Obligatory disclaimer (no, not that one): I freely admit to knowing very little about Hinduism, but with Jinx's backstory, I have to reference it. If I screwed up in the relevant sections of this chapter, please tell me so I can change it.

Disclaimer: Did we ever find out what happened to Trigon after Raven wiped the floor with him using her one-time-only white soulself? If not, I don't own the Teen Titans franchise; it belongs to DC Entertainment, Glen Murakami, and Warner Bros.

Chapter 13
Chaos Manifest

Her eyelids were too heavy for her to keep them from falling; that closing her eyes allowed her to avoid seeing her lover's tears was not necessarily a negative in her book.

"Do not do this. Do not. Nirupama Aanshi Dasgupta, do not dare give up without a fight!"

The desperation and the agony in Raven's voice tore at her heart. She knew how lonely the half-demon's life had been before they came together, and even though it was not her fault, she couldn't help but feel that she was abandoning the woman. Her hand rose and settled over Raven's heart with the ease of long practice. Her voice was barely above a whisper as she said for the last time, "I love you."

She had never done this before, but somehow she knew it would work. Unchaining the pink power crackling inside her, she did not push so much as pour, letting hex energy flow out of her and into the half-demon. She could not stay with the love of her life, but if nothing else, she could give Raven something to remember her by. Her breathing slowed and the frantic pounding of her heart faded as the last drops of her metahuman talent left her.

She saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. Accepting her fate, Jinx perished.

…or at least she thought she did.

This is pretty boring, honestly, Jinx thought after a short time of laying in the featureless void. Considering I haven't been a practicing Hindu since I was six, I kinda expected my karma to be a whole lot worse than this. Chilling out here until I get reincarnated won't be too bad… except for whatever's digging into my shoulder. Knowing it was pointless, she tried shifting position anyway and sighed in relief as a rock skidded away.

Wait a second. She opened her eyes, annoyed with herself that she apparently spent several minutes just laying there doing nothing. She may be cat-like, but lazing about had never been her style. Glancing at the familiar earth beneath her, it wasn't until she looked up at the red stars in the sky that she recognized where she was.

"Oh, hell no. I admit that I'm a thief and a liar and a killer and an apostate, but I haven't done anything that deserves a punishment like this." She angrily took in the perfect replica of Nevermore the gods had dropped her off in. "Not cool, not cool at all. If this is seriously where I'm supposed to wait to be reborn, I'm going to punch Brahma in all his fucking noses on my way out."

Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, her blatant insolence did not prompt any form of divine retribution. Sighing, the pinkette walked to one edge to search for somewhere else to go, only to jump back in surprise when a number of smaller platforms flew out of nowhere to create a long path leading down. She huffed and shot the false sky a one-finger salute.

It's not enough that I just ripped her heart out of her chest, she griped, following the narrow road. It's not enough that we were counting down the months until our wedding. No, the gods have to shit on me some more and make me pay off my karmic debt in a place that looks just like her inner world so I'm constantly reminded of what I lost. In my next life, I think I might just join the Church of Blood. Raven took over for her old man, technically, so maybe I'd be in her care when I died rather than these fuckers'. "Because I doubt she would be this pointlessly sadistic!" she screamed to her unseen overseers.

A loud, low whine dragged her attention to its source. Jinx's eyes narrowed as she stopped and looked up. "All right, just making it look like Nevermore wasn't enough, was it? No, they had populate it with what was in her head, too. Well, I'm not falling for it, you hear?! There's no way that's actually Fluffy!" She resumed her furious walk, ignoring the unhappy barking.

Some indeterminate period later – time was impossible to estimate in this twisted reflection of Raven's soul, and she didn't have her phone on her, either – she dropped to the hard ground of a platform and pulled her knees to her chest. She had never been the waterworks kind of girl, her bouts of breakup apathy notwithstanding, but this situation was causing her to seriously reconsider that trait. There was a limit to how much she could take, and she was already far beyond it.

"Right now, I'd love nothing more than for Raven to come here all pissy that I had been playing with her mirror again," she muttered, a few tears escaping her control. "But I'm never going to see her again, am I? I won't remember her, and even if she believed in reincarnation, she wouldn't be able to find me, anyway."

