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There were surprisingly not many casualties from the final battle against Thanos at the ruins of the Avengers Compound.
In fact there were only two.
The first that everyone knew about was Tony Stark from using the infinity stones to end the conflict. It was impossible to not know about the death of Tony Stark.
It was the second that was unnoticed at first, at least until they started to do headcounts.
Wong was tracking down sorcerers as he transported those too weary to get themselves to Kamar Taj. He had assumed Stephen had been doing the same.
But then everyone else had been accounted for.
Except Strange.
He sounded the alarm to those still milling the battlefield and everyone set out to find him. They had been too optimistic that the only casualty was one of self sacrifice.
Stephen Strange’s body was found half buried under some rubble.
It hadn’t even been from the battle itself but he had been caught unaware next to one of the destroyed walls and hadn’t been paying attention due to the dissolving army. Wong was honestly in disbelief. He had been convinced the man was like a cockroach and couldn’t actually die even if a five year gap had been a bit of a ridiculous stretch.
Strange was entombed in the catacombs of Kamar Taj. Many notable sorcerers and all of Sorcerer Supremes (if their bodies could be recovered) had been laid to rest there and Wong knew his would eventually find its way there eventually. That his friend could be considered so influential was heartening and humbling. The man had had many…flaws but he never hesitated in sacrificing himself for the world and the universe. Wong just wished Stephen had more time.
The Sorcerer Supreme was not banking on some apprentices finding a long lost spell to commune with sorcerers who had passed on.
It was about a decade since the battle for the universe had ended and for the most part things had been relatively calm. There had been an incident with a multiversal traveler named America Chavez and a darkhold-corrupted Wanda Maximoff but they had gotten through the situation. Somehow. The entire thing with multiversal travel was annoying and Wong wasn’t even going to get into the Loki nonsense that apparently had been going on with different timelines. It didn’t involve the sorcerers so once he was sure someone else was dealing with it, Wong seemed it as ‘ not his problem’ .
It did end up sorting itself out so he felt justified in his decision.
Anyways: the spell that the apprentices had found was one that was thought to be lost for decades. Apparently the scroll had rolled under one of the bookcases and no one bothered to look until one of the apprentice’s AirPods rolled underneath.
Wong would have been annoyed that a spell like that could be lost for years when the solution was simple but he had been one of the librarians in the timespan so he just pretended it was meant to happen that way.
He didn’t see the harm in letting the group try out the spell as it was pretty harmless.
(He had also heard of the spell in a book and had always wanted to see it happen so he wasn’t exactly going to say no .)
That is how Wong got to witness the spirit of Stephen Strange be summoned in the Kamar Taj courtyard, sputtering and completely bewildered.
“What the actual fuck, how am I at Kamar Taj?”
Welp. There goes any decorum for Strange’s reputation post-mortem.
The apprentices were awestruck at Strange’s appearance and didn’t dare say anything and Stephen was still swearing up a storm and trying to figure out what was going on when Wong decided to step in.
As he walked forward, a simple gesture had the apprentices scattering from the clearing and back inside leaving Wong with the spirit of his best friend.
“Oh thank god. Wong, what happened? Did we win?”
“What do you last remember?” He asked calmly and the other man paused.
“I remember Stark using the infinity stones and Thanos’ forces disappearing. Then something hit me in the back of the head and the next thing I knew I was waking up in a bright room filled with a group of sorcerers. From there it gets hazy.”
Oh good, Stephen was accepted into the Council of the Vishanti. He had met the Council when he accepted the role of Sorcerer Supreme and had undergone the ritual to be confirmed. Knowing that Stephen was there would make Wong’s own afterlife interesting when he joined himself.
“You died at the end of the battle. Rubble collapsed and you had no chance of noticing before it killed you.”
Stephen looked honestly disappointed.
“Well. Shit.”
“I did win the betting pool that you would die to something stupid. Your idea that you’d lose to something with tentacles did not hold up.”
