Work Text:
Reader POV
You had been there when Steve got the call from Bruce, who was apparently back from wherever he was hiding, revealing your worst fear imaginable. Thanos was heading for Earth. For Vision, for the Infinity Stone.
There wasn’t time to explain too much once Steve got off the phone. He had you, Nat, and Sam assemble immediately. With Tony now gone into space, it was up to you 3 to find Vision and Wanda. To protect them and the stone before Thanos or anyone else had a chance to get it. Inside you knew what was coming, what you had been running from most of your life, and it was going to cost each of you so much to stop it. It would cost everything and you weren’t ready.
“I found Wanda and Vision. They’ve been holed up in an apartment together in Edinburgh.” Nat’s voice called out while setting the jet on auto-pilot to the location.
“Let’s get there as fast as possible Nat. With Tony gone, they could already be in trouble.” Steve responded, before catching your eye across the back of the jet.
You looked away before he could read the worry in your eyes. You knew you should tell him. You knew you should tell all of them, but the words just wouldn’t come out. Fuck this was a mess.
“Alright, let’s prepare our plan of attack. Y/N, I know you had just been thrown into the team just after the invasion in New York, but Thanos was the one who sent Loki to Earth. We always knew there was a pretty good chance he would come, we just didn’t think it would be so soon…” Steve started to give you the intel, and you pretended like you didn’t know a thing about Thanos, but deep down, you knew exactly who and what Thanos was, and it frightened you to your core.
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After managing to get Wanda and a very wounded Vision to Wakanda, the team, along with T’Challa, began making plans on how to protect and fight whatever was coming for them. You prayed whatever, and wherever Tony and Doctor Strange were, that they would stop Thanos. That he would never reach earth, because if he found you here, everyone was sure to die.
“Y/N, are you okay?” Steve’s voiced called out to you, it was then you realized that everyone was leaving the room, and you had missed the whole conversation.
“I love you.” Was all you could say in response.
You were a damn coward. You still couldn’t tell him the truth. About your past. About who you really were, are… How you knew Thanos, and how you knew that this fight was going to be near impossible. Especially if he had the Infinity Stones at his command.
“Hey now. Don’t start telling me goodbye’s. We’ve still got a long day ahead of us, you need to be strong. I need you to be strong okay?” Steve uttered as he reached your place at the table, bending down to your level in the chair you sat in, grabbing hold of your shaking hands and holding them in his always steady hands.
“I’m not trying to say goodbye. It’s just. It’s just” you stuttered before clearing your voice of the strain in your throat and continuing, “It’s just there may not be time later to tell you, and I need you to know that I love you Steve. No matter what happens. No matter the outcome. I love you, and if the worst happens, know everything I did was to protect you and the team…”
You could tell he was puzzled, but there wasn’t time for him to ask any questions before ships started entering the atmosphere. The sound of explosions echoed as they either hit the Wakandan shield, or planted themselves in the ground just outside of it. The impact shook you and him from your intimate moment. Maybe if there was more time you could have told him the truth. If there was more time, maybe he would have got it out of you, but there wasn’t. This was the fight it all would come down to. Win or lose.
“Time to go Cap, now give me a kiss and let’s go kick some alien ass” You teased, hoping to give him some small light in what was bound to be a very dark day. Even if the outcome was good, a lot of people were still going to die.
You felt Steve stand you up with him and kiss you with everything he had. At least if everything was going to end, you knew he loved you, and that meant more to you than any of the lifetimes you had lived. Now it was time to fight, and fight hard. You’d be damned if you had to watch Steve lose anything else in his lifetime.
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This was it. The moment you had been dreading for centuries. Thanos had arrived and was quickly making his way through all of your friends to get to Vision. Vision, who was begging Wanda to destroy the stone. That they were out of time, and that he was ready to sacrifice himself. You could see Wanda breaking down at realizing there was no other way but to destroy the man she loved.
You were hiding in the tree’s, watching the scenes unfold in front of you when Steve rushed towards Thanos, no doubt going to try and stop him. You screamed out as you watched Steve use all of his Super Strength to stop Thanos’s hand that wore the glove, housing all the Infinity Stones but one. The Mind Stone. The one Wanda was currently trying to destroy out of Vision’s head with her powers.
“NO STEVE!” You cried out, running from your hiding spot in the forrest to out in the open. You knew you had to stop hiding. If anyone had a chance at stoping Thanos, it was you. You were special. Special like none of them ever knew, but they were about to.
You watched as Steve got smacked down to the ground. Hard. By Thanos. Who was no doubt surprised at the strength this human man had to try and stop him. Then he stopped in his tracks when you knew he had noticed you. You, who was standing out in front of him, with a determined look on your face to stop him from reaching Wanda and Vision.
“Well, Well… I didn’t expect to find you here, out of all places in the universe you could have been. What a day this has turned out to be.” Thanos declared, out loud for everyone to hear, with a stomach-turning tone in his voice.
“I’ve been hiding for a long time. Not anymore.” You stood your ground against him. Your voice intense with utter distain for the man who you had only known to destroy everything in your whole existence.
