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Chapter Text

Finally Thanos’ finger snap of Doom had been undone in Wakanda. Unsurprisingly, Tony didn’t feel like celebrating. Unlike what others who believed the tabloids thought, winning wasn’t everything. He just wanted all those deaths caused by the Snap of Doom were undone. It seemed Steve Rogers and his fellow survivors also thought the same. They just waited. They expected some miracles.

The first one to return was Bucky Barnes to the joy of Steve. Tony was happy for them. They had been separated often enough and for too long. Rogers and he had buried the hatchet.  They had lost a lot and not working together would mean losing more. It helped that Steve apologized and hugged him as soon as they regrouped in Wakanda after his return from Titan.

The rest of the Avengers turned up one by one to be greeted by their fellow team mates. The Scarlet Witch was not too thrilled to return to the living. Tony could relate.

T’Challa appeared to the cheer of Shuri, Okoye, and the rest of the Wakandans. He bowed at Tony to thank him before greeting his fellow teammates.

The first member of the Guardians of the Galaxy to appear was Drax. Rocket the Raccoon was so happy, he threw out his tough racoon act and hugged Drax’s legs. The big alien just patted Rocket’s head. Groot turned up next. He naturally said “I’m Groot” to which Rocket replied “I miss you too, my stupid son.” Rocket hugged Groot tight without any reservation. Mantis appeared next followed by Peter Quill. The last one who appeared was Gamora . Nebula immediate ran to hug her.

Tony needed to thank the blue alien properly. Without her, they wouldn’t have won against Thanos even with the firepower they had with their latest ally, Carol Danvers.

He nearly gave up until he heard someone called “Mr Stark”. A blur of blue and red zoomed in and hugged him.

Tony hugged back.

“I’m so sorry, Mr Stark. I really scare you.”

He patted the kid’s head. “Yes, I age nearly ten years because of you.” He didn’t exactly exaggerate. “Don’t do it again.”

“I won’t.”

He knew someone was still missing. A certain stubborn wizard whom he had grown to respect. He needed to speak his mind about giving up the time stone and being cryptic. Was there really no other way?

“Where is the wizard?”

“Do you mean Doctor Strange? He created a few portals for us to step through. He was right here with me in wherever we were. He asked me to step through the portal first and he would follow. He should be here soon.”

They waited and waited. There were more people turning up. A lot of them were confused why they ended there. SHIELD tried their best to explain.

A lot of them were already transported back. The rest of the Avengers asked Tony whether he wanted to return. It had been five fours since Peter Parker turned up. Tony shrugged. Perhaps the wizard wanted to remain anonymous and opened a portal to his own Sanctum first. But why would he lie to Peter? From what Peter told him, Strange had been very protective of Peter the whole time. He wouldn’t lie to the boy.

They had a brief gathering at the palace. Tony would have admired the architecture more if he wasn’t dead tired. He slept as soon as his body hit the mattress. He still had the nagging feeling that the sorcerer was missing but his logical mind told him that Strange was a powerful wizard who could take care of himself.

His nagging feeling didn’t go away so at the next day he called Wong who had also helped them a lot in the last few months to ask whether Strange had turned up.

Wong didn’t sound too happy because Strange hadn’t turned up in the Sanctum or Kamar-Taj. In fact, none of the sorcerers or acolytes had seen him.

Tony asked Wong to keep him posted and he would do the same if he heard any news about Strange.

For a few weeks, Wong had exhausted any magic means and Tony all the available technology at his disposal but Strange was still MIA.

After six weeks, they had given up searching and hoped for the worst. Perhaps he didn’t make it.

Three months later

Tony was in a super boring meeting (to be fair, nearly all meetings were boring) with SHIELD, his phone vibrated at his pocket. Ignoring Fury’s glare (he had saved the world a few times and had helped resurrected half of the universe so he should get some free passes), he took out his phone and read the text. It was from Wong.

“We found Stephen in a basement of a cult we infiltrated. He seems to have his memory removed by spells and he also lost his magic. I’d bring him to the Avengers compound as soon as I can because it was not safe to bring him to the Sanctum or Kamar-Taj.”

Tony guessed asking Strange why was being cryptic had fallen to the bottom of his list of questions.

Chapter Text

Ignoring Fury’s stare that could bore a hole into his back, Tony stepped out of the conference room to call Wong.

“Do you think I open a wizard day care? Why do you want to drop him off at the Avengers tower like that?”

Wong hung up on him. Before he could protest, he received a text from Wong. That guy could type really fast. Perhaps some magic was involved. “Can’t talk. I’m not sure if Mordo used some magic to spy on the Sanctums. He and his followers took Stephen. He was still at large so it’s safer to put Stephen somewhere Mordo is not familiar with.”

Tony texted back. “Who the hell is Mordo? A Sauron wannabe?”

The reply was immediate so magic was definitely involved. “Long story. I’ll bring Stephen in two hours so there is enough time for you to do whatever you are doing at the moment. I just want to make sure he doesn’t have any magical injuries and that he hasn’t been brainwashed to follow Mordo.”

The last part definitely piqued Tony’s interest. “OK”, he texted back.

He strolled back into the meeting room as if he owned it. Well, he was the acting Director of SHIELD when Fury conveniently died (again!  Although it had been real this time) and he funded SHIELD operations so yes, he partially (mostly!) owned the place.

Fury asked, “Anything you want to share with the class, Stark?”

“Just the news of someone who has been missing.”  He wasn’t willing to share more because he didn’t know how much he could share without compromising Strange’s safety.

Fury was definitely one who understood discretion as he noticed how Tony looked as he spoke. He just accepted Tony’s answer without asking further.

Two hours later there was an orange portal opening outside Avengers’ Medical Bay. Tony made sure none of other Avengers were around because unlike what Pepper said, he understood discretion and privacy when he wanted to.

Wong and another sorcerer Tony wasn’t familiar with came out supporting Stephen Strange who seemed to be having difficulties standing without the support. To his surprise Strange seemed to be scared of stepping through the portal. He thought creating portals were the doctor’s second nature along with his snarks. Some serious shits must have happened to the doctor.

If it was possible Strange looked even worse than before he died on Titan. He remembered Strange was covered in blood and bruises because of his torture and battles on Titan. He also learned from people returning from the dead that their old injuries before turning to ashes came back once they came back to the world of living. (Surprisingly they didn’t retain their injuries in the pocket dimension they were stuck in, perhaps because it was their souls, not physical bodies which were trapped. He would ask such questions to Strange but he certainly wasn’t in any condition to answer such questions at the moment.)

Strange’s robe and pants were torn off in most places. There were certainly more holes than materials covering his body. His whole face and body were covered in cuts and bruises, some were new, some were old. His hair and beard were matted and unkempt. Tony remembered his old time in a cave in Afghanistan and cringed in sympathy for the doctor.

Wong looked at Strange’s direction. “Stephen, this is Tony Stark. He’ll be taking care of you  until we apprehend Mordo.”

Strange whimpered and hid behind Wong as soon as he heard the word Mordo.

Tony put on his best placating face usually used when Iron Man needed to search and rescue some kidnapping and torture victims because that certainly what happened to the doctor. “Come on, Stephen. Don’t worry about anything. Let Wong and his co wizards deal with it, Come inside the med bay and meet the nice Doctor Cho. Once you’re done, I’ll get an  ice cream for you.” He knew he sounded silly but he didn’t know what Strange liked besides ice cream and being snarky. Tony knew he was being a hypocrite for calling Strange snarky but nicknaming and labelling people was his second nature.

Strange peeked out from behind Wong and said softly, “Please don’t get me the Stark Raving Hazelnut.”

Tony resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “Fine, I can get the rest of the flavor for you. Just be good and let the good doctor check on you.”

After Wong and the other wizard dropped Stephen off with Doctor Cho in the examination room, the other wizard who didn’t bother to introduce himself nodded curtly at Tony and left. Tony just started to think that Strange being antisocial was not an exception but the norm for wizards.

Wong and Tony viewed how Dr Helen Cho coaxed Strange to relax and let her look at his injuries. Tony never regretted his decision to recruit Helen.

He asked, “So what the hell happened to Strange? He looked completely different from the self-assured and pompous wizard.”

“Mordo happened.”

“I gather as much. Who the hell is Mordo?”

“He was a Master of Mystic Arts who went rogue. It was him who actually rescued Stephen from mugging and brought him to Kamar-Taj to learn magic. He was Stephen’s mentor and also a very close friend. He loved Stephen.”

“Gee, if he treats his loved ones like this, I don’t want to know how he treats his enemies.”

Wong shook his head grimly. “You really don’t want to know.”

“I was being sarcastic.”

“I know. But I was being serious. Mordo believes there are too many sorcerers in the world so he wants to get rid of them by getting rid of their magic. Some people rely on magic to live or to function which were the reasons they went to learn magic in the first place. Mordo doesn’t care if a person died, maimed, or gravely injured as long as he gets rid of their magic.”

Tony didn’t know how to respond to that. “He sounds… intense.”

“Yes.”

“How is Stephen still alive?” It was weird to refer to Strange by first name but he already did it to place the doctor earlier so might as well stick to it. “Not that I’m complaining because I still have a lot of questions to ask him. I’m sure Spider-Man is quite attached to the guy. And you said Mordo loved him.”

“Stephen doesn’t use magic to keep himself alive so he still lives even when he loses his magic. Which I think exactly what happened. Mordo absorbed his magic.”

Tony’s jaw dropped. “Can you actually do that?”

“Yes. He has been doing that to a lot of sorcerers. I heard it’s a physically painful process. Poor Stephen. Magic is his salvation and redemption. He believes he can help more people by using his magic rather than his old way of being a doctor.”

Tony filed these facts about something to investigate. He could totally sympathize with Stephen. “If this Mordo guy only wanted to get rid of Stephen’s magic, why did he keep him all these months? Why did he torture him? ”

“I was not joking when I said Mordo loved Stephen, even obsessed with him since the Hong Kong incident.” Tony made a mental note to ask about Hong Kong later. “Perhaps he still loves him even now in his twisted way. He knows Stephen is not selfish as he doesn’t use magic to heal his hands. He believes Stephen is misguided. He wants Stephen to follow his footsteps and got rid of sorcerers.  From what I gathered from Mordo’s followers who we have apprehended, their torture sessions were parts of their attempts to brainwash him to follow Mordo. Most of Mordo’s followers are normal people who hate magic either because of their ignorance or they have been victimized by magic in some ways. I think they just vented their hatred on Stephen as he was an easy target when Mordo was not looking. Mordo most likely looked the other way as long as their attempts don’t kill Stephen. He needs his followers.”

“Ugh, I hate zealots. How did you find out about them? I took it that you found Strange by accident.”

“They were trying to summon an eldritch god by using human sacrifice. We managed to stop them in time. Mordo was unfortunately not among those who we apprehended.”

“Is virgin sacrifice still a thing? No wonder Strange was so uptight, he never got laid.”

Wong stared at him. Unlike Fury’s stare, Wong’s stare made him feel like as a schoolboy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.  “Stephen was not the sacrifice. We just happened to find him chained in the basement when we scoured the whole place.”

“That didn’t exactly answer my question but never mind. Strange was so powerful. For Odin’s sake, he went toe-to-toe with Thanos and could have won if that purple bastard didn’t have the infinity stones.  How could he get taken down by those zealots?”

“Do you remember that all those people returning from their deaths? They said they were disoriented once they stepped through the portal into the living. It took a while for them to get their bearings and think properly.”

“I’ve heard of it from some of the Avengers.”

“We presume Stephen was taken as soon as he stepped through the portal. That was the reason he couldn’t find him. He was disoriented. He also sustained some heavy injuries from his torture session and battles. He was practically defenceless. Mordo took advantage of that. He then took Stephen’s magic and also chained him using an anti-magic relic so he had no chance to channel or use his magic for self-defence.”

Tony made a mental note that such relics exist. It could be useful against sorcerers who had gone bad. “Where was his cape? That cape of his could defend him. I've seen it in action.”

“Mordo managed to capture the Cloak of Levitation and put it in a magical containment. We found it at the house where we found Stephen.”

Tony decided that this Mordo guy was extremely dangerous. He anticipated everything about Stephen and came fully prepared. “Where is the cape? I thought it is inseparable from the doctor.”

“It is. However, Stephen is nervous when he is near magic or magical items. It’s understandable after what Mordo did to him. I asked the Cloak to stay behind until Stephen gains his memory back.”

“How could he suffer from amnesia? Did Mordo also take away his memory? That guy is ruthless and methodical.”

“He certainly is. He is also Stephen’s teacher so he knows a lot of things that Stephen knows. I’m not sure why Mordo took his memory if he wanted Stephen to see his error ways and to follow him willingly. It’s very likely that Stephen was stubborn even under torture so he took away his memory to make it easier for him to change his mind. Have you heard of the term tabula rasa? It’s easier to mold somone’s mind during tabula rasa. He might return his memory later once he complied completely.”

Tony involuntarily shuddered. “In that case, are you sure that Stephen won’t attack anyone? Who knows how far his brainwashing has gone?”

“We have removed any magical parasites, influences, and injuries from Stephen unless we miss something if Mordo learned some magic that we don’t know of. I don’t discount that possibility. We have even restored Stephen’s memory via magic but he still doesn’t remember so it can be that Mordo is more powerful than any of us or it can be psychological. As whether he is safe, he hasn’t tried to attack anyone who approaches him. In fact, he is scared of most people. But I can’t guarantee that it won’t happen. I thought the Avengers are the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. They certainly could handle someone like Stephen who doesn’t have any power at the moment.”

“We could but I don’t know that we should.” Looking at Wong’s raised eyebrows he quickly added, “Since I kinda owe Stephen my life, I’ll protect him for now but if he attacks someone, I’ll lock him up so he won’t harm anybody including himself.”

“Fair enough.”

“But once you get Mordo, he is your responsibility.”

“That’s fine.  Thank you for helping.”

Tony really didn’t know what to say when people expressed gratitude “It’s nothing. It’s lonely up here since most Avengers are gone on holiday. I might enjoy his company when he is not being purposefully annoying. Is Mordo going to try to get Stephen back? Won’t this building in danger?”

“Mordo definitely will want to get Stephen back. All the masters will help to protect this building with all necessary means. You can call us anytime we want.”

“Using telepathy? Ravens? Ouija board?”

Wong stared at him. “I can see that you and Stephen should get along really well. We do have this wonderful magical invention called the cell phones.”

Helen chose that time to come out from her examination.  “I asked him to lie down first because he was exhausted.”

Tony asked, “So what’s the prognosis?”

“The good news is he doesn’t have any life threatening condition although he is severely malnourished and dehydrated. He also has a lot of bruises, cuts, and burns which I believe come from electrical equipment. There is no broken bone. Whoever did to him made sure he wouldn’t die but would let him suffer from maximum pain.” Tony shuddered when he heard that. Even Wong looked shocked.

“He needs plenty of liquid, nutrition, and rest. Also no stress or pressure for him. The main problem is his memory and almost childlike behaviour. He doesn’t remember his name or anything about himself. He also can’t recall what happened to him. I’m not a psychiatrist but I think he may have suffered from dissociative amnesia which is a way to cope with what happened to him while being helpless. I suggest you find him a good psychiatrist. I can recommend some. There are some instances that someone with dissociative amnesia can get his memory back when his traumatic situations are removed without any psychiatrist's help.”

They looked at Strange’s direction to gauge his condition and discuss his options. They were surprised that Spider-Man was in the examination room with him. He must have swung in via the window.

Tony was about to rush in to stop their interaction but Wong stopped him.

“Perhaps this will be a good indicator about what to do with Stephen. I believe he likes Spider-Man so even in his current state, their interaction might be beneficial for him. Besides, he has no power so there is no way he can harm Spider-Man even if he wants to. Just watch and if we need to intervene, we can get there within one millisecond.”

Tony nodded and hoped Wong was right. Dr. Cho also nodded.

Chapter Text

As Peter swung into the Avengers’ medical bay via a window, he saw the back of a guy who only wore boxer shorts. The surprising thing was the person’s back was full of cuts and bruises. He wondered who that was. He somersaulted and landed in front of the guy. The guy raised his head, saw Peter, and quickly scurried back to get away from Peter until he couldn’t anymore because his back was against the wall.

Peter was equally shocked because the guy was Stephen Strange who had been missing for three months, presumably dead. Personally Peter believed Doc was still alive so he was glad to be proven true.

“Stephen, it’s me, Peter.” They were already on first name basis since they were stuck in the pocket dimension.

Stephen remained quiet and protected his head using his shaking hands.

Peter look at Stephen’s condition. He had lost a lot of weight since they last met, bones protruding from his ribs. His whole body was full of scars and bruises, some were old and some were still fairly new, some were covered in bandages which he believed courtesy of Dr Cho. He noticed the red marks at his neck, arms and ankles. He realized those were marks from manacles.  Stephen must have been through hell in the last three months.

Peter stepped back to show he was not trying to harm the doctor. “I won’t hurt you. We’re friends. We’ve been stuck together for six months and you managed to put up with me. Don’t you remember?”

Stephen peeked behind his hands to look at Peter, shook his head, and hid behind his arms again.

Peter’s heart sunk because there was no light of recognition in Doc’s eyes.

He removed his mask. Dr Cho and Mr Stark already knew his identity anyway. Stephen was more likely to respond positively if he saw his real face. He remembered their first meeting when Doc looked amused when he thought Doctor Strange was his made-up name. Perhaps history could repeat itself.

Stephen put down his hands and looked at Peter. “You’re only a teenager. You’re injured. Let me have a look. Please sit down.” He went to pick up the alcohol and the remaining bandages  on the table.

Peter didn’t expect this at all. At least Stephen was not hiding anymore. In fact, if it were not for the sorry state the doctor was in, he looked like he was being a normal doctor. He sat and let Stephen tend to his wounds.

“You’re only a teenager. You shouldn’t be fighting.” He shook his head as he applied alcohol to Peter’s wounds then covered them.

“But I have superpowers. I want to do good. Besides, I have superhealing.”

“You need to be careful.” He noticed Peter’s dislocated right shoulder. “Superhealing won’t heal that. This is going to hurt.”

