I can hardly believe that I'm ten chapters into this pig. No idea why I've been so inspired lately, but the words are flowing. I know when I'm done with this tale, I'll need to go back and do some serious rewrites and clean-ups, but I'm almost looking forward to it. I wasn't entirely happy with the action showpieces of this chapter, so there might be some rewrites of those in the future as well.

So no lemon in this chapter, and I'm not sure if and when there will be another one. Could happen in the next chapter. Could happen three chapters from now. Who knows?*

Anyway, please continue to read and enjoy this work and please review. I can always use con-crit reviews to grow and change and more importantly, improve my writing.

Standard Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans or any DC characters, but I own Mark. I made him. He's mine.

-MeatLips

*I cut the lemon in Chapter 9 to keep my 'T' rating. PM me if you want to read the original chapter uncut. Will trade for reviews :-D

Nightwing ducked behind a brick wall as Cyborg fired his sonic cannon down the street.

"There's too many of them!" Cyborg yelled. The gunfire had increased in intensity.

Nightwing looked up to where Raven hovered. The dark Titan had thrown up another energy shield.

"Raven, can you clear a path?"

Raven nodded. "Azarath, Metrion, ZINTHOS!" A dump truck levitated up, engulfed in black energy. Raven swept it down the road, sending armored soldiers flying like bowling pins. "Clear!"

Nightwing nodded to Cyborg. "Let's go!"

Raven suddenly spun to the side as a pair of small rockets streaked past her and exploded against the road and sending more armored soldiers flying. She look back and saw a Gizmo flying in. As he approached the ground, the wings extending from his backpack retracted and a set of four spider-like metal legs sprouted out of his backpack and slammed into the ground. He then began to move forward. A gatling gun appeared out of his pack and began to rip through soldiers like rag-dolls.

"Gizmo, what are you doing?" Nightwing demanded. "We only need to incapacitate, not kill these guys!"

Gizmo glared at Nightwing, then he struck one of his spiked feet down through a soldier's body and lifted it up to show.

"They're robots, you fuckin' scuzz-face!" The spider-legged inventor shook off the mechanical corpse and continued down the street, his gatling gun making short work of any opposition. More armored soldiers cropped up behind him.

Raven suddenly threw up a black energy shield in front of Nightwing as a high-powered bullet slammed into it.

"Rooftop!" Raven called out.

Nightwing did a forward flip off his hand and launched a bird-a-rang in the direction the bullet had come from. It lodged itself in the stone of a rooftop and exploded. Someone yelled and cursed incoherently. A yellow and black figure jumped to the next building.

"Is that Hive?" Cyborg asked.

"He's mine," Nightwing growled. He glanced at Cyborg and Raven. "If these guys are robots, the kid gloves are off. No holding back." He fired a grappling hook and launched himself towards the roof.

Cyborg stood up, his sonic cannon charging. "You heard the man. Kid gloves are officially off."

Raven nodded. Her eyes flashed and she tore the heads off several of the armored soldiers.

The door to the basement exploded in, causing Jinx to wince. She could still barely move and her head throbbed fiercely. Then she saw Gizmo come in through the smoke on his metal spider legs.

"Jinx!" Gizmo yelled, "Jinx! Where are you?"

"Here," Jinx called out weakly.

Gizmo's legs retracted into his backpack and he stared at the injured pink sorceress. He quickly rushed to her side and lifted her up, cradling her head.

"Oh Jinx," Gizmo murmured, tears rolling down his round cheeks, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

Jinx blinked at the diminutive inventor.

"Are you crying?"

Gizmo wiped his eyes with his other arm. "No, I'm not fracking crying, you fuckin' pit-sniffer! How could you let an asshat like Hive do this to you?" He looked down at her broken leg. "I'm gonna fuckin' kill him."

Jinx struggled with her bound hands. "How about we start with cutting me loose?"

Gizmo blinked, then a pair of wire-cutters extended from his gloved hand and he cut the zipties that were binding Jinx's hands. Jinx rubbed her wrists.

"Now that feels better."

Gizmo continued to gaze mournfully at her face. "Your poor face... he really messed you up."

Jinx hissed as she touched her shattered nose. Her bottom lip was also swollen and she suspected that her cheek was plenty bruised. Well, considering what Hive could have done to her, Jinx felt she got off a bit light, not including her busted leg of course. She touched the back of her head where she had connected with the wall twice and winced. She wondered if she had a concussion.

"What did you do with Hive?" Jinx asked.

