Little

Chapter 17

Kaecilius continued to mumble, but Stephen couldn't understand him, since part of the metal skeleton thing was covering his mouth. Stephen took it off, only to discover he was mumbling gibberish.

"Oh, stop it," he told Kaecilius. But Kaecilius kept chanting and saying weird things. "I said stop it!" Stephen said again.

"You cannot stop this, Mr. Doctor," Kaecilius said.

Peter burst out laughing. "Mister Doctor!" he said, giggling. "That's not right!"

Stephen motioned for him to quiet down, which Peter did with an apologetic face. "Sorry," he muttered under his breath.

"Look, I don't even know what 'this' is," he told Kaecilius.

"It's the end," Kaecilius replied. "And the beginning. The many becoming the few, becoming the One."

"Look, if you're not going to start making sense," Stephen said, wielding the thing that had covered Kaecilius' mouth.  "I'm just going to have to put this thing back on."

"Tell me, Mr. Doctor," Kaecilius started to say. But by this point, Stephen had had enough.

"Alright," he said, mentally facepalming yet again. "My name is Dr. Stephen Strange."

Kaecilius seemed to find this useful. "You are a doctor?"

"Yes," Stephen said. Finally, someone acknowledged him as a doctor, which hadn't happened in months.

"A scientist," Kaecilius, which wasn't exactly correct, but Kaecilius seemed to think nothing of it. "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."

Stephen could tolerate a lot, but this was too much. "That's it, I'm putting this thing back on." He held the metal thing in his hands and moved to put it back on, but was stopped.

"This world doesn't have to die, Doctor," Kaecilius said. "This world can take its rightful place among so many others, as part of the One. The great and beautiful One. And we can all live forever."

"Really?" Stephen said, slightly sarcastically. Seemed legit. Maybe he would listen to a bit more. "What do you have to gain out of this New Age dimensional utopia?"

"The same as you," Kaecilius said. "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."

"What about the people you killed?" Stephen said. When he said this, he spoke for the old librarian, master of the London sanctum, and Master Drumm, and who knows how much more.

"Tiny, momentary specks within an indifferent universe," Kaecilius said, nonchalantly. Those were the exact words Stephen had said to the Ancient One when he first came to Kamar-Taj.

Was that a coincidence, or had he known?

 Kaecilius misunderstood Stephen's expression and took it as understanding. "Yes. You see, you see what we're doing?" Kaecilius said. "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," he continued. "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."

That was a point Stephen could definitely disagree on. "The Sorcerer Supreme defends existence," he said.

Kaecilius gave him a sorry smile.  "What was it that brought you to Kamar-Taj, Doctor?" he asked. "Was it enlightenment? Power?"

Stephen clenched and unclenched his shaky hands, as he knew none of those were correct. He had come to be healed and instead learned the real-world equivalent of wingardium leviosa.

"You came to be healed, as did we all," Kaecilius said. "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?"

Stephen knew. "I...saw the rituals in the Book of Cagliostro," he said slowly.

Kaecilius smiled. "So, you do know," he said. "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."

That was it. Stephen was done listening to his hocus-pocus. "No. I mean, come on," he said aloud. "Look at your face. Dormammu made you a murderer. Just how good can his kingdom be?"

Kaecilius started to smile, even chuckle a bit.

"What, you think that's funny?" Stephen said.

"No," Kaecilius said. "No, Doctor. What's funny is that you've lost your sling ring."

Indeed, when Stephen looked down, his sling ring was gone from where it was with him. Had Peter stolen it?

He turned to look at Peter, on his left. Peter shrugged. When he turned, his back Kaecilius, to see if it had fallen, he didn't see anything.

Then something pierced his chest.

Peter screamed.