Waking up early, Luna prepared herself for whatever shit that day would hold. Steve came right on time, and they started walking down the street together. There was a big height difference between them, since Steve was only 5'5'' and Luna was about 5'9''. Girls would always envy Luna's height, but she knew that everything came with a price; ranging from frequent back pains, to having no curves whatsoever.
"Ah, so you are the knight in shining armor that saved my damsel in distress," a voice chuckled behind them.
Steve and Luna whipped their heads back towards to the familiar voice.
"Buckyyyyy," Steve groaned, "Could you stop saying that, please?"
"Nope," Bucky laughed, his eyes twinkling in joy, "Steve told me all about you. I'm James Barnes, but you can call me Bucky."
Luna smiled warmly. She always had had a soft spot for the Winter Soldier. "Nice to meet you Bucky. I'm Luna Black."
"Heard you wanted to apply as a nurse," Bucky commented.
"Yeah, I'm actually headed to a training camp with Steve. You wanna join us?" Luna asked.
"Oh I don't know. I wouldn't want to intrude on you two," Bucky replied as he grinned mischievously.
Steve blushed at the insinuation while Luna just laughed it off. She never has been the one to be embarrassed easily.
"You afraid of some competition, Barnes?" Luna chided.
Steve stood there gaping.
Bucky just scoffed and slung his arm around Steve's shoulders. "Would you look at that, Steve? We've got ourselves a new friend."
The trip to the camp went smoothly and once they arrived, everybody went off to do their own business. Turns out the military has been desperately searching for more army nurses, so Luna doubted they would reject her.
She was making her way back to the tent where she and Steve agreed to meet up, when someone suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her into a tent.
It was Bucky.
"Sorry if I startled you," he began, "but I've been meaning to talk to you all day,"
Luna's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. What could he possibly want to talk about?
Bucky continued, "I wanted to say thank you. For what you did for Steve."
"Like I said to Steve before; just doing what I'm best at." Luna answered offhandedly.
"Not many people do that." He fixed his gaze on her.
"What? Tending people's wounds?"
"No. Helping others,"
"Oh."
That was her only reply. She really couldn't think of anything else to say. She was baffled with his response.
But before she could even try to come up with something to say, Steve barged in clumsily.
"Hey, guys− oh, am I interrupting something?" he asked.
"No, not at all. Bucky was just asking me whether or not I got accepted." Luna lied smoothly.
"Well? Did you?"
Then, Bucky came to her rescue.
"She was actually about to head there. They still didn't give her any feedback,"
"Yup, so if you would excuse me," Luna said as she slipped out of the tent and marched her way to see the results.
Obviously, she made it, and when she checked which site she would be sent to, she wasn't really surprised that Bucky and Steve were going there too. Coincidence? She didn't think so. The Nornirs really did plan out everything
After those events, the trio became inseparable and it's only been one month since that day. Anybody would always find them together laughing and when they're not, they still manage to draw a smile on people's faces; Steve protecting the innocent, Bucky helping the helpless, Luna healing the injured. They were like the golden trio.
However, laughs and jokes aren't always the cure to the depressing state of war. Days would go by with without Steve's pure laughter, Bucky's incredible humor, and Luna's witty sarcasm. They would all work on whatever they're doing with tense faces, hard gazes, and withdrawn expressions. Only a few words would be passed along, and the day would fly in complete silence.
There were those rare moments where Luna would catch Steve and Bucky so carefree and happy. She would smile sadly, because she knows that these moments are extremely short-lived. She would smile sadly, because these genuine smiles would never last forever. She would smile sadly, because she knows she'll never see one of those again. So she tries to never miss them. Making sure those grins are etched into her mind. And maybe –one day in the future- after all the scarring from the events that would occur, she would be able to see the edge of their lips curl upwards again. But now she just makes the most of it.
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Something was wrong.
Luna felt that something was out of its place.
It wasn't like a bad case of flu or something.
It was like a tingling sensation in the back of her head; trying to remind her something.
Like a dream you can't remember after you've just woken up.
She spent the whole day with an uneasy attitude. Steve and Bucky kept shooting her concerned glances, and attempted to lighten up her mood.
The day went….surprisingly well, which made her even more anxious, but she ignored the strange feeling and abandoned all her troubled thoughts.
After she treated her last patient, Luna met up with her 2 friends and walked around the site.
Bucky broke the silence, "Are you okay? You were on the edge, today."
