Anomaly

Six • Tear

Stephen's brows came together. "Wh...."

"I thought you said this was the right time-"

"It is."

"I don't- I don't underst-"

Suddenly, there was a shift in the air as time began to rewind around them. People were walking backwards, cars driving as if they were in reverse. Scott reappeared with the sceptre in hand, followed by Tony and Cap who took the sceptre back.

"Stephen..." said Juno. "What the hell was that?"

He turned around, looking towards Bleecker Street and noticing a vivid green light in the sky. He hurried out onto the main street as everything stopped rewinding. Things were silent, eerily so, when suddenly a car appeared from nowhere, encased in a purple light that sent it flying around the corner and crashing, just as Steve had said. A woman with short, dark hair smashed through the windshield, her bloody, mangled body flying through the air towards the three men before vanishing with the sceptre.

"What the heck was that!?" Juno shouted.

But before she could turn to him, he had already began soaring through the air towards the sanctum.

He landed on the roof, his eyes falling the Ancient One as she locked the time stone away inside the Eye of Agamotto. Her ears pricked. She turned around with her hands behind her back.

"Doctor Strange," she said in her calm, regal voice. She looked down at his attire. "Where are you visiting from?"

"2023."

"It worked," she whispered to herself, almost smiling with relief.

"What worked?"

"You fulfilled your destiny, became our next sorcerer supreme."

His eyes narrowed with confusion.

"I see the cloak of levitation chose you," she said.

"Yeah."

"Interesting. So, what brings you here?"

Juno hurried up onto the roof, approaching them breathlessly. "Thanks for leaving me down there," she said sarcastically. "It takes real skill to run away from someone who's reading your mind."

The Ancient One's eyes grew wide, a look of almost-fear on her face as she stared at her. "It's not possible," she said quietly.

"Stephen," said Juno. "I thought you said we were just 'spectators'.Why do I get the feeling she can see us?"

"Because she can."

"You possess a power..." The Ancient One's eyes darted across Juno's face.

"Yeah." She turned around and lifted her hair, showing the stone in her neck.

"No, this can't be..."

Stephen stepped forward. "I just saw you turn back time. I watched you cause that car accident. Why?"

"All of this is done, Stephen," she turned to walk away. "It can't be changed."

"I'm not asking you to change it. I'm asking you to tell me why."

She sighed. "Because I gave away the stone. By the time he brought it back to me, it was too late."

"Too late?"

"You were already operating. I had to undo it."

"But why?"

"Because the fate of existence rested upon it. If she lived, you would never have become a sorcerer."