What If... Steve Went to Vormir?

When it was time to divvy up who was going where to retrieve which stones, you and Steve ended up volunteering to go to Vormir. You'd never been to space before, having opted out of the mission to get Thanos all those years ago.

Plus, you and Steve were best friends, probably the closest pair on the team. You saw the look Nebula had when the two of you volunteered to go there (well, Steve did and you immediately followed in suit). It was instinct to ask her why, but you figured it was because that's where Thanos had killed her sister.

Which just brought up another question: why did he do that?

You didn't ever get to ask, though. The mission was here before you realized and you were heading off with Steve to Vormir.

"You ready for this?" you asked, nudging his side. It was somewhat playful, but it was only to mask how scared you were. The last attempt against Thanos wasn't the most successful.

He looked down at you and smiled. "Are you?" Instead of answering, you smirked and turned to look out the window of the spaceship. Space was truly beautiful.

Getting dropped of at Vormir was easy. The trek to the big tall mountain where the two of you assumed the the stone was being held was another thing. There was water and what looked like sand everywhere.

The journey was mostly silent, too much weighing on both of your shoulders to be making jokes. The stone was right there. Victory was getting steps closer.

At the mountain, the two of you walked up side by side, weapons up in case there was any hostile. "Steven. Son of Sarah and Joseph. (Y/n). Child of (Y/p/n) and (Y/p/n). Welcome to Vormir."

The voice came from pitch blackness until a figure finally floated forward and revealed itself to be...

"Holy shit," you said, your jaw dropping in shock.

Steve had a very similar expression on his face. He had told you all about the 'Red Skull' and how they had their confrontation and fight in the 40s. According to the story, he grabbed the Tesseract and just disappeared, assumed dead.

Apparently not.

"How are you still alive?" Steve asked, his 'Captain' voice coming out.

As the Red Skull came forward, you glanced down and noted he was floating toward the two of you. Yeah, he's been through it since his last encounter with Steve. "The Tesseract did not kill me, merely transported me to a new world. Here, I ended up as the guardian of the Soul Stone."

"So you have it?" you asked, taking a small step forward. "We need that stone."

A pause. "I'm afraid it doesn't work like that," Red Skull said. "You must sacrifice the one you love to get the stone. A soul for a soul. It is the only way."

The world stilled as the words sunk in. Your first thought was Nebula, and how she knew this but didn't say anything about it. Just that her sister died here. If you had actually talked to her about it, would she even have told you the truth? Or did she have an ulterior motive all along?

Steve pulled you out of your trance by grabbing a hold of your elbow and pulling you along. It took a second to regain full control, and when you did you noticed the Red Skull was leading the two of you somewhere.

"This is where the sacrifice must take place," he said. You looked at him, then to Steve, and then down.

It was a big drop, that's for sure. "This is where..." you trailed off. You both knew what this was. Someone had to fall to their death in order to get the stone. A low scoff came out of your mouth, drawing Steve's attention. "A soul for a soul."

You walked off, away from the edge. Then, you spun around and faced Steve, who was already coming towards you. "I already know what you're thinking-"

"Of course you should, Steve, there is no way in hell I will let you jump off that cliff. Not happening."

"Well you're insane if you think I'm letting you jump."

The two of you stood and stared at each other for a minute and you felt the tears coming to your eyes before they started to blur your vision. "What the hell are we gonna do?" you asked, your voice breaking on the last word.

Steve came over to you and pulled you into a bone-crushing hug, something you two desperately needed right now.

You can't lose him, but you also can't say goodbye to the plan to bring everyone back. It was selfish not to hurtle yourself off the cliff immediately, or to let Steve do it. But that's what you were right now: selfish.

"I kind of hate everything right now," you whispered.

"Me too." A beat of silence. "I have an idea, (Y/n), and I need you to trust me on it."

Your first thought was somehow taking on the Red Skull, seeing if he would give up the stone. Maybe there was some kind of loophole. "Okay." Your voice was quiet. You would always trust Steve.

What you didn't expect was for Steve to let go of you and start running toward the edge. It took too long for you to process, too long to understand what was happening. And when you did, it was too late. "STEVE!"

He went off the edge, and you hurried after. You fell to your knees and looked over the edge of the cliff. Seeing him at the bottom caused a sob to tear itself from your throat and your tears finally made their fall.

Your eyes closed, and when they opened again, you were laying out in the water. Sitting up, you felt a weight in your hand. In your closed fist you saw a glowing orange light and thought, "Did I get it? Please tell me he didn't do it for nothing."

The glow intensified when you opened your hand and you gasped at the sight. There it was, the Soul Stone. One step closer to everyone coming back.

