Full Synopsis: AU: The past haunts us all. Full of regrets and dying for redemption, we all make mistakes in an effort to keep the future from repeating the past, but is that justification enough to explain her actions? Does Bucky have the patience to stand by her side as she continues to fight her demons in the eyes of her ex, Loki, or is this the last straw for a man who's constantly battling his own hell? Could she bear to lose him too? If the time ever came for her to choose once more, would she choose the man who she once loved so dearly that tore her apart or the man who put her back together despite being a product of her own torment? Maybe it's time for the moon to decide where her heart truly lies.
"I may know of someone who can help us with Loki." Thor sighs, pacing the lab under the watchful gaze of the Avengers initiative.
"Yea because Earth definitely needs more of your freakish family, Shakespeare-in-the-park." Tony snaps, passing Natasha a dark glass of top-shelf bourbon before pouring himself a glass. Thor turns quickly, stalking his way toward the table where Stark stood, and slams his fist on the metal slab to force the scattered items to clash against themselves loudly.
"The mere mention of her name gave us the advantage we needed over my brother. She is not my blood but you will respect her." He growls, the sky darkening outside the windowed walls behind them.
"Loki isn't your blood either and he killed 80 people in two days. He doesn't deserve our respect, why should whoever this strange friend of yours?" Steve points out with a slight shrug, his own faith still struggling to allow him to believe he was facing Gods besides his own. Before Thor can respond, the shadows of the room morph into a thick cloud of black smoke next to him. He smiles fondly as he watches the cloud form a woman, offering her his hand. Before the figure can materialize enough to take his hand, Bucky steps through the corridor and laughs happily to himself as he makes his way to the familiar smoke.
"You're home." He whispers, more so to himself as he steps to her side.
"I'll always come for you, my dear." A voice sings through the mist as a pale figure finally materializes in a black gown and heels. Bucky's cold metallic fingers reach for her hand but are pulled away by his old friend. The icy glare in his eyes made her stomach twirl, causing her to bite the inside of her cheek to conceal just how much she desired his touch as well. That would have to wait.
"Introductions will be made later, right now I need your help." Thor interrupts, pulling the gothic vision closer. With a slightly disappointed sigh and a tilted grin, the woman nods.
"Heimdall always said I'd be stuck cleaning up after you two." She teases, brushing long strands of dirty blonde hair from his face to ease his nerves as if whatever was to come was nothing she couldn't handle. While the mighty Asgardian harbored little doubts about her, he felt ashamed he even had to ask this favor of her.
"Enough with the flirting. Who the hell is this, Lightning Rod?" Tony calls out, stepping closer. The woman laughs at the audacity and shakes her head as she turns to meet him.
"I believe a God informed the room that my introduction would be made later. For now, go sit with your toys." She reiterates with a dismissive wave of her hand. Natasha smiles from behind her glass, trying to stifle a laugh as her eyes wander over the group.
"I don't give a damn what he said. You're in my building putting my team at risk, now who the hell are you?" Fury roars, stalking toward the deities. Her laugh, this time, was much more menacingly low in a demonstration of her dwindling patience. She takes the opportunity to meet him in the middle of the room, her heels sounding much more like the caws of an ominous crow than the clacks of a woman's shoe against the marble flooring.
"You do not own this building, these people you call a team you put at risk every day and you sure as Hades do not own me so I suggest everyone wait patiently while I work." She hums lowly, her voice as wicked and yet beautiful as the waves of the ocean crashing against the shore at midnight. She touches Fury's chest as she and Thor step around him, listening with sickening glee as he gasps in an attempt to regain the very air she stole from his lungs.
As Thor leads his dear friend to the cells below where his brother was being held for his crimes, he watches as the woman's seafoam green eyes shimmer a dazzling silver in the shadows of the halls as if the very stars illuminated her irises.
"I know this may be difficult for you, Elle, but I-" Thor broke the silence just outside the holding chambers, the childhood nickname being used in hopes of calming any nervousness either may have been hiding, but the woman cut him short with a gentle hand on his chest plate.
