Thank you to everyone who has been reading my story. I've loved every second of writing it so far and I've still got loads more planned for our favorite heroes. Thank you to each of you that have left me reviews both of praise and of constructive criticism. They have really helped me along the way. I really hope that I'm doing the original story justice.
If I don't get a chance to update again before New Year's Day, I hope each and everyone of you have a blessed and safe New Years. I hope that next year is much better to all of us and that life continues to return to some sort of normal. Late Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!
After the last sighting of Madison, Tony and Bruce doubled down on their efforts to try to figure out how to reach her. Two more months had passed and in that time Madison had appeared a dozen more times, each time lasting slightly longer than the last. She confirmed what Bruce and Tony had thought, that she had absorbed most of the power from the gauntlet and at the point of Thanos' snap had in fact cast a spell of sorts that captured the souls that otherwise would have been lost. The biggest problem though was she wasn't sure how she did it or how to undo it. The only thing Madison was sure of was at the time, her only thoughts were how she couldn't lose Bucky or allow this to happen again as it had in her own universe. Madison was at a loss of how to recreate the same scenario to bring everyone back.
Morning came and just as he had done every morning since Madison's first sighting Bucky rushed down to the lab to check on Bruce and Tony's progress. Unfortunately, just like every other morning so far the news was still the same. They had tried scenario after scenario and nothing showed even a 50% chance of success. Everyone was growing frustrated with the lack of progress.
"What about the gauntlet," Bucky stared off into space as he continued to think out loud.
"What about the gauntlet? Remember, its toast. Everything is melted into the stones. There is no sign of energy coming from any of them." Bruce turned the gauntlet over and over in his hands trying to find something to help him.
"What if we could replace the stones with new ones?" Standing from his seat, Bucky walked over to Bruce as he spoke. "What if the stones could be replaced, would we be able to recreate the snap and bring everyone back?"
"Yeah, right. So your big plan is to what? Go back in time and get our own set of stones and undo what Thanos did?" Tony sat forward in his chair casting a look of disgust Bucky's way.
"Look, I know I'm not the brains of this operation," Bucky offered before being interrupted.
"Clearly," Tony muttered before looking back at his computer monitor.
"Hey!" Bucky yelled stepping closer to Tony's chair as he spoke, balling his fists as he looked Tony in the eye. "I don't see you coming up with any ideas, bright ones or otherwise. So unless you've got anything better to offer?"
"Your genius idea is for us to get our own set of stones. Okay, let's think this through shall we," Tony's voice was getting louder with each word as he stood from his seat slowly approaching Bucky.
"In order for us to have stones, since there are only one set which…" Tony grabbed the gauntlet from Bruce showing Bucky, "is currently destroyed. We'd have to what…go back in time?"
Bucky looked to Bruce who had taken off his glasses, rubbing his tired eyes as he listened to the two men argue.
"Explain to me exactly how we would do that? Do we hop in the Tardis and zip back in time? Or maybe you've got a DeLorean somewhere. Or, I know, how about a magical hot tub. Time travel isn't possible." At this point Tony was more disgusted than angry having to waste time explaining such a stupid concept and why it wouldn't work.
Tony watched and could see Bucky clinch down hard on his jaw to keep from exploding at him. Bucky was angry, hurt and extremely frustrated. None of their ideas were even close and right now they were grasping at straws.
Turning, Bucky stormed out of the lab and down the hall heading for his room. Steve called his name as he passed him, but Bucky couldn't stop. He had to get away or else he was going to release his anger at the situation on someone and it wasn't going to be pretty.
Making it to his room Bucky slammed the door behind him. His anger and frustration were boiling inside of him as he looked around him. It felt like his skin was crawling, like a raw nerve had been set afire. Everything hurt and Bucky just needed some kind of release from the pain. His vision became blurry as his eyes filled with tears. Reaching over Bucky grabbed the first thing his hand touch and threw it across the room. The remote control shattered against the wall. Bucky felt no change in his anger level so he repeated the action, this time tipping over his whole dresser, then book case, then TV. Nothing was safe from his wrath, anger and frustration. The more he destroyed the more he cried.
Exhausted, Bucky found himself kneeling on the bedroom floor, destruction all around him. Tears poured down his face…it had been years now since Madison had disappeared and they were still no closer to finding a way to bring her back, to bring them all back than when they first started. Bucky felt lost and alone. But he wasn't alone. Not really. He knew she was there before he ever opened his eyes. Whenever she tried to touch him he felt warmth all over his body. It was like having the warmth of the sun shining down on your cold skin.
"What happened? Talk to me Sarge," Madison whispered into Bucky's ear as she leaned into his side. Her arms couldn't physically hold him, but in the moment this felt like heaven to Bucky.
"We still have nothing. No real way to bring you back, and I'm beginning to wonder if we ever will." Bucky looked into Maddie's eyes. They weren't the same vibrant green that they normally were. Because it was only her astral body everything was ghost like. But he could still see the tears that fell from her eyes, spilling down her cheeks. What Bucky wouldn't give to hold her one more time.
"Are you giving up hope?" Madison's voice cracked as she asked the question, afraid of the answer.
Bucky took a deep breath before he could answer Madison. When he finally did, she wasn't happy with the answer. "I just want to be with you. Why couldn't I have disappeared with you? Why do I have to be here without you? I don't want to keep doing this alone. There is only so much pain one person can take in their life before it's just not worth it anymore."
Madison's face turned stern as she called Bucky out on what she hoped he wasn't saying. "James Buchanan Barnes, you've lived for over 100 years without me, don't you ever let me hear you suggest such a thing ever again. Do you hear me?"
