➢𝗗𝗨𝗘𝗟 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗔𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗟 𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗘➢

『All my friends are heathens, take it slow
Wait for them to ask you who you know
Please don't make any sudden moves
You don't know the half of the abuse』
―𝘛𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘺 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘗𝘪𝘭𝘰𝘵𝘴, 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘴

⟶𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 7: 𝑳𝒊𝒇𝒆⟵

-𝙹𝙰𝙽𝚄𝙰𝚁𝚈 𝟷𝟾𝚃𝙷, 𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟽-

𝙼𝙴𝚃𝚁𝙾-𝙶𝙴𝙽𝙴𝚁𝙰𝙻 𝙷𝙾𝚂𝙿𝙸𝚃𝙰𝙻,

𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺 𝙲𝙸𝚃𝚈, 𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚁𝙺

A door leading to that same mop closet where a mystical orange portal just opened up, is pushed through by the nerve-damage hands of Stephen Strange𑁋the man heavily suffering from impalement to the upper chest by another sorcerer.

He tries to navigate himself forwards within the Metro General Hospital, his former workplace as a Doctor, but due to the severe amount of blood loss already catching up to his brain Stephen sways in agony ...

Though his niece is there to catch him.

Caitlyn Elizabeth Strange releases a grunt of her own, wincing as the much taller body of her uncle slams into a wall𑁋sling ring, and bloodied hand clanging against the material while a mark is left there, and the teenager tries to put most of his weight on her.

This doesn't pan out so well𑁋given that she is a hell of a lot smaller than him𑁋and the nurse that approaches the two only causes more franticness to arise in Stephen and Caitlyn, as the uncle nears close to becoming unconscious. Possibly dying.

"Sir, Miss, can I help you𑁋?"

Stephen staggers out, "Dr. Palmer, where is she?"

"Sir, we need to get ..." the facial expression of the pony-tailed woman becomes more extreme in concern, but the niece quickly cuts in.

Caitlyn whips out her tongue-lashing tone, "Lady, we don't have any time to waste! Where is she?!"

"T-The nurse's station!" the female raises her hands, startled as Stephen lets out another painful grunt that coerces the curly blonde next to him to tighten her grip, and the two continue forward.

The man yells out in a loud voice, "Christine!" and Caitlyn can feel the blood soak through her uncle's Kamar-Taj wear and onto her blue shirt as she holds his tall form upright... allowing more desperation to set in.

"Stephen?" A familiar voice laced with some confusion calls out, and when the pale blue eyes of a recognizable fourteen-year-old holding her former coworker upright glance up, Doctor Palmer's eyes widen in shock, "Caitlyn? Oh, my god!"

The clatter of the clipboard hitting the floor previously held by the redheaded woman is heard throughout as she rushes towards the aid of two people she hasn't seen in almost a year.

Christine quickly takes hold of the other side of the injured man, and by then Stephen is out of breath as he talks, "We need to get me to an operating theater now."

"Just you." Caitlyn adds with a bit of dizziness to her tone, as the severe exhaustion with carrying her uncle's tall figure as well as the prominent ache visiting the space in-between her eyebrows, and Christine is still heavily confused, "What ..."

Stephen interrupts her, distressed, "Now! I don't have any time!"

"What happened?" The woman's speech is impacted ever so slightly as she and the blonde teenager burst through the doors leading to an operating room, both doing their best to drag Stephen Strange further until they reach the table.

The man breathily tells her, "Stabbed. Cardiac tamponade."

Caitlyn bites down on her lip in an amount of worry as her uncle resumes letting out heavy breaths that do not sound good at all.

Christine goes to assess the location of the male's injury when the result of not seeing him for a while kicks in again, "What are you wearing?"

"Chest cavity is clear." She says next when continuing to do her job nonetheless, walking towards the surrounding medical computers and Stephen's eyes droop.

His niece's features tighten when the last words uttered by her uncle are trailed off, and he becomes unconscious, "The blood ... is in the, pericardial sac𑁋,"

"Shit! Uncle Stephen!" Caitlyn's voice rings out, eyes widening as she looks down to his scarred hand across from her that now lays limp.

