Steve Rogers and Garnet thankfully made their way out of the Stark Tower without anyone else spotting their presence which avoided them having to fight someone else than just Captain America from the past. They were heading  towards the alleyway where they were supposed to met up with Tony, Scott, Peridot and Azurite, who hopefully acquired the Tesseract without having to deal with as many troubles as they did with the scepter.

The aftermath of the Battle of New York took its toll on the city, the streets were filled with destroyed cars and shattered buildings. Dead Chitauri were scattered about everywhere, but other than that, there were no other lives present, at least for now. The streets were completely empty, but both of them knew that the populace of New York would came out to help pick up the pieces and clean the streets sooner or later.

"Uh, Cap, three eyes." Tony's Stark voice called over as they turned around to it and saw Stark, sitting in a destroyed car with Peridot sitting on the front seat next to him, and Azurite and Scott sitting in the back seats, ''We got a problem."

Scott let out a bittersweet chuckle, "Yeah, we do.''

"What do you mean?" Steve raised his brow.

"We've come across a little complication in our job." Peridot added.

"A little complication?" Azurite asked her, "I wish I could call it a little complication."

They told them everything about they needed to know. They told them how they were that close acquiring the Space Stone to the point where Azurite and Peridot were taking it out of the main lobby of the Stark Tower, but then the Hulk slammed through the doors of the flight of stairs which resulted in the two gems dropping the briefcase, and Loki escaping with the stone the second after it landed before his feet.

The silence filled the entire alleyway after they told the story to Steve and Garnet. Rogers just stood next to the the fusion who stood with the scepter in her hands. Scott paced back and forth. Tony remained in the car. Azurite and Peridot got out of the car and leaned against it, both of them having had their arms crossed and defeated expressions overcame their facial features.

''...Well, what are we gonna do now?" Captain America spoke up to them.

"I don't know, captain. I just got hut in the head with the Hulk, or Bruce, I don't know even how should I call him." Azurite stated,  cursing himself for losing the stone when they were so close to acquring it.

"Me too." Peridot added, nodding her head, having been hit in the head with the Hulk as well.

''You said that we had one shot!" Scott exclaimed, moving his glance between everyone in his team, "This was our shot. We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. Six stones or nothing..."

Tony looked up at Scott and pointed at him, "You're repeating yourself, you know that?"

Ant-Man looked at Iron Man, as he retorted, "You're repeating yourself! You're repeating yourself!" 

Tony rolled his eyes at Scott's retort, so did Peridot, Steve looked away for a moment, Azurite sighed, shaking his head and Garnet remained stoic.

''Dude, come on." Stark told him, unamused by his retort.

Lang continued, ignoring Tony's comment, and everyone else reaction, ''You never wanted a time heist, you went on board with the time heist..." He gestured towards every other member of the team that tried to acquire the Tesseract, "You ruined the time heist."

"Is that what I did?" Tony asked him.

"Are you really placing blame here?" Azurite asked Scott.

"It wasn't anyone's fault." Peridot added, "We had no idea that the Hulk was going burst through the doors."

Garnet spoke up, having enough of this argument, "Is there any other way we can acquire it?"

Scott shifted his attention towards the fusion, "No, no, no. There's no other ways." He slammed the doors of the car, making Tony jump in his seat a little in suprise, "There's no do-overs. We're not going anywhere else. We have one particle left. Each. That's it, alright? We use that, bye, bye. You're not going home."

Tony titled his head when he heard Scott's words, especially at his warning on their particle count. He shot up his eyes from his forearm, widened when the realization appeared in his head.

''Yeah, well if we don't try, then no one else is going home, either." Steve pointed out, finally joining the conversation.

''I got it." Stark said, earning everyone's attention as he got out of the car, slamming the doros before taking a step forward towards Captain America.

"What do you mean?" Azurite raised his brow. Was there really other way to acquire the Tesseract and more importantly the Space Stone without losing a chance to head back to their times.

