In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

Love Requited

Time was different in the Light Dimension. For me, it didn't exist. I didn't keep track of it. Time became still where I was. I searched the universe for the Stones. I traced the existence of the Tesseract, first, as it had been our most encountered stone.

Steve saw it first. The Red Skull used it to create weapons, then subsequently touched it and he was transported to space. It fell into the ocean. It was picked up by Howard Stark as they searched the Artic for Steve and instead ended up with an Infinity Stone. It then sat in a bunker at the birthplace of both Captain America and S.H.I.E.L.D for years. It was then granted for use to a woman at some point in the mid-1980s, the Kree scientist Mar-Vell, operating under the name Dr. Wendy Lawson. Her work was the genesis for Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., a joint project between NASA and the USAF to create a light speed engine using the strange item.

I watched on the lakeside as she was shot and killed, leaving Carol Danvers to defend the ship. She tried to destroy it, a self-sacrifice, and instead ended up being imbued with powers. I watched her find the Tesseract on a hidden ship in Earth's orbit. I watched an orange cat swallow it, then proceed to throw it up on Fury's desk, where then, we know, it ended up in the bunker of a S.H.I.E.L.D base, being studied by Erik Selvig.

Loki, the Attack on New York, and then it found a home on Asgard, for a while, until Loki kidnapped it again before the demise of Asgard. Thanos intercepted the ship. He killed Loki for the Stone, he beat up Hulk, he almost killed Thor. Bruce was sent back to us on Earth and the rest was history.

The Mind Stone was imbued into the scepter for Loki to use on his conquest in New York. It was given to S.H.I.E.L.D at the end of the battle, which turned out to be Hydra, hence the search for it after the fall. It had been used to give Wanda and Pietro their powers, studied to create Ultron, gave life to Vision. It found a home within him before his untimely demise.

The Time Stone didn't have much of a journey. For most of its life, it stayed in the hands of rotating Sorcerer Supremes.

I couldn't find much regarding the Reality Stone. I searched for it throughout the universe but I found no such stone. I knew Thor had an encounter with it, and I searched for it on Asgard, hopping throughout a few different time periods. I found little to nothing.

The Power Stone was the reason for the Guardians of the Galaxy. It had been hunted for by an unsuspecting Peter Quill, who legitimately danced his way to the Stone, and had been caught in the midst of a Skree/Krull war by trying to sell it. He shared the power of it between the Guardians to save the planet they were on, and kill the destroyer. It was then given to the Nova Corps to protect it. Then, Thanos decimated their planet for it.

The Soul Stone I also had little to nothing about. I hadn't known anyone who enounted it. I had no clue where it was, heard nothing of it. All I could recall was Nebula's words right before Peter Quill broke our hold on Thanos: "He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone. And she didn't." But I knew nothing of where Vormir was.

I had gathered enough about the other four Stones to consider myself with a solid base of knowledge. I knew all I could, I knew people who could fill in my gaps in knowledge or point me in the direction of where to turn on my omniscience.

I found another person affected by the Stones: Carol Danvers. She was a sure weapon against Thanos because she was like me— powered by an Infinity Stone.

I gained information, but I still hadn't mastered following time. I had begun most of my journey by starting where I had encountered each Stone and rewinding or skipping forward by thinking of rough time stamps and locations. I had jumped too far backwards, too far forwards, and it wasn't easy. I had passed out a few times, while searching for the Reality and Soul Stones because there was just nothing—nowhere to start and navigate. But I had enough to spark a conversation. That would be enough.