ji- a suffix added to a name as a term of fondness and respect.
"I won't!" said Jinx, stomping a foot much like a child. She had set her jaw firmly, and was quite ready to become as if a young Raja's daughter.
"They will make you," Came the equally angry retort from Robin. "They'll bind and gag you, just to drag you into the tower."
"Shall they, Boy Blunder!" Jinx spat fiercely. "They can drag me in but they can't make me lead them once I get there. I'll just sit there and mutter curses in Bengali or Hindi."
"You are so selfish!" Robin bellowed, having lost all his patience.
"Then what are you?" Jinx retorted, becoming a spoilt little princess in the blink of an eye. "Selfish people always say that! You want me to lead this third team. I doubt they even want me to be a member, which I fully agree with."
"They not only want you, they need you! You're the only one who has any leadership experience or potential!"
"Well I'm not leading any team, I ruined my last one by helping you jerks, and if Shimmer hadn't been with that, whatever it was, agency, my almost family would be in jail. I'm not Bumblebee, I don't abandon my friends. I keep my word."
Robin listened to her as she threw herself into a fit of sour rage. She kept her word, she said. That was something he couldn't count on in anyone. What made her think he would believe it from her? It was such a strange thing to say, her being a former criminal who was stubbornly insisting the former was unnecessary, in fact impossible. He understood the meaning of that; you don't stop having crime on your record. It doesn't just go away because you say you're sorry
"You say you keep your word. If that's true, that is one more reason you are the only person fit for the position."
Jinx gave a scornful 'harrumph' and turned her back to him.
"Of course, that's only if it's true all the time. Keeping your word some of the time is no hard feat." He hit a sore spot there. Jinx was red with rage and likely not thinking straightly.
"I always keep my word! If someone doubts me on what I've sworn to, I will take a blood oath! When I swore to my Goddess, I was seven. Even then I knew if I disobeyed a direct order from the Mother, my blood would boil in my veins, cooking my flesh from the inside out!" Jinx was feeling quite wicked at this point, her common sense out the window when he questioned her trustworthiness.
"I don't know, you seem to be quite unsure of your word that you wouldn't oppose the Titan's without divine orders." Robin was taunting her, against all advice from Raven, Cyborg and Bumblebee. A moment later he wished he had listened to them.
Jinx rose from her seat at the conference table and struck him across the face. The only sounds in the near empty room were the soft echo of the slap, Jinx's ragged breathing, and the gasp from the Boy Wonder.
"Never question my word. Whoever said violence never solves anything must have been a man who'd never been bitch-slapped." Eyes glowing faintly, the hex witch crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to sit down now.
Robin rubbed his cheek, she hit hard. "I see."
"You see what?" Jinx scowled.
Not responding, he pressed the call button on the intercom. "Ok, you guys were right. She is perfect for the job. Unfortunately, as I'm sure you saw, and are laughing at, she doesn't want it."
Jinx looked bewildered. She had no idea what was going on. First Robin comes irritated and tells her he needed to talk to her, and then he's telling her she was going to lead a new mobile Titans team. Now he seemed to be saying that this was some sort of test?
The door to the conference room opened, admitting Bumblebee, although Raven, Cyborg, Beast Boy, Kid Flash, and a variety of other Titans could be seen smirking, or in the case of Beast Boy, howling with laughter, outside. Bumblebee had a kind of satisfied smile on her face, and she took a seat, putting her feet up on the table.
"Told you she wouldn't let you push her around. Nobody messes with Jinx." Ain't it the truth, girl. Robin was still rubbing the handprint on his face. Jinx couldn't help but smile at that.
"So, anyone going to tell me what you're trying to pull here?"
Bee gave a short chuckle and nodded. "Well, Robin wanted a third team, one to move around, cover a few states instead of just a city. The only problem is, you need a leader for a team. Somehow he didn't think Jericho could lead, and Argent said she wasn't even going to try to make plans. Then your boyfriend mentioned you had experience." Jinx glared dangerously at Bumblebee for the 'boyfriend' remark. She pretended she hadn't seen it. "And me an' Sparky backed him up. But Robin's too suspicious, he didn't trust you. Said you'd be too easily turned against the Titans, and that we couldn't have a leader with that liability. He said you were too likely to have old contacts who would cause you to endanger the team, that you were too much of a risk" Jinx privately agreed with his choice, from his point of view, it was the only logical conclusion.
"So, they made me give you this little test." Robin seemed to have regained use of his voice. "And you passed with flying colors."
"Much to his chagrin." Jinx knew that droll anywhere. It seemed Raven had entered the room unseen. "And, just so you know, the team you would be leading would consist of yourself, Argent, Jericho, Herald and Romeo over here-" Raven jerked her head to the left, then, looking around confused, corrected herself. "Or rather over there." Kid Flash grinned from the end of the table.
"I won't" said Jinx again, this time stamping her foot hard enough that it carried through the room.
"Cut the act bad luck charm. You know you want to." Bumblebee teased, inspecting her heel.
"It doesn't matter," She said "whether I want to or not."
"But you do want to." Raven said knowingly.
"Why won't you then?" Robin seemed to be the only one on the right track here. The others were trying to push for her to admit she wanted to.
"Because of whom I am." She said it so calmly and certainly, that the others in the room nearly jumped. Who she was? How would that affect anything?
