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For the first time in a long time, there was a sound. Something other than silence and his own laboured breaths, or his cracking voice when he talked to the beings trapped under his skin.
It sounded... loud. A little too loud, actually. Something that reminded him of cars, people, general bustle. Usually just white noise in the background, but it was so much louder after the deafening silence of his pocket dimension.
But then he was aware of another sound. Another set of breaths, this time panicked and gasping. Stephen frowned slightly. Okay, weird hallucination, but he had seen worse. Slowly, he picked himself up from his corner and dusted off his robes: a remainder of the days long gone when he still care about his appearance. Even in front of his hallucinations, the least he could do was to look his best.
"Hello." He rasped. "Um. Who are you?" There was a depressingly short list of people who would appear to him in hallucinations: Christine, maybe Donna, but it had been so long, and Wong had not appeared to him for a while.
"A-America Chavez." The girl stood up, her eyes wide and frantic. "Doctor Strange! What happened- oh my god-"
Stephen winced at the old title. No point lauding that around now, what with the death of his universe. What use was a PhD and a Masters in a ruined world?
"Please, just Stephen is fine. 'Doctor' is not a title that is of use here." He moved closer, but paused when America raised her hands in... oh. Oh. It had been so long since he'd seen Kamar-Taj battle stances.
"Stay back!" She said. Her shield mandalas flickered, but held steady. Judging by her robes and her sling ring... a novice, perhaps? Stephen chuckled to himself. His mind was getting better at this.
"Okay, okay. Anything you say." Stephen nodded agreeably, backing up. His Cloak rustled uncertainly, and once again, he found himself missing the old cloak. Absorbing his other half had given him the memories from that timeline as well, so now he would talk to a Cloak that died at his hands. Pathetic, really.
"What... is this place?" America looked around. It must look a sight to her, Stephen mused. He didn't exactly look human anymore; while he retained a human form, it was hard to maintain pretences when it came down to things like his hands, or his shadow. Those things were left alone.
"This was- is my universe. I tore it apart and now..." He spread his arms out. "I'm trapped in a prison of my own creation. At least I got a change of company this time. Usually, Christine talks to me. Or Wong." Stephen frowned. "I wonder how Wong sounds like again? It's been a while since I've heard from him."
America inched closer, the mandalas around her wrists sputtering one last time before dying out completely. "You... live here?"
"Like I said. Prison of my own creation."
"How old are you? How... how long have you been alone here?"
Stephen shrugged. "Time doesn't really work when your universe did the opposite of the Big Bang. Best I can do is... a couple of centuries at least? Time travel tends to mess your personal timeline up, and I did cast a spell to freeze myself that time... so probably a few millennia."
"Aren't you lonely?" America breathed, and Stephen unconsciously took a step back when she got close to him. This was the nicest hallucination he'd had in a while, and he'd like to keep it a little longer.
"Of course." Stephen answered honestly. No point lying to his consciousness. "But it's what I deserve for ruining the universe. It was nice to talk to you, Miss Chavez. I hope I can see you again."
America wore a look of terrible compassion and sympathy on her face. She turned and punched the air, which ripped itself into a blue-edged star. When she turned back, there was a blazing determination there.
"See you later, Stephen. I swear I'll come back." And then she was gone, leaving him to count his own breaths and watch over his own pocket dimension again.
It was nice while it lasted. Now he could watch, and wait, and breathe. He shut his eyes, replaying his latest interaction in his head and smiled. America Chavez. She sounded like such a nice girl.
"Oh, I did say I never wanted to have children." Stephen hummed, levitating himself into a meditating pose. "Why her, though? Strange choice for a hallucination."
He sighed to himself, shaking his head and chuckling quietly. "Even now, at the end of my world, I can't escape the puns about my name, can I?"
America tumbled out of the star-shaped portal that she had ripped open, right into Kamar-Taj's training field, and Doctor Strange and Wong rushed to her side.
"America, are you hurt?" Rough, shaking hands checked her over, coupled with worried pats from the Cloak, but she couldn't see this world's Doctor Strange. Not when she remembered how that other Doctor Strange looked.
"No, no. I'm not hurt, I'm fine, just... lost control for a bit. Sorry, it won't happen again."
"Where did you go?" Wong asked, cutting straight through her deflections as usual. Doctor Strange frowned, but he didn't push it.
"I found a place. I wasn't in danger there, it was just—"America let out a breath, making it last as long as possible. "—so sad and lonely there."
"You're okay." Months ago, Doctor Strange would have never touched her, but saving the multiverse tends to make people grow closer. He pulled her into a careful hug, his hand moving in slow, concentric circles on her back. "You're in a safe dimension."
America leaned into the hug, and she realised something about her little multiverse hop. That Strange was lonely, yes. But she could visit him. He thought she was a hallucination, but had honestly seemed delighted to see her, even going along with her requests.
She wouldn't say anything about this to Doctor Strange or Wong yet. If the other Strange turned out to be some kind of homicidal killer, then she would call for backup. But now, she had to calculate the logistics of trying to move donuts across dimensions.