A/N: Well here is another idea I've been sitting on for a while, a play on the HIVE infiltration episode, at least that is the base of the story it changes very radically later on. Now this is just some idea I had to write because my muse demanded it, I don't know when it will be updated, but I want YOU to know that it will be updated... Eventually.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Teen Titans or any of the characters or themes related to the Teen Titans, I wouldn't be here if i did and the show would have been very different.
Evolution: From Titan to Leviathan
Chapter 1: Welcome to the HIVE
Raven age 18, defeated Trigon thus severing his control of her demon half. With this control gone she is able to become whole uniting demon and human and becoming a Halfling. Two small black horns now adorn her head, and a slender black barbed tail are the most obvious changes. But the marks of Scath no longer covered her body instead her own demonic tattoo showed. The demonic tattoo is a representation of the bearers power, the mark of Scath covered her entire body, her own tattoo is an intricate and elegant curling rose vine that wraps around her arm from her right hand up to her shoulder, the entire tattoo is black and glows violet when she becomes angered, her eyes as well instead of four glowing red she will remain two, as a sign of her being half human, and glow a deep violet. No longer a human harboring a demon under the control of a greater demon, she is a Halfling with her own powers. Every demon not under the control of another has their own unique familiar, for Raven it is her namesake, but they are different than the manifestations her father had summoned, silent and regal with violet eyes and razor sharp beaks, she had taken to always having one around sitting on her shoulder or somewhere nearby. The binding of her demon half included the end of her fractured emotions as well, although still tending to be quiet and reserved her emotions were no longer linked to a volatility of her powers. With her new embracing of her demonic side the public opinion of her changed, she had never really looked normal, nor had the press ever been genuinely kind to her, but it worsened drastically afterwards, some were downright afraid of her, especially the more religious of Jump's residents, some even called for her removal from the Titans and the city. Raven's view on the world had been changing as well, maturing, finding out this battle of good versus evil she had been led to believe was incorrect, as the world exists only in shades of grey, not black and white.
Jinx age 18 has been a member of the HIVE Academy for four years, although now disenchanted by the pettiness of being 'Evil' she only remains because she has nowhere else to go. Mammoth, Jinx, and Gizmo are among the best of the HIVE's field agents having graduated from students to field agents. As leader of her team she is in charge of choosing missions as well as picking up new members to maintain a five member team, although no-one thus far has met her standards to join, the missions she chooses are often stealthy jobs, heists, and the like performed in the dead of night with little chance of being caught if they did it right. Her current life is not what she wants anymore, and desperately she looks for a way to get out. But there is little chance of that with her criminal record.
The Titans were gathered in their briefing room.
"I recently received information that the HIVE academy may be preparing some sort of secret weapon." Robin paused briefly. "Really we should have worked on taking down the HIVE before now, but we can't ignore this, they're already more coordinated than most of what we have to deal with, whatever they are planning we have to stop them."
"Do we even know what it is they're planning?" Raven asked from her dark corner of the briefing room, the Raven on her shoulder cocked its head to the side.
"No, that's why we're going to plan an undercover operation."
"Dude, I can be a spy?" BB said excitedly.
"Weeellll, no you weren't the one I had in mind for this kind of undercover operation."
"Dude, I could totally be a spy!"
"Beast Boy, would you can it and let him continue." Raven said following with a dark glare matched by the bird on her shoulder.
BB cringed slightly but sat back. "Dude that bird gives me the creeps." He whispered to Cyborg next to him.
The metal Titan just shrugged, "Raven gives me the creeps, it's what she does."
"No, I actually had you in mind for the job, Raven."
Raven just slowly cocked one eyebrow at him. "As long as I get to make my own cover, I can do it."
Robin nodded. "Good, you'll be going undercover as a new recruit to the HIVE, so you'll have to make up your own villain persona, I can pull a few strings and get you into the Academy but after that it's up to you to get the information we need, Cyborg will get you a holo ring to mask your appearance."
Raven nodded the gears in her mind spinning to make a persona she could use, several things already coming to mind.
