3rd Person POV with Nat, Steve, and Scott

After being let into the Compound, Nat and Steve had explained everything that happened five years ago to Scott and he began pacing nervously while muttering to himself as he processed all the information before Steve asked him,

"Scott. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine." Scott put his hands on his face exhaustedly before he blurted out, "Have you ever studied Quantum Physics?"

"Only to make conversation." Nat side shrugged nonchalantly.

"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... s-she was my... she was supposed to pull me out.. and then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."

"I'm sorry. That must've been a very long five years." Nat told him sincerely but Scott shook his head and told them,

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

Making her and Steve shared a bewildered look as Scott started to explain,

"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 walked over to the sandwich on Nat's desk and bit into it as Steve asked,

"Scott, what are you talking about?"

And Scott continued to explain while eating at the same time,

"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."

"Wait, are you talking about a time machine?" Steve asked a bit dubiously.

"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-there's gotta be-some w- it's crazy."

"Scott, I get emails from a raccoon, so nothing sounds crazy anymore." Nat stated bluntly and Scott asked,

"So who do we talk to about this?"

"Maybe Tony?" Nat suggested and Steve reminded her,

"I don't know if you remember but I haven't exactly been on his 'keep in contact with' list these last five years..."

"Well we need to tr-uaah!" Scott let out a strangled startled noise when turned to leave the room and saw Ash and JJ through the window of the Med Lab before asking, "Have they been there the whole time?"

"Yes?"

"What happened to them?"

"After the Snap, Thanos took them and, when we went to save them, we found them like this.."

"OK I didn't get all that great a look at her the last time we fought what with the whole.. Accords situation but she looks.. same-y but different-y?"

"They haven't aged, she or her sister." Steve motioned to JJ.

"Oh yeah I really see the family resemblance.. Wait so if they haven't aged, then that might mean-" Scott bolted up and ran back to the lab to grab the backpack he wore inside to reveal he had stuffed his Ant-Man suit in there before pulling out one of the gauntlets to put on and tapped away at it before holding it over the girls before it started beeping with a caution sign on the mini screen.

"I swear if I never hear a beeping sound again after this it'll be too soon..." Nat muttered to herself as she rubbed one of her temples in annoyance.

"Oh that's not good," Scott tilted the gauntlet to show Steve and Nat as he explained, "According to this, these two have extremely high concentrations of quantum claudum particles. Particles associated with temporal suspension, they're essentially keeping them in a state of frozen time stasis."

"You mean to tell me they've been in some kind of 'time coma' for five years?" Nat questioned in disbelief.

"Yes but it looks like the effects weaken every so often to where it looks like they're trying to snap out of it.. sorry.." Scott added now knowing what that word meant for them all.

"Is there a way to get rid of those particles so they can fully wake up?" Steve asked seeing how Nat was still processing the new info,

"I don't know how they got them in the first place or how long they've had them but maybe..." Scott dug back through his backpack and retrieved a cylindrical device that contained glowing multicolored lights within it before holding it up to explain, "These are Quantum Healing particles, subatomic particles that act as a quantum stabilizer, they're what I was collecting for a friend when I got stuck, didn't think I'd need them anymore but now I'm glad I still held onto them."

"How do we use them?"

"I'm not sure, maybe Iron Man might?" Scott suggested.

Nat and Steve nodded in somewhat hesitant agreement before they all left they all drove out of the Compound, Nat staying behind a few seconds to tell Ash and JJ where they were going and sending Rocket a quick message that read, 'We might be able to wake her up' but would take a while to reach him and Nebula wherever they currently were in the universe.

However, after trying to convince Tony to help them out, he refused, saying he couldn't risk the life he had built with Pepper and their new daughter, Morgan, so they left and were heading back to the car when Nat commented referring to Tony,

"He's scared."

"He's not wrong." Steve noted and Scott asked,

"Yeah, but I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him. What, are we gonna stop?"

"No, I wanna do it right. We're gonna need a really big brain." Steve told them and Scott questioned incredulously,

"Bigger than his?"

Right before they met up with Bruce at a restaurant but he wasn't quite the same as before,

"Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating. Try some of that. Have some eggs." Bruce spoke pushing a giant place with scrambled eggs piled onto it towards the group and Scott blurted out bluntly,

"I am so confused."

"These are confusing times." Bruce told him as they were still taking in his change in appearance; his body had taken on the stature of the Hulk, but it seemed that Bruce's personality had remained dominant.

"Right. No-no, t-that's not what I meant." Scott stuttered a bit before Bruce laughed in good nature as he told them jokingly,

"No, I get it. I'm kidding! I know. It's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now."

"Yeah! Wh-How? Why?"

