We drive to a cafe somewhere, all three of us are shocked to see Bruce Banner as Professor Smart Hulk, with multiple big plates of everything for breakfast, "come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating."
He pushes a plate forward, "try some of that, have some eggs."
"I'm so confused," Scott blurts breaking the silence.
Bruce looks to him, "these are confusing times."
"Right, no, no, that's not what I meant," Scott says shaking his head.
Bruce cuts to the chase, "no, I get it. I'm kidding! I know, it's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now."
"Yeah! Wh...how? Why?" Scott asks questioningly.
"Five years ago, we got our asses beaten. Except it was worse for me, because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost," Bruce explains.
Nat shakes her head, "no one blamed you, Bruce."
"I did, for years, I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease, something to get rid of. But then I started looking at him as the cure, eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together, and now look at me, best of both worlds," he explained to us about his experience.
Suddenly three children behind Bruce walk up to him tentatively, "excuse me, Mr. Hulk?"
"Yes?"
"Can we get a photo?"
"Hundred perfect little person, come on step up," he says as they came closer then he holds the phone out to Scott, "you mind?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Thanks," he turns to the children, "say green!"
Scott snaps the photo, "did you get that?"
He leans forward handing back the phone, "do you wanna grab one with me? I'm Ant-Man."
Then he shakes it off, "they're Hulk fans, they don't know Ant-Man, nobody does."
"Wait, no, no, he feels bad. No, he wants you to...he wants to," Bruce turns to one of the boys, "you want to take a picture with him, right?"
The boy shakes his head vigorously, "stranger danger."
"He's even saying no he doesn't, I get it, I don't want it either," Scott replies.
"But, come on, the kid! But he...but you..."
"I don't want a picture with them."
"He's gonna feel bad," he says then turns to Scott, "sorry, they said they'd do it."
"I don't want it anymore."
"No, no...you feel bad."
"Just take the goddamn phone."
The girl grabs it, "thank you, Mr. Hulk."
"No, it's great kids. Thank you very much," he says then all of them flex like Bruce, "hulk out!"
"Bruce," I said getting his attention.
"Dab!" Bruce says awkwardly.
"Bruce."
"Listen to your mom, she knows better," he continues.
"About we were saying," I began.
He turns to us nodding, "right, the whole time travel do-over? Guys, it's outside my area of expertise."
"Well, you pulled this off. I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible, too," Nat tells him.
In the lab at the Avengers Compound, Bruce is fiddling with buttons on a panel. Scott is in his Ant-Man suit in front of the van he arrived in, with the back open to show the Quantum Tunnel. Nat and I are beside Bruce to see how this will work, I pray to god it works so Miranda can come back to me and our kids.
"Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one, Scott, fire up the uhhh...the van thing," Bruce tells him.
Scott then opens the portal, I step up, "breakers are set, emergency generators are on standby."
"Good, 'cause if we blow the grid, I don't wanna lose Tiny here in the 1950's," Bruce says.
All three of us looked at him with our panicked looks, Scott looks to him, "excuse me?"
"He's kidding," Nat says to him then turns to Bruce in a hushed tone, "you can't say things like that!"
"Just...it was a bad joke."
"You were kidding, right?" She asked again.
He leans to her almost whispering as I can hear, "I have no idea, we're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is."
Both Nat and I looked at each other knowing this was hard to take in, thinking this was ridiculous but somewhat chaotic of us going back in time to save everyone.
He turns to Scott giving him a thumbs up, "we're good! Get your helmet on, Scott. I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in ten seconds. Makes sense?"
"Perfectly not confusing," Scott responds sounding confused in his tone.
I had walked up a bit with my arms crossed giving him a nod, "good luck, Scott. You got this."
"You're right, I do, Captain America."
Bruce then pressed a button, and Scott disappears into the Quantum Tunnel, "on the count of three. 3...2...1!"
He pressed a button, and someone in the Ant-Man suit comes back, a teenager. I was shocked as I unhooked my arms being crossed, I turn around to see Nat looking at me then to him as we were both confused and shocked as to what just happened.
"Uh, guys? This...this doesn't feel right," teenager Scott says.
"What is this?" I asked.
"What's going on?" Bruce asked.
"That...who is that?" Nat asked.