Tony approached Cap, the latter's brow furrowing at Stark's expression. Steve listened carefully to everything Tony had to saty, "...There's another way. To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles. We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State.''

''When were they both there?" Steve said when the realization about Tony's new plan struck him.

''They were there at..." Tony paused for a moment, "I've a vaguely exact idea."

''How vague?" Steve wanted to know. 

''What are you talking about? Where are we going?" Scott wanted to know.

Not answering to Scott's question, Tony added, "I know for a fact they were there."

''Who's they? What are we doing?" Scott continued asking questions but once again didn't got any answer.

''And I know how I know." Tony continued his explanation to Captain America.

"Guys, what's up? What is it?" Scott asked for the third time.

He finally got his answer, when Steve stated, "Well, it looks like we're improvising."

This answer only raised another question from Ant-Man, ''Right. What are we improvising?"

Stark darted his head to the left, his gaze on a certain short green gem, "Peri." Then he turned hia gaze to Garnet, "Three eyes, with us."

Peridot nodded her head as she walked over to Garnet, Tony, and Steve, eyeing the two latter ones curiously, as Garnet stepped forward from the group, her attention on Azurite.

"Azurite." She called over to him.

Azurite titled his head towards, "Yes, Garnet?"

In response to his words, the fusion handed him the scepter, "Make sure it gets back safely to our times."

The male gem took the scepter from her, giving her a nod, assuring her, "I'll bring it to the headquarters, you know me."

Garnet nodded her head at his words as she went back to Steve, Tony and Peridot, with Iron Man saying to the group, "Suit up."

"What's in New Jersey?" Scott asked another one of his questions.

He didn't got answer, again, as the group in front of him was busy with preparing themselves for their next move in their mission. Tony, Steve, Peridot and Garnet all raised their left hands and added a set of coordinates into their GPSes. The exact day, hour, location and year of the place they were going to visit.

''Cap. Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers." Scott awkwardly called over to Steve, making everyone look at him, "Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work, you're not coming back."

"We know that, Scott." Peridot said, knowing the risk they were taking by visiting another place, "You don't need to tell us about it."

She lifted her eyes to hopefully meet, but her friend didn't look to her. He was focused only on Steve, the two Avengers staring into each other's eyes, with Tony asking him, "Do you trust me?"

Steve looked at him, trying to find that the reasons to find that trust, being aware that if anything went wrong, again, it was over. If this horrifying possibility became real, then they would be lost in time. All of if for a chance. A simple answer left his mouth in answer to Tony's question.

"I do." Was his answer.

"It's your call, captain." Garnet said to Captain America shorty after, placing her hand on Peridot's shoulder for a moment. This gesture telling the short green gem "We're gonna make it.". Peridot offered her a quick nod of her head in response. 

"Good luck." Azurite spoke up to them as they turned towards him for a moment. The male gem offered him the last time for the best of wishes, for their last chance to pull of this team heist. It needed to work. It had to, "All of you."

All of them sent them a quick nods in response before they all faced each other, with Steve saying to them, ''Here we go."

They slapped their left palms. The Quantum Suit overcame their entire bodies as they shrunk down to microscopic size, heading to New Jersey in the year of 1970.

Azurite sighed as they disappeared from his sight, as Scott said to him, rather nervously, "Let's just hope they'll make it back."

"They will make it. I'm sure about it." Azurite assured him as he turned his gaze to Scott. They had to return, otherwise it would not only mean that they failed their mission, but also he'd have a hard time explaining to everyone why Captain America, Iron Man, Garnet and Peridot never returned from their mission.

He and Ant-Man shared a quick look with each other, offering themselves a quick nods before they pressed their Time Travel GPS. They shrunk down and disappeared from the street, going back to their times.

