I'm sorry if I'm updating this frequently than Against All Odds. I really want to finish this book and, hopefully, enter this into Wattys2020 if I could.
Anyway, sorry for being MIA for a while! Here's chapter 23!
SHIT'S ABOUT TO GET REAL
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ C H A P T E R T W E N T Y - THREE ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
James was honest-to-God screwed.
There was no way he could ever lie his way out of this one. With the way Steve was looking at him right now, staring at him like he couldn't believe what the actual fuck is going on—he knew his dad very well, and he knew that his super soldier brain was surely putting the pieces together. Slowly, the blank expression on Steve's face was clearing up, drinking in the realization of what was really happening.
It still didn't stop him from trying to defuse the situation. James averted his gaze, stammering, "I... that's not—I mean—"
Tony stepped in, suddenly laughing lowly as he draped an arm over James' shoulder. "I told you to take it easy on the champagne, kid." He glanced at Steve, who was watching the scene with the most befuddled look you'd ever see on someone. "Don't mind him, Cap. He's saying nonsense."
James furrowed his brows because that was such a lame excuse because Tony just implied he was drunk and being drunk means he should be all whacked out when just seconds ago he was fighting fiiineee, nevertheless, he didn't say anything else.
Steve kept quiet, his lips pressed into a thin line. He still didn't know what to think. What to say.
Suddenly, he felt a sudden jolt of pain along his right side. He grimaced, eyes dropping down to the bright, red gash on the side of his stomach.
It seemed that James and Tony had just noticed it now too. "Crap, you're bleeding." Tony muttered.
Steve almost rolled his eyes. Yeah, you don't say. He expected it to hurt so little because he had far more serious wounds before and the serum helped in healing it, but to his disbelief, this time, the wound really hurt.
It was bearable but it constantly felt like needles were stabbing the area all over again.
Steve slowly got up, gritting his teeth as he tried not to let the pain get to his head. They still needed to get to Loki. Another roar sounded through the walls, followed by the ground shaking beneath them like before.
He went to follow the sound, ushering James and Tony to follow.
Along the way, Tony noticed how Steve became more uneasy, how his breathing became more ragged, and how his shoulders became more tensed while he clutched his wounded side. Now, he was getting worried. Steve shouldn't be this affected over a stomach gash like this.
"You alright, Cap?"
Steve said quickly, "I'm fine."
Though he clearly wasn't because the bleeding wasn't stopping the least bit. He shared a glance with James, who looked just as worried—if not, more worried—as he was.
"Nat," Steve suddenly said, making them drop the subject altogether.
Natasha had appeared from the other hall, looking just as distressed as they were. The bottom part of her gown was ripped off but she was still wearing her heels. She was also sporting a pistol in her hand, and she was breathing heavily like she had just ran a marathon.
Steve immediately asked, "Nat, where's Loki?"
"I had him cornered," she breathed, letting out a hiss of frustration, "but he did his little party trick of phasing in and out everywhere. Hulk caught him but he just used his scepter again. He's really keen on finding this time machine, Steve."
Steve sighed, "Okay, where's Bruce now? I mean Hulk."
"He was just behind me—what happened to you?" Natasha stopped short, fully staring at his bleeding side. A small frown engulfed her lips while her eyes glinted in concern. "Loki did this?"
He nodded, still pressing his hand to his side, involuntarily letting out a hiss. "Yeah, don't know why it hurts this much, though."
"The amount of blood is too much for a wound like this, you need to get that checked quickly." She looked over to the two men behind him, specifically, to James. She sighed exasperatedly, "I'm guessing you're here because you can't afford to sit around doing nothing."
James flustered up, looking guilty. "Sorry?"
Natasha shook her head, starting to run off as they followed her. "Tell me, among you three, whose idea was this?"
"Pardon?" James asked, confused.
"Allie and Peter—"
Just on cue, a string of web fluid shot from a distance. Natasha swiftly avoided it, ducking down and rolling over to a perfect stance.
