“How long will he be gone for?” Sam was still quizzing Banner as Steve checked the briefcase one last time. Nestled inside the case, softly resting on a foam insert, were the six jewel toned stones.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Or rather, reality, soul, mind, time, space, and power all contained in one Wakandan vibranium briefcase. Banner had impressed upon them how important it was to return the stones as close to the time they had been taken as possible, to keep their original timeline intact.
Steve had volunteered, this was too important to entrust to anyone else. Someone else could have done it of course, but some of their group were too young, or too preoccupied or too busy helping their world to recover from the sudden reemergence of half of their original population. Sam had volunteered to assist, of course, but Steve thought he was better off staying behind, helping to coordinate their efforts at home.
Steve had asked someone to provide backup, or course. If something went wrong, or something happened to him it was incredibly important that the stones made it back to their original timeline. But . . . now it was time to go, and Steve still wasn’t sure if he was coming or not.
And then he appeared, as if by magic, at Steve’s right elbow. He’d cropped his hair short again, clearly done by his own hand, and was wearing his navy jacket with long sleeves to hide his metal arm. Steve smiled as he approached. “Glad to have you, Buck,” he clapped Bucky’s shoulder and stepped up beside Sam, standing at the edge of their time, well their time machine.
“It’ll only feel like five seconds to us, Sam,” Banner was calmly explaining to Sam, who still didn’t seem particularly convinced that it was safe to send Steve back in time.
When Steve and Bucky approached Banner looked up from calibrating the machine, “Ready for this, Steve? Bucky?” Bucky nodded squarely beside Steve. Steve was grasping the briefcase, and Mjolnir. Incomprehensible to the men standing near him, the briefcase was heavier in his hand than the mighty hammer. Steve glanced at Bucky again, and nearly missed Banner’s follow up question “everything you need? Is there anything we’re missing?”
There was a lot Steve was missing. The remaining half of his shield was sitting in his room in the compound, left behind until someone figured out how to repair it. But more than that, he was missing Tony and Natasha. He’d have felt a lot better with one or both of them watching their backs on this mission. Deep breath, he couldn’t start crying again. He had Bucky back, the others had their loved ones back, that was what mattered.
“No, we’re good to go, Bruce. How’s it looking?”
“It’s as good as it’s gonna get. A complete duplicate of the last one.” Steve nodded at him before turning to Bucky again.
“Have everything, Buck? Feel good about the plan?”
Bucky shrugged, “I’m ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death,” he grinned, and appeared to look as if he was going to say something else when Sam interrupted him.
“Are you armed, Barnes?”
Bucky smirked at him, and then a handgun appeared in his right hand, and a wicked looking dagger in the left. “I’ve got more than this, good enough for you, Wilson?”
Sam grinned back at them, “at least one of you has got some common sense,” he muttered as he clapped Bucky on the shoulder and shook Steve’s hand before going to stand next to Banner again.
“All right,” Banner was saying, “ you should have plenty of particles. Backups for your backups, and you know the plan?”
Steve nodded, and looked over his shoulder for. . . . nothing. He was still looking for Nat, he hoped she would have approved of their plan. It had been an age since he’d strategized without her. And Tony, now would have been the time he’d have made a snide comment. Steve almost missed it.
“Steve?” Sam and Banner were looking concerned, as if they’d said his name several times.
“I know the plan,” Steve cut them off before they could say anything else. Banner looked as though he was missing their teammates himself, and it was Sam who spoke.
“Barnes, you’ll watch his six?”
“I’ve got him,” Bucky responded to Sam, but his eyes never left Steve. “Let’s go, the sooner we leave the sooner we can get back.” And with that, the super soldier and the former assassin grabbed hands and stepped into their portal.