Avengers: Endgame had me going through some of my old writing notebooks, and this partially-written story was one of them. Apparently, transcribing stories from a notebook to a document is really soothing. So I ended transcribing the first half of this story in less than a week. I hope you enjoy, and if you find some odd typos, blame voice-to-text and let me know. :-)

This was written before Endgame, so that movie isn't canon and there are no spoilers here.


"You have one chance, Steve. Everything has to go perfectly. You sure you can do this? Are you both sure?"

Steve hesitated for just a moment, drying his eyes over the small crowd in the room. Bruce, the one who had spoken, looked at him with those piercing brown eyes that he'd come to be so familiar with these last few weeks as the scientist installed the last upgrades to the Ant-Man-esque suit he had just donned. Shuri was doing the same for Scott.

Outside the protective casing keeping the rest of the viewers safe, Natasha sat on the edge of her seat. Next to her with Clint, grasping tightly on to three-year-old in Nathaniel, his last remaining child. Okoye stood on the guard, ever loyal to the Wakandan monarch, especially now that she was a 16 year old girl. Wong sat just outside the bubble, flipping through books and muttering to himself, most likely trying to make sure that their procedure they were undertaking was a safest route possible, as Rhodey paced nervously. That raccoon guy, Rocket, with murdering almost angrily, and Thor, nearby, would occasionally respond to his words.

Steve took in all of this, committed it to memory, and nodded firmly.

"We can do it, "Scott announced, serious and determined, the expression extremely unusual on his usually easy-going face.

Bruce looked at him once again, now wavering only slightly. Steve forced a small smile, and the doctor a shot a smaller one back.

After a final check, Bruce and Shuri stepped out of the radiation zone. Rhodey stopped pacing, and looked at them with a sudden intensity.

"Keep him safe," he announced, voice thick with a familiar grief. Steve nodded firmly.

Tony Stark was dead. At least, they were pretty sure. He had gone up with Spider-Man and that the rest of the Guardians of the Galaxy to fight Thanos before the Battle of Wakanda, failed to protect the time stone, and had never returned. Rhodey's request was one of the unspoken goals of the mission.

"You ready?" he asked Scott. The former thief nodded. "Remember the HQ and Tower codes?"

Scott nodded again, and held out the rod. Steve grasped his end, and they tensed, ready to go.

Steve did not want to look at their surviving friends any longer. He had already committed to memory everything came I that no, and he didn't think he'd be able to go through with what they're planning if you looked at them again. So, he kept his eyes on Scott, and the Other man did the same.

Shuri's voice floated over to them, quiet but certain.

"Radiation will began in 5… 4… 3..."

Steve and Scott snapped their helmets closed, now fully protected as radiation began to pour into the chamber. They continued to stare almost intently at each other, determined to force themselves to actually go through with this.

"2."

Steve breathed, and then unison, they clicked the shrink button.

"1."

A sudden sucking sensation threw Steve forwards, followed by a crushing pressure all around him that stole the breath from his body. Desperately, he kept his eyes locked on Scott's mask as they shrunk down, down, down.

Then, they stopped.

Together, the two Avengers floated in the quantum realm, still shrinking at an incredibly fast rates but unable to detect the change any longer. Scott reached down, no words needing to be said, as he held out 2 disks. Steve took one, and placed it on his regulator Ascot in the same period between them, the rod that kept them together foot 3 glowed.

"So." Scott's chipper voice was almost painful, it was so fake. "Multi or single universe theory?"

Steve raised an eyebrow, then remembered at the motion can be seen through the mask.

"Not sure which I prefer."

Something beeped in the helmet. A warning.

"The wormhole is approaching," Scott announced. "3, 2, 1 -"

There was a great flash of light, and the world blurred around them once again.

Just before the wormhole reach them, however, Scott and Steve clicked their buttons and grew.

Then there was darkness.


Steve breathed.

Hardened after 2 and a half years on the run and just as long as a Howling Commando, he didn't move right away as he approached consciousness, hardly deepening his breaths as he came to.

