Chapter 12 :

Bucky led her towards the lift, piling in with Natasha, Tony and Peter, who incidentally, was still rambling on about just how sorry he was for hitting Luna with his webs earlier. Deciding to try and put an end to his evident suffering of a guilty conscience Luna put a hand on his arm, forcing a carefree smile onto her face as she said "Honestly, it's fine. Miss Romanoff was just about to get the upper hand anyway, so really you did me a favour by ending the fight before she could." This seemed to ease Peters conscience, as he turned to speak to Tony, something about a robotics project and Luna turned to look straight ahead at the doors of the lift, not noticing the glance Peter stole at her and she did. Luna sensed Natasha leaning in from behind her before she felt the hand on her shoulder as, with her signature side smirk in place, she said, "Now we both know that's not true Luna, you had me beat 5 times over. But I like you kid, call me Nat, all my friends do.". Again Luna forced a smile onto her face. She wanted to be happy, wanted to feel like the team were slowly taking a liking to her, but she was retreating into herself, she couldn't even stop it if she tried, she couldn't control it. Years of Hydra's 'training' told her that to be liked and to earn respect you had to win. And win quickly, otherwise you deserved nothing, were nothing. Her fight with Natasha had been too long, the rounds not ended quickly enough and to top it all off she had taken a hit by Peter she hadn't even seen coming. Hydra was right. She wasn't enough.

Luna was broken out of her trance as the doors pinged open and she felt her feet caring her out of the lift and into the open space before her, she barely even registered she was on the teams communal floor. Luna had pretty much retreated into her own mind. Dissociation had always been something she had dealt with, Bucky too after they came back from being the soldier and the moon. It dawned upon Luna now that he had seen the signs earlier on when she had been taken down by the spider-boy, he had tried to reassure her, even switched back to Russian (something she was sure he didn't feel entirely comfortable doing) to try and bring her back. As she felt his hand on her back, guiding her towards the small reading window and table set up she had eaten breakfast at with Wanda, she realised that he knew it was still happening. It wasn't too extreme this time, it was as though Luna was a passenger in her own body, she was unaware of the concerned looks she was getting from the people around her. She felt Bucky softly push her into a chair and could vaguely hear him sitting down next to her. Oblivious to the people around them, Bucky and Luna began the routine they had made years ago for when the other was dissociating. Bucky placed his metal hand into Luna's lap and slowly lifted one of hers onto the prosthetic. Slowly Bucky guided Luna's hand over his arm until Luna, who's eyes were closed, began to move on its own, the stimulation of running her hand over the plates of cool metal slowly bringing her back to herself. The team, once they had figured out what was going on, had settled across the other end of the room, Tony with Clint, taunting him over his (Luna's) victory, while Wanda, Natasha were sat on the humungous sofa in front of the TV, whilst Sam and Steve had moved to the kitchen part of the open plan room, making something for all the team to eat.

Slowly, Luna opened her eyes to look at Bucky, who smiled softly down at her, whispering a gentle "Здравствуй" (hi). Luna responded in a small voice "звать," (hello), "sorry Bucky, I don't know what happened there" continued Luna, voice growing subtly louder as she rested her head on Bucky's shoulder. "Thats alright doll, you took a hit you weren't expecting, no harm done." He replied quietly. Before Luna had the chance to reply, to state the fact that she had most definitely made a scene in front of Bucky's friends which would've had Bucky reminding her everyone in the room regularly went through something similar, Sam had walked over, assessing that the moment seemed to have passed and that Luna was okay. "Hey guys, foods done if you want to come over and grab anything," Bird-boy said, leaving the statement open ended, allowing for Luna to decide on her own if she was ready to come and see everyone. She slowly rose to her feet pulled Bucky along with her, making their way across to the team.

"Well, miss Luna," started Tony as he saw the pair walk over, "You just made me £20. I" he announced to the team, "have a new favourite !" He exclaimed before throwing one arm around the girl, pulling her into a side hug, forgetting that not everyone was as tackle as he was. Luna focused on not tensing her body as she was pulled towards the man smelling of motor oil and coffee. "I wanna know how you did it," said Sam, as he passed a plate consisting of a cheese toastie and a salad towards Luna. "How I did what?" Asked Luna, head cocking to the side like a dog at the question. The whole team stared at her, mouths dropping open, as Bucky let out a barely concealed laugh. "No one," answers Sam, "has ever beaten Nat in more than 2 rounds of hand to hand… you just beat her in five." Luna however, was confused, "That?" She questioned, "That was nothing," she laughed, " If that impressed you, you should see me as the Black Moon, or even just using my powers," trailed off Luna again confused at the shocked faces in front of her. "You have powers?" Asked Wanda, Sokovian accent slightly lilting the way she spoke. Luna looked to Bucky for reassurance, a series of hand movements asking if it was a good idea to show the team what she could do. Bucky responded in parts, initially using their hand signals to tell Luna it was safe, the continuing vocally, saying, "you don't have to doll, you were pretty out of it a moment ago, we don't need you heading back into your own mind." Those around him were quick to confirm the same, all saying some version of 'no pressure' or 'you don't have to', Clint however being the only one to speak honestly, stating "I mean i'd like to see." But a quick smack up the back of his head from Natasha had him spluttering out "not that you have to of course." Luna however, decided to oblige, and without any verbal warning let her head dip.

