Snow

When Steve Rogers used the Quantum Realm to travel to an alternate 1940s timeline and returned to their main timeline, as now elderly Steve, he brought the shield with him, and gave the shield to Sam.

Despite Sam saying that it belonged to someone else, he accepted it.

Aspen truly thought that he would stick to his decision. She couldn’t have been more wrong when she heard that Sam went back on his decision to accept the shield and decided to donate it to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum for their Captain America exhibit.

Unbeknownst to Sam, the United States Department of Defense removed the shield from the exhibit and gave it to John Walker, to whom they gave the mantle of "Captain America". 

As if someone could replace Steve, she thought. As if someone unknown to the world was right to take on Steve’s legacy and carry his shield.

"On behalf of the Department of Defense and our Commander-in-Chief, it is with great honor that we announce here today that the United States of America has a new hero. Join me in welcoming your new Captain America."

She had seen it on the tv. She watched this man being given Steve’s shield and carrying it as if it represented nothing more than just a shield. As if it didn’t carry decades of hope, justice and strength for the world, for him, Bucky, and for her. He took it as if it was the most common thing on this planet but it is not. It is not just a shield. It was Steve’s. 

What’s wrong with everyone, she thought, why do they need to create new ‘heroes’ and give them things that don’t belong to them. 

That night, she was furious. Furious that they gave to a stranger Steve’s shield. Furious that Sam gave it up. She even came to the point of regretting that Steve gave it to Sam instead of Bucky. 

She thought of him, of Bucky. If he had seen that. How he must have felt when he saw that. She thought of how he would have taken care of the shield if it had been given to him instead of Sam.

It was wrong to think that, it sounded wrong but she couldn't help it. She couldn't help thinking what Steve would have said if he knew. About what Natasha would have said if she had seen that or even what Tony would have said if he was still there. 

If they were all still there.

September 2023 - New York

Five years have passed, and the surviving population has yet to cope with their losses. In the aftermath of the Snap, the governments saw an emergence of global unity and the nations came together, putting aside their hostilities and differences. Most countries across the globe opened their borders to provide the Snap's survivors with support to live through the tougher times, essentially building a unified community.

Steve runned a support group for people, trying to help them come to terms with what happened. Tony and Pepper were married and living in a remote cabin with their daughter. Clint was nowhere to be found. Natasha was now commanding the team as they performed various assignments for the universe alongside Rhodes, Rocket and Carol. While Aspen tried to move on by living by herself in an old and greasy apartment. 

Still, she chose to stay close to the compound and visited Natasha from time to time because she was devastated, everyone was, by trying to hold on while searching for Clint who became rogue after all his family vanished. 

But who could blame him ?  So many more people deserved to die instead of innocent people, children, families.

The compound never felt more empty. 

But things started to change, especially when Scott came back to the compound after escaping the Quantum realm.

"I can't believe you dragged me here", Aspen said looking at Nat, Steve and Bruce, or Hulk. It was still new to her that the smart and the green guy were one now. 

She was sitting on the floor leaning her back on the wall and supporting her head with her hands. 

"Don't be like that. We'll make it.", Steve gave her his hand to help her stand up, "Have a little faith." she smiled weakly, Steve always had hope.

But it's been five years. 

Five years since they all disappeared, well half of them. She was just taking her coffee when Natasha knocked on her door. Apparently Scott had an idea of a time traveling machine, or something like that. They had enough geniuses and she wasn't one of them. The only important thing for her was the fact that they might be able to bring them back, to bring him back. She wasn't sure if she was going to help them at first. She thought she wasn't ready to face this life again. Saving someone and not succeeding. But they were doing it anyway, so why waste her time on her couch watching old videos and pictures when she could help them, when she could help them bringing everyone back, when she could help them bringing him back.

Time seemed to speed up between the moment time travel was brought up, going to see Tony to ask for his help, and standing in a circle ready to go back in time and get the stones. She looked at their faces. No matter how scared they all were, she could see the hope. They truly believed that they could bring them back and that's what helped them the most. They had hope. 

"See you in a minute"

And just like that, they were gone into the portals. She arrived on Vormir alongside Clint and Natasha, where they met a man, or something quite like that, who informed them that it was a soul for a soul, the sacrifice of a loved one must be carried out in order for one to retrieve the stone. 

