The Assassin Shadow - Bucky Barnes

Chapter 32

I enter the garage, which we've turned into a time-travel test room. My mom is standing next to Bruce and the electrical panel. I join them and momma hugs me by the side while continuing her conversation. After some time of talking and putting everything in place for the big test, Bruce clears his throat. "Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one. Everyone come in here!" He says and everyone complies. "Scott, fire up the, huh, van travel? I guess."

Scott opens the back door of the van and waves of light appear inside of it. "Breakers are set. Emergency generators are on standby." Steve says.

"Good, because if we blow the grid, I don't want to lose, huh, tiny here in the 50s."

"Excuse me?" Lang says worriedly.

"He's kidding." My mom tells him, trying to reassure him. "You can't say things like that." She continues to Bruce with her big eyes that she always uses on me when she scolds me.

"It- it was a bad joke." Banner stutters. I'm facepalming myself in my head because of how bad he is at lying.

Scott nods awkwardly before leaving and going closer to the van-travel while a small silence falls upon the three of us. "You were kidding right?" I ask, folding my arms over my chest.

"I have no idea we're talking about time-travel here. Either it's all a joke or none of it is." He answers quietly so Lang doesn't hear us. "We're good! Get your helmet on." He says to Scott with a thumb's up and we all smile at him to try and sell it. "Scott, I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour then bring you back in 10 seconds. Make sense?"

"Perfectly not confusing." He says sarcastically.

"Good luck, Scott. You got this." Steve cheers him on.

"You're right. I do, Captain America." Lang replies before Bruce sends him in the past.

"On the count of three. Three, two, one." He says while pressing the buttons. As he brings Scott back, we see a teenager about my age in the suit.

"Huh, guys. This doesn't feel right."

"What's going on? What happened? What is that?" Uncle Steve, mom and I all asked in almost unison.

"Is that Scott?" I ask.

"Yes, it's Scott!" He replies just as he gets sent back in the time machine device.

Banner continues to press the buttons. "Oh, my back." We all turn our heads to the voice and we now see old Lang in the suit holding his hurting back.

"Bruce?! What's happening?" Nat asked more demandingly this time.

"Hold on a second." He sends Scott back and continues to press, more frantically this time, the buttons on the electrical panel. "Can I have a little space?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you bring him back?" Steve asks worriedly.

"I'm working on it!" He presses another button and we all turn towards the van to see a baby where Scott should be.

"It's a baby." Steve says.

"No shit Sherlock." I reply.

"Lydia!" My mom says with her big eyes.

"Sorry."

"It's Scott, though." Banner answers Steve.

"As a baby!"

"He'll grow."

"Bring Scott back"

Bruce returns to pressing buttons. "When I say kill the power, kill the power." Nat sighs before moving to kill the power when told. "And... Kill it!" She does and Scott is brought back and finally this time as himself.

"Somebody peed my pants." Lang says.

"Oh, thank god." My mom and I say at the same time.

"But I don't know if it was baby me or old me. Or just me me." He finishes.

"Time travel!" Bruce exclaims while putting his arms in the air. I shake my head slowly just as Steve. "What? I see this as an absolute win."

I leave the room to go take some fresh air outside and I'm soon joined by Steve. I nod at him and he nods back.

"So, you and my mom. Didn't work out, huh? I've wanted to ask you for a long time now, but never got the chance." I tell him.

"Never thought of asking your mom?" He replies.

"You know, sometimes I just say your name, and I'm not even talking about the relationship you had, but I see that it hurts her a little. So no, I will never ask her as long as your name does that to her." I answer him.

"Well, it was actually because she couldn't let go of your father."

I look at him confused. What is that supposed to mean? "My father? What does he have to do with anything?"

"Natasha actually loved him. She planned to tell him after we defeated Thanos, but..." He pauses, I think it still hurts him to think of his late best friend. "Well, you know what happened."

Some tears well up into my eyes and threatened to fall. "Papa confessed to me one time. He said that he was pretty fond of mom. He also said that when he would be free of Hydra's mind control, he would ask her out." A tear slides down my cheek. "He never got the chance."

We hear tires screeching and as I look at the driveway, a luxurious car drives at a high speed. The car stops a little too far away and backs up so that the driver's window is facing us. Tony Stark is sitting looking at us through his dark sunglasses. "Why the long face? Did he hurt you? What did you do to her? Do I have to kill him?"

"No, all is well. These aren't just tears of sadness." I respond before wiping them.

"Have you tried to time travel yet?" Stark asks before Steve nods while I sigh. "Let me guess. He turned into a baby."

"Among other things, yeah. What are you doing here?" Steve replies.

"It's the EPR Paradox." Again with the complex terms. Tony gets out of his car. "Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might've wound up pushing time through Lang. It's tricky, dangerous. Someone could have cautioned you against it."

"You did." I say, already sensing the very long 'I told you so' speech he was about to give us.

"Oh, did I? Well, thank God I'm here. Regardless, I fixed it. A fully functioning time-space GPS." He says while showing us the device on his fist. That is not what I expected. "I just want peace. Turns out retirement is corrosive, and I hate it." Tony finishes.

"Me, too." Cap adds.

"We get a shot at getting the stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities. Bring back what we lost, I hope, yes. Keep what I found, I have to, at all costs. And maybe not die trying, would be nice." He says.

"Sounds like a deal." Uncle Steve says while inviting Stark to shake his hand. He takes it and I find myself smiling at the two long lost friends reuniting. We follow Tony to his trunk and he takes a saucer filled with children's toys, but as he turns it around dropping all the toys in the car, we realize it's Captain America's shield. "Tony, I don't know."

"Why?" Tony replies. Steve looks at him with a 'you know why' look. "He made it for you. Plus, honestly I have to get it out of the garage before Morgan takes it sledding." He puts it on Cap's arm and it looks like it never got taken off.

"Thank you, Tony."

"Will you both keep that a little quiet? Didn't bring one for the whole team." He asks us and I chuckle a little. "We are getting the whole team, right?"

"We are working on that right now." Steve assures him.

A small and kinda awkward silence falls upon us. "Well, why are you guys just standing there? Come on, let's join the rest inside." I say before going back into the building, hearing them follow me. Now I have hope. Everything will go back to the way it was.