Chapter Text

1. Chasing Shadows

One second, Jinx was in the middle of walking down the street minding her own business. The next she was weightless and dropping with a screech that cut off in a grunt as she thunked down into a seat.

Which, rude. But also begged the question of how someone teleports her so she landed sitting like that without breaking her knees? Or why someone teleported her.

She tried to stand up and figured out pretty fast that her legs were stuck to the chair. Leaning forward with a thoughtful hum, she heard the chair give a sharp creak and then something tightened around her stomach. It pulled taut and she sprang back, drawing out a hiss at the feeling of ice on her spine.

So a metal chair. And a metal table in front of her. A quick look around found her in a dark, dingy black and silver room lit by a light recessed into an otherwise smooth roof. Squinting, she thought she saw lines in the walls, like they were made from panels. It felt kind of like the old HIVE base, but there wasn’t enough black and orange for that.

Humming, she looked down at her wrists. Not her first time in cuffs, and it wouldn’t be her last. These cuffs were different, though. She was wrapped in black metal that was definitely not standard pig edition.

She tried an experimental twist of the wrist. It was a basic trick, one she’d used probably hundreds of times while the gloating cop on the other side of the table stared on stinking of stale coffee and a sudden bout of fear sweats. These handcuffs twisted and followed her wrists like they were alive, easily keeping their grip.

So that wasn’t great. And the hum against her skin felt different from the D.M.A.’s power dampeners. Less electric, more like they were alive. They didn’t slip loose like they usually would when she moved her wrists in just the right way, either.

More worrying, she was pretty sure she could hear whispering by her wrists. It was a subtle, quiet thing, but in the silence of the room, she could swear she heard crackling like a distant fire and groaning voices. It was just on the edge of her hearing range, and focusing on it made the room feel a little fuzzy.

She looked around for anything to focus on that wasn’t that. And then her eyes fell back on that light above her head. It was recessed into the roof, but glowing down at her bright enough that she had to blink the spots out of her eyes.

Bright enough that it should have lit up the whole room nice and bright. And it did, mostly. Except for that corner across from her…

Humming, she leaned back in her seat and stared into the abyss. Something blinked back.

And suddenly the black portal she’d dropped into made some sense.

She brought her arms up and swung down in a violent arc. Her hands slammed against the table handcuff-first in a burst of pink sparks and an echoing metal clang. Her hex pulsed through the room, rattling the chair under her and making the table vibrate. The light reached the corner and died like it was drained out.

Flexing her wrists, she found them held as tightly as they were a second ago. The pressure on her ankles and stomach was gone, though, so that was something. At least the table felt the hit.

Jinx planted her elbows in the dent broken into the thick steel tabletop and cupped her hands under her chin.

She was a little impressed with whatever these cuffs were. Not that she’d ever tell Raven that.

Grinning at the shadow, she waved a hand trailing pink sparks.

“Hey, Rae! What? No hello, no dinner, just straight to kidnapping? I’m feeling the love, really.”

The shadow rippled and something moved inside. Whatever it was moved like it was bigger than the goth and her cloak. And like there was a lot more space in that corner than there should’ve been.

“When did you guys even get an interrogation room, anyway? Don’t remember this from back in the day… I mean, Boy Blunder does seem like the interrogation room type, but still. Do the JCPD know this is here?”

More silence, and Jinx huffed.

“Y’know, normally I’d be up for some handcuffs and chill, but you kind of grabbed me right when I was getting dinner. What do you say we take this somewhere less intimate?”

The shadows looked like they breathed, reaching further into the room before pulling back.

“Think about it, Sunshine. You could be giving me the silent treatment while I have some pizza right now.”

The shadows stretched again, pushing closer to Jinx. And then it shrank like an elastic band snapping, and the dark Titan was leaning against the corner. She had her arms crossed and her face was covered in darkness.

Not that she could see it on her face, but she was pretty sure she was annoying Raven.

“Well at least now I have something nice to look at while you’re not asking me questions for whatever this is. Definitely better, really. I love a dinner and a show, would love the dinner part. But seriously, could we get to the part where you let me go? And maybe give me money for pizza, because Mammoth was hungry before I left for the food run and I feel like it’s gonna’ take a while to get back.”