Gizmo shrugged. "I haven't done a frackin' thing with him. I think the Titans are chasing him down."

Jinx blinked again. "The Titans? You mean they're here?"

"Yeah, those pit-sniffers were on the way here when I called them."

Jinx wondered in amazement. It made sense, considering the Teen Titans were technically her new team, but having them actually come to her rescue was a new feeling for her. Gizmo interrupted her thoughts.

"We should get the H.I.V.E. Five back together. Fuck those pit-sniffing Titans. Fuck the JLU. Fuck all those guys."

"I can't do that."

Gizmo glared at her. "Why not? You'd have never been picked up by that yellow-headed cock-hammer if we were still a team!"

"But we're not a team any more, Giz. That's not who I want to be."

Gizmo bowed his head and mumbled something.

"What's that?"

He mumbled again a little louder.

"Big sis can't hear you."

"I said I frackin' miss you, ok?"

Jinx started to grin, then winced as her face and nose throbbed with pain. She patted the diminutive genius on the head.

"You might be a total pervert and a huge douche-canoe, but you'll always be my friend, Giz."

"Hey, I'm not a pervert!"

"Cameras in my room, anyone?"

Gizmo turned fire engine red. "I...I just like looking at you, that's all."

Jinx arched an eyebrow and then winced again. Even that frigging hurt.

"I agree that I am certainly hotness personified into a sexy pink package, but I can't be more than just a friend to you, Giz."

Gizmo looked away. "Yeah, I know." He stood up and his mechanical spider legs extended from his pack again. "Let's get you out of here."

Jinx winced again as a pair of metal arms emerged from the backpack to gently scoop her up from the floor. Then she pointed at the table where the small box with the red light still sat.

"Grab that too, but fucking turn it off. I think the rest of the Titans might be interested in it."

Nightwing chased Hive across the rooftops. The masked man jumped from building to building, periodically firing behind himself with the assault rifle he was carrying. Nightwing deftly dodged the bullets as they tore chunks out of the rooftop. He ducked behind a chimney as Hive started firing in earnest.

"Just give it up, Hive!" Nightwing yelled, "Otherwise you're just gonna go down tired!"

Nightwing spun out from behind the chimney, launching a bird-a-rang. The spinning device embedded into the barrel of Hive's rifle. Hive tossed the rifle over the edge of the roof as the bird-a-rang exploded.

Nightwing stood up and prepared to rush the other man when he saw an object roll across the roof to his feet.

A grenade.

Without thinking, Nightwing launched himself off the roof, firing his grappling hook and catching himself on the next building as the explosion tore open the rooftop he'd been standing on. He swung himself, using the momentum to jump onto the rooftop that Hive had been standing on and found the other man far ahead. Then Nightwing heard the sound of a helicopter rotor. He ran forward, pulling his grappling hook out. Up ahead, he saw Hive hanging from a ladder as a black armored helicopter lifted him up in the air. In desperation, Nightwing fired his hook, hoping to catch the underside of the 'copter, but his hook bounced off.

"Eat a dick, freak!" Hive howled, flipping his middle finger at the Titans leader. The helicopter accelerated away and seemed to melt into the sky.

"Fuck," Nightwing muttered.

Raven and Cyborg stood in the middle of the wrecked street. The robotic bodies of thirty to forty armored soldiers lay sparking around them in a gruesome tableau of complete destruction. They heard the noise of metal on asphalt and they spun as one, ready to attack. But it was Gizmo. He crossed the street with his robotic spider legs. In a pair of robotic arms, a pink and bloodied girl lay clutching a small metal cube. One of Jinx's legs was bent wrong and the lower half of her face was mostly covered in blood. Her nose looked crushed. She focused her blackened eyes on the two Titans.

"'Bout time you slackers showed up. I had that asshole right where I wanted him."

Raven floated towards the two former H.I.V.E. members and lay a hand on Jinx's forehead. The pain from the girl's leg and face were almost too much for the empath to bear.

"I brought ya'll a present," Jinx said weakly. She shoved the metal box into Raven's other hand.

Raven nodded and took the box from Jinx's shaking hands. "Sleep now, Jinx. We'll talk about it later." Raven's eyes flashed white and Jinx fell into a deep sleep.

"The fuck you do to her?" Gizmo demanded.

"I put her to sleep," Raven responded, "and I lessened her pain for now. So shut up."

Cyborg came over and gently lifted the sleeping Jinx out of Gizmo's mechanical arms. "I got you now, little lady. Everything's gonna be alright."

