I know how to do it. One cut, that's all it would take. Two would be better, but one's enough. Cut, then maybe half an hour of bleeding, then it's over. But I can't. All I can do is these little pussy cuts that only bleed a little unless I keep digging. None of this will kill me. I know my limits. I need to find a bigger knife.
You know it's all your fault.
If you can't come up with anything new to say, shut the hell up.
She's gone, and she's never coming back.
She'll come back sooner or later. I'm no use, but maybe the others...
It doesn't matter. She won't want you anyways. You're worthless.
That's why I'm doing this.
Nothing but bad luck. What good are you? You can't help anyone. You're a fucking idiot for thinking you could ever change.
Maybe I should jump off instead.
You don't have the guts, you stupid slut bitch piece of shit. You can't even cut yourself deep enough.
I can cut myself deeper. The pain is all I deserve now.
You're damn right. Drive that knife in deep, bleed all over their nice clean roof.
Carve her name into your arm. Remember the agony of losing her every time you look at it.
Kill yourself, you worthless piece of fucking shit. You're nothing. You've always been nothing. There's nothing good about you, you're just a walking pile of wasted space. Everyone would be so much happier if you died. You're nothing but a burden.
Kill yourself.
KILL YOURSELF.
KILL YOURSELF!
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" She curled into a ball on the roof of Titans Tower, sobbing, trying frantically to cover her ears, to block out the voices. They were stronger than ever since Raven's disappearance, stronger now than when she had come into her powers. She rocked back and forth, chuckling and sobbing. She started humming a little ditty she had made up years ago.
"Bad luck, bad luck.
You are such a useless fuck."
Remembering always hurts. Especially this...
---
"Titans, GO!" The now six superpowered teens raced into the darkened museum, fannig out through the lobby. Everything was completely undisturbed, oddly.
"So, if this was supposed to be a robbery, where's the robber?" Beast Boy wondered.
Cyborg checked a panel on his arm. "No one was able to get an ID, he only triggered the silent alarm."
"This situation seems most familiar. Has this not happened before?" Starfire asked.
Robin growled. "I was wondering when he'd be back." Raising his voice, he called, "Slade! Stop hiding!"
"Why, Robin. You know full well I don't hide." Slade stepped out from the shadows behind them. Oddly, he was covered from neck to feet in a slightly ragged brown cloak.
Robin stepped towards him. "What are you planning now, you bastard?"
"Such language. You really must learn to be more polite!" On the last word, Slade rushed him. Robin flipped backwards, dodging Slade's strike. He halted in shock at seeing Slade's arm. It was covered entirely by a hideous, thobbing mass of demonic flesh, spikes protruding at the joints. It ended in a set of massive, two foot long claws. Slade flund his cloak to the ground, revealing that both of his arms were in the same state, and a pair of batlike wings lay folded on his back. "Surprised?"
"Wh...what the hell happened to you?"
"I have my secrets, Robin. Suffice it to say that I'm not the same man I used to be."
Robin charged with a wordless roar, and the other Titans jumped into the fray soon after. Slade seemed more powerful than ever, dodging attacks with a lazy grace that seemed effortless, flinging his adversaries all over the room with powerful blows.
This is impossible! Raven thought as she flew across the room, seeking an opening. Slade looks like he's been infested by a demonic parasite, but it's strengthened him instead of weakening! How? Abruptly she crashed to the ground, bleeding from a deep gash in her leg from Slade's claws.
"Is this the best you can do?" Slade seemed amused. "Six on one, and you can't touch me. Pathetic." He punctuated this declaration with a vicious kick to Starfire's midsection, slamming her into a display case.
Jinx picked herself up from where Slade had knocked her, taking in the losing battle. Slade had Robin by the neck and looked to be strangling him. Starfire was just groggily rising, Beast Boy was unconscious, Raven was collapsed in a small heap on the floor, and Cyborg was nowhere in sight. Shit, we're dead. Unless...Jinx dashed to a nearby mirror, the beginnings of an idea forming in her head. She kicked the mirror, shattering it. Hope this works...Jinx's eyes glowed solid pink as she felt the bad luck flow into her.
