Leave Me Behind [Winter Soldier] III

Haunted [Chapter 5]

"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying Goodbye so hard"

Winnie the Pooh

In the case were the stones, the suit and GPS for Ophelia, should Steve succeed. Before him was the newly built portal, and beside him were Bucky and Sam. Now that they were not bringing Ophelia back close to the time of her death, they no longer needed Shuri's capable hands to help save her. If what Steve had planned worked, Ophelia would be brought back in one piece. Looking back at his original plan, bringing her back broken was poorly thought through. But once again, it showed just how they were all stronger together.

Steve was suited up; ready to go with the stones and to return Mjolnir -though he wished he could keep it for just a few more days. Behind him Bruce was ready to set everything in motion, while Sam and Bucky stood by. Bucky knew Steve wasn't planning on coming back, but Steve didn't have it in him to tell Sam. Bucky and Steve had their youth together, they had been friends for a long time. Steve and Sam had only known each other for a few years, but the friendship was almost the same as his with Bucky. It was how he knew he was the right choice to take over the role of Captain America.

Steve had no doubt that Sam would exceed and possibly surpass what he himself did.

"You sure you don't want me to come with you?" Sam asked, accenting the fact Steve knew his decision was going to be the right one for the country, and for the world. Sam was more level-headed than Steve, he didn't make his decisions based on emotion like Steve could sometimes do. That was why he would take the mantle as Captain America.

"This is something I have to do on my own," Steve replied, placing his hand on Sam's shoulder. It was the last time they were going to be face to face like this, and it made Steve's core less solid. He felt like he was losing something; he was losing Bucky and he was losing Sam. But sacrifice was an important part of life, Steve knew that better than most.

Approaching Bucky, Steve felt a nervous twist in his gut. He hadn't told him about his plan for Ophelia, giving him that kind of hope and not being able to follow through would be too much. Bucky stood there, solid as ever, with a kind of serenity that Steve hadn't seen since the 1940's.

"Don't do anything stupid until I get back," Steve said playfully, a hint of a smirk on his face.

"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you," Bucky replied, remembering after all these years.

"I'm gonna miss you," Bucky then said to him.

"It'll be okay, Buck," Steve said, meaning more with those words than Bucky knew. He knew then that he was ready to go, ready to take on this final challenge before he hung up the shield and mask, hung up the title of Avenger, and picked up the title of -hopefully- husband, and someone who didn't show up late to dances.

Standing on the platform, Steve took one last look around at this world. This world that he would no longer be a part of. One last glance at Bucky, Sam, and Bruce. Then, Bruce opened the time portal and Steve disappeared through it. He felt the strange sensation of being pulled through the quantum realm, and triggered his GPS to bring him to where he would return the first stone, the space stone – 1970, New Jersey. The second stone he returned was the mind stone followed by the time stone, the third was the reality and Mjolnir. As he returned the power stone, he reached the moment where things were going to get complicated.

But Steve felt ready for the challenge. As he made his way to Vormir, the place where Natasha gave her life, Steve felt something holding him back. Thinking of his long-standing friendship with Nat, how it had gone from untrusting to he would die for her, a sadness raked through him. She died for them, for all of them.

"Whatever it takes," he whispered to himself. It took a lot, it took too much. And that was why Steve pulled himself together, straightened his stance, and kept going. He would do whatever it took to fix everything to the best of his ability, and that including fixing Ophelia, and fixing his own past.

Vormir was beautiful and yet eerie. The mountain before him was a beacon, and he began the trek to the top of it. He thought about how Clint and Natasha took these steps, and Thanos with his daughter Gamora before then. He had been briefed about Vormir but seeing it in real life was different. Knowing people had been killed here for greed made it feel haunted.

At the top of the mountain, Steve carefully tried to figure out what he had to do from here. A shadowy figure appeared, and Steve raised his fists to brace himself for a fight. He was expecting this, from Clint's explanation, but what Steve hadn't expected was for this guide to the stone to be a familiar and haunting face.

"Schmidt..." Steve muttered, lowering his guard out of confusion and disbelief.

"Ah, Captain, it has been too long," he said, his voice ghostly like his form.

"How are you here?" Steve asked.

"The Space Stone brought me here, all those years ago," he told Steve. "I have been a guide to the Soul Stone, something which I cannot possess."

Steve gauged the situation and decided that this form of Schmidt was not a threat. He studied the ghost of his past. "Do you understand the stone?"

"I know what I can," he replied. "The only way to achieve the stone is to sacrifice that which you love most."

Steve felt a prickle in his eyes, Natasha and Clint crossing his mind again. "I'm not here to achieve it and you know it. I'm here to return it."

"That is not the only reason you are here," he confronted Steve.

"No," Steve replied, his voice like iron. "I need something from the stone."

"Then you must ask the stone," Schmidt told him. "I am but a guide."

"How do I ask it?" Steve needed the guidance. The thought of asking Red Skull for help was not the strangest thing Steve had encountered in his life, but it was up there.

"Take the stone, but let me warn you, the stone likes to take souls, not give them."

Steve understood this warning, and he opened the briefcase which held the last stone. Reaching his hand into it, he plucked it from the holder and held it in his palm. It looked so small and insignificant there, just a rock with a faint orange glow. Closing his fingers around it and shutting his eyes, he brought it to his mouth and whispered, "Ophelia."