"Hive got away," Nightwing growled as he approached. He glanced at Jinx. "How is she doing?"

Cyborg frowned. "She's had the shit beat out of her, if that's what you're wondering. Doesn't look like her life is in danger."

Gizmo retracted his metal spider legs back into his backpack and glared at the Titans leader.

"You let that ass-muncher get away?"

Nightwing glared back. "He had help. A black helicopter picked him up. Had a stealth generator on it." He glanced at the metal box. "What's that?"

"Don't know yet," Raven said, "Jinx gave it to me."

Nightwing's eyes narrowed. That tech looked familiar.

People were starting to emerge from their buildings and staring in amazement and horror at the destruction. Mixed in with the large number of police cars pulling up were several news vans disgorging cameramen and reporters who were anxious to get a statement.

"Put Jinx in the car," Nightwing instructed the other two Titans, "She wouldn't want to be seen like this."

Cyborg nodded. He gently put Jinx in the back seat and got in the front. Raven joined Jinx in the back and lay the unconscious pink girl's head on her lap. She glanced at Gizmo who was watching them mournfully.

"Are you coming or what?"

Gizmo blinked in surprise, then he jumped into the back seat, gently lifting Jinx's legs and laying them across his lap.

"Why are you letting me come with?" The diminutive inventor asked suspiciously.

"You're an honorary Titan now, aren't you?" Raven responded, "And you're Jinx's friend. So close the door, and keep quiet."

Nightwing turned to the approaching news crews to make a quick statement and to introduce his new identity to the world.

Raven gritted her teeth as her soul-self traversed the tissues that made up Jinx's nose. She moved the shattered bone fragments back into their proper positions like pieces of a puzzle and then forced them to knit together at an accelerated rate. Then she healed the surrounding cartilage and encouraged cell growth to prevent any scar tissue from forming. Then Raven moved her mental spark further down Jinx's body to the pink sorceress' leg and got the bones to set and begin to knit together. Jinx's leg would still need to spend time in a cast, but it should be back to a 100% afterward. So no future limp for Jinx.

She and Cyborg had to shoo away Beast Boy and Starfire when the first got back as the two of them were worried about their teammate. Nightwing had taken the metal box and disappeared into his inner sanctum, probably to obsess over the box, Raven figured. The Titans leader's emotions had spiked in a familiar way when he saw the tech. Cyborg had helped stabilize Jinx on the bed in the infirmary and plug in some saline to help hydrate the pink girl. Then he left Raven to do the hard stuff of healing the girl's injuries. Gizmo had planted himself outside the infirmary and refused to move.

When Raven finished, she sat back and breathed heavily. Healing like this tended to take a lot of her. Jinx had been silent and had her eyes closed during the whole operation. Raven stood up and turned to go. She guessed that Jinx had been sleeping and Raven had preferred that.

"Hey Raven."

Raven sighed. Sleeping had apparently been too much to ask. She turned back to the bed where Jinx lay.

"What?"

"I just wanted to ask you something: Are we friends?"

Raven blinked at that for a moment. Then she approached the bedside again.

"Why do you ask?"

Jinx turned her head away. "I was just... curious. I don't have many friends that are girls."

Raven pulled up her chair and sat down again.

"Let me ask you something then... why didn't you mention that you played Caverns & Monsters? Gizmo said you used to run campaigns."

Jinx turned her head and stared into Raven's amethyst eyes.

"It wasn't the most inviting atmosphere, you know. You guys sort of treat me like I'm still in H.I.V.E. Made me wonder why the fuck Robin, sorry NIGHTWING, even bothered inviting me onto the team."

"The last person that joined our team sort of burned us badly."

Jinx narrowed her eyes at Raven. "Do you know what I was doing before I went to Colombia? I was bussing tables at an eatery downtown. I was also washing dishes, mopping the floor, cleaning the bathrooms... basically most things that kept me out of view of the customers. You know just as well as I do what it's like to be different. It wasn't like I was all gothed out with the full hair horns either. I like my style. It's what makes me feel like me. But I had none of that shit going on and still could barely get work. Honorary Titans don't get more than a monthly stipend, if we're lucky. And people like me? Everyone still thinks I'm a stupid super-villain.

"Every day I trudged into that fucking restaurant to work, knowing they'd probably call the cops if I went in there as a customer. Every day I imagined that I could just knock over the bank next door and skip town. Hook back up with the rest of the former H.I.V.E. kids and be a criminal again. But I didn't. Do you know why?"

