"Awaiting"

"I was wondering when you were going to come back"

The man known as Strangeman shrugged as he approached the front steps of the Nebraska farmhouse. It was weird for him to be back, even after the events of the previous evening *, there were roots that reached much further back. A road that might have been, had circumstances been a bit different, led these steps. Steps currently occupied by the man who was this Earth's Dr. Stephen Strange, a mirror image of himself, again had things been different.

(*Last issue - GD)

He had come from Counter-Earth, and in many ways, had become a better person. In others, well, he was still trying... trying to be more like the man sitting in front of him with a bemused smile. He wondered what was going through his duplicate's mind... and stopped. He was probably thinking the same thing: about roads that don't get traveled, for whatever the reason, and maybe, in his case, about being able to switch paths.

"I had to come back. You knew that."

"Of course. You're me after all. "

"I prefer to think of it as you being me."

"To each their own."

"Funny, I thought I was supposed to be the sarcastic one."

Stephen smiled slightly and shrugged, "It's in our nature, not the best of attributes. But its there."

"It's gotten us in more than a few problems over the years..."

"That's what attributes do. Get you in trouble." Stephen paused for a moment before continuing, "So, what's on your mind?"

"You don't already know? Some me you turned out to be."

"Maybe I do. Maybe I don't. I'd prefer to hear it from your own lips."

Strangeman stood quietly at the foot of the steps.

"At least have a seat." Stephen waved to the empty space next to him on the steps. "There's nothing like a little Nebraska night air to clear your head."

"Unless of course its the air getting the hell out of Nebraska. What made you come back here? You hated it here. You wanted nothing more than to get as far from this state as humanly possible..."

"And where did that get me? Living the fast life? Driving the fast cars?"

"It got you to where you are today."

"Only because I learned not to do that. The hard way. I destroyed myself."

"And rebuilt yourself. I didn't."

"You didn't do too bad of a job. You're here aren't you."

"As a second rate Dr. Strange."

"Join the club. There are more than enough second rate Dr. Stranges to go around. Myself included."

Strangman considered it for a moment, then sat down next to his counterpart. "So what the hell happened to you out there anyway?"

"You know that I'm not going to talk about it. I told you that already."

"Sure, you said it. But face it, I'm the closest thing you've got to you. I'm the only other guy in the universe that can honestly say that he knows how you tick."

"And yet you can't figure out what to watch on television from day to day."

"I don't watch much tv."

"Me either. But when we do..."

"We channel surf. Heh... yeah, but see, that only goes to prove my point."

"That we have the same endearing qualities."

"Of course." Strangeman answered with a smirk, "And who better to understand what makes those qualities so damn endearing?"

"I'm not going to talk about it." Stephen replied. "Was there anything else you wanted? How's Clea taking it?"

"I was wondering when you were going to ask about her. You were pretty cold to her."

"I had to be. Deep down, she doesn't understand anything other than that. No matter how much she tries to hide it, there is no true grey in Clea's life. Things are dark or light. White or black. Starsky or Hutch..."

"You've been channel surfing again."

"Guilty as charged... She wouldn't understand if I told her that I needed something different. Oh, she would say that she understood, but in the end it would all come back to the same old status quo. She would run to me with some problem, and the next thing we knew we'd be back together."

"That's a bad thing?"

"Yes. It's a bad thing. Its a co-dependent relationship, where need replaces love more often than not. Even worse, it's a situation where we say 'love' when we mean 'need'."

"There are worse things in life than to need someone."

"There are better ones as well. I realized that I couldn't keep living a life that 'wasn't the worst thing'... but you didn't answer my question. How is Clea doing?"

"You noticed that huh?"

"I notice a lot of things. Like the fact that you just dodged it again."

Strangeman sighed, "She doesn't believe that you are YOU."

"Denial. It's not just a river anymore."

"I can't believe that you just used one of his jokes."

"Grandfather might not have been the best of men, but he knew how to call it from time to time."

"Like when we'd try to steal his candy..."

"He'd always know."

Strangeman reached up to his face, removing his midnight blue mask.

