Exhibit in Pink

by MorbidOptimist

Summary:

Jinx gets tired of Raven teleporting outside of her cell to taunt her every few nights and decides that if the Titan wants a show, then she might as well give the girl her money’s worth.

Notes:

Inspired by the Teen Titans Go! Episode Girl’s Night Out, wherein it revealed Raven often frequents the jail, when Jinx is in jail, to mock her about being in jail; this takes place in the original series universe however.

Chapter 1

She didn’t know why, but the Titan’s resident magic user seemed to have a thing for her; a thing that consisted of a need to sit outside of her cell and occasionally murmur sarcasm soaked remarks in her direction to break the otherwise silent vigil that she kept.

Every few nights, always at the same time as near as Jinx could tell, the shadows in the corridor would swirl and melt into the corporeal form of the blue cloaked Titan without fail.

After melting into existence, she would cross her legs and hover in midair, just behind the safety of the meta-proof see through force field that blocked the only entrance to her mid-level security containment cell.

The force field was just as long as her back wall, so the Titan, or anyone walking past for that matter, certainly had a nice vantage point to watch her from.

This of course, also meant that Jinx could view her watcher from anywhere within her cell, providing she was facing the right direction. So when the Titan came to call, Jinx usually just watched her right back. She played a similar game with the guards that occasionally patrolled by, but the guards were expected. The Titan was an anomaly.

The first few times it had happened Jinx had steeled herself, anticipating a beat down or some heavy questioning, but all the Titan had done was stare at her for a few moments before disappearing back into the inky black void from whence she came. She shrugged it off as isolated incident; a head count maybe, or that perhaps she had just teleported in to make sure that she was in fact incarcerated. The Titan’s didn’t usually keep in contact once their catches were handed to the police, but there was a first time for everything, Jinx had supposed.  

She payed it no further thought and had nearly forgotten it within the hour.

The second time it happened, Jinx thought about it a little more.

The next few times, the Titan extended her stay; first by a few seconds, then by a few minutes.

Jinx altered between being wary and suspicious, to feeling mildly curious, a little irked, and slightly bewildered.

After that, Jinx stopped jumping to attention at the Titan’s arrival, and simply watched her wearily from her cot in the corner and glared with all the hate she could muster during the few times the Titan ate anything from the outside world in front of her; she was surprised to learn the dark Titan had something of a sweet tooth.

There were a few times when Jinx had had a particularly rough day, and she’d find herself  waiting for the Titan’s arrival eagerly, only to receive a comment too laced with bite to be just bark, and Jinx would press against the barrier with a snarl, flare her powers, and make promises of destruction and revenge while the Titan watched in abject interest. Raven would allow her a few moments of letting off steam before effectively shutting her down by yawning, or rolling her eyes and then teleporting away, leaving Jinx to fester her rage alone.

And there were a few times when the Titan would arrive obviously displeased, noticeable only through the tightness of her lips and the slight stiffness to her posture that was otherwise normally absent. She’d watch her with an iron stare, and Jinx could taste the unspoken dare, both a promise and a threat. Jinx never allowed herself to rise to the bait; sometimes she tested her, offering a few well mannered dirty jokes and sometimes she left off speaking. She just napped and ignored the Titan entirely.  

Usually, the Titan arrived in her usual moodless state. No twitches of body language, no turn of her tongue. Just a silent sentinel in a hooded cape with an impassive stare.

A scant few times however, she had arrived in a noticeably good mood, proclaimed by the hint of a smile tugging at the Titan’s lips and followed by the presence of more sarcasm than usual.

Those times always fascinated her.

The sight of Raven in anything but her stoic and uncaring persona never failed to entice her curiosity.
She always failed to get the Titan to open up about the things that bothered or pleased her -although not from a lack of trying. In fact, she never managed to get the girl speak to her at all beyond her sarcastic wisecracks, save for an occasional hello or if she tried really hard at a clever play on words, a rare smirk or a nod was awarded her when the Titan was in a particularly good mood; body language totally counted in her opinion. Anything outside of the Titan’s persona was fair game as far as she was concerned.   

Jinx sighed and leaned back against the wall.

She thumped her head against the concrete a few times and stopped when the back of her head began to hurt.

She groaned, feeling utterly bored and restless, and worried her bottom lip.

According to the internal calendar she kept, it was a day she’d get a visit from the Titan, barring an accident happening somewhere in the city to take up her time instead; which had happened once or twice before, and caused her schedule to get thrown out of whack and had prompted an impromptu breakout when the threat of time becoming meaningless to her had became too much to bare. She had been apprehended two weeks later during a bank robbery and Raven seemed to be keeping better track of her visits since the incident.

The problem was, as Jinx’s cell hosted no time keeping device other than the wake up bell each morning, there was no way for her to judge what time of day it was or when exactly the Titan would arrive, so it made planning her day rather difficult.

Not that there was much she could actually do with her day, mind.

She wiped her face and allowed herself another frustrated groan.

Aside from her cot, a toilet, and a sink, her cell was as barren as her team’s fridge usually was, which made entertaining herself a nearly impossible chore.

She was thankful that she’d only been bumped to mid-sec; otherwise she wouldn’t have had even those items occupying the same space as her.

Her thoughts roamed back to the Titan; part of her was still upset that girl came to gawk at her like some freakish animal trapped in a shoddily funded zoo, but most of her at this point, welcomed the change of scenery the girl’s arrival brought. It gave her something to sort of look forward to; something to think about after she’d gone.

And to some extent, it was even flattering to have garnered the girl’s attention.

It either meant she was a criminal worthy of needing a Titan’s constant vigilance to remain locked up, or it meant that she was a good enough adversary to have sparked the girl’s curiosity and both of them would make her look very important and powerful within her ring of miscreants and she allowed her ego to swell at the thoughts of it.

She closed her eyes and pictured the looks on her teammates faces should she ever tell them that Raven, the Raven, had taken some sort of personal interest in her. It wouldn’t even matter what for. Just the name alone would mark her forever.

Professional interest would mean that she was a top dog, a heavy hitter, one of the big baddies, and personal interest would mean that she had in some way seduced the most dangerous and mysterious heroine outside of the Justice League.

She giggled with delight as the delicious thought seeped deeper into her mind.

It had to be a personal interest because no other Titan had stepped foot into the corridor housing her cell. No one brought her into an interrogation room or set up watches except for the standard guards. No hide of alien or fur of green or scrap of metal. No smell of cheap hair gel either. Just a girl in her cloak, with a body made of shadows and a personality made of marble.

Raven was the mistress of magic and mystery and everyone took notice of her, especially when after rumors of what she did to Dr. Light had gotten around; the betting pools in her school had skyrocketed after that incident and hadn’t settled since, and Jinx didn’t doubt that even outside of the HIVE, the other baddies had taken notice of her too.

If she hadn’t been on the side of the goody-two-shoes, Jinx was sure the girl would arguably be the single most devastating thing to humanity, baring doomsday devices or politicians. She would’ve had the ability to do nearly anything she wanted, and she probably would’ve looked good doing it to boot.  

And she always arrived with an entrance worthy of serious respect, she thought.

The lights would dim, and the cameras in the hall would flicker off; although no alarms would sound. Then the shadows would begin to move, slowly at first, and unnoticeably, unless you knew to pay them close attention. The shadows would creep away from their positions, unnaturally so, and slither collectively to a singular point in the far wall of the corridor across from her. There the shadows would gather and deepen, then they would darken to something beyond black, something beyond emptiness and worldly sensation, and from within, a bubbling mass would emerge.

Her face was always the first thing to show through -or what Jinx could make of her face from underneath her hood- followed by her cloak obscured form. Sometimes she’d see a flash of legs that left nothing to the imagination if she was lucky before the cloak quickly obscured them again; but she had seen them enough in battle to know that they were well toned and packed a powerful roundhouse.

Jinx thought of the Titan’s pale grey skin, and pictured in perfect clarity, how the hood and shadows always seemed to draw her focus to her dark stained lips.

Even during their fights her eyes were drawn to them.

She wondered how they would looked if they became swollen from kisses rather than kicks.

She paused her imaginings when she realized she had been caressing her own lips with her fingers.

It wouldn’t be the first time she rocked her socks off to the Titan, she mused, and it likely wouldn’t have been the last time either, but the subject of her fantasy was still due to arrive at any moment and she doubted the Titan would much care to drop in and find her in such a state of depravity.

Slowly, a grin spread across her face.

The thought of the Titan arriving in the midst of such a scandalously private activity would be sure to ruffle the girl’s feathers.

It would be wonderfully ironic, she thought, were something like that to occur.

And after all, what were the odds something like that could happen anyway?

And besides, it would be the girl’s fault for just assuming she could waltz right in without warning and expect no repercussions for it.

Just because she was in prison didn’t mean she wasn’t entitled to some privacy.

Jinx bit her lip and slipped a hand under her shirt.

She closed her eyes and imagined the Titan once again, focusing on the girl’s face as she gently fondled her breast.

Her lips would remain pursed, she was sure, and as lovely as they were to imagine, after a few moments, Jinx switched her focus to the Titan’s eyes and slid her other hand beneath the waistband of her pants and started a nice leisurely rhythm; she had a lot of time to kill after all, she’d only be bored again faster if she were to rush.   

Raven’s eyes were large, violet, and nearly the only other feature visible beneath the girl’s hood, but Jinx had fought the girl in hand to hand enough to make out the form of a face hidden within the unnatural shadows; she couldn’t imagine what her face would look like, but it was reassuring to know that the Titan had one.  

There were lots of saying about eyes and windows, Jinx knew, and right now, she was imagining those eyes glued to the sight of her hands and their activities from behind the window of her personally tailored prison cell.

There would be a brief moment of confusion at first she was sure, as Raven would take a moment to figure out what she was doing, then they would narrow, and their color would darken in abject distaste at seeing one of her adversaries in such a perverted state.

She would have only a moment before the girl melted back into the shadows, but there was a wonderful world full of possibilities in that moment for Jinx to visualize and her pulse quickened at the imaginary Titan’s reactions in each one.

The more she imagined the Titan focused on her, the more aroused felt herself get and the giddier she felt for it.

Pleased, she slid down to rest fully on her cot; she spread her legs, resting one against the wall to her side and let the other fall and brace itself against the floor.

Feeling far more comfortable, she sighed happily and slipped a finger into her folds.

As she was restarting her pace, the atmosphere within the room changed and Jinx felt herself grin widely at the subtle announcement that the Titan had arrived.

Jinx kept her eyes closed and funneled the wave of excitement into quickening the movements of her hands and let the sensations ripple through her.

A small, sharp intake of breath told her that Titan realized what she had walked in on.

Well, Jinx thought, if she was going to give the girl a free show, she might as well give her her money’s worth.

Jinx rolled her hips against her hand and moaned; she made sure to let the Titan’s name fall shakily from her mouth. She wanted Raven to know exactly who was occupying her mind while her hands were busying themselves.

She had expected the Titan to leave in various manners of disgust almost immediately, but after a few moments, she still had yet to feel the weight of the room shift back to normal and the lights remained dim.

The knowledge that Raven was still watching her coerced the hexcaster to open her eyes and steal a glance at her voyeur.

The Titan didn’t show many outward appearances of being affected, but her breaths were short and her gaze was if possible, more intense than Jinx had dared to consider.

A new wave of excitement flooded her and Jinx felt herself giving into her desire unabashedly.

Instead of racing to the finish however, she geared her actions to the Titan watching her.

She traded small peaks for fervored glances, and with every twitch of the Titan’s expression, Jinx added another point to her imaginary scoreboard. She let all manner of sounds escape her lips, as much for the Titan’s benefit as her own.

Moans, shattered and gasping breaths, elongated whines, murmured pleas were all offered to the hero standing outside her cell; but most of all she repeated the Titan’s name, in as many shameless ways as she could manage.

It quickly became a mantra, a plea and a promise for relief, and each time she repeated it, its owner’s facade seemed to come a little more undone.

She also made touching herself as much of a show as possible; she kept her clothes on, which perhaps left too much to her voyeur’s imagination, but Jinx could hardly bother with that now. She heavily played up her foreplay, drawing out each sensation as long as she could, letting the anticipation build and build, both for the Titan and for herself, until she couldn’t stop herself from finally allowing herself to finish in a dizzying climax with a final moan just barely recognizable as the Titan’s name.

She let herself rest for a few heartbeats, drinking in the silence broken only by shaky breaths that she was too tired to determine the owners of, and then sat up just enough to cast the Titan a direct glace.

Raven, even from under her cloak, was visibly shaken, and seemed to be relying heavily on the barrier in front of her with her body leaning against it on one hand, while holding her cloak in a deadly looking grip with the other. Her breathing was labored and unsteady. Her lips were swollen and sporting a freshly bitten split. And to Jinx’s utter amazement and delight, Raven’s eyes were boring directly into hers and, she assumed, were brimming with different emotions.

Unable to resist, Jinx smirked, wiggled her eyebrows, and tossed her a small jibe.

“So... come here often?”

The Titan’s eyes narrowed, and lips parted to reveal a flash of pearly white teeth before she melted completely into the darkness behind her and disappeared once more.

Figuring that that was going to be the extent of her excitement for one day, Jinx happily pulled her hands out of her clothes and rolled over to get some sleep.

Chapter 2

It would have been a complete understatement to say that she was utterly surprised to see the Titan appear in front of her cell a week later. She had thoroughly expected her little peep show to send the Titan scurrying back to her Tower never to return, and the few missed visit days that had gone by had only seemed to confirm that belief. Yet, here she was, if the dimming lights and the sensation of being swallowed alive by darkness were anything to go by.

Jinx finished rinsing off her face and turned around.

Yep. There she was. Titan confirmed.

“So, ya missed me, huh? Or were all the other girls busy?”

The Titan made no reply, but her lips seemed more pursed than usual.

Jinx walked over to her cot and dropped back first onto it with a thump; she rolled over and sat up, crossed her legs and stretched, allowing sliver of skin to show under her uniform.

Raven seemed to be looking everywhere but her, she noted with amusement.

Jinx tilted her head and rested her chin against her knuckles.

“You did didn’t you. You missed me.”

This seemed to catch her attention, as it caused the lights to flicker momentarily.

“It’s cool, it’s pretty boring round here till you show up so I’m not complaining.”

The Titan looked like she wanted to reply, but seemed to be tongue tied; Jinx smiled softly. Things had taken an unexpected but not an uninteresting turn. She fully planned on making the most of this, since no matter what way anything went, it was bound to be entertaining.

“Of course,” she began idly, with a wave of her free hand, “I do think I deserve a little compensation. That was quite a private matter you chose to view.”

The Titan reeled back, with equal parts of guilt and alarm, Jinx imagined, and although the lights didn’t flicker, Jinx felt the weight of Raven’s unintentional magic rapidly thickening the air making the room colder with each breath.

“Relax, I’m not asking you to break me out or flash your panties or anything like that. It’s a pretty boring thing, really.”

The magic in the air wavered, as did Raven’s posture, but she settled after a moment as she thought things over, and her magic followed suit.

“So what…” Raven began quietly; she faltered, cleared her throat, and then put on her more authoritative voice; “What do you want?”

Jinx pretended to mull it over for a few moments, leaning her head this way and that, and then looked her dead in the eyes and grinned.

“I want you to take off your hood.”

The magic in the air spiked again, and some of the shadows distorted.

Jinx sighed; “Oh come on, it’s not that weird of a thing to ask. I’ve just never seen your face. I know you have one.”  

That seemed to calm the Titan a bit, and slowly, almost painfully slowly, Jinx watched the hood give way to short violet hair and a completely visible face.

“Happy?” Raven asked; the word was coated thinly in venom, and was laced with guilt. Jinx wondered what the filling was.

Jinx hopped off the bed, prompting the Titan to involuntarily bring her hands back to her hood, and Jinx paused. She waited, easing the Titan’s nerves and posture until her hands fell away once more. Slowly, to keep from startling her again, she walked up to the barrier to take a closer look.  

She gazed leisurely, and drank in every detail she could from behind the barrier. Her face was a bit distorted from the blue shimmering field, but she could tell Raven possessed one of the most beautiful, if a bit otherwordly, faces she had seen. Her eyes seemed a bit too large to be normal, and the red jewel on her brow was a bit surprising, but it made the tiny flares of red glows she had seen during their battles on occasion make sense in hindsight. Her cheeks were a bit flushed, which was likely from the embarrassing nature of the occasion, Jinx assumed; and her eyelashes matched the violet shade of her hair exactly, which told Jinx that the shade was either natural for the girl, or else that she was very determined to be color coordinated. Small slivers of pearly white teeth were visible between Raven’s lips, and the empath seemed torn about biting them or not.

The cameras really didn't do her any justice, she decided; well, the ones that had been able to catch her at all, she amended. Raven was notorious for giving the camera crews the slip.

The Titan shifted a bit under her gaze, uncomfortable with the attention, it seemed.

“Cute.”

This seemed to make the Titan more uncomfortable, as if she didn’t know quite what to make of being praised for something she had no control over, or else she was not used to being complimented in general, which Jinx found slightly surprising and so filed away for future use.

Slowly, Jinx shifted her posture, changing her body’s stance into what she hoped, was enticing for the girl before her.

In her line of work, flirting was a skill she utilized as much as picking locks; alliances and favors easily made and easily separated from emotion. Batting eyelashes at boys and casting coy smiles at men was just another tactic for survival really; even the cops and wardens expected a little something from time to time. It was easy flirting with self absorbed boys who for the most part, only wanted to feel superior and have their egos flattered, and gross old men who wanted to feel powerful and young again, and usually, the girls at the Hive had only used each other to gain advantages and to let off steam about the self absorbed boys and the gross old men they would have to return to afterwards, the scant few times they dined to bat the other team at all.

Meaningless, the lot of it, Jinx thought, easily got and forgotten.  

Gaining Raven’s attention would be different, she thought.

Was already different.

The only time she had seen Raven resemble anything close to a normal human, was in the thick of their fights on the days they had long enough to trade witty banter and one liners in hand to hand combat when neither of them had really had an advantage.

Raven was looking for an equal.

At least, that was the hunch Jinx was now working from, and being an equal to someone like Raven was a hefty order to fill.  

For a second guess, as she was never one to put all her tricks in the same sleeve, Jinx figured Raven might be using her to break whatever monotonous routine the Titan was forced to keep. And while that would be a bit less flattering, it would be far easier to work with, and Jinx smiled at the thought; she was good at being exciting.

Jinx decided that she would work under her first and more flattering assumption, because even it wasn’t necessarily true, her second guess would likely get proved correctly regardless.

She needed to keep her body language firm, she decided quickly, because Raven never backed down completely; she kept her shoulders squared and kept her chin tilted up by just a hair. She also kept her stance inviting; she wanted the Titan’s interest, and she tilted her body towards the Titan and every now and then, slightly swayed to keep the girl’s attention on her, instead of letting it wander to floor or somewhere past her shoulders, where the Titan had looked to be focusing on before.

The only part that really worried her, was that she would have to be careful about her tone. Her words. The dark Titan was well known to hold grudges and one misstep could spell the end of her game for good. Perhaps even the end of herself, she worried. Sure the Titans were glorified girl scouts, but everyone had their limits and Jinx was certain that she was embarking on a dangerous game that could push the girl to hers.

If she kept her speech certain, but soft, she felt that she had a fighting chance at a winning shot.

Providing her luck held of course, she reminded herself.

And although her inner musings had only taken a moment, the Titan had already taken notice of her change in behavior, and was beginning to react to it. She was quivering slightly, underneath her cloak from time to time, and she couldn’t leave her eyes in one place for too long.

“Hello by the way. Nice to see you drop round;” when the Titan didn’t reply, Jinx huffed.

“Don’t they teach you good manners at that Tower?”

Raven almost scowled a bit, but changed her mind, leaving her lips stretched a little thin.

“Hello Jinx.”

Jinx flashed a brilliant smile and clicked her tongue against her teeth.

“And how are you today?”

Raven seemed uneager to play along, but nevertheless did, after a hefty sigh.

“I’m fine.”

“And…”

“...And how are you today Jinx?”

“I’m good,” she casually replied; “See? Look at us, talking to each other all civil like. Warms the heart a bit doesn’t it? A regular Hallmark moment we got going on here.”

“So it would seem.”

Jinx smiled and decided to test her luck and make a move.

“So, what did you want to see?” Jinx asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Jinx said as she waved a hand in the air absently, “What would you like to see now that I’ve had the pleasure of seeing your pretty face?”

“I’m not-” but before Raven could finish her protest she fell silent as Jinx slowly began unbuttoning her shirt. Raven sputtered, and something that could have passed as a question in another language trickled off her tongue.

“I mean…” Jinx let the sentence trail off while she continued undoing the shirt as slowly as she could, “You obviously liked what you watched before, since you came back.”

“And it would only be fair, since you were so kind to show me something of yours…”

She paused and turned around; she undid the finale buttons and let the shirt slide down her back, and kept hold of the sleeves pooling around her wrists.  

She let the shirt dangle for a moment, giving the Titan a good long moment to graze over the curve of her back before speaking.

“But then again;” she paused for more effect, crossed her arms over her chest, and cast a glance over her shoulder, “if you don’t want to see anything...”

She let the statement trail off and bumped the shirt back over her shoulders, and left it unfastened; “We can always go back to staring at each other while waiting for the paint to peel.”

Jinx sauntered slowly back in front of the Titan.

“It’s ok, you can tell me, either way. I promise it’ll only hurt my feelings a little bit, if you’d rather watch the walls undress instead of me.”

She winked to make sure the Titan knew her teasing was venomless.

Jinx now knew why Raven was rarely seen without her hood in place.

Her expressions were too honestly visible across her face with it down; sure they weren’t as obvious as most people’s, but Jinx was watching very carefully, and she was certain a lot of other villains would’ve too if given the chance.

Jinx found she quite liked it, seeing the girl exhibit emotion, as it made the girl feel more human.

More reachable.

More real.

And the fact that she was pretty also certainly helped, Jinx felt.

Raven worried her lip and her eyes seemed troubled by guilt.

Jinx leaned in and gentled her voice, dipped it lower, and tilted her shoulders.

“It’s ok, you can tell me,” She repeated.

She was pushing the limits of her luck and the barrier, but the Titan was leaning in and beginning to open up and Jinx was nothing if but a gambler, so she pushed further; she leaned in as close as the field let her and hushed her voice to barely above a murmur; “Tell me, did you go home and crawl into bed, and hide under your covers with thoughts of me moaning your name echoing in your ears while you slid a finger between your legs and your knuckles between your teeth?”

Jinx let her arms fall from her chest and braced them against the barrier. Her shirt still covered her breasts, but the Titan’s eyes instantly tracked each movement of newly revealed skin along her abdomen.

Raven’s next intake of breath was involuntarily sharp, and hissed between her teeth.

The lights sparked once but remained unbroken, and the Titan scrambled to create a coherent response.

“I… That is, I did but, I mean I didn’t and… I just...”

“What,” Jinx whined, with just a hint of hurt seeping into her voice, “you didn’t like me moaning your name or you didn’t think about me moaning your name while you jilled yourself off?”

“I… don’t have to answer that.”

“Oh, I think you do. You could break a girl’s heart like this you know. Her self confidence even. Come on, it’s not any more embarrassing than what you saw me do.”

After a moment’s silence where the Titan considered her words, Raven replied.

“Alright.”

Jinx smiled and waited.

The Titan closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them and seemed steadier for it.

“I did, as in, I liked what I saw;” she closed her eyes again to ease the pain of the admission, “and I did think of you… thinking of me,” her eyes opened once more and Jinx noticed the strange set of muscles moving underneath the girl’s skin; “but I didn’t, as in, I didn’t have fingers between my legs or have knuckles between my teeth. There. Is that enough for you?”

Jinx tilted her head slightly and wet her lips.

“...But did you want to?”

Another moment passed where Raven needed to steady herself before she could reply.

“Yes,” she replied honestly, to Jinx’s immense shock, “I did.”

“Then why didn’t you?” You could have, you know. It would've been understandable.”

“I…” Raven sighed and rubbed her temple for a moment; “I didn’t want my team to find out. They… There’s no way they wouldn’t have noticed.”

“They keep your leash so short you can’t even get off? Goddamn, you must need to blow off more steam than an old locomotive.”

Jinx’s eyes widened immediately, as she hadn’t meant to say that outloud. Her face must have shown adequate surprise though, because Raven’s face, although mildly surprised as well, did not seem to hold any anger, just embarrassment.

Oh .

Well then, Jinx thought. How interesting.

“It’s not… quite like that. My powers just have… specific inclinations, I guess.”

“You should let me help you then. Blow off steam I mean,” Jinx heard herself offer; gone were the traces of controlled flattery, and instead all her words contained genuine empathy, surprising herself.  

Raven actually looked like she was considering her offer for a moment, but Jinx could see the Titan attempting to quit the game, and she had to act fast if she wanted keep their once in a lifetime opportunity rolling.

“I can’t.”

“Can’t, or won’t?”

“I shouldn’t. ”

Jinx pressed her hand against the Titan’s, or as against it as she could manage with the barrier between them, startling the girl slightly.

“Look, this is a penitentiary, not your pretty island Tower. You could do anything to me and no one would care. I’m just another inmate. An inmate who’s fought you enough in battle to know what you’re capable of. An inmate you’ve fought enough to know what I’m capable of;” Jinx lowered her voice again and raised her other hand to where the side of Titan’s face would be without the barrier; “It’d be okay. You don’t even have to cross the barrier if you don’t want to. But you’ve become something of a friend to me while I’ve been wasting away in here, by giving me something to look forward to that keeps the cabin fever at bay, so allow me return the favor for you...” She let the last sentence fall in volume until it was a whisper pressed against the force field; “ Raven .”

She had moaned her name like it was the only thing capable of being a prayer, and she knew memories of their last visit would be flashing within the Titan’s mind at the sound of it.

She watched the Titan’s resolve crumble in front of her and it was breathtaking.

“Jinx…” the Titan whispered.

“Yeah?”

“I…”

She was still at a loss for words, and Jinx could easily taste the sensation of victory, so she decided she’d help ease things along.  

“You still want to watch me, right?”

Raven bit her lip and glanced down the corridor in each direction before stepping closer to the barrier and nodding like she was sharing a secret too scandalous to speak out loud.

“Ok, then you can watch me.”

Raven released a small breath and Jinx found herself smiling.

“So what do you want to watch me do? Do you just want me to strip? Do you want to watch me fuck myself again or... do you want me on my knees, begging?” Jinx asked while wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.  

The magic in the air thickened again, and the room grew darker, not from the lights dimming, but from the shadows darkening themselves.  

“You gotta tell me what you want to see Sunshine. At least a little. With real words.”

There was several moments that passed where Jinx watched the Titan struggle to keep herself collected; she found herself impressed by the Titan’s dedication to her persona. She was also surprised things were going well; the Titan must’ve been quite affected, she reasoned, to be as forthcoming as she was.

“No… I… I don’t want you on your knees,” the Titan finally managed, a hint of her usual confidence returning.

“No? Then what do you want me on?” Jinx lilted; her grin spread large across her face and she rocked gently on her heels in anticipation.

“I…” The Titan paused again, this time not from guilt or embarrassment, but from time spent considering her options; Jinx swayed again and bit her lip.

“Do you want me on the bed again?”

“No.”

“The floor?”

Raven shook her head, much to the hexcastor’s relief; the cell’s floor was mega gross, not through anything she’d done mind, but she’d rather not touch it any more than she had to just the same.

She waited a few minutes while the Titan figured out how to use human speech by letting her gaze meander idly around her cell.

“I  want… you in front of me. Like you were just now.”

A strange feeling bubbled within Jinx’s chest and she grinned a cheshire smile.

Happily, she waited a moment, to see if the Titan had any other requests, and left one hand against the barrier, and slowly ran her other across her lips.

Raven watched quietly from the opposite side of the force field; her beautiful violet eyes trailing her every move, and Jinx found herself delighted by them once more.

They were so close that they could watch each other’s every reaction; Jinx fluttered her eyes and began suckling her fingertips, and took pride in the way it made Raven chew her lip.

She mewled, just a little, and briefly clenched the hand against the barrier before she ran her wettened fingertips down her neck and between her breasts and down, down, to her waistband and then slowly, all the way back up to her lips again.

She gave them a lick and then slipped them under her shirt and started caressing her breast.  

Raven’s breathing quickened and the air magically thickened once more, and the shadows behind the Titan began to dance.

Jinx moaned softly, and pulled her shirt off her shoulder to give the Titan a better view.

There were no exploding lights in response to her maneuver, and Raven seemed to be holding herself together well, and still seemed quite willing to keep playing, so Jinx continued on.

Her fingers circled slowly along her flesh, traced over her areola, and then rolled her nipple between her fingers and sighed happily.

Raven made a low humming noise in response, and Jinx bit her lip to keep from chuckling in satisfaction.

Deciding that it was time to give her other breast some attention, she leaned back from the barrier and let her shirt fall to the floor.    

Jinx gave the Titan a moment to look her over, and smiled broadly when the Titan’s breathing hitched again.

For a moment she ghosted her fingers along her lips with one hand, and with the other, teased circles around her chest.

Ravens bit her lip to keep a noise from escaping them, and her eyes remained glued to her every movement, much to Jinx’s delight.

She offered the Titan a gentle moan, almost a sigh really, and trailed her fingers down from her throat to knead her breasts again; Raven stifled another noise but had yet to take more intimate action, and Jinx wondered if she could get that to change.

“You know,” Jinx offered while she pressed briefly against the energy field, “this might work better if you helped yourself along.”

Jinx winked and continued her ministrations.

Raven’s confidence shook a bit, as displayed by the manner in which she worried her lip and caused the shadows to swell. Her eyes filled with unease and Jinx felt another surge of lust tinted compassion.

“Look Raven;” Jinx returned one hand to the barrier and set the other one on her hip, “It’s ok, I promise. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to of course, but it really would be just between us, and trust me...”

Jinx let the statement trail off and slid her hand down her breast and drug it back up again, letting her nails leave tiny trails of red skin in their wake. She smiled and gave the Titan a particularly x-rated moan before finishing her sentence.

“I’m not the kind of girl to tease you about where you might slip your hands when no one’s looking.”

Raven considered her words for a moment, or else she was simply too transfixed by her show to reply, but as Jinx offered another guttural iteration of the Titan’s name, Raven hesitantly placed her fingers to her lips.

Instantly, Jinx felt as though her body hit the first drop on a first class theme park coaster, and her next moan was more honest than she was expecting.

Raven seemed greatly affected by it, and moaned herself, which startled the both of them into silence.

“Sorry.”

Jinx’s body suddenly remembered how to breath and she exhaled deeply before replying.

“Don’t be, it’s just you and me, and you can make all the noise you want. I’d prefer it honestly.”

Raven stared at her for a moment, worried her lips briefly and then consciously stopped biting them, and nodded.

“Alight then.”

Jinx flashed her fangs briefly in an open smile, and began humming happily. On a whim, she pressed her lips to the barrier with an overdramatic ‘mwah’ and giggled when the Titan huffed indignantly.

Jinx smiled wickedly, and set her hand to work once more.

She let her fingers glide along chest a few times, along her throat, and against the hollow of her collarbone; the way the Titan’s eyes tracked her every movement was so oddly charming that Jinx simply had to indulge herself in it for a few moments.

Jinx hummed happily, when Raven let her fingers fall from her lips softly down her throat; they curled on her chest, too hesitant to go further.    

Jinx wetted her lips; the want to coax the Titan to orgasm took a firm root in her mind.

And as a girl who almost always got her goals, she felt a special sort of determined to see this through proper. Or, as proper as a fuck could be, she amended internally.

Having determined the girl was going to need a lot of coaxing, Jinx casually shifted her actions from meaninglessly wafting across her flesh, to teasing the promise of removing the ugly orange sweatpants hugging her hips.

As her fingers swept along her waistband and toyed with a tease of a flash of her hip, the Titan’s fingers returned to her mouth, where they were raw from being bit and worried.

Jinx almost said something, but let the words be stopped short under her tongue as the Titan let her fingers brush against the barrier, just over where Jinx’s abdomen would be, were the containment field not there.

Ignoring the sudden wish for the barrier to be missing, Jinx smiled.

“I think these pants would look better somewhere else, how about you?”

The Titan mumbled something and nodded, which was more than enough incentive for Jinx to remove the garment; it wasn’t an elegant removal to be sure, and the prison uniform could hardly be placed in any category nearing anywhere even remotely sexy, but with the way Raven watched her slide them off, Jinx felt as though she were a high end kind of girl, slipping out of something satin in front of a high roller in a loft apartment somewhere in the nice part of the city with the lights dimmed low and rush of the city displayed through an enormous window in the background, complete with candles and crystalware drinks.

Another sigh moaned its way through her lips at the vision; of Raven watching her in a fine tailored suit as she stripped to nothing but her skivvies before the being possessively lain on a bed more expensive than every every year of her illicit tuition combined.

“You ever wear a tailored suit before?” Jinx asked, with eyes still closed to the vision, and her fingers trailing up her newly freed skin; “You should try it sometime. You’ve definitely got the face for it.”

“I’m not supposed to wear suits to city functions.”

Jinx’s eyes parted open and her mouth slid into a prime scoffing position.

“Fuck the system and tell them to suck it Moonshine, girls have been wearing pants since the twenty’s.”

Jinx ran her hands down her hips and allowed her eyes to rest along the curves of the Titan’s thighs.

“Mind you, it would be a terrible shame covering up any inch of you, Dollface. I can definitely see how they wouldn’t want you to.”

Raven seemed a little shaken, and the lights flickered; outside of Raven’s pooling magic, everything was black.

Her smile widened into a appreciative smirk.

“Are the petnames really necessary?” the Titan asked as tonelessly as she could manage.

“Absolutely,” Jinx replied, as she started toying with her lips again; “But if any one of ‘em in particular bothers you, I won’t use it again. This is supposed to be an enjoyable occasion after all.”

Raven didn’t reply, but her fingertips danced across her lips again and then began mirroring Jinx’s own.

Finally, the girl was exploring her own chest. Jinx exhaled happily in relief; when Raven’s breath hitched as she toyed with her breast, Jinx practically beamed in response.

“That’s good, just like that. Feels good, yeah?”

Raven hesitated, but nodded vaguely.

Emboldened, Jinx slid into the foreplay; her fingers danced lightly across her flesh, her palms kneaded and caressed; up her arms, against her hips, along her throat and over her lips; she let flutters of sighs and mumbles and moans escape as they were want to.

She noticed, during her lazied ministrations, the way Raven’s hand had dropped to her thigh to knead it deeply; her nails digging into her flesh, leaving herself red and likely burning.

There was an ache forming inside herself as well, Jinx freely admitted; a beautiful, painful ache that was pulsing and burning and it was making her breaths every bit as heavy and hissed as those of the Titan’s in front of her.

She let her shirt fall to the floor.

Jinx reveled in the way Raven raked her gaze across her chest, too hungry to let hesitation stop her.

She drug her hands down her chest again, along her abdomen and back around her hips; she doubted she could pull off an effectively coy performance, but she also doubted Raven would be interested in something that polished to begin with. Instead, she laced her performance with a dangerous grin and and a hearty moan.  

She let her fingers dig into the delicate flesh of her inner thighs before pulling them all the way back near her throat.   

“Come on Raven…” Jinx breathed, “play a little.”

Jinx smiled again and ran her fingers down the front of her underwear, which were, to be completely honest, the most ugly shade of khaki Jinx had ever seen and cut in the most unflattering way possible. She desperately wished she had been able to wear something else for this occasion; something red, anything black, or her pair of striped glow in the dark kitty pawprint panties even; still, when she hooked her thumbs under their band and slid them just a touch down her hips, Raven reacted as if she had been wearing the sexiest black lace panty in existence.

The growl the Titan made struck her with a wave of heat and aching muscle.

“Come on Baby,” she coaxed again; teasing the underwear just a bit lower.

Reluctantly, Raven’s hand slid down between her thighs; and it seemed as if most of the light in their respective rooms dimmed out completely.

Jinx grinned from ear to ear and removed her underwear, and congratulated herself for managing to make it slightly more enticing than the removal of her pants.

“This is the part you gotta try yourself Sweetheart,” Jinx chided; she placed her fingers over the patch of pink hair between her legs and gave them an occasional wiggle as she waited for Raven to muster the courage to do the same.

To help coax her along, Jinx moaned again, the way she had when she had been giving the girl the masturbatory show; her free hand sparked neon pink as it slid along the barrier, sending a rush of tingles through her arm.

Raven finally slipped her hand between her legs.

Jinx nearly let herself come undone in that exact moment, but steadied herself with a long shaky exhalation of breath and another sighing moan.   

Slowly, she began fingering herself, letting Raven see how she worked her fingers, to quietly teach the girl to do the same.

Raven inhaled shakily, and pulled the fabric of her costume aside just far enough to slip her fingers where they needed to be; Jinx was delighted by the small flash of momentarily visible hair coating the Titan’s skin -she had always wondered if that like herself, the Titan’s curtains had matched the drapes, she thought crudely, chuckling to herself.

Shadows began slowly swirling around the Titan’s legs as she steadily worked her fingers, and Jinx quickly found herself getting as breathless as the girl in front of her.

“Make some noise Suger,” Jinx cooed, “how ya feelin?”

Raven groaned again, the tail of it funneling into a low growl as she leaned onto the barrier; she didn’t speak, but she left her mouth parted, much to Jinx’s pleasure.

“You ready for the show, Love?” Jinx asked, pressing harder against the barrier herself, before murmuring,  “And do say yes, please.”

This time the Titan moaned, and it trailed into a small but hearty, “Yes please.”

“Fuck,” Jinx managed eloquently.

Once more, Jinx set out to make a menagerie of manglements of the Titan’s name, each more sultry than the last.

This time however, Jinx had the wonderful gift of the Titan doing the same of her own; they were quieter sure, but each iteration murmured or growled from between the Titans lips was longer and more saturated than all of the times it had been shouted by her ex’s put together.

Soon, breathing became terribly difficult, and the task of remaining upright quickly became a daunting one, and when she noticed Raven having the same problems, she let herself slide onto her knees.

Raven remained where she was, but tucked her legs underneath her and remained in the air; Jinx almost wanted to ask her to join her on the floor, but found she didn’t mind as their positions gave Jinx a very nice view.

As the pair worked closer to climax, Raven slid her free against her mouth and bit her fingers, stifling her errant noises.

Jinx whined; “Raven, let me hear you.”

Raven managed to release her fingers, but her teeth still found the back of her wrist and clamped down.

“Come on ,” Jinx moaned, her desperation growing.

Raven was able to compose herself just enough to move her hand again, leading it to dig into her collarbone instead with another deep inhuman growl.

Jinx’s moans laced themselves with more pleas and encouragements; the Titan before her become more undone with each one.

Finally, when Jinx felt as though she wouldn’t be able to stand the wait any longer, she felt herself fall over the edge, taking the Titan with her.

Jinx didn’t see what Raven’s magic did in that moment, but she felt it ripple through her cell like a wave of pure energy and as it slid through her aura and into her body and back out again, Jinx felt herself topple over that much harder; her own magic flared up involuntarily at the feeling, and Jinx heard a guttural hiss of pleasure escaping the girl in front of her as she did it.

For a long moment, their energies intermingled, sliding through and against each other’s; Jinx had never felt a power so like Raven’s before and even in a non climax addled state, she knew she wouldn’t be able to describe it properly; it was interdimensional and cold and deep as an ocean and light and bright white and thin as air, and as it passed through her body and coiled around her aura she felt it pulse and and thrum as if it were a living thing.

Behind her closed eyes, all of her senses seemed to dull, leaving only the sensation of the Titan’s magic mingling with her own.

She wasn’t certain what kind of noise it was that left her mouth, but it didn’t matter because she felt Raven’s energy rebound against hers after doing so; she could practically feel the Titan’s answering growl within her chest.  

Slowly, the sensations began to dissipate.

Just as she was beginning to regain her ability to breathe, Jinx felt a tiny shock.

It was as if a new awareness had snapped into existence inside of her, the way vision returned to open eyes.

She couldn’t quite feel it exactly, and at the same time, she felt it intrinsically.  

She felt Raven’s energy through her, and, open something within her, something more deeply connected to her core self than her aura or her chaos magic.

It was when she felt Raven’s energy touch her own, that she realized two things: Raven’s magic was her soul. That in and of itself was a breaktaking revelation, and one Jinx greatly looked forward to pondering in the future. The second thing she realized, was that as Raven’s soul slowly wrapped around her own like a moth drawn to a flame, it felt really, really, good.

Her eyes weren’t open, but she could see both Raven's soul and her own with stunning clarity; the colors, the shapes, the dimensional space that housed them.

It was beautiful.

Jinx then realized that not all of the feelings she was experiencing were her own; as if connected by a wire, Jinx could feel traces of Raven’s physical and emotional frequencies pass off the Titan and into herself before they bounced back out of her, pulling her own feelings with them before traveling back into Raven again.

Jinx then instantly understood that Raven was an empath, and several other things besides. Similarly, she understood that Raven learned many such intimate things about her, as well.

The connection of their souls strength bit by bit as Raven’s soul sought to encompass her own; every movement was a new experience of sights, sounds, colors, and feelings. The sensory data would have been overwhelming if not for the fact that it was happening in a plane of reality not quite flush with their physical one.

The closer Raven’s soul got to its goal, the closer Jinx felt herself approach another edge and she felt her body and her soul shudder with building anticipation for the new experience.

Raven shared her sentiment, Jinx could feel that as if it were her own, and the more Jinx focused on the energy between them and on the Titan in general, the more sensations she felt ripple through her consciousness.

When at last Raven’s soul had engulfed her own, Jinx’s ability to form any coherent thought was striped from her.

Raven’s soul lifted Jinx’s just slightly from its natural space in existence, and pushed at it gently.

In that moment she felt Raven’s frustration and need and understood Raven’s intent and keened in frustration that she didn’t know how to make her soul act accordingly.

Sensing her troubled emotions, she felt Raven’s presence instinctively slide into her own; there was a brief second where Jinx feared the Titan would seize control of her mind, but it was immediately soothed away by the Titan’s warmth spreading throughout her body and the fluttering of Raven’s consciousness reassuring her.

The moment she relaxed, she felt her soul respond and excitement bubbled through her and into her partner and back again.

Jinx allowed herself to relax completely; something she would in any normal circumstance, never do, and simply let herself fall into her awareness.

Her soul responded instantly.

All around it, hex energy lit up and Raven’s soul slipped through the static into into her own.  

It was, as Jinx could only comprehend, as the textbook definition of ecstasy.

She could feel snippets of how Raven understood it slip into her, and it was only by those shards of senses that she could place any understanding of what their souls were doing.

Their souls were fixated in a mobius loop, Raven’s soul moving her own from the inside out to turn each of them inside out and rightside back again in a singular constant motion, gaining speed with each inversion.

Once the momentum was fast enough, Raven’s soul ceased pulling, and Jinx’s soul continued their path of movement by flaring her hex energy along them both.

It looked like a star being born.

Jinx imagined their star being surrounded by a universe of glittering pink diamonds, trillions and billions of lightyears away and found herself delighted by Raven’s delightment of her vision.

To Raven, it looked like a concept Jinx had no name or point of reference for, and in the shared idea, seemed more strange and important.

The given image flickered then, and instead, Raven thought of a singular feeling.

The feeling was overwhelming, wonderful, beautiful, too grand for Jinx to stand and yet calming and fulfilling all at once.

The thought that none of the times Jinx had dabbled in sexual magic had even come close to what was occurring flickered into Raven’s awareness and Jinx could feel Raven’s responding humor, pride, and satisfaction roll into hers.

The connection between them reached its peak; their star exploding into a supernova and then condensing into a black hole, sending Jinx spinning back down into reality.

For several, long moments, Jinx simply breathed; her full body weight resting against the barrier.

The connection to Raven began to dissipate, and the feeling of Raven’s energy leaving her own made her feel brutally cold in its wake.

Slowly, that too evened out, until she felt mostly coherent and no longer as if there were huge gouges of her soul and aura missing.

She felt simultaneously the most exhausted and the most refreshed she had ever felt in her entire life.

Jinx opened her eyes and was only minorly shocked to see herself in the same position she remembered last being in; but, as disheveled and thoroughly fucked as she was sure she looked, she took delight in how utterly raven also seemed to be caught in the throws of afterglow.

She had fallen to her knees, and while her hair wasn’t disheveled and her uniform was still on correctly, her breaths came in heaves and trembles and the fresh split in her lip made her look damn right gorgeous in Jinx’s opinion.

She watched Raven slowly come back into herself, and smiled gently.

Raven wasn’t lost behind hesitance or humiliation any longer, and Jinx adored the way Raven’s half lidded satisfied expression accentuated her features.

Without thinking, Jinx lifted her head to place a long, lazy kiss against the barrier.

She sighed happily when the Titan leaned up to kiss back.

Jinx found herself wishing again that the force field wasn’t there; the static from the barrier gave a nice coat of tingles across her lips, but it wasn't the feeling of the soft, flush lips hovering just against the other side.

Still, Jinx wouldn’t deny her approval of all parts of the recently transpired events.

She hummed for a moment, unwilling to break the moment just yet.

Raven’s communicator, however, didn’t seem to be on the same wavelength.

Raven’s eyes shot up, startled, as if she had completely forgotten everything outside of their game; with the way her hand was still trapped between her legs, Jinx was left with the distinct image of a metaphorical child being caught with their hands in the similarly metaphorical cookie jar.

She grinned but said nothing as the Titan rushed to answer the device.

A faint sound of the Titan’s leader flickered past the barrier and Jinx only grinned harder when the Titan glared at her.

“No, I’m fine,” Raven replied to the device.

“No I, I don’t know what could have caused the power outage in the city.”

Jinx raised a brow.

“Yes, I’ll go check that out.”

“I’m fine, just out of breath.”

“...Jogging.”

Jinx bit her lip to keep from giggling.

“Right. I will. Raven out.”

Raven snapped the communicator shut and looked back at her; she looked torn between being upset and being amused.

“Well that was certainly an invigorating jog, wasn’t it?” Jinx offered, “Those paths less traveled certainly live up to their reputations I hear.”

Raven rolled her eyes but then smiled softly at her; something fluttered in Jinx’s chest and she was a bit annoyed that she knew that it had nothing to do with magic or souls.

“Jinx…” Raven stated, prompting Jinx’s expression to straighten as she reflexively braced herself; “...Thanks.”

It was only a murmur, but the amount of emotion behind it was clear.

Jinx smiled.

“Anytime Dollface,” Jinx replied warmly, “Anything for a girl like you.”

Raven leaned in to offer a parting kiss; Jinx leaned in as if to catch it with her own, and found herself startled by a break in the barrier and the sensation of Raven’s lips against her own.    

She moaned softly, drinking in the feeling of soft skin.

When Raven pulled away, the barrier righted itself, and Raven’s expression grew sheepish.

“I uh, I have to go figure out how to turn the lights back on,” she offered hesitantly.

“Go on then,” Jinx ordered, amusement thick in her voice, “Go save the day. I’ll be here all week.”

Raven nodded, and after casting her one final look, she disappeared into the darkness, taking the abundance of the darkness back with her.

Chapter 3

 

( I've been using this picture as a point of reference and inspiration in writing this AU for a few years now, so it seems only fitting that I offer it as an 'opening credits' or 'cover piece' of sorts. The art was created by me & it's hosted on my old tumblr blog. Enjoy! )

Chapter 4

Jinx’s chest heaved as she sprinted, the movement upsetting her ribs and calling attention to the fracture she had gained. The split in her knee also protested her mad dash, but that she paid little mind. 

She felt, rather than heard, the Titan hot on her trail; Jinx smiled.

When she came to the end of the alleyway which opened up into a cramped area blocked in every direction but the one she had come from, Jinx spun around and waited with an eager grin sliced across her face; she panted for a moment before forcing herself to breath through her nose, large huffs of air spilling in huffs of vapor in the cold air.

The blackbird composed out of energy that was tailing her quickly rounded the corner into her line of sight and stopped short, folding inside of itself to melt into its corporeal form; Raven stepped out, hood drawn, scowl in place.

Jinx cocked her head and grinned widely.

“Hey Darlin’, ” she greeted as she mentally congratulated herself on a successful plan of luring the Titan out on her own.

Raven growled, one of warning rather than pleasure, which surprised Jinx briefly.

Her brows knit as she took in Raven’s apparent rage and the black tendrils of energy taking form to either of the Titan’s sides, giving her a vaguely Elderitch-spiderlike visage.

“What’s a’matter Honey?” she asked genuinely; she was sure that after their last foray, the Titan would remain at least civil towards her in future proceedings.    

Raven did not reply, but strode forward at an even pace; Jinx cautiously teetered back a few steps towards the wall behind her as the black tendrils bore into the brick buildings on either side of the Titan and contorted their shapes in ways that made Jinx’s mind hurt to look at for too long.

“Not in the mood for talkin’, huh?” Jinx asked, swaying on her feet as the Titan continued to approach her.

“That’s fine with me Sugar if you just wanna kiss instead,” she offered suggestively, as she wondered if that the Titan just wanted to display a bit of puff and posture to make up for the overly delicates states Jinx had seen her in during their dalliances.

She offered Raven a charming smile and attempted to position herself as pliant appearing as possible; The Titan however made no reply, the black tendrils coiling out from within her flickered forward as if to grab her, but repeatedly missed her by fractions of inches.

“Or we can keep playing catch me if you can, if you want,” Jinx added with a coy grin as she turned her body slightly, to inform the Titan she was capable of bolting without a moment’s notice, as she thought that perhaps the Titan just wanted to play a rougher game instead.

She knew from past experience that girl liked a good chase, as long it remained out of the city's gross areas like the sewers. A mischievous smile coated her lips as she imagined the girl chasing her through the city until her exhaustion inevitably lost the game to her, allowing the Titan’s soul to ensnare her.  

Still, the Titan said nothing and walked closer.

Jinx frowned at the lack of response she was getting from the girl; the thought that the girl might be genuinely angry with her suddenly stuck her and quickly, her mind began whirling away with different escape plans and platitudes that might appease the Titan enough to grant her a fortuitous means of avoiding re-incarceration.

“You aren't mad that I a roughed up a joint are you?” Jinx asked gently, “You never minded before…”

When Raven stood a mere few steps in front of her, the Titan stopped and snarled. Her powers surged forward, coiling around her body tightly as they slammed her into the wall behind her.

Jinx struggled to regain her breath from the shock and hissed at the pain the impact sent through her injured rib.

“Talk to me Baby,” Jinx pleaded, nothing but seriousness lacing her voice; the energy around her flickered and fluxed around her body, as if it wasn’t sure quite of what it wanted to do.

“You left,” Raven hissed, as her eyes narrowed.

“The crime scene?” Jinx asked, taken by surprise; “Of course I left, how was I supposed to talk to you with your teammates right there?”

“No,” Raven growled as her body trembled, “I mean…”

The Titan trailed off and Jinx recognised the tone in her voice as belonging to one of embarrassment; Jinx internally sighed of relief and smiled gently.

“You were upset that I broke out again,” Jinx offered as she struggled in the Titan’s soul tethers slightly, eyeing the darkness gathered around the Titan; “I didn’t break anyone else out this time, and I didn’t knock anyone unconscious on my way out… I didn’t even break much!” she thought aloud before tilting her head, “Are you upset that I didn’t want to stay in a cage?”

“You caused the power outage,” Raven insisted, although it sounded more of a deflection than a true argument to Jinx.

“I had to,” Jinx replied evenly, “With all that energy you were pouring into me that night, I had to either channel it into the barrier or let the whole building fall down on top of us,” Jinx explained; “I assumed you’d’ve preferred the blackout instead of a breakout with mass casualties.”

Jinx attempted to shrug as much as Raven’s soul binding allowed her to and eyed the Titan, drinking in the girl’s fluctuating emotions.

She decided to push her luck.

“Tell me what’s really wrong Dollface.”

Raven shifted on her feet and Jinx watched the girl’s anger drain into a foreign emotion until she bent her head down; some of Raven’s powers dug into the ground around her and rolled the asphalt in and over itself as if molding it the way one might mold a stress ball.

“You… weren’t there,” Raven finally murmured, sending a pang of emotion through Jinx’s chest; “You said you were going to be there but you weren’t!” she growled, looking up.

Internally, Jinx felt as if her insides lit up like a lightning strike; a river of giddiness trickled down her spine at the Titan’s admission and it was all Jinx could do to keep her composure.

“Oh Honey,” Jinx cooed, “Just because I left prison doesn’t I left you ,” she explained soothingly.   

“How could I know that,” Raven protested angrily, as her eyes narrowed and she glared at her; “I’ve been looking for you for days and I couldn’t find you!”

Around her, Raven’s powers thickened and coiled dangerously tight, casing her fractured rib to scream in protest and frightening her other ribs to worry over their own well being.

“Why do you think I robbed the liquor store,” Jinx offered placatingly, attempting to hold up her arms in surrender before she realised she couldn’t; “You’re not an easy girl to get ahold of yourself, ya know.”

Raven didn’t reply, but Jinx noticed the Titans eyes glimmering with unshed tears and and another pang of emotion swept through her.

Instantly, the soul energy wrapped around her disappeared, taking the darkness and other energies expelled by the Titan with it.

Jinx landed on all fours and huffed as she stood up and ignored the searing pain in her ribs; she’d had plenty far worse injuries after all. As she looked at the Titan, she felt her powers channel into her will. She was not about to back out of their game now, if she had any say in the matter.

“Come here Baby,” Jinx said as she extended her arms and offered the Titan a look of sympathy.  

Raven hesitated; she was trembling from suffering through too many emotions in too short a time and looked all the smaller for it.

Jinx coaxed her again, and was then rewarded with the Titan stumbling into her arms.

It was strange for Jinx to feel the physical sensation of the girl resting against her, and she winced slightly at the jarring strain it put on her ribs, but the strangeness quickly evaporated and she pushed the pain out of her mind as adrenaline continued to pump through her system; she gladly wrapped her arms around Raven and pulled the girl flush against her. Raven’s breathing remained shaky, but nothing was floating or distorting, and she wasn’t crying, so Jinx allowed herself to hum in satisfaction.

Raven pressed her face against Jinx’s neck and inhaled deeply.

Jinx lifted one of her hands to cradle the back of the Titan’s head and held her there for a moment before she slowly turned her face to brush against Raven’s cheek.

Slowly, she hooked her thumb under the Titan’s hood and drew it back from the girl’s face, revealing wet violet eyes and trembling lips.

“I’m sorry I scared you,” Jinx whispered as she lifted Raven’s face; “Let me make it up to you.”

Raven’s eyes glimmered curiously as they flickered between her eyes and her lips and back again; Jinx waited for a moment, watching the girl’s face until she noticed a slight coloration rise in the Raven’s cheeks before gently brushing her nose against the Titan’s.

“Only if you’re ok with it, of course,” Jinx murmured before she pulled back to look at the girl in her arms properly.

“Yes,” the Titan stated; still seemingly shaken in Jinx’s opinion.   

Jinx hummed happily and dipped her head back against Raven’s and gently brushed her lips against the Titan’s cheek.

She nuzzled the girl’s face until she slowly began returning the gesture; Jinx gave Raven’s cheek a small affectionate lick before sliding her mouth against the Titan’s, drawing a slight gasp of inhaled breath from the girl.

Gently, Jinx moved her lips against Raven’s, savoring their feel; she hummed happily again and gave Raven’s lips a few affectionate licks.

As Raven began kissing her back, Jinx slowly walked them backwards until she felt the rough sensation of brick pressing against her back for support.        

The Titan melted against her, her body warm and perfectly cradled against her own; this is what had been missing in her prison cell that night, Jinx thought; the feeling of the Titan’s heart beating just out of sync with her own and the sensation of willing skin against wanting flesh.

Jinx pulled the Titan up against her hip, to settle the girl against her thigh and deepened their kiss as Raven moaned against her lips.

As Jinx began losing herself in the many sensations of how their lips pressed and slid against each other, she ran a hand down the Titans back under her cloak, trailing her spine with the other cradled her face.

A low rumbling growl rolled out of the Titan that was too quiet to be intimidating; the vibrations reverberated pleasantly against Jinx’s body until it hit her rib, causing her to involuntarily hiss.

Raven pulled back as Jinx tried to keep her in place, concern and confusion flickering over the girl’s expression.

“Are you alright?” she asked quietly as she looked her over.

“I’m fine Moonshine,” Jinx trilled as she gently tugged the Titan’s arm to coax her back, “C’mere Love, I’m not done apologizing yet,” she insisted liltingly.

Raven tilted her head, likely unconvinced, and her eyes seemed to focus on her chest, causing Jinx’s heart to skip a beat.

Wordlessly, Raven’s eyes lit up in a deep white blue tinged color, and slid one of her hands down from her neck to her chest, a strange shimmering blue energy springing to life around it as she did so.

As her hand found the fracture in her rib, Jinx grimaced at the direct pressure before growling instinctually, as the Titan’s energy poured into her wound to heal it however, Jinx’s growl exhaled into a long breathy sigh and Jinx closed her eyes and tilted her head back before letting her exhalation lift into a contented mewl as Raven’s magic numbed the pain completely and spread a comforting warmth into the surrounding bits of her body.

As Raven’s magic died away Jinx purred approvingly and leaned her head forward and slowly opened her eyes; she gave the Titan a wide but friendly grin.

Raven smirked a bit, as if pleased with herself, and Jinx purred approvingly once more as the girl climbed back into her arms.

“I guess that window didn’t quite agree with you?” she inquired; Jinx sensed a light teasing in her tone.

She grinned; “Nah, it was that body slam the grass stain gave me,” she explained offhandedly.

She grinned harder as the Titan pouted slightly.

“Don’t worry Baby,” she offered as she rocked Raven’s body against hers, “You’re still the only girl I let sweep me off my feet;” she winked and was rewarded with the Titan smiling softly at her.

“Now,” Jinx stated, leaning down so that her face was nearly pressing against the Titan’s again; “Where were we…” she trailed, as she let her hands slide around the Titan’s hips.

“I believe you said something about apologizing,” Raven offered lightly, swaying ever so delicately against her.

Jinx hummed in agreement and bit her lip as the Titan settled herself back on her thigh.

Raven nuzzled her neck, sending a delightful shiver along Jinx’s flesh before her lips meandered over to her cheek.

“We probably shouldn’t be doing this,” Raven murmured; her hands had wandered around Jinx’s shoulders, and her lips continued to brush against her cheek, making Jinx assume that her words were meant to be taken as banter and not disapproval.

“What,” Jinx breathed in amusement as her hands got pleasantly acquainted with the Titan’s rear, “it’s no fun if we can actually touch?” she teased as she gave her ass an appreciative squeeze.

Raven growled quietly again, as if it were her version of a pleased hum; “I mean, we are quite out in the open,” she explained as one of her hands trailed achingly slow along her collarbone, “Anyone could see us.”

Jinx grinned wickedly and caught the girl’s eyes in her own; “Didn’t stop you last time, did it?”

Raven’s smile spread by a small fraction, which Jinx took as a conceded point, before leaning in to claim a portion of Jinx’s throat with her teeth and suckled deeply.

Jinx groaned and pulled the Titan’s hips against her own before reaching up to slide a hand into her violet hair and pressed her head as hard as she dared to encourage the Titan’s proclivities.

The Titan’s teeth sunk in deeper, nearly breaking flesh, causing Jinx to roll her hips against Raven’s as she tilted her head to give the girl better access to her throat and drew her nails up along the Titan’s spine.

Raven’s mouth roamed over the offering, littering Jinx’s hypersensitive flesh with sprinklings of kisses and storms of bruises and impressions of her teeth, pausing every so often to give a favored patch of flesh a warm lick.

A swirling set of sensations and emotions brewed inside of Jinx’s body, all concocting a wonderfully agonizing sense of anticipation and decisive excitement.    

Raven pulled back, her small approving smirk still in place before a flicker of concern flashed along her eyes.

“Tell you team you’re busy or something;” Jinx guessed; she truthfully didn’t know how tightly knit the girl’s team might be, but her guess seemed to be on the mark because the Titan nodded before drawing out her communicator.

“Robin, over,” Raven inquired into the device.

“No, I didn’t,” she replied into it; Jinx was impressed by the girl’s ability to settle back into character so quickly.

She grinned mischievously and rubbed her thigh against Raven’s crotch rythmaticaly.

Raven’s expression flickered into startled surprise before forcibly wincing briefly; Jinx bit her tongue as Raven fought to remain composed as she answered the voice on the other end of the line. 

“No, I think I’m going to stay out for awhile today,” Raven offered the communicator as she glared briefly at her; “It’s a nice day out so I’m probably going to-”

Jinx pressed her thigh completely flush against the Titan’s clit and smiled innocently as Raven’s eyes widened in surprise and narrowed in annoyance.

“Go jogging again,” she stumbled, as Jinx freed her hand from the Titan’s hair to slide it between their thighs.

Raven’s body trembled and she closed her eyes for a moment, likely to keep her face steady; her heartbeat and breathing her wonderfully erratic however, which Jinx entirely approved of.

Idely, she maneuvered her hand between Raven’s legs and gently cupped the girl’s sex as she shot her another mischievous smile and a hungry lick of her lips, opened mouthed, with a healthy flash of her fangs.

Raven snapped the communicator shut with a glare, and Jinx moved to withdraw her hand until Raven rocked forward, pinning her hand in place with an indignant furrow nestled in her brow.       

Jinx smiled innocently, but knew her eyes gave the girl another story entirely.

Raven huffed, and growled, and leaned in, bestowing a firm bite to Jinx’s ear as she grinded against her hand, before pulling back slightly.

“You’re incorrigible, aren’t you?” Raven asked haughtily.

Jinx wiggled her eyebrows and the Titan scoffed before breaking into grin herself.

This time, when the Titan leaned back in, Jinx allowed their kiss to heat up until she felt Raven relax entirely before she grabbed her wrists and rolled their positions, quickly releasing a wrist to cup the back of Raven’s head just as she slammed her against the wall with as much force as she could muster.

Raven’s eyes shot open in surprise and Jinx quickly silenced her confusion with a kiss.

Raven growled a long rumbling groan and wrapped her legs against Jinx’s hips; as Jinx helped maneuver her how she needed her, Raven’s hands slid into her hair and greedily tangled themselves into the vibrant pink strands.

Jinx hissed as Raven pulled Jinx in for another kiss, pulling her hair taught and releasing in turns to better drag her nails along her scalp.

Jinx moaned against Raven’s mouth and slid her free hand back between the Titan’s legs, delighting in the feel of heat radiating from her core and the revelation of how slick her thighs had become.

She pulled Raven’s uniform out of the way as much as she was able, and opened her mouth to allow the Titan further access to explore their kiss with her tongue. Raven seemed fascinated by her piercings, and made no effort to hide her curious inquiries of them, and Jinx was more than content to let the girl nibble or tongue them as she was want.             

Between her legs, Jinx slowly rubbed her palm against Raven’s sex, gently increasing pressure in turns.

Raven shuddered against her, which Jinx took as a good sign, and repeated the process once more; she knew she wasn’t much of good girl by any stretch the imagination, but Jinx figured that giving the girl ample time to change her mind was probably something akin to good manners and therefore probably a good idea.

The Titan seemed to be in no mind to change her mind however, Jinx thought, if the way their kissing had heated up was any way to go by.

As Raven’s arms and legs wrapped tightly against her, so did her soul, until it spilled out to coil around her, this time pulling her closer in tight caresses instead of chaining and choking her.

Jinx shakily inhaled a much needed breath, and Raven’s attention descended once more to her neck.

As Raven licked and bit, Jinx fingered and pressed until she felt confident enough to test her luck once more.

Slowly, she slid a finger between Raven’s folds and waited; ontop of her, Raven shuddered and growled, and murmured something that Jinx was certain wasn’t English before pulling Jinx’s hair to guide her back in for another kiss.

Happily, Jinx kissed back and enjoyed the feeling of warm wet flesh against her finger and pressed deeper until her knuckles brushed Raven’s folds.

Raven returned to exploring her mouth, and Jinx gently explored Raven in turn, until she felt it time to build up a rhythm.

Raven’s soul snaked its way around her thighs and flowed up her skirt to coil around her hips and gently pulled itself around her neck and against that patch of skin exposed above her chest, as if desperately seeking anywhere it could find to settle against bare skin.

Raven’s kiss started to glow sloppy, as she traded painstaking exploration for wanton claim; it felt to Jinx as if the girl was trying to pull her closer than physically possible, and her mind flashed briefly to the memory of Raven’s soul combining with her own in a juxtaposition of chaotic harmony and bit down on Raven’s lip as her mind raced with the remembered sensations.

Her tongue sought out the still healing spilt on her lip, breaking it open mercilessly to lap and suckle the tiny oddly dense beads of surprisingly non-coppery yet overly metal tasting blood that gushed to the surface of the tiny wound.  

Raven’s breathing was growing increasingly heavy, and as Jinx suckled her lip and teased her her clit, Raven arched her back as much as the brick wall enabled her to, and withdrew her hands from Jinx’s hair; immediately they were encased in black energy and dug into the wall, pulling the brick into distorted handholds that she held in what Jinx was certain was nothing other than a very deadly vicegrip.

As Raven readjusted herself, Jinx took the opportunity to explore the hint of skin peeking out from Raven’s costume under her chin, worming her tongue against the hem to allow her to obtain a better hold of it with her teeth until she came across a zipper on the side of the garment. She bit the zipper pull and jerked it down; on the hand nestled against the Titan’s head, her fingers dug into the girl’s scalp, and between Raven’s legs, she curled her finger and pressed her knuckles just barely where she knew Raven would rather want them to be.

Raven quickly caught onto her desire, and used a strand of her soul to pull the zipper just undone enough for Jinx to lay claim to the newly exposed stretch of skin.

Jinx returned the flurries of bites and suckles Raven had lain against her previously, and fought to keep in rhythm as Raven squirmed against her.

Jinx bit down harshly as she fingered gently, purring as she drew blood; she smiled into Raven’s skin as the Titan snarled a loud, long, body shaking inhumanly deep growl that seemed composed of more than one layer of voice. Jinx lapped at the wound she inflicted, more of the strange earthy and metallic flavor coating her mouth and fizzing against her tongue as she let herself linger against it.

Raven seemed all too assenting towards Jinx’s more feral minded ministrations, and urged her pressingly faster with each roll of her hips; giving in, Jinx played up to Raven’s attempted rhythm until the girl was riding her hand more than nudging it.

Jinx could feel Raven climbing higher with every panting breath and trembling shudder, and from the way Raven’s soul kept trying to meld itself into her skin Jinx sensed that Raven was fast approaching the edge.

Using her hair as leverage, Jinx pulled Raven’s head forward and crushed their lips together; she found herself hoping their lips would bruise at the force of it.

She pulled her hand just so, and kept a firm grip on Raven’s hair to better taste every syllable of the Titan’s undoing.

As Raven rode the high of her climax she shook as tremors of pleasure swept through her; Jinx purred deeply, the vibrations in her body sent Raven’s soul in a frenzy and Jinx keened as the energy wound itself under her dress to pull her bodily closer, even as there was no closer she could be pulled to. Jinx tried to keep Raven at her peak as long she could manage, and was rewarded with a divine mangement of her name seeped from between the Titan’s flushed, bleeding, lips. She lit her hand embedded in Raven’s flesh with her powers briefly, sending the girl through another dizzying dive of sensation, and the moment her power flickered to life, Raven’s soul energy hyper focused on it and tried to collect itself around the faint flickers of crackling pink magic.

Jinx felt Raven’s soul attempt to breach her aura and ensnare her soul; Jinx nearly chuckled as it seemed the girl wasn’t quite coherent enough to direct her energy properly. After a few jumbled attempts however, Raven managed it, and Jinx moaned as ecstasy swept over her.

The connection wasn’t quite as strong as it had been the first time, for which Jinx was somewhat grateful as she quite needed her legs not to give out underneath her to continue their affair, but Jinx felt the connection between their minds snap open once more to relay sensory and emotional information.

The sheer array of emotions and sensations the Titan was feeling and sharing with her, was enough to make Jinx feel as if she had reached the precipice herself, and was tumbling wildly out of control on the way down.

And, admittedly, Jinx flushed with pride over how new and satisfactory everything she had done had felt to the girl; a fact which was also not lost on the Titan due to their connection, and likewise, Jinx understood the Raven felt every ounce of pride that Jinx was feeling over having quite literally swept her off her feet, again.    

As Raven started to come down from her climax, she buried her face against Jinx’s neck and Jinx caught faint glimpses of stars behind her closed eyes.

Jinx gently slowed her hand, both to give Raven time to collect herself between shudders and gasps, and to also make sure that she had the chance to memorise every feel of Raven’s body and soul that she could.

Raven shivered, her breathing still erratic while her movements quietly stilled; she felt Raven’s soul rove around her own and sighed happily.

Jinx purred, contented, and she smiled when Raven airily sighed her name in reply.

She opened her eyes and looked the Titan over, merrily drinking in her appearance and sending her approval across their bond.

Raven smiled and growled in what Jinx immediately knew was her equivalent of a purr and returned the sentiment.

Jinx shifted Raven slightly, to free her hand, before settling her back; Raven happily wrapped her legs around Jinx’s waist and nuzzled against her neck again as her powers lazily readjusted her clothing.

Idely, Jinx brought her sticky fingers to her lips ran her tongue over the fluid coating them; Raven tilted her head to watch as she licked them clean and then surprised her completely by leaning in to suckle one of them herself.

Their bond relayed to Jinx that Raven was more interested in tasting her, rather than her own fluids, but the effect was not lost on Jinx in the slightest and she groaned lazily at the Titan’s ministrations.                  

Raven pulled back and smiled somewhat mischievously, and Jinx felt her heart flutter at the sight.

She let her hand drop to Raven’s hip and lazily ran circle’s over the flesh with her thumb while her other hand did the same in Raven’s hair.

She leaned in for another kiss, far more gentle than the other’s they had shared, and practically cooed against Raven’s lips.   

When the kiss ended, Jinx let her face hover against Raven’s, and she sighed happily as Raven blinked slowly and hummed happily in reply.

They spent several moments breathing, trading chaste kisses, gentle licks, and affectionate nuzzles, relishing the feel of each other’s emotions and reveling in the security of each other’s arms.

Jinx felt a slight shift in their bond, a small, quiet warning that Jinx knew to mean the end of the connection; she sighed, relaying and receiving a final feeling of desperation and longing, before offering her contentment and concession of the idea.

As Raven pulled her soulself back into her own body, she frowned, and Jinx felt a momentary mix of confusion and a strange feeling of something being odd and out of place being relaid from the girl unintentionaly.  

The connection severed; and Jinx opened her eyes to give the Titan a questioning glance.

Raven didn’t look to be upset or hurt, as far as Jinx could tell, for which she was thankful, but the Titan eyed her in such a way that Jinx didn’t need a soul connection to be in place for her to understand that Raven’s brain was racing, seemingly upset, and that the cause lied somewhere with her.

“Something wrong?” she asked hesitantly; not quite sure that she wanted to hear anything of that nature after having such a fun time.

Raven tilted her head, one way and then the other, before looking Jinx in the eyes; there was no malice in her eyes, no hurt, just slight confusion, which let Jinx breathe a little bit easier.

“Jinx,” Raven began before stalling out, seemingly at a loss for words.

“Yeah Doll?” she replied warmly; she found herself hoping that nothing was really wrong. In fact, she admitted to herself that she quite hoped that Raven would let her continue their game, perhaps with some kind of snack run and plenty more kissing.  

“Have you… played with any ouija boards lately?” she asked gently, completely surprising Jinx.

“Umm… no?” Jinx replied honestly; “Should I have?”

Raven frowned slightly and looked her over again.

“Have you… made any Faustian pacts lately?” she asked, a little more evenly.

“Not that I know of,” Jinx replied, growing more confused and concerned herself by the minute; “Why?”   

“Well…” Raven started, as her eyes flickered over her once more before snapping to her own, “You um, that is…”

“What is it,” Jinx asked flatly as she cursed her powers and braced herself for some kind of bad luck break.

“Hold on,” Raven replied.

Jinx remained still as Raven’s eyes lit up in infinite darkness before opening up, along with another set of eyes entirely, in an unworldly red.

She was a bit startled by the change, but remained as she was, and waited for the Titan to finish doing whatever it was she doing.

When her eyes closed, all four of them, and snapped open again as only two violet ones, her expression took on a worried and guilt ridden look that was rapidly approaching a borderline panic, which immediately set off warning bells in Jinx’s brain.     

“What is it,” Jinx stated firmly; she gently gathered her arms around the Titan’s waist and pulled her off the wall to stand against her.

Raven looked up at her, fear freely flowing behind her eyes.

“Baby, tell me what’s wrong,” Jinx insisted.

Raven started to shake, and Jinx decided to gentle her approach.

“Did I do something wrong?” Jinx asked gently, “If you tell me what it is, I promise I’ll apologize, for real.”

Raven shook her head and trickled out a string of syllables that Jinx couldn’t understand.

“Is there something wrong,” Jinx tried as she cupped the girl’s face, “Just tell me Baby, it’s okay.”

Raven’s lips trembled and Jinx watched the beginnings of tears reappear on Raven’s face.  

“I’m sorry,” she stuttered, as the first few tears fell down her cheeks.   

“I didn’t mean too,” Raven insisted through shaky breaths.

Jinx rushed to console the girl; “It’s okay Honey, everything’s alright,” she cooed.

“No, I-” Raven barked before becoming seemingly startled at her raised voice, her eyes widened as she backpedaled further in fear, as if frightened on Jinx’s behalf.

Jinx pulled Raven’s face against her own.

“Breathe,” Jinx commanded, inhaling deeply herself, prompting Raven to hesitantly do the same; “Breathe,” she repeated a touch softer.

Jinx repeated the word, over and over, taking breaths with the Titan until she regained her composure enough to pull away and shake her head.  

“I’m sorry,” Raven offered, “I’m- I’ll compose myself.”

“Just tell me what’s wrong,” Jinx insisted, giving Raven a look.

“I… I’m afraid to,” Raven admitted.

“That’s okay, you can be afraid,” Jinx replied, “But you still gotta tell me;” she said as she petted Raven’s cheeks, “I can’t have my best girl cryin’ if I can help it, now can I?” she said affectionately, offering Raven a warm smile.

Raven nodded slightly and took a deep breathe; “You’re…” Raven started, before stopping again; she growled and Jinx watched her rearrange the words on her tongue.

“First of all, in my three part apology,” Raven stated as she took another steadying breath, “I apologize on the most deepest of spiritual levels; I didn’t know I was capable of such a thing.”

Jinx snorted; “Honey it’s okay if you like girls,” she teased, “That is an opposite of a problem.”

“Second of all,” Raven continued, ignoring the flirtation completely; “I promise to explain anything you will resulting want to know to the best of my abilities, although it might take me a few tries to do so,” she admitted; she hesitated again and started to worry her lip, stopping when she likely realised it was still too sensitive to apply pressure to; “The third component is,” she stated, oddly devoid of all emotion, “No matter what you decide, I shall support you fully in whatever decision about it that you make.”   

Jinx felt more than a trickle of unease seep along her spine, sending her hackles and reflexes on edge.

“What is it,” Jinx demanded flatly, worry beginning to naw inside of her.  

“I mean, it might not actually be occurring,” Raven offered, though they both knew she was stalling; “Do you feel an overly metallic taste in your mouth?”

“Yeah,” Jinx replied.

“Has it been around since that night in the penitentiary?”

“Yeah,” Jinx affirmed.

“Have you had an odd feeling in your abdomen for the same amount of time?”

“Yes?”  

Raven’s face paled and Jinx watched something like resignation pass over it.

Suddenly, a dawning realization sprouted forth in her brain.

“Oh my god,” Jinx stated, shocked; she let her hands fall to her sides.

Raven bowed her head and stepped back.

Jinx took a few moments, just to wrap her head around the basic concept of the idea, and found herself completely thrown for a loop for several moments.

Soon however, Raven’s crumbling state of being drew Jinx back into the state of reality.

“You know,” Jinx offered idly, “With my luck I’m not even surprised that the time I get knocked up was the one time I didn’t even touch the person,” she mused.

Raven looked up at her, horrified, before a look of sheer misery overcame her.

Jinx could practically feel Raven waiting for her to despise her.

A strange sense of calm flowed through her being, and Jinx chuckled, prompting Raven to eye her in bafflement; the poor thing looked ready to either bolt, or prostrate herself on her behalf.

“So, I’m pregnant, with your kid,” Jinx stated, “Just so we’re on the same page, like that is the thing that is happening.”

“Yes,” Raven replied softly; “I think so.”

“So we’re having a kid then,” Jinx reiterated; Jinx felt as if her mind were a record stuck in a rut capable of rerunning a single thought ad nauseum.  

Raven clambered to placate her, offering her hands in surrender; “No-”

“No?” Jinx asked, interrupting her, “Then you want me to get rid of it.”

“No I-” Raven rushed before taking a deep breath and pausing; “I mean, it’s your choice. You have a choice,” she murmured sadly; she looked away as if caught in a troubled memory; “I would never take that choice from you.”

“My body, my choice,” Jinx stated, paraphrasing as she internally attacked her apparent lack of ability to do anything other than repeat The Titan’s words back to her.

Raven nodded solemnly.

“Alright, so let’s say that I get rid of it,” Jinx began, “You’re willing to take me to a planned parenthood or something and be there for me while I get it terminated? Are you gonna wanna still be with me afterwards?”

“If that’s what you want,” Raven replied softly; “I’m not sure if a normal operation would be able to… suffice,” Raven worded; “I have a… extremely unique set of genetics.”   

“But you’d be there for me, before and after,” Jinx asked, gazing deeply into the Titan’s eyes, “You wouldn’t hold it against me like three weeks down the line and go passive aggressive on me or leave me over it?”

“God no,” Raven exhaled, her eyes lighting up with something Jinx couldn’t quite place; “I… know what it’s like to- My mother, was forced to bear a child she was forced to conceive,” Raven explained quietly, “I would never, ever , make you go through such a pain as that.”  

Jinx noted the array of sadness and self loathing swimming behind the Titan’s eyes, and Jinx’s chest cinched tightly.

“And if I kept it?” she asked quietly.

Raven looked at her silently, as if she hadn’t quite understood the question.

“If I kept it, the baby,” Jinx explained looking her dead in the eyes, “would you be there for me then? If I changed my life to revolve around this kid, would you be willing to one hundred percent, absolutely, do the same?”  

Raven was silent a moment longer and she shook her head in what looked to be disbelief.

“Of course,” she replied, surprising Jinx.

“You would?” she asked again; “If I have this baby, you’re going to be there every step of the way for them and for me, for the next twenty to forty years or so, or more?”

“Yes,” Raven reiterated; her face took on a strange expression as she stated, “I swear to you, that I would support you and the baby as best as I would be able.”

“Why?”

“Why?” Raven repeated, confused.

“You told me that you would support my decision to terminate, because you understood your mother’s pain;” Jinx explained casually, “Why would you be willing to support me in keeping it. Tell me.”

“I…” Raven murmured in hesitance not born from fear, but from genuine bewilderment; “I want to support you,” she offered, in effort to say anything at all Jinx was sure, “I want to do right by you,” she continued, “I would have to-”

“You’d have to?” Jinx asked, frowning.

“With my genetics, and you’re powers,” Raven stammered, “The monks who raised me are all dead, there’d be no one else capable of understanding the child,” she explained, concern thick in her voice; “It’s my fault this happened to begin with, I would never neglect such a responsibility.”

“What’s special about your genetics,” Jinx asked, crossing her arms.

Raven looked at her, and all at once, Jinx understood that her next admission, was what Raven considered to be their deal breaker; Jinx braced herself.

“I’m a demon,” she stated whispered.

Jinx remained silent.

Painfully, a few seconds of silence ticked by and Raven cleared her throat in effort to stave them off.

“Technically, I’m half human,” Raven continued, “But the demon half that I do have, happens to be of the most deadly and vile demonic strand in existence.”

“Satan?” Jinx offered.

“Trigon,” Raven corrected, quietly.

Jinx whistled; “Damn, so Baby’s gonna be top dog of hell one day then,” she asked.

Raven’s eyes widened; “Hopefully the child will never have to go anywhere near that horrible place,” Raven rushed, as if reliving the place first hand in her mind.

“Our child,” Jinx corrected; “Say it, cause I want you to get used to it for sake of discussion.”

“Ours,” Raven repeated, offering the word as she stretched it against her lips, gathering the feel for it.

“Of course, the real questions are, if we do keep it, how are we going to raise it?” Jinx thought a loud, “Are you going to whisk me off to the Tower and swear me off a life of crime? I’m not really cut out for superhero work, and I will not allow you to spend weeks away at a time doing daring-do’s while I’m alone at home raising our kid.”

Raven remained silent as Jinx pondered aloud; Jinx had a feeling the girl was slowly slipping into shock.  

“Not to mention we’re gonna have to talk about how we want to raise them, if we do,” Jinx added, “because if we try to hide anything from them, I’m betting more than my money’s worth that the kid will grow up hating one of us and try to take them down in a fit of vengeance.”

“And a name,” Jinx added, “Baby’s generally need one of those or so I’m told.”

“And, perhaps the most important question of all,” Jinx said as she set her hands on her hips; “Is how you feel about me in general. Hooking up for the sake of a kid may be like, the way normal people go about it, but I get the feeling we don't have that luxury. So you gotta tell me, preferably in excruciating detail, how you feel about me and why.”

Raven stammered several words Jinx couldn’t translate.

Jinx smiled and exhaled softly.  

She cocked her head and looked the Titan over; “Now don’t get me wrong Beautiful, I’m not an easy girl,” she began, “and if you were anyone else, I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of spawning their kid and raisin’ ‘em right,” she explained.

She leaned forward and gently coaxed Raven back into her arms.

“But that magic trick of yours showed me how special you are, and if there’s one thing we thieving degenerates love, it’s stuff that’s inherently special;” Jinx leaned down kissed Raven’s  gem before looking her in the eyes; “And I believe you’re the most inherently special thing I’ve ever wanted,” she admitted warmly before pulling back; “Not that I think of you as an object or anything mind you,” Jinx added, “But the metaphor is fitting I think.”

“And I can think of plenty worse things than having a kid with you, Sugar. Make an honest girl outta me and all,” Jinx added with a wink.

“We… should go somewhere and talk this all over,” Raven stated evenly, “Preferably while I’m still in a state of shock.”

Jinx laughed, light and airy, and slugged an arm around Raven’s shoulders.

“Lead on then Love,” Jinx commanded jovially, “the future awaits.”     

Chapter 5

Jinx bit down into the glorious disaster of her burger with near manic delight; the Titan across from her eyed her wearily as three different sauces and an errant bit of lettuce slid down her face. Raven meanwhile, was also slowly pecking away at her basket of fries, which Jinx had liberally doused in sour cream and bacon bits on her own accord. 

As Jinx paused her sandwich ravaging long enough to chew her food, she eyed Raven with curiosity as the girl briefly, but intently, scanned the room around them both.

“Ain't nobody here’s gonna pay a lick of attention to us, Sweetheart,” Jinx offered, after she forcibly swallowed perhaps a few too many burger bits at once.  

Raven glanced at her, holding the motion briefly, before she blinked and nodded once.

Seemingly more at ease, the Titan went back to whittling down her chosen fry bite by bite.

Jinx nearly felt compelled to reach over and help the girl by shoving a fistful of food into her mouth, but she steadied herself and refrained; the Titan she was sure, was likely used to readily available food and therefore probably would not share her view that it was best to wolf down whatever one could before it was taken away again.

As she took another bite, she also thought that the girl might be startled by such an action, of her digging her hand into her food; Jinx imagined reaching over only for the Titan to slam a soul-clawed hand into hers or snapping at her hand with a growling maw filled with too many lengthened teeth for her liking.  

“You can have some, if you want,” Raven offered, having caught note of her staring.

Jinx shook her head and freed a hand from her burger; she plucked a shrimp from her own basket and waved the deceased creature in front of Raven’s face. When the Titan’s face scrunched up and retreated slightly at the sudden invasion of her personal space, Jinx leaned forward and smushed it against her lips.

“Schrrimp?” Jinx chirruped through the meal temporarily residing in her mouth.

When Raven opened her mouth, presumably to reply, Jinx slipped it in and dug back into her burger before grabbing another deceased member of the tiny sea dwellers.

She traded her burger for her soda and tapped the shrimp against Raven’s lips, once, twice, before the Titan accepted it.

She repeated the process for another six shrimps before her instincts settled down, allowing her to relax again. She leaned back and refocused her attention on her own food, letting her mind go blank in a rare occurrence of relaxation, and as such, she inadvertently missed several attempts on Raven’s part to initiate conversation.   

After catching a tail end of a syllable that likely belonged to an entire word, Jinx looked up and hummed in curiosity, encouraging the Titan to continue.

“I said,” Raven reiterated, “That you can slow down, unlike Starfire’s cooking, your meal is not in danger of getting up and walking away.”

Jinx scolwed.

“I only meant,” Raven offered placatingly, “That we’re likely going to be here awhile.”

“Then we can get more,” Jinx offered nonchalantly, abandoning the remainder of her burger for her remaining shrimp.

Raven sighed slightly and her shoulders rolled oddly, as if she were rubbing her knees under the table; her stress was nearly outlined against her body, which Jinx observed with some trepidation.

“Let’s talk then,” she offered between bites, sensing that the Titan would be put off no longer.

“Where do you want to start?” Raven asked formally, as she visibly steadied herself.

“How you knocked me up might be a good one to know,” Jinx offered, “At least for future reference I mean.”

Raven’s expression became slightly pained.

“I’m not sure -” 

“Guess.”

“Ah,” Raven began, as she looked at the table and gathered her thoughts; “Most likely, I would say that it was the result of a few different factors resulting from circumstance.”

“So it was all on chance then,” Jinx replied before slurping several dredges of her soda; “My powers fucked us over.”

Raven’s shoulders momentarily meandered around in a vague gesture; “Most likely, it was because of my soulself.”

Jinx raised her eyebrows and gestured for her to extrapolate.

“When I move an object, especially during battle, I have to put a little of my soul in that object to manipulate it,” Raven explained, quickly gaining Jinx’s rapt attention; “That extends to people.”

Jinx set down her soda and wiped her mouth against the back of her hand before grabbing a napkin.

“So you posses stuff by slipping soul bits into them,” Jinx paraphrased as she cleaned her face properly.

Raven tilted her head slightly; “Usually I then take all of my soul back out when I’m done, or rather,” she continued, wincing slightly, “My soul recollects itself and comes back to me.”

“And?”

“Usually, there is a slight impression left by this, which makes it easier for me to navigate towards things I’ve manipulated before,” she offered, “Actually, that’s how I know the city as well as I do; I’ve been half of it.”   

“You have my sympathies,” Jinx replied as a slight look of horror flashed across her face at the idea of literally fusing with any of Jump city’s public or private property.  

“Thanks,” Raven replied flatly; “Anyway, that’s what is supposed to happen,” she furthered as she toyed with another fry, “I believe that process was… somewhat skewed with you.”

“So my powers fucked us over,” Jinx repeated.

Raven inhaled and continued; “Not entirely;” she corrected, as a look of realization overtook her features; “Whenever we fought, I… think I left a piece of me with you,” she murmured in Jinx thought to be awe.   

Jinx tilted her head and felt a light dizzying sensation flutter inside her.

“It had to be that,” Raven said to herself as she continued, “That’s why I kept coming to you…”

“You mean like, the sex kind or the showing up kind,” Jinx asked, losing the conversation slightly.

“Well, I mean, both technically, but showing up more,” Raven answered absently; the Titan looked up at her, her eyes large and teeming with emotion, “Those nights I visited you, I never intended to visit you; I just, jumped from the Tower to see where I would go in an effort to relocate myself somewhere where I could relax, and I was always pulled to you. It was like an itch almost,” Raven continued, “I didn’t understand why my powers wanted me to go to you;” she admitted before her eyes grew wide, “My soul wanted to become whole again,” she exclaimed quietly.

“So your saying that your soul fell in love with mine over time,” Jinx sighed dreamily, as she rested her chin on her hands.

“That’s not… quite-”

Jinx shook her head and waved a hand in dismissal; “Sometimes the better answer is the more romantic one Dear,” she stated flatly.

Raven’s lips fumbled to form a response before she settled for a slight nod.

“But do continue,” Jinx bayed with a smile.

“That night I saw you…” Raven trailed off, gesturing with her brows, “I couldn’t stop thinking of you when I went home. It was almost maddening,” Raven admitted, scowling briefly, “And then I was scared that I liked you, and then I was scared that I was excited that I thought I might like you,” she rambled, “and long story short, by the time I returned to you, I was a mess.”  

“A beautiful mess,” Jinx replied quietly, happily recalling the memory.

“And then when we…” Raven trailed off again while she caught her breath; “My soul sought to rejoin itself; I was at a loss for what I was doing,” she offered suddenly to Jinx, her words sincerely earnest; “I simply followed an instinctual notion that whatever I was doing was going to feel really good, for us both.”

Jinx hummed in agreement; “Believe me Honey, I am not likely to complain about that part,” she chuckled.

“And then our souls joined,” Raven continued, lost in memory herself; “My soul simply should have reclaimed the fragments stuck in your own but,” she paused as her face contorted with confusion.

She looked back to her fries, although Jinx knew the girl wasn’t actually looking at them.

“But when our souls touched, they joined,” she murmured, clearly lost in thought.

Raven looked back up at her jarringly, her wide eyed expression returned.

“Our souls joined, Jinx,” she repeated.

Jinx tilted her head slightly and waited pleasantly.

“When two souls join…” Raven murmured absently; her face blushed and her expression turned sheepish; “That’s really old magic,” Raven explained.

Jinx felt her own cheeks redden and felt another fluttering feeling pass through her chest, nearly making her smile.

“It looked like stars to me,” Jinx offered quietly, her insides thick with embarrassment.

Raven’s lips twitched, as if she too were fighting a smile, and her blush deepened as she nodded.

“My soul resides in the place between Heaven and Hell, an empty pocket of limbic space, if you will,” Raven explained, “When my soul joined with yours, it pulled yours with it to that space and...”

“We... pulled bits of the universe with us,” Raven murmured warmly, her eyes glazed over slightly; “With those extra bits of energy…”     

“Two souls became one,” Jinx replied in awe.

Raven nodded.

They sat in silence for a moment, each lost in thought.

Raven ate another fry.

“Of course,” the Titan continued, breaking the silence, “Pulling energy from the universe to mix with your soul and mine, and to then mix that energy into a soul of its own and embed that soul into your body as its own entity and not as a new addition to your own, is a direct result from my demonic heritage.”

“So that’s not a thing I’d have to worry about with anyone else,” Jinx asked; “Just for clarity’s sake.”

“Likely not,” Raven agreed.

“Still,” Jinx insisted, “I’m pretty sure my powers helped there too, I mean, the odds that your soul would pick mine out of everyone else's had to stem from me.”

“Oh?” Raven asked, her own face lit with curiosity. 

Jinx nodded; “Powers of chance, bad luck, karma, whatever you wanna call it,” she explained.

“I don’t make my luck better, so much as the luck of everyone around me worse; and let me tell you Honey,” Jinx added as she looked the Titan over in abject fascination, “The fact that you haven't choked or tripped or spontaneously combusted yet is like, a major outlier that’s kinda freaking me out.”

“You’re trying to make my luck worse?” Raven asked in disbelief, her eyebrow raised and hands stilled.

“Nah,” Jinx corrected, shaking her head, “I don’t got control over it, it just bleeds out however it wants if I don’t push it out.”

“So your energy hexes deplete your magic store long for short intervals, which forces your powers to replenish instead of spillover,” Raven inquired pointedly.

“I guess,” Jinx replied, shrugging; “I’ve just sort of learned to live with it so. And like I said, for some reason they aren't flaring up at the moment.”

Raven frowned.

“It could be that the baby is drawing your powers into itself,” Raven thought aloud, “Or that it might start to, if it hasn’t yet.”

“-For the baby’s sake, we’re going to have to learn more about our powers and how they function, to better train the child with their own, should they inherit them,” she murmured, interrupting herself.

“Assuming we keep it,” Jinx added.

“Yes,” Raven amended. 

“Still; the point remains,” she continued, “The both of us would only benefit from studying our abilities further;” at this the Titan’s face saddened with what Jinx guessed to be self loathing judging by the draw of the girl’s mouth; “I should also endeavour to learn more about my… demonic abilities as well,” she added quietly.

Jinx hummed in agreement as the Titan looked at her again.

“Have you tried to stop the bleed over?”

Jinx scowled; “No, I just let it all hang loose ‘cause I like watching people get their insides spilled out everywhere, I’m a maniac,” she snapped.

“Did the Academy not help you with it?” Raven furthered, unfazed by the barb.

Jinx barked an unfelt laugh; “Honey, the school wants kids just smart enough to control, not make kids smart enough to control themselves.”

Raven’s brows drew together in contemplation, and then closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, Jinx caught sight of an idea forming within them.

“I may… have something that might help you,” she offered slowly, as if she were calculating her words.

Jinx threw up her hands in a gesture of general acceptance; “Anything you say Moonshine, I’m willin’ to try anything just about once.”

“Well, I have experience in, storing things,” Raven said carefully as she swayed her head back and forth; “the monks I was raised around fractured my mind an-”

“Woah hold on, back up,” Jinx demanded as she waved her hand; she gave the girl a pointed look, “Did you just say ‘fractured your mind’?”

“Yes,” Raven replied, unbothered.

Jinx winced; “You’re going to have to explain that to me, first off, and second off, I don’t think I’m into anything mind splitting.”

Raven shook her head, “The phrase is… slightly misleading. My brain was not broken so much as,” Raven paused, choosing her words, “My emotions were magically removed and placed elsewhere, which was a precaution against my father, and a safeguard against my own powers.”

Raven looked back at her a shrugged a shoulder, “I wouldn’t take any piece of you out, because I think simply making a place for your powers to collect and return to you would be a much simpler and ultimately more effective solution.”  

“Okay, that sounds less insane,” Jinx offered, nearly at a loss for words; “You’re gonna have to tell me more about that all though,” she stated as she gestured in a circular motion towards Raven’s general admissions.      

Raven exhaled deeply and steadied herself again. 

“My powers are driven by emotion, the more I feel, or the more people around me feel, the stronger my power becomes;” she explained in what Jinx felt was a tired declaration, “When I was a child the monks of Azarath pulled each emotion from my being out of me as they appeared, and placed them inside a mirror for safekeeping. This was done to keep my powers from accidentally hurting anyone, and to keep my father from using them against me, or so their line of thinking went.”

“If you recall the hand mirror you once retrieved from my room,” Raven added, “That was one and the same.”

Jinx frowned slightly; “Those monks sound fucked up.”

Raven’s expression shifted into confusion.

“We are not ripping our kid’s emotions out one by one,” Jinx declared, her stance firm; “We can teach them to like, control them or whatever, but we aren’t ripping them out like some kinda back alley reassignment surgery,” she continued sourly.

Raven shifted in her seat, seemingly at a loss for reply.

“I mean, I wasn’t there or anything,” Jinx offered, “So I don’t know if it was like, the only option for you or whatever, but I don’t like the sound of it so we’ll have to think of something else for our kid, if we need to.”

Raven turned her gaze to her food and toyed with her food slightly.

“My father was trying to use me as his portal into this world, which he wanted to eradicate,” she murmured, “As long as he remains unaware of our child’s existence, hopefully we won’t have to worry about them sharing my fate.”

Jinx’s eyes narrowed; “We could kill ‘im.”

Raven’s face shot up in sheer startelement.

“Your dad I mean,” Jinx clarified, “We could bump him off.”

“Jinx...” Raven replied loosely. 

“I mean it, if he’s gonna be trouble for our kid, and if he was horrible to you,” Jinx extrapolated, “I’ll kill him myself.”

“Jinx, you… can’t kill Trigon.”

“The fuck I can’t,” she replied firmly; “You fucking watch me.”

Raven sighed and shook her head as a small smile formed on her lips.

“I appreciate your tenacity but killing him isn’t something easily done, and at the moment, he is contained without hope of escape, and that is enough,” Raven murmured.

“Was he bad to you,”Jinx pressed as she locked eyes with the Titan.

Raven winced.

“I’ll kill ‘im,” Jinx replied flatly.

“For the sake of discussion,” Raven mused, “Just how would you accomplish that?” Raven asked, amusement leaking into her voice; “He’s the strongest demon in existence, who eradicates and erases entire dimensions with nary a bat of his eye. Even at my strongest, with the help of the other Titans, I was only able to overpower him, not eliminate him.”

“I’d catapult him into Heaven,” Jinx replied, earning a contorted face of confusion from the girl.

“I mean, Heaven is the holiest thing ever right? So wouldn’t he like, combust out of existence if he got slapped up against the gates?” Jinx asked, as the girl started at her silently.

Raven’s eyes slowly grew in size before her mouth curled into a wicked grin.

Slowly, the Titan began to huff tiny breaths of amusement, which grew into a snicker, twisted past a chuckle and ballooned into full out unrestrained laughter that last for several moments.

It was only when the girl had laughed herself into silence, unable to breath, that Raven started to recompose herself; she wiped a few tears from her eyes and inhaled deeply. 

To Jinx, it looked as if all the tension had melted away from the girl, and Jinx felt herself smile even as she continued to watch her wearily.  

“He probably would,” Raven agreed, after regaining the ability to speak.

“Well alright then,” Jinx concluded, leaning back in her seat, “If he tries to start shit again, tell him we’ll toss him into oblivion.”

Raven’s smile relaxed, contented, and the girl turned her attention to her food.

Finally, the Titan seemed interested in actually eating it, to Jinx’s relief. Unfortunately for the girl however, Jinx’s curiosity had been piqued.

“So, next question,” she began formally, “Are we going to cohabitate.”

Jinx waited a few moments as Raven thought the question over while she ate.         

“I think between the two of us, the baby would be safer if we stayed together than if we traded them back and forth,” when her mouth was free; the Titan replied as she pulled her drink closer in anticipation for Jinx’s next question.

“So we’re going to cohabitate,” Jinx replied, her brows narrowing, “Where?”

Raven exhaled and absently sipped the sweet tea she had ordered, eyes closed in contemplation, before the girl looked up at her pointedly.

“The Tower.”

Jinx rested an arm on the table and shot her an honest look of skepticism.

“The Tower?” she repeated; “Like what, you’re just going to waltz in, tell them I’m your baby momma and that I’m moving in?”

“Yes,” Raven replied; at her rebuttal, Jinx felt as if her eyebrows had completely detached themselves from her face and taken up new identities and residences somewhere south of Middleton.

“The Tower is going through some changes at the moment;” Raven revealed, “New members, new teams, new rooms,” she added vaguely.

“So you think you can just, slip me in?” Jinx asked. 

“I mean, I am one of the founding members of the group,” Raven replied; “I doubt they’d say no to me.”

“Besides, it would make the most sense, both in terms of safety for the baby, and for you,” Raven continued; “And… the addition of one more child to the Tower would not be much of an issue with how things are progressing,” Raven added, as though it were an embarrassing admission.

“What do you mean,” Jinx asked, “‘one more child’?”

Raven’s expression took an odd, softly proud look that Jinx couldn’t quite place; “The Tower is also  in the process of being renovated for three additional permanent residents, all of which are children, and all of which I am to mentor upon their arrival.”  

“So we’re really having four kids, not just one,” Jinx specified.

Raven exhaled in what appeared to be resignation before sipping her drink again.

“That means we have to make sure the kids and I get along and stuff, right?” she asked.

“That would be ideal,” Raven agreed before smiling softly at her; “I doubt they’ll have a problem with you.”

“Oh?”

Raven’s smile morphed into a smirk; “You’re hair is pink, you have eyes like a feline’s, and you’ll probably try to teach them everything that they won't be supposed to know,” she teased, “They’ll adore you, I’d bet.”

Jinx smiled broadly, her teeth peeking through and her eyes half lidded; she imagined sitting on a carpeted floor with three children and a baby, a set of lockpicks and a safe set between them as they all looked up to to see Raven walk in on them, face stern but amused.

“See? You’re already planning their corruption, and you haven’t even met them yet,” Raven chided, catching her amidst the daydream.

Jinx hummed; “That does bring up an interesting point though,” she said before taking a sip of her own drink.

“Which point is that?” Raven asked, taking the bait.

“Do you trust me with your kids?” Jinx asked curiously; “What if I turn them against you? What if I’m just really bad with them? What if in the middle of the night one day, I just make off with them, never to be seen again?”

Raven’s face darkened, surprising Jinx; “I know that was meant to be taken as a hypothetical jest, but if you ever feel that the children are not safe around me for any reason, then I will never forgive for not taking them,” she replied flatly, sending an odd shiver along Jinx’s spine.

“That being said, if you try to turn my children evil, I shall make you sleep on the floor for the rest of your life,” she added leisurely.  

Jinx scoffed and shot the girl a grin; “You’d miss me too much Dollface;” she teased, “Your bed’d be mighty cold without me.”

Raven hummed as she offered her a smirk and raised brow while she eyed her approvingly.

“So what are their names,” Jinx inquired as she settled her arms on the table, “Your existing kids’s names I mean.”  

“The eldest is the only girl; Melvin,” Raven replied fondly, “Anything she imagines becomes real, and her favored creation is a nine foot stitched up teddy bear named Bobby; he’s good at fighting stuff. Eating things. Being invisible;” she listed before shrugging.

“That’s kinda badass,” Jinx replied, impressed; “She’s gonna be a powerhouse when she grows up then, eh?”

Raven nodded, “She’s thankfully not currently interested in imagining more things to life, but, I have a feeling it won’t be long until that changes.”

“And the other two?” 

“The middle boy is Timmy. His powers are vocal based,” Raven explained; “You know Black Canary?”

Jinx’s eyes widened.

“Yeah, his powers are a lot like hers;” Raven revealed, “Let’s just say that his full name is Timmy Tantrum for a reason,” she chuckled; “You’ll probably want to invest in earplugs.”

“Noted,” Jinx replied, jotting down a mental reminder.

“And the youngest,” Raven finished, “Or the youngest barring ours,” she amended, shooting a glance at Jinx’s stomach, “Is Teether.”    

“What does he do?” Jinx asked.

Raven smiled wickedly; “He eats stuff.”

Jinx tilted her head slightly; “Eats stuff?”

“Plates, forks, batteries, tanks, cable lines, sofa cushions,” Raven rattled off, highly amused; “For the life of me I’ve never been able to sit that boy down and get him to eat anything standardly edible.”

“At least you won’t have to worry about him getting an iron deficiency?” Jinx offered.

Raven snorted and gave her a pleased smile.

“No, I suppose not,” she agreed.

“They sound cute,” Jinx added sincerely, “You familiar with them, or?”

“I’ve been tangentially responsible for them for awhile now,” Raven replied, “They’ve been residing with a set of monks in a location that shall remain nameless, and I had been portaling myself to and fro to check in on them, until I made the suggestion to move them in and mentor them myself.”

“I wish I could’ve been in that room that conversation went down,” Jinx mused; “How many shades of sheer confusion and dumbfoundery were on Wonder Boy’s face, I gotta know,” she asked gleefully.

“About seven,” Raven bantered back.

Jinx snickered and then took a moment to breathe; at the same time, Raven’s face fell into a slightly sober expression.  

“Guess the next thing to do is to tell ‘em then?” she asked the Titan quietly.

Raven glanced around the room for moment silently until her eyes roved over Jinx’s again, and took on a strange tint of emotion.

“You wanna just… skip town for a while?” she asked quietly.

Jinx’s eyes widened in surprise, and she had to replay the Titan’s words several times in her mind to be sure she heard the girl correctly.

“Like a road trip or something?” she asked incredulously.

Raven gazed off to her left, though her eyes weren’t seeing anything in the restaurant.

“I’ve never really been outside the city before, not for anything leisurely,” she murmured. 

The Titan’s voice took on an almost humbled hue, and Jinx felt her throat constrict slightly at the sound of it.

“And it would be a chance for us to get to know each other better,” she offered, glancing at her indirectly; “After all, it would be a good way to know if we’re capable of really getting along, which I'd wager is important in the child rearing process.”  

Jinx glanced around the table for a moment, scanning the errant unopened salt and pepper packets, stray napkins, and relatively unsticky trays as she thought.

Sensing Raven’s growing anxiety, Jinx offered the girl a feral smile and flirty stare.

“Well they say that the greatest affair is to move, Sweetheart, so I'm up to take ours on the road if you are,” Jinx declared confidently; "Where to?" 

Chapter 6

“So are we going to get pulled over the second a cop spots the license plate?” Raven asked leisurely, breaking the silence that had lasted since their exit of the city.

“We shouldn’t,” Jinx replied dryly, “But with my luck there’s never really any telling.”

Jinx spared the Titan a glance, to see the girl’s attention fixed on the slowly disappearing city behind them.

“Is it yours, or did you steal it, I mean,” Raven quietly clarified as she continued to look out of the window.

“It’s one of Mammoth’s,” Jinx replied, shrugging reflexively even though the Titan couldn’t see it, “Dunno if he stole it or not, but probably.”   

Raven hummed something, likely in acknowledgement of her statement.

“You okay with that?” Jinx asked tentatively.

“With what?” Raven asked, turning in her seat slightly to look at her.

“Being in a stolen car,” Jinx replied cautiously.

Raven looked at her oddly, and for a moment Jinx was terrified that Raven understood what she was too afraid of asking directly.

“I commandeered a bus once,” the Titan offered nonchalantly.

“You what?”

Raven shrugged a shoulder and settled into her seat; taking hold of the handle over her head with one hand and propped a foot against the dash.

“During a caper with Ding Dong Daddy, Starfire and I disguised ourselves as villains in order to infiltrate a bus filled with villains,” Raven explained as she smiled through the memory, “Of course, our cover got blown and we had to incapacitate them and throw them off, and after that I ended up driving the bus all the way to the finish line.”   

Jinx grinned broadly in near disbelief; “Holy shit, what was your cover?”

“Well Starfire was the supervillain; I forget the name she used now,” Raven drawled, “And I was her henchman... Henchy, I think it was.”

Jinx hissed a snickering laugh under her breath before breaking out in a full chuckle.

“Henchy? Really?”

“Starfire picked it,” Raven replied dismissively.

“That’s beautiful,” Jinx exhaled, still thoroughly amused.

Raven turned to look back at the fading city; “Like I said, I don’t get outside of the city much outside of missions.”

“Well you’re not missing much,” Jinx replied flatly, “You’ve seen one city, you’ve just about seen them all. The only real difference between them all is the culture that built them, so they might look and sound different, but they’re all filled with the same types of people.”

“You don’t sound disillusioned at all,” Raven mused.

Jinx snorted; “Hey, I’m plenty illusioned, I’ll have you know.”

“Oh?” Raven asked, as she looked at her again, brow raised with an expectant grin.

“Yeah, like right now, I’m imagining that I’m travelling with this smoking hot chick in spandex,” she teased as she shot the Titan a glance and mischievous grin.      

“Oh my, now you’ve gone and made me jealous,” Raven replied as she released the handle and crossed her arms; “Haven’t been together longer than a day and you’re cheating on me already?”

“I mean, you can’t blame me Doll;” Jinx chided, still grinning, “She’s got eyes to kill for and legs for days, great ass, nice tits,” she rambled before shooting her another glance; “She’s got the prettiest face and the sex is pretty mind blowing,” she teased while wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

“She sounds like a real catch,” Raven replied in mock indignation.

“Mmm, don’t I know it,” Jinx agreed as she turned her attention back to the road, “ Henchy ,” she goaded.

“Don’t make me commit domestic assault,” Raven shot back, smirking.

“Ooo yeah, spank me Mommy,” Jinx cooed haughtily before glancing over at the Titan again.

Raven’s face was caught between a scowl and a grin, which made Jinx’s smile spread from ear to ear, with her tongue caught firm between her teeth as the Titan snickered quietly.

A moment of silence stretched between them as the truck continued traversing along the seemingly indefinite stretch of road Jinx had selected for their venture.

The silence was an easy one, coated with residual amusement, and Jinx found herself tapping absently against the steering wheel with her thumbs as a curve in the road approached from beyond.

“Do you want to be called Mommy?” Raven inquired, breaking Jinx’s concentration completely; as a result, she accidentally hit the gas instead of the breaks and nearly spun out on the bend of the road.