“A man can dream.” Stephen replied with a smirk and Wong couldn’t help but let out a full belly laugh.
“I have honestly missed you, my friend. Even if people actually treat me with respect now.”
“That isn’t right, who’s there to ignore you and do stupid stunts until not verbally acknowledging you were right?” Stephen asked with a laugh. “I would say that I missed you but time is a bit…wonky. ”
“…did you just use the word ‘wonky’?”
“I’m from the Midwest in the United States. Stop picking on the dead guy.”
They conversed for a bit more before Stephen started to fade and they said their goodbyes.
Wong was happy that Stephen was okay despite his death and was thankful for the chance to converse with him one last time.
At least, he thought it was the last time.
See, Wong forgot to take the scroll back from the apprentices and with them so starstruck by one of the most famous modern sorcerers, they tried again to ask for help in their studying. The spirit had agreed and helped for a few minutes before disappearing again.
Wong had no idea how out of hand it would become.
For some odd reason, the scroll was keyed to whichever sorcerer had been buried in the catacombs last as the one to be summoned. Once word got around about the spell, nearly everyone had to have a turn for some reason or another whether it be a question about the mystic arts or if Tony Stark was really that dreamy in person.
Wong would say that yes, Tony Stark was that dreamy and they didn’t need to essentially perform a seance to ask.
He also had no idea where they were hiding the damn scroll because the spell could only be used if the scroll was involved. Wong was planning on burning it before his death if this was what his afterlife would amount to.
Stephen was getting summoned back more often than they ordered Uber Eats and that was a profound statement in itself. The man was pretty annoyed on the few chances he got to see his friend. The apprentices had caught on that if Wong caught them then they couldn’t summon Strange anymore (for good reason) so it became a game of keep away.
It led to groups doing the summoning and as soon as Stephen appeared, one of the baby sorcerers would sprint off with the scroll to hide it again.
Wong came across this exact situation taking place one day as he walked by the courtyard and his friend looked absolutely pissed.
“How the fuck am I more interesting now? I answered all of their questions and I even started lying about random things to see if they’d catch on and they were too busy fangirling to notice.”
“Hello Mr Grump. Nice to see you as well.”
“You would be too if you were summoned to the world of the living at least twelve times in one week, Wong. This is turning into a repeat of Dormammu and from the opposite side. Get your apprentices in check or I will retaliate.”
“See you tomorrow, Stephen.”
Wong did redouble his efforts to find the scroll of only because he knew Strange would find a way to burn down Kamar Taj.
Despite his warnings, the apprentices and even some of the masters continued to summon Stephen. Somehow the man had figured out how to only allow certain parts of him to be summoned. When only his head appeared and it’s spectral form rolled around in the floor, one of the young ladies fainted.
For two weeks, Stephen would only appear as his hands giving the middle finger for the entirety that he was there. That one was rather inspired and was honestly Wong’s favorite appearance of his friend.
No matter how many lectures, punishments, or threats of banishment were given the scroll never made its way into Wong’s possession and Strange continued to be summoned.
It was four months of nonstop nonsense for Stephen to finally make good on his threat. Strange had been summoned about some inane question about the Avengers when the man stared blankly at the apprentices, raised his hands, and the scroll burst into flames. They shrieked and that was how Wong found them. The group of sorcerers tried desperately to put out the fire while Stephen was cackling at finally putting an end to the nonsense. Wong raised a hand in farewell to his friend and Stephen grinned with a wave as he faded from the living world for the last time. The scroll was reduced to ashes.
Now knowing who the main culprits were, Wong treated them to random sirens, alarms, and requests for their presence at all hours of the day for the same time they did that to Stephen. No one was spared as apparently Wong was surrounded by children. They had all learned their lesson by the end and Wong was glad that the scroll had been destroyed because he personally was looking forward to not being bothered in the future.
Now he just had to convince America Chavez to come back from the Young Avengers and finish her sorcerer training because after this, Wong had no hope for the future and needed a competent replacement.