------

New Jersey 1970

Tony, Steve, Garnet and Peridot all had to prepare themselves before entering Camp Lehigh, the birthplace of Captain America to make themselves look less suspicious. There wasn't much problems with Tony and Steve as they only had to change their clothes, unlike Garnet and Peridot who needed more work on their appereance, while it wasn't that hard to make Garnet to look more humanly, all they had to do is to make sure that her third eye was covered which was already done with her visiors, and put gloves on her hands to make her gems unnoticeable. As for Peridot, they had to change the shape of her hair, which she of course hated, and had to figure out how to make her taller, to not raise any suspicions. They didn't had many troubles with her gem, as it was easily covered by her hair. 

After entering the camp, their disguises worked quite well. No one stopped them or confronted them for that matter. A warning glance here and there, but nothing to be worried about. The group of four Avengers was quite worried about their shortest member as it was placed in quite visible place but thankfully her hair was covering it, though Peridot was clearly hating every moment of having this hair and couldn't wait to get out of here to get her triangular hair back.

"So..." The short green gem spoke up as the group walked along the sidewalk, looking up at Steve, "This is the place where you born?"

''The idea of me was." Steve explained, earning a nod from Peridot.

Tony looked around, "Right. Well, imagine you're S.H.I.E.L.D, running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization. Where do you hide it?"

Rogers' gaze went over at something, "In plain sight."

Everyone turned their attention to E47 bunker, noticing the two men coming inside. This place seemed like a good place to start their search for Pym Particles and the Tesseract in this camp. They headed inside the elevator taking them inside the base as they took a ride with another person, a woman, a  S.H.I.E.L.D. secretary who noticed all four of them inside as they took their floors. 

The secretary was furrowed her brows as her attention seemed to be focused on Captain America, which all four of them didn't fail to notice. Tony and Peridot took one step forward, making sure to cover the first Avenger, though Tony was doing most of the work because Peridot was obviously much shorter than the Star Spangled Man.

When the elevator stopped, the short green gem stated, "It appears that it's our stop."

"Do we have everything we need?" Tony asked her.

"Yes." Peridot confirmed with a nod of her head as she  looked up at Garnet and Steve, "Lieutenant and captain here helped me to get everything."

Tony nodded his head in understanding, exchanging a quick glance with Steve and Garnet, "Good luck on your mission, both of you."

"Good luck on your projects." Garnet said in response as Peridot and Tony stepped out from the elevator, leaving the fusion and Captain America along with the secretary.

''You're new here?" The secretary asked Steve.

"Not exactly." Steve answered, avoiding her gaze.

She then turned his attention towards Garnet, "What about you?"

Garnet's answer was short and quick,  "You can say that." 

Withing the lowest level of the bunker, Tony and Peridot were quite relieved when they realized that they were the only ones in the entire basement. They ran through the basement, Tony's glasses scanning through everything that came in his sight, trying to find the Infinity Stone heat signatures. The two came across a large safe resting at the end of the room surrounded by piles of paperwork, boxes, and even more safes. In one of those safes, Tony located located the energy source for the Tesseract and led them both to that exact location. 

Tony smirked to the gem, picking up a briefcase that laid among the paperwork while Peridot moved one of the chairs towards the safe to make sure she'll reach it and pressed her Arc Reactor. She watched how the nanotech of Iron Gem Mark 1 consumed her entire palm, before firing a stream of fire from her fingertips. The fire easily melted through the locks, giving them the access to the safe and more importantly the Tesseract. 

Peridot stared in amazement at the blue glowing cube in front of her as Tony reached his hand into the safe, "Peri, it seems like we're back in the game."

The short green gem grinned at his words, pressing her Arc Reactor, making the piece of her Iron Gem armor disappear from her hand. She watched how Tony carefully pulled the Tesseract out of the safe, and even more carefully set it into his briefcase for safekeeping.

Then, completely out of nowhere a completely new voice emerged from the other side of the basement, "Arnim, you in there? Arnim?"

