Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Now, Bob would be the first to admit that he didn’t have the greatest control over his abilities. He couldn’t even use them without the fear he’d get a taste of that euphoria and never stop. It wasn’t like any other superheroes had to literally face their deepest shames and evil alter egos. No, that was just Bob’s personal brand of bad luck. Did Thor ever have to worry that his god-like strength and hammer would spontaneously blip half of New York out of existence? Bob wagered a guess that no, he did not.

Then Bob couldn’t help but think, what was the point of his powers if they couldn’t even be used to help people? What is he doing living in the Avengers Tower, if the one thing that makes him useful - No Bob, stop. Bad thoughts.

Where was he going with this? Oh yes, his powers. His near limitless powers that he had no clue as to their full extent, but now he had a little bit more of an idea. Because, while he should have been sitting at the breakfast bar in the New Avengers Tower listening to the team bicker about what to order for dinner, he was instead flat on his ass and staring up at six very confused Avengers. A sight that left his mind at a stand still, because oh my god, that’s Steve Rogers, and Tony Stark, and Natasha Romanoff. Three people who, by all accounts, should be dead.

Bob’s first thought was that this had to be a bad trip, because why else would he be seeing this? This had to be his mind playing tricks on him, when it was really just his friends standing over him. But then his second thought was that he’s been sober for years now, and that couldn’t explain how the tower completely changed its decor and furniture. He moved his hand to rub the spots out of his eyes, and quickly realized it was a bad idea to make any sudden movements when the already coiled Avengers tensed even more.

“Who are you and how did you get in here?” Captain America demanded, looking as much the picture perfect superhero as he is famed to be.

The question broke the awkward staring contest Bob found himself in, and he suddenly couldn’t seem to form any coherent thought beyond a stuttered, “Uh… um uh.” Did someone stuff his mouth with cotton?

Please, brain, say something useful before you embarrass yourself even further. “H-Hi Bob, I’m Captain America.” Sudden movements or not, Bob could do nothing but smack his face in mortification as his cheeks heated up by several degrees and he did his best impression of a turtle.

He forced himself to peak out from between his fingers at the sound of Tony Stark’s voice. “Right, and do you care to explain how you managed to infiltrate one of the most heavily monitored buildings in the world undetected, Bob?” Bob’s expression sank when Tony spoke his name almost exactly like Walker did when they had first met.

Once he processed Tony’s question, Bob’s attention was drawn to the room, and by extension, the tower they were in. As the disorientation wore off, it dawned on him that he never left Avengers Tower. What concerned him was how this definitely was not the same Avengers Tower he had been in mere moments ago. As absurd as it sounded, his best conclusion was that he must have time travelled to the past.

“W-would you believe me if I said I’m as shocked that I’m here as you are?” He asked with a grimace that did nothing to aid in his believability.

“No, we wouldn’t.“ Black Widow added, and Bob couldn’t help but note the similarities she shared with Yelena. The dry tone for one, and her widow bites for another. “Care to share how you got in here?”

“Okay… um,” He swallowed convulsively, all the while running through the typical rules of time travel. Don’t give away future spoilers for one. He was promptly overwhelmed by the sheer number of spoilers he might spill that he quickly threw that idea out the window. Bob did not do well under pressure and just the idea of trying to cover up his story made him break out in a cold sweat. “I think I know what happened, but it wasn’t because of technology. I’m... uh.”

Bob had to take a deep breath, stealing himself for the inevitable reactions of disbelief. Slowly, so as not to have several weapons fire on him at once, he at last got to his feet with his hands raised above his head in the universal sign of surrender. “I have abilities… and I think they brought me into the past.”

A strong beat of silence weighed down on the room, far different from his comfortable weighted blanket.

“That’s the story you’re going with? Super powers and time travel?” Clint Barton asked while looking between the other Avengers with a face that asked, ‘Is this guy serious?’.

“Spontaneous transportation across the fourth dimension is impossible, much less when conducted by a person.

“Just call it time travel, Bruce.” Clint turned his attention from the doctor to Bob. “Say you were enhanced, what do you mean you ‘think’ that brought you here?”

“Landing here was a complete accident, and what I can and can’t do is anybody’s guess. Granted I also don’t use my powers very often, what with fearing the moment I start I’ll never stop…” Bob probably shouldn’t have mentioned that last part.

"That's convenient." Natasha's Widow Bites never wavered from Bob's face.

Tony stepped forward, clearly already chalking him up to be a crackpot. “Well I say we get him in a containment room and find out what he’s doing here. I’m sure you’ve got some fun interrogation tactics up your sleeve Romanoff.”

“Wait wait! Please, I can prove it.” Bob’s brain immediately launched into overdrive, doing its best to remember all the hazy details of the past several years. This led Bob to consider that while he could guess a rough idea of when he was, he still didn’t know the exact year. The Battle of New York must have already happened, for obvious reasons, but he’s assuming Ultron hasn’t been created yet.

What could he say that wouldn’t make him sound even more insane than he already did? His mind was still caught up in the major events of the past, so when he tried to recall the Battle of the Triskelion, the words slipped out before he even realized he was speaking.

