by Alex Irvine
“You were right,” Mordo said slowly. Near him, the pedestal that once had held the Eye of Agamotto leaned on its base, almost falling over. “She wasn’t who I thought she was.”
“She was… complicated,” Strange said. That was the best description he could find. His last conversation with her rang in his head again. The Ancient One was right. Strange needed Mordo’s strength and single-minded belief in right and wrong; Mordo needed Strange’s flexibility and ability to see different solutions to a problem.
“Complicated?” Mordo repeated. Strange could see he was still grieving, trying to understand how he could have been deceived for so long. “The Dark Dimension is volatile. Dangerous. What if it overtook her? She taught us it was forbidden while she drew on its power to steal centuries of life.”
“She did what she thought was right.” Strange believed this. As she had said, he knew the value of breaking the rules once in a while to get the needed result.
“The bill comes due,” Mordo said. He sounded almost like a preacher, warning of the wages of sin. Strange wondered what had happened in Mordo’s past to harden him this way. “Don’t you see? Her transgressions led the Zealots to Dormammu. Kaecilius was her fault. And here we are, in the consequence of her deception. A world on fire.”
“Mordo, London Sanctum has fallen. And New York has been attacked. Twice.” Strange didn’t have to say what they were both thinking: If they didn’t do something about it, more fire was coming. The fires of the Dark Dimension—the kind that could never be put out. “You know where they’re going next,” Strange finished.
Of course Mordo did. “Hong Kong.”
“You told me once to fight as if my life depended on it, because one day it might,” Strange reminded him. He could still see Mordo dancing through the air with the Vaulting Boots of Valtorr. “Well, today is that day. I cannot defeat them alone.”
Mordo looked at him quietly… and nodded. As Strange had known he would. He was a soldier who believed in his cause even when he no longer believed in his leaders.
Strange opened a portal to Hong Kong and they leaped through into fire and destruction.
Sirens rose and fell, echoing down the streets. Strange saw fires burning and water spouting from broken fire hydrants. People ran in every direction away from the unfolding catastrophe at the end of the block.
There, the Hong Kong Sanctum lay in ruins. And over it, the terrifying spaces of the Dark Dimension were starting to blot out the sky, swirling and crackling with the deep, unsettling colors of Dormammu’s domain. “The Sanctum has already fallen,” Mordo said. He looked up into the sky. “The Dark Dimension. Dormammu is coming. It’s too late. Nothing can stop him.”
Strange saw Kaecilius, looking pleased with himself, walking up the street toward them with his Zealots flanking him. It was a desperate time, Strange thought. The end of the world… unless he could do something about it. And maybe—just maybe—he could.
“Not necessarily,” he said, and touched the middle and ring fingers of each hand together. The Eye of Agamotto opened.
“No,” Kaecilius said. He sprinted toward Strange, Space Shard raised for the strike that would end the battle once and for all.…
Strange brought the powerful green circle into being. Bands of power encircled his arm.
Kaecilius leaped through the air. The tip of his Space Shard plunged toward Strange… and then slowed… and then stopped.
Strange held the green circle in place, making sure he had control over it. Then, slowly, he began to turn it counterclockwise.
Kaecilius flew backward through the air. Water splashed up from the pavement, and a huge aluminum and neon sign rose from the car it had crushed a minute before. Wrecked cars rolled backward and landed on the road. Strange kept it going, building on the spell until it had its own momentum. “Spell’s working,” he said to Mordo. “We got a second chance.”
Time continued to reverse around the two of them as they ran down the street past Kaecilius and the Zealots—and toward the wreckage of the Sanctum. But Kaecilius didn’t stay trapped in the spell for long. The Dark Dimension was close, yawning above Hong Kong, and its power allowed the fanatic to break free and join Strange and Mordo in their pocket of forward-moving time.
Kaecilius caught up to Strange near the Sanctum and knocked him sprawling. He was nearly hit by a car flying backward through the air. Stephen fought back, trying to get down the block as rubble flew into the air. Buildings repaired themselves, scaffoldings rose from the street. Mordo and one of the Zealots grappled in a flooded part of the street until the water suddenly rose up from the pavement in a wave, carrying her with it. A moment later, she was sealed inside an aquarium, curious fish flitting around her face.
Strange still couldn’t get away from Kaecilius. The corrupted Master was there every time Strange thought he had gotten away. Mordo, having seen what happened to the Zealot, had an idea. An energy whip uncoiled from his hand and caught Kaecilius around one leg. Then Mordo flung him into the ruins of a nearby building.
“No!” Kaecilius roared, but then his voice was cut off as the building rebuilt itself around him. His body was covered in concrete and tile.
Rubble tumbled up from a pile next to a noodle stand, revealing Wong. He blinked, startled, and Strange phased him into the isolated bubble outside time. “Wong!” Then Strange realized what he was doing and remembered what Wong had said about it before. “I’m breaking the laws of nature, I know.”
Wong looked around them, eyes wide open. “Well, don’t stop now.”
Strange looked up at the rubble of the Sanctum, slowly putting itself together into a building again. Above it, the sickly energies of the Dark Dimension receded. “When the Sanctum is restored, they will attack again. We have to defend it. Come on!”
Before they’d gone ten steps, Kaecilius had broken free of the wall holding him. He pounded a fist into the ground, creating a wave of force that slammed Strange, Wong, and Mordo to the ground.
Time slowed… and stopped. It didn’t start going forward again, but it was no longer moving backward, either. The Sanctum hung in mid-collapse. A noodle vendor stood with a pan of noodles hanging in the air while he flipped them.
“Get up, Strange,” Mordo gasped. “Get up and fight! We will finish this.”
Mordo and Wong got up. Strange could barely stand.
“You can’t fight the inevitable,” Kaecilius said as he walked up to them. His eyes seemed to have sunk deeper into his skull, and the scaly gray decay on his face was spreading. He watched the skies, in no hurry. “Isn’t it beautiful? A world beyond time. Beyond death.”
“Beyond time…” Strange recalled the first time he’d looked into The Book of Cagliostro. Mordo had warned him of creating paradoxes, breaking the time stream… and creating loops outside of it.
He could not defeat Kaecilius face-to-face. Not with Kaecilius tapping the power of the Dark Dimension. But there was never only one solution to a problem.
The Cloak of Levitation carried Strange into the air. “Strange!” Mordo called after him. Strange wished he could explain, but there wasn’t time. Soon enough, Kaecilius would break the spell holding time in place. Something had to change before then… and Strange thought he knew what to do.
“He’s gone,” Kaecilius said matter-of-factly as Strange disappeared into the Dark Dimension. His tone was not mocking, but definitely satisfied. “Strange has left to surrender to his power.”
CHAPTER 13
Strange passed among the incredible worlds of the Dark Dimension. Some looked like giant bacteria, others burned with occult fire. They were every size, from small globes Strange could almost reach around to vast spheres that must have been larger than Jupiter or maybe even the sun. Bizarre energies crackled through the space between them. He saw nothing living, nothing that made him think anything ever had lived here. What creature could? What would want to?
Nothing. Only Dormammu. And that was who Strange had come to see.
/> He landed on the surface of a small world. Glowing blue vents in its surface released heat and vile gases. Strange ignored them. He spun one of the bands on his forearm, trying to lock this moment as the beginning of a loop. Had it worked? There was only one way to find out.
Near him he saw what at first looked like a violet-colored sun… but then revealed itself to be just one eye of the monstrous shape of the dread Dormammu. The ruler of the Dark Dimension was the size of a skyscraper, with a body that seemed to be made of stone and arcane fire. Strange leaped from the small globe where he’d first landed to a larger one spinning nearby, closer to Dormammu.
“Dormammu!” he shouted. “I’ve come to bargain.”
Dormammu’s face revealed itself, looming over Strange a hundred feet high. “You’ve come to die,” he said, and his voice was like an earthquake. “Your world is now my world, like all worlds.”
Shards of energy began to fall around Strange. He got his shield up and deflected them. Irritated, Dormammu roared out a stream of energy. Strange leaned into it, holding on… and then he felt the assault overwhelm his powers, and he was disintegrated in a moment.
CHAPTER 14
Dormammu!” Strange shouted. “I’ve come to bargain.”
“You’ve come to die,” Dormammu said, looming over Strange. “Your world is now my world.… What is this illusion?”
“No, this is real,” Strange said.
“Good,” Dormammu said. A moment later, Strange was impaled on stone spikes that fell from above.
CHAPTER 15
Dormammu!” Strange shouted. “I’ve come to bargain.”
“You…” Dormammu paused, confused. “What is happening?”
Strange took a gloating tone. The sooner he got Dormammu angry, the sooner they could get to the real bargaining. “Just as you gave Kaecilius powers from your dimension, I’ve brought a little power from mine.” He spread his arms, with the powerful green bands of the Eye of Agamotto on each. “This is time. An endless looped time.”
“You dare!” Dormammu thundered. Strange looked up and saw his fist coming down, the size of a tank and a thousand times as strong.
“Dormammu! I’ve come to bargain.”
“You cannot do this forever,” Dormammu growled.
“Actually, I can,” Strange said. “This is how things are now. You and me, trapped in this moment, endlessly.”
“Then you will spend eternity dying.”
“Yes.” Strange heard The Ancient One’s words in his head. It’s not about you. “But everyone on Earth will live.”
“But you will suffer.”
“Pain is an old friend,” Strange said, and the violet energy blew him away again.
“Dormammu! I’ve come to bargain.”
Stone spikes impaled him again.
“Dormammu!”
Green tentacles devoured him.
“Dormammu!”
A falling meteor crushed him.
“Dormammu!”
Slashing bolts of energy beat him to the ground… but this time Dormammu stopped before Strange was dead. How many times had he died? He had lost count long ago. “You will never win,” Dormammu said, his voice like giant boulders grinding together.
“No.” Strange knew Dormammu was right about that. “But I can lose. Again and again and again and again, forever.” Strange got to his feet. He’d never hurt so much in his life, and never been so sure he was doing the right thing. “And that makes you my prisoner.”
“No. Stop. Make this stop! Set me free!”
Now I’ve got you, Strange thought. “No. I’ve come to bargain.”
Dormammu leaned close enough for Strange to feel the anger radiating from him, like its own energy that could have incinerated Strange where he stood. “What do you want?”
At last, Strange thought. We get to the point. “Take your Zealots from the Earth,” he said. “End your assault on my world. Never come back. Do it, and I’ll break the loop.”
CHAPTER 16
Get up, Strange,” Mordo said. “Get up and fight! We will finish this.” He dropped into a fighting stance.
Kaecilius and his Zealots walked up to them, unhurried. Kaecilius looked at the sky, churning with the energies of the Dark Dimension. “Isn’t it beautiful? A world beyond time. Beyond death.”
Doctor Strange slowly descended behind him. Kaecilius sensed his presence. Perhaps he sensed something else as well, but Strange would never know. “What have you done?” he said, turning to face Strange.
“I made a bargain,” Strange said simply.
On Kaecilius’s hands, the gray scaly decay began to spread. Tiny violet sparks flickered at its edges. “What is this?” he demanded.
“Well, it’s… it’s everything you ever wanted,” Strange said. “Eternal life as part of the One.” Then he couldn’t help but crack a little smile. After all, he’d been to the Dark Dimension. Kaecilius hadn’t. “You’re not going to like it.”
The violet energy of Dormammu’s eyes crackled across Kaecilius’s body and those of the Zealots. It was as if they were starting to burn, shedding parts of their physical forms as they rose into the air. They spun and tumbled up into the sky, where the Dark Dimension swallowed them. For a moment, Strange thought he saw something else moving in there. More of Dormammu’s servants? He hoped he would never find out.
“I think he really should have stolen the whole book,” Strange said, still looking into the Dark Dimension. “Because the warnings… the warnings come after the spells.”
Wong burst out laughing. Strange couldn’t believe it. All the jokes he’d made, and that line was the one Wong liked? “Oh, that’s funny,” Wong said after a minute.
You never could tell, Strange thought. He brought forth the green ring again, and wrenched time back into motion. First he drew it back to the point where the Sanctum was intact. Then he let it go, to run forward again. Seven billion people on Earth would live out their normal lives.
“We did it,” Wong said.
Mordo nodded, but he looked solemn. “Yes. Yes, we did it. By also violating the natural laws.”
“Look around you,” Strange said. “It’s over.” Okay, maybe they had violated natural laws, but they had saved Earth from Dormammu. That seemed like a win to Strange.
“You still think there will be no consequences, Strange? No price to pay?” Mordo was hurting—Strange could see that. He was a man who had believed in The Ancient One, and now he didn’t know what to believe. “We broke our rules, just like her. The bill comes due. Always. A reckoning. I will follow this path no longer.” He turned his back on them and walked away, still with the sword sheathed on his back, into the chaotic swirl of Hong Kong.
Strange looked at Wong, but neither of them knew what to do. So in the end, they returned to Kamar-Taj.
The first thing Strange did was enter the innermost chamber of the library so he could replace the Eye of Agamotto. He could always come back and get it if he needed it. The chamber had been cleaned up and everything restored to its former state. It was as if Kaecilius’s attack had never happened. Strange found that a little… well, strange. For a moment, he wondered.… Was it because he had manipulated time? No, of course not. It was just the dedication of the students and Masters at Kamar-Taj.
He stood at the pedestal where the Eye of Agamotto rested. At the last moment, he hesitated, unwilling to let it go. Once you had that kind of power…
The Cloak of Levitation fluttered and lifted away from him, sweeping to the far side of the room. “Okay,” Strange said. He got the message. He set the Eye in its fixture.
“Wise choice,” Wong commented. “You’ll wear the Eye of Agamotto once you’ve mastered its powers. Until then, best not to walk the streets wearing an Infinity Stone.”
Infinity Stone? Was that some bit of lore that he’d missed in his reading? “A what?”
“You have a gift for the mystic arts,” Wong said, “but you still have much to learn.” The Eye locked into
place on its pedestal and the image of the world reappeared above it. Both Wong and Strange looked at it for a long moment. “Word of The Ancient One’s death will spread through the Multiverse. The Earth has no Sorcerer Supreme to defend it. We must be ready.”
Billions of lives, Strange thought, still looking at the image of the turning world. He could save them all. “We’ll be ready,” he said.
Together they left Kamar-Taj through a portal, returning to the New York Sanctum. There was much to prepare.
EPILOGUE
Strange settled into his new role more quickly than he’d thought he would. He was learning every day, and he was good at this mystic thing. Anyone who didn’t believe that could go ask Dormammu. As part of the job, he was trying to meet all the other… well, special… beings who were active on Earth, and especially in New York.
One of them was the big, blond Avenger who called himself Thor. He was sitting in the New York Sanctum now, looking around with interest. “So, Earth has wizards now, huh?”
Strange wasn’t sure how to answer such an obvious question. He also was generally uncertain about what social graces to observe with gods. He held up a teapot. “Tea?”
Thor grinned. “I don’t drink tea.”
“What do you drink?”
Still grinning, Thor said, “Not tea.”
From out of nowhere, Strange produced a huge tankard of ale.
“So, I keep a watch list of individuals and beings from other realms that may be a threat to this world,” Stephen said, getting down to business. “Your adopted brother, Loki, is one of those beings.”