He pushed another couple of buttons, trying to fix the problem of Scott being a teenager.
"Hold on," he said panicking.
"Is that Scott?" Nat asked again.
"Yes, it's Scott!" He yelled.
He gets sucked in back into the quantum tunnel, and it appears to be an old man in the suit, I rubbed my forehead.
"Ow! My back!" He says.
"What is this?" I asked again.
"Can I get a little space here," Bruce demanded.
"Yeah, yeah. Can you bring him back?" I asked.
"I'm working on it!" He argued as he taps the side of the button pad, trying to pull back Scott.
After a moment, another person appears in front of us, this time it's a baby, I sighed once again.
"It's a baby."
"It's Scott."
"As a baby!"
"He'll grow."
"Bring Scott back!"
Bruce turns to Nat, "when I say kill the power, kill the power."
"Oh my god," she says then rapidly walks near to the generator.
"And...kill it!" He says.
Nat pulls down a lever, and everything shuts down. Scott, the normal Scott, gets spewed back out again.
"Somebody peed my pants," he says in shock.
"Oh thank god," Nat says in relief.
"But I don't know if it was 'baby' me or 'old' me, or just 'me' me," he says trying to emphasize what just happened.
Bruce then holds his hands up in a dramatic way, "time travel!"
I said nothing as I shake my head walking away, "what? I...I see this as an absolute win!"
I walk outside the compound staring at the floor, the only possibility of victory now is not seeming as an opportunity to bring everyone back. The only thing on my mind is how I keep remembering Miranda disappearing in front of me, turning into ashes.
I start to tear up a bit but then a noise breaks the silence and out of my thoughts, I look to see an Audi R8 speeding towards where I am, the car pulls up going a bit too far from me, then backs up to be where I am.
The window rolls down and it's Tony, he looks at me, "why the long face? Let me guess, he turned into a baby."
"Among other things, yeah. What are you doing here?"
He gets out of the car walking around to the back, ignoring my question, "that's the EPR paradox, instead of pushing Lang through time, you might've wound up pushing time through Lang. It's tricky, dangerous. Somebody should've cautioned you against it."
"You did."
"Oh, did I?" He sarcastically asked as I smirked knowing the Tony I knew is back, "thank god I'm here, regardless, I fixed it."
He holds up his right hand, with a device in it, "a fully functioning time space GPS, I just want peace. Turns out, resentment is corrosive, and I hate it."
"Me too."
"We got a shot at getting these stones, but I gotta tell you my priorities. Bring back what we lost? I hope, yes. Keep what I got? I have to, at all costs. And...maybe not die trying will be nice," he tells me.
"Sounds like a deal," I smiled as I reached out my hand to shake in the deal, he returned the favor.
Tony reached back into his trunk to pull something else out, which is my shield, he motions to give it to me but I hesitate, "Tony..."
"Why? He made it for you, plus, honestly I have to get it out of the garage before Morgan takes it sledding," he tells me which makes me smile.
I take the shield fitting my arm into it, "thank you, Tony."
"Will you keep that a little quiet? Didn't bring one for the whole team," he says then hesitates a bit, "we are getting the whole team, yeah?"
"We're working on that right now."
In a side room I'm with Scott, Bruce and Rhodey as we talk, Scott is in a white and red suit, similar to his Ant-Man suit.
"Time travel suit? Not bad," Rhodey says.
"Hey, hey, hey! Easy, easy!" Scott says referring to Bruce touching the suit with something red in a glass tube.
"I'm being very careful," he tells him.
"No, you're being very Hulky."
"I'm being careful."
He holds up the red glass bottle, "these are Pym particles, alright? And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have, we're not making any more."
"Scott, calm down," Rhodey tells him.
"Sorry, we've got enough for one round trip each, that's it. No do-overs, plus two test runs," he accidentally pressed a button, shrinks and then grows back to his normal size, "one test run."
In the testing chamber, I'm joined with Nat, Tony, Scott, Bruce, Rhodey and Nebula as we stand at a control panel, presumably controlling the glass platform.
"All right, I'm not ready for this," Scott says panicking.
"I'm game, I'll do it," Clint says with his arms crossed.
He then walks in wearing the suit Scott was in moments before, the Quantum suit.
"Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift, don't worry about it," Bruce tells him.
