"Raven. Hey, Raven, can you hear me?"

Raven only mumbled in reply, her head hanging loosely so that, even though her cape and hood had been torn from her body, her hair still hid her face from Beastboy. The two Titans were chained up, hands and feet bound by chains of light. The same color as the light prisons they had been in previously. Only now it was just the chains. There were no walls of light that separated the Titans from the thousands of Tameranians that stood in the chamber with them.

"Silence yourself, wretch!" Blackfire hissed before walking towards the edge of the large pedestal that the four of them were on. The Tameranian princess was dressed in a very dark looking cloak, the same cloak the rest of her people were wearing. Though, while the rest of the Tameranians kept their hoods up and faces covered, Blackfire's hood remained down, her visible purple eyes shifting from the mass of people to the single large silver coffin that rested between the two Titans.

"We gather here today to honor the life of not just a great king, or an honorable Tameran. We are here to honor a kind and caring k'norfka, a man who always put the hopes and desires of his adoptive daughters and of his people before his own!"

Silence filled the great chamber as Blackfire paced from one end of the pedestal to the other. The Tameran then looked from one Titan to the other before looking back to her people and pointing at the two.

"But we are also gathered here to punish those responsible for the deaths of our king and our princess, the Teen Titans!"

A loud uproar burst from the Tameranians, filling the entire chamber with death threats and angry cries directed entirely at the two Titans who stood bound and defenseless.

"But we didn't kill Starfire!" Beastboy shouted. "And the big guy...it was-!"

"I said silence!" Blackfire shouted before pressing a button on the device on her wrist. Immediately, the angry outbursts were drowned by the agonized screams of the green Titan as the metallic collar around his neck pulsed with electricity. "You will not deceive us. I witnessed with my own eyes how the Titans used a dragon to slay my sister, and I was there when your little sorceress tore my father apart-!"

"It was an accident!" Beastboy cut in desperately, the pain still clear in his voice. "She didn't mean-!"

"Beastboy," Raven muttered, causing the green Titan to immediately fall silent due to the deathly coldness in her voice. Beastboy turned his head to see Raven looking directly at him through the bangs of her hair. "It wasn't an accident. I killed him."

"But, Raven--"

"I killed him, Beastboy!" Raven shouted, sparks of black energy flying from her body. "He was going to kill me, I did what I had to do!"

"I think we have heard enough from you two," Blackfire announced before pressing another button on her wrist, though this time she held it there for several more seconds as both the Titan's screams echoed throughout the chamber. When she finally released the button, the Titans collapsed as much as they could with the restraints, breathing heavy, ragged breaths.

"My people!" Blackfire called after the following silence stretched for a few more seconds. She made her way to the front of the pedestal again so they all could see her. "I know my past actions have not marked me an honorable Tameranian. And while I will never be as great as our great king and my dear k'norfka was, I stand before you now a changed woman. I have personally witnessed the deaths of my only loved ones. I have seen the great evils and corruption that lie out there in the galaxy, and I ask all of you, my dear Tameranians, stand with me! Fight with me! Help me punish those that would wish our kingdom to crumble and our people to suffer! Help me not only regain my own honor, but the honor of Tamaran itself! Let us take the fight to them, show them how it feels to lose the ones they love and cherish! Stand with me, brothers and sisters, fight with me, my kin! Together we shall take the fight to the Titans and their allies; together we will bring Earth to its knees!"

What followed was the greatest uproar that Beastboy had ever heard. The cries of bloodlust and vengeance rang loudly in his hyper sensitive ears. But, despite the overwhelming loudness of it all, he could still hear the faint breathing of his fellow Titan. Could still hear his name as she called out softly to him.

"Raven...?" Beastboy whispered, turning his head, despite the pain, so he could look to her.

"We tried to fight it Beastboy, but it was inevitable," Raven whispered as she held her friend's gaze, hopelessness and weariness filling up the entirety of her words. "I have brought upon the destruction of Earth."

...

"Robin, you know I can track my ship from anywhere, right? Are you aware of how fast you are going?"

"I've wasted enough time, Starfire can't afford for me to waste anymore."

"I let you borrow my ship not just because one of your Titans is in danger, you gave me your word you would only use it when you knew you would have back up."

"Cyborg and Titans East won't be done with their ship for at least another week. I don't have time for that; Starfire doesn't have time for that."