A moment passed, and Steve quickly figured that he was lying on his bed in his D.C. house. No one was in the room, and judging by the warmth hitting only his feet, it was 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning. He twitched his fingers. They curled around the end of the rod. He breathed again, listening more intently. Sure enough, there was the faint echo of his suit respirator. He shifted slightly. Thoughts of the leather and the medal of his gloves.

Plan C, then.

Steve open does eyes and sat up quickly, ignoring the blood that rushed to his head. If what the Tasha remembered was correct (and it was, she never made a mistake), the bugs in his house would detect the anomaly of his arrival. He had minutes, most likely seconds, before someone noticed the difference.

Flipping up his mask, Steve reached into his pockets, finding the EMP tucked within it, and firing it. The lights that were still on in the house flickered off. That would disable the bugs in his house for a few moments. Enough time for him to slip in unnoticed, and short enough that the Peeping Toms wouldn't notice a thing.

Steve hurriedly stood up and took the suit off, folding it neatly and placing it in his locked dresser, next to his Captain America uniform. For just a moment, he lingered on the old uniform, fingers glancing over the slightly warm kevlar that he hadn't seen in years. Then, he shook himself, stood up, and took the rod and the instruments Shuri had supplied him with. He placed the instruments in the safe in the back of his closet, and picked up the rod to be disposed of.

He ended up burying it in the backyard. It was too radioactive to be in close proximity for any prolonged period of time, so he made sure to dig deep so that, hopefully, no one would come across it.

When he finally went back inside, he went to the bathroom to wash his hands, which were now caked in dirt, but found himself staring at his reflection in the mirror instead, a face that seemed to belong to his 2016 self, not reflecting how he still found himself expecting to look in the present. Clint had persuaded him to shave his beard and cut his hair before the procedure, and Pepper had chipped in with some of Stark Industries' newest tech, a sort of makeup that hid the bags under his eyes and newer scars on his body, and lasted for around a month. He is grateful for those preparations now, since plan C was in effect.

Shaking himself out of his reverie, he washed the dirt off of his hands and pretended that the blood of Sam Bucky Wanda Vision Groot Sharon Fury Maria with flowing off with the grime, because now he had a second chance a chance to save them.

He kept his hands under the water for over 10 minutes, scrubbing furiously, but when he took them out of the water, his fingers were still spotted in red.


"We've come up with four main theories as to what will occur after we attempt to going back," Shuri began. Scott shifted, nervousness flaking off of him as he glanced around the room at the rest of the Avengers.

"Scenarios for success, right?" he questioned. Steve sat up as the small group sitting in the Wakandan throne room seemed to quiet even more than before, all attention on the two scientists. He couldn't help but notice how small Shuri looked from her place on the throne, so used was he to seeing T'Challa there.

Bruce was speaking now, and Steve returned his attention to the present.

"The first scenario we found takes place into account the multiverse theory," he began, leaning forwards. "Or, in other words, your mind and body will both, to put it frankly, jump into an identical universe at the exact point in time we'll be aiming for. You'll not be able to be in contact with the rest of the Avengers if you want to stay unnoticed, since your past self will be there as well."

"I don't think I like that scenario," Clint put in. Steve found himself nodding in agreement. "We won't even change our own timeline; just someone else's."

"It's a possibility," Bruce shrugged helplessly. "We have an idea of what to do when something like that occurs, but we'll explain that later. The second theory takes into account the singular timeline theory. Basically, your memories go back in time by themselves, and everything that happens past the point in time they arrive in is erased. Your younger selves will have your memories up to the point in time when you leave, and we will no longer exist."

An uneasy silence. It wasn't death, not really, but erasing everything that had happened to you in the last 3 or 4 years almost felt just as wrong. But that was the singular timeline theory, and they could only hope that they wouldn't create a paradox if the theory was true.

Still, Bruce went on.

"Theory 3 is in the multiverse theory once again, but with a different variable taken into account. This plan takes the idea that prevent a paradox from forming or the universe from collapsing, your body and mind will both go back, literally swapping out your past self for your present self in that moment of space and time."

"What happens the past version of the travelers?" Pepper inquired worriedly.

