I stood in the middle of the New York Sanctum and sighed as Strange came rushing back in, eyes wide. "T-that's New York. We're back in New York."
"Yeah," I said. "Wong told you, didn't he? Three sanctums."
"What are we to do now?" Strange asked.
"If Kaecilius is coming after the sanctums, we need to warn Master Drumm that he may be in danger." I looked around the empty hall. "But he doesn't seem to be here at the moment...strange."
"Yes?" Strange asked.
I sighed. "No — not you. Strange as in odd. Weird. Never mind. God, so many puns, so little time."
"Right." Strange shook his head and set off to search the sanctum. We found the teleporting cupboards quickly enough — mirrored doors opening onto locations scattered all across the Earth — and then made our way upstairs to the armoury.
Strange was immediately drawn in, moving slowly between the cases and displays with the look of a man trying very hard to appear casual about what he was seeing. If I was honest, I wasn't entirely immune to it either. These were objects of staggering age and power, most of them so particular in nature that they could never simply be picked up and used — they would choose who wielded them.
I watched Strange pass by the Cloak of Levitation, still folded in its case. It shifted almost imperceptibly as he walked by, as though aware of him. I had always suspected that cloak possessed a kind of awareness — not thought exactly, but a presence, something that made it more than just fabric.
"Hello?!" Strange called out once more, and received nothing in return.
"Pointless," I said. "Either Drumm is dead — unlikely, since the sanctum still stands — or he's preparing himself and won't hear us regardless."
"What are all of these?" Strange asked, gesturing at the rows of contained artifacts.
"Items of power," I replied.
"You're joking," he said flatly. "All of them?"
I shrugged. "One would think."
I was walking past when something made me stop. It wasn't a sound or a sight — more of an impression. A pull, almost like recognition, the way you might turn at the sound of your own name in a crowd.
I looked around until I found the source: a blade, suspended vertically by a thread of magic, at least four feet long, perfectly still. Pure black — not merely dark, but a black that seemed to swallow light rather than reflect it. The only break in the colour was a golden crossguard shaped like a pair of thin, sharp bat wings with a bright red gem at the centre.
The metal was strange. It didn't reflect anything. Not the light in the room, not the cases around it, not me. I thought of vantablack — the material scientists in my world had only just discovered — but even that comparison felt inadequate. The blade didn't feel dangerous, though. Not at all. In fact, it felt...welcoming.
Before I could investigate further, Strange's voice cut through. "Peter. I sense something downstairs."
I hummed and turned away. "Right. Coming." We went back down together, and there at the base of the stairs stood Master Drumm, staff in hand. I was about to call out to him when the building lurched.
Strange and I grabbed the railings as the house seemed to turn over — the walls, the floor, the windows suddenly tiling with copies of themselves, recursive and wrong. Drumm stumbled back, taking several steps to keep his footing.
Then the front doors flew open.
Kaecilius and his disciples strode in. Two red-robed apprentices — one male, one female — flanked the former master. Kaecilius looked up and locked eyes with Drumm.
"Daniel," he said, bowing. "I see they have made you master of this sanctum."
"And you know what that means," Drumm replied.
"That you'll die protecting it," Kaecilius said. He clapped his hands and drew them slowly apart, summoning a translucent crystal staff between his palms.
I watched as the two apprentices attacked Drumm with similar weapons. He held them off at first — skilled, composed, using his staff with precision. But I saw the moment it began to turn. One student circled wide while the other pressed, and the female slipped behind and drove Drumm to his knees.
Kaecilius drew back to finish it.
I moved. A whip of Vastha energy snapped out, coiling around Drumm's chest and hauling him backward an instant before the blow could land.
"Stop!" Strange yelled from the top of the stairs. He descended to stand beside me. Drumm recovered, back-flipped away from the tangle and landed alongside us. I dismissed the whip. The three of us looked down at Kaecilius and his disciples.
"Thanks," Drumm said.
"Don't mention it," I replied.
Kaecilius looked up with faint amusement. "Quite the collection of assistants you have, Daniel. I didn't expect this."
"Shut your mouth, traitor," Drumm said. "You will not pass the three of us."
"Perhaps not," Kaecilius shrugged. "But we shall see."
