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Natasha hadn’t known Steven Rogers long, maybe an hour tops. And it wasn’t like they’d even been together for that whole hour, not when the helicarrier they were on was going crazy trying to figure out how to put a stop to Loki’s plan and find the people he’d hypnotized.
Natasha’s heart clenched, but she hid it well.
Clint was one of those people, and while she hated admitting it, he and his wife and kids were the closest thing she had to a family. She couldn’t lose them.
But, back to the point, Natasha hadn’t known Rogers for long, but she had a feeling that he didn’t usually act like this.
They were gathered in the conference area of the helicarrier that looked over the rest of the downstairs floor, acting like an oversized balcony. Natasha had been leaning against the railing beside Fury, with Banner and Thor sitting at the long table beside Rogers. Stark had been in the back, close to Hill and Coulson.
Just a moment ago, Rogers had been acting how you’d expect. He had been sitting with his back to Stark and Hill, staring out the giant window of the helicarrier, his hand making patterns along his shield as he became captivated by his thoughts, judging by his spaced-out expression.
He looked every inch the man out of time.
And then he’d stood up suddenly, looking completely dazed, and had stumbled over to Natasha and Fury.
“You okay there, Captain?” Fury asked, raising his good eyebrow.
Rogers blinked at him, acting as though he wasn’t comprehending what Fury had just said.
Natasha frowned and backed away just an inch. Something was going on here…
“I’ve been here before…” Rogers mumbled to himself, shaking his head.
Fury snorted.
“I doubt that, Captain.”
“No, I have!” Rogers said more insistently, looking desperate as he looked around wildly. “I was in a helicarrier just like this years ago!”
Okay, now Natasha was even more confused. Hadn’t they just pulled the guy out of the ice, like, a month ago?
“I’m not sure what you mean, Captain,” Fury said slowly, eyeing Rogers even more suspiciously now.
“I remember!” Rogers insisted.
He dropped his voice and leaned toward Natasha and Fury like he was a teenager sharing a juicy secret.
“It was just like this!” he whispered. “You, me, and all of these guys!”
He gestured at Natasha, Thor, Stark, Banner, Coulson, and Hill.
“Director, I thought you said he passed his psych exams,” Natasha murmured discreetly to Fury.
“He did,” Fury replied, his eyes narrowing at Rogers, who still held that slightly dazed look.
“Do you think Loki did something to him?” Natasha asked.
“I hope not. I don’t want one of our strongest to be this compromised.”
Natasha nodded, hoping for the same reason Fury was that Rogers was simply trying to process all that he was seeing in his own way. But then he did something that shocked Natasha, which nothing rarely did, so this was big.
He leaned in further and pointed at Stark and Hill.
“Last time, Tony looked at your monitors,” Rogers told Fury with a goofy smile on his face, “and he put a hand over his eye and asked how you saw the ones to your right because of your eye. And she said, ‘he turns’, and Tony said, ‘sounds exhausting.’ At the time, I was too nervous to listen very well, but now that I think about it, it really is funny!”
Natasha would’ve thought Rogers was hallucinating or something, but then she heard Stark’s voice echo over the balcony, asking Hill how Fury saw the other monitors.
The whole thing played out exactly as Rogers had said.
Also, what was with him calling Stark by his first name? He had barely even given the man a glance since coming on board.
“Agent Romanoff,” Fury mumbled, “What is this? How did he know?”
“I don’t know,” Natasha replied truthfully.
They went back to staring at Steve, who had no clue they were talking about him.
“It was fun being on here last time, even when Clint shot the engines, and Tony and I had to try to figure out how to get them working again!”
Fury’s eye bulged, and Natasha kept herself from sucking in a breath at the last moment.
Rogers knew Clint. How did Rogers know Clint? And what was with him acting so familiar with everyone? To anyone else, Clint was “Agent Barton” or just “Barton” at best. But not with Natasha or his family, and apparently, not with Rogers.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” Stark asked, coming over to where Natasha, Fury, and Rogers were gathered, with Hill, Coulson, Banner, and Thor at his heels.
Fury silenced him with a look before asking Rogers if he happened to know when Clint would destroy one of the engines, and which engine that might be?
“I’m sorry, what!?” Stark exclaimed, quickly followed by the nervous shouts of the rest of the guys in the group.
Natasha glared at them, which shut them up pretty good.
