2
"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it." -Oscar Wilde
To Catch a Raven
By Lynx Klaw
Chapter 2: Steps 6 through 8
Step 6: Take It for Shots and Registration
Hours after Jinx was in custody, Robin walked down the hallway of quarters in the upper part of Titans Tower. He didn't really want to start trouble, but he at least had to talk with Raven. He knocked on her door.
Raven knew his knock--everyone had distinctive knocks. His raps were always exactly evenly spaced and at the same volume, sharp like a military drumbeat. She opened the door, not bothering to draw up her hood in his presence. The mystic Titan stared at him passively and said nothing, even though she knew why he was there.
Unlike most times, she moved aside for him to enter. She didn't want to have this conversation out in the open. The Boy Wonder stood there for a moment, unsure of what he should say--or even how to say it. Raven understood; she didn't really know how to address... it... either. Hell, the demi-Demon couldn't even figure what to call that thing that had happened.
"I'll be honest, I'm a little confused. I'm not sure what happened and before I make my mind up about it, I'd like to hear whatever you can tell me."
Raven nodded and sat down on her bed. She took a few moments to gather her thoughts before speaking.
"I'm not exactly sure myself. I went to fight Jinx like I normally do... but then..."
"After Jinx... kissed you," he said slowly, forcing down the incredulity and agitation, "you said she 'stole that one.' Has she kissed you before?"
She knew he was trying not to make any preconceptions. It probably wasn't working too well, but she applauded him (not literally, of course) for the attempt. She could be candid with the teen sleuth and, if she could address his concerns, this conversation would go smoothly.
"Not before today. Jinx said she would surrender if she could kiss me. I could feel she was telling the truth... so I decided it would be easier than fighting," Raven said plainly.
The violet-haired girl was surprised at how simple it sounded. Kissing the villainess hadn't felt simple at all; it had felt... it had felt wow. And zing-y. She blushed at the memory.
"Raven..." he began and she immediately knew she wouldn't like the next words, "this might not be a good thing. She's still a criminal and we don't know what could come of this. I don't want to see you hurt."
She would cede that point to him, "I understand that. I've been thinking about it, too... I'm still thinking about it. This isn't an idle--something. Because my emotions were a danger for so long... and continue to be even after I dealt with my father, anything involving them takes some serious consideration. It wasn't a decision I made lightly."
Robin leaned against her dresser as he listened to her. He nodded; it was good that she had thought this through. This conversation might have gone worse if she admitted she did it on a lark, which would have likely led to him becoming angry at her carelessness. He kept quiet, waiting for her to express herself fully.
"But I... I need this. More than that, I want this. I want to explore these feelings and see where they lead. Who knows? Maybe I'll be happy. I think... think it's worth taking the chance."
After she finished, he stirred slightly and nodded. He could understand; after so many years of stuffing it down due to the fear she held of allowing her father free reign, she had finally ended that threat once and for all. With Trigon no longer hindering her expression of emotions, she was free to express herself without fear of beginning an apocalypse.
Unfortunately, if the Boy Wonder understood things correctly, also because of Trigon's defeat, she was now even more susceptible to her Demonic side. Raven didn't like to get into the specifics, so--as per usual--he respected her privacy. While free to feel, feeling strongly remained a problem. So far, she'd kept it within tolerable bounds--barring the odd incident here or there... and even then, they managed. Anymore, it wasn't literally the end of the world if the demi-Demon got angry.
"Just be careful. We'll be watching her."
Raven expected no less and nodded. He turned to leave and was at the door before she stopped him.
"Richard... I don't mind if you keep an eye on her, but don't put her under the microscope. If you do that, she won't be comfortable and it could destroy any chance I have of... of there being something," the mystic Titan warned, her pale face slightly flushed.
With the barest of nods and a smile, he left.
The two days passed and Jinx was in her cell. The girl stood in the middle of the tiny space with her head bowed and her palms pressed together at chest height, fingers pointing up and perpendicular to her arms. Coral light slowly washed off her, seeking out possibility and coincidence, filling her mind with off-chances and unlikelihoods.
After two nights of meditation, she felt very much in control. The hex-caster sensed no leaks or seepage of misfortune. As far as the precinct was concerned, she had been a model detainee.
"Jinx," Andrews called.
She didn't respond immediately. Her eyes slowly lifted, her glowing gaze--now less unsettling that he had seen it twice before--settling on him. The aura, lapping against the walls like waves on a shore and breaking softly against the bars, stopped as though frozen. Slowly the energy rewound itself and enveloped the pink-haired girl. Within moments, the glow disappeared from Jinx's body and then left her eyes.
With a slow breath, she let her arms drop, "I'm ready."
Her appointed attorney sat with her in a small room while they waited for prior-scheduled trials to finish. She had allowed the authorities to cuff her on the way there, but they released her once in the custody of her attorney--another provision of her good behavior. There was a guard stationed at her door. From another door that joined two of these tiny offices, two lawyers entered. It was the prosecution, and she frowned slightly.
What were they doing here?
"There are some concerns for the trial," said her attorney... she wasn't paying attention when his name was given, "Since you will not be restrained during the hearing, it has been suggested that your Metahuman powers be temporarily nullified. There is such an agent that will do this, and we had hoped that you would agree to receive it."