They attacked.
Strange brought his palms together, conjuring a whip of his own — cruder than mine, lacking direction, but there. The male apprentice came along the walls fast. The female went straight for me.
I let her come, weaving back from her opening swings, giving ground to let her think she was in control. Then I ducked under a horizontal cut, closed the distance, grabbed her extended arm and locked it.
She tried to pull free. She couldn't.
I drove an uppercut into her jaw — clean and mean — and when she snapped back I held on, spinning her and pressing her forehead against the wall hard enough to crack it. She sagged. I stepped back and watched her go down.
I summoned a handful of Vastha whips and bound her tight, then drew my sling ring and opened a portal to the monastery courtyard and sent her through with a boot. I was confident they would handle the situation on the other side.
I turned in time to see Strange get thrown into the corridor of teleporting cupboards. He would be fine. I went for Drumm instead, getting into the fight with a kick aimed at Kaecilius's spine that sent the man staggering forward.
"Agile," Kaecilius said, turning with cold interest. He deflected Drumm's staff without looking at it and thrust both hands at me — and dozens of small crystalline spikes came streaming out.
"Not interested," I said, opening a portal in the air in front of me. The spikes sailed through and were gone.
Drumm came in from the side, cracking his staff across Kaecilius's face.
"Two against one," Kaecilius said, composed despite everything. He crossed his arms in a single sharp motion — and the room shifted, the walls folding in on themselves and separating Drumm and me. Kaecilius vanished into a curtain of shimmering reflective glass.
I stayed still and listened.
"Argh!" Drumm went down, clutching his side as blood began to flow.
"Master Drumm!" I was moving when my spider-sense fired. I threw myself aside just as a hand materialised out of nowhere, crystal blade in hand. I hit the ground rolling.
Then a larger blade came down from above and pinned my robes to the floor. I was held for a fraction of a second before I ripped free, tearing the fabric, and came up on my feet.
"ARGH!" Drumm cried out again. I looked up — and felt something cold move through me.
Kaecilius stepped back into the world with a blade already buried in Drumm's chest.
"NO!" I charged. Kaecilius jumped back and dissolved into the mirror dimension. I skidded across the floor and reached Drumm as he fell, catching him before he hit the ground.
"Kaecilius is using the mirror dimension for his attacks," Drumm said, his breath coming in short pulls. Blood poured from the wound, covering my hands. "Don't let him win, Parker. Protect the sanctums. I beg of you."
"No," I said. "You're not dying here. I'll get you to the Ancient One — she'll heal you. Just stay with me."
"No time," Drumm said. "Let me go. Save the sanctum." And then his eyes went still, and his body went heavy in my arms.
I held him there for a moment.
I had wanted to change destiny. It seemed certain things were more stubborn than I was.
I laid him down and straightened. "Kaecilius," I called out. "Come out and face me."
Strange came running in from the corridor, breathless. "I got him — duck!"
I didn't need to say it twice. Strange dropped as Kaecilius came launching out of the mirror dimension behind him, twin blades ready to end it. But I was already in the air.
SKIT!
My stingers came out. I brought them down on Kaecilius from above.
He turned at the last instant and caught my blades with his crystals, dropping to one knee under the impact as I drove my weight down onto him. He grunted. I pushed harder.
CRACK!
His eyes went wide. My blades were cutting through his — like water through ice.
"What are you?" he breathed.
I didn't answer. I kicked him hard in the chest. He flew back, gasping.
I went to follow up, but the moment I moved, a sheet of mirror-like light closed over him and I dropped into the mirror dimension instead. A fractured reflection of the sanctum surrounded me. Through it, I could see the real world in reverse.
I watched Strange run and Kaecilius give chase. I pulled out my sling ring and reached for a portal — but found resistance. Every portal I opened into the sanctum redirected elsewhere, snapping open in Central Park instead of its intended destination.
Kaecilius had warded the sanctum from within. That was why the Ancient One hadn't been able to enter sooner — the moment Strange opened a portal from the hospital it had functioned as an exception, a crack from the inside. I had no such advantage.
I jumped through to Central Park and closed the portal behind me.
