"Focus your energies on where your source of magic derives from, Traci. In your case, you have a lot of options, considering the entire training arena is built with history."
Traci Thirteen narrowly dodged a dummy spear aimed straight for her, of which the inertia caused her familiar iguana Leroy to be momentarily suspended in mid-air. She quickly grabbed him back towards her before he could be hit.
"Except, I'm limited to the confines of the arena for practice sake!" she retorted into her earpiece, replying to Raven. "Otherwise, I'd think outside the box and tap into powers outside these walls."
Traci heard clunking and noticed razor sharp drones chasing her, now making a run for it.
"That would actually be the easy solution," Raven replied. "There may come situations where you have to think outside the box from such a limited space."
Traci understood what Raven meant. With the drones gaining ground on her, she stopped and spun around, her hands glowing purple. She aimed her fingers at the sharp-edged drones, and with her magic managed to dull the sharp blades. By the time they reached her, there was nothing sharp left to cut her with, and the drones simply bounced off her and broke.
The lights of the arena dimmed as the session ended.
"Done for today," Traci announced into her earpiece as she made her exit. "Great to have your tips again, Raven. It's a great idea to resume our training on a remote basis."
Raven was in her white room in her home, on her T-communicator, getting Traci Thirteen up to speed with magic practice.
"Easing my way back into overseeing magical and mystical training is the most effective way to go about it," Raven agreed with Traci. "It's nice to catch up with the trainees, especially since I didn't get to say bye to you in Titans Tower last week."
"Yeah, about that," Traci began. Raven could see that she was heading into the shower room of Titans Tower, still communicating with her. "We're glad you're getting better and all. Does this mean you'll be out of the numbing spell soon?"
Raven knew it was only a matter of time before Traci would bring up the topic of the numbing spell, considering she had a hand in casting it on her, particularly during Gar's final bedridden days.
"I'm afraid it's still necessary," Raven answered. "I would be out of this blank room otherwise. It's for everyone's good."
"I understand that, but... maybe try gradually decreasing the dosage?" Traci tentatively suggested. "Not all at once. Your powers have become noticeably muted the longer you're under that thing."
Raven was about to debate Traci on that, but was disrupted by an incoming transmission.
"I have to go," Raven said. "We'll reconvene in three days time."
Raven ceased communication with Traci to answer Cyborg.
"Yo, Raven," he greeted. "You might wanna check out Chirrup."
Raven blinked, her stare blank. She noticed that Cyborg seemed tentative.
"Chirrup? The social media video-sharing platform? You know I don't indulge myself in that brain-rotting activity."
"It's Gar's channel."
That caught her attention. That might explain why he looked unsure of himself, as she recalled her last conversation with him regarding Gar.
"The symptoms are all still there, guys. I thought I was close on a breakthrough with the genetic stabilizers..."
"But...?" Robin uttered during Cyborg's summary, in an empty ward, with four of the five Titans gathered round.
"But there was an error in the diagnosis and the result came up shoddy. I'm afraid we're back to square one."
The heroes stood silent for a moment. Robin's fists trembled out of frustration. Starfire's pupils scintillated with fear, and Cyborg's lips quivered with guilt.
"Meaning, Gar has to continue being under dialysis..." muttered Raven, in a deadpan more devoid of emotion than usual.
Starfire placed an arm on Raven's shoulder. "Raven, are you alright?"
"Traci helped cast this enchantment on her that would minimize the effects of her powers," Robin explained.
"Because of all this," Raven mumbled.
Robin added, "Consequently, it's tempering her emotions as well."
Cyborg's head slumped down in shame. "If only I know how to help Gar."
"Keep trying," Raven insisted. "Head up, Cyborg."
Cyborg did as so, eyes directly at the emotionless Raven.
"We will get through this. We'll get Gar through this."
Evidently, they did not get through it. Gar didn't.
Raven hadn't talked to Cyborg since the funeral - actually, since the week before the funeral. That wasn't to imply he was the only she had not had a conversation with in a while.
"There's a private voice message that got uploaded," Cyborg added. "For you."
"If it's private, how come you know about it?" Raven inquired. "Did an animal deliver a letter to you too?"
The cluelessness on Cyborg's face implied that it wasn't an animal messenger.
"I was doing the routine firewall security sweep for the Titans and stumbled into the uploaded video file made private," he answered. "He seemed to wanna address it to you today, because he'd scheduled to have it uploaded an hour ago."
Raven was wondering why Gar did not enlist an animal like the previous instances.
"Oh, Chirrup," she realised the wordplay. "Nice one, I guess."
"Animals have been delivering letters to you?" Cyborg asked, curious.
Raven nodded. "Gar's been taking me on these mini Gar-esque scavenger hunts. Even roped Star and Robin into them."
The red light on Cyborg's robot eye flickered slightly. His lips curved slightly downward.
"He said anything about me?"
Raven shook her head. "Why?"
"Just interested in a bit of insight as to what he thinks of me right before his, you know, passing. I'm happy Robin and Starfire got letters too."
"They didn't," she clarified. "They just happened to be with me when I got them. Anyway, thank you for the heads up. It's not completely a gift. In fact, at times, it's torture... Prank-adjacent Gar-esque torture."
"I still love ya, bud!" the voice of Beast Boy echoed, though obviously Cyborg did not hear him.
Raven ended the transmission and sat by herself in the big white room, uncertainty leaking into her thoughts. She would be seeing the real Gar in his final moments of life and expression, on video. No doubt, the experience would be substantially more surreal and visceral than the letters thus far. Would she be able to emotionally handle it? Should she call a friend to join her? All the letters so far, she had a friend in close proximity.
