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"Steve?" Peggy gasped, her eyes wide as saucers as Rogers stepped inside her office. "What... What the hell are you doing here?! How..?"
"Hey, Pegs." Steve said, a faint blush on his cheeks. "I... I guess it's been a while."
"A while?!" Peggy exclaimed, lurching to her feet, eyes narrowing as her hand hovered near her weapon. "It's been less than a week! Search and Rescue haven't even found the wreckage yet! How the hell are you here?!"
Steve took a faltering step back, his eyes filling with alarm even as he raised his hands, palms outward. "I, uh... I can explain. Damn, I thought I'd timed that better." He muttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Peggy demanded, drawing her weapon, but not yet aiming it. "What did you say? Never mind. Who the hell are you? And don't say Steve Rogers because that's impossible. He crashed a plane into the Arctic ocean. Even if he survived, there's no way you could've made it back here so fast without anyone knowing about it. So you have 30 seconds to tell me who you are and what the hell you're doing here."
"I... really, Peggy, it's me, Steve. I can explain, but it's a long story and... do you mind if I sit? This will take a while." Steve said, even as he slid into a chair, not waiting for an answer. "It's gonna sound a little crazy... but, please, just hear me out."
"Fine." Peggy snapped, her grip tightening on her weapon. "Start talking."
***
"You're telling me that Howard's kid sacrificed himself for the Universe and you.. what, exactly? Returned these magical stones and then just decided to come here?" Peggy asked, her voice stern.
Steve shrugged, a faint blush on his cheeks while tension surged in him. "I never really belonged in that future Pegs... I always felt wrong the whole time I was there and, well, we never got to have that dance." He said, flashing her a tentative smile.
Peggy narrowed her eyes briefly, but otherwise didn't react. "I see. I have something I need to take care of. Wait here and we can go somewhere to talk." She said, moving to the door of her office. "Oh, one more thing. Has anyone else seen you?"
"No." Steve shook his head. "I was careful. No one saw me, I learned a lot about blending in and not being noticed from someone in the future."
"Good. Let's keep it that way."
***
An hour later, Steve was sitting in Peggy's living room. Her house was in a forest near the Appalachians. It had a long driveway and was surrounded by a thick forest. Peggy had gone to the kitchen to make coffee for them, so he was just keeping himself occupied by taking in the various knick-knacks and paintings that decorated the room.
More time passed and a feeling of unease made its way up Steve's spine. He frowned, feeling concerned and got to his feet, wondering what could be taking Peggy so long to return from the kitchen. He was about to enter the other room, when the air pressure in the living room changed and the hair on Steve's arms stood at attention. Alarmed, the soldier spun on his heel, body tensing as he prepared to face whatever threat might be causing his disquiet.
But he wasn't fast enough. Golden rope latched onto his wrists and ankles, tight enough that it made him lose his balance and he pitched forward, letting out a scream of terror when a black portal appeared beneath him and he fell into it.
He landed hard on his side and blinked the shock from his eyes enough to realize he was no longer in Peggy's living room. Not that knowing that helped much. He didn't recognize anything he could see, in fact, much of what he could see didn't make much sense, unless he'd been dropped into some sort of museum. He struggled a bit and managed to sit up, but the ropes binding him were much too tight to allow him to get to his feet.
"You are the most arrogant, self-centered man I have ever had the displeasure of meeting, Mr. Rogers." A curt, yet cultured female voice said from somewhere behind him. "How you could carelessly risk destroying an entire universe with your selfish actions? You risk the deaths of billions, and have allowed the one man capable of saving that same universe to sacrifice his life for it without any remorse or a smidge of gratitude. As if that wasn't deplorable enough, you disregard his sacrifice and have jeopardized every soul's existence, simply because you feel owed."
"Who are you? What are you talking about? Where's Peggy? What have you done with her?! Whatever you're planning, I'll stop you!"
"Your days of making threats are over, Mister Rogers." The woman said, coldly as a pair of slippered feet appeared in his line of sight.