Her dive into melancholy was interrupted by a harsh caw. She lifted her head and glared weakly at the four-eyed raven sitting at her feet. "Look, I know you're here to make me reflect on all the mistakes I made in life or something, but right now I just want to be alone with my misery, okay?" The bird clacked its beak in irritation, and she snapped, "In case you didn't get it, that means scram, vamoose, go away."

It rolled its eyes, the red slits tracing small circles on its face. She would have freaked out had she not become familiar with Raven doing the exact same thing whenever the half-demon's face was in shadow. Apparently deciding that the subtle approach had failed, it latched onto the hem of her pants and tugged insistently.

"Fine, fine! I'll go with you." The raven croaked twice before flying off. Another stone road appeared, leading in the same direction, and she sighed as she stood up. "Good grief, I just lost an argument to a fucking bird. That can't be a good sign."

This path was at first glance identical to the first one she had traveled, but Jinx was quickly noticing a few important differences. For one, it was much hotter here; she had been wiping sweat off her face for a while now, and her shirt was stuck firmly to her back. For two, there was a fine dusting of white dust covering the nearby floating rocks. She had thought it snow for a moment until she wiped some off the underside of the platforms she was walking on and discovered that no, it was actually ash.

For three, there was a faint voice floating through the dead air and hurling obscenities like a drunken sailor or Gizmo when his robots were misbehaving.

Her route had to end eventually, however, and she hopped onto the platform that was her destination with no little degree of irritation at the avian sitting in the middle of the round space. "I'm here, happy? Can I go now?"

Rather than answer her question – which was probably too much to expect out of a bird in the first place, even one created to be her own personal tormenter – it tapped its beak against the ground. She almost fell to her knees as their ride began moving. "What the hell? Couldn't you have done that to the one I was already on rather than make me walk all the way over here?" It shrugged its wings dismissively, and she needed every ounce of her willpower to keep from pouncing and strangling the fake life out of the little monster.

Great, more transit time, but at least there isn't elevator music playing. If I didn't already know the gods were laughing at my suffering, I'd swear they were— "Holy fucking shit!"

The raven turned one coal-black eye on her, its quartet of scarlet slits replaced when its dark feathers changed to a blinding white. It had also grown quite large and now had to look down for their gazes to meet, even with the former criminal still standing. So this was supposed to be her first lesson in what she had done wrong in life: why she shouldn't have been constantly running her fool mouth.

"Damn bird."

Jinx spun around again to find herself at eye-level with a large red cliff. Looking up, she realized that no, that was not a rock formation; it was just the biggest set of abs she had ever seen in her life.

The platform continued to rise, giving her a better glimpse of the entity in front of her. Black tattoos stretched across crimson skin, his only other decorations being a pair of functional-looking braces around his forearms and a dark loincloth. White hair drifted aimlessly in a non-existent wind, and branch-like horns grew from his forehead above eyes that marked him as a demon if nothing else about his appearance did. What truly caught her attention was none of these, however, but rather the long vines wrapped tightly about him. Thorns the size of houses pierced the giant; instead of blood, liquid flame dripped from the wounds and into a pool of lava floating in the sky.

There was only one greater demon who would be in Nevermore, and Jinx was beginning to wonder just what was actually going on. Surely her tormentors wouldn't throw him in, too.

"Wonderful," the demon grumbled. "As if my daughter's restraints were not enough, now I have to deal with her little sex-toy, too."

"Hey, you've got no right to call me anything, buster!" she snapped back. "At least I don't look like I'm trying too hard to get into the BDSM scene!"

"If I could reach you, I would make you pay for your disrespect!"

She snorted. "Yeah, good luck with that." He struggled with his bonds some more, the only result being additional burning blood falling into the fiery lake. Finally, she quit trying to figure it out on her own and asked, "Why would the gods put a duplicate of Trigon in my own personal hell?"

Said former Demon Lord stopped his pointless escape attempt to examine her more closely. "Where do you think you are?"

"I'm in one of the realms of Naraka where I'm supposed to pay for all my screw-ups before I get reincarnated… Aren't I?"

"No, you are not." Trigon laughed then, a vicious, ugly sound. "You are indeed a good match for that feckless child of mine. Both of you have such power at your commands, and yet you squander it like the idiots you are. It would be funny if it were not so pathetic!"