"My dearest Odinson, please have more faith in my resolve. I am not the same child you once knew. I do appreciate the loving sentiment though." She smiles, standing on her toes to kiss his cheek before walking into the chamber. Before her, illuminated in the harsh yellowing fluorescents in a glass cage like some animal on display sat the man who embodied the very shadows of her heart. The part of her she left in the smoldering rubble of Salem. There too, of course, were several surveillance cameras watching their every move. She laughs softly to herself, knowing very well they too could hear every word she was about to say to the man inside.
"I must admit, I'm impressed you lasted this long before trying to climb out of that hole you found yourself in. Tell me, was it as dark and depressing as your demeanor?" The woman taunts rather cruelly, allowing her haunting steps to echo through the chamber as she steps into the light of his cage. His eyes strain over her image, flashing with millions of emotions only she could recognize in such a stone-faced man. His features finally rest on his usual shit-eating grin as he hardens his oceanic blue eyes on a blank emotion.
"How pathetic. Thor should know by now that you have no power over me." He chuckles arrogantly as he walks toward her. His eyes slid over her frame, fighting the temptation to make some snide, backhanded comment about how she looked in that black cotton gown. He almost allowed himself to wonder how soft it would feel under his fingertips but shook his head slightly to clear it from his mind. She chuckles knowingly, moving her long onyx waves from her pale shoulders to expose her neck to him as if offering meat to a hungry wolf.
"Don't I? I believe it was my name that made you stumble, darling. How bold of you to assume Heimdall wouldn't have told me how pitiful you have become in my absence." She mocks him, tapping her black-painted talons on the thickly reinforced glass idly. She'd admit only to Thor that her heart ached to see the man she once adored so trapped, but with that thought, she couldn't help but also acknowledge the fact that she felt it was time he experienced her pain. Before Loki could respond with some silver-tongued stab to her heart, she vanished from the light to reappear behind him in his cell through another cloud of smoke.
"I'd be hurt that you forgot me so easily if I truly cared what you thought." She hums, rubbing her thumb over her nails as she inspects them in boredom. He growls, charging her, but is cut from the ability as her power consumes him. She allows her strength to display itself in her familiar black mist as she throws her hand downwards toward the floor, smirking triumphantly as he is forced to kneel before her.
"You'll do well to remember who I am before testing me again, Frost Giant." She hums, stepping forward to catch the edge of his cape under the toes of her heel to pull his neck even farther down into the floor as she crouches to his level. She lifts his chin with a single finger, pressing the nail up into his tender skin under his tongue until it pierces.
"Grecian whore. You'll never be Queen. You shouldn't even be here." He roars, trying to push through the barrier of her power as it ties his very own to him, forcing him to feel useless.
"And you'll never be a King, dear, but you have no right to dictate where I can and cannot be, you miserable infant." She taunts him, tearing her nail away harshly. He hisses in pain as she licks her finger clean of his blood, standing with great pride as her eyes flicker over the cameras.
"You wanted me to embrace my status and I have. I can't say the same for you. This new label of spoiled brat throwing a tantrum for Daddy's attention doesn't suit you nearly as well as you think." She laughs with disgust, rolling her eyes before tossing him away from her before he could charge once more.
"Pathetic little Frost Giant. You think you can hurt me again? Maybe it's time you feel what I have felt." She huffs, throwing her memories at him through her barrier, forcing him to feel the fires that blistered her skin in Spain. As he screams in agony, tears burn her eyes as the memories replay for her.
"Selene!" Thor calls to her, his booming tone forcing the lights to flicker. She drops her hold on Loki and vanishes once again just for Thor to wrap his cape around her shoulders and usher her out of the chamber.
"I didn't bring you here to torture him." He chastises her in a hushed tone as they rejoin the group.
"He responds best to pain, Thor. Don't get squeamish now." She sighs, struggling to hide her worn-out demeanor.
"That was a great show and all but you still need to tell us who the hell you are." Tony barks, seemingly incapable of remaining quiet for more than five seconds at a time. Selene sighs and leans into Thor for support, trying to hide her weakened state.
"Give her a second, Stark. Damn." Bucky bites back through a chuckle, rolling his eyes as he meets the deities at a desk and swipes the top clean before lifting her to sit in the newly vacant spot. She smiles slightly at him, gripping the sleeve of his Henley as he checks her over for any sort of injury. The room full of prying eyes watches as the ex-assassin cares for the strange woman as if she were a meek puppy. Despite being cute to Natasha, everyone else was concerned.
