7.3. Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme
We open in media res. Karl Mordo is leading an army of Empirikul in an attack on Kamar-Taj. They are opposed by the Masters of the Mystic Arts, lead by Stephen Strange, the Sorceror Supreme.
It quickly becomes apparent that the Masters are outgunned and outmatched. The Empirikul Eyebots are armed with Anti-Magic Guns which deplete the power of any magic item they're fired on. Staffs, sling-rings, magic swords, the Ancient One's Tao Fan, all are rendered inert. As the beams it them, the colour drains from the objects, leaving them as white and soulless as the inside of an Apple store.
Steve asks Wong if they've heard anything from the London Sanctum, but he says there's no response. Either Doctor Druid is dead, or he's abandonned them.
Mary LeBow is hit by an Empirikul weapon, draining her of colour the same way the magical objects were. Around her, the spels of the other Masters flicker, and some die, as her death weakens the world's magic. Steve tries to raise a sheild, but it fails, and he's attacked by a Witchfinder Wolf, barely managing to call it off.
All around him, the Masters are falling, and Steve orders a retreat. Wong tries to persuade him not to, pointing out that the House of Wisdom contains totally unique books and history. Steve orders him to gather what he can. Other Masters focus on getting the wounded safely away, while Steve and a handful of senior masters, including August Wu, hold the line. As Steve is fighting, the Cloak of Levitation is hit by an anti-magic gun, and 'dies' in Steve's arms.
When Wong returns, Steve gives the orders, and the remaining Masters teleport away.
Steve and Wong arrive in the New York Sanctum. Steve wants to go and check on the other Masters, but Wong points out that he's exhausted, and almost out of magic. He promises to check on the survivors, and orders Steve to try and get some sleep.
The Imperator joins Mordo in the ruins of Kamar-Taj. The Imperator says that he was wary of working with a magic user in his quest to rid the multiverse of magic, but Mordo has proved himself an ally. He tells Mordo about how he had grown up in a dimension ruled by magic, and his parents had been killed for wanting to persue science instead, which is why he created the Empirikul, to protect people from the taint of magic. Mordo tells him that he too has seen the harm that magic can do. Once he'd believed magic should only be used by the wise, but he's come to believe that the risk of a fool gaining that power isn't worth it, and he promises to allow the Empirikul to remove his magic once the cleansing of this dimension is done.
After Wong leaves, Steve takes the books he had saved into the Sanctum Library, where Zelma Stanton is working. She's understandably worried about him, but he orders her to leave, saying it's not safe here anymore. She asks where he's going, and he tells her he's going to get drunk.
Steve goes to the Bar With No Doors, and finds that it's full of low-level magic users, the ones who don't have protected fortresses to retreat to, hiding out from the Empirikul. Chondu the Mystic asks how the fight is going, because their magic is failing and some of them need their magic to live, and Steve tells them the Masters are loosing.
In the atmosphere of terrified silence that follows, the Bar's owner, Monako, tells Steve that since he's doing what Monako can't, his drinks are free tonight, but he needs to pay his tab, since he might not be alive to pay it tomorrow. Steve points out that Monako might not be alive to collect, but Monako says that he's not powerful enough for the Empirikul to bother with.
Later that night, Steve leaves the Bar, extremely drunk, and walks home. After he's left, a group of Eyebots and Witchfinder Wolves enter the bar. They begin rounding up the patrons. Chondu calls to Monako to help them, but he locks himself in the cella and just listens to his friends and customers being rounded up.
Steve is woken by the doorbell. He goes to the door and checks the spy-hole, and then suddenly wrenches the door open in a panic, to reveal the patrons of the Bar tied to stakes. Steve manages to free some of them, but the Empirikul tell him that unless he surrenders, they will kill the remaining prisoners, and Steve surrenders.
He's tied to a stake, and the Empirikul prepare to burn him. Suddenly Monako appears. As he predicted, the Empirikul dismiss him as too weak to be of interest, and he tells them that the magic knows how to hide when it's being hunted, and it knows to hide in someone the Empirikul wouldn't care about. He begins to power up a spell, even as the Empirikul level their weapons on him, and as he prepares to cast he tells Steve to make it worth it.
Steve yells for him to stop, but it's too late. Monako releases the spell, teleporting Steve away, just as the Empirikul's weapons hit him.