Raven twitched and, for just a second, the whole room seemed to flicker black. Jinx rolled her eyes.

“Cool trick. Sad for you, though, I’m not Arty. I like the dark. It’s all mysterious and sexy and stuff. Not joking, though. If I get back to the base and Mammoth ate our fridge? I’m sending the Titans a bill. Well, I’m sending you the bill. Since you kidnapped me and all. Seriously, this is not my idea of a fun Friday nig-”

In a blink, Raven was gone. Jinx’s head whipped around, looking for where she went. She found her sitting on the other side of the table, a steaming cup of something that smelled herbal and sharp sitting in her hand.

Jinx was pretty sure she would have made her old HAEYP teachers proud. She only nearly tipped the chair over when she jerked backward. She totally managed to suppress the very badass, cold-blooded shriek of terror.

“What do you know?” Raven rasped.

Granted, it had been a while since she’d bantered with the sorceress, but Jinx was pretty sure her voice hadn’t sounded that deep and growly before.

“I know you haven’t moved like that before!”

Raven just lifted a brow at her, and Jinx huffed. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and let her heart calm down. She met the Titan’s violet glare and shrugged.

“Gonna’ have to be more specific, Blackbird. I know a lot of things. Some of them I can maybe even talk about.”

She then lifted her arms and shook them at the Titan.

“If you could take the freaky, whispering cuffs off? It would be a great start for you. A please wouldn’t hurt, either.”

Raven tilted her head at that. For just a second, Jinx saw her eyes go wide in surprise before she forced that weird, stoic mask of hers.

“Is my soul-self actually whispering to you, or are you just being dramatic per usual?”

For a second, Jinx just stared at her. Because that was a real question, Raven sounded too surprised for her to be running a game.

Also? Soul-self had some implications.

“Is that not you messing with me?”

Raven kept staring in surprise, like she was trying to solve a really interesting puzzle suddenly dropped in front of her.

Jinx started sweating as she put her hands on the table and glared.

“Okay! Yep. Take the tentacle monster cuffs off. Now. Or I swear to whatever gods are listening I’m jinxing the Tower so hard they’ll have a blackout in Gotham!”

Raven seemed unsettled, which did not help calm Jinx’s sudden nerves. Fortunately for them both, the Titan nodded and made a quick gesture with her hand.

In a burst of black and white light, the color of the table under her fist inverted. And then the cuffs were off, curling like ink across the table and back to Raven’s palm like she was reeling it in.

Jinx’s shudder made the chair rattle under her.

At least Raven had the grace to blush, so it wasn’t intentional. Jinx wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse.

Dramatically rubbing her unharmed wrists, Jinx threw her a glare for good measure.

“Next time you want to grab me off the street? Use normal ass handcuffs and keep that shit to the bedroom.”

Raven’s blush faded as she frowned right back.

“Normal handcuffs would last all of a second if you were having an off day.”

“And they wouldn’t make me wonder what kind of mags you have sitting around under your bed.”

“Is your mind perpetually in the gutter, or is that just how you deal with stress?”

Feeling much less annoyed now that she was freed, Jinx leaned forward and stared back with a smirk.

“You got the joke, Sunshine.”

Another blush, and Raven actually looked away for good measure. Jinx filed that away for the next time the Titans stepped in on one of her heists.

Before she could follow up, Raven looked back at her with eyes just slightly darker than they’d been a second ago.

“You broke into my room. Why?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m flattered you’re dreaming about me, but are you seriously having dreams about almost three years-”

“Yesterday.”

The room flickered and went black. For just a second, Jinx thought she was staring into red eyes.

The light snapped back on, and Raven hadn’t moved. Still there, still holding her tea, still normal-for-her pretty violet eyes. Jinx was suddenly feeling a lot less comfortable in a room alone with the dark Titan.

“You broke into my room yesterday, Jinx. You stole something. A book. Why?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I doubt you forgot it so quickly. White with silver gilt edges. About as big as your ego. Wrapped in black iron chains with glowing red runes.”