"No."

"Because I promised myself that I'd be different. Be a better person than I was. But it barely mattered. Hell, I remember being out with Wally one time and you showed up because the Titans needed him. You treated me like I was dirt on your shoe. Told me you weren't talking to me and then proceeded to ignore the fuck out of me. Sure made me feel like a million bucks."

Raven narrowed her eyes back at the pink sorceress. "Sorry you're so offended. I also remember every time I fought with you. Every underhanded tactic. Every sarcastic comment that ridiculed me. You even trashed my room that one time you H.I.V.E. brats took over the Tower. Jinx, I really didn't like you very much and you never gave me any reason to feel different about you."

"I always thought you were dark and creepy as fuck."

"And I always thought you were neon-pink and obnoxious."

The two girls glared at each other for a moment. Then Jinx grinned.

"I guess we're not so much different after all."

Raven arched an eyebrow at that. "Maybe not."

"Still, despite my power of causality manipulation, I believe I am a very lucky woman."

"Why is that?"

"Because I have Wally." Jinx smiled. "I never want to let him down."

Raven arched her eyebrow again.

"You know he still flirts with other girls, right?"

Jinx shrugged. "Of course I do. It used to drive me nuts. But he always came back to me. His flirting never went beyond just that. I pretty much came to the conclusion that Wally West is a shallow and narcissistic human being, but he's also loyal and supportive and has never hurt me. I've dated a few winners, believe me. I've gotten very good at reading people over the years."

Raven cocked her head. "What about Cyborg?"

"Oh, you mean 'STONE?'" Jinx made air quotes when she said the name. "I'll admit I was obsessed with him. That's because he was the first man to treat me with respect. But he broke my heart when I met his girlfriend." Jinx paused. "Also, Starfire almost broke my jaw too. Such fun memories!"

Jinx arched her eyebrow at Raven. "I will tell you this much: I think you made a good choice with Goldman. He's genuinely a good guy." The pink sorceress grinned. "Hell, if I wasn't with Wally, I wouldn't mind taking that thing of his for a ride." Jinx wiggled her eyebrows. "Maybe we can do a boyfriend swap some time?"

Raven favored the pink sorceress with an icy stare. "I certainly hope you're kidding."

Jinx shrugged. "Who knows?" she leaned forward. "At least tell me how it is."

"How what is?"

"You know, getting railed by Moby Dick?"

Raven blinked. "What?"

"C'mon, Rae. Work with me here. I mean riding the baloney rhino. Getting hammered by Mjolnir. Being run ragged by the one-eyed monster."

"Jinx, I have no idea-"

"I mean getting fucked by that enormous dick! I've seen your boy limp. I can only imagine what it would be like if he were hard as a rock! He must get light-headed from the blood rushing down there!"

Raven stared at the pink sorceress.

"Aside from the fact that what Mark and I do is none of your business, why would you even want to know?"

Jinx grinned. "Because I like seeing you act human. Getting a rise out of you helps with that. Also, on a more perverse level, I'm genuinely curious. I mean, it's not like Wally is lacking in that department, but your chubby engineer has a really large dick. No, I don't actually want to swap boyfriends, but part of me is curious. So spill... girl to girl now. How is it?"

Raven's face grew a little red. "If you tell anyone any of this, I will make sure you suffer before you die."

"Cross my heart."

"Fine, it's... really really good."

Jinx blinked. "That's it? It's just 'really really good?'"

"Jinx, I've only been with Mark. I don't have much to compare to, nor am I interested in finding a comparison. But I will say that I have no complaints."

Jinx frowned. "No details?"

Raven arched an eyebrow. "That's about as detailed as I'm going to get."

The pink sorceress sighed. "You really are no fun."

Raven stared at Jinx. "Why do you do this?"

"Do what?"

"Try to misdirect from what you really are feeling. Asking me about Mark while you feel like this. You couldn't get more obvious."

Jinx gritted her teeth. "Shit, I forgot you were an empath."

"You really had me snowed, Jinx," Raven said, "I never detected any of your inner feelings because you were hiding them. I'm not even sure how you do it, but the effect was that I didn't look further into what might have been bothering you. No wonder people think we treated you like shit when you started at the Tower."

Jinx frowned. "Who thinks that?"

"Your boy Gizmo for one. He tore us a new one when we were on our way to rescue you. And it totally fit. We weren't being mean to you, but we also weren't being overly inclusive. For that..." Raven bowed her head slightly. "I'm really sorry. We should have included you more outside of training."

