I run down to Tony's lab downstairs, and I get there as Rocket says, "All right, the glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freakin' fingers?" "I'll do it," says Thor stepping forward. "Excuse me?" says Tony. "It's okay," says Thor, and he steps towards the glove. "Stop, stop. Slow down," says Tony. "Thor. Just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet," says Steve.
"I'm sorry. What, we're all just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?" says Thor. "We should at least discuss it," says Scott.
"Look, sitting here staring at the thing is not gonna bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So, this responsibility falls upon me. It's my duty," says Thor. "Normally, you're right. It's not about that. It's not that," says Tony, and Thor shushes him.
"Hey, buddy," says Tony. "Stop it! Just let me. Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something right," says Thor, which breaks yet another piece of my heart. I don't know how much more sad things I can take in my life. Let alone, today.
"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," says Tony. "What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?" asks Thor. "Cheez Whiz?" says Rhodey.
Thor points at Rhodey and shoots him a dirty look, and I look at Rhodey and shake my head and roll my eyes.
"Lightning," says Thor. "Guys, Thor is a god no matter what condition he's in. So if anyone has a great survivability shot at this, it's Thor. But if anyone has any other suggestions, I am open to whatever will bring Yelena and everyone back." I say. Everyone does a head tilt that says, "Well, she's got a point."
"Lighting won't help you, pal. It's gotta be me. You saw what those stones did to Thanos. They almost killed him. None of you could survive." says Bruce walking over to the gauntlet. Thor looks upset, but I know that deep down, Thor knows Bruce is right.
"How do we know you will?" asks Steve. "We don't. But the radiation is mostly gamma. It's like... I was made for this." says Bruce, and he picks up the gauntlet.
"Good to go, yeah?" asks Tony. "Let's do it," says Bruce. "Okay, remember, everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago you're just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the last five years," says Tony. "Got it," says Bruce.
We all get ready for Bruce to snap by activating any shields or drawing our weapons in case. I am standing next to Tony who has Friday activate Barn Door Protocol, where the compound goes on lockdown until he disables it. "Everybody comes home," says Bruce, and he puts the gauntlet on.
The gauntlet is on Bruce's arm, and the power of the Infinity Stones starts to sink into his veins. The pain makes him drop to a kneeling position, and we see rainbow electricity-looking lines go all the way up his right arm, which is the gauntlet arm. It burns off the sleeve of his shirt.
"Take it off! Take it off!" says Thor. "No, wait. Bruce, are you okay?" asks Steve. "Talk to me, Banner," says Tony in his Iron Man suit. "I'm okay. I'm okay," says Bruce. Then Bruce gets the strength to snap, falling to the floor seconds later.
The doors open, and I walk out of the room for a minute with Scott.
I look outside for a moment, then I go back to the lab, and the compound blows up, and I am knocked unconscious for the tenth time in my life.
I feel someone shaking me and saying, "Lizzie! Lizzie! Come on. Please wake up!" I open my eyes and see Steve bending over me. I sit up, and I ask, "How long was I out for?" "Ten minutes tops. Now, come on, there's something you need to see," says Steve.
He leads me to a ledge, and he points out Thanos. I facepalm myself, and I say, "Looks like time likes to mess with us if we mess with it."
Steve nods and says, "Lizzie, stay here, and Tony, Thor, and I will fight him." I don't have the energy to fight Steve on this, considering Thanos's giant ship is there, probably loaded with his army.
I watch as Thor summons Mjolnir and Stormbreaker, then he and Tony, and Steve walk over to Thanos.
I can't hear what they're saying but knowing Thanos. It can't be good. After a few minutes, Thor summons lightning and hits a special part of Tony's suit, giving his suit extra power. Thanos is pressing Stormbreaker in Thor, and Steve lifts Mjolnir and throws it at Thanos. Thanos and Steve fight, and Thanos breaks Steve's shield in half. I see Thanos's army come down from his ship, and I walk over to Steve and stand next to him.
"Cap, you read me? Cap, it's Sam, can you hear me? On your left." says a voice I haven't heard before.
Steve and I turn over our left shoulders and see a portal open. Three people walk out, and the boy nods. A man flies out of that portal, and lots more appear. I see more people walk or fly out of the portals. I don't know 99% of the people.
Then I see Ant-Man, well, technically Giant-Man right now, emerges from the ruins of the compound holding Bruce, Rocket, and Rhodey in his hand. He sets them down, and they walk over to us. All of the good guys line up and get ready to fight the Fight of Our Lives.