“I can take it.”

With his shaking hands, Doc flexed Peter’s right elbow to ninety degrees and gradually rotated his shoulder outward and put his shoulder back to the join.

Peter couldn’t help but screamed but the pain quickly subsided and he felt much better. Doc put some ice on his right shoulder.

“Sorry about the pain but I can’t help it. How do you feel?”

“Much better. Thank you, Stephen.”

Stephen smiled for the first time since Peter met him. They had hung around for around 6 months in the Soul World but Doc never smiled once. He always acted like he carried the weight of the universe on his shoulders, which was literally the case for Stephen.

Peter liked his smile. It took at least ten years of Stephen’s age. He looked so innocent and carefree as he smiled.

“You’re welcome. It’s only my duty.” He then looked astonished at his own admission. “Am I a Doctor? I don’t really know.” He started to pull at his own hair.

Peter’s heart ached. “Yes, you’re.  The very best. My name is Peter Parker and my made-up name is Spider-Man.”

“Nice to meet you Peter Parker.  I was told that my name is Stephen Strange.”

“It’s a nice name and it fits you as you deal with strange stuffs. You usually introduce yourself as Doctor Strange.”

“Am I? What strange stuffs?” He started to yawn as he said that.

“Stephen, I think you need to sleep. Let me help you tying this hospital gown.” Peter noticed that the hospital gown had laces and he didn’t know whether Doc could tie it himself with his condition.

“Thank you.” He let Peter approached him which was a good sign. He trusted Peter.

Peter started to tear up as he tied the gown. Stephen didn’t deserve this.

“Why are you sad?”

“Nothing. It’s just my shoulder.”

“I should’ve done it better. As they said, I’m useless.” Stephen started to tremble.

Peter wanted to have words with whoever “they” were. He hugged Doc. Doc went still but didn’t reject. “Hey, you’re not useless. You fixed me. OK. I dislocated my shoulder many times before but your way of fixing is much gentler than others so you shouldn’t feel bad.”

“Thank you.” He yawned again. “I’m sorry. I haven’t slept properly for a while. They don’t let me sleep for more than one hour in one go.”

Peter definitely would kick they. “That’s OK. You can sleep as much as you want now. You’re safe here. Do you trust me?”

“Yes.” Stephen lied down and closed his eyes.

Peter covered him with a blanket.

Withing a few seconds, Peter noticed that Stephen’s breaths had evened out which meant he had fallen asleep. He needed to talk to Mr Stark which he knew was outside.

Tony wanted to interrupt as he saw Strange was scared of Peter.

Wong shook his head. “I’m sure Mr Parker can handle himself.”

They were shocked when Stephen tended to Peter’s wounds.

Tony felt there was some water in his eyes. This damn sand dared to appear in his tower. He noticed that Dr Cho dabbed her eyes using tissue. He could’ve sworn that even Wong sniffed. Knowing Wong, he’d deny it.

After Strange fixed Peter’s shoulder, he turned to ask Wong, “I thought he lost his memory. How could he still be a doctor?”

“Do you lose your invention skills if you lose your memory?” Tony shook his head. “So that’s the same for Stephen. He’s always a doctor at heart.”

“I thought he was a sorcerer at hear as well. Why couldn’t he access it?”

“I think Mordo might've taken his abilities for that.”

“But not his doctor skills?”

“I think Mordo was more concerned about Stephen being a sorcerer. He never cared about Stephen being a doctor.”

Tony shuddered thinking what this Mordo guy could do. “Does it mean we can let Stephen stay? I doubt he’d attack people if his nature is to heal.” He felt bad now thinking about kicking Strange out.

“I believe so. People reveal their true self during Tabula Rasa. There is no pretending to impress someone or to gain something. I’m as surprised as you.  I’m glad that Stephen is actually good at heart despite his arrogance and attitude.”

Dr Cho chimed in. “I’m not an expert in psychiatrist but I believe Mr Wong was right.”

Peter chose that time to walk out of the door. He must have heard their whole exchange with his superhearing.

“Mr Stark, please let Stephen stay. As you can see, he is a good person. He can be the Avengers’ doctor while he stays here.”

“I’ll let him stay until we caught Mordo. However, we already have Helen so we don’t need another doctor.”

Helen said, “Tony, I’ve been meaning to tell you that I want to take a month leave. I think now is as good as any. I believe Dr Strange can replace me while I’m gone.”

“Would anyone want to be treated by an amnesiac doctor with shaking hands?”

Peter raised his hand. “I would. I had first-hand experience. Perhaps being a doctor is like riding a bike?! You never forget it.”

Helen seemed like she wanted to protest but she stopped herself.

Tony sighed. “OK, kid, you win. Don’t make me regret it.  Helen, can you recommend someone in case Strange couldn’t do some surgery?”

“Sure, I can recommend my friend. I plan to ask her to replace me but I guess Dr Strange is as good as any.”

“OK, that’s settled then. Thank you, Stark. I’ll catch up with you later.” With that, Wong created a portal and left.

Helen said she needed to go.

Tony looked at Peter. “I guess we and the wizard are the only ones left like the bad old days.”

Chapter Text

It was five days later after Wong found Stephen that Christine had the chance to visit him in the Avengers Compound. She’d like to visit sooner but ER doctors were always busy—especially now since they needed to treat the newly revived people who were injured before the snap.

She had kept in touch with Wong after Thanos’ infamous snap (She still couldn’t believe the snap was literal and plenty of magic and jewelleries were involved).  Wong told her that Stephen was one of the casualties. She cried and leaned on Wong’s stoical shoulders.  No matter how Stephen treated her in the past, he was a changed man and she knew deep down that he was always a good man.  She knew Wong also grieved for Stephen but unlike her, he needed to remain strong.

They exchanged embarrassing stories about Stephen and how dorky he could be. She wanted to keep good memories of him.

It was exhilarating to know that those people who died because of the snap could come back to life. It couldn’t undo all the deaths and destructions caused indirectly by the snaps like the passengers of a bus of which driver died because of the snap but at least there were more people alive now compared to a few months ago.

She was hoping to see Stephen soon but her hope was dashed when he went missing. She already stopped hoping when Wong called her and told her the good news. Well, mostly good news. The condition Stephen was in now was not great. Wong didn’t divulge too much but he said he would live.

She feared the worst like he was blind or missing a limb so she breathed a sigh of relief when she viewed from outside the medical  window that at least he looked intact despite the cuts and bruises. Some of them have turned black. He looked so frail and thin though. Stephen had always been lanky but now he was definitely under-weight. Perhaps she could prescribe something to increase his appetite. She knew Stephen was capable in prescribing himself but from Wong’s description he was currently lacking the drive to take care of himself.

The biggest change that shocked her was that Stephen was clean shaven. She needed to ask him about that.

She stepped into the room and cleared her throat. Stephen looked up from his reading. It was something to do with engineering. She scrunched her nose. That didn’t make sense. Stephen’s interest had always been biology and medicine, not engineering.

There was no sign of recognition from him but at least he wasn’t afraid of her. From what Wong said, that was a great progress.

“Hi, my name is Christine Palmer. You can call me Christine. We used to work together a lot. I’m a doctor too.”

Stephen stood up and raised his right hand hesitantly. She stepped forward and shook it. “I’m Stephen. Are we friends?”

She could feel the slight tremors from his hand. She squeezed it slightly to show some support. “Of course we are. We are close friends.” She wanted to add we were lovers but she thought Stephen didn’t need that kind of pressure, not in his current condition.

“You must be a saint then. I’ve read about myself in the past. Spider-Man has taught me how to search the Internet using Friday. I don’t want to be friend with myself.” He looked disgusted.

Christine knew that Stephen often loathed himself even back in his surgeon days. That was the reason he acted like a jerk and pushed people away. She just didn’t expect him to still hate himself. Didn’t Wong say he behaved like a child? Did children hate themselves? She wouldn’t know because she grew up being loved by her family.

She was still holding his hand. She put her left hand on top of her right hand and put them in front of his heart. “That was the old you. But I always knew that you have a good heart buried underneath. It was hard to find but after you joined the cult, you revealed your true self.” She remembered how he became much gentler and kinder after he joined the cult.

“Did I join a cult? I heard a cult is a bad thing. The cult with Mo.. with him was bad,” Stephen’s eyes were as big as saucers. It’d be comical if the situation was not dire.

Christine released the hand-holding and hugged him. “Sweetie, not every cult is evil. I’m pretty sure the one you join is not evil, just weird.”

Stephen looked down at her expectantly. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. We’re friends. Why would a friend lie to each other?”

“Mo..he said that we were friends and I was wrong. I defied the natural order. He told me that I was evil and needed to be cleansed.”

Christine would personally kick Mordo’s ass if she ever saw him.  Post-cult Stephen was one of the nicest people she had met and she had met a lot of doctors without borders. Mordo had ruined his confidence and self-image. She hugged him tighter.  “Are you going to trust someone who hurt you or people who are your friends?”

He looked at her again. “Friends?”

“Correct. What did Tony Stark say about you?”

“A pain in the ass because I didn’t want to be awesome facial hair bros.”

She released her hug. It was her turn to stare at him. “Why would he say that?”

“Because I shaved my beard.”

She rolled her eyes. That was so typical of Tony Stark, at least the version the media liked to exploit. “Why did you shave your beard?”

“I looked up at my old pictures from the internet and I was clean shaven. I just thought that was what I usually looked like.”

She giggled in spite of herself. Stephen did nothing wrong but somehow he still could offend the great Tony Stark. She touched his chin. “Well, I got used to your beard but I can get used to your old you as well.” She refrained herself from adding the look that she fell in love with. “Don’t worry about it. You decide what you want to look like. Don’t need others to dictate you. Why are you reading engineering books?” She saw there were a pile of them in front of him.

“Tony said that it was quiet time for the Avengers so not many of them get injured. He said my mind shouldn’t go to waste so I should sharpen it by reading these books. It could open my horizon and I could be a sounding board when he had ideas because I would at least know what he’s talking about.”

That did sound like the Tony she heard from Wong. “Do you enjoy reading them?”

He shrugged. “It’s all right. I understand what they talk about but they don’t interest me greatly.”

“Because there is no magic in them?”

Stephen looked startled and stepped back. “Magic is bad. Why would anyone learn about magic?”

“Magic is like a knife. It’s neither good nor bad. A surgeon can use it to save people’s life whereas a criminal could use it to rob people. It really depends on individual. I know you’re a good man and you only use magic for good. Don’t let others tell you otherwise.” She couldn’t believe she gave a pep-talk about magic. She— an ER doctor who didn’t believe in any superstition! She would really kick Mordo’s ass.

“Is it true?”

“Of course. Why would I lie to you?”

Stephen just nodded and accepted it.  

The old Stephen, even the late-for-the-cult-meeting Stephen would fight tooth and nail to stand firm on what he believed in.

She apparently had categorized Stephen into different states: the arrogant-confident-jerk super neurosurgeon Stephen, the post-accident broken-but-still-a-jerk Stephen, the I-accidentally-joined-not-a-cult-and-I-am-late-for-my-cult-meeting Stephen, the my-mentor-just-died so I-transformed-into-a- nicer-confident-altruistic-and-cult-leader Stephen, and now it was the post-Mordo Stephen.

She could see why Wong said something about Tabula Rasa. The current Stephen just trusted whatever people told him.  She did enjoy this softer side, more childlike kind of Stephen but it was not doing Stephen any favour.  The current Stephen was not dumb, he was still super smart. He was just too trusting for his own good. She shuddered and hoped Stephen wouldn’t fall into some evil hands again.

She couldn’t believe it but she enjoyed the cult-leader Stephen the most. She thought that was the best version of Stephen so far. (Who knew? Stephen might evolve more.)

She was surprised when she looked up for her musing to see Stephen presented him with a blue origami butterfly.

“Why do you give this to me?”

“You look sad so I thought this might cheer you up.” OK, the Tabula-Rasa Stephen was also not so bad. He was very adorable, but needed to be protected at all cost.

She smiled and accepted it. “It looks nice.” She was not lying, it looked really nice. “Where did you learn it from?”

“YouTube.”

She burst out giggling at his answer.

“Is it ugly?” Stephen stared expectantly at her.

She shook her head. She never expected him to look this way. “I just thought you learned this from your magical cult or one of the Avengers as one of their hazing. Why did you learn this?”

“Spider-Man said reading engineering books all days would bore me to death. He said I could practice origami to improve the dexterity of my hands. He said YouTube has a lot of tutorials about them. So I just started to google them.”

She said softly, mostly to herself, “So you just listen and follow whatever others told you to do.”  She covered her mouth realizing the implication of that statement. She hoped Stephen would not to be corrupted by anything evil that easily.

He looked at her full of concern. “Did you say something? Are you OK?”

She put on her smile. “No, I didn’t. Don’t worry about it. Yes, I’m fine. I’m just overwhelmed with what you give me.”

“It’s just a butterfly. The other day, I learned to make origami of swans and Sydney Opera House.” He looked so proud.

“That’s great. However, you need to be careful in following what others told you. What if they ask you doing something bad?”

“I don’t see any harm in doing origami. I quite enjoy doing it.  It really helps to improve the dexterity of my hands. I won’t do something that would harm others. I’ve read the Hippocratic Oath from the internet.  I also remember reading it when I wanted to be a doctor.”

Christine breathed a sigh of relief. So at least Stephen wouldn’t get corrupted so easily but for his own sake, it was still better for him not to get captured by a villain again. She tried to lighten the mood. “So you’re a buddy with Spider-Man now. How about the other Avengers? Captain America? Thor? Black Widow?”

“I haven’t met the other Avengers except for Thor and Clint Barton. The other day, Thor clasped my shoulder rather forcefully and he said he felt sorry for me. He wished my full recovery soon. He said something about he missed the infinite beer supply. I don’t know what he was talking about. He is a nice guy though. Just a bit too strong.”

“At your current under nutrition state, everybody will be too strong for you. Even I can push you. Have you been eating enough?”

“No appetite. I can only eat a little bit and I already feel full.”

She guessed Stephen had been starved so often so he was not used to food. As if she needed more reasons to kick Mordo’s ass. “I can give you something to increase your appetite. But I guess eating frequent small meals at your condition is enough. So what have you been doing besides reading books and making origami?”

“Wong asked me to practice some martial arts to protect myself. He also asked me to practice meditation. He said at my current mental state, it should be easy for me to meditate because I have less distraction in my mind. I think that was an insult to my intelligence,” He looked indignant as he said that. “… but somehow I was not offended by it. I also do find it easier to meditate.”

“I don’t think he meant you were stupid. Simple mind doesn’t mean stupid mind. You just have less clutter and worry in your mind at the moment. He meant that.”

“I thought you said I shouldn’t believe in anything anyone said.”

“And you started picking up cynicism now?! Have I lied to you since we met today?”

He looked guiltily at his shoes. “No.”

“Good. And I won’t lie to you. You’re too fragile at the moment. No, that was not an insult. I was just stating facts. A strong wind could blow you away right now. Just stay healthy and practice your martial arts.”

“And meditation. I do enjoy it a lot.”

“And meditation.” She could never expect Stephen to agree easily on everything she said. It was a nice change but she missed the snarky Stephen.

“I also enjoy petting dogs. The other day, Clint brought his dog. He is called Lucky. Clint said that I have become BFFs with Lucky. I don’t think it’s hard because people say a dog is a man’s best friend.”

“I think they meant human’s best friend because women like dogs too. I don’t think dogs like everybody though. I think Lucky knows you’re a good guy.”

She knew that Stephen always loved animals and children. He would never refuse treating any children even though it wouldn’t bring him fame and fortune. He said it was for good PR but she knew otherwise. Stephen would spend days researching the best treatment for the kids. He would sometime recommend alternative treatments even if he wouldn’t be their doctor. Those were not good for PR but she would let Stephen keep up the facade. That was the reason it was hard for her to hate him. Some people said he was a psychopath who only cared for himself but she knew for a fact that was not true.

“Do you think so?” He seemed so happy about it.

“Of course, who wouldn’t love you?” She couldn’t believe she said such a thing to him but this Stephen was so different from the neurosurgeon Stephen.

“Well, for a start, Tony. He said I was not a loyal facial hair bro. He only came here to drop some books and ice cream. He left as soon as he could. Even Peter, I meant Spider-Man noticed that.”

Christine noticed his slip and filed it under “maybe-to-check-later” as she was not that interested in knowing the secret identities of superheroes. Her friend’s well-being was more important. “I’m sure it’s nothing. At least he brought you ice cream. If it’s bothering you so much, I could talk to him.”

His eyes widened. “I don’t want to bother him. I heard he is a busy man. Besides, you are also busy.”

“Are you already bored of me? Do you want to kick me out?”

Stephen blushed. “No, from I read, ER doctors are super busy. I don’t want anyone dying because you’re here with me.”

She held both of his hands, kissed them gently before releasing them. Stephen blushed harder. She smirked. There went her theory that this version of Stephen was too innocent so he wouldn’t be attracted to anyone.

“Honey, they invented a day-off for a reason. I’m sure someone else is doing my work now so don’t worry about it. How about you show me that Opera House and swans that you have been bragging about then we can have lunch together? If you finish your food, I can buy you a cartoon of ice cream.”

“Do you promise?”

“I promise. Do you want me to do the pinky swear?”

Too her surprise, Stephen showed his right pinky in front of her. “Just like what Peter taught me.”

She suppressed her smile as she did pinky-swear with the future Sorcerer Supreme.

She tried not to think too hard about the implication of this for Stephen’s future. She needed to talk to Tony Stark after lunch.

Chapter Text

Lunch in the Avengers Compound was interesting because apparently Tony had two personal chefs on call in case he needed anything. Most of the time the Avengers ordered some take-outs because the poor chefs couldn’t handle so many hungry superheroes with a large range of food preferences.

She ordered some salads and soups for her and Stephen via Stark’s AI called Friday.  At first she was wondering whether Stephen had gone mad speaking to the wall. Then she jumped a few feet in the air when the wall replied. That earned a chuckle from Stephen. At least it entertained him. It was rare to see him smile even after he joined the cult. Smiling seemed to be easier for him in his current state.  Stephen then explained about Stark’s AI.

