"Swindle" by Ed Alger (SecondLevelWriter)

Author's note: Teen Titans and all related characters are property of DC Comics and are being used without permission. Song credits are listed at the end of the chapter. Everything is also being used without profit, too, so I guess that's okay.

Chapter 20
Vindication

"I-Impossible!"

Brother Blood's single utterance broke the minute's worth of silence. Fresh tears streamed from Jinx's eyes as she tried to tell herself that she wasn't imagining things. All minds were racing to figure out just how the thief was now standing before them without any injuries, when they all knew that they had seen him fall from the tower. To answer that question, Swipe simply patted the grappling gun on his hip. A mad glint appeared in the thief's eyes and a grin spread across his lips as he hopped down from his perch, never diverting his gaze from the headmaster. To further the intimidation, Swipe began to sing.

"We don't need no education..."

Brother Blood took a nervous step backward, still dragging Jinx with him.

"We don't need no thought control..."

Scorn seemed to permeate the last two words to the lyric, which made Blood even more tense.

"No dark sarcasm in the classroom... Teacher, leave those kids alone."

Swipe drew his daggers and leaned into his battle stance. Nobody could tell exactly why he was smiling so much. Believing the rogue to be without his common sense, Brother Blood quickly discarded his hostage in order to defend himself better. Cyborg took the opportunity to pull Jinx to safety, before the blades and who-knows-what-else started flying.

"HEY! TEACHER! LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!"

With that challenge, Swipe raced forward and slashed in a wide arc with one dagger. Brother Blood took a large step backward to avoid the attack and tried to counter with a palm thrust, but Swipe would not be denied. His follow-up strike caught Blood across the upper thigh, drawing a long line of sparks and split metal. Blood winced in pain and used a psychic thrust to push his adversary away. The thief caught himself after the first tumble and charged again. If not for Blood's cybernetic enhancements, he might not have been able to trace where Swipe was at the moment he struck.

A palm thrust halted Swipe's attack and pushed him back several inches. All of the wind was knocked out of the thief's lungs, forcing him to crumple to the ground in a coughing heap. The headmaster sneered down at his opponent, believing the battle to be over for good. The confidence drained from his face when he heard Swipe singing once more.

"All in... all... it's just a--nother brick in... in the wall..."

"Stop singing!" Blood barked, punctuating his order with a swift kick to Swipe's midsection.

The rogue saw the kick coming and blocked it, then clamped his arms around Blood's leg. He looked up in defiance and finished the lyric.

"All in all, you're just a-nother brick in the wall!"

With that, Swipe shifted his weight and pulled Brother Blood over himself. The former teacher flailed his arms in an attempt to break his fall, but couldn't get them out in time. Another stinging pain washed through his whole body, frustrating him even further.

'How is he doing this?!'

Blood sensed an attack coming and instinctively rolled to one side, barely avoiding a dagger that was aimed for his back. He threw a punch into the side of Swipe's head to knock him off-balance and then shoved him onto his back. He pinned the rogue down by his wrists, squeezing them so tightly that Swipe was forced to let go of his weapons.

"Those daggers of yours are merely forged of adamantine. So, how am I still feeling the cuts they leave behind?"

Swipe smirked, "Sounds like bad luck ta me."

"You're lying. I blocked that spell! It had no effect!"

"That's just it. Ya never know what her powers can do, 'til they do it."

The rogue lunged forward to deliver a headbutt into Brother Blood's nose. The force of the impact combined with the exploding pain to force the headmaster to recoil backwards and release his grip on his enemy. In an instant, Swipe reclaimed his weapons and jumped to his feet.

"Which means, I've got a better chance against you than ya think."

Swipe again ran at Brother Blood, feinting to the left before swinging around with a sharp roundhouse kick into the teacher's side. He zipped around to the other side before Blood could react and belted him in the face with the handle of his dagger. Continuing the blinding flurry of strikes, Swipe hopped backwards to avoid Blood's counterattack and then broke into another flat run towards his opponent. In three steps, he bounded upwards off of Blood's chest in an attempt to perform a diving attack. Brother Blood had gathered his senses enough to figure out this plan and instead grabbed Swipe by the ankle, yanking him out of the air and in perfect range to be seized by the throat.

"Why do you resist, boy?" Blood snarled as he lifted Swipe off the ground. "Why don't you accept who you really are?"

Swipe struggled against Blood's grasp, managing to get out, "I can... I can accept that... I'm gonna kick your...urk!"

"You are a master thief, Swipe! Anything you want could be yours! Why do you insist on throwing all of that away?"

"Because some things're more important... grr! Getcher hands... off me!"