His gaze traveled up the strange robes the woman wore until he was staring into the coldest eyes he'd ever seen. It wasn't so much her words that made his mouth go dry, but the intensity of her gaze made him tense, by primal instinct alone, that the bald woman above him was far older and far more powerful than he felt comfortable being at the mercy of.
"I haven't done anything wrong! I don't know who you are, but you're making a mistake! You need to let me go."
The woman scoffed and golden light surged from her hands, the tendrils wrapping around him to pull him upright and dump him unceremoniously into a chair.
"I'll be doing no such thing, Mr. Rogers. And if you haven't already worked it out, I know exactly who you are."
"You won't get away with this, whoever you are! What have you done to Peggy?!"
The woman rolled her eyes and said nothing, watching him as though he were a bug on the bottom of her shoe. He was about to demand she release him again, when the click of heels on the floor made him pause.
"I cannot believe how selfish you've become Steve." Peggy's cool voice addressed him, her tone making his blood run cold.
"Pegs? Peggy... what?" Steve stammered, Peggy's cold glare even harsher than that of the bald woman. "What's going on?"
Peggy came to a stop less than five feet in front of him. Her arms were crossed over her chest and she was glaring at him as though he were an enemy. Worse, that the very sight of him made her ill.
"What's going on?" She scoffed, disgusted. "You really believe I wouldn't notice how different you are? That you could pretend you were the same Steve Rogers who crashed a plane in the ocean? I knew you were naive and stubborn, but I never would've thought you took me for a fool."
"I didn't! I... I don't! I never thought that Pegs, never! You have to believe me!"
"Stop calling me that." Peggy snapped. "It's Agent Carter to you."
"But..." Steve cut off when the bald woman cleared her throat and he watched as the two of them shared a look before the strange woman gave a curt nod and disappeared through a doorway, leaving him alone with Peggy.
"You're not the Steve Rogers I knew. What I don't know, is how the Steve I knew turned into the most arrogant, selfish, self-righteous asshole that you are now. Or how you expected me to react when I learned the truth about you! Or that you seem to have assumed I wouldn't even notice!"
"I wasn't going to keep it a secret, Peggy."
"You have no right to call me that! What the hell is wrong with you?! We never dated, we never even danced together! We barely saw each other outside of work! What kind of sick fantasy have you made up in that simple mind of yours?! That I would fall into your arms and we'd live happily ever after?! I didn't bust my ass laying the foundation for SHIELD just to ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after, popping out babies with you. I worked damn hard to get where I am now. I'm not about to give it up now." Peggy snapped, slamming her hands on the arms of his chair. "But did you really believe that I wouldn't care that you risked the integrity of the entire universe just to satisfy your selfish desires?! That you spit on the sacrifice of Howard's son?! If I hadn't seen what you did with my own eyes, I'd think you were a Hydra spy, because I don't have any other rational explanation for what you've done!"
"What do you mean, you've seen it?" Rogers asked, seemingly unfazed by the other accusations she threw at him.
Peggy sneered, her face twisting with disgust. "That's what you care about? I accuse you of being Hydra and you're not even going to deny it?"
"I'm not Hydra, Pegs." Steve insisted. "I know you're upset, but you know me. I would never be part of something so evil."
"But you have no problem acting as selfish and self-serving as they do."
"I saved the world! I sacrificed everything and no one cared!" Steve shouted, his face going red with his outburst. "I saved Bucky and all anyone cares about is that I broke some stupid laws keeping him safe! And he's not even Bucky anymore! It's not fair!"
Peggy's jaw dropped, her eyes wide with shock or horror, Steve couldn't tell, but he regretted his words as soon as he said them.
"Oh my god." Peggy gasped. "You're insane."
"I'm not! I didn't mean it like that! I'm... no one understood how hard it was... waking up and finding the world, the one I died trying to save had changed so much and yet not for the better... I'm just... I'm tired, Pegs. I don't want to fight anymore, I just want peace."
"Peace?! You don't deserve peace after everything you've done! You are not the man I knew and if this is who you truly are, then I'm glad you went into the ice! I'm happy to have never danced with you. You destroyed a team, killed people, gave a Hydra agent a free pass and spit on Tony's sacrifice. You disgust me Steve, and that is why I brought you here."
