This is dedicated to Plusiegaming and OwO_King who really really REALLY wanted this to happen

This is angst. Pure unfiltered angst because I'm sad.

BUT I'm making an alternate ending to this that's a lot happier so if you want a happy ending, just wait a few weeks for that : )
•••

Brooke is making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Locally sourced bread, smooth peanut butter and jelly from the farmers market. The sun shines through the compounds large windows, lighting up the modern kitchen. She hums something as she makes the simple snack; Drifting across the room as if she's walking on clouds.

Brooke making a sandwich isn't important to this story. Sure, maybe it illustrates the strange peace and stillness of a post-snap world; but really it's just a peek of the happy world that is about to be changed forever.

And to quote a certain pansexual demon, "she's never gonna eat that sandwich".

Through the giant windows, Brooke spots a familiar craft landing on the grass. The craft opens up, making Brooke smile. "Michael and Jeremy are back!" She yells into the compound, pulling her giant grey cardigan around her.

She runs into the main room, quickly followed by Rich, Jake, Chloe, Christine and Jenna. The all look to each other with a strange mix of fear and excitement. They're so close to having all the stones; to having everyone back. They feel borderline sick with fear and excitement. The main doors open.

For a moment, time stands still. The rapid beating of their hearts stops.

Micheal steps into the compound. The light from the doors turn him into a silhouette. No one says anything, scared to break the serenity of unknowing. Micheal's clenched fist weakens and a yellow stone slips from his fingers. He goes to speak but nothing come out.

Christine is the first to react. "YES YOU GUYS GOT IT!"

She tackles Micheal into a hug, nearly knocking the unbalanced boy over. She buries her head into his shoulder, as the others start to scream in happiness too.

"WE HAVE ALL THE STONES!" Rich shrieks, grabbing Chloe into a throttling hug.

Jenna and Chloe clap each other on the back, laughing hysterically in relief.
Christine breaks her choking hug to cup Micheal's face. Confusion and denial falls over her features as she takes in his broken expression. Her suddenly cold hands and shifting eyes ask a question she doesn't want the answer to.

Luckily- or unluckily, Jenna is the one to ask it.
"Hey Micheal, where's Jeremy? Is he still on the ship"

Everything falls apart.
Micheal falls to the floor. His weak knees buckle under his crushing guilt. He wants to collapse onto the tile and cry a hole into the ground. He wants to scream until his soul breaks- assuming his soul isn't already broken.

His friends rush to his side. Supporting hands hold him upright, holding his face comfortingly. Tuned out voices ask if he's okay. He can't tell who's who, but he knows they need to know what happened.

"When we got to Vormir we were forced to make a trade" Micheal chokes, his jaw too heavy for his face. He takes a deep breath. "Soul for a soul"

The others look to each other, understanding what he means but too afraid to admit it. Brooke clutches onto her cardigan, pulling the fabric in opposite directions.

"Micheal" Rich gently holds his shoulder as if he can shake him back to reality. His voice shakes and his face drains. "What do you . . . what do you mean?"

Micheal takes a deep breath.
"Would it be insensitive right now to call you my soulmate?"

"Jeremy sacrificed himself to get the soul stone" Micheal says. "He . . ."

"We came here willing to die to get everyone back. I would do anything- give anything, to bring my brother back. Evan didn't . . . . . a-are you saying you wouldn't die to bring back your moms?"

Micheal's breath is shaky. His dry throat wants to scream but he can't anymore. He has cried all of his tears. He manages to summon the strength to continue.

". . . he died for everyone. For Evan, for my moms, for Zoe f-for everything"

Like a grenade dropped, the hall is filled by the reactions of Jeremy's friends- no, family.
Christine screams, her hands flying over her mouth.
Brooke tears a hole into her cardigan as her mouth fails to form coherent words.

Rich stumbles backwards, his hands behind his head. He mutters under his breath, his voice getting louder until he's screaming "fuck!" at full volume.
Jenna holds back her tears, instead clutching Micheal into a heart-wrenching hug.

Chloe stands coldly, her eyes clouding over. She can't move. She just stands frozen and chaos ensues around her.
Jake runs. He gags before sprinting out of the room.

Micheal stays on the floor. He watches his friends collapse and cry and scream and grieve. He can't comfort them. He can't tell them it's going to be okay. He knows they need to grieve and come to the fact that he's never coming back.
Jeremy Heere is dead.