He then takes position on the platform, "wai-wait a second, let me ask you something. If we can do this, you know, go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos, you know and..."
Rhodey made a hand gesture suggesting that they strangle baby Thanos with a rope.
"First of all, that's horrible...," Bruce says disgusted.
"It's Thanos."
"...and secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future," Bruce tells him.
"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them...Thanos doesn't have the stones, problem solved," Scott says.
"Bingo," Clint says smirking.
"That's not how it works," Nebula speaks up.
"Well, that's what I heard."
"What? By who? Who told you that?" Bruce asked.
Rhodey counts his fingers, "Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time—"
"Quantum Leap—"
"A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time—"
"Hot Tub Time Machine—"
"Hot Tub Time Machine, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel," Rhodey says and Scott as they both name off movies.
"Die Hard? No, it's not one...," Scott says.
"This is known."
"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true. Think about it, if you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past, which can't now be changed by your new future," Bruce explains.
"Exactly," Nebula agrees.
"So...Back To The Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Scott asked sounding disappointed as being a fan of the movie.
Bruce then turns to Clint, "alright, Clint. We're going in 3...2...1!"
A helmet similar to Ant-Man's but white and more visible pops on Clint's head, and he goes quantum. As he's in there I open the compass to see Miranda's beautiful face, waiting for Bruce to bring back Clint in a few seconds.
"Hey, we're going to bring her back, okay?" Tony reassured me patting my back.
I smiled at him, "I just hope this works."
"It will."
Clint then appears on the glass platform, breathing heavily and sits on the platform, Nat goes to him, "hey, hey. Look at me, you okay?"
He holds up a baseball glove and throws it to Stark, "yeah, it worked. It worked."
All of us are in a room with some hologram displays, showcasing each of the six infinity stones, sitting around a table. Tony, Bruce and I are pacing at the front, leading the plan of the mission.
"Okay, so the 'how' works. Now we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost all of us has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones," I start off.
"Well I'd substitute the word encounter for damn well near been killed by one of the six Infinity Stones," Tony remarks.
"I haven't, I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about," Scott replies being confused.
"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round trip each, and these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history," Bruce explains.
"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in," Tony continues.
"Which means we have to pick our targets," Clint speaks up.
Tony points to him, "correct."
"Let's start with the Aether, Thor, what do you know?" I asked.
Thor is sitting on a chair with his sunglasses on, it makes us all confused as we look at him not knowing if he's asleep or awake.
"Is he asleep?" Nat asked.
"No, I'm pretty sure he's dead," Rhodey speaks up sarcastically.
Thor then wakes up, "Where to start? Umm... The Aether, first, is not a stone, someone called it a stone before. It's more of a... an angry sludge thing, so... someones gonna need to amend that. Here's an interesting story though, many years ago... My grandfather had to hide the stones from the Dark Elves...Wooooh, scary beings. So Jane, oh, there she is. That's Jane... She's... an old flame of mine... She... she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time... and then the Aether stuck itself inside her... And, she became very, very sick. So I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from. And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see. I got to introduce her to my Mother... who's dead, and oh you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, these things happen though you know, nothing last forever."
Tony then starts to push him back to his chair, "I'm not done yet, the only thing permanent in life is impermanence."
"Awesome, eggs? Breakfast?" Tony asks wanting to make breakfast for us.
"I'd like a Bloody Mary, thank you," Thor says as he raised his hand.
Later on we eat a meal as we're all sitting around the table, Rocket is pacing on the table in front of everyone, "Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag."
"Is that a person?" Scott asked.
"Morag's a planet, Quill was a person," Rocket corrects him.
"A planet? Like in outer space?" Scott asks.
"Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything," Rocket says then imitates talking to a puppy, "do you want to go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll get you to space."
All of us face Nebula in the planning room, while Nat writes down notes for their plan.
"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir," she says.
"What is Vormir?" Nat asks in her business like tone.
"A dominion of death, at the very center of Celestial existence. It's where...Thanos murdered my sister," she says.
Nat looks up, as awkward silence falls upon the room, she writes what Nebula had said as Scott raised his hand, "not it."
"All right, we have a plan. Six stones, three teams, one shot," I began, "five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends... We lost family... We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win."