"You... what? You... you can't mean that." Steve stammered, his heart aching in his chest at Peggy's harsh words. "Where are we?"
"This is the Sanctum Sanctorum, United Kingdom branch." The bald woman informed him as she reappeared in the room. "I'm surprised you don't know who I am, Mr Rogers."
Steve's gaze caught on hers and his eyes narrowed slightly. "You seem familiar, but... you can't be her. You're too young to be her."
"You would think so." The woman smiled, "but magic is more than just sparks of light and a useful advantage if you're skilled and dedicated."
"But you can't be the Ancient One... you..."
"I'm afraid I can be. But that doesn't matter. You have committed a grievous crime, Steve Rogers. Your decision to come here, to this time, with no objective other than your own selfish needs, doomed you the moment you took your first step into your past. A past that never happened, a relationship that was never meant to be and disregarded a terrorist organization that would doom the planet if you remained here."
"I would never aid Hydra!" Steve retorted. "I'd rather die than help those vile people!"
"Good. Because in order to ensure this event does not repeat itself, I have to remove you from the equation."
Steve frowned. "What do you mean, remove me? What, you're my executioner now? Peggy, please be reasonable. I didn't mean for any of those things I did to happen. It was for Bucky, Pegs. I had to protect him."
"I'm being reasonable in the extreme. I have no interest in you Steve. I can't forgive you for thinking so little of me that you believed I wouldn't care about everything you've done or how selfish you really are. I brought you here so that The Ancient One could deal with you and remove the threat your existence here will cause. We've already discussed it, and I agree that her plan is a better one than I could've hoped for."
"What plan?" Steve demanded. "You can't kill me. You can't erase me from existence either or you threaten the timeline."
"That's where you're wrong, Mr. Rogers." The Ancient One said as she entered the room. "I could quite easily remove you from this timeline. I could send you to any dark dimension with a snap of my fingers, or open a portal to anywhere inhospitable to life that I choose and leave you there. There are innumerable ways to remove you from this time and end the threat your being here brings to this entire timeline to ensure the continuity of events as they were meant to play out. Your ending here and now could be the ending you were always meant to have. The Steve Rogers currently frozen in time is still here and will go on to become you. So no, there is nothing preventing my intervention."
Steve's eyes widened in horror at the woman's threat. Cold seeped through his spine. He had never thought that returning to his past wouldn't work out for him, never dreamed that Peggy might not want him, and in fact, might hate him if she learned the truth of what he'd done. "But... you can't do that..." He stammered, his mouth dry, the faint taste of bile lingering on his tongue. He was going to be sick. "I'm Captain America... I helped save the world. Peggy, please! I didn't mean it! I... I've just been so lonely... Please don't do this. Just... send me back! If you really don't want me, then just send me back! You don't have to... to dispose of me!"
"We're not going to kill you, Steve." Peggy scoffed, distaste clear in her tone. "We're not murderers." Unlike you, Steve heard in her voice.
"I've looked at your timeline, Mr. Rogers." The Ancient One began, settling fluidly into an elegant wing-back chair, her spine remaining rigidly straight, the power lurking behind her eyes crackling in the gaze she leveled him with. "I didn't like what I saw. Even if I were to be merciful and send you back to your time, to the moment after you came here, you still refuse to remain there. Again and again, you return, doing inestimable damage each and every time you come back, destabilizing the timeline even more. Therefore, unfortunately for you, sending you back would solve nothing, especially if I simply sent you back at the time you repeatedly choose to come here."
"I don't understand." Steve frowned, a spike of alarm shooting through him at the look the Ancient One shared with Peggy. "You're saying, I'd try again? You're wrong, I wouldn't do that, I swear I would never do anything like this again! You have my word!"
"Your word holds no value. I've already told you, you do not stop. Ms. Carter and I have discussed it and have come to a decision regarding your fate." The Ancient One continued.
"You have no right to make a decision like that! You're not a god! There's only one god! Peggy, please be reasonable, I haven't done anything wrong!"
