23 | THE SECOND CHANCE

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October 2023

Avengers Compound, New York

"Scott."

They had all spent the night. Yesterday, Scott had entered the compound quite agitated, so after a long conversation about him actually being alive and him stating what he knew about the world ending on the trio filling him in their own details, they decided to turn in for the night. To calm down. To process everything.

Neither of the original former Avengers trio could still absorb the idea of him being alive, but their surprise was concealed, poised. Conversely, Scott had been erratic most of the time, so the idea was that they could all rest.

They didn't rest. And they all seemed the same as last night.

That meant Scott was still pacing around the room muttering to himself.

When he heard Cap call him, Scott planted his feet on a spot. 

"Are you okay?" Steve asked worriedly.

"Yeah." Scott pressed his hands against his face. "I'm fine." He seemed to want to ask them something but was having an inner struggle about it. "Have you ever studied Quantum Physics?" he blurted out.

Steve and Rose stared at him mildly confused. "Only to make conversation," Nat replied casually.

Scott stared at them intently. "Alright. So... five years ago, right—right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe," he explained quickly. "To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my uh..." he trailed off. "She was—she was my..." The trio looked at him in realisation, knowingly. "She was—she was supposed to pull me out," Scott explained shortly. "And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."

He had not told them that yesterday.

"I'm sorry," Nat expressed. "That must've been a very long five years."

"Yeah, but that's just it," he widened his eyes. "It wasn't. For me, it was five hours."

The trio shared a confused glance.

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