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Time was up. The quantum realm took them all from their respective spots in time and brought them back to the same spot where they had left, all around the same circle. The suits disappeared off their bodies as they searched that everyone had made it safe and sound before celebrating.
"Did we get 'em all?" Bruce asked first.
"Are you telling me this actually worked?"
The sound of Clint falling to his knees dropped the smiles out of everyone's faces. They noticed the lack of his partner beside him, their gazes searching for her presence in the room. That's when Bruce finally dared to ask;
"Clint, where's Nat?"
Clint's silence told them everything they needed to know. A gasp escaped the group as a whole, but when Tony didn't hear any reaction coming from his wife's lips, he panicked. His eyes flickered all across the room for a sign of her, only to be received with nothing.
"Wait," his voice was laced with deep concern. "Where's (Y/N)?"
Rhodey looked around his sides and his eyebrows furrowed. "I thought — she was next to me."
Tony's expression hardened. His eyes fixated on Rhodey across the platform from him, and he stepped back knowing he would be the fuel of Tony's anger. Before he could march up to him, Bruce restrained him from moving, stepping in front of him. Steve also tried to assist but Tony fought hard against them. Everyone else was either too frozen to move or were assisting Bruce and Steve in pulling Tony away before he did something he might regret.
"Come on, Tony. Tony — "
"Where is she, Rhodes?" Tony shouted. "What happened to my wife?"
"She has to be alive, Tony," Bruce tried to reason, holding his hands in front of him. "You know (Y/N). She's strong."
Tony kept fussing against their grip, but not that hard as before. "She has to."
"She will."
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They honestly don't know how they got Tony to focus enough on the task in hand and to worry about (Y/N)'s safety at the same time. Motivated by her sudden disappearance and Natasha's ultimate sacrifice for one of the stones, they had to make this work.
Tony adjusted the stones into their respective spots in a new gauntlet that he had fabricated. He wasn't touching them of course, but instead moved them with his technology while he controlled them over a wall of glass. Bruce and Rocket were on his sides assisting him if needed, silence being the only thing in the room.
"Boom!" Rocket exclaimed out of nowhere.
Tony and Bruce jumped in shock at his antic, meanwhile Rocket chuckled mischievously.
Now, with the gauntlet finally ready, they had it placed in the middle of the room for everyone to see. The six Infinity Stones sat on the glove like they were meant to be there, glimmering with the luminescent lights above them. The next topic of discussion would be who would be the one to wear it, since it was going to take a toll on whomever decided to do it.
"All right, the glove's ready," Rocket began. He lifted his head to look at everyone. "Question is, who's gonna snap their freakin' fingers?"
Thor raised his hand. "I'll do it."
"Excuse me?"
"It's okay."
"Stop, stop. Slow down."
Tony stepped in front of him before Thor could swoop in and grab the gauntlet. He looked angry because of this, trying to rig off their grasps so he could just grab the glove and get the job done.
"Thor. Just wait," Steve tried to reason. "We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet."
"I'm sorry," he scoffed. "What, we're all just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?"
"We should at least discuss it," Scott added in with a chirpy tone.
"Look, sitting here staring at the thing is not gonna bring everybody back," he argued. "I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So, this responsibility falls upon me."
"Normally, you're right," Tony stepped once again in front of him.
"It's my duty."
"It's not about that."
"It's not that."
Tony tried to hush him and get him to stop talking, but that just strengthened his desperation. He balled his fists in anger but didn't have the courage to use them.
"Stop it! Just let me." He placed his fists on Tony's chest. His eyes turned teary, nearly begging on his knees for this chance. "Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something right."
"Look, it's not just the fact that the glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent," Tony began explaining. He placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm telling you. You're in no condition."
"What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?"
"Cheez Whiz?" Rhodey asked out of nowhere.
Thor shot him a look. "Lightning."
"Yeah."
"Lightning won't help you, pal," Bruce cut him off. "It's gotta be me."
His expression was solemn as he walked up to the glove in the center of the room, listing off the reasons why he should be the one to do this. Everyone stared at him with serious faces, although Thor still shaking his head in disapproval.
"You saw what those stones did to Thanos. They almost killed him. None of you could survive."
"How do we know you will?"
"We don't," he answered to Steve's question. He stopped walking and stared down at the glove. "But the radiation's mostly gamma. It's like. . .I was made for this."
They handed him the glove, which seemed tiny in comparison to his hands. The good thing was that it was made to fit perfectly around whoever placed their hand inside, so it would expand once he did so.
"Good to go, yeah?" Tony broke the silence.
"Let's do it," Bruce replied to him.
"Okay, remember, everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago you're just bringing them back to now, today," he stated. His mind immediately flashed to his own family, so he decided to make things even clearer. "Don't change anything from the last five years."
"Got it."
Everyone suited up and stood around Bruce in a protective circle, although still keeping their fair distance from him. Steve had his shield while the others closed the helmets of their suits, including Tony, who placed another force shield to protect both him and Clint.
"FRIDAY, do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol, will ya?" he spoke through his helmet.
"Yes, boss."
The AI followed the command and a barrier was lowered from the roof downward, locking them inside the room. This same barrier was placed all over the compound, hopefully strong enough to contain the energy or anything catastrophic that they feared might happen because of the gauntlet.
"Everybody comes home," Bruce muttered to himself as motivation.
He placed his hand inside the gauntlet, which wrapped around him perfectly. Once it was fully set on his hand, the energy of the six Infinity Stones surged through the glove and up Bruce's arm in flashes of light. He groaned at the sensation and his hand trembled as every second passed, the energy burning through his flesh.
"Take it off!" Thor yelled immediately. "Take it off!"
"No, wait," Steve raised his hand to stop him. "Bruce, are you okay?"
He groaned in response, the burning expanding through the rest of his arm and up his neck.
"Talk to me, Banner."
Several groans escaped Bruce's lips before he could answer. "I'm okay. I'm okay."
Bruce's groans transformed into yells as more time passed. He used his other arm to hold the gloved one up, the energy consuming him almost entirely. He managed to raise his hand in the air and close his fingers, snapping them in a matter of seconds. The metallic sound of the finger snapping against each other made them all stop; feeling as if the whole world turned white before it flashed back to normal.
Bruce's eyes closed and the gauntlet slipped off his hand, collapsing into the floor beside him. Everyone rushed to his aid on either sides of him while Clint kicked the glove away for security.
"Don't move him," Tony ordered with his helmet off.
He extended his hand and a cooling foam escaped from his gloved fingers. The foam cooled down the smoke on Bruce's arm, causing him to make up due to the sensation.
He grasped Steve's arm with his whole hand. "Did it work?"
"We're not sure," Thor replied. "It's okay."
The protective barrier over the entire compound began opening, revealing the windows and the sun light. Everyone seemed to be too preoccupied in Bruce's state to care if their snap worked or not, other than Scott. His eyes were trained on the scenery outside the compound, where a family of birds was returning to their nest on a tree. He smiled in happiness, since this was his proof that it had actually worked.
"Guys," he called without turning around. "I think it worked."
But just at that exact moment, all hell broke loose.
i skipped the scene on the lake because i didn't know how to include it in this scenario lol.
here's a meme to get us through our last chapters together besties
- see you soon, bex <3