Tears Filled With Red

By Saint Raven

The late afternoon sky was ablaze with vibrant autumn colors. Brilliant slashes of red cut across bright orange, into the darkened purple of the coming night. A cool wind whipped across the rooftop of Titans' Tower, scattering loose leaves to and fro. Standing at the edge of the roof was a young woman, gazing out despondently into the bay.

Bright pink hair starkly contrasted dull gray skin, like sinewy metal, ever-glowing pink, cat-slitted eyes giving her an otherworldly look. Her black dress rippled in the breeze, her booted feet planted firm in their place.

Jinx sighed, her mind overcome by troubles and doubts. Unable to stop herself, her mind conjured up images of her past, her mistakes, her failures. Failures as a villain, failures as a hero, and worst of all... She shook her head violently back and forth, willing the visions to stop there, but they came none the less. Her greatest failures, her worst mistakes, those she made as a friend, a lover...the ones she cannot fix.

"Damn it", Jinx cursed under her breath. She jerked as a voice behind her responded, "well hello to you to."

Spinning, Jinx made eye contact with her new guest. The girl's equally dull skin seemed to shine in the light, her dark purple hair moving gently across her face in the breeze. Her dark blue cloak flowed around her, giving her a look of majesty, of power. And those legs...

Growling, Jinx shook her head again, dismissing such thoughts from her mind, she wouldn't make that mistake again. Not for her sake, but for...

"Raven..." Jinx muttered, turning back to the sparkling bay. "What do you need? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong...I wanted to see you" Raven replied, frowning slightly. "You...you've closed yourself off the last few weeks. Ever since that mess with Slade-"

"There's no need to bring that up again," Jinx growled, facing Raven once again. "I get it, I FUCKED UP!". Her voice gravelly from not being used, Jinx stomped past Raven, heading for the door that lead down into the tower. "You all don't need to keep rubbing it in, I get it!"

"Jinx...I didn't come up here to rub anything in your face..." Raven said, facing the pink haired witch. "I don't want to fight, I just want to talk".

Jinx sighed and drooped, like her body just refused to stay tall anymore, like all the energy was sapped from her. "There's nothing more to talk about Raven, there just isn't."

"I don't believe that's true," the purple haired sorceress replied, striding across the roof to stand directly in front of Jinx. "You don't need to keep beating yourself up over this."

"YES I FUCKING DO!" Jinx screamed in Raven's face, the stone that was her stomach dropping even further as she did so. "I sold you out, all of you, just to become more powerful." Jinx felt tears welling at her eyes; she fought to keep them from falling. "That book, the ability to triple my mana pool, to become stronger...Slade played me like a damn fiddle. I was nothing compared to him..." Jinx couldn't stop the tears now, feeling them run rivers down her face. "I'm nothing...nothing compared to you, to anything..."

Raven said nothing, staring at Jinx in contemplation, her lavender eyes betraying nothing. Jinx sank to her knees, unable to stand any longer. Loud, wrenching sobs emitted from her body, her hands rising to clench at her eyes. "I threw away something that meant so much to me, for nothing...". Jinx raised her head, glaring at Raven. "So why am I still here? Why haven't you thrown me out yet? Why hasn't Robin arrested me and put me back where I belong?"

"...because I forgive you." Raven said simply.

A horrible laugh pulled it's way from Jinx's lungs. "No, you don't. You can't. You're the one person who should never forgive me. What I did to you...I betrayed you, I hurt you, I threw your feelings back in your face-"

Jinx was cut off as a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her thin frame. Raven leaned into the hug, her cloak draping itself over them like a protective blanket. "Stop it Jinx, I know exactly what you did, and I forgive you anyway."

"No, this isn't right, you can't..."

"I do, and I mean it. I...I've hurt those who cared about me too, and I was always forgiven."

Jinx sniffed loudly, pulling herself out of Raven's arms and standing. "No, I can't let you forgive me. I won't let you do that to yourself."

Raven stood, "I can do as I please, thank you very much. So I'm choosing to forgive you because I can and I want to!"

Jinx shook her head again, heading for the stairs. "Where are you going?" Raven asked.

The cat-eyed witch stopped, one hand on the doorknob. "I'm leaving tomorrow."

"What!?" Raven exclaimed, "where are you going?"

"I don't know yet. I'll figure that out on the way."

"Why? Why are you doing this?"

Jinx spun, "Because I can't stand being here! Having the others all eye me like I"m about to explode, like I'm about to let Slade in through the damn front door! I just...I can't do this anymore...not now".

"Jinx, please," Raven pled with her, taking a step forward, "we can work through this, we can fix it together, we can fix 'us' together."

Jinx sighed one last time, "No Raven, we can't. Not now anyway. I...I'm sorry". With that she yanked open the staircase door and was gone.

Raven turned towards the bad, finally letting the tears that had been welling up in her eyes fall. The sun had finally set, the bright reds and oranges now fading fast, as deep purple night swept across the San Francisco bay.

Twilight had fallen.

The End