Five years later
Eden walks into the prevalence room holding two sandwiches and walks over to Natasha who sat at the table talking to the rest of the team. She quietly sits down and takes her sandwich, eating it as she listens to their individual updates. None of which would lead to any good news. But she admired Natasha's hope, though she had no idea how the woman had held on for so long.
Eden had given up hope long ago. It had been a long five years, the hardest of her life. It had taken a lot for her to return to a 'normal' life. But after intense therapy, extreme training, and thousands of self-help books she found herself somewhat ok. She no longer felt as though she was dying, the pain had lessened to a dull throb whenever she was reminded of him. Some days were fine, she would laugh with Natasha and joke about Steve's beard phase. Other days were bad, she would be locked away in her room with horrid panic attacks. But overall she was ok. Her hair had grown a few inches and now fell past her shoulders, she quite liked it short these days. She had gotten a nose piercing a few years back and had replaced it with a ring which she loved. She had also gotten two tattoos, though Natasha did not approve she didn't much care. On her right wrist, she got an 'L', simple but precious. On her collarbone she tattooed their favorite poems, reminding her of the sweet phrase they used to say, "I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart) for as long as men can breathe and eyes can see". She loved it, whenever she would miss him she would repeat those words, it brought her comfort.
Though she hadn't changed much physically, her personality was much different. She had grown stronger mentally and rarely showed her emotions. Eden developed a nasty habit of using sarcasm as a defense which Natasha hated. She no longer held fear in her heart, and she was prepared to put her life on the line for anything, death was no longer a scary event, she would welcome it. This frightened the two teammates she lived with.
"I'd offer to make the two of you dinner but it seems like you're already miserable," Steve Rodgers says causing the two to lookup at him in shock, he didn't visit as much after he got his own apartment and moved away.
"what are you doing here?" Eden asks
"came to visit some friends"
"well clearly your friends are fine" Natasha states taking a bite of her sandwich
"you know I saw a pod of whales on the way up here"
"in the Hudson?" Eden asks in shock
"yep, cleaner water"
"if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich"
"sorry force of habit, you know I keep telling everybody they should move on and grow. some do but not us"
"if we move on then who does this?" Natasha asks
"maybe it doesn't need to be done"
"I used to have nothing, and then I got this. this job, this family, and I was better because of it. even though they're gone I'm still trying to be better" Natasha admits as tears fall down her cheeks, Eden is quick to grab her hand tightly and leans her head on her shoulder.
"good thing we all need to get a life"
"you first" Eden smiles
They fall into silence as a notification pops up in front of the two, Natasha dismisses it however a voice rings through the office. Eden stares at the video in shock as she recognizes Scott Lang aka Antman. She hadn't seen him since Steve broke up the team to save Bucky Barnes. Her blood runs cold and she stands to her feet instantly and enlarges the video so they could see better.
"hi is anyone home? this is Scott Lang, we met a few years ago at the airport in Germany. I'm the guy who got really big"
"is this an old message?" Steve asks
"its the front gate" Natasha states in shock
-
"Scott are you ok?" Steve asks as they watch the man pace back and forth, clearly trying to work out something in his head.
"yeah, have either of you guys ever studied quantum physics?"
"only to maintain conversation" Eden shurgs
"alright so five years ago right before Thanos I was in a place called the quantum realm, and its like its own microscopic universe. to get in there you have to be incredibly small, Hope - she's my, she was my - she was supposed to pull me out and then Thanos happened and I got stuck int here" Scott explains
"sorry that must have been a very long five years"
"that's just it, it wasn't for me it was five hours. see the rules of the quantum realm aren't like they are here, everything is unpredictable"
"what are you talking about?"
"what I'm saying is time works differently in the realm, the only problem is right now we don't have a way to navigate it, but what if we did, what if we had a way to control the chaos, what if there is a way we could enter the quantum realm at a certain point in time and exit at another point in time, like before Thanos"
"wait are you talking about a time machine?" Steve asks holding his hand up
"no of course not, not a time machine this is more like uh yeah- like a time machine it's crazy there's gotta be someone-"
"Scott we get emails from a racoon so nothing sounds crazy anymore" Eden nods
"so who do we talk to about this?" Scott asks
"I might have an idea but I'm not sure how he's gonna feel" Eden responds
-
Eden gets out of the car and walks next to Steve as they walk over to his porch, she smiles slightly as he takes his daughter inside. Tony sits down in his chair and pours drinks for everyone as Scott explains his plan, and just as she'd predicted he wasn't too excited about it at all. But she knew that with the right amount of push they could get him on board, and though she didn't want to she knew that she'd have to play dirty, hit him in the heart.
"quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the Deutsch proposition can we agree on that?" he asks handing Steve a drink
"in layman's terms, it means you're not coming home"
"I did" Scott interrupts
"no you accidentally survived, it's a billion to one cosmic fluke, and now you wanna pull a - what do you call it?"
"time heist"
"yeah a time heist, of course. why didn't we think of this before? oh because its a pipe dream?"
"Tony just hear him out" Eden adds sending him a look of annoyance
"the stones are in the past, we can go back and get them"
"we can snap our own fingers we can bring everybody back" Natasha states
"or screw it up worse than he already has, right?"
"I don't believe we would" Steve says
"gotta say it, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism, however high hopes won't help if there's no logical tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I belive the most likely outcome will be our collective demise"
"not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel, no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events - "
"I'm gonna stop you right there Scott, are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on back to the future?"
"no" he says quietly
"good you had me worried there because that would be horseshit, that's not how quantum physics works"
"Tony we have to try" Eden says, staring at him sadly, all of the emotions she fought to bury rising up.
"We did try, and yet here we are"
"I know you got a lot on the line, got a wife and daughter but I lost someone very important to me a lot of people did and now we have a chance to bring her back, to bring everyone back and you're telling me that you won't even-"
"that's right Scott I won't, I can't, I wish you'd come here to ask me something else, anything else. I'm honestly happy to see you guys"
"Tony I get it and I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance"
"I got my second chance right here, Cap. Can't roll the dice on it"
As the rest of the team exit back to the car with slouched shoulders and broken hearts Eden walks over to Tony with glazed-over eyes, he sets his daughter down and she scurries off into the house. Tony places a hand on her shoulder and stares at her sadly.
"you look well"
"cut the shit, I know you and I know you aren't gonna be able to keep yourself away from this. why delay the inevitable?" she asks
"reading my mind I see? what have we talked about with privacy?"
"I didn't read your mind I just know you Tony Stark"
"why do you care anyways, it's not like we could bring him back"
"I know that! but that doesn't mean that the rest of the world should suffer because of my own selfishness, what about Peter Parker, Tony? shouldn't he have a chance to live, or Wanda or T'Challa? all of them can come back, it's on you whether you decide to help or not, I won't force you. I would kill to have what you have and I know you don't want to risk it"
"Eden I'm so sorry" he says sadly, the girl nods and wraps her arms around him.
"It's ok, now go be with your family" she smiles before walking down the steps. As she gets into the car she knew for a face that Tony Stark would be back, it was only a matter of time.