15 | EXTORTION

Five years later...
Tons of things happened within five years. Pepper had gotten pregnant and gave birth to Morgan Stark, the most precious thing in Tony's life. Morgan adored Amelia. She called her "Aunty Lia" and knew that Amelia was one of the three people that Tony cared most about in his life. No one else dared to bother Tony and his second chance at life except for Amelia, for she was only around to continue to be a part of Tony's family.

Catalina's life continued to be quite stagnant as she continued to rule Wakanda on her own. Clint Barton had been traveling around the world as a vigilante since he lost his family, and no one really ever knew where he was. Valdís finished grieving over Peter, but she never forgot about him. She still held onto the small string of hope that her mother would finally come up with a plan to bring everyone back.

Thor's life was going down the drain. All he did all day was drink alcohol, gain weight and play video games with his cosmic friends he brought to Earth.

Amelia was sitting in the living area of the Avengers' Headquarters reading up on some astrophysics books that Tony lended her. Tony has made fun of her for using such an antique method of studying science, especially since his AI was so advanced that she could figure out the solution to her problem on her own. But, Amelia knew that what she was looking for wasn't in his AI's system. She thought about using her own powers, the time stone, to fix everything. But, she had never managed to do anything more than slow, stop and resume time. She never even attempted to jump through time in the future or past utilizing her stone alone. So, she was essentially trying to figure out how to make a time machine on her own. And so far, she had nothing.

However, it was like the gods were speaking directly to her when Steve and Natasha called Amelia. "Amelia!!" They both shouted from the office.

Amelia jumped up and bolted over there and saw what the two were staring at. On the screen, there was surveillance of a mere white male standing at the front door waving his hands like a madman at the camera. "His name is Scott Lang, aka Ant Man. He helped me a few years back." Steve filled in Amelia.

"Well?" Amelia looked around at Natasha and Steve who weren't doing anything about it. "What the hell are you waiting for? Let him in!" She clapped her hands.

* * *

"Pleasure to meet you, I've heard- wow, oh my god- I've heard so much about you. Well- I'm not a stalker or anything... oh my god I'm holding Captain Chronos' hand." Scott whispered the last part to himself, super excited to be in her presence.

"Natasha looked into you and said you were dusted. How are you back?" Amelia asked, breaking their handshake.

"I wasn't dusted! Have any of you guys studied quantum physics?" Scott asked Natasha, Steve and Amelia.

"Yes. I was just brushing up on it now, actually."
"Only to make conversation."

Natasha and Amelia spoke simultaneously. "Alright, so, five years ago, right before... Thanos. I was in a place called the quantum realm. And 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, uh... she was supposed to pull me out. And then, Thanos happened and then I got stuck in there." Scott explained.

"I'm sorry, that must've been a very long five years." Natasha sympathized.

"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours. See the rules of the quantum realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. 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." Scott explained.

"Oh my god... oh my god!" Amelia exclaimed.

"What is it?" Steve inquired.

"What if we did have a way to navigate it? I have to look into it a little bit more, but I have a solid idea. I was looking for a medium to use to travel through time with and I didn't realize the quantum realm would work so well. Now, I just need a little time to see if it'll actually work without killing us all." Amelia thought about something that Tony's AI would actually be able to help her with. But she didn't want to spew out what it was without knowing that it would actually work. She didn't want to give anyone too much hope and then crush it all if she realized it wouldn't work.

"How long will it take you?" Steve questioned her.

"A day at most. But I've got to go see Tony. In the meantime, talk to Bruce to see if he's got any ideas." She told them, then spun on her heel to leave.

* * *

"Aunty Lia!!" Morgan screamed in excitement as she ran up to Amelia. Amelia picked her up and squeezed her in a tight, loving hug.

Morgan had on one of Tony's old Iron Man helmet, the eyes of the mask lit up like it was really on. Amelia put Morgan back down on the ground and took the helmet off of her. "Girl, where did you steal this from?" Amelia cackled at the idea of Morgan sneaking in Tony's room to steal things to play with.

"Garage." She shrugged, a wide and crooked smile cracking on her face.

Tony walked out onto the patio and smiled widely when he saw Amelia. "Hey, Daddy! Aunty Lia is here!"

"I just have a science question." Amelia told him the reason for her unexpected arrival.

"Come in, we've got lunch ready." Tony waved her over, welcomingly.

* * *

"I know what it sounds like-" Amelia began to defend herself from Tony's skepticism as she plaited Morgan's hair.

"Quantum Fluctuation messes with the Planck scale, which then triggers the deutsch proposition, can we agree on that?" Tony interrupted her.

"Yes, and theoretically, that would mean you couldn't come back. But, what if I told you someone already has?" Amelia informed Tony, capturing his curiosity.

"Scott Lang, the Ant-Man, did it." Amelia told him.

Tony sighed. He had already heard all about that damn guy and his quantum shenanigans. "No, he accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke." Tony groaned, palming his forehead.

"So were my chances of coming back. Yet, here we are." Amelia reminded him.

"Why didn't we think of this before? Oh! Because it's laughable, because it's a pipe dream?" Tony snarked.

"The stones are in the past. All we have to do is go back and get them. Snap our own fingers. Bring everybody back." Amelia mentioned the positives.

"Or screw it up more than he already has." Tony clicked his tongue in disapproval.

"Then you don't have to help. Let me just borrow your AI for one night-" Amelia tied up Morgan's hair, nudging her to go off and play.

"I'm trying to protect you! You grow hopeful, the more heartbroken you will become." Tony harshly spoke to her, in a low voice.

"I can't just look into it?" Amelia furrowed her brows together and gave Tony a scolding look, one his father would give him when he was child.

"Fine." Tony huffed.

"Thank you." Amelia folded her arms across her chest, satisfied with the power her glaring look had on him.

Later on that night, Amelia was working with Tony's AI, Friday, to build a prototype of the so called time machine with holograms. "I got a mod inspiration, I'd like to see if it checks out." Amelia spoke to the AI.

"So, like, one sim before we pack it in for the night. In the shape of a Möbius strip inverted, please." Amelia spoke aloud.

"Processing," Friday answered as she constructed the prototype on the hologram, "model rendered."

Amelia looked at the hologram and the model was a success. Her jaw dropped. "No way." Tony's voice croaked out from behind her. He had been secretly watching her from around the corner and was extremely shocked when he saw that she was successful in creating a working model of the time machine. It was groundbreaking and never thought of before.

Amelia tried to catch her breath from losing it a moment ago. "Holy fucking shit." Amelia cursed aloud.

"Shit." Morgan's tiny voice could be heard. She had also been spying on her aunty from the staircase.

Tony and Amelia looked at each other, scared that she had learned such a word so quickly. Tony put his finger up to his lips to Morgan. "What are you doing up, little miss?" Tony whispered to Morgan.

"Shit!" She mimicked Amelia.

"No! We don't say that. Only mommy says that word, she coined it, it belongs to her." Tony told Morgan.

"Why are you two up?" Morgan inquired.

"Because we got some important shit going on around here." Amelia chuckled.

"Are they.. juice pops?" Morgan insinuated that she'd keep quiet if they bribed her with juice pops.

"Sure was." Amelia winked at her.

"That's extortion." Tony shook his head.