"Five years ago, we got our asses beaten. Except it was worse for me. Because I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost. Then, we all lost."

"No one blamed you, Bruce, not even she did." Nat told him gently before referring to "their" kid.

"I did... For years, I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease, something to get rid of and Ash tried telling me to do this for years but I never wanted to listen to the possibility.. until I realized maybe it was possible to start looking at him as the cure. Eighteen months in a gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together. And now look at me. Best of both worlds..."

After an awkward few minutes where some kids asked for Hulk's photo and didn't even know who Scott was, the group got back to business with Steve saying,

"About what we were saying..."

"Right. The whole time travel do-over? Guys, it's outside my area of expertise." Bruce told them and Nat joked,

"Well, you pulled this off. I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible time, too. Plus we have a chance to bring Ash back, isn't that itself worth a shot?"

Bruce went silent with thought for a few minutes.

Short Time Skip

"Feels weird to be back here... after everything that's changed.."

Bruce spoke wistfully looking around the Compound before he caught sight of Ash and JJ through the window to the Med Lab and his nostalgic look instantly changed to one of despair.

"She missed you y'know? She was 'dreaming' once and I'm pretty sure I heard her say 'Dad'..." He looked at Nat as she told him that bit of information.

This broke Bruce's heart even more as he realized how, even in her unconscious state, she was still semi-aware of her surroundings and how hard it must've been to not be able to move and was trapped in her own body and mind for all those years.

"Sooo how exactly are we going to wake them up?"

"Scott thinks we can use these." Nat held up the container of Quantum Healing Particles before adding slightly discouraged, "Thing is.. we have no idea how to administer them to wake them up.."

"Well I'm no expert in quantum.. anything.. but if these particles are in a gaseous form I would assume we could administer to them through inhalation but-"

"These are particles gathered from another dimension and you wanna have them breathe them in?" Nat questioned dubiously with a raised eyebrow.

"Like I said, I'm not an expert in gamma anything.." Bruce seethed impatiently through gritted teeth before arguing, "I wanna wake her up as much as you do but we have no idea how to work with these things and we've only got this one canister to work with so we can't mess it up!" Bruce was holding up the canister to emphasize his point and near yelling towards the end of his sentence making Nat retort back,

"Then maybe you should've been here figuring out how to wake them up these past five years so we wouldn't be relying on some magic pixie dust to bring our kid back." Nat started to argue back pointedly.

Just before the fight could get any worse they heard the monitors beep rapidly and they both snapped their heads to the Med Bay and saw Ash starting to spasm uncontrollably and ran over as Steve and Scott arrived as well.

After a few seconds, it seemed that whatever was happening with Ash started to affect JJ as she began to convulse wildly too before both of their powers started to act up, Ash's hands setting fire to the cot covering until only the metal cot frame was left as JJ's hands started sparking and making the monitors glitch out and causing Scott to panic,

"What the hell is happening to them?!"

"We don't know!" Bruce answered as he went to the monitors and started banging on them.

Steve put a finger to the vein on their necks being careful not to burn himself on the flames or sparks and yelled,

"Their pulses are skyrocketing! If this keeps up their hearts could-"

"Could what?!" Nat questioned seriously and Bruce finished his sentence with,

"Burst..."

Before he looked down at the canister of particles still in his hand and he realized,

"We have to use these now! Everyone get back!"

Nat, Steve, and Scott each backed away from the girls and Bruce stood in front of them before ripping the top of the canister off making the particles come out in a misty cloud that engulfed the girls, made them stop convulsing and their powers stopped acting up before the cloud dissipated and it was quiet for a few seconds before Scott slid on his gauntlet and cautiously walked over to stand in between the two cots and Steve broke the silence with,

"How do we know if it-?"

Right before JJ leaped up and screeched,

"RAAHHH!"

Tackling Scott to the ground and holding a sparking hand in the air about to bring it down on him and making everyone jump in surprise when it was grabbed from behind and they looked to see Ash reaching over to hold her sister's hand up.

"JJ it's OK!" She shakily got off the cot and kneeled down next to her sister, not letting go of her hand as she whispered, "We're not with Thanos anymore..."

JJ panted as she was still on edge from the change of scenery until she looked around and saw they were with her sister's friends/found family and looked down at a freaked out Scott's face before she asked,

"What the flarg is going on?"

Another Short Time Skip

"And then we brought you both back here, Rocket and Nebula went back into space to complete missions up there while the rest of us here on Earth split up." Steve told Ash and JJ, mostly JJ since Ash seemed distracted off to the side as they all sat in the living room.

"And we've been asleep for five years?!"

"Technically in temporal stasis but-" Scott started to explain before JJ cut him off with a sharp glare that made him mutter a quick 'sorry.'

