The White Phoenix 10: An Avengers: Endgame Fanfiction

Chapter 4: A Time Heist? You've Gotta Be Kidding Me

I sat in the chair, my left hand in a small brace from the events of the previous few days, on my revenge missions with Clint Barton, or Ronin. I would always come back to Tony's place to recuperate before going out again. Pepper, as well as Tony, were always worried about me and would ask what I was doing, but after a few weeks of the constant going back and forth, they soon learned that it was quite unwise to ask such things and they let sleeping dogs lie. As Tony came back to the house with his daughter Morgan in his arms, a black Audi pulled up to the house. When it stopped, Natasha, Steve and another guy that I thought I recognised climbed out. I sighed and taking a quick peek inside of Tony's mind, I could tell he wasn't happy. Tony turned towards me and I gave a quick shrug.

A few moments later, Tony had poured drinks for all of us and we were sitting around, listening to what seemed like a ridiculous plan to retrieve the stones and perhaps get a chance to get everyone back.

'Now, we know what it sounds like...' said the other guy, whom I had quickly figured was Scott Lang, from the airport all those years ago.

'Do we really know what it sounds like?' I cut him off. 'A time heist? You've gotta be kidding me.' I scoffed, rolling my eyes and trying not to laugh.

'Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?' Steve asked him. He took a deep breath. He was about to go on one of his scientificky rambles again, but this time he was making sense.

'Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?' I glared at Steve. He looked away.

'He doesn't,' I scoffed. Steve looked up again.

'Did you just-'

'Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I just read your mind.'

'Your powers... you're using them again.'

'And? Your point?' Tony gave Steve a drink.

'Thank you,' the super soldier replied politely, still not taking his eyes off of me.

'In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home.'

'I did,' Lang replied.

'No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... what do you call it?'

'A time heist?'

'Frickin' ridiculous,' I said, rolling my eyes again. Then I looked up at Steve. 'I'm sorry... physics is way out of my field, but Tony's right. We can't just pull something like this off. After all we've been through, everything we've seen... Vision, my siblings, Strucker, Ultron, Thanos... we wanna rest our hopes on a... a... tiny universe that may or may not kill us on the way through? Do we really wanna take that chance? I mean, I don't like this world either, where I go through life without my siblings or the love of a husband and a father, or where my daughter has to grow up without her father, but this is absurd. It's the only thing I can think of. The only word that I can describe it as. Absurd. I'm done with this.' I threw my hands up in the air. 'Steve, you're asking for it, and you have my flat refusal. I will listen, but I will not, ever, participate in something that will threaten to destroy the fabric of the present reality... and take away everything I have left.'

'Yeah, a time heist,' Tony said, bringing the conversation back to the present situation. 'Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipe dream?'

'The stones are in the past,' Steve replied. 'We can go back and get them.'

'We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back,' Natasha spoke up.

'Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?' Tony retorted.

'I don't believe we would,' Steve replied, with a still slightly sombre attitude but doing his best to stay optimistic.

'Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism,' Tony replied snappishly. '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 would be our collective demise.'

'Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel,' Scott said. 'That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events, no-' I groaned out loud.

'No, that is bullshit!' I yelled. My heart began pounding at my sudden outburst.

'I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott,' Tony began to reply. 'Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back to the Future?'

'No,' he replied, almost embarrassed.

'Again, I call bullshit,' I snapped. Steve glared at me.

'Good,' Tony said, relaxed, but I could tell that he was. 'You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works.'

'Tony, Adelaide... we have to take a stand,' Natasha said, trying to keep us calm.

'We did stand,' I said bitterly. 'And yet, here we are.'

'I know you two have a lot on the line. You have a wife and daughter, and you have a daughter as well,' Scott said to us. 'But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now, we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even-'

'That's right, Scott,' he snapped, his voice even. 'I won't. Even. I've got a kid.'

'So do I. I told you I'd listen, but you will not have my help. I'm done being an Avenger.' Morgan and Shannon suddenly ran out and we picked our children up.

'Mommy told us to come save you,' Morgan said.

'Good job. We're saved,' Tony replied softly. I stood, with my little girl on my hip. Then, I put her down and grabbed her small hand.

'Come, liebling. Let's get dinner.' My little girl skipped inside.

'What are you doing?' Steve asked. I turned to him, then spoke, bitterness lacing my tone.

'I'm doing what I should have done a long time ago. Stopped being an Avenger. No one can change me. I always was my father's daughter. Never a hero, or even a villain. Not an X-Woman, not an Avenger.' I urged my daughter inside and turned to face them, leaning against the doorpost as Tony spoke, his daughter still in his arms.

'I really wish you'd come here to ask us something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and table's set for six.' He turned to walk away, but Steve grabbed his arm.

'Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you and Adelaide, I really am. But this is a second chance.'

'We got our second chances right here, Cap,' Tony replied, gesturing to Morgan and Shannon, who was now tugging at my arm, begging for me to come inside.

'I will, liebling... in a minute.' Tony glanced back at me, then kept talking.

'I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch.' Then he walked inside, with myself and Shannon in tow.