Raven emitted a high pitched noise of surprise and clamped on to her emergency handle with one hand and braced her other against the dash before Jinx was thankfully able to wrestle the steering wheel into submission, and kept their truck roughly on the road and in the right direction after correcting their trajectory.

After the near miss, Jinx eased off the gas and took a moment to to take a deep breath. Her eyebrows, she was certain, had left their home south of Middleton to be accepted into a space colonization program where they were destined to land far beyond the reaches of the known solar system.

She licked her lips briefly and offered the Titan the first words to tumble out of her mouth; “Honey you can call me anything you want to,” she exhaled shakily, as she looked at her.

“I meant by our children ,” Raven sighed as she relaxed her grip on the handle, “Not everything I say is an innuendo.”

“You set me up for that one and you know it,” Jinx retorted defensively; she pouted, took another breath, and thought the idea over as she maneuvered the truck back on the correct side of the road.

“I could be a ‘Mom’ I guess,” she offered, lost in the vision of a child tugging at her skirts and calling for her attention.

“Who do you want to be?” she asked, shaking the daydream away to look at the Titan.

“‘Mother’, I suppose,” Raven offered absently.

“A bit formal,” Jinx critiqued as she thought it over, “But I mean, if that’s what you want,” she added consentingly.    

“I… grew up in a very formal place,” Raven offered quietly.

Jinx refrained from replying and bit her lip; she found herself feeling the weight of the situation, minutely.

A shiver ran across her back, down one side, and caused her muscles to spasm slightly.

She could feel Raven’s eyes looking her over.

“Damn.”

“Hmm?”

“I just realized something,” Jinx offered in way of explanation.

She took her foot off the gas and to let the truck coast for a bit and ran a hand through her hair and cursed again.

Raven watched her expectantly.

“I just realized that I’m having a baby,” Jinx stated, earning a snort from the Titan.

“That has been the general discussion for these past few hours, yes,” Raven chided.

“No I mean, I’m having a baby,” Jinx repeated, “I have to cut clean.”

“We covered that too,” Raven replied in confusion, her head tilted slightly, “You’re staying at the Tower and we’re going to help you find another venue to utilize your skills.”

“No,” Jinx replied, shaking her head, “I mean, I’m gonna have to go through detox and shit,” she admitted.

“Detox?” Raven repeated.

“Thankfully I haven’t done anything hard these past few months but I’m already dying for a cigarette,” Jinx rambled aloud as she tried to think her recent past over.

Raven frowned, which Jinx watched in her peripheral vision; she refrained from speaking further, curious to see what the Titan’s reaction to her admission would be.

“Which things are you addicted to?” she asked quietly, in what sounded to Jinx as a respectful tone, surprising her.

“Cigs and booze;” Jinx answered, “And I’m not addicted to weed but I’ll definitely miss that,” she added before her brows knit, “You aren't supposed to dope up with a bun in the oven right?”

“I’m not sure, I’ve never dabbled in it,” Raven replied.

“I’m gonna assume then, that with my luck, I’d better not;” Jinx reasoned absently as her mind began to reminisce faster.

“I’ll also miss psychedelics, but I haven't ever had enough of them to get hooked, which is a plus I guess,” Jinx continued; “So I’m a mess but I’m not a disaster, at least?”

“And of the hard stuff?” Raven pressed.

Jinx shook her head; “Like I said, none recently that I can remember; but I’ve tried a lot of shit that you really shouldn’t growing up, so I hope that doesn’t like, come round to hurt the baby, but it might? I guess,” Jinx admitted, “There was a point awhile back I was hooked on speed I think? Stupid yeah, I know,” she hissed; “The Hive faculty likes handing out rewards you know? And if you start slipping they’ll try to help you,” she sneered, “So one day I’d be on top of the world, getting slipped one thing, and the next I’d be having trouble keeping up with all the late night heists and homework they had us doing, or I’d start wising up and ask too many questions, so they’d slip me something else or another and next thing you know they got a slew of drugged out kids they didn’t want to deal with and I happened to be one of them.”

“The stuff worked real good for me for a bit but, then of course I was in a bad way, like, a real bad way,” Jinx admitted as she gestured absently with her hand; “Voices, delusions, the whole nine yards. And my powers were blitzing out all the time and I started getting seriously bitchy so, I let myself get shackled and spent a month solid in the slammer getting over it.”

“I wasn’t aware that Jump’s prison offered a drug rehabilitation program,” Raven murmured.

“It doesn’t but, because’a how dangerous I was, they flushed my system and locked me in solitary until I sorted myself out;” Jinx replied dismissively as Raven’s eyes widened in what was probably horror; “To be honest, with everything I’ve been through, the fact that I’m still alive after all these years is astronomically astounding to me.”

“Well, I don’t know about the psychological aspects of addiction, but my powers can heal anything physical resulting of them at least,” Raven offered, “So I think it’d be wise to heal you as much as I can, and then have Cyborg give you an examination when we get back to the Tower, just in case.”

“Yeah, that’d be fine,” Jinx exhaled shakily, as a sudden feeling of exhaustion overtook her.

Raven placed a hand on her shoulder, startling her; Jinx turned to look at the Titan to see another strange look in the girl’s eyes.

Gently, Raven gave her shoulder a squeeze; Jinx gently placed her hand over the Titan’s and squeezed it back. She left it there for a moment before she led Raven’s hand to her lips and kissed the girl’s knuckles.

She cast the girl a glance and smile before letting their hands fall on the stick shift between them.

Raven surprised her by flipping their hands over to thread their fingers, and Jinx tried to keep her focus on the road as her face began to flush.  

Steadily, her grip on the steering wheel began to tighten, and she felt her body try to shake again, which she steadfastly tried to quell.

“Jinx?”    

“So?” she spat as her knuckles whitened.

“So?” Raven repeated cautiously.

“So that’s that then?” Jinx asked through nearly clenched teeth.

“What do you mean?”

“No lecture, no barbed jibes, nothing?” Jinx asked incredulously as her hand started to slip from the Titan’s.  

“If you wanted a lecture, I’m afraid you came to the wrong Titan,” Raven replied in what Jinx felt was meant to be dry humor; the Titan reclaimed Jinx’s hand in her own and kept their fingers tucked neatly together. Absently, Raven’s thumb started rubbing a soothing path against her skin, sending another wave of shivers through her body.

“I don’t know what sorts of things you’ve been through Jinx,” Raven murmured, “I don’t know what circumstances you were forced to survive through. I’m not going to sit here and cast judgement over someone, especially the potential mother of my child, when I was born to be the herald of Trigon.”

“I assure you Jinx,” Raven stated quietly, her voice unwavering, “That whatever things you’ve done, could never compare to the sins my father or myself have committed.”

“Okay,” Jinx exhaled, “I mean, I’m not sure I believe you, but okay, if that’s how you want to play it.”

“I’m not playing,” Raven insisted.

“No look, just,” Jinx stammered; “Just give me a bit, okay? I just need a second.”  

Raven didn’t respond, and Jinx took in another shuddering breath.

Jinx focused intently on the road as she fought to stifle her nerves.     

After a moment, she slipped her hand free of Raven’s, reached over the girl, and popped open the glove box; the car veered slightly which Jinx corrected as she pulled out a rectangular device and a cord.

“Hold this for a sec,” Jinx asked, handing the electronic to Raven as she refocused on the road; she fumbled for a moment in an attempt to plug in the smaller end of the wire into the music player before sliding the larger end into one of the truck’s ports.

“Okay, choose a song,” Jinx requested, as she reaffixed both of her hands to the steering wheel.

Raven scrolled through the menus, the tiny screen illuminating her face, until she tapped one of the selections.

The vehicle flooded with sound, and Jinx sighed in relief as the lyrics brought her a sense of familiarity and comfort. Absently, she started nodding along to the rhythm and tapped her thumbs against the wheel in accordance to the beat.

Slowly, Jinx started to mouth the words; a few more deep breaths, and the worst of the shaking had passed. It would come back Jinx knew, as she was ordinarily a jumble of bad energy, bad ideas, and listlessness, but for now she was just glad that she hadn’t accidentally caught the radiator on fire or electrocuted her passenger.

She started humming along to the song, and was surprised when Raven started singing quietly along to it shortly thereafter.

When the first song faded into the second, Jinx started to sing along, picking up volume and animation as she did so, until she was happily tapping away at the steering wheel in time to the tune.

By the time several songs had passed, Jinx felt better, and risked lowering her window for a bit of fresh air.

Raven stopped singing, and retreated into herself; spurring forth only the occasional hum or lilt as the music drifted by.

Several more songs passed, each fading out in a near blur as the sun meandered through several stages of setting.

The shifting hours were comforting, Jinx thought; the road itself was surrounded by constant nearly identical scenery and it was only the change of saturation and shadow that convinced her that the world outside of their truck hadn’t been caught in a cartoonish loop.

When the last of the light of the natural world began to dim out, Jinx felt herself dip into dizziness, which was odd for her, as she was normally far more nocturnal than not; the change in her alertness made her pause.

“How far you wanna go tonight,” Jinx asked, without taking her eyes from the road.

“I’m not partial to any singular course of action,” Raven answered.

“Well I hate sleeping in cars so we’re stopping for the night,” Jinx decided as she rubbed circulation back into her knee, “We can switch off tomorrow if you want.”

Jinx spared Raven a look when she didn’t reply; the Titan looked as if she were caught somewhere just within the border of limbic space, but seemed content for it. It was fitting somehow, Jinx thought.

She kept her thoughts to herself until she spotted sign for what she just knew was going to be a lone, vaguely dilapidated motel with shoddy wiring and corroded plumbing.

“Ever spend the night in a shotgun shack?” Jinx asked, with overly faux enthusiasm and a debonair smile.  

“No,” the Titan replied.

“Oh good, this’ll be exciting for you then,” Jinx yawned as she slowed into the turn; “Just don’t rush towards the sounds of gunfire when you hear it, m’kay?”

“I’m a Titan, I’m morally obliged to run towards any gun I hear,” she replied lethargically, causing Jinx to chuckle as the row building pulled dimly into view.   

Chapter 7

 

“Con-goers, really?” Raven challenged, shooting her a dirty look as they walked out of the receptionist’s room.

“Hey, I could’a just told her we were here to fuck and leave it at that,” Jinx countered as she grinned; she couldn’t help but be pleased with her quick thinking, whether the Titan approved or not; the dead eyed look the receptionist had maintained through her story ensured that their stay would be unimpeded by her end, and hopefully forgotten soon after.

“Does your mind ever venture past the realms of carnal desire?” Raven groaned, causing Jinx to Jinx grin harder and snort.

“Sure it does, all the way to material items and petty vandalism!” Jinx countered.

As they reached the door to their room, Raven slipped the key in the lock and popped it open to step inside.

The Titan turned slightly when Jinx didn’t immediately follow her inside; instead, she lingered by the door and knelt slightly ot get a better view of the door’s knob and faceplate. After taking stock, she clicked her tongue, reached under her dress, and fished out two far more reassuring screws.

“Jinx?”

“One sec.”

Jinx slapped the latch with her hand, powers activated, and the component popped out of the door; Jinx caught the metal brace and tore out the two measly screws it had originally been fascinated with, and replaced them with her two longer ones before setting it carefully back against the door.

“Where’d you get those?”

“Hidden pockets,” Jinx replied absently.

She tapped each screw with her finger, powers still activated, and the screws bolted themselves back into the wood without protest.   

While she was kneeling, she looked over the doorknob and scowled; she tapped it with her powers, to no effect.

“Welp;” she proclaimed, “The next person that tries to replace those is going to get a hand full of splinters, but it’ll stand a better chance of holding up against somebody trying to force the lock,” Jinx offered as she stood up and dusted off her dress.  

“You know how to do a camera sweep?” she asked as she followed the Titan inside and closed the door behind her.

The room was just about what Jinx had been expecting; a bed, a nightstand, a dresser. A counter boasted a small, weary looking television that was probably worth more than every other furnishing combined; but the size and model told her that the television’s meager worth wouldn’t be enough to warrant the hassle of making off with it. The bed looked clean, Jinx noted; the sheets were faded but nicely pressed. The lamp on the nightstand wasn’t very bright, but brought a cozy atmosphere into room; Jinx felt certain that if she were to look in the stand’s drawer, she’d find one cable guide, outdated, and a nearly never opened Bible underneath.

“You think someone bugged the room?” Raven asked quietly, breaking her from her musings.

She brought her hands to her hips and shot the Titan a look.

“Moonshine, we’re two questionably legal young girls clad in spandex, with no carry in luggage, who are probably going to be naked at somepoint and sleeping in the same bed;” she chided, “You honestly think they wouldn’t give us a room that wasn’t bugged?”  

Raven’s contorted in what Jinx assumed was a mixture of shock and disgust.

She shrugged; “Hey, they wanna make a living too,” she offered dryly.

“That is a breach of personal rights on so many levels,” the Titan hissed as she took stock of the room herself.

“Don’t worry about it,” she replied as she caught sight of a second door; “Let me check out the bathroom first and then you can wash up if you want while I take care of the main room, okay?”

Raven nodded curtly before returning her gaze back to the single painting hanging over the bed.

Jinx turned and headed into the bathroom; it was a little rougher looking than she had expected after seeing the first portion of the room, but it looked to be functional.

She tested the faucets, both in the sink and the shower, and was relieved when they each ran with hot and cold water.

She had initially been worried about the facility hosting a two-way mirror, but was relieved to see that the mirror precariously hung over the sink was an underwhelming oval of glass shod in an old, slightly cracked wooden frame with flaking paint. Just to be certain there wasn’t anything fishy with it, she lifted the mirror, and found only a residual imprint of the barcode sticker permanently affixed to the wall’s fading paint.

She smiled and checked the mental tally of her list before turning her attention to the sink itself.

The cup holder was a literal glass cup, and there was a bar of soap still enclosed in its prepackaging; likewise, the shower similarly boasted soap and tiny bottles of shampoo and conditioner that were still sealed, a few other such toiletries besides.  

There appeared to be a home patch job on the shower head, which worried Jinx slightly for its structural integrity, but it looked strong enough that she was certain that it would hold through Raven’s shower, if not her own.

Upon taking a closer look at the nozzle however, she gained a funny gut feeling.

She gripped the nozzle with her hand, and with her magic, broke the soldering and twisted it off. As she turned it over within her hands, her suspicions were confirmed as she pulled out a wireless camera that had been protected in the small protected piece on the end of the nozzle. She broke it with her hex energy, and popped the protective seal of the nozzle before twisting it back onto the pipe.    

There was no smoke detector or sprinkler system installed on the ceiling, just a lone light bulb encased in a glass semi transparent orb that appeared to double as a very efficient bug catcher, if the tiny corpses inside of it was any indication.         

Just to round of her metaphorical checklist, she checked the toilet bowl for cameras and pin hole lenses, and her expectations were met when she found none; it was one of the rarer places she actually found cameras, as everyone seemed more fond of imbedding them into the handles instead. The handle in front of her however, was plastic, and the plumbing for the porcelain throne was old fashioned and tucked behind it completely.  

Slightly more relieved, and in a near content mood, she walked out of the bathroom with a whistle, catching the Titan’s attention, and jerked her thumb behind her.

“It all checks out if you wanna use it,” Jinx proclaimed, “And I recommend you using it first,” she insisted as she wiggled her fingers, tiny pick crackles of magic flickering around them before fading out again.

The Titan regarded her for a moment, but seemed to agree with her suggestion as she quietly tore herself away from the little window she had been inspecting previously and walked past her and into the bathroom herself, letting the door close with a surprisingly soft swing.

Jinx turned her attention away from the door and the Titan behind it, and looked about the room again.

Methodically, she slapped each wall with her powers flared; no large cracks zigzaged into existence, which told her that there had been no constructional changes to the walls; she took extra care on the wall with the window, to keep from accidentally shattering the glass.

The view outside boasted the same expanse of near nothingness that their truck had driven them through for the past several hours, and while they were on ground level, Jinx felt moderately certain that from the position of the bed, she would be more than able of aiming a spot on hex into anybody choosing the structural weak point as their point of entry.

Sounds of rushing water filled the room, momentarily catching Jinx’s attention as Raven presumably started her shower; she let her mind wander to the Titan, and pictured the water flowing over her skin in a much nicer shower, in a much nicer apartment, with better lighting and tea light candles.   

She shook the idea away and turned her attention to the TV; the monitor itself seemed to be fine, but the DVD player looked far too suspicious for Jinx’s liking.

A simple jolt of hex energy quickly took care of the issue.

Next, she took a closer look at the humble coffee maker set precariously on the dresser.

It too, received a negative review and a swift death by her bad luck projectiles.    

Jinx continued inspecting the room, eradicating a camera hidden within a wall socket, two hidden within differing adapters, and one nestled within the small plastic plant decorating the window ledge.

Satisfied, Jinx hummed to herself and set about her second checklist.

Jinx walked back to the bed and checked behind the headboard, thankful that her cat-eyed vision was well tuned for dark places. After declaring it clear, she ripped the sheets off the bed and pulled the mattress pad away to scan the ribbing.  

It too earned a clean bill of health, which prompted a decadent sigh of relief.

She had just started reattaching the ends of the sheets around the bed when the bathroom door swung open and stepped through, uncovered by all but the traces of water lingering against her skin.

“There aren't any towels,” she offered, as Jinx drank in the sight.

“That is the opposite of a problem,” Jinx stated evenly as she continued to stare.

“...What are you doing?”

“We thieves always appreciate fine art when we see it,” Jinx bantered, shooting the girl a mischievous grin.

“I meant with the bed.”

Jinx’s attention snapped back to the mattress.

“Ah yes, that;” she muttered evenly; “I was checking for bedbugs.”

“Those are real?”

“Yes, and they bite, and they are beyond mega gross,” Jinx assured as she shifted the sheet corners back over the mattress.

She stood up and placed a hand on her hip and gestured over the bed with the other; “The good news is that there aren’t any here,” she declared happily, “Likewise for the cameras I zapped,” she added as she glanced around the room once more; “So I think we’re good.”

“There were actually cameras?” Raven asked hesitantly.

“‘Fraid so,” she replied, shrugging; “Anyway, I’ma hit the shower now so, you can get comfy I guess.”

Raven nodded and walked over to the bed as Jinx walked back to the bathroom.

She yawned, as exhaustion creeped along her spine; she rolled her shoulders to push it back and stripped before stepping into the shower once more.

The hot water was nearly divine; Jinx savored the feeling of the water nearly scalding her skin as she washed.

She indulged herself with the shower until the first dredges of temperature fluxes hit her back, knowing that if she tempted fate by staying longer, the water would run unbearably cold without further warning if her powers had anything to say about it.

After killing the water flow, she wrung her hair out as much as the cotton candy colored mess of tangles would allow and shook herself slightly.  

As she stepped in front of the sink she took stock of her reflection and frowned.

The heat from the shower had lured some color back into her skin, making her various markings of freckles and scars all the more noticeable, and her face looked more gaunt than she liked.

She flashed herself a snarl and eyed the teeth that were overly sharp; not quite as long as she knew the Titan’s could grow, she mused, but sharp enough.

At the thought of the Titan billowed into the forefront of her mind she bit the insides of her lips; never in any of the games she had played, had her pieces crossed so far over the board, she worried. Was it even the same game anymore? She wasn’t sure; and was the newly queened pawn part of her team? Or the Titan’s? She wondered, as she tried to ignore thoughts crawling towards her abdomen.   

She huffed and swept her hair back and tried on a few grins until she felt her usual demeanor slip back into place like well worn glove; she wouldn’t impress the girl in the other room with her self deprecation showing, she thought to herself as she left the bathroom.

Upon entering the other room, Jinx noticed Raven floating above the bed, legs crossed and hands resting leisurely against her knees, as if she had been deep in thought.

Upon noticing her, Raven descended, coming to rest against the bed, which was still largely unmade.

“Mind if I join you?” Jinx asked happily, as she crossed the short distance to the bed and sat down.

Raven eyed her in a way that didn’t immediately resemble lust, which nearly made Jinx’s facade flicker.

She nestled herself amongst the messy sheets and offered the Titan a lackadaisical smile.  

“So, whatchu’ wanna do Suger?”

As Raven’s head tilted slightly, Jinx was met with a quiet revelation that the Titan didn’t blink nearly as often as most other people she’d met, which she contemplated as she stared at the tints of violet shimmering within the Titan’s eyes.

“Well I did promise to heal you, but we could talk first, if you’d like,” Raven offered.

“Alright, let’s see…” Jinx drawled as she tapped her chin; “Who was your first kiss,” she asked through her tooth filled grin.     

“Consensually or numerically?” Raven asked flatly.

Jinx’s face heightened in momentary surprise; “Both,” she answered; “If you can stand to.”

“Did you know that Starfire has a sister?” Raven asked as she leaned back on her hand.

“Her name is Blackfire and turns out she’s an absolute bitch but,” Raven began, “Before we knew that, she came to visit and we all thought she was pretty cool.”

“So Starfire has a sister named Blackfire,” Jinx repeated; “Their parents sound very creative.”

Raven shrugged.

“Go on,” Jinx insisted.

“Well anyway, Blackfire tried to use us against Star -not directly mind you, but just, like do things that she knew would upset her,” she said as her other hand waved vaguely.  

Raven sighed and rolled her eyes as she reminisced; “She went with me to my favorite cafe on an open mic night;” Raven shrugged, “She seemed to like my poetry and hers was surprisingly tolerable.”

“Oh-em-gee, you do poetry?” Jinx exclaimed happily as she slid onto her belly and pulled a pillow under chin.

Raven nodded; “I’m not the best around by any means, but I’m fairly practiced at it now.”

“You’ll have to show me sometime,” Jinx requested, grinning broadly as she pictured the Titan standing on a stage in low lighting, holding a frail scrap of notebook paper with an elegant scrawling of a few strands of archaic and articulate words all waiting to be uttered in monotonic cadence.

“We can add it to our itinerary, if you want.”

Jinx snorted at the Titan’s attempt at humor.

“So you were at the poetry place,” Jinx encouraged.

“We loitered next to the building for a bit after, talking, and she leaned in;” Raven looked back into reality as her body twisted slightly; “Tamaraneans, Star’s species that is, have this thing where they can learn languages through kissing people;” she winced as she continued, “I thought she was just going to do that -my poetry usually has several languages mixed in and that night was no exception. We had been talking about language in general so I assumed she wanted to understand the ones I made use of and I let her kiss me. Of course, when it dragged on and her hands got involved, I realized that I had made an error with my assumption.”

“Did she…” Jinx trailed off quietly.

Raven shook her head.

“She just felt me up, I think is the term,” Raven replied, lowering her head slightly; “It was rather rough; she didn’t really try to mind her strength. And after, she smiled and just walked off, as if nothing had happened.”

“Do you want me to shank her?” Jinx asked in all seriousness.

Raven shook her head dismissively, before her lips upturned carefully; “I was startled more than anything,” she explained; “It was only when I got back to the Tower and almost walked in on her doing the same thing to Robin that I realised what she was doing.”

“What did you do?”

“I did nothing… for awhile,” Raven answered softly as her eyes drifted away; “I felt Starfire’s emotions like a shift of radio frequencies and I was terrified that if I told her, that she’d have become distraught. Her sister had systematically erased her self confidence and I, well,” Raven stumbled as she tried to call forth words capable of describing the memories on her tongue.

“I was worried that by kissing Blackfire, I might have broken or cheated the bond I shared with Star,” she exhaled.

“Were you two…”

Raven shook her head again; “Tamaraneans have six genders and twenty seven different kind of interpersonal bonds they can form, each as strong and respected as the human bonds of friendship, romance, family and such else.”

“You seem to know a lot about her species,” Jinx mused.

“We switched bodies once,” Raven replied so dryly, that Jinx couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

“Regardless, I am in effect, her sister in all but blood,” Raven explained proudly before she hung her head.

“And it was for that reason that I was ultimately unable to keep quiet about the event I endured with her sister;” she continued before her face perked up, “Which is ironically what led to my first consensual kiss.”

“Oh?”

Raven looked up and bit her lip, not from nervousness, from what Jinx could tell, but seemingly by habit; “We were lying down, watching something online when I told her about it; months after Blackfire had long gone.”

“How’d she take it?”

Raven huffed in amusement; “I was fairly certain she was going to jump up and track Blackfire to the ends of the galaxy and beat her within an inch of her life then and there for how angry she was;” she murmured, “She wasn’t angry with me,” she added quickly, “She was touched that I tried to spare her feelings and upset that I didn’t tell her sooner, and then ran through a list of what translated to a citation about Tamaranean consent.”

“And then she asked if I wanted a real kiss to make up for the one her sister forced on upon me, and it seemed pretty important to her, so I accepted.”

“That sounds like you were not against it, more than you actually wanted it,” Jinx replied as she settled herself further into the ruffled blankets.

Raven shrugged.

“Was it good?” Jinx asked after a moment’s pause.

Raven’s face flushed slightly as she winced.

“Yes but, as I said, I was like her sister so, it wasn’t a kiss of romance so much as… one of familial bonds, I guess.”

“Riiiiiight,” Jinx drawled through a grin.

“She considered you her sister and decided the best way to display that sisterhood was to make out with you,” Jinx jested exaggeratedly; “Of course , because that’s not gay at all. Just gals bein’ pals. No homo.”

Raven snorted; “As an empath, I assure you it wasn’t a human version of romance, at least.”

“And how did Robin take you mackin’ on his girl?” Jinx asked brightly, her grin filled with teeth.

“Well, considering that I was in his lap the entirety of the time, and he held my hand through the entire event, I’d say he seemed fairly alright with it,” Raven replied with a devious smirk coating her lips.

Jinx’s eyebrows colonized a planet and set up a speakeasy on the nice side of their town as her mouth dropped in surprise; “Oh? And why, pray tell, were you there of all places?”

“Well we were laying on his bed,” Raven replied innocuously, “And when Starfire sat up, he followed her and pulled me up with him.”

“But why were you in his bed,” Jinx pressed, as visions of the three Titans swirled sinnfully behind her brain.

“We were all watching his laptop,” Raven replied earnestly; “I had been talking with him for a bit previously, and then we decided to chill out together. I’m like a younger sister to him,” she explained, “Sometimes we relax together when I’m upset. Star happened join us, which was nice.”

“Which one of you was in the middle,” Jinx asked flatly.  

“Star was on one side of me and Robin on the other.”

Jinx nodded solemnly and bit her lip as she constructed the mental image.

“So how did it get from cuddling to kissing,” Jinx murmured, her eyes still closed.  

“After a while of us vegging out, I was more calm than usual and I spilled the truth; which was truthfully not what I had been upset about in the first place, but out it came regardless, rendering me terribly upset, and then he and Starfire sought to console me.”   

“So what, does Gotham have like twenty seven different friendship romances too?” Jinx pressed, her eyes flaring open; “Did Robin go, ‘Oh hey, my faux lil’ Sis is sad; better let her make out with my girlfriend’?”

“Well,” Raven offered smugly, “He is only a human adolescent male after all,” she teased; “And he did grow up in Gotham, where nearly every girl with superpowers is a little more fluid than not.”

“Amen,” Jinx agreed.

“And truthfully speaking,” Raven added timidly, “Most of my relationships with my friends exist within limbic space, which I intended, in order to ensure my survival.”

She spoke the words as if she was scared that they were unsettling in some way, which Jinx didn’t understand.

Jinx shot her a pointedly questioning glance.

“Because none of them quite know what to make of me or where we stand other than ‘somewhere’ and ‘somehow’, and that it is unspeakably important for those reasons, I have room for maneuverability and manipulation,” Raven explained.

“So you’re everyone’s little sister with possible benefits,” Jinx replied, unfazed.  

“Vaguely,” Raven agreed, “At least from their point of view anyway.”

“And from yours?”

Raven grimaced.

“Demons are… territorial,” she offered testingly, “I am no different. I care only if things are mine or they are irrelevant. My Tower. My Room. My City. My friends,” she trailed; “Either something is mine or it is meaningless to me.”  

“Well,” Jinx offered after inhaling greatly, “I’m probably going to masturbate at somepoint to that vivid image of you being cradled in Wonder Boy’s lap, all startled and wanting, while your dearest bosom boasting big sis crawls over your lap to teach you all about kissing,” she exhaled.

“Well, I’m sure that exact image helped their love life for several days afterwards, if the sounds in the Tower were anything to go by,” the Titan stated blandly, surprising her; “So it must be a good one.”

Jinx laughed through shut eyes and a few gasping breaths.  

“My turn for a question,” Raven declared, reclaiming Jinx’s attention; “Who was your first kiss?”

“Eh, some dude in an alley when I was eight,” Jinx answered lacklusterly; “I wanted to pick his pockets so I offered to kiss him. When he puckered up I kicked him in the dick and made off with his cigarettes and lighter; traded them to an older girl for a cheeseburger,” she continued as she smiled through the reminition, “I mean, it sounds shitty when I say it now, sure, but back then? That whole day I felt like a god.”    

“So you stole for necessity, in the beginning?” Raven inquired after a pause; she leaned forward and brought her knees to her chest.

“Of course,” Jinx answered; “It was steal or starve before the Hive.”

“How did that come about,” the Titan asked quietly.

“Well the sad, tragic part is,” Jinx began flatly; “Is that I used to live in this tiny ass village that was about only as big as you could spit through, and whichever family had brought me into this world left me at their rickety old altar apparently ‘cause I was so fucked up looking compared to the rest of them and never told anybody, and then some girl found me later that night or something and the village elder or whoever said that I should be left alive since every time they tried to drown me somebody else died or their sheep caught fire.”

Raven’s eyes grew wide and Jinx found herself almost relishing in the horrified expression on her face.

“When I was about six years old I decided that I had enough of being a pariah and tried to actually use my powers by my own command. When the village discovered I could actually command karma to my will, as much as six year old me was able to, they decided that their little village needed three chickens and one cow more, and one little bad luck girl less.”

“They sold you for livestock?” Raven asked in shock.

“Tried to,” Jinx replied; “After I hexed the second person that tried to take me, I stole their horse, rode into the next village a few days away, and demanded to see their elder.”

“What happened then?” Raven asked, her face still contorted with horror, her voice filled with enthrallment.

“She told me that there were other kids like me, who had gifts and made things happen, and that my life would drastically improved if I joined up with them,” Jinx answered simply, “After that, I spent a few months at the village while we spread word around that I was looking to sign up somewhere.”     

“Funny thing is,” Jinx replied, smiling broadly, “I was actually trying to contact the Xavier Academy, for like mutants or whatever, and wound up contacting the Hive Academy instead. I only found out who they were when we hopped off the boat, stepped into the building, and got taught how to read the big banner on the wall.”

“They didn’t tell you who they were and you went with them?”

“I was like, a baby ,” Jinx insisted dismissively, “They gave me fingerpaints and a dress and told me they were going to feed me. I didn’t care about asking questions.”

“Anyway,” Jinx went on; “Turns out the X-Freaks are locked in like, an eternal civil war with each other about whether or not all humans should die or something sketchy like that so, I think I actually lucked out for once in that at least,” she added as she toyed with her pillow.  

“I’ve met a few of the X-Men,” Raven replied; “They are… more political minded than any of the other teams I’ve met, yes,” she agreed, “But I admire their dedication and willingness to fight for the equality of everyone.”

“Eh, I’m not that into ‘em,” Jinx replied lacklusterly; “At least the Hive doesn’t force five year olds into battle.”

What about Gizmo?”

“He’s actually thirteen, he just looks like he’s nine,” Jinx muttered.

“The Hive trained you to be a villain while you were a child.”

“The Hive trained me to survive ,” Jinx blurted assertively; “They trained us to become mercenaries; they didn’t care who was going to hire us, sure; but we had the potential to be hired from everyone from the JLA to the CIA and everything inbetween.”

At Raven’s uncomprehending look of confusion, Jinx licked her lips and continued.

“Alright, back before my team met your team, the Hive was run by the Headmistress, and she wanted to take freaky kids off the street and give them somewhere to go to learn how to be useful to society. When my team graduated, we were put out to hire. Deathstroke hired us, we kicked your guys’ butts, and then you kicked ours back and we failed the mission.”

“Deathstroke? You mean Slade?”

“Yeah, sure, he’s probably got a basket full of aliases,” Jinx offered.

“What happened after you failed his mission?”

“Deathstroke murdered our headmistress. After that, everything went balls up bonkers,” Jinx replied; “Guys in red cloaks everywhere watching us and never speaking, crackpots taking over the school every other week to use us as a standing army; suddenly everybody was going to prison,” she rattled off, annoyance thick in her voice at the memories; “That’s when the school became more like a mob than anything else, and all of us kids were the grunts stuck sucking up to whichever head honcho hack of the week we got saddled with.”

“That’s horrible.”

Jinx laughed; “It was a hell’v’a lot better than prison,” she replied.  

“If you were under the Hive’s care, what were you doing in the alley when you were eight?”

“I was outdoing all the other kids ya’ dummy,” Jinx gloated happily; “The older ones got to go out everyday and steal things for their teachers, proving their worth while us younger kids had to stay inside and do bookwork all day; then this one teacher and I got into it, him sayin’ I was a liar and didn’t grow up in bumfuck nowhere and didn’t know how to survive on my own.”

“And?”

“And?” Jinx snorted, “And so I snuck out and roughed it out on the streets on my own for a few weeks to prove to everyone I knew how and could last out there and they couldn’t. Brought back a backpack full of goodies and a few scratch marks to show for it.”

“Turns out it was a routine reverse psychology stunt all the teachers pull but, I mean I passed so, that’s the main thing,” she finished.

“The Hive tried to use you,” Raven murmured insistently.

“Ain’t no ‘tried’ about it Dollface,” Jinx corrected, shrugging, “But they were all I had. So I decided that if I had to be bad, then I’d be the baddest I could be. You know what they say after all,” she jested, “Aim for the world, dominate your landing.”

“Is that why you stole from stores and banks and things?” Raven murmured as she wrapped her arms around her knees; “To obtain the Earth one vault shelf at a time?”

Jinx gave the Titan questioning look; “You’re mighty interested in my side of the law all of a sudden; don’t tell me all of this was just a ploy to get me to spill some doomsday plots.”

“If you truly planned to take over the world one day,” Raven countered, “Then you have expected to be interviewed about it somewhere in the process and should delight at the chance.”

Jinx barked a laugh and grinned.  

“I steal from banks for the Hive yeah, and I pickpockets for fun;” Jinx replied, amusement thick in her speech, “but I steal from chain stores to teach the companies a lesson. Corporations are fucking awful.”

“But stealing from chain stores harms the employees, not the company,” Raven insisted.

“It’s either that or Mom n’ Pop shops Honey, and trust me, a couple of chain store employees can bounce back a lot quicker than they can,” Jinx retorted.

“But why steal at all, if you can avoid it?” the Titan asked, making Jinx’s grin falter; “If the Hive demanded tribute, why not leave? Why not work for someone else?”

Jinx’s expression fell flat.

“You think I didn’t try? You think I’m dumb or somethin’?”

Raven remained silent.

“I don’t have some alter ego or fake identity I can turn to,” she snapped; “I’m Jinx whether I like it or not, and I’ve got a rap sheet longer than my arm and nobody within an inch of the right side of the law will hire me,” she hissed.  

“Surely you’ve the ability to compose a fake identity,” Raven countered, “A fake ID, a different name, something.”

Jinx grimaced and shook her head; “The power build up gets me every time; if it's not a power failure, its shrapnel into somebody’s eyes or a fatal shock to a pacemaker -and then it’s all over, assuming I can even get that far. No matter how much I dye my hair, it still fades back to pink in a day or two and I can’t wear contacts without being in blinding pain, and once some dickbnger puts two and two together, the cops get called and my ass gets hauled,” she grumbled.

“So you had to stay with the Hive to survive,” Raven murmured in allotment, “But why steal more than you had to?”

“Because yeah, I had food and a uniform,” Jinx replied exasperatedly, “But you know, nice things are nice, surprise!” she exclaimed in faux glee before her smile dropped again; “My own non-uniform clothes, movies, pizza bites, lipstick,” she trailed, “Shit like that makes life actually bearable to live through.”  

“And the people you hurt in the process? What of them?”

“Okay look Babydoll,” Jinx huffed, “I don’t know what kind of white knight bullshit your friends have fed you all these years, but you’ve always struck me as the smart one; you can’t honestly tell me that you don’t know how fucked up humanity really is and how few innocent people there really are.”

“So you expect me to believe that you steal out of some warped sense of self righteousness?” Raven shot, her eyes narrowed.  

Jinx took a moment, the words ringing through her ears like tiny insects chewing her skin; her eyes narrowed at the Titan, the action familiar from their past brawls.  

“So you’re judging me now, is that it?” she snarled in warning; “Everything’s all fun and games, shackin’ with the enemy until you’re faced with the unsavory bits, eh?”

Raven’s eyes narrowed further before the Titan jerked back and shook her head.

“I apologize for the tone I used,” Raven murmured after taking a deep breath; “I am trying to better understand your actions and points of view.”

Jinx’s snarl flattened, but her eyes remained grim.

“I… don’t like admitting when I do not understand something,” Raven murmured as she shrunk in on herself.  

“What’s there not to understand Doll? That I’m a villain? That I like the rush? That I like to make people hurt?” Jinx goaded; “That’s what you’re getting at, isn't it?”

Jinx exhaled a vague hiss after the small rant and rolled the tension out of her shoulders as she stared at the sheets; she was angry, whether at herself or at the Titan she wasn’t sure.

Slowly, the Titan moved.

“Jinx, I don’t want to fight you,” Raven pleaded softly; “help me understand. Please.”

Her body was leaned into the plea, Jinx noted, barely settled into the mattress at all; Raven swayed slightly, as she waited for her explanation, seemingly caught between moving closer to dispel the distance between them, and shrinking father away to seem less invasive.

Jinx huffed angrily, and closed her eyes; “When you start out living on the streets,” she began, the memories easily flooding her mind’s eye, “you take only what you intend to feed yourself. Maybe a cigarette here, or a lighter there, to help keep the cold away and give you something to trade with. Then you start thinking, ‘Gee it’d be nice to wear something not utterly derelict for once’ so you steal stuff to keep you warm. And then you think, ‘Hey, maybe I could go clean if I could just get a good enough score’, and then the things you take to trade become things you take to pawn off, and then the stores get too much security footage of you to let you slide by and next thing you know, you’re cornered and terrified because you’ve never been to prison before and you’re a girl and kid and you know damn well what's gonna happen to you if you get caught so you freak out. Next thing you know, somebody’s trippin’ on a wet floor and got a cracked skull and there blood everywhere and you think, ‘Dear god not again’. So you run and instead of getting yelled at by your professors when you show your face again, you get praised for being a tactical genius. So you lap up the praises and scraps of validation like the pathetic degenerate you are and follow them blindly, drunk on power and bingeing on a fallacy of invincibility until you wake up one day realizing that they done fucked you over and there’s no going back; so you start getting cynical and look for ways to fight it off. You get into trouble just to get out of it: bar brawls, alley scraps, anything you can inhale, inject, and swallow. But the feelings don’t go away, they compound. And then you start seeing how you’re toxic for everyone around you: friends, teachers, strangers, doesn’t matter. So you get to start thinkin’ that maybe the world really would be better off without you like everyone’s always said, so you starting practicing to get used to the idea. Then you try it for real and no matter how many times you try it doesn’t take, and each failure only ends in someone fuckall else dying instead of you, so you decide to fuck that shit the crap out. But you still can’t live with yourself, so you stop being yourself, and then you’re you, but you’re you-a-little-to-the-left you, and you’ve got nothing but jagged edges and an arsenic smile until some pretty girl that’s beaten the shit outta you a hundred times before starts campin’ out by your door, and you think to yourself, ‘Dear god , please let her be as half as fucked as me’, and then next thing you know, you’re lyin’ on a fleamat hellsway outta’ town with a kid on the way and you’re spilling your broken pieces on the table like a jigsaw puzzle tellin’ her to figure it out because you’ve sure as hell’ve tried and you can’t stand to look at them anymore.”  

“That good enough for you, Girlscout?” she seethed with the last of her breath; she rolled over, turning away from the Titan as tears of rage threatened to spill from her eyes.

Her lips snarled to keep from trembling as the Titan remained silent.

At Raven’s audible inhalation of breath, Jinx hissed; “If you’re going to pity me, I swear to god that I will punch you square in the mouth and leave right now and by god , if you judge me, I’m going for your jugular.”  

Raven didn’t reply, but shifted her position, from what Jinx could feel.

Slowly, the Titan nestled herself near Jinx’s back; Jinx closed her eyes and bit her tongue to keep her breathing steady.

A soft press of fingertips jerked her back to full alertness, and her eyes flickered open as the Titan began to speak.

“Jinx,” the Titan murmured.

“What?” Jinx spat as her brows furrowed.

“Who do you think I am?”

“Look Babe, I’m not really in the mood for twenty questions anymore,” Jinx chided dryly; “You really don’t want to ask me anything right now.”

“Please.”  

Jinx rolled over and looked the Titan in her eyes; after staring at her for a long moment, she smiled cruelly.

“What was it you asked?” Jinx asked rhetorically, her eyes as sharp as razors; if the Titan wanted to turn their game into a knife fight, she thought, she was avidly ready to throw down and bleed.

“When you look at me,” Raven replied evenly, quietly; her eyes far too bright, “who do you see?”

Jinx’s smile split across her face a little further; she relished the moment, enjoying that the Titan didn’t know what was coming to her.

“You want to know what I see?” Jinx mused, “I see a sad, scared little girl who’s been cooped up all her life in a gilded cage, who wanted to feel all alive and rebellious by banging a ‘Bad Girl’,” she seethed; “And I see why too: You’re broken. Fragile. A mess and a monster parading in a dress. You’re masquerading as a hero because you know damn sure that you’re not. I’ve seen the way you look at us, bottom dwelling miscreants of society, not as people but playthings. If you weren’t such a pussyfooted zoo kept sideshow, you’d be so seven kinds of fucked up that you’d make your Daddy blush; guess it’s a good thing you’ve got a chain ‘round your neck thats’ got you tied to the waist of whatever Supermoron’s in charge then eh, Doll?” she asked as she hoisted herself off of the sheets.

“Do you obey those cold nosed edgelords because you’re too gunshy to commit to really yourself?” she asked rhetorically, as the words rolled her tongue with ease.

“Oh, I’ve seen you Baby,” she chuckled, “I’ve seen you biting your bit and gnawing your golden reigns. You don’t want to strain yourself with the effort of running your own circus, but you damn well like catcalling from the sidelines, don’t you? Descending from your peripress on high to deliver all us lesser folk into better pastures with your sideeyed one liners and fake philosophical bullshit. I’d say all that fake integrity is gonna get to you one day, but we both know that’s why you’re here, isn't it?” Jinx challenged as she crawled closer and flashed the Titan another fang filled smile.  

“You don’t even know who the fuck you are or what you want and you’re running away from it all cause you’re terrified you’ve reached the point where you can’t lie to yourself anymore and push all those dark little thoughts away.”

“Oh yes Little Bird,” she hissed enthusiastically, as the Titan flinched, “I see those too. That little magic trick of yours gave me some front row seats to the back of your mind and all of those nasty little things you don't want anyone to know you think about.”

“Who do I see when I see you?” Jinx repeated, huffing, “I see you. And you’re a god damned shame is what you are. Not ‘cause of your blood, oh no,” she sang; “You’re swan song of untapped potential and the real crime is you’re too proud to admit that you care.”

“And,” Jinx added dangerously, her eyes boring into the Titan’s unwaveringly, the distance between their faces nearly closed.  

“You chose me because I’m the only one who’s ever truly looked at you and never flinched, turntailed, and run away screaming, didn’t you,” Jinx whispered, her face grim, her eyes wild.

“ Didn’t you,” Jinx asked again, louder, when the Titan didn’t answer.

She chuckled emptily, and retreated, allowing the girl to breathe.

“Told you,” Jinx rasped as she turned away; the taste of victory was sour on her tongue, but the flavor was familiar enough to make her snicker.

Without warning, Jinx felt herself flung backwards against the bed; her eyes widened in surprise before they narrowed.   

As she sat up, she came face to face with the Titan; Raven’s eyes filled with an expression lost on her, but she figured she recognised the volume of their intensity.

“All riled up with nothing to let it out on, eh Girlscout?” she chuckled as she leaned towards the girl; “Figured you’d be the type for an angry fuck. Go ahead, fuck me while you hate me.”

The Titan growled, prompting Jinx to laugh, airy and light.

“Come then, show me what you got,” Jinx bayed haughtily as she hoisted her chin.

Her lips were centimeters from her own, and Jinx felt her body flush with anticipation.

Raven growled again, a short rumbling sound that was so deep, Jinx was surprised when it failed to bottom out into a subterranean cavern system beneath them.

At Jinx’s answering smirk, the Titan melted into mattress and appeared at her back; as Raven’s hands made contact with the skin of her shoulders Jinx braced herself, expecting the feel of snapping bone.

The Titan’s touch remained loose against her, causing Jinx’s heartbeat to race; of course the Titan wouldn’t brawl right into it, she thought. No, the Titan was much too passive aggressive for that when she maintained her control.

Jinx found herself slightly ill-pleased that her attempt to rile the Titan into an unbridled state of no holds barred rage had not been successful.

She then suffered a sickening thought; as Raven’s hands began rubbing her shoulders, as if to ease out the tension underneath, Jinx realised that as a result of her failure, she was still left with an angry girl with a terrible amount of power with no idea how the girl was going to assert it over her.

She set an arrogant jut of her jaw to her mouth and resigned herself over to the idea that the battle was not yet over.

“Ready when you are,” Jinx reminded her.

As Raven continued to rub her shoulders, Jinx found herself beginning to ease into it against her better judgement.

When the Titan worked her way into the deep of her shoulderblades, Jinx decided that maybe it would be more beneficial to see what kind of revenge the Titan planned to extract; if she was going to spend some great length of time with the girl, it would be wise for her to know sooner rather than later what kind of punishment she should come to expect, Jinx felt.

She exhaled deeply, closed her eyes, and waited compliantly as Raven’s hands slowly worked their way up her back, along her shoulders, and to her neck.

Jinx smiled as Raven’s hands encased her throat, ready for their construction, but found herself at a loss when they instead chose to work out the tension knotted therein as well; Raven tilted her head up, to gain better access, and then Jinx wondered if the girl simply wanted an obedient audience to posture for; a blurred memory of Raven’s magic colling against her in the alley left a jarring conversation against the idea however, and Jinx was left thinking herself into circles as Raven’s fingers continued to rub against her jawline.

Jinx slowly let her thoughts run themselves into exhaustion and took a breath to better feel the way the Titan was touching her, attempting to guess the girl’s motives and impeding maneuvers.

It was for that reason, when the Titan slowed her ministrations to a halt, and tilted her chin just as high as it would go, Jinx remained silent; the hands disappeared, leaving only a single finger in their wake, and a press of the Titan’s chest against her back.

Raven ran the lone digit slowly down her chin to the hollow of her throat, prompting Jinx to shiver as she held in a groan; if the Titan wanted to see her undone, Jinx thought, she’d have to work for it, she decided venomously.  

Warm breath tickled Jinx’s neck as Raven slowly meandered her lips to her ear.

“Lay down for me.”

Jinx exhaled as her mind swirled amid swaths of refusals, but her curiosity was the loudest of her internal voices, followed informally by her rising libido; she complied, but only as slowly as she felt would get under the girl’s skin.

She folded her arms around her face and left hear rear held aloft by her knees, before the Titan gently pushed her flush against the bed, eradicating Jinx’s assumption that the girl wanted to get her kicks from taking her from behind.

Jinx held her breath as Raven’s weight settled against her and Jinx mind riddled itself with flashes of visions of whispers against her cheeks and nails raked along her spine.  

Again, Raven’s actions refuted Jinx’s assumptions, and the girl took up the actions of messaging her once more.

From their new positions, Raven was better able to dig at the knots tied within her flesh; The Titan prodded and rubbed and pressed.

Jinx let herself breathe; any incoming blows would hurt more if she tensed, she reasoned.

When the Titan shifted, it was only to work on a new section of her body; the realization came as a further puzzlement to Jinx, until she scolded herself. Of course the Titan was waiting for her into ‘least expecting it’ she thought to herself; she nearly snorted at the irony of it.

She refused to worry; she was certain of her abilities and stocked up energies. The Titan wouldn’t have a clear cut of the board if she was quick to react, she reasoned.

Her mind settled, she was instantly all the more relaxed for it; she even allowed herself to relax under the Titan’s care.

The wait was half the fun after all, she mused internally.

Silently, the Titan continued.

Every ligament, every bone; all felt as though the Titan was kneading them, rolling them over, taking stock of what was and should’ve been.

Jinx resisted the urge to snicker as images of the Titan knelt before a pile of shattered glass filled her head; have fun on the edges, she mused to the imaginary girl.

After a while, the message sent Jinx into something of a lull; it felt good, as much as feeling anything good while waiting for the other shoe to drop could, and it left her mind feeling muddled.

She began to worry.

There was no way she was going to be able to rely on her reflexes at this rate, she thought.

It was then that the other shoe was dropped like a hot bass beat.

Jinx fought through a momentary flush of panic as she felt the Titan’s magic brush against her body.

The message continued, the magic just barely a whisper against her skin.

Jinx waited, but nothing changed.

She focused on steadying her breathing, and tried to reclaim her sense of resilience.

As her mind cleared itself of the frantic haze, Jinx realised the magic at her back didn’t feel like the Titan’s ordinary soul self, but rather more like the strange blue magic she had used in the alley way.

Her mind snapped back to the Titan’s earlier words, and she smiled strangely though she knew the Titan couldn’t see it; internally, she was shaking.

She shouldn’t have mentioned the parallel between the Titan and sainthood, she thought. Of course the Titan would be strongest in a cathedral, of course she’d piece together the broken glass.

The healing magic seeped into her body as Raven’s hands continued to work against her skin.

Jinx was surprised to feel just how much of her was missing when the knots of tension and pain were undone.     

“Roll over.”

Jinx obeyed, and Raven settled herself over her once more.

Jinx admitted to herself that she was petrified, as Raven set to work on her body again.

The Titan paused at every flinch, stopped at every shiver, lingered over every hiss of breath.

Just when Jinx was certain the Titan would dig in and break or claw, the Titan traced slower, softer, making her come ever more undone.   

Jinx risked opening her eyes, and immediately her mind filled with an impression; Raven was shark in the water, hot on the trail of blood.

Jinx snapped her eyes shut and cursed herself for having bled herself out; the girl was an empath, she screamed at her brain, every iota of feeling she had was only serving to fuel the girl stronger.

Jinx’s eyes began to tear up as Raven’s face began to trail against her skin; she didn’t bite or nip, she merely lapped daintily against her skin while her hands wandered.

The Titan’s hands were still gushing pools of blueish white light into her body, and her her fingers were still working on the tangles underneath her skin.

Jinx panicked when she realised the trails the Titan’s tongue was tracing, were the scars along her skin.

Her mind raced a congruent prayer against a deity over and over, prompting the Titan to move slower, fix softer.

It didn’t stop along her stomach either, Jinx was to learn; the Titan poured herself over every inch of her skin, her arms, her legs, her breasts.

Jinx realised the Titan wasn’t a shark at all, but a ravenous jungle cat, called to feast.

Raven devoured bits of her with every breath, molded her, with every push of hand and nail, branded her, with press of tongue.

Her head screamed at her to say something, but Jinx refused to give in; she was in too far already. She couldn’t risk giving the girl the satisfaction. She wished the Titan would just touch her, really touch her, sexually, angrily, intently; whatever game the titan was playing, Jinx didn’t have a point of reference for. She felt scared, for being at the disadvantage.   

She tried to brace herself, to build up minor motions of resistance, but those too were stripped gently away from her with tender caresses each more gentle than the ones that came before.  

Just when Jinx wanted to scream at her to finish her off quickly; a snap of the neck or punch to the gut, Raven ensnared her hand with her own and squeezed.

The Titan’s nails dug minutely into her skin and the feeling sent a wave of relief through Jinx’s body.

As Raven continued to sculpt her, Jinx focused on their hands and dug her nails into the Titan’s skin whenever the tenderness became too much for her to take.  

Each time she dug, the Titan took the message and indulged her; she traded the sensation of pin pricking nails for long, held  patches of skin caught firmly between her teeth. Jinx nearly cried in relief at every bite; she whimpered, when the Titan moved to lay claim to her throat.

Jinx offered it, far too quickly for her own dignity to stand, expecting the Titan’s teeth to clamp around her and stain the shards of glass with blood, but all the girl did was continue to lap cautiously against it, as if she were stemming the tide of a wound.

Jinx opened her eyes again, and was met with the sight of Raven twisted over her, her soulfself flickering hazily in the air around her like a pair of incorporeal wings caught in a rift of space and time, her eyes a brilliant glowing white.

She shut them again, forcing the water out, spots gathering behind her eyelids. She shuddered and mewled as she felt the Titan shift against her again.

The Titan had found the marks against her wrists, and as Raven placed a kiss so lightly against the first scar she nearly shattered, Jinx succumbed to the sensations of her body and was powerless to shy away.

This strange, painless display of connection was repelling for its unfamiliarity, yes, but Jinx felt herself craving it more with every trembling breath that she drew.

Kiss after gentle kiss was pressed against her skin, healing magic threaded between the Titan’s lips and into her flesh and back again as the girl pulled her apart piece by jagged piece in order to sew her up, shiny and new.

The feeling of being bright and whole was unbearably blinding to her, and once the empath had found a taste of her, she followed the trail for more; no marr escaped her attention, no hairline bone fracture or scabbed over scar. No, the Titan proved to be too methodical and observant to let any morsel of her meal escape.  

Jinx felt entirely and wholly vulnerable, with her breaks and cracks so exposed for the Titan’s inspection.

When the Titan reached the lines scraped against her thighs, Jinx spread her legs and tried not to envision the way her rag doll body was being set on fire and pulled back from the ashes.

She understood the Titan’s game now, she thought, as Raven worked her hands and mouth up her thighs; she had been foolish in her attack, rushed in without thinking. She almost smiled in relief at the thought that once the Titan reached the juncture of her legs, the battle would be over. She didn’t like to lose, but she would accept it, this once.

Her satisfaction was short lived however, as Raven’s mouth retreated from her legs upon reaching her sex, her hands likewise followed, informing her silently that the Titan still wasn’t interested in dominating her through intercourse.   

Without her preordered approval, Jinx eyes snapped open, and a dawning realization took hold over her as she realized the Titan was not going to let her off so easily.

Her hands drifted along her face in long, soothing caresses; each stroke only served to make Jinx more helplessly confused.

Her thumbs brushed against her temples, her cheeks, her lips, as if memorizing the curves of her face, all the while, the Titan stared at her intently with an emotion or intent that Jinx couldn’t fathom or name; Jinx blushed and pulled her legs back together.

Raven removed one of her hands and held it over her temple; Jinx shivered. 

Her hand lit up in the blue color once more and drew back to her face.

All at once, it felt as though some sort of cord or string inside of herself had been pulled.

It wasn’t painful; in fact the Titan was so careful with her, that Jinx dug her nails into the Titans back and clawed her closer, to feel any sort of relief at all.  

The Titan only indulged her for so long however, because then the girl moved lower.

She repeated the process, each in a place lower than the last, and while Jinx didn’t know quite what she was doing, she had enough of her senses left to imagine that Raven was doing something overtly magical, like adjusting ley lines in her body perhaps, or ripping out festering splinters in her soul.  

With each strange sensation, Jinx felt herself float deeper into something like coddled ecstasy; Raven kept her in a constant state on a precipice of physical relaxation and arousal, suspended by magical sensations of relief and rebirth.

As the Titan worked deeper into her, Jinx wondered just how much of her there was going to be left, once the Titan was done. How many scraps had the Titan sewn back in? Would she even be able to tell?

Part of her hoped that she would be someone completely else, by the time the Titan was through.

Part of her wanted to open her mouth wide and beg the Titan to eat every part of her that had been there before, to recycle her into someone of her own creation; surely this new Jinx would be better, she keened, surely there was nothing left in the old her worth salvaging.

Jinx felt the final thread be pulled over with a gentle tuck, and all at once, Jinx moaned as she was filled with light.

It radiated through her entire body and filled her head and spilled into her thoughts.

She cried. Gasped. Breathed.

Through all of it, Raven was her anchor. 

She felt her body abstractly, but knew it be cradled in the girl’s tendrils of black magic, her face cradled enormously within the girl’s hands.

Raven’s eyes were the first thing she saw as she came back into herself, a new self, completely the same as her old.

As she looked up in at the Titan, she saw the pieces of her self torn from her like entrails, carried gently between the Titan’s teeth like a bloodied maw.

She wasn’t a jungle cat at all, Jinx realised as she watched her creep closer.

Raven held the pieces like an offering, and Jinx felt overcome with the desire to swallow herself down whole.

Raven kissed her, which Jinx expected, but not her mouth, which made Jinx whimper.

If the attention the girl had given her before was tender, then Jinx had no words to describe how gentle the girl was now; Raven was focused entirely on her face, her tears.

Jinc wasn’t upset with herself for crying, she was too past the emotional capacity for it to care.

Raven cared however, if the way she kissed and brushed away each tear was anything to go by.

Eventually, Jinx was able to move, if only just, and with the most bone chilling terror she had ever experienced in her life, she reached out towards the Titan.

She nearly wanted to throw up, fully expecting the Titan to pull away, to laugh, to bite, to sting.

Her humiliatingly frail display of vunerabilty wasn’t met with such familiar things however, sending a wave of emotion through Jinx’s soul.

Raven melted into her touch, instantly, slowly; gathered her up like drawing animal and cradled her against her.  

Jinx cried harder, in relief, in joy, in exhaustion.

Her lips sought the Titan’s with ferocity not of anger, but hunger; Jinx felt herself filled with a strange sort of desperation she had never allowed herself to feel before.

Raven answered it willingly, and didn’t flinch as Jinx bit and pawed her. 

“Jinx,” Raven murmured into ear.

She held her breath and tried to bury herself into the Titan.

Raven rubbed soothing circles into her back; her nails didn’t press hard enough to leave trails of any kind, but Jinx took comfort from the knowledge that they could.   

“You asked me earlier to tell you what I thought of you in excruciating detail,” Raven murmured.

Jinx felt her soul drop, and what soggy remnants of her newly regained heart drop with it.

This was the Titan’s game, she realized too late; the Titan was not one to play around, she mourned. She had let her guard down, and the Titan had seen every scrap of her weaknesses; the girl had opted to destroy her with the most painful death of all. She’d hoisted her up on a bed of clouds and roses, only to stab a stake through her chest.

She braced herself and tried to quiet her sobs, ready to feel the Titan crush her.

Raven tenderly pulled her face from her chest, and forced her to face her directly; Jinx internally spat at herself for thinking the Titan would spare her any mercy.    

Jinx’s lips trembled.

“I think I love you,” Raven whispered.

Jinx’s eyes grew wide as her breath tangled with her heart in her throat; she choked, unable to breathe.

Raven’s hand moved to her neck and eased her air passage open; Jinx shuddered.

Raven’s hands took her face again and caressed it, as if she were completely content doing merely that.  

She started to kiss hear tears again, but Jinx finally found her ability to control her own body, and moved to meet the titan’s lips with her own.  

Over and over, they kissed; Raven leaned back, letting them fall back onto the sheets, holding Jinx flush against her.  

As the kisses leveled out, mixing with the need to breathe, Raven murmured to her, in a language Jinx understand.

Jinx felt herself as if surrounded by something warm and soft and safe; Raven continued soothing her, touching her, laying kisses against her skin.

Instead of panicking, Jinx felt herself… relax.

She breathed, as if it were the only thing she had to do.

Raven, cradled against her, seemed unfazed by her behaviour, as if the thought of using it against her wasn’t even crossing her mind.

Raven kissed her, whispered to her, as if she were more than her body, as if she was enraptured with more than the mechanical workings of her mind.   

Jinx claimed a few more kisses from the girl, but after a length of limbic time, the sheer magnitude of softness became too much for her, and Jinx felt herself drift away into a deep contented sleep, with echoes of Raven’s melodic humming trailing after. 

Chapter 8

Jinx marveled at the caterpillar, elevated as it was by its six unfathomably long spiderlike legs. Admittedly, she was slightly unnerved by the eyes embedded within the bottom of each leg, one of which that opened wide to stare at her as the leg swung past her on its quest for transportation.

The sky behind the insect was an eye wateringly brilliant blue, and from her perspective, seemed tiny in comparison to the surrounding foliage.

She wondered if she was a leaf; the thought amused her greatly, she had never dreamt she was a leaf before.

She tried to focus on feeling her body, to figure out if it was indeed a vegetative vessel for her consciousness, but try as she did, the details and shapes of the dream quickly slipped away from her.

Fair enough, she reasoned to herself; she wasn’t used to dreaming about bugs to begin with.

The dream started to blur into something else, but instead of tossing her into a different situation, the dream continued to stay unfocused, out of reach, and all together not quite coherent.

There were colors, mostly, that Jinx could make out the longer she looked at them, but their shapes left her as easily s she noticed them, rendering them spatially untethered.

It was dark, where the colors were not; this would have led Jinx to feel uneasy if it weren't for the overwhelming sense of peace she was feeling outside of herself.

She started to wonder if perhaps, she was seeing what a dream looked like when one wasn’t the person dreaming it.

Her dream state’s knowledge pulled memories of Raven’s empathic bond.

Jinx disregarded the idea before it took root; she knew, in the way she always knew things in dreams, that while similar, the imagery she was seeing wasn’t anything belonging to the girl.

Still, the idea of the bond itself lingered, letting Jinx taste it for a moment before the dream tried to fight her into taking a different path.

She recalled memories of her other dreams, where inhabitants or the fabric of reality itself would attempt to dismantle her for exerting her will away from the dream’s intended course.

Indignantly, she focused on the dream and tried to keep still; the dream began to strengthen, no longer attempting to populate her field of vision and stimulate her senses with every movement.

At once, without warning, the dream stabilized, which Jinx felt very pleased by.

Slowly, she focused on the colors again; automatically, her view was hoisted up weightlessly as if she was flying and the dream panned down into the colors swirling through the darkness.

As she drew nearer to them, they changed course; Jinx instantly understood that they, whatever they were, had sensed her.

She wasn’t afraid.

The colors were too bright and boundless to fear.

She did question their existence however; the colors understood this, as most of her dream inhabitants understood her desires without her speaking them, and they began to collect before her as she tried to decipher their answer.

Groggily, she felt herself begin to wake and tried to force herself to remain locked within the dream.

The dream shifted, turning into an imagining instead; her awareness was complete.

Her first thought was that she had been having a really nice dream, one that she promised herself to remember.

She tried to recall the sensations of it, the colors, the feel.

After a moment, a single word came to her.

She sat up as if she had been stung and waited silently, not daring to breathe.

The night was still; the only sounds were of the rickety radiator and the other occupant of her bed.

She breathed.

Her hand crept to her belly; it was cold to the touch, but from within, Jinx felt hot. Not burning, she noted. Just hot.

She took another breath and her mind began to turn in proper order.

She snapped her eyes open and sought out the shape of her bedmate, who promptly turned out to be a ‘hovering over the bed instead of sleeping in it’ mate.

She grabbed Raven’s arm and yoinked her down to the mattress with a yelp of the girl’s name hissed between her teeth.

Raven hummed in barely conscious acknowledgement before Jinx shook her awake.

“What, what?” Raven mumbled, yawning as she rolled over to face Jinx, “What is it?”

“Wyld.”

“What?”

“The baby. The baby’s name is Wyld.”

Raven’s grew wide as her statement oiled the cogs of her brain and pulled the girl into full alertness.

There was a soft look about Raven’s lips, and Jinx panted lightly as she waited to see if her fight or flight instincts to kick in.

Raven murmured the name thoughtfully and blinked slowly; behind her, a trickle of moonlight bathed a sliver of their room and Raven’s back in a minute glow.

“My mother had dreams of me, when she was pregnant with me,” the Titan murmured; Jinx stayed still as the Titan sat up.

“That is where she learned my name,” she offered.

Raven reached out to touch her collarbone, lightly, as if in request; Jinx remained still as the Titan trailed her fingers down to her stomach.  

Though part of her was scared to look, she turned her attention down, following the Titan’s fingers until they landed above four dimly glowing red patches of skin.

Raven looked up at her, her hand paused, waiting.

Silently, Jinx took her hand, and pressed it against the glows.

She watched the Titan’s face fall into something like wonder; Raven’s fingers traced the glowing outlines lightly, as if she were afraid that were she to touch them too much, they were liable to disappear.

“Wyld?” Raven mewled at her.

“It -they, are. Yes,” Jinx stumbled, as she tried to pull the knowings of her dream into context of reality; “Their name is Wyld. She’s a she.”

“She,” Raven repeated quietly, as her attention turned wholly to the four little red swaths of skin; Raven knelt and leaned forward to take a better look.

“I think they’re a she at least,” Jinx offered quietly; part of her was reluctant to speak, for ruining the strange spell that the Titan appeared to be under, but her words burbled out regardless.   

“The dream, was... incoherent,” she explained.

“Naturally,” the Titan murmured, “The baby hasn’t any context of our world yet other than perhaps intensities of light and the feeling of emotion.”

“They know about colors and joy it seemed.”

“They?” Raven asked, looking up.

“She,” Jinx corrected, shrugging minutely; “I don't think she’s solidified yet, if that makes sense?”

Raven stared at her for a moment, blinked, and then returned her focus to red glows.

“She might not solidify at all,” Raven spoke, as she inspected them, “Likewise, if she does condense into a corporeal being, there’s no telling what that physical manifestation may be.”

“So you’re saying that I could give birth to a baby ghost, or a demon velociraptor ?”

“For the sake of your womb,” Raven mused, smirking, “I should hope not.”

Jinx huffed in shared amusement as she watched the glow on her abdomen.

“So how is Jr. developing anyway,” Jinx asked quietly as Raven traded poking her belly for stroking it; “Are magic babies supposed to get eyes this young? She only a few days forming, right?”

“Well, when my mother was carrying me, the four red eyes were the first thing to appear,” Raven began quietly, “They appeared almost overnight for her; I feel safe that we can assume there will be a time delay owing to our respective genetics in what I did in comparison to what our child will do.”

Jinx smiled as Raven’s warm breath tickled her stomach.

“So did your Mom like tell you all this stuff about carrying you around but like, nothing about what would happen with you when you got down and busy?”

Raven looked up at her and slowly sat upright again.  

“I was conscious for most of it,” she answered carefully.

“What, you mean, like fully aware before you were born?”

Raven hummed affirmatively.

Jinx eyed her. Raven eyed back. They were both well equipped to see in the dark, it seemed.

“The full truth would be that I was not… what one would normally consider ‘aware’ until a few weeks after my conception. It was a process of gaining sentience, as it were,” the Titan admitted.

“Tell me about it.”

Raven looked at her for a moment; slowly, she beckoned her closer, her hand outstretched.

The surrounding darkness kept her nerves at bay, which Jinx barely noticed as she followed Raven’s prompting and let herself be pulled back down to the bed, where she curled up beside her on the mattress.

Raven wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer until their faces were near touching, and tucked her other arm underneath them; Jinx threaded their fingers together and slid her leg against the Titan’s until they were intertwined.

They breathed for a moment, when they were settled.   

“The first thing I was aware of, was my mother’s pain,” Raven began as she brushed the tangled strands of pink hair off of her face and away from her eyes before encircling her again; Jinx hummed pleasantly as the Titan’s fingertips brushed against her brow.

“Arella, or, Angela, as she used to be,” Raven murmured, “was not pleased about my conception; she tried several times to terminate us both; but I, being as simplistic as I was, only understood that she was suffering and sought to preserve both our lives from an instinctive standpoint.”  

Jinx nuzzled into Raven’s neck and pulled the Titan closer.

“When she tried to overdose, I used healed her and myself; she tried that a few times more to the same results actually. Likewise, when she slit her wrists and started to bleed out, I sustained her body through my own life force until she healed,” Raven whispered; “When Mother tried to jump, I formed a brief empathetic bond, and cried to her, stopping her the only way I could.”

Raven’s fingertips danced rhythmically at the nape of her neck, and her breath was warm against her ear; Jinx shivered and drank in the Titan’s body heat as she tried to focus on her words.

“By the time I was born, I could hear and comprehend, and I could feel the emotions of others more clearly than my own,” Raven murmured, “...I think my empathy may have been a survival trait I developed during her pregnancy, now that I’m mentioning it.”

Jinx rubbed her thumb lightly against Raven’s hand and coiled her other around her shoulder as she processed the words slowly.

“We should sleep,” Raven whispered, as Jinx breathed in her scent.

Raven fell into silence, and her breaths lulled Jinx back to the small barrier between wakefulness and sleep.  

Jinx drifted farther, soon losing consciousness completely as the sound of her own quiet, purring vibrations eased into being after Raven began stroking her hair.

Chapter 9

“Rise and shine, Sunshine!” 

Raven’s body crashed to the bed as Jinx stood in the arch of the door that was still trembling from the near hinge shattering slam she entered the room with.

“I got us clothes!” Jinx then proclaimed, holding out several garments attempting to tumble to the floor and presumably crawl away.

Raven sighed as she resigned herself to open her eyes and look her companion over.

“Those aren't our clothes,” she stated flatly as she eyed them.

“They are now,” Jinx insisted as she held them smugly; Jinx herself was still nude, and the door behind her was open to the sky, which seemed not quite yet ready for dawn.   

“And where did you get those clothes,” Raven droned as she forced herself to sit up.

“I stole them from the folks two doors down,” Jinx replied, unfettered as she dropped the pile to the floor and proceeded to start pulling things on.

“Jinx,” she warned.

“Look Honey, I’m changing my whole life for you,” Jinx retorted, “Let me indulge a bit while I still can.”

“Besides,” Jinx added as she hoisted on a pair of denim shorts, “Our clothes are super wet and gross right now so.”

Jinx shrugged as she slid an arm into a garment that was masquerading as a leather jacket.

Raven used her soul to quietly close the front door and looked the stolen goods over.

“And how did our clothes get wet and gross?” she asked in a tone that conveyed that Titan was already sure that she didn’t care about the answer.

“After I took my shower, the pipes burst while we were sleeping,” Jinx explained anyway; “Soaked everything in there once the tub spilled over. No way to turn the water off either without setting off a chain reaction.”

Raven exhaled in a huff and shifted through the clothes with a tendril of her soul.

“You might want to hurry Babe,” Jinx urged, “Those saps I took these from are probably already up and we gotta be gone by the time managment learns we’ve converted their bathroom into an indoor wading pool.”

As Raven pulled on some of the items of clothes herself, Jinx brought their legally owned soggy clothes out of the bathroom and left them draped over her arm while she opened the nightstand drawer to pull out her other belongings.

After donning some stolen apparel, Raven meandered over to the coffee pot; before her finger so much as ran down the sticker of instructions, Jinx steered her clear of it with a warning hiss.

“Trust me, don’t touch that; it’s Jinxed ,” she clarified as she placed their room key on the bed.

Without protest, Raven let herself be ushered out of their room and into their truck.

“What about breakfast?” the Titan asked as Jinx shoved their collected mass of dry and wet clothes in the truck bed.

“I hacked the vending machine before I stole the clothes,” Jinx answered happily while she climbed into her own seat and tried to coax the truck into functionality.

“How do you ‘hack’ a vending machine?”

“I curse at it,” Jinx replied with glee.

Raven scoffed and settled into her seat, snapping her seatbelt shut with a click.

“Won’t the clothes just fly out on the road?”

“Not if the net doesn't break,” Jinx replied flatly as she turned the key again.

The engine started after a few tries more and three verbal curses from the thief, and Jinx wasted no further time in driving them away from the establishment as true to her word, the inhabitants two building away shot out of their room and behind towards them.

Jinx grinned and floored it as the couple ran out after them; in a matter of moments, all Jinx could make out of them was the cloud of dust in their wake reflected in her rearview mirror as she sped away.

Once a few miles had been put between them, Jinx relaxed and sighed airily in relief.

She rolled her shoulders as if to stretch them and fought off a yawn by licking her teeth; she nearly snorted at the face her reflection made inside the mirror.

Jinx shot Raven a glance.

Raven’s attention was either focused on the slowly approaching dawn, or else lost aimlessly in the expanse of dunes and tumbleweeds, as her face was turned to her window.    

Jinx half wanted to flick the radio on, to see if Mammoth had gotten it to work before her acquisition of the vehicle, but a larger part of her wanted to spend some time in silence, to better let the seemingly endless empty landscape roll on for a few hours, or perhaps forever.

Raven didn’t seem bothered by the lack of white noise at least, she noted.

They traveled in silence for awhile, and Jinx’s mind wandered as she kept her gaze locked against barely distinguishable white line on the edge of the pavement; she’d had far too many mishaps to be lured by the wiley yellow divide.

The sky began to brighten behind them faintly.

Jinx smiled.

“Hey Beautiful, pop open the glove trunk and fish me out a thing, would you?” she asked.

Raven took a moment to react, as if she had to first pull herself back to her body, but she fluidly opened the compartment and retrieved one of the many jerky snacks Jinx had procured for them; the vending machine she had procured them from had warded her off valiantly for all of two minutes before giving in, and she felt herself quite ready to sample the splendor.

As Jinx reached over to take the outstretched snack from the Titan, Raven pulled back the snack slightly and smirked.

“Glove ‘trunk’?”

“Well the back bit is called a trunk, why can't the front bit match?” Jinx replied defensively, as she snatched her jerky from the girl and huffed.

Raven’s smirk widened as she settled back into her seat while Jinx pretended not to notice; instead, she ripped the plastic packaging open with her teeth and introduced the wonderful teriyaki flavor to her tongue.

Raven refrained from joining her in munching dried out meat bits, but the moment still felt companionable to Jinx; she bit a sizeable portion of her jerky before swallowing it as she thought over what she wanted to say.

“So. About last night,” she began steadily, as her fingers drummed the wheel.

She watched Raven’s head swivel around to focus on her from her mirrors, glancing from one to the other.

“I see what you meant about you and the liminal space thing,” she offered; she assumed the Titan could sense that she was stalling, but it was still first thing in the morning and Jinx felt her approach could be thusly justified.

“People do find it easier to trust me in the dark,” Raven offered in return; the way she said it however, made Jinx unsure if the Titan was fond of the fact or not.

“Well, this trip is supposed to be about us learning to get along, yeah? So it’s something to consider,” Jinx replied lazily; “I don’t really want us to become dependant on the night for mutual understanding so, I think we should try it out in daylight too.”

“Well, technically this car trip also falls under liminal space,” Raven offered absently, “as do most gas stations, graveyards, and stairwells.”

“So do crossroads right?” Jinx asked, as something tugged at the back of her mind.

“Yes,” Raven confirmed.

“And laundromats in the middle of the night?”

“Sure.”

“What about anywhere near a sculpture, especially if it's weird around the face?”

Raven hummed affirmatively.

“How about like, sleepovers after everyone else has fallen asleep, and all those beaches at the warehousing docks.”

“Those too.”

“And trails and backyards by the highway?” Jinx continued, prompting Raven’s brow to raise curiously.

“...I suppose so,” Raven agreed.

Jinx took another bite from her jerky and continued to think aloud.

“Rooftops at dusk?”

“I’d say a rooftop at any time of day, but yes,” Raven agreed before she scowled, “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

Jinx swallowed.

“Closets?” she asked with a smirk.

“I’m not dignifying that with a response.”

“So pretty much anyplace empty or dark or-”

“Anything abandoned-” Raven offered, a slight inflection raising in her voice.

“And anywhere unlit or like, lit off kilter?” Jinx added hastily.

Raven hummed again in agreement.

“Oh my god,” Jinx breathed as her foot nearly slipped on its pedal.

Raven’s hum perked up in inquiry.

“That’s all the places my powers are strongest,” Jinx breathed; “I mean, there's other factors too of course, like moon phases and if there are unlucky animals around and people’s individual karma or whatever it is, but...”

She looked over at the Titan who smiled at her nodded.

“Liminal spaces are places where the veil is thinnest; naturally, anything magical is therefore strongest there,” Raven murmured, hints of amusement lacing her enunciations.

“Yeah well, just don’t stand next to me at a Denny’s near three am while it’s surrounded by a flock of crows, is all I’m gonna say,” Jinx teased before she finished her jerky.

Raven didn’t respond, but Jinx felt that she still held the girl’s undivided attention; Jinx herself felt quite comfortable. Relaxed.

She wondered if it was a side effect from the night before; a flash of the Titan brushing fingertips against her face made Jinx’s lip tremble. She quickly pushed the thought aside and cast the Titan a glance.

“I’ve decided to keep it.”

Raven’s answering inhalation was startlingly audible.

She exhaled steadily, Jinx noted, before she worried her lips.

Raven’s lips moved silently, as Jinx watched them in the mirror, but she seemed more surprised than upset, which soothed some of Jinx’s nerves.  

“I respect your decision,” Raven began after a moment; her tone sounded uneasy, which made Jinx grow uneasy again.

“But there is still a lot you don’t know about-”

“I’m keeping the baby,” Jinx repeated firmly, interrupting her; “You can tell me everything I need to know as we go.”

“You’re sure,” Raven responded quietly.

Jinx’s grip on the wheel tightened and their truck picked up a little speed as she reflexively pumped against the pedal.

“I think it’s the decision we’ve both been leanin’ to, Sugar,” Jinx answered carefully; “Besides, I don’t want to fuck up my kid by making them think I didn’t want them the whole time they’re’in utero,” Jinx murmured; “We passed the window where we could abort them without them knowing, so I don’t want them worrying about it.”

“She’s not capable of thought yet,” Raven reminded her; “That wouldn’t be for a few weeks more, yet.”

“You assume,” Jinx retorted.

“I assume,” Raven agreed quietly.

Jinx bit her lip and forcibly eased her grip on the steering wheel.  

She was half tempted to spill her worry to the Titan; fears of her powers or inclinations affecting their child’s emotional or physical well being, or likewise of them swaying or damaging their tenuous relationship. Her mind rolled back to the hazy hour Raven had lulled her back to sleep, lingering on the way the Titan had cradled her, and then rolled back further to the early night, where Raven had whispered into her tears. As her something in her chest swelled at the memories, she fought to quell it and cursed herself; she reminded herself that she knew better to place stock in a fever dream.

She had too much at stake to lose now.  

She swallowed roughly and took another steadying breath.

“This means you and me are really in this now,” she declared.

“Yes,” Raven agreed effortlessly; “I would say it does.”

“So I’m going to lay something here right now, Dollface” Jinx insisted, catching sight of Raven’s stare in mirror; “I'm not really one to apologize aloud,” she began, “But I’m going to try to fix that. For the kid’s sake. I don’t want them growing up thinking it’s weak to apologize or somethin’. So: I’m sorry for being a bitch last night.”

Raven refrained from comment, but continued to watch her intently; Jinx was struck with an impression of a large carrion bird studying the movement of something being dangled in front of it as she watched their reflections in the mirror.

Jinx took another breath and kept her tone firm.  

“That being said, that emotional crap you pulled? Not cool,” Jinx continued, “Next time you’re pissed at me, just fucking deck me or something. I’m not okay with psycho mumbo bullcrap.”  

“I wasn’t pissed at you,” Raven objected, her face tinged slightly with confusion.

Jinx’s grip on the wheel tightened uncomfortably as she chose her words carefully.

“It’s okay Moonshine, everybody gets mad sometimes, I of all people get that, I really do,” Jinx responded placatingly; “And most people would probably have a different reaction to it then I would, but to me, it’s better to bring a dispute out in the open and confront it and move on, then it is to play with someone’s emotions and lull them into a false sense of security and pull the rug from under them or whatever.”

“And I know you’re an empath, so it’s probably difficult for you not to do stuff like that, but if I have to change myself for the better, then I want you to, too,” Jinx added as she let her shoulders sag.

“I wasn’t playing with your emotions, Jinx,” Raven insisted; “I was being nice to you. Dipsite common belief, I am capable of being nice.”

Jinx risked shooting her reflection a glance; Raven’s face was twisted with emotion as her words remained completely inflectionless. Jinx’s lips twitched.  

She waited.

“I wasn’t intent on hurting you; I was in fact, intending on the opposite,” Raven explained vaguely, after a moment.

“ I’m not an empath Babe, you gotta get more specific than that if you want me to shut up about it,” Jinx insisted calmly.

Raven fidgeted in her seat, as Jinx watched her in the mirror.

“I didn’t mean to make you upset at first,” Raven murmured, “I just wanted to understand you. Once you were angry, I thought it would be the best time to ask you how felt about me, because it would have the greatest potential for your honesty.”

“So why didn’t you just throw me to the wall like you did in the alley?” Jinx inquired stiffly,  “you could have growled a thing or two at me and then we could’ve just made out like we did then.”

“For a moment,” Raven answered, “For just a heartbeat, I was angry about what you said. But only because you were right,” she revealed, “And then, once I realized that, all of my rage just… slipped away.”

“I had started a long speech you know, back at the diner for what I would say to you, about what I thought of you,” she rambled, “But when you were under me I just… wanted to touch you. I wasn’t thinking about anything else. I was just feeling happy.”

The admission stumbled out of her lips as if she weren’t quite sure what to make of the words herself, which reassured Jinx somewhat.

“But then you shied away, and I was scared that I was hurting you. It seemed the softer I was, the more upset with me you were,” Raven continued quietly, her expression carried awash with mournful confusion.

Jinx kept her eyes firmly locked on the road and forced her foot not to slam on the gas pedal, as it wouldn’t have taken them from their conversation any sooner, no matter how faster she tried to make the truck go.

“That’s why I bit you. I wanted you to be okay,” Raven murmured.

“I appreciated that,” Jinx offered quietly.

“I meant it, what I said,” Raven whispered, after a moment, “I hadn’t planned on saying it; I would never say something like that to hurt you. But it was true,” she insisted, “As much as I can tell.”

Jinx refrained from answering at Raven’s prolonged look.

The Titan leaned over and placed a hand on her thigh.

“Jinx, I know what it’s like to have my feelings used against me. I’ve been manipulated through them more times then I could count. I wouldn’t hurt you like that,” she murmured; Jinx could see Raven’s earnest expression in the peripheral of her vision.

“You keep saying that,” Jinx stated flatly, her eyes fixated on the road.   

Raven’s mouth twitched, as if in eagerness to speak.

“You keep saying you would never hurt me right before turning around and saying that you might; that makes for a pretty convoluted bag of intentions in my book. Even right now, you’re trying to lure me into a false sense of security. Which would be fine if, you know, you admitted it,” Jinx insisted, “But I’m not going to sit here and let you lie to my face.”

Raven growled warningly; Jinx nearly smiled in satisfaction.

Her internal self congratulatory pat on the back was interrupted however when the truck became encased in black and launched itself several feet off of the road.

Jinx slammed on the brakes, causing them to swerve before skittering to a halt.

“The fuck! ” Jinx screeched, as a livid urge to deck the Titan swept over her.

As she turned to launch herself at the Titan however, she was taken aback by the look washed over Raven’s face. She was nearly in tears, and her hair was swirling madly, despite the lack of moving air inside the truck.

Jinx furrowed her brows, which had sent back two prime candidates from their space colonization program just for the occasion.

“ You just fucking threw us off the roa -”

“You’re not listening to me,” Raven blurted forcefully, cutting off Jinx’s shout; “You’re hearing what I’m saying but it’s not going through.”

“Yeah, and now I’m adding attempted murder-suicide to the list of things I’m upset with you about,” Jinx hissed.

“ Just -”

-Raven leaned forward and crushed their lips together; her hands pulled Jinx’s tank top against her and the only thing that kept the Titan from pinning her against the vehicle’s door, Jinx was sure, was the seatbelt still wrapped around her figure.

Raven pulled back, tears beginning to brim within her waterlines; Jinx allowed the Titan to speak.

“You don’t understand tenderness,” Raven growled, “I understand that now. But I’m not lying to you. I’m not trying to hurt you.”

“But you can.”

“Yes, I have the ability to hurt you,” Raven agreed; “My demonic nature is capable of taking me over and ruining everything for everyone; but she’s not me ,” Raven hissed through grit teeth, “She’s not who I want to be.”

Jinx leaned against the door behind her, putting a few inches of space between them.

“I’m not saying I won't give you what you want,” Raven murmured, as she watched her mournfully; “I think I would give you nearly anything, were you to ask it of me. But I need you to understand that I’m your partner now, not your enemy. You’re not playing a game against me, you’re playing it with me. I’m on your team.”  

Jinx’s breath caught in her throat, along with the saliva she tried to swallow.   

Raven tried to lean forward before the belt caught her, and then drew back with nothing but resignation written across her face.

Jinx stayed pressed against the door, forcing herself to breathe again as she watched Raven retreat to her side of the truck.

Raven coiled in on herself, tucking her knees against her chest and pressing her face against the crook of the window.

“I’m sorry I moved the car,” the Titan whispered tonelessly.

Jinx inhaled and shook of a shiver that ran through half of her body; doubt began to creep into her bloodstream.

She swallowed and a small gut feeling fell into her head; she took a deep breath and velveted her claws; she hadn’t needed them in the cell.

Perhaps she could do without them now.   

“Don’t go disassociating on me,” Jinx ordered gently as she crawled over to the Titan, breaking the silence.

Raven turned to her, surprised, watery-eyed.

Slowly, while forcing herself not to think about it, Jinx lifted her hand to Raven’s face. She tried to replicate how Raven had touched her before, gently brushing the stray tears away from her cheeks.

Jinx’s heartbeat was frantic, and she ignored it as it too, lept into her throat.

She placed a cautious kiss under each of Raven’s eyes; she knew it wasn’t quite right, not yet, but she was willing to try.

Raven melted under her attention briefly; she leaned in her touch but stopped herself thereafter and remained motionless, as if she were too afraid to move.

Jinx understood the sentiment; the spark of recognition gave her an idea, and drew back.

“If you were so concerned for me, why didn’t you join our minds again, to let me feel you as you did?”

Raven’s hopeful expression dripped away in a sigh.

“I was afraid that you would wake up this morning convinced that I had brainwashed you. Or worse,” she answered grimly as her gaze fell.

Jinx’s throat tightened.

“I can’t dispute that cause it’d’ve been true,” she replied.

Raven’s head snapped up in horror.

“About my reaction, I mean,” Jinx clarified hastily, “Not that it would have been?”

Raven, unsurprisingly, did not look convinced.

Jinx ran a hand through her hair and tried not to curse.   

“Okay, just;” Jinx fumbled, as Raven sunk further in against herself.

Jinx planted herself in the Titan’s lap and cupped her face in her hands; heat rose to her cheeks and her heart hammered.

“I… have something I want to confess,” she murmured to the girl.

Jinx’s gaze left Raven’s eyes for a moment to shut tightly.  

“I’m...” she drawled.

Raven’s lips pressed gently against her own; Jinx’s eyes snapped open and Raven pulled back.  

Jinx took another small inhale of breath and tried again.

“Look, it felt really good okay?”

Raven’s eyes darted around around her face as the wheels in her mind surely raced.

“Like, I’ve never felt anything like that before. Even now, I’m like, so fucking refreshed and limber or whatever,” Jinx groused before her expression wavered and spilled into something more somber.

“And I’m used to breaking everything I touch, okay? If I have something nice, it always gets taken away again,” she pushed; her eyes searched Raven’s deeply, and she felt herself try to pour her feelings through their bond, despite it not being active.  

“You can’t be nice, and we can’t actually like each other because then everything will fall apart,” she lamented; “I can’t like you or you’ll break me,” she offered in a small voice that she intensely despised for its size and implications.

Raven’s eyes narrowed slightly, and a slow smirk started to curl against her mouth. She reached for her, slid a hand around the back of her neck and eased her forward until their foreheads were touching.    

“I am far too possessive of a creature to ever leave you,” Raven murmured brashly, her posture swelling.

Jinx felt something in her chest constrict and a content grin slashed across her face as she fought to keep her expression neutral.

The smile won out.

“Well then,” she found herself mewling as Raven’s hands drifted to her hips and her eyes darted to her lips and back; “You’ll just have to show me just how possessive you really are,” she breathed, smiling.

The corners of Raven’s mouth began to turn, and Jinx leaned in.

Their lips met again, firmer and flush.

The kiss was lazy, deep, and soft.

Jinx’s hand slid slightly to cup the girl’s jaw before her other slid behind the Titan’s back.

Raven eased her closer, and Jinx happily sunk into her.

Doubt still gnawed inside her bones; such a fretting wriggling thing, it was, Jinx thought as she reluctantly pulled her tongue free of the Titan’s mouth.

She lingered against Raven’s face, remembering how nice the girl’s breath had felt against her skin the night before.

“So… you actually like me?”

“I don’t think I could have made a new soul with you if I didn’t,” Raven chided, kissing her again.

Jinx sighed happily into the kiss; fever dream or not, she thought, she might as well enjoy it while it lasted. Tomorrow was another day away after all, she reasoned.

As their kiss deepened, mixing trailing licks and wandering hands into the mix, Jinx felt Raven’s attention drift elsewhere.

Indignant, Jinx was about to give the girl a gentle reprimand by the way of lodging her teeth into the girl’s shoulder but stopped short when she felt Raven’s arms tighten around her, as if to hoard her closer.

“What’s that?”

Lured by the surprise in Raven’s voice, Jinx lifted her head and looked out of Raven’s window to where Raven was staring.

Out in the distance, was a tiny glow on the horizon that had nothing to do with the risen sun.

“Looks like a fire, maybe?” Jinx offered absently as she tried to ignore the feeling of being pressed against the Titan; when she turned to obtain Raven’s opinion of the undesirable phenomenon, the feeling wasn’t as easy to ignore.

Raven’s eyes drifted endlessly before her own, flurries of hidden depths rippling in shadowed wakes.

Jinx’s lip trembled.

“I think you should go back to kissing me,” she ordered, as she lost herself in Raven’s eyes.

Raven, much to Jinx's approval, seemed only too happy to oblige. 

Chapter 10

Raven hummed approvingly as Jinx slid began sliding her jacket up her abdomen.

She kept her expression firmly in place as she tried to ignore the nagging feeling in the back of her mind; she thought briefly, that maybe it would be wise to not ignore it, but Jinx’s jacket was quickly approaching a grand reveal of her chest, and Raven felt the girl’s silent argument was far more persuasive then any of her own.

Jinx’s shirt tug slowed to a halt, a pleased and mischievous glint coating her grin; Jinx’s laughter, a flurry of rippling giggles tickled the the air between them as Raven let her fingers drift over the girl’s flesh.  

The thrum of the truck’s engine was soothing, Raven felt, somewhere in the back of her mind.

A low thrum of her own reverberated up from her chest and she allowed her smile to widen slightly as she watched Jinx drink in the sound; as her fingers trailed up along the planes of muscle under Jinx’s skin, Raven silently thanked whatever denizen in charge of the thief's composition, that the girl had taken a liking to her audible forms of expression.

But was her partner really so at ease with her? A small voice inside her wondered, which Raven found she could not shake off.

Internally, she hissed at the emotion; she felt herself weary of the personification, having suffered it riding her back as if an open gash to the tendon of a stag’s leg trapped mid hunt.

Her ire was not lost from the girl sitting in her lap, and the feeling of Jinx pressed against her, breath hot near her own was blessedly enough to keep her from stalling short inside her own head.

Jinx cooed, pleased, Raven assumed, at the thought of affecting her into frustration.

She wasn’t entirely wrong, she mentally admitted.

The swelling of Lust was silent in her mind; something Raven was intricately thankful for. She seemed to have a better grasp for channeling their body’s instincts then she did, which Raven was also grateful for. The way Lust dragged her hands along Jinx and purred ancient rumbles of satisfaction left little to do for her but to take in the sensations and enjoy the feelings radiating off her Favored.

Sloth quite agreed with her sentiment, if their unfettered pace was anything to go by.

Raven’s thrum rumbled again; not one of Lust’s doing, Raven felt, but of Rage’s. Patience was something not of her virtue.

She was surprised she was even tolerating their budding anticipation, she mused to herself.

Another growl, a sighing lazy thing, worked its way from her lips as her hands were pulled into action; while offering Jinx a smirk, she gently tugged the jacket out of the girl’s hands and pulled the garment back down her abdomen.

Jinx looked at her in mild confusion, but burning bubbling yellow curiosity and restrained cotton candy anticipation was radiating from her perhaps slightly overly slender body.

Channeling Sloth, as an indulgence to them all, Raven shot Jinx a knowing smirk at Wisdom’s insistence and let one of her hands fall to Jinx’s upper thigh, where Rage impotently, yet fondly, Raven noted, knead her flesh in a steady flexing rhythm; her other hand, she let slide down Jinx’s jacket, sensing the tingling neon crackles of the thief's inner arua underneath until she reached the very last button on the bottom of the jacket.

Jinx’s eyes lit up and her smile widened, sending flashes of memories of glinting fist filled brawls and brazen banters; her emotions shivered, rippling through her body like a silent purr as her fingers unfazedly slid the button back into its hole and pulled it back out of place.

Her emotions continued to swirl. Perhaps, Raven mused, in the creation of something new; certainly, as her fingers moved up to lay claim to several buttons more, the way she considered Jinx in relation to herself was something she had never experienced before.  

As bits of Jinx’s skin were revealed to her again, more slowly, Jinx leaned back, bracing her hands against Raven’s knees for support, letting her drink in a grander view; Raven bit her lip to clear her head.

It was so hard to clear it, most days, and she was certain that the thief would prefer her attentions unshattered.

A hefty exhalation of breath seeped from her nostrils as heat boiled between her thighs; taking cue from her body, Raven focused her attention to the gentle heat similarly radiating from Jinx and let her hand drop to the single button pinning the dual hems of her denim shorts together.

The pop of the button coming undone was oddly satisfying to Raven in a way she couldn't explain; the release of pressure perhaps, that the strain of the fabric had placed on Jinx’s flesh, or maybe from the way the girl sighed unabashedly in relief for it, Wisdom offered.

Happiness frettered up inbetween her ribs and Raven momentarily indulged the feeling before squashing it back down; she had learned her lesson from the night prior’s miscalculation, Wisdom whispered at the other emotion as she compliantly remained at the fringes of her awareness; she was not going to make the same mistake twice and lose herself to her self again. Jinx’s well being was too important, she iterated to her selves; the girl deserved no less as the Mother of her Child, quietly seeped the tainted instinct of her soul, silencing the others for its rarity.       

Jinx’s mouth returned to hers; Raven relished the cool feeling of Jinx’s lips molding themselves against her own. In fact, Raven agreed with her selves, she felt herself quite soothed by the feeling of all of Jinx’s cool body pressed against her own; memories sprung up from the wells of her emotions minds of the thief nakedly sheltered underneath her.

Raven’s eyes squeezed shut and moaned a deep throaty growl that was loud enough to overshadow her thoughts a pull Jinx into an airy mewl.

“ God Babe, you’re gonna’ shake us into an earthquake;” the thief chided after pulling away just far enough to lay claim to the ability to speak; Lust nearly managed to pull Jinx back to her, but Raven was able to cut her impulse in time.

Curiosity was sour-lime under her teeth and Raven unapologetically pulled Wisdom around her tongue while Bravery buried Rage between her thighs.

“What do you mean?” was all her designated self could apparently reply, as she leaned on Sloth’s soothing aura to tide over Rage.

Jinx snickered, which Raven nearly took affront to.

The thief leaned closer, her hands rubbing deeply into the flesh of her breasts; Raven moaned again, and Jinx’s smile spread across her face like a lingering knife gash.

“Sugar, you’re so wound up that they can hear your growlin’ all the way back in the city,” Jinx murmured, her words little more than an encouraging lilt.

Timid sent an alarm through her spine.

Raven sat up, startling Jinx, and pushed her away only enough to take stock of their surrounds; the strange glow in the distance, was no longer so distant, and Rage coursed from her loins to her teeth, coating them in a snarl.

Instantly, Raven waged an internal war to quell the combined desire of Bravery, Lust, and Rage to destroy the perceived threat and carry on with Jinx without a further thought to the hindrence’s existence.  

As she watched the glow approach, her arms pulled Jinx tightly against her; the girl spoke, but but none of Raven’s selves parted their attention to process her words.

Jinx felt mildly annoyed, which Raven did take note of easily; the thief was also spilling out heady arousal and mango amusement.

“It does appear to be a fire,” Raven offered, as Jinx bit enticingly against her neck.

“That’s nice,” Jinx murmured, with complete disinterest before her lips clamped over her skin and suckled; Raven’s eyes shut momentarily as Lust basked in the feeling.

“The fire’s getting closer,” Raven stated evenly as she tried desperately to reign in her emotions against the siren song of Jinx’s sexual persuasions.

Jinx trilled a very feline-esque chirrup and continued to pay the oddity no heed; her hands had traveled under her shirt, and Jinx seemed overtly intent on removing the garment from her body entirely.

She settled with Lust, allowing the emotion a swollen goodbye with the moment to savor the feeling of Jinx mouthing her breast with laps of her soft tongue and tiny tinges of her pointed teeth.

“The fire is emanating from their skull,” Raven offered, drawing on Jinx’s predisposition to gravitate alongside her curiosity; “And the motorcycle. The skeleton is riding a motorcycle and they both are on fire.”

As Raven predicted, Jinx separated herself from her chest and joined her in looking out of the window; the rippling roar of Rage and Lust at the result of Jinx’s pulling away was stifled only the resonating assurance from Pride that her activity with Jinx would soon be returned to.

“Holy shit,” Jinx exclaimed, her attention turning to the fastly approaching figure entirely.

“One of your friends?” Raven asked; inwardly, Wisdom begged her to be lenient to the idea of treading lightly with her Favored’s friends; Rage scoffed at the idea, too ingrained against the notion of forgiveness of villandry.

“I was hoping they’was one’a yours,” Jinx slurred, a mixture of amusement and nervousness bubbling through her aura and enunciation; “Could be Rancid maybe,” Jinx then offered, “I think he got his bike fixed last week.”

“He doesn’t usually set himself on fire, does he?”

“Well I mean,” Jinx chuckled, “I wouldn’t put it past him.”

“Strange that he lacks his usual mechanical menagerie, however,” Raven furthered.

“That is weird for him,” Jinx agreed; “Maybe he ran into a tight spot?”

“I would say that since he is a skeleton, he must have run into several tight spots indeed.”

Jinx shrugged and clicked her tongue.

Raven neglected to answer and kept her attention on the approacher.

“Hey Moonshine,” Jinx drawled, as her hand gripped her shoulder tightly; “Do you have a weird feeling in your gut, or is that just me?”

They continued to watch until the figure reached a fairly close distance.

When he reached a distance of clear visibility, both she and Jinx were struck by a visceral reaction.

“Holy shi-”

“Floor the engine,” Raven commanded, the multiple layers of her voice easily overpowering Jinx’s shout.

Jinx immediately scrambled back to her side of the truck, but it was too late; they were unable to flee the approacher for he was already there.

Up close, the blazing skull was certainly something to behold, Raven mused, as the burning undead man pulled up to them. The rumble from the motorcycle rivaled that of their truck with overabundant ease; Raven’s dormant self recognized the feel of the magic within it.

Senses bubbled up from her sleeping self, coating her with a deep sense of protectiveness over Jinx, her darker instincts natural desire to protect what was hers.

Also in tow, came a wonderfully feeling sensation of self assuredness; a demon knew no self doubt or fear for itself, she knew.

She ran her tongue along her teeth behind closed lips and held and arm steadily against Jinx to keep her from moving.  

Something in the man at the window recognized the shift in her, and similarly, once changed, she recognized something in him.

“Devil’s servant,” she stated; there was no inflection or accusation in her voice, only acknowledgement.

“Hellspawn;” the half-man replied, in a vein cut of the same cloak.

Jinx, mercifully, stayed silent.

Raven could feel her tensed behind her arm; such quick to her take, her little ocelot, the Pride in her mused, how easily they fell to the same page, she further gloated.

The skeleton man’s skull cracked as it tilted; Raven sensed confusion within him, and a burning rage in his paranormal parasite.

Raven kept her breath steady. She wondered which of them would be the stronger; which of them would bow and which of them would bray?

Timid cowered.

The baby, she keened, over and over; the baby, the baby, the baby.

Raven’s eyes narrowed, all four of them, as the demon host seized her up.

She waited.

A low, warning growl, the first of its kind to wither its way from her throat; it wasn’t aggressive. At least, Wisdom whispered it wasn’t; instinct told her that is was formality. A pleasantry.

She focused on the demon; servant or subjubulator?

It was a vengeful creature, Raven felt.

As she studied it, he revealed himself to be a cousin, not sibling; their bloods tangent, not congruent.

His duty therefore held no sway, Wisdom insisted.

Internally, she felt smug; Pride’s doing, no doubt.

She toyed with an idea of bantering, to diffuse the tensions. To cast the man upon his way.  

A wetting feeling of lavender fright stopped her in her tracks however; Jinx was petrified.

The taste was sugary sweet on her tongue and instantly, she felt the man’s attention shift from her to her Favored; Rage seethed.

All at once, Raven realised the full extent of what was before them, and she cursed Pride as she called upon Bravery once more.

“Soul Hunter, she is repentant. You have no claim for her.”

The spirit hunter’s flames shifted about, unheeding her as his demon tempted him to focus on her partner.

Fortunately, her Father’s gifts were many, and her intrinsic ties to souls were her strong suit.

“Zarathos, leave us. There is nothing here for you or your Master,” she stated in a tongue far older than she was as she her exuded her aura, covering the immediate area in a layer of emotion draining calmness.  

The skelton’s attention returned to her, though Jinx remained frozen with baited breath, fear still oozing out in sticky waves.

“Hellspawn, my Master would revel in the soul of your bitch alone, but the unborn or yours shall be as crowning jewels in his throne;” the spirit hunter rumbled, “You are royal yourself. Do not fight. Return with me, I shall present you and yours to my Master in whole.”

The offer was more than reasonable; if she had taken after her Father, Raven would have allowed the underling to escort her straight to the Devil to overthrow him herself and likely rewarded him for the courtesy, which the demon was no doubt banking on.

Unfortunately for him, she was not her Father’s daughter, and she had no interest in breaking the man’s duty to the wicked.    

“I shall not; I have no wish to descend. I am content among my Mother’s kind. I have done no wrong and she is repentant, you have no hold over us; we will journey on, and you shall leave us be.”

“I am bound, halfling,” the demon insisted, “Your harlot has sinned, and your blood is wretched with taint. Your unborn is mere disfigured malalignment that would one day carry your sicknesses. If you will not come willingly, I must kill you all, and I shall revel in doing so. -Starting with your babe,” he bellowed, “So I ask you one last time, for the sake of the goodness you’ve tried to commit yourself to, allow me to give you this mercy: come with me. Spare your bitch the fate of watching me rip your unborn from her womb while you watch lifelessly from the ground.”

“I shall not relent.”  

“Then die.”

At once, the burning skeleton punched his arm through the window to grab her by the neck and her soul self twisted up his arm in spiraling tendrils that snapped the bones beneath his jacket.

Jinx screamed, no longer frozen, and shot a potent arc of unluck at the man’s skull. The force of the blast tossed him off his motorcycle, pulling Raven with him, and they tumbled to the ground a few yards away.

Raven flew to her feet, wishing she was sporting her uniform, and watched her opponent wearily.

She summoned her soul to her hands and gasped when the reflexive action brought only sizzling pink static; she looked down to see herself riddled with traces of Jinx’s bad luck, having been caught in the crossfire of her blast.

Well shit , Wisdom spat; the rest of her selves agreeing.

The skeleton’s fire lit up once more and he effortlessly rose to his dubiously existing feet with a less than ferocious growl; internally, part of her was satisfied that at least her bark sounded as it should.

“ You… guilty …” he screamed as he shuffled towards her.

“You: terrible at intimidation,” Bravery taunted; remember to bluff, the emotion whispered.  

The man screamed again and ran towards her, fist drawn back; Raven feigned fright and dodged the punch, to bring down her elbow against the vertebrae composing the skeleton's neck as his back was turned to her.

It left no damage, which served to inform Raven that Timid’s suspicions were confirmed; no mortal blow could hurt him.

She snorted a frustrated growl; without her soulself, she was effectively reduced to dodging his attacks until she worked something out to her advantage, now that she had ruled out brawling directly.

“Who are you?” Rage chirped, ever willing to place a name to a new grudge.

The skeleton growled and came towards her again, as if to grab her.

“You’re going back to hell,” he hissed as Raven rolled out of his way and sprung back to feet.

Another pink blast sent the skeleton man flying, and Raven turned to see Jinx trembling nauseously; Timid spurred up within herself and Raven barked at Rage to keep her quiet.

No time for fear, Rage hissed.  

But Jinx; our powers; the baby, the baby, the baby...

Raven snorted again watched as the man slid the chain off his chest, setting it alight, before swinging it around and around in a menacing fashion.

“Jinx, get down!” Raven barked, as the chain came hurling through the air at her.

Jinx dropped to her knees, letting the chain sail past her to swing into Raven’s waiting hands.

She hissed, as the fire burned into her palms. Rage perked up and scolded her for turning soft; her pain tolerance should have been much higher, she seethed.

Still, the fire did not burn to her bone, hellfire being something half her body was immune to, merely blacked her skin and watered her eyes.

She tightened her grip and pulled the chain with all her might, digging her feet into the sand for any scrap of traction she take, and flung him in an arc clear over their heads and into the ground with a loud smack.

“He really takes a beating, doesn't he,” Jinx mused, as the skeleton’s distinguished flames ignited once more.

“He can’t die,” Raven murmured as she tried to keep her focus.

“Then we gotta stun him and get the fuck outta here,” Jinx declared; Raven’s selves quite agreed.  

Jinx inhaled a hiss of breath and beelined back to the truck; Wisdom, who had been formulating quietly, began to whisper at her ear.

“Your soul is tainted with the blood of the innocent…” the burning skeleton declared, pointing her with worrying intensity; “You will feel their pain!” he shouted as pulled his end of chain, sending her careening towards his outstretched hand; as he caught her, his chain wrapped itself like a vice around her chest, constricting her to the point of snapping a pair of her ribs.

“I’m an empath ,” Raven hissed as his hand clenched around her throat and hoisted her back into the air, “All I feel is their pain!”

The skeleton growled and slammed her into the ground. He pinned her there, with a boot to chest and growled as he turned his gaze from her to Jinx.

From Raven’s vantage point, she could only see the skeleton looming over her, alight with unholy fire.

Rage pushed hot fire through her own veins, and grabbed the man’s leg with a growl and rolled, throwing off his balance. As they rolled through the dirt he landed a punch to her temple that momentarily burned a hole through her cheek, before the Hellfire itself reformed her flesh and flickered out.

He tried her soulself again, shocking herself for her trouble, and the sound of the truck swerving around informed her that her Favored likely intended to run their opponent over with it.    

Raven managed to her feet first, the action sending waves of nausea through her ribs that emotions quickly sucked away.  

She turned to see Jinx through her windshield; she nodded. Jinx smirked.

So clever , Pride cooed.

The burning man grabbed her by her arms; she squirmed in grasp but let him spin her around to face him.

Once more, he hoisted her into the air.  

“ Look into my eyes ,” he growled.

Raven’s four red eyes narrowed as she felt her gaze drawn to his eye sockets; she could see tinges of her past starting to swirl amongst the flame.

It is nothing we have not already seen, Rage reminded her, we are born of their pain.

He cannot do what already has already been done to us, Bravery growled.

Raven squeezed her eyes shut, tears spilling over from her lids snapping shut.

“Look at me,” the skeleton insisted.

This time, when her eyes opened, there were two instead of four, and her skin had lost it’s reddish tinge.

“Mercy,” Timid pleaded.

“I’m all out of mercy ,” the man growled.

“ I am too ,” Raven replied, grinning.

Taking his momentary pause of confusion to her advantage, she grabbed him by the shoulders and brought her feet up to his chest where she kicked her weight free of his hands and as she dropped, she kicked the underside of his jaw.

The resulting crack was almost more satisfying than the way her back hit the hood of the truck as the truck’s grill hit the skeleton creature full force.

Raven rolled off the truck's hood, landing jarringly.

She drew herself to her knees as the truck continued to put distance between her and her adversary.

‘Look to your environment,’ Robin said, Wisdom and Bravery goaded.

Taking cue from her selves, Raven scanned the immediate area.

Her eyes fell upon the man’s abandoned bike.  

A shattering crash informed her that Jinx had shot another hex bolt through her truck; wasting no more time, Raven raced to the bike and mounted it.

