endgame spoilerrrs and get a tissue ready

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What would you give for the people that you love?

Money? Your house? Your pet? ...something more?

Every one of the people that fought Thanos in those crumbling ruins gave something up. Sometimes it was a limb, hope, sometimes it was one of their loved ones.

Sometimes it was their life.

Every one of the humans behind masks gave something up. A normal life, perhaps. Any sense of normalcy, gone as if vanished in dust. 

Maybe it was the opportunity to keep fighting that they gave up.

Where did it leave them? Desolate, alone, hopeless and helpless?

Perhaps.

The ones that stood, still, at the end of the battle, tall and yet tired beyond belief, they had to bring their life back together. Yes, they all blamed themselves for the casualties, but were they giving up?

No, of course not.

They had to be strong, setting up layers, putting on a show for the public to keep their spirits high. Setting up walls that no one would knock down, that no one would even know exist. The ones that were left to pick up the pieces of the world did their best, suffering from losses and yet being so strong, because being weak and showing emotions wasn't something that they had the luxury to do.

In that way, maybe they aren't so different from us. 

Every one of the heroes that lived to see the destruction, the death, the apocalyptic world that lay, waiting for help? They stood when their muscles wanted nothing more than to fall, to join their fallen comrades dining in the halls of Valhalla. They held up the world when they needed someone else to hold them.

So, that's what they did.

They held each other, watched each other cry and wiped the tears away, helped each other through dark times because at any second the roles could be reversed. They ate together, laughed together, and took alone time when they needed it, to mourn in silence.

They cried their tears, collecting them in bottles to hide from the world that looked upon them in hopes of salvation. They let out their yells, screaming into a void to let out feelings that would explode without warning. They had let their blood fall, and it washed the earth in red, flooded rivers and turned the sky hazy.

They had already given their blood, they had already given their innocence. They had given up all that the world had given them, and yet the deities up in whatever twisted heaven existed still found things to take. Their dreams, their friends. Their souls.

What would you give to make the world a better place?

The supers that gathered by the lake to mourn in black attire and tear-stained cheeks had already given everything. They had given all that they could give, and yet it wasn't enough to appease Fate.

None of them were okay, none of them liked the way that things had turned out, but it was done. They couldn't change anything, oddly enough, because although everything that they had had been snatched from their grasp, the world was okay, and would mend.

The world was healing, and it was the way of those selfless souls to put the world above themselves, above their lives, above their health.

In that way, maybe they aren't so different from us.

They had helped the world, and in doing so, ruined their lives. They got no happy endings, only the ones that they never wanted. They got the endings of misery and ruin, fit for the villains that they had defeated at such a high cost.

What would you give to help yourself?

They didn't do much, but they did what they could. They weren't idiots, they would see that none of them were okay, but they did their best. 

They stuck close together, clinging to what friends were left as a lifeline, because in the ocean of life there are no lifeguards, only sharks swimming, deep, deep, deep.

While the richer people might give everything to help themselves, the heroes had nothing to help themselves with. The public didn't know the full story, didn't know just how bad it was, and yet, if they saw their saviors alone, they would offer companionship.

After all, a conversation is a cheap price for life.

What would you give to be okay again? To get past the trauma, the terror, the tears?

They would give everything, but they already had.

They had already given lives, their minds, their happiness. What more could they give, in a world where everything had been taken?

What would you give to wake up and find that everything had been a dream?

Bucky wondered that every day, wondering what he would give to have Steve by his side again. Sam was great, but Steve had been his best friend. Now, he barely knew the guy, old and content to sit and watch the birds.

Sam wondered how he would feel if he woke up, back in Afghanistan, with Riley's smile in his face and the heat of the sun. How long ago that felt, the sound of gunfire and planes roaring.

What would you give to have them back by your side?

Wanda thought about this every night, as she whispered to Pietro and to Vision. She spoke as if they still lived, as if somewhere, somehow, they were watching and listening to her. She missed them, and now she was by herself.

Pepper thought about this constantly, every time she looked at her daughter and saw Tony looking back, all snark and smarts. Morgan grounded her, made her remember about what good was left. Pepper stayed strong for her child, but every night she would cry, for only one side of the bed was warm.

What would you give to relive that memory just one more time?

Clint pondered on that whenever the holidays rolled around at Natasha wasn't there to complain about wearing a Christmas sweater, or to hold her namesake. He smiled whenever he thought about their time at SHIELD, what a pair they were.

Thor pondered on that whenever he saw a flash of green in the corner of his eye. Something that made him think of Loki, of his brother's tricks. He wished that Loki would be sitting there every time he turned to check, a smirk on his face and a hand through his hair. Thor still dreamed about him, causing mischief in his father's halls, rousing the dead from their slumber with pranks and laughter.

What would you give to forget about all of it?

Shuri and T'challa talked together about it, sometimes. About how they had been in one battle, then in another in the blink of an eye, but their allies were beaten down and hopeless. About how whenever they saw their family, they could see the pain in their eyes, glistening and heatbreaking.

Peter Parker didn't have anyone to talk to. His parents, uncle, his... father. They were all dead, and Peter didn't want to get May down whenever she left him alone to go on a date. Peter wished he could forget it all, how badly it hurt to see his mentor, dead and and cold, just lying on the ground, eyes blank.

What would you give to to have been there earlier?

Carol Danvers wished she could have been their sooner, ended the fight without ending so many lives. She wished that she could have snapped instead, surely she could have taken the blow.

Stephen Strange wished there had been another way, wished that Tony didn't have to die like he always knew he would, just because some monster held up a finger. He wished that he didn't have to look at the fatherless Morgan, and know that he was the one who encouraged her father to die. He wished that he didn't have to watch as the people around him wept, knowing that he was the cause of Tony's death.

What would you give to be normal again?

Bruce figured anything. After all, what was he? Not a man. Not the hulk. Just some cringey, awkward mutant.

What would you give to make up for lost time?

Scott Lang missed seeing his daughter grow up. What do you think?

What would you give to go back and save them all?

Well, ask any one of them. They'd give their life.

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*cries*

im sorry