Steve says, "Avengers..." he summons Mjolnir. "Assemble." Then we all charge, and anyone who can fly flies, and we start the battle. "This is for you, Nat," I say as I run deep into the battlefield.
I use my weapons to bring down two of the dragon-like Chitauri at once, and then I take down more of Thanos's army with more of my weapons. Giant-Man punches a dragon-like Chitauri, and it slams to the ground dead. I use my suit's Widow Bites on some of Thanos's army. They get severely hurt. Yay me!
I hear Clint on comms asking what to do with the stones, and Steve says something about getting them away from here, and Bruce says they need to go back to when we took them or something. I am not fully listening. I am fighting.
I hear Scott's car horn go off, and Steve asks, "Anyone see an ugly brown van out there?" "Yes! But you're not gonna like where it's parked!" says a woman named Valkryie. Valkryie is currently flying on a pegasus.
"Scott, how long do you need to get that thing working?" asks Tony. "Uh, maybe 10 minutes," says Scott. "Get it started. We'll get the stones to you," says Steve. "We're on it, Cap," says Hope Van Dyne, aka Wasp.
I see Clint running through the battlefield, holding the gauntlet with all of the stones intact. I facepalm myself. The stones are on the battlefield, which means Thanos has a chance to get them.
I see T'Challa stop some of Thanos's army with his Vibranium powers from his suit, and Clint gives him the gauntlet. And so the game of pass the gauntlet begins.
I fight for a little while longer. Suddenly, lots of blasts rain fire on the battlefield. Pepper says, "Uh, is anyone else seeing this?" I see Doctor Strange run over, and he uses his powers to stop the water from drowning all of us.
Then suddenly, the blasts stop, and they start shooting into the sky instead. I see a fireball-looking thing come down and go straight through Thanos's ship, and it goes back up again. There is only one person with that kind of power who wasn't already here. Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel.
I look up, and I see Carol flying and looking down at the battlefield. Then to our teams' delight, Thanos's ship drops into the bay. "Danvers, we need an assist here," says Steve, and the battle resumes.
I see Carol fly down, and she lands next to Peter, aka Spiderman, who, as of right now, has the gauntlet. Thanos's army starts charging at Peter and Carol.
I walk over to them and I hear Peter say, "I don't know how you're gonna get it through all of that." "Don't worry," says Wanda as she lands. "She's got help," says Okoye. Then the most powerful girls on our team assemble right there. "I wish you were here for this, Nat," I say.
Nat should be leading this charge right now. She was the first female Avenger and she should be the one to lead them into the final battle.
We start walking slowly, and then we pick up speed, and Wanda and Valkryie, fly. Wanda uses her powers to take down the Dragon-like Chitauri pretty easily. Valkryie is flying on her pegasus, and she uses her spear to cut into the armor of one of the Dragon-like Chitauri. I'm fighting using hand-to-hand combat and some of my weapons. Carol is holding the gauntlet, and she uses her powers to fly as fast as she can to the Quantum tunnel in the back of Scott's van.
Thanos tries to stop her, and he gets blasted by some of my team members. Then he throws his sword into the open back of the van, and it barely makes it there before Carol can, and the Quantum tunnel is destroyed.
The tunnel explodes and releases some energy that sends Carol flying, and she drops the gauntlet because of the blast's power.
I see Thanos try to get to the gauntlet, and Tony shoves him out of the way, and they fight a little before Thanos hits Tony, and he goes flying.
I quickly run over to where they are. Thanos tries to get to the gauntlet only to be stopped by Thor, who uses both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker against Thanos.
Then Steve jumps on Thanos's back and tries to pull Mjolnir and Stormbreaker towards him to help Thor. Thanos breaks free and hits Thor, and he falls to the ground. Thanos flips Steve over off his back and punches Steve, who lays on the ground.
I try to run over to Thanos to stop him. I fight him by using my weapons and hand-to-hand combat. I'm no match. I get thrown pretty far and I hit the ground hard. I can barely move from the impact.
We watch as Thanos runs over to the gauntlet, and he picks it up as Carol punches him repeatedly with her powers. Then Thanos grabs her wrist and spins her around before throwing her, and she lands on the ground hard. Thanos puts the gauntlet on and is about to snap, and Carol gets there just in time, and they fight again.
Thanos grabs the Power Stone, and he blasts Carol. Then he puts the stone back in the gauntlet. I see Doctor Strange slightly hold up a finger but not all the way. I guess Tony knows what he means because he fights Thanos again. I slowly sit up, stand up, and walk towards Tony and Thanos.