“Yield to me ,” she bade to beast.

The bike did not want to respond, but it bore the same flickering pink sparks that she did, and they both knew it was powerless against her in its current state.

The bike looked nothing like any of the vehicles the Titan’s had trained her on, lacking familiar dials, pedals, or knobs; she cursed.

With a snarl, she simply wrapped her hands around the handles and willed the bike forth.  

It was shaky, but the bike recognized her heritage enough to tear forward at considerable speed with little only a few nearly unseating bucks.

When she reached the opposing pair, the skeleton man had lifted the truck entirely, while Jinx looked on from the ground some feet away.

Upon seeing her on his bike, the skeleton howled in rage and tossed the truck at her instead.

Raven whipped the bike around on its nose and caught the truck with bike’s back wheel to hurl it back.

The truck sailed back through the air, very much also on fire and crackling with pink energy, to hit the burning man square in the chest.

Raven immediately spurred the bike back around and careened towards Jinx as the truck pinned him to the ground.

Jinx took her outstretched hand and Raven hoisted her onto the bike.

Jinx gasped and cursed, likely at the Hellfire lapping at her legs, but seemed otherwise alright; she wondered if it was the hex energy coursing through the bike that sheltered her, or if it was an overlapping influence of the baby.

Raven urged the bike forth, speeding off in the direction Raven vaguely recalled there being cliffs, memories of the time she had raced a villain through them coursed through mind's eyes as the burning skeleton behind them summoned another bike and roared.   

Chapter 11

The bike from Hell propelled itself to surprising speeds, as did the bike behind them.

Raven grimaced, as Wisdom suggested that one miscalculation of trajectory would easily lose them their lead.

Jinx gripped her tightly with one arm; the sounds of energy colliding with rock and metal every few seconds led her to assume her Favored was making good use of her hex bolts with her other.

Her makeshift missiles were apparently not well appreciated by the man chasing them however, as he tried hurling a few fiery projectiles of his own in return.

“Jesus Fuck!” Jinx shouted as one of them landed a few feet away, catching her attention.

Raven risked a backwards glance; another ball of fire was careening towards them, looking as if it planned to sail clean over them them to catch them amidst a small explosion.

Remember to dodge, fool; Rage snarled.

She pulled the bike to the side of the impact, missing it by a dust cloud and several small bits of rock.

Jinx spun around completely, bracing against her back, facing the burning skeleton with a ferocious snarl; Jinx tensed whenever their opponent cast another of his flaming balls of death in their direction, which Wisdom quickly prompted her to utilize for faster, preciser, evasion maneuvers.

With each throw, the burning man seemed to gain better aim and larger projectiles, and soon, Raven was forced to drive nearly blind through clouds of gritty sand and missing ground.

Jinx, thankfully, seemed to catch onto her tactics; then instead of flying blind, she was steering solely to the way Jinx leaned her weight against her shoulders, dodging and changing course with greater ease; Happiness surfaced, as they tilted their way to and fro, ecstatic that Jinx was fearlessly working with her like a teammate.

As they rode on however, Happiness subsided as Wisdom noticed that by weaving in and out of their opponents attacks, they were quickly forcing themselves into having an unfortunate side effect; precious time of drained from their course with each fraction of traction lost and readjustment to their course, their opponent gained speed to close the distance between them.  

With only a few yards between them now, the man was a much better aim, which inspired Timid to worm her way to Bravery’s ear; Jinx may have been resistant against their bike’s flickering fires of Hell, barley, but she highly doubted the thief would be so well insulated against a fireball directly to her face.

Raven braced herself against the bike and grabbed Jinx with one hand to hoist her up enough to pull the girl to her side; as Jinx crawled over her to sit in front, Raven threw her weight to the other side of the bike to keep it balanced. Once Jinx settled in, the cliffs rolled into view not a moment too soon, and Raven’s emotions were nearly unanimous to the idea of heading towards them as soon as possible.

Behind them, the skeleton roared and rammed their rear wheel, sending red and pink sparking flames arching up into the air in every direction; several lapped against Raven’s back, making her hiss as the volatile mixtures licked her skin away and reformed it again.

The bike, jarred from the impact, nearly jackknifed.

Fuck, Raven’s selves screamed.

“Fuck,” Raven growled as she forced the bike onto it’s front wheel while pushing Jinx against the handlebars. As the tail of the bike tried to fling them into wiping out, she grabbed the seat of the bike and forced it forced it steady itself.

Watch yourself, Sloth warned.

The sweat coating her body caught her attention briefly as her hands nearly slipped; she was certain too, that her muscles were not going to be pleased with her manhandling of the machine when next she rested.

The bike started to teeter.

Jinx leaned towards her, prompting the bike to fall back onto both wheels; her shout about the rapidly approaching cliffside was not lost over the thundering engines.

As Raven sat up, she caught sight of the skeleton pulling up by half a wheel; he made to ram their tire again, but Raven turned the bike just far enough away to dodge the blow. As he leaned in after them, his front wheel was left wide open for one of Jinx’s blasts, which the thief made no hesitation in claiming for her advantage, tossing the bolt over Raven's shoulder with ease.

She let herself smile briefly as he nosedived into the dirt.

Jinx twisted back around in front of her as they pulled clear of the skeleton’s rolling crash to take a look ahead of them for herself; Raven could nearly taste the waves of her apprehension rolling off of her as the edge of the first cliff pulled into view.

“Do you trust me?”

Jinx turned to face her; tinges of fear stalled in her face, then, she seemed to take note of her sense of calmness and reflected it back at her as if the notion of sailing off of a cliff was a reasonable course of action to suggest. Perhaps it was, some of her selves reasoned, calming her further; Jinx certainly had never shied away from the extreme before, she recalled, back during their formidable escapades of villanry and vigilantism.  

“Yeah,” Jinx replied softly, as her pupils widened from tiny slits; Raven found she quite liked the way Hellfire framed her from underneath, casting her alight in a faint glow. A strange combination of her emotions similarly agreed.

She smiled again, prompting Jinx to grin recklessly before tearing her gaze back to the cliffside and then to the man behind them.   

The skeleton man was once again hot on their tail, which irked her greatly.

He won’t stay down, Timid insisted; if we can't fight we must flee.

Wisdom ran answers through her mind as Rage began to scream.

Raven ignored her rapidly ruckusing emotions and tried to feel her powers; there was a slight connection to them now, though Jinx’s energy still cackled frenziedly throughout her body.

Raven reached out to the bike with the bit of connection she retained with her soul as she gauged the distance to the cliff.

The bike seemed eager to please, from what she could tell; yearning for impossible speeds with a predisposition towards death defying stunts retained from a previous incarnation. Jinx’s magic still lingered within it as well, though it seemed to be burning off the inflicted energy as if it were a nitro boost, which gave Bravery an idea.

“Jinx, pump your power into the bike,” she ordered.

Jinx gripped the handlebars tightly and them up in a furious field of pink energy; it poured through the bike and gunned them forward so fast, that Raven’s eyes nearly watered shut as Jinx hunched herself over the front of the bike to better brace herself against the wind.

Raven pushed her soul into the bike, the remnants of Jinx’s curse acting as a conductor; the bike fed off the hex fragments, and all at once, Raven’s control over her soulself was freed.

As happy as she was over the turn of events, she equally aware that her exhaustion and scattered emotions meant she lacked the strength and focus to manipulate her soul properly; and that worried many of her selves, including her.

As the bike darted forward as fast as it was able, Raven pulled every ounce of speed out of the bike she could hound it into, and ran the bike dead-aimed to the edge of the cliff.

The hind wheel bounced off the edge, sending crumbs of dirt tumbling into the ravine hundreds of feet below.

Midair, Raven ripped her soul from the bike as Jinx screamed, and tossed it around them as a giant blanketing bird.

Beneath her, the burning man also dared the jump, and landed against the opposing cliff face with no amount of small force, sending an avalanche of rocks cascading down the cliffside as his bike carried him straight up to the road on a trail of Hellfire.

With no other choice, Raven growled with Rage and pried open a portal that the bike gracefully dived into, snapping shut behind them the moment they were safely inside as a fireball grazed their tires.

Inside the portal, time was nonexistent as dimensions and spatial apparitions collided and fazed in and out of awareness; Raven ignored them completely, trusting her soul to shield them despite Jinx’s fortunal influences.

Her emotions stilled, in the reality bent rift; Raven allowed her consciousness to fade in lieu of rest, and waited for her soul to arrive.

The wait was simultaneously quite a while and not long at all, before her soul clawed open the rift and portaled them out again, sending a wave of unpleasantness through her being.

Quickly, she reaffirmed she had Jinx safely tucked inside her as the bike carried them through into the other dimension.  

The bike hit something hard and skidded; Raven was momentarily blinded by her soul seeping back into her body while the rift sealed itself shut and she nearly lost consciousness as her soul rushed to take control of her body.

Keep it together, a piece of her prodded, keeping her pinned at the edge of awareness, blocking her desire to fall over it and rest.

Jinx yelped, snapping Raven’s focus back to the external world; she leaned back against the bike, willing it to break as it bounced itself down the incline of shapes rushing by too quickly for her to make out.

Eventually, the bike yielded, which Raven was thankful for, until she realized just as the tires came to a halt, that it had chosen to stall on a vertical plane.

Just as the bike began to fall, taking herself and Jinx with it, Raven forced the bike back against its hind wheel, and rode the wall down, the butt of the bike grinding against the wall with a sweltering hiss.  

As the ground came into view, littered with a rather unforgiving looking surface of broken rubble, Raven pulled Jinx to her and shifted her to the back of the bike. Jinx wrapped her arms over her chest, sending a rush of pain through her ribs.

The smell of burning rubber and ignited hex energy overpowered the plumes of smoke exuding from the rear tire as Raven kept it ground against the wall

Slowly, as the ground rapidly rushed forth to meet them, Raven tilted the bike forward, causing Jinx to slip; no longer standing on the bike, the thief was unseated from the bike entirely, gripping her for dear life.

The force from their descent nearly ripped Jinx’s grip away entirely; Raven had never been more thankful for the girl’s semi retractable claws.

Raven kept the bike steady, parallel to the ground as Jinx fought to regain her footing.

Don't fuck up, she hissed to her selves.

Jinx managed to wrap her legs around her middle right before the bike hit the ground.

The bike landed with a thundering crash of pink sparks; the force of impact launched them again, startling Jinx who shrieked as Raven’s soul held the bike aloft long enough to dispel their overzealous amount of momentum before dropping them again.

To keep from crashing into any of the abundant wreckage, Raven spun the bike tightly in the small open area they had thankfully landed in until she was able to dig her heels into the ground and force the bike into a gentle stop.

She exhaled.

Her head, for once, perfectly clear.

Jinx breathed in deeply, still coiled tightly against her back.

A raspy chuckle escaped her.   

She leaned back and closed her eyes.

Behind her, Jinx slowly unfolded herself, loosed her grip, and leaned against her gently as she breathed.

“Jesus Christ;” Jinx muttered, causing Raven to snort.

“I’m no one of the sort,” she retorted dryly as her emotions cocktailed inside of her.

Jinx huffed, pleased with the response, before she groaned.

“If you throw up, I’ll hold your hair as long as you don’t get any one me,” Raven offered.

Jinx shook rubbed her face along her back.

“Nah, I’m good,” she replied after first mumbling the same response unintelligibly into her flesh.

At Jinx’s release of tension, Raven relaxed and looked around their immediate surroundings.

Her emotions were oddly silent, oddly alert, oddly aware.

She turned to look at Jinx.  

“Are you alright?”

Jinx looked at her oddly before laughing; a loud reckless laugh, nearly infectious for its rambunctious attitude and carefree nature.

As her laugh subsided into a hissing snicker, Jinx smiled, lips closed, eyes bright.

Raven looked her over, despite her over the shoulder vantage point not particularly the best for doing so, and was relieved to see Jinx free of any burns, blood, or scorch marks.

She closed her eyes again and took another breath.

“I’m sorry.”

Jinx chirruped; her eyes were wide and alive, her pupils wide and warm, when Raven dined to look at her again.

“I put you and the child in danger. I shouldn’t have tried to fight him. I shouldn’t have let him get close enough to fight. If i hadn’t been so distracted, none of that would have happ-”

“Shhhh….”

Jinx hushed with a long, soothing shush with a finger pressed to her lips.

“Don’t ever apologize for that,” Jinx ordered, pulling back slightly; “That was the most arousing thing I have ever been through in my life,” she exclaimed with great inflection and a ravenous grin; “I didn’t know whether I want to fuck you or the bike!” she proclaimed before exhaling another rolling moan; “I still don't,” she added frustratedly, under her breath.  

“I could fuck you on the bike,” Lust offered before she could stop her self, bringing a rise of color to her cheeks at the admission.   

Jinx perked her gaze up, looking her dead in the eyes with an intense expression.

"I... meant that as a joke, mostly," she back peddled;  "But I mean, I can? Probably?" she offered, still unsure as to whether Jinx was keen to the idea or joking; "Were you really turned on by all that back there or..."

“God yes,” Jinx whispered intently, still staring at her.

Raven swallowed dryly, as Lust remembered to her just how good Jinx had felt sitting in her lap back in the truck; she exhaled shakily. 

“We’ll mark that down for ‘once my ribs heal’ then,” she started, forcing herself to breath evenly.

She looked away as Jinx huffed in lust stained understanding.

Slowly, Raven dismounted, and took a moment to steady herself before she turned back to Jinx to help her down.

Jinx was quick to her feet, teeming with energy and adrenaline, which Raven was grateful to see; she was unable to match her Favored's psychical enthusiasm however.

“Are you okay Babe?” Jinx asked quietly as she came to her side.

“I’m fine,” she offered gently, “I have re-gen abilities. I’m just out of shape.”

“Out of shape my ass,” Jinx spat, surprising her; “You were practically breakdancing on that bike,” she proclaimed, “- With the bike.”

“I should have been able to do more without breaking a sweat,” Raven murmured as she took stock of her sore limbs; “Robin trained me to use physical methods in the event my magical ones were unavailable. I can usually hold my own much better than that.”

“Jesus fuck me,” Jinx groaned as she closed her eyes.

“He will not, if I have anything to say about it,” she deadpanned, earning a smirk from Jinx as her eyes flicked open again.  

“I love your new crop top,” she offered after a moment as she looked her over; “I think you deserve the jacket more than I do though.”

Jinx started to shrug off her jacket when she stopped mid way out of her sleeves.  

“Shit, that reminds me,” Jinx hissed looking over her shoulder to the bike; “all our shit burned up with the truck.”

Raven bit her lip.

“It’s okay,” Jinx exhaled after a moment, as she ran her fingers through her hair and pulled it out of her face; “I can pick us up some more. Better ones this time,” she added, “I’m gonna get you a jacket. Real leather. Studs an all.”

“Just the jacket?”

“Mmm,” Jinx hummed, grinning, “Maybe some shorts too. -Real short. Shorter, the better.”

“As long as they actually cover my ass I suppose I’ll be grateful.”

“Define cover,” Jinx teased, earning a smirk from her.  

Jinx nodded at her shirt and looked back at her questioningly. 

Carefully, she shrugged off what remained of her shirt before handing it to Jinx; she felt more than a little exposed, but lacked the energy to particularly care.  Jinx was quick to remove her jacket, and the sight of Jinx's skin momentarily silenced Raven's discomfort of her own.

Jinx draped the jacket over her shoulders; Raven sighed happily, it wasn't quiet a cape, she mused, but it was enough. 

As Jinx slid on the shirt, Raven took a moment to rub the muscles connecting her neck and shoulder; she hoped she hadn't ripped anything, it was so hard to tell when her emotions weren’t using her. Dimly, she wondered if her mind was going through something akin to shock.  

“You sure you’re okay Love?” Jinx asked quietly, touching her arm softly.

A sight she must have looked to her, she guessed, not having bothered to even put the jacket on, nor don her usual face. 

Raven looked at Jinx's face, drinking in her expression, then slowly let her gaze fall to the girl's stomach and back up again; she was more than glad that they were alright, she thought hazily.  

Happy managed to press an idea to her lips; Timid stilled her body however, too easily ripe with memories of her last attempt of earnest expression.

Just ask , Bravery whispered, still full of life from their ride.

“Jinx,” she asked quietly.

“Yeah?” she asked back, as she stepped closer, touching both her arms gently as she stared.

“...Can we sit a moment?”

“Yeah;” Jinx answered softly, “Of course Hon,” she murmured, immediately moving to gently help her to ground.  

When they were seated, Raven offered her a grateful smile; the sweat on her brow and neck made her stick uncomfortably, and the pain in her ribs and muscles made her want to whine.

She swallowed an urge to throw up; she had whipped through too many emotions in too short of a time.

She trembled slightly, earning a worried look from her partner.

“Jinx,” she asked again, quieter than she had before.

“Yeah Lovely?” she replied earnestly, leaning closer, touching her arm again.

She worried her lip as a shiver ran along her spine.

Please, Timid begged.

“Can you hold me?” she stammered, almost without any audibility at all.

Wordlessly, Jinx leaned against her, wrapped her arms around her, gently pulled her into her lap, and settled her head against her collarbone.

Raven sighed as she breathed in Jinx’s scent, her powers siphoning up Jinx’s emitted emotions, fueling her own body’s recovery; she would be fine, yes, but she needed Jinx. Just for a moment.

Surprisingly, Jinx started running her fingers along her scalp; petting her, soothingly, she realised.

She turned her face against Jinx’s neck, instinctively searching for the feeling of her skin; Jinx shifted with her until their faces met, and the thief placed kisses softly along her brow, letting them linger longer,  when her lips pressed against the gem inlaid against her skin.

Gently, Jinx’s tongue licked repeatedly along the sensitive flesh surrounding the jewel, causing her to sigh an evocative moan.

Jinx paused for a moment, her lips pressed together, her breath flickering warmly over her brow.  

“Moonshine?” she murmured.

“Mmm?” Raven hummed, eyes closed.

Jinx hesitated, words dying under her tongue.

Instead of speaking whatever it was on her mind, Jinx pulled her closer, into her lap entirely, and nestled her face against hers.

“Glad you’re okay... Partner;” she offered nervously.

Raven smiled against her cheek and wrapped an arm around her neck, letting her hand trail affectionately along Jinx’s jaw and under her chin, before she stroked the girl’s cheek with her thumb.  

“Love you too,” Raven murmured, her eyes still closed; “My beautiful little psycho.”  

Raven smiled again as heat flooded Jinx’s cheeks and gave herself into sleep.

Chapter 12

There was a distinct lack of things for Jinx to focus on, she found, as she gazed at the Titan sleeping in her arms.

It wasn’t that the stones surrounding them weren’t completely uninteresting, Jinx admitted; when Jinx’s eyes first fixated upon the surrounding debris, she had of course, wondered what kind of place she was sitting in. After spending a tedious amount of time looking at the features however, much of the immanent landscape’s powers of captivation had run dry. 

The unfamiliarity of sitting someplace so quiet was also quite jarring, she found; she was too used to life around Jump City, she guessed to herself.

The lack of any familiar sounds had her gut rumbling anxiously.

As her thoughts trailed from one question to the next, her ideas meandered around visions of ancient civilizations and forgotten cultures and then wondered if they were in a different country completely, for the lack of things like trees or birds or the usual wind that surrounded Jump.  

She asked herself if perhaps it was an area that simply had been somehow displaced by time, as it rather seemed like something that could very well happen, what with the sorts of people she knew and the sorts of things that they could do.

That was the thought that pushed Jinx’s curiosity with the strange broken stones surrounding them from the realm of the unsettling, back into the mundane and with no answers to any of her questions to be had, Raven asleep, and with nothing moving around to hold her attention, Jinx found herself faced again with what she hated most.

Boredom.    

Jinx tried not to fidget.

Sitting still while being required to do so was an activity that was not among her preferred things to do -something likely inspired by the many grueling hours she’d spent at the academy, she was sure; however, much as she detested the feeling of doing a whole lot of nothing, something inside her simply couldn’t force herself to dislodge the Titan in her lap no matter how much her body begged to twitch.

The look of exhaustion on Raven’s face was argument enough.  

She wondered if this was what guilt felt like, she thought as she stroked Raven’s hair a few times more.

She tried not to sigh; Raven’s body was wonderfully warm against her, and she longed to shift her legs just enough to bring them much needed friction or to jostle the girl just slightly to rest her better against her.

The girl looked so dainty Jinx mused, as she regarded her companion; so terribly human and deceivingly quaint.  

Her heart was still pounding; life spinning wildly inside of her as the familiar rush of freedom danced along her tongue.

Her eyes darted over to the bike, a feral sort of affection catching a curve to her grin, before she looked back at the Titan.

“I’m definitely entering you into a stunt show,” she murmured at the slumbering beauty.

Her smile softened as her gaze lingered on the swell of her lips; how true would the fairy tales be? She wondered, imagining herself pulling the Titan’s face just close enough to her own, to press their lips together before pixie dust and sparkling shoes rained down to clobber them in unexpected exuberance, with a tantalizing musical score drifting about in the background.

She giggled quietly; there was no way Raven would ever wear the overly flamboyant yellow puffy dress she was imagining her in, but by god was she going to draw her in it, she quickly decided, and she ordered herself to store the idea for safekeeping.

Slowly, Raven began to stir against her, pulling Jinx from her thoughts.

Jinx nearly reprimanded herself for jostling her awake, but found herself feeling more relieved than not.

“Mornin’ Moonshine,” Jinx lilted, as Raven pulled herself into a functioning sitting position.

Raven didn’t reply, as she seemed to focus on becoming herself again, from what Jinx could tell.

She looked better, Jinx noted, which soothed her greatly; internally, she tried to convince herself that a great deal of her inability to refrain from fidgeting had not been due to her worry over the Titan’s health.

Raven still looked tired sure, Jinx noted silently, but she no longer looked as if she would faint upon being punched, or face plant into the dirt at risk of walking, and her eyes seemed distant but not hazy nor altogether vacant, which Jinx thought must have been a good sign.  

“I’m sorry for worrying you,” the Titan murmured.

“You can sleep with me all you want Babe, we’re like, together now,” she teased, as she helped the Titan to her feet.

Jinx took a moment to stretch and rubbed the circulation back into her legs before she sighed happily.

“I’m glad you’re awake though,” she next admitted as she cast a glance around the clearing again; “This place feels strange.”

At her words, Raven also took in their surroundings, likely for the first time, Jinx guessed, and something about the muscles twitching faintly within her face sent Jinx’s mind spinning.

She remained silent as her partner surveyed their surroundings; Jinx was taken aback by an overlaid mental image of a deer peering around a meadow in search of hunters that she’d desperately hope were not to be found.

It was just something about the way Raven moved, she reasoned, that felt animalistic.

She shook the thought away; while Raven certainly held the elegance of a deer in her opinion, something seemed wrong to her about comparing prey to predator.

The train of thought brought forth memories of the Titan, hidden beneath her cloak, and felt as if some the surreality of the past encounters had been leached out; of course Raven would not move as a human would, as she wasn’t nearly human, she argued with herself.  

“You know anything about animals?” she asked idly, to drown out her thoughts.

“More than I’d like, and contrarily, not nearly enough as I ought,” she answered vaguely as her brows furrowed while she continued to look around; “Beast-Boy’s informational discussions leave much to be deciphered.”

“Says the cryptic wonder herself,” Jinx teased.

Raven neglected to take her bait and crossed her arms before bringing a hand to her chin.

As if suddenly struck by the fact that she was standing there with her, Raven turned to face her, her eyes bright; Jinx quirked her brow.

“What?”

“This place is familiar to me,” Raven offered oddly; there was something distant in Raven’s eyes that while not quite unsettling, was foreboding in Jinx’s opinion.

Jinx watched the Titan drift past the edge of the small clearing; she ignored the shiver of alertness that crawled its way up her spine and followed.

As Jinx fell into step beside Raven, she glanced at the shattered remnants of the objects around them and considered them again.

They were large, stone, and cold.

Cold was the wrong word, Jinx quickly reasoned, as her fingertips brushed along a still towering swath of column; it wasn’t cold, she thought, so much as everything felt as if it lacked heat, and temperature in general besides.

There was no air, either.

Rather, she realized, there was no wind.

The thought was startling and her heart skipped a beat.

She took in their surroundings again and tried to pinpoint other oddities within it.

No sound, was her next conclusion, causing her to steel her jaw.

No birds.

A shiver wandered it way through Jinx’s shoulders and nearly spasmed out through her fingertips.  

Her tongue ran across her teeth, reassuring for their points.  

“I’ve been in graveyards more lively than this,” she cast, eager to dispel the stagnant world around them with the few tiny ripples of her voice.

She held her breath as she waited for Raven to reply, and then inhaled it deeper when the girl didn’t respond.

They walked further, passing rubble of broken down walls and arches, shattered ceilings and toppled spires. The architecture of it all seemed impossibly old, ancient even, Jinx thought; flickers of mental images spurted behind her eyes of tree covered temples and crumpled synagogues.

Every piece and part she could make out from the strange angles and crushed wreckage seemed large, which formed a bubble of awe inside Jinx’s throat; from the ruins collapsed over each other that she and Raven were walking over, and from the areas still standing as silent sentinels, Jinx gathered that the buildings must have reached near unimaginable height, before they had fallen, however long ago.

Her mind struggled to comprehend the scale of it all; of what everything must have looked like, felt like.

Her attention snapped to Raven at the thought, the notion of Raven’s empathy striking her.

Could her empathy stretch that far?

How painful would that be, Jinx wondered, to feel the lingering traces of emotion ghosting across whatever land she walked on.

Lightly, Jinx brushed her fingertips against Raven’s arm; Raven remained unresponsive, apparently collected somewhere Jinx couldn’t comprehend.

They continued to walk, and Jinx eventually let herself fall a few steps behind.

Raven seemed entranced to follow a particular path that Jinx could not make out without the Titan traversing it first, and Jinx found it easier to follow the girl to minimize the risk to her ankles.    

She tried not to notice how the Titan’s shoulders were set.

When they came to a sheer impasse of what looked to be the remnants of a bridge, Raven stopped short.

Cautiously, Jinx waited.

Raven slid her shoulders back, and morphed seamlessly, effortlessly, into her soulself; the giant bird grew tangible from the darkness and Jinx was almost surprised when it made no sound.

Her head swiveled to look at her, fathomless white eyes seeing things Jinx was sure she'd never gain capacity to see or understand.  

The bird swept her up without warning, gently, in the space between her giant claws; safe in the net of Raven’s soul, the bird took off, leaving Jinx momentarily startled and almost relieved.

Up the side of the bridge Raven glided, with less resistance than a hot iron knife through melting butter, Jinx mused as they went straight up, until Raven bottomed out and swam above what Jinx could only describe as the forgotten remains of what was once a city.

She’d had dreams of broken cities before, she remembered, as Raven soared; nothing she had ever dreamt however, looked like what she was seeing, nor felt like what she was experiencing.

It was all so surreal feeling; Jinx was almost ready to argue to herself that what she was seeing wasn’t reality at all.

She wondered if this was what tourist felt whenever they visited the great ancient wonders of the world, or slept in abandoned ghost towns.

As Raven flew through the wreckage, she bolted higher, higher, and higher still, until they had passed even the tallest remnant of stone, and burst out of the lingering cover of clouds and into the empty skies above.

Jinx was nearly certain, that she was dreaming.

The sky was torn.

In several places it just… looked as if it was peeling, was the only way Jinx could describe it, perceive it. It made her eyes water and her heartbeat race.

Raven dived; it was a slow descent, compared to the near fatalistic one they had shared on the hell bike.

As Raven wound and weaved her way, Jinx almost decided that she rather preferred the maddening descent, over the slow, continuous gate of Raven’s choosing.

Jinx rubbed the water from her eyes with one hand as she kept a firm hold of Raven’s feathers in the other.

As the ancient world passed them by, Jinx began to notice odd things scattered amongst the buildings, nearly hidden in all the shadows. Things that looked like shouldn’t have been stone, but were.

Trees, bushes, twisted shapes that Jinx could almost pass off as ivy; all were clearly rock, yet looked displaced for it, as if none of it had been meant to be.  

Things calcified, she reasoned; perhaps over time the area’s plant matter had solidified.

She would even have been convinced of the idea, had there been anything resembling moss scattering over the wreckage.

As she stared harder at the world passing by, she spotted other things.

Statue like things.

She wondered what kind of event could have left the buildings shattered while leaving statues in tact.   

It distressed her slightly, that the statues had humanoid hands; she was grateful the rest of the statues seemed more focused on their clothing than their bodies.

It was odd, yet comforting, Jinx felt, that most of the statues seemed to be depictions of ordinary things; some were affixed to the banisters, gazing off into the distance, and many seemed walking along what she assumed were old walkways.

She wondered what kind of culture had valued such simple things; most statues she knew of, the really pricey ones, had always been of gods or people more grand than anyone else.  

She also wondered what it was Raven was headed towards, and if the Titan even knew, or if she was just going by her sense of feel.

She did that herself sometimes, she thought; almost always racing towards one gut feeling or another.

She supposed she should be feeling something like worried, as Raven carried them on; but all Jinx could feel now was vague curiosity and just a little bit sad.

Raven’s flight glided them past several more precariously balanced spires and platforms, occasionally dipping them between floating pieces of jagged rock or distorted space.

A ripple flooded through Raven’s body as she apparently caught sight of something; Jinx swallowed down the instinctual idea that solid objects weren’t meant to remold themselves mid-existance, and tried to focus on whatever had caught her partner’s attention.

Raven descended over a large balcony, coming to land on an ornate railing surrounding it in silence; Jinx found herself half startled by the trail of clouds she exhaled, for how otherwise still the air seemed to be.

Jinx wiggled her way out from the Titan’s claws and waited.  

Raven didn’t move from her perch; Jinx could almost feel the Titan’s hesitation through her not-quite solid feathers rustling beside her.

As Jinx started intently at Raven, she watched as space distorted around her as she melted back into herself far slower than Jinx had ever seen before.

Jinx wondered again, what there was the empath could be so afraid of, in the forgotten city.

Raven walked centerward, then stopped, and shivered.

Jinx watched her for a moment and glanced at the disheveled door before them; a tiny glint in the structure caught her attention.

She walked over to the speck on the door and gave it a closer look.

There, nearly hidden against the rock, was a fleck, no larger than a pinhead, of what Jinx was certain was nothing other than gold.

She pressed her thumb nail to the tiny crack and used her hex energy to gently split the two sides apart.

A loud resulting crack caused her to jump back, and she watched in abject horror and fascination as her energy raced around the door and the surrounding frame, flickering out out of existence in lightning like spiderwebs against the adjoining walls.

The rock face, a solid, thick slab, slid off of the fixture underneath and fell to the ground in front of her feet where it shattered in thousands of black shiny pieces.

The thief training within her shouted in marvelled delight at all the obsidian before her attention was once against caught by the gold.

The door, the frame, the very building itself, was all trimmed with gold filigree. The metal paint was bonded to a strange, luminous, milky white structure underneath.

It looked as if it had been carved out of a precious stone; Jinx’s breath caught as she inspected it closer and failed to spot a single fleck or trace of how it had been carved, or what kind of tools had carved it.

It was so smooth, Jinx felt that it would have given an obsidian scalpel a run for its money.  

She was about to chirrup her fascination over her discovery to her partner, and indeed the sound formed nearly halfway in her throat as she turned to face the girl before it cleaved cleanly in two, and died.

She hesitated, her heart stammering; internally she wondered if she should apologize.

The look on Raven’s face was of utter devastation and syllables began to tremble from her mouth before they too, silenced themselves to early graves as Raven shut her eyes and turned her head.

There was a breath between them both.

Raven opened her eyes and threw her gaze into the heavens before she shut them again.

Just as the wheels in Jinx’s head began to spin into overdrive, the Titan broke the silence.

“Jinx.”

Her tone rang out into the wasteland, matching it, barren and bleak.

Raven’s head fell slightly, and her violet eyes fell against her gaze like a pool of black water.

“Yeah?” she asked; her mind began to loop in thought, swearing in rapid succession.

Raven’s head bowed, and the Titan’s gaze fell to the stone coated floor.

Jinx swallowed apprehensively as Raven inhaled a steadying breath.

“Look Moonshine, if you’re upset about this place it’s okay;” Jinx began as she stepped closer to the Titan, “I’m sure the folk around here won’t mind, bein’ past tense and all. They probably died out thousands of years ago,” she offered encouragingly.

Raven shook her head.

Something lodged itself in Jinx’s throat at the same time something in her gut tied itself to knots.  

“They didn’t die out thousands of years ago…” Raven murmured.

“Hundreds then,” Jinx amended, shrugging.

Raven exhaled a strenuous breath; “They… died out a few years ago.”

“A few?” Jinx repeated, not quite sure she agreed with the assessment; “How can you tell?”

“I used to live here.”

Chapter 13

“You... what?”

“I used to live here;” Raven repeated as she rolled her shoulders, “This is where I was born. This is where I’m from. This... was my home.”

Jinx looked at her for a moment longer before casting another look at their surroundings, drinking in the desolation and oppressive atmosphere, and back at Raven again.

“...Do you… wanna talk about it?” she ventured, quietly; “I mean, if it’s too difficult or anything we can always save it for a rainy day,” Jinx offered.

“No,” Raven replied evenly, before drawing another steadying breath, “But I’m going to anyway.”

Raven shook her head curtly, her hair straying errantly across her face.

“Are you sure?”

“If I don’t speak of it now, I never will I think,” she admitted as she crossed her arms and held them.

“I’m all ears then,” Jinx replied carefully.

“It’s… not a pretty story,” Raven insisted, as her hands balled themselves into fists inside her jacket pockets.

“I won’t mind.”

Raven nodded to herself once, and then took a deep breath.

“This is the remains of Azarath. It was a pocket dimension propagated by monks who wished to sequester themselves away in utopia free of vice and sin,” Raven began, in a tone that reminded Jinx both of tour guides and private investigators.

“Some years ago, they found my mother, took her in,” Raven continued; Jinx figured the girl was caught in her memories, as her voice began trickling into a fainter cadence with a strange accent; “They had foreseen her plight -and my own existence-, and sought her out to offer sanctuary. They brought her here, sheltered her, comforted her; and when I was born, I was entrusted to their care, where they then taught me how to control my powers and to ignore my demonic natures,” she further explained, her eyes returning to hers briefly; she offered her a small smile which she quickly returned.

“You would have liked it, I think,” she rambled, glancing around the fragments of the world and back to Jinx again.

Jinx found herself grateful that not a single insult or shitty joke lingered on the tip of her tongue; she wasn’t entirely sure about it, but she was going to bet that sincerity and consoling was what the girl was after. After all, she thought to herself, if Earth had been destroyed and she had never talked about it, she was fairly certain that she’d want a shoulder to cry on about it, if only to lament the loss of any ability to lord over it anymore.

“What was it like?” she asked, shoving her thoughts away.

“It was beautiful,” Raven replied, “brimming with flowers and streams. There was no ‘ground’ per say, not like Earth has; everything was adrift on patches of floating rock. Everything created and powered by magic and will. There was no suffering, no hunger, no pain. There were festivals,” Raven continued placidly, as her eyes sadly sparkled, “I never attended them, but during each one, music would fill the air like sunlight, and children would laugh.”

“Sounds fun,” Jinx offered placatingly, in what she hoped was an encouraging tone.

“There weren’t a lot of other children… Our population was small,” Raven explained, her tone shimmering with regret and nostalgia; “But it was closely knit, as much as I could tell.”

“Did the other kids not like you?” Jinx murmured, visions of her own past simmering into thoughts.

“I… was not as integrated as the others, truth be told,” Raven admitted, wincing as though it had hurt to reveal; “Not from neglect nor ill intention, but for the nature of my ordeal. I had to control my emotions, thusly I was avoided out of respect for my needs.”

Jinx wanted to speak out against the idea, as she was pretty sure that any child was more likely to thrive under care than abandonment, but she bit the thought away from her tongue.      

“Were you happy, at least?” Jinx asked instead.

“I was… content I suppose, for a while, but…”

Jinx tilted her head as she waited for Raven to speak again.  

Raven took another breath and let her shoulders sag.

“Forgive me for stalling…” Raven exhaled; “This is not easy for me in any manner and. Well…”

“I guess you can say that I inherited my Mother’s poor judgement,” she declared softly; “I grew discontent with myself and my place in the universe. I knew of my Father’s deeds, and of the prophecy, but still I longed to understand the side of me bade to keep under lock and key.”  

“I thought if I could just look at him,” Raven whined, “Not even to speak with him, but just to gaze from afar, that I would finally settle the doubts within myself and no longer carry the vestiges of ungratefulness that I had harbored.”

Raven growled a breath.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to understand your origins or your genetic history,” Jinx offered carefully; she watched Raven’s responding wince and gave her an apologetic smile before adding, “Anyway, the best way to solve a problem is to understand it first.”

“True, but there is a fine line between passive thought and aggressive action,” Raven replied flatly.

“What did you do?”

“I made a spell,” Raven answered, “Just a simple circle, basic magic not even the acolytes bothered to study. I tried to look.”

“And?” Jinx whispered.

“I saw him,” she replied hauntingly; “I was able to see into his realms across the dimensions and look right at him.”

“What went wrong then,” Jinx inquired, trying to follow, “Did the monks or your mom find out or somethin’?”

Raven shook her head.

“They didn’t see anything, no;” Raven replied quietly, “They were too engrossed in their daily routines to pay me any mind. I was quite secretive about my ill-planned activity.”

“So what went wrong?”

“The problem was, he saw me too.”

Her face contorted into pain and her breath hissed through her clenched teeth, bared as though to frighten away the monster in her memories.

She gulped a shaking breath and struggled to speak again; her words spilling out first in a foreign tongue, before rewinding to begin anew in a form Jinx understood.

“After he saw me I realized my mistake,” she fumbled, as an oppressive aura of sickening dread and fear blanketed their surroundings.

“He came to Azarath. I led him right to us…” Raven murmured at her, sadly.

Jinx felt her body swell with grief; she glanced around the desolate wasteland and innately understood how Raven was struggling with the feel of it all.

“He destroyed it all, when he came,” Jinx murmured, looking around and then to Raven again, “Didn’t he?”

Raven’s answering cry was a shuddering gasp that she desperately tried to quell by seizing her bottom lip in a painful looking bite.  

The Titan visibly held her breath while dry sobs raked their way through her.

Jinx moved to her, and pulled the girl against her, hoping that her disconnect from the situation would help ease the girl back out of the painful emotions.

Raven sobbed against her for a few breaths before she forced herself back into a shoddy equilibrium

Jinx watched her silently as Raven lifted her head to meet her gaze.

The guilt written across her face was disturbing to behold.

“He ravaged the land yes, but he didn’t get her people.”

Something within Jinx’s gut sank as Raven’s lip trembled, her eyes lit defiantly.

“What do you mean?” she asked, even as she thought to dread the Titan’s answer.

“I killed them first.”

Jinx felt her eyes mirror the Titan’s tears and she was powerless to stop the twitch that tugged her lips taut.

“I didn’t have any time! There wasn’t a choice!” Raven growled; buildings rumbling in the distance as the Titan’s emotions fought to free themselves.

“I didn’t have the training that I have now,” she insisted, pain bleeding down her face; “I didn’t have the ability to take them with me during the jump, I wasn’t strong enough. -And I couldn’t leave them to my Father’s perversions,” she keened.

Raven shuddered and squeezed her eyes shut, as if to block out visions Jinx was sure she had once seen.  

“The things that creature has done, the things he’d planned to do…” Raven moaned.

“I didn’t want to hurt them,” Raven pleaded, “I wanted them to be safe! I thought if he arrived and to find the people stonebound, he’d leave them be… leave Azarath be.”

Raven hissed away another gasping sob and stuttered.

“So you transformed them,” Jinx replied gently; “You tried to save them from your father, so you could leave.”

“I planned on turning them back, once he was gone. I always planned to come back,” Raven continued; “but when he came, he laughed. He laughed, and he said that it was 'so wonderful', that I was taking after him already. And then,” she further murmured, “He ruined everything.”

“The sky, the temples, the moons. All of it,” she added tonelessly.

“And the people?” Jinx asked, as a sinking feeling in her gut told her she didn’t need the answer.

“They’re all dead Jinx,” Raven replied, defeated; “Even if I were to turn stone back to flesh, they’d be gone. I did it all wrong. He saw what I had done and laughed at my mistake.”

Jinx bit her lip as she tried to think of something to say.

“I killed them.”

The emotion saturated into Raven’s words thickened and trembled.

“Jinx,” Raven mourned, staring at her as she waited for some kind of reaction; “Jinx, I killed them all.”

Jinx held her, as she sobbed, sounds of buildings and lifeless statues buckling and cracking in the distance. Internally, she felt every nerve ignite as her mind rocketed to high alert; her instincts screamed at her to keep the Titan as calm as possible as the sounds of destruction filtered through her ears.

She looked upwards, briefly, to watch as the sky began to crack before glancing down to track the tears tracing along the Titan’s skin.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Jinx whispered; “You were trying to spare them literal hell.”

“I’m a murderer Jinx,” Raven hissed; “Just because I was so stupidly blinded by my own foolishness.”

“You were a kid ,” Jinx insisted.

“I wasn’t raised as one,” Raven retorted, shaking.

“Hey,” Jinx cooed, as she grabbed her, pulled her close; “You’re not a monster, okay?”

“Yes, I am, Jinx;” Raven insisted as she tried to pull away, “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, I-”

“-A monster is someone who does horrible things because they can and they don’t care who they hurt,” Jinx replied evenly, pulling Raven back to her while cutting off what she was sure was going to have been a lengthy string of self loathing curses; “You? You care. You care so much it cripples you. You wouldn’t be a Titan if you didn’t.”

Jinx offered her a small smile and continued.

“You don't want to hurt anyone, you just want to help make things better. That doesn’t make you a monster, that’s what makes you human. Humans make mistakes all the time, we just try to stumble through them.”

Raven pressed her head against her neck and Jinx tried not to flinch as Raven’s nails dug into her as she tucked herself closer; Jinx briefly wondered if she could offer the girl one of the many new spaces she had mended between her ribs to hide in before thinking better of it as a strange kind of exhaustion started to overtake her. As Raven swam through various levels of catharsis and guilt within her arms, Jinx wondered if the girl was actually soaking up her emotions, or if she was just becoming increasingly detached from the situation.

She pushed her thoughts aside; her curiosity could wait, she thought, as she tried to focus.

“It’s okay, let it all out,” she murmured against the Titan’s hair, rocking the girl a bit; replicating what she’d seen of people performing the maneuvers of comfort on TV.  

After awhile, it grew difficult for her to support Raven’s weight; gently, she tugged Raven to the floor with her, and tried to pull the Titan into her lap as much as she was able to, and began stroking her hair and murmuring into her ear until the Titan surrendered to her attentions.

“It’s okay Baby,” she whispered, “We can let the past stay buried,” she coddled.

It was difficult to tell how much time passed, as there was no sun and what appeared to be the moon lacked several visceral chunks, so Jinx opted to keep track of the spreading cracks in the sky. They flickered and glimmered in a vast array colors, and split along the fabric of reality every time Raven fought her way through a particularly difficult breath.

When the cracks began flickering closer, Jinx wondered how the environment would affect the baby.

Jinx pushed the thought away and pulled Raven closer.    

She just hoped the Titan could get as much of the emotions out as she could through her tears, as she highly doubted that the girl would be willing to risk destroying Jump City for a cleaner conscience.

Moment’s later, Raven’s soul flickered out around the girl, fading in and out of existence and shape erratically.

Jinx was relieved when the energy wavered around her and coiled around her body without actually touching her in its strange parabolic dance.  

This seemed to calm the Titan greatly, which relieved Jinx, and soon the Titan’s gouging fingers loosened their hold, and the Titan’s heaving breaths deflated into more manageable huffs.  

Jinx offered more soothing words, until she found herself stuck in repetition and then traded her lines of sweet nothings for comforting humming; she didn’t know any lullabies, and the only classical music she knew of contained canonfire, so Jinx settled for humming pop songs and classic rock ballads in slow tempos and hoped for the best.

They seemed to help, from what Jinx could tell, and soon Jinx simply shut her eyes and lost herself in her affection for the Titan, rocking her as she cried.

Eventually, Raven’s tears seemed to stop; Jinx held no doubt that it was a case of the Titan simply not being able to cry any further at the moment, rather than Raven no longer needing to cry.

She exhaled a mix of relief, affection, and exhaustion; she made a mental note to brush up on counseling techniques at the soonest convenient moment.

“Have you ever killed anyone?” the Titan asked in a whisper, interrupting her thoughts.

“Yeah,” she replied, recalling the events with far too much ease.

“On purpose?”

“Just once,” she answered, as she mentally blocked the memory from surfacing.

At her reply, the Titan took another shaky breath and steadied herself.

“The others don’t know,” Raven offered sadly, her accent fading.

“They don’t need to,” she replied assuredly, unable to stop herself from letting her words dribble a little too thick with affection for her comfort.

Raven inhaled slightly, the sound too high pitched and filled with life to fit their surrounds in Jinx’s opinion, and nodded.

“I just… You had a right to know,” she stated, as she started to pull away.

Jinx caught her before she could break their contact and rubbed her thumbs against Raven’s shoulders, and offered her another soft smile.

“Thanks.”

Raven made a sound that Jinx was content to pass off as a hum, and swallowed deeply as her composure slid back into place.

Jinx turned her attention briefly to their surroundings, eyeing the cracking structures and ripping skies.

“Is there… anything you’d like to do here? Anywhere you wanna try to find,” Jinx ventured, cautiously testing the ideas on her tongue against Raven’s reactions; “For closure, I mean?”

“I mean, I’m not a psychologist or nothin’,” she stammered quickly, “but I think that’s what funerals and religions and stuff are for, so...”

She nearly worried her bottom lip with her teeth but caught herself as she watched the Titan; she tried to look assured and consoling for the girl’s benefit. She hoped her suggestion would either give the girl something else to focus on, or grant her catharsis; she wasn't particularly picky with which.

Raven glanced to the ground on either side of her before looking back to her and nodding.

“We can look around, for a moment,” she murmured faintly, leaving Jinx with the impression that she hadn’t yet fully readjusted herself, not that Jinx blamed her; she doubted she’d have fared half as well with such an upheaval herself.

Jinx let her hands fall as Raven pulled away and approached the recently unencased door, and pushed it open.

“I suppose he wouldn’t have destroyed this section,” she murmured as she walked in, leaving Jinx to get up and trot over to catch up; “I used to live in these quarters. He would’ve planned for me to obliterate them myself, I would think.”

“Sentimental type then,” Jinx mused dryly, as she observed the interior.

For something so ornately constructed, it was decorated maddeningly plain; Jinx wanted to scowl at the lack of, well, near anything resembling material possessions.

“This bothers you?”  Raven asked, sensing her discomfort.

“Just my inner thief. I guess the monks weren’t interested in like, things or whatever, huh?”

“Some were,” Raven replied absently as they continued their walk; “Some focused on the aesthetic beauty of all creation and some, like Azar, preferred an absence of worldly possessions as a proclamation of disshacklement from material wants.”

Their footsteps sounded thunderous to Jinx as they walked through empty rooms and halls; she found herself wishing that there could have been dust to swell up with each step, to make their exploration feel more natural.

“Azar was my mentor,” Raven rambled, after opening a rather ornate looking door; “Technically, this whole temple was hers, and these inner chambers are where she resided.”

“And your room?”

“I was given her servants quarters,” she answered as stopped in the middle of the room.

It was a fairly decent size, and seemed larger for its lack of furnishings, but the marks along the floors told Jinx that the room had once been an important setting.

The floor was worn in the center of the room in a pattern that was at first strange, until a longer, second glance told Jinx that the person -she was guessing Azar- had positioned herself in the same way for many, many, years.

“She prayed?” she guessed, earning another humming noise from the Titan.

“She was… like if Merlin was Jesus and also your grandmother.”

The collage of images resulting from Raven’s statement prompted a snort of half restrained laughter that left a smile on her lips.

“She used to call me here, to teach me things,” Raven murmured, shaking her head; “Perhaps I should have asked her more.”

Raven led her away from the room, deeper into the tomb; Jinx quickly found herself struggling to see with the complete lack of light, having progressed past the point in which the dim illumination from the outside world could creep in.  

With a huff, she flicked on her powers, just slightly, to illuminate the halls with the faintest of pink light to keep from tripping over the Titan’s heels.

Raven led her through a side door, smaller and nearly nondescript, and turned on a glow of her own, casting the room in a faint glow of white.

“This was my room.”

Her words sounded devoid of sadness, as far as Jinx could tell, and seemed to hold something close to fondness in its stead.  

Jinx looked around and spotted a few furnishings; a small table with a drawer, a slab of elevated stone in the corner which she supposed was to have functioned as a bed, and the several runes etched into the walls and floors.

Raven tapped one of the etched lines on the walls, and suddenly the room lit up as the runes ignited with a beautiful turquoise color; Jinx squinted and blinked a few times until her eyes were able to readjust.

Jinx walked closer, and glanced over the room again now that it was more clearly visible.

She tried to hide her disappointment when she was unable to spot anything else with the new illumination.

Raven sidestepped her, catching her attention, and walked over to the tiny table and pulled open the drawer.

“I didn’t have many things, as I was warned away from falling into my father’s vices,” Raven began, as she ran her hand through the contents of the drawer, the sounds of small things scratching and sliding about tugging on Jinx’s ears profusely; “But I was allowed a few trinkets, to practice my control over.”

Raven seemed to find what she was looking for, and pulled something from the drawer.

Jinx waited as Raven regarded it for a moment, before walking over to her.

In her hands, was a simple looking necklace.

The chain was gold, braided and thin, and to it was tethered a small pendant composed with a single pearl.

It lacked any splendor that Jinx would associate with a hefty price tag, but the way it sat in Raven’s hands quietly informed Jinx that the accessory was still something close to priceless.    

“It was my mother's, once,” Raven offered, causing Jinx’s throat to constrict slightly.

Jinx lifted it from Raven’s hands, eyeing her to confirm that it was the correct action to take, before looking at it closer.

“Pretty,” she stated, before returning it.

“It was given to my mother by her mother, and belonged to her great-grandmother before that, so I suppose you can say it’s something of a family heirloom,” Raven rambled as she looked the necklace over herself; “I’m surprised it wasn’t destroyed.”

Raven ran the chain through her fingers for a moment before looking at her; the multitudes of hues in her eyes trapped in a face still flush from her tears stole Jinx’s breath away.

Raven’s eyes narrowed slightly, as if she’d decided something, and slid the necklace on, the pearl coming to rest just above her collarbone.

“I think I’ll save it for the baby, should she grow to want it.”

“I think they’d love that,” Jinx agreed, before brushing the bangs out of Raven’s face.

“Actually, there’s another reason I brought you here,” the Titan stated, as Jinx withdrew her hand; “...I was thinking about it when we were outside.”

Jinx tilted her head, signalling her to continue.

“Do you remember when I said I wanted to help you with your powers?”

Jinx nodded; “Yeah, and you said something about breakin’ brains and stuff.”

“I also said that I wanted to make a place for your excess power to connect to, before returning at your command.”

“At this point, just sign me up for anything I guess,” Jinx replied, shrugging; “If you think it’s a good idea, or whatever.”

Jinx wondered if she was agreeing simply to help take her own mind off of things, and again hoped the Titan was doing much of the same.  

Raven bit her lip briefly before tightening her expression.   

“This room was warded to stop-”

“Don’t tell me Sugar, or my powers might wreck it,” Jinx warned, cutting her off; “You gotta be careful saying stuff like that around me.”

“For now at least,” Raven replied; she rolled her shoulders and then lifted her chin in what Jinx recognised as one of her more frequently used heroic stances.

“Do you want me to tell you what I’m going to do, or do you want me to just do it?”

Jinx flashed her a cheeky grin; “A pretty bird like you could give it to me either way,” she teased.

The taunt earned a small upturn on the side of Raven’s lips, and Jinx hummed appreciatively.

Raven nodded before drifting into a serious faced stance of concentration. Her eyes lit up in a blinding white flash and around them, Jinx noticed tiny tears of reality, making her shiver.

“Give me your necklace.”

“It’s a choker,” Jinx replied, unable to stop herself from dribbling the words away as she started to unclasp the accessory.

When she placed it in Raven’s waiting hands, the Titan unfastened the pendant and handed the leather band back to her.

Jinx took it, and watched as her partner turned the vibrant colored stone over in her palm a few times.

“It’s a fake,” she offered weakly.

“It’ll suffice,” Raven replied as she settled on one of the gem’s sides; “It’s very pretty,” the Titan offered offhandedly.

“Thanks.”

Raven hummed and stared intently at the stone before closing her eyes and closed her fingers over the stone. As she did so, she folded her legs under herself and floated in place, around them, the sigils on the walls shifted in color and vibrancy.

Jinx waited.

After a few minutes, Jinx sighed as she figured she’d be forced to sit around again and settled herself on Raven’s old bed. She winced as the bed offered no comfort in terms of cushioning or give, before pictures of Raven hovering in her sleep flittered through her brain.

She snorted and hummed affirmatively at her deductive reasoning and then groaned as she stretched herself out along the bed.

Tucking her arms under her head, she watched the walls change color and let her mind wander from ideas of color changing mood-lamps to color changing lizards.

As she pictured the animal’s bumpy skin changing pigmentation, she found herself wishing that humans could be naturally capable of the same feat.

Her thoughts drifted further, and she winced as a fleck of the ceiling flaked off and landed on her eyelashes; she cursed under her breath and brushed it away with her knuckles and glanced at her partner.

Raven seemed to be deeply focused, which she assumed was a good thing and considered leaving the Titan to her own devices for a little exploration; she doubted much of the temple would be traversable the farther in she went, but the idea of wandering around for a bit was far preferable to sitting in wait again.

She hopped off the uncomfortable bed and stood near Raven for a moment, to make sure the girl was indeed going to be awhile before slipping out of the room.

Chapter 14

In the unlit hallway, Jinx tapped the wall with magic tipped fingers in hopes of replicating Raven’s illuminating maneuver; it worked slightly, as the magic swam from her fingers into the cracks and darted around the strange shapes in a dim, but usable glow that spread in whichever direction she chose to go.

She followed the hallway deeper into the temple, her mind sending her numerous notions that it felt more like a tomb than anything else, and checked the walls for openable doors as she went.

Most of the doors, the scant few she first found anway, were sealed shut with remnants of the black scraggy rock that she had seen coating everything outside the temple.

As Jinx went further along, she found a strangely shaped door that had opened which had Jinx racing with excitement, until she realised the door had opened up against a magical barrier of some kind. She was unable to find any means of breaking it down to cross through it.

Two other doors Jinx managed to find had been torn off their hinges; one of which emptied out into a room that had been completely gutted and was missing the entirety of its floor. When she peered down into the abyss, she cast a hex bolt into it. The light of her energy was swallowed fairly quickly by the darkness and the strange hole looked to have gone on for quite some time. Jinx decided not to jump down into it and wandered back to the other door she had yet to try instead.

When Jinx passed through it, she found what appeared to be a storage closet, filled with towels and bottles strewn across the floor in a mess of fiber and glass.

Jinx then squealed with delight as she noticed several pairs of neatly folded cloth on the top of shelves in the back; with expert precision, she climbed the shelves and tugged down the clothes with care and curiosity.

Unfortunately, the light tug toppled over the remaining stacks, and a cascade of clothes was sent tumbling to the floor around her.

She had somewhat expected the multitudes of robes, she thought as she looked everything over; what she hadn’t expected however, were the swaths of enticing fabrics that looked as though they’d be more revealing than not when worn.  

She hopped down and freed the first piece from the pile; from what she could make of it, the garment appeared to be a wrap.

Simple, she thought, as she shrugged off the remains of her shirt to slide the fabric on.

Effective, she thought, as it adjusted itself nicely around her frame.

Delightled, she shrugged off her shorts and wrapped on the bottom half of the outfit.

She smoothed down the fabric, relishing in the soft clean feel of the white cloth; she swayed a few times, enjoying the sensation of the fabric billowing out and swirling after her.

She also quite liked the way her legs peeked out from the way the layers were folded, the center swath acting as an elongated loincloth, with an equally long strip hugging the curve of her ass to fall pleasingly to the floor; she wished she had a mirror to gawk and preen in as she ran her fingers across her bare midriff in fashionable satisfaction.    

The way the top wrapped around her neck was even somewhat reassuring, she noted; as without her choker, she had been left feeling particularly naked.

On a whim she grabbed a robe, for Raven, she told herself, and the thick cloak hugging the wall of the closet.

Also for Raven, she thought.

Freshly dressed, Jinx decided to set off again, with the robe and cloak draped over her arm.

After a while of following the hallway, she stumbled across places where bits of the floors and walls had either fallen away or had been ripped apart.

On a whim, she jumped through a gap in the wall and carried on.

The next usable door she had found had opened into another hallway, smaller than the one she had last been in and found it to be filled with twists, turns, and stairways.

It grew more narrow the farther she went along, to the point that she nervously wondered if at any moment, she would have to turn sideways to progress further; she was thankful that the runes in the walls carried her magic glow with her, as she tried not to think about how tiny the space would have felt in complete darkness.

Eventually, the hallway came to a stop.

It appeared to be a dead end, but Jinx’s instincts told her better.

With a hefty push, she shoved against the wall and it spun around, leaving her in an open room after a dizzying motion.

She turned, and regarded the room as her magic was carried into, dimly warming with pink light.

She whistled, as she was momentarily taken aback by the fact that the room possessed furnishings.

It was a bedroom, with a real bed covered in real blankets and pillows, and on either side of it two nightstands stood guard.

On the left was another door, a larger one that Jinx assumed was the actual intended entry point for the room; she supposed the one she had discovered would have been for servants or perhaps for late night emergencies.  

On the other side of the room, there was a large wardrobe, elegantly carved.  

She looked around the room again and noticed a rather welcoming looking desk whereon several papers and inkwells were strewn.

Jinx draped the clothes she was carrying over the bed and walked over to investigate.

The journal, laying on the center of the desk, looked to be particularly inviting, so Jinx wandered over to it and gave it a closer look.

The name ‘Angela E. Roth’ was scrawled beautifully on the front, which forced Jinx to take a sharp breath.

She flicked the book open and skimmed across a few pages to find passages of texts, ink splatters, and several sentences scratched out every few lines as the pages slowly splayed open the owner’s life contents.

 

‘-Daddy dearest to fuck off. He’s such a prick. Just once I’d like to play my music and not have him barreling through the door, threatening me and shit. What do I care if the neighbors hear? I’m not listening to fucking devil music for fucks sakes.’

 

‘I heard Mom crying again last night. Tomorrow when I go to school I’m going to have to look her in the eyes and pretend I don’t see the bruising. She’s gonna blame me for it too. I t’s always my fault. My music was too loud, or, or I said the wrong thing to him or some shit. Fucking hate him. I don’t understand why she doesn't just leave. He’s the one doing this to us, not me.’

 

‘-know they’re onto me. If I don’t leave by tomorrow night, they’ll never let go. Dad’d rather see me dead than as a disgrace. I don’t care. I’ve got a spare change of clothes in my bag. Tomorrow when school lets out, I’m getting off the bus and walking. I don’t care where. There’s libraries and stuff all over Gotham, they have computers I think. I can find where to go from there. I’m a smart kid, I can make it.’   

 

Jinx skipped forward slightly through the journal.

 

‘I finally hit a lucky break. Turns out some religious nuts are actually really sweet. The real kind, not the fake kind like my Dad’s church. They’re letting me stay with them! Free bed, free food. Things are finally looking up. I gotta pray with or something, I think the lady said, but at this point, they could ask me to speak the entirety of the encyclopedia Britannica backwards and I’d be fine with it if they still fed me.’

 

She skipped across some pages again, her morbid fascination growing.

 

‘I can’t believe I’ve been chosen! The unholy Mother herself said I was the only one fit for the offering. I’m a little nervous of course, I mean, he probably won’t even like me, assuming he does even show up, which Mother says he probably won’t cause like, come on. Satan’s got better shit to do than deal with sad fucks like us. But it’s the point of the gesture, she says. He likes the thought. I hope he does show to be honest. I mean, God’s an empty prayer, but the devil? Shit, why not. There’s a lot of bad stuff out there. Bad people. I wouldn’t mind helping him punish them. I wouldn’t mind feeling wanted, for once. I mean, just thinking of Him, wanting me, and how my parents would pull out their hair and cuss me out is enough to make me okay with the idea. Who knows, maybe I could talk Him into paying them a visit.’

 

Jinx blinked a few times as a strange sense of kindredness overcame her and mixed with the apprehension in her gut; she could certainly understand where the girl was coming from, but from what she knew of the world as it was, she couldn't help but blame the kid for her naivety.

The thought of Raven and their current affairs flickered back into her mind; absently, she skimmed the journal until she stumbled across the Titan’s name.  

 

‘-her Kindness spoke with me again today, she keeps telling me to call her ‘Azar’ but I dare not even breathe the air she breathes, lest her following decide I have overstretched their generosity; anyway, it seems Raven has made some progress over the past hundred hours in learning to speak, and once again invited me to talk with her. I think she knows I’ve been cutting my visits short. Heaven help me I know it’s wrong, but there are still days where it’s all I can do to look at her. Every time I so much as stand in the same room as her, I just feel his eyes, watching me . And I turn around, screams caught in my throat, and it’s her.’

 

Jinx’s brow knit as she skimmed several pages more.

 

‘Azar says it’s normal for abuse survivors to experience flashbacks and negative associations with their resulting offspring. She seems so fond of that baby. How can I make her understand that it’s not her father I’m worried of? HE is gone. HE can’t find me. But Raven just sits there, watching me. It like she knows the things I’ve done. I swear it’s like she actually understands what everyone’s saying around her. But that’s insane. She’s just an infant-’

 

‘...that’s why I’ve asked Azar to let me move in with the initiates. The child doesn’t need to deal with my shortcomings on top of everything else. She is with Azar and her cult of mystics. She shall be well looked after, better than anything I could give her. Upon Azar’s requests, I shall look on from afar, and intervene as needed. I expect they shall leave me to do all the unpleasant discussions. Figures.’    

 

‘Raven’s changed. Her appearance is more subdued; or has it always been that way? Have I just never noticed. Her eyes… When they aren’t HIS, they’re mine...”

 

‘I spoke with the servants today; Raven has been asking questions again. I wish I had answers to give. But how can I? By Azar’s grace, there’s nothing I can say that could give her solace. Heaven is no place for her. But where else can she go that Hell won’t have her?’

 

‘My brilliant girl, caught after hours in the library again. She’s such a clever young thing. I worry what she’ll do, once our meager commonwealth of reading materials run out of new things to give her.’   

 

‘...and the way she looked at me, as though she could see into my very soul? I am furiously disappointed with myself to admit it, but I am truly frightened of her. My poor girl. I am a terrible woman. How can a mother call herself such, when she is too afraid to look her child in the eyes at night?’  

 

‘I found her with the book again. Heaven help me, I was such a little fool. Why couldn’t I have stumbled into a drug den or whored myself out like any other runaway. At least then it would be alcohol or cigarettes that’d I’d be wrestling from my daughter’s hands, and not that god forsaken grimoire of mine -’

 

‘It won’t be long now. HE keeps sending visions in my dreams. Chuckling. Laughing. HE wants me to know, that HE will come. I used to pray that I’d be content, if HE would never come for me. But HE wants my daughter. My darling girl, my sweet somber child. HE will ruin her, if HE catches her. I can’t let him have her. I can’t. God knows I’ve never been a real mother, but in this, I must not fail, or my little girl will be lost forever.’

 

‘I’ve tried everything I can think of to prepare Raven for HIS arrival. For my death. I’ve spent so long making preparations, training her from afar, I’m left with nothing to do but to regret. My darling girl; I should have been more of a mother. I should have stood up to the others when I had a chance. I should have read with her, taught her to laugh. Have I ever once seen my darling smile? There’s not time for it now. When HE comes, I shall face whatever punishment I am dealt. I shall deserve it.’

 

Jinx swallowed dryly, and flipped to the last entry.

 

‘Good night, little bird.’   

 

Jinx slammed the book shut.

She exhaled a mournful breath and looked at the tumulus journal in her hands.

It seemed to be the exact opposite sort of thing that Raven would need to know about, Jinx thought, and yet, even as she thought it over, another whisper lulled her into wondering that maybe it actually would be; not having the luxury of having had parents herself, she was willing to admit to feeling underprepared for her current situation.

She wanted to err on the side of caution, whichever side that would prove to be.

Jinx looked over the desk to see if there was anything else worth noting.

Aside from scattered papers that were not in a language Jinx recognised, she couldn’t tell.

She ran her tongue along her teeth and clicked it before deciding.

She stuffed the journal under her arm and gathered up the clothes she had sequestered for Raven once more.  

Jinx decide to exit the room via the actual door on the assumption that she would either easily circle back around, or find other more interesting rooms to explore.

Indeed, when she traveled along the hall, it led to a slightly larger, more ornately carved passageway that opened up into a grand looking room, filled with what had once probably have been rows of cushions and stacks of books. Jinx could only guess as to the objects’ true natures, as they too were coated in the dark rock.

Seeing nothing of interest in the fossilized remains, Jinx walked deeper into the temple; past a flight of stairs that had caved in set in the center of the room; she felt a sudden urge to investigate the floor the stairs had led to.

The railing was intact, and upon close inspection, still sturdy. Jinx hopped onto it with ease, and walked up the incline; she didn’t bother casting a glance down where the stairs had fallen, where the glow of the runes faded, all was lost in the black abyss.

When her feet touched the floor, Jinx knew she had made a mistake a full second before a magical barrier sprung forth from the ground.

Jinx rapidly clamored backwards to avoid it, and nearly lost her balance on the shattered steps.

She turned, and found that on the level below her, another barrier had sprung forth, effectively trapping her.

She sighed and crawled back onto the railing, setting her findings in her lap.

Reluctantly, she resigned herself to the idea of waiting for Raven to find her.

Chapter 15

Jinx thumbed the journal as she sat.

The binding was old and well worn; it didn’t feel like leather, but she didn’t know the intricacies of bookbinding that would allow her to guess what the journal was actually made of.

She cast a cautious glance around the rooms she was trapped between before opening the book again.

This time, instead of flipping through to the end, she focused her attention on the beginning.

There were a few pages torn out; a survivor of the event clung to the binding with half of its body missing as a testament to the bookbinders ability to prevent their work from being torn asunder.

Past that, Jinx flipped past a few pages of scribbled out lines and blacked out pages until she reached one that was almost legible.

Her eyes fixated on a name, barely visible through the lines crossed through it.

Her brow pursed; she wetted her lips and tried to pry the words back out.

‘-she tries, but she just doesn’t get me anymore. She’s a completely different person now!

It sucks cause it feels like I’ve lost my only friend.

How could she do this to me?? How could she betray me like this?? I fucking can’t believe she’s buying into their high-and-mighty bullshit.

And now she wants to cram it down my throat too? Alice, just… fucking why-

-where did my sister go??’  

 

Jinx rubbed the strain from her eyes and sat back with the information she had just unburied.

Her eyes focused on the glimmering barrier; visions of the prison cell she had resided under for so long flickered in between her thoughts.

She pictured Raven’s face staring at her from beyond the barrier, half in memory, half in projected fantasy; she shivered, cold, and wondered if it would be worth moving to put the cloak she had found around her shoulders.

Before she could get much further into her considerations however, Jinx felt a disturbance in the peripherals of her awareness.  

She grinned, and felt herself fall into contentedness as the rooms began to brighten, announcing the arrival of of her companion.

Raven walked over to her silently; a mix of emotions tugging at her face.

“Tag, you’re it,” Jinx offered.

The Titan shook her head slightly and smirked in reply.

“I would ask how you manage to get yourself into these situations, but I feel like that query would slip into redundancy somehow,” Raven murmured; “Still, it’s a good thing I found you.”

“I thought keeping myself occupied would be better then me gettin’ in your hair.”

“A fair point I suppose,” Raven answered as she eyed the barrier.

Jinx’s grin flashed wide, briefly.

“This brings back memories, doesn't it?” Jinx asked, as she stood up; Raven’s attention turned to her from the barrier.

As Raven watched her, Jinx slowly walked to the barrier and leaned lightly against it.

Jinx spiked her brows suggestively and smiled fondly as the Titan smiled fondly in return.

“I see you’ve found some tidings, during your explorations;” Raven mused; Jinx felt a manner of warmth illuminate her internally at the way Raven’s eyes followed the fabric curving around her body.

As Raven’s eyes fell upon the other treasures she carried, Jinx shifted her posture and offered what she hoped was an encouraging smile.

“Thought you might like some new duds too;” she began, “and I, uh, found something I think you’d be interested in.”

“If it came from within these walls, I highly doubt I wouldn't be,” Raven answered tonelessly; her body was slightly more guarded in stance, but the Titan’s awareness had taken more notice of her, Jinx felt.

“Pop me out and I’ll show you, I guess.”

Raven tilted her head, as if deep in thought; Jinx’s expression slipped out of initial confusion and into amused frustration.

“You know, as a Titan, I’m really not supposed to break anyone out of jail,” Raven chided, her tone light and playful.

Jinx huffed indignantly; “Come on Baby, don’t be like that;” she whined, to Raven’s obvious amusement.

The Titan folded her arms and tapped a finger against her cheek; “Oh? And why, pray tell, shouldn’t I be? I’m a paragon of justice after all,” she mused.

Jinx’s lips pursed briefly before she sighed good naturedly and shifted on her feet.

“Well obviously, Miss Justice ‘Mam, this establishment is how one might say, falling the crap apart, so I think it would behoove you to escort me to a better one,” she offered faux-haughtily.  

Raven hummed, musing her words over for a moment.

“Very well;” her eyes sparked a blinding white, and the barrier fizzled out of existence.  

“I’d have let you stay in for longer, but I think I’m hungry,” the Titan offered in way of explanation as offered her hand to help assist her stairwell descent.

“You and me both, Doll,” Jinx replied as Raven lead her closer.

Jinx smiled at the warmth in her partner's smile before a movement of the girl’s hand caught her attention.

“Your charm,” Raven murmured, pendent outstretched.

Jinx nodded and tugged her choker from the journal she had tucked it in, she smiled warmly at the Titan as she reaffixed the band around her neck.

“Thanks Sugar,” Jinx then replied happily, bestowing a kiss to the Titan’s cheek as she reclaimed her accessory.

As if in afterthought, Raven pulled the rock back, and whispered her fingers around Jinx’s neck and band, re-affixing the pendant for her with little trouble.

Jinx blinked slowly, enjoying the slight sensations of the Titan’s fingers against her neck.

When Raven pulled away to regard her newly enchanted accessory, Jinx thrust the clothes she had procured for her into her arms, nearly taking her off guard.

She returned Raven’s smile, and watched in quiet satisfaction as Raven slid into the new garments; she made no effort to hide her roaming eyes and lazy lecherous grins as her eyes followed the Titan’s movements.

Freshly dressed, Raven smoothed the robe’s material down along her stomach, and tossed the cape expertly around her shoulders with ease.   

As she fluffed the Hoods placement around her neck, Raven eyed the Journal; Jinx could nearly feel the girl’s awareness rapidly awaken.

“This was your mother's,” she offered hesitantly; “I found it. It’s ah… got some heavy stuff in it,” she warned.

It was as if Raven’s awareness reared and backpedaled, even as it focused on the object all the more intently for it, Jinx observed.

Raven remained motionless, but something about her shuffled in place, marking her unease.

“I um, skimmed through it some, and lots of it is blacked out,” she rambled, becoming increasingly aware of her own voice; “Some parts are still there though.”

“Did… she mention me?” Raven asked hesitantly, quietly; barely above her usual speaking voice yet still so impossibly faint.   

Jinx hummed affirmatively; “She was fond of you, I think.”

Raven receded slightly, seeming to shrink by the tiniest of fractions; around her, something of her rejoined itself and coiled to face her proper.

“It… -She-” Jinx corrected, fumbling to make her words fall out comfortably; “Your Mom also mentioned some other people.”

Raven watched her silently.

“Your dad of course. Azar.”

“Your Aunt.”

Raven’s eyes widened, and a cascade of light sparked from the runes lining the walls with a loud pop.

The room dimmed slowly; Jinx’s eyes gradually reclaimed their loss of vision distortion as Raven took a deep breath. Around the Titan, something flickered and wavered about her.

“She never told me about an Aunt,” she murmured.

“Her name is Alice,” Jinx offered; “Apparently, they had some kind of falling out over their parents.”

“Yes,” Raven murmured to herself, thinking aloud, “That would make sense… She felt residual resentment towards her parents; hardly spoke of them. A  confrontation of them and subsequent dismissal of acknowledgement over such would very much be within her character…”

Jinx waited patently as Raven thought to herself further, her words trailing out of English and into languages Jinx didn’t know.

Raven’s eyes shut, catching Jinx’s attention, and the Titan fell silent for a moment completely.

“Should we meet her?”

Raven’s eyes snapped open and stared at her with the full intensity of her awarnesses; Jinx fought the urge to stare back.

“Something something something, family is important, or whatever?” she offered, uncertainty in her voice.

“I don’t have much knowledge on these sorts of things, but she could theoretically be happy to see you,” she rambled, “She might even feed us.”

Raven turned her gaze, her awareness sliding off of her again, leaving Jinx feeling breathless as the Titan thought it over.

“We are supposed to be on a road trip,” the Titan offered tonelessly; Jinx could feel the questioning tone hidden within them, however.

Slipping into overconfident bravado with ease, Jinx poured forth bubbling excitement and assurance; “Exactly! So if things do go south, we can just hightail it the fuck back outta’ there and go do something else anyways!” she exclaimed merrily.

Raven offered her small smile; Jinx wasn't quite sure what it was filled with, but it felt like trust, so she was content to count it a success.   

Notes:

( sorry for the delay; i moved and had to get settled into the new place. updates should be more regular now. )

Chapter 16

 

“So where are we headin’?” Jinx asked, her chin tucked neatly over Raven’s shoulder, her words just loud enough to resonate over the roar of the hellbike’s engine, flickering Lust’s awareness faintly as the warmth of Jinx’s breath tickled her ears.

“My Mother lived in Gotham as a child,” Wisdom answered, Raven’s remaining focus almost completely on the road before them; “That’s our best bet.”

“Cool, cool,” Jinx replied before relaxing against her back once more. 

At her favored contentment, she felt herself relax slightly; a rippling effect of empathy. Her Fear was grateful for it, as it soothed her nerves.

Other parts of her self were not as pacified; her self seemed to be in agreement however, that this mission was of importance, and her emotions remained aware but distant. Hovering in the recesses of her self as they were, they hardly even bothered to rustle amongst herself, favoring instead to flicker and watch.

Or rather, they were content to remain as such, until she made the mistake of thinking about them, thus allowing safe passage to any takers to the forefront of her being.

A rather ‘brash’ notion for you, is this not? Whispered such a voice; the feeling of the thought straining idly within the nape of her neck.

“Life is spontaneous by nature, I can risk this,” she thought to herself, willing the physical sensation away.

Can you?

“I have nothing to lose by it,” Raven reasoned internally.  

That remains to be seen.

The voice was pushed back; Raven chose to refocus on the road.

It swam towards the front wheel at a nearly untrackable speed; the bike had no qualms veering and turning as the land demanded.

Wisdom guided their trajected path, assisted by Bravery, and Raven felt content by Sloth’s machinations to allow her emotions to guide the bike as she let her mind wander.

Curiosity pulled her attention to the way the bike had seemed to mold underneath them, fitting her and her favored better than it had the first time they had ridden it.

The hellfire had dimmed somewhat as well, restraining itself to a dim glow that warmed her thighs; she felt no stress from Jinx over the demonic magic either, which prompted her Anger to roll a syllable against her throat.

Anger was slow to trust she reminded herself, as she mentally shook away the shock of the thought.

The emotion gripped the handlebars a little too tightly at her dismissal; Raven neglected to waste the effort it would require to force the joints in her fingers to unlock ease up.    

During the journey, the surrounding sand solidified into dirt that eventually dappled up into grass; the grass rolled on for another while before the greenery at some point slopped off into smooth pavement.

The midday heat subsided strangely into an overcast late afternoon chill.

On the horizon, the beginnings of something caught her attention; at her change, she felt Jinx rouse herself, as she too perked up to glance at the oncoming monstrosity.

The bike started to slow, prompted by Raven’s unfocused desires. 

Just as the sun started to set, they came to a rattling halt on the precipice of a hill, overlooking a crowded bridge leading to Gotham city.

Even from their distance, Raven could make out the plumes of factory smoke and city smog; the scent of semi-polluted sea water and sunbaked barges.

Hundreds of twinkling lights glimmer out over the water from the windows of the city and out from the near-ruins of concrete and brick that composed the city’s underbelly, rose wildly tall buildings and spires of new age materials, shiny and new.  

The city looked a terrible mix of too hot and too cold and all together too crowded.

Raven’s self all murmured in disapproving agreement.

“There she is, the promised land of psychopaths and petty jewel thieves;” Jinx exclaimed melodically, her arms tightened around her stomach somewhat as the girl craned to get a better look.

“I would say something to the effect of ‘Then you should fit in just fine’, but I think that would only encourage you,” Raven answered absently as she gauged the bridge’s traffic flow.

“Normally, I’d consider something like that a compliment, but these crooks are way off-er base than the any’th’ones back home,” Jinx answered, shifting against her back as she did so; “There’s a big difference between wanting to take over the world and wanting to cut off somebody’s face and wear it while you run ‘em through a sawmill to make a face-mince pie.”

“I find it comforting that you don’t aspire to be like the Joker, if nothing else,” Raven offered as she took a moment to relax to the feeling of the bike’s idling hum.   

“Well, we all had to takes classes on ‘em, you know? At the Hive I mean. Extra credit some of it, but I was real interested in that shit. Anyway, the Joker is like, fascinating from like a sheer psychological standpoint of what-the-fuckery and also maybe in how the public sees him too,  but most of me would rather do literally just about anything else then get anywhere near that guy.”

“And the rest of you?” Raven asked, her curiosity mildly piqued.

“Part of me has always wondered what my bad luck would do to a guy like that, since he’s so insane.”

“It probably wouldn't have any effect at all on him, actually,” Raven replied absently, as her eyes scanned the hazy city, as if to spot any of the hordes of villains residing within it.  

“You’ve met him?” 

“...Yes, and no.”

Jinx huffed, the exhalation sounding more surprised than frustrated; Raven smiled.

“So what do think of the other rogues, then? I imagine you’d have looked up to a few of them.”

Jinx hummed, seemingly pleased; Raven enjoyed the breathy feeling of it.

“Well anyone’s hard pressed to beat out Harley Quinn,” Jinx replied; “She’s absolutely bonkers but brilliantly so. I’d love to ask her for an interview sometime, if I didn’t think she’d mace me in the face for shits and giggles.”

“To be fair, some of her theses and clinical studies were very nearly revolutionary to the medical community at large,” Raven responded; “Part of me wonders if she had had more time before her descent into criminal insanity, whether or not she’d have thrown the sciences of mental health into a new era.”

“I bet she still could, what with all the first hand accounts and experiences she’s gotta have by now,” Jinx countered.

“True, but no one with any standing would dare risk tarnishing their credentials with associating themselves with anything under her name, not after all the things she’s done,” Raven replied distantly, her emotions weighing in on the notion; “Not to mention, even if she did manage to get something published presently, many would deny any potential within for the perceived threat of malice they’d assume the research to be composed of.”

“That hysteric fallout would be a thing of beauty to see,” Jinx mused; her voice dropped in pitch in a mockery of an uncaring news reporter, “ This just in: Gotham Queen of Crime Discounts any Real Value of Spanking Children. Reports Indicate that Local Parental Communities have Increased Percentages of Beating Children in an Effort to Disprove MadWoman’s Claims.”

“...Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, actually.”

“Fair enough,” Jinx agreed; “I’m just sayin’.”

After a moment of thought, Jinx filled the silence with a rambling continuation; her fingers tapped against her forearms, which she hugged a little closer. Raven shifted in her seat to accommodate the light squeezing.   

“Crane was neat of course; teacher gone bad with a ton of psychology stuff that’s fun to read up on. Definitely got an ego tho so I wouldn’t want to invite him to dinner or anything. Same for the Riddler there. -Had a kid in my math class once that totally idolized that guy; totally crafted his entire persona around him and everything.”

“Kwiz Kid?” 

“Oh-my-god, yeah!” Jinx replied excitedly, laughing; “He was such a dweeb holy shit. Kitten used to shit talk him every other week for it and the dude thought she was totally into him ‘cause she lent him a pencil once. It was ridiculous.”

“He did seem rather prone to hubris,” Raven offered, as she skimmed across her memories of the teen; as a clearer picture of him sprung forth in her mind, she felt her face sour.

“His riddles were shit.”

“Oh-my-god, they so fucking were ,” Jinx agreed, still thick with laughter.

Raven allowed her Happiness a snicker.

“I mean, props for aiming for the stars or whatever,” Jinx offered as Happiness hummed; “Hell, Kyd Wykyd looked up to Batman; at least that one made sense. He had the stoicness to pull it off.”

“Batman’s a villain?” Raven asked, internally biting back a rush of emotions springing forth at the idea and her desire to bait the girl further.

“Totally, I mean, do you know how many people he’s paralyzed? And he’s always running around with little kid sidekicks! I mean, I know your Robin got out and like good for him, but he ain’t been the only one, ya know,” Jinx replied passionately before taking a breath.

“I gotta admit, he’s good at playing both sides, so like, I do mad respect him otherwise,” Jinx admitted, “Assuming he is a he, and not like, a they. Gizzy’s convinced he’s actually a whole bunch of dudes, League of Shadows style.”  

Her laughter refused to be restrained; with a slip of Knowledge’s inhibitions, she started a hesitant chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” Jinx asked, indignant.

Raven let her laughter trickle into a dull roar, until she was wheezing slightly form a distinct lack of oxygen. The bike momentarily wavered, threatening to wipe out.

Tell her that he’s actually a vampire, Bravery cooed.

No, tell her he’s your uncle!

Inform her of his true name.

Convince her He’s a furry; she’ll get a kick out of it! 

Raven ignored her inner monologues and shrugged.

“...I could tell you, if you wanted. But you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she goaded.  

“Try me,” Jinx snapped as she pinched her, pink raspberry indigence seeping from her skin.

Raven tried to reign in her smile to reply, resorting in a somewhat lopsided grin; “First of all, Batman is a hero, so jot that down,” she began.

“Secondly,” she mused, “Batman is human and not secret organization of bat-furry crime fighting enthusiasts, despite rumors to the contrary. Also, he happens to be something like a relative of mine, so I’m going to introduce you.”

Raven smirked as she felt Jinx physically flounder against her,

“That… is a whole lot of information to unpack in that whole statement there,” Jinx fumbled.

Raven hummed in agreement as she turned the bike to the highway.

As the bike leisurely merged into the middle lane, Jinx bounced behind her. As she settled herself, her leg continued to jitter.

“So like, was that all a joke, right? You were just pulling my leg?”

“Nope,” Raven replied, her amusement infecting her tone; “You’ll see.”

“What about your Aunt?”

“He can tell us where she’s located,” she replied evenly, her self still laughing internally; “Or in the unlikely event that he can't, one or two of his friends likely can. Besides,” she furthered as they drove onto the bridge, “his butler makes the best tea in town, and you said you were hungry.”

“Batman’s butler,” Jinx stated flatly, thinking the statement over for a moment.

Raven smiled, though Jinx was unable to see it she was sure the girl could feel her amusement anyway.  

“Why does he have a butler?”

“To make his tea, obviously,” Raven shot back; she tried not to take too much enjoyment out of her favored’s floundering and confusion, but even she couldn’t deny her emotions on the matter completely.

As they traveled the bridge over Gotham’s murky waters, Jinx squeezed her shoulders; Raven silently raised her elbows so Jinx could wrap her arms around her middle once more.

“So how is Batman like… related to you,” Jinx ventured as the bike veered past Gotham’s dubious city greeting sign; “Is he like, your uncle or something?”

“Or something,” Raven agreed as her mind sloshed memories of Robin and the Justice League around in a collage of blurry imagery and fuzzy associations. 

Jinx huffed but settled herself into grape coated patience, the empathetic beat of it pulsed sweetly in the back of Raven’s mind as she eyed their surroundings, thoughts of the past slipping freely back into the brink of her mind.

The city was nearly claustrophobic in layout; the city outskirts spotted hotels and gas stations which cropped up in increasing frequency; docks and warehouses lined the surrounding streets and wharves until they hit the curve in the road that took them into the city proper.

It’s so cold.

So loud -So many people- there's so much emotion just radiating from it.

You know what happened last time.

Just meld us there, fool, instead of driving through it-

Don’t drop in unannounced, he’ll think you’re up to something, you know how he is-

Raven pressed the tip of her tongue to the roof of her mouth behind her front teeth.

You’re going to regret this you know.

You’re being really selfish right now -no she isn’t, I would know- think about how Jinx is going to feel when she’s watching you vomit up your intestines later-

Maybe it won’t be that bad-

Raven steadied her breathing and kept her focus on the feeling of Jinx pressing against her back.

The traffic consolidated in the mostly residential area; Raven’s psyche groaned under the weight of such a great population compacted into such a small physical space. Fear sent a shiver twitching across her shoulders. Rage gripped the handlebars harder; her clenched fists trembled.

“You okay?” Jinx asked as softly as the din of city allowed her to be.

She held her tongue; around her, Jinx’s concern grew.

With a steadying inhalation of breath, Bravery drew her hand to her stomach to curl her fingers around some of Jinx’s; she squeezed them lightly.

“Your Empathy?” Jinx guessed, her lips glossed along the back of her neck before murmuring a kiss against it.  

“It will… grow worse, the farther we get into the city,” Fear admitted, Bravery pushing the words out of her lips to tumble down her chest, her breathing slightly out of rhythm.

“Yeah, I heard psychics don’t like Gotham very much,” Jinx replied, her tone warm.  

Raven hummed in response; true to her word, as passed deeper into the heart of the city, Raven’s self began to teeter onto edges of uncertain dispositions.

Her self trembled internally, her emotions wavering somewhere close to a density of manic frequency.

She wondered, not for the first time, if an empath surrounded by madness could be themselves driven mad by it.

The bike growled, as if ready to answer her hypothetical question; Rage lazily dug her knees into the bike’s sides, as if it were an unruly creature of flesh and bone.

Which, she supposed it was, to some degree, she admitted.

Still, when the bike attempted to veer off towards the road that would lead them to Arkham Island, and the makeshift city of mentally and morally ill tempered individuals, Raven pulled a hard correction of trajectory from the bike; the growl that bellowed from within her throat as she did so carried over the bike’s engine and startled several passers-by, though she nor her favored payed them any mind.    

The sickness spreads thick, in this city; whispered a feeling.

They bypassed one of the major shopping districts, Jinx’s lime soured sadness notified Raven that her favored was likely having thoughts about the many windowed shops they drove past.

That sense of longing shifted into surprise and slight alarm, Raven felt, as she turned an exit and sped down a road that appeared to be a dead end.

She smiled to herself and kept the bike at a steady pace.

A few seconds went by, as Jinx took in the sight of the oncoming boulder looming at the end of the road.

Gun it. Faster! -No don’t scare her-

-Faster!

She felt Jinx’s breath hitch as their bike picked up speed.

“Hey um, Raven?”

Raven kept herself from smiling harder; she felt herself distancing from her body, as if she had no control over it all.

“I uh, don’t wanna hash your vibes or anything but uh, theres’a’ rock there.”

“Raven…” 

“Babe?”

Jinx squealed as the bike sped into the space the rockface had occupied just seconds before; Jinx squeezed her stomach painfully as she jolted and nearly bumped her brow against the back of head as her momentum pitched her forward.

Behind them, the rock closed as quickly as it opened, Raven’s magic shimmering out of existence fairly quietly.

That was so mean; that was really funny -she must’ve jumped ten feet-

“Holy shit,” Jinx exclaimed in an inhalation of breath; she exhaled something of a laugh and a sigh and hummed.

A ripple of Jinx’s adrenaline fueled contentment seeped into her spine, reassuring her of Jinx’s well being.

“The door’s automatic,” she offered flatly.

Jinx snorted; “You don’t say,” she ribbed.

Raven allowed Bravery a quiet chuckle. 

“So batty’s got underground roads then,” Jinx inquired after a breath.

“Where do you think the Titan’s got theirs from?” she asked in turn.

Jinx shifted in her seat, allowing the point to stand.

The tunnel stretched out before them, dark, damp. 

The same general shape of molded concrete repeated and elongated slab by slab. 

It raced by too fast to pick out details, but sounds of dripping water and scent of stagnant air and marks of water stains, rust, and algae slime were easy projections to cast against the flickering shadows and the foreboding sense of walls growing increasingly narrow.

Jinx sneezed.

Feeling her shiver, Raven urged the bike faster and grit her teeth.

-If she catches a cold -the baby could get sick in utero- it’ll be your fault-

If we go too fast we might crash-

The road bends too much to guess it -it’s so quiet down here- what if we speed face to face headfirst into his headlights?

-crash goes cradle and all-

Use your head, fool.

Raven blinked and found herself momentarily dazed.

The feeling of being held under the pressure of the oceans water pressed down against her shoulders; she didn’t look forward to the thought of feeling the crushing weight collapsing back down around her when they were to resurface.

The tunnel began diverging along itself, splitting off into forks and fourways and radial hubs.

Raven receded into her self slightly to allow Wisdom an easier access to pilot the bike.

To get to the center of a maze you keep a hand to the wall and keep going left, Wisdom chattered softly at her ear; to find the center of the labyrinth, you simply keep going.

Raven was content to let her at it, trusting her self’s memory more than her own, and focused on her breathing.

When was the last time she had meditated? she wondered. 

She envisioned herself at Wayne Manor, meditating as Jinx looked on and shivered.

The memory and phantom sensations of being ill from bad meat pulsed through her body in a slowly increasing beat.

Though her brow was beginning to sweat, she told her self that she still had plenty of time, and that it wasn’t becoming of her self to over exaggerate the situation. 

Still, when the tunnel finally came to a stop and the large, worn metal door loomed menacingly before them, Raven felt herself sigh with Jinx in relief.

She stopped the bike an inch from the door; she wasn’t sure where Batman placed his security cameras but she felt certain in her guess that he’d have one at the gates of his domain at the very least.

After waiting a moment to be certain that the household was properly alerted to their arrival, Raven cast her shimmering swirls of her black soul against the door and drove through it.  

Chapter 17

The bike quivered once and settled; its flames flickered out and its form slowly melted into something that almost looked like a normal motorcycle as she watched it in mobid fascination.

Once the bike looked like it had reached a slumbering state, Raven turned to face Jinx.

She offered her half a smile before casting a glance around the room; it had lit up automatically upon their entrance, but the garage was still bathed in large swaths of darkness and the cave-scent was even stronger than it had been in the tunnel.

There were thousands of little flickering feelings fluttering about in the dark; Raven felt them slumbering and felt her self relax for having focused on them. The pressure of the city around them was faint, she sensed it even here.

The overwhelming residual emotions of the cavern's inhabitants however, were not faint at all.

“Do you hear that?” Jinx whispered suddenly as she lit up her hands.

Nearly at once, a whizzing sound fizzled toward and past her left ear and clattered to the floor with a loud cling as it embedded itself into the dirt.

“I don’t know how you got in here but-”

“It’s cool, I’m a friend of the family,” Raven declared evenly, cutting off the voice in the dark.

A boy landed with a thud in front of them, dressed in red and green uniform.

“The new Robin, I presume,” Raven continued as she glanced him over.

His face soured.

“Presumptions aren’t important right now,” he replied flatly; “Who are you and how did you get in here?”

“Ah, young Raven,” rang out a familiar and welcoming voice.

Out from the shadows strode a well dressed butler, with something of smile hiding behind his eyes.

“So nice to see you again.” 

“A pleasure as always, Mr. Pennyworth,” Raven replied fondly; she bowed her head slightly with the sentiment.

“And to what do we owe the pleasure?” the old man asked. 

“Alfred who is she?” Jason hissed over his shoulder, clearly not fond of the situation at all.

“I am Raven,” she offered, “I work with the prior incarnation of Robin with a team of other superpowered individuals back in Jump City. We go by the name of the Teen Titans. We’re funded and monitored by the Justice League.”

“Raven,” the boy murmured, thinking her name over; he nodded once to himself and eyed her over, sizing her up; “How do we really know it's you.” 

“I wasn’t ever given any catchword or passcode,” Raven replied evenly, “But I can tell you embarrassing facts about Greyson’s youth if you like.”

Jinx forced herself not to chuckle and bit back a smile.

“I have a few stories about Raven’s embarrassing youth, if you’d like,” she added teasingly.

The young Robin smiled despite of himself but his unconvinced expression remained otherwise firm.

“Normally I would hand you my communicator, but mine suffered a slight explosion on the way over,” Raven added.

“As did our truck, our snacks, our supplies-” Jinx prattled off, ticking the items off on her fingers as she did so.

Raven sighed, urging Jinx into silence; “I knew vaguely where to go to get here because I saw it in Robin’s mind once when I melded into it to heal him; I have been something of his confidant since.”  

“The Raven we have files on doesn’t usually crack jokes, wear white, or ride in on a pale horse of Hellfire,” the Robin countered as he looked at their otherworldly ride.

Behind him Alfred stood silently, watching the discussion unfold.

“True,” Raven agreed; “If you like, I can offer a display of power. My skills aren’t easily replicated by illusion or other metas and magicians.”

Robin looked over to Alfred, who remained unwavering and then back again.

He nodded.

Raven exhaled her breath slowly and closed her eyes. 

When she opened them, her four red eyes focused on the Robin’s face; internally, she forced her soulself to swell up and flicker out of her body in its infamous avian form. 

The room they stood in became stiflingly cold and darker then the cave should have otherwise been.

Jinx shivered.

Quietly, Raven closed her eyes and willed her soulself to reign itself back into its residence within her.

When she felt the room’s atmosphere return to its normal state, Raven opened her two violet eyes.

She looked at the men expectantly, but made no further move to prove herself as the duo caught their breaths.

“Intense presence and shadow-based telekinesis,” the Robin repeated, as if reciting a file.

“You do appear to be you,” Alfred offered, a slight tilt of amusement to his words.

“Be that as it may, you can’t just go around popping up in Batman’s-”

“Miss Roth has been a loyal and trusted friend to the family, Master Todd,” Alfred spoke, cutting the boy off, “I would rather have her come to us for aid forthright than for the Master to corner her in the city and insert himself into any more situations than he already does so.” 

His choice of titles quietly informed all within the room that Alfred considered himself the mediator, and Raven felt certain that the exchange of names was meant to place her and the new Robin upon equal ground under his rulings.  

“And um, I’m Jinx, I’m with her,” Jinx offered awkwardly after the exchange, pointing a thumb in Raven’s direction as she did so.

“The Titans are always welcome at the Cave,” Alfred replied cordially, turning his attention to them once more; “Is there anything we can assist you with? I’m afraid the Master isn’t in at the moment.”

“Actually Sir, we’re here on something of a personal business matter,” Raven began, “Or I am rather; Jinx is something of my moral support, if you will.”

“We’re trying to find her Aunt,” Jinx supplied as she wrapped an arm around Raven’s; “Family stuff.”

“My Mother grew up in Gotham, before she ran away,” Raven continued; “This city is our best bet for a lead.”

“I say, that does sound like quite the task,” Alfred replied; he shifted his posture slightly as he brought his hand to his face and tapped his chin.

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with your… late? Father, I hope,” the butler asked cautiously.

“No; this is a human matter entirely,” Raven answered clearly, surprising the man for her firmer tone.

“Well, in that case, I believe our dear Batgirl might be able to help you,” he offered in a manner that seemed relieved, “You’ll likely need to start combing police reports, I expect.”

“Is there anything else we can do for you?” he continued as his trained eyes scrutinized them further; “A warm meal perhaps, or room for the night?”

“That would be wonderful,” Jinx hastily agreed before feigning a cough; “If ah, it’s no trouble of course.”     

“Certainly not,” the butler placated; “I’ll alert the Master to your arrival, no doubt he will wish to speak with you both in person.”

“That’s probably for the best,” Raven agreed; “I’d prefer this visit to be as pleasant and swift as possible, so offence.”

“None taken,” Alfred replied as he spun on his heels; “Master Todd, if you would be so kind as to fetch Miss Gordon-”

“Wait,” the young Robin declared, catching the room’s attention.

His eyes narrowed, crinkling his mask.

“If you’re with the Titans, why didn’t the Titans tell us you were coming?”

“Richard would rather kiss the tarantula-headed boyfriend of the moth-man’s daughter then speak to his mentor for all of five minutes,” Raven offered, her tone quiet with disinterest; “The reason he left Gotham to begin with was to rend himself free of his mentor’s shadow.”

“And, as I said, this is a personal venture of mine,” Raven continued, “The others don’t actually know that I’m here.”

“They would stop you from finding your family,” Alfred asked in what wasn’t quite a question.

Raven shrugged.

“I… needed to do this on my own. Not as a Titan, but as Rachel.”

She offered the name like a fragile thing, teetering on a tray of outstretched intentions.

Names, she knew, were very powerful things to the Bat-Family and the effect was not lost on the new edition and loyal servant.

“Your Aunt, huh?” the Robin replied; “You can wait here while Alfred gets Batgirl. I’ll stay here so you won’t get any ideas.”

Raven nodded in thanks, and turned to see the butler already walking into the darkness.

She suppressed a shiver and focused her attention on the boy.

“You can get off of the bike if you want.”

Jinx slid from the bike first and stretched; Raven watched her muscles and rippling apparel with the same degree of detachment that propelled her to unbind her body from the bike.

“Sweet ride, by the way,” he offered.

“We stole it from this guy who blew up all our shit,” Jinx chirruped, a fruit punch mixture of happiness and anxiousness radiating off of her in waves.

The boy’s brow raised slightly.

“He was a skeleton that was on fire. Tried to take us to Hell or whatever.”

The boy shrugged.

“Could’ve been any number of loons, if it was around here.”

“This was mid-west,” Raven replied; “Although he felt his territory was coast spanning.”

“Can’t you fly?” the Robin asked.

“I can, but the point of a road trip is to not do that.”  

“Since when does The Raven take road trips?” quipped a feminine voice from the darkness.

“Batgirl,” Raven stated, as the redhead bounced out of the darkness with ease.

“It’s been awhile since you’ve been to our side of town,” Batgirl observed, “Years in fact.”

“I’m here on family matters,” Raven reaffirmed; “My mother’s side of things.”

Batgirl nodded; “Come with me then, I’ll boot up ol’ reliable and see if I can’t get you girls on the right track.”

“Thank you, we appreciate this,” Raven murmured with sincerity.

Batgirl looked at her oddly for a second, catching the sentiment; her smile slipped back into place as the teens strode past the multitudes of rows of cars.

Jinx whistled, the sound of it echoing through the cave.

“Somebody likes their toys,” she remarked.

“Who doesn’t?” Batgirl quipped happily.

“True,” Jinx agreed.

“The good stuff’s up ahead,” the Robin offered, excitement nearly hidden in his voice.

True to his word, the cars gave way into specialized terrain and battle geared vehicles.

Looking at them all, Raven’s thoughts turned briefly to the memory of helping Cyborg build the Titan’s specialized all purpose vehicles.  

“Remind me to get Cyborg in touch with the Bat’s mechanic at some point,” she offered offhandedly.  

“Gizzy would die right about now,” Jinx added wistfully, eyeing everything over.  

“We uh, try to keep well prepared,” Batgirl offered.

Jinx hummed pleasantly, warming the atmosphere a fraction of a touch.

The vehicle bay gave way into a series of vaguely lit walkways and platforms scattered at varying levels of elevation, suspended from thick iron beams and liberally wired cables; Jinx arm fell from Ravens as they followed the Batkids up their first flight of steps.

Raven could feel a greater unease roll off of her favored; Wisdom wondered if perhaps the suspended nature of the cave’s functional layout worried her.

She was reasonably certain that she could hold the platforms and rigging aloft for an insurmountable amount of time, should the girl’s fears come to pass.

Hopefully, she thought, that would be good enough for the Bat.

They arrived to a platform with what appeared to be a massive series of machines in a general coalition of a “mainframe” and “central hub”; Jinx let out a loud exhale at the sight, despite the cave’s low light conditions obscuring most of its form from view.

“I know right?” Batgirl teased, “And she’s not even on yet.”

As if excited to prove her point, Batgirl walked over to the computer and gace them a final mischievous grin before summoning the technological monolith to life. Behind her, the young Robin sauntered over to the machine and leaned on what seemed to be a safe place to lean stylishly against.

Raven wondered if it was something he practised or a trait inherent in Robin crest bearing boys to pose whenever possible.

The machine made a massive click and crackles of electricity sizzled through the ions in the air.

The sudden illumination was momentarily blinding; Raven was grateful that her cloak shielded her eyes from most of the machines’ light.

Batgirl settled herself effortlessly into the computer’s integrated chair, as if she had been made for it, and danced her fingers across buttons and holographic screens at what looked to be a well oiled pace.

“Aunt you said?” she stated idly as she set up her algorithms and favored processes; “Do you have any information to go off of?”

“My mother’s childhood name was ‘Angela Roth’ and mentioned a sister, younger, named ‘Alice’. They grew up in Gotham before my mother ran away, likely one or both of them born here.”

“And joined a cult and so on and so forth, right,” Batgirl confirmed idly as she focused on her screens.

“There were never any missing person reports for your mother, is that correct?” the young teen asked.

Raven offered an affirmative hum.    

Batgirl exhaled in vague manner of annoyance, but didn’t seem otherwise bothered by her task.

“Your Mother was what, sixteen? Seventeen tops? When she ran and had you?”

“She was about that age when she had me, and had been living with the cult for a year or so before that.”

“It won't make that much of a difference in the search but every data bit counts,” the redhead offered.

“She would have been to school before running, wouldn’t she?” Jinx asked, speaking up.

“The school records would have listed a place of address in her registration,” Batgirl furthered, excitement speeding through her fingers.  

Raven tried to track the movements across the monitors; screens of bus lines and railroad tracks and subway systems cascaded over windows of Gotham's various schools and flurries of newspaper clippings and Batman’s personal files, whirring fans and tiny high pitched beeps quickly filling the air around them.

“There are lots of schools in Gotham, better check private as well,” Batgirl muttered under her breath, “but there's only so many surnamed families of ‘Roth’ and if I cross triangulate the cult’s location with the city transit stations and the-”

The computer's screen shimmered as a child’s profile was sprung to the forefront.  

“Angela Roth, age eight, enrolled in the third grade of Gotham County Elementary. Her parents are listed as her guardians and… there seems to be a registered no-contact ban on Angela’s grandparents, no names mentioned.”

Batgirl turned to Raven as if awaiting a response.

Raven blinked.

Batgirl returned to the screen; “The address points to an apartment building down in the East End.”

At this, Raven shuddered involuntarily, catching Jinx’s attention.

“That’s a nasty side of town,” said the young Robin, a hand at his chin.

“I added that address to the list if you want to check it out,” Batgirl offered, “But the school manifest lead me to your sister’s birth certificate. From there I followed her trail to her lastest place of residence, which I also jotted down for you.”    

“Thank you,” Raven repeated gravely, “again, this means a great deal to me and I sincerely appreciate the assistance.”

Batgirl smiled and tossed her hair behind her shoulder, a few waves of mango self-orientated pride and pleasure radiating off of the gesture.

“Do you have any plans for when you meet her?” the Robin asked innocuously.

“Mostly to arrive and observe. I’ll be staking out the place more than anything else. I doubt I’ll stay very long once, but I feel as though I should breach the gap of silence, if nothing else,” Raven murmured.   

The Robin nodded slightly, his expression grim.

“Does she… know of you?”

“No,” Raven answered quietly, “She’ll likely not even know I was ever alive, or of whatever became of my Mother in any form.”

The Robin swore under his breath.

“That’s rough,” Batgirl offered placatingly.

“It’s uh, good that you’re willing to reach out to her though,” the boy tried; his aura was calmer, but the wavering lime of cynicism clouded his vanilla hopefulness with ease.

Or rather, Raven noticed, the vanilla hopefulness was quickly clouding with someone’s licorice-lime distrust and guarded nature.

“A shame you’ve yet to reach out to your friends,” a gravelly voice interrupted, giving Raven her answer.

Jinx jumped, but the Bat-Kids remained as they were, visibly used to the man’s sudden entrances.   

Raven held her breath; the Bat’s mental and emotional state was a lot to block out.

“You’ve been out of contact for several days, according to your Team Leader.”

Jinx looked fretfully at her, but Raven couldn’t tear her eyes away from the man before her; around him swirls of noxious green gas and kaleidoscope dreams of madness and blurred layers of reality took every ounce of her concentration to ignore.

At her hiss of inhalation of breath, Batman stopped short in his walk towards her.

As if remembering her conditions, he stepped back only once and stood firm.

Raven felt her body tremble at the lingering traces of rogues milling about the man’s uniform and closed her eyes.

“You should at the very least, let them know you’re alive and busy,” he prompted.

Raven exhaled deeply, her internal self feeling centered for the brief mediating breath, and opened her eyes.  

“You’re right. They should know that I’m alive and well, and that I shall explain everything once I return.”

Batman looked over her statement, no doubt thinking over the benefits and cons of agreeing to make the call for her or not.

“I find myself in a… moment of uniqueness in my life. I’m using it while it lasts to finally lay some things to rest, and if I…”

Raven paused, her words refusing to melt from her tongue.

“I trust my friends with my life, but I cannot afford to think of them right now.”

She tried not to sigh under the strain her own voice caused her and pretended not to see the bubbling images of Crane’s nightmares and Joker’s fascinations embedded within Batman’s cape.

Batman continued to say nothing, but Raven felt his concern like a soft wave of black ichor.  

She bowed her head slightly and her fingers twitched of their own accord.

“I… need to get the answers to question I never dared to ask,” she murmured. 

“I need to see her, my Aunt. To see her family, her world. I need to feel that, that normalness. That glimpse. To know who I might have been. To know who I might be.”

Raven lifted her gaze and started into the abyss of the dark knight’s eyes.

Behind the mask flared the man’s soul, burning with the steadfast intensity of Charon’s lantern.

It was this unfiltered intensity and honesty that had somewhat endeared the man to her, from her Robin’s memories and visions of him.

He might not have trusted magic, or her, or himself, but he appreciated honesty; they both knew there was little more honest than a soul glimmering in front of an empath's eyes and the man would always feel too unsecured for his perceived weakness of it.

Still, she trusted him, respected him, which he returned as much as he was able.

She wondered, not for the first time, what he saw in her eyes, as he looked at her.

The man nodded, shoving the mystery aside for some other night.

“Alfred said you were staying for dinner.”

“Your butler is a saint,” Jinx lamented, her hand on her stomach.

At her movement, the Bat’s eyes trailed over to Jinx, sending an alarm through Raven’s lungs.

She dared not move, for fear of alerting his senses further.  

The baby’s eyes were not currently visible; sleeping perhaps, she guessed, and thankfully Jinx’s body had not yet swollen or curved in its attempt to carry it.

If the detective made any note of her reaction or of Jinx, it was likely subconscious, she figured.

No, his steady gaze and whirling emotions were likely trying to place the girl’s identity, her reason for accompanying the ‘lone Titan’ in the first place.

“I’m Jinx by the way,” Jinx greeted, seemingly not quite oblivious to the working minds of the room’s inhabitants for the twist of her shoulder and set of her grin.

“There was no mention of a second Titan MIA.” 

Jinx ran her tongue along her teeth; “That’s cause I’m a friend of Raven’s, not a Titan; we met awhile back and she promised to keep me fed and entertained for all this.”  

The Bat eyed her once more, likely logging every detail away for some future use, and smiled slightly.

“Raven called her ‘moral support’,” the young Robin offered leisurely.

Raven understood the exact second those words left the boy’s mouth, that the Bat had accurately deducted Jinx’s relational status to her; she also knew, at that exact thought, that the man would speak to her about it if given the chance. Or worse, that he wouldn’t, to better use it at some later date.

“Nice to meet you, Jinx.” Batman finally spoke, “Perhaps you’d care to tell me more of yourself and your travels so far over Alfred’s roast duck?”  

Jinx eyes widened and licked her lips.

