Hmmmm…I'm thinking this might even go into a full-blown story!

I added another chapter!

There is a BIG twist in this.

Hoope you enjoy it!

Tony

White surrounded me. That was all that was.

White.

I didn't know how I got here. I didn't know what the hell happened. All I knew was that one second I was in Bruce's bedroom, about to suicide and now I'm here.

I spun around, taking in my surroundings, but there was nothing to take in. I was standing in white nothingness.

Literally. There was nothing here at all.

I squinted my eyes into the distance and saw that the white did fade eventually. Curious, I started walking toward the fading point.

That was when I noticed what I was wearing.

I stopped and looked at my clothes. I had plain white cotton pants and a white shirt on.

I frowned, wondering where they had come from. I was positive I didn't own such things.

I turned my attention back to the whiteness in front of me. That was when I noticed that someone was slowly fading into view in the distance.

What the hell?

My eyebrows furrowed as I walked further into the white to find out who that person was. They slowly came into view.

It was Bruce.

My eyes widened and I felt the colour drain from my face.

It couldn't be! Bru-Bruce was dead and yet here I was standing in nothing and watching Bruce approach me slowly. As his face became clearer to me, I saw one of his signature shy smiles on his face.

I backed away a couple of steps in pure shock. His smile slowly fell off his face as he saw me do this.

"Tony-"

"No! I don't know who you are!" I backed away quickly, tripping on my feet.

His eyes softened and he spoke to me in a soft tone. "Tony it's okay."

"No it's not! You're supposed to be dead!"

He paused and looked up at the imaginary sky as if he was contemplating on whether he was dead or not.

Finally he said, "Yes. Yes I am dead. That's why I'm here. I've come to meet you."

I stopped backing away. I was curious now. "Why?"

"because you need to know."

"Need to know what?" I asked, harshly.

He smiled sadly. "You'll see."

That was when I realized why he seemed so sad and why we were here. I scrunched my eyes shut and sighed as I asked, "Am I dead?"

"No, not yet. Almost."

My lips parted slightly in disbelief as I tried to come to terms with this. I could feel myself trembling as my hand reached out to touch Bruce's. Instead of touching his skin, my hand went right through. A wave of cold flowed through me. I brought my hand back quickly, startled.

"See?" He said sadly.

I bit the inside of my lip. This was all too much. Here I was, standing with my dead best friend in some place where I didn't even know how I got here. What the hell was happening?

Bruce started to walk away from me. At first I didn't know what he was doing but then he said, "Come with me."

I hesitated before I slowly started to follow him into the whiteness. I fell into step beside him. We walked in silence for a few minutes before I finally spoke up.

"So…what is all this about?"

Bruce didn't answer for a while and I was starting to think he hadn't heard me. But he finally said, "This is about you."

"what about me?" I asked, darkly.

"You put a bullet in your mouth." Bruce said, more as a statement than a question.

"yes."

"Why?"

"There was nothing left for me. There was no point to living anymore."

Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"That's what I thought so many years ago. Now I know that if I had been successful in killing myself, I would've never met the avengers. I would've never met you."

He paused. "The-the hulk saved me. And that was what I was scared of. My inability to save myself."

I was looking at Bruce with wide eyes. I never thought I would see the day where those words came out of his mouth. He was always, ALWAYS, trying to find a cure for the hulk. And only now did he finally accept him. When he obviously didn't have him inside anymore.

"bruce…" I started to say slowly.

He held up a hand for me to stop me. "No, it's true. And I never realized that until it was too late. And that is the only thing that I regret."

His eyes hardened and for a second, I thought I saw a hint of green appear in his eyes but I knew it had to be my eyes playing tricks on me.

"We don't have much time. You need to decide."

My face morphed into one of confusion. "Decide what?"

"If you want to live, or die."

I stopped walking abruptly. Bruce walked forward a few more steps before realizing that I had stopped. He turned around to face me and raised an eyebrow to beckon me to talk.

"I have to decide?" I asked incredulously.