"Obviously you won't be able to use your soulself while you're there that would be a dead giveaway, and one last thing the Headmaster is man named Brother Blood, he is a worshipper of Scath." He looked to Raven trying to determine if she had a problem with that.
She just shrugged. "He's dead, he has no power."
"Alright, is a week enough time to get your cover together?"
"Plenty"
"Good, next Monday will be your entrance exam."
Jinx sat with a somewhat bored expression, in the seats around the arena like area where new recruits showed their skills to team leaders, to be picked. She had to attend these events just like every other team leader but no one ever caught her attention, she wasn't against picking up a new member, but she needed someone with a variety of skills that could work with her team, they didn't need another muscle head, nor another tech, or thief, she figured if they were going to get another member they would stand out to her. The headmaster liked to have teams of about five but as long as you completed your missions he was willing to let smaller teams exist. She was in no rush to get new members because, her seniority and success rate compared to other teams she could pick whoever she wanted without having to squabble with other leaders.
New recruits were encouraged to wear 'combat gear' for these initiations, for most that was some ridiculous costume, she had seen far too many men in tights with their underwear over their pants. The first several recruits were exactly what she expected and was about to completely clock out and take a nap when the next recruit caught her eye.
Somewhat tall and strong, not muscled but not wiry either, she walked in with a cool confidence as if she had no concerns at all. She had black hair with bangs framing her face and the rest of her hair tied up in one long ponytail that reached the small of her back. She wore a sleeveless coat that ended just above her knees made of black scaled leather, it opened at her waist so it wouldn't restrict her movements while the top was a closed piece, short grey fur trimmed the edges of the vest top and the bottom tails of the coat, a dark purple sash tied around her waist acted as a belt, she had on a pair of close fitting black pants that went down just past her knees, from there down her legs were wrapped in white cloth down into a pair of lightweight black boots, her forearms were also wrapped in cloth, her right hand had a black fingerless glove that went halfway up her forearm, while her left hand had a full gauntlet the back of witch was covered with plates of overlapping steel that covered up to her elbow. Finally on her back was a sword unlike any Jinx had ever seen, some sort of katana with a two handed pommel, but not long or heavy enough to be a two handed sword, but also longer than any normal one handed sword should be.
The announcer spoke up. "The next recruit is Karitoriki Yoru, a swordswoman and mage, test BEGIN!"
Turrets, bots, and various obstacles emerged from the ground and walls. She took off sword flashing out of its sheathe, she nimbly dodged out of the way of the turrets opening barrage, making her way to one side she ran up the wall and jumped onto one of the wall mounted turrets leaping away just as the turrets on the opposing wall destroyed the one she was standing on, she repeated this for every turret along that side, jumping of the last turret into the air she hurled a fireball at the next nearest turret that exploded with enough force to break the turret from its mount, as she landed and rolled a bolt of electricity arced from her hand to the open spot on the wall, the electricity shorted out the remaining turrets on that side, now only the bots remained.
She squared off against the nearest bot that wielded a simple baton and a blaster. She dodged the shot from the blaster and when the bot swung the baton at her she batted it away with her gauntleted left hand, now with the bots defense down she gripped her sword with both hands and swung slicing the bot in half at the waist. She continued to decimate the bots with sword and magic, and continued to avoid being hit blocking with the heavily armored gauntlet or evading nimbly away, she was fast, her swordsmanship was as well but it wasn't fast like lightning, it was fast like a lion, like 'holy crap that's fast for how powerful it is' there were other swordsman that were much faster with their strikes but none that matched the power of her strikes with those swings. The last three bots gathered together to rush her all at once, she stood straight and inhaled a deep breath that puffed out her cheeks before throwing her head forward releasing a torrent of searing flames that Jinx could feel from her place in the stands, the bots stopped in their advance the head bot was half melted when the flames cleared and the other two were fried from the heat.
Jinx looked to the terminal in front of her seeing there were already a dozen bids for her from other team leaders, Jinx placed her bid and smiled as it was near instantly approved, she then got up as Karitoriki walked out of the arena. Jinx was leaned up against the wall of the hallway when she left the prep room holding a duffle bag and a slip of paper that had her dorm and team assignment on it.
