The Mimic

165

"Okay, we're all here. Let's get this started." Bruce smiled, standing beside a screen at the front of the missions room.

Y/n had managed to finish Thor's hair just in time for the meeting. In her opinion, it was far too rushed, but she knew that she had to focus and listen in the meeting that was about to occur. Time travelling with a finicky thing that she knew very little about. She didn't want to mess it up, especially if Bucky was on the line.

There was a thick layer of tension in the air, and everyone could feel it. The missions room was full of memories - good and bad - yet there they all were, sat or stood in the same places, almost as if there were assigned seats. Steve had always been sat near the front of the room, a look of complete focus on his face as he listened to every single word that came out of Bruce's mouth. Natasha and Clint were always leant against the table in the centre of the room, usually playing a game of tic-tac-toe in Clint's notebook. Tony was sat at the front, too. But he never chose any chairs next to Steve, probably in a desperate attempt to keep his ego intact. The list went on for the little seating plan, but it was odd to see the team all gathered up, even if it was only half of them.

Y/n was sat on top of a table in the corner of the room. On her own. It was weird not having Bucky by her side. Usually he'd sit with her at the back of the room, and they'd come up with stupid little games to pass the time. God, there was still a dent on one of the table legs. She remembered that day so vividly. It had been a long, monotonous meeting, and y/n and Bucky had been full of energy, so they'd decided to play chicken. They would kick one another's ankles as hard as possible until one of them yielded or pulled their legs away. It was a painful game (and caused many bruises, especially with mission boots), but it was so, so fun. Y/n had been the first person to move her legs on that fateful day, but Bucky didn't realise in time, and managed to kick the table leg as hard as he possibly could. She could still remember the horrible sound that it made. Happier times.

Y/n let out a quiet sigh, pressing her back up against the wall as her feet dangled off of the edge of the table. She was happy that Thor was so excited about his hair, but sitting in the missions room seemed to have just sunk her mood straight back down. Everyone was so serious - well, everyone except Scott. He was trying to be serious, but that wasn't really possible when he was in the middle of scooching his chair across the floor to sit beside Steve. That sight definitely had a small smile teasing at her lips, she was going to miss him once the mission was over. That was it, though. One more mission, and then she'd never be sat in the missions room ever again. It was surreal.

The meeting lasted for a long time, but it was worth it. The more detail that Bruce went into, especially when it came to time travel, the safer it would be for everyone else. Most of it was common sense. They weren't allowed to communicate with anyone, they weren't allowed to interfere with everything, and they needed to get out as soon as possible. Interfering on even the tiniest things could cause a giant ripple effect. The world was already messed up after the snap, they didn't want more chaos.

As soon as the safety precautions were over and done with, they finally got to the part that everyone had been waiting for. The assigning of the stones.

The time stone was given to Bruce as a solo mission, despite it being pretty tricky. He had to somehow manage to take the time stone from the Sorcerer Supreme, someone that is sworn to protect the mind stone with their lives. The current owner was Dr Strange, but nobody had any clue if he was still going to be the Sorcerer Supreme in 2012. Y/n had never really had any interactions with Dr Strange. The only reason why she even knew him was because of the fact that he helped so save Bucky's life after the Zemo incident.

The task of taking the reality stone was given to Thor and Rocket. It seemed like a normal mission for Rocket, but it was obvious how emotionally tough it was going to be on Thor. He was going back to Asgard. His father would still be alive, his mother would still be alive, and Loki would still be alive. But he wasn't able to interact with any of them. Rocket was there for support, to keep Thor on track until they got back to the compound.

Nebula and Rhodey were given the task of taking the power stone from a planet called Morag. Y/n didn't know anything about that place, but she did recognise the name 'Starlord'. It was the name of the dancing man that she'd bumped into during her mission at the playplace. Apparently he was the one that stole the power stone from Morag, so they had to take it before he arrived - sounded pretty simple.

Natasha and Clint had the task of taking the soul stone from a place called Vormir. It seemed like a desolate planet, so it would be a pretty easy mission. Y/n was almost jealous of the fact that they got to go together. They were best friends, it sounded like a great final mission. However, the uncomfortable look on Tony and Nebula's faces raised suspicion in y/n. But she didn't act on it. She simply marked it down as being nervous. Everyone was.

Steve had the task of taking the mind stone from New York, 2012. The same year that Bruce was heading to. Loki's Sceptre contained the mind stone, and he had to steal it from himself. It was going to be a very odd, very confusing interaction, and Steve wasn't excited for it. He knew that he was going to put up a fight. God, it was going to be weird fighting himself. Maybe he'd be able to understand why Nat found it so satisfying to punch him in the face, though.

The space stone was where everything became a little tricky. The original mission was for Scott and Tony to travel to New York (same time as Bruce and Steve), and take the Tesseract. However, they were very aware of the fact that Loki was going to be around. Loki was obsessed with the Tesseract, and unfortunately, with Scott's tendency to get distracted, there was a high risk of that mission going wrong. So that was where y/n came in. She was a backup plan, but her mission was still important nonetheless.

Hydra had records of owning the Tesseract in 1923. They didn't seem to actually be doing much with it, as they were still figuring out how to use it. But it was there. It was there in Russia, in the same base that y/n had been confined in. She would've been eight years old in 1923. A small child being trained to kill. She was going to have to walk down those halls again. She was going to have to hear the man in the suit's voice again. She was going to have to see herself, and not be able to react in any sense or form.

She felt sick.