All about Flinx

No luck Jinx

It was over.
Jinx watched helpless as Madam Rouge delivered the final blow, too far away to help Kid Flash, who now lay motionless at Madam Rouge’s feet. A raw scream threatened to burst from her chest, but she fought it down, and instead closed the distance at a sprint. "What did you do?" Jinx asked her, breathless.
"He would not surrender" Madam Rouge said, flicking dust off her outfit. "I was forced to finish him."
Jinx felt fury rising up, eclipsing the sorrow she felt for someone she was sure she didn’t like.
Before she realized what she was doing, Jinx raised her hand and fired a bolt of bad luck at Madam Rouge, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying backwards. Madam Rouge got to her feet as Jinx advanced on her, eyes still glowing with unused power. Madam rouge cracked her neck and said, "Hmm. You have power for one who is so young. I would like to extend an invitation for you and your team to join the brotherhood"
Jinx’s eyes slowly returned to normal. At last, what she'd been dreaming of for years, but the accomplishment felt hallow. She glanced over to where Kid Flash lay, and then looked back at Madam Rouge. "I accept." she said, grasping Madam Rouge’s outstretched hand.
"Good." she said. "A car will be coming to pick your team up later tonight. Be ready." she turned and walked away.
Jinx stood there for a long while, before going to Kid Flash's body. She knelt beside him, and gently turned him over. It was strange to see him so still, even when they’d knocked him unconscious he’d still moved slightly in his sleep. After crossing his hands on his chest, Jinx buried her face in her own hands and wept for the boy who’d seen through her dark facade and saw her true self underneath.
A week later, Jinx walked out of the Brotherhood compound near Steel City and never looked back. She stopped at a small convenience store and picked up a pair of jeans, a simple t-shirt and black hair dye. After changing her clothes and using the dingy bathroom behind the store to dye her hair, Jinx walked to a nearby internet cafe, where she used the skills Gizmo had taught her to create a new identity for herself. Soon Jinx was no more. Instead she became Rose Flash, in honor of the man who changed her life.
The first thing she did as Rose Flash was rent a small apartment in Steel City, and then purchasing a pair of purple contacts so her pink eyes wouldn’t giver her away. Slowly but surely, Jinx became Rose Flash, a young woman making her way on her own in a big city. She got a job at a flower shop, tending the roses and helping her boss around the shop. She sometimes swore when the roses rustled she could hear his voice, gently teasing her from within the petals. And every time she thought of him, she wondered what her life would have been like if she’d gone with him when he’d asked. Would she have become an honorary titan like he had been? Would she have been happy? Would he have loved her the same way she now realized she loved him?
Some days these wondering were all she could think about. Her boss recognized when she was lost in these thoughts, Rose having told her she’d moved to steel city after losing someone shed loved, and made sure that Rose was given tasks to help try and take her mind off her loss.
She'd heard through gossip at work that not long after she’d left, the Brotherhood and everyone helping them had been defeated, and now honorary Teen Titans were everywhere. She felt relief that the brotherhood, at least, would never find her.
That night, almost year to the day since Jinx was erased, and the night before Rose Flash's "official" birthday, she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. She wondered why, despite being a normal person, something shed wanted since childhood, she still wasn’t completely happy. Every day, she heard his voice calling to her. Every night when she closed her eyes, she dreamed of him.
On her birthday, a year after she’d walked out of the brotherhood compound, Rose was getting ready for work as usual. When she opened her front door, she was startled to see the Teen Titans standing there, ready to attack. Calming her racing heart, she reminded herself she wasn’t the person shed been. She forced her voice into a shocked neutral tone and asked, "May I help you?"
Robin stepped forward, "We know who you are." he said.
"Excuse me?" she asked
"Jinx, we know it’s you" he told her.
"I’m sorry; you must have me mistaken for someone else. My name is Rose Flash" she looked at her watch, "Now if you'll excuse me, I’m late for work. We have a large shipment coming in and I’m the only one my manager trusts to help her. If you want to talk to me, my shift gets off at 3, then I need to get groceries and I’ll be back around 4. Come back then."
Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she turned the lock, went out, and shut the door, checking to make sure it fully locked behind her. Watching her walk away, Raven remarked "Well it certainly sounds like Jinx, but what happened to her to make her so...normal?"
As the Titans settled in to wait for the woman calling herself Rose to get back, she headed to work. Her boss greeted her cheerfully, and they set to work unloading the shipment of flowers and vases of all sizes and colors. 3 o'clock came quickly, and rose headed to the local grocery to store to pick up a few things. After getting her groceries, and turning down an offer of a date from the very flirtatious clerk, rose headed home.
When she arrived, Rose found that only Robin and Raven were still waiting for her. Sighing, she unlocked her door and let them in. As she put away her groceries, the two Titans stood in her living area and waited. When she was done she turned to them, sighing. "How did you know?" she asked, resting her elbows on the kitchen counter
"So it is you" Raven said.
"It was. But I think Jinx died the day he did."
"He?" Robin asked, "Who-"
"I think I understand," Raven interrupted. "You loved him, didn’t you? That’s why you changed your name to Flash."
"I didn’t want him to be forgotten," Rose said quietly.
"Why Rose though?"
She smiled slightly, "He gave me one, once. First gift anyone ever gave me."
"Who ARE you guys talking about?" Robin asked, looking back and forth between them.
Raven sighed, and grabbed Robin’s arm, steering him towards the door, "I’ll explain later. Come on, she’s no danger anymore."
After pushing Robin out the door, raven stopped and turned to Rose. "Your powers, how are you controlling them?"
"I work in a flower shop, its soothing, keeps me under control. Some days I can feel them rising though,” Rose looked down for a moment, and then met Raven’s eyes, “It’s the one thing I’m afraid of, a power blowout"
Raven stared at her for a moment, before pulling a small keycard out of her cape. “If you ever reach the blowout point," Raven told her, "Come to Titan Tower, this card will let you in and take you to the bunker. It’s sealed for a nuclear explosion, Cyborg made sure of that. If you ever need to release your power, that’s a safe place to do it."
"Thank you" Rose said, walking over and taking the card.
"I know what it’s like, to want to feel normal." Raven said quietly, reopening the door and slipping out. But before closing the door, she stopped, took half a step back in and said, "And Rose? Have a good life. Not just for him, but because anyone willing to give up everything they ever knew for the unknown deserves it."
Rose nodded, and Raven silently closed the door all the way shut, leaving Rose alone. Alone with her thoughts and her memories, but also with her new future, one she could live her way, without the pressures of being Jinx and a member of the Hive Five or the Brotherhood of Evil. She no longer had to worry about her powers, or the Titans eliminating her. She could simply be Rose Flash.
An ordinary girl at last.