“For roast duck? I’ll tell you anything you wanna’ know!” 

Chapter 18

Pea soup dribbled down the boy’s face with a steady series of unappetizing plops as it hit the bowl beneath his chin.

Jinx hissed in as much air as her lungs could hold through her nose, bit her lip, and looked around the room.

The masked members looked at her and to the Robin in silence.

Batgirl was the first to laugh; her chuckle quickly bolstering into a fitting guffaw, peppered with air-lost squeaks and seasoned with a lone, plausible snort.

The Bat himself, also managed a small upturn of mouth, though it was likely at the redhead’s infectious mood and not Jinx’s accidental influence.

The Robin scowled and smeared the soup off his face as best as he was able before Alfred handed him a towel.

“I had hoped we wouldn’t be regressing to the infantile feeding stages this evening,” he quipped lamentingly.

Robin muttered something under his breath and shot a dangerous glare at Raven.  

“That was my bad, actually,” Jinx offered slightly, turning his attention to her; “Bad Luck.”

She wiggled her fingers and let her mouth wrap itself around uncertainty, likely waiting for the table’s reactions.

“Another magic user, huh?” Batgirl asked before liberally tucking into another forkful from her plate.

“Meta, actually. But same difference I guess,” Jinx conceded; “Normally it’s a lot worse than it is currently. I’m ah, working on that.”

“We both are,” Raven murmured firmly, cutting her sliver of roast with odd finesse.

Raven felt her chest constrict as the Bat looked at her once more; there was something eerie about the ability to watch him consume sustenance before her that left a sour impression in her lungs.     

“It’s good to see you making friends,” he stated gravely; a leading question to Raven’s ears if she ever heard one, but still she found herself powerless not to answer.

“Jinx and I have several years of… history, between us.”

“Tell me about it,” Batgirl chided as she bit into a bread roll; “Every person I meet around here turns into six stories and a gunfight.”

“I’d say it’s cause of your stunning personality but you’re sitting close enough to hit me,” the young Robin remarked absently as Alfred gave him an un-souped plate.

Batgirl glared at him briefly before looking back to Jinx.

“Where’d you guys meet?”

“...School field trip,” Jinx supplied; “Er, I was on the school field trip and I happened to bump into her.”

Batgirl held her gaze at her for a moment before looking back to her plate; Jinx visibly took a breath and discreetly shot a look at Raven.

Her eyes were filled with emotion, but Raven’s self was too numb to pick up any of the traces of what it might be.

She was fairly certain ‘anxiety’ would cover it anyway.

Raven looked at her food; she knew that playing with it as she was, was passable at best mannerly speaking, but the idea of putting it into her mouth seemed unable to travel into her hands in any way.

“School sucks,” Robin declared before shoving a loaded fork into his mouth.

Batgirl hummed her consent.

“Have you thought of attending school?” Batman asked, his gaze unwavering, his plate portions missing several bites.

“I don’t think I could handle that environment,” Raven replied, “Too many people crowded into too small a space. Furthermore, I doubt I’d… have the necessary prerequisites to make much progress, studiously speaking.”

His gaze lingered on her, and Raven could feel Jinx’s eyes traveling between them both, avidly trying to decipher the flow of the situation.

“You can relax you know,” Batgirl prompted soothingly, as if it had been a statement filled with a withheld emotion, “We aren’t going to freak out on you or anything. Batman’s cousin is gay and relationships of all kinds pop up around Gotham all the time.”

Raven could nearly feel the metaphysical form of Jinx’s soul exiting her body as her favored’s face reddened in color while her other flesh drained of it.

“It’s not my relationship status that I’m being respectful of,” Raven offered flatly, causing raised brows of surprise from the teens at the table.  

At this, Jinx’s head caught mid turn and her gaze turned discernable in the Bat’s direction.

“What do you mean, Dollface?” Jinx asked quietly, her words guarded; “I thought we were all friends here.”

“We are,” Batgirl insisted.

“As much as one can be with the person who determines your fate,” Raven cut in before she could it.

At the admission she stilled her tongue and returned her gaze to her plate, forcing herself to take a bite for the sake of giving her a moment to collect herself.

Jinx looked around at the way the Bat Kids looked to their plates and let the statement hang in the air.

“I’m sorry,” Raven murmured softly; the Bat Kids eyed her discreetly as they brought more food to their lips.

“As is the League, which you well know;” Batman replied, seemingly unfettered.

“What does the Justice League have to do with it?” Jinx asked pointedly.

“They keep tabs on anything they deem dangerous,” Raven murmured, toying with her fork; “They’ve been pleased by my overthrowing my father, but the fact that I had the ability to do so doesn’t sit well with them, forming a somewhat tenuous friendship of necessity between us.”

“Yeah, that happens sometimes,” Jinx replied, looking back to her food to polish off the last of her duck.

“We don’t distrust you as much as you think we do,” Batman countered.

“Speak for yourself,” Robin interjected, “I don’t trust anyone as far as I can throw them and she floats .”

“I think you’re sweet,” Batgirl started absently, “And both of you look nice together.”

“Thank you,” Jinx replied earnestly; she wrapped an arm around Raven’s shoulders, surprising her, and pulled her close.

“Me and the bae are just at the point where we’re starting to tell others about it tho, so we’d appreciate it if you let us do the gossiping for now.”

Batgirl nodded; “No prob.”

“Why’re you telling your estranged Aunt before your teammates?” Robin asked skeptically.

“In case they don’t approve and kick them out, if I had to hazard a guess,” Batgirl replied dejectedly; “Such awkwardly small minded times we live in,” she added as she waved a fork nonchalantly in the air.

“Something like that,” Jinx agreed.

At this, the Batman stood, drawing the table’s attention.

“This has been pleasant, but I’m afraid I have some matters to attend,” he stated, Alfred already moving to collect his plates.

“Trouble? Is it Croc again?” the young Robin asked in eager displeasure.

“Alfred will show you to a room, should you plan to stay the night. He’ll keep it maintained until your return to the Tower, should you need to make use of it while you visit. Please refrain from interacting with the city's criminal underbelly during your stay here,” he added gravely, “The low life here is a far cry from the activity you’re accustomed to and I don’t need the added distraction of watching out for you while I’m attending other matters of consequence.”

He pushed in his chair and regarded them a moment more.

“Raven, I understand that your abilities leave you with certain… recognitions. Please use your utmost discretions on how you keep them. -I’m entrusting you to keep them,” he reiterated before turning away.

“I’ll be on the wire should anything arise. Good luck with your Aunt. And congratulations.”

At this, the man disappeared through a panel in a wall, leaving the teens looking amongst themselves.

“Should we guard the house or…” Batgirl asked the boy.

Robin looked to Jinx and back to Raven before clearing his throat and donning a stern expression.

“You girls seem to have his good graces, it would be-”

“Oh can it and come on,” Batgirl interrupted, standing up and casting them a look; “Alfred will tell you how to work the TV’s and stuff and there’s a library around here somewhere if that’s your jam. I’ll call your friends and let them know that you’re alright for now and you can tell them what you want when you get back.”

She motioned for Robin to follow her and the pair scrambled to the wall panel to exit in the same manner as the Bat.    

Jinx and Raven watched as the pair disappeared behind the panel and took a collective moment to enjoy the novelty of breathing.

“Well,” Jinx stated flatly, the tension seemingly eased off of her; “I think that went well.”

Jinx looked at her and smiled.

Raven refrained from answering and looked around the room for the butler.

As if on cue, he appeared slightly to the right of the table, standing firm and resilient with a touch of compassion and British air.

“Something I can assist you with, Miss Roth?”

“Our room please, if I may be so bold.”

“Certainly Miss, please follow me and don’t worry about the flatware.”

Raven pushed in her chair and moved to follow him, Jinx gave the table settings a last longing look, and snuck a finger full of pudding before catching up to them.

“I do hope you enjoy your stay here, young Raven,” Alfred offered as they exited the dining room the way he had led them in.

They emptied out into a darkened hallway and waited patiently as he pulled a sconce to reveal a second, better lit and better-dressed hallway.

“Thank you, Sir,” Raven murmured, the words faint and far away from where her mind was coiled in her head.

“I hope we’re not imposing too much,” Jinx fretted.

“It’ll be nice to see this wing get some use,” the butler refuted; the man sighed wistfully, perhaps recalling younger days.

Jinx smiled, though the butler couldn’t see it behind him and continued leading them down the hall.

From the looks of it, it was a hall that saw little more than dusting and the occasional yearly airing out.

Cloth covered the various paintings adorning the walls with a somber diligence.

Raven watched Jinx regard them from her peripheral vision.

“Several late generations, I’m afraid,” the butler offered, as if sensing the girl’s curiosity.

“I prepared a room in this wing with the assumption that Miss Roth still cared greatly for undisturbed areas of quiet.”

Raven felt as though she ought to have made some sort of response, but was unable to tell if she actually did so.

As they eventually came to the end of the hall, the butler stopped short of the large window and spun in front of a door to his left, opened it, and bade them enter.

The room was large, but not as large as Raven knew the manor could grow; ornately decorated with late period furnishings and a quiet and feminine lavish flare.

Jinx strode further in, keen to inspect the adornments further; Raven turned and regarded the butler.

“There is a bath adjacent to the quarters, I shall prepare a cart of fresh towels and linens for use at your pleasure. Shall you ladies be requiring anything else for the evening?”  

Raven cast a look over her shoulder at her favored, who had wandered over to the bathroom door and then back to the butler.

“Civilian clothes, preferably dark and suitably casual,” Raven murmured.

“Of course,” Alfred replied, before slipping out of the door and closing it with a polite click.

“Holy shit Babe, you gotta check this out!” Jinx called from the bathroom’s doorway, an eager expression lacing her grin before the girl ducked into the room again.

Raven followed her and walked in to find Jinx filling the grand soaking tub.

“I know I’m a walking disaster and I’ve been half afraid to so much as blink anywhere in this place, but by god, if we don't hop into this thing I think I might die!” Jinx declared as she started fiddling with the faucets.  

Raven hummed noncommittally and watched the water level in the tub rise slowly, noting that it’d be several minutes before the tub was filled to any reasonable state.

The sound of humming trembling neatly against Jinx’s lips pulled Raven’s attention back to her; she watched the girl undress haphazardly before looking at her pointedly.

“You’re getting in too by the way,” Jinx declared flatly.

Raven took a moment to force out a reply.

“I’d rather one of us be clothed for Alfred’s delivery.”  

“He’ll just, leave it in the room or outside the door whatever,” Jinx chided, eyeing the water level again; “You’ve been out of it for awhile and you need to get in.”

“I need to meditate,” Raven countered, nearly sourly, “But doing so in this city would be a very poor decision.”

“Yeah, psychos and psychics don’t mix, I get it,” Jinx replied as she stuck her hand languidly into the rising water, to gauge its temperature; “But if you can’t relax at all, I really don’t think anything good will happen. Not while we’re here, and not while we’re impromptu dropping in on your mom’s side of the tracks.”

As Raven’s throat tried to burble up a response, Jinx looked at her again, her eyes gentle but mouth refusing to budge; “Besides, you should humor your baby momma. Get in the tub with me.”

At that, Jinx stepped into the tub and started to settle herself in.

Raven felt a reluctant agreement wash over her, which Jinx seemed to sense.

“I’ll get in once Alfred returns, and ask him about the towels,” she offered relentingly.

Jinx nodded, and relaxed against the lee of the tub.

“Talk to me then,” she coaxed, as she closed her eyes.

“What about.”

Jinx waved a hand in a vague gesture of thought.  

“The whole you knowing Batman thing I guess,” she mumbled after a moment.

A reluctant breath seeped slowly from Raven’s lips in a manner reminiscent of steam-hissing machinery.

“When I came to Earth, from Azarath, I first landed in Gotham...” Raven began; the memory was hazy and the colors dim. She drifted closer to the tub and allowed Jinx to pull her to the tub’s lip, where she sat.

“I had never experienced Earth culture before,” she rambled as she tried to recreate the moments in her mind; “The buildings, the multitude of people, the sounds...”

“I had, just seconds before, come face to face with my father and the fall of Azarath, so I was more than a little overwhelmed,” she admitted before she cast a look to Jinx to see the girl thinking along to her words, eyes still closed, mouth drawn; “Furthering that, I was frightened.”

She let the word hand in the air for a breath as she touched the tips of her fingers to the water’s surface, gliding them shortly to and fro.

“I had spent my formative years in Azarath being taught that demonkind, in general, was the worst of the worst, and that earth was notoriously, and justly harsh of those considered heinous and blasphemous by nature and breed.”   

“We are speciesist as fuck,” Jinx quipped almost perkily in disdain; “Humans as a whole suck.”

Her eyes snapped open for a moment, and Raven watched the girl’s pupils contract and widen as she, in turn, eyed her and the water level before she stilled herself once more.

“So as you might imagine, I was certain that my heritage would be eminently visible for everyone to see and that I would be persecuted mercilessly for it the moment anyone realized I was there.”

Raven felt her head tilt as the memory burned brighter in her brain.

“I had never felt so many voices, as I had felt in Gotham. Still feel, in Gotham,” she amended, as she thought on it further; “I had never felt madness before, or such rage or…”

Her own eyes closed, wincing as the memory of the feeling became too real; quickly, she forced it away. She took a steadying breath before continuing, her words gaining speed and audible inflection; “I had the barest understanding of the English language, from what little Mother spoke to me of it. But seeing it written and hearing it spoken, with its myriad of accents and dialects and slangs and slurs-”

“-I didn’t speak to anyone. I simply couldn’t,” she stated, soothing herself.

“Yeah, language barriers are a bitch,” Jinx agreed; one of her hands drifted over to hers, laying to rest against her own. Softly, her thumb brushed against her, smearing thin trails of water against her skin between them.

“I made myself scarce. Spent most of my first few days on Earth as a bird, watching. Learning.”

“Sometimes I’d glance through storefronts or spend awhile following a specific person, for their peculiarities to me. For the most part, though, I kept my distance, afraid that my Father would come for me at any moment. And while I was observing humanity, one recurring thing stood out to me.”

“Obligatory ‘was it how much Gotham’s transit system sucked’ statement,” Jinx monotoned.

Jinx’s thumb, still soothing circles into her hand, quietly bade Raven to allow the girl’s attempt at humor.

“It was the bat symbol,” she murmured.

She watched Jinx’s brow furrow slightly; nonchalantly, she continued.

“I knew… a vague impression, of the Batman. From when my Mother was growing me in utero. He saved her once, somewhere in Gotham city and the residual… sense, of him, was something that many of the cities inhabitants also seemed to have resonating off of them.”

“I found him soon enough of course; an aura like his isn’t that hard to spot. I watched him from afar, still keeping to my avian form, trying to learn more of him. I assumed that a creature, or person such as he, might at the very least, have some measure of assisting me. While I knew defeating my Father was a lost cause, I still hoped for a chance at a fate of anything otherwise. And from the way many in the city felt of him, he was an impossible man capable of impossible feats.”

“He knew I was following him, not that he knew where or what I was. He called in the League to assist in capturing me, for fear of, well, me being something dangerous.”

“At the Watchtower, I revealed my human form, and my origins, and my plight. At seeing them all, these… plethoras, of… of, Gods and Heros, I felt joy for the first time. I thought I had glimpsed the epitome of destiny, and I was arrogant in my assumption that they would flock to my cause.”

“The language barrier, and my father, saw that the bridge between us was never really tethered. They didn’t… disbelieve me exactly, but they did not jump to arms as I expected, and succumbed to my fears and fled, under the impression that the League had cast their judgement against me, and that it was only my childlike appearance that kept them simply ending my existence to terminate the problem of my Father finding me altogether.”

“Was it?” Jinx asked, her voice jarring her from the memory of the watchtower halls.

“Likely not; there is some debate over whether if my soul was rent from my body, if my body would succumb to my demonic blood and act of its own accord, which, similarly, is why the monks of Azarath did not drown me and subsequently forbade me from terminating my own existence shortly thereafter my birth.”

“...Are you sure you don’t want to get in this tub?” Jinx pressed, after a moment of looking her over.

Her stare caused something to shift inside of her; a sort of chill breezed over her spine and Raven found herself contemplating the warmth emanating from the tub.

A hard breath bottomed out from her mouth; wordlessly, she began shedding her garments and slid into the water.

It rose in elevation with her added mass, and Raven eyed the waterline; it didn’t seem too close to overflowing, and had a few more inches to go before it would reach the tub’s safety drain.

“Glad you joined in,” Jinx murmured to her; she gathered her legs to her chest, but the tub was more than big enough for the both of them to spread out. Still, Raven took advantage of the given moment to settle herself comfortably, before Jinx moved to relax once more.

Raven closed her eyes once more, and allowed herself to sink lower into the tub, to feel the water lap against her shoulders; the water was hotter than she usually let herself indulge in, but in light of the circumstances, she rather felt Jinx’s sentiment on the matter had merit worth noting.

As Raven began to let her consciousness drift, she heard Jinx begin to hum.

Chapter 19

The spotlights dripping across the backdrop of black stale air and sodden grass brought forth no sense of unease. If anything, Jinx felt appreciative over the swaths of visibility the illuminations produced, and she was sure in her assumption that even if she were to step through the beams of wandering inspection, that she would still be identified as an invisible perspective in the dream.

It was from that same feeling of assuredness that she knew wandering into the searching lights, would backtrack her dream’s progress and while she was more than free to do so, an innate desire pulled her wants to the imminent darkness ahead of her, and following the feeling, she crept deeper into the dream.

The trees were nearly transparent suggestions of trees; she knew if she were to look at them, they would with consolidate and hyper fixate themselves with details until the force of ogling every lichen covered blot of bark while her eyes took note of every particle of dust in the air in front of her would usher her easily into a waking state.

Instead, she paid them no mind and they quickly seeped out of existence until they barely registered as a memory in her recollect.

When the notion of forgetting them completely crossed her focus, the forest returned as if to stave off her unease, the trees reaffirming themselves as solid tangible beings of matter.

She made a game of climbing over the roots, or else, the dream made a game for her, of climbing over the roots.  

Strangely, light still seeped intermittently through the trees as if by stage lights directed by unseen hands.

Jinx knew she was alone, however; and the from the mist and patches of denser fog hanging still in the airless darkness, she instantly felt as though she should be afraid, though either of wandering along herself, or of things wandering along after her, she wasn’t sure.

The dream, taking cue of her lack of unease, shifted seamlessly, gaining a colored hue and flickers of ideas that came to her as memories of sounds and sensations of what wandering through a forest should have been like, were it to have been a forest from a painting or movie.

Indeed, as she looked around her surroundings again, feeling that they had always been as they currently were yet knowing similarly that they had just not been, Jinx felt as if her dream was leading her into a direction altogether.

Or that she was leading it.

She wasn’t feeling peculiar on which was to be which.  

Choice seemed to be the key though for her dream’s notions however, and Jinx soon found herself walking into thinner packed trees carpeted with long grasses and wildflowers intermingled with the seamlessly integrated bushes and ferns.

Everything was still wholly seeped in blue, and shadows of black were the only gradients in view.

It really made the statues stand out, Jinx noted.

There were dozens, hundreds even, Jinx knew, infinitely dotting the voidscape, but there were only a handful in her direct lines of vision.

Each one a figure curled in over itself in some strange ancient depiction of what Jinx assumed to be various members of species and beasts.

Curious, she focused on one; her dream shifted perspective to accommodate and the details of the stone were brought flickering before her, as she now stood beside it.  

It was difficult to make out.

But Jinx felt she knew enough of old relics to understand the basic principals of the stones to know that within them, should have been carved teeth, eyes, and claws.

And as she remembered this, she saw them along the sculpture and felt herself proud of her recollect in the way she often was in dreams.

She felt her eyes linger along the stone then; wondering about what would pass for the belly of the beast, when she felt a warm sensation stirring a slow spool of red glow that quickly tinted up the dream until her vision swam so thick and bright with it, she felt herself wake.

Breathless, for a moment, Jinx let her body spur itself and her mind into an amalgamation of something coherent enough to warrant movement and cohesiveness of thought.

She sat up, noting that she was still in the tub and that the water, though it should have long since grown cold, was still warm.

Very warm, even.

Soothingly hot, in fact, she noted.

Looking over the room, and its absence of her partner, Jinx wondered if it was a result of her power; this felt odd to her though, and the thought sat sour in her mouth as tried to place just how her powers could have seeped out and made the water hot, but not too hot, while also not so much as cracking the tub or popping a pipe.

As she thought it over, the heat of the water started to wane, cooling off in the direction of her feet, first, while nearer to her chest, it kept warmer, longer.

A little surprised, Jinx brought her hands to her stomach and felt heat dimming from within her skin.

Baby got cold, she guessed.

Taking the oddity as a cue to get out, Jinx dunked her head under a few times before wading inelegantly to the side of the tub, where she stood up and took a moment to wring out her hair.

As she patted water from her arms and face, she noticed a faint sheen of pink burning brighter within her skin; she shivered, and hoped the pendant around her neck would prove to be a sturdy accessory as she watched her hex magic pulse faintly underneath her scars.

She stepped out of the tub and wandered into the bedroom, and at seeing Raven sitting midair, towel wrapped neatly around her waist, staring out of a window across the room, Jinx relaxed enough to let out the breath she hadn’t intended to hold.

Judging from the lack of light from the window the Titan was peering through, it was either quite late, or still quietly early; as Jinx debated on whether she wanted to move to her and the window or to the bed and blankets, Raven moved, and when she turned to her, her eyes were dark and devoid of any whites, pupils, and iris.

Something soft and textile textured draped itself against the back of her shoulders; wordlessly, Jinx accepted the towel.

As she dried off, Raven settled herself into one of the armchairs near the unlit fireplace as if there were a great weight pressing down on her small frame.

Jinx walked over and settled herself on the chair’s closest arm, where she continued to towel press her curling hair.

“It’s nearly dawn,” Raven murmured.

“Most folks don’t get up that early,” Jinx replied absently; “Even the commuters refuse to get up before 4 AM unless there’s gunpoint or sex involved.”  

The Titan exhaled something that could have been a hum or a word, but seemingly remained distant.  

Thinking a moment, stilling her hands mid-wrung to allow a billow of tiny drips to tumble onto her thigh where they spilled against the chair and dampened its surface, Jinx plucked a few words from her tongue; she wondered if habit perhaps, quietly pulled her to choose the path of plied information.

“You could have woke me up you know, insteada’ leavin’ me in the tub where I could’a’ drown,” she stated casually.

“I… yes,” Raven murmured at length; the Titan rubbed her temple, seemingly vexed; “I would have moved you to the bed, but I don’t trust my powers in this city.”

“You moved the towel,” Jinx countered lightly, her tone light and eyes curious.

“You are quite different and significantly more important than a towel,” Raven replied flatly.

Jinx hummed an acknowledgment of her statement and twisted on her perch to regard the girl more clearly.  

“How many ears do you think are listening to us here?” Jinx asked quietly.

Raven’s mouth made a funny turn that Jinx wasn’t sure was intended to be a smile.

“There are always ones that are listening,” she said.

Jinx hummed another breath, deciding that she didn’t care to push things further.

She felt lazy and cold, and too warm and too aloof and the thought of walking all the way across the room to the bed, to lay in a den of sheets with the compressing gloom was altogether unappealing.

She slid into Raven’s lap.

The girl made something of a yip in surprise; Jinx figured breaking the girl out of her thoughts would result in such. She offered her a dozy smile and nestled herself against the Titan.

“Whatcha’ thinkin’ about?”

“The past. This city. Her dwellers and wretched,” Raven mused; she didn’t move to accommodate her, or in an attempt to hold her, for which Jinx was relieved. As she let her thumb trail over Raven’s collarbone, the girl continued; “Mostly, I’ve been thinking of things to avoid thinking of what to tell my Aunt that won’t result in getting a door slammed in my face or an evangelical sect hunting down my neck.”

“I once cleaned an entire apartment because I didn’t want to write a Book Report,” Jinx offered.

Raven huffed, and Jinx could feel a brief flicker of amusement pass over the girl’s features.

“If it helps,” Jinx offered quietly, “I find that letting people draw their own assumptions helps a lot in the field. ‘Cause if you never tell ‘em who you are or what you can do, you can always surprise them later if you want to.”

Raven breathed deeply, something a bit too ragged for Jinx to call steady.

“You haven’t asked yet,” Jinx offered.

She closed her eyes and focused on the way her partner’s body moved as it breathed.

“About what,” Raven murmured, though something in her tone betrayed the monotone she had no doubt been aiming for.

“The scars, or tatts, or anything,” Jinx answered, a little nervously.

“I assumed they were important to you,” Raven replied gently, almost cautiously; “I figured that if you wanted to tell me about them, that you would. I… have been hesitant to push you for anything,” she admitted; “But since you’re mentioning it, and I need something to focus on that isn’t the madness or bitter loneliness soaked into every porus crack in this festering city, now would be an appreciated time to talk of them, if any.”  

Jinx pressed her nose against Raven’s neck firmly, for a moment, before adjusting again; “I suppose the shoulder tatt is the most self-explanatory,” Jinx offered jovially, “Mammoth was there with me at the time and after he got his, I threw some cash on the counter and told the dude to ink me up too.”

“Originally I was going to go with ‘Bad Luck Bitch’ but that seemed a little tacky and ya’ know, I had a reputation to uphold at HIVE. Plus I didn’t want to end up like ‘Fuck You’ Jimmy, who had to paint his forehead everyday cause apparently profanity isn’t allowed in HIVE’s dress code. Or it wasn’t, at the time.”

Jinx huffed, amused at the memory.

“So, ‘Bad Luck’ it was. And is. Figured if I got it, it’d be something of a warning you know? And if anyone was dumb enough to ignore it, they’d have no one to blame but themself.”

“Dumb huh? Kinda got the idea from those poisonous frogs and stuff. ‘Don’t eat me, I’m dangerous’ sorta’ thing.”

“Would you like to know something?” Raven asked, her tone almost feathery light.

Jinx angled her head up to look at her, to see her smiling slightly.

“That’s the same reason I wear blue.”

Her tone revealed this statement to Jinx as something being both humorous and sad to the Titan.

“Everyone on Azarath wore white. Pristine White, Dove Feather, Alabaster, or sometimes Pearl; but I was the only one clad in Resolution and Inevitability.”

“Damn,” Jinx offered, impressed; “You invented goth.”

Raven’s smile waned.

“It was, more out of respect than anything; self-deprecation perhaps,” Raven thought aloud, “It didn’t seem right for a demonborn to desecrate the whites of Azar. But neither could I not wear them at all, being that I was at least in name, a devout follower. So I simply asked Mother to dye mine blue.”

“I bet that first appearance was a shocker,” Jinx teased, as she pictured an Earthly sect of wide-eyed, open mouthed worshipers being taken aback by the Raven Jinx has seen so often in combat.  

“They didn’t dare utter a word to me, or to Azar directly, but they whispered and feigned fright. Mostly, they saw it as a rightful display of positioning on my part. Many of them were proud, that I was so aware of myself and commended me on my humility and graceful lack of virtue.”

Jinx stopped herself from huffing in distaste.

“Can we just, like, agree that your past people sucked at least a little,” Jinx drawled.

“You may think of them as you wish, but they are the reason I’m not a ravenous monster like the others of my kind, so do keep that in mind,” Raven replied firmly.

“I mean, I hear you it’s just, difficult for me to… see where they’re coming from, I guess,” Jinx sighed.

Raven tapped her fingertips, the presses touching neatly against Jinx’s back.

“You… have no understanding of what a demon is,” she said in measure; “It’s through no fault of your own, and I am glad of it, if only for the fact that no one should have to know what a demon is or of what they can do.”

“I’m guessing it's all bad shit that’s not in the books then?” Jinx asked.

“It’s… not like in the movies or common understanding no,” Raven replied warily, “Those are all myths and legends based around different sorts of demons that actually belong to this plane of existence. My… strain or breed, of demonology shares some commonalities, sure, but saying such is like saying a dire wolf and a Hound of Tindalos are both capable of hurting you.”

“I’ve heard of Baskerville Hounds,” Jinx offered, “What are Tindalos ones?”

“The Hounds of Tenebras are creatures who dwell in the angles of time in Earth’s past, on the other side of existence. They’re putrid, foul; they hate that the mortal realm consists of curves instead of angles and seek to destroy our existence as they see it as an affront to everything they stand for.”

“That’s… not the weirdest thing I’ve heard for wanting to off humanity but it’s close, actually.”

“They’re particularly fond of hunting time travelers,” Raven added leisurely, “Once they find out of a human’s existence, they stop at nothing to find and destroy them.”  

“If they live in the past or, in the void, or whatever, how can they kill a person?”

“They can creep through sharp angles. If you see a corner start to smolder or leak blue ichor, it would be a wise decision to run.”

Jinx pictured a terrible, unquantifiable mass of nether-creature seeping through the walls and blanched before picturing Raven assuming the same feat.

“You totally stole some of your moves from them,” she jeered, her smirk bright.

Raven looked mildly affronted.  

“I beg your pardon.”

“You totally seep through walls all spooky like, just to get the jump on us. I mean, it’s a good scare tactic but that is totally a thing that you do and you know it.”

Raven frowned slightly and huffed dismissively.

“Even the Tindalos are originated from this universe; they fit Earth, as an inverse. I have to take great care in avoiding them when using my soulself to jump dimensions.”

“Would they eat you? If they caught you?”

“My mortal form? If they had opportunity to, naturally. Humans are curves after all, and my body in this form at least, is as normal as the next.”

“Do they know you exist?”

“Unfortunately, yes. But even they fear my Father and the rot of him in my veins.”

“It takes a lot to frighten a Tindolos,” Raven murmured, almost proudly save for the anger wrapped around her brow; “And of me, they are indeed frightened.”

“Why?”

“Because I can pass through any dimension that I please. Other universes, perhaps. Without restraint or ritual needed. I have no weakness of my Father for my Humanity, and I have fewer weaknesses of Humanity from my Father. Sure, the ‘normal’ mortal ways of killing a human will kill me once my tolerance is pressed passed its limits, but few creatures of the void and beyond have such tactics. I would be strongest, out there with them, then here amongst people. And that frightens them.”

“So you’re here, willingly weakened then? Why?”

“Because the only thing stronger out there than me, would be my Father. And without the tethers of humanity restraining his actions as Earth does, he would seize me instantly and pervert me to his will without any more effort than batting an eye.”

“This, Jinx,” Raven tolled, sending a wave of apprehension through Jinx’s chest, “Is part of the reason I am so wary for our child. Why I am nervous for what you will learn of me, bonding to me as you are. I don't… mean to frighten you, but I need you to understand what you are potentially getting into.”   

“Well I mean, how often, other than your shadow teleporting tricks, am I going to have to worry about the other side of the void and planes of existence and all?”

“Truthfully? Likely not much, at least from me. I tend to stick to Earth, as I’ve said. But even on Earth, I am…” Raven trailed off, rolling her tongue behind her teeth as she searched for the words half bitten between her teeth.

“My demonic nature, is always with me. It sleeps, dormant inside of me,” she explained, “But the impulses and bubbling ideas from her invade my senses from time to time. My anger… is a lesser form of my demon. It isn’t always anger. Anger is just the most common perpetrator with negative consequence. My four red eyes, my ragged teeth, the writhing mass of shadows and overwhelming presence… I can’t ever not be a demon. It’s not something I can completely turn off. And even without my demonic side holding the reigns I am capable of feats that I would never use and powers I shall never indulge in.”

“I am used to denying my inner nature. But that is because the Monks of Azarath knew that I was as a monster, and needed training in humanity. For before I learned it, I had the body of a human, but no sense of compassion. No sympathy. Nothing but cold logic and a complete lack of morality.”

“That is why the monks were as hard on me as they were. And even then, they were not hard. They were not cruel. They did what they could with good intentions and a desire to help. They taught me that it was important, to help. I would not be a Titan if not for their lessons. I would not be Raven, if not for their care. I would not be a person , if not for them.”

Jinx swallowed a breath, then two.

“I…”

Raven looked away, bashful at her admissions.

“I am good at controlling my urges. My powers. My emotions. Or, I would like to think so, considering everything. But I will always have those dark tinted thoughts and carry the risks of my bloodline.”

Raven looked at her again and worried her lip for a moment.

“This place is… making me more pessimistic than I usually am. And without meditation, I grow more restless. I’m not trying to scare you, and what I said before still stands. That I don’t want to harm anyone, and that I am in this with you, I just… want to apologize, I suppose. For being what I am. For behaving the ways I’m likely going to behave.”

Jinx shifted in Raven’s lap and loosely wrapped her arms around her neck.

“Honey, I was raised by serial murderers and sociopaths, high and low functioning both. Until I watch you tie a dude to a chair and cut off their eyelid and eat it in front of them, I’m probably going to be okay with whatever you're gonna do. And if I’m not, I gotta whole lotta’ bad luck that I can send your way until you take the hint that you gotta stop the fuck off.”

“Yes… as you’ve said,” Raven replied, deflating somewhat in posture; “I just wonder if it’ll really be as easy as that.”

“Bitch, I’ve knocked your ass out more than once on the street and I can sure as fuck knock you out anywhere else,” Jinx exclaimed, her grin large and sharp.

“If it makes you feel better I could give you a jolt in case you’ve forgotten,” she then offered; she wasn’t sure how much of jest it was, with how keen the idea seemed to feel in her spine.

“I’ll pass, thank you,” Raven replied evenly; “On that note, how are your powers? You seemed fine until dinner.”

“Yeah well, I wasn’t in as much stress as I was at dinner, was I?” Jinx shot back indignantly, “I was eating dinner with the goddamn Batman,” she drawled, “You’re lucky I didn’t confess all my sins, strip naked, and set the tablecloth on fire.”

“That… would have been entertaining,” Raven murmured, a coy grin hanging lightly on her lips.

“Yeah, I’d rather not end up on the bad side of the Bat or his Butler, thanks,” Jinx spat; she exhaled in a huff.

“I think they could use a little genuine excitement, personally. But as you prefer.”

Jinx’s scowl faded and she pressed against Raven once more.

“I’ll try to behave myself of course, but there might be a few more accidents at your Aunt’s house. Just… a heads up.”

Raven traced an errant scar lightly along her back; the tiny fractured path along her skin pulsed with energy that she was sure the Titan could feel.  

“Lightning is a bitch, you know.”

At her words, nearly whispered, Raven’s fingers went still but kept contact with her skin.

“Normally my luck is aimed at other people, and for the most part that’s true enough but it doesn’t really care if I’m caught in the crossfire.”

Jinx clicked her tongue and pressed her brow to Raven’s cheek.

“Hurt like a bitch though; it’s why I’m scared nervous of tasers but why gettin’ hit by ‘em never really does much to me.”

“Well, besides looping the connection around and hitting the dumbfuck tazin’ me that is,” she amended, envisioning one of the many times that very action had happened.

“If there was a gun aimed at you, and it shot, would the bullet bounce off of you and kill the person who took the shot?” Raven asked, emotionlessly. 

Jinx chuckled.

“Nah, the bullet just explodes in the barrel.”

“That sounds… messy. For the individual holding it.”

“Like I said, if they're dumb enough to try me, I’m more than happy to give it to ‘em.”

“...Thank you,” Raven murmured, catching Jinx’s attention.

At Jinx’s questioning glance, Raven explained; “For helping me take my mind off things. Relax some, I guess.”

Overcome with a fleeting feeling of fondness, Jinx nipped Raven’s cheek affectionately before settling her head against Raven’s neck again.

“We should probably rest before visiting your Aunt, if you can.”

“It’s nearing morning, now,” Raven replied gently; “We’ll likely have an hour or so, before Alfred calls us to breakfast.”

“Are we staying for breakfast?”

“We are if you want Alfred to like us,” Raven mused, “and it’ll likely calm the Bats nerves to know that someone actually did as he asked of them for once.”

“Pffft,” Jinx hissed goodnaturedly, “If anything that’ll just rattle his wing-capes and make him suspect us getting up to something all the more.”

“You’re right. We should do something harmless, like move all his furniture three centimeters to the left, so that when he works it out he’ll be at peace.”

Jinx snorted.

“I thought you said you wanted Alfred to like us?” she asked teasingly.

“Are you kidding?” Raven countered happily, “That man is the sassiest man alive. There isn’t a bone in his body that isn't composed of dry humor and boxing secrets."

She leaned in as if she were revealing a secret, her eyes gleaming with mirth; “He once told Batman, that he had drawn him a bath.”

“And?” Jinx asked, breathlessly, her smile sparkling.

“He handed him a detailed sketch of the Batman’s bathtub.”

“Oh. My. God .”

“Alfred Pennyworth is a national treasure,” Raven stated, almost patriotically; “He’s one of my favorite humans.”

“Mine too, oh my god,” Jinx managed to reply, through her snorting laughter.

Chapter 20

It was strange, walking into yet another room for breakfast in the Manor while knowing what passed as sunlight in Gotham city, was busy warming the world around it.

“Gizmo is never going to believe that I was here,” Jinx sighed wistfully; “I have not only eaten dinner, but now breakfast, with Batman and there’s not a soul in Jump City who’s gonna believe me.”

“Likely for the best, Miss,” Alfred replied casually as he took up the finished plates; “I trust you both slept well? It would be nice for someone in this house to partake in the practice.”

“I fell asleep in the bathtub,” Jinx offered; “Didn’t even drown or anything.”

“Remarkable,” Alfred remarked, perhaps in mild amusement.

“Thank you, by the way, for your continued hospitality,” Raven murmured, seemingly more at ease than she had been the night before, though Jinx was not entirely convinced.

“Anytime, Miss Roth,” the butler replied proudly as he began to collect the platters around the table.

“Are you sure you don’t wanna hang around for a bit,” Batgirl asked, her smile creasing the corners of her mask; “We got a new training course set up, and I could teach you a move or two to take back to the Tower.”

“Please, the only moves you know are circumstantial,” Robin contested dryly; “True hand to hand is the basis of everything you gotta know.”  

“Mhmm, and remind me again how that helped you get that black eye?” she teased.

Robin scowled.

“We should get going shortly,” Raven stated, “I’d rather not put off the meeting and risk losing the courage to make it entirely.”

Robin nodded; “That’s fair.”

“It was cool meeting you all,” Jinx offered.

“Likewise;” Batgirl replied brightly.

“Good luck with, well with everything I guess,” Robin offered with a vague but goodnatured wave of his hand.

“I’ll see you both out,” the butler stated; “If you both have everything?”

“Yeah, we’re good I think,” Jinx replied as she cast a look over her new borrowed outfit and back.

“Sorry about your oven exploding,” she added cautiously.

“Never you mind Miss,” Alfred tutted confidently; “These new fangled contraptions have minds of their own these days.”

Jinx chuckled nervously and rubbed her arm before casting a look at Raven who slid her chair back under the table.

She straightened her posture and smoothed the fabric of her hoodie before giving a nod to each of the room’s occupants in turn; Alfred turned with a click of his heels and Jinx cast a parting wave at the Bat-kids before following her partner and the butler out of the room.

As they walked back to the Hanger through more hallways and darkened rooms, Jinx bit her lip.

“Just so you know, I’m taking a candle holder as a memento,” Jinx stated awkwardly; “Raven’s got it in her pocket dimension purse.”

“Oh? Would you prefer a photograph?” the butler mused in turn.

“We just thought that it’d keep Batman from freaking out from wondering what we did, if we actually did something is all,” Jinx trembled in way of explanation.

Jinx couldn’t see the corners of the man servant’s mouth upturn, but as he didn’t appear to show any signs of discomfort Jinx figured he dismissed the situation as harmless enough.  

Jinx smiled and tried to ignore the way the precariously hung walkways rattled and echoed through the cave as they traversed them.

When they made it back to their hell bike, Jinx nearly sighed in relief.

“Ride carefully,” Alfred chided, handing them a pair of helmets on a serving tray that Jinx didn’t remember seeing him pick up; “There’s a traffic jam on South Avenue this morning so I'd suggest taking the roundabout to avoid it if possible.”  

“Thanks,” Raven answered as she took the helmets and tossed one to Jinx before placing her own on her head.

As she adjusted the straps, the butler continued; “There was something of a minor breakout at Arkham a few nights ago; please do take care out there, the Master and I would hate to see anything befall you girls.”

Raven nodded once, and slid onto the bike.

Jinx scrambled to mount it behind her, and took another moment to adjust her own helmet as Raven willed the bike to life.  

As the bike kicked on with a low rumbling purr, it blew out a small puff of dust which billowed into Jinx’s nose and exited back out in a spurt of a sneeze; all at once, every vehicle in the hanger suddenly began to chime in disjointed alarms and sirens.

Jinx felt her face pale.

“Sorrygottagoseeyalater’kbye,” she wheezed as she dug her hands around Raven’s middle and squeezed.

Taking her cue, Raven spurred the bike into a tight u-ey and rolled out of the hanger in moderate haste.

In the hanger’s exit tunnel a pair of nearly blinding headlights bombarded them; Raven quickly forced the bike to ride the far wall of the tunnel, nearly scraping along the side of the wall as the Batmobile sped past them.  

“Guess he’s back from his nightshift,” Jinx wondered aloud, her volume raised to compensate for the engine’s roar.

“He does that,” Raven agreed.

“Let’s get out of here before he calls us back; I feel like my powers’re gonna’ blow up tha’ joint.”

Raven didn’t reply, but the bike propelled forward at a faster rate, soothing Jinx’s nerves.   

As they rode through the tunnels once more, Jinx’s mouth started to dry as she found herself thinking over their situation.

“Hey Darling,” Jinx yelped over Raven’s shoulder.

“What?”

“You think the Bat’s gonna look into my past and arrest me or anything?”

“He has a city full of menaces more dangerous than you, so no,” Raven replied assuredly.

“M’kay,” Jinx assented as she shifted back in her seat; “But if that changes you better pay my bail,” she ordered.

“I don’t know,” Raven offered after a moment; “The last time you were incarcerated, we had a pretty good time as I recall.”

Jinx felt her cheeks redden slightly and bit her smile into submission.

“True,” she proclaimed; “But you’re trying to make an honest girl outta me, remember?”

Raven made a noise that sounded something like an amused scoff, and the tunnel funneled them through the exit, revealing to them a bright and dreary Gotham morning.

The city was already alive in the full force of bustling morning rush; traffic already beginning to back up and the streets already teeming up with hustling folk halfheartedly jogging to and fro.

Jinx found that the city looked… even more dismal somehow, by the light of day then it had the night prior. As if without the glow of the neon lights embedded within it, all of the life and warmth of the city had been drained dry.

Still, there was a certain architectural charm to it that Jinx appreciated; she could practically see the way the city’s structure lent itself to the paths of crime.

“We gotta check some of this stuff out before we go,” Jinx jeered over Raven’s shoulder.

Raven shrugged as much as she could while piloting the bike.

They made their way from the city proper into sections of residential suburbia, passing churches, schools, and streets of near replicated housing and fading youth centers.

Soon, the houses melted from freshly built to decrepit and all together too non-assuming for anyone’s comfort and back again; Raven steered them along street after street, the bike slowing to accommodate children and cars littering the roads.

As they neared their destination, Jinx felt Raven’s body stiffen.      

When they reached the apparent street they were looking for, she felt Raven’s body deflate slightly, as if she had released a great breath.

The bike gurgled as it settled into its next slumber; Raven didn’t hop off immediately, but chose to regard the modest house they stopped in front of with some trepidation.

“We can always hightail it outta there if things go south,” Jinx reminded her; “I’ll wait out here with the bike.”

“I would prefer you to come in with me,” Raven murmured as she finally started to move from behind her.

“If we leave this bad baby out in the open, ten to one someone’s gonna snatch her.”

“And if you wait out here with it, you’ll draw every degenerate in a ten mile radius to you and then I’ll have to balance reuniting with my aunt with your inevitable rescue mission,” Raven retorted dryly.

Jinx took a heavy breath.

“You made it through dinner with Batman okay, you’ll be fine,” Raven insisted.

As Raven turned to face the house, the door opened and greying man shuffled passed the threshold in a pair of what looked to be gardening gloves and an old worn sunhat.

He looked mildly curious after noticing their presence, but didn’t seem in any way outwardly perturbed.

He offered them a polite nod and made his way over to the flowerbed beneath the kitchen window.

Jinx nudged Raven’s side with her elbow.

“Well,” Jinx whispered, “Go on then.”

Raven steadied her posture and brought a hand to the hood hiding her face; Jinx was also wearing a hoodie loaned from the manor’s extensive wardrobe, though Raven’s ensemble seemed to have been more thematically tailored than her own had been.

As Raven walked forward, Jinx shoved her hands into her hoodie pocket and hoped her own hood hid her vibrant wind-mussed hair.

The man turned slightly as they approached, and set down the hose he had been unraveling in the dirt.

“Can I help you?” he asked, politely miffed.

“Is this the residence of an ‘Alice Roth’?” Raven asked fluidly, her enunciation neatly pressed.

“Roth is my wife’s maiden name yes,” he answered hesitantly as he wiped his brow and looked them over more thoroughly; his eyes swept over them and then glanced at the bike, where they narrowed before looking back to them once more.

“Why do you wanna know? Are you two some of Mary-Beth’s friends? I don’t think I’ve seen you girls ‘round before?”

Raven took an audible breath and started to lower her hood.

“My name is Rachel. I’m Arella’s, er, Angela Roth’s daughter. I’m here to meet my aunt, if she’s here.”

“Oh,” he responded agasp, “..Oh, oh,” he continued more quietly, as if he were at a loss. He sank in stance until he was nearly kneeling.

“Oh my stars and blessings,” he murmured, before rising quickly, “Yes, yes, by all means please come in, come in,” he ushered, gesturing them urgently towards the door.

“Alice’s talked a great deal of her sister, she’s right inside!”

Raven and Jinx stumbled through the door as the man called out to his wife.

“Honey! Come quick!”

“What?” a feminine voice shot back, followed by a woman stepping around the corner; "What is it, is there something wrong-”

She stopped short and her mouth hung open in shock.

Her body paled and the breath she managed to take was inspiring.

She leaned forward, as if to take a step and stopped.  

“A-angela?” She whispered, her eyes staring at Raven’s face as if she were a specter of the past.

“Rachel,” Raven murmured, breaking the woman’s trance; “Her daughter.” 

Chapter 21

The woman’s mouth framed the echoed vowel briefly before the unaired sound jumpstarted her movements and then all at once, she was tugging Raven deeper into the house, her face bright, her smile wide.

“Please, please, come in, come in,” she implored as she ushered them into a living room decorated quaintly with pillows and cherub figurines; “I prayed for the day the Lord would answer my prayers and while I would never look his blessings in the mouth I find myself nearly surprised,” she gushed to no one in particular; “You too Sweetie, sit, please,” she bayed at Jinx, gesturing to the couch.

Jinx looked at the couch and back to Raven and decided to follow her lead.

As Raven seemed to take the situation in, the man who had ushered them in took the moment to remove his hat and gloves, setting them on a clothes peg and bowl near the entranceway before joining them in the room himself.

Two other faces peered out from an adjacent hallway, children, and their curiosity was mixed with equal parts fascination.

The older of the two, the sister, whispered something to the brother before slipping into the room, pulling him in after her to stand at either side of their father.

“Angela was my older sister,” the woman stated after a steadying breath; “I’m your Aunt, Alice, my husband here is Jack,” she continued, gesturing to the man, who held out his hand to shake.

Jinx, being closest, shook it first.

The man squeaked slightly, but remained smiling; “Sorry bout’ that, the floor’s like a magnet these days,” he offered lightly.

Jinx’s grin faltered slightly, but remained firm; internally she prayed that her powers would settle themselves, visions of her luck’s recent exploits at the Manor praying on her mind.

Raven shook Jack’s hand next, the shake lingering on longer, as he held her hand with both of his own for a moment; his smile reflected easily in his eyes.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Rachel,” he said as Raven retracted her hand; “My wife has spoken a great deal of her sister and we often hoped to reunite with her side of the family.”

“Yes dear,” Alice furthered, looking at Raven, “How ah, how is my sister these days?”

Raven didn’t move, but something about her almost visibly balked at the question, and Jinx bit her lip as Raven bayed her lips to speak.

“Arella, er, Mother ,” she began, slightly shaken, “Passed on a few years ago. …It’s, well. There’s just me now.”

Alice’s face fell slowly, as the news sank into her pores and seemingly settled somewhere in the back of her throat for a moment, causing her to inhale a shattered coo.

“Oh Sweetie,” she sighed, “Oh-”

She leaned forward, arms outstretched to pull Raven into an embrace where she held her tightly.

Jinx looked on quietly, and pretended not notice the lights flicker minutely.

“Oh Darling,” Alice breathed; feeling Raven’s slight resistance to the prolonged contact, she pulled back and framed the girl’s face with her hands.

“You look so much like her, when we were your age,” she breathed in lament.

“It’s alright,” Raven offered, confusion lacing her tone more than anything, Jinx noted; “It… was a long time ago, to me.”

“Right, of course,” Alice replied, squeezing her shoulder before drawing away completely.  

“I don’t know what your Mother said of me, or our family, but I’d like you to know that you’re always welcome here,” she offered, smiling brightly past the wet sheen in her eyes as she looked to Jinx; “And you Dear as well; are you also Angela’s?”

Jinx moistened her lips and gently pulled her own hood down, feeling terribly out of place once more.

“I’m Rachel’s… uh…” she trailed off as she eyed the Titan in something resembling a mild panic.

“We’re friends,” Raven stated flatly, surprising Jinx as well of the other occupants of the room.

“Friends are but gifts from the Lord,” Alice said, after a beat; “We’re glad to have you too, Dear,” she declared gently, offering Jinx a hug as well.

Jinx returned the sentiment and mumbled a few pleasantries before running her hand through her hair.

“What’s your name Sweetie,” Jack asked as he rested his hand against his son’s shoulder.

“Everyone calls me Jinx,” Jinx replied softly, “It’s uh… a family nickname.”

“Wonderful to have you then, Jinx,” Jack replied jovially after a moment’s hesitation; “This here is Billy,” he said as he nodded at his son who smiled, “and this one here is Mary-Beth,” he said warmly as the girl waved.

“Oh cool, I have a friend named Billy back home,” Jinx offered casually as she stuffed her hands back in her hoodie pouch.

Jinx looked at Billy and offered him a jovial smirk at recognizing the iconic ‘S’ printed on his t-shirt; “He’s a nerd too.”

Billy’s smile widened, recognizing her playfulness.

“Oh? Where are you from?” Jack asked.

“Rav-” she began briefly, before stopping herself mid-syllable, “Rachel and I are from Jump City.”

“Jump City?” Mary-Beth asked curiously, “Isn’t that across the coast from here? I heard about it on the news once.”

“Yup,” Jinx confirmed, nodding as well; “It’s been a bit of a trip.”

“We flew most of the way,” Raven added, “So we haven’t seen much. We might stop to see a few things on our way back.”

“Back? But Honey you just got here,” Alice coddled, “Surely you can stay for a day or two at the very least. There’s so much catching up we have to do!”

“Yeah, and we can have a sleepover in my room,” Mary-Beth offered excitedly.

“And family is like, the most important thing,” Billy insisted; “Right ‘Pa?”

Jack hummed in agreement.

“I do hope you’ll stay for dinner, at the very least,” he then added.

Raven looked to Jinx, her eyes as unreadable as the lay of her lips.

“Well, we don’t want to impose,” Raven replied hesitantly; “But I’m sure Arella would’ve wanted us to get to know each other and Jinx and I don’t have anywhere to be quite yet.”

“Excellent,” Alice exclaimed, clapping her hands in delight.

“Mary-Beth, if you’ll get everyone something to drink, please?”

“Sure thing Mom,” she replied happily as she walked towards the kitchen entrance; “We have juice n‘water and some soda left I think,” she offered.

“I want a ‘Pibb,” Billy shot at her.

“What kind of juice?” Jinx asked, as she sat on the arm of the couch.

“Apple-grape.”

“I’ll have a glass of that then, please,” Jinx requested.

“Sure! And you Cousin?” she shot at Raven.

“...Water will be sufficient, thank you.”

“And one for me as well, Darling,” Alice requested.

Mary-Beth nodded and disappeared towards her task.      

Raven, somewhat reluctantly, took a seat on the couch herself some inches away from Jinx.

Jack leaned somewhat against the bookcase behind him as Alice took a seat on the corner of the couch nearest Raven’s knees.

“So Rachel, tell us about yourself,” Alice casually insisted; “Were you raised with any religion?”

“Well… My Mother believed in her Goddess Azar,” Raven measuredly replied; “I was raised by several of the attending monks in her devotion.”

“My sister always was a horse of a different color,” Alice quipped, smiling slightly.

“I spent every summer living at Bible Camp,” Billy offered; “Nothing like those scratchy sheets and morning psalms, eh?”  

“There wasn’t much singing in our sect,” Raven replied dryly.

“What about you Jinx,” Jack asked in a stately manner.

“Eh,” Jinx breathed, “To be honest I think the best way for all of us to get along would be if I just kept my mouth shut about that all…”

She let her words trail off and ran her teeth over her clenched lips as Raven shot her a darting scowl.

“...Since I’m undecided on it,” Jinx added hastily, catching Raven’s look.

“There’s still time to figure it all out Sweetie,” Alice replied happily; “No need to rush it.”

Jinx’s mouth crumpled into something of a smile and she nodded once in reply.

A cry distracted the woman’s attention; a shrill yell from another room that made both of the room’s adults jump.

“Oh dear, that’d be Jessica,” Alice stated, solving the mystery before turning to her husband; “-Jack dear, would you?”

“Of course, you girl’s catch up; I’ll see if I can quiet her down enough to bring her out,” he answered as he headed to the baby’s room.

“Is Jessica the last of your children,” Raven asked innocuously as the man disappeared down the hallway.

“Yes, but the Lord always has his own plans,” Alice replied fondly as Mary-Beth returned, drinks in hand.  

“Here y’all go,” she chirped as she handed them out one by one, “Fresh from the fridge and everything.”

“Thanks Dear,” Alice replied warmly.

Mary-Beth clicked her tongue before she plopped down on a chair across from the couch, folding her legs underneath her.   

As Billy opened his drink, it frothed up and started to overflow, catching him by surprise.

“Thanks Sis,” he exhaled dryly as he struggled to slurp up the escaping liquid.

“What kinda schools do you go to? Mine’s a bore,” Mary-Beth asked, ignoring her brother entirely; “But it’s got a cool sports program and I’m on track,” she offered as she bounced her knee eagerly.  

“I was homeschooled by Arella’s denomination,” Raven replied carefully; “I’m part of… one of Jump City’s outreach programs now, more or less.”

“Oh? What do you mean?” Alice asked.

“Foster Care stuff,” Raven dodged evenly; “There’s not much to say about it.”

“I have a friend who used to be in foster care,” Mary-Beth quipped; “Do you like, live with other kids and stuff?”

“Yeah, I have three brother’s and a sister there, no relation;” Raven replied, warmth reflected in her tone as a small smile started to creep along her face, “We’re really close actually.”  

Alice’s face by comparison, was more shaken and nearly crestfallen at the news, but she shuffled the expression off fairly quickly, Jinx noticed.

“I’m on the debate team,” Billy offered, filling the silence; “I’m still in middle school so me and Mary-Beth have different schools, but I’ll be joining her in two more years. Thinking ‘bout enrolling somewhere else with a better science course though.”

“Science is fun,” Jinx replied as she thought back to the Hive; “In my academy we have to take a lot of that. My school specializes in a lot of, ah, career intended preparation type stuff.”

“That’s good,” Alice said as she smiled; “Any career you’re headed for?”

Jinx forced herself to keep from visibly stalling; “Well, I used to have one picked out but, recently things have like, changed so, I’m really sure on that anymore.”  

“I want to be a firefighter when I get older,” Billy quipped; “Gonna be the first in the family to do it,” he said proudly.

“That’s cool,” Jinx replied genuinely; “My other friend Billy wants to be a fire truck when he grows up.”

“Like, an actual truck, firetruck?” Mary-Beth asked incredulously.

“Yup,” Jinx agreed.

“Your friend is weird,” Billy stated flatly.

“True,” Jinx replied with a knowing sigh.   

“What about you Rachel?” Alice asked, turning back to her.

“I already work in a public service so, I imagine I’ll just keep doing that,” she murmured.

“Oh, that’s excellent!” Alice declared, “Jack and I try to help out the community as well, we do volunteer work every week or so.”

“Speaking of,” Jack’s voice grumbled as he walked back into the room, baby in his arms, “We were headed to the shelter today to work the kitchens.”

“We can do that tomorrow Dear,” Alice dismissed, waving a hand, “That’s not really the place to bring the girls the first day they’re here.”

“I was gonna head to the park with Maddison and Antt later,” Mary-Beth stated as she perked up, “We could all go if the weather holds up if you want.”  

“Park’s are cool,” Jinx agreed in relief; it would probably be the most boring option, but with the way Raven still seemed hunched in on herself, Jinx wasn’t sure that either of them would be able to handle much more than that anyway.

“Wonderful, then that’s settled; I’ll make lunch in a few hours; until then though, there’s just so much to talk about!” Alice gleamed; “I’m sure you have as many questions as I do!”  

Jinx tried to inhale as evenly as she could, and tried to take comfort in the fact that she could see Raven doing largely the same.  

She eyed the room as Raven’s Aunt chuckled to herself, taking stock of the family’s assortment of ticking clocks, overstuffed pillows, and tiny porcelain statuettes.

What was the deal with all the pillows? Jinx wondered to herself; there was no reason that she could think of for the room to have so many, except maybe to create a poofy quarantined play area for the baby.

She snapped out of her thoughts and took a sip of her juice.

“Speaking of questions…” Raven led gently, as she shifted in her seat; “I was wondering if… you could tell me about my mother? About what happened, or…”

Alice’s face washed over with something like resignation and she exhaled, deeply, for a moment before sitting back up and sliding on something of a braver face.

“Of course; let’s see…” she mumbled to herself as she wet her lips in thought.

“Jack, take the kids outside for a bit, please?” she requested, casting him a pleading glance.

“I wanna stay!” Billy proclaimed.

“Yeah Mom, we can handle it, whatever it is,” Mary-Beth agreed.

“Please,” Alice insisted again, more firmly; “You don’t have to go outside but at least go to your rooms, or, or something .”

“Come on kids, come keep your old man some company,” Jack murmured as he stood up.

Mary-Beth and her brother sighed but followed him reluctantly out of the room.

Alice watched them leave until she presumably felt that they were out of earshot.

“When we were kids,” Alice began, “Angela and I were like two peas in a pod,” she chuckled slightly before her breath caught; “But she and our parents would get into these terrible arguments and, well, eventually she decided that agreeing with them or agreeing with her was the only way of things.”

“Now, I won’t sugar coat it, our Father had something of a temper. But he wasn’t a cruel man and never raised his hands at any of us, and I don't think he was the monster my sister made him out to be and I told her that.”

“Angela decided that wasn’t enough;” Alice exhaled a short hard breath before she continued.

“When she first disappeared, it wasn’t unusual for her to stay out all night and after the first week had passed we all had thought it was just a new escalated form of her rebellion...”

Alice wet her lips for a moment and hid her efforts to compose herself behind the movement of taking another sip of her drink.

“After two weeks had gone by, I knew something was wrong,” she lamented dully; “The school called and nobody I talked to had seen hide or hair of her.”

“I asked my parents what we should do about it, begged even, to get help to find her but…”

“My father said that if Angela had run off to abandon the family, then she wasn’t part of the family anymore and that was that.”

Alice shook her head slightly; “That was when I learned that our parents, and my father, really weren't everything I thought they were, and that Angela hadn’t been wholly wrong.”

“Of course, by then it was too late,” Alice keened; “I was young and frightened and I didn’t understand why God was letting things happen the way they were. I tried to go to the police at one point, but my Father caught me and started locking me in my room at night,” Alice explained, her voice wavering.

“And Mom, poor thing; she always butted heads with Angela, but she still loved her,” Alice continued, “she was… prone to her nerves,” she admitted measuredly; “And when weeks turned into months and Angela was still missing, people started to ask questions and Mom started to let go of herself.”

“She started drinking, and then Dad started staying out late, and one horrible afternoon I came home from school to f-find Mom-”

She gasped and clasped her hand over her mouth for a moment, her eyes squeezed shut; she trembled, for a heartbeat, and then took a shaking breath and visibly forced herself to continue.

“I called for Emergency Services of course, but it was already too late… She’d overdosed on whatever it was in her pill bottles. The medics never told what;” Alice mumbled something under her breath and took another sip of her drink.

“I had to take care of everything, after that. Mom’s funeral arrangements, the bills, my Dad.”

“I watched him waste away like Mom had, but he soured the farther he sank.”    

“Once I was eighteen, I hired an investigator, to look for Angela and what had become of her,” Alice explained, as if folding one page into the next; “It was a longshot, especially in Gotham, but somehow, that man found a trail years cold.”

“He said Angela had joined a cult. And that my sister had probably been sacrificed in one of their rituals and that she’d run off after, and that no one had seen her since.”

“Part of me has been waiting, for some news of Angela all this time. I… I thought she might come back one day, to see what had become of me, at least. So I stayed in Gotham. I moved over a few blocks, ran into Jack while I was in College, settled down.”

She rubbed the back of her neck with one hand.

“The… trials I faced with my Father changed the manner of Faith in which I believed in, but I kept believing. I knew if I kept hoping, kept believing, then someday, the Lord would reunite us again.”

“You may not be my sister,” Alice said poignantly, as she laid a hand on Raven’s knee, “But you’re the closest part of her, and seeing you here, in front of me, is a feeling I wouldn’t even know how to begin to describe,” she murmured, “But I am so, so, very thankful, that you came here today Rachel. I don’t know what’s happened in your life, but I promise you, that if there’s anything I can do, anything at all, that will support you, or help you grow into the person you’re destined to be, that I want you to tell me; I want to be there for you in anyway that I can, an-nd I swear to you by God’s own grace, that I’ll make right to Angela by doing right by you.”

Alice’s hand was clenched over Raven’s own, and the woman stared into Raven’s eyes with such intensity, that Raven started to tremble.

Alice looked at her a moment longer, her eyes beginning to water, and then leaned forward to pull her niece into another hug.

As they embraced, Alice took in a few sobbing breaths and Jinx found herself smiling in a strange, unfamiliar sort of way.  

Chapter 22

Jinx had been grateful to Jack for letting them move the bike into the garage; Jinx appeared to be less grateful to have been stuffed into Alice’s van with the rest of the family and shuttled off to the park in a packed in heap of coolers and blankets, so when they finally arrived at the park and Jinx scrambled out onto the awaiting sidewalk with a thick sigh of relief, Raven simply counted it as a blessing that Jinx was cooperating and shot her a nod.

Raven waited for her cousins to get out first, and then, likely to keep from looking inconsiderate, wisdom urged her to help Jack unload the van despite Rudeness’s internal meager protests.

Between them both, and with Billy and Mary-Beth included, they were delighted to find that they were able to manage everything in one trip.   

“Let’s hope all the good spots aren’t already taken,” Jack jested as he gestured towards the park with his chin.

“Anybody have any suggestions?” Alice asked happily.

At this, Jinx leaned over to her and murmured a quiet suggestion for setting up their outing in a more out of the way location; Raven relayed the idea, to which Alice agreed.

The park lacked a fountain, but it had plenty of scattered trees and clumps of well-manicured bushes here and there, as well as plenty of benches to sit and observe from; in some sections, the park had cultivated flower-lined walkways through tiny patches of woods.

It reminded Raven of the park in Jump City; she wondered if perhaps every park more or less seemed the same or if her sense of relief for finding a pocket of lowered emotional residue was overcrowding her perception of the area.

Her Uncle decided to set up just past one such pathway, in a faux sort of clearing cornered by waist-high bushes.

By the time the blankets were laid out and the coolers and bags placed, the sun was starting to peek through for its midday shine; Gotham wasn’t much for clear weather, but Mary-Beth quipped that it was almost like the city was trying to make up for its gloomy weather and terrible atmosphere, just for their little occasion.  

Alice began passing out plates and utensils as Jack started pulling out the meats from his cooler.

“We got fried chicken, coldcuts, and hot dogs, take your picks,” the man offered warmly.

“I want a hotdog!” Billy requested happily.

“We brought the relish, right dear?” Alice asked as she began looking for the condiments.

“Should’ve,” Jack agreed.

“Can I have a ham and pastrami?” Mary-Beth asked, “And some coleslaw.”

“The lunch meats should be in that cooler there with the sandwiches,” Alice replied, “Help yourself. Anyone up for some watermelon?”

“Me!” Jinx exclaimed happily, as she waited eagerly for the woman to pull out a pre-sliced, plastic wrapped piece just for her.

As she unwrapped the presumably tasty triangle, Raven’s Timid hands fumbled with the sandwich fixings beside Mary-Beth.

“That one there’s ham I think, and that one’s got turkey,” Mary-beth offered.

Raven plucked one from the cooler at random and began unwrapping it when something shifted her awareness past the bushes and scraggly trees.

She tensed a moment, letting a question about condiments from her cousin fall flat; her Fear couldn’t feel anything particularly worrisome, other than Gotham’s usual haze of psychic malady.

Hearing no rattles or sounds out of the ordinary, and feeling no spike of emotional charge, Wisdom passed the unease off; she had seen a few other park goers out and about during their arrival, so it only made sense for a few of them to be wandering around.

Raven refocused on her sandwich long enough to allow Mary-Beth to slather it with mustard and mayonnaise.

As she placed her sandwich on her plate in preparation of obtaining a few sides to surround it with, another flicker of awareness caught her attentions.

It didn’t feel human; a squirrel or a bird perhaps, Sloth guessed listlessly. She wouldn’t have paid it any mind further, but a strange sound quickly thrust her awareness from mildly tangible to nearly concrete.

She turned.

There in the brush, part of her murmured.

Her eyes focused on the bushes a few feet behind them.

They were thick, but not unmanaged and they lacked undergrowth of any kind; so when a large shape started peeking through the leaves, Raven spotted it instantly.

Spots, were one of the first things she noticed of the creature, the other being a visible canine-like impressionable visage.   

The dog wiggled its way through the bush nose first, making small oddly sounding shuffles and pants as it did so until its head was clearly visible at which point, the weird dog started making an even stranger sound.

It took Wisdom a moment to recognize it; Beast Boy hardly ever mimicked more than an animal's appearance, and very rarely explained or thought about their natural behaviors beyond their innately serviceable abilities. 

Bravery started to swell into her chest as Timid sent an icy cold ripple of Fear down through her intestines.

The hyena's call caught the attention of the group, breaking Raven’s spatial lines of thought.

“Oh, hey Pupper!” Billy called happily; “Hey there Boy! You lookin’ for a snack?”

Raven shot a look at Jinx, who looked nearly frozen in place until she returned her glance with a stare as equally piercing and full as her own.

She knows, she thought, minorly relieved as Wisdom pushed her Courage to steel her self harder.  

The hyena made its call again, and this time, a second, slightly different call answered it.

It was only a few feet away from the first.

Jinx’s look wavered for a moment as a myriad of emotions washed over her face, each tasting like flickers of disarray in Raven’s mouth.

Billy didn’t seem aware of the danger; he started to move as if he planned to stand.

Jinx hissed a sharp, “Don’t ,” just as Jack swung his arm to Billy’s middle and held him from moving.

“W-what?” Billy asked incredulously, apparently surprised at the sudden shift in his father’s demeanor.

Bravery cast a Fretful glance to her Alice and Jack, one that Raven Hoped conveyed the severity of the situation before looking back at the hyenas.

Alice pulled the baby into her lap and Mary-Beth pressed against Raven’s shoulder.

“If we move very, very slowly,” Jinx murmured, “Maybe they’ll get distracted with the food?”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Billy asked; “We feed strays all the time!”

“ Sshh ,” Jinx bayed him, mirroring Raven’s thoughts; “Those aren’t strays. And if they are who I think they are, then we really, really , don't want to provoke them.” 

“How many hyenas are there with green and red dye jobs,” Rudeness jibed to Jinx under her breath, her eyes very nearly rolling.

“All the more reason to keep them happy then, ‘Rachel’,” Jinx hissed back as she started making a slow reach for the cooler.

Raven cursed internally; likely Rage’s influence, she guessed.

Jack nudged the cooler closer to Jinx’s hand; Jinx took hold of the plate of questionably warm plastic wrapped fried chicken and Timid held her breath.

“If I throw it, they’ll rush us,” Jinx murmured as she began unwrapping the plate.  

“Are we runnin-”

“-No,” Jinx interrupted, silencing Mary-Beth; “Running would be the worst idea.”  

“If we just keep feeding them nice and slow…” Jinx began as she wiggled a chicken leg free.

“Wait, are those-”

“Don’t think about it,” Raven’s Wisdom warned; “Just stay calm and don’t make any sudden movements.”

“Oh sugar honey ice tea,” Mary-Beth whispered; “What are those? Wolves?”

As if on cue, the hyenas started to making ‘hiffing’ noises, ones that sounded very much like odd animalistic giggling.

“Alright, so we just keep feeding things until what? Their owner comes looking for them?” Jack asked with a twinge of sourness in his tone.

At this, Jinx blew the hyenas a few chirruping trills, and gently tossed a chicken leg in front of the bushes.   

Almost immediately, the red maned hyena perked up and lunged for the edible projectile; the green maned hyena was seconds behind his brother and chased him, snapping at the treat in his jaws.

Bravery leaned Raven back, and all but pushed Mary-Beth back towards Alice.

Seizing the moment, Jack started unwrapping the other plates, presumably for Jinx’s plan.

Alice looked at her with a pained cherry tasting expression; by her gesturing hand, her Aunt clearly felt uncomfortable with herself and Jinx blocking them from the dangerous animals.

“It’s fine,” Bravery murmured to the group.

“Yeah, Raven’s been trained to handle these sorta things for years,” Jinx furthered, her tone trying to mask the waver of her unease.

“You mean Rachel?” Mary-Beth asked at the same time Jack said, “Years ?”  

“Y-yeah, Raven’s my nickname for her, I guess,” Jinx fumbled as she plied another leg of chicken free and lobbed it to the green maned hyena.

“So we’re just hoping that once they get fed enough they’ll wander off?” Jack asked suddenly, “What about everyone else in the park? Shouldn’t we call somebody?”

Jinx shot Raven a look as she continued to fiddle with the plate in her lap; her eyes were more open than she’d seen in awhile and her irises had begun to contract into their feline form.

“Trust me when I say, that we do not want you guys to be held responsible for calling the cops on these guys. As long as we’re nice everything will be fine,” Jinx stated flatly, tossing a chicken wing in front of the hyenas.  

“Why? What’s so scary about them? Other than them being... whatever they are?” Billy asked.

“Hyenas,” Knowledge stated flatly.

“Hyenas?” Alice exclaimed in confusion; “In Gotham? Who would-”

“ -Babies !” cried a shrill feminine voice.  

Immediately, the hyenas perked up and began making their strange calls again, bobbing their heads up and down as they did so while they fidgeted and bounced in place.

Jinx flashed her another look, her body completely poised to spring into action.

As Raven stared at her she gave her a solemn nod which Jinx returned as she licked her lips before turning her gaze back to the bushes.

Raven started to pull her soulself to the surface, stopping it just short of rupturing it into visibility.

The bushes started to rustle again and Bravery braced her self.

Out of the bushes jumped a blonde woman in pigtails, devoid of face paint, in a reasonably appropriate outfit that seemed suitable for summer leisure wear.

If not for the fact that Raven could feel the woman’s self leaking out about her, Raven would have been content to pass the woman off as a random-stance passerby.

But there was no mistaking her face; her smile.

Fuck.

Not again- The baby, the baby, our Aunt- Jinx-

Shit do something!

Don’t blow it, idiot! They can’t know, they can’t know, they can’t-

Wait-

“Bud! Lou!” the woman cried; “Come to Momma!”

The hyenas started yipping and jumping up on her thighs as she ran her hands over their manes and salivating faces.

“-Who's Momma’s good bouncey boys, mm? Who's her good boys-”

Raven shot a glance at Jinx, whose expression and posture had changed considerably. Whereas she’d just moments before looked alert and battle-ready, Jinx now looked… enamored?

Her emotions were scattered; sugar sweet apprehension doused with heady tart joy. Raven licked them away from her teeth in a small attempt to quiet her racing thoughts.

Harley stopped her quadrupedal charges from jumping up on her and pressed their necks downward until both of them were sitting at her heels, giggling.

The Clown Queen. That’s her, that’s her, that’s her-

Where’s the wildcard?

If he’s here...

Raven pressed her lips firmer together.

More rustling came from the bushes.

The bushes’ rustling increased in intensity and tempo and started to move, as if struck by some god of nature until all at once, they shot up and parted.

A woman with red hair and green-tinged skin walked into the clearing, tsking her tongue at the blonde.

“Harley, really ?”

“Aww Red, they was jus’ havin’ some fun is all,” Harley chided as she wrestled playfully with her hyena's faces; “Weren’t cha’ boys?”

The redhead sighed, almost dramatically and seemed to take notice of their presence.  

“Oh look, fellow park goers. I do hope you plan to recycle that waste,” she said flatly as she looked the contents of their picnic over.

“Oh gee! I love picnics! We should join ‘em!” Harley exclaimed as she stared intently at the group.

“We, uh, would be happy to share Miss…” Alice drawled carefully.

“Quinzel! Doctor, Qunizel,” Harley shot as she placed a hand to her chest; “You can call me Quinn for short. Or Harley,” she prompted as she started walking over to the blanket; “Nice ta’ meet cha’.”

“Harley, let’s just leave these nice people be,” Harley’s companion pleaded; “We… don’t want any incidents to ruin our day.”

“Aww come on Pammy,” Harley whined; “The babies’ gotta eat! And they offered!”

Harley plopped herself down, blocking Raven's view of Jinx until she leaned forward to start mulling over the food selections.

The redhead sighed again, grievously, emitting tangents of liquored resignation before trodding over to join them.

Surprisingly, she sat to Raven’s right; although, as Raven watched her sit, Wisdom did amend that her side of the blankets was less populated than any other.

“My name’s Doctor Isley,” Ivy stated; “Thank you for indulging my partner’s terrible decision making.”

Her aunt and uncle were more visibly at ease, feeling a mixed shade of mocha and ginger, and Raven found herself wanting to… change that, somehow; she felt compelled to impress upon them the danger of the situation, but a better part of her self whispered to her that it would be foolhardy to rock the boat if the pirates were keen on acting civilized.   

She willed her power to flicker down, which earned a flickering look from the plant infused rogue.

She knows; Raven felt.

She feels us-

She can sense our taint-

The Earth knows we weren’t meant to walk these plains-

Do something-

-Do nothing-

“My name’s Alice, and this is my husband Jack,” Alice began, “These are the kids and my niece, Rachel, and her friend,” she continued, nodding to them in turn.

“Swell, that’s really swell,” Harley replied with every bit of energy as the movements of her body articulated; “Family that plays together, stays together,” she quipped absently as she concerned herself with chucking the nearest cooler over at the bushes for her pets.

As the hyenas descend on the offering, Harley turned her attention to the hot dogs and eagerly began making one up for herself.

Raven felt Ivy’s herbal stained stare continue to wander over her and Bravery forced her breathing to remain even.

“By the way, I wanna thank you for bein’ so nice to my boys,” Harley explained in absent warmth; “They tend to get riled when their tummies get rumbley, and it’s hell tryin’ to find a rush joint round here that won't flip out when I try buyin’ them a burger.”

“Think nothing of it,” Alice replied gently, “We’re always ready to help our friends and neighbors.”  

“That’s the real gen-u -ine spirit right there, that is,” Harley drawled as she waved her hotdog around in a gesturing manner; “Nice folks like you is what makes this place a little more bearable,” she rambled, “We’re a couple o’ nice folks ourselves ya know! Well, starting last week we are anyway,” she mused.

“How’s it like switching over?” Jinx asked, perking the blonde’s attention.

Harley looked her over for a moment, noting Jinx’s... physical peculiarities and clicked her tongue; making Timid bubble up along her gums as she watched.

“Well you know, it goes…” She offered vaguely, plopping down into an almost a normal sitting position; “One minute yer top o’the world and the next you’re in the grocery store tryin’ to convince your best pal to buy ya’ favorite brand of ice cream even though it’s not on sale,” Harley replied with a jerk to her partner and a smile coated shrug.

“It has its moments yes,” Ivy interjected, “But the overall stability of regular routine is good when… everything just needs time to settle.”

“Why ya’ askin’ kid?” Harley prodded, stirring Raven’s emotions further.  

Jinx no please-

Do something-

Do nothing-

“I mean, well;” Jinx faltered for a moment as she cast a look around the group, “I just really enjoy your work and I’m kinda in the same boat at the moment, is all.”

“Oh?” Harley inhaled, perking up instantly; “A fan? How quaint!” she exclaimed dramatically, flicking of her hand.  

“You know these women, Jinx?” Alice asked, her tone strained slightly over her name; Raven watched her Aunt’s wheels start to turn.

Jinx’s face started to flush with color.

Raven kept her breathing steady and closed her hands on her lap.

“Y-Yeah,” Jinx replied before looking back to Harley, “We learned about you both at school, we studied all the big names. I was… valedictorian of my class a few times. I’ve done some stuff myself, nothing on the level you do though of course. Or, did,” Jinx rambled hastily.

Harley’s smile widened.

“Well ain’t that just the cutest, ‘ey Red?” Harley shot at her companion.

Ivy seemed not altogether convinced, but she seemed more relaxed and held something of an amused grin against her lips.

“We probably shouldn't be encouraging them Peanut,” Ivy chided.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re layin’ low,” Harley sighed.

Jack cast a worried glance at Alice and seemed wholly resigned; her aunt on the other hand, looked as though she had decided to ignore the oddities of the afternoon, and seemed intent on salvaging the picnic through friendly hospitality.

“So Kid, you from these parts?”

“Nah, Raven and I from Jump, other side of the continent. This is my first time in the city actually, so it’s like, really super cool to actually meet you,” Jinx explained, “And you as well Ms. Isley, I have a few friends back home in bio-chem who are like, super stoked about your work as well.”

“Jinx,” Raven warned.

“And just what kind of work is it that you ladies do?” Jack asked the blonde with slight apprehension.

“Ah well, I used ta’ do it all! Breaking and Entering, Theft, Kidnapping, Petty Vandalism, Intent to Terrorize, First Degree Murder, Second Degree Manslaughter, Resisting Arrest, Wearing a Mask on Public Property, Assault, Unlawful Detention, Unlawful Attraction; the list goes on!” Harley sang cheerfully as she rattled off the list.

Alice and Jack’s expressions shifted further into confusion and something nearing fear.  

“You’re… You’re real?” Alice stuttered in apparent disbelief.

“Naw Honey, I’m just a figment of your collective imaginations in a digital recontextualized and easily digestible format,” she bantered, grinning unnervingly.

“Harley,” Ivy warned.

“Red’s real too; really into plants and saving the planet, if you couldn’t tell.”

“You guys are on the internet!” Billy exhaled loudly; his eyes also as wide as his sister’s, “Everyone at school said you guys are all just local legends that the police made up.”

Harley slapped her hands to her cheeks and made a prolonged noise involving her tongue.

“That’s the sort of rumor that police spread around to keep the normal populations from panicking and starting riots,” Jinx replied flatly; “Jump’s got ‘em too to a lesser extent. With as much news coverage as everything gets, you’d think everyone would smarten up to it after awhile but I guess people only believe what they wanna hear, huh?”

Harley shrugged.

“Wait. ...Jinx,” Jack asked hesitantly, “You said you went to school to learn… these things?”

“Yeah! Merc’ training ain’t easy and with metas and mutants it's best to start ‘em early. That’s the real difference between functioning operatives and like, whatever the fuck it is that HenchCo puts out.”

“HenchCo is good for a bargain,” Ivy offered, “But ultimately useless in Gotham.”   

“I heard Freeze buys some of his tech,” Jinx replied, “He’s got good parts and pieces if you know what you’re looking for, so the word on the grapevine goes. I had a principal that bought one of his Containment Ray Guns once; it seemed to do the trick till he dropped it on the Core Destabilizer.”

“Boys and their toys,” Ivy scoffed, “A little bit of ingenuity and scientific know-how goes a long way, but who needs steel and plasma when you have all of nature at your disposal?”

“So true,” Jinx agreed eagerly; “I like me a nice backup or two same as anyone, but why bother relying on stuff that’ll breakdown and backfire when I can just make the enemies tech backfire on them first? Sure it’s a gamble, but even in Jump you gotta play big or it's not worth playing at all.”

“Oh you got magic then?” Harley asked, perking up, “That’s amazing! Real magic? Or stuff like Ivy’s weird science?”

“Mine’s magic all the way. Luck and probability is my game, and being a hex on society is my name,” Jinx pitched proudly; “I’m still training up, but I got a powerhouse of potential to play with once I pin down how to manage it all properly.”

“So you haven’t mastered it yet,” Ivy asked.

“I mean, you never really ‘master’ magic, you just get really good at knowing what you can do with it and how;” Jinx replied, “I can use it really easily in a deadly fashion, but controlling it to only backlash who or what I want it to is the hard part, since my powers are really volatile.”   

“Is that why you came here Pinky?” Harley asked, “Lookin’ for a way to get fixed quick?”

“Nah, I’m here ‘cause my girl wanted to play family for a bit. She’s on the other side of the tracks, magic too; we go back a ways bantering and deathtraps and all.”

“You’re dating a hero,” Ivy quipped, turning her glance to face her; she stared at her for a moment, making Raven’s skin start to crawl.

Her mouth was dry.

“That’s a… progressive choice,” Ivy offered carefully.

“That’s so sweet!” Harley wailed, knocking the food on the blankets about as she shot through a different position.

“It’s so nice when young love casts away all the differences to really come ta’gether,” she keened.

“You don’t look much like a hero,” Ivy mused.

“She’s got a lot of volatile power too, so she gets the hard stuff, even if she is a sourpuss on the petty shit,” Jinx affirmed quickly, almost proudly; “She’s not like, gonna do nothin’ or anything, as long as nobody else starts nothing first.”

Raven sat back in abject horror as Wisdom swallowed the Rage on her tongue.  

Wisdom also pumped a large breath through her lungs, and forced her to blink humanly.

“Pardon me, but neither you or Raven mentioned anything about being… special, before this,” Jack warbled in weak protest.

“That’s because we agreed it would be best for you all not to know,” Raven answered flatly, cutting Jinx off; Jinx flinched slightly at the pooled venom in her cadence.

“It’s good to keep family informed kiddo,” Harley countered, completely bereft of unease with the growing discord around her; “At least as much as they gotta’ know to keep out of reach, at least.”

“With my sister’s… proclivities, I’m not entirely surprised that her daughter turned out to be a meta, and honestly, the fact that you try to help people is a commendable thing,” Alice offered Raven, still seemingly taken aback by the news.

“We’ll have to talk about this rabble-date of yours though,” Jack insisted, “Not that you aren’t a sweet girl Jinx, but I’m sure there’s some better way of living for you then… whatever it is that you were getting up to.”

“I think I’ll pass on that, honestly,” Jinx replied dryly as she feigned boredom; “Raven’s already chewed my ass out enough that I really don’t care to hear anymore about that kinda stuff.”

“ Jinx,” Raven hissed.   

“Heh, Jinx said ass!” Billy drawled in a singsong voice as Angela’s face recoiled in horror.

“Oh shit yeah, phrasing,” Jinx offered, “My bad. If it helps to know, she hasn’t actually eaten my a-”

Raven made a sound, so utterly unmistakable for something a human couldn't hiss, that the hyenas and amiable avians in the near area momentarily jolted in place.

Her hand, was somehow vice-gripping Jinx’s arm, and Raven couldn’t recall putting it there.

She was Angry, she supposed.

“Right, shit- ah, sorry,” Jinx fumbled, as she tried to visibly string together a line of words that wouldn’t further upset Raven’s kin.

“To be honest, if I met my idols, I’d probably be making a mess of myself too,” Mary-Beth declared, in an obvious, if somewhat naively sweet attempt to divert her family's attention and settle the situation somewhat.

“You know, everytime I meet up with Wonder Woman, I still get all hogtied,” Harley offered.

“Don’t you mean tongue tied?” Billy asked.

“Don’t go there,” Ivy warned at the same time Harley happily replied, “That too!”

Jack’s face grimaced slightly as Alice’s face had the decency to blush.

“You know...” Harley drawled suddenly, turning to Jinx; “I’m a changed gal myself, but if I were younger and still in the business of doing misdeeds, I’d maybe have snippet or two that an up and coming rapscallion such as yourself might be interested in.”

Ivy sighed and leaned her weight on one arm.

“I knew we wouldn’t get a full two weeks,” she muttered.

“I’d be honored, mam,” Jinx replied cheerily.

Raven’s eyes narrowed and she slowly killed the urge inside of herself to rip Jinx’s arm from her torso.

“Jinx,” she stated calmly.

“Why that’s swell to hear!” Harley chimed, “Super in fact. You think you can handle the basic B&E sorta stuff?”

“Absolutely,” Jinx agreed proudly, “my hexes tend to be a bit… damaging. That gonna be an issue? I can go hand to hand without ‘em alright.”

“Jinx.”

“Let’s just say… violence isn'exactly a, concern here sweetie,” she spoke between a chuckle to herself.  

“Sweet, then I’m your gal,” Jinx chimed, miming a salute.  

“Excellent,” Harley stated as she started to stand up.

“There’s a warehouse downtown, you meet me there later tonight and I’ll get you filled in,” she explained as she dusted herself off and Ivy rose to her feet.

“Don’t worry ‘bout benefits any Kid,” she added happily, as Jinx offered her hand to shake; “Mama Harl takes good on her own.”

Jinx nodded.

“See ya then, squirt,” she confirmed as she started walking back to the parted bushes, her hyenas and her partner trailing behind her.

Ivy offered Raven a sparing glance before giving Jinx a curt nod, and closed the bushed behind her.

“That…” Alice trailed as Jack began to speak.

 For some reason, as the other kept talking, Raven couldn't feel her body any longer. 

"͍̟̦͇̥̻̟̩̻̎ͦ̈́͝J̛̬̯͊͐͢͝Ī̳̰̬͍̙̀N̡̺͎͕̹̫͍͕̑͐̈́X̟̳̣̟̎̎͗̈́̈́ͧ̈ͭ̚"̡̫̲̪͙ͧ̕͟

 

Chapter 23

“You look tired sweetie,” Alice babbled affectionately; “Have you been getting enough sleep?”  

“I’m fine Aunt Alice,” Raven nearly sighed in turn, “I’m just worried about… my friend;” she chose sparingly.

“Don’t worry darling, I’m sure she’ll be back before long; it’s getting rather late now after all,” the woman offered warmly as she placed a hand on Raven’s shoulder.

Raven mustered up a small smile for her, one that she hoped was reassuring.

“If you’re worried about her, Jack can drive us around town, and we can go look for her,” Alice suggested.

Raven shook her head.

“Thank you, Aunt Alice, but I think I’d like to... Give her some space. For the moment,” she replied steadily as she glanced at the ticking clock on the kitchen’s wall.

“If you think that’s best dear,” Alice agreed soothingly; she took a sip of her tea and tilted her head slightly, “What did you two fight about?”

Raven ran her tongue along her bottom lip before slightly biting it.

She took a breath, and pushed down her emotions, to give her Aunt a normal smile.

“Just a disagreement in opinions, we’ll sort it out before long.”

Her aunt didn’t look quite convinced, but her smile remained comforting and her eyes remained dull and pleasant.

“Well, I’m sure a prayer or two to the Lord will help push you two back into the right direction,” she stated, “Would you like me to say one for you tonight? It couldn’t hurt.”

Raven’s smile eased slightly.

She nodded.

Alice hummed affectionately as she placed her finished cup on the table and stood up.

“Well then, I’m off to bed. As you should be too, young lady,” she teased; she leaned over and cupped a hand around the back of Raven’s head to pull her gently closer for a kiss before drawing back.

“Sleep well Aunt Alice,” Raven murmured, watching her as she stopped in the kitchen doorway.  

When Alice paused, she turned to face Raven once more.

She smiled.

“Love you, Nieceling,” she teased.

Raven smiled.

“You too, Aunt Lady,” she kidded back.

Alice’s eyes seemed to sparkle for a moment, and then the women turned and Raven watched her walk out of sight.

The lingering feeling of warmth and yellow and melancholy light rested with Raven for a moment, until the moment’s saturation started to seep into blue-orange hues and celery tasting sadness.

The fluorescent light in the kitchen's ceiling hummed.

There were tiny tappings and pings of summer insects swirling, colliding around the porchlight in the lumbering heat past the screen door to the backyard.

The sink faucet dripped slightly; plink, by plink, by offbeat plop.

Raven laid her head in her hands. 

Fuck.

Raven sighed and disappeared into the shadows on the table.

A moment later, she was flying through city encased in her soulself.

She flew just below the rooftops, scanning the streets for stretches of blocks at a time before breaching past the summits of skyscrapers and tramways; a shadow swimming through concrete and graffiti that caused several city inhabitants to startle and run.

Her form, she knew, brought too many notions to them of the caped and cowled man she was attempting to seek.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to search long; the best way to spot the Bat, Robin once told her, was to instead look for his toys; and like a shining, glossy beacon in a desolate urban desert of crumbling infrastructure, the Batjet hovered midair like a patient beast.

The feeling of the machine’s many safety mechanisms slithered against her soulself as she phased through them; the forcefields tingled more than they had the first time she had tried such a feat.

He was learning, Wisdom mused.  

She settled herself into the passenger seat, melted into herself, and took a breath with her human lungs. Beneath her, the shadows of her soulself melted away.

She glanced along the dashboard console unit; glimmering screens, buttons and switches galore. There were a few communication screens open, but they seemed to be on the receiving end and were thusly ignored.   

Instead of touching anything, she leaned back and stared at the ceiling, letting the black metallic color soak into her eyes and trickle down into her soul until she felt her lids deaden with weight and close against her.

She felt almost completely disconnected from herself; she wondered if she'd have smiled at the thought, had she been anywhere but Gotham.

She didn't know how long it'd take for Batman to find her.

The ache in her skull really didn't leave much room for contention; she'd have to meditate, if only sparsely.  

She breathed in.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Her lungs filled, she halted the process, and held the air as she tried to focus on the color of nothingness and the number she wanted to get to.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

There was no feeling of burning in her lungs; she’d spent far too much of her life holding her breath for her body to protest against scant seconds without it, but the number was a reflexive place to stop, hoard the air inside herself, and let it seep out in turn.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

A loud double striking thud rapped against the side of the jet, and Raven turned her head as she opened her eyes to see grey and black-clad armored legs followed by the rest of the costumed hero who owned the vehicle.  

As his head came into view, he looked at her with what Raven felt to be a seconds worth of surprise and mild irritation before he settled himself into his seat.

He immediately searched along his console, pressed a few digital buttons on a few displayed screens before stopping and eyeing her through his cowl.

He waited, silently.

“I don’t have my communicator on me, so I thought it easiest to wait and find you here,” she offered.

Batman continued to look at her. 

“Would you rather me have waited for you where I've been in the way?”

The Batman turned from her to commandeer the ship's steering, and began raising them from the depths of the city.

“I just… wanted you to know that I made an executive decision, and that I stand by it.”

Batman remained silent; the jet broke through the first layer of city smog, into the altitude of nearly normal clouds where the blimps and searchlights swept.

“Jinx however, did not agree with my decision. And… I cannot fault her, it’s not, generally a thing I like to do anyway. But regardless, we fought about it. She’s off in the city, cooling down. I’m letting you know, because I really don’t want her seeing you or Todd trailing her and reaching an erroneous conclusion that nobody trusts her.”

“If she’s putting herself or the city in danger...” Batman warned lowly.

Raven forced herself to take an even breath.

“She's young Bruce, not stupid,” Raven murmured; she glanced out of the window and studied the clouds, “She… has a good heart. Under her pain.”

“Empathizing with a person doesn’t mean you understand what motivates them,” he replied gravely, “You can sense someone’s pain, but you can’t predict what that pain will cause them to do.”

Raven exhaled slowly through her lips.

“I suppose;” she conceded, “But I have a connection with her, not just an emotional one. I've… seen inside of her; her soul, her mind,” she murmured, turning to him, “And I’ve fought with her enough to know how she handles familiar stresses; this… might be an unfamiliar situation, true, but the pieces that make it are usual enough that I think she’ll be okay.”    

“You’ve fought with her,” he repeated.

“Have you ever had a relationship where you haven't fought therein?” she countered.

Batman exhaled something of an assenting huff.

“Be that as it may, Gotham is no place for a midnight stroll, especially for tourists,” he declared softly, “She could get into trouble, whether she wants it or not.”

“I know. But she’s resourceful, moreso perhaps then even Dick; and she knows she has much more than her usual fare at stake. She’ll be careful.”

“Or?” Batman asked, no doubt picking up on the tone of finality in her voice.

Raven’s eyes narrowed, but remained their usual violet instead of red.

“Or there’ll be three new graves come tomorrow morning instead of none.”

“That was a joke,” Raven said quickly, side-eyeing the Bat.

Batman remained firm; whatever dozen cases he was working on still lingering about his shoulders, pressed tightly beneath his back and cape.

“So why are you really here?” he asked; sympathy and apathy rolling off of him in equal waves.

Raven curled her nails along the armrests on her seat, taking comfort from the soft scratching sounds for a moment.

“You’ve… had relationships,” she led.

Batman turned to look at her.

She kept her posture meek and eyes unblinking.

“I’m not… really qualified to give you relationship advice,” he eventually offered.

“Yeah, no shit,” came a feminine voice from the console.

Their attentions turned to the main digital screen to see Batgirl’s name flash along the screen above a livefeed soundwave.

“Not to butt in or anything, but the line was on and I happen to be a girl, and would probably be way better at giving you a hand,” she bantered, “Like, actually communicate! With real words instead of grunts and sudden disappearances for starters,” she shot at her mentor.

“Jinx… probably has more in common with Batman then not” Raven murmured carefully, her words handpicked; “She’s afraid of kindness and genuine connection. Sincerity scares her and she’s in the middle of turning her life around. My… attempts, at mimicking normal human behavior haven’t sat well with her in past and-”

“Okay, hold on. Let’s start with the most urgent part. You two had a fight, right?”

“Yes,” Raven answered evenly.

“Sorry for that;” Batgirl replied politely, “What was it about?”  

Raven side-eyed Batman and squared her shoulders.

“Information was revealed to my family that I didn’t want divulged. I have the power to cleanly, and painlessly, make people forget certain things without influencing them in any other way. I had plans to… shed certain lights about different aspects of the information over time, but the manner in which the information was revealed without my input or approval had to be rectified.”

“...Did Jinx tell your Aunt you were gay or-”

“She told my Aunt’s entire family, that we were dating and that we were trained costumed professionals in front of a third party.”

There was an audible ‘oof’ over the line as Barbara drank the information in.

“Bats already give you the mind-wipe lecture?”

“I assume it's ensuing, once his pertinent problems are taken care of. It's one I’ve heard before, so I expect it’ll be worse this time.”

“You’re the only kid I know who comes to those lectures willingly,” Batgirl replied, an audible shiver in her voice.

Raven shrugged; “I’m used to them. And… it’s good to remember my place, I guess.”   

“Yeah… Anyway,” Batgirl rounded, “So you reset your Aunt and your girlfriend got spooked?”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s a tough one. Did she knowingly breach the security?”

“Yes,” Raven began firmly, before her voice softened, “But she’s not one to do things without reason; she was trying to… descalate a bigger situation.”

“What do you mean?”

“...The third party was from the wrong side of the Island; Jinx has a background… in some of those sorts of things. She was attempting to build camaraderie to keep anything from coming out. It’s just… in her attempt to keep us from having to use our powers and frighten my Aunt, she admitted to everyone in earshot that we had powers and frightened my Aunt. It was... Just bad luck, more then anything.”  

“What happened,” Batman gruffed, his attention suddenly renewed to the conversation.  

“Nobody died,” Raven rushed.

“That’s not a good answer to lead with,” Batman huffed.

“A couple of rogues crashed our family picnic. They weren't there to cause trouble, thankfully, and Jinx kept talking long enough to keep them entertained until they left. No one was hurt, nothing was broken or stolen or set on fire or anything. I swear on my mother’s grave that the situation, aside from Jinx telling my family about me, that everything had been under control. The only reason it was as tense as it was, was because we were trying to not use our powers, and deal with a fight,” Raven explained; “We stayed out of trouble.”

“Who were they?” Batman asked, his tone levying.

“Harleen Quinzel and Pamala Isley, and their two hyenas.”

"Huh, been awhile since Bud and Lou been out and around," Batgirl mused, "I nearly forgot about those droolbags."

The man’s grip on the steering wheel tightened to a point that Raven was minutely worried for the metal.

“They said they were trying to cut clean for a few weeks. No idea why. The hyenas found us first, and Harley came and tumbled in after, with Ivy trailing behind.”

“That could have been… very, very bad,” Batgirl warned.

“I know,” Raven replied, “But they were very pleasant through the whole exchange. Ivy seemed just as eager to get themselves out of there as much as we were, and Harley was content enough eating our hotdogs and doling out ‘advice’ to her new ‘fans’,” Raven murmured.

“Why didn’t you report this?” Batman growled, “They could be anywhere by now.”

“I was, I feel, understandably upset at the time. I spoke with Jinx, and learned her motives for her choice in action, and I told her to wait in the garage while I wiped my Aunt’s familys’ memories. Jinx got upset, and then irate, and stormed out. I performed the wipe and decided to find Bruce. Now here I am.”

“I hate to say it but something tells me BirdGirl, that that extra strength lecture is probably going to be three lectures, six shouts, and a ban from the next Christmas Party,” Barbara offered, her humored pitch trying to lighten the mood.

Raven could only hum in ascent as she drank in the rippling waves of emotion pouring out from the caped crusader sitting beside her.

“Until your inevitable chew out though,” Batgirl began, “Let’s get down the business of what you should do to help patch things back up…”

 

---

 

“So then she just, brainwashes them,” Jinx screamed, flailing her hands as her pitch wavered, her shaking head sending more tears down her face.

“She just, fucking looks at them for a moment, eyes black, says a few magic words and they just… look at her like they've known her all her life , and don’t have a fucking clue what just went down! Or who I am! Or anything ,” Jinx wailed.

“Tactically speaking, it wasn’t a bad move,” the redheaded villain replied absently as she toyed with a pocket knife and dead looking twig.

“And it’s not like she’s the goddamn hero or anything fuck no,” Jinx hissed, “Grade A lead by example girl scout she is fucking hell,” Jinx seethed.

“It’s not like she’s been pissing me to get on the good side and clean up my act or nothin’; goddamn ‘Learn by the book, do what I say not what I do’ bullshit. Fucking good guys know best and get to choose all the morals fucking what the shitting fuckity hecking fuck.”

Harley watched as Jinx paced back and forth along the boardwalk, lollipop tucked firmly between her lips, which pulled out with a loud smacking sound.    

She let the teen vent for a moment more before Ivy shot her a look.

Harley clicked her teeth and clapped her hands together loudly, startling the girl into giving her her full attention.

“Looky here toots,” Harley opened in proclamation, “The good guys? Theys gots good hearts. Good intentions. But they ain’t perfect. They fuck up same as us. And honestly, who wouldn’t use their mindy bindy powers if they had ‘em?”

“Your girl might’ve just wanted to smooth things out for yas’ extended stay is all,” Harley continued firmly, her posture straightened as she took a pose reminiscent of her doctoring days, “She didn’t mess with your head, now did she?”

“She fucking could have,” Jinx muttered, her arms crossed.

“Ah ah ah,” Harley reprimanded, her finger wagging; “But she didn’t.”

“Ivy and I, we’re like two peas in a banana nut pie,” Harley sighed airily, her smile bright as Ivy rolled her eyes behind her, “But we get into all kinds of tiffs,” she explained, her stature and expression sobering up sadly before a look of pride sprung into place; “But we never ever ever ever ever ever, evah,” Harley emphasised, “Kill each oth’ah,” she said matter of factly, her finger held in proclamation.

“We gots our systems, ya know? Hell, all us rogues got our mannerisms and deals and double crosses all lined out. Same with the do-gooder-cape-do-wells too. And this is Gotham!” she stated happily, leaning into Jinx’s face briefly before drawing back again, “So really, you just gotta go with the rolling dogs and have a little faith in the flying Thursdays!”

Jinx regarded her a moment and sighed.

“It’s not that I don't trust her, is the problem,” Jinx lamented. 

“You’re afraid that your trust in her is too much, and she’ll inevitably use it against you,” Ivy offered as the twig in her hand became a leaf frilled snake curling about her fingers.

“That’s standard stuff in Gotham, Sweetheart,” Harley offered, tapping her foot; she snapped her fingers, “I’d recommend you and your feathered friend have a heart to heart. Heroes are notorious over that sort of existential angsty stuff. Eat it up like powdered candy floss,” she drawled happily.

Jinx nodded slightly, agreeing thoughtfully as she considered the idea.

From her spot on the fence behind them, Ivy stirred and Jinx looked to her.

“If you knew she was a hero, why did you think she wouldn’t react at all to you outing her in front of her parents or whatever?”

Jinx fought the urge to fidget and took a steadying breath before looked away from Ivy’s piercing stare and looked out instead to the frothing sea.

“I knew she’d react, but, I just had to. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself, if I’d’ve kept my mouth shut ‘n all. I would've spent the rest of my life wondering what woulda’ happened if I’d jumped at the chance to talk to you guys,” Jinx explained fadingly, her tone just as lost in thought as she was.

“I’m not stupid, I would’ve turned down the offer if it’d been too dangerous or whatever. I wouldn't have risked the baby. I just… needed to know I was good enough to get the first step, is all… I guess…”  

Jinx hung her head and gripped the railing harder; the wind scored her face with sea salt, stinging her pores, burning against her faded tear stains.

The ocean before them continued to roll in on itself, crashing tiny wave against tiny wave against weathered dinghies, decrepit barges, and nefarious yachts alike. 

Harley Quinn plopped herself on the fence and slid over to Jinx, poised dramatically, her eyes large and bright.

"Did ja' say baby?"

Chapter 24

“Okay, I really didn’t want to bug you until morning, but we need to skip town and we only have so long before Batman figures out where we are.”

Jinx spun around from her interrupted conversation with Gotham’s most notorious femme fatales, to see Raven gliding to a halting landing several feet away, her expression perfectly neutral, though flushed from a seeming lack of breath.

“Ex- cuse me?” Jinx drawled as Raven let her hands hover, as if she were torn about what to do with them.

“I… may have told Batman about the memory wipe, and the picnic, and insinuated that he had unhealthy coping mechanisms that clouded his own judgments in relationships, and insulted his tates in music; and trust me when I say that stress isn’t good for you in your current condition, and there’d be nothing more stressful for either of us than if the Bat got ahold of you to talk about what happened this evening and saw you here with Gotham’s Queens of Crime,” Raven explained quickly, “We have to get back to Jump City; he won’t follow us there for risk of having to have a heart to heart with our Robin. Every second we waste is an unnecessary minute closer we get to having to sit through a lecture stuffed interrogation and I really don’t want that to be a thing that happens tonight. I’m already running low from everything and if I go any longer without proper mediation things are likely to get ugly. Really ugly. I can’t even taste colors that aren’t electrolyte lime anymore.”  

Jinx looked at the Titan for a moment, waiting for her brain to simply catch up with all of the things the girl had just said.

“Why… were you talking with Batman in the first place?”

“I… asked him for relationship advice, and then I had to explain why I needed it and what had led up to the point, and by then I’d decided to screw it and just get back to Jump. We’re making things too complicated. I miss my room.”

“You asked... Batman, for relationship advice?” Ivy asked incredulously; Harley smiled broadly, likely glad for the evening’s newfound novelty.

Raven parted her mouth slightly, confusion lining the arch of her own brows while she twitched ever so slightly in her fingertips.

Jinx put a hand to her mouth and fought to stifle an unflattering snort.

She was unable to do so however, and giggles started spilling out from under her hand until the cacophony of her guffawing rolled into breathless, rapturous laughter that had Jinx’s eyes shut tight and watering while her body jittered rhythmically.

“Hey’a, not to interrupt or nothin,” Harley interjected as she walked over next to Jinx and stuck her hands on her hips, “But you lot have some nerve showin' up in Gotham with your baby momma in tow;” the clown shot at Raven with a slight scowl, “Tidbit here was tellin’ me all ‘bout your adventures together and that adrenaline junkie lifestyle is not good f’er ‘yas,” she insisted.

“Not to mention, you really shouldn’t be goin' around messin’ with people’s brains if you're not a medical professional,” she added as she straightened her posture and smiled broadly, “Take it from me,” she furthered, jabbing her chest with her thumb, “I’m a revoked-license professional.”

Raven’s composure visibly faltered again, her hands quivering slightly.

“If you’re going to coerce your girlfriend into a life of good living, you better lead by example,” Ivy added lacklusterly as she toyed with her now larger plant-snake along her shoulders.

“I was leading by example,” Raven insisted her tone as harsh as Jinx remembered it from their fighting days in Jump City; “I was cleaning up the mess she made so she’d have a chance to fix her mistakes.”

“Her mistakes huh?” Harley thrilled as she twirled her lollipop almost menacingly in her hand.  

“Look, at this point, the fact that you went to Batman for dating advice explains so much that I don’t even care anymore,” Jinx mused after a short sigh; “Just don’t pull that crap again and we’re good I guess.”  

“What about your… idols?” Raven asked hesitantly as she stared at Harley.

“I never start something on a Friday that can’t get done by Monday morning,” Jinx declared, rolling her shoulders and slipping on a grin; “Bad luck.”   

“...Of course,” Raven murmured; “If you’re good then let’s go.”

“I didn’t say we could go yet,” Jinx countered, pulling her arm back from Raven. She turned to look at her new colleagues and offered a hesitant grin.

“So um…” she trailed, scratching her head. 

“Go on, get outta’ here,” Harley demanded warmly; “Ya did good kid,” she commended as she tapped Jinx’s cheek affectionately.  

Jinx’s smile brightened considerably, and then Harley gripped her chin, her expression folding somewhat menacingly.

“And you betta’ take care of that kid, you hear me?” she insisted, “Even I would lie low if I had a tadpole in the toaster.”

Harley let go of Jinx’s face and stepped back, pleased either with herself or the night’s events.

In the distance, the sound of a large machine roared steadily closer.

“Well, this is your cue then, kiddos;” Harley declared, standing proud, “Batman should be here any minute and we got a bone to pick with him.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for the party?” Ivy mused, “We could use your bad luck to down his jet. Make things simpler.” 

“Don’t worry,” Jinx answered happily, “I leaked enough bad luck while we were talking into the docks to do God only knows what! Once he lands, something’s bound to happen. Probably a whole lot of something’s actually. Stuff will probably be very on fire, very soon.”

Harley clasped her hands in delight while Ivy looked like she swallowed down an expectant sigh.

“Fair enough,” Ivy offered, “Get gone then.” 

Jinx offered them both a smile before walking over to where Raven had retreated.

“And keep me updated!” Harley shouted, as Raven freed her soulself from her body; “I want baby pics!” she squealed.

Jinx’s grin was quickly swallowed by Raven’s darkness.

 

---

 

 

The feeling of stable reality around her body was nauseating. 

Jinx fell to her knees and tried not to heave as she blocked out the overwhelming sunlight pouring into her from all directions.

“Take it easy,” Raven warned. 

Jinx opened her eyes slowly, and watched as grass came into focus before her.

The plants felt almost welcome under her fingers; Gotham’s grass felt so less alive, so less full, than Jump City’s vegetation. Something Jinx never thought she’d learn or appreciate.

“It’s weird,” Jinx stated, as she closed her eyes another moment. 

Raven waited for her to elaborate. 

“I can… feel Jump,” Jinx mumbled, still under the stress of such a lengthy reality jump.

“Interesting,” Raven murmured; the Titan placed a hand on Jinx’s shoulder, and remained silent until Jinx found the inner composure to stand up.

Raven withdrew her hand and Jinx stretched before taking a long hard look around the city street they landed in.   

“I robbed that place once,” Jinx mused as she eyed the opposing secondhand store.

“Somehow, I am unsurprised,” Raven replied evenly. 

Jinx turned to look at her.

The girl looked deadbeaten; shoulders slumped, breathing long but labored. Her eyes held a grim light to them that reminded Jinx of the stares she’d see during assessment weeks at the HIVE.

