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Standing in the lab watching Tony assemble the stones into his robotic hand that they had constructed didn’t feel real. After killing Thanos five years ago and realizing the stones were gone you had lost all hope. The fire inside you had died out until Scott had returned with the plan to retrieve the stones from the Quantum Realm. You stared silently, your heart still heavy from the loss of Natasha. She should have been here with you all you thought. She sacrificed herself and you swore to not let it be in vain. You were snapped out of your thoughts as the gauntlet was finished.
“Is it ready?” you asked.
“It is,” Tony replied with a deep breathe. Silence filled the lab for a moment.
“Someone has to do it,” Rocket spoke up. Tension filled the air and for a few moments everyone argued over who would reverse the snap.
“No it has to be me. It’s emitting mostly gamma rays I can take it. It could kill any of you,” Bruce spoke up. You walked over and placed your hand on his large green arm.
“Bruce what if you’re wrong?” you began to protest.
“I know it’ll work,” Bruce said but there was some uncertainty in his voice. Everyone took a step back and armored up against the potential harm that could happen if the stones went awry. Thor protectively pushed you behind him as you held Rocket tightly in your arms. His small hand held on to yours tightly and you gave him a nervous smile. As soon as Bruce placed the gauntlet on, the immense power spread through his body making him scream.
“Take it off!” Thor shouted.
“Not yet!” Steve shouted back as you all watched nervously. But Bruce was strong and he shakily stood his ground. Your heart was pounding as you watched him raise his hand. Oh gods this is it , you thought. If this worked then everyone would be back. Your mind went straight to Bucky and you held Rocket tighter. With a snap of his fingers you were all pushed back slightly but Bruce fell down agony filling his face. Tony rushed forward and immediately extinguished his arm that was now charred black.
“Did it work?” Rocket asked as you placed him down on the floor. Scott walked towards the window outside and noticed the presence of birds. Clint’s phone began to ring, Laura being the caller.
“It worked,” your breathed out as you clutched your head in disbelief. Before anyone could reply the compound exploded into darkness.
Your vision went dark for a moment and when you opened your eyes you saw black smoke around you. Steve’s worried face filled your vision as he shook your body.
“Wake up! Thanos, he’s here!” Steve shouted. Panic filled your body as he pulled you up.
“Tony, Thor and I will take care of him go find the others,” Steve told you. You nodded at his instructions and made your way through the wreckage of the compound. You could see a large ship in the sky as you scrambled to dig through the rubble. Finding an entrance to a tunnel you decided to go down.
“Hello! Anyone!” you called out as you frantically looked around the tunnel.
“(Y/N),” you heard Clint shout from further down the tunnel. It was dark and dusty so you held your hand out, a small flame appearing and helping you see. Soon you saw Clint holding the gauntlet.
“What the hell was that?” Clint asked breathless.
“Thanos,” was all you could manage. Both of you perked up when you heard a growl around you. Slowly you turned and peered into the darkness seeing nothing. Turning the small flame in your hand into a ball you threw it like a baseball down the tunnel. That's when you saw them, the same monsters from Wakanda.
“Run!” Clint shouted. You didn’t have to told twice as you both ran, the creatures hot on your tail.
“There’s an exit to the top a few feet ahead,” you told Clint. The creatures were at your heels so you grabbed one that had made its way to next to you and with a hand of fire tore through its body.
“Clint go!” you shouted as you turned to face the incoming creatures. Clint shot a string up the exit hole and in an instant flew upwards.
“I thought I was done killing you assholes,” you growled your hands filling with heat. With a grunt you shot powerballs of flames from your hands making the creatures around you explode into flames.
“You good?” Clint asked from above you.
“I’m good. Help me up I have to help Steve and the others,” you replied.
When you made it to the surface you saw Thor, Tony, and Steve battling against Thanos. Seeing Thanos after all these years even if it was technically the past version of him made bile rise in your throat. Clint had gone out in search of the others as you made your way towards your friends. Any chance you got you sent a ball of fire at Thanos’ body as you carefully avoided hurting your friends. All of this seemed to annoy Thanos and he managed to throw all of you to the ground. Steve lay stunned a few feet from you his shield in pieces.
