16889/Forking-Path: Where Jinx Conquered the World

Forking-Path: Where Jinx Conquered the World
Date of Scene:	15 January 2024
Location:	Las Vegas - Nevada
Synopsis:	In another set of circumstances, one little change alters the fate of the world forever. Jinx tries to save the world from itself but the cost was too high.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Jinx, Rachel Summers, Mary Bromfield, Irie West, Rachel Roth, Wally West
Tinyplot:	The Looking Glass

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Donna Troy has posed:
    No story is ever truly over. Problems may have been resolved, questions answered and events passed, but there are always ripples left by their passing. Sometimes those ripples are no more than memories, though 'no more than' is perhaps a poor choice of words when the impact of experiences can change the world in countless ways.

    Sometimes the ripples are more fundamental. Changes to the world that may take some time to become fully apparent, or might perhaps be too subtle to ever quite be perceived to anything so crude as mortal senses.

    Last year, Titans Tower had been the site of a confluence of events that had left the walls of reality remarkably thin there. A dream had become a temporary reality that had warped the very dimensions of the tower. Wonderland too had become far to /close/ to Earth at this point. And in the end, the Dreaming itself found its way into Titans Tower.

    Now the Tower seems a more predictable place. Its inhabitants are once more confident that a corridor will lead to where it is meant to. Doors open onto the same rooms reliably once more. But the tower hasn't quite forgotten the shape of those events. It remembers that reality does not travel in straight lines as corridors should, but forks off into an infinity of possibilities. It is now and forever a place where the walls between those forking paths are /thinner/ than they should be. Where the realm of dreams may offer temporary glimpses into realities that never were...

    But might have been.

Jinx has posed:
It's a new year, 2024, but for some it is still hell on Earth. For many heroes and governments it was the literal worst case scenario - a Super Villain had conquered the world. Jinx, the former leader of the Fearless Five - even though there weren't five of them. That group was defunct now. They had served their purpose - to sew discord and mayhem while H.I.V.E. spread its roots deep and wide.

There was a moment in Jinx's life where she had considered quitting, running away, fighting back against H.I.V.E... but really, that was all too much trouble. The idea of ruling the world had seemed hollow and pointless that day but with some guided meditation from her mother she was set right and she marched on following their master plan.

H.I.V.E. infiltrated corporations, governments, superhero groups. And one by one they began to fall. The world unravelled faster than anyone could have imagined but not in the way they tell in movies or stories. Something far stranger happened.

North Korea open its borders to the world. Russia, China, and the U.S.A. lead a new era of nuclear disarmament. NATO disbanded. The United Nations expanded in to the United World Council. And seemingly out of no where the majority of the nations of the planet all voted Jinx in to a position of supreme power.

Those who fought back were pressured in to silence.. sometimes violently. The HIVE had grown strong and its new Queen had taken up the mantle. She did not waste time - whatever her master plan was the powerful elite fought back hard. There were civil wars in just about every country. Their own militaries split down the middle. The average person caught in the middle. Super hero teams were split in two fighting amongst each other as their loyalties and priorities were tested.

And then, all of a sudden, it was as if the world went silent. The majority of the open fighting ceased and what were wars became resistances. One such resistance - the remains of the Titans - was the only team to ever beat the Fearsome Five, to beat Jinx. She wasn't the leader of the group at the time though. How it is a simple sorceress had amassed so much power is still a mystery. A moot point to most though.

The seat of her power is anything but modest. She took over the pyramid casino in Las Vegas, the Luxor, as her home and throne. The center of world power - set in a casino city. Today the news anchors are discussing a recent speech by Jinx. The speech was three days ago about shutting down oil drilling rigs, shale extraction, and other forms of fossil fuel investments.

Rachel Summers has posed:
Rachel Summers To Rachell, this world was hell to be sure.. the future she came from the future she tried to stop it happened anyways.. but not it's diffrent in some ways better, other ways worse.. but she would still fight it she would still stand against the darkness and never give in..

     she's the Phonix force herself the true host.. having ripped that power from her own mother who became one of the loyal ones.. she stays int he tower wondering what to do next.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary lost everything when Jinx took over. She lost her family, she lost the Rock, she lost her powers. There's not much she has left now, save for one thing.

Revenge.

And apparently a rather large arsenal, as she is outfitted in a way that Frank Castle or Slade Wilson would approve of. Lots of guns, and the willingness to use them on HIVE agents. With one bullet saved just for Jinx, when she manages to get her face to face, for everything she's done.

Irie West has posed:
    There's no better proof that time doesn't go straight or reality isn't nearly as simple as you think than the daughter of two titans from an alternate future reality, Irie West. In this world we ask the question 'What If...?' specifically, 'What if Irie got her mother's powers instead of her father's?' What if, instead of Irie the speedster, we had Iris, the Amazon?

    The world was well on its way to being completely taken over when she arrived in this timeline, arriving in Themyscira, one of the last bastions of freedom against the new world order. There she trained hard with the Amazons until the island nation, too, fell. The girl, then, found herself with the Titans, ready to fight with them until the last.

    She stands there in the tower, now, tall and strongly built. She wears the armor of her heritage, and her chosen weapons, the spear and shield. "What the latest?" she asks to the assembled group. "How worried should I be?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    The Titans had disbanded twice. First in 2017, in the aftermath of Doomsday. The second time in 2022, in the aftermath of Jinx. The gathering of Titans here at the tower is a splinter of hope for those who still resist though; that second disbandment was more for public show than it was in truth. A core of Titans remained active, in secret. Plotting.

    Wind back to 2017 though. To Doomsday. The day Dove, Kole and Nightwing died, and Caitlin had been injured near to death. A blow too far for the Titans to recover from, it had seemed. Perhaps things would have gone better for the team had two of their original members not left the team just a few months earlier. Where exactly Troia and Raven had gone was a mystery to the world, one that not even any of the Titans had known the answer to until Diana had taken Caitlin to her home of Themyscira to heal and eventually to become an Amazon and she'd met her two former team-mates there. When Caitlin and Gar had restarted the team in 2020, neither Raven nor Troia had chosen to join her, and to this day it remained a secret to all but Diana, Caitlin and Caitlin's daughter Irie.

    Even Irie did not know where the pair had been recently though. For some years Themyscira had been a base of operations for the pair more than it had been a true home. They would return from time to time, to recount their exploits on strange worlds and in strange dimensions, but they were as soon gone again. They had not been there for the fall of the Island.

    Shadows pool in the meeting room of the almost abandoned Titans tower and from the avian-shaped shadow steps the sorceress and the warrior, the first time either has been here in over six years. Troia strides forwards to examine the assembled Titans, recognizing only one. Her armor is black and gold, and a silvery-blue lasso glows on her hip. "Is this all that is left?" she asks. She glances over her shoulder at the sorceress before turning back to Rachel, Mary and Irie. "Then it'll do. Time to end this."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    It had been far too long. In many ways, the retreat to Themyscira was a kind of vacation. A place to rest, a place to seclude. She had not intended to be gone for Doomsday- but this time in this place, her precognition did not grant her the visions of catastrophe it had before. This time, Donna had confessed, months before Doomsday arrived- and years before it was the right time for her to do s.

