"[The Tesseract] is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war."
Often, Bruce likes to consider vaccines: the peculiar notion that something harmful can help in the end.
They're eating Shawarna in restaurant with rubble for a view. No one speaks, but their fatigue is hard and hollow, held out, nothing like defeated - they're going to build this city back, they're going to build it stronger.
Bruce thinks of other worlds and then the Earth, blue and green, defenseless in space. He thinks of the Avengers. "We're the white blood cells," he thinks suddenly, "and we know you now. Next time? Next time, we'll be ready."