The air crackled as a portal made from blue-black clouds materialized in front of them. Steve felt a sense of foreboding dread as he recognised them as a doorway made by the Tesseract, the infinity stone that had caused him the most trouble in life. A large purple skinned figure walked through wielding a singular golden gauntlet studded with 5 infinity stones. Steve had a feeling this wasn't just another member of the black order.

"Cap. That's him" confirmed the Hulk. They were finally face to face with Thanos and they were the only thing between him and Mind Stone in Vision's head. Around half a dozen mortal Avengers between this false god and his delusional genocidal dreams. Steve reactivated his twin shields. "Eyes up. Stay sharp."

Thanos began slowly advancing towards Vision. Hulk, Steve and Natasha lunged at Thanos first but were swatted away before they even got to strike a single blow.

T'Challa, Falcon, Bucky, and Okoye made their attack. T'Challa leaped with his claws extended for Thanos' throat. Thanos responded by grabbing the Black Panther in mid-air by the throat before brutally punching him into the ground. Falcon nosedived from the air at Thanos with his guns blazing before his wings were incapacitated in a blast of blue energy from the Space Stone. Okoye and Bucky were similarly disposed of with the Power Stone. Thanos continued his path towards Vision, viewing the attacks as an annoyance more than anything else.

Rhodey attempted to provide air support with the full armament of the War Machine armour before Thanos used the space stone to crush the War Machine's jets, breaking Rhodey's legs in the process.

The first three Avengers who were struck by Thanos at the beginning had gotten up and renewed their attack. Natasha sprang towards Thanos' gauntlet in a desperate attempt to disarm him to which he retaliated with the power stone's unforgiving energy concentrated on her attacking arm. Natasha propelled through the air with some force before colliding into a tree taking her out of the fight.

Hulk was the next to combat Thanos, rapidly striking him repeatedly using the remains of the Hulkbuster as improvised weapons but as before Thanos used an infinity stone- the Reality Stone in this case and Hulk ceased his attack as he screamed in pain whilst transforming, not back to Banner but as a horrific amalgamation of Banner and Hulk.

Finally, Captain America began his final attack on Thanos. He saw out the corner of his eye Wanda tearfully destroying the Mind Stone. He dove for Thanos' gauntlet desperate to buy Wanda any amount of time. He slid under Thanos' first punch, before striking him twice with his deployed arm-shields. He grabbed the gauntlet, briefly keeping the five Infinity Stones at bay. Captain America looked at Thanos directly in his eyes in which he saw a look of… intrigue?

"Steve Rogers"

Steve's blood froze for a millisecond which is all Thanos needed to wrestle the gauntlet out of his grip and trigger one of the stones.

"The soldier out of time. How appropriate that I save this stone for you."

Steve was about to attack once more before a twisted monstrous pain possessed his body. He felt himself crumble to his knees against the terrible might of Thanos before being swatted away like an insect. As he tried to get back up, Steve immediately knew something was wrong. He felt that his ribs were broken and one of his lungs was punctured but it was more than that, Steve had never felt this much pain in his entire life.

Whilst being completely incapacitated Steve could partially hear the efforts of Wanda killing Vision, Vision being brought back to life and killed by Thanos. Thor striking Thanos with his axe. As Steve faded in and out of consciousness, it reminded him of every fight in a back alleyway, every scrap in a parking lot, every time he refused to back down to any bully. However, this wasn't in Wakanda, this was in Brooklyn so many years ago. But that was before he became an Avenger, before he was Captain America, before-

"NO!" he heard Thor cry before a sharp snap echoed through the Wakandan forest. "What'd you do? WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Thor shouted. There was no response to Thor's question. Steve hoped Thanos was dead but as he heard the familiar groan of the Space Stone he sadly realised this was not the case. Still in incredible pain, he finally turned to Thor and asked "Where'd he go? Thor... where'd he go?" Thor didn't respond instead looking at his old friend with wide eyes in shock and disbelief.

"Steve?" Steve turned to Bucky. "You-" was all Bucky said before he stumbled over and collapsed into ashes. Steve tried to run over to where Bucky vanished but he tripped and stumbled over his own trousers. In a state of shock, he looked down at his old Avengers uniform and felt that it was unusually loose. His boots were now far too large for his feet and his gloves slipped off his hands. As he looked at his hands, he now realised what had happened. Thanos used the Infinity Stones to drain him of Doctor Erskine's super soldier serum. He was no longer a super soldier; he had regressed to being the skinny kid from Brooklyn again and the world was disintegrating in front of him.