Raven leaned over the table and Jinx wasn’t sure if she was actually bigger or if that was just the effect she was having on her.

“I can feel its magic on you, Jinx. You’re filled with Chaos magic right now. You’ve always been strong, but never this strong.”

“You think I’m strong?”

Raven’s eyes narrowed, and Jinx gulped.

“I’ve never seen a book like that before, Sunshine. You’re talking me up, but I’m just a normal ass witch. If I found a book wrapped in glowing chains? I’m either burning it or running in the other direction fast.”

Raven stared at her, and it felt like the sorceress was looking through her. Jinx wasn’t sure if it was doing things for her, or if it was making her want to scream and run for the door.

Either way, she couldn’t clamp down on the shiver running down her back.

The Titan had been intense from the day they’d met. Always a woman of few words and heavy hits, she knew firsthand to beware this quiet one in particular. But this felt… off.

As creepy as the talking heads loved saying she was, Raven wasn’t the Titan she’d expect a random half-cocked abduction from.

Humming, she leaned forward and fought a grin when Raven jerked back. Moving around, she looked at Raven from different angles, but any way she looked, it was the Titan.

At least she assumed. She hadn’t seen her without the cloak and shadows hiding her face before, but she doubted they had a second girl running around with the scary dark gimmick.

“Is this some kind of mind swap thing?” she guessed.

When Raven frowned, Jinx stood up and pressed forward until they were almost touching.

“See, I’m seeing Raven, but I’m feeling like I’m talking to Boy Blunder when he’s in one of his moods.”

“Where’s the book, Jinx?”

“Probably with whoever took it.”

Raven reached forward and pressed a finger to Jinx’s chest. The hex-caster gasped when she pushed her bodily back into her chair with just that one finger.

“Jump City has exactly three magical villains. I have wards in place for Mother Mae-Eye after a recent incident. There are also reports that she was running a bake sale all day yesterday.”

Raven lifted a second finger with a narrowing glare.

“Mumbo is a circus clown with a powerful relic. A relic which he assuredly has not gotten back yet, since I pulled footage and found him stuck in his cell all day yesterday.”

Raven pointed at her and the room flickered again.

“And there’s you, Jinx. The only actual magician and the only one of the three who would maybe know what to do with my book if you stole it.”

“I mean, I was top of the class in Arcane Studies back at the academy,” Jinx admitted with a light purr. “And I’m loving the compliments, really. But all I did yesterday was finish sleeping off a cold.”

She still couldn’t believe it. Out of all things to waylay her, a cold taking her out for almost a week had been humiliating. Sure, it had been some weird alien cold from that Intergang tech Gizmo had stolen, but still.

Gizmo laughing his pint-sized ass off all week while she suffered, because of him, had been extra insulting.

Not that she was about to tell Raven any of that.

“There was an… incident… yesterday. The Titans were engaged and out of the Tower for most of the day. When I returned, I found my door open and my book missing.”

“And that’s real sad and all, but-”

“Someone broke into the Tower.”

“Oh, come on! You can throw a rock across the pond and hit a villain who’s done that by now… You really should talk to Chromedome about that sometime.”

“Someone broke into my room,” Raven hissed. “They got in and they got out and took something with them. There’s a short list of people who could do that, Jinx, and you’re the only one who’s a magician and has been in my room before.”

And okay, fair point. She remembered what kind of wards she had to break just to get in there when they took over the Tower forever ago. Her door, the rug, the closet, damn near everything had security on it. Even back then, taking some of Raven’s accessories had been the limit of what she was willing to touch or even look at in there.

That was back then. She couldn’t even imagine what kind of zap Raven’s room would have almost three years later.

So she could admit, she kinda saw where Raven was coming from. In Raven’s shoes, she’d probably be suspect number one too. Except she knew she didn’t break into anywhere yesterday, and she definitely wasn’t stupid enough to roll the dice robbing Raven. The Greenbean, Sparkles, or Chromedome, sure. Maybe Boy Blunder. But not Raven, and that had been before today.

