She's The Girl Where. || Avengers [4]

vii. Time Travel

' She broke in an attempt to fix it all, but now no one wants to return the favour. '

"So I did it." Tony sighed as he sat down beside Carter on the couch.

"You did it." She nodded, letting out a shaky breath.

"And now with what I've got, I should help everyone who isn't as fortunate as us, right." He stated, though to someone else it may sound like a question, Carter knew her Dad's mind was already made up.

"Depends." Carter nodded, leaning her head back on the couch and turning it to look at him "Are you thinking with your head, or your heart?" She asked.

Sighing, Tony leant forward with his hands clasped together before glancing back up at his little girl "At this point, I dont know anymore." He shook his head, glancing back up at the designs.

"That's the thing, whatever situation your in people will tell you that you either have to think with your head or your heart, but they never tell you which. Because honestly, they don't know either." Carter wisely spoke as she moved to rest her head on her Dad's shoulder, holding his hand in hers as they watched the blue hologram together "But really there is no choice, because your head needs your heart to think, and your heart needs your head. They're both as alike as one another as two blades of grass, entirely different yet perceived in the same way. It just matters what you look at it as." She frowned.

"I miss him." Tony shakily looked up at his daughter before pulling her to him for an embrace "And knowing that there are other people out there feeling the exact same thing I do, blaming themselves for what's happened. Then I want to help them as much as I can." He finalised as Carter smiled into his shoulder.

"Then I'll be right there beside you, Dad." 

The next day, pulling up to the premises of the Avengers compound. A place Carter hadn't been in almost five years was a surreal moment.

As Tony quickly pulled the car to a stop outside where Steve was standing, she exited the vehicle and greeted the man with a hug before leaving the two to converse after kissing her Dad on the cheek and making her way inside.

Laughing as she passed Scott getting his taco blown away by Gamora and Rocket landing in their ship, Carter grinned when Rhodey landed, throwing herself onto his Iron back with a squeal as they made their way inside.

Over the next few days, Carter found herself surrounded by heroes as they returned to the compound in different states of grievance, whether that be denial, anger or, in Thor's case self loathing.

Sitting and watching as the others continued building the travel-a-thing, Carter was on the phone with Morgan, yet again telling her little sister stories about her travels around the world with Pietro when Tony came strolling in and she said her Goodbyes.

"Drifting left. On the side there, Lebowski." He mocked, passing Thor with tubing over his shoulders as the now depression ridden, obese God of Thunder drank a beer in the middle of the day "Ratchet how's it going?" Tony ignorantly asked the Raccoon causing Carter to laugh as she got up and took one of the tools from the odd animal and gave him the one he needed.

"It's Rocket. Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal." The Raccoon rolled his eyes.

"Yup." Thor loudly burped as Cartr grimaced, utterly devastated about how Thor's mental health had fallen so far in the time since she'd seen him and how low his self worth had become.

"I'll be back." Carter nodded to Rocket and her Dad before leaving to find Clint, the two of them having agreed to spar to get their anger out before leaving and possibly doing something irrational.

"Hey." Carter greeted as she rounded the corner and found Clint leaned up against the glass door outside the testing room where Bruce, Rhodey and Scott were.

" - This is it, this is all we have. We are not making any more!" Scott snapped causing Carter to look up as Clint wrapped one arm around her shoulders.

"Scott, calm down." Rhodes soothed.

"Sorry. We've got enough for one round trip, each. That's it. No do-overs. Plus, three test runs." He reinforced the severity of the situation before accidentally inserting one of the Pym Particles into his suit and momentarily vanishing from existence "Two test runs." He groaned as Rhodey scoffed "All right. I'm not ready for this." He worried.

Glancing at one another, Clint and Carter nodded before simultaneously saying,

"I'm game."

"I'll do it."

After a small moments apprehension, the two were fitted into their time travel gear.

"Okay, guys. Now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chronoshift. Don't worry about it." Bruce warned as Carter nervously licked her lips, playing with the retractable back of her suit that she wouldn't need for the test run, but likely would when it came to the real thing in order to release her wings.

"Wait a second, let me ask you something." Rhodey interupted "If we can do this, you know, go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos, you know? And..." He made multiple violent hand gestures causing Carter's mouth to gape slightly at the concept before shaking the sick image from her deranged mind.

"First of all, that's horrible." Bruce interjected causing Carter to snort.

"It's Thanos." Rhodes rolled his eyes.

"And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future." Bruce reinforced as Carter sighed ignoring everyone's awfull input up until she and Clint were needed again.

Or at least she had hoped, she really tuned back in when she heard Scott say "So back to the futures a bunch of bullshit?" 

"All right, guys." Bruce began as the pair stood opposite one another on the time-whatever-it-does "We're going in 3.. 2.. 1.." On one, both Carter and Clint had their suits form around them fully before they were separately thrown into what seemed to be a different realm, passing through shapes and tunnels before Carter finally felt herself expelled from whatever the hell that place was.

Screaming in agony at the journey and landing, Carter removed her mask with one press of a button before standing carefully as she recognised where she was, Madrid.

More specifically, Parque de El Capricho. An elegant landscaped garden that she vividly remembered visiting with Pietro.

"Princezná?" Carter heard his smooth voice question as she jumped up from the patch of grass

Breathing heavily as she hid behind some of the bushes with her back to the past Pietro, Carter had tears build up in her eyes as she shook in fear of seeing him again.

"There you are." Pietro breathed out as Carter squeezed her eyes shut, remembering the very moment her past self was pulled into the love of her lifes arms, never wanting to let go.

"I love you." Carter breathed out in sync with her past self as an odd sensation began to take her over.

"I love you too." She faintly heard him breathe before she was pulled back into the abyss, numbly letting it take her home as she memorized everything she could about Pietro from that day.