Kamala took this in warily, looking between the three men. Well, if it engendered good will in the courtroom, then it might just tilt the decision in her favor. Still...
"How long's it last? Will it do anything to me?"
"Oh, about two hours," said one of the prosecutors, "just long enough for the hearing. Aside from putting your abilities temporarily out of reach, there shouldn't be any side-effects."
The hex-caster slowly nodded, "Alright. Um... Shouldn't there be a doc here or something?"
The other prosecutor opened up his briefcase and pulled out a hypo-gun. He then loaded it with a small vial, "It's a simple thing, it'll only sting a bit. The agent is binary--that means there's two parts. This is the first one."
The man rolled up her sleeve and put the device against the inside of her forearm. He pulled the trigger and she watched the pale, yellow liquid sink down the tiny tube. Within a minute, the HIVE Five member began to feel light-headed. Something was wrong about this...
"W-" she began, but her mouth felt like it was full of cotton.
Trying to stand up, she leaned forward. She was gently pulled back against the seat and Kammie found she didn't have the strength or will to resist. The pink-haired sorceress started to panic as the second ampoule was loaded--this one was a purplish liquid. Things took on a hazy, distorted view as the prosecutor approached again. It was as though she was looking at the world through a curtain of running water...
"So this truth serum stuff... it actually works? This isn't an action flick, after all."
His voice--whose she couldn't tell--sounded like she was listening to it through a long pipe.
"Yes. The power-suppressant is still experimental, but animal studies have been good so far. The computer-run hypothetical tests simulating Metahuman systems were positive. Even if it doesn't work, by the time she starts spouting out various crimes or using her powers, they'll have her under heavy lockdown."
Under the influence of the chemicals, Jinx had just caught up with their conversation, "Truth?"
It was becoming easier to talk, now. Much easier, she felt, as a steady stream of thoughts fell across her tongue. Kamala was able to keep them from passing through her lips--just barely. The dizziness was passing and her limbs were responding again. However, the hex-caster felt strangely placid. She grinned; she felt kind of... float-y.
"That's right, young lady, you just tell the truth..."
The Titans had appeared for the proceedings. For a change, Raven's hood was down. She and the others sat in the gallery, closest to the defense table. Sam and the two elderly owners of Karasu's had appeared for the trial, as well. There was a small smattering of the curious, but it was fairly small group for all it felt like a bigger deal to the Titans.
Jinx's attorney led her to a seat at the defense table. She almost fell into it. Raven frowned, but said nothing. The hearing finally got under way when the judge arrived. This would likely be a quick thing, unlike most jury trials. It had probably been a good move for the girl to waive the jury in favor of a bench trial.
"All rise for the honorable Judge Rendalton..."
The pink-haired girl stood, teetered on her toes as she leaned too far forward, and rocked back onto her heels before regaining her equilibrium. Once again, Raven frowned.
'Jinx should be taking this more seriously,' she thought.
"You may be seated," called the bailiff.
Judge Rendalton glanced through the file the bailiff gave him and looked up, "Kamala Malti, you've expressed that you wish to make a statement for the record..."
Had she? If she had prepared a speech, then she couldn't remember it. Slowly, Kamala glanced around the room before settling her eyes upon the judge currently looking at her. A few vague thoughts ran through her head... She could feel the words bubbling from her mind and up her throat without any means of blocking them.
Up she popped from her seat! The sudden movement made her attorney jolt in surprise.
"Thanks, yer on... hon... Your Honor. Call me Jinx, though, please?" she said in a slight pleading tone. The girl started slow, but then her tongue picked up speed, "I think there's some stuffs to be said 'bout... 'bout turning a new leaf and rena-... renouncing my wicked ways... ..."
Kamala paused, frowned, and then grinned, "But I can't 'member any of it!"
Raven's eyes--along with the rest of the court--had gone wide, 'Jinx, what the Hell are you doing?'
Suddenly, the pink-haired villainess planted her hands on the table in front of her. She jumped and put herself into a handstand, then performed a forward walkover, landing on the other side of the table. In a single bound, the sorceress was across the court floor before anyone could stop her. Kamala arrived at the bench and raised her hands to stop herself from faceplanting it. With a hop, she nabbed the edge of the high desk and pulled herself up.
Holding onto it with one hand, she bent half over the bench toward Judge Rendalton, crooking a finger to motion him closer. Against his better judgment, he leaned forward. The zany girl whispered to him.
"I kin'a... hope thi' wors-... worry-... wor-ks out. 'Cause," she stumbled over her words and giggled, "'cause 's a secret!" She cupped both hands as she had done at the precinct and spoke just loud enough for Rendalton to hear her. "I wanna be Raven's girlfriend!"
Unfortunately, because neither hand was sustaining her position on the bench, she slid back fairly quickly and landed with an undignified thud and 'oomph.' There she lay, feeling as though the room was rapidly spinning around her. She giggled slightly, then groaned as the action made her back twinge slightly.
The guards were just closing in, but the demi-Demon reached the hex-caster first. She landed softly from where she flew over the bar from the gallery, and knelt over the fallen girl. Raven patted the side of Kamala's face, but received no response save a slight mumble.
