When people's consciousness sinks into dreams, it is often difficult to realize when they are dreaming, and the same is true for Steve, when the sound of the rain gradually stops, he opens his eyes again, and he has already come to a slightly familiar place.

He squinted his eyes, blocked the light with his hand, and when he stood up, he took a look at the environment and saw that it seemed to be an old laboratory.

Even if Steve is not a researcher, he can see that this laboratory is not a product of the 21st century, although if you look at the last century, the equipment here is very advanced, but it can't hide the slightly cramped layout here and the traces of friction on the benchtop of the long-used laboratory.

Suddenly, Steve found something he was very familiar with, it was a test bench, and the reason why this thing made him familiar was because there was a dent on the cabinet door that he had repaired himself.

At that time, Howard made the vibranium shield for him, neither of them had used this weapon, and they didn't realize the lethality of this thing at all, Steve took the shield and threw it directly, the shield "clanged" and hit the opposite wall, and when it bounced back, it cut the rope of the chandelier with a "whoosh".

"Snap", the chandelier hit the ground, Steve instinctively dodged back, "bang", the door of the back laboratory table was knocked out of a dent by him, Howard jumped like thunder, Steve could only repair the cabinet door that he had broken overnight.

Bypassing the test bench, many familiar things appeared in front of him, parts of the hovercar that Howard often bragged about, various models piled up in the corners of the room, and even a playboy poster that was half-peeled off on the wall......

It was as if Steve saw his old friend Howard busy at the lab bench while he himself sat at the table in the back, gobbling up burgers.

At that time, they were all busy, Howard was busy providing all kinds of logistical weapons, and he was busy fighting the enemy.

Recalling the image in his mind, Steve sat down at the small table against the wall, and he could already smell the burger.

"Ahh

Stark was holding a cheeseburger in his hand, the cheeseburger that had just been torn off the wrapper was full of aroma, Stark turned his head and saw Steve swallowing his saliva, he took his burger in one hand, and said, "Don't look at it, there is no food here." ”

"Is this your world of consciousness?" Steve asked.

"That's right." Stark replied as he ate, "You have to enter my dreams before you can go on a dream trip." ”

"I'm sorry, Tony......" Steve looked down, his tone full of sadness.

When you are really in this kind of room full of details and memories, someone's death is no longer a cold sentence or a notice, every detail here will make Steve realize that Howard once existed alive in this world, leaving countless traces here, and his life came to an abrupt end at some point, and the traces here were never renewed.

When Steve saw all this, he realized that Howard's death had hurt Stark much more than he had imagined, because Stark, like his father, was a super genius, and their memory was many times stronger than that of ordinary people, so he didn't have the best medicine for ordinary people to treat their wounds - oblivion.

At least, in this dream space, Stark kept all the details of his time with Howard, and now it was all in front of Steve's eyes.

Stark walked over and sat down on the other side of the small table, the other stool on the other side of the table was shorter, apparently for children, and Stark, who was now very tall, sat on the little stool, which looked a little funny.

Steve and Stark sat at opposite ends of the table with their backs against the wall, one high and the other short, like a scale.

Steve turned his head and saw Stark, who was sinking further than him, and he knew that if this was really a scale, then Stark was heavier than him because he was carrying his own father's death on his back.

It is only when we see a person fall down in front of one's eyes that one knows that death and separation are unbearable weights in life.

"I didn't want to hear you apologize when I let you into my world of consciousness." Stark said, taking a deep breath and seemingly making a rather courageous decision, saying:

"I've read a lot of books related to psychology, and I've done a lot of analysis, and I think it should help you."

Stark looked up, looked through the glass, and saw the flickering lights in the lab opposite, and said:

"The time that belonged to you and him is gone, and it will never come back, many of the people you know are gone, and all the things you once owned are gone."

"You're desperately trying to find someone to prove that you ever existed, but your existence itself is evidence that they ever existed."

"You and your memories, the time you spent with Howard in your head, are another form of his existence, the strongest memento that remains after his death."

"Therefore, I should thank you, because you can live forever, and I won't, so until I die, I will be able to see in you the traces of his existence......"

Steve couldn't control his tears, his blue eyes shattering into a vast ocean, the tide rising and falling, the light like a mussel.

The two were silent for a while, and Tony was the first to stand up, saying:

"When Professor X set up the Radiant Alliance base in his dreams, he marked our dreams at that base so that he could pull us over every night, so we could follow his mark to the Radiant Alliance's base."

"And after arriving at the base of the Radiant Alliance, we can find Schiller's dream that Professor X once marked inside the base."

Seeing that Steve was still sitting silently in his chair, Stark didn't intend to explain any more, he closed his eyes and began to free his consciousness and look for the possible path.

Silently, the walls of the room faded, the light became brighter, tiles were covered, sofas fell from the sky, and in the blink of an eye, they were in the reception room of the base.

Stark breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's okay, thanks to magic, I just need to provide ideas and navigate, it's all too stream-of-consciousness." ”

As he spoke, he said in disbelief: "So, what kind of monsters are they that can walk freely in the dream realm?" ”

"Is this a transit station?" Steve finally asked.

