A/N The wind down as most of us expected. Maybe not as it was expected.

"I seem to remember a scepter around it."

"It's a terrible plan."

"Keep it simple."

"Been a long day."

Moments before...

The Ancient One turned away from her now-closed portal. "Captain Rogers," she said. "Welcome back."

A much older version of Steve Rogers walked out of the shadows of her kitchen. He moved easily, in spite of his apparent age, which was no clue at all to his real age. Under his arm, held by a hand under the bottom edge, he carried a gunmetal gray bowl. "It's not 'Captain' anymore, of course, not officially. Everyone kept calling me that, though, even after I retired."

"I'm surprised you did," she said. "You don't seem the type."

"Peggy was all for it, said the kids could handle things. Which they could. But bureaucracy was the real villain," said Steve, setting his shield on the table. "The only force in the universe more powerful than the infinity gems. At least they were going by my calendar age, not knowing about the few extra years I snuck into the calendar along the way, but still..."

The Ancient One pointed at the gray metal disk. "Where did you get that?" she asked. "I wouldn't have thought that you could bring anything back with you."

"Just what I brought in with me," said Steve. "The uniform, the suit, and a little block of metal I got from Thor's mother."

The Ancient One wasn't ancient for nothing. "Ah," she said. "You'd disarmed yourself."

"Honorably. So she re-armed me, honorably," finished Steve."One warrior to another. Not enough for a hammer, of course, but enough for a sword, or a shield." He laid a hand on it reverently, lightly stroking the metal. "Doesn't throw worth a damn, though." Steve looked embarrassed. "Sorry. I'm always telling the kids to watch their language."

She ignored his embarrassment, rather than embarrass him a second time. "It looks pristine."

"The original went with me, into the ice. The other me. They never found him, since I was already there, so I had Howard make a new shield for me out of Freya's gift. Uru metal. Boy, did he have a time." Steve chuckled. "Had to invent a whole new level of tech to do it, too. Made himself another bundle off of that, not to mention it finally got his whole 'flying car' thing off the ground." He chuckled at his pun.

She smiled too. "Sounds like you made some changes along the way."

Steve shrugged. "I knew what I knew, at a time when it made a difference. My kids and I jumped the gun on the age of superheroes. Erskine's serum only changed me, but those vita-rays!" He gave another chuckle, then shrugged again. "We kept Hydra out SHIELD, and they kept the peace pretty well. No Cold War, no military-industrial complex. Hydra did so much damage. No moon race, no computers, no cell phones. It was a happier time. People could keep up with the tech."

The Ancient sat and poured tea. "Sounds idyllic."

Steve sighed. "It was. But like all dreams it had to end sometime." He sat and took the cup she offered him. "Thank you. We didn't have many super-villains to speak of, without Hydra, but our other enemy never showed up either. I figured he went into the future and got dusted."

"Probably," said the Ancient One, sipping her tea. "The stones are economical that way. It also would have put an end to your dream life, though."

"Popped me right back here, I guess the second he went forward." His face showed his distaste for the world he'd come back to. "That was in 2014. Don't know how I got to 2012."

The Ancient One considered the evidence. "You took the time stone with you on your last mission, to facilitate the changing of your own past. When you went back to your roots it went with you, holding that reality open, as it were, and it probably would have continued to do so until the moment you began your backward journey to return the stones. You would have appeared as if you'd never left."

Steve gestured at the kitchen, but he didn't mean just the kitchen. "So why am I here?"

"The passage of your enemy from the present of that reality into the future of this one wouldn't have changed your reality, unless he died there, or was disposed of in such a way that his return to his present was impossible."

Steve looked at a memory. "I guess you could call it that. He was so powerful we had to use the stones to do it."

Her eyes widened. "Not Banner again?"

Steve shook his head. "Stark that time. He had armor that could take a four hundred percent overload, probably more, but it couldn't take the stones. It killed him, but he saw his victory first." Steve raised his tea in a toast to his comrade.

If the Ancient One was less than pleased to know anything about the future, it didn't show. "Your enemy's death, accomplished that way, would have closed off his version of the future, his alternate reality. Actions in the present can ripple into the past, as you now know, but this would have been worse. The backwash from your enemy's death would have been much more destructive, a counter-signal of sorts, echoing backwards to its origin point. At which point your entire alternate reality closed down, wife, family, and all. I am sorry."

"Don't be," said Steve, drinking some of his tea. "We shut down our enemy's Hell, and I got a chance to fight for a better future, and win. It was beautiful. Beautiful."

"A garden, of sorts, in its time." A dream in ours. She didn't mention that.

"Well, I'm no gardener," said Steve, setting down his tea. He stood, lifting up his shield. "This hung in my garage for too many years. The only time I brought it out was for a parade. That's not what it was meant for, and that's not why I'm here."

Which reminded her..."You're here, 2012 instead of 2014, because you came to the last moment the time stone existed in this reality," she said. "To be honest, I am hoping you'll return it now."

Steve smiled. "That first, and with all due gratitude for the loan." From his pocket he drew a cracked and worn leather glove, part of his old uniform. He put it on his hand and reached into his pocket again, coming out with a green gem. "I'm sorry. I kept it in a box." A box which hadn't come back with him, obviously.