I needed stealth. I was the most wanted criminal in the country, and I was standing in New York.
I looked down. My robes were shredded and soaked with blood — none of it mine. I exhaled.
I set the robes aside. "Activate Black Spider mode. Password." The suit came alive and settled over me, white spider logo bright on my chest. I checked myself over. Better.
"Sexy — find out which hospital Strange worked at before his accident." I ordered the AI to stealth mode as my suit shimmered and vanished.
"Dr. Strange worked at Metro-General Hospital. Shall I plot a route?"
"Do it," I said, and ran for the trees.
I swung through New York and felt the familiar ease settle into my body — the rhythm of it, the height and the fall and the snap of web line catching. I had missed this city. I had missed this.
I came in through an open window on the tenth floor of Metro-General and moved fast through the corridors, careful to give the hospital staff a wide berth. As I rushed down one hallway I passed through something cold. I looked twice and recognised it — the astral form of Kaecilius's male apprentice, here on Strange's trail. Strange could handle himself. Kaecilius was mine.
I found the portal exactly where I expected it — five feet off the ground in a janitor's closet, glowing with quiet energy. I stepped through and emerged in the sanctum at speed.
And in the armoury upstairs, Kaecilius had just broken the last of his restraints.
He looked up.
I opened my palms and fired two repulsor blasts directly at him.
BOOM!
He opened a mirror portal, absorbing the energy. I reached out with my telekinesis and sent a heavy iron drum flying at his head. He ducked, let it sail past, and was already raising his hands as I snapped a whip around his leg.
I swung hard. He hit the wall — grunted — bounced back up immediately and launched a wave of crystal shards my way. I raised a shield and fired a web line to his robes, then pulled.
He came in fast and I kicked him sideways. He crashed into a display holding a massive golden mace. He grabbed it, eyes blazing, and roared some kind of Sanskrit incantation — and the mace launched itself at me like a cannonball.
I caught it by the handles. It dragged me off my feet.
CRASH. CRASH. CRASH.
I landed in a heap of broken glass and splintered wood. Through the debris I saw the black blade from before — right there, within reach.
Kaecilius was charging at me.
On instinct I grabbed the blade by the handle and swung.
CLACK!
It connected with Kaecilius's energy shard — and went straight through it, shearing it cleanly in half and cutting a deep gash across his forearm.
"ARGH!" He leaped back.
He stared at his bleeding hand, then at me, then at the blade. I was already on my feet, ready, watching him. He didn't press the attack.
Instead, something shifted in his expression. He looked at the blade with something that wasn't quite fear and wasn't quite respect.
"That relic," he said quietly, "will be your death." Then he turned and threw himself through the great circular window — the one bearing the seal of the New York Sanctum — and was gone.
"That's right!" I called after him. "Keep running!" I went to the window and waited, expecting him to circle back. He didn't.
I sat down on the steps and leaned back, letting myself breathe for the first time in what felt like hours. The blade rested beside me, dark and still.
I looked down at it. "What are you?" I asked it quietly.
A portal appeared behind me. The Ancient One and Mordo stepped through. They saw me and stopped. Mordo spoke first.
"You're alive."
I snorted. "Don't look so surprised. I used to deal with people like Kaecilius on a weekly basis."
"I apologise that we couldn't come sooner," the Ancient One said. "Kaecilius's wards..." She trailed off as her eyes fell to the blade beside me. Whatever composure she maintained cracked, just for a moment. "Oh my. The Ebony Blade."
Mordo's eyes went wide. He looked down at it and then up at me, clearly struggling. "How? That relic was supposed to be—"
"Dead, yes," the Ancient One said softly. She looked at me. "How did you come to hold it?"
I glanced at the blade. "Honestly? I have no idea."
"That blade was forged by Merlin," she said, "and given to Sir Percy of the Round Table."
I blinked. "Wow."
"Sir Percy embodied the true codes of knighthood — purity, nobility, selfless service. The blade's lore is simple: only the pure of heart can wield it. Someone whose nature matches its original bearer. Those who cannot...are consumed by whatever darkness lives in them."
I stared at it. "What is it even made of?"
"Starstone," the Ancient One said. "A meteorite that Merlin used to forge the weapon. It cuts through magic — which makes it uniquely suited to fighting those who use it."
