Chapter 10
The Night is Born

discb: The show never really got into Cheshire - she only made what: one, two appearances, and she didn't even get to speak. My take on our Alice-inspired assassin will hew more towards the Young Justice interpretation (she was a rather fun character, especially her seductiveness with Red Arrow/Roy Harper - an element I will keep in this story ;).)

Concolor44: Zatanna can definitely be unpleasant around Raven, especially considering their animosity towards each other and their past - a lot of people seem to be following that pattern (even you in a few of your stories). While it always seems fine to bash Zatanna, I eventually want to portray her a little more sympathetically (maybe in my future stories), more akin to her Young Justice counterpart rather than the Justice League comics version. As for Klarion, Doctor Fate and Mordru are both members of the Eldritch Enclave, and they are Lords of their respective elements - Order (well, the spirit in Fate's helmet is) and Chaos. Klarion is a master of illusions and thus has proved his way into the Enclave. As for Roy and Garth, I was trying to keep the tension between them - Speedy is a chauvinist, and constantly hits on women (or at least, that's what the fanfiction version of him is) and Garth is trying to be more sensible. Their scene in the bedroom was a little tease to see if readers want the two of them together - only time will tell.

Disclaimer: Did we ever get to see the results of the Tournament of Heroines in Winner Take All? If not, I don't own the Teen Titans franchise; it belongs to DC Entertainment, Glen Murakami, and Warner Bros., nor do I own the Misunderstandings story, which belongs to SilentlyWatches.

Starfire had finally returned from her visit to her home planet of Tamaran in order to appease the Royal Advisors and to maintain the rule of her knorfk'a Galfore, who remained the Grand Ruler of Tamaran.

Robin was certainly enthusiastic for her return, seeing how his girlfriend (and biggest supporter) had been gone for over a month, and a lot had happened in that time.

When Starfire landed on the roof, she proceeded to crush Robin in one of her bone-breaking hugs, screeching, "Love Robin! I have returned."

Robin replied, "I can see that."

"What did I miss?"

Robin let up from the hug a little before explaining, "Titans East broke up. Apparently Mad Mod had been feeding Speedy heroin for the past year while he didn't even know it. Once they found it out, Speedy decided to leave the Titans, and Aqualad joined him. Mas y Menos departed for Guatemala and Bumblebee is headed to college."

"So we have lost five of our friends?"

"Yes, Star. I'm trying to find somebody to take their place, but most of the Titans are busy where they are or content, and their reaction to me isn't quite as strong as it had been."

"Because of the traitor Raven and her lies. She broke up the Titans East. She must pay for what she has done."

"Unfortunately, Star, I don't think Raven had anything to do with their dissolution. I doubt she even had contact with them. It was all internal, perhaps brought on because of our own turbulent dynamic. Cy and Lisa don't trust me, keeping watch on me, Beast Boy is a complete wild card. You're my only true ally, Star, the one person I can count on to support me."

"Alright, then Love Robin. I request that we do the making of the love tonight."

Robin was a little flushed as he heard Starfire's request - she wanted to have sex, which seemed a little pre-emptive for his taste. Normally, it's a bit more spur-of-the-moment, but they haven't seen each other in a month. And Robin did not want to alienate his biggest supporter.

As the interspecies duo passed into the Tower, they were soon interrupted by the alarm. Robin noted, "Trouble" and the two of them quickly moved to the living room to get a better idea of what exactly was going on.

Upon arriving, Robin asked, "What is it?"

Cyborg said, "Burglary going on at Mycroft Labs."

Beast Boy added, "Isn't Mycroft the place where..."

Robin cut him off with, "Xenothium. Mycroft has the largest store of xenothium west of the Mississippi. We can't let anyone get it. Titans go!"

The Titans arrived at Mycroft Labs in order to see who was trying to steal the supply of xenothium, an alloy of several dangerous metals, one that can actually be made less harmful by adding uranium. It was something that they definitely did not want to get into the wrong hands, but who was going to try to take it?

As they approached the xenothium storage, they saw one face they hadn't seen for years. The mask alone told the Titans just who they were up against, an elusive enemy that really pissed them off.

Robin snarled, "Red X. Why are you back?"

