Chapter Text
The door of his study breezes open and Wong hisses at the sight of him. Stephen looks up from the three books he’s reading and touches gently at the wound above his brow. It’s bleeding again.
“Loki clobbered me with his stupid gold ceptre”
“Loki? Odin's son Loki?”
“The same one, he came to Earth through the Tesseract” It happened only the night before, he came back to the sanctum once it was done, splashed some water on his wound and proceeded to stay up all night trying to find a way to make sure Loki is never a problem again.
“Oh that's very bad. Where’s the cube? And Loki?”
“Nick Fury has it in a very secure Shield vault, I made sure he put it there. As for Loki, I sent him back through the portal he came out of. He’s an idiot, ‘I’m burdened with glorious purpose’” he mocks the man's voice, ending his interpretation with a huff. Glorious purpose or not, Stephen has a problem on his hands.
“You sound pretty annoyed”
“He said he’s going to bring an army Wong. And I don’t know what to do” he falls back into his chair so heavily the wind knocks out of him.
“From where? His own people wouldn’t attack Earth”
“I don’t know” he grits out, watching his hands as they shake twice the amount they usually do. He doesn’t know anything, Loki could be back in a fortnight with enough fighters to take down earth in ten minutes and he wouldn't have a clue.
“Oh I came in because I was downstairs and a guy called, he said he was Commander Stark”
“Commander? Of what, the clown police?”
“No of Shield” Wong says plainly. That makes sense, he’s on Fury’s radar now. “Do you know him?”
“Of course not, if I did I would know what he was the Commander of” he goes to turn the page of one of his books but retracts his hand when he remembers there’s blood on his fingers.
“You’re annoying this morning, get some sleep” that said, Wong returns to the doorway.
“I am trying to stop an army from invading earth Wong!”
“Let’s both do that, take a two hour nap first though”
Stephen takes a much needed shower and tends to his cut properly, disinfecting and slapping a plaster over it. In the mirror a tired man watches him, a man who hates not knowing and is suffering for it.
Loki is the first enemy he’s faced that instead of from another dimension is from another realm, and he has plenty of books at his disposal that cover the nine realms but the multiverse is so much more than that, he has to protect one little planet among a black sea of countless star systems. He’s no match for the infinite unknown.
Stephen tries to sleep, and it's a poor attempt, he doesn’t feel rested at all when he goes to find Wong in the artifact room. His only two friends, Wong and his cloak, notice it and don’t look very impressed. Regardless, he and Wong brainstorm. Stephen wouldn’t call it fruitful, they’re stumped on Loki’s motive for attacking earth and they have too many possible army choices, many of them baseless if they were to admit it to themselves.
The sound of a knock on the sanctum doors cuts the frustration growing on them. The two of them look at eachother, because no one just knocks on a Sanctum door. Sanctums are designed to be unseen to those who aren’t looking for them, and if they have a guest from the Masters they don’t come through the front doors.
Stephen leads the way, jogging down the stairs and stopping at the door. The Sanctum isn’t wringing any warning bells so he carefully opens the door, just a crack, enough to see who's on the other side. It’s a man, he looks normal enough, if a little obnoxious in a leather jacket and sunglasses. “Can I help you?”
“Are you Stephen Strange?”
“Who’s asking?”
The man reaches under his white top and shows him dog tags, the one with the Shield logo on it flips over in the wind and it has an A on the other side, with an arrow pointing down at the tail of the letter. “Commander Stark, Shield. Can I come in?”
Stephen looks back at Wong, who shrugs. “Shield knows about you now”
They do. Unfortunately. Stephen sighs, opens the door, and steps back.
Sunset floods the entry orange and Stark comes in with a wide step, as if he’s walking into his own house. He whips his glasses off and flashes a showman's smile, “You and I need to chat doctor”
“I’m a little busy, but please” Stephen commands the doors to swing shut and waits to hear what the king of clowns has to say.
“I watched the security footage from last night, you’re good”
“No I will not work for Shield” he had to say the same to Fury. Government regulation is the last thing he needs in his line of work.
Stark holds the arm of his glasses between his teeth, narrowing his eyes like he’s trying to figure him out. “Stephen would you say Loki is a person of interest to you?”
“Yes he’s drop dead gorgeous” he says planely.
The Commander smiles a little at that, “I shouldn't be saying much without an NDA but I know you’re… unique. So, here’s why I’m here, I’ve been tasked to stop Loki and you dealt with him like it was childsplay. We need you”
“You? Stop Loki? He’s a god you know” Stephen has the upper hand against many opponents thanks to the types of powers he has at his disposal, he can restrain and expel. His strength is in avoiding the fight rather than serving blows, not that he can't if he needs to.