"I got a good hit in," I said. I looked at the blade, its reputation growing more compelling by the second. "What happened to its last owner?"
"Dane Whitman," she said. "A good man. But the power the blade gave him — the amplification, the sharpening of every dark emotion — it eventually overtook him. He died not long after."
Mordo stepped forward. "Think of it as a magnifier, Parker. Whatever ugliness lives inside you — fear, rage, the desire to hurt — the blade takes it and works with it. It has turned better men than you into killers. If you intend to use it at all, be warned."
I exhaled. "You really don't make things easy. Fine. Anything else I should know?"
"A great deal," the Ancient One said. "After this is over, I suspect you'll have time to learn."
Just then, footsteps on the stairs. Strange came running up, cloak sweeping around his shoulders.
"The Cloak of Levitation," Mordo observed. "This is...unexpected."
"It suits him," the Ancient One said, with what might have been a rare note of approval. She looked at Strange with a small smile. "It is a fickle thing, though. Consider yourself warned."
Strange stopped at the top of the stairs, taking in the empty trap where Kaecilius had been bound. He turned to me — and then seemed to truly look at my face for the first time.
"Who are you?" he asked.
I blinked. Right. My mask was still on. Strange, apparently, had not paid enough attention during our months at the same monastery to recognise me by build or voice.
My helmet retracted. "It's me, Strange."
He stared. "Parker? I didn't realise. You're...Spider-Man?"
The Ancient One and Mordo both chuckled. Mordo shook his head. "You really should lift your nose from the books every so often, Strange."
Strange exhaled and looked around. "He's escaped."
"Kaecilius?" the Ancient One asked.
"Yes. He's something else. He can fold space and matter at will."
"Outside the mirror dimension?" The Ancient One went very still. "If he can do that freely then — how many more?"
"Two that I know of," Strange said. "That's all."
"I captured one and sent her to Kamar-Taj," I said.
"We subdued her the moment she arrived," Mordo confirmed.
"And the other is downstairs," Strange said, shaken. "Dead. And Drumm—"
"His body will be returned to Kamar-Taj," Mordo said.
The Ancient One's expression grew grave. "The London Sanctum has fallen. Only New York and Hong Kong remain. You both defended this sanctum well — and Parker has his own obligations elsewhere. But with Drumm gone, this sanctum needs a new protector." She looked at Strange. "Master Strange."
Mordo made a sharp noise. "No — he isn't ready. Parker is more qualified to guard this sanctum than Strange."
The Ancient One silenced him with a look. She turned to Strange and raised an eyebrow.
Strange looked down, and when he raised his head again there was fury in his eyes. "No. It's Doctor Strange. Not Master Strange. And when I became a doctor, I swore an oath to do no harm — and I have just killed a man. I will not do that again. I became a doctor to save lives. Not to take them."
"You became a doctor," the Ancient One said quietly, "to save one life above all others. Your own."
Strange scoffed. "Still seeing through me."
"I have always seen what is there," she said. "Your overinflated ego. Your desire to believe that you can control anything — even death." She turned to include me. "Not Peter Parker. Not even the great Doctor Stephen Strange can do such a thing."
Strange's jaw tightened. "Not even Dormammu?"
The Ancient One went still.
"He offers immortality," Strange pressed, moving closer. "I know how you've done it. I've seen the missing pages in the Book of Time. I know—"
"Strange," I said. "That's enough."
He turned. "You knew?"
I looked between him and the Ancient One — Strange blazing with anger, Mordo wearing confusion, the Ancient One with her face perfectly composed. "I suspected."
"What are they talking about?" Mordo asked carefully.
"Her life," Strange said. "The source of her immortality. She draws power from the Dark Dimension to sustain herself."
Mordo shook his head. "That's not true—" He turned to his master and found her expression unmoved. "Is it?"
She said nothing to him. Instead: "Once they regroup, the zealots will return. You'll need reinforcements." She stepped away, opened a portal, and was gone.
Strange looked at Mordo. "You don't know her."
"You have no right to judge her," Mordo said, his voice hard. "You have no idea what it means to carry the responsibilities of a Sorcerer—"
"I don't want to know," Strange snapped.