This time, Raven was not as balanced as she would have been. Aspects of her power eluded her. She did not mind. Not until news of Doomsday had reached them on Themyscira. Ever since then... She has been altogether different. Not in personality- she is the same as she ever was- but in purpose and determination. She has delved into time. She has seen the lines of probability since then. She has done far more than spend time among a horde of beautiful women with the woman she loves.

    There is no noise or even a herald of her arrival. There is simply the shape of the bird in shadow, and Troia and Raven arrive. One walks from the shadow on foot, and the other remains floating above the ground, the cape attached to her cowl curled around and gripped in her hands, billowing somewhat. A wreath of black feathers encircle her throat. Her eyes are not visible. The power never leaves her now.

    "This is all. This is when we intervene." she remarks, as if she has seen these events play out in some permutations- as if she has spotted in time the exact moment when they /should/ emerge from their years long inaction. "It will do."

Jinx has posed:
In Las Vegas, The Luxor, The home of the one who ruled the world. Jinx. She had it all. Fame, Power, Pleasure.. and yet.

Sigh.

Jinx can't even meditate properly today. The onyx platform set in to the center of the room with a crystal pyramid frame about it looks like hockey new age nonsense but is in fact a powerful magical focus. The world had seen none like it until she made it.

The onyx floors surrounding it are speckled with veins of gold. Despite all this luxury she is vexed by the man standing before her. Well, sort of standing before her. More like cowering. He'd been like that for a year and a half now.

She pries open an eye and peers at him again. The last of the big magic users to try and stand against her. Doctor Stephen Strange, the sorcerer supreme. The thing is - she didn't _do_ that to him. He did it to himself. Frozen in place, in time, stuck like that presumable. A last ditched effort to save himself. Why? who knows.. heroic types are weirdos.

Rising up out of her meditation pyramid, her long golden gown flowing over the floor behind her like liquid, she approached the would be greatest sorcerer of the world and tapped the back of a knuckle to his nose. "Boop. Are you done playing possum yet Strange?"

Jinx feels a puzzling in the back of her mind. The H.I.V.E. is always there but sometimes the buzzing grows louder. It's her mother. She focuses for a moment on that voice amongst the many.

A hand raises up, "Do not send troops to Saudi Arabia." It is a command.. but already she can feel the will of the hive slipping away from her. When it comes to the protection of their Queen the hive has a mind of its own.

She glowers. The world would have been so much easier to control if it would _just_ _do_ _what_ _she_ _tells_ _it_. It had been two days since she stopped the oil drilling. Two days since one of the Saudi princes sent an assassin to kill her. Two days since that assassin had killed himself rather than be joined with the HIVE. With a whip of her gown she turns with a huff. "What use is being supreme commander of the world if they never do what I tell them to do..."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary nods slightly, "Yeah, it's about time I gotta say. So what's the plan?" She glances between Donna and Raven, bitterness lacing her words, "That witch took everything from me, and all I have left is to return the favor. Pretty sure the Middle East is causing her enough trouble right now, she'd not be expecting a headshot so soon. If we have a way in."

Rachel Summers has posed:
Rachel Summers Looks over at Mary.. she herself wreathed in the Phoenix fire now.. she's pulled more of its power to herself, using it to protect herself from jinx's and hives' power. She wonders as well, putting a hand on her hip, wondering what's going on and what's next.

Irie West has posed:
    Even a dark alternative future where Jinx has taken over the world can't completely snuff out Iris' positive nature. "Hey, Donna, Rachel! Thank goodness you're finally back. I knew you wouldn't let us down in the end, unlike //some// people." They know who they are.

    She nods in agreement with Mary. "What //is// the plan? I assume we've got one. I'm ready to go and give it one last shot. One last go. What was it that movie said, 'Never give up? Never surrender?' Yeah. That."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Direct assault," Troia answers. Some variant of that is frequently her plan, and she seems no less direct in her approach to a pre-mission briefing. There's no time for hellos, apparently.

    "However we're going to need a distraction. I understand the T-Jet was destroyed, but you should still have supplies in storage. That should include missiles. We can launch them direct from the launcher rack. Range will be a fraction of what it should be and the guidance will be limited, but from short range that's not a problem. We blow a hole in the side of Jinx's base. At the same time we enter magically from the other side, fight our way past any guards as quickly as possible, and deal with her when we find her. She will have a wide range of protections, but the physical ones shouldn't be a major problem, and Raven is our ace in the hole for punching through her magical defenses. When we're through I intend on seeing whether she's able to resist the Lasso of Persuasion. If that doesn't work, we kill her."

    "Any questions?"

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary shakes her head, "Been with you this long, Donna, not going to back off now." She frowns, "But who's going to run the distraction? There's not that many of us to split the team, or are we doing the missile launch remotely?" She smiles faintly at that, seeming to answer her own question as she inspects her weapons one last time.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven is an imperious presence floating at the back of Troia. As she does, the darkness of the bird that represents her soul-self seems to seep over the tower, as if linking up with something that was already there. In those moments, it becomes Not-There. Both registering as it should, and yet they cannot be detected inside. She is Home. No matter what dimension the two of them traveled to. No matter what alternate realities they stopped from existing.

    Always, there was a part of her here. Small things, seemingly, to make life easier. There was always just a little more coffee in the bag. On winter nights, the temperature was just warm enough. During the summer, cool breezes had found their way in, even after the group went their separate ways.

    Now, its presence is overwhelming. The Tower is Raven, and Raven is the Tower. As it was. As it should be.

    "If need be, as an absolute last resort, there is a way for me to confront Jinx personally. It will not be wise. It will not be pleasant." For someone who seems to be looking into all of the Maybes right now, what she has not said speaks volumes- Whether or not it /will/ be necessary.

Jinx has posed:
A whispering in her mind, Jinx pauses. "Mm..." Her eyes turn to one of her prize possessions. Sitting on a stand is a book. A black evil looking book. Its cover inscribed with ornate lettering. Jinx approaches it and with a lift of a finger the book flicks open to a page.

"The todo list for Earth is far too big," she murmurs to herself as she looks over the magic described and the components required. Wordlessly people begin to enter her chamber. They wear the uniform of H.I.V.E. - magenta robes with a golden necklace of a hexagon about their neck. Each carrying a different object. They kneel awaiting command.

Jinx holds up a hand and points to them. Tendrils of dark pink energy whip out and connect to each object as she reads forbidden words from The Darkholde.

Irie West has posed:
    "Heck yeah!" Irie says enthusiastically, punching her fist into her palm. "Up close and personal. I like it." Of course she likes it. She's never really been one for subtlety.

    "If you need somebody to volunteer to be the distraction, I can do that," she says with an enthusiastic grin. "Blow stuff up. Kick some teeth in, make a nuisance of myself! My kinda job."

