Hi! First time fic writers here. We came out of the shadows to make things right with this messy but beautiful story, inadvertently making it even more messy, but hopefully more beautiful as well, in the process, so give us a chance. Maybe, just maybe, we might not suck too much. 3

Just for note, this story is based off of Avengers: Endgame, which we do not own in any way. This fic is purely for fun. Also, this story will be broken into 6 parts: Steve, Thor, Tony, Peter, Bucky, and Valkyrie. Each section will be from that person's perspective. This first part is from Steve's perspective. This story is an AU, but differs in many ways. Head-canon is a big part of the story, but canonical elements (to the movie) are still involved. Steve's section starts off very much like the movie, but it will begin to differ as his chapters progress.

Part 1: Steve

The rusty steps groaned beneath Steve's feet as he climbed down the fire escape, which was hugging the side of a small apartment building, Loki's scepter safely secured in his left hand and his shield in his right. Finally close enough to the ground that he was able to jump, he swung himself over the railing and bent his knees to absorb the impact with the concrete below.

Taking in the abandoned alley around him as he gave himself a moment to breathe, the distant glare of sunlight off the still patented Stark Tower caught his eye one last time.

It was surreal to even think that he was here, back in 2012, where the world had been so different from the one he knew now. Firstly, he had just gotten into a fight with himself, a sight he never anticipated seeing in his lifetime, or any lifetime if he was being honest.

Then, as he had been escaping with the newly acquired scepter, stolen right under Hydra's noses with a simple 'hail Hydra' from his mouth leaving them all stunned, he had almost made it to the staircase leading outside when he had bumped into his 2012 self. Back then he was a lot more of a straight arrow, never going outside the realm of what he had deemed right and wrong, something that made confrontation inevitable. Upon seeing another version of his body, the younger version had immediately clocked him as Loki trying to escape, time travel not even a thought, and engaged with him trying to get it back. It was definitely the weirdest fight he'd had, that fact probably building into the reason why he decided "that is America's ass" was the thing he was going to comment on about his unconscious form instead of simply grabbing the scepter and walking away.

Springing up, he glanced to his right looking for Tony and Scott, who he was supposed to meet after retrieving his part of the mission, when a call for him got his attention.

"Cap!"

Snapping his head to the left, he was momentarily confused as he took in the speaker and the rest of the scene in front of him. Instead of standing in the alley waiting for his return, Tony had hailed him from the back of a small blue car just off to the side of the wide alley, both the car and the backstreet covered in debris from their 2012 battle of New York, where he and Scott were slumped and sporting dejected looks.

He noted that even though the alley was destroyed, courtesy of their alien fight, it was still such a different world from the one at home. This world had only seen the beginning of the aliens, what they now understood was Thanos' first wave, but back home the streets were deserted, more trash flooding the New York gutters than ever before and every alley in a wash of filth and regret. The city had an overall more dejected look too, an abandoned one, as half of the population had been wiped away, leaving the rest to fall apart in its wake. It hurt Steve to look around and see a prospering Earth, one that was still full of life and innocent enough to believe that this was the worst it was ever going to get, knowing that he'd have to return to the reality which was their half empty one as soon as they finished their mission.

It was this thought though that made Steve remember that this is why they were here. It was easy to get lost in the dark of it all, but he needed to keep his sights on the light at the edge of the horizon. They were going to get everyone back again, make their world whole once more, and that was why he was here and why he needed to go back.

Walking closer to figure out what was going on, Tony began to apologize before Steve could even open his mouth.

"Sorry, buddy, we got a problem."

Steve's heart seemed to freeze all over again at those words: It meant something had gone wrong on their end and he knew what that could cost them. If they didn't bring all six stones back there was no snapping everyone back to life.

Scott didn't seem too impressed with the apology, annoyance immediately flaring as Tony spoke.

"Yeah, we do," he scoffed, glaring at the back of Tony's head from where he was sitting in the back seat of the car.