"You're a coward."
"Because I'm not a killer?"
"Enough," I said. Both of them turned. "Strange — we don't have time for this. Kaecilius and his people will come back, and fighting each other will only make their job easier. You want answers? Let's survive long enough to get them."
Mordo and Strange glared at each other. "You are still nothing more than a coward," Mordo said coldly.
VROOM!
My spider-sense flared. "They're back."
I covered my face, took the Ebony Blade in hand and leapt from the top of the stairs as Mordo and Strange followed. Below us, Kaecilius and his zealots were already forming a sphere of devastating energy in the centre of the sanctum.
"No!" Mordo yelled, drawing their attention as he and I landed and moved to engage two red-robed zealots. "Strange! Get down here!"
"I have a better idea," Strange called from above — and then a wave of energy rolled outward from him and swallowed us all.
My spider-sense screamed. I was already in motion — I threw myself sideways and dove through the sanctum window just as the mirror dimension folded in around the others.
I rolled out onto the street and came up on my feet, looking up through the window in time to see the sanctum's interior shimmer and fold inward as Strange and the others were absorbed into the mirror dimension.
I pressed a hand to the glass. The reflective surface held firm. Kaecilius had locked me out entirely.
"Hey — is that Spider-Man?"
I turned. Half the street was staring at me.
I clipped the Ebony Blade to my back — my suit obligingly forming a scabbard for it — activated stealth mode before anyone could get a clear photograph, and climbed straight up the building.
From the rooftop I tried again to force a portal into the mirror dimension. Nothing. Sealed tight.
I recalled what I knew. The Ancient One was going to be hurt — thrown from a building during the mirror dimension battle. She was going to fall. She was going to die.
Not today.
I shot a web line and started moving, extending all four of my mechanical back arms as I swung through the neighbourhood. I had them fire wide, loose web nets between buildings above the streets — not pretty, but strong enough to catch a person. Suicide nets, more or less, except in this case it was to catch an immortal sorceress who was about to fall off a rooftop.
I covered nearly three city blocks before I felt it — a shimmer in the dimensional fabric, a portal activating.
I looked around. One street over, a single figure in yellow came spinning down out of thin air.
Straight into one of my nets.
"YES!" I launched off the building and swung down hard, landing on the net beside the Ancient One in seconds.
Her eyes found mine. "Peter," she breathed, one hand pressed to the stab wound in her side. "What have you done."
"I told you," I said. I looked at her side — deep, bleeding. "I refuse to accept destiny's verdict."
"Then you will suffer for it," she warned.
"I'll take my chances." I shot webbing into the wound to slow the bleeding. "She needs medical attention now," I said as Strange came flying toward us on a platform of mystic energy, eyes wide. "She needs you."
"Give her to me," Strange said. He landed, gathered her carefully, and launched back into the air.
"Parker," Mordo said, stepping off a platform of his own and landing beside me. He looked down at the cameras pointed up at us from the street below. "Perhaps it would be wise for you to return to Kamar-Taj. You...draw attention."
I nodded. "Fair enough. I'll leave it with you two."
Mordo gave a small nod and disappeared — a minor invisibility working.
I straightened on the web and looked down at the crowd below.
She was alive. Strange would stop the bleeding. And Mordo would never let her rest until she gave him the answers she owed him.
I pulled back my mask and raised my voice so it carried.
"Remember — the Age of Heroes is now."
I took off into the air.
Within minutes a helicopter was circling. I tucked myself into the shadow beneath a water tower and watched as the New York skyline slowly filled with SHIELD and local law enforcement aircraft, converging on the area.
Efficient, I had to admit.
I slipped out my sling ring, opened a portal to the Kamar-Taj library, and stepped through. Wong was waiting for me on the other side.
"What happened?" he asked.
I pulled back my mask. "It's a long story, and it's not over." I looked at him steadily. "Bring every able fighter we have. The New York Sanctum is under attack, and—"
Ding.
The bells rang.
Wong and I both turned to the great map as the New York Sanctum's seal darkened and went out.
"Damn it," I said. "They went right back after dealing with the Ancient One. The sanctum must have fallen."