Delirium | Titans

Chapter 11

Kory held onto Conner while Eve and Krypto stood outside the doorway, "Alright Eve stay back. This is gonna get a little crazy." she warned. She looked over at Rachel. "You ready?" she asked.

"Uh...I hope so." Rachel replied.

"Rachel."

"Yes. Obviously. I am fully confident." Rachel added.

"Just...contain me." Kory said.

"Let's do it." Rachel said and inhaled deeply as the red gem embedded in her forehead began to glow. She extended her arms and a black substance flowed from her body and swirled into the air as Kory activated her own powers. The room glowed to an intense degree.

"Holy...shit." Was all Eve could softly manage to say.

The intense glow died down and the black substance returned to Rachel and she lowered her arms.

Conner lifted his head off of Kory's shoulder and looked at her. "Well hi." Kory said.

Conner looked at Rachel. "Hi" Rachel greeted. Conner then looked over at Eve, who smiled and laughed in joy. 

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As Eve finished talking to Conner she stood up and walked out of his room she came face to face with Gar, who was standing in the hall. The green haired boy seemed to have been waiting for her, but before she could ask why, he spoke.

"You're a scientist right?" He asked.

"I am." Eve confirmed and nodded.

"Do you think you could help...our teammate?" He asked, still unable to get the sound of Katarina's terrified scream out of his head.

"I could try my best." Eve offered, seeing that he seemed genuinely worried for the teammate in question. "What's wrong with them?"

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Gar had just finished detailing the incident of the previous night as the two walked up to the doors of the control room. Dick was standing  leaned against the doorway and looked between Gar and Eve and raised an eyebrow.

"What is this?" He asked, looking towards Gar as he did so.

"I think Eve can help figure out what's wrong with Katarina." Gar explained.

"How do you know we can trust her?" Dick asked, pulling Gar aside.

"She knew how to fix Conner."

"She knew Conner."

"Do you have a better idea?" Gar asked.

After a moment Dick conceded and they both returned to where they had left Eve.

"I already told her about last night." Gar said as they walked into the control room.

The live video footage of Katarina's cell was still playing across the center screen of the setup, though the audio was still muted. She still seemed to be hugging her knees in the corner of the space, her face buried in her arms.

"Is there anything you can tell me that may be relevant, like strange things you've noticed, that she's told you or anything about her past?" Eve inquired, watching the footage for a moment.

"Nothing about her past except a newspaper article, her mom was a little....off." Gar said quietly.

"Off how?"

"Serial killer child abuser off. Maybe Katarina inherited it." Jason interjected from the doorway. When Gar and looked surprised Jason rolled his eyes, "I did my research too." he said, sounding annoyed.

Ignoring Jason, Dick continued to talk to Eve. "She did confess to having some pretty large memory gaps."

"Thank you, do you have a way I could talk to her face to face?"

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Eve sat down in a single chair on the opposite side of a thick glass wall that separated her from Katarina. Katarina raised her head and her dark eyes studied the woman, while still disguising any emotion she was feeling with a completely neutral expression.

"Hello Katarina. I'm Eve Watson and I'm here to help." Eve introduced herself.

"I don't need help, I need to get out of here. I told them that keeping me around was a bad idea." She said, standing up and beginning to pace around the small space. 

"I heard about what happened last night." She began.

Katarina turned her head sharply and Eve could tell she had caught the girls attention.

"Do you remember what happened?" She inquired, and when she received no answer she continued. "You attacked and nearly killed a few of your teammates."

"What?" She asked, letting the shocked word slip out without meaning to.

"You don't remember it." Eve noted outloud.

She sat silently for a moment, mulling over the information she had already gathered so far. The details Gar had given her from the incident of the previous night. The fact she had gotten from Dick, that Katarina had admitted to fairly large memory gaps. She wanted to test something.

"What's your earliest memory?" She asked, watching Katarina carefully for the girl's answer.

Katarina thought for a moment, and blanked. She couldn't easily come up with her first memory. She closed her eyes and focused, trying to bring up and picture her earliest memory. Slowly a picture began forming in her mind and with her eyes still closed she began to describe it.

"I was...at least 11." she started. "I had just arrived at an orphanage. The people there were sweet and I met other kids. The building was painted blue and there was an oak tree out front. The woman that ran it was kind, she had curly short hair" She described and then opened her eyes as she realized that she had just shared more with a woman she had just met than with anyone really.

Eve made a few mental notes and nodded. She stood up from her chair. "Thank you for your time." She said before turning and heading for the door.

"Not like I had much of a choice." She muttered sarcastically and gestured around her cell.

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Eve walked back into the control room where nearly all of the team had gathered out of curiosity. They looked away from the screen and focused on her when she entered. The expressions on their faces varied from confused to fairly annoyed. Jason still stood by the door but of all of them he had the nerve to ask the question they were all thinking.

"So what's the diagnosis doc?"