3/8/22

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Cursed

Chapter Forty-Two: In Wonderland

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I steady my trembling hands as we follow a masked lackey through the twisting corridors of the Brotherhood of Evil's hideout. The flight to Paris was long, though plenty comfortable in the private jet sent by Madame Rouge, and it gave me time to absorb the reality of everything that happened over the past few days. I met the boy from my dreams. I betrayed Madame Rouge for him. And more surprising yet, she accepted me even in spite of it. This acceptance... is it truly what I've been chasing for all these years? It feels so unreal. I know I can't afford to mess up, not when I've made it this far. Madame Rouge may have overlooked my poor behavior once, but there's no guarantee she'll do it again. I've been drilling this into my team's heads for the whole flight, even though it was my fault we were almost prevented from joining, not theirs.

Much to my surprise, the first person to greet us in the main hall isn't Madame Rouge. Instead, it's... Grant?

"Private?" I ask, looking between him and Madame Rouge's lackey nervously.

What's going on? I thought he left this life behind. What about his brother?

I think about my own little sister. I may have been working for this my whole life, but I would give it all up for Felicity. I'm sure Grant feels the same way about his brother. So what gives?

"Hey Sargent! Nice to see you again!" Grant says, finishing off with a salute.

"Likewise, but what are you doing here? Weren't you looking for your mom and your little brother?"

Grant frowns, glancing down at the ground.

"They don't live at our old house anymore. I couldn't find them anywhere. But, you know, I was thinking that joining the Brotherhood would be a good chance to travel around and keep on lookin' for them!"

See-More shakes his hand. "Well, it's good to have you back anyways! Um... Jinx? He does get to join us again, right?"

I blink in surprise, shocked by the pleading looks on both See-More and Private's faces. Apparently Grant does still care about us, at least a little. I guess I assumed that after he left, he wouldn't want to be friends anymore if we did encounter each other again. As a civilian, we would've been on opposite sides of the law. But maybe it's okay since he's still a villain for the time being.

"Of course! The more the merrier!" I say with a forced smile.

Great. Who knows what Kid Flash would have to say about the Hive Seven.

I chase the thoughts out of my head. I can't be thinking about the enemy, especially at a time like this. No matter how much I wanted to follow him, I belong here. And even if I did leave, who's to say that I wouldn't have came back like Grand did?

"Oh, uh... Sargent? I just thought I'd give you a heads up. I saw the Headmistress here."

My heart skips a beat. Headmistress? Here? Why? Cold relief flood though my veins, and a weight I didn't know I was carrying is lifted from my shoulders. She's okay, and she's alive. Isn't that what matters?

But if she's alive, that means I can see her again, right? The whirlwind of emotions I'm feeling shifts to excitement, and I shake Private's shoulders and grin ecstatically.

"Well, where is she?" I laugh, resisting the urge to jump up and down like a little kid.

Private's shoulders slump, and I immediately realize something is very wrong.

"That's the thing, Jinx," he says gently, his bravado dropping like it did the last time I saw him. "She completely ignored me. Any time I tried to talk to her, she brushed me off like she didn't care about me. I talked to some of the other H.I.V.E students here, and they said the same thing. Terrestrial got her to talk to him, but he said she told him to just leave everything that happened in the past."

My happiness melts away, and it's like the world has stopped.

"Why? Does she just not care anymore?" I ask, my voice shaking.

I try not to cry. I can't cry, not in front of my team. It's just too much. Maybe I just got Madame Rouge's favor, but that didn't mean I wanted to sacrifice my bond with Headmistress. She took me in when I had no one else. Does that mean nothing to her?

My resolve to keep up my brave face is strengthened when another one of the Brotherhood's lackeys approaches us with a set of small envelopes. He passes out the matching, smaller envelopes to the boys, saving the largest one for me.

"These are your room keys. Jinx, your first mission briefing will be with Madame Rouge at 18:00 hours sharp. You may bring two allies of your choosing. That will be all."