Tony immediately sunk at his words, burying his head into his left hand and pinching the bridge of his nose tightly. It looked like he had already heard an earful from Scott during the time it took for Steve to make his way to them.

Not getting a response from Tony, Scott aggressively opened the car door and stormed out in a huff, immediately turning to Steve and going into full detail about everything that had happened with the tesseract. How everything had been fine, their plan to distract their past selves working flawlessly, until Tony, tesseract in hand, had ended up losing it when 2012 Hulk had smashed through the door and it had disappeared, Loki with it. How after that they had no choice but to leave before they were caught by someone, making their way to the meetup spot where they ended up getting in the car to wait. Practically spitting fire by the time he was done, he took up pacing, stopping to glare at Tony every few steps.

Steve knew it wasn't anyone's fault; it was a case of bad luck and they had ended up drawing the short end of the stick. Tony hadn't purposefully gotten hit by Hulk, no one could have predicted that happening, and Steve knew how much this mission meant to Tony. Getting everyone back was something he was placing on his shoulders entirely as he felt that he had let everyone down when he failed to stop Thanos on Titan five years ago. None of this was true, but Steve just hoped that bringing everyone back would allow Tony to let that go, move on with his life with no more guilt. He knew they couldn't give up now though, they had too much on the line. They had to keep pushing until something else stuck.

Maintaining to keep the situation as optimistic as he could, he spoke up for the first time since he had arrived.

"Well, what are we going to do now?"

The question came out more accusatory than he had intended as his frustration with the whole situation rose, not at Tony but at the prospect of going home empty handed, and he internally cringed as Tony's immediate defensiveness.

"You know what? Give me a break Steve," he snapped, his annoyance finally flaring at what he likely thought was everyone pointing the fingers at him. "I just got hit in the head with a Hulk."

Glaring, he dared Steve to say something else about the situation and Steve tried to soften his face, showing that he wasn't angry at him.

Scott, however, wasn't as sympathetic.

Blowing out a loud breath of air, he picked up ranting one again, panic and desperation coming out as anger at their seemingly helpless situation.

"You said that we had one shot! This-this was our shot. We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. It was six stones or nothing!"

Steve turned an irritated eye towards Scott, frustration shifting towards his needlessly pessimistic attitude instead of the situation at hand. His lashing out was doing nothing to get them where they needed to be. It looked like Tony felt the same way, the exasperation on his face being enough to tell Steve all how he was currently viewing Scott.

The veins in Tony's temple began pulsing in his poor attempt to keep his anger at bay. "You're repeating yourself, you know that?"

"You're repeating yourself; you're repeating yourself!" Scott mocked back in a tone that was nothing short of juvenile, his incessant rambling making Steve that much closer to using the scepter still clutched in his left hand on him.

Nothing Scott was doing was making their situation any better. At this rate, they might as well surrender now because passing blame was only keeping them farther away from bringing everyone home. Steve could see both of their tempers rising and knowing that neither of them were about to back down, he was about to step in himself to moderate the conversation when he realized that Tony was talking again, albeit a lot quieter and with downcast eyes as opposed to the glare he had been giving when he was talking to Scott. Honing in on him, Steve could see the stress of the situation weighing on Tony's shoulders, his brain most likely firing at a mile a minute in his attempt to correct the mistake that had been made. Trying to break him out of his own mind and allow them all to civilly figure out a plan together, he addressed the older man gently.

"Are you talking to yourself over there?" he attempted to joke to bring much needed levity to the situation weighing on all of their minds.

Tony looked up and scowled at Scott. "Trying to work with this clown here is impossible, so I needed someone to have an intellectual conversation with"

"Hey!" Scott shouted, offended, seeming not to realize the extent of the stress he was placing on Tony as he continued to chew him out.

Steve, however, knew the only reason Tony had responded that way was to hide the insecurity he felt at his inability to come up with a way out of the mess they had made. He was scared that he had ruined their chances to bring those they loved back forever and Scott's continuous mantra against him was not doing his anxiety any favours.

