I feel the cold loneliness unfold
Like from another world
Come what may
I won't fade away
But I know I might change
For a moment, for a single, tantalising minute, Nova was okay with what she had done. In fact, she was happy. Jared had hated for her for what she had become, Jared had outed himself as just another hateful specimen of human scum, and now he was dead. Her mind connected the dots and her logic centre tied it all together nicely. Jared was dead. Jared…. was dead. And that was the end of it.
But a minute is only sixty seconds, and when that minute had passed, and the insanity and the blind rage had subsided. All that was left was an ever-growFor a moment, for a single, tantalising minute, Nova was okay with what she had done. In fact, she was happy. Jared had hated for her for what she had become, Jared had outed himself as just another hateful specimen of human scum, and now he was dead. Her mind connected the dots and her logic centre tied it all together nicely. Jared was dead. Jared…. was dead. And that was the end of it.
But a minute is only sixty seconds, and when that minute had passed, and the insanity and the blind rage had subsided. All that was left was an ever-growing pool of blood, the corpse of Nova's boyfriend, and the bloody knife and scissors she still held in her hands. With a scream, she dropped them, almost throwing them towards the floor in her haste to get rid of them.
You've really gone and done it now, haven't you? Can't even blame me.
Even her conscious mind was too horrified to do anything. For once, she didn't reply to the voice, and remained fixated on the terror before her.
"It's always so tedious when people go through the god awful moral questioning. You already did the deed, sweet pea, now get on with it. We still have to feed him to the children."
Ivy was speaking, and she was gesturing, and she was rolling her eyes and wandering around the room to inspect the state of the plants she'd homed there, and Nova wasn't paying attention to any of it. A tear landed on Jared's face. It must have been hers.
"Y-you…." She began, trembling so hard it was a wonder her legs hadn't buckled and folded beneath her. She raised a shaking arm, trying to point at Ivy accusingly. The woman, in turn, placed a perfectly manicured hand to her chest, where her heart was nothing more than a vegetable, and mocked offense, eyebrows raised.
"M-me?" She echoed, every word enunciated with smug victory and barely contained excitement in what she was about to say, "Oh, no, petal… you. This was all you."
Nova finally did fall to her knees, her legs giving way, and her chest erupting with panicked sobs when the shock paralysis finally wore off. Ivy reacted no further than letting out a short peal of laughter, sounding like bells made of glass, and sauntered over to meet her kneeling progeny. Two fingers found their way beneath Nova's chin, and her face was tilted upwards, unceremoniously, the tears spilling down her cheeks slower with the new angle.
"Nova, tulip, you did the right thing. A man like that would have left with his life, ungrateful and angry, only to return with a flamethrower. He would have torched not only us but all of our children. Our innocent, docile children. You've done your job, sugar. You protected us! You protected the flowers."
There was something exuding from Poison Ivy as she spoke, subtle and hard to see, but much easier to spot if you were a plant/human hybrid, and potent enough to hold even Batman under it's spell. And, yet… Nova chose to ignore it.
"You're right," she breathed, completely enthralled. From an outsider's perspective, walking into a scene such as this would imply, immediately, a goddess and her most devoted follower. A deity and her awestruck disciple. At the very least, the scene provoked the concept of two lovers dealing with grief. Whatever it was… it was far from hate.
Ivy's perfect green eyes narrowed, flitting between each of Nova's, searching for something. Perhaps the signs of her airborne toxin having worked, the devotion she'd hoped to inspire planted and taking root within the recess of Nova's mind. Regardless of whatever it was she was looking for, she seemed to find it, as she straightened and threw her head back with a satisfied laugh.
"Oh, that's so sad! You didn't even fight it this time, my dear. How at the end of your proverbial tether you must be, you poor thing."
"I didn't-" Her protest was not only half-hearted but short lived.
"There's no way for you not to have seen the toxin, petal. I would have thought you to be well aware by now of the consequences of lying to me. Would there happen to be anything you'd like to say?"
"I'm… sorry." It was still hard to say it, even under her spell. Nova sighed, ducking her head towards the ground. She closed her eyes, tight, wishing it all away. The point of giving in and subjecting herself to Ivy's will had been to make everything easier. She was so tired, and run down and, as Ivy had pronounced, truly at the end of her tether. Under Ivy's control, at least, all decisions and thoughts and instructions were made for her. An escape from her own head was all she wanted. There was no point continuing the fight. There was no Wizard at the end of the yellow brick road anymore, because she'd murdered him. There was nobody for her to go home to when she escaped. There was nothing there for her anymore. She was well and truly alone, apart from the one person she would pay any amount of money to be away from.
"There's a good girl, Nova. We'll have you tamed yet. As for now… I've heard that a certain two faced individual has recently come across some things that don't belong to him, and among all that he has amassed, are some rare and powerful poisons. If we can get our hands on those, we'd only need to learn the basic components, and we'd be set, perhaps, forever."
"You want me to…?"
"You recall the costumed brute we were accosted by right outside our own home, flower? I'm not so sure if you're aware… but he has a sidekick. A measly young thing who goes by the pseudonym of Robin. Pointless addition, really, but the boy does enough damage to make an impact. You, my pretty young thing, shall be my Robin."
"I'm not wearing a costume."
"Don't be ridiculous. Our beautiful green skin? That is our costume."
That was how it came to be that at barely a stroke before midnight, they were stood among the shadows together on a rooftop, watching Two Face and his gang below, through the means of a well-positioned skylight. Ivy's vines had been slowly extending and wrapping themselves around the base of the skylight itself, ready to crush it and smash the glass or lift the entire thing up, wrenching it away from where it was fixed to the building. As it was, though, Ivy was yet to give any orders, and so the vines merely collected around it.
