Chapter Text
The sound of his boots crunching the leaves of the forest floor made a familiar sound to his ears, and though it was dark, the light of the moon illuminated the path enough for Mordo to see and walk through. He clutched the sword hung over his hip, and took a deep breath.
His plan was simple. Lure the Prince to marry him, find evidence of the Sorceress Supreme practising forbidden magic, and stop her before it was too late. The initial idea was to take her magic away, but he thought better of it. Killing was never something he doubted to do, so long as it was right. He did so because it was. It was right. He did have to kill her, what choice did he have? Letting her live is a big enough risk, mercy wouldn't stop her from causing destruction.
He did what was right. He did what he could, what he should, to preserve the natural order of things.
He was right .
As he came to a stop, he crouched over the bushes and stepped onto the clearing, where he found the prince already sitting by a rock near the lake. He was fiddling with some sort of pebble, before it was thrown towards the lake upon the sound of his footsteps padding on the ground. The man stood up from his position, walking towards him.
"Took you long enough." He heard the man mutter underneath his veil.
Why would he even bother to wear his veil at this point? Mordo gave a huff.
No words were exchanged for a moment, and the air seemed to stay still as a silent tension lingered in the atmosphere between them. Just then, the sound of crackling in the air, followed by the familiar sizzling of magic, came from the man as he conjured a band to wrap around Mordo's ankle. Mordo swept to the side before it caught him, and hurriedly pulled out his sword which came out with a whistle that cut through the air.
He lunged forward, swinging the sword towards the man, who swiftly slid back and forth to avoid it. The blade swished towards Stephen's face, and he tugged before realising that it had caught between the orange bands that formed between the man's hands. He felt the man push his hands towards him, and he stepped back to avoid the sword from slicing his face.
Quite suddenly, he felt an elbow hit his nose, which caused him to stumble backwards, and he lifted his foot fast enough to avoid the one sliding to trip him over. He heard a sizzle of mandalas being conjured, and he ran a few steps forward and managed to swing his sword to the man's magic shield, throwing him to the ground a few feet away.
They both panted, and he saw Stephen's chest raising and falling quickly, taking in ragged breaths as he laid on the ground by his side. Mordo clutched his sword tighter, swinging it over his wrist while also breathing hard. He let a menacing smile colour his face.
"It's over now, Stephen." He said, taking careful steps forward towards the man. Stephen rolled over to his back, his head lolling towards Mordo.
"You're a murderer," he said.
Mordo's smile fell, and his face tensed. "I did what was right ," he said through gritted teeth, "She was better off dead, Stephen! You should understand that!"
Stephen shook his head, his breathing picking up as he did so.
"You're a killer!" He cried, before he choked as Mordo harshly grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up as he struggled and flailed. The blade sliced into his abdomen, quickly pulled back as he was dropped back to the ground.
Throwing the sword to his side, Mordo saw blood soak through the man's robes, painting the grass below in red, and saw the light die out in his eyes. He smiled. His hands trembled, he realised, but he paid it no mind.
He did it. He succeeded.
There was a tingling, itching, sinister feeling crawling up his throat, bursting in his chest and making him smile somehow, the grin growing larger until teeth appeared. He started chuckling, which then deliberately grew into a hysterical laugh that echoed through the air, strong enough for the water of the lake to start rippling.
"What's so funny, Karl?" He heard a voice say from the depths of the trees. He stopped, tensed, and turned his head around. A man emerged from the shadows, his hands clasped behind his back as he calmly stepped forward.
Mordo looked towards Stephen's body on the ground, and back towards the man.
"It can't be…" he whispered.
"What can't be?" He heard the man say, "Oh, that? Just a little trick of the light." Stephen said, the body of his dead clone dissipating into thin air. "A little illusion." He smiled smugly.
Mordo looked stunned, frozen in place.
"Cat got your tongue?" Another man, whom he recognised as the peasant who was with the prince from the other night, said. He stepped forward from the dark, arms crossed over his chest as he smirked.
A chuckle came from beside him, and Mordo saw the outline of yellow robes, which could only mean one person. Her head turned towards him, and Mordo felt himself take a step backward.
"Yeah…" Stephen said, after a while. "Not dead." He said, pointing his finger towards The Ancient One and then himself.
"Oh, and also, one more thing." The blacksmith said, pointing to his wrists. "You like your new bracelets, Karl?"
Looking down, Mordo realised that his wrists were bound together.
"Magic restricting cuffs!" The man declared as he threw his hands to the air, Stephen smiled from beside him.
"Pretty cool, huh?" He asked, and Mordo tried to tug at it. He felt it tighten, and that tingling feeling of magic in his chest that was always there seemed to disappear. "Couldn't have done it without him," he said fondly towards the prince, which earned him a disgustingly loving smile.
"We also brought some friends!" Tony grinned, stepping aside to reveal the mass of people behind him. The townspeople started whispering to each other, flitting their eyes back and forth towards him.
"No," Mordo tried, "no, it's not what it looks like!"
He heard Stephen chuckle. "Actually, it is what it looks like."
The people started shouting at him, their voices filling in the otherwise silence of the forest.
"Murderer!"
"Traitor!"
He stumbled backwards, but felt strong arms holding his shoulders, and turned around to see palace guards holding him in place, leading him through the forest. He hung his head in shame as he walked through the crowd, feeling their eyes on him as they threw and spat insults at his face.
