Title: Doctor Strange Goes to Storybrooke
Disclaimer: Doctor Strange is the property of Marvel which is the property of Disney which also owns ABC, the studio which once upon a recent time produced Once Upon A Time.
Summary: Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, takes a trip to Storybrooke.
Author's Note: This takes place in my OUAT fanon universe established in the fanfiction "The Outstanding Balance of Morality". It's not required to read that first, but this will make more sense as the story is a "fix-it" that essentially erases a good portion of the series with time travel and the intervention of gods... from Mt. Olympus, not Asgard. Let's say this story takes place after Thor: Ragnarok but before Avengers: Infinity War.
Characters: Doctor Strange, some OUAT secondary characters, a cameo by Wong.
Genre: Humor/Supernatural
Doctor Strange Goes to Storybrooke
"Well, at least it isn't raining," Dr. Stephen Strange remarked to himself after stepping through a portal into a quaint little town in a parallel Earth's Maine.
The town was Storybrooke, Maine to be specific and he'd arrived behind the odiferous fish Cannery which just seemed the perfect ending to a rather miserable twenty-four hours of checking up this world and tracking down the old sorcerer who'd been assigned here to keep watch for supernatural threats - and whom Strange had hoped was the reason for a recent change in portal magic here. Unfortunately, the old man had insisted that even though he was kidnapped by the corporealized version of another sorceress' evil inclinations created by a mad alchemist's potion and briefly trapped in the Mirror Realm, no one had taken the sling-ring from his vault.
Really, Strange knew he should have looked into the matter on his last trip to this universe, though he'd been a bit busy using the Eye of Agamotto to unwrite a rather dire future in which this world collapsed under the weight of compounding paradoxes from amateur time travelers, reality-altering curses, and a ridiculous amount of unstable portals that tore the fabric of reality to shreds. But he'd had pressing matters back on his own Earth and this universe's demigods had been more than capable of taking things from there and unraveling the remainder of the mess Zeus had started with his collection of magical books and gullible "Authors" chosen to take away the free will of all the people he'd kept in his magical pocket universes to ensure the new timeline didn't culminate in the same apocalyptic end.
So, it had been a few years, give or take, depending on the temporal perspective, since Strange had been to this Earth, and technically he'd only been to one of the pocket universes, not the planet proper. The place was, more or less, similar to his own Earth minus the super heroes and history of alien invasions - and plus this little town that acted as both an anchor and an axis mundi for all the pocket universes that were no longer bound to Mt. Olympus.
Hopefully, getting to the bottom of the portal business wouldn't take long and he'd be back home in time to stop in and see Christine in some capacity that didn't involve him or a colleague being stabbed or flattened on the sidewalk. Although, if he was being honest with himself, that relationship had reached its end long before his car accident and he was never going to be able to balance his current job with a normal romance. But it was nice to retain at least one connection to his past and to the world most people lived in.
People in Storybrooke, Strange supposed, didn't have that problem. Certainly not the being eyeing him from a stack of lobster traps as he closed the portal.
"Here to have a good time, handsome?" the skanky mermaid clearly using nothing but her long, seaweed entangled hair to cover her breasts crooned as she flicked her scaly tail at him.
"Not interested," Strange told her, wondering when his life had reached a point that being propositioned by a mermaid whore didn't even qualify as the top fifty weirdest things he'd experienced.
"I can do human! I even learned how to put legs around my neck!" She fiddled with a gaudy enchanted bracelet and her fishtail became legs that she stumbled on, insisting, "I just need ten minutes to stretch my legs and do some kegals with my human vagina! WAIT!"
"Well, I can see this day isn't getting any better," Strange grumbled to himself on the walk toward Main Street and an inn called Granny's that was apparently the only place in town to rent a room and get food that wasn't bad Italian. What did they do with all the lobsters then?
Though the hour was late, an old woman was at the inn's check-in desk and gave him a curious look.
"Something the matter?" he asked, brushing at some lint on his suit... his one remaining suit that he hadn't sold when he was strapped for cash and had worn to this Earth for his meeting in New York... and prior to that Hong Kong where he'd thought the meeting would be.
"No, you're just awfully well-dressed. Other than Gold, suits aren't the usual choice of attire around here outside of weddings and funerals."
"Well, the rest of my luggage was stolen in Hong Kong because the aggravating old sorcerer I was supposed to meet forgot to send me a change of address or inform me that he'd ticked off a lot of locals with fake cancer cures and moved to New York," Strange reported.