The red-haired woman immediately turns around, shaking the man's shoulders, "No. no, no, no, no! Stephen? Stephen!"

"Come on, come on." Dr. Palmer chants to herself after a brief exhale.

Caitlyn feels a pit of immense perturbation form in the bottom of her stomach, and her arms cross over her chest𑁋eyes absentmindedly moving around the room in an amount of distress, and suddenly she feels something else... allowing her to step to the side.

Christine pulls on a pair of medical gloves, sharpens a large needle, and then points it directly towards the center of Stephen's chest𑁋but before she can do so, his echoey voice alerts her, "Just a little higher."

A fearful scream erupts from the lips of the female Doctor, and the bearded man simply continues in a demeanor that depicts him flying outside his own body completely normal𑁋pleading, "Please be careful with the needle."

"Stephen?" Christine removes the gloved hand from over her mouth, placing it on her rapidly beating heart as a level of stammering𑁋due to shock and sheer light-headedness𑁋takes over when a blink of the eyes is followed by an important question spills out, "W-What am I seeing?"

Untimely but timely, a smirk has inflicted itself onto the face of Caitlyn Strange, and she answers that one, "His astral body."

"Nice thinking."

The woman glances back down at Stephen's unglazed unmoving figure on the table, "Are you dead?"

"No, Christine. But I am dying ..."

"Right." Doctor Palmer exhales once again, doing so another time as her eyes readjust to the rather bizarre settings𑁋and people, really𑁋around her and she regains composure, "Right. Yeah, all right."

Stephen's astral body designates a finger that lights up the chest area of his physical one, showing the woman exactly where to put the large needle she holds𑁋and poor Christine suddenly feels faint again.

"Oh, wow ..." She breathes, then after further inspection to the impalement she shakes her head in disbelief, "I've ... I've never seen a wound like this before."

Caitlyn watches from the back, headache still pounding within and suddenly she feels another presence looming closeby𑁋and it alarms her, "What were you stabbed with?"

"I don't know," Stephen answers the woman truthfully.

And the blonde teen steps forward, voice dripping with uneasiness as she vocalizes an upcoming threat, "Uh, Uncle Stephen ... I think we may have been followed."

Christine glances up at the niece and uncle still, as if they had three heads𑁋probably more explainable than this𑁋and the levitating man acknowledges her forewarn, "I'm going to have to vanish now."

The female Doctor begins to disagree, "No ... I𑁋,"

"Do you need help?" Caitlyn asks, uncrossing her arms in an instant.

But Stephen tells her firmly, protectively, "No, Lynn ... Please stay here."

"Help Christine keep me alive, will you?"

The two witness the male's 'astral' body slip out of existence, and with a brief look at each other𑁋the woman still gaping, the teen more pissed off that she wasn't given permission to help𑁋they both remain hovering over the body of what used to be Doctor Strange, now trying to save him.

Christine looks around, vocalizing believably to herself, "Okay! Okay ... uh-huh ..." but as Caitlyn's intricate mind picks up, there is a fight going on𑁋and with her heightened senses internally, the fourteen-year-old detects it all.

Her Uncle Stephen, v.s. the Strong Zealot guy from earlier.

Oh, it's on ...

They go at hand-to-hand combat, or whatever that type of fighting is called while being in another dimension𑁋in their astral forms, and Stephen is thrown through the bright lamp right above Christine and Caitlyn. Both of their heads pick up, but only one of them realizes that it is due to the ongoing battle between two sorcerers, and right now the uncle wasn't winning.

Gaining the upper hand briefly though, Stephen is able to fly out to this other individual and their bodies eventually stand over one another on top of the medical table𑁋hollowly as the shake of a kit holding blood is the only thing impacted back in the real world, and Caitlyn's eyes widen when the two men morph through Christine.

"Oh, shit!" She exclaims when an indescribable wave of force runs within her, the teenager reflexively grabbing hold of the needle implanted into her uncle's chest until Dr. Palmer is steady again.

After momentarily taking their fight outside of the hospital room Caitlyn and Christine remain in, the Strong Zealot suddenly delivers a harsh punch into the astral body of Stephen Strange, and with one more𑁋the harsh beeping noise indicating that there was no trace of a heartbeat echoes throughout the operation theater.

