What If... There Was A Soul World?

Again, like my other imagines in this series, you aren't in it as the reader, but I hope you still give this a read!

This is also my personal interpretation of the Soul World, so please be nice.

One second, Bucky was watching his body turn into dust.

The next, he was laying in a giant grassy field. It was tall grass, too, so he would have to move to see what the hell was going on.

It felt weird, first feeling his limbs disappear and then having all that feeling back. He felt very heavy for some reason.

Bucky sat up, and slowly but surely, got to a stand. He looked all around him, seeing nothing but the same endless glass for miles. There were some large rocks here and there, but nothing else.

Looking up at the sky, he noticed it was a strange orange color, as it would be if there were a sunrise. But as he looked around, Bucky couldn't find anything.

"Hello?" Bucky sharply turned to look in the direction of the voice. He could see the grass rustling around, and out came King T'Challa. "Barnes, what... where are we?"

He shook his head. "How the hell am I supposed to know?" he asked.

Neither man spoke and just looked at each other with worry. Suddenly, they heard more and more voices. Bucky looked around and saw Wakandan warriors appeared out of the grass, equally as confused as himself and the King.

"What the hell's going on..." Bucky whispered to himself as he continued to look around. As he did, he saw more and more just appearing. The tree from space that came down with Thor. Random citizens from all different places.

Turning, he saw Wanda standing from the grass, grief-stricken and confused.

Then he heard a noise from a person he definitely knew. "Sam!" Bucky called, moving over to the shuffling grass where he heard the confused noise come from. When he got there, he saw Sam laying on the ground, just as confused as everyone else.

"Bucky?" Sam asked, accepting the help to his feet. When he was standing, he looked around this place with panicked confusion. "What the fuck..." he mumbled. At least he didn't ask Bucky what had happened.

"People just keep... showing up. I don't know what's going on, I don't know where we are..." Bucky trailed off. He almost admitted he was scared. He knew Sam wouldn't make fun of him for it, not right now. But he didn't want to admit it out loud.

Sam shook his head, still trying to process things. "How big is this place?" he then asked.

Bucky looked around, too. For miles and miles, there was nothing but tall grass. Endless grass. There were no hills, trees, buildings- there was nothing.

"What do we do?" Bucky asked quietly, finally feeling the fear creeping out.

But all Sam could do was shake his head. "I don't... I don't know."

They weren't the only ones in this position. Mantis could feel something was wrong, and the others didn't know what to make of her warning until she simply disappeared.

Peter freaked out and looked at the other Peter's face, who had been right next to her when she disappeared. He was terrified.

They all looked around, going to Drax as one of his arms went, followed by the rest of his body. All turned to dust.

"Steady, Quill." Be even he, too, disappeared into a cloud of thick dust. Peter had no idea what was going on, his heart rate skyrocketing to the fastest it has ever physically gone.

He was panicking so much, he barely heard Doctor Strange say anything before he disappeared as well. And with the way Peter felt, he knew he was next.

"Mr. Stark..." Peter said, stumbling a bit as he held his stomach. Something was horribly wrong. "I don't feel so good." He stumbled, falling into Tony Stark and gripped him with fear. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. What was happening?

He didn't know. All he knew was that he wasn't going as quickly as the others. The spider, it gave him the ability to heal a lot quicker. His cells were fighting back against the dust.

Be he was losing, and he was losing much quicker by the second. With his last bit of consciousness, Peter looked at Tony with teary eyes. "I'm sorry," he whispered, and then he felt the rest of his body go.

But then he was waking up again. This time, however, it wasn't a faraway planet covered in red and orange dirt. He was laying in tall grass. The sky above was an orange color. Not the same as on Titan.

Panic soared through him. He sat up freaking out, whipping his head around, trying to find anyone.

"Kid! Kid!" Peter's head finally stopped when someone gripped his shoulders. Doctor Strange. "You're okay. It's okay."

Everything was, actually, far from okay. "Where are we? What's happening? What happened? What's- what's..." This feeling of panic was new. Peter hadn't hyperventilated in a long time, he almost forgot how horrible it was.

Doctor Strange didn't know what to do- he fixed brains by going in literally, not trying to get in there metaphorically. So he looked around and found Mantis. "You! Mantis!"

She looked over at the pair and immediately understood what Doctor Strange was asking for. Mantis ran over, leaving Drax and Quill to trail behind, and traded places with Strange.

Peter locked eyes with her now, and despite the panic he was feeling, he suddenly started to be calm. His breathing went back to normal and he could no longer feel his heart trying to rip from his chest.

"Calm," Mantis whispered, her antennae glowing lightly as she used her powers.

After a few more seconds, Peter finally felt okay. "Thank you," he whispered to Mantis, telling her she was okay to remove her hands.

The group looked around at each other. "So what's going on?" Quill asked.

Peter shook his head. "I don't know... all I know is you guys were turning into dust. And then I was, too. And now we're here."

Mantis looked over to Strange. "This means we lost, doesn't it?" she asked, heartbreak in her voice. Drax placed a hand on her shoulder.

Strange nodded. "We lost. But it was the only way."

Then it was silent. After a couple dozen minutes of silent contemplation, Quill suggested walking around. Maybe other people "dusted" and were in this weird world, too. And by the looks of it, they had plenty of options for where to go.

So they walked. It took nearly three hours, but they found aliens huddled together, also confused. But there were what looked like thousands of them. The group of Guardians and Avengers kept going.