"You are being irrational and reckless. If you go in alone and out of your head you are not only risking your life but hers as well, and you know that. I taught you that."

"You don't understand...Starfire...She's..."

"Robin, I'm sorry, but I can't allow you to potentially throw your life away like this. I am putting the ship on auto-pilot and bringing you back home."

"You won't be able to do that."

"What?"

"...I overrode the auto-pilot. It was really easy, actually, considering you haven't changed the programming since...since we used to be partners."

"Robin, don't do this."

"Good-bye, Bruce."

Robin then pressed the closest button to the panel and the Dark Knight's face was replaced with static. The Titan's leader closed his eyes for the briefest of moments before opening them again, the familiar red and white planet growing closer by the second.

"Hold on, Star. I'm coming."

...

Damn you, Fixit.

Leave it to him to be able to upgrade See-More's ball prison so effectively. No matter what sort of foul deeds or locations I conjured up in my head before trying to teleport, I would always reappear right back inside the red, electrified ball. Had anything new changed about me?

I sat back on my backside and examined my body. Same white hair, same sparsely placed sharp teeth, same lack of speech, same grey skin, same pointed ear (I took care to avoid touching the nub) and same purple and black claw. I looked at my claw in more detail. The blood had vanished from it, did it absorb blood? The purple colors stretched down my forearm sort of like veins while the black skin color took up the better portion of my hand. Was I becoming some specific kind of demon...or was it all just random? More importantly...

"Has the corruption finally seeped into your brain, Kyd Wykkyd?"

Would I still be me if this transformation ever finished? I shuddered at even the possibility of more of my body changing. I would do anything to avoid that happening again.

See-More's face burned into my head. The fear he had when my claw reached out for him. I had never seen him look at me like that before, many of our other classmates, sure, but never him. 

I moved the claw so it was behind me. I didn't want to look at it. I never wanted to see it again.

Was Fixit really planning on trying to take Blackfire on his own? Would he just try to escape? For See-More's sake, I hope that was his plan.

I looked up to see the Titan still lying in the pool of blood. Her back was facing me, the deep cuts still oozing crimson. I could not tell if she was still breathing, but she certainly wasn't moving.

"You have become too dangerous...too much of a risk."

Why couldn't I control myself?! Was the corruption already inside me now? Am I already losing myself? This would probably be the only time I would wish to be inside Raven's head again, maybe Pink Raven would be able to answer some of these questions...Or maybe the Titan herself could if properly...motivated.

The claw twitched behind my back.

Stop it! Stop thinking like that! Stop thinking, period! There is no way out of this cage so I might as well just--

"My friends..."

The voice caused me to jump to my feet due to how surprising it was. I immediately looked down to the slumped body of the Titan. \After a very careful inspection, I could tell that she was indeed breathing, but only very faintly.

"I came here...to rescue my friends..."

Very slowly, one of the Titan's arms began to slide forwards through her pool of blood. She then began to rise on her elbows, though it was an even slower motion and her whole body appeared to shake from the effort.

"You...my sister...you all...stole them...from us..."

Her back was still to me and I could still see the blood dripping from her wounds. I knew, if she was human, she would have been dead by now. In her more upright position, she turned her head just enough that her one good eye could see me.

"Give them...Give them back....Beastboy...Raven...Give them back."

I could only watch her as she struggled just to keep her head upright enough to look at me, and while my claw only seemed to twitch more in excitement, I began to feel something twist very tightly in my chest. I knelt down so the Titan could get a better look at me and placed my normal hand against the red prison ball. Immediately, I had to retract it as electricity suddenly attacked my hand. I reflexively tried to grip the pained appendage with my clawed one, but stopped as soon as I saw purple. It almost seemed to twitch even more under my gaze.

Control. I have to have control.

"Has the corruption finally seeped into your brain?"

No, but, even if it has, I won't let it change who I am. I won't lose my control to it.

I flexed the clawed fingers and they reacted and obeyed. I tried to clench them and they resisted at first, but I pressed them harder until I had made a fist out of the claw. The pointed tips dug into skin, black blood dripping from the fist. Looking back to the Titan, back to Starfire, I caught her gaze and held it as I commanded the claw to flex open again. It resisted, knowing what I was trying to do, but I continued to persist until the fist was open again. Keeping my gaze fixed with Starfire, I forced my claw against my chest, the tips digging into flesh. The claw continued to resist, but I only continued to persist in return. Very slowly, I forced the claw to go down diagonally across my chest. The pain was instant and scaling hot and the claw almost gained control, but I quickly got over my surprise and pain and doubled my efforts to force the claw all the way down.