She noticed her almost immediately.
"Hello, I'm your new team captain, welcome to the crew." Jinx said with her Cheshire smile, holding out her hand.
She shook it. "Jinx, right?"
Jinx nodded. "I'm guessing Kari for short, no?"
She nodded.
"Excellent, come on, I'll show you the dorms, you'll be bunking with me."
Raven thought to herself as she followed Jinx down the hall. Well this could be interesting; I wonder what she's like in her private life.
"In addition to the usual dorms each team has their own 'common area' for planning missions making gear, whatever, ours is this way, Baran and Giz should be in here." Jinx said opening a door to a large-ish room.
And indeed Mammoth was sitting on a large couch watching TV; Gizmo was sitting next to him with some sort of tech in his lap that he was prodding at with a screwdriver.
"Guys meet your new teammate!" Jinx called to them.
Both of them looked over their shoulder, somewhat incredulous looks on their faces.
"You actually recruited a new member? Are you feeling ok?" Gizmo spoke up.
"Haha very funny, pull up her recording and you'll see why I got her, anyway, this is Kari, Kari that's Mammoth and Gizmo."
Raven nodded to them.
"Welcome to the team" Mammoth replied.
"Yeah, let's see what you can do." Gizmo said pulling up the recording of her entrance exam.
"Come on I'll show you to our room." Jinx said walking into a side hallway.
Raven followed her down the hall to one of two doors.
"This is our room, bathroom is across the hall." Jinx said motioning to the other door.
Inside the room Raven could tell Jinx lived in it, although it was different from what she expected, the room was in a state of organized chaos, the two small desks were cluttered with objects, the top bunk of the bunk bed had several rolled up blankets and duffel bags in it, the floor however was clear. The room was cluttered but not without reason.
"Sorry about the mess, I've been the only one living in this room for years, I'll have some room cleared for you by tonight, for now just put your stuff down anywhere, you get changed if you want to or whatever, I'm going to go start getting you a class list together, just come back out to the common room when you're ready." Jinx said rubbing the back of her neck and smiling slightly embarrassed.
"Thank you."
With that Jinx left the room, Raven waited a minute before pulling out a cell phone; she flicked it open and punched in a code on the keypad, after a second Robin's face came up on the screen.
"I'm in; Jinx actually recruited me to her team."
"That could be dangerous, she knows you." Robin replied.
"I didn't have a choice, I'll be fine, I'll check in again when I have a chance."
She flicked the phone closed again and changed out of her combat outfit into something more casual. A black long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up past her elbows, and a pair of brown cargo pants, leaving her arms and legs wrapped in the white bandage cloth.
Changed, she walked back out into the common room.
Gizmo and Mammoth both looked at her as she walked back in.
"You've got some skills for sure." Gizmo said a bit impressed.
"You could say that again." Mammoth added.
"Thanks." Raven replied, walking over to the small kitchen/dining area where Jinx was working with a tablet.
Jinx glanced up from her work for a moment looking her over.
"Alright, as team leader I get to choose what classes you'll be taking to best complement what we already have on the team." She slid the tablet across the counter to Raven.
"Lock picking, stealth, thieving, firearms, and a teamwork class?"
"Yup, you'll be stealth/infiltration with me on missions, so lock picking and stealth are essential, the thieving class is all about banks, security systems, guards, things like that, firearms is required by the school, I wouldn't call it a necessity but it is fun, and the teamwork class is me giving you a free credit, teams normally take that together but since our team already took it you'll just come to team training with us and get a free credit for it." Jinx explained.
Raven nodded. "I was half expecting evil laughing 101."
"Sadly enough that is an actual class."
"You're joking."
"Well it's just called 'Evil 101' but the laugh is a part of it."
"That's ridiculous."
"You're tellin' me, I don't care about the good versus evil BS, I'm just trying to get you mission ready."
"Thanks, I feel like I wouldn't be able to take that kind of class seriously."
