Time is a Thief 7 - 424 - Safeguard
Title: Time is a Thief 7
Fandom: BtVS/Teen Titans
Prompt: 424 - Safeguard
Words: 2130
Warnings: Unbeta'd
Xander was sitting cross-legged on the floor across from Jinx in a rarely used mediation room. The wonder of mediation is that you could do it anywhere, so those who actually spent time to calm and reorganize their minds tended to have favorite places to do so and didn't need to seek out the generic matted room. The mats would help later when it was Xander's turn to be teacher. From what he had seen of Jinx's fight against the Titans she needed to learn how to take a fall without breaking something.
Jinx took a deep breath and seemed to organize her thoughts, "Ok, you seem to know a little bit about magic. It's like any other skill, everyone can do it but that doesn't mean you'll do it well. Take singing for example. Everyone is capable of trying to sing, but that doesn't mean you can project your voice, read music, keep a tune, not shatter eardrums or sound even remotely decent when you do it. Think of me as your voice coach. From what you've told me you can access your magic already. I just need to teach you to shape and project it."
It was easier said than done. They spent quite a few long afternoons getting frustrated with each other and walking away aching and angry. It was lucky they were both such stubborn people. As the weeks passed Jinx's muscle tone and reflexes slowly improved and Xander gained enough control over his powers to make his hands glow. He still couldn't project it outside of his body.
Jinx was starting to get disappointed with his lack of progress. She was such a natural with it that she had trouble explaining it's use in a way he could understand. "Magic is a part of you. It's good at what you're good at. Think about it, my magic is as pink as my hair and eyes because it's a part of me and that's my natural coloring. What are your natural talents, what are you good at that could be improved by magic?"
That was a new one. It kinda made sense a little when stated that way. Xander had been thinking of magic as a force external to himself, something in him but not of him. He focused on his sense of self. His need to know everything, to gather and classify and hoard information. He had an almost obsessive need to know his surroundings and identify the threats or quickly assess the value of a potential He was shocked out of his concentration by a flicker of light across his vision. Excited, he told Jinx about it.
"I didn't see anything." She just raised an eyebrow at his uncharacteristic enthusiasm. He usually projected a sullen personality. She smirked at him as he settled down immediately, hiding his emotions again. They had fallen into a comfortable routine and he hadn't even noticed when he started trusting her enough to show parts of his real self.
He tried again and got another brighter flash across his vision. After a few more attempts, the flash was brighter and more distinct, but Jinx still couldn't see it. He sighed and rubbed at his eyes. Her gaze followed the movement of his hand and narrowed in thought. "Maybe you'll never be able to project your magic offensively. Try focusing it on your eyes instead. Maybe you can give yourself super senses."
He froze and let his hand drop, meeting her gaze. She had long since abandoned the proper lotus position when they were practicing and was stretched out, ankle over ankle, propped up on one elbow as she played with hex sparks in her other hand. "Is that even possible?"
"It's your magic. We don't know what's possible for you." She rolled her eyes and the sparks in her hand flared up to a fist sized ball of pink flame. "No one else can manipulate bad luck like I can. It's a special snowflake thing. If you're really powerful you might have enough magic that you can manipulate the energies to mimic any effect, but everyone has a focus, something that they can do better than anyone else. Someone else might need years of study to alter luck and probability, but I accidentally started shooting off hexbolts one day without any effort. You're never gonna have enough power that you'll get to decide what abilities to mold it towards. What we're trying to do is figure out what you already can do but don't know about."
"When did you start getting to be the smart one?" He grumbled, settling back into his meditative pose.
"I've always been the smart one of the two of us. You got the stealth and the strength and the street smarts. I got the brains, beauty and the power."
