Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness

III

*Stephen's Pov

I jolt awake, sweating. I heave big breaths of air, trying to calm myself. Who was that girl?  I looked over at my shattered watch on my nightstand. It was still ticking after all this time.

I got out of bed and walked over to the mirror. I fixed my suit jacket and used magic to tie my tie. I looked at myself, content with my appearance before heading out into the busy streets of New York. 

When I arrived at the church, I found an open spot and sat down next to Dr. Nick West. "Dr. Strange," He greets. "Dr. West," I nod to him. There was a moment of silence before he spoke up. "Haven't seen you in a while." "I was a little preoccupied being dust in the air for 5 years," I retort. 

"So were a lot of us. While I was gone..." He started, choosing his next words carefully. "Thank you for asking..." I rolled my eyes. "I lost both my cats. And my brother." He spoke. 

"I'm very sorry," I apologized. 

"Thank you. I, uh... I guess what keeps me up at night is wondering... Did it have to happen that way? Was there any other path?" He asked, looking at me. 

"No. But I made the only play we had." I responded, truthfully. I remembered the 14,600,005 possible outcomes from the endgame and the only one we won. He sighed as his brows furrowed.

"Of course, you do. The best surgeon and the best superhero. But you still didn't get the girl." When he said that, I felt my jaw clench. How dare he have the audacity to bring that up. All because he lost two cats and a brother.

Just as he finished, music started playing. We all raised from our benches and turned around. Christine walked down the aisle in a beautiful wedding gown. Girls throwing flower petals in front of her. I swallowed the lump in my throat and watched as she got wedded to the man she loved in front of her.

After the ceremony, came the afterparty. I stood at the bar, drinking a martini with an edible pansy floating at the top. Christine came up next to me and told the bartender to give her a glass of red.

"Allow me miss," I used magic to change her water into wine. Christine smiles and takes a sip of her drink. "A little too on the nose?" I asked. 

"What? For you? At my wedding? Nah. It was perfect." She laughs. "Congratulations," I tell her. She looks behind me and sees someone.

"Thank you. There's Charlie. I have to introduce you because he's kind of... it's embarrassing, but he's a big fan." She chuckles, walking around me. I turn around and grab her attention.

" So... Hey, uh, Christine... umm... I should have... I wish it had been different. I never stopped caring about us, but I had to make sacrifices. To protect you." I state.

" I'm sorry. It was never gonna work out between us." Christine responds. I look at her confused. Why wouldn't it have worked out? We would have been perfect.

"Why not?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"Because Stephen... You have to be the one holding the knife. And I always respected you for it, but I couldn't love you for it." She answered. I could tell by the slight smile on her face, that she had been waiting to say that. 

I scoff. "How long have you had that one in the barrel?" I joke.

"Long time." Christine smiles.

"Yeah. I bet. I'm just truly glad that you're happy." I tell her.

"I am. I really, really am." She says. That slightly shattered my heart.

"Good."

"Are you?" Christine asked me. Of course, I was happy. Right?

"I'm happy," I assure her. More or so assured myself."

"Good. You deserve it," 

"Thank you." With that, she walked off somewhere. Probably her new husband. 

Then I heard commotion outside.

People started walking out onto the balcony, pulling out their phones to record. I finished the last of my martini and delicately placed it on a tray. Turning back around, I grabbed my cloak of Levitation out of my jacket pocket and threw it over my shoulders and off the balcony. 

While in the air, I changed into my tunic with the Eye of Aggamotto. The eye missing the time stone. People started cheering, seeing me head down to the crime scene. I landed on the ground, looking around for the cause of the chaos.

I saw a girl jump into a bus and suspiciously enough, the bus started floating in the air. That definitely wasn't normal. The glass panes of the bus shattered out and inside the bus. I furrowed my brows and used magic to reveal the invisibility spell used to cover up the creature.

It looked like an octopus with one eye. A cyclops octopus. Octoclops. People were running and screaming, trying to get to safety. I used magic to separate the bus into many different pieces. The octoclops tried reaching into the bus to get the girl, but I moved one of the pieces and chopped off its tentacle. 

This caused the raging beast to yelp in pain and get mad. 

 Unfortunately, the girl was hanging onto a loose pole and her grip slipped, causing her to start falling out of the sky. I threw my cloak fast trying to catch her before she reached the ground. The cloak caught her and brought her to the ground behind me. The cloak wrapped itself around my shoulders and stayed there. Billowing in the wind. 

I closed the creature's tentacle by making the bus whole again. I caused the bus to crash on top of its head, giving me enough time to turn around. I looked at the girl and then she suddenly screamed for me to look out.

She got behind me and I saw the creature take the bus and throw it toward us. I summoned a huge razor, cutting the bus clean in half vertically. She gasped at the bus but turned around and looked at me.

"Do I know you?" I asked, feeling strange familiarity. Just then, I felt something knock me through glass, knocking me out cold.