"Do you have a plan?" Nova asked, looking out over the city around them, and wondering how it was that she'd never thought to see the city from up high. Ivy sighed, and Nova knew she was rolling her eyes, without even needing to look. The Goddess turned, one hand on her hip, chin tucking almost neatly over her shoulder, and pursed her lips. She gave a very light whistle and suddenly the vines that were crowding the skylight wrapped themselves around Nova, and forced her head away from the skyline, and back towards her mistress.
"I'll admit I don't know how to deal with insubordination as of yet, but I am nothing if not a creative visionary, and shall take pleasure in thinking up varied punishments, do you understand?"
Nova gave a nod, as effectively as she could, considering the vines that held her in place. She noticed however, they'd softened their grip around her, by no permission of Ivy's, and were simply caressing her fondly. She allowed a slight upward curve to fall to her lips, eyes sparkling in the darkness. Ivy's lips parted, suspicious.
"I understand."
"Hmm. Fine. I do have a plan, as it happens. It's not very intricate, though. I'm afraid you may be left disappointed, dandelion."
"Is your plan to drop down from the skylight and confront them?"
Ivy reached out to cup Nova's cheek, a thumb drawing slowly over her cheekbone. The vines had withdrawn.
"I do hope the case it that we are very in tune with each other and not that the plan is too simple."
"You're a Goddess, but your plan is extremely simple."
"I suppose that's alright," Ivy responded airily, preening visibly after receiving such an unexpected compliment. "As long as it's not a clown's brash, theatrical, moronic sort of a plan, I can permit it being simple." She leaned in a little, eyes alternating down towards Nova's lips, and breathed: "I think that could be acceptable, don't you?"
The image of Jared's mutilated, dead body flashed before her eyes, and she stepped back, shaking off Ivy's grasp, and hardening herself against her advances. Ivy, for one, looked extremely irritated, her eyes narrowed almost to slits, and her brow furrowed so deeply that it looked almost as if she were imitating a gargoyle. Slowly, it smoothed out, worryingly so, and became almost calm, complacent.
"You might want to hit me with your toxin thing again, before I throw myself off of this roof to get away from you." Nova seethed.
"And if you were truly considering that course of action, why would you inform me of your plan?"
"Because I don't want to die, and while I'm living, it's so much easier to be brainwashed and have you dictate my every move. I don't want to have to think, I don't want to have to do things for myself. So you get to control me just like you've always wanted to, and I'll blindly do your bidding and not think about anything I've done."
Ivy tapped her chin, red fingernails apparent even in the dim lighting. The only thing to illuminate them up on the roof were the lights coming from nearby buildings, billboards, signs, and the light emanating from the building they were stood on itself, delivered to them from the skylight.
"Such a shame…" Ivy mused, progressing towards Nova once more. "You're still a stubborn, dim-witted queen of morality, aren't you? I've never wanted to control you, you beautiful little idiot. I want your loyalty, I want your devotion, I want your dedication. I want to own you." Once more, Ivy's hand came down to rest on Nova's cheek, only this time, Ivy snaked a hand round to cup the back of Nova's head, just above her neck, and gently persuaded her to drift close enough. Before the threat of it registered in Nova's tired mind, Ivy's lips pressed against her own, and just as she was about to react, she felt the familiar giddiness fall over her – the genuine awe of Ivy's being. The toxin. Ivy had hit her with the toxin again. Nova sighed, tumbling into unparalleled bliss now, because now not only was she receptive to the kiss, she was enjoying it, and she was curling her arms around Ivy in return, desperate to get as much as she could before Ivy inevitably tired and pulled away. She didn't, though, not for a while, anyway. The fervour at which the kiss transpired doubled, sweet little breaths the only thing to permeate their own personal silence.
Bang.
Something was happening below, within the building.
In tandem, Ivy lost interest in the kiss, and hastened over to the skylight once more, the vines already lifting the frame along with the glass away from the building, and setting it aside. Dutifully, Nova followed, watching Ivy sit down and pull her legs down with her to hang from the structure. Nova joined her, craning her neck to look down on the gang. Beneath them, they looked like nothing more than ants, inconsequential human ants that surrounded themselves with weapons and explosives and fire and concerned themselves not with the wellbeing of the natural world, but with wealth and material gain. Nova's jaw set, a steely anger settling within her chest. She'd never met a single one of them, but she hated all of them. She really did.
Ivy was looking over at her, a much larger flower growing behind her. There was no soil on the roof, there was nothing for them to grow from, but that was the miracle of the power Nova and Ivy had in common – it didn't need soil or sunlight or water in order to create. The things they wished to create simply came to be, and all restrictions and inhibitions came later. Sustained creations were far removed from the immediate thing, and that… was an extremely powerful gift.
Once again, Nova copied her creator's example, and with the passion that was burning inside of her now that she had riled herself up and found her hatred for those who acted as obstacles to their goal, her flower grew much faster than she was expecting. Ivy applauded, a seemingly genuine look of pride on her face. Their respective vines wrapped around their individual waists, and they were lowered swiftly into the pit of depravity below.
AN: I'm back! Please don't throw anything. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I lost all inspiration for this story and all motivation to write along with it, and I've honestly only just gotten back into writing again. So, you can expect more chapters for me, and sometimes they may be regular updates, and other times I'm afraid you may have to wait a while. I'm sorry for this. I have a lot going on, but that's the standard excuse for writers, isn't it? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this, and I'd like to thank everyone who commented and favourited and followed and everything else. I really appreciate the support and the dedication and I'd like you all to know I'm writing this for you. Ta-ta for now.
Nothing comes easily
Fill this empty space
Nothing is like it seems
Turn my grief to grace
Nothing comes easily
Where do I begin?
Nothing can bring me peace
I've lost everything