Chapter Text
When Stephen woke up the next morning, he was confused since he already smelled food being cooked. Stephen walked out of his room and walked to the kitchen where Wanda was sitting at the counter, leaning back against a chair as she read a book, waving her hand as the silver dollar pancakes and scrambled eggs cooked themselves by the oven, a few oranges getting juiced and some batter and cups cups of coffee started getting made. Wong looked up form his spot at the counter across from Wanda and said, "Morning Strange."
"Um... Morning." Stephen said cautiously as he glanced over at Wanda. "Morning Wanda."
"Morning." Wanda said, not looking up from her book. "Tea or coffee?"
"Wha?"
"What do you drink for breakfast? Tea or coffee?"
"Coffee... With creamer." Stephen said as a white coffee mug that said 'Oh for fox sake' on it drifted from the cabinet, the coffee pot pouring some coffee into the ceramic mug, some creamer pouring itself in, and a spoon going into the mug and stirring the contents together. Stephen took the mug out of the air and said, "Thank you... You been up for a while?"
"Yeah. I had to take care of my kids."
"You already astral projected to feed your goats this morning?"
Everything in the kitchen seemed to pause for a few seconds before the chaos picked up again and Wanda said, "Yes... My goats... I did feed them this morning... I'm still astral projecting there now, actually."
"I'm sorry... You're astral projecting right now?" Wong asked.
"Duh. Can't you do that?"
"Not... Not like this..." Wong said uneasily. "When we astral project, we can only control our astral forms. Why... How..."
"It's called multitasking." Wanda said, focusing on her book. "Breakfast should be done soon. I made enough for the apprentices too."
"Do you... Always do this?"
"Yeah. Gives me an opportunity to practice control."
"And you didn't like... Say a spell to do this?"
"Nope. Don't need to."
"Why?"
Wanda shrugged. "I don't know... I just don't need to know any incantations. I just think it, and it happens."
Wong took a sip of his tea as Wanda quickly said, still studying her book, "Careful what you think around me, I can read your thoughts without even trying. And yes, I know this is weird, I just try not to question it."
Wong almost choked on his tea, Wanda glancing up from her book. "What... Did you not know I could read minds?"
"Not really."
"Well, now you know." Wanda said, going back to her book. Wong and Stephen looked at each other, trying to gage what the other was thinking about the situation, as Wanda said, once again staring at her book, "No, I don't actively search for minds to read, you weirdos. Sometimes, like right now, thoughts are just so loud that I don't even have to try to pry into someone's mind to figure out what they're thinking. I do have some limits and boundaries I actively set. Take a chill pill."
Stephen glanced down at the book Wanda was reading, realizing she was reading The Great Gatsby. He didn't even realize that their library had that book. "Never would have taken you as a Gatsby fan."
"Oh, I'm not." Wanda said quickly. "Vision was, however. This is the book he used to teach me how to read... Well, not this book specifically. His copy with his notations got destroyed when Avengers Compound got blown up by Thanos. I've been looking for this book everywhere, but they don't sell it at the bookstore in the village I live near."
"He... He taught you how to read?"
"Well, I never went to school like you did, Dr. Strange. My country was a war zone, and then Tony Stark's bombs killed my parents when I was ten. I joined the Avengers when I was about seventeen or so, and during the seven years in between, my twin brother and I unknowingly joined Hydra and willingly got experimented on because we were angsty teenagers in need of revenge and in desperate need of stable parents. Pietro died, I got that in Steve and Natasha since Clint attempted to retire after I joined, and now Steve and Nat are dead." Wanda said, studying Stephen with a neutral expression on her face as she bluntly explained, at the very least, two therapy session's worth of trauma. "So yes, Stephen, Vision taught me how to read eight years ago, minus five because I got Snapped. Do you have a problem with that or something?"
"No... No... No problem at all... Just... Where did you learn English if you didn't go to school?"
"Old American sitcoms. My family had English Night. That's why I accidentally made Westview a sitcom. Sitcoms are literally the one comfort in my life, and I was watching the Dick van Dyke Show when my parents died. The same episode played on repeat for two days and helped make me and my brother less scared." Wanda said, rolling her eyes as she went back to The Great Gatsby.
