Summer's End - Bucky and Mel Universe 1

Ice Queen

"Mommy, can I go ice skating, too?" Morgan asked as she had heard Clint and his family talk about visiting Rockefeller Center.
"I don't know pumpkin, that's pretty big girl stuff. Let me see if Uncle Clint would want to take you with him." Pepper said, she had several meetings lined up that day and while she didn't want to abandon her daughter, she still wanted her to have fun. Clint already had three children to look after, another one would be no problem, he would feel better if another adult would be around to hang out for support.
"I'll go," Mel volunteered. "I think it is kind of funny an Avenger being a little iffy around handling kids."
"Love is coming, too," Thor bellowed.
"That's why." Clint responded.
"Oh, still if you need help, I'm not doing much today. I'll let James know." Mel popped off to the training room that James was using to let him know and then grabbed her skates.
"One small problem, who is going in which vehicle." Clint started to discuss with her on her way down to the motor pool. "I don't think we can find one with enough seats."
"Who says we needed a car." Mel offered and created a sling ring portal for the group to take. And off they went, the kids loved it and they didn't need to worry about where to park. Two birds one stone. James did end up coming, but came only to watch, he was afraid of ice skating for some reason, Mel didn't ask. He was content to do hot chocolate runs for the group when needed. The ended up spending the rest of the day in downtown New York doing the touristy holiday things. When the kids got hungry, they stopped for pizza at the same place James had gotten her pizza on their second date. She remembered it fondly, smiling as they placed the order getting everyone's favorite on half a pizza.
The kids wanted to stop by FAO Schwartz, so they decided to start walking that way. Morgan was between Mel and James holding each of their hands singing a Christmas song with the wrong words. They seemed like a family on vacation. They would pick her up every once and awhile and allow her to swing between their arms. She giggled and laughed. Everyone was having a good time. Thor did stop by and pick up Love early, he did not explain why though. They did not think anything of it and continued on their way.
The ground rumbled slightly. Mel noticed it but thought it was the subway or a train that was causing the disturbance. The rumbling became stronger.
"Did you feel that?" Mel asked James.
"No, what..... ok, I definitely felt that." James said.
"New York doesn't have earthquakes," Clint said. They ushered the kids to the nearest doorways to stand in as the rumbling increased. The mid-day sky turned a purple color. "Oh that's not good." Mel sling ringed a portal and was able to get all the kids through but Morgan before she was knocked to her feet by a blast of energy that knocked her to the ground.
It was Mephisto. Clint fired various arrows at him trying to slow him down having little effect but pissing him off more and more. Mephisto kept firing at Mel, knocking her down each time she got up. James ran at him and punched him hard, Mephisto knocked him to the side as if he were a rag doll. Mel, transmuted and wrapped her wings around Morgan to keep her from getting hurt. Mephisto kept firing and firing, relentlessly. Mel was taking all the shots, her form was hard to hold with this onslaught, she changed back to her human form with feathered wings slowly until the last shock sent her down to the ground. She was unconscious. If she hadn't absorbed the blasts, Morgan would have died.
"Mel, Morgan!" James yelled as he tried to stop Mephisto from getting closer.
Dr. Strange showed up and was able to temporarily send Mephisto somewhere else for awhile. Though this spell would not last long. Strange slinged them all back to the compound. James carried Mel in, he was hurt, she was unconscious. She slowly woke up seeing him hurt, she immediately began healing him. She was more concerned about him and Morgan than about herself.
Pepper came running in.
"Morgan, are you ok?" She was checking Morgan over to see if she had gotten hurt.
"I am now. Auntie Mel kept the red man from hurting me. Did you know she has wings, she's like an angel. They were so soft and I felt so safe." Morgan kept blathering on and on.
Mel was weak, but stable. Her legs felt like jelly, the rest of her as well for that matter. It was as if all the energy and life was drained right out of her. James was trying to hold her up standing when Mel started screaming and clawing at her neck.
"What's wrong?" James said picking he up now looking her over to see what that matter was.
"Something is strangling me. It hurts, I don't know what it is." She howled as she kept clawing at her neck. Black and purple veins started leeching out from where she was clawing at. Strange did something and a tube of light sun around Mel lifting her off the ground temporarily as it went. Then they could all see it. It was a collar, at least as best to describe it. James jaw ticked away. There was literally, nothing that he could do about it.
"This is bad," Strange said, "we need to get her back to the sanctum to keep others safe."
"Strange, what do you know that you aren't telling us?" James asked.
"I'm not 100% sure, however it is not good if it involves Mephisto." Strange opened a sling portal for them to go through. "Pepper, can you see if you can do some damage control so that others don't find out about this?" Strange said before entering the portal.
"I'll see what I can do." Pepper responded.
James bent down and gently scooped Mel up. He could feel the tension in her body as her muscles clenched as he moved her. He could tell she was stifling a moan for his sake. They went through the portal.
"Bucky," Strange began, "We are going to have to put her in a room that muffles the signal that the collar is giving off. It will also slow it's effects on her. The portables is, if she leaves it will be like a beacon being sent off for Mephisto to find her." Strange motioned to a room that was in front of him. He opened the door for the two to go through. James laid Mel on the bed smoothing her hair out over her face. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before leaving. "Rest," he whispered into her ear. The look of concern was clear on his face. A tear escaped her eye, it was black. He tried to hide his shock, but she caught it before he was able to and turned her face away in shame. James quietly walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.
"Strange, what are we going to do about this?" James asked.
"There is not much we can do about this." Strange started.
"So, she's to be here, trapped in that room for the rest of her life?" James challenged.
"I hate to say this, but that might have to be a strong possibility. With Mephisto involved, it might be the best for everyone, the best solution for earth. Look, I've asked Wong to go over some of the tomes that she was going over weeks ago. He thinks something might be in there."
"I know she found something thanksgiving weekend and she didn't want to talk about it." James offered.
"Good, that will give us a space to start at, Wong will be able to work backwards from there to see what she read."
"I was already on it when Mephisto registered at Karma Taj," Wong said carrying a large book sitting it on the desk in front of him. "According to this, Mephisto needs a fallen angel that has redeemed itself to unlock some dark magic amplifying his own. In the process, he will corrupt her, turning her malicious, then she will die. The problem also lies in that collar. We can't remove it, if we do by any means, she will die. If we leave it on, she will wither away and die."
"I can't accept this, if we do nothing she dies, if we do something she dies." James looked Wong dead in the eye.
Strange reached out to grip James' shoulder to console him, "Bucky, I'm sorry..." James shook off his grip and ran a hand over his face. He then walked over to the door he just came out of, the jail cell of the love of his life for the rest of her life.
"Hey," he said softly.
"So, now you know. It thought I had more time. I'm sorry. I know it was selfish. I wanted you to be happy. I..."
"Shhhhh, rest, you need to rest. If you struggle it will make it worse." He placed a kiss on her cheek. She looked so frail and tired. What he wouldn't give to take this burden from her.
"I'm so cold, I can't get warm," she said. He pulled her into his lap and covered himself up with the covers to help share the warmth. "Could you, could you just stay here and hold me?" She sounded so small. "At least until I fall asleep? Please?"
"Of course, I wish I could do more," he said. She felt his tears as he sat his head on top of hers and held her. Her tears flowed down, continued to be black. They stayed that way until she fell asleep.
Her phone kept pinging, that was what work James up. It was Matt trying to get ahold of her. They were supposed to meet for dinner. James was sure that Matt had heard something by now if Pepper wasn't able to keep the media off of the story.
He picked up his phone, turning Mel's onto silent, and dialed Matt.
"Matt, we need to talk, something has happened to Mel...."