Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Steve is leaning eagerly over in his seat, staring out the window of their jet as he gets his first glimpse of the US coastline in six years. Despite the circumstances, it’s good to be coming home. It would be even better to be seeing the Statue of Liberty, to be going back to New York, but for now, they’re on their way to Washington D.C., where world leaders have been meeting for the last few months, ever since they found about the impending invasion. Steve supposes he’s lucky that they’re even going back to the US at all.

He and his team’s most recent residence, in southern Turkey, is where the jet picked them up from this morning. He’d disclosed their location to the leaders in the US after he was certain that the pardons they were being given were legitimate, though considering how they’d been contacted, it was likely their location had been known anyway.

They’d been on the run for six years, and though it wasn’t always easy, eventually they’d settled into a sort of pattern. They would stay in one place for up to six months before moving on, the time depending mostly on how secure they felt and how much the people in the area seemed to care who they were.

The initial fervor had died down several months after their Civil War, as the media was calling it, but they could still be recognized. Certain countries—chief among them Germany, Romania, Nigeria, and Sokovia—considered them absolute personae non gratae and had continued to make waves about having them tracked down and arrested for years after the event. They’d avoided those countries, and often even their neighboring countries, completely for that reason.

Initially, they’d actually split up. Scott had left Wakanda very shortly after their arrival. He seemed like he didn’t really want much to do with them, though he’d followed Steve easily enough before. He’d turned himself in back in America, and apparently despite Germany’s protestations, the US had allowed him back and hadn’t even put him back in prison. Steve was glad for it—he hadn’t wanted to get Scott into serious trouble—but he wasn’t stupid enough to think the same would apply to any of the rest of them. Scott didn’t have their public profile and he hadn’t been present for a lot of the chaos that had caused so many countries to be so angry at them. He hadn’t been part of the whole Accords debacle.

Steve’s point was proven when he ended up meeting up with the rest of the team again. Clint and Sam had also left not too long after arriving in Wakanda, wanting to go back home. Clint missed his family, hadn’t planned to leave them again until Steve called him, and wasn’t able to contact Laura from Wakanda for fear of revealing their location. Sam just missed home; his friends and his life. They ended up departing together, with Steve’s blessing, after about a month in Wakanda.

Steve stayed behind, mostly for Bucky. He hadn’t really had anything else to do; he’d left the title of Captain America behind with his shield after the fight with Tony. He always intended to pick it back up again, hopefully after Tony got over himself and the Accords and was willing to apologize for tearing the Avengers apart like that, but at the time, leaving the shield and the position behind had been his acknowledgment that his stance, and Bucky, meant more to him than being praised as a superhero. He was willing to give up that title to stand by what he believed in, to refuse to be controlled by shady governments.

Wanda, alone, stayed with him. She’d become sullen and withdrawn since being forced to leave the US. Though she’d stayed, telling Steve she would stick by him and follow his lead, she spent most of her time on her own, away from him. So really, it was just him and Bucky.

But Bucky hadn’t been able to trust his own mind, as he said, and had gone back into cryo willingly. Steve didn’t like it, but he understood. He’d trusted that T’Challa and his people could come up with a solution to Bucky’s mental triggers. But the time wore on and on, and nothing was forthcoming. He got the distinct impression that T’Challa wasn’t considering him much of a priority, and honestly, it was lonely in Wakanda, with Bucky in cryo and most of the rest of his team gone. He hadn’t heard anything from Clint or Sam, for the same reasons Clint hadn’t been able to contact his family from Wakanda.

After two months in Wakanda, T’Challa ended up approaching him about his stay. He explained, very politely, the issues that Steve’s presence caused for him, and how he was torn between being the best King to his people and honoring the commitment he’d made to help Bucky and therefore Steve. Steve hadn’t wanted to impose, and he’d been lonely enough by that point that he was willing to leave, not to cause any more problems for T’Challa. He’d thanked him for his help and after a brief discussion, Wanda was willing to leave with him. She hadn’t liked the attitude she faced in Wakanda and was more than happy to leave it behind.

Leaving Bucky behind was hard, but after all, they didn’t have a solution for that yet. With him in cryo, he wasn’t any kind of imposition on Wakanda, and Steve trusted that T’Challa would keep good watch over him. Steve had left a way to contact him should T’Challa’s people discover a cure for Bucky and wake him up, and T’Challa had promised to use it if the time came.

Being on their own on the run was difficult, more than he’d imagined at first, but they only had to manage for a week before Natasha found them. It was great to see her, though upsetting to hear that she’d been forced to go on the run as well. She’d led them back to her own hideout and he’d been equal parts happy and dismayed to see Clint and Sam there as well. As it turned out, they weren’t able to make it anywhere near the US. They were still highly wanted, both of them, and even though Clint had gotten a few messages back and forth to Laura—not entirely happy ones, was the impression Steve got, but at least he knew they were safe—in the end, they’d had to leave, and get far away. They’d ended up back on the Asian continent, hiding away, and had met up with Natasha there.

So he’d had most of his team back together again, minus Scott and Bucky—and the ones they’d fought against, of course. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but they made it work as a team, as friends. They kept themselves safe and well hidden from the public eye.

They were able to keep up with the news back home and around the world to some extent. The Avengers fell apart and never recovered from the Civil War. Tony didn’t make another public appearance afterwards, apparently off licking his wounds, or just plain giving up on them. Rhodes had been injured in Germany. Vision, alone, wasn’t enough, and the Avengers officially ended. Without the Avengers around to control, the Accords ended up falling apart as well.

They’d caused quite a bit of destruction to the Raft, but Ross didn’t end up going down for another seven months. When he did, it was actually for other offenses, but as long as he was in prison, Steve was happy about it.

With the arrival of aliens in various forms, Thor being well known and a part of the Avengers, and other similar incidents, the Earth began acknowledging, as a whole, that they were becoming players on the interplanetary stage. Asgard and several other planets approached world leaders and began introducing them to the galactic politics they were going to be part of, soon. They started building relations with other planets. They were infants in terms of galactic prowess, but becoming part of the larger galaxy at all was a huge step for them.

Then, four years past the end of the Avengers, they got word of the destruction of Asgard. It had taken quite a while to be sure of it, considering their relatively new, slightly shaky relations with the few other planets they were in contact with, and even longer for the information to make it into the news such that Steve and his team became aware of it. They hadn’t known, at the time, what happened to Asgard, only that it had been destroyed and no one had heard from Thor or any other Asgardian since then.

But four months ago, the news got out about what had happened to Asgard, and more urgently, that it was going to happen to them. There were conspiracies going around the world that the world leaders had known for years that Thanos was responsible for Asgard’s destruction, but hadn’t told the rest of the world until their intergalactic partners confirmed that Thanos was in fact headed for Earth, bent on the destruction of the planet and the possession of the Infinity Stones.

It sent the world into a panic. Despite working at forging interplanetary relations for the last few years, the Earth wasn’t ready for this. They had essentially no planetary defense system, and they knew they were technologically far behind most of the rest of the galaxy. They were no match for Thanos.

The panic, apparently, was enough to convince the new Planetary Defense Council that any and all protectors of the Earth would be welcome, at this point. Hence why Steve, Sam, Clint, Wanda, and Natasha were now on a jet, heading back to the US to help with the defense efforts being organized.

It had taken plenty of time; first to agree to bring them back, then to work out temporary pardons for them for the crimes for which they were still fugitives, then to get into contact with them and convince them to come back. They encountered a lot of pushback from the countries which were still out for the ex-Avengers’ blood. Their position was that a few heroes, superpowered or not (and really, Steve and Wanda were the only superhumans of the group), wouldn’t make the difference between victory and defeat by Thanos, and their crimes shouldn’t be excused now just because a larger threat was looming. Many people, including the PDC, however, felt that any and all help was necessary. They made sure to be clear that their pardons were “temporary” and their positions would be reviewed upon the successful protection of the Earth, assuming they survived Thanos’s invasion, but Steve was pretty sure it was just to appease the countries that were protesting. If they survived the invasion and protected the Earth, people would welcome them back with open arms. And if they didn’t… well, they wouldn’t have to worry what Germany thought of them.

Steve wouldn’t have believed it—he was more inclined to believe that this was all a ploy to get them back so they could finally be arrested, even after all these years—except that it was Nick Fury himself who contacted them. The remnants of SHIELD weren’t much, but Fury had experience in planetary defense and with the Avengers, and the PDC had brought him back and put him in charge of the superhuman defenses once they’d agreed to bring Steve and his team back.

It had still taken weeks of communication, but eventually, Fury had convinced them that they really were coming home and arranged for them to be brought to the Capitol where they were currently organizing from. They are now less than a week from the expected invasion, and the increasing anxiety can be felt all over the world. Though they’re gathering what defenses they have, there’s no doubt that they aren’t prepared. It’s impossible, really, to truly contemplate that this might actually be the end of the world.

The one thing Steve really can’t believe is Tony’s continued absence. He hasn’t been seen publicly since their falling out. It seems he’s given up Iron Man and the Avengers, but Steve finds it difficult to believe he’s really going to ignore this invasion. That he can’t put aside his own feelings, or ego, or whatever is keeping him in hiding, and come to the planet’s aid in its most desperate time.

There are plenty of theories out there, of course, about what happened to Tony Stark. Stark Industries has kept running well in his absence; Pepper Potts was already doing an excellent job as CEO, and they’ve still regularly released new designs of Tony’s caliber since his “disappearance,” which Steve knows means Tony’s still sending new designs in to them from wherever he’s hiding. Some of the conspiracy theories out there say they’re just stockpiled designs from before Tony disappeared, but it’s that and other evidence that makes Steve believe he’s sending them in in real time.

There are people out there who are truly convinced that Tony is dead, that he was killed in the Civil War and it’s been covered up. That hit Steve hard when he first read some of the theories on it, considering how he last saw Tony… but Tony was moving, speaking, and Steve knows he had backups, and people who knew where he was. No, he wasn’t lost. He was hiding.

They’d discussed him with Fury, of course. Falling out or not, Iron Man was a resource they would need in the coming invasion. War Machine, too, but Rhodes had been injured in Germany, his suit rendered pretty much inoperable, and the rest of his War Machine gear had locked itself down. He’d disappeared from the hospital not long after Steve and the others arrived in Wakanda, apparently, and also hadn’t been seen since. That had surprised Steve, a little; Rhodes had always seemed dedicated to his military career, and though he would no doubt be honorably discharged after his injury, it didn’t seem like him to just run off before that officially happened. But his loyalty to Tony had always been one of his biggest weaknesses, and if Tony had asked him to leave, he probably would have.

Fury and the PDC had gone to Potts about Tony’s whereabouts, but, ever loyal to him even in the face of coming destruction, she’d maintained that she didn’t know where he or Colonel Rhodes were, that she hadn’t heard from either of them in six years. It was pretty obviously a lie, but they couldn’t exactly call her on it.

