Heyyy, I'm terrible at updating I know.

I've been in a post-Endgame depression for like months on end, but I have been writing this chapter for literally a year and I decided it would be best to split into two parts. Otherwise the change in perspectives could get really confusing. So, this is now a 4-chapter story, and I sincerely PROMISE I will get the final chapter out sooner rather than later. With quarantine going on, I definitely have more time to write.

I thank you all so very much for your patience, and for your love and support of this story! Please enjoy the read!
(Not proofread entirely, please excuse any found typos)

You should have gone for the head.

The sun will shine on us again.

You should have gone for the head.

You should have gone for the head.

You should have gone for the—

"Thor."

The god of Thunder snapped his head up to see Steve shouldering a bruised, bloody, and starved Tony Stark.

"Danvers was successful then," he said, his voice extremely low.

"Yes. We just wanted to let you know that we're going to meet in the conference room, talk about what to do next. Tony wanted to—"

"I wanted to say 'hi', Point Break. See how you're holding up. It's been awhile, buddy," Tony cut the Captain off rudely. They must have still been angry at each other, even after everything.

Tony hobbled over to Thor and gave him an awkward side-hug. Thor could see past the gesture, though. He could see the anguish in the other man's eyes and it went beyond his physical injuries. Not to mention the profuse amount of blood that stained Tony's shirt and pants, and even his hands had a faded red tint to them like he had tried to scrub even more blood off, but was unsuccessful.

He hadn't even showered since he got back.

"Where did Pepper go?"

Tony shrugged. "Sleeping. Lord knows she needs the rest."

Thor nodded before turning to the Captain. "And there isn't much to talk about, I'm afraid. I don't know what else there is to do, Steve. If not for me, Thanos would be dead—"

"Thor, we can't play the blame game. Not now. Just-just meet in the conference room, alright? We need to regroup." And with that, Steve silently exited the room. Thor saw no use in arguing, and he followed, making sure Tony made it to a seat. Everything since the end of the battle had been going by so fast, Thor wasn't sure how much time had actually passed but Tony most likely needed more medical attention than he was getting. He brought this up to the man when he stumbled over his feet to sit down, but he only shook off his teammate's worry and slumped in his chair.

The sight of the remaining Avengers was awfully disheartening; so few of them remained. It was all because of him, because of his need for revenge, but he still needed it, he craved it—

"Tony, did you notice if he had any weaknesses, or did he say anything that might give us some clue as to where he went?" Steve said, and Thor wasn't sure when the conversation had actually started.

"No, Cap, I didn't really have time to think about it while I got my ass handed to me when Thanos wiped my face with a planet."

"Did Strange say anything about the time stone before—"

"No."

Steve drummed his fingers impatiently. "Tony, you gotta work with me here. If we want to bring everyone back—"

"We can't bring them all back!" Tony shouted, his voice wavering. "I don't care whatever giddy, optimistic idea you have in your head, but it won't work."

Steve's voice remained steady, but now his posture was more tense. "I know you said you lost the kid, but if we can find the stones and reverse this, then we can get him back."

There was a subtle shift in movement from the back of the room, and Thor saw the blue humanoid clench her fist and shift her gaze downwards. She must have been the one Tony escaped Titan with. The rabbit said he knew her, but hadn't gone much more in depth than that. From what Thor could tell she was enraged on Tony's behalf, but he didn't let his mind wander further, not wanting to know what awful things Thanos could have done to his friend.

He would find out anyway.

"Pete—whose blood do you think this is, huh!?" he gestured to his shirt and hands, "Thanos killed him, Steve! And I just left him there! I couldn't even take his body with me! I couldn't mourn, I couldn't do anything! He bled out, and he was scared, and he died apologizing to me. He fucking apologized for dying! And Thanos left us there. He knew he killed him, but he made it last. He made me watch my kid die…"

At that point, Tony's breaths had become shorter and shorter and fresh tears had built in his eyes. When Spider-Man didn't return with Iron Man, everyone assumed he'd just been taken in the snap along with all of their other loved ones. Seeing all of that dried blood… they never would have expected the horror that was the truth.

None of them truly knew how important Peter had actually been to Tony. Thor certainly didn't. Apparently the boy wasn't his real son, but that wasn't what Tony meant by calling him his kid; he was his chance to be better, to do right by someone, to love someone other than himself. But he failed.

Thor knew what it felt like to fail to protect the ones you love.

