Parts 1-2:  https://www.wattpad.com/341923925-imagine-if-you-assembled-the-avengers-volume-2/page/5

After that, when you had run away for what would be the last time, Steve refused to chase you anymore. Even at the urging of his team, he wouldn't be swayed. You had made it very clear that you had made the choice to turn to Hydra when the Avengers, and Steve in particular, had broken you beyond repair; he no longer had the strength to fight you when the war with you could never be won. It wasn't that he didn't love you anymore, and that he didn't care, because he did; it was that he knew if he were to see you again, it would be in battle. If he saw you again, he would have to ensure that it would be the last time, and he couldn't bring himself to do it.

Bruce, on the other hand, felt nothing of the same sentiment, and had followed you out the door only moments after you had passed through it despite the urging to stop from his teammates. With only the clothes on his back, his phone, and a few dollars in his pocket, he didn't look back and gave chase. He searched and followed for weeks on end until he could do the one thing that Steve Rogers couldn't do.

He looked you in the eyes and broke your resolve. Standing in the middle of the city with eyes on you from all directions, you had nowhere to run.

"Please, stop," he begged, his breaths ragged merely at the sight of you again, "please, (Y/N), I just want to talk to you, I promise."

"I won't go back there, Bruce," you argued immediately, "so save your breath if that was going to be the next thing you wanted to say."

"It wasn't. I just wasn't going to ask you to come back. But I was going to ask...if you would at least come with me. Don't go back to them. We can find a way for you to have a life somewhere in between."

"You don't understand." You turned away from him, ready to run again, but he was astute and caught your measured movements, reaching out to grab your arm before you could take the first step. "Banner, let me go. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

"Try me."

"You haven't gone green in a long time," you smiled weakly, "I can't imagine that you'd break your streak just for me, and not in the middle of Manhattan, at that."

Bruce tightened his grip and pulled you to him, the essence of green changing the color of his eyes and hinting at the shade building in his veins as it coursed through him. Even the tone of his voice shifted, deeper and ominous as he spoke in a threatening whisper. "There is no just for you, (Y/N). You have no idea what I'm willing to do."

"Why? Do you love me, Bruce? Do you have feelings?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing if I did?"

"Yes, it would be a terrible thing, and you know it," you hissed, finding the power to pull away. "You don't have feelings for me, unless it's guilt that you left me alone when you should've followed me instead. But you decided to help Steve that night, breaking your promise to me that you would be there. So please, do us both a favor and go home. Go back to your team...your friends, and leave me alone."

Bruce watched you try to flee once again, his sadness and that guilt that you had so accurately called him out on beginning to pale and wither within him. They were replaced by a familiar pain, a burning that built in his chest and through his body, searing his brain and tearing away at his clothes as it grew. When he couldn't stop it, and when he no longer wanted to, he let out the deafening roar that you knew you couldn't escape, gasping a final breath before the massive green hand grabbed you and tossed you around as if you weighed nothing as he ran.

~~~

"Boss, I have him."

"Where, FRIDAY?" Tony asked urgently, finding himself breaking into a near sprint through the compound to get to the hangar bay. He watched as the coordinates of where Bruce had transformed into the Hulk lit up the screen of his phone; there was nowhere in the world that the Hulk could hide from him, and he wondered if Bruce had the time to remember that before he had changed. "Get Romanoff to meet me at the jet and tell her to drag Steve's ass along with her. If he fights, take him down."

~~~

When you came back to your own mind, having passed out from the strength of Hulk's grip squeezing the air from your lungs, you had no idea where you were. Slowly opening one eye, and then the other, you didn't recognize the room, which gave you some relief that he hadn't brought you back to the team. Maybe he was trying to regain your trust by keeping that one promise, but you wouldn't be won so easily, even by Bruce; he had been your best friend for so long, and you wanted nothing more than to believe him, but you weren't that person anymore. You weren't the friend that he had come to know, he just hadn't come to know this yet.

"Where are we?" you choked out in a gravelly voice. "This is a bad idea, Bruce. You don't know what you've started."

"Whatever it is, I can obviously finish it."

"They'll come for me. If they figure out that I'm with you, they'll bring more than even you can handle. I don't want you to get hurt in all of this. Let me go, please. It's for your own safety here, more than mine."

"Let them try."

You opened your mouth to continue the argument, but your watch alerted you, just as his phone had done the same, though from a very different source. Bruce's trust had run so deep that you weren't even bound, sitting freely and allowed to move. You watched him as you lifted your wrist, only to find that the warning you had given him was coming true. "Bruce, we have maybe twenty minutes to get you out of here. I know that you don't want to do this."

"Ten," he replied softly, lifting his phone for you to see, "but we aren't going anywhere. Tony brought Steve."

"Son of a bitch," you hissed, standing quickly with a pat of your hands over your uniform, "you took my weapons. Give them back."

"Hard pass."

"Banner-"

"(Y/N), listen-"

"You promised me that you weren't here to bring me back, and I knew that even you were a liar deep down. At least I know who I am now, Bruce."

