We're in the Endgame now!

It's been five years since Thanos wiped out half the lifeforms in the universe. The Guardians of the Galaxy had been reduced down to Rocket, Lylla, and Nebula. As time went on, they had gained new allies and "unofficial" members, such as Rocket and Lylla's daughter, Shocket, the Nova Crops members Sam Alexander and Richard Rider, a Klyntar warrior (whom responded to the name "Vanguard") and occasionally getting help from Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers.

While the new Guardians had gone on many missions throughout the galaxy over these five years, Lylla always found herself returning to Earth, whether it be to meet with the friends she had made there or to continue her research. The otter hadn't given up hope that they could reverse The Snap and had taken it upon herself to gather as much information on the Infinity Stones as possible, combining data from the Avengers, Nova Corps, and any other resources she could find.

On a particular day that Lylla was reading through information on the Time Stone (which was very little, considering that both Dr. Strange and his assistant Wong both perished in The Snap) that Natasha was on video call with Okoye, Rocket, Nebula, Carol, and Rhodey getting reports on the status of the Earth and Galaxy as usual.

"Yeah, we boarded that highly-suspect warship Danvers pinged," Rocket said.

"It was an infectious garbage cow," Nebula added.

"So thanks for the hot tip," Rocket said.

"Well, you were closer," Carol said.

"Yeah, and now we smell like garbage," Shocket said, jumping into the video. She was now fully grown, physically at least, coming up to about Lylla's height. She had grown out her pink tuft of hair a bit, letting it comes down between her eyes.

"You get a reading on those tremors?" Natasha asked Okoye, changing the subject.

"'Twas a mild subduction under the African Plate," Okoye replied.

"Do we have a visual? How are we handing it?" Natasha pressed.

"Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean," Okoye affirmed. "We handle it by not handling it."

Lylla decided not to mention that she may-or-may-not have found out about the not-so-lost city of Atlantis in her studies. One less thing to worry Natasha about. She coughed and spoke up, "Will we be seeing you back on Terra next month, Carol?"

"Not likely," Captain Marvel replied.

"What, you gonna get another haircut?" Rocket snarked, commenting on Carol's current short hairstyle.

"Listen, furface, I'm covering a lot of territory," Carol said. "The things that are happening on Earth are happening everywhere. On thousands of planets."

"Alright, alright, that's a good point," Rocket conceded.

"So you might not see me for a long time," Carol finished.

Natasha looked around at the others. "Alright, well, uh… this channel's always active, so if anything goes sideways, anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't, comes through me."

Everyone gave their affirmance to Natasha, Shocket saying goodbye to her mother before signing off, leaving only Rhodey still on call. Natasha sighed as she sat down to eat her recently prepared sandwich before noticing that Rhodey hadn't signed off. "Where are you?" she asked.

"Mexico," Rhodey said. "The Federales found a room full of bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys, never even had a chance to get their guns off."

"It's probably a rival gang," Natasha said.

"Except it isn't," Rhodey said. "It's definitely Barton."

Lylla looked up from her data pad at that statement. Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye, was the only member of the original Avengers team that she had yet to meet, on account that once The Snap happened, he had lost his entire family and went rogue.

"What he's done here, what's he's been doing for the last few years… I mean that scene that he left… I gotta tell you there's a part of me that doesn't even wanna find him."

Natasha took in what Rhodey had said, instinctively reaching out to pet Lylla on the head. The otter had served as a person that could comfort Natasha during more serious issues. "Will you find out where he's going next?" she asked.

"Nat…" Lylla said sadly.

Natasha looked Rhodey in the eyes. "Please?"

Rhodey have a nod before leaving the call. Natasha brought her hands to her face and breathed deeply, Lylla hopping into the assassin's lap to give her a comforting hug.

"You know I'd offer to cook you dinner, but you seem pretty miserable already," said Steve Rodgers, standing in the doorway of the conference hall.

Lylla turned to face the super soldier. "You here to do your laundry?"

"And to see my friend," Steve replied.

"Clearly your friend is fine," Natasha said.

Steve looked away for a second. "You know I saw a pod of whales while I was coming over the bridge," he said.

"This close to the city?" Lylla asked.

"There's fewer ships, cleaner water," Steve said.

Natasha crossed her arms. "You know if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side, um… I'm about to hit you on the head with a peanut butter sandwich."

Steve chuckled a bit. "Sorry, force of habit." He entered the room and sat down, Lylla going back to her seat as well. "You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and grow. Some do. But not us."

"If I move on, who does this?" Natasha asked.

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done," Steve said.

Natasha shook her head. "I used to have nothing, and then I got this. This job, this family. And I was better because of it. And even though they're gone, I'm still trying to do better."

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

"You first," Natasha retorted, both of them smiling at that.

As the two humans were having a moment, Lylla noticed a ping come up on the security for the Avengers Compound. She wiped the notification over to the main screen, revealing the person on the other side to be a fairly average looking man with a beat-up old van. "Hi, hello? This is Scott Lang," the man called up to the camera. "We met a few years ago at the airport in Germany. I was the guy that got really big. I had a mask on, you wouldn't recognize me."

Steve and Natasha stood up in surprise. "Is this and old message?"

"Ant-Man. I know you know that," Scott said.

"It's the front gate," Natasha said.

"I really need to talk to you guys," Scott guys.

"You know him?" Lylla asked.

"He's supposed to be dead," Natasha said. "To The Snap."

[***]

After letting Scott into the compound, he started muttering and pacing, until Steve stopped him. "Scott. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Scott said. He rubbed his face before asking, "Have any of you guys studied quantum physics?"

