Journey Back To You // Spider-Man [Book 3]

seventeen {Third Person POV}

Upon arrival at Arya's family home in the woods, she could already see her father standing out front, holding her younger sister on his arm. Tony held a certain look in his eyes and Arya couldn't uncover yet if it was a good or a bad look. 

Scott, Natasha, Arya, and also Steve stepped out of the car. The three adults waited near the vehicle but Arya walked out ahead. Morgan wiggled herself out of Tony's arms and ran to greet her older sister. "Arya!" she exclaimed, hugging Arya who had crouched to the ground to pick up the girl. She hugged her close as she stood up. 

Arya walked to her father. "How was the session?" he asked softly. 

She nodded. "Yeah, it was good," she said. "I'm gonna bring her to Pep." 

Arya walked inside, still holding Morgan. "Did you finish that drawing we started this morning?" she asked. 

Morgan shook her head. "No, you weren't there and I wanted to finish it with you."  

"You're a sweetheart." Arya entered the kitchen, finding Pepper there, preparing lunch. "Hey, Pep." 

The redhead looked up. "Hey, you're back early. I thought you were spending time with Natasha?" 

"Yeah, change of plans." Arya handed Pepper her daughter. "Better keep her inside. We got some things to talk about." She fetched five glasses and a pitcher of iced tea that she put on a tray and took it back outside. She poured everyone a glass. 

"Thank you," Steve said softly. 

"So, what brings you here?" Tony asked right away. 

"Time travel," Scott stated immediately. 

Tony narrowed his eyes at him, frowning. "Define time travel." 

Scott repeated the story he had told us. "Now, we know what it sounds like..." he said once he saw Tony's confused and slightly judgemental expression. 

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really possible...?" Steve started to say only to have Tony cut him off. 

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale which then triggers the Deutsch proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony stated. "In lamest terms, it means... you're not coming home."

"I did," Scott spoke up.

"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion-to-one cosmic fluke," Tony continued. "And now you wanna pull a..." He leaned closer to Scott. "What do you call it?" 

Scott hesitated. "A Time... Heist...?" he suggested. 

"A time heist. Of course," Tony sarcastically chuckled. He turned to his eldest daughter. "Why didn't we think of this before?" he sarcastically asked her. "Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?" 

"Dad, the Stones are in the past. We can go back and we can get them," Arya said, looking at her father with pleading eyes.

"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back," Natasha added. 

"Or screw it up even worse than he already has, right?" Tony shot back. 

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

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

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel," Scott quickly answered. "That means, no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events..." If there was anything Scott should not have said to Tony Stark, it was that exact sentence.