Stephen stared at her, not knowing what to make of it - he had been married to Clea since the 1980s and had never seen behaviour like this before, aside from the time she was possessed. Maybe her brief coma awakened the villainous streak inside her - after all, her mother is evil, her uncle is evil, her father was evil, her cousin is evil (one of them - the other one is a very sweet kid, actually).

Or perhaps… she had always been like this and he had simply never seen it. Or because she was the one true love of his life, he didn't want to see it. He never knew what Clea had to do as the Dark Dimension's Sorcerer Supreme, just as she didn't know what Stephen had to do as Earth's Sorcerer Supreme.

Then it hit Stephen. It was so blindingly obvious. No wonder their relationship had failed - it was doomed from the start. He wanted so badly to sit down and cry, to take a moment to process everything, but he couldn't. The flaming Faltinian in front of him didn't allow it.

'Clea, calm down -'

'NO!'

'We can talk about this, calmly -'

'MY TRUE FORM IS NOT PLEASING TO YOU, STEPHEN!'

Stephen clenched his jaw. No. That couldn't be Clea's true form. It wasn't possible. She-she… something had corrupted her. Maybe - maybe he could contact Agatha to help.

'This is not going to help her recovery,' said Linda.

'Everyone else is seeing this, right?' asked Bats the ghost dog.

'Yes, Bats, we're all seeing this,' said Stephen. 'Clea. I'm sorry I raised my voice - I shouldn't have -'

'IT'S TOO LATE FOR APOLOGIES!' Clea roared.

'Everybody, get out of here,' said Stephen.

'You're not going to fight your wife, are you?' asked Zelma.

Linda shook her head. 'I really don't recommend you do this, Stephen -'

'Go!' Stephen shouted. 'And, Clea, I'm so sorry for what I'm about to do.'

'STEPHEN!' Clea lifted Stephen up by the front of his tunic and threw him out of his bedroom window.

Stephen said a silent prayer to the Cloak of Levitation, which probably saved his life by not letting him fly into the Bleeker Street traffic.

Clea came out of the window after him.

'Bolts of Balthakk!' Stephen shouted. Blue lightning bolts erupted from his fingertips and hit Clea.

'FLAMES OF THE FALTINE!' Clea shouted back. Orange flame hurtled towards Stephen.

'Shield of the Seraphim!' A circular orange shield appeared in front of Stephen. An idea suddenly came to him. 'Images of Ikonn!' he blurted out. Around Clea, several duplicates of Stephen appeared.

'DEMON CLAWS OF DENAK!' Clea shouted, and the Stephen duplicates started to get torn apart.

Stephen raised his hands. 'Winds of Watoomb!' he shouted.

Clea was pushed to the ground. She growled as she fought the winds, but failed.

'By the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, be restrained!' Stephen lowered himself to the ground as red bands shot out of his hands, enveloping Clea.

'STEPHEN!' Clea growled.

'Are we ready to discuss this civilly?' asked Stephen. He knew his power as Sorcerer Supreme was not as great as Clea's by pure virtue of her heritage, and that he was lucky Clea was in a weakened state.

Clea's form began to falter and she reverted back to her usual form, her humanoid form.

Stephen dropped his spell and Clea dropped to her knees.

'Are you back?' asked Stephen.

'Stephen,' said Clea. 'I'm so sorry.'

'It's okay,' said Stephen. 'We can talk about this calmly.'

'I should have… I should've kept it under control,' said Clea.

'This has happened before?' asked Stephen.

'I learned magic to keep it at bay,' said Clea. 'Before I… before I knew I was Faltine.'

'But you only learned you were Faltine in 1985.' The cogs turned in Stephen's head. 'Oh no. Clea.'

There was a crack and a pop - the sound of teleportation. 'Alright, that's enough!'

Stephen turned around to see one of his closest friends. 'Jericho,' he greeted. 'What are you doing here?'

'Wanda called me. She said you and Clea were fighting.'

