Love You to the Moon

Chapter Three

NEW CHARACTERS! I asked my friend Jazmyn if I could include her, so Jaz wish me luck cause I suck at characterizing people other than myself. Also, there's this Marvel Comics supervillainess who I want to try my hand at writing.

You know what? I'm rambling. Here's the story!

×××××

    Mayci woke to the mismatched warmth and coolness wrapped around her. She blinked, not remembering last night after laying down on the sofa. She knows she absolutely did not have sex with Bucky, which was good because she needed to stay vigilant and aware to keep up what she was doing: finding Sebastian.

    She traced patterns on Bucky's left arm, fingertip barely brushing against the cool metal. The man was just as much of a cuddle monster as Sebastian; that explained a lot of things. It was still a silent bliss when, from in the living area, there came sounds of crackling electricity and screaming.

    And God be damned if Mayci didn't remember the day they did the torture scene for The Winter Soldier.

    Mayci had never gotten up so fast in her life. She sprinted down the hallway and into the living room, where the TV was playing live feed of Sebastian being shocked by a woman with dark hair and equally dark eyes. Mayci would recognize the woman anywhere, anytime, no matter the circumstances.

    It was Selene.

    "Look at him," she said, smiling tauntingly straight into the camera. "I can see why you chose this one, hon. So pretty, so... full of life." She leaned into Seb's neck and took a deep inhale. "That's important, you know. Not just about if they're surviving, but if they're living. Your boy's trying to do that, and you don't listen. Look what happened."

    Selene had probably put some sort of spell on him because he was crying, but his mouth was clamped shut. Mayci was sobbing as Bucky jogged in, eyebrows shooting up at the sight on his TV.

    "Oh, I see you have the Soldier with you." Selene clapped her hands. "You see, hon, I've been working with Hydra for a while, getting my strength back up, things like that. Now you can have your boy-toy back, of course, but for one small price." Her smile was hot tar, about to drown its victims.

    "I'll do anything, jus-just return him to me, safe and sound and I'll-I'll..." She let out a sob, ripping up her chest like fire. "Please."

    The following smile was that of a spider watching her prey fly into the web. "Mr. Stan for the price of this universe's counterpart of him, Mr. Barnes."

    Bucky scowled. "Hell no."

    Selene shrugged leisurely, waving her hand in Sebastian's direction, where he was strapped to a metal chair. "Yes, but consider this."

    He opened his mouth and it all came spilling out.

    "Please make this end, I promise I'll never mistreat anyone and-and I'll do anything you want and I can't take pain like this, I wasn't built to tolerate this. I wanted to say goodbye to you yesterday before you left and I thought I was having some sick twisted nightmare and I hoped I'd wake up before you like I usually do but it wasn't a nightmare and I love you so much, Mayci, I love you and I--"

    "That's quite enough."

    Mayci projected her mind like she did when Seb was in pain or unhappy or frustrated. She pushed past every barrier into his mind then and read his memory: marching, hiding, fighting, pain, pain, PAIN, PAIN, PAIN, FEAR, PANIC...

    Love.

    He was staring at her and had nothing but love.

    Mayci spoke to him as Selene droned on to a hollow, paralyzed shell of her. She planted her feet in the channel of his mind stream, radiating calm and comfort and love to him despite her frozen expression on the screen staring back at her partner. Bucky was yelling curses in all sorts of languages now, but Mayci gave Sebastian the peace of mind he was searching for.

    I'm here, she told him. You're going to be okay, I'll make sure you're okay.

    ...Is it really you?

    It's me, Seb, it's Mayci.

    Oh my God.

    I know. I can take all the pain away, I promise. I can bear whatever they put you through. I'll bear it for you.

    Onscreen, Sebastian squirmed in his chair. Mayci remembered back to when they'd listened to the Hamilton soundtrack, how whenever the line I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory played over she would make a face and Seb would kiss her cheek to make her blush.

    Now she thought of Hamilton's last words in the play, the panic attack sandwiched between Burr's parts. Raise a glass to freedom.

    Raise a glass to freedom.

    The memory reverberated between them. Mayci reached a realization, then. If she could get a team together who could stand high stakes of Hydra, she was good. If she could successfully free Sebastian and get out of there before anything too bad happened, then, well.

    That would be golden.

    Mayci came back to herself in a bodily jerk and let herself breathe for a second. As promised, little by little, she took on Sebastian's pain. His head was pounding and his ribs were buzzing and his wrists were sore, that much she could tell.

    "To sum it all up," Selene said, "you give me the Winter Soldier and I'll give you back your man."

    Bucky crossed his arms. "I'm not working for Hydra, for the last time."

    "Whatever you say."

    The screen went blank as Selene jabbed Sebastian's side with a suped-up Tazer. Mayci let out a grunt, counting inhales and exhales until it stopped. She was still connected with Seb in the back of her brain. She could hear him thinking in mixed Romanian and English. She kept her calm coming toward him, giving him strength and just a little more--

    There was a sharp pinch in her neck and Sebastian's mind went dull.

    She knew he wasn't dead--thank God--but only asleep. She sent a nice memory to him, playing it to him in his dream.

    But for now, she needed Jazmyn.

×××××

    The tight curls of Jaz's mini-fro and her dark eyes were familiar in both worlds, probably because they were both able to travel dimensions at will. She smiled at the sight of her friend but quickly remembered why they were meeting up like this.

    "Hey, Red," Jaz greeted, sipping from her mug. "Why'd you call me here exactly?"

    Mayci pulled her black-and-white letterman-style tighter around her swiftly-thinning frame. "Um... it's about Seb."

    "Boy trouble?" Jazmyn raised her eyebrow. "I don't see why you cane to a whole different dimension to discuss trouble about him."

    "He was captured by Hydra during an Avengers mission," she answered, sitting across from her friend. Her short, unruly red curls fell in her face for a moment before she pushed them away. "Even worse, Selene's got him."

    "Oh, that's bad." Jaz took a long swig from her cup, as if contemplating whether or not she could jump into a portal real quick and emerge with her friend's boyfriend. "What're we gonna do?"

    "Wait..." Mayci shifted, furrowing her brows. "This means... are you in?"

    Jazmyn smiled sympathetically, pressing her hand into Mayci's shoulder from across the table. "Hell yeah, Red. Wouldn't miss it for the world."