Clint slammed his fist onto the table hard enough to leave a dent in the metal. He had children of his own and the snap took them. Hearing what Thanos had done to another child, well, Tony's story probably only poured salt on Clint's already bleeding wound.

Natasha moved to wrap an arm around him, but not before reaching across the table to take Tony's hand into her own. She always was good at comforting the team, Thor thought to himself. She'd tried to comfort him on numerous occasions after the battle, but Thor insisted on sitting alone in silence. He probably should have asked how she had been doing in the aftermath, but the point was moot. They all lost.

Tony refused to meet her eyes, but eventually he grasped onto Natasha's hand tightly and choked back a sob. He steeled himself, gave her a glance that could only be one of gratitude, and with a quick nod Nat released him and wrapped her other arm around Clint.

"Tony, I-I'm so—"

"Shut up, Rogers."

"Tony—" Rhodes cut in, hoping to prevent the argument that was about to unfold but it was to no avail.

"No! I said that we needed 'a suit of armor around the world,' remember that? That's what we needed. And look what happened, Steve! I said that we weren't enough, and that we'd lose. And do you remember what you said? 'We'll do that together, too.' Well, we lost. And you weren't there. So, no, I don't have any clues, any ideas, anything to stop him. You're on your own this time." He moved to get up, but his face scrunched up in pain and nearly fell back into his chair. Rhodey was there to catch him and ease him back down.

"I know I should have been there for you. I know that, Tony. And I-I understand if you can't ever forgive me. I wouldn't. And-and if you're out, I get that too. But I promise you, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to avenge Peter—I swear to God I'm gonna do whatever it takes to make Thanos pay," Steve said, his voice wavering.

"There's a lot of avenging that needs to be done," Thor said. He'd meant to say it under his breath, but that name… Thanos made lightning dance across his fingertips and Stormbreaker tremble beside him.

All heads turned towards him. Thor hadn't spoken much the whole meeting, so they must have been surprised that he would now.

"He took everything from me. All I have left is vengeance," he stated simply. They wanted him to speak? Fine. He would, and he wouldn't wait for them to understand, because how could they? They lost half, he lost it all. "I'm the last of my kind, possibly. That is, if Thanos succeeded in killing every passenger on our ship. My entire family is dead, my planet was destroyed, and my mind was turned to mud by an infinity stone. And I almost avenged them all, but the bastard still got what he wanted—"

"What-what do you mean you're the last of your kind? What happened to Asgard?" Nat asked, still sitting with Clint.

"Asgard was destroyed by the fires of Sutur because of my half-sister. And not one month later, Thanos attacked our refugee ship and slaughtered what remained of my people. He killed Heimdall, he killed—"

I assure you, brother, the sun will shine on us again.

Thor couldn't go on or else he would scream like a tortured soul in Hel. He bit his tongue, clenched his fists, and tried to steady his breathing enough to keep the lightning at bay. Bruce sent a concerned glance his way, but Thor ignored it. Yes, the Hulk had been there, but he didn't see Heimdall die, he didn't see the life slowly and painfully drain out of Loki's eyes while Thor could only squirm. Bruce, Natasha, none of them could understand why Thor wished so badly he had died with him.

"He murdered my sister, Gamora. For the soul stone," The blue one in the corner said. Perhaps… perhaps she understood, though. What had Rabbit said her name was? Nebula. That was it. "And before that, he replaced parts of me with machinery and told me it was 'out of love'. He is worse than a monster, that much is clear. And yet the stones still obeyed him. Even if we killed him, avenged all those who we lost, there is no guarantee that we could bend the stones to our whims…"

"We're too late," Tony summed up.

"No! No, I refuse to believe that," Steve said, fanning out his arms as if to stop anyone from standing up and leaving. "All of us, we've interacted with the stones before—we've seen their power to destroy, but we're still standing. We're stronger than Thanos could ever hope to be, as long as we're together." He glanced at Tony as he said this. The billionaire's resigned look reluctantly became more and more hopeful.

"All throughout the universe, I've seen some pretty messed up things. But there is beauty out there, too. The stones must have had some part in making the things that are good in the cosmos," Danvers said. "Once we kill Thanos, we use the stones to bring everyone back. I can use the gauntlet, and I'll make the stones listen to me."

One thing Thor had learned the past few days was that when Danvers set her mind on something, there was no stopping her.

