten used to their foreign roommate's eccentricities by then, but this was still a not entirely unpleasant surprise.
Starfire finally cut her "victim" loose, who proceeded to catch her breath.
"What… the heck… was that!?" she gasped.
"Can you understand me now?"
"Of course I… can… I can speak English!?"
"Yes. I gave you the English," replied the floating alien with a smile, "now then, who is next?"
"No, wait! I already speak-mmph!"
Four kisses later, everyone in the room was speaking the same language and very red-faced. Except Starfire, who was trying to explain to Robin that the kisses meant nothing while attempting to receive an explanation as to what a "lesbo" was.
"There are worse ways to wake up," Yuu said, "but that was still my first." She smacked her lips, "why do I taste mustard?"
"I could already speak English!" yelled Saya.
Yomi was still out, Kagari was still miffed, and Mato was still blushing.
Beast Boy had half a box of tissues in his bloody nose, Cyborg was trying to reboot, Raven had magically turned red, and Robin looked incredibly annoyed. The Teen Titans were used to weird things happening in their tower, but this was a first.
"So, now that we are all on the same page, sort of," said Kagari as she shot a glare at Starfire, "am I pain?"
"Not exactly," said Raven as she fought down a blush, "I have to look into it, but I´m pretty sure my powers triggered your transformation. My magic reacts to emotion. If you felt helpless, they might have helped you become your otherself to fight off the threat. Granted, they usually react to my emotions, but magic tends to be unpredictable."
There's also the issue with my mirrors, she thought. It wouldn't be the first time her powers tried to tell her something through obscure methods.
"So… what now?" asked Saya, "Your magic didn't just affect Kagari. Yuu, Yomi, and I didn't have this eye color before. Strength, Dead Master, and Black Gold Saw did. Mato always had blue eyes but the flame is Black Rock Shooter's as is the glowing blue."
"Are those their names?" asked Beast Boy in obvious distaste, "I dunno how those sound in Japanese, but that is LAME in English."
Raven smacked him over the head.
"Yeah, they're pronounced in English though," Saya said as she reached into her bag. She pulled out a sketch pad and showed them a familiar picture, "that's Chariot you already saw her. She uses a sword and shield as a weapon, Mary the spider carriage, and a bunch of little spider dolls." She changed the page, "This here is Dead Master."
"Okay, creepy," Beast Boy was smacked again, "what? I mean she's rocking the demon maid outfit but the scythe makes it look like she means business."
"I didn't know you could draw," commented Mato, "did you make one for all of us?"
"Yep. This is Yomi's otherself. She used to live in a battlefield called Chandelier Palace, or that's what I always called it anyways. Chariot lived in the Broken Toy Box by the way. Anyways, she has those claws and the Death Scythe but she also can also make a massive army of skeletons made from the millions of corpses in the Otherworld. The real dangers that follow her are the giant skeletons and the two skulls that always follow her around like bodyguards."
"That's me?" asked Yomi with a distant look.
"Yep, moving on," she changes the page to a girl with long hair, horns, and a massive blade, "this is my otherself, Black Gold Saw. She can teleport from one place in the Otherworld to the other but originally came from the White Ruins. She has a watering can that can create more otherselves so she's pretty much the one that brings new life in there."
"Wait, new life means more people in pain," noted Raven, "why-?"
"MOST questions will be answered at the end of the presentation," interrupted Saya. She would get her just desserts, but that didn't meant that she couldn't delay them as long as possible, "Here we have Strength, Yuu's otherself. She lived at the center of the Otherworld. Power-wise, she is likely the strongest of us. She can also turn her hands into Gatling guns, grow an extra set of arms, and control fire."
"Okay, that's really cool," complimented Cyborg, "but why is she at the center?"
"She's the one that began our Otherworld," replied Saya noting Raven's reaction, "so she's at the center of it. I never came up with a good name for it other than Giant Rubik's Cube but Puzzle Core also fits. Now, last but definitely not least, is Mato's otherself. Black Rock Shooter."
She changed the page to a girl in skimpy shorts, a bikini top, black boots, and a coat.
"Black Rock Shooter is nothing short of savage."
"Hey!"
"She is by far the most dangerous even if she is not the most powerful," she continued, "if Black Gold Saw is life, the Rocky here is death. She will kill anything that moves due to Mato's desire to keep her friends from hurting even at her own expense. This was more obvious when Chariot began torturing her when she went to save Dead Master."
"What!?"
"She often killed the children that Black Gold Saw brought to life," Saya continued to ignore her friends and the overall reaction to Rock's history as an infanticide, "usually by decapitation with a weapon called the Black Blade, which is sort of shaped like a katana. She usually uses it to deliver the finishing blow though she did kill a few other otherselves like Black Matagi with the cannon. Her primary weapon, however, is the Rock Cannon. This happy little tool shoots flaming boulders that can destroy almost anything. The cannon itself can also turn itself into a Gatling gun. Oh, and she has been known to summon two cannons in their machine gun form."
The sketch book closed.
"Rock's hot," said Beast Boy, unaware of Raven's presence behind him, "OW!"
"What are the chances of an arrival from these other ones?" asked Robin.
"Well, like I said our eyes now match the ones from our Otherselves," pointed our Saya, "but other than that, I have no idea. Maybe that's it, or maybe Black Rock Shooter is gonna come and kill us all."
"HEY!"
"Hey, do these come off?" asked Kagari, pulling at her gauntlets, "the wheels are freaky enough to begin with."
"I think I can teach you how to turn them back," Yuu said, "it can't be much different from how I did it back in the Otherworld."
"Really? The legs too?"
"Probably," she said, rubbing her chin in thought, "but you know, there's just one thing I don't get.
"What is it?" asked Mato.
"Why did Kagari get to transform first!?" she cried, "It's not fair! I was the one that went to the Otherworld first?"
"I'll switch any day you want," growled said blonde.
She stood up to leave, but lost her balance on her wheels and fell on her rear.
"Things are going to get lout again aren't they," groaned Raven.
Author's Note: Well, I finally finished the first part. Not sure who's gonna turn next, though I can guarantee that it won't be Yuu. Speaking of which, it is hellishly awkward to write her name! I kept writing it as "you" instead of "Yuu".
Anyways, just to clarify I have no idea whether Starfire can do that or not. Her Wiki page stated that she can receive language but in "Trouble in Tokyo" she states that a lip-locktransfers language, which implies a two-way ability. As it is, I actually wanted to avoid that kind of thing but I also needed for the BRS cast to learn english ASAP. So, yeah, surprise yuri moment.
On that note, I have no intention of breaking Robin and Starfire up despite the fact that he should totally be with Raven.
One last thing, this is the last chapter that I already had finished so I wouldn't hold my breath for any new updates until at least next week.