"What the hell are you talking about?!"

"I am talking about you, Avatar of Chaos. First a petty thief, and then," he scoffed, "you decided that you had to embarrass yourself even further by working for the side of good. You do not deserve the abilities you wield. Give them to me!"

The demon strained again against his bonds, and the white raven… dove… bird-thing took flight. It screeched as it flew at Trigon, its wingtips carving long furrows wherever they met red flesh. He, in turn, screamed in rage and pain as more and more fire poured out of him. The avian seemed to grow as the demon weakened, until at last a pale wing sliced him from shoulder to hip, nearly cutting him in half.

"Oh, shit," she whispered in shock.

The white creature glided towards her, losing mass until it was the same size it had been before its fit of rabid fury. She backed away from the bird before it decided to do the same to her, but her head whipped around as a low groan filled the air. Raven had always described her father as immortal, and despite the pinkette reminding her that she had killed him, she never explained exactly what she meant. Watching the clearly mortal wound slowly begin to regenerate, the multitude of scratches not far behind, Jinx thought she understood, at least as best as she probably ever would. Raven didn't actually kill him when she beat him; she ate him. "I just wanna wake up now, if that's all right."

Softness brushed against her back, and she shifted her gaze to the enormous bird semi-hugging her with one wing. It turned its head to look at something below them, and she reluctantly peered over the edge at a whirlpool of darkness that was growing wider and wider as they watched.

"Nirupama…"

"It can't be," she breathed in shock. That… that was Raven's voice.

"Return…"

Jinx shook her head. "Okay, I've way maxed-out my weird-ass credit card today. Can we catch the bus to Normalville sometime soon?"

The bird nudged her towards the island's edge. She turned to see two circles of black stare at her for a moment, switch back to the vortex, and then move again to her. "Oh, no. Hell, no! I'm not going down there, no matter how much you play Raven's voice to trick me. Nuh uh, no way, never gonna happen!"

"…live again!"

"Zero possibility, a snowball's… Wait, what?" Her eyes went back to the portal leading to somewhere. "No, it couldn't be. It has to be a lie. I mean, to really and truly bring someone back from the dead, you'd need more power than…" She turned to look at the half-healed Demon Lord. "Then again…"

"You promised, my love…"

"Now you're just playing dirty." Jinx glanced between the proverbial angel and devil on her shoulders, each more powerful than she could ever be, before settling her glare on the white raven. "If this is a trick after all, I'll find some way of telling Raven about it, and she'll come out here and rip you all to pieces. Capisce?"

The colorless creature just rolled its eyes and nodded to the whirlpool.

"All right, then. Come on, Jinx, it can't be that bad. I mean, you're just jumping into something that'll take you either back to Earth or to some other fresh hell." She snorted, "Besides, not like you've got anything to lose. Geronimo!" With that, she took a running leap off the platform and free-fell to the pool of darkness.

"…Come back to me. Rise!"

"…Then I dug myself out of that grave, and you know the rest."

Raven stared at her lover in mute shock before finally replying, "By Azar, there are days I really wish I could get drunk."

"Heh, way to be a role model."

"Shut up," she shot back mildly. Her eyes roved over the bed at the sleeping children: Spitfire was draped on top of Jinx's legs, his head cushioned in her lap; Timmy lay between the two women with an arm wrapped around each of them; and Melvin…

A soft smile touched her lips as she ran her talons through blonde hair, the girl currently curled up on her right and hugging her waist tightly. The materializer had burst into tears as soon as Raven teleported the team to the monastery, and after hearing what had happened, she had been utterly inconsolable for over an hour, despite the demonling's best efforts. Not that the boys were much better, she recalled; the kids had not wanted to be apart from their little 'family' after that bombshell, which was why Team Black Magic, plus three, was stuffed in their cozy cabin.

This was not the first time Gizmo and Mammoth had crashed there, either, despite the house being solely hers and Jinx's. Sometimes, one simply had to know her loved ones were safe, even if that meant they were camped out in the living room.

"When were you going to tell me Daddy dearest wasn't really dead?"

