[ The hand's cold in Daisy's grasp – like ice, like the void between stars.

Stephen lets go like he didn't notice anything, continues the conversation with increasing ease. ]

That's the one. [ He gauges Johnson's reaction, her edge of confusion. If there's anything he's learned in the past week and the millennia before it, it's that the twists and turns of the multiverse are infinite and unpredictable. In assembling their team of Guardians, he'd only just begun to grasp its facets in detail, just started to taste the endless font of knowledge – before he'd had to close himself off from it once again.

But he knows one thing for certain: There's no timeline where Peggy Carter doesn't give all she has. ]

She's a friend. Or... a version of her. I don't know who got the serum in your world, but lemme tell you – Carter's hell on wheels with it.

[ Friend. It comes out of his mouth without thinking, like it's natural. Friend. He'd found kinship with his team, after obliterating all else he'd ever known. He guesses they're as close as he'll ever get. ]