#time keepers

"Remember," Elizabeth listened as Bruce informed Steve, "You'll have to return the stones to the exact moment they were taken. Otherwise, we're still looking at a whole bunch of nasty alternative realities."

"Don't worry Bruce. Clip all the branches." Steve said, flipping the case down. Sam was standing beside him. Elizabeth and Bucky stood just a little further back.

"You know, if you want. I could come with you." Sam offered as the two walked away from Bruce.

Elizabeth felt irritated with the brace her arm was in. And also self conscious of the way the burns were on her face. Bruce had cleaned up much easier than she had. Her arm still hurt, but she was staying quiet about it.

"You're a good man Sam. This one's on me, though."

Bucky was holding Rose in his arms. Astrid and Halfdan were sitting on the benches nearby, holding the rest of the kids, though Sage and Delilah were in baby carriages. Bucky drew Steve aside, and Elizabeth pretended she wasn't listening. "Steve. . . are you. . . are you going back for Peg-"

"No." Steve murmured. "My family is here Buck. Not with Peggy."

Steve kissed Bucky's cheek and Elizabeth pretended that she hadn't heard. Steve smiled lovingly at her. "You gonna be a good girl till I get back Princess?"

"Don't tease." Elizabeth pouted up at him as he cupped her goo cheek. "I can't even have sex yet till the arm heals up."

Steve smirked, kissing her good cheek, and then the corner of her lips, then turned back to Bucky. "Don't do anything stupid till I get back."

"How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you." Bucky smirked, leaning forwards to kiss him on the lips, before lifting Rose a little higher on his hip. Then Steve stepped up onto the platform, which also contained Thor's hammer.

"How long is this gonna take?" Sam asked as Elizabeth watched Steve get into his white uniform.

"Still looks hot." She called out with a laugh. He glared at her.

"Don't tease. . . kitten. That ass'll be red when I get back." Steve smirked.

Bucky chuckled as she whimpered and pouted, "What have you done to that innocent cinnamon roll doll?"

"I think that's your fault." Elizabeth muttered. "He was like that when I bought him."

Steve glared at the both of them, "I can hear both of you."

"That's the point." They said together as Tony and Y/N walked up the hill, hand in hand. Everleigh and Morgan walked after them, Tony was holding Arlo in his arms.

Steve just shook his head, pointing a finger at them, "You're both trouble."

"Spank him first." Elizabeth pointed at Bucky. Bucky glanced at her. "Oh doll. . ."

Bruce sent Steve back before any more banter could happen.

"Hey." Tony said calmly and Elizabeth glanced over. "Let me check the arm."

"Now?" Elizabeth pouted again. She'd avoided the appointment for this reason.

"You skipped the appointment." Tony said. "Give."

Elizabeth sighed, turning and winced as Tony checked it. Tony gave her a knowing look, "Elizabeth. . ."

"More time." Elizabeth muttered, "Please?"

"The cells are not regenerating tissue." Tony said under his breath. "Elizabeth if you keep your arm like this, it's going to get infected and amputation will be necessary, perhaps higher up than it is now. I'm trying to keep you alive."

"I know." Elizabeth said sadly as Steve was returned by Bruce. She was also conscious that Bucky was listening in to everything she was saying. "I just wanted to keep my arm a little longer."

"I know. It's not like I'm looking forward to amputating you." Tony said. "Well, Shuri at any rate. T'Challa said they're creating a vibranium arm for you."

"Okay." Elizabeth nodded. "When?"

Steve walked down, the time travel version of his suit coming off. "This weekend." Tony murmured.

"Hey." Steve greeted them, touching the top of Elizabeth's head. "What are you doing here?"

"Getting things scheduled with Elizabeth on her arm." Tony said.

Steve glanced down at her and she went red, "Um, surgery."

"What-"

Suddenly, there was a strange noise behind them and they all turned to see something sort of. . . golden door being opened? Four strange looking guards in black came out. They looked almost like military personnel.

"Appears to be a standard sequence violation." The man in the front said, looking down at some sort of box while the rest just stared at him. "Branch is growing at a stable rate and slope. Variant identified."

"I beg your pardon?" Sam and Tony asked at the same time.

"On the behalf of variant authority I hereby arrest you for crimes against the sacred timeline. Hands up." The other three guards immediately charged their weapons in their hands.