“You’ll never beat me Avengers,” Thanos growled as he pulled off his helmet. Suddenly more ships appeared in the sky behind him making the sky almost black.
You stood up watching as Thanos brought forth his armies. Your hands began to tremble with fear. You looked over at Steve with his broken shield and for a moment you were scared that this was the end.
“Steve ,” you whispered your voice trembling as Steve stumbled to your side and grasped your arm. He saw the fear in your (E/C) eyes and it tore his heart. You were like a sister to him, one of his closest friends and he had brought you face to face with death.
“It’s going to be okay,” he replied sternly, trying to keep his voice steady. You nodded, tears filling your eyes. Suddenly behind you, you heard that familiar whoosh that sent tingles up your spine. You turned to see the portal opening and three figures emerging. That’s when more portals began opening and out stepped T’Challa, Okoye, Wanda, Doctor Strange, Sam and Bucky among so many others. You choked out a laugh of relief, tears streaming down your face as you saw everyone you had lost. Your legs carried you straight to Bucky as he smiled softly at you his arms outstretched.
“Your back I-I thought we failed,” you choked out staring into his intense eyes, always a mix of grey and blue to you. He looked the same he did five years ago in Wakanda.
“No. You didn’t fail. You never did,” he said grasping your face. The kiss you waited five years for felt like it was filling you to the brim with new energy. You turned back to face the army and your eyes filled with the hellfire you thought was gone. In the past five years you could only manage a few fire blasts here and there, the events of the snap making you lose all confidence in yourself but now you were something else. For a moment all was quiet on the battlefield and you smirked as you saw fear fill Thanos’ face.
“Avengers....Assemble,” Steve commanded.
“Give them hell,” Bucky said from beside you as battle cries erupted around you. In an instant you all ran forward to meet the enemy army. Your body flew upwards, fire encasing your whole body, propelling you up next to Wanda. When you landed you let out a scream, a burst of your power disintegrating all the enemies around you. You let all your rage and emotions from the past five years flow out of you. Seeing all your team members together felt surreal. This was it, the battle of your lives. You swept your arm as flames tore through the ranks of Thanos’ army. Any enemy that got near you melted in its place. You felt so full of fire and so full of life and hope. You flew upwards and set fire to as many ships as you could all while keeping an eye on your friends. You couldn’t let anyone die. You were using so much fire that your fire-proof suit began to turn to ash. But you didn’t care as you tore through monsters with your bare hands.
The climax of the battle was when Carol showed up and completely destroyed Thanos’ main ship. You cheered for your friend as she caused havoc in the air. She landed for a moment in front of you and you gave her a bone crushing hug, your flames doing nothing to hurt her.
“Peter has the gauntlet,” you told her. With a nod she flew off towards where Peter and now Thanos was. You set out in search of Bucky and found him shooting down another round of enemies alongside Sam.
“Sam,” you sighed, a large smile on your face.
“(Y/N),” Sam cried rushing forwards to hug you but stopped when he noticed the flames surrounding you.
“We can have a proper reunion after we finish them all off,” you chuckled as you blasted another row of aliens.
“Agreed,” Sam replied but before you could reply you heard a cry of pain a few feet away. Tony. You immediately ignored the call of your name and ran straight towards the middle of the battlefield. Your heart stopped at what you saw, Tony was kneeling in front of Thanos, gauntlet on his hand. You remembered Bruce’s warning from earlier, it almost killed Thanos when he used the stones . You stood frozen like the others as Tony looked bravely at Thanos before snapping his fingers. You willed your flames to die down as your ran forward to Tony. But it was too late, the effects of the stones too much for his human body. Peter was already with him as you and Pepper got to his body. You grimaced as you watched his body literally begin to decay. You were in a complete daze as Pepper and Peter said their goodbyes. Now it was your turn, and you kneeled down to his level as Pepper had her hand on your shoulder for support.
You looked at Tony, more tears filling your eyes. He was like a father to you, since you had joined the Avengers all those years ago. As you faced him you sucked in a breath.
