The war is over and they won, but there is a lot they'd lost, too. The world is a poorer place for the loss of Tony's ingenuity and brilliance, but more importantly, a little girl will have to grow up without her father, knowing he'd sacrificed himself to save them. Natasha might not have had any family beyond the little band of heroes that she'd gathered around her, but her absence is keenly felt among the ranks. Steve had trusted her, even loved her in a way after all they'd gone through together. She deserved a better end than the one she'd met.
In the aftermath of everything that happened, Steve is the one who is ultimately tasked with returning the infinity stones to their proper places. It's a heavy responsibility, but one he's willing to assume for the good of their timeline and all the others that had been created when the stones were removed from their proper places. To do that, he would have to venture back into the past again.
Now, Steve isn't an idiot, but the complex quantum physics required to understand the mechanics of time travel make his brain hurt a little bit. The first few go off without a hitch, though coming face to face with Red Skull again after so long is an unpleasant shock. The final stop is meant to be Asgard, not only for the Aether but for Mjölnir as well. Discovering he was able to use the mighty hammer was thrilling, though he hadn't been thinking so much of his own worthiness at the time as of the driving need to defeat Thanos. Now he has to put it back for Thor to use it in the past as he's meant to.
One element of time travel that the team hadn't discussed when they were coming up with their plan was the deeply interconnected nature of space and time, that the two aren't separate but parts of a larger whole. They didn't talk about the nature of parallel universes, or how thin the skin between realities could really be. Another thing they hadn't really prepared him for was what to do if something went wrong.
When Steve materializes, he's not on Asgard as far as he can tell. Thor had described it to him, and the wide grassy plane has none of the soaring, golden architecture he'd been told to expect, and quite a few more orcs. He guesses at them being orcs, honestly, he isn't entirely sure. But, they look like the creatures from The Lord of the Rings and one immediately tries to stab him, so he responds in kind by knocking it back with the hammer in his hand. There are riders on horses also fighting the grimy creatures, and with Steve's sudden addition to their number, the orcs are routed in short order.
Predictably, he's the next one surrounded with spears and arrows pointed at his face, so he drops Mjölnir and removes his helmet, holding up a hand to show he means them no harm. "My name is Steve Rogers," he says. "I'm..." Definitely in the wrong place. Can he rightly call himself a friend or ally to people he doesn't know? There's something very familiar about the whole thing and it settles uncomfortably in his brain as he tries to work it out. "I'm not here to fight you," he settles on.
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Date: 2019-05-12 05:35 pm (UTC)In the aftermath of everything that happened, Steve is the one who is ultimately tasked with returning the infinity stones to their proper places. It's a heavy responsibility, but one he's willing to assume for the good of their timeline and all the others that had been created when the stones were removed from their proper places. To do that, he would have to venture back into the past again.
Now, Steve isn't an idiot, but the complex quantum physics required to understand the mechanics of time travel make his brain hurt a little bit. The first few go off without a hitch, though coming face to face with Red Skull again after so long is an unpleasant shock. The final stop is meant to be Asgard, not only for the Aether but for Mjölnir as well. Discovering he was able to use the mighty hammer was thrilling, though he hadn't been thinking so much of his own worthiness at the time as of the driving need to defeat Thanos. Now he has to put it back for Thor to use it in the past as he's meant to.
One element of time travel that the team hadn't discussed when they were coming up with their plan was the deeply interconnected nature of space and time, that the two aren't separate but parts of a larger whole. They didn't talk about the nature of parallel universes, or how thin the skin between realities could really be. Another thing they hadn't really prepared him for was what to do if something went wrong.
When Steve materializes, he's not on Asgard as far as he can tell. Thor had described it to him, and the wide grassy plane has none of the soaring, golden architecture he'd been told to expect, and quite a few more orcs. He guesses at them being orcs, honestly, he isn't entirely sure. But, they look like the creatures from The Lord of the Rings and one immediately tries to stab him, so he responds in kind by knocking it back with the hammer in his hand. There are riders on horses also fighting the grimy creatures, and with Steve's sudden addition to their number, the orcs are routed in short order.
Predictably, he's the next one surrounded with spears and arrows pointed at his face, so he drops Mjölnir and removes his helmet, holding up a hand to show he means them no harm. "My name is Steve Rogers," he says. "I'm..." Definitely in the wrong place. Can he rightly call himself a friend or ally to people he doesn't know? There's something very familiar about the whole thing and it settles uncomfortably in his brain as he tries to work it out. "I'm not here to fight you," he settles on.