Jinx smiled a little at her. "I think you'll fit in well here."
The next few days saw Raven thrown into a life she never had before. Formal schooling was something that she had never experienced in the monastery or afterward and she found herself interested in the classes Jinx had lined up for her, learning the intricacies of lock picking and the proper care of a firearm. Raven determined the best way to find out what HIVE was planning was to become a good student and gain the Headmasters attention, she had expected long hours of tedious work, but found most of the work came easily to her.
The other part of being undercover was socializing with her teammates, she had a prepared backstory, relatively vague, and rather close to her actual background. The best lies have a little truth to them. She found the company alright as well, most of her off time was spent in the teams common area, Gizmo while somewhat annoying was a technical wizard and they found while having little to talk about they had a mutual understanding that each enjoyed their silence, something her other teammates had never quite grasped. Mammoth was another surprise, rather kind outside of combat he was not the oaf she had pictured before tending to spend his time watching the History channel, or Discovery, and Raven found herself in several conversation with the muscled meta over shows. Jinx was probably the most surprising though, Raven found she quite enjoyed the thief's company and they would often talk for hours, to the point where Raven considered her a friend and began feeling bad about lying to her.
Raven sat in her and Jinx's shared room, leaned back in a chair with her feet resting against the bunk bed so that only two legs of the chair were on the ground, reading a book on lock picking in preparation for a test tomorrow.
Jinx walked into the room. "Ah there you are."
Raven lowered the book cocking an eyebrow at the thief. "You were looking for me?"
"Yes, you are now fit for mission duty, and we have a heist tomorrow night."
"I'll be joining you on this mission?"
"Yep, should be fairly simple, a good first job." The thief replied with a nod.
"Alright, I guess I'll be ready then."
"Good, we'll go over the mission brief tomorrow, just wanted to let you know a little ahead of time, now I've gotta go give Gizmo the building security specs so he can work his techno wizardry."
"Alright"
With that Jinx left the room. And Raven thought to herself. A heist tomorrow? I'll have to help her to keep my cover. Somewhat surprised by how little that bothered her, that she would be willingly breaking the law tomorrow night. Her musings were interrupted by her phone buzzing. She dropped the chair back to the ground and swiveled over to her desk, which was strewn with half disassembled locks. She picked up the phone flipping it open and entering the code, Robin's face appeared on the screen.
"Hello."
"Raven, do you have anything to report?" Robin asked.
Raven set the phone down on the desk facing towards her as she began moving pieces around on the desk.
"Nothing much, Blood is planning something but I don't know what yet."
Robin watched from the other end of the link seeing Raven move pieces of locks and even firearms around as she talked.
"Raven, are you doing ok in there?" He asked, as she held the receiver to a pistol.
"Yeah, actually kind of enjoying myself." She said clicking the slide back onto the receiver and cocking the pistol, before looking down the sights to make sure they were aligned properly.
She looked to the screen seeing Robin looking at her with a strange look.
"What?" She heard someone coming down the hall suddenly. "Woops, gotta go."
She clicked the phone shut and moved it off to the side, then went back to examining the M9. Jinx walked back into the room, she came in and plopped down into her own desk chair. She swiveled around to face Raven.
"You know there's a dance coming up in a few weeks?" Jinx asked.
"They have dances here?" Raven replied somewhat incredulous.
"Yeah, kinda weird I know, but maybe we could go together, might be fun." Jinx said casually, although Raven could feel the thief's nerves.
Raven looked over to her, leaned back in her chair, although she no longer wore her hair up in it's ridiculous horns she did have to small almost pigtails that somewhat resembled her old horns, the rest of her hair was longer than it had been before, leaving some bangs to frame the thief's face. Raven looked into the thief's face her mischievous fuchsia cat eyes, and the slight smile on her lips.
"Yeah, maybe we should."
A/N: Well there it is, if you enjoyed that, and I hope you did, if you've made it this far you probably like something about it I'm always grateful for reviews (critical or otherwise) and i always appreciate getting alerts and Faves.
Thanks for reading, Jknight