Hypotherical Murder
Disclaimer – Do not own the Teen Titans or any related characters. Not even Angel, but I guess I own Mr. Strongham.
Well, I read a few death fics recently – they're really good, but really, really depressing. And I was inspired to make my own, but I really didn't want to kill off any Titans.
So I came up with the idea of them only being hypothetically killed. I thought that maybe someone should be plotting a way to kill them, and then that morphed into the other Titans getting really angry.
And Jinx is always awesome, so I made her the one planning. Even if she's not the killer type.
This is set sometime when Jinx is still at the HIVE academy.
"What would be the most dangerous, out-of-the-question crime? Explain your answer." Jinx read aloud.
She rocked back against her chair, contemplating the question. The bad-luck sorceress bit on the pen, thinking.
It wasn't like it was due tomorrow. Unlike some people she could name, Jinx liked to have her work ready and not have to stay up all night studying. This was assigned today (Wednesday) and due Tuesday.
She decided to skip that question and move onto the next.
What would be more useful as a lethal weapon – a knife or a gun? Explain your answer.
Jinx winced internally. Part of it was the simple words 'explain your answer' – the other part was that she didn't want to kill anyone. She was a thief, not a murderer.
Okay, sometimes she'd imagine strangling Gizmo just so he'd shut up, or have a pleasant little sadistic day-dream about sending bad-luck bolts so something heavy would fall on Mammoth, and once she even found herself plotting a way to kill that obnoxious brat Angel without being caught, but she'd never actually do any of it.
Even when fighting the Titans, she'd never aimed to kill. Injure, yes. Humiliate, definitely. Kill, no.
Hey, who out of the Titans would be the easiest to kill?
With full knowledge of the fact that she was procrastinating, Jinx put the pen down and began to think.
Okay. On the one hand, Robin was the one without powers. He'd be most vulnerable… nup. Not likely. He might be the one without powers, but he was the hardest to beat.
Starfire was practically invulnerable, and Raven could walk through walls and teleport. Cyborg was all wires. Theoretically a gun to the human part of his head would kill him, but you'd have to get up close without getting beat up.
That left Beast Boy.
He wasn't easy to beat, but he was easiest. Maybe. Depending on what you had available… maybe some sort of hunting gun? Get him into that big monkey form he was so fond of… and there were plenty of people who shot birds…
In her mind's eye, Jinx could see the body hit the ground.
His green skin was stained with blood. His body was bent at an awkward angle. He wasn't breathing.
Jinx yanked herself out of the vision. Okay, slightly disturbing that she could come up with something so clear, but…
"Beast Boy!" Starfire yelled. In Jinx's imagination, the alien's voice was filled with fear and anger.
"BB!" Cyborg faltered, his human eye full of horror.
"No!" The Teen Wonder yelled, sounding sick.
"Beast Boy?" Raven's imagined voice was small.
The Titans had all stopped fighting, staring at their friend's body. Mammoth decided to use this to his advantage, running forwards and ramming Cyborg. Of course he would, the idiot, he wouldn't understand that they'd just lost one of their best friends…
And then Jinx could see Cyborg's cannon charging up. And suddenly Mammoth would have been thrown across the room of the warehouse they were fighting in with a strength that she'd never seen before.
Starfire snarled viciously as Gizmo tried to leap towards her. Her eyes were glowing bright, bright green as she grabbed the small technician, dragging him into the air and throwing him bodily across.
Jinx's imagined self would just have been standing there in shock, looking at the body. And then suddenly she could see Raven appearing in front.
Her eyes looked purely murderous as the black wrapped around Jinx. "You…" She choked out, pure loathing running through her voice.
The other Titans were running now. All had the same glower in their eyes, but Raven was closest. The telekinetic threw her hard into the air.
Jinx shrieked as she fell towards the ground. Not one of the Titans raised a hand to help her…
Jinx's cat eyes widened. She took a deep, steadying breath and blindly reached for a glass of water.
"W-wow." She choked out. That had been disturbingly realistic… was that a waking dream or something? She gulped down the water.
Okay then.
Jinx could still feel the fear as she'd fallen. Her heart-beat was slowly going back to normal. Woman, how had that happened?
That was probably going to change her fighting style when it came to Beast Boy from now on. And she'd be looking at Raven in a different light…
Suddenly there was a picture of the gothic girl, flying next to her. Her eyes were glowing under the hood – and suddenly the glow stopped, and she collapsed from where she was hovering next to the crates to the ground.
