I'd like to thank Nialltalic for the wonderful fan art above! It's a beautiful edit and I absolutely love it! I love the colour scheme you went with here. Thank you so much for taking the time to make this. It's gorgeous! <33

If y'all have created anything for me such as fan art, playlists, memes, video clips, anything really, PLEASE don't hesitate to send it to me through PM. I'll definitely be posting it in my stories and giving you acknowledgement and throwing a dedication and shout-out your way! :D

⏳ 2016

Fireflies danced among the darkness of the jungles and mountains. I'd never seen the night sky like the one splashed out above back home in Brooklyn. It was beautiful. There were so many stars dotting the inky blackness. The jungles below the night sky was as black as the darkness above, only the fireflies serving as flying lights.

I flipped the golden watch in my hands, flipping open the lid and clicking it closed every so often. It felt so different the last time I held it the night she and I spent together after Sokovia. I barely brushed my fingers along it ripping it from her suit...among other things. And it felt powerful. The aura and energy radiating off it was so unlike any I'd ever encountered. I honestly believed then that there had to be an Infinity Stone in there with the amount of power I felt streaking through my fingers.

But now? Now it felt empty, completely vacant and devoid of the power it once held. Now it felt like a normal pocket watch.

I ran a calloused thumb along the golden lid, scratched and grooved and roughed after years of use. Popping the lid, the watch itself was broken. The hands no longer moved. It didn't tick. I clicked it shut. Its usefulness as what it was had become no more. It was a memento now.

And then it started to glow. I stumbled to my feet, the watch radiating that familiar gold, shimmering and glistening in the low lighting of the medical bay, reflecting off the glass. It flicked open, and a stream of golden energy flowed out. It curled and twirled, a thin golden cord keeping the dancing power tethered to the watch. I swallowed, my eyes widening, at the sight of the energy taking shape, forming a familiar body, hair flowing out.

And there she stood. She wore a golden gown, one so similar to the dress she wore the day that everything changed for her. Her flaming hair cascaded down her shoulders, rippling in waves. Piercing green eyes—pools of gorgeous jade—peered back at me.

My eyes flicked from the watch to her standing before me. How...How was this possible? I glanced at the cryopod that held her frozen body. But if she was there...I looked back to the woman shrouded in the familiar golden aura before me. Then how was she here?

"What is this?" I whispered.

Andi smiled. "Hello, Steve. If you're watching this, then I'm..." She breathed. "I'm dead."

I raised my chin. A prerecorded message. A contingency message. It was her, but wasn't. All hopes of a return with this melted away as fast as it set in. I watched silently all the same.

"I know you have questions," the messenger resembling Andi said. "And this is to answer them." She took a breath, gnawing at her lip like she always did when hesitation struck her. "When I became a Time Walker, I was forbidden to see the future. If I did see it, I would have tried to change it, and so the day I accepted that watch from Eilian and became what I was until the end, I agreed to that rule." She exhaled. "But when I became the Lady of Time...those parameters and boundaries fell away. The temptation to look was too great. And so I did. I looked into the future and saw annihilation. I saw what would become of the world if I didn't make the choice."

I shook my head with a frown. "Choice? What choice?"

Andi bit her lip again. "A choice that led me here. That led me to this point." She looked over to the cryopod. Her cryopod. "The choice that took me to the end of the line." Hesitance pulled her eyes back to me. "I'd known. I had known about the Civil War between all of us. I'd known about it a long time ago. I'd known before Sokovia. And I did nothing. I'd known it was coming and chose to do nothing."

I watched her press two fingers to her temple, and I felt like I could feel her pain, the words echoing in her head. The words that haunted her. "The future words. They were a warning. She was a warning."

I squinted. "Who?"

"My doppelgänger. She'd known about the choice. She'd known because she'd made it in her timeline. And she'd made the wrong one."

I watched her crack, an already fractured and too broken soul who tried to be strong and failed. It broke me. It broke me so much to see her like that. To watch the pain all over again.

"She let you die," she whispered. "You were supposed to die that day in Siberia."

I felt my heart slow, shuddering so close to a halt. My memories cut through the moment like the sharpest of knives as I remembered what Dark Andi had said that day during the dream; the illusion conjured by Wanda.

Death is your mistress now, Steven Rogers. Nothing can save you. Nothing.

"I made a bargain with Death," Andi continued. "I needed guidance from the one person who could offer it to me, and be sympathetic in turn."

"Eilian," I replied, piecing it together.

She nodded. "I went to Steven Strange and a spell was cast. And I was told nothing but the same as I already knew. That a decision had to be made. And I had to be the one to do it. But the spell was of the darkest of arts. It required a payment. A life. The bargain intertwined with my decision. I paid it in full."

I felt like the world was spinning, slipping out from under me like a carpet being ripped out from where I stood. I didn't understand. My head was struggling to wrap around the gravity of what she was saying.

"The choice was you, Steve," she uttered, her perfect eyes welling, reflecting the world of age in them. "That bullet was for you. But it had my name on it as well. The bullet was the Reaper coming to collect."

I shuddered and forced my feet to keep planted as she took a step towards me. It wasn't her. It wasn't Andi. My Andi. It was a ghost of her. The way she rippled gold like a hologram was a clear indication of that.

