Book I: Chapter VII

Dim light spilled out of the moon-shaped light fixture and poured over the room's ceiling. The illumination was just weak enough to create faint shadows that lingered around each corner of the room. Jinx sat quietly on her bed, staring at the murky pink wallpaper, focusing on the flower petals etched in baby blue ink. Her eyes seemed to drift around the different shapes of her room, before settling on a small patch of barren black plaster, and the tufts of wallpaper that ruffled away from the wall. As she slowly inhaled, she took in the soft smell of lavender perfume, before heaving a deep sigh.

Gizmo had handcrafted the wooden frames around her door; he had built her a large mahogany vanity; he had plastered the walls with pink wallpaper and hand-painted each flower. It was all an elaborate attempt for Gizmo to help Jinx reconcile her distaste with living underground. Oh, how she hated it—oh, how she deserved much better…and yet, she didn't have much of a right to complain. It was her own idea, after all. Jinx licked her lips, feeling thirsty, yet too exhausted to get up and get something to drink.

She eyed her simple room. A vanity dresser. A small bed. A little filing cabinet. A modest closet. A door. Her small living space felt extremely—bare. Vacant, even. It was inappropriately unaccommodating. She had grown accustomed to so much more, so many lavish and extraneous possessions. The girl felt uneasy, knowing she had left behind even her most precious jewelry. Jinx had abandoned her favorite arm chair, her music collection, thousands of articles of clothing, and at least ten dozen pairs of shoes. So many years of accumulated items, and yet none of it had found its way into the new HIVE hideout.

Jinx had abandoned most of her belongings upon the HIVE FIVE's divide, being limited due to the logistical constraints of travel. In order to maintain a low alert and reduce possible chances of detection, they were required to keep all movements on the down-low. After all, Cyborg likely kept watch of the HIVE hideout, waiting for further criminal activity. Should she start hauling her king-sized bed, her stereo, or her closet into the streets, Cyborg would likely get the message. She was henceforth forced to travel light, which never made for a happy Jinx.

Jinx looked at what had now become her only luxurious possession: her vanity dresser. It was pushed against the wall and shoved into the corner on the far wall opposite her door. The elaborate silver mirror rested on the mahogany wood of her vanity. She loved the beautiful engravings on the sides, and the sparkle of the silver gems that lined the mirror's rims. Her mirror was her most important possession—a necessity for daily survival. She had a rusting filing cabinet tucked near her vanity, but she didn't use it. The arm-length deep closet fit snugly on the wall adjacent to her vanity, yet barely held even the most basic collection of dresses. Her wretched, twin-sized bed rest in the center of the room, with barely enough walking space around each side. To say the least, Jinx knew she deserved better than her squalor, but she had made a noble sacrifice for the security of her team.

Her biggest upset with the bedroom was a lack of a window. She didn't even consider such a problem when she initially suggested an underground hideout. It was Gizmo who broke the news to her. He told her it would be impossible to hide a window conspicuously poking out of the ground…and attempt to call such a place a secret hideout. Jinx made a mental note of this. Next time, they would design the HIVE Trio's Headquarters so that she could sleep under the stars. Fuck security—maybe a nice greenhouse effect would do the trick. With the right air conditioning, and enough strobe lights to light the moon, it would be one kickin' bedroom.

From her bed, she stared over at the mirror and analyzed her appearance. Gizmo was right. She looked awful. She had a few scrapes along her face and her hands were swollen. Her hair was still down and she had been too lazy to ditch the prison clothes. She took a deep breath and sighed. It was hard being a girl of crime.

Jinx roughly ripped the pillowcases off her feet and threw them across the room. She wiggled her toes in relief. She then opened her closet and sifted through a pile of clothes on the ground. Unbeknownst to anyone alive—secret even to the dead—was three shoeboxes underneath the clothing. Ordinary shoeboxes, identical in aesthetic ways, two of which used to store common pairs of shoes. The third, she picked up. Jinx opened the box and carefully pulled out a pink stuffed dog. It was one of the few processions she still had of her childhood, and she preferred to keep it hidden and unused. What kind of leader would cling to something so childish? She dared not let anyone know.

However, today was an exception. She lazily left the shoebox open on the floor, dragged the stuffed animal to her bed, and snuggled into her deep lavender bedding. She was too tired to take off her prison clothes. She was too exhausted to worry about her hair, or the fact that she needed at least three long baths to remove all the dirt caked around her body. She ignored all her worries and quickly fell asleep, hugging Gruffy the whole time.