This Stark character however might seem larger than life at a glance but he also seems unremarkable at a second glance. He’s no Captain America and he doesn't seem inhuman either, just a regular, probably in his 30’s, man.
“I’m just the guy in charge, I have people working with me that would impress even you” Stark explains, gesturing wide. He’s good at taking up space, maybe it comes with not being very tall.
“Alright, tell me how you’re planning to ‘stop’ him” he's very interested to hear what the guy’s going to say, it could be ridiculous or it could surprise him.
“Well Loki is just lashing out, what we need to do is stop his army, the Chitauri, from invading Earth”
Just like that, in a casual explanation, he's been given what he's been ripping his hair out trying to find out. “How do you know all this?”
“I bumped into his brother, we had an awesome fight and then he told me he wants to stop Loki and now we’re allies” Stark shrugs.
“You fought Thor and lived?” Wong asks, sounding as disbelieving as Stephen feels. The guy doesn’t even look injured.
“Yeah, he destroyed my suit though, big brute” the man mutters.
Stephen throws his hands up and shakes his head, because little of what he's hearing makes any sense, “Sorry, what am I missing here?”
“I’m the Commander of a spaceship, the head of Shields ‘off world’ division of you will”
Weirdly that helps him put things together. Predictably it also raises too many questions.
"Let me understand this, you want to recruit me to come onto your… spaceship in order to go defeat the Chitauri?"
Stark claps his hands together. "Exactly!"
"Wouldn't that take years? It seems counter intuitive" he would be much better off staying on Earth in wait for the attack.
"No you see in all the major star systems we have Mass Relays, they allow you to ping from relay to relay in seconds. This tour wouldn't last much longer than a month as long as we don't face complications" Stark explains, his round eyes shining. Stephen recognises it, it's the sign of an intellectual, someone who loves knowledge.
"Who built these relays?" He asks.
"An ancient alien race"
"Is outer space, like, developed?" Wong isn’t hiding his interest as well as Stephen is.
"Yes it is sir" Stark smiles, his eyes crinkle at the edges.
Stephen has so many questions, he doesn't even know where to start. Before he can formulate one though a switch flips in his head. "Hold on. You could be a crazy person who's deluded themselves into thinking they're a Commander of a spaceship because they like Star Wars too much"
"You're cautious, I like it. But I assure you that's not my flavour of crazy" he reaches into his back pocket and produces a black card with a red stripe at the top. It's an ID.
Stephen flicks his fingers and the card floats out of the mans hand so he can pluck it out of the air. As they were assured the card reads ‘CDR Anthony E. Stark’ next to a picture of him. His hair was longer and darker when it was taken but it is the same man standing across from him.
He hands the card back. "Okay Mr Stark. This was fun, but I'm the master of this Sanctum, it's my duty to protect it"
"Can I go instead?"
"Wong!"
Stark chuckles and takes something out of his inner pocket. It's a metal frame with nothing in it. "You know what, take this, it's a run down of what you'd be committing to if you were to join my crew. My phone number is at the end of the document, call me and tell me what you decide. Within 48 hours please, we're taking off in 7 days. If you're interested we can meet at my Shield office, just so you know I'm not making this all up, and we can look at paperwork. Maybe you could both come" he smiles kindly and offers the silver frame.
Stephen pretends not to be surprised when his finger brushes a little panel on the bottom of the frame and the thing lights up with holograms. "Alright moon man, I'll look at it"
Stephen walks their guest to the door and it opens up to return him to wherever he came from, maybe the actual moon.
"Okay magic man, I hope I'll be seeing your face soon." Stark pushes his shades back on and trots down the Sanctum stairs waving behind him.
Wong joins him to watch the man duck into a black Infiniti and swiftly pull out of the space in front of the Sanctum to join the flow of cars.
"Well that was a journey" he sighs, stepping away from the door as it closes.
Wong whistles. "That man parked on a double yellow. He has no fear"
"Wong what's with you? You're supposed to be the professional one" his stomach reminds him he hasn't eaten in a while and his legs take him to the kitchen.
Wong follows, "It sounds exciting, doesn't everyone want to go see the stars?"
"Okay but let's be practical. I have a job here"
"A job that's mostly waiting"
He's not wrong, he spends 90% of the time learning from books and observing. But if he's the first line of defence for the US against a threat like Dormamu, the 10% counts.