"The world needs Captain America," she said. "The world needs heroes like you, Steve. The age of Time Walkers is over. The world doesn't need us anymore. But it needs you." I watched a tear roll down her cheek, and I felt one trace down my own. "I couldn't let you die. I couldn't. So I let it take me instead. I paid the price, and I paid it in full."

I shook my head slowly in disbelief, and I felt a tear hit my hand holding the watch. "No. No, you didn't have to do that, Andi."

"Yes, I did. Because the world needs you. People need you, Steve. They might not know it now. They might not see it now. But they will. They'll understand. I need you to understand."

The golden ripples flowing over her stopped. And when she touched my hand, my breath was ripped from me. I could feel it. I could feel her touch. I could feel aged, delicate fingers press my fingers around the golden watch.

"I...I need you to look after this for me," she rasped. "Keep it safe for me. Please." The smallest of laughs like sunshine after a stormy day slipped from her lips as she cupped my cheek. "My captain. My darling captain. My Star-Spangled Man With A Plan."

I chuckled painfully at that name, one she teased when we first met. I watched her raise her hand, and I felt powerful energy erupt around us.

The white medical bay and the dark jungles fell away, and I stood in a familiar 1940s dance hall, warm, dim lighting keeping the place breathing, and slow music that had long since died out sent waves through my heart. I looked down to see a familiar uniform, badges of war and victory pinned to my chest.

And when I looked up, beautiful pain rippled through me at the sight of her. Of that deep red dress. Of her fiery hair in curls. Of red lips parting in a loving, gorgeous smile.

This was where she taught me to dance. Where I well and truly fell in love with the most beautiful woman in the world and all of time.

She held out her hand to me. "One last dance?"

I didn't want to take it. I didn't want to have one last dance. I wanted to have so many more. I wanted to have one on the happiest day with her in white we were never going to have. I wanted to have one in our living room when I was an old man, and she remained the same beautiful woman. I wanted to have one when time stopped.

Not this. Not now. I wasn't ready.

Her eyes were pleading. Please, they begged, please do this for me.

And so I took her hand. I pressed one of my own to the small of her back, holding the other so delicately as if it were glass. Her arm snaked around my neck, and I pulled her closer.

We danced. We danced nice and slow. The music guided us. We moved like water, flowing like currents around the hall.

Her eyes took me, drowned me in pools of jade that would keep me trapped forever. I surrendered to them and allowed them to take me.

No couples danced with us this time. It was just us. Only us. Just me and my girl. Just me and my soulmate. Just Andi and I. No war. No peace. No hopes. No dreams. Just us.

Andi slithered her hand from my neck to my cheek, cupping it. "I love you. I love you so, so much. I would follow you anywhere. To the end of the earth, or six feet under it. To the end of the line."

I tried to put on a brave face, but I couldn't. All that came was the most agonising smile. I pressed her head to my chest, and I rested my chin atop it. "Please don't let this end. Don't leave me."

She rested her hands on my chest, and I locked my hands around her waist. "I'm sorry." She looked up at me. She took my face in her delicate hands. "I want you to do something for me."

My brow creased. "Anything."

"Be happy. Find someone to spend the rest of your life with, and be happy. Can you do that for me, Steve?"

I couldn't. No. I was happy with her. There was never, ever going to be anyone else like Andromeda. No one. No one as special as her. No one as unique as her. No one as perfect, even in her flawed ways, as her.

I smiled weakly. "I...I promise."

She kissed me so delicately. So gently and kindly, running graceful, elegant fingers through my hair. I held her as close as I could, not letting go.

The song was drawing to a close. Our song. Our time. It was ending.

We danced until the trumpets and strings and cymbals. drawled away. We danced until the lights began to die. Until the dark reaches of the dance hall began to fade away.

"I love you, Andi," I said to her for the last time.

She kissed me again, so lightly and tenderly. "I love you, Steve."

I twirled her, and she didn't come back to me. Her hand began to slip from mine. I didn't grab at it. I let it go. I let her go. She flowed away, her red hair like fire as it chased after her. She turned to look at me once more. And she wore that smile. The grin that I loved. The one that was devoid of pain and agony, and sadness and loneliness.

The smile that made Andi so perfect. So unique. So beautiful, like sunshine on a field of poppies and dandelions and sunflowers, petals of fire.

She continued to twirl and dance like an angel until she faded away.

The golden energy and power chased the dance hall away, and I found myself back in the medical bay. I walked to her cryopod, and wiped away the frost that hid her face in the glass.

I smiled. It was time. It was time to let go. It was time for her to sleep now. Forever this time.

I ran tender fingers along the glass where they should've met her porcelain cheeks.

"Goodbye, Andi," I whispered.

As I left the medical bay, the lights switched off as I moved. The only one that stayed on was the one illuminating her crypt. I flipped a switch, and then that one turned off too, the humming of the cryopod freezing her body ceasing.

It was over. All over. I could see things on the horizon, things I needed to face. And I was ready for them. I clutched the gold watch and smirked with determination.

I was ready for them.

❈Author's Note: Hey, there! For maximum experience and nostalgia, I suggest you read the last dance section again with this:

https://youtu.be/yfsmmk93H3I

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