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After Sam got the shield of old man Steve, he walked back to Bucky. In the background, Bucky saw the old man stand up and walk away. His eyes followed him until he was gone in the distance.
“He still loves you, Bucky,” he heard Sam say.
Bucky looked at his new friend.
“I know.”
They smiled at each other. Bucky sighed and walked away, followed by Sam. They saw Bruce still pushing buttons.
“We have to get him back before he changes the past,” Bruce said, panicked.
“Bruce,” Bucky called him, as he walked over to the friendly green giant. The giant looked at him.
“Please, let him stay there. He is happy now. He won’t do anything stupid,” Bucky begged.
In the meantime, Sam jumped on the teleport-platform with the shield on his arm. He looked around, wondering how this magic could happen.
“How can you be so sure?” Bruce asked, insecure and irritated.
“Because I am,” Bucky reassured.
Bruce shook his head while he looked away and started to push at some buttons again, hoping to get Steve back. Bucky shook his head again, not believing The Hulk could be that stubborn. Suddenly the platform started to shake. Sam looked around while he stood on it, trying to find his balance.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Flashes and sparkles appeared.
“You better get off, Sam!” Bucky panicked.
Before Sam could move to get off the platform, a big explosion happened.
“NO!!”
A deadly silence followed.
“Oh shit…”
***
He opened his eyes and saw a sandy underground. He looked up and saw in a distance a line of soldiers dressed in green cargo pants and plain white shirts, doing push-ups. One of them had a hard time doing them.
“When you brought a ninety-pound asthmatic onto my army base, I let it slide,” he heard a man saying.
Sam hid himself behind a green colored open jeep.
“I thought, what the hell? Maybe he’ll be useful to you, like a gerbil. I never thought you’d pick him.”
He looked from behind the wheel of the jeep and saw a colonel with an older man, walking to the line of soldiers.
“You stick a needle in that kids arm and it’s gonna go right through him,” the colonel said. They both looked at the working line of soldiers, who were doing jumping jacks as a next exercise. “Look at that. He’s making me cry.”
Sam looked at the man he was pointing at. He pinched his eyes to have a better view.
“Steve?” he whispered, amazed.
“I am looking for qualities beyond the physical,” the old man said.
Suddenly Sam felt a hand on his shoulder. In shock, he looked around his shoulder.
“Hey, calm down. It’s me.”
“Buck! What went wrong?” Sam asked, clearly in shock to see him.
“An explosion happened and I jumped at you to protect you from it. And now we are here.”
“Where?”
Bucky looked around.
“A military base.”
“Yes, I can see that, but where?”
“Grenade!” they heard a male voice yelling.
Sam and Bucky hid underneath Cap’s shield. All the soldiers moved away quickly, but Skinny Steve jumped on top of it, covering it with his body.
“Get away! Get back!” he shouted.
He waited for the grenade to go off. Bucky and Sam looked from the shield at Skinny Steve, who still laid on the ground onto the grenade. Nothing happened.
“It was a dummy grenade. All clear. Back in formation,” an officer called out in the background.
“Wait! Did he jump on a…. grenade?” Sam wondered as he lowered the shield.
“What the hell, Stevie?” Bucky whispered, in shock.
Skinny Steve looked at the two old men.
“Is this is a test?” he asked, looking confused.
Bucky sighed irritated.
“Stupid action number one. I wonder what else he is going to do?” Bucky said.
He shook his head.
“Little stubborn punk,” he mumbled.
A blast happened. Sam held up the shield at the moment it happened. He moved his shield down and saw they were inside a wagon with boxed army. Behind him he heard Bucky slightly panting. He looked worried at him.
“Are you okay?”
Bucky shook his head.
“I know what’s going to happen next,” Bucky answered. He looked at Sam. Sam could see the terror in his eyes. “And it’s not good.”
Then the sliding door of the wagon opened. Quickly Sam and Bucky hid underneath the racks in the middle of the wagon. Young Captain America and Young Bucky entered the wagon. Young Bucky closed the sliding door and they walked deeper into the wagon, armed with guns. The future men saw them walking to the next wagon. Young Captain America walked through the corridor into the second wagon. Suddenly the door closed.
A small army of HYDRA agents attacked Young Bucky, while on the side Young Captain America had been attacked by a large trooper with a blaster. Sam and Bucky could only watch how Young Bucky fought against the HYDRA agents and saw the horror on his face when he was out of bullets. Then the corridor opened and Young Captain America threw a loaded gun at his friend. Then the Young Captain ran, shoved a box into the HYDRA agent and Young Bucky shot him down.
“I had him on the ropes.”
