Black and White

by Legend Maker

It all begins here. The Titans will meet a new metahuman who will join them, and mark a beginning to their greatest challenges, triumphs, and tragedies. For while youth is fleeting, heroism is forever.

22. Enemies: Nemesis

Chapter 22: Nemesis

Writer's Note: While I will admit I took an idea or two for this chapter from the trailer from the Matrix Revolutions, I had completed the chapter before the movie came out (which was, at the time of this note, yesterday) and hence had no idea I wound up mimicking it more then I intended. So, just so you know, I really did finish this chapter before I saw Revolutions, and I am only guilty of being oddly accurate or somewhat psychic. In any case, let us begin, for as the tagline of that movie goes, Everything that has a Beginning has an End…

Jack Djinn had always been considered by his mother to be an idiot.

Why wouldn't she? She certainly had to be one to marry his father. When he wasn't drinking he was lounging around watching the telly and collecting the dole, a bludger to the core. When he was drinking he became a mean one, as mad as a cut snake, who beat her until she was half-dead. It was a miracle she had survived, much less not miscarried Jack. Soon, he started beating him too. It didn't matter if Jack was his son. Jack's father was sick inside, and it was a sickness for which there was only one cure: death.

It happened when Jack was six. The moron drove his car off the cliffs and into the oceans. Jack found out later he may have survived the crash only to be eaten by sharks. Somehow, Jack didn't find himself much distressed by that idea.

Not like Jack's mom was any better. She looked down on Jack from the start, and while she did not use her fists, she had a tongue as sharp as any knife. He tried at first, really, but even he as a child soon realized there was nothing he could ever do to please her. She did not want a son. She wanted a scapegoat.

The people at school did the same. He accepted his beatings from the older, bigger boys. After his dad, they were pretty much nothing. And so Jack went on until he hit the age of twelve and suddenly, seemingly overnight, grew into a man. He went from getting his ass kicked by four boys to kicking four boy's asses with ease. Suddenly he was the king of his school. All the boys wanted to be his mates, and all the women wanted to spread their legs for him.

His mom never saw anything of the sort though. She continued her abuse every day and every night. Jack couldn't recall a kind word ever spewing forth from that hatred-infested pit his mother called a heart.

He'd strangled her when he was fifteen. Not out of any real rage or need for revenge. He just decided he'd had enough of her yakking. He wanted some quiet.

She wasn't the first he had choked to death, though. She was the third. The first had been Becky Rupa, a tease if there was any. She'd made promises to him, teased him, but when it came down to the moment she told him no.

That would not do. He was special, and was not to be rejected. When she continued, he'd tried to reason with her, and when she'd started screaming, he'd just tried to get her to be quiet. Before he knew it she was dead.

And it was rather fun.

He'd tried it with another girl three weeks later. Oh yes, this was the real deal. All his blokes were just concerned with sex. This was better then sex. Holding a woman and slowly squeezing until the life flowed out of her mouth and into his…truly the food of a god.

Plus, they had rejected him. If Becky had done it, others would too. No, that would not do. He was special. They had decided that when they had changed him from pawn to king in their school when he had fought back. They had given all the signs that they, such pretty birdies, were there to do as he pleased. And then they rejected him. Not wise. It was the last thing he ever said to any of the women he touched in that way. They should know why they had died. It was their own damn fault, the tarts.

His mom was next, and it was about that time that Jack began to think. He mom thought he was stupid, and his marks at school seemed to support that, but the truth was he had a quite a brain on him, and he didn't want to waste it on school. That just lead to a world filled with people who sucked all the livelihood out of you until you were a robot doing the same thing every day over and over because it was all you knew how to do.

Screw that. Life was about having fun. And Jack had found what he liked to do.

He'd strangled one or two more before he had left his homeland. He liked the place, but it wasn't the greatest land to have fun. He knew that greatness, even like his, could be brought down with numbers (indeed, look at how the scum and the pretty birdies had treated him in school until he had found the key to his ascension! Surely he had been great then, just unaware of it, and look at how they had dominated him! Disconcerting but true. Jack never lied to himself. Bad things happened then). And what he did would eventually be noticed. People were stupid sheep but even a stupid sheep will eventually realize a wolf is eating it.

So he had headed to America, and to the supposed greatest city in the world, New York. He could hide better there, and there were so many different pretty birdies there, which had to be taught not to reject him. Oh, he had had fun, and he didn't think it could have gotten any better.

Then, one day, he had found a certain birdie that he had just HAD to have, right then and there. But when he'd jumped her, she actually fought back. She even had a knife. That didn't bother Jack much: he had been in tons of brawls and knew how to handle himself. But he made a slight mistake (hey, even those like him were entitled to make mistakes!) and she had cut him, slicing a deep wound in his palms. It had hurt, and he didn't like that. So he used her own knife on her a few times before he finished her off with his hands, sticky and coated with his blood. He was wondering what he was going to do when he heard the crash. For a moment he thought the police had arrived and, acting on his first impulse, hid his hands behind his back so no one would see them.

Then that thick, sticky, disgusting stuff was all over him. It was terrible. He'd brought his hands back out, and then, yelling, he started running to find whoever had sprayed this stuff on him and make them pay.

Then more liquid had come spraying on him…

Pain…and darkness…with more pain…

And then he had awoken, and found himself changed. He wasn't aware of it at first though. His first worry was what to do with the body of the pretty birdie.