Swipe finally aimed a kick at Blood's face, which forced the headmaster to drop his quarry yet again. The rogue fell to his knees and coughed violently in a desperate attempt to get air back into his lungs. Brother Blood calmly loomed over Swipe and continued his lecture. His eyes began to glow red as he spoke.

"With my training, you could become a truly fearsome villain. Nothing would be guarded against your abilities."

"I'm not listening!"

"Accept who you are, Swindle, and return to my academy!"

Hearing his alias made Swipe's mind snap back into focus. After a moment, and without picking his head up, he let out a weak answer.

"You know... You're right."

"Hmm?"

"You're right. I should just accept who I really am. No sense runnin' from it anymore."

Swipe rose to his feet, keeping his gaze fixed on the ground. Blood smirked in smug victory. Jinx and Cyborg could only look on with confused horror. Had Swipe finally given up? Or was his mind being controlled again? Unwilling to sit back and watch this any longer, Jinx started from her hiding place to confront Brother Blood. She was stopped when Cyborg took hold of her arm.

"I ain't about to let Blood take over your mind again, Jinx. If anyone's gonna go out there, it's gonna be me."

"Don't start with that whole vendetta thing again! Blood has hurt us all, and he needs to be stopped!"

"I understand that, but --"

"But nothing! If we're going to fight, we need to fight together."

Cyborg began to say something, but Jinx stopped him with an index finger.

"We're all in the same boat, Cy. You, me, and Swipe."

The blue Titan thought it over for a moment before giving a slow nod of agreement.

"All right, then. First, we've gotta get a plan going."

"Well, I'm open to suggestions."

"Well, it's a good thing I started coming up with one. His mainframe seems to work on the same frequency mine does. If I can remotely hack into his systems, I can deactivate his power core. The frequency is really short-range, though, so I've gotta get in close."

"Got it. Just leave it to me."

Together, they stepped out of the shadows and prepared to fight the deposed headmaster.

Brother Blood noticed them immediately and turned to face them, "Ah, my other prized students! Have you also been considering what I said to Swindle?"

Cyborg primed his sonic cannon while Jinx's eyes flared with arcane energy. They replied in unison, "Does this answer your question?"

With that said, the hex caster conjured a ball of energy and flung it at Brother Blood. Cyborg then fired his weapon after watching where the teacher moved to evade the first attack. Blood responded with two focused psychic blasts from his palms, forcing a hasty evasion from his opponents. Cyborg continued his assault with several quick bursts, while Jinx cartwheeled and flipped into a flanking position. She began casting again while her partner charged directly at Blood. However, the headmaster dodged deftly to one side, causing Cyborg to quickly change trajectory to avoid Jinx. Jinx, in turn, had to break the spell in order to get out of his way.

As Brother Blood attempted to capitalize on the mistake, Cyborg regained his balance long enough to try drawing a bead on the headmaster's back. Jinx's evasive efforts kept Blood on the move, spoiling Cyborg's aim time and again. Finally deciding to take the shot, the robotic Titan's blast just missed its mark and sailed over Blood's head. Blood turned his attention to his former ace student and threw a blast of telekinetic energy to knock Cyborg off his feet. As Jinx started to get some space between herself and Blood, she also found herself thrown to the ground by a similar burst.

"So, Jinx, care to explain exactly it was that you did to me? And why you're able to block me out this time?"

The hex caster rolled away from a stomp and scrambled to get to her feet again.

"Swipe just taught me a little trick. As for that spell, I simply wanted you to feel the same pain that I did."

"Interesting. I'll have to remember to extract that spell from your head once this is over. It might prove useful."

Cyborg's voice rose from behind, "You gotta beat us first, Blood!"

The robotic Titan charged at Blood's back, but only succeeded in being hurled over the teacher's shoulder and into Jinx. While his opponents laid in a heap, Blood turned to his newest convert.

"I grow tired of this. Swindle! Quickly! Help me take care of these delinquents!"

Without a word, Swipe walked slowly to Blood's side. Jinx tried desperately to rouse her dazed partner or at least get out from underneath him. When she finally freed herself from Cyborg's weight, she found herself facing down her boyfriend. Her eyes darted between Swipe and Brother Blood as she considered who she should go after. Deciding to take down the controller directly, she threw a jagged arc of energy towards the archvillain.

Brother Blood quickly put up a psionic barrier to block the attack, just as Swipe shifted his position and fell in behind Brother Blood.

Wait, behind him?

"BACKSTAB!"

With a great shout, Swipe drove his blades deep into Brother Blood's metal back. Blood howled in a mix of surprise and searing pain as great sparks of electricity burst from the wounds, then stiffly dropped to his knees. With the last vestiges of power left in his system, he could barely get his head to turn to face his betrayer.

