"I am so sorry I didn't protect you."
As the words fell out of Bucky's mouth Luna could have sworn she saw his heart break in two. Ignoring the jarring pain it brought her back, she immediately pulled the older man in for a hug, relishing in the feeling of comfort being close to her bother brought her, something that, since they had been taken by Hydra, she had felt very little of. She held her brother close as all the tension and stress of their last 2 days caught up with her and she began to gently cry. Bucky clearly noticed, as within a second he pulled her closer into himself and placed his human hand on the back of her head, holding Luna close into his chest, giving all the comfort he could whilst taking that which he needed himself. They stayed like that for a while, depressingly reminiscent of their first proper reunion in Luna's hospital room all those weeks ago, yet hopeful for the future they could have together as a family. For the future they would have together as a family. They were going to have a future outside of Hydra as a family. That was something that in Luna's mind was becoming non-negotiable. She had found a family in the avengers, one that she never thought she would have deserved. She had found sisters in Nat and Wanda, a father in Tony, a confidant and brother in Sam, and maybe something more in Peter. They were going to get out of this. They were going to see their family again.
As that thought truly cemented in Luna's mind she pulled away from Bucky, to lean again against the wall and collect herself, slowing her breathing down and fighting back the waves of pain threatening to wash over her. Bucky seemed to notice, and gently lifted one of Luna's hands and placed it into his metal one, indicating to her to squeeze it as she worked through the pain. Luna, however, shook her head, before nodding ever so slightly at the cameras. She pulled her hands back from Bucky, and in a mix of the codes, clicking and symbols they had made years ago 'said' to Bucky. Cant Squeeze. Powers. They don't know. Bucky gave her a knowing look before nodding his head in a barely perceptible manner.
Gently, as though he were manoeuvring around a mouse, Bucky shifted Luna across on the slim bed, before moving to sit beside her on the practically non existent mattress, before carefully placing an arm around her shoulder and drawing her in to lean against his chest. "They um,-" started Luna, only to be cut off by Bucky, turning to look at her with a serious expression on his face, saying "You don't have to relive this for me Luna, not here, not now, not ever if you're not ready." Luna nodded, moving to rest her head on Bucky's shoulder, having already decided in her mind that she was going to tell him what had happened to her. It wasn't that he had a right to know, he wouldn't even suggest that. It was that Luna needed to tell him, wanted to be honest with him about this part of her life, so they could just move on from it. "They-" she started again, only to be once more interrupted.
"As touching as this may be," came the woman in the white lab coat's voice from across the room, instantly making Bucky tense and Luna flinch a little, "It is time for the Winter Soldier to come with us for testing." Immediately, Luna's hand almost instinctively moved to grab onto Bucky's arm that was currently left hanging around her shoulder. On Bucky's face however, was a horribly resigned look as he leaned in and whispered in Luna's ear "не драться с сестренкой, со мной все будет хорошо." (don't fight little sister, i will be okay.) Luna shook her head in outrage, before saying "No Bucky, we stay and we fight them, we can get out of this." He replied quickly " Я знаю, что мы можем, но не с тобой, мы выжидаем и пытаемся остаться в живых. Либо мы выберемся сами, когда ты исцелишься, либо команда придет за нами первой. Я не увижу, что тебе больше больно из-за меня"(I know we can, but not with you like this, we bide our time and try and stay alive. Either we get out ourselves when your healed or the team come for us first. I won't see you get anymore hurt for me.) With that said, Bucky placed a quick kiss on Luna's forehead, before carefully helping her lie back and standing up, turning to quickly be surrounded by a group of Hydra guards who roughly grabbed his shoulders and arms, quickly forcing him out of their cell as Bucky quickly turned around to catch Luna's eyes, nodding as if to say 'I'll be okay' before one guard forcefully grabbed a chunk of his hair and forced his head to look straight on. As she began stalking out of the room, the woman in the white coat turned to Luna, saying "Someone will be in later to check on your back. We're going to have some fun with the soldier for a while."
In her head immediately swarmed images of just what they could be doing to Bucky while they were separated. Luna felt a chill travel up her spine, as for the first time since her imprisonment at Hydra, she felt truly scared of what her and Bucky's fates would be.