Without waiting for a response, the lackey turns and walks away. A hurricane of emotions continues to stir inside me, spiraling out of control. I don't know how to feel anymore. Pink hexes sparkle around my wrists, but I take a deep breath and will them away.

"Okay team," I sigh, repressing all signs of fear and confusion. "You heard him. My meeting is at 6, so we'll meet up at 5:30 and figure out who's coming with me. Until then, we should unpack and try to get a feel for the layout of the base."

"Jinx, are you sure you're okay?" Mammoth asks.

I bite my lip and shake my head. "It doesn't matter. Right now we need to focus on the mission at hand. I'll see you in a few hours."

Turning away, I let a few tears fall down my cheeks as I study the envelope. My room number is marked on the outside, with a room key and a small pamphlet enclosed inside. Directions to Madame Rouge's office are marked on a sticky note, which has been attached to the pamphlet. The pamphlet itself is an advertisement for an orphanage. A weird sense of guilt creeps up on me every time I look at it, so I put it back in the envelope and focus on finding my room. I can worry about why she sent me the pamphlet later.

I find the girls' hall easy enough, suppressing a shudder when I see "Angel and Kitten" marked on a door near mine. Great. She's here. My luck truly does suck if I managed to run into her again here of all places. Eventually I make it to my own door, marked as "Cheshire and Jinx".

Cheshire. I've heard of her before, but we haven't met. She's an assassin for the League of Shadows, one of their best even. The League of Shadows put a bad taste in my mouth ever since they took Jade from me, and even if they hadn't taken her I still wouldn't be thrilled to share a room with a deadly assassin. I'll just have to sleep with one eye open at night and hope she doesn't try to kill me.

I'm about to open the door when it flings open, hitting me right on the forehead. Hexes shoot out of my hands uncontrollably from the shock, and I fall backwards into the hallway.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" I snap.

I realize I may have been hasty in my rage when I see that, unsurprisingly, Cheshire herself was the one behind the door. I can feel her staring at me from behind her mask. It's unnerving. If I was nervous about this arrangement before, it doesn't even compare to how I feel now...

"Mal?"

I frown, furrowing my brows. "How do you know that name?"

Cheshire rips her mask off and peels off the domino mask underneath, tossing both haphazardly to the floor. Behind the mask is a girl I recognize all too well. My heart beats erratically as I try to process the sight in front of me.

"Jade," I whisper.

The tears I was holding back earlier fall freely now, and Jade starts sobbing as well. She tackles me into a hug, burying her head into my shoulder. I wrap my arms around her protectively, holding her so tightly that no one could pry her from my grasp if they tried.

"You're okay. I've got you now," I sniffle, rubbing circles into her back.

Jade nuzzles my shoulder, drying her cheeks on my sleeve. I would be annoyed if anyone else tried that, but... I mean, come on. It's Jade. She can do whatever she wants for all I care. I'm just happy to have at least one of my baby sisters back. Seeing my biological sister again may be out of the question, but now that I've finally found Jade I'm determined to keep a better eye on her this time.

"I'm so sorry. I should've told you where I was going. But I got so scared, and I didn't want to leave you and... I just... if I never told you what was happening I guess I thought I wouldn't have to go back," Jade rambles between her tears.

I frown, glancing at the distinctive grinning cat mask laying on the floor next to us. So this is where she's been. This is who she is now. Not Jade, the sweet little girl who trailed after me at the Junior Hive Academy like a little lost duckling, but Cheshire, the deadly assassin with blood on her hands. The cognitive dissonance just isn't something I can process. Jade has murdered countless innocents in cold blood, but here she is curled up in my arms like nothing has changed. One question burns through my mind.

What did those monsters do to her?

My happiness quickly turns to rage, but I snuff it out quickly. Now isn't the time. Perhaps once I'm a full-fledged member of the Brotherhood, Madame Rouge and I can take revenge on the League of Shadows for what they did. But for now, Jade is safe with me, and that's all that matters.

"Forget it. Let's get settled in our room before someone sees you without that mask, okay?"

