Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

08

(English: Wait! Help me! I'll give you anything! What do you want?)

Ronin, raising his katana, replied in English, "What I want... You can't give me."

He thrusted the blade downwards into Akihiko's stomach. The body of the Japanese fell to the ground. Ronin grabbed the sword, and wiped it on his gauntlet, ridding it of the blood of Akihiko. He noticed someone behind him, and grabbed his mask, and slid it off his head, revealing himself as Clint Barton, who had gone on a rampage since the decimation. He turned around and looked at Natasha, who was standing behind him, holding an umbrella, and in casual clothes.

"You shouldn't be here," Clint said.

"Neither should you," Natasha told him.

"I've got a job to do."

"Is that what you're calling this? Killing all these people isn't gonna bring your family back." Clint was the verge of tears. "We found something. A chance, maybe..."

Clint was openly crying. "Don't..."

"Don't what?"

"...don't give me hope."

"I'm sorry I couldn't give it to you sooner."

AVENGERS COMPOUND

Thor was in a hoodie, drinking a beer and walking through the compound's Testing Chamber. Tony was also there, walking in from behind Thor.

Tony said to Thor, "Drifting left. On the side there, Lebowski." He said to Rocket, who was working on something underneath a glass platform, "Ratchet, How's it going?"

"It's Rocket," Rocket corrected. "Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal."

---

In a side room, Scott, Bruce, Steve and Rhodey were talking. Scott was in a white and red suit, similar to the Ant-Man suit.

"Time travel suit?" Rhodey said. "Not bad."

Scott said to Hulk touching the suit and something red in a glass tube, "Hey, hey, hey! Easy, easy!"

"I'm being very careful," Bruce told him.

"No, you're being very Hulky."

"I'm being careful."

Scott held up the red glass bottle. "These are Pym Particles, all right? And ever since Hank Pym got snapped out of existence, this is it. This is what we have. We're not making any more."

"Scott, calm down," Rhodey told him.

"Sorry. We've got enough for one round trip each. That's it. No do-overs. Plus two test runs." He accidentally pressed a button, and shrinks, and then grew back to his normal size. "One test run."

TESTING CHAMBER

Steve, holding Alpine, Natasha, Tony, Scott, Bruce, Rhodey and Nebula stood at a control panel, controlling the glass platform.

"All right. I'm not ready for this," Scott told them.

"I'm game. I'll do it," Clint said as he walked in wearing the suit Scott was moments before, the Quantum Suit.

"Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift," Bruce informed. "Don't worry about it."

Clint took position on the platform.

"Wai-Wait a second, let me ask you something. If we can do this, you know, go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos, you know, and..." Rhodey trailed, making a hand gesture suggesting that they strangle baby Thanos with a rope.

Bruce, disgusted, said, "First of all, that's horrible..."

"It's Thanos."

"...And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future."

"Look, we go back, we get the Stones before Thanos gets them... Thanos doesn't have the Stones," Scott reasoned. "Problem solved."

"Bingo," Clint agreed.

"That's not how it works," Nebula said.

"Well, that's what I heard."

"What?" Bruce asked. "By who? Who told you that?"

Rhodey counted with his fingers, "Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time-"

"Quantum Leap-" Scott added.

"A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time-"

"Hot Tub Time Machine-"

"Hot Tub Time Machine. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel."

"Die Hard? No, it's not one..."

"This is known."

"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true," Bruce said. "Think about it: If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. Which can't now be changed by your new future..."

"Exactly," Nebula agreed.

"So... Back To The Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Scott asked.

Bruce turned to Clint and said, "All right, Clint. We're going in 3... 2... 1!"

A helmet similar to Ant-Man's but white and more visible face popped on Clint's head, and he went quantum. Clint flew through the quantum realm and into an opening. He grew back to normal size, but he was at a different place, and seemingly, time.

Clint looked around his family home, which looked a lot more alive. The helmet popped off of Clint's head, and he looked around bewildered. He saw a baseball glove on the ground, presumably belonging to one of his sons, and picked it up. There was a noise from inside the house.

"Cooper? Where are my headphones?" Lila asked.

Clint murmured, "Lila?" The device on his hand started beeping, signaling the end of this visit. "Lila!" He dove for the door, but only managed to open it before he shrank back to go back to the future.

Lila came down the stairs in Avril Lavigne-like clothing, looking around, puzzled and asked, "Yeah, Dad?" She looked around. "Dad?" She went back upstairs, deciding that it was just nothing.