Jinx wasn't sure how she'd done it, but she knew she had done it.
"Raven!" This time it was Robin who noticed first. The teenage boy ran forwards next to her crumpled body, dropping his bo-staff and checking her pulse.
"Raven?" Beast Boy asked, shapeshifting back to human form from… whatever he'd been. Gorilla, maybe. "Raven!"
"Rae?" Cyborg yelled, fear clouding his voice.
Starfire's eyes widened with horror, and for a moment she faltered in her flying. Mammoth grunted with savage glee and smashed hard into her.
Starfire collapsed to the ground. Then her eyes began to glow green and she punched him as hard as she could. He literally flew through the air.
Beast Boy had reached where Robin was sitting with Raven. He grabbed her wrist and checked for himself.
Jinx was standing there, shocked. Her mind was focussing on how she'd managed to kill Raven in an attempt to distract her from the (virtual) fact that she'd just killed someone.
Robin dropped her wrist and started to run up the crates that Jinx was apparently standing on, watching them from above.
Gizmo appeared in front of him, smirking. Robin kicked Gizmo across the mouth, and punched him hard. Gizmo collapsed, unconscious.
But before the Teen Wonder could reach her, Cyborg raised his cannon at her. Jinx saw the grief in his one human eye and the hatred that had come from it.
And then there was pain as a huge blast hit her hard.
Okay. Now this was just plain creepy.
Jinx shivered. She pushed her pink hair up again, although it hadn't been moving.
She had to give her imagination credit. She could definitely see how much hatred there had been in Cyborg's eye when he aimed that canon.
She remembered the hatred with crystal clarity. And suddenly…
It was empty.
There was just an empty expression as the half human, half robot hybrid fell off from Jinx's vantage point on the crates in the warehouse.
He made a clunking noise as he hit the ground – metal on concrete.
Beast Boy noticed first. Suddenly a green squirrel darted up over him, turning back to human. "Cy? Buddy?" He gently shook him, looking five years old.
"Cyborg?" Robin's voice was cautious as he leaped forwards. He easily jumped over Gizmo, kicking him backwards, and landed on the ground. He moved forwards. "Cy?"
The Teen Wonder began to work on his friend's circuity.
Starfire shot a star-bolt off fast and hard, throwing Mammoth into the wall heavily. "Is Friend Cyborg okay?"
Robin's swallowed. "No." He whispered softly. "He's… he's not okay. He's… he's gone. There's no way to…"
"No." Raven whispered, horror filling her eyes.
Gizmo ran up behind her, his weird leg things coming out of his back-pack. He readied himself when suddenly black-aura surrounded him.
Raven's eyes flared red as he flew across the room.
"Cyborg… is gone?" Starfire repeated, horrified.
"Yes." Robin realised.
And then suddenly everyone was just glaring at Jinx. They all ran forwards together, ready to fight.
Starfire was the one this time though. Her hands were already glowing green and suddenly Jinx was thrown off the crates. She crashed hard into the wall, cracking ribs, and then fell to her death.
Jinx blinked. Once was weird. Twice was creepy. Three times…?
Was she disturbingly morbid for imagining herself dying so many different ways? And how was she hypothetically killing the Titans anyway?
But that hatred… it all seemed so real. Like the way Starfire's eyes had just changed from bubbly… she really did have the potential to be terrifying.
In more than one way…
"Starfire!" Robin yelled, his pain more pronounced in this vision then in any other.
Jinx felt the same gut-wrenching guilt this time as always, seeing the red-haired girl fall hard onto the ground. Her body made a sickening 'thunk'.
Raven soared past as fast as she could, ignoring Cyborg and Beast Boy fighting Mammoth and Gizmo. She landed next to the girl, hands running along her and whispering.
Then she looked up, horror in her eyes.
Cyborg punched Mammoth hard enough that he tumbled into Gizmo, putting his fear into that punch. Beast Boy lithely leaped over the collapsing villains.
"Is she…?" Beast Boy began.
Raven slowly shook her head, hood falling off to reveal tears pooling.
Even in her imagination, even behind the mask, Jinx could see the terror, sadness, horror and pure hatred blazing in Robin's eyes. He jumped to his feet and started to run.
By now, Jinx knew the drill. She wanted to run, but something deep inside her was keeping her still. Horror and guilt. She deserved what was about to happen…
Sure enough, the Teen Wonder landed next to her. Jinx didn't flinch as he put all his pain and anger into his punch.