Peter emerged, sweating profusely with wide eyes. His mouth dropped when he realized he'd almost hit Natasha. "I-I'm sorry, Ms. Romanoff! Loki was here and I fired at him but then he was gone and I... I don't know how."
"It's fine, Peter." Natasha rose up to her feet, "Where's Allie?"
"Allie?" Steve echoed, eyes narrowing.
Peter took a glance over his shoulder. "Oh, she's right—"
"Right here!" Allie supplied, running into the scene with a pistol in her hand.
Steve had to refrain from making any sarcastic comments because now really wasn't the time (even if he specifically gave orders not to follow them here).
"Everyone here for attendance? Great." Tony said with a hint of sarcasm, eyeing the kids flatly.
Natasha ignored him, not wanting the kids to be here as much as he was, but leaving them with no choice. Time was ticking, and they needed to finish this before it's too late. "We need a plan now. Fast."
"We need to corner him." Steve said.
Tony snorted. "I recall Natalie over here doing it and it didn't work. Even with the Hulk."
"Well, now there's a lot of us and we will make it work. We need to distract him. If playing games is what he wants, then it's what he should get." Steve stated.
Everyone was silent for a moment before nodding.
"Alright," Tony agreed. "Your call, Captain."
Steve lightly smiled before starting to relay his plan to them. All the while, he couldn't help but sneak a glance at James, who was uncharacteristically tensed throughout. Even Allie was giving him a look, to which he just simply dismissed.
During that moment, Steve had realized something. He didn't mean to sound like a creep but James' words kept haunting him—it wouldn't leave his damn mind no matter how much he tries to brush it off.
He might be crazy but, only then, he started to notice all the subtle features in James. His notable blonde hair, his face structure, and his mannerisms. They were oddly and terrifyingly, familiar. And as soon as James glanced up, for the first time, Steve realized that James had a very distinct eye color.
Bright emerald green eyes.
Suddenly, he felt something twist in his stomach, and it wasn't just because of his stomach wound. Because as scary as it sounds, he'd seen that eye color on someone else before, someone so dear to him.
That familiar pair of eyes.
"All good, Steve?" someone asked him.
Subconsciously, Steve's eyes drifted over to where Natasha stood beside him. She was staring right at him, waiting for his approval.
His eyes locked onto the same shade of green eyes.
Then something clicked inside him.
"Yeah," his voice came out rasp, forcing himself to swallow the lump in his throat as he felt his heart picked up a faster pace. "...all good."
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Loki found it. He finally found it.
"At last," he said to himself, walking over to where the newly-built time machine was placed.
Everything was a mess, blueprints were scattered across the room as well as a bunch of tools and equipment. The only problem now was that he didn't know how to operate it.
Oh, right. He had the reality stone.
Just when the stone began to glow red, he felt something hard and heavy crashed into him, making him loose the grip on his scepter. He fell to the floor, lifting his head up to see his (adopted) brother's stupid hammer on his chest.
Thor kicked the scepter aside before holding out his hand for Mjolnir to fly back into his grasp. He turned to face the time machine, raised his arm back and prepared to smash the machine into oblivion when—
"No!"
"Stop!"
The voices of both Tony Stark—who was now wearing his full armor—and Loki tore through the air, followed by a blinding flash of energy from Ironman's repulsors knocked Thor off his stance. He crashed through the lab's glass walls and into the other room.
Tony quickly dropped down, just like he did when they first caught Loki in the New York invasion, and outstretched his hand, his palm facing Loki indicating that he had every bit of intention to blast his brains out if he so much made a move.
Loki slowly yet sneakily raised his arms in surrender, feigning defeat. He wondered where the others where.
Tony seemed to have read his mind. "I'm sensing some deja vu here. Make your move reindeer games. You're as good as lost as you were before."
Loki was unfazed, more so, he looked motivated. "Of course." he said, snidely, then decided to give him a taste of his own words, "But, perhaps, in the spirit of fairness, it's only right for me to do this then."