"Either there are erased from existence, or they are brought to our timeline to replace the future versions. Conservation of mass and all that. I think the latter is more probable." He let the words sink in before continuing. "The last theory is that we don't end up going back at all. Instead, your past cells will come forwards to this point in time. From there it will only be a matter of putting them back in their present day knowing what happened in our timeline."

"We'll need to make a plan for each theory," Shuri closed. "Plans A, B, C, and D, for each respective contingency."


Steve stayed in front of the mirror for a long time, pulling up the most recent picture of himself on his cell phone (rarely used; he'd have to change that) and closely comparing it with his current face.

There were some differences Pepper and Clint had been an able to cover up. His hands were still calloused from using blades and pistols rather than his shield, and he was slightly leaner than he had been in 2015. At least his face looked practically identical. Even after living in the 21st century for more than seven years, it still astonished him what they could do when they put their minds to it.

30 minutes after he'd woken up, his phone rang, displaying an unknown number. Steve let out a sigh of relief, and answered it.

"Hey, is this Luis?" Scott's voice rang through, with a false chipperness to it that didn't really fit him, similar to the tone he had used before they had left.

"No, I think you have the wrong number. Are you sure it was entered in correctly?"

"I think so…" Scott trailed off for a moment. "Well, sorry. I'm just trying to meet up with my friend. Have a good day."

"You too." he hung up, and let out a long breath once again. Scott was safe, out of prison, and staying with Luis. They wouldn't be able to talk out right, of course, since he most likely had his phone lines tap out, either by Stark or by What remained of shield.

It occurred to Steve that he ought to check the date. Although they had aimed from the short two month gap with Scott was out of prison and before the raid on Strucker's base, their method was untested and imprecise. Too early, and Scott would be stuck in prison. Too late, and the damage done to Sokovia would be set in stone. He knew that Scott was out of prison, but not if the raid had taken place.

Shakily, he held his breath, and open his phone's calendar.

April 2nd, 2015.

Steve had a sit down. Close. The rate on Strucker's base had taken place on April 10th. The Avengers would be called in on April 8th to be debriefed. He and Scott had little less than a week to stop that from happening.

Yeah. Maybe they could actually do this.


The plane fight was long, and Steve spent nearly every minute of it worrying, mostly about what would happen if someone discovered where he had gone, despite the fact that he had disabled all the bugs in his house and pretended to have gone out on a short weekend trip before leaving. By the time his fight had landed, he'd sufficiently worked up enough stress to make him desperate to get this over with already.

With only a small carry on (he'd only be staying for a few days, and all this weapons had been shrunk), he disembarked into Novi Grad International Airport, and waited near the exit, sitting on a bench and anxiously scanning the crowd and trying to avoid how this place had been destroyed for years in his past and could be just a couple days in this timeline's future.

An hour passed, than two. Steve chucked his phone.

It was 8:30 a.m. on April 4th, accounting for the time change.

Soon after, a ragged looking man entered the lobby, carrying a hiking backpack and a carry-on suitcase. Steve stood up as their eyes met, and Scott rushed forwards. The two friends caught each other in a tight embrace.

"I almost didn't really recognize you!" Scott laughed, voice strained from both fear and stress as they parted.

"Yeah. You know why," Steve responded, running a hand through the hair he died black, and remembering that he was wearing an outfit the accented his slimmer figure. Hard to travel when you look like me."

"Indeed," Scott replied. They turned and exited the airport, several other people leaving along with them. Steve had to pause for a moment as a cold blast of air hit him head-on. Scott had it worse, as he immediately started shivering.

"This is so much colder than California," he muttered. Steve snickered shortly in response as he walked down the terminal, following the signs to the rental car area.


They checked out a fast and agile car under one of Scott's false names (courtesy of Luis), and paid for by Steve (thank you Natasha) in cash. Having no time to book a hotel and severely jet lagged, they opted to just skip breakfast and sleep through the day in the car, parked out of sight in the countryside. Steve woke up first, around 7 or so in the evening, and drove them to a fast food restaurant, buying a quick dinner to eat before heading out to the mountains where Strucker was camped.

Several hours passed as they left Novi Grad and entered into the mountains. As they ascended, snow began to appear, first in shaded spots and then in a two-inch blanket.