Bumblebee frowned, yes, Jinx was a former HIVE member, but that hadn't stopped her had it? Kid Flash's face fell, did she think good was still not an option? Robin wasn't shocked so much by the reason, but by the fact she just came out and said it.
"You cause bad luck." Raven stated, ever the voice of reason. "You control your powers, they don't control you. Your last team did not fall apart because of you; rather it fell apart in spite of everything you did to try to keep it together."
Oh, was that what she was worried about?
"Go to hell."
The room fell silent as Jinx stormed over to the door. Beast Boy, having been listening at the door, fell over when she opened it. Using him like a doormat, Jinx pushed through the crowd of Titans, one fist glowing fuchsia. A few people tried to ask her questions, but her death glare deterred everyone except Starfire. Starfire was silent, though, simply following after her.
"What do you want, princess. Upset I gave your boyfriend what's been coming to him for years?" She snarled, without even a hint of regret.
"No. I would like to tell you that you are one of the bravest people I have ever seen." Starfire said sincerely. Jinx harrumphed again.
"I'm a coward. I turned traitor to save my skin, and now I can't even let myself try to make a new life because I'm afraid I'll screw that up too. Brave is what Rouge did. She was aware she was likely to fail, but she didn't give up, because she believed in her cause. Brave is what Terra did, she knew she was going to die, but that didn't stop her from doing what she believed in."
Jinx swallowed, ready to give her last reason and leave to live a coward's life or die a coward's death, if there was any difference between the two. "Brave is what my father did. Die rather than betray his friends."
"Hogwash." Oh goody goody, Raven's here again. "Brave is being afraid, but not too afraid to admit it and do something about it. Or slapping Robin in the face.You can be a hero."
"Not true. Heroes don't run around beating people up with metahuman powers. Heroes are people like Gandhi-ji, people like Mother Theresa, like the fourteen year old who took a bullet for his little sister, like the protesters outside the embassy. I wish I could be a true hero. Though with the aura of bad luck and the fact all I do is break things, my chances don't look good. I wish I could be a hero.But all you offer is to be a crime fighter."
"You can be a Titan though, and you know it."
"What do you all WANT with me? Leave me ALONE!"
"Aye-aye Madame Captain." And now Kid Flash was here. What did it take to get out of this tower? Wait, Madame Captain?
"What?" Jinx asked, confused.
"We overruled you, Jinx. You are leading that team. You are the only one protesting." Robin was now standing in the living room, along with the rest of her captors.
How can they do that? They can't possibly do that! She'd vote against it. Wait, she wasn't a member, she had no vote. But they just voted her into a position of power, so she should have a vote in the matter that had given her the power to vote. But if she cast her vote against it, it would be void because the action that she was shooting down was that which had given her the right to a vote in the first place. A paradox.
"I see you have me stuck. How about we negotiate?"
"That's more like it." Kid Flash said, patting her on the shoulder.
"First off," Jinx began, sitting on the arm of a chair. "No T shaped structure. It's tacky and inefficient."
Robin frowned but nodded in agreement, it was expensive to make the T towers anyway.
"Second, the communications system needs an upgrade. Better security, more efficient devices, and harder to destroy."
"What do you suggest then, oh smart one?" Raven drawled sarcastically.
"Ideally, an earpiece, with a wrist monitor for visuals. Worn on the inside of the wrist, of course. Actually, Gizmo was designing something of that sort when the Brotherhood first contacted us. I bet he's still got his plans."
"It doesn't sound too hard, and ya gotta admit, it makes more sense than what we have now" Cyborg put in, as Robin and Speedy started talking about how to implement it to all the teams and adapt them for, unique, situations like Beast Boy and Aqualad.
"Ok, I have one last condition. This is the make it or break it. So, if those involved in this say no, I'm walking." Jinx paused for effect.
"Ok, my final condition. Robin." All eyes turned towards the leader. "You must- and there's no compromise- take Starfire on a date, during which you will tell her the extent of your feelings for her."
"DUDE! Why didn't we think of that before!" Beast Boy looked about to bow down in front of Jinx. Bumblebee was using Cyborg as support, clutching her stomach. Robin, on the other hand, was so red it seemed he might burst a blood vessel with blushing.
"And you have to ask her properly, or no deal."
"That's too cruel even for me…" Raven remarked with approval.
"Well, what's it gonna be Robin?" Kid Flash asked, grinning. Jinx noticed he now had popcorn and a soda.
"Erm. Uh, can I uh, talk to you in private Star?"
"Nuh-uh! Right here." Speedy had joined the supporters, it seemed.
Taking about a hundred deep breaths, Robin cleared his throat. "Uhm, Star?"
"Yes Robin?" Oh she was not making it easy for him either.
"Do you think, I mean, would you err," It was more than priceless. This was solid 24 karat gold. "Maybe, ya know, like to-"
"Spit it out!" Robin jerked his head around to look for the person who had said that. Beast Boy noticed what looked like a halo over Aqualad's head, which on further inspection proved to be Bumblebee flying circles above him.
"Go…go out with me sometime? I mean, if you d-don't want to, it's ok, I-I'd understand if you-"
Under the roars of laughter, Starfire looked at her feet and murmured 'I would be glad to.'
"All right, you've got yourself a leader." Jinx grinned. "although you may need a new one for this team, I think Robin's head's going to explode."