Venus | James B. Barnes✔️

lxxix. 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐

EVELYN COULD tell something was wrong with Tony and Scott as soon as she saw them in her field of view. They looked defeated, and she could not help but wonder how they had managed to lose the Tesseract when it was their only chance at getting Bucky—at getting everyone back. She needed to know what happened.

"Cap, Auntie Icicle," Tony greeted, glad to see they were okay and had actually done their part of the mission. He could tell Evelyn already knew, but Steve was just now catching on. "Sorry, buddy. We got a problem."

"Huh. Yeah, we do," Scott said with evil eyes toward Tony. It was not necessarily his fault as much as it was the Hulk's, but then again, Tony pissed off the Hulk in 2012, too. Evelyn sighed, resting her forehead in the palm of her hand.

Steve sighed as well, placing the scepter down near Scott. "Well, what are we gonna do now?"

Tony seemed to have a headache as he rubbed his head. Evelyn walked over and rubbed his shoulder affectionately to try and ease the pain knowing she could not do much. "You know what? Give me a break, Steve. I just got hit in the head with the Hulk."

"You said that we had one shot," Scott exclaimed with worry in his tone. Evelyn could understand since he lost his family, too. "This," he said while pointing around New York, "this was our shot. We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. Six stones or nothing."

"You're repeating yourself, you know that? You're repeating yourself," Tony mumbled, leaning into his aunt's touch.

Scott pointed at Tony. "You're repeating yourself. You're repeating yourself. You know what!? No."

"Scott, come on," Evelyn tried.

"He never wanted a time heist... you went on board with the time heist!"

"I dropped the ball."

"You ruined the time heist."

"Is that what I did?"

"Yeah!"

Steve knew they could go on all day, so he looked at Tony and Evelyn since they were the only ones familiar with the Tesseract as much as him. "Are there any other options with the Tesseract?"

No, no, no," Scott exclaimed with sadness. "There's no other options.There's no do-overs. We're not going anywhere else. We have one particle left. Each. That's it, alright? We use that, bye-bye. You're not going home."

Evelyn stepped up, staring at Scott. "Yeah, well if we don't try, then no one else is going home, either."

Scott realized his words were harsh. Evelyn sighed again, trying to think of where the Tesseract could be in time, but she could only think of the 40s. There was no way they could go back there because there were no Pym Particles there. It would have to be somewhere where Hank Pym and Howard Stark worked together.

"The man I risked my life for... Barnes, right?" Scott asked quietly while Steve and Tony discussed options. "We'll get him back, Mrs. Evelyn... Stark... Barnes... sorry."

Evelyn let out a giggle at his words. "Just call me Evelyn, Scott. After everything we've been through, you deserve to be less formal." She paused, thinking. "I know we'll get him back. We'll get everyone back. We just need a plan."

As if the word sparked something in Tony, he snapped his fingers with a nod. "I got it. There's another way. To retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles. We'll stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State."

Evelyn grinned. "Pym and Howard were there?"

Tony nodded. "They were there at... I have a vaguely exact idea."

"How vague?" Steve said with hesitance.

Evelyn grabbed her Stark Helmet and placed it on her head, knowing they were about to go Quantum again. She pulled out her wrist to see the place where she would input the date. "What are you talking about? Where are we going?" Scott asked in confusion.

"I know for a fact they were there," Tony said, doing the same as he began getting ready to leave.

"Who's they? What are we doing?"

"And I know how I know," Tony finished mysteriously with a smirk.

"Guys, what's up? What is it?"

"Well, it looks like we're improvising," Evelyn said with a smirk that matched her nephew. They caught gazes, and their smirks turned to wide grins. Evelyn realized how much she missed Howard at that moment, sharing secret smiles and thoughts. They were so alike, and she knew Tony hated to hear it. She loved how alike they were.

"Right. What are we improvising?"

"Scott, get this back to the compound," Tony directed as Scott read over his shoulder while the three began to suit up.

"What's in New Jersey?"

As they ignored Scott, Tony began to say numbers to input. Evelyn and Steve stated them back to make sure they were all in sync. They were going somewhere unplanned, but they needed to be together.

As Tony finished reciting the numbers, 04-07-1970, Scott became a nervous wreck. He knew it was his plan for time travel, but unplanned time travel was even worse. He was worried for all of them, but he was mostly worried if they screwed up even more. What if they could not get everyone back?

"Cap. Captain. Steve, sorry, America. Rogers. Look, if you do this, and this doesn't work, you're not coming back," Scott tried one more time as Evelyn handed him the scepter. She made sure he had a good grip on it, pressing his button to have his Quantum Suit activate.

"Just get back," Evelyn cooed softly, trying to show him no fear even though she was terrified.

"Thanks for the pep talk, pissant," Tony said to Scott as he looked back to the two supersoldiers. "Do you trust me?"

"I do."

"Always," Evelyn murmured with a smile.

"Your call," Tony said to Steve. Evelyn squeezed Tony's hand once before Steve said, "Here we go." Into the Quantum Realm they went again... this time unplanned. This time... with fear of the unknown.