Stephen walked across the courtyard with a book in his hand.
"Hey." Stephen said as he entered the library.
"Mr. Strange." The librarian said.

"Hey! Its you, Mr. Wong!" Peter said.
"Uh... Stephen, please. And you are?"
"Wong."

"Wong. Just Wong? Like... Adele? Or... Aristotle... Drake... Bono... Eminem..."

Wong didn't even smile.

"Take a joke, will you?" Tony said.

"Thank you!" Stephen said. "You need to learn to lighten up."

"Wait… Wait wait wait. Did you two just agree on something?" Nat asked Stephen and Tony.

They glared at each other for a moment before turning back to the movie.
"The book of the invisible sun." Wong said as he looked at the books Stephen brought back. "Astronomia Nova. Codex Imperium. Key of Solomon. You finished all of this?"
"Yup."
"Come with me." Wong said as he walked towards the back.
"Alright."
"This section is for Masters only. But at my discretion, others may use it. We should start with Maxim's Primer. How is your Sanskrit?" Wong asked as he handed a book to Stephen.
"I'm fluent in Google Translate."

A few people laughed.
"Read it. Classical Sanskrit."
"What are those?" Stephen pointed to the books that were chained up.
"The Ancient One's private collection."
"So they're forbidden?"
"No knowledge in Kamar-Taj is forbidden. Only certain practices. Those books are far too advanced for anyone other than the Sorcerer Supreme."

Stephen grabbed one of them and began flipping through it. "This one's got pages missing."
"That's the book of Cagliostro. The study of time. One of the rituals was stolen by a former Master. A zealot called Kaecilius. Just after he strung up the former librarian, and relieved him of his head."

Strange looked up in horror at that comment.
"I'm now the guardian of these books." Wong said and took the book from Stephen. After locking it up he glared a Stephen. "So if a volume from this collection should be stolen again, I'd know it. And you'd be dead before you ever left the compound."
"What if it's just overdue? You know? Any... late fees I should know about? Maybe, perhaps, uhm…" Stephen joked. "Uh, you know, people used to think that I was funny."
"Did they work for you?"

"Oh! Burn!" Peter cheered and slapped Wong on the back; Wong glanced at his shoulder where Peter patted him and glared at Peter. Peter gulped and nervously scooted a little closer to Tony.
"Alright. Well, it's been lovely talking to you, thank you for the books and for the horrifying story and for the threat upon my life." Stephen said as he grabbed some books and left.

A few more people laughed. Stephen grinned and leaned back in his seat.

'I told you I was funny.' Stephen mouthed to Wong.

Kaecilius grabbed a scroll and slowly opened it. Several of his soldier were standing in a circle. Kaecilius grabbed one of the stolen pages and set it on the center of the floor. He made a motion with his hands that copied the picture in the book, summoning red electricity.

Both Wong and Stephen leaned forward and stared at the screen intently.
"Now we receive the power to destroy the one who betrayed us. The one who betrays the world."

They began making motions with their hands and chanting. The skin around their eyes slowly became dark and scaly.

The strange head of Dormammu flickered on the screen for a fleeting second.

"Dormammu." Wong growled. If anyone noticed Stephen grow pale and look away from the screen they didn't say anything.

Multiple students practiced their form in a large court yard, including Stephen.
"Mastery of the sling ring is essential to the mystic arts. They allow us to travel throughout the multiverse." Mordo said. "All you need to do is focus. Visualize. See the destination in your mind. Look beyond the world in front of you. Imagine every clearer the picture, the quicker, and easier, the gateway will come."

'Okay, but how does it really work?" Tony asked. "Satellite projection? Quantum manipulation?"

"Mr. Stark, its magic." Peter said. "Maaaaaaaaagic."

"There's no such thing as magic." Tony argued. "Everything has a scientific reason behind it."

"Magic is too real!" Peter said. "If there's no such thing as magic, then how do you explain what Mr. Lang did with the cards?"

"You've seen all this crazy magic that Strange, Wong, and Loki have been doing and you pick Scotts stupid card trick to prove your point? Really?" T'Challa asked.

"My card trick's not stupid!" Scott said.

"His card tricks not stupid!" Peter said at the same time.

"Magic and Science are the same thing." Thor sighed. "Different people just call it different things."

"I believe in magic." Peter said with a huge smile in his face.

All of the students easily opened up portals and gateways. All except one. Stephen had a hard time opening a portal. Every now and then an orange spark would come of his shaking hands, but not portal materialized.
"And stop." Mordo instructed.
"I'd like a moment alone with Mr. Strange." The Ancient One said as she walked towards them.
"Of course." Morda said and dismissed the class.
"My hands." Stephen sighed.

"It's not about your hands." She replied.
"How is this not about my hands?"
"Master Hamir." She said.

An old man stepped next to her a rolled up his sleeves. One of his hands was missing, but he still opened up a portal with ease.
"Thank you, Master Hamir." She said as she dismissed him so it was only Stephen and her. "You cannot beat a river into submission. You have to surrender to its current, and use its power as your own."
"I... I control it by surrendering control? That doesn't make any sense." Stephen sighed.
"Not everything does. Not everything has to. Your intellect has taken you far in life. But it will take you no further. Surrender, Stephen. Silence your ego and your power will rise. Come with me."

She opened a portal and the stepped through. Stephen rubbed his bare arms and shivered against the cold, barren, snowy landscape.
"W-wait. I-is th-this…" Stephen stuttered,
"Everest." The Ancient One smiled. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah, you're right. Beautiful. It's freezing, but... beautiful."

