This one's for RedHatMeg. Sorry it took so long, hope you enjoy!

When Stephen Strange woke up that morning, he was hit with a sense that something was very, very wrong. And also unusually chilly.

Sitting up, he rubbed at his eyes and looked around his bedroom. Everything seemed to be in order. The curtains were closed, and early morning sunlight fought to make itself seen through the heavy fabric. Books he'd been in the middle of were scattered on pretty much any flat surface, along with a couple long empty cups that had once held tea. Everything was as it should be.

He ran a hand absentmindedly down his bed covers, expecting the Cloak to stir beneath his touch like it did each morning. When the fabric stayed still and unremarkable, he glanced down.

Below his hand was nothing but the thin comforter that adorned his bed. The Cloak didn't like blankets- it tended to have a jealous streak, he'd learned. Its absence was a very rare, essentially unheard of occurrence. Although it did explain why he was so cold.

Climbing out of bed, Stephen dressed slowly, waiting for his relic to make an appearance. It usually greeted him in the mornings, at least. But when he still hadn't seen it by the time he'd finished his breakfast, and the uneasy feeling had only grown instead of abating, he began to worry that there was something seriously wrong.

…

The Cloak of Levitation was many things. Fiercely protective was one of them. So one night, when it had heard the tell tale signs of someone who is trying to discreetly sneak around and is failing at it miserably, it floated off its sorcerer's bed and went to investigate.

There were two dark figures huddled in the hallway outside Stephen's room. They were armed with a few magical weapons, and looked very surprised when the door opened. And since they were very clearly up to no good, the Cloak made the executive decision to attack first and ask questions later.

It wrapped itself around the head of one of its opponents, and did its very best to bang the man's head against the wall, effectively knocking him out within ten seconds. It turned to deal with the other, only to find him gone.

Must've fled.

Feeling very self satisfied, the Cloak drifted back into its sorcerer's bedroom, only to see the second manning jabbing a dart of some sort into the exposed throat of one Stephen Strange.

Its Stephen Strange.

The Cloak rocketed forward, but this man apparently had better reflexes than the other, because he dropped to the floor, leaving the Cloak to slam into the wall above Stephen's bed. It made a rather loud sound when it collided with a ornate metalwork of some kind.

The sorcerer in the bed didn't even stir. Whatever was in that dart was likely a very powerful sedative, then. So, no help from him.

Gearing up to attack again, the Cloak launched itself at the attacker again. The man held a spherical object in front of him, like that would be an effective defense.

Apparently it was. The Cloak felt itself being pulled, stretched, tugged, compressed into an annoyingly small space. To make matters worse, no matter how it pushed at the edges of whatever was keeping it confined, it couldn't even budge the walls.

Hopeless. That was what the Cloak was feeling. This was a rather new emotion for it, and it decided that it wasn't very fond of it.

…

The man sighed as he pocketed the orb that he'd trapped the Cloak of Levitation in. Quite a powerful relic, that one, but his was better. Casting a disdainful glance at his companion in the hall, who was still unconscious after the Cloak's attack, he turned to survey the sorcerer on the bed.

Strange would be out for a good long while. The sedative was a very powerful one, and it was currently coursing through his veins.

Of course, the object of his mission had been to capture Strange. He knew not why, the orders had come from high up on the chain of command, far too high for him to question. But now, he supposed he'd have to leave Strange behind in favor of his idiot colleague. Couldn't have any loose ends for the sorcerers at Kamar Taj, who'd inevitably look for their missing friend, to unravel.

Leaving Strange where he slept, he left the room, grabbing his colleague by the ankle and dragging him along. As he neared the doors, an idea came to him. One that would tie up all loose ends, so to speak.

He penned a note to Strange. Satisfied, he left it lying on the bottom step where it would surely be seen. And then he walked through a portal and vanished.

Hello, my dear Doctor.

I think I may have something of great value to you. If you'd like it returned to you in one piece and not a pile of threads, I suggest you come to this address the moment you see this. Don't bring anyone with you. Sounds cliche, doesn't it? But if you value your Cloak and your life, you'll listen to me.

…

By now, Stephen was more than just a little worried. He was well on his way to full blown panic. He considered contacting Wong, and was just hurrying down the stairs to search the ground floor of the Sanctum when his foot landed on something that crackled a bit.

A piece of paper. A note. As he read it, his eyebrows rose higher and his worry grew, and quickly morphed into anger. Whoever this person was, they sure had a lot of nerve. He created a portal to the address on the paper, and stepped through.

The first thing that occurred to him was that the room was very dark. As his portal closed behind him, the last vestiges of light were gone. He created a shield in both hands, for protection of course, but also for the faint light they'd provide.

The dim orange glow had a greater effect than he'd expected. Shards of light bounced back at him from all corners of the space in front of him. Stephen blinked, and in front of him, the dark shapes of what must have been a good twenty men, all armed with swords like shards of mirrors, stood silently before him.

Before he could even create a weapon of his own, there was a sharp pain in his neck. The world started to ripple around him, as if a stone had been tossed into still water. Stephen felt his knees give out and then he knew no more.

He came to an indeterminable amount of time later. It was indeterminable because the last thing he remembered was a dark room, and when he woke, he was still in a dark room. There was no way to tell how much time had passed. And something was restraining his arms and legs.

