Hello all! I hope that everyone has been staying safe and healthy. Just a quick note: parts of this chapter are inspired by/based on Jason Aaron and Chris Bacchalo's Doctor Strange comic series.

Chapter Six

Wong opened the door with a sigh, already knowing who waited on the other side. In the New York City summer heat, Temperance Ward stood on the stoop with raised eyebrows and a persuasive smile, holding up a box of donuts as an offering. Wong stepped to the side, opening the door further so that she could enter.

"Morning," Temp greeted, "what are you up to today?"

"Reorganizing the books in the library," Wong replied.

"Fun," Temp replied, "maybe I could help."

"It's not really a two-person job," Wong said.

"Kind of sounds like it could be," Temp pushed, raising an eyebrow at the dismissal, "Donut?"

Wong accepted the offer, grabbing a donut and taking a bite before walking off with nothing more than a nod of acknowledgement. Before she could follow him, Stephen appeared next to her through a portal.

"Morning," He greeted, his eyebrows raising as he noticed the box in her hands. She held it out to him, and he retrieved a donut from it.

"Why does he hate me?" Temp asked quietly, her eyes flicking in the direction Wong exited.

"He doesn't hate you," Stephen said, chewing, "He just has to warm up to you. We don't get a lot of social interaction here."

"You don't say," Temp replied.

Temperance had spent just about every day at the Sanctum for the past few weeks, juggling her work hours in favor of optimizing her time in the magic sanctuary. She'd been instructed (many times) not to touch anything without asking first, and there were several doors she still hadn't learned the secrets behind, but she was starting to get used to the place and think of it as a sort of second home. Everything inside seemed alive and full of wonder, and she was increasingly more curious about how Stephen spent his days as the Sorcerer Supreme.

Temperance placed the donut box on a table in the foyer and started toward the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Stephen asked her.

"I heard your library could use some work," She replied, turning to look up at him. He smiled.

"That's true," he said, "but I was just on my way out for a house call. I thought you might be interested in joining me."

"A house call?" Temp repeated, "You make house calls?"

Stephen was already transformed into his street clothes and out the door and she hurried behind him.

"How do people know to call you?" She continued, walking down the street alongside him.

Stephen shrugged, "word of mouth. You help a few people purge evil entities, and word gets around."

"I bet," Temp agreed, "so that's what this is? An evil entity?"

"I won't know until I take a look," he said, "kid won't wake up. The parents have noticed some other strange things, too. That's why they called me."

"What kind of strange things?"

"Talking in his sleep."

"Sounds like a sleep disorder to me."

"-in an unearthly language." Stephen finished, raising an eyebrow. Temperance stopped in her tracks, the hair on the back of her neck rising. Stephen stopped and turned to face her.

"Having second thoughts?"

"So, it's like...like a demon?" She asked.

"Not exactly," He explained, gesturing for her to keep walking with him. She did, pushing her doubts aside and listening intently, "what's a demon to us is just another creature in its own dimension. The problem occurs when their intersection with our own dimension causes damage."

"Like how the gods aren't really gods, per se" Temp said.

"Right," Stephen replied, "my job is to find out what's meddling in our dimension and send it away if needed. Sometimes unhelpful things seep in - like interdimensional bacteria."

"How do you know it's here?" Temp asked, "Is there a lot of it?"

"I can see it," Stephen said, clearing his throat to cover up a laugh when her eyes widened, "Have you heard the term 'third-eye?'"

"You have a third eye?" Temp asked warily, as if she was waiting for him to reveal that he was just teasing her.

"I do," He told her, "I see things normal humans don't. Magical things. It's like putting a new filter over the natural world."

"What does it look like?"

"It's hard to explain."

"Well, what about me?" Temp asked, grabbing his arm to get him to stop and face her.

"What?"

"What do you see when you look at me?"

"It's…" Stephen began, "there's nothing."

He cleared his throat and looked away, uncomfortable that he was being asked to look her over. Temperance interpreted the discomfort as a lie.

"I have something on me?" She asked, shifting uncomfortably. She suddenly felt very itchy, "What is it? What does it look like? Can you get it off?"

She spun in a circle as if trying to see something on her back. Stephen grabbed her shoulders to stop her, suppressing a laugh.

"No, there's nothing on you," He assured her, "nothing bad, anyway."

Temperance raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to press further, but he cut her off, "I've already purged all of that for you."

"I'm sorry, all of what?" Temperance balked. He had begun walking and she followed after him, apologizing when she bumped shoulders with another pedestrian.

