Aquila raised an eyebrow as she watched Scott Lang nervously pace around the living room of the Avengers Compound, slightly mumbling to himself.
None of them really knew what was going on, five years ago they had all thought that Scott had disappeared with the rest but now he was standing in front of them very much alive.
"Scott, are you okay?" Steve asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Yeah, I'm fine. . ." Scott replied as he wrung his hands together, pondering over his next words. "Have any of you ever studied Quantum Physics?"
"Only to make conversation," Natasha admitted honestly.
"Scott, what's going on?" Aquila asked.
"Alright. So. . . five years ago, right before. . Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is 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 in there."
"I'm sorry. That must've been a very long five years." Natasha said.
"Yeah, but that's just it. For me, it was five hours."
Aquila shared a bewildered glance with Natasha and Steve, the three of them could hardly believe what Scott had just told them.
"See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving. Cute dog, by the way." Scott said, hurrying across the room to finish the last bites of Natasha's sandwich.
"Scott, what are you talking about?"
"What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did?" Scott gestured wildly with each word. "I can't stop thinking about it. What if, we could somehow control the chaos, and we could navigate it? What if there was a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time but then exit at another point in time? Like. . . Like before Thanos."
"Are you talking about a time machine?" Aquila asked incredulously.
"No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. It's more like a. . . Yeah, a time machine. I know it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be some way. . There's gotta be. . . it's crazy."
"Scott, I get emails from a raccoon, so nothing sounds crazy anymore."
"So, who do we talk to about this?" Scott asked.
Aquila shared a look with Natasha and Steve knowing very well that they were all thinking of the same people.
"Can we disturb them?" Aquila asked.
"They are the only option we have left. We have to." Steve said, turning to Nat as she nodded in agreement.
Tony Stark moved up the dirt path towards his cabin home, moving his daughter, Isabella in his arms as he moved up the stairs of the porch.
"Don't worry. Your mom never wears anything I buy her. That hasn't changed since I first met her. . ."
His voice trailed off at the sound of a car pulling to a halt in the driveway, Tony turned slowly, knitting his eyebrows together as his eyes met first with Steve Rogers' own as he was the first to exit the car only to follow by Scott Lang's, Aquila Cadman's and Natasha Romanoff's.
"Oh look who it is." Aquila teased, trying her best to break the tension that laid heavily in the air. "It's my favorite Stark!"
"Hey!" The familiar voice of Keira Stark filled the air from the porch after she had also come to see who the newcomers were. "I'm just going to try and pretend that that didn't hurt as much as it did."
"Auntie Lia!"
Despite her mum's complaints, it didn't take long for Isabella Stark to break free from her father's arms and into the arms of her godmother's. A title that Aquila had worn with pride the second that Keira had told her the news.
"Hi, beautiful." Aquila sat lifting the girl up and spinning her around quickly.
"Did you bring Harls?" Isabella looked around for her doggy friend in response Natasha opened the door where the dog in question jumped out.
It didn't take long for the girl and the dog to break out across the grass, leaving the adults to have a long-needed discussion.
The team soon joined Tony and Keira on the deck, Scott and Tony taking a seat. Aquila, Natasha, and Steve had all decided to step away from the conversation to allow Scott to explain his idea to Keira and Tony.
"Now, we know what it sounds like. . ."
"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?"
"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?"
Aquila just stared blankly at Tony and Keira, science this complex was hardly her strong suit.
"It means you're not coming home." Keira cut in.
"I did, though,"
"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a. . . What do you call it?"
". . . a time heist."
"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before?" Tony commented, becoming more irritated by each passing second. "Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"
"The Stones are in the past. We can go back and get them." Scott continued.
"And we can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back." Natasha added.
"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?"
"None of us think we will," Steve told him.
Tony sighed loudly, looking Steve directly in the eye for the first time in years. "Gotta say, 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 believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."
"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel!" Scott exclaimed, excitement lighting up his features. "That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events-"
"I'm going to stop you right there," Tony interjected, leaning towards the man. "Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?"
"Uh, no."
"Really, Scott?" Keira asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's not how quantum physics works."
"Tony. . . We have to take a stand," Natasha pleaded.
"We did stand. And yet, here we are."
"I know you've both got a lot on the line," Scott continued, pleading with the two Starks in front of them. "You both have a daughter now, had a chance at a new beginning. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. Bring everyone back. And you're telling me that you won't even-"
"That's right, Scott, I won't. Even."
"I'm sorry Scott, we just can't."
The tension in the air was briefly broken by Harley's paws sliding across the deck with Isabella running behind her before landing in her father's arms.
"I wish you'd come here to ask us something else. Anything else. Honestly, we've. . . we've missed you guys, it was. . . Oh, and the table's set for seven."
"Tony, Keira, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am," Steve said, resting a hand on his former friend's arm. "But this is a second chance."
"We've got our second chance right here, Cap," Tony replied. "I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."
Scott, Natasha, and Steve sighed before walking down the porch and back towards the car. Aquila was left to round up Harley before doing the same.
"You guys are leaving already?" Isabella pouted, throwing her arms around Harley. "But you just got here!"
"I know, I know," Aquila said softly dropping down to Isabella's height as Tony and Keira watched on. "But I promise we will come for a visit soon, alright? Maybe you and Harley can go for a swim in that lake of yours?"
"Ok!" Isabella said, bounding up, her previous pout replaced with a smile.
"It was really good to see you both. Just wish it wasn't under these circumstances." Aquila said, her eyes flickering between Keira and Tony.
"It was good to see you too," Keira replied, shooting her friend a smile. "We will have to organize something soon, alright?"
"Yeah, sounds good," Aquila said, waving goodbye before heading down the porch steps herself. "Come on, Harley!"
Rejoining the rest of the team by the car, Aquila's eyes met Natasha's, both of them thinking the same thing.
"Neither of them are coming?" Scott questioned Aquila as she shook her head in response. "What are we gonna do? We need him. What, are we gonna stop?"
"No, I wanna do it right. We're gonna need a really big brain."
"Bigger than his?"