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A Dish Best Served Cold-Chapter Thirteen




Sub-Zero sat in the living room of Titan's Tower, groaning inwardly. He knew if he didn't hurry up and set sail, Slade and Blood were going to get to Norblitz before he was... and that could not be allowed to happen.

The other Titans were in the room with him. After a minute Robin spoke.

"Zero... if you need help with this, we'd come with you in a heartbeat." He said. "We can get the Titans East to keep up for us while we're gone."

They had already explained who the 'Titans East' were, so Zero wasn't really confused about that anymore. He looked at them sadly.

"I... I just don't know what to do. If I go by myself, I'd be keeping my oath to secrecy, but... Slade's too strong and we don't have enough Knights... If I tried to save the day by myself, I'd be slaughtered." He whispered. He didn't notice Jinx flinch at the word 'slaughtered'.

"Then let us come with you! Look, we swear we won't tell anyone... anyone at all." B.Boy insisted. Zero looked at him miserably.

"I-I wish I could, but... his highness would be royally pissed...err, no pun intended.... And I'd STILL be slaughtered." He groaned. "I just don't know what to do!"

"It's your call bro... you just do what you think is right." Cy said firmly.

Zero looked around the room at his friends. Robin, Cyborg, and Beast Boy were all looking at him resolutely, not the slightest trace of fear in their faces. Jinx was looking at Zero with sad eyes; she hadn't fully recovered from the fact that Zero was leaving... Star was also very upset by all this, but tried not to let it show. Raven... was hiding behind her hood, and couldn't be seen clearly.

Zero sighed. "Well... his highness is.... a reasonable man. I mean, surely he would agree that having a small handful of outsiders knowing about our home... is better than having our home invaded and destroyed." He reasoned. He looked at them determinedly, stood up, and knelt down on one knee.

"My friends... I... I would be honored to accept your help... if you are sure." He said solemnly and honestly.

"We're coming." Said Jinx. This surprised the others because they hadn't heard her speak much since Zero had decided to leave. She looked at him smiling, but with watery eyes, and she spoke with a shaky voice. "E-even if you h-had w-wanted to g-g-go alone... I...I wouldn't have let you... I would have gone with you..." she stammered softly, her eyes suddenly tearing up. "I would have made you take me. You wouldn't have left me a-alone. Oh Zero, I thought you were going to leave us..me...me alone." By the time she said this, tears were beginning to run slowly down from her eyes.

Sub-Zero must have forgot that everyone was watching... or maybe he just didn't care, because he grabbed Jinx and embraced her whilst he stroked her soft, pink hair soothingly. "Oh now, don't do that..." he pleaded sadly. "You know I hate to see people cry... especially with such beautiful eyes." He whispered. She sniffled and didn't respond.

Raven cleared her throat and everyone, except Jinx who was struggling not to burst into tears, looked at her.

She looked at him and nodded. "She's right. We're coming." She turned to the others. "Aren't we?" she asked the others eying them intensely, but it wasn't really a question so much as a command. They all nodded hastily, not wanting to get on Raven's bad side. Of course, they were going to agree anyway, but Raven being so insistent was another good reason to agree... the LAST thing one wants to do is get Raven angry.

"Yeah, if Slade's there, so am I!" Robin said fiercely.

"Mm-hm. We got your back Zero, don't worry." Cy assured him.

"Yes! We would never allow our dear friend's home to be attacked! We are eager to assist you in any way we can!" cheered the excitable young Tamaranean.

"Dude, there is NO way friends would let other friends fend for themselves with stuff like this, right? After all, you saved us from Mammoth and Gizmo, so we're just payin' you back." Reasoned Beast Boy simply.

Sub-Zero surveyed the Titans silently. Then, he broke into a smile.

"Th-thank you... thank you all so much..." he whispered, unable to express his gratitude.

Robin walked up and smiled at the young knight amiably. "Hey... that's what friends are for, right?" The Boy Wonder chuckled.

Sub-Zero grinned broadly in response and sighed. "Well...we need to get going now. So, shall we prepare to set sail?"

About Thirty minutes later...


"Alright! Road Trip!" Beast Boy cheered. "Or... ocean trip, I guess."

Zero had just finished prepping the Fryse Wyrm for sailing. At this point, he was quite sure of her seaworthiness, so they were going to depart shortly.

" (Sigh...) Beast Boy, could you please be more serious?" Raven hissed in irritation. "For goodness sake, our friends home is about to be attacked and you're cracking jokes?"

B.B. held up his hands defensively. "Hey, I didn't mean anything by it!" he protested.

Starfire, who had been admiring the view over the side of the ship, turned back and gazed at them with concern. "I can only hope that we arrive before Slade does." She said.

Then, Zero walked out of the Captain's quarters and smiled grimly. "Don't worry about that, Star. Slade may have technology on his side, and whatever he's riding may be fast..." he said seriously. "But he doesn't have a thing on the Fryse Wyrm. I can guarantee we'll get there first."