"It's nothing to worry about," Stephen replied as they turned a corner, "Some of these interdimensional pests feed on magic, which you happen to have in spades, whether you're using it or not. I've cast some spells the last few weeks to get rid of the ones that were really leeching your energy."

"Good to know," Temperance said, though she was having trouble processing this newfound knowledge. She'd seen a lot of strange things over the years, but that's just it - she'd seen them. This was different. She looked up at Stephen earnestly as they stopped on a curb to wait for a walk signal, "and thank you. For getting rid of them."

"It's my job," He said, shrugging a shoulder, "and you're welcome."

"You sure you want to come in with me?" Stephen asked one more time as they stopped in front of the correct brownstone, "it could get scary."

"When I lived with the Avengers, Tony used to convince Vision to phase into my closet at night," Temperance replied.

"I'll take that as a yes."

Temperance shifted anxiously on her feet as Stephen knocked on the front door of the old brownstone. It opened almost instantaneously, revealing a far more anxious woman behind.

"Thank you, doctor," a man said, coming up behind the woman and wrapping a comforting arm around her, "thank you for coming. Please, come in."

"I'm happy to help," Stephen said, holding an arm out behind Temperance's back to usher her through the door before him. Temp would've preferred to continue hiding behind him until she got a feel for the situation, but stepped forward anyway, nodding a silent greeting to the distraught couple.

"This is my friend Temperance Ward," Stephen explained, closing the door behind him as he stepped into the foyer, "I hope that you don't mind my bringing her along to assist.

"Of course not," the man replied with a polite but solemn nod to Temperance, "We didn't know you were an Avenger, Doctor Strange."

"Oh, he's not," Temp said, blushing, "and I'm...I'm not."

It was a difficult reality to acknowledge out loud, especially in front of strangers. Stephen sensed her discomfort and redirected the conversation, "I believe you spoke to my associate, Wong, on the phone. He mentioned there was a problem with your son."

The woman's face crumpled into a barely-contained sob, and her husband rubbed her shoulder, pulling her closer into his side.

"Yes, he won't wake up," the man replied, "You can come take a look. He's upstairs."

Temp and Stephen followed the couple upstairs; Temp gave the woman a reassuring smile as they turned a landing on the stairs and immediately felt silly for it. She had never been as good at comforting crying people as she'd like. The bulk of her practice was with Tony, and something told her that dynamic was not transferable to just anybody. When they entered the child's bedroom, they were unsurprised to find him lying in the bed, unmoving.

"How long has he been like this?" Stephen asked, a small wrinkle appearing between his brows as he watched the boy in deep thought.

"About three days," the woman answered, gathering her wits enough to speak, "he fell asleep one day and didn't wake back up."

"Should he be in the hospital?" Temp asked, feeling stupid, like she was missing something that was obvious to everyone else.

"He was, but the doctors can't account for it," the father said, "because he's stable, and we can't afford to keep him in the hospital for more testing right now, they let us take him home. I, uh...I work in engineering, and I lost my job recently, and our insurance lapsed," he explained, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I'm sorry," said Temperance.

"We even had the priest here last night, but no one can tell us anything," added the mother.

"We'll see what we can do," Stephen said, ushering Temperance over to the child's bedside. Temp eyed her friend warily as she joined him, unsure what she could possibly do to help. He lifted his hands and made a motion that was altogether foreign to Temperance -they all looked the same to her. The symbol that flickered in the air between his hands, however, was familiar. She ignored the gasps of the parents behind her and stepped closer, studying the symbol.

"Recognize it?" Stephen asked after a moment, pulling her from her thoughts. She cleared her throat when she realized that he had been watching her, waiting.

"It's the diagnostic," she replied, "the truth revealed in brands and...seals?"

"Brands, marks, and seals," he corrected her patiently.

"Right. The truth revealed in brands, marks, and seals."

The corners of Stephen's mouth upturned at her tone, but he moved on, aware that the parents of this child would rather see progress than witness a teaching moment. He activated the spell, watching as glowing symbols appeared on the boy's pale complexion.

"Why are they on his skin?" Temp asked, leaning over the boy for a closer look.

"Because his body's been invaded," Stephen replied, studying the symbols with a furrowed brow. A sob escaped from behind them, and Temperance sent Stephen a worried look, wondering if perhaps the parents should wait in the hall.

"Invaded by what?" she asked Stephen in a low whisper.