And that was when they had come, emerging from his palms. He had freaked a bit at first, but when the strands had obeyed his every command, and charged themselves into marvelous tools that he had used to grind the body into hamburger, beyond any type of recognition, he realized he had been chosen. His true greatness had emerged.

But he wasn't stupid. He knew how many of those who had special powers went and tried to rob a bank and got caught by one of those "superheroes". No, Jack wouldn't be doing anything that obvious (but he couldn't resist dressing up some. I mean, he had spiked blood-red hair now! You couldn't just walk around in a suit with that kind of 'do! You needed something special!). He would bid his time, train himself, learn the true extent of his new powers…and of course, show the pretty birdies the folly of rejecting him.

And what powers they were! Jack realized he could have more fun then he had ever dreamed! The things the strands could do to the pretty birdies were beyond any weapon or tool he could buy…but he still found the best way was to slowly steal their breath. And the strands could do that in such a marvelous way too. Jack was happy.

Until he turned on the TV one day and saw a group of young wankers in Halloween costumes fighting some slime creature. That was fine. But what had made him sit up and take notice was the kid in white clothes and hair, who was using HIS talent.

Jack couldn't believe it. Some child had taken his greatness! HIS talent! Jack had been quite mad at the time, and would have run over to wherever the kid was at the time and strangled the bastard on the spot had he not seen a cop car passing by under the window he had been ready to jump out of. So he had waited. And he had started thinking.

A quick death was too good for this inferior who dared steal his talent, his gift. He had to be something else. Jack didn't have much of an idea besides that, but it kept him going long enough.

He started spying on the child, who he soon learned was called Savior. What a pretentious name. He also called the gift that he had stolen from him the Shimmer. Stupid. But it had inspired Jack to come up with his own name. His gift sure didn't shine though. Instead, it brought a terrible, grim fate to whoever he chose. It certainly made things grimmer for people, and the name had come naturally.

His other name, well, he'd wanted something fancy, something that people could remember. Someone called the Choker would be forgotten in a week. But Asphyxiation…it was a word that people could remember, at least in the sense that they had no idea how to say it, pronounce it, or know what it meant (it was a fancy way of saying choking someone).

But the real pearl of knowledge had come when Jack had followed Savior and that dark haired pretty birdie called Raven when they fought some nutball with a sword. They'd won, but Jack didn't much remember that. What he remembered was Savior kissing the birdie, and the way she had turned away from him. He'd been quite upset.

Perfect. Jack had his scheme. And as for the icing on the cake, one stakeout of that T building where the kids lived had revealed that Savior was leaving. So Jack had left too, and found the first one that night. Pretty birdies that looked like the one Savior was sweet on, the one that rejected him.

When Savior kept going out, Jack almost thought he was on to him in some way. But he wasn't. Jack had followed him a few times, just to see (hell, one of his teammates had the same idea, Jack had almost tripped over him one night. It had bothered Jack at first, but then he had realized that if that kid in the green, red, and yellow suit was following Savior, it meant they were suspicious, and his plan was working) where he was going. He either hung around in a depressing café or went all over certain parts of the city as if looking for someone. And while he was doing that, Jack was hunting down other pretty birdies that looked like Raven and teaching them not to reject him. That one called Blackfire was just a bonus: he'd taken a look at her hair and the fact that he had never killed an alien and figured "What the hell". Though she hadn't died. Blast. Maybe he should have broken her spine as well, but that defiled his art. Oh well, couldn't win them all, he supposed.

When Lantern had shown up, Jack had a feeling the endgame was at hand. He'd guessed correctly that the Titans would go after Savior soon. He had the tape recorder ready, and he knew where Savior was. He'd found the last pretty birdie (indeed, he was getting a bit sick of killing women who all looked the same. He liked variety) he needed and killed her, taking care to record a scream. Then he'd headed for the alleyway behind the building where the thief was at the moment, dumped the body, waited until the Titans came traipsing along looking for their comrade, and then he had played the tape, turned back into his "old self", a form he hardly if ever assumed any more, and walked out the alleyway. Sure enough, Savior had come out to investigate and the Titans had found him just as he was examining the body. And they had turned on him spectacularly. Listening to him plead for mercy and understanding as they had beaten the crap out of him was almost as sweet as the last breath of one of the girls. The fact that one of the women, the very birdie that Savior was so sweet on, had somehow confused his talent for the inferior's made it even better.

And once that was done, all Jack had to do was head back to that building shaped like a T and wait. The kids had come back, and he was ready to finish up his plan. He'd taken away his allies and friends in spirit, and now he was going to take their lives. Left alone, he'd realize the folly of stealing the talents of those greater then him.

And his mom said he was dumb.

Well, he wasn't dumb, but he wasn't psychic either. Things hadn't gone quite as well as he had supposed: the Titans were still alive. Well, no matter, Jack could adapt. He'd beaten them into oblivion, a true showing of how great he was, and now all that stood in his way was the inferior who had stolen his talent.

Fine then. He'd kill Savior too. And then he could get back to his fun. That was all that mattered in life, in the end. Surviving, and having fun.

His dad, the bastard, had given him one good piece of advice. He had told him to look into the eye of every man he ever met in combat, and take his measure. And if the man didn't measure up, you made him pay for it.

Time to take the measure, and then extract the payback. He knew it would be that way.