Rachel Summers has posed:
Rachel Summers Looks over " What about me.. am I the hammer? " She asks softly she is ALOT of power she dosn't have that magic stuff but the phonix force tends to kinda destroy anything along the lines of that with the sheer power she can pull forth.. " Is this one of those .. if stuff goes sideways.. I melt eveyrthing to slag? "

Wally West has posed:
When Doomsday attacked? Wally managed to survive with his life.

But his legs...they....

Let's just say he can't run anymore. He's not the Flash anymore. Hasn't been in a long time. But in that time? Wally threw himself into technology. Into building his brain, his /mind/. He was still the Flash in some ways, could still do some of the tricks, but...no more being in one place and out the other. None of that. He just felt so useless...

So he watched the world burn.

So he tries to be one of the 'tech guys' of the Titans. "H-hey." Wally approaches, a new model of prosthetics for his legs allows him to move with some old agility, dressed in black but with a patch of his old 'Flash' symbol on his shoulders and chest. "A-am I late?" His confidence was shaken, but not his will. He didn't consider this team beaten yet. Not yet. He had listened to the plan carefully, electricity occasionally branching up his arms as he reveals he was carrying some kind of case. "I brought a big gun." he smiles, as if that explains everything.

"If stuff goes sideways?" Wally sighs. "Guess I make myself a bomb and hope the output is good enough."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia gives Raven a small shake of the head, a gesture not really meant for other eyes. A reference to past conversations -- she does not believe the last resort Raven refers to is worth the risk. She's not going to say in front of the others what she has said to Raven in private, that if they cannot succeed through other means, that if it gets that far, it is better to cut their losses. There are other worlds to defend than this one.

    "Remote missile launch," Troia says with a nod of agreement to Mary. "No splitting the team. We launch from about half a mile from the building to minimize reaction time. Two waves of launches. As soon as the first ones hit, we launch the second wave. They'll be forewarned and I don't expect the second launch to get through, but that doesn't matter. While they're dealing with the second wave of missiles, we're entering the building from the other side."

    She points at Wally. "Managing the launch is your job," she says. "The rest of us...we're all the hammer," she says with a nod to Rachel. "Plenty of scope for kicking teeth in, Irie. But the reason we're not going to just destroy everything and hope that includes Jinx is that she's the leader but she's not on her own. Killing her won't end this. We're going to try to capture her instead. Understood? Then let's get moving."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven has disregarded Donna before. She seems to be locked on that gesture, that shake of her head. There is something unspoken. An inbuilt understanding- Raven does not consider any world not worth saving. She cannot. It's not in her nature anymore.

    "Breaching her defenses will be taxing. I will need time to recover afterwards." she states, "But it will not be long. During that time, I expect an Amazonian Guard." This is as close to Raven gets to levity in situations like this. Her attention, clearly, on Irie and Troia.

Jinx has posed:
What's worse than living in a surveillance state? One where your neighbours are the surveillance. There aren't many people in Las Vegas who aren't a part of the hive. That's true of most major cities now. Heck connections to the hive are being sold like the latest iPhone and people are lining up for them. The old adage - if you can't beat 'em join 'em.

The hive takes some of your time and in return gives you security in this strange new world. It's not the singularity as described in scifi novels but it might as well be. If you're not on 'the new internet' then you must be some kind of luddite. Luddites willing to fight wars over it - barbarians. Except, none of the people of hive hold this sentiment in their hearts. They simply don't care about all that.

When the Titans commit to their course of action. One Wally West with missiles and the rest of the team porting in to the Luxor - impossibly, H.I.V.E. is ready. The implications are obvious to those thinking through the angles of their plan. One of them must be part of the hive. Like so many other heroic teams before them they are already undone by their own members.

But who?


From Wally's perspective the missiles launch and strike the side of the pyramid. There's explosions. The ground shakes. Alarms go off. It's a glorious thing. But no one is rushing him. People have stopped and are staring at him. Empty eyes somehow convey accussations. He's the bad guy. He's the terrorist.... and as the smoke clears - the pyramid is unscathed. The hive workers move on with their day as if nothing had happened.


Raven's true to her word. Breaking through the magic defences is taxing and when she arrives she does not have the liberty of that requested Amazonian guard. Even in her exhausted state she can see she is in an illusion. She can feel the dark magics of the Darkholde with Jinx standing before her. "You're on my todo list.. but I can bump you up. Your problem is our problem." The sorceress with short pink hair wearing a long golden robe says to Raven in her otherwise empty throne room. "I am construction a solution for Trigon. It requires your patience."


Mary finds herself alone in the throne room with Jinx. Jinx has a slight smirk on her face. "Welcome back..." Almost taunting in a way. "I suppose you'll be wanting this." A card of black in her hand. A lightning bolt on its front embossed. Very stylish. She tosses it over to Mary. On its back, a simple word: Shazam.


Irie finds herself standing in the throne room of Jinx. Jinx is upon her throne, draped as it were. She is eating an apple as she eyes the amazon. "You've come to test yourself. If you beat me it proves you're the best. For goddesses and earth and blah blah blah... tell me. When was the last time the Amazons turned back the tide of climate change? and for my troubles the rich and powerful attempted to assassinate me. Just what does it mean for a person to own a trillion dollars hmm? and do nothing with it but make more money... West-Amazon. You are fighting on the wrong side of this battle."


Donna is no stranger to illusion magic. Still this is powerful. Something dark about it presses against that magical lasso. Jinx stands at the end of a series of trophies. Those trophies are things taken from those who attacked her. Near Donna is the lasso of truth and sitting next to it the crown of Hippolyta. "I was wondering when you'd come to visit me. I considered the possibility you might never come back. It's a pleasure to finally meet you wanderer. If you've come for that crown," she motions to the one near Donna, "You can have it - but only if you help me save this world instead of fighting me."


Rachel Summers can sense the boundaries of the illusion. That phoenix force ripples at its edges. You cannot contain such a thing in a cage, even a mental one. Jinx raises an eyebrow as she looks her up and down. "Aren't you a little out of your time? I can help you get home if that's what you seek. I have no quarrel with you and your kind."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary blinks at the card, "What... no, I can't say it. I WON'T SAY IT!" She howls in anguish, raising a pistol to Jinx, as futile a gesture as it might be, but she's not going to die on her knees. "YOU KILLED MY FAMILY!" She aims right for Jinx's head, as she's trained to these past years, and wants to pull the trigger...

But she can't. She's unable to move, as something... something is stopping her from carrying that out. And that's when she feels the dread. The fear. "No... no no no no no no..." Tears swell in her eyes, as she starts to realize the truth.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven pulls herself to a stand. The black bird that had seeped from her in order to bring the Titans there slowly retracts into her being.

    There is a soft, slow exhale. No guard. That isn't the probability they're in. They're in the other one. For a moment, Raven looks impeccably ready to battle- something that, for the mystically inclined, would be a fearsome thing to see.

