The Snap and the Ancient One in the Past Timeline

"Oh, boss, I couldn't reach you. I was going to take Morgan to find you..." Happy's anxious face fell when he saw the two of them.

Morgan was in bad shape. Her face was flushed, and she was breathing rapidly.

Black-purple veins had spread up her arms to her neck, glowing faintly as though they were alive.

"Give her to me."

Tony clenched his fist and took Morgan Stark, who was fighting back tears.

"Daddy, it hurts. I feel awful..." Morgan whimpered.

The black-purple veins affected people differently. Some showed no symptoms before they flared up, while others suffered terribly.

Unfortunately, Morgan was one of the latter.

Tony opened his mouth helplessly. His arms trembled around Morgan, and even his voice shook.

"It's okay. It's okay. Daddy's here."

Morgan meant the world to him. Only a few nights ago, she had told him at bedtime that she loved him three thousand.

And now...

Happy stepped forward, guilt written across his face. "Boss... I didn't take good care of Morgan..."

Tony waved him off, his gaze never leaving Morgan in his arms.

"It's not your fault. Don't blame yourself."

Morgan struggled to turn her head and saw Lin Yi. The look in her eyes made his heart ache.

When Morgan had been sick before, she would act spoiled and put on a pitiful face until Lin Yi agreed to whatever she wanted.

Now she seemed too weak even to do that.

"Daddy, Lin... am I... going to die?" Morgan asked, her voice full of fear.

Her words pierced Tony like a knife. Helplessness washed over him, and he nearly lost his grip on her.

Lin Yi felt no better. When he had first arrived in this world, Morgan's innocent company had helped him through a time when he had nearly stopped caring about anyone else. He had long since come to think of the clever little girl as his sister.

He stepped forward and gently covered Morgan's eyes. In his other hand, the Mind Stone and Soul Stone shone softly.

"Don't say that. Your daddy and I are here. You'll be okay."

"Go to sleep. When you wake up, everything will be better. Then I'll take you up into the sky again, okay?"

Morgan did not answer. Under the Stones' influence, she fell asleep, and her breathing gradually steadied.

"I've used the Infinity Stones to put her into a deep sleep for now. She won't feel the pain, but it won't slow the veins' effect on her..." Lin Yi said quietly.

[Sir, I'm sorry to interrupt, but the Stark satellites have just detected a breakdown of order in several cities...]

[The States of Aikrora and Kingsdley have completely lost the ability to maintain order. The State of New Flint Bay is on the brink...]

[Rocket has also confirmed that the black-purple veins have appeared simultaneously on every known inhabited planet and among every known species. The situation resembles that on Blue Star...]

Tony listened silently to F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s report. He had already braced himself for the last piece of news the night before. Something even the Infinity Stones could not affect was unlikely to be confined to Blue Star.

After a long silence, he looked down at Morgan in his arms and sighed. "Lin, I don't think we can wait another week..."

F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s projections had been overturned again and again. The original estimate of six months had shrunk to just two weeks.

"Make the Snap. If it still doesn't work, we move to phase two immediately. We can't waste a second!" Lin Yi said.

Tony nodded without a word and got into the car with Morgan and Lin Yi.

They could not fly with Morgan in her condition, but Tony needed to keep her close so he could respond to anything that happened.

Happy drove the three of them to the Avengers Compound.

Tony held Morgan and stared out the window. Lin Yi wanted to offer some comfort, but his own grim mood left him silent.

"Lin, if there really is no way to fix this, do you think escaping to another universe would help?" Tony suddenly asked.

"You mean traveling through time? I don't know..." Lin Yi frowned, then shook his head. "We'd at least need to know exactly how it spreads before we could say..."

Silence settled over the car again...

After they reached the ruins of the Avengers Compound, Tony called together every core member of the Avengers.

No one could remain calm at the news that Blue Star, perhaps even the entire universe, could become a living hell within two weeks. Nor did anyone object to making another Snap.

Tony built another makeshift Infinity Gauntlet, the vessel for their last hope.

This time, Carol would bear the burden of making the Snap.

It was not that they doubted Lin Yi.

As Strange saw it, Lin Yi himself was a variable. Perhaps the Snap would work if someone else made it. Carol's formidable body could withstand the surge of energy from the Infinity Stones.

Still, that reasoning offered little more than peace of mind.

"I'm starting!" Carol looked around at the Avengers before her. Every face was grim.

She cautiously entered Binary mode, took a deep breath, and put on the Gauntlet.

The Six Infinity Stones lit up at once, flooding her body with immense power. Even Carol, strong enough to travel through space unaided, grunted and trembled involuntarily.

She handled it less easily than Lin Yi had, but far better than Banner, who had nearly collapsed the moment he put it on.

Gritting her teeth, she focused all her will on one crucial wish—to eradicate every black-purple vein and whatever lay at their source.

Voom!

A cosmic gamma-ray burst once again erupted from Blue Star and raced toward the edges of the universe.

When the light faded, Carol pulled off the Gauntlet, panting with exhaustion. The energy burns on her arm were alarming.

Everyone held their breath and looked anxiously at Tony.

Tony's eyes were fixed on Morgan, asleep on a small bed.

One second. Two. Three...

The veins had not changed. Scans and reports from the Stark satellites kept coming in, and Tony's expression darkened. He clenched his fist, helpless.

Their last hope was gone.

The black-purple veins had proved once more that they were on the same level as the Six Infinity Stones, if not beyond them.

"Begin returning the Stones immediately!" Steve decided. "If they can't help, leaving them here will only introduce more variables."

The plan changed again.

Banner, Clint, and Natasha would remain on Blue Star. With the large number of support robots Tony had rushed to build, they would work to contain the worsening attacks, maintain order, and isolate those affected wherever possible.

Tony, Steve, and Carol would return all the Stones except the Time Stone, then enter the Quantum Realm to search for a solution.

Lin Yi would take the Time Stone and accompany Strange to the timeline where the Ancient One was—the same timeline from which Banner had just borrowed the Stone.