Chapter Text
Having an all powerful being in your head sounded cool.
It was not cool.
Marcy had always wondered what it was like having an almost god-like being in your body. In all those fantasy and mythology books she had read, they were helpful and made their host powerful or smarter. You shared a body and helped each other get what you wanted! At least that's what happened in those Kane Chronicles books...
Marcy yelled a bye to her mom as she shut the house door and bounced down the steps. Besides Darcy mumbling inside her head, it was a beautiful morning. She'd always loved autumn, but it was hard to fully appreciate it in L.A. It was so much more on the east coast where she now lived. Today was especially perfect for her plan.
Darcy should have been quite helpful to Marcy...but it wasn't. Most of the time it just ignored or laughed at her. Still! The thing was a walking encyclopedia of knowledge! The greatest minds and greatest fighters in all of Amphibia! Together! In one mind! Sure, she'd been trapped inside of the hivemind for...well she wasn't sure. Time kind of didn't exist in the core.
Thinking of that made Marcy grip the straps of her backpack harder.
For a long time she'd hated the voice in her head. It didn't matter that the cord had been cut, as soon as she had awoken in Sasha's arms, she could feel it. It lingered in the back of her head like some sort of orange static. It mocked and used her at every chance it got. Sometimes Darcy could even regain small amounts of control. It scared her and worst it made her hate the hivemind with a burning passion. At first she tried to get rid of the hivemind, or at least silence it. She just wanted it out and gone. Nothing seemed to work though and each failed attempt just made it laugh at her. That was more frustrating than it being there in the first place.
So, she couldn't get rid of it. Fine.
Darcy chuckled at that. An echo of her own laugh but not quite. The voice was more robotic.
"Amusing. A waste of time as you found out. I wouldn't dwell on it though...it appears you have something else on your mind."
Marcy frowned but the voice was right. (That's another thing that frustrated her, Darcy was always RIGHT about everything.) She was done trying to get rid of it. Her new plan was definitely going to work.
"And what exactly is your plan, host?"
"My name is Marcy, not host."
"You'll get that name when you've proved yourself useful to us."
Marcy sighed and walked a bit quicker. The sooner she started to work on her idea the better.
------
There weren't many places for Marcy to execute her plan. She wasn't exactly sure at first what to show Darcy but eventually she decided on the park.
If Marcy had told anyone her idea they would have laughed (well Anne and Sasha wouldn't...)
See, Darcy couldn't be destroyed with brute force in any way. Cutting the cord had just kept the hivemind where it wanted to be. Yes, they had destroyed two of it's vessels (the helmet and the moon) but they hadn't destroyed the 3rd.
Marcy.
Everywhere it went, it uploaded itself into the code...or well. Brain code in her case.
"You're just now figuring this out? Hm, I have to say we're a bit disappointed host."
Ignoring that.
You could destroy each vessel the core touched to kill the code. With her? You couldn't. You couldn't just upload a virus into her brain to kill Darcy. You'd have to...
Marcy shook the thought away.
Darcy couldn't be destroyed. So her conclusion?
They were together. Almost one being. Marcy had decided instead of fighting it, she could make allies with it. Who knew...maybe she could even make friends with them.
"...You we're correct in the previous statement. This is indeed laughable"
"You don't even know what I'm going to do!"
"It doesn't matter. We predict you will fail. Infact there's a 95% chance you will. Better give up now!"
"I'm willing to work with those odds!"
Darcy snorted and started grumbling to itself again. It didn't bother Marcy though as she had finally made it to the park. Now all she had to do was find something to show the hivemind.
After a moment of looking, Marcy's eyes landed on a small white flower in front of her. She grinned as she looked down at it.
"Look at this!"
"...An Earth flower. What species is it?"
Marcy touched the petals and studied the shape of it.
"It's a daisy! A pretty common flower, these guys pretty much pop up everywhere"
"What is its purpose."
Marcy stood up straight still looking down at the flower so Darcy could see it.
"Well, all plants help reduce the carbon dioxide in the air, but it doesn't need a purpose. Not everything needs to be useful."
"There's no point to this...Earth flower. It is not a resource we can use for conquest or build with."
"Isn't it nice looking though? I mean don't you see how hopeful it looks? Doesn't that fill you with some form of happiness?"
Darcy let out a cackle. Marcy flinched as it echoed in her head. She still wasn't use to it's voice. She didn't think she would ever get use to it's cruel laugh. The laugh she had nightmares of.
"Nice? No. Hopeful? How can you see emotion in something that isn't human, or well amphibian. As for happiness, that is a useless emotion that stops you from your true ambitions, as you found out host."
Marcy huffed and turned away. This is what always happened. She wasn't done though.
Looking above her she gestured at the oak trees that towered over her.
"Well what about these! Look at the yellow, red, and orange! Those are literally your colors!"
"These trees do interest us. What can they be used for?"
"That's not really my point...trees are ancient and full of history! Did you know their tree rings can tell you when there are droughts? Isn't that cool?"
Marcy touched the bark of one of the trees. The harsh bark rubbed against her hand and broke off a bit. It felt old, if that made sense. Darcy had been silent since she had started talking. Maybe it was understanding...
"These trees would be useful in building structures with their strong trunks. Much better than the ones in Amphibia."
Marcy made an exasperated noise and walked away to find something else. This was really not going to plan. Plus, she was getting frustrated and she'd barely tried!
"Told you, you had a 95% chance. Stop wasting your time, just go home and let us play one of those games."
She was not giving up.
For an hour, Marcy tried explaining living things to Darcy. She tried to show how not everything was just a tool, that things could just exist and still matter. The hivemind wasnt impressed, nothing she did worked.
"Give up. You're not winning this."
Darcy's statement just made her more frustrated. She refused to give up. She refused to admit how stupid this was and obviously a hivemind of old newts who only knew their ways wouldn't listen to her. Why'd she even try to do this? She hated the other mind so much. Why was she trying to be nice? Why-
"Halt!"
Marcy stumbled as she was startled from her thoughts. She froze in her awkward mid-position of trying to not fall.
"What is that?"
She looked around, searching for the thing that was amazing the voice.
"What is what?"
"Beside your foot."
Marcy looked down and jumped away.
"That's poison ivy! Jeez! Thanks for telling me, that could've been bad..."
"We don't care if it harmed you, we are curious about it."
Marcy paused. It sounded... interested? Even a bit curious? She couldn't help as a huge grin spread across her face.
"Well, like I said it's called poison ivy. You gotta be careful around it, if you touch it, it's stingers get into your skin and cause a rash. Although! Some people don't react at all, like Sasha, MAN, that girl could bathe in it and be fine! For me though it's prettyyy bad when I touch it. "
She lowered himself to the ground, careful not to touch it, just enough to get a closer look.
"See it's three leaves? That's how you know it's a poison ivy!"
"... interesting"
Marcy smiled more.
"Yeah right?!? Oh boy I've got so much to say about it!"
"We demand you tell us more. This small plant does indeed fascinate us."
"If this little guy does just wait till you hear about poison oak!"
There was a little bit of hope. Marcy didn't want to hold onto the past. Things could change, she just had to do it in the right way.