Agamotto (A Marvel FanFic)

3 - Stephen

"THE EVIL COWARDLY SPIDER-MAN!" J. Jonah Jameson shouted as the web-slinger himself flew past Stephen's head. A young boy snapped a picture, then turned to him.

"Because I'm Peter Parker? So cast a new spell," he said.

"What?"

"But this time, make everyone forget who Peter Parker is."

"Forget-- what are you talking about?"

"Me."

"Stephen!"

Strange jerked awake. His room in the Sanctum was still dark, his curtains closed tightly. "Yes?" he said in a strangled yell. Wong had awoken him.

"I've feeling something, someone coming through from another universe. I'm going to investigate."

"Yes, of course," Stephen said practically falling out of his bed.

"You look terrible," Wong told him as he stood up.

"Thanks, really," Stephen said, pushing past him to the bathroom.

"The dreams again? The Daily Bugle reporter? And Spider-Man?" Stephen nodded, toothbrush in his mouth. "What did he say this time?"

"Something about casting a spell to make everyone forget him," Stephen said, going back into his room and dressing, the cloak resting itself on his shoulders.

"Explains why we don't know him," Wong said, slipping a sling ring on his fingers and starting to open a gateway. "HEY!" he shouted at the coat whipping around the corner, and he jumped through.

Stephen made himself a cup of coffee in the kitchen and went out to the steps of the Sanctum. This Peter Parker was beginning to worry him. The dreams had all been the same, JJJ shouting about Spider-Man, him swinging around, and Peter Parker, the Daily Bugle reporter, as Stephen had Googled. The Daily Bugle reporter that had the most content on Spider-Man, even an interview which was quite illuminating.

It was only when the mailman handed him three envelopes and a small package that quivered in his hand did Stephen realize that it was nearly two o'clock in the afternoon.

A young man in a long green coat dashed past the steps, followed by Wong. "Stop him!"

The boy tripped on a chunk of ice, still not melted, and Stephen took the opportunity to open a gateway on the ground, which he fell right through.

"Where did you send him?"

Stephen pointed back at the house. "Guest bedroom, I'll go talk to him."

***

"Of course you can stay with us, Roy," Stephen said, mounting the stairs in the foyer of the Sanctum. "Besides, we don't want the Agamotto staying anywhere else. Right here," he opened the door to the same room he'd portaled him to.

"What's the matter, Stephen?"

"What?"

"Something's on your mind, I can feel it," Roy said, looking him right in the eyes.

Stephen sighed. "I've been having dreams about Spider-Man and a reporter called Peter Parker."

Roys eyes widened. "If you're clarevoiant about him, you should go talk to him."

"Really?"

"Yeah," Roy shut the door with a snap. It was odd for Stephen to be taking advice from an eighteen year-old. It's just the body that's eighteen, he thought, he's millions of years old.

***

A quick locator spell told Stephen where Peter Parker lived, so he discreetly opened a gateway directly into his apartment, and in one fell swoop discovered his secret. The suit so famously worn by Spider-Man way hanging in the kitchen of the small, one room apartment.

Stephen sat down at the table, and just in time too, the lock clicked, but Peter didn't see him right away, because he turned right around to lock it again.

"Peter Parker?"

Then he did turn around, and he was stunned. "Oh my God."

"I was hoping we could talk, Mr. Parker."

"Yeah, yeah, tottally-- holy-- er, that's fake. It's just... cosplay," Peter stammered, pointing at the Spider-Man costume.

"You're a terrible liar, Mr. Parker. But don't worry. I have nothing to gain and everything to lose by telling your secret."

Peter sort of slumped dejectedly. He put his bag on his bed and sat down opposite Stephen.

"Mr. Parker--"

"Call me Peter. Please."

"Peter, I am Dr. Stephen Strange, a Master of the Mystic Arts--"

"I know who you are, sir."

Stephen looked taken aback. "That explains a lot-- you have no idea, Peter. I've been having dreams, the same thing over and over. Your boss, J. Jonah, shouting about Spider-Man, then Spider-Man swings by, and you snap a picture of him, and you always say things to me. The first time you said something along the lines of, 'We're using fake names?' then I woke up. Then you said that, 'It's been five years?'. This morning, however, you told me to cast a spell that would make everyone forget you. Did that really happen?"

Peter nodded.

"Would you please explain this to me?"

Peter shifted awkwardly. "After Tony Stark died, he left me E.D.I.T.H.-- it stands for Even Dead I'm The Hero. It's the Stark Industries AR security program-- I've been trying to recreate it, it was confiscated by Damage Control. I felt that I couldn't handle the responsibility, so gave E.D.I.T.H. to Quinten Beck, who was pretending to be Mysterio."

"Ah-- I remember that," Stephen nodded.

"He died, shot by his own drone, but he had edited together a video to make it look like I killed him-- Mysterio, and did the attacks with the drones. He leaked it, and everyone knew that I was Spider-Man. It was horrible, and it put horrible strain on my friends and family. I went to you to cast a spell to make the world forget that I was Spider-Man, but I kinda messed it up, interrupted you while you were casting it.

"The botched spell started pulling other people who knew I was Spider-Man from other universes here, to this one. We had a whole battle because you wanted to send them back to their universes where they would die, and I wanted to do the right thing.

"Anyway, after a whole lot of shit--" he covered his mouth. "I am so sorry, sir, I didn't--"

Stephen held up a hand. "It's fine, Peter, I let them slip all the time."

"So, after a lot of stuff, we ended up at the Statue of Liberty, and we fought the people who didn't want to go back but we were trying to help them and... and then one of them broke your cube and broke the walls of reality, or something, and the only way to everyone who knew that Peter Parker is Spider-Man from coming through was to erase Peter Parker all together. And you did. And I was forgotten by everyone."

Stephen let out the breath that he had been holding. "Do you regret it?"

"Every time I people I knew, every time I pass her apartment, every time I see his grandmother at the market, every time I'm at the cemetery, and May's gravestone doesn't' read Loving Aunt--" his voice caught in his throat.

Stephen sighed, and stood up, pulling a small paper card out of his pocket. "Tomorrow after work, why don't you stop by this address?"

He moved his hand in a circular fashion, and a circle of sparks lit up in the corner, looking into a fancy house. "Goodbye, Peter."

Only when the portal close did Peter look at the card.

STEPHEN STRANGE

177A BLEECKER STREET, GREENWICH VILLAGE