"I'm afraid your time is up, Robin," Slade gloated as he tightened his grip on Robin's throat. A tremendous cracking sound rang out from above him. He looked up to see cracks weaving their way through the ceiling.
Jinx stepped out in front of him, glowing with pink energy. "I won't let you hurt my friends!" With a tremendous roar, the roof of the museum collapsed.
Cyborg shoved a chunk of building off of his legs and climbed unsteadily to his feet. What the hell? Was there an earthquake? Something moved under a pile of rubble Cyborg ran over to it and started lifting pieces of rock, uncovering a battered Beast Boy.
"Anyone get the number of that truck?" He mumbled as he stood up. Blood was running down his face from a gash on top of his head.
"You okay?"
Beast Boy shook his head dazedly. "I think so...where's everybody else?"
More rocks heaved up, revealing Starfire and Robin. The four of them quickly dug through the rubble to find Raven and Jinx. Both had been knocked out cold from the collapsing ceiling. "Let's get back to the tower," Robin said. "We need to figure out what that was all about."
---
Jinx's eyes fluttered open. "Oww..."
"Hey, you're awake," Beast Boy grinned. "We were starting to think you were dead."
She sat up slowly, taking in the environs of the infirmary. "What happened to Slade?"
"We don't know. Robin's down there searching for him, but we didn't see him after the roof caved." Beast Boy scratched his head. "Did you see how that happened? I think I was out."
Jinx swung her legs over the side of the bed. "Yeah, umm...I did that."
"What! How!"
"I broke a mirror." Beast Boy stared at her confusedly as she stood up. "So, how's everyone else?"
"We're all fine now," he continued in a more sheepish tone. "Look, I wanted to apologize for how I treated you. I was being stupid, and...You're on the team, so I want to be friends."
"Um, apology accepted, B."
"Come on, let's go find the others." He led her out of the room and into the living room, where Raven and Cyborg were waiting.
Raven had Jinx wrapped in a relieved hug before she could take two steps into the room. "I was so worried," she whispered.
"I'm okay, Ravy," Jinx whispered back, then said in a louder voice, "So what's going on?"
Cyborg shook his head. "We've got no idea. Robin and Starfire are digging through the wreckage for some kinda clue, or hopefully a body. But we're trying to figure out why Slade was there in the first place."
"He didn't look like that the last time I saw him!" Beast Boy cried. "He was like something out of a horror movie!"
"As far as I could tell, Slade was infested with a demonic parasite." Raven explained. "Normally, a creature like that saps the host's strength continuously until death. But it looked like it was making him stronger." Her brow furrowed in consternation. "I've never heard of anything like that."
"Whatever Slade's got attatched to him, he's still out there," Robin announced as he and Starfire entered the room. Both of them were covered in dirt and dust. "We couldn't find any trace of him."
"Jinx, how did you collapse the roof?" Starfire wondered.
"About that..." Jinx rubbed her head ruefully. "I broke a mirror nearby, and that amplified my powers until something extremely unlucky happened. I mean, the roof falling on you for no reason is pretty bad luck, right?"
"Bad luck for all of us," said Beast Boy.
"Well, it's not really something I can control well." Jinx retorted. "Sorry, but it was the only thing I could think of."
"It was pretty drastic, but Slade might have been hurt pretty badly." Cyborg mused. "And none of us were badly hurt."
"He got away," Robin said, half to himself. "I'll find him no matter what." He smacked his fist into his palm before stalking off.
"He seems...pissed." Jinx observed.
"Robin hates Slade." Raven stated simply. "Sometimes he gets pretty obsessive about it."
"Last time he got obsessive, he didn't sleep and started hallucinating," Beast Boy added.
"Yikes." Jinx grimaced. "First those robots and now this."
"You know what they say," Beast Boy joked. "It's not just a job, it's an adventure!"
---
You are useless! Worthless! Nobody loves you!
"Why do you keep saying that? Do you think you can break me?"
You're already broken.
"I can't stand listening to your voice."
But Jinx, it's your voice. Even in denying me, you prove me right.
"Get out of my head."
You know how to end it. Do it. Pick up the knife.