    And yet, she holds. No chanting. No offensive magic. No /defensive/ magic.

    Just Raven, floating there... And then she drifts to the ground. Her cloak no longer billows in wind that isn't there. "After these years of wandering, not even one as strong as you could lie to me." she states, taking steps towards Jinx.

    Her hands come up, and her fingers curl into the edges of her hood. "I know that you are trying, but whatever plans you have to stop him will not work without me."

    Stoic as ever, yet seemingly struck in her most vulnerable of places, when Raven pulls her hood from her face, there is no more power there. Just her purple hued eyes, staring back at Jinx.

    "I will join your Hive."

Irie West has posed:
    When her father-that-could-have-been arrives, Irie's expression turns to one of fondness touched with sadness. It hurts to see him so broken, and if she had her way, she would hide him away to keep him safe. But, Wally is a West, and Wests don't hide from insurmountable odds.

    "Got it," She says to Donna and Raven, resting her hand on her sword. "Protect Raven. Kick teeth in. Bring Jinx in alive." And then it's go time!

    ... Whiiiich doesn't pan out exactly as they had planned. Irie finds herself face to face with Jinx, who starts monologuing at her. She whirls around to see if she can find the rest of the team but when it's clear it's just her and the sorceress, she unsheathes her sword and holds aloft her shield.

    "Shheeeyah, right," is her answer to Jinx's monologue. "I fight for freedom! I fight for what's right! I mean, sure, you guys have done some good, but at what cost? I mean, look at you," she says, starting to circle Jinx. "You're on top of the world. But are you //free//? Truly?" Before Jinx can answer, Irie leaps at her with blinding speed. True, she can't directly access the Speed Force, but that doesn't mean the large woman would be slow.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Troia's eyes flicker all around her, but keep coming back to Jinx, never leaving her for more than a fraction of a moment -- though they linger on the Lasso of Truth longer than they linger on anything else. She walks slowly and steadily towards Jinx, circling slightly as she comes.

    "I have no need for crowns," she says. "No desire to be a queen of ashes. But who told you I was here to fight you anyway?" Troia gives the faintest of smiles. "Interesting. Powerful. Oh so powerful. I wonder how you do it. I do not need my sister's lasso to know lies when I see them though, Jinx. Even when I cannot see through them, I see them. But I will not lie in turn and pretend your offer doesn't interest me. It is only to save the world that I am here, after all."

    Troia keeps advancing, slowly, casually, giving no sign she's planning to make any sudden moves. As she walks she casually takes her own lasso from her hip, and uncoils it, slowly and precisely as her steps, plain for Jinx to see. It's not golden like Diana's. Instead it glows with a silver-blue light that does not pierce the illusion as the light of the Lasso of Truth might, but seems separate from it, like an after-image in the eye, a vestige of light that is somewhere else. "You ask me to help you save this world. There is so much to save it from, Jinx. From itself, for sure. From the foolishness of man. The same petrochemicals you want banned are a poison we Amazons turned our backs on two thousand years ago, Jinx. Did you know that? So yes, I see some truth in you beyond this veil of lies. I think you do wish to save the world. But perhaps you don't see all the threats to this world that I do. Do you wish to save it from HIVE as well as from the foolishness of man that destroys nature rather than being part of it? Both will destroy this world in time, if they are not checked. Help /me/ to end HIVE, and I will help you with the rest."

    Troia comes to a halt a few steps from Jinx, and holds out her lasso. "Prove to me you mean it, Jinx. Show me that you are not the enemy you appear. Submit to my lasso. Not a Lasso of Truth, here in this place of lies. In it's coils I will not see your truth, Jinx, I will see your /will/. "

Wally West has posed:
Seeing Irie made Wally's heart sink. He was so happy to see Irie again, his daughter. But at the same time? Hek nows this is a shit situation and it's highly possible none of them are coming home. But, they ahve a job to do.

Wally takes great care to watch over that launch.

Those missiles were perfect. BALLS TO WALLS difficult to get, but perfectly wired. Perfectly trained. Wally worked on the homing system himself. The missiles strike the side of the pyramid, enough missiles to make the earth shake under the weight of the exothermic (and endothermic) reactions that would light that entire thing up like a Christmas tree. But...nothing happens.

"Oh no..."

Wally stares ahead in mild horror, though he looks around him. The problem? He couldn't /run/. He could run in the sense that those prosthetics could carry him as far or as long as they needed to carry him for. But he could still see the world as though in slow motion. He could still /perceive/. The problem was he couldn't do anything about it. As people turn to look at Wally, as people turn and see him as evil, as a terrorist?

They suddenly just go about their day, like nothing had even happened. The pyramid is unscathed.

It didn't work.

"Dammit."

Wally suddenly reached for that case. With a few clicks, he opens it and he looks within. It looks like a simple block. But when he touches it? The technology scans Wally's brainwaves, identifying it's creator and owner. The technology suddenly starts to shift and flake apart, until it reassembles into a BIG. FUCKING. GUN.

It's beautiful. Nanotech at it's finest, the weapon crackling with blue electricity as soon as Wally takes the gun into his hands. A deep breath.

"Alright...I was gonna save this for the next big war, but..." He angles the weapon on his shoulder, the weapon adjusting and building off of Wally's intellectual desire. One of the tricks he could still do? Draw power from the Speed Force like it was an unlimited power grid. His hands reach for his own goggles that he wore when he could still run faster than anything that is, was, or ever will be...modified heavily to maintain PPE regulations and he slides it over his eyes.

"Hey Jinx?"

A smile.

"Knock-Knock."

And suddenly....

*FWWOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!!!*

That gun fires off a laser that makes the individual punching power of those missiles look like a firecracker. This source is more focused. Sharper. He wants in that pyramid and he wants a big-ass hole in it right. Now.

If but so he can give his allies something to fight for. Even if it gets him swarmed? He has a plan.

But right now? Better make Jinx know she really shouldn't forget about Wally Fucking West, arguably one of the most dangerous men alive.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx twists her lips a little wryly as she contemplates Raven. "I have no reason to lie to you. Yes, I shroud in illusions for privacy. Surely you understand that." The illusion melts away for Raven as she sees Jinx reading from the Darkholde. Its pages are clear even from where Raven stands. It is a solution. A real one. The darkholde never lies - it simply has ulterior motives.

At the center of the page is a depiction of Raven. Surrounded by three objects - a ring, a sceptre - and a pot of blood. It is some kind of bloody ritual. And the section that Jinx is reading from requires the transmutation of certain objects to make the jewels at the tip of the sceptre. "I understand if you would rather an alliance of convenience."

Around them are Raven's allies. Each staring off in a different direction as they engage in a private conversation with Jinx. "For the longest time I resisted truly joining the hive. I won't require it of you." Her energy stops flowing from the objects as they hover up in to the ceiling and starts to coalesce together. "This is a show of good faith to you." ... "I hope."


