Another little short fic I had to get off my chest…the idea just popped into my head and I thought "why not?" Anyway, the pairing is Cyborg x Jinx, in case you didn't read the summary properly…which means you have no legitimate reason for flaming me on account of the pairing! Ha! I mean, oh dear, woe is me…


The security light paved the darkened corridor with a strip of sensitive blue light that touched every scrap of wall and floor space and sent every shadow crawling away in a hurry. Although seemingly lazy, the instant it was triggered by the motion sensor set into the mantle, it would snap awake and hiss into a violent shade of ugly and savage red while a high pitched scream of an alarm would proceed to alert all personal. There were no prisoners in the Hive headquarters.

Cyborg chuckled gleefully, if not a little maliciously, as the light and the motion sensor ignored his presence and the soft imprint of sound his footsteps arose. He even went so far to stare a camera directly in it's face and make a stupid face Beast Boy had taught him yesterday. It stared straight through him without a hint of taking any offence. As for the torturous peals of the alarm? Nothing. Zilch.

It wasall thanks to a new stealth device that he and Robin had worked on tirelessly. It enabled Cyborg to cover his body with a form of invisible force field that let him sneak into the headquarters without setting off any defensive mechanism. Naturally, Robin sent him on an undercover mission to test out it's success. Beast Boy had jokingly called it "Operation Stealth". Cyborg rolled his eyes.

"Are you nearly there?"

Robin. Typical.

"Relax, man, I'll get the job done," he muttered back into the communication system.

"You're nowhere near the control room!"

His spiky haired leader sounded quite upset. Good. Cyborg had a job to do and it didn't involve any whining.

He crept into a room to the left of him and whipped out again barely seconds later.

"It doesn't work."

"But-"

"I said it doesn't work!" Cyborg snapped harshly into the receiver, wrenching it off himself. The line crackled dead.

The hero picked up his pace as he pondered his words. He was lying of course. The device worked like a dream…but it seemed like a pretty poor substitute for his other dream of holding Jinx in his arms again…

He had broken her heart once before. And these undercover missions just seemed to rub salt into the wounds he had opened up in both of them. Really, in a way he was no better than Terra. But at least she had gone back to Beast Boy's side at the very end…he could never switch sides. Not even for a sorceress. Or a girl. Depending on how you decided to view Jinx. She was both of these things and yet she seemed to flick between the two alternately.

He couldn't hurt her like that again.

Two metal fingers closed round the little button as he escaped from the hideout. Tightening, tingeing, crushing…into a fine power that looked as though it had been a stick of chalk moments before. He allowed the dust to float through his weakened digits, into the graceful wind that cradled it away into nothingness. Just like the chance he had once held in the palm of his hand when another slender feminine one slipped into his. Gone. Nothing. Zilch.

He would have to live with it. But al least he had fulfilled part of a more personal mission…he only hoped Jinx would get out of Brother Blood's clutches while she could.


A set of surprised hands fondled the unnatural object gingerly as though petrified of breaking it. It was a flower, yes. A rare flower that she had just happened to mention to Victor Stone once that it was her favourite. Or rather, it was an imitation of one. The leaves, the stem…all crafted out of hand blown glass that twisted and turned into many dangerous shards and intricate patterns which divided light and made the room explode in a dramatic sizzle of colour.

Beautiful but deadly. Just the way she liked it.

She laid it down tenderly onto the bed, just the way she found it, when she strolled into the room not two minutes ago. The pink eyes traced every minuet detail that had taken hours of pained work from a certain robot to achieve. Her chin wobbled as she spoke.

"Thank you."

No one heard her.


Cyborg stared back at the enemy building, the wind drifting it's icy cold fingers down his back. But that was nothing compared to the feelings that rattled his insides with their torn blues and reds.

"Happy Birthday Jinx."