When they used the universe hopping machine later, Loki and Mantis stood in Asgard's palace behind a pillar far away from anyone and everyone else in 2013.

Mantis asked, "Where are we going?"

"She's in the room around the corner at the end of the hall," Loki said, "and this is the plan." He turned into Thor and had Mantis turn into a guard for the palace. Loki explained in Thor's voice, "We'll go in there and I'll keep her calm and inject this thing into her, get the aether and then I'll get out of there. You'll stand at the door. Follow me."

"I love it!" she said too loudly, then whispered, "Sorry."

As they walked down the massive hallway, Loki gasped and shoved Mantis hastily behind a pillar beside them. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"Shush!" Loki demanded, "It's my mother, she can always see right through my illusions so shut up or she'll spot us!"

"Loki," his mother's voice came from behind him.

He screamed, jumped, and turned around as she jumped back and screamed too. He said as calmly as he could, "You're mistaken mother, I'm Thor not Loki. You should know that."

"Right," she said, "Loki, who are you hiding from?"

Loki dropped the illusion for both of them and said, "No one, apparently."

"You're a bit..." she said causously, "disheveled...in the future. What's the matter? What happened to you? Why are you here?"

"How did you know I'm from the future?" Loki whispered.

"I was raised by witches, boy," she explained, "you know I see more than with eyes. I can see into the future and I know you're not the Loki I know. He's downstairs in his cell. Now what are you doing here and why are you so scared?"

Loki said, "It's a long story."

After he explained everything that happened in the past several weeks of his life in detail, Frigga said, "So that's why you're here, and in hiding. Well that's no problem. I'll even help you."

Loki said, "Mother I was about to go in there as Thor and stab her with this."

She took the device from him and said, "I'll go in as Thor and you'll see how it's done by a master witch herself." She changed herself into her son and then changed Loki and Mantis into palace guards.

They marched down the hall and into Jane's room without knocking and Frigga stabbed Jane so fast she didn't know what happened and passed out. Afterwards, she tossed the device to Loki as the illusion wore off the three of them.

She asked, "Is that all you need?"

"Actually," he said, "I'll need something from Father's vault as well. I can't promise it'll be returned."

Meanwhile, on Vormier in 2014, Bucky and Steve appeared at the top of the tallest mountain on the planet and walked around a wall of stone to see Red Skull.

"Welcome," he said nonchalantly.

"You," Steve said, completely shocked. They both took out a gun and leveled them at him. "You're supposed to be dead!"

"Gentlemen," Red Skull explained clamly, "we're all supposed to be dead."

Bucky replied hastily, "No thanks to you! You're the reason we're all here!"

Steve said as calmly as he could, lowering his gun, "We're not here to discuss this. Johan, what are you doing here?"

"I guide those to something I cannot posess," he explained as he walked toward the edge of the cliff, "that is my punishment for trying to use the space stone for my own personal gain. In order to obtain the soul stone, one must lose one that which they love." He turned to face them, now at the top of the cliff.

Steve repeated, confused, "Lose one that which they love?"

"A sacrifice?" Bucky asked, "Someone has to die in order to get this stone? Why?"

Red Skull explained, "In order to gain the power of the soul stone, one must know the pain it is to inflict such pain onto someone else. The price is a soul for the soul stone."

Steve said, "We don't want to inflict pain on anyone."

"Not even Thanos?" Bucky asked.

"I-" he started, "that's not what I mean. Listen, Johan, trillions, septillions, of people are dead in our timeline and we can bring them back with the soul stone and make sure that never happens again. Isn't that seen as only a good thing?"

"I'm not the one who made the rules, Captain," Red Skull said, "I only guide people here."

Bucky asked hastily, "How do we know you're telling the truth?"

"Kill me if you're going to," Red Skull taunted, "believe every word I've said, or don't, it doesn't matter to me and no matter what you do, it won't change your fates. Someone needs to fall to their death while the other takes the stone and leaves without them." He gestured to the cliff.