They could do something, however. Fury and his people had hacked some of her records and found that there were funds being sent from one of her private accounts (drawing from Tony’s) to a secluded residence of Tony’s out on a private island near the Bahamas, enough to support a few people—or just two. The withdrawals had started right around the time of the Civil War, and continued up to now. Fury had also found reports from nearby areas of incidents and sightings, all tech-related. No Iron Man suits, of course—if he was really trying to hide away from the world, Tony wouldn’t be that obvious—but many of the energy signatures matched Tony’s tech. The power draw at the residence Tony owned there was enormous, way too much for any normal person to use. Unless of course that person was running an engineering workshop in their basement.

Even isolated out there, presumably with his best friend, Tony can’t have missed the news of the coming invasion. It was what he’d always been trying to warn the Avengers about, after all. Even if he’d given up on being Iron Man, even if he wanted to isolate himself for the rest of his life, Steve can’t believe he would stay away from this.

No doubt Tony has plans to come bursting in at the last minute and try to save everyone. After all, he’s all about style, and has to be the center of attention. Fury told Steve he has plans to send people over to that island in the next few days and find out what the hell he’s been doing, presuming he doesn’t show up on his own. He’s obviously developing something out there, hopefully something that’s actually useful for planetary defense. Maybe something to help Rhodes get up and about again, so he can get back into War Machine and help as well.

But that’ll have to wait, apparently. Just as they were leaving to get on the jet that would bring them home, Fury told them he has news, an important update on the invasion defense. He’d said he’d tell them more in person and cut the connection, so now Steve is anxious to hear what this update is. Maybe Tony has decided to come out of hiding on his own.

It’s a long flight and Steve is happy to stretch cramped muscles when they land, but he doesn’t have much time to do so. Several armored cars are waiting for them at the airport, and uniformed agents are present to silently take them to the buildings currently being used for invasion prep. They’ll have to get over their jet lag quickly, and Steve gets the feeling they’re going to be having some sleepless nights for these last few days until the invasion.

When they arrive, Fury is waiting for them, looking more serious than ever. He gives them each a cursory handshake, already saying “let’s get to it. We’ve got too much to do and not nearly enough time, but at least there’s been a change.”

“A good change, I presume, from the tone,” Natasha says.

“Yes. Walk with me,” Fury gestures and they all fall into step beside him, walking towards the center offices from which they’re doing a lot of the organizing. “Yesterday, we were contacted by a planet called Tolsar, and offered help against Thanos.”

“Tolsar?” Wanda asks, giving a confused look to the others. Steve’s never heard the name among the news on their planetary partners.

“Tolsar,” Fury repeats. “We’ve heard of them a few times from our contacts, but never had any contact with them, ourselves. We wouldn’t; we don’t really have anything to offer them. They’re an extremely advanced planet, and not a planet in the typical sense. From what we’ve heard of them, Tolsar doesn’t actually have any natural habitation. It’s a collection of beings from all around the galaxy, working together in a cooperative society, highly skilled at trade, manufacturing, technological innovation, all kinds of things. They also hold a contract, essentially, with several independent galactic armies.”

Everyone makes noises of interest and surprise at that. “So, what, they rent out armies?” Steve asks.

“In a sense. The people that make up the armies are loyal to Tolsar, they consider themselves Tolsaran. They follow orders they’re given, yes, but they wouldn’t pledge their loyalty to the planet if the leadership made terrible decisions. The reason they’re willing to fight the battles they’re told is that every fight they get into ends up benefitting them in some way. They’re smart about it.”

“So what’s the benefit for them in helping Earth?” Natasha asks. “You said we don’t have anything of value to them.”

“Avoidance of destruction,” Fury says flatly. “Thanos is hell bent on taking over the galaxy, and wrecking half of it. He becomes more powerful all the time. Tolsar may figure that soon, he’ll be too powerful for them to face, so they’d better make their stand now if they want to have any hope of defeating him. A planned invasion of a planet is a good time to attack him, since they know where he and his army will be. Also, we do have something of value. After all, that’s why Thanos is coming for us.”

“The Infinity Stones?” Clint asks.

Fury nods as they turn another corner. “We’ve got the Mind Stone here, of course, in Vision. And our sources off-planet have given us reason to believe the Time Stone might be here, too.”

Steve frowns. “So what, if they win, Tolsar wants the Infinity Stones? Aren’t they too dangerous to be given away?”

“Not to mention one is part of Vision,” Sam adds. “They’re not expecting to rip it out of his head, are they?”

“We’ve explained that. They tell us they have no interest in hurting Vision, or using the stones. They say they just want to be the ones to decide what happens to them. They claim they have a way to contain them, to make sure their power can’t be misused. I don’t know if I believe that, but we’re going to have to trust it. We need their armies.”

“Have they said what this containment is? I mean, we shouldn’t just be handing over the stones,” Steve says.

Fury shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter, Captain, we need their armies. We’re dead without them. The PDC may have brought you back to fight like it was going to make a difference, but we all know it wouldn’t. Until yesterday, we were doomed. Dead. No question. Now we’ve got a chance, and we’re not going to flush it away debating over what happens to the Infinity Stones. But if you must know, all they’ve said is that the Queen has something to do with it. We’re going to have to believe that. Besides, I’m inclined to trust Thor’s word.”

“Thor?” several of Steve’s group say simultaneously, exchanging surprised looks.

“He’s alive? How do you know?” Sam asks.

“Ah,” Fury says, then shakes his head again. “Right, you don’t know. We’re pretty sure Thor is the Tolsaran King.”

Steve’s eyebrows shoot up. “I didn’t think royalty of one planet transferred like that. Just because he was a prince on Asgard, he—wait, did you say Queen? Thor’s married?”

“The King and Queen of Tolsar are elected, they’re not related to each other.” Fury says patiently. “It’s a cooperative conglomeration of tons of different species, and they elect a King and Queen that are willing and capable, no matter where they come from, though we’ve heard they have been royalty from other planets in the past. With Asgard destroyed, it makes sense that Thor would have gone there. He’s powerful, and Asgard was well respected. It’s not surprising he’d be elected King.”

Natasha frowns. “You said you’re ‘pretty sure?’ He hasn’t addressed you directly?”

“Not directly, no. We’ve been talking through a third party mostly, and it’s just text being sent back and forth except for the very first time, and we only saw an image of the diplomat we’ve been speaking to then. They just call them the King and Queen. But they’ve sent messages to us from them before. They talk like they’re familiar with Earth, and the diplomat mentioned something about one of them being a god. Since Asgardians weren’t typically referred to as gods or even demigods by most other planets, we think it might be his title. It would make sense, even if other planets didn’t think of them as gods, they know about their influence on the mythology of other worlds. They prided themselves on being godly figures, in some ways.”

Steve frowns again. “His title? You mean other than King?”

“Tolsaran elected royalty earn titles during their rule,” Fury explains. “Assuming they rule well enough and for long enough. They can be kicked out if they do a terrible job, though not many are. They elect their rulers well. All the titles are unique identifiers, based off of something that they’ve contributed to the planet or an important trait of theirs, and famous past Kings and Queens are often referred to by their titles. Again, this is all coming from the info we were given about other planets by some of our contacts. But there’s a brief writing about Tolsar and it lists some of their most famous rulers: Queen Dalija the Warrior, King Boldanic the Healer, Queen Uo the Negotiator. If Thor’s title is “God,” it could be a reference to Asgard or maybe a tribute to them, or it could be something to do with his powers, God of Thunder and all that.”

They’re interrupted when they come into the conference room where Fury’s been operating from, organizing the superhero side of things. There are several people there waiting for them, leaders of the efforts from other countries. They all shake hands and exchange some pleasantries, tension in the air around them at the circumstances.

When they’ve all sat down, Fury addresses the room. “So, I was just catching the Avengers here up to speed on Tolsar and their offer. So, possible change of plans for you all,” he says, looking at Steve’s team. “You were going to be leading some of the ground teams in major areas where Thanos’s armies might be landing, but now that could change. With Tolsar coming in, we’re essentially going to have you wherever they need you. It’s likely you’ll still be on ground teams, since we don’t really have any spaceflight capability to be battling up top, and some of Thanos’s people might get through to the ground and we’ll need you there.”

“So their armies are going to be fighting above the planet?” Clint asks.

“Yes, the plan right now is for the Tolsarans to engage Thanos and his armies outside the planet. The King and Queen are going to create a forcefield of sorts around the planet to help keep any strays from landing, but some could sneak through anyway, or it could fail during the battle. Asgard was protected by a planetary defense system of some sort, we’re thinking it might be the same thing they’re bringing here.”

“Is the Queen another Asgardian?” Natasha asks.

One of the others shakes his head. “We don’t know, they haven’t said much about her other than that she has some sort of abilities, we’re calling it magic but I suppose they might consider it something else. Whatever it is, I guess it meshes well with Thor’s lightning, because our contact said they work together for a lot of magical things.”

They spend a few minutes discussing the kinds of ground teams being put together, the cooperation between the world’s militaries and how they’re planning to integrate the Avengers into it. They’re going to be split up to cover more area, which makes sense, although Steve doesn’t love the idea of not knowing what’s happening to the others on his team during the battle. Vision will be joining them, the sole remaining Avenger from Tony’s side.

While they’re on the topic, Steve voices the question that’s been bothering him for a while. “Does… has anyone heard from Tony?”

He sees the rest of his team’s expressions harden at the question. None of them are incredibly happy with Tony, Wanda least of all. She blames him for her ending up in the Raft with that horrible collar on her like an animal. She’s already expressed her opinion that they don’t need Tony in this fight, but Fury and the world leaders have disagreed. Whatever Tony’s personal flaws, Iron Man would definitely be helpful.

Fury sighs. “Surveillance reports from that villa he’s got down in the Bahamas say there’s been flight activity around the place. Nothing they can spot well, maybe a stealth suit of some sort. Hopefully he’s working on something big that’ll be a help here. I wouldn’t say no to another Iron Legion with the invasion coming. But we haven’t tried to contact him yet. The Tolsarans are coming tomorrow and maybe having Thor here will convince Stark to get his ass in gear and get up here. It’d be nice not to waste the time or manpower going down there and dragging him out of the place. No doubt he’ll want to create a scene, but maybe having the Tolsarans around will keep it under wraps a bit.”

Steve certainly hopes so, but really, he’ll just be glad to see Tony again. He’d sent a letter back to the Compound years ago, but since Tony apparently ran off to the Bahamas right after Siberia, Steve’s not sure he ever got it. There are too many things unsaid between them, and he doesn’t want to leave it like that. Not if there’s a chance either or both of them could be dying in the next few days.

