MV1 #191 March Year 4

"I'm sorry that Clea had to leave so early."

Stephen Strange, the sorcerer supreme, looked at his watch, "Well, it is early." he said off hand, "in the morning that is. She said she had some matters to attend to. As do I, I might add."

"I certainly hope we haven't kept you" Isaac Christian, the Gargoyle, yawned. He looked over to where Northstar had fallen asleep. The mutant had propped himself up against the side of the couch and had gone out like a light from there. Isaac smiled, when he was asleep, all of Jean-Paul's surface arrogance was gone. All that was left, was a sheer childlike bliss that settled in on his face for the duration of his slumber. "If only we could all be that way" Isaac muttered to himself, before turning back to one of his oldest friends.

"Don't be silly. In fact, I want to stay around for a bit longer. Ms. March, if you don't mind, I'd very much like to have a chance to examine you."

"Of course" Jennifer March replied. She had been one of the few people in the room that had stayed awake the entire night, taking in the entire conversation. She was also the only one that didn't seem to be affected by her vigilance. She seemed as awake as she had been the night before.

Moondragon, who similarly showed no outward sign, tried to mentally probe her again, while Jennifer was responding, hoping for some random surface thought. The bald Titan telepath pushed again, but once again, came up with nothing. She cast a sidelong look across the room to the man known as Dr. Strange and shook her head in the negative.

"No wonder you don't mind that Clea is gone." Isaac smiled.

Stephen cast him a dirty look. "Far from it old friend." He looked back to Jennifer, "No offense of course" he muttered, "It seems we find ourselves saying that quite a bit to you."

She shrugged. "You're trying to be polite, while at the same time disappointed that I'm not who you want me to be."

"Patsy Walker of course. I'm just not her. You said so yourself."*

(* Last issue - GD)

Stephen nodded. "Yes, yes I did." he confirmed, "But that may not have been completely accurate, I'd like to do more than a surface reading if I could, to see what, if any traces of Patsy are within you. Or maybe even figure out who you are, and where you belong."

"I know that much," she snapped. "My name is Jennifer March and I belong in >I>this body. I belong with my children, with my family. Not sitting around here."

"Easy Jennifer," Isaac said, casting a glance over to Moondragon. She shook her head again.

"BE STILL MORTAL," Valkyrie snapped back at her. "YOU HOLD THE KEY TO REVEALING WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO A DEAR FRIEND OF OURS. YOU WILL BE STILL AND SUBMIT TO THE DOCTOR'S EXAMS OR BY ODIN'S BEARD I SHALL MAKE YOU PAY DEARLY!"

"Brunnhilde," Stephen said, his own voice on the edge of snapping. "Please, we all need to be calm here. I realize that tensions are high, but we need to maintain a certain..."

"We may be at peace now mage, but don't push your luck," Valkyrie said with a snarl.

"Why don't we all just calm down here." Isaac cautioned, "If for no other reason than Lorna and Janet are both sleeping. There's no use in waking them up with this nonsense."

Valkryie started to yell, but suddenly stopped and bowed her head, "You speak wisdom Isaac." she turned back to Stephen, "I do apologize Stephen. I should not have spoken so, but when it comes to Patsy..." she let her voice drift off.

Stephen nodded, and turned back to Isaac.

"I did a full exam earlier," Cecilia said from the hallway.

Stephen turned without surprise. "I know, Dr. Reyes. And I'm sure you did a very good job, from a practical standpoint. I, however, want to look at this in a different light."

She nodded. "Understandable."

"Would you care to assist, Doctor?"

Dr. Cecilia Reyes smiled and rubbed her eyes. "Dr. Strange," she said," I would be honored."

The Basement

"So, that's what you know?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered.

He shook his head. "This isn't good. Not good at all."

"Perceptive, aren't you?"

"Don't push your luck."

"Don't even..."

"Might I remind you where you are, miss. And who's upstairs right now. I can't believe that we've been able to shield you this long from him."