"Mary.. I feel for you. I really do. And you will remember everything soon. Remember that this was all your idea - remember that first time we met. Remember what a wicked thing you are. Of all the people I have ever known, I would say your picture should sit next to the definition of 'come out of the closet'..." Jinx motions to the card.

"Say the word. I know you are afraid of it. Of what it will mean. But you are happier as your true self and /I/ won't judge."


Jinx smiles as Irie launches herself at her. Her speed and sword strike through. Strike right through a shimmering illusion. Jinx is standing behind her and continues her monologue, "Do you know how many heroic types I've defeated? I used to really enjoy it. I used to get a real kick out of being the very best. But now I spend day after day trying to fix this world. A world broken by generations of hate and greed."

Another illusion of Jinx disappears and she reappears on her throne. "And it saddens me that you're perpetuating the stereotype of the ignorant hero who thinks she knows what's really going on." Illusions of world leaders appear all around Irie, "Take your pick. I will tell you their dirty little secret."


She eyes the strange blue lasso and then looks back at Donna. Challenge in her eyes. There's a moment of amusement on her face before she grins, "That's.. original. You don't disappoint. Far more interesting than Wonder Woman." A waggle of her finger as she circles around Donna slowly.

"I will. But only if you first prove your truth with that lasso.." she motions to the lasso of truth. "And no double speak." She taptaps the side of her nose. "... only then will we discuss the true nature of hive and what it once was. What it has become. And perhaps, where it should go from here."


A weapon of mass destruction, powered by the speed force ignites from Wally's shoulder and lashes out at the pyramid. The illusions that have wrapped up the Titans fall away - as do the components required to make part of the solution to the Trigon problem tumble to the floor. The acolytes snap up and quickly rush to retrieve the objects. Everyone is thrown off their feet.

A nanite web of quantum struggles swirls about the pyramid exterior over the gigantic hole Wally just blew in it. Energy crackles across it, building up. A weapon of its own design. People start running -away- from Wally. Jinx scrambles up off the floor. "Your friend... he's in trouble."

Jinx tries to rush over to a computer terminal at the far end of the room, even as Irie, Donna, and Mary find themselves no longer in a private conversation with Jinx. All those world leaders around Irie - gone. The quietness for Mary to contemplate her own truth - gone. Donna's challenge - interrupted.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary stares at the card, tears running down her face as she drops the gun. She can't help herself, as she feels like she's outside her own body somehow, picking up the card in her fingers and holding it. She struggles, mightily, as she feels some/thing/ lurking on the edges of her reality in realms that even Raven couldn't see... the angles too warped and deranged for anyone sane to contemplate for long.

Of course, HIVE sorcerers never had that issue, did they?

She looks locked in indecision, but then the explosion happens from Wally's gun, and in instinctual panic as she feels the shockwave of the explosion slam in her, she screams, "SHAZAM!"

And from the Heavens, a sickly green bolt of lightning roars into the pyramid, lighting up the Luxor with unholy eldritch illumination.

And then Mary rises, no longer Mary but something more. Her costume is black, the lightning bolt a sickly noxious green that almost seems to crawl along her torso. Mary stands tall and proud now, eyes glowing green as she smiles wickedly.

"All hail the HIVE, Jinx my love. Who should I kill first?"

Irie West has posed:
    It should have been a solid hit. The fact that Jinx simply wasn't there when she struck means that she has faster reflexes than she though or... "An illusion," Irie concludes. "Heck." This is one of those situations where she's not going to be able to brute force her way out of.

    "I may not know much about what's going on," she admits. "But I know evil when I smell it." When offered to know the dirty little secrets of the world's leaders she just scoffs. "Why would I want to know that? People in positions of power always have some sort of skeletons in their closets." She lashes out to strike at the illusion of Jinx. "I wonder what skeletons are in //your//--"

    She cut off by the building shaking beneath her and the illusion dropping. She blinks and shakes her head, to clear the remains of the illusion from her mind and scowls at the situation. It takes her a moment before she puts two and two together and her scowl turns into a grin. "Heck, yeah! You get 'em, dad!"

    And then Mary transforms, and Irie's face falls. "Oh, no. Mary, no... I don't want to fight you..." She looks at her friends and colleagues and grips her sword tighter. "But I will if I have to."

Wally West has posed:
*BOOOOOOOM!!!*

That's more like it! After that shot, Wally's prosthetic legs seem to unlatch from where they had dug themselves in, just alternate mechanisms doing their work to compensate for Wally's lack of superhuman strength. He keeps the gun on his shoulder, his goggles lifted up to his forehead so he can see the damage done.

"Heh. Told 'em I didn't need missiles. Wallman, back in action!" He lifts his hand up in a cheer! Though, he looks around a moment. People are running away. People know what's about to happen. "Ohhhh wait a second." He looks closely. "That's a quantum web of nanites. The hole was enough to breach the exterior and shatter whatever Jinx had over the place, but the entire building seems to be storing that energy..."

Eyes narrow.

"Shit."

He thinks and the gun turns into a simple gauntlet to be wrapped around his hand up to his elbow. He reaches towards his belt and he throws a disc onto the floor, a disc which seems to expand into separate corners, in between them a glowing blue energy. He reaches for another disc, getting ready to fire it into the distance as he steps towards the other field....

...it's a teleporter.

Wally learned early to come prepared!

But he noticed that green glow in the sky. "Shit." He curses again. If Caitlin were here, she'd have his hide. "Irie....Irie please be okay. Dad's coming. Just hang on." He mutters toh imself, trying to keep his head in the game, but this might be /bad/.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven's eyes move to the Darkholde. For a moment, she looks at the page. There is an innate understanding of the ritual. The blood required. The sacrifice. The /easy/ way out. There are thoughts running through her head. Myriad. She has seen so many potentialities. So many possibilities. She had hoped this was not the one they were in.

    She had known she was wrong the entire time.

    When Jinx rushes to the terminal, Raven seems... Placid. In the kind of... Sad, depressing peace of resignation. There is a strength in that. An understanding of purpose.

    It is a sad sort of clarity.

    She looks to Troia once. Just that once, before her hands reach for her hood, and with a soft motion, she pulls it up around her head, for what she knows should be the last time. However this goes. Her eyes disappear within it.

    With Jinx distracted, it should be easy. Raven reaches out, and akin to the pull of a black hole, away from which Jinx is only a modicum of feet, of inches, Raven's soul self pulls.

    It is inexorable. Despite whatever alarm, acceptance, or reaction Jinx may have to it- when Raven's Door opens, she disappears within- as does Raven, collapsing in on herself.

    Raven has taken Jinx into her soul-self, ripping her from this dimension. Perhaps, disconnecting her from her Hive. In all likelihood, giving Jinx complete clarity when they both appear on a stone platform in the empty realm in which Raven is all powerful.

    It will not last long, if it lasts at all. And they both know that.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The Golden Perfect cannot be held within an illusion. Not even the Darkholde could manage that, because the Lasso of Truth /is/ truth itself manifested as matter. It can however be faked. Is this the real Lasso of Truth? It could be, but that would be quite a risk for Jinx to take, to leave the means to destroy her illusion so close to hand. Perhaps she's that confident; perhaps it's a trick.