Jade quickly jumps up, snatching her masks and speeding into our room in a flash. It's almost funny how fast that got her attention.

"Ra's would probably kill me for telling you this, but I'm mostly here to keep an eye on the Brotherhood for him. As much as he agrees with their current goals, he doesn't want their power overshadowing his, pun intended. So of course I volunteered to be the one for the mission once I realized you might be here too. You can imagine how excited I was when I realized your name was on my door," Jade rambles, propping the door open with her arm as I drag my suitcases into the room.

The room is simple, with two twin beds with solid black bedspreads, a nightstand between them, and a wardrobe leaning against the wall. A simple lamp sits on the nightstand, and Jade's worn and faded Cheshire Cat plushie is already laying on one of the beds, claiming it for Jade. I sit my suitcases at the foot of the remaining bed and take a seat. Jade leaps onto her own bed with cat-like grace, and in a single swipe she hides her plushie under her pillow. She avoids my gaze, clearly embarrassed. In response, I pull my three out of my suitcase and carefully arrange them in front of my pillow. Jade perks up immediately.

"Oh! You added one!"

I smile, turning my gaze to Better Leo. If Zippy and Clover are still around as proof that my parents loved me once, Betty here is proof that my team loves me now.

"I'm surprised the Shadows let you keep yours," I say, straightening Zippy's dress. "I thought they would be super strict about stuff like that."

"Ohhh, they are," Jade sings, flopping over on her side. "I just make sure to hide him."

"Fair enough. So how did you know I was Jinx?"

Jade tilts her head. "What do you mean? I see you on the news all the time. Maybe you got a little bit paler, but with your powers it wasn't that hard to piece it all together. Really it's not that hard for anyone we went to school with, I mean you're not exactly subtle... Kyd Wykkyd is Damon, right? That's the only one I wasn't sure of."

I frown, averting my gaze. "We're not supposed to use our old names anymore."

"Why not? You have your real name and your code name. I may not have a life outside of the Shadows, but it's not like I have to be Cheshire all the time. Of course, that's probably just because my mentor Lian is..."

Jade catches herself. Her expression morphs into one of raw grief, only to fade into something unreadable. The red flags are obvious. Something terrible happened.

"Jade?"

"Oh don't mind me, I'm just rambling. It's been a long time since I really had anyone to talk to. For the past few months it's just been me and Ra's and targets. Okay, that's a lie, I saw Roy too, but that's not important since we didn't get to talk. But now I've got you, so it's okay," Jade rambles, face turning red.

I frown, resting my hand on my suitcase. "Actually, I'm supposed to leave for a mission soon."

Jade's face falls, and she doesn't even try to mask her disappointment. It's a relief, in a way, to know that she can still feel things and doesn't feel the need to hide it from me. But on the other hand, it stings to know that this time I'm the reason for her sadness.

A thought strikes me, and I have no reason to turn it away. I guess this makes us the Hive Eight now.

"Want to come with me?"

…

Hi again! I know, I know, it's been a month. Family drama took a toll on my mental health and I had to take things slow. Hopefully having Jade back will make up for the hiatus ;)

(Side note, I tried to use Cheshire's circumstances as a foil for Jinx's. Jinx views the Shadows' manipulation of Jade as something vile and horrifying, while Jinx doesn't see anything wrong with the way the Headmistress personally manipulated her. The reality is that both girls were put into very similar situations where they were raised by what is essentially cults to do their dirty work, though Jinx is too far in to realize this. It's often easier to see toxic situations for what they really are when you have an outsider's perspective, and Jinx's protectiveness of Cheshire certainly helps in this case. Perhaps their bond will be one of the reasons that Jinx opens her eyes to the truth behind the Hive in the end…)

Quote of the day!

"I couldn't sleep last night, so I decided to read a couple chapters of my book. It didn't work. I finished the book." – me explaining to my dad why I almost fell asleep at work

It was the Sleeping Beauty book from the Twisted Tales series, ironically enough. I'd give it 4/5 stars.

May the odds be ever in your favor,

~Spectrobes Princess