Stephen stared for a moment, then shook his head with a chuckle, "It's always a shock to see your own face looking back at you."

"How do you think I feel?"

"I guess I never thought about it much."

"Did you see him?"

"Huh?"

"Did you see him? Our grandfather? When you went into death. You obviously have been thinking alot about him lately... which made me wonder if you'd seen him."

"I saw lots of things. He may have been one of them."

"May have been?"

"I'm being mysterious." Stephen chuckled, "Is it working?"

"Not really."

"Damn. I guess I'll have to give up my plans to become all dark and mysterious. I'll have to settle for tall."

"You're not all that tall."

"Sure, shoot me in the foot while you're at it."

"Did you see Mom? Dad? Is that why you decided to ditch everything and..."

"Yes I saw them. But that's not why... or maybe that's not completely why. I don't want to get into it. Let's just say that I have my reasons and move on. She doesn't believe me huh?"

"Mom?"

"Clea."

"Clea doesn't look like Mom... well, maybe her eyes..."

"I'm not talking about Mom... although you are right about that now that I stop and think about that. I don't even want to know what Freud would have to say about that."

"I know, I was just jerking your chain... which of course is probably what Freud would say you were doing with Clea... me too for that matter, now that I think of my own Clea, although her eyes really don't look that much like... anyway, no, she doesn't believe that you're really Stephen. Or, at the very least, she thinks that you're under someone else's control."

"What do you think?"

"Does it matter?"

"Humor me."

"I think you're a jerk."

"I meant, do you think that I'm under someone else's control?"

Strangeman shook his head, "Anyone with enough willpower to take you over would have more sense than throwing together such a half-assed excuse."

"Thank you... I think."

"Not a problem."

"What about the others?"

"I thought you didn't care about the Defenders anymore."

"Caring isn't the same as being a part of them. I care about them a great deal. I just can't be one of them anymore. That time is over."

"Then why do you care what they think?"

"Because it occured to me, once my anger died down, that having Clea think I'm lying is bad enough. She's got enough power and enough single-mindedness to keep hounding me until I finally have to deal with her. Which I don't want to do... I want to get on with my life, but if I have to, I have to... but if she manages to convince the rest of the team that I'm not really in my right mind..."

"Then you have the Defenders constantly hounding you until you 'come to your senses'."

"Exactly. Not my idea of domestic bliss."

"Most of them agree with me."

"That everything's ok?"

"That you're a jerk."

"Nice to see everyone so supportive of changes in my life."

"You can hardly expect the people you just told to fuck off to throw you a parade."

"True. I guess when you put it that way. Still, its good to know that they respect my decision."

"I never said that. There's not much respecting going on. Bashing? Yeah. Respecting, not much of that."

"I guess that's to be expected. Hopefully they'll calm down after a while, and they'll realize that I'm just trying to be happy..."

"You're the Sorcerer Supreme... you don't have the time to be happy."

Stephen shook his head, "That's the point. I'm not anymore... Greg is... and Clea... and... well, you."

"Me? With that Walker kid?"

"Wallander."

"What?"

"His last name is Wallander."

Strangeman looked at him for a second, then chuckled to himself, "I guess that's why he never sent me a thank you for the birthday card." He stopped again, in mid-chuckle, "What did you mean when you said that I'm now one of this trio? Since when?"

"Since the explosion..."

"What the hell happened with that anyway? Your Sanctum explodes... with your body inside... all your artifacts... and the Circle inside! Some of the greatest magicians in the world, with some of the most powerful objects... and they all go up in smoke. You're obviously still in one piece... or is that one of the things you 'don't want to talk about'."

"I have no problem talking about that."

"Then start talking!"

"What do you want to know?"

"Everything!"

"Too vague. I'm more than willing to share. But you've got to ask me. If you don't ask the right questions, then you might not be ready to hear that part of the truth."

"But if I do, then I am I guess..."

"One would assume."

"Never do that, it makes an ass out of..."

"You and me... heh, I remember that one too. He was full of cliches wasn't he? He always got so amused with himself... but I'm sorry, you had some questions for me?"