Time passed. It was 2:00 a.m. on April 4th, and 5:00 p.m. in DC.

"It's hard to believe that we're actually doing this," Scott finally announced as the moon made its orbit across the sky, hanging high in the starry night. Steve spared a quick glance at his friend as he drove.

"Yeah," he replied simply. They fell silent for a moment before he spoke again. "Did you see Cassie before the flight?"

Scott swallowed thickly but nodded. Steve couldn't blame him. Cassie had been spared from The Snap, but Hope, Luis, and Pym had not. Leaving her behind had been them one thing that had held Scott back from going back in time, and he wouldn't have if someone else had been able to pilot or a fit into the Ant-Man suit reliably.

"I snuck in after Jim and Maggie went to bed," he murmured. A sad smile touched his lips. "She was so happy to see me. I told her I was going on a quick trip and was saying goodbye." His expression turned a bit sheepish. "I promised to get her a present."

"We can try." Steve humored him as they turned on to a small, one-lane dirt road. Watching Scott's gaze turn onto nothing in particular, most likely caught up in memories, he wondered what it was like to be a father. He knew next to nothing about the subject, other than it was difficult but very rewarding.

A couple minutes passed, then there came a small break in the snowy forest canopy. Steve pulled them over into the small clearing the break signaled, he and Scott getting out of the car, the latter bringing out his backpack as well.

"What kind did you get?" Steve asked, opening the trunk to get out their gear. Scott shot him a rueful grin, pulling out a small, clear container. He said it on the ground and expanded it. Immediately, an ant farm a foot or two tall sprung into being, with large, angry looking black ants that crowded in the sandy tunnels.

"Luis knows a lot of people," he remarked. "These are bullet ants. Not deadly unless they attack en mass."

"Perfect." Steve nodded in approval. Ducking back into the car, they took turns changing into their battle suits, the same outfits they had worn during the time travel process. Scott simply wore his Ant-Man suit, stocked with Pym particle disks and a communicator to control the ants. Steve's suit, made much more hastily and without Pym's knowledge to help, only had the capability of shrinking and growing. However, Shuri had, at least, managed to add his Vibranium gauntlets as detachable weapons, so that was a plus. All the more time to avoid using his shield.

Waiting for Scott to finish changing, Steve snapped his mask shut and double checked his gauntlets, extending them out into shield form and back again to make sure that they worked.

Once he was finished, Scott shrunk the car and Steve put it in his pocket. Releasing the ants from their cage, Scott stilled them and shrunk down to the size of, well, an ant. Steve watched as he expertly bunched up the ants, then knelt down so that they could climb onto his hand for transport.

"I've never been the biggest fan of bugs," he muttered, suppressing a shiver as Scott settled the ants on his body. The former thief chuckled through the communicator.

"Neither was I!"

"Keyword: was," Steve muttered. "You ready?"

"Yup."

Strucker's Base was approximately 15 miles away from the road. It was much too far to take the ants in any sensible amount of time, so Steve, with his super speed and endurance, would get them as close as possible, sneaking as close as he could to the castle before they took the ants inside and found the scepter.

Steve took off at a normal human's sprint through the forest, very careful of the living payload on his body. He and Scott kept up a near constant stream of dialogue during the journey, both to come up with details and contingencies for their plan, but also so that they wouldn't be too affected by nerves and their own thoughts as they approached.

Strucker's base loomed above them, a castle high on a clifftop that, even after all these years, was just as he remembered it. Though, he reflected as the thought flitted through his mind, that was kind of the point.

"Guards ahead!" Scott warned just as two HYDRA guards rushed into view, guns at the ready. Steve hardly stopped in his stride as he extended the gauntlets into shields and took them out without a shot or shout being fired.

"You all okay?" he asked after that ordeal, noting three more guards to the left and swerving to avoid their line of sight. Scott gave an affirmative grunt as they approached the base of the cliff side. Already they had been detected, though there was little way of avoiding that. Steve pressed his back to the cliff as the guns mounted on the walls started firing where he'd been standing hardly a moment before.