Which did beg the question of who the hell did. With a quiet curse, Jinx leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. She could feel her curiosity rearing its annoying head and knew that this was going to end badly. But curiosity and cats and all that.

“I hate to break it to you, Sunshine, but I’m not your girl. Cause you’re right about one thing. Going into your room and messing with your stuff? That isn’t something a random goon off the street’s going to pull off. But, see, I have this condition where I like my atoms arranged just how they are. Despite what you might think about my acrobatics, I actually do like living.”

Letting her arms drop, she met Raven’s stare and willed the Titan to believe her.

“I’ve never seen a book like you’re talking about in my life. And I haven’t heard anything, either. Even with your whole black bagging thing here, we’ve been laying low for a while now. I haven’t even talked to my contacts in a few weeks.”

“It has to be you, Jinx,” Raven snarled.

Jinx paused and looked Raven over again. That didn’t sound like Raven was sure. It sounded like she was desperate for it to be Jinx. Like she needed Jinx to be an easy answer to her problem.

“I don’t know what to tell you. Sorry, Rae. It looks like you need to find another thief.”

Jinx sighed and pushed to her feet, letting her back pop with a satisfied groan.

“Can you do that whole ink dimension thing and drop me back off by the pizza place? Or are you gonna’ make me actually walk all the way back there?”

Raven said nothing, and Jinx took a step toward the door already reaching for the doorknob. With a whoosh of displaced air, the door turned black. The darkness spread and covered the entire wall in a second flat.

Jinx pulled back with a yelp, shaking her hand at the thought that she would’ve lost it if she’d been a second faster and grabbed the knob.

So apparently Raven upgraded from grabbing chunks of concrete and metal. Neat. Not at all terrifying.

Jinx whirled around, mouth open to shout at the dark Titan. And promptly let out a screech and hopped back with flailing arms, because holy shit Raven was standing right behind her!

She caught her balance and glared. She hadn’t heard Raven move. At all. No rustling fabric, no scrape of a chair being moved, not even a deep breath as Raven hopped over the table or did whatever she just did.

“Someone needs to put a bell on you, holy shit!”

Leveling a burning glare on the unmoving wall of Titan in front of her, she let out a hiss. And then she stepped forward and planted a hand firmly on Raven’s stomach. Which kind of felt like pressing on marble, the way Mammoth felt any time he had to carry her ass out of a fire.

Not what she’d expect from the Titans’ ranged support.

Joking Jinx was gone. Raven moving on her like that was a step too far. Somewhere, glass cracked and she knew if she looked at a mirror right then, her eyes would be burning bright neon pink.

“I don’t know about your book. I wasn’t in the Tower yesterday, or the day before that, haven’t been here in years. You have a choice to make now, Tall, Dark, and Spooky. Are you letting me out, or am I letting myself out?”

To Raven’s credit, her poker face held up great even without the hood. If she was impressed by the way the whole room was lit up like Livewire got loose in there, if she knew one twitch from Jinx could stop her heart right then, she didn’t show it.

She did growl through bared teeth, leaning into Jinx’s touch. Jinx locked in place, refusing to blink as she stared into solid black eyes.

“I’ve spent the entire day tracking this down. My book is gone. You’re the only thief who knows enough magic in this whole city to do this.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Jinx snapped back.

Raven’s eyes flashed red, and she knew she didn’t imagine it that time. The air turned heavier, pressing down on Jinx’s shoulders.

She shoved the voice screaming to bail now back in its box and loosened her iron fist around her powers. The room around them lit up in pink sparks, her magic dancing across her entire arm and down into the floor at her feet.

Metal whined as the chair she’d been in rusted and snapped, falling to the floor in a pile of scrap. The table bent and warbled and then, with a shrill whine that made Jinx ask where the hell the other Titans were, it snapped clean in two.

She didn’t plan on killing a Titan. She wasn’t even sure she could kill whatever the hell Raven was. But she wasn’t exactly giving her a choice.

So much for laying low.

Jinx channeled her power and her entire palm lit up. Magic gathered at her fingertips, ready to unleash and burn and ruin and destroy.

