Chapter Text
“Holy f*ck, Nova! What are you doing here?”
Darcy slipped her torch into an empty wall sconce, then lowered herself to Nova’s cowering body. She trembled like a leaf as Darcy attempted to get close. Caked from head to toe in layers of dried mud, eyes glinting under the fire light, Nova shifted toward her unexpected visitor.
“D- Darcy?” she managed, her voice weak and squeaking. “What are- what are you doing here? How did you find me?”
Darcy blinked her eyes rapidly, still processing what she had discovered. “I… I don’t know. It’s… well, it’s kind of a long story. But forget about that, why are you here?”
Nova sat up from her cowering position and turned to face Darcy, meeting her eyes for the first time. Nova’s were glassy and red, her cheeks tear-stained, both magnets for the mud and filth that surrounded her. She then held up her shackled wrists, the thick metal chain loud as the links clanged together.
“I’m their prisoner,” Nova said, managing a light snicker.
“Okay, but why?”
Darcy was shaking her head profusely, baffled by every facet of their current predicament. Moments ago she had entertained hundreds of ideas for why this spot in particular had called to her from the plane of awakening. Each prediction surpassed its predecessor with flying colors, in terms of their absurdity. None of those, however, had involved Doctor Nova Wildheart—Oscorp botanist and her personal savior—imprisoned in a dungeon.
Nova’s eyes left Darcy’s, her head dropping in pity, hands slumping back into her lap with an awful, heavy thud. That’s when Darcy noticed Nova’s tunic. It was practically the same one she was given when she had first arrived. Except this one was layered with dark stains. Some of them were dirt and mud. Smaller patches looked like dried blood.
Darcy took Nova’s chin in her hand and examined her face. She had a few minor cuts and bruises across her cheek. Her lips were chapped, with the bottom one cracked, a splotch of purple surrounding it.
“So… the fact that I’m here, and now you’re here…” Nova began, guilt splayed across her hard face, “I don’t think that’s coincidence.”
Darcy arched an eyebrow. “Why do you say that?” She brushed a few strands of her hair behind her ear.
Nova started to speak but began coughing profusely. “I need some water,” Nova croaked. She sounded pitiful, like a hospital patience, bedridden with pneumonia. Darcy’s heart broke for her, seeing her like this, so weak and fragile.
“I- I’m sorry,” Darcy began, shaking her head, crestfallen. “I didn’t bring any with me. I didn’t think to—“
Nova blindly reached for a metal container, holding it close like Oliver Twist. She then pointed to a spigot on the opposite wall. Darcy’s eyes moved first to the bowl, then the water spout, and finally the shackles that bound Nova’s hands. She assumed (correctly) that the chain was just shy of reaching the water source—a cruel, unmerciful joke.
“You’ve been drinking out of a dog bowl?” Darcy asked, her voice low. She couldn’t believe the words as they came from her lips.
Nova shrugged, one corner of her mouth turned up in a forced smile. “It’s not that bad. When you’re this dehydrated, you tend to not give a sh*t about where your water comes from, or what you drink out of.”
All things considered, Darcy felt that Nova still seemed like her usual self.
She grabbed the metal bowl and walked over to the spigot on the wall. She pumped the handle several times, feeling the pressure of water siphoning through the plumbing.The liquid spurted out in an uneven flow, smelling not particularly pleasant.
Darcy had to hold back tears as visions flooded her mind of Nova being held prisoner here, for God knows how long. All the while she had been one level above, learning magic and having steamy bisexual intercourse with gorgeous fae.
Nova took the bowl greedily and brought it up to her chapped, swollen lips. The water splashed everywhere as she drank, soaking the front of her tunic. Darcy sat idly by, unsure what to do or say, uneasiness suffocating her.
“Thank you,” Nova said softly, letting out a quiet belch. “So, Darcy, how long have you been here?”
“Um, about a week—I think.” Darcy replied. At this point she wasn’t sure. It felt like a week in earth days, but the duration of daylight in the Feywild was tricky.
Nova nodded, burping again. “Same. I think. It’s hard to tell, what with no daylight and everything.” She gestured to the flickering torches on the walls, the fire in each crackling softly against the dungeon’s dripping walls. “I started keeping track by how often they come to feed me—only once a day.”
Darcy felt an immense pressure. She wanted to keep the conversation flowing, get Nova to explain why she was here in Silvervale. At any moment, someone could come down those stairs and discover her—them, together.
“So…” Darcy began awkwardly, “what brings you to Silvervale, Nova?”
The botanist shot Darcy a disapproving look that made her hopeful grin fade quickly. “You know, I could ask you the same question.” She eyed Darcy head to toe, comparing Flora’s clean, laundered clothes to her mud-caked rags. “Obviously your accommodations have been a bit more adequate than mine.”
This made Darcy recoil. Sharp pangs of guilt shocked the pit of her stomach.
Nova continued, dismissing her friend’s unease. “I was ‘summoned’ here. By that raging c*nt, Seraphina.”