Jinx blinked. "Did you... did you just apologize? To me?"

"Yes."

"Wow! I almost wish I had gotten this on my phone!"

Raven frowned. "Don't push it."

"Anyway, to answer your question as to how I hide my emotions from powerful empaths: I learned how to do it as a child in Mumbai."

"I didn't know there were powerful empaths in Mumbai." Raven arched her eyebrow. "Furthermore, I didn't even know you were Indian."

"Surprised?"

"Not really."

"Well," Jinx continued, "starting with my life story..."

"Is this going to take long?" Raven asked.

Jinx frowned at her. "C'mon, at least listen to my history a little. Maybe you'll get a better understanding of your TEAMMATE."

"Ok fine. So Mumbai..."

"Right, so my parents were from Chennai originally. They moved to Mumbai to get away from the Indian caste system that's prevalent there. Mumbai is supposed to be a city of equals. But it is India, so haha. My parents were regarded as Dalits, which is like the lowest of the caste ladder. My dad managed to land a job at a tire factory in Mumbai. So they moved. They had my older brother, then my older sister, then me. And before you ask, yes, I popped out as beautiful and exotic as I am today."

"What does this have to do with you hiding your emotions from empaths?"

"Getting to that. Being Dalits my parents taught me and my brother and sister firsthand how to bury our feelings. It was customary. You don't want to invite retribution from upper castes by showing how you really feel. So bury it and smile. And that's how it works for me."

Raven was quiet for a moment. "Jinx... how did you end up in this life?"

"That's simple. Being a born freak, most of the neighbors distrusted me, and my family. It stressed my folks out something fierce. Then when I was ten, my abilities manifested. I had no idea how to control it, so things I touched were suddenly affected by bad luck. Touch a neighbor's car and the wheels might fall off, or the engine seizes. Touch a pregnant goat and maybe it miscarries. Things like that. The glowing pink aura didn't help either. Finally some elders came to my parents and told them I was a Manushya-Rakshasi or a female demon in human form. So I needed to be cast out. Which my loving parents did. Cast me out. Left me on a dockside with a garbage bag of my stuff and like fifteen hundred rupees. That's about $22. I got to see the real world then."

Raven blinked. The emotions she felt coming off the pink sorceress were bitter and sad. A dark blue with flecks of red.

"I'm sorry that happened to you, Jinx."

Any sign of her usual humor was absent from Jinx's face. She turned and looked out the window.

"After some hairy experiences I got to Japan and lived on the street in Tokyo for a year or so. That's kind of where I picked up my look. Hanging around Harijuku. But I fell in with a crowd of thieves. Got a taste for burglary. Left Japan with a pocket of stolen cash and landed in Australia, then migrated north. I learned English and practiced it until I was accent free. I didn't want anyone to have any idea where I'd come from. Ultimately I got into H.I.V.E. and enrolled in the H.I.V.E. academy. I learned how to properly control my powers then."

Jinx turned back to look at Raven.

"I also dated a lot of criminal dirtbags. Even ran into one a year ago while out with Wally. But Wally was the only one I voluntarily gave it up to."

"'Gave it up?'"

"Sex, genius. Wally is the only one I ever WANTED to sleep with."

"I see."

"Do you?" Jinx asked with her eyebrow raised. Raven could feel a dark undercurrent of anger and bitterness flowing off the pink sorceress before it muted under a sea of placid dark green.

Jinx settled back in the bed. "So, now you know about where I come from. Where are you from? Quid-pro-quo."

Raven hesitated. "Where do you think I'm from?"

"Well, I don't think you're from Pittsburgh."

"No. I'm from a place called Azarath in a different dimension."

Jinx blinked. "Seriously? You're extra-dimensional?"

"Yes. My mother came from New York and my father... was a demon who tried to enslave all dimensions."

Jinx blinked again. "Wow, that sucks."

Raven nodded. "I was born in Azarath and I was brought up in an emotionally isolated environment." She looked at Jinx. "Unlike you, I couldn't just bury my emotions. My powers are affected by my emotions, so I had to master them and keep them in tight control to the point where I almost couldn't feel anything. I ended up here fleeing my father. That's me in a nutshell."

Jinx grinned. "Looks like I still win the most tragic backstory award."

"I'm not trying to get into a pissing match with you about who's history is more tragic," Raven said, "All that matters to me is who we are now. I've known you a long time, Jinx. I've seen you at your worst, when you were a H.I.V.E. academy brat, and at your best when you helped us assault the Brotherhood base. Your rescue of Mark in Colombia just showed me what I already knew about you."