Madison rested her forehead against Bucky's trying to pass calming and comforting energy to him through the astral plane. "I love you. I don't want to know what a world would be like without you in it. I'd rather have a lifetime of this, if this is all I could ever have with you than the alternative. The pain I feel missing your love, your touch, your kiss, just reminds me how much I need you. The pain only makes us stronger…don't forget that. Don't lose faith in us, not yet."
Steve watched as Bucky rushed off upstairs. The past few months had been especially hard on Bucky ever since Madison had really seemed to get the hang of her ability to astral project. She was appearing more often with longer periods of time which meant she could answer more questions that Tony and Bruce had for her about the realm they were all trapped in. It also meant that Bucky was able to spend more time with her as well. However not being able to physically touch the person you loved was beginning to take serious toll on his peace of mind. The cracks were beginning to return in Bucky's temperament. What Madison had spent months healing were slowly being reopened like old wounds that had never truly healed.
Steve ushered the man with him to continue following on into the lab so that he could introduce reintroduce him to Bruce and Tony. Tony of course would remember him since they had actually faced off in Germany, but Bruce had never met him. Seeing him show up on the front steps of the compound this morning had been a shock to say the least. When he had explained to Nat and Steve where he had been, they knew the guys needed to hear his story. He might just be the key to solving this riddle.
"Fellas, this is…" Steve began.
"Scott Fucking Lang," Tony finished as he rose to his feet to address the man. "How the hell are you here? We all thought you had been snapped away with the rest of them."
Bruce was the one to offer a handshake of greeting while Tony just stood there. "That's kinda a long story. But, Steve's been filling me in on what you are trying to do, and I think I can help."
Scott glanced at Steve and Bruce before readdressing Tony. "How much do you know about quantum physics?"
Tony and Bruce both listened to Scott's explanation of where he had been the past several years, or past 10 minutes if you believed his story. Apparently his boss, Hank Pym had launched him into a place called the quantum realm only a few seconds before Thanos had snapped half of all life into non-existence. He wasn't affected since he wasn't on the same plane of existence when the snap occurred. Turns out his return was a complete fluke, something to do with a rat and the hotwiring of a van. In the end, Scott was suggesting the same asinine suggestion that Bucky had suggested only an hour earlier, only he had actual suggestions for how to accomplish it.
Believe it or not, Tony was now feeling badly about having snapped at Barnes and made a mental note to apologize.
"So you are saying it is possible to travel through time given the right parameters?" Bruce sat back in his seat too stunned to continue, his mind was racing through all the possibilities.
"There's just one problem though," Tony spoke as he added more factors into an equation he had been working on. "How do we make it so we travel through time instead of time traveling through us?"
"Aren't there really two problems," Steve could be heard mumbling from where he rested his head on the table, a headache long having set in from listening to the science being discussed in the room. "If we remove something from the past, isn't that going to create problems for our future?"
"You mean, if we remove the stones from a point or points in our past won't that set up alternative or branch realities?" Bruce looked for confirmation from Steve that he had understood his question correctly.
Steve plopped his head back down onto the table with a thud, even more confused than before, throwing his resting hand up in submission. "Let's assume that's what I said."
Bruce and Tony were quiet, thinking through Steve's question. It was a good one, something that needed answering before anyone could go forward. If removing a stone from the past caused more problems, ultimately they could be correcting their own lives but damning billions others to a new reality.
"We can erase them, these new branch realities. Once we are done with the stones, we can return each one to its own time line at the moment it was taken. So, chronologically, in that reality, they never left." Bruce looked to Tony seeking confirmation that his thought process would work.
Tony's eyes danced around as he thought through all the implications of what they were suggesting.
"If we we're able to do this, how would we go about housing the stones? Plus, who would actually do the snap, you saw the effect it had on Thanos when he did it the first time."
"I would," Bruce said quietly from his seat. "It's basically a large dose of Gamma rays anyway, it's like the Hulk was built for this kinda thing."
"Are we really talking about being able to do this? Can we get them all back?" Steve stood from his seat looking for confirmation from the men in the room.
"What about this Madison you mentioned," Scott spoke up from around a mouthful of peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "Do we need to coordinate things with her so that we recreate what happened? Or was her part in it all just a fluke?"
Steve, Bruce and Tony all looked one to another. "I don't know. She prevented them from being destroyed, they were only placed in another realm of existence. As long as we know they are all there, I don't think we would need her to bring them all back," Tony theorized.
"I should go tell Bucky, he'll want to know what we've come up with," Steve moved towards the lab door.
"Hey Steve," Tony called. Steve turned and looked at Tony waiting. "Tell him…" Tony stopped, looked down at his hands before running his finger through his hair in a frustrated manner, "tell him that I should have known he was right all along."
Steve stared at Tony for what seemed like several minutes before nodding and walking quickly out the door. It didn't take long for Steve to climb the flights of stairs between the labs and the residential part of the compound. Even less time now that he felt like he finally had good news to share. As he drew closer to Bucky's door he heard the crash of something against the wall before finally hearing sobbing. He could barely make out Bucky's voice as he told someone that he didn't want to live without them.
Steve knew exactly who that someone was and it broke his heart that his friend was in so much pain. Bucky hadn't had it easy for decades it seemed. He had suffered more than one man should have to much less more than one man could. Reaching for the doorknob, Steve hoped this new bit of news would be enough for Bucky to keep holding out hope that things could be fixed finally.
Quietly opening the bedroom door, Steve watched as Madison's form hovered over Bucky's as she tried her best to comfort him even though she couldn't touch him.
"Buck," Steve spoke softly to his grieving friend, "we think we've come up with a way to get them all back."