Steve finds himself in a cave, and realises there's someone else in there with him, a figure in a dark concealing cloak.
With Steve out of the way, the Sanctum is unprotected. Eyebots and Wolves search it. They find the Rotunda of Gateways, but the gateways won't activate for them. Another group of bots find the library, and begin piling the books up in preparation to burn them all. Unbeknownst to them, Zelma Stanton is hiding behind one of the bookcases. She's holding the bag Wong rescued from Kamar-Taj, and a stack of other books.
She manages to sneak past them when their attention is elsewhere, and makes for the front door, but she's seen by a Witchfinder Wolf, which chases her through the Sanctum. Running blinding, desperately trying to stay ahead of it, she finds herself in the Rotunda of Gateways. The Wolf lunges for her, knocking her backwards through the gateway to Kamar-Taj, as the Wolf bounces back off the magic of the gate.
In the cave, the cloaked figure explains to Steve that he's Tibet. Monako hadn't so much done a spell as he had wishes really hard and thrown a lot of raw magic at Steve, and Steve's lucky to be alive.
“I guess the universe likes you. Or it could be random dumb luck, of course.”
“After the week I’ve had, I’d say the latter seems more likely.”
“Yes. The death of magic. Not to Masters of the Mystic Arts’s finest hour.”
“Who the hell are you? I didn’t see you fighting to protect magic!”
“No, you wouldn’t have done. And you can call me… Wiccan."
“Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Wiccan.”
“No, I’m Jewish, actually.”
“Then that’s an extremely stupid, and possibly offensive, code-name.”
“Yes, I know. In my defence, I was 15 when I chose it.”
“So change it.”
“Oh, I did. But it’s not time for you to know my other names just yet.”
Steve tells him he doesn't have time for this, he needs to get back to the fight, and Wiccan points out that he has almost no allies, no weapons, and barely any magic. Steve says he's probably right - he's got to be the worst Sorceror Supreme ever, magic is dying on his watch, and maybe Dr Druid had the right idea, abandonning the sinking ship.
Wiccan tells him that "Anthony Ludgate is many things - poser, snob, fake druid, but he's not a traitor". He tells Steve to follow him, and leads him out of the cave and they begin hiking down the mountain towards a village.
As they walk, he tells Steve that as Master of the London Sactum, he has bigger responsibilities that the Masters of the Mystic Arts. Wiccan explains the Steve that it's the London Sanctum Master's job, as an heir of Melin, to protect the Nexus of All Realities He believes that's Mordo's target is the Nexus, which will allow the Empirikul to wipe out magic in not just this dimension, but all of them.
Steve despairs of stopping him, but Wiccan points out that he still has the Eye of Agamatto which isn't powered by magic. Steve asks if he's supposed to go back in time to kill Mordo, and Wiccan says no, he's thinking they go a lot further back than that.
We cut to the Hong Kong Sanctum, where Wong and Jericho Drumm are helping August Wu and her daughter, Alice Wu, to fend off an Empirikul attack. August Wu's intricate spellwork takes down a great swathe of Eyebots, but it exhausts her reserves. Alice uses a gun which fires magic, but after a few rows she yells that she's out, the magic is failing. An Eyebot fires on her, and August Wu jumps in the way of he shot, saving her daughter but grievously injuring herself in the process. Alice yells for Wong to get them out of there, and he warns her that his magic is too depleted - he can get them out, but there's no telling where it will take them. Alice points out that anywhere is better than here, so Wong opens the portal and takes the four of them away.
Steve activates the Eye of Agamotto, on Wiccan's advice taking them back to the 1400s. Wiccan explains that Steve can't fight the Empirikul because the magic of his time is damaged, so they need people with access to more powerful magic. Steve suggests the Ancient One, and Wiccan says they're here for the man who trained her, Master Yao.
They walk down into the village, and Steve finds that other people can't see Wiccan. They find the house of Master Yao, and he can see Wiccan, bowing too him. Steve explains what he needs, and that he was the Ancient One's student, and Master Yao agrees to to help him.
Wiccan tells Yao to teleport them to America, where they go further back in time to recruit Kushala, a Sorceror so powerful she was able to master and control the spirit of vengeance.
