Lenore moaned, her eyebrows furrowed in worry as she tossed and turned in her bed. She was having her dreams again, this one, it felt so real. She was standing in one of the three Sanctums, she didn't know which one.
She walked further inside, her eyes scanning everything in her surroundings until she picked up the sounds of people fighting upstairs. She ran up the large staircase, following the sound until she was led to a hallway.
Everything was shifted, the hallway moved in different directions making the person inside fall and crash. The person was Stephen Strange.
She then spotted another person behind Stephen, he was controlling everything in the hallway. Her eyes grew wide when she recognized who it was. Her body went instantly rigid as she stared at Kaecillius, there was a mark embedded onto his forehead, his skin around his eyes dark purple and outlined silver and cracked.
He conjured up some sort of transparent weapon in his hands before charging towards Stephen with murderous intent.
"NO!" Lenore woke up screaming. Sweat trickled down her forehead like rivulets as she propped herself up. She took some time to compose herself before she slid off of her bed and changed into her robes, she didn't bother to even fix her disheveled hair. She hurried out of her room and walked towards Stephen's room.
She felt disturbed by her dream, especially when it had both Stephen and Kaecillius.
Once she was standing in front of his door, she wasted no time knocking loudly against his door. She paced impatiently in front of the door after receiving no response, she knocked again, only to receive nothing again. Using her sling ring, she created a portal through the door before she peeked inside.
"Stephen?" She called out to him as her eyes scanned the room, she then directed her gaze towards his bed and saw that it was unkempt.
He left.
With a huff, she closed the portal and headed to where she figured Stephen would be. She walked inside the library and did not find Wong at his desk.
She started to wonder what Stephen could be doing that was unsupervised by Wong. The thought made her worry.
She walked further into the library and her eyes widened at the sight of the man inside. Stephen had worn the Eye of Agamotto around his neck, a soft green glow emanating from it. He held his arm outward, twisting his open hand counterclockwise.
Lenore directed her eyes towards where his hand was pointing. There was a half-eaten apple in front of him, but as soon as he moved his hand, the Apple returned to its uneaten state. It was at that moment that she realized that he was using the Time Stone.
Lenore kept watching, her presence still unknown to Strange as he set the apple aside and moved the book of Cagliostro in front of him. He flipped the book to where the missing pages are and with a stroke of his hand, the pages reappeared out of thin air and attached themselves back the book.
"Woah." Lenore blurted out, causing Stephen to turn around.
"Lenore!" He exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing? You shouldn't be tampering with that." Lenore stood beside Stephen, now looking down at the book. She knew she was supposed to be stopping Stephen, but she was then overwhelmed with curiosity. Stephen saw this and he released a relieved sigh before bringing his attention back on the book in front of them.
"Dormmamu...Dark Dimension...Eternal Life." Stephen said out loud as he read what he saw on the book.
"What are these?" Lenore asked before both her and Stephen's attention was stolen by a crystalline wall forming in front of them, her eyes widened as it began growing in size.
"Stop!"
As of it had listened, the wall disappeared and the two sorcerers whirled around, following the voices of the people that rushed in. Lenore's body stiffened when she realized how much trouble she was going to get from them.
"Tampering with continuum probabilities is forbidden!" Mordo hissed at Stephen as he approached the both of them.
"I was just doing exactly what it said in the book!" Stephen rebutted, returning his gaze at the book in front of him.
"What did the book say about the dangers of performing that ritual?" Wong questioned.
"I don't know. I hadn't gotten to that part yet."Stephen replied with a quick glance towards Wong's direction.
"Temporal manipulations can create branches in time. Unstable dimensional openings. Spatial paradoxes! Time loops! You wanna get stuck reliving the same moment over and over forever... or never having existed at all?" Mordo yelled at Stephen before he turned to the Lenore, his eyes growing wide as if he'd been surprised of her presence.
But before Mordo could say anything to Lenore, Stephen caught his attention.
"Really should put the warnings before the spell." Stephen muttered as he shut the book closed.