“I know you did.”
Then the large trooper appeared again.
“Oh shit,” Bucky whispered as he closed his eyes to prevent watching the scene.
“Get down,” Young Captain America warned as he protected his friend.
The trooped shot a blast. The shield could block it but caused a large hole into the wagon. The blast also launched Young Captain to the other side of the wagon. Young Bucky picked up the shield and fired some bullets at the trooper. The trooper fired and blasted the Young Bucky out of the train.
“Oh my god,” Sam whispered as he watched the event.
Quickly Young Captain stood up, took his shield and threw it to knock out the trooper. He went to the hole of the wagon.
“Bucky!” he yelled as he climbed on the outside.
Carefully Bucky and Sam crawled underneath the racks and sat against it.
“Take my hand!” they heard Young Captain yelling outside.
Bucky was fighting against his tears with his knees against his chest. Sam felt sorry for him as he looked at him. Then a scream of Young Bucky followed and faded out. Bucky hid his face behind his knees and cried. Sam looked up to the hole. He saw a devastated Young Captain crawling back into the wagon. On his hands and knees the young man cried. A moment later he screamed as loud as he could out of pain and sorrow. Sam looked back at Bucky and watched how his body trembled in sorrow as he cried. He laid a hand on his shoulder.
On the moment he did, another flash went off and they fell onto a grass field. Sam and Bucky looked around. They saw a white country cottage with a grey roof.
“Where are we now?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know. But it looks slightly familiar to me,” Bucky answered as he looked around, as he wiped away his tears.
Somewhere in the distance, they heard a gentle female voice.
“Go on, James. Step by step.”
They walked into the direction of the voice. Behind the cottage was a small garden with large, pink hydrangea in each corner. In the left corner was an apple tree with some apples. In the middle of the garden, Sam and Bucky saw a dark haired woman with a dark haired toddler. The toddler fell on his butt into the grass. The woman chuckled.
“That’s okay, sweetheart. Let’s try again.”
She took his little hands into her own hands and helped up the little boy. He stood a little wobbly on his legs when she released his hands. She took two steps backwards.
“Come, James. You can do it,” she said as she crouched through her knees and gestured with her hands to come over.
Sam looked at Bucky as he caught him looking mesmerized at the duo.
“You know them?”
Bucky swallowed.
“She’s my mother and the kid is…. me,” he said softly as a tear rolled down his cheek.
Sam placed a hand on his shoulder as a comfort, as he looked back at the family. Little James took a step forward, followed by another.
“Well done. One more.”
Without any control over his little feet, Little James took three quick steps and fell into his mother’s arms. She lift him up and swirled around.
“You did it, buddy!” she cheered which made the boy laugh out loud. “Let’s have a piece of apple pie to celebrate.”
The men smiled at the happy event as they watched her to go inside while she carried the toddler boy into the cottage.
“Mom could make the best apple pies,” Bucky slightly sobbed.
A flash came again and they were in a new scene.
“Will this ever stop?” Sam asked annoyed.
“I guess our big green friend is trying to get us back without any success,” Bucky speculated as he wiped the tears out of his eyes.
Sam looked around. They were in the middle of a highway in the middle of a desert. The air was dusty and warm. An old car approached, windows were open and three men started yelling at them in language that was unknown for Sam.
“They say we have to leave because tanks are coming,” Bucky translated.
“Ask them where we are and which year this is.”
Bucky asked the men the question in the Arabic language. The men reacted angry as they yelled something back and drove off.
“Well?”
“We are in Afghanistan and in the middle of a war,” Bucky answered slightly shocked.
This time there was anxiety in Sam’s eyes. He shook his head as he took a few steps backwards. His hands moved over his face as he turned around.
“Sam?”
“We have to get out of here. This place can be blown up any moment.” He looked back at Bucky. “I fought in this war. At this place,” he said frantic.
In the distance, behind Sam, Bucky saw a large convoy of tanks, cars and trucks approaching. On Sam’s turn, he saw another large convoy of cars and trucks behind Bucky. In the air a few F-16’s and other flying objects were flying over.
“Let’s get out of here!!” Sam yelled at Bucky.
Together they ran into the desert. From a distance, Sam saw a transport helicopter coming their way. From that helicopter a group of soldiers jumped out with a parachute. A few landed on the ground and ran in the direction of Sam and Bucky. Some of them started shooting at them. Sam held up the shield and they hid behind it. Bullets hit the vibranium.
“It would be nice if Bruce can bust us out of here!” Bucky said with a hopeful tone in his voice.
