Delirium | Titans

Chapter 8

One of the computers in the control room beeped and Gar looked over at it. He clicked on the alarm that had showed up and it brought up current security footage from the front door. A small figure looked up at the camera and waved slightly. Gar realized it was Katarina and disabled the alarm. He remotely opened the front door and quickly left the control room.

As he moved through the halls towards the elevator Dick reached a hand out and stopped him. Gar turned towards Dick, who raised an eyebrow at the green haired boy.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"Katarina's back," he answered and then continued on his path towards the elevator.

Dick followed him as the elevator doors slid open and the two stepped in. They reached the bottom floor and the doors opened again and they walked out. Katarina stood in the lobby, her skin strangely pale. The two walked over to her and she managed a slight smile.

"I'm back," she said just before her eyes rolled back in her head and she completely collapsed.

———

Katarina slowly woke up, the pain in her torso throbbing in time with her heart. She heard voices nearby and kept her eyes closed so she could listen. The voices sounded like the people were across the room, possibly just outside the door, and speaking so quietly that she had to strain to pick out every word.

"It's a miracle she survived. She should've bled out an hour or two ago. The wound didn't seem to be treated so I don't know how she did it." She heard Dawn's calm and kind voice say quietly.

"At least she's alive, and she escaped." Dicks voice responded.

"Are we even gonna question how the fuck a teenaged girl escaped Deathstroke?" Hank asked, his voice and language was as harsh as ever.

"Guys, I need to tell you all something." Dick said lowly.

Katarina felt her heart skip a beat. He knew. Of course he did. Jason hadn't been wearing his headphones and he'd heard everything. Of course he had told Dick the minute he got back. Katarina heard a voice cursing her out in the back of her head. She pushed it away and focused on the conversation.

"When Jason got back to the tower this morning, he told me something he had overheard." Dick said, "Deathstroke... he's Katarina's dad." He finished.

Katarina could feel their eyes on her and kept herself as still as possible to keep up the illusion of her unconsciousness.

"Holy shit." Hank muttered.

"How did you even manage that?" Donna asked, "You picked up not one but two of Deathstroke's daughters."

Before the conversation could go any further, Katarina slowly opened her eyes as if she had just woken up. She pushed herself up into a sitting position in the hospital like bed and winced as her wound sent a piercing pain through her as she moved.

"You'll tear your stitches," Dick said in a level  but warning tone.

The others glanced at eachother and then left the room. This left Katarina and Dick by themself in the med bay. Dick watched Katarina and she watched him right back.

He finally spoke, "How did you escape?" He asked, his face blank and expressionless.

"I..." she paused, racking her brain for an answer, "don't remember." she finally answered honestly.

"What do you mean you don't remember?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow at her.

"I mean I don't remember. It's completely blank. One moment he's pointing a gun at my forehead and the next thing I know I'm walking down the sidewalk in the middle of downtown San Francisco." She replied.

She had decided to answer honestly. There was something seriously wrong with her. Recently, she had been blacking out even more and she needed to know why. It was terrifying her, waking up in places when she didn't remember how she got there. Loosing time. Loosing hours, days, sometimes even a week or more.

Dick picked up on the fact that she seemed to be telling the truth. Loosing time certainly wasn't normal. He made a mental note to research it later and figure out what was wrong with her. It reminded him a bit of Rachel. She had come to him, telling him that there was something dark inside her.

It was possible that it was something similar to that. He hoped it wasn't. He didn't know if he could handle facing another inter-dimensional demon. That wouldn't be possible thankfully, as he knew the identities of both of her parents. And while they were both sociopathic killers, they weren't demons. He turned and left the med bay room.

———

Katarina had forced herself out of her hospital bed and made her way to the training room. She hated sitting still for too long and wanted to do something useful with her time.

She walked in and spotted Jason practicing moves with one of the wooden practice swords. She started to back out of the room but he turned around at just the wrong moment and spotted her.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, his expression angry and his knuckles going white as he gripped the hilt of the practice sword.

"I was gonna try to train," She replied carefully.

"No, what are you doing back at the tower?" He asked, taking a step forward.

"I'm living here?" She answered, questioning herself as she said it. Was she really living here or was she just staying for a little while before moving on?

"Are you sure you aren't spying for your dad? Deathstroke. The man who tried to kill me. Who dropped me off a skyscraper." He growled angrily, taking a second and then third step towards her.

"What? No!" She said quickly, taking a small step backwards.

"I bet you're working with him." He snarled, stalking towards her. "Your blackout story." He twirled the wooden sword in his hand.

"Fucking Bullshit!" He yelled and swung the  sword.

The solid wooden blade connected with her cheekbone with a loud crack and the impact threw her off balance. She spun and landed on the ground, her hands breaking her fall. Crouched on the training mat her eyes were staring down at the ground.

Her eyes filled with grayish black smoke and she slowly stood up, her back to Jason. The roots of her dark hair started shifting into the dark smokelike substance, which then spread until layers of smoke shifted around her shoulders instead of hair.

Jason watched this, still fuming but confused. She slowly turned around and tilted her head. Jason took a stumbling step back. She breathed out and a wisp of smoke floated out of her mouth.

"Bad idea."