Chapter Eight: One Truth Comes Out, Another Remains Hidden

Hey everyone! I realize I haven't updated in a long time, but I do have an excuse! School has been killing me! I won't be able to update as often as I used to. Thank you to MajorMikey, sumbunnyluvsu77, sparklebluelemon, Yassy, Jp3711nc1, Pollimigo, noradiana, and ice dimanond for their reviews last chapter, and a special thank you to my beta reader Kute-Kate for looking over this chapter! Now, on with the story!


"WHAT!?" the original titans shouted, as they all spun around to stare at Moonfire in stunned disbelief. In her shock, Starfire loosened her grip on Jinx, letting the pink haired woman drop to the floor.

At that moment, Moonfire's team ran into the room. "Moon, what are you yelling abou…" Sparrow stopped short, as did the rest of the current titans when they saw the scene. "Jinx?" she said, looking stunned.

Jinx sighed, blowing a strand of hair away from her face, and smiled slightly.

"Hey kiddo. How's it been?" she replied.

Sparrow was about to reply when Robin suddenly cut in. "Whoa, wait, hold on a second!" he yelled. He turned towards Moonfire, and the girl could practically feel her father's anger and puzzlement. "What do you mean let her go? Would somebody please explain what in the world is going on!?" he demanded.

"That's what I want to know." Jinx added as she stood up. "Guys, you mind explaining why they…" she pointed at the original titans, ignoring the way they tensed when she did so. "… Are all suddenly teenagers?"

Moonfire sighed, holding up her hands. "Okay, well first of all…" She turned to look at the original titans, who were all watching her intently. "I'm not sure how to break this to you guys but, Jinx isn't exactly a villain."

Cyborg frowned, and asked the question that was on all his teammates' minds. "What do you mean she's not a villain? Of course she's a villain! We should know, we catch her and the Hive Five robbing banks all the time!"

At this point, Archera decided to intervene. "We're not saying she wasn't a villain. Just that she isn't anymore," she explained, trying to smooth the situation over.

Robin frowned, turning around to look at Jinx, who was standing behind him, her arms folded in front of her chest. "I don't believe it," He stated bluntly.

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Ain't that a surprise," She muttered sarcastically.

Moonfire sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Robin, I know this whole thing must be difficult to believe, and I know you don't trust Jinx because of her past but I'm telling you, she's changed!" Moonfire insisted.

Robin snorted in disbelief. "Yeah, sure she has! I can't believe you're actually falling for this!" Robin shouted, looking absolutely livid. "She's a liar and a thief, that's all she's ever been! That's all she knows how to be! If I were you, I'd quit being so blind and gullible and accept that before I got myself or one of my teammates hurt."

"Excuse me?" Moonfire shouted, looking stunned and insulted, but Robin turned away from her, facing Jinx.

"Just what exactly are you playing at Jinx?" he demanded.

Jinx glared at him, feeling rage build up inside her. "Look boy blunder!" She snarled, her pink eyes narrowing dangerously. "Let's get a few things straight here, alright? First of all, I'm not a villain! In fact, I happen to be a titan!" she declared.

"WHAT!?" the original titans shouted once more, looking more shocked then ever.

"You're a titan?" Robin asked skeptically.

Jinx hesitated for a moment. "Well, I was but…"

"You blew it!" Robin cut in, a smug look on his face. "We gave you a chance and you decided to go back to your criminal ways huh?"

"No!" Jinx screamed. "I never went back! I've been on the right side of the law for over twenty years now!" She paused, taking a deep breath. "If you must know, I got tired of the whole hero vs. villain business. I retired from that about three years ago although I do come out and lend a hand if I'm needed," She explained.

Beastboy frowned. "So… you're basically a civilian now?" he asked uncertainly.

Jinx thought about that for a moment. "Yeah. Civilian's not exactly the word I'd use for a former villain-turned-hero but yeah, I guess you could say that I'm one now."

"Hmm," Robin muttered, still unconvinced. Jinx spun back around to face him, eyes flaring with renewed anger.