“I know who the Winter Soldier is.”

Chapter Text

In hindsight, Bob should’ve known that mentioning the Winter Soldier would only make him appear more suspicious. After all, they were already on guard that he might be a highly trained spy trying to trick them. Why not dangle a deeply coveted secret in their faces? It certainly didn’t help Bob’s anxiety that he immediately began to second guess if he should go through with telling them.

He was given plenty of time to consider his options since they left him in an interrogation room, but between the harsh fluorescent lighting and cold metal chair, Bob didn’t get far.

Time blurred quickly after landing in the past, as it felt like it had been hours already. Most of that time had been spent alone, staring at the one way glass on the far wall and going over the events that lead him there. While it seemed most of the Avengers had no idea the Winter Soldier even existed, Black Widow was quick to restrain Bob and shut him in the interrogation room. Everything had happened so fast he hardly got a word in edgewise. He could only guess what they were saying about him.

It was still sinking in that the Avengers were really there. While they were all impressive, his attention kept drifting toward Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers.

He’d already heard countless stories about Natasha from Yelena and Alexei. Alexei was always so proud of his daughter, and regularly boasted of her accomplishments as a world famous Avenger, before soon falling uncharacteristically quiet. Yelena, on the other hand, occasionally shared stories from the brief time the two of them got to be sisters. Bob had learned to spot the far away look she got when thinking about Natasha, or Nat as Yelena preferred.

He knew far less about Steve Rogers comparatively. Bucky was notoriously a closed book, and Bob was still a bit too intimidated by him to prod any further.

He really wished that his friends were here with him. Any one of them would know more about modern world history than he did. Wait… no, Bob took that back. Alexei was in prison for decades and didn’t pay attention to the news anyway. But Bucky meticulously kept track of information, Ava had worked for possibly the most intimidating intelligence agency there was, Walker was a respected soldier, and Yelena trained as a Black Widow. With the team on his mind, Bob ran through what he knew of their current whereabouts. They were all either detained, brainwashed, or running covert ops. Whenever he remembered their pasts, he knew there wasn’t any room to complain about his own.

The sound of the door opening interrupted his thoughts as a man and a woman entered, looking like they were straight out of a spy movie. The man’s eyepatch and trench coat only served to reinforce the stereotype.

“So this is who all of the excitement is about?” The man asked as he took a seat at the table while the woman stood by the door with her arms crossed. “He doesn’t look like much, then again looks can be deceiving. Bob, is it?”

“Uh yes Sir.”

“You’ve made some people very nervous very quickly. What, with showing up out of the blue in the Avenger’s kitchen, throwing around stories of time travel? You’ve made some heavy claims.”

“I never meant any harm Mr…” Bob paused, as he had no clue who he was speaking to.

“Fury. You know, my friends call me Nick, like Agent Hill here.” He inclined his head towards the woman whose stare made Bob want to shrink in on himself. ”And I’d like for us to be friends, but that depends on if you can help me out.” Something about the way Fury spoke reminded Bob of Valentina when she was trying to make him into the Sentry.

“I’d like to do that Mr. Fury Sir. It’s just, I don’t want to make things any worse, and my memories of this time are a little fuzzy. What… What year is it?”

A beat later, “2015.”

The 2015 New Year was clear in his mind as the one that marked the start of his drug-hazed world travels. He was twenty two with no money, a permanent record, and plenty of childhood fueled trauma.

“I mean, it is bold, saying you know the identity of the single most feared assassin in the world.” The statement was punctuated with a low whistle. “Of course if there’s any grain of truth to your story, we have to hear you out, right? Is that how you think this will work?”

Bob shuffled uncomfortably in his chair as his sweater grew tighter around his neck. “I had sorta hoped so. I have no idea what I’m doing and I really wanted someone to listen to me, because this is all way over my head.”

Fury looked back at Agent Hill before locking his eye on Bob again. “Well, we’re listening. And you still haven’t told us who the Winter Soldier is.”

Something in Bob’s mind clicked at Fury’s words. Wasn’t he in the US during the Battle of the Triskelion? That meant it had to have happened in 2014. “Wait a minute, shouldn’t you know already?”

Fury leaned back in his chair, his eye scrutinizing Bob.

“Unless you lied.” Bob felt like a complete idiot. So much for being careful with his words. “It’s not actually 2015, is it?”

“...No, it’s not. The year is 2013.”

Even if this guy had to be trusted by the Avengers to be here, the fear and mistrust Hydra caused when they resurfaced lingered in his mind.

“Whatever I say you’re not going to believe it, are you?”

“There are a lot of powerful people that would love to do what you say you’ve done by complete accident, and I am not in a position to rule out any possibilities. Though as it stands, you’ve given me nothing of value and nothing to back up your claim.” Fury stood up, walking toward the door.

“I want to believe you. It certainly would make things a lot easier for me if you were telling the truth.”

He shut his eyes as the four walls around him quickly became suffocating and his chance to say something useful prepared to leave with Fury. He didn’t know how long they’d leave him alone with only his thoughts again.