Without Thanos realizing it, Tony takes out all of the stones and has the hand of his suit hide them, facing the ground as his suit's unique Stark tech adapts to a gauntlet. "I am inevitable," says Thanos, and he snaps. Nothing happens.
He looks at the gauntlet, and it's empty. He looks at Tony, and he's on his knees, and the stones fly into his right gauntlet, and the power of the Infinity Stones sinks into his veins.
"And I... am Iron Man," says Tony, and he snaps his fingers.
Thanos's army and ships start turning to dust. Thanos sits down, and then he dusts. I stick my tongue out at him as he does.
Tony weakly makes his way over to a wall. He drops to the ground in a sitting position. "Mr. Stark?" says Peter as he gets there. Rhodey bows his head and moves away.
"Hey!" says Peter, breathing shakily. "Mr. Stark. Can you hear me? It's Peter. Hey. We won, Mr. Stark. We won, Mr. Stark. We won! You did it, sir. You did it. I'm sorry, Tony," says Peter, crying.
Rhodey puts his arm around him, and he stands up. I walk away for a minute or so.
"Friday?" asks Pepper. "Life functions critical," comes the reply. "We're gonna be okay. You can rest now," says Pepper.
I watch as the light in his Arc Reactor goes out. It only goes out when the user is dead or not wearing the suit. Tony's hand loosens its grip on Pepper's, and then it falls. Everyone is down on one knee with their head bowed, in tribute to Tony.
After a little while, I slip away and I go around the block and I un-shrink my plane. I get inside and take off to Ana's house. I get there a few hours later and I land a little ways away and I knock on the door.
Ana opens it and says "Lizzie?" "Yeah. It's me. Is Yelena here?" I say. "No, not that I'm aware of. Why don't you come in?" says Ana.
I thank her and come in. The house looks different and there's... a kid and a man? "I adopted her and I married him," says Ana. I nod and smile.
Then I hear a device power up. "What's happening? What's going on?" asks Yelena as she walks into the room with her Widow Bite activated and sticking out. "Yelena, it's me, Lizzie," I say. "That's impossible. You were just eight, five seconds ago," says Yelena.
"Yelena, there's no way to sugar coat this. Um... well, you... you were gone for five years. I'm thirteen now," I say. "What? I was in there for five seconds and now you're telling me that I lost five years of my life?!" says Yelena. "I'm sorry," I say.
"Well, I have to find Natasha and tell her I'm okay," says Yelena. I look down and take a shaky breath. "Lizzie, what happened?" asks Yelena.
"Natasha died. Clint says she sacrificed herself, but I don't know if I should believe him or not. No matter what, she's gone. It happened earlier today," I say. "No. She can't be gone. You heard that about someone else," says Yelena.
"She's gone. Clint and Nat went to Vormir to get the Soul Stone and he came back and she didn't. He says she sacrificed herself. That's all I know. I'm sorry," I say. Yelena hugs me.
It's been a few months since Yelena returned and a few changes have happened. For starters, Yelena got a dog and named her Fanny.
Right now, Yelena just parked her truck and we're getting out of it. We brought Fanny with us. We're visiting Nat's grave in Ohio.
"Come on, Fanny," says Yelena. Yelena and I hold hands as we walk. Fanny walks ahead of us and she barks. Yelena cleans around the grave stone. The grave stone says
Natasha
Romanoff
ⴵ
Daughter Sister Avenger
Yelena moves to one side of the grave and I move to the other. We both have our hands on the top of the grave and our heads are pressed on the side of it. Yelena sniffles and lifts her head up.
She does her special secret whistle and I do mine after her. I'm half waiting for a third response, but I know it isn't coming.
We stand up and stand in front of the grave looking at it. I'm holding Yelena's hand.
It's peaceful until someone blows their nose loudly. Yelena and I look over our left shoulders and there's Valentina.
"Wow. Sorry. I'm allergic to the Midwest. What this woman did, honestly, I can't even imagine," says Valentina. "You're not supposed to be bothering us on our holiday time, Valentina," says Yelena.
"Oh, bothering you? Oh, no, no, no. I'm just here paying my respects," says Valentina. "Hmmm. You know coming here makes you look desperate," says Yelena. She and Valentina laugh and I try to figure out where Valentina is going with this.
"Okay," says Valentina. "I want a raise," says Yelena. "Oh, yeah. You and me both. Believe me, you're gonna earn it. I've got your next target. Thought I'd hand deliver it," says Valentina as she pulls out an iPad.
"Maybe you'd like a shot at the man responsible for your sister's death. Kind of a cutie, don't you think?" says Valentina. The picture on the screen is Clint Barton. Uh, oh.