Wong, Jericho and the Wus are deposited by the portal in the ruins of Kamar-Taj, where they almost immediately find themselves surrounded by a group of Eyebots. All three are out of weapons, and they prepare to physically fight, even the injured August Wu, when there's a voice chanting in a strange language, and the Eyebots all collapse, revealing Zelma reading from one of the books she rescued.
After Kushala, Wiccan has Yao teleport them to England, where Steve transports them back to the 6th Century to recruit Mordred the Mystic, who used his power to battle the Elder God Cthon.
With Mordred on board, Steve asks where next. Wiccan says they have one last stop - the first Sorceror Supreme. Yao thinks he means Agamotto, but Wiccan says that he was just the first to use the title, not the first to do the job. They are going for the true first. The first magic user.
They travel to Kenya, and back ten thousand years, to recruit Ire of the Crua before the Ice, the first human to harness magic, and the first Sorceror Supreme. She recognises Wiccan, greating him as though he's an old friend, but Steve can't understand her language.
Wong, Zelma, Jericho and the Wus hide out in the remains of the House of Wisdom, the last building still partially standing. While Wong dresses August Wu's wound, Zelma explains that she'd discovered a spell that worked by accident. She'd been surrouded, with no options, so she figured it was worth a try so she'd just opened a book at random and started reading.
Wong is excited, pointing out that she's found a spell that works which means they can finally fight the Empirikul.
Meanwhile, Mordo, flanked by Eyebots and Wolves, breaks down the door to the London Sanctum. Dr Druid fights back, but is captured. He asks Mordo if he's going to kill him. Mordo tells him no, not as long as Druid cooperates, he just needs him to open a door. He orders the bots to take him, and they pick Druid up and follow Mordo out of the Sanctum.
At Kamar-Taj, Zelma and the surviving Masters use the books Zelma saved and their mystical expertise to lay a trap. Zelma shows them the spell she's been using, and Wong and August Wu discuss how they can use that as the base to craft a spell that will work on hundreds of Eyebots rather than only one or two, while Alice and Jericho pour over a map of Kamar-Taj, detirmining where they should set the trap and Jericho showing them sigils they can use that don't require much magic to create.
Wong tells Zelma that she's going to have to be the one to actually do the spell, since she's the only one not drained from weeks of days of fighting. When she protests that she can't do magic, Wong asks her how she thought she'd been fighting the Eyebots, and reassures her that even though she has to spring the trap, she won't be alone.
Mordo brings Dr Druid to Stonehenge, where the Imperator is waiting for them. The Imperator tells Mordo he has done well, and orders Druid to open the door, but he refuses.
On Kamar-Taj, the Masters active the first part of their trap, lighting a pyre and throwing in pages from some of the books. Zelma hates that this is the plan, and asks Wong how he can be okay with this, since he's a librarian, and he tells her that he has memorised the book he's using, and intends to rewrite it, but burning it should release enough pure magic to attract the Empirikul.
Sure enough, around the world, the Witchfinder Wolves begin to howl. At Stonehenge, the Imperator orders the Eyebots to investigate, and they begin to teleport away.
The Imperator turns his attention back to Dr Druid, using his injuries to torture him, trying to force him to open the door. Suddenly Wiccan, Steve, and the Sorcerors Supreme appear and attack.
They find that the Imperator doesn't just hate magic, it's his weakness, which is why he's been hiding behind the Eyebots until now. He tries to call the bots back to protect him, but when the bots gathered at Karar-Taj try to leave, the Masters activate their trap, Wong, Jericho and the Wus pressing their bloody palms to sigils painted on the ground, which begin to glow as the magic activates, trapping the eyebots.
Zelma begins to chant the spell, but she's nervous, and fumbling the worlds, and nothing happens. While August Wu and Alice battle to keep the Eyebots away from her, Wong gives her a pep-talk, telling her that the magic is inside her because the secret is that everyone is a little bit magic, magic is the spark that makes people weird, makes them individual, she just needs to believe.
We cut back to the battle at Stonehenge. The Masters are prevailing, but Steve realises that Mordo has backed off from the battle and is going to Dr Druid. Before Steve can stop him, he stabs Dr Druid, holding him over the altar so his blood falls on the stone.
As it hits, the space between two of the stones begins to glow, the grass beyond disappearing as the doorway fills up with vivid light.