They spend the rest of the day strategizing, planning, and arranging for everything. Every time there’s any sort of new announcement or commotion, Steve turns around, hoping it’s Tony coming in, but it never is. At the end of the day, Steve figures that Tony’s waiting until Thor arrives—no doubt he knows about it, he’s probably hacked all their communications from his nice little vacation home—so he can make the most dramatic possible entrance. Steve hasn’t missed his theatrics, but he has missed working with Iron Man in battle, and honestly, he’s missed Tony himself. He could be abrasive and rude and superior at times, but he could also be thoughtful and kind and fun to be around, and with the state of things between them, Steve can’t wait to be able to address him again. With everything going on, he shouldn’t be focusing so much on Tony, but he can’t really help it.

There’s a sort of temporary camp set up for them not far from the building where all the world leaders are meeting. It’s the bare minimum of accommodations, but it’ll do. After all, they’ll only need to be there for a few more days. Steve idly wonders where they’ll offer to host Thor and the Tolsaran Queen tomorrow when they arrive, then figures that they might stay in whatever ship they arrive in.

Steve spends a while tossing and turning, thinking about Asgardians and magic and battle preparations. Eventually, knowing he needs sleep, he forces himself to focus on just being home, back in the US where he belongs. It’s such a relief to no longer be on the run, and despite the circumstances and all the new stresses being added on to them with the invasion looming, he feels like he can finally relax again. Finally, thinking about home, he drifts off.

Chapter Text

Despite all the stresses, Steve sleeps soundly and wakes up feeling at least moderately refreshed, if a bit on edge. Thor and the Tolsarans are arriving today, hopefully Tony will be too, and they can start the serious planning for the invasion with the Tolsaran armies defending them.

It does worry him, trusting this planet full of strangers almost entirely with their defense. While Thor has always been a helpful ally, he’s always had his own kingdom to rule over and worry about, his own agenda to follow. While Steve appreciates his desire to defend the Earth, he doesn’t live on Earth, doesn’t know it like they do, and he can’t have quite the same feelings about it as its own people. And King or not, these armies that have supposedly pledged themselves to him are an unknown as well. There’s just a lot of unknowns, and it doesn’t sit well with Steve.

When he and his team get up and find their way back to the command center, they’re greeted with a familiar face—or, well, costume. The spider-kid that Tony recruited to fight against them in Germany years ago is standing in the hallway, talking to Fury. Steve’s team makes noises of surprise that catch their attention and they turn. The eyes on the kid’s mask narrow—how does it do that?—and he crosses his arms. Catching the movement out of the corner of his eye, Fury sighs and rubs his forehead.

“Apparently you’ve all already met Spiderman,” he says, gesturing to the kid.

Natasha and Sam nod politely at the kid and some of the aggression leaks out of his stance, though Clint and Wanda just look skeptical. Steve raises an eyebrow at Fury. “I know we need all hands on deck here, but you’re really bringing kids into this?”

“I’m twenty,” Spiderman says coldly, and his voice is a little deeper than Steve remembers, sounding older than when they’d last met. Apparently he’s lost his admiration of Captain America, too.

“Spiderman’s been working successfully in New York for years now, and he’s legally an adult.” Fury’s using his no-nonsense voice. “You’ll all be separated on the battlefield, don’t worry, but you will put your shit aside and act like reasonable adults when we’re here.”

It seems to be directed as much at Spiderman as Steve and his team, and they all give terse nods. Spiderman moves forward to shake hands briefly with each of them; when he gets to Steve, he grips tight with superhuman strength, enough that Steve’s hand actually hurts.

Fury’s eying them with suspicion but lets it go and directs them back into the superheroes’ command center. There’s a video conference going on already, and Steve sees a similar looking conference room turned command center on the screens. “L.A.,” Fury says at Steve’s questioning look. “We needed multiple command centers across the country, we can’t bring everyone here and then get them all back out across the country easily or quickly. There’s organizational centers all over the world, we’ve got the main leaders meeting here but there’s centers in major countries too.”

When they walk into the center of the room, those in the middle of the video call acknowledge them. They’re beckoned forward to be introduced to some of the people on the other end: Hope Van Dyne, Carol Danvers, Stephen Strange. There are several others in the background as well who aren’t introduced, and he sees Vision moving in and out of the background occasionally too.

“We tried to split some of our superheroes up across the country,” one of the agents in the room explains as they’re introduced. “Dr. Strange usually operates in New York or in other countries, but he is able to transport instantly between locations, so he agreed to work out of the L.A. center for the invasion. Vision is over there as well, trying to disperse some of our heavy hitters across the country.”

Steve asks about Scott at one point, knowing the Van Dyne woman knows him. She tells them that Scott is under house arrest, back with his family and determined to stay there. When Steve frowns and asks whether the invasion shouldn’t be important enough to bring him back, she curtly tells him that the Ant-Man suit has been decommissioned by her father and that Scott won’t be coming back, and Steve backs off, not wanting to create a problem.

They spend almost two hours in the room, introducing and organizing new heroes, making plans and strategizing, and integrating back and forth with representatives from the military, logistical, and other divisions in charge of various aspects of the defense plans. The Tolsarans aren’t scheduled to arrive until early in the afternoon, so they organize what they can through the morning.

Steve’s team is alone in a room with Fury around eleven, Spiderman having left to deliver a message to another department, when an agent knocks on the door and comes in, holding a tablet out to Fury. “Got movement less than an hour ago from Stark’s place, one small aerial object en route here, ETA thirty-four minutes based on our tracking.”

“Just one?” Natasha questions as Fury takes the tablet. “Would have thought Rhodes would be with him.”

Sam frowns, looking vaguely guilty as he always does when Rhodes is mentioned. Sam had always blamed himself just a little for what had happened to Rhodes in Germany, no matter how Steve had tried to console him about it. “He was injured. Maybe he… can’t come,” Sam says quietly.

Fury is frowning down at the tablet. “Thirty-four more minutes? That’s slow. The hell is he up to?”

“Maybe bringing in tech?” Clint suggests.

Fury shrugs and sets the tablet aside. “Well, he’d better be ready to work. If he’s expecting a welcoming committee, he’s going to be disappointed. He’s already late; I expected his ass here last week at the latest.”

Steve bites his tongue. He’s equally apprehensive and excited to see Tony again. They’d left things off on such a bad note, but Steve has missed him, in a way, and Tony must have missed him—all of them—too. Even with Rhodes there, isolating himself in order to hide from the world for the last six years can’t have been easy, or good for him.

Steve doesn’t want to think about Tony being hurt, angry, depressed, running away to an island to be alone and barely contacting anyone from the outside world for years. Everyone needs friends, family, connections. Even on the run for the last six years, Steve’s had his team. Tony should have had others with him besides just Rhodes. In order to keep up the premise that he’d disappeared, Tony must have had minimal contact with the outside world. It’s not healthy.

He’s snapped out of his thoughts when Fury clears his throat and brings them back to training and battle simulations; Fury’s not wasting time on any sort of preparations for Tony’s imminent arrival, instead getting back to business like nothing’s happened. Steve tries to concentrate on what they’re talking about, but he just spends the next thirty minutes distracted, thinking about Tony and contributing little to the conversation.

Finally, Fury’s tablet gives a warning beep and Fury sighs. “Well, let’s get the dramatics over with,” he says, and gestures all of them out of the building. They shuffle out and into a courtyard (some, like Wanda, more reluctantly than others), looking up at the sky for the telltale streak of the incoming armor, listening for the sounds of the jets.

Steve is the first to spot a glint of sunlight off of metal, pointing up and squinting. “There,” he says, and they all look up as the suit comes into view.

Except it’s not a suit; it’s something like a mix between a suit and a ship, a rounded shape with jets that comes in for landing like a helicopter, then drops down a bulky, darkly armored suit and lands behind it. Steve’s not sure of the reason for the change, but something about the suit looks… off. It’s less streamlined than the old one, for sure, maybe for added protection or equipment, but something about it just looks clumsier, less precise than Tony’s usual work. The arc reactor that usually shines in the center of the chest isn’t visible, and something in Steve aches at the thought of why Tony would have hidden it away. He hopes these odd changes aren’t the result of Tony isolating himself for so long.

Fury frowns, but composes himself and steps forward with crossed arms and his usual powerful stance. “Stark. It’s about time you joined us. Enjoy your little vacation?”

There’s a clicking sound, and the armored hands reach up and remove the helmet. Steve and the others let out noises of confusion, and even Fury uncrosses his arms and blinks in surprise at the young man’s face that’s revealed.

For a split second, Steve’s mind constructs a wild, ridiculous scenario involving Tony somehow being de-aged, memory loss making him revert to less miraculous feats of engineering, before his rational brain takes over. This isn’t Tony, but whoever it is, they’ve clearly fashioned their armor after the Iron Man.

The young man—kid, really, God he’s young—frowns. “Stark? Were you expecting Tony?”

Natasha raises an eyebrow. “You came from his villa, didn’t you?”

The kid regards her, assessing. “Hey, I live there. Just because Tony owns it…”

“So where’s Stark?” Fury says impatiently.

“How the hell should I know? I haven’t heard from him in years. I thought he disappeared.”

“Where’d you get the armor, then?” Fury says, gesturing to the kid’s suit.

“I built it. Tony left some of the specs for the Iron Man suits, not everything, but enough to get a start. I could figure the rest out. It’s not Iron Man, but it works.”

Clint shakes his head. “So who the hell are you?”

“Harley, Harley Keener,” the kid says, but judging by the looks the others exchange, the name doesn’t mean anything more to them than it does to Steve.

“How do you know Tony?” Steve asks, and the kid turns a cool gaze on him.

“Met him, like, nine years ago. He set me up with some equipment, scholarships for school, stuff like that. Told my mom that his place on the island down by Crown Haven was available if we ever wanted to go out. We headed down there after my sister graduated. Been there ever since, and no one’s come to kick us out, so we’ve stayed.”

“So that was your family living down there?” Fury says, once again crossing his arms.

The kid sends him an annoyed look. “Yeah, and your ‘surveillance’ has been messing with my readings for weeks now. You should leave us alone, before I go out and blast all your little drones for target practice. Or just for fun.”

“Wait, wait,” Clint says, holding his hands up. “So if you’ve been living there, where the fuck is Stark?”

Harley rolls his eyes. “I’ve already said I don’t have a clue. I thought he’d be up here with you. You know, planning to fight and all. That is what we’re here for, right?”

Fury eyes the suit he’s standing in. “You’re willing to fight?”

Harley gives him a look. “No, I flew all the way up here just to say hello.”

Steve can certainly see why he would have gotten along with Tony. “Wait, kid, how old are you?” he asks suddenly, looking at the young features.

“Old enough to be here,” Harley says flatly, and when no one says anything, rolls his eyes and adds, “twenty.”

Something in Steve twists at that—twenty is so young, just like Spiderman, these kids shouldn’t have to be fighting for their lives against an alien invasion—but Fury is welcoming him inside and the rest of them shuffle in after him.

