The day was bright and calm in Greenwich Village. Birds chirped, children's laughter echoed from the sidewalks, and within the Sanctum Sanctorum, peace reigned a rare and precious thing.
Dr. Stephen Strange sat in a high-backed chair, absorbed in a dusty tome on multiversal anomalies. Wong paced nearby with a scroll in hand, occasionally muttering corrections under his breath. The Cloak of Levitation hovered lazily, fluttering in rhythm with the drifting breeze.
"I have to admit," Strange said, flipping a page, "a quiet afternoon of reading almost feels... unnatural."
Before Wong could respond, a thunderous crash shattered the silence. The walls trembled. Dust rained from the ceiling as a glowing portal ripped open and a figure hurtled through, crashing into a pile of stone and splinters.
Strange shot to his feet. "I knew that was too good to last."
The Cloak froze midair, then drifted closer, alert.
From the rubble, a man groaned disheveled, panting, his clothes torn and singed. Strange stepped forward, eyes narrowing.
"Bruce?"
Dr. Bruce Banner looked up, eyes wide with panic. His chest heaved as he tried to steady his breathing.
"I need... I need to speak to Tony Stark," he gasped. "It's urgent."
Strange exchanged a glance with Wong, who had drawn closer, silent and tense.
"Tony's not here," Strange said cautiously. "But I can reach him. What's going on?"
Banner shook his head, desperation carved into every line of his face. "Please .... I have to talk to Tony. It's about the Mind Stone. And the Time Stone."
Even the Cloak seemed to pause at that.
Strange's expression darkened. "Wong, I'm going to check the Time Stone. Stay with him."
Wong nodded. "He'll be safe. I'll watch over him."
Without another word, Strange conjured a portal with a sweep of his hand. The Cloak swirled around him, and he stepped through in a burst of golden light.
Banner collapsed, unconscious.
Wong knelt beside him, easing the scientist's head onto his lap. He studied the deep lines of fear etched across Banner's features.
"What could have driven you to this?" he murmured.
Kamar-Taj
The air was cool and still in the chamber of the Time Stone. Too still.
Strange entered quietly, but his mind was already racing. His heartbeat thudded in his ears as he stepped toward the stone's containment. He placed a hand gently on the glass.
Cool. Unchanged.
No tremors. No anomalies.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling crawling down his spine.
He closed his eyes and reached out with his mind.
Nothing.
Frowning, he tried again. Deeper. Harder.
Still nothing.
His breath caught. Something was wrong not in what he felt, but in what he didn't.
He steadied himself and let go of everything thought, fear, time itself and drifted fully into the timestream.
That's when he heard it.
Whispers.
At first faint. Then growing. Thousands of them. A tide of voices from fractured futures.
Visions exploded behind his eyes: Universes crumbling. Realities ripped apart. Earth turned to ash. Stark, Parker, Maximoff all screaming into the void before silence consumed them.
No timeline held. Every path led to destruction.
Strange stumbled back from the stone, breath shallow, hands trembling. Sweat beaded at his brow.
But amidst the chaos a glimmer.
A thread. A possibility.
It begins with knowledge, a whisper said. Their mistakes must not become yours.
Strange opened his eyes, heart hammering.
If there was even one chance to avoid collapse, it began now.
Sanctum Sanctorum
The portal flared open and Strange stepped through, the Cloak trailing behind him like a shadow.
Wong was waiting, seated in one of the library's reading alcoves, staring blankly at the swirling cosmos projected above the central orb.
"What in the multiverse could've done this to him?" Wong asked, sensing Strange's return.
Strange met his eyes grimly. "A world-ending threat."
The room fell silent.
After a moment, Wong nodded slowly. "Shall we wake him up, then? Find out more?"
Strange's reply was quiet. "We should."
Together, they walked toward the room where Bruce Banner lay resting.
Outside the door, Wong paused. "I'll wake him. You should get Tony Stark. It'll be easier to get answers with him here."
Strange didn't reply. He simply turned, summoned a new portal, and stepped toward a man completely unaware that everything again was about to change.