The curly-headed blondie's mouth gapes open, horror seeping into her small stance and she holds back the urge to let a lump form in her throat. The redheaded woman turns around with a similar expression upon hearing the flatlining sound, and both professionally and luckily she jumps into action𑁋bringing over another wheeling caddy holding a defibrillator.

Christine Palmer rubs the two pieces of medical equipment together, the computer beeping once again as it indicates a charging up to 200 Joules of electricity ...

"Come on, come on," She whispers again, and with a push down on the man's chest, there is a clear zap𑁋Stephen's body convulsing and doing way more than that in his astral form.

This is identified when through the sight of Caitlyn Elizabeth, the Zealot is blown backward by an intense amount of orange light coming out of her uncle, ending up causing a little ruckus in the room as well, making Christine turn around.

The niece dips over to her uncle's form, anxiety presenting itself as she stands over the man and gently reaches down to take one of his hands𑁋and from the other side Dr. Palmer leans towards his unconscious body and then at the screen monitoring his heartbeat, calling out with determination, "Stephen, come on."

A few milliseconds pass of not getting an answer from the man's physical form, when his astral form peeks into existence once more, "Hit me again."

"Stop doing that!" Christine relays after another brisk shriek, and Stephen says quickly, "Up the voltage and hit me again ..."

The fourteen-year-old begins to catch on, but the redhead understandably does not, "No, your heart is beating!"

"Just do it!" The bearded man affirms with intent, a plan, and Caitlyn can't help but gulp nervously𑁋somewhat discreetly, however, as she did not want to be weak𑁋and her uncle suddenly disappears another time, a groan mixed with a sigh exiting Christine's lips in the result.

"Oh, my god ..."

The younger Strange lets go of her uncle's hand for a moment, allowing Dr. Palmer to𑁋with much reluctance, because this is all still so crazy𑁋go ahead and power up the voltage in the defibrillator once more, placing it down on Stephen's chest.

Caitlyn looks away rapidly, blue eyes reflecting upwards and towards the door of where she sees the other dimension holding two individuals take place𑁋and as soon as an additional shock is delivered, yelling from the sorcerer's can be heard, and the power from the medical equipment in the real world, to activate a heartbeat ...deactivates the one of the Zealot.

He is electrified, the electricity rattling the lights of the actual operating room and Christine and Caitlyn quickly take cover, still standing over Stephen's real body as his astral one defeats the other man.

His body is still when the fourteen-year-old rises back up again, and panic surges inside her, the female doctor's pretty features remaining puzzled until she is spooked out of her mind yet again𑁋but this time by the physical Stephen Strange springing to life.

"Oh, god! Oh, god!" The woman exclaims as her former coworker starts moving again, and she asks breathily, "Are you okay?"

The uncle groans in a slight amount of pain before nodding, "Yeah ..." and he reacts to the hand holding his scarred one tightly, looking over to his troubled niece.

"I'm all right. I'm good, Lynn." Stephen comforts a wide-eyed Caitlyn, his large thumb running circles around her knuckles in order to relax the apprehensively jumpy teenager𑁋and he offers a flimsy smile.

The young blonde exhales, blinking her eyes shut a few times before letting go of her uncle's hand that gives her one more encouraging squeeze, and tentatively wiping the sweat forming on her brow, she remarks bluntly, "That was ... batshit crazy."

"You could say that again." Christine breathes out while in concentration, currently tending to Stephen's wound on the operation table, and the man eventually meets her gaze.

She looks back down while lacing up the final stitches of the man's chest injury, and with now having a moment of solace𑁋she begins, "After all this time ... you just show up here?"

"Flying out of your body?"

Stephen sighs deeply, "Yeah, I know."

"I missed you too, by the way."

"Haha." Christine pretends to laugh.

Stephen feels full-body wince travel through his body, "I wrote you emails, but you never responded."

Christine scoffs lightly, "Why would I?" and Caitlyn can't help but agree as a sigh of her own escapes out𑁋remembering the two's last interaction with the woman.