Her virtual self fell to the crate. It felt real enough that she could feel the wood underneath her fingertips.
Jinx smirked at Robin from the ground. She wanted to apologise – and this was her way of doing it. Giving him something that would stop him from being too guilty of what was about to happen…
His foot collided with her neck and she could almost hear the snap.
Jinx opened her eyes and rubbed her neck. It had felt so real…
She had liked how she'd been thinking, though. Dignity in the face of death, plus helping someone get over it, and kindness she never had in reality.
Probably not how she'd think if it was real – but who knew what would happen if it was real?
She gritted her teeth. Obviously her subconscious wanted her to know what she'd feel if she killed a Titan…
Who was left? Oh yeah – The Teen Blunder himself had yet to die in her mind's eye. And Beast Boy had yet to avenge someone.
Jinx steeled herself, and then closed her eyes again. She imagined seeing Robin's body…
His body wasn't just appearing. Instead she saw him standing next to her on the crates. He was tensed, a cocky grin across his face as he pulled out his bo-staff.
Jinx blinked in surprise. This was different…
Suddenly Robin ran forwards, his bo-staff connecting with the ground. He pushed off, using the staff as a pole-vault as his foot shot towards her.
It was instinctive that she'd use her powers to shoot out at him. He fell over her, flying for a split second before connecting with the ground.
The thud was sickeningly familiar this time around.
"Rob!" Cyborg yelled, struggling with Mammoth. His arm charged up and a canon blast threw him away. Then the human-technology hybrid ran over to their leader, lying with perfect stillness.
"Robin!" Starfire's voice was filled with confusion and pain. As if her mind was rejecting the idea that he could have been hurt, by Jinx no less, and yet some part was wondering if it was true.
These hallucinations or whatever were really detailed.
Starfire soared past Raven fighting Gizmo and landed gently on the ground next to him. Cyborg was already kneeling, trying to find a pulse. Tears were pooling in his real eye.
"Is he…?" Starfire asked, terrified of the answer.
Cyborg looked up at her, and then slowly shook his head.
With a moan, Starfire dropped to her knees and grabbed Robin's cooling hand, as if she could call him back.
Raven's eyes gleamed and suddenly Gizmo was covered in her black aura. He yelped as she carelessly threw him aside.
Jinx watched down on the scene with horror. Of course, this was something that she'd already seen four variations of – but the guilt didn't change.
Suddenly she saw a green bird land next to her. She spun around to see a giant dinosaur roar at her, before a tail swept her off her feet. She fell to the ground, flying off the crates and crashing hard into the concrete.
Jinx closed her eyes and tried to banish the feelings of guilt that had been running up. They're all imaginary – I never killed anyone. She silently told herself. Never killed anyone. I never killed anyone.
It was amazing how she'd come up with that. The Titans were the good guys – they wouldn't kill.
Then a memory of them all laughing together blazed in her mind. She remembered how in a battle, they'd all have each other's backs.
Okay. It wasn't exactly far-fetched…
Five Days Later…
Mr. Strongham looked over her question sheet. "Not bad, Jinx." He said. She'd handed it in before class started, just to be ahead of everyone else.
"Thank you sir." She moved to take a seat.
"But wait. What's this… the most dangerous crime is, by you're reckoning, to kill a Titan?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Yes." Jinx said calmly.
"And what makes you believe that?" Mr. Strongham asked.
Part of Jinx was tempted to reply with the word 'visions' or whatever they had been. "The other Titans, sir." She answered instead.
"I've seen the way they work together. If you kill one, they'll… they're best friends. You should never make a battle with them that personal. If you run, you might get away long enough for the burning hatred to die down. But they wouldn't rest until you're in prison – and they wouldn't hold back in a fight."
"I see…" Mr. Strongham said. He had to admit she was right – super-hero groups tended to form close bonds with each other. And making a battle personal with someone who was likely to win generally ended badly.
Jinx nodded, and went back to her seat.
The next day, she got an A for the sheet.
If you want to read deeply into this, then you can imagine a telepath was sending the images to her brain for some reason. Or maybe some sort of fumes leaked into her room and since that was what she was thinking of at the time…
When I was writing it, though, I was thinking that it was her conscience trying to warn her not to hurt anyone or something like that. The mind can do some pretty impressive stuff. But hey, it's your interpretation.
Review if you liked it! Or even if you didn't!