After all, he was Jack Djinn. He was Asphyxiation.

He was special.

And now he was running, lashing the Grimmer about, meeting Savior step for step with a big grin on his face. This would be a real rip-snorter.

Savior snapped out his fist.

Jack did the same.

The two blasted away from each other as both their punches connected, their respective talents adding great impact to their blows, so much that the two flew back like they had been hit by 18-wheelers.

Both their strands of energy lanced out, grabbing hold of the nearest wall and pulling them in, crouching against the buildings, before the strands threw them back at each other. The two met again with tremendous impact.

But this was a dual strike that Jack won, because he had two strands to Savior's one, and hence he could put more pizzaz behind his shot. And he did, as he hit the ground, driving Savior into it. Pieces of broken concrete flew out of the hole.

A Shimmer strand lashed at Jack, and he pushed himself away. Savior flipped up as he whipped the Shimmer around him. Hmmmm, the inferior had learned how to form a last minute barrier with his talent over the part of his body that was about to hit whatever, at the last second, to lessen the impact. Not bad. Maybe he'd last an extra twenty seconds.

Savior lashed the Shimmer at Jack. Jack used the Grimmer to flip away and block the second strike. Savior split his main strand into smaller ones but Jack did the same with one of his, fending off the blows as he snapped out the other strand and rammed it into Savior, smashing him into the lobby of a building before he twisted and pulled Savior through the walls on the side. He let Savior go and he tumbled across the street, before he used the Shimmer to stop himself and lift himself up.

"Hey mate…" Jack said as he formed a Grimmer blade. "THINK FAST!"

Jack sliced the blade at the Shimmer strands. He wondered how many sucker punches he could get in before the kid recovered from the terrible pain that overcame him whenever his stolen talent got cut (and if anything, that showed that the child was inferior to him. Nothing happened to him when the Grimmer got cut, and he'd tried every kind of blade he could find. Maybe it was a weakening that resulted from his talent being stolen. Jack didn't know, or really care).

The answer, was none. The Grimmer blade connected and then bounced off the Shimmer. Jack's eyes went wide.

"Gee-whiz…" he said, and then Savior attacked, lashing the Shimmer out and ramming Jack into a wall, before it wrapped around him and Savior threw him through a second story window.

"I guess your talent can't cut my talent." Savior said.

"Your TALENT, mate? You mean your little bit of thievery!" Jack said as he reappeared at the window Savior had thrown him through. He had lost a bit of the cocky arrogance he had been projecting. "Well, maybe the Grimmer can't cut your inferior clothesline, but I'm sure it can cut YOU!" Jack yelled, as the Grimmer flowed together above his hands, forming an axe with a blade as big as Jack. Jack leapt out of the window, swinging downward. He missed, cracking the concrete open for several feet, and then swung at Savior again. Savior leapt back, forming a staff with the Shimmer, and blocked the blow. Jack spun and tried a decapitating swing, but Savior blocked that too. He didn't have any experience in fighting with weapons, but when the weapon was made of an energy that followed your every command, you could very easily look and act like a master.

And Savior did his best to do just that as he blocked another axe swing and jammed the pole between Jack's legs, tripping him up. He missed the follow up strike as Jack's Grimmer pushed him up and away, and Jack snarled as he reformed the axe into his own staff.

"I'll show you Darth Maul, mate!"

"I see your Darth Maul and raise you Exar Kun." Savior said, as his staff split into twin rods of energy. They did kind of look like lightsabers.

Savior blocked Jack's spinning attack and slapped Jack across the face with the rods. Jack flipped back and threw the rod he was holding at him at the end of a strand. Savior jumped to the side, flipping away. He ran in as Jack retrieved his weapon and the two exchanged several blows, neither getting the upper hand.

Jack got the upper foot though, as he followed a failed strike by kicking Savior in the groin, causing him to double over.

"All's fair in a street fight, mate." Jack said, grabbing Savior's hair and ramming his knee into his face, sending the white-haired teenager stumbling back as his nose began to gush blood. Jack reformed his Grimmer into a scythe again and swung, but the Shimmer intercepted the weapon and yanked it forward, pulling a surprised Jack. He tripped over Savior's outstretched foot and fell face-first to the ground.

Savior took a few steps back as he readied for the next assault, as Jack chuckled, pushing himself up, blood now dripping from his nose as well.

"You learn fast, mate. Now, let's get serious."

The Grimmer scythe reformed and swung so quickly Savior nearly got cut in half, and he had been ready for an attack. He formed a sword with the Shimmer and blocked the next blow, and the next. Jack took too long with his next swing and Savior slammed the sword (unsharpened for a moment) across Jack's face. But Jack used the Grimmer to roll with the blow and slammed his heel across Savior's face, the sharpened spur on his boot laying open Savior's cheek to the bone. Savior gasped and stepped back as blood ran down his face, staining his white shirt red.

"Getting it yet?"

Grimmer strands lashed out, ripping at Savior with barbed hooks. Savior blocked them with shields, but the sheer viciousness of the attack forced him backwards. Whooping with joy, Jack grabbed up a nearby car, slammed it onto the ground in front of him, and leapt on it. Now what's he doing?

Grimmer strands shot out, wrapping around the wheels of the car even as a new batch flew together in front of the car and condensed into…a pair of bulls?