“Bucky Barnes!”

Fury’s steps halted. “Come again?”

“Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier.”

Fury’s expression remained unseen as he turned and left the room, Agent Hill trailing close behind.

The sound of the door clicking shut was the nail in his coffin as Bob leant forward over the table with his head in his hands. He just wanted to go home to his friends. If only Bob had Ava’s phasing abilities to vanish and slip away. Better yet, if only Bob had Ava there.

The tug of his powers responded an instant before the atmosphere shifted, and a low, resonant hum filled his ears. He blinked into an unfamiliar facility with a large chamber pulsing ahead. The familiar figure within quickly captured his attention.

*

“Steve, you can’t go in there like this.”

“He’s talking about Bucky, Nat!”

Nick was not surprised to see Romanoff standing between Rogers and the door when he stepped out. Thankfully, Rogers’ manners from the forties kept him in place. He braced himself for the headache that was already forming.

“Fury, that man better have a damn good reason for what he said.”

“Have you considered it’s the truth?”

“Come on Nick, you’re not seriously entertaining this?” Maria questioned, entering his line of sight.

“What, the idea of time travel doesn’t excite you?” A sigh escaped him at meeting her unimpressed stare, “This Bob has painted a very interesting picture. However, whether he believes his story or not, there’s more he’s not saying.”

“Interesting story or not Fury, he said Bucky’s alive. I watched him fall, it’s impossible.”

“And people used to say the same thing about you, Captain.”

Thankfully Romanoff chose that moment to contribute to the conversation, “He could be trying to distract you, Steve. Barnes was a notable war hero and your very public friend. As evidenced, it’d be easy to use his name to rattle you.” His posture responded to her words, as he no longer looked poised to charge through the door. She turned to Nick. “You said he’s holding something back. Anything to do with that little stunt you pulled?”

“It was a calculated risk that he might slip up, and he did.”

At the reminder of his lie, Maria’s frown deepened. “People don’t tend to trust those who deceive them; you may have just lost your credibility in there. What did you gain from it?”

“Say he is telling the truth and he is from the future,” At Rogers opening his mouth to interject Nick held up a hand, “Hold on, just hear me out.”

“Something happens to alert the general public to the Winter Soldier’s identity as presumably, Howling Commando James Barnes. Something that Bob, and I quote, ‘doesn’t want to make any worse.’ All of this occurs between now and some time likely in 2014, given his certainty we would be aware of the events a year later. It’s all very specific.”

When Maria next spoke he heard the ‘I’m done humoring Nick’ tone, “Like you said, it’s a story. A distraction. However you want to look at it, his presence here has bad implications. What we need to know is how he got into the Tower.”

“We ran a full scan on him and came up empty. If it was advanced technology that let him do it, then it wasn’t on his person. Stark and Banner have been working to come up with an explanation.”

“We need to be prepared for the possibility they don’t find anything.”

“Then we keep poking for holes. He’s slipped up once, it’s likely he’ll do it again.” The years Nick spent in his line of work taught him to second guess everything. Still, there was something raw in Bob’s voice that couldn’t be faked. It wasn’t that he wanted to be heard, but that he needed to be.

“Romanoff, any update on that DNA sample you pulled?”

“It’s already been through the lab, we’re just waiting to find a match, and JARVIS is running a facial search in the meantime. We’ll be alerted immediately if they find anything.”

“The instant they do, I’m going in there myself.” Rogers' tone left little room for debate.

“I’m afraid there’s going to be a problem with that, Captain Rogers.” Stark’s disembodied AI was unsettling, but that didn’t compare to its next words.

“Mr. Bob appears to have vanished.”

Chapter Text

Ava was grateful to finally be back at the SHIELD compound dedicated to housing her Quantum Energy Chamber. The Quinjet ride back had been its usual torture as she endured her handler’s endless debriefing. All the while she was frayed at the edges from the overuse of her phasing.

To Ava there was nothing better than the lull of the chamber and the small reprieve it granted as her molecules were knit back together. Occasionally, Bill would keep her company and bring something new to keep her entertained. She always suspected it was more inspired by guilt than anything altruistic. However, as busy as she was, SHIELD liked to take up even more of Bill’s time. 

Bill hadn’t been around in a while.

Therefore, by all accounts, the only person in the facility should have been her. That was why, when a gasp echoed outside the chamber, she shot from the bed on high alert.  Some random guy in a large sweater and sweatpants stood frozen in the middle of the room and the sight brought her up short. Ava’s mind jumped to how he had gotten this far without her hearing him. It was possible the chamber drowned out any sound he’d made until now.

Whoever this guy was, he interrupted her rare tranquility. “Who the hell are you?” Ava caught a flicker of disappointment on his face, but thought nothing of it.

“I’m Bob.”

“How did you get here?”

“Well, I was really overwhelmed, and just wanted one of my friends, and now...” He shrugged his arms uselessly and– were those tears forming? Either Bob was a very good enemy operative, or a very bad one. Was it possible a civilian wandered in off the street? It didn’t matter. He’d already seen too much, and SHIELD was nothing if not discrete.