"Your curiosity could have gotten you killed." Wong stated as he placed his hand over the book. He then turned towards Lenore, sending her a disappointed look at her way. "And you! You know what will happen if he did this and yet you just stood there and watched."
Lenore couldn't even lift her head and look at Wong out of shame, she nodded in agreement with Wong before saying, "I-I'm sorry."
"You weren't manipulating the space-time continuum... you were breaking it." Wong took the book from the table and before he walked away to put it back on the shelves, he added, "We do not tamper with natural law. We defend it."
"How did you even do that?" Mordo questioned Stephen, now standing in front of the table and point his finger at him.
"Hmm?"
"Where did you learn the litany of spells required to even understand it?" Mordo asked again.
"I've got a photographic memory. That's how I got my M.D. and Ph.D. at the same time." Stephen replied.
"What you just did... takes more than a good memory. " Mordo commented pointedly.
"I-It's like..." Lenore finally spoke up, bringing all the mens' attention to her, Lenore looked up from the floor and met Stephen's eyes. Her dream from months ago had flashed into her mind. The man standing face to face with that gigantic creature, it was starting to add up but she refused to believe that it was him. it couldn't be him.
She continued after a deep breath, "...You were born for the mystic arts."
"And yet my hands still shake." Stephen muttered angrily, looking down at his hands. Lenore stepped closer to Stephen and placed her hand on top of his right one, giving it a soft, reassuring squeeze.
"For now, yes." She replied gently.
"Not forever?" He added, still a little bit irritated.
"We're not prophets." Mordo answered.
"When are you gonna start telling me what we are?" Stephen snapped, causing Lenore to jump slightly. The three masters exchanged looks with one another before Wong started walking away, Mordo, Stephen, and Lenore followed suit.
With his anger now faded, he glanced down at Lenore beside her, the feeling of her hand lingered on his.
"How did you know I was in the library?" Stephen inquired, his voice low so that it was only her that could hear him.
"I dreamt of you." She replied firmly.
"You dreamt of me?" He repeated confusedly.
Lenore nodded, "Its complicated if I tell you right now."
Stephen glanced up towards Mordo and Wong with a playful smile on his face. "I guess we still have a few seconds to spare."
Lenore sighed, "Fine. I dreamt you were in trouble. It's...how do I put this? A thing of mine since I was a child."
"What is?"
"I have visions or Precognitive Dreams as the Ancient One would put it." She answered, "Some of them are accurate, some are not. I can't really control when they happen and sometimes the information is not clear. But I always make sure...that's why I looked for you as fast as I could."
Stephen couldn't help but smile, "Oh, you're worried about me."
Lenore rolled her eyes, chuckling softly as she nudged Stephen's side, "Of course I am, you're pretty reckless."
Lenore soon composed herself once Wong had led them all to another room. Her eyes immediately locked onto the floating artifact above them, shaped like the Earth. Wong spun the dial on the pedestal in the middle of the room and the globe lit up.
"While heroes like the Avengers protect the world from physical dangers, we sorcerers have guarded against more mystical threats." Wong explained as the rest stood close to the pedestal.
Wong continued, "The Ancient One is the latest in a long line of Sorcerers Supreme... going back thousands of years to the father of the mystic arts... the mighty Agamotto."
He then directed his gaze towards Stephen, "Same sorcerer who created the eye you so recklessly borrowed. Agamotto built three Sanctums in places of power... where great cities now stand."
Wong raised his hand and pointed at each one of the doors, "That door leads to the Hong Kong Sanctum. That door to the New York Sanctum. That one to the London Sanctum. Together... the Sanctums generate a protective shield around our world."
As Wong explained, the globe was surrounded by a barrier, with each circle representing the symbol embedded onto the doors of the Sanctums. Stephen watched in awe but there was fear in him that he couldn't shake.
"The Sanctums protect the world... and we sorcerers... protect the Sanctums." Mordo concluded. Stephen looked over to Lenore, who was standing beside her, she nodded.
"From...what?" Stephen reluctantly asked.
"Other dimensional beings that threaten our universe." Lenore answered as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Like Dormammu." Stephen said, firmly.
