Rough Path to Memory Square - Doctor Strange x Reader (Earth 838)

20. A Man Without Love

You see America already in the yard, she looks a bit tired or sad, but joyful nonetheless.

"Morning, Miss Chavez" you greet her and her face lights up.

"Hey, y/n!" she waves to you. Stephen and Wong walk up to you, faces sorrowful.

"Well, ready to go?" Stephen asks and you turn around to see him smiling sadly.

"Who can ever be ready?" you answer, feeling tears in your eyes once again.

"Earth 838, if that helps," you say to America and she nods, rolling up the sleeves of her jacket and concentrating.

"Goodbye, Master Wong." you nod to him, be smiles and motions for you to hug him.

The hug is short but he manages to say in your ear, "good luck, y/n."

You pull away and watch America punch the bright blue portal. You turn to Stephen and see tears running down his cheeks. You can't control your waterfall and run to hug him one last time. "Goodbye, y/n," he says, hugging you stronger than before. You completely melt in his embrace but the time is running out.

"I love you," you whisper, pulling away, and touching his face. With your thumb, you wipe his tears and slowly kiss his cheek. You taste his salty tears on your lips and almost control yourself from sobbing. He understands that this confession is not for him, it's for your Stephen, but he welcomes it nonetheless.

You pull away from his grasp and hurry towards the portal. "Visit me some time, yeah?" you ask America and she nods, secretly looking at two sorcerers behind you. "Okay" you whisper to yourself and turn back to look at Strange one last time, shooting him a smile. He smiles back sadly.

You step through the star-shaped portal on the roof of some building. The familiar air engulfs you, and you smile to yourself. How much you've missed your universe is an indescribable feeling.

"Oh, home sweet home," you say to yourself but America hears you too. You turn around and see her standing shily, hands behind her back. "I thought you'll be staying with Stephen."

"Oh, we thought that you might need some company. Even for a little bit." she smiles.

"I feel like we're divorced parents with child custody" you mutter to yourself and put on a sling ring. "Ready to go?" you ask, already opening a portal to Sanctum.

"Yeah, let's go," she says and eagerly goes after you.

The Sanctum looks still the same as it did 2 days ago. The broken cups on the floor and the already dried stain of spilt tea. It's quiet, and maybe for the first time in years, you feel welcomed here.

"Mordo?" you shout. No answer. So he's probably still at the Illuminati quarters.

"I have a feeling that we have to visit that weird place again." America sighs.

"You're not wrong again. Kay, brace yourself, I don't think the view is going to be pleasant." you open a portal to the main part of the Illuminati building and turning back around, say, "unless you want to stay here until I come back. I'll understand."

"No, it's okay, I'm going." she puts her head up and catches up with you in a minute. "Holy shit," she says shocked. The room is completely destroyed, Ultron bots, or what's left of them, scattered on the floor.

"Holy shit indeed," you say back, going a bit further to another room. There, employees in white lab coats are lying dead in their pools of blood, some of them on the floor, others - awkwardly leaning on their work tables. The whole building is silent, and you feel like you're in a bad horror movie. Going into another room, or a little hall, you see bodies of the Earth's greatest Defenders. Charles - awkwardly lying in his yellow car machine, Peggy - literally cut in half and her shield stuck in the column. Maria - lying under a pile of bricks; Black Bolt lying with his head squashed and some blue material that you almost recognize as all that was left from Reed.