A frown engulfed Tony's face. Just when he was about to ask what he meant by that, a bright outburst of light filled his vision. The last thing he saw was Loki smirking devilishly at him. When the light faded out and his vision cleared up, it shocked him to see what he was now looking at.
He was staring at himself.
Oh, shit.
His eyes frantically dropped down, scanning himself and every sign of his body. His fear was proven correct when he was no longer looking at his Ironman suit, instead he was looking at golden armor he was wearing. Loki's armor.
Tony scowled, glaring daggers at the same face and body that used to be his.
"Deja vu, huh?" Loki laughed darkly, "Then so be it." His voice lowered to that same menacing tone that Tony once heard him spoke a few years back, "How would your friends have time for me? When they're too busy fighting you."
Goddammit, shut up! He wasn't sure if he was driven by his complete hatred towards this guy, or the fact that he just couldn't help it when a lunatic demigod kept pushing his buttons. Either way, he wanted to take his ass down.
Tony lunged at him, narrowly missing Loki's—his own repulsor's—attacks and tried to get the scepter only for Loki to grab his arm and toss him back.
As if fate really wanted to get on his ass, it was this exact time when Steve, Nat, and the rest of the gang decided to show up. This one time when he was in Loki's body while he was in his.
"No—wait! Stop!" Tony cried out.
In a blink of an eye, Steve threw his shield in his direction, only seeing Loki in his place. The shield slammed Tony into a wall, leaving a large dent. Before he could make a move to stand up and tell them the truth, a sudden electric shock had spread throughout his sternum. Natasha had fired one of her widow bites at him.
Tony's body lurched forward, he shook violently and made it almost impossible to speak but he tried anyway. "I-I'm not L—"
Sucks for him, they have no interest in hearing what he has to say because Hulk roared menacingly at him. From the shadows, he could see Loki snickering darkly to himself while turning away to head to the time machine.
Everyone pretty much held the same stoic look on their face except for... Allie. She was frowning, looking at him in mere puzzlement than frustration.
Tony's eyes widened, hoping that she'd see straight through him. "Allie—"
Allie instinctively jumped back when he tried to reach for her, alarms still blaring all over her head. Natasha stepped out in front of her in a protective stance, shielding her from Tony's view. She raised her fist, indicating that she won't hesitate to shoot another one of her bites at him. "Stay away from her," she snarled, calm yet sounding ever so deadly.
Thor startled all of them when he swiped in to wrap his hand around Loki (Tony's) neck, and lifted him off the ground while his free hand clamped a device around his mouth to shut him up. "You never learn, do you, brother?" he asked snarkily.
Tony, still glaring, tried to claw at him, and had accidentally yanked on Thor's mighty golden locks in the process. He would've burst out laughing if it weren't for his mouth kept shut.
"Ow!" Thor hissed, scowling at Tony. He released him harshly on the ground, warning, "Never do that again."
Tony gave him a flat look.
"Alright, Clint's already called the CIA to handle this and they're waiting outside. Thor, Hulk? Kindly escort out guest outside, would you?" Steve ordered, smiling wryly at Loki.
Tony tried to protest but he was no match for a demigod and a Hulk.
Allie watched them drag Loki (Tony) outside the room, hearing the others let out a sigh in relief that it's finally done, but something in her gut told her that this wasn't over yet. Something was wrong.
She knew she sounded crazy but as she was watching Loki (Tony), something didn't feel right. Well, he knew her name that wasn't much of a surprise, but the way he looked at her—his eyes were pleading, begging. It showed fear, and she knew that Loki never once showed fear in his eyes. It didn't looked like Loki at all?
Did that make sense? Probably not. Today was a rough day after all, maybe she was just overthinking things.
"You okay, Allie?" she looked to her side to find Peter raising a brown at her in concern.
"Yeah," she muttered, eyes fleeting over to Tony's form. Somehow, her uncle Tony was strangely silent during all of this. He was busying himself with the time machine, and she wondered why.