The tower had fallen silent. Utterly silent. All at once every single one of earths mightiest hero's had fallen silent. Only seconds before F.R.I.D.A.Y's voice had rung out in the tower. Natasha had been in the dance studio Tony had (although he wouldn't admit it) installed for her. Sam had finally sat Steve down to eat something, which he was pretty sure was the super soldiers first meal in at least 12 hours. Wanda and Vision had been watching one of her old DVD's, it was an episode of Bewitched, and whilst Vision still didn't really get the point of it, it seemed to help calm Wanda down, so he was more than content to sit snuggled up on the sofa with her while she watched it, while in his mind he was researching everything he could to help find Luna and Bucky. Clint had been sat in one of his many 'nests' as the team called them, on the phone to everyone he could think of who owed him a favour, and threatening those who didn't, trying to find any new leads for the team to work on. He had even switched off his hearing aids to avoid any distractions. Tony had just finished upgrading synthesising a new material for the eyes on Peter's suit. He didn't even really know why, but he had upgraded just about every bit of tech he could think of and needed something to do. And it'd help Pete in the future, if he ever had one of those sensory overloads that seem to come out of nowhere and floor the poor kid for a day at least. Bruce had sat with him for a while, but after realising that there was nothing more he could be doing to help Tony or anyone else on the team he returned to his apartment and started meditating. Peter had been sat in Luna's room for a while. He'd slipped his hoodie on and simply asked F.R.I.D.A.Y to put a film on. He didn't care which one. He had sat there, legs folded under himself as a random film played on the TV screen. After a while he had calmed down.
But then F.R.I.D.A.Y's voice had pipped up across the comms. "Code Black. I repeat code black. Everyone please meet at the quinjet in 10 minutes." And everyone had fallen silent. But only for a second. Because after the initial shock wore off Earth's mightiest hero's sprang into action, making it to the jet in record time, Tony with an extra Iron Man suit purely being used to bring all of the new gadgets he had made for the team inside.
The entry to the building had been a furious one, which threw caution and any kind of strategy to the wind. Steve had used pure brute strength when slamming in the doors to the compound, uncaring for the blatantly that the team were making their arrival with. No mercy was shown. Natasha simply took out anyone who got in her eye sight, before sitting down at the computers in the base. "There not here guys" came Tony's frustrated voice across the comm lines, "help Nat get everything she can then let's blow this place to the ground." In record time she had hacked into Hydra's data base and was downloading everything onto a memory drive whilst at the same time sifting through hundreds of documents on the Black Moon and the Winter Soldier, trying desperately to find where their friends were, aware that she couldn't spend forever looking. Clint had positioned himself at the door to the room, standing guard as Nat worked her way through the data.
Peter Parker was angry. He was furious. No one had even attempted to suggest he shouldn't have been on the mission, with the grim look of furious determination on his face, everyone knew it would be hopeless. He had swung onto the roof, and made his entry into the base that way, along with Sam and Tony. Quickly, the three had split off, Peter webbing up anyone he met en route. That was, of course, until he came across a man in a white lab coat, seemingly on a video conference with another doctor. A woman with cold eyes and a stern expression. Peter was poised, just about to leap at the man, when from across the video call, Peter heard the woman say "-Moon is still injured, however trials have begun today on the Winter Soldier." He didn't need to hear anymore. Peter shot a taster web to the device, immediately disabling the computer and startling the man in the white lab coat. Peter sprung at the man, immediately knocking him off of his chair and onto the concrete ground, with Peter on top of him, weight on the mans chest, completely disabling him. With venom dripping from every word Peter spat out "Where are they?" The scientist simply shook his head, a vile expression on his face as he triumphantly shot back a "Hail Hydra." Peter felt his fury move him before he even knew what he was doing, and throwing a punch with his full strength he hit the doctor across the face, not even registering the crack of the mans nose breaking, before saying again "Where are they." He got the same response. Before his mind even registered what he was doing Peter was raining down a barrage of blows onto the mans face. Yet despite the fact Peter had knocked him out a while ago, he didn't stop hitting the man. He couldn't bring himself to stop. He was screaming over and over "Where are they" as tears began to flow freely down his face. All of his rage and fear and angst and heartbreak was flowing out of him as he attacked the man and he couldn't stop.
"Kid! Jesus Christ Kid! Tony get in here now!" Sam had entered the room, and was promptly horrified at what he was seeing. He flew forward, catching Peters fists as they flew forwards and promptly restrained the boy while Tony caught up with them. "Pete, kid I need you to breathe. Breathe and tell me what happened." Sam kept pleading with the boy, to no avail. It wasn't until Tony had entered the room, let out a breathy "Fuck kid." and come to join the pair where they now sat on the floor that Peter finally let the tension drop out of his body. Tony lifted his face plate, before saying "Pete, kid I need you too look at me." Slowly, the boys eyes lifted to see his mentor in front of him. "Thats good kid. Now, can you tell me what happened?" Peter's gaze flickered to the computer and back, and quickly Sam let the boy go, as he went to pick it up. "He um, he was on a call with some woman, and she has Bucky, Bucky and Luna, and she was talking about testing them. God I saw the guy on this end and I lost it. Oh god Tony I lost it, is, is he…" Peter craned his neck to try and see the body on the ground, but Tony quickly caught his head, pulling him into a tight hug and whispering "He's alive Pete. It's okay." At some point Tony spoke across the comms, saying something about the computer that Peter didn't really register, but soon enough Vision had entered the room, and was picking up the scientist. So evidently they were bringing him with them. Tony helped Peter, who was now utterly exhausted, up and slowly they started the walk back to the quinjet together.