'She's been keeping secrets from me.'

'I had my reasons.'

'Reasons.' Stephen snorted and shook his head. 'You had no reason to do what you did, you -'

'Whatever issues you have, can't you talk it out?' asked Jericho. 'Preferably in the Sanctum and not out on the street.'

Inside the Sanctum, Stephen and Clea were sitting down opposite each other. Clea on the sofa. Stephen on the Cloak of Levitation, and Jericho was sitting watching both of them on a chair. It was just them. Wong had been sent back to the kitchen with Bats. Zelma, back to New Orleans. Wanda, back to Agatha. And Linda, back to work.

'Okay. Now we are all going to discuss what happened - very calmly,' said Jericho.

'Jericho, you know how long Clea and I have been together,' said Stephen. 'She didn't tell me we had a child.'

'I had my reasons for that,' Clea said coldly.

So it was true; Stephen Strange had a child. Jericho didn't react. He didn't know how to. 'How old is the child?'

'She is fifteen,' said Clea.

'So she was born around the time the Fantastic Four had that infamous space flight, right?' said Stephen.

Clea nodded. 'Yes. Around then. And I was leading the Dark Dimension resistance against Dormammu.'

'That's quite dangerous, Clea,' said Jericho. 'Running a resistance while pregnant. You're lucky all went well.'

Clea nodded. She knew Jericho was right. 'I gave birth in the Dark Dimension,' she said. 'To a little girl. She looked just like you, Stephen. She had black hair, blue eyes. She had your nose.'

'What did you do then?' asked Jericho.

'I named her. Sofia. It's a name from Earth, but it's also a common name in the Dark Dimension.'

'Sofia,' said Stephen. Her name was Sofia. He had a daughter. 'Sofia.'

'Sofia Strange.' Clea nodded. 'Our kind, in the Dark Dimension, don't have last names. She has yours. So then… then I sent her to Earth with one of the rebels.'

'Who?' asked Stephen. 'Rahl? Synth? Epoch? Deryn?'

'Vesper.'

'Vesper.'

'Who's Vesper?' asked Jericho.

'Someone I thought died a long time ago,' said Stephen, sourly.

'Vesper was of my closest friends from the Dark Dimension,' said Clea, ignoring Stephen. 'We studied magic together with the Mhuruuks. In fact, she was a Mhurruk. And now she is the last of them.'

'I'd forgotten the Mhuruuks were all but slaughtered,' said Stephen.

'I didn't,' said Clea. 'And Vesper… she doesn't know.'

'Do you know where Vesper took Sofia?' asked Jericho.

Clea shook her head. 'No. And I put a spell on Sofia to stop her from being found. By Dormammu. By Umar. And… and Stephen, by you.'

'Why?' asked Stephen, trying to keep his composure.

'I couldn't risk you going into the Dark Dimension to make everything worse.'

'I wouldn't have made anything worse -'

'You already made this situation worse by bringing out my true form. That's… that's just you, Stephen. You can never let a sleeping bear lie. You must poke it and poke it and poke it, antagonise it. And Vishanti knows it always ends up in a fight.'

Jericho hummed.

'What - what was that?'

'Stephen, I'm inclined to agree with Clea here,' said Jericho. 'When you get an idea in your head, you're like a German shepherd on a t-bone steak. You won't let it go.'

'I am not,' Stephen argued.

'If you were not, you wouldn't be Sorcerer Supreme,' said Jericho. 'It's one of your best and your worst qualities.'

'She should have told me about my child's existence - I had a right to know -'

'To Clea, please.'

'Clea,' said Stephen. 'Why didn't you tell me about my daughter's existence? We were married at the time.'

'We were married, yes,' said Clea, 'but you were always off fighting someone or other. Mephisto. Nightmare. Shuma Gorath. Mordo. Yourself.'

'What's that supposed to mean?'