On any other day, she would’ve questioned Fury for believing Rogers’ ravings, but after he “recounted” that whole interaction between Stark and Hill, it was hard not to give him some merit.
“Oh, it was at 2:38, about thirty-two seconds in,” Rogers replied innocently, as if it was perfectly normal to remember an exact time like that. “And it was the third and fourth engine, though the third was knocked out when Clint shot it with an arrow, and the fourth he disabled from within.”
Fury quickly glanced at his watch before ordering Hill to put extra protective measures on those engines and look out for suspicious aircraft around the helicarrier. Hill glanced at Rogers with a strange look on her face before disappearing to do her job.
“Is Rogers…telling the future?” Banner asked, looking really confused as he looked from Rogers to Fury, who hadn’t taken his eye off the man.
“Just…shh,” Tony mumbled, also staring at Rogers now.
“I believe Stark desires Rogers to provide us with more information on what might happen,” Thor explained loudly and unnecessarily.
That’s when Rogers turned around to Fury, his eyes suddenly looking sad.
“I’m sorry I got you shot,” he said, and the whole group looked taken aback.
“Excuse me?” Fury asked.
“But you didn’t die,” Rogers said hurriedly. “I mean, we all thought you did, but it turns out that you were just faking. I found out that SHIELD agents do that a lot.”
Now, even Fury was showing his confusion.
“Um, sir, I hate to interrupt, but I was supposed to give Mr. Stark some reports?” Coulson whispered, looking embarrassed as he gestured at the file in his hands.
Fury waved at him absentmindedly, and Coulson tried to hand Stark the file.
Before Stark could take it, Rogers murmured, “Oh, don’t do that. Tony doesn’t like being handed things.”
Stark frowned, his eyes wide.
“How could you possibly know that?” he asked.
“You told me,” Rogers replied simply. “You said it had to do with Obadiah Stane and his betrayal. You also said that your therapist had told you it might have something to do with how you were raised, always having everything handed to you. She’d told you that you might psychologically be keeping yourself from taking things from other people because you want to ‘earn’ them. You told me you called her bluff, and then we laughed about it before finishing the rest of the wine.”
Stark’s jaw dropped, and Natasha got the feeling Rogers knew what he was talking about.
Then Rogers turned around to face Thor and tilted his head at the man, the dazed expression on his face only becoming more pronounced as he stared at the Asgardian in confusion.
“I thought you cut your hair.”
Thor looked taken aback before chuckling nervously.
“I can assure you, Rogers, that I would never do such a thing. Besides, Jane likes it long.”
Natasha had no idea who “Jane” was, but Rogers brightened at the name.
“Jane! She’s smart. I liked her. It’s too bad you guys broke up.”
Thor frowned, looking nervous.
“We…didn’t break up. Wait, how do you know of Jane?”
Rogers shrugged.
“I got to meet her a couple of times. She was cool, but Darcy was cooler! And funnier. But don’t tell Jane I said that.”
Rogers followed that statement with a boyish wink that looked entirely out of place on the face of a man.
“I always thought you and Jane might get married, but I get why you decided not to. Losing your family is really hard to get past.”
Rogers whispered that last part, and Natasha was suddenly reminded of the fact that he was completely alone in this world.
“I haven’t lost my family,” Thor said, sounding panicked.
Rogers blinked at him.
“Wasn’t Frigga killed by the Dark Elves? And then Loki put Odin in a nursing home on Earth, but then Odin faded away? And then Thanos crushed Loki’s neck.”
Thor let out a pained whimper, and Natasha started getting a little nervous. Whatever Rogers was “remembering” didn’t sound too good.
Rogers looked down suddenly, as if something had just occurred to him.
“Thanos,” he whispered, like he was trying to jog his memory. “Purple. Titan. Dust.”
Rogers shook his head while Natasha glanced at Fury, trying to figure out what her director thought about the seemingly random words Rogers was mumbling, but he wouldn’t look at her.
“It doesn’t look that dusty in here,” Stark remarked sarcastically.
Once again, he was shot down by a look from Fury.
“No, not dusty,” Rogers corrected quietly, still looking confused. “Dust. Dust. Why was there so much dust?”
And then he whispered four names that froze Natasha’s insides.
“Laura, Cooper, Lila, Nathaniel.”
Natasha didn’t know who that fourth person was, but she sure as heck knew the first three, which didn’t bode well at all for the family.