Zero jogged to the front of the ship and began turning a large crank on the right hand side. A moment later, the anchor attached to the ship to keep it from going anywhere began slowly cranking back up into the ship. It creaked and groaned loudly as he brought it up.

Afterwards, he jogged back up to the rear deck, the elevated helm of the ship, just above the cabin, and grabbed the ship's wheel. He took it in both hands, and gave it a fast, powerful spin.

So sooner had he done so than the ship abruptly began to turn, not slowly and gradually, but a sudden, quick U-Turn. This startled everyone except Zero, and Cyborg actually lost his balance and fell flat on his metal butt.

Once the ship was turned, he hollered to Robin, who happened to be standing near one of the masts: "Hey Robin, lower the sails!"

Robin looked around in confusion, right before noticing another small crank on the mast. He took it uncertainly and began cranking it.

'FWOOM!' the sails let out a loud noise as they billowed down into place, and at the same time, cords from the same crank began lifting up the ship's flag.

"Uhm... guys, you might want to grab ahold of something..." Sub-Zero warned them.

"Hm? But why?" Star asked nervously.

'WOOSH!'

"Eeeekk!" Star shrieked as the massive ship suddenly lurched forward and then took off across the water like a shot.

"HOLY CRAP!" Robin yelled, holding on to the ship's deck for dear life. "HOW FAST DOES THIS THING GO!?" he demanded.

"Oh, about 90 knots, give or take!" Zero yelled in response. He then noticed something unusual...Jinx was leaning over the side of the ship.

"Huh? Jinx, you alright?" he asked concerned.

She looked back up and he realized with a chuckle that her face was as green as B.Boy's.

"I'll b-be just fine." She groaned loudly.

Zero motioned to the door of the cabin. "You guys are welcome to get inside if you want... until you get your sea-legs anyway." He joked.

"Er... sea-legs?" Star asked nervously. She had no idea what he was talking about. "Are our legs going to change?"

"No, no, it's just an expression... having 'sea-legs' means being used to traveling by boat." He explained.

"Ohh, I see! Well then, shall we go inside until we develop our legs of the sea? I believe I can feel myself becoming physically ill..." she moaned softly, beginning to look sick to her stomach as well.

"Good idea." Jinx murmured. The Titans went inside of the small cabin while Sub-Zero stayed at the helm.

With his friends not around, he felt a bit less pressure to stay calm. He sighed in concern and closed his eyes as he maneuvered his ship out into the wide, blue sea.

"Hang on, my people.... I'm on my way." He whispered resignedly.


Later that night



The Titans were gathered in the ship's cabin with Zero. It was a little snug in there; it WAS designed for one person after all. However, it wasn't too terribly cramped, and they were still fairly comfortable.

At the moment, they were having dinner, which in this case was a basket meal the Titans had brought from the Tower before they left; they had cooked it ahead of time.

"Y'know I've always wanted to go on a cruise." Cy said thoughtfully, taking a bite of baby back ribs he had brought.

Zero looked at them curiously. "You've never traveled by ship before?"

"Well, we've traveled under water by sub, but never actually on a boat." Robin said, eating a small plate of spaghetti Cy had prepared.

Sub-Zero stared at Robin as if he'd grown an extra head. "You're kidding... UNDER the water?? That's not possible, you'd drown!" he snorted.

"In a sub." Robin repeated.

"A.. sub?"

"Ah... it's kind of like a sealed-up, underwater boat. You can breathe inside it." The Boy wonder explained.

Zero looked impressed and mouthed 'wow' softly to himself.

"Um... Zero, where do you keep the water?" Jinx asked, pushing her plate of salad aside, and putting a hand to her belly. "I'm not feeling so well." She said.

"It's down below deck." Zero explained. "In the crate near the armory. It's in the brown bottles."

Jinx left the cabin, and carefully stepped down below deck. It was dark in there, except for the moonlight streaming through the portholes. It was a bit... creepy.

She shook these thoughts out of her head and began looking for the 'armory' he had mentioned.

After wandering around a bit, she found a large door. A sign on the door read 'armory'. She looked beside the door, and there was a large crate. She carefully pulled the lid off of the crate and pulled out a large brown bottle, blowing the dust off.

"Oh, good... this must be it." She said, relieved. She popped the cork off and took a long swig, gulping loudly.

"Ahh... there. That should settle my stomach." She sighed.

But there was one thing poor Jinx didn't notice... there was ANOTHER crate on the other side of the door... it read 'FRESH WATER' in black paint on the lid.

She emptied the bottle, tossed it back in the crate, and made her way back to the ladder that lead onto the deck. Another thing she didn't notice was that the crate she had just drank a bottle from had a small board nailed to the side with the word 'RUM' painted onto it.