'You have demons, Stephen. And then… Stephen, you cheated on me. And expected me to forgive that? You - I loved you. I still love you. We have a child together, for Oshtur's sake!'

'You cheated on me too, don't forget!'

Jericho put his head in his hand. This was not going the way he expected. Then again, he didn't know what he expected when he decided to mediate between the belligerent Sorcerers Supreme. But, somehow, their arguments always had to come back to this.

'I don't want to hear about Benjamin Franklin again,' he said. 'That event happened before I was born.'

'But -'

Jericho waved his hand. 'No, Stephen.'

'You know what? I haven't seen Sofia since she was born either,' said Clea. 'You think this was such an easy decision for me. It really wasn't. I didn't hide Sofia to hurt you - I did it to protect her. We do dangerous things, Stephen. We always end up hurt or worse in our duties to our dimensions. If Sofia finds us, great. If not…' she sighed. 'If not, then we have to live with that.'

'Did you want her?' asked Stephen. 'Did you want to have a child?'

'I-I… that is not a fair question to ask!' Clea snapped. 'Of course I didn't want to bring a child into a world ruled by a ruthless tyrant that they're related to - not that Earth is that much better.'

'So not terminate the pregnancy if you didn't want a child?'

The conversation had taken yet another turn he hadn't expected and so Jericho sat anxiously, gripping the Staff of Legba just that little bit tighter.

'You try getting an abortion in the Dark Dimension!' Clea half-laughed bitterly. 'And if I did, we'd still be having this conversation only it'd be "why did you abort my child, Clea"?' she said, imitating Stephen's voice. 'Since you're so upset about this, did you want a child? Did you want to cut short your battles with D'Spayre so you could feed a hungry child? Did you want to stop your battles with Baron Mordo to attend to a baby? Did you want to let the baby die because you were too busy stopping Satannish conquering Earth?'

Instinctively, Stephen brought his hands to the Eye of Agamotto.

Jericho tapped Stephen's hand with his staff. 'No, Stephen. Answer Clea.'

Stephen inhaled deeply. 'No. I didn't want a child,' he said honestly. 'I-I couldn't, still can't, see myself as a father. Fathers are supposed to be there for their kids - tuck them in at night, read them stories, encourage their creativity - all the things my father never did for me. And all the things I could never do because I'm too busy dealing with the magical fate of this universe. There's a reason very few Avengers or X-Men have children. Look at what happened to Scott Summers and Jean Grey's son.'

'Why?' asked Clea 'What happened to -'

'It's complicated,' said Jericho.

'The short version is when he was a year old, he got kidnapped, injected with a lethal disease, and was sent to the future where he came back a fifty year old cyborg. And then there's Illyana. I know she isn't Colossus' daughter, she's his sister, but she was kidnapped too. By Belasco in Limbo. And she came back much older as well. I don't want that fate for any kid of mine.'

Clea swallowed hard. She'd almost forgotten about what happened to Illyana. 'Nor me,' she said.

'So… what do we do?' asked Stephen. 'We can't let Dormammu come here to take the child - our child.'

'We… Stephen, we have to find her,' said Clea. 'I told you you needed to protect her. But you stayed here with me instead. We've lost time. If Dormammu gets Sofia, he won't just kidnap her, he'll kill her. I would have died fighting him had it not been for Umar's intervention.'

'Umar?' Stephen was genuinely shocked by that revelation.

'She hates me, Stephen, but she is also my mother and she can't bring herself to end my life,' said Clea.

Stephen nodded. Yes. He remembered other occasions Clea fought Umar and it hadn't been to the death. Dormammu on the other hand…

'You said she's with Vesper, right?' he asked. 'So then where's Vesper?'

'That's the problem, Stephen. She could be anywhere on Earth. Or it's stars.'

'You don't know where Vesper took our child?' Stephen shook his head. 'A plus parenting, Clea.'

'I'm not going to take shit off you from a decision I had to make alone.'

