A/N 4-29-11: Sorry for the delay. I had to swim through a deluge of homework assignments in dire need of completion before I could edit this chapter and post. Regardless, I love this chapter, and I hope you'll love it also. Finally, the Mirror Realm was inspired from the JLU episode Flash and Substance. I figured since the mirror realm existed in that tv universe where KF becomes the Flash why couldn't he run into it earlier in his life. Great Wally episode that one.


Chapter 53: Bound

To say that all cheer had been sucked from the Mirror Realm would be an understatement unless you counted Jinx. Here she was, the infamous Kid before her, and she bore the upper hand. Oh, how the roles had reversed. Now he had his power bound, and she had brought him to a strange place that he could not escape from. Even staring at his pinched features and gritted jaw, she still marveled at how now they would reach the heart of the matters before them.

"You're responsible?" Kid breathed, and Jinx smiled at the hissed words he had to squeeze between his teeth in order to escape his mouth. He was angry. Good, she didn't fear him. She was no longer trapped and bound to spells and secrets. Now was her time to shine, and she would do so with honesty.

"Indirectly," she admitted. "My powers have the unique ability to bring bad luck and destruction as I wish. In science I suppose you could say that my powers cause and accelerate entropy." Batman and Robin had a field day when they had hypothesized how her powers worked.

"You and I entered into a magical agreement," she continued. "Crook that you are, you took more than you gave, and as a result my magic has been haunting your steps." She paused and her brow wrinkled as she arranged her thoughts. "Mind, my magic acted more as a catalyst. It merely accelerated unfortunate events which would have occurred either way."

"You're lying," Kid stated, cold fury seeping into his voice and lacing through his stiff form.

"Why would I?" Jinx asked.

"I never entered into any agreement with you, magical or otherwise," Kid stated; clearly whatever amiable front he possessed had vanished. "You say you can't use your powers here, yet you flaunt them in front of me. You say you're the girl I met in Jump two years ago, but you don't even look like her!"

With a weary sigh, Jinx replied, "I'm a sorceress. I can look however I want. While in this realm under the purpose I am now, I cannot use my powers to hurt you. And as for our agreement, you kidnapped me, and if I wanted to return to Jump City, I had to give you an item from my backpack so you could pass some ridiculous exam for the HIVE."

"But that had nothing to do with magic," Kid argued, the worst of his ire cooled but a healthy amount of irritation remaining to egg him on. "And what "purpose" do you have for getting inside my head and kidnapping me?"

"The agreement had everything to with magic," Jinx said. "Magic was at stake. My backpack was filled with enough magical artifacts to take over the world. Did you ever wonder why my backpack shocked you? It was spelled. I had enough charms and spells on me to allow me to walk through fire and emerge unscathed."

Eyes glowing dangerously, Jinx's long withheld tirade spilled out. "I was in Jump to visit my best friend, and you ruined it by kidnapping me! And the fastest way I could get back to Jump was to give you something from my backpack, and I couldn't give you anything magical, so I had to give you something harmless, my necklace."

Calming, Jinx breathed deeply before continuing on. "Because magical items were at stake the trade for returning to Jump fell under a magical exchange, and because of the dozens of protection spells on me that magical exchange was subject to the Magical Rule of Equivalent Exchange, and you failed to put up.

"You didn't match my price, so there were magical repercussions. You've had a black cloud hovering over you for years. My purpose is to complete the exchange. You owe me Kid, and I have come to collect."

"You're still lying."

Out of all the responses he could have given her, the given one only spoke of his pigheadedness. She was going to kill Kid. "Have you listened to nothing I just said?"

"Oh sure, I listened, but you're overestimating yourself. If everything you said is true-don't look at me like that- then I owe you nothing."

"Excuse me?" To say her tone was frigid was to say Slade was a criminal i.e. a massive understatement.

"I gave you freedom." And a small smile crossed his face at the dumbstruck look Jinx was giving him complete with a dropped jaw. "The way I see it, I kidnapped you, we bargained, and I took you back. I could have turned you over to the HIVE, but I let you go. You're free because of me."