"Listen," Nat leaned forward toward her as she tried to reason with her, "I get it's a lot to take in but-"

"'A lot'?! No no no no," JJ stood up and paced while holding up her hands with her index fingers raised before ranting, "Having to rewire an entire mainframe in less than five minutes, that's 'a lot', single-handedly rounding up an entire herd of Rhinopuses, another thing that's 'a lot.' Everything you just told us is fracking insane!"

"JJ please calm down..." Steve held his hands up as he noticed the sparks that were starting to pop off of her in her agitation.

"What even happened to you two after you got portal'ed away?" Bruce asked to take the attention off of JJ as she struggled to calm down.

"Thanos tried to make us his children, wanted us to be his new family to replace the one he had lost in Wakanda..." Ash finally spoke up but she still wasn't making eye contact with anyone before she added, "Tried to tell us he was 'saving us from ourselves' and that we were 'too unbalanced' and.. stuff like that..."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence as Ash looked down at her hand while the other was on her eye on her marks before JJ yelled,

"How are you being so.. gaah about all this crap?!" JJ growled and shook her fists in frustration.

"Everyone deals with shock differently..." Ash answered plainly but she kept looking at her hand turning it over a few times before Nat asked,

"What even happened in there? This 'seizure' wasn't like the other times, it was like-"

"You were trying to wake up but couldn't.." Bruce finished for her and Ash finally took her hand off her eye to explain,

"Even though we were 'asleep,' I could still hear everything that was going on around us.. and 'see' as if my spirit left my body but couldn't go too far from it.." Ash started wringing her hand in her lap and her voice quavered as she continued while looking up at Bruce and Nat, "When I heard you two fighting, I just.. couldn't take it anymore.. And I tried to force myself awake but it was like something was keeping me and JJ.. asleep.. and when I tried to fight it, it started affecting the both of us.."

"That must've been why both your abilities were acting up the way they were." Steve noted and JJ added,

"I don't remember nothin', it was like I was just asleep the whole time until I heard you yellin' to be let out."

Making Scott even more confused as he asked,

"So wait, whatever temporal energy that forced you both into.. 'time comas' was trying to keep you like that? How? Why?"

"I don't know.. Ever since we woke up it's like I'm forgetting something important and I've been trying to remember but.. uhh.." Ash broke off as she put a hand to her forehead as a strong headache panged before going away a few seconds later making her add, "I can't remember no matter how hard I try.."

"Whatever it is, we gotta find out what it had to do with knockin' us out like that." JJ finally managed to calm down enough to sit next to Ash and put a hand on hers to comfort her.

"Uh but first we've got a side project we need to try." Scott reminded them and Steve told them,

"If you two are feeling up to it, no powers but we could use the extra hands."

Ash and JJ exchanged a glance before JJ stood up and punched a fist into her palm as she declared,

"Let's get started then."

Last Short Time Skip

Once they retrieved Scott's van, Bruce, Nat, and Steve stayed by the console as Scott suited up for their attempt at time travel

"Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one. Scott, fire up the uhhh... the van thingy." Bruce announced from his place by the console and Scott opened up the back of the van to reveal the Quantum Tunnel machine.

"Breakers are set." JJ announced from her spot by the power grid panel while Ash declared from where she finished up connecting power cords to the emergency power generators,

"Emergency generators are connected."

Before the two of them walked over to the console with the others, holding hands as they walked.

"Good. 'Cause if we blow the grid, I don't wanna lose Tiny here in the 1950's." Bruce side mouthed the last bit so Scott wouldn't hear but he partially did anyway as he asked,

"Excuse me?"

"He's kidding." Nat told him in a joking tone before hiss whispering to Bruce, "You can't say things like that!"

"It was j-just... It was a bad joke." He tried to reassure Scott but he just still looked uncertain as Nat asked Bruce to the side,

"You were kidding, right?"

"I have no idea." He whispered back to her, "We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is." Before announcing to Scott with a thumbs up, " We're good! Get your helmet on, Scott."

"I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in 10 seconds. Makes sense?" Bruce explained to Scott and he waved his arm while responding,

"Perfectly not confusing."

"Good luck, Scott. You got this." Steve spoke uplifting and Scott smiled as he responded,

"You're right. I do, Captain America."

Right before Bruce pressed a button with a pencil and the Tunnel lit up to have Scott shrink and disappear into it before Bruce counted down,

"On the count of three. 3... 2... 1!"

Pressing the button again but this time a teenager in the Ant-Man suit appeared before them as he spoke,

"Uh, guys? This...this doesn't feel right."

"What is this?"

"Who the frack is that?!"

