The day that everyone had been working towards was finally here. Bruce and Tony believed they had figured it out and with their latest gizmo for time travel, they were ready to give it a test run.

Bruce, Nat, Rhodey, Bucky and Scott all stood around watching and working trying to get ready for their first test run using both the new suits to allow for time travel and the GPS Tony had built to guide their way. "I'm so not ready for this. I can't believe we are going to try this," Scott mumbled under his breath over and over again.

Bruce finally acknowledged Scott's anxiety about the test run and tried to put his mind at ease. "It'll be a piece of cake. We send you back in time and bring you back in less than five minutes. What could be simpler," Bruce offered with a big smile.

As he finished zipping up Scott's suit, Rhodey chose that moment to ask what really everyone had been thinking, "So if time travel is really possible," he paused for effect and to bring everyone's attention to him, "why don't we just go back and you know…to baby Thanos"? He used his hands to imitate tying a large knot around the neck of Thanos and possibly choking him to death as a child. Granted it would have ended a great deal of problems for the future, so everyone turned to Bruce to hear the answer to what seemed like a good solution to their problems, even if it was a bit dark and morbid sounding.

A stunned Bruce continued to stare at Rhodes for several seconds before exclaiming, "First off, you are a horrible person for suggesting that of a baby." Rhodes just shrugged his shoulders as though he were not bothered by the implications of his suggested actions. "Secondly, time travel doesn't work that way." Now everyone seemed confused.

"You can't go back in your own timeline and change an event that then changes your future. There is no ripple effect. You actually create alternative futures by changing events, you don't change the one you are currently on." Bruce turned back to what he was doing fully expecting that his explanation answered all the questions. Boy was he wrong.

"So Back to the Future is all a bunch of lies," Scott asked in utter shock.

"That can't be right," Rhodey spoke up completely baffled by this new bit of what had to be wrong information. "What about Bill and Ted, Star Trek, Quantum Leap…"

"Hot Tub Time Machine," Bucky threw in one of the few time travel references he knew of that hadn't already been mentioned. "Hot Tub Time Machine," Rhodes backed Bucky's reference up.

"Die Hard," Scott added having finally snapped out of his moment of amazement.

Everyone turned slowly to look at him, not saying a word as though he had grown a second head.

"Please tell me that your complete knowledge of time travel is not wrapped up in Hollywood references?" Bruce looked from one face to another of the team members waiting for someone to show some sign of actual knowledge.

"The rules of time travel are practically spelled out for you in those movies," Rhodes added after turning away from a blushing Scott.

Bruce shook off the pop culture references as nonsense. "I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true. Think about it. If you go into the past, that past becomes your future, and your former present becomes the past, which can't now be changed by your new future!"

Everyone stood in silence as they all slowly allowed what Bruce had told them sink in.

"Alright, you ready to give this a try?" Bruce turned back to Scott, a tube of Pym particles in his hand ready to be snapped into place.

"Hey, hey be careful with those things," Scott said snatching the small glowing red tube from Bruce. "This is all we have and if we aren't careful we won't have enough for the test run." In the process of Scott issuing his stern warning he accidentally activated his suit thus disappearing from sight. Seconds later he reappeared before everyone's eyes. Raising his suits helmet, Scott gave a 'crap' before hanging his head in shame. He did exactly what he had just warned the others not to do.

"I can't do this," he said once again.

"I can."

Everyone turned towards the voice that offered to test the suit. Bucky Barnes stood straight and tall from where he had been leaning against the wall. Arms folded across his strong chest, he offered the group again. "I want to go. Let me test the suit out."

Bruce looked Bucky straight in the eye, studying the young man before giving a subtle head nod in agreement.

Everyone stood around watching as Tony and Bruce made some final adjustments to Bucky's suit. A few slight modifications had to be made to accommodate his vibranium arm, but nothing too drastic. Nat and Steve looked on as Tony adjusted the setting on the time-GPS attached to Bucky's right hand. "Buck are you sure about this," Steve asked his best friend.

Bucky looked down at the glove that now covered his metal hand, thinking about his answer before responding. "I've not been of much use these past few years to you all, to Madison. It's the very least I can do."

Natasha stepped forward and gave Bucky a final hug, whispering a 'be safe' into his ear before stepping away. She didn't agree with Bucky's sentiment about being useless lately. She knew deep down how much these past few years he had been suffering. They all had. She never felt like he wasn't carrying his weight around the compound or the few missions they had been able to carry out. His pain was very real and she never begrudged him feeling it.

Steve reached out and shook his best friend's hand, "I guess I'll see you in a minute then?" Bucky's answering smile back was comforting to Steve. Bucky really was the right one for this test. He needed to see first-hand that this could work. He needed this to keep on fighting.

Stepping back, Bucky took a deep breath before activating his suit. The helmet swished into place and in less than a second he was gone.

Suddenly Bucky found himself hurtling through lights of all colors. A tunnel of sorts, his body flying in a direction it seemed to know to follow all without him telling it to. Before he knew it he landed. His feet finding purchase under his body as he stumbled to keep himself upright. The suit's helmet opened and Bucky looked around. He would know this location anywhere. It was all absolutely as he remembered it. The bricks were all the same dark red. The sidewalk, slightly damp from the light rain that had fallen earlier. The loud banging of trash cans drew his attention to the alleyway he stood next to, reminding him he only had a moment to hide as he saw his 1940's uniformed self-hurrying this way.