For what might have been the last of his people somewhere in the cosmos with Valkyrie, he had to kill the titan—if not for them, then to avenge all of them.

And selfishly, to avenge his brother.

"Do we really think this could work?" Bruce said after a beat of silence. "We tried to fight him before and look what happened. What's gonna make this time any different?"

"You'll have me," Carol said simply.

"And that's great and all, but we don't even know where he is," Rhodey cut in. "I mean, it could take us years to—"

Just then, a voice came in through the intercom, surprisingly enough. "Hey-hey! Can anyone hear me? It's-it's Scott Lang, you know, from that time in Germany? Ant-Man! I know you know that! Listen, can you buzz me in? It's raining and I didn't bring an umbrella and my van has a flat tire, it's just been a really shitty day and—"

"Oh my God, is he still going?"

"Just, someone let him in. Please." Steve sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. It was good to know that Lang hadn't been turned to dust, but the man's high energy level weren't something any of them wanted to deal with right now.

"Wasn't Scott reported missing?" Bruce asked. He'd been charged with taking account of just how many Avengers had been dusted, and he went over it with the group earlier. They all distinctly remembered Ant-Man's name on that list.

"Who the hell's Scott?" Rabbit asked.

"Guy who can make himself really small or big." Nat replied. And when Rabbit was about to make another snarky remark, she added, "Don't ask."

The group continued on with their chatter, and when the so-called Ant-Man entered and started to talk about "quantum realms" and other ideas he didn't understand, Thor drowned out the conversation.

He knew self-pity wasn't becoming of a King, but Thor was the King of nothing. Every sentence, every word reminded him of what he'd lost. Guilt burned fiercely in his chest, and every short breath did nothing to quell the flames. He wished so desperately to break into whatever vaults of ale Midgard possessed and drink until the pain could be dulled somehow. That way, he could pretend that all of his sorrows didn't exist. He could forget.

"I saw them!" Scott was shouting. Thor snapped his head up in surprise at the man's raised voice. This caused Tony to jump in his seat, and then Rhodes. In better circumstances, he would have burst out laughing or made some sort of joke at the sight.

"Jeez, Point Break, last thing I need right now is a damn heart-attack!" There was a lightness to his tone, so Thor knew he wasn't seriously mad at him. Still, he mumbled a "sorry" since Tony was seriously in poor shape; his tears from earlier had barely dried.

"Scott, slow down," Steve ground out. "Who did you think you saw in the...uh—"

"The Quantum Realm!" Scott said, a bit quieter than his last exclamation. "And I didn't think I saw people, I actually saw them. There were six of them! I've never seen people in the Quantum Realm before—well, the two times I've been in there, but whatever—so that can't be a coincidence!" He paused. "...can it?"

"You want us," Tony said incredulously, "to have the fate of the universe riding on a coincidence?"

Ant-Man scoffed. "What? No, no of course not..."

"Good, because you had me worried there for a second."

"Who did you see, Scott?" Steve repeated.

"Well, I couldn't recognize who any of them were, but they all looked human except this one girl was green and there was this familiar looking red and blue floaty-guy—"

Nebula shot up from her seat at this and moved with incredible speed towards Scott, who looked like he was about to wet himself at the ferocity with which she walked. "The girl, she had green skin?"

"Y-yes—"

"Did you see markings on her face? Silver markings on her cheekbones!"

"Now that you mention it, yeah. That's exactly what she looked like. How did you know—"

"It was Gamora," Rabbit said with awe. Nebula turned to the rodent with what looked like a hopeful glint in her eye.

"Wait a minute, didn't you say that Thanos killed your sister?" Rhodes cut in.

"On Vormir…for the soul stone." Nebula's eyes flitted back and forth; if the girl wasn't involuntarily made into a cyborg, Thor would have noted that it seemed the gears in her head began turning. While it wasn't a very tasteful observation, it was true. Nebula's expression lit up more than any of them had ever seen and the scowl she normally sported faded. "Tell me more about what you saw," she said to Scott. It wasn't a request, it was a demand.

"Uh-ah-um—" Scott visibly squirmed under Nebula's intensity, but he was able to sputter out a few useful phrases. "It was orange everywhere uh—and wishy-washy, but the six of them weren't ghosts, but they were, it was very trippy—"

"So Gamora is alive because of the soul stone?" Natasha asked.

The cyborg shook her head. "It must be an in-between; she is neither alive nor dead."

