Creation began on 02-02-21

Creation ended on 04-08-21

Hulk

Letting go of regrets: Finale

A/N: Hulk is about to discover how wrong his belief is.

Standing out in the vast wasteland, Hulk and Brother Correction, well-rested and ready for their little tussle with one another, and the latter man looked up at the desolate sky.

"To show that I'm not a dishonorable person," Brother Correction told Hulk, "I'll let you have the first move! Whenever you're ready, Hulk!"

"Hulk going to smash you!" Hulk yelled, and charged towards the man.

"Oh, great," he sighed as he quickly sidestepped out of the green giant's path; he would dodge and evade for as long as he could, but he would eventually fight back. "Brute force and rage aren't enough to defeat someone like me, Hulk!"

"Rrrraaurgh!" Hulk roared, ripping up a piece of the ground and hurling it at Brother Correction. "Hulk is strongest!"

Brother Correction dropped to the ground and dodged the slab. Then, he willed two large slabs to rise from the ground on either side of Hulk and slam into each other!

Smash! Hulk broke free from the slabs and charged towards him again.

"Hulk smash! Hulk crush! Hulk is stronger than little man!"

Hulk seriously needs to let go of rage and hatred and embrace love and friendship, thought Brother Correction as he jumped away from the giant's left fist, just in time to witness the ground he had been on get reduced to shards. "Be calm, Hulk. Be calm…be calm…"

Hulk picked up another slab of stone and threw it at him, but he ducked down and evaded again. If he was never going to fight back, they would be at this until the man was worn out from his efforts in trying to defeat him. But Hulk never tired, never felt like he needed to take a break; he was the strongest in existence, and he never relented. This man was just in his way of being the greatest there would ever be.

"I once met with Methuselah before he died," he told Hulk. "I asked him what he thought about humanity after living as long as he had, and he gave me an interesting answer. Methuselah told me that he had faith in the people of tomorrow, no matter what they did to who and why they did it, simply because they would be able to do great things that he would not live to see. And he was right. He was right about what the people would be able to achieve. They got to fly in space, swim deep in the ocean, build towers of glass and steel, find ways to create safe and renewable energy sources, and even after they have destroyed themselves, I can still see the good in them. They were doomed to fall like all great empires do, but they will eventually come back in due time. Everything is worth having because they can't last forever, and there is grace in their failings and inevitable downfall."

"They destroyed themselves and you say that they are destined to return?!" Hulk questioned. "Hulk does not care for others!"

"Oh, you're lying to me and to yourself. I still speak to your relationships with Betty, Caiera and Jarella. Your relationships…and Bruce's relationships, too."

Hulk…Hulk… Banner's voice continued to yell within Hulk. Hulk! End this nightmare! We can all go to where everyone else is waiting for us!

But Hulk…was fine with the way things were. Hulk was content with living alone.

"But living at the cost of keeping a part of yourself locked away so that you don't die is not truly living. It's just a cheap way of covering up your problem instead of dealing with it head-on. Admit your defeat and accept it with dignity."

"Never!"

Brother Correction then dashed forward, got right in front of Hulk's face…and head-butted him right in the nose.

SLAM! Hulk had never expected such force to send him moving backwards, but that and a bloody nose was all it took for him to realize that this little man was not ordinary.

"Hulk smash you!" He yelled at him.

"I'd love to see you try," he responded, picking up a rock and tossing it up and down in his left hand. "Try and smash me."

Hulk charged and brought his arms together. This man was about to regret messing with him.

SLAM! He brought his arms down and created an impact crater with a dust cloud.

"The difference between you and I, Hulk, is that I have self-control," Brother Correction told him. "I have restraint, but you right now… You're a barbarian. You have no true fighting skill. Using every muscle except for the ones in your head and chest. What is victory without cause, and what is peace without acceptance?"

Hulk looked up at him and saw that he had moved considerable distance away from where he slammed his arms down.