"And you!" she snapped. "I'm not finished with you yet! You have some nerve, pal. I'm sorry but what you said to Moonfire was seriously out of line. That is no way to talk to your daug—"

"Darling host!" Moonfire cut in, giving an uncomfortable laugh in an attempt to hide her panic at the fact that Jinx had nearly revealed their secret by accident.

Jinx raised an eyebrow at Moonfire's odd behavior, but decided to go along with it. "Sure, your… darling host," she said hesitantly.

"Um, hey Jinx do you mind if we talk to you in the hallway for a minute? Privately?" Archera questioned, trying to get them all out of the awkward situation.

Jinx frowned, uncertain what was going on but nodded, following the current titans into the hallway. Moonfire turned back to the original titans, who were still in shock after everything that had just transpired.

"Do you guys mind just waiting out here? Just for a minute," she asked. Not waiting for their reply, she turned and followed her team into the hallway, shutting the door behind them.


With the current titans:

As soon as the door shut, the current titans turned around and saw Jinx watching them carefully, her arms crossed in front of her chest. "Okay, before I say anything, would someone please explain why half of your parents are here and why they're, oh I don't know, teenagers!" she demanded.

Moonfire winced. "Yeah, about that… funny you should ask," she said with a nervous laugh. When Jinx made no attempt to look humored Moonfire sobered and she sighed slightly.

"Alright. The truth is our parents' past selves apparently had some sort of incident with a time machine and they, somehow, wound up here," Moonfire explained, with a small shrug.

Jinx frowned. "So, why haven't they gone back to their own time yet?" She questioned.

"They can't," Stinger cut in. "The time machine was damaged when they got here. It still isn't fixed yet, and until it is there's no way for them to go back."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Talk about bad timing," she muttered. "Okay, so that explains why they're here and why they're teenagers but I do still have one question. What was the whole deal with that 'darling host' thing?" Jinx asked.

Not giving them the chance to reply, she continued on, not seeing the current titans' anxious glances at each other. "I mean, if I didn't know any better I'd say they didn't know you were their kids. But I mean, you guys couldn't possibly have not told…"

She stopped, looking carefully at them, noticing how they had suddenly become very uneasy. Her eyes widened when she realized the truth.

"You've got to be kidding me."

Crow shrugged in reply. "Well, what did you expect us to say? Hi, welcome to the future! By the way, we're your kids?" He rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that would have gone over well."

"So, you're telling me they don't know anything about you being their kids?! Not even a little?" Jinx demanded. "When exactly were you planning on telling them?"

Moonfire's eyes hardened. "We're not telling them," she said firmly.

Jinx raised an eyebrow. "That's a joke right? Why wouldn't you? I mean, if they're going to be staying with you guys for a while, they at least deserve to know the truth about, well, everything," she told them.

Moonfire grit her teeth together. She had a feeling she knew where Jinx was going with the 'everything' line, and it was not a topic she particularly wanted to discuss right then. Or ever for that matter. "We've got enough to deal with as it is without making things any more complicated then they already are," she insisted.

Jinx frowned in disapproval. She opened her mouth to speak then hesitated, looking uncertain for a moment before continuing on, choosing her words carefully.

"I guess this means they don't know about the little… incident… that happened two months ago, huh?"

Moonfire stiffened, spinning around to glare at the pink haired woman. Two months worth of pain, anger, and confusion suddenly came bubbling back up from underneath the uncaring mask she'd hidden them beneath, and strangely enough it was all directed at Jinx for bringing it up when Moonfire had tried so hard to bury it and move on. Still, the mention of the incident brought all that frustration back, and she didn't think when she spoke again.

"I'd hardly call our parents becoming villains a little incident!" She snapped before she could stop herself.

As soon as the words were out in the open, everyone froze, the hall suddenly becoming so silent you could hear a pin drop. Nobody dared to speak. What had happened to their parents was not a subject that was openly discussed among them, and the current titans looked nervously at each other, unsure what to say to their leader's outburst.