"Can the stone even do that? Keep someone from death and life?" the captain said so quiet Thor had to strain to hear him. Perhaps he hadn't even meant to say it aloud, judging by the way he looked off in the middle distance. Banner had labeled it as "spacing out"; Thor had done the same thing during many of his father's long lectures about the throne and ruling Asgard. Loki had always been the one who listened intently, soaking in every word Odin spoke as if they were the secret to life itself. He hadn't thought of it then, but the boy had been so desperate for affection and acceptance, while Thor coasted through every lesson and earned approval without even having to try.

Perhaps Odin had once spoke of the infinity stones and their unique capabilities, namely the soul stone. Loki certainly would remember. Alas, both were dead.

So here was Thor: alone, ignorant, and useless. He truly was of no use to the Avengers anymore, so why was Steve so adamant that he be there for this meeting? He hadn't gone for the quick kill, no, he was selfish and wanted Thanos to suffer because he was a fool, an idiot, a war-mongering excuse for a man, a terrible—

"Like you've said, we have all had experiences with each of the infinity stones. All but one. The soul stone." Nebula turned away from Scott and focused on the rest of the Avengers, thankfully interrupting Thor's train of thought. "Thanos never truly used it."

"Which could then beg the question, does he know how to?" Rabbit said.

A charged silence fell upon them, hope blossoming on each of their faces. The soul stone was an unknown, and therefore could be used to their advantage against Thanos. Thor could tell each and every one of them was picturing ways to kill the mad titan, and in other circumstances he would have thought it terrifying. But their need for vengeance and their rage was what could save the world—save the universe.

Trust my rage.

"We could use that. If we figure out how to control it, we can turn it against him, or at least take it from him." Steve growled, "And free all the souls he took with him."

"So is there some sort of soul "realm" that your sister is currently trapped in? How could that help us even use the stone? I mean, there's still so much that we don't know—" Bruce began but Natasha cut him off.

"Even if there's a small chance that this could work… we owe this to everyone who's not in this room to try."

And no one could argue with the Black Widow there, not even Thor. If Valkyrie was still out there, he owed it to her and the rest of the survivors to wipe out this threat once and for all.

But really, all he was going to do was prove that titans could never dream of being gods.

Thor would prove his little brother right.

While Bruce and Tony went on interrogating Scott about everything he knew about quantum physics and its relation to the Quantum Realm, Steve slipped out of the room quietly—the science talk was like a foreign language to him—and he wasn't the only one. He'd noticed by the end of the conversation that Thor's chair was empty, along with Clint's. He pretended not to notice Natasha's worried glance following him out the door, but he knew she would most likely follow him to the lounge. After all their time spent together as a part of the Avengers, in SHIELD, and in exile, Steve caught on to her habit of worrying about others when her own grief became insurmountable.

"Hey," Steve felt a gentle hand on his shoulder, and turned to meet Natasha's eyes, stern yet consoling. "You okay? You seemed—"

"Angry? I think we all are," he said with a laugh that was far too hollow. He thought back to the terrifying look on Thor's face when he talked about Thanos; the amount of hate and rage Steve saw there was more than enough to convey that it would be the Asgardian who would kill the Titan, with or without the team.

"No. I was gonna say tired. I mean, we all have been these past few weeks, but first you were looking nonstop for Tony, and now you're going to spend every waking moment working with Nebula and the others… I know you, Steve. You need to slow down."

Steve squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force back the burn of exhaustion that had been eating away at him for the past few weeks—hell, the past few years. He never understood how Nat could be so perceptive and so damn right about everything Steve was thinking and feeling. Maybe she was just that good at reading people, but he liked to think that they were alike in some inexplicable way.

Steve and Natasha's relationship was like him and Bucky. They just got each other, and sometimes they could understand what they were thinking without even speaking. And then there was Tony, who was the complete opposite but in the best way. They challenged each other to see different perspectives, old and new. All three were the epitome of perfect friendships, but it didn't matter anymore. Bucky had unwillingly left him, Nat was stuck with him, Tony hated him—that was nothing new.

So why did it all still hurt so much?

"You know I can't. Especially with what Thor lost, Clint, the team… what Tony lost, I-I can't let them all down. And I won't give up on who we lost." His lips quirked. "My sanity is a small price to pay for the rest of the universe, Nat."

"And you're right; we need you in order to do this. Which is why we need you at your best." Steve was about to argue, but Nat continued, "We can't afford any more mistakes. This is all or nothing."

