The villagers accepted Steve without question and were grateful for his help with the communal tasks. Many of them spoke English so communication was no problem, but he did his best to pick up the common Wakandan phrases. He asked Bucky about his nickname. He seemed embarrassed at first but finally said something Steve couldn't pronounce. He laughed long and hard when told the meaning: Friend of the White Wolf.

At night, during the quiet, Steve would wake up with Bucky sleeping close to him. He was always touching him, with his arm around him. Bucky, the hardworking farmer, the feared Asset and valuable team member somehow managed to become an almost gentle domestic partner. He didn't ask for anything else from Steve, but this wasn't mere friendship, but this, whatever it was, there was apparently some kind of unspoken agreement between them. The memories of a different childhood stayed with him, raising questions about that mysterious meeting in Paris where something had gone wrong between them.

This Bucky was different. His original friend had a darkness about him that didn't exist here. This guy was more positive. There was none of that silent look of desperation around his eyes. He was more open, more...boyish? He reminded Steve of the Bucky he knew a long time ago, before the war. The guy he was always trying to get back, the guy he thought was gone forever. Could it be, in a weird way, he did get him back?

These thoughts rolled in his head as he made his way back to the Palace Complex. The beautiful silver building never failed to impress him, nor could he get over the fact they allowed him to wander through its halls. Guards nodded at him as he walked by. Glass-enclosed cubicles revealed teams of scientists working, equations floated in the air alongside models of solar systems which sparkled with Vibranium. The planets and stars rotated, sending out mesmerizing rays of light.

He paid a brief visit to Wanda and Vision. The Android was in better shape but still little more than a live version of Jarvis. He was experimenting with his physical looks again, doing his best to appear human. He had a vague recollection of his friendship with Wanda although it was clear he didn't quite understand it. Wanda herself, although not as young as Parker and Shuri, was much like her counterpart, giving more weight to Steve's theory that the younger they were, the fewer the differences.

All around him there the news played on a continuous loop on situated along the long hallways. The Stock Market in disarray and some world leaders insisted upon returning to work. Construction on a large dam project in China had been delayed as had space flights. The world was upside down but was in better shape than the mess they had left behind. Steve made a mental note to spend time later watching more of this to absorb more of the current culture. He smiled to himself at the irony of having to readjust to a strange new world again even if much of it was familiar.

They gave Tony an office. A wall of computers covered one side of the room, but his attention focused on a hologram of a woman with short blonde hair and dark glasses floating in the middle of the room. It took Steve a minute until he recognized her. Pepper. Natasha who stopped at the door diverted his attention, joining him in staring at the image.

"She works for me," Tony said. "But that's it. She's an employee. I stole her from one of the other Consortiums."

"Well, that's not surprising," Natasha said. "That's your thing. Collect whoever you wanted, offer them high salaries…"

"No, I mean I, or the other guy, stole her. Kidnapped her from a party. One of those offers no one refuses. He tracked her activities, seems she wanted to change things, and he thought she would be a valuable aid him in his cause."

"That sounds- horrible," Natasha said. "And she still working for you...for him?"

"The reason she stays is that she became convinced that his crazy ideas to route the bad guys out of the business was real. Not because she found him, or me, or him, fascinating or anything," he said."No romance by kidnapping here." It might have been Steve's imagination but Tony seemed a lot calmer these days.

"I suppose I should say sorry, Tony," Steve said. "But that's a good thing. With you being a different guy, maybe things will change."

"Sometimes I forget and think I am… him. This was the life I'm supposed to live. I know, that makes no sense." He shut off the image, swiveling his chair around to face them. "So, how's Clint?"

"Messed up physically, but, we're not involved. Just friends…" she acted like she would say more but stopped herself. "He went into a coma for two days and when he came out, he… he has the memories of the other Clint but, he's the Clint I always knew. His mannerisms, his way of talking, it's all familiar and I can't explain it, you'll have to see him for yourself. He knew me, knew we worked together but...I think the rest is all gone." Steve and Tony said nothing for a few minutes, allowing themselves to mull over her revelation.

"It's what we thought might happen," Tony said. "It's a risk we took... We have to share this with the rest of the team. Is he all right? He didn't turn into Attila the Hun or anything, did he?"

"No, he seems to be a better version of the Clint I knew, but he said something that concerned me. Something about a mission to Paris. He said we should come clean about it, and that it was a mistake."

"Paris?" Steve couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice. "Bucky mentioned something about Paris, something we sort of agreed not to talk about."

"Whatever 'we' did, Bucky wasn't there. Neither was Sam," Natasha said.

"Easy enough to find out," Tony said. "Computer, call up the actions taken by our team in Paris."

A large map of the city showed up, showing the graphics of what appeared to be two explosions.

