[The Hong Kong Sanctum, Doctor Stephen Strange POV]

Strange felt torn.

A fight like this was not something he thought he would ever be a part of, and here he was hovering over the ruins of where Draul and Doom had fought.

He was grateful to Kamar-Taj for opening his eyes to the wider world but like Mordo always says, 'The price comes due.' And his was a choice: Forgo his mundane life and dedicate his all to the Mystics, or abandon the Mystics and go back to being a world-renowned neurosurgeon.

It was an option Draul had laid forth to make his choice easier as that was the only two ways he could go.

But try as he may to think of himself as Doctor Strange, all he found was himself, wearing the cloak of levitation as Master Strange, not Mister Strange… Not Doctor Strange.

He had taken more life today than he had ever lost patients, it was a sickening thought maybe because it was due to his pride or the selfish comparison he had made in regards to their life.

First of all, it had been a simple one of which life was more precious and undoubtedly, he chose his.

Then when the importance of his life dwarfed his enemies, the comparison changed… just like his world view.

These people, these zealots, wanted, according to his understanding, to bring in a dark entity that would subsume the world and everything within in darkness all for their selfish goal of power and immortality. That choice had been a little easier to make due to those facts and it was what allowed him the reprieve to choose the majority and the minority. Rather than choose which of their ideal goals were better, he let simple statistics solve it out for him.

He wondered if it were the same way people like Mordo and Draul made their choices.

Strange had made his choice very quickly and had joined the fray against the zealots, doing what he had never done – kill. It got to the point where he didn't feel the gut wrenching feeling again as he flung a zealot to the wall and used the debris around to turn her into a pincushion.

He was just in time to see Kaecilius attempting to stab the Ancient One through a small portal that he created. Creating a smaller portal, he opened it a few centimeters from the opening of Kaecilius portal the exact moment the Master ran his spear through it only for him to pierce through his own back.

He had thought that at that point it had ended, only for him to be proven naïve in the way of flags and villains.

The mark-bearing Kaecilius and his zealots as vessels of Dormammu lit up as the body of both those dead and alive rose up in the air before cracks started appearing on them like the most fragile of porcelain.

They didn't have enough time to react before they turned into misty wraiths that hovered in the air before coming together in a swirl which expanded to form a hole in space that filled every sorcerer present with dread. It was then that he noticed that someone with them was affected – The Ancient One, The Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj, his teacher, bore the mark of Dormammu.

He wasn't the only one to see this, both Wong and Mordo who were with him saw it. His mind was filled with incomprehension before something clicked.

'Immortality'.

It was something so profound that it made sense the moment the thought crossed his mind. The reason why Kaecilius seemed to have it out for her.

The reason why she was the oldest person in Kamar-Taj.

The reason why she seemed so knowledgeable about the cons of dark practices.

Strange turned to the others with him and saw Wong looking a bit shocked before his face went back to his passive neutrality. Mordo on the other hand expressed more emotions than the other two. He seemed as if he was looking at a stranger the way his face expressed a monumental shock.

It was his practical mind that subsided the surprise he had gotten from that reveal that made him focus on what was more important. He rushed to the side of the Ancient One who seemed unfazed despite her current ordeal.

"Strange! The relic!"

Wong's call was the prompt he needed for him to see the Eye of Agamotto flying towards him as the Ancient One relinquished her control of her symbol of Supreme.

It was instinctual. Something he understood as he saw the Eye of Agamotto flying towards him. She was choosing him as the next Sorcerer Supreme of Kamar-Taj.

'Think Stephen, think!'

His advanced mind browsed through the multifold of spells he had read and researched.

A spell he needed. One that could reverse casuality and reality, bending the domain of absolute to his will.

Dormammu existed beyond time so that meant there was no distance he couldn't reach in the time-space stream. Kaecilius called him the One. Him and his followers strived to be part of the One so rather than saying they were his followers, it was more accurate to say they were his vessels. An extension of Dormammu on earth… so was the Ancient One.

