My mind was racing 100 miles an hour, leaving me behind as it came up with theory after theory, each one slightly more plausible than the last. I wasn't a scientist, I didn't have the faintest idea if Scott's plan was even possible. But I couldn't let go of the hope that he and Steve had filled me with.
"Hey," Tony said, pulling me out of my spiraling thoughts as he sat on the sofa beside me. "Nati's down. Fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow."
I nodded in acknowledgement and he put a hand on my knee.
"What are you thinking about?"
I fixed him with a glare. "You know what I'm thinking about."
"Baby," he sympathized. "I know that those guys got your hopes up, but it's not possible." He shook his head. "Even if we didn't die, even if we got the Stones and got back unscathed, which would probably never happen anyway... we can't change what happened with Kilgrave."
I tilted my head, frowning. "Why not?"
"Because Time Travel doesn't work that way," he answered immediately. "Changing the past doesn't change the future. If you travel to the past, that past becomes your future. And your former present becomes the past. So nothing you do will have any effect on your former present."
I nodded, already prepared for this answer. "That's the traditional view. And yeah, sure, it makes sense. But if we control the Quantum Realm, can't we control which future we go to?"
He gave me a confused look. "I have no idea where your head's at right now."
I took a breath, fleshing out my idea. "You just said that going back in time and changing things doesn't change anything in our current reality, correct?" I asked, to which he nodded. "Then it's entirely possible that going back to the past and changing things actually creates a parallel universe, right?" I continued. "One where Thanos never gets the Stones and doesn't destroy the world, and our current universe, where he does?" Tony nodded again, this time somewhat hesitantly.
I pulled a piece of paper out from underneath the coffee table and drew two parallel lines.
"So, if that's the case, we have two universes running alongside each other, one where everyone killed by either Kilgrave or Thanos is alive, and ours, where they're still dead," I said confidently, my Stark Industries pen poised on the paper. I drew an arrow with two points between the lines. "What if getting the Stones and snapping combines the two universes?"
He thought about my hypothesis in silence.
"If we all go back in time using the same technique, we're all going back to the same parallel universe," I kept going, waiting for him to interrupt me by telling me that my plan would never work. "Therefore, if I go back in time and kill Kilgrave while you guys are getting the Stones, and then we go back to this present and Snap... everyone who died because of Kilgrave will come back."
Tony frowned thoughtfully. "So what you're saying, is that we'll be creating two timelines by going back in time, and you think that the Snap will... combine the timelines?"
"Yes," I answered, my heart racing. "Snapping will even out the anomalies. Take Nat, for example. In our current universe, she's dead because of the series of events that Kilgrave set into motion. But if Kilgrave dies in an alternate reality, the alternate version of Nat will still be alive. So her death in our current universe is an anomaly that the Snap will correct." I nodded my head at my own theory. "There will only be one Nat in both universes because our Nat is dead. So when the timelines combine, the only universe that exists will be ours. Everyone that Kilgrave hurt will be alive, and everyone that Thanos killed will be alive too, just like that."
Tony sighed, taking my hand and kissing it. "Theoretically... yeah, it makes sense. But practically, we won't get to the stage of combining the universes, because going into the Quantum Realm will kill us."
I shook my head. "Scott made it out. And this time, we'll have you."
Tony frowned again. "Me?"
I feigned surprise. "I'm sorry, I thought I was married to an expert in Quantum Mechanics. My mistake. Guess I'll have to ask Bruce..." I pretended to stand, and he pulled me back down, smiling.
"There's no guarantee that it would work."
I shrugged nonchalantly. "Then what's the harm in trying?"
He pointed in the direction of the stairs. "The harm is us thinking we can do it, and being wrong. Rogue, there's a version of this where our daughter ends up an orphan."