She was proud that even the current Stephen still liked to eat healthily, except for the ice cream. Back in the his surgeon days, she knew ice cream was his guilty pleasure. When he became the Master of the New York Sanctum, tasting different ice cream had become Stephen and Wong’s hobby and a way for them to bond. Now, Stephen seemed to like ice cream after every meal. He told her himself about that. She needed to tell Tony to give Stephen healthier options. At least he was underweight so he could afford to eat more dairy products but less sugar wouldn’t harm anyone.

After lunch, Stephen proudly showed her more origami. She was a bit jealous that Stephen seemed to be good in nearly everything he put his mind into, except for driving.

When he yawned, she asked him to take a nap. He insisted that he was not tired . He openly admitted that he liked her company. Even the cult-leader-Stephen would never admit that he liked her company so this was a big clue there was something really wrong with him.

He yawned again. This time it was hard for him to keep his eyes open.

She knew that he had a lot of sleep debts thanks to Mordo so he needed to sleep as much as possible.

She said she would accompany him until he fell asleep and she promised she would return here as soon as her schedule permitted. As he lied down, she combed through his hair using her finger. She knew it  always relaxed him and within five minutes she could hear his soft snore.

She kissed his forehead.

“Get well soon, Stephen. We all miss you, yes, I do mean the sarcastic, suffering no-fool, cult-leader Stephen.”

She shook her head. She could only speak her mind when he was asleep and Stephen also only spoke his mind  in this condition. What was wrong with human relationship nowadays? No wonder there was so much misunderstanding and resentment in the world. If only people communicated more.

Speaking of communication, she remembered she needed to talk to Stark.

“Friday, do you happen to know where Mr Stark is? I need to talk to him briefly.”

 “Mr Stark also said he wanted to talk to you, after lunch is fine for him. He's in his workshop two floors down. I could guide you there.”

“Thank you, Friday.”

“No worries, Doctor Palmer.”

She bit her lip and wondered why Stark wanted to talk to her.

A few minutes later, she arrived in front of Stark’s workshop. She knocked.

“Come in.” Upon hearing Stark’s voice, the door opened automatically revealing Stark tinkering with some holograms.

Stark looked at her and whistled. “I didn’t know that the wizard has such a hot girlfriend.”

She rolled her eyes. “This hot girlfriend  has a name. I’m Doctor Christine Palmer.  Stephen and I are only friends, nothing more, well not anymore.”

Stark raised both palms in placating manner. “What’s with doctors and their obsession with titles? I was just joking. I just thought Strange used to have a stick up his ass so I didn’t expect him to have a friend like you. I think I just dig a deeper hole for myself.”

“That’s correct, Sir.” Friday chimed in.

“Shut up.” He then pointed at the wall. “Not you, Doctor Palmer. I was talking to Friday. I think we started off on the wrong foot.” He extended his right hand. “I’m Tony Stark but please call me Tony.”

She shook his hand.  “It’s fine, Mr.. Tony. I’m just a bit edgy because Stephen thinks that you hate him. In that case, you can call me Christine.”

Tony took his hand back and started to tinker with the holograms again. She noticed they were 3D designs of  gloves. “Please excuse me, I could work and talk at the same time. So by no means I’m ignoring you. Why’d he think I hate him?”

“Well, you could barely stay in the same room with him. He said you left as soon as you dropped some stuff for him. By the way, you need to give him healthier options for ice cream. I can give you a list if you want to.”

“You can give it to Friday.”

“Doctor Palmer, I’ll be happy to assist you. Sir, perhaps you should also follow Doctor Palmer’s idea for your diet. That much caffeine and sugar can’t be good for you.”

“Pssht, Friday, we aren’t talking about me here but Doctor Strange. So I’ll appreciate if you don’t embarrass me in front of the hot doctor.”

“I think that ship has sailed the moment she walked in, Sir.”

“If it weren’t for your sass and my complete dependency on you, I’d have sold you for scrap.”

“I know, Sir. If you need anything else, please just let me know.”

Tony shook his head. “Kids these days. No respect for the elder. Where were we? Oh yes, I don’t hate Strange. In fact, I admire and respect him.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Even him at current state.”

Tony finally stopped his tinkering and turned to look at her. “Yes. Even at this state. Initially, he was firm in his principles and his stance against Thanos. He had some strong opinions but he listened to my reasons, weighed the options, and decided to listen to me as he valued logic more than emotion. You’d be surprised that not many people had done that. He had principles but he was not stubborn. He is..was also very skillful and a master at what he did. I still have some questions about his final decision before..before…”

“Before everything went to hell, literally.” She helped.

“Yeah, that. But I haven’t got the chance to ask him. When half of the universe returned, I wanted to ask him but of course he went to his personal hell. I’m sorry about that. I couldn’t stop it from happening. But even in his current state, he is still a kind and loving person. He likes to help and cure people. He doesn’t hate and resent people after the treatments he got for months. So yes, I still admire and respect him. I just couldn’t.. couldn’t stand to be in the same room with him for too long because it’s my fault that he ended up like this.”

There was a lot to take in. Christine was not new to self-loathing because she knew Stephen often did that. She thought she might understand what Tony meant but she needed to clarify. “Why’d it be your fault? Was it because you couldn’t stop him being kidnapped by Mordo?”

“Yes. If we could find him earlier, none of this would happen.”

“It’s bullshit and you should know that. Even Wong couldn’t find and help Stephen and they have been friends for a while and no offence but Wong is better versed in magic than you. If you want someone to blame then blame Mordo. You don’t happen to know where he is, do you? I want to kick his ass.”

“Join the queue. If I knew where Mordo was, Wong and I plus the rest of Kamar-Taj would have apprehended him. So you don’t blame me for Strange’s condition.”

“Of course not, I must thank you for helping and accommodating him.  Why would you feel responsible for him in the first place?”

“I feel responsible for all the lives lost after that purple grape’s snap. Stephen put his trust on me to save half of the universe and I failed him. I failed one person who trusted me in the first place.”

She sucked a deep breath. She didn’t really understand what happened when Tony was with Stephen off planet. But she always cared so much, like Stephen accused her of, so she tried her best to assuage his guilt. “I know you did your best. You and the Avengers did save and return half of the universe. What happened to Stephen was not your responsibility. You managed to reverse the snap and that was all Stephen asked for. That’s where Stephen’s assigned responsibility for you stopped.  I have no idea why Mordo found him first but that certainly was not your fault. It was more of Stephen’s bad luck. I don’t blame you. Wong doesn’t blame you. I’m sure the original Stephen or even the current Stephen don’t blame you either. If he blamed you, he wouldn’t miss your presence. Once we get Stephen back to normal, you can ask him yourself. If he blamed you, I’d personally kick his ass.”

Tony smiled. “Thank you for defending me instead of your boyfriend.”

“As I said before, we are only friends. You’re welcome. Seriously, why would you blame yourself for that? I’m Stephen’s friend and even I don’t blame you.”

Tony shrugged. “I don’t know. I just felt I’m responsible for a lot of things happening. Ultron, Sokovia accords.”

“I’m not an expert in any of that. In fact, I have no idea. However, I know that you and the Avengers have saved the world a few times. We should be grateful instead of assigning blames. We should focus on getting Stephen better and apprehending Mordo.”

“And stopping the tremors in his hands?”

“Are those  holograms about his gloves?”

“Yes.”

“You’re a good friend.”

“Thank you.  It’s nice of you to think that. Stephen and I are barely friends. We only know each other for a few hours. However,  the universe should actually thank him to actually go through  14,000,605 possibilities to find a winning solution. Anyone else would’ve gone mad to traverse through so many options to see so many people including himself and his loved ones died. If he were to spend only half an hour in each option, he would’ve spent 420,018,150 minutes which is equal to 291679.27 days or 799.12 years. We could round it up to 800 years. That was if he spent only half an hour in each future, he could spend more time in each. It’s hard to tell with time travel.”

“He could time travel?!” She knew there was a lot of facts to take in. She barely knew what Stephen could do so she grasped at the simplest question.

“He used to when he had the Time Stone. Not anymore I guess. Your boyfriend, sorry, your friend is one serious badass wizard. Besides my guilt…” He looked at her sour expression. “My misplaced guilt, it hurts me to see that someone so brilliant is reduced to playing second fiddle to a doctor and doing origami. The world doesn’t even know his sacrifice because apparently wizards like to work in the shadow. The least I could do to repay him is to make the gloves that help steadying his shaking hands.”

Her tears stung her eyes. “Tony, you might not think you’re not friends with Stephen but you behave like one. You have a heart of gold. He should be grateful to have a friend like you. I’m not sure whether the old Stephen thought of you as a friend but he believed in you to save the universe even if he himself were to die to do so. That was a big trust and you didn’t fail him. The current Stephen certainly thinks of you as a friend. He feels hurt whenever you leave abruptly. Perhaps you could include him in your project, especially this glove project because you certainly needs him to test them. I think you two can help each other out to sort whatever underlying psychological issues you two have.” She wiped her tears and smiled.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt if he helped. Besides, he has been reading some engineering books. It’s time to test his intellect.” He looked at her expression. “Just kidding. I won’t pressure him. I’ve heard about his eidetic memory. Thank you for not blaming me. But doesn’t it hurt you to see him in this condition when he could actually do much more?”

“This condition certainly is not ideal. He could barely defend himself and he is way too trusting. However, the Stephen I knew is always a perfectionist and an overachiever. He barely gave himself a break before trying to conquer the next mountain. I just would like to think Stephen is currently taking a break so he can rest and appreciate simpler things in life. I’m sure when he is back to normal, he would be aghast that he had missed out a lot and we, yes, including you, Tony, need to drag him back to rest before he tries to leap two or three mountains in one go.”

“It’s funny that you think I’d be the one to slow someone down. I guess we ‘d cross the bridge or rather climb the mountain when we get there. One thing at a time, huh?”

“Yup, one thing at a time. Just don’t ignore him. The normal Stephen usually thrives in sarcasm and banter but currently he is not himself. He takes everything at face value. If you need any help with Stephen, just call me. I’ll leave my number with Friday although I’m sure you have it already.” Tony’s sheepish look was all the confirmation she needed. She rolled her eyes. “If I’m busy, I’ll call you back when I can. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Chapter Text

At 11.20 am the next day after drinking three cups of coffee (it was way too early for his liking but he had promised Palmer to involve Strange), Tony knocked on Stephen’s room.

He heard the sound of books falling to the floor, a thump, and a yelp. Two seconds later the door flew opened with an expectant face looking down at him. “Are you ready now?”

Tony saw that books were scattered behind him. It seemed that the good doctor had been reading while waiting for him and he tripped as soon as he heard the knock. He suppressed the pang of something that for others labeled as guilt but Tony Stark didn’t do guilt. He quirked his eyebrows, he could handle one overeager puppy with the initial PP. He couldn’t handle an adult version with the alliteration SS. “I was born ready. Do you need to carry anything with you?”

“Do you want me to? I’ve read and remembered everything you gave me. But I can carry some books if you want to.”

Tony rolled his eyes. Of course, Strange had the eidetic memory. He’d have envied the doctor if he were a smaller person (metaphorically speaking, he was aware that the doctor was literally taller than him). Who needed an eidetic memory anyway when he had four PhDs? He shrugged. “Just bring yourself.”

He strolled toward the lab, well, one of the labs. Stephen’s stride was longer so he nearly overtook him but he didn’t know which lab and he also didn’t want to overtake Tony so he tried to make his steps smaller. Tony rolled his eyes again. Tall people’s problem.

They arrived at workshop number 5. “Friday, could you let us in and order two cups of coffee for me?” He walked in and pointed Stephen to sit opposite him.

“Sir, you already have three cups today and you just woke up twenty minutes ago. I suggest you refrain drinking more coffee until you’ve consumed something solid.”

“What are you? My doctor?”

“You programmed me to say something if you do something that can harm your health.”

Stephen chose that moment to chime in. “Tony, as a doctor, I agree with your AI’s assessment. You need to eat something first.”

“What? You two started to conspire against me behind my back. I don’t take advice from a bunch of circuit boards and someone who can’t remember his own name.”

He regretted his word choices as soon as he said it. He really needed those two cups of coffee.

Stephen looked pale. His eyes were full of anguish that he failed to mask. The sorcerer always had very expressive eyes.  He forced himself to smile. “It’s for your own good. I may not remember my own name but I still remember my basic medical knowledge.”

It would’ve hurt less if Tony just kicked a newborn puppy.

“Sir, you might insult me all you want because you programmed to be resilient and I’m as you said just a bunch of circuit boards but I think you need to apologize to Doctor Strange.”

Now even his AI berated him. He slowly looked Stephen in the eyes. “I didn’t mean to insult you. That’s the problem when I don’t have enough sleep and coffee.”

“That’s not a proper apology, Sir.”

This time the doctor’s smile was genuine. “It’s OK. You were telling the truth. I may not be the best person to advice you right now but I believe your AI is still qualified since you program her.”

Was the a compliment to his programming? If only Tony could forgive and forget so easily then he would’ve saved himself a lot of heartaches. Perhaps having a blank slate like Stephen was not all bad.

“Thank you, Doctor Strange. It’s always nice to get some appreciation once in a while.”

“You are welcome, Friday.”

Tony pouted. “Now you two conspire against me right in front of me which I think is worse. Fine, I’ll order some food as well. Stephen, what do you want?”

“I’ve had my breakfast.”

“Well, it’s nearly lunchtime now.”

“Perhaps some sushi rolls and ice cream.”

“I’d like to complain that you eat too healthily but again you want some ice cream so perhaps you are not so bad. I could use some spider rolls, please don’t tell Peter about this, it has nothing to do with spider, rainbow rolls, California rolls, spicy tuna rolls, dragon rolls, and some green tea ice cream myself. They have the non-dairy version so Friday don’t go to tell on Pepper. Could you please order for us?”

“Right away, Sir.”

Tony rubbed his hands to warm up. “Good girl. Start the music as well.”

It is the evening of the day
I sit and watch the children play
Smiling faces I can see
But not for me
I sit and watch
As tears go by

My riches can't buy everything
I want to hear the children sing
All I hear is the sound
Of rain falling on the ground
I sit and watch
As tears go by

“As Tears Go By, The Rolling Stones, 1966,” the doctor answered.

“Not bad. Perhaps it’s a coincidence. Let’s see if you know the next one.”

Friday played the next song.

Rain and tears are the same
But in the sun you've got to play the game
When you cry in winter time
You can pretend it's nothing but the rain
How many times I've seen tears coming from your blue eyes
Rain and tears are the same
But in the sun you've got to play the game

“Rain and Tears, Demis Roussos, 2009.”

“Lucky guess. Next.”

The sweetest dream,
I dream with you
You're my sunshine when troubles made me blue
I'm so alone now that you go
I didn't mean to hurt you
Come back where you belong

Yes I know, I know I'm gonna loose you
But my shoes keep running back to you
Cause they know, there'll never be another
There will never be another you
Still I go, that same on play

“I’m Gonna Lose You, The Classics, 1993.”

“I think you’re just showing off.”

Stephen looked as surprised as Tony.”I have no idea that I know those songs.”

“Sure, you can remember the years and the singers as well but not your own name.”

Stephen looked so dejected that Tony nearly bit his own tongue to stop himself. “I didn’t mean to insult you again. I’m just surprised how memory works.”

At least, the doctor didn’t look like a drowned puppy again. “I remember reading that for selective amnesia, a person can lose a certain part of memory but not the whole thing related to their knowledge or skills.”

“So you remember a lot of things but not who you are and how to do magic aka the parts that matter.” Tony shut his mouth as soon as he said it. His brain to mouth filter was worse than usual.

Luckily, Stephen was not offended this time. He just shrugged. “I guess so. Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s Mordo’s.”

As soon as the doctor heard the name, he quickly covered his ears and closed his eyes.

He softly touched Stephen’s shoulders, when the doctor didn’t push him away, he thought it was a good sign so he held him more firmly. “Stephen, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to scare you. You should know me by now that I speak first before I think.”

“Sir, the food has arrived.”

“Thank you, Friday. See, I can also show some appreciation.”

That elicited an unexpected smile from Stephen as he opened his eyes and uncover his ears so Tony counted that as a win.

“Thank you, Sir.”

“You’re welcome.” He squeezed Stephen’s shoulders. “If you hang around me for a bit longer, you should know that I might be rude because as I said my brain to mouth filter is practically non existent but you are one of the people, at least the old you, who can keep up with me. Not that the current you is an idiot, far from it, but the old you seem to thrive on bantering with me and you have the aptitude for it.” He didn’t say the part that he missed that. He remembered the lyric Cause they know they’ll never be another you. He found his equal but he kinda lost it, at least temporarily, he would make sure of that..

“Shall we have lunch first? I just realize I’m famished and I need those two cups of coffee before I accidentally insult you more.”

“I could do some lunch. I think I’m kinda slowly getting immune to your so-called insult.”

“Attaboy.”

During lunch, Tony just discussed songs and musics with Stephen. Well, Tony told him the songs he liked, Stephen didn’t remember which songs he liked but he gave him some interesting tidbits about the songs, the history, and the singers and composers that the inventor didn’t know about. Stephen was like a walking encyclopedia.

He was curious to know about the doctor’s knowledge for something that he was not interested in aka engineering. He would test him after lunch.

Chapter Text

They started to work after lunch.

“What’re you working on?”

Tony was tempted to say these were gloves for Stephen but he didn’t dare to tell him in case they didn’t work as intended. He didn’t want disappoint him more. He didn’t think he could endure more of those hurt puppy look.”It’s just a prototype for someone.”

“Must be a good friend.”

He nearly said barely as he didn’t know Stephen that much. Instead, he said, “We respect each other. He doesn’t take any of my bullshit and he speaks his mind.” He refrained from saying unless when it was related to how to save universe. “Quite a stand-up guy.”

“You seem to like this friend a lot then. Lucky guy whoever he is.”

“You have no idea,” Tony thought bitterly. He cleared his throat. “Enough chit chat. I usually talk to myself when I work so just ignore me.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Just listen.”

”So you actually talk to yourself with or without me so I’m equal to empty air.”