Xander closed his eyes and his focus sank down into the center of his sense of self. He had initially visualized the magic as a self contained ball in his chest, but now he tried imagining it as a part of him, running through his veins, flexing side by side with the fibers of his muscles, holding strong with his bones, laying in a protectively barrier with his skin. He imagined the magic in his eyes, rather than trying to pull a bit of power from his chest up to his eyes, he imagined strengthening the power that was already there. He imagined the magic sliding to the front of his eye, layering over his cornea and let it show him what it wanted.
When his eyes opened he was amazed. He could see everything much clearer, but it was more than that. Just a glance told him that the room was exactly 10 feet by 14 feet and the ceilings were 11.5 feet high. He had some kind of Sherlock Holmes HUD vision. He finally focused on Jinx and was surprised that he could see the magic flowing through her, it was like looking at the iridescent shimmer on the surface of a bubble. It whirled and twisted inside her in that bright familiar pink.
The biggest shock was the names. They draped over Jinx like a shroud, he stared at them for a long moment trying to figure them out. The biggest was her name, Jinx, but smaller things wound around her like Nicole Diaz, or HIVE Three. It looked like every name or slur Jinx had ever been called was clinging to her, he was sad to see things like 'freak' and 'monster' curling possessively around her. Xander reached out and tried to grab the letters, his hand swiping through them uselessly.
"Does Nicole Diaz mean anything to you?" Jinx jolted hard and stared at him in shock.
"It's..." She licked her lips nervously, "It's my name. My REAL name. Before I became Jinx."
"Oh, good." He said flatly, "I made a scan spell. How very level one warlock."
"No, you don't understand." Jinx said, bouncing a little in her delight at discovering something new about magic. She wasn't kidding when she called herself the smart one, she became very Hermione at times. "No one knows that. No one I know of can do that. Think about it. Heroes and villains wear costumes and masks for a reason, they don't want people to know who they are. This is an incredible leg up on the competition. No one will be able to hide themselves from you. No disguise will fool you. Identities are the BIGGEST and best kept secret in the costumed set and you can totally bypass it with one look."
The possibilities uncurled in his head, this was probably the most useful magical skill he could have picked up. Even if he had mastered some big flashy magic he never would have used it. His style was much more suited to stealth, information gathering and misdirection.
"So, um…" Jinx stared over Xander's shoulder, not quite able to meet his eyes. "You know my name and I still don't know yours."
"I don't have one." Xander stood up abruptly. "I was declared dead and wiped all of my records. I don't exist. I don't have a name anymore."
"That's so sad." Jinx stared at him in horror. "You don't have a costumed identity and you don't have a real identity? What are people supposed to call you?"
"X." He stated shortly, but she just kept staring at him with pity in her eyes, he couldn't take it. "We'll have to take a rain check on your lesson. I've suddenly got a headache."
She let him have his flimsy excuse and let him leave without stopping him.
---------------
"I've been thinking." Jinx plunked her tray down and slid into the seat across from Xander. She stole an apple off of his tray and gave him the extra chocolate milk she had picked up for him. She didn't seem to realize that not only had he been avoiding her for a week, but that this was the first time they had ever publicly spoken. Her obvious comfort with his presence let pretty much everyone know that they had been meeting secretly for a while. Xander sighed at her complete lack of situational awareness. It continued to be her biggest weakness.
"Jinx."
"I think the reason you can't do any offensive or defensive magic is because you trust your body more than you trust your magic."
"Jinx."
"I mean," She barreled on, gesturing at him with a fork skewered french fry, "You know you're physically strong enough to handle most threats and you also know that you are and always will be magically weak. Basically, you can't trust your magic to hold out and so you don't trust it at all and can only use it passively. I'm sure if we trained you a little more-"
"Jinx!"
"What?" She frowned at him for interrupting her analysis and plans for future lessons. Her jaw was set belligerently as she dared him with her eyes to bring up their not-fight. Apparently, she wasn't easy to scare off.
