PREPARATION FOR THE Time Heist had commenced, with everybody at the compound in the conference room including Y/N's children. Nikolai was at a small table coloring while Maggie just sat down to listen in on their brainstorming session.
"Okay, so the how works." Steve began as he walked in front of the three screens that displayed the Infinity Stones. "Now, we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six Infinity Stones."
Tony joined Rogers at the front. "Or substitute the word encounter for damn near been killed, by one of them."
"Well, I haven't." Scott chimed in. "But I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."
"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each." Bruce explained. "And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."
"Our history." Tony interjected. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?"
"Which means we have to pick our targets." Y/N cut in.
"Correct."
"So, let's start with the Aether." Steve looked at Thor, who was sitting in the corner of the room. "Thor, what do you know?"
Everybody turned to him but after a few seconds, he didn't respond. Natasha looked at him.
"Is he asleep?" She asked.
"No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey joking replied.
Thor had woken up and after taking a moment to collect himself, he started to explain what was up with the Reality Stone.
"The Aether, firstly, is not a stone." Thor clarified. "Someone called it a stone before...it's more of an angry sludge sort of thing...so someone's gonna need to amend that and stop saying that."
Thor continued to explain how the Aether went inside Jane, his late ex-girlfriend. The topic lead to him mentioning his also-dead mother, which upset him. He also revealed that Jane had broken up with him years before her passing in the decimation.
The room stayed quiet and it was starting to get awkward.
Thor sighed. "Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that—"
"Why don't you come sit down?" Tony walked up and stopped him.
"I'm not done yet. The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence."
Tony clapped his hands. "Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?"
Thor let out a laugh. "No, I'd like a Bloody Mary."
"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag." Rocket started to talk about the next stone. The team sat around the table eating Thai take-out as the raccoon walked across it.
"Is that a person?" Pietro asked as he chewed his food.
"No, Morag's a planet. Quill was a person."
Scott's eyes lit up as he stuffed his face with chow mein. "Like a planet? Like in outer space?"
"Oh, look." Rocket walked up to Scott's spot at the table. "It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." He then pets the top of Scott's head. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy? I'll take you to space."
Scott lowered his head in an embarrassed manner after his interaction with the small Guardian.
"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir." Nebula began to explain. A few people, including Y/N, sat in another room as the next stone was displayed on the screen.
"What is Vormir?" Natasha asked as she jotted down information into her notepad.
"A dominion of death, at the very center of celestial existence." Nebula answered. "It's where Thanos murdered my sister.
The room was silent as nobody knew what else to say. Scott glanced around before finally speaking up.
"Not it."
Natasha laid on the sofa beside the cluttered desk. Tony rested his head on a pillow while Banner lay on the floor. Y/N paced around the room as he bounced a ball he had back and forth off the wall. The four had been talking about the Time Stone.
"That Time Stone guy." Natasha spoke.
"Doctor Strange." Banner clarified.
"Yeah, what kind of doctor was he?"
"Ear-nose-throat meets rabbit-from-hat," Tony replied.
"Nice place in the Village, though." Banner added.
"Yeah, on Sullivan Street?"
"Mm...Bleeker Street."
Y/N caught the ball he threw. "A wizard could afford a place in the city?"
"Well, he was a neurosurgeon," Tony answered. "But that place wasn't his, to begin with...it belongs to the other wizards."
"Wait, he lived in New York?" Natasha asked.
"Yeah, on Bleecker and Sullivan." Banner said.
"No, he lived in Toronto." Tony sarcastically shot back and looked at Natasha. "Have you been listening to anything?"
Natasha rolled her eyes. "Guys. If you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York."
Banner thought for a moment. The Time Stone was in the Sanctum, the scepter Loki had contained the Mind Stone, and the Tesseract S.H.I.E.L.D was experimenting on held the Space Stone. They were all in New York in the year 2012.
"Shut the front door..."
The plan seemed set. Y/N looked at the different screens displaying each stone and where in the universe it was located along with the year.
Three were in New York in 2012.
One was on Asgard in 2013.
Two were in space in 2014.
Y/N closed his notebook after jotting down some more information, which was a habit he took from his wife after seeing her constant writing the last couple days. Maggie walked into the conference room and greeted her father.
"Hey, dad."
"Hey, sweet pea." He looked up from his book and at her. "Everything all right?"
"Yeah...yeah." She said, but he could tell that she had something on her mind.
"Are you—"
Maggie spoke abruptly and stopped him. "I want to help."
It didn't click at first on what she meant, but Y/N sighed upon realizing. He shook his head.
"Maggie—"
"I've been here throughout all your discussions. I know about the stones and what their purpose was." She pointed at the screens. "We know where they are and—"
"I'm not letting you go on this...trip through time." Y/N stated.
"You need all the help you can get." She retorted.
"We got plenty of hands on this deck."
"And what is a couple more?"
Y/N shook his head again and got up from his seat. "No."
"Dad. You don't have to worry about me." She stepped in front of him. "You know I can take care of myself. I'm literally a super-hybrid of both you and mom..."
"Again. No."
"And all that training you've given me growing up? Was it for nothing?"