Peter wasn't convinced. "You sure? Are you hurt?"
James quickly stepped in, looking alarmed. "You're hurt? Where?"
Allie rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, boys. Seriously."
She still couldn't keep her eyes off Tony, and could only watch as Steve slowly sauntered over to where he was.
"Hey, Tony." Steve called out, walking over to where the inventor was. He was staring idly at the object in front of him. Steve's eyes dropped down, observing the same object. His eyes immediately darkened, "Is this the time machine?"
Tony put up a pleased look, a wide smile plastered on his face. "It seems so."
Steve sighed, remembering their dispute about the said subject just moments ago. "About what I said earlier, Tony, I didn't mean it that way."
Tony tilted his head quizzically at him, almost as if he didn't know what he was talking about. "Huh?"
Steve thought he was just horsing around like usual, Tony always does this on purpose for petty reasons. "It's not that I don't trust you, okay? It's just I thought we already made it clear when Ultron happened."
There was a slight hesitance in his voice. "Uh... yeah, sure. I guess I'm sorry, too?"
Steve furrowed his eyebrows, sensing something off about him. But then again, today's a very tiresome day. Everyone's tired, and the wound in his stomach was really stressing him out because it still hurt like a bitch.
Reminded of the pain once again, he decided to let it go and get himself patched up. "Just please don't do anything stupid again. And would you hand me that scepter? We need to contain it before Loki gets his hands on it again."
From the corner of his eye, he saw the way Tony tensed up. It was subtle but it was there. It only made him frown more. He waited as Tony slowly—and quite hesitantly—bent over to pick up the scepter from the ground and handed it over to him, pursing his lips into a small smile.
Steve quirked a brow at his odd behavior, taking the scepter from him reluctantly. "Are you okay, Tony?"
"Of course," Tony gave him a weird look, knitting his eyebrows, "Why wouldn't I be?"
"I..." Steve shook his head, "Never mind." His gaze dropped to the scepter in his hands, and lifted up to meet Natasha's, immediately a short smile was plastered on his face at the sight of her. He started to walk off but not before warning Tony, "Oh, and stop fiddling with the machine, Stark. We've had enough drama for tonight."
He didn't see it but he could feel Tony rolling his eyes at him. And then he heard him mutter, "Jeez, always such a worry-wart, Steven."
For some reason, that made him stop in his tracks. That was strange. Tony never called him by his full name before. Ever. Tony made it particularly clear before that he hated the way Steven rolled of his tongue. He remarked, it was 'so 40's'.
Out of curiosity, Steve took a look back over his shoulders. Tony must've felt him looking because he did the same, sparing him a glance. The second their eyes met, he felt a shiver ran up his spine.
Tony smirked at him—and not the usual Tony Stark smirk it was more of a—
Loki.
Steve quickly dropped the scepter and ran in Loki's direction, and to his shock, Loki turned around just in time to grab a fistful of his shirt and with superhuman strength—one that he was definitely sure Loki didn't have—flung him to the corner of the lab. The table where the time machine was placed rattled, moving the machine dangerously to the edge—one small kick it was sure to fall and break.
He groaned, feeling his back ached and the pain from his stomach gash increased. Blood dripped over the clean, white floors of the science lab. Before he could get up, a sudden pressure was on his neck. Loki, still in Tony's form, was squeezing the life out of him with a mischievous grin. All trace of Tony he had on him was long gone now.
Loki was sitting exactly on the spot of where his wound was, and Steve was sure he did it on purpose. His hands reached out to try prying the demigod's hands from his neck.
"You think you're so smart, Captain?" Loki scowled, dark amusement lingered on his face. "Always figuring out who the bad guy is? How about who your children are? Did your pathetic son finally told you?"
At the latter part of his statement, Steve felt a different kind of anger surge within him. At the mention of James, he just felt more protective ever since that he found about... that. He still wasn't sure if it was logically possible, but, hey, at this point, he's learned enough to know that the world is just that strange.