He needed something that surpassed the time hold Dormammu had on the Ancient One.

He paused in his thoughts as he saw the same genial smile she always had, sitting right there on her face as she approached sure death.

"The bill always… comes due."

He ignored those words that flowed into his ears as spells and indexes came into his mind. He cast aside the warnings and taboos he had been taught and focused on the words that came to his mind.

The spell he got was not one he deemed enough so he started merging the spells with others in areas in which it lacked.

He didn't open his eyes as he concentrated even as he heard shouts and cries of his name nor the foul stench of death that wafted through his nose until he completed what he was doing.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in the middle of death. The city of Hong Kong was no more, nor was half of the earth.

Only he floated in the void of space of the ruined planet as the spell he had conjured protected him from the reality before him.

He turned around to see the most terrifying and huge thing he'd ever seen in his life.

Dark red eyes with a hazy dark figure over it boring into him.

"So you are finally back, pest. I've been waiting for you." The thing in front of him spoke in amusement. "You saved yourself, but for what I wonder? You or that guy, I wonder who would make the best meal."

"Dormammu. As Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, I bound you to relinquish the hold you have on this dimension."

At his command to the dark being which only got him a snort before tendrils of death flew towards him but he already was protected by his spell. Taking one last look at Dormammu, Strange let go of his constrained spell.

Dormammu's amusement was cut short as he felt a wave past him that made him shudder. Not in a reaction to being attacked but a wrongness in the spell that the mortal sorcerer casted. "What di-… YOU DARE?!"

He felt it at that moment.

Something that rewrote… no, not rewrite, but somehow it was able to ignore whatever he had done to earth.

'Cancelling' out his impressions on this dimension. It was some sort of 'repayment' that was never bargained for as whatever he had given was returned and more as a sickening act of compensation.

He raged.

His cry traveling through the galaxy and into the wider verse as his food was taken from him. His prize of conquest once again denied him by the damned sorcerers of earth. After he had taken his joy in feasting on the corpse of that Sorcerer Supreme who had made the mistake of thinking she could outsmart him for all of time.

He cried at the unfairness of it all, destroying the other planets in this small system but yet the new pest of the bunch kept on staring at him with runes covering him as he casted his abominable spell that had the universe cry out in retaliation.

"YOU! YOU! YOOOOOUUUUU!"

"Is that the upper limit of your vocabulary? And here I thought the all-powerful dark being would at least be somewhat 'knowing'. Well, we can't have it all can we?"

"RAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"Its intelligence keeps declining due to stress? Paranoia? Or is it lacking intellect in comprehending 'what is', not 'what should be'? Regardless, I think we should remove smart from his introduction in the ancient books. The history books aren't accurate after all, who knew?"

Dormammu couldn't take it anymore and unleashed all his might in hope of exterminating the bug from his presence but all he got was a repayment as even reality refused his price for the death of the sorcerer. Even the universe which was supposed to be the impartial judge and watcher sided with that mortal.

He tried all he could as he felt everything he took been taken away from him.

At that moment he knew he had lost… again. From the beginning when they had started crawling out of their caves like ants from the crevices of the very earth that they walked on had he coveted the planet, only to be denied of his prize time and time again. And now when he had finally tasted his most sumptuous meal and relished the delicacy even as he took his time to fully consume his long-awaited conquest only to find it been taken away from him, leaving him with nothing but the phantom taste of the food he had once again failed to eat as his compensation.

A reminder of his failure.

"You think you are smart, boy. You think tampering with the thread of reality is without a cost? You think taking the universal right of 'time', that which belongs to it who is eternal comes without a wrecking due? Hahahahaha! In your desperate attempt to wage futility against me, in the folly of your ignorance and unfounded pride, all you've done is pit yourselves against those who govern and those who conquer. Nothing more than a shout to go against the universal way…. A declaration of a war of Supremacy. Hahahaha! When they come, and they shall… I will also be there to collect my due. Be glad in your victory mortal child and despair in its short lived passing."