    Troia is aware that Jinx had simply gestured to what /looked/ like the Lasso of Truth and had described it with no more precision than 'that lasso'. Nothing for her own truth sense to work with. Nothing to say this wasn't a trap, one she has no intention of walking into.

    Troia's instinct in this sitation is to /delay/. To give time for Raven to do whatever Raven is going to do. Even if that truly is her sister's lasso, that's a way she can delay. Or it would have been if Wally's Speedforce gun hadn't pierced the illusion as effectively as the real Lasso of Truth could. With the illusion gone Troia can revert to her true nature, to /act/ rather than to delay. There are so many options. There's Jinx, not far away, and distracted. The perfect opportunity to do what she has come here for, and swing the lasso. Wally is in danger, and smart as he is, he can't run like he used to be able to, and could really use an assist. Mary has done a heel-turn and clearly represents a major threat, and Irie looks like she might be going to face her alone and could undoubtedly do with an assist too.

    All these considerations fall by the wayside because of a single glance. Troia wants to save the world, but she wants to save every world. And she wants to do it with Raven at her side. She knows Raven too well. She knows that whatever her lover is planning, she doesn't think she's coming out of that.

    This cannot stand. Troia races forwards in a blur, her lasso raised, moving through the building at a speed that even Wally in his Speedforce prime would have recognized as being pretty competent for an amateur. She closes in on Jinx fast.

    Yet it is not Jinx at whom she throws the lasso. At the very moment Raven's soul-self engulfs Jinx, the Lasso of Persuasion wraps itself around the shadowy form of Raven's Soul Self.

    INSIDE THE LASSO, in a realm of pure will, Troia stands on a stone platform in a starry arena of stone platforms, a duplicate of the interior landscape Raven and Jinx themselves are seeing within Raven's soul-self. Drifting there, close by, is Raven's Soul-Self, now the central point in a layered Inception of realms of will.

    "Raven, no!" Troia calls out. "I cannot let you do this. I /will/ not let you do this! We'll find another way. We always find another way!"

    Raven's Soul Self drifts, wavering slightly, and then the darkness sunders and a Raven herself steps out.

    No, not quite. For though this looks like Raven, the coloring is wrong. This Raven is dressed entirely in pink. Not Raven -- Raven's Joy.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx pauses for just a moment and looks at Mary, "There's my beautiful pet." There's almost a purr to her voice. Wally can take a moment to not die.. does she really need to win over Irie? The HIVE tells her it is optimal to turn them all and thus saving Wally is the best course of action.

But no plan survives contact with the enemy. She notices the way that Donna hesitates. Whatever that whip is she's not sure she wants to touch it, just as Donna seems unwilling to touch her sisters lasso. She rolls her eyes, "I think we have enough Amazons already."

The order is given. Mary has been unleashed. Her delightful horror, - she merely gave the girl enough rope once the pretension and nonsense had been stripped away. And what a beautiful monster she had turned out to be underneath it all. Ain't no strings on that thing. Just the way Jinx likes it.

Time to show these would be heroes just what kind of power she's amassed in the last few years. What kind of knowledge she is tapped in to constantly. The weight of millions rattling about in her mind at any one time ready to give up their skills in aid of her prowess.

....and then she is inceptioned by Raven and Donna.


Jinx feels her life rewind a moment. That day she considered quitting. She told one of her colleagues in the Five. They in turn told H.I.V.E. upper management. She remembers being blind sided by the response team. It'd happened before - she thought nothing of it. But when she woke she could feel the place where they'd inserted the chip. She was part of the hive. They had decided to risk losing her magic to make sure she didn't run away.

Jinx did not lose her magic. Far from it - with the aid of the hive she got gud. Real gud. And then as the HIVE network began to grow so did knowledge of magical artefacts and knowledge and spells. So much information at her finger tips.

The day they got hold of the Darkholde though - taking it off some pesky scientists who thought they were making clean energy for the world - was the day it all changed. The day she became the Queen of the HIVE. The day she put Mother in her place. The day she saw a plan in those pages. A plan to reshape the world for the future, for humanity, for everyone to thrive. There would be pain, darkness, suffering - but through it metamorphosis.

She could feel the corruption from the book but with a simple solution - share it amongst the hive. The overwhelming desire to submit to the book did not have to be her burden alone. She had found a way to beat it. For now at least.


Jinx stumbles in the dark place as she is cut off from the hive mind. She is cut off from the darkholde. Its grip upon her mind and heart ... gone. Disoriented, large gaps of knowledge she knows she should have are just ... gone. So many decisions she made that seemed logical are now foreign to her. Was she herself? Was the hive in control? was she dreaming about being in control the whole time?

But the Darkholde was NOT gone. No... where it ended at the edge of Jinx it now latched on to Raven. It could sense a new power that would be OH so easy to entice. That darkness built up in Jinx thrust solely on to Raven and without the benefit of the a hive mind to share it around.

Chthon stirred in its cage. Oh how it dreamed of the day it would unravel this puzzle maze of dimensions and realities keeping it from consuming all. The first true master of Black Magic, an Elder God - one of the ones who helped shape this reality, this world, the very nature of magic itself. You cannot destroy such a thing, but you can lock it away.

And one by one, as people fell under the sway of his evil book, so too did the barriers between realities strip away. And this one who possesses the will of the book now? Raven? Oh my the thin walls between realities. It can feel them.

Jinx has posed:
"Who are you?" Jinx asks of both Donna and Raven. Neither were Titans when she attacked the tower with the Five. "Where am I?" She suddenly grabs at the back of her head feeling for that spot they put HIVE in to her mind. It's probably still in there, healed over. She grimaces, "Get it out! Please!?!! I don't want to go back... Please!"


Irie, spoiling for a fight, is greeted by the sudden appears of Wally via teleportation pad. The tower, however, was never stood down by Jinx. The build up crescendos and a wicked crack of quantised energy rips across the sky, swirls back on itself, blasts through the side of the pyramid and branches in to an infinity number of little filaments ripping through Wally's body at the quantum level.

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary smiles wickedly, "Oh, Irie, you never wondered did you? How could Jinx and HIVE kill so many prominent wizards that should know better? Doom? Zatanna? Dr. Fate? Clea? The answer always was... they didn't." She then smiles wider, "I did. They found me lost after they destroyed the Rock, and they gave me a purpose. The Darkhold gave me a purpose. And then I knew, through the Cunning of He Who Shall Not Be Named, that I could infiltrate what little was left of the Titans unknowingly. Until the proper moment where the fake, broken, mortal shell could be discarded..."

And then Wally appears, teleporting in, and immediately triggering the trap, as she tsk tsks, "Oh, now you caught me monologuing. No matter." She then immediately flies to Irie, and just when Irie is about to prepare for a frontal assault, Mary seems to dissolve into fractals and appear /behind/ the girl. Her hands suddenly grip Irie's head in what feels like an unbreakable grip, and her voice whispers into Irie's ear, "Jinx said we had enough... but I'll make an exception for you."