"Oh, so you know The Dragon," said Granny with a roll of her eyes.
"Unfortunately. Portaling to this world to have tea with that old geezer was not my idea of a vacation," replied Strange while pulling out his wallet. "Do you take cash deposits?"
"Of course," the old lady told him. "You think pirates and pantsless rabbits have credit cards? I even have to take doubloons these days. How long will you be staying, Mister...?"
"Doctor, actually."
"Oh, sorry."
"It's Strange," he stated.
"What? That you're a doctor? I suppose. Most realms don't have those. Are you from Dr. Whale's world or Alice's?"
"Neither," replied Strange, offering no additional information. "And only one night, hopefully."
As the old woman offered out a room key, the leather messenger bag was carrying suddenly began to twitch and she snatched the key back while telling him as she pointed to a sign, "No pets, Doctor."
"It's not a pet," Strange told her as he signed the check-in book. "It's an enchanted cape with separation anxiety and claustrophobia."
"Oh. My granddaughter has an enchanted cloak," she said, relinquishing the key. "I don't think it ever had any need for therapy, though. Ruby on the other hand..." She let out a sigh.
"Yes, well, we all probably need therapy, I'm sure," Strange told her. "Magic comes with the price of one's sanity, I sometimes think."
Strange gave the old lady a parting, somewhat forced smile after a long day and headed up the stairs, half way up getting yanked by his bag's contents with such acceleration that he nearly slammed into his room door when his bag suddenly stopped to hover in front of it.
"All right! I'll let you out!" Strange grumbled, opening the door and then unzipping the bag.
The Cloak of Levitation shot out and zoomed around the room, stirring up dust motes. The damn thing could be a real pain in the ass. Strange wasn't entirely certain why it had chosen him, if it was just tired of being stuck in that glass display case and he was the one who freed it, or if it was imbued with a somewhat faulty judge of character by its maker, or if its maker was Agamotto and he just happened to be wearing the Eye of Agamotto at the time and so it was enchanted to protect the Infinity Stone and then just got stuck with him in the process. At times the cloak was almost affectionate. At other times it was like a hyperactive, neurotic dog from the pound.
Rolling his eyes and deciding to ignore the large piece of red fabric flying around the ceiling, Strange opened a window to let the dust and musty smell out and then took the remaining items from his bag that he'd managed to recover, magical things being far more important than another pair of socks and underwear.
Sitting down at the desk by the window, Strange looked out at the seemingly idyllic forest and begin his search anew for the brilliant thief who'd found a way to infuse sling-ring magic into things called "magic beans".
The very load chiming of the town's clock tower woke Strange from a time-loop dream with a start and he sighed in both relief to be free of it and dismay at the mildew-scented room he found himself in.
Right. Storybrooke.
He showered, used a portal to grab his preferred Nepalese attire, and then headed for the door, the cape wrapping itself around his shoulders just before he stepped out into the hall.
A blonde woman dressed in a sparkly green halter top who looked both hung over and stoned paused in her abuse of the ice machine to compliment, "Sweet cape, dude. Where'd you get it?"
"A parallel Earth," Strange replied while the cloak straightened its collar at the compliment.
The inn had back stairs to a diner busy with breakfast service and Strange took a seat on a stool at the counter being vacated by a man in full fictionally authentic Viking garb, complete with horned helmet who hurried outside to meet up with a woman in more historically authentic Northern Wei dynasty armor that included a sword. A man getting food to go was dressed like a Medieval knight and two men in a booth wore 19th century naval uniforms while using era-equivalent instruments to plot a course on a map.
Needless to say, Strange fit right in wardrobe-wise and the only curious looks he got were presumably due to this being a small town and his face unfamiliar... or maybe confusingly familiar given the screaming fangirls that had chased him when he had stopped in London to check on the fidelity of this world's layline.
"You look familiar," said a youngish brunet woman with no nametag.
Strange sighed. "I am neither British nor an actor nor some magically separated evil doppleganger of said British actor or visitor from a pocket universe created by some novice genie granting a wish that was then given a soul by some delusional witch's true love."
"So, not a fan of Regina, huh?"
"I'll have a slice of apple pie and a coffee. Black."
The woman shrugged and went to the other end of the counter to cut a slice from the display case while a short man with a beard and a beanie sidled his way between Strange and the register to grab some Sweet & Lo.
"What's with the cape and the medallion, brother?" the short fellow asked in a tone not as complimentary as the stoner.