Red X chuckled, "You miss me that much? Just been doing some freelancing down south, and I need some more fuel for the suit. Would you mind me borrowing a container or two?"

Beast Boy shouted, "How about you get lost before we kick your ass?"

"Interesting, but I think I'll just take the xenothium and leave. I see you replaced little miss sunshine with a new girl. Mind if I take her for a spin?"

Lisa answered, "No, but you can certainly eat dirt" and launched a rock at Red X, which he quickly destroyed using an X-shaped shuriken.

"Nice try, sunlight, but I've got to take off. I'll send you my next Christmas card."

Starfire screamed, "No you shall not. You shall go to the prison where the bad people go!" After her rant, she sent off several starbolts towards Red X, hoping to connect with him before Robin shouted, "Star, don't. If one of your starbolts hits the xenothium, we could be looking at a catastrophic reaction. We can't risk projectile attacks in here. Hand-to-hand only."

X mocked, "Like you could beat me in hand-to-hand."

Enraged, Robin took a leap and soon made his way over towards Red X, pulling out his bo-staff to force the masked criminal into combat. Robin took a swing as X, who dodged each blow before he sent out a sticky X that connected with Robin, sticking him to a nearby wall.

Beast Boy then turned into a hawk and flew up towards Red X, who was getting away with xenothium in hand. X simply responded with another X that bound Beast Boy, sending him towards the ground.

With the two close-quarters Titans down, Red X proceeded to quickly move out of the vault, preparing to leave Mycroft Labs with several cases of xenothium. Lisa and Cyborg quickly went after the thief as Starfire proceeded to free Robin and Beast Boy from the captivity of Red X's X-adhesives.

Red X moved his way through the rear of the labs before arriving ultimately on the roof, aiming to get out before the Titans caught him. Before he could get much farther, he heard a tell-tale beeping on his belt.

Realizing that his suit was out of power, he opened the notch that contained the xenothium storage and removed the empty container, tossing it into a nearby dumpster so it wouldn't hurt anybody as he then placed one of his newly-acquired xenothium containers into his belt, giving him back the full capabilities of the suit.

Just as his suit began to repower up, he was soon cornered by Cyborg, coming from behind him on the roof, and Lisa, who was floating on a rock platform in front of the roof.

Realizing he was cornered, Red X soon proceeded to run away from the two, waiting for the teleportation function on his suit to recharge. As Lisa aimed a rock at Red X's foot, hoping to trip him, Cyborg warned her, "Be careful, that's stuff nitroglycerin."

Lisa commented, "I thought xenothium was polonium, radium, and mercury."

Cyborg snarked, "Same principle. One bad movement, the thing blows. And we don't want to be near it when if it does. We need to get the xenothium of his hands before we can try to disable him."

As the two continued advancing on Red X, she inquired, "How can we get it out of his hands when he's moving faster than us? And he's got a teleportation belt!"

Cyborg pulled up a computer screen containing the signs of the X-belt before explaining, "The teleportation is still charging up. Even if it does, I've got a jammer in place that will block it. He can't elude us forever, especially once Rob, Star, and BB get up here."

Red X noted, "You're not letting me get away, I see. Guess the easy way's out. Now to do things the hard way."

He pulled out a taser grenade and tossed it at Cyborg, who was careful to dodge it, seeing how it would have likely fried his systems, nearly killing him. "Guess he's not quite as gentle as he used to be."

"Damn straight. He's gonna pay for that."

Lisa manipulated some rocks so they proceeded to block off Red X's path, forcing him into a circle and Cyborg quickly gained ground on the thief that had pissed off the Titans for so long. Today, we'll finally catch the son of a bitch.

As Red X continued to move around the rooftop, he was soon faced with Robin, who sent a bird-a-rang that further cut off Red X, forcing him into a path the Titans set, soon coming into contact with Starfire, who soon swung a punch at his mask.

X managed to duck before sweeping Starfire's legs and knocking her onto the ground, giving him more freedom only to encounter Beast Boy, now a pterodactyl, trying to take the xenothium from him.

All Red X had to do was jump on Beast Boy before taking a leap towards another rooftop, where he intended to escape, getting out of the range of Cyborg's jammers.

Before he was about to land, X cried out, "So long suckers."

