Having returned all the other Infinity Stones to their rightful places, Steve Rogers has one stone left: the Soul Stone. On Vormir, he takes this chance to pay his last respects to a fallen comrade, only to reunite with an old enemy…
This story was originally posted on Archive of Our Own on February 19, 2022.
At last, Steve Rogers had reached the end of his journey. On his time-travelling quest to return the Infinity Stones to their rightful places, he had gone to so many different periods in history, different worlds across space, that he had lost track of how long this had taken him. At this point, he was beyond exhausted. But now he had come to Vormir, year 2014, to deliver the last Infinity Stone: the Soul Stone.
Except there was one problem. Steve wasn’t sure if he wanted to go back to 2023 anymore. Since getting thawed out of ice in 2011, he had always struggled to fit into a world where most of his friends were either old or dead and society had moved on. Throughout his time travels, Steve realized that he felt just as out-of-place in the past events as he did on Earth during the 2010s. Past, present, or future—at this point, wherever he ended up no longer mattered to him. If he had a choice, however, he’d rather go home.
But that wasn’t important right now. What was important was completing the mission.
Steve had landed on the plateau of a very tall mountain, with a pistol in his holster and wearing a new shield on his back. This was a rocky, icy, and barren plateau, and would be well above the tree line if Vormir had any trees. The air was thin and dry, yet only a bit chilly. Or maybe it was actually really cold up here but Steve only felt a bit chilly. After all, the Super Soldier Serum always kept him warm, even at below zero, and made breathing in thin air a lot easier. Steve looked up and saw the summit of the mountain, which was a cliff that dropped down to the plateau below. Atop this cliff stood two colossal pillars. This was the shrine that Clint had told him about back in 2023. It was here where the Soul Stone had to be returned.
To the right of the cliff’s base, he spotted a walkable slope that spiraled around the other side. This was the route up to the summit. As Steve started to make his way towards the slope, something on the ground caught the corner of his eye. He looked down to his left and saw a face that was all too familiar. It was Natasha Romanoff, lying dead on the ground. Steve already knew Nat was dead—Clint had told them, the Avengers had a short service for her after they first got back. But simply being told Nat was dead, back on Earth, just didn’t hit nearly as hard as actually seeing her body with his own eyes. It was like finding out she had died a second time.
Steve knelt down next to Nat’s body and bowed his head. Nat’s face had whitened pale, her eyes were still open. Steve used this moment to finally let it all sink in. Nat was actually gone. Steve took a deep breath. He silently shed his tears for his fallen friend. He reached down his left hand and covered her eyes. After a second, he let go. Nat’s eyes were closed now.
Just then, he remembered the last conversation he had with Clint. Back at what was left of the Avengers Compound, before he went back in time, Steve asked Clint if reversing Nat’s death was still possible.
“I already said it at the dock, I don’t need to tell you again,” Clint had said to him. “Her death can’t be undone!”
And yet, there was a catch: Nat died for Clint to get the Stone. Steve was here to return the Stone. He reached into his left pocket and pulled the Soul Stone out. He took one long look at it as it glowed in his glove, and then looked at Nat’s face again. Could Clint be wrong? Can Steve bring Natasha back?
There was only one way to find out. Steve put the Stone back in his pocket. He picked up Nat’s body and slung her over his shoulder. Because she had fallen from such a great height, her body was quite fragile. Steve had to be careful, and he made sure to be gentle with the way he picked her up. He looked back to his right, to where the slope started, and made his way. Carrying Nat’s body, he began his ascent up the mountain. Eventually, the slope gave way to a series of stairs. These stairs led up through a natural arch, after which Steve could see the two colossal pillars in the distance. He had made it.
The shrine at the summit was a ruin littered with wooden and metal debris. There were six other much smaller, but still very tall, pillars that led up in pairs around a walkway up to the colossal pillars. Steve laid Nat’s body down on her back in the middle of this walkway. He spotted a cloaked figure floating in the distance, looking off in the direction of the colossal pillars.
“Steven Rogers, son of Joseph Rogers,” said the cloaked figure. It was a man’s voice that echoed with a raspy tone and an accent that sounded a bit familiar to Steve. “Long time, no see.”
“Wait…” Steve stood up and started walking slowly towards the cloaked figure. “How do you know my name? Who the hell are you?”
“I am the Stonekeeper,” the cloaked figure replied. “It is my curse to know all who journey here. I sought an Infinity Stone, once, a lifetime ago. But the moment I held that Stone in my hand, it banished me to this barren cold desert. And now, for nearly seventy of our homeworld’s years, I had been damned to guard a treasure I would never possess. Today, Natasha Romanoff, daughter of Alexei Shostakov, gave her life for the Soul Stone to be obtained. Yet I am still cursed to this eternal damnation, guarding this shrine for the grave price I had paid.”
“And about that.” Steve stopped in place, just a few feet from the Stonekeeper. “I’m here to make a deal.”