And suddenly Raven wasn’t there anymore.

Jinx yelped as her weight tipped without the Great Wall of Raven pushing back, sending her stumbling forward. The build-up snapped off her hand as she wildly swung her arms and half of the table’s remains exploded in a shower of shrapnel and fuchsia flames.

She hit the floor face-first with a grunt. The room turned black. Groaning, she forced an eye open and…

Jinx was sitting in a chair. Raven was sitting across from her at a metal table. The room was brightly lit and not covered in buzzing darkness and whispers.

Her heart raced inside her chest, feeling a second away from exploding.

It looked like the room was completely normal. Like the last few… seconds? Minutes? Whatever, it looked like none of it had happened. Except it did. Raven’s solid black eyes staring back at her and the scorch marks on the walls was enough proof of that.

“What the fuck was that!?”

“My apologies.”

Jinx jerked like she’d been slapped.

“Your apologies.”

Raven nodded, looking like she was embarrassed. Normally, Jinx would think the blush looked pretty on the Titan. Except she was a little caught up in wondering if she’d just seen Raven have a psychotic break.

Raven looked at her, then, and looked like she might cry. Jinx didn’t know what to do with that.

“It has been… a very bad set of days for me. I thought… I can see…”

Raven leaned back and pressed her hands into her face, letting out a deep sigh like Gizmo after one of his machines started sparking and smoking. When she opened her eyes, they were their usual violet again.

“Are you suffering from a magic build-up at the moment, Jinx?”

She stared at the Titan, wondering if she’d heard her right. With Raven staring at her expectantly, she was pretty sure she had.

Frowning, she gestured at the walls. And the scorch marks on the walls.

Now that she thought about it, she realized she still had the tingling buzz of her magic crackling under the surface. Huffing, she shook her hand out and let a few pink sparks bounce off the table. Something cracked and the light above them popped and flickered before turning back on.

Jinx ignored the rain of glass slivers, refusing to break eye contact.

“It’s been a while since I let loose. What’s your point?”

Raven nodded and let out a heavy sigh. And then she looked at Jinx, and she looked concerned. And boy did that set Jinx’s alarms ringing.

“How long exactly has it been since you’ve let loose?”

Jinx scoffed and glared back at her.

“Look, if you think this weird hot and cold thing you’re doing is going to get me to-”

“You’re glowing in the dark, Jinx.”

Jinx felt her mouth gaping.

“…What?”

“The book has a creature bound within it which can level this city in seconds. Even bound, I can feel his presence through the book nearly anywhere in the Tower, but it tapers off around the front door. I felt your Chaos magic from the sky and assumed you had it on you.”

Jinx would be lying if she said that didn’t scare the shit out of her.

Sure, it had been a few weeks. Since Brother Blood had his ass handed to him by Chromedome. Since the Five had gotten back to Jump and agreed they all needed some downtime after having their brains used as chewtoys by the geezer.

Even Gizmo hadn’t thrown a tantrum.

So maybe she’d been a little jittery. And maybe Giz had shoved her out the door tonight to do the food run after one too many of his cables shorted out. She hadn’t thought it was a big deal.

She’d had build up before.

Suddenly, she wondered how long it had been since the last time she had a good heist or fight or anything to really get her hexes flowing. Had Blood put her on any jobs while he was puppeteering them?

She couldn’t remember.

“I don’t know.”

The admission hurt. And she hated the way her voice shook when she said it. Hated still not knowing how much he’d messed with her head.

Raven paled across from her. Then, her eyes flashed red and she growled.

“Blood.”

Jinx shivered, the Titan’s growl making her stomach clench.

She nodded. Raven blinked, and her eyes were back to normal. Like it was some switch she kept having to flip back.

“I’m going to make you a deal.”

Jinx frowned and the chair under her whined ominously.

“I haven’t done anything. I don’t need a deal.”

“You need to burn off that magic. Immediately. I need to find that book before whoever took it opens it. If you help me, it will help you before you explode and black out the whole East Coast.”

“Neat. In case you forgot? You still kidnapped me and looked a second away from squashing me.”

