While Lila was riding back to the compound, darkness had fallen.
Nat was at her desk.
She had holographics of those who she had these regular meetings with projected on her desk.
Danvers, Okoye, Rocket, Nebula and Rhodey.
All of them recapping and going through her what business they had been up to the past week.
But she was distracted.
Rocket and Nebula were reporting to Danvers about… something.
She lost focus and wasn't paying attention.
She had her phone discreetly in her lap under her desk.
Desperately trying to call Lila.
Steve called her, saying that she angrily stormed out of the session but that was over three hours ago.
Lila usually would call or send a text saying she was coming back but she didn't this time.
And it had taken her much longer to get back than it normally would.
Seeing the call go to voicemail once again she sighed and got up.
Rhodey noticed her worry while she walked over to make herself and Lila a peanut butter sandwich.
"Yeah, we boarded that highly suspect warship Danvers pinged." Rocket explained.
"It was an infectious garbage scowl." Nebula said in disgust.
"So, thanks for the hot tip." Rocket said sarcastically.
"Well, you were closer." Danvers replied with a shrug.
"Yeah. And now we smell like garbage." Rocket said annoyed.
Nat placed the plate down on her desk and leaned back into her chair.
"You get a reading on those tremors?" she asked Okoye.
"It was a mild subduction under the African plate." she answered.
"Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?" Nat asked.
"Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it." she stated.
An alert went off on her phone and she looked down to see video footage appear of Lila buzzing herself in at the gate on her bike.
Breathing a sigh of relief as she watched the gate open and her ride up the driveway.
The others waiting patiently for her.
"Uh, sorry. Carol, are we seeing you here next month?" she looked up to ask her.
"Not likely." she replied.
"What, you gonna get another haircut?" Rocket joked.
"Listen fur-face, I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets." she said irritated.
"All right, all right, that's a good point. That's a good point." he murmured to himself.
"So you might not see me for a long time." she warned.
"Alright. Uh, well. This channel is always active. So, if anything goes sideways... anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't... comes through me." Nat told the group.
They all nodded in agreement and said their goodbyes.
Except for Rhodey.
Nat leaned back into her chair and put her face in her hands.
Burying her face in her palms
"You okay Nat?" he asked with worry.
She reached for a half of her sandwich and took a bite.
"Yeah, it's just Lila. But she's here now so it's okay." she reassured him.
He nodded.
"Well, I'll hang up then. I just wanted to make sure you were okay." Rhodey said with a small smile.
"Thank you, Rhodey. I'll talk to you soon." she nodded and he hanged up right as Lila walked in.
"Oh thank God." Nat rushed up to embrace the taller teenager whose arms remained slumped to her sides.
"Why didn't you call me? I tried contacting you a dozen times." she said with worry.
Steeping back but still holding her.
"I'm sorry. I just needed some along time." Lila said quietly.
Nat observing her red puffy eyes and sighed.
"Steve told me about the session. Do you wanna talk about it?" she asked gently.
Grabbing her shoulder.
"Not really." Lila muttered.
Unstrapping her sword and walking past her towards the sandwich.
Nat frowned while turning around to watch her place the sword on the desk to grab the other half.
"Lila, I've been very patient with your behavior, the outbursts, but today was… unacceptable." she began gently.
Lila frowned while finishing the piece of sandwich and leaned against the desk.
"I was worried sick the past two hours Lila. Seeing you like this breaks my heart sweetheart. Please, if you can just let me help you." she begged.
Lila hearing her voice break which broke her demeanor.
And a few tears in her eyes.
"I don't wanna go to the sessions anymore…" she choked out.
Crying once again.
Nat quickly held her while she cried into her shoulder.
"It's okay sweetheart… it's okay… you don't have to go anymore. I'm so sorry. I thought they would help." she said while rocking her back and forth.
"It's not your fault Auntie Nat. I just don't like hearing how happy other people are." she said, breaking Nat's heart.
"I thought time would help us… live in this world but neither of us have…" Nat said and she nodded.
"The others in the sessions seemed to have moved on but I haven't. I miss them even more now than I had five years ago." Lila said sadly.
Nat held her once again, not wanting to let go.
"I know, Lila. It's getting harder for me too. But please… let me help you. I don't want to see you in more pain." she begged her.
"I don't know what I can say that I haven't before. I just miss them so much…" she said, calming herself down.
"I do too sweetheart. I do too." she repeated but an alarm went off by her desk.
Forcing the two apart.
"I'm sorry…" Nat apologized.
"It's okay…" she said and watched her Aunt walk over behind her desk as a holographic appeared above her desk.
She opened it via the keyboard but a live feed of the front gate appeared with a man by a brown van in front of it.
"Oh! Hi. Hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport? In Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognize me." Lila heard his voice and frowned. Rushing to her Aunt to watch herself.
"Ant Man?" she asked Nat confused.
"He sided with us at the airport. He was reported to have been snapped." she said with eyebrows furrowed.
"Ant-Man? Ant-Man, I know you know that. Can you buzz me in? I need to talk to you guys."
Nat let Scott in and into the common room.
She and Lila were standing next to each other by the desk while he paced around nervously.
Fiddling with his hands worryingly.
"Scott. Are you okay?" Nat asked him.
"Yeah, I'm fine." he said but Lila saw he wanted to say something but was struggling.
"Do you wanna say something Scott?" Lila asked him kindly.
Getting his attention and stopped pacing.
"Have you ever studied Quantum Physics?" he finally asked.
"I'm kinda into engineering so…" she said sarcastically. Nat smiled faintly at her niece.
He sighed.
"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…" he struggled to tell them what happened to her.
Lila frowned, knowing what must have happened.