"I'm sure it's nothing, but I have this weird feeling," she replied.
Steve gave her a worried glance, "A weird feeling? What do you mean? Like a bad feeling?"
"Yeah. A bad feeling," Luna breathes out shakily.
"Well we can assure you that nothing bad will happen to you," Bucky said firmly.
"Oh really? How?" Luna raises an eyebrow.
"Anything or anyone that harms you will have to go through us first," Steve exclaims loudly as he puffs out his chest.
They all stared at each other, expressionless, then burst out laughing. But were cut off when a blood-curling scream echoed throughout the whole camp.
Hairs standing on the back of their necks, the three of them ran the opposite way everyone else was running. They tore through the crowd, pushing against the scurrying mob, to find a man with a red logo on his shoulder patch. Hydra.
He shot a blast of energy from his very high-tech weapon, and hit a soldier. The soldier was instantly vaporized, leaving nothing but his ashes. The weapon wasn't just killing them. It was incinerating them.
Luna was terrified, yet confused. This wasn't part of the timeline, and how did Hydra manage to develop a weapon this enhanced?
Bucky grabbed her wrist and whispered into her ear, "Run. Hide. You can't stay here. You weren't trained for this."
"What?! You think I'd leave you guys here?" Luna cried out.
"Please, Luna. Listen to us. If you stay here, you'll die." Steve begged.
"So will you."
"Goddammit, Luna. Please," Bucky pleaded, his voice shaking.
"I can't just−" Luna argued, but was thrown to the ground as people shoved themselves forward, in attempt to run away.
Separated from Steve and Bucky, Luna started thinking of a plan. She would do anything to save those two. Even if it meant exposing her abilities. Even if it meant killing somebody.
Luna was furious. And she never really used her powers in a state of rage, so she didn't know what to expect. She spun on her heels and sprinted to the site of chaos. Steve and Bucky weren't in her sight. Was that a good or bad thing?
She slowly, yet determinedly approached the maniac with the gun, wondering if she could force his mind to fall into unconsciousness, just like she did to the man who was attacking Steve the first time she met him.
She was facing the assassin's back, raising her hands to aim, but she froze in place when he turned his back and aimed at her. She ducked, completely out of instinct, and frantically searched for a way to contain or destroy the weapon he's armed with.
The first thing that came to her mind is to crush the weapon, but that may cause the energy inside it to be unleashed and kill everybody around them, so she ditched the idea.
Troops of armed soldiers stormed in, each carrying a weapon. Luna knew they'd all die; it only takes a few seconds for dozens of people to get incinerated. As the army fought valiantly, Luna knew her first plan was the only plan she can probably carry out, since she doesn't have much experience with her powers. If she could, she could've forced his heart to stop beating, but she doesn't know how.
She reverted back to plan A. Now, she has to think of a way to execute it without killing everybody else.
It was like a light bulb lit up over her head.
A force bubble, of course.
The problem was she only knew how to create one while being inside it.
That meant she might die.
Could she do that to Steve and Bucky?
If she didn't, they would turn to ash.
Maybe they already did.
She hesitated, but made her mind when the tortured screams leaked into her head.
Raising her arms once again, a buzzing feeling surged through her veins to escape her body in the shape of a wispy, grey vapor. As it was escaping out of her fingers, the energy was weaving itself together to form a dome around her and the terrorist. He turned his head around looking for an escape, but the dome had already surrounded them.
Luna clenched her fists, sending her powers to crush the machine gun. It cracked and crunched in his hands. He dropped it in fear and backed away until his back hit the force field. Luna narrowed her eyes, focusing heavily on her doing. She heard her name being shouted and turned her head to spot Steve and Bucky pushing around the hordes of people and lock eyes with her. Their eyes were red and stinging.
Bucky broke out, running towards her. "No. NO! STOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! YOU'LL KILL YOURSELF!"
Steve was behind him, his eyes welled up with tears. "Please, don't leave us," he said, voice quivering.
Luna shook her head, "It's the only way."
The light inside the dome was becoming brighter. Any second now….
"Goodbye," Luna whispered as she smiled weakly.
The light flared out and the dome disappeared. The Hydra soldier was gone and Luna was replaced with ashes.
Steve fell on his knees, clutching onto what's left of her from dust.
Bucky just stood there, tears streaming down his eyes and kept mumbling the same words.
"She's gone."