"Tony, you're gonna get water everywhere." Arden chuckled, watching as Tony was leaning the sink hose upwards. As expected water went onto the counter and a little on themselves.
"This is the last time I do dishes with you." She joked, shutting off the faucet.
Tony looked around to make sure Pepper wasn't watching, putting the hose down as he grabbed a dish from Arden, putting it on the drying rack. As he wiped water off of the shelves he got water on, he picked up a picture frame, wiping off the glass.
"I kind of miss his witty jokes." Tony added, looking at the picture of Tony, Peter and Arden. Tony giving a serious face while Peter and Arden smiled, putting bunny ears behind Tony's head without him knowing.
Arden sighed, leaning her head onto Tony's shoulder. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"If you're thinking about dessert, then yes." Tony teased, putting the picture frame back.
"I hate that we're so alike." He scoffed, leading her into his makeshift office/library, turning on his work table.
"Wake up, Friday. I got a little inspiration. I'd like to see if it checks out." Tony clapped his hands.
The two of them spending the next few hours working on a way to time travel, the algorithms, the system, along with a navigation device.
"Okay, let's try one last sim before we pack it in for the night." Tony demanded.
"This time, in the shape of a Mobius strip, inverted please." Arden added, taking a few steps to stand next to Tony, the both of them crossing their arms.
"Processing."
The hologram showed their idea, giving them both a second to to think.
"Right, give me the eigenvalue of that particle..."
"Factoring in spectral decomp." Arden added onto Tony's idea.
"Just a moment."
"And don't worry if it doesn't pan out. We're just kinda... spitballing." Tony commented to Friday.
"Model rendered."
The hologram loaded their ideas, showing the final product.
"Model successful." Friday confirmed.
Tony took a step back, stumbling back into Arden who caught him, setting him down in the chair, as they both looked up at the hologram. They both exhaled, covering their mouths.
"Holy-"
"Shit." She finished his sentence, looking in awe at their project.
"Shit." A small voice repeated behind them.
They both turned around, seeing Morgan sitting at the bottom of the steps, smiling at them both.
"Shh." Arden put her finger up to her lips.
"What are you doing up, little miss?" Tony whispered.
"Shit." Morgan repeated, smirking at her dad. Arden covered her mouth to keep her from laughing.
"Nope. We don't say that. Only mommy says that word. She coined it, it's hers." Arden joked, pointing at Morgan.
"Why are you two up?" Morgan asked.
"Because we got important shit going on." Tony joked, making Morgan chuckle, which lead to Arden playfully smacking Tony on the arm, and Morgan furrowing her eyebrows at her dad.
"No. We got something on our mind." Tony corrected himself.
"Was it juice pops?" Morgan asked innocently, but deceivingly.
"Sure was." Arden agreed.
"That's extortion. That's a word." Tony added, standing up to grab Morgan's hand.
"What kind you want?" Arden asked, following them into the kitchen.
After snacking on a cold juice pop, Arden waved to Morgan as Tony took her upstairs to say goodnight. So she waited for Tony with Pepper in the living room.
"So, we heard your little argument with Steve." Pepper brought up, looking up from her book.
"The balls on that guy." Arden rolled her eyes.
"Not that it's a competition, but she loves me 3,000." Tony interrupted, joined them.
"Oh, does she now?" Pepper played along.
"You two were somewhere in the low 6 to 900 range." Tony teased, and the both of them chuckled.
"What were you two talking about?" He circled back.
"How you two were eavesdropping and heard my argument with Steve." Arden answered.
"It's not eavesdropping when we could hear you from the kitchen." Tony corrected her.
She rolled her eyes again, shaking her head. "I just can't believe the audacity he had to say that to me."
"Did you expect him to get off his high horse since the last time you saw him? What's it been like 3? 4 years?" Tony commented.
"4. And no I guess not." Arden confirmed.
"He's probably-"
"We figured it out. By the way." Tony cut Pepper off, saving Arden from continuing to talk about Steve.
"And just so we're talking about the same thing..."
"Time travel." Arden answered for Pepper.
