After the Snap (Final)
It wasn't the first time that Captain America had found himself face down in the dirt, feeling like he had the snot beaten out of him, his body arguing with him in a refusal to get back up. It was reminiscent of the good old days, or maybe not so good, depending on your point of view. His tag line of being able to do this all day was quickly meaning less and less as the seconds passed, and the ground became almost a comfort because it felt real; for the first time since that damn snap, he actually felt something.
And that's what startled him into action. He felt alive.
"What the hell?" he mumbled, pushing himself up on shaking arms, leaning back onto his heels as he looked around at his new surroundings, only to find that they weren't new at all.
"Steve?"
"Buck?"
"How...what just happened? How did we get back to Wakanda? Are we alive? I feel alive, but that's worked out not so great for me before."
"I have no idea..." Steve sighed, continuing to search as far as his enhanced sight would let him. "Do you see anyone else?"
"No. Do you think Sam made it?"
Steve pushed himself up further, bringing himself to stand so that he could swat away the dirt that had gathered on his uniform. The cloth left behind had become permanently stained and ragged from too many years of use without upkeep, but it still deserved the respect of a good dusting here and there. "Sam?" he called out into the open air, biting his lip nervously as he listened for even the quietest answer. "Sam? You out there?"
"Wilson!" Bucky joined in, his voice carrying over Steve's. "If you're still dead I'm gonna be so pissed!"
"Helping or hurting, Buck?"
"Wils-" he tried to repeat, pausing at a flash of movement in his peripheral vision. "There," Bucky pointed into the near distance, "my idiot senses are tingling. That has to be him."
~~~
"Ugh, what happened?" Pete groaned, grabbing his head limply, the dizziness of the sudden shift in reality making his brain swim. He had yet to open his eyes, fearing that the sensation would only worsen; when he finally forced himself to look, he gasped so hard that he choked on the dense Titan air, coughing out the dust that hung heavily around him. "M-mr. Stark?!"
"Hey, kid," Tony smiled. It was a genuine, tear-stained smile, filled with relief that he was seeing Parker alive again after the devastation of watching him disappear through his hands. It didn't even matter that they were back on this god-forsaken planet, he was just so relieved to see him. Tony rushed forward, leaving Pete to reflexively take a step back in surprise, but he stopped when he realized what was happening. Tony reached out and grabbed the kid, pulling him tightly into a crushing hug as his emotions finally gave way. "Pete...I'm so sorry...I'm sorry that I couldn't stop it."
"It's okay, Mr. Stark...it's okay. It wasn't your fault."
"I never meant for any of this. I didn't want you here."
Pete stood silent and listened, but it became painfully clear that he wasn't sure of what to do with his hands as Tony continued to hold him. He awkwardly shifted and tried to hug back, but it ended up as sort of a pat on the back with his arms pinned by Tony's. "I'm sorry, too, sir. I should've...listened...wait," he pulled back, freeing himself from Stark's vice-like grip, "please tell me...that's not what I think it is, is it?"
Tony turned around and looked at the gauntlet, now mangled even more that he had used it again to bring this moment back, and to bring half of the universe back. He held out a glimmer of hope that it really was spent of energy this time, but he wasn't a man to rest on assumptions; not in something this immensely important. "Yeah, it is what you think it is, kid. How else do you figure that you're here now?"
"Did you do this?!"
"Don't sound so shocked."
"Holy shiiiit," Pete gasped, "Mr. Stark, we need to get rid of that. He's going to come back for it and this whole thing is going to happen again. If we don't destroy the stones-"
Tony was nodding in agreement, and would have said so if he hadn't been interrupted by a loud crash, a grumble of pain, and a voice that he was actually happy to hear berating him again. He didn't allow the conceit from many, but after what they had been through, this guy kind of earned it.
"I have been falling for thirty minutes!" Stephen hissed, pushing himself up. "If this is karma, then I think it overshot the mark."
"Hey, Doc, welcome back," Tony greeted, hurrying across the familiar battlefield. He grabbed the gauntlet before anyone else had the chance, using his still suit covered hand to pull the time stone from its resting place within it. "Here. Do some of that magic shit and get us home."