"I hope that water wasn't stagnant or something... it...tasted funny for some reason." She whispered softly to herself. She noticed herself getting unnaturally dizzy as she walked...

Jinx wobbled slightly as she climbed the ladder.

'Uhh.... Oh man, it must be getting worse...' she moaned mentally, as her vision began to go a bit blurry.

She walked back into the cabin after wandering around deck for a couple minutes in a distorted daze.

The first thing Zero noticed as she staggered in the door was that her cheeks were heavily flushed and she seemed to have trouble focusing her eyes.

"Wha... Jinx, are you alright?" he asked looking at her and a little unnerved by her strange behavior.

"Oh, oh, yeshh, I'm jushht f-fine..." she slurred drunkenly. Zero blinked.

"Shhero, I tink somethin's wrong wit your wader... id tasted f-f-funnee." She slurred giggling uncontrollably, the blush across her cheeks growing more and more pronounced.

"Uh...dude...what's wrong with her?" B.B. asked, a little freaked out.

"Uhhh... Shero, iz id hot in here ta you? I tink iss a liddle stuffee..." she giggled off-key, right before passing out onto the floor, drunk as an Irish barmaid.

At this point, Robin and Cyborg burst out laughing.

"What is wrong with her? It's like she's a drunk!" Robin laughed.

Zero carefully picked up Jinx, and placed her in his bed for the second time since they'd met, tucking her in gently.

He opened her mouth gently, and leaned down to take a whiff of her breath, which smelled strongly of alcohol.

"Oh no..." he groaned, realizing her mistake. He turned to the others.

"What is wrong with friend Jinx? Please, is she ill?" Star asked, a little afraid for her friend.

Zero grinned sheepishly. "Well, not exactly... you see, I think Robin was right... I think she..." he stifled a laugh. "I think she accidentally got into the rum!"

At this point, Robin, Cy, and B.B. burst into uncontrollable laughter, while Star looked confused, and Raven just sighed disgustedly.

"Please... is rum some sort of poison?" Star asked in concern. If so, she wondered then why was it so amusing to the others.

"No, Star... rum is a drink... an alcoholic drink." Raven said, the others were still laughing. Star blushed heavily.

"Oh! I... I see." She said, finally getting what was wrong with Jinx.

"Well, I better go below deck and find out how much she drank... hopefully not much, that's some seriously strong stuff I got down there." He said. "By the way, if you guys would come with me, I'll show you where you'll be sleeping... er, they're not exactly suites, but they're pretty comfy." He said.

"Sure, we'll go... I'm pretty beat anyway." Robin yawned. One thing he'd learned is that travel by ship definitely had the capacity to wear you out, if you weren't used to it.

He showed them below deck, where he led them to a small corridor where there were several rooms, presumably designed to house the crew. But since Zero had no crew, just himself, he could use them as 'guest rooms'. Each one was pretty much alike: a small bed with a porthole window and a table, and a lantern hanging from the ceiling on a chain as a light fixture. Cyborg, who didn't really 'sleep' so much as he did 'recharge' had brought his charger with him on board. Normally, he plugged it into the electrical outlet on the wall, but since Sub-Zero's ship had no electricity, he'd had the foresight to bring a portable battery with him to power it.

"G'night guys... I'm really sorry about these little crap rooms." Zero apologized. "But I usually don't have passengers..."

"Hey, it's all good." Cy reassured him.

"We don't need much, anyway." Raven said.

"Of course not, friend Zero! Your hospitality alone is more than enough." Star chirped nodding.

The Titans went into their rooms to try and get some rest.

Meanwhile, Sub-Zero went back to his quarters where a young witch was snoring softly.

He sat down on a metal chair next to the bed, and looked at her.

'She looks like an angel...' he thought in awe, unable to resist looking at her lovely, pale skin, which was illuminated by the moonlight streaming softly in through the porthole windows.

She hiccupped loudly in her sleep, giggled, and started snoring again.

'Er... a drunk angel, but still an angel.' He laughed in his mind.

Then, Zero realized something. "Wait... where am I gonna sleep?" He wondered. "She's in my bed."

He thought to himself...'Well... there IS room for two..'

He suddenly jerked, gasped, and shook his head violently.

'Am I CRAZY? That's the worst thing I've ever thought!' he berated himself mentally.

Still, he looked at his bed, and then at the cold, hard, wooden plank floor... and he just couldn't help but notice how much more appealing the bed was...

'Especially with her in it...' he thought before he could stop himself... then he mentally punched himself again.

"Well... I'm sure she'll understand." He yawned, and he carefully slipped in bed beside her, being cautious not to wake her... although as drunk as she was, she wouldn't wake up if the ship started sinking!

What never occurred to Zero was what sort of conclusions Jinx would come to if she woke up next to him after having been drunk.

So, naturally, the entire ship was woken up the next morning by an eardrum-shattering scream...