"What?" Pepper asked, shocked. "Wow. That's amazing and... terrifying."
"That's right." Tony agreed, taking a seat next to Pepper on the couch.
"We got really lucky." Pepper commented.
"Yep. We did."
Arden stayed quiet while the couple talked to each other.
"A lot of people didn't." Pepper added.
"We can't help everybody." Arden jumped in.
"It sorta seems like you can." Pepper countered, looking over at her.
"Not if I stop. We stop." Tony suggested, waving his finger between himself and Arden.
"We can put a pin in it right now and stop." Arden agreed.
"Tony, getting you to stop has been one of the few failures of my entire life." Pepper commented, smiling at Tony. He smiled back, putting his hand over hers.
"You two argue like siblings all the time, and now you both are like one mind with this." She added.
"Something tells me I should lock it in a box and drop it to the bottom of the lake and go to bed." Tony mentions.
"But would you two be able to rest?" Pepper asked honestly, and they both sighed.
"I have to tell you guys something." Arden blurted out, playing with the ends of her hair.
Pepper and Tony both turn to look at her on the love seat, giving her their full attention.
"After I left here, before I went to Wakanda to see Bucky, I made another stop." Arden started.
"Stop where?" Pepper asked.
"New York. Bleeker Street, to be exact." Arden admitted.
"Bleeker Street? But that's-"
"Where Doctor Strange lives? Yeah..." She confirmed, and that's where Tony really gave her his attention.
"I had this weird feeling, like something was pulling me there, so I went, and walked right in." Arden explained her memory.
"Who's there?" Doctor Strange levitated down the stairs, appearing in front of Arden.
"You summoned me here, so you should know." Arden answered snappily.
"Aldrif Odinsdottir?" Strange asked.
"Actually, it's Arden. Myths and legends always got my name wrong, you know from being a secret child and all." She corrected him.
"Right, well, I'm Doctor Stephen Strange, this is-"
"The New York Sanctuary. Yeah, I know." Arden cut him off, looking at the artifacts, tracing her finger on them.
"Don't touch that, please. What is up with you and your brother touching things? How did you know this is a sanctuary?" Strange asked her.
"When you've been around as long as I have, you know a thing or two." She answered. "So, why'd you summon me here, Strange?"
"It's Doctor." He corrected her.
"You don't see me correcting you to call me princess, do you?" She joked, allowing herself upstairs without permission.
Strange sighed, following her up the stairs.
"It's time you learned about the prophecy." Strange brought up, snapping his fingers so that they were both sitting in front of each other.
It didn't phase her a bit, making him snicker to himself, thinking back to when he did the same trick to Thor. She crossed her legs, cuing him to continue and that she was listening.
"There's a prophecy that the child of Odin, Aldrif, which is you, is either going to save the universe or destroy it." Strange informed her.
"When?" She inquired.
"Well the prophecy didn't really give me a timestamp, but just know that when it's time, you'll know what to do." He added.
"That's not vague at all." She sarcastically commented.
"So, you're telling me you met the weird wizard, and he told you that you're either going to save us or destroy us?" Tony recalled.
"Pretty much." Arden nodded. "Tony, what if this is what Strange was talking about? We could save everyone, bring everyone back."
He sighed, rubbing his chin, turning back to look at Pepper for a brief second before looking back at Arden.
"We'll leave in the morning. I'm driving." He gave in.
On Arden's way up to her room, she looked at Morgan's door, sneaking in to take one last peek at Morgan.
"I'm supposed to be asleep or daddy's going to sell all my toys." Morgan whispered, opening her eyes.
"Well, you are supposed to be asleep, but it'll be our little secret." Arden chuckled, sitting on the edge of her bed.
"Are you and daddy going to save the world?" Morgan brought up.
Arden sighed, tucking Morgan's hair back. "You are too smart for your own good. Yes, we're leaving in the morning to go to work. But we'll be back soon."
"Promise that daddy will come home?" Morgan pleaded.
"Your daddy is going to be okay, I promise." Arden smiled, kissing her on the forehead.