“Hey, don’t take it personally. I usually have more brilliant ideas when I have an audience. Even Bruce realizes that and he lets me rant while he just passively listens.”

“Can I actively listen instead?”

“If you can keep up with me. Sure.”

He started to describe what he had done so far, the difficulties he faced, and what he had done so far to solve them. Stephen listened intently. Sometime he seemed confused but, to his credit, he didn’t interrupt Tony’s flow of thought.

“What I don’t understand is how can I solve the overheating problem. The gloves get too warm and they will burn the hands of the wearer.”

Stephen raised his right hand slowly like he was in a classroom. “Sorry to interrupt you but I have a vague idea that could help.”

Tony shrugged. There was no harm in listening as he had hit a brick wall for days. “Sure. And you don’t need to raise your hand. There are only two of us.”

“I might interrupt your thought so I just raised my hand just in case so you could ignore me. I’m just wondering whether my idea is right. I know it’s stupid but I just remember something I‘ve read. Can’t you use some sort of compressor to throw away the heat to the atmosphere? I think it’s called Reverses Carot Cycle. It might be nothing because a compressor can’t be that small.”

Tony went to squeeze Stephen’s shoulder. He refrained himself from mussing the doctor’s hair. That bang that always fell on his face just begged to be mussed. “You’re a genius. Of course, it’s based on the second law of thermodynamics. I was thinking about all those complex algorithms and ignoring the basic. Of course I can make a nano compressor. Have you met me?”

Stephen smiled like he had eaten the best ice cream in the world. Tony liked that smile because Stephen was often grim even without his memory, The smile made him look much younger.

“I’m glad I can help. I feel like I’ve been a burden for you.I’ve been useless. You don’t really need a doctor here since you have Dr Cho.”

Tony frowned. Stephen had no idea what he had sacrificed during that so called Infinity War. Now he was feeling useless. It was so unfair on so many levels. “Stephen, you’re never useless. I know you don’t remember what you’ve done before to save the universe but believe me, the universe owes you at least one or two. Even now, you’re not useless. It’s true that we have Helen but she really needs her time off so it’s good that you act as the replacement doctor. You also keep me company here since the rest of the Avengers seem to go vacation elsewhere.”

The doctor just stared unblinkingly at him. “Really?”

“Yes. I won’t lie to you about something like this, especially at this state. You know what. It’s time for a break. Do you want more ice cream?”

“Christine said I shouldn’t take too much ice cream. I should listen to her and I should know it myself since I’m a doctor.”

“Do you always listen to what people tell you?”

“Yes. If it’s for my own good.”

The billionaire sighed.“I want to complain that you shouldn’t listen to everything people tell you to do but again I’ve a bad feeling that Pepper is going to explode soon as she hasn’t done it for three days. So perhaps I should let you listen to Christine. Tiramisu perhaps?”

Stephen brightened. “I know it’s not good to eat too much sweet but Christine didn’t specifically say no to tiramisu.”

This time Tony really mussed the doctor’s hair. Stephen looked scandalized but at least he smiled and put the bang back into his face. “You’re so cute when you’re being rebellious.”

“I’m not cute.”

This tradition lasted for the whole week. Tony was glad that although Stephen was not interested in engineering, he understood the basic principles of what he read, even thought he might not know the advance applications. He acted as a good sounding board and always could point out what Tony had missed. Who would have guessed that Doctor Stephen Strange knew physics besides medicine and sorcery?

Of course like every good thing that came that happened to Tony or any other Avengers, it didn’t last long. Something was always abound to go wrong. Of course Tony didn’t know that as he started the day much earlier for his standard which was around 11.03 am. He just finished brunch with Stephen. He was so used in dumping all his thoughts which might not even be  related to engineering. Stephen would either listen attentively and remained quiet when he didn’t know what to say or he would give some realistic solutions.The solutions might not work because the doctor didn’t have enough experience but the principles were sound. Who knew that for a guy who used to give cryptic answers (Tony still couldn’t forget “We’re in the endgame now” and  “There was no other way”) could be one of the most practical and rational people? Well, perhaps because he was a neurosurgeon first before moving to Hogwart.

Tony was soldering a motherboard and telling Stephen about Pepper negotiating with Elon Musk to secure his renewable energy battery but with some modification from Stark Industry.

“Of course he doesn’t want my intervention. Doesn’t believe that I could improve the efficiency by 35%. How could he not believe me? Tony Stark-- genius, billionaire, former playboy, and philanthropist.”

“Relax. He doesn’t know you as well as I do.” He scrunched his eyebrows. “Well, in the past few days anyway. I guess I know you a bit better than Mr Musk. I believe if you approach him personally and convince him with your brilliant ideas and charming personality, he will agree with your modification.”

Tony put down his soldering tool, lifted up his faceplate, and beamed. “Did you just call me brilliant and charming? I want that in writing in case you refuse to admit it once you regain your memory. Or even better, Friday, did you record everything?”

Stephen rolled his eyes. Tony realized that the doctor hung out with him too much to even pick up his mannerism.

“I certainly have, Sir. As usual. You don’t even need to ask.” Friday sounded indignant.

“Come on, Fri. I didn’t mean that you were useless. I just want to savor this moment.”

“Sir, I think your carpet is on fire.”

“Way to change the subject, Friday. Not subtle at all.”

Stephen had stepped back a few paces. His eyes were wide with fear.“That indeed is on fire.”

The ever helpful Dummy chose that time to spray Tony and the carpet with a fire hydrant, in the process, it knocked a glass of water on top of the burning soldering iron. Electricity started to cackle. “No, no, no, no” Stephen wailed..

Hi wail wrenched at his heart but he needed to prioritize to,minimize the danger first. “Friday, please turn off the electricity in this room.” Luckily the fire had been put off by Dummy despite the mishap. He pressed the off button of the solder. “Friday, please turn on the electricity again.”

He accessed the damage. The carpet and the leg of a table were burned. He shrugged. This room needed new decoration anyway..

He then remembered Stephen. He looked up and the doctor was nowhere in sight. “Where is Stephen?”

“He ran to his room. You might need to be tactful if you decide to go into his room, Sir.”

“Tactful? Have you met me?”

“That’s what I’m afraid of, Sir. But I think your tactless presence might be better than no presence at all.” She sounded wistful.

“That’s not ominous at all. You should consider writing horror novels..” Tony joked to cover up his fear.

“I’ll keep that in mind, Sir, but babysitting you is a full time job,”

“That’s what Pepper is for.”

He approached Stephen’s room and knocked softly. After a few knocks, there was still no response. “Stephen, it’s me, the charming and brilliant Tony, I’m going in.”

There still was no response so he opened the door softly. He didn’t see the doctor anywhere. He was sure that Friday was not mistaken about his location.

“Under the bed, Sir.”

Tony’s heart fell into his stomach. This was bad.

He approached the empty and tidy (Stephen seemed to like to keep things tidy) bed and crouched down.

Stephen lied under the bed in fetal position. He also covered up his head with his hands and kept saying, “Please don’t electrocute me again. I’ll be good.”

Tony swallowed thickly. His worst fear came true. He remembered Dr Cho mentioned about  “burns which I believe come from electrical equipment”. Of course, he was an idiot and kept playing with electrical equipment in front of a torture victim.

Chapter Text

Initially Tony was at lost what to do. He barely could function himself when he was having panic attacks. When no one was around, he would just let things settle down naturally without actively counter his attacks. Suddenly he got an inspiration. It might be a terrible idea but it was the only one he got.

He started to sit on the spot where he stood.

“Sir, what are you doing?” Friday asked. At least she had the sense to be quiet.

“I’m going to take a nap here.” He whispered. He lied down facing the front door so Stephen could only see his back. He thought it would be less threatening.

“Is it advisable with Doctor Strange’s condition?”

“Do you think he is going to attack me?”

“Yes or possibly himself.”

“Has he ever harmed anyone since he stayed here?”

“No.”

“Then I trust him. As for harming himself, please monitor his movement and wake me up if he does something that may harm anyone.”

“Sir, that spot hasn’t been cleaned by your roombas.”

Tony winced but remained still. “Are they taking days off? I’d like to cut their pay but they don’t get any pay.”

“I think they’re malfunctioning again since you ignore them and focus on your new project.”

“I guess they’re too pampered. I’ll change their programming when I wake up. Please remind me that when I wake up.”

“OK, Sir. Can you at least get a pillow to make yourself comfortable?”

“If you have slept in a cave for months surrounded by terrorists or in the outer space without enough supplies, this floor is a luxury.”

“I hope you make a good call, Sir. Have a nice nap.”

“I hope so too. Thanks, Friday.”

“You’re welcome, Sir.”

The floor was certainly far from luxury. However, Tony was too exhausted so a few minutes later he fell asleep.

The next moment he opened his eyes, he was disoriented. He heard a soft snore behind him and turned his head. He saw Stephen had fallen asleep around one foot behind him. He then remembered what happened.

Tony was covered with a warm blanket and he had a pillow under his head. He turned to observe the sleeping doctor and noticed he was using a blanket and a pillow with the same pictures of Spider-man. The doctor looked so young and innocent in his sleeping state. The billionaire shifted slightly to move move the bang that always fell on the doctor’s face. Although he just spent time with the doctor for a few hours on the spaceship and Titan, he missed the doctor’s goatee. He was tempted to draw one on his face and decided against it because that was the last thing Stephen need right now. He was not sure what the first thing the doctor needed but definitely not a fake goatee by someone who just used some electrical equipment.

He quietly crept out of the room and told Friday to notify him when the doctor woke up.

Five hours later, Friday told him that Stephen was awake.

Tony came in to the doctor’s room to deliver a bowl of chicken noodle soup. The doctor just sat there reading some medical book Christine gave him. He looked up when Tony walked in and stayed quiet. At least he didn’t cower in fear so Tony considered that as progress. He just put the food on the table and left.

He asked Friday to remind him about the next meal time so he could deliver it personally to Stephen. Pepper should be proud of him,

After two days, Tony was about to walked in to deliver lunch and he heard a laughter from Stephen’s room that sounded like Peter’s. He walked in and discovered that it was indeed Peter who was chatting amicably with the good doctor. He forgot that it was a Saturday.

“So Mr Doctor Strange, how do you reverse brain damage?”

Tony panicked. Had someone hurt Peter?

To his surprise, Stephen didn’t look concerned and just answered calmly. “I think for the Flash’s case, it’s his personality. Nothing to do with brain damage so unless he wants to change, there is nothing you can do. At least nothing violent.”

Tony sat next to Peter and started to try to look subtly at the kid from head to toes.

Apparently he failed at being subtle because he was Tony “I’m Iron Man” Stark.

Stephen looked unimpressed. “Peter is not hurt. I would know if he is because I’m a doctor.”

Tony was impressed, that sounded like the old Stephen before this whole Tabula Rasa thing.

Stephen seemed surprised by his own statement. “Why did I say that?”

“Perhaps your old memory is coming back?”

The doctor stayed still for a few moments. “Nope, nothing returned about me being a doctor.” Tony noticed he didn’t mention about no memory coming back, just a specific memory. “Anyway, it’s not about me …”He paused at that statement as if there was something there but after a few milliseconds, he shook his head. “.. it’s about Peter. He told me how his friend, Flash..”

“He is not my friend,” Peter sniffed indignantly.

“His classmate, Flash, tried to take Peter’s lunch but Peter already knew beforehand so he put extra salt and chilli at everything including his drink. Flash tried to drink all liquid in the cafeteria afterward.”

“I’m doing the food some favour. The food in the cafeteria is crime against good taste.”

“Kid, you should just challenge your bully at the back alley and declared yourself King so he wouldn’t dare to bully you anymore.”

“Mr Stark, that’s not my style.”

Stephen also looked equally horrified. “Violence won’t solve anything.”

“I’ll consider it as preemptive defense.”

“Violence will lead to more violence.”

“Not if we nip the violence in the bud.”

“It will beget more violence when the victim retaliates.”

“It will not.”

“It will.”

“Not.”

“Will.”

“Not.”

“Will.”

Peter’s head snapped back and forth between Tony and Stephen and finally decided enough was enough. “I agree with Mr Doctor Strange that violence is not the solution but I’ll not just lie down quietly to get bullied. So I guess I’m finding the middle ground between you two.”

Stephen beamed at Peter. It was quite a sight because Tony hadn’t seen the doctor beamed. “I’m sure you will find the best solution. I believe in you.”

Not to be outdone, Tony added, “I believe in you too although I think my solution works better in the long term. We also need to talk about your lunch. I could ask Happy to deliver lunch for you every day.”

Peter looked horrified. “I’ll be the laughing stock of the whole school. Even other people will start to get the idea to tease me.”

“Not if you are the King.”

“Tony!”

“Mr Stark!”

Both Stephen and Peter wore the same horrified expression which was quite comical.

Seeing that Stephen could at least interact with others and not feeling afraid, Tony finally could feel some tension left his body . He knew recovery was not fast but at least he didn’t need to tip toe around the doctor. He grinned. “Let’s get some ice cream and play League of Legends.”

Stephen groaned and Peter looked impressed. “Mr Stark, do you know how to play?”

“How hard can it be? Friday, please show me the rules.”

Chapter Text

Apparently, knowing the theory was different from actually playing it so Tony and Stephen, who got roped into it, lost very badly to Peter. Real life superheroing didn’t translate well to gaming. But both of them were content losing to their favorite arachnid.

The good thing was Tony thought that at least Stephen was back to “normal”, well as normal as he could be after returning from the Snap. He didn’t know the guy before then and appearing in the middle of Central Park via portal was so far from normal so that was not the best frame of reference.

In the next day, as Tony walked in to bring lunch to Stephen, the doctor was just sitting there in the full lotus position. It was the first time he saw the doctor without his books since the last few days.

He put the tray down and sat in front of the doctor. “Are you meditating, Doc? I’m not an expert but I thought you need to close your eyes in order to be in tune to your inner self or some mumbo jumbo like that.”

Stephen smiled. “That’s a misconception. The essence of meditation is to be aware. You can be eating and meditating as long as you’re aware that you’re eating.”

“Huh. I didn’t know that. I always assumed meditation was related to navel gazing.”

“I can teach you if you’d like to.”

Tony scoffed. “Me and meditating? The world must have come to an end.” He remembered. “Ah, shit, forget that analogy, it already has happened.”

“But you reversed it back so we’re back to live or so I’m told. So you’re a hero.” Stephen scrunched his forehead. “I wish I remembered that.”

“Are you trying to enlarge my ego? Don’t let Pepper know that. As much as I like to discuss about myself, I think it’s enough talk about me.. You’re not so bad yourself. If only I have a video camera set up in Titan to show how badass you could be. My favorites are when you turned a blackhole into butterflies, even Thanos was surprised by that, and when you duplicated yourself like amoebas.”

“So am I like an amoeba? Is that because I’m only a simpleton that only have one brain cell?”

“No, the amoeba part was a compliment. Even without your memory, you’re not stupid. You’re one of the smartest people I’ve met and I don’t say it lightly. Of course, nobody can exceed the IQ of Tony Stark but you’re not bad yourself.”

Stephen smiled. “You’ve been saying that I’m not bad. I guess that’s your way of compliment.”

“It’s true, Doctor Strange,” confirmed Friday.

“Thank you, Friday.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Friday, you traitor!”

“Sir, Doctor Strange is not familiar with your behaviour even with his memory. I was just trying to help him because you’ll never admit that you compliment someone. You might say something you regret later to counteract your compliment. For someone else, they could infer that was your way of backpedalling but I’m afraid that it might confuse the good doctor more in his current state.”

Tony whistled. “Harsh but fair, Friday. I guess I should be proud of you as you’re my own creation.I guess I need to give myself a pat on the back.”

There was a hint of amusement as Friday replied, “Anytime, Sir.”

“Do you always talk with your AI like this?”

“No, when noone is around it’s worse.”

“I can confirm it’s true, Doctor Strange. I don’t know if Sir could function without me helping him reminding him that he needs to eat or rest.”

“Shut up, Friday. I invent you to remind me so I remind myself in sort of a roundabout way.”

“Harsh but fair, Sir. I’ll shut up now. Enjoy your lunch!”

“Well, you heard the AI. Let’s eat and mediate.”

“Only if you are aware what you are doing then you can call it meditation.”

“Shut up, Deepak Chopra.. Let me have my moment.”

“Actually I don’t learn my meditation from Mr Chopra, I learned it from…”

“Just zip it and let’s eat.”

They ate in companionable silence. Tony guessed because Stephen really tried to meditate while he was eating. Tony just wanted to have some quiet moments so he could organize his thoughts. Perhaps it was also a type of meditation if he was aware that he was organizing his thoughts. He needed to ask Stephen later after lunch.

Stephen offered to bring their dirty dishes to the kitchen and washed them. Tony was worried that something else might trigger him so he said he would do it because he needed to try walking meditation.

“Do you know how to do walking meditation? That’s wonderful.”

“Whaaaaaat? There is a walking meditation. I just made it up on the spot for fun.”

“There indeed is walking meditation. It’s a well known technique to make us aware of our own body not only when we are sitting. It has been known for years that…”

“Lalalala, I’m going to do ignoring-talk-about-meditation meditation. I’ll be back soon.” He quickly ran with the tray before Stephen really taught him meditation. He knew meditation was supposed to be good for him or for that matter  anyone else on the planet (perhaps Thanos wouldn’t do that snap if he were a meditator?) but Tony was never known to do things that were good for himself.

Stephen was waiting for him again in the lotus position as he came back. “Thank you. You don’t have to do this anymore. I can take my own meals.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. Thank you for delivering my meals for the last few days. I’m sorry that I’ve been a nuisance to you. You should get back to your workshop to work.”

“You’re not nuisance at all. Far from it.”

“You love inventing something. So don’t deny yourself that because of me. You understand my hesitation to walk back into your workshop but that doesn’t mean you should stop on my account. I’ll be fine reading or meditating on my own here.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“About meditation. More than anything. What do you want to know?”

“No, no. Not about that. No, about that day in my workshop. You really don’t need to do that though. It was just a stupid thought. Forget about it.”

“I think I’m ready to talk about that. I’ve been meditating about my fears.”