“You look like shit,” Jinx observed. 

“Thanks,” Raven replied monotonously.

Jinx smiled.

“So, what’s the plan now that we’ve made our great escape from our great escape?”

Raven pressed her eyelids together slowly; Jinx could practically feel the exhaustion radiating off of her.

“Actually, I got an idea,” she offered; “I’ll head back to the HIVE-” 

Raven’s head shot up, her eyes wide. 

“-And get my stuff,” Jinx continued, silencing Raven’s initial panic, “And get all that straightened out, while you go… meditate… or sleep… or whatever it is that you do,” she trailed off as she looked Raven thoroughly over once more, concern lacing her cataloging; “When I’m done I’ll meet you someplace, if you want? Then we can go do whatever without your friends freaking out.”

“I want us to meet them together,” Raven replied firmly.

“If you’re banking on chances, remember that I’m the worst account,” Jinx warned.

“I’ll withdrawal as necessary,” Raven teased gently, her voice weak.

Jinx’s smile drifted into a frown. 

“You’ll be okay?” she asked gently.

Raven nodded along to a hummed note.

“I’ve been in worse states.”

“I’d prefer to forget Gotham for awhile,” Jinx teased, “if you don’t mind.”

The corner of Raven’s mouth began to upturn, and Jinx felt herself grow a little warmer.

“All right then, get out of here or whatever. Can’t have you following me to the ‘secret base’ and all,” Jinx decreed with punctuating finger quotes.

“I’ll be waiting for you… somewhere. You’ll find me,” Raven promised.

“If not, I take full right to rob any bank I like,” Jinx replied mirthfully.

She grinned and winked at the Titan, who scoffed lightly before taking to the air in an avian form.

She watched the shadow disappear along the city buildings before exhaling a long breath herself.

“The fuck am I gonna’ explain this?” she asked, to no one in particular. 

Chapter 25

Stepping foot into the HIVE’s unhallowed and atrociously yellow lit halls brought a myriad of emotions to Jinx’s attention; her walking down the hallway also stirred up her fellow resident’s attentions, which she noticed mostly within her peripheral vision. 

She walked passed several of her lower classmates without so much as a nod; she had something of a reputation of being blunt but fair, and this was an occasion where she chose to mark her strides with purpose, to avoid unnecessary chatter.

There would be rumors enough, once she completed her new goal anyway.

She was going to miss being one of the centers of gossip.

Jinx passed students and red-hooded figures alike; the teachers were busy lecturing in their classrooms, but Jinx reflexively noted which teachers eyed her as she walked past their doors.  

She fought the urge to sneer at them as she passed; she was sure they’d love to give her a mouthful about skipping lessons, once they learned she had come home empty handed and egging them on wouldn’t help her ease tensions.

Jinx stole an apple as she passed through the lunchroom, her presence causing flurries of desired reactions; she took a mental stock of the time, figuring who would be where and which of her friends would be between classes.

Her first stop, after figuring everyone’s schedules, was to the school’s other residential top student.

A quick buzz on the door’s touchscreen brought a swift crackling of pink static, popping the door open regardless of its undefined locked state; Jinx entered unceremoniously.

“What the f-” shrieked a girl; as she spun around, the look on her face went from vivid anger to dulled annoyance.

“Oh, it’s you,” she exhaled before turning back around to finish undressing; “Hey girl.”   

“Hey Bee,” Jinx greeted cheerfully as she plopped herself on her frenemy's bed.

“So any reason you decide to waltz your pansy ass down to my room and break my door down after skipping town for a week? I was just getting used to the silence, thought maybe your cotton candy hair havin’ melted or some shit,” Bumblebee rambled as she unbuckled her pants; “Nice time leavin’ too, ditchin’ out on Dog Day, fuckin’ A,” she muttered; “Nearly got my ass chomped and you’re off god knows where. Shit,”

“Yeah.... actually um, about that. Me leaving town I mean,” Jinx began, lacing her words with chosen hesitance.

Bumblebee spun around.

“What did you do? Did the cops follow you? Are we gettin’ raided?”

“No,” Jinx assured her quickly; “It’s just a me thing. Wanted to talk to you about it first since the guys wouldn’t understand.”

“Girl troubles, huh? What, you burn down an orphanage on your period or something?”

Jinx smiled, waving the girl off; “Nah, just a honeypot scheme I gotta burn through on, is all.”

BumbleBee’s eyes widened.

“What kinda honeypot we talkin’?”

“Whole nine yards Bee;” Jinx answered truthfully; “I’ma’ need you to walk me to the nurse. Got some forms to fill out.”

“Holy shit,” Bumblebee exhaled, surprise at the weight of the situation drawing around her shoulders.

She ran a hand along her cheek before whistling lowly.

“So you knocked up, is what?”

“Yup.”

“And you plain’ for big money?” Bee inquired further.

“The biggest.”

Bumblebee took another deep breath.

“Oh boy,” she murmured before straightening up.

“All right Candy, I’ll walk your sorry ass to the nurse but you fillin’ them forms out yo’self ‘cause I ain't dealin’ with no more of your bullshit. Get your thugs to do ‘em, I don't care.”

“Thanks Bee,” Jinx replied warmly, standing up.

“You might want to put some clothes on first,” Jinx teased.

BumbleBee sighed deeply once more and started muttering to herself again.

“You’re just lucky Kitten’s in Trigonometry right now or I’d have her starchy ass escort you.”

“Has Kitten ever even been to the nurse before?” Jinx mused, “I thought her Daddy dearest paid for her to get like, real doctors and shit. Dimestore drugs and all.”

BumbleBee huffed an amused breath; “Daddy dearest don’t know everything ‘bout his little ho child. She’s seen the nurse twice over, and she’s not even goin’ steady with that half-wit bug boy.”

Jinx’s grin faltered slightly.

“Yeah… imagine that,” she managed; “I’ve actually never been. Which is why I’m asking.”

Bumblebee’s eyes narrowed for a moment before she shrugged.

“Strange; woulda’ pegged you for it to be honest,” she replied as she started pulling out items from her drawers and draping them on her chair.

“I know right? Like, I’m bad luck walking, you’da’ thought all kinds of shit woulda’ been my deal till nothin’ surprised anyone at all.”

“Suppose that’s how it keeps you on your toes,” BumbleBee offered as she tugged on her fresh uniform.

“Probably.”

“Anyway, you said you planned this one,” she countered, giving Jinx the side-eye as she did so.

“It was… kinda the best way to fix everything actually. One of those, once in a lifetime opportunities you gotta go big on. Huge gamble. Huge risk. Unfathomable rewards; that sort of thing.”

“Girl, I don’t care what crazy shit you do,” BumbleBee declared; “You wanna have some creep’s kid to blackmail them into funding you a cushy setup, that’s yo’ business. Just don’t come cryin’ to me, expectin’ me to change no diapers and whatall.”

“ Please , you kiss ass for the thrill of it, you’d beg to change my kid’s diapers if you knew what kinda benefits I’m bout’ta be packin’.”  

BumbleBee scoffed.

“And what kinda backass benefits are those, hmm? We in Jump City, foo’, this ain’t Gotham! There ain’t no high money thugs! And the closest thing to drug dealer chic we got is the carpets in the pizza arcades.”

Jinx’s grin widened animalistically; a feral delight warmed her.

“There’s all kinda’ powerful people in Jump. You just gotta know what you’re lookin’ at when you look.”  

BumbleBee paused for a moment and looked at her.

“You watch yo’self Pink Thing,” she warned; “When you play with fire other people ain’t the only ones who get burned.”

“Yeah yeah,” Jinx lilted dismissively, hopping up from the bed; “Jeez it’s like you care for me or something.”

“Or something,” BumbleBee agreed.

After BumbleBee suited up, they stepped into the hall, pointedly ignoring the malfunctioning door.

“Maintenance will take care of it,” Jinx assured her; “You and I got top priority.”

“After teachers and Redcloaks you mean,” the girl added.

Jinx shrugged a shoulder, leaving well enough alone.

The hallways enticed a familiar sort of vertigo into Jinx, as they traversed into the less frequented parts of the school.

The red cloaked figures were in denser quantities in such areas, and Jinx staved of a shudder as they passed through a crowd of them to get to their destination.  

The nurse’s office was poorly lit.

It looked almost completely composed out of filing cabinets, and the lone desk with the garishly small terminal cast the hook-nosed woman behind the counter with a distasteful green glow.

“Hello dearies, what can Mother do for you today?”

“Hey Mae-Eye,” Bee replied curtly; “Jinx needs the get out of school free forms, maternal editions. Should be in the extraneous circumstances section,” she stated evenly.  

The elderly three-eyed witch looked them both over, her third eye lingering longer on Jinx; she adjusted the spectacles on her nose as she began to type something into her terminal.

“Are you sure you don’t want to just sneak into the back, dearie? Babies are a lot of work, they’re a lot like parrots you know.”

“I’d like to keep all my internal organs with my today, thanks,” Jinx answered firmly, “Even the new ones I’m growing.”

“Are you sure? The Doc’s got a special today! Half off limb replacements!”      

“Oh, you mean like biotic arms?” BumbleBee inquired curiously.

“No Dearie, half off as in you’ll get half a bionic arm! For half the price!” May-Eye replied happily.

“Yeah no, I’m keeping my kid. If I wanted her gone I’da’ve gotten rid of it two weeks ago,” Jinx insisted, eyeing both her friend and the old crone with mild suspicion.

“Ah well, your call love. Keep in mind that if you want to make use of our daycare program, you’ll have to sign a waiver and a disclosure agreement or two if you want to enroll them for free; the Doc will want to test the little darling from time to time, you know how it goes.”

Mother Mae-eye adjusted her spectacles again and looked at her expectantly.

Jinx sighed and rubbed her forehead.

“Just the maternal leave forms, please,” she asked tiredly.

The three-eyed witch spun her seat slowly and hunched over one of the farther filing cabinets, leafing through the folders with long gnarled digits.

“Is this the first time you’ve needed these forms dearie?” the old woman asked.

Jinx sighed an affirming hum.

After a few moments, Mother Mae-Eye found what she was looking for and pulled out a very formal looking paper that made Jinx cringe internally.

“I hate paperwork,” Jinx muttered.

“Most people do dear,” the old woman agreed as she placed the paper on the desk; she adjusted her spectacles once more before grabbing a pencil from the drawer beside her.

“Now then, what is your name?”

“Jinx Castor.”

“What’s your middle initial?”

“E.”

Mother Mae-Eye nodded and scribbled the name down.

“How old are you dear?”

Jinx grimace, turning a blank, she looked at BumbleBee, who looked her over for a moment before answering for her; “Put her down as seventeen,” she guessed.

Mother Mae-Eye hummed and scribbled it in.

“When did you get… blessed, with the little bug?”

Jinx thought back a moment, her eyes roving over the lint covered ceiling.

“About three weeks ago, I guess.”

Mother Mae-Eye hummed and penciled it in before looking up at her.

“And who is the lucky fellow, then?”

“Is that really necessary?” Jinx asked; she tried to keep her self consciousness from leaking into her tone but felt that she did a poorer job of it than she would have liked.

“Actually, I really wanna’ know this too,” BumbleBee insisted, crossing her arms, her expression curious but expectant.

“Sorry dear, it’s on the form,” the old crone replied consolingly; “Best be quick about it. Makes things simpler.”

Jinx sighed and folded her arms over her chest.

“An interdimensional demon; possessive, aggressive, mostly benevolent.”

BumbleBee's expression fell into disbelieving surprise.  

“Sold your soul to the devil, dearie?” the old woman chirped, her third eye swiveling to get a better look at her stomach; Jinx felt a compulsion to cover her stomach, to keep the witch’s eye from seeing through her clothing to the glowing four eyes she could feel underneath her skin, but refrained.

“Pretty much. I asked for all the benefits up front though, so I still got a little wiggle room if I need it,” Jinx offered regally; she was starting to sweat, and it made her feel disgusting. She really, really hated how humid and dead the air in the room around them was. Since she couldn’t do anything about it, she tried to keep face; her composed assurance seemed to quell BumbleBee’s opinions at least, from what she could tell.  

She just wished the ancient woman behind the counter looked as convinced.

“There’s no winning with devils, dearie,” the witch warned.

“With my luck, I’ve been fighting a losing battle all my life anyway. Might as well enjoy the trip,” Jinx offered as she shrugged.

Mother Mae-Eye exhaled a funny little scoffing hum before turning back to the form in front of her.

“Now then,” she began, “Let’s get down to the gritty boring parts…”

Jinx and BumbleBee exhaled nearly comically matched groans.

Jinx really, really , hated paperwork.

 

Chapter 26

BumbleBee parted ways as they exited from the office, leaving Jinx alone with her thoughts in the narrow, and slightly off kilter, hallway.   

A flock of redcloaks were congregated a bit too nearby for Jinx’s liking. 

She sneered at them in disgust; it wasn’t worth her time to try to scare them off, so with some reluctance, she chose to simply ignore them and wander back the way she and Bumblebee had come.

It was, somehow easier to get lost, traversing back.

The corridors appeared to slowly rotate upon themselves and snake into tinier, darker alleys and nooks that led to other likely horrible places filled with paperwork and bureaucracy.

The redcloaks seemed to be keeping track of her; singularly now, rather than in packs.

She wondered if she should have put done “Gothamite” under the paternal inquiry on the packet and then reminded herself that she had thought better of it for the lack of a phone number an underworldian partner would theoretically have, thus ensuring the school wouldn’t be able to follow up on the claim.

“Sure not gonna miss you fuckers,” she murmured to herself, passing another robed figure by.

The hallways finally opened out into larger, more commonly trodden rooms of orientation, and Jinx allowed herself to decompress. The redcloaks were easier to ignore among the throngs of busy students.

Some of the students had apparently gotten word of her return; Angel was practically pushing through the lollygaggers and migraters to get to her, a smile wide on her face. 

“Jinx!”

“Hey Ange,” she replied warmly as the girl came up to greet her.

“The others are in the lounge, they’re gonna be pissing themselves when they find out you’re back!”

The girl’s wings unfolded, parting the sea of students at her proclamation; Jinx didn't begrudge her for it, the girl had done enough for her in the past that giving her a few brownie rep points now by letting the other students see that Angel was the 'first person' Jinx was dishing with, was easily not out of the question. 

“Come on! Less noise than out here,” Angel explained, catching her look; she spun as she took hold of her arm.

Less ears, too, Jinx thought, following along.

Angel ferried her through a few halls and stairwells, down a familiar wing with a familiar crack in the walls and some signature singes along the ceilings. Jinx smiled, at seeing them.

“Still haven’t fixed this yet, have they?” she joked, nostalgia seeping into her grin.

Angel gave her an odd look; Jinx wetted her lips at the realization that she had been thinking about the school as if it was the final time she was going to see it.

For some fair amount of time, Jinx then reasoned, she supposed it was.

Catching the likely amount of sorrow in her eyes, Angel slowed their pace, but dragged her to their group’s sequestered teacher’s lounge.

The rush of memories that flooded her, as she stepped into the beaten up, dingy room brought back the pep in her step and the curl to her smile; she had fought nastily, and diligently, to win this room away from the teachers, and she and her boys had kept it from them, even after all this time. It was an accomplishment that for the moment at least, was one worth relaxing into.

Her boys, and a few other boys besides, were scattered about the room.

“Jinx’s back,” Angel stated flatly; Jinx wasn’t surprised that after announcing her, the girl disregarded the opportunity for heavier group socialization in favor of sitting on her favorite spot on the couch, where no doubt, Kyd Wykkyd would soon be joining her.

She took it as a compliment that the girl had even escorted her to start with; there was a solidarity here, among the girls of the Hive Jinx thought, that she was surely going to miss.

Jinx nodded at Angel and to a few of the lesser friends milling about the room in various time wasting activities as she walked over to the poker table. 

Her boys had turned to face her, grins and scowls ridden amongst them alike.

“Hey Boss,” Mammoth greeted, his voice deep and lazy. He was holding a terrible hand, for what she was assuming was a game of Joker-Gin they were all playing as for the most part, it was the most common card game amongst the school; Jinx wondered briefly of the marked deck she usually played with before pondering it away.  

Gizmo made a weirdly pitched elongated grunting noise; ever the ill-tempered little goblin of the group, Jinx mused fondly.

See-More smiled at her briefly; most of his attention was focused on looking from his cards, and at the hand that Gizmo was trying to shield from him.

A Billy jumped up from his seat before jumping into another one of himself, making a place for her to sit which she took promptly; seats were quick to lose, in her circles, and she didn't want to play the “lap sitter” tune if she didn’t have to, with the sort of news she was planning on imparting. 

Some of the boys, even the ones hovering in the fringes, seemed to catch on to her serious mood but the air was of a usual mild curiosity than that of any sort of distress.

The look on Wykkyd’s face made Jinx chuckle; he was certain she had come with another crackpot mission in tow.

She winked at him, earning a scowl from Angel; she turned away as the girl dug her nails into the boy’s arm.

They were really a cute couple, she felt; she'd miss Angel's jealous streak. Made evenings delightfully catty.      

Her attention turned, she regarded the table. 

“You want us' should deal you in?” Mammoth asked, just as lazily as before.

His good mood was infectious, and Jinx found herself slumping in her seat.

“Nah, I’ll let you guys finish the round first,” she decided; Gizmo hated to stop things in the dead of its tracks and start anew and lose unsaved progress.

His tantrums wouldn’t be worth the effort , she thought. 

“So, where ya’ been, boss?”

“Hell. Heaven. Gotham,” Jinx answered brightly; her chipper tuned tone perked up a few of the boy’s attention’s and See-More and Gizmo shot her a look.

“Like, Gotham Gotham?”

“Actual Heaven?” A Billy asked, at the same time a differing Billy asked, “Actual Hell?”

“Yes, yes, and yes,” Jinx answered, in the same cheery tone. Her grin was shit-eating and she leaned back on the legs of her chair; waiting for the boys to bite.

“Alright, I’ll bite,” Mammoth offered, as she expected he’d would; “Tell us ‘bout ‘n shit.”

“There’s no way you went to literal heaven,” Gizmo muttered; “Hell I’d believe.”    

“I mean, Gotham could be like, both, right?” a Billy asked. 

“Hell was sixteen hours through the midwest highway staring at nothing but sand while the half naked chick in my sideseat remained specifically, not naked,” Jinx declared; she delighted in the way See-More’s face fell in starlement at the same time Gizmo’s sneered in disgusted expectation; the Billy’s, for the most part, all looked eager to hear the story.

“And we’re driving right? And this literal demon out from Hell pulls up as we were finally gettin’ our mack on, and he’s like ‘I’m gonna make you all punished’ and shit, and my girl was like ‘fuck you’ and stole his bike after I hit him with a truck,” Jinx stated delightedly.       

“Classic,” Mammoth huffed, still looking at his cards. 

“Then the demon gets another bike, so like, we’re biking it across the desert, ass naked, truck blown up, and we ride off a cliff and fall smack into heaven, and it’s like, all broken and run down and shit-”

“-Figures,” Gizmo muttered.

“Guess it makes sense, if you think about it,” a Billy murmured as he scratched his head; “Don't think about it too much Billy,” a different Billy answered him, “It ain’t good fer’ us.”

“-So then we crash in heaven for a bit, pick up some hot threads and jacked a sacred book,” Jinx continued, “So then we were like wtf we doin’ now? And we were like, Gotham. Next thing I know, we’re sitting in Batman’s house, sippin’ his soup, we blow up the soup, we get the hell out of his soup-space, -we did thank his butler though, omg he was great- and then-”

Gizmo had a personified glitch at the same time Mammoth and the other boys splattered their cards and drinks over the table; even Angel was keyed into her conversation now.

Jinx preened; jostling her shoulders a bit. 

“So then we leave the Bat’s lair, and my dame is all wanting to get all day-time domestic so we head to the park, right? And we’re gettin’ down on this blanket in the woods when all of sudden…” 

“Bam ,” she shouted, slamming her fist on the table, making the boys jump.

“Out pops two Hyenas that look like they've been dunked in’a vat of kool aid, and none other than her crime queen herself, Harley. Fucking. Quinn.”

“Bullshit,” Mammoth whispered at the time See-More quietly exclaimed, “No way,” in awe. 

“And with her,” Jinx strung, building up the dramatic tension, “the elegant, the deadly, the toxic, Poison Fucking. Ivy.”

“They fucking sat their asses down on our picnic, ate our shit, and gave me a job. On the fucking Spot,” Jinx exclaimed in a high pitched whine.

“It was fucking beautiful ,” she keened, gesturing with hands, “They were so fucking on the level, so demure, so talented, so fucking Cool .”

“BULL,” a Billy cried, slamming his hands against the table, standing. 

“Ain’t no way you talked to Har’ ley Quin’ n , let alone the Bat ,” he spewed.

“I did. Fuckin. Too,” Jinx stated calmly, her enthusiasm purposefully drained; “You callin’ me a liar?” 

The Billy gulped. 

“It’s fuckin illogical, improbable,” Gizmo growled, disregarding the jibe.

“I ain’t callin’ you a liar,” one of the Billy’s answered; “No Mam.”

“I don’t know,” she sang warningly, looking at her nails, “I think you are.”

“Please,” Mammoth cut in, “Don’t do the luck thing, just tell us what happened.”

“Just tell you,” she scoffed, eyeing him; she was goading him about the pecking order, but it was mostly a jest.

“Please Boss, if you’d be kind enough to grace us,” he dolled with just enough sarcasm and sincerity to be both acceptably amusing and quelling.

“Alright, so I ditch my dame at her family’s house and ride out to the docks to meet up with the girls,” Jinx explained calmly, the memory vivid in her mind; “They got a tip off that someone was jackin’ their joint and they didn’t stand with that. So, they ask me to fuck over the whole wharf with my hex juice, and I say’s ‘sure’; now, we get to waitin’ awhile cause there’s time to kill, and they gave me all kinda pointers and advice on the house, seems how since I was under their payroll an’ all.” 

“Holy shit,” See-More murmured.

The Billy’s collective eyes were alight in wonder.

“So anyway we wait long enough and the trap for the Bat gets all set off; they tell me to kick it, so I grab my girl and I’m gone,” Jinx continued blandly, as if the memory now bored her.

Gizmo’s conflicted look of belief almost made Jinx’s heart light up a funny color.

“So...” See-More drawled. 

“Batman has a butler?” Mammoth asked, breaking some of the moment.

Jinx grinned. 

“I stole some of his cutlery. He’s a perfect gentleman. I want him to adopt me,” she enthused.

“But, that Batman, like, the Batman,” Gizmo insisted. 

“Did you see his cars?” a Billy shouted, leaning over the table to fall closer to her in excitement.

“Fuck yeah I did!” Jinx gleamed.

“Holy shit how many were there?” Mammoth asked, “I bet there were dozens,” he thought aloud.

“Hundreds,” Jinx stated, shrugging; “Counting all the kinds I bet, easily.”  

“How did you even get in ?” a voice exclaimed, coming from one of the boys not at the table, who was leaning on the couch.

“Simple,” Jinx sang, waving a hand around in the air, covered in a glittering pink glow.

She let the visual aid speak for itself before storing her powers away again. 

“Are you, like, working for Harley now?” asked a beefy boy at the air hockey table; one of Mammoth’s friend’s, Jinx placed; Wrestling Star.

Jinx tapped her nose twice; a collective gasp fell about the room followed by a quick stifling hush.

The students all gathered closer.

“Was she hot?” a quiet voice asked; a green boy, XL Terrestrial, that Jinx shared a few classes with. She tried not to look at him too long; she didn’t like that the boy lacked the ability to blink. 

“Which one?” she asked coyly, placing her chin on her hand, her arm propped up on her knee.

“All of them,” Mammoth answered for the alien kid, an affronted growl in his voice.

Jinx let loose a humming, pleased, sigh; light and airy and long, as if she were caught in a pleasant daydream about successful jewelry heists.

“Harley Quinn….” she drawled, the words sang slightly off kilter; “She’s a poisoned cherry in your fuckin’ favorite milkshake. Stylish with a specific, unparalleled brand of making pigtails look sophisticated and deadly; perky chest, good legs; nice ass. Great abdomen. Girl works out. She could crack a joke and smack me with that giant hammer of hers and I’d still be laughing.”  

“Hard to beat a blonde,” Wrestling Star stated, earning a scowl from Angel. 

“And Ivy?” another boy asked; a Billy stuck behind the others, Jinx figured.

Jinx whistled.

“She’s mean, green, and a certifiable man-eating machine. She’ll cut you up, grind you into fertilizer, and you’d fucking thank her for it ‘cause she’s just that kinda classy. Has a body that will not fucking stop, and everyone should be grateful for it, if you're into that.”

“I could dig it,” the alien boy mused as he shrugged. 

“What about this mystery girl of yours,” Gizmo snarked, “what’s she bloody like, huh?”

“Yeah you never told us you had a girl,” Mammoth wondered aloud, scratching at his beard.

Jinx, outwardly perfectly poised and calm; took a breath, letting her eyes close for the briefest of slow blinks.

She opened her eyes and pursed her lips as a sudden thought struck her. 

They couldn’t know.

Not yet. 

“She’s uh, not remarkable in any way shape or form. None of you would ever be interested in her,” Jinx stated off handedly, in a slight rush.

“Oh my God, she’s hotter than Harley,” Wrestling Star stated. 

A few murmurs went around and Jinx groaned, her head in her hands.

“Who is she, if she’s that hot that you don't wanna tell us, we gotta know!” the billy closest to her cajoled, swatting her on the arm.

Jinx pulled her arm away from him and sighed.

“No it's, uh. Well...” she fumbled. 

How do I say this...

“Come on, tell us already!” Gizmo cried, “I got shitdick todo today and this’all better be good.”

“I uh, may have been…” she started, before stopping herself, “Okay, I was scamming a highprofile target and then I had a grade A opportunity, so I’m weaseling my way into easy living and I can’t say anything more without blowing everything over.”

The wide eyed stares of the group thronged around her was intimately reassuring.

“Holy shit,” See-More spat.

“Boss,” Mammoth murmured, almost worriedly.

“Alright, everybody out!” Gizmo shouted, his pack unfolding his limb enhancements and taragtal firing systems; he warmed up a missle for a warning shot, but most of the non-ranked students knew enough to get out of his way and flood out of the door without question.

When the room was emptied, Jinx’s group clustered around her, for actual answers.

“So you movin’ to Gotham?” Mammoth asked, his posture and tone clearly not happy with the idea. Jinx didn't blame him; they’d been friends for too long not feel the sting of separation now.

“What’s the plan?” a Billy asked, a bunch of the Billy’s around the room consolidating until there were a final three, or four.

“What’s the angle?” See-More asked.

“The catch,” Gizmo spat, hovering in midair with his pack.

“I’m… going to be gone for awhile. Doing this,” Jinx began, slowly. There was no pretense in her voice, no flashy lilts or sing-songs of flair.

Her posture, her tone, her sincerity, was clear.

It scared them, she observed.

“Boss, are you…” Mammoth asked quietly; she’d known him long enough, to know that his mind was racing down the times Jinx had fallen into dark patches of wrestling with herself and the moments where she hadn't come out on top.

He’d seen her bleed too much, to not ask now.

“I’m good big guy,” Jinx offered gently, a soft smile on her lips, a sadness in her eyes.

He didn’t look convinced, but his posture indicated that he wanted to believe her, and that was good enough for the moment.

“So who's the vic?” Gizmo asked; “What are you playin’ at?”

Grumbly as he was, Jinx could see the unease written all over his shoulders; she smiled. Gizmo never did like it when she didn’t plan her missions with him, she mused, sensitive tactician that he was. 

“I’m going to be in ‘protective custody’ awhile, it’s a long range thing,” she explained vaguely.

Angel, having wandered over from the couch when the rest of the crowd had gathered, looked at her pointedly.

Jinx watched her from her peripherals, but didn’t engage her. 

“I’ll message you all as I can, but, things’ll likely take some time to settle.”

“When are you headin’ out?” Mammoth asked, his stance firm.

She could see how easily, that the boys were calculating weeks and months, for her advantage.

Hours, she thought.  

“In a few days,” she answered, “Gotta’ plan and pack and set up and shit,” she explained nonchalantly, shrugging.

The boys nodded, none of them in sync, as if they were doing well at hiding their jittering bodies and over-surprised minds.

It wasn’t the worst rug she’d pulled out from under them, she thought. She’d done far worse, in far less time.

She smiled lazily, as she feigned off the knowledge of how much she was about to do, would sting. 

I love you, she thought, burning the image of them all, standing with her like this, into her mind.

I'm sorry. 

As she let the conversation dwindle and die out, and boys resume their routine with her, Jinx kept her internal musings to herself.

She watched the boys intermediately across card games and brutish banter, selling the notion that nothing was wrong. 

Hoping, that somehow, when they learned what she'd done, that they would understand.

Or forgive her. 

As the day dwindled into darkness, and it was time for them all to return to their dormitories, Jinx's heart ached a little. 

She had known these kids for most of her life, she had grown up alongside them. 

Trained them.

Guided them, even.

She knew their favorites colors, the meals that they ate when they were too tired to eat, she knew what the wore when they hadn't done laundry in three weeks, what movies they talked about, what carriers they were interested in. 

She knew their secrets.

Their passions.

Their fears.

She knew them like the lighting engraved scars on the backs of her hands.

 

 

She knew that they would never forgive her.  

 

Chapter 27

The air in her room was a little stale, but it had been left longer to worse conditions before, Jinx dismissed; she glanced around as the door slid shut behind her and without meaning to, she found herself practically diving onto her bed to land cushioned against the welcoming sheets and faintly musty pillows, an assortment of plush animals cascading on top of her at the sudden halt of her momentum. 

She breathed deeply; past the smell of the sanitizing spray the janitors routinely sprayed, were smells of sugared fragrances and fruity shampoos lingering in the fabric threads. Scents of herself and her home.

She closed her eyes and breathed, for a moment.

She turned her head to look across her room through the dark; the faux-window glowing faintly with an artificial glow of mechanical evening.

It had been one of the smarter decorative room modifications she had put in for, she mused.

The memory of hauling ass and kissing feet for three months to get the damned thing had been exhausting, but worth it; the fixture had been quietly substantial in things like warding off ‘sun deprivation based mood shifts’ and ‘being late’.

Past the fake window, over the discarded clothes she had yet to sort was her small closet, thin and packed with school uniforms and her signature dresses; underneath them were the plastic organizers she had shoved full of ‘normal clothes’ and accessories that she had for the most part pilfered but had, by comparison, rarely worn for lack of occasions to do so.

A couple boxes and stacks of folders and old binders were still shoved onto the tiny top shelf; a few more stuffed animals she had gotten from various places tucked into the free spaces left among them.

She took a long breath, envisioning the effort she’d expend in a few minutes to dig through it all for things to take with her.

Her eyes drifted past the closet along the wall, littered with art and tacked notes and band posters, an exercise bar, and more junk lining some of the floorboard.

She really hadn’t had time to reorganize after her last incarceration escape; she supposed it wouldn’t matter much now, if she were to leave it all as it was.

It’d look too suspicious, all spotless anyhow, she thought.

She rolled over, tucking her hands underneath her head, looked up at the ceiling.

Took me two weeks to paint this room, she thought, exhaustion layering the voice in her head.

Still can’t believe the headmistress let me get away with that armful of cans, she mused, a smirk on her lips.

That janitor will never forgive me , she thought on, huffing slightly to herself in amusement.

Raven’s not gonna forgive me either, if I pass out, a thought sprung into her, catching her attention.

Jinx thought of a colorful expletive and sat up.

Lazily, she brought a hand to her stomach.

I hope you appreciate what I’m doing for you, junior, Jinx thought as her hand grew slightly warmer from the heat still hushedly radiating within.  

She allowed herself a sigh.

Alright self, kick it into gear, will ya’? Jinx exclaimed internally, standing up and walking over to her closet; You should be gettin’ all kinds of gettin’ pampered on, right about now and that’s not gonna’ happen till you get your tuckus to the...  

Where is Raven anyhow, Jinx wondered, placing a hand to her chin.

Probably somewhere quiet, she mused.

Putting the thought aside for a moment, Jinx turned her attentions to her new first order of business; packing.

Hanging on a hook on the sidewall was a pack, already filled with essential gear for missions; she doubted she’d need most of it now, but she didn’t want to put too much faith into assuming that the Titans’ Tower had everything she’d want on hand already.

That meant there’d be limited space to work with, which she had been expecting, having made use of the same tactic a few times before.

Jinx grabbed it and tore open the zipper; muttering when it snagged in a few places from age.

Lying open and waiting, she grabbed her sketchbook and favorite boxes of pens and markers and slid them inside.

I can skip the pencils; I can find those anywhere. That sharpener is coming though, she thought, tucking the tiny device into a side pocket.

Phone, communicator, charger, handheld gaming device with cable and cartridges; those all too, got fitted neatly into the bag.

What else.

She thought of her Altar and grew an idea as her attention turned to her easel.

That can fit.  

She slid off the canvas on the easel and propped it up by a wall.

She folded it down and opened the drawers, letting the brushes and loose ends fall out onto a heap on the floor at her feet.

Jinx wasn’t worried about the paint tubes; most of them had been dried up or running low anyway.

She brought it over to her dresser, and laid it on her chair as she looked her altar over.

Tarot deck, altar cloths, pendulum, pouch of crystals, her workbook journal of spell dissection; her cauldron, her favorite hagstone, her favorite incense burner, her bowl and chalice all fit into each other and the drawers one by one.

I paid for most of these, she reminded herself as she nestled everything together.

I’ll just strap it on, when I’m done with everything else, she thought.

She took a moment to consider her idols.

I’ve got them all in pendants and stuff; she remembered; not quite willing to risk the thought of damaging them in transport.

She thought then, of her collection of knives; I’ve got four of ‘em in the bag already, but those are tactical. I can bring a few nice ones, she figured.

Jinx had an assortment of knives, iridescent and not, of a few different styles that she had knicked over the years.

She simply slipped her favorite ones into her holsters and strapped them on.

She turned, scanning her dressers and tables.

Makeup, I guess.

She had a rudimentary disguise kit in her bag, but she wasn’t willing to leave behind her favorite sticks and compacts. She also tucked in a few of her favorite brushes for good measure. She could always steal more, but her shades were hard to come by, she reasoned.

The pack already contained basic wads of spare uniforms and toiletries; guess this is it then, she mused.

She looked to her closet and started pulling out a few of her favorite pieces; she’d probably outgrow most of her stuff anyway during her pregnancy, but she wanted to have her personality undeniably out there for the Titans to get used to while they’d last, at least.

The jewelry was easier to pack; she didn't have to worry about the pieces getting jumbled and knotted together, as with her luck, they were forever getting knotted and jumbled regardless.

She stuffed the more… obviously dubiously obtained pieces that’d be recognizable to the superhero’s at the bottom of the bag; she didn’t want to leave them, she’d won them fair and square.

As fair as thieving gets, she mused.   

One necklace, in particular, caught her eye.

As she lifted it up to catch the light better, a dim memory soaked her vision; a fight, somewhere in the hordes of battles she’d waged against the Titans. It wasn’t the first trophy she’d manage to slip past the team of vigilantes, but it had been one of the first times, that things had seemed… strange, between her and the cloaked Titan.

Raven hadn’t, let her go exactly by any means, but she hadn’t stopped Jinx from keeping the necklace by ripping it out of her hands like she was usually known for.

She wondered if the Titan had been fond of her, back then.

She’d like to think so, she felt, placing the chain and pendant into the bag pocket with the others.

She added a few more trinkets, as much of her collection as she felt she’d actually wear or want to maintain, and moved on.

The bag was getting too full for her liking; she was risking it blowing open, what with her powerset; she liked to keep her bags far from full just to avoid that possibility.

Jinx grabbed at her pendant absently.

That’s right, she remembered as she fingered it; Raven supposedly fixed you up, huh? She thought to the little jewel.

Should I? She asked herself, biting her lips.   

It’d look childish. Naive maybe.

Maybe they’d like that sort of thing? She thought; heroes are probably all about that inner child schtick.

If not, she supposed she could always pass them off as future toys for the baby.

Actually, I should probably take one for the baby, she thought sheepishly.  

She had a lot of plush animals to choose from; mostly monster themed teddy bears and overly bright and colorful unicorns; she had one stuffed doll that was too large to take and tons of smaller, bean-filled animals that she worried would end up a choking hazard if she gave them half a chance.

Logistically, the choice was clear.

Emotionally, she still allowed herself a hot second to think them all over, for old times’ sake.

She squished her favorite unicorn into the bag and started to zipper everything back up; it resisted, but she’d had lots of practice bending the bag to her will.

She set the bag on her bed and with the last pocket space that remained still hanging open, Jinx bounded over to her shelf. After grabbing the edge of it, jumped up to grab her mutant kitty plush and tucked it under her arm. She also grabbed a horse figurine made from porcelain, the skull of a cat, a pelvis bone of a deer, and jumped down.

She laid them on the bed and thought for a second before unzipping the largest pocket and pulled some of the clothing out.

She wrapped the delicate items in rolls of shirts and tucked them safely against the other clothes.

She couldn't think of a way to bring her more fragile curiosities; birds nests with empty eggshells, dried bouquets of flowers, preserved insects, seashells, her collection of strangely shaped bottles made from colored glass.

Her vulture-bone chandelier was going to be a bitch to replace; she thought, sighing, as she looked up at it.

Bones are easy enough to come by, at least, she consoled herself.

She wondered briefly if she wanted to risk strapping her hand painted animal skulls to the bag before thinking better of it.

School stuff?

There were a few flashdrives she thought to tuck into the sidepockets, leaving little room for anything else in that pocket of the bag.

Can always pirate movies and music , she figured.

She tapped her foot.

Ordinarily, it wasn’t ever this hard for her to grab her shit and leave.

She hadn’t ever tried to bother with the sentimental stuff, in the past.

Pictures maybe?   

She looked around.

There were posters and canvas paintings she was proud and fond of, but she didn't have a lot of snapshots of herself or her friends.

Gizzy has most of those , she lamented.

She reluctantly added her class picture, and the medals the Hive had awarded her.

She’d earned those, damnit.

Jinx bit her lower lip.

Now, what would be good for a baby? She thought.

You, she proclaimed, as her eyes landed across a smaller, but fluffy unicorn.

As she picked it up from her bed, the notion that Raven had three other children surfaced.

What did they like? Bears? Firetrucks?

She looked across her collection, and fought down her anxiety.

If she brought things for the young Titans, would the older ones expect things as well?

She couldn't show up empty handed, could she?

Fuckit, she decided, pushing her emotions back down; the others are grown enough to get their own damn toys.

At that, she pulled a teddy bear out of the stack; he looked a little like a vampire, as he sported a little cape and fake felt teeth.

You’ll do, Jinx thought; it wasn’t too scary looking and his fur was super soft.

She looked around for two more.

She spotted her chinchilla in a tiny wizard hat plushie from a pile on her bookshelf and took it, too.

The last thing she grabbed was her giant wool monster stuffie, with big googly eyes.

It was nice enough to snuggle and she’d supposed it’d make a good snack for the infant one, if nothing else.

Getting them into the bag was a bit of a hassle, but with enough compression to the toys, they flattened out enough that she was able to squeeze them in, barring the wool beast.

She strapped the toy to the front of the easel, and rigged it all to the bag; she tested it furiously to make sure that everything was secure.

She didn’t know if they were going to walk or teleport to the tower and she didn’t want to lose anything after taking so long to pack the things with her.  

Oops, better tie down those knobs as well, she realized as the drawers in the easel slid a bit.

She used a few hair ties from her nightstand and secured the drawers easily.

Now to make it to the door, Jinx mused.

She lifted the bag and slid it on.

She took a final look around the room, scanning both it and its contents.

She hoped she hadn’t forgotten anything; her tongue fretted across her teeth for a moment.

I’m good, she told herself.  

She stopped on her way out of the door and smiled to herself, chuckling internally.

A pillow wouldn’t hurt, she mused.

She stuffed her favorite one under her arm and let the hydraulic hiss of her door resonate into the now vacant room behind her.

The hall and her future before her, she smiled.

Show time.

Chapter 28

Raven ran her hand along the cover.

It feels warm , a part of herself offered, at the same time a different emotion proclaimed it felt cold.

She’d been meditating for hours now, reestablishing her mental and emotional systems.

The city had been far more busy, more awake and blundering, when she had first nestled herself into the little alcove and gawked.

It wasn’t one of her usual perches; she hadn’t wanted to run the risk of meeting one of her patrolling teammates, but it was cozy enough as far as her perches went.

The city was quieter now, that it was early evening. Most of the five o’clock traffic had cleared up, freeing the city streets for pedestrians looking to spend their evenings in small shops and restaurants.

Her team would likely be picking up vigilance, this time of day, she thought; their bodies naturally readying themselves for the increase in illegal activity.

The adults, for some reason, were always far more likely to try their luck under the cover of dark.

Darkness, however, had not fallen over the streets quite yet. 

The sun was low and the asphalt was losing heat, but it was still bright enough that the streetlamps were still resting in wait.

Raven looked down at the parking meters and stop lights; there hadn't been any careening vehicles, nor any pure snatchers or storefront shatter-ers in her time sitting watch that she could account for.

It had been, relaxing, she supposed.

Which had been more or less the intent of it all anyway.

I should burn it.

Raven looked down at the book in her hands, the thought ringing red and blue-green.

Her hands felt washed yellow, a hollow grey tingle under the skin, at the thought of opening it.

Should open it, a murmur crept.

A sort of sentimental notion overcame her; the part of her that pictured times of romping with her friends and taking pictures with the boys, that went out shopping with the girls.  

Bury it, bubbled a whisper, let it sleep.

She closed her eyes, picturing the form of her yellow robed reflection.

Save it, we’ve other promises to keep, the emotion seemed to speak.

Raven felt the idea near the base of her ears and felt a responsive tug at her chest from Sadness.

Her emotions, distant now, after the day of meditation and self-regulation, were weak.

Good, Raven reasoned.

She’d need the stability; the next few days would likely be hectic; she and her team would be hardpressed to settle Jinx in, as well as finish things up for the Tot Titans’ arrival.  

After that, I suppose I’ll have time to deal with Arella, Raven thought.

Burn her.

Forget her-

-Save her.

Raven disregarded the tiny tugs to her heartstrings and eyelids.

She closed her eyes, and with a focused hum, her soul soaked hands vanished the diary away, back into the pocket where she had pulled it.

She looked back out over the city, what little she could see of it from her position.

A block down and over from the main street, she didn’t have much in the way of sightseeing.

She was too low to see over the buildings, past the skyscrapers, over the bay and to the Tower’s Island beach.

She also couldn’t tell from what or where Jinx was likely to be.

Raven thought a moment, of remaining where she was to see if the thief was capable of finding her, but quickly pushed the thought aside.

She didn’t feel like filling her boredom with petty curiosity.

You do.

-Don’t do it.

Raven thought past the struggling urges to think of various spots in the city.

Mainstreet would be the most… likely place to meet up with a person, if her teammate’s past actions had been anything to go by.

Meeting them there, though, would be too likely she felt, paired with a minute tug of her gut.

Her thoughts fluttered on, alighting on various gardens and rooftops in which she often liked to sit, but passed them off as they were perhaps too unknown by the common city residents for Jinx to find.

Find her, part of her self pushed, forcing some of the air in her lungs to shift strangely, calling attention to the thought.  

Let her come, Wisdom reasoned, accompanied by a very soothing notion of Sloth.

She didn’t want to make Jinx feel cornered, she argued to her disjointed self; and she rather wanted to keep her composure and her powers steady for the upcoming days and conversations with her friends, she continued thinking.  

Liar.

Scandal-

-stunt; her emotions wavered.

Raven accepted that she was vaguely nervous.

It only made sense to be, her inner Wisdom reasoned.

Her Courage was applicable only by factoring in and accepting her inner flaws, and she had to be prepared for such; the yellow-cloaked emotion filled her.

Raven felt securer.

Sturdier.

Everything was fine.

She had everything under her control.

All would be as she wanted it to be.

As she hoped, it would be.

See.   

Reassured, and physically in a far better state than in which she had first landed in the city, Raven felt both more like her usual state of self, and more rooted in her own realm of possibilities.

She was a Titan, and she knew how to handle things in her city.

Everything was fine.

The park was would be good, she thought, jumping.

She landing in a shadow that sucked her through the spaces between dimensions, and shifted her back out into the city’s largest park.

It was nearly empty, this time of day, Raven noted; the night joggers and romantic strollers likely wouldn’t surface for another few hours still.

She shoved her hands in the pouch of her hoodie and wandered along the tastefully kept grass and headed in the vague direction she felt she recalled there being a bench in.

After a quite a few minutes of leisure strolling, taking in the details of the grass and root patches as she went, the bench slid into view, the park’s old carousel warping into reality some several feet behind it.

She pictured herself on the ride, for a moment; the jaunty music blaring, the ride slowly whirrling, the horses frozen in predestined circuits.

Loud children, fussy parents, bored-to-death-ride personnel.

She poofed the thought away as her emotions tried to stir up; instead, she thought of walking over and sitting on the ride, empty, save for herself. Jinx walking up to her, a smile on her face, a flower between her fingers, teeth between her lips.

She leaned on the bench, slightly, as she thought more.

I wonder if she likes carousels, Raven thought; would her luck spin them out of control?

She pictured them together, herself and Jinx, clinging to the floor of such a wildly rotating contraption for purchase, darting between bucking bears and horses gnashing their teeth on their hind feet.

She shook the thought away.

She’d be more likely to split the animals apart, Raven thought.

She pictured instead, a fight progressing between them in the park, escalating faintly as their projectiles and magic missiles scorched the ride by crossfire and overshot debilitations.  

She thought of the carousel on the boardwalk, and the one she’d seen in the county fair.

She tried to picture Jinx on the other rides, wandering through crowds, eating cotton candy.

A memory trickled itself to the surface of her thoughts; a dream, she had constructed once.

She did not usually dream; she did not usually sleep.

There had been some sort of carnival, in the dream, she recalled; she had been chasing a figure she had never caught up with, and past the stands and gamebooths, the rides, the balloons, she’d been following a pair of purple ribbons and the echo of a familiar laugh.

She had considered it an irrelevant fluke, at the time. A product of their leader’s residual trauma leaking through to her absorbing consciousness, perhaps.

Looking back, she wasn’t so certain.

Let it rest, an emotion pressed.

Rest now,  another lingered.     

Raven took a seat on the bench.

She’d mediate some, while she’d wait perhaps.

It never hurt to keep her mind from wandering.

“Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos,” she murmured, more for the joy of hearing the syllables, than for need of actually speaking them.

“Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos.”     

She focused on her breathing, drawing in her breath and holding it, counting beats and bated breath until releasing it, pausing once more before starting again.

“Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos,” she continued, quieter than before.

She let her words trail off into little more than a hum.

A squawk hovered at the edges of her attention.

She kept her eyes closed; just another bird, again, she thought.

They were always coming to her, without call or summons.

Red or black? She wondered, peaking an eye open.

The raven’s eyes were black, all two of them. 

As were the eyes of the birds hopping around it, and the ones sitting in the trees.  

The one that had squawked at her, was particularly large by comparison, and seemed more personable than the rest.

Mr. Cubbybeak, I presume, Raven mused fondly at the bird; the avian creature was always following her around, when she was in the city proper.

“I haven’t food for you, bird,” she warned, as the beast hopped closer, inspecting her.

The bird squawked again, as if indignant.

He hopped on to the bench, puffed up his chest, and made clear his discontent for a few moments more before quieting himself, and perched for a moment on the bench’s backrest near Raven’s cheek.  

She idly offered a finger for the bird to rub against; nuzzling his feathers and clicking merrily.

He lifted himself up, his attention darting around the park, before he hopped into Raven’s lap and settled himself fully along her thighs; with his feathers fluffed up, he looked even fatter and Raven felt some of her emotions tingle in response.  

She continued to scratch gently along his neck and throat to please the bird.

The rest of the flock, murders of trios and pairs and scattered quartets, seemed to congregate closer.

When Raven next opened her eyes from a round of undisturbed meditation, the bench was filled with several birds, and many more pecked happily around her feet.

“You look like that old pigeon woman from that Poppins’ movie,” a feminine voice declared from several feet away.

Raven looked up to see Jinx at the edge of the grass, a pack on her back, and a ruffle of birds that didn’t know whether they wanted to fly away and regroup, bar her entry, or simply move over a few feet to let her pass.

Raven sat still, unbothered, and the birds for the most part, simply moved out of the way and into the trees and Jinx walked towards her.  

“I figured you’d be here, or else in some coffee shop somewhere,” Jinx stated as she came to a halt in front of her.

“That one yours?” she asked, her attention drawn to the bird in her lap.

“No,” she answered cleanly, her fingers still coddling the creature.

Jinx hummed, seemingly to cover an inhaled breath; she didn’t look overshot per say, but perhaps her trip had been longer than she looked to be letting on. 

Raven didn’t feel anything in particular about that.

“So, are you ready to go?” Jinx asked, “To the tower or whatever?”

“Are you?” Raven asked, as she calculated the implications of the girl’s luggage.

“All set,” Jinx confirmed, her expression determined, and, slightly hopeful? Judging from the jolly-rancher-green-apple taste of the girl’s emotions.

“Very well,” Raven stated, letting her hand fall flat.

The bird squawked, displeased at the inattention.

Raven stood up, letting the bird flap awkwardly to the ground before darting vexedly some feet away to squawk angrily.   

“I’ll land us in the living room, unless you prefer to walk?”

Jinx shook her head.

“Nah, teleporting's fine,” she answered.

Raven nodded, or did do internally at least, and summoned her soulself.

She gathered her form around Jinx and her belongings, and took shape into the sky.

She wanted to be certain, that the city was at least vaguely, aware of her return. 

Chapter 29

 

The nerve splintering sensation of Raven’s soulself engulfing their bodies melted away, revealing the central ops room of Titans Tower coming to a quick formation around them. 

Nestled on the couch, the faces of Cyborg and Beast Boy stared at them slack-jawed for a moment, their game controllers nearly falling from their grip. 

From behind the couch, Starfire, having caught sight of them, rushed forward, a gleeful screech trailing after her lips.

“Raven is returned!” the Tameranien shouted, breaking everyone out of their momentary stupor. 

Cyborg surged to his feet, discarding his controller entirely and out from behind the door to their left, Robin appeared, looking a little rushed and low on sleep.

At catching sight of Jinx, his hand immediately went to his bo staff, he refrained from drawing it.

Raven, having anticipated her friend’s reasonable apprehension, had dropped herself in front of Jinx; and their irregular clothes suggested a change from the norm that Raven knew would silently direct her friends towards a moment’s patience and inquiry, rather than one of immediate offensive maneuvering. 

“You uh, have a friend with you,” Beast Boy pointed out, as he hopped from the couch and shifted into a kangaroo, balancing on his bulky tail to scratch his head with his elongated foot. 

“Wonderful,” Starfire exclaimed, flying up to them; “I am most pleased at your return Raven, and am also pleased at this introduction to you,” Starfire cheerfully offered before stopping dead in her tracks, having likely recognized the villain from her distinctive eyes.

“Jinx,” Robin stated, walking past the group to stand in front of Raven; looking to Robin’s direction, Starfire hovered back, and allowed the boy to govern the potentially tricky situation.

“Bird Boy,” Jinx stated back; Jinx remained still, half behind Raven, clutching the girl’s arm lightly. 

“Raven,” Robin stated, warmth in his tone and posture, his shoulders sagged slightly in relief;  “We wondered where you’d gotten off to,” he explained gently, “If you were okay. Did everything… go okay?” he asked hesitantly, looking to Jinx then to their informal dress, and back to Raven’s face again.

“Some things came up that I needed to take care of,” Raven offered nonchalantly; the familiarity of the Tower seeping into her senses was calming; the tone of her words were nearly light and pleasant, which seemed to put her friends at ease and piqued their curiosities.

“So why’s she with you,” Cyborg asked; his tone wasn’t accusatory, and Raven couldn’t fault him for the question.

Raven took a visibly deep breath for the benefit of her friends.

Robin looked at her expectantly.

Jinx, squeezed her arm imperceptibly. 

“Long story short,” Raven delivered dryly, “The thing that came up is a simple matter of addition. We planned on the tower having at least three additional occupants. It is now prudent to extend that number by two.”   

At Robin’s quirked brow and the confused faces of her other teammates, Raven continued.

“We were… seeing each other,” she phrased delicately, leaving no pause for the collective exclamations of shock to halt the explanation; “And an accidental magical mishap occurred, resulting in a genetic offshoot of us both that has begun to form inside of her.”

"A what now?" Beast Boy asked, taken aback. 

“I do not feel comfortable leaving Jinx to deal with the horrors of bringing a demonic entity into this world alone and risk drawing the attention of monsters like my father or his zealous followers;” Raven furthered. 

Raven paused a moment, sensing that her friends would need a moment to process the chunk of information.

"I'm pregnant, to put simply," Jinx offered graciously. 

“Wait-” Cyborg exclaimed flatly. 

“You’re dating?” Robin asked incredulously, at the same time Beast Boy concernedly screeched, “She’s pregnant! ?”

“On Tameran, the expectancy of a child was a joyous, momentous occasion,” Starfire stated, from her position near the ceiling.

“Well, we’re expecting a baby yeah,” Jinx agreed, a lilt of humor in her tone; "But it could be a poltergeist, or an evil velociraptor.”

“Dude,” Beast boy blurted in disbelief. 

“As I said, I don’t feel comfortable having her deal with the process on her own,” Raven repeated, her voice measuredly soft; “I was hoping it would be alright if she could join us for awhile, at least until we figure things out.”

“Of course,” Robin affirmed, his tone steeled but nonchalant.

“Man, and I thought yesterday with the wiggly noodle monster was weird,” Cyborg declared rhetorically, as he rubbed the back of his head.  

“Dude,” Beast Boy repeated, climbing onto Cyborg’s shoulder in a rush of undirected energy.

“Isn’t she like, a fugitive," he insisted from his perch on Cyborg's shoulder.  

“Don’t you guys like, promise to protect everyone in the city,” Jinx countered, a hand on her hip; “Even us degenerates?”

“Jinx has forsaken her life of crime, at least for the moment,” Raven said a matter-of-factly.  

Raven turned to look at Jinx, and sidestepped beside her so that Jinx was properly introduced to the others.

Jinx looked visibly nervous, but her composure and posture reflected her desire for things to go over well.

“May we… ask for a few details?” Robin asked gently, as Starfire landed close to the pair and smiled behind grasped hands.

Raven looked to Jinx, who returned her stare for a silent moment as she ran a tongue over her teeth, and then turned to the others, ready to speak for herself, and shrugged.

“Yeah I guess,” she invited.

“Why Gotham?” asked Robin; “Batgirl called and said you were fine, but didn’t answer any questions.”

There were definite ripples of conflated emotions rolling off of Robin at the mentions of his old life, which danced lightly on the tip of Raven’s tongue.

“I have an Aunt there,” Raven stated flatly.

“An Aunt,” Beast Boy exclaimed, aghast.

“I told the Bat that we were in town on the way there and stopped by, since I didn’t want to see his paranoia spiral into any needless headaches,” Raven explained.

“His butler’s nice,” Jinx offered cheerfully.

“Batman has a butler?” Cyborg repeated, his tone of surprised disbelief echoing Beast Boy.  

“You never mentioned an aunt before,” Robin observed.

“I wasn’t aware of it,” Raven replied, “Jinx found mention of it in a book and suggested we pay her a visit, so we did.”

“I’m going to need some serious honeysmoked tenderloin therapy after this,” Cyborg muttered.

“Dude, there are some things even mystery-meat BBQ can’t make right,” Beast Boy murmured at him; Cyborg nodded solemnly.

“I,” Starfire interjected boldly, “am most pleased by these bearings of great news.”

“Thank you, Star,” Raven replied fondly. 

“So how did you two, of all people,” Cyborg broached, gesturing between the two of them with his hand.

Jinx smiled reflexively and rocked on her heels; “It was love at first punch,” she chirped demurely; “Might say it was one of those things where one thing led to another,” she offered vaguely, a coy ply to her posture.

At the Titan’s lack of reaction and shifting stances, Raven furthered; “She makes me laugh.”

Jinx’s grin spread, and Raven waited.  

“Dude,” Beast Boy murmured.

Starfire clapped her hands together and emitted a high pitched keening noise; Cyborg smirked, fond acceptance folded across his crossed arms. Robin’s head tilted slightly, before the boy wonder offered a single respectful nod.

“Well, guess we should make some modifications then,” Cyborg declared, pulling up a virtual screen from his arm; "We got a couple spare rooms to work with, and some temp stuff that'll work till we get stuff started."

"She'll mostly be rooming with me for now," Raven directed, "She brought enough things to last her a night or two, at least." 

Cyborg nodded accordingly a few times as he punched various commands into his arm.  

“You two’ve probably had a long trip, from the sounds of it,” Robin interjected to the girls, “Why don’t you girls get settled in. We can talk more about everything tomorrow.”

“That sounds nice,” Raven agreed; Jinx visibly let the tension drain from her shoulders.

“I have… So many questions,” Beast Boy whined quietly; he sighed and turned into a dog, and followed Cyborg into the kitchen; the mechanical teen still typing away.

Starfire floated next to them eagerly, her intense but hesitant expression piqued Jinx’s curiosity.

Raven took it stride, and bowed her slightly and opened an arm. 

Delighted, Starfire dived against her, overwhelming the Titan in a crushing embrace, punctuated by what Jinx was convinced was actual bone snapping.

She withdrew from the hug, and regarded Jinx with an equally intense expression.

Not feeling particularly inclined to experience the sensation of her bones being pulverized, Jinx pointed to her belly.

“Baby,” she stated, hoping the girl would get the message; beside her, Robin chuckled under his breath.

Her eyes lit up, and Jinx watched her barely contain her keening noises and flailing feet. 

All at once, a hush seemed to fall over the girl, and she landed on her feet, and looked at her with an odd, serene cast.

“The youngling will be fortunate,” Starfire ushered in a way that suggested the words were of significant cultural origins; “to inherit your strength and keen intellect for battle.”

She looked then to Raven and her fond smile grew; “May they inherit your temperance and compassion, my friend,” she added.

Raven nodded, a pleased smile on her lips.

“Thank you Kori,” she murmured in return.

Jinx brushed off a feeling of displacement and quietly took hold of Raven’s hand.

Raven wrapped her own around it, and a feeling of reassurance seemed to pass between their coiled fingers.

Starfire stood back, pleased, and almost fluidly, Jinx noticed her attention drawn to the team’s leader as he placed a hand on Raven’s shoulder.

“I apologize for worrying you,” Raven murmured; Jinx squeezed her hand.

Robin pulled her into an one armed hug, and patted her back briefly before disengaging.

“Glad you’re safe,” he offered.

His smile tilted a bit and his stance emitted a playful mindset; “Maybe next time, you can tell us ahead of time when you take a vacation?”

Raven’s smile fell sheepish and Jinx smirked.

Robin shifted his gaze to her, and seemed overly amused, but similarly wary.

Jinx couldn’t blame him.

“This must be real surreal for you, eh?” she asked.

“Something like that,” the boy affirmed.

“Next order of business,” Cyborg prompted loudly, as a clatter rang out through the kitchen; “What kinda chow we all want goin’ down on?” he asked over the din.

“Meat,” Jinx yelled back, without thinking.

Cyborg whistled, and an audible groan from Beast Boy echoed against the thick walls.  

“Returning to the topic of children,” Raven murmured, ignoring the commotion, Robin and Starfire turning to look at her, “How are Melvin and the boys?”

“Hurt that you missed their call, but otherwise fine,” Robin supplied; “They were the first place I checked when you went missing. They said they hadn't seen you and immediately assumed you were on a ‘secret mission’. I didn't correct them.”   

Raven exhaled a small breath; seemingly relieved and concerned at the news.

“I’ll call them then, if you already haven't,” she murmured.

Robin crossed his arms; “Sounds good.”

“Also, Jinx and I will need communicators,” she addressed.

“What happened to your old one?” 

“It got blown up by a pissy demon on the interstate,” Jinx explained; “It’s cool though, we escaped on his bike mostly not on fire.”

Robin gave her a look that wasn’t reassured, but willing enough not to find fault with her anecdote for the moment.  

“Alright, I’ll pull some spares from storage,” he agreed, “Try not to lose this one.”

Raven nodded briefly.

She waited a moment, as if to make sure the conversation was adequately closed, and walked away from the group to one of the open computer consoles near the grand window, leaving Jinx to stand by her own devices.

Jinx inhaled a firming breath and waited.

Raven’s keyboard beeped and dialed, Cyborg’s meal preparation picked up fervor, and Beast Boy’s array of odd noises scuttled about the din in an odd accompaniment, all of which seemed oddly jarring and familiar to Jinx, mimicking faintly several of the sounds she had grown accustomed to in the Hive, but, not.

Robin seemed unphased by her presence, she noticed; by contrast, the Tameranien seemed frozen in a shade of excitement.

“So… a baby, huh?” he asked.

“Yeah, probably,” Jinx agreed.

“Cool,” Robin replied, his mind clearly focusing elsewhere past their present conversation.

Before she could think better of it, Jinx brought a hand to her stomach, and waited to feel the warmth of the eyes radiate against it.  

Behind them, Jinx could hear the oddest tone of tameness, lilting off of Raven’s tongue at the likely children on the other end; she turned to watch Raven speak for a moment, the Titan's frame hunched in on itself, but in a manner that didn’t resemble self loathing or fear.

Jinx turned back, and caught a strange, focused glint in the leader’s mask.

“And yeah, before you ask, we’re sure it’s hers,” Jinx huffed. 

To punctuate her point, she lifted her hoodie, and revealed her lower abdomen, and the four grimly shaped red eyes radiating out from underneath her skin.

The team leader looked shocked and took a step back before he caught himself and stilled, he recaptured his composure quickly, and Starfire freely let out a gasp. 

“Oh jeez that’s creepy,” Beast Boy announced, his form now a hummingbird hovering some few inches away. He darted closer to her belly and back away from it a few times before Jinx’s nerves got the better of her and she swatted him away.

“Many stages of growth are unseemly and strange,” Starfire offered, as she studied the markings distantly; “On Gloptrax 5, there’s a species of Kryll’anxs Fll’rck whose young claw out its gorb’nkk’s flaxis and-” 

“-Let’s not encourage any clawing please,” Jinx interjected, her face paling; “With my powers I really don’t wanna test my luck.”   

“That goes for a lot of things actually,” Jinx continued, switching her gaze to Beast Boy, Robin, and back; “You’ll all um, find out pretty quick you gotta’ watch what you say ‘round me if you don’t want my powers to fuck you over.”

Robin’s brow twitched, but did not raise.

“It’s not something I do, per say,” Jinx rambled, “But it’s just, something to consider, I guess. Raven helped patch it up but I don’t know how effective that’ll be yet.”

At this the Titans seemed to withdraw slightly; Beast Boy seemed particularly displeased by the news.

Jinx ignored the fluttering in her gut.

“We’ll have plenty of time to get to know each other, I’m sure,” Robin replied, "And work things out."

“Hey Starfire,” Cyborg called out, pulling the girl’s attention; “You like curdled eggs, right? We got some clearin’ out in the fridge to do.”

“Coming!” Starfire cheered, speeding off to the kitchen, her hair a fiery trail that fizzled out behind her. 

Raven was still murmuring to the computer screen, and Robin took it upon himself to sit on the couch and claim the remote.

Beast boy hesitantly shifted his form, landing him as a monkey that crawled onto the edge of the couch before phasing into his human body, bowed over on himself with his knees above his ears.  

Without missing a beat, Jinx walked past them both, and towards the clamour in the kitchen; she wasn’t banking on the repertoire she had built up with Cyborg when she had known him as ‘Stone’, so much as she was banking on it being easier to blend in while most of the teens’ attentions were already focused on a messy task.

As she took a seat on a stool at the counter, she braced herself for what she was sure was going to be a long, awkward evening.

Jinx watched the alien guzzle half a bottle of mustard and what looked to be a block of forgotten tofu molded over in succession, and smiled at the face Cyborg made when Starfire finished.

“Nine stomachs or not, you nasty,” the boy muttered, handing the girl another plate of unnerving looking substances Jinx didn’t quite feel comfortable referring to as ‘food’.

Cyborg caught sight of her from the corner of his mechanical eye and tossed her a smile.

“Dinner won’t be for awhile yet,” he warned.

“Snack me,” Jinx insisted, a faux-dramatic glint in her toothy grin; “I hunger.”

“A 'please' wouldn't hurt you,” he huffed, turning around towards the cupboards. He opened a drawer and rifled through what sounded to be individually packaged snacks.

“Is that pudding?” she asked, catching sight of a plastic cup.

“We got chocolate, vanilla, and tapioca,” he answered.

“We also have the gigglycups of jell-o,” Starfire added, “In many colors and wonderful shapes!”

“Toss me a chocolate,” Jinx replied; "Pudding," she clarified quickly, not trusting the alien teen.

Cyborg quite literally, tossed her a pudding cup, before continuing his work on cleaning the kitchen.

Jinx peeled the lid off the cup, folded it nearly in half, and began scooping up the pudding, ignoring the likelihood of the foil slicing thin cuts into her tongue.

Behind her, the weight of the air informed Jinx that Raven had finished her call, and was standing behind her.

She continued lapping the cup lid, and the Titan sat down on the stool next to her. 

“I’ll show you around a bit when you’re finished if you want,” Raven offered quietly.

Jinx grunted as she forewent the spoon and dug her tongue into the container.

“...We have cutlery,” Raven murmured, watching her. 

Jinx turned to shoot her a glance, her tongue still lodged in the cup; chocolate smeared around her lips, Jinx smiled and made a show of pulling her tongue, and a good portion of the pudding, into her waiting mouth.

She swallowed, and then licked the smears from around her mouth away, pleased with herself.

“Disgusting.”

“Oh?” Jinx teased. 

Jinx turned back to the other two Titans, and noticed Starfire watching them happily, and Cyborg attempting not to noticeably watch them.

“You got any beef jerky in there?” she asked.

“For the pudding?” he asked, a squick in his voice.

“Nah, Raven just gets cranky when she doesn't eat every three hours,” she answered, her attention already back to her pudding.

As Jinx subjected herself to using her finger as an improvised spoon, Cyborg made a strange sound as he turned to look at them more closely; Starfire, was also similarly confused.

“Raven…” Cyborg began, “Doesn’t really eat much,” he stated carefully, his eyes darting to his friend and back.

Jinx huffed and licked her finger clean.

“Yeah, and I’m fixing that,” she declared absently.

Raven made an indignant growl.

Jinx gave her a point look, and kept from blinking.

Raven exhaled warily, relenting.

“Fine,” she sighed; “I’ll take the jerky.”

Cyborg looked at her for a moment, as if to confirm her order, before seemingly shrugging it off and fishing out the snack from the drawer.

“We got a few teriyaki left, original, and danger kind,” he offered, glancing over his shoulder.

Raven looked over at her, and Jinx thought back over the trip they had shared, picking apart her partner’s mixed reactions to food types.

“You’d like danger the most,” Jinx stated idly, fishing out the last glob of pudding; “But you’d feel more comfortable with original.”

Raven looked from her to Cyborg and nodded; he seemed to take it in stride and pulled out a packet and held it out for Raven to grab.

She slit it open with her thumbnail, and pried the plastic sheaves away, looked at it for a moment, and took a bite of both of the tiny meat sticks.

Starfire, a plate of an indistinguishable mass in her hand, sat on the counter across from them.

Raven, somehow, appeared unfazed by the alien’s ability to consume the strange matter; Jinx meanwhile, tried not to look, but watched as if it were a particularly messy car wreck.  

“How are you even alive,” Jinx murmured absently, when the alien downed half the plate of the stuff.

The girl just smiled, and happily downed the rest of the, whatever it was, before hopping down to plop the plate in the kitchen sink.   

“We should have an over sleep,” the alien declared; “It will make for a nice occasion to get together and partake of the ‘chillaxing’.”

“Perhaps soon,” Raven replied calmly; “It might be better to give Jinx a night or two before rushing her into that sort of excitement.”

“Jinx can think for herself, she reminds;” Jinx interjected quietly, moreso for the instinct to do it, rather than from any particular feeling she had on the matter.

“Jinx also has unpacking to do, and sleep to catch up on,” Raven countered, before nearly finishing her jerky.

“Jinx is a force of nature; rules can kiss her ass.”

“Language,” Raven warned, downing the last of the meat.

“Sorry,” Jinx replied, shifting into a more ‘civilized’ posture; “Jinx is a force of nature, and the laws of the natural order are invited to kiss her entire ass.”

“If you keep cussing, that’ll be the only thing kissing you,” Raven pressed.

Cyborg’s motions faltered momentarily, and Starfire snickered under her breath.

“That is a rule though,” the mechanical teen broached, “We got a swear jar and everything; have to wash up for when the kids come,” he explained.

Jinx scowled, but briefly.

“What have I rolled myself into,” she muttered; already picturing the pockets full of change she’d end up dumping into the jar.

“A domestic state of affairs,” Raven answered dryly, “That’s what you get when you date a demon. Welcome to Hell.”   

“Oh, fuck you,” Jinx groaned in resignation.

Raven smiled. 

“That’s what got you into this mess,” Raven jibed, humor on her lips as she toyed with the jerky wrapper.

Jinx made a noise that resembled a human error message.

Raven hummed, apparently pleased.

“Oh,” Starfire exclaimed, “I do believe we all shall partake in much of the fun!”

“ Joy,” Jinx replied, sarcasm and venom dripping from behind her teeth.

“Are you ready for the tour,” Raven asked, dropping the wrapper on the counter; she looked at Jinx pointedly.

Jinx grumbled something under her breath, and stood up. She tossed her empty pudding cup into the sink.

“Five points,” Cyborg commented, “If that was somethin’ that got washed.”

“I was aiming for the trash,” Jinx mumbled, standing expectantly as Raven rose to her feet.

“We’ll start here then, and work our way around some,” Raven decided, thinking aloud; “There’s been a few changes since the time your team broke in, so it should be only essentially dull.”

“My Tower is a work of art,” Cyborg huffed; “She’s built from alien tech and so fortified that not even General Immortus couldn’t barge in here without ending up in a seriously bad day.”

“Please,” Jinx ribbed, “I could waltz right in and rob you blind before you’d ever notice,” she boasted; “The only reason the downside ain’t trounced this joint to the smithers is that it’s too boring to cross that six miles of seawater to get here.”

Cyborg gasped, clutching a ladle to his chest.

“I know you jus’ didn’t disrespect my Tower now,” he insisted loudly, waving the ladle in Jinx’s general direction almost menacingly.  

“I’m jerkin’ your circuits big guy,” Jinx teased, “You do good work.”

This seemed to appease the young man, and he shot Jinx a final look before returning to his cooking plans.

“Alright, we’ll be back for dinner,” Raven stated, leading Jinx away. 

“We shall look forward to your regales of the tales of your romantic journey!” Starfire replied cheerfully, her fingers laced in front of her.

Jinx shot her what she more or less hoped was a sociable smile and trotted quickly after Raven’s receding form; past the far stairs and through the door that Jinx vaguely recalled leading to the thin hallways interconnecting the Titan’s rooms.

As the door to the ops room shut behind them, Jinx allowed herself a sigh of relief, and motioned with her chin for them to press on when Raven paused to look at her.

Raven’s look lingered, and the Titan leaned forward and pulled Jinx against her, bringing their lips together in an ill planned kiss.   

Chapter 30

Jinx leaned into the kiss, refreshed by the feeling of familiar sensations the actions filled her body with. The physicals sensations, nearl literally electric, as her powers surged minutely along the saliva in Raven’s tongue.

There was an odd curl, to one of Raven’s oral caresses; she pressed against her harder, as if attempting to eat something out of her mouth; it took a moment for Jinx to remember the tiny foil cuts racing along her tongue. She smiled; broadening the kiss, pleased to let the Titan properly taste her.

When Raven ran out of breath, she pulled her lips just far enough away to rest her face against Jinx’s, and let the tension in her body seep back down into the darkness inside of her, and out of her now loosening shoulders.

She pulled back abruptly then, but Jinx was unbothered by the move; from the look of her, the girl was easily in her element. It comforted Raven slightly.

“So that went way easier then I thought it was going to go,” Jinx remarked, the moment lingering between them for a breath longer, before they turned to walk down the hallway; “They didn’t interrogate me, ankle'lock me, or so much as give me a pointed shovel talk,” Jinx mused, “If I’d known it’d be that simple I’d have done this years ago.”

“Honestly, I’m just about a little worried that they aren’t taking enough safety precautions;” Jinx rambled further as they bounded down a tiny flight of stairs and into one of the maintenance corridors; “Should I be worried about them not caring enough about you or something?”

“It’s because they care about me, that they took me for my word,” Raven explained as they stepped into the hallway that led to the doors she wanted to get to.

“They trust you because I trust you, and they trust me, and my judgment, for better or worse,” Raven furthered absently.

Raven verbally tallied the places she thought worthy of note; reciting a couple passcodes to the gym doors, a reminder of the Tower's general layout, and mumbled lazily about the areas of essentially out of bound reconstruction zones.

“Bathroom’s still here,” Raven directed, as they passed it.

They walked further on, and a familiar nameplate came into view, bringing a kiwi-lime smile to Jinx’s lips, and a sense of dulled exhaustion to her own.

“Any reason we went the long way 'round?” Jinx asked, as the door slid open and they stepped inside.

“Proprietary,” Raven answered flatly.

She walked to the center of her room, and turned to watch Jinx taking everything in before the pull of her bed became tempting; Raven sat on the edge, and continued to watch her.

“Blue’s still your favorite color I take it,” Jinx mused, eying her belongings.

Jinx glazed over the books lining her towered case, her fingers trailing lightly over the rim of the shelf.

“Aristotle’s ‘The Nicomachean Ethics’,” Jinx pursued, “Hume’s ‘A Treatise on Human Nature’... ‘A Concept of Law’, ‘The Second Sex’, ‘Nausea’...”

“You like philosophy a bunch, don’t you?” Jinx teased.

“You’re on the philosophy shelf,” Raven answered plainly.

Jinx looked down a shelf and her eyes jumped to other distinguishable titles.

“A Short History of Nearly Everything’,” Jinx pondered, her hand nearly pulling the spine from its lodging, before she trailed it along other titles; “‘A Little History of the World’, ‘A People's History of The United States’... ‘War and Peace’,” she read, browsing on.

“That’s the shelf of history that didn’t fit in with the encyclopedia shelf,” Raven offered.

“‘The Nuns of Sant'Ambrogio’,” Jinx read as the title caught her eye; she pulled the book out and flipped it.

“It was a sexcult,” Raven explained.

“I’ma’ borrow that one later then,” Jinx declared, as she considerately slid it back into its slot.

Jinx looked across the other shelves; noticing the trends of loose categories.

“You have like, really diverse ranges here,” Jinx commented, hovering near the ‘electronic manual’ section; her tone moderately surprised, and slightly confused.

Raven didn’t reply, being used to such reactions already; her gaze lingered over the way Jinx’s musculature carried out her motions.

“Fiction is a thing, you know,” Jinx commented, her tone indicating that she was making a playful rib, more than a dissertation on her reading habits.

“Truth is often times more unbelievable as it is,” Raven replied, before deigning to explain; “I didn’t exactly get a proper introductory on Earth and its logistics growing up so I’ve been reading into it in my spare time.”

“Honey,” Jinx stated, facing her, “If you’ve read half of these, you’re already doing better than most people you’d meet; kids ordinarily get taught to parrot information to pass a test and dump it all out right after; you’d be lucky to find a dude who didn’t have to use their phone to name all fifty states and who all our presidents were.”

“Cyborg said much of a similar nature,” Raven assented, “But I enjoy learning and reading about why Earth functions as it does, even if it doesn’t really help in learning how to navigate it. Well, for me at least,” she admitted.

“That’s fair,” Jinx relented, turning her attention away from the books to wander near her dresser and mirror; “You can learn a lot from fiction too ya’ know, tho'. Cultural osmosis and social subconsciouses and whatever. A lot of it comes from the general feelings people have in regards to the events of their time, like wars or oppression and stuff. It's all metaphors and symbolism.”

“Perhaps I’ll check some out sometime then,” Raven murmured, enjoying the exchange.

She found herself growing a little tense, as Jinx took notice of the possessions arranged on the dresser’s surface; judging from the girl’s posture, Raven took Jinx to have noticed the Altar for what it was, despite its plain and unassuming appearance.

Jinx fingers traced lightly, down the side of the dresser’s face and tapped against its lip.

“I was worried, when I left,” Jinx murmured, “That’d I’d have to explain the things for my shrine.”

“There’s a cultural coexistence in the Tower, for what it’s worth,” Raven offered quietly; “Starfire is perhaps the most vocal about her home traditions, and the others aren’t really practicing, but they’re content to ‘let live’, as I think, the saying goes.”

“Do they… 'get', a lot of the magic stuff?” Jinx asked delicately, her eyes on her once more.

“No,” Raven answered truthfully; “But I haven't exactly been an open book about any of it; I was… wary of making it ‘creepier’ by my association.”

“They think you’re creepy?” Jinx asked, surprised.

“Keep in mind, our friendship while formative for me, took a lot of work,” Raven explained, her thoughts starting to race where she often wished they wouldn’t; “I had many things to hide.”

“I think somewhere along the line, stuff got swapped ‘round for me that shouldn’t have?” Jinx offered with a vague hand wave before leaning back against the dresser, her arms folded; “I’m so used to messed up shit and morbid stuff, that like, anything that’s not somehow uncomfortable in nature, makes me uncomfortable, to be honest.”

“The others grew up with travesties of their own,” she replied, “They aren’t my wounds to share but, they’re more understanding about horrible things than most give them credit for.”

“That’s good then,” Jinx exhaled; “I didn’t really want to resent them for having like, good lives ya’ know? Messed up as that probably sounds. I just, get on better with people who know what it's like to get punched in the mouth.”

“They’ll take to you quickly enough, I think,” Raven murmured, her thoughts resting on memories of her friends; “They have that hero-thing you hate where they try to see the good in everyone.”

“If I don’t fucking scare them shitless first,” Jinx muttered, huffing as she uncrossed her arms and returned to looking around.

Jinx wandered across the room, passing in front of her theatrical mask statue to her antique coffer resting against the opposing wall.

“Ritual stuff, mostly,” Raven warned, before Jinx could open it; “I haven’t organized it in awhile.”

Jinx flipped the lid to peek inside, and hummed an agreeing assessment. She let the lid down gently and meandered to the thick, bulky curtains blocking the view from the window.

As she peeked through the curtain, Raven thought to the girl’s things.

“I can place your things in a room,” she offered lightly; “Unless you wanted to choose one for yourself.”

“I thought you said I was rooming with you?” Jinx asked, her emotions a faintly jarred cranberry surprise.

“You’ll most likely be spending most of your time in my room until yours is decorated,” Raven agreed, “But the spares are furnished enough that you could function in them already.”

“Out of sight out of mind?” Jinx sneered, her stance recoiling like a mildly vexed snake.

“Starfire and Robin have their own rooms,” Raven replied quickly, her confusion inflating her articulation; “I just thought it would be more comfortable for us both in the long run if we each had our own spaces to retreat to when needed.”

“Fair enough,” Jinx agreed, setting Raven’s nerves mostly at ease once more.

“You can summon up my bag here, and I’ll move it wherever,” Jinx decided, her eyes scanning over her; “You don’t look too keen on touring around anymore.”

Raven thought about replying, but her body protested and she fell backwards on the bed, her eyes falling closed.

After the sound of her heartbeat dulled in her ears, she lazily peaked an eye open.

Her soulself slipped out of her hand, trailing wispy strands over to Jinx, where the formless mass tugged lightly around her wrist.

Jinx allowed the barely existent force to pull her to the bed, and clamored into it unceremoniously.

Jinx crawled next to her, and flipped over to watch the ceiling with her.

“Guess this is like, the calm before the storm or whatever, eh?” Jinx muttered faux-jovially.

“Probably,” Raven agreed.

Her hand twitched, as Jinx's fingers moved to lace inside hers; she felt her body hum.

“So is it nap time or…’

“I don’t sleep,” Raven replied reflexively, then adding, “I’ve mediated most of the day, since we got back to Jump. I’ll likely need to take a few moments to sort things up directly, in my mirror, probably when you settle into a room. Till then, I...”

Raven let her words trail off, unsure of how to finish her statement. Her emotions were silent, though she knew from past experience that they were still resting within reach. She didn’t feel particularly inclined to grasp at them though; she wanted to take a moment to ‘enjoy’ their forced slumber.

Her hand squeezed Jinx’s.

“And we gotta go to dinner later, don’t we?” Jinx asked.

Raven hummed; noting the familiarity of her ceiling.

“And I’m guessing after that, it’ll be a long night of just, hanging out and weird questions and stuff?” she asked, quieter; her finger’s shifting absently in Raven’s hand.

Raven squeezed their hands briefly; unable to bring herself to speak.

A moment fell between them, where Jinx tucked her free arm under her head, and Raven toyed with the lengths at which she closed her eyes.

“So we probably… don’t, have time for finishing where we left off, do we?” Jinx addressed, a mild suggestiveness lacing her concern; she turned her attention from the ceiling and turned to look at her, prompting Raven to do the same.

“I mean…”

Raven exhaled an apologetic breath.

A shiver, crawled slowly along the nape of her neck.

“I don’t think I could compose myself enough, to handle tonight, if we were to go at it now,” she answered lightly, Jinx’s breath warming her skin.

“Tomorrow then,” Jinx asked, visibly raking her gaze along her lips as she worried them; as if it was an effort filled gesture, to not lean forward and rejoin her lips with her own.

Raven found her teeth grazing her lips all the more, for it.

Jinx leaned forward; Raven blinked as she brought their brows to touch, and then nuzzled into her face with her own.

“Maybe… tomorrow night...” Raven murmured, her thoughts sweeping over the myriad of things she’d end up rectifying and upkeeping through the day.

“It’s a date then,” Jinx agreed, her words tenderly husky in a way that nearly jumpstarted Raven’s emotions back into her mental vicinities.

She let the moment drag on, heat dulling back into settled warmth, immersing herself in the seconds passing by between them; Jinx, also falling victim to the lure of their lull for a few lazy breaths, her breathing dropping pace.

Jinx's eye shut for a few heartbeats; she yawned a focusing breath, stretching out her limbs, before sitting up and popping off of the bed.

She spun on her heels to cast Raven a perky grin.

"Alright then, girlscout," she jibed, "Where's the dormitories in waiting?" 

In something nearing resignation, Raven slid off of her bed herself, and drifted to her feet.

"Come on then," Raven conceded, picking up Jinx's pack with her powers as she headed out her door.

Jinx walked with a bit of bounce in her step, her arms clasped behind her; a light carbonated-orangeade fizzling about her in a faint aura, the familiar sensation of the girl's most frequented mood weightless against Raven's senses.

Raven treaded through the hallway; flickering remnants of weighted emotional moments embedded deep within the tower walls occasionally catching her underlying reactions, subliminally reassuring her that should she ever need to, she could likely navigate the Tower blind.

They came to a halt in front of the main elevator.

"That would be a death trap waiting to happen," Jinx insisted flatly.

"It could serve as a test of the enchantment, if you like," Raven offered; "We're only going down one floor."

Raven scanned over Jinx's uncertain expression; Jinx worried her bottom lip.

"Yeah alright," she said at length, shrugging; "'T's your funeral."

Raven tapped the elevator button and a few seconds later, the whirling of machinery and a familiar thrum of the metal box sliding into place filled the air as the little light above the doors lit up with a pleasant 'ping'.

"After you," Raven insisted, holding back to follow Jinx in.

Jinx harrumphed under her breath, but stepped inside the elevator, Raven following leisurely after her.

Raven leaned over to hit the floor marker, and leaned back against the side wall, her hands tucking themselves into her pockets.

Raven supposed she should have expected the body slam into the elevator doors, followed by Jinx's teeth sliding up easily along her jaw.

The elevator's lighting systems flickered briefly but remained lit; Jinx's hands digging almost pleasantly into her hips too much for Raven to discern which of them sparked the electrical glitch.

Jinx's breath was nearly melodic for a moment, as the elevator slowed to a halt; she drew back, letting Raven regain her footing before the doors opened.

Raven didn't bother with shooting Jinx any looks, and simply escorted her out into the hall that resembled the one they had just vacated.

"Most of the rooms down here are up for grabs," Raven explained, leading Jinx down the corridor; "Anything without a nameplate is up for grabs."

"Any suggestions I should take into account? Factors to consider and the like?" Jinx asked, eyeing the doors.

"The sun rises from that side of the tower in the mornings," Raven offered, nodding its the general direction; "I'd pick a room with the kind of lighting you'd like most, if that sort of thing means anything to you."

"Holy shit I forgot you guys had real windows," Jinx mused, turning the notion over in her head.

Raven's brow arched slightly at the remark, a slightly amused turn to the corners of her lips.

"Jinx, about ninety-eight percent of our Tower is windows," she chided playfully as she set down the bag in the center of the hall and waited.

Jinx ignored the bait as she looked around.

"The other corridor is on the other side, there's more room over there too," Raven reminded.

"Yeah, you might as well drop me off here then," Jinx offered, her mind already working out different paths through the Tower layout; "I'm going to be awhile deciding."

"Just tell me the room number when you find the one you like," Raven responded as her body started to fade into the shadows.

"Can do," Jinx agreed, not bothering to watch the girl dissipate.

Jinx's first thoughts were of emergency exits; which rooms had clearer paths to stairwells and service halls, which rooms would hold more structural support for the tower, and which ones would be closer to the bathroom.

Actually, now that she thought about it, the fact that the tower only had one bathroom sparked her as incredibly odd and of poor design. She made a mental note to ask her partner about it at somepoint and grinned widely; wondering if she could rig things out well enough to have an attached bathroom of her own on her room.

Of course, adding that to her plans also had to factor into her layout decisions...

Jinx rested an elbow in her palm and bit into her thumb.

She had a lot of planning to do, it seemed.

Chapter 31

Properly dressed for the day, Jinx looked over the contents of her bag that she'd sprawled haphazardly over the bed.

It's probably fine; she deemed. There'd be time later for organizing her stuff.

Jinx rubbed her jaw and then thought for a moment; if I were Raven, where would I be at two in the afternoon? 

The door of her new room slid closed behind her and Jinx stepped into the hall with a bright determination, her ears peeled for any commotion that might lead her in any particular direction.

She didn't have to wait long, as the tell-tail sounds of something being constructed with tools and elbow grease clattered about in the level above her.

She smirked and made her way up, taking one of the emergency stairwells rather than risking the elevator.

She crossed into the side of the Tower she'd only ventured into once before, relying on the faint memory of stealing Robin's favorite fashions to navigate the intercrossing sub-passages before reaching a large block of rooms that seemed taped off.

She ducked under some oddly humorous warning tape and made her way inside, not minding the noise of the powerdrill ricocheting off the metal walls in the slightest, having long gotten used to such noises from Gizmo.

Cyborg, perhaps unsurprisingly, revealed himself to be the origin of the construction clamor and by a stroke of luck, Jinx noticed her partner standing beside him, looking over a clipboard with some mild interest before taking note of her.

At Raven's break in conversation, Cyborg stilled his tools and turned; catching sight of her, he smiled and nodded abruptly.

"Mornin'," Jinx greeted lightly, stepping over to them around what looked to be pieces of furniture bits on the floor.

"Afternoon," Raven corrected, her tone smooth and unruffled.

"We missed ya' at dinner," Cyborg slipped in uncertainty.

"Turns out pickin' a room was more exhausting then I planned," Jinx offered sheepishly, forcing a few chuckles.

"Anyway, this is the children's room," Raven stated, gesturing to the room with a shrug.

"We paused production while Raven was gone," Cyborg explained, "So we're a bit behind schedule."

"Thankfully it's only the furniture assembly left," Raven added, glancing to some of the pieces at her feet.

Jinx looked around the room; it seemed to be a pair of rooms with a wall knocked down in the middle, making it longer. -Likely to give the children some room to play around on the floor, if she had to hazard a guess. And while there seemed to be a general layout of the room coming together in regards to furniture placement, something seemed glaringly obviously off about it to Jinx.

"You guys are gonna'... spruce this up for them, right?" she asked, eyeing the bland walls that had matched every other spare room she'd seen on her hunt through the spares.

"No, we're going to let them live on piles of lumber and screw-packets," Raven retorted dryly.

"I mean, you're gonna' like, paint it up and stuff, right?" she pressed, looking from one Titan to another.

"Kids rooms are all about imagination and bright colors and shit," Jinx insisted, articulating her point with her hands; "Racecar beds and wall murals and tiny swingsets!"

"They'll have plenty of toys," Raven affirmed, looking back to her clipboard; "They can decorate it as they like as they grow up."

"Yeah, alright, as the baby-momma to be I'm laying an executive foot down; the council has heard your decision and have deemed it a stupid one," Jinx declared, puffing up her chest; "Cyborg! Where's the paint?"

"I uh, think we got some in the basement," he offered; "Don't know how much we got left or in what colors n' all."

"And this stuff, it's all just plain store bought, right?" Jinx inquired, gesturing to the piles of furniture on the floor, nudging a few boards with her feet.

"Some of it is reinforced," Raven stated; "For safety reasons."

"Let's see if we can't liven those up as well then," Jinx declared, her mind racing through different ideas.

"We don't have to go overboard..." Raven murmured, dropping the clipboard to her side; "Though I suppose I appreciate your sudden interest."

"I just," Jinx began, the words catching in her throat for her unspoken sentiment, "It'll probably make your kids happy, and I think it'd be a good way to preoccupy myself, since y'all probably want me out of trouble," she supplemented.

The offering was true enough on its own anyway, and earned a warm nod from Raven and a bright smile from the mechanical Titan.

"I'll help ya' find the paint then," Cyborg declared, discarding his tools.

Raven continued to watch her, as Jinx looked around the room.

"We'll probably need more wood and screws and such; I'm assuming you have a tablesaw and an electric sander on hand," Jinx mumbled aloud for Raven's sake; "How long've we got before the kids get here?"

"Four days," the Titan answered flatly.

"Yeah," Jinx pushed, swallowing a breath as she continued her calculations and idea mapping; "We can definitely do it, but'll be a couple of all-nighters."

"I don't think I can budge Robin on the budget any more than I already have," Raven warned, a little visibly uneased.

"T's cool," Jinx insisted, dismissal; "If I can build a Level 4 Obstruction Vault with a track phone and a few dumpster finds, I'm pretty sure I can design a room for babies with a couple of nails and a few coats of paint."

"You built a what now?" Cyborg asked.

"You know, those practice rooms at the Hive. the ones that try to kill you and stuff," Jinx explained, calling forth the memory of "Stone" and their brief stint as teammates at the HIVE.

"I mean, mine wasn't as... glossy, as the professionally built ones, sure," Jinx admitted, "But for a final project, I did pretty damn better than expected if I do say so myself."

"So what're'we thinkin'," Cyborg asked, resting his hands on hips.

"I'm thinkin'... bunkbeds, definitely, " Jinx began, working allowed; "I can for sure, make lil'dude's bed look like a firetruck or something and I'm pretty sure I can paint whatever kind of theme they'd like f'er round the room, if Raven has any guesses for particulars. Rainforests, rocketships, pirates, fairytales, whatever."

"Sounds like a start," Cyborg agreed.

"We're probably going to have to make a few runs to that home improvement store," Jinx added, "See what scraps they have lyin' out for grabs out back. Which is perfectly legal, I wanna' point out, 'fore any of you's go pointin' fingers. They discard lots'of shit that's not factory perfect or like, little leftovers from other things. So you never know what you might find."

"I can have the car ready to go whenever," Cyborg offered happily.

"What were you thinking on organizational space?" Jinx asked, shooting the inquiry towards Raven.

"Dressers," she replied dryly.

"Right, well," Jinx replied, already thinking on, "Hopefully I can spruce those up too. Maybe find some fun animal knobs in hardware or something if nothing else."

"I suppose I'll put on my civilian clothes then," she stated, "If we're to be making errand runs and playing in paint all day," Raven declared.

"You still have that meeting with Robin today, don't forget," Cyborg interjected, causing Raven to scowl slightly.

"Yeah, I know."

"And that meeting with-"

"-I know," Raven groaned.

"Hey," the mechanical Titan crooned, "It's not my fault you put off all your important scheduling to go have an adventure cross country and now you gotta'do everything at once to catch up."

Raven huffed a particularly weighted breath through her mouth and relentingly deflated some.

"I'll be around when I can," she offered; which brought a slight smile to Jinx's face, but ultimately rang hollow for her concentration on the redesigns.

It would be good, to keep focused, Jinx was sure; and the project would hopefully score her brownie points with the children as well as help the grown Titans trust her, after having passed out before dinner. The thought made Jinx wince a little as Cyborg walked them out of the room; she hoped Raven hand't dealt with too much, the night prior. She made a mental note to talk with someone about it, in case she missed anything important.

They headed to the elevator, and Raven separated from them after a few floors, mumbling things around the clipboard in her hands. Jinx's heart admittedly beat a little faster, for the long ride in the metal death-box without her comforting influence.

Cyborg's conversation was idle and directly related to her ideas, Jinx faintly noted; as they walked to the basement levels they both seemed to calm, as the plethora of workstations and shop tools reflexively set them both at ease.

"So."

"So," Jinx agreed.

"Congrats, again," Cyborg offered.

"Thanks," Jinx replied, trying not to rub the back of her neck.

"So... You cool? With this all, I mean?" he asked hesitantly. His tone and posture reflected his likely memories of her; Jinx's mind raced through memories os boasts and conversations that they'd shared at the Hive and felt the urge to bite her lip.

"Heavy stuff first, then, huh?" Jinx bantered lightly.

"From what I recall, you tend to cut through the bullpucky where you can."

"As god as my witness, I will teach this team how to say 'fuck'," Jinx replied merrily.

Cyborg smirked, and left pause for her to answer him. Figuring she might as well, Jinx took a breath and let a few words tumble out.

"It's weird, havin' ta' like, growup all'a'sudden?" she offered; "I'm not complainin' 'bout it or nothin' but it's been a'while since I just... took charge and got stuff done, ya' know? Got me thinking, like morals and all'n stuff."

"Well, I'm glad you're here," he replied bolsteringly; he nudged her arm with his fist goodnaturedly and smiled; "I think you'll be just what the team'll need, next few months. The baby will be something good to focus on."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Well, with... what happened with Raven and all, we've sort of been on edge around her 'is all. It'll be good to see her back on her feet and living without an ax over her head for a change."

"What'da'ya mean?"

"Her birthday, -that stuff with her dad?"

"Ah, Yeah. She told me a lil'bit 'bout that. Sounded rough."

"No kidding," he answered, searching through the shelves, "Anyway; since she like, fell back to Earth and nursed back to health, we were kinda all holding our breath, to see what she'd do?"

"Yeah?"

"And, I don't mean ta' come off or nothin', but, I'm pretty sure this all is'a direct result of all the shit her dad put her through."

"How'd'you figure?"

"Well," he replied, turning towards her, "I've been thinking about it. Raven's whole life, she was under this, finality strain, right? Just, an inevitable fate that had to happen. After she defeated it, and her dad, she didn't have that anymore and she... seemed really lost? Like, she didn't know how to live life really, or what work towards. So then she asks to move the kids in, and I'm thinkin' that's gotta be it, ya' know? That she's replacing that final future thing with one of her own making. And you're prolly' proof of that; a failsafe in case the other kids don't work maybe."

"Sounds logical," Jinx agreed; "I've done worse'r things outta' spite. 'Least she's bein' constructive with it."

Cyborg made an agreeing sounding hum.

"...Do you think she likes me, then?" she asked quietly.

"I mean, I gotta say," Cyborg replied gently, "I never seen Raven flirt with anybody before, so that's new."

"Yeah," Jinx drawled, "This is sort of uncharted territory for everybody, I'm thinkin'."

There was a moment's pause between them, as they rounded some sort of vehicles internal frame and ducked under a large, mechanical repair arm.

"Sorry I missed dinner," she added sheepishly, when the silence felt a little too somber for her liking.

"'S okay," he replied warmly; "I was kinda surprised to see Raven show up for it to be honest; I figured you two'd hole up for the evening and rest up for it later."

"I miss anything?"

"Nah," he dismissed, waving a hand, "If Robin wanted to grill her, he'd do it in private. And like I said, things've been... kinda tentative, with us and Raven since she almost died. We're willing to wait things out for her, if this is something she really needs, for the most part."

"This the part you toss in a shovel talk?" Jinx quizzed goadingly, smiling as they passed a stack of cement bags.

"Nah; I figure you won't be getting far anyhow, once you start waddlin'," he ribbed.

Jinx huffed; "I resent that on the grounds that it'll probably be true."

Cyborg laughed a deep bellied hoot; it brightened up the dingy basement and made Jinx feel a little lighter on her feet.

"...I noticed Starfire seemed pretty upbeat about it all," Jinx broached tentatively, as she started looking along the shelves herself.

"A'yeah," Cyborg agreed, "She's a good sport. Believes the best in people. She'll probably have your back the most, 'side me and Raven I guess. Things go south with you and Raven though, watch out. She'll be madder'n a hornet in broom closet."

"That's oddly specific, but good to know," Jinx assented; "What about green-bean there? He seemed... twitchy."

"Gar? Yeah..." Cyborg exhaled, "He's gonna need some time. I don't think he's ever gotten over Terra, 'n for a long while everyone was sort of... pressurin' him and Raven to cut the tension, you know? I don't think anyone ever really meant anything by it per say but, lookin' back I can see how that sort of thing might've made matters worse for them both."

"...Terra?" Jinx asked, the name not ringing any bells as she racked her memories.

"Earth bender, 'while back?"

"Ahh, Dirtnap," Jinx recalled, the memory resurfacing, "That bitchy blonde girl you guys had awhile. I wondered what ever happened to her."

"Slade got to her. Played us from the start," Cyborg revealed grimly; "Raven called her out on it, back when she first moved in, but, we didn't want to listen. Guess Beast Boy's just, confused as to why she's setting us all up for all that again."

"Rough stuff."

Cyborg hummed again, apparently agreeing.

"And you?"

"I'm cool," he replied casually; "Raven could do with some nice stuff in her life, so; I'm hopin' you both pull through and all. -That and bein' an uncle's 'prolly going ta'be fun," he added jovially.

"Just wait till you have to babysit the demon-baby," Jinx teased; "The ritual sacrifices will have to be upheld."

"Beast Boy always said it's the funny guy who goes first," he overdramatically-lamented, grinning wider.

Jinx snorted briefly, and pulled out a can from a shelf; her expectations were met when upon checking the lid and shaking the can to gauge the weight, discovered that the can was half empty at best and was a likely burnt-orange color.

"I'm guessing this one was for Star's room," she mused; "It'll do for some of the detail work."

"I found half a can of off-white and a third of a semigloss mystery color," Cyborg offered.

"You better start that car," Jinx declared, sensing defeat.

 

---

 

 

The trip blurred by in a bit of a rush; it had been a while since she'd had a decent project to work on, and most of her attention and conversation with the mechanical Titan was directed at working out logistics for creative and cost effect quirks to add to the children's room.

He thankfully had most of the room's schematics on hand, which helped Jinx's planning immensely, and also notified her to the load-bearing walls and the max stress limits for the floor and ceiling.

Once they reached the store and Jinx saw the extra pieces she had to work with, her mental picture became a little clearer and she was able to help Cyborg visualize things a bit better, which helped speed up the process. After gathering a bit more data about her vision, he also offered up the leftover resources in the Tower, which layed off a lot of worries for extra materials and structural supports.

Back at the room, Cyborg starting taking apart what needed redoing, and putting together what needed assembling, after turning on a portable radio that he'd left charging on the tarped over floor, which led to a few bouts of lip-synching and sing-a-longs throughout the hours.

Repainting the whole room with base coats was Jinx's first order of business, and was something thankfully expedited by the help of the other Titans intermittently stopping in when they had time.

Starfire was the most frequent helper, which Jinx was especially pleased by; as the girl made short work of re-doing the ceiling while Robin stuck to the walls. The boy wonder took great care to make the coats as even and through as possible, while also being extra mindful of the blue painter's tape lining the trim and baseboards, which Jinx welcomed.

Jinx took it upon her self to set to work painting the furniture what needed it; dividing the segments of everything into alternating pastels that she hoped would give the room a more cheerful and inviting atmosphere, while making it a bit easier for the kids, and hopefully herself, to keep the room organised and readily memorized.

At one point, Cyborg left, only to return some fraction of time later, sub sandwiches in tote, and the work continued on; it was admittedly rather nice, as frequently the Titans would banter with each other and genuinely seemed at ease with her presence, and they seemed to delight in helping out, though they didn't necessarily seem fond of the work itself, which Jinx understood well enough.

Repainting every board and basket in the room wasn't exactly her idea of the best way to spend a day either, but, she admittedly reasoned she'd had way worse Wednesday nights and trudged on.

Eventually, Raven seemed to have gotten through whatever things she'd been forced to contend with, and joined her on the floor, working with her steadily into the night, long after the other Titans threw in the towel to get much needed rest for their upcoming daily routines about the city.

Jinx found she didn't have much to say, as focused on her task as she was, but the somber Titan didn't seem to mind.

They kept quiet for the most part, until Raven quietly asked for direction of Jinx interveined to give her new injunction.

Jinx vaguely wondered if losing oneself in a mindless, monotonous task was a similar process to the girl's meditation practices, but left the thought aside as she continued on with her work.

A few coffee breaks and bathroom breaks later, and it was well into morning, and Cyborg returned in time to help start putting all the pieces together.

His swiss-army-knife arsenal of a body came quite in handy in affixing many of the structures to the surfaces of the room itself; Jinx was quite keen to delegate the welding to him, too fearful of her own powers to test it herself.

Raven made one note of spatical realignment, citing her knowledge of the children's approximate sizes, leading to the placements of the adjustable fixtures, such as the bunk heights and the length of the swing they affixed to the ceiling.

Things got a little dicey once Robin took hold of one of the drills, as some of the bits decided to be facetious and snap off, nearly knocking the boy's hand and at one point, his face. While Cyborg assured her the bits had been old and broke on their own accord, Jinx was internally certain her powers had been the ultimate deciding factor of the events.

Still, the team leader remained in good spirits and they all pressed on.

Though she wouldn't say for certain, Jinx rather felt she was making something of a good impression, the more the room started to come along, and the others were finally able to see what she'd been talking about and goading them into allowing.

With the overall structure of the room assembled, Jinx allowed herself to be ushed into taking a nap by Raven, and left the room in her hands as she took time enough for a shower before settling down in Raven's room, having recalled the small pile of stuff littering her own bed that she didn't yet feel bothered to move.

She was awoken by the smell of dinner, and after donning an outfit from Raven's closet, Jinx wandered downstairs to grab a plate of the crafted spaghetti from the near-empty kitchen, pausing long enough to nod her chin in Beast Boy's scowling direction, before returning to the kids' room to see how things were going.

She was met with the tell-tale sound of a vacuum, which shut off after the other's likely noticed her approach, and she stepped inside to see that the room was in the middle of it's "sanding the things that needed sanding" stage.

A few hearty jokes and clinks of soda cans later, Jinx was sitting with the others, eating her spaghetti, as they caught her up on the room's progressions and returned to chatting amongst themselves, allowing Jinx to soak up their apparent daily activities as everyone took five.

Once her plate was finished, and the last of the sauce licked from her face, the vacuum started up again and Jinx handed off the pastel work to Raven, and set upon the detailing work.

From the lack of clocks or windows in the room, it was easy for Jinx to lose track of time; only the exchanges from the other Titan's really notified her about the changes in hours or mealtimes.

Slowly, the progress furthered more, and some of the actual furnishings began to take shape. Armed with a hot glue gun and an alarming amount of patience, Jinx took a break from painting to affix the LED light strips and icicle lights over the beds while Cyborg programmed the upper trim's color-changing strips.

Raven and Starfire dived into the new accessories, fitting the odds and ends where they belonged, as well as inserting the mattresses and getting the bedding freshly laundered.

Jinx was also willing to admit that she'd spent quite a long time with cattycornering decorative objects "just so" to get the perfect inviting air she was hoping for, much to Robin's bemusement.

The Tower's alarm rang once, to signal the Titan's towards some sort of trouble in the city; Robin had looked at her briefly, a look of debated emotion and expectations written across his mask, but Jinx stayed where she was, a heap of hot glue sticking to her fingers and a look of unfettered concentration in her brow, as she figured they'd leave someone behind to keep tabs on her.

After they left, she kept up her pace, working near tirelessly to steadily get the room finished in time until she felt eyes boring into her, from the way the hairs on the back of her neck tingled.

A quick glance over her shoulder at the floor below informed her that the green teen had been given the babysitting duty. He was sitting in large feline form, and seemed altogether wary, judging from the way the boy-cat flicked his tail. Not feeling any particular drive to break the silence, she chose to turn her gaze back to the ceiling to keep focused.

The room was close to finished now, and Jinx was on the final task of completing the mural. She supposed laying on precariously constructed scaffolding, in the dark, blacklight at her feet, painting random splatterings of tiny dots on the ceiling did little to set the boy beneath her at ease; but she was a girl on a mission and she fully intended to finish the hidden starscape before time ran out.

"I saw those weird symbols you painted under the beds," the boy spoke lowly.

"Those are sigils, and they're for protection," Jinx explained flatly as she tried to contort her arm to get a better angle to paint with.

"From what?"

Jinx huffed, trying not to get any more paint on her face; "Like, in general. Sigils are for general things, most times. They're just to support the kids' safety."

"Does Raven know about them?"

"The one for Melvin was her design," Jinx offered blankly, as she attempted to dig out the last of the paint closer to the lip of the jar with her brush.

"Oh."

"Heard 'bout your friend," Jinx offered, "For what it's worth, my condolences an' all."

"Terra was a good friend, and a good person," the boy insisted somberly.

"Sure," Jinx agreed amiably.

"You though, I'm not so sure about."

"That's fair," Jinx agreed.

"You don't seem... the family type."

"I'm not," Jinx answered truthfully; "But a lot of people who have no business raising families end up havin' em so, that's just part of bein' human at this point."

"It's not fair to con kids," Beast Boy stated; "Us older Titans, we can deal with that. But it's just, really sick to bring babies into it."

"True," Jinx agreed, "To be fair, I learned a lot about behavior and child management from the HIVE so, I think I have a pretty good chance of not screwing them over in the long run."

"Or that you just know how to turn them against us, or whatever it is you're trying to do," he countered.

"Please. If I was pulling a con, I'd kidnap the kids, sell them off, take the money, and then convince Raven to move to San Fransisco or something."

"She'd never fucking let you sell her kids," Beast boy nearly spat, his pitch raised in a surprised outburst of alarm.

"Which is why this isn't a con," Jinx stated, twisting herself to reach the next area of ceiling.

"Raven's a smart cookie," Jinx continued, "She'd knock me off my clock if I were pullin' the wool over her eyes, or tryin' to. So, sorry ta'say, but for the time being, I am /one hundred and ten percent/ in this for realsies. Girlscout badges an' all."

"Gross."

"Tell me about it," Jinx mused.

They fell back into silence, and Jinx continued to paint.

She considered it progress, when the second time she had to move the scaffolding, Beast Boy helped her by picking up the other end.

The third time she changed spots, the rest of the team was apparently back, if the green Titan's swift exit was anything to go by.

When Raven and Robin walked in to see the ceiling marred by blue dots, she found herself smiling at their concerned squeaks of cut off syllables.

"Hit the lights," she commanded, before their confusion could spiral into dismay.

Robin, being closer, did so, and the room lit back up into the state the Titans remembered seeing it in.

"It's glow-n-the-dark and it's clear, in the light," Jinx explained; "So no, I'm didn't just wreck the hours of mural'ing I did yesterday for funsies."

"Thank god," the boy wonder murmured under his breath, causing Jinx to chuckle slightly.

"The kids will be here tomorrow afternoon," Raven stated, curling the mood; "I got the call while we were out."

"I can finish in time," Jinx replied, her mind already racing through her tally list.

"After you get some sleep," Raven declared; "You're going to need it."

"But-"

"The baby probably needs sleep, even if you don't," Robin joined in, grinning.

"I'm like, eighty percent certain that's not how that works," Jinx countered tentatively.

"Be that as it may, I'd feel better knowing you haven't overworked yourself," Raven asserted.

