"Sorry Alex, but it's really important that I borrow that for just a moment."
In my dreamy haze, Doctor Strange's voice echoed around me and I found that I was once more floating in the dark space where I had previously met with the sorcerer. He was staring at me patiently as I regained my composure, blinking several times until he finally came into full focus.
"...I'm sorry?" I said slowly, noticing his expecting glance. He nodded down at my chest and I could see that the bronze pendant around my neck was glowing that warm green color and humming with power.
"The Stone." He said when I continued to hesitate.
"Oh…" I placed my hand over the Eye and held it there for a moment, looking up at the sorcerer warily. "Um…can I have proof first that you are who you appear to be? I don't want to be rude but at the moment I don't really know what to believe or what's real right now…"
Doctor Strange smirked down at me challengingly and then crossed his arms across his chest thoughtfully. I continued to watch him, sensing that he had been in a genuine hurry but that he was also satisfied that I had thought to be so careful with the Stone. A moment passed and then he moved his hands into the Eye shape in front of his own pendant. I followed his motions, moving at the same slow and practiced pace that he did, and both of our Eyes opened with identical clicks. Strange and I both studied each other and I finally made the move first, reaching for the Stone that was burning wildly in the bronze pendant against my chest.
"Careful," Strange said and I stopped my fingers about an inch from the scorching Stone. I glanced up at him worriedly, fearing that I was doing something wrong and moved my hand away as the man floated forward. He made a sort of swirling hand motion before he removed the glowing Stone from my Eye and replaced it back in his.
"Now what?" I asked awkwardly, watching as he closed the Eye around his neck with a familiar motion.
"I won't need to borrow it for long. I just need to check a few things. You can wait here if you'd like." He said casually. He nodded at me smartly, but I knew behind that intelligent façade of his, that he was hiding something. I looked around casually at the weird dark and floaty space we were in and when I blinked next, he was gone.
I looked around in confusion and then my mind instantly went into panic mode. What if giving him the Time Stone had been a bad idea and I had just made a huge mistake in turning it back over to him? I floated in silence for another few seconds and then I was jerked back to my senses as other voices echoed around me.
"Strange! Hey, are you alright?!"
I looked around hurriedly in the direction of the panicked voice and then a millisecond later, my chest was burning hot with a flash of green and then I went sprawling onto my back, the darkness consuming me.
"Oh my God, I'm sorry – I shouldn't have told you to look at the Orb, I had no idea it would –"
I stared wide eyed up at the ceiling of the Sanctum Sanctorum, my mind trying to comprehend what had just happened. My hand went instinctively to the burning Eye over my chest and I yanked it off of the fabric of my robes before the thing could burn a hole through them. Dan grasped my other arm in an attempt to help me back to my feet, still uttering apologies which I ignored.
"What just happened?" I finally stammered, relenting to let Dan pull me to my feet. He blinked at me worriedly for a second and then pointed at the necklace which I still held by the chain away from my chest.
"You looked at the Orb and then the Stone started to glow. You went down, what do you mean 'what happened'?"
"How long was I out?" I asked, looking quickly away as my gaze flickered to the glowing Orb in the case before us.
"Out? Alex, you didn't lose consciousness…at least not in the five seconds since you looked at that thing…" Dan said confusedly, nodding at the glass cabinet. I looked down at the Eye hanging by the chain in front of me and noticed that the bright green glow had dimmed slightly. I hesitantly lowered the pendant back down to my chest, feeling that the worst of the burn had ceased.
"But…Strange was just here…" I said slowly, scrunching up my face thoughtfully. I pointed to my head, and then tapped the Time Stone timidly. "He borrowed this thing and everything…"
"He borrowed it?" Dan repeated. I nodded and then turned around to look down either direction of the darkened hallway.
"And then…I think I heard Tony Stark…"
"So they're still okay? Nothing's changed yet?" He asked, sounding only a little relieved. I shrugged unknowingly and then played back my hurried encounter with the sorcerer.
"He looked worried…just a little, but I saw it."
"Well yeah, I think everyone is worried." Dan said a little sarcastically. Then his smug look softened. "You don't think he's getting edgy because something is about to happen on his end, do you?"
I wouldn't meet his gaze for a long silent moment and when I did, realization had masked his face. We both looked down into the case at the still-glowing Orb at the same second.
