Strange continues his training with Mordo.
Dr. Strange: So, just how ancient is she?
Mordo: No one knows the age of the Sorcerer Supreme. Only that she is Celtic and never talks about her past.
Dr. Strange: You follow her even though you don't know?
Mordo: I know that she's steadfast, but unpredictable. Merciless, yet kind. She made me what I am. Trust your teacher. And don't lose your way.
Dr. Strange: Like Kaecilius?
Mordo: That's right.
Dr. Strange: You knew him.
Mordo: When he first came to us, he'd lost everyone he ever loved. He was a grieving, broken man, searching for answers in the mystic arts. A brilliant student, but he was proud, headstrong. Questioned the Ancient One, rejected our teaching. He left Kamar-Taj. His disciples followed him like sheep seduced by false doctrine.
Dr. Strange: He stole the forbidden ritual, right?
Mordo: Yeah.
Dr. Strange: What did it do?
Mordo: No more questions.
Dr. Strange: What's that?
Mordo: That's a question. This is a relic. Some magic is too powerful to sustain, so we imbue objects with it. Allowing them to take the strain we can not. This is the Staff of the Living Tribunal. There are many relics. The Wand of Watoomb. The Bolting Boots of Voltor.
Dr. Strange: They just roll off the tongue, don't they? When do I get my relic?
Mordo: When you're ready.
Dr. Strange: I think I'm ready.
Mordo: You're ready when the relic decides you're ready. For now, conjure a weapon. Fight! Fight like your life depended on it! Because one day, it may.
Strange is in his room using the laptop.
Dr. Strange writes: Christine I'm emailing you one more time to . . .
Sometime later, Strange returns to the libary, but Wong is absent.
Dr. Strange: Wong?
He discovers the Eye of Agamotto and curiosity gets the best of him.
Dr. Strange: Okay. First, open the Eye of Agamotto. All right. Oh my.
Strange discovers he can shift time with the Eye of Agamotto. It enables him to see the missing page from the book.
Dr. Strange: Dormammu. The Dark Dimension. Eternal life.
Mordo: [bursting in] Stop!!! Tampering with the continuum of probability is forbidden!
Dr. Strange: I was just doing exactly what it said in the book!
Wong: And what did the book say about the dangers of performing that ritual?
Dr. Strange: Yeah, I don't know. I hadn't gotten to that part yet.
Mordo: Temporal manipulations can create branches in time. Unstable dimensional openings. Spacious paradoxes! Time loops! You want to get stuck reliving the same moment over, and over, forever, or never having existed at all?
Dr. Strange: They really should put the warnings before that stuff.
Wong: Your curiosity could have gotten you killed. You weren't manipulating the space-time continuum, you were wrecking it. We do not tamper with natural law. We defend it.
Mordo: How did you learn to do that? Where did you learn the litany of spells required to even understand it?
Dr. Strange: I've got a photographic memory. It's how I got my M.D. and Ph.D. at the same time.
Mordo: What you just did takes more than a good memory. You were born for the mystic arts.
Dr. Strange: And yet, my hands still shake.
Mordo: For now, yes.
Dr. Strange: Not forever?
Mordo: We're not prophets.
Dr. Strange: When do you start telling me what we are?
Wong: While heroes like the Avengers protect the world from physical dangers, we sorcerers safeguard it against more mystical threats. The Ancient One is the latest in a long line of Sorcerers Supreme. Going back thousands of years to the father of the mystic arts, the mighty Agamotto.
The same sorcerer who created the eye you so recklessly borrowed. Agamotto built three sanctums in places of power, where great cities now stand. That door leads to the Hong Kong Sanctum, that door to the New York Sanctum. That one, to the London Sanctum. Together, the Sanctums generate a protective shield around our world.
Mordo: The Sanctums protect the world, and we sorcerers protect the Sanctums.
Dr. Strange: From what?
Wong: Other-dimensional beings that threaten our universe.
Dr. Strange: Like Dormammu?
Mordo: Where did you learn that name?
Dr. Strange: I just read it in the book of Cagliostro. Why?
Wong: Dormammu dwells in the Dark Dimension. Beyond time. He is the cosmic conquerer, the destroyer of worlds. A being of infinite power and endless hunger, on a quest to invade every universe and bring all worlds into his Dark Dimension. And he hungers for Earth most of all.
Dr. Strange: The pages that Kaecilius stole.
Wong: A ritual to contact Dormammu and draw power from the Dark Dimension.
Dr. Strange: Okay, I'm out. I came here to heal my hands, not to fight in some mystical war.