Unfortunately, the second he landed, he mistakenly tripped and the xenothium he was holding shook, causing a massive explosion on the other rooftop.

Upon seeing the miniature mushroom cloud, the Titans rushed over to see just how bad the damage was.

The building had been badly damaged, but nobody was inside. The only casualty was Red X, who was badly blown apart. All the Titans could find of him was his head and one of his legs.

Red X was never going to fight the Titans again, but they certainly did not want him dead. They wanted to capture him and try him for his crimes.

The Titans walked over to the building where Red X exploded, taking notice of what had happened. Robin asked, "Cy, can you find any remnants of the suit?"

Cyborg answered, "I ran my scanner across the scene. All I could find was assorted scraps of cloth and the mask. The belt was destroyed in the explosion. I can tell you that nobody can use it again, unless X had another."

Robin replied, "He wouldn't. Either he had the suit or nobody had it. Maybe we can find out who he is."

Raven and Jinx were currently in Leon, Nicaragua, staking out the estate of one of the most notorious arms dealers in Latin America. Raven had set up a long-range camera so what they saw could be fed back to Fort Pell, where Gizmo and Mammoth were.

As they surveyed the mansion, Jinx asked, "Why are we here, again?"

Raven replied, "We volunteered for this, remember. Ruiz gave it to us first, and this man is very valuable."

"So why is Mammoth still at Pell?"

"Gizmo requested Mammoth stay with him. Besides, we can handle them ourselves." Raven spoke into her earwig, asking, "Can you see our feed?"

From Fort Pell, Gizmo replied, "Yes, we see your feed. We've got good view on the front of the estate. I've got Olivia watching 'round back. You should get full view of his estate in one second."

Raven quickly got the schematics of the dealer's estate, looking for where they needed to strike. Jinx inquired, "So, where are we headed in?"

"South side. That's where his merchandise is. Take it out, take him out, and get back to base. Standard mission."

"Then let's go."

Raven and Jinx arose from their prone position, removing the dirt-colored blanket placed atop them to conceal themselves, revealing them in light orange combat fatigues. First, Raven opened a portal to Nevermore before storing the blanket and the camera inside. Then, Raven took her lover's hand and engulfed them both in soul-self, phasing in through the ground before arriving in the basement of the mansion.

Releasing her girlfriend from her soul-self, Raven took a look around to see if this was the right merchandise.

Jinx applied a hex to one of the locks on the crates, careful not to hit the box itself for fear of what was inside of it. Removing the lock, her fears were confirmed when she saw a very large missile.

Jinx spoke into her earwig, "They've got Mark XII missiles down here. Just as intel said. Raven, found anything else?"

Raven added, "They've got both weapons capable of crippling an aircraft carrier as well as Stingers and heavy machine guns. Judging by the labels on the boxes, this merchandise is set to be moved out within the next day or so."

From base, Ruiz said, "Good job, ladies. Plant the explosives. Take out the damn mansion, and get out of there."

Jinx commented, "Yes, sir."

Raven opened a portal to her mental dimension Nevermore and pulled out ten packs of C4 explosives she had stored there before the mission.

Each one was covered in a black glow that stuck to a crate, one on each crate, specifically starting with the ones that held the XII missiles, which had been stolen from a Navy research lab a few weeks earlier and fully weaponized with thermite and Semtex explosives, instead of the standard high shrapnel and plastic explosives they had been originally loaded with. Formerly capable of leveling a building, these could now do massive damage to the Navy. Which was why they needed to be destroyed.

After sticking the ten explosives, Raven prepared to set the timer for ten seconds but Jinx stopped her. Raven inquired, "Why?"

Jinx proceeded to drag Raven over to a case in the back, one they had not planted with an explosive.

Raven used her powers to collapse the crate, revealing the contents inside. It wasn't weapons.

It was cash. Specifically what appeared to be millions in Mexican pesos.

Gizmo asked, "Yo, Jinx, Raven. What's the hold up?"

Raven answered, "We found his cash. I'd say at least two hundred million in pesos. Over fifteen million in US dollars."

Over the comms, Ruiz suggestively commented, "It's a fucking shame it's all gonna be destroyed. Nothing to log there."

Quickly getting Ruiz's drift, Raven opened up a portal to Nevermore before pushing the money inside.