“Y/N…?” Steve’s pained voice tried to call out to you, as he tried to bring himself up off the ground to look at the scene playing out before him, the scene between you and Thanos.
“Y/N? Is that the name you gave yourself after running away from me?” Thanos laughed mockingly, only making you burn inside with more rage than you thought possible.
“What the hell is he talking about Y/N? You know Thanos?” Bruce called out from the place in the rock, where he was permanently stuck for the time being.
Your mind was racing. You knew there wasn’t much time, but you hoped you would stall Thanos long enough for Wanda to finish the job she needed to do. You didn’t want any of them to lose anymore today. Your guilt for the destruction around you was eating at you slowly. You could have prevented this eons ago if you had just killed Thanos all those centuries before. Instead, you chose the easy way out by just going into hiding. Now it was too late.
“You mean they don’t know who you truly are?” Thanos questioned you smugly, looking right into the core of you before finishing his sentence with the one word that you were so ashamed of, “ Daughter…”
Silence hung in the air for a split second before you yelled back,
“I am not your daughter!” Your voice called out in fury at him, loud enough for everyone to hear. He had wounded you in ways that only you and him would know. You were never his Daughter, and the thought of you ever calling him Father in the past made you want to gag right then and there with disgust.
“Daughter… What…? Y/N. Tell me that isn’t true…” Steve begged you to tell him. No doubt breaking from within himself at your betrayal. But before you could speak, Thanos started to tell Steve your story. The story you should have told him. The story he should have heard from your lips, not this monsters.
“You love her. How sad, since she didn’t even bother to tell you who she truly is. I took her in as a small child, centuries ago. Before you, before even your ancestors existed. I trained her, made her who she is, and then she betrayed me. She attacked me while I wasn’t expecting it, almost killing me before disappearing without a trace. She destroys and betrays. That’s who she is. That’s who I made her to be, and now, unknowingly has betrayed all of you.”
Tears sprung from your eyes as you looked at Steve who’s face fell in anguish at learning who you truly were. You felt your heart shattering to pieces at the thought of losing him, but you always knew there was a chance he wouldn’t forgive you for not telling him the truth. It was a risk you chose to take, and now you were paying for it.
You called out to Steve and his eyes looked up from the ground and locked into your eyes that were filled with pain. “Remember that I love you.” You said to him, crying as you broke your gaze from his and ran towards Thanos. Thanos who met your gaze and smiled a sickening smile as he ran to meet you at the distance you were running from. As the collision of his fist, met the block of your right arm, you stopped him dead in his tracks, much to everyone’s shock as you heard them gasp.
You remember telling the team when you joined, that you were “enhanced”. You described it being very much like the Super Soldier that Steve was made into. Super strength, fast agility, and a sped up immune system. But what you didn’t tell them was that you hid many other alien abilities not known of this world. All thanks to Thanos. He had altered your natural state of being, something he had a history of doing to others more than just you. You looked human, acted human, but not at all human. It’s what kept you alive for centuries, you were closer to a God-like-being than human.
You were supposed to be stronger than Thanos, thanks to his “alterations”, but with the Infinity Stones by his side, even you were at a disadvantage. Even with your abilities, you knew you couldn’t hold him off for long.
Your strength wavered, and you dropped your block against him before aiming for his feet to knock him down. Thanos stopped you mid-kick with the power of the Infinity Stones, forcing your body to go straight and rigid in his illusion grasp.
Your body lit up in a gold halo glow around you. It had only happened once before. Years ago, right before you ran away from Thanos. It was your full power coming to life, fighting to protect you. You knew what would happen if you released the power. You had spent years and years trying to discover what you were before you were taken by Thanos. You knew what had happen to others who held powers like yours… Maybe sacrificing yourself was the only way. You could hear the loud, obvious gasps coming from those you called your friends, who were no doubt in shock at realizing you had so much more power than they ever knew. You noticed from the corner of your eye, that Steve stared at you in awe and hurt.
“Let her go!” Steve yelled out in emotional pain, making your heart ache even more at what you knew was coming. You had made your decision.
“I love you…” You managed to stay as you fought against the hold of the stones, to be able to turn your head just enough to make eye contact with him. One last time. You wanted to see him one last time. You took him in, and like breathing air, you felt peace.
“No…!”
Steve was the last thing you heard as you screamed, letting your power engulf you whole before unleashing the force at Thanos, who you could see was taken by surprise at the attack. His hold on you vanished, and you fell to the hard ground, seeing Thor come at Thanos with his new weapon. It was the last thing you witnessed before the life in you went out.
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Steve’s POV
“Did you have any idea?” Nat asked. He could tell she wasn’t trying to accuse him of anything, she just wanted to know.
“No. She didn’t tell me anything.” He answered plainly, not knowing if he had enough energy to give a more emotional reply.
Nat enclosed him in a hug, which he didn’t reciprocate. He had lost a lot in life. Time, Peggy, Bucky, SHEILD… And now he had to add you to the list. He didn’t want to. He had survived so many things, but he didn’t know how to survive this. The loss of you. Instead he sobbed into Nat’s shoulder at the thought of you never coming back.
