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“Are you sure you want to do that?” Thanos’ voice rumbled deeply in Steve’s ear. “To fight me, knowing you will lose? Is that the choice you wish to make?”
Steve’s limbs were locked in place, refusing to budge even an inch, no matter how much he struggled. Tony was coming, he reminded himself. Steve just had to bide his time.
“There’s no choice to be made,” he spat out. “We’ll never stop fighting you.”
Thanos chuckled.
“So you think. I have power beyond anything you could dream of, Terran. All your struggles are useless. Wouldn’t it be better to just… give in? I’m an understanding being. If you give me what I want, I’d be happy to return the favor and give you something you want as well.”
“There is nothing I could want from you,” Steve snarled as Thanos finally rounded him.
The infinity gauntlet gleamed as Thanos held it up in the light, stones glowing. His smile was amused, rather than annoyed or frustrated.
“No?” Thanos chuckled. “You forget, I have the mind stone which allows me to see all your deepest desires. You cannot hide them from me. It would be a simple thing for me to give you that which you most wish for.”
With a wave of his great hand, the scenery around them changed, the hues warming and music swelling in the air. Steve recognized it instantly. It was the same music that had played during the vision Wanda had given him, the brassy tune of a big band.
It’s not real, he told himself. None of it is real. Whatever he shows you, it’s not real.
A hand slapping his shoulder jarred him from his thoughts.
“Aw, come on, Stevie! What’s the hold up? Don’t tell me you’re changing your mind now when there are all these dames about? Don’t do that to me, pal.”
He gaped at Bucky, bright eyed and grinning broadly, looking dapper in his dress uniform with the hat at a jaunty angle, whole and healthy and happy. Steve hadn’t seen him smile like that since the night before he’d shipped off to war.
“Bucky?” Steve breathed out, hardly able to believe it.
“Get a move on or that gal of yours’ll get impatient,” Bucky teased him, jerking one thumb over his shoulder.
Steve’s gaze looked where he was pointing and spotted Peggy instantly, leaning against the bar in a gorgeous red dress, hair pinned up and one eyebrow raised in coquettish invitation. Just past her, he spotted Howard, head thrown back with laughter at something Dr. Erskine had said. Suddenly, he couldn’t seem to stop spotting people he knew around the hall. The Howlies were gathered around a table, already deep in their cups and singing raucously. Bucky’s sister Rebecca came spinning across the dance floor in the arms of the man she’d met just before Bucky had gotten his orders. Past her, moving at a much slower, more intimate pace, was his mother and a man in a military uniform that Steve didn’t recognize but that he knew was his father.
There were more, dozens of familiar faces that he’d thought were lost to time. Every one shone with happiness and cheer. They cried out as they spotted him, calling for him to join them.
“Tempting, isn’t it?” a low voice rumbled from somewhere nearby.
Steve couldn’t help but agree. There was nothing he’d ever wanted more.