“Pray tell, what would that deal be?” asked the Stonekeeper.
Steve took the Soul Stone out of his pocket and showed it to the Stonekeeper. “I’m here to give back the Stone. And in return, I want you to bring Nat back to life.”
The Stonekeeper chuckled. “I’m afraid that would be impossible, Steve Rogers. Or should I say…” He turned around, glaring at Steve. “…Captain America?”
Steve immediately recognized the Stonekeeper’s red face underneath the hood. He had fought this man a long time ago, back on Earth. It was his old enemy: Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull. He was alive after all this time! Would the Red Skull attack him again? Steve was so unsure, he had to get defensive. He pulled out his shield from over his back and threw it at the Red Skull. It flew right through his cloak, ricocheted off a pillar, passed back through him again, and returned to Steve’s arm. Steve always had backup. He pulled out his pistol, pointed it at the Red Skull, and fired two shots. Both bullets passed straight through his cloak, again without leaving a single wound.
“You cannot hurt me, Captain,” said the Red Skull. “My immortality is part of my curse.”
Steve noticed that the Red Skull wasn’t trying to attack him. Based on this, he deduced that his old enemy did not pose a threat to him anymore. Still, Steve felt like he was going through an adrenaline rush, like his blood was rushing all through his body. He had to calm himself down. He took a few deep breaths, and then put his gun back in his holster and slung his shield over his back again. He was calm now, ready to talk.
“So, Schmidt. Giving back the Stone is impossible?”
“Nein.” The Red Skull drifted through Steve. He turned around and watched as the Red Skull stopped beside Nat’s body. “Restoring Natasha Romanoff to life is impossible. To take the Stone, she sacrificed any chance to see her family again. Her sacrifice was her choice. She is dead now. Her choice cannot be undone.”
Steve understood now. Clint was right. Nat can’t be brought back.
“So it is possible to give back the Stone, isn’t it?” he asked.
The Red Skull nodded. “A soul for a soul. In order to return the Stone, you must regain that which you lost.”
“Now, wait a minute. I lost Nat!”
“She lost her family. Again, Captain, that was her choice. What, in your life, have you chosen to lose? What have you lost?”
Everything. Steve lost everything he knew from the life he had left behind, all the way back in 1945. He remembered all of it.
He remembered his childhood in Brooklyn. It was the Roaring ‘20s, an innocent time. He found it hard to believe that was a hundred years ago for him now. It felt like only thirty years ago to him.
He remembered how bad life got in the Great Depression. Not only had he witnessed all the suffering back home, but he also witnessed the rise of Adolf Hitler and terror he brought to the world. He knew that someone had to stop him.
That’s why he joined the Army. He wanted to make the world a better place. That’s exactly what he, Bucky, and the Howling Commandos were fighting for in Europe—against the Nazis, against Hydra.
And finally, he remembered Peggy Carter. She was more than just the Howling Commandos’ eye in the sky. Through thick and thin, she had had his back the whole time even when no one else did. It was more than just the fact that she had helped him rescue Bucky, and consoled him after he believed Bucky had been killed in action. On a deeper level, she already believed in him long before Project Rebirth. She was there for him every step of the way. Peggy was the exact partner who he could depend on just as equally as she could have depended on him. He missed her so much. They were supposed to dance when the war was over.
When he crash-landed the Valkyrie into the Arctic about eighty years ago, for him, he lost everyone he knew, cared about, and loved. That loss was his choice.
“Everything,” said Steve. “When I got frozen, I lost the world I knew. I want to go back. I want a second chance.”
The Red Skull nodded again. “So be it. Are you ready to give back the Stone?”
Steve pulled the Soul Stone out of his left pocket again. He took one long look at it as it glowed in his hand. Even with a glove on, the Stone still felt quite warm in the cold air. He thought back to what Tony had said to him, about settling down for a normal life once all of this was over. Well, now was his chance.
Except there was Bucky. He had promised he’d be with him to the end of the line. He and Bucky had fought side-by-side, from fighting the Nazis to beating Thanos. If he went back to 1945, he’d be going back to when Bucky was still Hydra’s captive. It was likely he’d never see his best friend again.
Steve reached into his right pocket and pulled out a canister of Pym Particles. This was the last canister he had in his pocket. If he used it now, he could go back to Earth in the year 2023. He’d get to see his best friend once more. But really, Bucky would be the only friend he’d ever have. Otherwise, he had spent the last twelve years of his life struggling to adapt to a world that always moved faster than he could ever catch up. He just never had time to truly fit in with the 21st century. At this point, it’s likely he never would.
He looked at both of his hands. In his right hand he held the Pym Particles canister, his ticket back to 2023. In his left hand he held the Soul Stone, his ticket back to 1945. The war was won, but Steve would be a man out of time forever. The world wasn’t perfect back then, but he was more familiar with it. It was the world he knew.