It was like watching a movie play out before your very eyes. With only seconds to spare, Bucky ducked into an open doorway and watched as a younger version of himself rushed by and down the alley. It was like reliving it all. He could practically recite what he said word for word. The big bully came stumbling out of the alleyway clutching his jawline as he disappeared into the crowded streets.

Bucky watched as Steve picked himself off of the ground, "Sometimes, I think you like getting punched," Bucky listened, chuckling as he watched. Steve never did back down from a fight no matter how uneven the odds.

The darkness of the doorway hid Bucky as he watched Steve and himself walk by. He remembered that night. They were going to go to Stark's World Expedition of Tomorrow and meet up with some hot dames. He continued to watch on until they both turned the corner and disappeared from sight before he stepped out from the shadows.

That day felt like a lifetime ago. He was so young back then. Bucky wished he could have warned himself and Steve of all of the heartache to come, but as Bruce had explained, it wouldn't have changed their current present. He would still have the metal arm, HYDRA would have still brainwashed him, and he would have still been an assassin for over 60 years. Nothing would have changed. Leaning down, Bucky picked up exactly what he had come for as the timer on his suit began to signal his eminent return.

Suddenly he found himself falling all over again until his feet found purchase on the floor of the Avengers compound. Steve and Nat both rushed to his side as his knees gave out on him causing him to stumble to the ground.

"Buck, man are you alright?" Steve's worry was evident as he and Nat both helped him to stand back to his feet.

"It worked," Bucky smiled at his friend as he handed him what he had picked up from the sidewalk.

In Steve's hands he held the decline for military enlistment paperwork of Steve Rogers from Paramus, New Jersey. "It worked," Steve smiled before hugging his best friend.

The Time Heist as they had all elected to call it, wasn't quite ready to be completed. The how was done, now they had to figure out the when. They only had a small amount of Pym particles and so if they were going to retrieve the stones they had to be very specific of which times and what locations to visit.

Natasha, Bruce and Bucky all lay on the conference room floor staring up at the ceiling, Steve and Tony were in the corner talking amongst themselves.

"So Loki had the mind stone as well as the space stone in New York when he and the Chitauri attacked you guys?" Bucky could only imagine what the battle had looked like as it went on. During that particular time HYDRA had him on cryo-freeze and wouldn't wake him for another assassination until three days after the event. Even then, his mind had been so scrambled from the brainwashing that he never focused on the carnage that was being cleaned up. He was only focused on eliminating his target and hiding it to make it look like just another victim of the event. It worked too. No one was the wiser that the visiting Prime Minister's death was anything other than a horrible accident as his limo was crushed by falling debris from a building that had been crashed into by the monsters.

Bucky was lost in thought over it all, so he missed Nat's next important point. "So we are saying that three of the stones were in New York at the exact same time?" Steve, Tony, and Bruce all stopped what they were doing to listen to what Natasha was asking. "So if we pick the right moment, we could get two stones from Loki and get the time stone from Strange all in one stop."

Tony walked to the display board to record the information. "That leaves us with the reality, power and soul stones."

"The reality stone Thor had access to on Asgard. We should leave that up to him and Loki to retrieve that." Steve stood from his seat and walked towards Tony.

"Ah," Bruce grunted in disapproval, "do you really want to send Loki after one of these stones? He may seem to be on our side now, but that guy has a whole bag full of cat crazy going on. Can we really trust him?"

"Why not send Rocket with them?" Bucky sat up from his seat on the floor. "Rocket works well with Thor and he's crafty enough to outsmart most of what Loki would try to conjure up if he does try to double cross us."

Tony stood thinking about this proposition.

Noticing the hesitation Bucky continued on with his reasoning, "But I don't think he will double cross us."

Natasha's surprise and shock were clear in the look she gave Bucky. "He is literally known as the trickster, James. We'd be foolish to be anything less than prepared for him to stab us in the back…possibly literally."

Bucky looked down at his metal arm, flexing his fingers that shown the gold in the bends where his body would normally flex with movement. "The Wakandan people trusted me enough to give me a new arm, even after everything I've done over the years. I was treated with kindness even before they were finally able to get all of that crap out of my head." Steve and Natasha were noticeably uncomfortable with the reminder of Bucky's alternate self, the Winter Soldier. "But even through all of that, now they treat me like a brother and son of the country all because they gave me a chance to prove myself."

Steve knew how important the Wakandan people's faith in Bucky was to him. He worked hard for months to earn their trust, enduring some very painful therapy sessions to remove the HYDRA programming. "Madison trusted him. When we were all up against Thanos, it was Loki that helped us get Madison away and he got close enough to stab Thanos. He could have easily double crossed us any number of times over the past several years." Bucky walked over to the window that overlooked the lake just outside of the compound, to the deck that he had sat so many nights lately dreaming of the day when he could have Madison back in his arms. "I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He won't fail us." Bucky turned to face the others, crossing his arms over his chest emphasizing his point.

No one realized that just outside of the room Loki stood listening to the conversation. For a brief moment he was truly touched that James had stood up for him. Loki's mind wandered to the young girl who years before smiled at him with such kindness from across the conference room. The same young girl who had shown him nothing but trust and respect. Internally Loki made a vow. He would somehow earn the trust that James and Madison had shown him. He may be a god of tricks, but he would do all he could to also be a man worthy of respect.