Whatever It Takes [Wanda Maximoff AU]

18- Five Years Later

The last five years went by in a blur for Wanda. She went out and got enrolled in Columbia University in New York City, it was only a short thirty minute drive to the city from the facility.

She decided she was going to become an engineer, since the hero gig went south she didn't have anything better to do so college it was.

Tony and Pepper moved even farther upstate and had a child named Morgan.

Steve, Natasha, Rhodey, Okoye, Carol, and Rocket decided they were going to make sure the world stayed safe and that no one could touch it.

Being out of the hero job meant that every little anomaly could be their chance to get back to work. Everyone was just trying to fill the void.

Steve walked in on Natasha sitting at her desk. "You know I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already." Steve said trying to clear the tension as Natasha fought back her tears from the news about Barton.

"You here to do your laundry?" Natasha asked.

"And to see a friend" Steve replied.

Natasha took a deep breath. "Clearly your friend is fine."

The two of them had a nice conversation with each other that varied from whales and peanut butter sandwiches.

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

"If I move on, who does this?"

Steve crosses his arms. "Maybe it doesn't need to be done."

"I used to have nothing and then I got this job. This family and I was better because of it. And even though he's gone.. they're gone. I'm still trying to be better."

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

Natasha give him a forced smile. "You first."

A buzzer began beeping throughout the facility. Natasha answered it.

"Oh, hi, hi!" Scott Lang yelled through the message. "Uh, is anyone home? This is, uh, Scott Lang. We met a few years ago at the airport... Germany. I was the guy who got really big with the mask it's just off right now."

"Is this an old message?" Steve said as him and Nat stood up.

"It's the front gate."

***
Scott Lang paced the room back and forth muttering gibberish to himself.

"Scott." Steve said to him. "Scott! Are you okay?"

Scott rubbed his hands. "Yeah. Have either of you guys ever studied Quantum Physics?"

"Only mid-conversation." Natasha said to him.

"All right 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.. uh.. she was my.. she was supposed to pull me out. Then Thanos happened and I got stuck in there."

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

Scott's eyes got big. "Yeah 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? I'm starving." Scott said crossing the room and grabbing it.

"Scott." Steve said to him. "What are you talking about?"

He took a bite. "So what I'm saying is. Time works differently in the quantum realm. Only problem is we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it." He said pacing. "What if we could somehow control the chaos and we could navigate it. What if there was a way we could enter the quantum realm at a certain point in time and exit it at another point in time? Like before Thanos."

"Are you talking about a time machine?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"No, No, of course not. No, not a time machine. This is more like a.. yeah a time machine. I know it's crazy, it's crazy but I can't stop thinking about it. There's got to be some way..." He looked at Steve who didn't believe him. "It's crazy."

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

Wanda's sulky mood immediately changed when she heard about time travel and the chance to bring Carter and everyone else back.

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

Wanda crossed the room. "Tony Stark."

***
Wanda and Scott rode in the backseat on the way to Tony's cabin up state, while Steve drive and Natasha sat passenger.

Everyone exited the car as soon as Tony was walking across the porch like it was perfect timing.

Together they walked to the porch as Tony poured them drinks.

"Quantum fluctuation messed with the Planck scale." Tony started. "Which then triggers the Deutsch proposition. Can we agree on that? In layman's terms it means you're not coming home."

"I did." Scott said.

"No. You accidentally survived." Tony said. "It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull a.. what do you call it?"

Scott made a bunch of faces before he smiled and said "A time heist?"

"Yeah a time heist. Of course. Why didn't we think of this before. Oh, because it's laughable. Because it's a pipe dream."

"The stones are in the past. We can go back we can get them." Steve said.

"We can snap our fingers. We can bring everybody back." Natasha said.

"Carter, Bucky, Strange. Peter." Wanda said trying to appeal to Tony's emotions.

Tony almost broke down at the mention of Peter.

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?"

"I don't believe we would."

"Gotta say. Sometimes I miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no local tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist." Tony sat down. "I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. All right? No talking to our past selves. No betting on sports events."

Tony held out a hand. "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."

Scott chuckled. "No."

"Good you had me worried because that would be horseshit. That's not how quantum physics works."

Nat crossed the room ready to say something. "Tony. We have to take a stand."

"We did stand and yet here we are."

"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter, but I lost someone very important to me. A lotta people did. Now we have a chance to bring her back, to bring everyone back and you're telling me that you won't even..."

"That's right Scott I won't. I can't."

"Mommy told me to come and save you." Morgan said coming out of the house and crawling into Tony's lap.

"Good job. I'm saved." Tony said standing up. "I wish you guys would've came to ask me something else, anything else. I'm honestly happy to see you guys, I just... oh tables set for six."

"Tony. I get it and I'm happy for you I really am. But this is a second chance."

"Got my second chance right here, Cap. Can't roll the dice on it. If you don't talk shop you can stay for lunch."

The group of four walked back to the car.

"Well, he's scared." Natasha said.

"He's not wrong." Steve replied.

"Yeah but what are we gonna do." Scott said. "We need him are we gonna stop?"

"No, I wanna do it right." Steve said stopping and opening his car door. "We're gonna need a really big brain."

Scott looked back at the house.

"Bigger than his?"