Stephen stood back from the group saying goodbye to Tony. He'd seen a million other ways this ended, in everyone one of them they all died. In this one, sadly, it was Tony who had to sacrifice himself above all others. His mind was somewhere else, on someone else who should be here at this moment. Where was she? He pulled Wong away from the group and turned to him.

"Where is she? Where is Ariana?"

"What, sorcerer, didn't your 14 million six-hundred and five views into the future tell you what happened to me?" Her slightly cynical voice behind him lead him to gasp as he turned around. The precision with which she knew exactly how many versions of the future he'd seen meant she'd heard in detail, from Tony, about the battle on Titan.

Wong turned too, and saw the woman with a few stray tears streaking down her face. Her hair no longer fell over her shoulders, instead it was cut short, sticking up at various angles, buzzed short around her ears and the nape of her neck, and it was now dyed a deep shade of purple permanently. He whispered to Stephen, who stood there staring. "She's…been a bit busy the past five years…"

"Ariana?" Stephen called out quietly as he watched her.

She slowly and carefully descended upon the levitating shield she had created. She was still ten yard away when she touched the ground and quietly answered with a nod. "Stephen."

She approached, and he started to reach out, but instead of coming to him, she walked right past and knelt by Pepper, who still held Tony's hand. She reached up and in a moment had Tony in her arms, hugging him tight. "I'll miss you brother," she whispered as tears flowed down her face.

She released him, resting him back against the rubble, then turned and gave Pepper a firm hug. They held each other tight for a few moments before Pepper pulled back. "Go, Ari. Go to him."

Ariana glanced up at Stephen, who stood several yards away, watching them with wide eyes. He was obviously still in shock at the changes she'd undergone in the five years he was gone. She looked back to Pepper. "I don't know if I can, Pepp. I've changed a lot in these five years."

Pepper held her hand out and gently touched Ariana's chest, right over her heart. "Some things—some things haven't changed—you and I both know that."

Ariana sighed and gave Pepper another quick hug, then stood, straightening her tunic. She approached Stephen slowly, all those who had congregated seemed to be captivated by what was happening. Most of them had been in some way present during Ariana's transformation from IT support and grieving girlfriend to Doctor Strange to the warrior and Master of Mystic Arts that stood before them. She sighed and glanced around—these people were her family, but this was a conversation that needed privacy. She finally came to stand in front of him. "Come with me," she said as she pulled her sling ring out, creating a portal that led them a short distance away, up on a precipice, providing them more privacy.

Stephen glanced back at Wong, who only raised an eyebrow and said two words. "Good luck."

He then stepped through before the portal closed. Upon stepping through, Ariana had turned her back to him and was looking out over the water, now held back by walls of rubble that had eventually been put in place by several other Masters, allowing Stephen to stop holding the water back himself. She'd seen it all happen, but had kept her distance during the battle, knowing he'd be distracted if he saw her.

"Ariana," he said again, quietly.

"You knew he was going to die."

"If things went the way they needed to for everyone else to come back, to survive. To defeat Thanos—yes—it's what had to happen."

"You knew you were going to die."

"I—I did, yes. Once I saw all the possibilities and knew what had to happen. Yes, I knew I would be gone."

"But you didn't see what…happened…to me? What I've become?"

"I…I tried not to look."

"Why not?" she asked, unable to hide the bitterness seeping through.

"Because if I wasn't there, I couldn't bear to see how you moved on."

"Exactly how did you think I was going to move on, Doctor? Did you think I'd go bar hopping and find a boyfriend? Get married? Have kids? Walk away from everything I'd seen, everything you showed me—everything…everything we had?"

"I just—"

"You were a coward. You didn't want to see what happened to me because you knew it was going to tear me apart."

"Ariana, I—"

"Twice. Twice in my life I've lost everything I held dear. Had it ripped away from me."

He looked down. She saw right into his soul. "You're right."

