everyone comes home
AS the Avengers stared at each other in the circle they reappeared in, Steve immediately felt something was wrong as the Quantum Suit deactivated itself from his body.
Bruce looked around with a laugh. "Did we get them all?"
"You telling me this'll actually work?" Rhodey exclaimed.
Tony's eyes fell to the empty spot between Steve and himself. He turned to those who went to Space, seeing Clint fall to his knees and Natasha holding a hand to her face.
"Clint, where's Marlene?" Steve asked, his voice weak.
Rocket shook his head. "No, no!" he yelled. "Where is she!?"
No one answered. No one knew what to do or say.
Steve stormed out of the room, Tony following close behind as Rhodey put a hand on Rocket's head. The Avengers all walked outside to see Steve standing with Tony close beside him.
Marlene could not be dead. It just did not sit right with their hearts.
"Do we know if she was planning this?" Tony asked mockingly.
Natasha's head snapped to his. "What?"
Tony refused to cry though his heart screamed for him to mourn. It did not sit right. She was not dead. "She's some big prophet in the stars, right? When she was Elsa, she had a shit ton of powers. Maybe she knew this was going to happen. Maybe she'll come back with one of her silly portals—"
"Tony," Steve said softly.
"No!" Tony yelled. "She's not dead, Cap."
"Then, where is she?" Steve snapped with too many expressions running through his head. "She just wanted her life to mean something again... she thought by getting these stones... by getting the people back, it would take away that guilt. She didn't realize what it would cost, in the end," he finished with a tear leaving his eye.
Thor looked around in confusion. "What?"
Steve frowned. "I just—"
"Yeah, you're acting like she's dead," Thor boomed. "Stark's right. Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones, Cap, we can bring her back, isn't that right?" He growled out, "So stop this shit. We're the Avengers, get it together!"
Clint shook his head from his spot near Natasha. "We can't get her back."
"Wha–what?"
"It can't be undone. It can't," Natasha explained.
Thor laughed dryly. "I'm sorry. No offense, but you're both very earthly beings. Okay? We're talking about space magic. And can't seems very definitive don't you think?"
Clint grew angry. "Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my paygrade here. But she still isn't here, is she?"
"No, that's my point–"
"It can't–be undone. Or that's at least what the red floating guy had to say." Clint began to shout. "Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay? GO GRAB YOUR HAMMER, AND YOU GO FLY AND TALK TO HIM!"
He paused as grief overcame him. "She just got a bit of her powers back. She was so fucking excited to have a piece of herself back. She sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone. She bet her life on it."
Suddenly, Steve picked up the nearest bench and broke it in half before throwing it as far as he could. He turned with anger in his eyes. "She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to."
Tony, though still not believing someone called the Galactic Savior their whole damn life was dead, said softly, "We will."
As Bruce, Tony, and Rocket carefully placed the stones on the Gauntlet, Vision stopped next to Steve with a bit of hesitance. Thinking his next works carefully, he said, "Thor may be right."
Thor looked up at his name.
"Think of it as her story was told," Vision amended. "She was created by the Mind Stone. She did not have the Mind Stone attached to her, so in simple terms... could we not create her again?"
Steve froze. "I don't think it works that way. Thanks, Vis."
"But what if it did?" Vision called before Steve could walk away. "Marlene knew things before they happened despite never having those premonitions in their actual beings. The Mind Stone gives the power to see beyond the simplest reason... much as I always have when it was attached to me... before and now."
Everyone froze at his words.
"She knew she would break Mr. Yondu, Mr. Rocket, and Mr. Groot out of that Ravager ship, so she allowed herself to be taken. She knew she could turn invisible without having done it before. She knew she could change her hair as she did on Sakaar to blend in with Thor and Dr. Banner. Marlene always knew the future of her life before it happened without realizing it herself," he said before his eyes drifted to each person.
"There must have been a reason she allowed herself to be the sacrifice. In Wakanda, she knew Thanos would have the power to kill me and take the stone, so she took care of it for me and for Wanda's sake. She knew Loki would protect his brother, and die trying, so she hid the Tesseract and sent him to Earth where he was certainly not wanted at that time. She knew that Miss Romanoff or Mr. Barton would fight to be the sacrifice on Vormir."
"Where are you going with this, Vision?" Tony asked harshly.
"I am saying we create Marlene again. It was what she wanted us to do, which is why she let herself die knowing that she had a child and a husband to get back to."
"Boom!" Rocket said excitedly. Everyone jumped at his exclamation when the stones landed into the Gauntlet. When Tony rolled the table out with the Gauntlet, they all stared at the thing with different emotions on their faces. "All right. The glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?"
Thor stepped forward. "I'll do it."
Scott looked almost offended as he said. "Excuse me?"
"It's okay," Thor murmured as many people tried to get him to sit down as they all yelled for him to wait a moment.
"Wait, wait, Thor, just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet," Steve said, his voice obviously defeated still.
"I'm sorry. What, we're just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?" Thor said with wide eyes.
"We should at least discuss it," Natasha stated seriously.
"No, no, sitting here staring at that thing is not gonna bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me. It's my duty," Thor said with finality.
"It's not about that—" Tony started.
Thor cut him off. "It's not that–Stop it! Just let me!" His voice broke. "Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something right."
"Look–It's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent, I'm telling you, you're in no condition," Tony amended quickly.
"What do you–What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?" Thor panted out.
"Cheez Whiz?" Rhodey asked with a shrug.
"Lightning."
"Lightning won't help you, pal. It's gotta be me," Bruce said quietly. "You saw what those stones did to Thanos. It almost killed him. None of you could survive."
Steve seemed hesitant. "How do we know you will?"
"We don't. But the radiation's mostly gamma." He looked at the Gauntlet in fear and appreciation. "It's like... I was made for this."
After everyone put on their gear in case something went wrong, Tony called to Bruce, "Good to go, yeah?"
Bruce nodded. "Let's do it."
"You remember–everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the last five years," Tony said before murmuring, "But, bring her back."
"Got it."
"Friday, do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol. Will you?"
"Yes, boss," the AI responded.
"Everybody comes home," Bruce mumbled to himself before sliding his hand into the gauntlet that expanded to fit his hand. The power surge shot through his body and overwhelmed him completely. He grunted loudly in pain.
"Take it off! Take it off!" Thor shouted worriedly.
"No, wait. Bruce, are you okay?" Steve asked.
"Talk to me, Banner," Tony called.
"I'm okay. I'm okay." Bruce went against the pain as he tried to get his fingers together. When he managed to get his forefinger and thumb together, the metal clank of the snap was heard as an explosion went off.
On Vormir, bright yellow and blue eyes opened as a strangled gasp left her lips.