Savior gaped at the Grimmer-formed animals. They weren't picture perfect, but they were clearly bulls. It was almost as good as Green Lantern's ability to manifest objects. But Savior had never been able to make something so detailed. His creations were crude shapes that only resembled the objects he was trying to form in passing. So how in the hell could Jack do that unless…

Oh no…

"RIDE 'EM COWBOY!" Jack yelled, and then his Grimmer bulls charged at Savior, the Grimmer also turning the wheels of the car so that it acted as a chariot.

And Savior realized the point of the previous attack: to back him against the wall.

The wall the bulls drove him through as he whipped up a last second shield before Jack rammed into him. Rubble flew and collapsed as the bulls drove him backwards, wrecking everything in their paths. Savior finally leapt back to get out of the way.

And then the bulls reformed into a giant leg and boot that kicked out, catching him and sending him smashing through the ceiling and out the window on the higher floor, flying out and slamming into the building on the other side of the street. He fell, landing on another car. He coughed as blood flew out of his mouth.

"He's stronger then me…" Savior realized. Jack's mutation had gifted him with even greater abilities then Noel. But how? What did he do, or not do…

"Still alive, kid?" Jack said as he walked out of the hole he had made in the hotel wall. Savior got to his feet, through his legs were unsteady. Blood flowed freely from a dozen cuts.

THINK, Noel. You can't match him in power. You'll have to use a better strategy.

But the heat of battle was not the best breeding ground for thinking, as Jack lanced a Grimmer blade at Savior. Savior barely dodged, the blade coming so close it sliced off a portion of Savior's jacket.

Jack laughed and spun, pulling the strand back like a rope, and in that movement Savior had an idea. Jack spun on his feet as he prepared to throw another impaling strand…

And the Shimmer snapped at his heels, twin hard but precise strikes that snapped off Jack's spurs on his boots. Only one flew up in the right direction though, but that was all Savior needed.

Jack finished his spin, as his spur flew up…

And the Shimmer snapped out again, striking the spur and sending it flying into Jack's face. Jack recoiled violently as the blades bit deep.

Then he stopped, looking back at Savior, smirking.

"Not a bad trick mate." Jack said, as he reached up and pulled the spur from where it was stuck in his forehead. Blood riveted down his face, but he just grinned as he tossed the spur aside.

Savior cursed inwardly. He had hoped to get a vein in Jack's neck, or maybe take out an eye, and all he had gotten was a flesh wound. Well, come what may…

"Nothing like the taste of a man's blood to motivate him…" Jack said as he started taking a step and found he couldn't move. He looked down to find the Shimmer wrapped around his ankles.

"Oh, what's this? You think this will cause me trouble? It just keeps your hands occupied!" Jack laughed as he looked up, prepared to give Savior another thrashing. But his jest faded when he saw nothing was coming out of Savior's hands. He looked down again. But the Shimmer was…

Exploding out of the ground and ramming into his face, even as the other strands pulled his feet out from under him. He hit the ground and the Shimmer strands rammed down onto him, raining down blows. Growling, Jack knocked them away with a Grimmer lash. What the hell just happened!

Savior was jumping at him. He moved and Savior leapt past him. Perfect! He'd have a clear shot at…

The Shimmer strand coming out of his back. It rammed into his gut, robbing him once more of precious air, and then Noel whirled and slammed a Shimmer-bludgeon across his side, sending him flying across the street.

He stopped himself and turned himself around with the Grimmer. His cockiness was gone. Jack was mad now.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I thought you could project your strands out of any part of your body as well!" Savior mocked, and thrust the Shimmer out at Jack. Jack growled and returned with the Grimmer, and the two strands interlocked. But the Grimmer overwhelmed the Shimmer, wrapping around it and heading back for Savior…

Except two more strands were breaking out of the ground, wrapping around the back of Jack's head, and pulling him face first into the street with a sickening crack.

Savior retracted the Shimmer, waiting to see what Jack did next. What he did was start laughing as he got back up, his forehead cut having split open even more, his face a crimson mask of blood.

"Not bad…not bad…but don't think you've won because you got me a bit aggro mate. I'm still quite bright eyed and bushy-tailed. If anything, this proves you need your stolen talent to do anything. I could beat you without mine."

"Yeah, right."

"Oh, you don't think so? Well, if you actually have a set of balls, put yours away. I'll put mine away, see, already did." Jack said as the Grimmer retracted back into his hands and vanished. "Just you and me. Like the way we would have in the old days."

Savior arched an eyebrow, and then retracted the Shimmer.

"All right mate, put up your…HAH!" Jack yelled, throwing the handful of dust he had picked up off the ground into Savior's face. Savior recoiled as his eyes were filled with the stinging debris.

"All's fair in a street fight, grommet!" Jack yelled as he punched Savior in the face, then in the gut, and then rammed his elbow into Savior's back. Savior fell to his knees and Jack kicked him in the head. Savior rolled away and kicked at Jack, but Jack dodged the kick and stomped on Savior's hand, and then grabbed his hair and kneed him in the side of the head again. Savior's vision swam, and then Jack yanked him up via the hair and nailed him with his best right hook, sending Savior stumbling backwards several feet before he collapsed.

"You're just a punk kid, mate. I'm better then you'll ever be. You took my talent. Well, I don't know where it is in you, but I'm willing to experiment…" Jack said as he stepped up to Savior.