This happened several times. They'd walk for a few hours and run into a giant crowd of confused aliens. Sometimes the Guardians would interact with them, being the only ones who could, and try to explain things as best they could.

It took them until their fifth group before Mantis said, "Are we... are these planets?" The others looked at her confused, so she went on. "Maybe these people are showing up in the relative spot their homes are in the galaxy. So we were alone on Titan, then each group we've run into since has been peoples from other surrounding planets."

It was like a lightbulb had gone off. "Do you know how we could get to Earth from here? I mean, following the patterns of the people and all?" Peter asked.

So, with more enthusiasm, the group went on walking again. As they did, the terrain never changed, say for a few boulders here and there, and the sky never lightened or darkened. Nothing changed.

Bucky found a decent sized boulder and sat down on it. He could remember the look on Steve's face- the utter confusion and fear of what he was seeing. The fear was only for a split second, but it was there.

Sam joined him. They didn't talk for a while, not knowing what the hell to say. What does one say in this situation? They were barely able to gather up the fact that everyone they saw had turned to dust.

But what the hell did that mean? This was no doubt Thanos's doing, but where were they? What the hell was going on?

"Hey," Sam said, breaking Bucky from his thoughts. "You might start breaking your arm if you flex any harder."

That made Bucky realize he'd been getting very worked up, and the plates on his arm kept shifting to try and adjust to the movements. He let go of his fist and felt the plates relax. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"You don't need to apologize," Sam immediately responded. Silence hung between them. What do you say in a time like this?

Suddenly, Bucky's head lifted up, catching Sam's attention. He looked at Bucky, then out to where he was looking. The sight had him standing. "What the..."

Bucky stood, too, and the two men walked toward the group of people coming their way.

Peter was seriously losing faith that they would ever find 'Earth' in this massive, never-ending place. At a point, he got the Iron Spider legs out to walk for him. Then. He used them to carry Mantis when she started to get exhausted.

They were all losing faith.

Peter could see the next mass of people ahead. Maybe they were one planet closer. Maybe they were five. Or maybe they had gone astray at some point and were lost.

Whatever the answer, he wanted it to be over.

But as they got closer, Peter started to recognize who was directly in front of them. It helped when they both stood up, and the metal arm was on full display.

"Oh my god- we made it! We found them!" Peter celebrated. He didn't wait for the others and started running forward.

Strange called after the kid, but it was no use. He and the others jogged to catch up, and when they did, found themselves standing in front of the Falcon and the (former) Winter Soldier.

The others- King T'Challa, Wanda, and the tree- saw the commotion and got up to join.

"Groot!" Quill called, and he, Mantis, and Drax reunited with their friend. Groot was just thrilled to have someone to talk to again, who knew what he was saying.

"Wait- woah, woah, woah, slow down, kid," Sam said, cutting off Peter's grand story that was going a million miles a minute. After a breath, Peter told them about what had happened, what he had seen, and how they figured out where to go.

Sam and Bucky nodded along. No one else that was around them "dusted," so they didn't know how any of this started. And the wandering around thing that led their group to them? Sam was impressed, but he'd never say it out loud.

Once all the information had been relayed, they all stood in silence. "Now what?" Peter asked.

Bucky shook his head. "We wait. What the hell can we do in here?"

The energy was instantly sucked out. Everyone physically deflated at the thought that hadn't even crossed their minds. It was great that they all knew what was going on and all, but what were they supposed to do with that information?

Bucky wandered off, finding the rock he and Sam had been sitting on moments ago and retook his seat. All he could think about was the look on Steve's face, the confusion and that quick glimpse of fear before he was here.

Peter was lost. He never even thought about how they were supposed to get back. He looked at Strange, but the doctor shook his head. "I already tried opening a portal. I... I can't," was all he said.

It was the answer to Peter's unasked question.

The kid found himself wandering over to the same rock Bucky was sitting on. The other man didn't move, didn't glance Peter's way. But he knew the kid was there.

"I said 'I'm sorry,'" Peter breathed.

Now Bucky turned to him, confused, but didn't say anything.

"When I disappeared, as I was, my super-fast healing was fighting back... it took a bit longer than the others..."

"Did it hurt?" Bucky asked.

Peter shook his head. "No, not really, just felt... wrong. I could feel myself disappearing by losing the feeling, you know? But the last thing I said- right to Mr. Stark- was that I was sorry. I can't... I can't even imagine how guilty he feels, how much weight that just put on his shoulders."

Bucky took the kid in - really looked at him- and saw the fear and worry really weighing down on him. "I-I'm sure it'll be fine..." Bucky said in a horrible attempt to do something to calm him down.

Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. Peter shook his head and buried his head in his hands. "No, you don't understand. Mr. Stark... he's gonna do something drastic and insane now, all because I apologized... what did I even say sorry for..."

That made Bucky think. It made him think about Steve and all he's done for Bucky. How in the 1940s he nearly killed himself to save Bucky the first time, how Steve has defied governments for him.

Now, he had no idea what Steve would do.

The two sat in silence, with nothing to do except hope they'd get out before it was too late.

~Fin~

A/n: Okay so this was kind of inspired by a Tumblr post I saw on Instagram around the time Infinity War was in theaters, and for the life of me I could not find it again. I like really loved it and wanted to use it for reference to get some of the wording right but could not find this thing. So, I did my best.

I've also got imagines "planned" out until after the New Year! I have a lot going on, so I have to make sure I stay on top of things.

Hope you guys enjoy, and I'll see you next week!