"She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there." he explained.
"I'm sorry. That must've been a very long five years." Nat apologized to him.
"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours." he clarified.
She and Lila shared a bewildered look.
"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." Scott asked, rushing past them to grab the other half of Lila's sandwich, and stuffing it in his mouth.
"Scott, what are you trying to say?" Lila asked him.
"What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm…" he began with his mouth full of peanut butter.
"The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? 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." he suggested.
Lila dropped her mouth in shock. All of the possibilities flooding her mind at once.
"Are you… are you talking about a time machine?" she asked dumfounded.
Nat heard her voice tremble at the end and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"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...some way... it's crazy." Scott said in denial while shaking his head.
"Scott, I get e-mails from a raccoon, so nothing sounds crazy anymore." Nat stated, trying to lighten the mood.
Lila smiled faintly at the joke.
"So who do we talk to about this?"
Lila offered to show Scott his room which was down the hall from hers and Nat's.
He turned in for the night after his cross country drive and she was walking back.
Her mind was racing at the possibility of… she couldn't even say it out loud.
Let alone think it.
Even the slight chance was bringing up emotions in her after the long day.
She made it to her door but placed her hand on it to steady herself.
Even just the thought of her parents and brothers coming back was too much.
"Lila…" she heard her Aunt's voice.
. "Lila it's okay…" she grabbed to hug her.
"It's okay…" she said, rocking her slightly back and forth.
"I'm fine it's just… I don't want there to be a chance…" she began.
The two looked directly into each other's eyes.
"A chance for what?" Nat asked gently, still holding her.
"To bring them back…" she managed to whisper.
Nat took a deep breath.
"I don't know if we can but we have to try…" Nat said.
She nodded in agreement.
"I guess it's a good thing we know a genius." she said lightly.
Nat smiled.
"We can see him tomorrow."
The next day, after calling Steve and informing him on the development, he joined Lila, Nat, and Scott in the SUV.
They drove up to Tony's cabin while Lila was in the back seat.
She saw him in the front yard, carrying a four year old Morgan in his arm.
He looked up to the SUV and them getting out.
She saw Morgan jump out of his arms and run towards them.
She rushed out ahead of the others while smiling widely as Morgan laughed and jumped to her arms.
"Lila!" she exclaimed.
Lila laughed and spun her around in her arms.
"Oh my Gosh, Morgan. You are getting so big…" she said while still hugging hold.
She held her as the others got out.
Nat smiled fondly at the scene.
Tony walked up to them and nodded at Lila.
"Lila. It's good to see you." he said kindly.
"Mr. Stark." she nodded.
He looked behind her shoulder to see the others.
Nat nodded at him with her arms crossed.
He nodded back but glanced between Steve and Scott.
Lila heard him sigh and she frowned.
He just turned around and headed back towards the cabin.
Lila glanced back at her Aunt before following Tony with Morgan in her arms.
Nat inclined her head at the others towards the house.
They gathered on the porch and Tony began pouring them drinks while Scott repeated his story to him.
Lila was sitting next to her Aunt.
Morgan was inside which disappointed Lila but she remained outside with the others.
"Now, we know what it sounds like..." Scott rambled but Nat interrupted him.
"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" she argued.
"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony asked while giving Lila her drink.
She frowned at the question from the genius.
"In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home." he said simply.
"I did." Scott said while raising his hand.
"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?" he asked him who paused for a moment.
"A time heist…?" he asked unsure.
Lila frowned, just realizing how ridiculous their idea was.
"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?" he insulted.
Lila listened on silently to the adults.
"The Stones are in the past. We can go back and get them." Scott suggested.
"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back." Nat added.
"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony argued.
"Mr. Stark, how can things get worse than they already are?" Lila asked quietly.
Everyone, especially her Aunt heard the sadness in her voice.
Nat reached over to place a comforting hand on her wrist.
Tony sighed. He couldn't come up with an answer for her specifically.
Despite this, 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." he warned.
She pouted and felt Nat hold her hand.
She grabbed it back.
Their fingers interlocking.
"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events…" Scott began but Lila frowned.
Hearing those warnings from a movie Nat had her watch before.
"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?" Tony asked in disbelief.
Scott opened his mouth to answer but closed it.
"No." he said with embarrassment.
"Good. You had me worried there. Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works." Tony stated.
"Tony... We have to take a stand." Nat said with determination.
"We did stand. And yet, here we are." Tony reminded her.
"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…" Scott said and Lila took a deep breath which Tony noticed.
"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 said raising his voice but he interrupted him.
"That's right, Scott. I wont even, I got a kid." he denied.
Morgan suddenly ran out the door, getting their attention who hopped into her dad's lap.
"Mommy told me to come and save you." she said while burying her head into his shoulder.
"Good job. I'm saved." he said while getting up.
"I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and table's set for seven…" he offered but Steve interrupted him.
The group getting up with him
. "Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance." he argued.
"I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch…" Tony said and began to walk inside but Lila spoke up.
"Mr. Stark…" she got his attention. The others listened on silently.
"I understand you have a lot to lose but some of us have a lot to gain." she said softly before turning around the others and walked past to the SUV.
She didn't see Nat briefly talking to Tony before chasing after her.
"Lila…!" she called for her who turned around.
"What?" she pouted.
"I was thinking… if you wanted to stay here with Morgan for the afternoon. The others and I need to talk with someone about all of this…" she said kindly.
Lila sighed and looked back to the house.
"I guess. Staying with Morgan sounds better than getting my hopes up." she muttered.
Nat frowned at her pessimism.
"I'm gonna keep my promise to you, Lila. If there's a chance to bring everyone back I'll do whatever it takes to bring them back."