Finally, Fury looked back at Natasha, and she could see the alarm in his eye.
“Who are they?” Banner asked, looking between Fury and Natasha like he wanted a piece of the action.
“They were dust, and we couldn’t do anything about it,” Rogers whispered.
Then he whipped his head around to face Fury, and Natasha was surprised at the tears gathering in his eyes.
“Why didn’t you call Carol sooner?” Rogers cried. “She could’ve stopped it before it ever began!”
For the first time, Natasha witnessed someone making Fury speechless. Now she really wanted to know who “Carol” was.
“Stopped what?” Coulson asked quietly.
Rogers paused and stared long and hard at Coulson’s chest, making everyone feel uncomfortable.
Finally, Rogers said, “I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop it. Loki ran you right through.”
Coulson subconsciously began rubbing his chest, and Natasha felt everything inside her tighten.
Now, Rogers was saying that Coulson was going to die? Fury didn’t look too happy to hear that either.
“You were going to be with that cellist,” Rogers whispered, and Coulson stared wide-eyed at him.
Natasha was pretty sure the cellist had never been mentioned in Rogers’ presence.
“But it wasn’t like Loki meant to,” Rogers said, seeming to recognize how worried everyone felt despite how dazed he seemed. “Thanos made him do it. The scepter made him do it.”
“What?” Fury asked.
“I’ll show you!” Rogers said, seemingly back to his giddy self.
He marched over to where Loki’s scepter was sitting and stretched out his hand.
“Hey, what are you doing!?” Stark exclaimed, but before anyone could stop him, Rogers had pulled something out of the tip of the scepter.
It looked like a small yellow stone, and to everyone’s amazement, yellow streaks of lightning danced all up and down Rogers’ arm.
He winced in pain, but kept his grip tight.
“What the heck is that!?” Banner shouted.
“Look,” Rogers ordered, before marching down to where Loki was being held.
Everyone followed after him, eager to see what he was planning to do.
“The Mind Stone is controlling Loki,” Rogers explained, holding the stone out towards the Asgardian in the containment chamber.
Loki glanced at it, but his face was blank. Now Natasha was becoming suspicious that Rogers might be right. Why wasn’t Loki reacting at all?
“Show me,” Rogers murmured to the stone, and it began to glow again, casting what looked like a fishing line of light towards Loki, accumulating in the Asgardian’s head.
Everyone watched as what looked like a bubble became visible around Loki’s mind.
“Loki’s being tricked!” Thor exclaimed.
“So, it can happen to the God of Mischief, too, then,” Stark murmured.
“Not the time!” Banner whispered to Stark, who just shrugged.
“Release,” was the next word Rogers said, and just like that, the line was cut, and the bubble around Loki’s head disappeared.
The god’s head snapped up, and he blinked at everyone as if he was seeing them for the first time.
“Oh my gosh,” Fury sighed, face-palming.
Everyone began walking back upstairs, with Loki pounding on the walls of the containment room, asking where he was and what was happening.
“You can get him later,” Fury told Thor tiredly. “For now, we need to figure out what’s going on with the Captain.”
Back on the balcony, Rogers had happily placed the “mind stone”, as he’d called it, back into the scepter.
“So, it’s confirmed now, right? The Capsicle can tell the future or something?” Stark asked.
“It’s more like he’s…remembering it,” Banner corrected in wonderment as Rogers stumbled back to the group.
Stark snorted.
“What? ‘Memories’ of the future? That’s insane.”
“Is there anything else you’d like to tell us, Rogers?” Natasha interrupted, deciding to take point while Fury was still thinking about Loki.
Rogers turned to her and suddenly began humming “American Pie.”
Natasha froze. She hadn’t heard that song since the fateful car ride that had basically ruined her life, the car ride that took her to the plane that took her to the Red Room.
That had been her sister’s favorite song.
“Agent Romanoff? What is it?” Coulson asked worriedly.
Natasha waved him away, giving him her best encouraging smile.
“I’m sorry about Yelena,” Rogers told her sincerely, and Natasha once again felt like the air had been sucked from her lungs.
Not only had he just been humming what had been Yelena’s favorite song, but he also knew her name.
“Who’s Yelena?” Banner asked.
“Her sister,” Rogers replied simply.
Almost everyone in the group blanched.
“You have a sister!?”