"Seems straightforward enough," Tony said as he scrolled through the report. "They were on their way to Paris but before they arrived there were two bombings… but they got the bad guys in the end. I see nothing wrong. It was us, Clint, Thor, Bruce… Colonel Rhodes was there but not with us, newer guys weren't there… although Cap, you met there with Bucky a few days later."

"I wonder if Steve told Bucky what happened?" Natasha asked. She moved closer to inspect the map.

"Maybe, but I suspect Bucky was referring to something more personal and I don't have the slightest idea what he was talking about," Steve replied. He wasn't about to share his suspicions, not yet anyway.

"Well, how about you ask him?" Natasha suggested. "If the other team messed up, we should fix it. There's another thing… no one's seen Iron Man since that night."

Tony scrolled the image down, highlighting the text. "So it was. Hmm… The team, we don't have a cute nickname like we did back home, haven't been on many missions since then, and no Iron Man. Wonder why not?"

"Is he you?" Steve asked, inwardly reflecting on the absurdity of his question.

"I can't find any evidence of him anywhere. No schematics of the suits, nothing in my personal inventory. I could go home to look for it except T'Challa asked me to stay. He values my and Bruce's input' on the 'event' and to be honest, I want to stay and keep an eye on them. Keep track of their findings and then there was Strange's warning. They've noted that there was a shift in the quantum…"

"Don't." Natasha held up her hand as a signal he should stop talking science. "That's your and Bruce's playground. When I go back to see Clint I'll rummage around your place and see what I can find. How's that? Just tell… Miss. Potts, I'm coming."

"Fine. Work your magic." Tony turned back to the computers as a way of dismissing them. "And it's damn difficult trying to be you, by the way!" He said as a parting shot to Steve. " Keeping my mouth shut is a hell of a lot harder than I thought it would be. Oh, and by the way, if you can tear yourself away from Nature Boy and living off the land for a few hours, there's a computer in your quarters. Nicely encrypted with all the info Natasha and I could put together. I suggest you read it."

Natasha's words about Clint concerned him so Steve decided to take Tony's advice. Returning to his original room he turned on the computer, waiting until it went through a series of passcodes that wouldn't make sense to anyone but Tony. He skipped over the things they had already learned about the world at large, beginning his search by typing in his own name.

A video popped up. It looked like a training video. It was unsettling to see a carbon copy of himself in an open area with Falcon and Wanda.

" I told you to WAIT!" Steve walked in front of Wanda. Her hands were balled into fists. She could easily send him flying across the room and for one tense moment it looked like that would happen but she relaxed and simply nodded.

"Yes, of course. The target was not in sight…" she began.

"Not in sight and there were civilians in the way. You did see them, didn't you? Just randomly firing at what you THOUGHT might be the bad guys is not good enough. Next time, THINK!"

"Yes, Captain Rogers."

"And work on getting rid of that accent. Undercover means…"

"I know what it means!" she snapped. "I'm doing my best!"

Good for you. Stand up to that jerk! There was more, most of it the same. The other Steve seemed to have a perpetual scowl on his face. He could only stomach so much of his counterpart and his jackass ways. He wondered how anyone could be friends with someone like that, but then he remembered his friendship with Tony. True, Tony was more toned down than this guy, but he could still be prickly at times.

He found the security cam video of Bucky saving the life of T'Challa by stopping a heavy beam from falling on him during the explosion at the U.N. international jail. It was a sharp contrast to that other video. Steve reflected a moment on all the pain it caused long after the events it had captured were pages in a history book. That video was gone, erased from existence, no memory of it at all except in the minds of Steve and Tony.

Sam. Sam the pararescue who ended his tour of duties with honors, and with his friend Riley still alive and living in D.C. Sam who met Steve by chance and the comradeship that formed. A different Sam who had none of that petty jealousy that the guy he knew harbored against Bucky and vice versa.

Wanda had been a pawn of a rival consortium, raised and indoctrinated, and manipulated from childhood almost to the point of no return until she and her brother stumbled over secret documents revealing the extent of their master's totalitarian ways. They ran away but unfortunately, her brother had been caught and executed. The team heard about her and offered her sanctuary and helped train her.

Tony created Vision without drama; there had been no Ultron, no Sokovia, no splitting of the team. When Thanos came here, they were united in purpose and focus. Everyone here did everything right. They won, even though there had been some kind of weird back up plan to still wipe out half of all life, but thanks to them and some other unseen force, that attempt failed.

Steve was struck by a sudden revelation. Coming here had fixed almost everything for the old team. They were together, they were away from the misery of their past lives, they had their people back. Things were a little too good. Maybe they were sent here to fix the problems in this reality, as a kind of repayment as part of some kind of cosmic debt? Were they agents of grace or... karma? He wished Strange was here, he had a lot of questions, but wherever he was, the magician thought it best to stand back and let events work themselves out.

He closed the computer, telling himself he was just a soldier and should leave the ideas of universal philosophy and religion to other people. Right now he had to get back to the village. Bucky was waiting for him.