"And who is that," he asked in a whisper; he didn't want the answer, though he already knew it. "Who are you, (Y/N)?"

In the distance, you heard the jet touch the ground as it came in for landing, the winds rustling the trees just outside of the building he was keeping you in. Your own team would be only minutes behind, and it almost made you sad that Bruce hadn't been in the right mind to disable your tracker. He wouldn't have done that on purpose...or would he have? You tried to run the options of that plan through your mind, realizing that maybe he wanted Hydra to be here, to destroy them with his own hands, or maybe to make an example of you so that they would let you go. No matter what his reasoning was, it didn't change anything for you; you had orders that you had vowed to follow.

"Hail Hydra," you smiled with your best sinister sneer, turning and propelling yourself though the nearest window, glass shattering around you as you landed right at the feet of Captain America himself. You stood and stumbled back, straightening your uniform to face him with the most confidence you could muster in the moment. "Hey, Cap."

"(Y/N)," he answered flatly, his eyes as cold as you had ever seen them. "Are we doing this the easy way?"

"You mean killing you quickly? Sure, if you insist. That's very generous of you, but you know how much I appreciate a good fight."

"Not with me, you don't."

"Oh, please, you'd love nothing more than to put me in my place, teach me a lesson for walking away."

"I'd love nothing more than stopping you. I think we should just get this over with, don't you?"

"Absolutely," you smiled, the enjoyment rising as he dropped his shield at his feet. "Really, Steve, don't do me any favors. We can play Frisbee first if you want to. I can do this all day."

Steve's eyes darted to the side and just over your shoulder; you didn't even have to look to know exactly what he was seeing. "Stark," he called out over his comm, "we've got incoming."

"We're ready, I've found Banner. We've got a Hulk."

A low growl echoed around you, sending a chill down your spine, albeit a sad one that had you flashing back to the last time you had fought with Bruce on the same side, daring you to remember the nostalgia of it as you steeled yourself to fight against him now. A shot rang out behind you, and you turned, raising your hand for the nearest member of your own army to throw you a weapon. Steve reached out to try to intercept it, but you had the advantage, wasting no time in turning it on him.

"Last chance, Rogers. Run, or die."

He actually looked like he took a second to consider the options, pausing before his foot kicked against the shield, flipping it into his hand as your bullet deflected away with a loud clang against it. "You're not the only one who can do this all day. But you knew that."

"Sir! Get down!"

The command from your teammate had you dropping to your stomach, dirt dusting around you and smoke from the missile aimed for Steve leaving you breathing it in with a small cough. A sickening wave of regret churned your gut at the idea of his death being so close to you, and the pangs of an aching heart made you second guess your resolve; it was only a momentary weakness, however, and when the shield deflected the strike to veer and turn towards empty ground, your sadness abated and was replaced by a furious drive to end the man for making you still care.

"This is your fault, Steve!" you snapped, understanding now what he meant when he said he could see red in his anger. You had thought it to be a metaphor, but when your own vision clouded and pulsed with each beat of your heart, you got it. Pulling yourself to your feet, you aimed at him again, only this time, the shield remained lowered. "You left me behind! You left to find her and never once thought of me, did you?"

"All I ever thought of was you!"

"Liar! If you had, then you would've taken me with you! You wouldn't have snuck out during the night like a goddamn coward!"

Another shot rang out, followed by the familiar charging and blast of Tony's repulsor, but neither of you wavered. You were both locked into this moment alone, as if an impenetrable force surrounded you from the battle only feet away. You believed that if either of you were struck down now, you would both likely welcome it just to be free from this self-induced hell.

"Cap, we need you in the fight," Natasha tried to call out, but he reached up and pulled the earpiece away, tossing it aside without a care.

"I was trying to protect you-"

"I never asked for that! It's pretty clear that I didn't need it!"

"No, I can see that," he relented, his hand very slowly rising to bring up the shield. You were so focused on his eyes, to try to see what he was feeling when his words remained flat, that you didn't notice the motion. "I can see that you don't need anyone to protect you, (Y/N). But I can see that you're right. I was only thinking about myself, and I only wanted to find her. I'm sorry, (Y/N)." Your head cocked to the side as the apology, your confusion stunning you just long enough for his arm to pull back and release the shield to strike you down. "I'm so sorry."

"No!"

A massive strike hit you in the chest, throwing you back forcefully that you felt as if you had travelled miles in only a few feet. The landing had knocked the breath out of you, but you weren't injured, your hands searching where the force had hit only to find that nothing hurt. When your wits came back to you, you stood, albeit on wobbly legs, only to see the Hulk standing between you and Steve, with the shield now in his hand and ready to take the Captain down with his own weapon.

"Hulk, stop!" you called out to him frantically, bursting forward in an attempt to grab the shield away, even if you believed that it was futile against the beast. Steve may have been ready to end you, if that was his intent, and you may have felt the same towards him, but you could never let one of his friends do it for you. You couldn't hurt Bruce that way when all he had done was take care of you. "Please, don't hurt Steve!"