"Why don't we find out?" Stephen replied, holding out both his hands. Temperance looked down at his upturned palms, hesitating. She tried to think whether he'd given her anything to carry which he could now be requesting. She was mortified at the thought of taking his hands when he was asking for something different.

"Do you trust me?" He asked, glancing down at his hands and back up at her to signal that she should take them.

"Yes," Temperance replied easily and a little defensively. With a blush, she added, "I just didn't want to get my...interdimensional bacteria all over you."

Stephen tried to stifle a smile at that, and Temperance took his hands without further delay. She recognized the slight tremor in his hands and squeezed them a bit harder to reassure him that she was ready, though she didn't really know what it meant to be ready in this case.

"Close your eyes," he instructed her. Temperance obeyed, and it was barely a moment before she got the dizzying feeling of the floor dropping from underneath her feet. She gripped his hands tighter to steady herself and opened one eye to see that she and Stephen were both levitating about 6 inches from the floor.

"Eyes closed." Stephen reminded her without even opening his own eyes. Temperance stopped peeking with a murmured apology, but his scolding was quickly forgotten when the sounds around them abruptly changed, and a breeze slipped through her hair, blowing it across her face, "you can open them now."

When Temperance opened her eyes, her breath caught in her throat. Her head whipped around to take in her surroundings - though most of the space around them was populated with familiar things - trees, storm clouds, grassy hills, etc., something about it didn't look right. It was as if a filter of a dark Van Gogh painting had been placed on the world, with swirling hues of deep violets, navies, blacks, and greens everywhere.

"Where…?" she asked, unable to formulate the question.

"Our bodies are right where we left them, in the bedroom," Stephen answered. Temp glanced down at her body to find that she looked and felt pretty much the same, "but we are not in them. We're in the boy's soulscape."

"You took me out of my body?" Temp asked, glancing around the landscape warily. Charging into a fight was easy with a strong and agile body. Without it, she felt vulnerable.

"Is that alright?" Stephen asked with an earnest look.

"Yes," Temp replied, her eyes still making sense of the gorgeous and foreboding sky above them.

"Alright, well…" Stephen said, quickly shifting back to business, "you can let go now, if you want."

"Oh," Temperance said, looking down at their clasped hands and releasing him. His hands were white from the vice-like grip she'd had on them, and she immediately grew frustrated by the heat that rose into her neck. Of course she had clung - anyone would. She'd been pulled out of her body.

"So, this is what a soulscape looks like? It's...bleak," she observed as Stephen began to walk, and she followed him.

"Don't worry - yours isn't like this," he replied distractedly, performing a spell with his hands as he walked and looking at the fleeting symbols that appeared before him.

"How do you know?" Temperance asked. Had he seen it?

"Because this isn't what it's supposed to look like," said Stephen.

"So what's wrong with it?" asked Temp, aware that she had dragged Stephen into a game of twenty questions at what was probably an inconvenient time. Wordlessly, he gestured for her to follow him. They made their way through the field, climbing a grassy hill. Temperance watched the tall grass sway in the wind, noticing that, although its movement was accurate, the wind that forced it to dance didn't feel quite right. Furthermore, she couldn't feel the brush of the blades against her calves as she walked. She wondered why some sensations felt real in this dimension while others didn't, contemplating their surroundings until she collided with Stephen's back. He had stopped abruptly at the crest of the hill, and she moved beside him to follow his gaze.

Overhead, the swirling Van Gogh sky had darkened into an inky wheel of violet and black wisps, circling and flashing like a tornado laced with lightning. In the field at the foot of the hill, dark creatures of the same inky-looking consistency wandered aimlessly. They walked on two legs like humans, but their arms were far too long, and they had no faces except for holes where their eyes should be.

"Stephen?" Temp murmured, refusing to take her eyes off the creatures and unable to formulate a question.

"It's alright," he assured her, though his brow held that characteristic furrow she was beginning to notice every time he was perplexed or bothered, "they're from another dimension, like I told you earlier."

"The bacteria?"

"Exactly. Except these are more like leeches. They're feeding on the boy's psychic energy."

"Okay," said Temp, swallowing, "and how do we make them stop?"

"I need to round them up and send them back through that portal," Stephen explained, gesturing to the dark eye in the sky. The hair on the back of Temp's neck rose when she noticed a change down below.

"Why are they turning this way?" She asked, her posture stiffening at the unsettling feeling that washed over her under the watch of their hollow eyes.