"As much as I could do this until the sun burns out and we enter a new ice age, I would prefer to settle this in a timely manner," Correction expressed, sighing. "I'm sure Banner would agree with me."

Hulk, just stop, Banner's voice yelled again. That's enough! It's been enough!

Brother Correction then reached down to the ground and pulled up a large handful of dirt, and Hulk saw him reshaping it into some kind of sword with an unusual green blade.

"I must say that I was impressed by a young man's swordsmanship and abilities when he had to help save his world from a dark force that had tried to pick up where it left off more than half a decade ago…that I had a copy of his sword forged for me. I don't believe in murder unless absolutely necessary, but you are the most persistent in fighting a losing battle, Hulk. Some people think me a hypocrite, that I don't see people's best intentions when they do something judgmental and many times unforgivable, and I must say that I care very little for people's opinions when I see a problem that could be handled differently and more effectively.

Then, he saw Brother Correction charge towards him with the sword in hand. But Hulk wasn't afraid of some boy with a sword. He wasn't afraid of anything or anyone.

"Hulk…kill you!" Hulk shouted as he charged towards him.

"Hulk, Hulk, Hulk…I have been killed many times before. You're not the first to kill me, and you won't be the last to kill me, either. You're the thirty-eighth person, well, thirty-ninth when you include Banner, that has tried to kill me. But nobody can kill me. I've even tried to kill myself once upon a time!"

Brother Correction ducked under the Hulk and slid across the ground.

"It was shortly after resolving a small war between two gangs. I had actually experienced a…crisis in what I was tasked to do. I was uncertain of how long I could keep doing what I was doing, undoing people's mistakes, giving them a chance to atone for their sins, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to repair their damaged states. I felt trapped, looking for a way out of my predicament. So…I drank poison one day…and I was forced to spit it up in the presence of a goddess that gave me words of advice and encouragement. One mistake I made would follow me until the end of existence…but it didn't have to define all that I was or am. So I moved on, persisted in helping people, regardless of their faults, to change their fates. No matter what hopelessness I felt back then, it wouldn't change the hope that I feel right now. I'm past my shame and sorrowful moment of weakness. It's probably how people feel after they've sobered up or ceased their drug addiction and got clean, realizing that they have to be better than they were before they made the choice they would've come to regret making. Hulk…please, just stop and let go of this purgatorial life and accept the peace that will be afforded to you and Banner. For the world to begin anew, you two have to let go."

"Never," Hulk persisted. "Hulk is stronger than you. Hulk is strongest there is. Hulk is only one there is!"

Brother Correction sighed again at how the Hulk refused to accept the end. The only way this was going to end…was to take the choice away from him and give it to Banner. This way, peace would be obtained and all the suffering would cease. He didn't want to hurt Hulk, but Hulk wasn't making this easy for them.

"You can repeat your claim all you want to, Hulk," he told him, "but it doesn't matter, anymore. Nobody's the strongest or weakest of anything. There's nothing left to prove to anyone. What is there left to do in this dead and lifeless world?! Who is there left to fight after me?!"

But Hulk didn't want to answer him. He just wanted to smash him to bits!

"Haaaurgh!" He roared as he raised his arms up again to slam on the little man. "Smash!"

Pierce! Brother Correction stabbed him in the chest with the sword, releasing a burst of light into the sky.

Hulk fell backwards…and was Bruce Banner once more.

"Huh? What is… How is this?" He asked, feeling weakened by the poison air and lack of food in his body. "What…did you…"

Brother Correction raised the sword up and ran the blade through his right hand, showing that it appeared to be either made of light energy or was an illusion or hologram.

"Rune Save, the Sealing Sword," he explained. "It can't be used to harm, but can seal intangible things, such as light and fire. I treated the Hulk as an intangible entity inhabiting your body…and redressed the balance, putting you back in the driver's seat…and the Hulk in the passenger seat. How do you feel?"