“I’m sorry you’ve seen this.” And if he was a civilian, she really was. So Ava did what she always would when her conscience reared its head, and stuffed it deep, deep down. She’d learned to do that pretty quickly after joining SHIELD.

Steeling herself, Ava left the chamber. Despite how often she dealt with it, the wave of pain never came any easier. She caught the moment Bob spotted the afterimages that betrayed her condition. The Ghost Suit lay in a pile nearby, but there was no time to put it on. She’d have to be quick without it.

Bob took a few steps back, his hands raised, “Wait! It’s okay, I’m a friend!”

“Nice try, I don’t have any friends.” Maybe she would have cringed at that if it weren’t true. Could she even count Bill? There was no time to dwell on it as she pressed on, only for her foot to destabilize and shift into the floor. Normally she had more time in the chamber or wore the suit so stuff like this didn’t happen.

“It’s the truth! Ava, we’re friends… in the future. I know how it sounds, and you wouldn’t be the first person to think I’m crazy.”

Bob’s words briefly stalled her. He was right, she did think he was crazy. “Friends? Like hell we are. Now you’re going to tell me how you know my name.” Ava’s concentration shifted to keep herself from rematerializing inside the floor. 

“I know it because you told us in the incinerator when we first met! And eventually you told me about how SHIELD lied to you.”

“What are you talking about?” Her afterimages flickered wildly as she freed her foot and advanced on Bob.  “SHIELD’s curing me.”

“By sending you on endless missions and taking advantage of you?”

No… no no. Who the hell did this guy think he was? “You don’t know anything!” She charged through the crate and grabbed Bob by his sweater. She felt her phasing unraveling with her emotions, but didn’t care.

“I know that they’ll never go through on their promise as long as you’re useful to them.”

Some small part of Ava, that sounded a lot like Bill, told her to stop and listen. It tended to pop up any time she had similar doubts in the past. SHIELD would always insist they were getting closer to a cure before sending her on another mission, and each one blurred her lines a little bit more.

Those thoughts were then promptly tucked away right next to her conscience, because SHIELD wasn’t lying. They couldn’t be after all she’s done for them.

A sinking feeling settled over Ava as in the blink of an eye the world melted away around her. She whirled around, finding herself in a narrow hallway washed of its saturation. Bob was nowhere in sight, and her phasing had died down to a low ache. What the hell just happened?

A shout down the hall pulled her attention. Where was she? That same voice in her head from before told her she should already know.

Pictures lined the wall, each one depicting a small family of three — two parents and their young girl. An image of the girl and her father fueled Ava’s dread right as a gunshot echoed throughout the house. Her feet continued to carry her along of their own accord.

Ava reached the end of the hall and entered the room on the end, a study. Her memory of that mission resurfaced. It was yet another SHIELD test meant to push her limits. And there was her past self standing over her mark. Was this some sort of out-of-body experience?

“Target eliminated. Moving to the extraction point” Other-Ava reported tonelessly into her comm. An affirmative must have come through from her handler. She couldn’t care less, however, as soft footsteps approached the room.

Other-Ava vanished at the sound. The room looked empty to the naked eye, save for the body lying on the floor. Ava’s memory knew better. Just as it had happened before, it happened again, and the little girl entered the doorway. 

Why was she seeing this? Refusing to watch further, Ava phased through the wall to find herself falling back into the facility. She crashed to the floor and the wind was knocked from her lungs. She found herself back outside the quantum chamber, only something was wrong. The lights were dimmed, and there was once again another Ava, this one was much older. It was just her and Bill.

“Well, then we’ll make them bring the lab back.”

“How?”

“Lang. He has a daughter, right?”

“You can’t mean that. Ava! I tolerate a lot of the things you do out there… but I won’t be a part of anything like that.”

If this never happened, then how could she remember it?

Without warning, Ava’s powers seized. She dropped through the floor only to rise into another memory. There was a charge in the air as a long machine radiated with unstable energy. The Quantum Tunnel, she corrected herself. Names and events that have yet to occur started to come back to her. Once again she watched her older– no, past? – self as she fought Scott and Hope. 

Ava had been ready to rip apart another family to fix herself. She had spent so long hating Hank Pym, but she was no better.

The lab around her shifted back to reality with the pain of her powers returning in full force. Bob was no longer in her grasp, but stood a step away watching her. 

Her present memories collided with those yanked from the future and she felt ready to hurl. Entirely unprepared at being dumped in her ailing body, Ava rushed to the quantum chamber and shut the door.

“Ava? Are you okay?”

Oh, right. 

Once more Ava found herself watching him through the glass. “Bob, what did you do?” He winced at her tone, and she made the mental note to sound maybe a little less aggressive.

“Do you… remember me?”

“Between the two of us, I’m not the one known for memory problems.”

“Oh thank god.” Bob visibly relaxed at her words and let out a nervous chuckle. “I’ll take that as a yes. Okay, um I think I screwed up, like, big time.”

