Imagine If You Assembled The Avengers: Volume 3

Zombie (Banner x reader)

Another head hangs lowly

Child is slowly taken

And the violence causes silence

Who are we mistaken?

"I don't know if he'll ever be the same," you sighed with a subtle shrug, "I mean, after Ultron happened and he disappeared to Sakaar for so long, I wasn't sure if I'd ever see him again. Bruce was always so welcoming when I'd visit the lab and so excited to teach me whatever project he was working on, and together it was just easy, you know? I can't remember the last time I had seen him without a smile before that. But now..."

"He's different," you friend agreed. "After what he saw Thor go through, and then losing everyone in Wakanda...it's going to take a pretty big toll."

What was left of the team had just returned from their battle against Thanos in T'Challa's country, but they were ghosts of their former selves. It wasn't only Bruce who had suffered this transformation, and he wasn't the only one you feared might not return from it. Steve's eyes no longer had the sparkle of blue that never failed to elicit a stare or two from you. Natasha barely spoke anymore. Clint had come back, but he wasn't Clint; he was a broken, darker version of one of your closest friends. Thor spent much of his time alone now, taking walks around the grounds that sometimes went from sunrise to sunset.

And then there was Tony.

No one knew where Tony was, or if he had even survived the snap. That may have been the final insult to an already open, hemorrhaging, emotional wound that each of them carried. The original six Avengers were trying to pull themselves together again, to be the team the universe needed them to be, but without him, it was like none of them could be a complete person, and they were immobilized by their grief.

Your hand shook as you took your cup into it, bringing it to your lips hesitantly while your mind continued to churn and spit terrible thoughts of your friend's fate. He could be completely alone with no one to save him after he had saved so many, including you. He could be dead, and none of you would know. You had tried to talk to Bruce about Tony but he wouldn't engage; it shut him down and left you standing alone in a desolate lab with equipment gathering dust in its lack of use.

"He paces back and forth all day, lost in his own head. He walks the halls like a zombie. He's not Bruce anymore."

~~~

You wanted to talk to Bruce about your anxieties, but he was becoming a hard man to find of late; most of your remaining teammates were much the same. They had retreated into their own minds, filled with worry about what could still be to come and if there was anything that they could do to ease the pain they felt. They had been obsessing over how they might save those they had lost, but they had yet to find a reasonable, possible plan that went beyond the desire to grasp at desperation to make it work. You decided to wait a day or two before approaching him as to not push, but of course, your visiting friend was too astute as to how it was affecting you and seemed to be an ever-present instigator.

"He's in the conference room," she pointed to the doorway behind you, "you should talk to him before you can't find him again."

"I'm not going to bother him while he's working. He's been having a hard enough time focusing lately as it is without me being a distraction."

"You said so yourself, he's not Bruce anymore, and if you care about him like you say you do, don't you want to do whatever you can?"

"Of course," you shrugged. "But look at him, he's..." you paused, your voice fading away. You never finished the thought though, your attentions shifting as you watched him work. You had never known anyone like him before, his genius unmatched until you met Tony. Even then, you had known Bruce before the Avengers found him, and your loyalty to the man was unwavering. So much so, that when the team took him in, he wouldn't agree to go unless you were there at his side.