Delirium | Titans

Chapter 16

It had been nearly a week and Katarina and Gar were becoming close friends. He would sit outside her cell for hours at a time as they either talked or just sat in silence, though with Gar talking was more often the end result. He never seemed as comfortable with silence as she was.

One afternoon Gar was sitting in the living room playing video games when a cheerful voice startled him. He sprung to his feet and dropped his controller, spinning towards the kitchen where the voice had originated. His form began to shift out of habit as he spotted a small, lemon haired girl perched on top of the fridge.

"Hey hey hey, don't tiger out on me." She said and held her hands out in a placating gesture. "It's just me, sort of a part of Katarina. Don't worry, I don't bite." She said cheerfully.

Gar's form shifted back to his fully human shape, his face clearly displaying his confusion. "How are you...Who...what?" He tried to make sense of it.

She sighed and stepped down off the fridge, her foot landing on a small disk that appeared out of nowhere. She stepped down a few more of these disks and stepped onto the floor as they all disappeared. She was significantly shorter than Gar, so she looked up as she spoke. 

"I'm Elvira, or Vira, or V," She introduced herself brightly and held a small hand out towards him. He looked down in confusion and slowly shook her hand. "I bet you're probably wondering how I got out of the cell, or how I even look like this." She said and gestured down at her form.

Gar nodded in agreement with the statement. He didn't know how either of those things were possible.

"Well...the simple answer is..." V paused for dramatic effect, "Magic." she said and waved her hands mysteriously and giggled.

"Wait really?" He asked, his eyes widening.

She laughed again. "Yeah, sort of. My power is to mess around with reality. So I just switched a few things up and now I'm here and I changed what we look like." She said, a crooked smile on her face.

"Wow..." Gar trailed off. "Wait so you could've gotten out of there any time?" he tilted his head at her.

V's smile grew a bit mischievous and she stage whispered conspiratorially to Gar. "Don't tell Kat, but I thought she needed the conversations. It was good for her."

"Really?" Gar asked, a smile growing on his face.

"Yeah! Ooo, whatcha playing?" she asked, looking over Gar's shoulder at the gaming console. "Oh I know that one, Jacob loves it!"

"I've got two controllers." Gar suggested.

"Oh Jacob would love that, in fact I think you two would really get along actually. I'll go get him if you want, I just wanted to have a little fun anyways. It was great meeting you." She said, grinning. She then sat down on the couch, closing her eyes. Her body quickly shifted into the familiar form of Jacob.

Their face emptied of all expression as their muscles relaxed entirely. Their eyes unfocused and after a few minutes they refocused and Jacob looked around the room, trying to figure out his surroundings. He smiled at Gar, who still looked a bit startled. Gar was still getting used to the idea that Katarina wasn't just one person. Jacob started signing rapidly before remembering that Gar probably didn't know any sign language. Gar picked up two controllers and held one out to Jacob, who took it and beamed. The two started the game, both grinning from ear to ear.

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Another week later Katarina woke up when she heard Gar's alarm blaring from down the hall. She was still in tune with her surroundings, but she admittedly had gotten more relaxed during her stay at the tower. She climbed out of her bed and changed out of her pajamas before padding on bare feet out into the tower kitchen. She pulled a box of cereal out of a cabinet along with two bowls. Gar walked by and pulled the milk out of the fridge. He handed it over to her and then sat down at the counter.

A few moments later she turned around and handed him one of the bowls, filled with cereal. Moments later his hand grabbed a metal spoon flying at his face and laughed slightly. Katarina snorted out a laugh as she grabbed her own spoon and sat down at the counter as well, digging into her own bowl of cereal.

"So, I had the weirdest dream..." Gar started, and began describing his strange dream of the night before in between bites of cereal.

Katarina sat and ate her cereal as she listened. This had happened nearly every day that week. She got the idea that Gar either dreamed a lot, or just liked coming up with strange stories to tell her as they ate breakfast. She didn't hate the routine, and his dreams were always fairly entertaining. 

She was finishing her cereal as Gar was finishing his story. She stood up and took her bowl over to the sink, beginning to wash it out. She put it away as Gar started talking again.

"So, I was thinking..." Gar started.

"Oh no," Kat commented and snickered as she took Gar's empty cereal bowl and started to wash it.

"You guys should come up with a superhero name, like for all of you guys." Gar suggested. He had gotten increasingly comfortable with the idea of Kat's system and didn't find it too weird any more.

Kat nearly dropped the bowl she was drying off and turned around after setting it carefully down. "What?" she asked, not actually sure if she had heard him right.

"A superhero name. Like Dick is Robin, Dawn is Dove, Hank is Hawk, Rachel is Raven. That sort of thing." he smiled at her.

"They really like birds don't they," She muttered to herself.

"Yeah, I always thought that was a little bit weird, but cool." Gar added.

"I don't really think I'm that much of a hero material." She protested.

"Sure you are, you're a Titan." Gar smiled reassuringly at her.

"I don't think anybody else thought I was part of the team." She added, remembering the cell only a couple floors away.

"Well, people change." Gar said optimistically. "I was thinking Wonder Team for you guys. Wait no, that sounds a lot like Wondergirl." he started thinking out loud and Kat tuned him out, doing some thinking of her own.

"Myriad." She eventually suggested, and Gar stopped talking.

"Myriad?" he repeated as if testing out the word.

"Yeah. It means a countless number." She explained. Along with that she also just loved the sound of the word. It had so many meanings in her mind, and a nice ring to it.

"That sounds awesome." Gar said and grinned. "Myriad it is."

"Myriad it is" Kat echoed.