And then it hit Steve. In 2023, he and Bucky had fought their last battle, together, at the Avengers Compound. They defeated the most powerful warlord in the entire universe. With the Avengers, he helped saved the universe. When he left 2023, that was it. That was the end of the line.
Time to go home.
But first, Steve had to say goodbye to Nat.
“Almost,” he said to the Red Skull. “But I gotta tie up one loose end first.”
Steve collected some of the wooden debris from the area and built a pyre for Nat. He collected her dog tag, as any soldier should do for a friend who had died, and then wrapped her body in a white linen cloth he had found among the debris. He picked up Nat’s body and rested it on the pyre. It wasn’t much, but it was the best he could do for her now.
Steve took a lighter from out of his back pocket. He kept Nat’s dog tag in one hand, and held the lighter in the other. He cleared his throat, and began.
“Hey Nat, guess what? We did it! We brought back half the universe. But not all of us made it. We lost Tony, too. If you see him up there, tell him I say hi.”
Steve started to cry again. He took a deep breath, trying to remain calm.
“We couldn’t have done it without you. You’re one of the bravest and kindest people I’ve ever known. In fact, you were the real hero of us all. You proved you didn’t need the Super Soldier Serum, or a suit of armor, or the power of a god to save the universe.”
Steve paused. He bowed his head, letting his tears fall to the ground. He wept quietly for his fallen comrade. It took a minute for him to calm down just enough to figure out what to say next.
“But really, you were the most valuable person on the team. ‘Cuz through it all, even when it seemed like we were splitting up, you were the one who kept us all together. We stayed together because of you. You were the heart of us. You made the Avengers more than just a team. You made us a family.”
Steve turned his lighter on. He took one final look at Nat’s body, all wrapped up in white linen. This was it.
“Goodbye, Natasha.”
Steve flicked his lighter onto the pyre. A fire slowly built up and engulfed Nat’s body. Steve watched the fire grow, not turning around until Nat’s body had fully disappeared under the hot flames.
He turned around and nodded at the Red Skull, who nodded back in return. Steve was ready.
Steve stepped up to the edge of the cliff, between both of the giant pillars, and looked over the cliff. Up here, he could see it was a long fall down to the plateau. He took the Soul Stone out of his pocket, and held it over the edge. He inhaled one long deep breath, and sighed one more time. This was it.
He dropped the Soul Stone off the cliff.
At first, for a few seconds, everything went silent. Next, Steve heard a booming thunder that echoed loudly into the night. He looked up and saw a vortex forming above him in the evening sky. Both giant pillars were firing beams of energy up into it.
And then, there was a blinding flash of light.
It had been over a year since Steve landed in the boreal forests of Canada’s Northwest Territories in 1948. Under different aliases, he had hitchhiked off-the-grid all the way from Hay River down to sneak through the Canadian-American border. He had been disoriented by the old world he had arrived back into, a time in history familiar yet alien to him at the same time. But, having been away from his home time for so long, spending at least a year travelling from the wilderness of the Great White North back to the United States gave him more than enough time to gradually adapt to postwar North American civilization. It was better than having another firsthand culture shock in a big city.
Steve knew exactly the first thing he wanted to do when he got back to the States: dance with Peggy. Both before and after crossing the border, he had avoided any recognition and gathered a whole new fresh batch of clothes and supplies. By the time he finally got to D.C., he was dressed for the occasion.
At last, he had come to reunite with Peggy for the first time in only God knows how long. He stood in front of her house in Columbia Heights, a two-story regular home with an off-white front porch, and a stone staircase leading up to it. Steve was very excited, but he was also very nervous. Not having seen Peggy in so long, he did not know what to say to her yet. Furthermore, he had no idea how Peggy—this Peggy—would react to seeing him again. Steve knew very well that by coming here, he had already created another alternate timeline. For this timeline’s Peggy, it’d been only four years since they last saw each other. For him, it had been either twelve years or almost eighty years. At this point, anything was possible.
Steve walked up the stairs to the front porch of Peggy’s house. He stopped at the front door, a black wooden door with a tall picture window blocked off by a white curtain. He couldn’t see if Peggy was behind it. Was she home?
He sighed one final time and knocked on the door. This was it.
A few seconds later, the door opened. And there she was, standing in the doorway. Peggy looked just as beautiful as Steve had remembered, especially in her red dress.
Peggy gasped, covering her mouth with both of her hands, and took a step back. She panted for a couple of seconds, putting one hand down and the other over her heart. She stepped forward very slowly, and then once she was close enough to Steve she reached out her hand and touched his cheek. Peggy’s eyes were tearing up. She ran into Steve and hugged him as tightly as she could. He hugged her back. Peggy looked up at him; she was still crying. He understood just how much she had missed him. The past four years must have felt like forever for her. Steve had waited such a long, long time to see her again.
Steve smiled at Peggy. “Now, about that dance you owed me.”
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