Dormammu's crazed laughter rang through the void at the realization of the irony of what the sorcerer had done. The mortal saying of fighting poison with poison was never truer in this case.

He could feel his presence and impressions on the planet receding at a faster pace as the spell went on.

"What is your name sorcerer? It is only right that I know the name of my most hated being."

"Strange. Stephen Strange."

"An apt title." Strange brows furrowed in confusion at what Dormammu meant but the dark lord continued. "Strange Stephen Strange. Your death will be my most sumptuous delicacy. The next time we meet, Sorcerer of the strange ways, will be the recompense for your error."

Saying that, Dormammu receded into his darkness unwilling to bear the sight of the sorcerer as he knew everything he did would result in futility. He would wait. He had tasted that planet even though it now seems like a dream, a fleeting thought, all an illusion, he knew it had happened. He had been so close to victory only to have it seized from his hands.

He had thought the shackled Ancient One was his last obstacle in obtaining the earth only to once again be reminded of the cockroaches that were the sorcerers and the undying worms that were the Sorcerers Supreme.

Now he knew who was his foe: Strange Stephen Strange, a practitioner of strange arts. All he had to do was wait for the opportune moment that he could already feel coming.

Hahahahahaha! He went silent as his raged brew in frustration as the last vestige of earth left his phantom hands that he was struggling to grip, but alas, all was taken.

A last laugh echoed through the reconstructing solar system as the dark lord went back to his domain leaving Strange as he hovered in the air as reality bent to his will.

He heaved a sigh before bringing his head down to look at the green energy that was coming out of the Eye of Agamotto. He knew that it was only through this thing that he had been able to cast that spell. The vast amount of energy in it was something that should by all right be impossible, it could be used to power the most dangerous of spells as long as its host could withstand it and the relic made the last defect, the only disadvantage of using it, null.

The Eye was made to restrain the power and toll of whatever was held in it from affecting the user.

"Wong, Mordo and Draul weren't kidding when they said this thing was dangerous. I feel like they downplayed its danger by a lot." The depreciating chuckle that left his mouth as he saw everything repairing itself blew out most of the tension he had felt in front of that being.

He still remembered what Dormammu had said, even laughed, about the price he would have to pay for what he had done.

"Guess I need to hit the books." Despite the joking tone at which he said it, his thoughts were the complete opposite.

He had to be ready to pay the price for his debt. He had paid the debt the Ancient One owed for centuries with the destruction of his planet. What then would his debt be, what scale would it weigh, when the price for bending the flow of the universe and existence to his will be?

His feet touched the ground as the last vestige of casuality spell he cast ran out.

"What th-" Mordo was the first to react as everything went back to how it was. Before Strange could answer, the sound of glass shattering stole their focus as Draul walked out from the mirror dimension with an axe on his shoulders and a body in his hands.

"What the fuck just happened… Strange?"

'Geez! A thank you would be nice.' Strange thought.


[Draul St. Cross POV]

Doom and I continued our fight after I destroyed that titan of his.

Since this was the mirror dimension, I wasn't under the restraint of holding back so as I fought Doom, I increased my output only when I saw he could keep up.

My fist smashed into Doom's face and then another and lastly a completely black fist with red lines pummeled him through the spinning buildings.

This was an ability I was able to replicate from my fight with Sunspot. By sucking in ambient light both outside and inside my body, my hand seemed like a void and it would have been the same with Sunspot if only the red lines weren't shining, contrasting well with the darkness of my arms.

Absorbing and refracting light were things Sunspot could do very easily and while I had the edge in absorbing energies, Sunspot had the flare for it. To him it was natural, but to me, it was something I had to focus on actively. For now at least.

I called back my axe, causing it to smack against my open palms in a second before cleaving the building Doom was in, opening it with magic before descending on him. All this took less than five seconds after Doom had smashed through the building.