"What's gotten into you?" she demanded, trying to read the pink-haired girl's surface thoughts as before. They were jumbled and disoriented--the mystic Titan could make no sense of them.
Gently pulling back an eyelid, she found the HIVE Five member's pupil reigning over all aspects, the dilation leaving only a tiny sliver of pink rimming the edge before the sclera. Raven's brow twitched and she called to Robin.
"Robin, give me your flashlight."
She barely waited until he had it free of his belt before yanking it over to her with her powers. Raven flicked it on and shined it into Kamala's eye. Still no response. The demi-Demon's eyes narrowed. Pulling up the sleeves of the pink-haired girl's shirt, she found two small marks on her left arm.
"You're drugged!" she exclaimed aghast... furiously.
Tongue still loose, the girl known as Jinx suddenly broke into song, "You are the antidote that gets me by; Something strong; Like a drug that gets me... high!"
Ignoring this spontaneous outburst, Raven did a quick scan across those present in the courtroom, searching surface thoughts for malicious intent. Her mind was drawn to the lawyers; their thoughts tainted with the fear of unforeseen reactions by the pink-haired girl because of the drugs. They didn't expect her to be so mobile. Even the defense lawyer was in on it! Her back still to them, she could sense the lawyers had slowly slid their seats backward to slip away...
The defense and prosecution tables were possessed of dark energy and slid toward the bar, trapping the three lawyers.
"Stay," Raven hissed, her voice becoming raspier.
The demi-Demon hunched slightly, and then slowly began to grow. The cape billowed out, revealing an inky darkness with no defining features within its confines. A mass of black energy seeped out in tentacles of raw, mystical energy. These tendrils slid languorously across the ground, supporting and drawing the girl upward.
Her short, violet hair rapidly grew out, stopping at a length that--in her normal state--would have reached mid-back. A hissing growl issued from her gaping mouth, which now housed a pair of upper and lower fangs. Raven's eyes reddened and, startlingly, a second pair of eyes opened just above her ajna chakra gem. These, too, were red, and all four eyes burned with an unholy, crimson fire.
The power that encased the tables bled off the furniture and onto the lawyers, forming bands around them. These bands hauled them over the tables to the enraged Titan's 'feet'--which were little more than a writhing mass of pitch-colored energy. Raven leaned down, her lengthy form allowing her to bend onto herself like a serpent, and glared at the three men.
None dared interfere with this force of unnatural rage. Judge Rendalton, the bailiff, the court clerk, and court reporter had long since moved away from the scene. The latter three sought refuge in the empty jury box. Fear and tension ran high... and ran higher when the demi-Demon spoke in a deep, dual-toned voice that sounded like grinding boulders forming words.
"What have you done?"
"Raven!" someone's voice penetrated her fury-driven haze.
Four eyes drifted over to Robin, who had jumped the bar. He was by the lectern's microphone, which augmented his voice and fed it to the small speakers about the courtroom. Recognition dawned in those fiery, tetraophthalmic slits. Slowly, Raven's size diminished and her form became distinguishable from the living shadows that temporarily inhabited her cape.
Though still quite nightmarish in appearance, the Titan seemed under her own control once more. Her breathing was anger-quickened, but she did not seem to be ready to lash out. The glow of those four oculars slowly fell away and turned back to the cowering men before her.
She roared at them, filling the room with her anger as it rebounded off the walls in ungodly tones. It was the only way the Titan could think to expel the ire that welled up within her in a nonviolent fashion. Later, Beast Boy would describe it as coming straight out of a Jurassic Park movie, as though the entire reptilian cast had called out in unison; it was far more frightening than his tyrannosaurus rex roar, which he had thought was badass until today. The sound she made touched something primal inside him, telling every morph-able cell in his body to flee--as quickly as possible.
Raven whirled around, cape fluttering behind her. With a gesture, Kamala was gently lifted into the air by a blanket of dark magic. The demi-Demon approached the unconscious sorceress and, upon drawing within a foot of her, a dark aura mirroring the one around Kamala manifested about Raven. The energies merged, shrouding both teens from sight, and formed a bird of prey consisting completely of that dark magic enveloping them both.
This giant, winged mass of magic shrieked out and flew up through the ceiling like a phantom, leaving the courtroom in a state of shock and anxiety. Robin moved over to the three men, who had not looked up to notice that Raven was gone.
"Bailiff," the Boy Wonder said while his thunderous glare weighed heavily upon the lawyers, "get rid of this scum... I'm still thinking up charges. By the time I'm done, they just might wish Raven had taken them!"
Step 7: Take It Home
In the infirmary of Titans Tower, the mystical bird of prey seeped from the floor. It receded to reveal Raven holding an unconscious Jinx. She didn't like how shallow the pink-haired girl's breathing was and how fast her heart was beating. Laying the hex-caster on the bed, the demi-Demon summoned some of the power brimming in her system.
'Might as well use it or I'll just be restless all day...'
Currently, she couldn't think of a better use than healing what damage the drug might be causing the sorceress. Raven's hand glowed a soft white, a thick tendril of misty energy falling from her hand into Jinx's body. Slowly, she isolated the remnants of the drug and destroyed them. It wasn't hard, just tedious.