Steve felt a pang in his chest. He knew Nat was being logical, but it hurt him to think that he could have done more to prepare for Thanos the first time. "You don't think I know that?" he practically snapped. Nat didn't flinch; she never did. Steve sighed, "I have to make sure we do this right, for everybody's sake."

Natasha scoffed, "'Whatever it takes' right? What, do you want to die?"

To both of their surprise, Steve hesitated.

Natasha's eyes first widened with horror, but then her brows furrowed with concern. "Steve—"

"I don't, I don't… I just can't bear seeing that look in Tony's eyes, you know? I can't help but feel like even if we still lost, things would be better if that kid was still here. And if I…" And if I wasn't, he couldn't finish. He knew what he was saying was ridiculous, he really didn't want to die, but with Nat he was always an open book; he could never hide anything from her.

He tried to look down but she wouldn't let him. She grabbed his face in both hands, forcing him to look at her. "Hey. We're all here for a reason. We need you, you hear me? And Tony… he will get through this, and you'll be here to help him." Steve tried to scoff, but she shook her head, "You weren't the only one who was wrong. He might not seem guilty, but I know he feels just as bad as you do for what happened in Siberia. He might hold a grudge longer, but that doesn't mean he wants you dead."

Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, and he wanted so badly to just stay here and let himself break down in Natasha's arms.

But he knew he couldn't.

Steve brought his hands up to hers, gently bringing them down from his face. "It's not just about me and Tony anymore. This is about the world, the whole universe. I have to be willing to sacrifice in order to fix this. I have to fix this, Natasha," he whispered. He straightened, setting his jaw, "whatever it takes."

She looked like she wanted to argue further, but Tony wandered into the lounge with Rhodey's help.

"Hey, so Lang is—" Rhodey stopped mid-sentence, seeing that he probably walked in on an intimate moment, or at least an emotional moment.

"Did I miss something while I was gone?" Tony quipped, and Rhodey gave him a disapproving glance. At first Steve and Natasha looked confused, but then they noticed that they were still holding each other's hands. They released each other and turned to face the two other men.

"What's going on with Lang now?"

Rhodey sighed. "Bruce wanted your advice about something Scott came up with that's completely insane and impossible—"

"Insane because Lang uses movie references and gibberish to explain stuff and pretends to know anything about physics. Impossible? Not a chance," Tony explained in his… own way. Steve was confused nonetheless, and figured that if anyone could give him a straight answer about what the actual hell was going on, it would be Bruce.

"Okay, okay, did they figure anything out or has Scott just been rambling for the past hour and a half?" Natasha asked as both she and Steve strode after Rhodey and Tony down to the lab.

Rhodey shrugged. "Beats me."

Tony rolled his eyes. "What Rhodey means to say is that we found a way to send Scott back to the Quantum Realm and see if he could connect to the soul stone again. We're almost done scanning the ugly van for his previous coordinates, and then he'll be good to go."

"What about the people he mentioned, like Nebula's sister?" Steve asked. The four of them rounded the corner to the lab-hangar area to see everyone gathered once again.

"I have a theory about that," Bruce said, cutting into their conversation. "When me and Tony were studying the Mind stone before, um, Ultron… it was obvious the stone had a mind of its own. It had a consciousness, a-a spirit, if you will. And we weren't really focused on that bit at the time, mostly just on its ability to think and process and follow our example. Not its ability to create life, connect to the other stones, or attach to a human consciousness, for instance. There was so much that we ignored…"

"What are you getting at, Bruce?" Natasha asked.

"I think that the stones aren't really stones—they're people." The shock in the room was evident, and more than a few cast disbelieving glances Bruce's way. "I mean, they're not people like you or me or whatever, but they aren't inanimate objects that you can use or simply bend to your whim. Again, Ultron, for example, hell, even Vision at first was purely the Mind stone."

"So… the people that I saw—" Scott began, and Bruce was all too eager to finish his sentence for him.

"Were the infinity stones. Somehow, the Quantum Realm is like a connection—no, a bridge to the Soul Realm."

"'Soul Realm'? I don't know, man, what if Ant-guy was just hallucinating or something?" Rocket grumbled. "This seems like a whole lotta BS to me."

"Hey, hey I was not hallucinating! And remember how I said everything was orange? What color is the Soul stone, Bruce?" Scott pointed to Bruce in a very overexaggerated fashion.