"At this temperature, a person can last for 13 minutes before suffering permanent loss of function."

"Great."
"But you will likely go into shock within the first 2 minutes."

"What?" Stephened turned to see she was walking through the portal.
"Surrender, Stephen."
"No, no! Don't!" Stephen called, but it was too late. She had closed the portal. He was stuck on Mt. Everest. Alone.

"She's a super villain!" Peter jumped up and shouted.

"No, no she's not." Stephen said. "She's not a supervillain."

"Well…" Wong said and shook his hand in a so-so way.

"She is not a supervillain!" Stephen snapped.
"How is our new recruit?" Mordo asked the Ancient One. She was standing in the empty courtyard, waiting.

Back on the mountain Stephen was desperately trying to open a portal. His entire body was trembling from the cold.
"We shall see. Any second now." The Ancient One smiled.
"No, not again." Mordo groaned. "Maybe I should…"

"I'm sorry, not again?" Stephen asked. "Wong, what did Mordo mean, 'not again'?"

"Has she abandoned people on Everest before?" Clint asked. "Is that just a normal occurrence at Hogwarts? Do you abandon people on mountains for fun?"

"What's a Hogwarts?" Bucky whispered to Steve.

"I think its from something called Star Wars." Steve shrugged. "I haven't seen it, but Sam has told me a bit about it. Its this tv show about some detective who time travels in a blue box and is entered in a fight to the death called the Hunger Games with his talking dog."

"That sounds so stupid." Bucky snarled.

"I know, right?" Steve replied.

Sam buried his face in his hands. He didn't know if he should laugh or cry.

Suddenly, a portal opened up in front of them and Stephen stumbled out and collapsed on the ground.

.

Back in his room Stephen cut his hair and shaved before walking over to the library.

"Yeah!" Tony cheered. He reached his hand up for Stephen to give him a high five. "Awesome Facial Hair Bros!"

"No." Stephen said. "I'm not gonna high five you."

"Come on…"

"No."

"Awesome Facial Hair Bros?"

"I hate you." Stephen sighed and gave him a weak high five.

"Yes!" Tony cheered.

"Never again." Stephen groaned.
"Stephen." Wong said as he entered.
"Wong."
"What do you want, Strange?"
"Books on astral projection."
"You're not ready for that."
"Try me, Beyonce." Stephen smirked. Wong stayed expressionless. "Come on. You've heard of her. She's a huge star, right? Do you ever laugh? Oh come on, just give me the book, huh?"
"No."

.

Wong sat in the library, listening to All The Single Ladies on his phone and reading a book.

"I knew it!" Stephen cheered. "You love Beyonce!"

Behind him, a portal opened up and Stephens hand reached out to grab a book. Wong turned around, but Stephens hand was gone before he saw anything. Wong turned back to his book and continued reading. Another portal opened up and Stephen grabbed another book. Wong jumped around really fast, but didn't see anything. While he was looking behind him, Stephen opened yet another portal and took the book Wong was reading. Wong slowly turned back to see that his book was gone. He banged his hands on the table and ran from the room.

Back in his bedroom, Stephen was sleeping. Stephens astral form sat next to his sleeping body, reading the books.

"Once, in this room, you begged me to let you learn." The Ancient One said to Stephen. They were in the main room. "Now I'm told you question every lesson, prefering to teach yourself."
"Once, in this room, you told me to open my eyes. Now I'm being told to blindly accept rules that make no sense."
"Like the rule against conjuring a gateway in the library?"
"Wong told on me?"

"You're advancing quickly with your sorcery skills. You need a safe space to practice your spells." She waved her hands and an odd, clear, glass effect when over all of their surroundings. "You are now inside the Mirror Dimension. Ever present but undetected."

Stephen walked over to where someone was watering a plant. He waved his hand in front of their face, but they didn't see anything. He tried tapping them on their should but his hand passed right through them.

"OOOH! OOOH! I wanna got there!" Peter shouted with an enormous grin plastered across his face. He turned to Stephen and gave him big, puppy dog begging eyes."Pleeeeease. Pretty please with sugar on top? Please Doctor?"

"Well, I guess it would be alright." Stephen shrugged. "I'd need my Sling Ring, though. And then I could-"

"Is it dangerous?" Tony asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Ah, come one Mr. Stark!" Peter whined in a high pitched voice.

"It not dangerous if I have my Sling Ring." Stephen said.

"See, Mr. Stark! It's fine." Peter said, stretching out the word 'fine'.

"Hey. I'm the one who gets to decide if its fine." Tony crossed his arms. He turned to Stephen and whispered "Is it fine?" Stephen nodded. "Okay." Tony said and turned back to Peter. "Iv'e decided that it's fine."

"YES!" Peter yelled and started jumping up and down. "I'm gonna go to mirror world! I'm gonna go to mirror world!"

"It's called the mirror dimension." Wong corrected. "Not the Mirror Wor-"

"MIRROR WORLD!" Peter yelled and grinned.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mirror world. Later. Now lets just watch the movie." Tony said as he pulled Peter back to his seat.

"The real world isn't affected by what happens here." The Ancient One said. "We use the Mirror Dimension to train, surveil, and sometimes to contain threats. You don't want to be stuck in here without your sling ring"
"Hold on. Sorry, what do you mean, threats?" Stephen asked.
"Learning of an infinite multiverse included learning of infinite dangers. And if I told you everything else that you don't already know, you'd run from here in terror."