I cleaved Doom in two which turned out to be an illusion a moment later as I felt his Adamantium blade slicing through my sides even as I made my attempt to dodge it. Ignoring the shallow wound that was already healed as soon as the blade exited my skin, I batted Doom's face with the flat of my axe causing blood to seep out from the little openings on his mask.

I made to give chase only for him to open a portal on his trajectory to my back, anticipating his attack, I swung backwards to block his incoming slash only to find the Doom before holding back one of my hands, preventing me from blocking his slash while his other hand was already slashing through the portal in hopes of skewering me as I couldn't defend.

Beams shot out of my eyes and zigzagged behind me, shooting Doom straight in the face which resulted in him screaming as the overwhelming heat of the mask burned his already ruined face.

I decreased the distance between us but Doom was faster as he controlled the dimension and split us apart, putting space and building between us as if he was shuffling cards.

I flew towards him even as he ran in a futile effort to get away from me. He tried opening a portal outside but I was always quick to interfere with it, either by using the dimension as obstacles or creating a portal before it… or just bombarding Doom.

"You can run Doom, but you can't hide." I teased him as I flashed to his side in a streak of red lightning only for him to block my axe with his sword and then being pushed back due to the overwhelming force of my strength.

"You should be stronger than this Doom, or was it just my perception? You haven't even pushed me anywhere near my limit… and yet you are running?" Doom screeched to a halt at my words and cracked his neck towards me in a robotic turn.

I just stood back leisurely and watched him, registering every slight motion of his nerves to my senses.

"You have grown too insolent and drunk in your illusion of power. Appearing nothing but foolish for entertaining the thought that Doom's death would be wrought by your hands. While you may have temporarily surpassed Doom in strength and speed, Doom overshadows your wildest dreams in magic and intellect."

"In simpler words: you can't beat me so… strategic retreat, right?" I could hear the gritting of his bloodied teeth from where I stood. Doom was angry, not like I didn't know, at his humiliation and also for the act of turning his back to me. He was cornered and he knew it.

"If you think Doom's life is so easily taken, then come and try it." Dark magic burst out from Doom, tainting his classic green to red, magic so overwhelming that it weighed on the mirror dimension, shattering it further than we already had.

"Hoh? A last stand? Fine, I'll entertain you." I twirled my axe before beckoning for Doom to come.

"Your bravado deserves an applaud, but your foolishness spiteful." Doom squeezed his hands and a part of the mirror dimension became like jelly as he sucked them to his palms.

'I really hate dark magic.'

I countered Doom's spell but was pushing back due to the overpowering element of his spell and how the sturdy mirror dimension gained viscosity.

Doom warped, not through a portal, but directly warped to my side in the fraction of a moment, a moment I knew I would have to increase the stakes again.

My hands up to my shoulders turned void with only red broken letters on it. I spun around with a greater force than I've done since the beginning of my fight with Doom and clashed my axe to his sword.

I hacked while he slashed at me, trading lethal blows to each other, each with the intent to overpower our adversary. We blurred in sparks of red lightning as we destroyed anywhere our weapons clashed.

The moment we disengaged, I formed three orbs of chaos energy and batted them towards Doom who once again warped away from there to save himself from the resulting explosion that erased everything in its path.

While Doom had the surprise advantage with his near instantaneous warping, I nullified it by having the entirety of our battlefield printed in my brain which in turn enables me to dodge and react as soon as he warps.

Doom ducked under the red slash I sent his way only to be bombarded with arrows that he couldn't dodge on time. He never got the window to get away as the entire building froze over as if it was the top of the Himalayas.

A red flash was all Doom saw before the explosion engulfed both him and I, with me walking out of it unscathed while Doom wheezed as blood poured out of every crack in his armor. Most of the defensive runes that were etched into his armor had been destroyed as well as most of his skin were burnt.

Doom raised his hands towards me in an effort to attack only for him to be sent flying due to another explosion.

And then I saw his face.

The mangled and burnt flesh, smooched together to create the unholy visage of what was once Victor Von Doom. His hair, lips, nose and mouth could not be found as it had meld into his skin during its healing process, making him look more terrifying as blood bled from everywhere.

