We were all gathered in the lab, dressed out in our suits. In preparation for the snap, I had some energy gathered in my hands, ready to put up a shield around myself and whoever else needed one.

Right now, however, they were fighting over who was going to snap. I took myself out of the running almost immediately, knowing my mental state wasn't in a good shape, and there was no way I'd be able to focus hard enough to take the power of those stones and bring everyone back.

After Thor tried and failed to convince them to let him snap, Bruce stepped in.

"You saw what those stones did to Thanos," Bruce started, and the name alone of the titan sent a bad feeling through me. "They almost killed him. None of you could survive."

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

"It's a good point, Bruce. How well do we understand the power of these stones?" I said. I was tired of losing friends, and I basically already lost him once during a desperate time. Losing him now would feel like a nail in the coffin.

He looked at me, and I knew he saw the concern in my eyes. The fear. "We know the radiation's mostly gamma. It's like... I was made for this."

"Even Thanos suffered tremendous damage," I brought up.

Bruce nodded. "I'm willing to accept the same fate."

I realized nothing was stopping Bruce from doing this. And to be fair, he was the only one who could even put the glove on without immediately collapsing. But snapping everyone back?

Without another word, I nodded. Bruce returned the gesture. We all moved back as Tony got the glove out of the container and handed it off to Bruce.

"Good to go, yeah?"

Bruce looked from the glove to the man. "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," Tony said. He was begging for Morgan, and I felt sorry for forcing him to put it all in jeopardy.

With Bruce's final nod, everyone got into position. Shields went up, masks went on. Rocket took shelter behind Thor while Clint was behind a shield of Tony's making.

I allowed the orange glow from my hands to surround me in a protective bubble. Something I've often thought ruined my life has saved it so many times.

After Bruce and Tony shared a quick nod, Tony said, "FRIDAY, do me a favor and activate Barn Door Protocol, will ya?"

The AI responded and soon all the windows and glass doors were being covered by metal doors. Just in case the snap went a little... ballistic. The room got so much darker once everything was sealed shut.

"Everybody comes home." I turned and looked back at Bruce and saw him staring at the gauntlet with an intensity. A determination.

We all watched with the same determined looks as the gauntlet adjusted and expanded to fit Bruce's Hulk-sized hand. My heart rate kept increasing faster and faster as the gauntlet got closer and closer to being on his hand.

The second it was on, the gauntlet shifted once more to clamp around Bruce's hand. Not even a second later, it was alight with all the stones shining. It was hard to watch, especially once Bruce was forced to take a knee, the power being too much. What almost looked like lightning started to creep up his arm, getting to his neck and spreading further.

My eyes went wide when I saw it start to burn his suit off, then his skin. "Bruce!" I called, hoping he could hear me over his own painful cries.

"Take it off! Take it off!" Thor called out.

Steve held out an arm. "No, wait! Bruce, are you okay?" he asked.

As important as this was to us, I didn't know if it was worth Bruce losing an arm.

"Talk to me, Banner!" Tony's voice rang out of this helmet.

A few more painful yells later, Bruce started to nod. "I'm okay... I'm okay..." Even though he said these words, the effect of the gauntlet spreading up his arm even further scared the shit out of me.

"Bruce, it's okay if you need to take it off!" I called out. "Please just... don't push too hard!"

I couldn't tell if he heard me. His yells got louder, and he started to lift his hand up, the other supporting it. My teeth ground together as I watched. When he snapped, there was a flash of light.

When I opened my eyes and looked to see what happened, Bruce's eyes were rolling back and he was falling to the ground. "Bruce!" I called, my energy shield dropping so I could run to his side.

The others followed in suit, Clint kicking the sizzling gauntlet away from us.

"Don't move him," Tony said, and we all moved our hands off of him. Tony lifted his hand above Bruce's injured arm and started spraying some strange stuff. "It's a liquid bandaid sort of thing."

Bruce's uninjured arm moved up to grip Steve's arm. "Did it work?" he asked through heavy breaths.

"We're not sure," Thor answered from right beside Steve. "It's okay."

The room began getting lighter, and I looked up to see the "barn doors" opening back up. My eyes moved to Scott, who was slowly walking toward one of the exterior windows. I shook my head and move to pay attention to Bruce again.

"Hey, you did good, okay? You did good," I encouraged, moving my closest hand to Bruce's, the one still holding on to Steve. Then, I looked at Tony. "You think his arm will be okay?"

He nodded, no thinking needed. "This stuff should help for now. Once I get the chance I'll go in and get a more permanent solution going," he explained, patting Bruce lightly on his injured shoulder.

My eyes briefly moved to Clint, who was walking away from our group over to his lit up phone. I continued to watch as he hesitated at his phone, then quickly picked it up. "Honey..." he breathed out.

And I knew it worked. A sense of relief flooded my system and I even felt a small smile coming to my face. "It worked," I whispered, and looked at Bruce's face. I expected to see a similar look of relief come on his.

Instead, I saw a look of confusion. And a shadow. I followed his line of sight- straight up and through the skylight.

"Oh my god," I said, doom washing over me.

And then it all exploded.

Literally.

A/n: cliffhangers are a writer's best friend