☢︎︎

"Moment of truth- who's doing it?"

Christine places her hand on Micheal's arm as he moves to step forward. The non aggressive act stops him. They both know that Micheal isn't strong enough to handle the gauntlet but he will die trying to use it.

"Me" a voice mumbles from the corner. Heavy feet stumble into the light from a creaking chair. "Clearly it should be me"

Jake makes this claim as if he hasn't fallen down a pit of alcohol and self-loathing for the past week. His friends can't help but look at him pitifully. A month ago, they would've given him the gauntlet without a second thought. He is the strongest of them after all.

But after hearing about Jeremy, he's spiralled. He lost his best friend, his surrogate brother; he feels like he can find him at the bottom of a bottle.

"Jake . . ." Brooke gently interjects.

"No. No! Come on guys" Jake's phoney attempt at charisma only makes his words more painful. "I am obviously the only one to handle that . . . that uh . . . glove thing"

Brooke sighs, slipping through the group to Jake. Muttering gentle reassurances under her breath, she sits him back into the chair. He objects and claims that he can do it. Everyone knows that since Jeremy died, there isn't a lot he can do.

"I'll do it" Jenna says. Everyone looks to her, no one saying anything.

She steps to the center if the room, taking the large gauntlet in her hands. She slips it on. It automatically adjusts to her hands shape.
"You sure you can do this, Jen?" Rich asks.

"Yeah. Yeah I can" Jenna is more reassuring herself than she is reassuring the others. "I just gotta being back everyone who got snapped"

She looks to Micheal.
"I'll try to bring back Jeremy too"

Micheal nods understandingly. Jenna holds her hand out, look at her friends for what feels like she last time. The metallic blue and red glove glows with the light of the stones.

She snaps her fingers.

Electricity flies through the air. Everyone is thrown back against the walls. Jenna remains in the centre of the room, screaming as the power shoots through her veins and into her arms and into her muscles.

"Get it off!" someone yells.

Rich and Chloe jump to her first, grabbing the gauntlet and prying it off her arm. Jenna's arm, from her fingertips to her back, is coated in strange burns and rashes. Almost luminous scars line her skin. She takes large gulps of air. Her body fights to keep her heart beating.
Even as Jenna lies half-dead on the floor, one question makes the air as thick as Thanos.

"Did it work?" Brooke asks, standing up with an aching groan.

"I don't . . ." Christine pipes up. "I don't know"

The squad get to their feet, gathering around the middle of the room. Jenna is held up by Jake. They look to each other, full of desperation and fear.

Their fried brains are unable to speak. Luckily, someone else speaks for them.

"Hello?" a familiar voice echoes through the house.

Evan Hansen steps into the large hallway. At first he looks like an apparition- an illusion caused by grief. He spots the others through the glass doors. Jeremy's stepbrother pushes open the door as everyone stares at him in disbelief. He stares back on confusion.

"What's going on?" he asks.

"It worked" Jake goes weak for a moment, nearly dropping Jenna to the floor.

Rich claps his hands together, chuckling.
"Evan fucking Hansen, you son of a bitch"

He pushes through the group and pulls the taller boy into a bro hug, clapping him on the back. Evan awkwardly hugs him back. He's a little confused considering him and Rich have never interacted before but he won't turn down a hug.

That's when the realisation hits the other.
It worked. It worked! "It worked!" Christine screeches, her hands flying to her mouth.

She pulls her phone from her back pocket, scrolling furiously through her contacts. She calls someone. It rings. They pick up.
"Hey!" Her voice is so high, it's practically inaudible. Tears streak down her cheeks.

Everyone else follows suit. They frantically grab their phones to call their loved ones. The ones they watched fade away. The ones they haven't seen in weeks.
The ones that died.

Micheal holds his phone in his trembling hands. His thumb hovers over his contacts, unsure who to call first. They could be back, everyone could be back. All of his friends and family could be back. But where to begin? Who is the first person he should call- the one he'll check on before anyone else?
He doesn't get the chance to make up his mind.

His phone is lit up by the face of his mother. It takes a few seconds to register what's happening. He swallows as he answers the call.
"Hello?"

"Micheal, hey!"
He gasps, tears already streaking down his cheeks.
"Are you okay? Something . . . something happened. I'm not really sure what. Where are you?"

His mother's comforting voice fills him up. He can't speak. For a moment he even forgets how to breathe.
"Yeah. Yeah mom I'm okay"

He takes a deep shaky breath, looking up in an attempt to hold himself together.
"I'm at the compound- can you come here, please?"