A pause, and then Irie hears Mary's sickly sweet voice murmur, "Witness... the raw power of the Elder Ones!" And with that, suddenly green light pours directly into Irie's mind, as Mary floods Irie's thoughts with insane images of Things That Should Not Be. Mary then shouts, "DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEE!"

Wally West has posed:
Wally managed to quickly get into the teleporter.

He only had one chance to do this right.

Suddenly, he appears in the pyramid, standing up to his full height as his prosthetics become reverse-jointed, allowing him to be a little bit taller. He /immedaitely/ points his gauntlet at Mary. "Hey." and he BLASTS a massive bolt of speed-force energy at her, attempting to either blast away Mary or stun her long enough for Irie to get the upperhand.

And so he can do this. "Irie, I don't have a lot of time. I knew my weapon would backfire. But now that you're inside? Shouldn't anymore." He takes the gauntlet off and he tosses it Irie's way. "Activation Code: Caitlin." and the gauntlet suddenly scans Irie's brainwaves, ownership transferring from him to her.

The problem with Super Speed?

Having all the perception in the world but unable to do a single damned thing about it. The speed force can cancel out the speed force, most likely, and when it does so? Wally knows he's going to die. But...if he's going to die?

At least he's left the world in good hands.

"You can do this Irie. I'm so proud of you. Your mother would be proud of you. I'm sorry I didn't have the chance to watch you grow." His eyes meet Irie. "You know what to do with that. It'll seriously help. The only limit is your imagination." Then, in that moment, he gives his child one of his classic smiles, before he looks towards where Donna and Raven had gone.

His voice a whisper. He knows, if anything, Raven can likely hear it.

"Make it count."

Then to his daughter, his gaze softening.

"Love you, kiddo."

Then the beam STRIKES where Wally stands, tearing him apart at a molecular level, quantifying him in such a way that his atoms are splitting apart. To anybody else? It'd be instantaneous. To Wally?

It's moments. Moments in time. Moments where he can see his daughter - the last thing on earth he loves - before his eyes finally close.

The long watch was finally over.

Wally's turn was over. He died giving his daughter a good, fighting chance. He died doing what all fathers ought to do: make way for the young to do it better than they ever did.

It's Irie's chance now.

Irie West has posed:
    Irie stares in open shock as Mary lays out how she was the one behind the death of all those powerful people. "But... how did... nobody detected anything from you! We trusted you!" she accuses.

    Anger, pain, and grief fuels Irie's strike against Mary, but the power the Elder Gods have given her opponent makes her much faster than she should be. She misses, and then Mary is behind her, grasping her head, showing her the truth behind reality.

    And Irie, for the first time, //SEES//.

    Abyssal creatures of shifting forms swimming in a sea of void so empty that reality itself is absent. Evil so ancient that there aren't words to describe its terribleness. It's all so much that it could cause a mind to break.

    But Irie's unbound optimism in the face of countless adversity lets her hang on. Hang on just enough to see her dad show up and give her hope. Hang on in time to see him make his final sacrifice, and after that? It's all just a pit of anger.

    "Nnnnooo!" She cries, ripping her head away from Mary's hands, grasping at the gauntlet that has been thrown her way. It locks itself around her hand and suddenly the world slows down for her.

    Irie has always had the capacity to be a conduit for the Speed Force. Just, in this timeline, it never happened. But this gauntlet? It seems to have unlocked that potential in her. Now with her father's speed, and her mother's strength, she can go toe to toe with Eldritch Mary.

    "Enough!" She roars and zips in to land a blow that could level mountains. "No more! This ends here! Tonight! One way or another!"

Rachel Roth has posed:
    WITHIN THE LASSO: Before Troia stands the most casual Raven anyone else has never seen. Her hips are cocked. She's fashionable; Wearing a hoodie in deep pink, with magenta lines forming a motif of Ravens. Her shoes aren't giant, chunky boots, but a sort of ankle high, heeled shoe. Her hood is down.

    She's smiling. It's the happiest, saccarine smile in the world. As if she's never been happier. Joy is normally the Face in Raven's soul self, and this is no different. The first thing she does is take steps forward and do this small hop at Troia. The hug that comes is warm. God, it's so warm and inviting. Disarming. Like Rage and Sadness were no longer a concept.

    "We did so much good." she states, a little tear appearing in her eye. "You don't even /know/ how much good we did. I wasn't taking us to other worlds in our cosmos- I was taking us to other timelines. Ones without you, ones without me. Ones without both of us, and one that had us. It was so wonderful. I muddled with things. You thought it was six years, I made me think it was six years, but we had a /lifetime/, my Troia."

    By now, even among the influence of Joy, she is likely experiencing dread. The other shoe is yet to drop, and yet, it hasn't yet. It's coming, it /must/ be coming.

    "But," There it is. "But even we don't last /forever./" There is a hand, cupping Donna's face. It's warm- and for some reason, there is likely to be the foreboding feeling that it is the last time she'll feel that warmth from Raven. "This isn't the one where we beat him. When I am finished in there, I won't be able to stave it off forever. You have to do it now. You have to do it before I try and read the Darkholde. Then you have to take it somewhere. Strange will be free, so you have to make sure that the two of you keep it safe."

    There are tears running down her cheeks, now. It's not supposed to be this way. They were supposed to make it. They were supposed to beat her father. They were supposed to win. Be immortal. Be together forever.

    Raven pulls Donna down for a deep, long kiss. It lingers for an eternity and, paradoxically, is far too short. When she detaches, she is still smiling.

    "This isn't the one where we're the happiest. Don't be sad. There's a world where we get what we want."

    Then, Joy fades- to rejoin the whole of Raven in her soul-self, and leave Troia to depart the realm within the lasso.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Inceptioning psychic landscapes is never the wisest thing to do. For a start it's horribly confusing. Troia finds herself in two identical places at once, and it's a headache. She raises a hand to forestall the confused questioning by Jinx. "Shut up please Jinx," she tells the confused woman as she faces Raven.

    "There has to be another way," She says to Raven and to Raven's Joy, simultaneously, through two pairs of lips. The Troia inside Raven's Soul Self looks around suddenly and shivers. Though she doesn't understand what it is, she can sense the Darkholde's presence here. "Rae, we can do this," she says.

    In the outer realm, the realm of the Lasso that so resembles the interior of Raven's Soul Self, Troia tells Raven's Joy "Rae, I can't do this."

    She reaches her hand out to touch Joy's cheek, mirroring Joy's hand on her own, and wipes away a tear. Its mirror image trickles down her own cheek. "But I have to, don't I? I always promised I would, if it was Trigon. But this... this is as bad, isn't it? It's always bad when I see you... I mean the colors. When your emotions can't be together, can't be one. But together they make white..."