Kaecilius finally deciphers the stole spell and his group attacks the London sanctum, a plain building with a logo window.
Wong: London. Kaecilius!
Mordo: No!
Strange is blown back into a room he is unfamiliar with.
Dr. Strange: Wong? Mordo?
He stumbles outside and sees a sign that reads, 177A Bleecker Street. He realizes he has been sent to the New York sanctum. Strange returns inside.
Dr. Strange: Hello?
The building is deserted and at the end of a corridor, he finds three windows that turn out to be gateways to other places; you change the destination by turning a dial on the wall.
Dr. Strange: Hello?
As he wanders the sanctum looking at various artifacts, he notices a burgundy cloak in a glass case that moves as he looks at it. In the foyer, Kaecilius and his crew confront Daniel Drumm.
Kaecilius: Daniel, I see they've made you guardian of this Sanctum.
Drumm: You know what that means?
Kaecilius: That you'll die protecting it.
They begin fighting and Kaecilius stabs Drumm with a mystical blade. With Drumm badly wounded, Strange jumps into the fray.
Dr. Strange: Stop!
Kaecilius: How long have you been in Kamar-Taj, Mister . . . ?
Dr. Strange: Doctor.
Kaecilius: Mister Doctor?
Dr. Strange: It's Strange.
Kaecilius: Maybe, who am I to judge?
Kaecilius finishes off Drumm. They begin fighting and Strange seems to be overwhelmed, but he manages to get rid of two zealots using the gates. He picks up a brazier to use against Kaecilius.
Dr. Strange: Hah!
Kaecilius is alarmed and wary, then . . .
Kaecilius: You don't know how to use that, do you?
Dr. Strange: Ah . . .
Dr. Strange: What? You'll die here.
Strange hits him over the head with the brazier. Kaelicius is dominating Strange in battle. He knocks Strange into the glass case containing the burgundy cloak, freeing it. Kaecilius knocks Strange into the stairwell. The cloak, which seems to have some intelligence, dives down to Strange.
Stephen levitates upwards with the power of the cloak. His costume is now complete. Strange attempts to reach a battle axe, but the cloak is holding him back. It guides him to a relic hanging on the wall. Strange throws the relic at Kaecilius, entrapping and muzzling him. Kaecilius begins mumbling.
Dr. Strange: What?
Strange removes the muzzle.
Kaecilius: You'll die here.
Dr. Strange: Oh, stop it. I said, stop it!
Kaecilius: You cannot stop this, Mr. Doctor.
Dr. Strange: Look, I don't even know what "this" is.
Kaecilius: It's the end and the beginning. The many becoming the few, becoming the One.
Dr. Strange: Look, if you're not going to start making sense, I'm just going to have to put this thing back on.
Kaecilius: Tell me, Mr. Doctor.
Dr. Strange: Alright, look. My name is Dr. Stephen Strange.
Kaecilius: You are a doctor?
Dr. Strange: Yes.
Kaecilius: A scientist. You understand the laws of nature. All things age. All things die. In the end, our sun burns out, our universe grows cold and perishes. But the Dark Dimension, it's a place beyond time.
Dr. Strange: That's it. I'm putting this thing back on.
Kaecilius: This world doesn't have to die, Doctor. This world can take its rightful place along side so many others, as part of the One. The great and beautiful One. And we can all live forever.
Dr. Strange: Really? What do you have to gain out of this New Age dimensional utopia?
Kaecilius: The same as you. The same as everyone. Life. Eternal life. People think in terms of good and evil, but really, time is the true enemy of us all. Time kills everything.
Dr. Strange: What about the people you killed?
Kaecilius: Tiny, momentary specks within an indifferent universe. Yes. You see what we're doing? The world is not what it ought to be. Humanity longs for the eternal, for a world beyond time, because time is what enslaves us. Time is an insult. Death is an insult. Doctor, we don't seek to rule this world. We seek to save it, to hand it over to Dormammu, who is the intent of all evolution, the why of all existence.
Dr. Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme defends existence.
Kaecilius: What was it that brought you to Kamar-Taj, Doctor? Was it enlightenment? Power? You came to be healed, as did we all. Kamar-Taj is a place that collects broken things. We all come with the promise of being healed, but instead, the Ancient One gives us parlor tricks. The real magic she keeps for herself. Have you ever wondered how she managed to live this long?
Dr. Strange: I saw the rituals in the book of Cagliostro.
Kaecilius: So, you know. The ritual gives me the power to overthrow the Ancient One and tear her sanctums down, to let the Dark Dimension in. Because what the Ancient One hoards, Dormammu gives freely. Life, everlasting. He is not the destroyer of worlds, Doctor, he is the savior of worlds.