They were lucky, Steve mused as he let Scott guide the ants off of him and onto the cliff-side, that Strucker had been expecting an attack from the Avengers and not a single person. It was startlingly easy to slip in as a sole person, and it would be even easier with the ants.

Speaking of…

Four more HYDRA goons turned around the corner, guns raising as they came into view.

"I got this," he announced, making sure Scott had guided all the ants away from him before bringing up a shield to reflect one of the soldier's blast right back at him, killing the man instantly. He ducked a second shot, blocked a third, then swept the feet out from under the first guard, struck a second in the abdomen, and blocked yet another blast from the third—all in one swift move. The second soldier collapsed easily and the first fell on his back, while the third rushed in for the attack. He was painfully slow, and Steve easily snapped the man's neck, throwing the body onto the 1st soldier, who was just starting to get up. He dispatched the unconscious second soldier, and just as the first managed to get back up, struck him in the back of the head with the edge of his shield. The soldier dropped, and did not get up.

Less than 15 seconds had passed.

"Got 'em," he reported, stepping back to the cliffside before the guns on the castle could reach him. Before more soldiers could find them, he shrunk down the Scott's size, effectively out of sight.

"Um," Scott spoke up as Steve stumbled over to him, disoriented from the sudden size shift. Everything seemed too high and too far away, and he had to put a hand out on the rock face to steady himself. "I just realized. Weren't you the guy who didn't kill the enemy? I mean, back when you were an Avenger?"

"Shit," Steve muttered. Scott took one of his arms for stability as he tried to orient himself. "I'll have to switch back to my old fighting style. That'll take some training."

An ant brushed by his side, and Steve involuntarily flinched back.

"You get used to it," Scott reassured him, not missing the motion. Almost a dozen guards thundered past them, nearly throwing Steve off of his feet. "I knew we should have practiced more."

Steve found his footing and slowly let go of Scott, his balance returning slowly.

"Okay." he took a deep breath. "I'm good."

"All right." Steve couldn't tell, but he had the feeling that Scott with smiling underneath the mask. And ant nudged his arm, and he looked down at it, trying not to feel unnerved. He'd faced the Winter Soldier, the Chitauri, and the Black Order with hardly a flinch, yet there was something especially nauseating about seeing an ant's face close up.

"Is this my ride?" he asked. Scott nodded.

"Her name is Bulla. I'm taking Antoinette." He patted the head of the ant closest to him, and in return it nuzzled his hand.

Steve would have stared if Scott could see it. "You name your ants?"

If Scott saw that he was a bit put off, he didn't show it.

"I get easily attached." He mounted Antoinette almost like one would a horse, except he laid down almost flat across its body. Steve did the same, gripping the head of Bulla as he did so. "Just hold on. Let's go!"

Bulla lurched suddenly underneath him, and Steve nearly lost his lunch as they rocketed up the cliff and towards Strucker's Base.

"I think I'll leave most of the Ant-Man work to you," he grunted as they went over a particularly large protrusion, leaving his legs dangling over what seemed to be a 100-foot drop.

"Good," Scott chuckled, steering them away from a mounted gun on the wall. "I mean, I'd like to keep my job."

It took them a good twenty minutes the trek up the rest of the way to reach the castle walls, but it took little effort to main unseen. When the rocky cliffs finally became smooth stone, Scott spread out the ants, trying to find an entrance to the castle in any form.

"Found one," he announced after a couple minutes. Steering the ants to the right, Scott drove them into a small grate that led into the ventilation system. Steve was quick to jump off of Bulla, feeling relieved to be on solid ground once again. Scott, already off of Antoinette, turned to him as the rest of the ants flowed into the vent.

"Where to, Steve?" he asked. At first Steve said nothing in reply, orienting himself to where they were in the base.

"Well, there's only one way to go," he shrugged, nodding to the darkness ahead of them. Scott audibly gulped, but didn't protest.

"The ants can guide us," he reported. "They work well in darkness. Better than we do, at least." He placed a hand on antoinette's thorax, and Steve did the same on to his own mount. Then they were off.