"Listen, Tony, this wasn't your fault," Steve reassured, trying to show him that he was on his side and only wanted to work with him to help solve their dilemma, not belittle his abilities. He had to shoot a hard look at Scott as he saw him about to protest from the corner of his eye, causing Scott to stop in place before setting his face in a line and returning to his pacing, muttering under his breath.

In truth, Scott reminded Steve a lot of his younger and more naive self, the person that saw the world one way and wanted only that way to be true, frantically scrambling to try and reorder the world into the way he wanted. His annoyance at the man softened a bit as he thought more about how connected they were. Steve knew better than anyone what Scott was going through right now. The turmoil that had been, and still was to a degree, in his head after being catapulted through time and dropped in a place you didn't even recognize, the ones you loved changing with it. To come back the same person while everyone else had changed so much made the world very isolating and hard to navigate as you struggled to find a place where you truly fit in. Steve also had to remind himself that Scott was simply trying to do the same as the rest of them: bring their lost family home. It was a rough time for all of them and Steve was sorely looking toward the future where they would do just that.

Focusing back on Tony he could see the pain in his eyes; the guilt radiating off of his body as he placed the lost Tesseract entirely on his own. "Isn't it?"

Sighing, Steve gave Tony a helpless look, mirroring the anguish Tony was currently feeling. At this rate they were just going in self-pitying circles, no real end to their pointless jabbering, so he decided to push a new angle, delivering the conversation in a, hopefully, more helpful direction in order to actually start working on an active solution to help them out.

"Are there any other options with the tesseract?" His attempt for a peaceful continuation was blown right out of the water by Scott as soon as the words left his mouth.

"No, no no, there are no other options!" barked Scott. "There's no do-overs'' firmly punctuating his words as he slammed the car door he had left open in his haste to get out shut, causing Tony to flinch and put his head in both hands. Steve suspected it was in pain as well as dispiritedness, the sudden slam of the door only serving to make the headache he was clearly nursing from the hit by Hulk skyrocket.

"We're not going anywhere else." Scott continued hotly, "We have one particle left: Each. That's it alright? We use that, bye-bye, you're not going home."

Steve's sympathy he had just felt towards the man was quickly deflating, anger surging up as Scott's constant fatalistic monologues were finally starting to grate on his nerves making him retaliate back.

"Yeah? Well, if we don't try then no one else is going home either."

The two of them stared at each other, tempers rising, challenging the other one to speak when Tony interrupted, bringing them back to the present before anything could happen. Steve was tempted to challenge the man to a fight, something childish perhaps, but not far off from what he would have done back in the day with one of the guys in training camp that needed to deflate their ego. But Steve let it go in order to focus on Tony.

"I got it," he gasped as he got out of the car, a desperate look on his face as he turned to Steve and began carefully relaying the plan that had come to his brilliant mind.

"There's another way to retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles."

That last bit was directed at Scott, a direct jab at his constant complaining, but he didn't wait for the man in question to respond, immediately refocusing on Steve as he walked closer, trying to connect Steve to the ideas in his mind.

"A little stroll down memory lane," he supplied vaguely, tilting his head as he approached. Steve didn't know what he was getting at until he spoke his next words. "Military Installation, Garden State."

There it was. Steve's eyes widened in realization, Tony's plan becoming crystal clear. He wanted to go back to Camp Lehigh Army base, Steve's old training grounds, a place where not only the Tesseract was once stored but also where Hank Pym had initially set up shop. It was a good move, but a risky one. If it meant getting their friends back, however, Steve was willing to do whatever it took to do it.

Unfortunately, Steve found one issue with the plan: he had no idea what time they would have to go back to. The files he had poured over to learn all he had missed regarding S.H.I.E.L.D. and their many exploits were helpful to a point, but trying to pinpoint an exact date they would've crossed paths was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

He stared off to the side, racking his brain for any information to help them out. "When were they both there?" he questioned, glancing back at Tony, his face pinching at the uncertainty of the plan.

