Time was passing, Ana knew it, but she was trying not to panic. Simmons had spent 6 months on an alien planet and the team hadn't given up on her. They weren't going to presume Ana dead just because she was gone for a month or so, especially after they had been assured by the Spirit of Vengeance that she was safe.

She might as well use this time to be productive.

"How do you know about Thanos?" she asked Grandpa Stark one day.

"The Masters of the Mystic Arts live and train in Kamar-Taj. There are three Sanctums around the world, connected to this place: The New York, London, and Hong Kong Sanctums. Sigyn was invited to the New York Sanctum, while I was still young. She met the Ancient One there. I never knew until the Ancient One herself told me."

"So, your trusted friend was keeping secrets from you. What a shocker… Anyway, what does Thanos have anything to do with it?"

"Sigyn had a vision of the future there, with the help of a… magical artifact. She saw Thanos adopt her, and make her kill Loki. The Ancient One normally couldn't see anything beyond her own death, but she saw this through Sigyn."

"So, Sigyn knew about Thanos, too? Why didn't she warn anyone? Is it a part of her strategy or something? What's her game?"

"There's no game, Ana. No strategy."

"What about the Ancient One?"

"She says it's not her fight."

"Yeah, she told me the same thing… How could they?" she cried, furious. "Where's that woman? I want to talk to her, now!"

"Ana, calm down. People who dabble in magic, they're not like us. Their way of thinking is much more… subtle, especially when it comes to visions. I think self-fulfilling prophecies are what they fear the most."

"That's bullshit, the future can be changed! I've done it before, I'll do it again! Hell, we'll do it together: You, me, and Dad…"

"Okay, first, mind your language. Secondly, how can you be so sure you can change the future at will? You simply got lucky that night. Very lucky."

And then, she realized something else. "Wait a minute… You said Sigyn was forced to kill Loki in that vision… Loki is dead."

"Is he, though? He's called the God of Lies for a reason. If I know one thing about Asgardians, it's the fact that they live up to their titles."

"I have to go to Asgard…"

"What?"

If Loki was alive, it wasn't too late to have a word with him. "I have to go to Asgard, and talk to Loki. He knows Thanos. He can tell us how to defeat him!"

"Terrible idea."

"Why?"

"Because if he chose to serve Thanos, he either worships the Mad Titan, or dreads him. Either way, he won't help you."

Ana was going to argue, but the Ancient One interrupted. "Howard, he is back."

"I wasn't expecting him to be done with his enemies so soon."

"He's not, but he says there's a rift between Hell and Earth. Someone on the other side has been stealing dark matter from here, even I can feel it. This might be your only chance to get home."

It looked like they were going to continue this discussion at home. She wondered whose plan her dad would support. Well, after having a major freakout upon seeing his dad, of course…

"Let's go!" he said.

They ran through the maze and to the mouth of the cave. Robbie—or, the other guy—was in his car, all lit up. A chain was wrapped around his torso. They all got into the car, and the Ghost Rider hit the gas.

"Be prepared for a fight," the Ancient One said gravely. "I doubt we're the only ones who sense the rift."

Grandpa nodded. "Frost and his troops will be waiting."

"Troops?" Ana gasped. "I'm so glad we're finally getting the hell out of here… Pun intended." I'm not going to die today, she told herself. I'm going to see Dad again. I'm going to give him his father back, and the name of the alien who's been haunting him since New York. I don't care how many hell beasts Whitney Frost has at her disposal.

"I'm not coming," the Ancient One said. "This is where I belong now."

"What? Are you insane?" Seriously, who would willingly stay in a place like this? Grandpa had once explained to her why the natural laws of Earth didn't apply here. The very atmosphere of Hell absorbed all forms of energy. It was also why everybody who was trapped here started feeling morose after a while.

"When I was alive, I'd draw power from the Dark Dimension. I kept telling myself that I had to stay alive for the greater good. In truth, I was just scared of death. I'm lucky I didn't fall into the hands of Dormammu when I died, and ended up here instead."

"My gosh, who's Dormammu?"

"Not someone we'll ever have to worry about," Grandpa Stark assured her.

Suddenly, another thought crossed her mind, and she turned to the Ancient One again. "How did Sigyn see the future?"

"Why do you ask?"