'Only because you didn't even think to-to even astral project to me and say "hey, Stephen, I'm stuck in the Dark Dimension and I've just had your baby. I'm sending it away for its own protection, oh and it's a girl by the way". What is so hard about that?'

'I couldn't tell you because you would come to the Dark Dimension and jeopardise all I've worked for. You of all people know it's not easy being a Sorcerer Supreme.' Clea turned to Jericho. 'And you know this as well.'

Jericho nodded. 'I do. And it is not.'

Stephen said nothing. He was angry, upset, hurt - but he pushed it all down. He had to find that kid before Dormammu did. So he stood up and the Cloak of Levitation draped itself over his shoulders once more.

'Where are you going?' asked Clea.

'To find our daughter. This conversation isn't over. But there's a danger. And as Earth's Sorcerer Supreme -'

'You're doing your duty to your home dimension. This. This is exactly why we couldn't raise Sofia ourselves. This is why I sent her away.'

Stephen walked towards the door and shook his head. He opened his mouth to say something, but thought better of it and walked away.

Jericho stood up from his chair. 'You know, I thought that went well,' he said. 'I'll head home, see what I can scry. Don't worry. We will find Sofia before Dormammu does.'

'I hope so, Jericho,' said Clea. 'I really do.'

'So what do you need help with?' asked Tony.

'What makes you think I need help?' asked Stephen.

'Because you don't usually come to me unless you have a problem magic can't solve. And Spider-Man already told me you RSVP'd "no" to my Halloween bash. So. What do you want?'

'There's this girl -'

'Ah.' Tony smirked. 'You need romantic advice.' He put his arm around Stephen's shoulder. 'I'd be more than willing to help out my facial hair bro.'

'Tony, the girl is my daughter.'

The smile vanished from Tony's face as he tried to process Stephen Strange being a father. 'Wh… what? When - Stephen, when did this happen?'

'Somehow, before you became Iron Man. She's fifteen.'

'Whoa. Why didn't you tell us you had a kid?'

'Because I only found out last night.'

'Wow. That's… that's rough, buddy. So who'd you have a kid with? Don't tell me it's the Night Nurse?'

'No. With my wife.'

The shock on Tony's face was palpable. 'Holy shit, you had a kid with Clea? While you two were married? And she didn't tell you?' He shook his head, still trying to understand. 'Oh. Jesus Christ. That's messed up, man.'

'Tony, Clea and I are still married. We-we separated, but we never divorced.'

'So you want my help locating your kid.'

'I know you have access to all things technological. Unfortunately, as I am now ninety-one years old, I'm rather technologically illiterate.'

'Ah, that explains why you don't have email,' said Tony. 'You know I always thought it was because magic and technology didn't go together, but -'

'Tony, I have email. And a cell phone. And a tablet. And a PS4.'

'Wait, really?'

'Magic doesn't interfere with technology, and vice versa. This is not a "cell phone radio waves interfering with ground control towers on planes" situation.'

'You're quite knowledgeable.'

'Of course I'm knowledgable, I'm ninety.'

'Ninety years old and you have a fifteen year old daughter. Nice one, my facial hair bro.'

'For the last time, I am not your facial hair bro. Just because you're a millennial, doesn't give you the right to -'

'Whoa, boomer, no need to go there.'

'I'm not a boomer, I'm silent generation. And my daughter, who I need you to find, is generation alpha.'

'I can try and find her, Stephen,' said Tony, turning to his computer. 'What's her name?'

'Sofia,' said Stephen. 'Sofia Strange. S-O-F-I-A.'

'Sofia Strange,' Tony repeated, typing on his computer keypad. 'Okay. I'll run a thorough search for all Stranges and all Sofias.'

'I need this to be a worldwide search.'

Tony looked from his computer and raised an eyebrow. 'Worldwide?'