But her uncle has changed, and he proves it by openly apologizing for the second time in a day, to a second person, "Christine, I am so so sorry."

"For all of it. And you and Caitlyn were right ..." the fourteen-year-old slowly picks her head up, arms crossed again as she curls her lips inwards once more𑁋a similar feeling to feel, emerging from the inside of her ribs and it threatens to move up towards her esophagus once more, but Stephen's words find her something to concentrate on, "I was a complete asshole."

He says with all sincerity, "I treated you so horribly, and you deserved so much more."

"Stop." She cuts him off, "You ... you're clearly in shock."

His niece speaks up from across the room, hand still nursing the headache settling within her brain, and following her uncle's dry chuckle, she clarifies, "He's not ... Trust me, I-I know. It sounds weird."

"I mean, what the hell is happening?" Christine continues, eyes flickering in between the uncle and niece who seemingly have a more positive and close-knit relationship now𑁋making everything a little more unbelievable, and the woman questions, "Where have the two of you been?"

Stephen stares up at the ceiling, "Well after Western medicine failed me, Lynn and I headed East, and we ended up in Kathmandu."

"Kathmandu?"

The bearded man nods, "Yeah."

"What ..." Christine whispers, then remarking as she looks back to the male, "Like the Bob Seger song?"

Caitlyn shrugs her shoulders up and down, eventually delivering a light snort to her uncle's response of remembrance, "1975, Beautiful Loser, side-A ..."

"And then ..." He retells earlier events, the tone becoming firmer when mentioning, "My niece got sick with an ongoing case of pneumonia, and I raced her towards this place called Kamar-Taj𑁋talked to someone called the Ancient One𑁋,"

The woman's eyes brighten while her brows narrow, "Oh. So you guys joined a cult?"

The bearded man retorts, "No, we didn't. Not exactly. I mean, they did teach us to tap into powers that we never knew existed."

"Yeah, that sounds like a cult."

"It's not a cult." Stephen claims, but the pondering look coming from his troubled niece's features leads to suggest otherwise as Christine replies sharply, "Well, that's what a cultist would say ..."

A grin can't help but creep onto the blonde child's face upon hearing the playful banter between the two adults, it slowly ceasing temporarily as the uncle lets out another dry laugh, "Oh, no." before trying to move himself to be sitting upright𑁋the redheaded woman chiding him.

"Wait, Stephen ..." Christine submerges a chuckle, "What do you think you're doing?"

Gears turn inside the fourteen year old's head and she maneuvers towards the right side of Stephen, saying noticeably without a usually harsh manner, "Isn't it obvious?"

"We're late for a cult meeting."

The doors to the now messy with cluttered objects, operating room, open back up quickly, and out walks Caitlyn first, and then her uncle and Dr. Palmer𑁋Christine stating the obvious once again, "This is insane."

"Where are you going?"

Stephen cranes his neck, "Uhm ..."

"Can you tell me the truth?"

Caitlyn spins around, eyeing the limping man as he gives in to the woman's request, "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𑁋and, my troubled niece."

Christine looks forward to the blonde child as she walks in front of them, and the teen's expression remains soft𑁋something the redheaded woman hadn't seen on her face, probably ever.

"-But I left him chained up in Greenwich Village," Stephen resumes, finishing truthfully, "and the quickest way back there is through a dimensional gateway that I opened up in the mop closet."

Doctor Palmer raises her hands, "Okay. Don't tell me. Fine."

Doctor Strange does tell her, or, shows her as the door where he and Caitlyn had earlier spawned out of leads to a bright orange portal still showcasing the New York Sanctum, and the uncle steps into it.

His niece however hesitates for a brief moment, turning around swiftly to look at the woman who had been a first responder in the accident she was in long ago𑁋and with an overcoming of herself having taken place, the teenager expresses her gratitude of many and all things with sincerity, "Thanks, Christine."

The redhead gazes back at the curly blonde, taking in the different𑁋but still tough and introverted𑁋demeanor that now clouds over Caitlyn Strange, and she nods ... eventually offering the best smile she can muster after a tumble of events like this, and the fourteen-year-old follows her uncle.