Tony immediately stood in front of Y/N and his kids while Steve and Bucky closed in on Elizabeth. Sam went in front of the rest of the kids and Bruce slowly inched his way around to join them.

"Who?" Tony demanded.

The man looked at Steve. "Him."

"He didn't do anything." Elizabeth said, panicking.

"Last chance, variant."

"What did I do?" Steve asked, bewildered, slowly raising his hands.

"You have broken the time code by coming back to early from the past. You were supposed to stay in the past with Margaret Carter." The man said, approaching Steve.

"What do you mean 'I have to stay?' NO!." Steve said angrily, lowering his hands immediately for his shield. "You don't get to say where I go or who I'm with. I'm with my soulmate and wife and children. Nothing will change that."

The weapons buzzed then. Tony was now in his Iron Man suit, blasters off. Bucky had a knife in one hand, holding Rose in the other. Elizabeth called up a ball of turquoise energy. Y/N had a pistol in her hands as she body blocked her daughters- having been very taken with Morgan as well. 

They grabbed Steve's arms, trying to wrestle him to the ground.

"Leave him alone." Elizabeth snapped, twisting her body to the side, one leg up as she kicked him in the chin, sending him sprawling backwards. One of the guards grabbed her bad arm and she screamed, feeling her vision go black in pain. Next thing she knew she was on the ground, vision dotty.

"Leave her alone." Steve growled, tossing the guard that had gotten him pinned a little, shoving the guard that was on Elizabeth off. "Princess?"

"Doll?" Bucky asked in worry.

She was dazed though, black spots dancing across her vision. "Shit." She heard Tony said. "Her arm is bleeding." It felt like her arm was tearing. "Shit, some of the skins' torn! Guard me Cap."

She hissed in pain, feeling the ice freeze Tony put on it before hands were helping her sit up. She blinked several times, seeing Y/N holding Rose now. Bucky had one of the weapons in his hands, guarding her, Steve, and Tony.

Elizabeth struggled to her feet, leaning heavily into Steve as more guards poured out of the thing.

They started to surround everyone, or try too. Elizabeth couldn't see how they were fighting their way out of this one.

"Hold up!" A voice that shocked Elizabeth out of her magic rang out. She watched as Loki and a man in a brown suit came through. The man in the brown suit held up a hand. "This isn't a variant."

Elizabeth could feel her body shaking and she slowly took a few steps forward, "L-Loki?"

This wasn't like she had gone back in time. The Loki in front of her looked younger though. . . was he. . . she didn't understand.

"Hello pet." Loki smirked and the man in the brown suit nudged him, giving him a look.

"There was a miscalculation in the sacred time line. Mr. Rogers was meant to come back." The man in the brown suit said.

"But sir!" The man protested, looking confused. "The reason Margaret Carter doesn't have a soulmate is because Steve Rogers goes back in time to be with her. It's explicitly-"

"Listen, go back. Loki and I have this." Brown suit guy said. The four exchanged a look, but turned and went back in. "Sorry about that."

"I don't understand." Elizabeth said faintly.

"I'm a variant." Loki smirked, "As are you. Well, not you, you, another you."

"Loki." Another voice said sternly and Elizabeth's knees actually almost did collapse when she saw herself walk out of the portal behind. She smiled at herself. Elizabeth couldn't smile back. She felt Steve's hand on her waist.

Loki pursed his lips, "You know, only the fact that I've never technically been that Elizabeth's soulmate is the only thing stopping me from cutting your hand off for touching her Captain."

Elizabeth 2.0 nudged Loki in the ribs.

"I'm so confused." Y/N, Sam, and Tony said behind her. Bruce just gaped. Stephen looked extremely interested.

"Long story short." Brown suit guy said, tapping at something, "When you went back for the Tesseract, this Loki and Elizabeth escaped. So they're variants and they live at the TVA with me, which collects variants in a way. Works for the TVA, etc."

"So. . . you're not real?" Elizabeth asked, noticing Loki was looking over at her kids. Halfdan and Astrid stared at their father with wide eyes, slowly getting to their feet. For them, it was like losing their father less than a week rather than five years ago. They were probably wondering if he had faked his death again. 

"We have to get some of those." Loki said to her variant version of herself, who grinned. Then Loki said, "I am real, but I'm not your Loki. Your Loki is truly dead. You'd be surprised how many variants of me there are, really."

