Guardian Angel | Steve Rogers

24

Arriving back to their right time, Arden comes back with a smile on her face, dropping it quickly, holding onto her chest. 

"Arden?" Steve rushed to her, picking her chin up as tears welted in her eyes. Everyone turned towards Clint as he dropped to his knees with tears running down his face. 

"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce asked. But when Clint looked up, everyone knew. Arden dropping to her knees, beginning to hyperventilate. 

"I can't feel her." Arden finally said, looking up at Steve who kneeled in front of her. 

"I-I could feel everyone else, that disappeared with the snap. But, I can't feel Nat. She's gone." Arden cried out. 

Steve picked her up, cradling her as she cried, walking her down the steps, as everyone else stood there in shock. He took her out by the lake after getting her changed, when Tony, Clint, Bruce and Thor joined them. 

"Did we know if she had any family?" Tony asked.

Arden held onto Clint's arm, resting her head on his shoulder as they looked out onto the water. 

"Yeah. Us." Steve answered with tears on his cheeks. 

"What are you doing?" Thor asked Tony. 

"I just asked him a question." Tony defended. 

"Yeah, no, you're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones Cap, we can bring her back. Isn't that right?" Thor raised his voice. "So, stop this shit. We're the Avengers. Get it together." 

"We can't get her back." Clint jumped in, turning him and Arden around. 

"What?" Thor asked. 

"It can't be undone. It can't." Clint explained. 

Thor laughed. "No offense, but you're a very earthly being, okay? And we're talk about space magic. And 'can't' seems very definitive. Don't you think? Sister, tell him." 

"Thor." Arden mumbled. 

"Yeah, look, I know I'm way off my pay grade here, but she still isn't here. Is she?" Clint argued, continuing to yell at Thor. 

Arden connected her hand with Clint's as he cried that it was supposed to be him. 

"She's not coming back." Bruce pleaded after throwing a bench out into the water. "We have to make it worth it, we have to." 

"We will." Steve stood up. 

Bruce, Arden and Rocket watched as Tony used his nano tech to carefully place the stones onto the gauntlet they created in the safe box.

"Boom!" Rocket shouts, scaring them, laughing mischievously. 

"Really?" Arden scolded him. They took the gauntlet out, Rocket making the last few tweaks. 

"Question is, who's gonna snap their freakin' fingers?" Rocket asked. 

"I'll do it." Thor offered, walking towards them. 

"Excuse me?" Clint asked, as Thor walked towards them. 

"Woah, stop. Slow down." Tony pleaded, holding his hand up, along with Steve, stopping Thor in his tracks. 

"Thor. Just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on." Steve commented. 

"I'm sorry, we're just standing around waiting for the right opportunity?" Thor argued. 

"We should at least discuss it." Scott insisted. 

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

Tony and Steve try to step in front of him, but the broken expression on Thor's face forces Arden to intervene. She stands making her way towards them when Steve holds out his arm to stop her. Tony takes a step to stand right in front of Thor instead. 

"Just let me do something good. Something right." Thor begs, grabbing his shoulders.  

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

"What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?" Thor asks, grabbing ahold of Tony's hands. 

"Cheez Wiz?" Rhodey teases, and Thor points his finger at him to stop. 

"Lightning." Thor corrects. 

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

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

"You all put your life on the line once with Thanos, I won't make that mistake again to let you through that. It should be me." Arden interjects, walking towards the gauntlet. 

"I can't let you do that." Steve pulls Arden's arm, looking deeply into her eyes, practically begging her not to.

"The radiation's mostly gamma. It's like... I was made for this." Bruce sighed. 

Arden pulled her arm away from Steve, looking over at Tony who nods at her. She carefully picks up the gauntlet, handing it to Bruce. 

"Now remember, everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago you're just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the past five years." Tony reminded Bruce. 

"Got it." Bruce confirmed. 

Scott activating his helmet, Rhodey closing the mask of his suit, Thor pushing Rocket behind him, Tony activating his suit, and activating a shield to cover himself and Clint. Arden stood beside Steve, waving her fingers to spell a shield in front of them, similar to Tony's.

"Friday, go ahead and activate Barn Door Protocol, will ya?" Tony asked his AI. 

The doors shut around them, along with every window near them.

"Everybody comes home." Bruce whispered, slowly slipping into the gauntlet as it grew bigger to fit around his large hand. 

Once on, Bruce dropped to one knee, the stones began to glow, showing the stimulation of power that had been activated. Bruce wincing loudly as he held his arm.

"Take it off. Take it off!" Thor begged. 

"No, wait. Bruce, are you okay?" Steve asked, holding out his arm towards Thor. 

"Talk to me, Banner." Tony pushed.

Bruce began to sweat, groaning from pain. 

"I'm okay, I'm okay." Bruce reassured them.

 Bruce began to shout, raising his hand with the gauntlet up, as it began to glow brighter.

"Something's wrong." Arden commented, lowering her arm, disengaging her shield in front of herself and Steve. 

Bruce shouted as he forced his fingers together to snap, his pupils dilating with smoke coming from the gauntlet after he snapped. Collapsing onto the ground, they rushed towards him, Clint kicking the gauntlet away from them. 

"Bruce." Steve calls for him, putting his hand on his other shoulder. 

"Don't move him." Tony demanded. 

Tony and Arden took a quick look at his arm before Tony sprayed his cryo-ice webbing onto Bruce's burnt, injured arm. 

"Did it work?" Bruce let out. 

"We're not sure, but you're okay." Thor answered, comforting him. The Barn Door Protocol disactivating, Scott taking a step out, while Clint stepped away to answer a phone call. 

Arden got chills all over her body, gasping loudly as her eyes glowed bright blue, then her body began to levitate, like she was not in control of herself. 

"Arden?" Tony asked, noticing her float. Suddenly, they were hit by missiles from the sky. Breaking the compound into millions of pieces, shattering the floor beneath them, making them all fall underneath from the damage.