“I can give you an outlet, Jinx. Someplace you can use as much of your power as you want without hurting anyone or anything, including yourself. No police, no arrest, you can let loose as much as you need.”

Jinx’s stomach clenched. A few years ago, she would’ve laughed in Raven’s face. Now that she was paying attention to how shaky she was feeling, though, she wasn’t sure she could refuse.

Not that she was going to give it up that easy. Now that she didn’t feel like she was about to die and her heart was slowing down, she realized she had something Raven wanted. Bad.

“Why do you even need my help? I still don’t know anything about your book.”

Because she wanted to know just how much she could use this. Paying her back was the least Raven could do after wrecking her whole night like this.

“You know the side of Jump City I don’t. You know where to look for anyone who would brag about stealing from a Titan.”

“And Birdbrain doesn’t? Nah, you could go bug the world’s third best detective if that was it.”

Raven looked distinctly uncomfortable. Like fidgeting in her chair, looking anywhere but at Jinx, nervous. So apparently her poker face didn’t hold up for whatever she was going to lie about. Jinx smelled blood in the water and forced the smile off her face.

“The Titans are… indisposed, currently,” she rasped. “They’re investigating the incident from yesterday. They need to focus, and I need to get this book back before it’s too late.”

She was absolutely lying. About why she wasn’t pulling them in on this, anyway. She had the distinct impression that Raven was going rogue on this.

Like, if Jinx walked out of the room and headed out to the lobby right then, Raven would have some uncomfortable questions to answer when Chromedome checked the footage later.

The rest of them being off somewhere chasing shadows would explain how no-one came running after she wrecked their room, though. And it wasn’t really her problem, either way.

Jinx grinned and leaned back, propping her legs up on the table.

If the Titans were away, their resident loner looking for any other magician in town would make sense. And she’d certainly laid it on thick how that list started and ended with Jinx.

“Fine.”

Raven jerked in surprise, and Jinx let out a chuckle. The hex-caster spun and planted her feet on the ground. The momentum carried her forward to lean over the table and right into Raven’s space. She loved the way the Titan leaned back in surprise. Apparently she wasn’t ready for the tables to turn.

“I need to give the boys a call so they don’t think I’m suddenly turning Cape if they see me doing this.”

Raven shrugged and nodded.

“You’re paying for the Five’s dinner for the night. And I need to eat something on the way. If you’d waited an hour to grab me,” she continued when Raven frowned, “I wouldn’t be hangry right now. So that’s on you.”

Raven sighed but gave her a nod anyway.

“Anything else?”

Jinx tipped back and stretched her arms with a series of satisfying pops.

“Say you’re sorry.”

Raven blinked and looked at her like she’d just grown a second head. Jinx let her arms drop and nodded at her. Stepping around the table, she sat on the edge and glared right into the dark Titan’s eyes.

“You kidnapped me off the street,” she hissed. “If Robin did that, he’d have broken legs right now. I want to know you’re never doing this shit with me again… without clearing it with me ahead of time, anyway,” she added with a wink.

Raven blushed hard and Jinx bit her cheek to keep from laughing. Sure, she wasn’t happy about tonight. Kind of ragingly pissed, actually. Still, it was almost worth it to see the look on Raven’s face just then.

What she wasn’t expecting was…

“I’m sorry.”

The smile trying to work its way onto Jinx’s face died. Because she was expecting some whining, grumbling fake ass apology. Maybe through clenched teeth.

If it had been Boy Blunder, he would’ve been fighting to keep from grabbing one of those staves of his.

Raven sounded completely, 100% genuine.

For all the rumors floating around about the Titan’s biggest mystery, everything pointed to her being some kind of stoic ice queen. The Titans’ weapon to point at the heavy hitters and pull the trigger.

This Raven didn’t sound stoic at all.

If Jinx hadn’t been interested before, finding out what would make the Titan like this would’ve been enough to drag her in on its own.

“Thank you.”

And then she slipped off the table and offered Raven her hand. Raven took it, and the ground beneath them turned solid black. Suddenly, Jinx felt herself falling…