"No..."
Pick it up, bitch. It's the only way to end the pain.
"I won't."
Kill your worthless self.
"But Raven...she wouldn't want that."
Please. She WANTS you to die. You're just a burden on her. You make her worry and cry and feel like shit. She'll be happier without you around.
"No...she loves me..."
Yeah, right. No one loves you.
The knife plunged in and out again and again. She wasn't even conscious of what she was doing. The only thing she knew was the pain of a broken heart and the voices screaming in her head. Blood mingled with tears on the roof underneath her.
---
Raven tossed and turned on her bed. Sleep was the last thing on her mind. She couldn't stop going over the details of the night's battle with Slade. Jinx was absent from her bed tonight, pleading exhaustion from the fight. In the week since she had moved in, this would be the first night Jinx had actually slept in her own room. It's just as well, Raven thought. I want to try to figure this out, and she can be very...distracting. Frustrated, Raven sat up and grabbed a nearby book, poring over the same pages she'd been reading all evening. She angrily ran her fingers through her hair. Dammit, there's nothing like what Slade had in here! It can't have been a parasite, so what was it?
Raven stood up and faced her mirror, staring into her own violet eyes. Always more questions than answers. What am I going to do? Her reflection studied her silently, then grinned crookedly. Wait, what? I didn't smile! But her reflection was moving on its own now, its features distorted and ran together like wax dripping down from a lit candle. Raven stepped back warily as the figure in the mirror changed to a familiar visage.
"Slade..."
Raven screamed as an arm shot out and seized her by the throat. Her face rushed towards the mirror...
Beast Boy sat up sharply in his bed. Did I just hear Raven scream? Something's wrong. He sped down the hall, stopping in front of Raven's room. Wait, what if she's in there...with Jinx? Sweet...but I probably shouldn't just walk in, then.
"Raven? You okay in there?" He called through the door as he knocked. No answer. Beast Boy took a deep breath, screwed his eyes shut, and slid the door open."LookI'mreallysorryifI'm interruptinganythingIshouldn'tseebutIheardascreamandIwantedtomakesureyouwereokayplease don'tkillme!" He babbled, then stopped as he realized the room was empty. "Raven?" Taking a step forward, he jumped as something sharp pricked his foot. "The hell?"
The large mirror over the dresser was broken. It had sprayed shards of glass all over the floor and dresser. Beast Boy turned and headed for Jinx's room. "Jinx? You in there?" He hammered on the door frantically, tact forgotten.
The door levered open. Jinx stood there sleepily. "Yeah, what's up?"
"Is Raven in there with you?" Beast Boy asked, trying to peer past her into the dark room.
"No, why do you ask?"
"I heard her scream and she's not in her room."
"What!" Jinx snapped awake and ran past him to Raven's room. She halted as she saw the broken mirror, and cautiously stepped over the broken glass to the frame.
Beast Boy appeared in the doorway. "Did you find something?"
Jinx studied the shattered mirror. Most of the glass was still in the frame, there was just one spot where it looked like something had rammed into it. "Get everyone else up. I think I can figure something out from this mirror."
"Okay."
Momentarily, the Titans were assembled outside of Raven's door. Robin stepped into the room, seeing Jinx gripping the sides of the mirror and staring deeply into the broken glass. "Do you know what happened to Raven?"
"I can almost see...Raven. A mask appeared, and then...something...grabbed her, pulled her in...she's in pain," she finished firmly.
"Can you see who did it? Or where they took her?" Robin asked urgently.
"That mask...Slade!" Jinx gasped out, letting go of the mirror. "Slade pulled her through the mirror somehow!"
"What!" Robin looked shocked for a moment, then his face darkened with rage. "What does he want with her now? He's not Trigon's servant anymore!"
"We can't be too sure of that," Cyborg put in. "He did look pretty demonic, after all. Maybe he made another bargain with some sort of demon?"
"Who cares about that! Raven just got kidnapped!" Jinx cried.
"Do not worry, Jinx. We shall find her." Starfire put a comforting hand on Jinx's shoulder.
"Everybody get dressed. We're going out to search for her." Robin ordered.
---