"And there's a version where she gets to meet the aunt that she's always looked up to," I reminded him, trying not to let my excitement get the better of me. "A version where I get to meet my mom." At this, his eyes met mine, sympathy written on his face. "If we can do this, Nati gets to have a family. A grandmother, and a bunch of aunts and uncles. You know, Rhodey, Wanda, Sam... Peter." At the mention of his protégé, his demeanor changed. After all these years, he still thought it was his fault that Peter Parker was taken by the Snap.
He sighed, Peter on his mind. "We can try. One test."
"One test," I agreed.
***
53 tests, a few hours and a shared tub of Ben and Jerry's 'Stark Raving Hazelnuts' ice cream later...
"Okay, this is the last one," Tony declared, staring at the holographic model. "When it fails, we go to bed and never speak of this again, deal?"
"Deal," I agreed with a mouthful of ice cream. "I was ready to go to bed after test 25."
He ignored me, addressing F.R.I.D.A.Y. "This time in the shape of a Mobius strip, inverted, please," he requested. "Give me that eigenvalue, that particle factoring, and a spectral decomp."
We watched as F.R.I.D.A.Y. worked.
"It's gonna fail," he prepared me. "Just like the others."
"If it's not possible, it's not possible," I shrugged, trying not to show in my tone how disappointing the statement was.
We waited in silence as the holographic image bent and changed shape multiple times.
"Model rendered," F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced. We both looked up at the same time, staring at the image in disbelief. Or, more accurately, staring at the words on the image.
'Model Successful.'
I stood up slowly, making sure that I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. Tony collapsed into my seat, in shock.
"Successful?" I asked under my breath. "Does that mean what I think it does?" I turned to my husband. "Did we just... figure out Time Travel?"
Tony was still staring at the image, his eyes wide with astonishment. "Shit!"
There was a profound silence, before a small voice piped up.
"Shit!"
We both turned around in surprise to see Nati behind us, sitting on the stairs. She laughed at our reactions.
"Shit!"
"No, we don't say that," Tony reprimanded her. "What are you doing up, little miss?"
She stretched her arms out and I walked over to her, picking her up.
"I thought daddy put you to bed hours ago?" I asked, gently rocking back and forth with her in my arms. She leaned her head against my shoulder.
"Couldn't sleep."
"You have to sleep, you have preschool in the morning," Tony reminded her. She shook her head, giggling.
"Can we go upstairs?" she asked.
"Upstairs to bed?" I asked, to which she responded by shaking her head again.
"No. Upstairs."
***
The attic was the only place in the house where you could see the sky. Sometimes, before Nati went to bed, or when she was awake later than she should be, we'd take her up there to tell stories about the world above the clouds.
We lay on the ground with her between us, staring in awe at the stars, as she always did.
"We should put a skylight in her bedroom," Tony said, staring at her. "I think we have a future astronaut on our hands."
I smiled, ruffling her hair. "Well, it makes sense. Both her parents have actually gone to space."
She pointed at one of the stars. "Aunty Nat is a star," she told us. "And everyone else we can't see..." Suddenly something occurred to her, and she frowned, looking at Tony. "Are you and mommy gonna be stars too?"
Tony looked at me, before kissing the top of her head. "Mommy and I are gonna be around for a long time. You don't have to worry about us, okay?"
"Promise?" she asked.
I snuggled next to her, kissing her cheek.
"You know what we promise?" I asked. She looked up at me, her eyes intrigued. "We promise that, no matter what happens, we will always love you. More than the number of stars in the whole universe."
"Whoa," she said under her breath, looking at the sky again. "There's a lot of stars."
"There are," I agreed. "So every time you look up at the stars, you can think about how much mommy and daddy love you. Okay?"
She nodded, her wide eyes suddenly tired, slowly closing.
"I love you 3000," she said in a tired, half-asleep voice.
Tony and I smiled at each other, thinking the same thing. We were lucky. We had the perfect family, the perfect daughter. Going back in time to bring back the rest of the universe could ruin everything.
Was it worth it?
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I know this version of time travel is different to the version in the movie, but this one makes sense for the story.
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