"So now you'd better stop / And rebuild all your ruins"
Natasha
“Is there anything else I can do to make things better between us?” I asked softly. Tension had been palpable in the room since I had arrived and told Tony I wanted back in. One shouting match, two hours of working through legalities, and three cups of black coffee later, he was still pacing restlessly. The technical details of bringing me back to the team had been thoroughly dissected, but I knew the logistics weren’t what was weighing on Tony's mind the most.
“Being double-crossed, smashed in the chest, and left for dead isn’t something you just get over,” Tony grumbled. He waved off any protest, though I wasn’t here to give one. “I know most of that wasn’t you. Still hurts, though. But your home here…” he gestured broadly at the compound without really looking up from the tall mug of black coffee. “Look, I haven’t been able to bring myself to remodel the rooms that were for any of you. Sometimes—sometimes I wake up and expect to see everyone back where they used to be, and that’s bullshit. But you’re here, and I’m here, and we gotta do our best to move forward.”
I nodded. It was about what I had expected. I was touched to read through Tony’s rambling to the man who was still grieving the loss of close friendship. That was the source of the worst of his anger.
“When I joined the Avengers initiative,” I began, “I came on board with a mission of bringing people together, not tearing them apart. Protecting instead of destroying. And for a while, that’s what we got to do. After the Accords… I didn’t want you to be hurt. I made the choices I did trying to minimize the harm to all of us. I don’t know if I would change anything looking back, but I wish that everything could have been solved without the damage dealt to our team. I know it’s probably not what you wanted to hear, but it’s the truth.”
Tony ran a hand through his hair wearily. “Why come back here?”
“After Germany, I knew I wasn’t likely to be a welcome figure around here, and realizing my presence would do more harm than good, I went underground for a while. But when Loki contacted me about Bruce… he wasn’t part of our fight. And even if he had been around, something tells me he would have refused to fight any of us, even though he would have won.” I quirked a smile, thinking back to the stolen moments during the Ultron catastrophe. “Maybe things would have gone differently, who knows. But for an assassin who can’t trust or be trusted, a friend who cares so deeply and always looks for the peaceful resolution in everything is incomparable. So reconnecting with Bruce was a big factor, especially at first, but after being around him again I started to realize how important reconnecting with the rest of the team was as well. That’s part of what I was doing this past week—letting the others know I won’t be back for a while.”
Tony frowned suddenly. “Speaking of Bruce, he was supposed to come down for dinner over an hour ago. FRIDAY, where is he?”
“Dr. Banner entered his Green Room almost five hours ago, sir.”
Tony swore loudly and took off down the hall. I wasn’t far behind. “Dammit, FRIDAY, that would have been good to know. Any idea of a potential trigger?”
“No, sir. His vitals were normal up until entering the Green Room, and my protocol does not extend within the room. No signs of distress or rage.”
We reached Bruce’s quarters and Tony opened a panel by the reinforced door and started punching in access codes. “Come on,” he muttered, “give me information.” He kicked the wall in frustration and pressed a few more buttons. “At least the room seems to be working, considering he’s still in there. Ah!”
A screen lit up. Bruce…maybe? it was hard to tell… was huddled in the corner of the room.
I sucked in my breath. “Is that blood?”
Tony flipped another switch and the display colorized. He was looking grey. “Um, yes. I think so.”
“Where’s it coming from?” I demanded.
“I suppose it’s too much to hope that our green friend went ham on a swarm of mosquitoes.” He continued adjusting the settings. “Trying to get some sound, here. Maybe we can talk to him.”
Bruce was shaking and spasming in and out of a pallid, half-hearted green on seemingly random body parts, but his face seemed to have gone full Hulk in hue if not structure. Shreds of paper stuck to the spatters of crimson on the floor. He had blood smeared all over his hands, suggesting some sort of battle, but otherwise he seemed in marked contrast to the bold, angry giant that normally made an appearance in these situations. His shoulders trembled.
“The Hulk’s crying,” I realized aloud.
“That’s… not normal. That isn’t normal, is it?” Tony was rendered almost incoherent. “Tell me that’s a normal thing for the big guy to be doing? Why isn't he Hulking out the rest of the way?”
I grabbed his arm. “Look, we need to get in there. Can you get me in there?”
“Yes, yes—maybe. FRIDAY, get Vision. We could really use his wall-ignoring trick right now.”
“Vision left,” the AI supplied. “He said to tell you he needed to make things right between him and Wanda.”
Tony swore again. “The only way we’re getting in that room is if Banner lets us in. He insisted on that as a failsafe to protect anybody else in the compound.” He gestured to the small mic. “The green guy is more likely to respond to you.”
Bruce
Through the haze, I heard a voice, melodious and gentle and strangely familiar.
“Hey, big guy. Sun’s getting real low.”
I almost blacked out again for a few seconds but managed to hold on just enough to catch the tail end of a foreign voice exiting my mouth. “Banner not Hulk friend. Hulk say no. Banner go away.”
Then a few moments were gone again and I was so disoriented, but Nat’s voice was back, guiding and pleading. “Bruce, you have to trip the release in order to let us in. Please, let us in.”
There was blood everywhere. So much blood. Was it mine? I stumbled to my feet and pressed my hand against the scanner, blindly following her instructions. As the resulting hiss of the door sounded through the room, I slipped back into unconsciousness.