"Good to see you too, Tony," Strange relented, willingly taking the gift. "I told you, it was the only way. That's why I asked him to spare you."
"Well, hell, here I thought it was my charm that had won you over."
"Definitely not," Stephen mumbled to himself, looking in each direction with a trained eye. He could still feel the shift in the universe that had begun when he was still locked in the soul stone, and he knew that this wasn't over. Thanos would be filled with rage at this, and he would return. Tony had altered time with his snap, bringing them all back, which would include the cause of it all and the fear of repetition. "Give me the rest of the gauntlet," he urged with a cautious smile, "this time we do it our way."
"What are you going to do?
"I think I'll give him the chance to do a little bargaining. It's worked pretty well for me in the past."
~~~
"My love, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I think so," you whispered, your voice shaking along with every muscle in your body. "Where's Tony? Where did he go? Did he do it?"
"He's gone," T'Challa answered nervously. He spun himself in each direction, searching for anyone else who could help him to find answers. On the very edges of his vision, he saw movement, allowing himself a simple sigh of relief at who he was seeing. He never thought that he would be so immensely happy to see the man who was hurrying to meet him now. "(Y/N)! Look! I see the Captain! He's alive!"
"Steve? Where?" You tried to stand with him, but your legs had other ideas. They were reluctant to allow you to bear weight on them, shaking under the strain of use after the shock the universe had just imparted on them. The universe had other ideas for you, and when you forced yourself up on wobbly supports, T'Challa nearly fell to his knees in pure, exasperating shock with what he witnessed.
"(Y/N), look down."
"What...?" you answered distractedly, still looking at the horizon for your best friend until you realized why your legs were suddenly so troublesome. Your entire weight and balance had shifted, and your baby had returned, as if it had never left. "Oh my god...am I imagining this? T'Challa? If I am...just don't wake me up. I want to stay here."
"Our prayers have been answered," he whispered under his breath, with tears building in his eyes and the lump of emotions in his throat nearly choking him. He knelt down in front of you and wrapped his arms around your waist, resting his forehead against your belly, trying to keep his breathing slowed and controlled when all he wanted was to scream his joy out to the world. "I owe him my life in return for what he has done. I pray to Bast that Tony Stark finds his own peace for the gift he has given us."
"(Y/N)! Are you alright?" Steve called out, running at top speed to reach you. He had seen the change long before he was actually next to you, and by the time his arms were around you and pulling you in for a hug that released him from his own hell, he was openly crying tears of relief along with T'Challa. The two men looked at each other for the fraction of a second, barely a glance, but it was all that was needed; Steve and T'Challa left their arguments and differences behind, never to be spoken of again. Petty disagreements meant nothing after this.
~~~
Gamora woke at the bottom of a steep cliff, her body hurting with every movement, but not nearly in the way that it should have after the fall that had taken her life for Thanos to obtain the soul stone. She sat up with a long breath and a wince of pain, but she was moving, and she wouldn't take that for granted. As she came into her reality again, her mind wandered and raced, wondering if her return to her body meant that the stone was no longer within Thanos' reach, and if he would simply repeat history to obtain it again. Gamora stood slowly and dusted herself off, straightening her jacket and running a tremulous hand through her hair. Looking up at the precipice from which she was thrown, it was clear that there was no way back up there, and that she was stranded on a planet that no one knew. Maybe she was celebrating this coming back to life thing a little prematurely, which she entertained for merely a minute or two before she heard the most beautiful sound of her life, and saw the hints of a shadow coming closer to where she stood.
"Come on, princess. Your carriage awaits."
"R-rocket?" she sighed, her vision clouding with emotion, "is that you? Are you okay? Oh my god...I'm so sorry, I never meant-"
"I know," he acquiesced, raising a hand to stop her, "but we're so far beyond apologies. I'm just so damned happy that you're okay." He rushed forward from where he had been standing, just in front of the team's ship that she had yet to see through the heavy mists, barreling towards her at his best speed and into her waiting arms. He didn't even hesitate; he wasn't the same guy coming out of this who went in, and he needed anything stable to keep him from losing it once and for all. "No one is ever allowed to die again, you hear me? Not even Quill."