"And what's that?"

"That deep down you are actually a NICE PERSON," Raven replied, "Jinx, you're abrasive, narcissistic, obnoxious, over-confident, and annoying."

Jinx frowned. "Was that the compliment part?"

"Let me finish. You're also brave, committed, strong, caring, loyal, and selfless. These are the qualities that make you a Titan. Not because you jumped sides." Raven stood up. "So in answer to your question: are we friends? Yes. I consider you to be my friend."

Jinx's face was unreadable, but Raven could feel warm emotions flowing from her.

"Thanks, Rae," Jinx said softly, "And also for healing me."

Raven nodded. "Get better. I've healed most of the damage to your face and your leg, but you need to let yourself naturally heal for the rest. The Titans are waiting for you." The dark Titan frowned. "And for the last time, my name is RAVEN, not RAE."

"One more thing, Raven," Jinx called as Raven stood at the doorway. The dark Titan turned around again to glare at Jinx.

"What?"

The pink sorceress grinned her patented chesire cat grin. "You're walking funny."

Raven felt her face grow hot. "Shut up."

Kid Flash watched as Raven left the infirmary. He had rushed over from Central City as soon as he heard about what had happened. He was also more than a little annoyed with the hero-formerly-known-as-Robin that nobody had contacted him when everything had first gone down. Kid Flash schooled the irritation from his face and then entered the infirmary.

Jinx lay with her leg bound up and an unreadable expression on her face. But her face looked pretty much back to normal. He sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Hey slowpoke, how you doing?"

Jinx sat up and held out her arms to him. Kid Flash leaned forward and wrapped the pink sorceress in a tight embrace. He felt her shoulders shaking.

"Hey, are you crying?"

"Just shut up," Jinx murmured into his chest, "and just hold me... please Wally... just hold me for a little while."

"Sure, Pokey," Kid Flash murmured back, "I got you. I got you. I'm never going to let you go." He felt the shaking intensify and Jinx's tears begin to wet the front of his uniform.

"Thank you," Kid Flash heard Jinx whisper, "for believing in me."

Gizmo listened to them for a minute from outside the infirmary, then he quietly got up and headed to the main ops room.

I finished cleaning my room and defurring my remaining furniture. I glanced at the blank wall where my tv had been and sighed. Even though it had been totally worth it, I did miss the tv. Ah well, it's only a tv and such things are replaceable. My relationship with Raven was irreplaceable and thus to me had much higher value than any material objects.

There was a knock at my door. I opened it revealing a hooded Raven. She looked a little worse for wear. There were burn marks and holes in her cloak. I stared at the holes for a moment.

"Are those bullet holes?"

"Yes."

I blinked for a moment. Then moved aside as she came into my room. I closed the door behind her.

"What happened with Jinx? Did you guys find her? Was she ok?"

Raven suddenly sat down on my couch and wrapped her cloak around herself. She then lowered her hood.

"I just need some quiet time now," she muttered. She glanced up at me. "Do you mind?"

"Not at all. Melvin and me know better."

Raven assumed a lotus position on my couch and sat still. After a few minutes, I noticed her breathing had become relaxed, and her head was bowed forward. I guessed she wasn't meditating. I gently put a blanket around her shoulders and let her be.

Raven felt at peace. Tranquil. Like all was right with the world. Her body felt comfortable. She slowly opened her eyes and found that she was comfortably curled up on Mark's couch. There was a blanket over her and a sleeping Melvin cat lay across her lap. Mark sat at his desk with his chair leaned back. A soft snore sounded from his mouth and his glasses were askew across his face. Raven carefully removed his glasses with her power and levitated them to the desk next to him.

Raven wasn't immediately sure why she sought out Mark after talking with Jinx. She knew she had been exhausted. Normally Raven would have simply ported to her room and collapsed on her bed to sleep for a few hours. But for some reason, the dark Titan just did not feel like being alone. She supposed there was an emotional advantage to having a boyfriend insofar as having someone close to confide in, although the very term 'boyfriend' conjured up images of some juvenile high school level relationship which made Raven squirm.