The light, faint as it was, from outside quickly faded into pitch black, the kind of crushing black that came with the sense of being in danger. Steve, used to it, was able to push the feeling to the back of his mind, but he could hear Scott's breathing deepen slightly over the coms.

A minute or two in, there abruptly was a flash of red light, leaving spots dancing in Steve's eyes, and a small explosion. Steve froze as Scott cursed. One of the leading ants had lost their head to the security system. Without a word, Scott sent out several ants to probe much more carefully for the sensor that had been alerted to their presence. When it was found, Steve destroyed it with his shield.

They went on carefully but with more urgency after that, afraid that the security laser would have alerted Strucker of their position. But they hit no more security, no doubt because the ventilation shaft was only four or five inches tall. Steve wasn't sure; his sense of height was deeply skewed from standing at only a couple inches tall.

Then, a light. Steve rushed for it, relieved that they hadn't gone down some dead end. Looking down through the ventilation grate, he saw a stoney hallway, with foreign voices speaking a foreign language in the distance. He did not recognize the hallway.

Hooking his legs on the bars of the grate, Steve ducked down into the hallway, hanging upside down by his knees. Down the hallway were two guards standing in front of a fortified metal door, and turning the other way, he saw some stairs leading upwards to a higher floor. There were two security cameras on either end.

"Two guards in front of a door, a security camera on each end of the hallway, and a stairwell opposite the door," he reported to Scott.

"Got it," came the reply. Scott sent out a couple ants to take care of the cameras, then jumped down himself, expanding to his full height as he went. There was a cry, a couple grunts, and then two final thuds. Steve followed Scott's example once the action was over, jumping down and expanding to his regular height. He stumbled once his feet hit the ground, briefly disoriented once again at the abrupt change.

"Good job," he congratulated whence he collected himself, noting the two unconscious bodies now on the ground. "Any idea where we are in the building?"

Scott didn't reply immediately, thinking. "Well, I'd guess that we're on the first floor, since we haven't gone up or down yet, and closer to the center of the building, considering how far we've went to get here. Door or stairs?"

Steve looked over at the door. "There's an electric lock on that. Breaking it would no doubt set off an alarm."

"Stairs it is." Scott moved to the stairwell, Steve soon taking the lead. They crept up the stairs slowly, listening for the guards and letting Scott's ants take out the cameras ahead of them.

There were a group of four or soldiers at the top of the stairs, and Steve took them out with ease. They went faster after that, knowing their time going undetected would soon run out, Scots shrinking back down to help his ants work better.

They hit a fork in the hallway. There were voices to the right, so Steve rushed in that direction, quickly coming up on two scientists talking urgently what he guessed was Sokovian.

He must have been quite a sight: a 6'2 man in a navy blue and vibranium jumpsuit with an ant-like mask to top it all off. As it was, the female of the to screamed until Steve slammed a hand over her mouth. Scott expanded to human size behind the male, pinning him to the ground.

"Do either of you speak English?" Steve demanded. There was a pause before the man nodded slowly.

"Some," he answered in a heavy accent once Scott removed his hand from his mouth.

"Where is the Control Room?"

The man looked up at him, completely terrified as he hesitated. Steep swallowed the uneasy feeling that that look gave him.

"There," the scientist finally mumbled, tilting his head down the hallway. "First door, on the…" he searched for the word almost desperately. Coming up with nothing, he mumbled a Sokovian phrase and wiggled his right hand.

"Thank you," Steve responded. Then, Scott painlessly knocked the man out as Steve did the same with the woman. And alarm started blaring overhead as he did so.

"They've noticed us…" Scott announced heavily, a tinge of fear in his voice.

"Took them long enough. We better hurry up."

They raced down the hallway and took the first door on the right, just as the Hydra scientist had told them. It was locked, as expected, so Scott use the ants to tear through the wires behind the keypad Steve tore open.

There was no hesitation once the door shuddered open, this part of the plan already meticulously planned out. Scott shrank down again as Steve lept into the fray, shields extended. The shocked cries of the soldiers and scientists were white noise in the background as he took out the man nearest to him, a large bodyguard with an alien gun. He ducked a blast, from another guard, blocked two more, and lashed out to kick a third soldier in the chest.