Besides, they had a freaking time machine built here!
And if James really was his... son then he could see it happening, and he wasn't going to let Loki talk shit about him.
With that thought in mind, Steve managed to deliver a blow to Loki's back by kneeing him with full force. It was enough distraction to make him change back to his real body, and he used the advantage to turn him over and slammed his fist down his face.
"Steve!" He heard Natasha screamed behind him.
Loki must've heard it too because, with one look at Steve, he suddenly shape-shifted into another form. This time, it wasn't Tony's body he was looking at—instead, he was looking at his own face, own body, and own self.
Steve growled and punched him again, but when he was about to do it the second time, Loki kneed him in the groin, and then one on the exact area where he was bleeding. Steve grunted, groaning in pain and lurched over the floor.
Loki rose from his feet just in time Natasha appeared, holding the scepter in her grasp. She looked bewildered to see not one but two Steve's.
Dread filled her as she realized that Loki was still here, and that one of their own—she guessed it was Tony—was mistakenly taken instead.
And now she had no idea who Loki was between these two.
One Steve was on the floor, in pain, while the other Steve was standing and staring at her. She scowled, aiming her pistol at the both of them. "Loki, stop this," she could only say.
"Nat, we need to get Loki out of here before he tricks us again." Steve—the one who was standing—said.
Steve—who was in pain—intervened, hissing out his words, "Don't listen to him, Nat. He's Loki."
"He's lying!" Steve no. 1 exclaimed, a deep frown on his lips, "In the battle of New York, I helped you get into those alien spacecrafts by hoisting you up with my shield."
Natasha's eyes burned through his skull, still staring at him warily. That was true, but it wasn't enough.
Steve no. 2 wasn't backing down. Even through the pain, he managed to let out a dry laugh. "Really, Loki? That's so outdated."
"Shut up, Loki." Steve no. 1 said.
While they went on their banter, Natasha realized something. No one could feel the Black Widow, not even Loki, the trickster God himself. She was smart enough to remember that Steve was injured earlier, and now, looking at Steve no. 1 who had a very unstained yet disheveled suit, she knew her answer.
Her glare turned harsher when Steve no. 2 took a step closer to her. "Fine, I wish I'd have said this in a different situation but... I love you."
Steve—real Steve—had literally gagged as soon as those three words came out of Loki's mouth.
That was the final straw of disgust. Without saying a word, Natasha quickly fired a widow bite at Steve no. 1 and caught him off guard. Proving her assumption to be correct, Loki quickly shifted back to his real body and writhed in pain—she'd made sure to set that bite to beyond full power.
She heard a thwip! that whipped past her and the next thing she knew, Loki was stuck to the floor with web fluid just like a spider does. Peter tried to contain his excitement when he realized that he just freaking webbed a demigod to a floor!
But Natasha's impressed look was enough to make him lose his cool. James and Allie came up soon, patting him on the back for a job well done.
Natasha went over to Steve and helped him up, there were cuts all over his arms and face. The stomach gash wasn't helping either. It worried her that the bleeding still hadn't stop even if it was over half an hour already.
"That's not normal."
Steve brushed her off, but his ragged breaths and furious sweating was saying otherwise. "It's nothing."
Natasha gave him an exasperated sigh, "Now's not the time to be stubborn, Rogers."
They were startled when they heard the sound of a window breaking. Thor and Tony—who was now back to his real form—came crashing to the scene quite literally when they appeared from the window.
Thor was the first to speak, "Loki is—"
"—here. I know." Natasha interrupted, handing Thor the scepter to which he graciously took. "We took care of it."
Tony gave her a look, eyes darting around the room, "What do you mean took care of it? Is he—where's that son of a bitch?"
Natasha casually nodded her head in the direction where Loki was. Thor and Tony shared a confused look before cautiously making their way to it.
When their eyes met Loki's webbed state on the floor, both had roared in laughter.
"Didn't know it'd only take our fourteen-year-old Spidey here to get your ass owned." Tony said in-between laughs.