Tony scrambled to answer, frantically trying to put together the pieces of what was essentially their last-ditch effort to finish their mission. "They were there at a time-" he cut himself off and started again. "I have a vaguely exact idea," he finished, willing Steve to go along with his plan.

Steve didn't know if it was enough. If they were wrong they could be stuck here forever, leaving their teammates to deal with the situation on their own. "And exactly how vague is that?"

"I know for a fact they were there and I know how I know." Steve could see the truthfulness in his eyes, the sureness that this was the right call. He could also hear Scott jabbering in the background trying to get in on their conversation, but Steve just ignored him, all his attention focused on Tony's attempt to save their ass.

Tilting his head back to collect his thoughts, all the information Tony had just given making his brain spin with all the things that could go wrong, he came to the conclusion that this was their only chance to continue. If they did nothing they would go home empty handed, but if they tried this and it worked, they would have nothing to worry about. They could finish the mission and get back home to everyone, the ability to snap everyone back almost fully in their grasp. Bringing his head back to face Tony, he put a resigned look on his face, letting Tony know he agreed.

"Guys, what is it?" Scott demanded as he saw the look, not at all understanding what was going on.

Steve finally addressed him, not moving his gaze from Tony's face. "Looks like we're improvising."

Relief washed over Tony as Steve accepted his plan to give them a second chance. "Great" he breathed.

Set in stone, Steve began making his own plan in his mind. It would just have to be the two of them, an extra person making it more likely they'd get caught along with the fact that someone had to take the scepter back in case things went South. Walking over to Scott quickly, he held out the scepter and told him what was what, not letting him have any chance of rebuttal to their newly formed plan.

"Scott, get this back to the compound" he ordered and immediately turned back towards Tony.

"Suit up" Tony called, giving Steve the date they both needed to punch into their suits as soon as he made it back next to him. "04-07-1-9-7-0."

Punching in the month and day, Steve hesitated, not wanting to type the final numbers in until he knew Tony was confident with his own plan. "Are you sure?" he asked firmly, confirming that Tony knew, somewhat at least, about what they were about to do. Tony just nodded, not letting any uncertainty show.

Good enough for me.

Punching the last four numbers in, they both looked over as Scott made his presence known again; frustrated that he wasn't included in their plan.

"Excuse me! Cap- Captain! Steve- Sorry, America- Rogers," he floundered before stopping and collecting his thoughts and starting again at their annoyed looks. They didn't have time for mindless thoughts, they had to start working on their newly formed Plan B before something else could go wrong. "Look, if you do this and it doesn't work… you're not coming back."

Steve knew that Scott meant well and was just trying to help, but after everything that had happened in the last ten minutes both he, although more so Tony, had had enough of his talking.

"Thanks for the pep talk, Pissant," Tony replied, shooting the man one last glare and then turned to Steve. "You trust me?" he asked in all seriousness.

Steve's heart sank a bit at the question. In his mind he thought it was obvious that he did, never once not trusting the man's judgment, simply disagreeing with him on things in the past, but it saddened him to think that he probably didn't deserve Tony's trust back. After everything their friendship had been through at the expense of Steve's own friendship with Bucky, he wasn't sure that he was worthy of that privilege anymore.

"I do." He stated, voice unwavering in an attempt to push how deeply this was true onto Tony. Make him understand that Steve supported him wholeheartedly in his plan.

Tony nodded again in what Steve assumed was probably a more sub-conscious reaffirmation of his own words than a conscious effort and handed Steve the reins. "Your call, Captain"

Taking a calming breath, Steve figured it was now or never. No matter what was about to happen they had at least tried and that was all that mattered to Steve. "Here we go." In unison they tapped the buttons on their suit and felt the nanotech engulf their bodies quickly, disappearing in a flash the second it had fully formed around them, leaving the scepter and a very confused Scott behind.

We hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave a like or a comment if you did. The story is complete, so we'll be posting new chapters every Wednesday! :)