"Maybe Thanos is there…or at least on his way." I said lowly, blinking against the swimming glow of the all-seeing Orb.
"I told you it would happen today…" Dan said quietly as we continued to stare down into the silent cabinet, dread hanging over us.
There was no point in trying to get anymore sleep…it just wasn't an option once Dan and I had realized how grave the situation had gotten so quickly. So we both headed for the rec room where Wong had been training us over the course of the past few days to try and prepare ourselves for the threat on its way. Using some of the knowledge I had read in the book of dimensions, I was somehow able to open up the Mirror Dimension just as Wong had done several times. As soon as Dan and I had entered through the prism-like gateway we each conjured up glowing, magical weapons to battle against each other.
"We're aiming to disarm…" I reminded him slowly, watching in surprise as Dan was able to form some sort of glowing crossbow in his waiting hands. When I had conjured up a dark staff much like the fire-sucker one from the tunnels, Dan nodded once abruptly in agreement. We both took a few strides away from one another, each eyeing our own weapons warily as we decided how to use them.
"I don't think it's very fair to put them against themselves. They might go soft on each other."
I whirled around in confusion at an unfamiliar male voice to the right of us, and pulled my weapon closer to myself defensively. I noticed that Wong stood near the entrance to the Mirror Dimension along with two other robed figures, a man and a woman. The woman could have been in her mid-twenties with blonde hair in a tight knot on the back of her head and the man looked to be a few years older than her with shaggy black hair and olive colored skin. They both wore smug looks as they flanked Wong on either side.
"I thought I ordered you two boys to try and get some rest last night. I had planned for you to be at your best when our guests from Kamar-Taj arrived to test you." Wong said quietly, an amused smirk tugging at his usually tight mouth. I looked curiously at the two people standing beside Wong, noticing that they had a stance that looked strictly coordinated. Though they wore relaxed expressions, their hands were placed stoically by their sides, their muscles tight as if expecting anything to attack them at any moment. Their feet were turned outward like a dancer's might be, in a way that would make it easy to turn in any direction in a split second.
"Guests?" I finally repeated awkwardly when no one added anything after a moment. The blonde haired girl smirked at me in amusement and glanced to her side at the man standing on the other side of Wong.
"Alex, you will be paired with Casey. Dan, you are to train with Grayson." Wong instructed nonchalantly. The blonde haired woman moved stoically past Wong and stopped in front of me, sizing me up with her eyes. From the corner of my eye, I could see that the man, Grayson, walked over to stand by Dan's side. My awkwardly surprised expression must have been evident on my face and Casey must have known how I felt under her gaze because she kept her intense stare fixed on me purposely.
"Hi…" I finally stammered hesitantly as I heard Dan murmuring a greeting to Grayson across the room. Casey's observant gaze shifted to an amused one, but her battle-ready stance didn't slacken as she offered me her hand to shake.
"Hello yourself, Stone Wielder." She said lightly, her eyes only briefly flicking to the pendant around my neck. I felt myself blush deeply as she spoke, kicking myself internally as I realized that she clearly noticed.
"Alright, your assignments are as follows…you each have one minute to disarm your acting opponent." Wong said. I blinked in confusion as my own conjured staff vanished from my hand to be replaced with what looked like a wooden stick like somebody would use for stick ball. I frowned down at it for a moment before I heard Wong's sharp voice call out, "Go!"
Instantly, I felt Casey's elbow jut into my chest, knocking me backwards and nearly off of my feet. I clutched my stickball stick tightly and lurched forward to clash it against her own stick warningly. She made an amused huff and spun around to whack me in my lower back with her stick.
"Are you sure he's up for this, Wong? He looks like he's gonna let that injured arm get the better of him." She called more to tease me than out of concern. As I moved to block her before she could strike me again, she kicked me in the side of the knee painfully. I uttered a surprised cry and then moved like I was going return the kick but she was already spinning lithely around me out of reach.
"Thirty seconds…" Wong called out from his post by the wall. I whirled around to follow Casey's quick and practiced movements, hearing from the other side of the room that Dan and Grayson's battle was well underway. Flashes of golden sparks lit up in the corner of my vision but I refused to look away from Casey's perfected motions, knowing that the instant my attention went elsewhere I would lose the practice battle.