"Leroy, leave him alone," the woman scolded.
"What? Come on, Ruby, it's my job to be suspicious! The last time some stranger showed up with a cape and gaudy jewelry around her neck she turned out to be the Wicked Witch of the West. May she rest in eternal torment!"
"Well, he's not British, so I think he's probably not a villain," she said. "Most of them seem to be British. Or have British accents.. .but is it actually a British accent if none of them are from Great Britain? And why do we have random accents in The Enchanted Forest? It's weird right? Does stuff like that ever keep you up?"
"It's why I get drunk, sister!" he exclaimed, taking his artificial sugar packets back to his table.
"So... not from around here?" the woman, Ruby asked as she set his pie down.
"And you're the granddaughter in need of therapy?" Strange countered and she scowled.
"Damn it, Granny! She just has to blab to everyone," Ruby complained while pouring him a cup of coffee. "I'm getting a divorce, okay? It was a whirlwind true love romance based on the foundation of a love-potion producing weed from Camelot that infested The Enchanted Forest. We had a nice little house in Oz until the effects wore off. She went back to Land Without Color Kansas and I came back here to get bitched at by my grandmother while trying to work up the guts to ask Rumplestiltskin to write up the divorce papers."
"Relationships can be complicated and disappointing," shrugged Strange.
"Tell me about it! I ate my first boyfriend and not in a sexy way. I didn't know I was a werewolf! Granny gave me an enchanted cloak and figured that never taking it off to protect me from bandits and rapists was all I needed to know. And I ended up mauling my best friend to death! So, yeah, maybe I have gone to therapy and I probably need more therapy now since it was my second best friend who accidentally set up my eating my first best friend who encouraged me to go back home and find love, which turned out to be nothing but lust and a one-night-stand that wasn't meant for more than that, and magical marriage contracts are a pain in the ass to get out of!"
"Well, I guess in comparison my own relationship woes are quite mundane," Strange considered while trying to eat his pie as quickly as possible without it seeming that he was doing so.
"But anyway, that's an interesting medallion. Where's it from?" asked Ruby.
"Nepal."
"Really? August went to Nepal. He's a writer. Or used to be. He said he went to see the lemurs."
Strange snorted. "What kind of idiot goes to Nepal to see lemurs? You can see lemurs in a zoo and on Animal Planet."
"I guess," shrugged Ruby. "Probably he was lying anyway and he never left his Thailand sex vacation that he took after stealing Emma and Neal's stolen money. He's kind of a sex addict, but he's in a twelve step program."
"Good for him. My ex always used to say I should have joined a twelve step program for being a conceited asshole," Strange recalled, not sure why he was sharing that.
"You don't seem so bad. I mean, you're no Hook. Talk about conceited asshole. He's the poster boy."
"Yes, well," Strange replied after a sip of coffee and raising his hand, "a terrible accident that led to the loss of my career, my money, and my relationship was rather humbling, as was traveling to other worlds in a vast multiverse. It opens one's eyes to how small we all really are in the grand scheme of things."
"That's about what Jefferson said," nodded Ruby. "The other worlds thing. He's a retired portal jumper. He said he visited all the magical realms. It was a hobby, then it was job. And then it sort of lost its... magic, I guess."
"There are days when it's not a terribly enviable job," agreed Strange.
"Yeah, I bet it gets lonely," Ruby empathized while cleaning the counter. "I mean, at least Nemo has a crew and can travel on his ship," she nodded to the men in naval dress. "So... are you a freelance importer-exporter? Travel-log? Relic hunter?"
"Would you believe I'm responsible for protecting the entire multiverse from supernatural incursions from extra-dimensional villains?" Strange returned in a light tone with a smirk, then added, "I'm just looking to find and retrieve some stolen or misplaced property."
"Repo, huh? I hope Captain Nemo didn't take anything he shouldn't have. He's really a good guy even if some of the stuff he trades in is shady."
"I doubt it's the Captain. He has his own mode of transport," Strange shook his head. "It's more to do with some modified magic beans."
Ruby stopped wiping and told him, "Well, you'd be looking for Anton then. He's our resident magical botanist who created the new variety of magic beans. I'm sure he didn't steal anything, though. He's a giant, just human-sized thanks to some Wonderland magic. Despite all the disinformation that fairies spread to humans, they're actually just about the nicest, most peaceful race of beings around. Pacifist vegans and everything. It was Anton who figured out those flowers were evil weeds created by the first Dark One and found a way to eradicate them."