"Bucky," Steve said, "Thanos came here with his daughter and left without her. He's telling the truth but don't do anything rash. Someone's supposed to jump off of this cliff, but we're both enhanced. We've survived falls higher than this before."

Red Skull explained, "The gravity here is much stronger than where we're from. Your velocity increases ten-fold compared to Earth so I can assure you that once someone leaves the edge, they will never return to the living."

After a moment to take a deep breath, Steve said stoically, "It should be me." He turned to look at Bucky, who was devastated.

"No," he said, "Steve, it shouldn't and you know it."

"Bucky-" he said calmly.

"Steve we can think of another way to do this!" Bucky said desperately as he held him back and walked in front of him, "Maybe, we can go to a different time and place where the soul stone is already in use and steal it from whoever is using it then."

Steve shook his head and explained, "We can't. The only time we know for a fact that someone is using it is when Thanos takes it from here and we already lost to him once when he had the stones. This is the only way." He tried to walk around Bucky only for him to push him back.

Bucky said, "There has to be other people. You, ugly," he pointed his gun to Red Skull again, "there has to have been other people that have been here before us. When was that? We need to know the time exactly!"

"Of course," Red Skull answered, "but since I've been here all have failed. They could not bare the fact that they would lose that which love in order to obtain the soul stone so they have always walked away, defeated, every single time."

Steve took a deep breath and said, "It has to be done. I can do this for the universe." He turned and slowly gave Bucky his shield.

"Don't you dare, Steve," Bucky said, "You have to live! You know why!" He tried to push Steve away as he walked around him.

"You can still live your life, Buck," Steve said calmly as he spun around Bucky, his back to the cliff, only a few feet away from the edge now.

"I don't need to," Bucky said as he firmly let the shield with Steve, "Let me do this, I can do this!" He tried to get around Steve again only to end up pushing him closer to the edge.

Steve stopped him and said desperately, "I can't watch you die again!" When Bucky froze in place, they stood eye to eye, just a few inches away from the cliffside now. "I can't," he whispered.

"I didn't-"

"I know but I thought you did," Steve explained, "and it was my fault. I can't let that happen again, besides, you deserve a chance to prove that you'll do the right thing. You're not the Hydra assassin everyone things you are. You're not!"

Choking up, Bucky said, "You're the only reason I'm alive right now, Steve. The only reason. When I remembered them, the things I did, the things I went through with the Russians and Hydra though the whole 20th century I was going to end it. I didn't want to live with the pain but I couldn't forget you!" He hugged him tight.

Steve said hugged him tight and explained calmly, "There are other reasons to live, Bucky, you just have to live long enough to discover them."

"They'll blame me," Bucky said desperately, "for your death. The whole world will say it's my fault you're gone. How am I supposed to explain this? Just let me go."

"No," Steve said sternly, almost taking a step back and realizing there was only air under his foot.

"Steven Grant Rogers!" Bucky begged.

"James Buchanan Barnes," Steve said as calm as he could, struggling to hold back tears.

"Don't make me do this," Bucky begged as he held Steve's shoulders carefully, "Please."

Steve whispered, nodding slightly, "Buck, it's the end of the line. You can do this to save half the universe. It's okay." He held the side of his face, and then let go of him.

"I'm sorry," Bucky whispered back.

He tapped Steve's chest and watched as Steve fell backwards. He closed his eyes as he waited for impact, tears streaming down his face. He quickly wiped them away as he heard the harsh THUD. When he glanced down, Steve was dead. The clouds above him reacted violently.

In a flash, Bucky suddenly appeared in a body of water with the stone in his right hand. He sat up, horrified.

As calmly as he could while still trying to keep himself together, Bucky walked over to see Steve's dead body still laying at the bottom of the cliff. The smallest pool of blood was under him.

"Steve," Bucky whispered, "I can't just leave you here." He struggled to sit him up and carry him onto his back. "This was easier when you were 90 pounds and 5 foot nothing," he added.

He grabbed both of their wrists at the same time, the stone still in his hand, and pushed the button to go back to modern day avengers headquarters.