Clint laughed at the concept, but Natasha deduced that it was indeed the truth.

Understanding the severity of the situation, the three of them struggled to decide who should give their life for the cause; while Clint insisted he should do it due to the carnage he left behind in the wake of his grief, Natasha declared that her life's work has led her to this moment; Aspen left them arguing while she stood at the edge of the cliff. 

“I’ll do it” she said, to stop them from arguing. She was ready to do that for everyone. If they succeeded, she couldn’t bear to think about Clint’s family without him by their side. Natasha, who became like a sister to her for the past five years, was the only thing she had left. Because her family had been broken since the incident in Germany with the Sokovian accords and after the snap. If they succeeded everyone would be back and it would be perfect, if they did not, she wouldn’t be here to see it and it suited her. 

“Ever since the snap I’m not myself anymore, I have to do this” she said. But to her surprise, Clint and Natasha dashed to the cliff, immobilizing Aspen with an electrified ray, they wrestled to keep each other away from sacrificing themselves. 

“Tell my family I love them.” “Tell them yourself.” 

They both jumped into the void while Aspen struggled to stand up after being electrocuted. Once she did, she ran to the edge, seeing Clint secured to the cliff, holding Natasha’s hand.

“It’s okay” Nat had said, and Aspen heard Clint begging for Nat to stay, but she didn’t listen and pushed herself from the cliff, letting herself fall. She remembered screaming Nat’s name before she hit the ground, and minutes later, they both stood up from where they were, laying in the water, Clint having the soul stone in his hand.

“Clint, where's Nat ?” asked Bruce.

“It should’ve been me” Aspen admitted in a whisper, she was still shocked that Nat wasn’t going to be here anymore. In a heartbeat she hugged Clint’s side who had fallen to his knees after coming back from Vormir into the present day. 

There followed a discussion between the boys which she did not want to attend, since the outcome was final. And another to decide which was better fitted to use the gauntlet and the stones.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol. Will you ?” Said Tony right before Bruce puts on the gauntlet, which nanobotically expanded to fit his hand, and the power surged overwhelming him as he grunted in pain. But he went on and snapped his fingers.

“Guys– I think it worked !” Scott had said. But before everyone else had the chance to be delighted, a continuous array of missiles destroyed the base, her home, completely and everyone sank below to the underground.

When she regained consciousness, Steve was beside her, Mjølnir in his hand when a voice spoke through the coms.

“Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me ?“ 

Steve offered her his hand and helped her stand up when Sam spoke again, “On your left.”

Steve and Aspen looked around them to see the portal on their left side. Three figures stepping through; Okoye, Shuri, and T’Challa, fully restored and ready to fight. Steve and the revived Wakandans shared a look when Sam zoomed in from above in his Falcon armor. As he did, dozens more portals opened up all around the battlefield. Through one of these, Doctor Strange descended in, joined by Drax, Mantis, Star Lord, and Peter. She watched in confusion and awe as more and more heroes arrived from all corners of the universe, all backed up with forces of their own including Black Panther and his Wakandan army, Valkyrie and the Asgardians, Wong and the Masters of the Mystic Arts and several Ravager ships. Amongst them Aspen spotted Bucky from afar and she couldn't hold back her tears and smile. Nearly every hero had magically been transported to the battlefield to face Thanos's hordes.

She looked around at the people who had become her family, they were all about to take the biggest leap of fate someone could take, a part of her knew that by the end of the battle some of them won't be standing anymore yet they were all willing to take that risk for the universe. She stood there, her home in ruins and as she thought part of her family ain't there anymore but she's happy for the ones that came back.

“AVENGERS ! –assemble.”

Thanos raised his sword towards them, commanding his army to charge as well. Then both sides collided. She gave all she had against the enemy, trying to kill or block as many as possible. She wanted to join Bucky, fight beside him and stay close to him. But everyone, including her, were overwhelmed by the fight and couldn’t do a lot about it, so she stuck to her position, trying to destroy as many as possible.

As Wanda engaged the fight with Thanos, T'Challa ran with the gauntlet he had previously taken from Clint, only to become entrapped by Ebony Maw. Seeing T'Challa's predicament, Spider-Man swooped in and snatched the gauntlet.

Meanwhile, Wanda's attacks left Thanos at her mercy, as she effortlessly broke his sword and lifted him into the air, the whole time ripping chunks of armor from his body. 

