Taipan // Doctor Strange

Chapter 6

I was struck with a wonder that made me queasy; it was, again, the question of which way was up and which way was down? I couldn't yet fathom the fact that there was no up and down.

Here, as I rose and now came to a level platform where I could see Mordo and Strange to the side, with the Ancient One facing the last zealot, I realized that the natural law of physics wasn't applying to anything. Science wasn't real. It was odd that all of my life I had been taught that science was the explanation for the world, and yet here I was, standing shakily and walking onto the large, mosaic platform, observing that the knowledge was inapplicable.

I felt stripped of something- my brain was naked to the fact that I had no clue what was going on about what I was seeing, and I felt small because of it.

I watched as Strange looked between me and the dead zealots, his face a subtle mess of surprise. "It was luck," I said, trotting over to the two while the Ancient One and the zealot began fighting.

At first, a wave of crumbling floor moved towards the woman, who leaned backward- slowing the progression of its power and shot it back at the man, who was not prepared for the return and flew backward. "Enough, Kaecilius." she said, her body and voice remaining calm.

My breath hitched in my throat. This was Kaecilius?

He jumped forward again, creating a second form of himself to fight the Ancient One as he stood back. The woman had control- pulling on his tied hair and exposing his neck to the blade she had conjured that had letters inscribed in gold.

Maybe if she killed this version of himself- he would die?

I never got the chance to see if that would have worked; The real Kaecilius lunged forward with what looked to be a piece of glass, stabbing it into the Ancient One's side and holding it there for a few seconds. He drew back and kicked her with all of his force- she flew backward into a golden ring, a portal, I believe, and vanished.

Strange immediately grabbed my arm and threw it over his head, wrapping an arm around my side before taking off and flying through the gate behind Mordo. In the moment, I was grateful that he took the time for someone he didn't know. I did not want to be left with Kaecilius.

I shut my eyes again- he was flying straight down, and the last thing I wanted to see was the Ancient One becoming a pancake on the ground. "Did we leave the mirror realm?"

I never got my answer- I was dropped on my own into a crowd of people, my feet slamming against the pavement as my ankles stung with the abrupt impact. Opening my eyes, I watched as Mordo and Strange ran to where the woman had fallen. I didn't follow.

-

3rd POV

-

Stephen Strange watched intently over the body of the master he had tried to destroy with his words- guilt laced into his thoughts as he stared down at her cracked head and broken body. Christine, a friend of his, worked on her beside him, her hands busy with cleaning the wounds around her face.

All efforts proved futile, it seemed, as the heart monitor drew a long straight beep, in rhythm with the stillness of the Ancient One's heart. Stephen looked up, his eyes catching the glitch of the screen that held all of her vital signs. For a moment, his chest swelled with panic as he entered his astral form, where his soul left his body and caught a fleeting glimpse of his master leaving the room. "Hey!" he called in pursuit. "Where are you going?"

She led him to the balcony of the hospital's floor, her mentality as calm as she had always been- but now, her eyes held fear as they frantically moved back and forth about the scenery of the city before her. "You've got to get back in there," Stephen said, stopping beside her. "You're dying, you don't have time!"