 Patience was never Ava’s virtue, but she knew Bob needed a second to force out what he was trying to say.

“I sort of… maybe… definitely, brought us into the past. It was like, one moment I’m in the kitchen with you and the rest of the team and the next I’m still in the kitchen, only it’s not exactly our kitchen and the original Avengers are there and they think I’m either a nutjob or some secret agent sent to spy on them. They locked me in a room and then some real secret agents came in to talk to me. Then they left, and next thing I knew I was here.”

“I’m going to need you to walk me through that a lot slower.”

*

“Bob?”

“Yeah?”

“We’re in deep shit.”

“...Yeah.”

The two of them had been sitting on either side of the chamber wall while Bob launched into his recap. It was a long half hour of him explaining how he arrived in the Tower, met the original Avengers, spoke with the Nick Fury, who Ava couldn’t believe Bob had never heard of, and then blinked across the country to find her. 

At some point Ava found herself laying on her back, eyes shut, and in quiet disbelief. Logically, she knew it was all real – the quantum chamber she had fought so hard to escape was pretty damning evidence. Accepting their circumstances was a different issue, though one she decided to categorize as optional.

Maybe Bucky would say that was an unhealthy coping mechanism, but he was the Winter Soldier right now, so he didn’t have any ground to stand on. And if that’s unfair, then too bad. What’s also unfair is Ava having to relive her body trying to tear itself apart.

Deep in the mental clutter of her head, it took a while to notice Bob falling uncharacteristically silent. And therein lay another issue. By no means was Ava the kind of person who could comfort others. That role typically fell to Yelena, or even Alexei when he wasn’t being intolerable. Could she steal some of Bucky’s therapy talk?

“Are you… okay?” That was a good start, right?

A humorless chuckle came through the glass. “Oh yeah, just– just great. I’m fine. I’m…I.”  Bob pushed himself up to sit before groaning into his hands. Yep, that’s what ‘fine’ sounds like.

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this, Ava.”

What was there to say to that? Ava was not about to admit to the fresh agony she’d been returned to. But maybe while they were apologizing, “I’m sorry for attacking you.”

“You didn’t know who I was.” 

“Still sorry.”

There was something nagging at the back of her mind. Ava sat up and faced him.

“How did you bring me here?”

Bob shrunk in on himself and released a long breath, “It’s like I’ve been saying, I have no clue. All I know is I was alone in the past with the only person I actually knew trying to…well” He paused, shooting her a guilty look. “And I figured, I had this coming. I mean, I’ve done this to myself after all.”

Uh oh, that certainly explained her trip down nightmare lane in the Void. It was a bizarre experience, suddenly remembering the future as if it was the past. Was it actually the Void that managed to connect her future memories to her past self? Either way, she wasn’t about to go and tell Bob that theory. 

“Didn’t you just reiterate how accidental this all was? Don’t give yourself so much credit.”

He shrugged with his eyes remaining locked on the floor.

It looked like it was up to Ava to help Bob keep the Void at bay. She didn’t see this ending well.

“Okay, we’re leaving.” Ava knew the clock was ticking down until SHIELD/Hydra found out Bob was there, and they had stalled long enough. As much as she dreaded leaving the chamber, they needed to get their bearings someplace safe.

She stood and made for the door, ripping off the metaphorical bandaid. Odds were Ava wouldn't be returning for quite some time. It was quick work to equip her old Ghost Suit and lead Bob to the exit.

“Where are we going?”

“I wish I could tell you.”

Chapter Text

“I had him on the ropes.”

There were a lot of things that had changed since the 1940s. Technology, people, and food sat high up on that list. More than anything, it was the impossible. Steve used to think he was pretty comfortable with the word. They said it was impossible for him to join the army, or impossible to become a super soldier.

They said it was impossible that Bucky survived. And maybe that was still true. Maybe he never made it out of that valley. Steve normally would have agreed, but then Bob showed up, and once again, “impossible” meant something different. 

It should have been so easy to dismiss Bob as delusional, or accuse him of making it all up to get under their skin. But deep in Steve’s gut, something told him otherwise and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

“I know you did.” 

Rather, he would have, if not for something else impossible happening. 

Steve’s eyes weren’t deceiving him when he watched the camera footage of Bob vanishing out of thin air. At first, they’d attributed Bob’s arrival to some unknown cutting-edge tech. His departure had since convinced them otherwise, as they knew for a fact that Bob was clean in that room. 

“Time travel is starting to sound a bit more plausible, don’t you think?” Fury spoke up, stepping back from the monitor. The Avengers had gathered in Tony and Bruce’s lab and all were left equally amazed by the recording

“I- I don’t understand it. There’s nothing there.” Bruce stammered, and Steve could practically see the smoke rising from his short-circuiting brain.

A Hydra weapon charging.

“Yes, because he is gone. We just saw it.” Thor pointed at the screen to emphasize his point, to which Bruce just shook his head.

“No, not just visually. We swept the entire spectrum, UV, infrared, gamma, microwaves, radio waves. Every sensor we have came back null. No signatures, nothing! Nothing came or went from that room at any observable level. It’s as if he just stopped existing."