"What caused the explosion that destroyed your Sanctum?"

"Kang."

"Kang?"

"That's not a question."

"It's as good of a question as you deserve! 'Kang' isn't much of an answer! Why the hell did KANG destroy your Sanctum?"

"If you don't know that yet, I guess it's just one of those things you'll figure out in time. Next question."

"If the rest of your answers are going to be as vague as that one... what the hell, how are you here in one piece? Your spirit was in death... doing whatever the hell you were doing, no I'm not going to ask - although by your own logic that would mean that I was ready to know, don't start arguing the point, I know what you meant. I just pointing out your hypocrisy... and your body was just lying there being dead. Being in the middle of that explosion should have splattered you, and the Magician's Circle that was guarding you while you were helpless, all over SoHo..."

"So the question is, 'how am I here in one piece?'"

"Basically."

"The magicks unleashed in the explosion reacted in such a way as to shunt me from being in two places to being in one."

"You mean that when everything blew up, it reconnected the severed connection between your body and your mind and put you back into one piece?"

"Not exactly. But pretty much. I'm not sure how 'exact' I could put it, but until I do, that is close enough."

"Where did it put your body and soul together?"

Stephen's face went dark for a moment. Strangeman stared at him, his eyes getting larger as the implications occured to him. He stumbled for another question. "What happened to the rest of the Magician's Circle? Were they killed in the explosion?"

"No, they weren't. They were shunted as well. But to someplace else."

"Where?"

"That's something that you're going to find out for yourself soon enough. I don't want to ruin the surprise."

"What about the artifacts in the Sanctum? You had some of the most powerful objects in the universe in there. Surely they weren't destroyed... where are they?"

Stephen smiled. "You don't know?"

Strangeman shook his head.

Stephen starting chuckling to himself, "Have you really been THAT busy that you didn't put two and two together? Gods, I knew that I could be dense, but surely I'm not THAT dense!"

Strangeman feigned a punch. Stephen started laughing harder.

"Just tell me. Maybe I'll think its just as funny..."

"I doubt it. It's only funny that you didn't know... although I guess that its full of its own share of irony. Then again, where they are is actually the answer to a question that I'm sure you want to ask me. If you're ready to know that is."

Strangman thought for a moment, trying to come up with another question that he had that might be related to the missing artifacts. He couldn't come up with any... in desperation, he threw one out, "What caused my increase in power levels? I've never been this powerful..." he stopped himself in midsentence, his eyes getting even larger in disbelief, "You've got to be KIDDING me!"

Stephen shook his head gravely, "Sorry. The physical containers of those artifacts were indeed destroyed. But the energy... the energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It needed somewhere to go... some container to fill. It was looking for me. It found you."

"Which is why I'm now one of the Sorcerers Supreme..."

"Soon to be the only one. But... damn, I just said that aloud didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did. What's going to happen to the kid?"

"I can't tell you that."

Strangeman thought for a moment, "What's going to happen to Clea?"

Stephen stared at him for a second, and the nodded, "Now you're on the right track. What's going to happen with Clea? Life. It happens to the best of us."

New York - The Van Dyne Mansion

Janine De Loup stared at Clea in shock. "You sent him... her... off with that thing?"

"It was the best way to deal with the situation. Cloud is the only one of us capable of dealing with the energies involved..."

"I could have done it" nearly came off her tongue without thought, but she stopped it at the last moment. She wasn't sure of that. Not really. She knew that Gaia had left her with a gift within her when the Ghost Rider essence had been stripped away... but there was still so much about it that she didn't know. "I'm just not sure it was the smartest of ideas. Cloud isn't the most... stable... of us in the first place. Not that ANY of us here are the bastions of sanity..."

"What was THAT supposed to mean!" Clea glared at her with eyes beyond dark.

"Whoa!" Patsy Walker's voice broke through the air from the other side of the room. "I don't know everything that's gone on around here since I left, but this isn't how the Defenders handle themselves!"

Moondragon smirked, "Where have YOU been Patsy. This is EXACTLY how the team has always handled itself."