His arms had been wrenched behind his back, and his legs were anchored maybe a foot apart to the floor. At least, he thought it was the floor. It felt like he was standing.

All at once, the lights came on. The sudden unexpected glare caused him to wince, and he had to blink several times before he could see his surroundings.

The room wasn't much better in full light. The walls were a deep shade of blue, plain and uniform. The floor was pale white marble. Everything in the room was deep and undisturbed, one blank solid canvas.

Somewhere behind him came the sound of a door opening. Stephen twisted his head as much as he was able, and caught sight of someone moving, coming closer to him.

A man. He was dressed in dark gray robes, and as he came to stand in front of Stephen, he smiled a rather wicked smile.

"Good evening, my dear Doctor." He purred. "I don't suppose you'd remember me. You were very deeply asleep when we met. Now, don't bother to ask why you're here- I wouldn't tell you even if I knew. Alas, my superiors don't tell much, including why I was to capture you in the first place. But you made it easy for me, didn't you?"

Stephen just glared at the man. "What do you want from me?" Where is my Cloak?

The man laughed. "Oh, my dear, that's quite simple. Even I know that. We want you." And with a pat on Stephen's cheek, he left the room, humming merrily.

Stephen pulled at the...whatever they were restraining him with. It was like the magical bonds he'd used before, but this was like no magic he'd ever seen. These were black, giving off a strange sort of glow. As he pulled to get his arms loose, they snaked up around his shoulders until they were wrapped around his chest too. Damn. Just his luck to be captured by a cult.

Unfortunately the gray robed man was back within what must have been… maybe ten minutes? He sauntered in again with cocky smirk plastered all over his face.

"I've got a proposition for you, my dear." He crooned. Stephen rolled his eyes. This man was really grating on his last nerve.

"Alright. First off, I'm not your 'dear'. Second, who are you people? Some backwoods group that's taken things a bit too far?"

Ha. That one hit something. The man scowled at him. "Shut your mouth, dear." He waved his hand and one of the strange black things slithered up his throat and over his mouth.

"Well, I was going to offer you a chance, but I think we'll wait a bit more, hmm? Let you cool off a bit. See you soon."

Not two minutes after the man had left, the door opened again. Stephen sagged against his bonds, prepared to deal with more of the whatever that man was. Instead, he was greeted by a young girl, who looked to be maybe sixteen or seventeen. She was dressed in the same gray robes, and looked furtive.

"Stay very still, okay?" She screwed up her face like she was concentrating intently, and clapped once.

The odd magic ropes slithered off him, and lay limply on the floor. The girl grinned, and hurried to the door. "Come on! You want out of here or not, Doctor?"

He would very much like to get out of here, but there was one thing. "My Cloak. I need my Cloak. Do you know where it is?"

"Seriously? Guess they finally got one thing right- how important that Cloak is to you. Yeah, I know where it is. I can take you to get it, if you'll let me leave with you. I won't be able to stay if they find out I let our two most valued hostages go."

Stephen and the girl shook on it.

The hall of this place were silent, and empty. Just like the room he'd previously been in. There was no sign of life anywhere, and nothing to distinguish one hall from another. The girl seemed to know her way around, and she guided Stephen through the maze like it was nothing.

Eventually, they came to a very stereotypical vault door, complete with an absurdly large combination lock. The girl (Stephen had taken to referring to her as that in his head) performed another sort of motionless spell. With a sound like wind chimes, the door cracked open.

Inside, there were tables with various sorts of objects on top of them. One held an intricate collar, another a hand held mirror. The girl darted inside and snatched up an orb. She pressed it into Stephen's hands.

"Just say quid dabis mihi sublatus when you're safe. Your Cloak should be unharmed. And the ward you put on the left hand corner of the building has been broken, so I'd fix that. Now come on, we have less than five minutes before they realize you're gone and you can't portal out of here."

Sure enough, a high pitched ringing started to echo throughout the building. The girl swore under her breath and started to run, forcing Stephen to follow or risk losing her and his only way out of here.

They were nearing the end of a hall containing nothing but a pair of black double doors when a group of mirror-sword armed men came charging around the corner. The girl slammed into the doors, frantically tracing her hands over the faint designs wrought into them. They flew open and she charged in.

"Make the portal make the portal!" She screamed. Stephen did as told, and they both leapt through the circle of orange sparks. It closed behind them just in time to cut the tip off of one of the mirror swords. He sighed and restored the broken ward with a wave of his hand.

"Okay. I helped. Now please, send me to Kamar Taj." The girl said in between breaths. "I promise I'm not going to destroy anything, but I need to learn some magic besides the spells for opening those doors."

After a brief conversation with Wong, the girl was welcomed as a student to Kamar Taj. And Stephen retrieved the orb from the pocket of his robes. Turning it over in his hands, he spoke the words.

With a hiss of air, the Cloak flew out of the orb, and wrapped around him. This would be fine if it wasn't covering his face. Stephen overbalanced and ended up on his back on the floor, with the Cloak lying on top of him.

"Yeah, I'm really glad you're back too." he whispered, petting the fabric. The Cloak curled a corner around his wrist, making it clear they weren't going to be parted any time soon.

Hope you enjoyed that. Sorry it's so late, and I know it varied a bit from the prompt. Still, I hope you liked it regardless!