In order to escape her grasp, Thanos ordered another missile barrage from his spaceship that dealt great damage to both sides. One of the missiles took out a dam, forcing Strange out of the fight to prevent the battlefield from flooding.

Suddenly, Sanctuary II redirected its fire to an object arriving from outer space. “Something just entered the upper atmosphere.” 

It was Carol, who came to single-handedly destroy the warship. 

“Hey, Peter Parker. You got something for me ?” Peter got up and gave the gauntlet to Carol. “I don't know how you're gonna get it through all that.” he said while Aspen approached and put her hand on his shoulder.

“Don't worry”  “She’s got help” Pepper landed next to Okoye, followed by Mantis, Shuri, Hope, Gamora and Nebula.

Thanos's army charged while the women helped Carol going through the Outriders, Sakaarans and Chitauri. Carol then started flying towards the van with the Gauntlet, flying past enemies and going through enemy blockades that were in her way with ease. Thanos, seeing this, started running to her, but was stopped by Pepper, Shuri and The Wasp, who blasted him backwards. Thanos, after seeing Carol flying past him, throwed his double sword at the van, destroying it and the quantum realm tunnel, throwing Danvers backwards and losing her grip on the Gauntlet, which fell to the ground.

In the brawl for the gauntlet, Aspen moved one of Thanos' enemies aside and saw the gauntlet. She ran to get it, but saw Thanos, who Tony tackled. Thanos smacked Stark and Aspen away, knocking them out. Then Thor arrived with Stormbreaker and Mjolnir in an attempt to pin Thanos's arm down, with assistance from Steve. 

However, Thanos overpowered them and knocked them both out. After picking up the gauntlet, Carol arrived, punching away at Thanos while he was holding the gauntlet. She kept punching him, but Thanos grabbed her by the arm and flung her away. Thanos puts on the gauntlet, gamma radiation from the stones eating at him as he tried to snap, but Carol stood again, and stopped his fingers from snapping, opening up his hand similar to what Steve did in Wakanda in 2018, Thanos headbutted her, but it did nothing. Just as Carol was gaining the upper hand by rising up and forcing Thanos onto his knees, Thanos pulled the Power Stone out of the gauntlet and used it in his free hand to hit Carol away. 

He puts the Power Stone back into the gauntlet, yelling from the gamma radiation coursing through him, until Tony makes one last attack on Thanos, pulling on the gauntlet before Thanos punches him away.

“I am– inevitable” Thanos snapped his fingers, but nothing happened except a metallic "clink." He saw the Infinity Stones were missing. 

Because Tony had the stones on his own gauntlet, the gamma radiation coursing through him, to Thanos's shock.

“And I– am– Iron Man.” Tony snapped his fingers with a loud "CLANG" and a blinding flash of white. The Black Order started crumbling to ashes. T'Challa and Quill looked around in surprise; Steve looked on in exhaustion, knowing that they had won. Thanos, in horror, looked around and saw his entire army disintegrating. He looked at Steve, who just stared at him. Thanos sat down before slowly being erased from existence himself.

Aspen held her side, gritting her teeth in an attempt to bear the pain she was experiencing. Blood dripped from her nose, and she wiped it with her free hand. Dust flaked into the air, and she watched in surprise. Eyeing the small crowd, she limped towards them. Blinking, she stumbled over a rock and her eyes widened at the sight ahead. 

Tony laid there, motionless, while Pepper pressed a kiss to his head and muttered, “We’ll be okay.” She took a kneel and wiped her nose again. 

“We did it.” Aspen finally broke the silence, and looked up at them. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes, and she shut them when a gentle hand touched her cheek and wiped them.

Tony's arc reactor flickered off for good.

“Everybody wants a happy ending, right ? But it doesn't always roll that way. 

Maybe this time. 

I'm hoping if you play this back, it's in celebration. I hope families are reunited, I hope we get it back, and something like a normal version of the planet has been restored. If there ever was such a thing. 

God, what a world. 

Universe, now. 

If you told me ten years ago that we weren't alone, let alone, you know, to this extent, I mean, I wouldn't have been surprised. 

But come on, you know? 

The epic forces of darkness and light that have come into play. 

And, for better or worse, that's the reality Morgan's gonna have to find a way to grow up in.”