The Ancient One stood. "Excellent." She reached out her hands, levitating the stone off of the glove. The Eye opened as the gem approached, closing as it settled into its familiar resting place. "And so it shall remain, for the remainder of my stewardship. Beyond that I cannot say, but I have faith that Stephen Strange will use the stone wisely."

"For as long as it exists," said Steve, folding the glove. "Our enemy destroyed it in our time, destroyed all the gems. That's why we had to come back into the past."

"Then Stephen will have an opportunity to test a theory of mine." She didn't seem as concerned as he might have expected. "I believe the stones are necessary. When your enemy destroys these, I imagine new stones will come to be, somewhere in the universe. It will be his task to find the time stone and keep it safe, as it has always been." She sat, and drank from her tea. "Why did you say 'first'?"

"Because I'm hoping, now that you've got your gem back, that you'll do me a favor." He laid a hand on his shield. "I can't get back home on my own."

Clearly he wasn't talking about a place. "What year is home to you?"

"2019."

The Ancient One looked sad. "I would if I could, Captain Rogers, the Queen of Asgard is not the only one who understands honorable recompense, but...I'm afraid your time lies beyond my own. I cannot-How do I put this? I cannot see to aim."

Steve pulled his time suit's GPS sensor from his other pocket. "I can aim, but somewhere along the line I ran out of bullets."

The Ancient One took it from him. "How does it work?"

"No idea," said Steve. "We have a base station set up in the future. It sends signals through quantum space so this knows where it is and how to get back. Somewhere along the line I used a Pym particle I shouldn't have, so I can't get back into quantum space."

"I see," she said. "When we close all the doors, technology opens a window."

"Discovers a window," said Steve.

"Same thing, in the end. I will have to investigate, clearly, but equally clearly I can do nothing about it. I'll leave that issue for Stephen to deal with, if he feels the need." She placed the bracelet around the Eye, invoking the stone's powers. A green light speared out, forming a hazy mage in the air.

Steve, knowing where he'd come from, recognized the shapes, Banner especially, but they were fuzzy and unclear. "Can't you bring it into focus?"

"It's beyond my time," she said, as if that was any explanation at all. "Banner's injury troubles me."

"Why?"

"His state when I met him was barely stable, his spirit separated far too easily from his body," she said. "I fear he may try to fix the damage the stones have done to him, and what that might do to his stability."

"I can warn him, but I'm not sure what good it will do."

"Be careful about that, Captain Rogers," said the Ancient One firmly. "You might start the very sequence of events you wish to prevent."

Steve nodded. He'd have to wait and see. "If I can even get there. Is this enough to open a portal?"

"It might be." She raised her other hand, adding to the current spell. A golden circle appeared in the center of the image, but when it spun out to the edges the hazy image had become a cloud. "If I had the space stone I could get you both, but with only your technology for guidance the outcome is more variable."

"Is it safe?"

"Does that matter?"

"I suppose not." Steve lifted up his shield, stepping forward into the portal.

He walked out onto dirt, cut by a walkway. He looked behind him, but the portal didn't exist on this side. Tony Stark's cabin in the woods stood in front of him, with the lake in the distance. Steve walked around to the side, looking for the entrance to Stark's basement. He put his hand on the pad and was mostly recognized. "Anomalies detected," said Friday.

"Extrapolate for temporal displacement," said Steve, who'd found science and technology easier to deal with when it didn't move so fast. "Current age plus sixty-nine years."

"Adjusting," said Friday. "Biometrics within acceptable limits. Welcome, Captain Rogers." The door to the basement slid open.

"Hello, Friday." Steve descended into Stark's last workshop. "What is the current date and time?" Friday told him, and Steve sagged with relief. The correct date, even if the place was a little off. And he was a bit early, but he had things to do so that didn't matter. "Friday, do you have the current design for my shield?"

"I do." The painting station came to life in preparation.

Steve slid the shield onto the work area. "Paint this please. I need clothing. Scan for new size." All he had was his uniform and it didn't fit right anymore.

"Scanning," said Friday, as the sprayers started their work. "Current sizes out of range. Accessing storage. Closet B."

Steve opened the door to closet B and found a copious supply of Stark's old clothes, suits and shoes, but also more casual wear. Casual was good. He removed the uniform and left it in Friday's care, putting on the new with a bit of relief.

"Shield restoration complete."

Steve turned and went to check the work. The paint job was perfect, the shield looked factory new in spite of its decades of use. "Good job, Friday."

"Thank you, Captain Rogers."

Steve flipped it over. "Do you have any straps?"

Steve walked along the shore of the lake, listening to the peace and life around him. This was his sort of place, now. He'd have to ask Pepper if she could help him find a place like it.

He heard voices, up ahead, and slowed his pace. Too many different tones, so he hadn't left yet. Steve spotted a bench and went to wait, enjoying the view in the meantime. He set the shield down and listened to the world around him.

"Going quantum in three, two, one...And returning in five, four, three, two, one..."

Birds chirped in the distance.

"Where is he?" asked Sam.

Steve took a deep breath. Where indeed?

A/N 2 A couple of predictions for future films. It'll be interesting to see if any of them pan out. Adam Warlock should be coming out of his cocoon soon, and he was always associated with the soul gem. Banner could try to fix his injuries and set off the World War Hulk/Planet Hulk arcs. Earth has reached out into space, so a larger stage for future films is likely, with more galactic-level threats. We will see.