"He would hurt you!"

"But that's between us, not you! I can't let you get into this for me!" You still hadn't released the shield, but neither had he, leaving Steve to watch with wide eyes full of both panic and wonder at what would have to happen to put this to an end. Once you had the Hulk's attention, and you could see just the smallest hint of your friend behind the green eyes looking back, you relaxed your stance, and your voice to try to calm it all down. "Big guy, please, let me have the shield."

"Banner, give it to me," Steve added, like a true idiot of his caliber.

"No!" Hulk growled and escalated again, turning from you and jarring the shield away. "No one can have it! You say you're sorry!"

"Excuse me?"

"Tell (Y/N) you're sorry!"

"I...I did..."

"Again!"

"Bruce, come on," you tried, only to get an angry glare in return.

"You too, (Y/N)! Fighting is done!"

You peered around Hulk's massive frame and to where Steve was standing, looking just as dumbfounded as you were. "Steve...I'm sorry," you muttered with a sick feeling in your throat as you choked out the words you didn't mean. "You were only trying to do what you thought was right, and I was only trying to kill you."

"I'm sorry," he gave in, and a curl of a smile didn't escape your notice, "I was trying to kill you, too."

"No shit."

"Language," Hulk sighed heavily. He looked down at the shield in his hands and frowned, not knowing what to do with it until a divine moment of clarity came to him, as the sounds of a friend who would know better came closer. "No one gets it," he chuckled, raising his hand into the sky so that Tony could grab it on the fly past, "until you not try to kill each other again."

"But she still has a gun!" Steve argued emphatically, pointing to you. "What about her?"

When the Hulk reached out to take your weapon away, you handed it to him readily, not wanting to engage him in any way when he was this angry. The Hulk on a good day wasn't one to be challenged, and you had no desire to take him on today. "Here, here...you can have it."

"Good. Now I go," he nodded towards the battle that still raged on behind you, "you stay. Talk." He practically leapt over you, with a weapon in his hand as he ran head-long into the fight, now armed when he never really needed to be. You could hear the screams of fear and the sounds of your team surrendering in all directions once he rejoined Tony and Natasha, and you wondered at what point they would ask you to do the same.

"So, (Y/N)," Steve began, "call it."

You looked back over your shoulder, and you could see more of your old team than your new, and you actually recognized a small sense of relief at the sight. "I don't know if I can ever forgive you, Steve."

"I know."

"I'm not the person you left behind. I'll never be that person again."

"I know that, too." Steve threw caution away and took a step forward towards you, and when you didn't back away, he took another. "But can you at least not be this person? I don't want to fight you, (Y/N). I don't want to worry that every battle we come to, you're going to be the one that I have to stop. I said that I was trying to kill you, but that was all talk. I could never-"

"Neither could I."

"Okay, good," he exhaled in full relief, and you could see his body relax at the realization. His shoulders dropped their tension and his gaze softened, almost pleading with you to just be some semblance of the woman he had known for so long; the woman he had fought battles next to, shared his life with, even the woman he had shared and horrifically lost a daughter with. He wanted just a glimpse of that person, and it actually burned your soul to not give it to him.

"But maybe..." you whispered, so quietly that he had to take yet another step closer, "I don't know...maybe I could find something you might recognize in here."

"Even now, when I look at you, I still see her."

"Yeah," you shuddered, "me too. I think that makes this so much harder."

"We never got the chance to say goodbye...and I know that was my fault," he corrected himself abruptly, "and I don't expect you to forgive me-"

"But I can try." That hopeful look lit up his eyes again, and you struggled to fight the urge within yourself to fall for it. He was a different person now too, you couldn't deny that; you also couldn't vilify him any longer when you had yet to learn who this new version of Steve was. It was a leap of faith that you didn't realize you had, but you took two steps forward to meet him, putting your arms around him in a hesitant hug until he all but crumbled into you and you had to support the man. "It's okay, Steve. We can try."

"I've missed you so much," he whimpered against you, his face buried in your neck as he clutched you to him, "I thought I'd never see you again."

"Guys?" Tony broke into your moment, landing just behind Steve. "We need to move out, if you don't mind. (Y/N), you flipping sides or what? There's plenty of room on the jet, and there might even be one of your old uniforms in storage. These colors look like shit on you, by the way."

Even though he was reluctant to let you go and to suffer the disconnect, Steve released his hold and pushed back, watching you eagerly to answer the question. "(Y/N)?"

"Rude, Stark," you snapped, "I see that you haven't changed at all-" but you were halted before you could finish. The earth-shaking rumble began not too far away, the sound of bounding feet growing closer by the second until you were taken from Steve and up into Hulk's hands, finding yourself on the jet within a few almost terrifying seconds. He sat you gently into your old seat and stood in front of you, crouched down so that he would fit, finally sitting with his legs crossed almost as if he were determined to keep you there.

"(Y/N) home."