Raven lay her head back down and gently rubbed Melvin's head for a little while, letting her mind slowly analyze her experiences over the last twenty-four hours. She really needed to meditate to properly organize her thoughts and feelings, but Raven was so comfortable she simply did not want to get up. A lot had happened. The previous night, (though it had been after midnight so it was technically earlier that morning) Raven had no immediate idea outside of instinct as to why she confessed her feelings to the systems engineer. She gauged her feelings as to how she felt when she finally saw Mark in that truck cab the previous week. He had literally looked like he'd been through hell and back. Her accelerated heartbeat, the butterflies in her stomach, these had been things that contributed to her overall attraction to the gentle systems engineer. But at the same time, it filled her with trepidation.

Raven also had to face facts. The sex with Mark had been amazing. Compared to when she had practically date-raped him in a drug-fueled haze, having him be an active participant made the previous act pale in comparison. Raven had also inadvertantly entered Mark's mind and had experienced what he had been feeling when he was penetrating her. The sensation of being enveloped as well as doing the enveloping and the buildup to climax. The doubled sensation had completely blown Raven's mind and cranked her intensity level past eleven and into unmapped territory. Raven was very certain that had the spell barrier not been in place, she'd have likely split the Tower open instead of just destroying Mark's tv and some furniture... and some light fixtures.

Raven turned her head and gazed at Mark's face from across the room. His forehead still mostly unlined, his beard that was slowly coming back in, his slightly larger-than-average nose, his full head of slightly messy hair, even the roundness of his cheeks. He was actually drooling a little in his sleep. Mark had lost some weight being a prisoner, but it looked like he was slowly gaining it back. That didn't bother Raven, but she could feel that it bothered Mark.

Raven felt curious as to why she felt the way she did, and in an objective and almost clinical way, she examined her errant emotions. Mark was just so unlike anyone she had ever met before. In the month or so that Raven had known him, he had gone from a vaguely unsettling oddity that had strong feelings for her, to someone she now had reciprocal feelings for. She didn't have any doubts that the drug fueled sex they engaged in had played a part in accelerating their relationship. But Raven had to wonder if things would have eventually led to it. Mark treated her like a regular person and in her dealings with him, Raven felt like... well, Raven. Not Raven the Teen Titan, nor Raven the Portal of Trigon, or even Raven of Azarath. She was just... Raven. And she felt remarkably content with that.

I woke up slowly and opened my eyes to find a pair of brilliant amethyst eyes gazing at me from the couch.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi."

"...What's up?"

"Not much, what's up with you?"

I stretched and stood up from my chair.

"Not much either," I responded with a smirk.

Raven rested her head back against her hand and absently stroked Melvin.

"That really is about it," Raven murmured, "I'm feeling much more relaxed and quite content. Not really interested in doing much else."

"Well, you can't stay on my couch forever making love to my cat like that. Eventually you'll need to take bathroom breaks and meals."

"Eating and peeing are overrated."

I chuckled a bit at that. Then I put my glasses back on.

"What happened with Jinx? Did you guys find her?"

"It's not particularly interesting for you to ask after other women, you know."

"She's my friend and she saved my life."

Raven sighed and stretched a bit.

"Jinx was kidnapped by Hive," Raven said, "and he beat the hell out of her."

I frowned at that. "Please tell me that the Teen Titans issued him a severe beatdown of his very own."

"I think Rob- I mean, Nightwing, slugged him around a bit, but he apparently got away."

I felt a pit of cold open up in my stomach. "So... he's still out there."

Raven sat up and looked into my face again. "Mark, you don't have to worry about him ever hurting you again. You're safe here with us."

I laughed a little, then gave up the ghost. "Yeah, there's no point in hiding my feelings from an empath. I'd just be happier knowing that lunatic cock-hammock was either behind bars or dead."

Raven just gazed at me as if in thought. "I know."

"How is Jinx doing?"

"I spent a few hours putting back together the more damaged bits, but she's going to recover and be back to her annoying self within a short time. Kid Flash was looking in on her when I left."

"You were pretty beat, huh?"

Raven rubbed her eyes. "Healing like that takes a lot out of me. That's why I was so tired after healing you. The more complicated the injury, the more time and power. It also didn't help that you kept me up most of the night."

"Jinx was that bad?" I asked.

"Yes and no," Raven said, "I had to pretty much put all her nasal bones back together and then restore the cartilage in her nose." She shook her head. "An injury like that could permanently disfigure someone." Raven glanced at me. "I had to do the same thing with you. Hive really likes wrecking peoples noses."

Raven stood up and stretched in a most delightfully distracting manner.

"Jinx's right tibia and fibula were snapped like twigs, so I had to set those and get them started with healing."

