Mercury // S. Rogers (Book Four) ✔

Sanctum Sanctorum

Freya's eyes go wide when she hears his name. She instantly recognizes it.

"Stephen Strange," she repeats.

"Uh, yeah. That's what I just said," he says with a hint of annoyance. She lets out a laugh and brings her hands to her head.

"Okay, this is actually super trippy."

"And why would it be 'super trippy?'" he asks. His annoyance easily identifiable at this point.

"Oh, right. Sorry. Uh, just over a couple years back during the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. in DC, one of the high ranking HYDRA officers mentioned your name. They were working on a project that predicted future threats for them. People that would oppose them. "

"My name was mentioned?" he asks. His annoyance instantly replaced with curiosity.

"Mhm," she hums. Strange looks down, deep in thought. He suddenly looks back up at her.

"Would you like to come inside and talk some more?"

"Sure, that'd be great," Freya nods. She waits for him to lead her to the door that's near. Instead, her eyes go wide when he creates an orange-rimmed portal made of sparks that leads straight inside. "You're kidding..." she gasps. She walks forward and inspects it before looking at him. "What are you?" For the first time, he actually smiles and nods his head at the portal.

"Step inside. We'll talk."

Freya cautiously steps through the portal and finds herself in a large lounge. Strange steps up next to her and the portal behind them disappears while she looks around. The place is extremely beautiful. It also looks way bigger on the inside than it actually is on the outside.

"Where are we?" she whispers unnecessarily.

"The Sanctum Sanctorum," he replies with a hint of amusement.

"It's beautiful," she breathes out.

"It is," he smiles and nods. "Just, please, don't touch anything. Certain objects in this place are quite fatal."

"Okay, seriously, what the hell are you?" she asks with wide eyes.

"I'm a master of the mystic arts."

"So..." she thinks for a moment. "Dimensional manipulation, astral projection, illusions, reality manipulation, and obviously magic...?"

"That and much more, yes," he smiles genuinely, impressed with her intelligence.

"Huh," she hums before starting to walk around. "How long have you been at this?"

"Uh, not very long actually. I'm still learning things. But, I did have a great teacher. So, you said that this man you've been seeing in your nightmares gave you some of your powers?" Strange looks at her curiously as she walks around.

"Yeah, he used a gem called the Mind Stone. Not exactly sure which powers it gave me. But I'm pretty sure telekinesis and part of my telepathy fall into that category." She sits down on one of the couches and shrugs.

"Wait, the Mind Stone?" Strange freezes.

"Mhm," Freya nods.

"One of the Infinity Stones?" he presses.

"Uh, yeah," she tilts her head. "How do you know that?" He sits on the couch next to her and holds up a large locket around his neck.

"Because what I wear around my neck in the Eye of Agamotto is also an Infinity Stone. The Time Stone."

"Seriously? There's another one of those things on Earth?" she blinks in shock.

"Another on Ear- There's another one?" his eyes widen.