"What's going on?"

"That...who is that?"

Steve, JJ, Bruce, and Nat all questioned over each other as Bruce keep typing away with Ash helping him as she told the others,

"Wait a second."

"Is that Scott?" Nat asked over everyone and the teen exclaimed,

"Yes, it's Scott!"

Before getting sucked back into the Tunnel for a few seconds before being spit out again but this time as an elderly man, evident from how he cringed,

"Ow! My back!"

"What is this?" Steve questioned frantically as Bruce asked him,

"Can I get a little space here?"

"Can you bring him back?"

"We're working on it!"

Ash typed in some commands as Bruce banged on the side of the console before Old Man Scott disappeared and was replaced by-

"It's a baby." Steve deadpanned as there was indeed Baby Scott inside of the now-oversized-for-him Ant-Man suit.

"It's Scott." Bruce protested before Steev emphasized,

"As a baby!"

"He'll grow."

"Bring Scott back!"

"When I say kill the power, kill the power." Bruce told Nat but JJ had already beaten her to the generator switch as Bruce signaled,

"And... Kill it!"

Cueing JJ to pull the lever to shut everything down just after Scott was spit back out of the Tunnel at his regular age.

"Somebody peed my pants." Scott spoke a bit in shock.

"Oh thank god." Nat pressed a hand to her chest in relief that Scott was back.

"But I don't know if it was 'baby' me or 'old' me...Or just 'me' me." Scott sputtered out in embarrassment before Bruce declared with his arms raised dramatically,

"Time travel!"

Steve shook his head and walked outside while the others remained inside giving him a weird look as he stuttered out slightly,

"What? I-I see this as an absolute win!"

"Honestly that seemed more like the EPR paradox than actual.. time travel." Ash mumbled from the console and Bruce and Nat walked out of the room too with Scott just to make sure he was physically fine in the Med Lab so JJ walked over to Ash to ask,

"Are we even sure this.. piece of scrap actually works?" JJ motioned to the van with a raised eyebrow look of doubt.

"I'm not sure..." Ash dropped her head into her crossed arms as she leaned over the console as she admitted, "Honestly, I'm not sure of anything anymore..."

JJ went to her sister's side and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she told her,

"C'mon sis, we gotta keep goin'. Based on what your friends told us, this might be our only chance at bringin' back everyone that was Snapped away, but we gotta woman up and keep goin'."

JJ stood up and held a hand out to Ash as she stayed hunched over the console dejectedly before JJ smiled and spoke determinedly,

"For them."

Making Ash think about all the people Thanos had taken from them all, Xay's face just before he dusted away coming to the forefront of her memories and his last words echoing in her mind,

Stay strong Starlight...

Making her eyes start to burn with new determined energy and she told her sister's hand to let her pull her up and their eyes met with the same determination burning in them causing some sparks to crackle around their clasped hands that brightened intensely, making them pull apart in surprise.

"Woah there Spark Sisters," They both turned to see Tony walking in with Steve who had his shield back in his hand while Tony carried a briefcase and continued snarking, "Let's uhh try not to burn the place down cause we don't have insurance for 'accidental alien fires.'"

"Good to see you again Tony." Ash smiled as she went to hug him and he returned the hug with his free hand before he pulled away to tell JJ,

"Great to finally meet the 'Astray Astra.'"

"I think you've lost your touch." Ash smirked slightly before Tony ruffled her hair and commented nonchalantly,

"Well being the father of a four-year-old girl will do that to ya."

Making Ash look up at him in surprise before she smiled and Tony answered her unspoken question,

"Yep, you've got a cousin."

Ash started asking him a bunch of questions just as Steve went over to JJ and put a hand on her shoulder to tell her,

"Hey we called your friends, they should be here in a little bit."

"Thanks." She nodded to him before she looked back over to her sister and then up at the ceiling window that allowed her to look up at the sky as she whispered,

"Soon we'll all be together again..."

4298 Words

AN- I'm sorry about the month-long wait again... ^^;

After finals week there was a whole thing with storing my stuff for the summer, moving out of the dorms, then when I came home I had to watch my siblings for a week, and I'm still having trouble finding a job for the summer so my creativity's been in the gutters lately...

Hopefully, the next few chapters don't take too long to do since I really am pushing myself to at least finish up the Endgame segment of Spark Sisters before the end of the year and to try to finish up the Post-Endgame story plot draft so I can start writing and publishing that story once the Endgame segment is done.

On a less depressing note, I've been creating new and revising old OC's so feel free to check'em out over in my OC File book here on Wattpad and I just posted my Pride Month art piece for this year on Deviant Art and Instagram if anyone's interested ^^

Until the next chapter, Bye!