Steve was sure that the Ancient One had been lying to him when she had informed him of her upcoming death. She had said that he would be returning to his loved ones soon yet the points in time he had to protect had kept him away for a further 15 years. It had been 40 long years since he left 2023 with his mission to return to stones and he still had gods know how long until he will be able to return. Steve had tried to stop himself counting how many days it has been since he left his Bucky, yet it felt impossible. He had left Bucky probably believing him that he had stayed in the past and wouldn't return. He couldn't return the way Sam, Bucky and Bruce were expecting because the device and the suit had been destroyed the second he had stayed in the past to prevent the technology being used to change the timeline. The missions had been completed and there were no time aberrations which Steve could sense. The timeline was still on track to lead to Thanos. A face Steve knew he was going to have to face soon enough. Every time which the infinity stones had come into counter with had been ensured off. Thanos was the only one left.
"I have not seen you before" a voice said from behind Steve. He had returned to the New York Sanctum for a rest before going to Thanos. Steve quickly glamoured himself as he turned to face the voice. As suspected it was Doctor Strange, the time stone around his neck.
"I have been away" Steve replied whilst internally flinching, the sound of his own voice sounded unrecognisable glamoured.
"You are shielding your appearance from me. I can tell" Doctor Strange stated, his eyes looked Steve over suspiciously.
"I cannot allow you to see me as who I am. The Ancient One gave me a mission to protect the timeline from aberrations which were appearing. I had to put everything back on course. The Ancient One last order was to continue with my mission yet keep everything classified from others to prevent changes to the timeline. By ordering the mission kept classified, my identity must to remain a secret. I am only telling you this because I know you understand the importance of maintaining our reality no matter what the consequence are" Steve briefly explained. Doctor Strange was quiet for a moment, he seemed to be weighing up the different option of what he could reply with, he could push and demand for more answers which Steve couldn't give him, or he could leave the conversation where it was. Strange chose the latter.
"I understand. The timeline protection is important. I would not want to be the reason of it changing, after all, if you tell me what you know then what you worked hard for will not happen" Doctor Strange answered.
"I am glad you understand, I only plan to stay for tonight. My mission is nearly complete. If I survive I might be able to tell you about it, so you may fully understand the consequence" Steve promised.
"Then I will look forward to that meeting. Good Luck with your mission" Doctor Strange before leaving. Steve sighed, he felt old. The serum prevents him from aging which made him effectively immortal. Steve suspected that it would be the same for Bucky as well which made the life he was living a little better with the idea that he would always have Bucky, yet he didn't want Bucky to feel that the serum had trapped them in this immortal life. Steve had to force himself to stop thinking. He was tired and if this thinking kept going he would end up with a headache and not enough sleep to deal with Thanos.
"I had done it Father, I have located all the infinity stones expect one however I know how I can find it for you. I have a plan for you to achieve all these stones Father if you would listen to it" Steve said walking over to Thanos who was sitting on his chair.
"Continue my child" Thanos answered.
"The Power stone is on Xandar, I believe that it would be best for you to retrieve this stone first because the Space Stone is with the Asgardians who have fled their world after it was destroyed. After collecting the power stone, you would have enough power to attack and kill half of the Asgardian's population. The reality stone is in Nowhere with The Collector. Two stones are down on Earth, so I suggest after getting the Space stone you should send some of your children to Earth, the mind stone is with the Vision, one of the avengers whilst the time stone is at New York Sanctum being guarded by Masters of the Mystic Arts. To get the Soul Stone you must persuade Gamora to tell you where it is. Nebula and Gamora have recently become close, I'm sure if you used Nebula then Gamora would be happy to tell you the location" Steve explained, it took all the strength he had to prevent him from throwing up. He caused all of this. He essentially wiped out half of the universe.
"Well done my child, you have succeeded in our mission. I will follow through with your plan. We must ready the fleet. We will head to Xandar immediately" Thanos ordered.
"I will not fail you father" Steve answered before hurrying off to inform the Black Order of the plan. Steve felt strange being back on Thanos ship, the Black Order were preparing for battle whilst Steve informed the pilot to take them to Xandar. Steve's own ship was having a quick maintenance after the years it had spent shrunken. He doubts there were any issues because it was shrunken using the Pym Particles and Ant-man suit spent most of the time small and never had any major issues.
