Here's the final chapter, guys! I want to thank everyone who took the time out of their busy lives to read this. Every single one of you have helped make this story a success. And to all reviewers, a great big batch of cookies to all of you for giving me the push to finish writing this. Seriously, this wouldn't have happened without you. One more thank you to everyone who favorited or alerted this story. You are all big rays of sunshine. I'll see you next time, and I hope you all enjoy the conclusion to Innocence!
After what felt like the longest fly of his life, Tony touched down on the landing pad and gently helped Bruce to his feet. The scientist was clearly still in pain, wrinkles lining his forehead as he fought off the waves of agony that still wracked his body from his time with Phoenix. Tony shuddered as he tried to imagine what Bruce had gone through with that madman. The madman that he hadn't been able to stop. Despite Bruce's earlier attempts at comfort, Tony couldn't stop the guilt that was tearing him apart. Every time he looked at Bruce's face, he felt it. Every time he thought about that laboratory, he felt it. And flying over the city that was being torn apart by a hulked-out Phoenix? Smelling the smoke from the burning apartments and hearing the sirens racing through the streets as the other Avengers and the police tried to contain the damage and get Phoenix to the tower? You can be damn sure he felt it then.
"Ah! Tony…" Bruce groaned sharply as Tony grabbed his waist for extra support.
"Sorry, sorry. My bad." After shifting his weight gently, Bruce let out a small sigh of relief. The two slowly made their way into the tower, where Bruce was set down on the faded leather couch while Tony raced to the bar. Gone for just a moment, he returned with a cup of ice water and pills for the doctor and a fresh bottle of whiskey for himself.
Bruce eagerly took the pills and swallowed them without any arguments. Finishing the last of the water in the glass, he turned toward Tony with a sad smile. "Thanks," he offered weakly.
"Don't mention it."
Both men sat quietly, hands folded in their laps, unsure of how to proceed. Both had so much they wanted to say, but neither knew how to actually go about saying it. Minutes passed as they both tried to form words. Suddenly, both opened their mouths to speak, urgency in both voices.
"Tony, I-"
"Look, Bruce-"
Luckily for both men, the phone rung at that very second. Jumping to his feet, Tony grabbed his phone off the table.
"Hey, you've got Tony," he answered grimly. Bruce watched as Tony's face reacted to every bit of information thrown at him. Flashes of guilt periodically crossed his features, making him look older and more world-weary than any man should. Bruce waited anxiously as Tony responded with several more rounds of "Yep," "Mm-hm," and "Got it." Finally, he gave a gruff "We'll be ready," to whoever was on the other line.
Bruce broke the silence as Tony placed his phone back on the table.
"Are they coming?" he asked tentatively, knowing quite certainly that they were.
"Yep. Here in ten." Bruce's heart sank. "You gonna fill me in on the rest of the plan, or what?" Bruce grimaced as he slowly rose to his feet. His jaw set, he turned toward the elevator, deliberately avoiding eye contact.
"We have to get to the lab." His jaw locked and his face set with determination, he began hobbling towards the elevator. With a look of annoyance, Tony ran in front of him and blocked his way stubbornly.
"Gee, don't overload me with details. Keep it simple, why don't you."
A look of annoyance wiggled its way onto Bruce's face, but his voice remained steady.
"While I was in Phoenix's lab, I saw a lot of his work, including the recipe for whatever the hell he used to keep my Hulk under control. It only takes a second to make, and we have everything in the lab."
Tony looked him over suspiciously, but seemed to reason that he was telling the truth.
"Alright, let's get your ass down there." He threw his arm out again for support for the doctor and they made their way down the tower. As the elevator's steel doors shut, Bruce thanked his lucky stars – lucky being a relative term in his life – that Tony didn't realize he was lying out of his ass about that serum crap.
Within minutes, the two made it to the lab they used to call home. Tony couldn't help but flash back to the horrible room in Phoenix's house, but Bruce plowed straight on ahead to the arc reactor they had spent so much time designing. He ripped off the panel covering the controls and began pressing buttons rapidly in a sequence Tony didn't recognize.
"Bruce, what the hell are you doing?" Tony asked. "We have to make the serum now!" He scrambled toward Bruce, poorly disguising the look of fear upon his face as the time of Phoenix's arrival grew nearer and nearer. Keeping his back to Tony as he punched in another sequence of programming, Bruce raised a hand to stop him. "Bruce, get the lead out of your pants and get a move on! That serum isn't going to make itself!"
With a slow breath out, Bruce punched in the final numbers and closed the panel. He turned to face Tony, tears building in his eyes.
"There is no serum, is there?" Tony said slowly, a look of pained realization in his eyes.
"No, there isn't."
Tony stiffened visibly. "You don't seriously plan to – "
"I do."
"You can't set it off without – "
"I know."
Tony's lips quivered as he tried to form words, but none came. With an agonized shout, he flipped over the metal table he had been preparing. Bruce closed his eyes resignedly as the glass vials shattered on the tile below them. Tony spun around, staring daggers at Bruce.
"You crazy son of a bitch! You really think that blowing this whole place up with you in it is going to solve anything?" He was livid, the words like stinging barbs as he threw them at Bruce. "You don't even know that this'll work! You said it yourself, he's big, he's strong, and he's royally pissed off. This might not kill him, but it'll definitely kill you." His voice dropped lower as he grew desperate. "Bruce, I just got you back. Doing this, the grind of daily life, it isn't the same without you. I don't want things to be like they were before you stayed here. I don't… it's just better with you here."