"Maggie—"
"There's a chance now. A chance for me to help. You know I was born to fight—"
"You weren't born to fight!" Y/N suddenly rose his voice, which startled Maggie. He took a breath in before continuing. "You don't have to do this. I would prefer you not to."
Maggie stayed quiet as her father continued speaking.
"All I ever wanted was for you to grow up and live a normal life. No having to worry about militaristic terrorist organizations...homicidal artificial intelligence...world-ending events. I didn't want you to have to follow what your mom and I did, because there was no need for it."
He had settled down the last five years and was content with how life was going. He expected to watch his kids grow up in the current world they lived in. There was no real threat aside from street-level criminals that didn't warrant any Avengers interference, and he felt it would stay that way. He felt that there was no need for his children, especially Maggie, to fight.
Maggie chose to finally respond. "Last week you told me that it's our goal to make our world better. It's what the family you lost...the family we lost...would've wanted."
Y/N sighed as he remembered the speech he gave to her when they stopped by the ice cream shop. Maggie continued.
"And I said I wanted to help make things better too. Make things better for others...like the girl at school." She said mentioning the bully who lost her parents in the decimation. "I feel like this is the time to do that."
Her father took in her statement, which honestly made him proud. He was scared to let her go on this potentially dangerous mission with them, but maybe it was selfish to take away her opportunity to help. She was stubborn and determined...which wasn't a surprise since she did have both Y/N's and Natasha's blood after all.
"I'm not letting you guys do this alone." Maggie said.
Y/N sighed and looked at his daughter. "Give me time to think, honey. While I'm at it, you should let your mom know that this is what you want to do."
Maggie nodded and hugged her father. It wasn't an explicit yes, but it was good enough. He kissed the top of her head before she bid farewell and left the conference room.
Suddenly, Scott came into the room and watched as Maggie walked away. He was eating a bowl of cereal and turned to face Y/N.
"How long were you outside?" He asked Scott, knowing that he was probably going to come into the room before Maggie beat him to it.
"Well...I....uh..." He stammered. "The whole five minutes you were talking."
Y/N chuckled. "So you heard?"
Scott gave a nod and took in another spoonful of his cereal. He chewed and swallowed before speaking again.
"I know it's not my place. But as a father too, I'd like to give my two cents...if you don't mind, of course."
"Shoot."
"She knows you miss them. We all miss those that..." Scott paused for a moment. He brushed aside what he was going to say and continued. "My daughter, despite her age, always wanted to be my sidekick. Can you believe that? Who'd want to be the ward to a guy like Ant-Man?"
Y/N chuckled at his remark as Scott kept speaking.
"But it wasn't because she wanted to be Ant-Man's sidekick. She didn't want to kick ass just for the sake of kicking ass. She just wanted to be a hero like me...her dad. She wanted to be one alongside myself."
The super-soldier nodded as he took in his words.
"She wants to bring back the family you lost." Scott added. "I think you should let her help. Let her be that hero."
"Thanks, Scott." Y/N said with a genuine smile and pat the side of his shoulder. Lang smiled back.
Y/N started walking out of the room. "With that kind of speech, you might have a chance at being the next Captain America."
Scott took in another spoonful of cereal and looked back at him. "For real?" He started following Y/N out. "Is there like a list of things I need to do?"
• • •
THE SUNSET BROUGHT an orange luminescence through the windows of the hangar. Everybody wore their time travel suits as they walked across the room towards the quantum tunnel. Captain America began to speak while on their way.
"Five years ago we lost. All of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today we have a chance to take it all back."
Some lined up in a circle on the machine, including Maggie, who was allowed to join the Avengers on the Time Heist.
Pietro got off his phone after leaving a voicemail to Yelena, who had left a couple of days ago on a job abroad. The speedster walked up onto the machine and stood by his colleagues. Y/N, in a suit that formed over his Taskmaster attire, walked up the stairs with Natasha and joined them as well.
"You know your teams. You know your missions. Get the stones. Get them back."
Everybody put their hands together in unity. They were all determined to get it done.
"One round-trip each. No mistakes...no do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. That doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other." Steve told them. "This is the fight of our lives...and we're gonna win."
Tony looked at Steve and he glanced back. Rogers nodded. "Whatever it takes. Good luck."
Rocket was in awe at the Captain's speech. "He's pretty good at that."
"Right?" Scott replied, also in awe.
Everybody settled into their positions as Tony spoke. "All right. You heard the man." He pointed at Banner who was by the console. "Stroke those keys, Jolly Green."
"Trackers engaged." Bruce called out.
"Nikolai asleep?" Y/N asked Pietro.
"Little man's knocked out." He replied.
"We'll be back in a matter of minutes anyway." Banner said after hearing their exchange, then walked back onto the quantum tunnel. He pressed a button on his time GPS which started the countdown on the machine.
Y/N looked at Maggie who stood beside him. "Be safe, all right?"
"No...uh...talking to any of our past selves." Natasha told her daughter.
"Oh, don't worry. She's with me so she couldn't be in safer hands." Tony remarked.
"That makes us feel so much better." Pietro replied sarcastically, then looked at Maggie. "We'll see you in a minute, milovaný (darling)."
Maggie smiled at her uncle and nodded as the machine started to activate. Everyone's mask closed and in a matter of moments, they all shrunk down and traveled through the quantum realm.