In the background a fight between the tanks and other vehicles had started. Sam looked around quickly to find a way to escape. In the sky he saw two people fly by. He pinched his eyes for a better view. They were his younger self with his best friend, Riley.
“Oh shit no,” he whispered.
Looking over his shield he saw the Arabic soldiers looking at the sky and pointing their guns at them. They started shooting at them.
“Nooo!! Riley!!” Sam yelled and started running.
“Sam!” Bucky screamed, chasing him.
Two of the soldier hit one of the flying men. The man lost his balance in the air and started falling down. Sam kept on running to the falling wingman with Bucky behind him.
“Riley!”
“Sam, stop!”
The winged man smashed into the ground. The moment he hit the ground, a flash happened. Right after the flash, Sam ran and fell into a bush and Bucky ran into a tree. Hitting it hard with his face, bounced back and fell on his back. Both men were groaning as they tried to get up.
“Are you okay?” Bucky asked as he rubbed over his forehead, but felt to dizzy to stand up.
“I guess,” Sam answered as he removed some leaves from his face and jacket.
Sam stood up carefully, walked to the curb and took a seat. While Bucky crawled to it, rolled over and sat on the curb. They both were panting slightly for a little while.
“Who’s Riley?” Bucky asked carefully.
Sam sighed.
“My best friend during my time in the Air Force. That moment was the moment….” He swallowed away some tears. “….when we lost him.”
Bucky’s face turned into grief. He placed a hand on Sam’s shoulder. Sam looked at him.
“I’m sorry,” Bucky apologized. “Please remember I am here for you.”
A little smile came on Sam’s lips, tears welled up in his eyes.
“I am with you now. Till the end of the line.”
Sam smiled bigger and gave him a hug. Bucky hugged him back. Suddenly a water balloon hit Sam, on the side of his head. With a grunt he grabbed his head and fell backwards on the sidewalk.
“What the…” he moaned in pain.
Bucky looked up and saw a young boy, brown hair and blue eyes. He had a slingshot in his hand, ready to fire another water balloon.
“Don’t worry, uncle Bucky. I have him!” the boy said.
“Uncle Bucky?” Bucky asked softly and confused.
“James Anthony Rogers!”
The men and boy looked up at the direction of the voice. They saw Steve standing there, with a little girl in his arms.
“Hey dad. I have it under control,” James said as his father walked up to them.
Steve stopped in front of the little boy and released a sigh.
“Remember the stories I’ve told you about The Falcon?”
“Yes, dad,” the boy said with a big smile.
Steve pointed at Sam, while Sam sat up with the help of Bucky. The boy looked at him, back to his father and back again to Sam. Sam and Bucky looked at the boy. He lowered his slingshot. Once again he looked at his father. Steve nodded.
“Oh,” is the only thing the boy could say.
“So?” Steve remarked as he cocked his head to Sam.
The little boy looked at him. He released a sigh.
“I’m sorry, mister Falcon, sir,” the boy apologized.
Sam smiled at the boy.
“It’s okay,” he said as he stroked over the boy’s head.
“Good. Now go inside and clean your room.”
“Yes dad,” James said and ran off.
Steve looked at his two friends with a smile.
“Missed me already?” he asked.
“Uncle Bucky?” Bucky asked confused.
“James Anthony?” Sam asked, more confused.
Steve laughed.
“Told him and this princess some stories about us and yes I named him after you and Tony,” he explained as he looked at his little girl on his arms. “And this little lady’s name is Natasha Samantha Rogers.”
The little girl smiled and reached out her little arms to Bucky.
“She wants you to hold her,” Steve said as he wanted to give her to his friend.
“Uhm, not a good idea. Bruce is trying to get you back,” Bucky explained. “An accident happened instead and… well…”
Bucky looked at Sam.
“Here we are. After going back and forth into our own past,” Sam finished.
Steve pulled back his little girl.
“I understand. Why does he want me back?”
“He is scared you will change the past,” Bucky answered. “He’s frantically trying to get you back. I have tried to change his mind, but it didn’t work.”
“I see. If you return, which I hope for you, tell him that I won’t do anything stupid,” Steve said. “The only past I have changed are mine and Peggy’s.” Then Steve became more confused. “And why is Bruce worried about me changing the past? He needs to focus on the present and future.”
Sam nodded his head.
“I totally agree with you! Wait, I have an idea!” He placed the shield on the ground, against his leg. He went with his hand into the pocket of his trousers and took out his phone. “Let me record it, so we can show it to Bruce.”
“Good idea,” Steve agreed.
Sam took his phone in front of him. Bucky looked over his friends shoulder into the screen of the phone with a confused look on his face. Sam looked at Bucky.