"So am I getting arrested or not?" Steve asked slowly.

"Not." Brown suit guy said. "Like I said. . . accident."

"Uh huh." Bucky said uncertainly, not lowering his defensive position.

"And Loki here really just wanted to let your Elizabeth know that they live happily ever after somewhere." Brown suit guy said. "You've got two minutes." Before that one walked into the portal. Her variant of herself went back too.

"Come here pet." Loki said quietly and Elizabeth stumbled forwards until she was standing in front of him. She felt one of his cool hands cup her face and he bent down to rest his forehead on hers. She closed her eyes, a tear falling down her cheek. "I love you." He whispered, "But, I'm gone. And so I'm glad you have two. . . well for heroes they're pretty good men. I think I like the brown haired one better though."

Elizabeth actually let out a shaky laugh at that.

"Live a long and happy life with them." Loki whispered, "And when it's all over, your Loki is waiting for you in Valhalla. I know he is. And who knows? Maybe those two will go with you too."

"Loki." Elizabeth whispered softly.

Loki smiled a little as he pulled away, thumb wiping her tears away, "Don't waste anymore tears on me pet. You have your own life to live now."

"Dad?" Astrid asked uncertainly.

"Not quite." Loki smiled, looking a little sad as he looked at them. "But close enough." He held his arms out and Astrid and Halfdan ran into them. He hugged them tightly. "Be good for your mom, alright? I love you two."

"We love you too dad." Astrid cried into his chest.

Loki and Elizabeth looked down one more time and then Elizabeth turned her attention to. . . well herself. The other variant smiled, "I'll take care of him."

"I know." Elizabeth laughed shakily. "I'm not worried about that. You're me after all."

Elizabeth watched Loki slip his hand into her variant self. Watched the three of them walk into the portal. Elizabeth stepped back and felt Bucky wrap her arms around her waist. It was dead silent for a moment, before everything grew to be too much, and she fainted.

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"How is she?" You asked as you laid naked in bed with Tony.

"Just got out of surgery." Tony yawned, having been woken up when Steve had called him. "She's got an arm to match Barnes. Shuri apparently tried to make it hot pink. Steve wouldn't let her. It's black and gold like Barnes now. Twinning. Really taking the soulmate thing to the next level. Do you want to get a matching arc reactor?"

You laughed, "No way. I love you Tony, but I do not want that on my chest."

Tony pouted at you, before rolling over to press you down into the bed. "Why not? It's so sexy."

"On you." You retorted, smiling up at him.

Tony softened, cupping your face. "I really missed you Y/N. I'm so sorry."

You laughed a little, "For what?"

Tony looked away a little. "Well Pepper I guess for starters. It was. . ."

You laughed again, louder this time, "You want to be sorry for moving on? Tony. . . if I had been in your shoes, never in a million years would I have thought you were coming back after that. I don't know how quickly I could have moved on and thanks to Elizabeth, I never have to know." Here you gave him a pointed look, "but eventually I would have. You could've come back too, maybe, and I could've had another kid. Honestly. . . I'm kind've just glad it was Pepper and not some stranger."

Tony smirked a little and then sighed, "I guess it's a good thing I wasn't snapped. I was the one who figured it out."

"Modest as always." You teased, pushing him off you so that you could snuggle into him. "Besides, after hearing what happened on Titan, I think Strange knew that you would win. Like he said, one in fourteen million. He traded your life for the stone and Thanos kept his word, keeping you alive after the snap as well. The one person needed to finish this."

Tony was quiet for a moment and you looked up to see him staring at the ceiling. "No. . ." He said quietly. "If they had never come to me. . .Scott, Steve, Natasha. . . I wouldn't have done it on my own. And even when they did come to me. . . I still didn't want to." He paused and added quickly. "Not because I didn't want you and Arlo back. But. . . I thought there could be a chance I might die. I even recorded a video. . . and I thought if I died and we didn't succeed, then I'd just leave Everleigh without both parents."

"You did almost die." You whispered, tears pricking your eyes. "You almost tried to snap the universe."

"I thought I had to do it then or now." Tony sighed. He laughed then, "And I never even had the stones. That tricky magic of hers. . . but I'm glad. We all made it out alive."

It was quiet for a long time, thinking of those who didn't make it the first time. Pietro, Vision. And then you said, "Are they staying in Wakanda or coming here?"

"Wakanda I think." Tony answered.