Tony looks over to me giving me a look as I smiled gently to him, "whatever it takes, good luck."
"He's pretty good at that," Rocket says referring to me.
"Right?" Scott says excitedly.
"All right, you heard the man. Stroke those keys, jolly green," Tony says referring to Bruce.
"Tractors engaged," Bruce says.
Rocket looks to Clint as he holds a shrunken Benator, "you promise to bring that back in one piece, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I'll do my best," Clint says to him.
"As promises go, that was pretty lame," Rocket says sarcastically.
Nat smiles excitedly, "see you in a minute."
I smile at her as all of our helmets go on to engage us going back in time, all of us shrink entering the Quantum Realm. All of us split at different intervals, going to different places and different times in history.
Tony, Bruce, Scott and I are back in New York in the year 2012 when we fought against Loki and the Chitauri. All of us materialize into a side street away from the main ruckus of us seven original Avengers assembling from before, I look down the street seeing Miranda, my heart sank as to knowing that she is now gone because of Thanos.
Tony stood next to me seeing that I was looking at Miranda as to seeing myself tell everyone their duties and plans, he sighs putting his hand on my shoulder, "we're going to bring her back, she'll come back."
"What if we fail Tony? What if it doesn't work and I'll never see her again? Not even our kids?" I asked him.
He took in a breath, "whatever it takes Cap, remember?"
I looked to him nodding, I snapped back into our plan, "all right, we all have our assignments. Two Stones uptown, one Stone, down. Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock."
We then see past Hulk passing by us, smashing everything in his way, Bruce held his hand up towards his face in embarrassment.
"Feel free to smash a few things along the way," I comment from seeing that.
"I think it's gratuitous, but whatever," Bruce says walking up front.
Bruce pretends to smash things in a sarcastic way, he tears his shirt off, and walks over to a car. He lightly punches the car, making a small dent, all the while making growling noises. He picks up a motorbike and throws it at a wall, wincing as it hits the wall.
We're now inside the Stark Tower of what it used to be before Ultron, I'm inside walking trying to find the elevator which isn't hard to find.
"Got to hustle, Cap. Things look like they're just about wrapped up here," Tony says over the comms.
"Got it, I'm approaching the elevator now," I respond.
"Uh, Mr. Rogers I almost forgot that that suit, did nothing for your ass," Tony says looking at my 2012 self.
I sighed shaking my head, "no one asked you to look, Tony."
"I think you look great, Cap. As far as I'm concerned, that's America's ass," Scott speaks up telling me.
I scoffed a little chuckling, "America's ass huh? Would be an amazing thing to tell Miranda when she gets back."
"All right, Cap. I got our scepter in the elevator just passing the 80th floor," Tony tells me.
"On it, head to the lobby," I respond.
The elevator doors open up, the Hydra agents as I see a deja vu pierce through my mind of a flashback of when I was in the elevators with them in Washington, I walk inside hitting the button to continue down.
"Captain, I thought you were coordinating search and rescue?" Sitwell asked me.
"Change of plans," I said holding back a smirk.
"Hey, Cap," Rumlow says as I remembered last time how this went.
I looked to him, "Rumlow."
I see that everyone gets suspicious holding their guard up, "I just got a call from the Secretary, I'm gonna be running point one the scepter."
"Sir? I don't understand," Sitwell says looking at me confused and lost.
"We got word there may be an attempt to steal it," I tell him.
"Sorry, Cap. I can't give you the scepter," Rumlow tells me.
"I'm gonna have to call the Director," Sitwell says.
"That's okay, trust me," I said to him leaning over to his ear, "hail Hydra."
They wore surprised looks, I walked out of the elevator with the scepter and a smile. Perfect how that went really well, never thought I would attempt to leave on a good lying attempt for Sitwell.
I'm walking through a walkway several floors up, I'm now having trouble on the comms, "Tony, what's going on? Tell me you found that cube."
I look up and groaned not realizing what's going to happen, "oh, you gotta be shitting me."
"I have eyes on Loki, 14th floor," my 2012 self said.
I put the case down, "I'm not Loki, and I don't wanna hurt you."
Both of us began to fight against each other, as we fight he hits me to the ground, I take a breather, "I can do this all day."
"Yeah, I know. I know," I said standing up.
