Chapter Text
Dublin was cold and wet when team red arrived but a bit of rain wasn’t going to stop vile.
Carmen and shadow-san reckoned that they were out to steal the coggalbeg hoard.
It was a golden lunula with two little discs that had been dredged up from one of Ireland's many bogs.
It was beautiful and made out of gold.
“Cleo will probably turn them into fashion accessories, then once she gets bored of them malstrome will melt them down” Carmen had explained to ivy and her brother.
“Don’t worry Carm, we won’t let vile get their hands on it!” Ivy had smiled back at her.
She would make sure of it, Ivy would do anything for Carmen.
It had taken her a while for her to admit it but ivy was into the super thief. She knew deep down that she would never be attracted to her.
Carmen was beautiful, talented, and snarky. Not to mention the fact that she was physically strong too.
ivy was just a bulky mechanic who goofed off and made rye comments from time to time.
But none of that mattered, at the end of the day ivy cared about Carmen. She was her friend and it didn’t matter that her feelings wouldn’t be reciprocated.
It was a crush that Ivy was sure she would get over…eventually.
Carmen and shadow-san spent the rest of the morning scoping out the museum, making note of potential entrance points vile could take
While Zack and Ivy had gone to pick up the rental car and check into the hotel.
“Hey Ives! Check it out the hotel fridge got gin in it” her brother said pointing at the bottles
“Well it’s not like you're gonna be drinking any” she said back.
“But 18 is the legal drinking age here” Zack told her.
“Uh yeah, but you’re gonna be driving dofus!” She reminded him.
She rolled her eyes at him as he made a sound of realisation.
The door opened.
“Hey crew, get the car okay?” Carmen asked as she walked in.
“Yep it’s sitting nice and safe downstairs” Zack smiled. “Where’s shadow-san
“He said he was gonna grab everyone some early dinner”
“Oh sweet!” Zack cheered
“Everything at the museum go alright?” Ivy asked her.
“Well we spotted Devineaux and his new partner just before we left, so they're going to be an obstacle” Carmen told her.
“you think you can play red herring tonight?” She asked sitting down next to her
“Yeah of course,” Ivy said.
“You're a life saver, Ives” the super thief smiled.
“Thanks” she blushed
______________________________________
So far the caper was going well.
Carmen and shadow-san had gotten in alright and Zack was waiting at the designated meeting spot.
Ivy was currently running circles around Devineaux and his partner who she had learned was called Zari from the two shouting at each other.
She had led them further enough from the museum so they wouldn’t interfere with Carmen.
“I think she went this way!” Ivy heard Zari shout as she ducked into a dark alleyway.
She heard them run past and she giggled slightly.
Ivy then tapped onto her earpiece.
“Hey player, got acme distracted enough,”
“That’s good” he said on the other end
“How’s things going on Carm and shadow-san’s end?” She asked.
“Alright…we haven’t seen vile at all tonight” he said, a bit worried.
That was strange and nerve wracking.
“You think that we got the artifact wrong? could they be going after something different?” Ivy said, also starting to worry.
“Maybe” she heard player say.
Before she could react, footsteps came behind her and she felt a stabbing pain in her shoulder.
Turning around quickly she found that she was face to face with lady Doksou
She had stuck some kinda syringe into her
“Your…ugh bait and switch” she muttered pulling it out. “No matter, I’m sure vile will have a use for you”
Lady Doksou lunged at ivy but she managed to move out of the way.
The pain in her shoulder was becoming more intense and she let out a loud whine.
“Ivy? Ivy!? What’s happening!?” She heard player yelling in her ear.
“Lady Doksou…she got me with…something” she managed to explain.
Her body felt like it was burning as she continued to dodge her opponent.
“It’s no use, the more you move the worse the pain will get” she smiled
This seemed to be right as it was at this moment that ivy dropped to the floor.
She felt Lady Doksou press a knife to her throat.
“We’ll use you as leverage to get Carmen Sandiego to surrender, you clearly mean something to her”
It was over, it was all over.
This was all her fault, she should’ve been paying better attention.
Her vision was starting to blur
Player was shouting at her but she couldn’t make out the words.
Her body felt like it was on fire.
”I’m…sorry” ivy whimpered into her earpiece “tell…Carm…sorry”
She had failed Carmen.
She had failed Zack and shadow-san
And now poor player was going to have to listen to her get kidnapped…or worse.
Her body was screaming at her. She felt herself curl up into herself.
Footsteps came near and she felt her heart drop, it was probably more vile members
She lay on the cold ground trying her best to get back up.
But ivy couldn’t, the movement made the pain burn even more and she let out a loud guttural scream.
She felt like she was dying.
There was some kind of commotion going on. Two people were running away.
Another person came straight up to her.
A figure was over her, two soft hands touched her face causing her to scream even more.