Still, it didn't ease the loss of Steve. Not at all.

A sudden coughing from behind you had you whirling around and on guard. A small person laid there, skinny and being swallowed up by the clothes they were in. But... that was Steve's uniform.

It hit you. "Steve?" you gasped. He sat up and continued to cough and there was no mistaking that head of hair or those blue eyes. "Steve! Holy shit, holy shit, what happened? How are you small?"

He had shown you pictures of him before he got the serum. It did a lot, and you remembered not just in the physique department, but also in the health department. This was brought back to your attention when Steve couldn't stop coughing.

You slapped his back a couple times, his spine poking your hand. "Jesus..." you muttered. This wasn't going to go over well when you guys got back.

When he was finally done, you sat and waited for an explanation. He looked at you and sighed. "I... I thought I'd be able to sacrifice the 'Captain America' side of me. Whether I'd like to admit it or not, I loved him. It was amazing being the bigger guy for once, beating up the bad guys. I wondered if it would work, and if it didn't I'd be saving the world anyway."

There was a silence after he was done talking. You wanted to hit him, but didn't know how his new- old- whatever, current body would react. Instead you held the stone out in between the two of you. "Well, it worked."

He marveled at it for a moment, eyes wide at the stone just sitting in your hand. "Woah," he said.

You laughed. "That's a pretty good reaction right there," you said, smiling. The Avengers may have lost a key soldier, but it'd be okay, because he was still there. "Should we head back?"

The mood sobered back up. "Yeah, we should," he agreed. Luckily since the time travel suits were nanotech, it still fit Steve okay.

"I'll give you something of mine to wear when we get back."

"Har har."

With the press of a button, you two were flying back through time and colors whirred passed as you did. Landing back on the platform was a weird experience, but you didn't fall over.

You ignored everyone else and immediately hurried over to Steve, who had crouched down in a coughing fit. Not surprising. "Hey, hey, hey, you okay?" you asked, your hand on his back and trying to support him.

The others stared in confusion as Steve's coughs settled down. "I'm sorry, what the hell happened over there?" he asked.

You looked at him, then handed the stone off to Bruce/Hulk/whatever to be put in the Iron Gauntlet. "At Vormir, we had to sacrifice someone. A soul for a soul. Steve..."

"I sacrificed Captain America. Now I'm just 'Steve' again," he finished. He still had the same voice, which freaked you out considering he was about the same height as you. His voice should've been a lot higher than it was.

The others stood around in silence as you helped Steve up from the ground. The height difference was... well, it was very noticeable.

"Come on, let's go," you muttered to him. "Let us know when the gauntlet is fully functioning." That was aimed at Tony, who nodded without a word.

The two of you ended up in your room where you grabbed some of Peter's things. You figured Steve would be a little happier wearing your little brother's things instead of yours. Well, not really your little brother, but you were close enough to him before the snap to have box of his old things.

"Thanks," Steve muttered, then trekked into the bathroom to change. Still dressed in your nanotech suit, you pressed a button and let it all go away to reveal the uniform you were dressed in.

You thought about changing out of it, get into something more comfortable, but were too tired to do so. It felt like your whole body was going to collapse in on itself.

"You okay?" You looked over to see tiny-Steve coming out of the bathroom. Even Peter's clothes were slightly baggy on him, but it was the best you could do.

Clearing your throat, you nodded. "Yeah, come on. Let's go to the others, yeah?" you said, and the two of you left to where the Iron Gauntlet had been waiting. "You know, now that you're no longer muscle-y and stuff, I guess you'll have to retire. Or be the guy in the chair."

Steve looked over at you, confused. "'Guy in the chair?' What?" he asked.

"You know, the guy who sits and watches the cameras and feeds stuff to the people on the field. Like Maria or Fury kinda," you explained.

Steve just hummed as the two of you entered the room. "Hey, for safety you should keep your nano-tech suit on since I don't have much else for you at the moment," Tony said when the two of you entered the room.

You walked over and stopped when Steve started to hand something to you. "Take this," he said, holding his shield over to you. He looked up and saw your eyes wide with shock and reluctance. "Relax, it's just to protect you while Bruce snaps, nothing more."

The air in your chest flew out in a breath. "Oh thank god, I wasn't ready for that," you said. Now you took the shield into your hands and held it up.

The new gauntlet was already on Bruce's hand. It was a struggle, but he managed to snap and Tony got the gauntlet off before it caused too much irreversible damage. "Hey, hey, you okay?" you asked as you and Steve hurried up. Steve was still in the suit, only taking the helmet off.

There was a moment where everyone was breathing heavy; it was the only sound in the silence. And then everything exploded- literally. You felt your body get flung away and collided with concrete before falling through and colliding with more. You kept falling further and further down until it finally stopped.