"We haven't."

"Beg pardon?"

"We haven't been able to shield my location from him. He knows I'm here, and unless I miss my mark, he knows why."

"If that were true, he would be down here confronting you."

She shook her head with a smirk. "Not if he knew he wasn't supposed to. If he knew that, he'd stay as far away as possible."

"What are you talking about?"

She cast her eyes to the ceiling with an impish glee. "When it's time for you to know, I guess she'll tell you."

"I'm sorry, I'm not following... why would Dr. Strange be ignoring the fact that you are in the basement of a friend's house?"

"Maybe he doesn't know."

"Didn't you just say that..." Hannibal shook his head in confusion.

"Maybe I was lying."

"Were you?"

"I don't know." She smirked. "It's so hard to tell anymore."

"Stop it."

"But then again, maybe I'm lying now... "

"Stop it."

"It's so hard to be sure..."

"If you don't stop it right now, I'll cast you out of here. You'll have to face them alone."

The smile slipped down her face. "I don't think you'd do that."

"Try me."

"You'd doom them all."

Hannibal King looked right through her, back to the stars he'd stared at as he laid in Central Park, trapped by forces beyond his control. "I think I might have already done that," he replied. "I fear I may have already done just that."

A Guest Bedroom

"Should I disrobe?"

Stephen shook his head.

"No, Jennifer. This isn't that kind of exam," Cecilia explained.

"Ah," Jennifer March replied with an understanding nod. "Going to use the Eye on me then?"

Stephen took a sharp intake of breath. "What?"

"The Eye of Agamotto. You're going to use it to pierce whatever magic might be present, right?"

"What do you know about the Eye?" Stephen demanded, trying to hold his voice firm.

"I know it's not for you to keep. Someone is coming for it soon."

"Who?"

Jennifer's eyes glazed over. "The one to come," she spoke with an eerie certainty.

"Surely not now," Stephen said. "That was not to be until..." He looked over to Cecilia, who was clearly startled. "Until... well, until the appropriate time came. Surely that is not upon us?"

"It is," she responded. "Use the eye now though, sorcerer, while you still have the chance to do so."

The Eye of Agamotto opened at the end of the chain that hung around his neck. It opened and took in the view, casting a ray of light from its pupil.

Stephen looked deep into that which was Jennifer March.

He looked, and he knew.

He glanced back to Cecilia, and he knew.

He looked around the room. And he knew.

He knew.

It was all his fault.

"Dr. Strange?" Cecilia inquired, worried.

He smiled at her, the smile of a man with nothing to lose. "I'm fine, Lifeforce, I'm fine."

"What did you just call me?"

Stephen face was blank. "Celicia."

She shook her head. "No, you called me Lifeforce."

"Did I?" Stephen turned to back to Jennifer, whose eyes had snapped back to normal. "Did I?"

Jennifer nodded with an "of course" expression fixed on her face.

Stephen shook his head in wonder. "I wonder where that came from?"

Cecilia shrugged. "I'm not sure, but it does solve one problem I've been trying to solve lately."

"And what's that?" Stephen inquired.

She smiled. "If I'm going to be a hero, I need to have a hero name. Going by Dr. Reyes just doesn't cut it...no offense."

"None taken," Jennifer March started, but then burst into laughter, "Sorry, force of habit."

The two doctors shared a smile.

"I quite understand your need for a codename," Stephen replied, "My own lack of one not withstanding, they can be powerful things. Just know what you're getting yourself into. I may have called you it - but even I don't know where it came from. Names are powerful things, they grant a portal into your life, they grant control. Choose yours carefully."

Cecilia nodded. "I trust the name," she said solemnly. "It just sounds right, like something from the depths of my heart coming to the surface... like..."

"I'm sorry to interrupt this tender moment here, but aren't you two supposed to be examining me?"

Cecilia turned back to Jennifer, blushing. "Yes, of course. I'm sorry... we do tend to go off on these little sidebars... it's just that..."