Peter flushed red but frowned slightly, "I'm fifteen, Mr. Stark!"
Tony ignored him, instead, clasping him on the back with an approving smile. "Great job, kiddo."
Peter was positively glowing.
Without the scepter, and with almost all the Avengers surrounding him, Loki didn't try to fight back anymore. Instead, what he did next shocked the shit out of everyone.
While Tony and Thor were containing him—strapping the device onto his mouth and cuffing him—as soon as they passed by the counter table where the time machine was, Loki purposely swung out his elbows.
A loud crash! resonated through the room followed by a cry of horror.
Steve could only stare at the now dismantled machine, having no idea why it had affected him so much. Then his gaze went over to James, who was practically burning holes through Loki's skull right now.
Loki looked back at Allie and James—seeing the look of hatred and complete hopelessness in their faces—and smirked satisfyingly at them.
If he couldn't have the time machine, then no one can.
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Allie couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"You what?"
James gulped in fear, taking a step backwards and hiding behind Tony. He could almost see the steam rising from Allie's ears.
Tony winced at Allie's screech. "If I go deaf, I'm blaming you, Allie."
Allie ignored him, staring hotly at James. "You told him? And now dad knows? What the hell James?"
Her eyes flashed in so much emotions that James didn't want to see anymore, so he looked away and kept hiding behind Tony. "Help me, Tony!"
"Hey!" Tony exclaimed, glaring at James when he suddenly yanked him to another direction just so Allie wouldn't reach him. "James!"
"You idiot! I'm going to kill you!"
James quickly let go and pushed off his feet when Allie started to chase him around the—now ruined—lab.
Tony groaned in frustration. Remind him to never have kids on the future?
Before this could go on any further, Tony stuck out his arm to stop Allie. His hand was planted on the very center of her forehead. "Hey!" Allie glowered, trying to grab him to no avail.
"Stop this right now." Tony said in all seriousness. "We already have too much problems, okay? Don't add a new one."
"But he—he ruined everything!" Allie screeched.
"No, I didn't!" James defended, shouting over from where he was hiding behind a table.
"Calm down, Allie." Tony said, still not letting her go.
"No!" She clenched her jaw, "There's no other way to fix this! This made everything worse! Forget about mom and dad getting together, dad knows anyway so what's the point?" She rambled on, sarcasm dripping from her tone.
Tony sighed, trying to calm her down. "James didn't mean it, it just slipped out? And besides, Capsicle doesn't believe in all this Science shit, and he only knows about James, not you."
"Well, that makes everything better then," she snapped.
When the tension slowly died down a bit and James was sure Allie wasn't going to kill him, he carefully walked closer to them.
"I'm sorry, alright? I didn't want that to happen, Als. I just—I panicked, okay! I forgot, that, for a second that he wasn't supposed to be my dad." James said, chewing his lip nervously.
Allie sighed. She wasn't going on a rampage anymore but she was still mad at her brother for being so careless. "I'm still angry."
"I know and you have every right to be," James said.
"Yay," Tony muttered sarcastically, "So, we good here? No one's going to kill each other? Okay, now that's cleared up. Let's move on the problem no. 2."
James flinched, "We're sorry, Uncle. We should've kept a closer eye on the time machine."
Tony waved him off. "It's fine, Jamester. At least it's still fixable, that's what matters. Though, I'm sorry because I think the soonest I can fix this is no earlier than tomorrow."
Allie sighed, "That's fine. It buys us enough time to fix this mess. We can't just leave dad with remembering you as his son. It'd ruin everything."
"Yeah," James agreed, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion and exasperation. "By the way, is dad okay? Is something wrong with him?" he asked Tony.
Tony nodded, inspecting the disfigured time machine while answering James' question. "His wound's worse than normal because he was struck with the power of an infinity stone but he'll be okay. Bruce told us that it'd heal in two days."
Both siblings let out a sigh of relief.
