I stood leaning against a wall, my eyes nervously watching the hand on my watch tick away at each passing second, every move of it making me more anxious. I was waiting around the corner from the elevator that Steve was supposed to come out of, my body tucked just around the bend so no one would be able to see me. My foot tapped nervously against the wall as I waited, raising my eyes to look out of the vast windows to see something in Downtown Manhattan on fire, sending big pillows of grey smoke into the sky. Being in STARK tower made me forget the fact that outside, the city was in absolute chaos from the ended battle, it was like being in a cocoon of safety - if you excused the galactic weapons that were scared around the building.
After the hand made it's way around the face three more times the sound of the elevator opening pulled my gaze away from it. I peaked around the corner, seeing Sitwell, Rumlow and their cronies in the elevator, Steve walking out with his shield in one hand and the sceptre case gripped firmly in the other. He didn't look back as he walked away from the agents, the doors to the elevator closing as he let out a heavy sigh, his shoulders hunching forward a little bit. He made his way around the corner, being so tight on the bend that has almost walked straight into me.
"Hey" I said as I pushed myself off of the wall, my eyes darting down go the case in his hand as I started walking backwards, Steve letting out a deep sigh. "Why do you have the sceptre?" I joked, putting on the most clueless voice they I could, Steve panicking as he dropped his head, looking down at the case. I'm not entirely sure what pulling a prank on him would do right now, but it would be funny for me at least. "Ehm" he stumbled, not being able to think of a good enough excuse to tell the 2012 me as a smile grew on my face. "Kidding" I chirped back to him as he looked up at me, his eyebrows raised as his cheeks flushed pink slightly in relief.
"You think that's funny?" he asked as I fell into pace by his side, letting out a small laugh as we once again stalked through the halls. "Kind of" I replied with a shrug of my shoulders, checking behind us quickly to make sure there was no stray workers or SHIELD agents anywhere. "Takes the edge off of the fact this is life or death" I added as I smiled at Steve, being met with a clinched jaw as he looked at me like a parent would scolding their child. I took the hint as I dropped the smile from my face,
"Any problems?" I asked as he shook his head, making me a tiny bit more relieved that this was going well. "No, although Sitwell is in for hell of a confusing elevator ride" he told me as I looked up at him, wondering what exactly he had said to the SHIELD agents in effort to get that sceptre. Whatever it is, I was happy that Sitwell wasn't able to get it and use it in aid to whatever HYDRA business he was planning on using it for. "We need to get back outside ASAP" I told him, looking down at my watch to see how long left before people we needed to be out of here. "I think Tony and Scott are already done" I added, not having heard from either of them in a while, making me hope that things had gone well rather than bad.
It was only a matter of time until people started realising that both the Sceptre and Tesseract were missing, and as soon as they did it would be chaos on all floors. Hopefully if this whole time heist went well, the stones would be replaced to the exact moment moment in time that we removed them from, but if we didn't get the stones back to Avengers HQ in the first place, the whole thing would fall apart. "Just one issue" Steve whispered as I looked up, seeing the glass bridge that ran through the middle of the tower. There standing opposite us was Steve, his younger self clutching his shield by his side as he stared at the pair of us, his jaw set and eyebrows scrunched under his cowl.
Steve and I stopped short, my boot squeaking against the glass floor as I tried to think about what may happen if we just took off running in the opposite direction. I came to the deduction that I didn't want to know what it felt like to be hit in the back of the head with a vibranium shield. "Obviously this happens" I mumbled under my breath as I turned to the Steve who was by my side, his eyes already on me as a way of asking for my help. My brain was already working overtime in trying to avoid meeting my younger self in my ventures in the past that I had no idea how exactly we were going to get out of this.
When in doubt, act dumb.
"Steve?" I asked, looking towards the younger version as he held his hand out to me cautiously, a worried look on his face. "Ally" he said, his voice loud as if he was trying to prove that he was the real Steve Rogers. "It's Loki in disguise" he told me, his fists clenched by his side as I nodded my head, taking a small step forward. "Oh" I mumbled, turning to look at the Steve by my side as I raised my eyebrows at him. "Stay back, I will deal with him" I whispered, his head nodding at me ever so slightly to tell me he understood. I slowly walked over the balcony to the other Steve, his cowl pulled tight around his face. "He has the sceptre, I was trying to act like I didn't know it was him" I said, keeping my voice low as he nodded his head at me, nodding his head behind him as he stood in front of me.
"Get Thor" Steve said to me, not taking his eyes off of, his clone standing at the other side of the balcony, the sceptre case secured in his hand. "I can't leave you here what if he uses it against you" I said, shaking my head as I widened my eyes at the older Steve, trying to tell him that it wasn't likely we would get out of this without a fight. "I can handle it" Steve replied to me as I shook my head, leaning forward slightly so he could hear me considering that his eyes were locked directly on who he believed to be Loki. "No, I'm pretty sure you can't" I whispered to him as he lifted his finger to his ear, pushing the earpiece in. "I have eyes on Loki on the 14th floor" he grumbled through it, making me realise that my 'younger' self may reply to him, which would make this a million times worse.
"I'm not Loki" Steve replied, bending down slightly as he set the sceptre case on the floor. "And I don't want to hurt you" he added, straightening up as a I watched his hand clench around the strap of his shield. If it was possible to feel a fight in the atmosphere, the feeling would be zipping across the balcony as I shook my head at him. Before I could get two words out of my mouth they ran towards one another, the loud screech of the two vibranium shields clashing off of one another ringing throughout the whole floor.