"Because they know we're here," Stephen said, his tone taking on a greater sense of urgency, "and we look tasty. I'll take care of them - you grab the kid. He's hiding over by that tree."

Temp's eyes followed the path of his gesturing. There was a lone, dead tree standing to the left of the small valley where the creatures congregated, "I don't see him," Temperance said, her voice rasping. Stephen, however, had already used the cloak of levitation to zip down into the cleft at the bottom of the hill and confront the monsters.

"Damn it," said Temperance, taking off in a sprint toward the tree. Somewhere behind her, Stephen had begun to hurl magic left and right, releasing flashes and wisps of gold into the dark atmosphere. The ground suddenly oscillated like a wave under her feet and she fell forward like a rug had been pulled from beneath her. She rolled back to her feet, trying to resist the urge to look back, but she could see moving shadows in her peripheral vision, too close for comfort. She willed herself to push forward, trusting that Stephen would take care of the creatures around her. After what felt like an hour, she reached the tree and skidded to a stop. She circled it, frantic, before looking up into its barren branches.

"Kid?" She called, wincing when she realized she didn't know his name, "If you can hear me, you need to come out. I'm here to help you."

When there was no response, she turned to look at the magical melee behind her and saw that Stephen had, as promised, drawn the creatures in his direction. She scanned the valley, looking for any sign of the child.

"You're Siren," a small voice said from behind her. Temperance whirled around to see the boy, pale and shaking, standing near the trunk of the tree. They were in his soulscape - he must have found some way to camouflage himself from notice. Stephen had sensed him, not seen him.

"Yes!" She said, kneeling in front of the boy to look into his eyes. She was so relieved to find him, she didn't even care that he'd used her media moniker, "I'm Siren. I came to get you. What's your name?"

"Jacob," the boy replied, his chest shuddering as he tried not to cry.

"It's nice to meet you, Jacob. We're gonna get you out of here, okay?" She said. The boy's eyes had shifted to look over her shoulder, and he stilled.

"They're coming," he whimpered, "I have to hide."

Temperance glanced over her shoulder to see that some of the creatures had broken off from the group and headed in their direction when the boy revealed himself. She grabbed him gently by the shoulders and turned both of them around so that he was the one with his back toward the monsters. He tried to turn and look at them again, but she placed a hand on his cheek, forcing him to face forward.

"Don't look over there," she said firmly, "Look at me. You don't have to hide anymore, okay?"

"They're going to eat me," Jacob cried, "please."

"They're not going to eat you," Temperance told him, "I won't let them."

Temperance was hyper aware of the fact that she had no idea how to keep this promise, but her determination pushed that niggling doubt to the back of her mind, and for the first time in a long while, she felt like an Avenger again.

Behind Jacob, the creatures drew nearer, their long arms swinging with each step. Temperance forced herself to stop looking at them, too, opting for eye contact with the trembling boy instead, "Do you like the Avengers?" she asked. He nodded.

"But I like Spider-Man better," he answered. Temperance exhaled a laugh.

"Me too, Jacob," she replied. She spared a glance over the boy's shoulder and her chest tightened - those things were getting far too close, and Stephen looked preoccupied. She briefly wondered if perhaps she should let Jacob disappear again, but she didn't want to lose track of him, and Stephen had tasked her with keeping him. She sorely wished that she knew more about how all of this worked.

"Have you heard of Doctor Strange?" asked Temperance. The boy's brow furrowed as he thought about it.

"No," he said, "who's he?"

"He's the one who brought me here. He came to save you," she said, before adding, "with his magic!"

Jacob couldn't resist turning at that, and Temperance allowed it, noticing that he'd become more curious and less terrified. The creatures that were approaching them halted, their feet dragging backward in the grass. They fell forward and extended their long arms, clawing the soil as they were drawn back toward the portal. The image was disturbing, and Temperance considered turning Jacob away again, but she found that the boy only had eyes for Stephen, who was surrounded by a number of gold magic circles that he commanded with a fierce look of determination. In less than a minute, the creatures had disappeared into the inky eye of the storm, and the landscape went quiet. Stephen appeared in front of them and Jacob immediately embraced him with thank yous and praise. Stephen placed a reassuring hand on the back of the boy's head.

"They're all gone?" Temp asked, glancing around warily.

"All gone," Stephen replied, before directing his attention to Jacob, "and they won't be coming back. I promise."

Temp stood and brushed off her pants, forgetting that the soil she'd knelt in wasn't real, "Now what?"

