Strange checks the pulse of the Zealot on the floor. He stands back up and puts the cloak on. He walks upstairs and notices that Kaecilius is gone.
"Where did he go?" Rocket asked.
Mordo calls Strange's name and asks if he's okay.
"I'd say you look pretty okay for someone who almost died." Peggy said.
Strange says okay is a relative term but he is okay.
Mordo notes that the Cloak of Levitation came to Strange.
The Ancient One enters and says that it is no minor feat and it's a fickle thing.
"That cloak seems to have more personality than some people I know." Peter said.
Strange says he escaped.
The Ancient One asks if he means Kaecilius.
Strange confirms and says Kaecilius can fold space and matter at will.
The Ancient one asks if Kaecilius can fold matter in the real world outside of the mirror dimension.
"Is he not supposed to be able to do that?" May asked.
"He isn't." Strange answered.
The Ancient One asks how many zealots were there.
Strange says there were 2 and he stranded one in the desert.
The Ancient One asks about the other one.
"About that..."
Strange says the body is in the hall and master Drumm is in the foyer.
Mordo says Drumm has been taken to Kamar-Taj.
The Ancient One says that the London sanctum has fallen
"Shit." Everyone said.
The Ancient One says only New York and Hong Kong remain to shield them from the dark dimension and says Strange defended the sanctum from attack and it needs another master because its is gone, then calls Strange 'Master Strange.'
"You're going to protect the sanctum now?" Ned asked.
Strange says no.
"Wait what?"
Strange says his name is not Master Strange or Mister Strange, but Doctor Strange and says he swore an oath to do no harm when he became a doctor and he just killed a man and he's not doing that again and he became a doctor to save lives not take them.
"Doesn't always work out like you planned, does it?" Bruce asked. He felt he could relate to Strange in that respect. He became a scientist to help people and instead he turned himself into something that only hurt them.
"No it does not." Strange said, answering Bruce's question.
The Ancient One tells Strange that he became a doctor to save one life above all the others and that life is his own.
Strange asks if she's still seeing through him.
"She was terrifyingly good at reading people." Strange said.
The Ancient One says she's seeing what she always has which is Strange's over inflated ego and says he wants to go back to the delusion that he can control everything including death and says no one can control that not even him.
"People certainly try to." Gamora said.
Strange asks if Dormammu can't either and says he offers immortality.
The Ancient One says that it's their fear of death that gives Dormammu life.
"Because if you don't wish to die, you'll make a deal for eternal life." Valkyrie said.
The Ancient One says he feeds off it.
Strange asks if it's like how she feeds off him.
"Here we go."
Strange says she's talking to him about controlling death and says he knows how she does it and says he's seen the missing rituals in the book of Cagliostro.
"So that's how she's lived for so long?" Scott asked.
The Ancient One says to measure his next words carefully.
"Is that a threat?" Clint asked.
Strange asks if its because she might not like them.
The Ancient one says its because he might not know what he speaks.
"It sounds like he does." Howard said.
Mordo asks what Strange is talking about.
Strange says he's talking about the source of the Ancient One's immortality and says she draws power from the Dark Dimension to stay alive.
"My only question is 'why.'" Thor said.
Mordo says that it's not true.
Strange says he's seen the rituals and worked them out and he knows how she does it.
The Ancient One says the Zealots will return when they've regrouped and tells Strange he'll need reinforcements then she leaves.
"She's not even going to deny what you said?" Hope asked.
Strange tells Mordo that The Ancient One isn't who he thinks she is.
Mordo says he doesn't have the right to says that because he doesn't know the weight that rests on her shoulders.
Strange says he's right and he doesn't want to know.
"I do now." Strange sighed.
Mordo calls him a coward.
"Lot of accusations going around today." Tony said.
Strange asks if it's because he isn't a killer.
Mordo says the Zealots will snuff them all out and Strange can't muster the strength to snuff them first.
Strange asks what Mordo thinks he just did.
Mordo says he saved his own life and whined about it like a wounded dog.
"Wow, rude."
Strange asks if he would've done it so easily.
Mordo says Strange has no idea of the things he's done and he would do it without hesitation.