"I hear you."
"I've never been that alone," he continued, in a voice softer than he had ever spoken, "I love you guys, okay? I'll do better by you all, I promise."
With his admission and his shift in character so far removed from what she knew of him over their years together, Gamora was at a loss for words, so she simply held him tighter until he was ready to let go. She wondered if he would ever be ready as he nuzzled himself into her neck with quiet sobs; the day might never come when she would ask him about his experience or what terrors he had witnessed, but for now, she simply accepted him. When the rest of the team finally emerged from the ship, there were no more words spoken by any of them; one by one, they joined into the hug until they were a mass of tears and quiet laughter, a family that would refuse to be broken again.
~~~
That day became a memory for everyone rather quickly, and the entire event was allowed to be forgotten once lives began to resemble normalcy. There would always be the essence of fear that the threat could come again, if not from Thanos but from another; Strange kept the time stone as he had before, and the mind stone returned to Vision in order to allow him his life back, in a move that would never be argued. With Vision and Thor's help, Wanda destroyed the remaining stones as a little extra insurance for the fate of the future. Things were normalizing as best as they could, even with the shroud of memory that blanketed the world around you.
Things had come back to life so well, in fact, that before you knew it, your day had come, and your new husband had never been more ready. When he stepped out of the birthing suite and into the room that held your team, his entire demeanor had changed, and filled with so much unabashed joy that his friends barely recognized him.
"My dear friends," T'Challa began, "I would like you to meet the future king of Wakanda. Our son, Thandiwe Steven."
"That's beautiful," Natasha stepped closer and cooed at the tiny boy with a tickle under his chubby chin, "what does it mean?"
"It means loved one, which he is in abundance."
"W-what?" Steve stumbled as his startled mind caught up to the moment, looking to the group around him as they smiled back. They looked at him with stupid grins like they had been in on a joke all along and he was only now allowed the punchline, and maybe they had been for all he knew. "T'Challa, you don't have to-"
"I know that we don't. We want to," he reassured his friend. "Here, hold your godson."
"You guys..." Steve gasped softly, taking the little boy into his arms, finally. He had wanted to hold him so badly when they were locked away from the world, and to have the little one in his safe hold now felt like the world was complete again. The amount of worry that he carried with him in the Soul World still lingered within him, even now as he looked down at the baby he would die to protect. He would take his role as godfather very seriously, and his godson would never worry or need for anything. This might be the closest that Steve would come to being a father, and he wasn't about to screw this up. "I'm...I'm honored, T'Challa. Thank you."
"You never once failed (Y/N), even when I tried to push you away, you persevered because of your love for her. I want you to know how much that means to me."
"I do."
"Good, now come along, she's been asking for you." T'Challa stepped back with a hand extended to allow Steve to move first, but he followed very closely behind with the Captain still holding his newborn son. He may have a new respect and appreciation for the man, but the King still had his limits.
"Might I join?" Thor interrupted. "I have yet to congratulate her."
"Of course, pal, let's go," Steve chuckled and pushed the door to your room open, peeking around the corner as if he were about to give away some secret by being there. The baby began to gurgle and fuss, so he moved more deliberately to get him to you, but he heard a new voice with you and paused, "was she expecting company?"
"Not that I'm aware of, no," T'Challa answered, an inquisitive eyebrow raised as he pushed past the Captain to see for himself. "Well, this is unexpected. Look at this."
"Is there trouble?" Thor pressed forward more aggressively, his protectiveness worn on his sleeve. Steve gladly stepped aside, anxious to see the scene in front of him play out. T'Challa simply backed away, not a part of what was about to happen, but respectful of it nonetheless. "Wait," Thor paused at the door frame, "that can't be. That sounds like...that's impossible..."
But when he finally made his way into the room, his suspicions were proven true. The man standing next to you was definitely real, and it was anything but impossible after what the universe had been through. You smiled so widely at the look on your friend's face that you swore you pulled a muscle, but it would have been worth it, because this was a moment that you were thankful to have seen first-hand.
"Hello, brother," Loki nodded, placing a gentle hand on your shoulder, "I'm here, and I think I'll take that hug now."
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