He cut off the tatters of his cape and held his sword to me. "Come." He croaked out, his pride refusing him to cower even in the face of an inevitable defeat, not like I cared.

I rushed at him as he conjured red ropes and sent them towards me. The robes felt like the strongest of metals even as they stretched but didn't cut as my axe met them, 'The Crimson Bands of Cytorrak'. With a magic circle in my hands, I clapped them together which caused the omnidirectional road I was on to divide and join together.

Eyes blood red as haunting beams found their way to Doom despite the obstacles he put forth as they seemed to pierce through anything before clashing with the shield he had made time to fortify.

The demarcated sky of the mirror dimension shattered into numerous pieces of glass as red lightning fell upon us. They crashed into me but unlike Doom did with my beams, I didn't bother putting up a defense to it. While I wasn't immune to magic, which I doubted anyone was, magic in pure energy form did little damage to me as my body was learning how to absorb and dilute this new form of elusive energy.

Despite it holding me down somewhat, I still attacked Doom with everything I could think of. Increasing the lethality of his injuries with every hit.

As the barrage of attacks went on, Doom seemed to have lost it as he returned each one of my attacks with renewed ferocity. A strike to the chest only to receive one to the head. Not caring for himself any longer, Doom allowed his magic to consume him as he sacrificed everything to it.

The scale of magic power emanating from him was more than double anything I had sensed from the Ancient One. Runes came alive into his flesh even as the mirror dimension fractured and broke down into nothing more than a kaleidoscope of colors.

His flesh down to his bones and blood became saturated in magic so much so that everything I could sense in my range was all Doom's magic.

Red Doom floated in the air with glowing red eyes reminiscent to mine while a cape of red flames draped over his shoulders but despite everything I was not fazed.

"Finally. It would have been a shame if I didn't kill you at your best." My voice boomed forth as magic oozed out of every pore in my body colliding with that of Doom's, painting the mirror dimension in a glow of red.

My form grew from my 6'1 to over 8 ft as my muscles bulged. Flames covered my eyes but my clarity was never sharper. A rune on my axe lit up and enlarged it, finishing my transformation as I readied myself to face Doom.

"What are your last words?" A final courtesy. I felt that if Doom was more grown up and had tempered his arrogance then we would have been good friends, but alas, he crossed me too early.

"Doom prophesies your death." He flashed at me as the dimension screeched while I returned in kind with my axe crackling with lightning to meet his magically enhanced sword.

The boom from the initial confrontation rearranged the mirror dimension in the vicinity around us.

With clarity unlike any other, my form besieged Doom with slashes that each promised death.

I didn't care about whether his attack reached me or pierced through my hardened skin. All I cared about was how close he was to his overdue demise from every swing of my axe.

We moved so fast, destroying the sound barrier with our first step that only red flashes of lightning sped around the entire place wrecking havoc. We would have destroyed Hong Kong for sure had we fought there instead of the mirror dimension.

The explosions that followed each of our strikes felt like nukes. Maybe it was due to the fight that I noticed too late that my magic circles were all blood red with a tinge of black which only served to make it somehow darker and more ominous.

I neglected it in favor of my battle as one of Doom's spells hit me and sent me skidding backwards in the air. With red fire and lightning coating my axe, I sent out slashes one after another at Doom who blocked it with ease than the first time only for his eyes to widen in surprise as my axe broke through his shield with the same ease as it cut through his chest, bringing him one wound closer to eternal end.

He faltered in his flight for a while, stabilizing himself only for him to warp away the next moment as my giant axe tore through his previous spot. In the next instant, I caught the slight shift in space and was upon him again as he weakly tried to use one hand to defend against me while the other was clutching his chest.

Unlike my regeneration which could heal from almost any physical injury, Doom's was hindered by my chaotic destructive energy, the same as some types of spells could cut through my skin so also could mine also prevent him from healing as fast as he could. My destructive energy was exactly what it was, disintegrating everything it could to nothing which was what was killing Doom.