"Orange," the man supplied.

"That's right! Orange!"

Steve almost smirked at Rocket's groan of annoyance, but the small air of brevity soon became heavy again as Nebula spoke.

"Thanos killed Gamora in direct exchange for the stone. Perhaps the stone decided to take her form… or she-she became the Soul stone," the woman said with a far-off look in her eyes.

"Exactly," Tony exclaimed. "Why not just let her be dead? Why even let Scott see the bridge to the so-called 'Soul Realm' at all? It sounds like the stones are angry at Thanos to me, like they want the Snap to be undone. I mean, there had to have been a reason the stones were always kept apart, right? They aren't meant to be used like they were… but they can't really defend themselves like the Soul stone could."

"Defend itself? How?" Steve found himself asking aloud. Tony answered, but almost as if he didn't mean to speak out loud either.

"Gamora's sacrifice…" and suddenly the man looked like he was going to be sick. He sagged against the wall behind him and Rhodey put a hand on his shoulder to help steady him.

"Tones?"

He took a shaky breath, "When Thanos...after he—when Peter, um… Thanos said something to me: 'the stone demands a sacrifice.' It was his reasoning for-for why he did… what he did," Tony practically spat, his voice quaking with fury.

"Thanos was the only one with the means and the madness to attain each stone," Thor concluded, that terrifying look of pure hatred written all over his face again.

Steve threw on his facade of confidence and strength, "Then we help the infinity stones reverse this. Thanos wasn't supposed to win; the universe isn't his. He has no right to that kind of power."

"So what do we do, Cap?" Clint asked with a half-hearted grin.

He thought about that… what in the world were they going to do now? The whole dimension-hopping thing was way out of his wheelhouse, but the team needed a plan. And Steve wouldn't be Captain America if he couldn't come up with a battle plan on the spot, would he? "We have the coordinates of where Scott was, right? Someone needs to go there using whatever got him there in the first place—"

"We made a Quantum Realm nano-tech prototype suit, but we only have one since we used most of Tony's nanobots that were on hand and Scott's Pym particles… we only have one shot at this, guys," said Bruce.

"I will go," Nebula practically demanded. "If Gamora is there—"

"We can't risk losing you, Nebs," Tony interjected. Aside from Rocket, he was the only one who could interrupt her and not be murdered for it. "And not just because we care an awful lot about you, but if you get stuck there? We are gonna lose any intel that you have on Thanos. And I know you want to kill him just as much as, if not more than anyone in this room."

It made sense, and Nebula seemed to understand that. She didn't press any further, but she looked as if she were on the verge of tears. Steve never had any siblings, but Bucky was the closest thing to a brother he ever had growing up. So when he lost him for the first time… he could sympathize with Nebula in that way.

"I… I guess I'm gonna go then?" Scott offered half-heartedly. Poor guy just spent weeks in the Quantum Realm and now he had to be sent right back into it. "None of you have been influenced by Pym particles before, so I don't think any other volunteers would do us any good—"

"I'll go."

Everyone's attention turned towards Carol Danvers, who was already attaching the Pym suit to her own. Steve had to admit, he was a fan of Captain Marvel. Partially because both their alter egos had the title of "captain" and also because she reminded him of himself before he went into the ice. She knew her purpose, her value, and she was never afraid to be vocal about it. And she too hadn't been home for a few decades but unlike Steve, she didn't let her unfamiliarity of the times affect her. She was so much stronger than him. Hell, she was so much stronger than everyone—with the exception of Thor, who was about her equal—that he wondered why they didn't ask her to go to the Quantum Realm in the first place.

"You might not have your powers in there." Bruce stood in front of her, the Pym particles at the ready but hesitated to attach them to the Pym suit. It had taken them almost an hour to set up the quantum tunnel to match the specific coordinates they'd discovered, and once it was finally ready, Carol was all but walking into the machine already.

"Yeah, but I'd be just as human as Scott, and I think I can handle myself."

"Good point."

"I don't know if that was an insult or a compliment," Scott muttered to himself, but they all could tell he was silently grateful for not having to go subatomic again.

"Good luck, Captain," Steve gave Carol a nod of encouragement as the helmet snapped over her face.

Carol smirked, and dammit that was putting a smile on his own face. "See you on the flip side, Captain."

Thanks so much for reading! Review if you liked! How do you think this is going to end? (Prolly better than Endgame...maybe...)