Stephen shook his head. 'I don't know where Clea sent her. Just that it was this dimension. I've already been in touch with Nova and I'm going to get in touch with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, the Annihilators, the Starjammers, and my good friend the Silver Surfer. I need to look into whether Sofia could've landed anywhere else. On any other planet.'

Tony's face hardened. 'Stephen. This is serious, isn't it?'

'Considering Dormammu could tear up an innocent planet looking for my daughter, yes it's pretty fucking serious. Dormammu's already knocked Clea out for almost a day. What could he do to a teenage girl?'

Tony looked at Stephen and glanced away. 'I'll call you with the results of my search.'

'Please. Please take this as seriously as you take your duties as Iron Man,' said Stephen as he left the room.

'You got it,' Tony muttered.

Spider-Man was sitting on a rooftop, letting his legs swing freely. Stephen was levitating cross legged beside him.

'Peter.'

'Yeah.'

'Peter, seriously.'

'Yeah, Doc, I'm listening.'

'There's a girl,' said Stephen. 'I… you're the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. I need to know if you've ever met anyone in your neighbourhood who looks like me or Clea, but is a teenage girl who answers to the name of Sofia.'

Peter frowned and shook his head. 'Not that I can think of, Doc. Why'd you ask? Multiverse trouble? I know all about that, believe me.'

'No, Peter,' said Stephen. 'I'm not having any multiversal issues.'

'You said you'd lost a girl who looks like you and…' Peter's eyes widened under his mask and he gasped as realisation hit him. 'You and Clea have a child!' he hissed loudly. 'Oh my god!'

Stephen looked down at the street below him. 'It's true. I've got a daughter with Clea. I-I only found out yesterday. When Clea told me. Remember last night I said "something big must be happening"? Well, I think this is it.'

'Oh. What makes you think that?' asked Peter.

'Because Clea and I are in a race to find our child before Dormammu comes here to rip this realm apart bit by bit to find her.'

'… That's heavy, Doc.'

'No, that's Dormammu,' said Stephen. 'Look. I need your help finding her - my daughter.' That still felt weird and foreign to say. This time yesterday he didn't have any kids and now he had a teenage daughter. 'If you do come across a teenage girl named Sofia who looks like either me or Clea and is accompanied by a sorcerer, please, let me know.'

'Yeah, of course. I'll keep a look out, but how did this happen? How could you not know until yesterday? Why would Clea keep a secret like that? I've known her for the past fifteen years - it's so out of character for her.'

'I'm thinking neither of us have known her properly for that time,' said Stephen. 'Sofia, our daughter, is fifteen years old.'

'Damn,' Peter said. 'But how did it happen?'

Stephen shook his head. 'I don't know.'

'And how did you only find out yesterday?'

'I don't know.'

'Why would Clea -'

'Peter, I don't know,' said Stephen. 'All I know is that I need to find my kid.'

Peter nodded. 'I'll ask around Queens.'

Stephen's phone rumbled in his pocket, saw it was from Tony, and so answered it.

'Stephen.'

'Yeah.'

'I've searched all over. I can't find anyone named Sofia Strange. There are Sofia Stranges, but none that are fifteen years old.'

'You're sure?' asked Stephen.

'Positive,' said Tony. 'I'm sorry.'

'It's fine, it's fine. Thank you,' said Stephen. He hung up and put his phone back in his pocket.

'You okay, Stephen?' asked Peter, noticing the change in Stephen's mood.

'No. Yeah. Yes, I'm fine,' Stephen lied. He figured the reason Tony couldn't find Sofia was because of Clea's spell. Or perhaps Vesper had changed Sofia's name for her own safety. 'I have to go back to the Sanctum.'

'Oh. Okay,' Peter said. 'I'll keep an eye out for your kid.'

'Thank you.' Stephen flew away.

Peter stood up and stretched his arms. 'Oh man.' He shook his head. 'Doc.'

Back at the Sanctum Sanctorum, Stephen paced the floor of his living room, the Cloak of Levitation floating innocuously in the corner.