"I see. And where would I find this Anton?"
"Right there, actually," the brunet smiled at the entrance of a stocky, cheerful-looking fellow with a large box of produce and a lynx-sized pink feline creature with a scorpion-like tail and stubby dragon-like wings around which was fitted a blue "Service Animal in Training - Do Not Pet" vest.
"Avocados! Sweet!" she beamed, taking the box. "You're the best, Anton. I was just telling our most recent visitor how your genius is responsible for the new portal beans."
"Ruby," he winced, "I'd really rather you didn't tell people."
"Yes," Strange interjected, "nefarious sorts might want to steal the magical formula. Or, say, any mystical relic used in the growing process," he concluded, picking up his cup with his left hand and noticing the diminutive giant momentarily flinch at the sight of the sling-ring. Bingo!
"Can I get you anything?" asked Ruby.
"Ah, no," Anton said quickly. "I just wanted to drop these off on the way to the hospital. Sparkles has one more session before Whale and Little sign off and she's official."
"Wow! That's great! You'd better get going then!"
"As should I," remarked Strange as Anton tugged his feline companion out the door.
He tossed some bills on the counter and then exited out the back into an ally where it was easy to float up above the roof among the trees and watch Anton get into a pickup truck with Sparkles. Strange followed the truck a short distance down the road to a turnoff that led to a hospital.
After the small giant had gotten out with his pet, Strange dropped down to land in front of them.
The stocky man startled and then groaned and sputtered out, "Look, I'm sorry! I didn't know it was stolen. I mean, I guess I figured maybe it was since it was in my family's vault. I had no idea who it belonged to! I didn't even know it was magical at first, it just looked like a half set of brass knuckles! But they only took magical objects from bad people who were going to use it for bad! I wanted to use it for good, to make stable portals that wouldn't cause permanent tears in the fabric of space-time and ultimately rip apart the fabric of reality so people would stop using the original beans that the fairies had scattered around and things like Wishing Stars and inter-dimensional shadow demons and whatever it was that Henry used to open that portal in New York City that pretty much doomed our universe to self-destruction without the intervention of the gods. They never sent that bird lady to tell me not too, so I thought I was doing a good thing. I didn't mean to cause any trouble with some kind the immortal Five-O!"
"I'm not from Olympus," Strange sighed. "Just return the sling-ring and I'll be on my way."
Anton's eyes narrowed and he demanded, "How do I know you're not a... a nefarious sort who wants to use that ring to do terrible things?"
"Well, for one, I already have one," Strange told him, "and they don't combine into magical universe-conquering brass knuckles. But they belong to my order. It's our duty to keep bad people from using powerful relics to do terrible things. And this little corner of the multiverse, magically primitive as it is, has enough bad people in it that if they were get a hold of that ring and travel beyond this Earth - they could either cause harm there or summon far more dangerous beings here than any your little town has dealt with.
"Also," Strange continued, "if I meant any harm, wouldn't your giant pink cat be trying to sting me instead of playing with that soda can?"
"I guess that is true," Anton conceded and picked up the can, complaining, "Why can't people recycle? The bin is literally five feet away! That's what I don't understand about humans. So many of them just don't understand how precious the Earth is let alone the multiverse beyond. They're so small-minded. No offense."
"None taken," Strange shrugged, walking along with the tiny giant as his tiny manticore tugged him toward a path leading to the a lakeside boardwalk behind the hospital. "I too was a very small-minded human not that long ago."
"So... you're from a parallel Earth then?" Anton asked. "You look a bit like-"
"Yes, I know, a British actor who played Sherlock Holmes," Strange groaned. "On my Earth I was a neurosurgeon until a car accident severely damaged the nerves in my hands," he related. "I went in search of a cure for my injuries and found one instead for my soul. Which I know sounds so cliché."
"My father told me and my brothers lots of stories about other dimensions," said Anton, "but as the youngest, I was never allowed to read any of the real mystical books in our library and I had to destroy them along with the bean field when some humans breached our fortress. My father told me to burn the field and the books. I only survived because I didn't stay to fight like him and my brothers. The humans poisoned them."
"I'm sorry," Strange told him with sincerity. "My order was attacked and many died. Including The Ancient One who appointed me the new Sorcerer Supreme before her death. So it's now my duty to ensure all misplaced relics are found... on top of just generally protecting the entire multiverse from supernatural evil."
"Sounds stressful."
"You have no idea."