"That's great, and I actually kinda agree with you, but did we have to do this here?" He gestured at the completely silent cafeteria around them. All of the HIVE students were staring at them in shock. See-more was even pouring soda in his lap as he tilted the bottle and completely missed his mouth. The kid had a heartbroken look on his face. Pretty much the whole school knew about his hopeless crush on Jinx. Mammoth made eye contact with Xander and cracked his knuckles threateningly and Gizmo slashed across his throat with one finger. No one moved on their team member without their say-so. "The whole school now thinks we're secretly dating."
"OH!" Jinx blushed, "I-Um, sorry. I was just so excited to have figured it out. I'll leave you alone."
"Jinx." He caught her wrist as she reached for her tray. He ignored the way her pulse jumped under his fingers and the blush on her face spread. He was definitely not in a place emotionally where he could handle her being attracted to him, what he needed was a friend. Hopefully if he ignored it, she'd lose interest or at least redirect her affections. "I don't care what they say. Never have. I just wanted to warn you." He smirked deviously, ".. and let you know that the next thing we'll be working on is your situational awareness."
Before she could react he reached up and gently karate chopped her in the head between her hair horns. "You're too oblivious. You need to pay more attention."
She pouted at him and rubbed her head. Xander easily distracted her by asking about her theory and let her voice wash over him as he kept a wary eye on the table across the room with a conspicuous empty seat bracketed by a glowering Mammoth and Gizmo. He hadn't realized they were so possessive. No wonder See-more had never made a move despite his complete infatuation. The kid actually had some self-preservation instincts. Xander would have to keep his guard up. He had no doubt the dastardly duo were already planning his disappearance.
He turned back to Jinx, just as her eyes narrowed at him, "Are you even listening to me?"
"Sorry, I just. Did you know that Gizmo's real name is Mikron O'Jeneus? Or that Mammoth's is Baran Flinders? Jesus, no wonder they put on a costume and changed their names. I bet they got teased a lot as kids."
Jinx barked out a laugh, "No way! Everyone goes by their alias, they never told me." She smiled at him, "If nothing else you're magic would be excellent for blackmail."
"Not a villain." He reminded her. She just rolled her eyes at him.
Fandom: BtVS/Teen Titans
Prompt: 424 - Safeguard
Words: 2130
Warnings: Unbeta'd
Xander was sitting cross-legged on the floor across from Jinx in a rarely used mediation room. The wonder of mediation is that you could do it anywhere, so those who actually spent time to calm and reorganize their minds tended to have favorite places to do so and didn't need to seek out the generic matted room. The mats would help later when it was Xander's turn to be teacher. From what he had seen of Jinx's fight against the Titans she needed to learn how to take a fall without breaking something.
Jinx took a deep breath and seemed to organize her thoughts, "Ok, you seem to know a little bit about magic. It's like any other skill, everyone can do it but that doesn't mean you'll do it well. Take singing for example. Everyone is capable of trying to sing, but that doesn't mean you can project your voice, read music, keep a tune, not shatter eardrums or sound even remotely decent when you do it. Think of me as your voice coach. From what you've told me you can access your magic already. I just need to teach you to shape and project it."
It was easier said than done. They spent quite a few long afternoons getting frustrated with each other and walking away aching and angry. It was lucky they were both such stubborn people. As the weeks passed Jinx's muscle tone and reflexes slowly improved and Xander gained enough control over his powers to make his hands glow. He still couldn't project it outside of his body.
Jinx was starting to get disappointed with his lack of progress. She was such a natural with it that she had trouble explaining it's use in a way he could understand. "Magic is a part of you. It's good at what you're good at. Think about it, my magic is as pink as my hair and eyes because it's a part of me and that's my natural coloring. What are your natural talents, what are you good at that could be improved by magic?"
That was a new one. It kinda made sense a little when stated that way. Xander had been thinking of magic as a force external to himself, something in him but not of him. He focused on his sense of self. His need to know everything, to gather and classify and hoard information. He had an almost obsessive need to know his surroundings and identify the threats or quickly assess the value of a potential He was shocked out of his concentration by a flicker of light across his vision. Excited, he told Jinx about it.