Savior swept his leg out, but Jack saw it coming and jumped up…right into a Shimmer-ram, throwing him backwards. Savior shot out another strand and rammed Jack into the nearest wall.

"All's fair, indeed." Savior said, as more Shimmer strands extracted and flew around Jack, trying to crush the wind out of him.

"You said it mate." Jack replied, and then he managed to yank one arm free. Then he held something up.

A switchblade.

Where had he gotten it? Did he have it in a pocket somewhere? Well, the where didn't much matter as much as the why, and that was blatantly obvious, as Jack twisted his hand and cut the Shimmer strand. Pain exploded in every nerve in Savior's body, and he screamed. He could raise no defense as Jack pulled the Grimmer out again and rammed the end into Savior, sending him flying down the street.

"Enough." Jack said as Savior bounced along the ground. He pulled the Grimmer strands back, prepared himself, and then shot them out again.

Savior finally stopped and was getting up when the strands shot at him. He tried to shoot out his own strands…

Too late.

The twin lines pierced through Savior, driving through both his shoulders. Instead of a scream, all this got was a surprised gasp from Savior.

Jack smirked, and yanked, pulling Savior back in like a hooked fish. Savior only got a sense of rushing before Jack nailed him with a Grimmer-fist as Savior flew towards him.

Savior flew backwards in a twisting, bone-breaking spiral that only ending when he crashed into a building and flew out the other end, bouncing a few times before he finally came to a stop. He did not get up.

In agony, Noel was only faintly aware of approaching footsteps until Jack pulled him up, gripping him easily as he lifted Noel, looking into his eyes.

"I measure every man I meet, inferior, and you have failed to measure up." Jack said, mad joy dancing in his eyes. "This is not a world in which you can beat me."

Jack raised Noel above his head as he aimed his other arm. The Grimmer began forming blades, hooks, and other sharp implements of death on and along Jack's arm. This would truly be a killer punch.

"Time to die, child."

The Starbolt and explosive disc hit a second before the sonic cannon blast did, exploding on and around Jack. Dust flew, and was eventually dispersed.

Jack blinked, and then turned and looked in annoyance at the gathered Teen Titans. He had managed to form the death tools on his arm into a decent shield at the last second. He snorted and dropped Noel.

"Didn't you have enough?" Jack asked, looking at the battered teenagers. Cyborg and Robin barely looked like they could stand up (indeed, while Cyborg's arms were back on, the repair job looked very shoddy), but they stood anyway, defying him.

He didn't like that.

"You want Savior? You go through us." Robin said, twirling his replacement staff.

"Oh well sure I-HAH!" Jack yelled as he suddenly leapt at the group, flying into them and driving them apart with lashing Grimmer whips. Robin leapt in, trying to get inside the strands, grabbing Jack by the throat as he tried to perform a paralyzing nerve pinch. But sweat and blood made his hand slip, and before he could correct himself Jack had grabbed him with the strands. Yelling, Robin twisted and kneed Jack in the face. Jack recoiled, and then with a laugh lifted Robin up above him and leapt, kicking and throwing Robin at the same time, sending him flying up and crashing in through a window on a building.

Starbolts exploded around him and he turned as Starfire rammed into him. He flipped to the side, grabbed Starfire in his clutches, and drove her face into a wall before he dragged her alongside it, ripping the wall apart with her body before he threw her into another building.

Snarling and roaring, Beast Boy, in the form of another mystical beast, the chimera, a monster with the head of a lion and a goat, and the tail in the form of a snake, leapt on Jack, driving him to the ground. His snake-tail snapped at Jack, but two heads proved to be worse then one as Jack grabbed both with the Grimmer and slammed them together. He shoved Beast Boy off him, leapt up, grabbed him, and then flipped Beast Boy over him and slammed him head-first into the concrete so hard Beast Boy was buried all the way up to his hind legs in it. The legs vanished, leaving an unconscious Beast Boy in the crater.

Pieces of black energy encased rubble flew at him. Jack slashed them into smaller pieces, as another sonic cannon blast flew by his side. Cyborg cursed and tried again, but his gun malfunctioned. Laughing, Jack reached out and grabbed it with the Grimmer, ripping the arm off again as Cyborg screamed. Laughing merrily, Jack pulled off the other arm and then slashed one of Cyborg's legs off at the knee, before snapping back another strand and smashing it through the side of Cyborg's head, ripping out wires and chips as Cyborg collapsed.

"STOP HURTING MY FRIENDS!" Raven screamed, and the ground literally exploded all around her, throwing Jack into the air. She threw a car at him, but he tore it in half with the Grimmer and then lashed her with it, sending her flying across the street as he landed back on the ground.

Smirking, Jack approached, as Raven tried to get up. The burning was back, building within her. Oh no, not…

"ARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" Raven screamed as her cloak suddenly flared up and became as a living thing. She turned, looming over Jack, as her eyes glowed bright red. Jack had stopped.

"Well, that's interesting." He said.

"I'll show you the meaning of cruelty!" Raven snarled in a voice that wasn't her own. Laser beams shot from her eyes. Jack barely dodged them, the explosion searing his back.

"Well, looks like you have new tricks. Better not learn them!" Jack yelled, and then to Raven's great surprise he leapt RIGHT AT HER, Grimmer strands lashing. Raven lashed out with her own living shadow strands, and Jack disappeared in the darkness that now dwelled around her. Raven screamed and shrieked as a furious battle was waged, one that no one could see.

