AN: This chapter is a little different and covers the time period between the end of CA: CW through the beginning of A: Endgame (based upon the info in the trailers).

. . .

"Wow, you had a seriously bad week."

I didn't bother to question how she got the number to the current burner phone in my pocket. It would just give me a headache. We'd been on the run for not quite a month now. Nat had found us a mere ten days after, her betrayal putting her on the most wanted list next to me, Wanda, Sam, and Bucky. Even with T'Challa's change of heart in the end, it did nothing to protect us from Ross, who had decided that Accords were worth more than keeping the Avengers together.

Granted breaking everyone out of the Raft might have upset him a tad. In my opinion, it shouldn't have been so easy to do then.

"Did I?" I questioned, finding the situation freeing in some ways. I could act where the Avengers, what remained of them, would be hamstrung at every turn. "You just calling to make it worse?"

I could hear her sigh across the line. "Rogers, stop being a self-righteous ass, I am not your enemy."

"What, the bounty on my head not worth the money any longer?"

"Well, there are those who still want you dead, always will be. But you just had to piss off Thunderbolt Ross, didn't you?"

I frowned deeply, debating hanging up on her but instead said, "Is there a point to this?"

"So gruff while I'm trying to be generous here."

I remained silent.

"With the return of my coin I'm passing it to you."

I twitched, thankful she couldn't see me. "No, I can't let you do that." I hadn't even realized that the coin had gone AWOL from Peggy's possession after she had passed. Then again, why would I? I hadn't even known Sharon had been her great-niece. The Carter women still impressing me even after eighty years.

She laughed softly. "It's my marker I can use it how I wish. That said, if you need anything, and I do mean anything, call me. You're one of the good guys, Rogers, some of us are smart enough to know that."

I went silent for a long moment, truly choked up on her simple statement. "Steve," I managed, through a throat that had gone dry and tight.

I could practically hear her contemplating my offer. "Steve, then."

"Thank you, Jade."

"You're welcome. Now go do your damn job and save the world."

The line went dead and I tucked the phone back in my pocket, convinced I would never understand the woman who had tried to kill me and then, somewhere along the twisted path we'd met upon, became my friend.

. . . . .

"What did Tony want?" Nat all but sneered. She still harbored a grudge after her decision to let me and Bucky go. Tony had ratted her out, forcing her to go on the run with us.

I snapped the phone shut trying to prevent the shock of what I'd just been told from stopping me. "Bruce."

"What?"

"That was Bruce, not Tony." I waved at the TV. "Turn it on."

Sam grabbed the remote and did so. Every channel covering the attack in NY. "Holy shit, Cap."

We watched in stunned silence for a few minutes. "We need to find Wanda now."

"Why?" Sam questioned.

"Because, according to Bruce, they're after the Infinity Stones." I looked right at Nat.

"Which means Vision, who is most likely with our Scarlet Witch right about now."

I nodded.

"Do we know where she went this time?" Sam questioned.

"No. Damn it. Why does he think we can find her?" Nat complained more than a touch bitterly. I couldn't be sure if it was because I'd mentioned Bruce or because Wanda hadn't been following the rules. Rules we'd all agreed to in order to protect ourselves.

"Steve, I know that look." Sam did indeed. We'd been partners long before going on this little adventure and I considered him more than a friend.

I pulled out my phone. I could only hope she hadn't changed her number since I'd last spoken to her nearly two years ago.

She answered on the second ring. "Go ahead."

"I'm calling in my marker."

"Well, I didn't think you were calling for a date," she responded snarkily. "Whatcha need?"

"I need to find someone and it has to be fast. Like in the next five minutes fast."

"Okay, who?"

"Wanda Maximoff. And this is fate of the world serious."

She huffed out a breath. "Five minutes."

The phone went dead.

"Well?" Nat questioned, brows knitting in irritation at the seeming rejection of my request.

"We wait and hope she can find them," I told her.