Jinx's eyes softened slightly as she looked at the agitated girl in front of her. "You're right. It's not a little incident, and I don't think it is," she told her.

Moonfire's glare faded, and she lowered her head wearily. "I know you don't," she said quietly.

She heaved a deep sigh, rubbing the back of her neck tiredly as she recalled the events of that day. Her team had been called to a disturbance downtown and had immediately gone to deal with the problem, thinking it was just a minor super-villain, or maybe even just a thief the cops didn't want to deal with themselves. They never could have imagined what awaited them when they arrived.

When she thought back on it, Moonfire wanted to slap herself for not realizing something was wrong. The amount of damage that part of the city had suffered should have tipped her off right away that they were dealing with more then a minor robbery. Perhaps the thought had crossed her mind, but if it had it had immediately been pushed aside when she caught sight of the former titans standing just a short distance away.

Their parents had all watched silently as their children stepped out of the T-car and approached them. That should have been the second sign, the fact that the city was clearly in mayhem and yet their parents merely stood there, staring at them, rather then trying to look for the criminals responsible as they would have on any other occasion.

In fact, none of the current titans had picked up on the fact that something was seriously wrong. That is, not until Sparrow noticed that all their parents' eyes were an odd red color, questioned them about it… and ended up getting thrown against the wall of one of the buildings by her mother.

At first, her teammates had been too horrified by what had just happened to properly respond. Darkstar had been the first to snap out of his shock, spinning around and glaring at Raven furiously, demanding to know what had gotten into her that she would launch such an unprovoked attack on her own daughter.

Raven had laughed cruelly in response and before any of the current titans could react their parents struck out at them, and a large fight had ensued.

Despite several attempts, Moonfire could never fully manage to recall the details of the battle. She remembered standing by her teammates, fighting against their parents. She remembered the way she had pleaded out to them, asking them what was wrong, why they were doing this. As it turned out, the pleads had fallen on deaf ears.

The current titans had tried their best but in the end, their parents were older, stronger and knew nearly every move they made. After all, they were the ones who'd taught them those in the first place. Ultimately, they were fighting a battle they could not win.

Moonfire had fortunately seen where things were going and ordered her team to retreat. Once back at the tower, the titans had all treated their wounds, all of them physically and emotionally drained from the days events. Moonfire, after making sure her teammates were alright, had left the tower and gone back to the city to search for their parents.

She ended up finding her father, and while trying to apprehend him ended up getting into another fight. Moonfire, who was already hurt from the previous battle, had struggled to keep up with her father's constant attacks and had eventually faltered and ended up getting knocked unconscious.

She wasn't sure what would have happened if Jinx had not then stepped in. The former titan had heard about the battle from Moonfire's teammates and had gone searching for her. From what Jinx had told her afterwards, she and Nightwing had fought and, for some odd reason, Nightwing had suddenly left in the middle of the battle.

Jinx had considered going after him but she decided against it. Despite the fact that Nightwing had ran off during their fight, Jinx knew that he would not be an easy enemy to take down, and if any of his team were nearby, she would be hard pressed to get away, let alone defeat them. Besides, she couldn't just leave Moonfire lying on the ground, possibly injured.

At last, she had let Nightwing leave, gathering Moonfire's limp body and taking her back to the tower. Once Moonfire had regained consciousness, Jinx had promised to help them, saying she would track their parents and try to figure out what was going on with them.

The day immediately following the battle, the former titans had left the city, Jinx furtively following them. Despite the fact that the problem was no longer in their own city, it still affected the current titans.

Shortly after the incident, the mayor had started to keep a close eye on the titans, using any excuse he could to call them into his office at least once a week and interrogate them about everything they were doing. It didn't take long for the current titans to realize the reason behind his sudden interest in their activities.

The mayor was concerned that they were going to follow in their parent's footsteps and turn on the city. Due to the mayor's sudden distrust of them, the titans were careful to stay on his good side, even if that meant bearing through his scrutinizes every time they stepped into his office.

The discovery of what their parents had become was the reason why Moonfire had been so against trusting the original titans in the first place.