The marks burned just as hot even after the claw was off my body. I broke the Titan's gaze to look down at the fresh wound, then at the tips of the claw. There was still human blood inside me.

The Titan was still looking back at me, but now her eye was leaking tears again. "Don't...do that...again."

The redness was already gone. The claw still tried to resist as I clenched it back into a fist, but I forced it to clench all the same. I looked back at Starfire one final time before throwing the clenched claw back. Then, with all the strength I could muster, I flashed the Titan the biggest smile I ever had smiled in my entire life.

The electricity hit me immediately and ferociously as I slammed the claw into the shield. The pain was almost enough to stop. Had Fixit really prepared to break through whatever defenses my demon hand had? I kept the fist against the shield, however, despite the pain and despite the claw trying to break away ,and I tried to force it to press even harder. The electricity danced around my entire body. It felt like little explosions where going off all around me. I screamed silent yet incredibly painful screams. There was no room for looking, no room for thinking, all I had time to do was to scream and to keep pressing the clawed fist against the shield. The pain only grew worse as the electricity intensified. I thought I was going to black out, I knew I was going to black out. Already I could see the blackness begin to close around my eyes as the pain became too much.

But, just as I was about to let my claw gain control, a sudden green light pierced through the darkness in my eyes and the noise of a screaming Tamaranian quickly filled up the crushing silence of my own screams.

And, suddenly, the pain stopped. The need for applying pressure finally stopped. I saw the red prison for only half a second as my arm fell through the fist shaped hole before the entire ball shattered and disappeared entirely, allowing me to fall completely on the cold, hard ground.

I lay there for a few seconds, trying to catch my breath and recover from the pain. The claw lay open on the ground next to my face, the fingers pointed outward and making it look like a dead spider. A sudden purple boot appeared behind the dead spider hand, catching my attention as I followed the boot up the battle-worn body of its Titan owner. 

Starfire stood above me, hands on her knees, clearly struggling to stay upright but staying all the same. Our eyes met and she immediately gave me a single, small smile before reaching a shaking hand towards me. "What say we...try this...again?"

I reached out with my good hand and gripped hers. I opened my mouth, as if I was going to say something, but as soon as she gripped my hand in return the Titan finally collapsed, landing heavily right beside me. I kept my hand gripped around hers as I quickly looked over her fallen form before letting out a silent sigh of relief.

Unconscious, not dead.

I then sat up to where I was on my knees, facing the Titan. While the pain from the electricity had all but vanished, I knew I was nowhere near the strength I was at just a few seconds ago. I looked back down at the unmoving body before me.

I really hope she's as light as she looks.

...

Even though the room was dark, Jinx had spent enough time walking around the Titan's East tower for her eyes to adjust quickly. It was easily the biggest room she had seen in the Tower. It had to be big if it was supposed to house an entire space ship.

With careful, quiet steps, she made her way over to the console that was placed near the ship. The entire set-up was very much a Cyborg design. She could still clearly remember the scene inside the Teen Titan's own tower. Although, of course, their ship was missing at the time. The Titan's East ship was massive, though it was mainly the things that Jinx suspected to be the ship's thrusters that made up most of its size. There was only enough room in the cockpit for two people, maybe three.

Jinx only needed one.

The trickster pulled out a sheet of paper that she managed to nick off Speedy while he was busy secretly gawking at Bumblebee's body earlier that day. Honestly, you'd think the heroes would have a little more self control then her former male classmates had.

Mammoth never really got over me. Even after years of knowing each other, I would always catch him staring at me when he thought I wasn't looking.

Looking at the paper, Jinx did her best to follow the instructions in order to power on the console and, in turn, the ship. She didn't think Cyborg every really understood why she acted so interested in learning about his designs and inventions.

Gizmo always tried to brag whenever he built something new. He would always walk up to me and hold whatever the new thing was in his hands like a child, that mocking little smirk always on his face.

After a few strokes of the console's keys, blue lights suddenly kicked on. The noise of the machinery turning on was a little louder than she suspected and she knew she would have to act fast. The lights in the rest of the expansive room then began to power on, showing the ship in even greater detail. It was amazing how much the small team managed to accomplish in such a short amount of time.