"I didn't see anything." She just raised an eyebrow at his uncharacteristic enthusiasm. He usually projected a sullen personality. She smirked at him as he settled down immediately, hiding his emotions again. They had fallen into a comfortable routine and he hadn't even noticed when he started trusting her enough to show parts of his real self.
He tried again and got another brighter flash across his vision. After a few more attempts, the flash was brighter and more distinct, but Jinx still couldn't see it. He sighed and rubbed at his eyes. Her gaze followed the movement of his hand and narrowed in thought. "Maybe you'll never be able to project your magic offensively. Try focusing it on your eyes instead. Maybe you can give yourself super senses."
He froze and let his hand drop, meeting her gaze. She had long since abandoned the proper lotus position when they were practicing and was stretched out, ankle over ankle, propped up on one elbow as she played with hex sparks in her other hand. "Is that even possible?"
"It's your magic. We don't know what's possible for you." She rolled her eyes and the sparks in her hand flared up to a fist sized ball of pink flame. "No one else can manipulate bad luck like I can. It's a special snowflake thing. If you're really powerful you might have enough magic that you can manipulate the energies to mimic any effect, but everyone has a focus, something that they can do better than anyone else. Someone else might need years of study to alter luck and probability, but I accidentally started shooting off hexbolts one day without any effort. You're never gonna have enough power that you'll get to decide what abilities to mold it towards. What we're trying to do is figure out what you already can do but don't know about."
"When did you start getting to be the smart one?" He grumbled, settling back into his meditative pose.
"I've always been the smart one of the two of us. You got the stealth and the strength and the street smarts. I got the brains, beauty and the power."
Xander closed his eyes and his focus sank down into the center of his sense of self. He had initially visualized the magic as a self contained ball in his chest, but now he tried imagining it as a part of him, running through his veins, flexing side by side with the fibers of his muscles, holding strong with his bones, laying in a protectively barrier with his skin. He imagined the magic in his eyes, rather than trying to pull a bit of power from his chest up to his eyes, he imagined strengthening the power that was already there. He imagined the magic sliding to the front of his eye, layering over his cornea and let it show him what it wanted.
When his eyes opened he was amazed. He could see everything much clearer, but it was more than that. Just a glance told him that the room was exactly 10 feet by 14 feet and the ceilings were 11.5 feet high. He had some kind of Sherlock Holmes HUD vision. He finally focused on Jinx and was surprised that he could see the magic flowing through her, it was like looking at the iridescent shimmer on the surface of a bubble. It whirled and twisted inside her in that bright familiar pink.
The biggest shock was the names. They draped over Jinx like a shroud, he stared at them for a long moment trying to figure them out. The biggest was her name, Jinx, but smaller things wound around her like Nicole Diaz, or HIVE Three. It looked like every name or slur Jinx had ever been called was clinging to her, he was sad to see things like 'freak' and 'monster' curling possessively around her. Xander reached out and tried to grab the letters, his hand swiping through them uselessly.
"Does Nicole Diaz mean anything to you?" Jinx jolted hard and stared at him in shock.
"It's..." She licked her lips nervously, "It's my name. My REAL name. Before I became Jinx."
"Oh, good." He said flatly, "I made a scan spell. How very level one warlock."
"No, you don't understand." Jinx said, bouncing a little in her delight at discovering something new about magic. She wasn't kidding when she called herself the smart one, she became very Hermione at times. "No one knows that. No one I know of can do that. Think about it. Heroes and villains wear costumes and masks for a reason, they don't want people to know who they are. This is an incredible leg up on the competition. No one will be able to hide themselves from you. No disguise will fool you. Identities are the BIGGEST and best kept secret in the costumed set and you can totally bypass it with one look."
The possibilities uncurled in his head, this was probably the most useful magical skill he could have picked up. Even if he had mastered some big flashy magic he never would have used it. His style was much more suited to stealth, information gathering and misdirection.