They go in and introduce Harley to the others, start working him into some of their plans. Spiderman comes back and they’re introduced to one another, shaking hands politely—Harley now out of his armor—and exchanging greetings. They spend a few minutes off to one side, talking in technobabble that reminds Steve of Tony acutely enough to distract him from what he’s doing.

If Harley and his family were really the ones living in that villa, then where are Rhodes and Tony? Wherever they’ve been hiding out, they must be planning to make their way here. Steve can’t believe that they’d sit by through all of this.

Unless the conspiracies are really true. That Tony really did die in Siberia, or was taken by HYDRA from that bunker when Steve left him alone with a disabled suit. If Tony’s dead, and Rhodes is just in hiding, injured and unable to help—the thought sits heavy in Steve’s chest. He wants to push the issue, demand they find out where Tony is, but they have more important things to worry about with the invasion looming and the Tolsarans arriving soon. He’ll have to put it aside, and hope Tony shows up soon.

Fury leaves for a while to meet with other team leaders, then comes back and pulls Wanda, Harley, and Spiderman aside. “We need a few people to start heading down to Texas now. They’ve got units mobilizing for defense and they’re planning to have superhumans integrated into some of them, but they need time to plan. We need to send someone down ASAP. You think you can head down there?”

Spiderman and Harley nod, but Wanda looks to Steve, uncertain. Steve tries to give her a reassuring smile. “We’re going to be split up in the field anyway. Go on, I know you can do it. I’ll see you when this is over, huh?”

The smile she returns is watery. Their future is looking dimmer all the time, and the pessimistic part of Steve knows this could be the last time he sees her. He tries not to let that show in his face as he gives her a quick hug. Fury takes the three of them into another room to go through a few cursory preparations, and then they’re being taken out to a jet that’ll bring them down to Texas for the invasion.

Even with thinking about Tony and Wanda and all of the preparations they’re going through, it seems like no time at all before Fury’s announcing that it’s time to head out for the arrival of the Tolsarans. Steve wishes Wanda could have stayed for this, but he understands the urgency of getting someone out to another command center. When all of this is over—Steve forces himself to think of when, when they’re all still alive at the end of this—maybe she’ll get the chance to meet them.

They head out to the closest international airport, which has been completely cleared and shut down for the day. It’s one of the few spaces nearby that’s large and open enough for the Tolsaran ships to land. While the vast majority of them will stay in orbit until the invasion, ships carrying the leaders of their armies, the King and Queen, and several others in their entourage will be landing and their people coming out to greet and plan with the Earth leaders before the invasion.

They haven’t had a lot of time to prepare and the situation dictates that they’ve needed to focus on invasion prep almost constantly since they first received contact from Tolsar. Still, they’ve managed to organize a sort of welcoming committee, creating a short path for the incoming Tolsarans to walk with Secret Service members, agents, and soldiers lining the way, standing at polite attention. The US President and the British, Canadian, and Australian Prime Ministers are there, along with the military generals and the members of the Planetary Defense Council, plus several other U.N. representatives, waiting at the front of the group to greet them.

Steve, Clint, Natasha, and Sam are the only representatives of the superhero aspect of Earth’s defenses present here. Steve takes it seriously, and he feels ready, but after the third major leader has come up and reminded them of the fact, Steve starts to feel a bit on edge. He approaches Fury and asks about it, the others standing behind him.

Fury stares him down and he has to squash the urge to squirm. “You’re being reminded of the fact because it’s important, Captain. The impression you make here is important. We need these people’s help. We are not going to piss them off.”

Steve does shift uncomfortably at that. “Listen, Director, I’ve been thinking about that. We trust Thor, yes, but we don’t know anything about these people other than that they want the Infinity Stones. What if they’re just here to take them? What if they’re planning to screw us over? We shouldn’t just be putting everything on them.”

Fury gives all of them a hard stare. “Let’s make this clear, all of you. We need this. We’re all going to die if these people don’t help us. So yes, we’re going to trust them. We’re going to do whatever we need to to get them to help us. I expect all of you to kiss their asses as much as necessary. I don’t give a damn if Thor walks out of that ship buck naked and asks you to tap dance for him, you will do it. If he wants you to sit on the front of his ship like a hood ornament through the invasion, you will do it. If the Queen says she wants you to marry her, you will damn well do it, because that’s what the world needs from you, you understand? This is not the time to start doubting. You will wipe that uncertainty off your face and you will bow down if they want, you will be polite and respectful, you will address the Tolsarans however the hell they want to be addressed, and you will do anything they ask of you. Are we clear?”

All of them, even Natasha, shrink back slightly under the intensity of Fury’s speech. They nod silently. “Good,” he says, gesturing back to their place on the tarmac. “Now get in place, the first of the ships is supposed to be here any minute.”

They line up like planned, Steve’s team clustered to one side of the main “aisleway” they’ve created, close to the front near the PDC members. As everyone else moves into their positions, silence falls over the group, all of them looking up, watching for the first of the ships to come into view.

There’s simultaneous warnings from Fury’s and several agents’ devices about ten minutes later, and the tension in the group moves up a notch, everyone still and silent. A few moments later, a distant whining sound can be heard and Steve sees a shape descending from the sky towards them. As it descends, the shape solidifies into three distinct ships, coming down in tandem.

As they get close to the ground, slowing down for a landing, Steve gets a good look at them. Each of them are slightly different, all clearly advanced far beyond anything on Earth. One is spiky and green, another sleek and gold, the third blacker than night and intimidating just in its shape. All of them are painted along the sides with the same complex silver pattern.

They land smoothly in a large arc around where the humans are gathered, ramps descending from the bottom of each ship as it touches the ground. There’s more sound from above and Steve looks up to see five more ships coming in for a landing, spreading out in the arc as well, but leaving a space directly in the middle. Every one of them is painted with the same silver pattern as the first three, which Steve figures must be a symbol of Tolsar.

There’s movement from underneath several of the ships, and Steve looks down just as the Tolsarans begin emerging from the first few ships to have landed. They all come down their ships’ ramps and meet in a group at the beginning of the short aisle the humans have created, before one breaks off and walks up, approaching the world leaders in the center. Steve notes that most of the Tolsarans he can see are at least vaguely humanoid, though a few look like they barely qualify for that description. Most of them are wearing elaborate armor of some kind. The one walking up to the world leaders looks like a normal human man, except for the bright green lines that encircle his bare arms, moving continuously with him like living tattoos.

Just as the man stops in front of the human leaders, bowing his head and crossing one arm in front of his chest in a sort of salute, there’s another sound from above. Steve looks over to see that one more ship is descending, slightly larger than the others and encircled twice with the silver markings. As it comes in for a landing in the middle of the arc of ships, the Tolsarans who have gathered part for it, stepping to either side.

The one who’s walked forward addresses the world leaders in English. “I am Kajina of Tolsar. Thank you for being here to meet with us. We are aware of the urgency of the situation and will not stand on ceremony here.”

As he finishes speaking, the ramp opens up beneath the last ship to land and a few Tolsarans start filing out, stopping at the bottom of the ramp to wait. Kajina turns and gestures to the groups gathered around already. “These are the leaders of Tolsar’s armies.”

The groups disperse and the leaders station themselves in a wide arc around the fronts of their ships, leaving a gap for those who still haven’t left the last ship. As they separate from their groups and move around, Steve catches sight of familiar armor and cranes his neck for a better view, recognizing Thor.

His eyebrows rise in surprise: so Thor isn’t the Tolsaran King, but the leader of one of their armies. It makes sense; if Thor has told the King something of Earth and his intention to defend it, that would still explain the familiarity with Earth that Fury described in their interactions. But Thor has his own people to rule, so he wouldn’t want to be King of Tolsar. Whatever his position, Steve is glad to finally get confirmation that Thor is alive. He tries to catch Thor’s eye as the leaders of the armies line up, but Thor is moving into his position and standing still, looking straight ahead, expression serious.

Kajina gestures again, and the Tolsarans waiting on the ramp of the last ship begin moving forward. “The advisors to the Queen and King,” Kajina says.

The advisors move forward into the aisleway the humans have created, lining up on either side of it. While the leaders of the armies are wearing heavy armor in various colors and shapes, the advisors are more cohesively dressed, in lightly armored, elaborate outfits in various combinations and shades of silver, blue, and black. Their stance and their organization give the impression of discipline and order, while their clothing speaks of wealth and luxury.

As the last of them are lining up, Steve feels Sam nudge him slightly from where he’s standing beside him. He glances briefly over at the ships and nods, assuming Sam has seen Thor, but a moment later Sam nudges him again, more insistently. He looks down at Sam, working to keep from whispering to him. Sam is staring pointedly at the row of advisors standing and facing towards Steve and his team’s positions. Steve scans them, wondering what could have caught Sam’s attention, and then he sees it.

It takes him a moment to be sure, and he can feel his mouth dropping open. Second from the end of the row of advisors facing him is James Rhodes, standing on his own two feet and decked out in a detailed black and blue outfit. He’s standing at parade rest, head turned away from Steve’s group to look down the row at his ship.

Steve can’t stop staring at him, wondering how in the hell he could have gotten here. If he’s here, as a Tolsaran advisor, that must mean that he’s been on Tolsar for the last six years. And if he was there, then Tony was too.

It’s like Steve’s brain isn’t quite working, isn’t processing, because he doesn’t work it out as soon as he sees Rhodes. He doesn’t process when Kajina takes a step to the side and says, “we present Queen Amilie the Goddess, and King Anthony the Innovator.”

His brain doesn’t kick back in and understand the words until Fury, next to him, very quietly whispers, “oh, fuck.”

And Steve processes the words at last, realizes what they must mean, just as he finally catches sight of Tony. He’s coming down the ramp next to a young woman Steve’s never seen before, the Tolsaran Queen. He looks the same as ever, perhaps a little healthier in fact, except for the powerful, regal aura that seems to surround him as he walks past his advisors and approaches the world leaders as King of a planet. He and the Queen are wearing similar sweeping, elaborate outfits. Each has a long cloak trailing feet behind them, made of some sort of delicate translucent material in shifting blues and greens, the colors actually moving as they walk, bright silver embroidery crawling up and down the edges with the movement. They both have simple, delicate silver circlets on their heads, crowns of some sort.

Steve’s mouth is dry as he watches Tony walk past without even glancing at him. He’s frozen in place, staring after Tony, barely registering the exchange as Tony and the Queen stop in front of the world leaders and give the same salute that Kajina had, and the leaders move forward to thank them for their help and start asking about their plans.

“We will protect the Earth with a forcefield of sorts while our armies engage Thanos’s. I will face Thanos himself,” the Queen is saying when Steve forces himself to focus back on the conversation.

The members of the PDC look astonished. “You’re going to face him alone?” one asks.