And then she screamed, the red shine fading from her eyes as Grimmer blades tore from within her cloak, ripping it off and tearing up her back. She started to fall as the shadows faded, as Jack reappeared, as he spun and slashed Raven across her face and body with the Grimmer. She hit the ground, bounced once, and was still as blood began pooling around her.

"You ain't dead yet, pretty birdie. I made sure of that. I'm going to finish you in my own special wa-ARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!" Jack screamed as Noel slashed Jack across the back with the Shimmer, cutting him deeply. He dropped to one knee as his own blood began flowing down his legs. He turned, looking at Noel.

"You struck when my back was turned." Jack said, more incredulous that Noel had actually done it then at the actual act.

"All's fair in a street fight, mate." Noel replied.

Screaming, Jack leapt to his feet, slashing at Noel. Noel dodged the slash but didn't dodge the strike, as he flew backwards. He grabbed at the ground and stopped, and then threw himself back the way he had come, pistoning into Jack. The two flew back and crashed through another building, and then they bounced off the wall behind it as the two fought and grappled in mid-air, Shimmer and Grimmer strands flying everywhere as the two traded physical blows as well. They bounced off the next wall, going higher, and again, and again, as they waged a deadly aerial war. The last ricochet off the wall sent them flying high into the air, as Jack and Noel punched, kicked, slashed, struck, rammed, and did whatever they could to the other as they flew up into the sky.

And ultimately, the winner was Jack, as he floored Noel with a vicious uppercut and then grabbed him with the Grimmer.

"You just don't get it! You can't win! You are an inferior! Your talent is weak and pathetic! Mine is bonded to my very being, my essence, my very BLOOD, you foolish child! It will forever be superior to yours! But you just can't seem to accept that! Very well! If I can't drive the idea into your thick head, I'm going to drive your body straight into the ground, and all the way down to hell!" Jack bellowed, as the Grimmer wrapped more firmly around Noel.

Jack flipped and put himself in free-fall, holding Noel in front of him as he headed back down towards the city, the air whistling around him as his eyes gleamed with madness and the anticipation of victory.

The impact shook the whole city.

Even a fight of that magnitude couldn't drive everyone away, but the amount of people who would have been in a subway was far less when Noel and Jack came crashing through all the way down to the lower tunnel. Rubble rained down, sending pedestrians running for their lives. Up at the toll booth, a subway operator on break got on the radio and warned all the trains to stay away. Regretfully, he couldn't get through to one until later, and by then the train was too close to suddenly stop. The operator advised the driver to go as fast as possible instead: the tracks, despite the impact, were free of rubble on the lower level, most of it having landed on the higher tracks, and if they went quickly they could hopefully zip past any problems.

Problems like the red-haired man who rode the rubble down and stepped off onto the lower floor, looking around. He could use a kill right about now…

The sound of rubble shifting got his attention, and he turned. He hated the fact later, but his jaw dropped.

"Bugger…" Jack said as Noel came crawling out of the rubble. "Are you immortal?"

Noel wasn't. He KNEW he should be dead too. Even with the Shimmer forming the thickest shield he could make, using all the "material" that Noel had at his command, he was certain he was going to die. But the Shimmer had held out after all. Amazing.

And, strangely, he may finally have an answer. Jack had said, in his mad rant, that his particular "strand" talent was bonded to his blood. That made sense. Noel's flowed from a mutated nervous system…what if Jack's flowed from a mutation of both his nervous and circulatory systems? It would explain how his talent was much stronger and had more material to work with, as well as why Jack had twin strands to Noel's one (he could send the Shimmer out of both his hands as well, but he was only splitting up his talent. Jack had two separate strands, giving him at least twice the material and strength Noel possessed).

Noel didn't know what he was going to do with this. As the Australians might have said, he was totally bushwhacked. He was running on fumes. But he wasn't giving up, as he assumed the combat position.

Jack just stared at him.

"C'mon Jack. I don't think your measurement quite fit." Noel said, and lashed out with the Shimmer.

The Grimmer whacked it aside, and then wrapped around Noel.

"Yes, I think it did, mate." Jack said.

He swung, ramming Noel into one of the subway walls, and then yanked him upward and rammed him into the ceiling. He spun around, ramming Noel into another wall, then driving his flailing body into the nearby escalator so hard Noel broke through the black steps. Finally, Jack spun Noel around his head and threw him across the subway terminal. He crashed through the elevator and a thick pillar of stone before he hit the other side, bouncing off the wall and crumpling in a heap.

"Ohhhhhh, I FELT the bones break on that one. That must HURT." Jack said as he walked over.

In an agony as great as any produced by his Shimmer getting cut, Noel tried to get up, even though he knew he was finished. He had nothing left. Jack was simply too strong.

What had happened? It seemed like only this morning Starfire had been giving him the ripped and torn-up jacket he was now wearing, while worrying her blood could turn into metal.

Wait…

"You know mate, I'll give you credit. Maybe you're not quite an inferior." Jack said as Noel finally managed to stand, leaning against the wall for support. "But you're not an equal. I'm the special one here. I'm Asphyxiation. And I think it's time for you to learn just why."

