⊱ ━━━━.⋅ εïз ⋅.━━━━ ⊰

❝ out of time ❞

⊱ ━━━━.⋅ εïз ⋅.━━━━ ⊰

IN THE lab, Tony carefully places the stones in the gauntlet he made while Bruce and Scott watches. It was rather nerve wrecking, they had no idea if this would work.

Fingers crossed.

When they were all perfectly in place, he lets out a cheer before calling the Avengers in.

"We have it," he announced, holding the gauntlet up for them to see.

"Okay, question is— who's gonna snap it?" Scott asked, looking around the room.

"I could do it," Wanda piped up as she rubbed her hands together nervously. Everyone lets out exclaims in protest.

"No, no stop," Clint held a hand up.

"Let's talk about this," Steve said.

"We'll decide it together," Natasha added.

"Are we just gonna sit around and wait for an opportunity? Someone needs to do it, and they need to do it quick," Wanda protests.

"No, no, sitting here staring at that thing is not gonna bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me. It's my duty," Thor stepped up.

"Hold on, no, stop. I sense something here," Tony piped up. "You're a little too on edge miss witch, what's going on?"

"She saw something," Bucky answered for her. "Or heard, or something along the lines of that."

"What did you see?" Bruce asked the girl and everyone turned their attention to her.

"I heard voices, screams. I saw my brother," her voice wavered as she looked down and tugged at her sleeves while clearing her throat. "But most importantly I heard a voice. Multiple, voices."

"What did it say?" Scott asked, now intrigued.

"Nova will change the endgame," she repeated the words from earlier. It seemed to be on loop.

It's always about changing the endgame. She didn't quite understand what it meant or how much the endgame needed to change, but she did know that if she's getting these sights it was for a reason.

"I don't know what it means, it doesn't make sense to me either but it has to be big and important," she concluded.

The Avengers seemed to exchanged glances in silence, all trying to figure out what any of this meant.

Because honestly nothing made sense.

"Okay, okay," Tony nodded. "Then someone needs to do the snap, if we wanna figure this out."

"Just let me!" Thor exclaims as he tears up, "Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something right."

"Look– It's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent, I'm telling you, you're in no condition," Tony resisted.

"What do you– What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?"

"Cheez Whiz?" Rhodes questioned sarcastically.

"Lightning," the God of Thunder stated proudly. "Yeah," Tony chuckled.

"Lightning won't help you, pal. It's gotta be me. You saw what those stones did to Thanos, it almost killed him. None of you would survive that," Bruce stated.

"And how do we know you will?" Steve asked him.

He shrugged. "We don't. But the radiation's mostly gamma," he takes a good look at the gauntlet, "it's like I was made for this."

━━━━

"YOU REMEMBER— everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bring them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the last five years," Tony reminded him.

"Got it," Bruce nodded.

Everyone else left the room, standing outside by the glass window to watch him. "FRIDAY," Tony called out for his AI, "do me a favour and activate Barn Door Protocol, will you?"

"Yes boss," the voice responded and the Avengers facility goes on lockdown. Tony was fully suited up, holding a shield in front of Clint. Everyone else had protective gear on as well, not knowing how this would go, but Wanda held a red protective force field in front of them all as extra precaution.

"Everybody comes home," Bruce reminded himself as he reaches out for the gauntlet. He carefully slips it on and it nanobotically expands to fit his hand.

The power surge of the stones shoots up causing him to fall to his knees in pain.

"Take it off! Take it off!" Thor exclaimed in a panic. "No, wait. Bruce, are you okay?" Steve called out as everyone else were on edge.

"Talk to me, Banner," Tony added, watching in worry.

"I'm okay. I'm okay," he said as he slowly regained his posture.

But unbeknownst to them, the Nebula they brought back wasn't the one who was on their side. Instead, it was the 2014 version of her who was with Thanos. Which leads to now, where she sneaked up to the Quantum Tunnel to open it and bring the Sanctuary II to the present.

Bruce screams, fighting through the intense pain coursing through his body courtesy of the gauntlet, and manages to snap his fingers. He faints and the gauntlet slides off his arm, Clint kicks it away.

"Bruce!" Steve exclaimed as they circled around him.

"Don't move him," Tony stated as he used his Iron Man arm to ice Bruce's arm.

"Did it work?"

"Worth a shot. It's over. It's okay," Thor told him.

Scott walks towards the outside windows and sees plants and birds. Clint hears his phone ringing and sees it's his wife calling. Slowly, he picked it up and stutters upon his words from sheer happiness.

"Guys– I think it worked!" Scott exclaimed.

Bruce opens his eyes and sees the Sanctuary II up in the sky and a single missile heading towards the base blowing Scott away. Then a continuous array of missiles destroys the base completely and everyone sinks below to the underground.

━━━━

PIETRO AND Nova stood side by side by the river which flowed— literal—  crystal water. A loud thunder ripped through the sky as the clouds begin to darken, gaining the pair's attention.

"We're running out of time," Pietro stated, before looking down at the girl. "We have to go, Nova. They need us, they need you."

She swallowed thickly at the determined look in his blue eyes as teared her gaze away from him and to the ground.

Here goes nothing.