Steve and I were getting the car ready for the trip to see Tony.
"You know he isn't going to help," I told Steve, already knowing.
"You don't know that," he said, getting in the driver's side as I got into the passenger seat. We were waiting on Natasha and Scott to get in.
"I don't think he's going to risk what he has now. Would you? If that were us?"
Before he could answer, Nat and Scott got into the backseat.
"Are we ready?" Nat asked.
"As ready as we'll ever be," I replied, knowing any interaction with Stark was always a weird one for me.
The ride was a quiet one, the silence only filled by the occasional comment from Scott. I could tell he wasn't comfortable with the long bouts of silence, and normally I wasn't either. But, with the impending meeting with Tony, there was a lot on my mind. I hadn't seen him since he chewed Steve and me out in front of everyone. Steve had seen him once or twice, but my guilt made me steer clear of any interactions that weren't necessary.
As we pulled down a long winding driveway, the GPS telling us where to go every step of the way, I felt like we weren't in the right place.
"Are you sure you typed the address in right?" I questioned Steve, leaning against the window, noticing the remote and wooded area.
"I think so," Steve said, double-checking the coordinates as we parked.
But, before we could make sure, I saw Tony walking towards the porch of the wooden cabin on the property. We all stepped out of the car, and instantly Tony's face didn't look pleased to see us.
I nodded at Tony, he nodded back. He turned around, walking away with what appeared to be his daughter.
"Let's go," Natasha urged, as we approached the porch.
Tony came out, pouring all of us a glass of tea.
We had Scott explain everything we had come up with, wanting to convince him of what we could possibly do. How we could possibly change what Thanos did to us.
"No, we know what it sounds like," Scott said, clearly nervous.
"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve asked.
"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony asked.
I let out a small, "Yep. Definitely."
Tony handed us each a glass, each of us saying our thanks as he continued to explain how our theory would never work, there was a lot of scientific jargon that I didn't understand. But, I knew this would be his response. I knew it wouldn't be easy to convince him to come back, to help fix this. Not when he had just built this life for himself. Especially because, as much as I hated to admit it, this sounded crazy. There was no solid proof.
"In layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."
"I did," Scott offered.
"No. You accidentally survived."
Tony wasn't wrong. What if all of this, what happened to Scott, was just one big fluke? What if we were trying to put all our eggs in one hopeless basket? If we got all of our hopes up again, just like when we found Thanos' farm, what would the fallout be like this time? We barely made it through one letdown, could we all survive another? Or were we destined to be let down forevermore?
"But, Tony, don't we have to try?" Steve asked. His eyes pleading for help, but his words would never beg.
"No, it's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull a- what do you call it?" he asked, handing Scott his dream.
"A time heist," Scott answered, barely above a whisper.
"Yeah a time heist," Tony answered back, sarcasm dripping from his words. "Why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable. Because it's a pipe dream."
"Tony, the stones are in the past," I started, speaking up for the first time. His eyes cut over to me. "If we can get back, we can get them."
"We can snap our own fingers, bring everyone back," Natasha spoke, backing me up.
"Or we could make everything worse."
"I don't believe we would," Steve countered.
"Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there is no logical, tangible way to safely play out said time heist. And I gotta say, Mo-mo, can't believe you're going along with this. I usually depend on you for realism."
"What other choice do we really have Tony? We see an opportunity, to bring them back. All of them," I said, resisting the urge to drop a name.
"Well, I'm sorry but I believe the most likely outcome is our collective demise," Tony retorted.
"But, can't you see what we are trying to do? This could be it Tony! This could be how we save them."
"Miss heroic at it again. Is this some sort of redemption story? Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, but I'm not compromising everything I have here so Miss Bad Guy Turned Good can finally be the hero."
"That's not what I'm asking. You can take me out of the equation entirely, this isn't about me. It isn't even about you, it's about everyone who isn't here right now. Whose story was cut short."
Tony was silent, only staring at me. This time I didn't look away.
"If we strictly follow the rules of time travel," Scott began. "That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sports events-"
"I'm going to stop you right there," Tony interrupted. "Are you telling me that your plan to save the universe is entirely based on Back To The Future?"
"No..."
"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works."
"Tony, we have to take a stand," Natasha said, trying to get him to understand.
"We did stand, yet here we are."
"Here we are, with an opportunity," I responded, meeting his eyes again.
"Careful," Steve sent in a brain message. "You don't want to push too hard."
"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that won't even..." Scott responded, practically begging. It made my heartache.
"That's right, Scott, I won't even. I got a kid, something that not all of you understand," he responded.
My hand started to shake, I went to lunge, but a little girl walked outside.
"Mommy told me to come save you," the little girl said, looking over at sheepishly.
Tony sweeps her into his arms, looking like a picture-perfect dad. My heart ached, knowing I'd never be able to give that to Steve. It made me feel sick, I suddenly felt like my world was spinning.
I darted off, running off the porch. I leaned against one of the trees as I threw up what little lunch I had eaten.
Suddenly I felt a hand on my back, rubbing small comforting circles.
"Are you okay," Steve asked, as a stood up, wiping at my mouth.
"Yeah, I'm fine, just it was getting heated," I murmured. "I'm assuming he didn't agree?"
"No, he said he had his second chance," Steve responded. "He invited us to stay for lunch if we didn't talk shop, but I don't think any of us could resist."
I nodded in agreement and the four of us loaded back up in the car.
~A/N So guys you have been so patient! Life is starting to slow down! I'm only a couple of assignments from completing my bachelor's and being finished with school!!
On another, more serious note, I hope you all are doing well amongst the craziness that is this pandemic! Please leave comments and votes so we can all interact and hopefully fill our days with some sort of distraction!
QOTC: How did you guys enjoy this chapter?
Anyways, I hope you all have done well and I hope to update more regularly once my school is finished, as well as starting other books! I have some in the works as we speak... Have a good day ~