The Queen smiles and Tony speaks up. “Queen Amilie is from another universe.” God, hearing Tony’s voice again is like a punch to the gut and a breath of fresh air all at once. When his statement gets confused looks, Tony hold his hands up. “I wouldn’t ask more, I’m not personally familiar with the… intricacies of interdimensional travel.”

“Neither am I,” the Queen says with a tilt of the head, “it was actually somewhat of an accident that I ended up here. But in my universe, I fought and defeated Thanos once already. That was years ago, I was younger, less powerful, and less experienced than I am now. I can do it again.”

The U.N. members and the political leaders just blink, looking shocked, so Tony goes on. “The Queen can create the forcefield around the planet before she moves to fight Thanos. One of my advisors and I are capable of resonating with her, sharing her powers. We will maintain the field as long as possible. If the battle continues too long and the forcefield falls, we will remain on the surface to fight any of Thanos’s soldiers that make it through.”

One of the PDC members inclines his head. “So your armies will engage Thanos’s outside the forcefield.”

The Queen nods. “We will still create plans for the ground, assuming that the forcefield will break so that we can be prepared. What sort of defenses do you already have in place?”

The PDC spends a few moments introducing the military generals. Tony and the Queen introduce each of the alien army leaders in turn, speaking to them in English, but often getting alien languages in return. Though they only speak to the them in English, they seem to understand what all the different aliens are saying.

The Queen catches the humans’ bewildered looks at these exchanges and smiles. “Universal translators,” she says, gesturing to a spot behind her ear, “implanted. They translate all known languages from their database in real time. Most people in the galaxy have them now, it’s the only way to communicate back and forth between so many different people. Some of us can’t even make the sounds of each other’s languages. So we use translators. I hear everything they say in English, and they hear everything I say in their own language.” The U.N. members nod, looking fascinated, and they resume introducing all the leaders of the armies.

Then one of the PDC members turns to Fury, Steve, and his team. Steve can see the slight awkward hesitation in them, but so far, Tony’s been acting like he doesn’t know any of them, and they decide to play along. “Director Fury, currently leading our superheroes’ task force, and those that’ll be working out of this area.”

Tony and the Queen turn to face them, and Steve finally catches Tony’s eye. As soon as he does, he almost wishes he hadn’t. There’s nothing showing in Tony’s face, no emotion for any of them at all. Tony’s gaze passes over each of them in turn, flat and emotionless. Steve would almost prefer burning anger over this complete indifference.

Tony and the Queen incline their heads slightly in unison to acknowledge Fury. “I believe you know Prince Thor,” he turns slightly and Thor nods from where he’s standing at the back with the other army leaders, “and Prince Loki.” Steve almost lets out a gasp at that, as one of the advisors along the line opposite Rhodes leans forward to give a short wave, and Steve sees that it is indeed Loki, dressed in blue and silver. Steve sees Clint jolt out of the corner of his eye, and Fury shifts back subtly to step on his foot, stopping any further movement.

“When Asgard was destroyed, those who survived the destruction came to Tolsar until such time as they can find a suitable planet to become a new home,” the Queen explains. “Since many Asgardians pride themselves on their abilities in combat, Prince Thor became the leader of the Asgardian army and they pledged themselves to Tolsar’s service until they decide to move on to a new world. The others who are not fighters are back on Tolsar, living and contributing in their own ways. Prince Loki is an accomplished mage and became one of my advisors.”

Steve can’t think of anything to say, but Fury speaks up, voice carefully professional. “We have met. I wonder, have you heard anything about Bruce Banner? We have reason to believe he has been off-planet for several years at least.”

Loki turns again from where he’s standing to answer. “Yes, we met him shortly before the destruction of Asgard. We have not seen him since then, but we’ve heard reports of activity that sounds like him in other parts of the galaxy.”

Tony turns to look at Loki when he speaks and then back at Fury and the U.N. people standing with him. “He always has a place on Tolsar if he wants it, but for now, it seems he’s off on his own.”

The Queen turns back to the rest of the PDC. “So, we have much to do and not a lot of time to do it. Where are you organizing from?”

Several people jump to it, guiding the rest of them away. The Tolsaran advisors and then the army leaders follow the King and Queen as they move away, down the tarmac and to the cars waiting to take them back to the command center.

Steve sags once they’re out of sight, letting out an explosive breath. Clint makes an angry noise and Natasha puts a hand on his arm, and Sam just looks stunned. Fury turns back to them, expression grim.

Clint snarls. “Loki? They’re working with Loki, that bastard, and they expect us to play nice?”

Fury’s eyes narrow. “I expect you to play nice, Barton. If you can’t, tell me now, and I’ll ship you down to Texas too so you don’t have to be here. If you’re going to fuck this up for us, you’re gone.”

Clint closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. As he lets it out, he shakes his head. “No. I can be here.”

Steve makes a noise and Fury turns to him. “How… how did Tony…?” Steve can’t really articulate, isn’t even sure what he wants to say.

Fury sighs. “It really doesn’t matter. What matters is that he’s the King, which means he just became the most important person here. I’m going to do my best to keep you away from him completely.”

“What?” Steve croaks.

Fury scowls. “You don’t seriously think he wants anything to do with you, do you? The man left the damn planet after your last little fight, and if you didn’t notice, he wasn’t exactly throwing himself into your arms just now. If he doesn’t want to see you, he doesn’t have to. He gets what he wants. He’s the King of Tolsar, and we need his help.”

Fury sighs again and turns, gesturing for them to walk back to the vehicles they took to the airport. “How this happened doesn’t matter,” he says again, “what matters is that he holds all our lives in his hands. So you’d better not piss him off.”

Chapter Text

By the time Steve and his team make it back to the command center, the Tolsarans are all there, settling in and already planning. The King, Queen, and their advisors are all together with most of the human diplomats in one room, with all the military leaders and the heads of the Tolsaran armies in another. Before Steve can do more than glance into the room where Tony is, he, Fury, and his team are ushered into the room with the military leaders.

They spend a while discussing contingency plans for if the planetary shield fails. Steve and the other human superheroes are going to stick to their original plan, split up and working with ground teams in case of breakthrough. One of the Tolsaran armies will patrol inside the shield in their ships for the same reason, but they’ll only land and fight on the ground if absolutely necessary—they’re leaving that to the humans.

A few of the royal advisors come in and out during their discussions, but Steve never gets another glimpse of Tony. At the end of a long stretch of negotiations and planning, Steve does manage to pull Thor aside for a conversation. Sam is still deep in conversation with one of the Air Force people, but Clint and Natasha notice Steve standing with Thor and come over to join him. Steve sees Fury giving them a suspicious look from across the room, but ignores him.

“It’s good to see you again, my friends. After what happened to Asgard, friends and safe havens are hard to come by. I was pleased to hear we would be taking a stand for the Earth.” Thor says seriously, nodding to them.

“How did you end up on Tolsar?” Natasha asks.

Thor looks somber. “Thanos came for Asgard, knowing we had an Infinity Stone in our possession. He had spies within the city and his power and his allies overwhelmed our defenses. We fell quickly. We could have fought to the last warrior, defended our homeland to our last breath. In our past, we would have done so without question. We were arrogant. I was arrogant. For the sake of my people, I’m glad I’ve grown beyond that. With my father dead, it was up to me to lead the people, to decide on the fate of Asgard.”

The look in Thor’s eyes is faraway. “Asgard was lost. That was clear very quickly. Thanos overwhelmed our defenses, his armies began slaughtering our warriors dozens at a time while he went after the Infinity Stone. He got into the vaults and stole the Tessaract, which only made him more powerful. There was no hope of defeating him, and letting all the people die fighting him would have been pointless. I made the decision to evacuate what was left of the people. Hundreds of our warriors fell defending us as we escaped and keeping Thanos busy so that we could. I wanted to join them, but… when we find a planet again, when we begin again, the people will need a King. I believe I am right for that role.”

Natasha looks contemplative. “So you went to Tolsar?”

“Yes. We originally talked about heading to Earth, actually,” Thor gestures to them and the room at large. “But it was a longer journey, and we’d have been bringing hundreds of refugees to you all. We needed time to regroup somewhere safe, and to focus on our own people for a while. So I took place as the leader of the remaining warriors of Asgard, and we pledged ourselves to Tolsar’s service until we are well enough and can find a planet to settle. We have all been living on Tolsar since then; Queen Amilie was very kind in finding us a place to stay. Everyone is contributing in some manner to the good of the planet, if they are not a warrior under my command.”

Clint shifts, clenching his jaw. “And Loki is with you?”

Thor clearly catches the stiffness in his tone and his eyes narrow just slightly. “I understand that my brother caused harm to the Earth, and to you, when he was here years ago. But evidence has come to light that he was… not entirely himself during that time. He has been of great service to Asgard since then, and now to Tolsar.”

“So what, that just makes up for everything he did here?” Clint starts, but Natasha squeezes his arm and Steve jumps in before the conversation can devolve into an argument.

“It was the Queen who gave you room on the planet, not Tony?”

Thor turns his gaze on Steve. “Lady Amilie was already Queen of Tolsar when we arrived, but King Elosaan was still ruling. He was about to step down and the people were already asking Anthony to run for King, but since the position was transitioning, Queen Amilie was making most of the decisions. We Asgardians were too new to the planet to be part of the election, we didn’t know enough about it. But Anthony was a well-liked choice for King and he’s done well for the planet. He earned his title very quickly. I was surprised to see him there, of course—I wasn’t aware Earth people even knew of Tolsar’s existence.”

“We didn’t, not until a few days ago,” Natasha says. “Have you talked to him about it, how he ended up there? We didn’t even know he wasn’t on the planet.”

Steve shifts a little, uncomfortable with their ignorance and what it implies about their friendship with Tony, before Thor answers. “I haven’t spoken to him much about the subject, no. He is very busy as King and I have been attending to my own people. Most of our conversations have been about our relative duties and positions. I did ask about his presence on Tolsar; he told me only that he came to Tolsar unexpectedly but felt more welcome there than on Earth. He seemed reluctant to talk about it, and I didn’t press him further.”

But Thor levels a questioning look at them. Steve grimaces, and it’s Natasha that answers. “We had a… falling out, the Avengers. Tony was on one side of it and we,” she gestures to herself, Steve, and Clint, “were on the other. There were others involved too, but we were the original team, you know.”

Thor frowns and opens his mouth to ask more, but someone behind him calls out, “Prince Thor?” and he turns back to continue his work with the military leaders. Fury comes over to pull them back to work as well, clearly irritated with their unauthorized conversation detour.

Steve is distracted as they go back to working. Had Tony really told Thor that he felt more welcome on Tolsar than on Earth? The thought is awful. Yes, they’d fought—viciously, at the end in Siberia, but that fight was Tony’s doing, not Steve’s—and he and Pepper hadn’t been doing well before the whole Accords issue, but Tony was still rich, powerful, and on the Accords’ good side. He had other friends outside the Avengers. Was he just being dramatic, or did he really think that he was better off on another planet?