"I am the protector of this planet and this timeline Mr. Rogers." The Ancient One said with a glare. "Your meddling threatens the very existence of this universe, which means you are a direct threat to that which I have sworn to protect."
Peggy cleared her throat, the anger in her eyes making Steve flinch away from her. "Pegs?"
"I saw what you did, Steve. I saw how you left Howard's son to die in Siberia, how you killed innocent people to protect your brainwashed friend. How you allowed an admitted Hydra agent who mind raped your entire team to join the Avengers. All that, just so you could justify forgiving Barnes. You didn't care about anyone but yourself, you flaunted your power, killed indiscriminately and thumbed your nose at the entire world! And then, as if that wasn't enough, after Tony sacrificed himself for the entire universe and you had Barnes back, rather than be grateful, you spit on Stark's death, abandoned the friend you literally killed for, just to come here and fuck up some more!"
"I... I..." Steve stammered, his face flushing in shame or embarrassment, Peggy couldn't tell and nor did she care.
"You are not a hero, Steve. But your coming sacrifice WILL mean something. You're going to save the Universe again, only this time, you won't survive to enjoy it."
"Look at me, Mr. Rogers." The Ancient One commanded.
"No, no, you can't..."
"Goodbye Steve." Peggy said, were the last words Steve heard before everything went dark and his mind was engulfed in the most excruciating pain he'd ever felt.
***
Tony gaped at Rogers, stunned at the events that had just unfolded, destroying the prediction Strange had implied would lead to his death. Instead, Rogers had collapsed to the ground, his entire arm a blackened mess. He stared around the battlefield in shocked disbelief, a broken look on his face. Then Barnes was there, holding the Super Soldier as the ashes of their enemies drifted past them on a breeze that blew through the ruins of the compound.
He felt a presence at his side and looked to Strange, who was wearing a similar expression of shock and incomprehension on his face.
"What the hell just happened, Strange?" Tony angrily whispered at him.
"I... I don't...." Stephen stammered before shaking himself abruptly and closing his eyes to take a deep breath. He stumbled a second later and his eyes popped open, furtively searching the battlefield for someone. "One moment, Stark." He said, his gaze fixed on a tall, dark shadow that was quickly approaching the two men from across the battlefield.
When the figure drew closer, Tony gasped and felt his pulse flutter in his chest. "Reindeer Games? What are you doing here? I thought you..."
Loki glared at him, a faint smile on his lips, even as his presence caused Tony to cut himself off abruptly. "Yes, well..." Loki's eyes cut to meet Stephen's, a look of understanding between them. "It seems there has been some meddling with time and the multiverse at work, and none of it is my doing. I was informed that I was needed to stabilize this new timeline and educate Mr. Strange on a few things."
Stephen sighed heavily, his surprise quickly morphing into resignation. "Get on with it then." He huffed, his posture relaxing as he waited for the trickster's magic to engulf him.
Tony watched the exchange in confusion as a green glow engulfed the sorcerer for a moment before dissipating as fast as it had appeared, leaving behind a rather more tense Strange than minutes before. A scowl lingered on Stephen's lips, his eyes were cold as they landed on Rogers, who was rapidly losing the fight to live. "I see. That egotistical, self-absorbed, pompous asshole. I am ashamed I didn't acknowledge that particular danger sooner."
"As you should." Loki agreed.
Tony looked between the two, his mind working feverishly to parse just what exactly the two wizards were being so cryptic about, without explaining anything. "First of all, are you really here? You're not a ghost are you?"
Loki's piercing green gaze met his and he smirked at him. "No, I am no longer dead and before you ask, I am neither a zombie, draugr, wraith, spirit or any other such nonsense you might believe. I am as alive as you are, Stark."
"Alright, Bewitched." Tony said, crossing his arms over his chest while ignoring the growing crowd surrounding the dying super soldier. "Care to explain what the hell just happened? Because, correct me if I'm wrong Stephen, but you heavily implied that I'm supposed to be the one where Rogers is now."
"You did what?!" Loki demanded, the eyes he turned to Strange now murderous.
Stephen's cheeks flushed, but he merely glared back at. "Excuse me for making a mistake." He hissed. "I'm no more qualified to save the world than either of you. I did what I believed I had to, to ensure the survival the universe."