"Mind if we look ourselves, or is that task too much for us?" Sam had kept us from going off the deep end more than a time or two in the long months we'd been together.

"Of course it's not." Nat had her tablet out and running quickly. Probably using facial rec to try and find the distinctive looks of Vision anywhere on the planet.

Wanda had been out of touch for the better part of two weeks at this point. We gave her some leeway, but she put us at a greater risk of being caught every hour she stayed away. No matter how careful there remained the chance someone would recognize her and turn her in for the exorbitant reward money. In some countries to be paid dead or alive.

At exactly the five minute mark, my phone buzzed with a text. Edinburgh. Followed by coordinates. I read them off to Sam who plugged them into the computer to reveal a hotel.

Nat set the tablet aside with a sigh of frustration. "At least she's true to her word."

"Always has been," I reminded needlessly. "Suit up. We leave in five."

. . . . .

In the end, it didn't even matter.

Not which side we started on. Not who we worked for. Not who we wanted to be. The world had been changed in an instant and even now, weeks later, we'd only just begun to understand the true damage that had been done.

We went home. Back to the Compound. The few of us who remained. As much in shock as everyone else. In one instant, Thanos had wiped out half the universe and changed life forever for all of us.

We still had no idea if Tony had survived. Nothing had been heard from him since the last contact FRIDAY had received before the ship he'd been on had blasted away from the planet for parts unknown.

We had to figure this out on our own.

And I had no idea where to start.

"We need help." Nat pointed out needlessly.

"No shit," Bruce groused. Him swearing unusual to say the least, but Hulk still refused to make an appearance and no matter how intelligent, the loss of life not something even Bruce's smarts could undo. Hulk's brute strength would be even more useless.

"I know Lang is missing, have we heard from Clint yet?"

Nat shook her head. "He's off the grid. I know he survived, but…" She trailed off. Near as we could tell, his family had been among those who had been lost to the Snap. Though officially called the Decimation, we knew better.

Half of every living thing on Earth, and, if you believed the tales, the universe had vanished. We had no real way of verifying the latter. So we focused on our home. The loss of life had been far beyond the planned intent. Planes had gone down. Trains had derailed. Vehicles had crashed as their drivers turned to dust, causing hundreds of thousands more to die of secondary effects.

And that would be just the beginning. With services offline in many places, lack of food, water, basic services would begin to take its toll. Disease, starvation, thirst, heat and cold would also take its fair share. In the end, there might not be enough of us to rebuild. Thanos might as well have thrown and rock the size of the Tower at the planet, the effects would have been the same. Extinction for the human race.

The world hadn't really begun to assess the real toll. Right now the survivors just tried to keep the world spinning. Several major cities, as well as some countries, had been knocked back to the pre-industrial age. I wanted to help. Felt it deep in my bones the utter need to help, to save as many as I possibly could, but knew my tiny efforts against the juggernaut would be all but useless.

I could do little to assist those who had survived.

However…

"We find out who's left and bring them here. We pool our resources and figure out how to fix this."

"Fix this? Steve, this isn't something you fix." Bruce sounded as if he'd already given up hope.

We needed hope. No matter how faint. How unrealistic it might be.

We had to hope.

"You want to just give up and move on?" Nat questioned, head snapping about to aim a steely-eyed gaze at him.

"No, of course not, but this isn't something you fix," he argued, though his tone changed part way through as if some spark had begun to burn in his mind. "Though there's that Time Stone." He shook his head. "It vanished with Thanos."

I shrugged. "So we get to Thanos."

Nat gave me a sour look. "I get the spirit, but it's not like we have space travel here on Earth."

"We have Thor," I reminded her. Our Asgardian God had fallen into a depression along with most of us, but he did have the ability to travel through space. In theory, he could get us to Thanos.

"That's a start," Bruce agreed, with a nod. "But our resources are limited. Who can we call in to help?"