Lylla raised her hand. "Only a bit, though," she admitted.

"Only to make conversation," Natasha replied.

"Alright, so, five years ago, right before… Thanos… I was in a place called the Quantum Realm," Scott explained. "The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope- she was… She was my…" He choked up a bit. "She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."

"I'm sorry that must have been a long five years," Natasha said.

"Yeah, but that's just it- it wasn't," Scott said. "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." Scot went over and started eating what was left of Natasha's sandwich.

"Scott. What are you talking about?" Steve asked.

"So, what I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm," Scott explained. "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 that we could enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time, but then exit the Quantum Realm at a different point in time? Like… Like before Thanos."

"Like time travel…" Lylla said, eyes growing wide in realization of what Scott was hinting at.

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

"No, no of course not," Scott scoffed. "It's not a time machine. This is more like a… Yeah. Like a time machine. I know, it's crazy, it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be… some way… it's crazy."

"Scott," Natasha interrupted. "I get emails from a raccoon and we're both in the same room as a talking otter. So nothing sounds crazy anymore."

Lylla laughed a bit. "Looks like there's hope for everyone after all," she said.

"You now, I just realized that you are a talking otter," Scott said. He shook his head. "And I can shrink down and talk to ants, so that really shouldn't phase me. Anyway, who do we talk to about this?"

[***]

The first person the team decided on was the smartest person they knew, Tony Stark. A car ride over later, and the quartet arrived at the Stark residence. It was agreed upon that Lylla should take the lead on this, seeing as she was on the best terms with Tony at the moment. As they pulled up to the house, they saw Tony holding Morgan on the porch. He looked them as they got out of the car, before turning around, pouring out water for them.

"Tony," Lylla greeted.

"Lylla," Tony replied. He glanced at the others. "I see you have… Ant-Man, was it? Faked your death?"

"Quantum Realm, actually," Scott said.

"Basically, we came to tell you something important," Lylla said. "Scott survived in this Quantum Realm, but he didn't age a day. Time works differently there, and we thought that maybe- "

"Time travel?" Tony scoffed.

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve asked.

Tony interrupted again, "Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale which then triggers the Deutch Proposition. Can we agree on that? In layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."

"But Scott did," Lylla argued.

"No, he accidentally survived," Tony countered. "It's a billion-to-one cosmic fluke. Any now you wanna pull a… What do you call it?"

Scott looked bashful for a second. "A time heist?"

Tony laughed. "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 Infinity Stones in the present are gone, but if we go back in time, we can grab them, come back to the present, and snap everyone back into existence, undoing what Thanos did," Lylla said.

"Or we could screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony asked.

"I don't believe we would," Steve stated.

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

"Not if we take any all necessary precautions," Lylla said.

"Yeah, we just gotta follow all the rules of time travel," Scott said. "That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events."

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott," Tony raised a hand. "Are you telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on 'Back to the Future'? Is it?"

"No," Scott shook his head.

"Good, 'cause that would be horsehit," Tony replied. "That's not how quantum physics works."

"Tony…" Lylla said sadly.

"We have to take a stand," Natasha spoke up.

"We did take a stand," Tony stated. "And yet, here we are."

"I know you've got a lot on the line," Scott said. "You've got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot people did. And now, 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 even," Tony said. "I can't."

The door to the house opened, and Morgan came outside. "Mommy told me to come and save you," she said, hopping into her father's arms.

"Good job. I'm saved," Tony said. He looked at them, but especially Lylla. "I wish you came here to ask me something else, anything else. I'm honestly happy to see you guys, but- oh look, the table's set for seven."

"Tony, I get it," Steve said. "And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is our second chance."

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

As the others walked off back to the car, Lylla lingered around. "If it's alright with you guys, I have something to say before we go," she said.

"Do what you can," Natasha said. "We'll be in the car."

Lylla nodded and went over to the picnic table were Tony and Morgan were sitting at. "What is it?" Tony asked. "One last chance to convince me?"

"No, I just wanted to make sure that you're still up for Shocket to come over for another playdate," Lylla said.

Morgan perked up at that. "Can she come over, daddy?" she asked excitedly.

"Of course," Tony said. "As long as you don't try and make another explosive, it should be fine."

"That was only one time," Lylla rolled her eyes. She turned around to go back to the car but said one last thing before she left. "I wouldn't want to lose Shocket. Morgan isn't the only person that's on the line here. At least think it over, please? If not for us, then for Peter's sake."

Lylla didn't wait for Tony to react, instead going back to the car with the others.

Author's Note

The beginning of the end starts today. With Scott back from the Quantum Realm, there's a chance to reverse The Snap! But it looks like Tony doesn't want to chance losing his daughter.

One of the reasons I had Rocket and Lylla have Shocket is to parallel them to Tony- they also had a kid during the five-year gap, but instead of being scared to try like Tony, Lylla is willing to put the lives of many over herself. But she did promise that she'll try to make sure that the time heist goes as smooth as possible, so Lylla isn't just potentially throwing her daughter's life away. If they can bring everyone back without getting rid of the new life that has been created, then they will take that chance.

I know it was a low-blow for Lylla to mention Peter, but it's kind of weird that no one else did, so since she got to bond with him a bit on Titan it makes sense to me that she would be the one to do it.

Also, Lylla researching into the Infinity Stones will be important for later. Her comment on Atlantis is just a nod to a popular theory that the ocean tremors might be because of Namor the Sub-Mariner, rumored to be in the next Black Panther film.

Next Time, the Avengers reassemble to prepare to the time heist!