A silver glow seemed to emanate from the roots of her hair, quickly working its way down her hair, as black began to spiral out from her pupils until her iris' were completely black. Luna submerged herself in her power, as though dunking her head underwater, she felt it fill her, overjoyed at being released for the first time in a while. It felt incredible. Luna could leave it months without changing, she had done in fact until this moment. It didn't hurt her, exactly, to hold it back, it was a constant drain of energy and some days it was as though it hurt her to hold them in, but god it felt so good to loosen the control she had on her powers, a sparkling warmth filling her body as she let her power out. Slowly she began to lift from the floor, levitating a few feet into the air, her head lifting to look at the room of people in front of her. "I was born like this" started Luna, a strange duality about her now slightly lower pitched voice, deciding to answer questions before they could even be asked. "We," she gestured to Bucky, "assume it's part of the reason Hydra took me. They thought they could use my power to make me their perfect killing machine." Luna held out her palm, a small fire settling upon it, seemingly out of thin air, as it shone with an odd silver tint to it. "But when they started programming me to be the Black Moon, I began my own programming of sorts. The black moon could take on this form, make it look like she had control over her powers," continued Luna, "But I compartmentalised them, made it impossible to access my powers as the Black Moon." She shaped the fire like substance to form a small, black moon in the palm of her hand. "I don't even know everything I can do," carried on Luna, "I refused to turn for Hydra. I used to sometimes with Bucky, it can be painful you see, to hold it in, but since he left …" She finished, snapping the moon out of existence and dropping back down onto her feet, hair suddenly reverting to its normal colour, the glow disappearing as Luna stumbled slightly when she landed, weakly joking "its been a while" as she tumbled towards the ground. Bruce steadied her on one side, being the closes to her whilst Bucky was quick to her other side, one hand reaching to cup her cheek as he ground out a simple "How long?" Luna tried to look away, but Bucky asked again "How long since you last changed Luna?" Bucky got his reply in a simple answer from Luna of "Two years, since you… since you died." Bucky sucked in a sharp breath as he pulled her into his chest, "Jesus Christ kid, why would you do that to yourself?" He asked as one hand came to rest on the back of her head, the other on her back. "It's okay большой брат, i got good at it, and i'm fine." Replied Luna, before Natasha spoke up, saying "you sure about that?" Mouth twitched up in its signature smirk. "okay so maybe I have a minor headache from Spider-boys adventure," joked Luna, turning to look at the Peter, who had been surprisingly quite, quickly turning red, "But honestly I am fine," reassured Luna, "But I am going to go and take a quick shower Bucky."

Luna quickly brushed off Bruce's worry about her maybe having a concussion and Bucky giving her a look that said 'we're talking about this later' as she headed to a lift, planning on heading back up to her and Bucky's floor to have a quick shower. After that she didn't really know. She didn't really even need a shower, as Sam had mentioned so many times, she hadn't even broken a sweat in all of her rounds with Nat, and whilst she may have had a little fall after turning back even that was more from the her own shock at her power than exhaustion. It was more like Luna felt as though she was intruding, she didn't really know what to do with herself. It wasn't Peters fault, but all his actions earlier on had managed to do was make Luna feel even more out of place than she already did. It was kind of becoming clearer to her now. Bucky had a good thing going here, and sure, no one was going to kick her out exactly, but he had found a family here, and her showing up suddenly, it was kind of like throwing a spanner in the works, especially now they knew about her powers. She didn't belong her. Sure everyone had been really welcoming and after the night prior, Luna had thought that maybe she could find herself a place here. But Hydra was right. She didn't deserve to be here, didn't deserve to have people caring about her. She needed to get out. She had just proven that, shocked them all into silence. If she couldn't even protect herself from the bumbling teenage boy that had just taken her out, what use was she to anyone. The lift arrived at Bucky's floor quickly enough, and Luna knew that if she wanted to get out before he came back she'd have to be quick. She grabbed a duffle bag which had been left by the door and, running to Bucky's room, a winter jacket that was way too big for her, stopping off at his kitchen to grab some super-soldier protein bars, a few bottles of water and a leather jacket that Bucky had left hanging over the back of one of the stools in his kitchen.

She moved quickly and lightly, zipping the bag shut and heading to the lift again, she realised she needed to get something to protect herself with. If she was heading back out into the world, Hydra would be coming after their favourite project, and she needed to be able to fight back. "F.R.I.D.A.Y," Luna barked out, cringing a little internally at how strict she sounded, "Take me to an empty floor where I can pick up some weapons"

"Yes, miss Luna, might I enquire why ? If we are under attack I am programmed to inform Boss." Replied the AI

"No F.R.I.D.A.Y, we're not under attack, i'm just heading out for a bit to get some practise in." Answered Luna, finding herself feeling oddly apathetic as she prepared to leave Bucky, willingly this time. She supposed it had something to do with the years without him. They had changed her, Hydra had changed her, made her more efficient, she had withdrawn into herself over that time, more and more aware of the monster she had become. The doors slid open and Luna quickly made her way out of the small room, heading down a corridor, reading the signs on each door as she passed until her eyes landed on the one that said 'weapons'. After realising that she didn't have a pass to let herself into the room she used her super strength to force the door open, careful to not make too much of a scene as she did so. Luna turned around as she entered the room, checking in the hallway behind her that no one had followed her.

"Going somewhere?" An amused voice asked.

- AN -

hi everyone, hoped you liked this update ! sorry its a little crap, by mental health is taking quite the steady decline atm and im sure u can tell in my writing. Reviews are as always more than welcome.

love as always

ERS 3 xx