They break for dinner, which is a quiet, tense affair. Steve watches the Tolsarans that come in and out of the cafeteria where they’re serving food, but doesn’t see Thor again. He does see the Queen twice, and Tony once, but they’re always talking to someone else, walking quickly. Tony doesn’t even look over at Steve, Clint, Sam, and Natasha.

Work is still in full swing with the Tolsarans after Steve and his team finish dinner, but Fury tells them to go back to their camp and relax for the rest of the night. Steve knows Fury’s trying to keep him away from Tony like he said, and that, combined with the overwhelming impression of being sent to his room like a misbehaving child, irritates the heck out of him. He knows he’s broadcasting his bad mood on the way back to their camp, but the others don’t comment on it.

He sleeps fitfully. He can’t stop thinking about Tony and how he ended up on Tolsar, as King no less, feeling that he couldn’t go back to Earth. He dreams about Thor and the destruction of Asgard, or at least the picture his mind has of what Asgard must have looked like.

He wakes before Fury or a messenger comes to get them up. Natasha is up too, and they eat breakfast together in silence. He’s still brooding about Tony, but he doesn’t know what he’d say to her about it. He never really told the others the details of what happened in Siberia. An honest part of him knows he’s afraid of their reactions if they knew what Tony had found out in that bunker, if they knew why, exactly, he’d attacked Steve and Bucky. It wasn’t an excuse for what he’d done, but still.

Natasha had known about Bucky, too, but she was under the impression Steve had already told Tony about it, long before Siberia. He feels dishonest for never having told her about it, but the longer he stayed silent, the harder it was to ever feel that the time was right to confess to Natasha why things had gone so horribly wrong in Siberia.

Sam joins them partway through breakfast, and Clint only shows up when one of Fury’s people comes to tell them they’re expected back at command. Clint looks bad, dark shadows beneath his eyes like he hasn’t slept, and Steve’s heart goes out to him. He can’t imagine what it’s like to be forced to be near and play nice with Loki, after what he did to him. “Not himself” or not, it was still Loki who’d brainwashed Clint, forced him to hurt people he loved, kill people he worked with and innocents alike.

They make their way back to command, but the conversations they’re expected to be involved in don’t take much time. They spend most of the morning standing around awkwardly, trying not to be in the way of the US military and Tolsarans that are moving back and forth, planning and conversing and mostly ignoring the Avengers in the room.

After asking Fury about what more they could be doing, they end up bringing messages back and forth between parts of the command center. Maybe not the kind of task Steve was hoping for, but at least it’s something to do other than stand around and feel useless.

They’ve been split up and running back and forth for an hour as messengers when there’s a commotion outside the room Steve and Sam are standing in. When he hears shouts from the hallway, Steve rushes out the door, and stops in his tracks.

The Tolsaran Queen is standing in the hall, pinning Clint against the wall with one hand. Spikes of what looks like the floor and walls themselves are sticking up around her, also keeping Clint in place, and there’s an unnatural wind blowing through the hallway. Loki is standing just behind her, eyebrows raised and watching them carefully. Several human diplomats and soldiers are skidding to a halt a safe distance from them, watching with wide eyes, but none are attempting to interfere. Steve starts to move forward, to tell her to let Clint go, but Fury, who’s just appeared next to him, throws out an arm to stop him.

“What happened?” Fury’s voice echoes down the hallway authoritatively. The Queen glances once in his direction, then leans in to say something Steve can’t hear to Clint. She steps back, the wind in the hall dies, and the spikes retract, settling back into the floor and walls smoothly like they were never there. Clint just stands still, pressed back into the wall and breathing heavily.

The Queen turns to Fury, expression neutral but eyes blazing. “If any of your people attacks one of my advisors again, I’ll kill them. We came here to work with you, not to face hostility. Is that clear?”

Fury just nods grimly. The Queen turns and gives one last scathing look to Clint, then strides down the hallway away from them and back to one of the other rooms. Without looking around at any of them, Loki follows her.

The humans in the hall are still standing frozen, shocked by the display, but Fury breaks the stillness when he moves. He stomps forward to where Clint is still standing against the wall, seizes his upper arm none too gently, and drags him back down the hallway. Steve opens his mouth as they go by, ready to protest, but Fury silences him with a deadly look before he can even speak. “I’d suggest you get back to your work,” he snarls at Steve, then continues marching Clint down the hall.

The people in the hallway are beginning to disperse, shaking their heads and going back to their work. Steve turns back to the room he came from, and notices that Sam is standing behind him, looking like he’d rather be just about anywhere else. “Come on,” Steve says, nodding in the direction of their room, where people are already regathering and getting back to their planning. As Sam pulls open the door for Steve, they hear Fury’s voice echoing down the hall as he bellows from another room. Steve grimaces and ducks back into the room.

The mood between Steve and Sam is somber, but he notices with slight irritation that none of the rest of the room seems so affected by what just happened. He tries to remind himself that they don’t know Clint, not personally, and they’re busy with their invasion prep, which is certainly the priority right now. Still, witnessing that kind of threat seems like it should warrant some anger from them. To threaten to kill someone like that, particularly for attacking Loki of all people, after what he’s done, seems completely unreasonable to Steve.

Natasha comes back into the room after another fifteen minutes or so to deliver some paperwork. She approaches them with a serious expression. “What happened?” she demands before either of them can say anything. Steve tells her everything he knows, and she shakes her head. “Idiot,” she says quietly, then mumbles a sentence in Russian.

The three of them are standing in an uncomfortable silence when Fury comes back in the room. His expression is living up to his name. He glares as he approaches them. “Shouldn’t you be doing something?” he growls.

“What’s happening to Clint?” Steve asks, despite Fury glaring daggers at him.

“He’s going down to Texas. Just because he’s a moron doesn’t mean we’re not going to use him in the invasion, but obviously he can’t handle being around here. We still need people at every command center, he can be useful down there. We’re sending the Keener kid back up here instead.”

“Look—” Steve begins, but Fury holds up a hand and he falls silent.

“I don’t give a shit, whatever you’re about to say, Captain. Barton made an ass of himself and he’s lucky he’s not dead. He’s lucky the Queen didn’t decide to drop all our asses thanks to his little stunt, though I doubt she’d be that petty, not now when they’re already here. But that doesn’t mean the rest of you aren’t on thin fucking ice, here. So for god’s sake, shut up and do what you’re told.”

They follow his advice, shutting up and doing as they’re told. Steve keeps his head down for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon, still acting as a messenger boy all day. He goes in and out of the room where the Tolsaran royals and their advisors are working several times, but doesn’t do more than deliver his messages or papers and leave again. He tries to catch Tony’s eye, unable to help it, but Tony ignores him.

It’s early afternoon when the Keener kid returns to their building. They don’t go outside to greet him this time, instead leaving him to come back in on his own. He comes back with little fanfare, shaking hands with Fury and going off into a corner for a quick discussion, but they’re all distracted when Tony comes back into the room with two of his advisors and stops at the sight of the kid. “Harley?”

The kid turns and gives him a bright smile. “Hey, Tony. That’s quite the look you’ve got going.” He’s the first person to really address Tony like Tony, not pretend he doesn’t even know him like everyone else seems to be doing, and for a second it seems strange to Steve.

Tony blinks and then smiles back broadly. “Same to you, kid, is that yours out there?” He inclines his head in the direction of the courtyard where Keener left his suit.

“Yeah,” Keener says, perking up and walking over to start rapidly discoursing on his suit. Tony puts a hand on his shoulder and gives him a fond smile, and the expression hurts something inside Steve, just a little. With the way Tony’s been completely ignoring Steve and most of the others on Earth that he knows so far, it’s painful to see him finally find someone who’s apparently worthy of his attention and emotions.

The two leave to go and talk about Keener’s suit, smiling and talking like old friends, despite everything that’s happened and how much time has passed. Steve identifies one of the emotions swirling in him as jealousy. He doesn’t have long to think about it before Fury is piling more work on him, which he suspects is deliberate. It must have been obvious, the way he was watching Tony, that he was thinking about trying to approach him.

Fury keeps him busy for the rest of the afternoon and evening, occasionally sending him out on tasks—sometimes pointless ones—that just happen to keep him away from most of the Tolsarans, specifically the royals. But near the end of the day, Fury is called away to the airport to have some sort of meeting on one of the Tolsaran ships, and Steve and his team are essentially left alone.

It doesn’t take long for Steve to find himself walking the building, looking for Tony. Whatever Fury seems to think, talking to Tony isn’t going to be the end of the world, and Steve needs to have a conversation with him. To ask him any of the hundred questions he has, to talk about what happened six years ago, to just see him and talk to him face to face.

He finds him outside in one of the courtyards, finishing up a conversation with Keener. Several of his advisors are flitting back and forth, exchanging a few words or bringing devices back and forth with holographic displays, which Tony taps, or changes, or just scans his hand on. Steve isn’t sure what exactly they’re for. Tony seems to be managing five or six conversations at once, though most of his focus is on the kid. Steve hovers at the edge of the courtyard and the Tolsarans coming in and out brush past him, ignoring him. Tony and Harley don’t seem to see him.

After a few minutes, their conversation stops and Harley runs off through another door, leaving Tony standing alone, save for the few Tolsarans occasionally coming in and out. Seeing his chance, Steve steps forward. He tries to walk with purpose and confidence, but he’s nervous and he knows it. He stops a few feet from Tony, unsure what to say.

Tony turns to exchange a few words with an advisor and catches sight of Steve. Once again, he gives no indication that Steve’s presence elicits any sort of emotional reaction from him. When he’s done talking and the advisor leaves, Tony just stares at Steve, one eyebrow raised expectantly.

Steve feels stuck, frozen, not sure what to say or where to start. While he’s standing there, trying to make his mouth work, another advisor comes up. Tony turns and briefly scrawls something onto a sort of tablet they hold out, then says something to them in another language. They respond with some kind of alien sounds and leave as Tony nods, then turns to Steve again. “Are you just going to stand there? If you need something, get to it, because you’re not my kind of décor.”

The statement is so Tony that it breaks Steve out of his trance. “Tony,” he manages, “I—it’s good to see you.”

Tony gives him a blank look. Up this close to him, finally, Steve notices that he looks better than he did six years ago—less tired, fewer deep lines carved by stress into his face. The thought hurts Steve, that despite being responsible for an entire planet, Tony’s somehow less stressed in this new position than on Earth. The sun, low in the sky now, shines off the delicate silver crown wrapped around his head, matching the embroidery on the clothes he’s wearing. He’s traded the ceremonial outfit from yesterday for something simpler, but it’s made of the same alien material, colors that shift on their own, silver embroidery changing its own patterns continually along the edges. The aura he gives off up this close is so… otherworldly, so regal and somehow beyond human, that it distracts Steve, enough that he almost misses when Tony speaks again.