It was good to be home, even if Gizmo was an asshole.

She awoke the next morning, took a shower, got dressed in a clean uniform, and spent an hour behind her mirror perfecting her makeup. Jinx went to the lounge and met up with Gizmo and Mammoth. They were, as usual, in the kitchen, making what looked like pan-fried potatoes.

"I gave it some thought, and I think I know how we can handle this mess," muttered Jinx.

"How?" asked Gizmo.

Jinx's eyes narrowed. "Well, let's put it this way. That bitch Raven is the 'key'. Those fools can't get in or out of their stupid jail without Raven's help. So…Remove the girl and the jail is useless."

"Great! Just remove Raven! Of course! Why didn't I think of that?" Spoke Gizmo in a sarcastic tone. "Crud, that doesn't help at all Jinx. If the Titans were so easy to remove, we'd have done it already. They're only like our biggest obstacle ever," he muttered.

"You think I don't know that? We were just going about it in the wrong way. There must be a solution…you know, some way to remove her from the team."

Gizmo shook his head. "No girl, there isn't. I've thought of everything. We ain't got nothing on those snotmunchers."

"Then think harder!" Jinx rubbed her eyes with her hands. "God, you're so useless!"

Mammoth grunted, catching both operative's attention. "Why are we fighting each other? Let's just crush the Titan's old school-style."

The girl looked at him in exasperation. "Mammoth, we've tried that plan like, a bajillion times. It's never worked before, so I don't see why it'll work now. We need a new strategy," growled Jinx.

"Fine, if you're so smart, what'cha got in mind?" Asked Gizmo.

She glared at the small boy. "Don't look at me! I'm not the little boy with the oversized head."

"Hey!" Gizmo whined.

Jinx continued. "I want Raven out of the picture. I don't care what it takes. I want her gone. I don't care how dirty, or how underhanded we have to be. Our future as criminals are at stake! It's about time we sent the Titans a message they'll never forget. We've been too soft in the past. We're too weak and honorable...And we call ourselves villains for Christ's sake! We've never had a plan that involved killing the Titans. Maybe, we've been holding back. Maybe, we have to kill her to be successful. With one less Titan, we would win every time…"

Gizmo's eyes opened wide at the sudden venomous tone of Jinx's voice. He bit his bottom lip before he spoke, and nervously dropped his eyes to the floor. "Damn Jinx...That's not even funny. We're just harmless crooks. We aren't murderers..."

Jinx's eyes went aflame. "Yeah, well they fucked with the wrong people for too long. Things change. You know we're not getting recognized at this rate. The big leagues laugh at us because of the Titans. It's time we put a stop to that. I've been deeply humiliated, and we can't let that go. Our pride as villains is at stake! If you have any concern for me at all, you will come up with a plan by tonight. Got it?"

"But…"

"NOW!"

Beast Boy's eyes slid open. He roughly threw his blankets off his bed and jumped to his feet. He stepped carefully over an unopened box of transformer action figures, an empty pillowcase, a stuffed teddy bear, and an office desk chair lying sideways near his bed. Beast Boy heard a loud crunch. He looked down and saw he had stepped on a bag of potato chips. The age of this food was unknown, but the sound of the chips giving way beneath his weight sparked a curious feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Man, I'm starving.

He looked to his window and gazed out at the blackened sky. He frowned as his stomach began to growl. Aw man, I should be sleeping…but I'm so hungry! An idea clicked in his mind. If only he knew what time it was, he might be able to catch a quick midnight snack and then pop back into bed. Somewhere amidst the hurricane—his room—was a small black box that would tell him the time of day. It was an alarm clock Raven had given him for Christmas. She had muttered something about how irresponsible it was that he never woke up on time, or something. The alarm didn't have a lot of use, but it made for a nice clock.

Jeez, where do I start?

The green boy frantically looked around his haphazard room. He eyed the poster of Jimmy Hendrix on his wall, glanced toward the six plastic army men lined up from shortest to tallest on his dresser, and even grabbed an unsolved Rubik's cube and tossed it behind his shoulder. I know I put it around here somewhere. Dude, where could it be? He wondered to himself as he sorted through several years worth of treasure. The young boy bit his bottom lip and brought his hand to his chin. He tried to remember the last place he had seen the clock. Okay, I know I used it yesterday. It totally woke me up at like eight in the morning! I must have accidentally set it the night before…

He remembered being relatively frustrated at the rude awakening, causing him to slam it on the floor by his bed. The floor! Unless it had sprouted wings, it would still be on the floor somewhere near his bunk bed. It was worth a look. He transformed into a green greyhound. His dog-form dug through a red-stitched sweater, sniffed a pile of assorted paper, and rolled around on a few pairs of jeans before a rough corner of plastic jabbed his back. Reverting to his human form, he found his alarm clock under his pants and next to a used sock. He glanced at the time.

