Author's note: Ant-man and the Wasp was a really fun movie. I enjoyed it from the beginning to the end, and the jokes were amazing for relieving stress. The end-credits were like a slap to the face to remind me that Infinity War happened.
Did he know, really?
Scott had always been a joker. He liked to have fun, to see the positive side of life and show people the same thing. It was like breathing for him to blurt out stupid things or act silly to ease the tension. That did not mean he was clueless of despair. In fact, Scott could confidently say he knew despair really well.
The first time he ever failed to be optimistic was probably when he went to jail and was separated from his Cassie, then received the divorce papers soon after. It was a dark time of his life, but luckily, he met Luis and it was not all doom and gloom. He made a friend, and he wasn't as lonely as he thought he was. Scott continued to be the lovable idiot to everyone who knew him, from cellmates to family and friends.
Never had Scott thought he would return to the deepest pit of despair again. Memories of prison did haunt him at times, but not so much because he was good at pushing bad things away. Getting to be with Cassie again cured everything wrong about his life. But now… he could not seem to escape the darkness, not of the Quantum Realm, but from his own mind. The part of the Quantum Realm he was trapped in was actually pretty bright, with shiny golden healing particles. However, the fact that Scott could not reach Hank, nor Hope, nor Mrs. Van Dyne drove him really close to panic. The first thought that crossed his mind was did the Pym-Van Dyne family encounter a problem they could not solve? That would be a very serious problem since they were a family of badasses. The next thought was of course, of Cassie. What would happen if he was trapped here like Mrs. Van Dyne? Would he ever see his lovely little daughter again, or would he have to wait for 30 years like Hope's mother, or maybe longer? What if his little girl needed him, but he couldn't be there and something bad happened to her? What if Cassie thought he abandoned her?
When Scott relatively calmed down a little, he started to wonder if someone would ever find him. Luis and his friends at X-con knew somewhat about what he was doing with Hank, Hope and Mrs. Van Dyne, but he didn't tell them a lot of details because of what happened with the lab and Ava aka Ghost. His ex-wife, Paxton and Cassie were mostly in the dark about the Quantum Realm and the work of a lifetime of Pym-Van Dyne family, and that was for the best, so that the FBI, the government and other nutjobs could not bother them with anything about quantum technology. That left Bill Foster and Ava. Would they even care enough to check if Hank, Hope, Mrs. Van Dyne and Scott were doing alright? They probably would, because Ava still needed the cure. She was relatively stable, but her condition still needed improvement to remain that way. Dr. Foster was knowledgable about the Quantum Realm and its related technology enough to get him out. Until then, Scott just had to wait and survived. Mrs. Van Dyne had done so for 3 decades, there was no way he could not. Hope's mother fought tooth and nail to see her daughter and husband again, so Scott would do the same and beyond for his Cassie. After all, he did survive going sub-atomic the first time for her.
Scott was pretty proud of himself for somewhat mastering the mind magic like Mrs. Van Dyne did. He did not really understand the scientific explanation behind it, but he knew he could do something similar. He could somewhat manipulate the energy and the solidity of matters, he could also travel quickly through space inside the Quantum Realm. He used what he knew to concentrate on not losing his mind. He held on to his memories of his Cassie, Hope's family and his friends. Sometimes, he felt like he actually relived some of the moments in his life, and Scott was strangely guilty for having the chance to experience the first moment he held his newborn daughter more than once. There were still dark moments when Scott felt like he was as good as dead, but those had become fewer, and he was able to see the positive side of this disaster.
One day, when Scott was reliving that conversation with Casie where she expressed her wish to become his partner, he suddenly felt like he was being pushed outside of his body. There was pressure and there was confusion, and Scott knew exactly what was happening. Someone was pulling him out of the Quantum Realm, and he prayed that they knew what they were doing, because the consequences of mistakes were just too great to ignore.
"Raccoon, do you know what you're doing?" Scott knew that voice, where had he heard it?
"Relaxx, man. I was genetically engineered to do this stuff. Put any machines or contraptions or pieces of technology in front of me, and I will decimate them!" A gruff, arrogant and irritating voice joined the commotion, and Scott desperately wanted to believe the person.
"Let Rocket do his job, if he did not know, he would not have touched it." A strong reasonable voice drowned out others' chattering. Wait… Captain America?
"I hope Scott is doing okay, the Quantum Realm is unpredictable. I've been its victim for years." That was definitely Ava.
Scott's tightly closed eyes blinked open, and he was greeted with the worried look of a group of very bizarre people. The noticeable thing was that Hank, Hope and Mrs. Van Dyne were nowhere to be found. Ava was in normal clothes, which means her condition had not worsened during his absence. Bill Foster was not there, either. Captain America was standing near an intimidating guy with a big-ass axe and a little raccoon. Had he really gone insane in the Quantum Realm?
"Scott, a disaster has struck when you were in the Quantum Realm and…" Ava began, but she just… bit her lips and got teary eyes. The strong-willed ruthless woman hesitating to tell him what happened spoke volumes of how horrible things had gone. His heart fell.
"Bill has… Dr. Pym, his wife and daughter were… Your family was…" She was making an effort, but the words just got stuck. Scott never felt despair like this.
"Ava, Cap… I mean Steve, please, just tell me what happened to them?"
"Mr. Lang, it happened all over the world, this is a global disaster. We did everything we could to stop it, and now we are doing everything we can to fix it." Steve spoke clearly to his old teammate of the Civil War, but the super soldier was also avoiding the question like Ava was.
"Oh you humies, not talking about it does not make it any less real!" The raccoon bared his teeth and snarled angrily, but his eyes were sad. "Buddy, whoever you are, shit hit the fan when you were in wonderland. A giant purple man with a genocidal urge gathered some magic rocks, snapped his fingers and turned half of the universe's population into dust. From the remains of three piles of ash I see here, your friends are probably gone, like mine, like Thor's, like Steve's, and like this lady's, too. Welcome to the Club of Losers, you're welcome."
The raccoon finished his speech, puffed up his ringed tail, picked up his giant gun and walked away, mumbling something like "I need a drink". If Scott did not hear what the raccoon was saying, he would have laughed at the hilarious scene.
Silence swallowed the humans. Half of everyone… was gone? The dirt on the roof they were standing on… was Hank, Hope and Mrs. Van Dyne? He refused to believe it.
"Guys, you're joking right? That's just…"
Steve grimly shook his head, while tears began rolling on Ava's cheeks. Her lips were quivering, and her agony suddenly made Scott feel like he was looking at his daughter. Did Cassie even…?
"Before Sam was gone… he mentioned that your technology, the shrinking suit could bring you into a… reality-bending place. I hope that you survived the snap and we searched for you." Steve's blue blue eyes looked straight into his, the captain's face was pale as a ghost. "Your house was empty except for a giant ant, Mr. Lang. Rocket and I visited your daughter's place, too. We only saw Ava searching for you."
Cassie… Paxton and his ex-wife… Did they all…?
"We're sorry." Ava approached him, and Scott automatically raised his arms to put around her.
His eyes were wet. Turned out he was so so wrong. He did not know anything about despair after all, not until then.
Author's note 2: Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this.