It felt like an eternity before he reached the palace dungeons, being thrown into a cell.
*.~ ◇ ~.*
The sky brightened as hues of orange, red, and yellow spread through the clouds, the sun already peeking through and shimmering the surface of the water. The sound of birds flapping their wings can be heard from afar, their chirping greeting the start of a new, bright day. Stephen felt his skin kissed by sunlight, but he suspected the feeling of warmth blooming in his chest didn't come from it.
He turned his head to see Anthony speaking to an excited teen, and stepped forward when the man beckoned him with a hand.
"This is Peter," Tony introduced the kid, his eyes bright, his smile brighter.
"Peter," Stephen greeted, "I've heard a lot about you." He smiled to the teen, who's eyes were quite literally sparkling, he might as well had stars on his eyes.
"Really?" The boy asked, practically jumping on his feet. Stephen gave a chuckle, followed by a nod.
“Okay, okay,” Peter said, “I’m so– What is– How–” he cleared his throat, “How did you guys manage to do all that??” he asked, and the other two couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s pretty simple actually,” Tony said, and Stephen agreed with a nod.
“Before all of this happened, I felt that Mordo was rather… suspicious,” Stephen remarked, “I knew something was up, so I felt it better to communicate it to The Ancient One.”
A knock sounded through her door, and she frowned for a moment, wondering who could be there at this hour. She pulled the door open, and found herself face-to-face with her son.
“Mother, I must tell you something.”
“Sure enough, she confirmed to me that a ‘man in green robes’ was suspected to have done several murders to a few practisioners of the Mystic Arts, and left others alive but lacking their ability to channel any magic.”
“It’s been going on for... a while.” The Ancient One said.
“Why would he do such a thing?”
The Ancient One pursed her lips, hesitating for a moment as she contemplated what to say.
“She revealed to me that the sorcerers Mordo targeted were those that…” Stephen trailed off, looking down to his feet.
“Those that defy the laws of nature,” The Ancient One finished for him, seemingly deciding to join the conversation. “Like channelling magical energy from the Dark Dimension.” She said, Stephen nodded from beside her.
“Like me.” She admitted.
Tony gave a thoughtful hum. Peter nodded his head beside him.
"Then what happened?" The boy asked.
"We made a plan."
"He's going to kill me, my prince. That's for sure."
Stephen gave her a determined look. "I will never let that happen."
"We decided to give the man what he wanted," Stephen said. "At least make him think he got what he wanted.
As Mordo left the door of the library, Stephen stood up from his place. As he sniffed and wiped away his tears, the body under him dissipating away, he called out, "It's over, mother. You can come out now."
The Ancient One appeared from behind a shelf, smiling at him.
"I was glad that Mordo… challenged me to a duel of some sort, in this lake of all places." Stephen continued.
"Oh, and that's where I get dragged into this mess," Tony said, which made Stephen chuckle.
"He came to me that day, and finally explained what's been going on. Everything." Tony said, looking at the man.
He gave a tight squeeze, before stepping backwards. Looking around, he was suddenly glad that his workshop was placed tight between alleys, which allowed the benefit of not having many people come walking by—unless they needed to.
He looked back at the man, and gave him a stern look.
“Explain.”
Stephen searched his eyes for a moment, before something akin to faith settled in his eyes.
“Remember that guy named Karl?”
Tony nodded and beckoned him to continue.
“Stephen told me the whole ‘I found your silly little veil at your date, now here’s a threat for you to marry me, or else,’ thing from that guy, and–”
"I already knew their relationship, by the way," The Ancient One remarked, and Peter's head perked up at her. "Stephen is… not particularly good at hiding things. Especially from me." She said, and Stephen huffed, while Tony laughed at him.
“Yeah… I did feel you knew something.” Stephen nodded slowly.
Peter chuckled a little. “And then…?”
"Anthony then came up with such a brilliant idea," he said, smiling beneath his veil, "magic restricting cuffs."
"Magic restricting cuffs," Tony said, pointing out his index finger. "Stephen helped enchant it with his magic-thingy-majig, and then we tested it out on him. It worked!" Tony grinned. Stephen gave him a fond look.
"You constantly amaze me with your wonderful ideas, love," Stephen said to him, "always."
Tony giggled a little. "Actually," he said, "I have one more wonderful idea that I'm sure would amaze you again."
He dropped to kneel on one knee, and grabbed something from his pocket.
"Prince Stephen Vincent Strange," he began, and Stephen slightly gasped. The fingers holding up the ring he had crafted for him trembled, "the love of my life, my light in the dark, the person who made me believe in faith," he stared up at him, "the person I was meant to be with," Stephen's eyes began to glaze over, "will you marry me?" Anthony asked sincerely, letting his voice be filled with the love and adoration he felt for the man.
Stephen pulled him up to a tight embrace.
"Yes!" he said, holding tighter, "A million times yes!"
And Tony laughed. He pulled back, and took Stephen's hand in his. Tony gently put the ring through Stephen's finger, and he felt tears falling as he did so.
"I love you," Tony said, after lifting his head up to the man.
Stephen gave a wet laugh, smiling, eyes wet yet twinkling as he stared at the ring that adorned his finger.
"I love you too."