The Final Initiative

54.

A/N: hi all! So these are the last few chapters, I'll give a heartfelt, mushy gushy goodbye in the last chapter, but I'm just letting you all know now :)

Thank you.

💫

      It took us nearly three hours to return all of the stones to their proper places in time. That quick trip included an awkward encounter with the Red Skull, which left Steve feeling a bit weirded out. Skull sure wasn't too stoked to see his old nemesis again. I had only ever seen his charred face in history books, and heard the stories from Steve himself. He got turned into some soul-stone guarding mundane after dying. Sucks to suck, I guess. He shouldn't have picked a fight with the likes of Captain America.

      We hopped across time to 2012, in New York City where I gave the time gem back to the sorcerer supreme, and I made sure to tell her "I told you so", and then we traveled back to the seventies where the two of us returned the Tesseract. This time around I even had the opportunity to see my grandfather up close. Of course he wouldn't know me, but standing within five feet of him left me feeling sad, yet oddly happy at the same time. His features resembled dad so much, it was uncanny.

Our last stop was in space where we returned the power stone on a planet called Morag. There wasn't much to see on the planet, it was covered mainly with rock. I was just glad to be done with it all. Not that I wasn't enjoying my time with Steve, I'd just prefer to be back home on Earth, to where things make the most sense. Space was too big for me.

Steve and I walked together outside of the structure that housed the stone and we returned back under the purple and orange sunset sky. It astounded me to see another small planet over in the horizon, looming gracefully over the clouds. We were in a completely different part of the universe, imagine that. I had never felt so small before in my life "That's it, it's all over" Steve sighed, admiring the sunset view that was dotted with multicolored stars and a spiral of the Milky Way.

"We won" I took in a deep breath and raised my shoulders up, finally feeling at peace that the task was complete "despite all that we lost..." and as it always does, my mind wandered to him. I closed my eyes, wishing that he could be here to see this too.

"Jessi" Steve placed his hand on my shoulder comfortingly "I never... told you how truly sorry I am for what happened" he referred to my dad "I didn't know the right time, or place, or if it'd make you sad, but, time's a bit limited now so... I'm so sorry. I- I really miss him"

      "You didn't say it, but I could always feel it" I could always feel his sympathy, and his love for me. It never needed to be spoken to be known "I miss him too" I said slowly, my eyes on the fading sunset "and now I'm... right back where I started, all those years ago"

"Your mom?" Steve put the pieces together.

"I never expected to end my story the same way that it started, but here I am nonetheless"

      "You're alive" Steve reminded "you're okay... and hurt, yes... but, that never stopped you before. No matter what, you kept pushing forward despite all that has been thrown at you. Your story is not over. And for that, I admire you" he admitted, and I turned to him in surprise. My hero admires me? "I knew I'd like you the second I saw you" he continued on "that's why I tried so hard to give you the shield. I know that I was asking you for the moon, and I'm sorry for that"