“You’re meditating about your fears?! Isn’t that counter productive?”

“Actually no, to be aware about some emotions actually means we are free from that emotions. If you can see the river, you’re not inside the river.”

“Fine, fine, Yoda. Before we know it, the next thing we do will be sitting in a circle,  holding hands, and singing Kumbaya.”

“There’re only two of us so we can’t exactly make a circle. I don’t even know the lyrics to Kumbaya.  I’m ready to talk about what triggered me in the workshop.”

“Are you sure?”

Stephen closed his eyes and drew some deep breaths. He steeled himself and he opened his eyes. “I’m ready.”

“If anything is too much, you’re welcome to stop. OK. We can just stop and drink cocoa or tea or whatever people do to calm themselves.”

Stephen nodded. “OK. I didn’t remember anything before I was ki-…taken by Mordo but I started to remember what happened afterward. Not all of it, but some of them. The ones that are related to what happened in the workshop.”

Tony noticed that he  looked much paler and his hands started to shake more prominently. “You don’t have to do this right now. You could do it anytime like one hour or even one day or one week from now. I’ll be here.”

Stephen drew a deep breath one more time. “No, I can do it now. I need to face my demons or I’ll never be free from them. I’ve worked as a doctor for more than a decade, I’ll just speak with my professional detachment that I’ve trained myself to do.”

Tony had heard something about professional detachment in healthcare professionals. They needed to do that so that they wouldn’t burn out. If they were too emotionally attached to the patients, they wouldn’t be able to help patients professionally which was what the patients needed. There were some controversies about that because some argued that in order to heal patients needed tender loving care as much as they needed the actual medical service. He just knew about this fact and he was thankful that he was not a medical professional. But Stephen had always been a doctor in the majority of his adult life so he definitely needed to develop some kind of professional detachment. But he hadn’t heard of people who do it to themselves. He guessed it could happen but psychology and medicine were not really his expertise. “Just do what you feel like and I won’t judge you if you stop at any time.”

“One night, I think around ten days after I was being their unwelcomed guest,  a guy came to drag me away from my slumber. He said he was having a terrible day as his wife left him this morning and she brought their kids with her. He said it was my fault because he spent so much time on me that he neglected his family.”

Tony silently fumed because there was no way it was Stephen’s fault. He chose to torture Stephen instead of being a responsible father and husband but he bit his lips so he wouldn’t interrupt the doctor.

“He dragged me into what they called their interrogation room. He locked the door so he wouldn’t get interrupted by his colleagues. He started to tie my hands and legs to the posts they had prepared and started to open my shirt so he could attach some electrodes to my chest and torso. I realized what he planned to do. Previously all they did was just to beat me. I knew that electrocution was very painful as I needed to treat some patients when I was in pre-med. I guess I didn’t totally lose my memory if I knew that bit. I begged him to stop and I’d do whatever he wanted. He said it was too late. His colleagues were screaming outside asking him to stop. He just ignored them and flipped on the switch. I was never in so much pain before so I trashed around, convulsed, and screamed. The pins on my hands were good conductors for electricity .That guy just laughed and laughed. I didn’t remember much afterward. I guess I passed out. Apparently, electrocuting me made the guy feel better about himself and he told his colleagues to try. So whenever, they have a bad day or they were bored, they would drag me there to have their fun. There was one guy who told them that they had gone too far but they ignored him and shut him out of the room. He’d take care of me after they had their fun. He told me that he just hated witchcraft because he was convinced that his kid had been hexed by his colleague at work because he was jealous of him. Mordo came around to started to recruit him. I guess Mordo could talk really well so he was convinced that all magic was bad. He then saw what they did to me and started to question Mordo’s motive and magic in general. He started to realize that magic was not necessarily bad as it was just a tool like a knife. It depended on who wielded it. He wanted to quit but he was worried what Mordo and others would do to him and his family. He also wanted to make sure somebody would take care of me. What happened to him by the way? Do you lock him up like the rest? His name is Jordan.”

“I’ll tell whoever in charge of this investigation what you told me. I would make sure Jordan got minimum sentence. Who was the piece of shit that started to electrocute you?”

Stephen looked alarmed. “Violence won’t solve anything.”

Tony laughed bitterly. “Are you trying to defend the guy who had their fun by torturing you?”

“No. I just don’t want anymore violence as it won’t solve anything.”

“I just want him to get maximum penalty. Perhaps going to jail for life is too good for a guy like him but yeah, no capital punishment. I promise we won’t incite more violence, just want to give those guys their just dessert.”

“You promise me no more violence.”

Tony exhaled loudly and closed his eyes. Perhaps he needed that meditation. He opened his eyes. “OK, I promise.”

“His name is Keller.”

“OK, got it. I’m going to have some calls. Are you sure you’re OK?”

Stephen hugged Tony. He could feel that the doctor’s whole body was shaking. “Thank you for listening to me. You’re a good friend. Although it didn’t help me from the painful memory I still had, I felt a bit better than I was before.”

“So from the scale 1 to 10, 1 is feeling OK and 10 is feeling the worst. How do you feel now?”

Stephen released the hug and thought about it. “Well, I was feeling about 20 and now I felt about 15 so 25% discount is better than nothing, right?”

“That sounds about right. I know we don’t just get better instantly. That’s why we need therapy. Otherwise, therapists would be out of job. Let me ask you something, was Mordo around when they tortured you?”

“He was around sometime but he never participated in any of the physical tortures.” Tony made a mental note that Stephen specifically phrased it that way. “He just reminded them no permanent injury, no losing of any bodily function as the result of their session. He also reminded them not to hurt my hands because he said I needed them in the future to help him. I guess at least there is some mercy. Silver lining and all. Huh. I don’t know what would happen if they destroyed my hands.” Stephen’s eyes were wet this time around.

It was Tony’s turn to hug him. “We both know I’ll be lying if I said everything is going to OK from now on because life doesn’t work like that. But I promise you in my best capability,  I’ll make sure no one, not even Mordo, is going to hurt you. Yes, I know he can kick my ass using magic but I might find a way to replicate your anti magic necklace using science. In fact, I need to start working on that now. After we finish this hugging session of course. It started to become weird.”

Stephen laughed despite his tears and pushed Tony away using his still shaking hands. “I agree. Thank you, Tony. You’re a good friend. I’ll learn to protect myself and others better from now on.”

“Yes, let’s kick Mordo’s ass.”

Chapter Text

Peter was elated today. Today was one of the best days of his life. He’d got to spend time at Central Park with his two of his favorite superheroes (well, he had a lot of favorites but these two ranked at the top. If Cap were around, he would even be more excited), although Stephen wouldn’t call himself a superhero with or without power or memory. But his willingness to still become a doctor even without his memory made him a hero in Peter’s book. People tended to forget that for the important part of the word superhero was the hero part. Anybody could be a hero with or without a power. Not everybody could be lucky enough to be bitten by a radioactive spider, or got injected by a supersoldier serum, or smart and rich enough to build their own suit, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be heroes.

Although looking at the behaviour of the two adults at the moments, they acted more like two bickering teenagers.

“Tony, as I said, I don’t like Stark Raving Hazelnut. Did you say it was my favorite when you met me?”

Mr Stark didn’t dare to look Doctor Strange straight in the eyes. “Did I say that? Did I ever say that? Is it on record? Are you accusing me of recommending the most awesome ice cream ever?”

“You said that there are different flavors of Avengers’ ice cream. Your personal favorite is Stark Raving Hazelnut. It seemed to be my type of ice cream too when we met.”

Mr Stark faced away from Doctor Strange and whispered very softly that Peter could only pick up because of his superhearing.. “Here goes nothing. I thought he didn’t like the taste because of his bias toward me but apparently he really dislike the taste.” He said at his normal voice, “Well, it’s just your conjecture then. I never said it was your favorite. What do you have against me?”

“You? I have nothing against you. I’m eternally grateful for your help. I just don’t like the ice cream. Too chalky. But if you really want me to like it, I can eat it again, perhaps it’s an acquired taste. Perhaps I’m going to like it after the 100^th tub.”

Mr Stark sighed. “Never mind. How about you, underoo? Do you not like Stark Raving Hazelnut as well?”

“No, no, Mr Stark. I love it.”

“Which one is your favorite?”

“All of them?!”

“Do you understand the word favorite? Pick one, come on.”

“Tony, just give Peter a break. We’re supposed to be relaxing today. You suggested it. You said I’ve been scooped up far too long inside the Compound which didn’t help with my pale complexion as I looked like Edward Cullen, whoever that is.”

“Mr Stark, do you read and/or watch Twilight?”

Mr Stark pretended to clutch his heart. “I’d never. Not in a million years. It was Clint who read it and kept asking whether I’m team Edward or team Jacob. I guess he regretted it now given our so called Civil War which asked the Avengers to pick a side. Anyway, no more heavy talk. More eating. What do you guys want to eat? And please call me Tony as I’ve said a million times before.”

“And you can call me Stephen. Not Mr Doctor Strange. I don’t even remember doing the study to become a doctor anyway.”

Tony shook his head. “What’s wrong with you? That is considered heavy talk. I think we’d better try the hotdog at the corner there.” He walked faster to lead them in that direction. Stephen followed easily with his long legs so he purposefully walked slower. Peter was at the back.

As they nearly approached the stand, suddenly Peter’s Spidey Sense was tingling. Before he could identify the source of danger, suddenly Stephen was pulled to the right by some red glowing light to hover in front of a guy in a green robe. There was a glowing portal behind him.

People around them started to panic and run away from the portal and the guy in the green robe.

”Hello, Stephen. As I promised you before, I’ll find you again. So here we are. You’ve got to come with me or I’ll hurt the boy or that man you were arguing with earlier.”

“Hey, the man has a name.” Tony apparently had activated his nano suit so he was fully armed now. “Tony Stark, genius, billionaire, playboy although not so much nowadays, philanthropist, and really allergic to guys with magic dressed in green. What’s wrong with villains and the color green anyway? You just give bad names to Mother Earth. You must be Frodo.”

“Mordo. Now be quiet. The adults are talking.”

“Hey, that’s my line. Release my friend.” Tony aimed his repulsor at Mordo’s chest. Peter prepared to jump at Mordo or rescue Stephen, whichever took priority. Before either of them could attack, Mordo lazily flicked both hands at their directions and they flew to opposite sides until they hit trees. They were stuck there, couldn’t move their limbs. At the same time, Stephen dropped to the grass in front of Mordo. Peter thought it must be because Mordo could only hold two objects using his telekinesis or whatever powers. That bit of information was interesting but useless in their current predicaments. Mordo’s hands were not aimed at them anymore but they still couldn’t move so he must have used some spells.

Stephen tried to get up but Mordo pushed him down. Stephen was stuck to the ground and couldn’t move anymore.

“Come on, Stephen, you know your place is with me. I knew it since I rescued you in Kamar-Taj. Together we could get rid of violators of natural law.”

“Mr Stark, isn’t that the speech from the very old movie you asked me to watch? Star Wars? Something about joining the dark side, we have cookies.”

“Kid, don’t mix Star Wars with memes. That’s sacrilegious. Stephen, never join the dark side unless you plan to lose a limb.”

”Be quiet, you two.” Now Mordo flicked his hands at their directions again and they couldn’t open their mouth to talk. This really sucked.

“How did you find us? I thought Wong had masked my aura so you wouldn’t be able to detect it.”

Peter thought that was smart that Stephen was asking questions. He was stalling until one of them could find a way out.

“Why do you even care? You don’t even remember your own name nor magic”

“Well, I was told I was a super curious student. Once I set my mind to something, I need to know the answer. I guess that trait passes on even without my memory.”

Mordo looked pleased at Stephen’s admission. He even smiled. Peter could believe they were friends but like two hundred years ago. “Yes, you always were a very inquisitive student.. You asked questions that no other student had even been aware existed. You gave all the teachers a run for their money. Not that any of us ever paid any school fees of course. Just our lives and full dedication. And for what? For all the lies the Ancient One told us?” His face darkened. “That’s why you need to see my way. You have to. You’re like a brother to me.”

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“If you’re stalling for time until Wong or some other masters come to rescue you, you need to wait for a long while. I’ve masked my aura so they wouldn’t be able to detect me. To answer your question, I could notice the masking of aura although I didn’t know whose aura was being masked.  Who do you think teaching Wong and other masters about aura?I was curious as I meditated and found the masking. It was just my lucky day that it was you.

“I know going out is a bad idea.” Stephen sighed.

“Now come with me or your friends die.” He started to point at both Tony and Peter. Peter suddenly felt his whole body was on fire. He couldn’t scream either because of Mordo’s spell. This Mordo guy really sucked.

“I’m going with you. Just let them go. Please.”

Mordo used both hands to open a portal that opened to a dark cave somewhere. The spell holding Stephen was gone so he could stand up. Unluckily the fire spell still held, so Peter and Tony were still writhing even when Mordo didn’t point his hands at them. “You step through that portal and they won’t be in pain anymore.”

Stephen stepped through the portal and turned back facing them. “You can let them go now. I’m already at the other side.”

“Stephen, you’re pathetic. You think of yourself as the protector of the weak when you yourself are so weak.”

“Mordo, please, you promise me you’ll let them go if I go with you. Peter is only a kid.”

“Kids die in wars too, Stephen. You should know that by now. I only said they wouldn’t be in pain anymore if you go with me. That doesn’t mean they’ll live. That’s why you could never be a leader or the Sorcerer Supreme, you lack spine.”  

Mordo now was holding two sword-shaped mandalas aimed at both Peter and Tony. Peter wanted to cry. He still had a bright future ahead of him. Internship at the Stark Industries. Dating MJ. Going to college. Annoying Ned. Buying Aunt May an expensive apartment that she deserved. Now all would be gone because of some stupid wizard in green. He closed his eyes in resignation.

“No, I don’t. Enough of this unnecessary violence.”

That was Stephen’s voice. Peter opened his eyes and saw that Stephen’s hands were glowing with yellow mandalas and Mordo was on the grass panting. That explained the lack of pain in any part of Peter’s body and he could move now.

So somehow Stephen had hit Mordo with magic. Wasn’t his magic gone? Stephen was equally in shock. The Mandalas at his hands had dimmed and slowly disappeared. He seemed to try to activate them again. They keyword was try.

Peter realized that Stephen was still standing at the other side of the portal.

Tony seemed to realize the same thing.  ”Stephen, please step back to this side before the portal closes.”

Stephen still looked dazed but did as he asked.

Mordo looked up at him. “Stephen, don’t think it’s over. We’ll meet again soon and you’ll regret not following me today.” Before any of them could do anything, Mordo disappared.

Tony sighed. “For the record, I really hate magic. I didn’t know that guy could teleport. I should've knocked him unconscious.”

“I should’ve webbed him.”

“Should have wouldn’t bring him back. Peter, could you bring Stephen to the tower? He still seems to be in shock for what he did. I’m going to call Wong.”

Stephen was indeed quiet and looked deathly pale. Peter guided him slowly toward the direction of the Compound. He needed to call Happy because it was a really long way to walk. This day sucked.

Chapter Text

Right now Stephen was exhausted. Apparently using magic took a lot of energy. He wasn’t even sure how to replicate what just happened in the Park. He was so worried for Tony and Peter’s safety and there was also something else stirred in his mind and out of instinct, bolts of energy which were apparently called Bolts of Bedevilment shot out of his hands and stun Mordo.

He told Wong, who appeared as soon as Tony called and graciously had opened a portal to bring them back to the Compound’s Medical Bay so Peter didn’t need to guide or carry him, that the name of the spell just rolled out of the tongue and why the name of the spell was an alliteration. That comment earned an eye roll from Wong. He said about something never changed with or without memory.

He went to check on Tony and Peter to make sure they were OK as soon they arrived at the Compound. Tony grumbled saying he was OK and asked whether Stephen should check on himself. Stephen said he was OK (well, at least that was true physically).

At least Peter was more gracious when he did a check up on him. He even called him Mr Doctor Strange again which he quickly shot down. .

It was then Wong’s turn to check on three of them. Stephen said he was OK and asked Wong to check on Peter and Tony first. Luckily both of them didn’t have any magical residue on their bodies and they wouldn’t suffer any after effects.

Wong looked more grim (if that was possible given Wong’s poker face) when he checked on Stephen. He said there was some magical residue on Stephen but Wong couldn’t figure out what it did. So far it seemed harmless but he was worried because it wasn’t there the last time Wong checked on him. Wong didn’t spell it out but Stephen understood that the residue could be caused by himself when he performed magic or worse it came from Mordo. When he returned to Kamar-Taj, he would consult the other Masters.

Wong asked him to replicate the spell. Stephen didn’t know even know how to start. Well, that was not completely true. It could be triggered if someone was in danger but there was no way Stephen risking that for a spell that might not appear. He told Wong about that and the librarian agreed. Besides, he said Stephen needed to rest as his body acted like a novice who just stumbled upon magic.

Wong was conversing with Tony in low voice. He knew they were talking about him because both of them often threw not-so-subtle glance toward him. How he wished he had Peter’s super hearing right now. Speaking of Peter, the poor kid alternating between looking at him in awe and worrying about him.

“Peter, stop doing that. I won’t be able to do whatever I just did so there won’t be any magic show today. I also won’t suddenly collapse. I won’t lose any more memory nor magic because I still have none at the moment. Stop worrying.”

Peter bit his lip.”We nearly lost you. Are you insane stepping through that portal?”

Oh that. Stephen tried not to think about that. “Well, I’m not with Mordo now so everything works out. I nearly lost you two too. I’d never forgive myself if either of you or anyone in my stead. Peter, are you sure you’re OK? You nearly died.”

Peter just shrugged. “It comes with the territory because of my non-paying job as Spider-Man. Well, most of the time my villains are too stupid so I’m not faced with any mortal danger.”

“You’re still a teenager. You shouldn’t fight crime. Let the Avengers do it.”

“I’m also an Avenger. Mr. St-. Tony knighted me at the donut ship. Don’t you remember?” Peter covered his mouth with both hands. “I’m so sorry. That’s not very sensitive of me.”