"Of course honey, give us ten minutes"

"Mom wait! Please don't hang up"

"Hmm? Why?"

"Just . . . don't hang up until you get here?"

Meanwhile, Rich finally breaks his embrace with Evan. He slaps him on the back, tears in his eyes.
"So good to have you back Evan"

"I-I was just upstairs . . ." Evan mumbles.

Rich chuckles. "Sure you were pal"

The Squad all call their friends and family. Happy tears stream down faces as people dash out of the compound to meet their loved ones. They break the painful news of the snap. They catch up on the last lonely months. More importantly, they reunite.

Micheal stays in the compound hallway, his phone pressed against her ear. He stares out the glass walls. Any second now, a familiar Toyota will crunch onto the driveway and out will step his two mothers. Any second now. Any second now.
Any second now.

He shoots to his feet. The Toyota has arrived. He's unable to move as two figures step out of the car and into the compound. They say his name but Micheal can't hear them. He collapses into his parents arms, clutching them close as he breaks down.

They're back. His moms are back. They whisper reassurances and ask him what's wrong while he sobs into their comforting arms.

It breaks their hearts to see their son like this.
It breaks his heart to tell them that they died.
It breaks his heart to tell them about Jeremy.
There's nothing they can do but comfort their child and love him as he mourns his boyfriend.

★

A reunion party is the obvious next step.

Well, it's not exactly a 'party' as it is a group of people in a room with copious amounts of alcohol.

The Squip Squad sit in the compounds living room, surrounded by their resurrected friends and loved ones. They recount stories of the snap with tears in their eyes as they laugh at Rich's occasional joke.

They can't believe they did it. They saved everyone. Christine looks over to Micheal who nurses a Heineken between his two mothers. Well, almost everyone.

Midnight comes and goes. Micheal claps his hands as 1am rolls around.
"Alright. I can't handle anymore socialising, I'm off to bed"

"Ahhh you're no fun" Rich teases from his beanbag.

"I'm more fun than you, Richie" Micheal wishes everyone a good night and disappears into the hallway.

Christine watches each of his movements. He moves smoothly and surely, as if he methodically planned how he was going to leave the room. And though him going to bed is entirely in character, it raises alarm bells in Christines mind.

Luckily, she spots his infamous red hoodie on the ground. She takes it, holding the like its fragile.
"I'm just gonna run this up to Micheal" she says to no one in particular.

She leaves the bustling room just as Rich makes a comment that causes everyone to boo. The compound hallways are dark. The light from the moon shines through the windows, giving her just enough light to make her way to Micheal's room.

Everyone's bedrooms are on the same white hallway. A red sliding door with a hand-made denotes each room.
Micheal's room sign was made by Jeremy. It says Micheal in the Mario font, complete with a cursed drawing of Mario and Sonic in the corner. Christine goes to knock on the door when she hears something from within.

"Shit!" Micheal exclaims.

Christine freezes. She hears movement and the faint buzz of Micheal's voice. He must be whispering. She's debating whether to enter or not when he speaks again.

"Sorry about that. The voicemail thing cut me off" he says. "I know I've been leaving you a lot of messages but . . . I don't know . . . a little part of me thinks that if I call you enough, you'll pick up"

Christine presses her ear to the door, scooping her hair out of the way.

"You misses a great party tonight. Brooke made a cake and everything. It was chocolate, your favourite" there's silence for a moment. "I know I should stop calling. I know that you're not still out there I just . . ."

Oh god. Micheal's crying.

"If somehow- if somehow you're there. I-if you're back, please just call me or text me or anything just let me know if you're okay, okay? There's a little bit of hope in me and it just won't let you go . . . . . . . . . okay. I should get to sleep- assuming that tonight I'll get any sleep. I'll call you again tomorrow okay? I'm not gonna stop I promise. I'm not giving up on you"

Christine looks down at the hoodie in her hands. She slowly places it on the floor.

"Okay. I love you so much and I'll talk call again tomorrow. Goodnight Jeremy"

Christine leaves the hoodie outside his bedroom, tears streaming down her cheeks.

•••
I hope I didn't disappoint.

Don't worry though! I'm making an alternate ending where everything turns out okay. Stay tuned for lots of fluff because I have written too much angst.

Btw you look great today. Like hot damn
- Avery