MAJOR AVENGERS: ENDGAME SPOILERS

  "DON'T DO ANYTHING stupid until I get back."

Wearing the white, time-travel-adapted suit, Steve Rogers faced his childhood best friend, his partner in crime for over ninety years, Bucky Barnes.

"How can I?" Bucky retorted, copying the lines Steve — who was merely a puny young man at the time — used before the brunet's departure to Europe, back in 1940. "You're taking all the stupid with you."

The Captain embraced his friend, patting his back as his heart sank against his will. The last time such a scene happened, Bucky had been captured at the German front and Steve had had to save him from a lugubrious Nazi building, braving HYDRA's troops through the tumultuous chaos of combat. His first confrontation with Red Skull had also taken place there, followed by the Captain's realisation that he would have to do more than only fight in the war as an officer.

But this time, it was Steve's turn to leave. His new duty was to put the infinity stones back where they had been fetched by the Avengers, going back to the corresponding years. Although they had already time-travelled to get to them the first time, nothing could thoroughly guarantee the safety of this new expedition — Steve hoped not to remain trapped, once more, in an era that wasn't his.

Trying to be confident, he let go of Bucky and passed by Sam, his other best friend. The dark-skinned man nodded, wishing him good luck with a crooked smile, and handed Steve the briefcase containing the stones. Tightening his grip on the handle, the Captain got into position on the platform that would launch him back in time, and let Bucky and Sam know he was ready. In his friends' reality, his aim would be accomplished within five seconds, though his own notion of time wouldn't be altered the same way. But Steve still wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible, knowing the risks of time jumps and the disastrous consequences that any misdemeanour could have on parallel realities.

Sam started the machine, and, after a jolt followed by a beam of dazzling light, Steve was transported back in 2012 New York City.

A strange feeling of disorientation washed over the Captain as he suddenly stood in the midst of the city, far away from the quiet clearing where he had left Sam and Bucky after Tony's funeral. Trying to shake off the strangeness that came with such a brusk a change of space and time as fast as possible, the man hurried to follow the instructions Bruce had given him on the location of the Ancient One, the woman who had been Stephen Strange's mentor and the previous keeper of the Time stone.

Though the temptation to change the course of events, to warn his teammates about the dangers yet to come, to tell his own self about what what towering walls the future had planned to erect in his path was hard not to yield to, the Captain knew that he ought not to interfere with this reality. His ability to return back home was at stake, and fighting against his 2012 self had already been compromising enough.

Therefore, with Bruce's commands in mind, Steve acted discreetly to find the Sorcerer Supreme, whom he finally gave back the stone. An air of transcendent knowledge, an aura of unequalled power seemed to emanate from them, the Sorcerer Supreme's human-like body making their abilities even more grounding for anyone who met them, and Steve watched, humbled, as she sealed the Time stone back in her amulet. They sent him off with a kind smile, wishing him farewell.

The Captain's next stop was Xandar, where had been kept the Power stone according to the Guardians of the Galaxy. This mission turned out the easiest of all: all he had to do was return it to the government, insisting on the fact that it required cautious protection. No ill-willed creature should ever be able to lay their hands on it, or even to know its position.

Then came the Soul stone's turn. Having been carried to the bottom of an imposing mountain in a split second, Steve got plunged in the darkness under its snow-covered sharp summits, a deep and gloomy violet sky hanging over the craggy edges above the Captain's in comparison minuscule figure. This place seemed to be Death's very own refuge, a place where neither screaming nor crying could be heard. A place of silence and solitude, from which one could only get away after being torn apart from the one thing they cared about most. A place where were scattered pieces from broken hearts, the missing parts of beings that would never be whole again.  

Lashed by the cold wind, the Captain his ascent of the mountain. And, with every footstep, he couldn't think of anything else but Natasha. He recalled all too well the way his joy shattered after he had seen Clint standing alone on the time-travel platform, his mission partner missing. He recalled the way the air seemed to have vanished for his chest at once, sucked out by the icy spectre of grief already looming over him, the way the pain had gone for his throat as he had noticed the tears in Clint's eyes. Since the very beginning, Natasha was the soul of the team; she always believed in them, no matter what, and had made a family out of them — not only her family, but a real family. Seeing his friend care so much about the Avengers had made Steve care about them too. And now, she was gone, and so was Tony. And there were no more Avengers.

He had cried after learning what happened to Natasha, he had cried in front of Tony. But now only wide emptiness, shapeless and cancerous emptiness, mixed with sadness, was consuming him. Holding the stone in his clenched, shaky fist, Steve reached the top of the mountain.

The Captain had expected to find something similar to an altar dedicated to the Soul stone, but a gloomy, misshapen arose out of the shadows a few feet away from him instead. With its head hidden under a black hood, it was only missing a scythe to appear as the hideous embodiment of Death.

But when the phantom pulled down the cloth veiling its face, Steve winced as he instantly recognised the one hiding under the mask.

No other than Red Skull was standing right in front of him.

Looking exactly the same as before, his monstrous face didn't give away any emotion, as though he didn't know the newcomer at all. He looked like a ghost, a hollow reflection of himself deprived of sentiment.

"Red Skull" Steve called, on the lookout. "I've come to put the Soul stone back."

A hand engulfed in dark material extended towards Captain America. Taking a cautious, distrustful step forward, Steve dropped the stone on its open palm, still unsettled by the sight of his old foe; the most surprising was that Red Skull didn't seem to recognise him at all.

"Steven, son of Joseph," Red Skull spoke slowly, but the syllables dropping from his grazed lips still didn't seem to spark in him the flicker of a memory. "Usually, the ones that come leave a part of them behind. It feeds the mountain." He turned around quietly, looking at the rocky edge of the uneven ground they stood upon.

Even though a dreadful pressentiment knotted Steve's stomach, he took a few steps forward towards the place Red Skull was watching. His heart beating really fast, he glanced down the mountain, incapable to restrain himself. There, twisted and enshrouded with dry blood, he imagined lay Natasha's inert corpse.

Clint had told the group that the ginger young woman had sacrificed her life in order for him to bring the Soul stone to the Avengers, allowing the mission's success. The archer had witnessed what had exactly happened on Vormir, the way Natasha and him had fought for the deadly fall before she let herself go, as though she believed that it was her final act of redemption for all the tormented ink staining her conscience. It's okay, she had said.

Later on, when Steve left Vormir, he knew that he would never forget it.

—

i hope that you enjoyed this first, rather sad, chapter ):

the beginning of the book will be focused on steve and his relationships, but as we go on we'll approach different characters and the way endgame's events affected them 

have a lovely day and thank you for reading <3