"For future reference," Loki hissed, his eyes flashing with anger. "Do not, under any circumstance, use the Time Stone to see the future. No one, not even gods, can possibly account for every variable in existence. The fact that you, in your arrogance, believed yourself capable of such an insurmountable undertaking is beyond arrogance and falls into the category of nihilism. Your ego could have very easily damned the entire multiverse. Do not do so again, or I shall make you regret it in the most painful way possible. Do you understand, mortal?"
If anything, Stephen flushed even further, but clenched his jaw to prevent the instinctive desire to refute the Trickster's declaration. "Yes, I understand."
"Well, I don't!" Tony exclaimed. "Why do I now have two different memories of how I arrived here and what my personal life currently consists of?! Did I dream the entire married with a kid thing? What the hell is even going on?!"
"I'm sorry." Stephen whispered, begging Loki with his eyes to explain what he clearly couldn't.
"I can explain." Loki said, turning his attention to Stark. "Though perhaps you would like to do so in a less open environment?"
"No. I'm not going anywhere until I get an answer."
"Very well. The short version then. The longer version can wait as I have no desire to be interrupted. Rogers threatened the existence of the Universe which would essentially destroy this timeline and everything in it. His sacrifice was orchestrated decades ago, by Strange's teacher, before either of you were born. Which means that you cannot go back in time and change it. What's done is done, and since you were meant to die originally, your entire timeline had to change to allow for your continued existence beyond that event."
"That's not an explanation." Tony argued.
"And yet it's the only one I have for you."
"Unfortunately, he's not lying, Stark." Stephen sighed. "But further discussion must wait. There is the matter of the stones that must be dealt with now."
"I still think we should destroy them all."
"And you call yourself a scientist?" Loki scoffed. "You, of all people, should know that energy cannot be destroyed."
Tony blanched, his mouth dropping open in embarrassed shock. "Let's just pretend I didn't say that, then. In my defense, it never crossed my mind that they're essentially powerful, self-sustaining batteries."
"Very well. Wait here." Loki said, then twirled his fingers and vanished from their sight.
"He's stealing the stones, isn't he?" Tony confirmed with Strange.
"Yes."
"And you didn't stop him, because?"
"Because he can do so without anyone noticing."
"And you think he's just gonna hand over the Time Stone after reaming you out over how you misused it?"
"Yes." Loki answered, reappearing in front of them, a smug look in his eyes. "I shall leave time meddling to others. As my current existence here proves, meddling with time can have dire consequences. I shall return the stones to where and when they came from, except Soul. No one should know where it resides after today."
"In that case, I hope it's a very secure place. "Stephen replied.
"It is. Stark, perhaps you would like to join me when the time comes to hide it? You still, technically, owe me that drink you promised."
"I can't wait that long." Tony said, a smile of his own reaching his lips. "Meet me at the Tower later and we'll have that drink and that longer explanation you promised me."
Loki smiled back more brightly and stuck out his hand. "You have yourself a deal, Mr. Stark."
"Call me Tony." He replied, shaking the god's hand.
"Very well, Anthony." Loki stepped back a pace, winking and waved goodbye before vanishing from sight.
"Tell me that just happened. That I didn't just hallucinate the whole thing."
"It happened." Stephen huffed. "Unfortunately. I... I am sorry, Stark. For what happened, for... everything."
Tony shrugged, a resigned look on his face. "What's done is done, and I'm still alive, so there's that. I'll probably be very angry later, but right now I'm just very grateful I didn't die today."
"Very well." Stephen nodded. "I'll be at the Sanctum when you're ready to yell at me."
"I'll hold you to that." Tony said with an amused smile.
"I don't doubt it." Stephen replied before stepping through a portal, leaving Tony standing alone a moment before his friends and the kid appeared to swarm him with concern and swell the inventor's heart to bursting with gratitude. Regardless of what the future brought him now, nothing could make him hate the fact that he would live to see another day. Not even the suspicion that a certain Trickster god was going to be spending a lot of time at his side in the future. In fact, he was rather looking forward to it.
* fin