With the money secure, Raven activated the timer, triggering the ten-second fuse before detonation.

Engulfing herself and her lover in soul-self, the two escaped the estate well before their explosives detonated, destroying the entire mansion, killing everybody inside. Fortunately for them, there had been no civilians - Gizmo's drone had confirmed that. All there were was guards and the arms dealer himself.

A few hours later, having fully debriefed Colonel Ruiz on their mission, Raven and Jinx retired to their room, where they soon began to count the proceeds they had pilfered from the arms dealer they previously took out.

Raven unwrapped the container and the two of them soon began to count the money when they began to notice something peculiar.

Jinx asked, "What is it, Raven?"

Raven replied, "Some of this money is counterfeit. Faked pesos. Who in their right mind would decide to counterfeit pesos? A nearly worthless currency compared to American dollars."

"Nobody. That's the beauty of it. If you want to get away with forging currency, do it in a currency nobody would suspect. One of my old HIVE pals I hear got a very nice vacation in Trinidad on over three million in forged local currency. Nobody caught him."

"Good point. Now we have to figure out how much of this is actually legal tender. How much can we put towards our house?"

"We both want to pay it off as soon as we can, so we're not getting a mortgage. Our frontrunner house costs about four hundred thousand total."

"Though, with the money we're making, we could afford something a lot better. Maybe be able to host Gizmo, Baran, and my kids if we needed to."

"That's a great idea. Now, we should probably resume counting."

After about two hours of counting, the girls found that the giant stack they had pilfered contained roughly four hundred twenty million pesos, and of those, just thirteen and a half million were legitimate currency.

After finishing counting, Jinx asked, "So, how much do we have?"

Raven answered, "Adjusting, I'd say we have just over a million in United States currency. It's gonna be hard depositing that in the bank without arising suspicions."

"Well what about your Swiss bank account?"

"Thanks for reminding me. It's still active and he doesn't ask a lot of questions. My bank manager. We'll let the real money sit there until we have enough for a house."

Over at the training grounds, Roy and Garth were progressing, with Garth currently training in unarmed, depowered combat while Roy was practicing his marksmanship with his crossbow.

While Roy was practicing his archery, Mammoth came up to him at the range to practice.

Roy greeted, "Hey, Baran. What are you practicing with?"

Mammoth pulled out a machine gun and replied, "LSAT. You, Roy?"

"Crossbow. Certainly harder to break and more accurate than my old longbow. Though it's not quite as fast in both speed and reloading."

Roy took aim at a target down range. He looked through the scope of his crossbow and released the bolt, connecting in the target's neck. Mammoth also took aim with his LSAT and opened fire, spraying a target with quite a few bullets.

"Would you rather the longbow or crossbow?"

As he loaded in another bolt into his crossbow, Roy replied, "I'd have to go with crossbow. Especially how my longbow was broken twice."

"Once during the Brotherhood of Evil attack, once with Robin in that Tournament of Champions."

"Yeah, Gizmo ever talk to you about it? He must have."

"Went into detail about his fight with Cyborg, and then how Cyborg fucked it up by disqualifying himself investigating the truth. You ever hear about the Tournament of Heroines?"

"Girls that appeared in the realm of the Master of Games after we left. Raven, Starfire, Terra, Jinx, Bumblebee, Kole, Argent, and Pantha."

"Yep. Jinx told us that before the tournament, when he asked if anyone wanted to leave, Starfire asked to leave. Before he could absorb her in that amulet thing Gizmo told me about, Raven attacked and ordered him to let the three of them go or he would face the consequences."

"He agreed, and then he also let Kole go. Bee told me some about it. Anyway, it was just Jinx, Argent, Pantha, and Bumblebee. Your leader and Argent duked it out while my old boss and Pantha fought."

"Jinx and Pantha made it while Bee and Argent got sucked in." Roy finished loading his crossbow and began to aim it downrange at the same target.

"What happened next?"

"Jinx kicked Pantha's ass in the final battle, but the chimp tried to take her powers too. One good hex to the amulet freed the other girls and then returned them back to their homes."

"I wonder how Jinx would fare against Bumblebee. It'd be a hell of a battle I'm sure." Roy fired his crossbow and struck his target in the head.