"Fine, if she won't tell us, then you can. Who is she and how the hell do you know her, Barnes?" Tony snaps, throwing a pen at him to interrupt his incessant coddling of the powerful woman. Without a word, he hands her a black-tinted thermos and nods for her to drink. Regretfully she does, sorrow and pain in her eyes as he turns to stand on the other side of her.
"Selene is a Greek Goddess. She's the personification of the moon." Bucky explains vaguely, eyeing her to silently ask for permission to keep going. She nods, her strength quickly returning the longer she drinks from the black bottle. He nods and looks at Steve for a moment.
"When I fell from the train in 1945, Hydra brought me to her." He starts, sidestepping in front of her as Tony and Steve gear up to attack her. "Easy. She wasn't willingly a part of Hydra either. She was kidnapped from a hospital in Paris shortly before I was even captured the first time. She was a nurse during the war. I guess her powers put her under Hydra's radar." He elaborates. She nods once more, putting the now empty bottle down behind her before reaching forward to trace his hip under the edge of his shirt. He shivers, smiling over his shoulder at her as she slowly leads him back into her. He seemed to put the Goddess at ease in a room full of strange threats. The notion made Steve uneasy. What sort of spell did she have his friend under?
"When James was brought into the OR of the base, I knew I couldn't just leave. I had to help him. I took his pain during the procedures, designed the metal arm they'd use to replace his missing appendage, and worked with him on adjusting to it in its place." She explains, brushing her fingers down his left arm and into his hand to lace through his cold fingers.
"But?" The Avengers push for more, watching them curiously. Admittedly, it was odd and almost unsettling to see just how romantic the two otherwise dangerous entities were toward each other. Steve couldn't help but shift uncomfortably out of concern for the well-being of his old friend as he watched the woman rub her thumb over the metal of his palm as if it were nothing. Despite the weight of their wandering eyes, Selene leans into his shoulder, laughing to herself nervously, and bites her lip gently at the sensitive subject that was their time in that hellhole.
"But Hydra wanted to create a powerful army so they used James to test their variant of the Super Soldier serum given to Captain Rogers." She explains, her haunting blue-green eyes falling on Steve. He bows his head for a moment, not able to shake the lingering feeling of responsibility over Bucky's torment.
"Once proven successful, they made me his partner and handler since I could heal him, make repairs to his arm while out in the field and keep him motivated." She sighs, pulling away to run her hand through her hair. She didn't like talking about the experiments done on them, but if this team assembled around her surrogate brother wanted to know so badly she'd tell them. With that thought, she watches as her soldier adjusts to her uneasiness and faces her. She offers him a soft, thankful smile as she takes hold of his real hand and squeezes it as her power plunges the room into darkness. Before their eyes, the team watches as their lab shifts into the decrepit Siberian cells that were forever imprinted into both of their memories. As Bucky shifts around the desk to effectively pull her across the table into his chest comfortingly, she watches as Steve flinches every time the lights above them flicker from the switch being flipped to the machine attached to his best friend. As he does his best to put on a show, down the hall from the examination room lay a convulsing Goddess on the cold stone floor.
"I became a good actor." Bucky sighs, wrapping his arms around her waist and tucking his head into her neck to kiss her jaw in a silent, solemn thanks as he watches himself do his best to mimic her convulsions in the chair.
"I took every bit of pain I could from him from the moment I laid eyes on him." She admits softly as the lights continue to flicker from the electricity. She sighs once more as the doctors force them to switch places and bleed her nearly dry on an old operating table. She was then carelessly tossed back into her cell and thrust into the dark as the wardens shut down the facility for the night.
"Goddess?" Bucky whispers ever so faintly through the broken section of the shared brick wall between their cells.
"What did I tell you about calling me that, Soldier?" She huffs breathlessly, unable to move much more than her head in the direction of his voice. He chuckles, squeezing through the hole in the wall between them to pick her up and put her to bed on the small cot Hydra allowed her to sleep on. She groans, hissing into the night air as her aching joints adjust to the cot.
"You need to feed." He huffs worriedly, brushing her stringy hair matted in blood and sweat from her face.
