On the surface, the Battle of Wakanda raged exactly as planned.
Steve Rogers blocked a Chitauri blade with his shield, spun, and drove his fist into the creature's face. It fell backward, conveniently landing exactly where the medical teams could reach it quickly. Beside him, Bucky disposed of three more with efficient precision, their "deaths" timed to look convincing without actually ending any lives.
"Status report," Steve grunted into his comm.
"All sectors nominal," Natasha's voice replied. "Casualties remain minimal. The Chitauri are following the choreography perfectly—Maw really outdid himself with the battle plans."
"Don't get cocky. We still have—"
He was cut off by a sound that made every warrior on the battlefield freeze.
BOOM.
A column of golden light erupted from the heart of Wakanda, shooting into the sky with enough force to part the clouds. The light was warm, brilliant, and unmistakably powerful—the kind of energy signature that made even the bravest warriors take an involuntary step backward.
And from within that light came a voice. Thanos's voice, amplified by the Stones themselves, echoing across the entire continent.
"PEOPLE OF EARTH. YOUR HEROES HAVE FAILED. THE INFINITY STONES ARE MINE. AND WITH A SINGLE SNAP, I WILL BRING BALANCE TO THIS UNIVERSE."
On the battlefield, even knowing it was fake, even knowing the plan, Steve felt his blood run cold. It was too convincing. Too real. The power radiating from that golden light was genuine—the Stones were truly assembled, truly resonating, truly moments away from doing something catastrophic.
But then he heard the second part of the message—the part only he and a few others knew to listen for.
"WITNESS THE DAWN OF A NEW UNIVERSE."
Witness. The code word. The signal that everything was going according to plan.
Steve raised his shield high and shouted to the warriors around him. "Fall back! Everyone fall back to the palace! We have to stop him!"
It was the cue they'd rehearsed. The Wakandan forces began a controlled retreat, making it look chaotic while actually maintaining perfect discipline. The Chitauri pursued—but slowly, carefully, giving their "enemies" time to reach safety.
And high above, watching through satellites and dimensional monitors, the Realverse movement saw exactly what they expected to see: the final act of the Infinity War, playing out exactly as the narratives predicted.
---
Deep in code-space, Lin Ye felt the shift immediately.
[EXTERNAL OBSERVER STATUS: ATTENTION DIVERTED]
[REALVERSE MOVEMENT NODES: ALL FOCUSED ON SURFACE EVENT]
[CONNECTION TO MIND STONE CORRUPTION: WEAKENED]
[SEVERANCE WINDOW: 30 SECONDS]
"Now!" she shouted. "They're distracted! Sever the connection!"
Thanos's golden form blazed as he channeled the combined energy of five Stones towards the Mind Stone's pillar. Strange's time mandala expanded, slowing the corruption's movements to a crawl. Tony's star erupted in a final burst of creative chaos, overwhelming the corrupted code's ability to adapt.
And Lin Ye and Wanda, working as one, reached into the heart of the darkness and pulled.
The black vines screamed—truly screamed this time, a sound that echoed through code-space and physical reality alike. They fought, they thrashed, they tried to maintain their grip on the Mind Stone's core. But between Thanos's stabilization, Strange's time manipulation, Tony's confusion tactics, and the combined might of Lin Ye's code and Wanda's chaos magic, they couldn't hold.
With a sound like reality itself tearing, the connection snapped.
[CORRUPTION SOURCE: SEVERED]
[MIND STONE STATUS: ISOLATED - CORRUPTION REMAINING AT 49% BUT NO LONGER GROWING]
[EXTERNAL ATTACK: TERMINATED]
[REALVERSE MOVEMENT STATUS: UNAWARE - STILL FOCUSED ON SURFACE EVENT]
Lin Ye collapsed in code-space, her golden form flickering with exhaustion. Beside her, Wanda's crimson energy dimmed to a faint glow. Even Thanos's massive form seemed diminished, the effort of channeling five Stones taking its toll.
But they'd done it. The Mind Stone was isolated. The corruption was contained. And the Realverse movement had no idea.
"We did it," Tony breathed, his star-form pulsing with incredulous joy. "We actually did it. We saved the universe and tricked the bad guys at the same time. I am brilliant. We are all brilliant. This calls for a celebration."
"The celebration can wait," Strange said, but even his mandala pulsed with relief. "We still need to repair the existing corruption. The Mind Stone is at 49%—that's not safe. It needs to be fully restored."
"Then let's get to work." Lin Ye pushed herself upright, her golden form steadying. "Thanos, can you maintain the other Stones' stability while we work on Mind?"
"For as long as necessary," the Titan rumbled. "They are calm now. The corruption's influence has been removed. They can wait."
"Good. Wanda, you're with me again. We need to trace every strand of remaining corruption back to its source within the Mind Stone and rewrite them with clean code. It's delicate work—one mistake and we could damage the Stone's core functions."
Wanda nodded, her crimson energy brightening with determination. "Show me."
---
They worked for what felt like hours—though in physical time, only minutes passed.
Lin Ye guided Wanda through the intricate architecture of the Mind Stone's code, pointing out corrupted sectors and demonstrating how to rewrite them with clean data. The Scarlet Witch proved to be an astonishingly fast learner, her chaos magic adapting to the task with an intuitive grace that Lin Ye could only admire.
"The corruption was targeting specific functions," Lin Ye explained as they worked. "See here? It was trying to overwrite the Stone's ability to process consciousness—to turn it from a mind-enhancing tool into a mind-control weapon. If it had succeeded, anyone near Vision would have become a puppet."
"That's horrifying." Wanda's voice was soft with horror. "To use something so beautiful for something so evil."
"That's what the Realverse movement does. They take beautiful things and twist them into weapons. It's not enough for them to delete fictional universes—they want to make them destroy themselves first."
"Then we have to stop them. All of them. Not just this attack."
Lin Ye paused in her work, meeting Wanda's gaze. "We will. But one universe at a time. First, we save yours. Then we move to the next. And the next. Until every world the Realverse movement has targeted is safe."
Wanda was quiet for a moment. Then: "When you leave—when you go to the next universe—can we help? Can we come with you?"
The question caught Lin Ye off guard. "I... I don't know. The Plot Corrector is designed to transport me between worlds, but I've never tried bringing anyone else."
"Then figure it out." Wanda's voice was fierce. "You're not alone in this fight anymore. You have allies now—in this universe and, hopefully, in others. We can build something. A coalition. A force that can fight back against the Realverse movement on their own terms."
Lin Ye stared at her for a long moment. Then, slowly, she smiled.
"That's actually not a terrible idea."