Both of us frisbee style our shields towards each other but then they both hit and go down to the ground, the case gets inadvertently kicked away and it falls down a few levels. Both of us then fall down the same level as the scepter, my locket of Miranda falls out, my past self notices it.
"Where did you get this?" He asked.
He has me in a chokehold, "Bucky...is...alive!"
"What?" He asked.
I then sucker punched his counterpart, I grabbed the scepter and knocked him out, I get up and stare at his behind as I put the locket back into my suit.
I breathed heavily, "that is America's ass."
I jump down from a building with the scepter, "Cap."
I turn around to see Tony wearing a sour defeated look on his face along with Scott's sitting in a broken car, "sorry, buddy. We got a problem."
"Huh, yeah, we do," Scott says sarcastically.
"Well, what are we gonna do now?" I asked.
"You know what? Give me a break Steve, I just got hit in the head with the Hulk," he tells me sounding upset getting out of the car along with Scott.
"You said that we had one shot, this, this was our shot. We shot it, it's shot. Six stones or nothing, six stones or nothing," Scott says repeating himself.
Tony looks to him, "you're repeating yourself, you know that? You're repeating yourself."
"You're repeating yourself, you're repeating yourself," Scott says to him.
"Dude, come on," Tony says to him sounding a bit down.
"You never wanted a time heist, and then you went on board with the time heist?" Scott tells him.
"I dropped the ball."
"You ruined the time heist."
"Is that what I did?"
"Yeah!"
"Are there any other options with the Tesseract?" I asked speaking you finally.
"No, no, no. There's no other options, there's no do-overs. We're not going anywhere else, we have one particle left. Each, that's it, alright? We use that and, bye, bye. You're not going home," Scott says still upset.
"Yeah, well if we don't try, then no one else is going home either," I said sounding irritated.
Tony stands up straight with an idea in his head, "I got it, there's another way. To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles, we'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State."
"When were they both there?" I asked looking at him.
"They were there at...I've a vaguely exact idea," Tony says.
"How vague?" I asked.
"What are you talking about? Where are we going?" Scott asked as we both ignored him.
"I know for a fact they were there."
"Who's they? What are we doing?" Scott asked.
"And I know how I know," Tony says.
"Guys, what's up? What is it?" Scott asked again.
"Well, it looks like we're improvising," Tony says to me.
"Right, what are we improvising?" Scott asked.
"Scott, get this back to the compound," Tony says handing him the scepter.
"Suit up," Tony says.
"What's in New Jersey?" Scott asked.
"0-4."
"0-4," I repeat.
"Uhh, 0-7."
"0-7."
"Excuse me...," Scott says.
"1-9-7-0."
I looked at him, "are you sure?"
"Cap, Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work. You're not coming back," Scott tells me.
"Thanks for the pep talk, pissant," Tony says then looks to me, "do you trust me?"
"I do," I nodded as I stared at him.
"Your call."
"Here we go."
1970
"Clearly, you weren't actually born here, right?" Tony asked.
"The idea of me was."
"Right, well, imagine you're shield. Running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization, where do you hide it?" Tony asked as we looked around.
"In plain sight," I said as we both turn to the building.
Both Tony and I are in an elevator with a woman, which makes it more awkward, Tony then leaves the elevator, "good luck on your mission, Captain."
"Good luck on your project, doctor," I said as I wait for another floor.
The doors closed, the woman with me perched up and smiled, "you're new here?"
"Not exactly."
I walked into a phone booth calling Hank Pym as he's in his office, "hello, Dr. Pym?"
"That would be the number that you called, yes," he responds.
"This is Captain Stevens from shipping, we have a package for you," I tell him making up a lie.
"Bring it up."
"Well, that's the thing, sir. We can't."
"I'm confused, I thought that was your job."
"Well, it's just, sir the box is glowing and, to be honest some of our mail guys aren't feeling that great."
"They didn't open it, did they?"
"Yeah, they did. You better get down here."
Suddenly I hear the door open as he hung up racing down the hallway, "excuse me! Out of the way!"
I chuckled slightly knowing how that went well, I walk out of the phone booth walking down the hallway just as I seen the same woman from the elevator talking to two security guards, "and you've never seen these two men before?"
"No, I've got an eye for this. The two of them looked fishy," she told them.