“Hey T,” you smiled weakly and saw his brown eyes perk up.
“You were like the father I never had Tony. You’ve always been there for me. And I’m sorry I didn’t take your side during Germany-,” but he cut you off with a slight shake of his head.
“I’m going to take care of them. Morgan, Pepper, all of them,” you promised, your heart tightening at the thought of little Morgan, and you saw the understanding in his eyes. Pepper leaned forward and placed her forehead to his. Slowly his arc went black and fresh tears spilled out of your eyes. You found yourself sobbing uncontrollably, the emotional toll of the events of today too much to bear. Natasha gone first and then Tony. You felt Bucky behind you as you fell back into his arms agonized sobs leaving you. This was it, this was the end.
That night...
You held on to Bucky for dear life as he carried you up the cabin stairs. Pepper had insisted that you and Bucky stay with her and Morgan since you had your own room at the Potts-Stark residence. Everyone else had actually returned to Wakanda with the help of Doctor Strange as the Avengers Compound was effectively destroyed. When you and Bucky arrived to your room he couldn’t pry you off as you you were almost paralyzed in his arms. Sighing he sat on your bed and held you close. Now was the time to recollect his thoughts and emotions after being thrust from the stone straight into battle. His time in the stone felt like only a few hours to him so he couldn’t imagine how 5 years felt to you. You and Bucky had fallen in love during the Accords situation as you had taken Steve’s side in Germany. Your relationship with Bucky had continued on to the day of the battle in Wakanda and you never stopped loving him.
“Why didn’t you move on?” Bucky suddenly asked. You were snapped out of your thoughts and pulled back to look at him.
“Why would I move on? I love you Bucky. We never gave up trying to bring everyone back,” you replied with a confused face. Bucky looked at you with seriousness before he shook his head slightly.
“I couldn’t even imagine how lonely you felt and I just wanted you to be happy even if that meant moving on,” Bucky signed.
“I had happy times. With Steve, Tony, Carol, Rocket, Nebula, Rhodey and Nat...,” you trailed of at her name. Bucky tightened his grip on you.
“I’ll admit I lost hope after Thanos said he destroyed the stones. Then Scott came along and I knew we had a real chance,” you admitted with shame.
“Hey don’t do that (Y/N). You’ve been so strong doll so so strong,” Bucky murmured as he pressed a kiss to your forehead. As he pulled back you both stared longingly into each other's eyes.
“Now let’s get out of these suits and take a bath. Then we can catch up on the last five years,” Bucky said gesturing to your almost completely destroyed suit. You chuckled and tugged his hair with a smirk.
“Sounds like a plan Sergeant,” you replied as you pulled him in for a passionate kiss.
A few weeks later....
Morgan walked down the aisle throwing flowers as Pepper helped her along. You followed, your simple silk white gown with flames licking the bottom of it trailing behind you. Bucky had asked you to marry him a few days after he had returned and you of course had said yes, you both deciding to marry as soon as was possible. You had asked Steve to walk you down the aisle and even at his old age he managed with a proud smile.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” you whispered with a smile so wide it hurt.
“You deserve this. You both do,” Steve said as you made it to the altar. Carol was there to officiate the wedding, wearing a beautiful maroon suit.
“Hey doll,” Bucky smiled as he took your hand after hugging his best friend tightly. His suit was a dark blue that enhanced his eyes, his brown waves tied back in the loose bun you loved.
“Hey Buck,” you replied as you blushed under his loving gaze.
“I’m glad we can all be here from all corners of the galaxy,” Carol began. You took Bucky’s metal into yours as you listened to Carol.
“We’ve lived through the most trying times this galaxy has faced. (Y/N) and Bucky are proof of unwavering love. (Y/N) never stopped fighting for Bucky and I know they will never stop fighting for each other. We’ve lost those we loved but today we are reminded that love is everlasting,” Carol continued. Bucky’s eyes were filled with tears as he stared down at you, the love of his life. You looked over at your friends- your family. Natasha and Tony were gone but they were in your heart, always. The battle against Thanos was the end of an era but today was the beginning of a new one and you were ready to fight with hellfire for it.