It was nearing four in the morning.

"Geeze, did I even sleep last night? Dude, this is way too early to get up…But way too late for food!" He whined. "Man, the worst possible time to have the late-night munchies..." He considered going back to bed, but quickly dismissed the thought when his stomach growled again in protest. He wasn't very tired and hunger seemed to be more important. Screw it, I'll make a tofu sandwich and hurry back to finish my beauty sleep. It'll only be a few minutes.

Beast Boy carefully stepped across his room, making sure he didn't crush anything else on the ground. He opened his door and looked down the long, darkened hallway. Even his sharp, animalistic eyes found it difficult to adjust in the darkness. Due to the Tower's high usage of power and the rising electric bills, Cyborg changed the way the tower used electricity at night. It was apparently due to the fact that some people in the tower had a difficult time remembering to turn lights off when they were done with them. Beast Boy shrugged. Cyborg had made the change earlier that week. He linked the light switches to the tower's security system. Once Cyborg locked up the tower for the night and put the building on lockdown, it would be neigh impossible to turn on the hallway lights. Of course, this posed a safety hazard in itself if the entire tower was a pitch-black deathtrap. So, during lockdown, one out of every six light fixtures down the vast hallway was set to give off a very dim, low-power glow. It was usable, but it was a strong inconvenience.

Remind me to tell Cyborg to fix this…jeez, it's like impossible to see anything! He bickered to himself, trying not to run into the walls. He passed over a dimly shining fixture overhead and looked up at the weak brightness it gave off. He still couldn't see anything, even when he was directly under the light source. Spreading his arms out to touch the sides of the hallway—and certainly by no means extremely over-exaggerating the actual darkness of the hallway—he carefully made his way toward the lounge. He paused for a second before passing Raven's bedroom, knowing the kind of trouble he could get for being too noisy and waking her up. He held his breath. With three very carefully placed leaps, he half-tiptoed, half-jumped past her room in a series of loud thuds.

He reached the lounge door and tapped the four-digit security number required to unlock the living room door. The automatic sliding door opened. He quickly hissed and covered his eyes as the blaring florescent lights surrounded him. The sudden contrast from sightless hallway to dazzling living room made it very difficult to see anything at all. Hehe, blinded by the light! He was too impatient to wait for his eyes to readjust and decided to haphazardly stumble down two carpeted steps and through the little gap that led into the kitchen-part of the lounge. He then waited until he could fully see before opening the fridge, taking out the ingredients for his sandwich, and building his famous Tofu Stacker on the counter. He did not bother with a plate, but he did get a glass from the bottom cupboard and filled it with orange juice. Taking his tofu sandwich in one hand and the glass of juice in the other, he casually strolled into the lounge. The boy got ready to jump onto the long red couch and blast some TV. Yet, he stopped in his tracks when his eyes fell upon the lone figure resting peacefully on the couch perpendicular to his own.

He stood there looking at the girl. Her eyes were closed and her hands lightly gripped a thick book resting open against her stomach. The book rose and fell at a steady rhythm, rocking like a boat at sea. A lock of lavender hair draped against the side of her nose, a few strands spilled into her slightly parted lips. Beast Boy's jaw dropped open. A sudden wave of panic ran down his spine. Raven? Sleeping here? Why? He wondered. Oh crap, I was totally loud earlier…I didn't wake her, did I? She'll kill me! Beast Boy leaned closer to her, inches away, and eyed her face. He peered over her slumbering body, knelt near her legs, and looked once again at her closed eyes. He inspected her hair, then double checked to ensure that her fingers hadn't twitched. He watched as she lay motionless; peaceful, even. She gave off a faint moan, as if calling out to a fading dream.

He jumped back in shock, arms covering his head. Raven's body shifted slightly to the right, and her cheek buried deeper into the couch.

Of all five heroes, Raven was the most irritable in the morning. It was never a pleasant moment when an early-morning alert awoke them. In these times, everyone had learned to leave the cloaked girl alone. Case in point, perhaps years ago, Beast Boy had thrown caution to the wind, trying to help the clearly aggravated girl's mood during a trip to a certain villain, Dr. Light, in the T-car. "I bet Dr. Light's son is not very BRIGHT…!" He had giggled. "Too bad; his dad's a doctor, so he is probably pretty enLIGHTened," he laughed even harder. "Though, I bet father and son got along on SUNdays; eh? Am I right? Probably got a lot of SUNdaes on SUNday, perhaps even chocolate LITE! He might have even..."