"Can you describe them?" The man asked.
"Well, one of them had a hippie beard."
"Hippie? Like Bee Gees or Mungo Jerry?"
"Definitely Mungo Jerry."
"Yeah, this is Chesler. I need every available MPs on sub-level 6, we have a potential breach," the man spoke into the walkie.
I suddenly walked into a room feeling safe out of sight seeing them walk down the hallway, I turn around as I was about to leave seeing a picture of myself on a desk along with Miranda's picture next to mine, Miranda looked far more beautiful in this photo.
Then I looked back at the door window to see the backwards name spell out Margret Carter, I turn around hearing voices and a door opening seeing her walk in talking to a man behind her. She then walks over close to the window where I'm standing at as she looks over a file, then she walks away.
I sighed knowing that back then I was in love with both Peggy and Miranda, but I picked Miranda because I loved her. She made me the happiest man alive, we have four beautiful kids and I wouldn't ever trade them for the world.
I then walked outside to see Tony and Howard speaking, I looked over at Tony telling him with my expression if he has it, he lifts up a case and points to it without Howard knowing. I liked seeing the fact that Tony is now having a conversation with his father, bonding with him that he never did before.
I felt bad for Tony, I really did, having him see the video of Bucky killing his parents, I can't even imagine how that must feel. My father died in war, my mother died of sickness, my aunt took care of me but she passed away too. Death isn't always easy, but seeing the look on Tony's face when watching that video broke my heart, even if him and I weren't as close friends I still care for him.
All of us shrink and get sent back to the present day back at the compound, everyone looks around to see all the recovered stones.
"Did we get them all?" Bruce asked.
"You telling me this'll actually work?" Rhodey asked.
Clint collapsed to the ground as his hair is wet, everyone pauses as we look to him, Bruce looks at him, "Clint, where's Nat?"
Clint doesn't speak as his eyes show tears swelling up, we all knew what happened. The mission was complete, but at a dire cost. All of us are outside on the dock by the lake, Bruce falls to his knees and pounds the floor in grief.
"Do we know if she had family?" Tony asked.
"Yeah, us," I said with tears in my eyes.
Thor looked confused, "what?"
"I just asked him a question."
"Yeah, you're acting like she's dead. 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?" Thor asked then growls, "so stop this shit, we're the Avengers, get it together."
"We can't bring her back," Clint speaks up.
"Wha-what?" Thor asked.
"It can't be undone, it can't."
Thor gives out a dry laugh, "I'm sorry, no offense, but you're a very earthly being. Okay? We're talking about space magic, and 'can't' seems very definitive don't you think?"
"Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my pay grade here. But she still isn't here, is she?" Clint argues back.
"No, that's my point."
"It can't be undone. Or that's at least what the red floating guy had to say, maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay? Go grab your hammer, and you go fly and talk to him!" He shouts to Thor.
Clint's anger is then replaced with grief as he lets out a soft cry, "it was supposed to be me, she sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone. She bet her life on it."
In a burst of anger, Bruce grabs a bench and hurls it clear across the lake. His anger spent, he then turns around to us with a resigned look on his face, "she's not coming back, we have to make it worth it. We have to."
"We will," I speak up.
As Tony and Bruce along with Rocket helped make the new finished gauntlet, we're all joined up in a room gathered around it.
"All right, gloves ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?" Rocket asked looked at us.
Thor steps up, "I'll do it."
"Excuse me?" Scott asked.
"It's okay."
All of us hold up Thor, "no, no, no, whoa. Stop, stop. Wait a sec, hey, hey."
"Wait, wait, Thor, just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet," I tell him.
"I'm sorry, what we're just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?" Thor asked.
"We should at least discuss it," Scott says.
"No, no, sitting here staring at that thing is not gonna bring everyone back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me, it's my duty," Thor says.
"It's not about that," Tony tells him.
"It's not that, stop it! Just let me!" Thor says then tears up, "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 tells him.
"What do you...what do you think is coursing through my veins right now?" Thor asked him.
"Cheez whiz?" Rhodey asked making a joke.
"Lighting," he says feeling like powerful god.
"Yeah."
"Lightning won't help you, pal. It's gotta be me," Bruce says.
Thor let's go of Tony, we look at Bruce, "you saw what those stones did to Thanos, it almost killed him. None of you could survive."
