The Ant's Daughter (An Ant-Man Story)

Reunited

It was him. It was really him! Her dad!!

Sarah drifted closer to him, almost on the brink of tears. God, please tell me he is okay!

She heard only bits of words and static coming through her earpiece. "Sa.....wha....oing.....n? .....Do y.... cop.....?" Her communication was on the fritz. She was so small that there was not enough signal to relay up to human level. Good; she didn't want Darron's annoying voice in her ear at the moment.

Sarah and Scott were shrinking around the same time now since Sarah clicked the button on her right hand. She floated towards him until she was next to him. Even though she had been waiting for this moment since that night, she hesitated to touch him. Through his mask, she could see his eyes were closed, but she had no idea if he was still breathing. If he was unconscious or in a coma, he would never wake up and die getting the subatomic particles sucked out of him. On the other hand, if he did wake up, the last thing he would see Sarah do was send him to his death.

Sarah's hand trembled as she reached over and touched his shoulder.

Immediately, his eyes shot open.

Sarah pulled her arm back, afraid that she had hurt him. Scott flung his arms around like he was trying to defend himself until he looked at Sarah.

Her heart stopped. He has been down here for a while. Like Hank had told her, "When you go subatomic, location and time are irrelevant. Nothing down there seems to happen quite like at human size." Her dad may have thought it had been years since he went subatomic. Did he even recognize her anymore?

Scott made that answer very clear. After three seconds of staring at Sarah, he wrapped her in such a tight hug that she thought he was going to split her bones in half. Sarah began to cry as she embraced him with an even tighter hug. He remembered her! He was okay!

"I..." Scott tried to speak, but he was still crying on Sarah's shoulder. With how much the two of them were crying, Sarah was worried one of them would drown in their helmet with the pool of tears.

Scott pulled out of the hug, still grasping Sarah's shoulders, and just stared with a smile on his face. Sarah didn't dare to break the silence, for she was staring right back at him. He hadn't changed at all. He looked exactly the same as that fateful night.

Scott chuckled before saying, "Good thing you found the suit."

With tears still in her eyes, Sarah laughed. "It really was. Thanks, dad."

"How..." Scott's eyes were darting, trying to think of what he wanted to ask first. "How... How long have I been gone?"

Sarah gave a small side smile before replying, "A month and a half."

Scott broke down again. Sarah's face quickly morphed into concern and fear as she grabbed onto his shoulders and asked, "Is something wrong? Are you hurt?"

Scott sniffled and shook his head, regaining composure. "No. No, it's just... it has felt like 5 years since I last saw you."

Sarah almost broke again. Years? Years?  She knew her experience was bad, but her dad thinking it was 5 years? It must have been unbearable...

She snapped out of it when she remembered why she came down to get her dad. "Dad, I want to relish in memories and catch up just as much as you do. But... there's a problem back up there..."

Her dad's face turned to one of concern, as well. "What do you mean?"

She told him everything: about Darron being alive, about him needing Scott's subatomic energy to live, and about how everyone is trapped unless she delivers Scott to Darron.

"I don't want to do it, Dad. You know I would never want to. It's just... Cassie and mom are trapped, Cassie's been kidnapped for the past week, and... *sniffle* ... I-I-I don't know what t-to do!" Sarah let out the waterworks and collapsed into her father's arms. She felt two arms wrap around her, making her feel safe and comforted, like nothing could touch her.

She missed that feeling: that sense of security. Mom was always too busy to give a genuine hug, and her step-father rarely gave hugs. This, this was what she had missed most of all. These moments of joy and comfort as her emotions poured out of her.

"I'm sorry you had to go through this, honey," Scott said, coming out of the hug to gaze into his daughter's eyes, "don't beat yourself up. It's a decision you don't really have a choice in. I would have wanted you to pick this option anyways."

"But, you'll d..." She couldn't say it to his face.

He nodded. "I know. But, if it means saving all of our friends and family, I am willing to take the risk." He sighed and said, "So, how do we grow back to normal scale?"

She hesitated before pulling out the disk. "Change this out with your regulator. It will grow you back to normal size. I have one of my own." Scott reached out for the disk, but Sarah closed her hand. "But.... I-I can't give this to you. You're going to die! There is no way I am letting you die! I can't... I can't lose you, not after I just got you back..."

Scott held back tears, trying to be brave for Sarah. "Sweetheart, I know that it has been rough on you. Believe me, I know. But, this is the only way to save Cassie. To save Mom, Hank, Hope, all of them." He put out his hand again. "Let me have the disk, please."

Sarah glanced away from him and gave the disk to him. Scott sighed and said, "Thank you." He opened up his utility belt, took out the regulator, and replaced it with the growing disk.

He was ready to grow back to normal size. He glanced up at Sarah who was staring at him with tears streaming down her face. Scott gave a comforting smile and gave her one last big hug. "I'm gonna miss you, sweetheart."

Sarah sniffled before responding, "I-I'm gon-na m-miss you, t-too." When they pulled away from each other, Scott took a deep breath.

Sarah's eyes grew wide as she realized what was about to happen: this was going to be the last time she ever saw her dad. "WAIT!" Sarah shouted. Scott looked up at her. She said, "There has to be a full-proof way of keep everyone, including you, alive." She glanced around furiously, trying to form a cohesive though. "There is a way that everyone can live, there has to be!" Sarah snapped her fingers out of habit, trying to create an effective escape plan. "Why can't I think of it?!"

Scott smirked and said, "Because you have a thousand ideas flowing through your head on how to escape, but you don't know which one to choose."

Sarah chuckled and continued to think. Come on, there has to be at least one way of making it out! Darron needed her to bring Scott back so he could extract the subatomic particles from him. But...

Darron doesn't know Sarah had found Scott.

Sarah's eyes grew ten times their normal size. Scott noticed and laughed. "I guess you decided on one, haven't you?"

Sarah smiled and responded, "Yeah, but it's a little risky."

"Little's better than a lot. What did you have in mind?"

Sarah explained her plan to Scott, whose facial appearance continuously shifted back and forth from excited to concerned to questioning to agreement.

"Are you sure about this?" Scott asked.

Sarah traded out her regulator with the growing disk and looked up at Scott with a grin. "As much as I can be sure at the moment."

Scott laughed and responded, "Alright, then I trust you."

They gave each other another tight hug before Sarah said, "I love you, Dad."

Scott smiled and said, "I love you, too, Sarah."

Sarah smiled, looked down at her regulator, and hit the button.

And up she went...

HAHAHAHA!!! See?! I can keep promises!!!

Seriously, though, thank you guys for your patience. Y'all are just so cool!

~MarvelRebel27