Even After Everything | Steve Rogers

Chapter 53

We all sat in a room, and began to plan our mission to retrieve the stones. I stood up front with Tony, Steve, and Bruce.

I was pacing the length of the table, and felt so many emotions. Mostly excitement. There was a chance I could see Sam, and tell him Steve and I finally got married. Bucky would finally see Steve again. We would have Wanda back. And Peter, he could maybe have a normal teenage life when this is all finished.

I looked up to everyone staring at me, and my hands dropped to my sides, "Okay... so the 'how' works," I started, "Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones," I nodded.

Tony motioned to all of us, "Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones."

Scott's had raised, "I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."

"Regardless," Bruce kept the energy going, "we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history," Tony nodded, "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in."

"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint nodded.

I pointed to Clint, "Correct."

"Let's start with the Aether," Steve looked to Thor, "Thor, what do you know?"

I looked to Thor, and saw him sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. He had sunglasses on, and had a beer in his hand. I couldn't tell if he was awake or not.

"Is he asleep?" Natasha asked.

"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead," Rhodey shrugged.

Thor finally woke, and got out of his chair, walking to stand by me.

"What are we talking about?" He whispered.

"The Aether," I whispered back.

"Where to start?" Thor straightened himself, looking to the rest of the team, "Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago, my grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves..." Thor then made a ghost noise, "Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane," Behind us on the screen, a young woman showed up, "Oh, there she is. That's Jane- She's... an old flame of mine... She- she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead," Thor, again, looked on the verge of tears, "and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever," Tony walked over, trying to put Thor back in a chair, "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence," He smiled.

"Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" Tony asked, trying to change the subject.

Thor nodded, "I'd like a Bloody Mary."

*          *          *

A few hours later, we sat around the dining room table, eating Chinese takeout. We had ordered it to the compound, because everyone had been complaining on how hungry they were.

Rocket began to pace on the table in front of us. "Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag."

Scott looked confused, "Is that a person?" Scott was always confused, so I guess that's already known.

"Morag's a planet. Quill was a person," Rocket nodded.

"A planet? Like in outer space?"

Rocket walked ver to him, pretending to pet his head, "Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll get you to space."

We walked back to the couches, and I sat, stuffed from all the food I ate.

"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," Nebula said.

Natasha wrote that down, where she took notes on the stones, "What is Vormir?"

"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence," Nebula's expression immediately changed, "It's where... Thanos murdered my sister."

I looked up from my hands, as an awkward silence filled the room. Natasha wrote that in her notebook.

"Not it," Scott muttered, trying to break the tension.

*          *          *

A few hours later, after most everyone went to bed, Tony, Nat, Bruce in I stayed up. Steve was sleeping in my old room, and we decided we would just spend the night at the compound instead of driving all the way home.

Tony and Nat laid on the table, Bruce on the floor, and I sat in a chair with my feet propped up on the table. Papers surrounded us, and I looked to the time stone pop up on the screen to the left of me.

"That Time Stone guy..." Natasha trailed off, forgetting his name.

"Doctor Strange," I nodded.

Natasha lifted up her head to look at me, "Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?"

Tony scoffed, "Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit from a hat."

I rolled my eyes. The last time we were all together, the two had not gotten along. Their personalities clashed with both of them having extremely big egos.

"Nice place in the village, though," Bruce shrugged.

"Yeah. Sullivan Street," Tony said.

"Hmm... I thought it was Bleecker?" I asked.

Natasha sat up, "Wait, he lived in New York?"

Tony rolled his eyes, "No. He lived in Toronto."

"Guys, if you pick the right year," Natasha looked to me, and I immediately placed it together.

"There are three stones in New York!" We said in unison, and high fived each other.

Bruce immediately sat up, "Shut the front door."