"yes."

I looked up at the imaginary sky with utter disbelief. This would be an almost impossible choice to make.

"How could I survive?" I asked quietly. "I shot myself."

Bruce sighed a deep sigh and closed his eyes.

"What?" I prompted.

"You can live."

"How?" I asked.

"The serum."

"The what?" My eyes widened. I couldn't believe my ears.

"The serum!" Bruce said, loudly and I could sense a bit of regret in his voice.

My jaw dropped.

"Do you mean-"

Bruce cut me off. "Yes. Yes I do."

"but how-?"

"it was in my lab. Only JARVIS knew. I told him that if anything was to happen to you, me, or any of the Avengers, to give it to that person as a last resort. And I have a feeling that JARVIS is going to do exactly as I told him."

I felt the blood drain from my face. If this was the same serum Bruce had taken, who knew what it would do to me. Can I do this?

"If I live, how do I know what will happen to me?"

Bruce scrunched him eyes shut like he was counting to ten to keep calm. I knew that he didn't need to do that anymore so it was probably a habit that he couldn't break.

When he opened his eyes again he said, "That's just it. You don't know. It affects different people in different ways."

"and if I choose to die?" I asked, my voice croaking a little.

"then that's it. That's the end and you wont have another chance to put things right."

Then there was silence. I stared at Bruce with disbelief on my face and Bruce looked back at me sadly like he was at my funeral.

"And you have to decide quickly. We don't have much time."

I felt frustration bubble in me as he said that. How did he expect me to make a decision of such gratitude in such little time? I die and I won't be able to get a second chance. I live and I would have to live with what the serum does to me every second of my life.

Bruce seemed to have noticed my dilemma. "Look Tony, I know it's hard, but it's all up to you now. I'll be okay with whatever you choose."

I looked up at Bruce, feeling like I was being ripped in two. If I choose to die, I could be with Bruce again. If I choose to live, I could make things right, bring the Avengers back into commission, try again with Pepper and even go back to being Iron man.

I could do good for the world again.

I could make things right.

But who knew what the serum would do to me? It was all so theoretical. There was no certainty anywhere and I hated that. Especially in something as big as this.

I looked up at Bruce with furrowed eyebrows. He was looking at me with a calm, serene expression on his face. He looked calmer here. Less tense than I had ever seen him. He wasn't hiding anything anymore. He wasn't hiding a monster.

I knew that if I choose to live, I would have to deal with living with a monster.

But for some reason, I wanted to know what it was like to be in Bruce's position. Even if the serum didn't affect me in the same way it did Bruce, I had a strong feeling that it was nothing good. I would have to live with myself like that.

Could I do that?

Yes I could.

Bruce smiled a small smile at me. He knew that I was at a conclusion.

"well?" He prompted.

I paused for a second, wondering if I was making the right decision or not

After a couple of seconds, I made up my mind.

"yes. I'll live."

I looked Bruce right in the eye. I could see a twinkle in them, like he was sure I was making the right decision.

I frowned. "Well, am I making the right decision?"

He didn't say anything for a second and he looked like he was in deep thought. Again, a glimmer of green appeared in his eyes before disappearing quickly.

Finally he said, "Yes."

All of a sudden, the white around me started to fade. I felt myself being pulled back into a hole of darkness beneath me. Bruce was becoming farther and farther away from me.

"Wait!" I shouted. "Don't leave!"

Seconds before I was sucked into the blackness which was in such stark contrast to the white, I saw Bruce's eyes flash a deep green. He gave me a wink and then walked away into the fading white.

"NO!" I shouted after him, but it was too late. I was already too far gone and Bruce had disappeared.

"…Don't leave me…" I whispered into the blackness that surrounded me.

I felt nothing after that.


Light burned my eyes as I opened them. I scrunched them shut and lifted a hand to cover some of the sunlight that was reaching my eyes.

The first thing I noticed when I woke was that I was on something soft. A bed?

That was when I wondered how I got there. I had no idea.