"There's another Infinity Stone on Earth, isn't there? The Time Stone, it was yours."

Amusement flickered across her pallid face. Ana had always expected a lecture from her about why she shouldn't be meddling with things she didn't understand, like the ones she had got from Sigyn and Thor all the time, but the Ancient One seemed to be enjoying Ana's determination instead. A practitioner of magic who didn't scoff at science was a rare thing, so Ana was trying to be respectful to her craft in return.

"It was in my possession, yes."

"Can I borrow it?"

"You're not going to give up, are you?"

"Never."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from the child my son raised," Grandpa Stark bragged.

"I doubt Doctor Strange will let you borrow it. I know I wouldn't. It's too dangerous in the hands of anyone who's not the Sorcerer Supreme. But because you asked so nicely, I'm going to help you. Go to 117A, Bleecker Street. That's where you'll find him. Tell him 'Death is what gives life meaning.' He'll know who sent you. He can use the stone to stop Thanos before it's too late."

They were going towards the mountains in the distance. Ana now had a chance to take a more careful look at the Hell dimension. It was mostly uninhabited. They sometimes came across dark silhouettes against the blue haze, but the Rider was driving so fast that she didn't have the chance to examine them. They ran away when they saw the car anyway. They feared the Spirit of Vengeance.

"Almost there," her grandfather was whispering to Ana her every once in a while.

The car eventually entered a steep path between the two mountains. A valley. And an ambush. Suddenly, they were surrounded by fiery skeletons, dozens of them. They looked somewhat like the Ghost Rider, only they were just bones without any flesh, and they were much less friendly. They were throwing themselves at the car. The Ghost Rider roared, and the car started burning brighter, consuming the skeletons. Their screeches were unbearable. Ana covered her ears, wishing she had her suit. She was going to be completely useless during the fight. Grandpa Stark pulled her to his chest.

"Close your eyes," he said. "It's going to be over soon. I'm here. I won't let anyone hurt you. I love you so much, Ana. No matter what happens today, please remember that."

She tried to relax into his embrace, trying to ignore the mayhem going on outside. And she found herself trusting this man she had known all her life, and yet only for a few weeks at the same time. She trusted him unconditionally, the way she trusted her father. Perhaps blood indeed ran thicker than water. "I love you, too."

The car stopped. Ana looked up. There was a blonde woman whose face was covered with a golden mask, standing in front of them. "Retreat!" she ordered, and the remaining skeletons started backing away from them.

"Frost?" Ana asked under breath.

"Yes," her grandfather confirmed.

The Ghost Rider roared in rage again, but as he got out of the car, Frost disappeared in a cloud of Darkforce. The Rider roared again, this time obviously in frustration. Ana was just relieved. It was a good thing the one demon the others didn't want to mess with was on their side.

They all followed him out of the car. The rift the Ancient One was talking about was just 15-20 feet ahead. Ana could see the air rippling there. They walked up to it in silence, then the two men stopped in their tracks, as if there was an unspoken agreement between them.

Ana stopped, too. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

"We still have a deal," Grandpa Stark said darkly, to the Rider.

The Rider nodded.

"Take her to SHIELD, tell them to use the TAHITI Protocol on her. They'll know what it means. She can't remember anything about me, Hell, or Thanos… Charles Hinton as well."

At that moment, it dawned on her. She was going to have a taste of her own poison. Ana considered herself a good schemer, but she wasn't on the top of the food chain. That spot was reserved for the one and only Howard Stark. "I'm good at telling people what they want to hear, too." That was what he had said. What he had meant was "I'm BETTER at telling people what they want to hear." He had never intended to go back to the land of the living.

Once again, she had fallen into the trap of induction, as JARVIS had once put it. She had trusted a man the way she trusted her father, just because they shared some DNA. And now, that mistake was going to cost her everything.

"Grandpa, please! Don't do this! Don't let them take away my memories! Stay here if you want, but I need to remember everything I learned."

"I'm sorry, my dear. I told you, the greater good has rarely outweighed my own self-interest."

"And what self-interest is it this time? Are you working for Thanos?"

"What? No!"

"Why, then? I'm trying to protect my father! Your son! Doesn't he mean anything to you?"