Steve followed Thanos as the attack on Xandar began, his mission was to retrieve the power stone and bring it back to Thanos after that they would decimate the planet and head towards the Asgardian refugee ship. From Steve's memories, he remembered that Rocket told him that the infinity stone had been safely secured in the vault of the Nova Corps Headquarters, originally believing that it would be too risky trying to gain the stone from the Nova Corps they had decided to head to Morag where it originally was kept. Retrieving the stone from the Nova Corps was far to easy then Steve expected. He guessed it was up to the Super Soldier Serum and the training he had with Thanos which helped him the most.
Steve pulled the orb containing the stone from the vault and walked back through the little of unconscious bodies which lined the floor. Thanos was waiting for him outside the headquarters. Steve didn't say anything. He just threw the orb over the Thanos whilst Ebony Maw spoke about being humble and something to do with grandeur. Steve didn't listen, he just wanted this all to end. Thanos ordered his army to kill half of the population before heading back to the ship. Steve remained quiet.
The journey to the Asgardian Refugee ship was long, Asgard and Xandar were nowhere near each other.
Steve walked through the bodies of fallen Asgardians, he had just returned from releasing the ship to allow those fortunate few which survived to an escape and head to Earth. Those who had fallen only few were still alive, yet the Black Order were slowly making their way around the room killing those alive one by one. Steve couldn't look at Thor who was being tortured by the power stone to make Loki turn over the Tesseract.
"The Tesseract was destroyed when Asgard was" Thor said but Thanos continued to look at Loki who eventually gave up the Tesseract. Steve kept to the back, the further away he was no one would see the horror of watching his friend's people die.
"Your optimism is misplaced Asgardian" Thanos said which caused Loki to faulter.
"Well first, I'm not Asgardian and for another we have a hulk" Loki said quickly dropping the Tesseract and tackled Thor out the way of the raging Hulk. Steve watched with baited breath as the Hulk and Thanos fought but eventually Thanos triumphed. Steve heard one of the Asgardian's whispering something just before the Bifrost appeared and took the Hulk away. The Asgardian died shortly after, Thor screamed in agony as Thanos was bestowed the Tesseract shattering it to pieces revealing the stone.
"There are two more stones on Earth, find them my children and bring them to me on Titan. Normad stay with me" Thanos ordered. Just before Loki attacked. The snap of Loki's neck will forever haunt Steve's dreams along with the muffled cry from Thor. It hurt watching his friend's pain and being unable to do anything about it. Thanos used the power stone to destroy the ship after they had evacuated from it. The children of Thanos headed to Earth whilst Steve and Thanos headed to Nowhere to claim the reality stone and Gamora.
Steve and Thanos watched in the distance as Gamora and her team fought against the vision Thanos had set up. Steve couldn't believe that Gamora would cry over Thanos' death, he would have thought she would be relieved after everything he did to her. Steve watched as Gamora begged for Peter to kill her, his failure and then Gamora, Steve and Thanos were back on Thanos' ship.
"Father I am going to help my brothers to claim the stones on Earth. If these Avengers have stopped Loki in the past, my siblings are going to need all the support they can get. We will see you on Titan after you have reclaimed the Soul Stone" Steve informed Thanos before heading towards his ship and headed towards Earth. Steve's mission was almost complete.
Steve stayed hidden most of the fight. There were no individuals who were Masters of the Mystic Arts present which prevents him from being found. He felt the portal open before he saw Thanos. Steve quickly glamoured his appearance to his usual shoulder-length red hair which had become easier to glamour since he had decided to keep his normal blonde hair at shoulders length. Steve jumped down from his hiding place.
"Father the stone is over there, they are trying to destroy it" Steve told Thanos who nodded and headed in the direction Steve had pointed in. Steve quickly regained his hiding and observation spot where he watched as the stone was destroyed by Wanda for the actions to be undone by Thanos. Vision was dead once more before he could fully understand what was happening. Thor attack but he could not stop it. Thanos snapped before opening a portal and disappeared.
Steve heart broke when he watched Bucky turn to dust once more. He never saw the others the first time around but from the view he had he could see everyone who died from the snap slowly disappearing. Steve jumped down and approached Thanos who appeared beside him.
"You have succeeded father" Steve said.
"We can finally relax my child. Meet me on Planet 0269-S, we will finally relax" Thanos ordered before using the space stone and disappearing. Steve dropped the disguise he knew no one would find him out here. They would all be shell shocked from losing. Losing everyone they cared about. Steve sighed.
"It's time" Steve whispered. His plan which had taken years to slowly put together would finally become reality. His mission was nearly up. He hoped that it wouldn't take much longer until he can finally be reunited with Bucky, his Bucky. Steve turned and walked away from the battlefield towards his ship. He would have to wait until nightfall to start his plan after all he doesn't want those to interfere and unintentionally change the timeline that he has worked so hard to preserve.