"That's how our lives are," Stephen finished with a smile. "If it's not one interruption, it's another."

He turned back to Jennifer. "I think I know how you came to be here, but I'm afraid that I have no idea where you originally came from, or where your children might be."

"Mind sharing?" Jennifer asked. "Anything would be helpful."

He looked away from her, his eyes fixed on Cecilia. "I think it's time to assemble the team. This is something they all need to hear."

A few minutes later - back in the parlor

"Would someone mind telling me why I was woken out of a perfectly sound sleep?" Janet Van Dyne, the winsome Wasp, and the hostess of the team asked, as she yawned her way over to the couch.

"I wouldn't mind that myself. Having a little slumber party here last night wasn't the greatest idea in the world, but it was kinda fun having a bit of catch-up. But this..." Jean-Paul let his voice trail off as Dr. Strange and Lifeforce led Jennifer March into the room.

"Something tells me we're not going to like this," Isaac muttered.

Moondragon nodded in the affirmative.

Brunnhilde stood at the far side of the room, her arms folded in front of her, waiting...

Lorna Dane, Polaris, sat in silence for a few moments before speaking up. "Is someone going to get Hannibal?" she asked.

Cecilia shook her head. "We'll fill him in later. We can't risk bringing him up out of the basement during daylight. The news will keep... for him." She looked back at Stephen, who nodded.

"Please take your seat, Ms. March," the sorcerer supreme stated. "And you as well, Ms. Reyes, so that I can begin."

They did so, keeping a careful eye on him.

"Who is Jennifer March? Where is Patsy Walker? These are questions you wanted me to address. And I think that I have..." He looked across the room to Brunnhilde. "I almost wish I hadn't. I'm afraid that I'm responsible for this situation."

"What?????" approximately half the room said at once. The other half followed a half second later.

"Explain yourself, mage," Brunnhilde bellowed.

Stephen Strange held up his hand. "All in good time. First I must address the most important part of my discovery. Patsy Walker's spirit is alive and well."

"Where is she?" Isaac was the first of many to ask.

"Her spirit is currently bound up at the end of a silver cord."

"Excuse me?" Northstar spurted. "What the hell does that mean?"

"If I may," Valkyrie said to Stephen before stepping forward. He nodded his consent. "For the mortals among us, or the unschooled in the occult, the silver cord is the direct link, on the spirit plane, between the life force of an entity and the physical construct. It is this thread, this cord, that is cut at the end of life. It's invisible to mortal eyes, even on the astral plane, for the most part... but it is that line more often than not that we of Odin's handmaidens follow to those destined for the glory of Valhalla." She turned back to Stephen. "And you say that Patsy's spirit has somehow gotten tangled up in her own silver cord?"

He shook his head. "Not tangled. She's trapped there, been bound there, by some unknown force. I saw her, I even got to let her know I was there. She seemed to sense my presence, so she has at least a bit of awareness of her surroundings. Other than that..."

"Trapped by her own silver cord? I've never heard..." Gargoyle started, before Stephen rose his hand.

"Not her own cord," Stephen clarified. "Hers." His eyes fell on Jennifer March as she sat on the couch.

"Mine?" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet.

"I knew it..." Valkyrie exclaimed as she rushed forward.

"Stop!" Timeslip, who had been sitting quietly during the explanation, trying to puzzle things out, wondering where her friend with the baby had gone. It was a large mansion... but surely she couldn't have just disappeared. She raised her hand, and found that her words were done. Time had ceased to continue around the charging Valkyrie. She looked back to Dr. Strange, who smiled.

"Thank you, Rina," he said, "but I think I can handle this from here."

She nodded, and lifted her hand again. Time resumed. Only Valkyrie was now facing the other direction. "Whaaa..."

"If you might give me a moment, Brunnhilde. I'm about to explain to you the reason that this is all my fault and not Jennifer March's at all."

