InsaneJournal

Who: Dr. Strange
What: the trouble with Time Stones
When: wee hours of the morning, mid-June
Rating: Green, some Endgame spoilers

In the parlor of the Sanctum, surrounded by several open spell books, Dr. Strange floated while seated in a lotus meditation position. He opened the Eye of Agamotto and began to skim through the timeline to see what the results of various spells would be to remove the demonic presence from Wanda. And, as expected, several different paths were branching out from that specific point in time that he needed to follow.

Usually, he didn't like taking chances with time in general, but with Wanda in trouble and the means being available, he was willing to apply an old trick to a new problem. It might offer a solution, as well as provide a warning for what not to do if this caused more significant problems than any of them could imagine. Several of the spells wouldn't work, and those books snapped closed as he followed each lead.

It was a much slower process this time than skimming on fast forward on Titan, this time studying as many aspects as possible. At least he was working as quickly as he could until a noise interrupted the process. A noise that sounded suspiciously like someone clearing their throat. He finished that thread and opened his eyes, only to find a whole new problem standing before him.

Himself.

"I found the fracture connecting us and navigated through it," his other self explained, already gathering that the first question would be how this was happening.

"I haven't been able to reach through from this side."

"Not surprising," was his other self's reply. "It's an incredibly precarious and precise path using a spell that had several warnings. I'll need to repeat the steps precisely, in reverse. I wouldn't recommend trying...."

There was no time to finish. The Time Stone, sensing two keepers in one place (and one of them in future tense), flashed a blinding bright green that caused both Dr. Stranges to squint and shield their eyes with their ruined hands.

At that precise moment, everything became a blur. Clocks and calendars flipped forward, turning four seconds into four years.

In four years, the world stayed more or less itself, where cell phones were still in use (albeit with better coverage), cars got better gas mileage thanks to hybrid engines, and televisions had much higher definition.

Stephen sensed it all happening through his connection to the stone. He felt as the world - no, the entire universe - shifted. The Time Stone latched onto two people, one of which was from the future, and it attempted to align time itself with the original universe it had been split off from.

The Sanctum was quiet as both Dr. Stranges stared at one another.

"Shit," they both said in unison.

Stephen quickly made the hand motions to close the stone inside the Eye, so nothing further could occur.

"I should go," the other Stephen said, pointing toward the door. His cape was flapping wildly and already pulling him toward it. "Sorry about the paradox."

"Yeeeaaah," Dr. Strange (of this universe) said, very very slowly. "Anything else I should know?"

"Our universe now has several rifts in space-time due to the snap. I'm unsure if it will affect you. Are Stark and Romanoff dead here? Thanos?"

"None dead, but we know about what happened there," he said much more quickly as he stood on his own two feet again. "We fought back against Thanos by banding together and bringing the Stones to Wakanda. Anything else?"

His other self gave him a knowing smirk.

"You're already cheating using the same method I used," was the reply, before that Dr. Strange cast one last longing look at the Eye of Agamotto and disappeared around the corner. There was one last warning heard, "It's unstable...if you mess with it, you'll kill everyone!"

When the Sanctum was quiet, and it was apparent that his other self wasn't there, Stephen grumbled under his breath, "You could've told me something I don't already know."

On top of what was happening with Wanda, now he had to figure out what sort of mess he made of time this time.