Your eyes opened and you were several floors below where you started. "Shit," you groaned, feeling the pain through your whole body. Unlike a lot of people on the team, you didn't have a lot of armor to protect you on your fall.

"Shit, Steve!" you called, remembering your suddenly much smaller friend. "Steve!"

The first person you saw was Tony, coming to grab you in his suit. "You okay?" he asked, the helmet going away for a second.

You ignored him. "Where's Steve? Is he okay?" you asked instead.

"He's fine, I got him and put him somewhere safe a far away. He's still got the time travel suit so he isn't completely unarmed or vulnerable," Tony explained. "Now, are you okay?"

Finally, you nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Just... hurt," you answered. The ache in your body was being drowned out by adrenaline, but you could still feel it lingering.

"That'll have to do, cause right now, we've got some problems." He brought you up to the surface where Thor was already waiting. Straight ahead, Thanos sat. Waiting. Expecting.

"Well, let's do this," you muttered.

What felt like hours and a miracle later, the fight was still raging on. The snapped had come back with Bruce's snap, and the Mystical Art Masters got them all here, more allies to help with the fight.

At some point, an blast from the ship above sent you hurting into the air and into another body. Luckily, this one felt human enough that you didn't need to worry.

"Holy shit, (Y/n) are you okay?" You knew that voice.

"Bucky, oh my god," you said, moving so you were no longer squishing him. "How are you? Shit- that's a bad question. But also everything is weird so it could be a good question?"

He put hands on your shoulders and ushered the two of you to a more covered spot on the battlefield. "Okay, (Y/n), you're rambling. Everything is shit, we'll stick with that. Have you seen Steve."

"Oh..." you whispered. Now how were you going to explain this? "He's, uh... this is difficult to say..."

His face went pale and his arms went slack by his side. "He's dead, isn't he?" he asked, his voice nearly impossible to hear.

Your eyes went wide and you start to shake your hands. "No! No, no, no, oh god no I am so sorry. He's not dead he's just his old self. You know, pre-serum Steve," you explained.

The color returned to Bucky's face and he started breathing normally again. "Oh thank god, oh... I wasn't ready to deal with that. However, I- I don't think I'm ready to deal with this either. Where is he now?"

"Tony brought him far away from the fight. He's still in his nano-tech suit, too, so he isn't completely defenseless." When the ship stopped blasting at the ground and moved to the sky, you and Bucky refocused on the fight.

It kept going up until suddenly, they were dusting away. You turned around and watched in awe as the enemies all become dust and floated away into the air. It would've been a happy moment had you not looked over at Tony.

The funeral was bittersweet. The Avengers were all there, Steve having to borrow some clothes that would somewhat fit him. But the business didn't end there.

"I'm gonna go return the stones," you said, gripping the suitcase in one hand and a gun in the other. "Bruce, you know what to do."

He nodded over by the controls. You then turned your head to focus on Steve, who gave you a nod and a look. One you understood. Then, you looked at Sam, Bucky, and Natasha who were standing off to the side to meet you when you returned.

"See you soon," you mumbled, then pressed the button on your hand. Your helmet came up and you disappeared from the platform. Exactly five seconds later (to them, at least) you were back.

Rather than holding your weapon and suitcase, though, you had a perfect shield in your hands. This wouldn't have been odd, had the other one not have been destroyed in the battle. "How did you..." Bruce started to ask.

You bypassed everyone and looked at Steve. "It's your turn," you said, walking off the platform and holding the shield to him.

He took it and gave you a small yet most genuine smile. Then he looked at Sam. "Hey, Sam, let's talk," he said. The two men walked off.

You went over to Bucky and Nat. "So, what are you going to do now?" Bucky asked you, crossing his arms.

With a shrug, you pushed your now empty hands into the pockets in your suit. "Steve and I were thinking about retiring together, or at least working part time. Might rent a place together. I mean, he can't exactly live on his own very well anymore..."

Natasha smiled, as did Bucky. "We'll visit. Often. But as long as you promise to do the same," she said.

Your smile said it all.

~Fin~

A/n: You might hate me for still killing Tony (I'm so sorry) but I didn't want to change everything. Plus, I have a whole other idea for that, so I couldn't give everything away in the first chapter!

So this is what I'm thinking for this mini-series. It's somewhat different than the TV show in I do "smaller" changes instead of zombies or something like that. Still love the show! But these are some things I wish they had done.

Please let me know if you want to see anything in this series! I do have ideas already, so I'll let you know if we think alike, but it's very slim chances.

Hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you next week.

Bye Lovelies!!!!!!!!!!!!