"Think fast, Hot Shot!" Casey said as I heard her stick whooshing through the air behind my head. I yanked my stick up to block her and then used all of the strength in my arm to force her stick downward. I could tell I'd caught her by surprise and I quickly took advantage of it by summoning up a golden shield with my other hand to butt against her next attack.
"Twenty…" Wong's voice warned us. Still facing Casey head-on, I held my glowing shield in front of me to block yet another blow that she attempted to land on me. She stood motionless for a millisecond more and through my mandala I noticed that she was waving her fingers oddly along her stick. Squinting, I could see that her weapon was shimmering with what looked like magically conjured electricity and my eyes widened as I let my shield down to retreat from the sizzling stick in her grasp.
"No fair!" I protested as I swung my plain old stick around to block hers. She grinned smugly down at me as I leaned away from the searing heat coming off of her weapon. I noticed the scent of burning wood and saw that my poor stick was smoking where hers was bearing against it. Thinking quickly, I dove downward and rolled out of the way as she slammed her electrically-charged stick down where I had been less than a second before. I leapt up from my knees and threw my weapon against the woman's shins which caused her to let out an annoyed growl.
"Ten seconds!" Wong called loudly over the sounds of the two battles in the room. I leapt out of Casey's path as she once more jabbed towards me with her sizzling stick. I then remembered the Sling Ring that remained on my hand and thinking quickly, I shoved my stick under my arm so I could swirl a portal into existence by Casey's side. She jerked her head in the direction I was pointing but I was already diving into it and emerging on the other side of her where another portal had materialized. I swung downwards and my eyes widened in disbelief as her magically enhanced stick went flying out of her grasp. She whirled around, shocked as Wong called time.
"That was awesome…" I said under my breath, looking down at the stick that still remained in my grasp. Casey's face was red with the strain of our battle and possibly from embarrassment. I offered her an apologetic shrug as she turned to see how Grayson and Dan had faired.
"Looks like Alex won over here, just barely…" Wong announced slowly. He turned to see that Dan had been pinned to the ground, Grayson standing over him with his stick hooked underneath Dan's in what looked to have been an attempt to pry the weapon from my friend by strength alone. Dan had his foot pressed into Grayson's chest to keep the trained sorcerer at bay and he looked like he had been about to roll out from under him. Upon hearing that the minute's competition was over, Grayson released his tight grip on his stick and stooped to help Dan to his feet smartly.
"We didn't finish…" Dan mumbled sourly, throwing an irritated look up at his partner as we all turned to face Wong's expectant gaze. The sorcerer nodded with acknowledgement and then looked to the two newcomers.
"How did our chosen ones do?" Wong asked them loudly. I looked to Dan who had his head bowed slightly in his bitterness over his battle. He finally looked up at me and his expression changed to a weary shrug.
"Do we need to be here to hear this?" I mouthed to him. We both looked up at Wong to see that Casey and Grayson were once more at his side. All three of them were muttering to one another thoughtfully.
"It's kinda awkward…" Dan agreed after a few seconds. I noticed that his gaze was trained on the wooden floor, a distant look in his eyes. He still held his stick in his right hand and was turning it around in his palm slowly as he stared downward.
"You didn't try very hard, did you?" I asked him gently. His head snapped upward at my suggestion and his eyes flicked to me accusingly. I held my gaze firmly, not wanting to be intimidated by my moody friend.
"I told you earlier that I saw how today is going to end…" He said slowly, speaking lowly under his breath and keeping an eye on the three sorcerers at the front of the room. I followed his gaze and noticed that Casey cast a quick glance over her shoulder to us before adding something else to whatever she had been saying to Wong and Grayson.
"We're going to be able to do this, Dan…that's what all of this is for…" I tried to say helpfully. But Dan wouldn't look at me as he shook his head more violently.
"No…we're going to –"
"Alright! New assignment." Wong said, clapping his hands once together to get our attention. Casey and Grayson flanked the man once more, making him look short in stature between the two of them. Upon his instruction, they simultaneously swirled two portals into existence in front of them, through which several other robed figures emerged into our little room in the Mirror Dimension.
"Uh…what's the goal this time?" I asked, not bothering to introduce myself to any of the dozen sorcerers and apprentices that had suddenly appeared in the Sanctum. Wong smirked at me over the other soundless figures in the room and he shrugged as if the answer was simple.
"Try not to die."
Dan and I had maybe five seconds to comprehend his words before the whole crowd of sorcerers swarmed towards the two of us at once.