Valkyrie gave him an freezing look. "Then talk fast, before I start regretting my olive branch."

"As you know - the body that Jennifer March inhabits was the same one that our friend Patsy Walker inhabited."

"Get on with it..."Brunnhilde said, casting a deadly look at Jennifer.

"As you also know - Patsy Walker's physical being was slain by her husband Daimon Hellstorm."

"The swine," Isaac hissed.

"But her spirit was still alive - and we fought Morgana Le Fey and regained it."*

(*During the Woman Who Lived Twice story arc - GD)

Northstar looked blankly at Polaris. She shrugged. Sure, it sounded odd, but then again, what wasn't?

"And..." Brunnhilde said impatiently.

"And," Stephen said, "we grabbed the first unoccupied host body we could find to put Patsy in. In this case it was the vessel that had been used by Morgana Le Fey herself."

Brunnhilde gasped in shock.

Isaac simply stared at his old friend. "But you said you could find no trace of another personality within that body. You said that we weren't displacing anyone..."

"We weren't," Stephen assured, "but what we didn't... excuse me friends, what I didn't look for, was to see what had happened to that original personality - or to learn why Morgana had chosen that form."

"But, if it was gone..." Jean-Paul said cautiously, "doesn't that mean that it could come back at some point?"

Stephen nodded. "That's exactly what's happened." He nodded back to Jennifer March. "She's exactly right. This is her body, not Patsy's. When Morgana took it over, she bound Jennifer up in the silver cord, hidden from detection, as near as I can figure. When I took a look into the form, I never even glanced in that direction. After all, I assumed it was the discard from Morgana and that it would be soon dispersing. It was a sloppy mistake - and one that Patsy might have paid for."

"But why now?” Janet asked, "Patsy was fine for so long..."

"I think it has something to do with what Maximus did to her... and something to do with her role as the Moontiger. Something in that 'death' triggered Patsy's soul to trade places with Jennifer's."

"Can we get her back?" Cecilia asked.

Stephen shook his head. "I'm not sure yet. That's something we're going to have to look into...something that is going to take time and effort to figure out."

"Nonsense," Valkyrie bellowed.

"You have a better idea, Brunnhilde?" Stephen asked.

"I shall take her to Asgard - to Valhalla. The Order will be able to free Patsy's soul if anyone can."

Stephen nodded. "Alright then, if you're sure that this can be done?"

The leader of the Valkyrie nodded. "Together we can accomplish this, Stephen. We deal with souls on a daily basis; it is nothing to trouble yourself with any longer."

"Since I was involved in the problem... I thought that I might help with the solution," he said, meekly.

The stone face of Brunnhilde the Valkyrie melted into a smile. The sorcerer supreme felt his knees go a bit weak. "I know, old friend. But we can handle this."

"Don't I get a say in any of this? What if I don't want to gooooo?" Jennifer exclaimed as she found herself being picked up off the coach by the scruff of her neck.

"Who offered you a choice mortal?" Valkyrie demanded. "By chance or design, you have trapped my best friend in your very life thread. I wish to free her. There is no negotiation here. Where I go - you must as well."

"So much for diplomacy," Jean-Paul muttered to no one in particular. Lorna caught his eye and smiled.

Rina frowned to herself with a dramatic lovelorn sigh.

"Are you sure you should be..." Isaac started, but Brunnhilde was already out the door, dragging Jennifer March by the arm after her. He glanced out the window, and sure enough, Valkyrie was astride her steed Aragorn heading for the skies.

"Shouldn't someone try to stop her?" Isaac asked no one in particular. "After all, just dragging someone to Asgard against their will is hardly..."

Stephen Strange nodded with a smile. "It certainly wouldn't be the first time with this group."

Janet Van Dyne stared at the sky, still in shock. "We wouldn't do that sort of thing in the Avengers," she muttered.

Moondragon snorted. "I can name quite a few times where you did exactly that, dear Janet. Or do you forget..."