Mammoth let out more lead downrange, cutting the target's head off with a stream of 5.56x45mm bullets. "Too bad we'll never find out. Bee's retired."

"I know. But a guy can dream."

Back at the Tower, the Titans were processing the remains of Red X, trying to find an identity for the elusive thief, seeing his soft blue eyes, smooth red hair, and light mustache.

After several hours of searching, Cyborg went up to Robin and said, "We got a match on his identity. Leon Russo. Twenty-four. Ran away from Gotham a little over five years ago. Has a mother who still lives there, trying to find her son."

Robin comments, "Matches when the suit was stolen. I'll tell Batman that the missing persons case can be put to rest."

Cyborg walked out of the room, leaving Robin to start a video conference with the Batcave. Dialing in the code, Robin waited as the screen loaded for the Batcave, where he knew that Batman would be right about now.

After two minutes, the feed from the Batcave came up, and Batman walked over to the monitor. He inquired, "Hello, Richard. What do you have to call about?"

"A missing persons case from five years ago. Do you remember Leon Russo?"

"Yes. His mother was very agitated when he vanished. Spent years searching Gotham for him. Never found him. Why?"

"We found him. Five years ago, after he left, he broke into the Tower and stole the Red X suit."

"And you know this how?"

"Russo was killed a few hours ago trying to steal xenothium from Mycroft Labs. Most of his body was destroyed, but we still have his head and one of his legs. Don't know what you're going to tell his mom."

"You're right. Anyway, I've been meaning to call you for a while now."

"Why?"

"I had something to ask you."

"What is it? Just spit it out."

"I was going to ask you to step down from the Robin identity."

"What? Are you firing me?"

"No. A few weeks ago, I realized I needed a new Robin, and you were busy. Plus, my new ward-of-state found the Batcave and has become Robin."

"Well Bruce, who is he?"

"Robin, come down."

Soon after, Robin saw coming from the Batcave, another Robin. One wearing a nearly identical uniform to him but had higher spiked hair.

"Who is he?"

"Richard, meet Jason Todd. The new Robin. I'm sorry."

"No, Bruce. Perhaps this is a sign for me. I've been thinking about moving on from the Robin identity. Trying to find something new for myself."

"Do you know what it is?"

"I will."

Three days after Robin's chat with Bruce, Robin announced, "Team meeting in the living room ASAP."

The other Titans quickly arrived, in anticipation of what he has to announce. A few moments later, Robin stepped out, no longer wearing his old Boy Wonder uniform.

Lisa asked, "Robin, what's going on?"

He said, "Batman told me that there is a new Robin, so I've decided to move on from the Robin identity. For now on, call me Nightwing."

An expression of joy appeared on Starfire's face, as the Rekmas she feared wasn't happening. They were fairly close as friends, not distant, and since Robin was now Nightwing, things couldn't go much worse.

The other Titans took their time to stare at Nightwing's uniform - the same domino mask plus a black long-sleeved shirt with a blue bird emblem on front plus a pair of black combat pants and boots plus gloves. At his sides were two eskrima sticks that functioned similarly to his old bo-staff.

Starfire commented, "Love Nightwing, it is certainly enjoyable."

A moment of silence occurred before Lisa spoke up. "There's something I need to say."

Nightwing indicated, "Go on."

Lisa added, "I've adopted a new identity for myself. In battle, call me Persephone."

Okay, I bet maybe half a percent of you were expecting Jason Todd to be the new Robin, but that's what happened in the comics - we're not skipping over him for the more mainstream Tim Drake. He'll have a bit of a role later on in the story, especially as we get closer to the Brotherhood of Evil's return. We never found out X's identity, so I created an OC civilian identity for X to have - since Jason Todd was one of the more frequent choices for Red X, and I didn't want to use the choice I used for Betrayed, Cast Off, Angry - Grant Wilson (Slade's first-born son). As for not mentioning the identity of the man Jinx and Raven took out, I felt it was ultimately unnecessary to give him an identity.

Coming up next in Collapse: Raven and Jinx get closer to owning their house. And coming later: Roy and Garth adopt new identities, Beast Boy begins to come to his senses, and the Brotherhood is revived.

storytell18 out.