"This is insane," Christine commented as she and Stephen left the operation room together. Stephen nodded, looking around the room and down the hallway. "Where are you going?"

He hesitated to answer, sparing a glance towards her.

"Just tell me the truth?" Christine begged, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, a powerful sorcerer, who gave himself over to an ancient entity who can bend the very laws of physics, tried very hard to kill me, but I left him chained up in Greenwich Village, and the quickest way back there is through a dimensional gateway that Amber opened up in the mop closet." He replied in one breath, motioning to the door.

"Okay. Don't tell me. Fine."

Stephen in turn rolled his eyes and opened the door to lead her through. The portal that was created by Amber was still there, glowing strong.

Stephen hopped in, turning to face his ex. "I really do have to go."

The portal closed behind him, leaving silence behind. Christine looked around slowly, paranoidly. Behind her, a mop and pail fell, making a loud crash. Christine tensed up, screaming in fear.

Back in Kamar-Taj, Stephen bent down beside the motionless man, pressing two fingers to his throat.

No pulse.

Standing slowly to his feet, his mind fathomed that he just killed someone...instead of saving someone. Reaching behind him, Stephen grabbed the cloak, throwing it onto his shoulders perfectly.

Skipping up the steps, he saw the contraption dismantled on the floor, Kaecilius absent from it.

"Strange!"

Stephen turned around, seeing Mordo and Amber on the other side of the room.

"You're okay." Mordo exclaimed, Amber not joining in on the small celebration. Her expression read demure...hurt.

"A relative term, but yeah. I'm okay." Stephen replied back, monotoned. His eyes were fixed on Amber. She stared back with a hard gaze.

"The Cloak Of Levitation. It came to you." Mordo said, fixated on the red relic. After, he gesturing to Amber's own cloak, "And the Cloak Of Midnight."

Amber's cloak glimmered in the sunlight. The pattern in the fabric seemed to shift slowly, giving off the appearance of a galaxy slowly turning.

"No minor feat. It's a fickle thing." the Ancient One smiled as she sauntered the room next.

"He's escaped." Stephen glanced over to the bundle of metal on the floor near the window.

"Kaecilius?" the Ancient One asked.

"Yeah. He can fold space and matter at will."

"He folds matter outside the Mirror Dimensio, in the real world?" the Ancient One asked, her eyebrows pushing back.

Amber's brows knitted closer together, a disbelief look flashing in her eyes. "Wait, you didn't know this?"

"How many more?"

"Two. I stranded one in the desert." Stephen replied to the Ancient One.

"I did." Amber quickly corrected, her eyes narrowing towards Stephen.

"And the other?"

"His body's in the hallway. Master Drumm was in the foyer."

"He's been taken back to Kamar-Taj." Mordo nodded.

"The London Sanctum has fallen. Only New York and Hong Kong remain now to shield us from the Dark Dimension." the Ancient One explained to the three. Her eyes briefly met with Amber's before fixating on Stephen.

"You defended the New York Sanctum from attack. With its Master gone, it needs another...Master Strange."

Mordo and Amber turned to her, their expressions bitter.

"No. It is Doctor Strange. Not Master Strange, not Mister Strange, Doctor Strange."

The Ancient One tilted her head silently.

"When I became a doctor, I swore an oath to do no harm. And I have just killed a man! I'm not doing that again. I became a doctor to save lives, not take them!"

"You became a doctor to save one life above all others. Your own." The Ancient One replied.

Stephen scoffed at her. "Still seeing through me, are you?"

"I see what I've always seen; your overinflated ego," The Ancient One shot back. "You want to go back to the delusion that you can control anything, even death, which no one can control. Not even the great Doctor Stephen Strange."

"Not even Dormammu? He offers immortality." Stephen's eyes squinted.

"Not this again," Amber mumbled to herself.

All four of them moved closer into a small huddle.

"It's our fear of death that gives Dormammu life. He feeds off it." the Ancient One continued.

"Like you feed off him? You talk to me about controlling death. Well, I know how you do it. I've seen the missing rituals from The Book of Cagliostro." Stephen hissed at the Supreme, surprising Mordo and Amber.

"Measure your next words very carefully, doctor."

"Because you might not like them?" Stephen mocked sarcastically, giving a faux sympathetic look at her.

"Because you may not know of what you speak." The Ancient One held back her anger, as it was present in her voice.

"Can you just let go of your ego for one damn second?" Amber seethed, interrupting their bickering.

"What is he talking about?" Mordo asked in a quiet tone, eyeing the Ancient One.

"I'm talking about her long life. The source of her immortality. She draws power from the Dark Dimension to stay alive." Stephen explained, not taking his eyes off of her.

A guilty look flashed across the Ancient One's face, which made Amber rethink what Kaecilius was saying earlier.

Amber slowly moved around the Supreme, standing close to Mordo. Her anger was suddenly gone, replaced with suspicion. Mordo shook his head, "That's not true."

"I've seen the rituals and worked them out. I know how you do it." Stephen replied in a low voice.

"Once they regroup, the Zealots will be back. You'll need reinforcements." The Ancient One remarked, walking away. Mordo took a few steps after her, stopping to look back at Stephen.

"She is not who you think she is." Stephen shook his head, looking at Amber and Mordo.

"You do not have the right to say that! You have no idea of the responsibility that rests upon her shoulders." Mordo defended, gesturing his arms dramatically.

"No, and I don't want to know!" Stephen called, moving away from the two.

"You're a coward." scolded Amber.

"Why? Because I'm not a killer?" Stephen averred back, narrowing his eyes.

"These Zealots will snuff us all out, and you can't muster the strength to snuff them first?!" Mordo interjected, backing up Amber. His voice quickly raised into a yell.

"What do you think I just did?!" Stephen shouted back at them.

"You saved your own life!" Amber bellowed, the muscles in her neck protruding outward. "A-And then started whining about it like the baby you are!"

"When you would have done it so easily?" Stephen snarled back, slowly inching his way back to them.

"You have no idea of the things I've done! The things I have seen, Stephen! So yes. The answer is yes. Without hesitation." She stated, her bottom lip giving a slight quiver.

"Even if there's another way?" Stephen asked with a flat voice.

"There is no other way!" Amber snapped, rage bubbling in her chest.

"You lack imagination." He jabbed at her, not giving another thought about what he said.

"No Stephen, you lack a spine." She hissed, their faces inches apart. Mordo glanced off down the hallway, the other's gazes following.

"They're back."

All three ran down the hallway, stopping to stare over the railing. "We have to end this now."

Leaping over the railing, all three advanced in attack.