I blinked. "Sorry, I failed anatomy. Which bones are those?"

Raven came over and lifted her right leg, resting her foot on my knee. "Fibula," she said, pointing at the right side of her shin, "tibia," she pointed at the center. "Patella." she indicated her kneecap. "Hive snapped her right leg here." Raven pointed at a spot a few inches below her kneecap.

I leaned forward and kissed her leg at the spot she pointed to. Raven arched an eyebrow at that.

"While having sex definitely looks appealing right now," she said with a smirk, "I still need to shower and change before I do anything. So stop that."

I slid my hands up Raven's smooth calf to the back of her knee and gently tugged her to me. "Shouldn't tease me with these sexy legs then, my Lady Legasus."

Raven slid her leg free of my hands and gently pushed me backwards into my chair with her foot.

"Down boy. I need to clean up." She glanced at the wall clock. It was about 5:30 pm. "I also need to meditate. That is something that I can't blow off."

Raven returned to the couch and gently slid her cloak out from under Melvin, who had curled up on it and was cleaning himself.

"Ick," Raven commented, looking at her cat hair covered cloak.

"You want a lint roller?"

Raven shook her head. "It's fine, I have methods of cleaning it." She shook the cloak out and muttered "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" and the cloak glowed with a dark energy. Then all the cat hair fell off of it and onto the floor. She swept the cloak back around her shoulders and clasped it. "I need to check in with Nightwing and then shower and meditate. We can... discuss... what our evening activities will encompass, though I'm leaning towards just going to bed and sleeping."

Raven smirked at my crestfallen expression. "You would be welcome to join me, of course."

I cheered right up. "Of course!"

The helicopter flew in stealth mode and from the outside appeared completely invisible. Hive settled back in his seat and stared at the dark figure that sat across from him. The silence stretched over the hours they were in the air. Inwardly Hive seethed at his screw up. And it was a Screw Up with a capital 'S' and a capital 'U.' He had anticipated the Teen Titans coming to Jinx's rescue and he figured he was equipped to handle them. But they had surprised him with their tenacity. Hive wasn't even sure who the new member in the dark colored costume was, but he moved just like Robin did. And Gizmo... that little shit. There was an EMP device sitting back there with that little dwarf's name all over it, but everything got screwed up. By all rights Hive should have been in this 'copter with Gizmo stuffed in a dog carrier. Instead he was sitting there wondering when the other occupant would speak to him. He knew better than to initiate the conversation.

"I'm very disappointed, Captain. Considering how much I invested, I really did expect better from you," The figure finally said.

"Look, I had them on the ropesh and I wash ready for Gizshmo. I could have shealed the deal."

The figure just stared at Hive with a single visible eye. It was an eye that was filled with malice.

"'Sealed the deal?' You weren't even close. I know the skill levels of the Titans and you were not. Even. Close. Your failures reflect on me and that makes me rather unhappy. You seem to forget at times that everything you have, everything you do, even everything you ARE comes from me. You don't work for the Brotherhood. You work for me. The Brotherhood is just another contract. But when you fail, it sullies my reputation."

"I can do better-"

"Next time, you say?" the figure cut Hive off, "And how do you propose to do that? Come back here again and kidnap another fool? Like that waste-of-flesh engineer? Or maybe another Titan? Raven or Starfire, perhaps? Cause another incident to be reported across all the news outlets?"

Hive hung his head.

"Pleashe allow me to apologishe, shir."

"Ah, at least that is a start. Admitting one's fault. Fortunately, I think I can salvage the situation. I don't need Gizmo to complete the contract for the Brotherhood. There are other... options... that have become available."

"Will you shtill train me, shir?" Hive asked tentatively, "Ash your apprentishe?"

The figure flowed to its feet and suddenly Hive found himself overpowered. He was slammed face first into the floor of the helicopter and a thick armored arm wrapped itself around his throat.

"That won't be possible now. Unfortunately for you, Captain, I've decided to make some changes in the organization. Your services will no longer be... required."

The arm began to exude pressure around Hive's neck. He frantically clawed at it. Hive gasped as the pressure increased around his throat, closing off his airways. Then there was a painful popping noise and the man called Captain Hive saw no more.

The armored man stood up and thumbed the intercom.

"How far are we over the ocean?"

"Fifty miles, sir."

The man slid the helicopter door open and picked up Hive's body with one hand.

"Goodbye, Captain Hive," the man said, "and apology accepted."

Hive's body plummeted to the ocean below and disappeared beneath the waves.