Earlier that day, Jinx had watched them from the shadows as they worked on it. They basically built the engines in a span of a day. Mas and Menos were the powerhouses behind it all, their speed accomplished things that would take hundreds of men to do normally.

Billy always had the potential to be something great, but he always used his powers to steal and do whatever he wanted. He was easily the happiest person I ever met at the Academy.

After everything had powered on, Jinx pressed one final button on the console. Near the top of the massive ship, the window that concealed the cockpit began to open. As it did, Jinx made her way from the console and in the direction of the elevator that would bring her to the top.

It was easy to find, almost right next to the Titan's East spaceship, rising up parallel to the large structure almost perfectly. Aqualad stood right by it almost that entire day, his face stern and unmoving as he watched his other teammates. For hours, Jinx didn't move a muscle in fear that he would catch even the slightest of foreign movements.

Kyd always was the lookout for us when we needed him. He would remain as still and silent as a statue, sometimes I wouldn't even know he was there when we came back out until we told him it was time to run.

How did he escape? Why did he steal the Titan's ship? Why was he...in a team with someone else?

"Jinx, what are you doing?"

Jinx did not flinch and was not surprised when she heard Kid Flash call her name. Even though she was a step away from entering the elevator, she knew he would come. Knew that he would try and stop her.

"How'd you find me?" she asked instead of answering him. She didn't turn around when she answered. She couldn't bear seeing him.

"I went to check on you when I was done getting the Titan's from Europe. When the police told me you had left, I just had a feeling you'd be here."

"You didn't trust me."

"It's not that! It's just...I knew something was bothering you, Jinx, remember? I knew it had to do with your old friends. I knew--"

"Well, you just know everything, don't you?!" Jinx shot as she turned to face him.

And then she saw it. In Kid Flash's hurt and surprised face. She saw their faces when she cut off their retreat. She saw the fear, the betrayal, and the pain.

But most of all, she saw See-More's face. That face of innocence, the only one who didn't know of what she did. The face he had when they stood against one another outside of the Titan's Tower. It was a face she would never forget.

"If you knew I would do this, then why didn't you just throw me in prison?" Pink energy crackled out of her glowing eyes and from around her hands. "Why did you take me in? Why did you make me like you?!"

"Because I like you!" Kid Flash declared, taking a step towards her. "I liked you since the first moment I saw you!"

Mammoth.

"Why...What could you possibly have liked about me?"

"Are you serious?! You are, like, the most awesome chick I have ever met! Even when you were trying to beat the crap out of me and turn me in to the Brotherhood, I saw it...You were so intelligent...

Gizmo.

"...You could do so many things at once, there was so much potential in you, it was almost like you were a speedster, like me!..."

Billy.

"...and, at the same time, you were so cool and in control. I pretty much froze up in my cell when you looked at me. I mean, not literally, but, you know..."

Kyd.

"...That's why I didn't give up on you, Jinx. That's why I'd stick with you even if no one else does. I like you, but you're also my friend. The best one I've ever had!"

...See-More...

"Please..." Kid Flash begged, taking another step towards her. "Don't get on that ship. Stay here. Stay with me."

Jinx stared at the cold steel floor. So many things filling her head at once. So many choices. Why did there have to be so many?

But, there wasn't that many. Only two.

And, yet, there wasn't even that many. Really, there was only one.

Jinx needed only one.

"I'm so sorry, Wally," Jinx said, tears rolling down from her glowing pink eyes. She then threw out her hands, pink energy erupting from them in a wide arc.

Kid Flash tried to run, and he was even fast enough to start moving before her blast hit him. But that was what Jinx was counting on. The energy disappeared when it made contact with the teen, making it seem like it had no effect. When Kid Flash started to pick up speed, his feet suddenly caught together, tripping him mid-stride and sending him flailing into the wall. The speedster crumbled to the ground upon impact and, while Jinx's heart pulled at her to check on him, she knew she had wasted enough time as it was.

Without looking back ,Jinx stepped into the elevator, just as the doors across the room burst open.

"What's going on here?!" Bumblebee shouted, her eyes immediately falling on Jinx. "Jinx? What are you doing here?"

Jinx stepped off the elevator again without answering, pink electricity sparking off her palms.

She had to make this quick.