Unfortunately, what was already in the HIVE Five member's system would have to pass naturally. She didn't want to tamper with the villainess on a level that would affect her nervous and endocrine systems. No longer in danger of overdosing on the drugs, Jinx came around within a few minutes.
Raven was busy hooking her up to a few monitoring systems; heart rate, breathing, blood pressure... a few others she was sure weren't strictly necessary, but the mystic Titan wasn't taking chances. This done, she pulled a chair to the bedside with her powers and sat down. She stayed like that for several minutes until Jinx slowly came around. Her eyes had lost their supernatural glow, leaving only four, slit-like sockets housing fire-engine-red gems. Cotton-candy eyes, still dilated more than they should have been, gazed back unfocusedly.
Jinx lifted a hand and trailed a finger down the side of Raven's forehead, by the corners of those bright, red eyes. The zany, drugged girl smiled and let her hand fall back to the bed. Her voice was soft and dazed.
"...pretty..."
Instead of responding to this, Raven suggested that Jinx try to rest. After that, she set the various monitoring systems to alert her communicator of any changes and returned to her room. The demi-Demon needed distance herself from the high-intensity feelings to return herself to normal... to stuff the Demonic side down.
She would have to cut her hair, she noted. Right now, however, she just wanted to meditate and calm her jangled nerves.
It was almost an hour and a half before Robin and the others returned to the Tower. The Boy Wonder's first stop was by the infirmary. Even angry, Raven would have had the sense to bring Jinx there. He slid open the door to the infirmary and heard some soft, wordless singing interspersed with hummed bars. Apparently, the girl was awake; she sounded drowsy, though. That was probably something to do with the drugs the lawyers administered.
His hands clenched into fists. If there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was when people charged with upholding the law used their position to break the law. Robin would see them disbarred and imprisoned to the harshest sentencing. If Jinx--Kamala, he reminded himself--was serious about turning her life around, even if it was just for a shot at Raven's attention, then this could have distorted how she perceived her chances. Truthfully, this simply strengthened her case.
If the sorceress felt as if forces were rallying against her, though, it could make her go back to crime or, at worst, lash out. Typically, growing up under the Bat, the Boy Wonder had seen too many criminals go through Arkham like a revolving door. Rehabilitation seemed to be a joke; they would never change.
However, he couldn't subscribe to Bruce's almost wholesale belief that no criminal could ever change. There were exceptions, he knew. There were always exceptions. He could only pray that those men had not ruined that chance for the zany, pink-haired teen. More importantly, Raven felt something about this. Robin didn't want this to turn into another 'Malchior Incident.'
As he approached, he heard the girl's dazed, unidentifiable tunes come to a stop.
"I can hear you!" she sang, stretching out every vowel for several seconds.
Shrugging off stealth, he came around the curtain to the bed where she lay. The moment she laid eyes on him, she began speaking to him directly--and she didn't stop.
"I think something bad happened. I hope Raven's not angry. I tried to do it, I really did! Am I going back to slam? Does Raven still like me? I feel kinda funny, I think somethin's wrong with me...
"I remember this one time when Gizmo and some of his friends tampered with my food and it made me all kooky for a bit. I don't remember much, it all slid together like melting ice cream. Lemme tell ya, a melted banana split is just yuck! Anyway, that was when we were still at HAEYP and the Headmistress was still leading us.
"I've always admired the Headmistress. She was always in control, even when the exceptional students would start some havoc. Headmistress was like the eye of the storm. She had so much control--I really wanted to be like her, so I always studied hard an' practiced 'n' everything.
"At any rate, whatever Mike put in my food messed me up for a few hours and somehow I managed to get into the Headmistress' chambers. Yer not s'pposed to be able to do that. She had, like... mad security that nobody in the whole of the academy could bypass. Even I dunno how I did it!
"Well, I got in and I remember runnin' about her room and lookin' at all her cool stuff. When she finally grabbed a hold of me, I think I kissed her. I'm not really sure why, but it seemed like a good idea at the time... hm...
"Anyhow! Headmistress was really impressed that I got passed her security, so--after she sent me to Medical to get treated for whatever Gizmo 'n' his friends did--she said she was putting my squad an' I on a special training regimen. It was really hard!
"She told me that, someday, I'd be a top-class mercenary. Tha's what I always wanted to be, y'know? A merc! I was gonna take all sorts of missions and make a name for myself. Since Headmistress oversaw the Western US branch of HAEYP, she suggested I start looking up possible connections that could hire me to work in junction with the Titans.
"She said that the Titans get funded pretty well, an' I could probably get paid pretty good for workin' joint missions with 'em. An' Raven! She's a mystic--the profiles Headmistress let me look at said she had some uncharted powers! So... so I had to be one of the best mercs out there--and maybe I could get close to Raven. We had it all planned out!"
Robin frowned. It sounded like Jinx had been working this from the start--aiming to get in good with the Titans. A mercenary for hire, she mentioned. Something, however, didn't pan out... didn't make sense. The hex-caster wasn't a mercenary, and she didn't contact the Titans. What happened? As soon as the question entered his mind, she answered it. The uncanny timing of it almost startled him.