"For all intents and purposes, He is," she retorted. "His kind are immortal; they cannot truly die the same way humans do. They can only be consumed by other demons. I defeated Trigon and took Him into myself, ripping His powers from him and adding them to my own. He is now impotent, His personality bound forever in Nevermore. That is as dead as He can be.

"Admittedly, I only discovered this little nugget of information once I Ascended; Rage kept Him in the form of a large mirror to hide His presence from me, and the transformation ended when she did. I had already told you that He was dead by that point, however, so I saw little reason to bring the subject up again when it was ultimately irrelevant."

That did not seem to comfort the pinkette. "And the other demons we've fought since joining the Initiative?"

"They were not Demon Lords. I absorbed them, yes, but their minds were not strong enough to withstand my own. Unsupported by their meager power, they crumbled into dust." Raven shrugged. "Call me what you will, but I would be lying if I said that that knowledge wakes me up at night."

"What do you think he meant?" Jinx asked. At her raised eyebrow, the gymnast elaborated, "Trigon, when he called me 'Avatar of Chaos'. You have any idea what he was talking about?"

"Well, an avatar is—"

Jinx interrupted, "Raven, my family's Bengali. I know exactly what 'avatar' means. I was asking—"

"It was a joke, Jinx." She rolled her eyes at the other woman's huff and thought for a moment. "The only thing I can think of is exactly what it sounds like. He believes you are Chaos personified."

The former thief chuckled quietly. "Way for him to point out the obvious. I've known I was a handful since I was little; I can't tell you how many problems and fights I started just because I wanted to shake things up a little."

"Jinx, I am not referring to causing chaos, where you like to make trouble purely for the sake of making trouble. I mean Chaos, opposite of Order, one of the primordial forces of the universe."

"Wait, you're saying I'm, like, some kind of devi or something?"

"Dear Azar, no. Much as I adore you, the thought of you as an actual deity, even a minor one, is both terrifying and laughably absurd." She shook her head at her betrothed's faux-wounded expression. "I am only saying that that is my interpretation of His words." A thought flitted through her mind. "Though, I can see why He would say that. It certainly explains your powers; your hexes amplify the entropy, the chaos, naturally present in physical objects to the point that whatever you are attacking breaks down. That would also be one explanation for why they seem to be magic and yet are not. Order and Chaos is one of the most important axes magic users align themselves on, though admittedly sorcerers much more so than witches.

"That said, I doubt you are actually an aspect of nature given human form. If you were, my soulself, being demonic and therefore inherently Chaotic, should increase in strength just from being around you. It does not."

Jinx hummed to herself for a bit. "It doesn't get stronger from being around me, but I think it does get more powerful when I use my hexes on it." Raven looked askance at her, so she asked, "Do you remember several years back, after we had started dating but before you left the Titans, how you came to our base and got attacked by Gizmo's drones?"

"Yes, I do. One of the lasers injured you, I believe, and yet somehow you regenerated. I thought at the time that it was because you had an untapped potential for magical healing, but that turned out not to be the case."

"That's the time I'm talking about. Thing is, it wasn't a laser that hit me; it was you." Raven's mouth dropped. Was she really saying…? "One of your soulself spears came after me when I flipped out of the way of a drone and ripped through the middle of my chest, right over my heart. I never told you about that, mostly because it didn't really matter. It was an accident, and you healed me right up later, after all, so I figured no harm, no foul."

"That should not be possible," Raven muttered. The idea that she had nearly killed her love felt like an icy hand gripping her heart, and the excuse could not put her at ease because it made absolutely no sense. "My soulself is in the astral plane, just as the H.I.V.E. student's weapons were. If I had really injured you then, there is no way you could have survived."

Jinx shrugged. "I don't know how it happened, just that it did. I noticed that my hexes were merging with your healing power like they normally do, and then…" Her voice was introspective as she continued, "And then the whole thing turned white. Huh, I had forgotten all about that part. When it went out, I was healed like nothing had ever happened."

Her hex energy was able to amplify my restorative abilities to the point that they could heal even astral wounds? The demonling needed a moment to wrap her head around that fact; it certainly challenged the conclusion she had reached regarding Trigon's declaration. But if that were in fact the case, why did it work then but not today? "You were resigned."