“That’s interesting. I’d have thought my showing up here would be more of an… unpleasant surprise for you. It certainly was for Fury, don’t think I didn’t see the look on his face.”

“Fury’s…” Steve starts, but trails off, not sure what to say to that. Steve was glad to see Tony, but he’s pretty sure he was alone in that respect yesterday. It had definitely thrown a wrench in Fury’s plans, killed some of his expectations about how it was going to go with the Tolsarans, and Fury clearly wasn’t happy about it.

“Save it. I don’t really care what any of you think of it. What do you want?”

Steve’s gut twists at the hostility in his tone, on top of his still carefully neutral expression. “How… how did you end up on Tolsar?” he asks, hoping to open up a discussion, work toward asking about what Thor had told him.

Tony tilts his head almost imperceptibly. “Amilie brought me, after she rescued me. Stopped to offer passage to Rhodey too, and then we took off.”

“Rescued you—?”

The look in Tony’s eyes becomes distinctly frostier. “From Siberia, what did you think?”

Steve steps back at that, a shocked noise escaping him, but the surprise is eclipsed a second later by irritation. “That’s pretty dramatic,” he says coldly. Had he been on Tolsar all this time, telling everyone he had to be “rescued” from Earth after their fight, the fight Tony started?

Tony gives him a cold smile in return. “Of course, I’m sure you intended for me to go out nice and quiet. If it’s any consolation, I didn’t really make the choice. I was long since unconscious when Amilie showed up. If she’d been an hour later, I’d have been dead already. By the time I woke up, we were already back on Tolsar.”

That kills the irritation Steve had building. “What do you mean, you’d have been dead? You weren’t hurt that badly.” He feels a pit growing in his stomach, even as he says it, mentally reviewing what he remembers of Tony after the fight. He can’t really have been badly injured. Steve needs it to not be true.

Tony laughs humorlessly. “You beat my face in with your super strength. You smashed that vibranium frisbee through the arc reactor and guess what? My chest was under there, was being the operative word. I didn’t have many intact ribs left after that. Then you left me there in a dead suit that I couldn’t get out of, in sub-zero temperatures. What exactly were you expecting?”

Steve recoils at the description. “You—you were moving, talking, when we left,” he says, and his voice is smaller than he wants it to be.

“Amazing what adrenaline will do for pain. And I moved with the reserve power in the suit after the reactor went. Gives me a few seconds to get out and get a new one, and I wasted it shouting at you, yeah. So I guess it was my fault after all, huh? Glad you could clear that off your conscience.”

Tony’s voice is hard, bitter, and Steve feels a lump forming in his throat at the thought that Tony really thinks he would have wanted that, would have left Tony there injured and unable to move. He ignores the small voice in the back of his mind asking whether he would have gone back, if he’d known, with Bucky injured and Tony’s betrayal so fresh. “So that’s why you stayed away?”

Tony raises an eyebrow again. “After you tried to murder me and half the ‘team’ ran off to become fugitives, dumping all the fallout from their crap onto me? After my best friend was injured, never would have walked under his own power again if not for Tolsar and Amilie’s abilities? After Amilie, who saved my life, brought me to a planet so far beyond ours that I could learn like never before? Somewhere I was actually respected and valued? Yeah, I stayed.”

The barbs sting, and Steve feels the irritation growing again. Tony always did know how to push his buttons. “So why did you come back? To parade around the fact that you got yourself declared a King, get us all to bow down to you?” he can’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. He hates being looked down on more than anything, and now that Tony’s a King, everyone seems to be treating him like he’s inherently better than everyone else, and Steve can’t stand it. This conversation is going all wrong.

Tony’s eyes narrow. “It might be a difficult concept for you to understand, but I earned this role, and this title. I worked hard on Tolsar to contribute. Even with all the catching up I had to do just to understand their tech, I still managed, and I improved on it. I gave something useful to the planet. I worked hard, and when I was asked to run for King, I was elected, by the people, because they want me as their leader.”

There’s finally real emotion on Tony’s face, a blazing anger. He takes a step back, closing his eyes for a second, and when he opens them again, the anger is replaced by disgust. “I came back because, unlike you, I won’t abandon the whole world just because I had a fight with someone. I won’t leave everyone on the planet to die just because I don’t like a few of them.”

Steve clenches his fists at the accusation. “We didn’t abandon the world. We fought to stay free, so we could protect it.”

Tony laughs again, no more humor in it than the first time. “And that worked out well, huh? Remind me what you were doing for the world the last six years? But I know, I know, you believed in your cause. Believed enough to kill innocent people for it, right?” He fixes Steve with a cruel smile.

Steve’s face falls and he closes his own eyes for a moment. This isn’t how he’d meant for this to go. “Please, Tony, I don’t want to fight with you. I’m glad you’re back, okay? You’re still my friend. I want to fix this.”

Tony shakes his head. “We’re not friends. Never really were, and we never will be again.”

“Tony—” Steve starts, but Tony holds a hand up and interrupts him.

“What did you think was going to happen, that you’d get me alone for a minute, have one conversation, and everything that happened would suddenly disappear? Did you hope we’d kiss and make up and I’d step down from the throne and come back to live on Earth again? The Avengers would get back together and I’d go back to being their doormat? News flash: I don’t want to make up. I have my real friends, I have a new home, new people, a new life. I’m here to help defend the Earth, and then I’m going back to Tolsar, where I belong.”

He takes a step closer to Steve, into his personal space, and Steve flinches back from the hatred in his eyes. “You want to know how it’s really going to go?” Tony says, low and angry. “My people are going to fight Thanos, and then we’re going to leave, and I’m never going to waste my brainpower thinking of you again. And if you die in this fight, I won’t mourn you.”

Steve just stands there with his mouth open, throat and chest tight. Tony turns his back on him, and Steve hears him go back to talking to some of the advisors who have gathered a polite distance away, waiting for Tony to finish his conversation. He speaks to them for a minute, then goes back inside the building, once again ignoring Steve entirely.

Steve stands still, alone, in the courtyard until the sun starts to set. Keener comes back a while later to do some more tinkering with his suit, giving Steve an odd look but otherwise ignoring him. Eventually, Natasha comes looking for him, telling him that Fury’s back and wondering where he is.

He follows her back inside, brushing off her concerns when she tries to ask about what’s wrong with him. Fury isn’t angry with him; apparently no one, not Tony nor any of the advisors who saw them talking, must have told anyone else about their conversation. Steve should be thankful for it, for the fact that he’s spared everyone knowing how horribly that conversation went if nothing else. He’s quiet and distracted for the rest of the day, and when Fury sends them back to their camp, he’s grateful. He gets ready for bed silently, ignoring the curious and concerned looks the others are giving him.

For the second night in a row, he doesn’t sleep well, and he wakes still feeling exhausted. Still upset and cowed by what Tony said to him yesterday, he goes to command that morning with his head down, doing whatever Fury wants without question. Today, he’s actually happy to stay away from Tony.

He’s distracted even from thoughts of Tony by the sudden increase in tension, too. The Tolsaran armies orbiting the planet have been scanning and tracking the approach, and Thanos and his armies are due to arrive tomorrow morning—less than a day left to prepare. The mood is somber. Not having any real control over the situation is making all the humans tense. However grateful they are for Tolsar’s help, it makes them anxious to be depending almost entirely on the Tolsarans to fight this battle.

Steve, Natasha, Sam, and Harley spend most of the day parsing out the last details with the ground teams they’ll be working with. Harley goes back and forth, talking to Tony and making last minute improvements to his suit. He and Steve will be on teams close to D.C., where the source of the planetary shield will be. Natasha and Sam will be working a little farther out, so that evening, they depart to meet their respective teams. Steve shares a lingering hug with both of them; while the Tolsarans seem confident that the planet will be safe, there’s still a battle ahead, sure to be dangerous, and nothing is guaranteed.

Steve lies awake that night thinking of the battle ahead, scenarios running through his head, and eventually forces himself to stop thinking about it, knowing he needs to rest, for once. All his mind can focus on instead, though, is his disastrous conversation with Tony, and the declaration that Tony wants to forget about his old life, that he won’t mourn Steve if he dies.

He just can’t accept that that’s true—however angry Tony is, he can’t hate Steve that much. Steve’s convinced that he didn’t mean it, that he said it in the heat of the moment because the conversation was devolving into insults and barbs hurled back and forth. Steve is partly responsible for that—he got irritated too quickly, let Tony wind him up. If he wants to fix this, he needs to try again but stay calmer, lead with an apology. He finally falls asleep, comforted by the thought.

When he wakes, he feels better than yesterday, despite the low-level nervous fluttering of his stomach regarding the looming invasion. He has a mission, and it gives him focus. Not only do they have a plan for the invasion, but he has a plan in his mind for how to talk to Tony again and make things right between them. Before the invasion begins, before they could possibly die, he needs to fix things.

It’s organized chaos at the command center, a flurry of activity. It’s emptier than before, since the military people have mostly left for the areas they’ll be protecting, except those who will be part of the teams in D.C. surrounding the shield. The increased movement and tension more than make up for the lack of bodies. Steve and Harley have their orders and their plans, and they go about their business on their own, not needing to ask for direction. Steve doesn’t even see Fury until at least an hour after he gets to command, everyone is so busy.

He doesn’t see Tony at all, which worries him. It’s getting closer and closer to invasion time, and he needs a chance to have another conversation before it begins. They all head out in several dozen armored vehicles to an open field outside the city, where the shield will be set up. There’s so much activity that he still can’t catch sight of Tony, even though most of the Tolsarans have already left in their ships, back in orbit for the battle. Steve is being pulled away by the military team he’s working with, ushered into position as the time comes, and he’s getting desperate.

Just as he’s thinking he’s going to miss his chance, he spots Rhodes, near where Steve’s group is gathered and receiving instructions from their general. He slips away and jogs after Rhodes, calling his name, and sees the man turn to look at him. Steve catches up to him with a smile, but it disappears a second later, when he sees the cold look Rhodes is giving him. Heart sinking, Steve wonders if Tony told him about their argument yesterday.

“What do you want, Rogers?” Rhodes grits out, crossing his arms impatiently. Instead of his advisor’s outfit, he’s wearing a skintight black suit accented by glowing green seams. It reminds Steve a bit of the flight suit he wore as War Machine, and he feels a sudden stab of guilt, remembering his conversation with Tony yesterday, and how Tony had said that Rhodes was only walking because of Tolsar’s advancements.

Despite Rhodes’s unfriendly attitude, Steve plows on. These are the last minutes before the invasion begins, and he needs to talk to Tony. “Have you seen Tony? I need to talk to him.”

Rhodes glares. “Of course I’ve seen him, and no, you really don’t need to talk to him. I’m sure you’ve got nothing useful to say to him, and he sure as hell doesn’t have anything to say to you.”