Her frown had changed to a glare and she had forcefully morphed him into a small rabbit, rolled down the window, and tossed him out of the T-car in one fluid action. He had barely enough time to morph into a fruit fly mid-flight to bar any significant damage, but it had still scared the crap out of him. In Raven's defense, she had done it because she wasn't sure he would ever stop those ridiculously bad puns and she wasn't about to hear him continue. Ever since, even Beast Boy had learned some of the girl's stricter personal boundaries. Morning was off limits...unless he wanted to do some actual mourning.

The green boy shivered as a slight gust of air billowed from an open window across the room. It was rather ironic, considering Cyborg was so big on security, yet he never remembered to close all the windows before he went to bed. Perhaps when I tell Cyborg about the hallways, I should mention the windows… He shrugged. He didn't care either way, and would likely forget to mention either issue in a few hours. But, it was the thought that counted, right?

Beast Boy's mind wandered back to the girl resting on the couch. What should I do? Raven had a very strict rule against people sloppy enough to stay up late enough to fall asleep in the living room. She considered it a sign of weakness and a severe security risk. If the tower's alert system went off, everyone would be assumed to be in their own bedrooms. Any anomaly in the system might compromise the safety of the entire group, or even worse, spend precious team resources splitting up into search parties looking for the absent Titan. Sleeping in the lounge was a bad idea all around. This time, though, the situation was different. Raven had broken her own rule.

He frowned when he noticed that her neck was hunched up against the stiff and pointy armrest of the couch. The metal frame beneath the arm rest's sparse padding dug into her pale, yet reddening, cheek. He wanted to wake Raven up so that she may return to her own bed for the remainder of the night, but he hesitated. Her soft eyes seemed so peaceful and caring. She seemed…happy. He had never seen such a content and trouble-free expression on her face. Honestly, he had only seen her asleep maybe three times, tops, and a sleeping, peaceful Raven was such a refreshing change from an evil, demon-possessed Raven.

Even worse, there was a strong chance waking her up would wreck her tranquility. She wouldn't find this incident funny. She would probably be embarrassed at being hypocritical. She would not handle being told by Beast Boy himself to 'go to bed.' Couple that with sleep deprivation...and it would most certainly result in excessive anger. Beast Boy's animal instincts told him to leave it alone. She's always really cranky when she wakes up…now would only be ten times worse! No way man…No way…

Beast Boy carefully sat down on the couch. He quietly placed his glass of juice on the coffee table and began to eat. A bite of tofu, followed by a gulp of orange juice. The taste was sour, yet soft against his tongue. It didn't take him long to finish. When he was done, he stood up with glass in hand. He walked across the room and through the gap back into the kitchen. He gently placed the dishes inside the sink, washed his hands, and then wiped them on his uniform. He tiptoed back into the living room and stopped. He eyed the doorway.

Is it bedtime for real? It was probably a half an hour or so since he last woke up. If he went back to bed now, he would sleep through the better part of the day, possibly until 2 pm. He would lose precious gaming time. If he stayed up, he would have so many more hours to play and explore. My day would start before 5 am…? The idea seemed almost foreign. He would have so much more time than normal…time he could put to great use. The idea twirled around in his mind. It was probably nearing four thirty now. He didn't normally wake up until eleven thirty. The quick math dictated seven hours of extra alone-time. I'm not even tired anymore…I'd only toss and turn even if I tried to sleep…What harm could staying up cause? I've basically already slept a few hours anyway...

He walked back to the couch. If he was quiet, he wouldn't wake up Raven. He could probably get several hours of gaming done right now, even. All he would have to do is turn the TV down to a relatively low volume and she would never know. He walked to the giant wall TV, and underneath it, he pulled opened a dark gray cabinet. Inside it was their Game Station. He snapped the power trigger on. He pulled out a controller, switched the TV mode to "Component 1," and began to play.

It was nearing 9 PM when Gizmo came to Jinx's room. He knocked on her door and stole her attention. She called him in and he hesitantly pushed the door open. The boy blushed a little, seeing the girl applying makeup in a nightshirt. He coughed, before turning his eyes to the wallpaper. "Crud, I came up with a crap plan."

"And?"

"It's crap, but it'll work..."

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