"So, um…" Jinx stared over Xander's shoulder, not quite able to meet his eyes. "You know my name and I still don't know yours."
"I don't have one." Xander stood up abruptly. "I was declared dead and wiped all of my records. I don't exist. I don't have a name anymore."
"That's so sad." Jinx stared at him in horror. "You don't have a costumed identity and you don't have a real identity? What are people supposed to call you?"
"X." He stated shortly, but she just kept staring at him with pity in her eyes, he couldn't take it. "We'll have to take a rain check on your lesson. I've suddenly got a headache."
She let him have his flimsy excuse and let him leave without stopping him.
---------------
"I've been thinking." Jinx plunked her tray down and slid into the seat across from Xander. She stole an apple off of his tray and gave him the extra chocolate milk she had picked up for him. She didn't seem to realize that not only had he been avoiding her for a week, but that this was the first time they had ever publicly spoken. Her obvious comfort with his presence let pretty much everyone know that they had been meeting secretly for a while. Xander sighed at her complete lack of situational awareness. It continued to be her biggest weakness.
"Jinx."
"I think the reason you can't do any offensive or defensive magic is because you trust your body more than you trust your magic."
"Jinx."
"I mean," She barreled on, gesturing at him with a fork skewered french fry, "You know you're physically strong enough to handle most threats and you also know that you are and always will be magically weak. Basically, you can't trust your magic to hold out and so you don't trust it at all and can only use it passively. I'm sure if we trained you a little more-"
"Jinx!"
"What?" She frowned at him for interrupting her analysis and plans for future lessons. Her jaw was set belligerently as she dared him with her eyes to bring up their not-fight. Apparently, she wasn't easy to scare off.
"That's great, and I actually kinda agree with you, but did we have to do this here?" He gestured at the completely silent cafeteria around them. All of the HIVE students were staring at them in shock. See-more was even pouring soda in his lap as he tilted the bottle and completely missed his mouth. The kid had a heartbroken look on his face. Pretty much the whole school knew about his hopeless crush on Jinx. Mammoth made eye contact with Xander and cracked his knuckles threateningly and Gizmo slashed across his throat with one finger. No one moved on their team member without their say-so. "The whole school now thinks we're secretly dating."
"OH!" Jinx blushed, "I-Um, sorry. I was just so excited to have figured it out. I'll leave you alone."
"Jinx." He caught her wrist as she reached for her tray. He ignored the way her pulse jumped under his fingers and the blush on her face spread. He was definitely not in a place emotionally where he could handle her being attracted to him, what he needed was a friend. Hopefully if he ignored it, she'd lose interest or at least redirect her affections. "I don't care what they say. Never have. I just wanted to warn you." He smirked deviously, ".. and let you know that the next thing we'll be working on is your situational awareness."
Before she could react he reached up and gently karate chopped her in the head between her hair horns. "You're too oblivious. You need to pay more attention."
She pouted at him and rubbed her head. Xander easily distracted her by asking about her theory and let her voice wash over him as he kept a wary eye on the table across the room with a conspicuous empty seat bracketed by a glowering Mammoth and Gizmo. He hadn't realized they were so possessive. No wonder See-more had never made a move despite his complete infatuation. The kid actually had some self-preservation instincts. Xander would have to keep his guard up. He had no doubt the dastardly duo were already planning his disappearance.
He turned back to Jinx, just as her eyes narrowed at him, "Are you even listening to me?"
"Sorry, I just. Did you know that Gizmo's real name is Mikron O'Jeneus? Or that Mammoth's is Baran Flinders? Jesus, no wonder they put on a costume and changed their names. I bet they got teased a lot as kids."
Jinx barked out a laugh, "No way! Everyone goes by their alias, they never told me." She smiled at him, "If nothing else you're magic would be excellent for blackmail."
"Not a villain." He reminded her. She just rolled her eyes at him.