"Okay, so back to the problem firsthand," Allie concluded, turning to James with a subtle raise of her shoulders, "Any ideas?"
A crease appeared on James' forehead as he tried to come up with at least one solution. He rattled his brain for answers. Come on, James. Think. Think. There must be something. Anything.
Then, finally— "I got it," he said, with a bright smile.
-----------------------------
Allie and James stared blankly at the glass walls. Actually, no, they weren't staring exactly at the glass walls, they were staring at the people behind those walls.
Steve was sleeping soundly on a hospital bed (still in the HQ), his abdomen was wrapped in a clean bandage, there was no blood stain indicating that his wound was slowly healing. In a brief moment of joy and relief, their eyes trailed over to the sleeping form beside him.
Natasha—just like Steve—was sleeping silently on a chair. Her shoulders were slumped, dark bags under her eyes, hair a mess, and head slightly dropped. She looked tired yet peaceful at the same time.
Natasha made it particularly clear that she wanted to stay with Steve even if they were already releasing him later today. Allie and James didn't know how or when it happened, but, for some reason, those two were acting more lovey-dovey after their encounter with Loki.
So, thank you, Loki? They guess?
Allie glanced over to James worriedly, "You think it's gonna work?"
James heaved a deep breath. "Guess we'll find out."
It was lunch break so it was clear and safe to put another of their plans to action. They really hoped it'd work this time.
James steadied the scepter in his hands, careful not to make a sound as they hid behind a wall, out of their parents' views. He promised to give it back to Thor after explaining their situation to him.
"Are you sure you still remember how to use this?" Allie asked, eyebrows knitted together in concern.
"Of course, who do you think I am?" James asked rhetorically.
Allie rolled her eyes before turning serious. "Remember, just erase dad's memories of the exact moment you slipped up. Don't meddle with anything else. Oh, and Uncle Thor's too. I don't think he can keep a secret much longer."
"What about Uncle Clint?"
She paused, biting down her bottom lip.
Should they erase his memories too? Do they have a right to? It didn't seem fair. Besides, they trust Clint as much as their parents. Not to mention, he's helped them a lot the time they were here. They couldn't do that to him.
Allie shook her head. "He can keep a secret."
James nodded. "'Kay." He popped his neck, loosened his shoulders and shook his head fervently like he was preparing to fight. "Here it goes."
He closed his eyes and started to concentrate. Remembering what he did before, what he learnt when he fought Loki in his time, he started to do the exact same now.
Allie watched anxiously as James started to grip the scepter tighter by every passing second. The stone slowly started to glow red again, and she was starting to get worried if James could handle this because she knows how powerful an infinity stone can be.
Sweat started to trickle down his temple while a deep crease appeared in his forehead. He squinted his eyes, clamped his teeth down, and never once let go.
Just when Allie was prepared to yank the scepter out of his grasp, James instantly stopped, exhaling a heavy breath afterwards.
She caught him and steadied him upright. "James! Are you okay?"
James nodded, still panting, "Fine. I forgot how much it could drain you out."
Allie was breathing heavily as well. "You scared the sheep out of me. Want some water?"
He could only nod again, breathing through his words, "I could take some water."
Allie didn't say a word, instead, picked up the scepter and helped her brother on the way to the kitchen. She could only hope that, whatever James did, it worked.
Tomorrow was their last day here in 2017.
And tomorrow—whether it worked or not— they'd see the aftermath of their actions.
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ E N D O F C H A P T E R ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Honestly, I was bored and not satisfied at all while writing this chapter. I can't wait to write all the fluff parts between Steve and Nat already in the final chapter and when Allie and James finally gets sent back to the past ugh.
I'm really sorry if this was such a crappy update!! I suck at writing fight scenes HAHAHA
SO MUCH ROMANOGERS MOMENTS IN THE FINAL CHAPTER I SWEAR.
Yep, final chapter (chap 24) + the epilogue soooo. I promise I'll make it worth it. I'll end this book with a freakin' big Romanogers heart sign.