Saving Grace

Eighty Eight

Grace looks at this woman, her panic beginning to settle. "I'm so confused."

"I know," the woman replies. "Let start with an introduction. I'm the Ancient One. And that's really all you need to know about me, except for one more thing: I guard this Stone-" she holds up the pedant on her necklace "-and I cannot let this out of my sight."

"But surely you know why we need it?" Grace replies desperately..

The Ancient One turns, walking to yet another part of the roof — the thing was practically a maze — and forcing Grace to follow her. "I do," she says, "but you must understand that if I give up the Time Stone to help your reality, I'm dooming my own."

Grace's brows furrow. "How?"

They end up next to the door again, and the Ancient One stops. Wordlessly, she reaches far to her left, then pulls to the right, revealing a long, string of orange electricity stretched out to forever. It moves forward, though doesn't change in length, and it sounds like rushing water but crackling. Grace's eyes are wide in amazement.

A circle of orange appears on the line as the Ancient One speaks. "The Infinity Stones create what you experience as the flow of time." The circle turns into the Stones, which move around the line slowly. "Remove one of the Stones," the Ancient One says, flicking the Time Stone away, "and that flow spilts." A black line appears, moving away from the orange one, far in another direction. The Ancient One continues. "Now, this may benefit your reality, but my new one, not so much. In this new branch reality, without our chief weapon against the forces of darkness, our world would be overrun. Millions will suffer. The Peter here will suffer, you see? The Tony here will, the Grace here."

Grace looks at it helplessly, then up at the Ancient One. "So what can we do?"

She shrugs. "Well, you're 'Saving Grace,' aren't you? You tell me."

Grace looks back at the line between them, thinking. How could they prevent that? They can't bring all the Stones here, to this point, because they don't have enough Pym particles. But there's no other way to get the Stones all together in order to put them in a gauntlet and snap everyone back. Not without taking them out of this time — this reality.

But what if they could... bring them back here?

"We can't prevent it," Grace says, eyes alight with an idea, "but what if we erase it? Because once we're done with the Stones, we can return them all back to where we got them, right at the moment they were taken. Hank Pym will be alive then, so he can make more particles. Chronologically-" Grace reaches into the air hesitantly, grabbing the Time Stone out of it, "-in that reality-" she replaces it in the circle, and the black line disappears "-it'll be like it never left."

The Ancient One, to Grace's surprise, turns and walks away. "Yes, but you're leaving out the most important part." She stops at the end of the roof, then turns again, her face absolutely serious. "In order to return the Stones, you have to survive."

Grace walks over to her. "We will. It only takes one to return the Stones. We can do it. I promise."

The Ancient One frowns slightly. "I can't risk this reality on a promise." She sees Grace's face fall and continues. "It's the duty of the Sorcerer Supreme to protect the Time Stone."

Grace shakes her head, a bit angry now, frustrated. "Then why would Doctor Strange give it away?"

The Ancient One stops. "What?"

"Strange gave the Stone away to Thanos," Grace repeats. "Why? Just to save my dad? Because Dad told me everything. Strange said that he would let both him and Peter die before giving up the Stone. It doesn't make sense."