"Of course I'm right. I've always seen through you, Stephen."

"It's one of the reasons I love you."

"Don't say that."

"Why not? It's true. Ariana, I know—" He took a chance and stepped closer to her. "I know it's been five years for you, but—nothing has changed for me. I love you."

"Stop saying that!" she shouted, it echoing into the valley.

He watched her closely, he saw her hands shaking, her lips trembling. Here eyes were filled with tears. "Okay—okay. I'll stop…for now. So, how about I stop being a coward. Tell me. Tell me what it was like. Tell me how you…how you became…this—" he said, motioning to her.

"I spent almost a month mourning with Pepper before Tony made it home. Then it was me left to mourn while she helped him recover. You were gone and I was stuck trying to decide where home was anymore. I stayed close to her for a while, till Tony was out of the woods. Then, Wong let me stay at the Sanctum for a while. I cried a lot. It was so empty without you there. When I couldn't bear it anymore, I went to Tony and Pepper's cabin and stayed there a while."

"When did you start training?"

"One day I grew tired of crying. I grew tired of being sad. Then I grew angry. Angry that I wasn't there to save you. That I wasn't able to help."

"You wouldn't have—"

"I see five years dead didn't improve your ability to keep your mouth shut. Shut up, Doctor. This is my story to tell."

He bowed his head reverently, sufficiently scolded and now incredibly worried that he might have lost the heart of the woman he'd come to love. She'd suffered through the past five years in what was practically a blink of an eye for him.

"At first, Tony was still bitter and wouldn't have anything to do with what was left of the Avengers, but I knew they'd welcome me in. The perks of being his pseudo-little sister all those years. I came here, to the compound. Natasha, she—" She squeezed her eyes shut a moment, another pain of loss clenching her heart momentarily before she continued. "She began training me in fighting. Then I traveled to Wakanda and trained under the Dora Milaje. That was a year and a half. I'd become proficient in hand-to-hand fighting, but it wasn't enough. I needed to be stronger. Not in body, but in mind. If there's one thing I learned from my time with you at Kamar-Taj and the Sanctum it was that not all battles can be fought with fists. So I ended up back on the doorstep of the Sanctum. This time, not to mourn, this time it was to train. I didn't give Wong much of a choice. He started my training. I read. A lot. Then he took me to Kamar-Taj. I lived there for three years while I trained. About six months ago I moved permanently into the New York Sanctum as Wong's second in command, in your…absence."

"I'm…sorry."

She let out a bitter chuckle. "For what, exactly?"

"For not being here for those years. That you lost Natasha. And Vision. That you had to go through that. That I wasn't here to be by your side as you dealt with that loss. I'm sorry I wasn't there to see you train. I bet you were remarkable. But mostly—I'm sorry that it had to be Tony."

She gave a short nod and turned to look back down in the valley where the rest of the group were, some now working on the very beginnings of clean-up, others still in a daze over the loss of their close friend. She turned back and looked at his chest a moment, empty of the once often-present Eye of Agamotto. She wondered how things would be different now, with no Infinity Stones.

"You were certain."

"What?"

"You were certain, there was only one way. This was it."

He sighed, taking another step forward slowly and moving his hands to rest on her now-toned biceps and whispered. "It was the only way."

He saw that his touch started to cause her to waver in the wall of bitterness she had up around her heart. Just when he thought she might give in and let him through, he picked up the sound of static in her earpiece that took her attention.

A voice came through over the earpiece. "Sorry to interrupt, Ariana, but Pepper needs to get back to Morgan and we need to get Tony's body to safety before we begin clean-up. Would you mind assisting with the transport?" Rhodes said.

Ariana stepped back away from Stephen and touched the earpiece. "Yeah, I'll be right there." She turned back to him. "I've got to go help move Tony. We can talk more later."

"I'm coming with you. I'll help."

"It's not necessary."

"Of course it is. Don't shut me out, Ariana."