“It’s the same readings in the kitchen. Completely spontaneous teleportation.” Tony’s voice betrayed his excitement at the new development. It was moments like this that Steve could see his resemblance to Howard.

“Get down!”

Though Steve didn’t often understand what Bruce or Tony talked about, he could get the general gist, and it didn’t bode well. How do you pin down someone who didn’t even play by the same rules?

“That much potential in one person is not a comforting thought.” Fury said echoing Steve’s thoughts.

Nat stepped forward, a tablet in her hands. “Fortunately for us, we were able to find a match for one Robert Reynolds.” A few taps on the device and the information was sent to the lab’s screen.

 “Born 1993 in Sarasota Springs, Florida. Robert was raised by his addict mother and abusive father, flunked out of school, and now he’s working as a chicken mascot for Alfredo’s Bail Bonds. Nothing extraordinary about this guy except…”

Two photographs of Bob appeared side by side. “The one on the left was taken only a few months ago for his employee ID. The one on the right was taken today by myself. Notice anything?” Steve inspected the pictures, and by all means they looked to be of the same person. The only real differences were the setting, lighting, and…

Steve’s eyes widened in realization. “He’s aged.”

The first blast deflected, and the train tore open. 

“We compared the sample we obtained to the one on his records, and his DNA markers show an age discrepancy of at least a decade. To put it simply…”

“The guy’s a real Marty McFly,” the awe in Tony’s voice spoke for the whole room as they processed the implications. Time travel was real, and they had spoken with an actual time traveler. 

Was Bob really telling the truth? About… everything? Steve tried to stop the traitorous hope that started to grow in his chest. If he wasn’t careful and Bob’s claim turned out to be a red herring, it would be like losing his best friend all over again.

Bucky holding the shield. Gunshots. 

“Then let’s hope he hasn’t gone back to the future. We need what he knows,” Fury stated. He took a breath before looking at each of them in turn. 

“We don’t know where he is, and even though his story checks out, he’s not a confirmed friendly.  We’ll task SHIELD resources to scan any and all new video or photographic media to find him. CCTV, social media, his known associations, you name it. If he’s still in this time, we’ll find him, and when we do,” Fury fixed his gaze on Clint and Nat, “the two of you are going after him.”

Another blast and Steve’s heart dropped.

Steve did a double take at his notable exclusion. “I’m going with them.” 

Tony just had to comment, “And I’m sure your motivation to do so has nothing to do with your old war buddy.” His resemblance to his father vanished. Tony couldn’t understand what it was to hope a single thread from his past remained– that not everyone you had ever known was gone.

Agent Hill interjected from her spot next to Fury. “Romanoff and Barton are specialized stealth operatives, and we need this handled quietly. You tend to draw attention.”

Steve understood the logic, but there was more that Hill wasn’t saying. He didn’t need to be handled by kid gloves. “Tell me the real reason.”

“You want the truth?” Fury turned and locked eyes with him. “Fine. You’re too close to the situation and can’t handle this objectively. Besides, we need you here.” His statement gave Steve pause. How could his time be better spent in the Tower? He had to be out there working to find Bob. 

“If Barnes really is alive, you’re our best chance at figuring out how and where he might be.”

“Bucky! Hang on! Grab my hand!” For all the serum had given Steve, he was useless as the railing broke away. 

The rest of their conversation fell on deaf ears. 

Bucky’s scream echoed through the valley.

 Bucky, he’d make this right.

*

“Knock knock.” Nat’s voice brought him back to the present, as her fist rapped against his room’s doorframe. Steve looked up, unsure what he was there for.

“Oh uh, come in.” He turned to sit on the bed, and Nat quickly followed suit. She moved with her usual grace to sit cross-legged beside him.

“Wow, so scandalous, Steve. Sitting on a bed with a woman before marriage?”

“Oh har-dee-har.”

“You’re gonna soil my virtue.”

“…”

“... Shocked your old heart can take it.”

That got a small chuckle out of Steve before he glanced over at Nat. “Got it all out of your system?”

“Mmm, probably not.”

Their soft laughter floated in the air, stilling for a moment, before falling down and grounding them with it. She’d likely soon be gone with Clint in their search for Bob, and he’d be left to wait anxiously at the Tower. If they even found him, that is. 

Nat leaned backwards with her forearms on the comforter to prop her up. “We’ll get your answers, you know.”

“You can’t promise we’ll find Bob.”

“I’m not talking about finding Bob. He’s just our cheat sheet.” Steve didn’t expect to hear Nat so dismissive of potential foresight. ”I’m talking about doing what we’ve been trained to do, and rooting out information for ourselves. That’s not nothing.”

She wasn’t wrong. There was no guarantee they’d get actionable intel, and they needed a backup plan. Steve knew that, logically. It didn’t stop Fury’s words from lingering in his head. Too close to the situation. Maybe he was right, but Steve was also a trained soldier. Putting the mission first was second nature.

“It still doesn’t feel good to be sent on a wild goose chase.”