It was Stephen’s turn to shrug. “That’s fine. I’ve made peace with my condition. If my memory is supposed to return, it will eventually return. Worrying about it won’t fasten the process.”

“That’s so Zen of you.”

“I’m glad you didn’t say so Strange of me. Peter, my point remains. You should focus on being a teenager, going to school, dating, listening to bad music and watching bad movies, not fighting crimes.”

“Hey, my music and movies are great.”

Stephen smiled. “My bad. I might’ve mistaken you for a common teenager. You’re special. I’m not talking about your powers but you have such a big heart.”

“Doc, did you knock your head and have some unknown concussion?”

“I’m serious. Let the adults do the superheroing.”

“We were attacked by Mordo not because I was Spider-Man.” Peter realized what he just said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to blame you. It was all Mordo’s fault, not you. What’s his weird obsession with you? He said he loved you but he had funny ways of showing it.”

“I’m sorry you met Mordo because of me. You really shouldn’t be in any danger.” Stephen was hit by the realization that he was a danger to anyone around him as long as Mordo was around. Perhaps he should go elsewhere but he shouldn’t tell Tony or Peter or the rest of them as they wouldn’t allow him to leave. Perhaps he could consult Wong about where to go.

“Stephen, I’m not fragile. I have super healing. I could take care of myself. Well, perhaps not against magic but in general. Stop worrying and apologizing. Everything is fine.”

Tony came up behind Peter. “Really? What do you mean by everything is fine?”

“Stephen was apologizing that we were in danger because of him. I told him everything is fine. None of us died or captured or injured so everything is fine. Right?!”

“Eh, fine is a relative term but I agree with the kid. It’s not your fault that some creepy guy clad in green has some weird obsession and causes dangers for everyone. Been there, done that. I’m famished. We didn’t manage to get that hotdog. Wong, what do you want to eat?”

The librarian seemed surprised to be included. “I won’t say no to Hulk-A-Hulk-A-Burning-Fudge, some tuna melt, and Spaghetti Aglio e Olio.”

“Wong. You’re not a simple man, but you have simple taste. Your wish is my command. I’ll get the usual for the rest of us.”

“I’ll help you order Mr St-. Tony.” Peter followed Tony to the dining area. They were so obvious wanting to give him some privacy.

Stephen wondered what was considered usual lunch for him. Knowing Tony, perhaps it would be something extravaganza.

“Wong, I need to talk to you.”

“I also need to talk to you. OK, you first.”

“As long as I don’t have any power, I’m a danger to anyone around me because Mordo could attack anytime. Do you any secluded place for me to stay low? Even a cave or a cell is fine for me as long as no one else is around.”

“You indeed are an idiot. Why would you want to return to a cell given you have spent three months time there?”

“I don’t know. I can’t think of anything. It won’t be the same as Mordo’s prison. As long as the place is empty and not accessible by anyone, then I’ll be safe.”

“Then how will you be able to get any food or medicine?”

“As I said, I haven’t thought this through.” Stephen answered a tad defensively.

“That much is obvious. Tony said if he were you, he would think of something like that. I guess he knew you so well or you two are two peas in a pod. He has vetoed the idea and I agree. You don’t even remember your name and you still retain some injuries and plenty of trauma. There is no way we’re going to let you live alone. We’re not that as defenseless as you thought. We were just caught unprepared. I’ll fortify the wards around this place.”

“Will that be enough?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. Mordo might learn some new Dark Arts that we’re unaware of. The only one who might know that can’t even remember his own name.”

“Who? Me?! I know the Dark Arts?! Are they not evil by nature?”

“Stephen, you’re very inquisitive. You want to know every magic under the sun of this dimension or even other dimensions. You might not practice it but you said it was always better to be prepared. I wish I could get that Stephen back. I meant the knowledgeable part, not the know-it-all attitude.”

“I miss you too, I think.”

“As for whether it’s evil. It really is like a knife. You can use a knife for cooking or harming someone. The same thing with the Dark Arts. Although Dark Arts tend to corrupt the users so we don’t usually practice them.”

“Too bad I don’t remember what I’ve learned. I think we need more defense system besides the wards in case Mordo attacks.”

“I have one better. That’s what I want to talk to you about.” Wong draw a circle on the air and a portal opened . It seemed to open to the New York Sanctum. “I think it’s time for you to reunite with the Cloak of Levitation.”

As if on cue, a red cape, no, a red Cloak (Stephen’s mind automatically corrected itself) flew through the portal. It seemed hesitant and its collars turned to Wong’s direction.

“Stephen, the Cloak of Levitation is super loyal to you and has saved your lives countless times. I know you're wary of mystical objects at the moment but given your situation, are you willing to let it continues to protect you? It might protect you better than any of the Masters combined at this stage because It can stay close to you all the time.”

The Cloak nodded its collars as if agreeing with Wong. The Cloak then faced Stephen and it turned the  collars down but it couldn’t stay long looking down, it would come up to look at Stephen again and turned its collars down again. If Stephen didn’t know any better, the Cloak was timid to meet him. It looked super cute. He didn’t have the heart to turn the Cloak down. Besides, after the display of Mordo’s magic today, he definitely needed all the help he could get to protect the people around him.

“OK, I’ll let the Cloak to protect me.” The Cloak looked up, flew a bit higher, and made itself look more majestic and bigger.

Wong shook his head. “I think it tries to impress you. I really wish I could see you the way the Cloak sees you. What’s so wonderful about you?”

“Hey! I guess I should be insulted but I really have no idea about it either.” He beckoned the Cloak. “Come here.”

The Cloak flew in front of him but stopped two feet in front of him. Stephen grabbed a corner and pull it toward his back. The Cloak didn’t let him finish his work and quickly flew to attach itself on his shoulders. The weight was comforting and for one second Stephen felt everything would be better with the Cloak around. The Cloak seemed to notice his mood and started to caress his face. “Please stop it.”

Tony chose that moment to step back into the Medical Bay. “Oh, good, the obscenely loyal piece of outerwear is back. Please refrain the cape from showing too much PDA because some of us want to keep our food down.”

Chapter Text

Stephen let all those people in his area to go through the portal from the Soul Stone to New York first. After seeing there was no danger at the area he opened, he asked women and children to step through first. He told them there was no need to rush because he could keep the portal until everyone went through. He didn’t tell them the exhaustion he felt maintaining the portal open. He could rest as soon as he went to the other side.

He longed to return to the world of living. He missed studying ancient texts and bugging Wong. If he thought of these things two years ago, he might go to see a therapist but those were the less strange things about his life.

When the last person had gone, he wobbled through the portal.

He smiled as soon as he stepped through the other side. He saw the one person whom he missed but  he thought wanted nothing to do with him anymore. Now perhaps they could talk and make up. Mordo smiled back at him.

He limped to the front of his mentor and grinned. “I’ve never expected to see you again in my life. I’m so glad you’re the first familiar face I see when I come back to the living. Yeah, that sentence sounds weird.”

Mordo approached and hugged him. “Strange, you always want to play the savior and I guess you manage it even when you were technically dead. How do you feel of defying the natural law again?”

Stephen was surprised at his question. Was Mordo still upset about Hong Kong? He wanted to step back and looked at Mordo in the eyes. But he couldn’t detach himself from Mordo who hugged him even tighter.

“Come on Strange, time to sleep. You’ve done enough. Don’t you think it’s best to let others do the saving for now?”

Stephen struggled to get free but he was too tired and Mordo was too strong. He also felt drowsy. Mordo must have used a spell on him. He could feel the Cloak also wiggled to get free but it was futile for either of them. He struggled for a few seconds but then everything went dark.

Stephen knew he was dreaming. He was in the Avengers Compound with Tony. This thing had happened. So it was more of a memory presented in a dream. He tried to wake up but he couldn’t.

When he came around, he realized he was slumping against a wall in a dimly lit room. He didn’t remember where he was and how he got here. That itself was not unusual occurrence in his new life. He tried to raise his hands and to his horror, he couldn’t move them much because they were chained to the wall. He then looked down at his feet and realized they were chained too at his ankles. He tried to summon his magic to break the chains but was rewarded by burning sensation coming from his neck toward his whole body. He went to touch his neck and discovered there was some sort of contraption around his neck. He stopped using magic then the pain ceased immediately. He remembered now. This must be Mordo’s doing. He tried to stand up but the chains around his legs were too short so he could only squad.

A few minutes later, the man he suspected involved in his predicament came in. “Oh, good, you’re awake. I should’ve warned you earlier then you can’t use magic here if you don’t want to suffer. I’ve attached the Necklace of Nohomein to your neck so forget about using magic.”

Stephen’s blood went cold. He thought the Necklace was a myth. He went to his default mode. “I thought I was enjoying myself with these short chains. The necklace was my only problem.”

“I know you’re scared. Don’t need to joke to pretend otherwise. Don’t worry. I won’t kill you.”

“I’m not afraid of deaths. Been there, done that. Quite a lot of time actually. Not sure if I can claim frequent flyer of some sorts. Might be useful to pay the bills.”

“Silence and listen what I have to say.”

Mordo moved his right hand and Stephen felt the necklace around his neck tightened. Perhaps it was wise to remain silent for now.

“You think you’re above natural law that you can defy it anytime you want. You never think about the consequences. The cost of magic. The whole world might need to pay the price for your frivolous activity. You treated the Time Stone like your plaything. You used it to turn back the events in Hong Kong. Those people should just stay dead. You shouldn’t just barge in using the Stone to save the day.”

Stephen didn’t care about repercussion of speaking anymore. “Do you want me to let Wong and other Masters plus a lot of others to die in Hong Kong?”

“Well, if it’s time for them to die so yes. Why not?”

“But their deaths were not natural. It was because of magic. I just undid what happened there which was not natural at the first place. Those people wouldn’t die if Kaecillius and Dormammu didn’t attack them.” At least Mordo didn’t tighten the necklace this time.

“You always have the answers to everything, don’t you? How about your deal with Dormammu? You’re as pathetic as her.”

This was too much. He didn’t care if Mordo insulted or accused him. But accusing The Ancient One who had saved Mordo and him from self-destruction? “She was the reason we still have a world to live in. She did whatever was necessary but it was not for her personal gain. You’re too rigid in your view to see that. She died to save us.”

“She died to save you.” Stephen felt a pang of guilt at the mention. “Strange, you’re too flexible. You think you’re above the law. Did you know the price of your deal with Dormammu?”

“If you’re worried that the world will pay for the price of my deal with Dormammu, don’t. I think dying more than a thousand times is enough price.”

“You died more than a thousand time?!” Mordo seemed to be pretty shaken by that fact. “I guess you’re not a coward anymore.”

“I wouldn’t really recommend dying multiple times or at all, but we can’t be picky. if you bothered to stay in Hong Kong after my deal with Dormammu, I could’ve explained to you everything.”

“That’s why I don’t kill you, Stephen. I know you’re good and you don’t use magic for personal gain. But you still defy natural law. One day, it’s going to come back to bite you and the world along with it. I know you can’t see it now but you’ll come to see my way one day. I’ll make sure of that even if I need to lock you for years.”

Stephen’s blood ran cold. “Karl, you don’t have to do this. We can talk about this like adults. I’m sure we can come to a compromise.”

“There is no compromise. I’m right and you’re wrong.”

“I think the world begs to differ. We won’t have a world to live in if I didn’t do what I did.”

“Still arrogant as ever. Still like to play God. I guess half of the universe should thank you for your great job protecting the Time Stone.”

“You know about the Stone.” Stephen’s frequent guilt started to resurge. He had been suppressing it while he was stuck in Soul Stone. He kept convincing himself he did the right thing. That they would win eventually. But he knew he let half of the universe died. What kind of doctor did that?

Mordo continued., “You’ve shown your remorse. Of course I know. You were the protector of the Stone and I know how stubborn you can be so Thanos wouldn’t get the Stone unless you wanted him to. So when half of the population was gone, I knew you were involved somehow. Did you think about the people died because of half of the population was gone? The passengers of an airplane of which pilot turned to dust? The patient in a surgery where the doctor turned to dust. Even if half of those who turned to dust have come back, how about those passengers? Those patients? If you didn’t play God, they would still have lived.”

“But if I didn’t give up the Stone, half of the population might not return.”

“They might. You didn’t know that for sure.”

“I did. I looked through multiple futures and tried to find the winning future.”

“And you just think that’s a natural thing to do. You just use magic and the Time Stone as the crutch to solve all your problems. I guess we have a long way to go. Goodbye Stephen. We’ll talk again tomorrow. Perhaps that time you’ll have some sense.”

Stephen was worried to be left alone with his thoughts. The problem was he sort of agreed with Karl’s point about using the Time Stone as a crutch and also playing God. Perhaps Mordo had a point. “Karl, wait, you might be right. Can we discuss this? Perhaps outside this smelly room.”

“I know you’re full of tricks. I’m not letting you out so you can escape. We’ll talk again tomorrow.”

“Can I have my Cloak back please? What happened to her?”

“She is safe. And no, you can’t be with her. Reuniting you two will be a mistake.”

Mordo slammed the door as he left. Stephen was left alone with his guilt.

Stephen tried very hard to wake up now. He could remember his guilt even when he slept. He didn’t remember his name or his past but he could remember his guilt. That was not natural. He knew Mordo’s magic must be involved in this. But he still couldn’t wake up.

Stephen couldn’t sleep the whole day or night. He couldn’t tell the time. He also didn’t get any food or drink. After what felt like decades, finally Mordo showed up with a tray containing a bowl of soup and a jar of water.

“I think it’s time for you to replenish yourself. Don’t worry. It’s not poisoned. I can just use my magic so I won’t resort to poison.”

As a matter of fact, Stephen would still eat and drink them if they were poison. He didn’t realize how famished he was. The last time he ate was his breakfast before he was taken by Thanos’s minion. He didn’t manage to get the sandwich from the Deli. Then with his luck, of course he died. He didn’t know how much time had passed in real world but it has been around six months in the Soul Stone. No wonder he felt like he hadn’t eaten for months.

His instinct was to drink the whole jar of water but luckily his medical knowledge took precedence. He took small sips until he finished a third of the jar before starting to drink the soup.

Mordo just looked on with some fondness which kinda creepy given his condition but Stephen was too hungry to care.

He finished the whole jar of water.

“I guess we can continue our conversation now.” Mordo smiled. “How was your day?”

“Could’ve been better. The accommodation is terrible. The host has lack of communication.”

“I guess your terrible sense of humor is still intact. Have you thought about joining me? You should see by now that you always act like you know better than anybody. Rules be damned.”

“Karl, I know I really shouldn’t play God. Do you think I didn’t think about it the whole time? That’s what I did when I was stuck in the Soul Stone. But as I said, if I didn’t do it, all of us were doomed. You said they might come back. But the chance of survival is less than 0.0000007%. Yes, a kid called Peter calculated that. It’s better than none. I know that it was still playing God but the universe was at stake. At least we still have a universe to come back to. I still feel guilty about all those deaths you mentioned. I indirectly caused it although the direct cause is Thanos.”

“I guess that’s an improvement because at least you admitted your mistakes. So will you be joining me?”

“Join you doing what? Attacking other sorcerers and taking their magic? Yes, I’m arrogant. Yes, I defy natural laws if required. But I won’t attack other innocent people.”

“They’re not innocent. They’re not worthy to use magic especially for personal gains.”

“Who is playing God now? We can’t be the judge of other people’s worthiness.”

“There are crooks who use magic for stealing money, for attracting partners, for cheating their spouses. Do you think they’re worthy?”

“Well, I admit what they do is wrong. But it doesn’t mean we have the right to take away their magic. We can’t be the judge, jury, and executioner. I’m sure our Councils can deal with people who use magic for illegal activities.”

Mordo roared, “Those Councils are useless. All they do is talking and making regulations. We need to take actions.”

“I think we need to follow their rules.”

“That’s rich coming from you who only follow the rules when they suit you.”

That actually stung because Stephen indeed only followed some rules. But he wouldn’t break rules that could cause harm to others. Causing harm to himself was another thing but as Wong said he was an idiot.

Mordo stared at him.“There is no retort because it’s true. So I’ll make it simple, you have to follow me or you will suffer the consequences.”

“What is…” Before Stephen could finish his sentence, he felt immense pain from his chest like something from inside was tugged. It felt like his essence was being taken. He saw orange light coming from his chest toward Mordo’s chest.  He couldn’t help but screamed. The process lasted for a few minutes although it felt like aeon.

“That’s the consequence. I just absorbed around 5% of your magic. I’ll come back again in three days time to let you think this through. If you still don’t want to cooperate, I’ll take half of your remaining magic. If you don’t want to cooperate, I’ll take the rest of your magic.”

Stephen couldn’t stop his tears. “Karl, please don’t do this. I need the magic. What will I be without my magic? How can I help people? What’s my life’s meaning?”

“Perhaps you should think about that before you play God and break the rules. And you rely too much on your magic. Just agree to follow me and everything will be fine. But if you lie, you’ll pay the consequences. See you in three days time.”

“Karl, please no. Don’t leave me alone. I’m sure we can come to some sort of agreement.”

“Bye, Stephen. Think about what you did.”

Stephen tried to wake himself up. He had had enough. He really shouldn’t play God. He shouldn’t only follow rules when it was convenient.. He remembered about this now. But he couldn’t wake up.

For the next three days, Mordo let his minions tortured him. It was terrible but at least he wasn’t alone with his thoughts.

Three days later, Mordo came with a jar of water and a sandwich now. Stephen was not as hungry as the fist time he was fed by Mordo because his minions fed him although the amount was very sparse. At least they gave him water so he was not dehydrated. He laughed hysterically because the last thing he needed to worry about was dehydration when he was about to lose his magic hence his self identity.

Mordo looked down with pity as he finally stopped laughing. He hated the pitying look. At least Mordo let him eat in peace first before taking his magic away. That was so considerate of him.

After he finished eating, Mordo asked, “So what’s your answer this time? Think carefully before you answer. I can wait.”

Stephen raised himself high as much as his chains allowed. “If you ask whether I have remorse, my answer is yes. If you ask whether I’ll do it again to save the universe, my answer if yes even if it defies natural law. I’m sure I’ll regret it later but at least we have a universe to return to. If you ask whether I want to join your misguided cause, the answer is no.”