"Say again?"

"You were resigned. You accepted that you were going to die." She lifted her eyes to meet the other woman's. "Five years ago, did you want to live? Did you fight against the idea that your time on this world was over, even though you knew it was the truth?"

The former thief nibbled her lower lip. "Yeah, I think so."

"That is the difference. You did not protest your fate tonight; that is why your powers withdrew from my own when I tried to heal you." She grabbed her lover's shoulders and began to shake them. "The next time I tell you not to quit on me and keep trying to live, you. Are. Going. To. Listen. Understand me?"

"O… kay… Please… stop… that…" Raven let Jinx go and allowed her to shake her head clear. "All right, then, miss smarty pants. If you're right, why is it that it doesn't happen every time you heal me?"

"Because this is the first time – first time consciously – that I have dealt with you being fatally injured. All the other times, even in Nicaragua, it was something I could repair with my natural capabilities.

"Assuming Trigon is correct, it would also explain how I could become a true demon," she muttered. "When you gave me your powers, they quickened my infernal blood enough for it to overcome my human half. Then, when I used them to resurrect you, I no longer had a way to stay in that state and regressed."

"About that… I've got three questions. First, how did I wind up in Nevermore, anyway?" Jinx asked.

"If – and this is a big if – you truly are an avatar, then you are your powers. Where they go, you go. Giving them to me, you actually forced your way into my personal dimension." She shook her head. "That should not have been possible; no one, not even another demon, could enter my realm without using a portal that I created."

"Huh, makes sense," the pinkette said with a nod. "Second, then. If you can bring people back, why haven't you ever done it before now?"

"Because today was the first time I could." Tasting the mustard of Jinx's confusion, she clarified, "Demonlings, no matter how powerful, are unable to perform full resurrections. It is fortunate indeed that you put your hex energy into me; had you not, you would have been permanently dead. I doubt even mixing our powers as we just discussed would grant me that ability again. It would not change what I am."

"Isn't there some other way for you to go full demon?" her betrothed probed.

She hesitated a moment, which did not go unnoticed. "There… is one method, yes. Because I am in the unique situation of being both a halfbreed and a Demon Lord, I could use a ritual to purge myself of all my human traits, leaving only the demonic half; my power would be sufficient to survive that spell. However," she continued, cutting Jinx off, "doing so would also destroy my physical body, sending me to their realm. As a Demon Lord, I would then be unable to return without using a dimensional gate, something that thankfully does not exist on Earth, or being summoned. In addition, either route back here would also impose my internal dimension onto reality. You just left Nevermore; do you like this world as it is or would you prefer it reduced to a barren void?"

"Ah," Jinx whispered. "That would not be a good thing."

"Very much not, not to mention that I am unsure exactly how my personality would change should I lose my human nature. It is entirely possible that I would no longer be capable of loving you." She let that sink in before grasping the thief's hand and giving it a brief squeeze. "Now, your third question?"

"…Am I unkillable now?"

Incredulously, Raven repeated, "Are you what?"

"When you were talking about Trigon raising Slade from the dead, you told me that you and Robin both broke his neck at least once, but he kept fixing himself. Do I get something like that now that I've come back?"

"Well… I…" She shrugged weakly. "I have no idea."

Jinx blinked rapidly. "What do you mean, you have no idea?"

"Precisely that. Normally when demons resurrect servants, they sacrifice a piece of their own power to tie the individual to the physical world. So long as the demon lives and does not call back his gift, the person will be able to survive anything." A clawed finger lightly prodded the pinkette. "I did not do that; when I called you back, I returned to you the very powers you transfused into me. I am unaware of something like this every happening before, and what it means in the long term is therefore impossible to predict. You may be invulnerable or you may not, but I would appreciate it if we did not put such a theory to the test."

"Damn. I was kinda looking forward to wading into the middle of a war zone like the fucking Terminator."

The pair were silent for several minutes before Jinx spoke again. "What was that white raven, anyway?"

"Why can you not ask simple questions?" She sighed and shook her head. "Again, I do not know. I have no knowledge of such a construct, and I have visited Trigon occasionally; it has never shown itself."

"So what do you think it could be?"