"He means everything to me. So do you. I'm doing this to protect you. You two are no match for the likes of Thanos. The Mad Titan plans to kill half of the universe. If you stay out of his way, you have a 50% chance to survive. But if you fight him, you're 100% going to die. It's simple math."

The Rider growled impatiently, but behind him, the Ancient One had summoned some kind of shields. "Howard… Don't do this," she said threateningly.

He summoned Darkforce wisps in response. "You know what's going to happen to her, right? Dying in a timeline she doesn't belong in, you know what that means? Her soul will have no place to go. She'll be trapped in her dead body forever… An eternal torment, worse than the dungeons of Hell. If that's her destiny, I'll do whatever I have to do to change it."

"What if you're the one who's sealing it?" the Ancient One asked. "What if that vision is only going to come to pass because of what you choose to do here today?"

Ana nodded frantically. "She's right. I've changed the future before. Just have some faith in me, please! Dad would. If I told him I could change the future, he would believe me!"

"I don't know, Howard," Robbie, who had returned to his human form, said. "I don't want to do this to Ana. It feels wrong."

"Wrong? What do you think she'll do once she goes back to Tony? She'll tell him everything! You know how headstrong she is. Tony is even worse. The two will open another portal here. They won't stop until they get me back and unleash Hell upon Earth! They will awaken Mephisto's wrath! How many innocent people will die, then?"

Yeah, he was good at telling people what they needed to hear. But then, so was she. "I won't," she begged Robbie. "I swear I won't say a word!"

"She's lying," Howard Stark said. "Her ultimate loyalty lies with Tony. It's the one thing that will never change. And even if it didn't? She'd still speak with Strange about Thanos! And Strange would try to save his mentor this time! We can't take the risk!"

She didn't know about Doctor Strange, but her grandfather was right about Ana. Lying to her dad about things like the Darkhold was one thing, but looking at his face and pretending like she had never been to another dimension and met his father? She didn't have the heart for that, especially after Siberia.

"If you do this, one day I'll figure out what happened here, and I'll never forgive you," Ana threatened him.

He shrugged. "At least you'll be alive not to forgive me."

"Howard," the Ancient One repeated, approaching them dangerously. "I don't want to fight you, but I will."

"So be it…" The wisps became longer and denser, like he was holding a mass of tentacles in each palm.

"Go!" the Ancient One told her. "I'll hold them off, but you must hurry! Tell your father everything, then find Sigyn and Doctor Strange!"

"Thank you," Ana whispered, and ran. She ran to the rift as fast as she could. She didn't look back. The vortex sucked her in, and a second later, she stepped into her own world.

She studied her surroundings briefly. She had passed through a circular contraption, some kind of portal generator. Something looking rather scientific than magical, but it was half-buried in debris. I'm fact, there was debris everywhere, but the room looked familiar. She was back on the Playground. What the hell had happened while she was away? Then she heard faint footsteps dying away in the distance. She started running again.

"Daisy? Coulson? Mack? Fitz-Simmons?"

But it wasn't any of her friends she found in the abandoned base. It was General Talbot. Actually, under these circumstances, this was even better. Talbot might be a pain in the ass, but he was Air Force. These guys took care of their own, and everyone knew the Starks were family to Colonel Rhodes. She could trust them.

"Ms. Stark? Where did you come from?" Talbot asked, obviously surprised to see her. Then he returned to his men with a scolding frown. "I thought we swept the whole place?"

Ana came to a halt, panting. "Not their fault. I just came through a portal."

Nobody laughed.

"A portal?"

She remembered the phone in her pocket. She took it out and gave it to Talbot. Even if they erased her memories, there were enough pictures and videos in the phone for her dad to understand what had happened. "There's no time to explain. He's coming for me… You have to take this to my father."

He took the phone and gave it to one of the soldiers. "Son, take this to the Avengers Compound. You know where that is, right?"

"Upstate New York, sir."

"Good. Go! No matter what happens, don't stop!"

The soldier saluted, and stormed off. Ana was grateful. "We must leave, too."

"Ms. Stark, calm down. You're safe now."

"None of us is safe!"

"Sir!" another soldier said warily. When they looked, they saw the Ghost Rider, all lit up, approaching menacingly.

Talbot cursed. "Tell me you have a suit with you."

"No."

"Get behind us, then."