As Nova spoke the eladrin’s name mockingly, alarms sounded off in Darcy’s brain. She had a million questions, all attempting to burst out of her at the same time.
Why were we both brought here?
Why were we summoned around the same time?
Why was I afforded a room in a cozy cottage, while Nova was kept prisoner inside a disgusting hell hole?
“Did she say why?” Darcy asked.
Nova shrugged her shoulders. “She’s been pretty elusive so far. The strong, silent type, you know? But… I have a pretty good idea why I’m here…”
Darcy held on with bated breath, waiting for Nova to continue.
“I didn’t lie to you, about the flower,” Nova continued, her voice anxious, “but I definitely didn’t give you the whole truth. I felt that information was on a strict need-to-know basis.” She took a deep, quivering breath, letting it out slowly, preparing herself for a story she was really hoping would stay secret. “During the Blip, I had a lot of free time on my hands. Oscorp kept me on staff, but most of our ongoing projects were postponed or cancelled. It’s kind of hard to develop cutting-edge technology when half of your leading scientistsup and disappear.
“I used some of the excess grant money to travel the world. See new places, discover novel plant life, sh*t like that. In 2019 I went to South America. I heard from some trusted sources that there was some vegetation down there that was showing promising signs in scientific development. It made sense, being a part of the Amazon and all that.”
She let out a brief chuckle and shrugged her shoulders, then continued. “While I was down there, I went to this wild bazaar. It was basically a botanist’s paradise, especially for those that were looking for the weirdest of the weird.You should have seen this place, Darcy. It was incredible. I wanted to take all of it home with me. But, in the end, I only went home with one thing… a packet of seeds.”
Nova had worked herself up, recounting her journey to the Amazon, hunting for indigenous plant life. It was the first time Darcy had noticed a smile on her face, which naturally brought one to her own.
“The guy who sold them to me, he promised unparalleled results. Groundbreaking developmental research. The way he described the flower, he made it sound like an all-natural version of the arc reactor. And me, the greedy bitch that I am, snatched them up quick. I simply couldn’t keep up with all the possibilities my mind was reeling with, and I hadn’t even planted the suckers yet! I didn’t even know if they would grow in US soil.
“By the time I got back to New York, it hit me. I didn’t want to believe that I was swindled, that that guy in the green cloak really meant what he said about the seeds. And I was even optimistic when I planted them in Central Park. I figured it would be safe there, what with half the population gone, and me regularly checking up on it. But literal years went by and nothing happened.”
“And then I showed up at Oscorp…” Darcy finished, her voice soft, guilt-ridden.
Nova nodded, her face solemn. “It’s not your fault. That’s what I get for doing back-alley deals with nefarious-looking pseudo-humans.”
There was a brief moment of silence between them. The constant plinking of water droplets persisted, echoing around them.
Nova sighed again. “Anyways. That’s probably why I’m here. My guess is that guy probably wasn’t supposed to have the moonbloom seeds, and neither was I.”
“Well, have you tried explaining that to Seraphina?” Darcy asked, understanding how dumb the question sounded but asked it anyway.
“I tried. But she didn’t want to hear it. She basically acted as if I was the one who stole them.”
Darcy shook her head, her face scrunched in confusion. “I mean, I knew Seraphina was overprotective of the moonbloom flowers. But this just doesn’t make any sense to me. If only we could—”
“That bitch is pure evil, Darcy. I can feel it, and so can you. You’re not an idiot. I know you can sense her insidious nature.”
Darcy didn’t want to believe it. She wanted to trust Seraphina; trust that she left her old, malicious ways behind centuries ago. Because so much had be riding on Flora being wrong about her suspicions. If she was wrong, that meant Darcy could finish her training soon and go back to earth. She could be back with Bucky, and Ian, and her girls.
More than that, she would no longer be a measly field agent for the team. She had enjoyed her role on the Young Avengers team so far. It was a chance of a lifetime, to be surrounded by a badass group of ladies, helping them stop crime on a less apocalyptic scale. But there had been too many instances where she’d been side-lined, dismissed as either too green or “not right for this job”. With her newfound magic abilities, all of that would change.
And Darcy had let that blind her. She stuck her head in the sand and refused to swallow the truth. But here it was, rearing its ugly head right in her face.
She took Nova’s hands in her own and gripped them tightly. Her fingernails were chipped, with layers of dirt under them. The guilt was now pummeling her, smashing her into the ground “Hulk-style”.
“I… I’m so sorry, Nova,” Darcy said, her words trembling. “I’m the one who deserves to be down here. Not you. You did nothing wrong. The only thing you are guilty of here is falling victim to some fae f*ck swindler. You planted the seeds, but I’m the one who plucked it from the earth. And I swear on my life, I am going to get you out of here, and we will find a way—”
Darcy stopped short at the sight of Nova’s widening eyes—eyes that had just seen a ghost, or worse. Her heart was thudding against her ribcage as she turned slowly, adjusted herself to witness what Nova had.
It was Seraphina, bearing the most evil looking grin either of them had ever conceived.