'I don't understand it, Wong,' said Stephen.

'There's nothing to understand, Stephen,' said Wong, who was sitting in an armchair, reading a book.

'There's a lot to understand,' said Stephen. 'Clea told me I had a kid. She said her name was Sofia Strange. But Sofia Strange doesn't exist. Tony Stark can't find her, the Guardians of the Galaxy can't find her, Nova can't find her, Captain Marvel, the Silver Surfer - why would Clea lie? Why would she tell me I have a kid if I don't?'

'Just because you can't find your daughter, doesn't mean she doesn't exist,' said Wong.

Stephen grunted and kept pacing.

'Spider-Man is looking. The Starjammers are looking. Illyana is looking. Daimon, Chondu, Wanda, Jericho, Clea, Zelma - Stephen. Just because a few people failed. We will find her. I'm sure of it.'

'I hope so,' said Stephen.

'Is there anywhere I should go to look?'

'Kamar-Taj,' said Stephen. 'Can you look in Tibet?'

Wong nodded. 'Of course, Stephen. I'll go right away. I know time is of the essence.'

While Wong headed to Kamar-Taj, Stephen headed to the library to do some meditation. Normally, he would go to his meditating room, the innermost room of the Sanctum, but he wanted to be around his books. He needed to, just in case there was a way to break Clea's spell and it was in one of those books.

Time and time again that night, Stephen was interrupted by someone saying they couldn't find Sofia or Sofia didn't exist. Stephen was half thinking Sofia was dead, but if that were the case, someone would still be able to find her death records.

When he was interrupted for the nth time, by a call from Zelma, he was expecting her to have not found her.

'Stephen. It's me. I'm in New Orleans,' said Zelma.

'Yes, I know. I sent you there,' said Stephen.

'I've found your daughter.'

Stephen's heart stopped and he felt all his breath leaving his body. 'In New Orleans?'

'Yes, in New Orleans! But you have to know -'

'What?'

'There was an incident. One of Dormammu's Dark Dimension goons came after her.'

'What happened?' asked Stephen. He was full of concern for the girl and for Zelma.

'The woman your daughter was with - she died.'

'And Sofia?'

'Safe with Rintrah. They're at your magic school.'

'I'm on my way,' said Stephen.

Clea was possessed in the 70s and turned into a Faltine form. She did it again just last month and that time she wasn't even possessed. Being half-Faltine, it's a headcanon that she can just channel this form when under duress. And yes - this is the form Bats saw back in Chapter 1!
Clea learned magic from Stephen, yes. But she already had some knowledge of the mystic arts before she was his apprentice - she had to have learned somewhere, from someone, for some reason.
If a Marvel year is five of ours thanks to the floating timeline, then yeah, Sofia would've been born the time the Fantastic Four had that space flight.
Rahl and Synth are the names of actual Dark Dimension rebels. Epoch and Deryn are not - epoch just means era and Deryn is Welsh for bird. They just felt like Dark Dimension names.
Clea Strange x Benjamin Franklin was a thing. I can't believe it was a thing, but yes, it was. Stephen mentions it in a Deadpool book, so I can imagine he's still salty about it, even though he's not really any better.
The abortion thing is nothing to do with what's going on in America. I'm not American. I just wrote that bit to show that Sofia was an accident, but Clea still loved her and wanted the best for her.
Oh yeah. Scott Summers and Jean Grey's son. If you don't know Cable and need to waste a day, I suggest you try and learn his backstory. Key word is "try".
If you're here from the MCU, this is not the MCU so Tony Stark doesn't know that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, hence how he refers to him as Spider-Man. Stephen on the other hand has the all seeing Eye of Agamotto and knows pretty much everyone's secret identity. Plus him and Peter are tight buds.
And yes, Tony is only around 35 in the comics, making him a millennial!
The magic school Zelma mentioned? It's not Hogwarts, it's Strange Academy - the school for sorcerers Stephen and Jericho established.