Arcane (Wanda Maximoff)

Twenty six

"Alright, I'm not ready for this," Scott declared as they all stared at him on a glass platform in the testing chamber.

Maggie was beside Natasha, with Steve, Tony, Bruce, Rhodey, Nebula and Katerina behind them. Bruce was controlling the panel and Pepper was upstairs with the kids.

"I'm game. I'll do it," Clint announced as he walked into the chamber.

"Brilliant," Maggie grinned.

"Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift. Don't worry about it," Bruce told Clint as he got into position on the platform.

"Wai-Wait a second, let me ask you something. If we can do this, you know, go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos, you know, and..." Rhodey trailed off as he mimed strangling a baby.

"First of all, that's horrible," Bruce winced.

"It's Thanos," Rhodey said.

"I'm not against killing a baby," Maggie agreed.

"Maggie!" Katerina said.

"What? I didn't say I'd kill your babies. Just the evil bastard who left one of said babies an orphan," she said. Katerina considered it before nodding.

"I could kill a baby," she agreed.

"And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future," Bruce sighed.

"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them... Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved," Scott said.

"Bingo," Clint said.

"That's not how it works," Nebula muttered.

"Well, that's what I heard," Clint said.

"What? By who? Who told you that?" Bruce asked.

"Star Trek, Terminator, TimeCop, Time After Time-" Rhodey said.

"Quantum Leap," Scott interjected.

"A Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time-" Rhodey continued.

"Hot Tub Time Machine-" Scott said. Rhodey nodded.

"Hot Tub Time Machine. Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel," Rhodey said.

"Die Hard?" Scott said.

"Not that one," Maggie shook her head.

"This is known," Rhodey nodded.

"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true. Think about it: If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. Which can't now be changed by your new future..." Bruce said.

"Exactly," Nebula said.

"I have no idea what any of that means," Maggie shook her head.

"So, Back To The Future's a bunch of bullshit?" Scott frowned. Bruce turned to Clint.

"Alright, Clint. We're going in 3... 2... 1!" he said.

Clint disappeared into the Quantum Realm and they waited for five seconds before he returned, panting heavily as he slumped on his ass. Natasha raced up to him and grabbed his face.

"Hey, hey, look at me. You okay?" Natasha said.

Clint threw a baseball glove at Tony.

"Yeah, it worked. It worked," he said, laughing quietly to himself.