Ghost King Meets Batman

June 25th

[Edited July 28, 2022]

[June 25th]

Momma Ivy's POV

It had been several days since she had seen or heard anything about Nico-- or Ghost for that matter-- and that wasn't sitting well with her. Something was wrong, she could feel it. Ivy knew that leading a double life, especially as a demigod, took a lot of time and effort, so she understood that Nico wouldn't often be able to spare the time to come and see her, but she had hoped that she could ask him what had happened after he had gotten picked up by Batman's little pet project. Hopefully, he hadn't gotten into too much trouble. She hadn't seen his name in the news recently as she would have expected to if he'd been reported to the authorities for being seen with her. That was a blessing, at least.

Then there was the bigger secret that could have been spilled that night. Nico's other separate life. Certainly, the team hadn't figured out that Nico di Angelo and Ghost were the same people? Ivy didn't think they were nearly that clever. They didn't have the mystical senses that she did, after all. She had known from the moment she stepped into the same room as Ghost that he was a son of Hades. Death and decay radiated from him, just as it did Nico. Children of Hades were a rare breed. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

What had he wanted to tell her that day? Was it important or was he just stopping in for a chat? Ivy knew that the latter was just wishful thinking. Nico didn't 'chat'. Ivy, deep in thought, took her coffee out on her porch. It looked like it was going to storm today-- though it usually did in Gotham. There was so much pollution in the sky that Gotham looked hazy and cloudy most of the time. How Ivy missed clear skies and bright sunshine. She'd cover the whole city with plants if she thought they would clear the city of pollution.

Cover the city... She mused, now there's an idea. That would all have to wait until after the storm, however. The rains would be good for her babies, but it made a battlefield treacherous, and she had little doubt that Batman would put up a fight to keep his precious city in the filth. Maybe the rain would help with that. Ivy liked to imagine that the rain cleansed the air a bit as it fell, picking up pollutants as it fell to Earth. She loved the rain. The sound it made on her roof and the asphalt outside, the fleshbags running for cover with their umbrellas and raincoats, and the clean smell in the air that lasted a few hours after a good downpour.

Ivy imagined the thunder and lightning lighting up the sky as she sipped her coffee in her fluffy, pastel green bathrobe. She stretched languidly, as a strong gust of wind snatched at her robe and blew her hair from her face. When she went to do a toe touch, she noticed something peculiar. There was a tiny corner of something poking out from beneath her doormat. She knelt gently on her rotting wooden porch and pulled up the mat that was being overtaken by moss. Underneath it, hidden from the elements except for the darkened corner, was an envelope addressed to her. The villainess frowned, finding this more than a little suspect, but brought the letter inside nonetheless.

She ghosted through her plant-infested apartment, hardly making a sound. The only noise came from the bubbling of the filter in her aquaponics container in what used to be a sitting room. Ivy made straight for her kitchen, settling herself onto a barstool and setting her coffee on the counter. She gently opened the envelope and extracted the letter. The left edge of the letter was a little water damaged, but luckily she could still make out what it had said. As she read, she became more and more distraught. It was from Nico, and he had written:

Dear Ivy,

I want you to know that I appreciate everything that you have done for me. I can honestly say that I wouldn't have gotten this far without you. Thank you.

I am sending this letter because I have found myself in a situation that I don't expect to get out of. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with the Wayne family. They're really good people. They've done so much for me and I will be eternally grateful for that.