It's Now or Never

Part 15

It's been a couple of minutes since we let Scott inside the Avengers Compound. He keeps pacing worriedly in front of us. I look over at Steve with a confused look on my face.
"Are you okay?" I say to Scott, turning to look at him.
"Yeah. I'm fine." Scott says. I can tell he is struggling to ask about something, but finally, he blurts it out.
"Have either of you ever studied Quantum Physics?" Scott asks as he stops pacing.
"Only to make conversation." Nat jokes.
"Alright. So... five years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my... She was my... She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there." Scott says.
"I'm sorry. That must've been a very long five years." I say to him.
"Yeah, but that's just it. For me, it was five hours." Scott says.
Steve, Nat, and I all share a quick bewildered glance.
"See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving." Scott says. He strides over to pick up Nat's sandwich and bites into it.
"Scott, what are you talking about?" Steve asks.
"What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it. What if, we could somehow control the chaos, and we could navigate it? What if there was a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time but then exit at another point in time? Like... Like before Thanos." Scott says.
"Wait, are you talking about a time machine?" I butt in.
"No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. It's more like a... Yeah, a time machine. I know it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be some way... No, it's crazy." Scott says.
"I get e-mails from a raccoon, so nothing sounds crazy anymore," Nat says.
"So who do we talk to about this?" Steve says. Once he says it, he knows exactly who.
"Come on," Steve says as he grabs his jacket and heads for the door.

We head out to a cabin where Tony lives now. When we get there and get out of the car, we see Tony walking towards the cabin with a girl in his arms. Tony sighs when he sees us. I can tell he is not looking forward to the discussion about taking place.
We walk onto the porch as Scott starts to explain his plan to Tony.
"...Now, we know what it sounds like..." Scott says as he finishes explaining.
"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve says.
"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the Deutsch proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony asks.
Scott, Steve, Nat, and I all look puzzled. Science is barely any of our fields.
"Thank-you. In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home." Tony says.
"I did," Scott said.
"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?" Tony says.
"A time heist?" Scott says.
"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?" Tony says.
"The stones are in the past. We can go back and get them." I say to Tony in an almost pleading voice.
"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back." Nat says.
"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony says.
"I don't believe we would," Steve says.
"Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise." Tony says.
"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events-" Scott starts to say.
"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?" Tony says to him.
"No," Scott says kind of embarrassed.
"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause, that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works." Tony said.
"Tony... We have to take a stand." Nat says.
"We did stand. And yet, here we are." Tony snaps back.
"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, we have a chance to bring her back. Bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even..." Scott says.
"That's right, Scott, I won't. Leave it. Got a kid." Tony says.
Morgan then runs to Tony on que. He picks her up and places her on his lap.
"Mommy told me to come and save you," Morgan says to him.
"Good job. I'm saved." Tony says as he stands with her in his arms. He then turns to face us.
"I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and the table's set for six." Tony says.
"Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance." Steve says.
"I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice again. Just give this a rest and live your life, Steve. You are lucky to still have Hayes in your life. Maybe you should take that second chance. That goes for all of you. Now If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch." Tony says.
Cap, Nat, and Scott walking back to the car outside Tony's house as I stand there looking at him.
"This second chance of yours, does it help you sleep at night and put everything that happened behind you?" I ask Tony, actually curious to know the answer.
"Some days are better than others, but ya, ya it does," Tony says. I look behind me at Steve and then back at Tony.
"Thanks," I said and turn to walk towards the car.
"He's scared," Nat says when I catch up to them.
"He's not wrong," Steve says.
"Yeah, but I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him. What, are we gonna do?" Scott says.
"I wanna do it right. We're gonna need a really big brain." Steve says.
"Bigger than his?" Scott asks. Steve nods and goes to get into the car.
"Steve, can I talk to you?" I asked Steve. He turns and nods at the other to get into the car. He then walks over to me.
"Do you really think this is going to work?" I ask him.
"It could, we need to try. Don't you want this chance?" Steve asks me back.
"Trust me, I wanna do this too since now we know there is some sort of a possibility to save everyone that's lost no matter what Tony says, but what if it doesn't work. Then what." I sigh and shake my head. "Look at this life, tony's life. We could have this." I say looking up at Steve.
"Trust me I want this, this life Tony has, but this possibility is going to keep me up at night if I, we don't try it."
"Promise me that if this doesn't work, it's gonna be you and me, living the life that we deserve," I beg Steve.
"I swear it.' Steve says. He goes to pull me into a hug, but I just walk past him and get into the car.