"You gave me a ride!" Jinx declared, and perhaps for the first time Kid glimpsed beyond the cold and spite. "My freedom was never at stake!"

Surprisingly, beneath the layers of contempt and self assurance, Kid saw for once the hurt, her pain. A girl who had to bargain an obviously valuable memento in order to keep the world from crashing down. Out of duty she had sacrificed, and she hadn't quite gotten over the pain of her choice; pain she held him responsible for creating.

"A ride must cost some reasonable price," he pressed, unwisely too, he noted at the flash of energy in her eyes. "So what do I owe? The necklace didn't have enough monetary value to pawn." Lie, when Gizmo had caught a glimpse of the necklace his mouth had hung open as he drooled in awe over the necklace (which Kid had neglected to show to Bee or turn in for his assignment. His reasoning? It was special).

"That necklace was priceless," Jinx growled, and again the hidden flash of pain haunting her eyes grew stronger. The more she dwelled on the subject the more her true feelings bled through her anger and calculation. "Monetary value aside, the emotional value I have for that necklace makes it priceless. And according to the law of equivalent exchange, if I trade something priceless, you have to exchange something priceless in return, and a ride," the sneer in her voice over the word could have killed lesser men, "doesn't match the price. You owe me."

"And unless I pay up my life gets worse according to this magic haunting me," Kid summarized. "You must really dislike me." He wondered aloud, eyes darting up and down her figure.

"Dislike you?" Jinx echoed, and the disgust in her voice as she repeated his phrase didn't bode well. "I don't 'dislike' you. I hate, no," she stopped, and a brief look of contemplation blanketed her features. "No, hate possesses a certain kindness that fails to describe the enmity I hold for you."

"So you really dislike me," Kid said with a smile. Good, he liked knowing where he stood with other people. "Which means you'll really make me pay."

"Oh yes," Jinx agreed. "You owe me something priceless, and I have had two years to decide how to collect my debt."

"Yet, if you hate me so much you wouldn't collect. You'd let the repercussions run its course and ruin my life," Kid interrupted. Then a startling event occurred. For the first time in their encounter Kid saw uncertainty enter Jinx's face. The look was fleeting and only communicated through a quick darting of her eyes down to the ground then she frigidly stared him down once more.

"You thought about it," he accused. "You seriously considered leaving me to my fate. So why didn't you?"

"I couldn't," she snapped, and somehow she seemed offended at his accusation.

For the oddest reason her response seemed to please Kid. Why, she couldn't fathom, but the thoughtful air descending on him made Jinx wary.

"So you really are a hero then, trying to save me from my own choices." That had been the wrong thing to say. Whatever button he'd pressed or tick he'd nudged all vulnerability fled Jinx as determination bolstered her courage and reaffirmed her resolve.

"I came to collect something powerful, something priceless. Something precious to you," she said arms crossed and a smirk firmly in place. "I have come to collect your name."

A cold fist clenched in his stomach even as Kid laughed her statement off. Never show weakness. Work through your fear, and never give anyone an edge. So his past teachings flooded his mind even as he tried to blow off her claim.

"You want my name? I've told you. It's Kid."The smug in Jinx's eyes danced along with amusement and satisfaction. The rocks in Kid's stomach dropped further as he jested again. "Besides even if you want my name, how are you going to get it? I'm not telling."

"You won't have too," the serene silky quality of her voice did not bode well. With a sweeping gesture Jinx waved at the background. "This realm will help me discover your name along with the magic that seeks to complete our contract. I will learn part of your name with or without your help."

"And a name is priceless," Kid stalled, grasping for straws.

"There is power in a name," Jinx serenely replied and began to muse. Magic filled her eyes and tendrils flickered around her framed, and the platform glowed.

"Now," she began. "Your name. Your hidden name in exchange for the rose. A rose," a tug of magic prodded her. "A rose by any other name…" she trailed off, eyes hazy.