She grimaced. "Potentially, it is yet another fragment of my psyche, one that split off when I faced Him for the last time. As it was not one of my emotions, it would not have fused with them when I reconstituted my mind, and if small enough, I would not necessarily feel the loss. However, a guardian being created without my knowledge or consent should not be possible."

"Why not?" the ex-criminal continued to probe.

"A mind so fragile that pieces can tear themselves away from the whole of their own volition would be incredibly unstable, the person it belonged to teetering on the very edge of madness." A snicker dragged Raven's attention to her companion. "And just what is so funny about that?"

Jinx forced her smile away. "Well, let's face it. Whether it's because of your demonic nature, your schizo mind all throughout your childhood, or nineteen years of general isolation, you're not exactly the sanest person in the world."

"I am perfectly balanced, thank you very much!" she declared aghast. How could her friend, her love, accuse her of such a thing?!

A finger was lifted into the air. "Babe, practically the second I was dead, you slaughtered every H.I.V.E. kid in the museum, killing them each in a completely different way." Another joined the first. "You kidnapped Kyd and all the students in the base he was at before dumping them in Nevermore to be tortured until they began to bore you, at which point you fucking puréed them." A third. "You promised to utterly destroy Nightwing in front of the other Titans, then subtly threatened a founding member of the Justice League." The feline woman smirked and tallied a fourth point. "What would you have done if you hadn't been able to resurrect me, either because someone stopped you or just because the spell failed?"

She looked away in shame. "I would rather not think about it."

"So… the apocalypse? Again?"

Raven winced. When she puts it that way… "You… you may have a point." Thinking over the new information she had been presented, she finally confessed, "Some of each, I think."

"Hmm?" her betrothed asked eloquently.

"Any instability I possess probably results from a combination of the factors you named," she explained. "I am curious, however; how long have you held suspicions about my mental health?"

Jinx did not even try to hide her smug grin. "Oh, I figured out you had a couple of screws loose during the first year we were dating. Normal people aren't anywhere near as obsessively protective as you are."

"You stayed with me for so long, even knowing this? Why?" If her lover knew how dangerous she could be, why would she stick around? Why not break off their relationship if they constantly ran the risk of Raven losing control?

"Don't be an idiot." Jinx leaned into the sorceress and gently kissed her to deprive her words of their sting. "It's because I love you, craziness and all."

"I love you, too." The children in the bed with them prevented her showing how much she adored the woman beside her, but thanks to her powers, removing their pants and snuggling side-by-side was easily accomplished.

"Besides," the bubblegum-haired mercenary added as they drifted to sleep, "you were ready to destroy the world because you couldn't have me anymore. I'm pretty sure that means I'm in no real danger."

Melvin slowly opened her eyes, voices dragging her to wakefulness.

A snicker proceeded a few quick clicks. "That is so sweet, I feel like I'm gonna hurl. Perfect blackmail material."

"You mean perfect until Raven finds out you took these photos," Uncle Mammoth warned. "Cause as soon as she does, you're a dead man."

"Nah, it'll be fine. These are just for my personal amusement. Well, and maybe I'll give a couple to some annoying bitches in the Initiative who want to get in her pants. Soon as they find out she's good with kids, her own at least, they won't care that she and Jinx are engaged. They'll be on her like a rash, Jinx'll snap and go jealous lover on them, and I'll be making popcorn and enjoying the show." With a quiet cackle, Uncle Gizmo snapped several more shots.

"Whatever, it's your funeral. I'm gonna see what they've got to eat in this place."

"Nothing but candy bars and tea, knowing those two."

She smiled as the two men left. Hugging Raven's— her mom's leg closer, she sighed happily and closed her eyes. Despite the tragedy that had taken place, even if it was shortly undone, and the heart-wrenching guilt as the full force of Jinx's lecture about how dangerous their job was hit home, not every consequence had been awful. The lavender-haired woman was no longer pushing them away that last little bit; she hadn't even corrected Spitfire when he sleepily called her 'Mommy' like she normally would have.

It was just as Raven herself had said: good things really did come to those who waited.