They were all watching Tony's holographic message being projected from Iron Man's helmet, Tony sitting down recording the message.

“So I thought I'd probably better record a little greeting... 

In the case of an untimely death on my part. I mean, not that, death at any time isn't untimely. 

This time travel thing that we're gonna try and pull off tomorrow, it's– it's got me scratching my head about the survivability of it all. 

That's the thing. Then again, that's the hero gig. 

Part of the journey is the end.”

Tony suddenly got up walking towards his camera.

“What am I even trippin' for ? 

Everything's gonna work out exactly the way it's supposed to.”

He leaned down and smiled. He was looking straight at Morgan.

“I love you 3,000.”

Present time - Aspen's apartment

The ticking of the clock echoed in the room, reminding her that time was slipping away. She sat there in silence, staring at the empty chair across from her, longing for the sound of their voice. Tony’s and Natasha’s.

The weight of their absence felt heavy, suffocating, as if the air had been sucked out of the room. And yet, she couldn't bring herself to fill the silence with words. Her mouth was dry, her throat constricted, as if she was physically incapable of speaking.

She won’t forget the sky and she will never forget the first time they talked, the first time she heard his voice and the time she realized that she was falling for him.

She wants to be free, she wants to be calm, when she breathes, she wants to smile breathing in and smile again breathing out. She doesn't like the heavy burden of something or pressure piercing her chest. She wants to look up at the sky, wonder why life is so beautiful, and not ask herself why life is so hard. She wants to live in a house where the house itself is why she can feel warmth in her heart. She wants to cook good food, play with the animals, and live a peaceful life where both her mind and soul become at peace.

She wants peace.

But, life is hard.

It doesn't go how she wants it to go, it goes the exact opposite of how she wanted it to go, and she can't even complain about it because the choices she made influenced the consequences that she had to face as a part of the reality she’s living in...

Sometimes, she wished she could go back in time and change the way she lives but it's too late for that, so she’s going on this journey of hers, she doesn't know where she’d end but she does know that even if she ends up dead, she won't regret it.

She looked at the clock again, the seconds ticking by with ruthless efficiency. 1:41. It was a small moment in time, a blip on the radar of their lives. But that was the last time they had spent time together. With Tony, with Natasha and with Steve.

She didn't know it then, of course. She didn't know that this was their last goodbye. That they would never again sit across from each other, sharing stories and laughter, arguing about stupid politics and the meaning of life.

The weight of that realization hit her like a ton of bricks. The missed opportunities, the unspoken words, all of it felt like a heavy burden on her heart.

And yet, she remained mute. She couldn't bring herself to express the depth of her emotions, to let them know how much they meant to her. Perhaps it was fear, or perhaps it was a stubborn pride that kept her silent.

But now, in the emptiness of their absence, she realizes the cost of her silence. She realizes the importance of speaking up, of telling the people we love how much they mean to us.

And so, as the clock ticks on, she vows to never let her voice be muted again. To always speak her truth, to always let the people she cares about know how much they are loved. For she never wants to experience the regret of a final goodbye, unspoken words hanging in the air like a weight on her soul.

And yet it's as if she had forgotten this promise.

October 2023 - Hydra's facility, Siberia

The place had been abandoned for decades. Nothing had changed since Tony, Steve and Bucky fought against each other. The bodies of the Winter Soldiers executed by Zemo in 2016 were still there. There was no noise, everything was silent, everything but her footsteps. 

Around her, coldness, everything was cold, there was snow in some corners and the air was freezing but it didn’t seem to bother her at all.

One cryostasis chamber was empty, Bucky’s, and not far from there, her cell. Even though he and she have been in the same place over time, she hardly remembers him. She knew very well who the Winter Soldier was, what he had been forced to do and what he had endured in his life, but other than that, she doesn’t remember anything outside of the missions. Despite all this, not once was she frightened by him, she even took his side when the Sokovia Accords had split her family into two camps.

The more time she spent in this place, the more her mind gradually took over and in no time all her fears, uncertainties and remorse came to the surface. Without even realizing it, it was snowing small flakes all around her, reflecting her current emotional state.

All of this was before she came face to face with the machine. The one that was used to erase their memory.

It was at that precise moment, when her eyes rested on the machine, that everything came back to her. 