Banner felt the Hulk yelling at him, wanting to fight, to kill the dark man that cheated him, to prove once more that he was the strongest there is. But he didn't want to let him out again.

"Am I…finally dying?" He asked him, hopeful.

"Yeah," Brother Correction answered him. "You have less than a few minutes to go."

"Is everyone…waiting for us?"

"You know they are. Every single one of them. Betty, Jarella, all of them. They're waiting for you to return to them."

"Thank you. Thank you."

Soon, Banner felt like his vitals were slowing down. He felt like he was finally going to put it all behind him. The pain, the suffering, the madness, all of it. A bright light shined above his face…and he could see a woman he hadn't seen in forever.

Hulk…smash! He heard Hulk yell in his mind as he saw Betty, dressed in an angelic dress of blue and green robes, reach out to him.

"Go to her," Brother Correction urged him. "Go to where the peace you've been denied for so long is waiting for you to grasp it."

Bruce reached out to her, no longer feeling the poison air in his lungs…or the agony in his body.

"Bruce," Betty uttered to him, "we've been waiting for you for a long time."

The next thing he noticed, Bruce was in a quiet and vast meadow, surrounded by flowers small animals. It looked like a sunny afternoon, with a waterfall nearby, and there were people.

"Bruce," he heard the voice of his mother and turned to his right, seeing her. "How do you feel?"

"I feel…at peace."

"That's good."

Further away, Caiera and Jarella were showing none other than Hulk, who looked different from moments before when he was facing Brother Correction on the planet. He was at his regular size, wearing a simple shirt and shorts, and had an expression on his face that was alien to many people that knew him from the past: Peace. It was alien because they knew Hulk was mostly violent and difficult to cooperate with because of his mentality being almost child-like and incorrigible compared to Banner's mind.

Hulk should've been angry, should've desired a fight with someone, anyone, but he didn't feel that way. Not even he could explain it; it was like the rage and hatred that he felt for years just…lifted off him. There was no drive to fight, no need to prove himself, nothing.

"But…where is the stranger?" Bruce questioned. "Where is Brother Correction?"

"He left shortly before you woke up," Betty informed him. "The situation with you and Hulk was resolved, and he had to go solve another problem that needed his attention."

Brother Correction had freed them from a life of unending agony…and left before Bruce could thank him again. He had been freed by a stranger…that had to go deal with another issue.

"He knows you're grateful, Bruce," his mother told him. "Believe me, he knows."

Bruce couldn't let the hurt of the past weigh down on him. This was Heaven, and he and Hulk were surrounded by friends and family. The suffering had finally ceased after so long. In the end, he was happy to know that there was no more pain left to endure.

-x-

Standing where he had defeated Hulk, Brother Correction looked down at where something miraculous had appeared: A small flower. It was a rose. A blue rose. He smiled at the sign it represented; when the Hulk was defeated and Banner was allowed to die, life was allowed to renew itself on the planet.

"Ever so slow, but gradually cleansing," he uttered as he sat down beside the flower. "Your blossoming is proof that life will return. Slowly, ever so slowly, but in time…in time…the pollution will be purged, the soils revitalized, rich with new minerals, animal life restored, from regular worms to zebras and orcas, the Earth breathing again. Maybe not for a few millions years…but you'll all return. You will all return, people and everything. When you're regenerated enough to rebuild civilizations, I will be there."

He then disappeared as a gust of wind blew past the flower that clung to life in the night.

Fin

A/N: And now, we have the better outcome to the story. We have Banner and Hulk in Heaven along with everyone that suffered in the end. I am glad that I completed this story. Last year, 2020, was a terrible year, and now it is many people hoping that this new year, 2021, will give hope to the hopeless, and for a few, even redemption. We can be like the phoenix, as we rise from the ashes of our everyday problems, no matter what they are, be they financial concerns, medical issues, personal conflicts, inner demons, or suicidal thoughts. We can rise above these and become better than we thought we were before. Until next time, people.