“What? Never seen this before?”
Bucky looked at Sam and shook his head.
“Well, you’re now seeing an ugly dude on the screen. But! When I flip it…” he explained as he touched the screen. Now Bucky could see himself with Sam next to him, “…and now I see another ugly dude with a handsome prince.”
“Ah, I see. The prince is the guy with the long hair?” Bucky remarked.
Sam gave him the I-am-going-to-kill-you-look.
“Guys, please,” Steve sighed.
Sam restored the screen, so he could film Steve. During filming, Bucky was looking mesmerized at the screen with his mouth slightly open. While Sam was looking at the screen while filming, he placed a finger underneath Bucky’s chin and pushed it up to close his mouth. But it had no use because after a few seconds his mouth opened slightly again. After a while Steve finished his speech. Behind the phone Sam mouthed “Done?” and he nodded. Sam’s finger went to the screen and touched it. A flash appeared and they were gone. Steve looked around.
“Where did they go?” he asked himself.
“Poof. Gone, daddy,” his little girl said.
Steve chuckled and kissed his girl’s cheek. He turned around and walked back to his home. At the front door he looked at the sky. He smiled before he went inside.
***
He removed the hands from his eyes as the flash disappeared. He looked at the platform and saw Sam and Bucky standing there.
“Finally!” Bruce exclaimed happy.
“Finally indeed, dude! You better step away from that panel!” Sam called out at him as he walked off the platform.
“Did you…” Bruce asked but couldn’t finish his question.
“Ten steps to the side first,” Sam demanded.
“Did you find Steve?” Bruce finished his question as he took the steps aside.
“Yes, we did,” Bucky said as he climbed off the platform.
“But?” Bruce said confused.
Sam showed his phone.
“Let me show you.”
He gave the phone as it played the video recording.
“Hey Bruce, Captain America here. As you can see I am in the past. Sam and Bucky were here and told me you were trying to get me back out of fear for changing the past. Let me tell you this. The only past I have changed so far are Peggy’s and mine.”
Bruce sighed.
“I am happy now. I have now what I have dreamed about,” Steve said as he looked at his girl. He looked back into camera. “Please remember this. You just can’t change the past. The past is over. It is now time for you to focus on the present and the future.”
On the background, Bucky started to smack with the shield into the control panel of the time machine. With each hit he released a grunt. Sparkles, big and small, appeared as he hit the panel.
Bruce looked up as he heard the grunts.
“Hey! Hey!” he yelled and wanted to go to Bucky, but Sam stopped him.
“Dude, listen to this recording! Listen to Steve!” Sam said with an angry tone in his voice. “Let me rewind it and you listen to it carefully!”
He tapped on his phone and showed it to Bruce again.
“The past is over. It is now time for you to focus on the present and the future. The future is in your hands only. Do the things you like. You have found peace with the Hulk now, couldn’t you imagine that six or seven years ago?”
This time Bruce released a sigh and kind of gave in.
“You are a good man, Bruce. Keep that in mind. And who knows, maybe we will meet again in the future.”
Steve nodded in the video and it stopped. Sam moved his phone back in the pocket of his trousers. Bruce nodded.
“I think he’s right,” he admitted.
“Was he ever wrong?” Sam asked, this time gently.
Bruce shook his head. In the background, Bucky was now on the platform smashing at the portals. An explosion happened that blasted Bucky off the platform.
“Buck!” Sam yelled as he ran to him with Bruce behind him.
They crouched next to him. Bucky opened his eyes.
“Where am I?”
“Present day,” Sam told him. “Are you okay?”
“My head hurts,” Bucky answered as he rubbed over the temples of his head with closed eyes.
“Let me take you to my lab. I have some painkillers there,” Bruce offered.
Bucky nodded in acceptance. He reached out an arm and Sam took it. He laid his arm over his neck and helped Bucky standing up. Bucky blinked a few times.
“You okay?” Bruce asked.
“I’m seeing double,” Bucky said, as he swallowed when he felt bile coming up his throat.
“Must be a concussion when you fell off the platform.”
“No, he smacked into a tree while we were being chased by Arabian soldiers,” Sam explained. Bruce looked at them with a weird look on his face. “We’ll explain later. Just, let’s go.”
They started walking. Sam kept Bucky steady as he was wobbly on his legs.
“I’ve got you, Uncle Bucky.” Bucky looked at Sam. Sam smiled at him. “Until the end of the line.”
“Thank you,” Bucky whispered. “Mister Falcon sir,” he then said a little louder.
Both men shared a laugh, leaving Bruce even more confused.