“I’m so sorry Steve… I know it doesn’t ease the pain, but she died protecting you, protecting us, and everyone she could. Y/N knew what she was doing. She was protecting what she loved.” Nat tried to console Steve, ignoring her usual instincts to just “not feel anything”.
“I wish I could have told her that it didn’t matter if she had lied to me. To all of us. I wish I would have told her that I loved her no matter who or what she was.” He whimpered back in response. Each sob wrecking his entire body.
“She knew Steve. She knew that you loved her.” Nat tried to assure him.
“No. She knew I loved her before. Not after. She didn’t know. I didn’t tell her.” Steve said back with so much guilt in his voice.
“Maybe T’Challa and the Princess can do something? Their technology?” She tried to tell him in some sort of small hope.
“I already asked. They told me, even with their advances, they can’t bring her back. She’s gone. She’s gone.” Steve told her as he backed away from her embrace. The world felt cold now, in a way he never thought possible. It topped how he felt when he came up from the ice and he never thought he would feel coldness worse than that. He was wrong. This was a thousand times worse. He would have rather been back in the ice than feel this.
It was then, that the rest of the team joined the both of them in the living area that guests of the King shared during their stay. Bruce. Tony. Thor. Wanda. Sam. Clint. Bucky. Even looking at all of them hurt. Because all Steve could see was that you were missing among them. There was a permeant hole that could never be filled by anyone else.
“We’re here for you Steve. Whatever you need.” Bucky said softly, patting Steve’s shoulder as a sign of moral support. It usually cheered him up a little, but not this time. The only thing, the only person who could do that, was dead.
———————
“Shuri! What’s going on?” T’Challa asked as he hurried down the hallways to the medical room his Sister called him from.
“It’s Y/N. W’re picking up lifeline signals! Small, but they’re there. Should I call Captain Rogers?” Shuri informed her brother over the electronic bracelet they both shared.
“No. I don’t want to give any of them hope when we aren’t sure what’s happening. Keep this quiet, I’m on my way down there.” T’Challa responded back, rushing by the room that the rest of the Avengers were currently socializing in, hoping they were all too busy to see him go by.
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Reader POV
You watched the stars explode in your view. You felt like you were floating among thousands of universe’s. Your body was light, like you weighed nothing at all. Your mind filled with euphoria as you imagined Steve’s warm body embracing you. You hoped he was safe now. That they were all safe from Thanos, and that you had bought enough time for Wanda or for Thor who made a strike at Thanos before you died.
“You carry many emotions for your friends. For Steven Rogers. Did you make the right choice?” A voice in the void spoke to you. The voice was soft and distant. You couldn’t say if it was a man or a woman that spoke to you.
“I would die a thousand times over to keep them safe. I only regret not being honest with them. Who are you?” You called back out to the universe. There had always been many different stories about what lied in the after-life, but you never knew which story to believe, so you were unsure of what to think about the situation you found yourself in now.
“I am not a who, but a what.”
Confusion hit you at the reply to your question. Not a who? A what?…
“I am the Soul Stone. Your sacrifice has placed you in my grasp. Your mind and soul lives my being.”
The Soul Stone… You were trapped in the one of the Infinity Stones…
“Why did you take me? Why did my sacrifice bring me to you?” You asked, shocked at what you were being told. How the hell does someone get stuck in the Soul Stone. Why couldn’t you have just died like you intended?
“You would have preferred to die? Are you sure?” The stone’s voice questioned you in the same soft, neutral tone.
“Being stuck in here I still have to live. I have to live without them. Without him. To me, that’s worse than dying.” You answered honestly. You suspected most beings would have been grateful to live endlessly in the universe, but not you. You just wanted to rest.
“What if I told you I took you to give you a second chance? Would that interest you?”
Now that. That was a very intriguing question. One that captured your attention and made you laser focus on the prospect of a second chance. Deep down, you knew that this could all be a trick, but you believe it could be true. You would get to go back to Steve.
“What if he doesn’t forgive you for your betrayal? Would you still risk going back and having him hate you?”
The stone had a strong argument there… What if he couldn’t forgive you for lying to him? What if they hadn’t won? Was he even alive? So many unknowns. So many factors to sway your mind in different directions. Should you risk going back when you didn’t even know what you were stepping back into? Could you go back to a world that everyone knew you didn’t belong to? Could you even look at yourself after all you had done? If you stayed in the Soul Stone, you wouldn’t have to worry about starting over. You wouldn’t have to face being heartbroken if everyone you held close to you, decided to turn away from you.
“I ask you again. Would you take a second chance if I gave it to you?” The stone asked, breaking the million scenarios going on in your head.
“Yes.” You answered as a bright yellow light consumed you for what felt like forever, floating in the unknown until you could have sworn you heard someone say, “we’re picking up lifeline signals! Small, but they’re there”, as if they were right beside you. Everything was dark now, no bright light, no Soul Stone talking to you, maybe this finally was what death felt like, then you felt a jolt hit your body causing you to scream out in pain before losing consciousness.
———————
“Millions of particles passing through me, and I know there’s a meaning. I feel it. I swear.
I can’t see the future, but I know it’s there. Fall on me, with all your light."