"Morning." Loki said as he walked into the kitchen. "Whatever is being made for breakfast smells amazing."
"Thank you Loki." Wanda said, waving her hand as a green mug floated out of the cabinet. "Tea or coffee?"
"Tea... With milk."
"Coming right up."
As soon as America was awake and everyone ate breakfast, Stephen walked back to his room and put on his suit for Christine's wedding. As soon as he was dressed and combed his hair, Stephen walked out and said to Wong in the library, "Okay... I'm off to the wedding."
"Have fun." Wong said.
"Doubt I will."
"Try to be positive."
"But I'm gonna be surrounded by love, and I don't like love. If it was my weddin-"
"But it isn't your wedding, it's Christine's, and Christine is your friend, which is why you're going." Wong said, a little annoyed.
Stephen sighed as he said, "Whatever I did, I did it to protect the world."
"And you need to understand that you can't control everything, Strange." Wong retorted back. Wong took a deep breath as he said, "This is all happening because you did a spell that I remember telling you not to do."
"Well... I'm sure I had a good reason to disobey you."
"Is that what happened, or did you let your ego get the better of you again?" Wong asked.
Stephen shrugged. "Time will tell?"
Wong sighed, hanging his head. "Just... Go to the wedding.
Stephen smiled, making a portal behind him. "I'll go grab you if I need anything."
"Uh huh..." Wong said exhaustedly.
Stephen nodded, walking through the portal. He walked into the wedding, readjusting his tie, and sat down in one of the pews. As he fiddled with his watch, waiting for the time to pass, he heard a distant voice say, "Stephen, I need your help."
Stephen looked more alert, searching through the crowd to see the same brown haired boy he had been seeing for weeks staring at him, nervously fiddling with his hands as he kept talking. "When, um, when Mysterio revealed my identity, my ENTIRE life got screwed up and I-I was wondering-I mean, I don't really know if this would actually work, but-"
"Come on kid, just spit it out." Stephen muttered to himself.
"Dr. Strange?" Someone asked as they tapped Stephen's shoulder. Stephen jumped and saw Nicodemus West, one of his old coworkers from Metro Geeneral, standing beside him. Stephen turned back in the direction of the boy to discover that he had disappeared.
Stephen sighed, lowering his head as she scooted over to let West inside. "Jesus Dr. West. You startled me."
"I thought that it would have been hard to startle you. I mean, you are an Avenger." West said as he sat down next to Stephen. "How have you been doing since we got back?"
"Fairly well."
There was an awkward silence before West said, "Well, I'm not doing that well, thanks for asking. While I was gone, my two cats died... And my brother. I often find myself wondering nowadays if there really was no other option. If we really had to go away for five years. If some deaths could have been avoidable."
"I assure you, nothing was unavoidable. We did the only play we could."
"The Avengers did the only play they could, or they did the only play that would make you the hero in the end?" West asked, Stephen slowly turning his head to glare at him. West rolled his eyes as he continued, "Don't look at me like that Strange. Everyone at Metro General always knew that when it came to actually doing surgery, you liked to be the one holding the knife. Hell, you would have done your own surgery if you had the choice. Who's to say that you didn't orchestrate things in your favor to come out the victor over Tony Stark?"
"That's out of line, West." Stephen said angrily.
"I'm just pontificating, of course. Not accusing you or anything." West said defensively. "Of course, that is to say that you aren't holding the knife in Christine's life currently. I wonder how you're reacting to losing control over that particular knife."
Stephen tensed up as he heard the wedding march, standing up as he watched Christine walk down the aisle. Stephen watched in silence with the rest of audience, hearing a nagging voice in the back of his head that he knew for a fact wasn't his own. "Ya know... I'll never be able to do this. The possibility for this was all taken away from me."
Stephen did his best to discreetly look around the venue for the voice, but came up short. The voice continued, "I'm not saying that I'm not to blame for this either, Stephen, we both share equal blame, but like West said, you were the one holding the knife. You were the adult. I was emotional. You could have told me all of my options before deciding to do what you thought was best."
