I Can't Help It - Steve Rogers

Chapter 78

Nat and Rachel fly to Tokyo to find Clint and bring him to help them. They walk the streets under their umbrellas, following the sound of chaos. They see Clint standing over a body, cleaning his sword on his sleeve. He lowers his hood and removes his mask. "You shouldn't be here" Clint says, without turning to look at them. "Neither should you" Rachel replies before he turns and looks at them both. "I've got a job to do" he states. "Is that what you're calling this? Killing all these people isn't gonna bring your family back" Nat says as they make their way towards him.

"We've found something. A chance, maybe" Rachel states. "Don't" he states sadly. "Don't what?" Nat questions. "Don't give me hope" he elaborates defeatedly and Nat and Rachel's eyes fill with tears. "I'm sorry we couldn't give it to you sooner" Rachel says guiltily. She feels like she could've done more for him. They both reach a hand out and take each of Clint's hands.

Once they're on the jet and on their way home, Nat and Rachel explain their plan to Clint. "I have a question" he says. "Go ahead" Rachel encourages. "Is it true that you and Steve got married?" he asks and Rachel chuckles. She removes her left glove and raises her hand, showing her ringed finger with a proud smile. "They had two kids too" Nat adds from the pilot seat and Clint looks at Rachel shocked. "Really?" he questions. "Yeah we did" Rachel confirms, unsure how much she should share about her family since he's lost his. "Do you have any pictures?" he asks and she's relieved to know he's ok with it all. "Of course" she says as she pulls her phone out and sits beside him.

"This is Natalie Sarah Rogers, we named her after Nat and Steve's mother" she points at Natalie in the photo. "Wow, she looks like Steve" he smiles. "Yeah, she does. She's a daddy's girl too" she laughs. "This is James Clinton Rogers" she moves onto James and Clint looks at her in shock. "We named him after Bucky and you" she finishes. "That's so sweet, thank you" he says as he wraps an arm around her. "Of course" she replies, hugging him back.

---

Everyone gathers around the new quantum tunnel as Clint prepares to jump. Rachel worriedly grabs Steve's hand as he disappears and the five seconds that he's gone seem very long to her as she worries something will go wrong. He reappears grunting in pain and Rachel quickly lets go of Steve's hand and rushes over to Clint closely behind Nat. "Hey, hey, look at me" Nat urges him as she kneels beside him. "Are you ok?" Rachel asks worriedly as he stands panting. "Yeah, yeah. It worked" he confirms, patting them both with a baseball glove before throwing it to Tony.

"Okay, so the how works. Now we need to 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" Steve explains to everyone, who are spread out around the room while they create the details of their time heist. "Or substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed' by one of the six infinity stones" Tony interjects with an accurate statement. "Well I haven't but I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about" Scott adds and Rachel smiles at him from where she's leaning against the table. "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" Bruce explains. "Our history. So not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?" Tony adds.

"Which means we have to pick out targets" Clint states receiving Tony's approval. "So, let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve asks and everyone looks at Thor sitting in a chair in the back with his sunglasses on. "Is he asleep?" Nat asks. "No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead" Rhodey answers and Rachel chuckles.

Thor eventually stands and starts telling them what he knows. "The Aether, firstly, is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before" he starts and points at Steve who only frowns back at him. Rachel laughs quietly to herself and hides her face in Steve's shoulder when she sees his confused expression. "It's more of an angry sludge sort of thing so someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that. Here's an interesting story though, about the Aether" Thor continues and everyone glances at each other in confusion and he tells an elaborate story about the Aether and Jane Foster. He begins to get sad and quiet when the realisation that he's no longer with Jane hits him. Tony encourages him to sit down so that they can move onto another stone.

"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag" Rocket starts. "Is that a person?" Bruce questions while everyone sits at the table eating take out. "No, Morag's a planet. Quill was a person" Rocket answers obviously. "Like a planet? Like in outer space?" Scott asks in disbelief. "Oh look, it's like a little puppy all happy and everything. Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space puppy? I'll take you to space" Rocket teases as Scott rolls his eyes. Rachel smiles at the interactions from across the table.

"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir" Nebula explains. "What is Vormir?" Nat asks as she makes notes. "A dominion of death at the very centre of celestial existence. It's where Thanos murdered my sister" Nebula answers and the entire room awkwardly goes silent. "Not it" Scott states and Rachel rolls her eyes.

Eventually they discover the time and place to collect each stone and who will be going where. "Alright, we have a plan. 6 stones, 3 teams, 1 chance" Steve states before everyone gets some rest, ready for their mission first thing in the morning.