Stephen clicks on the kettle and spins to face Wong, "You? You who taught me to stay loyal to all this is telling me to just fuck off to space?"
"It solves our problem right? It's not a holiday it's taking down Loki's army"
"What about the stone? And the Sanctum?" He reminds him, opening the cupboard in hopes they have something to line his stomach. They have some bread so he takes two slices and spreads cream cheese on them while his green tea makes itself on the opposite counter.
"I can take care of it, don't you think the eye compliments my robes?"
Stephen slaps a chicken slice on his bread. "Okay stop having solutions to everything. I'm going to my study to read this thing and when I'm done we'll talk" he picks up his poor excuse of a sandwich with one hand and his tea with the other, "you know I'm starting to suspect you have an ulterior motive"
Wong huffs, "Okay I'll be honest with you, he parked an expensive car on a double yellow in the middle of Manhattan, he clearly makes a lot of money"
"And?" Stephen realises he's left the hologram thing on the counter and fumbles to pick it up with the two fingers he has not holding bread.
"And if you get some of that Shield money we could eat like kings!"
He makes sure Wong hears his outrage as he leaves the kitchen.
Stephen finds that the hologram frame works much like a tablet, just with a lot less hardware. It must all fit in the frame, which is quite a development in tech. It might be from a more advanced civilisation than theirs, outer space technology.
He's not sure if he should be disappointed in himself that he kind of believes the things Stark said. The man is theatre, so much theatre, he wears confidence so strongly it seems like a mask. But that same confidence is what makes him believe, because while it was dramatic it was natural, his words didn't sound like imaginings they sounded like real information and real experiences.
And if the man were some kind of facade, the handbook he's given him is extremely detailed for a montage to trick them. It covers everything, albeit in a general way, probably because it's all secrets. The document is titled 'Avenger Prospectus' and it starts with the simple facts, like how long the job would be, and what the salary is like. Wong was right, they would live better than crappy cheese and chicken sandwiches on it.
The prospectus then goes to legal points, listed like they would be in a contract and formatted as requirements or entitlements. They're pretty general and don't really give him an idea of what exactly he would be in for.
The 'Risks' section does that for him. He didn't take the Commander Stark guy all that seriously but as he reads the list of risks in the job he sobers a little. It gets serious, there are several points on kidnapping and torture, and dying in the vacuum of space as a result of an attack on the ship or a failure in a personal oxygen tank or helmet. The requirement to always wear identification tags is explained in the risk section too, saying it's necessary for identification in the case he's found by an alien race or his body is corrupted beyond recognition. There's even one warning that he may be captured and replaced by something called a Skrull.
The pages of awful information should dissuade him, but they make him consider the offer more seriously. If the information is accurate Starks people aren't moon men, they're soldiers. They might even be the first line of defence between Earth and whatever's out there, like he is.
When he's done reading it's night time. He looks for Wong and eventually finds him in Kamar-taj, doing his duty at the library with earphones on. He takes them out when he sees him and Stephen can faintly hear Rihanna.
"So?"
"I have a dilemma. I want to stop the Chitauri before they get to Earth, but if I can't do that and I'm not on Earth when they come I'll never forgive myself"
Wong ponders for a moment, "Earth has Captain America, and us"
"Oh please, what is a man with big muscles and a frisbee going to do against a whole army?"
"Just us then"
"Wong I'm the Sorcerer Supreme, I can't just let you all fight without me" he wants to pull his hair out. It seems knowing what the threat is hasn't quelled that urge.
Wong takes a deep breath and closes the book infront of him. "Alright, I've been messing around. My honest opinion is that I don't know what you should do, for the same reason you don't. If you manage to stop them before they reach earth that's the best option, but if you don't we'll need you"
"Maybe Starks people can stop them without me"
"Maybe"
He's not sure if it's the old ego coming back but he can't convince himself that that's true. He tries for a second, it doesn't work.
"But what if Thor is the only trick up their sleeve?"
"What you need is an outside opinion, maybe call Stark"
"No he's biased, even if he wanted to be objective he wouldn't" his role in relation to Stephen is recruitment, and a showman like him would sell the idea even in his sleep.
"So someone that has no stake in this"
Stephen doesn't think for long before an answer shines vivid in his mind, "Christine"
Wong raises a brow, "Your ex?"
"Yeah, she's smart and unbiased" he spins on his heel and opens a portal to his bedroom in the Sanctum. Before he can question if it's a good idea he picks up his phone and drafts a text;
[ Hey Christine, I hope you're doing well. I have a work dilemma I think you could help me with so I was wondering if we could meet tomorrow. I won't take a lot of your time, I just need an outside opinion and you're the most sensible person I know. ]
Stephen hovers on the send button. He and Christine haven't spoken for about a year and a half. They are on friendly terms though, after what happened with the Ancient One, so he sucks it up and taps send.
