Bree Phoenix || An Avengers Fanfiction ✔

Chapter 20

5 years later

A lot of things had changed as time passed. The remaining Avengers didn't go their separate ways but some developed interests, hobbies, and new lifestyles, and others stayed at the Stark industries with hope still on their shoulders. But most had moved on.

Tony moved on as well. He and his wife, Pepper Potts settled down and moved into a cozy cabin in Georgia and finally had a kid and named her Morgan, who was now five years old. The rest of the team like Steve and Natasha still kept patrol yet weren't over anything.

Natasha had ended a conference call with the team, alone and sitting in the office, she began to cry yet was interrupted by Steve.

"You know, I'd offer to cook you dinner but seem pretty miserable already," He joked, at least getting her in a better mood.

Natasha looked at him after she rubbed her eyes. "You hear to do your laundry?

"Came to see a friend," He claimed, looking at her.

"Your friend is fine," She stated.

Steve stood there while fiddling with his keys. "I saw a pod of whales when I was coming over the bridge,"

"In the Hudson?" She questioned.

"It's fewer ships, cleaner water," he trailed off.

"You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side, um, I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich," she said.

"Hm," Steve smiled, "Sorry, force of habit," he began to walk over and took a seat at her desk. As he sat down, Natasha slid over the rest of her sandwich, which Steve just stared at as he leaned back into the chair. He sighed and paused as he glanced up at her.

"You know, I keep telling everybody that they should move on and... grow.... Some do, but not us,"

"If I move on, who does this?" She asked, coldly to Steve.

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done,"

Natasha took her head. "I used to have nothing... and then I got this. This job... this family. And I was... I was better because of it. And even though they're gone, I'm still trying to be better," She said to him, feeling the emotions kicking in.

"I think we both need to get a life," Steve stated.

"You first," They both smiled at each other.

A notification came up on her screen and she swiped it, opening it only to get both of their attention, a voice appeared as they saw the front building camera.

"Oh- hi, hi, uh- is anyone home? This is uh- Scott Lang, we met a few years ago at the airport in Germany. I was the guy that got big, I had a mask on you wouldn't have recognized me,"

"Is this an old message?" Steve asked, getting up from his seat.

Natasha's eyes widened. "It's the front gate,"

*****

Scott paced around, mumbling to him.

"Scott," Steve called, making Scott flinch back, looking at him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Scott rubbed his eyes. "Have either of you guys ever studied quantum physics?"

Steve looked towards Natasha. "Only to make conversation," She joked.

Scott gave her a look. "All right, so, five years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called the quantum realm, and the quantum realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my uh- she was- she was my ... she- she was supposed to pull me out, then Thanos happened and I got stuck in there," Scott explained.

"I'm sorry, that must've been a very long five years," Natasha apologized.

"But that's just it, it wasn't. For me, it was five hours. See, the rules of the quantum realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich?" He asked as he walked over grabbing it. "I'm starving,"

"Scott, what are you talking about?" Steve asked. Scott took a big bite before talking.

"So," he chewed. "What I'm saying is," and chewed more. "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 uh- a way we could enter the quantum realm at a certain point in time but then exit the quantum realm at another point in time? Like... like before Thanos,"

"Wait," Steve stepped in. "Are you talking about a time machine?"

"No, no, of course not. No time machines, this is more like um... yeah, like a time machine, I know, it's crazy, it's crazy. I-I but I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be ... somewhere- ... it's crazy,"

"Scott," Natasha called. "I get emails from a raccoon, so, nothing sounds crazy anymore,"

"So who do we talk to about this?" Scott asked.