“Look, Rhodes—” Steve starts.

“No, you look,” Rhodes spits out, “since you seem to have a hard time grasping this. None of us want to talk to you. You don’t have anything to say to me or Tony. We are not here for you, you understand? We’re here for everyone else on this planet. Don’t convince yourself this is some kind of olive branch, or favor, or that anything about this situation means you can ever talk to us again.”

Steve recoils at the venom in his voice. “We’re on the same side here.”

Rhodes snorts. “Against Thanos? Yes. In anything else? No. Don’t kid yourself, Captain, you’re a criminal, a traitor, and you’re only here because the world was desperate before we came along. You’re not our friend. You’re a disgraceful piece of shit who left Tony to die, and if I never have to see you again after this, it’ll be too soon.”

Steve opens his mouth to respond, but someone shouts from behind them and they both turn to look. Steve’s breath catches. Tony’s standing there, looking straight at Rhodes and completely ignoring Steve. He’s wearing a suit like Rhodes’s, blue instead of green lines, reminiscent of the arc reactors—Steve internally winces at the comparison, remembering the last arc reactor he saw. He looks so much like the Tony Steve remembers that it hurts—the only thing that would have seemed out of place on Tony six years ago is the silver crown he’s still wearing.

“Shield’s about to go up, we’re ready to go, come on!” Tony says to Rhodes, still ignoring Steve. Rhodes turns without looking at him either and follows Tony. Steve is paralyzed, desperately trying to think of something to say, but before he can, they’re both gone, out of sight behind a group of soldiers. Steve takes one step after them, but then someone grabs his arm; a soldier from his own group, asking where he’d gone and telling him they’re ready to go.

Feeling numb, Steve goes back to join his group. The groups start positioning themselves around the edges of the field, with just three lone figures staying in the middle—Tony, Rhodes, and the Queen. Steve keeps his eyes on them as they fall into position.

“It’s time,” someone says, and Steve hears the words echoed across the field. An eerie silence falls over the field, all of them keyed up, knowing this is it. The invasion is about to start, and so much of their defense is riding on this.

The three figures in the middle of the field—it’s difficult to make them out well from this far away, but he thinks they’re standing in a wide circle—move in tandem for a few seconds, then a bright light erupts between them. For a moment, the light is just a sphere at the center of the field, then it shoots upward into the sky like a solid column. A second later, a blast of air hits Steve and the soldiers where they stand at the edges of the field, like a shockwave from the light.

All of them look upward, tracking the progress of the rising column. After a few seconds, it seems to reach its height limit and begins expanding outward, rapidly covering the whole expanse of sky that they can see. It disappears beyond the visible horizons, but he knows the shield is expanding to cover the whole planet, like promised. They can see it in the sky in the way it shimmers, and how everything on the ground is tinted a little bit blue.

Several of the soldiers on the ground let out celebratory whoops and sounds of awe as the light column retracts upwards, smoothing out the shield above them and presumably finishing it. Steve focuses back down to where the three figures are standing at the center of the field. One is breaking away, heading for a small ship off to one side. It must be the Queen, going to fight Thanos, leaving Tony and Rhodes behind to keep up the shield. Steve had never gotten the chance to ask about how they did that; never gotten to ask most of his questions. The Queen’s ship rises up and a hole opens up in the shield to allow it through, then closes again behind it, and Steve loses sight of it on the other side of the forcefield.

The tense silence settles over the field again. The battle has started above.

It’s harder than Steve would have thought, to be on the ground knowing the battle is raging above, but not knowing what’s going on. They have to be prepared in case the shield falters, but that’s the only way they’ll know anything about the battle. He wishes he was up there, fighting, but he’s forced to wait on the ground.

The minutes drag on into hours and they continue to wait. The soldiers, well disciplined, don’t show any signs of discomfort, and Steve suppresses his as well. But he’s anxious about the battle above, and almost wishing for something to happen, to tell him about how the fight is going, to provide an enemy for him to fight. He wants to prove his worth to the world, show that he’s here to protect them, that they’re not depending entirely on Tolsar to fight their battles for them, they still have heroes standing up for the Earth.

If aliens break through, he’s ready to fight, but for now, he can do nothing but wait.

And wait, and wait.

In the end, the Queen lived up to her word. Steve hears the story secondhand in the aftermath of the invasion. While the Tolsaran armies engaged Thanos’s, she faced the Titan alone, and apparently defeated him with little fanfare. She seemed impervious to the effects of the Infinity Stones he controlled, and with him dead, his soldiers scattered. The Tolsarans suffered few casualties. The shield held up well, not a single one of Thanos’s minions made it through. Earth’s militaries, and the Avengers, weren’t needed.

In the immediate aftermath, things are still confusing enough that Steve and the others are left alone. The rest of his team, and all the other superheroes who were scattered around the country, make their way back to the capitol, celebrations around the world making everything even more chaotic. Even those who’d been out in L.A. arrive in D.C. to give their final thanks to the Tolsarans and find out what’s going to happen going forward. Steve gives warm hugs to Sam, Wanda, Clint, and Natasha as they arrive back in the city, pleasure at seeing them safe momentarily making him forget his resentment over how useless he’d been in the battle.

The Queen takes the Infinity Stones from Thanos’s gauntlet and does something to neutralize them, saying she’ll keep them out of everyone’s hands. Even if it hadn’t been part of their negotiations from the beginning, after how she took Thanos down, no one would have been inclined to disagree with her. Dr. Strange hands over the Time Stone as per their agreement, and it meets the same fate. The stone that’s a part of Vision is left alone after some conversation back and forth and a promise to measure and report its activity occasionally.

The world leaders, with some hesitation, broach the topic of trade agreements or partnership with Tolsar. They’re rejected as kindly as possible. Tony—King Anthony—explains that Earth doesn’t really have anything to offer the planet, that after what Tolsar has already put at stake to help them, he couldn’t justify it to his people.

In the few days after the invasion, Steve tries multiple times to talk to Tony again, but he never manages to get close to him. There’s always someone or something in the way, and Tony’s constantly busy even now that the threat is over.

Despite the celebratory mood around the planet, despite Pepper and Spiderman and Harley showing up to hug Tony tightly and go off for hours-long conversations, Tony keeps his promise. Three days after the invasion, the Tolsarans—Tony and Rhodes included—get back in their ships and leave, with no plans to return. Tony might very well have extended some sort of invitation to his friends, like Pepper or the kids, to come and visit him sometime, but if he did, that’s between them, and no offering of the sort comes Steve’s way.

For the next week or so, the chaos in the aftermath of the invasion continues, military personnel going back to their normal duties, politicians trying to bring budgets and resources that had been spent entirely on the invasion for the last few months back to normal issues. Relief is permeating the whole planet and giving everyone a temporary reprieve from their problems.

But problems always come back. Soon, people start analyzing what happened in the invasion, and asking questions. There are political fires starting all over, but the most concerning one for Steve and his team is the growing public disapproval of their “temporary” pardons. When they’d been issued, with the stipulation that their contributions would be considered after the invasion was over, Steve hadn’t imagined this. He’d thought they would either fight the invasion off and be considered heroes again, or die trying.

Instead, the growing public opinion is that pardoning international criminals turned out to be pointless, and that they did nothing in the invasion and shouldn’t be escaping justice now for no reason. Under tremendous international social and political pressure, the US caves and sends people to arrest Steve and his team.

They protest, of course, but their arguments fall on deaf ears. Steve doesn’t fight them, still reeling from the sudden turn of public opinion and Tony’s remarks about him killing innocent people for his cause. Wanda, however, fights the officers that come to arrest her. She doesn’t get far, doesn’t even manage to do more than toss a few of them across the room before Vision is on her. Apparently they’d recruited him to help contain her. She ends up with that terrible collar back on her neck like a rabid animal, and they drag her away as she spits insults and threats. Steve, Clint, Sam, and Natasha go quietly, wanting to at least walk out under their own power.

Things get worse when Steve finds out that they won’t be kept in the US, but instead handed over to the countries in which they’d committed their crimes. Steve and Sam, involved in the fight at the apartment building and the tunnel collapse in Bucharest, are extradited to Romania, though Germany also wants their heads. Natasha and Clint go to Germany. Nigeria wants a piece of all of them, particularly Wanda, but they concede to Sokovia’s demands that Wanda be sent back to her home country.

Most of them are caught up in legislation and processing for a while, but Sokovia works faster than Germany or Romania. Steve is still being transferred, his own fate not yet decided, when he finds out that Sokovia already tried and convicted Wanda. They didn’t look kindly on her choosing to work with Ultron, and weren’t convinced that she had changed. With evidence from the Ultron incident and the HYDRA files Steve and Natasha had released to the world—some containing information on the Maximoffs’ experimentation—Sokovia found her guilty of murder, terrorism, torture, and conspiring to commit genocide. They sentenced her to death and the execution was carried out within days. What really makes Steve sick, beyond the thought of what happened to Wanda, is the fact that the world is celebrating it.

Germany convicts Natasha and Clint, and agrees to let Nigeria add their own charges on as well. The Russians unexpectedly bring in some evidence against Natasha, and inspired by their example, other countries start coming out of the woodwork with charges against the spies for some of the work they’d done as SHIELD agents, as well as before that. They receive no defense from their former employers. It seems whatever’s left of SHIELD, just like the rest of the US, has thrown them to the wolves. They’re not sentenced to death, thank god, but the countries agree that they’re too dangerous to be allowed out again, or even to be put into a normal prison with other people, from which they could potentially escape. Their abilities as highly trained spies are well known, and work against them. They’re carted off to separate enhanced prisons, never to see the light of day again.

Romania, appreciative of Germany’s handling of them, does the same for Steve and Sam. This time, both Germany and Nigeria add on their own charges, seeing as Steve and Sam were both present at the airport and in Lagos as well. They receive the same sentence as Clint and Natasha.

Steve tries to figure out how this all went so wrong. Years ago, he’d been so sure that this would all blow over, that it was all happening because of the Accords and Tony’s insistence on letting them be punished and used by governments and people like Ross. But the Accords are gone, new legislation currently in the works for the other superheroes around the world, but nowhere near completion yet. Ross, the main villain in the Accords debacle, is in prison, the same place Steve and his team are headed. Tony has left them behind completely, off on another planet as their King, probably unaware that his former friends are having the rest of their lives taken away. Steve finally has to accept that, even if he knew about their fate, Tony might not care.

Steve is numb, disbelieving, as he’s taken away to go to his prison, where he’ll live out the rest of his days in solitude, in disgrace, forever known for his mistakes instead of any of the good he’s ever done. He’s panting, panicking, as he’s pulled away after the verdict, trying to think of something to say, but no words are forthcoming, and there’s nothing he could possibly say to fix this, anyway. Still, he can’t truly process it, can’t believe that after everything, this is what’s happening to him, to all of them.

This can’t be how it ends.