Peridot and Tony could feel how their eyes shot open as the latter quickly closed the briefcase, and were about to head out, but unfortunely the unknown man heard the noise of the briefcase closing and called out to them, "Hey, both of you! Door's this way.''

Knowing that there really wasn't anything they could do now, Tony and Peridot turned to the unknown man, walking over to him, with Tony saying, "Oh, right."

"We must've messed the directions." Peridot added, trying to sound as believable as she could.

The unknown man approached them, "I'm looking for Dr. Zola. Have you either of you seen him?"

Stark seemed to be nervous more than even, for reasons that were unknown for Peridot. She was nervous too, but for as long as she knew Tony, she never saw him that nervous.

She took her gaze away from Tony's nervous expression as she answered, "Dr. Zola?... I don't think we saw any anyone with this name."

The man simply shrugged his shoulders to her answer,  "Do I know you?" 

Peridot opened mouth to reply, but closed it a second after. This was when he caught her. She quickly tried to think of a logical response but thankfully Tony came in the rescue for both of them.

"No, sir." He said, shakily, holding out visitors badge, "We're visitors from MIT."

''MIT, huh?" The man said, nodding his head slowly to them both to which Peridot sent him a rather awkward smile, "Got any name?"

"Uh..." Tony paused for a moment, trying to think of a name, "...Howard."

"Well, that'll be easy to remember." The man stated.

"Howard..." Once again, Tony paused for a second, "Potts."

The man then looked down at Peridot, "And you, Miss?"

"I'm Virginia Potts, his wife." Peridot lied, saying the first thing that came into her mind, "But you can call me Pepper."

Tony and Peridot exchanged awkward glances with each other, the latter's expression saying "Sorry." , knowing that Pepper probably would have killed them both if she ever found out about this.

The man smiled at the couple before him, as he extended his hand towards Tony, introducing himself, "Well, I'm Howard Stark."

Peridot had to hold back a gasp at the revelation of who this man was. Of course. Now it all made perfect sense to her why Tony became so nervous the moment his eyes caught the sight of this man. She could even see the resembles between these two.

"Hi." Tony said as she awkwardly reached his hand forward, grabbing only one finger from Howard's hand.

"Shake it, don't pull it." Howard laughed, looking down at Tony's hand holding his finger.

"Yeah." Tony said in response, moving his hand away from Howard's finger who then reached his hand down to Peridot.

Peridot quickly shook Howard's hand, as he stated, "I don't mean to offend you, but you're really short."

"Don't worry. You're not the first one to tell me that." Peridot stated, giving a short chuckle in response.

Howard nodded his head to her response as he looked at Tony, "You look a little green around the gills there, Potts."

''I'm fine. Just, long hours." Tony assured him.

''Wanna get some air?" Howard offered him, but when Tony didn't reply, he added, "Hello, Potts."

"That sounds great." Peridot said, nudging Tony to make him answer, "Right, Howard?"

''Yeah. That would be swell." Tony stated, walking past Howard to the exit, completely forgetting about his briefcase, but thankfully Peridot was there to pick it up and hand it to him.

"Good thing your wife is here." Howard stated, following them, "You're not one of those beatniks, are ya, Potts?"

----

The sound of the phone ringing rang across Hank Pym's laboratory. He slowly made his way over to him, with a glass of coffee in his hand picked it up.

"Hello. Dr. Pym?" An unknown voice sounded his in ears. He was unaware that he was speaking with Captain America himself.

''That would be the number that you called. Yes." Hank confirmed.

''This is Captain Stevens and Lieutenant Demayo from shipping. We have a package for you." Steve answered.

"Bring it up." Hank told him, sipping his coffee.

''Well, that's the thing, sir. We can't." Steve said.

''I'm confused. I thought that was your job." Hank stated.

''Well, it's just... Sir, the box is glowing and, to be honest, some of our mail guys aren't feeling that great." Steve explained.

''They didn't open it, did they?" Hank wanted to know, looking troubled, the tone of his voice changing.

