[𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟹]

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

TONY HAD A rough couple of years. After being returned to Earth when he had no faith in it, he got back into Pepper's arms after a long wait, the guilt of loosing the two kids he'd been mentoring still consuming him deep inside, controlling it over the years.

He'd given up on any certain way of bringing all of them back when three familiar faces knocked on his front door and offered a solution. Going back in time to steal the stones, simply bringing half of the dusted people with a snap of a finger.

They'd collected all the stones in the time heist, but there was one teammate that didn't make it back. Hit by the feeling of grief, all of the remaining Avengers decided it was their time to make Natasha Romanoff's sacrifice worth it by doing the original plan.

Tony, Bruce Banner and Rocket were all huddled close to a machine that was carefully placing the six Infinity Stones in a respective spot in the new gauntlet designed to sustain the energy that these provided together. Once the stones were placed on each of the glove's knuckles, Tony was able to let out a long breath of relief.

"Boom!" Rocket yelled out, making Bruce and Tony jump out of surprise until Rocket let out a mischievous chuckle.

The gauntlet was later moved to the center of the room, where the rest of the group stood around it as they tried their best in not staring. The glove was protected over a small container while Rocket passed his hand on it carefully.

"All right, the glove's ready," he said. "Question is, who's gonna snap their freakin' fingers?"

"I'll do it," Thor offered with a raised hand.

Tony looked back with a raised eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"It's okay," Thor walked towards the gauntlet in the center of the room and everybody rushed to stop him, placing hands on his chest to push him back gently as he tried to protest.

"Stop, stop. Slow down."

"Thor. Just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet," Steve Rogers spoke up, the shield strapped in his forearm.

"I'm sorry. What, we're all just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?"

"We should at least discuss it." Scott Lang requested.

"Look, sitting here staring at the thing is not gonna bring everybody back," Thor pointed at himself as he continued. "I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me."

Tony hid the scoff from the back of his throat at the god's words and took a step forward to stop Thor from doing anything else. "Normally, you're right — "

"It's my duty."

"It's not about that."

"It's not that," Thor shushed him loudly. "Stop it! Just let me. Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something right."

He grabbed onto Tony's shirt desperately, his eyes pleading along with his words as Tony looked up at him with pity. "Look, it's not just the fact that the glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent. I'm telling you. You're in no condition."

"What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?" Thor questioned.

"Cheez Whiz?" Rhodey answered with crossed arms.

Thor shook his head. "Lightning."

"Yeah."

"Lightning."

"Lightning won't help you, pal," Bruce interrupted with a solemn look on his face. "It's gotta be me. You saw what those stones did to Thanos. They almost killed him."

He walked over to the gauntlet and stared down at it, like he was still debating his decision in his head. Everyone didn't say anything and waited for what he had to say.

"None of you could survive."

"How do we know you will?" Steve asked.

"We don't." Bruce said. "But the radiation's mostly gamma. It's like. . .I was made for this."

Bruce held the gauntlet in between his big hands and cradled it with care, the glove being far too small for his arm. It was designed to stretch out to fit anyone's arm, so that wasn't a problem.

A part of Tony was somehow dreading this moment. He had the negative thought that this wouldn't work and all of the effort was in vain, and that he'd never get a chance to see Peter and (Y/N) again.

"Good to go, yeah?" he asked to Bruce when he cleared his head, his hands glued together in front of him.

"Let's do it."

"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."

Bruce nodded. "Got it."

Scott and Rhodey placed their helmets in precaution, Steve held his shield in front of him while Thor placed an arm to protect Rocket. Tony pressed a hand on his arc reactor and his nano suit formed on his entire body, covering him and Clint with his own shield.

"Friday, do me a favor and actívate Barn Door Protocol, will ya?"

"Yes, boss."

Heavy metal doors closed around the compound, blocking the entire building from getting any sunlight from the outside. The doors also closed in the room where they were all standing, locking all of them up as an act of precaution.

"Everybody comes home."

Bruce placed the stretched gauntlet in his hand, and the contact of the stones with his skin let out bright rays of light around his arm, all from the colors of the stones. The radiation burned through his flesh and this caused Bruce to collapse on his knees with a loud groan of pain.

"Take it off! Take it off!" Thor yelled.

"No, wait. Bruce, are you okay?"

Bruce didn't response but groaned once again.

"Talk to me, Banner."

The groans and whimpers escaping from Bruce's throat didn't die out, though he stopped them for a second to answer with a nod. "I'm okay."

The pain on his arm was becoming too much but Bruce knew the risk behind it, letting out a pant before he used all his strength to raise the gloved hand in the air to snap his fingers, a deafening groan echoing through the room as he did so.

When he finally snapped his fingers, Bruce was able to drop all the strength remaining on his body and fell back to the ground, just as the gauntlet slipped from his hand and smoke began to come out of his burnt arm.

"Bruce!" Steve knelt beside him, while Clint kicked the gauntlet away.

"Don't move him!" Tony ordered as he pointed a palm at his arm and cold gas escaped from it, covering Bruce's arm with it as the smoke died out.

"Did it work?" Bruce gripped Steve's hand.

"We're not sure. It's okay." Thor patted him on the head affectionately.

Scott Lang distracted himself from the scene a few feet away from him and walked towards the windows just as the heavy doors opened, seeing how birds happily chirped and seemed to be reunited with their family, the sun seemed to be shining even brighter than before, and a smile returned to his face when he realized.

"Guys. . ." he said. "I think it worked."

Tony was ready to celebrate, even try to contact the kids or anything of the sort when a loud explosion was fired from above, followed by several others by the same source. The floor collapsed underneath him and everyone fell back into the rubble, not knowing what was coming.

this was hard to write. it felt like i would be dragging on to the story if i added the entire plot. had help in organizing how it will go from here. hope you understand.

-see you soon, bex