Everyone looked at the screed, warily. Now, they were unsure if Mordo was as trustworthy as he seemed.
Strange asks if he would still do it of there was another way.
Mordo says there is no other way.
"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Tony said.
Strange says Mordo lacks imagination.
Mordo tells Strange that he lacks a spine.
"Do I?" Strange asked.
Kaecilius and the Zealots return, Mordo and Strange run to the foyer.
"Great. They're back." Bucky said.
Mordo says they need to end it and fights the zealots then tells Strange to join him.
Strange sends all of them into the mirror dimension
"Ha ha. Clever." Wanda said.
"Actually it wasn't as good of an idea as it seemed." Strange said.
Strange tells Kaecilius he can't affect the real world there and asks him who's laughing now and calls Kaecilius an asshole.
Kaecilius says he is.
"What? How?" Happy asked.
Kaecilius starts warping the building. Mordo frees himself from the Zealots' hold. Strange runs for the door, Mordo follows. Strange says Kaecilius can't escape because he has the sling ring.
Mordo tells him to run and they run. The intersection gets warped and looks like it's floating.
"Whoa!"
Mordo tells him that the zealots' and Kaecilius' connection to the Dark Dimension has made them more powerful in the mirror dimension. He says they can't affect the real world but they can kill them and Strange's plan wasn't clever but it was suicide.
"Wish I thought that one through a little more." Strange said.
The zealots chase them. Strange tries to open a portal. Kaecilius uses magic to make the building fall over. Strange and Mordo fall on to a bus. A man(Stan Lee) Is reading.
"Again, there he is." Pepper said.
Strange and Mordo run up the side of a building, Strange tries to open a portal, the zealots chase them. Kaecilius makes the building start wobbling then splits it in two.
"Oh god."
Strange and Mordo fall. The city starts folding in on itself. Strange and Mordo fall on to another building. Strange says that this was a mistake.
"You think!?" Everyone shouted.
The building moves and they fall off and through the city.
"Oh no."
They land on a platform, Strange falls through and the zealots chase him, he falls into the street. Then he and Kaecilius run on opposite sides of the same platform, the run into each other. Kaecilius chokes him and takes back his sling ring.
"Damn."
Kaecilius conjures a magic shard and tries to stab Strange before the platform splits.
Everyone looked relieved at that.
The Ancient One appears and makes a circular platform in the air.
Everyone cheered.
The patterns in the platform move, Strange and Mordo get moved with them. Mordo realizes that the Ancient One does draw power from the Dark Dimension.
"Yes, but why?" Mantis asked.
The Ancient One looks to Kaecilius. Kaecilius says he came to her broken and in need. He says he trusted her to be his teacher and she fed him lies.
The Ancient One says she tried to protect him.
"Lying in the name of protecting is lying all the same." Loki said.
Kaecilius asks if she tried to protect him from the truth.
The Ancient One says she tried to protect him from himself.
Kaecilius says he has a new teacher now.
"Dormammu?"
The Ancient One says Dormammu deceives him and he has no idea what he truly is. She says his eternal life is torment not paradise.
Kaecilius calls her a liar.
"Not a liar." Strange said.
Kaecilius and the zealots conjure weapons. The Ancient One starts fighting them. Kaecilius makes the platform ripple, The Ancient One sends the ripple back in his direction.
"Nice."
The two zealots attack the Ancient One, one of them stabs her. Kaecilius makes a portal and kicks her through it.
"No." Everyone gasped.
Mordo and Strange jump in after her. The portal closed. The Ancient One falls onto the street. Strange and Mordo run up to her.
"Oh my god." May gasped.
Strange takes the Ancient One to the hospital and calls for Christine. Christine sighs.
"She sounds so done with you." Ned said.
"She usually does." Strange said. "She usually is." He added.
Christine sees what's happening and runs to Strange. Strange says the Ancient One has a stunned myocardium.
Christine asks if it's neurogenic.
Strange says it is. They get her into the operating room. Strange gets ready for surgery.
"You're gonna operate on her?" Everyone asked.
"Actually, I'm not." Strange said.
Strange picks up a scalpel and his hands shake, he passes it to Dr. West and says they need to relieve the pressure on The Ancient One's brain. The Ancient One flatlines.