"Yeah, they did. You better get down here." Steve answered.

Without a word, Hank quickly slammed the phone and started to run down the hallway in hurry, pushing through other people as Steve and Garnet peeked their heads through the doors of another room to see him running past them.

They quickly came out of the room they were hiding in and went inside Hank's Pym lab, searching through this place to find the Pym Particles. They saw vials of Pym Particles stored inside a fridge as they walked over to it, each of them grabbing a pair out of the compartment. 

Their job with acquring the particles was done. Now they had to get out of here as fast as they could. They quietly shut the doors behind them, and walked down the hallway towards the exit, but their eyes caught the sight of the secretary from the elevator coming into the hallway along with two other men.

"And you've never seen these two men and two women before?" One of the security officers asked her.

"No, I've got an eye for this. The two of them looked fishy." She stated.

"Can you describe them?" The other security officer asked.

"Well, one of them had a hippie beard, and another one of them was really short." She explained, referring to Tony and Peridot.

"How short?" Security officer wanted to know.

"Really short." She told him.

At the sight of them, Garnet and Steve quickly lowered their heards, and quickly moved into the nearby room. Good thing they already snuck into Pym's lab and stole Pym Particles for their journey back home. It was actually enough for a few trips each. They didn't need much, but they preferred not to take any risk.

With them safely secured in their hands, all they had to do to was to hope that Tony and Peridot won't get caught in the process of taking the Tesseract. 

Garnet waited next to the doors, watching how the S.H.I.E.L.D secretary along with two security officers walked past the office they hid themselves in. She waited for a moment, before saying, "They're gone. It's time to go."

She heard no response from the first Avenger. She turned to him and saw him gazing out of the office's back window. She slowly walked over to him, his eyes not leaving the window. She stopped by his side, gazing at the framed picture in his hand. It showed her a person that was no other than Steve Rogers himself. It was definitely him, but the body did not match the face. It was skinnier, scrawnier, the face of complete exhaustion filling Steve's expression.

She looked just like Captain America she heard of back when the Earth was under WW2. To this day she could remember the reactions of other Crystal Gems when they found the photo showing Steve's transformation. She could still remember Pearl's confusion to why something like that was even possible, and Rose's or rather Pink Diamond's amazement and excitement at how this was man transformed.

Her gaze went away from the picture and looked at the lone person on the opposite side of the glass Steve was staring at. It took her a moment to realize who it was, but she only conviced herself that her suspicions were true when she glanced back at the window of this office and saw a certain name inscripted on it.

She turned back to back, and whispered to him, knowing that they can't stay here, "We can't stay here. We can't let her see us. We can't let her see you."

Steve Rogers knew she was right. He sighed as he lowered his head, turning back from the person on the other side of the glass. He quietly set the framed picture back on the desk, sending that person on the other side of the glass one last look as Garnet approached him, giving him an encouraging nod. The two of them walked out of the office, and headed towards the place where they were planning met up with Tony and Peridot.

When Peggy Carter finally took her attention away from her work, turning back to the glass in front of her that was showing her office. After seeing no one in there, she went back to work.

-----

They walked out together. Tony, Howard and Peridot, all three of them got out of the banker into the afternoon sun, walking along the Camp Lehigh. They walked between young soldiers and large jeeps and tanks. Tony and Peridot followed Howard Stark, side by side.

"So..." Tony said, spotting flowers in Howard's right hand, "Flowers and sauerkraut. You got a big date tonight?"

''My wife's expecting." Howard responded, looking down at the flowers he prepared for his wife, "And, uh, too much time in the office."

''Congratulations." Tony told him,

''Thanks." Howard thanked him, handing him his flowers, "Hold this, will you?"

"Yeah, sure." Tony said, taking the flowers from him to hold them for a second, as Howard started fixing his tie, "How far along is she?"

''I don't know, she's at the point where she can't stand the sound of my chewing. I guess I'll be eating dinner in the pantry again." Howard answered.

