"Sorry I'm late," Steve said as he walked in wearing casual clothes.
"It's not like we're bored or anything," Emma replied, pretending not to care. Then, seeing Steve look at Alice, she introduced her.
"This is Alice, our sister," Emma said.
"Hi, I'm Steve Rogers," he introduced himself.
"I'm Alice," she said, not speaking any further.
Seeing the awkwardness between them, Morgan started asking Steve about his day in the army, and soon the conversation went back to normal. They spent some time talking like friends, with Steve telling them a few stories while Emma and Morgan listened.
"So, Steve, how is it now that you're Captain America?" Emma asked with a teasing smile. "You have so many girls around you now. It's completely different from before."
Steve scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Yeah, I guess it is. I'm still not used to all the attention."
"Really? Because it looked pretty different to me," Emma teased.
Morgan laughed, and Steve could only shake his head with a small smile.
They continued chatting for a little while, enjoying the relaxed conversation, until an army officer came looking for Steve again.
"It seems I have to leave," Steve said with an apologetic smile.
"Go, go. We'll meet later," Emma said, a little upset that they couldn't spend more time with him.
As Steve disappeared into the crowd, Emma watched him for a moment before turning to Morgan.
"We can't help him, right?"
Morgan understood what she meant. "Steve sleeping in the ice is a major event. We can't change that."
"Mm. Let's leave," Emma said sadly.
Emma and Morgan started walking away, but after a few meters, they noticed Alice wasn't following them.
"What? Alice, aren't you coming?" Emma asked, confused.
[....]
"I got it," Alice suddenly said, surprise appearing on her face.
"Got what?" Emma and Morgan asked at the same time, looking at her in confusion.
"Come with me."
She took both their hands and led them to an area with no people around.
"What's wrong with you? What's here?" Emma asked Alice again, wondering why she'd brought them there.
"Wait."
Alice looked up at the sky.
Seeing this, they looked up too, and soon both Emma and Morgan were shocked beyond belief as they saw a spaceship landing.
"Whoa, what's that? A spaceship? Aliens?" Emma shouted.
She transformed into Heatblaster within a second, purely on instinct, while Morgan immediately activated her Iron Man suit, ready to fight.
"Alice, what's happening? Are you hacked?" Morgan asked.
"No, I'm not. It's not an enemy," Alice said calmly.
"How do you know?" Morgan asked, still keeping her guard up.
The spaceship door opened, and Jack and Gwen walked outside.
The moment Jack stepped out of the spaceship, he froze when he saw the two girls standing there.
"Emma, Morgan, it's us. How are you both?" Jack asked with a smile.
Seeing them standing safely in front of him after so many months, Jack finally felt the worry he had been carrying all this time disappear.
"Dad! Mom!" Emma shouted.
"Godfather! Godmother!" Morgan added.
Both quickly returned to normal and ran toward them.
"Hey, slow down, slow down," Jack said, catching them both.
They hugged each other tightly. Jack held them close, finally relieved that they were safe.
"You both must have suffered in this timeline," Gwen said softly.
"No, we had the Ancient One's help, so things weren't as bad as they could have been," Morgan replied.
Hearing that the Ancient One had helped them, Jack asked, "Are you guys staying at her place now?"
"Yes, we're staying in the New York Sanctuary now," Morgan replied.
"How did you guys find us, and where did you get this spaceship? What happened?" Emma asked, confused, since they had both expected Jack and Gwen to arrive even later.
"I increased Red Queen's scanning function, which allowed her to find the copy of Red Queen on your side. Through her, I was able to find you guys. I also told Red Queen to hide it so we could give you a surprise when we arrived. But it seems you guys thought it was an enemy attack," he said with a smile.
Jack and Gwen then explained their adventure, from the planet Zen-Whoberi all the way to Knowhere.
"What! You had all those adventures without me!" Emma said, feeling cheated.
While she and Morgan had been fighting Mercer and studying to fix the time machine, Jack and Gwen had been off having an adventure in space.
"Emma, do you really think our adventures were anything compared to what you went through? Morgan already told me about all the places you visited with my future self. Now, I want to hear what happened after the time machine exploded," Jack asked.
As they walked toward the Ancient One's place, they left the spaceship under Red Queen's control to keep it hidden.
Emma and Morgan then told Jack everything they had done in the past few months in this timeline.
"You guys are telling the truth, right? You only met with Steve and Howard? Think carefully. You didn't change anything, right?" Jack asked again, wanting to confirm.
"Of course we didn't do anything other than what we said. Don't you trust us, Dad?" Emma asked.
"Jack, you should trust them," Gwen said, also supporting the girls. She also felt Jack didn't have enough faith in his daughter and goddaughter.
"Okay, okay. I'm maybe just feeling a little uneasy," Jack surrendered, raising his hands.
I hope everything is as good as they say.
Jack sighed internally.
If I look at these two without any emotion, they've been nothing but a pair of naughty brats since I first met them. Especially Emma.
Who did she take after?
He glanced at Gwen.
Definitely you. Not me.
"We're here," Emma said, looking at the New York Sanctuary.
She knocked on the door, and a mage opened it.
"Come inside. The Ancient One is—"
"Waiting for us? I know," Emma interrupted.
"Emma, that's rude," Gwen said, giving the mage an apologetic look.
"Yes," the mage said, inviting them inside.
They entered and found the Ancient One already there, as if she had known they were coming.
"Welcome back," the Ancient One said calmly.
A/N: The Patreon version is already updated with 20 advanced chapters. If you'd like to read ahead of the public release schedule, you can join here: