First Light | Steve Rogers (Book Two)

Chapter Forty-Six: Getting The Band Back Together

"About what Nat said..."

I hummed quietly, glancing up from the control panels of the newly made time machine to look at Steve. He shrugged awkwardly, stuffing his hands in his pockets as he approached me. "You know," he sounded quite hesitant, "The thing about us being 'practically married?"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes, "That was just one of her jokes, don't let it get to you"

"Y-Yeah. I know that. I just... I was just wondering why you seem to find that so crazy. Do you not want that?"

Turning to face him, I let out a quiet sigh of defeat. My shoulders slumped slightly as I leant against the panel and looked up at him, "Well, I-"

"Steven! Aurora!"

The two of us span around, staring at the group approaching us in surprise. Rocket, Nebula, Rhodey and Tony were in the back, nervously watching the familiar figure that was striding towards us. He held his arms out, pulling us into a bone-crushing hug. He was... different. His hair and beard had become unruly and the strong scent of alcohol lingered around him.

"Thor?"

He nodded enthusiastically, not noticing the confused look being exchanged between us and the group behind him.

But that didn't shock me as much as the next person I saw. Clint was stood right at the back, quietly watching us reunite. Giving Thor another quick smile, I made my way over to my old friend. "Clint," I wasn't sure what to say after everything, "It's good to see you"

"Good to see you, too"

There was a sadness in his eyes. A very familiar emptiness that he had obviously tried to hide for too long. He was tense when we hugged, not used to such a simple gesture of friendship after all that time he'd spent alone.

Once we had all gotten reacquainted, Bruce began to hurry us back towards the mission at hand. After Tony's much needed adjustments and a better structure to the machine, we were ready for a proper test run. Clint had volunteered, making his way onto the large platform in his white suit.

"All right, Clint," Bruce called as a helmet appeared over the man's face, "We're going in three... two... one"

The ten seconds seemed to last for forever. He finally reappeared, collapsing against the platform as he panted and gasped for air.

Nat raced over, helping him to his feet. He held up a baseball glove and nodded quickly, "It worked"

"Okay, so the how works," Steve sighed once we had all gathered in the meeting room, "Now, we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones"

"Or substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed' by one of the six Infinity Stones" Tony corrected.

My eyes narrowed as I examined the images of the different stones that were on the large screen in front of us, taking a long sip from my cup of coffee. Scott shrugged, "Well, I haven't... but I don't even know what the hell you're all taking about"

Bruce huffed impatiently as he paced around, "Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each. And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history"

"Our history," Tony added as he gestured around at us, "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in"

"Which means we have to pick our targets"

Steve cleared his throat as he looked to the screen, "So, let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?"

There was silence. We all turned around to look at the god, whose eyes were covered over by a pair of sunglasses. "Is he asleep?" Nat asked quietly.

"No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead"