[New York City. The Sanctum Sanctorum. Early Morning.]
Doctor Stephen Strange woke up gasping. He sat up in bed, sweat drenching his shirt. He had dreamt of a ponytail, a demon, and a girl falling through the stars. He had dreamt of his own corpse.
"Bad dream, Doctor?"
Strange looked toward the window. Sebastian Michaelis was standing there, polishing a relic that looked like a severed gargoyle head.
"It wasn't a dream," Strange rubbed his temples. "It felt real. Another me. Dying."
"Perhaps it is merely indigestion," Sebastian suggested, placing the relic down. "Or perhaps the Multiverse is knocking on the door. Again."
"Don't start," Strange got out of bed. "I have a wedding to get to. Christine is getting married."
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "To someone else? How... tragically human."
"I'm happy for her," Strange lied.
"Of course you are," Sebastian handed him a tie. "Do try to look like you aren't calculating the probability of the groom exploding."
[The Wedding]
The ceremony was beautiful. The reception was awkward.
Strange stood at the bar, swirling a martini. Sebastian stood a few feet away, dressed in his impeccable black suit. He wasn't drinking. He was watching the perimeter, as always.
"You don't have to stand guard," Strange muttered. "It's a wedding, not a war zone."
"With humans, the difference is often negligible," Sebastian replied.
Suddenly, a boom echoed from the street. The ground shook. Screams erupted from outside.
Strange sighed. He put down the martini.
"You were saying?" Sebastian smirked.
[The Street. The Eye.]
They ran outside. Chaos. People were fleeing as a massive, invisible force crushed cars and tore up the pavement.
Strange cast a spell, revealing the creature.
It was Gargantos. A colossal, one-eyed octopus monster with leathery skin and tentacles the size of subway trains. It was tearing apart a bus.
And in front of the bus, running for her life, was a teenage girl in a denim jacket. America Chavez.
"That's the girl," Strange realized. "From the dream."
"And that," Sebastian looked at the monster, "is a calamari appetizer."
[The Fight]
Strange flew into the air, summoning magical mandalas to slice a tentacle. Wong portaled in from Kamar-Taj to catch a falling debris pile.
Sebastian moved on the ground.
A tentacle whipped toward the girl.
Slash.
Sebastian jumped, his silver knives flashing in the sunlight. He severed the tip of the tentacle.
The monster roared, its single giant eye swiveling toward the demon.
"Over here, you overgrown sushi platter!" Sebastian yelled.
He ran, drawing the monster's attention away from the civilians. Gargantos threw a taxi at him. Sebastian slid under it, the sparks showering his coat.
Strange used the Cloak of Levitation to catch the girl. "I got you!"
"Look out!" America yelled.
Gargantos grabbed Strange.
"Wong!" Strange yelled.
Wong summoned a mystic rope, binding the monster. Sebastian leaped onto the monster's head.
He drove a knife directly into the thick skin near the eye.
"It has a thick hide!" Sebastian yelled to Strange. "Magic is bouncing off! We need to pierce the eye!"
Strange summoned a magically conjured lamp post and drove it through the eye.
Gargantos shrieked and collapsed, dissolving into foul-smelling goop.
[The Diner. The Explanation.]
Half an hour later. Pizza Poppa's Diner.
Strange, Wong, and America Chavez sat in a booth. Sebastian stood at the end of the table, arms crossed, looking skeptical.
America explained it all. The Multiverse. Her power to punch star-shaped portals. The monsters hunting her to steal that power.
"They want to take my power," America said, eating pizza frantically. "Because I can travel the Multiverse. If they get it, they kill me."
"Who sends them?" Strange asked.
"I don't know," America said. "But the last one... the one that killed the other you... it was using witchcraft."
Strange looked at Wong. "Runes. Witchcraft."
"We know a witch," Wong said.
Sebastian stiffened. "No."
Strange looked at him. "Wanda is the most powerful magic user we know. She can help protect the girl."
"She is not the woman you remember," Sebastian warned, his voice low. "I was in Westview, Doctor. I saw what grief did to her. And since then... I have smelled something on the wind. Something rotting."
"The Darkhold," Wong whispered. "The Book of the Damned."
"Exactly," Sebastian nodded. "If she has been reading that book... going to her is not asking for help. It is ringing the dinner bell."
"We have to try," Strange stood up. "She's an Avenger. She helped save the universe. I can handle her."
Sebastian looked at Strange's arrogance. It reminded him of Tony Stark before Ultron.
"Very well," Sebastian sighed. "But I am coming with you. If she tries to cast a spell... I will not hesitate to silence her."
"Fine," Strange opened a portal to an apple orchard. "But let me do the talking. You just... look intimidating."
[The Apple Orchard]
They stepped through the portal. The air was sweet. Apple blossoms blew in the wind. It looked idyllic.
Wanda Maximoff was pruning a tree. She looked peaceful.
"Doctor Strange," Wanda smiled. "And... Sebastian. To what do I owe the pleasure?"
Strange walked forward. "We need your help, Wanda. With the Multiverse."
Sebastian hung back. He didn't look at the trees. He looked at the edges of the reality.
He sniffed the air.
It smelled of apples. But underneath... it smelled of sulfur. Burnt souls.
It's an illusion, Sebastian realized. This isn't an orchard. It's a cage.
"We have a girl," Strange was saying. "Someone is hunting her."
"A girl?" Wanda asked, her voice faltering slightly. "Does she have... a name?"
"America Chavez," Strange said.
"And you brought her here?" Wanda asked.
"No," Strange shook his head. "She's at Kamar-Taj. Protected."
Wanda's smile didn't reach her eyes. She tilted her head.
"Trapping a girl in a fortress... doesn't seem very nice, Stephen."
Strange froze. He hadn't mentioned Kamar-Taj.
"I never told you where she was," Strange said slowly.
Wanda stopped pruning the tree. The wind died.
"Deception," Sebastian whispered, his claws extending. "Drop the curtain, Witch."
Wanda looked at Sebastian. Her eyes flashed red.
"You always were the smart one, Butler," Wanda sighed.
She waved her hand.
The apple orchard dissolved. The blue sky burned away. The trees rotted instantly.
They were standing in a dead wasteland. The sky was red. And behind Wanda, the Darkhold floated in the air, whispering.
Wanda's fingers were black. Her outfit was corrupted armor. She was the Scarlet Witch.
"I want the girl," Wanda said, her voice echoing with the voices of the damned. "I want her power. I want to leave this universe. I want to be with my children."
"You can't," Strange summoned his shields.
"Give her to me," Wanda stepped forward. "Or I will burn Kamar-Taj to ash."
She looked at Sebastian.
"And you, Demon. You want to see your Master again, don't you?"
Sebastian flinched.
"I know you do," Wanda whispered, the Darkhold whispering through her. "I've seen it in your dreams. If you help me... I can find a universe where Tony Stark is alive. Where he needs a butler."
Sebastian stared at her. It was the ultimate temptation. To serve him again.
"Well?" Wanda asked.
Sebastian looked at Strange. He looked at the corrupted, broken woman in front of him.
"The Tony Stark I served," Sebastian said coldly, "would never trade a child's life for his own."
He stepped up beside Strange.
"And neither will I."
Wanda's face twisted into a snarl.
"Then you will die with them."
[End of Chapter 65]
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