"But then Headmistress disappeared. I miss her. Brother Blood was just... there, one day. I dunno how he took over, but he did. He had everyone's mind on a leash--even mine 'n' Mikron's. The classes changed around, too. He started training us into his personal little weapons. I still wanted to be a mercenary... but... but he did something. I can't remember what..."
Kamala frowned, trying to work through the haze in her mind. Her hand lifted to her forehead, "Ow... Something... to my head. Fucked me up big time, for a while. I think he..."
With a hiss, she abruptly abandoned the topic. It was literally painful. Sinking back into her pillows, Kammie sighed and let the calm lassitude of the drugs in her body wash over her. Suddenly, she felt very tired.
"Ya think..." the pink-haired girl paused for a yawn, "Brother Blood's outta the picture. I wonder what happened to Headmistress; wonder if she'll ever come back; wonder if she's back at HAEYP. She never did give me my diploma..."
The Titan sleuth watched as she drifted off. Shaking his head, he realized just how screwed up everything had gone. As he quietly walked out the door, a thought crossed his mind. If she'd had this planned out for so long... would she pick up where she left off if given the chance? The Boy Wonder could speculate either way for all eternity, but he would be no closer to the answer. Still... it was food for thought.
Raven appeared in her mindscape. Quadruple, red eyes cast around for a moment, divining the direction her mind was taking. The path of floating slabs led left and right. She saw, in the distance, a boundary gate. Floating over to it, she took a breath. She really wasn't looking forward to this.
The moment Raven crossed the threshold she was 'glomped' by a pink-cloaked doppelganger. Four red eyes wide with jubilance stared into hers. Happy exclaimed in her face, as always, because the emotion had no concept of an 'inside voice.'
"She thinks we're pretty!"
"I heard her myself. Get off me, please," she said with mustered patience, shoving the girl into the mindscape of pink, yellow, and white flowers. "I need to see Intelligence. Is she-"
"Yep! Still in the library!"
Dragging herself away from Happiness' pestering optimism, the mystic Titan moved down the pathway running down the middle of the endless fields of flowers and to the portal in the distance. Once she crossed the threshold to the next mindscape, she was between aisles of bookshelves that towered high above into the blackness. Here, she turned down one aisle to find a small room of sitting pillows. All about this area, several columns of books sat in an order only the reader of these tomes could discern. In the middle of this sat a yellow-cloaked Raven with glasses resting upon her nose. The glasses had four lenses, through which those four red eyes read from a book. Intelligence set the book aside at Raven's arrival.
"Tell me this is going to work."
The chrestomathic representation patted the pillow beside her and Raven reluctantly took a seat on the pillow in front of the emotion.
Intelligence sighed, "I can't say for sure. The trial was sabotaged, so it could engender feelings of distrust and enmity with Kamala--there is a general dislike for Metahumans... or it could give the court some insight into the unfairness of her situation. From a legal standpoint, this weakens the case against her. A little positive reinforcement might help. Our departure was rather abrupt--perhaps you should speak with Robin."
Raven nodded. She knew this, but it felt good to have reassurance even if it came from 'herself.' Hesitantly, she asked her next question, "About reverting. Is there any other emotion or is it just..."
Intelligence finished for her, "Anger. Raven, it has been rare in the past... but I agree with her. What occurred to day was deplorable to my sense of equanimity. There was no reasoning--logical or otherwise--that justified the lawyers' means. They could have mounted a case against her with evidence of her as a repeat offender or any number of other arguments that would have made it next to impossible for Kamala to attain any form of probation or parole."
While the yellow-cloaked emotion's voice was calm, there was a steadfast resolution to her voice that bordered on forceful. It surprised Raven, but she wasn't planning on arguing. The demi-Demon stood up and offered a light smile at Intelligence.
"It'll be okay," she told the emotion.
She left Intelligence to her books, which were little more than her memories of the day that had to be sorted. The mystic Titan returned to the walkway down the aisles of various memories and experiences throughout her life to the gateway. The gateways were mutable, opening not to just one but any of her emotion's mindscapes; the gateways could be directed--if one knew how. She passed through directly to Anger's mindscape.
Fire formed an ocean on the horizon. Jutting up from this volcanic landscape were various stone columns connected at the top by cliffhanger walkways. Just wide enough for her to stand with both feet together, the passages formed an unforgiving, serpentine path.
Raven moved silently across the trail, floating over the perilous gaps rather than walk the flexuous path. In the distance--dead center of the mindscape--she could see a figure in a bright, blood red cloak watching her approach, its eyes blazing with enraged, ruby luminescence. It looked out at the world through a permanent glare with those crimson oculars. The figure hung in the air like an idle marionette on invisible strings, limbs hanging limply within the cloak, hovering some six inches off the pathway.
When she touched down, the emotion spoke to her in its dual-toned, Demonic voice, "I knew you would come. The moment you ceded control to me, I knew it was only a matter of time before you came to lock me away.
"You've always been a self-righteous bitch with your emotions. Why should that change just because we're free of Father?"
The demi-Demon took everything Anger said with a grain of salt--it wasn't in the emotion's nature to show respect or be amicable in any shape, form, or fashion.