In the next moment, Temperance was back in the boy's bedroom, her feet meeting the hardwood floor abruptly. Stephen's hands traveled up her forearms to her elbows to help steady her. Before she could thank him, her attention was drawn to Jacob, who bolted upright in bed, gasping.

"Jake!" His mother cried as his parents rushed forward to the edge of his bed. They held his face and kissed him, asking if he was alright, apologizing for what happened - apologizing for something they didn't even understand; couldn't have possibly prevented.

"Are you alright?" Stephen murmured next to her.

"Yeah. A little dizzy," Temperance admitted with a nod.

"The markings on your son's flesh are a sign of the invasion," Stephen said, drawing the attention of Jacob's parents, "They will fade soon enough. And his soul will heal itself quickly and should bear no permanent scars. He'll be fine."

"Thank you," The mother said, turning back to face them with tear-streaked cheeks, "How can we ever thank you enough for this? How should we pay you?"

"Your neighbor is despondent," Stephen replied, "I can feel the heat waves of his aura reverberating through the walls. He has a birthday coming up, and he dreads the thought of spending it alone. Bake him a cake and buy him a goldfish and consider your debt repaid."

"Of course," the woman replied, nodding gratefully.

"If you'll excuse us, we need to be moving on," Stephen continued, ushering Temperance toward the bedroom door.

"Wait," Jacob cried, climbing from the bed and running to embrace them both, "thank you, Doctor Strange and Siren."

"Of course," Temperance replied with a smile, "you stay out of trouble, alright?"

When they stepped outside into the warm Manhattan air and descended the front steps, Temperance could hardly wait another moment longer before looking up at her companion, "that was amazing."

"A simple banishment spell, although they were particularly slippery," Stephen replied, brushing off the compliment.

"No, I mean the neighbor thing," said Temp, rushing to keep in step with him, "you could really feel his aura?"

"Yes."

"Can you feel mine? What does it feel like?"

"You have a lot of questions about yourself for someone who doesn't want to learn more about her true identity."

Temp's expression soured and her eyebrow quirked, "anyway, it was a very kind thing to do."

They walked in silence for a bit, before he shot her a sideways glance, "go ahead."

"What?"

"You have more questions. Ask them."

"I don't have any more questions."

"You do," said Stephen, stopping and turning to face her, "I know you do, because I recognize that look. I had that look, the first time I traveled to another dimension. You're curious. Thirsty. You want to know how all of it works. You don't have to suppress that feeling."

Temp avoided his eyes, "Thanks, but I don't need to know how it works. It works, and it helps people. That's all that matters."

"I suppose so," Stephen conceded, though he wanted to push the topic further. The risk of pushing her away was too high, though, so he let the issue lie.

Temperance pulled her phone from her pocket and chose the number in her most recent calls.

"What are you doing?" Stephen asked, slowing his pace to match hers. She held up a finger with an apologetic look.

"Hey, Tony," she said after the phone went to voicemail, "I found some talent I want to recruit for the engineering department. Give me a call when you get this so we can make it happen."

The corners of Stephen's mouth turned up as he eavesdropped, but she didn't notice, already intent on dialing the next number.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end answered, out of breath.

"Hey, Pete," she said, "I need a favor. Can you meet me in Chelsea?"

"Sure," Peter replied, "I could be there in maybe twenty minutes."

"Great. I'll text you the address. And bring the suit."

"What are we doing now?" Stephen asked, noticing that she had stopped again to wait near a corner.

"Arranging a visit from Jacob's favorite hero," Temp replied absent-mindedly, texting on her phone. Before he could ask any more questions, she continued, "so if you don't charge for these house calls, how do you and Wong pay for anything?"

"We get by," was all Stephen said with a shrug.

"If you say so," Temperance said, "you can go ahead and head back to the Sanctum. I'll probably be a while."

"Are you dismissing me from my own house call?" Stephen asked with the hint of a smirk on his lips.

"Yep, good work," Temp said with flippant ease, though her expression was teasing, "You're no longer needed here."

"And can we expect you back at the Sanctum at some point?" Stephen asked, playing along.

"We'll see. I'll let you know."

Stephen created a portal and began to step through, but she grabbed his arm.

"Thank you. For bringing me along," She said seriously. He nodded, and she released his arm, watching him disappear into the portal.

Temperance exhaled deeply, tapping her phone against her hand. She tried to quell the rising sense of purpose in her chest, but she couldn't ignore the way it energized her.