“It’s not a wild goose chase if there are geese.” At Steve's expression she rolled her eyes. 

“Fury didn’t send you, did he?”

“It may be shocking to hear, but I have my own autonomy outside of SHIELD.” There was a beat after Nat expertly dodged the question. Was that something she even did consciously? She seemed to realize it when she added, “No, he did not send me.”

Something in him eased at her words, allowing him to consider the validity of his mission outside of Fury’s manipulations. Maybe there was a real purpose behind it– and if so, it was time to quit sitting on his laurels. Steve sat straighter as his mindset shifted to the task at hand. If he was going to find Bucky, he needed to know what became of him. Steve took a deep breath, stealing himself.

 “Tell me about the Winter Soldier.”

Nat must have sensed the resolve in his voice and stood from the bed. “He’s a ghost story. Most in intelligence think he’s an urban legend. The few that don’t have credited him with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years.” 

Ignore the possibility that this could be Bucky. Focus on the facts. His feet pushed him up to pace the length of the room to match his churning thoughts. “That’s a long time to be active.”

“Sounds like someone else I know.” A plausibility. If Steve has stayed young as long as he has, then someone else could have.

“And how do I find him?”

“You don’t. Believe me, I tried.”

Steve tried to keep his frustration from bleeding into his tone, “This doesn’t sound like geese.” If the Winter Soldier was a dead end, how was he meant to get answers?

“Then maybe you go after a different goose. There’s two ends to this story, Steve.” 

And he knew its beginning. 

Steve’s pacing stopped as he felt a plan forming. For the first time since that moment in the interrogation room, the weight on his shoulders steadied. Steve hadn’t realized how much he needed that nudge in the right direction. He’d have to thank Natasha sometime, but first, he had a train track to find.

JARVIS’s voice cut through the room with impeccable timing, “Miss Romanoff, your presence has been requested by Director Fury. The future Mr. Reynolds has been located.”

“Time to find my own goose.”

Chapter Text

Never before had a one-star hotel mattress felt so nice to sink into. And Bob had stayed in his fair share of low end hotels, so he would know. He could probably sleep on a dirty back alley dumpster mattress right then and there with how shot his nerves were. 

It had been a long evening of him and Ava finding somewhere they could lay low. Bob hadn’t even realized until they left the SHIELD facility that he had traveled all the way across the country to San Francisco to find Ava. The abrupt time shift did nothing to help his disorientation.

Moving through the city had been exhausting, as they trudged through the streets until their feet ached. Ava was intent on keeping the Ghost suit on, so often Bob had to walk along the sidewalk while she was out of sight. His brain kept trying to convince him that Ava had left and was long gone, before he would hear a disembodied whisper in his ear, or she’d pull him out of the crowd to point out their next checkpoint. Then he berated himself for doubting her. 

As they traveled further into the city, each time Bob saw Ava the afterimages lasted just a little longer than the last. Eventually it became clear they both needed to stop and rest. If the two of them continued on as exhausted and frayed as they were, they were bound to slip up. 

The hotel they managed to find was crammed between a laundromat and a nail salon, and when they went inside the lobby attendant was nowhere in sight. Bob followed Ava’s voice along as she made quick work of finding an unoccupied room and opening its door from the inside to let him in. He let the door click shut and promptly fell onto the closest bed. 

“Oh thank god.” Bob groaned into the comforter as he could finally feel the tension leave his body. The frantic energy that had been building all day at last had a chance to dissipate. 

He heard shuffling on the carpet before Ava collapsed onto the other bed.

“I’m ready to sleep for days.”

If he woke up in twenty-four hours, it would be too early.

“I mean it. I’m not leaving this bed for a long time.”

“...”

“Still really hungry though. We did not have anything substantial to eat tonight.” Stolen granola bars from vending machines did not count as something substantial.

“Bob.”

“Huh?”

“Please, just...” The strain in her voice got him to lift his head from out of the comforter. Ava was flat on her back with her eyes screwed shut, and every so often there’d be a flicker in her visibility. 

Good going, Bob. After everything she did to get them to safety, he couldn’t offer the same consideration? It took a few seconds more of watching Ava’s unstable image before he forced his limbs to lift himself from the bed. 

Okay, Bob, don’t just stand there. What would help? He scanned the room for ideas before his eyes landed on the window and its attached AC unit. Lighting first. As quietly as he could he padded over to the far wall and grabbed the curtain chain. Bob cringed at the sound of the hotel-quality shades drawing shut, but was pleased at the lack of evening light flooding the room. Next up, temperature. Fortunately it was a straightforward task of lifting the lid to the AC control panel and lowering the number to a comfortable cool 68° F. Not too stuffy, but not freezing. 

There wasn’t much else at Bob’s disposal, and unfortunately that didn’t include a high-tech anti-phasing machine. With nothing else to do but wait, he settled himself on the floor and leaned back against the side of Ava’s bed. He tilted his head to rest on the bed and shut his eyes. For a while the only sound was the quiet hum of the AC unit.