"We really do have to go," Stephen says informatively, and with his niece by his side, the orange portal within the mop closet closes in an instant ... leaving Christine to later get scared by an actual mop falling on the floor, and she leaves the hospital in utter confusion. 

Still.

✧✧✧

The body belonging to the astral form of the Zealot Doctor Strange fought lies sprawled out in the same position where the Cloak of Levitation had strangled him to, and two fingers eventually are placed on the side of his neck.

There is no pulse, and the features of a stoic-looking Stephen Strange rotate into view𑁋agilely accepting the red piece of outerwear that had been waiting for his arrival, and the cloak secures itself around his shoulders.

Caitlyn Strange still follows behind her uncle, her watchful pale blue irises thankfully laying eyes on the katana previously used against the much more experienced sorcerers, and she grabs hold of the weapon𑁋walking cautiously as the two Strange's enter the room of where they had last seen Kaecilius.

They only find a discarded pair of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak and are nearly filled with fear themselves momentarily, when a familiar voice calls out.

"Strange!"

Mordo steps out of the darkness from the other side of the room, greeting the two with an amount of relief, "You're both okay ..."

"A relative term," Stephen responds in his usually deep voice, breathing heavily as he and his niece exchange a few glances, "but yeah, we're okay."

Mordo's direction of speech subtly alters, as he acknowledges the presence of the red fabric situated firmly on the tall man's shoulders, "The Cloak of Levitation. It came to you."

"No minor feat ..." Another recognizably wise tone relays, and with a continuous merciless but kind demeanor, The Ancient One tells Caitlyn's uncle, "It's a fickle thing."

His niece follows his gaze in the empty form of restrainment, and Stephen vocalizes, "He's escaped."

"Kaecilius?" The Ancient One asks, and the fourteen-year-old nods.

Caitlyn clutches her aching head, making a grimace of pain as she details, "He's really powerful."

"He is." The uncle avows with firmness, a look of concern washing over him when hearing the agonizing noises grit out from the young girl𑁋and Stephen goes on, "He can fold space and matter at will."

The bald-headed woman raises her eyebrows at this information, "He folds matter outside the Mirror Dimension? In the real world?"

"Yeah." The cloak-wearing individual replies and she questions further, "How many more?"

"Two." Caitlyn looks at Stephen, and his contorted expression𑁋with a number of guilt𑁋begins to show, but first he explains, "I stranded one in the desert."

"And the other one?"

The man says with dullness as he treks closer to the other masters, "His body's in the hall."

"Master Drumm was in the foyer ..."

Karl Mordo gives an assenting nod, "He's been taken back to Kamar-Taj."

"The London Sanctum has fallen." The Ancient One informs, stating earnestly, "Only New York and Hong Kong remain now to shield us from the Dark Dimension."

The woman then addresses her two newest students, enlightening them of their most recent actions, "You and your niece defended the New York Sanctum from attack."

"With its Master gone ..." Caitlyn's brows sharpen, eyeing the bald-headed female who looks directly at her uncle, and her arms cross together when she says, "it needs another, Master Strange."

The fourteen-year-old lets the words sink in, and immediately they do along with the reality of the matter.

There was no way in hell, after all that has happened, that her Uncle Stephen is going to agree to something like that𑁋something that is both dangerous, and risky.

He was unlike her current self, to be frank, and that is proven when having his back turned to Ancient One, Stephen mutters softly, "No."

"It is Doctor Strange." He corrects, turning back around, "Not Master Strange, not Mister Strange, Doctor Strange."

She gives an eye-opening look back to him, expecting him to continue, and he does.

Stephen's blue eyes develop a glossiness to them, and his voice raises in volume with a small crack in it, "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."

Caitlyn understands his words𑁋although stands at a different viewpoint𑁋and an expression of much solace comes upon her teenage features as her uncle insists with meaning𑁋and she knows why𑁋"I became a doctor to save lives, not take them."

"You became a doctor to save one life above all others ..." The Ancient One claims honestly, and claims, "Your own."

Stephen Strange disagrees, and he shows that by remarking with sarcasm, "Still seeing through me, are you?"