"How do we know you will?" I asked him.
"We don't, but the radiations mostly gamma," he takes a good look at the gauntlet, "it's like...I was made for this."
All of us suit up ready to see what will happen after Bruce snaps his fingers, "good to go, yeah?"
"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 tells Bruce.
"Got it."
"Friday, do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol, will you?" Tony says to his computer com.
"Yes, boss."
The facility goes on lockdown, Bruce looks at the gauntlet before putting it on, "everybody comes home."
He then puts on the gauntlet, which nanobotically expands to fit his hand, and the power surge overwhelms him, he groans in pain.
"Take it off! Take it off!" Thor yells.
"No, wait. Bruce, are you okay?" I asked him.
"Talk to me, Banner," Tony says.
"I'm okay, I'm okay," he says taking a breather.
Thor gives a double thumbs up, Bruce screams fighting through the intense pain coursing through his body courtesy of the gauntlet, and manages to snap his fingers. After he snaps he faints and the gauntlet slides off his arm, Clint kicks it away.
Miranda's POV
I suddenly open my eyes to a bright light, then someone echoing in my mind, "Miranda! Miranda wake up!"
My eyes were blurry seeing a figure in front of me, "Miranda! Miranda wake up!"
As my eyesight got clearer I see Bucky sitting above me worried, "Miranda! Hey, are you okay?"
I get up instantly remembering what happened and I panicked, "what, what happened? Where's Steve? Where's Tony?"
"Hey, hey, shh calm down okay? We're in Wakanda still, honestly I'm just as confused as you are," he says to me.
I look to him and give him the biggest hug, then hit him in his stomach, "you're such an idiot Barnes! I saw you turn into ash and die, even I did, and you killing Tony's parents? Why?"
He laughs a bit, "I missed you too Miranda, but back then when I killed them, I was under my Winter Soldier mind control. They would electrocute and torture my mind, making me the unstoppable Winter Soldier I was, with the words they would say to me. Deep down with my normal self inside, trapped, I couldn't stop it."
My heart broke hearing this, I sighed and took him in for another hug, "god Bucky, sometimes I hate you but I can't ever hate you, I love you like my own brother I never had."
"Really? I'm you're brother now?" He asked.
I sighed shaking his head and shoving him off, "don't get cocky asshole."
"Alright, alright I'm sorry. I really missed you Miranda," he says giving me another hug.
I chuckled, "I missed you too."
After we hugged I gave him a kiss on the cheek, Sam and Wanda walk over along with T'Challa, I hugged Sam and Wanda. I wanted to shake T'Challa's hand but I instead gave him a hug.
"So, what happens now?" Sam asked.
"War," T'Challa says.
Suddenly a portal opens up from Doctor Strange that I recognized, Sam and I get communication back into our comms, I smiled knowing this is where Steve is and I'm coming home.
"Hey, Cap, you read me?" Sam says in the comms as it cracks to connect to the signal.
"Cap, it's Sam. Can you hear me?" Sam says again as his wings open up, "on your left."
The portal opens up more, T'Challa, Okoye and Shuri walk out first. Wanda is next to me holding my hand, I hold hers back as we both smile at each other, I squeezed her hand knowing that she lost Vision to this.
Sam flies out of the portal, all of us walked out, Wanda flies out with her powers, I walk next to Bucky and Groot. I see Steve look at me shocked smiling with tears in his eyes, I wanted to go to him right there but I couldn't.
Everyone was all here, many portals opened up, I got my weapons ready seeing Thanos' army up ahead. I wore my battle face on, I was ready to kick some ass after knowing all the shit they put us through, Thor and Tony look at me smiling seeing that I'm back.
Pepper shows up in her suit that Tony made her, it was amazing seeing everyone here fighting this battle and winning this war.
Thor, Steve and Tony join in first as I'm near close to them, "Avengers!"
He suddenly summons Thor's Mjolnir, I was surprised that he was able to lift it but I knew he was worthy since I saw it moved a bit that day, "assemble."
************
Hey guys! Sorry it took me awhile to upload the new chapter, been busy with work and every thing.
But, I hope you guys liked this new chapter! Now that everyone's back (obviously) lol.
Let me know what you guys think! :)