No! No! She wouldn’t let herself be taken by vile, not without a fight!
The figure was asking her questions.
Breathing heavily she tried to get up again.
She aimed a kick to the blurry figure but they dodged it.
This made her writhe in pain
The hands moved up to the base of her skull and pinched it then everything went black.
______________________________________
Carmen had just bagged the coggalbeg hoard into a sack when player had contacted her and shadow-san.
“Red something’s wrong with ivy! Lady Doksou poisoned her!”
“Wait what!?” Carmen said fearful
“I don’t know she snuck up on her or something!” He panicked.
“Send us her location now,” shadow-san said, sounding worried. “Keep trying to talk to her, try to see if she can tell you how much pain she’s in”
Player sent over the location and the two booked it out of the museum.
Please, please let her be okay Carmen thought to herself.
The alleyway was only ten minutes away, but it felt like a lifetime as they ran to it.
Carmen didn’t know what she would do if she lost her, she cared so much about ivy. It had taken a while for her to realise that she had a crush on the redhead.
She had envisioned asking her out once vile was gone, that they may have a life together.
But now that fantasy was coming crashing down around her.
If ivy died it would be all her fault, She had asked her to play red herring.
Then there was Zack and player
Losing his sister would crush Zack and she wasn’t sure he would be able to recover from it.
If ivy was dying, player was having to listen to it, mature though he was, he was still only 15.
“Has she said anything about how the pain feels?” Shadow-san said into his earpiece snapping her out of her spiral.
“No, she just said that she’s sorry, that she wants Carm to know she’s sorry” he said back still panicked.
more guilt filled Carmen.
“Send Zack the location and have him meet us there” she said choking slightly.
They finally got to the alleyway and found ivy on the floor with lady doksou standing over her, knife pressed against her neck.
Shadow-san went over to land a hit on her but she moved out of the way.
She dropped the knife with a clatter and grumbled as she watched shadow-san kick it out of her reach.
a horrible scream filled the ally.
Carmen ran to ivy as shadow-san and lady doksou seemingly took their fight up onto the roof tops.
She kneeled down next to her.
She was pale, paler the usual and her breathing was rugged.
Carmen put her hands onto her face, this made ivy scream again.
She retracted them immediately.
“Ivy, it’s me! sorry, I didn’t mean for that to hurt! Where did she get you!?” She asked, trying to look her up and down for wounds.
She watched her try to push herself up.
“Careful, here let me-” but she cut herself off as ivy aimed a kick at her.
“Ives! It’s me!” Carmen said avoiding it easily.
Ivy began to scream and writhed around in pain.
The movement was too much for her, It was horrible to watch.
She’s in too much pain to see sense right now she thought to herself.
Carmen put her hands up to the base of her skull and performed the pressure point pinch on her.
This made her go limp.
She took off the red coat and hat off of ivy and began to look all over her to see any wounds.
She found something that looked like a burn mark on her left shoulder. It was a raw red colour and was accompanied by a pin prick.
Carmen gently picked up ivy in a bridal style carry and moved to watch the road for Zack.
“No! You go back to the museum zari! I’ll see what the screaming was about” she heard Devineaux yell from a distance.
He has the worst timing Carmen thought to herself.
She looked over to sack that had the coggalbeg hoard in it.
If it were Jules she would’ve immediately handed it over knowing that she would have cooperated and not arrested her on sight.
Devineaux was a wild card.
Yes Carmen had handed the masks over to him in Venice, but this situation was so much more dire.
She really didn’t have much of a choice right now, not unless Zack got here in the next 5 seconds.
Loud breathing told her the agent had arrived.
“Hey, are you alright, what is…Le femme rouge?” Devineaux asked, trying to catch his breath.
He looked to ivy in her arms.
“What is going on here?” He asked
“Look Devineaux, I really don’t have the time,” Carmen said quickly. “The coggalbeg hoard is in the sack over there. Please don’t arrest me just let me get her to a hospital”
The agent paused looking at her.
“I will not arrest you, I’m beginning to think miss argent was right about you being good” he said walking over to the sack.
For the first time in Carmen’s life she was incredibly grateful that Devineaux had cornered her.
And that Julia’s absence was making him use his brain for once.
“But I want my questions answered!” He added draping the sack over his shoulder.
“Really!? Now!?” She asked him.
“Uh…well maybe not now” he said looking back at ivy.
He then looked at the red coat and hat Carmen had tossed aside.
“She was your double! We were chasing her!” He said in realisation “wait…she was on the snow mobile in-”
But he was cut off by headlights filling the alleyway.
She heard Devineaux exclaim in surprise, going to cover his eyes as she dashed to the car.
Carmen managed to get the car door open and sat ivy down on one of the backseats.
She shut the door behind her and put both their seatbelts on.
The car started and pulled out of the alleyway.