The three masters glanced at one another, all of them shared a surprised expression on their faces before Mordo turned to Stephen.
"Where did you learn that name?" Mordo inquired.
"I just read it in The Book of Cagliostro.Why?" He said while glancing between Wong and Mordo.
"Dormammu dwells in the Dark Dimension." Wong turned the dials and the shield that was protecting the globe had disappeared, "Beyond time. He is the cosmic conqueror... the destroyer of worlds. A being of infinite power and endless hunger... on a quest to invade every universe... and bring all worlds into his Dark Dimension. And he hungers for Earth most of all."
As he explained it, the globe turned into a dark purple color, Lenore's body had stiffened when she saw it, it was the same as the one in her dream. This only further confirmed that Stephen was indeed the man who was facing the big monster.
"Pages that Kaecilius stole," Stephen said, now putting the pieces together.
"A ritual to contact Dormammu and draw power from the Dark Dimension."
Lenore released a shaky sigh with a hand over her mouth. She kept her other hand hidden from their eyes, she was shaking in fear. That was until she head Stephen laughing beside her.
"Uh... Okay... Um... I'm out. I came here to heal my hands. Not to fight in some mystical war." Stephen stated.
And before everyone could say anything, everyone looked up in alarm as the bells rang, sounding from the distance.
"London," Wong said and everyone directed their gazes to the door of the London Sanctum when it suddenly opened. Inside, a sorcerer was running for his dear life, but as he got inside the room, he fell onto his knees as a transparent weapon was thrown at his back, killing him instantly. Behind him was a man in a yellow robe.
"Kaecilius..." Lenore muttered, staring at her long lost companion. Kaecillius, with a cold expression on his face, lifted his hands and generated a ball of energy before throwing to the ground.
"No!" Mordo shouted as ball of energy exploded, knocking everyone flying back. Stephen moved quickly, saw that Lenore was almost rooted at the ground, staring at Kaecilius while oblivious to the fact that she was getting hit by the explosion. He ran towards Lenore and wrapped his arms protectively around her before the two of them were knocked back by the impact.
Both of them slammed against a door, their bodies pushing it open before falling onto the floor. Stephen kept Lenore protected, using his arm to cover her face as small debris fell on top of them. Stephen quickly pulled themselves away from the door. Groaning in pain, the two sat beside each other on the floor, staring at the door.
Stephen jumped right back to his feet and rushed to the door, "No! Wong! Mordo!"
He heard whimpering behind him and he whirled around, he saw Lenore still on the ground, her eyes glistening with unshed tears as she wrapped her arms around herself. She had a cut on her cheek and on the upper right side of her forehead. Blood trickled down across her frightened face.
"No...it can't be...it can't be..." she repeated the same words over and over, her voice shaking with fear. Stephen strode over to her and knelt down.
"Hey, look at me." Stephen said and thankfully, Lenore looked up to meet Stephen's gaze, "Its okay, I'm here. Just breathe."
Stephen placed his hands on Lenore's shoulders as she took a couple of breaths to calm herself. Stephen brushed the strands of her hair and tucked them behind her ear.
Lenore took one last deep breath and steadied her hands.
"Can you stand?" Stephen asked as he brought himself back to his feet and offered her his hand. Lenore nodded and took his hand, allowing him to pull her up. Stephen didn't let go of her and Lenore didn't mind, it as calming for her.
They walked inside the place, looking around until Stephen found a door that seemed to be leading outside. Stephen groaned in pain as he stumbled towards the doors. A faint sound of an ambulance filled their ears, which soon then replaced by the honks of cars as they got outside. The sounds made Lenore a bit dizzy and she leaned on Stephen for support.
Stephen let go of her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist. Many people walked by, their eyes were at Stephen and Lenore with how they were dressed.
Stephen ignored them and looked around to find out where they are.
177A BLEECKER ST.
He looked at the tall building before them, his eyes stopped at the symbol on the roof. Remembering what Wong had said earlier, Stephen realized that they were no longer in Nepal.
They were in New York.