"And I'd feel better knowing everything got done in time," Jinx countered; "I'll sleep when I'm done. Which'll be sooner the faster you let me finish up."

Raven sighed, sensing it was a fight she'd lose if she pressed further.

"Well," Robin offered, "I'm going to get some sleep. ...Soon. That scuffle with Kardiak threw my shoulder out and I want to get a nap in before finishing up the logs."

"Cyborg's making dinner by the way," he added, tilting his head slightly, "Should be done 'bout'n hour, if you're interested."

"Thanks," Jinx replied genuinely; "Raven can fetch it when it's done then," she replied smoothly, her smile pointedly coy as she shot the girl the look.

Raven exhaled a little roughly, but didn't argue.

"Alright, Star and I will stop by in the morning, give you any more helping hands if you need them while Raven picks the kids up," Robin explained.

"And Cyborg will be here if you need to make any last minute runs," Raven added, "But I'd prefer you wait till we got here, to hopefully keep him from having to make any back to back trips once the kids arrive."

Jinx nodded.

"Night then, ladies," Robin offered, nodding at them both; "Sweet dreams when you get there, and," he turned to look at Jinx once more and smiled, "Good luck with the projects. I'm sure the kids'll be ecstatic about it," he praised kindly.

"Let's hope so," Jinx little playfully, though there was an honest hint of apprehension in her pitch.

Robin left, leaving Jinx alone with Raven.

Part of her felt suddenly heavy, and she found herself setting down her paint tray.

"So... how was the fight and all?"

"Good," Raven replied; "In that, it was over rather quickly, all things considered, I mean. And that nobody got hurt, thankfully speaking. How were things here?"

Jinx inhaled a steady breath and let it fall out.

"Not bad. Talked with Green Bean a bit, he seems a good kid. Loyal. Strong even. Solid friend."

"He is," Raven agreed.

"...Well. Back to painting, I guess," Jinx sighed, taking up her brush again.

As they worked in silence through the hours of the night once more, Jinx thought a little harder about Raven's friends, and what Raven's children might hold in store.  

Chapter 32

 

"All right now, no shoving," Raven reminded, eyeing the older kids at her side while managing the squirming baby in her arms.

"This place is bigger th'n I remember," Melvin mused as she stared up at the vaulted ceilings, Timmy trying furiously to wedge himself between her and Raven's legs.

Raven gauged the boy's activity, but refrained from intervening as Melvin stepped out of the way for him to grab at Raven's cloak, and turned her attention towards the sounds of the elevator doors.

A small sense of relief bathed over her as Starfire flew out of the contraption, pulling a still very visibly sleep-slogged Jinx by the hand, and her team leader sidestepping them expertly from behind.

"She's up! She's up! She's up!" Melvin cried, pointing at them.

Immediately, Teether began to squirm even harder at the influx of energy in his sister's voice, and Timmy began moving erratically as he too, fell prone to excitement.

Jinx was still rubbing her eyes as she walked down to meet them, with some evidence of confusion written across her features as she looked them over.

"I didn't think we'd be doing the greetings so soon," Jinx muttered weakly, as Starfire and Robin smiled from her flanks.

"I may have mentioned that you had a surprise waiting for them," Raven offered, grabbing onto the back of Timmy's shirt to keep the boy from racing into the elevator's closing doors; "They promised to wait until you got some rest, but..."

"We've been waiting!" Melvin insisted, rocking on her heels a bit; "We've been waiting all day!"

Beside her, Timmy looked at his sister, then to Raven, and crossed his arms, mimicking Melvin's firm stance.

"Yes," Raven answered the girl, her tone forcibly mollifying, "And I appreciate it;" turning back to Jinx, Raven continued, "I took them to the park to give you some more time but, the boys'll need to go down for their naps soon and I'd rather get things over with."

"Don' wanna' nap!" Timmy insisted, stamping his foot.

"Then you can play quietly for an hour," Raven dismissed; "Anyway, kids," she stated firmly, her tone shifting to gain their attentions, "This is... my friend Jinx. She made something for you."

The children looked at Jinx and for a moment, Raven watched them look each other over hesitantly, neither children nor teen quite sure what to make of the other, before Jinx ran a hand through her hair and knelt down on her heels to get to the children's level.

She smiled softly, no traces of routine smirks or devilishly glazed eyes, and made no effort to get closer to the children's personal space.

"Hello! Nice to meet you three," Jinx greeted airly.

"Hi!" Teether answered back, squirming around again to wave his arms.

"Hi lady," Melvin offered quietly, eyeing the teen.

"Timmy," Raven prompted gently, "Can you say hello too?"

The boy shifted on his feet before squaring his shoulders and scrambling behind her legs.

"He's shy," Melvin stated.

"That's alright, he can say hello when he want's to," Jinx insisted, raising to her feet; "Since you've been waiting long enough, how about I show you that surprise?"

The two eldest children looked up at Raven reflexively; Raven smiled, and reached behind her to take Timmy's hand. Melvin reached out to take Bobby's paw, and hesitated.

"Can Bobby come too? Or is he too big?" she asked, hunching over herself.

"Bobby will take the elevator after as, but yes, he can come," Raven replied as her mind glossed over the pseudo-mathematical calculations she and Cyborg had made for the giant stuffed bear.

"There's some of the surprise for him, too," Jinx added, as she headed back to the elevator herself.

Melvin's eyes grew a little wider at the statement, and Timmy exhaled a great breath of amazement as he and Melvin looked at each other.

The kids walked impatiently, but obediently beside Raven as Robin worked the elevator controls, Starfire moving in to pick up Teether for herself with a squeal of anticipatory delight.

It was a bit of a tight fit with four Titans and three kids, but she had more elbow room than she did when the Titans usually piled into the elevator, so Raven refrained from dwelling on it; the secondhand excitement busing around the kids and her friends for the past few days was more than a little overpowering and Raven found herself looking forward to feeling the emotional storm pass.

Timmy spent the ride stealing poorly hidden looks at Jinx, who offered warm, but still sleepy, smiles and a few well-meaning finger waves to the boy.

Melvin's eyes however remained focused on the numbers scrolling by on the panel, bouncing on her heels little by little as they grew nearer.

Robin was watching the older girl with fondness, and it left a vague impression inside Raven as their bond echoed through her. She momentarily felt bad that the boy'd felt so nauseous as of late, but there was little she could do for that side-effect or their brain link and pushed the thought from her mind.

Raven kept down a sigh, and reminded herself that she'd already used her soul-self to fetch the children and their things, whisk them to the park, and back again, and that they were still young enough that they liked elevator rides; moderating herself and her powers was important, and she reminded herself that she could stand to let the kids wear themselves out a little.

When the bell rang and the doors finally opened, Raven made no move to stop the older children from racing out ahead of her into the common room at full speeds, bursting past an awaiting Cyborg and a startled Beast Boy.

Starfire and Robin were quickly after them, but Raven took up Jinx's leisurely pace in the living area, enjoying the futile efforts of the kids as they scuttled around in search of their present.

"Hey kids!" Cyborg greeted as he lifted his feet around them; "We doin' the thing now?"

"Yup," Robin answered.

"Aww tight," the mechanical man answered, his optic rotating.

From within Starfire's arms, Teether started moving around again, as if in an attempt to assist his siblings' search.

"Careful, Lil'Man," Beast Boy warned, as Timmy bumped one of the operating terminals.

The children continued to run around breathlessly in search before ultimately turning up empty.

They turned to Raven, and the older Titans snickered from under their hands and behind pinched grins.

At the children's confused and almost hurt expressions, Raven fought back a smile herself.

"Where sur'rise?" Tommy asked quietly.

"It's down that hallway," Jinx answered firmly; her eyes bright.

The children almost instantly perked up again, and after a brief nod of encouragement from her, the kids toddled after Jinx, with the Titan's trailing closely behind them.

Raven quietly followed, enjoying the almost stuffed up feeling of the pungently tart Danish joy spilling over the walls and atmosphere, reminding her of the croissants she'd purchased at the park for breakfast.

They waited for her to reach them at the room door, an almost grave hush over them all as they clenched their muscles in wait. Bright eyes, anticipating faces. Something bubbled from within her self at the sight; a slick sort of contentment that she allowed in idle fancy.

"Now close your eyes," Raven instructed; "Jinx, lead them in."

The kids eagerly clapped their hands over their faces, and Starfire somewhat reluctantly landed, likely to better set the baby down upon entering.

Jinx carefully reached down, and tapped Melvin's hand.

She waited, and slowly, Melvin's hand reached out and Jinx took it. 

Timmy thrust his hand out blindly, and waved it wildly; he caught hold of Jinx's pants and starting nudging her. Jinx repositioned herself to keep from toppling over and opened the doors.

"No peeking," Jinx ordered, dragging the kids inside.

"Can we look now?" Melvin asked, "How much more?" 

Timmy made a few grunting screeches in his excitement, his grasp on communicating properly still tenuous at best.

When Jinx finally had them what was more or less the center of the room, she looked up; at seeing everyone inside, Jinx turned to her specifically, and Raven motioned for her to wait one moment longer before nodding.

"Alright, open your eyes," Jinx instructed, standing up.

As the kids opened their eyes, a wave of caramel cream surged through the air; they gasped and Teether shrieked.

The kids looked to her, and then to the other Titans, and then to Jinx, as if to reaffirm that they were seeing was their actual reality; Jinx's smile grew into a lopsided grin and she mumbled something to the kids that was lost to Raven in the children's near-immediate shrieks of delight.

All at once, the kids were racing around the room, investigating every nook and cranny; as Starfire put the baby in his new crib, Raven motioned for the other Titans to step away from the door. They spread out a bit to make more room.

"Look! Bobby has a house!" Melvin cried, pointing at the overly large dog-house-esque facade jutting out of the wall.

"Get in! Get in!" she instructed the creature; though invisible, a large, audible force came lumbering through the door, bumping into Cyborg as it presumably went to investigate the hole.

"Did you see his name on the painted on?" Raven inquired lightly; "That's where he can sleep at night."

Melvin continued to sigh and squeal in delight, and crawled in after her creation.

Though the fabricated chamber wasn't very deep, it was fairly tall, and more than enough room for the teddy bear to sit, if a little slumped. The hole was painted black, to give it the appearance of being larger than it actually was, but Jinx had taken the initiative to dress it up a bit with string lights and a few, very tiny picture frames which also helped solidify the illusion.

Melvin seemed entirely pleased by it, which was a small worry off of her shoulder. She supposed that implied the large bear would be happy too, though she wasn't sure that was of any concern to her directly.

Timmy had discovered the working lights on his racecar bed; while Jinx and Cyborg had been willing to fabricate something more unusual such as a semi-truck or a spaceship, she'd insisted they opt for the racecar to keep the space in the room more open.

He seemed to be enjoying it, so Raven counted it a success.

She watched him bounce behind the 'drivers seat' and then turned her attention to Melvin, who crawled out of Bobby's House to climb up the rope ladder and poke around her treehouse bed.

It wasn't long before she discovered the pulley system, the book nook, and the slide.

Her crash landing prompted Timmy to jump up and follow after her; it was only after their fourth trip down the slide that the pair of them decided to explore the rest of the room.

One by one, they slowly discovered the features that everyone had been grueling over the past few days; Jinx and the others prompted them towards a couple 'secrets', as their own secondhand excitements grew, but no one made mention of the ultimate 'kid's corner' tucked away behind the security of the hidden locking mechanism.

Jinx had sworn them all to secrecy on it, and Raven could practically feel the way her friends' eyes kept glancing over to it, or to the lock, eager for the kids to discover it.

They remained oblivious to it, and after a while, Raven felt it was rather time to let the kids settle in on their own and get back to the admittedly loose schedule for the day.

"Kids, what do you say?" she asked firmly.

At her prompting, Melvin and Timmy stopped their whirlwind for long enough to think things over and exhibit somewhat bashful behaviors.

"Thank you, for the surprise," Melvin drawled shyly, a doll hanging limply from her hands.

"Timmy?" Raven pushed sternly.

The boy crawled out of the overturned toybox, and slowly walked closer to Jinx. He looked as if he was about to say something, but then seemed to change his mind; he surprised her and Jinx, by darting forward to Jinx's knees.

When Jinx leaned down to better see him, he lifted himself onto his toes and wrapped his arms around her neck.

Started, Jinx hugged the boy back, and a raspberry look flushed her face as she nuzzled into him.

"Thanks lady," he murmured, before squirming out of her grasp. The boy started to hug each Titan in turn, with Melvin quickly following suit. After passing out his round of hugs, Timmy stumbled his way to the exercise mat, which he launched onto at full force to bounce off of with a hard smack.

"Cyborg, weren't you starting supper?" Raven murmured, calling his attention to the time; it'd be a few hours till dinner would be finished, and the mechanical teen had a fair bit of prepwork, if he intended to make good on his BBQ plans.

His mouth was silent at the reminder, but his face sported a rather colorful expletive, which Raven found amusing.

He left in a hurry, the other teens, who'd by now made themselves comfortably on the bedroom floor to play with the kids, looked at each other as if to reluctantly accept that their fates.

Robin needed only a quick look to her, to get the message that playtime was winding down; he set down his teacup and ruffled Melvin's hair as he passed her. Starfire cooed a bit more at the baby and shrugged off the pirate accessories Timmy had adorned her with, and dropped them back into the toy box.

It took a few minutes of glaring intently at Beast Boy, to urge him to jump down from the artificial tree limb, and slink out of the room.

Jinx looked at her somewhat hesitantly, likely gauging is she should leave too.

"Alright," Raven began, taking a breath to prepare herself.

Malvin looked over at her from her spot on the imaginary bear.

Timmy continued to launch himself off the mat.

"Do you remember what we talked about? About you three moving in with me?"

"Ye'as," Melvin drawled, kicking her feet.

"This is your new room now. So this is where you'll sleep from now on. My room is down the hall, so I'll be closeby when you need me," Raven explained as she eyed Timmy.

"Catch him, please," she instructed, prompting Bobby to set a giant paw on the mat, barring the boy from bludgeoning himself further.

"Timmy, did you hear me?" she asked firmly.

"Yes!" he whined, attempting to climb the bear in frustration.

"Good. There's... one other thing I wanted to talk to you all about," she began steadily.

She looked at Jinx; there was a slight tinge of corn flake apprehension lingering about her frame.

Raven could almost taste a coating of emotion in her own mouth, but paid it little mind; in the breath she took for herself, she admitted she was stalling slightly as the apprehension, she hoped, would inspire her to choose her words carefully.

"Tomorrow, you'll start training t-"

"-To be big kid heroes!" Melvin interjected happily.

"Yes, big kid heroes," Raven repeated.

"Do you have their schooling plans set up yet?" Jinx asked as she pulled Timmy into her lap to prevent his feet from kicking her in his attempts to scale the imaginary bear.

"I was planning on homeschooling," Raven allowed; "I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable putting them in an environment where their powers could get out of hand."

"I have some books and stuff, from the Hive if you wan'em," Jinx offered, tilting her head slightly as if recalling something; "I can probably pull most of the pdf's from the database for the elementary courses. -Just rework 'em a bit to blot out all the... directed? 'Ness of some of the wording and it'd be pretty solid."

"That... might actually be a big help," Raven admitted, deflating a bit; "Robin offered his old books, as well as a few numbers of promising tutors, should the need arise."

Timmy seemed to settle himself, though his purposefully ragdolled posture indicated that there was a possibility he wouldn't be content in Jinx's lap for long.

"They got any schedules an'all?" Jinx asked, as she watched the boy in her lap slump nearly onto the floor.

"I have their daily schedules mostly mapped out, barring any criminal activity," Raven eased.

"Good; kids need structure," Jinx stated absently; Timmy rolling off of her lap and onto the floor while Melvin continued to kick her feet.

"The others know their routine, so hopefully there won't be any miscommunications there," Raven added wishfully.

"You should fill me in on all of that then," Jinx replied.

"Later," Raven agreed.

The kids perked up.

Looking at them, Raven steadied her voice again; "Jinx is going to be helping me a lot, and..."

At Melvin's look of confusion, Raven internally cursed the moment's strain and forced herself through it.

"In a few months, she's going to have a baby," she yielded, internally cursing herself one more.

"So you'll have a new friend to play with," Jinx added positively.

"A whole new baby?" Melvin exclaimed, nearly jumping up from her spot on the bear.

"New baby?" Timmy repeated, his surprise echoing his sister's.

"And," Raven added, closing her eyes.

"And?" Jinx repeated.

"Jinx is my... special friend. We're girlfriends," Raven amended quickly; "That means we're dating."

"What's 'dat?" Timmy asked quietly.

"That means they kiss and stuff," Melvin replied as she sat down on Bobby's shoulder.

Timmy made a disgusted face and shook his head vigorously at the idea.

"Anyway," Raven lead, redirecting, "You two have half an hour left of naptime; I don't care if you sleep or not, but you have to play quietly in your new room, do you understand?"

The kids were quick to cooperate, no doubt eager to explore their room further.

Jinx rose to her feet and dusting herself off a bit, before joining her with a smile.

Raven waited until Jinx had passed the threshold, before taking a last look at the kids behind her, and smiled softly to herself, before shutting the door.

She allowed herself to step to the other side of the hall before taking and exhaling the stress from her core.

"Good job," Jinx commended, a few breaths in front of her.

A chuckle popped from her throat; she didn't exactly see how or why she was worthy of the praise but, she quickly pushed the thought down and lifted her chin.

Jinx's smile was still lopsided, and her lack of sleep showed under her eyes.

"Thank you," Raven replied, knowing that Jinx couldn't feel the wave of seasalt endearment passing over her, under the words.

Jinx's lack of supernatural empathy didn't stop her from sensing the weight of the words however, and the girl seemed to grow softer for it.

"So what's the plan for tonight?" she murmured.

"We help Cyborg with dinner and feed the kids," Raven replied gingerly, "Then we watch a movie, read a story, then tuck them in and call it a night."

"Sounds good," Jinx agreed, before groaning; "Tyche's tits, I feel like I haven't eaten all week."

"That's one for the swear jar," Raven shot, bemused.

Jinx scoffed, and started heading for the common room.

"Why are you taking the stairs?" she asked, prompting Jinx to stop in her tracks.

"'Cause'm too tired to fuck you in the elevator 's why," Jinx shot back, pressing on.

A light sound, huffed off her tongue; part of her silently accepting it as laugh.

She trotted forth to catch up to her, and slowed her pace to keep even.

"That's two for the swear jar," she jibed.

"Fuck you."

"Three."

"Christ," Jinx moaned.

"Now you're just trying to make me jealous," she teased.

"Oh, I'll tease you in'a second," Jinx promised, as they turned a corner onto the stairs.

Raven let the jovial air between them hang until they reached the common room; blinking back the bright lights from the recessed ceiling, she found herself unwilling to rid her face of her smile, and greeted her friends with added warmth.

Everything... felt good.

It was good.

Her friends picked up on her high spirits near instantly; for once however, they seemed equally pleased by her indulgence, instead of shocked and intimidated by it.

"They settle'in okay?" Robin asked, from his spot against the counter.
His cup was steaming, and Raven spotted the kettle on the warmer beside him.

"They won't sleep until tonight but, letting themselves tucker each other out is the idea," she mused; her eyes felt a little wider than usual, and kitchen's colors seemed a little more saturated.

"Nice job on that setup by-the-way, Pinky," Cyborg inserted broadly; "Them's turned out real' nice."

"Thanks, Botboy," Jinx lilted, letting her hands fall to her hips; "gotta destroy that evil stepmom trope 'right 'outta the bag, 'ya know?"

"Botboy?" Beast Boy repeated, from his spot on the couch.

"I thought you wanted to be the evil supervillain," Raven pressed as Starfire flew to a landing near the chairs.

Jinx sighed dramatically; "There's a difference between taking over the world and being a shitty parent," she insisted; "Haven't you ever seen'a Disney movie? Lady Tremaine is a bitch."

"Four," Raven supplied, enjoying the way Jinx rolled her eyes in response.

"Anyway, now that 'yall here, can you help me set the plates? I don'wanna leave this baby for too long, lest the 'zest catch fire," Cyborg pleaded, as he eyed the sauce dripping through the grill.

"I got them!" Starfire called, zooming over to collect the cups.

Raven glanced around the room, sensing the low stressed air, and walked over to Jinx to place a light hand against her back.

"Jinx, sit down and take a breather," Raven insisted, as she lightly pressed her back.

"You do look a lil'dead on your feet," Robin agreed; Raven felt a twinge of camaraderic approval for it.

"...Yeah, alright," Jinx relented, slumping a bit. She eyed the room and picked a spot on the far end of the couch, where Beast Boy eyed her vigilantly.

Raven turned her attention to the kitchen for a moment.

Probably just make everything burn, she thought, prompting her to follow in Jinx's footsteps.

At Jinx's questioning glance, Raven's jovial mist seemed to thin.

"Have to save up for the bedtime tantrums," she explained.

Jinx huffed in resignation or mollification, and leaned back against the couch.

Raven slid in next to her, and allowed her own eyes to drift shut.

Her smile found it's way back onto her face.

They're not going to believe their eyes, when the lights go off, and they see those stars... she mused.

Chapter 33

"Raven, you got a minute?" Robin asked, observing her as he nursed his water.

Raven, in the solace of the stillness in the near-empty common room left after the other Titans had called it a night, felt acquiescent; she walked over to the table languidly. As she sat across from him, her Happiness hoped her face reflected her pleasant absence of emotional imbalance. Pride was feeling rather pleased by how smoothly the evening had gone.

A transient part of her self felt comforted by the familiarity of the action; they'd long ago given up trying to goad each other into getting more sleep, and instead often took the time to chat together quietly.

"Your eyes are hopeful but your hands are weary," Raven murmured conversationally, prompting her leader to speak on.

Robin smiled dully; Raven knew him well enough to discern the untroubled, but eerily focused manner of brain-churning he was ruminating through.

His finger idled along the rim of his cup as he picked his threads of thinking.

"The kids went down gently tonight," he mused, "Better than expected?"

"The room's new enough to be exciting. I suspect in a week or so, we'll be seeing more... colorful attitudes," Raven replied, picturing the scenario; "The monks insisted that if we stick to their techniques, we'll be fine."

Robin nodded.

"You excited for their first mission tomorrow?"

"I'm a little nervous," Raven admitted, "I know they'll be safe, I just..."

She trailed off as she looked over across the room, out the great window into the Bay; "I just want them to feel confident in themselves, I suppose. I want to make sure that... I'm a good instructor."

"You'll do great, don't worry," Robin soothed, returning Raven's gaze to his own, "The kids will do fine; they're resilient and it's all in good fun."

"Right," Raven agreed, as she looked at the table. She let her nails drag idly along the woodgrain

"...So. What's Jinx up to?"

Raven's gaze shot up.

"Tonight, right now I mean," he clarified quickly, his face a little flushed; "She resting, or?"

"She wanted to unpack, she told me," Raven answered; "She hadn't taken the time to, 'till now."

Robin nodded once, content with the knowledge.

"She seems really into parenting," he observed lightly.

"I think she's used to herding kids, from her time at the Hive affiliates," she replied softly; "She hasn't said such in as many words but, I've gotten the impression that she was perhaps more prevalent in raising some of her former classmates than she let on."

"Makes sense," Robin accepted; "She seems bright enough."

Raven's lips smirked of their own accord; "I'd certainly hope so, any brighter and she'd be blinding," she quipped.

Robin smiled briefly; he tested the give of his cup, squishing the plastic slightly before taking a sip.

"Does she trouble you?" Raven asked; the question was quiet. Her thumbs rubbed the lip of the table.

"...When I worked with Batman," Robin began, his tone firm but reminiscently soft, "One of the things we'd always hope for, was for people to turn their lives around. Every time we'd reach out, we'd go: this time; this time, they just might take our hand," he explained. He looked up at her, and for a moment, Raven could almost see the glimmer of light play across his shielded eyes.

"I'm happy, that for once, someone's taken their second chance," he offered in a tone a bit too raw for his apparent liking.

"I trust you, Raven," he continued, "You know that."

"I appreciate it," she returned.

"I just worry a lot," he confessed.

Raven allowed her face another grin; "If you didn't, you probably wouldn't be the leader for very long."

"True," he huffed, exhaling a hollow a laugh; "I'm worried about the strain of it all, on you, with your powers. -I know we've talked about that before, with the kids and all, but it's probably going to be on my mind until things mellow out. I don't want you to run yourself ragged."

"...I'll manage. I have you four and Jinx to help out," she asserted.

"Jinx," Robin repeated.

"Jinx," Raven agreed.

Her friend let his eyes close in thought, and Raven contemplated pouring herself a cup of tea.

She'd just put the kettle on, and returned to her seat, when Robin opened his eyes again.

"You're worried about her," Raven observed.

"I'm worried for her," he clarified.

Raven looked down at herself; Fear worried her lip.

"It's not that I think you'll hurt her or anything, -far from it," he explained, "I just, I wonder if she's taking things too quickly."

"...With me, you mean," she pressed.

Robin winced.

"I've explained, to the best of my knowledge, what she'd gotten herself into, for getting involved with me," Pride warned; "While I admit that there's probably no one truly prepared to cohabitate with a demon, she's quite capable of holding her own."

"I'm not doubting her skill," he dismissed placatingly, "It just seems rather sudden. What happens in three months when the honeymoon wears off?"

"You assume we're in the bridal stage," Raven retorted vacantly, her eyes once more on the lightless ocean; "As she'd likely put it, we're 'something of a onenight-stand shotgun-wedding'ed into a parental partnership'. There's... some aspect of romance, but we've little chance to... address it, for better or worse."

Robin's celery surprise shot off from the aura around his face; he laced his fingers together and held them under his chin.

"You made it seem like this was a long time relationship, between you two," he murmured.

"I..."

Raven cursed under her breath.

"I used to visit her, at the prison. We wouldn't talk or... do anything, I'd just... sit there. Watching her, I suppose. Her emotions were... becoming?" She murmured, her face expressing her Confusion; "Then, one night, things went a little differently, and then one thing led to another, and it was only the once, and that was all it took," Raven described, the memories blurring through her senses.

"So you took that trip to... talk about it?" he ventured.

Raven nodded.

"We had to decide... if we were keeping it, or not. We chose to keep it," she stated flatly.

"For what it's worth, you're going to be a good mom," he praised, his smile light.

She smiled weakly.

"I think... I'll speak the part well enough to pass," she reasoned, as her inner selves compromised amongst herself, "I doubt I can do much better than that. With Melvin and the boys, it's different. They're human. They chose me. As long as I try, they'll be content enough to play along. I doubt things will be that smooth for..."

Raven took a breath; "...For my baby," she finished, wincing.

"What do you mean?"

She shot him a look.

"How am I to be a mother? I can't even stomach sitting through Beast Boy at a grocery store. The first emotion I learned was of my own mother disparaging at my burgeoning existence. She hated me Robin, for good reason."

"-I'm sure that's not true," he insisted.

"-How am I supposed to love a monster, when my own mother couldn't love me?"

At the end of her crisp sentence, nearly hissed through her incisors, the lights flickered in the pause of her question's wake.

Robin shivered slightly, as the nausea tickled his nerves, but he remained decidedly firm in his relaxed posture. The laidback position helped soothe her resolutions.

"Raven, if you can love a boy that screams at decibels strong enough to shatter steel everytime he wants a cookie, you can love a baby that looks a little like you, and maybe shares your tastes."

"Sounds invalid," Happy murmured, pleased to make an attempted joke before she could stop her; "I'm not a good person, Robin. I can mimic the behavior, but I can't... stop what I am. The impulses. The thoughts. The dreams."

"Yet here you sit, in a Tower of justice, fighting for the greater good of humankind every day of your life," Robin countered, "If your kid turns out anything like you, -or Jinx," he added, "They'll know right from wrong, and they'll choose to be a better person, because you inspired them to believe more of themselves."

Raven looked at his goofy grin and determined fists. His radiant aura a brilliant tasting roasted almond.

"You really believe that, don't you?" she mused.

"I'm the leader," he shot back, still grinning, "I'm supposed to believe in you," he teased.

A Sad, Thankful, sort of little smile over took her face.

With Timid under her lips, Raven fought not to shy her head.

"...Thank you," she murmured; "I... forget sometimes, how much I've really done for myself, in the face of it all."

"No prob'," he ensured, nodding once.

Raven rubbed her thighs and refocused her thoughts.

"I guess I should get meditating; I doubt I'll have much time to tomorrow, setting in the new schedule," she ventured, as the kettle on the stove reached its boil.

"Take Jinx a drink or something," Robin instructed, as she rose from her seat.

"Get Kori a ring or something," she teased, happy to see his returning smile.

Minding Robin's instruction, and leaving the boy to his own devices, Courage coddled a cup of freshly brewed tea in each hand as she made her way to Jinx's room.

She used her powers to nudge open the door, and found the room cast over in yellow fluorescence that was a bit brighter than she was expecting.

She blinked the strain from her eyes and observed upon their equilibrium that Jinx had unpacked, judging from the easel in the corner and the few scattered assortments adorning the dresser.

Jinx, was draped over the bed, an arm slung over her face.

Briefly, the memory of Jinx in a similar position back at her old cell, flashed behind Raven's eyes, nearly flushing her face as she pressed together her teeth.

She set Jinx's cup on her nightstand, and leaned over the girl.

"If you're gonna' kiss me," Jinx mumbled, "Do it."

"Cranky, when you're sleepy, aren't you," Raven teased.

Jinx mumbled something, apparently in indignation, and refused to budge.

"Brought you something," Raven pressed softly; "It's on the table."

Jinx smiled faintly, and there was a pleased sort of thrum, that melwed out from her lips.

Fondness reached out, and ran her fingers along the length of Jinx's arm, causing her to shiver before moving it.

With her face unobscured, she watched as Jinx's eyes barely flickered open once, before sighing deeply.

"Would you rather I stay or go," she asked gently.

Jinx hummed a tired response.

Smiling, Raven leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple.

"I'll leave you be, then," she reasoned, blinking amiably at her before rising to her feet.

"You want I should hit the light?" she asked over her shoulder, as she came to the door.

Jinx waved a hand vacantly.

Raven flicked the lights out, and let the door close behind her with a quiet hydraulic hiss.

She took a moment to appreciate the warmth of the cup in her hands, and decided that she'd take the opportunity to walk to bed.

Chapter 34

"Time to get up," Raven murmured, "Time to get dressed; Cyborg's making breakfast."

The young boy in the racecar bed did not seem particularly enthused about getting up.

"Melvin, are you up?" she asked to the slightly obscured top bunk; a few thudding noises led Raven to believe that the girl was jostling herself out of slumber.

Teether was already awake, and grasping at her eagerly, as much as the height of the crib walls would let him.

She picked him up and soothingly tucked him along one arm, his head supported by the crook of her shoulder as she walked back to Timmy.

"Timmy," she pressed again, as Melvin slid down the ladder with a soft thud; "Wake up sweetie."

She turned, letting the boy gradually awaken while she concerned herself with Teether.

Melvin thankfully, had no problem finding her bureau, and the lass made quick work of pulling out an outfit for herself while Raven changed Teether's diaper on the baby's changing dresser.

The nook's mini half-bath had been the splurge she'd insisted upon, in Cyborg's original blueprints. She was glad they'd kept it in the final design.

Melvin made use of the miniaturized sink station to brush her teeth, though from her peripheral vision, Raven couldn't make out how thorough a job she'd done.

Raven counted the ordeal of changing Teether a successful after managing to get through it without any surprises, and threw a mental prayer of thanks to her mechanical friend for installing the state-of-the-art trashcan with its plausible odor sealing capabilities.

After getting Teether a new diaper, came the arduous task of dressing him, which was a bit of a struggle, as the baby had his own ideas of where the fabric should go.

"Not for eating," she chided, knowing her words were essentially lost on the infant; she diligently worked to keep the boy from eating his onesie.

Timmy managed to toddle over to his set of drawers, and Melvin helped him pull off his nightshirt.

By the time Raven had gotten Teether suitably dressed, the older children were standing in wait of her.

Melvin had dressed well, though her hair was a little mussed; Timmy, Raven observed, had... the basic idea, at least. His backwards pants and inside-out shirt could be overlooked.

"Morning," Raven lilted, adjusting the fussy baby in her arms.

"Morning," Melvin repeated, as she and Timmy raced towards her legs, affixing themselves to her at full speed.

She allowed her free hand to rest along Melvin's back.

"Alright, breakfast time," she declared, "Wait for me at the elevator," she instructed.

The kids ran ahead, pausing every few feet to make sure she was still behind them; Raven kept her strides even and met them at the doors.

She allowed Melvin the honors of pushing the floor key.

Immediately, Timmy prostrated himself on the floor, wailing and flailing about; banana candy distress ricocheted off of him and bounced around the metal walls.

"I wann'a press the but'n!" he wailed.

"You can press the button next time," she promised, as she attempted to mentally block out his screeches.

Thankfully, the elevator ride was blissfully short, and they reached the common room floor, where Cyborg's breakfast was well underway.

Robin was nursing a hot water at the table, newspaper in hand; Starfire sat sleepily across him, still in her pajamas, with what looked like it could've been a glass of orange juice.

Raven ushered the children to the couch area.

"Cartoons should be channel seven," Robin called, as she fumbled over the HMDI settings for a few moments.

Once the sounds of child orientated programming flickered to life on the larger-than-life television screen, Raven set the remote on the console and walked into the kitchen, with Teether still in her arm.

"Morning," Raven greeted, earning a curt repetition from Robin and a brighter, lofty good morning from Starfire.

"How's breakfast comin' Cy?" Raven asked as she maneuvered into the kitchen space.

"You're right on time!" he answered happily as he flipped the contents of his frying pan, "Eggs should be 'nother minute or two and the turkey bacon's almost done. -Just waitn' on the biscuits really."

"And the scrap for Teether?" she pressed, as she poured herself a mug of hot water and rifled through her tin for a morning tea.

"Washed it this morning," he chimed; "Check the breadbox on the left," he insisted.

"I still think we should try him on solid foods," Cyborg added, as he tested an omelette with his spatula; "I've got some hard carrots in the fridge he can try chewin' on," he reported.

"Sound's good," Raven agreed, "I'll try it this afternoon, might be worth a shot."

Beast Boy lazily wandered into the common area, stretching his back out as he yawned away the last remnants of sleep.

"Hey guys, what's up?" he called.

"Mornin' Beast Boy," Robin called.

Catching sight of the kids, Beast Boy broke out into a bright smile and claimed a spot on the couch; shifting into a dog to curl up with the kids as they watched the colorful characters on screen teach their audience the importance of numerical values and shapes.

So far, so good, Raven thought.

Raven sat at the bar and rested her tea on the counter so it could steep properly; she contend herself by scanning over Teether, making sure all was well with the baby boy.

"Has Jinx come down yet?" Raven asked to anybody.

"Nah, not yet," Cyborg replied.

"Someone should probably fetch her," Robin agreed.

"Starfire, could you?" Raven ventured, gesturing to the baby she was coddling; "She should be C4, at the back end. First floor."

"Figures she'd take that one," Cyborg interjected offhandedly; "'Since ya know, the views are dynamite," he joked, earning a gruff smile from their team leader.

"Certainly!" Starfire quipped obligingly as she popped out of her seat.

The alien princess flew gracefully through the halls.

The tower had a total of twentyfour rooms for personal use, split over the two floors composing the Tower's 'wings'; almost all of the Titans had chosen rooms on the upper floor, leaving the lower level largely unoccupied, though useful for impromptu sleepovers.

Of the twelve rooms on the lower level, there were six to each side, and those six were further split into threes; thus Starfire had little trouble navigating the lesser used hallways of the Tower.

She stopped in front of Jinx's door with a smile; hovering midair, she gave a polite knock.

"Jinx; Cyborg has prepared the most delicious of breakfast time delicacies. You should join in with the morning gaieties," she announced.

The metal door slid open, so Starfire peeked inside.

Jinx's room was completely awash in the morning sunlight; the room itself was more barren then Starfire expected, until she briefly recalled that they had used several of the 'spare room furnishings' to construct the wondrous creations in the children's room.

Jinx's dresser was accounted for, as was her nightstand and mattress; which was strewn over with sheets.

Jinx had pulled the sheets with her, where she sat almost cocooned, staring at the sunlight glistening over the watery horizon.

"Tis' a most beautiful day, is it not?" Starfire chirruped, as she flew over and landing in a sitting position beside her.

"I'll probably get sick of it, in'a month or so," Jinx mumbled; "But..."

Starfire hummed a breath and smiled; "There's nothing wrong with taking joy from the places it finds you."

"Yeah, I guess," Jinx conceded.

Jinx sighed, resigned to the start of the new day, and stretched out her upper body languidly, cracking her shoulders and spinal bits back into proper place with a few quick half turns at her middle to either side.

The popcorn-like sound of her spine popping quirked Starfire's brow, much to Jinx's inner amusement.

"So what's the plan for today anyway?"

"It's now time for the morning feast," Starfire answered, "Afterwhich, it will be time for the 'morning workouts'," she explained, raising her index finger; "And if the weather holds up, we shall all adjourn to the park! There will also be times of 'the schooling'."

"Cool," Jinx replied flatly; "So is the whole day just, babysitting then?"

"We shall all be the assisting of Raven in the babysitting," Starfire assured her warmly, "All of our cultures agree that it is easier for a community to nurture a child. This way, we all shall be having of 'the breaks' and the 'me-times' while the kids are kept 'minded'."

"Sounds' good," Jinx agreed; "Let's have that 'morning feast' then," she directed, before bringing herself to her feet.

"It shall be the most of delicious," the princess assured.

Jinx walked over to her dresser and slid open her drawer.

"So work out clothes, I'm guessing?" Jinx broached, pulling out her old black and yellow Hive uniform.

"We have of the 'changing facilities' in the wreck room, for changing after," Starfire offered.

"Thank god," Jinx breathed, "You guys really need to install more bathrooms in this place."

"You would not be the first to insist for that demand," the alien agreed.

"So..." Jinx began, as she pulled the jumpsuit over her head; "You cool?"

"Typically I am described as the 'hot' and 'on fire' and 'in need of minding surrounding flammable surfaces'," she teased; her hair, trailing into its signature flames brightened briefly in a few flares of vibrant heat before calming.

"Nice," Jinx yielded; she started to shrug on her yellow Hive boots.

"I more'of like, meant 'are you cool with Raven and me' an' all," she probed gently. "I mean, you seem cool with it, but like, she told me you two're like, pretty close."

Jinx kept watch of Starfire's face in her peripheral, as she worked the straps of her boots.

The Tameranian didn't seem too troubled, though her face seemed perhaps more somber than not.

"While much of Earthly romance still eludes me, I greatly respect its nuances," Starfire explained, "Raven is my dearest friend, and I wish for her happiness. I also hope that we can become of the friends, as well."

"I kinda' hope so too," Jinx answered, as she laced up her boots; "Should make things easier that way, for everyone."

Her jumpsuit and boots in place, Jinx shot a look at Starfire's slightly confused but overall subdued face and carried on slipping on her gloves.

"Alright, I'm done, let's chow," she proclaimed, marching to the door.

The alien followed in the air behind her.

Jinx walked in to see Cyborg cutting Melvin's pancakes, while Robin cradled a very unhappy Teether in one arm, and a hunk of twisted, undiscernable metal in the other, while a green monkey skittered about the bar counter with arms full of bananas.

Raven was standing over Timmy, who was attached to her leg.

"Timmy, if you don't sit down and eat when I count three, you're going to timeout and you won't get breakfast," Raven warned, her tone firm.

The boy shrieked, sending vibrations of sound reverberating through the interior surfaces of the Tower; Jinx flinched and winced at the ringing in her ears.

"Dude, just let him watch the damn cartoon," a now human Beast Boy yelled over the din, clamping his hands over his ears.

"We can't give into his tantrums," Raven reminded the group, "No matter how loud he gets. He has to learn that there are boundaries."

"This is promising," Jinx lied under her breath, her tone flat. She walked past the scuffle, to the already filled out placesetting Cyborg pointed her to.

"It's more effective if you ignore 'em after a'while," Jinx called absently, as she cut into her omelette.

"She does the warning bit first," Robin explained, as he murmured to the baby in his arms; Jinx mentally applauded the boy's ability to have kept the baby from screaming at his brother's screaming, and offered the Titan a respectful nod.

"Apparently, he's used to getting whatever he wants, 'cause he's so loud," monkey-fied Beast Boy explained, bounding up onto the table.

"No feet on the table," Robin warned, prompting the boy to stand on his hand and eat his banana with the other; Melvin snickered under her breath, and the group at the table smiled to each other.

"Thankfully the boy's pretty easy to distract," Cyborg added in, setting a fresh helping on the waffle platter.

"Raven's got like, that strict-mom stuff in spades," Beast Boy agreed, after he shifted back into a person, and sat himself into his chair; "She outlasted his tantrums for nine hours once," he explained, with a hint of awe, "-the first night she had them over here for a visit an'he didn't wanna' go to bed."

"I'm guessing the spanking thing and corporeal punishments are right out," Jinx figured, switching to her bacon.

"We get sent to the naughty seat," Melvin piped in, "Raven says we have to sit there for how old we are, and then 'apolozize for being naughty after;" after realizing the Jinx was, in fact, listening to her explanation, Melvin's voice picked up speed and pitch in excitement, spurring her on; "-And she says if we make a mess we're supposed to clean it up after and sometimes if we're bad we can't go to the park or watch cartoons."

"Are you bad a lot?" Jinx asked.

"I'm not," Melvin proclaimed calmy, "But Timmy doesn't like to use his words yet, so he get's'in the timeouts. Teether's a baby so he can't get timeouts and it's not fair."

"Yeah I'm not sure you can punish an infant," Jinx conceeded.

Melvin pushed her food around with her fork.

"Sometimes I want to be naughty but Raven says being bad isn't a game," Melvin admitted.

"She's right," Cyborg affirmed, "You shouldn't go to timeout on purpose, Melly."

"And don't worry, Raven's scheduled time for just you and her to play," Robin added encouragingly, "Does that sound nice?"

Melvin smiled brightly, though she hunched in on herself, as if she were a little shy, but she mumbled a happy reply, which pleased the rest of older Titans.

Jinx eyed the girl a moment, logging away the almost calculatory readout her observations assessed from everything to the girl's partially withdrawn aura, to her little pink cape. Jinx wondered if the girl was used to getting looked over for her younger brothers.

Raven came to the table, interrupting Jinx's thoughts, and took a seat.

"He about done?" Robin asked.

Raven nodded; "He doesn't like being hungry so he'll wind down in another minute or two," she assured.

"Good," Beast Boy replied unhappily, "'cause my ears can't take much more!"

"I told you to carry earplugs on you," Raven retorted; "You can't expect him to learn everything overnight. He's an actual /child/."

"I know, I know," Beast Boy sighed, deflating. He toyed with his veggie patty lacklusterly.

"It just... feels weird not playing around," he admitted.

"Tell me about it," Raven agreed.

"-But not when younger ears are listenin'," Cyborg reminded.

The table settled down, and after a minute, Raven left and returned with the young boy in tow, who sniffled some as he took his seat at the table.

His frown didn't last long however, as the dinosaur shaped biscuits on his plate delighted him enough to encourage the tyke to tuck in.

Robin returned to holding Teether's twisted metal in position for him to bite it down chunk by chunk, and Melvin politely asked for a refill of her orange juice.

As far as chow times went, it was one of the most uneventful Jinx remembered having, as the anxiety and adrenaline from mealing with the Team was now starting to fade away, leaving routine abnormality in its wake.

Most of the table chatter seemed directed and orientated around amusing the kids, which Jinx was fine with; triangles and parallelograms were pretty cool, as told by the kids, and they seemed to know an awful lot about the makes and models of different monster trucks, which she supposed was Cyborg's doing.

It felt like practically no time at all had passed, when everyone cleared up their plates and staggeredly headed for the gym. Jinx allowed herself to trail behind, not feeling particularly enthused to rush about or keep up with anyone in particular.

Raven and Beast Boy stayed behind; Raven apparently keen to take a breath for herself as she tended the morning's dishes, and Beast Boy eager to take advantage of some time to get his gaming on, on the mainscreen.

Jinx quickly grew bored.

Leaving them, Jinx entered the wreck room to find Starfire leading the stretches for the kids, Cyborg pressing weights and Robin running drills with his bo-staff behind her.

For the fun of it, Jinx joined the kids on the floor and joined in their stretches.

The kids were delighted that she had joined them, and seemed especially amused by her exaggerated efforts to play along; she tossed in a few overly dramatic groans of effort and sighs of exhaustion throughout the warmups, which kept the kids giggling, and Starfire smiling.

When they finished their set of stretches, Starfire commended them on their efforts, sincerely sounding enough Jinx almost wasn't sure if she were running with the gag or not, and bade the Boy Wonder to carry on the lesson.

Raven slipped into the gym just as Robin took over, instructing the kids on how to play a weird version of tag across the width of the gym floor, which he and Starfire partook in themselves.

Jinx surveyed the gym from her seat on the floor.

Cyborg appeared to be doing some Extreme weightlifting, and the boy looked to be adding weights every few minutes to his rather impressive looking stack of... what Jinx decided were probably just ordinary metal blocks.

Raven looked to be taking time for a few stretches herself, which Jinx watched. While watching the girl bend and arch, part of her admittedly perked up in anticipation, stereotypical as she felt that likely seemed. She consoled herself over the notion, over the admission that the immediate attraction was of an adversarial excitement, rather than a singularly lecherous one.

Raven seemed to pick up on her staring, though made no move to react to it; after her stretches, she signaled for Robin's attention and the pair shared a few words, which Jinx didn't bother to make out.

The children carried on, attempting to tag each other from their various stations on the floor; Jinx couldn't help but smile at the sight of the eldest girl wiggling about on her belly in a desperate attempt to snag the ankles of her brother.

Eventually, after disengaging from a conversation with Robin, Raven wondered over to her.

"You can use whatever equipment you want, you know," the girl goaded.

"Eh," Jinx deflected, "I'm more of a sparrer. If it's not a dog-run or fisticuffs I'm not really into it."

"We do... obstacle courses, every other afternoon or so," Raven ventured; a light quizzical tilt to her head, "We don't... use dogs though."

"I mean, most of the time there weren't dogs neither but it's the few times they do, that makes you 'springy, ya know?" Jinx clarified, thinking back; "At the Hive I mean."

"We do have agrivated AI programs and holodeck simulators," Raven replied, "You can train on those whenever you like but try not to go over a few hours worth if there's a line."

"Who spends hours on a holodeck?" Jinx asked.

Raven's face soured and she pointed a thumb over her shoulder to her teammates.

"Starfire likes to get revenge on the Lowardians and Robin will spend whatever time he's not in the crimelab in the simulations."

"What about you?"

"I run self-diagnostics until the others insist I participate."

"Exercise is important," Jinx prodded.

"So is keeping my competitive side under wraps," Raven retorted.

"And here I was, hoping I'd get you all to myself for once," Jinx teased, feeling a familiar glint of anticipation mix into her bloodstream.

"You're pregnant," Raven reminded.

"Sucks for you," Jinx teased, already on her feet and taking stance; "Fight me!"

Raven rolled her eyes, but Jinx caught the light of interested amusement under her lips; the Titan slid into her own stance, and readied her fists.

"Just so's you know, I'm going to wipe the floor with you," Jinx warned, as much as her ego coated manners would allow; "You can forget the whole, 'going easy on each other 'cause we're dating' thing."

Raven nodded once, and that was all the time Jinx needed to send a fist charged with pink energy straight for her face; the last second catch of Raven's soul encrusted fist stilling her hand as Raven reclaimed her footing was almost like a breath of fresh air.

At Raven's smirk, Jinx guessed it wasn't all that bad for her, either.

They eased into their match, testing the waters of their reflexive reactions with easy banter and assured smiles.

Their spar brawled on, until what felt like hours later, the mechanical Titan called off all physical activity for a well-needed water break, passing out cold bottles of hydration to the older Titans, and a couple juice boxes and snack baggies to the kids, which were filled with veggies and dipping sauce.

As Jinx downed most of her bottle, Robin walked over to them, a conversation riding his broad shoulders.

"Teether's ready to go down for a nap," he explained, "Star's got him now."

Raven grimaced; "I was hoping he'd go down after the holo-run," she admitted, "But if he needs sleep, he needs sleep," she reasoned, crossing her own arms as she spoke.

"We can run the mission after lunch," Robin offered; "If you don't think that'll keep them up too long tonight."

"It'll have to do," Raven agreed, nodding once to herself in thought.

"If nothing else, we can try it tomorrow," he furthered gently, his posture softening; "We'll start 'em up after warmups."

"I take it it's time for Timmy's lessons and Melvin's training then?" Raven asked, her tone nearly resigned, as she turned her focus to scan across the large room.

"Cyborg's got Timmy; we're still doing writing on him, right?"

"Right," Raven agreed, reassuring the boy; "His books should be in his cubby; I'll get started on Melvin. -Jinx," Raven added, startling her, "You can stay if you want, or you can do whatever. Lunch is at noon," she stated evenly.

"I'll hang around here then," Jinx explained, "I wanna' see what the kid can do."

Raven nodded and walked off, directed towards her oldest charge.

Jinx shot Robin a quick finger-gun salute before he waved and wandered off, Cyborg close behind him, a tiny and eager Timmy chattering away at his heels.

Starfire had apparently already left, as Jinx didn't see her around anywhere; her views of Raven's proceedings were largely the only things interesting left in the room at the exit of the others.

"Alright Melvin," Raven began, when the room was quiet,"Do you remember what I told you about your breathing?"

"In steady, out steady!" the girl chirruped, with bright determination furrowed into her tiny fists.

"And Bobby?"

"Bobby's here!" the girl answered happily; the large, lumbering patchwork monstrosity shimmered into existence, letting loose what seemed to be a low, welcoming howl.

"Good. Hello Bobby," Raven greeted amiably, "Have you slept well?"

The bear made a few noises, and Melvin perked up.

"Bobby says he loves his new house. He says he thanks you!"

"Bobby is very welcome," Raven answered calmly; "Now right now, I need you and Bobby to concentrate. I'm going to set up a circle, so go ahead and sit down."

"Okey-dokey," Melvin responded, sitting happily on the floor. A Few feet beside her, Bobby also sat, with a loud 'fwump'.

Jinx watched as a ring of light purple energy surged up around Melvin, before spanning and conjugating out around Raven and Bobby.

Melvin watched in rapt fascination and awe as symbols dripped up from the main ring to spin loosely around the casting site, formlessly orbiting without points of fixation or fixed rotations.

Jinx was tempted to call the spellwork messy.

Not that I've done better, Jinx mused.

Jinx paid closer attention to the symbols, then to the instruction Raven began giving.

The sigils and constructs were vastly unfamiliar to Jinx, but through her observations, the occasional similarity and structure she could pick out, lead her to believe that through the language was different, the results were much intended to be the same as ordinary spellwork.

The unmistakable traces of dark magic etched into the finer details, were rather surprising, Jinx felt.

She wondered what on Earth Raven had gotten into, to dig up such stains in her castwork. She also wondered if Raven's old culture, was of any influence, or if the girl was largely self-taught.

The power of the spell was finitely contained and was perhaps what swayed Jinx into believing Raven's spell was more carefully constructed than it first appeared; there were no traces of energy flickering out or crackling around about itself.

Everything surged and floated completely self-contained, and impervious to the outside world.

Jinx had to fight an inner urge, to send her own power ricocheting into the cast, to send everything flying into a brilliant mess.

Yeah. Let's not hurt the kid, Jinx, she mused.

She turned her attention from the runic puzzle that was Raven's drawing pool, and focused on the kid.

The little witch was obediently attempting to center herself, though Jinx was reasonably certain the girl was still off kilter.

She watched the kid react to the ways Raven prodded Bobby, spurring the girl's creation to react.

Raven's soulself dropped down from the ceiling without warning, attempting to squish the bear by force.

The bear braced its stubby little legs, and pushed back against the force; Raven's attention however, was focused to Melvin, and the look of determination on her face, as she shouted encouragement to her bear.

Jinx figured Raven was gauging and testing the limits of Melvin's powers; which meant the spell circle was likely to keep any magical accidents from disrupting the tower.

Jinx decided to leave them to it, as the urge to throw a wrench into their lessons grew a little too strong for her to easily ignore.

She figured checking in on the others would look good on herself, and giver her something to do, so Jinx wandered down to the common room.

The TV was off, and Cyborg was sitting at the table, Timmy beside him, with a workbook and a myriad of pencils between them.

Jinx took a moment to wander over, and offer praises and coos of encouragement to the boy, who proudly showed her his progress through his brightly colored workbook.

He also showed her his supplies, and pointed out his favorite colored pencils, and directed her to his collection of highlighters and scented markers.

Jinx couldn't help but pick up a particularly pleasing looking pen, for the allure of its potential clicking prowress.

The pen clicks were indeed, rather satisfying.

It was also a little satisfying to see the kid so happy over his accomplishments, in such an innocent sort of way, she mused.

She pushed the thought out of her head when the boy's pencil snapped under his little hand's pressure.

Cyborg was quick with a sharpener, and Jinx politely excused herself to let the boy keep focused.

Beast Boy was on the couch, looking worse for wear from boredom.

Failing to see Starfire anywhere around, Jinx decided to push her luck with the lad.

When she wandered over, Beast Boy opened his eyes at her arrival and fell off the couch with a thud from the apparent shock of seeing her in front of him.

Jinx grinned unapologetically as he rubbed his head and scowled at her.

"Raven's in the wreck room," he muttered, crawling back on to the couch.

"Yeah, just came from there. I'm bored now," she explained.

"Why don't you go rob a bank or something," he dismissed, turning into a dog and curling up on the seat, pointedly facing away from her to resume his nap.

"Oh-my-god I'd love to," she squealed, clasping her hands in delight.

"Come on, I'll teach you everything I know," she jaunted, scooping him up.

Beast Boy emitted an undignified yelp and squirmed out of her grasp by transforming into a kangaroo as his dog legs hicked open her arms.

He landed on his plump tail, and held his feet aloft in warning.

"Jeeze, never pegged you for being lame," she teased dismissively, shrugging; "I was gonna' ask you if you wanted a game sesh but if you're gonna be like that you can stick it on your own for all I care."

Pleased by the boy-kanagroo's horrified face, Jinx turned on her heels and headed to the stairs, stolen pen in hand; fully intent on losing herself in her easel.

Armed with only the pen she had just stolen, she realized that she had yet to replace any of her art supplies, and allowed herself to lament the wasted opportunity.

At the prospect of impending boredom loomed above her, Jinx recalled the small library sheltered in her partner's room, and paid it a visit.

While most of them were not entertaining in a traditional sense, Jinx found the idea of leafing through them somewhat calming, and a touch sentimental, for their connection to their owner.

She smiled as she plucked out a book from the shelf, and settled herself haphazardly onto the empath's bed, losing herself amongst the pages of metaphysical debate, where she stayed until Starfire fetched her for lunch, which was to be a jovial picnic at the park.

Jinx was surprised they all managed to fit inside Cyborg's car, and found herself seated between Raven and Timmy, who spent the ride ecstatically informing her the differences and nuances between his the two plastic action figures in his hands, which seemed to be rather convincing knockoff of a Wonder Woman and a slightly disfigured Superman while Beast Boy and the other older Titans bickered about the radio station and which of them was responsible for reprogramming the radio preset buttons.

Melvin joined in Timmy's lecture, excitedly listing off the ways Wonder Woman was one of the 'most cool super heroes ever' to exist; which Jinx accepted fully, if only to indulge in the way the conversation made Raven attempt to hide what looked to be a genuine smile.

Once the actual park was reached, the children were allowed to run a little freer, clambering all over the playground, and the older Titans quickly set up their grilling station and a game of catch.

"Let's hope we don't meet anymore... colleagues, of yours, this time," Raven goaded, sparking Jinx's cheeks to flush.

"The only supervillain this park is big enough for, is me," Jinx teased, in an attempt to be reassuring.

Cyborg seemed intent on his grill, when he wasn't tossing balls with Beast Boy, Starfire, and Robin, and Raven seemed content to sit on the bench of tired child monitors, to watch over her two oldest charges mill around the equipment, while the baby played happily in the sandbox in front of her.

Jinx was a little concerned that the baby was eating fistfuls of sand; she stopped herself from intervening, as her first instinct was to steal the plastic toys of the toddler next to him, so he could chew them up.

The baby soon noticed the actual wooden container of the sandbox, and began gnawing on the corner, setting Jinx more at ease.

A tap to her shoulder caught her attention and she spun around to find herself thrust in the power fueled game of catch with the other Titans, which she gladly accepted with competitive gusto.

Their game split into two mobiusly drifting groups, as they traded places and made double crosses and snap decisions; Jinx was pleased to find that the Tameranian was especially crafty, and made an interesting player for her flying capabilities.

Beast Boy spiked the ball to her, after a particularly nice save on his part from Cyborg, and Jinx was forced to go long after it; on her way back, in an apparently surprising turn of events, a member of the extended Titan groups happened to have stopped by, and was being welcomed by the main group, which Jinx felt excited things further.

She called out a greeting, her hands ready to chuck the ball, when she nearly got an arrow to her face as Speedy caught sight of her approaching; a well-shot burst of hex energy took care of it, and by that time, Cyborg had grabbed his buddy's arm and leaned over, likely to fill him in.

When she reached the group, the boy looked more sheepish than Billy Numerous had on the day he'd dyed the lot of Mammoth's underwear pink.

"Ahh, my bad," Speedy apologized blankly, embarrassment flooding him as he rubbed his neck awkwardly.

Jinx smiled; the apparent notoriety among the extended group was a little flattering, though terribly timed, she felt.

"It's cool," she cleared, waving the fingers that weren't holding the ball.

"So you switched then," he asked, his tone a little taken aback, and his posture a little a curious, as he leaned on his bow.

"Yeah, seemed a good time an' all," she answered.

"Yeah I heard about the new recruit call," he replied, tilting his head; "I've still got stuff to sort myself but, I stopped by to put myself down as a maybe for the East division."

"Oh?" she prodded.

"How is the recruitment going, anyway?" He asked to anyone.

"Pretty good," Robin answered, "Mostly maybes at the moment, but words' gettin' around."

Speedy nodded and eyed the group; his brow raised when he caught sight of Raven some distance beyond them, attempting to dislodge Teether from his mouth-latched attachment to the jungle gym.

"...Is she good?" he asked, gesturing to the empath skeptically.

"Yeah, that one's hers," Jinx answered, surprising the boy.

"She's mentoring three of our youngest recruits," Robin chimed in; "She's doing well," he added, as looked over himself to watch the girl exasperated attempt to maneuver herself out of the throng of children that had surrounded her.

"That's... good," Speedy ventured hesitantly.

"What about you," Best Boy asked, hopping into a hummingbird form to flit around the boy's face.

"Eh, same old, same old," he answered; "-Hey, you guys having a cookout?"

"Yeah Dude, come all in!" Cyborg invited jovially.

"Sweet," Speedy replied, eyeing the ball in Jinx's hands.

"Think fast!" Jinx cried, before pelting it at him; she waited just long enough to make sure the boy was going to give chase, before dashing away, spurring the game on once again.

Jinx was quickly amused by the competitive streaks the archer brought out of the Boy Wonder.

The game continued back and forth for bit, until lunch was composed enough for everyone to take five and gather their plates, the younger children included.

"Are you Green Arrow's kid?" Melvin asked the new boy; "Yer'not green."

"Sort of," he answered awkwardly; "...Green's not really my color. No offense, B.B.," he added, to the green Titan.

"I like Squirrel Girl," Melvin chatted absently; "She's nice."

"Dang, you met Squirrel Girl?" Speedy asked.

"She came to a conviction center once," Melvin answered.

"-Convention center," Raven corrected; "Yeah, she was cool."

"Dude," Beast Boy interrupted, "You went to a con? -And Squirrel Girl was there!?"

Raven shrugged and helped Timmy cut his food; "Remeber that time you were invited to speak at a panel and you made us all attend? -They had another some rooms over in a lobby. We happened to stop by."

Beast Boy's face fell in abject horror; "I can't tell what is more upset about, that you blew me off for Squirrel Girl, or that I missed Sqriuell Girl."

"You'll live, I'm sure," Raven placated, as she started fixing her own plate; her attempts to fix her plate were nearly thwarted by Teether, prompting Raven to hold the baby aloft with her powers, to give herself the space she needed, before settling the infant back into her lap.

At Speedy's stare, Beast Boy caught his attention.

"Dude, we're still not used to it either," he offered.

The group continued to chat, and Jinx found herself enjoying the afternoon.

When things seemed to turn away from Raven long enough, Jinx leaned over to get her attention.

"You guys are recruiting people?" Jinx hissed.

"I told you the Tower was getting new members," Raven whispered absently.

Jinx huffed, and leaned back, her momentary anger forgotten as she watched Timmy and Melvin receive piggyback rides from the older Titans, who seemed intent on outracing each other.

The mirth was soon cut short however, as all at once, various pieces of the Titan's equipment started flashing red and sounding electrical alarms.

The older Titans sprung to attention, and looked amongst each other for a moment as Jinx and Raven rose to their feet.

"Titans, there's trouble downtown," Robin declared; "The reports don't look good. -Raven, you might want to leave the kids out of this," he warned.

Raven turned to her and Jinx could almost feel the aura of grim resolution stealing itself inside of her; "Jinx, it would be best if you watched them," she prompted, "The others might need a healer," she reasoned.

"I'm not watching them by myself," Jinx argued, flickering her pink magic around her fingers to illustrate why it would be a bad idea for the girl.

"Beast Boy, Speedy," Robin ordered, snapping everyone to attention once more; "You two stay with Jinx, guard the kids. stay on alert, we may need back-up."

"Rodger," Speedy declared, saluting the boy playfully, before Raven shoved the baby into his arms.

"No fair, I wanna' go!" Melvin whined, "Bobby can help!"

"I need you and Bobby to help by staying here," Raven pressed, stilling the girl by her shoulders; "I'll get you if it's safe enough, but I need you to stay here for now."

As the children started to grow upset, the older Titans started to make their way from the park; Starfire took off at top speed, as she had been mid-air upon receiving the news.

Jinx reached over and pulled Melvin to her, and leaned over to grab Timmy back the back of his shirt.

"Break a leg," Jinx called, as Raven rocketed off into the sky, Cyborg and Robin already nearly out of sight as well.

"How do you make them stop crying," Speedy asked, catching her attention and directing it to the three children in their care, who were now riling up a storm.

"Pony rides!" Beast Boy cried, turning himself into a furry, and sizeable miniature horse.

He attempted a few tricks in the form, which helped soothe Melvin; she seemed to be the least upset, so Jinx focused on her younger brother, who was drawing a great deal of attention from the park goers around them.

Jinx knelt down to get at his level.

"Hey now sport, don't cry," she pleaded, desperate to force herself to sound soothing, "We can guard the park!"

The boy would not be mollified however, and Jinx saw more than one mother in her peripheral eye them suspiciously.

"-Ack," Speedy cried, pulling the baby away from his face; "He's trying to eat me!"

"Give him an arrow," Jinx commanded, as she tried to stop the boy in front of her from throwing himself into the dirt.

"-What?"

"-He eat's metal," Jinx called, picking up a squirming, explicitly unhappy Timmy.

She didn't see if the boy offered the baby a sacrifice or not, as most of her attention was on not getting kicked in face.

"Your solution is to bribe them?" Beast Boy ribbed, from his horse-prancing some feet away.

Jinx cursed under her breath, as a strange sort of terror overtook her.

If someone calls the cops I'm screwed, she thought.

Jinx set the boy down.

"How about ice cream, hmm? We'll get ice cream cause we stayed here, and the others won't get any 'cause they're meanies," Jinx proposed.

Timmy's tantrum quieted several notches, which seemed to relieve a lot of the fellow park goers; Beast Boy huffed as his hooves carried him over to the playground.

"Thank god," Speedy moaned, "I thought my eardrums were gonna' pop."

"Tell me about it," Jinx muttered; "Okay then, what kind of ice cream do you want?"

"I'll take one of those cones with the peanuts ontop," Speedy chirruped; "since I'm helping out an' all."

"Sure," Jinx deflected, having past the point of caring; "Baby'll get a baby cone," she furthered, "and what do you want, Sport?"

Timmy looked up at her and started to mumble something that sounded a lot like 'chocolate', from what Jinx could make out.

"Alright, I'm going to go see what kind of ice cream Melvin wants, and then I'll go get some. -Where is the nearest ice cream place, actually?" she asked.

Speedy shrugged.

"I'm not from around here," he offered.

Jinx bit back a sigh and spotted Beast Boy, who had climbed a tree to get away from a horde of children circling him underneath.

"Alright, I'm going in to grab the cones, you stay here," Jinx instructed.

"Rodger, Cheif," Speedy answered, as he looked at the baby in his arms with a visible sense of awkward unease.

"Just give him something to chew on if he tries to bite," she guessed jovially, as the boy tried not to smirk.

Jinx trotted over to the swarmed and cupped her hands around her mouth; "Hey Beast Boy! You want ice cream?"

Beast Boy turned around mid-branch to look at her.

"I'm a vegetarian!" he cried back.

Fucking shit, Jinx thought, that doesn't answer my question.

"Do you want any tho," Jinx called again.

"I guess?" he called back.

"I want Strawberry!" Melvin called.

"Sure thing Sweetie," Jinx answered, giving the girl a thumbs up.

"And don't forget Bobby's!" the girl insisted.

"What kind does he want?" Jinx asked.

"Ba'nana!"

"Okay!"

"Hey Beast Boy!" Jinx called again.

"What!" he shouted, disgruntled.

"Where's the closest ice cream place?" she asked.

"F-," he hissed, catching himself, "I don't know!"

Jinx sighed and caught sight of one of the mothers stationed on the edge of the playground and made her way over, putting on her best 'customer service' voice and non-threatening smile.

"Sorry to bother you mam, but you wouldn't happen to know where the nearest ice cream place is, would you? I have a couple' kids to cheer up."

The lady looked a bit taken aback; Jinx remembered all too late that she hadn't changed out of her Hive uniform and tried not to wince. Thankfully, her black and yellow jumpsuit was anywhere nearly as recognizable for her as her dress and stockings, so she kept her posture firm and her smile bright, to help win the woman over.

The lady didn't speak, but eventually pointed across the park.

"Thank you, mam," Jinx replied, before jogging off.

She followed the direction the woman had pointed, and found herself nearing an edge of the park.

The ice cream shop proved to be opposite the park, a mere street away. Its large windows were dark form its position relative to the sun but, Jinx felt confident in the establishment anyway.

As she entered the moderately busy establishment on her mission to relay her chilly orders, a sense of dread started to creep up her shoulders.

Being in line made her feel uneasy; she didn't want to risk anything happening, so she forced herself to be patient, and hold her position in the line.

Finally, after getting to the counter and placing her order, she was able to wander over to the large windows, where the raised hairs on the back of her neck prompted her to squint; she couldn't make out anything wrong on the street, and figured she was just feeling antsy about having had left the others.

She tried to spot them, through the park.

She assumed Beast Boy was flicking her off from his spot in his tree and pointedly refused the boy the satisfaction of looking for him.

She was however, just able to make out who she felt was the archer boy, just visible past the curve of some hedging; he seemed to be surrounded by a flock of women and girls, likely on the account of him holding the baby, if Jinx felt to hazard a guess.

There wasn't much she could see, as the treeline blocked most of the park; Jinx forced herself to breathe and reminded herself to appear like a normal member of society, lest someone call security on her.

Finally, her order number was called, and Jinx made her way back to the counter.

The cashier seemed entierly nervous of her, which led Jinx to believe she and her friends might've vandalized the shop at some point, but there weren't any demands or threats of calling any police so, Jinx forced herself to keep calm and collect her ice cream.

She supposed not paying for it was a bit of a bump on her journey of righteousness, but she figured saving the civilians eardrums from exploding from the oldest boy's superhuman tantrums was a civic service enough to excuse it.

The ice cream joint seemed content enough not to stop her, at least; though there were a few mumbles and curt whispers from the other patrons, which Jinx ignored.

Jinx exited the joint, a near merry bounce to her step as she winded her way through the park and approached the throng of admirers around the young archer, and proceeded to crush any and all expectations of potential romances by reclaiming her girlfriend's child and shooting a few well-pointed one-liners at the boy's expenses.

Use my baby's baby for honey soaking, will you? she mused, as she started passing out the ice creams.

Melvin, apparently having had spotted, raced over to claim her cone, as well as the cone for her invisible bear, who proceeded to lift it into the air and swallow it in one, unvisible bite.

Beast Boy also skulked forward, belligerently eager for his frozen treat.

As the throng of Titans and children dispersed, leaving only a dejected Speedy and delighted infant behind, the hairs on Jinx's neck stood on end.

"Where's the other one," Jinx spat, her nerves flaring up.

"I thought you took him with you," Speedy answered, his face confused.

Jinx scanned the immediately visible area before turning to Beast Boy.

"You were supposed to be watching him," she hissed; her intensity frighted the green teen, and the boy stepped back a few feet, apparently shocked.

"Raven left him with you first!" he reeled.

"Fuck, shit," Jinx vented, forcing herself to think past her panic, "I shouldn't have expected you guys for anything," she dismissed, in an effort to apologize for snapping, despite not feeling particularly remiss about doing so at all.

"His legs are so small, he couldn't 'of gotten very far," Speedy ventured; "Where would he even go?"

"I'll check the playground," Beast Boy suggested, shifting into a bird to quickly check it out.

"Speedy, you stay here, hold the baby," Jinx warned, as a terrible, horrible gut feeling came over her.

She thrust the last of the ice creams into his free hand, not caring that some of them smooshed against him and onto Teether, before breaking off into a dead sprint down the road as fast her body could physically carry her.

Shit, shit, shit, she thought, as a vibrant haze of panic overwhelmed her.

She pushed past other pedestrians on the sidewalk, not caring as she forcibly jarred them out of her way.

There was a vague impression of thought, that Raven was going to skin her alive, when she found out that she'd let her son run out into the city unattended, though Jinx's mind was so nearly singularly focused on gaining speed, that she almost missed it.

As she gained ground, she caught sight of the young boy's carrot top locks, waddling naively across the street.

He was using the crosswalk, but the countdown box was ticking away, and his stubby little legs weren't carrying him as fast as the grownups around him were going.

He's not going to make it.

The sickening thought bottomed out her heart, and her veins were as ice.

The sheer cold in her body struck some cord within herself, and Jinx felt her body flare up, sending a dizzying sensation through her nerves as her powers flooded her.

She pushed herself faster, to the end of the street.

-It was as if time slowed down, and she couldn't breathe.

Faster, she pushed her self, as the light switched and the cars began to inch forward. Air filled her lungs as tore into the asphalt like a girl unhinged as she watched the car head straight for the boy, unable to see him.

It was as if time sped up, as she cut diagonally, to gain momentum; she threw a hand to her back and cast a large hex, stalling whatever traffic was happening behind her, her other pushing the boy to the ground. The momentum pushed her forward and she sidestepped the boy, as her eyes were solely locked on the car.

With all of her power crackling around her arms, and pushed forward with all her might.

The car sped right into her, and force of crash rippled into her arms, up through her shoulders, and down through her heels, as she bodily forced the car to a complete halt.

She couldn't hear a sound.

Her ears were ringing faintly.

She felt the airbag inflate, sending a shudder through the car, causing it to buck once, before the front tires gave a final resignation, and fell to the ground with a slow, thudding hiss.

All of the glass in the car shattered.

The cars behind it jumbled about, swerving and turning to avoid collisions.

Jinx was afraid to pull her hands from the metal.

At her ankle, the boy started to cry.

Jinx exhaled, though her lung capacity was far too great to rid herself of all her held breath entirely.

Dimly, she was aware of people popping out of their cars, and gathering around the streets.

Jinx managed to look under her shoulder, to look at the kid.

The car hadn't touched him.

Jinx closed her eyes, and a great shuddering breath ripped itself from her as she stepped back, pulling her hands from the crumpled fender.

There were alarms, maybe, Jinx wasn't quite sure; she felt she saw the blurred colors of Speedy, and the infant in his arms, standing on the sidewalk some feet away. Then Beast Boy was there, in a form of some giant dinosaur Jinx had no name for, who started directing traffic away from the scene.

Jinx fell to her knees and grabbed the kid.

All at once, it was as if the world and her senses came rushing back to her.

"Don't you ever run off like that again, do you understand me?" she yelled, her voice hoarse.

The boy sniveled, his eyes watering. 

"You do not cross the street without an adult," she continued; her body was shaking, and it took almost all of her self-composure not to take the boy by his underarms and throttle him.

As the boy started to cry, Jinx pulled him against her and forced herself to breathe, as she held him.

After a moment, she stood up, the boy still pressed against her, fear still coursing through her body.

She looked to the car she'd forced to a halt.

The slump to the driver did not sit well with her.

At the sight of the small child in her arms, the throng of onlookers seemed to quiet some; Jinx was almost certain a few of them cheered. -Or perhaps they'd been shouting, either way with their fists in the air, it was hard to tell.

She walked back to the sidewalk, to rejoin the archer, Melvin, who was riding the shoulder of the now visible patchwork bear, and the baby.

The archer looked her over, and Jinx found herself unable to speak.

The boy held out the ice creams that she'd chosen for herself, and the kid.

"Let's get out of here," he suggested; eyeing the area and the emergency vehicles winding their ways to the scene.

"I couldn't agree more," Jinx replied, exhaustion thick in her voice, her body, and her soul.

Chapter 35

Jinx tried to steady her breathing as she sank into the couch’s cushioning.

“You can probably put the kid down now,” Speedy gently suggested, only somewhat awkwardly.

“...Yeah, right,” she replied almost automatically; her arms opened, reluctantly releasing the toddler from the vice-grip she’d carried him to the Tower in.  

Timmy seemed somewhat reluctant to move from the spot he’d slid off her lap to; Melvin also seemed unsure quite what to do with herself, as she looked on from her position at the kid’s corner.

“So, what now?” the archer asked.

“We call Robin,” Beast Boy suggested.

“It can wait till he gets back,” Speedy derailed; “We don’t need to jeopardize whatever he’s got going on.”

Beast Boy shrugged; gone were the traces of the boy’s gruff demeanor. The green teen looked almost bashful, and Jinx found herself almost recognizing the Titan from the days they used to battle each other.

In her current state however, Jinx found herself unable to feel anything in particular about any of her observations.

Speedy gently handed her the baby, which Jinx largely kept her focus on as the other teens went about setting up the television for the children.

A jovial air quietly seeped back into the room as cartoons rolled on; the kids were quick to bounce back, and it seemed Beast Boy and Speedy weren’t far behind them.

Even Jinx stopped shaking as much, by the time the afternoon considered how it felt about becoming early evening.

Once Jinx fell mostly back into herself, she thought over the possible outcomes of attempting to cook and made the executive decision to heat up leftovers for the kids, rather than increase the risk of her powers breaking any equipment from the prolonged contact of making something new.

After everyone was fed, the older teens continued to humor the children, and Jinx remained firm in her decision to focus on the baby.  

Melvin and Timmy tried to include her; likely attempting to cheer her up in their own way, or else to metaphorically apologize for causing the emotions and situations they didn’t fully understand.

Jinx smiled and replied and joked, all lightly and as warmly as she could; without her veins pumping panic and adrenaline in her system, all Jinx could feel was a cold, murky dread as she waited.

When Robin, flanked by the rest of his crew finally stepped through the hydraulic doors, part of Jinx was relieved for the absence of anxiety.  

“Hey guys,” Robin greeted, as the others filed in behind him before spreading out amongst the common room.

“What’d we miss?” he asked, when he approached the kids for a hug.

At Beast Boy’s audible choke, and the hasty glances cast from him with Speedy and back again, Robin’s interest perked up.

“What did you guys get up to, first,” Speedy insisted.

“Well,” Cyborg answered, as he rotated some of his joints in a mechanical equivalent of stretching, “It started with Cinderblock and a tank of pressurized mustard gas, and then apparently he got the old team back together cause’ Plasmus and Overload decided to meld up again, and you know how gross those three can be.”

“Ternion trying to distract us from their real ringleader,” Robin added.

“Slade?” Speedy guessed.

“Control Freak, surprisingly,” Raven answered.

“Weird,” Speedy replied, “So like, it wasn’t anything terrible then?”

“Not from the nerd, no,” Raven answered, “But Ternion was a nuisance to get through.”

“Raven got electrocuted,” Cyborg revealed, as Raven exhaled deeply; causing Speedy to smirk.

“Again, it was a calculated measure to save the civilians,” Raven huffed.

“Anyway, how were things with you?” Robin asked as he looked everyone over again.

“Well…” Beast Boy began, “It started out really well.”

“Yeah, we got the kids ice cream,” Speedy continued.

“And then we may have um, lost one, temporarily, but then we found them again so it’s all good!” Beast Boy rushed, punctuating his point with forced smiles and fake bravado.

“What do you mean, lost one?” Raven asked, scanning over the Tot Titans for signs of damage.

“Lil’ Man ran off after you left,” Speedy answered, “Jinx caught him before anything happened to him though.”

Raven frowned, and eyed the middle child a little harder.

“Timmy ran into the road,” Melvin tattled; immediately the boy turned to his sister, mouth agasp at her betrayal.

He looked back to Raven and crossed his arms defensively.

“Did not!” the boy yelped.

“You know better than to run out into the road, Timmy,” Raven warned; she turned from the boy back to Jinx.

“There was um, some other things that kinda happened while all of that was going on,” Beast Boy offered, as he fidgeted with unease.

“Oh?” Robin asked, as he crossed his own arms.

“There may have been a traffic incident,” Speedy explained; “Jinx had to play impromptu crossing guard to get the kid back.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Cyborg asked.

“Probably,” Jinx answered flatly, as she tried to ignore the feeling settling in her stomach.

Robin didn’t sigh, but his answering exhalation was a tad thicker than normal; he slouched only a moment, perhaps in exhaustion, before straightening up again with a flash of determination on his face.   

“Alright; Speedy, Cyborg and I will check out the traffic jam and make sure everything is okay,” Robin declared, “In the meantime, Raven, you should probably give the kids another talk about road safety.”

Raven’s head lowered ever so slightly in allowment, as Speedy walked by her to trail Cyborg as they followed Robin on the way to the common room’s closest exit.

Once Robin was gone, the air seemed to settle in the room once more.

This time, Raven allowed herself a heavy breath.

“Alright. What was the whole story?” she asked gravely.

“Timmy wanted to fight so he ran after you guys to help,” Melvin answered quickly; “then the pink witch ran after him and stopped all the cars.”

“He was using the crosswalk,” Jinx added hesitantly, “He was just, too little for the cars to see I think.”

“...And how did he escape your notice in the first place?” Raven asked, her tone devoid of emotion.

“She was getting ice cream,” Melvin answered, as Jinx fidgeted slightly; “The big boys were supposed to be watching us.”

Raven’s gaze turned over to Beast Boy, who paled in complexion, as her eyes fell upon him.

“Is that so?” she asked; her pitch strange for the elocution of it.

“Looks like there’s three of you, needing Time Out,” Raven stated.

Teether screamed.

“Garfield, you’ll sit on the steps for fourteen minutes,” the Titan began, surprising the hexcaster, “For losing my kid.”

“Dude, what?”

“If you don’t want it to be fifteen minutes,” Raven clarified, “I’d suggest you get to it.”

“You can’t put me in time out,” Beast Boy retorted.

Raven lifted a brow, and instantly, Beast Boy was aloft in the air, supported by Raven’s black magic.

“To the naughty step with you,” Raven stated, as she deposited the boy on the opposing flight of stairs.

“Timmy, you used the crosswalk like a good boy, but you didn’t stay with the others like I asked you to. That was a very bad boy thing to do,” she reasoned, “You’re going to the naughty seat for four minutes,” she ordered, as she pointed to a spot on a different staircase.  

Affronted, the boy plucked up his chin; Jinx watched in horror as the boy began to scream.

“Dun’ wanna, dun’ wanna, dun’ wanna!” he cried, his shrill voice bouncing around the metal walls.

Raven, undeterred, hoisted the boy up in her arms; ignored his squirming kicks and desperate attempts to dislodge himself, and set the boy on a step.

She held him there for just a moment before releasing him.

Immediately, Timmy shot up and ran across the room.

“Timmy, this is your warning,” she stated flatly.

Using her magic, she barred his escape routes, and walked over to where he was sequestered to pluck him up yet again, and deposit him on the same step as before.

“You can’t talk to him when he’s on the naughty seat,” Melvin murmured, catching Jinx’s attention.

“Good to know,” Jinx replied, just as quietly, to the girl.

At the next escape attempt, Raven forewent using her hands, and used her powers to return the boy to his seat each time he ran out of it.

After a few such attempts, Raven nodded towards Jinx, as is she intended for her to step in as well.

Jinx figured, in silent agreement, it was probably better to be as consistent with Raven as she could; she handed Teether to Starfire, and then set about catching the rampaging toddler. Jinx’s attempts to return the boy to his seat took a bit more wrangling, as she lacked Raven’s metaphysical limbs.

Timmy’s tantrum continued, and it rattled Jinx’s ears something fierce, igniting her headache like gasoline.

Eventually, the boy gave up, and flopped down on the step after Jinx returned him to it.

Jinx took the moment to hold her breath; she was half afraid that she’d smile, and ruin the entire lesson.

She was able to hold her composure though, until she had turned around and walked back over to Raven, who had leaned herself against the island counter.

“Glad that’s over,” Beast Boy remarked.

“Logan,” Raven stated, catching in the boy’s pointed ears.

“What?”

“You got up before your minutes were done,” she finished, with a hint of satisfied malice lurking under her tongue.

“You’re serious about that?” he asked, just before he was lifted up, and dumped unceremoniously onto the steps.

“Sucks for you,” Jinx remarked.

“And if I recall,” Raven continued ominously, causing Jinx to swallow nervously; “You have several swear words you need to atone for.”

Unwilling to put up even a pretense of arguing, Jinx walked over to the green teen, collecting Teether from the Tameranin on her way, and sat next to the shapeshifter wordlessly.

She gave him a curt nod, which he accepted, before they both turned their attentions to the floor and ignored each other.

“Now then Melvin,” Raven chirruped, as she and Starfire took seats on the couch; “What would you like watch?”

Timmy’s minutes went by rather fast, once he had calmed down enough to take them; by the time Melvin had selected her preferred cartoon of choice the boy was welcomed back to the group, apparent misdeeds forgotten.

Beast Boy’s punishment lasted far longer. Both because he was older and had therefore started with a longer sentence, but, also because several times in his duration, the boy left his step without thinking, only for Raven to rewind his counter and force him to start over from the beginning.

A fact which did not go unnoticed by the children.

Jinx figured it was good to set up the principle that even teenagers were not above following the rules; part of her admittedly also received fractions of schadenfreude every time Raven’s magic deposited him back to the stairwell.

When Beast Boy finally seemed to understand that he had no choice but to allow the punishment to commence, he carried out his sentence in the form of a dog, and was then quick to bound off the steps.

His return to the group was more sheepish, though he had neglected to use the literal form of a sheep; Raven didn’t stop him from reinsterting himself with the kids, so it looked as if as was well from her, Jinx noted.

Jinx hadn’t asked how long she was to remain on the stairwell herself, but made no move to leave it.

The children eyed her curiously every so often, but their attentions were largely held by the proceedings directly around them.

Jinx’s attention, was focused on the baby in her lap, who had fallen asleep.

His face was so small, she kept observing.

Some time later, Raven and Starfire headed towards the kitchen, the older children trailing after them.

Starfire beckoned her to approach, likely for the infant squirming in her arms.

Jinx held Teether as Starfire mixed up a strange looking assortment of… things, for the baby, as Raven set about making sandwiches for everyone behind her.

After everyone had been given their portions, the other Titans marched through the hydraulic doors, and Jinx found herself retreating further across the room, until she was leaning against the wall of the farthest stairwell.

Practically in the hallway as she was, she had a grand view out across the bay from the enormous window in front of her.

As she mindlessly bounced the baby in her arms ever so slightly, her ears keyed into the conversation spurring between the team leader, and the rest of the team.

“...It was pretty nasty,” she picked out, as Speedy was speaking.

“-And there was one right through his sternum,” she heard Robin say.

She let the words trickle their ways into her mind, observing how powerless she was to stop herself from doing so; after a few moments, she heard her name drop, and she felt her stomach clench.

“-Apparently with her bare hands;” she caught.

Jinx let the words fall away, and kept her breathing quiet; reflexively keeping tabs on the air of the room as she watched the ebb and flow of the stalling seas.

After a moment of time, the Titans shifted about and settled themselves.

Jinx’s legs protested lightly against her prolonged stance, but she ignored them until the pain spiking up through her calves became little more than a half-remembered itch.

Seemingly hours later, the sky had fallen dark and the sea had become difficult to make out in the gloom.

Raven announced that it was time for bed, for the teams youngest charges; a proclamation that was met with some resistance.

Thankfully, Timmy’s tantrums didn’t last too long, and Jinx was able to follow the short parade back to the Tots’ room, where she stopped short outside the door until the sounds within decrescendo from an arduous roar to a series of light scuffles.

She entered, noting Raven procuring a book from reading nook for the children, and proceeded to the changing table to dress down the baby for the night.  

When she was finished, Jinx took a seat in the vacant rocking chair, as Raven had elected to begin her story from the perch she’d found on Timmy’s bed.  

It took two stories, a set of kisses, and vague warning form Raven to finally lull the children to slumber.

As Raven slid final book back into place within its shelf, she turned her slightly, visibly confused as to why Jinx was still standing above the crib, the baby still cradled in her arms.

Slowly, Jinx felt the titan approach her; Raven’s hand was cool against her shoulder, the press light but well cupped.

Raven’s face blurred into her peripheral vision, as Jinx continued to stare into the empty crib.    

“Jinx,” Raven murmured; Jinx was unable to tell if her voice held any concern.

“I… can’t,” was all Jinx found herself able to reply.

She tried to pull the baby closer to her chest, for just a moment, until she corrected herself, for the statement it inflicted on the sleeping infant.

Raven seemed to understand, or else, made no motion she could infer otherwise from, but did lead her by the arm out of the nursery and down the hall.

“Jinx?” Raven asked again, halting them.

“I just, can’t let him go yet,” she blurted.

Jinx allowed herself to sink to the floor, and held the still sleeping baby above her legs.

Raven left her, and Jinx found her mind running once more in circles.

She let her head lean back against the cool of the metal, and let her eyes sear under the harsh lights of the fluorescent tubes running along the ceiling until the threat of wettening allowed her to close them.    

Her lucidity phased in and out, as lights seemed to pulse minutely around her.

Footsteps caught her attention as she was nearing light sleep.

She looked down the hall to Raven walking back up to her, clad in some type of old gym shorts and a formless sweatshirt.

Raven pulled her to her feet, and nudged her slightly to start moving again.

Almost obediently, Jinx allowed her to lead them along the hall until they passed through a familiar door bearing Raven’s nameplate.      

On Raven’s bed, were two sleeping children that Raven had seemingly plucked from their beds in the nursery.

Jinx cast a look to the Titan, who nodded at her to join them.

Nervously, Jinx finally allowed herself to give up the baby, and handed him over to Raven so that she was free limbed enough to change for the night herself.

As she began lifting her shirt to pull it up and over her head, reflex halted her actions as she felt Raven approach her once more.    

“What’s wrong with your hands?”

Jinx looked up at her, feeling a moment of surprise melt into realized fear.

Unable to help herself, Jinx moved to hide them behind her back and worried her lip as she tried to remember how words worked.

Raven closed the last of the gap between them, and braced herself in front of her as if they were both back on the streets, squaring off in alleys and motorways.

The stance, and the faint memories would have been enough to allow Jinx to slip into old habits, had Raven’s magic not been carrying an infant beside her.  

Hesitantly, Jinx chuckled a few breaths and slid on the expression from all the times she had projected confidence towards the Titan wherein there was really none.

Raven waited; Jinx steadied her breath, thankful that the girl was for the moment at least, patient.

Jinx pulled her hands in front of her self, and the movement slid some of Jinx’s shirtcuffs down over her forearms, revealing a strange travesty ingrained in her skin.

Her flesh was blackened, as if it had been charred a colorless black; Raven winced simply looking at it.

“This happens sometimes,” Jinx explained quietly; “My body can’t handle my powers on full blast.”

Tentatively, Raven held her own hands out, and silently waited a moment for Jinx’s lack of refusal, before gingerly placing her fingertips against her skin.

Jinx could barely feel her arm responding to the light grasp, yet paradoxically, she could feel every phantom crack and magical gnarl eroded into her flesh.

Raven carefully pushed back Jinx’s sleeves to inspect just how far the magical damage had gone.

“How…”

“The car,” Jinx mumbled.

Raven looked up at her.

The litany of emotions battering away in Raven’s body were unnerving for Jinx to witness; fear, perhaps, churned Jinx’s stomach most of all to see.

Raven looked back to Jinx’s arms and she tried not to hiss as the Titan tested the pressure of her touch against them.

“It’s cool… I can’t like, feel it or anything,” Jinx murmured, her tone too weary to hide her guilt.

“You should have said something, hours ago,” Raven stated, her words cold, but her tone gentle.

Jinx clicked her tongue against her teeth, and pressed it there.

“I’m taking you to the med-bay,” Raven insisted firmly; “Cyborg can give you a check-up, and we can get you taken care of from this.”

“It’s fine,” Jinx rebuffed; though the words were crisp, their carried guilt seemingly rendered them malleable in Raven’s ears.

“For the baby’s sake,” Raven insisted, banking on the finality of the statement.

Jinx’s answering exhale was a little drawn out, but she followed obediently when Raven walked her to the door, leaving the baby between his siblings.    

Chapter 36

Jinx shivered; the crinkle of the thin padding beneath her sticking to her thighs as she tried to get more comfortable on the medical bed.

Cyborg glanced at the monitor once more, his cybernetics ebbed brighter and dimmer in accordance to his focused mind.

“There’s no clear picture yet, that I can get,” he stated factually, as Jinx tried to wipe away the excess jelly from her stomach.

“Figured there wouldn’t be,” Jinx mused offhandedly, as she wiped her now-sticky fingers onto the crinkly paper.   

“And the rest of her?” Raven prompted, from her place beside the bed.

“Magic burns aren’t exactly my specialty,” Cyborg answered, somewhat apologetically; “But we got some burn salve that'll hopefully help clear that up. -Elsewise, the preliminary data I took suggests you should probably look into some protein shakes. I’ll do you the solid of settin’ up your nutrition plans with you, so’s you and Junior there get off to a good start. Otherwise, it’ll be a few hours before the blood tests finish up. -Things tend to get convoluted within the meta genomes as a start, and that's without the whole separate patch I had to add in for Raven’s genes while back.”

“And the toxin scan?” Jinx pressed crisply, as she attempted to refocus.

“It might be a bit too early to tell fo’ sure but, I couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary on the scans. -If there’s anything left in your stream, it’ll show up with the rest of the results on your bloodwork.”

“Thanks, Vic,” Raven soothed, warming the atmosphere of the room.

“In the meantime, hit the hay,” he bantered happily; “Doctor’s orders!”

“Sure thing Doc,” Jinx replied, hopping off of the cot.

Jinx took a moment to readjust the hospital gown she’d been given and spared a glance at Raven, who nodded once, agreeingly.

Cyborg held the door open for them, before offering them a final wave goodnight; Jinx tried not to shiver as they made their way back to Raven’s room in companionable exhaustion.

Raven seemed to withdraw a bit, as they headed towards the stairs; Jinx would've discounted it, if it hadn't been for the way Raven's hand seemed conflicted about working its way into her own. 

“I shouldn’t have taken off without you,” the Titan murmured, at length.

“Well, now we both know how to be prepared for next time, I guess,” Jinx offered tentatively.

Raven didn’t respond, but the look she spared Jinx when she opened her door for them was fond enough, for Jinx not to question it.

The children, mercifully, were all still asleep.

The roused groggily, when Jinx and Raven attempted to join them however; Timmy held out long enough to coil up in Jinx’s arms before ‘konking’ back out while Melvin snuggled up to Raven, and remained lucid enough for the Titan to offer the child a quiet, humming, melody that fell soothing along Jinx's ears.

Despite Teether's overactive feet, Jinx soon found herself falling consentingly into sleep. 

---

 

 

The party was extravagant.

Jinx didn’t know who exactly the patrons were, or where they were, in their giant lavish estate, but Jinx knew intrinsically that should she find them, they’d be identifiable instantly.

As it was, she didn’t care enough to spend the effort to solve the mystery when the other patrons were already milling about in thinly veiled machinations.

A young woman stopped her; her face was fuzzy but familiar and she smiled as she pressed bits of crumpled up and torn receipts into her hand, mumbling flimsy excuses as to why Jinx should retain them.

Jinx walked out of the mansion’s entryway, to follow a man out in the lawngardens near the roundabout before the door.

Though not a detail pertinent to the dreamscape, Jinx alost recognised the man’s visage from a famous singer she’d seen in a few boxed-rice commercials.

The man didn’t seemed to interested in hearing her out for her conspiracy theory however, so Jinx disregarded the failed attempt at finding a conversation companion to instead wander back into the mansion, and set the pieces of her own absolution into motion.

Apparently, the time she’d been outside had already been enough time for the young woman to frame her for the murder.

‘How can that be true,’ Jinx insisted soundlessly, her will rippling across the dreamscape as she held up her palmful of receipts; ‘ Why else would that woman have given them to me, if not to frame me for them?’

Instantly, the tones around the parlor started to shift, as some goers began to believe her innocence.

Others, indifferent to the situation entirely, merely prosecuted her for disturbing the proceedings.

Jinx didn’t care.

They could judge her all the like, she felt heartedly; as long as everyone knew the truth.

 

 

---

Jinx rolled over, cursing the inevitable abrupt end to her sleeping state.

“You have five seconds to get off me before I hex you,” she groaned.

She tried to pull the covers back up to her neck, but the weight of the children scrambling around the bed kept them pinned just short of her chest.

“Where's your mother,” Jinx sighed, as she began to accept defeat; the children smiled happily as she rose enough to rest her weight on her the back of her elbows.

“Present,” the empath lilted from beside her, her voice tried but lacking bite.

“Bobby ate a bug today!” Melvin interjected merrily.

“Yummy,” Jinx answered, as Timmy burrowed his way into her lap for a hug.

“We're doing the Course today,” Raven sated passingly; “You can sleep after, if you want.”

Jinx huffed in response and set about removing herself from the bed and the boy wedged around her waist.

“Alright, alright,” Jinx gruffed, relenting; “Let me get dressed or whatever.”

“Come on kids,” Raven instructed, a hint of mirth in her tone; “Let her up now.”

Jinx threw on some of Raven’s clothes, for their ease of proximity and tried not to swear under her breath as she tugged everything on efficiently as her tired limbs were able.

She was all but dragged out the door the second she had her socks on by Timmy, with Melvin pushing from behind.

“We’re gon’be big-kids ta’day!” the young boy insisted eagerly.

Jinx smiled, recalling such similar events from her younger years in the academy.

“Remind me to tell you buggers about the time I-”

“-No illicit implications, please,” Raven reminded gently; the light tone in her voice still lingering about her face. She seemed proud; Jinx found herself curious as to what kind of ordeal the Titan’s had cooked up for the little kids.

She was soon to find out apparently, as she was led back to the training room, where the other Titan’s were already waiting.

The looks of eagerness and anticipation rivaling the Tot Titan’s was kinda endearing, Jinx noted; she smiled about it, feeling genuinely pleasant enough to swept up in the fun.

Raven set the baby on the floor, a glint of surprise in her upturned lips; quickly, the other two children lined up, doing their best to quell their boundless excitement and youthful energies.

“Alright Titans,” Raven asked, looking them over, “are we ready to save the day?”

“Yes Mam!” Melvin shouted heartily.  

“Alright,” Raven accented, taking up a firm mentoring posture; “I’ve been saving this Mission for Titan’s who’re brave enough, who can think quickly on their feet, and most importantly, work together. -Do you think you three can do that?”   

The children agreed enthusiastically; Timmy even puffed up his chest, ready to show how imposing he could be.

“Excellent,” Raven rewarded, “You three have the job. I have to warn you though, it’s going to be tricky.”

“And dangerous?” Melvin asked hopefully.

Raven, still smiling, nodded; “Very.”

Melvin snuck a glance at Timmy, who shared in her look of utter amazement and delight.

Raven cleared her throat and clicked her heels together in an impersonation of an important person; Jinx tried not to giggle.

“Today your mission is to retrieve the Shimmering Shroud; it was stolen some nights ago, but Cyborg managed to track it down where the villain hid it, deep inside a temple. -It’s probably filled with traps, so be careful.”

Melvin raised her hand.

“Yes?”

“Are the bad guys still there,” the young girl asked, with the seriousness she could muster.

Raven clapped her hands together, as if she were dreading the details; “There is a high probability of that, yes,” she answered, nodding so that the children confirm the answer accordingly.

“How are they getting to the temple,” Jinx interrupted, moresoe out of genuine curiosity than anything facetious.

“I’ll be dropping them off,” the Titan answered cleanly; Raven allowed herself to grow a little sheepish; “I would help get it myself, but, the temple doesn’t like my kind of magic, so I can't go in.”       

“That’s okay Raven, that’s what u’gots us for!” Melvin chimed proudly.

Raven’s smile broadened.

“Thank you, Mel,” she commended.

“Alright, then it’s time to suit up!” Robin called, turning the kid’s attentions to himself and the gear in his hands.

“Come get ‘yer communicators, kids,” Cybord instructed helpfully.

Giddily, the two older children raced forward; Timmy took his without hesitation while Melvin grabbed the one for Teether as well as her own.

“Bobby can hold his,” she insisted, handing it to the invisible bear.    

“Does everyone have their boots tied?” Starfire asked.

“We’re all set when you are,” Cyborg shot at the empath.

Raven nodded.

“Does anyone have anymore questions?” Raven asked leadingly, giving the children an unknowing option for further advantage; Jinx had been nine, she recalled mirthfully, when she’d learnt to mine the mediators for data in such field-days.

The children, as Jinx assumed they would, insisted they were fine and ready to go; Jinx could practically see Raven and the others jotting down mental notes and tallys as they went.

Raven ushered the children under her cloak, and once the fabric cast down around them, the entire room changed.

Jinx whistled, impressed with the virtual reality simulator; she reminded herself to ask about the engine core running the simulations. The thing had to be a beast, she reasoned, as she marveled over the smooth textures and beefy graphics.

The other Titans were gone, when Raven lifted her cloak again; Jinx realized quite quickly that she too, wasn’t a visible participant.

She could see through the matrix like shimmering code, the children tumble out onto a forest floor, in front of a ‘temple’ that would have been at home in a children’s book.

It was imposing, from what Jinx could make of it, but the blocks and stylization were very obviously far from ‘realistic’.  

She watched the children scramble up the steps and hop through the hole in the front door, completely disregarding the stair-like nature of the temple’s outer composition. They landed in a room seemingly devoid of any danger, until the weight of Bobby landing behind them triggered a few lighting touches, which likely illuminated more for them to see.

There was a gap, between the floor they were on, and the platform in front of them, and from what Jinx could make out, there was a lot of voidspace around it, implying that Raven had a specific solution she wanted the kids to draw from.

Jinx guess that Raven had intended Melvin to imagine a bridge, but the girl opted to instruct the bear to toss them all to the next platform.

Their landing was a little tumbley, but they seemed fine; Jinx had taken far worse falls at those ages, she reasoned, lulling herself.

The kids left Bobby, as the bear was unable to jump across.

Finding no other platform in front of them, the kids seemed at a loss until the stress prompted Timmy to scream.

The sound reverberated so hard, that cloaking devices on some of the areas broke, revealing more of the map for the children to traverse.

While a little sloppy, they were certainly efficient at getting the results they wanted, Jinx noted.

At their age, Jinx felt the main problem was going to be teaching them to envision different ways of getting the same results.

Less potentially destructive ways, most likely.

She wondered if any of the old middleschool runs she’d grown up on were still in use. -There were some really cool obstacles she felt would thrill the kids if any of it was intact.      

The kids soon had to slip past a rolling ball of stone; Jinx bit her lip to keep from snorting at the oversized ‘deathtrap’. -She doubted it was anything sturdier than hard foam.

Other obstacles soon met the kids.

Jinx found the tireswing moat to be particularly enticing.  

Soon, simulated robed figures flickered in and out of rooms just beyond the children’s reaches, adding higher stakes to their goal.

They tried their best to be sneaky, until Timmy decided breaking the badguy’s eardrums was the most efficient route.

They left him on the floor as they raced past, clearing another room in the map.

Jinx’s attention turned upwards, following a thought that Raven might be observing the proceedings from above.

Her partner’s face, illuminated by simulated torchlight and holographic glow, was formidable.

Jinx found herself immersed in the moment.

The kids seemed to get stumped, in one of the final chambers.

As the minutes dragged on, Jinx watched Raven grow restless, and likely worried for the believability for the simulation.

Jinx decided to interfere.

“Hey anklebiters,” she called, her voice muffling as it shot through the communicator and into the virtual chamber; the children lifted up instantly, at the change in stimulation.

“How’s it going in there?”

“Hi lady!” Timmy called, as Melvin fumbled to hold the device and her baby brother.

“It’s good!” the girl answered quickly, in apparent defense of their prowess.

“That’s cool. I just wanted to check in ‘cause that’s important to do when we’re split up like this,” Jinx prattled off, explaining away her call; “-Hey, Raven told me to tell you guys she said hello.”

“Tell her we said hello back!” Melvin exclaimed happily.

“Sure thing,” Jinx agreed; “Hey, before I go, is there anything going on in there? Were there badguys and traps and stuff?”

“Yeah,” Melvin said a little reluctantly, “But we d’feated them.”

“-We gots’em all!” Timmy exclaimed.

“Nice work!” Jinx praised; “Have you found where they hid the thing yet?”

“No,” Melvin whined, “There’s a really big wall and it won’t move.”

“Hmmm, that is a tough-y,” Jinx agreed; “Hey, you guys ate before you left, right? Cyborg wants to know if you guys want snacks when you get back.”

“We’re good,” Melvin insisted at the same time her brothers started chanting for snacks.

“Alrighty, well, I’ll let you get back to it, then,” Jinx digressed; “Good luck!”

“Bye lady!” Timmy called, as the comm link shut out.

Feeling particularly proud of herself for dropping a potential hint, she leaned on her heels and crossed her arms.

Seconds later, the baby began boring his way through the vault door with his teeth.

She snickered.

God they’re cute, she thought, smiling lopsidedly.    

Chapter 37

 

The soothing swirls of eigengrau and thoughtmatter intertwining around her clouds of vision reverberated an almost primordial chord within her.

There was a steady thrum, a pulse of life, which she knew originated from the points of her wrists.

Deep in her chest, her void continued to collapse into itself, strengthening her weight.  

Wraithlike fragments splintered in quick glimlit flashes, as they bore themselves slowly into the same abyss.

Collecting herself, her fragments, was a somewhat comforting process.

The familiarity outweighed the tetherbound Anxiety.

Curiosity probed, not for the first time, as to whether if she were to continue collecting forever, if she could take the rest of the universe in with her; consolidating and redacting until there was nothing left of anything anymore.

The absence of eternity was the only kind of oblivion Raven could conceptualize any sort of comfort in, though such thoughts she routinely shoved aside.

If she could concentrate hard enough, she could instead focus on the places between heartbeats, falling still between even farther placed breaths.

Pure Silence.   

Instant rent reality ripped along her incorporeal seems and sheared along her consciousness without warning or mercy.

The livewire feeling of being too alive, unable to think, forced to be again, was a shattering, breathtaking dissipation into disorientated suffering.

Patience took a breath.

Knowledge flicked her eyes open, so that she might rejoin the world in which she supposedly claimed to live.   

Robin stood before her, a little mint-jelly remorseful at intruding upon her shortlived sanctuary; yet he also carried with him a strong squareshoulered walnutty taste.

Conviction, she guessed, perhaps.

She was admittedly still a little shaky from just ‘checking back in’.

He allowed her the moment to compose herself, for which she conceptually grateful.

“There’s someone downstairs who wants to see you,” he gave; a little bit unsure, and a little bit pressed.

The tastes weighed heavy on her tongue and felt fuzzed over, inside her head.

She Hated it, when he tried hiding things from her.

Jinx, her thoughts drifted, or maybe the kids.  

Likely a mess that needed mending, or a small emotional outbreak that needed cleaning up.

She unfolded herself; standing on solid ground as she was, she earned a small smirk from her friend.

He’d grown another half-inch or so, it seemed.  

“Keep laughing and I’ll go for your knees,” she quipped, as she followed him into the hall.

“You couldn’t handle me at my knees,” he teased reflexively.

The lemonade mirth emanating from his pores at the jest was a little more to her liking.

Whatever it was he’d called her for, was nothing apparent, that bit of good-natured dickory couldn’t fix.

At the sight of what was awaiting her in the center of the common room however, her Perception was forced to quickly reassess itself.

The moment of adjustment left a small silence in the air; one that was carried by not only herself, but within her friends as well.

Their hesitations; limezest, cherry popsicle, petrichor, grape soda, all stewed together in a cloud above the room which Raven feeling a little too humid for her liking.

The field of apprehension was also permeated by a light, sugar drizzle coating of curiosity from the woman with the badge, and a strong, underlying aftertaste of raspberry tart from her aunt.

“You have a lot to explain, young lady,” her Aunt demanded; sending what almost felt like an instinctual whiplash through her system.

It was apparently, the jolt her body had needed to begin functioning again.

“Bike gone, no note!” the woman continued, her voice rising in octave as she took a few steps forward; her hands were balled into fists.

“ Well ?” she insisted again, louder.

Raven tried not to flinch, as her friends threw glances at her, and each other.

“I… forgot to call you, I’m sorry,” she offered.

“You… forgot ,” her aunt repeated, the note of incredibility rising high in her stare of disbelief.  

There was a fractional second, in which Timid thought to backpedal her words, or else incur Courage to simply override the situation; her Aunt left her little time after, to choose either stead.

“I took you into my home, I gave you open arms and you not only change my memories, but then you leave without any way of finding you, and then three days later when the past fourteen years of my life having you as part of my family fades away and the police inform me that you’ve been a teenage vigilante and now I can’t tell what is a lie and what isn't, you want to tell me that you forgot ?”

Sickness, bubbled in her stomach.

I’m not a good person.

I didn’t think it was relevant.

I didn’t care.

“I’m sorry,” she stated meekly.

“You’re gonna be more than sorry-” Alice shouted, before catching herself; she exhaled, anger and hurt burning through her breath, “You’re grounded.”

A burst of quiet laughter escaped from Beast Boy’s lips before his clasped over himself; she didn’t want to risk looking anywhere but at her Aunt, for Fear of seeing Jinx similarly indisposed.

The children, standing at her friends’ feet, seemed confused and startled; Alice followed her flickering eyes, and crossed her arms.

“The truth is, I am a vigilante,” she offered, quietly.

When her aunt didn’t interrupt, Raven inhaled, and continued.

“I’ve been a Titan since I arrived on Earth, more or less. -Yes, I said arrived. I was born in a dimension called Azarath; the monks there took in Arella -Angela, and taught me to control my powers and lived by a code of pacifism. My father eventually found us, and… Azarath doesn't exist anymore, to put it kindly. Mom didn’t make it out. Just me.”

I killed them;

She was the only one I didn’t reach-

I hesitated.

-Weak,  

She let the words drip off her lips; the cloud around the room condensed as if wettening from her friends’ concerns.

Knowledge settled flatly against her inner cheek; there was little way to meander around things, it seemed.

“I learned to help people, and when my father came back for me again, I stopped him,” she stated firmly.

He’s right here.

In my head;

Sparkle sparkle,

“I… was taking some time to figure out myself, when Jinx found out about you. Up until a few nights before we met with you, I’d had no idea your family existed.”

I never expected you to love me.

We didn’t ask for your kindness .      

Her aunt looked morose.

“Some things happened, while I was with you. I… altered your memories. I let you believe what you wanted of me. I’d hoped to spend a few days more with you, indulging in the fantasy before I returned. Had things gone that way, you probably wouldn’t remember me at all, or be standing here right now.”

Alice’s eyes widened in shock; the woman beside her seemed to readjust herself slightly.