It was no surprise that he failed to block my strike and let my axe tear through his chest again resulting in his blood and magic flowing out.

Held by the scruff of his neck I approached the ground with blitzing speed and slammed Doom hard to it only for another punch to his face to imbed him back to the ground as his beaten and battered form bounced up from the initial slam.

I could see his life dwindling by the seconds until all that was left was a small flame, flickering in hope for a miracle only for its heart to be crushed… literally.

Doom's eyes widened as my hand held his heart in a tight grip, shattering it.

"I-I l-lost?" It was a question formed like a statement.

"You did."

"Was I wrong?"

"Yes."

"Was I strong?"

"Yes."

"…Did I matter?"

"No, you didn't. Not to me."

"I see. And yet I thought that only Reed or Susan could succeed in killing me." He spoke with such clarity that you wouldn't have expected him to not have a literal heart. "Draul St. Cross, bask in the honor of killing this king for you will never again have such an opportunity in this lifetime. Doom bids you farewell." With that his eyes closed in death.

Dr. Victor Von Doom died on this day after a great magic battle in which he showcased his vast superiority in magic and intelligence to an equally superior foe. Even I couldn't argue with the fact that he died with grace and his pride intact.

What brought me back to focus was the swirling of magic that filled the mirror dimension in the form of a cyclone. I had not yet reacted to it before my body did, the cracked symbols blazing to life as it absorbed every bit of magic from the space, leaving it with the broken state of the mirror dimension.

I canceled the spell as I remembered that a battle was still raging outside only to be stupefied as I appeared on the sidewalk of the pristine city of Hong Kong, with no sign of destruction or any kind of recently fought battle.

"What the fuck just happened…" I paused as I saw Strange with the Time Stone hanging on his neck. "Strange?"

'Looks like Dr. Strange the movie repeated itself.'

I didn't know what Strange did but I was glad I didn't have to fight a universal being only for me to die, because that was what would have happened.

=

A/N: Just for clearance on how Strange could be that strong, I'll like to inform you that this is Classic Strange as opposed to Dr. Strange from MCU.

For those who don't know, Strange at his strongest was easily multiversal, maybe more. Then there is also Black Priest Strange which was just… something else entirely. And don't get me started about Magic God Strange.

Strange's spells has always been hax level, what with things he could throw against beings like Dormammu, Galactus, Mephisto and even one upping the Living Tribunal. So yes, in case I didn't make it clear, when it comes to magic, at least in the Marvel-verse, no one trumps Strange and Draul won't either.

And while it is true that this Strange was still new to the Mystic Arts, having spent less than a year in Kamar-Taj, it still doesn't take away from the fact that Strange is the most talented sorcerer earth has ever known, surpassing the likes of Cagliostro and even the father of magic, Agamotto and the Vishanti. And not to mess up the power scaling, I made it clear that without the Time Stone, he wouldn't have had enough energy to make his spell work.

Hope that helps.

Finally satisfied?

Doom is dead, y'all happy now? Doom was one of my favorite characters and I couldn't give him a useless death like I did Magneto. What greater death than a battle where reality was at stake? I deserve a pat on the back for a job well done if I have anything to say about it.

It's crazy how a story can change with but a thought. I had originally planned for Doom and Draul to be something like friends, each understanding the other with appropriate respect. Doom would make a better impression as a 'tsun tsun' character due to his coldness while Draul would be a 'dere dere' type. Some sort of brother-in-arms relationship between the two of them.

Imagine Draul getting his ass beat by some dimensional being only for Doom to show up and say something classic like, "You dare bring harm to him who is my sworn brother and righteous equal? Your arrogance and presumptuous nature foresees your death at this king's hands." And bang! The go badass bros on the motherfucker.

It would have been awesome. I would have made it awesome, but unfortunately we can't have it all.

Bye… I'm still sad at Doom's death.