Cyborg rolled his eyes when Nightwing passed by him without saying a word. The Bat disciple had been giving both him and Persephone the silent treatment even since that morning, when he had read them the riot act about not revealing their meetings with Raven. Maybe if he didn't act like such an asshole whenever she gets brought up, we'd have let him know before the last possible moment, he thought as he followed the black-clad vigilante to the command center. Nightwing stopped short immediately after the door slid open. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Nope, we're serious as a heart attack," came Jinx's voice from inside.

Cyborg hastened his steps and looked inside to see the former H.I.V.E. member brazenly sitting on the back of the couch, Raven levitating beside her. Mammoth was seated at the table, chowing down on a gigantic sandwich – the half-robot's growling stomach reminded him that he hadn't had lunch yet – and the little snot-stain hacker was once again messing with their computer system.

"But… you died. We all saw it."

"I died, sure, but I got better." Jinx jerked her head towards her fiancée. "Trust me, you ever see her in a sexy nurse outfit, and you'll understand exactly what I mean."

"At least it was not the nun costume again. The one time you forced me in that, I feared I would spontaneously combust," Raven muttered.

Oh, boy. He did his best to shake those amusing mental images out of his head and focused on the situation at hand. "Want to tell us why you snuck into the Tower?"

"We didn't sneak anywhere; we were fairly obvious about the whole thing. Giz, you wanna take it away?"

"Sure." The tiny terror stabbed a button on the console and turned on the klaxon. "Oops, did I do that?" he asked in a tone of complete insincerity.

"Hey, if you can't figure out the system, stop messin' with it! That's a TOS 3.5 mainframe, not some arcade game!"

"Cool it, tin man, I know what I'm doing. I just want the rest of your team here so we only have to say this once." Said heroes sprinted into the room and stopped short as they took in their 'visitors'. "All right, kludge-heads, sit down and shut up. We've got a lot to cover today."

Jinx shook her head. "On second thought, I better brief 'em. All you'll do is piss them off." She pointed at the wide window, and a map of the city appeared on the display. "Okay, to make a long story very short and skipping the unimportant details, the four of us were hired to take care of your little bug problem. It's taken us… two weeks now, babe?"

"Something like that."

"Two weeks of investigation, aided and abetted by her little genocidal freak-out last night, but we now know where all the H.I.V.E.'s deployment bases are." A dozen red dots appeared, scattered throughout the city and the surrounding area. "We're calling in some backup to take care of these spots, but that's not why we're here. We actually want help taking out the headmaster and the main base, and we figured you might not mind pitching in a little."

"And why would we ever help you out, Jinx?" Beast Boy snarled.

"Because of who the headmaster happens to be." A photo of a white-haired, middle-aged man took over the screen. "This is Lieutenant Colonel Wilson, former U.S. Army. You would know him better… as Slade."

Starfire gasped. "The Slade is in control of the H.I.V.E.?"

"It would certainly explain how they've gotten as good as they have," Cyborg thought aloud. "We never could seem to actually beat him, and if he's in charge of the Academy, their competency would shoot through the roof. One thing I can't figure out is why you want help bringin' him down. Seems like you've got everything you need."

Raven cleared her throat. "I… interrogated Kyd Wykkyd last night; he was Slade's right hand. While most of the H.I.V.E. students are trained for four years in one of the satellite locations, those with the greatest skill are offered an additional year at the main base under Slade's personal tutelage. Therefore, the opposition we expect to face would be considerably stronger than what we or you have encountered so far. Ignoring available resources in such a situation would be foolish."

"I agree that bringing down Slade is a valid reason to bury the hatchet," Nightwing declared. Looking over the rest of the Titans, he nodded when none of them protested. "All right, we'll help you out. Where is this main base?"

Jinx shrugged. "We don't know precise coordinates, just that it's underground in the middle of the desert. Slade took Kyd there while unconscious, so while he could teleport in and out, he didn't know where on the map it was located. Thankfully, Raven can follow his mental landmarks and carry us there."

"Hold on. I know you kinda answered this question already, but I still don't get it. If you know exactly where he is, why can't you just slip inside and take him out on the sly?" Persephone asked.

"As powerful as I am, I was recently reminded that even a demonling can be outmaneuvered," the sorceress commented with a sidelong glance at her lover. "Not to mention, I expect Slade to be a very difficult opponent; I will have to devote all my attention and powers to fighting him, which means I need someone to watch my back and deal with his students. With that in mind, it makes more sense for us to join forces temporarily to attack the base. If nothing else, it will mean we are not so drastically outnumbered."