Soon enough Steve came to meet Natasha and Clint as her computer beeped and Nat recognised it was time to leave. Tony had said something about the kid loosing it on a scientist and the files she had collected could be analysed on the jet. "Come on Nat, time to go. We can look through those files on the way back to the tower." Came Steves voice, to which Nat nodded and quickly made her way out of the room. The rest of the teams routines went smoothly, Wanda brought down the building and Bruce checked everyone out when they were back on the jet, looking in concern at Peter, but backing off when Tony shook his head. Everyone had been settled in the jet, and the air was heavy with silence. "He knows where they are. Or he knows how to find out," came Peter's muffled voice from where he was resting on Tony's shoulder. The teams heads snapped up at this. "What do you mean Peter?" Asked Steve urgently. "I walked in when he was on a video call with some woman who was testing Luna and Bucky." Almost everyone pulled in a sharp breath, highly aware that Hydra 'testing' anyone wasn't going to be a good thing. Natasha however, had a fierce look of determination in her eye, as a dark smile pulled at her lips, before she said, "Well, I'll just have to get it out of him then."
Luna had been sat on her own, in her now freezing room, for what was, at her best guess, at least 8 hours. A few hours ago, some begrudging Hydra guard had entered the room and placed down two hunks of bread along with a bucket of water, before leaving again. Luna hadn't moved to touch it yet. She was thirsty. She was so thirsty, but she didn't trust that the water wasn't drugged, and until Bucky was back she had decided she could wait to have a drink. Even longer ago than that, someone in a white coat who she hadn't seen before came in to check her back, and apply a load of bad smelling creams that she assumed were antibiotics to the top wound. Luna grimaced the whole time, selfishly hating the fact that Bucky wasn't there with her whilst it was happening. She was sure it was just in her head, but she could've sworn the guards were harsher with her this time as they turned her over. But since those two had visited Luna had sat alone within the too bright, too cold and too quiet confines of her and Bucky's cell. She didn't even try to sleep, knowing that it wasn't going to happen. And she couldn't move, or at least, not enough to do anything that was worth the pain it would inevitably bring. SO instead, the 17 year old girl was stuck in the confines of her own mind, hyper aware of every sound around her, every potential sign that Bucky was being brought back to her. Her stomach had been rolling itself into knot after knot as she waited, mind torturing her with what they could have been doing to Bucky.
It felt like at least another hour later, when finally Luna heard the definitive sounds of army boots slapping on the concrete corridor outside her cell. With the swipe of a button the cell door opened and what Luna saw made her stomach drop. Bucky was being carried into the room, weight almost fully supported by the men around him, looking deathly pale and covered in a sheen of glistening sweat. He was unceremoniously dropped to the floor and he landed with a loud grunt of pain without even putting his hands out to stop his fall. "Well done today Soldier, we will see you tomorrow." Came the voice from the woman in the white lab coat. Almost at once, everyone left the room, and Luna, breathing through the searing pain in her back, forced herself to her feet and then to Bucky's side.
"Bucky. Bucky look at me. What the hell did they do to you?" Asked Luna, taking his head in her hands, eyes frantically scanning Bucky for some tell tale sign of what had happened to him. "Im-" he breathed out weakly, "I'm okay." Luna shook her head, swearing in her mind she would kill every Hydra soldier in here for hurting Bucky, before reaching to the bucket of water, to find a cup floating in it, which she quickly filled before bringing it to Bucky's lips, deciding that even if it was drugged, he could use the sleep. Bucky drank slowly, cautiously, as though the slightest cough would kill him. They sat like that for a while, before Bucky again said "I'm okay." Luna opened her mouth to respond to him, telling him he clearly wasn't okay, but he didn't give her the chance. "They took a load of blood. Made me lift a shit tonne of weight and run until I passed out. But I'm okay." Luna just pulled her brother into a hug. "They're testing us kid. But they've not done anything too bad yet. I'm okay.". Luna simply pulled him in tighter, before whispering back "You're okay."
_AN-
hi everyone, i am still very much struggling, this week has been hell. To .phoenix, lizyeh2000 and TheSilverQueen, your reviews on the last chapter meant the absolute world to me, thank you all so very much. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Love as always
ERS 3