Moonfire shook her head, clearing her thoughts and turned back to Jinx. "So, why did you come back to Jump city in the first place?" she questioned.

Jinx sighed, looking suddenly weary. "Well, I was doing some digging in your parents' case and I ended up finding out some interesting information," she started. "First of all, I'm not sure whether you guys know about this but… Slade escaped out of prison."

Sparrow nodded. "Yeah we know. We fought him a few days ago."

Jinx nodded. "Yeah well, you guys know that the prison Slade was locked up in was on an island," she said. "There's no land for miles, and the rocks around the island makes it impossible for ships to go anywhere near it. The only way on and off that island is by helicopter, and they only come once a week to drop off food and supplies.

"Of course we know that," Crow said. "It's one of the most high security prisons in the world. That's why he was put there rather than Jump city prison, so that there'd be less of a chance that he'd escape."

"Yeah, that ended up working great," Sparrow muttered under her breath, earning her glares from her teammates.

"What's your point?" Moonfire asked Jinx.

Jinx shot her a look. "Haven't you wondered how Slade got off that island in the first place?" When nobody answered she continued, lowering her voice.

"He had help."

Stinger stared at her in disbelief. "You're kidding right? Who in the world would help him!?" she demanded.

Jinx sighed. "The same people who he managed to inject with microscopic probes right before he was caught. Probes that could take over their hosts' bodies and minds, turning them into his own personal henchmen. They would be completely under his power, unable to control their actions whether it was breaking him out of prison…" She glanced up, looking the titans straight in the eyes. "Or attacking their own children.

Silence descended on the group. The current titans stared at Jinx, their mouths open with shock as they absorbed this new information. "Our… our parents are being controlled by Slade?" Archera chocked out, looking stunned.

Jinx nodded. "Exactly. They don't even realize what they're doing," she said.

Aquagirl shook her head in amazement. "That explains so much," she whispered.

Sparrow suddenly grinned, an excited expression on her face. "It explains everything!" she yelled, thrilled. "I knew it! I just knew our parents weren't evil! This is so great, now we can…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on you guys!" Moonfire cut in, waving her hands around. "Don't you guys think you're getting a little ahead of yourselves?" she questioned. Her friends glanced at one another.

"No," They all said at once. Moonfire sighed, turning back to Jinx.

"Look, Jinx. We appreciate everything you've done for us, but as much as I want to believe you, I think you might have picked up some wrong information."

Jinx rolled her eyes. "Always the skeptic, aren't you, Alex?" she said, using Moonfire's real name. She then became more serious. "Why do you think that the information is wrong?" she asked.

Moonfire sighed. "Because it just doesn't fit!" she insisted. "If Slade was controlling them the whole time, why didn't he have them break him out of prison right away? Why wait?" she pointed out.

Jinx frowned. "Let me ask you something," she said. "Before today, did you ever suspect Slade might have had something to do with what happened to your parents?"

Moonfire hesitated. "Well… no. I mean, he was in prison and…"

"Exactly! Why would you suspect someone how was already behind bars?" Jinx asked seriously. "Slade's no amateur. He knew exactly what he was doing the entire time."

Moonfire bit her lip, as she thought over what the older woman had said. At last she nodded. "Okay, but that still doesn't answer one thing. Why did you come back to Jump City? You could have called us with your communicator instead of coming all the way over here."

Jinx's expression hardened at the question. "Like I said two months ago, I'm tracking your parents." The current titans were confused for a moment before their eyes widened.

Their parents were back in Jump City, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what, or in this case who, had brought them back.

And that concludes this chapter. LOL! Okay, seriously, I know it's been way to long since I updated but I've been really busy! Algebra II stinks! It's so hard, I swear I have no idea what the heck the teacher's means when he's explaining! I haven't felt this confused since I took Spanish, a class I never would have passed without my English-Spanish dictionary. It was a lifesaver!

Back to the story, I have no idea when I'll update again but hopefully it won't be as long a wait as it was for this chapter! I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review! Thanks for reading! (=