Dr. Strange: No. I mean, come on. Look at your face. Dormammu made you a murderer. Just how good can his kingdom be? You think that's funny?
Kaecilius: No, Doctor. What's funny is that you've lost your sling ring.
Strange has let his guard down, the third zealot, Lucian, revives and stabs Strange. He throws Strange down the stairs and approaches to finish him off, but the burgundy cloak wraps itself around Lucian, subduing him. Lucian loses his sling ring and Strange recovers it. Strange manages to open a gate and stagger into a mop closet in Christine's hospital.
Nurse: Sir, can I help you?
Dr. Strange: Dr. Palmer, where is she?
Nurse: Sir, we need to . . .
Dr. Strange: Where is she?
Nurse: At the nurses station.
Dr. Strange: Christine!
Christine: Stephen? Oh my god. What . . .
Dr. Strange: We need to get me on an operation table now. Just you. Now! I don't have any time!
Christine: What happened?
Dr. Strange: Stabbed. Cardiac tamponade.
Christine: What are you wearing? The chest cavity is clear.
Dr. Strange: The blood is in the pericardial sac.
Strange loses consciousness.
Christine: No. No, no, no! Stephen!
Stephen's astral body appears before Christine, scaring the crap out of her.
Dr. Strange: Just a little higher. Please be careful with the needle.
Christine: Stephen? Oh lord, what am I seeing?
Dr. Strange: My astral body.
Christine: Are you dead?
Dr. Strange: No, Christine, but I am dying.
Christine: Right. Yeah. All right. I've never seen a wound like this before. What were you stabbed with?
Dr. Strange: I don't know.
Back at the New York sanctum, Lucian is finally freed from the cape and makes his way to the hospital in his astral body. He quickly finds Strange.
Dr. Strange: I'm going to have to vanish now.
Christine: What?
Dr. Strange: Keep me alive, will you?
Christine: Okay! Okay. Oh shit! Charging to 200 Joule Stephen, come on.
The astral bodies of Strange and Lucian begin fighting. They are not visible to Christine, but she can tell something is going on and she's very spooked.
Christine: Oh shit!
She becomes alarmed when Stephen's physical body flat-lines. She carts over the mobile Defibrillator.
Christine: Charging to 200 Joule.
She hits his chest with the paddles and the jolt gives Stephen's astral body a boost in powers, blowing back Lucian.
Christine: Stephen, come on.
Stephen's astral body appears before Christine, scaring her once again.
Dr. Strange: Hit me again!
Christine: Stop doing that!
Dr. Strange: Up the voltage and hit me again.
Christine: No, your heart's beating!
Dr. Strange: Just do it!
Christine increases the unit to 360 Joule and zaps him again. The boost in power allows Strange to finally defeat Lucian.
Christine: Oh god! Are you ok?
Dr. Strange: Yeah.
While she sews up his wound, Strange tries to explain his recent events.
Christine: After all this time, you just show up here, flying out of your body?
Dr. Strange: Yeah, I know. I missed you too, by the way. I wrote 2 emails, but you never responded.
Christine: Why would I?
Dr. Strange: Christine, I am so, so sorry. For all of it. And you were right, I was a complete asshole. I treated you so horribly and you deserved so much more.
Christine: Stop. You're clearly in shock. I mean, what the hell is happening? Where have you been?
Dr. Strange: Well, after Western medicine failed me, I headed East, and I ended up in Kathmandu.
Christine: Kathmandu? What, like the Bob Seger song?
Dr. Strange: 1975, Beautiful Loser, side A. And then, I went to a place called Kamar-Taj and I talked to someone called the Ancient One, and . . .
Christine: Oh. So you joined a cult.
Dr. Strange: No, I didn't. Not exactly. I mean, they did teach me to tap into powers that I never even knew existed.
Christine: Yeah, that sounds like a cult.
Dr. Strange: It's not a cult.
Christine: Well, that's what a cultist would say.
Dr. Strange: Oh, no.
Christine: Wait, Stephen, what do you think you're doing?
Dr. Strange: I'm late for a cult meeting.
Christine: This is insane. Where are you going? Just tell me the truth?
Dr. Strange: Well, a powerful sorcerer, who gave himself over to an ancient entity who can bend the very laws of physics, tried very hard to kill me, but I left him chained up in Greenwich Village, and the quickest way back there is through a dimensional gateway that I opened up in the mop closet.
Christine: Okay. Don't tell me. Fine.
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