Chapter Text
Stephen was… different… than she expected. In the futures she’d seen he’d always come to them angry and desperate. This time he’d come, he’d been that way too. But, he hadn’t reached the height of his career yet. He had so much unrecognized potential. He knew he was the best, but he hadn’t proven it unequivocally yet. His move to the new hospital had come far earlier than she’d seen. (Though, to be fair, the last time she browsed the future it had been 1953.)
She’d seen the accident that resulted in cat people as a possibility, but she’d dismissed it and moved on. The Flerken known as Goose had been on Earth for ages. She was a guardian of the Tesseract but had avoided humans as much as possible. When she’d been left she’d been instructed not to harm them, which led to the Red Skull fiasco.
After that, the Ancient One had checked to make sure that the use of the Tesseract hadn’t attracted unwanted attention. It hadn’t, even when SHIELD found it and started experiments. The Ancient One set up additional wards against extradimensional attention and left the physical fallout to the world’s governments to deal with. She had long ago learned that preventing war was impossible and split too much of her focus.
The Ancient One felt it when Mar-Vell came and started working with the cube. She had seen that Goose was happy to have an alien around. The Flerken started to warm to humans and had taken guardianship of the Skrulls. This always happened, and Carol Danvers’s powers were always a result. She’d been tempted to use the Eye of Agamotto to make sure everything was as it should be, but with aliens so near she resisted. She had sorcerers on guard, just in case, but Danvers was able to protect Earth without any help.
When Stephen came, he arrived in 2011, not 2016. Normally this wouldn’t phase The Ancient One. Many things could cause differences in their pupils then they found them. However, Stephen wasn’t just another potential master. If she allowed him entry he would be the next Sorcerer Supreme, he’d become the most powerful Sorcerer Earth had ever seen. Different artifacts had shown her this, had shown her just how bright his future would be, or just how dark he could plunge the entire multiverse if he so chose.
He’d always come, desperate to regain his career, to be on top again. The times when he came later, once he’d been knocked off his pedestal had been darkest. He’d been ruthless, his goodness destroyed by thoughts of glory and revenge. Would this iteration focus on regaining his career? Or would his desire to prove himself best in something make him reckless and put the Earth in danger?
Whenever someone new joined them she looked at their future while they waited on the doorstep. It was possible to see beyond her death as long as the focus was on someone else. Though, it was more difficult and less accurate. More than likely Thanos would come. In the futures where Thanos came to Earth, Tony Stark was vital to the survival of the universe. It didn’t matter if he’d become Iron Man or not. And whenever Stephen had interacted with him it had left a mark on him, for better or for worse. She couldn’t control Tony Stark, so she hadn’t probed into his future.
She should have. Tony Stark and Stephen Strange were intertwined. They left marks upon each other because their souls knew each other and drew them together.
Never had she seen them know that they were soulmates. Never had she seen them bound to each other in more than a typical relationship.
The cat people held more magic than she realized.
She’d seen Stephen sacrifice Tony more often than not to protect the universe. It always wounded him deeply when he did, and those futures were brightest for the sorcerers. Stephen had carried that weight and had worked hard to ensure Earth was never in that position again. People suffered without Tony to invent machines to solve the problems that came with drastic population change. When he died, the physical realm of Earth suffered.
That wasn’t their problem, though. Humanity survived, the Earth survived, that was all that mattered.
The Ancient One meditated and consulted everything she could. Her time was ending, whether or not she allowed Stephen to study the Mystic Arts, she would meet her end in the next decade. Mordo would likely take up the mantel, but he needed Stephen to reach his full potential. Without him, Mordo was too rigid and the Universe was often lost because he wouldn’t bend the rules or take any risks. In the futures where he thrived, Stephen had guided him to the light. Shown him that, yes, breaking the rules could break reality, but if there was no reality to break then it didn’t really matter.
This time was the same. Nothing had changed Mordo enough to prevent the Earth from falling when he took the role. Perhaps he would die before he failed, but he never thrived and there was lasting damage in all but one of the futures she’d seen.
Still, seeing Stephen bonded to Tony worried her. She couldn’t change the past, so she focused on what she could do in the time she had left to keep Stephen on the brightest path.
***
The Ancient One didn’t think Stephen saw it, but she knew Tony did.
“Why are you sad when you look at him?” Tony asked her when they were alone.
The Ancient One thought of the possibilities in the future and Stephen’s place in them.
“I worry about him,” she said after what must have felt like a long time. “He will have many trials to overcome in the future and no matter what he does, I do not have enough time to prepare him.”
Tony frowned, a crinkle of worry appearing between his brows.
It humanized him for her. He’d always been an abstract construct, and only considered in the way he affected Stephen.
“You’ll be good for him,” she said, taking a risk. She didn’t know what his other futures held, but she’d known enough to see he’d suffered. Those things could happen here, of course. But... “He’ll help you, if you let him.”
He looked away and she could already see the toll his life was taking on him. No matter what happened, his future would add to the weight he carried.
“You’ve seen it then?” he asked.
The Ancient One considered her possible answers. She knew he was speaking about Thanos, about the army, about the threats from space. She’d seen him create monstrous devices that wiped out most of humanity in an effort to protect them countless times. She’d also seen the aftermath when he’d done nothing. He was a protector of the physical Earth, and the people on it mattered to him. It would be the same for Stephen if they bonded.
In the end, she couldn’t lie. “Yes.”
“Will it be bad?”
She considered his question carefully.
“There are many variables; it may not even come to pass.”
She saw his jaw set.
“Another invasion is not the worst thing Earth will face; your choices could end humanity before another army ever arrives.”
That startled him, though she didn’t know why. He had to have known what he was capable of. Sometimes his choices led to Hydra killing Stephen before his accident. And she’d seen Ultron destroy the Earth. He knew his weapons killed innocents, and those were just missiles wielded by greedy men. Nothing like he was capable of.
Tony seemed distressed and she figured she’d meddled so much that a little more couldn’t hurt.
“You can’t prevent death, you can respond and prepare, of course. But even with the best intentions, weapons can end up in the wrong hands. Sometimes things are better not created in the first place.”
At that, Tony glared at her.
She smiled at him warmly, trying to convey that she wasn’t upset about his past mistakes, only wanted to prevent future ones.
He seemed to understand and accept that.
“Is it a mistake?” he asked.
This time she didn’t know what was on his mind.
“Is what a mistake?”
“Bonding with Strange?”
“Only the two of you can decide that.”
Like she’d guessed, he didn’t seem happy with that response.
“Not bonding, though, hurts you both.” She knew he’d see that she wasn’t saying that to avoid the question or to try to manipulate him. Or that she was trying to say that bonding wouldn't hurt both of them. He already knew that.
“This is crazy!” he snapped.
She’d been waiting for him to hit this point for a while. He’d been incredibly patient so far; she figured that was the concussion’s fault. She just turned his head at him and gave him the same smile that always got Stephen going.
“Magic! It’s not a real thing!”
“Isn’t it?” Every time this happened, she found it humorous. More often than not, the most skeptical had the most potential. She chuckled, much to Tony’s irritation.
He mumbled something uncomplimentary and stormed off.
She decided she’d look at the future again after training the latest apprentices, she liked Tony and wanted him to thrive. If there was anything she could do to help that happen she would.