A rush of memories came to greet me. I remembered going to Bruce's room, taking his gun and shooting myself with it. Then there was the whiteness and Bruce.

Did that mean…?

My eyes shot open and I looked around frantically. I made a move to get up, but someone pushed me down. I looked at the person holding me to the bed. It was Rogers.

My eyes widened and I looked at him in confusion. How did he get here? I swear he was in the suburbs of New York.

"Good morning." I looked up at him and then at the clock beside the bed. It read 6:50am.

"What-" my throat was scratchy and felt like sandpaper. I figured that I haven't talked in ages.

"Don't talk. I'll fill you in."

It was then that I noticed the bandages wrapped around my head. A dull pounding ricocheted through my brain like someone was beating drums on it. I also noticed a pain in my lower back. This was more subdued, but I could feel it nonetheless.

I wanted to know what the hell happened.

Steve started to explain.

"It was JARVIS who told me. I was actually in Manhattan, sight-seeing when I got the call. JARVIS told me to come to Stark Towers as quick as I could. So I came and JARVIS told me what to do. He told me to go to…Bruce's lab." I heard him hesitate a little when he said 'Bruce's lab'.

"In a box in the corner of the lab, was a clear liquid in a bottle. JARVIS told me exactly how to transfer some of the liquid into an injection."

Steve sighed. "I tried to ask why, but he wouldn't say anything. He just told me to go to Bruce's room with the shot. When I saw you slumped over the floor with a gun in your hand, I knew exactly what happened. Tony…I thought you were dead. Blood was gushing everywhere and I didn't know what to do. I was so sure you were dead. Why did you do it Tony? You could have talked to us!"

"Steve-" I started, my voice hoarse, but I couldn't say anything more. My voice caught in my throat and when I didn't say anything, Rogers continued.

"JARVIS told me to inject the liquid into your back. I acted as quickly as I could. I rolled you over and stabbed the thing into your back." Steve scrunched his eyes shut.

"At first, nothing happened. For the longest times, nothing happened…I thought I was too late. But then, the giant wound in your head was starting to close. Your injury was healing."

My eyes widened. I knew that being given the serum meant that nothing could hurt you. I didn't know that it could heal me as well.

"Then finally, when there was nothing left except for a small entry and exit wound, the healing stopped. You were still unconscious then so I bandaged you up as best as I could and put you in the bed in the room next to Bruce's. And now…here we are."

There was silence as I tried to digest everything that had happened. I tried to digest the fact that there could very well be something very similar to the Hulk inside of me. In fact, I could swear that I felt something inside of my head that most definitely not me. As I concentrated a little more, I realized that there really was something in my head.

Just as I was about to enter a full-blown panic, Rogers spoke up again.

"So what was that liquid? JARVIS never did tell me."

I had to clear my throat before answering

"It's the serum."

"Serum?"

I nodded slowly, but found out too soon that that was a bad idea. Pain shot throughout my head.

I saw Steve's body grow rigid as he figured out what I was talking about. "No…"

"Yes."

"But…what'll happen to you?"

I felt my hands curl into fists. "That's just it. Bruce told me that it affects everyone in it's own way. I don't know what'll happen to me."

Steve's eyebrows furrowed worryingly.

"But then…where will you go?"

I smiled a small, sad smile. "Well-" My voice broke, but I willed myself to keep going. "Well maybe the…Avengers…could come back together again."

"Maybe…" Said Steve wistfully.

As he said that, I felt a wave of tiredness roll over me. My eyelids drooped and Steve seemed to notice.

"Get some rest," he said as he patted me carefully on the shoulder as he left the room.

As the door closed behind him, I thought about what was going to happen to me.

Would I still run Stark Towers?

Will the government start hunting me down?

Too many questions, too little answers.

As my eyelids finally became to heavy to keep open, I felt myself fall into a fitful sleep.

Well? Do you like it?

If some of the information about the serum was not right, just know that I tried my best!

Hopefully, I'll have another chapter ready real quick!

-Detective Dg