"The Avengers have a list. We go through it. See if any of them are willing to join us." Bruce gave Nat an unhappy look. "We make it clear it's temporary. No Accords, no commitment." She glanced my way and I nodded in agreement.

"I doubt any of them want this any more than we do. We ask. If they say no, we move on." I locked eyes with each of them. "Agreed?"

I got nods from both of them. Then Nat did that sly smile of hers. "You gonna call your girlfriend? She's got access to resources that would be useful to us. And I doubt her employers will complain much given the exigency of the situation."

My first thought went to Sharon, who I hadn't really heard from since I'd gone on the run. Hell, I didn't even know if she had succumbed to the Snap or survived. "Uh, who are you talking about?"

Nat laughed. "Jade."

The zing of adrenaline surprised me. I hadn't even thought about her since I'd called in my marker. Followed by sudden guilt for forgetting about her. "Fuck," I muttered. "I don't even know if she…"

"Only one way to find out," Nat insisted. "And I doubt she'd say no to you."

I frowned, not liking that it was probably true. "I don't know. She's not exactly Team Cap."

Bruce watched all this with a bemused expression on his face. He poked a hand up into the air. "Uh, been out of touch for a few years, what are you talking about?"

Nat grinned. "Steve here made a frenemy out of his assassin."

He swiped a hand across his face. "I'm beginning to think I should have stayed on Sakaar."

"We're glad you're here, Bruce, even if it was for the end of the world." I meant the words. Having the team back together, if only partially, one of the few good things to come out of this mess.

I could see him thinking hard. "Do you consider her an ally?"

I considered for a moment. "Yes," I responded, surprising even myself with the answer.

"Then call her. If nothing else you'll know if she survived."

Nat gave a tiny nod of agreement.

I pulled out my phone and called Jade.

I put the call on speaker, the buzz that had replaced the ring tone seeming to go on forever. Cell systems had been failing across the globe, it could be nothing more than that.

Just as I was about to give up the line went live.

"Of course you survived."

"Looks like both of us did. You're on speaker, by the way."

"That's fine, I've nothing to hide. How many did you lose?"

"Too many. You?"

"Far more than the ten percent they're claiming by calling it the Decimation. Definitions, people, they're easy to look up."

Nat snorted. "Fifty percent before ancillary deaths occurred."

"Those numbers are what we've seen as well. We're spread thin."

"Will you help?" I asked, getting right to the point. For all I knew, she had commitments that she could not walk away from.

"You have to ask? Of course, I'm in. We're going to fix this, yes. Not just slap some plaster on the wound and hope it heals?"

"That's the plan. Not that we have an actual one yet, but…."

"Good. You'll have my full resources at your disposal. And let me tell you they are extensive even with power grids down."

"Can you join us here?" Bruce called out, raising his voice unnecessarily to guarantee being heard.

"I'll be en route within the hour, Dr. Banner."

The man in question raised his eyebrows at the fact that she knew who had spoken when she most certainly had no way of knowing he'd returned to earth.

"Cap?"

"Just go with it. Jade is always pulling rabbits out of hats," Nat explained, without really explaining anything.

"Char," Jade corrected. "My real name's Charlotte, but everyone calls me Char."

I smiled. It had only taken the end of the world to earn her trust. "Char-"

"Don't get all choked up now, Steve, we've got far too much work to do. I'll be at the Compound tomorrow. Make sure to open the front door when I get there, okay?"

I laughed, the sound both relieved and hysterical to my ears. "Done. Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. I've haven't set the price."

And with that, the line went dead.

"Price?" Bruce asked.

"She's a professional assassin. Full Guild member and everything," Nat explained much to Bruce's confusion and astonishment.

"And she was kidding."

"You sure about that, Steve?"

"Doesn't matter, whatever her price is I'll pay it."

"No matter the cost?" Nat asked, clearly referring to more than just Char.

I looked her right in the eyes. "No matter the cost."

No matter how this ended I could not help but be certain the cost for us would be high.

But to save the world… the universe.

How could I not?

.

.

finis