The Grimmer lashed out. Savior, finding a strength he never knew he possessed, even when he had been fighting the Troika an eternity ago, lifted his hands and shot out the Shimmer. The strands entangled, but the Grimmer quickly overwhelmed the Shimmer and continued towards Noel.

Iron is in the blood…iron is a metal…what can…

"I measure every man I meet, and you have, over and over again, failed to measure up. This is not a world in which you can beat me, Savior. It's over. G'day and goodbye mate." Jack said.

Bloodironmetal…

Bloodironmetal…

The Grimmer slipped around Noel's throat. Noel redoubled his efforts, but the strand was unrepulsed, as it started to draw tight.

Bloodironmetal…

Bloodironmetal…

Blood…has iron…which is a metal…which is a…

Noel thrashed, trying to get some air, and then saw it.

The subway electricity line.

CONDUCTOR!

Digging deep down into the darkest parts of him, Noel found one last burst of strength to rip the Grimmer from around his throat, pulling the red strand back as it and the Shimmer fought for dominance.

"Hey Jack, your talent is superior…is it insulated?"

And Savior threw his Shimmer at the line, the Grimmer still entwined in it, as Jack's eyes went wide in surprise.

"What in the name of bush week…"

The strands struck the line.

The air filled with a crackling as electricity, finding an outlet, traveled out of its prison and into its new home, as it conducted along Jack's strand and right into Jack's body.

Jack screamed as the voltage poured into him, making him thrash and dance as he began to smoke. Noel watched, safe, as his own talent kept him protected from the deadly voltage, a trait that only it seemed to possess.

It's not strength that always matters. Sometimes it's strategy.

Jack screamed as his very blood started to boil…and then Noel cut the connection, freeing Jack from the current. Jack staggered and then collapsed, still somehow alive but without any fight left in him. It had been burned away.

For a moment, there was silence, as Noel took a few deep breaths. Then his ears caught something.

Jack groaned as Noel walked over, his muscles still twitching. Noel looked down at the man who had killed dozens of women, nearly killed Blackfire, and hurt his friends and himself, with intents to kill them too, all because he had felt Noel had stolen "his" talent.

Some people are sick inside, in the abyss of a broke mind. And some are sick in a worse way. Jack Djinn was one of them. He wasn't just sick in the mind. He was sick in the heart, sick in the soul, and there was only one cure.

Noel reached down with the Shimmer, grabbing Jack. The Grimmer did not respond to protect him. Maybe the electricity had scrambled it somehow, leaving Jack unable to call on its powers as Noel pushed him over to the track.

He slid Jack out and positioned him so that his head was dangling over the edge, using Shimmer restraints to keep him down. The sound Noel had heard was getting louder. The train the subway operator had ordered to keep going was approaching.

"Mate…what are you doing…" Jack whispered.

Noel was silent, looking down on Jack. Jack turned his head, and he froze, seeing the light. Then, amazingly, he looked back at Noel…and SMILED.

"You won't do it kid. I know your breed. You're soft. You can't kill me." Jack said.

Noel didn't answer.

"Kid, I know you won't do it, so stop with the pretending…really…hey mate…"

"You think I can't kill you?" Noel said suddenly. Jack's eyes widened as he saw the cold rage reflected in Noel's eyes. "I was raised by a man who destroyed anyone who dared wrong him, much less hurt him. You killed innocent women, you hurt my friends and the woman I love, all because you can't admit how small and worthless you really are. Kill you? I can kill you. I'll simply tell my allies it happened during the fight. After what you did to them, what you made them think, they'll be all too eager to believe me. So yes, I can kill you in cold blood. Hell I'll do it WITH RELISH."

And for the first time in forever, Jack Djinn's eyes showed fear, as the train bore down on him.

"But I won't."

The Shimmer pulled Jack's head back onto the floor, saving him from his impending decapitation.

"You see, unlike you, I can resist my baser urges, the ones that you will forever be a slave too. I can kill because I know it's the right thing in my heart, but I choose not too because it's the wrong thing in my society. The society I protect from scum like you. You think you're special, ASS-FIX-E-AYE-SHUN?" Noel said, drawing out the word. "No. But that doesn't mean you should be killed."

The train was seconds away.

"But you have to be punished."

The Shimmer reached out, grabbing Jack's arms and lifting them above his head. Jack's eyes went wide again.

"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

"I said I can resist my baser urges. I didn't say totally." Noel said as the Shimmer locked Jack's hands over the edge of the track.

"NO! NO, MATE, NO!" Jack screamed.

"Sing for me, pretty birdie."

The train drove past, the driver looking incredulously at Savior as he drove past, as the train chopped both of Jack's hands off at the wrists. Jack's scream rang throughout the station, but the sound of the passing train swallowed it up.

Noel let Jack go, as Jack tried to curl into a fetal position, his stumps squirting blood. Noel reached around him, sending the Shimmer into the stumps and typing off the veins to the best of his ability, stopping the bleeding. As Jack, openly crying from the pain now, continued to writhe, Noel flipped him over and stepped on his chest, looking down on him.

"I may not measure every man I meet, but you have, truly and without doubt, failed to measure up. Welcome to the new world, JackAss."

The Shimmer lanced down, knocking Jack Djinn into a blissful oblivion.

It would be the last blissful moment he had in a long time.

Noel tied Jack up with some metal rods he pulled out of the wall, took three steps away from him, and then finally collapsed as his body finally ran out of every single bit of energy it had, truly and utterly this time. Noel leaned against the wall, his vision swimming and fading. He wondered if he was dying. He concluded it wasn't a bad way to go.