Absolutely everything. Everything came back to her like a brick in her face.

“zhelaniye” 

Her childhood during the post-war period, which hadn’t been very long since shortly after she had celebrated her 12th birthday, Hydra had managed to kidnap a group of children. There must have been at least thirty children, of which she was one, on whom numerous experiments were carried out. She remembered the children being chain-tested, their arms covered in stitches. How so-called doctors called children by simple numbers. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               “sorok chetyre”

Hers came to mind: subject B1244. ‘B’ standing for where she originally came from, which was Brooklyn, the two first numbers were the age she had when she was taken, which was 12 and the last numbers were the year she was born, which was 1944. 

She had been the only one to give promising results, all the other children had died of all those experiments or had been killed because there were no results that satisfied them. 

                                                       “deti”

Why her and not anyone else ?  She had no idea.

So Hydra took the tests to a higher level on her and the syringes, injections, torture and coldness never ended, until the point where she almost lost her life, which would have finally delivered her from this hell but unfortunately fate had other plans for her. Following one of the experiments that went wrong due to an error in dosage, she acquired her powers and became Hydra's best weapon after the Winter Soldier- Winter Witch. 

                                                                         “kholodnyy”

She remembers how it felt, those powers, ice through her veins, freezing her body, burning cold. Her eyes burning and turning blue for a moment, as well as the end of her fingers. The air coming from her lungs; pure steam only. The previous brown ends of her hair; turning white. Her skin; turning cold and porcelain. Her whole body; hurting for weeks until she got used to it.

The back and forth in the memory deletion machine never ended, and when it was no longer the machine it was the chains. Her fate was the same as the Winter Soldier, except that her mission was a bit different than killing bothering people.

Sometimes she worked alongside him in his missions. Hydra used to call them the deadly winter couple; mainly due to their abilities and affinity towards each other.

                                                                                                              “zima”

She could actually remember spending time in her cell, talking to Bucky when he was lucid. 

"You will forget me," she said, softly breathing. His eyes looked desperate even though he was smiling.

"No I will never" He smiled gently in his direction, knowing damn well that even if his head does, his heart would never forget. "I am sure you'll be the one that would !" A laugh cracked from her lips, "Promise you'll come back." His eyes roamed her face, finally settling on a set of eyes, his favorite shade, glossing with tears. He let out a pained breath, fighting tears of his own as he turned away. 

"I can't do that. I can't promise you anything. I wish I could," he adds in a whisper. 

“I need you” She doesn't remember him ever responding, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. She couldn't tell. But he did say one time "I don't leave like that, I am not like this"

Present time - Aspen's apartment

Her apartment was cold, the air was cold, the walls and ceiling were covered in frost, the floor was littered with ice explosions all over the place, all resulting from all her panic attacks, her anxiety, her suffering, her pain, her self-imposed loneliness, her mourning and her fear of the unknown. She was pacing in a circle, never stopping. She couldn’t stop thinking about what she did. About what Hydra forced her to do, even if she doesn’t realize it. She still thinks that she did it out of her own will, which wasn’t true.

Since the day she got her powers, she had changed. She couldn’t see the little girl she used to be anymore. Physically she wasn’t the same too. Her hair, previously dark brown, had long since turned completely white. Her skin that was once in beige tones was now pinkish porcelain or even white and pale. She was still as lost as she used to be.

The ringing of her phone snapped her out of her trance, reconnecting her to the real world, freeing her from her own mind. She jumped in fright when she heard it. She debated whether to answer or not when she saw Sam’s name coming on the screen.

She was still angry. She was still angry but not at him anymore. After a lot of thinking she understood his reasons for giving up the shield. She understood that it was a heavy legacy to carry and that maybe he felt he wasn’t ready.

She finally decided to answer the phone, bringing it to her ear. 

She didn't want to give him time to talk. She wanted to avoid the conversation by telling him that she was busy, that she didn't want anything to do with the Avengers or any heroic deeds anymore. 

But she didn't. She says nothing. She lets him talk.

“They reproduced it. The serum. It was reproduced and a group of people administered it. I saw them in Munich.” Sam said over the phone and she sighted. 

She was shocked and at the same time not so surprised by the humans being. All they ever cared for was money, power and taking over the world. So why should this surprise her ?

After all, she was one of their experiments to take on the world as well.