This words made Tony grin for a second, "I have... I mean we have a little girl."

He and Peridot exchanged look with each other again, knowing that they had to go along with it to blow their cover as Howard smiled to that, "A girl would be nice. Less of a chance she'd turn out exactly like me."

"What do you mean?" Peridot asked him.

''Let's just say that the greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interests." Howard answered.

''So, where are you at with names?" Tony asked.

"Well, if it's a boy, my wife likes Elmonzo." Howard answered.

"Huh, Might wanna let that stew awwhile. You got time." Tony told him.

"Let me ask you a question." Howard said as he stopped, sharing a quick glance with Peridot and Tony, "When your kid was born were you nervous?"

Tony nodded his head, "Wildly. Yeah."

"The day when we had her was the most nervous day of my life." Peridot added, as she started rubbing her stomach to make herself look more believable.

''Did either of you feel qualified?" Howard asked them, "Like you had any idea how to successfully operate that thing?"

''I literally pieced it together as I went along, I thought about what my Dad did, and..." Tony was interrupted by Howard. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Steve and Garnet standing in front of one of the jeeps. Captain America gave him a quick thumbs up and Garnet offered Stark a quick nod, both of them saying that they got the particles.

"My old man, he never met a problem he couldn't solve with a belt." Howard stated.

''I thought my dad was tough on me." Tony replied, earning a curious expression from Howard. Peridot was hoping that Howard was not going to ask her about her parents, because she never had one. Well, she technically she was made to serve Yellow Diamond, but then she'd have to find a way to put it into more gentler words, "And now, looking back, I just remember the good stuff, you know. He did drop the odd pearl.''

''Yeah? Like what?" Howard asked.

Tony's answer was, "No amount of money ever bought a second of time." 

Howard smirked, chuckling, "Smart guy."

''He did his best." Tony stated.

''Let me tell you. That kid's not even here yet, and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him or her." Howard said, making Tony smile warmly at his words. Peridot smiled too, giving Tony a small pat on his leg. They looked at Garnet and Steve, both of their expressions asking if they got the Tesseract. Tony raised the briefcase as Peridot pointed at it, showing that they hid it in there.

Howard Stark suprised them both as he approached them, Tony handing him the flowers he asked him to hold a moment ago, "It was nice to meet both of you."

"The feeling is mutual Mr Stark." Peridot said, sending him a quick smile as Howard extended his hand towards her for another handshake. The short green gem shook it, before Howard turned towards Tony, offering him a handshake a well.

"Yeah, Howard. Everything's gonna be all right." Tony said as he gave his father a firm handshake. Howard offered him a grateful smile, before something unexpected, at least for him happened. Tony broke the distance between them, meeting his father in a hug he obviously didn't return, "Thank you for everything.  You've done for this country."

When Tony broke off the hug, Howard simply shrugged his shoulders as he turned away, walking over to his butler Jarvis standing by the drivers door. Tony and Peridot walked away, Stark sending his father one last smile that he couldn't see. 

Howard handed Jarvis his flowers, turning his glance at Tony and Peridot for the last time, "Jarvis, have we ever met either of them?"

"You meet a lot of people, sir." Jarvis pointed out, as he got himself into the car, sitting on the drivers seat.

"Seems very familiar. Weird beard." Howard stated, as he got himself into the car as well, sitting in the back seat, "And his wife? Have you ever seen a grown person as short as her?"

As Howard and Jarvis drove off, Peridot and Tony quickly made their way over to Steve and Garnet, each of them breathing a sigh of relief. They had everything they needed to go back to their home with the thing they came here for in the first place.

They made their way over to the place where they left Cap's shield. Garnet handed the vials of Pym Particles to Tony and Peridot. All four Avengers slapped Time Travel GPSes at the same time, the Quantum Suits covering their entire bodies. Tony gripped the briefcase as tightly as he could, before all four of them shrank down and disappeared.