Darkness swam in his eyes. Guess it was his time. He just wondered…

"Oh Noel…"

His vision focused a bit. It wasn't darkness. It was Raven. She had appeared out of the shadows and was now kneeling by him. She looked at the beaten Asphyxiation and then back at Noel.

"You did it, Noel. You gave us back tomorrow."

"The others…"

"They're ok. I healed them. Let me heal you…" Raven said as she placed her hand against Noel's bloody face and began taking away his pain. Noel felt the agony and the exhaustion sliding away. He brought his hand up and placed it against Raven's. She tensed.

"Didn't know for sure…know now…" Noel said, as he brought his other hand up and cupped Raven's cheek. It sent shockwaves through her, of both the best and the worst kinds. She knew what he was going to say.

"Noel…" she whispered. Oh how she wished she could…

The burning was back. No. She couldn't. Now more then ever. She drew away, and as Noel's eyes filled with realization and then pain, a pain she couldn't take away, she disappeared back into the shadows.

Noel blinked. Only three more seconds to say three words…

But not now. And maybe not ever.

Noel sat on the wrecked subway floor, once again feeling empty and alone.

"It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy." Cyborg said, as medics, watched by a full contingent of SWAT members and the recovered Green Lantern, loaded the unconscious Jack Djinn into an ambulance. He was propped up against a wall, unable to walk. He considered himself lucky. His biological components were mostly undamaged. Mechanical parts could be fixed.

Green Lantern floated over.

"I'm going to keep an eye on him till they have him locked up safely. It's the least I can do after he…"

"It's ok Lantern. Even the best of us make mistakes, get caught by surprise. It could have been worse." Robin said. You could have trashed your own teammate for a crime he didn't commit.

"Yeah. I have my own mistakes to atone for. Hey guys, I have to go, but if you see Savior, tell him I'm sorry. Tell him, in the end, he was more like Hal then I thought." Lantern said. He waved to the Titans and then flew off after the ambulance as it drove off.

"Where IS Noel? We must welcome him back!" Starfire said.

"He'll be along. I know he's not dead." Raven said quietly. She didn't mention what she had done. She didn't want to dwell on how, despite all her efforts, how a lone touch made her feel.

"Man, look at this mess." Beast Boy said, looking at the ruined city blocks that had been destroyed by the battle. "So much damage…and for what?"

"It's ok. They were just…things. People are what matter. And we saved a lot of lives today. Us and Noel." Robin said.

Starfire saw him first, as he stepped out of the subway, perhaps much like the one he had been coming off of when the accident had first happened. He walked forward, heading down the street.

Robin felt confused. He didn't seem to see them.

"Savior!" he said, as he and the other Titans ran (or in Cyborg's case, were carried) over to where Noel was. "Good job! You really came through in the clutch!"

Noel said nothing. He didn't even look at Robin.

"Well, it's good to know you're all right, and this proves once and for all you are a Titan to…" Robin said as he put a hand on Noel's shoulder.

Noel slapped it off. Robin recoiled as Noel finally looked at him, eyes filled with bitterness, mistrust, and worst of all, disappointment.

"I'm sorry…" Noel said, as he reached up. His jacket was torn up, but one part had stayed on up until now: the T Patch Starfire had sewn onto his shoulder.

Noel tore it off in one quick jerk. The Titans looked at him in shock as he dropped the patch at their feet.

"My Titans membership has been revoked."

And Noel turned his back on them and walked away.

"Noel? NOEL! What are you doing?"

"Noel, where are you going?"

"Noel man we're sorry, we wish we hadn't…"

"Noel come back! We're sorry!"

Noel ignored the yelling voices as he continued walking, leaving the Titans behind. Robin lowered his raised hand, understanding. He turned, and saw that once again that look was in Starfire's eyes, the look he hated and wished she didn't have to wear, the one of the dog who didn't understand why its master was leaving it behind.

"Robin…what happened? We found the real killer. He's going to jail. We said we were sorry. Why is Noel leaving? What…" Starfire said in confusion.

Robin sighed. Sometimes the complications of the human being didn't appear in those who were sick. Sometimes it happened to the most normal of us, in the course of life.

"There's a phrase that goes 'To err is human, to forgive divine'" Robin said. "Humans are gifted with great brains, ones that allow us to do so many things. But we so rarely use them. Instead, we listen to our instincts, our old animal impulses. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't…we did the wrong thing. When we read Jack's power on that body and thought it was Noel, we should have gone to him with the quest to clear things up. We shouldn't have automatically assumed his guilt. But we did. Instead of doing the divine thing and thinking about it, we did the human thing and immediately assumed the worst. When he needed us to act better then ourselves, the thing that marks us as special…we failed. We acted like ourselves instead. We did what came easier. We acted human."

Robin turned, looking at the fading speck that was now Noel Collins, as he walked down the street and out of their team.

"And I guess, in the end, Noel decided to do the same. Instead of doing the divine thing and forgiving us, he chose to do the human thing, and walk away."

The End

And so ends Black and White. I would like to thank all those who have supported this fanfic…

PSYCHE!

You thought it was over? Hell no! I still got more. For you see, some may think I have put the Titans through hell…

But that's not enough.

In the next arc, hell will come to earth.

See you then.