“I didn’t want you to know about me. -The truth,” she added solemnly; “Arella… didn’t leave me with the strongest hopes of public opinion. She cared for me, in her own way I think, in that genetics leave a mother no choice. But she was never comfortable with me. My nature. My abilities.”  

“Honey, I live in Gotham,” Alice replied, stepping forward once more, her voice beginning to waver, “I don’t care if you wear capes.”

Raven stepped back, silently refusing the woman’s approaching arms.

“I can’t go back with you, I’m sorry.”

Crestfallen, Alice bit her lip.

“I have… responsibilities, here,” she explained softly; her eyes flicked over to the Tots, still cautiously observing from the sidelines.

Her aunt’s face lit slightly as she tried to place the pieces together.

“-This is my family,” Raven stated, standing a little more firm; “I haven’t always deserved them, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but I belong with them.”

The cloud about the room teemed with new-seeped joys and confidence; the slurry of conflicting emotions lingered unbalanced on the back of Raven’s tongue.

“You don’t have to live with us Raechal,” Alice replied fondly; her hands were clasped together as he stepped forward again, desperate to make contact and fearful of rejection.   

“But I’m not strong enough to watch another Angela disappear; not again,” she murmured, her eyes closing.

The woman Alice entered with placed a steadying hand on her aunt’s shoulder.

Alice’s eyes opened, a glimmer of determination embedded within them.

“Phone calls are far less expensive than private investigators,” the badged-woman joked.

Raven noted the ‘E. Yin’ embossed on the bottom of the badge.

“And I know you kids have the internet and emails,” Alice insisted, her tone forcing the levity.

This time, when her Aunt approached her, Raven remained firmly motionless.

The hug was a constriction of emotion; each hue of taste layered overtop the others.

She’s so sad, she thought; as she wrapped her own arms around her aunt in turn; mother left us, too.  

“You can always find me on the TV,” Raven stated plainly, Happy plying her Wit; “Channel 5 for Jump City.”

Her Aunt huffed and pulled her tighter before drawing away.

“You’re still grounded. -For at least two weeks,” her Aunt insisted; she looked around the room, her eyes eventually leveling on Robin.

“You make sure she’s home for the holidays, you hear me? I am not afraid to march back here and put all of you over my knee.”

Jinx snorted, a trickle of pink energy crackling around her fingertips as Melvin, at her legs, hid a smile of her own.

“Now, since I flew all the way here,” her Aunt insisted, straightening up; “Why don’t you show me around and introduce me to this family of yours?”

“Well, this is my girlfriend and the mother of your grandchild,” Raven began flatly, as she jerked a thumb over at Jinx.

Satisfaction watched as her aunt fought to keep a straight face as the color drained from her cheeks and the police detective’s eyebrows raised several notches.

Raven tried not to smile as she caught Robin’s amused, but reprimanding stare.  

Chapter 38

Jinx supposed the monotony was a good thing.

The Hive had built its foundation on routine after all.

-Well, it had built its foundation on ambition she amended. Ambition and routine.

Which left her feeling complicity contemporary, and aggravatingly wasteful.

And sick.

The nausea was new.

Well.

It was more, frequent.

It wasn’t in the mornings though; apparently junior tended to forwake around noon; a tendency which usually left her feeling queasy until nightfall.

She hoped she wasn’t too bitchy.

It was hard not to be snippish and flippant when there were… things happening inside her.

She couldn’t feel the baby move yet; but there was a burning sensation that seemed to grow everytime the pairs of red eyes bore through her belly.

For the most part, she ignored it.

There was a lot at the Tower that simply required her attention; no doubt orchestrated by the other Titans to help keep her mind off things.

Or perhaps just to keep her hands off things, she mused.

Robin kept her in shape; his holodeck sessions kept the worst of the ennui from her joints and gave her the satisfaction of brutally punching things without any protest from him or Raven.

Keeping tabs on the kids was a full time effort; there was little time for rest when three babies brimming with exuberance and bright ideas constantly tugged at her skirts for her participation. She’d spent hours playing UNO and braiding hair and playing with actionfigures; she was fairly certain she’d mastered the art of the perfect tea party. Taxing as all the emotional labor was, Jinx found the finality of putting the kids to bed after a fruitful day… emotional, in a fond way she wasn’t sure how to describe; the smiles she’d get from the other Titans, from Raven, for helping the kids had also become something of a usual occurrence.

The moment of bliss though, standing triumphant outside the children’s door, only ever lasted so long as the journey back through the long halls of the Tower.  

The emptiness that it left in its wake left her feeling unsure of herself, and promptly turned her sour.

Raven helped; her presence was calming, whenever she rejoined her.

But even on nights when they put down the children together, Jinx still felt cold and finicky on the walk back to their room.

She didn’t know why her senses were screaming at her so often.

The Titans trusted her.

The kids liked her.

The entity inside her was healthy, probably.

Everything was fine.

The thought repeated itself, as she pulled out a worn and familiar looking old communicator.

Everything is fine, she thought again, as she turned it on.

 

Hey X

*Red_Redaction is Typing*

So your alive

Thats neat

Im on medleave, not my deathdead

Same diff

Whats the stitch?

*Karmatic_Infringment is Typing*

So i hooked up with a score and made bank

Everything is fine?

And im

*Karmatic_Infringment is Typing*

Freaking out over nothing i guess

The idiot who sleeps with a gun in hand is a fool everynight but one

Yeah i know that but like

Theres nothing to be arfaid of its just

All ordinarry?

Hmmm,

So whose the mark?

?

*Karmatic_Infringment is Typing*

Oath of secrecy.

sure

Raven.

*Red_Redaction is Typing*

????

Magic, dont worry about it

Anyway. Im at the tower

Been here a few weeks now?

Everything's… strange

Maybe u just need to blow up something

You never could stand not making waves

Heh, true X33

Theres the emoticons i liek to see

Does mamm know yet?

No

None of the boys do

Shit

Yeah

*Karmatic_Infringment is Typing*

I miss them

We miss you too, Pinky

How are they holding up?

*Red_Redaction is Typing*

Theyr worried bout you

Where u went

What ur game is

Bee says youre in over ur head

Maybe shes right

?

/shrug

*Red_Redaction is Typing*

Whatever happens on this stint

Keep talkin to me

Ill answer whenever i can

You know how you get when you cut cold turkey

sure

*Red_Redaction is Typing*

Whats she like?

Raven?

Yeah

*Karmatic_Infringment is Typing*

I like her i think

She knows more then she lets on,

Lotta baggage i guess but its stuff you gotta drag outa her

Shes been through a lot

She's kinda hot too so thats nice 

Naturally;

She has this thing tho

Like i cant tell if i like her as much as i do is because i do

Or because she wants me to

And like

I liked her already so i wouldnt care exactly

Cept its the idea of it?

Thats fair

I dont think its anything she can help much tho

Her powers are kinda

Well

Like mine i guess

cute

And shes def been gettin the worse end of the deal

Yeah i thought she seemed a little off last time we fought

I guess shes got a lot on her mind if shes got u around

U stealin the baby?  

Maybe

Itd be the perfect arching nemesis thing your always waiting for, right?

I mean yeah

True;;

I havent descided yet i guess

Well you got some time then

*Karmatic_Infringment is Typing*

Hey X?

Yeah

Robin has a collection of romcom movies

Omg

XD

Ill tell you which ones if you get Gizzy and the gang to hit up the town tomorrow

sweet <3

 

“Plotting something?”

Jinx looked up, a lightly amused Raven resting in her doorway.

Jinx slid the communicator into her pants pocket warily.

Raven’s features softened slightly.

“It’s natural to miss your friends.”

The sentiment, while appreciated, left Jinx’s mouth feeling acrid.

Jinx walked over, her shoulders ready to traverse into whatever afternight activity Raven was likely inviting her to; card games and tabletop rps seemed run of the mill when the kids were in bed.

Raven’s hand stalled her.

She smiled, warmly, as to not place the blame at her partner's feet.

Accepting, Raven let her press on, and trailed beside her as they strode to the elevator.

As they waited for the metal box to descend, Jinx watched the little arrow flicker across the counter, and tried not to envision how wildly out of control she could readily make it swing.

Raven’s hand was a ghost against the back of her neck; a palm steadied against the nape, warm breath tickling against her hairline.

The elevator opened with a ‘ping’, and after stepping out, it wasn’t long before she was standing in the comm room, looking over Raven’s friends gathered happily around the couch, chattering away until Starfire caught sight of them, and broke the news of their arrival to the others.

There was something in the way they looked at her, she thought, that made her want to punch them all in the mouth.

It was like they’d all completely forgotten that she used to be the reason they’d come home with bruises along their bodies and scapes on their knees.

Raven’s hand trailed along her back; a caress against the bit of spine Jinx remembered her once kicking forcefully into the dirt.

“You called your aunt today?”

“She was at a Church function; Mary-beth gives her regards.”

Jinx hummed as she took her seat, Cyborg already sliding over her character sheet.  

Robin started to shuffle a few papers of his own behind an impromptu DM screen, while Beast Boy seemed intent on searching for his dice.

“So where did we leave off last week?” the monkey-shifted boy asked.

“We just talked to the goblin king, right?” Cyborg answered.

“Right, and you guys were going to decide how to get past him through the catacombs,” Robin answered, as he continued to set up behind the screen.

“That’s right,” Starfire replied, picking up her character mini to set it on the map, “I believe we should cut through his forces. -My character me, Klarg, believes we should cut through them I mean.”

“I thought we said no killing on this run,” Raven interjected, as she set her tiefling piece on the map.

“Goblins ain’t people,” Cyborg teased, as he dropped his dice from his bag.

“Heartless,” Raven hissed, amused.

Beast Boy snickered.

“I still say we should split the party,” Jinx insisted, as she set her player on the map; “If Star -Klarg, and Cyborg can keep the King’s attention, Fleamat and Raven an' me could easily slip past the guard.”

“For the last time, his name isn't Fleamat!” Beast Boy yipped.

“Dogmeat has feelings,” Raven added, prompting Beast Boy to send her a dirty look.

“Alright,” Robin stated, his notes finally sorted; “Game time. What do your characters want to do?”

“I’m going to sneak to the side of the room,” Jinx declared, “and I kinda make a quick motion for the others to do the same.”

“Alright, roll for stealth,” Robin answered.

“Dex modifier, I think,” Cyborg added, as he pointed it out on Jinx’s sheet.

Jinx rolled her dice, and tried not to look surprised when they fell a little shorter than she was hoping; her dice never favored her, which is why she took to min-maxing her favored skills.

“23.”

“Alright, goblins are easily distracted, so you don’t have much trouble breaking off from the group. Once you hit the shadows, you’re practically invisible.”

“Klarg wants to keep the king’s attention,” Starfire stated intently; she banged a fist on the table, “She pulls out her broadaxe to show it to the king.”

“-And I quickly let the guards understand she’s showing it off to the king, and not making an attempt on his life,” Raven added.

“Alright, I’d make you roll for charisma but seems how they’re goblins and your axe has a glowing aura, I’m going to say they’re pretty distracted. -Beast Boy, what does Dogmeat wanna do?”

“Dogmeat’s pretty stealthy…” he began, as he drug his finger along his stats; he bit his lip and looked from Jinx to Starfire; “I’m going to help Klarg distract the king. I’m still in bear form, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll allow that,” Robin agreed, nodding.

“Then Dogmeat starts to dance, like how bears do.”

“Nice,” Cyborg noted, grinning.

“I’m going to go into stealth mode,” Raven stated, as the boys high fived.

“You wanna gang up with Jinx?”

“I just want to be invisible for when the shit goes down so I can have the surprise advantage.”

"Babe," Jinx huffed. 

“Fair,” Robin mused, rolling a few dice; “Roll for it.”

Her dice hit the table with a natural ease.

“Nat 20,” Cyborg read, looking over.

“Jesus,” Beast Boy exhaled.

Robin blinked a few times and shrugged his shoulders; “Alright, you are so invisible, you almost enter the astral plane; you’ll definitely get the surprise round as long as you don’t alert anyone of your presence.”

“I throw a rock at Dogmeat,” Jinx huffed.

“Hey!”

“And I make a rude gesture,” Jinx added.

“I’ll have to enter you all into combat order,” Robin warned.

“What’dya do that for?”

“I mouth the words like, ‘What are you doing? Come on!’ ” Jinx mimed.

“Just go yourself?” Cyborg offered peacefully.

Jinx shook her head; “I can get by just fine, but Sheila will need his nose in the tunnels.”

“Well I’m not splitting the party so,” Beast Boy replied, shrugging.

“I strike the king!” Starfire exclaimed, shaking the table.

“-Wait, what?” Jinx cried.

“And that puts us into combat mode, everyone roll for initiative,” Robin declared, as he began setting up his load order cards.

“This is bullshit,” Jinx mumbled.

“Splitting the party never works,” Cyborg offered, before he held up a ‘2’ for Robin to see.

“-Only because you fuckers never want to listen to my ideas,” Jinx muttered, as she rolled her die.

“Language,” Beast Boy replied reflexively; “Don’t be a sore loser, Jay.”

“I specifically stacked my character to account for my power affecting the dice rolls,” Jinx insisted, her feathers ruffling; “And statistically, Klarg gets us into way more trouble than I do. You guys just want to do the opposite of whatever I try to map out.”

“Can you blame us?” Beast Boy asked skeptically.

“Yes!” Jinx barked, her first sparking pink shocks around the table, halting the game’s momentum as everyone turned to look at her.

Jinx exhaled through her grit teeth as she tried not to flip the table and send the game spilling across the room.

“I lead a team of highly trained mercenaries, for years ,” she seethed; “And I was the best at it. Not good at it, the best . So I know some things. And it really friggan’ ticks me off when you guys blow me off like I’m a gag reel on a Sunday strip.”

“Jinx,” Raven mourned.

She growled and moved her hand from Raven’s approaching fingers.

“If you were so good at it,” Beast Boy sneered, “Why’d we beat you everytime?”

“Garfield,” Robin warned.

“-Because I didn’t want the boys to live with murder on their hands. Not that young,” Jinx shot, glaring at the boy; “You have no idea what the Hive is really like, or the kinda things we went through. Or what power we really had over the city, or how much we let you fuckers off.”  

“No, we don’t,” Robin agreed, as his hands tried to soothe air, and prompt everyone to return to their seats.

Jinx gripped the edge of the table, unwilling to back down.

Her arms trembled.

“I was a god,” Jinx murmured; “In prep school? I ran that fucker. Nobody was strong enough to stop me. I put so many dicks in the ER they should’ve named a virus after me. The teachers weren’t even shit. -And I’m not bragging out my own ego here, I’m literally telling you I was a deadly sonofabitch. Uncontrollable . 'Unmanageable'; the other kids learned to step out of my way or to do what I said or they'd learn firsthand what a shockwave of bad luck could really do to a human body."

Slowly, some of the other Titans started to fall back into their seats; their eyes trained on her as they listened. 

"And I wasn't stupid about it either. -Took Mammoth and Gizzy under my arm for tactical edges; but I took care of everyone, once I was on top. It was the only way to wrangle everyone cohesively and the only kinda power they respected, not that I was any different. When Highschool happened the Headmistress was the only bitch with bigger balls than me, and she ran me into the fuckin’ ground till I came up breathless. Even then, I was so far at the top of the game, my team was ready for hire before we topped out the semester. It wasn’t until I let your sorry asses live that things went to shit, and believe me, there are some days I wish I hadn’t ‘cause you ungrateful fuckers cost me the only mom I ever had and you wanna sit here like I wasn't ever anything to you but a joke, well guess what? Thay punchline ain't funny and I'm not laughing for it.”

The stunned stare of the teens around her prompted Jinx’s mouth to shut.

Her eyes were beginning to water; with pain, and with hate.

Her ears tuned into Raven’s faltering breathing pattern.  

She felt a little something like regret.

She took a breath, and picked up the piece she’d accidentally knocked over in her ire.

“I just… wish you guys wouldn’t treat me like I’m harmless,” she murmured.

She straightened back up and bit her lip to keep the terrible, ugly thoughts from slipping between her incisors.

“I’m done playing for tonight,” she continued.

Best to cut my losses, she thought.

There was a bit of whispering around the table as she headed to the nearest door; she ignored it, and the ensuing footsteps trailing behind her.

She didn’t stop.

Powerless, she walked forward for aways, until she realized that the person following her wasn’t the mother of her child.

She stopped, and allowed them to catch up.

The garish costume of Robin, came shuffling after.

“Jinx,” he addressed, his tone concerned.

“Traffic light,” she toned.

His lips were drawn; his gloved hands were seemingly at a loss for whether or not she’d allow him to comfort her.

She hoped that her posture accurately reflected that she wouldn’t.

“I know from your end, there’s… a lot you guys never see. -A lot of it, we even wanted you guys to think,” Jinx explained; she sensed that he wouldn’t leave, if she didn’t offer something to explain away her behavior.

“And I don’t… really want you guys to be afraid of me, all the time either,” she broached tentatively; even as her mind questioned the validity of the statement.

“What happened,” he asked quietly, “With the headmistress?”

Figures he'd key in on that, out of everything, she stewed. 

Jinx shrugged; “Deathstroke. Slade, whatever you guys call him. He killed her -and his butler I think? Left the school vulnerable to outsiders. I couldn't take over the school staff ‘cause I wasn't legally certified for any of that. So. I had to do the best I could to play nice with whoever took over the school for any length of time. I was too smart to get brainwashed by any of them, and too skilled to be bumped off, so it was this really long back-and-forth that went nowhere for a long time. -Fighting you guys was the only way any of us ever got any fun for awhile but even then, we couldn't kill you off 'cause of everyone else on the list waiting in line.”

“Have you… killed people Jinx?”

“Do you really want to know the answer to that?” she asked genuinely.

He pressed his lips again.

Jinx huffed and kicked at the floor.

“I gave up a lot of things for this,” she eventually offered.

The boy’s features shifted, and for a moment, Jinx was reminded of Red-X.

She wondered which one of them would’ve been more offended by the similarities.

“You thought my team was shitty, didn't you?” she asked him flatly.

A small twitch in the corner of his mouth told Jinx all she needed to know.

“And you never thought of me as a real leader, did you?” she pressed, accusation seeping onto her tongue.

He bowed his head, conceding.

“I could’ve been henching for Harley Quinn right now,” she murmured, wistfulness in her eyes; “There was a hiring list the length of my arm before the Headmistress died. Deathstroke just bought his way to the top.”

Robin lifted his head; studying her.

"After she died, he got us blacklisted so nobody else could have my team. -Wanted that 'disposable standing army' and all that," Jinx dismissed, haughty with the arrogance in her heels.

The boy was silent.   

“I lived my life searching for chains to break out of. This… domestic stuff. It’s nice. Sweet even,” she added, as her thoughts drifted to the kids; “It’s just you guys… that’s taking some getting used to. I can’t just… put you in the hospital whenever I’m annoyed at you anymore.”

“I… appreciate that discretion,” he replied.

Jinx huffed happily at the flatlined humor.

When she neglected to say anything more, the boy started to reposition himself.

“To tell you the truth, most of us were careful not to ask you about any of it; your past or the Hive or anything. We didn’t know what would be painful or not, and Raven sort of got us into the habit of just accepting things as they come, not that any of this is a good excuse. -We just, didn’t want to define who you are by what your past was. We wanted to give you a clean chance.”

Jinx steadied her breathing.

“My past is who I am,” Jinx replied gently; “You can’t ignore the chronic condition and expect to see a healthy person.”

His lips drew grim.

“I’m going to bed,” Jinx stated; “We can go back to ignoring whatever and all that tomorrow. I just… didn’t want to send Raven’s friends into cardiac arrest in front of her.”  

This time, Robin’s hand did reach out, and it touched her arm gently.

“We’re your friends, too,” he stated, a proud sort of smile to his lips; had she been a younger iteration of herself, she would’ve laughed and set it fire.

“We might make mistakes, but we’re more than willing to fix them;” the boy continued, gradually gaining confidence, “You can talk to us, and we’ll listen.”

Jinx nodded, firmly.

As she turned to go once more, he tugged the edge of her sleeve.

Tiered now, she turned partially to hear him out.

“Actually, there's something you can go over with me, if you’re actually as good tactically as you say you are. If you can meet me in the holodeck tomorrow I could probably use your help.”

With that, the boy withdrew his arm, and Jinx felt something like a small smile grace her features.

He bid her goodnight, and left her to walk back to her room alone.  

The walk was briefer, than what she needed, but she'd dare risk herself the privilege of doing a few laps as there was far too much havoc she could reak on the building, with how uninhibited as she was. 

 

Raven was reading on the bed, waiting for her.

“How’d it go?”

“You’re the empath,” Jinx teased, as she let herself fall into the habits of preparing for bed.

Raven eyed her, as she lifted off her shirt.

“Touché.”   

 

Chapter 39

“You’ve been at this for hours,” Raven noted, as she watched from the bed.

She probably had Jinx realized, as she distanced herself from the canvas a bit.

Jinx let her eyes score over her; Raven's hair appearing black in the lowlight, glinting with shimmering hues where the ambiance touched. Then to her careful face; readily maintained, seemingly passive.

There was a great patience about the Titan, Jinx thought.

But she could easily see the concern, the swells of pride, and the overarching, impending sense of boredom that always seemed to cloak the girl when she wasn’t meditating or locked in combat.

There was a restlessness inside her own body still, evident in the pain speckles dotting her fingertips and the tremors still lingering in her arms.

She’d really wanted to hurt someone, for a while.

Jinx twisted the caps back onto her tubes, and let the pallet rest plainly on the tray.

Part of her wondered if her hands would stain the sheets; part of her reasoned she’d dirty them one way or another anyway.

There was an ease in the way she slid onto the bed; a definite attunement to the way Raven moved to receive her.

Like they’d practiced it, perhaps.

Or maybe the Titan had just felt her shift in mood.

The Titan’s hands guided her fall; the kiss was lazy and lackluster, but familiar and forgiving with sentiment.

Jinx had readily given up on hopes of reaching any sort of conclusion on their carnal pursuits; she mused over the few interrupted makeouts they’d tried unsuccessfully to share.   

“Remember when you had your hands up my shirt and I threw up?”

Raven’s face frowned as Jinx giggled.

“Yes.”

As Raven’s hand moved to the joint of her neck and shoulder, Jinx let the words continue.

“Remember how everytime I try to get your panties off you, the alarm goes off and you have to leave all sweaty and bothered and I want to cry sometimes cause I’m on the bed alone?”

Raven leaned into her, until she was almost on top of her; her weight pressing down was shamefully reassuring.

“Yes,” Raven murmured, into the swell of her chest; “I know.”

Something about the firmness in her tone, felt grounding to Jinx.

“You know, they say insanity is doing the same thing, expecting different results,” Jinx offered meekly, as Raven’s soul solidified around her hands.

“So fuck science then,” Raven dismissed, as she worked her hands over her shirt.   

Jinx shut her eyes, enjoying the closeness, while lamenting the eventual loss of it.

“Not this time,” Raven murmured, almost so quietly, that Jinx nearly couldn’t hear.

Jinx barely felt the shift in the stasis; it wasn’t the magical drift sent to click the lock on the door, nor the way the room was gradually growing darker, but something Jinx almost sensed by instinct rather than feeling.

She didn’t care to pay it much mind; Raven’s mouth was maneuvering around the strip of leather encircling her neck.  

“If we fuck now, do you think I’ll get double pregnant?” Jinx mused; the feeling of the Titan’s teeth doing wonders to lighten her mood.

“Bold of you to assume I’d stop at two;” the girl panned flatly as her hand scratched a thin trail of raised flesh between her breasts and down more slowly over her stomach.

“I’m just saying since, shouldn’t I be getting fat or something? Maybe we didn’t do it right,” Jinx pressed, as Raven nuzzled her lips to her chest.

Raven’s fingers ghosted over her thighs, parting them.

Her heart fluttered when Raven’s nails dug into the sensitive flesh over her inner thighs and Raven pulled a moan from her core when she pulled those nails against the skin to leave lasting scratches in her wake.

It became a little harder for Jinx to keep track of things; their mouths pressed bruises between their lips while their tongues got reacquainted with the sharpnesses of each others' teeth.

Jinx’s breathing became deeper as a thrust of longing churned within her; she managed to stall Raven’s hands long enough to roll the girl’s hoodie off of her, leaving her in a wornout tank that Jinx remembered seeing in Starfire’s closet and a pair of shorts that had definitely been pilfered from her own.   

“Do you wear anything that’s actually yours?” she teased, her fingers dancing in the undercut of the Titan’s hair.   

“Only when it’s laundry week,” she replied; Jinx smirked at the subtle playfulness in the way Raven smiled as she slid onto her lap.

“So you admit you’re a lazy fuck,” Jinx goaded, her own nails returning the Titan’s affections by glossing appreciatively around the hardening nubs emerging from her breasts.

“Careful,” the girl chided, earning a broader smirk from Jinx; Raven leaned in closer, closing the gap between them to drape her arms around her shoulders, which left her mouth dizzyingly close to her ear, “I might make you eat those words.”

Jinx hummed as she exhaled, and turned her head to meet Raven’s lips with her own, before a small quiver delighted her senses enough to snap her eyes open once more.

“I might make you eat something,” she promised, her lips curling.

There was a reaction, in Raven, that Jinx hadn’t expected.

The mood, sentimental and heady, wasn’t any different and Jinx’s skin was still toying itself with goosebumps a little; Raven didn’t seem upset or displeased, nor any happier or turned on.

But Jinx noted the shift within the Titan’s eyes in the long, slow second, that it occurred.  

It took her a moment to reason it out, but then she smiled lightly and chuckled a little.

“Think of me often, darling?” Jinx teased; her body weightless as she nudged the Titan back.

She let her fingertips lace around Raven’s neck; “Or just what to do to me?”

The snarling-smile unfolding across the girl’s face made Jinx more than a little giddy.

Her thoughts raced back to the prison cell, and the night things started between them.

“Is there something electric between us, or is it just this fence?” she quipped, feeling breathless.

Raven slid her up her hips; reflexively, Jinx rolled them against Raven’s thighs and kissed along Raven’s jaw.   

A little grumbling growl, emanated from Raven’s throat; it was all the warning Jinx received before Raven pushed forward and pinned her to the bed.

Hanging overtop of her, breathing steadily but more deeply than when she wasn’t focused on her; she was gorgeous.    

How long has it been, since you’ve looked at me like this? She wanted to ask, her thoughts drifting to foggier days where they brawled for spite and profit.

As if seeing her progression of thinking, the Titan waited; the light of the room flickered faintly.

Jinx squirmed underneath her, until she freed her arms enough to frame the girl’s face.

“I want it,” she stated, with no inflections in her voice, no jokes, and no teasing; “Wreck me.”

Raven dropped against her, their mouths finding each other once more.

The girl’s black dripping soul began flickering out from her pores, which Jinx took to mean that the Titan intended to make good on her unspoken agreement.

It was interesting, Jinx found; in feeling the Titan learn.

Jinx’d had a few rows round the bend, but she had to remind herself that the girl on top of her, while extremely powerful, was still the same girl shyly learning to masturbate with her on the prison floor.   

It wasn’t unpleasant, letting her find her way around; she guessed that Raven’s empathy and overall intent left them feeling far more intrigued and satisfied then they would be feeling otherwise.

She did her best to be helpful; guiding fingers, breathing praises, moaning names.

Raven held no interest in making her wait; familiar enough with pointed partners, she didn’t mind.

The surprise came, when after she reached her moment of back-arching, fist-clenching delight, the Titan didn’t stop.

Before she had a chance to explain about the perils over overstimulation and hypersensitivity, Jinx felt the sensation of Raven’s blue tingling light wrapped against her tongue.    

The feelings of rawness vanished from her clit, but the tension in her body and the fire within her nerves remained, leaving her feeling far more breathless and squirming than when they first began.

Oh, was all she could think.  

Well played.

With the limitations of mortal men brushed aside, Raven began to experiment.

Jinx had dabbled in knifeplay only once, in her span of collecting them; Raven’s elongated nails, ebony dark and twice as sharp, felt far more real to her skin.

She watched, as much as her peripheral vision and bowed head allowed, the way Raven carved the first line down the top of her breast.

The gasp she made stopped the Titan; Jinx squirmed a little to encourage her, prompting Raven to slowly place a hand against her neck.

Her nails didn’t cut in, but the force of Raven’s fingers was wonderbubbling as she explored the amount of pressures she could press.

Jinx felt as if there were lights on inside of her; and that she only knew them shining as such, by the adjacent knowledge that until now, they’d been out and gathering dust.

This wasn’t the fancy apartment she’d once envisioned, but the windows were large, and she was more than willing to count Raven’s ‘birthday suit’ as part of the package.

Raven keyed in on her excitement; her facial structure shifted slightly, but remained passingly human.

“Don’t scream,” the Titan breathed.

Jinx held her breath, as the hand on her throat shifted slightly to allow its mate to meet her there.

Raven’s second hand clenched, leaving one lone claw to pierce the hollow of her throat.

Jinx bit her lip, and tried to keep her heels from digging into the bed; she wanted to keep her back flat for her.

It was hard; Raven’s pace was maddeningly slow.

Not that Jinx blamed her; she almost wished she could sit outside of herself, to watch the seam of her flesh part.

Raven cut her clean down her middle; stopping at the navel.

There was a moment then, wherein Jinx felt the girl was admiring her handiwork, that she took a shuddering breath.

Raven had cut far deeper, than just through the top thin layers of skin.

As she tried to breathe evenly, she could feel the places of her separated muscles singing eye-watering songs of dazzling agony with every second of consciousness.

“I could go farther, if you want,” the Titan murmured; her words cut through the fog of the dizzying sensations.

She felt wet, all over, as the wound continued to bleed; she bit her lip to keep herself from keening.

“I suppose this would have been the way of termination, had you chosen it,” the girl continued.

Jinx propped a lid open to see the look on Raven’s face; she wouldn’t blame her, for feeling a little scared of herself, she supposed.

“Admit it, you think I’m pretty when I bleed,” she goaded, her breath hissing even as she smiled.

Jinx lifted her own fingers to the cut, and ran them along the sensitive sides until she was brave enough to plunge them inside.

The white spots in her vision nearly took over for a second as her point of perspective balance shifted and then the feeling of Raven’s hand between her legs was enough to convince her to stop focusing on her equilibrium and lack of vision entirely.

The good thing about Raven’s healing powers, Jinx quickly learned, was that she didn’t have to worry about things like dying.

The bad thing about them was, was that her body had enough muscle memory to know that it had been worried enough to make her worried about things like dying.

There was no lingering pain from the lacerations, no ache from snapped bones; but even as refreshed and alive as every healing balm reset her, something in her body or aura that she couldn’t quite pinpoint, carried the anxiety of the hurt.

None of which, seemed to be a concern of the girl on top of her.

Jinx wasn’t bothered enough to stop, especially as each dizzying height left her a little less level-headed than the last, but it was something she was distantly aware of enough that she’d made note of it in some passing part of her brain.

The Titan seemed to grow more restless with each of her passing climaxes; Jinx supposed there was only so many ways one could break a person romantically before falling into repetition.

She seemed to come to a decision, and then Jinx was back to observing the inside of her own eyelids, as the Titan’s head was lodged firmly between her legs, and the physical onslaught of pain and rejuvenation was now levied purely along the reaches of Raven’s tongue.

Elongated and tapered as it was, that reach was a little longer than Jinx had considered.

Jinx panted freely, when her body was tensionless enough to breathe.

When the thought that Raven’s ministrations seemed to grow flippant between vicious and soothingly desperate, a notion within Jinx’s mind clicked.

It took her a few tries to strangle the sputtering syllables from her lips into coherency; she struggled to pull herself up a little, to lean on her shoulders, which was made more difficult as Raven’s claws were heavily embedded in her ass, and did not seem to like the idea of her moving out of reach.

“Babe,” she huffed; her vision swimming.

The was a growl between her legs as Raven’s tongue coiled tightly around her clit.

She stifled another gasp and took a fistful of the Titan’s hair, and pulled.  

Her cry mixed with Raven’s as they both tumbled back.

Jinx managed to get Raven’s lips to meet her own, and then had the arduous task of redirecting the girl’s attentions.   

Jinx pushed and rolled, to work Raven beneath her.

“Hold on love, I got you,” she promised, sending her fingers to work.

It wasn’t as sensual as she found she wanted it to be; but as she was also vying to keep Raven’s other points of contact focused, she cut herself some slack.

“God you’re wet,” Jinx sighed happily, earning a whine from the girl; she pressed her body harder against Raven’s to relieve some of the tactile need the girl seemed to be squirming for.

“I must be a good show if I affect you this much,” she mused, still thinking the girl’s empathy over.   

Something to remember, she guessed.

Raven hissed something, that perhaps was meant to resemble ‘empathic’.

Jinx huffed, happily.

“I know Moonshine, I know,” she reaffirmed, moving quicker.

Raven came unbound, as she shattered.

Jinx didn’t mind the way Raven's nails dug into her back as she arched and caved.

It was a beautiful feeling, to hold her as she trembled and clenched.

Raven heaved quietly as she came back into herself; almost instantly, it was as if the lighting in the room had never altered, both bright and unflickering.

Raven remained tucked against her, breathing through the occasional echoing shock.

Beautiful, perfect; Jinx thought.

Raven’s jaw didn’t seem to be held in quite the right place, Jinx noted absently; she didn’t bother hiding her smile as she assumed how sore it was probably going to be.

“Well fucking you is fun,” Jinx quipped, happy to tend the moment.

Raven’s eyes flicked to her; her smirk was noncommittal for whichever emotion sparked it, but it seemed approving enough to Jinx.

They wound down, untangling from each other enough to crawl to the side of the bed that wasn’t as drenched in blood and sex.  

It was still a little too sticky for Jinx’s liking, but the way Raven bent and mewled against her was more than enough reason for Jinx to ignore it, and choose shooting a tiny hex beam at the lightbulb instead of getting up to flick the switch.

Raven seemed to fall first, undoubtedly in need of serious meditation management for the glory of sins they just committed; Jinx drifted into a haze for a while, drinking in the stilled, vacant, quiet.  

 

*Karmatic_Infringment is Typing*

She loves like shes feral

And fucks like a freight engine

*Red_Redaction is Typing*

Gross.

Chapter 40

Jinx awoke to afternoon sun baking the bedsheet, finding Raven meditating in wait on her side of the bed.

Jinx smirked; pleased with the rare indulgence of waking to find the Titan beside her.

Raven looked her over, prompting Jinx to glance down at herself; she was still covered in the remains of their activities. Jinx couldn’t see any traces of cuts or impressions upon her person, but there were a couple of tentative hickeys the Titan had apparently felt brave enough to leave imprinted on her.  

The eyes in her belly were just beginning to burn.

“You wanna conserve water and hop in the shower with me?” Jinx offered, as she started a rather languid stretching routine.   

The Titan shook her head; “We do have other responsibilities to get to today,” she dismissed, easily spotting Jinx’s pointedly thinly veiled invitation.

Happy enough, Jinx slid off the bed and grabbed a hoodie hanging on the back of her easel.

After shrugging it on, she walked back to Raven and leaned closer.

It took Raven a moment to bridge the gap for the kiss; Jinx quickly added a second bestowment of affection to the gem on her brow, as way of apology for forgetting about the Titan’s likely-entirely sore jaw and tongue.   

“Thank you?” she murmured, her amusement and affection confusing the question.

Raven snorted; seemingly content with that as their answer.

Jinx broke away to head down the hall.

Still need to get Cyborg to fix me my bathroom , she sighed.

She passed by Starfire, who greeted her happily as they crossed paths; Jinx shoved her tongue to the pocket of her cheek as she smirked, to keep herself from gossiping with the girl about her newfound good mood.  

After bidding the Tamaranian farewell, the baby in her belly stirred somewhat, causing Jinx to place a hand to her stomach.

“Wait ‘till I get there first,” she muttered, bracing herself for the bout of nausea.  

The warm water of the shower seemed to do the trick of both cleansing her skin and re-lulling the baby back into a state that didn’t leave her feeling in need of kneeling before a porcelain throne for minutes on end.

By the time Jinx was washed and back to her room to get properly dressed, Raven was deconstructing the bed. Jinx was surprised that by the light of day, there seemed to have been a lot less of the red stains than she’d been expecting; they had hardly even soaked into the mattress.

“You got it?” Jinx asked, as she watched Raven manhandle the fitted sheets into submission.

Raven grunted, assuring Jinx that the Titan did indeed, have it well enough.

“I’m gonna’ grab some chow then,” Jinx deflected, waving a hand gesturing.

Raven paused her assault on the bedware long enough to place a hand along her arm, steadying herself, as she leaned over to kiss her cheek.

Jinx was a little surprised to feel a staticy sort of awareness along her arm where the Titan had briefly touched; her aura it seemed, was still a little hypereceptive.

In the common room, Jinx greeted the Titans warmly; they reciprocated with some amount of relief and excitement.

Jinx allowed herself to be swept more fully into the team’s metaphorical embrace, as she had in the first few weeks of joining the Tower.

Her body still a little too tingly for actual embracing, she politely kept herself a literal arms length for the remainder of the day; the kids were a little disappointed for the lack of snuggling hugs from her, but were familiar enough with her bouts of nausea not to question it.

Raven also seemed to be at arm's length, if not farther.

The empath spent most of the day in her own room, assuredly meditating whatever restraints and moral reasonings she needed to rebalance herself after their proclivities; the thought brought a special sort of smile to Jinx.

Not that she enjoyed Raven’s need to keep herself well composed at all times, but the thought that the girl had ‘loosened up’ enough for her that she’d needed to reverse it by some measure, colored her overall feelings of the matter a certain shade of fondness.

In the moments Raven did grace them all with her presence, Jinx pressed honeyed teas and hot waters into her hands, and quickly answered for the Titan when addressed, so that her sore jaw might heal a little faster, which the hooded girl seemed grateful for.

The evening passed under the excitement of new movie for the children to watch, and an added delight of assisting Cyborg in crafting a letter for his intended college, garnering after a sports scholarship for a ‘Victor Stone’. Jinx drew up some old files from his brief stint at the Hive to help fudge the facts enough to give him a fighting chance for an answering letter.  

Over the next few days, Jinx and the Titans grew content with their newfound equilibrium; it was easier she found, to forgive them their follying footsteps, as their genuine sentiments and good intentions seemed sickeningly sweet under her renewed and metaphorical rosetinted lenses.

Raven seemed to approve of her efforts over the course of the next few days, but seemed stuck within her withdrawn state, which worried Jinx slightly.

At first, she simply assumed their fun had resulted in a little more meditation than Jinx originally figured; but m ore and more, Jinx began replaying their interactions over within her head, scouring for a justification that she simply couldn't find.

The feelings started to compound with her anxiousness over the baby, until she was undeniably concerned. 

 

She messaged Red-X about it a few times, but with as little of the details as he had on the situation, none of his advice seemed particularly helpful. 

After about a week of such fruitless thought exercises and failed attempts to entice Raven back out into a context of social gathering, she was ready to admit defeat.

She leaned back against the counter, lost in such thoughts when a hand tapped her shoulder.

Jinx looked beside her to see Robin watching her curiously, as the children played with Beast Boy’s animal forms nearer to the couch.

“Something on your mind?” he asked; his gentle resolution steady.

Jinx swirled the hot water in her mug idly as she thought, quickly realizing that her other hand had drifted to her stomach.

Eager to rush to her own defense, she withdrew the hand and waved it dismissively.

Robin tilted his head slightly, pressing further; it reminded Jinx that the resemblance the boy occasionally held to her partner was a little bit uncanny.

Sighing, Jinx broke; “It’s Raven.”

“Oh?” Robin asked casually; he folded his arms and leaned against the counter himself, readying for a long conversation.

“She’s worried about something,” Jinx explained, gripping her mug tighter; “Normally she tells me everything.”

“Everything?” the boy asked, surprise and curiosity equal in his annunciation.

Jinx shrugged; “Everything I can’t already tell, at least. I tend to notice a lot,” she amended.

Jinx took a sip from her mug, worry still lacing her face; concerned, Robin ushered her to the barstools and waited for her to get situated before sitting himself.   

“Any idea what’s she’s upset about?” he asked gently, the corners of his mask not quite sitting right.

Jinx set her mug on the bar and bit her lip as she thought.

“It’s something she doesn’t know how to fix, or else she would have fixed it in the first place,” she reasoned, eyeing over the logic inside her mind; “If it were something to do with me, she’d talk to me about it. If it was something about her, she’d definitely come to me about it, which means it’s about something she’s too worried to share with me, and that can only be so many things…”

"Sounds like a good start," he prodded. 

"We... well. I'm sure you heard us, the other night," she stated flatly, a little hot under her collar necklace; "Sorry if um, we disturbed anybody by the way."

"We're teenagers, it happens," the boy dismissed jovially, smirking.

Jinx returned it with a partial smile of her own before allowing the moment to return to seriousness. 

"It was a little too dark for her, maybe?"

"Maybe?"

Jinx bit her lip.

"I asked her to, so. It shouldn't be that she feels guilty about forcing me or anything, so I can only assume that she feels gross maybe, for not enjoying it herself? Which, would be pretty upsetting for me, actually."

Robin mulled the idea over, his face attempting to remain passive as he thought. 

"But the thing is, she was all happy and stuff at the end of it? Like, not be more graphic than I already am but. She was all like, really cuddly and shit. It was kinda cute, actually." 

"In a strictly platonic fashion," Robin added, "I can confirm that Raven is very into cuddling."

A smile broke across Jinx's face; not as his declaration, but at the gifted memory of Raven had made out with his girlfriend in his lap. 

She wondered mirthfully, what color of red the boy's face would reach if she enlightened him on her knowledge of the state of her girlfriend's affairs. 

The recollection also brought back other memories, darker ones, from that night she'd learned of them.

Seeing her face fall, Robin's smile vanished. 

"I um, kinda really scared her, back on the roadtrip?" she admitted.

At this, the boy's attention keyed in a little differently than it had been, noticeable by the tell-tale quirk of the boy's nostrils when he sensed an approaching metaphorical clue; she would have told him the trait was an apparent family one, had she felt the inclination to tell him anything at all about her stint in his mentor's house, which she didn't.

"She um, was being sweet. Really sweet. And, well..." she trailed, as she decided how best to summarise the events without him accusing her of slandering one of his best friends; "I wasn't initially comfortable, with kinda stuff, and it took her a bit to figure out that being nice was the thing I wasn't okay with, and she's been real scared about crossing whatever boundary she made for that, I think."   

Robin's brows knit. 

"I mean, it's... different now?" she added quickly, her pitch a little rushed; "I'm not as against the idea of it, as I was back then at least."  

"Have you tried talking to her about it?"

"I mean, if that is the problem she's having, I wouldn't necessarily need to do any talking," she teased, prompting him to huff; "But I haven't because... well, what if it isn't that? What if it's not 'us' she's worried about?" she asked rhetorically, air-quoting for emphasis.  

Jinx’s hands fell to her abdomen; Robin's gaze tracked the movement instantly. 

“There’s no swell yet,” she murmured, her thoughts creeping slowly under the weight of breaking dams; “My body isn’t doing any of the things it should; shouldn’t I’ve started to be fat and sore by now? I don’t know why, but I know I’m waiting to feel the baby leech the lifeforce out of me or something; I haven't even felt anything I could label as ‘solid’ yet. -I mean I can feel something there, ‘cause it gets like, magicly dense? But, that’s not enough, I think.”

She looked from her mug to Robin, his face thick with concentration and concern.

“This might be out of our field,” he stated cautiously; he rubbed his chin as he thought, “The WatchTower has some better equipment and people to run it that might be more helpful,” he offered.

Jinx wrapped her hands around her mug as she thought it over.

“I know there’s some… history, between you all,” she broached, holding her mug tighter; “But if it’s for the baby, I’ll go.”

Robin nodded; “I’ll give them a call. Hopefully, we can set something up as soon as possible.”

At Jinx’s worried frown, the boy placed a hand to her shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” he soothed, “There’s a lot of good people at the League. The best even, so if anyone can help, it’ll be one of them.”

“Like Wonder Woman?” asked an awed voice from beside them; instantly Jinx felt a mortal fear for how much the boy might've overheard before Robin's calm demeanor soothed her nerves somewhat .

It was probably fine then, she thought. 

Jinx quickly looked over to see Timmy rapt with attention.

“Yeah, like Wonder Woman,” Robin answered happily.

The young boy gasped in excitement.

“Cann’I go too?” he asked, as he shook his hands to alieve himself of some of his exuberance.

“I want to go if he’s going,” Melvin insisted boldly, from where she stood by the couch, her little arms crossed.                

“I mean, I guess, right?” she asked Robin quietly.

He nodded, smiling indulgently.

Jinx turned back to the kids.

“Alright, if you promise to be very good, we’ll take you to meet Wonder Woman,” she promised.

The children went frantic with youthful glee.

“I’ll break the news to Raven,” Robin offered, as he eyed the bouncing children before turning to her; he leaned in closer to keep their other conversation private.

"I'll leave it up to you talk with her about the other possibilities," he continued.  

“Deal,” she muttered, a she got up to corral the Tots.

 

 

---

 

 

Raven tried to keep perfectly still; her body had since rejuvenated from the excess… stress , she’d put it through those few days ago, though her voice still felt a little too ‘raspy’ to be considered normal.

Her posture was rather to mind her self, swirling around in the potential of internal debate.

Robin’s news hadn’t surprised her, exactly.

It would have happened sooner or later.

I wish we had gotten more time...  

I was too withdrawn-

What was she supposed to think?

I knew I wasn’t capable of doing this alone…

She blinked to quiet her circling thoughts.

“Do you think the baby’s okay?” Jinx asked, the taste of her fear overshadowed by her want to conceal it.

“I’m reasonably certain that things are alright; for now at least,” Knowedgle replied; “I won’t refuse getting a second opinion on the matter however, if you think it best.”  

“Are you upset?” Jinx asked, as she watched her.

Cloying, clever eyes , Raven mused, partially disgusted with herself.

“I’m… withholding judgment on it,” she offered, letting herself fall the few inches out of the air to land on her bed.

Jinx nodded, likely taking it for the optimal of probable solutions.

Raven tried not to taste the myriad of emotions dancing throughout Jinx’s being; filling as it was, it felt too intimate of a transgression.

“There’s… something I wanna’ talk to you about.”  

Jinx repositioned herself under the overhang, the shadows casting a stark contrast across her face; the pulsing vibrancy of her energy pushed a glow to her favored’s eyes.

“I’m not upset about what we did, if that’s what you’re inferring,” Raven replied, her defensives a little thick; “At least, not… quite.”

“I thought as much,” Jinx answered, her eyes shutting slowly, to re-open even slower.

There was a brief smile that danced across her features, before Jinx allowed it to dissipate.

“I just want you to know I appreciate it? You;” Jinx clarified, shifting, leaning closer; “You know that I was cool with whatever you wanted to do, there’s no way you woulda’ reacted like that if you hadn’t felt how into it I was.”

Happiness bit her lip as Bravery rolled around Knowledge’s words around her tongue.

“I wanted to make you happy,” Honesty murmured.

Jinx propped herself up on Raven’s thighs, smiling.

“You did,” Jinx replied, cherry-soda wafting through her aura.

Jinx’s kiss was soft, and a sour note permeated through it, catching her attention.

Raven drew back, all of her self, acting wary.   

“You know that I don’t like it when you lie to me, Babe,” Jinx whispered; sending Timid to bite her own lip in reflex.

“When I was talkn’ to Robin earlier, I realized some things,” the hexcastor continued, "So, if you’re not upset about junior, that only leaves two things you could be worried about. -Both of which I could fix for you, if you let me.”

Raven worked her jaw around to prevent Rage from coiling a sneer over her face.

“Are you implying I’m in need of fixing, Jinx?” she asked, perhaps with a bit too much inflection.

Jinx snorted.

“You did get me all teen-pregnant so I’d say ‘fixing’ is out of the ballpark now, Sweetie,” she teased, the warmth soothing over Rage’s ruffled feathers.

Jinx shook her head, still smiling before shooting her a placating grin.

“Your… empathy, is really strong, huh?” Jinx asked softly.

Raven’s lip split a little, from the pressure of the incisor pressing into it.

“Yes,” she deflated, sensing an ensuing headache.

Jinx struggled with what she apparently wanted to say for a moment, allowing Raven a few seconds to stew in her internally fracticaled self.

“...I want to help you feel better,” Jinx broached, slowly, as if Raven was likely to backpedal and dissipate into the darkness.

Jinx leaned forward again, slowly, to place a hand against her cheek.

Her body blushed, the emotion too fleeting for Raven to trace, for her preoccupation with Anxiety.

At seeing whatever was expressed on her face, Jinx pressed her fingertips a little more purposefully against her.

“Let me try something, okay?”

The command, so simple, worked Raven’s self into an overdrive.

The soft, unbruising kiss contradicted everything Jinx had resisted her for.

And yet, Raven couldn’t bear to tear herself away; she tried ignoring the emotions rioting around her chest by focusing only on Jinx, and the way she felt like candy floss and corn syrup.

Jinx’s hands littered light caresses and softer fondlings, but it was the sweetness dripping from her pores that elicited her body to react; she followed carefully, too Terrified to break whatever shard of notion Jinx was refracting off.

A lot of her wanted to interact more directly; to reciprocate Jinx’s ministrations and roving assurances, but Memory was quick with blurry visions of Jinx’s harrowed reactions back on the debugged hotel bed all those nights ago.

“I got you,” Jinx murmured, over and over; Jinx’s wafts of stagefright did little to convince her that the girl fully believed in herself.

Yet, Raven wanted to believe her.

There was a comfort, she sensed, within the blooming contridiction. 

The Knowledge of it sent a painful throng of Longing throughout her body, strong enough to somewhat stifle the sounds of her troubled psyche.

There was only the moment, and feeling of Jinx trying her best to practice Favor.

It was strange, allowing the girl to slide on top of her Raven felt; paying as little attention to her self as possible however, meant Timid had full control to her body, squirming and bending under Jinx’s strengthing guidance.

Too Timid to be Happy, her body quickly slithered into Lust.

Jinx couldn’t taste her Helplessness, nor her Hope; but the way the girl started to smile and pour lilting words into her ear, Raven was sure that Jinx was still happily consuming it.

Jinx undressed her, lavishing her with audible and physical compliments between each layer newly shed; Jinx left her with her hands tangled in her shirt, her arms stretched above her head.

Jinx smiled at her when she was finally exposed, her shoulders set with pride.

Raven found it hard to look at her directly, for how hot her face flushed.

“You want me to strip too?” Jinx asked quietly, a note of seriousness in her question.

Unable to speak, Lust nodded.

She was captivated as Jinx hoisted off her own garments; there was something fascinating about the way the girl’s muscles all moved liked the well-oiled cogs in her mechanical friend’s devices that she found equally mesmerizing.

Jinx radiated her enjoyment, from catching her stare.

She nuzzled into her, the smell of her peach-apple fondness seeping deep into Raven’s soul.

“‘Come ‘ere,” Jinx murmured into her ear, her breath hot.

Raven rolled into her as Jinx pulled her closer, cradling her.

Jinx licked the shell of her ear, sending a wave of dizzying arousal through Raven’s bloodstream; Jinx chuckled when she shivered.                  

“It’s okay, Beautiful,” Jinx coddled; Happiness bubbled up memories of their past, reliving the moments when Jinx had tasted so equally cavalier.

Jinx’s kiss was tender and open-mouthed; a little too wet to be half as debonair as she had no doubt Jinx was intending it to be.

But it was gratifying in a way that sent the most torturous of needs within her.

Her gasps and simmering breaths spurred a giddy excitement from the girl molding her.

Unable to ascertain what she should do for the need in her core, Raven began to curl against her self until Jinx’s body rolled on top of her once more; her weight was equally far worse and far better a concern.

Jinx’s hand trailed between her legs, slowly rifling through her folds; she blinked and turned her head away to keep from emitting an embarrassing whine of need.

Jinx rolled her attention back, her smile eager and uncaring for her dignity.

She supposed it was fair game, after what she’d done to the girl.

Jinx hummed absently, as she slid a thumb from where it had been stroking her cheek, to press informatively against the indent of her lips.

She parted them, allowing Jinx to hook it inside her mouth.

Unable to look away from Jinx’s gaze, Raven worked over the digit with her tongue to keep from biting into it, for fear of breaking the one teather binding her.

“God you’re hot, you know that?” Jinx delighted; Raven’s vision started to swim, for how thickly saturated the air around them continued to hang.

Unable to tell Jinx’s desire from her own, her eyes squinted shut to better focus on the hand stroking her sex.

“Lemme’ know if this hurts, okay?” Jinx murmured, as her hand started to finger in more than along .     

Lust rolled her hips as much as Jinx’s weight would allow.

Jinx continued to hum, a distant sound far too close in Raven’s ears as Jinx broke it off to mouth around the area again.

Unable to keep still, Raven strained her fingers to find purchase in along her bedsheets, ripping a few runs into the delicate material.

“I don’t actually know if this’ll get you off, to be honest,” Jinx quipped, deeply enjoying her probing, stroking, fingers if the swirl of her emotions were anything to go by.

Raven set her teeth around Jinx’s thumb.

“But god, I could get used to this I think,” she continued, before breaking into another light huff of laughter.

The sentiment Jinx intended, was all too heavy around every inch of Raven’s skin for her to deny; a drowsy, hazed over Knowledge whispered loudly enough for her to know she agreed.

Lust started to tense up her body, far, far tighter, than she realized she could get.

“Love you,” Jinx purred.

Her synapses went haywire as her body convulsed.

The patterns of phosphenes were rapturous before her eyelids; her teeth grated against Jinx’s skin as she sucked the digit harder.

“Look at me,” Jinx ordered.

Her vision blurred, Jinx’s face loomed mystically above her, clouded by emotional security.

Jinx’s hand slipped from her mouth as she gasped for air, trailing a saliva-laced string along her lip.

The traces of their blood mingling on her lip was a sharp contrast to the soft flushedness of the hand working between her legs.

Raven tried not to blink as her body started to shut down; she’d ingrained far too many reflexes into her self to stave it off entirely, but Jinx stalled it for her with prolonged contact and her candy cloud of affection.

Jinx rolled them to their side, keeping her close as she continued to ride the waves her body quaked.

“We can do it this way whenever, if you want,” Jinx offered, running her fingers through Raven’s hair.

There was little she could do but bury her face into her, in response.

“I’ll… work on learning how to ‘take nice', too,” Jinx comminuted absently; “But this is good,” Jinx decreed, the emotion vibrant.

“This is good,” Jinx repeated, barely a murmur. 

Love sunk her teeth into Jinx’s shoulder.

Jinx resummed humming.      

Chapter 41

“You guys had a spaceship this entire time?” Jinx shrieked as craned her neck to take in the full scope of the T-Ship.

“Yep.” Cyborg chirped, pleased with his old handiwork; “Tower goes a lot farther down than you might think,” he informed her as he finished up his diagnostics, “Makes lots of room for things and activities.”

“You don’t say,” Jinx drawled, a little taken aback; her attention flickered as Robin brushed her elbow.

“The seating is going to be a little hectic,” the boy warned; “Raven said she’s splitting the kids between us to help with the weight balance. How’d you want to bunk up?”

Jinx exhaled steadily and thought it over as she eyed the mechanical marvel in front of her.

“Can I fly solo?” she asked, eyeing the pits as she brought her hand over her eyes to shield them from the fluorescent glare of the incredibly well-lit ceiling; “Prolly safer,” she muttered, as she weighed her desire to ride with Raven in her lap with the probabilities of her powers.  

Robin nodded; “I’ll tell Raven.”

The boy trekked off, his cape billowing slightly behind him.

It was a bit of an effort, cramming everyone inside and getting situated; the children were ecstatic, Jinx could easily see why Raven wanted them monitored individually.    

The takeoff was exciting, in a fun nerve-wracking kind of way; the tower ejected them at an incredible speed through the ocean’s surface and up into the sky.

“Up and away,” Robin quipped, over the intercom; the rumble of the rockets providing a unique backdrop to the audio.

“Up into the atmosphere,” Raven murmured playfully, before Melvin carried the tune; “Up where the air is clear!”

Teether barked something that could’ve been taken for ‘kite’, which brought a smile to Jinx’s face.

“I told ya’you’d like kids movies,” Jinx teased, as she waited for the zero-gravity to kick in.

There was a bit of radio chatter, as they entered the atmosphere; the other Titans were quick to rattle off numbers and parameters, assuring Cyborg that the trajectory was on point as they also went through an apparent routine of placating various organizations of air control.  

The children were delighted by the sights, and their exclamations of glee frequented the channels while their mentors tried to speak, causing some apparent confusion across the lines.

When they finally felt the effects of space, Jinx felt herself relax.

The channels across the ship went muted as everyone took a moment to appreciate the vastness of the universe around them.

Bird Boy’s 'prolly giving Mel a history lesson, she thought, as looked out at Earth; she hoped Raven was faring well on her ride with Starfire, maybe all that alien enthusiasm will do her good, she hoped.

She looked over the control panel in front of her.

Why does this thing look like it’s supposed to be in a submarine?

Putting the thought aside, she flicked a switch to ping Cyborg’s mic.

“Hey Pink Thing,” the mechanically enhanced Titan greeted.

“Hey Tin Man,” Jinx answered, shifting in her seat; “Talk to me.”

“Uh… About what?” he asked, the call clicking out reminiscently of airline audio.

“Anything,” Jinx answered; “I’m tryn’na’ to freak out about the whole ‘walking into the league thing’, and I know that if I freak out, it’s only gonna’ freak Raven out, and she really doesn’t need that right now.”

“Rodger,” Cyborg accepted; Jinx watched the little lightbulb fade as his call clicked out and breathed a little easier.

“Well,” the boy began after a moment, the little light flicking on again, “This lil’ tyke is doin’ all right. Hasn’t tried to eat my ship yet so, I’d say things are going pretty well.”

“Life’s little victories,” Jinx shot back, eager to focus on anything else in front of her but the approaching moon.

“Tell me about it,” he joked; “Hey, you see that blue button, up near your head on the lefthand side? Can you press that for me.”

“Sure,” Jinx agreed; it took her a moment to pick it out from the other buttons and switches overcrowding the overhang console.

“What that do?” she asked.

“Oh, just turns off the artillery. BB’s havin’ some trouble keepin’ Timmy underhand. -I’d turned everything off in his pod but, you know. Better safe than sorry,” Cyborg explained.

Jinx had little trouble picturing just how out of hand the little boy could get.

“Good call,” she agreed; “How’s our welcoming committee looking?”

“Uh, they’ve got a line with Robin to keep our course steady,” he answered; “Sounded like Hawkwoman.”

“Did you guys like, tell them I’m on best behavior?” Jinx asked, as the reality of the situation started to stir up her nerves.

“They shouldn’t have any idea who you are, and we’ll be with you so,” Cyborg trailed, his attention a little displaced.

Jinx sighed and tried to lean back in her chair as she watched the WatchTower come into view.

“You sound upset about that,” Cyborg noted.

“I could be a god,” Jinx mourned; “If I was evil right now I could topple the base and everyone in it and I’d be absolutely legendary.”

A low, lilting laugh rippled over the intercom relays, dusting Jinx’s cheeks a deeper pink.

“Get out of my DM’s, woman!” Jinx yelped.

“You’re the one who left their mic open,” Raven countered; “If it helps, I’m sure you’ll become plenty ‘legendary’, once they find out what’s going on.”       

“Also,” Melvin insisted, furthering Jinx’s embarrassment, “Wonder Woman would stop you.”  

Jinx fought down an irrational urge to prove her superiority over the woman to the girl, choosing instead to focus on steadying her breath.

“But who would win in a fight between Wonder Woman and Superman?” Raven asked, seemingly content to let Jinx squirm in her own emotions.

“Superman only fights badguys,” Timmy insisted.

“Yeah, but if they did fight,” Beast Boy argued, “Superman would totally win.”

“Nuh-uh,” Timmy countered.

“Yeah-huh!” Beast Boy retorted.

“ Nuh -uh!”

“Yeah -huh !”

“I think Batman would win,” Melvin interrupted, “‘Cause he ‘prolly started it.”

“It doesn’t matter who starts the battle,” Starfire supplied, “Only whomst finishes it.”

“Nobody’s fighting anybody,” Robin stated firmly; “Let’s all try not to get kicked out before we get into the door, okay?”

“I make no promises,” Jinx teased.

The WatchTower’s hanger was immense.

As Jinx corralled her motion sickness enough to take in the scope of it, she almost wanted to throw up just to pay tribute its inability to be fully taken in at first glance.

“So glad you could make it!” greeted a voice, catching Jinx’s surprise.

The Flash whipped into view before them, poised with confidence and flippant curiosity.

“Sorry about the short notice,” Robin answered, as he hopped off the last rung of his pod ladder; he walked over to join the rest of the group, Timmy quickly taking hold of his hand.

The Flash looked over their apparently strange entourage.

“The kids wanted to meet Wonder Woman, if she has a minute,” Robin stated; the Flash nodded before zooming off, only to reappear within the second.

“She’ll be here,” he answered, before placing his hands on his knees; “In the meantime, who’s happy to meet The Flash, ” he gloated.

Curious, Timmy eyed the man’s colorful costume for a moment before smiling.

“Thatta’boy,” Flash commended, ruffling his hair.

“Don’t let him get started,” a feminine voice warned, “He’ll talk about himself all day if you let him,” Zatanna warned happily as she walked in, Batman in tow.

At the sight of his old mentor, Jinx cast Robin a sideglance, noting the way he’d tensed up; Raven had also taken apparent note of it, as she moved to stand closer beside him.

The tension melted from his hands, from what Jinx could tell; though some still lingered in his shoulders.

Jinx turned to look back at Timmy, who was now being carted around Flash’s shoulders.

“While I’m sure we’re all glad you’re here,” Zatanna addressed, clapping her hands together, “How about we actually invite our guests inside before they catch their deaths in this dusty hanger?”

She motioned for everyone to follow her, quickly ushering everyone through a door and into an adjacent corridor.

Jinx was thankful for the shift to a normal room temperature.

“So, what is it that we can do for you?” Zatanna asked.

“The kids were hoping for a tour,” Robin stated, his eyes steadily ignoring his mentor; “And the girls… have some other issues to discuss.”

“Just me, really,” Jinx interrupted, casting a look over to her partner and then to the Tamaranian on Robin’s right; “They can do whatever.”

Sensing the note of underlying sensitivity, Zatanna nodded; “Let’s head over to the Comm room and go from there,” she decided, as she glanced at the Batman.

Obediently, the Titans followed the League members to their main room of operations; Jinx was glad she wasn’t the only one taken aback by the setup.

The large monitors, the larger windows, the ambiance; it was all impossibly grand, in architecturally judicial sort of way.

Jinx could only agree with the whistle Beast Boy gave.

The inhabitants of the room paused to take note of them; Jinx was thankful that the Hive had taught her not to fidget under scrutiny.

“Hawkwoman, Wonder Woman, Manhunter, Superman, Green Lantern,” Zatanna rattled off, each of the members waving or nodding in turn.

The kids immediately rushed towards them, questions and exclamations pouring out of their lips; Jinx moved to stop them, but Zatanna waved her off, a smile on her lips.

“It’s fine, trust me,” she insisted, “They’ll be glad for the break.”

Jinx stepped back; the other Titans started to creep forth as well, a little less brave than the younger children, though no equally less excited.

Jinx watched them start to intermingle with some level of relief; her nerves had done little else to steady themselves, however.

She watched Robin say something to Zatanna; the woman’s smile vanished as she nodded grimly before looking at her.

Recognizing a summons when she saw one, Jinx approached.

“I’ll take you to the medbay,” she informed her steadily, “We’ll help you figure things out from there.”

 

---

“So I’m pregnant, just jot that down to start,” Jinx began, after hopping onto the offered exam chair.

“Congratulations,” Manhunter offered; “But that’s hardly in our jurisdiction.”

“It was magically induced, accidentally,” Jinx continued, as Raven leaned against the back wall beside Robin; Jinx tried not to notice how Batman was observing them all.

“Like a curse?” Zatanna asked, as she eyed Jinx over.

“It was… um, a happy accident?” Jinx wavered, shrugging as she tried to think of how best to explain everything; “Anyway, it’s not human and I’m worried about it being healthy and whatever.”

“What kind of baby is it?” Batman asked; something about his tone made Jinx feel like he was already piecing her life story together.

Jinx decided to lay out all the cards to keep him from gluing it together all wrong; “Raven’s,” Jinx answered happily.

Seeing the stunned and confused faces of the League members, Jinx smiled; in her peripheral, Jinx could see her partner start to pale.

“How… did you two meet,” Zatanna quickly recovered, catching her composure.

Jinx’s grin broadened as Raven lifted a pleading hand.

“Prison,” she supplied innocuous as across the room, Raven defeatedly buried her face in her hands.

“Okay, so,” Zatanna began, rubbing her brow, “We have a grandchild of Trigon…”

“We better call Constantine,” Batman warned.

She nodded and the man stepped aside to page the sorcerer.      

“In the meantime, I can run a few diagnostic spells,” Zatanna offered; “Did you just want to see how the… baby is growing?”

Jinx nodded.

“Alright, hold still,” Zatanna stated, as she straightened her posture; “J’onn, if you could tell us if you sense anything, that might be helpful?”

The woman mumbled something incoherent and a glow started to emanate from her magic stick.  

The Martian gave what could have been classified as a responsive nod and stared intently at Jinx and her stomach; Jinx fixed her posture and focused on nothing in particular as Zatanna fished out her wand.

“So what’s going on?” Constantine asked as he walked in; Jinx looked at his distressed coat and half-bedraggled appearance and wondered if perhaps the man was the one in need of a checkup.

“I got knocked up by a half-demon and the baby hasn’t started eating me alive yet,” Jinx replied absently before smirking; “I told you we didn’t do it right,” she tossed at Raven, who was still fighting through her embarrassment.

Jinx only wished she’d packed a camera to capture the looks the girl was getting from the league members; her heart felt a little lighter for the spectacle.

“Okay… so it’s going to be one of these days,” the man muttered, fixing his collar.

“I found something odd,” Zatanna declared; Jinx’s attention turned to the little yellow glow at the end of the woman’s wand, her body stiffened.

“What is it?” Batman asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” the magician mumbled; “J’onn?”

“I can sense it’s awareness,” the Martian stated evenly; “There’s some interference when I try to observe it directly.”

“Jinx’s powers interfere with probability,” Raven offered; looking a bit more put together.

“Your mind also is resistant to my abilities,” J’onn replied; “Perhaps it’s a family trait.”

“Actually, that makes me want to try something,” Zatanna said, tapping her palm; “If everyone could wait out in the hall for a minute? -Raven, you stay.”

“In, out,” Constantine muttered as Batman held the door for everyone’s departure.

Robin paused long enough to give Raven an encouraging smile, and nodded at Jinx as he passed; he ducked quickly past his mentor, the door slowly shutting behind them.

“Alright, Raven? If you could stand here a moment…” Zatanna asked as she resumed her focus.

The Titan’s presence at her side took the edge of the room’s chill out of Jinx; she calmed as Raven’s fingers quietly found her own.     

The woman stated her jumbled phrase again, igniting another spark around her wand; it reminded Jinx a bit of the metal detector wands that the guards usually carried back at her jailhouse.

She half expected it to ‘ding’ over her carried weapons or pick up residual residue of narcotics wedged inside her clothes.

Zatanna’s face deepened in thought; nearly scowling.

Raven’s fingers gripped Jinx’s hand tighter.

“Alright,” Zatanna stated, her wand light dimming; “If you could wait outside a moment, and send Constantine in?”

Raven looked concerned, but obediently detangled herself; Jinx gave her hand a parting squeeze of reassurance before the Titan slipped out through the door.

The man trudged in a few seconds after, looking a little more alert; he approached them with a dull curiosity on his face.

“Watch this,” Zatanna instructed, repeating the wand-light procedure.

“I’m watching,” he replied, as he studied the wand-light.

“Now, grab Raven again,” she instructed.  

He huffed through his nose and stepped out through the door, gesturing for the Titan to return.

Once Raven was once again situated beside Jinx, and the magician’s wand lit, Constantine's look changed from bored-curiosity, to puzzled amazement.

“You’re seeing this too, right?” the woman asked.

The man nodded.

“What?” Jinx asked; her anxiety sending a fidget through her nerve-endings.

Zatanna pressed her wand out of existence through her palms, clapping; “It appears to be a symbiotic bond, between your powers,” the magician began.

“I don’t know if ‘symbiotic’ is the word,” Constantine amended, rubbing his chin; “Parasitic, maybe.”

“-But not badly so,” Zatanna interjected quickly; “So much as a shift in intermagical dynamics.”

Constantine tapped Raven’s cloak pendant thrice, a loose smile on his lip.

“You’ve got what’s essentially a blackhole inside you,” he explained, as Raven reflexively pulled back from the man’s hand; “You seem to be sucking up all her energy bleed.”

Raven tilted her head, processing the information as Jinx was struggling to; her hand reached for the pendant dangling from her choker.

“Yes, that overflow module was probably some pretty good quick thinking,” Zatanna noted, eyeing the fake stone; “Your mainline synergy seems connected to it in a feedback loop,” she continued, her tone impressed, “Very efficient; the baby doesn’t seem to be intercepting your powers at all.”

“So what is the baby drawing from?” Jinx asked.

Zatanna’s smile faltered; the woman shared a glance with Constantine, who rubbed his chin again before taking another look at the teens.

“Not to be nosy, but I gotta’ ask,” he prefaced, placing his hands on hips; “How did you two do it?”      

“Well, when a mommy and another mommy love each other very much-” Jinx quipped sarcastically, only to be interrupted by a light smack of Raven’s hand to her arm.

“ Behave ,” Raven stressed.

“I haven’t ever behaved once in my life and I don’t intend to start now,” Jinx retorted, her grin returning; “We fucked on my prison cell floor,” Jinx clarified happily, “But we didn’t use our bodies -Raven’s soulmagic did all the funky stuff.”

“...Soul magic, huh?” Zatanna mused, tapping her cheek; “You kids nowadays never cease to amaze me.”

“This is why we need a magic school,” the man mumbled, sighing; he straightened himself up and shoved a hand in his pocket.

“Can you show us your soulself, please?” he asked Raven.

The room lost light, though no bulb dimmed, as Raven’s black magic billowed out from half of her body; it creeped out around itself to form an intangible shadow alongside Raven’s body.

Jinx yipped, her hands flying to her stomach.

At the adult’s inquisitive glances, Jinx lifted up her hoodie.

Four red eyes, embellished her skin.

“So it’s alive,” Constantine stated.

“That’s a good start,” Zatanna furthered.

“...Sure,” the man replied.

“Alright,” Zatanna stated loudly, invigorating herself; “Constantine, show Raven to the control room and get the team back in here, we have some mysteries to solve.”

Jinx watched Raven’s exit with some amount of trepidation; Zatanna’s concerned but placating smile was but a small comfort as she began conjuring up tools and supplies for whatever magical purposes she had in mind.

Constantine pulled what looked like a bottle of ant-acid from one of his large coat pockets and downed a colorful looking chalky tablet, prompting Jinx to wonder if her powers were kicking up the man’s digestive tract in some manner.

“Can I ask something personal?” Zatanna asked some moments later, as she organized her procured items on a tray.

“Shoot.”

“...Are you alright?” the magician asked carefully.

“With what?”

Zatanna paused, a vial clutched in her hands; “Raven. Raven’s baby,” she asked, clearly fretting about sensitivity.

Jinx offered a smile she reserved for first-period math professors.

“I know you guys ‘prolly think she’s ‘creepy’ or whatever,” she explained, miming the paraphrase, “But I grew up with way weirder shit. So she can walk through walls and shapeshift a bit, so what? She’s goodguy for Christ’s sakes; I don’t know how many times she has to save the world before you lot trust her but. I’m literally turning over a new leaf to play house with her so, yeah, I’m good I think.”

Zatanna waved her hands placatingly, embarrassed for the conversational path.

“I figured as much, I’m sorry,” she replied quickly, her hat slipping a smidge; “I just wanted to be sure you aren’t doing any of this because you feel you have to is all. -We have rules about proper etiquette with the villains in our charge, and I just wanted to clarify that you’re okay, after you mentioned the bit about prison.”

Jinx swallowed the morsel of understanding; logging Raven's 'breach of conduct'  away for later. 

“Is it true you convinced Batman not to help Raven when she was like, ten, and came to you guys for help?”

“ What ?” Zatanna yipped, taken aback.

“She thinks you guys hate her, or something,” Jinx explained curtly, “Which is bullshit ‘cause rumor has it Smiles over here is possessed by a demon and that was like, his choice .”

“We don’t hate Raven,” Constantine dismissed flatly, as he poured a bottle of an iridescent blue substance in a line on the floor; “Be honored to work with her, things considered.”

“-At the time, we didn’t think Trigon as the ‘family’ sort,” Zatanna explained, “We were all very much surprised by her report and she left before we’d come to any conclusion of how to proceed. We… weren't very good with kids at the time, admittedly. And after the fiasco of it all, we thought it’d put less stress on her to let her have her space.”

“So you guys didn’t abandon her, or anything?” Jinx pressed.

“We reached out on occasion, as we do with all the Titans,” Zatanna answered plainly; “She was, until recently, very averse to socializing, which we tried to respect; but there isn’t a day that doesn’t go by, that I wish that things had gone differently.”

“Zanny’s been hopin’ for Raven to come round to being a proper apprentice,” Constantine supplied, popping another chalk tablet.

Jinx’s eyes widened a bit.

“Unfortunately, she takes my offers as personal attacks, everytime I ask,” the woman mourned; “-But this conversation is neither here nor there. Right now, we have a baby to focus on.”

“Wyld,” Jinx corrected.      

“Oh?” Zatanna asked, amusement once again doting her face.

“Yeah,” Jinx answered, offering a contented smile of her own; “Obviously she’s not like, cemented yet, which is why I’m here but. Pretty sure that’s who they’ll be.”

“What’s the civilian name?” Constantine asked, perking up.

Jinx pursed her lips, debating the nuance of ‘Castor’ and ‘Roth’.

“‘Angela Castor’ sounds like someone I’d smack for being pretentious in gradeschool,” Jinx mused, thinking; “So maybe something like ‘Karma Roth’?”

“That could be something,” Zatanna agreed.

Their banter was cut short as the Martian Manhunter and a slightly confused looking John Stewart stepped in, Doctor Fate with his helmet at their heels.   

 

---

 

“You neglected to mention this, when you were at the Cave,” Batman toned.

Some semblance of Rage kept Timid from hunching her into her shoulders; her lack of visceral reaction did little to quell the burning curiosities around the room.

“It did not seem pertinent to tell you, at the time,” Sloth replied, surprising her.

The man did not look amused; the other League staff however, all held far greater spectrums of reaction.

“-Wait, she’s been to the Batcave?” Flash asked incredulously, zipping over, “Is she another one of in your collection of Batkids?”  

“Children aren't toys,” Batman circumvented, dodging the question with blatant dismissal; “Parenting isn’t something to take lightly.”

“Which is why we’re here,” Raven replied, Knowledge lifting her chin, “We’ve done just fine with Melvin and boys, so it’s not a matter of our aptitude your questioning, but our morality for taking responsibility of our decisions.”

“All of you are still kids yourselves,” Hawkwoman replied from her chair, a hand against her cheek; she waved her mace around lazily, “This is like Billy Batson all over again.”

“...Um, hate to be the one to bring it up but, we’re all thinking about that Trigon guy, right?” Flash continued, as he dashed throughout the room to take in people’s reactions; “Is he dead or what?”

“I dispatched him from Earth,” Raven stated flatly, “He’s contained.”

The other League members looked at her somberly, as the faces of her friends grew melancholy with the bittersweet relief of the event.    

“So you aren’t worried that this ‘baby’ isn’t another form of ruse for Trigon to renter this domain?” Batman asked, sour with sincerity.

Raven fought Rage’s urge to scowl.

“I said I took care of him,” she replied sternly; Bravery folding her arms in assuredness; “Believe me when I tell you that if he was up to something right now, I wouldn’t be in the dark about it.”

“So what’s to say that you’re not trying to take his place as the new ‘grand unholy emperor’ or whatever,” asked the redheaded Green Lantern.

“Not helping, Hal,” Hawkwoman warned.

Raven bit her tongue as Knowledge pressed through a few options of words before settling; “While I’m sure everyone here has ideas of what their ‘ideal worldstate’ would look like, neither Jinx or myself intend to use a literal fetus to commit war crimes.”

“What if Jinx plans to use the child against you?” Batman countered; “She may contend with rehabilitation for now, but what makes you think that she wouldn’t shape a young mind for her own benefit when the time is right?”

Before she could answer, Robin stepped closer, a hand raised; “Jinx has been largely responsible for the continued health and safety of most of the Hive Academy attendees during her durations there. Without her, Jump City would've looked like a Gotham in training,” he began, his voice firm, “She’s proven herself to be highly responsible and sympathetic to children and her peers. She’s chosen to reform herself for the benefit of not only her own child, but for the other three kids she’s taken in as well. She’s not Talia, Dad.”

The man’s gaze was impenetrable.

“Look, I’m not going to forsake her now, regardless of what she may decide to do in the future,” Raven deadpanned; “I’ll take care of it if it comes to that. Until then, I’d prefer to stray away from reinforcing everyone’s preconceived notions about her general character. She is my girlfriend and I have been raising my children with her.”

“So you’re our Mom too?” Melvin asked, her eyes large as she gripped the edges of her cape.

Raven’s face flushed at the slip, her self squabbling over the truth of the misstep.

“Momma!” Timmy cried, as he slipped out of Superman’s lap and raced over to glomp himself around her knees.

She steadied herself to keep from being bowled over and ruffled his hair.

“...We can talk about it,” she mumbled, her face still red.

“What about you though,” Superman asked, as he raised himself to stand; unintentionally impressive and upholding, “Children with superpowers are one thing,” he explained, as he gestured to the Tot Titans before looking back to her, “But partially demonic babies sound like a lot of work, comparatively. Are you going to up for this?”

“A baby conjured from the ethos with my father’s apathy and Jinx’s penchant with chance is probably going to be quite a handful, yes,” Raven agreed; “Just as Timmy’s ability to shatter eardrums is a handful, or Beast Boy’s inability to keep his room in a state that doesn’t resemble a biohazard, is a handful. I think I’m used to chaos, really.”         

Raven’s Mirth faded quickly as Timid pressed her teeth against her tongue; the pain-tinged magenta along her awareness. Above them all, the lights nearly flickered.

“I know… I’m not one to inspire a lot of confidence,” she admitted quietly, her hand petting absent strokes through Timmy’s hair, “But I’ve always done my best to be someone as removed from my origins as possible. I can’t guarantee that I won’t say something stupid to turn Jinx against me, or that my baby won’t eventually succumb to our family curse and disregard moralic constraint. I can’t even promise that one day I won’t… jump off the deep end, for whatever reason and commit every atrocity I'm terrified of enacting,” she mourned, “All I can tell you is that I try. As long as I’m in control of my mind, I will try.”

Sincerity, too raw and skinless in her eyes, pressed Raven’s lips together.

She hugged the boy at her legs closer, in attempt to temporarily blind herself to the other occupants of the room, intent on reinstating her composure.

Surprise lifted her head when a hand pressed warmly against her shoulder.

Timmy gasped, and stepped back; Raven couldn’t fault him, for seeing the splendor of the Amazonian so close.

Wonder Woman smiled, warmly.

“Don’t fret about our cynicism, sister. They’ve been in the game so long that they practically breathe in pessimism,” she quipped happily; her eyes seemed to twinkle with a glow that Raven had only ever seen in her deceased mentor, a kind of divine radiant light, that felt warm and bright even as it lacked any sort of taste.  

Wonder Woman knelt down, evening her stare with Raven’s own, making it suddenly quite difficult for Raven’s body to perform the routine function of breathing.

“I know what it’s like to battle a divine fight,” the Amazon empathized, “My fight with Ares seems always inevitable and unending, no matter how many times I stop him. Still, I fight, no matter who tells me the struggle is worthless, or how many times I hear that those I fight for do not deserve it. You struggle, every day against an Ares within yourself; you do not ask for this burden, but you never stop that fight. You believe in ultimate importance of justice and everything that is right, so you fight. And you hurt. And you’ve had to fight your battles on your own, because we’ve never been able to prove ourselves as worthy guides, so for that I am truly sorry,” Wonder Woman lamented, placing her other hand around Raven’s; “The gods blessed you with the chance to heal your family from the past. I believe that you can make that change into something beautiful. You are a wonderfully smart girl, Raven,” she continued, “Whatever may come, know that I and Themyscira will stand beside you.”

Trembling at the butterscotch cloud surrounding the woman in front of her, Raven bit her lower lip to stave off the droplets welling within her eyes.

As they fell down her cheek, the demigod’s face softened further.

Warm, sturdy arms that had lived through centuries of conflict enfolded her.

Reflex fought back her sobs, Timid too afraid to damage anything in the room.

Buried in the honeysuckle scent of Wonder Woman’s hair, the press of lukewarm metal armour against her uniform; Raven cried for the pervasive feeling of closure that she hadn’t realized she’d been waiting for.  

“-Who the fuck made my girlfriend cry?” Jinx burst, catching Raven’s final sob into a strangled, happy, sigh.         

Chapter 42

Raven watched her partially mechanical friend lift the worst patch of chipped asphalt from the road; he grunted as he did so, instilling within her the thought that it might have been prudent to offer to help him.

Her thoughts were interrupted however, when a vibration rippled through the jeans pocket at her hip; she’d nearly forgotten that she’d slipped her phone inside after procuring the garment from the Tower’s laundry room dryer.

Serves him right for not doing it himself, Happiness smugged; Robin almost always got distracted when doing his laundry, leaving his articles fair game as far she was concerned.

As the device continued to buzz and beep melodically at her, she fished it out and spotted the familiar digits on the front.

“Rachel here,” she answered cleanly.

“Hello Sweetie, it's your Aunt,” Alice greeted; “Is this a bad time?”

Raven glanced at the smoldering wreckage across the block; Robin and Jinx speaking intently with the cops, Beast Boy plowing the worst of the rubble to one side to let the emergency vehicles through, Starfire still hovering near the rescued civilians to keep them distracted, and to the tenuous tug-of-war her children were instigating as Timmy tried to keep Teether from eating the broken pipes jutting up from under the sidewalk.

“Now’s fine,” she answered, flicking a gesture to Robin; he nodded, allowing her the diversion.

“Great, wonderful,” Alice answered; “I hope your day hasn’t been too stressful,” her aunt began, “Though I’m sure the Lord wouldn’t send you anything you couldn’t handle.”

“It’s been normal enough,” she dismissed; eyeing the height along an unstable building that Melvin’s bear was climbing.     

“Glad to hear it,” Alice replied fondly; “It’s been a fine day here too, Mary-Beth had her recital today. I taped it to send you if you’d like to see it; I’ll have to get Jack to send it though, he’s better with these ‘apps’ than I am nowadays.”

“I’d be happy to,” Raven agreed, feeling a faint comfort of fondness relaxing through her body.

“Actually, there was one other thing I wanted to ask you about, if it’s alright,” her aunt probed; Raven nearly smiled.

The woman had gently needled her about several facts in the story she’d shared with her over their chats; she felt no surprise that her aunt would still have more questions to ask.

“As the coolkids say,” Raven stated, “Shoot.”

“I know your mother raised you in whatever denomination she was in,” Alice broached, “But have you and… Jinx, considered marriage at all?”

Raven’s warm bought of mirth receded.

“Aside from the… religious parts, there are legal benefits that you two might want to have, just in case? -I read on the webs that partners can have problems with legal issues, if they’re dating and one of them isn’t registered as a parent. You… might have some difficulty getting your name on the baby’s birth certificate, is what I’m worried about which could lead to some issues with picking them up from school. That and- Oh,” Alice startled, as sounds of indiscernible nature scuffled in the phone-static.

“Hey Pumpkin,” her uncle’s smooth, tiered voice greeted.

“Hey Uncle,” Raven returned, immensely grateful for the break in her aunt’s reasoning.

“Don’t worry about whatever happens, Rachel. Your Aunt and I will be here for you with whatever you need,” he soothed.

“Thanks,” she exhaled, her stasis a little ruffled.

“Whatever you decide is best for you, we’ll stand with you beside that,” he added heartfully; “Your aunt and I just wanted to bring up the topic, in case you and your girlfriend hadn’t thought about it. -I know it sounds like a scary thing, and it is a big decision, but it’s something between you and her, not us. We’ll help you out with whatever you need; I don’t know how you gals like to go about skirts and ties these days, but I got the tux I married your Aunt in, and she has her mom's wedding dress if you want ‘em. -If you wanted we could even book a venue down here. Make it a family thing.”  

“Thank you, Jack,” Raven managed, through the myriad of emotions now plying around her brain; “I’ll… have to talk with Jinx about it.”

“Of course. Let me know if you need any help picking rings or anything,” he added jovially.

“The rings I could manage,” she replied knowingly; “It’s.. everything else I’m not too sure of.”

“Like I said Pumpkin, anything you need you give us a call, alright?”

“Thanks Jack,” she adujrned, hanging up after his pleased hum.

She looked over the wreckage again, a little shaken.

Suddenly, she seemed far less sure of everything’s stability than she had been, moments before.

“Timmy! Get that thing out of your brother’s mouth this instant!” she barked, jolting everyone’s attention to her; “Melvin,” she warned, “Bobby better not be taking you where I think he is...”

 

---

“Never stops being busy ‘round this city, huh?” Beast Boy whined, as he slumped against the counter.

“Justice never sleeps,” Robin deadpanned, imitating his mentor.

“Neither does the criminal underbelly,” Jinx joked, “Insomnia is rampant in this generation.”

Robin cracked a smile before glancing over at Cyborg’s culinary escapade.

“What’s the poison today?” Jinx asked, eyeing the bowl of scratch-made dressing.

“Finishing up these ribs from the freezer,” he answered, cracking them out of the package.

“I’m gonna’ make tofu,” Beast Boy sighed.

Jinx watched him pull out the colorless, flavorless, block from the fridge and felt resignated enough to roll up her sleeves.

She grabbed the plate form his hands, startling him; “Gimmie that,” she hissed.

“Dude!” he screeched.

“I am not sitting by and watching you commit food crimes,” she explained, setting the plate on the counter.

“-I don’t eat meat,” he insisted loudly; Jinx swatted his hand away and then gripped the neck of his chicken form to keep him away from the bland affront to nature.

“I know. I’m going to make you some with like, actual flavor, calm down,” she dismissed.

Beast Boy didn’t seem convinced, but her tone was firm enough that he sat at the island to watch.

“If you were smart, you’d press this shit overnight but, we’ll just have to make do this time,” Jinx muttered, loud enough for the boys to hear; “Move over Tinny, I’m commandeering this brigandry,” she insisted, nudging Cyborg over to claim half of the stove top.

“Alright, let’s see what you can do,” he goaded, a sparkle in his eyes.

“Just watch me,” Jinx replied confidently; she pulled out a knife from the black and cut the tofu block into cubes.

“When did you learn to cook?” Robin asked, curiosity alit beneath his mask.

“Eh, HomeEc,” Jinx wavered as she stole two bowls from the stack Cyborg had stacked further down the counter; “Plus I mean, internet is a thing.”

“Fair enough,” Robin agreed.

“Anyway,” Jinx returned, lifting a bowl in each hand; “Wet, dry,” she emphasized, before dropping them on her elected countertop, “Flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt,” she iterated absently as she pulled the bags from the cupboard; she didn’t bother measuring them out.

“You guys have any Sichuan?” she asked.

“Uh… maybe?” Beast Boy answered, looking at Robin, who shrugged.

Cyborg held out a bottle, which Jinx took with a grateful nod.

“Soy sauce, maple syrup, rice wine vinegar, vegetable stock, some of that fake fish sauce maybe…” she rattled as she pulled down more ingredients, this time adding them to the ‘wet’ bowl.

“Actually hand me that cornstarch again?” Jinx asked; “This is lookin’ pretty thin.”

Cyborg handed her the container with a grunt as he worked on his own marinade.

“I’m using this too,” Jinx proclaimed, picking up what she felt was probably a leek from the vegetable box.

With a knife from the block, she chopped it into fine bits and repeated the process to a couple of smaller vegetables that Jinx was nebulously certain were ‘scallions’.     

The bright red, glossy sheen of a large pepper caught her eye; she sliced it open carefully to remove the linings of seeds before mincing it as best as she was able.

Ignoring the staining on her fingertips, she reached down to the lower cabinet and pulled out a bottle of vodka.

“What the fuck,” Cyborg squeaked; catching Robin’s stunned expression Cyborg waved his hands; “Dude, it ain’t mine!”

“Relax narks,” Jinx sighed, pouring a liberal amount into the dry bowl; “This is just for cooking.”

“You brought booze into our Tower?” Beast Boy asked, clearly miffed.

“Yeah yeah, lecture me now,” Jinx replied haughtily, “But this dish is gonna be hella’ lit and we’ll see if you come complaining to me then.”

She grabbed a whisk form the cup of utensils and proceeded to spin the devil out of the batter until she was satisfied about its state of submission.

She wiped her fingers on Cyborgs apron and pulled a pan off of the hanging rack; she slapped it onto a burner and stole a handful of peppercorns from one of Cyborg’s mini bowls.

Peppercorns in one hand, she tilted a bottle of vegetable oil over the pan until a small dollop poured out. She set the bottle aside and flicked the burner to life, eyeing the oil with a keen eye until it had taken a glossy sheen.

She tossed in the peppercorns, allowing them a mere few seconds in the oil as she pulled down a strainer from the rack.

She set the strainer over a nearby measuring cup and proceeded to sift the oil into the cup, disregarding the peppercorns with little thought, and returned the pan to the stove.

She plopped the tofu cubes into that batter and fried them in the oil she’d just siphoned. Once they started to brown, she added the chopped vegetables and the bowl of wet ingredients to the pan.

“You got rice, right?” Jinx asked, as she stirred the pan.

“Yeah tons,” Beast Boy answered cheerfully; he darted over to the fridge with gusto and fished out a large container of white rice.  

“That smells like, so good,” he keened, handing it over.

Jinx hummed and picked up the pan as the shapeshifter cracked open the lid, exposing the leftover grains.  

She poured the pan's contents over top, causing Beast Boy to refocus his grip; he managed to keep hold of it, a broad smile on his face.

Jinx smirked, and dumped the pan into the sink before clapping her hands.

“Well, now you know one way not to fuck up food,” Jinx jeered; “Mind you the rice should be warmed, ideally.”

Beast Boy carried the container to the island, where he set it gingerly.

Robin handed him a pair of chopsticks which the boy eagerly accepted.

“ Dude ,”  Beast Boy moaned, after wedging a hefty amount into his mouth to taste; “You guys gotta try this.”   

Robin surprisingly, took the chopsticks to procure a taste for himself.  

After a moment, he nodded; Jinx felt her shoulders square up with pride as the masked teen went in for another bite.   

“Hold on now, are you tellin’ me you made that nasty stuff into like, real food?” Cyborg asked skeptically.

“She sure did,” Robin agreed, as he fended off Beast Boy’s attempts to reclaim the utensils.

“Let me at it,” the mechanical teen gruffed, lumbering over.

A fork emerged from within his finger cap.

Jinx waited; eager pride ringing around her neck.

“This is legit,” Cyborg agreed flatly.

“Dude! This is my dinner!” Beast Boy whined; “Get her to make your own!”

Jinx chuckled; “I can make like, six things with tofu so. I can make whatever as long as you guys clean up after,” she bargained.

“Deal,” Beast Boy agreed, as he eyed Robin for taking the entire container.

“What about my ribs?” Cyborg whined.

“Raven can have those,” Jinx rationed; “She shouldn’t be eating plant stuff anyhow.”

“Oh?” Robin asked, making a dent through his container.

Jinx shrugged; “Meat’s good for her; the plant stuff doesn’t make her sick exactly but, she doesn’t get nothin’ from it, if my experiments with Junior are anything to by.”

“Well I’ll make her favorite style then, so she doesn’t feel left out,” Cyborg announced, before returning to his burner.

“What’re you gonna’ eat?” Beast Boy asked, hopping onto the counter as a parakeet.

Jinx shrugged; nothing really jumped out at her from the selection around the kitchen.

“I’ll make it ribs for two then,” Cyborg offered; “Something like a date night.”

“I still can’t like, actually picture you two on a date,” Beast Boy mumbled; he caught himself quickly, scratching his head with as much of a sheepish look as a monkey could muster; “Not that I’m saying you guys couldn’t or whatever, it’s just still weird to think of Raven like, out in public all normal and stuff.”

“You guys must give the wait staff a fun time, huh?” Cyborg mused, winking.

“...Actually,” Jinx corrected tentatively, a feeling of nerves settling along the back of her neck; “We’ve never actually had a real date before.”         

Robin choked on his tofu, the bits of breaded cubes falling back into his container at the same time Cyborg misjudged a pan flip; the mechanical teen saved the sauce from disaster and quickly lowered the burner setting before turning to look at her.

“Never?” he asked.

“But you two.. Are like married practically, now,” Beast Boy furthered, “Right?”     

Jinx ran her tongue over her lip before biting it and shrugged again.

“Never had the time for it, I guess,” she wavered.

A solemn, determined look passed between the boys around her, leaving Jinx to feel more than a little apprehensive.    

---

“I don’t like this,” Raven murmured, as Starfire strung up the laces; the Tamaranean’s hands were quite a deal warmer than an average human's, which felt a stark contrast to the cool air on at Raven’s back.

“You will,” her friend assured; the slight berry-melon amusement singed Raven’s senses; the quiet pride her friend was feeling brought a Timid flush to her cheeks.

“You know how I feel about surprises,” Raven warned.

“Yes,” Starfire agreed merrily, drawing the strings; “You swipe them under our metaphorical feet like a woolen rug.”  

Raven huffed a breath of shared agreement; the irony of the few weeks was not lost on her.

“The last time Dick wanted me to wear a dress, I was trapped with a wiretap and a stingy counterfeiter,” she explained as her reflection watched her in the mirror.

She felt almost compelled to reach out to it.

Instead, she kept her hand to herself, unwilling to mar the notion of perfection that now seemed so far out of grasp.    

“...I’m never going to feel like myself again, am I?” she murmured, as the fabric around her waist cinched her posture straightener.

“Correct me if I am mistaken,” Starfire countered gently, “But you did not seem to enjoy yourself very much, before. Perhaps the struggle with your father changed you, but I for one have enjoyed seeing you be able to smile.”

“Thanks Star,” Raven murmured, laying her hand along the thin chain around her neck.

Her fingertips brushed against the single pearl.

Another flutter of Fear skipped through her heartbeat; she turned, as Starfire finished tying the knot at her back.   

“Kori?” she asked, her voice smaller than she’d intended.

“Yes, my friend?” the alien asked, as she tilted her chin; Raven waited a moment as Starfire gauged her face.

The Tamaranean, pleased with her apparent decision withdrew her hand to select an eyeliner from her rack of products.

“Have you ever thought about marriage?” she asked, still small.

Starfire paused, capping the stick as she turned around.

“I’m flattered, my friend,” she teased, “But I think Jinx and Robin might be a little ‘put out’, as the Earthlies would say.”

A fleeting Happy smirk crossed her lips.

“I meant in general,” she pressed.

Starfire nodded; “I assumed such,” she replied, stepping forth to take her head at an agreeable angle.

She started applying the line of color to her eyerims, the process familiar enough to Raven that even without her years of meditative practice, wouldn’t have startled her.

“Robin no doubt has such thoughts,” the girl thought aloud, “But such future things seemed far out of reach to all of us, I’m sure,” she continued; “While bonds forged in battle are always considered existent upon emergence on my old planet, it never occurred to me that I could simply enact a conformational ceremony any time I might wish.”

“I didn’t expect to live this long,” she admitted, the truth welling up from an emotion too quiet to place.

“All the more reason to celebrate each day you’ve stolen from him,” Starfire assured, switching her attention to the other eyeline.

“It’s the ‘celebrating’ part I have trouble with,” Knowledge joked.

“Which is why I’m taking the liberty of planning your baby soakening,” Starfire stated.

“Do you mean a christening? I don’t think that'll be necessary,” she wavered, the notion somehow unsettling.

“I’ll strike through the ‘dunking’ off the memo board,” Starfire joked, “but the party is very much going to happen. I’ll make sure to bring joy to the day, in your baby’s honor.”

“Ahh, a shower. Of course,” Raven toned; “I should’ve expected as much.”

“I will keep your ‘boundaries’ in mind,” the Tamaranean negated happily; “Do not fret.”

“I’ll leave you to it then,” Raven allowed; “...Just have Jinx help, all right?”

“Of course,” Kori agreed, hair shimmering with heated light.      

“I want to... give Jinx something?” Raven broached, her mind hazy even to her self; “But I don’t want to trap her anymore than I already have. She’s not meant to be kept in captivity.”

Starfire withdrew the felt-tipped pen and regarded her with a nearly sagelike expression.

“A ring is not a chain, my friend,” the girl lilted.

A steady, encompassing ease seeped into Raven’s stomach; she smiled, nodding.

“Thank you, Star,” she murmured.

The alien’s smile grew as she lifted off the ground; “Now then, pick a color for your lips before you run late.”

 

---

The rooftop was chilled by the wind chorusing across the ocean’s vast waters, broken only by an orange glow underneath a quartet of industrial-sized heat lamps; Jinx petitely in her chair, fingernails scratching absently at the table nestled between the pillars of warmth.

“Does zee madome mwah-zelle care for some ag-wa?” Beast Boy offered, his poor imitation of an accent bringing a condescending smile to her face.

“Water,” she addressed, shooting him a look.

“Ahg-whah!” he emphasized again, pouring a pitcher of tap water into her plastic cup.

“...You guys really don’t have to do this, you know,” she stated, as she watched Robin adjust his bowtie.

The boy neglected to answer, but smiled brighter and clicked the heels of his feet.

“Ma-dame whah-zell, your date haz arrived!” the shapeshifter announced.

Jinx looked up to see Raven casually making her way towards them; Starfire leading her by the hand, a strip of dark blue cloth over the empath’s eyes.

Robin wordlessly pulled out the chair for her, and offered an arm of support as Raven seated before stepping back.

Smiles plastered across the other Titan’s faces as Raven slowly tilted her head this way and that.

“Can I take this off, or....” she drawled, likely tasting the atmosphere of emotions.

“Whenever you’re ready,” Robin answered.

Raven seemed to consider his words answer enough, and delicately withdrew the cloth from her eyes.

Her expression widened and blanked, at seeing Beast Boy and Robin’s attempts to mimic wait staff, until a loose smile shimmered across her features.

“May I take your coats?” Robin asked, despite the lack of said articles being worn.

Raven handed him the blindfold, causing him to chuckle.

“May ahe take your or-dur?” Beast Boy asked dramatically, pulling out a notepad.

“Why not,” Raven agreed, settling into her seat; “What’s the menu?”

Robin cleared his throat and handed them each a menu comprised of an elegant font printed on a piece of printer paper thoughtfully glued to cardstock.

Placing a towel laden arm in front of his chest, he narrated the menu for authenticity; “Today you have a choice between our two house specials; the platter of slow-cooked smokey barbeque babyback ribs, with sides of asparagus and corn, or our broil and baked babyback rib sandwich, marinated in a hot-honey barbeque sauce and served on brioche bread with a sesame seed glaze, with toppings of your choice.”  

“I’ll have the sandwich,” Jinx replied, studying the absurdity of the page in her hands; "Make it a BLT."

“I’ll have the slow cooked BBQ, please,” Raven added, handing him the paper back.

“Cert-tan-ly,” Beast Boy replied, jotting down the ‘orders’ before stowing the notebook in his oversized chef’s jacket. He clapped his hands forcefully; “Chop chop!”

Robin leaned forward and delicately retrieved Jinx’s menu before handing them to Beast Boy.

“We will have it out, right a-way!” the shapeshifter exclaimed, his chef’s hat comically starting to slip past his face.  

“Ring, if you ladies need anything,” Robin instructed, setting a pager on the table.

He patted Raven’s shoulder once in encouragement, before rejoining Starfire at the door to the stairwell; the alien tossed them a few thumbs up.

The three other Titans departed, leaving Jinx and Raven seated across an intimate divide.

“Well, we’ve certainly done everything out of order, huh?” Jinx quipped as her mind scrambled to find something to say.

“Are you calling me unconventional, or unconstitutional,” Raven murmured.

Jinx huffed happily, her eyes dragging across the heirloom necklace about the Titan’s neck.

Raven picked up her cup and swirled the contents; Jinx thought for a moment, to warn her of its deceptive nature, but the Titan’s gaze seemed to key into it enough that Jinx felt comfortable refraining.

“So what do you wanna talk about?” Jinx asked; “I’m not really up to speed on like, legal dating activities.”

Raven set down her cup and placed her fingers along her cheek, her elbow resting the arm lacing the table’s edge.

“I haven’t the foggiest,” the empath admitted.

Jinx’s grin flashed her crooked fang; “Glad we’re on the same page, then.”     

“We could talk about ourselves again, I suppose,” Raven offered; “As an overwhelming amount of our time seems spent our children as of late.”

“So you’re cool with them calling you Mom then?” Jinx asked, thinking to the Tot’s newfound habit.

“I don’t think I have much of a choice in the matter,” Raven answered, her posture reflecting hints of fondness, rather than disdain.

“Cool, I don’t want anyone to feel overlooked, ya’ know?” Jinx replied; she bit her lip, realizing she was stalling.

“It’s harder isn’t it, when we prepare for it,” Raven mused, seemingly respondent to her emotional torpor.

“Whatever,” Jinx huffed, sitting back and crossing her arms; “I mean, you’ve had your tongue up my crotch and my hand up your ass so I refuse to feel flustered now. Ask me anything.”

Jinx rode the self-imposed feeling of brashness for a moment as Raven thought.          

God, she’s pretty; Jinx thought, her gaze lingering over collarbones and dipped neckline.

“What’s your second favorite dinosaur?” Raven asked, surprising her.

“Really?”

“Timmy has better ice-breakers than I do,” she reasoned, shrugging.  

Jinx’s smile widened.

“He would,” she agreed; she took a minute to think, and took a sip of water before replying, “Plesiosaur. What’s yours?”  

“Dreadnoughtus,” Raven answered, without missing a beat; “My first favorites are Titanosauruses. What’s your favorite color?”

“Charm pink,” Jinx replied, the color easily slipping into mind; “It’s hot in interior design.”

“And you chose it for correlation,” Raven teased, her smile highlighting the elegance of her slender neck.

“Says the girl who likes Titan-osaurs,” Jinx countered lightly.

Raven hummed.

“Is your favorite color still blue?” Jinx asked.

“I’m torn between ‘Resolution’ and ‘Delft’ hues, depending on the time of day,” she replied, lightly running her fingers along the inside of her wrist; “When did you pick up painting?”

“I started scribbling on my schoolwork growing up so the academy stuck me in a few art classes,” Jinx answered, recalling a few of her earlier lessons; “We all had to take a class that pretty much said ‘art is valuable so steal it, don’t deface it’ but, I took to it more than most so. It kinda became one of my time killers.”

“You ever think about becoming a painter?” Raven asked, her tone direct.

Jinx’s brow arched; “Scrapin’ the barrel to find me a profession, eh?”

“I mean, I could think of far worse crimes than art forgery,” the Titan explained, surprising Jinx once again as she continued; “I don’t really see how exchanging one work of art for another work of art makes either less or more valuable? I would concede that art doppleganging secretly for relevance is perhaps sinister under speculation but from what the monks spoke of art theory as a whole, overt homages were rampant and even expected portents of legacy.”

“...Been sitting on that for awhile, have you?” Jinx asked, intrigued; “I can and will talk your ear off about artistic hypocrisies if you want me to, but I’ll warn you here and now that I consider graffiti a valid and necessary venue of expression that can and should systematically topple the property market.”

“You would enjoy the breaking and entering,” Raven added, as if in bargain.

“See, now it sounds like you want me to get arrested again,” Jinx elongated.

“I always want you,” Raven murmured; her tone simplistic genuine, and lacking carnal or sarcastic intent.

Heat rose through Jinx’s cheeks as the Titan smoothed over her face of surprise.  

“I like you too,” Jinx admitted quietly.

After a moment of silence, a noise caught their attentions; from the door to the stairwell, Robin entered the roof, a bucket in hand.

Jinx watched with some amusement as he placed the bucket, filled with both with breadsticks and thin dowels of jerky, onto the table.

He then procured a smaller bowl, filled with butter packets, and set it gingerly on the table as well.

“Appetizers, on the house,” he offered, before gracefully exiting once again.

“He’s gonna’ really grow into that ass one day,” Jinx mused, watching him retreat.

Raven shot her a scolding look; it would have worked had the Titan also not been smiling.

“You ever thought of doing something drastic?” Jinx asked, after Raven plucked out a jerky log for herself.

“Constantly,” she deadpanned.

“I mean like, tattoos or getting your nose pierced,” Jinx clarified, as she unwrapped her knife from her napkin and stabbed it into a bread piece; she yoinked it out and popped open a butter packet and started about spreading its contents on the baked good.

“...Such things have crossed my mind,” the Titan admitted; Jinx eyed her carefully; “I’ve thought about a particular tattoo on several occasions, actually,” she added, ripping free a bite-sized chunk; she ate it before continuing, “A tribal looking namesake perhaps.”

“It’d look good above your ass,” Jinx offered, swallowing down another bread bite.

“I’m not getting a tramp stamp,” Raven panned.

“I’m not becoming an art thief,” Jinx shot back.

“Who said these choices were correlative?” Raven quipped, a glint in her eyes.

“Everything is cause and effect, Sugar,” she teased.

“Tell you what,” Raven quipped; “I’ll get the tramp stamp and I’ll get you a job operating toll booths.”

“Tell you what,” Jinx retorted, “I’ll get the tramp stamp and you can fuck off.”

Raven laughed.

Jinx’s heartbeat erratically threw of it rhythm; her mind suddenly swirling as her breath fell worthless.

The moment was brief; Raven seemed to catch herself, and pulled her hands to her lap.

“...That’s the first time I’ve heard you laugh, I think,” Jinx murmured; fluttering feelings swelling within her once more.

The Titan ran a hand through her hair and sheepishly tucked half her bangs behind her ear.

“You make me want to laugh,” the girl reasoned, quietly.

Jinx felt something like resolve, wash over the back of her mind.

I’ll give you things to laugh about; she promised.  

Their interlude was cut short, as the stairwell door swung open once more, revealing the semi-mechanical Titan, who was carting a large plate in each hand.

“Who’s ready for all you can eat, smokey barbeque meat!” Cyborg cried, his bright smile beaming even from his eyes.

Raven caught her eye, as Cyborg placed the plates before them; her smile small, but reachable.

“And to add to the am-bee-aunce,” Cyborg drawled, speakers popping out of his back, “A little mood music.”

He snapped his fingers and the speakers disengaged from his back to land with a thud next to the table.

“Bone a-petie,” he insisted, bowing, before excusing himself.

“We have weird tastes in friends,” Jinx observed, watching the teen walk backwards until he hit the stairs.

“Careful,” Raven teased, her smile mischievous; “You almost sounded fond of them.”            

Chapter 43

 

“Well, that was a hot load of nothing,” Beast Boy quipped flippantly; he punctuated his words by shifting himself for a tail to swish dramatically. 

“I’m sorry kids,” Zatanna replied apologetically; her face rippled across the screen as the feed weakened slightly; “If Raven had been an Earth-born demon we might’ve had more but, we just don’t have any resources on the Azarathian occults. -I’m afraid we’re just as in the dark about this as you are. We could send a Flash back in time to ask around, but I’d rather we use that as a last resort,” the magician added as Raven winced; “Such small dimensional pools are notoriously easy to corrupt and override.” 

“Why would we need to go back in time?” Beast Boy asked as Cyborg adjusted the settings to better receive the signal.

“-Because if there was anything of use still around, Raven would have already gotten it,” Robin replied matter-of-factly; his declaration sparked up some of Jinx’s memories. 

“Actually we did find her mother’s diary awhile back,” Jinx supplied, a little sheepishly; “I was hoping it’d have the parts with her mom like, being a mom and stuff.”

“That seems helpful,” Cyborg agreed.

“Yeah, trouble is she’s too scared to read it so, I don’t actually know what’s in it,” Jinx added, earning a glare from the empath. 