I watched as they attempted to land a few punches, 2012 Steve offering a hard kick to the chest as it threw his older self across the balcony, crashing into the sceptre case. It fell to the ground as it split open, the sceptre falling free as it skidded across the glass floor. "Just get the sceptre and get out of here" he shouted to me as he peeled himself off of the ground, letting out a small grunt as he turned back to his opponent. "I can do this all day" 2012 Steve said as he leaned back in his defensive stance, the Steve at my feet nodding his head as he moved forward slowly. "Yeah, I know" he mumbled as I rolled my eyes, looking at the sceptre that lay on the ground, free from it's large case.
"You do say that a lot" I said to him, as they began fighting again, the shields leaving their hands as they bounced off one another, repelling in opposite directions as they fell over the glass barriers that led to the floors below. I ducked as one narrowly missed my head, my eyes set on the sceptre as I moved around the fighting men. "Get the sceptre away" the cowled Steve shouted at me as I nodded my head, his foot going through the glass fence as one of the panels shattered. "I'm planning on it" I shouted back, nodding my head as I went to grab it, not having a chance as Steve got shoved into my back. I barely had time to register what had happened as my foot kicked the sceptre, the weapon being within arms reach as it skidded along the glass floor and off the side of the balcony.
2012 Steve wasted no time as he offered a swift punch in the gut to his opponent, the momentum of the hit just being enough to propel both me and Steve towards the edge of the balcony. "Ally" 2012 Steve shouted to me as he attempted to reach out and grab me before both 2023 Steve and I went straight through a glass panned. "No" I shouted as I lost my footing, both of us falling straight off the edge of the balcony after the sceptre. Steve managed to grab onto the edge before he could fall, desperately trying to reach out his hand to try and grab me as he missed my arm by a brush of his fingertips.
I shot through the air as the sceptre fell to the ground in a clatter, the glass scattered on the ground looking like it was going to make my impact the opposite of comfortable. It was a straight shot all the way down to the ground, my back slamming into the hard floor and scattered shard of glass as I spluttered all the breath that was in my lungs, the feeling of a million nails being hammered into my body flooding through my limbs.
I opened my eyes as I let out a heavy groan, trying my hardest not to move as I opened my eyes, being met with the sight of both the Steve's also falling through the air. I didn't have time to move as I hoped that neither of them would land directly on top of me, my head swilling to the side to try and spot where the sceptre had landed. Both the men hit the floor in a daze of blue suits as they groaned in pain, having braced themselves for the fall a little better than I had. "Are you okay?" Steve's voice asked me, my head being tilted in the other direction of where they had landed so I had no idea to determine which one had asked me the question.
"Yeah" I said back as I saw the sceptre sitting behind my head, the crawl towards it looking like the distance from here to the moon. There wasn't much time as both of the Captain America's peeled the self up off of the floor, making their way back over to one another as they continued to throw a punches, their reaction times being much slower from the pain of the drop. I rolled onto my stomach slowly as I felt shards of glass dig their way deeper into my back, a groan falling from my lips as I pulled my body towards the sceptre. I used my arms to propel my body forward, my hands cut up and bloody as it smeared against the ground.
I managed to make it the sceptre, grabbing it in my hand as the cold metal vibrated under my hand from the power that was emitting from the Infinity Stone. I looked back, over at the fight, watching as the cowled Steve wrapped his forearm around the others neck, holding tightly as I lifted my knee. I pushed myself off the floor as both of the Steve's hit the ground, 2023 Steve still being strangled as he was held in place by the tight grip. I walked over, both of their eyes on me as I held the sceptre up in front of me.
"Use it" Steve croaked out, not having much breath left as I stared at the pair of them, knowing it would be very easy to reach out and touch the young Steve in the chest with the point of the sceptre. "Stop please" I said to him, shaking my head as I stood there, not having to the heart to surge him with the power of the space stone. "What?" he asked, he grip loosening slightly as Steve attempted to wriggle free, not being able to as the pressure was put back onto his throat.
"Steve, please stop" I said, begging one more time as his eyes shifted to the sceptre that was in my hands, a wave of confusion crossing his face. No matter how good of an idea I couldn't bring myself to do it, no matter what timeline we were in he was always going to be Steve. He looked at me for a moment as he struggled to hold his older self, in place as his face slacked for a moment. I followed his eyes to see them resting on the ring on my finger, the ruby glinting in the sunlight that filtered in through the mass amount of windows. "What's that?" he asked, his arm relaxing slightly which gave the strangled Steve time to throw back his elbow, knocking out his captive as he fell limp to the floor.
——
A/N: okay so as you can imagine this scene was SO DIFFICULT to write so I apologise if it is a little subpar
having to not only think of a way to describe the fight but also having to differentiate between the two steve's?? it was super difficult but I think I did alright lol
SPOILERS FOR THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLIDER BELOW
what did everyone think of the finale?? I was quite literally crying at the ending ugh it was so amazing and I think it was paced much better than the last episode of WandaVision
Bucky at the end on the docks with all the kids?? i'm yes please I did in fact want to see two small children hanging from his metal arm, how did you know?
also Walker now having a black suit? okay Marvel do be setting up the dark avengers go OFF
I am also SUPER excited about Elijah Bradley aka Patriot from the Young Avengers being in tfatws because I am GAGGING for the Young Avengers, they are some of my favourite comics
Let me know what you thought in the comments (PLEASE PUT A SPOILER WARNING) or just send me a message!!