"How... is it... possible...?"

Swipe grinned, "A good rogue is both mentally and physically agile. You were right about me needin' to accept who I am, though. An' ya know what?" The rogue got right up to where Blood's ear would be and whispered, "I am a hero."

Cyborg was slowly coming to at this point and realized that his opportunity was here. Without hesitating any further, he got back to his feet and into transmitting range.

"I can't... I won't be beaten like this..."

Blood struggled to raise his hands, focusing his fleeting energy into one last blast at the infernal thief. However, nothing came forth this time. He tried again, but with the same result. That was when he felt it. A jamming signal, and it was coming from Cyborg.

"No... Not when I'm so close!"

A victorious grin spread across Cyborg's face as he sent the remote shutdown code into Blood's system. As his senses went into hibernation mode one by one, he could hear the Titan's parting words.

"School's out, Brother Blood."

"Forever," Swipe added right after.

With the mental control broken, the captive Titans fell to the ground. Cyborg, Jinx, and Swipe stood there for a moment while still looking warily at the inert headmaster, not quite sure of what to say or do. The thief finally took the opportunity.

"Well, if you ain't gonna say it, then I will. BOOYAH!"

Cyborg's grin widened, "What, you're gonna steal my lines, too?"

After they had regained their senses, Robin and the others gathered around the trio and looked upon the fallen headmaster. The Titan leader looked back to Swipe and Jinx with an approving smile.

"Glad to see you two are back, Swipe."

Swipe returned the smile and gave a thumbs-up, "Glad to be back, Robs."

A few rays of sunlight shone over the horizon, heralding the start of a new day. Everyone turned to face it with grateful smiles.

Jinx breathed a sigh of relief and said quietly, "It's over. The nightmare's finally over."

Beast Boy took the silence as an opportunity to suggest, "So... Who's up for breakfast?"

Swipe grinned and replied, "Sounds good ta me. I could go for a nice, big omelette right about now."

After the celebratory breakfast, Cyborg, Robin, and Speedy volunteered to take Brother Blood into custody. Then, the entire Titans team set out trying to repair the base using the broken-down Cyborg duplicates for spare parts and scrap metal. After all of the rudimentary repairs were completed, Swipe and Jinx stole away to the roof to gaze at the ocean. They sat together at the very same spot Swipe tumbled over, leaving everyone to briefly believe he was gone. After many minutes of reflection, Swipe was the first to break the silence.

"Hard to believe that we were fighting for our lives up here just a few hours ago,"

Jinx nodded a reply and scooted a bit closer. Even though it was nearing noon, Steel City was still pretty cold.

"Things are never gonna go back to normal, are they?"

The thief looked over at her, "What makes ya say that?"

"Mammoth and Gizmo might come looking for me. Slade might be out there somewhere, too."

"Slade's gone, Jinxie. He got swallowed up in an eruption that Terra caused. As for Muscles and the Technogeek, won't they get the idea if you tell 'em that you don't wanna hang out with 'em anymore?"

"No. They always counted on me to scout out which malls had the least security when Gizmo couldn't find a bank to loot." Jinx hugged her knees to her chest, "All they care about is breaking stuff, having 'fun,' and just making a mess of things."

Swipe brought an arm around her shoulders, "Well, they're gonna have to have fun without you from now on. Maybe we could introduce 'em to Billy Numerous. I bet they'd make a great team."

The hex caster giggled lightly at the thought and said, "You know, Swipe, you've shown me what it really means to have fun. Like, dancing to your favorite song or playing games with your friends."

The thief gave her a squeeze, "Or bein' close to someone you care about?"

Jinx nodded, "Especially that."

"I always knew there was more ta life than stealing things from under people's noses. Just didn't know what. Well, until now, that is."

Just then, there was a quiet cough behind them. They turned to see Raven standing at the access door.

"Sorry to break up the moment, but we're getting ready to go back to Jump City. Do you two need a ride?"

The pair smiled and got to their feet.

"Sure, Sunshine. Anything to save my legs from another cross-country run."

Jinx took hold of Swipe's hand and smiled a bit wider.

As they walked, Jinx asked a one word question, "'Sunshine?'"

"I like it better than 'Bluebird.' No offense."

Jinx replied with a shrug, "None taken. The name was Gizmo's idea."

Swipe seemed a little suprised, but didn't say anything. Curious, Jinx pressed him for more.
"What is it?"

"I'm surprised he didn't try incorporatin' some bodily function into it."

End of Chapter 20

In Chapter 21 and Epilogue - The gang returns to Jump City for a small celebration party, with Swipe making a triumphant return to the stage. Everything is normal once again, but for how long?

Post-script disclaimers: "The Wall" is property of Pink Floyd.