“Very well then, you made your choice. I made mine.”

Mordo did the same gesture again. Stephen pressed both his ring fingers using his thumbs as he sat back down on the floor. He felt the pain immediately. It was hundredfold more than the last time. He screamed and screamed. After around half an hour, finally it was done.

Stephen slumped back against the wall. He felt like his soul was missing. He had no purpose in life anymore.

“I’m sorry I’ve to do this, Stephen. If you join me, I can return all that has been taken from you. But I know you’re stubborn. I’ll let you think about it in three days. If you still refuse to join me, I’ll take away your memory as well. Perhaps it’ll be best since you can start anew.”

Stephen felt like he had been drenched in cold water. “Karl, please no. Is it not enough to take away my magic? What will I be without my memory?”

“Someone new. Bye, Stephen.”

This time he just closed his eyes in resignation, there was no hope.

How could he continue in this dream? Damn magic. Damn Mordo.

Stephen felt like his missed something important.

He got tortured again in the next three days but at least he still had his memory, for now. Three days later, Mordo appeared again with a tray filled with a jar of water and a plate of Lo Mein Noodle. Stephen laughed uncontrollably. It was his last meal before his sentence.

Mordo still looked at him with pity before setting the tray in front of him. It had become a routine that it was almost endearing in psychotic way.

He ate slowly this time. He knew his fate was inevitable but why hastened the process. Mordo could wait. That bastard got the majority of his magic so he should wait.

Eventually, he still finished his meal.

Mordo took his face in his hands and stared at him. “So I guess from your expression, your answer is still no then. Perhaps it’s for the best. You can start anew.”

Stephen pressed his index and ring fingers in both hands using his thumbs and closed his eyes to accept his fate.

The process of taking his magic was still super painful but he kinda knew what he got into. As soon as Mordo finished taking his magic, Stephen felt like he had no energy left in his body. He also felt something big and indescribable was missing from him.

He suddenly felt very light headed as some sort of energy flew out of his head. He didn’t want to open his eyes. He didn’t want to see the process of him losing himself. After a while, the flow of energy stopped. It felt good when it stopped. He opened his eyes and didn’t recognize the stranger in front of him. In fact, he didn’t know who he was, why he was here, and where was here.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“A friend,” the stranger smiled. “You’re very sick but we’re going to make you feel better. I’ll come back again after a few days and we can talk.” The stranger stood up and moved toward the door.

“Please don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone”

“Everything will be fine. Bye for now.”

This was absurd. If he didn’t remember the stranger, how could he remember him earlier in the dream? If he forgot the whole process of taking his memory, why could he remember the process in the first place? Shouldn’t he just not know? Well, he didn’t know. He knew now in this damn dream that he couldn’t wake up from. He still felt like he missed something important.

The torture continued and they got more creative. It was a pity that their pastime was to torture him. The problem was he didn’t know why he was being tortured in the first place. Was he a bad person? Was this afterlife of sort? Nobody told him anything. How was it to make him better by the torture?

A week later, the stranger came again with a tray with a jar of water, three slices of pizza, and a bowl of ice cream. He loved ice cream. He didn’t know how he remembered that but the sight of it made his mouth water. He looked up with his left eye because his right eye was swollen. His ribs might be cracked as well because it was hard to breathe. It might be at the third rib on the right and the fourth one on the left. He didn’t know why he knew these facts.

The stranger put down his tray and knelt in front of him. “They’re too far this time. I already told them no permanent damage. No broken bones.” The stranger’s hands glowed red.

He scooted back and pressed his back against the wall but there was no escape.

“Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you. I’m just trying to heal you.”

“Why are your hands glowing?”

“It’s magic. I’m going to heal you using magic.”

“Magic is real?!.”

The stranger searched his face as if looking for something. He just stayed quiet in case he would anger the stranger. The stranger nodded as if satisfied that he didn’t find what he was looking for. That was odd because people usually were satisfied when they found what they looked for. But again, usually people’s hands didn’t glow. He didn’t know for sure about that because so far he only met people who beat him up daily. Perhaps everybody outside had glowing hands.

“Yes, very much so. Now stay still so I can heal you properly.”

He did as he was told. The light reached his right eye and it felt good. He could open his eye now. The stranger then healed his cracked ribs. He could breathe properly.

“I’m sorry that I come back much later than I promised. That’s why I brought you ice cream.”

“Can I eat the ice cream first?”

“Sure.”

He took the bowl of ice cream and looked hesitantly at the stranger. There were tears in the stranger’s eyes which was odd. The ice cream was good. The stranger nodded so he started to spoon the ice cream.

He finished the ice cream first before eating his pizza.

He offered the stranger but he just shook his head. “No, you go ahead. I think it’s your due.”

He didn’t understand what it meant but he hadn’t had pizza for a while. He didn’t remember the last time he had proper food. In fact, he didn’t remember the last time he was outside this room and the room where they beat him up and electrocuted him.

There was no need to think about it now. Just eat.

After he finished his meal, he looked up at the stranger. He looked pleased.

“By the way, my name is Mordo. You’re here because you have been a very bad boy. Those people who accompany you daily try to teach you to be good.”

“They beat me up. How could that be good?”

“You were very bad so you needed to be taught a lesson.”

“What did I do? I don’t think beating people up can make people good. Violence begets violence.” He covered his mouth as he said the last sentence. It didn’t sound like something someone like him could say.

“As stubborn as usual. It doesn’t matter what you did previously. You just need to follow me.”

“What exactly do you do?”

“I teach lessons to other people like you.”

“Do you mean you beat them up until they’re good?”

“Not exactly. But yes, we teach lessons to bad people.”

“That doesn’t sound like fun. Besides, who are we to judge others and beat them up? Shouldn’t we just lead by example by being good?”

He was surprised as Mordo slapped him. “Enough insolence coming from you. I thought taking your memory will change you but you’re still stubborn. Perhaps this would remind you how bad you were.” Mordo’s hands started to glow yellow.

Suddenly he felt like his whole body was on fire. He pleaded. He screamed. He cried. Mordo just ignored him. As soon as Mordo stopped moving his hands, his pain was gone instantly.

He tried to move as far away from Mordo but the chains wouldn’t allow him.

He laughed bitterly. As if he could back away from magic.

Mordo shook his head. “I’ll come back again in a few days to see whether you changed your mind.”

Stephen wanted to scream. He wanted this movie about his life to end. He didn’t remember the previous part when he had magic and his memory but he remembered everything that happened after Mordo took his memory. But no such luck.

The process repeated every few days. Physical torture by those goons then Mordo would come to bring some of his favorite food, healed some of his heavy injuries, and threw hissy fits when he still didn’t want to teach other people’s lessons. His tortures varied. Sometime it was extreme heat, sometime it was extreme cold or extreme itch or extreme pain. Well everything extremely uncomfortable because Mordo didn’t do things halfway.

After perhaps around the twentieth time, Mordo finally said. “Perhaps next time I’ll just use my magic to make you comply. It’s much easier and less painful for both of us. Do you think it’s fun for me to torture you like this and saw you scream? I want to stop but you’re too stubborn.”

He was worried. What would happen if he became a magical robot for Mordo? He didn’t even know who he was anymore but he definitely know he didn’t want to hurt people on purpose. To do it under other’s influence would be extra terrible.

Luckily before Mordo got the chance to do it, Wong and the rest of the Masters rescued him a few days later.

Stephen woke up with a start. The alarm was blaring. The Cloak apparently had been shaking him to wake him up.

“Doctor Strange, I’ve been trying to wake you up but I can’t. There is an emergency. Someone called Mordo had come to Mr Stark’s workshop and attacked him. He said he would also release Mr Stark if you go to meet him at his workshop. It was the workshop where you had your panic attack.”

Of course it would be. Just his luck. Or was it Tony’s luck?

“I know Mr Stark might suggest you to run as it’s a trap but knowing your personality, I think you will go to the workshop anyway. It’s best to be careful, Doctor.”

“Thanks, Friday. I’ll be careful. What could possibly go wrong? Mordo has all the magic, including mine. I don’t even remember my past, except the parts in my dream. I’m sure the odd is in my favor but again Peter said math is not my strong suit.” He didn't tell Friday that he might just agree to go with Mordo willingly because his guilt of playing God had increased a hundredfold since he woke up.

Chapter Text

“Doctor. You need at least weapon to protect yourself.”

“What could I possibly use the attack someone who can transform matters?”

“You raise a very good point. How can I help?”

“How many people are there beside Mordo?”

“He is alone.”

Mordo must be confident to think that he could handle any or even all of the Avengers. He couldn’t blame him. “In that case, just don’t let anyone else come into the workshop. Don’t call for help. If I could extricate Tony from the workshop, then you let him stay out and you seal the door. Don’t let him come in again.”

“Mr Stark won’t be happy about it.”

“He won’t be happy about what I’m about to do so that ship has sailed. Mordo just wants me to go with him so perhaps if I come along, he won’t harm Tony.”

“Doctor, I don’t think that’s a good plan.”

“You overestimate me. I have no plan, even a bad one. You can call me Stephen. After all, you’ve been very helpful during my stay here. Thank you for everything.”

“Doc-, Stephen, I really don’t like you saying goodbye to me like this. Perhaps you need to formulate a plan first.”

“There is no time for that. I don’t want to endanger Tony unnecessarily.”

“But, Stephen…”

“It’s nice knowing you, Friday. Thanks for your constant support.” He nearly choked on his words.

“Likewise, Stephen. It has been nice knowing you.” Friday sounded wistful but perhaps he just imagined it.

He drew a deep breath and opened the door. The Cloak squeezed his shoulders for extra support.

Mordo was sitting on a chair facing the door. Tony with the half formed Bleeding Edge armor sat behind him. He looked furious but couldn’t move a muscle.

“Ah, nice of you to finally join us, Strange. You took your own sweet time. Please take a seat.” He used telekinesis to move a chair right in front of him.

He sat on it. Not that he had much choice in the matter.“Let Tony go and we could talk.”

“Why would I let him go when he is my ace card? You only listen to me now because his life is on the line.” If possible, Tony looked even more furious without moving any muscles. Tony did have expressive eyes.

“Just let him go. I’m going with you anyway. You’ve manipulated my dream.”

Mordo smiled. “Ah, you’ve got my message then. Do you like it? It really is your memory. Well, my impression of your memory since you don’t have yours. You should be ashamed of yourself, playing God and acting like it’s the most natural thing to do.”

Stephen looked at the floor in front of him. “I’m not proud of what I’ve done seen through your memory. Just let him go then we can go on our way.”

“Not that easy.” Mordo unfroze only Tony’s mouth.

Tony yelled. “Stephen, you idiot. Don’t believe whatever he showed you. He told you himself that it was not your true memory but his impression. He can be planting fake memory. Just run and leave me alone with this maniac.” He yelled in pain afterward as Mordo threw some blue spells in Tony’s direction.

Mordo turned to look at Stephen again. “Why would I spare him? You’ll go with me either way but if he is dead, you’ll have no hope anymore. Then you won’t think of escaping again. I’ll kill whoever comes to help you so you’ve better hoped nobody comes to rescue you. I’ll kill Wong and the rest of the sorcerers who have helped you. They thought they could create wards to hide you but they forget I taught them how to create those protective wards. Besides, everyone knows where Tony Stark and the Avengers lives. I should’ve guessed much earlier. It’s a remiss in my part but it won’t happen again.”

“I always know that my fame will be my downfall.” Tony managed to chime in before Mordo threw another spell at him. Tony couldn’t help but scream.

Mordo continued, “You lack a spine to kill anyone even if it’s the only way to win. You always hide behind your Time Stone and loopholes to make sure your hands are clean.” He produced a knife and handed it to Stephen. “Now, I give you a choice. You can kill your friend quickly with no pain then we can go on our merry way. Or you can sit here and watch him in pain for hours or days” He moved his hands and small cuts started to appear all over Tony’s body. Tony tried his best not to scream but it was futile. He managed to form one sentence. “Stephen, run!” Mordo strengthen his spell so he couldn’t say anything more except screaming.

“I could do this for days and he could still be alive but he would wish to die. I’ve got all the time in the world because either way you’re mine. You need to learn your lessons. You can’t act high and mighty anymore when you get blood on your hands.”

Stephen’s body shook as he repressed his anger and fear. The Cloak tried her best to calm him but it was not working. Suddenly, his mind got hit by a bright light and he remembered everything.

After the first time Mordo took his magic and threatened to take more away, he had been trying to find ways to let it happen. He didn’t care what happen to himself but he wouldn’t let Mordo use his magic to hurt more people.

Incidentally, being a bookworm and know-it-all, Stephen had read all the books that he could get hold of. Who needed sleep when he could always astral project? Wong and other Masters said his mind needed to rest as well but what they didn’t know won’t hurt them. He was a doctor so he could take care of himself. One day, in one of of the rooms in the basement in New York’s Sanctum, he found a book containing obscure spells. It was definitely obscure as the book was written around two thousand years ago. One of the spells was how to manipulate one’s own magic as if it was gone or taken without the person taking it realizing it. Stephen wondered why would someone needed a spell like that and why would someone took someone’s magic but due to his inquisitive nature, he memorized the spell without the chance of testing it. He couldn’t just come up to Wong or other Masters asking them to try to take away his magic. There was an honor code among sorcerers. It was a disgrace to take away someone’s magic. Only the Sorcerer Supreme was allowed to do it and with good reasons. For example, when someone had been harming others using magic and the only way to stop the person was to take away their magic. Most sorcerers would rather die than let their magic be taken.

The spell let his magic went through someone else before lodging itself to a pocket dimension he had prepared. At least he knew the feelings and sensation of his magic being taken so as long he could simulate them, he could also practice the spell.  It was not easy with Necklace of Nohomein on his neck, but he was stubborn and never willing to give up which made him a pain-in-the-ass according to Wong. He bore through the pains to experiment. At least pain was an old friend and in between his torture sessions, this experiment was self inflicted so there was a bit of morbid satisfaction that he had one over them.

That was what he felt was missing in his dream. When Mordo took his magic, he pressed his ring fingers using his thumbs to activate a spell to let his magic be transferred from Mordo to another dimension. He knew Mordo wouldn’t feel that Stephen’s magic didn’t stay in his body. Mordo was his teacher but he had learned a lot of things after his teacher left. He doubted that Mordo had read the book found in the New York’s Sanctum under a pile of cobwebs.

By lucky coincidence, in the same book, there was also a spell to make a copy of his memory in another dimension when it was stolen. He wondered why would someone take someone else’s memory but he memorized it anyway including the hand gestures. That was what he had been missing in his dream. It was harder to experiment with this spell because he didn’t know the feeling of his memory being taken. He doubted the person who wrote the spell could prove it was working because even though the spell was successful, the person couldn’t remember that a copy of the memory had been made because the person wouldn’t remember anything.

Stephen made an additional change. The memory transfer was reversible when the person took the memory away did some things. For Mordo, it was easy because he had lived and learned from Mordo, and during his captivity, he always taunted him with the same things. He put some trigger words and situations that most likely would be uttered and done by Mordo. There were a lot of trigger words including “coward”, “lack of spine”, “your are mine”, “high almighty” which were uttered by Mordo every time he visited him. The situation was much trickier. But Stephen knew he needed his magic and/ or memory back so he could save someone either using his magic or medical expertise. He also made sure he would never kill so when the situations arose, his memory would return.

During his captivity, Mordo said some of the trigger words, theoretically he could access his magic but with the Necklace on his neck, it was a moot point.

He hit the jackpot today as every condition was fulfilled. The memory returned in a literal flash. He staggered backward. He pretended to be nervous when he retrieved all his magic from the pocket dimension. It was not hard to fake because his body had been shaking. Once he got all his magic back, he sent Bolts of Balthakk at Mordo’s direction. His former mentor looked shocked as fell backward. Stephen seized his opportunity and used the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to bind him.

Tony who had been writhing on the floor sat up because nobody attacked him anymore. “Stephen, are you OK? You’re just like Neo in the Matrix Revolutions.”

Stephen shook his head in distaste. “I thought no one watched that movie or they pretended not to like it.” He knelt in front of Tony to check for any life threatening injuries. He didn’t find any poison or malicious objects in the engineer’s system. He used his magic to heal the cuts and added spells to soothe the pains.

Suddenly he was exhausted. Not only physically because of the sudden use of magic after being inert for so long but also mentally. He remembered what he had done on Titan. He had been cryptic because if he told them what he saw in the one winning future, it wouldn’t happen. He wish he could help more.He had caused so much pain for Tony and the Avengers as they tried to get everyone back. To pay him back, Tony had treated him with kindness . He didn’t deserve Tony or anyone’s friendship or  forgiveness. He even still caused Tony so much pain when he lost his memory. It would be best if Tony stayed away from him from now on.

“Tony, you’re a good person. I’m not. I haven’t been straightforward you on Titan. I don’t deserve your friendship. I’ll be out of my way as soon as I’m done with Mordo. Please forgive me.”

“Stephen, I..” Before Tony finished his sentence, he used telekinesis to open the door, push Tony out, close and lock the door. He wished he had his sling ring so he could send Tony to his bedroom but he made do with what he got.

Tony was banging on the door.

“Friday, please keep the end of our deal. Don’t let Tony come in please.”

“Stephen, Mr Stark will be furious.”

“I deserve that. Please remember, don’t let him in until I’m gone.”

“I don’t like this but I will make sure Mr Stark is safe.”

“Thank you.”

Mordo managed to sneered at him through the Band. “I should’ve never underestimated you. As always, you find loopholes to keep your hands clean. You must be feeling great now.”

“On the contrary. I agree with you that I’m not proud with what I’ve done. The problem is I’ll do it all over again in order to protect the universe. If that makes me a monster, let’s be it. At least the universe is safe.”

“Still having that savior complex. We could work together to make a better world.”

“By killing other sorcerers and people who don’t agree with your idea?”

“Some sacrifices are needed for the greater good.”

“You just sound like Thanos.”

“Don’t you dare to compare me with that homicidal purple maniac. I won’t wipe half of the universe. I just want to make this world a better place.”