"That's right, let me find out if there is a sign that leads to other people's dreams......" Stark closed his eyes, tried to concentrate, and began to feel the structure of this dream, and after a while, he raised an eyebrow, and then said, "Found it." ”

But then, frowning again, he opened his eyes, looked into the air, as if scanning something, and said, "...... What is it? ”

"What's wrong?" Steve stepped forward and asked.

"I've found some paths that seem to lead to other places......"

"Wouldn't that be great? We can just go over there. ”

"The problem is, there are no street signs."

Stark sighed and said, "Professor X may have other ways to tell the difference between these paths, after all, I don't know exactly how mutants' psychic abilities are, but I can't see where these paths lead anyway." ”

"Are there many roads? Can't we try one by one? ”

"Yes...... Stark paused, then said, "Let's try the first one." ”

With a whoosh, they returned to Stark's dream space, and Stark shook his head and said, "It seems that we are unlucky. ”

When they returned to the Radiant Alliance's reception room, Stark chose a second path, and after disappearing again, they appeared in a museum.

As soon as Stark landed, he saw a gun in the display case in front of him, and when he walked over, he found that it was an old rifle, a little too tattered, and it was not even easy to tell what model it was based on its appearance alone.

He looked down and saw that the introduction column of the display table read:

"Bode Smith, 18, from a farm in Michigan, has a sweet tooth and wants to take his mom to New York with him, and he can't get enough of the new firearms......"

At first, Stark didn't realize what the introduction had to do with the gun inside, until he saw in the light of the display case that there was some blood stained on the bottom of the gun.

He pressed his finger on the presentation panel of the display and paused, and then took a step forward, and there was another display table, in which was placed a dilapidated notebook, and the introduction panel read:

"David Petrov, a very good engineer, drunk but with a loud voice, likes to hum Soviet songs while repairing tanks......"

Further on, there are many display cases with all sorts of tattered key rings, belts, glasses, towels and even thermometers, which no museum would have, at least in the real world.

But they all correspond to a person's name underneath, as well as some chaotic and unstructured records, which are often only one or two sentences, which may be what they like to eat the most, who is at home, and what their greatest wish is.

Turning around a corner, Stark saw that Steve was standing at the end of another row of display cases, staring at the contents of the display cases, and when he walked over, he found that there was a pair of gloves inside, and the finger parts were very slender and did not look like they were worn by men.

Stark looked down and saw a name written on the display case intro panel - "Peggy Carter".

“…… At that time, we sat on the steps in front of the garage and chatted, and she said that her dream since she was a child was to be an artist, but in those days there were few people who supported a girl to work independently. ”

"I said I'd paint her a picture, and she didn't believe it at all, because I didn't look like someone who could afford brushes and paints, and there were no such things in the army, so I went and burned a piece of charcoal and drew her repairing a tank."

"She was very pleasantly surprised, and I could see that she wanted the painting very much, but she didn't have the money to buy it, so she threw me a pair of her gloves, and when I looked at her expression, I knew that I was fascinated......"

Steve pressed his finger to the glass of the display case, and then he looked up at the row after row of display cases, and said, "Maybe a lot of people think that I should be so sad when I see Peggy for the last time......"

"But in fact, in addition to the initial sadness about death and separation, I even feel a little relieved, she is full of children and grandchildren, very happy, lying quietly on the hospital bed, and being able to see her former lover before she dies, which is already very happy."

"And many more ......" Steve said, turning his head to look at the objects in the glass display cases, "I can't even remember how they all died, but in my memory, less than one in a thousand of the owners of the relics survived." ”

"Some were killed by bullets, some were inserted into the chest by shrapnel, some suffered from dysentery, and some froze to death, and I was not there when they died, but I brought a message from afar......

Steve looked up at the museum and said:

"Tony, I have to apologize for this, for my impulsive dedication to defending Bucky, but I'm not justifying myself, but when I heard about Howard's death, I felt not sadness, but numbness."

"I've heard too much of this, that someone I met on a battlefield died on a certain day, year, month, and day."

"They may have been lying in a trench with me, they may have exchanged bullets with me, they lit cigarettes under each other's cover, they may have even saved my life by cutting off the queen for me, but when they died, nothing was left."

Steve took a deep breath and looked up at the display case located above, and said:

"Maybe you're right, that era is over, and it will never come back."

"My existence. It is the evidence that they were alive and contributed to the peace of the world, and perhaps this is the last mercy of the world for a veteran......"

Stark closed his eyes, and he felt the edges of his eyelashes get wet.

Death and separation are no longer unbearable burdens in life, and the man in front of him has also borne it, and has endured it thousands of times.

Stark's sigh slowly dissipated into the dream space, and in the center of the museum corridor full of display cases, the faint black shadow under the lamp cut the corridor in half, with Steve standing at one end and Stark standing at the other.

None of them heard it, and with the muffled sound of "rumbling", one end of the originally upturned balance fell, the balance regained its balance, and Iron Man and Captain America were once again on the same line.