We cut back to Zelma, reciting the spell with newfound strength, and the Eyebots begin to explode around her. As the Master's shield their eyes from the explosion, back at Stonehenge, Mordo steps through the gateway he's opened.
Steve hesitates, looking back at the battle, but the other Sorcerors assure him they've got this, and tell him to stop Mordo. He steps through the portal.
Back at Kamar-Taj, the Masters sense the doorway opening. Zelma asks what they do now, and Wong tells her "hope".
Steve steps out of the doorway into the Nexus of All Realities, a massive circular room, stretching so far up the top is invisible. The walls are covered in thousands upon thousands of doors, each different. He stops, staring around him in awe, but Mordo attacks, and they battle.
At Stonehenge, the Sorcerors Supreme defeat the Imperator. As he falls, they ask Wiccan why he didn't help, since he could have won this all easily, and whether he's going to tell Steve who he really is, and he says that he can't, not until the right moment. Ire asks what the right moment is, and Wiccan says, "now", and steps through the doorway.
In the Nexus, Steve is thrown into a doorway, which opens a little. Steve's hand falls through it for a moment, and suddenly he's reinvirgorated, his wounds begin to heal, and when he casts a spell, it works perfectly. He's drawing on the magic of that other world, a world untouched by the Empirikul.
He begins flinging open doorways with each spell he casts, powering himself up, but Mordo does the same. The fight gets bigger and bigger, more than more dramatic, and then Mordo opens a door onto a world that's just... dead.
He stops, staring at a landscape all the familiar sterile white of the Empirikul's victims, all magic drained. He reaches out, touches the ground, and then jerks his hand back as though he's been burned, holding up fingers now the same plastic-white. He stares down at his own fingers, dawning horror on his face as he realises what the Empirikul really do to the world's they cleanse.
"Magic isn't a weapon, you know."
Steve and Mordo spin to see Wiccan standing there. He removes his cloak, which vanishes into nothing, realing a normal looking young man in jeans and a thor t-shirt.
"It can be used as one, sure. It can be used by people to do some terrible things. It can also be used to do incredible things. And humans need magic. We need that little spark of wonder, of awe.
"That's what the Empirikul wanted. To kill that spark. To make everyone conform to their model."
"I didn't know. I just wanted to protect people, to protect them from people like him, who use magic for their own ends without thought of the consequences!"
"Maybe you're right. Maybe there does need to be checks on how magic is used."
Wiccan reaches into his pocket, and pulls something out. A small object, glowing golden between his fingers. A seed.
"Do you know what this is?"
"Magic. Pure magic."
"Pretty, isn't it? Here." He flicks the seed to Mordo, who catches it. "Plant it. Tend it. See if you can't grow something better."
Mordo cradles the seed in his hand, staring at it with wonder as his white fingers return to their natural colour, and then looks at Steve.
Steve tells him that he was right, that the Masters, and Steve himself, have been reckless in how they used magic, but they're going to do better. When they rebuild, they will rebuild stronger, and more accountable.
Mordo tells him not to let him down again, and walks through the doorway to the white magicless world with the seed.
Steve asks Wiccan who he really is, and Wiccan says he already knows. Steve asks if he's the Demiurge, and Wiccan nods.
"You can call me Billy, though. Sorry for all the subterfuge. I was trying to avoid any more time paradoxes than strictly necessary."
Steve asks him how telling him now isn't a paradox, and Billy says that you can't have a time paradox if there isn't any time. The Nexus is the space between dimensions, outside of time and space, so the rules don't apply here.
Steve asks why Billy couldn't have just solved the entire crisis himself, and he says that even his power is weaker in a place without natural magic, and saying that Steve needed to be the one to win.
"You are going to rebuild the Masters of the Mystic Arts, you're going to rebuild magic. You needed to become the man who would do it right. And you needed to become the man who'll teach me."
"I'm going to train the fount of magic?"
"Like you'd trust anyone else to do it."
Billy sets his hand on Steve's shoulder and transports them back to Stonehenge. When he takes his hand off, the dead Cloak of Levitation, which Steve is still wearing, slowly returns to life, colour spreading out from where Billy had touched it.
Steve thanks the Sorcerors Supreme and says goodbye, and then Billy teleports them away. As they leave, Steve's phone buzzes. He opens a message to see a picture of Wanda Maximoff, Vision and two newborn babies, with the message, "we're calling them Billy and Tommy".
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