Janet sighed. "Those times were different... they were..." she stopped for a moment, pondering. "Well, okay, I guess they were sort of the same thing. But we weren't as rude about it."

Jean-Paul burst out laughing, followed by Stephen.

"Wha..." Janet exclaimed in dismay, but no one would answer, they just kept looking up at the sky. Or at least trying their best to do so.

Elsewhere in the mansion

She glanced up at the sky, watching Valkyrie disappear far into the blue. She watched and sighed. Things would be changing for them all. And soon.

"Hush," she muttered as she rocked the baby in her arms. "Things are coming to pass."

She wanted to go back to the parlor, she wanted to tell them exactly what was coming to happen to them all. But she couldn't. And even if she could, no one would believe her. It was just all too unreal to be true. If it hadn't already happened that way - she knew that she would never believe.

But it had.

And it would happen again.

She looked down at the baby in her arms and smiled.

She wouldn't have it happen any other way...

But why did so many other people have to suffer for her to have a bit of joy?

She sighed and watched the sky.

Soon there would be another couple of visitors. But only one that mattered.

Soon it would all be set in motion. Destiny. Fate. The Way Things Were.

In an underground compound

He stared at the ceiling, feeling the flow... feeding on it. The time was soon. The key moment was coming.

He had planned long and hard. Too long to let one person stand in the way.

Soon - she would no longer be in his way.

Soon - he would be able to go after the prize in earnest.

Soon mattered not to him. He could go anytime, anywhere. And yet - he waited.

For the first time in his life, he bid his time, and he waited. After all - everything had to be ready. Things had to be prepared. The man who wore the face of metal laughed to himself. He laughed at the amount of time he had spent. he laughed at his own folly. His own organization.

For his purpose, he had brought back allies. First the Crime Cartel. They had been insufficient for a task other than distraction. Which is what he had used them for. Now though, he had forged something better, something that would be his sword in the battle to come.

He had created his own Secret Empire, one far better than any to come before... and together nothing, no one, would be able to defy their will ever again.

Back in the Parlor

"So… what are you going to do about the Kyle situation?" Stephen asked. No one had seemed to want to talk about the fact that their former teammate, long believed to be deceased, was now a Moonguard. "I'm not sure what we can do, Stephen," Cecilia answered. "He says he doesn't want to come back..."

"I'm not completely convinced that it is Kyle," Isaac blurted.

"Explain?" Stephen asked.

"I'm not sure I can... it’s just that..."

Before Isaac Christian could complete his remark, the air in the room split wide open to allow a charged portal to open in the middle of the room.

"Whaaa..." Janet exclaimed, jumping to her feet, along with the rest of the team.

"Sorry to disturb you," Clea said, as she emerged from the portal of light, "but I have someone here you needs to speak with you."

"Then bring them forth," Stephen said with an official air.

"Not you, Stephen" Clea answered. "He needs to speak to the Defenders."

Stephen Strange didn't reply. He merely stood silent, his expression hiding whatever was in his heart.

"Who needs to speak to us?" Cecilia asked, seeing Stephen rebuffed, stepping up immediately into the role.

"I do," a voice replied. A voice that echoed through the room. A voice of power and of pain.

He staggered out of the portal, almost falling upon entry. But with a great effort, he kept himself upright.

Cecilia had seen that look before; it was the look of someone who had been hurt a great deal - but refused to allow himself the weakness. She had seen it on the faces of patients far too many times to count.

But this was the first time she had ever seen it on the face of the SILVER SURFER.

He stood tall and proud, bellowing out of his words with the last of his breath. "I have need of your services, old friends and new... We must go once more to the stars... The universe once more requires the aid of…

NEXT: Go read Defenders Giant Size #7 and then the acclaimed mini series Defenders/Space 1999 for the further adventures of Lifeforce, Gargoyle, Timeslip, Northstar and Moondragon.

Send mail to: Gary Dreslinski