“What– what’s this about?” His head was still bent backwards at an uncomfortable angle when he shifted to find Ava looking at him. She gestured vaguely between Bob, the window, and the air conditioner.

“Oh uh, I dunno, just… wanted to make things maybe a little more comfy for you.” He somehow managed a shrug from his awkward position. A quietness came over them, neither one willing to speak above a whisper. “Seemed right.”

They both hesitated to stop whatever staring contest they’d found themselves in until Ava blinked slowly. “How’d you know to do that?” 

The question made him divert his attention to the carpet where he found a loose thread to pick at. “It’s what I always wished someone had done for me.” Hearing how that sounded, he continued, “before the Thunderbolts. Before O.X.E. I uh… tried a lot of stuff. Drugs.” 

Bob already told Yelena, he may as well tell Ava. He figured she probably had an idea about it anyway.

“I thought they would make the problems… less.”

He twirled the thread and watched it unwind.

“They never really did. And then there were the bad ones that just made everything too much . Like my brain was wired wrong and I couldn’t shut it off.”

The carpet thread started to unravel, each smaller thread broke apart from the others.

Bob jolted, lifting his head to see Ava still watching him. He could feel his cheeks heating up from embarrassment as he averted his gaze. Way to make this about yourself, Bob.

“I uh, I know it’s not the same thing and that was a long time ago anyway…”

“And sitting on the floor?”

His butt took that as a sign to remind him of how uncomfortable the floor was. “Thought you should have someone close.” Was this a stupid idea? He fidgeted, rearranging his position to fold his legs up. 

“Well, if you’re so determined…” There were more shuffling noises followed by two distinct pats. He looked over instinctively, and saw that she had shifted to the far side of the bed with the other half open. “You are not giving up the amazing hotel mattress you’ve been looking forward to for hours, just to sit on the floor.”

It took a few seconds of his sluggish brain trying to work before his limbs responded, and quite literally climbed up the bed. Bob couldn’t stop the small grin from forming on his face as they both settled on their backs over the comforter. A warm feeling formed in Bob’s chest at the hope he did something right for once.

The last dregs of his strength seeped into the bed. Nothing but white noise and the sound of their breathing reached Bob’s ears. He could barely make out the harshly textured ceiling through the low light.

“What were they like?”  Bob flipped his head to face Ava at her question. “The uh, Avengers.”

In the moment of meeting them, it was absolutely mortifying. Just thinking back on the incident made Bob want to hide in his sweater.

He spoke, careful that he didn’t disturb the room’s quiet, “Super intimidating. Like, those are the people who saved– or, will save– half of the universe. I’m pretty sure I blacked out when I arrived, I don’t know most of what I said or did. Not– not in the evil Void sort of way, so don’t worry.” 

Several beats passed, and Bob thought that was the end of any conversation, until a snort from Ava startled Bob. “Oh I can totally picture them all standing there, so self important and serious.” Bob was pleased to hear some of the strain gone from her voice. “Makes me glad I only ever crossed paths with Lang.” Oh that’s right, she did meet an Avenger already.

“Ha, yeah that’s actually really accurate, now that I think about it.” 

“I still can’t believe you told them about Bucky, and with Captain America there. You know, you’ve definitely scared them shitless.” Quiet laughter started to emanate from Ava. He didn’t know if she was feeling better or they were slowly losing their minds. “You just showed up, dropped that in their laps, then left. Screw the timeline, that’s priceless.”

Oh don’t remind him. Bob was still recovering from that panic reaction. And screw the timeline was right, because he didn’t think there was any fixing it with the damage he caused in such a short span of time. Could they even return to the future at this point? Was there a future to return to?

As Bob’s thoughts spiraled, Ava’s laughter continued, and the hysteria crept in. “I, haha, yeah I guess I did.” In hindsight, it was a little funny. No one else could claim to have startled the Avengers so quickly. He couldn’t stop the giggles that bubbled up.

“They definitely thought I was insane.” 

“That’s a given.”

“Black Widow locked me up in about ten seconds flat. Picture Yelena, but like, twice as paranoid and scary.”

“Oh shit, that’s right.”

Their conversation quickly devolved into a giggle high despite everything. Bob noticed Ava trying to stifle it, flickering more with each chuckle. Maybe they shouldn’t be laughing, or maybe they had to, just to cope with the absurdity of their situation. 

Either way, they eventually came back down, an aching exhaustion left in the wake. Bob’s thoughts still lingered on the topic.

“Yelena and Alexei should be the ones to get to see Natasha again. Bucky too– er, with Steve, I mean.” If anyone should’ve been brought to the past, it was them. They would know what to do. 

“Probably… lucky us.” Ava’s voice was quieter now, punctuated by a long exhale that led Bob to do the same. Each subsequent breath lulled them back into silence.

He and Ava were there… because he brought them there. 

Bob liked to think he’d helped Ava just then, that he made a difference. For once it was without his powers. All they’d ever done was hurt the people he cared about. But… did they have to? His friends should be there with him and Ava, not who knows where with no memory of the Thunderbolts. 

What if that didn’t have to be the case?