He took this instant to take in the situation around him. There were around 20 men and women in the room, scattered around it in desks and behind computers. Strucker was a mere 10 or so feet in front of him, standing by a young assistant behind a large computer. There was no sign of the twins.

Depending on how far away Pietro was, he had moments, maybe less. Steve rushed Strucker, easily knocking aside his rifle and bashing his head in. Hopefully, that killed him instantly; Steve wasn't the mood to deal with more sociopathic HYDRA agents. A moment later he was on the assistant (barely a boy over twenty), and knocked the kid out. He blocked two more blasts, and threw a computer screen at the one who had fired.

Two more of the men went down with a cry, then three more. Scott's ants at work.

Before he could attack any further, however, there was the barest blur in the still open door before a devastating blow was directed to his side. Steve fell to the ground, but gave himself little chance to recover as he brought his shield up to block the second blow that came that came hardly a millisecond later. Pietro was long gone by the time Steve had recovered enough retaliate.

"The twins are here!" he grunted into the communicator.

"I'm hurrying!" Scott exclaimed. "Distract them!"

This was by far most dangerous and risky part of their plan. Wanda was far more powerful than Steve, if it inexperienced, and neither he nor Scott knew much about Pietro save for the fact that he was fast. Steve would have to hold them off until Scott was able to escape on his own, a task made all the more difficult since you infinity stones, being singularities, could not be shrunk.

But Steve, at least, knew how to deal with Wanda. He had trained her for almost three years, and knew her tricks like the back of his hand.

Steve gritted his teeth, blocking a blast from a goon with his shield before being socked in the face and thrown back to the floor. He barely caught sight of the red sparks that signalled the arrival of the Scarlet Witch, and rolled away from the blast in time to avoid it. Then he was hit with yet another blow that would have sent him to the ground if he wasn't already there.

This was starting to get a little annoying.

"You didn't see that coming?"

Steve looked up, catching a single, crystal-clear glimpse of Pietro's cocky grin before he was gone again. And, for a moment, he was back in the shield helicarrier, staring blankly down at Pietro's corpse, knowing deep in his bones that he had once again sent a boy to an early grave.

That memory cost him. He was hint once more again, though this time he managed to retaliate in time. Lashing out with a foot, he managed to trip Pietro as he tried to dash off again, causing them both to crash to the floor painfully. Steve grabbed another shard of something sharp—he didn't check the see what it was—and took out the last of the HYDRA soldiers. Finally, he found the time to locate Wanda, standing near the entrance.

"I got the scepter!" Scott called. "I'm pulling out, Steve!"

Steve had no chance to reply as he caught a punch from a recovered Pietro, and barely managed to toss him into a set of computers, though careful to not seriously injure the boy. He was here to stall the twins, not hurt them.

Wanda reached out a hand, face impassive and emotionless, and Steve rolled behind a desk to try and avoid her. His face and abdomen throbbed from Pietro's hits, and he sucked in a breath, calming himself enough to jump up and enter the fight again.

But his body did not obey his mental command.

Shit.

Steve's eyes flickered down, and sure enough, there were the tell-tale red flickers of Wanda's magic. Pinning down her attacker was always one of her best and oldest moves, and one that was very difficult to avoid. And, Steve now saw that he'd fallen for the same move himself. So focused was he on distracting the twins, he ended up getting distracted himself.

"I'm compromised, Scott," Steve muttered. "Get out of here."

"Steve, no—"

"Go."

The desk behind him was torn away, no doubt by Pietro, as he and Wanda spoke in rapid-fire Sokovian

"Mr. and Miss Maximoff," he greeted warily. The twins stopped speaking abruptly, caught off guard.

Wanda stepped into view, and Steve's heart skipped a beat. She looked so much younger than she had been in those moments right before her death, her face shadowed but not marred by the tragedy of her life.

While Wanda held him down, Pietro stepped forwards and tore Steve's helmet off of his head. Steve blinked against the sudden change in lighting, feeling very exposed. The twins were not supposed to know who stole the scepter. A change in plans then, considering he survived this situation. Wanda's magic gripped him like vibranium cuffs, too tight for even him to escape.