    The lovers share a kiss, and Troia whispers "I will do it. What I agreed," As Raven's Joy retreats back into her Soul Self and Raven becomes one again. But Troia does not immediately leave the realm of the Lasso.

    "Now you are white, Rae," she says to the void. She and Raven have agreed, there is no longer a conflict of will. "But shortly that book will corrupt you, and I agreed I would not let that happen. But there's something else I cannot let happen, Rae. I will not keep that evil safe and secure, Rae. Because nothing that evil will ever be safe forever. And you know it. You are saying that because you want to spare me. It must end here, whatever the cost."

    Troia falls silent for a few moments, and the realm of the Lasso of Persuasion is silent with her, even though within Raven's Soul Self inside that realm there is no mirror of the calm and quiet, as the Darkholde threatens to topple Raven's will.

    We are in agreement, Rae," Troia continues finally, speaking to the silence. "That means you are no longer contesting my will. And that means you are /subject/ to my will. And I say... end it. End it all in whiteness, while you are still white. Let the light out. I love you Rae. I don't mind dying with you."

Rachel Roth has posed:
    WITHIN RAVEN'S SOUL. The Daughter of Darkness takes a few steps towards Jinx, and speaks with a soothing tone. Like a balm, her words echo upon the ears, and yet like the soft chiming of deep bells, resonate within the body to bring one calm, and peace.

    "Jinx. My name is Raven. Troia and I were Titans- we departed the tower and the team before you first met them. In other worlds, other possibilities, we are friends. You're at peace. You are no one's slave."

    She places a hand on the woman's shoulder. "But there is another problem. You have read the Darkholde. It is a parasite. It has dark wants and fulfills only dark deeds. Were you to leave here, you would be under its influence again. Worse than what was done to Mary. Your madness would be a blight. Your darkness without bounds."

    That short pause comes with another hand on the woman's shoulder. "You meant well. Even under the influence of the Darkholde, you meant well. You wanted to make the world a better place, and in a way, you were succeeding. It blinded you to the cost. Your heart is good. And now, your soul is pure, in this place..."

    Raven's gaze drifts downward. Her eyes close. For a moment, a profound sadness echoes throughout the dimension that is her soul-self.

    "You cannot leave here and not be subject to it. There is only one way that you are free from it forever."

    There is another pause.

    "I'm sorry."

    At that point, every aspect of Raven returns to her. She turns white- as if the Azarathian Sorceress' garb she is wearing was made of pure light itself. Her hands hold onto the other woman's shoulders. Her eyes- which had been closed once she shifted to the White Raven, opened. There is a burning, blazing light that comes from them. Her mouth opens, and light erupts from it as well.

    There is no pain. No fear. There is only light.

Rachel Roth has posed:
    OUTSIDE OF INCEPTED RAVEN'S SOUL-SELF: There are only a spare few moments that pass. Parts of seconds, where power is accumulated. Freedom is given. Prices are paid.

    The lasso goes slack, and standing where Raven's soul-self was encircled by it, is the White Raven, in all its glory.

    "Irie. Run."

    Those last two words are all that Raven utters, before she lets loose a fraction of the power of her entire being into the world. It bursts forth in a hemisphere of blinding energy, that expands in all directions, pushing forward for miles. It is the light. It is not a spell. It is nothing but pure, unadulterated power, limited only in its scope, as it could very well wash over all of existence.

    What it does wash over is not simply destroyed: It is entirely unmade. There will be no remains, there will be, simply, nothing. No Darkholde. No Troia. No Jinx. No Vegas.

    No Raven.

Irie West has posed:
    And Irie ran.

    With the gauntlet giving her access to the Speed Force, she had precious moments to get clear. She had enough time to save one thing and bring it with her, but unfortunately it couldn't have been Donna. But what she did bring...

    She stands miles away from Las Vegas, one hand clutching the Lasso of Truth, watching the city be engulfed by white light. Her eyes wet as what was left of her friends in the resistance go with it.

    She closes her eyes and breathes. She's the last Amazon. It's up to her to create a new resistance. It's up to her to not let her friends sacrifice be in vein. With the lasso, she can be a beacon of hope, and that is what she'll be. And when she opens her eyes...

    ... she wakes up. "Woah," she says, bringing her hands up to her head where she can already feel a headache coming on. "I had that crazy dream again..."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary's emerald eyes widen at the sight of Raven's purifying light, and she does what any sensitble eldritch-empowered villain would do. Namely, flee, or try to do so. She feels herself discorporating from the light even as she finds the corner to leap to a place that's safe...

Far from the destruction of Vegas, a shambling figure that once might have been seen as human happens upon a couple that were staring in shock at the bright dome illuminating Vegas. It smiles a bit, as what's left of Mary's face looks... hungry.

---------------

And that's when Mary wakes up in a cold sweat, gasping for air as her eyes are wide open. Fortunately, Marie is right there with her to calm her down... but it takes a while, as she's haunted by the vision of that doppleganger with the emerald eyes...

Donna Troy has posed:
    Nights have been peaceful for Donna Troy for a while now. That didn't used to be the case. Ever since Doomsday, Donna had suffered a recurring nightmare that woke her up at nights. A guilt-dream because she hadn't been there to help her friends when they fought Doomsday and lost. A dream of finding herself alone in the tower, the Last Titan. Since last spring when that nightmare manifested itself in reality and the secret that had been kept from Donna since she had been born was no longer a secret to her, she'd stopped having the dream.

    She sits up suddenly in bed in a cold sweat, woken from a nightmare for the first time in ten months. Though was it really a nightmare? "What... what was..." she mutters sleepily in hypnopompic confusion. "What happened?"

Rachel Roth has posed:
    Raven, on the other hand, hasn't moved. In sharp contrast to Donna, her eyes have not opened, and she hasn't shot up- nor is there a bead of sweat on her. Instead, it almost seems as if Donna's sudden awakening has disturbed her more than anything else.

    Her hand reaches up, pulling at Troia's shoulder, just enough to urge her to lay back down. If the other woman really wanted to remain sitting up, she could do so, but the calming gesture is usually enough.

    "Just a glimpse into a possible reality where certain events were different. Go back to sleep." she states, as if that is just a thing that happens every Tuesday night.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx wakes up in a start. Sweating. She grabs at the back of her head. Is that a lump? no.. just a bit of hair in a knot. She flops back down on the bed trying to grab the remaining strands of the dream. It was so intense and ... horrible. She was a passenger in her own body, in her own dream. Those are the worst kind.

But a few moments pass and it is hard for her to hold on to whatever it was that made her heart race like that. She flops back down on to the pillow and stares up at the ceiling. She can't sleep now. It's the middle of the night but screw it. Jinx gets up and goes to make some coffee. May be one of these days she'll make it through the night and sleep well. One day.

At least she's not alone. Not any more. Not with this Titans family. She knows she's not the only one who suffers night terrors of some kind of another. This is not the first time the coffee machine had drawn out those who cannot slip. Jinx looks over to her fellow team mates... "Hey." And smiles.