“Please tell that to all the people you’ve killed. I’m sure they all agree with your ideal world.”

“Still full of sarcasm. The problem is even with your arrogance, sarcasm, and high almighty attitude, I still love you.” He shook his head as much as the band allowed him.

“Yes, I feel so much of your love in between your torture sessions.” His tears started to fall. His Cloak was busy wiping them. “You know the feeling is mutual, right. After everything you’ve done to me, in some screw up ways, I still love you. I still think of you as my mentor and my friend. I still hope you realize what you have done is wrong and you will return to your former honorable self.”

“I think the same about you but the other way.I think we’ve reached an impasse.”

“I agree with you.”

“So what do you plan to do?”

“Let the masters at Kamar-Taj be the judge.”

“Can’t you just kill me to get revenge on what I’ve done to you and I don’t need to suffer the humiliation of trial.”

“I think you know me well enough to know I can’t do that.”

Mordo laughed bitterly. “So now you decide to follow the law.”

“I’m sorry, Karl. I wish things were different between us.”

“So am I.”

Mordo chose to remain quiet and accept his fate.

He could still hear Tony banging on the door and swearing at Friday but he chose to ignore it.

“Friday, can you please make a call to Wong right now.” He didn’t have his phone and he didn’t want to leave Mordo alone in this room.

Wong picked up after the tenth ring. “Hi Tony, what happened to Stephen?”

“Hi, Wong, it’s Stephen. I’m the one calling you. Can you bring me my sling ring? I also have got Mordo with me here so I’ll prefer if you bring some masters here to guard him as we bring him to Kamar Taj.”

“Stephen?! You remember about the sling ring!”

He rolled his eyes. He mentioned about Mordo and Wong picked up the wrong part to be excited. Well, Wong’s way of excitement was subtle. A thirty degree tilt of his head to the right. He really missed Wong. “I remember everything. It’s a long story.”

“Finally.” Wong sounded relieved.

Stephen felt devastated as he heard Tony was still banging on the door. He hoped Wong would appear any second. He breathed a sigh of relief when an orange portal started to appear in the workshop.

Chapter Text

Tony was not sure whether he was furious with Stephen or worried for him. Either way, he needed to see the doctor. He kept banging on the door. he heard Stephen made a phone call to Wong, the now familiar whooshing of the portal sound. After that, everything went quiet. Too quiet for his liking.

“Friday, could you open this damn door now?”

“Right away, Sir.”

The door immediately opened. As expected, the workshop now was in disarray which was expected given the earlier battles but it was also eerily quiet. Tony yelped in surprise when something hit his right leg. He had his repulsor readied only to saw Dum-E blinking confusedly (it was a default expression with Dum-E).

He squatted down to pat his favorite robot. “Hey, I miss you too. Don’t jump on me like that if you don’t want to end up as metal scraps just like Friday.”

Dum-E chirped happily, offered him a leg of a broken chair, and strolled away.

“Sir, in my defense, it was for your own safety. Doctor Strange didn’t really have a plan how to subdue Mordo.”

“So you just followed his instructions instead of mine.”

“Your safety is my priority, Sir.”

“How about Stephen’s safety? How about Pepper’s? Rhodey’s? Peter’s? Are all their safeties above mine?”

There was a tinge of regret when Friday replied, “Sir, it’s in my programming. Protect lives with the utmost priority is your life. I, of course, will protect the lives of those you mentioned but my number one priority is still yours. You can’t blame my programming, Sir.”

Of course Friday would blame him because he was the programmer. “After this is all over, I really need to reprogram you, Fri. For now, can you call Stephen’s phone?”

“Sir, his phone is in in his room in this Compound. He was in hurry to rescue you.”

Tony rolled his eyes. If only Friday was installed everywhere. But then that meant Friday might betray him everywhere like she did today.

He sighed. “Just call Wong then.”

After a few rings, there was a beep indicating there was an incoming text message.

Friday projected the text into a hologram screen.

“Stark, we’re busy at the moment. We need to take care of Mordo.”

“Friday, please type this and sent it to Wong.”

“OK, Sir.”

“I won’t bother you with questions about magicians then. How is Stephen?”

“Super busy. He feels that he has abandoned his duties as the Master for New York Sanctum far too long. I’m also super busy.”

Despite what Pepper said, Tony could take a hint, he just chose not to most of the time. He cursed Stephen for not taking his phone and cursed him more for leaving him without explanation. There was only one thing left to do.

“Friday, make yourself useful and please order five cheese burger with fries for me.”

“Sir, those food could kill you. I’m sure Doctor Strange would agree if he were here.”

“Well, he isn’t here, is he? And since when you’re taking his side anyway?”

“Since your health and safety is my priority, Sir.”

“Yeah, yeah, your programming. Blame it on me again. I nearly died today and it had nothing to do with my food. So yeah, if I were to die, I would prefer to die through my diet rather than by supervillains..”

“But it’s 4.43 am, Sir.”

“I’m sure a smart girl like you knows which shop is still open at this hour. Chop, chop. I’m hangry.”

Friday realized it was a lost cause so she relented. Fifteen minutes later, his order arrived.

After finishing his burgers, Tony felt surprisingly tired. Perhaps his adrenaline had run out so perhaps it was not so surprising. He was sure Stephen would have a precise medical term ready. Tony hated to admit but he missed his daily bantering with the doctor.

He went to bed at around 6 am. He woke up around eleven and felt oddly refreshed. He saw a text message from Wong.

“Mordo has been properly incarcerated. He will face trial in three days time. Stephen has been working since he comes back. He hasn’t rested. Currently, he is in the Phtaxl Dimension for peace negotiation. No, I don’t approve of that. He hasn’t fully recovered from his injuries and he’s got some new ones from his recent encounter with Mordo. Not to mention he just got his memory back. He is not fit for duty yet. I also can’t talk him out of any of his duties because he is super stubborn.”

That was quite a long and informative text for Wong’s standard so he must be upset about Stephen. Tony could sympathize with the librarian. Stephen was as stubborn as him so it was really hard for people who cared for him to take a good care for him properly. No wonder Wong said being amnesiac was a good rest for Stephen. Now he knew how Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy felt. He needed to make sure he spent more time with them and gave raises to Pepper and Happy.

He texted back. “Thanks for the update. Please let me know if there is any new development. I really would like to talk to Stephen.”

“So would I. He clams up and refuses to talk anything that has nothing to do with his job. I’ll keep you updated. Thanks for taking care of him so far. I know he can be a handful.”

Tony disagreed about the last part because Stephen was quite pleasant to talk to during his stay here. He was not a psychologist by any means but he believed the Tabula Rasa Stephen was the real Stephen while the arrogant asshole Stephen was an act to keep people at arm’s length. It took one  to know one.

“You’re welcome. Any update is good.”

Naturally, Wong didn’t reply.

Three days later.

“Mordo has been put on trial. He will stay in the jail in Kamar Taj to serve his sentence.  It’s a life long sentence with no chance of parole. However, we let him help up with research in his solitary room because he is very good at that. Stephen hasn’t come back from the Phtaxl Dimension. We don’t need his testimony for the trial because we have enough evidences. Besides, it’s not fair for Stephen to face Mordo after what he has been through.”

Tony raised his eyebrows. That was a lot of information to process. He was glad Wong told him the necessary details without revealing the inner working of Kamar-Taj. He was worried about Stephen.

“Thanks again for the update. You need a raise. I also don’t know you don’t get paid. So yeah, ice cream and lunch is on me the next time you visit. Please bring Stephen if you can. I’m sure he has a lot of opinions about Strange’s Magic Berries.” Yeah, apparently there was an ice cream named after Stephen. Tony was not sure who told Ben and Jerry that Stephen was a superhero. Perhaps it has something to do with Peter.

“Sure.”

Tony grinned. Getting a reply from Wong was a win.

Five days later.

“Good news. Strange is back.”

“Great, please bring him here. What do you want for lunch?”

“Can’t do. Strange has been stabbed in several places. Peace negotiation didn’t go well.”

Tony refrained himself from texting, “Not shit, Sherlock.”  Instead, he typed, “That is not good news! Is he OK?”

“He has lost a lot of blood and he is not conscious. We have been treating him. There are a lot of excellent magic healers here. At least he is not dying anymore and he made it back so that’s good news.”

“You and I need to have a long discussion about the definition of good news.”

“Well, you wanted to talk to him for so long and had no chance. Now you will have the chance once he is conscious. There is no way any of the Masters let him leave his bed for at least two weeks so there is a chance for you to talk to him. Isn’t that what you always want? So good news.”

Tony sighed. Apparently stubbornness was a trait possessed by wizards. Wong didn’t realize that he himself was stubborn and always pointed at Stephen. Perhaps Tony could be a good wizard since he was also stubborn.He shook his head to dislodge the thought.

“What can I do to help?”

“For you, nothing.You are no healer or well-versed in Mystic Arts. I’ll let you know once he is conscious.”

Tony really should feel insulted by Wong’s text but he was more worried about Stephen.

“If you need any medical help, I know a few very good doctors. Please keep me updated and keep him alive.”

“Definitely.”

There was no more text from Wong despite Tony kept asking about Stephen’s health. There was nothing left to do so he started to tinker with Stephen’s gloves to steady his hands. This would be an excellent gift If, no, not if, when Stephen recovered.

Two days later.

“Stephen is awake now. If you want to talk, I can open a portal for you right now.”

Chapter Text

A portal started to appear in the middle of the Avengers’ common room as requested by Tony. It must be his paranoia talking but he wouldn’t let people, even Wong, to open a portal into his private rooms or workshops. He knew that none of the Avengers were around at this time so it was safe to open a portal here.

He could see Wong on the other side of the portal. He looked stoic as usual but Tony could see the taut lines of his shoulders like he had been super stressed. Tony couldn’t blame him. If Stephen were anything like him— who was he kidding, Stephen was like him or even more in term of stubbornness, he could be a handful especially when he was injured.

“What’re you doing? Why did you open a portal to… is that Avengers’s common room?“ The voice from behind Wong sounded annoyed. “Wong, you betrayed me. I’m not sharing my lunch with you for at least one week.”

Tony shook his head and allowed himself a little smile. Stephen couldn’t get hurt too much if he was back being an asshole. He did miss the sweet Stephen. He carried his gift and stepped through the portal.

Wong opened his arms wide and gestured toward the bed. “He’s all yours.”

“I’m my own person, you can’t pass me around like a property.”

“He’s more bitchy than usual since he woke up and has to have bed rest. Like I said, all yours.” Wong quickly exited the room. Even the Cloak followed Wong out.

“I’m right here. Don’t talk about me right in front me. I’m not bitchy. I just have strong opinions about everything.” Stephen talked to the closing door. He glanced at Tony and turned his body away facing the wall immediately.

“Nice to see you too, asshole. Or should I say Evita Peron with I’m my own woman thing?”

Stephen didn’t reply.

It was really hard for Tony to be the bigger man but between two of them, someone had to. Besides, Stephen had the excuse of being injured.  He also missed their usual banter. “Stephen, could you please turn around and face me? I’m not angry anymore. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t furious before. But I’ve been thinking for the last few days, I understand your position. You feel guilty as you feel like I’m your responsibility. I also feel the same for people around me who I consider my family or my friend.”

Stephen slowly turned to face him. He had always been pale but the loss of blood made him almost look like a vampire. Tony also noticed that he wasn’t wearing any shirt and there were far too many bandages across his body.

“Shit, how many times have you been stabbed?”

 “17 times.”

“Couldn’t you like duck after the first time? Did they teach you to duck at Hogwarts?”

“Let’s see if you’d fare any better, douchebag. They were a lot of them and they managed to hold me down using their collective magic. Some slime and tentacles were involved.” It seemed like he just bit a lemon at the last part. “I managed to break free a minute later but it was too late.”

“What happened to them?”

 “I opened a very big portal and let them fall through.”

“Where did you sent them?”

“Dicko Dimension. It’s like Disneyland but uninhabited and harmless with plenty of food. I’m sure they’ll hate it.”

“I don’t know why people would hate Disneyland.” He imagined the overpriced hotdogs, the screaming kids, the endless queues. “OK, I actually could see why. That’s super evil of you.”

“Yes, yes, I’m the pinnacle of evil.” A small transparent basset-hound chose that moment to walk through the wall, jump to the bed, sniff and lick Stephen’s face, and lay down next to the injured sorcerer.

Tony pointed at could-be-a-dog. “Is that… a d-.. a ghost dog?”

Stephen patted the head of possibly-a-dog. “Yes, of course. Try to keep up. His name is Bats.” Bats seemed to enjoy the pat as he closed his eyes and nuzzled closer to Stephen.

“Is that even a thing? How could there be a ghost dog? I thought only humans could turn into ghosts.”

“That’s very speciesist of you.”

Tony blinked his eyes. “Did your dog just talk?”

“The name is Bats. I can speak for myself. Who is this weirdo anyway?”

Tony pointed at Stephen, Bats, then himself. “He’s the one with the talking ghost dog and you’re a freaking talking ghost dog. How am I the weirdo?” Tony thought Bats’ protest was not dissimilar to the tantrum Stephen threw earlier. They did deserve each other. 

Bats and Stephen looked at each other for a few seconds. Tony wasn’t sure if they communicated telepathically. At this stage, it was not beyond the realms of possibility. He totally blamed Stephen for getting his life stranger.

Stephen relented. “Bats, this’s Tony. He’s a fr-…friend.” He tried out the word and felt it fitted.  He smiled. “He’s my friend. He saved me and has helped me the last few weeks. Tony, this’s Bats. He’s a ghost dog that Wong got for me so I won’t be too cranky during my bedrest.”

“Can’t you just get a normal living dog like a normal people?” He quickly covered his mouth as he realized what he just said.

Bats huffed. “You’re not only against non-humans, but also ghosts. I’m done talking to you.”  He turned to Stephen. “He’s your friend. You deal with him. I’m going to drink from that toilet bowl again. I know it’s disgusting but like your saying you can’t teach an old dog new tricks or some crap like that.” He jumped out of the bed, stared at Tony for a few frightening seconds—he felt like he had been judged by a dog and found wanting— and walked through the wall again.

“I got judged by your dog. That was fun. Your cloak hates me and now your dog also hates me.”

“Oh yeah, sorry about that. Bats could be a handful but his heart is at the right place. Well, metaphorical heart anyway. Although the metaphor doesn’t really involve the real physical heart anyway. Sorry for the ramble. They don’t hate you. They just have strong opinions about things.”

“Just like you then.”

Stephen crinkled his eyes as he smiled. “Yup. Besides, you’re an acquired taste. I’m sure they’ll love you once they know you better.”

“So do you love me?”

“What?!”

“Since you said I’m an acquired taste but people will love me once they know me better.”

Stephen’s face pinkened slightly which was an improvement from being a vampire. “I didn’t say people. I was referring to non-humans like the Cloak and Bats.”

“So you don’t love me. I’m hurt.” Tony put his hands over his physical heart. “At least Wong seems to love me.”

“Wong loves free lunch. You’re his free meal tickets. “

There was a yell from two floors above that couldn’t possibly be heard in normal world but anything was apparently possible here. “I resent that statement. I do love Stark. He’s a better company than you.”

“Wong, you traitor. Why are you snooping around to hear our conversation anyway?”

“I wasn’t. I just put a spell that only gets trigger when and only when my name is mentioned. I know you like to badmouth me so I want to know what you said about me.”

“I’d never badmouth you. Who do you think I’m?”

Tony looked at Stephen. “You seem to have a lover’s spat. Perhaps I should come back another time.”

Stephen tried to get up but ended up drenched with cold sweat.  “Please don’t go.” Tony quickly sat on the bed and pushed the sorcerer down before he popped his stiches or something worse.

The voice from above also said, “Stark, please don’t go. I’ve been dealing with him for half a day and I need my vacation. I’ll turn the spell off now.”

Stephen looked at Tony and for the first time he looked hesitant. “You were the one saying people around me who I consider my family or my friend. Do you really mean it?”

“Yes, of course. We’re friends, aren’t we? I mean I get along with you much better than most of the Avengers, except perhaps Bruce. You hold your own against me which sometime could be annoying but makes life more interesting. I’m honestly looking forward for our banter. You’re a great sounding board. Besides, both of us have awesome facial hair. Well, one of us anyway.” He looked at Stephen properly and was glad that Stephen didn’t try to shave his newly grown beard anymore, but it was still super short given it had only been around a week since he regained his memory.

“I don’t usually have friends— mostly just colleagues or people who put up with me. I realize I’m not a people person. I’m glad that Christine and Wong have stuck with me this far. They’re saints.”

“Yes, I’m.” Wong said from above.

“Would you mind turning that spell off for real this time?” Stephen felt silly staring at the ceiling although he was 50% sure Wong couldn’t see him from above.

“Fine. At least you don’t badmouth me.”

Stephen was about to raise his shaking right hand to gesture before deciding to put it down. “I’d never badmouth you.” He looked at Tony again. “Where was I? Of yes, I’m a terrible friend material. Thank you for putting up with me so far.”

Tony couldn’t believe what he just heard. “Are you serious? I know self-hatred when I see one. I thought I’m the expert but you’re the master.  I had a great time in the last few weeks when I spent time with you. I haven’t had that since a while— not since the Avengers’ party at the Avengers Tower before Ultron decided to end humanity.”

“But that wasn’t the real me you spent time with.”

“Really? I thought that was the real you. This you, this asshole you, is a persona you put on to keep people at arm’s length. I know it because I’ve been doing that my whole life too. When you lost your memory, the real you shone through. I’m sure John Locke or Sigmund Freud or Aristotle might not agree with me. I don’t know. I’m neither a psychologist nor a philosopher. I just believe in what I see. The sad thing is I still like the current asshole you.”

“Would you believe that the feeling is mutual?”

“I certainly hope so. So, you do love me.” Tony spoke in a singsong.

“Are you five? Love is a strong word. I’ll settle with like. I thought you hated me and wanted to punch me; first because I gave away the time stone and left a cryptic message on Titan before dying and second when I left you as soon as I dealt with Mordo last week.”

“Well, I was angry, no, I was furious. I’m not anymore but I want answers. That’s the reason we need to talk.”