"Shakespeare?" Kid asked incredulous, a bark of laughter escaping him. Yet unease rested. Romeo and Juliet and the infamous balcony scene was entirely irrelevant to either of his names, but the tangents Jinx was latching onto, although ridiculous, didn't explain why his feet were suddenly immobilel and why his whole body felt frozen. He couldn't move and an uncomfortable pressure rested on his shoulders only to trickle down, dribbling to his very toes, and moving inside his body as if to reach his very soul.

With a shock he noted a blazing line stretching between his and Jinx's feet, and that his body glowed with the same light as Jinx's eyes. Magic is not real, he thought fiercely. Yet his very surroundings mocked his belief, and Jinx continued on, while another tug wrenched through his bones.

"Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou," Jinx continued her brow creased and focus inward following the train of thought along with the magical threads stretching between her and Kid which guided her path. "Romeo," she murmured again.

"It is the east, and Juliet is the sun." A firmer tug this time. "East," and the path grew stronger. "East, directions: right, left, ahead, behind, no." The trail grew cold, more confused. "East," she returned, and the threads narrowed further. "North, South, East,…"

And there it was. The word in her mouth drifted out, and a sense of completion came with its pronouncement. "West. Part of your name is West. Obviously not your first name, unless your parents were especially eccentric. No, the name West can only be your surname." Here she smiled at him. "Your last name is West."

Looking to the sky she declared, "I have been paid in full, and the bargain is complete. May all return to as it was."

He would only ever call the following event coincidence, but at the end of her sentence, the pink light trapping him vanished, and Kid collapsed to his knees as the sensation of a dark cloud and heavy weight lifted off his shoulders. He was free. Whatever darkness that had haunted him these past two years was gone. But his name…

"Now what?" he asked. "Why did you want my name?"

"You have quite a bit of leverage over me," Jinx replied. "You met my favored civilian guise, and you possess my necklace. I needed a bargaining chip to ensure my privacy."

"I wouldn't have told anyone," he said.

"Why should you do such a thing?" Jinx coolly replied. "That's not your nature. You steal and take anything you wish for your own benefit and pleasure."

"You don't know anything about me," Kid gritted out.

"I know your name as you know mine," Jinx replied.

"So you did all that for revenge?" Kid asked, and if a hint of disgust colored his tone, Jinx cared not.

"I did it because it had to be done," she dodged, but Kid, having caught a scent, refused to let go. In fact he took a turn at musing aloud.

"So two years ago I take your necklace and tick you off. You spend the next two years plotting revenge and use your knowledge of "Equivalent Exchange" to make a power play," at the tones of admiration creeping into his voice, Jinx warned, "West…"

Waving her off he continued, "and you decided you want my name. That's even worse than taking my powers or beating me up because you can use my name to expose my identity. I'd never be able to rest. Yet in gaining my name you also end a two year streak of "bad luck" after dragging me to a dimension that you control the exits and entrances in order to keep me in one place, and where you have advantage over me."

A wide smile spread across Kid's face, and Jinx felt a sense of doom enter the pit of her stomach. He wouldn't possibly…

"I like you," Kid declared the wide smile on his face reaffirming his declaration. "You're cunning, underhanded, yet straight forward, and manipulate situations to your advantage. You'd make a great villainess except you're way too moral to ever be satisfied."

Horror filled Jinx at the utter failure of her scheme. She was supposed to scare him off forever not attract the deluded idiot. She had to regain control over the situation before the imbecile became love struck. And she knew just the curse to keep him on his toes.

"Shut it!" she snapped. "Just because I lifted the magic that's been hurting you for the past two years doesn't mean I won't curse you myself."

The dopey, lovesick look he was giving her didn't indicate that he was listening at all.

"I've been cursed with bad luck for my entire life, and you will taste it as well. I cast a hex on you," she hissed to the object of her ire. "No matter where you go, or what guise you wear, I will always be able to find you."

The magic shot out from her and anchored to West, establishing a bond between the pair. There barricaded from the outside world in a dimension of mirrors a bond was forged connecting the pair through dimension, space, and time.


Prompt: Barricaded