"I see what I've always seen," the woman insists, eyes darting between the uncle and niece as she identifies their characters, "Your over-inflated ego; her incautious attitude."

Caitlyn is left in a studded silence, as her teacher with more years of mastery than she even knows at the moment ... bestows her observational antics onto the fourteen-year-old with a mind frame of extreme complexities𑁋and the blonde treks closer to the taller male, both of them quiet as The Ancient One talks to him, "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?" Stephen inquiries, causing the woman's features to immediately enlarge.

Mordo's do as well, and the fourteen year old's confusion in the matter goes away in the next few seconds when her uncle bestows, "He offers immortality."

"It's our fear of death that gives Dormammu life. He feeds off it ..." the female articulates, but once again, Stephen contests her words, disagreeing.

And he does it by noting the last conversation he had with Kaecilius, what he saw, "Like you feed off him?"

"What?" Caitlyn breathes, blue eyes expanding with the rest of her facial expression and her tightly crossed arms suddenly begin to loosen𑁋uncontrollably in shock as the exposure goes on.

Stephen walks towards the woman, straightening, "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."

"Measure your next words, very carefully, doctor." The Ancient One instructs softly, the man many inches away from her responding fruitily.

 "Because you might not like them?"

The woman remains composed, however, and a hint of a smile etches onto her face as she says, "Because you may not know of what you speak ..."

"What is he talking about?" Mordo questions in a profuse amount of confusion, and Caitlyn's brows furrow from next to him when her uncle turns toward the two and immediately enlightens them.

"I'm talking about her long life ... the source of her immortality."

Stephen relays firmly, "She draws power from the Dark Dimension to stay alive."

"That's not true." The dark-skinned man scoffs, but the curly blonde next to him looks down as her perceived notions of the Ancient One are brought to the forefront𑁋and, seemingly questioned as her uncle doesn't hesitate in recalling what he's learned.

"I've seen the rituals and worked them out." He looks back to her, "I know how you do it."

She blinks a few times, not showing any exterior reaction to the whole reveal of her actions, but instead declaring openly, "Once they regroup, the Zealots will be back."

"You'll need reinforcements."

The two men and one teenager watch as the Ancient One curtly leaves, leaving Master Mordo to take a few steps forward before turning to face Doctor Strange𑁋and he says lowly, "She is not who you think she is."

"You have no right to say that." Karl renders sharply, claiming with conviction, "You have no idea of the responsibility that rests upon her shoulders ..."

Stephen's voice echoes throughout, "No, and I don't want to know."

Caitlyn stays quiet, especially when Mordo bestows a set of words that initially the fourteen-year-old would disagree with, but her heart squeezes itself when knowing the reality of it all, "... You're a coward."

"Because I'm not a killer?" Stephen retorts back, glassy eyes squinting.

The other individual brings intensity to his claim, "These Zealots will snuff us all out, and you can't muster the strength to snuff them out first𑁋?"

"What do you think I just did!?" The cloak-wearing man shouts, the tension in the room and between the two students of the mystic arts heating up to another level𑁋and Caitlyn abruptly straightens.

She becomes angry with Mordo's loud reply, "You saved your own life!"

"And then you whined about it like a wounded dog!"

The niece steps into the argument, expression twisting up, and she looks right at Master Mordo, "And you would have done it without shedding a single tear?"

"You have no idea, the things I've done ..." He tells the Strange's, their expressions matching one another for a few seconds in being gaped, listening further as Karl mutters quietly, "And the answer is yes. Without hesitation."

That makes Caitlyn's skin crawl, and also reserves her from getting too close to the dark-skinned man as she slowly backs up to be behind her uncle, Stephen moving in front of her.

"Even if there's another way?"

Mordo articulates, "There is no other way."

"You lack imagination." Doctor Strange claims sternly, only for Master Mordo to hand it right back to him.

"No, Stephen. You lack the spine."

The fourteen-year-old couldn't say that was entirely false, but she doesn't get the chance to ponder any longer when a distant rumbling in the New York Sanctum causes this heated argument to be put on hold, and Mordo grits his teeth, "They're back."

The Zealots and Kaecilius had returned.

✧✧✧