The problem, the source of the dilemma, is that he doesn't know enough. He doesn't know what kind of fire power Stark has under his wing, or how likely it is they'll find the Chitauri and actually defeat them. He doesn't know how much of a threat the Chitauri even are.
That takes him back to the library, he's searching for any information they might have on them when his phone buzzes.
[ Central park at noon, that bench facing the lake. ]
Stephen smiles remembering the bench, Christine liked to sit there rain or shine, she said it was peace in the madness of the city.
[ Thank you, I'll see you there. ]
He and Wong find nothing on the Chitauri, so they give up and call it a night.
Stephen realises it's been a long time since he's put on regular clothes and gone out into society. It's nice to just throw on a shirt and pants and overhear conversations as he walks through the park to the famous bench. He's the first there so he sits and wonders if Christine might look different, or if she looks exactly the same. It hasn't been that long but maybe she's changed her hair, or put on weight.
"Think any louder and I might hear you"
Stephen looks up and there she is, smiling at him. She's radiant as always.
"Hey" He says. She does look the same, her hair is a little shorter but otherwise she hasn't aged or changed a bit.
"Hi" she chirps, sitting down next to him and smoothing her tan coat. It's strange to see her with her hair down and no scrubs.
"No work today?"
"I've taken a break from Metro"
Stephen's shocked to hear that. "Really? With that fancy position you had?"
"I needed to slow down a bit you know? ER is just non stop pressure"
It is true, while he pranced around with his chin in the air only doing surgeries that he thought were up to his standard Christine was running around all say trying to save all the lives she could. That takes a toll.
"So what are you up to?"
"You caught me at a good time actually, I'm going away in a few days, to see Europe, volunteer a bit, all that"
"Wow, well, good" Stephens always struggled to imagine Chris away from New York, it's clear she has changed, that she's unshackled herself from the mold that her life was.
"So tell me, what's this work problem you have?"
"This is going to sound insane and straight out of a sci-fi but just pretend it's real; if you knew an extraterrestrial army was going to attack Earth would you stay on Earth and wait for the attack or would you go to space and attempt to cut them off at the rute?"
She looks beyond surprised, understandably. "God… well, how do you even get to space?"
"This guy came to see me yesterday, he wanted to recruit me to his spaceship so that I could help him stop the army. It sounds so ridiculous to say out loud" just hearing it makes him consider if Stark really existed or if he was just a dream his exhausted mind formed.
"Just some guy?"
"He works for Shield, I don't know if you've heard of them. He's the head of their off world division, or so he says"
"Did he give you any more information?"
"No, I gather it's because I haven't signed anything, it's a hush hush thing"
Christine exhales and drops her hands on her lap. Her nails are painted a dark red. "Well one of those options is evidently better than the other"
"Right, taking the fight to them would save lives"
She nods slowly, thinking. "But you don't know how effective this space man is?"
"Exactly. What if we don't get the jump on the army and I'm sitting in outer space like an idiot while they wipe everyone out"
Christine stares at him for a moment, then chuckles. "Stephen you're forgetting something, you're just one guy"
"So is 'Commander' Stark" he makes the best air quotes he can manage.
"He must have a crew"
"But if they're just a bunch of civilians that kind of know how to fire a weapon what force could they be?"
She looks unimpressed, "You don't think that Shield would task their very best for something like stopping an army?"
Stephen drops his head in his hands. "I just don't know what their best is"
"Let's backtrack, in your gut, do you think this Commander could get results?"
"He has an Asgardian on his side" He mumbles, more to himself.
Stark didn't speak with the air of someone who was going to try to stop an army, he spoke like someone that was going to succeed at stopping an army.
Suddenly Christine bounces where she sits, like she's had an epiphany. "Stephen if you stay here you're going to spend every single day until the attack dreading for it to happen. That sounds like a waste of your sanity, what if the attack doesn't come for months?"
He sits up again, considering her words. "You're so right" Even in the few hours between Loki and Stark he couldn't sleep or think of anything except the army. If he had to wait for them for even a week he'd eat his fingers with stress.
Christine rests a hand on his knee and looks him in the eye. "Sign what you need to sign for the guy to give you more information, just make sure what you're signing has a way out incase you change your mind"
Stephen nods. It looks like it's time to call Commander Stark.