"Things have changed. I'm still trying to regulate the extent to which my emotions express themselves, but I'm not stopping them. My powers remain linked to all of you, so I need to keep some form of control.
"That said... I'm not here to lock you away. I'm here to listen to you. Since Father's destruction, the others have expressed themselves in several situations. You've been uncharacteristically quiet."
Anger silently digested Raven's explanation for a moment, and then launched into a tirade. She screamed promises of wrath upon the lawyers at Kamala's trial. She roared epithets and grievances against her fellow Titans. It growled menacing, fury-distorted words about everything from the narrow-minded mortals on the streets to politics and economy. The emotion even muttered against Jinx.
Anger was huffing with the force of her self-perpetuated ire by the end of it all, "...and kissed us in front of everyone! She had no right. How dare she embarrass us in public? She could have done irreparable damage to our livelihood with her impetuous acts. The press will smear us and make it impossible for us to go out without harassment!"
Raven withstood it all, letting the waves of seething hate wash over her. She accepted the negativity and, after addressing it, let the matters die. Seeing the emotion practically exhausted from the prolonged rant, she moved over to Anger and put a hand on its shoulder.
"It's okay to be angry, I realize that... I won't repress you. As for the lawyers-"
"Strangle them with their own intestines!" Anger interrupted.
Raven blinked. Okay, that was a rather colorful image. She replied easily, "...Not quite. However, you have my word that I will see them punished severely for this. I'm sure Robin is already taking care of it--but I'll look into it personally. If I'm not satisfied, I'm sure I can manage a nightmare curse to suffice..."
After that rare train of vindictive thought, she pulled Anger closer and embraced her, "We'll get 'em. I swear we'll get 'em."
The emotion stiffened, acutely uncomfortable with this display of affection. It conflicted with her base nature. It struggled to find an appropriate response, but wasn't equipped to do so. In the end, Anger reverted to what it knew best.
"...You're still a bitch."
Raven let her go and smirked, "I know."
The demi-Demon felt more stable, now. She took her leave from the emotion and returned her consciousness to the Physical Realm. When she opened her eyes, she was relieved that she did so with only two eyelids. The mystic Titan decided it was time to speak with Robin.
While the others argued over preparing a meal of meat (or tofu) or tofu (or meat)--whatever, they'd work it out eventually--Richard had compiled recent information on Jinx into her dossier. Every criminal he'd ever fought since the formation of the Titans had one. He could also link to Bruce's files or have Barbara send him information through the Oracle network. The Bat Family believed in covering their bases where intel was concerned; every one of them as obsessive as the other about knowing their enemies as well as their allies.
'Keep your friends close... and your enemies even closer. Certainly doing that, aren't we?'
Logging off the main computer, he leaned back and considered his options. Jinx could be a complication or an asset to the Titans. Richard intended to keep her in the latter category as much as possible. Since Blood had taken over, they had soundly trounced the HIVE Five. However, that first battle had been the hardest. While not under Brother Blood's influence, those three were a formidable force. The meticulous execution of Jinx's plan at Karasu's spoke for itself.
He remembered their first run-in with the HAEYP students. They could fight as a group, split to continue fighting solo, and merge into a single combative unit as fluidly as a river. The Boy Wonder loathed admitting it, but the Titans didn't have that level of organization, yet.
He wanted that. Richard decided to see if he could get anything on HIVE's training methods. Before the Titans leader could contemplate this further, his communicator beeped at him. Flicking it open, he saw the notification he'd set on the infirmary--Jinx was regaining consciousness. Standing up, he left the noisy common room/kitchen area for the quiet of the hallway.
Kammie awoke--again--to the slightly antiseptic smell of the infirmary. With Raven's healing and time, the drug's effects had finally ended, leaving the pink-haired villainess confused and lethargic. She felt out of touch with the world... as though she'd been living in a dream and, now awake, could no longer remember what that dream had been. There was a gap in her memory, that much was obvious. How big? How long had she been out of it?
She held up her hand, staring at it intently. Unlike usual, it took a bit of concentration to summon her powers and, when she finally managed, it the effects were minimal. Tiny, dust-like particles of glowing, pink hex flitted from the tips of her fingers. Finally, a tiny zap akin to static electricity arced between her fingers in a short, coral burst. It wasn't much, but the sorceress could feel it growing within her. It would come back in time. Abandoning the conjuring, she let her hand fall to the bed and looked up.
"Gonna stand there all day or tell me what happened?"
Robin moved around the curtain. Stealth didn't work with her when she was clean of the drugs, either; she seemed to have some preternatural sense. You just couldn't sneak around some people. Her fuchsia eyes were normal, no longer dilated to the point where it was impossible to tell she had vertical pupils. In all, save for the hints of fatigue in her voice, she appeared fine.
"What's the last thing you remember?"
She squinted, eyes turning to the ceiling for a moment. Kamala tried to pull things out of that void between then and now, but they refused to focus or be examined. The girl huffed and gave up.
"I was getting out of the car... walking up the steps of the courthouse--bunch o' steps. Good thing I wasn't restrained, woulda hated to go up 'em in leg irons. After that... ...Sorry, everything's kinda fuzzy. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in here, and here we are. I get little flashes of stuff--images and sounds--but nothing concrete. How long have I been out?"