"I bet it's lonely, though. I know about being lonely," said Anton. "I don't know what I'd do without Sparkles. She's one of a kind and I'm the last of my kind. On this Earth, anyway."
"You could leave this universe and find other giants," Strange told him. "Or you could join our order."
"Yeah, but then who would watch out for the humans here? Make sure they don't destroy this universe? That's why my family came here, millennia ago. To protect them from themselves, to be there to guide them when they were ready to join the rest of the multiverse."
Strange couldn't argue with that. This world's watchman for the Order was a bit.. .lazy. Admittedly, there were a lot of Earths and other realms in the multiverse, so not every universe could have the best of the best, and this Earth was pretty far down on the list of importance.
"Then perhaps one of your family knew The Ancient One," Strange considered, "and was given the ring during the war between demigods in this universe, the war that resulted in your Dark One coming here from one of the dark dimensions."
"My father talked about his father fighting in that war," nodded Anton. "That was before The Olympians arrived after the Titan War and began creating their pocket universes and populating them with humans and turning them against us with the help of the fairies so we had to hide ourselves in our own pocket universe. Which was lonely. I like it here. Some of the humans are nice. And after centuries of study and decades of being all alone, guarding the last of our relics, I think I need a break from that sort of thing."
"I can't argue with that," conceded Strange. "But I could allow you to keep the ring if you'll agree to an official appointment as the watchman for this universe. There's no benefits but also no paperwork involved. You just have to be on the lookout for extra-dimensional supernatural evil and inform me."
"I guess I could do that," Anton shrugged. "Storybrooke is kind of the supernatural evil magnet for this universe. How do I contact you? I mean, I doubt magic mirrors work between universes if it's hard enough between pocket universes in the same universe, right?"
"Best to just drop by in person," Strange told him and held out his left hand and gesturing with both explained, "These don't work like your magic beans that hold their own power and require only a simple thought on where to go. But they are more powerful and can take you anywhere in the multiverse and they won't accidentally drop you in the wrong place if you lose that thought. I assume after several hundred years of study you're good at meditation. So just focus, visualize, the destination in your mind. Imagine every detail. Only then will the gateway come."
Strange gestured to Anton to enter the portal and they stepped into the Sanctum in New York City. Anton looked around while his pet sniffed.
"We're really on a different Earth?"
"We are. This building doesn't exist on your Earth," Strange told him. "It's one of the three Sanctums on this planet that harness the power of the laylines to protect it from supernatural attack. It's usually where I'm found when not traveling the multiverse."
Walking over to the three portal doors that could be turned to any location on Earth, Strange switched one to the entry door of Kamar-Taj. "You can also go to Kamar-Taj, the training facility in Nepal. Just ask for Wong, the Librarian, and don't be surprised if he's an insufferably stoic sort who doesn't laugh at any of your jokes. But he can contact me if I'm abroad."
"Ah... okay," Anton agreed. "I think I can handle that."
"Excellent. This is where we part ways then. I believe you have a pet therapy session to get to."
"Oh, right. That." Anton tugged on his manticore's leash. "Come on, Sparkles! The kids are waiting. There'll be bananas!"
That got the creature's attention and it stopped sniffing around the glasses display cases and followed Anton through the portal.
"That went better than expected," Strange considered. Maybe some would consider it reckless to trust the giant, but Strange felt that he was a pure soul who really did want to protect his universe. He'd certainly do a better job than that old geezer running a half dozen con jobs on the side.
Now he just had to retrieve his bag...
Strange created a new portal to his room at Granny's and reached through, his fingers about to wrap about the strap of his bag - only to have his cape suddenly yank him all the way through and then out the window he'd left open (thankfully), dragging him unceremoniously into the top of the clock tower.
After picking himself up from a heap, Strange scowled at the interloper looking startled at his arrival.
"Loki," Strange growled.
Thor's adoptive brother smiled innocently. "Stephen! It's been too long!"
"Not long enough."
"Hey, I left your planet completely unharmed during that mess with Dad. I just needed a vacation from Sakaar, loads of fun as that place is. And I thought, there's this quaint little magical town on Earth-815..."
Crossing his arms, Strange demanded, "Did you steal Thor's hammer again? Are you hiding it here?"
"Of course not! Why would I ever-"
"Because you stole it once before and hid it in the Dark One's junk cabinet."
"Okay, fine!" Loki groaned and pulled up some floorboards revealing Mjolnir. "It was just a prank! He'd have found it in a century or two!"