She did. They all pointed their guns at him, but it was a useless effort. The Spirit of Vengeance wouldn't kill them, though. They were going to survive this. So, Ana turned around and started running to the stairs in her desperation.

She was about to make it to the main gate when she was caught.

"Robbie!" she cried desperately. "Robbie, look around! Something is not right! Our friends might be in danger! Daisy, Coulson, Mack, Fitz, Simmons… Come on, Robbie, we're friends! Please, don't do this. We're friends, we—"

The Rider just slammed her head against a pile of debris, and everything went dark.

…

When she woke up, she was still on the Playground, in the Containment Chamber. Daisy was here, too.

"Daisy?" she asked, shooting up in the bed. The first thing she had felt was relief, for her mind was still her own, untouched. But there was something else that didn't seem right. There was soot smeared across the white walls of the chamber. Then she recalled finding the base in ruins upon returning from Hell. "What happened?"

"A lot… Are you okay? Robbie hit you pretty hard in the head."

"Where's he?"

"He returned to Hell, took the Darkhold with him. You don't have to worry about that book anymore."

"Did he tell you who I met there?"

"Yeah. He told us about Howard Stark."

"What about you? Seriously, what happened while I was gone?"

"We've been through a different kind of hell, and there's not much time to tell you about it. Long story short, the whole world thinks I shot Talbot in the head, but it was an LMD. They're coming for us. Don't worry, you won't be held responsible for any of this. We're going to make you look like a victim of SHIELD. We owe you that much, I guess. SHIELD is basically an illegitimate organization, again, but Coulson pulled some strings. You'll be sent to…"

"… TAHITI?"

In response, a look of guilt crossed Daisy's face. Ana went up to her. "Daisy, listen to me! I don't care what Robbie told you guys, you can't let them do this! You know what Charles showed me! This is how it begins!"

"What if this is how it ends?"

"No! I finally know who's really behind New York, you can't make me forget that! You'll doom us all!" She looked at the point where the security cam was hidden. "Coulson! I know who sent Loki! Are you really going to brush it off? Come on!"

The door whooshed open, and Simmons entered. With an injector in her hand. Ana started shaking with intense fear and panic coursing through every fiber of her being. She knew the TAHITI Protocol well enough. They were going to cut her skull open, and then implant false memories into her brain with Memory Overwriting Machine, all the while she was wide awake. But the procedure itself wasn't even what really scared her. What really scared her was the fact that her mind, her greatest weapon against Thanos, would be sabotaged. For years, she had been clawing her way through the unknown to get to this point, to get answers, and now they were going to be snatched from her, by those she considered friends, in the most callous way imaginable. Maybe, just maybe, the phone had made it to her dad, but deep down, she knew she wasn't that lucky. She didn't dare ask about it.

"Simmons… please."

"I'm so sorry, Ana. I know you mean well. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. That's how we lost Radcliffe. We're not going to lose you, too."

"You know I'll realize something is wrong, right? Even if you change my memories—"

"They're not going to implant false memories. I've given the doctors specific instructions. They know even the smallest hint is enough to lead you to the truth, so they won't give you anything. You'll just know that you spent some time in another dimension, and were brought back by Robbie Reyes, that's all."

"Don't do this. If you do, you'll regret it," she begged one last time.

Simmons averted her gaze. "Daisy, hold her."

"Daisy, please," she begged one last time.

"You once told me we had to go against our instincts to change the future. That's what we're doing now. Everything's going to be alright. We'll be ready for Thanos."

Daisy grabbed Ana and pushed her against the wall. Simmons jabbed the injector into her neck.

A/N: This chapter was tough to write. I hated to ruin things between Ana and Coulson's team. But it needed to be done. Please remember that it's not to demonize the team or anything, but to show the consequences of losing the faith people had in you.

Ana was right to think this is what starts the chain of events that will lead to the end of the world, but the others were right to be worried about the equally destructive consequences of messing with the Hell dimension. The Ghost Rider had a deal with Howard, so Robbie didn't have much of a choice, and Howard just thought he was protecting his family. It's just everyone fighting for what they think is right. Anyway, excuse my rambling. I just love conflict.

As for the Ancient One… Well, Robbie had powers similar to the Masters of the Mystic Arts by the end of Season 4, so in my headcanon, he found himself a mentor in Hell. It might as well be the Ancient One herself.