He decided not to mention their previous conversation since she obviously didn't remember it, "Only a few hours. You were taken to a waiting room in the courthouse. There the lawyers--yours and the prosecution--conspired and drugged you. We're still finding out what it was from what remained in the prosecutor's briefcase. They set you loose in the courtroom; my guess is they were hoping you would sabotage your own hearing with the state they put you in."
When she stiffened and her pupils began to grow large, he quickly continued, "Raven was first to spot your abnormal behavior and immediately suspected something was wrong. When she found out you were drugged, she pointed out the lawyers and immediately brought you to the Tower to treat you."
He glossed over the particulars; it would likely only make her worry further. The Boy Wonder gave a small smile in hopes of reassuring her, "Judge Rendalton wants to meet you for an informal talk. To say the least, he's not happy that the lawyers turned his courtroom into a circus... so he's cutting lawyers out of the equation.
"This is a good thing--he's already leaning in favor of you in light of the situation."
Leaning up, Kamala stuffed the pillow behind her back and sat up.
"If you say so..."
"Jinx, if you get your probation with community service... what do you intend to do? Become a stand-by Titan?"
The hex-caster was quiet for a moment as she mulled over the possibilities in her head. In the end, it just didn't seem plausible. Not that she wouldn't like it, but there were too many factors to the heroine lifestyle that conflicted with her way of life. Being a villainess wasn't much better. Both had their restrictions and went against the flow at times.
"No, I don't think I'm cut out for that sort of thing. I can help in emergencies, I suppose... but my powers aren't the helping kind, if you get me. I've always wanted to be more of a... a mercenary. Just do what needs doing--I could pick my missions, not overextend myself. Once I get my name out there and in demand, I can be picky with jobs."
Robin understood where she was trying to steer the conversation and went along with it. It helped that she didn't remember anything she told him before; it probably made it easier for her to work herself toward her goal if she felt no one knew her ulterior motives.
"Why be picky? Most mercs aren't known for their high moral standards."
Kamala stared, those pupils narrowing into almost invisible slits and a slight frown bringing pink brows closer together.
"I'm not most mercs."
The teen sleuth smirked, "Because most mercs won't have an angry girlfriend?"
The pink-haired girl blushed and muttered under her breath. He chuckled lightly, but by its end, his stern image was back in place. She sobered quickly, immediately attuned to his change in mood.
"If you became a mercenary, would you extend your services to the Titans?"
Kammie pretended to ponder it, "Depends... mercenaries get paid. As they say, 'The creed is greed.' Money might not buy happiness, but it'll buy anything else I need."
Robin shrugged, "We'll work it out when we get there; but if you're open to the idea, I'm sure we can come up with a number. Now, if you're feeling up to it, you can grab a shower and join us for dinner. ...I think Raven would like that."
Step 8: Feed It
As Richard came out of the infirmary, he saw Raven floating his way, "Just who I was looking for. Jinx is awake, if you want to talk to her. Her things are in the locker closest to the door in the infirmary--she has a few changes of clothes. Could you show her to the shower?"
Raven blinked as he left her. Of course, he could have done it himself. He had left it to her--left Kamala to her. She smiled a bit and phased through the door into the sterile room.
The demi-Demon walked over quietly to the hex-caster, who was trying to muster up the energy to move. It seemed her limbs didn't quite agree with what her mind wanted them to do, yet.
"Take it slow; it took a lot out of you. Are you feeling better?" the mystic Titan asked as she came to the side of the bed.
"Much. Thanks... for everything," she said quietly, and then blushed, "Um, do you think you could help me up? My legs are kinda... numb."
"It's circulation. I was worried about your vital functions, so I drew the bulk of your blood toward your vital organs while I was healing you. Warmth and motion should fix that."
As Raven bent down to put an arm under Kamala's back, she found herself staring at the other girl. She moved closer and pressed her lips to the other girl for a moment. The pink-haired, would-be mercenary sighed under her and quietly began to purr. It was a simple kiss, less overwhelming and more relaxed. Raven's hair fell over her shoulder and brushed against Kamala's neck and clavicle, causing the sorceress to giggle.
The violet-haired heroine pulled back, "What?"
"Your hair tickles."
"I meant to cut it..."
The hex-caster reached out, tucking the violet strands behind a slightly pointed ear, caressing the outer shell down to the lobe as she did so, "Don't. It looks nice."
The demi-Demon blushed, but smiled--just a bit. Finally, she helped the girl up and led her out of the infirmary; the locker opened and Kammie's backpack floated after them.
After Kamala had her shower, Raven took her by the hand and led her to the common room and kitchen. Eight eyes turned to them and the HIVE Five member's hand instinctively and anxiously tightened over the Titan's. The violet-haired girl squeezed back in a gesture of reassurance and tugged her gently forward to the table. Still holding the pink-haired girl's hand, the mystic Titan purposefully forced her teammates to accept the hex-caster as part of her life.