Pietro's swore as Steve was recognized, dropping the helmet as Wanda stiffened, her magic clamping down on him even harder. Steve raise an eyebrow at them, not surprised that they had seen through the hair dye that he had put on before the flight to Sokovia.

"How did you find us?" Pietro demanded harshly, his accent thick. "And how do you know us?"

"A reliable source," Steve answered, sure to be as vague as possible with it.

"The rest of the Avengers. Where are they?"

"Who said I came with the Avengers?"

Pietro blinked, shooting a questioning glance at Wanda. The young woman frowned, and stepped forwards, hands still up to keep him pinned down. Realizing she was most likely about to instill a nightmare, probably so that she could catch him off guard, Steve closed his eyes as her hand approached, focusing on his memories of him and Sam, back in they lived in DC, and even after that, during the few days he'd nabbed to stay in Wakanda while on the run, and prepared for the worst—


"Seriously?" Steve deadpanned, groaning as he watched Sam and the recently healed Bucky fight over breakfast. Sam was grappling for the milk Bucky was chugging straight from the carton, all while hogging in the cereal for himself. "Do I need to put you both in timeout?"

"He wrecked my car!" Sam exclaimed, grabbing for the carton once again, as if that justified everything. Bucky, with milk running down his chin, simply shot him a scathing look.

Wanda, entering with T'Challa at her side, laughed.

"Leave them be," she advised him, using her magic to nab some of Sam's cereal. Steve rolled his eyes, standing up and leaving his friends to their fight.

"I ought to," he sighed. "How are you doing, Wanda?"

"Very well," she grinned, and gestured to T'Challa. "T'Challa is setting up a meeting with Vision for me!"

Steve blinked, surprised as T'Challa ducked his head slightly—

There was a sudden change.

Steve, now two years younger, stood in a small, battered old Sokovian cemetery. Cotton-ball clouds were scattered across the midday sky, but there was a heaviness in the air that warned of incoming rain.

It was a small funeral. He and Clint had just placed a sleek wooden coffin six feet in the ground, and soon would cover it up once. Steve slowly stepped away with Clint following shortly after. Brushing the dirt off of his suit pants and wishing that the lump in his throat would fade away just as easily, he moved back.

Wanda stepped past them, in the simple black dress that she'd borrowed from Natasha, and knelt by the grave, murmuring softly in Sokovian, voice cracked and wavering as she did so.

They let the girl speak with your brother for the last time, more than happy to grant them their privacy. Steve spared a glance at Clint, noting how the archer seemed angry (at himself for only being human) and guilty (that he'd robbed a girl of her brother), the two emotions raging in his eyes. Steve himself said nothing, however, feeling many of the same emotions himself.

Wanda stepped back, face now carefully wiped blank.

"Does the pain ever go away?" she questioned numbly, eyes still on the grave.

"No," Clint answered. He stepped forwards and placed a hand on her shoulder. "But you learn to live with it."

Wanda's shoulders shook, tears forming in her eyes. Clint wrapped an arm around her in silent comfort. Steve sighed, and looked down at the silent coffin.

"I told you to walk it off, soldier," he whispered. "Goodbye, Pietro."

There was a violent rip in his conscience, and now he was 32 instead of 28.

Wanda to cradled Vision's grayed and immobile body, a look that was almost relief on her face as she crumbled into dust

Another yank. He was only slightly older now.

Shuri laid out the diagrams for a machine out on the table, Scott standing close other side. Steve and Thor stopped their conversation as Natasha and Pepper looked up, surprised by the Wakandan's sudden entrance..

"We're going to fix this," the newly crowned Queen announced, a fierce grin on her face that only appeared when she had made a breakthrough. "We're gonna go back in time."

"That's impossible," Pepper shot back, immediately disbelieving. "Not without the time stone. "

"No," Thor corrected her, drawing himself to his full height. "The time stone controlled time. It is not the only way to manipulate time. Explain further, Shuri."

Steve's heart leaped into his chest, and for the first time in months he felt something akin to hope—

And then there was nothing at all.


There will be a Part 2, which will hopefully be up by sometime next week. Please review and let me know what you think!