"Oh no."
Christine says they're losing her.
Strange says they need to increase her oxygen.
Christine says she needs a crash cart.
A nurse says she has no reflexes and no brain activity.
"She's dying." Pepper said, sadly.
Strange's astral form emerges from his body, he follows the Ancient One's out of the room.
"What is she doing?" Peter asked.
Strange asks her what she's doing and says she's dying. They get outside. Strange tells her to return to her body because she has no time.
The Ancient One says time is relative.
"True."
The Ancient One says Strange's body hasn't hit the floor yet. She says she spent many years peering through time and looking at this moment but she can't see past it.
"She knew?" Everyone asked.
The Ancient One says she's prevented countless terrible futures and after every one there's always another.
"It never stops." Vision said.
The Ancient One says that all of them lead there but never further.
Strange realizes that she thinks this is where she dies.
"I'm pretty sure she knows this is where she dies." Maria said.
The Ancient One asks if he wonders what she sees in his future.
Strange says he doesn't, before backtracking and saying he does.
"How could I not?" Strange asked himself.
The Ancient One says she never saw his future only it's possibilities. She says he has such a capacity for goodness and he's always excelled because of his fear of failure not he craved success.
"Wow, she is good at reading people." Natasha said.
Strange says it's what made him a great doctor.
The Ancient One says it's what kept him from greatness. She says arrogance and fear still keep him from learning the simplest and most significant lesson.
Strange asks what it is.
The Ancient One says the lesson is it isn't about him.
"Rarely is it ever about one single person." T'Challa said.
The Ancient One says he asked how she healed Jonathan Pangborn when he first came to her and says she didn't. She says he channels dimensional energy into his own body.
"So he isn't healed, but he's using his magic to make it look like he is?" Wanda asked.
Strange asks if he's using magic to walk.
The Ancient One says he does it constantly.
"Sounds... tiring." Thor said.
The Ancient One says Jonathan had a choice and he could either return to his own life or serve something greater than himself.
"And he chose the former." Steve guessed.
Strange asks if he could have his hands and his old life back again.
The Ancient One says he could but the would would be all the lesser for it.
"She might be more blunt than Erskine." Clint said.
The Ancient One says she hated drawing power from the Dark Dimension, but as he knows sometimes they need to break the rules to serve the greater good.
Strange says Mordo won't see it that way.
"Of course not." Sam said.
The Ancient One says Mordo's soul is rigid and unmovable and forged by the fires of his youth. She says he needs Strange's flexibility just as he needs Mordo's strength and they can only stop Dormammu if they do it together.
Strange says he isn't ready.
"None are." Valkyrie said.
The Ancient One says no one ever is and says no one gets to choose their time and death is what gives life meaning.
"She's right." Sam said. "How can you ever fulfil your life if you have an infinite amount of it?"
The Ancient One says he'd think that she'd be ready after all that time but she's stretching one moment into a thousand just so she can watch the snow.
"Looks peaceful though." Natasha said.
The Ancient One's astral form disappears. She's dead.
Strange looked down sadly, tears brimming in his eyes. He was determined not to let them fall.
Strange washes his hands.
A few people looked irked that Strange didn't pull his sleeves up to wash his hands but kept it to themselves.
Christine walks in and looks at the Cloak of Levitation.
"I can only imagine how confused she is by all of this." Carol said.
She walks to the sink and washes her hands too. Strange grabs her hand. Christine asks if he's okay. Strange looks at her. Christine says she doesn't understand what's happening.
"Yeah, this is very confusing." Quill said.
Strange says he knows and says he needs to leave now and reminds her that she said losing his hands didn't have to be the end and it could be a beginning.
"And this is your new beginning." Pepper said.
Christine says there are other ways to save lives. Strange says it's a harder way. Christine says it's a weirder way.
"She's not wrong." Shuri said.
Christine gets called to the ER. Strange says he doesn't want her to go. Christine kisses his cheek then leaves.
"Aww." Everyone said.
The cloak wraps around Strange's shoulders, he straightens the collar. The cloak starts wiping Strange's tears. Strange tells it to stop and it does.
Everyone snickered.