#i would say 'hire me marvel' but i don't wanna work for them anymore :P

[novelmonger]

I don't think I know what you're talking about. What is the true ending of Endgame? 😃😃😃

Okay, the short version is: Go read my fic Let This One Remain and @rainintheevening's fic To the End...of Infinity

Or maybe that's the long version, because it'll take you a while to read all of that. Anyway, here is my non-story explanation:

Everything in Endgame stays exactly the same, we just didn't get to see what happens in the next five minutes after the end.

See, when Steve takes the Infinity Stones back in time to put them back, he can't deny that he's tempted to go back to some earlier, "easier" time in his life and just...stay there. He's tired, and he deserves a break. But that would mean leaving behind so many loved ones he has in the 21st century. Bucky. Sam. Sharon. All of the Avengers who are left, all of the friends he's made. And he's not the same man who went into the ice. The years have changed him, and he no longer fits in 1945. He no longer fits with Peggy.

But there's still someone who would fit into that old life. So he goes back to talk to himself in the bombed-out bar in London, right after Bucky fell from the train. He tells his former self that Bucky is still alive, that he can't give up, that he's going to crash a plane but will survive, so he needs to give someone his coordinates so they can find him. So he can find Bucky.

Then Steve goes back to the 21st century. The same Steve we know from the movies, going back to where he belongs. Meanwhile, in the other timeline, the other Steve follows his suggestion, is found alive in the Arctic much sooner, and is able to go rescue Bucky before he can be fully turned into the Winter Soldier. They all go home, Steve marries Peggy, and that's who we see dancing at the end of the movie.

Then, towards the end of his life, the alternate Steve gets another visit from his time-traveling self, who gives him a copy of the time-travel watch and asks him to come briefly to the 21st century to give the shield to Sam. So he does, and that's the old Steve we see in the movie.

The scene happens just as we see in the movie, with Bucky and Sam thinking this is their Steve who's come back to them at the end of his life. But right after the movie cuts out, the original Steve, the one we've come to know over the past ten years, steps out from the trees and is like, "Fooled ya, didn't we?" Then they thank the old Steve and send him back to his family in his own time. And the original Steve stays in the 21st century with his friends. He retires as Captain America, letting Sam take up the shield, and marries Sharon and finds other ways to help the world heal - as well as himself.

The End ^_^

This fix-it is something @sergeanttomycaptain and I came up with literally within an hour of seeing Endgame for the first time, proving that we're better writers than whoever thought that was the right way to end Steve's storyline ;)