Natasha sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing her temples. She had never wanted that kind of information to get out, especially not coming from some super-soldier acting drunk off his butt.
But then the dazed expression on Rogers’ face cleared up a little bit, and he turned to every person in the group, muttering their first name with wide eyes.
When he got to Tony, his eyes filled with tears, and when he got to Natasha, he simply blinked at her, looking bewildered and scared.
“Nat?” he asked, and Natasha stifled a gasp.
Clint was the only one who ever called her that, him and Laura. But Rogers had just said it with such familiarity, as if he’d known her for years.
“Rogers, what are you doing?” Stark asked nervously.
And that’s when the daze was completely gone. He blinked and straightened up, squaring his shoulders before looking around him and sighing.
“Please tell me it’s not 2012,” he muttered, rubbing his face.
“But it is,” Thor replied, confused.
Rogers sighed, and Natasha knew that this wasn’t the Captain that had been super dazed and disoriented, nor the Captain that she’d been introduced to at the start of their journey.
“It looks like you're in your right mind. Care to explain what the heck has been going on?” Fury asked, looking very frustrated.
Rogers just blinked at him, looking tired. Then he looked down at his watch and sighed again.
“I would, but it’s almost 2:38, so I would advise that we all move over there.”
He pointed to the far end of the balcony.
“Why?” Stark asked suspiciously.
“Because Clint’s going to kill the third engine, and we’re all standing directly over it. If Bruce falls in the collapse, he’s gonna turn into the Hulk, which was Loki’s “plan”. Well, as much of a plan as you can make when you’re being controlled by an infinity stone.”
Everyone turned to Banner, who just looked embarrassed.
“Well,” Fury said tiredly, “Let’s get moving, then.”
He barked out orders to reinforce the engines and whatnot as everyone ran to the other side of the room. Just as they made it, an explosion rocked the helicarrier.
Natasha covered her ears, trying to figure out how best to help the chaos when she noticed that Rogers was still standing in the middle of it, his arms crossed, looking entirely unfazed. When he noticed her staring, he shrugged his shoulders in light embarrassment.
“I’ve done this before,” he explained.
Natasha sighed.
She had not signed up for this. She had not signed up for Captain America to suddenly become a time traveler and mess with everyone’s heads. Now they all had more questions than answers, and he was still just standing there, watching everything happen around him as if he wasn’t a part of it.
And then, suddenly, his expression changed, and something flashed in his eyes. Natasha watched as he went from unfazed and almost a little bored to panicking, but trying his best not to show it. His entire demeanor changed, and he looked around wildly like he had no idea what was happening.
“I’m guessing you’re back?” Natasha asked him amidst the screams and shouts, making her way towards him.
“What!?” Rogers asked, before scrambling to help someone who’d fallen and hit their head from the explosion.
“We got to meet future-you,” Stark shouted from the other side of the balcony, making his way through the debris. “He wasn’t very pleasant!”
Rogers looked entirely taken aback and so very, very confused. It was almost comical.
“I don’t remember anything! One second we were sitting at the table, and the next, the helicarrier is going down!”
“Yup! Just like you said,” Banner muttered grimly, picking himself up from where he’d almost gotten hit by a falling ceiling.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Steve said helplessly, looking ready to tear out his hair.
“Hey! Someone find Coulson! Rogers said he was gonna get stabbed!” Stark suddenly yelled to anyone who might be listening.
Rogers squeaked.
“I what!?”
Natasha finally made it to his side and was glad to see their old Captain back. The time-traveler was gone.
She had questions, of course, but they could be saved for another time.
“I’ll explain later, Rogers. For now, we need to get the engine back up and running. Follow me.”
And just like that, they were running down twisting corridors, searching for the nearest control room.
As they searched, Natasha allowed her mind to wander just enough to think about all that future-Rogers had told them, about all his “memories of the future”. Most of them had been…horrible, to say the least. But, hopefully, now that they knew about it, maybe they could do something to stop it.
First, though, what Natasha was most curious about was the name Rogers had said whenever he started panicking about “dust.” She knew he’d already told everyone that he didn’t remember anything from when future-him had basically taken over his body, but there had been so much dread, so much horror and alarm in his eyes when he’d said the name that maybe a little part of him still remembered.
“Hey Rogers, I have a question,” Natasha called out.
She took a deep breath.
“Ever heard of the name ‘Thanos’?”