"And I guess you can't go all demon on him like you did yesterday?"

"That would require circumstances that I refuse to allow again," she replied hotly, linking hands with Jinx.

Cyborg covered Persephone's mouth before she could accidentally poke another sore spot. "Bad idea, that. When do we do this?"

"Early tomorrow morning." The pinkette blinked at the shocked expressions the Titans shot her. "What? It makes sense to hit them before dawn, when we're sure most of them will be asleep or barely awake, and we need a little prep time, anyway."

"It's three in the afternoon," Nightwing pointed out. "You need sleep, too. Are you saying that you can prepare for what sounds like an all-out siege in only six, seven hours?"

"Sure, won't be the first time we've done something like this. As long as you follow our orders, dragging along a bunch of newbies won't be that big a hassle." Jinx paused for a moment before turning to Raven. "And speaking of newbies…"

It took the half-demon a moment to catch on to whatever the former thief was implying, but it was obvious when she did. "No. No. Absolutely not. I already said they could not help when we were going after the regular H.I.V.E., and this promises to be even more dangerous."

"I know it is, but this time there will be eight of us, more if Gizmo sends a drone along—"

"Eloise is going with you," the miniature genius cut in. "I don't think any of the others would be helpful considering how much monitoring I'll be doing, but she'll be there for sure."

"Nine, then. We can take care of them. Besides, like you said, we need all the help we can get."

Raven prepared to launch a rebuttal, but after a second she closed her mouth. "When we return to base, we will discuss this privately and in much greater detail."

"Sure thing," Jinx agreed smoothly. "Any questions, Titans?"

Nightwing nodded. "You said you were hired to do this. By whom?"

"None of your business," was the pinkette's chirpy reply.

"I think it is."

"No, it's really not. You're not getting a cut of the pay, so it's not like who's writing the check matters. Not to mention, I just don't feel like telling you. Any other questions, preferably ones that aren't quite so stupid?" No one answered, so she turned to her teammates. "You three have anything you want to say before we head out?"

"I do." The heroes watched as Raven dropped to the ground and began walking towards them, specifically in Nightwing's direction. Cyborg tensed; this had the potential to become very bad very quickly. The former Titan approached to within a couple of feet of the team's leader and launched her fist towards Nightwing's cheek in a textbook right cross, dropping the man to the floor. He propped himself up on one elbow and spat out some blood and a single tooth. "Do not think for an instant that I have forgotten that you arrested Jinx for no reason, that you tried to wield her memory as a sword against me not five minutes after her death. Nor have I forgotten my words to you, and I am sure that you have not forgotten that I do not make idle threats. You are getting a pass on your incredibly foolish decisions purely because a corpse would be of no help to us against the H.I.V.E. Show me the honor you once praised yourself for possessing, and I will be amenable to postponing my rightful vengeance indefinitely."

She turned back to her new team and walked a few steps before looking over her shoulder at the downed vigilante. "I will warn you now, however, that this is the limit of my mercy, now matter how much Jinx pleaded with me not to kill you out of hand. Interfere with our actions, attack us once Slade is disposed of, betray us in any way, and I will rip your head off your shoulders and hang it above my mantle. Have I made myself clear?"

"Crystal," Cyborg answered instantly. "Seph and I will make sure he doesn't pull any fast ones."

"Thank you."

"Hope you can get to a dentist quick," Jinx laughed. Raven moved to stand next to her, and Mammoth was not far behind. Darkness spilled from nowhere to surround them. "All of you, make sure you get a good night's sleep. We move against the H.I.V.E. at 0400."

Jinx, a living goddess? Maybe, maybe not; the answer to that question is definitely not within the scope of this story. I will say that I already had this explanation planned when I wrote the near-death scene in Coincidence of Misunderstandings, though it's gone through a few revisions in the intervening months.

The mirror Raven was talking about Rage having can be found at the end of chapter 8 of Coincidence. Don't worry if it's significance flew over your head at the time; I was surprised when my muse pointed it out to me while I was writing this chapter.

Silently Watches out.