"This universe was almost annihilated by its own screwed up magic," Strange told him. "It's fragile enough that it doesn't need you coming here, hiding powerful alien artifacts. How did you even pick it up?" he asked, then amended, "You know, never mind."
Walking over, Strange had the Cloak of Levitation pick up the hammer, leaving Loki scowling at him. He was still scowling as Strange created a portal under him that sent the trickster demigod back to Sakaar. Another portal to Asgard return the hammer to its usual resting place when Thor was doing whatever he did in his free time - drinking with the Avengers possibly.
Strange preferred to be a loner in his work, not really the team player sort. Which probably meant that Tony Stark would show up for some tech billionaire conference in New York City just as he got home to finally get some sleep and decide to drop by and pester him with that teenage arachnid kid who liked to spin webs on the Sanctum.
Sighing, the Sorcerer Supreme closed that portal and made his way down the stairs, out the Library front doors and passed the woman with a set of keys about to open the door, across the street to the Inn and up to his room where that portal remained open. He shut the window, picked up his bag, and stepped back into the Sanctum.
After closing that portal, Strange walked through the magical doorway to Kamar-Taj and let himself into the secret sanctuary, passing students in training, learning to use the very ring he'd gone to retrieve but hadn't.
Stepping into the Library at he found Wong at his desk listening to Beyonce.
"I found it," he stated putting the Eye of Agamotto back in its pedestal.
"Easy trip then?"
"I had tea with your uncle, Wong, so no," Strange told him with a scowl. "That man is a con-artist hoodwinking people with fake magical cures. I'll leave you to tell him that he's been relieved of his position and retrieve his ring that was all sticky for some reason. The other one was passed down in some family of giants. I left it with the last remaining one. He seems more competent than your uncle."
Wong winced. "Uncle always was a disgrace to the family. He was lucky to not get kicked out."
"Yes, well, now he is. And you can tell him. And no, I do not want to be involved in any reunion with his estranged daughter and ex-wife."
Wong sighed. "You're no fun."
"I'm no fun?" Strange croaked and shook his head. "You know what? I'm going home."
He formed another portal.
"To text that ex of yours for a bootycall?" asked Wong with a grin.
"No! To go to bed. Alone. Because I haven't slept in thirty-six hours and have severe portal lag."
"That's not a thing."
"It's a thing!" Strange insisted, stepping through.
Wong just shook his head as it closed. He almost felt bad for Strange. His uncle was a real nutter that The Ancient One had given that backwater post because he was really more of a threat to himself than anyone and Earth-815 had been pretty boring for the last... hundreds of years until that blonde lady broke that curse and people started casting curses and time-traveling and created pocket universes with wishes left and right without any care of the consequences and threat to their very existence.
He'd go tomorrow, Wong decided. After finishing these last manuscripts... and hopefully before that Titan showed up for the Eye intent on purging them all from existence. Or maybe Thanos would show up first and spare him the visit. Getting disintegrated out of existence versus tea with his uncle? It was kind of a toss up.
AN 1: If you hadn't guessed, the plot of this story comes from the fact that portals in Season 7 of OUAT are identical to those used by the Disney-acquired MCU and thus entirely different from their previous six seasons without any explanation given. Also, you probably figured out that The Dragon is Wong's uncle. I deliberately left all the main OUAT characters out of this story as I feel like Strange wouldn't want any of them to know about him but would trust Anton who's supposed to be two or three hundred years old and the giants seem to have been a lot like Strange's order whose stewardship of magic forced them into occlusion because of lies told about them by humans that they were monsters. It also seems entirely plausible that Anton's family or their ancestors could have come from elsewhere in the multiverse and also that if Asgard is a planet in the multiverse, then Olympus would also be one and that The Underworld, Elyssium, and Tartarus are pocket universes that Zeus created which somehow siphons energy off the Astral Plain to give souls the illusion of corporeal form and an afterlife while keeping them from truly moving on, which would have to be some kind of violation of Natural Law... that The Ancient One allowed to continue for some unknown reason related to a future she saw.
AN 2: If you read my prequel story "Re-Entering Storybrooke" it this story reveals that it was Strange who used the Eye of Agamotto to stop time when the Enchanted Forest was self-destructing and transported Future Henry and Alecto into Storybrooke's past, thus setting up the events of The Outstanding Balance of Morality. I might as well just make Strange my deus ex machina in that story for any odd magical and temporal occurrences that are left unexplained.