"Tony," Bruce offered gently, "This is my mess. You know what it's like to feel guilty and responsible for lives lost, I know you do. And going back and trying to clean up some of the mess you made was hard, and it was pretty damn dangerous. But it was the right thing to do. Now, it's time for me to do the same." A roar was heard from outside the tower, sending a shiver through both men. Bruce looked down at his feet as he continued. "Tony, my dad killed his mom. Our mom, I guess. In the end, he wants me. I know there's no way to stop him, except for this. With that, I can't knowingly let him live and continue to hurt people. This is my problem to fix, and mine alone."
Tony's suit suddenly registered an emergency call from Pepper. Tony put it on speaker.
"Guys, he's here, but he's angry! He'll be inside in a second, so do whatever you have to do! We'll be in as soon as we can!"
"No, Pepper, all of you stay outside. Clear the block and get out!"
There was a brief pause in her words as Phoenix's screech was heard again. "Tony, we already cleared the area, just in case. But what do you mean we have to – "
His voice was pained as he shouted. "Just go!"
"…We'll see you and Bruce soon." The phone resounded with a dial tone as she abandoned the call. Tony raised tear-filled eyes to look at the man in front of him.
"Tony, just go," Bruce said, his voice trembling lightly. He opened his mouth to say something else, but just as he did, he collapsed to his knees. Tony ran to his side and held him close, looking him over with panic on his face. With a sharp gasp he realized just how bad the scientist's wounds were from his time with Phoenix. Bruce's pallor was sickly and pale, his bruises every shade of the rainbow and his eyes… his eyes were fading in and out of focus. He knew in one look that Bruce wasn't making it out of this alive. He'd be lucky if he lasted five more minutes. He also knew that if Bruce didn't last long enough to pull the trigger on the arc reactor bomb, this would all be for nothing and they'd still be stuck with the unstoppable new Hulk.
More than anything, he knew where he was going to be when this all went down, and it wasn't going to be on that street corner with Pepper and the others.
"Bruce, you can't do this. Not alone." Bruce raised bleary eyes up to look at the billionaire, a look in his eyes that said he knew he was going to die. Choking back tears, Tony smiled back down at him, pulling him into a soul-wrenching embrace. In that instant, everything the two men had ever wanted to say was said. Every thought considered, every dream hoped, every nightmare that ever plagued them was communicated in a way that went beyond words, beyond time. In that moment, they were one.
"Don't let go," Bruce said faintly. Tears openly streamed down his face. "I don't want to be alone."
Tony gave a small chuckle as he lay his head back against the wall behind him. "You'll never be alone. You're stuck with me, Banner, whether you like it or not."
Out of the silence came the sound of uncontrolled rage, glass shattering, and metal tearing. It was time.
"Ready, Bruce?" Tony whispered. At the quiet that followed, he glanced down at the other man. His eyes looked out into the distance, never to see anything again. Never to see Tony again. Bruce was gone.
Tony choked out a small cry as he shut Bruce's eyes one last time. A single tear fell from his face as the snarls from below came closer. Pulling himself up, Tony moved to the panel and opened the cover, placing his finger over the final button. With an ear-deafening crash, the giant red monster appeared before him in all of its terrifying power. With a smirk, Tony pressed the button.
"I'll see you in Hell, you bastard."
There was a flash of light, a thunderous bang, and then darkness.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Pepper stood tall, dressed in an elegant black dress. Bruce had complimented her in it once, mentioned how beautiful it made her look. Then, of course, Tony's sarcastic remarks asking "When did you two start sleeping together?" and "You do realize that your babies will be the most boring people on the planet?" shut him right up. Bruce always clammed up when Tony teased him about never going out with people or having relationships, but Pepper always thought he had the only relationship he'd ever need right there with Tony.
And Tony… God, what was there to say about Tony? He was loud, he was arrogant, he was rude. But he also had a kindness to him, a caring side. More than anything, he needed someone to love him. Pepper was never enough. She had never filled that emptiness inside him that he tried so desperately to hide. But when he was with Bruce, everything was different. He was finally happy.
There was a lot of pomp and circumstance afterwards. Reporters at every door, government people trying to give out awards, parades through the streets. But in the end, the ceremony had been small. Natasha and Clint were there, Steve and Thor, Fury, Maria, and Pepper, of course. Tears were shed and speeches were given, but in the end, nothing made it hurt less. Nothing changed what had happened.
With a sad smile playing across her lips, Pepper laid down the bouquet of flowers and stepped back.
"Thank you two. For everything."
With that, she strode back to the gates across the fields where the limo was waiting to carry her back to reality. Little as she liked it, the world continued to spin and she had a role to play. She owed it to both of them to do her part.
As she drove away, a faint breeze blew autumn leaves across the ground where a wide granite headstone was placed. On one side was a photo of a grinning man, his tousled hair and artfully crafted beard accentuating his sharp features, eternally looking as though he was in on a joke nobody else understood. On the other side of the stone, there lay a picture of a man with sensitive cocoa eyes, a shy smile across his face. His eyes betrayed a piece of the horrors he had seen, and nothing could erase that, but you could feel the hope radiating off of him. You could almost touch the true happiness in his smile as the man had finally found peace. In the center, there was one solemn message engraved, the memorial to two men who had seen the darkest this earth had to offer and fought for it anyways.
In Loving Memory Of Anthony Stark And Bruce Banner.
Heroes In Life, Brothers Forever.