The Paintbrush Thief (An Avengers AU)

~Prologue~

*so there are endgame spoilers in this prologue, and i'm really sorry about that, but it's kind of important to the plot. however, this prologue is not necessary to read in order to understand the rest of the story, as it doesn't come into effect until a lot later in the book. so if you haven't seen Endgame, you don't need to read this. Just come back after you've seen it.*

~~~~~

No Specific PoV.

"It just doesn't make any sense," Peter spoke softly, rubbing his hands over his face with a frustrated sigh.

"I know it doesn't," Bucky replied sternly as the rain pelted the windows, and thunder crackled overhead. "But if we can figure out a way to communicate with them somehow, you can be sure as hell we're going to do it."

"How will we know when it works?" Morgan piped up from the corner, eyeing the soldier with a confused gaze painted across her features.

"We won't," Barnes responded, running a hand through his hair as he approached the cracked window, before rubbing his sleeve across his face as stray droplets of rain doused the hero's front side. "But we have to try. If it works, we may be able to find a way to win again, and succeed in bringing back . . . you know."

"Let's take one step at a time," Peter cut in, raising his hand to silence Bucky. "We still have to figure out how to get back to that exact timepoint. I was able to travel through interdimensional portals with Carol's help, but that type of travel didn't include time leaps; I landed in spots where time was set in their own present day, at just the same time things were unfolding our present. I don't see how we can travel to their universe and travel back through time without seriously screwing up our own timeline."

"Can't we just use the Time Stone once we get there?" Morgan asked with a shrug.

"It's not that simple," Bucky responded. "Dr. Strange vowed to never use the Time Stone again unless it was a universal problem. Its power is far too great, and the temptation to use it afterwards is too strong."

"Well, this seems like a pretty universal problem to me," the teen mumbled under her breath.

"Then what are our other options?" Parker pushed as he stared beyond Bucky and to the thunderous clouds outside. "There has to be another way we can do this."

"I wish there was," Bucky responded lowly, stepping away from the rain to lean against a tall pillar of the destroyed New York Sanctum. "But Scott is gone, so our chance at Quantum Travel is caput. As far as we know, Carol and Rhodey have flown off the map, so we've got no luck there; Clint will want nothing to do with this, seeing as he doesn't want to screw up his family again; Sam moved South with Rebekah, and Dr. Strange is surveying damage in Knowhere."

"What about Thor?" Morgan questioned.

Bucky laughed, his metal arm holding his chest as he deeply chuckled. After he calmed down enough to speak, he said, "Please. Thor has been off wandering the galaxies with the Guardians for the past ten years. We've tried to reach out, but haven't gotten very lucky."

Peter's head snapped up as a light bulb went off in his brain, and he anxiously stepped closer to Barnes. "What about the Rogers family? They're out there somewhere, right?"

Bucky's eyes softened, and his arms fell to his sides as he stood up straight, readjusting his leather jacket. "We uh . . ." he struggled with the subject, his heart obviously still heavy even years after his old friend's passing. ". . . they can't help us. I promised Natasha (quick author's note, this is not Black Widow, it's Steve Rogers' daughter, whom he named after Romanoff.) a long time ago that we'd keep her family off the radar, if that was what she wanted. I'm not going to break my promise to her, she deserves that much."