The Captain's Husband

26. Soulworld

A man dressed all in black walks into the quiet mausoleum where two titans lie motionless in their marble tombs. He stands between them, breathing in the silence and the cold. He notes that it feels bitterly strange for the Fourth of July.

Sure, it's the five-year anniversary of Steve and Bucky's passing, but it's unfair to them. No one is here celebrating their life, their legacy. They're silently mourning miles away, too stricken with grief and anger to properly remember their fallen angels without thirsting for violence and vengeance.

The man in black shakes his head and sighs, furious with both the situation and the circumstance. He wraps his fingers tightly around the stone in his hand as he turns and leaves the mausoleum, vanishing from thin air the moment the soles of his shoes touch earth.

He floats through time, space, infinity, and beyond, to visit a friend waiting on the edge of another realm.

"Doctor," the man says as he lands just shy of the figure. "Pleasure."

"Welcome back," the doctor says, extending his hand.

The man shakes the doctor's hand before falling in step with him to walk further. They're silent as they stroll forward, not bothering with small conversation. They both know who the other is and why they're here in this world.

That's all that matters.

Once they reach a path in a world that has suddenly come alive with color and sound, the doctor says, "You never gave me an explanation when I asked what the purpose of this was. May I have one now that you're here?"

"I've come to retrieve our friends," the man tells him. "They've overstayed their visit and it's time to go home."

The doctor nods, his red cloak flowing behind him as they walk along the path.

"May I ask you a question?" The man asks.

"Of course," the doctor smiles.

"Why are you helping me?" The man asks him.

"You need them to complete your task," the doctor explains. "While I don't condone using them as a means to an end, I understand that the war you are fighting requires their presence. Without them, your war will be lost, and the Universe as we know it will be destroyed."

"You do realize that they were killed in battle fighting the exact same person I'm up against, correct?" The man asks.

"Have you forgotten that I was there?" The doctor asks.

"Have you forgotten that I was the one that threw Thanos into suspended animation between realms after our friends were killed?" The man quips back.

"Adam, how do they know that they can trust you?" The doctor asks.

"I don't know that, Doctor," The man called Adam smiles.

"You don't know them either," the doctor tells him. "They've never met you, let alone heard of you. The idea of other realms and people that can freely go between them is something they've never heard of. You will terrify them."

"I'm definitely not that scary," Adam rolls his eyes. "You make me sound like a ghost that hasn't passed over yet."

"You might have some hope after all," the doctor smiles. "You're almost as stubborn as the Captain."

As they walk upon a grove of trees, they find a man sitting under one of them with a paintbrush in his hand and a canvas in his lap. Another man, this one with dark hair, sits off to the side looking up at the purple-tinted sky overhead.

"Doctor Strange," the painter says as he stands and extends a hand out to the doctor.

"Steve, hello," Doctor Strange smiles as he shakes Steve's hand. "This is Adam." He gestures to the man beside him before looking at the man that was sitting next to Steve. "Bucky, how are you?"

Bucky jumps to his feet and grins, "Can't complain, Doctor. How's the real world?"

Strange chuckles, "It's a disaster, per the usual."

Steve looks at Adam, who promptly extends a hand and says, "Warlock. Adam Warlock." As they shake hands, he goes on. "Its a pleasure to meet you, Captain."

Steve nods with a small smile, "Likewise, traveller."

"Is it that obvious?" Adam grins.

Both Steve and Bucky nod.

"Well, then," Adam says. "Anyways, gentlemen, I'm here to ask for your help. Your friends believe they defeated Thanos, but he was actually forced out of the realm that earth is in, and he's in a state of suspended animation between earth's realm and another."

"The earth is still in danger?" Steve asks.

Adam sighs, "There isn't much time to prepare your friends for a second fight either."

Steve swallows hard, and then he says, "We'll help, whatever it takes to defeat Thanos, you know, but we can't leave here. It's impossible."

Strange speaks up, "Adam can get you both out, but it'll happen one at a time. You'll risk sending yourselves to oblivion if you do anything else."

Bucky looks at Steve, "Let's do it. We have to help."

Steve nods, "We're in."

Adam smiles at Strange.

He was right to count on them.