But she wanted to watch that video. She missed him so. And so she got up from the white floor, and headed for the living room - now a little more cleaned up since her birthday, although the Gar shrine still stood.
"So... whatcha gonna do, Rae?" the Beast Boy figment asked.
"I'm going to watch it alone," she decided as she opened her and Gar's formerly shared laptop - one she seldom used. "Eventually, your impact on me will be immaterial. It has to be. There was a time when Trigon took everyone I loved away and that passed."
"Except, I'm not Trigon... I'm Beast Boy."
She opened the browser, to the deceptively cheery site of Chirrup, and discovered that it was still logged on to Gar's account. Going to the catalog of videos sorted by latest, she immediately noticed three videos scheduled for private release tomorrow at the same time, no doubt a near-future surprise from Gar. She reminded herself of one of Gar's letters - she was to follow his instructions, and those videos were not meant to be watched yet. So she moved on.
She clicked on the fourth video down the list - the latest one uploaded, also private so that only she, under Gar's account, could view it.
She fell silent and her pupils laser-focused on the screen as the face of Gar - handsome yet sickly on the infirmary bed - appeared. Based on his appearance and location, this was definitely during one of his earlier bedrest days.
"Hey Raven!" coughed Gar. Raven's hands were in tremors at the sound of his raspy voice. His voice always had this innocent, confident quality about it, sick or healthy. "I hope you've gotten the letters I've cleverly had delivered so far! But if not, you must at least have gotten this video as I cleverly will have it released during one of Cy's security checks - unless he's rescheduled... Hm..."
"So he did time it to come out during Cyborg's routine systems check," she realised, beginning to question if Gar had been keeping a secret high IQ from everyone.
"Anyways, I love you, first of all. You are my Rae of sunshine, as much as you hate that nickname. I want you to see this bright side of you that I've grown to see, that I'm enamored by, and that others also see."
"Where is this going, Gar?" Raven muttered to herself, sensing a task was on its way.
The video continued, "My death is practically imminent. There's no escaping that. It's about to get real uncomfortable and sad, methinks, with me gone. So, you're gonna need that Rae of sunshine, Raven. Within you, for yourself, without me. You thought living with me was out of your comfort zone? Nah-uh! Now, you gotta live without me. But, they may be too hard and raw, so I'll help you ease into that - my way!
"I want you to do a vlog, Beast Boy-style!"
Raven's eyes nearly popped out at the request. "What?"
"Explore that silly side of yours! You might find something you like. Something that I've found in you a long time ago. Use my Chirrup account, unless you're ready to create your own. Do a tour of San Francisco! Show some power moves! Get creative with it! Keep the fans entertained!"
"This isn't going to work," Raven muttered, already feeling uncomfortable.
"You're gonna feel uncomfortable," Gar said. "And that's sorta part of the point. Life is full of emotions. And despite your powers being driven by emotions, I've always loved seeing your emotions shine through, especially the lovely ones - and especially if they're towards me." Gar waggled his eyebrows.
"I hope by doing this, you'll rediscover some of those lovely emotions form within you. And know that you always have me," Gar ended. "Do your beast! Love you, Raven!"
And that was it.
"For someone who'd thoroughly planned this out, the video sure was casually straight to the point," Raven commented with the room quiet once again, wishing Gar had spoken more about anything other than this task he'd assigned to her.
Her attention returned to the screen as the Chirrup website automatically went to the next video, which was a random Gar vlog.
Raven spent the next few minutes binging a few of his vlogs. She'd only watched a handful of these before, but now they were like mementos for her to keep. There was no way now that she could ever forget what he sounded like.
Taking notes of how he'd structure his vlogs, Raven got up, grabbed the camcorder, set it so that it would upload to his channel, and took a breath facing the mirror.
Gar's video message replayed in her mind.
"I've always loved seeing your emotions shine through, especially the lovely ones..."
With another breath, she went for the exit, the camcorder in hand.
The warmth of San Francisco made it almost unbearable for Raven to keep her hood on, and so she'd forgone it as she pressed record on the camcorder.
"This better be on..." she muttered. "H-hello... um... fans of Gar. This is a surprise but bear with me. Gar's request... uh... from his will, of sorts..."
Raven could see the number of viewers on the camcorder screen skyrocketing. Comments began flooding the screen like a swarm of ants.
OMG! Raven QUEEN!
For a sec, I thought they revived Beast Boy...
She looks uncomfortable.
Did someone else die?
We stan an awkward blogger mama.
Those were just a few of the comments she could make out as she flipped the camera back to herself, revealing the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
"This may not be how he does these, but this is my vlog so I will do it my way... uh... my way the Beast Boy way... and it's also being streamed on to his channel... Anyway, yeah, that is the Golden Gate Bridge. A decent tourist attraction, that. Opened in 1937. In fact, a poem was made by the engineer behind the bridge. The Mighty Task Is Done...
Resplendent in the western sun
The Bridge looms mountain high
Its titan piers grip ocean floor
Its great steel arms link shore with shore
Its towers pierce the sky..."
With even more reluctance and even less confidence, her gaze could not help but lower itself to the screen - specifically to the influx of comments.
"Pretty poem," she noted as she read the comments.
She pretty but she cringe.
Give it time, dudes! She's just getting her footing, I think.
Why is she doing this live?
Stick to your day job, Mama Rae Rae...
Raven let out an audible groan. This was going to be a long day.
A mighty task, indeed...