Stephen finally found the source of the voice sitting directly in front of him. It was the teenage boy once again, now wearing a crumpled navy blue suit with a blue collared shirt and half of a necktie. Stephen could have sworn that he was sitting directly in front of him, talking out loud, but everyone else was zeroed in on the nuptials at the front of the room. The boy turned to stare at Stephen, a dead look in his eyes, and try as Stephen might, he couldn't recognize the face in front of him. The boy's mouth opened as his voice rung out in Stephen's head, "Now, thanks to our actions that had good intentions, the universe is once again crumbling around us and I am just a faceless person in a crowd. What are you gonna do about that?"
"I now pronounce you husband and wife." The minister said, Christine smiling at her new husband. "You may now kiss the bride."
The crowd cheered as Christine kissed her husband, everyone eventually moving out of the room to go to cocktail hour. Stephen stuck close to the bar, making small talk with anyone who came over. After maybe twenty minutes, Christine walked over and asked the bartender, "Could I have a glass of red wine, please?"
"Allow me." Stephen said, waving a hand over the glass of water he hadn't taken a sip of, turning the water into wine.
Christine snorted, taking the glass to take a sip. "Wow... A regular Jesus, aren't you?"
Stephen shrugged. "I try."
Christine smile, resting her elbow on the bar. "How are you, by the way? I heard about some fight on top of the Statue of Liberty."
"I... Don't remember much about that, not gonna lie." Stephen admitted.
"Strange..." Christine commented.
"My mind is just... Continuously drawing a blank right now."
"Well... Could you not draw a blank when my husband gets over here?" Christine asked, waving her husband over. "Embarrassingly enough, he is a huge fan of your's."
"Then I'll try not to draw a blank." Stephen said reassuringly. "Your husband's name is... Charlene, right?"
"Stephen-"
"Calm down. I know that his name is Charlie. I was kidding." Stephen said jokingly.
Christine rolled her eyes as Charlie walked over, putting an arm around his wife. Charlie was a tall man, slightly shorter than Stephen, with short black hair and dark skin. He seemed nice, as far as Stephen could tell, which wasn't a lot. Christine motioned to Charlie with her wine glass and said, "Charlie, this is Doctor Stephen Strange. We used to work together before he became a big time Avenger."
Charlie's face lit up as he held out a hand. "Nice to meet you, sir! You're probably one of my favorites."
"A pleasure, I'm sure." Stephen said, hesitantly shaking Charlie's hand. "I wish you two every happiness."
At that moment, Stephen heard commotion outside. Stephen turned his head and saw the outside world turning back into black ink. His eyes widened. It was happening again. Maybe they had less time than he thought that they did. Stephen looked over at Christine and asked, "Is there an empty room here where I can perform a spell? I need to stabilize the universe again."
"Again!?" Christine asked.
"Yeah... I'm dealing with a Multiverse problem right now."
"Then why are you here!?"
"I have this all under control."
"Yeah, sure." Christine said, rolling her eyes. "Go do the spell and then find the root of this. We can celebrate my marriage later."
"Fine." Stephen said, rolling his eyes in return as he walked to an empty room to the side, quickly performing the spell. Stephen looked down at his fingers and saw them faintly turn an ebony black color, making Stephen confused. Why were his fingers turning black? Wanda's fingers weren't black, and this type of magic was her specialty. Shrugging it off, Stephen opened up a portal back to the Sanctum Santorum and walked inside. "Hey guys... We got a problem."
"Yeah, no kidding." Loki agreed as he, Wong, America, and Wanda walked down the stairs from the library. "We saw the ink stuff. Are we gonna traverse the Multiverse or what?"
"Well, shouldn't we come up with a plan first?" America asked.
"Do we have time for that?" Wanda asked. "No, we don't. If we don't act now, the universe is gonna get destroyed before we can actually investigate what happened to cause Stephen to be on trial."
"Okay... You raise a fair point." Wong agreed. "We move now, or we don't move at all."
Stephen nodded. "Okay. What universe are we gonna go to first?"
"Not sure..." America said, punching a whole into the wall, making a giant star shape. "We'll see when we get through on the other side."
Wanda instantly took off running through the portal, leaving everyone in the dust. Loki slowly looked over at Stephen and asked, "Where is she going?"
"Hell if I know." Stephen said honestly, motioning to the portal. "Come on. We gotta catch up to her."
Everyone nodded and took off running after Wanda, unsure of what reality they would be taken to next.