“Well for the good of the baby, it might be worth taking a look or two,” Zatanna warned; “In the meantime Constantine and I will scrounge up what we can from Earth Lore. -I’d stick to red meats and keep an eye on your emotional settings as a start,” she continued shooting a mirthful look at the weary Titan, “If the baby is anything like you Raven, you’ll want it to empathize it carefully.” 

Raven nodded, rather tiredly before Jinx chimed in. 

“That’s a good point,” Jinx agreed; “I’ve been working on the diet,” she teased, “Baby has a sweet tooth that’s been hard to kick.”  

Zatanna smiled; “I’ll be on this number if you need to reach me for anything,” the magician supplied, “Please, don’t hesitate to call. You also have the regular lines to the League, if you need them at any time.” 

“Thanks Zanny,” said Robin graciously, an air of familiarity between him and his old acquaintance.  

Zatanna smiled once more before cutting the connection, leaving the Teens to their own devices. 

“I suppose this means I’ll have to like… face my past and stuff,” Raven offered, in an effort to break the silence with levity. 

“Yeah you might even find like, closure or something,” Jinx furthered, humoring the girl; “I heard that stuff’s ‘supposed to be good for you. Pretty sure it’s a science fact.” 

“Pssh,” Beast Boy dismissed humorously; “When has science ever been factual?” 

The eyes of both Starfire and Cyborg twitched, but their smiles won out over their kneejerk reactions to correct the boy. 

“Well,” Raven addressed, pulling the book from inside half of her own shadow; “Knock yourself out,” she declared, nearly pressing the journal into Jinx’s hands. 

“Hey, this is supposed to be your catharsis,” Jinx whined. 

“It is,” Raven quipped happily, “See? Look how well grown I already am.” 

Jinx shot her a dirty look and huffed a bit before resigning herself to the directive before her. 

Raven smiled, apparently pleased at her stolen victory, and turned to Robin as he cleared his throat. 

“Actually I do have one other matter I’d like to discuss as a team before we all get too settled,” the masked boy prompted; the other teens perked up almost reflexively at his words. 

“There’s been a lot more civilian crime activity lately,” he broached, his brows knitting as he slid into his Gotham past; “I’ve noted the rise in cases over the past few weeks and I think we might be looking at blooming gang activity.”

“Aw fuck,” Jinx snapped, surprising the boy. 

At his questioning glance, Jinx sighed again and waved her hand absently. 

“My team was responsible for keeping territory in town. Without me apparently keeping tabs on the boys, they apparently aren’t keeping tabs on the blocks,” she explained. 

“Wait, so the HIVE combats gangs? Since when? -Isn’t that like, the opposite of acting evil?” Beast Boy asked. 

Jinx ignored the questions and tapped her fingers along the table.

“I can put a call to my old friends;” Jinx offered, “You’ll still have to deal with the HIVE, but at least with the HIVE you won’t have petty criminals forming their own underbelly around you.”

“That would be appreciated, thank you,” Raven agreed; Beast Boy looked shocked, either at Jinx’s proposal, or at Raven’s display of authority. 

“Dude!” Beast Boy gasped, turning to Robin.

The boy wonder appeared deep in thought; “She’s right. Wherever there’s a power vacuum, someone will always be there to take advantage of it. The city has functioned better with the HIVE dominating the city’s crime syndicate. We don’t need these streets to get any more dangerous for people.”  

At Raven’s nod and Cyborg’s agreeing hum, Beast Boy calmed somewhat. 

“If that’s all for this briefing I’m going to check on the kids,” Raven stated; she cast a quick glance around the room before dissipating through the floor, leaving Jinx to take a somewhat reluctant seat at the combat table.  

“Would you like to step out for the call,” Robin asked, “Or...”

Jinx shrugged and pulled out her phone; the old numbers coming to her fingertips easily, as they’d long since been ingrained. 

 

*Karmatic_Infringment is Typing* 

 

@Short_Trunks hey mammy!

What’s this i hear about pretty boys tryin to jack our turf??!

Get our boys back on track before i start hexing organs

 

*Short_Trunks is Typing*

 

Holy shit she lives!

Fuck off

You fuck off!!

Fuck me off yourself you coawrd!!1!

D:

I can’t

:\

I’m dummy thick and the sound of my rippling eight pack 

keeps alerting the kitchen staff. 

Lol XDDD

Srsly mam?

It’s cool

I’ll put the word back out

they wont get away with this boss  

They better not >:o

Hey how’s things anyway?

you’ve been gone a long time

 

*Karmatic_Infringment is Typing*

 

Its been a weird couple of weeks

Im sorry i couldnt keep in touch >:

<3??

Its cool 

I mean it sucks

But we’re cool

Thanks mam, ur the best 

As always

As always!

How’s the honeypot? 

Going strong! 

Bit weird tho, being knocked tbh

how’s school?

:\\\\ 

Still too small

I’ve broken six of those ceiling boards this week

The house matron is not pleased with me U_U

Hang in there buddy;; 

I beleibe in u

<3 U-U thnks

 

“At least she trusts you,” Cyborg offered helpfully, when Jinx looked up from her communicator with a sigh.

Jinx grumbled some as she opened the journal back to the beginning; the others milled around her, apparently unsure of whether or not they felt inclined to assist, or to depart and return to their daily tasks. 

Starfire sat beside her; Jinx offered her a nod but kept her eyes on the authorialy-vandalized pages before her. 

The boys soon departed, leaving just the pair of them to piece together what remained of Raven’s family secrets. 

Chapter 44

“Why are you on the floor like that?” Melvin asked.

“Because God has cursed me for my hubris and my torment is neverending,” Raven answered dryly, as she fought to keep her stomach in place. 

From the outside the bathroom door, Jinx’s laughter trickled in; Raven sighed and pressed her temple to the cold porcelain.  

“Morning sickness is’a bitch, inn’t?” the hexcaster called in gleefully. 

Raven muttered to herself in Azarathian for a moment, as she waited for her head to clear.

“I’ll go tell Robin that you’re gonna’ be late for breakfast again,” Melvin stated, as she excused herself somewhat awkwardly down the hall. 

“Your Empathy is a virtue,” Jinx teased, happy to milk the moment one snide remark more.

“Your face is a virtue,” Raven counted dully. 

“Damn straight,” Jinx agreed flippantly, ducking out of the doorway; Raven listened to the sounds of her footsteps fade, as the hexcaster trotted back to her bedroom, her strawberry curiosity satiated.   

If she focused on the spatial nature of the Tower hard enough, Raven could hear the sounds of paper shifting as Jinx regained her comfort. 

Raven lifted herself slowly from the floor; she rolled some ease back into her shoulders and surrendered herself to the task of ridding her mouth of the phantom tastes, brush in hand.

When she finally felt settled, and a little more gleaned, Raven discarded the utensil and headed back to Jinx’s room herself. 

“Did my mother say how to turn this off?” she asked, betting the question moot. 

Jinx huffed, noting her entrance; “She said you liked your meat raw and bleeding,” she answered, “Took to sushi just to curb the cravings.” 

Raven hummed in response, approving of the way Jinx’s colors blurred in the morning light.  

Unfettered, Jinx continued, “I need my fish cooked; I don’t mind a rare steak though, if I’m being honest.” 

A Bemused snort bubbled up through her nose as crossed her arms. 

“Oh-”

Knowledge paused at Jinx’s change in inflection. 

An orange meringue had started to drift into Raven’s senses. 

She narrowed her vision and leant next to her partner.

Curiously, Jinx seemed calm,  but her fluttering smile was sanguine.  

“The thought of seared steak is kinda queasy?” the hexcastor broached; “Dunno’ if it’s just from tryin’ to hold down stuff this week.” 

“...Let’s try you on grits again,” Knowledge suggested; “Might go down easier.”

Jinx nodded, pressing Arella’s Journal closed; Pride made a point of not hiding her gaze from it.

Timmy raced up to greet them as they journeyed amiably to the Common Room.  

With little prompt, Jinx scooped him onto her hip, earning an uninhibited smile from Happy.

The Common Room was buzzing with morning rituals; cozy for their familiarity.

Jinx hopped onto the remaining barstool, greeted by friendly smiles from the other Titans; she returned their well morning wishes and idle chatter.

“Alright so,” Cyborg stated loudly, breaking up the chatter; “I know you’ve been having some trouble with Breakfast Bananza time, and well, most other munch times too so I stayed up last night, thinking,” the mechanized teen explained; “I think I found a dish that’s the perfect blend of sweet and spicy,” he offered happily, procuring a bowl of overly seasoned meat nestled on a pile of rice. 

“Say hello to beef rendang!” he introduced cheerfully; “It’s ‘dang delicious!” 

“Please tell me you made it hot enough to melt my mouth out,” Jinx pleaded, taking the bowl. 

“Losing appendages won’t save you from the bargain,” Raven joked, as Jinx took a bite. 

Jinx sighed, appeased. 

A small wave of relief released from the group, collectively. 

“Got you one too, Sunshine,” the boy offered, slipping her a bowl as the idle chatter picked up again.

The flavor rested warmly on her tongue; she idled in the sensations until a shift in her team leader’s posture caught within her peripheral vision.  

Jinx was shivering again, though the shakes were restrained. 

Raven’s gaze fell from her friend’s, to warily regard her food.  

Chapter 45

Strained at the waist, Jinx fought her clenching muscles and focused on managing her heaving breaths.

Shaking, she allowed herself to remain still; to let the walking traffic light place a hand upon her shoulder. 

Around her, the unfaithfully rendered halls of the Hive flickered out, dropping the anonymously uniformed drones with glitched flickers one after the other. 

It still wasn’t the same as actually training with Academy Sargents but, she attempted to get the most out of it that she could. 

Shuddering, she hissed in a breathe as Robin began to speak.

“Perhaps it’s time to shelf the holodeck,” he observed, in the same careful monotone that all the Titans had apparently learned from her partner; “You might be putting too much stress on your body.” 

Jinx didn’t feel the need to remarks towards the implied addition of ‘and the baby ’.

“I can’t do nothing ,” Jinx countered, hating the way she didn’t sound like herself anymore; when had she stopped sounding like she raged through the streets?

“...I’ve got an idea,” Robin offered, his mind already racing; “I’ll get the pool set up; maybe get some beta tech. -If nothing else, swimming might ease the pressure on your joints.” 

As the muscles finally unclenched, Jinx stood up and cracked the points in her spine; sighing happily as they slid back into place. 

She noted contently, that the popcorn-like sound of her spine moving did little to set the boy at ease.    

“Alright,” Jinx agreed, enjoying the thought of cool water against her worked up skin; “But only if I get my own bathroom.” 

Robin sighed.

“You really hate the Tower’s budgeting plans, don’t you?”

Jinx smiled, unperturbed. 

“I mean, I could get you the cash… if you didn’t ask any questions,” she teased. 

The boy chuckled; the air between them remaining content. 

“I wouldn’t doubt it.”   

After finishing her stretches, Jinx let the boy lead her out of the deck and into the hall; they were nearly bowled over by the Tot Titans running rampant through the corridor, ‘chased’ by an eager green tiger with laughter in their wails.

Chuckling softly to themselves, Jinx and Robin let the gaggle pass before falling back into companionable silence. 

As Jinx watched them speed off, she noted a strange notion snag along her thoughts. 

“Would it be weird to pad the hallways,” she asked, suppressing an urge to click her nails. 

“Very,” Robin replied warmly; “There’s covers on all the sockets and locks on all the cabinets. There’s not much else to ‘proof’, unless you wanted to go vegetable instead of digital,” he quipped, playing on Teether’s finicky eating habits. 

“...I feel like there needs to be less corners, is all,” she admitted, eyeing the intersection where two of the Tower Walls met.

She wasn’t sure why; other than perhaps that her powers might find the durability of such segments as structural and therefore ‘lucky’ weak points. 

“...We might have some painter’s tape left?” the boy offered, somewhat tentatively. 

Jinx shivered, and forced a grin.  

 

Chapter 46

 

Azar and her prophets have given me so many damp cloths that I’m starting to worry for our water supply. Jokes aside, the burning is… intense. Dad would’ve blamed it as ‘punishment for my sin’; Azar says it’s just His spawn following a natural part of the unnatural order. 

...The teas do little, but soothe my throat. The sweating is loathsome but; I don’t want to encourage the baby’s ‘inhuman’ traits. If it comes out like him, -assuming that the thing survives- I don’t know if I could stand the reminders of seeing Him in it. Her. Azar says it shall be a girl. HE’s had nothing but stillborn sons; 

I don’t know yet which to hope for. 

Jinx bit her lip in thought; she mulled the woman’s written words over carefully as she considered the symptoms between them both. 

The sheets clung damply to her skin as she sat; a funny sort of smirk shot limply along her face as she turned the page. 

The shaking worsens; 

Acolyte Greonor tells me I must not ‘fight’ the pregnancy. 

It’s just so hard to relax, when I can feel it inside of me…

Almost as though the baby is taking more than my nutrients; 

  It is difficult to keep weight.

I wonder if it will be blood or milk that the baby will take.  

       

 

Her own shaking had already begun to manifest, she noted, but Jinx’s brows knit in confusion, as she hadn't resisted the changes at any point. 

Perhaps it’s simply part of the system? Jinx wondered. 

“...Ugh,” she lamented, pressing the book closed once more; she rubbed the stress from her temples. 

Clearly, dear ol’ Arella ain’t gonna’ cut it, Jinx thought, vexed. 

“Maybe it’s time to dig for answers,” she mused, stretching.

She turned, giving the journal one last look before hopping off her bed. 

Jinx doubted she’d find anything in the common library; but she had enough contacts to burn that she felt confident in slipping on a jacket and taking the Hell Bike for a turn. 

She offered a quick nod to Cyborg on her way out as they passed in the garage; used to her random ‘snack runs’ and ‘jaunts for air’, her exit was comfortable and unimpeded. 

The air flowing through her hair felt good as she took a leisurely pace through the tunnel, and when the exit opened up to sunshine and a light breeze, Jinx felt herself grow nearly content. 

The beauty of this place nearly makes the pain bearable, the old pages echoed in her head. 

“You an’ me both,” Jinx muttered, the sensations growing dizzyingly under her skin. 

She drove steadily; not bothering to slow or speed anymore than necessary, not caring a lick for the dozens of minor infractions her ‘negligent’ decisions might fine her. 

The trip was almost pleasant; the barrage of midday traffic and asphalt-baked heat. 

Still, Jinx found herself more than ready when she arrived to the intended doorstep. 

She rolled the bike onto the steps and let it lean against the railing, noting the way potential thieves would spill over the edge and onto unforgiving concrete were they to try anything funny. 

She knocked heartily against the door. 

“ MA! ” she bellowed, rather pretentiously; “Ma! Open up! I got shit to ask ya’s!” 

After a few more rounds of persistent banging, the door opened, revealing a hunched figure of a woman behind it. 

“Oh! Hello dearie!” Mother Mae-Eye greeted cheerfully, “Do come on in! It’s been so long since Mother’s seen you!” 

The old witch held the door for Jinx to pass, and gave the street behind them a shifty look before closing up after her. 

“You don’t have the nasty federal workers after you again, do you Dearie?” she asked kindly; “Mother won’t have those nasty young men trampling up her carpets!” 

Jinx chuckled, fond over the way the woman waved her wooden spoons to punctuate. 

“No Momma,” Jinx replied; she shook her head and meandered over to the blanket-covered chairs and sat down. 

“Do you remember why I took leave?” she asked, as the old woman scurried around the room to make it more ‘inviting for company’. 

“Yes Dearie, you’ve got that lovely little bundle of bad luck to look forward to!” the old witch chided, while fluffing a throw pillow.

“Yeah… about that,” Jinx lead, “I’ve… got some questions about it, if you can help me?”

Her curiosity piqued, Mae-eye dropped the cushion and slowly took a closer look at Jinx. 

“What is it you’d like to know, Dear?” she asked ominously, all three of her eyes locked onto Jinx’s own.

Jinx took a breath before letting her hands fall to her stomach.

“The baby hasn’t manifested a physical form. Raven said it might not need to, but even then, there’s not even a… ‘collected’ state of matter, or anything.” 

The old woman’s eyes swiveled over Jinx's body to rest on Jinx’s apparent lack of bump or swell.

“Well, what have you been feeding it, Dearie?”

“I’ve been craving spicy stuff?” Jinx offered, “Awful for the heartburn though. Also been craving like, meat? Not even rare meats feel right though. -And teas, I guess? I feel like there’s something missing from everything, now that I’m saying it all out loud.” 

The old witch nodded; tutting the spoon against her cheek. 

“Has your unholy beau fed it anything?” 

Jinx shook her head. 

“Ahhh, that might be your issue, Sweetie,” Mae-eye remarked; the old woman waggled her spoon. 

“Babies need a lot of things to grow;” she rambled, “The basis for all magic is the blood. The blood makes the cells, the cells make the fetus,” May-eye furthered. 

“...So I need to drink… blood…” Jinx repeated, wary over the woman’s dubious sounding medical understanding. 

The old witch hummed a momemet, before heading briskly into her kitchen. 

“All blood is good blood,” the witch agreed; “But demons blood to start. -Your newlybedded lordling should be able to attend to that; strange, that he hasn’t yet,” Mae-eye noted, as her gaze returned to her churning brew. 

“I um… may be their first human,” Jinx quipped; earning another grumble from the witch. 

“Don’t worry Dear,” Mae-eye soothed, as she steeped her spoon into the broth; “Mother will fix you right up!” 

Chapter 47

The humidity clung to the back of her neck like a wet rag; the tip-off breaking the week’s worth of silence however forced her to trudge on. 

Jinx fought the urge to shiver and grit her teeth; she’d have cursed Mae-eye for the wait, had she not felt so grateful to finally get answers. 

The old woman’s remedy was left to her in the form of large parcel, carefully wrapped in brown paper and twine, resting peacefully under the hollowed stairwell of the old city library. 

There’d been a brief moment of humerus confusion when she’d come to claim it, as the spot was also serving as a drop off for local 'lettuce' enthusiasts, who’d not been keen to see her pull up.

A quick flare of her powers however had the lads running scared, their own cargo dropped and scattered in their haste. 

She’d chuckled; shot a text to her team to move the goods, before collecting her actual acquisition and speeding off. 

In the contenting light of her Tower bedroom, the contents of the box laying tamely along her floor, Jinx felt a curious mix of anticipation and apathetic revulsion. 

Herbs, spices; bones and trinkets. 

A vial.

A pouch.

A rather ominous looking sackcloth; a black resin bowl seemed spun from lathe and ink.

It array of undesirable components that Jinx felt oddly calm about assembling. 

A slap to the wall carried her powers to the alarm; she breathed easily as the signal ferried away her teammates.   

It wouldn’t have done to be disturbed, she’d thought. 

It took a few moments to find her camp burner in her old bag; the cord was just as uncomfortably short as she remembered. 

The bowl fit neatly; she set it to warm. 

She reached first for the vial; the old crone had left her no instruction, but Jinx felt hands move assuredly with purpose, bits of lore and spellwork flickering against the depths of her awareness. 

The liquid in the vial was thin and gold and hardly covered the bottom of the bowl; with the base set to simmer, Jinx’s fingers drifted along the tied throngs of herbs and split the stems from the stalks to work under her pestel. 

After adding it, she added thumbnails of the other plants; dried petals and cracked seedcasings of flora she could only half identify or guess.

Spices, dusts, salts.

Though she didn't know many of their origins, their scant amounts informed Jinx to their potent rarity and chimes.    

With her luck, some part of herself was wary of mixing things in such abandon; and yet, she felt little worry for the stable additions of Goat’s Rue and Elder leaves, and even less was her anxiety about her own magical skills.

The smells began to waft up, brimming a warm rustic scent; the orange she peeled and added, quickly overpowering the woody tones in the bowl. 

The pouch squished as she touched it; finding it to be the case liquid component, Jinx poured it over the sauteing solids slowly. 

Moon water? She wondered; debating its holiness or lack thereof. 

The large girthed root, wrapped in silk, she sliced apart with the knife tucked into her boot; she spent a moment guessing at its identity before adding it in.

The broth now resembled a fine tea; it was soothing, she supposed, getting back into old habits. 

The bones she dropped in one by one, each falling in with a ‘plunk’ that nearly splattered the liquid up.    

Knowing from old practice that the water would take time to thicken, Jinx grabbed her knife again and cut through the sackcloth.  

The stench was a little off-putting; Jinx held her breath a moment before reminding herself that she’d once dealt with worse.

The dead crow was too light, in her hands. 

Momentarily foregoing her knife, she balled out its three eyes, one by one, with the nails on her thumbs.

After picking it up again, she used the blade to cut off the parts of beak and added them. 

Following the motion of her understanding, she slit the body open.

Without an occurrence of thought, Jinx swallowed down its digestive tract. 

It took a moment to keep from gagging; the cold, slimy organs worked too well at sliding down her throat. 

With moments to do nothing but wait, Jinx shivered and observed the viscera coating her fingers until she felt compelled enough to stir.

Forward, back; forward, back.

Forward, back back; forward, back back. 

She scraped hard enough to pick up the stuck bits burning black.

When finally it plied thick and smooth, nearly gravy, Jinx retrieved her altar chalice. 

It poured in without reluctance, though the heat singed her skin, making her wince. 

The bowl empty, Jinx returned to the bird. 

The heart was too small in her hands. 

A series of thuds and clomps in the levels below informed Jinx of the others' returns; she assumed her partner would rejoin her thusly.   

“-So we couldn’t find any-,” Raven’s words fell short as she ghosted into the room, her apparent amusement and confusion over the city’s false alarm dying upon entry. 

Jinx turned to look at her, without any pretense. 

Jinx could almost see the rise and fall of concern on her partner’s face as Raven assessed the situation and the source of blood and minuta coating her skin, a heart in one hand, a knife in her other. 

“...I see you’ve been busy,” Raven noted. 

Jinx forewent nodding and let the bird heart fall into the bowl. 

“I need your arm,” she stated. 

The flatness in her tone was enough to pull her partner forward; if a little hesitantly, Raven extended her arm before rolling back her sleeve. 

“...Don’t flinch,” Jinx warned; with no room for concern, Jinx grabbed the arm and dug her blade neatly down the flesh. 

Raven’s free hand clenched into her shoulder; likely from pain.

Switching the knife to her other hand, Jinx picked up her chalice and let the blood fall in. 

Slowly, the cup began to fill. 

Jinx kept her focus on it entirely, some small part of her ignoring the water in her partner’s eyes.

When the cup began to spill over, Jinx moved it back and took a breath as Raven quickly pulled her bleeding arm to her chest. 

Tensed yet willing, Jinx let the blade of the knife turn, to take the cup between both of her hands. 

“...Are you-”

Ignoring Raven’s concern and curiosity completely, Jinx raised the goblet to her lips and drank with the determined fortitude she’d forged at the Hive. 

She worked past her reflexes to gag and to breathe, the ichor spilling along the sides of her glass and down her neck, until the deed was drank.

Shuddering forcibly, Jinx picked up the lukewarm heart and pushed it past her lips and her body’s resistance. 

“You don’t have to-”

Jinx clamped her hands over her mouth to keep from coughing up as Raven’s hands sought her shoulders. 

Jinx fell to her knees, her body struggling in heaves.

With spiteful tenacity, Jinx growled through her ungrit teeth as the lump went down.

In the moment of following clarity, Jinx had nothing to distract her from how hotly the insides of her mouth and throat had been burned. 

Her own eyes watering, Jinx fumbled to keep herself from resting completely against the floor.

 “...Jinx,” Raven murmured. 

Her breathing labored, Jinx fought to keep her vision clear. 

As Raven helped turn her around, Jinx wrapped her arms around her neck and shuddered against her until Raven’s arms folded around her, dripping scalding, inhuman blood down her back.

Chapter 48

The urge to itch under the gauze was maddening, causing Raven to shift more within her seat as she fought to temper herself.

“...So,” Robin drawled, pouring himself another cup.

The coffee slid cleanly until full; the pot slid back into the machine with a grating glass-on-plastic ‘clink’. 

His expression remained companionably light. 

“You just… walked in and saw her committing some sort of dark ritual and let her cut up your arm?” he asked, his tone baffled.

“You don’t understand,” Raven rebuked gently, gingerly running her fingertips over the gauze; “When I saw her there just… wild-eyed, dripping blood, surrounded by candles…”

Her tone faltered as the admission progressed, knowing her leader’s quirking brow proved him a tangible witness. 

He tilted his head slightly, baying her to finish her confessional. 

“...She was really hot, okay?” she huffed quickly turning away. 

Robin spat some of his drink across the table, nearly cascading coffee droplets over her freshly cleaned bandages; she held her arm tighter out of reflex and shot the boy a glare as his choking petered into hindered laughter.

“-Look I’m sorry,” he managed, after a few moments of coughing breaths and bemused giggling; “It’s just that I’ve never heard you call something ‘hot’ before.”  

He smiled, his words judgeless. 

Envy Loathed the bemusement in his eyes. 

She offered him a wry smile.

“Yeah, well,” she huffed gently, rubbing her thumb slightly along her bandages, “I hadn’t known it was an optional genre or that my girlfriend was offering,” she assuaged. 

Robin smirked, but said nothing as he grabbed one of the towels from the oven door handle.

“To be fair,” he offered, “There’s things I didn’t even know were possible to be into until Star and me.”

Appeased, slightly, Raven allowed herself to settle in her seat and watched as her team leader sopped up his mess.

“Star wouldn’t look the same drenched,” she imagined conversationally; “But a smear or two in battle would be hot.” 

The nearly devious smile Robin politely pretensed to hide shared his agreement, allowing Raven a brief chuckle. 

Robin chucked the used towel into the sink. 

“Three points,” Raven observed abjectly. 

“-Anyway, just don’t cut too deep next time,” he returned, sitting down once more.

Raven thumbed the gauze again, her gaze shifting away from him.

“-Or have some preparations ready beforehand,” he amended gently, his warmth orange and sweet; “It was… a little scary really, for all of us, seeing you walk up and bleeding like that.”  

“...I mean, I wouldn’t’ve-” Raven mumbled quickly, her mind jumping to her friends’ conclusions; “I mean. Not now, anyway.” 

Knowing her words failed to be reassuring, she watched him peripherally as he regarded her. 

“You might have, before?” he asked quietly. 

Raven bit her lip as her thumb thoughtlessly pressed into the wound; she stopped, feeling the wetness spring up through the gauze. 

As she watched the reddish spot grow, she offered a wholler truth. 

“I used to think about it a lot. -Not that I would've dared to. The Monks instilled this fear in me, of what might happen should my Soul permanently disconnect from my Flesh.”

His breathing remained even, though Raven could vaguely feel the weight of his thoughts within her own. 

The moment stretched tiredly, as her friend thought on what to say. 

“I’m glad it never came to that,” he answered genuinely, picking up his mug once more.

Forgetting that it was still coated in its contents, he grimaced at it before sighing. 

Amused by his face, Raven magiced a paper towel to him, and allowed herself to smile.    

“How long do you think it’ll take to heal?” he asked, nodding at her arm. 

Surprised, Raven looked down at it herself before a Timid sort of Happyness flustered across her face. 

“A day or two for the blood to grow back,” she offered; “I… wanted to let the wound heal naturally.” 

At the affection in her voice, she felt Robin’s bagel-ish concern melt back into oranged observance. 

“Well, if it makes you happy,” he agreed, dismissing the last of his questioning; “Just know that I’m going to be paying you back for all that sass you gave me for Starfire’s hickies.” 

“ Bite me,” Bravery teased, grinning Snarkly. 

Chapter 49

Raven was going to be pissed if she came back to find her children missing, that Jinx could agree. 

In the rush of resulting excitement and dread, Jinx raced forward after her companion and scrambled into the irregular boat; her focus shifting to watch herself as the vine-covered metal contraception holding it aloft slowly breached the gap. 

The ferry itself was hoisted with the vines instead of ropes; the ancient crane groaned and creaked with their added weight for just a moment before her focus returned to her, and she was standing some feet on the other side at the base of the first gate.

The roadblock was a barricade of sawhorses and police cars, and yet the continued textures of an old-world, composed of stone and magic remained superimposed and at times overpowered the modern scene.  

Jinx focused on the guards; the dread from before paled, as she considered the interferences of rescue little more than a game. 

The kid would be fine; no reason to make them feel guilty or ruin their day.

The world bent deeper into the state of ruins; her classmates regarded her with smiles and playthings to ‘block’ her way. 

Pleased to play overdramatically, Raven’s children smiled and laughed as toys ‘nearly got her’; she shouted losses of hitpoints every so often, and in a view larger than herself, she saw the bar steadily decrease. 

Her worry crept back; the seven gates were nothing but a show of gravitas and yet she was already under half health for the final boss.

The magician waited at the top of the stairs, his umbrella resting against his shoulder as he looked at her with both mild amusement and a professional understanding of over-exhaustion. 

He wouldn’t hurt Melvin. 

Or were there the three of them? 

Jinx’s scenic-scrying looked over the remaining crowd; a young blonde had taken the place of Raven’s children, one who Jinx was sure she’d known from her evil elementary school. 

She looked back to the magician; his helicopter and black-clad crew waiting urgently behind him. 

As she noted the helicopter, the old-world blinked instantaneously back into a city; elements of Jump and Gotham blurring in hard angles of unrendered drawdistance and crisp geometry.

The Batman standing in front of her was Deathstroke now; Jinx took a step back only to put her line of vision out of synch. 

Jinx lurched and toppled about as her character model glitched through the dream map.

She felt terribly queasy as she worked through the various angels and tilts to find a way to right herself.

The asphalt shifted back into sandstone. 

After using the old trick of staring at the floor until the world around her could reload, Jinx took a steady breath and looked up to find herself ‘at school’. 

The premise blurred between it being a graduation day, while also being intermittently time to start the day, and time to go home. 

The themes blended as she talked to the other students and navigated the halls; she couldn’t find the rooms she intended to go to, but the few classrooms she did step into were automatically hers. 

Her locker was missing. 

Why had she left all her books in it?

It’d been such a great idea, at the time. -Walking around without any weights was very liberating.   

Her friends of different years tried to give her friendly and helpful advice. 

A shame she had to sit through a weird project class and walk down a hall of nameplates to feel as though she’d gotten anywhere. 

The nameplates drew her eye. 

There-

That one was her own; a memory played as she ‘recalled’ it. Of finding one of the last the hidden easter eggs around campus. It had been on the wall near the ground next to the shrubbery. 

It’d been almost amazing that no one had seen it before. 

Even more amazing that the teacher had been truthful about letting her keep credit for the discovery. 

When the memory ended Jinx was walking in another direction completely; the turning of her head turning the world orintention with her. 

The room of ziplines was incredibly alluring, and she spent a few minutes exploring it before an overly friendly guy began insisting for her attention. 

Feeling sour, Jinx escaped further down the hallways to find a mini storefront; one of the nearly infinite she’d seen in her dreams. 

The noodle shop only sold pastries, which were either hotdogs or hole-less doughnuts or both upon being observed, and Jinx regretfully but sincerely informed the cashier that she would in fact like to purchase some, if she had any money.

Sensing his frustration, she promised to come back when she had the coin. 

The building was dark. 

She was in a different school now; one that felt more like a ‘train station’ than a ‘mall’ or a ‘college’. 

At the distinction, she could keenly hear the accompanying sounds and vibrations of the traveling subterranean cars a few floors beneath her feet. 

She vividly remembered getting on the bus late, and arguing with the driver.

In retaliation, the driver had nearly killed her; she couldn’t make out if there’d been others on the bus. 

The harder she remembered the more vividly Gizmo and Mammoth and the others were posthumously in the seats around her on a different bus, in a different dream. 

While amused, Jinx thought back to the present. 

The Church was completely silent. 

An old revitalized cathedral; utterly still. 

Her steps made no sound.

There were dust-particles in the air; other dust shifted around as she moved her feet. 

What little light there was, trickled in through the skylights made out of colorless stained-glass in the bit of modern ceiling in the roof above.

Feeling utterly lonely, desolate, and sad , Jinx instinctually wished for familiar company. 

Drawn to a notion, Jinx turned around. 

Only partially free from the shadows, Raven stood silently; she was clad in her leotard and cloak, the hues and saturations of her fabric lost in the greyscale of the gloom. 

Gratefully reassured, Jinx felt herself ease forward as she focused on the curves of her lips, and the way the faint beams of light filtered around her cropped hair and kissed along the soft, gentle haze of her cheek.   

Jinx spoke; a mixture of thought-will substituting speech. 

‘I’m so glad to see you.’ 

Even as Raven replied, Jinx wasn’t sure if the girl’s voice had been ‘spoken’ or ‘implied’. 

Part of her wondered why her dreams never got the sound right. 

As the thought finished, Jinx realized the reds in Raven’s eyes were inhuman, but unfamiliar. 

The dream hadn’t forgiven her.

Struck by the idea of having to kill Raven for survival, Jinx backpedaled as she scrambled together her thoughts for ways to circumvent her dream’s logic. 

She knew there was no reasoning with characters in a dream, for all the times she’d desperately tried; even so she traded lines and logics with Raven, who advanced steadily or rapidly before her as she moved her line of sight, teleporting or darting across the cathedral rooms as Jinx did.

The sight of Raven, being so…

Wrong . 

Was unnerving.

There was only one escape, Jinx knew, already loopholing the laws of dream-reality to let her lift her feet off of the ground; and it was up .  

    

 

 

Jinx spent a moment cataloging all of the thoughts she’d just had as her body bloomed aware of itself; her alertness doing much to declutter the otherwise expansive meandering thoughts.

Not yet opening her eyes, Jinx debated on getting up or falling back into her dreams.

Reluctantly, Jinx decided to be awake. 

It took a bit of effort to sit up and stretch; she emitted a great yawn as she arched her arms above and out behind her back. 

One of these days, Jinx swore, I’m really going to take control of my dreams and fill them with blackjack and hookers.  

She wondered idly if her dream had anything to do with having fallen asleep on the couch in the common room, and waking up in her own bed.

Rather quickly, she shelved such notions in favor of drinking in her surroundings. 

The state of reality was far too.... Real to ever mistake it for a dream, she observed. 

It was kinda silly, now that she was thinking about it, for how much she tended to go along with the narratives of her dreams. 

She noted the severe lack of ‘highrender particle effects’ in the actual air around her. 

Real-life hyperreality mod when , Jinx mused. 

Feeling more human, Jinx slid off the bed and stood.

Had she even thanked cyborg for the new bedraiser? 

She wasn’t sure; she was still holding out on him for her own toilet. 

The thought brought a smile to her face, which she caught in her mirror’s reflection. 

As her eyes naturally gravitated to finding her own, they then refocused on the glimmer of silver resting on the dresser's surface.  

A small flutter ran through her fingers as she stared down her altar, the chalice a stable centerpiece; she could see the remnants of the hellsludge caked inside the bloodstained basin. 

Any water added to a mixture of seventy percent holy water, she recalled in morbid amusement, was considered holy; any substance added to a three percent mixture of unholiness, was therefore resultantly un -holy. 

The pain in her chest hitched her breath; she hissed in her gulp of air as she looked down her self.

She pressed a palm to her chest to better test the pressures within it.

A tiny stain seeped through.

Jinx lifted her shirt to better asses, and when she swabbed the pad of her finger against a nipple, a smear of purplish-red. 

“Fucking metal,” she mused quietly, her exhale a huff of tired acceptance. 

Her thoughts drifted to Raven’s blood, and how it’s color changed by thickness and degree of light. 

Reflexively, her mind conjured a Punnett square of blood types and metagenes in an attempt to discern how the notation of Raven’s genetics would look grammatically; there were a few papers and ongoing attempts at meta and magi classifications but the stalemates and debates about Capes and Supers had left little in the way of unprivatized or unmonetized standards of academia.

She was lucky that the HIVE had as much under the table research as it did. 

Thinking back to her science classes, she supposed it would be more efficient to list markers longhandley. 

There were at least 32 human classifications and the unofficial ‘generalized’ lists were at least doubled in even the most condensed and oversimplified rationales.  

Did demonology have genetics? 

She supposed ‘Satanic (Azarathian)’ would serve well enough as temporary placeholders. 

She made an offhand oath to break into Raven’s medical files for a fun timekiller. 

Her next emotion fell a little more strained; with a chest full of blood and a shirtful of stain, she needed to change.  

With a sigh she shrugged off the tank that would’ve led to too many questions from her new team and set about finding one of her old sports bras, a task made all the more difficult by the added dilemma of what of her wardrobe she’d brought, was now largely split between her room and Raven’s, and the darned dame apparently had a penchant for any garment that wasn’t her own.

As she rifled through her dresser she sighed and gave up after a few drawers, feeling both lethargic, and more than a little melodramatic. 

“To shoplift, or shop-thrift ,” Jinx waned, “That is the question.”  

As she thought her options over, her doors slid open with a slightly off-balanced hiss; a defect that Cyborg couldn’t prove wasn’t from her powers, even if she couldn’t exactly prove that it was . 

“Not decent” she warned as she kept the tank top draped over her arm in front of her chest, on the chance of the children coming to fetch her. 

“I’ll say,” a masculine voice agreed. 

Jinx, surprised but not alarmed, turned slightly to see a familiar mask enter through her door. 

“X”, Jinx greeted, eyeing his posture; “What’s the grill?”

Without missing a beat, the boy lazily gestured at himseslf; “Wanted to show off my new hat,” he quipped.

A novelty from BeastBoy’s collection, the ‘umbrella hat’ did little to flatter her colleague's image. 

“Cute,” she supposed, turning away; “Stay outta’ Raven’s room, half my shit is in there.” 

“About that,” X broached, his tone nearly serious; “Staff’s gettin’ bolder. -And it’s only so many times it's worth Mammoth getting tazed.” 

Jinx sighed, weighing her options. 

“I’ll send a Raid,” Jinx offered, shrugging; “A good shakedown should tide things over ‘till I’m back.” 

“Speaking of,” X Noted, “You might want to clip your chick’s nails; your whole damn back looks like it was slipped through a cheese grater.” 

Jinx chuckled. 

“You should see hers ,” she teased. 

“Fuckin’ feral,” he muttered, shaking his head; a motion made far more comical with the addition of his umbrella hat; “Anyway its been like. Months. Boys want you ‘round.”

Ten weeks , Jinx thought, agreeing. 

“Security heres’ shit,” the boy observed.

“-that’s what I told them!” Jinx huffed indignantly, old tensions raising; “But they don’t want to listen to me,” she groused. 

“It’s amazing you aren’t already dead,” X added. 

At the distinctly ‘professional’ tone in his voice, Jinx’s levity faded. 

As she opened her mouth to reply, a racket in the hall caught her attention. 

She stepped back as the door of her room was plowed open, a green horn followed by solid similarly green muscle careened into a roaring tiger, his vicious fangs and raised hackles directed at the masked teen. 

Jinx stumbled back as Red X reflexively drew into a battle a stance; Jinx pulled herself onto her bed as Beast Boy hearded the caped villain back, putting himself between them as a line of hostile barrier. 

The smoke bomb was expected by Jinx, but nevertheless she coughed as her eyes watered and stung.

The Tower’s ventilation protocols kicked in curtly, and with some extra help with Beast Boy’s temporarily expansive wingspan, the room started to clear. 

“Are you alright? I smelt something strange and followed it; figured it was an intruder and then I heard you talking and I was like Dude! But then I smelled blood and I was like dude .”

Once visibility returned, Beast Boy cursed and pulled out his communicator, obviously intent on relaying the scene. 

Hasilty, Jinx stumbled to him and clamped a hand on his wrist. 

He turned, and the teen’s face visibly paled. 

“Oh my god, he stabbed you!?” Beast Boy shrieked. 

“What? No!” Jinx insisted, resisting as Beast Boy immediately moved to better steady her; “I’m lactating, it’s cool. I’m fine.”

“But blood though? He pressed, his pitched raising several notches.

“Demons babies, it’s cool,” Jinx soothed, staring him down; she offered him a well-meaning smile to help settle his nerves; “You got here in time, nothin’ bad went down. Thank you.”

Somewhat re-grounded, the green teen nodded; a visible weight fell from his shoulders. 

“Raven would make a skin-rug outta’ me, if anythin’d happened to you n’ the baby,” he vented worriedly, his face softened around his snaggled-tooth; “You sure you’re alright? Should you sit down? Do you need water or something? -I’ll get some water,” he offered, already depositing her back to the bed to sit.

“-Call it in first,” Jinx insisted, “I just didn’t want everyone thinkin’ I’d been shanked.” 

Beast Boy nodded prudently and turned on his comm. 

As she leaned back on her hands, she became cognizant once more of the slight leaks in her chest.

She sighed harshly.   

“...And tell them I need to go shopping,” she decreed. 

  

     

       

Chapter 50

“I know it’s a little ahead of schedule but, what with the attack on Jinx yesterday-”

“Intrusion ,” Jinx interjected.

The weight of Raven nuzzling her neck both soothing and a little overheating; under her shirt, her new leak-absorbing chest pads itched. 

“Intrusion,” Robin agreed, somewhat tiredly; “Anyway, I gave the go-ahead to the Open House. Some of them should be here shortly, but I expect most of them to get here a little before dinner.”

The Titans looked pleased enough, which Jinx supposed she was content with; the feeling of Raven’s arms wrapped focusedly around her did much to entice Jinx to sink into her own comfortable exhaustion. 

She supposed it’d be another day or two for the demi-demon and the rest of the Titan’s heightened attentions back down to only slightly-overbearing fretting and resolved to bear through them with grace; she sipped her decaf thoughtfully. Out through the Tower’s mighty windows, the morning sun filtered through the dappling cloud cover, leading Jinx’s mind to wander.  

After a moment, Raven nudged her in the direction of the couch and the two children still drowsy with sleep clamouring on it for her to join in their ritualistic consumption of cartoons.

Timmy crawled into her lap; Jinx helped lean him into less pressurized spots for her bladder’s comfort. Melvin meanwhile was content to curl up beside her, her brother’s sippycup in hand as she helped him polish off its calcium ridden contents. 

Beast Boy, who had been dog-napping at the other end, catted his way onto the back of the couch, taking up a vantage point; Jinx continued her point of not ribbing him for his recent-found paranoia. 

-She figured the poor kid was nearly as shaken as Raven. 

Behind them, Cyborg continued to mill around the kitchen, preparing for the army of ravenous superpowered teenagers and Starfire, for once, relinquished Teether to Robin.    

For a while, it was an untroubled moment of undisturbed peace.

Then the doorbell rang. 

The cameras immediately transferred the pictures of their guests to the big screen, cutting off the children’s cartoon, startling them unhappily. 

As the teens began to say their hellos and permission to enter, Beast Boy jumped from the couch, racing to be the one to reach the computer terminal first so he could be the one to press the button that would allow their company in; Starfire was already at the doors, eager to greet their guests in person. 

Robin muttered to himself and trailed after Starfire, the baby unusually well behaved in his arms.

Raven, already within a quieter shaded spot near the middle exits, smiled softly at all the excitement. 

A girl in a red star bangled suit strode in, coupled with a casually dressed boy in a black shirt; the Superman insignia adorning it was clarifier enough for Jinx. 

The others greeted them by name, confirming Jinx’s guesses of identity; Super Boy and Wonder Girl were first to arrive, their faces more than eager and bright enough to rival even Starfire’s enthusiasm.  

The pair hadn't made it farther than the kitchenette to greet Cyborg before the elevator opened a second time, releasing a gaggle of speedsters. 

The lanky redhead dressed like condiments bore a bolt of lightning across his chest; he quickly introduced himself to everyone, individually, within seconds. 

Jinx found herself standing, shaking his hand without warning as the boy clarified himself as ‘Kid Flash’.  

A little surprised by the jostle, Jinx felt a little relieved as the shorter, younger duo of speedsters approached Starfire instead; offering their names as ‘Menos’ and ‘Mas’. 

Jinx fought to shrug off a fond smile over them; their charged theming was rather cute for a couple of kids. 

Timmy took one look at the new boys and immediately lit up; they took one surprised look at him before radiating equal delight. He led them over to the kid's corner, where Melvin took a turn happily introducing herself. 

The language barrier didn’t seem to matter much between the group as they gestured about, but Jinx made a note to talk to Raven about it at somepoint. 

“Hey, call me Donna,” Wonder Girl greeted, as she stopped to shake her hand. 

“Jinx,” she offered back, nodding equally as the super continued her quest to shake hands with everyone. 

One by one, others trickled in. 

An archer, an alien, an Atlantean, a blonde girl with another Super insignia; over the course of the hour Jinx learned them to be Speedy, Miss Martian, Aqualad, and Supergirl.

As the Tower continued filling up, Jinx felt a funny sort of deja vu.

When the snacks were started on, a mute boy arrived whom Raven introduced as Jericho; Jinx swore the boy looked familiar, but shrugged it off figuring she’d likely made a go at a few of the upcoming supers at one point or another.   

At some point during the proceedings, Jinx lost track of the milling teens; with the sort of chaos that Jinx only recalled from the Lunchroom, she idled conversations with a fishperson and a masked luchador, laughed with a gaggle of caped girls, and at one point spotted Raven heatedly conversing with a boy that rather reminded Jinx of Gizmo for the strange techpack affixed to his back.

At one point, Deathstroke’s daughter showed up; her persona a dead-ringer lookalike of her father. Jinx greeted her warmly, happy for the familiar face in the irony of the setting. 

‘Stabby’ while not entirely pleased to see her, seemed content enough to quip back, rekindling their old almost-friendship. 

Apparently, Jericho was her brother; a surprising fact soon found out by the entirety of the surrounding teens as the boy launched himself at her in a tackling hug, meeting only expletives instead of volatile offensives.  

It was rather like being back at the Hive, surrounded with ‘new recruits’ each semester. 

A few of the visitors claimed attendance simply to network, but others readily offered interest in joining the recruitments; Jinx basked in the sociable atmosphere, letting herself relax in the relative anonymity of the meet and greet as the hours wore on.  

Every so often, one of the founding Titans would check in on her, offering drinks and chaste-traded nods before drifting off again for other duties.  

After stealing another plate for herself to serve as dinner, a familiar streak of yellow caught her eye; unease filled her, a steady, uncanny mix of hope and dread. 

Following it, Jinx found herself in one of the darkened exit halls only to have her suspicions confirmed. 

Bumble Bee stood at ease, a plate in hand, regarding her with a jovial familiarity; as the girl’s body language was still limber and uncoiled, Jinx relaxed into letting her positivity win out. 

She greeted her old friend with a smile. 

“Hey Bee, long time no knees,” she quipped.

“No kidding,” Bee replied, eyeing her over; “You’re almost fat.” 

Jinx snickered; “Beleive me, I tried,” she addressed, landing a hand against her stomach; “Jr. didn’t want to fucking commit.”

It was Bee’s turn to chuckle, her snort an answering acknowledgment in camaraderie. 

“Honestly, I didn’t expect you to commit as long as you have to this,” her classmate offered; “Consider me both shocked and awed.”

Jinx grinned wryly. 

“Guess I never give you enough credit,” Bee dismissed fondly. 

As the air thickened with a sense of belonging, Jinx felt a mild curiosity perk up. 

“So did the teaches’ put you up to this or are you just happy to see me,” she quipped, in an effort to dispel the lingering awkwardness. 

“What do you mean?” the girl asked, her wings fluttering. 

“Come on Bee, am I missin’ a deadline or what? -Don’t tell me you’re thinkin’ ‘bout jumpin’ tracks...” Jinx teased.  

The smile on Bee’s face wavered, setting Jinx back into keen, but guarded alert. 

“They didn’t tell you?” Bee asked, her tone suggesting genuine surprise; “I thought Sunshine would’ve filled you in by now-”

Bee cut herself off, her face growing visibly pale as she considered her apparent position. 

“You didn’t switch over, did you?” Bee asked, her tone grave.

Jinx felt something cold in her blood begin to boil. 

“It’s cool,” she feigned, fighting to keep the continued air of joviality; “I won’t blame ya’ for jumping ship while I’m not there. ‘S 'prolly a clusterfuck without me keeping the place from imploding.” 

Bee worried her lip for a moment; a habit Jinx didn’t recall Bee previously exhibiting, which made Jinx worry about what sorts of habits her friend might also have been hiding.  

“...You aren’t here to join the Titans, are you?” Jinx asked flatly, her mind already narrowing down the possibilities to one. 

Bee shook her head. 

“How long were you an implant?” she gauged, her tone leaving no room for insubordination. 

“Pink…” Bee placated, warily. 

“How long,” Jinx repeated, her hackles beginning to raise; underneath her skin, she felt her magic flicker.

“From the start,” Bee answered, not bothering to hold out. 

The revelation felt metallic yet sour on Jinx’s pallette; it was a genuinely impressive admission.

It was also crucifyingly repulsive. 

“...So you lied, the entire time,” Jinx addressed, her need for direct confirmation direly invasive. 

“Come on J, you’re not that stupid,” Bee edged; “Some things were real enough. -I hated Home Ec, I really did like Algebra-Two,” she rambled, “But yeah no, I never wanted to take over for the Headmistress; I was never as into Base Building as you. The shitty street talk was also forced,” Bee offered, shrugging; “With how much your team loves to use it, the entire lexicon of the student body started mixing it in. -Still haven’t forgiven you and Billy for that, by the way.” 

Jinx nodded slightly, her teeth embedded in her lip. 

“So I guess to keep things even,” Bee offered, her tone slipping into old professionalism; “You don’t stir up trouble for the Titans, and I’ll keep quiet in the Hive ‘till you get back.”

Her back burned. 

Her breath came stunted, to keep from screaming. 

“I don’t think you’re in a position to bargain,” Jinx warned, already planning out the resulting phone calls she should make. 

The air around them died. 

The hotness, the passion, the tension, the wake. 

In the silence, Bee’s face softened. 

“Look. In a few weeks it won’t matter anyway; I’m heading Titans East. I’m taking a few of the new recruits with me. You can come, if you want. Tell the school, say it’s for the baby’s sake.”

Jinx popped and relocked her jaw; “I’m heading my own team with Raven, actually.”

The look of genuine surprise on Bee’s face left little for Jinx to wonder just how low her faux-friend must have thought about her. 

“So you aren’t just selling the baby off to Smiles for the blackmail money,” Bee pressed, collecting composure as her wings shimmered; “I guess X and the Boys had it wrong.” 

Jinx mourned the times where she’d have felt comfortable joking a witt encrusted comeback. 

At Jinx’s silence, Bee’s face hardened.

“You have twenty-four hours,” Jinx stated, her tone flat, her lilt vacant; “To move your shit before you’re permanently suspended.”  

Bee’s eyes narrowed, sightly; but she refrained from arguing. 

They both knew Jinx’s demand was a generous avoidance of worse complications. 

“I’ll go,” Bee answered, her head held evenly; “But don’t you hurt her, Jinx. Not like that,” the Titan ordered, leaning in.   

“Agreed,” Jinx mumbled, committing to playground laws; not that they meant anything to the girl in front of her, anymore. 

If they ever did. 

Wordlessly, Jinx spun on her heels and forced herself back through the hall to descend back into the throngs of celebrating teens; her tactless entry bothered a few of the attendees from the middle of Robin’s welcoming speech, but Jinx payed no one no mind.

As she struggled to shrug on her party face once more, the condiment colored speedster cornered her. 

“Hey cutie, aren’t you that hexy chick?” 

“Jinx,” she supplied dryly, her tone a little more on edge and spiteful than she would have liked. 

The boy scratched his chin. 

“So it’s true that you’re pregnant?” 

At his question a  few murmurs started up in the couple of kids closest to them; unknowingly walking a landmine, the boy continued; “-Cause I was talking to The Flash the other day and he said some girl came into the WatchTower sayin’ somethin’ ‘bout a magic baby or whatever.” 

The familiar feeling of her fight or flight response welling up bile in her throat was almost an unwelcome change of pace; it only occurred to her as her hand was caught midswing, that beating up kids that annoyed her wasn’t a viable solution to her problems anymore. 

The look of genuine shock and surprise on the boy’s face stopped her from reflexively upending him onto the floor, or attempting to land her intended hit. 

She dropped her arm to her side, noting the wet feeling on her waterline.

Raven’s presence behind her shuddered a wave of startled gasps through the crowd as she melted up through a great shadowmass to push some distance between the immediate group. 

Jinx closed her eyes and exhaled as Raven placed a hand to her shoulder and nuzzled in for only a moment, likely to reassure herself, before looking to the Kid Flash. 

“Please don’t harass my girlfriend, Wally,” Raven chided, her tone eerily playful, while her everything in her stance that Jinx could feel pressed against her was a radial warning. 

At Raven’s statement, another flutter of gossip filtered through the crowd at intermediate pace. 

A red and black adorned gothic lolita approached, flanked by Starfire and a few of the other girls, all seemingly curious about Raven’s announcement and the idea of a baby. 

A caveman and a crystalline girl also bridged the gap to chat about the wonder of life; as the throng slowly enfolded them once more, Jinx breathed easy. 

Having a wall of deployable three meatshields thick in all directions did wonders for her nervous paranoia.

Without meaning to, Jinx caught sight of Bumble Bee roving about with Cyborg and the green Titan Beast Boy and shifted her direction again as quickly as possible. 

“So like, is this one of those surrogation things?” asked the witchgoth as she gawked at Jinx’s stomach. 

As Raven progressed the conversations on, somewhat proudly filling the others in, the churning in Jinx’s stomach worked itself into tangled knots that worked most of the air from escaping her windpipe. 

Starfire's face lit up in desperate concern as Jinx doubled over, her arms folded around her middle. 

Raven called her name, immediately helping her right herself; reflexively, she dug her nails into the Titan’s shoulder.

The feelings inside of her were all-encompassing; it was with a hiss and a sickening growl that pulled Raven’s face to meet her own. 

“If you don’t tell your child to pick a shape and fucking stick with it, I’m going to cannibalize your stupid pretty fucking face ,” she warned.  

The fear in Raven’s eyes melted into awe; at once, Jinx was subjected to her partner ushering her once more to a seat, hands roving over her chest to feel the contortion of the infant, drinks and doting offers cluttering up her space.

The night wore on; conversations established, enlistments filled. 

Any clout she might have held as an enemy, erased. 

Peachy, she resigned, thinking.   

The weight of Raven nuzzling her neck both soothing and a little overheating.

Chapter 51

“And then I said, ‘Why Billy ! I do believe thy hat is actually a mongoose!’,” Jinx exclaimed, her enunciation stretched with dramatic intent.

“That’s not proper at all!” Melvin gleefully decreed, slamming her teacup onto her palm.

Jinx nodded solemnly; “Why I know ,” she agreed; “Imagine! Gali-vating around with a mongoose instead of a wombat for a hat! How utterly tomfoolish!” 

Melvin giggled at her display of absurdity, making the last few minutes of exaggerated pantomime worth it.

Jinx smiled, resisting the urge to reach over and drag the young girl into her arms for some tickle infused affection. 

As Melvin quieted, she set her cup on the table; Jinx recognized the look on the child’s face enough to begin readying herself for a change from distractions, and slid the comically oversized feathered hat from her head.

“Timmy called Raven 'Momma' again today…” the young girl began; her words trailed off, as if waiting for some indication to tell her how she should react to her own statement.

“He’s been doing that since we got back from space,” Melvin added.

Jinx bit her lip, wondering how her luck had landed her into another serious conversation with the little magician. 

“You don’t have to call her anything you don’t want to, Mel,” she eventually offered; “It if makes your brother happy to call her that, that’s also okay.” 

Melvin slumped back in her chair; to her left, Bobby hunched over to get a better look at her, his plush face and button eyes glistening with plastic concern. 

“I don’t want you to have the baby,” the child revealed, spiking a wave of concern and pain through Jinx’s core; “We just got her to be our Mom and now she’s gonna’ send us away! I hate her,” she snapped, her little face scrunched in terrible clashes of emotion.

Jinx thought back to the prior evening's party; the abundance of new people could easily have been overwhelming and the addition of those new people that had stayed to move in could have been startling to even an older teen, much less a child. Jinx recalled multiple memories of how Gizmo had been so often overlooked in a crowd; she supposed first, that perhaps this was an instance where she'd been grateful for the HIVE's stances on emotional detachments, before resigning herself to maintain a more 'heroic' outlook and coddle the girl a little.   

“She’s not going to forget you, Mel,” Jinx countered, a smooth, rolling candor to her tone; she reached out across the table to lay a hand on hers, only for Melvin to snatch her limbs away. 

Jinx sighed. 

“Kiddo, listen to me, okay?” Jinx asked, her tone firm from the times she'd whipped her Boys into shape. 

Unwilling to comply nor disobey, Melvin lifted her face to meet her gaze. 

“Raven wants to be your Mom. She wants to give you and your brother’s everything she didn’t get to have when she grew up,” she explained, hoping her words held more truth than assumption; “She loved you guys first, okay? She’s going to keep loving you.”

“How do you know?” Melvin countered, prompting a concerned rumble from Bobby; “What if the baby happens and you take her away to play with your baby?”

Jinx's mind raced to guesstimate what sort of odds the girl had somehow overheard or been in contact with Bumble Bee; her more rational mind then figured that girl was likely smart enough to wonder such a thing herself, or barring that, that it was more than likely a common enough rumor around any of the Titans for her to overhear. 

Jinx slumped her arms onto the miniature table and tried to ignore the prickling feeling of static in the foot she was sitting on.

“I love you too, Mel,” she admitted. 

It felt strange, finally saying such sentiment aloud, she noted; “I didn’t want you to feel like I was invading, so I didn’t say so until now. -You don’t have to like me as a mom or anything, but I was hoping we could be friends, at least. You’re a bright kid,” she doted, giving the young a genuine smile lacking quips or sharp teeth.

Melvin’s face started to lose the pain-laced expansion. 

“I promise I’m not going to take Raven away from you, Mel,” she continued, “And neither is your little sister.” 

A bright, shimmering glaze washed over Melvin’s eyes as her entire outlook changed. 

Without warning, the girl sprang over the table and collided against Jinx with as much enthusiasm and the girl could apparently muster. 

With an audible ‘oof’, Jinx wrapped her arms around the little girl and relaxed into the hug. 

After a moment, she put a little extra squeeze into the embrace, and let her arms slack.

Melvin laced her arms around Jinx’s neck and smiled warmly. 

“You can be our Mom too I guess,” Melvin decided, prompting a tugging smile across Jinx’s lips. 

“More moms means many more ice creams and bedtime stories, on my old planet,” Starfire quipped, stepping into the room, Timmy on her hip. 

“Hi ‘Jinks!” the boy chirruped, as Starfire set him down. 

“I’m going to call you Momma J,” Melvin declared, standing on her thigh with her hands on hips; “That way you guys won’t be confused.” 

“Momma?” Timmy repeated, glancing from his sister to Jinx and back again. 

“Sure, Sport,” Jinx offered, shrugging; “Looks like I’m free real estate.”

Melvin smuggled out of her lap, before dashing up the faux-tree bunk bed; she rustled the through the leaves with gusto, eliciting Jinx to assume she was searching for something. 

“What’cha need, Star?” Jinx asked, noting the girl’s serene, but sparkling demeanor. 

“Do you recall how after your exam the League inquired as to when you would shower your future offspring?” she goaded, her hair flickering voluminously behind her. 

“...You seriously want to plan a party for that,” Jinx gleaned dryly; “Did Raven say she’d let you?”

A grin broke out across the Tamaranean’s face, telling Jinx all she needed to know about her chances of getting out of it. 

“You know what,” she decided, feeling oddly rambunctious; “Why not? Who doesn’t love free sh- stuff ,” she corrected, as Melvin chuckled above them on her bed. 

“Wonderful,” Starfire exclaimed, clasping her together; “I shall invite the family of Raven’s Aunt, and all of the League and the Titans will come.” 

“All of the League?” Jinx asked, “That seems excessive.”

“They will be amiss if we rescind their invitations,” Starfire explained.

“Rescind?” Jinx repeated, tilting her head, “When exactly did you start planning this party?”

“The night after your arrival,” Starfire dismissed, popping a shoulder. 

Jinx huffed with respect; “Waste no time, do you?” 

“You didn’t,” the alien countered coyly, a mischievous twinkle in her eye. 

Jinx snorted; “Fine, but I’m inviting all my friends,” she declared, “It’s about time everyone learns I’m not dead or anything.” 

Starfire looked mildly concerned for a moment before brightening once more. 

“Of course,” she agreed, “All shall go well. Let us talk further of the plans.”

“I wan’na go!” Timmy whined, his voice raised in indignation for the perceived lack of an invitation to the ‘party’. 

“Good, you can help me eat the cake,” Jinx quipped, bringing a look of delight across the young boy’s face. 

“There shall be many roles to fill,” Starfire agreed; “Let us begin the, ‘hashing’ of the 'deets',” she suggested eagerly.            

           

 

---

“Darling.”

At Jinx’s voice, Raven adjusted her hold on Teether to look at her. 

“Why did Starfire corner me about plans for a babyshower?” Jinx asked, her tone sweet but chalky with exasperation.

“You can tell her if you don’t want one,” she offered; “I’ve no… knack, for those sorts of things.” 

“So you’re going to leave me to plan the registry, the seating arrangements, and the color scheme with Starfire by myself?” Jinx asked, her pitch rising. 

“In a word, yes,” she stated flatly.

Jinx’s look of affront melted off to reveal a face of manic delight. 

“Please keep everything at least dubiously legal, and potentially not on fire,” Raven requested; “Everything else is up to you.” 

“I’m going to invite the entire Hive Academy,” Jinx prodded.

“Sure.”

“And I’m going to make a big speech about how it was my nefarious plan all along,” Jinx added. 

“I’ll have Cyborg write your prompter notes.” 

“I told Melvin that I’m her mother now.”

“Bring her back to me on holidays.”

“You’re a cunt,” Jinx huffed. 

“You really want to fill up that swear jar, don’t you?” Humor bantered; “At this rate we'll be headstarted on Timmy’s college fund.” 

“He’s going to a tradeschool and you know it,” Jinx riffed, the smile returning to her lips; “That boy loves heavy equipment almost as much as Cyborg ‘do.” 

“-Speaking of Cyborg, there was something I wanted to speak to him about; can you watch the kids tonight?”  

With a roll of her eyes, Jinx waved the question away, already making her way back to the common room.

"Just so you know, I'm going to teach them about socialism and anarchy," she quipped over her shoulder, the promise also a cheerful threat. 

Amusement smiled at her departure.  

 

 

---

The walk to Cyborg’s garage was almost nostalgic; muscle memory avoided the squeaks and groans lodged under certain steps and floorboards, filling her with a sense of healfhearted lightheadedness as her emotions prickled beneath her allowances. 

“Vic, you in here?” she called, her voice ringing around the metal walls. 

A clang from deeper in the room answered her well enough to guide her feet before the mechanical Titan yipped and dropped his desk scattered project. 

Beside him, the new leader of Titans East seemed to fight off a look of embarrassment; the garage light cast tiny patches of iridescence through her filtering wings. 

“Hey Rae,” he greeted, wiping his hands clean with a work towel; “What’s up?” 

“Nothing city related,” Raven answered, settling the boy’s alarm somewhat; she nodded at Bumble Bee, hoping her somewhat standoffish nature both did and did not, preceed her. 

"Hey Smiles," Bee greeted, regaining her composure; her smile was large and brimming with an excess of energy that Raven had somewhat come to expect from the girl. 

Gesturing to the pieces and blueprints lining Cyborg's workdesk, Raven asked a buffering question; “What’s that?”

“Oh these? This is just an update to the T-Comm’s design. Figured I’d make one for Jinx that didn’t get all staticy all the time when she’s not with you.”

“Oh, did the League tell you about that,” Raven huffed.

“Nah, noticed it before then,” the boy admitted, wiping under his opened plating digits one by one.

Raven nodded, once. 

"So whatcha need, Lil' Blue?" asked the mechanical teen, as he stretched to his full height. 

Raven cast a glance at Bee and felt her reservations thicken slightly; "Actually, I was hoping to speak with you a moment?"

Cyborg’s optic narrowed slightly; a copper-mercury lime clouded Raven’s senses as he set his towel aside; “Did the League send you any updates on the baby, or something?” 

Raven shook her head; Cyborg’s posture hardened some as his brain gears whirled in thought.  

"What about that... blood thing?" he ventured, rubbing a thumb against his chin; "Jinx told me it worked, but I haven't followed up on that."

"Blood thing?" Bee asked, concerned; she looked to Cyborg for an explanation before looking back to her. 

“After her… ritual, the fetus seems to be corporeal,” she offered, not quite setting the girl at ease; “Truthfully, I can’t say whether that’s any improvement or not.”

“Will she be like, okay do ya' think? Should we be on standby for ‘talons through the belly’ or anything?” he pushed, air quoting his concerns. 

Bee's face paled at the idea; her grip on Cyborg's arm faltered slightly as she silently repeated the word 'talons'. 

“I made Jinx strong enough to withstand the usual side effects back during our trip,” Knowledge answered; “I… wasn’t really aware that I had done so at the time, but that seems to be the way of things with me and Jinx.”

“So she’s probably good then, that’s a relief,” he exhaled, a little more tension easing off of his artificial joints. 

"...That's good," Bee offered, her tone inquisitively measured. 

“She should start to show any day now, that she’s in the second trimester,” Knowledge added, the thought a distant notion. 

“Well, the T-Car already has babyseats so, we should be good for whatever comes next,” Cyborg assured.

A Fond feeling welled up, stemmed from an undercurring flow of shared pasts and weighted hardships; Happy smiled. 

“Thank you, for that dinner by the way,” she acknowledged, her small smile holding; “It was... nice.”    

Cyborg practically beamed; ever ready for compliments about his culinary feats.

Seemingly uneasy with the more intimate atmosphere, Bumble Bee began the polight motions of excusing herself.   

"I think I'll catch you later, Sparky," Bee announced gently, as she tapped a farewell along the boy's metal arm plating; she looked to Raven once more before shaking her head. 

Raven nodded again, as the new leader made her way out as Cyborg traded her a knowing, cherry-soda feeling smile.  

“Well, couldn’t let Pinkslip top me out with tofu,” Cyborg then joked, gently returning the conversation; “It was the least we could do.”

“Really, you’ve all gone out of your way to help her… help me, feel at home,” she continued, the emotions a little too thick within her throat; “I really haven’t been the most considerate teammate as of late, bringing Melvin and boys and then a stranger into the fold. I’ve practically taken over the Tower.”

“Eh,” Cyborg rebuffed, “Most of the newbies are here too, she'll make a few of 'em feel more at ease. -And we both knew it’s just a matter of time before Robin skips town, scattering us to the winds. If you wanna’ get your nesting on now to ride it out, I’m all for you.”

“And you, Vic? I assume the League took you aside again,” Raven ventured. 

“I don’t want to leave the team just yet, especially not with my first nephew on the way!” he deflected; “Who’s gonna’ teach ‘em how to ball? -Beast Boy?” he asked incredulously, his tone teasing.

“Zatanna asked about me again,” Raven admitted, the moment sombering once more. 

Cyborg waited, giving her thoughts space enough to collect. 

“I’ve yet to talk with Jinx about it. I’m… nervous she’d ask me to accept,” she continued, “or worse, that she wouldn’t.”

“Issues in paradise, huh?” he offered, folding his arms as he leaned back against his desk; “There’s time yet, before all that. We still gotta setup Titans East Headquarters and enlist our Honoraries.”

“...Do you think she could lead a team?” she asked suddenly, the notion fresh from whispering emotion; “We might be able to reach a few of the more dubious candidates, with her confidence.”

“I mean, I don’t see why not,” he agreed, “You’ve already got a mini-team under your belt, and Jinx has a decade of training under hers. To be honest, I always sort of envisioned you either being the first to take off into obscurity, or being the last founder to leave, after the next set settles in.”

“Your confidence in me is endearing,” Sarcasm quipped, Fondly. 

Cyborg’s lip tugged into a half a smile; “Like I said though. There’s plenty of time before we all go changing cape colors.”

“You should see some of Jinx’s redesigns,” she countered, “I have half a mind to break out a few myself.” 

“Oh? Figures she’d be into costume design,” he reasoned, rubbing his chin, “Tell her to run them by me sometime and we’ll see what we can’t crank out.” 

“There’s… a note on that lead I’d like to follow, actually,” Bravery pushed, working past the clog in her throat.

“Sure, but I can’t promise you excellence on anything that doesn’t have a chassis,” he joked. 

“Do you… have any scrap metals lying around that I could use?” 

“Oooh, going the medieval armor route, are you? Nice,” he teased, shooting her a playful wink before gesturing around the workshop; “Whatever isn't already wired down, it's yours.”  

“Thank you,” she replied genuinely, eyeing the wreckage around the worn-out boxes and the half-realized prototypes littering the floor.    

“I want that,” she blurted, a speckled metal rod catching her notice.

“The superconductor? Sure,” he permitted, “I got like, nine of ‘em I think.”  

Her thoughts drifted to her Pride of precision; Knowledge debating if it would be better to craft by magic or by hand.

Intention besides all else, she thought; tests of her mastery of control were always welcome instruments of measure.    

And yet, something about the emotions floating within her nebulous self gave her further pause.

Was not a gift meant to mirror the gifter, refracted by the lens of the receiver?

Thoughts, intentions, emotions... 

Principles, regarding actions.  

She would work it by hand, she decided; she was more than her magic, after all.  

“I need something to… fix it with,” she continued, her powers plucking the rod from the wreckage. 

“You’ll probably need the lathe,” he replied, walking over to a shelf; he hefted out a large, wench-like looking object and let it thump an unceremonious landing on one of the side tables; “And I have plenty of files and bits so, let me know.”

“Noted,” she agreed, rolling the rod in her hands; “I’m… not really sure what I’m hoping for. I might just try a few things.”

“Always worked for me,” Cyborg agreed, as he picked up a scraggle of wires attached to a thin sheet of metal, his finger extending into a multitool.

Raven wandered to the lathe and eyed the apparent size restriction within. 

Well, she thought, I suppose I can supplement with magic, just a little.

She sliced off the end of the rod with her powers and held the disk in front of the lathe, to better gauge the amount of excess to sheer away with her soul. 

The disk slipped easily into position.  

“ Hey Cyborg, what kind of bit do I need for this?” she asked, as she noticed the empty spot in the other half of the machine. 

“I’d go with a center drill,” he advised, a thin metal clasp extending from his arm; it pinched a bit from a row on the shelf above him and held it out to her. 

She took it graciously and fit it into its proper placement. 

As she went to turn it on, her mechanically enhanced friend tapped her shoulder, handing her a pair of comically unfashionable saftey goggles.

She gave him a look, but slipped them on without protest. 

The rest of the afternoon soon spilled into early evening.

Thankfully, Cyborg’s stash of bits and borers proved handy, the more of them Raven’s project seemed to run through.  

“That’s a cool pattern,” Cyborg offered, as peeked over her space. 

Raven grunted, her Determination already thickset form the hours of wearing the excess metal filaments. 

“Looks like you’ll need a buffer,” he added, stepping back; “Let me grab you a dowl.”  

“I don't know how you humans existed this long without magic,” she groused as she attempted to rub feeling back into her fingers. 

“Builds character,” the boy quipped, retrieving the electric tool from a plastic case under the racks. 

Dowel in hand, she crossed her legs under herself, suspended midair, as she set about the arduous task of sanding and beveling the objects smooth. 

After awhile, she used her fingers to test the grain, feeling out any sharpness or imperfections to wear away. 

“Accessorising?” Cyborg asked, eyeing her project as he ran a few shock charges through his comunicater’s casing. 

“If it goes well,” she allotted, gauging the outer facing. 

Buffing it smooth was taxing, as the metal heated quickly and the spinning sensation of the drill whirling through her soulself was dimly unsettling. 

In her drive to ensure the whole of the ring was smooth, a growing concern began to work its way through her jaw.

“I fucked it,” she spat, Anger berating the dent in the surface. 

“There’s no mistakes in art,” Cyborg quoted, “Only happy accidents. -Let me see it.” 

After a few rotations under the scan of his electronic eye, he handed the ring back to her. 

“I’ll pull out the sander belt,” he offered; “Just bevel the outside with a bunch of facets all the way around. If you incorporate it, it’ll look natural.” 

Raven nodded and rolled her shoulder as her friend set up the next machine; once it started rolling and he stepped away, she shot him a tired, but agreeable glance and went back to work. 

The grinder was too jarring to use her powers with; the fast motion disbanded her powers as instinct warned her not to shred her inner self, leaving her to work with lamenting fingertips.

After a surprising scrape to her knuckles, she quickly learned to angle the ring without risking the flesh of her fingers. 

The beveling went quickly, leaving the ring looking oddly reminiscent of a giraffe.

“Please tell me there’s a way to make this look… not awful,” she mourned, rotating it under the workshop lights.

“I guess you could try a burn dunk?”

The mechanically enhanced Titan rifled through his garage for awhile until he procured two jugs of semi-hazardous chemicals; he lifted each, one in each hand. 

“Hours or seconds,” he asked. 

“Seconds,” Rashness supplied; “If I’m down here much longer Jinx will send the kids after me.”

He grinned, a little too recklessly, and tossed the ‘hours’ jug over his shoulder. 

Somehow, the container didn’t break, despite its thud filled path to the garage floor. 

“Hand me that bucket behind you, we gon’ dunk this bitcoin!” 

She delivered it readily, and winced at the fuild’s smell as it filled.

With a grin, cyborg ejected a pair of long tongs from his arm.  

The bath had an almost instantaneous effect; the copper, worn away, now resembled faint veins of magma, holding drifts of obsidian-resembling steel. 

“That looks hella tight, actually,” Cyborg observed, as he studied the creation. 

“I’m not sure it’s what I’m looking for,” Raven admitted; “Though perhaps the ‘fire and brimstone’ association is applicable.” 

“I mean, we can make it glow, that’s no problem,” he thought aloud, “I have plenty of stuff 'round here, dependin’ on what kinda color you want. Or how radioactive,” he teased. 

Cyborg glanced at her, his optic now clearly studying a data read centered around her face. 

“What’s this all for?” he asked quietly, prompting her; “Or is the better question, ‘who’?”

Patience sighed.

“Jinx.”

The teen struggled to contain his grin, clearly attempting to spare her dignity; his thoughtfulness was one of his more endearing traits, she felt. 

“I have one week until Starfire gathers everyone here for the baby shower,” she admitted; “I have until the start of that party to come up with something to give her.” 

“Let’s try a few things else then,” he declared; “Meet me here, next few nights and we’ll see what we can make.”          

Chapter 52

It was the second time Jinx had seen the Tower bustling with people and she found herself grateful that most guests were merely stopping by for an hour or two before ducking out again. And while she didn’t know exactly what Starfire had told everyone to keep them on their best behaviors, the atmosphere remained blissfully casual, which suited her and the Titans just fine.

The Titan-hopefuls and Honorary Recruits at least, seemed content for any excuse to hang and mill about, while the Goody-Goody adults that filtered through looked equal parts nervous and well-meaning.

While it stung a bit that her Team was evidently avoiding her, what with the way she’d left, Jinx honestly hadn't expected any of them to show up; but her other classmates, the dozen or so out of the Academy's three hundred that swung by at least, were understandably subdued with curiosity-laden tension born from being openly invited into the ‘Heroes’ Home-Turf’.

She was happy to spot X, brazenly goading Robin in the kitchen; he offered her a jovial wave, which only served to infuriate the ‘Walking Traffic Light’ even more. 

The older and solo-villains were fewer still; she might’ve been surprised to see any of them at all, had she not held the understanding that a free chance to ‘scope out the enemy’ would be an opportunity too good for the crime-masters to pass up. 

-That, and the novelty of the invitation and the promise of free food worked equally along all sects and age groups, Jinx supposed. Since word had gotten out about her situation after the Titans’ recruitment party, Jinx forwent any pretense of secrecy and found herself repeating the same conversation with the new flux of guests: that yes she was pregnant, that the conception had been a magical accident, and that yes, she and Raven were dating.

The truce between all of the cliques was honestly a little disconcerting. 

There was a split-second that her interest piqued as Control Freak puffed up his chest in that ‘ I’m About To Do It ’ manner that every villain and hero in the vicinity also recognized; before he could start… whatever it was he’d been hoping to do, the Flash blinked into existence, a hot dog in one hand, his arm wrapped around Control Freak in the other, and a very stern looking Superman not but a few steps away. 

The speedster gave her a wink, and the strangely suited time traveler immediately deflated. 

Unfortunately, no amount of interference could dampen Control Freak’s fangirling over meeting the Justice Leaguers in person.

-She honestly didn’t care what he put the grow-up girl scouts through, but she’d blatantly warned the greasy slimeball the moment he’d stepped through the tower doors that at any lecherous smiles or invasive questions, she’d hex him.

Painfully. 

And not in the ‘fun’ way.  

He’d sheepishly given her a wide berth and began his quest to help himself to the buffet and to make himself a personal nuisance to the League'rs.

“He’ll never find a Nemesis,” Wrestling Star muttered dryly, watching the creep; Jinx hadn't been able to help but snicker in agreement. 

As interesting as it was watching everyone intermingle, the gifts were pretty cool too; Jinx couldn’t help but tug up the corners of her mouth at the steadily amassing collection of funny and sincere greeting cards that were being slid into her hands every so often. 

Her spirits had gradually been set at ease with each new creatively terrible addition, and Sargent Hive’s ‘Happy Birthday BABY’ card was a strong contender for her favorite.

She honestly hadn’t been expecting anything beyond such formalities; she figured Raven’s team might have a small surprise or two for their teammate, but a few of the guests had offered them actual presents as well. 

Argent and the pink-haired antenna-ed girl with her caveman boytoy had bequeathed her with gift cards and baby clothes; and Mad Mod had pressed a small box labeled ‘Hypno-Mobile’ into her arms, to ‘keep the snot from crying at night’, which she found a surprisingly thoughtful gesture from the madman.  

In a surreal, beautiful moment that she wasn’t completely sure she hadn’t dreamt, Wonder Woman herself stopped by, and offered her a gift she called ‘the Shroud of Hera’.

It was a rather plain looking blanket, but it glimmered with a divinely-bestowed glow and Jinx was petrified she’d somehow break it and get smited forever for it.

Raven thankfully, kept to her side which kept her from outwardly panicking over the godly fabric. 

Everything seemed to be going so well in fact, that in the next instant, when the world flashed white and she found herself knocked back by the force along with everyone else, she was genuinely caught off-guard. 

She blinked, urging her watery eyes to focus on the center of calamity, where a man clad in a strange gold armored suit stood amongst the smoke. 

“Warp!” cried the alien princess, which Jinx took to either be the Villain's name or powerset. 

Instantly, the Villain was swarmed by the Heroes; every adult and teen do-gooder aimed and battle-stanced. Beside her, Raven elongated into terrifying proportions, her cloak billowing in a threat display Jinx recalled quite well.   

“How many times do we gotta’ teach you this lesson, old man?” Cyborg bellowed, his arm-cannon charging rapidly.  

“Fools!” the man cried, as Superman and his younger counterparts accosted him; the man thrashed, hitting several with his shoulder mounted lasers, “I’m saving the future! Your futures!”

With a look of desperation, Warp raised an arm-mounted weapon at her.

In almost slow motion, Jinx watched the world condense to a singular point at the end of the man’s wrist, where the small flash of light precursed its oncoming trajectory. 

Kid Flash intercepted the beam, deflecting it with a shield-like object that he had apparently found time to pull from somewhere ; the beam shot uselessly into the ceiling, where pieces started to splinter and crumble. 

Flash Senior, as she guessed he might as well be called, snuck in to rip the device from his arm as Wonder Woman bound her simmering lasso around his arms. 

The expediency with which the Heroes incapacitated the man, without time devoted to deescalation, questioning, or anything , made Jinx wonder if perhaps, that the Heroes held back as much as Villains usually did. 

“Why are you here,” Robin growled, his bow staff jabbing into the bottom of Warp’s chin. 

“That monster ,” he hissed, jerking his eyes to the bulge in her belly, “Will be the death of everything! If you had any sense at all you’d kill it before it’s too late!”

The rope around him cinched tighter as Wonder Woman gave it a pull; the scowl on her face was almost as frightening as the four red eyes of her partner seething beside her. 

“My baby is not a monster,” Raven growled, her voice layers thick and terribly inhuman. 

Warp laughed, not missing the irony.

But the laugh was quickly cut short, as Robin jabbed his staff into the man’s middle. 

He wheezed for a few moments, as the Heroes allowed him to catch his breath. 

“Look, I know we have… history between us,” he offered tactfully; “But believe me when I say that the future is doomed if you don’t stop this before it starts.”

Something... ugly , settled in the pit of Jinx’s stomach.

She felt her lungs burn, as body refused to breathe. 

“It might already be too late,” the man muttered further, “They’re coming. They’ll find you. All of you, and it’s all your fault ,” he shrieked at her, trying valiantly one last time to break free.

His attack missed wildly; another set of laserblasts deflected by the Honorary teens before he made a desperate attempt to disappear back into the timestream.

The Speedsters followed him, blinking out of existence as Warp did, leaving a nervous set of adults in the midst of a great ring of idealized teenagers from both sides of the tracks.

“What do ya’ think that was about?” Cyborg asked, slowly lowering his arm-canon. 

Tentatively, the rest of the superpowered teens started following suit; each winding down into a collective of guarded, but not immediately hostile, individuals. 

Raven was the last to calm; and every Villain remaining in the Tower eyed her unnatural form with instinctual respect and trepidation. 

She reached out her hand, to stroke a gentle pass along a bit of the empath’s cloak.

Raven growled an acknowledgement, though her mind was clearly churning through variables she wasn’t privy to. 

“Wait,” she ordered, sending a wave of held breaths through the crowd. 

With an obedience Jinx had never seen amongst her fellows, the Villains mirrored the heroes as they looked around, person to person, and then about the room. 

They didn’t have to wait long. 

The Big Screen clicked into an oncoming call. 

“Watchtower to all Ground Units, come in,” Manhunter’s voice rang out, his green face filling the screen; “We might have a situation.” 

Chapter 53

The Tower was impressive.

Jinx had never really the spent time contemplating just how monolithic it was; how large, or hollow. 

In the thirds night's absence of all the Tower's usual life, Jinx was beginning to feel the marvel's true liminal air seep in. The silence wasn't even deafening, which only made it stranger; as she poured herself a mug of hot water to steep her tea, she found herself wondering what it would have felt like to wander the grand expanses of the HIVE with no one else around, and weather it would've felt as uncanny or dull. 

Wondering about impossible scenario was easier than worrying over what calamity happening out in space.

She'd only received a brief, staticy update from her partner a few hours after the first batch of heroes had departed; the fact that every few hours thereafter more backups had been called for, leaving the Tower less and less alive, didn't sit well with Jinx at all.

'Invaders', was all she'd managed to hear Raven say.

It gave her shivers, every time she replayed the memory.

The fact that the heroes had needed to call in the villains to toss in their lot after calling in all the heroes and undecided made her stomach churn.

She hoped the tea would help steady her nerves.

In her condition, there was apparently little she could do but 'wait'. 

Steam billowed up from her mug like a tiny smoke signal, warbling around like some kind of omen to scry. 

It clears as Jinx waves her hand over it, dismissing it and her paranoia with a scoff.

With the tea too hot to drink still, Jinx sighs and begins the long, winding trek back to her bedroom, figuring the beverage would have ample time to cool on the way.

'Better not go cold by the time I get there,' she internally mutters, as she passes by the common room windows.

She feels a sense of peace as she looks outside.  

The night outside is stormy, thick with clouds and clapping with thunder, and somewhere underneath all the turbulent weather was a star-filled sky lacking it's usual mistress, as Jinx was fairly certain it was the month's time for a new moon. Either way, the night outside can offer nothing but a lightning strike when the Tower's lights go off without warning.

'Shit.'

Without even the faint, twinkling lights of the Tower's electric currents to illuminate the way, Jinx's eyes adjust to make the most of the gloom.

'I Jinxed it.'

The tiny hairs on the nape of her neck stand on end; she spins on her heels, but sees nothing in the room behind her. 

Feeling that she'd spent too much of her life brute-forcing herself through life's bullshit not to trust her instincts, she scours the darkness as she walks up one of the small staircases to the halls.

She trusted her magic more in the enclosed metal space; 'makes a nice ricochet,' she recalls.

As she takes a few steps into the cold, elongated metal box, she has to force herself to breath evenly.

Had it always looked so dark in the Tower's halls?

Had brutal architecture always looked so... menacing?

The sharp, clearly defined edges that so normally passed by her peripheral now seemed impossible to ignore, as if some nagging thing in the back of her mind found itself frantically beside themself about them, and screaming at her to feel the same. 

She takes a few steps more, attempting to align herself as centrally in the passage as she could manage in the dark, feeling at once too surrounded on all sides.

Her feet squish into something neither wet, nor squelching, completely devoid of cold or heat.

Immediately, she looks down at the substance, identifying it something not 'normal' and something not 'magical' either.

Drops of it plink into the substance like raindrops.

One, two.

Three.

Jinx lifts her face to track their origin.

There, along the seam of the ceiling and wall, is more of the stuff.

She follows along the 'arm' of the substance, branching out from the corner of the hallways doorway like some sort of unearthly black mold.

There's no scent Jinx can 'smell' in the air, but her nose rejects the 'odor' it permeates as it bubbles and spreads.

It reminds Jinx faintly of tar, for how thick the bubbles seems, and how slowly it seems to crawl.

Dispute the slowness, the stain expands upon itself constantly, as if doubling, then quadrupling, and so on, in size.   

Disgust fills her.

She steps back, some primal part of herself not wanting anything to do with the substance at any level. 

One of the bubbles doesn't pop.

It gets larger.

And larger.

She knows on some instinctual level that its a 'nose', though the thing she sees is nothing like anything she's ever seen, or imagined.

As more of it seeps out of the, Jinx realizes her brain cannot properly observe or quantify whatever it is; all it can do is offer her primordial concepts, like 'snout', 'proboscis', 'eyes', and 'teeth'. 

As the thing crawls and writhes its way out of the seam, her body floods her with panic. 

She turns to run from the 'dog', her mind translating its strange not-noises into growling, snarling, and shrieking sounds of animals, nails drug across chalkboards, and breaking glass.

She doesn't need her primal instincts to know that whatever the thing is -whatever the things were; she hears more of them start to appear as she runs, all of them pouring out our corners- they were hungry and she was not at the apex of the inter-dimensional food-chain.

Her feet barely carry her fast enough as the dogs give chase.

Swearing and breathing heavily, she shoots her powers ahead of her to clear the way.

She cant tell if her magic affects them or not, as she can't even perceive the reality of them, but it keeps their mouths from touching her for a few seconds more.

Stabbing, burning pain springs through her as she runs; it burns from the inside out, and it takes her a moment to realize what's happening to her body through all her panic, but she recognizes the contraction for what it is as it happens again.

The agonizing pain is almost too much to bear.

If she hadn't have undergone a lifetime of pushing through pain, magical curses, and broken bones, she might not have been able to move. 

With tears in her eyes and wetness along her legs, she forces herself to keep going, instinctively knowing what would happen if any of the strange beings touched her would be infinite times worse.

She flings herself into Raven's room the second she reaches it.

The door slams shut behind her as she pumps her magic into it, creating a wall of bad luck the beings on the other side would have to expend to get through.    

She looks around the room as she holds her stomach, doubling over as the pain hits her in another wave.

'It's coming'.

Her tear-streaming eyes wince as red light radiates from her abdomen; she nearly passes out as the thing inside her twists and turns against her flesh. 

With a gasp, her knees buckle.

She catches Raven's blankets as she falls and realizes in a moment of elation that the Titans bed was round.

As the scratching and pounding at the door grows more frantic, more intense, Jinx climbs onto the bed, her body shaking with effort.

She rolls onto her back, dizzy from exhaustion and pain.

As her eyes blink tears away enough to identify the ceiling, the pain swells.

She gasps as she looks over herself, seeing the black mold starting to creep in from under the door.

'-oh god oh god oh god-'

Her vision goes black as her eyes snap shut.

As the things crawl up from under the door and charge, Jinx sees the infinite expanse of space, and a singular, limitless star.

 

 

Chapter 54

"Holy-scamoly, did a tornado hit this place?" Beast boy asks, as he takes in the wreckage.

Jinx had to admit, it was almost impressive.

The claw marks, the the bits of matter that was just 'missing', general disarray of the Tower's contents strewn about as if a raccoon mad with the power of opposable thumbs had ransacked everything it could get its tiny little raccoon hands on.

She takes a drag on her cigarette and lets the carnage speak for itself.

"-Hey, where's your um... your um... You look different," the green boy settles on.

Jinx nods as everyone's eyes turn back to her.

"Baby's here," she offers flatly; everyone's eyes growing wide as dinnerplates.

"What!?"

"Already!?"

"Oh my god!!!"

Jinx stubs out her cigarette and points to the floor behind the counter.

Slowly, the three step forward to take a look.

"Is that-" Red X cuts off as he takes it in, beside him, Beast Boy pales into a sickly yellow, and Flash 'senior' merely stopped zipping about to also wordlessly look her baby over.

Her strange, bizarre, little baby. Her little creature.

Shuffling around, investigating the world on all fours with its bestial, semi-incorporeal form.

Shimmering deep magenta with sparkles of black.  

"...We might need to call Raven," Red X offers, his tone a little awkward.

"She's indispensable against he creatures," the Flash reminds; "We can't let them breach onto Earth-"

"Yeah, they already did," Jinx shrugs. 

"-What?" the green Titan squeaks.

"They seeped in through the walls last night, as I was giving birth," she offers nonchalantly, enjoying the way everyone's eye grow somehow wider at the news.

"How did you... Are you okay!?" Beast boy frets, hoping onto the counter as a monkey, investigating her up close for signs of damage.

"Jr. ate them," she answers plainly, still feeling too drained to feel much about anything.

"...It ate them!?" Flash repeats, stepping back as the shifting mass of magic crawling towards his feet. 

Jinx leans over to scoop the baby up in her arms.

-It was tricky, as it the mass of magic didn't behave like 'normal' matter, but she'd engaged with her partner's soul-magic enough to make the creature behave somewhat on terms on human reality.

She hums as she holds it, enjoying the way all three heads observed her and the world around them; the fluffy little tiger cub face too chubby for her to stand, the adorably awkward little goat head teething on her sleeve... Their little front paws digging into her arm with tiny claws. Its torso, being of the stuff that didn't subscribe to laws of nature, intermittently melting through her, forcing it to wiggle its little rump as it their little back-hooves tried to climb back into her embrace. The little tongue darting from the snake's head in it's 'tale', as it tried to slither up her arm. 

The overwhelming cuteness melted any possibility of her not cooing over her little monstrosity. 

She nestles her face against the creature's faces, feeling nothing but maternal pride. 

---

 

It was another week before the calamity was dissolved.

A week of people -Leaguers, Titans, Villains alike, all stopping by in rotation to check in on her and her strange new creation.

The magic users were the last to be dismissed; the others shared reports with Jinx of them 'sealing bits of reality' and 'doing weird magic' -and her favorite account, 'I don't know what she did, but Raven went like, huge and terrifying and then I got out of there.'

She found she didn't have much energy or time to care about the details; she spent every moment with one or both eyes on her little Wyld, shooing them out of cabinets, convincing them not to inquisitively tear apart bits of whatever they coalesced around. 

The rest of the Titans seemed a bit baffled of the beast.   

Apparently they had taken her 'demon velociraptor baby' remarks seriously; she supposed she was content in that founding Titans at least, were familiar enough with Raven's magic that they didn't reject Wyld.

Robin didn't understand the supernatural makeup or cosmological implications of her chimera-like offspring, but he happily bottle fed her as if she were any other weird animal his team brought home; which, according to his telling, had been more than quite a few. With the other's concurring testaments that he'd also bottle fed Silkie for Starfire, Jinx found herself inclined to believe his crypto-zoological tales.

Beast boy kept shifting into animals around them, in attempts to coaxing the young god into into new forms, or perhaps, to better understand the baby through the only lens he knew how.   

Starfire was mostly perturbed she couldn't pick up the creature, though she made near-constant attempts to cuddle it. 

Cyborg took up his spatula once more, dead-set on keeping Wyld fed one way or another; the game of 'what else will it eat besides bloodmilk' was the hot topic of the Tower, when the robotic Titan wasn't busy repairing the damage to the establishment. 

The kids seemed overjoyed at their new sibling-pet; as far as they were concerned, the magical chimera was the coolest of all possible outcomes, and it wasn't long before all three of the older kids were on all fours, mimicking Wlyd's animalistic nature.  

It was pleasant, Jinx found.

Domestic.

And then Raven came home. 

She knew the moment Raven melted into being through their floors by the sounds of the ecstatic older kids shrieking in glee echoing throughout the tower. 

Jinx found herself waiting with baited breath, for her lover to assess their child.

Beside her, the others also waited.

It was a sort of hush that Jinx had only felt during exams, when all the students fell silent before the Headmistress; assessments.

Raven approached her offspring slowly.

Wlyd flickered as it observed her back.

-And then it rushed at her, as if recognizing her magical energy signature, her aura, or her scent.

Jinx watched the conflicting emotions play across her partner's face; confusion, horror, intrigue, relief, shame, hope, and love.
 
She lets out her breath, allowing herself to relax.

"Wlyd Magic doesn't like being in a baby form," she offers. "I guess a human newborn it too helpless for it to have fun."

Without answering her, Raven sinks to her knees, the baby nuzzling and oozing around her like a half-formed cloud of magenta magic.

"It's your turn to watch her, I need a nap," Jinx declares, not moving from the counter, as she watches them.

She feels a funny sort of feeling at the sight of Raven melting into her soul-self, sparking their creature-child's sparkling delight. 

She thinks it feels a lot like love.     

Chapter 55

The screen blips, and another slip starts rolling.

This footage showing one of their family's last journeys to the park. Jinx almost smiles with nostalgia, as she watches the icecream man scream and run in terror as Wlyd overturns the cart, eager for a treat.

"A month ago, it was as big as car," the Lanturn explains, switching the footage again. 

The screens display a newsreel from two, three? Weeks ago, Jinx can't quite recall; Wlyd climbs up the side of a building, following her Raven as they apprehend a hack-rate criminal the media hadn't even given a name.

"-Now they're as big as a building," Superman frets, as everyone watches the footage.

Beside her, Raven trembles; Jinx fights a frown.

"They grow up so fast," she agrees, her tone as dapper, trustworthy, and smooth as she once trained it to be. "What, are you guys scared of her or something?"

"Yes," Batman replies flatly; his admission is almost a stake to her heart.

She takes Raven's hand, not daring to look at her yet.

"You know she's an empath, right? She's literally as smart, caring, and careful as any of you or us; moreso, I'd say. She knows she's big, she's careful-"

"-Tell than to the ice cream man," Constantine counters.

"-We payed for that," Raven huffs, finally speaking up. "If you had played the rest of that footage, you would have seen us explain to all our children how to properly wait and pay for food. They're babies, not monsters; you all know how to interact with the world, they're just learning for the first time."

Batman regards them stoically, though Jinx imagines he's giving their point some thought.

"Be that as it may," Hawk-Woman replies, "Dispite their intentions, they are large and hold strengths that they don't know how to wield. This endangers everyone around them."

"So what are you getting at," Jinx huffs, not liking the conversation one bit; "You wanna lock them up somewhere? For 'safe keeping'," she quotes, her tone dripping venom. "They're a baby. And an empath," she presses, "They need love and patience to grow those so-called morals you capes are so fucking fond of tossing around. Rip her away and she's just going to turn into that confused angry mass of stress that'll have no idea how to interact with the world but to lash out in pain and anger. You know, the outcome you're all so apparently worried about happening. You guys fucking love your self-fulfilling prophesies, don't you?"

"Jinx, we're just concerned," Wonder Woman answers, her voice a balm in the storm of emotions in Jinx's body. 

"Then just say you think we're shit parents," she replies, trembling as she convinces herself not to blast her magic and run; to stay, to speak, and to be a rational adult. "Not like any of you would know what that's actually like though," she barbs, playing on their glaring weakspots. She counts it a victory when several of the members avoid her gaze.

"My partner is right," Raven offers, her tone emotionless but firm; "You all have a very distant perspective on the matter. I don't hold this against any of you of course, Wyld's not any of your children after all, but by virtue of most of you being here, on the moon, only reviewing sensationalized clips of biased media, none of you have a full, clear picture of my child's capabilities or of how life for my family and team is actually like. I assure you that as an empath myself, with the same powers as my child, I am quite astute to her needs and temperamental upbringing. Perhaps then, if any one of you are so inclined, they could accompany us awhile and observe matters first hand, instead of summoning us all here without due cause, when our teams could be better utilizing their time elsewhere?" 

Jinx bites her tongue to keep from reacting with applause or jumping or sneering with how much pride and assertion she feels over her partner's words.

'Spoken like a true public defender babe,' she thinks at her; she thinks she catches a hint of a smirk on Raven's lips in her peripheral in return. 

She looks back to the expressions across the League members' faces, as each of them bashfully attempts to decide who should relegate themselves to a 'babysitting duty' that none of them apparently wanted to go on.

"-Actually, I would love to meet her," Zatanna perks up, her tone gentle, a light mix of hope in her face. "If that's alright with you two?"

"And I," Wonder Woman adds, which Jinx is sure is some kind of trick of her own mind. 

"Acceptable," Raven replies, before Jinx can think of what to say. "We'll give you both a few moments to collect your things before heading back, assuming you'd like to ride together."

The Batman shuts off the monitors as they talk, revealing the cold, dark expanse of space surrounding their headquarters, and one large eye, darting around to observe the mall from outside.

Jinx smiles at her daughter, and tries to push down her worries over her eventual fate. 

Chapter 56

She digs at the concrete with her boot, rolling the crunching particles of friction beneath her with some amount of childish aversion; she's grateful her daughter is too caught up in the joys of flight to notice, as she didn't want to face the creature's concern. -Wyld glides around with their Tameranian teammate, her ephemeral body hundreds of feet across, flowing with an elegant ease that was breathtaking to behold as they danced through the limitless skies over the open ocean.

"She's as big as the Tower now," she mumbles, watching Wyld twist and glide, her form mirroring a large bird as Raven's was.

"Yes," Raven agrees, watching with her.

The silence between them is poignant.

"I don't trust the League not to scare her," Jinx decides, giving voice to her concern. 

"Nor do I," the empath agrees.

Jinx can't tell if she relieved or frightened for the validation.

"She can feel everyone in the City around as," Raven states, her voice nearly lost in thought. "I've had training to distant myself from it, but she can't. They're connected to it on a fundamental level."

"She's always been a primordial construct," Jinx muses, thinking back to the creatures conception.

Raven grunts, the wind playing at her violet locks.

Jinx lets the silence hang between them, content to watch their tiny godling experience the throes of exuberant freedom.

"We can keep her in Azarath, if things get bad," the Titan eventually states.

"...A god needs a dimension to lord," she agrees, not really thinking about it; her mind instead, focusing on smaller things. Like bracing herself to convince their daughter to compress herself small enough to land on the roof for dinner, without crushing the Tower in the process. 

"I... don't want to see her unhappy," Raven murmurs, her voice barely audible over the wind. 

Jinx blinks, turning to look at the girl.

"We'll teach her to create," she promises. "She has my magic too, you know. Chaos is just creation by another name."

A ghost of a smile graces her partner's lips; Jinx feels her heart flutter in a way she hadn't felt since the first time she'd glimpsed Raven's face in the penitentiary. 

"What?" she asks indignantly; Raven turns to look at her, licking her lips with a cruel grin.

"It's just nice to hear you say it," the Titan riddles.

Jinx scoffs, pushing her lightly, only earning a hum from the empath in replay as Jinx makes her way back inside.  

Chapter 57

"Well, it's time," Raven states, though neither of them need her too. Jinx nods, a heavy yet hopeful feeling in her heart.

"They should be able to travel dimensional planes and realities as they please," the Titan goes on to explain, which Jinx knows is more for the others in attendance than themselves, or Wyld.

Melvin's hand squeezes her own, the girl seeming so much smaller in her sadness. 

Teeth frowns in Starfire's arms, while Timmy scowls next to Cyborg.

As much as it hurt her, Jinx could only imagine what this felt like to them; she sensed the kids would be far more attached to their comfort objects after this -Bobby, the blanket, Raven. 

That she had the certainty of their sharing her future helped; Jinx... found she didn't want to think about what it would be like to suddenly be denied her right to mother all of her children. 

Wyld Magic, the great unfathomable being that she was, lands on the roof with more ease than her gargantuan size should allow; radiant in her resplendence, Jinx can only marvel at the way the sunlight gleams off her daughter's glistening scales and soft, thick fur. 

She reaches out a hand to the chimera, combing her fingers along it's leg. 

The creature purrs a magic-based humming sound; the tiger head leans down to nuzzle her as the goat head butts against Raven and Starfire, causing them both to chuckle. The snake, shyest and most curious of them all, warbles around to observe her siblings.

Timmy runs over, trowing his little arms around the snake's face.

Wyld's tongue flicks out over him, darting this way and that to tickle her brother into a fit of laughter.

-It was a truly beautiful thing, that her daughter knew laughter.  

Joy.

Freedom.

Everything that herself and her partner had never know, in their own stolen childhoods.

Tears well in her eyes.

She buries her face in Wyld's fur, hoping that she'd done right by her creation. 

That she would do right, for the rest of her children.

That she could do right for herself.

She pulls back as Raven speaks to their progeny in their otherworldly tongue; words she'd only just started to learn under her partner's tutelage.

And then the Titan rose up, uncompressing her soul to its fullest, awe-inspiring potential.

Around her, the Titans sucked in their breaths as they were reminded just how godly Raven truly was in her own right; breathtaking with radiating majesty and sun-like white light.

Like a spring, she was up in the air, their daughter soon joining her. 

Magenta and white, both look down at her like gods to an ant, waiting.

Nervously, Jinx closes her eyes and reaches down inside herself, to the place humming with ever-hot energy that Raven had paved the way for her to find all those months ago.

To no one's surprise, when her energy flares out of herself, flipping reality around her in her new form, it's as a cat as blindingly neon pink as her hex energy; the very stuff that she was truly composed of.

With great care, she plucks her three ground-bound children up, making sure each of them fasten themselves tightly to her rippling energy.

And then, as small of a god as she is, she leaps.

Following her wife into spatical curves of eternity.

 

 

 

Chapter 58

Livewires of light, existence in its primal state, pop in strobbing bursts.

It's impossible to perceive or exist as anything but what she is.

What they are.

They bound after Raven at first, trailing her streak of existence through immaterial nothing, riding the lines of what is through the planes of what was not.

But it doesn't take long before she bounds ahead, chasing the exuberance of the cosmic sublime.

Leap after leap, longing to be one of lines herself.

She only keeps herself herself for the others on her back.

 And then Wyld catches on.

Like a fish to water and air to lungs, Wyld Magic surges ahead in a kaleidoscope of cacophonous light.

Direction, time, space, curves, angles; they raced through them all.

Breaking into abstracts only the components of magic understood. 

For as long as they travel, through has many dimensions as they jump through, Jinx knows intrinsically when Raven feels it time to slow.

When to stop riding the rifts, to return back to reality. 

-Their reality.

 

 

It's like waking form a dream, while every atom in her body tingles with still-vibrating energy just underneath her skin.

A look to Raven, and Jinx understands why the girl liked to keep under her cloak.

-All the better to hide the come down.

Their children -their three remaining- tumble from her back, each dizzy and seemingly no worse for wear.

Melvin begins excitedly telling Robin about the adventure as Timmy spins himself before falling falling onto his face.

Jinx smiles.

She looks back to her partner, understanding so much more of the world -and herself- than she ever had before.

She lets out a woosh of breath, cracking her back as she regains comfort in the skin and bones of her human form.

Their smiles seem to reassure the older Titans, who flock closer, ready to hear about everything.

Jinx only wishes she had words to enable them to understand.

Raven glides closer, landing on solid ground before her.

The glints of emotion in all six of Raven's eyes are the most beautiful colors she's seen that weren't Wlyd's.

Marrying her wouldn't be enough, she decides.

The Chaos that she was, wanted everything.

She grins, all teeth and sharp angles.

Raven, beautiful creature that she was, grinned back; all curves and bends.

"...So, when are we having another?" she asks, only half joking.  Around her, the other Titans sputter in surprise, before chuckling their laughters.

The mood feels almost victorious, as they all head back inside, leaving the Tower's roof and the world surrounding it.

As the day marches on, they eat and drink and laugh even more.

As night befalls them, do it all again.

And then Jinx kisses her partner goodnight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 59

 

 

"Morning sleepyhead," Cyborg greets, his fond yet understanding surprise a sweet lemon-teacake, as Raven trudges into the kitchen the blaze of the late-afternoon sun seeping steeply in through the Tower windows.

Sloth merely hums, not yet quite awake. 

"Must have taken a lot out of you," Robin offers, moving from his spot at his antique boombox-recordplayer to join them at the kitchenette.

Knowledge nods, finding more than a bit of truth to the understatement.

"Is Jinx up?" the robotic teen asks, a light air of raspberry curiosity. 

The empty bed she'd waken up to flashes through her mind.

She Knew without needing to spread her awareness that her partner wasn't anywhere in the Tower -and if she Knew the girl half as well as she though she Knew, that the hexcastor wouldn't be back for some time.

"She's gone," she answers, finding her natural tone sweetened.

Knowledge wonders how deeply parts of herself had been changed by her partner, over their months together. 

Bravery grins.

"Gone?" Robin repeats, clearly startled, concerned, and confused; his aura a hearty applepie. 

"She'll be... around," she assures.

The others eye her warily. 

As she rakes her gaze over Robin's new blue and black body armor, Knowledge sits herself contently at the edge of the breakfast counter. 

It wouldn't much of a wait, she thinks. 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 60

EPILOGUE:

 

'I'm too old for this,' Anger sighs, though really, it's too Fond to be anything resembling hate; too Amused to be anything other Happy.

"...Um, are you sure about this?" asks the timid alien behind her, "Isn't she like... one of the bad guys? At the HIVE?"

Miss Martian reminds her so much of Kori that Raven nearly does a double take, convincing herself of the present condition of time. 

Looking at her, and the other 'New' Teen Titans was making her feel every inch her age with every passing second in their company.

"Yes, it's more complicated than that, and sort of," she answers, electing to explain nothing at all about her wife.

Instead, she types the code into the computer's console, ringing up the woman across her direct line.  

After a moment, the screen flicks to life, displaying a larger than life screen livefeed of The HexMaster herself.

The pink haired woman grins like the devil as she looks at them.

"Well I'll be damned, if I had known you'd be calling, I would have dressed up for the occasion," the woman jests; Love and Annoyance feign Indignity.

She rolls her eyes.

"We have a situation. We... I, need you help," she prompts. 

The woman smiles, but Raven can hear her silent cackle from here.

"Tell you what Girlscout, how about you put on that little red number and come over for dinner. Teether's been missing you," Jinx coaxes.

Raven sighs, she Knew it wouldn't have been that easy.

"...Are you guys dating?" asks the mini-Robin, his voice comically stern for the ten-year-old it belonged to. 

Jinx snickers, tapping the tips of all her fingers together like the mad-woman she was.

"It's quite worse than that I'm afraid," the HexMaster answers him, the ring on her finger catching the red and sickly green hues of the lair's lighting; "We're married."

"What. The. Fuck," Omen remarks; forcing Raven to keep Herself with a straight face. 

"You married a supervillain?" Mini-Robin remarks, his condescension a baffled orange-soda.

"We have kids together," Raven offers, knowing the explanation would only raise more questions.   

Blue Beetle immediately looks to Melvin, who rolls her eyes.

"Uhg, why are you two like this," the Illusionist sighs.

"Because your Mommies love you," the HexCastor answers, right as Raven also says, "Because we love you."

"Jinx!" the HIVE Headmistress immediately shouts, pointing at her through the screens. "Now you owe me the dress and dinner and a sacrificial blood rite!"

"-She's kidding," Raven soothes the Team quickly; "...Mostly."

"God you grownups are weird," Omen sighs, shaking her head.

On the other side of the screen, Jinx cackles her best evil villain laugh.

Some nights, Raven realized, it was good to be back in the Game. 
 

Chapter 61

And here we are! After *checks the notes* SEVEN YEARS of working on it, this beast is finally finished. 

I'd just like to thank everyone whose enjoyed this story! :D 

It was a pleasure to write and I hope everyone loved going along for the ride! 

 ٩(◕‿◕)۶