Richard hid a small smile behind a glass of lemonade. It was good to see that Raven was taking an active interest in something--someone. At first, he had been worried that Jinx would be out of control and drag Raven around like a giant dog with a small child holding the leash. It was good that his teammate was being so assertive. Before the fall of Trigon, it was a rare sight. She no longer passively observed the world as it passed her by. The Titan sleuth watched as Raven brought over Jinx, finally letting the sorceress' hand go to help herself to the hotdogs.
In the end, the other Titans turned back to their food--a mixture of tofu and pork hotdogs--and their discussions. Richard went back to explaining the customs of Halloween to Koriand'r, and Victor and Gar argued the strengths and weaknesses of their respective diets. Raven and Kammie quietly murmured amongst themselves about various topics they had in common.
Slowly, the pink-haired hex-caster's conversation became more and more distracted, her responses becoming shorter and, at times, monosyllabic. Frowning at Kamala's preoccupation, Raven slowly lowered her barriers--and instantly filtered out the overbearingly loud thoughts of Gar and Vic. Richard's mind was still on the surface, but she knew better. Kamala's mind was so distressed it was broadcasting her thoughts.
'If he keeps staring at me I'm going to crap my karma! Why is he looking at me? I didn't do anything! What does he want? He hasn't looked away for the past five minutes. Don't look at him, if you just ignore 'im, maybe he'll stop...'
Surreptitiously, the demi-Demon glanced at the Boy Wonder. He continued his small talk with Kori without missing a beat, but his drilling gaze upon the pink-haired girl never wavered. She sent to him sharply on their private link. To his credit, he didn't start; the only reaction was a slightly tighter grip on his glass of lemonade.
'Richard.'
'Yes?'
'No microscopes...'
She knew he didn't realize he was doing it. He tended to dissect people on instinct. It was a habit, likely picked up from his time with Bruce. The Titan sleuth didn't reply, but calmly turned his focus to the pitcher of lemonade on the table to pour another glassful. This done, he turned his eyes to the Tamaranean to continue his conversation.
Raven pulled the pink-haired girl's attention back to their discussion on magic, "What stones do you usually use for your Blood Rites?"
With Robin's gaze no longer on her, Kamala's stress significantly lowered until she slid back into the topic fully, "For a while, I was using obsidian and this new knife I ordered through a catalogue... but the yield was way lower than all the tomes in the Academy library rated its potentiality. I couldn't get it. I even sliced a Release Glyph into my right palm--which wasn't easy to do 'cause I'm right handed."
She doodled the runic symbol on her palm with a finger, "But I still wasn't getting the right yield. That's when I started looking at the basics and researched everything. I know it's stupid, but I didn't pick up on it until almost a week later. The knife I was using was stainless steel. The elements were all confused."
"So I tossed the knife and had Mikron cast me one in iron. After that, things went pretty smooth."
Raven nodded, but made a vague symbol in the air that only made sense if one understood the intricacies of mysticism, "With that kind of... thing, I've found it best to go neutral. I ran into that same problem--I had to make another ajna chakra gem. My old one was made of rose quartz--I'd had it forever. I could have upgraded to a ruby anytime, but I only just decided on it recently...
"I swear I almost gave myself anemia trying to purify the ruby with all the Blood Rites. I tried all my blades--iron, bronze, gold, silver--but none of them would work! Eventually, I broke down and splurged on a glass dagger-"
The pink-haired girl broke in, "Taking the factor of a metal's mystical resonance completely out of the equation..."
"Exactly, since the mystical resonance of glass is so obviously null, there were no conflicting frequencies in my mystical field. Everything became harmonic. The moment I opened my palm, I could feel the energy transferring into the ruby before my blood even touched it!"
Kammie was about to respond, but paused when she noticed the silence around the rest of the table. Robin's glass was halfway to his lips, frozen in place inches from his mouth. Beast Boy's mouth was open, jaw sagging around a tofu hotdog waiting to be bitten. Cyborg just sat blinking at them, tongs hovering over the plate of meaty goodness. Starfire slurped at an empty bottle of mustard, too distracted to reach for another bottle while her wide, green eyes remained fixated on the other girls.
While Richard was glad that Raven had opened up by finding a mutual topic to discuss instead of remaining silent during their meals... the Boy Wonder had just lost his appetite. He brought the glass to his lips, took a sip, and then slowly set his drink down. He glanced to Raven, who had turned to her plate and bit into her hotdog... a bit of ketchup oozed out the other side and landed on the plate...
Finally noticing the silence herself, the demi-Demon looked up at her other teammates. Swallowing her bite, she frowned at them.
"...What?"
--END CHAPTER--
Well, there ya go! The second installment of TCAR. Yes, I noticed the Titans pun in the acronym. That's neither here nor there, though. Here we've a 'sad' part of the short story with Jinx's drugging and subsequent rambles.
As for that word, 'tetraophthalmic'... no, it's not a typo. That's my medical student side shining through. Call it a bit of in-text reading comprehension. If you didn't get it, just do a quick search for it. That's Google's purpose, after all. You learn something new every day. I know, I said the 'L'-word and nobody wants to learn, but I'm a bastard that way.
More fun, humor, and 'aww'-moments. I'm enjoying this silly story. I hope you are, too! There's only a bit more to come, so review quick and I'll post the next one!
-Lynx Klaw