Strange's Heartache

Chapter 6

"We've found nothing." Is what every person repeats as they come back in after an exhaustive twenty four hour non stop search for Dr. Strange. Wong can't help but to start pacing again as he thinks of what an Alpha on his first rut after a decade on suppressants could do. "Wong, it will be alright. We will find them both and bring them back safe and sound." Sol Rama says gently as he places a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I-I know it's just...I'm scared for both of them and I'm ashamed of how I acted before." Wong says miserably. "Hey, you guys, has anyone seen Minoru? I haven't seen her since we were given our orders." An acolyte of Sol Rama's says and everyone begins looking high and low for her. Wong makes his way up to her chambers and knocks softly on the door waiting for a reply. When none comes he cracks the door open and peeks in only to immediate hit with a dark feeling of dread and he whispers a quick apology to the room's owner before stepping in.

He first lets his human abilities take over as he searches the room very slowly. Nothing jumps out at him right away so he takes a deep breath focuses on the negativity in the room and lets the magic in him pinpoint where it's coming from. He slowly turns and walks toward where he feels an odd throbbing darkness that's throwing negative energy into the room and when he finally focuses his eyes on what he's seeing he let's out a horrified scream.

Several people come bursting into the room with expressions of dread and panic after hearing Wong's scream. "What's happened?" "What's going on?!" "Did you find her??!!" Where yelled over and over at him but he couldn't reply. He was simply too stunned to reply and didn't make a move until Sol Rama burst into the room and had everyone clear out to give him room to breath and calm down. "Come on. Let's go downstairs and get us some tea and then we'll talk." The older man says as he gently puts an arm around the smaller man and leads him from the room. By the time they both get to the kitchen, Wong is sobbing and Sol Rama doesn't know if it's due to what he'd found or from the stress of the day or perhaps both.

"Here. Sit down and I'll make us some tea and then we can talk." He says as he leads the near hysterical man over to a chair and helps him sit down. Wong nods and sits down then covers his face with both hands as Sol Rama goes over and quickly gets the kettle on to boil. Sol knows that he could use magic to make them both the perfect cups of tea but right now that would do more harm than good. Wong needs time and he can clearly see that so he bustles about getting the tea strainer and putting a scoop of Wong's favorite oolong tea inside to get ready for when the water starts to boil.

"I thought...I thought it was over. I thought we'd never have to deal with his kind again but I should have known better. I should have known the darkness will always find a way!" Wong finally says with a bitterness that almost left an acrid taste in his mouth and Sol walks over and sits down beside him.

"What did you find that has shaken you so, my friend?" Sol asks quietly as he uses magic to hurry the process of the boiling water. Wong grabs a napkin and blows his nose then chucks it in the trash bin and mumbles, "Sorry." Sol waves his hand as if to say 'it's fine don't worry about it' then leans forward and says, "Do we need to be worried? Should the other Sanctums be informed?" Wong lets out a cold bark of laughter then says, " Yes they very much need to be told. And the water is ready." Sol looks over and sure enough, as soon as he does, the kettle begins to whistle shrilly so he rises from his seat and takes it off the burner and finishes making their drinks.

"Here you are." Sol says as he sits Wong's cup in front of him then quickly sits back down himself. "Now tell me what's happened." Wong looks up at Sol after taking a sip of tea then says, "I went into her room because I thought maybe she was just asleep. But when I got in there something just felt wrong. So I began looking around and...Sol it's bad. I don't know how she managed to get ahold of it but...I found Kaecilius's journal in her room."

The other man pales as the significance of what that means hits him full force. "Do you mean it was a copy of his journal? Did you feel any protection spells around it?" Sol says in a very serious but soft voice so as not to scare anyone else nearby. "No. It was his actual journal and there was no spells guarding it whatsoever. You realize what this means right? You realize...you realize what we have to do when we find Minoru don't you?" He says as his voice breaks for the girl he's thought of as a sister since he met her. "Yes, my old friend I do." Sol says wearily.

As this conversation is taking place, across town in the abandoned industrial complex, a shadowy figure flits between buildings. A few times a bright orange light can be seen in their hand but it's soon extinguished as the person determines that it's simply animals that are scuffling around not people who could pose a threat to them. Soon they dart through a man hole and disappear underground. They walk for quite some time, the gravel under their feet crunching the only sound besides their breathing which is a bit faster than normal.

Soon they come to an underground cavern, partially natural but widened by men. There's many machines that line the walls but what draws the person's eyes is the two women in the middle of the room. One is strapped into a chair and covered in sweat and blood. The other is smiling darkly and welding what looks to be a glowing hot piano wire. The one with the wire raises it but stops when she hears footsteps approaching and quickly turns in a very defensive manner until she sees who it is then drops to her knees and bows in reverance. The hooded figure smirks and motions for her to rise and makes no other move as the Asian woman breaths, "It's so good to see you again...Master Kaecilius."