"No. That's what they want. I won't hurt you." She can't bring herself to put any force behind her words. Despite the darkness of the chambers, as she touches his face she can tell he's grimacing.
"Don't worry about me, Zima. I'll be fine." She smiles genuinely for once. He leans over her, pushing his palm into the sharp broken metal that held her cot together.
"I know, kroshka." He hums as he covers her mouth with his now bloodied palm. She groans with concern for him, tensing up as her weakness forces her hunger forward like a starved wild animal in the dead of winter. She struggles to stay quiet, fighting with herself mentally, until he leans into her ear to plead with her. Finally, her eyes shine in the pitch-blackness around them as she grips his wrist. Selene keeps her eyes lowered to his hands around her waist as the ambiance settles back into reality, knowing she'd be seen as a freak yet again. With this many people having the same opinion, it worried her she'd finally lose Bucky. Sensing this, he squeezes her hand as if to get her attention and smiles lovingly once she looks up into those steel-blue eyes of his, kissing her hair reassuringly.
"That explains Barnes but-" Clint calls from his place next to Natasha as Bucky straightens. Steve and Selene both grow rigid with how quickly his demeanor shifts, knowing he felt threatened and needed to protect her.
"Enough Barton. She doesn't owe any of you anything. She came here to help Thor." He snaps defensively. She tugs on the collar of his shirt, kissing his jaw and humming something inaudible to the group in his ear until he visibly calmed back down.
"What do you want to know? My life story?" She laughs, rolling her eyes in a growing irritation as a glowing baby appears in the arms of a man on fire in the center of the room.
"I am the daughter of Nyx and Helios. The primordial Titans and personifications of the night and the sun. That makes me the heiress to the Stars." She explains softly. "I control the same things as the moon and stars. Water, emotions, healing, you name it." She explains as if it were nothing special.
"And controlling water and emotions gives you control over anyone you wish?" Natasha asks arrogantly with a smirk, earning a knowing nod from the Goddess.
"In much simpler terms, yes. One of my many abilities allows me to work with the water in the air and surrounding climate or a human body, which in turn, gives me the ability to make you see and do whatever I wish." She elaborates. "Much like your friend here." She adds, smiling toward Wanda.
"What about Reindeer Games?" Tony smirks, gesturing toward the monitor replaying her time in the cell with Loki. She groans in annoyance at the switch in the topic and looks at Thor apologetically.
"Despite the recent displays of his Royal idiocy, Loki was once a very kind and loving man. He was everything to me until about 1478." She answers vaguely, her eyes lowering to the emblem on the floor as her memories come tearing through her again. Bucky and Thor both take note of her state, watching her usually bright eyes dull in fear at the trauma she had been put through. Bucky squeezes her closer as Thor touches her arm in reassurance. She jumps slightly and clears her throat, her pale face reddening in embarrassment. Steve narrows his eyes at her behavior, trying to read his old friend as if the answers were written on his skin.
"What did he do to you?" An agent calls, having listened in on the meeting. Everyone turns to glare at him until he leaves, but that doesn't stop Tony from blurting out, "Who cares? She hates him just as much as we do and she has powers so welcome to the team as long as Sparky and RoboCop here can keep her under control." He chuckles and claps his hands together as if calling the meeting to a close. Bucky rolls his eyes and kisses her hair once more, shifting around the desk to help her down before leading her out of the lab toward the elevators.
"She can't stay here, Buck. She's dangerous." Steve shouts after him, following the lovesick puppy toward the elevator. As they wait for the doors to open, he turns to face Steve and flexes his metal hand with a grim look on his face.
"So am I, Steve, but here I am." He sighs lowly, clearing his throat as if daring his childhood friend to push him further just as the elevator doors open. He holds the doors open as Selene steps up to Steve.
"I am dangerous, Captain Rogers, but if you and your team behave yourselves I won't have a reason to demonstrate more of my gifts and we can all get along." She smiles tauntingly, flashing her fangs. His eyes widened, forcing him to step back. She laughs mockingly, stepping into the elevator alongside Bucky.
"Buck, you don't know her." Steve warns, glaring at her as if it'd scare her in any capacity. Selene bows with a smile.
"Try not to be jealous I took your boyfriend, Steven." She taunts with an elegant wave as the doors close.