“Carm! What’s happening!? player said Ives got poisoned!” Zack said from the driver's seat.
“I’m not sure, we have to take her to hospital” she told him.
“Right,” he said, sounding close to tears.
“Carmen, Zack” Shadow-san's voice came from both of their earpieces “I lost lady dokuso, how is ivy?”
“She was in a lot of pain. She didn’t seem to recognise me, I had to use the pressure point pinch on her to calm her down” she explained guiltily “Uh there's something that looks like a burn mark on her shoulder”
a loud sigh came from the earpiece
“It sounds like Lady dokuso has successfully created her magnum opus.”
“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Zack asked
“She has managed to extract elements of the Dendrocnide moroides or Gympie Gympie plant and make it into poison. It's the most painful plant in the world. Its stinging hairs can make you feel like you’re on fire.
“She won’t die right!?” Zack choked.
Carmen could see tears running down his face.
She held ivy a little closer, feeling all of the colour drain from her face.
“No. it’s not leathal lady dokuso pitched it to the faculty as a means of torture” shadow-san explained.
“Do you think the hospital has anything to combat that?” Zack asked.
“We can’t bring her to the hospital” shadow-san said quietly “the plant is from the deep rainforests of Australia, too many questions would be asked”
“So what are we supposed to do!? We can’t take her back to the hotel and she’s in no condition to fly back home!” Carmen argued.
There was a pause as Zack continued to drive.
“Hey, guys I have an idea,” player said quietly from the other line.
This made Carmen and Zack jump slightly as they both forgot he was there.
“There are a lot of remote cabins for rent an hour or two out of Dublin, you could keep ivy there until she’s well enough to go home”
“That sounds good, can you book it now?” Carmen asked.
“Yeah…uh there’s just beyond the base of glendoo mountain, that sound okay?” he asked
“Yeah that sounds good,” she said looking down at ivy.
She was stirring slightly.
player sent the location to Zack's phone and they began to drive in the direction to the cabin.
“I will sort out everything at the hotel. Contact me once you get there okay” shadow-san said.
His line then went down.
“Thank you player. You should get some rest” Carmen said.
She was very aware that he had heard the whole altercation, he needed to take a step back for a bit.
“You're sure? Because I can look up how to treat the poison" he asked, still sounding a bit worried.
“We’ll worry about that when we get cabin buddy, there’s nothing we can do right now, go take a break” Zack said to him, starting to calm down now they had a plan.
“Okay, I’m sending the owners instructions for the cabin. I’ll check in soon,” player said and the line went dead.
Ivy stirred again more violently than previously.
Carmen began to gently stroke her hair.
“How is she?” Zack asked.
“I think she might be waking up, Zack she…she might scream and she might not recognise us” she said trying to prepare him
“Yeah okay” he gulped.
______________________________________
The drive to the cabin was hell.
Ivy had woken up and spent most of the drive screaming and crying in pain.
Carmen had used the pressure point pinch on her again which brought them half an hour of quiet, but she didn’t want to do it too much, just in case she damaged the nerve there.
When she was awake ivy kept trying to kick and hit Carmen,
She couldn’t swing very hard with how much pain she was in and Carmen avoided it easily but all the same it made her stomach lurch everytime she did it.
She had never seen ivy so frightened before.
Halfway there they switched places so zack could sit next to her.
She thought that maybe ivy would be calmer if she was next to her brother but the same thing happened.
Except Zack couldn’t avoid his sister's attacks as well as Carmen could.
No matter what they said or did, nothing helped her calm down.
Zack was in tears by sunrise as he kept trying to calm ivy down.
Carmen really didn’t blame him, it was horrible listening to her cry, But she needed to hold things together until they reached the cabin.
Ivy ended up passing out just before they made it to the cabin.
They parked in the driveway of the cabin and Zack practically threw himself out of the car to find the key for the front door.
In the instructions player had sent from the owner, the key was somewhere under a pot plant.
Carmen went around back to grab ivy out of the back seats.
She made sure to be very gentle as she picked her back up again.
She carried her up the steps to the porch just as Zach pulled the key and opened the door.
He held the door open for them and was at Carmen’s heels as she carried her to a bedroom.
Once they found one, she laid ivy down on the bed and pulled the blankets over her.
“I’m gonna go pick up shadow-san, he knows about the jimpy…the gymmi…the thing that poisoned Ives” Zack said looking over at his sister.
Carmen nodded.
“I’ll stay here and look after her” she said gently.
Zack began to leave the room but he paused at the door.
“This isn’t your fault, Carm, I know you’re thinking it. But it’s not” he told her, pulling out his phone to update shadow-san.
He left shutting the door behind him.
Carmen let out a huge sigh feeling tears welling up in her eyes.
She looked down at ivy’s tear stained face.
It sure felt like her fault.