When Tessa had been drawn out of her slumber, woe washed over her as she remembered the Ancient One was no longer present and yet she felt a strange solace too, but even that was slowly being taken over by melancholy – she understood now that it wasn't her own.

I cannot leave.

She did not respond, simply looked around. Looking up, she saw Stephen and to the side she saw her Uncle and Elijah. Master Kent was by her side in a matter of seconds, his calloused hand brushing her coppery hair back.

"Tessa? Tessa, are you alright?"

He hides things. He is a liar.

Again, she didn't respond to either voice, simply stared up in a calmed daze.

"Eli, Master Kent, I want a word with you both outside. Give Tessa a chance to come around."

And then she found herself alone with the presence in her head. She swallowed.

"Get out...of my head." She spoke softly, weakly.

I tried. I cannot.

She sniffled, bringing her hands over her eyes to wipe away the tears that were beginning to gather. Was she losing it? Was she crazy? Just how sick was she? The thought of the memory crossed her mind again – it was only partly hers.

"What – what are you? Why are you in my head?"

An Entity. I wished to console you.

"Why?"

You were scared. You cried. I could not bear it, so I stopped you crying.

"Why was I crying? Why can't I remember?"

Your Uncle is not your Uncle.

"I know that. He's my Godparent, my guardian."

He lies to you.

"About what?"

About the past.

"What about the past? Tell me."

To tell you would mean I never consoled you.

"Tell me, please."

Hush. Another presence joins us.

Just then the door opened to reveal a hesitant looking Doctor Strange. He shuffled in his spot for a moment before closing the door softly.

He is afraid of us.

Tessa wondered why? Why would he be afraid? Then she remembered the training room, the power, the destruction, the mild attack on Stephen, Marcus, Elijah and all of the other sorcerers present.

I meant no harm. I was trying to leave.

She watched him carefully for a moment, the Entity's distrust influencing Tessa's own feelings and yet the sense of security she felt with another person around did nothing to influence the Entity. Rolling her lips between her teeth for a moment, she waited for him to speak first.

"How are you feeling?" He asked quietly, mindful in case she still had a headache but then he noticed her fresh tears, "Is everything alright?"

Say yes.

"No."

Stephen nodded, "Do you want to talk to me about it?"

Do not tell him more. He knows enough.

"Did I...hurt anyone?"

The protector looked at her sympathetically and shook his head, "No. Bumps and scratches...maybe the odd concussion when you threw us all back," He tried to joke lightly but saw it wasn't being taken well, "But I highly doubt it was anything serious. I'm fine, so is your Uncle and Elijah."

"He is not her uncle." Came the Entity's speech through Tessa's voice.

Stephen's eyes narrowed as Tessa's widened mildly panicked.

"Her?"

"My. I meant to say my uncle, he isn't my uncle, not really." She gulped, "Just my Godparent. Slip of the tongue."

I am sorry.

The doctor nodded slowly, watching her carefully, "How's your head?"

He suspects. I think he may have heard me.

Tessa scoffed suddenly at the Entity's words, catching Stephen off-guard. He may have heard the Entity? No kidding, bright spark. If you are going to use my voice, Tessa thought, maybe don't do it around others.

No. I mean when he woke you.

Noticing Stephen's head was cocked to the side with a notable look of wariness dancing in his furrowed expression, Tessa offered him a tight-lipped smile.

"My head's brilliant. Thank you." She nodded quickly, "Where's my Uncle?"

"He had to speak with Elijah."

"Why?"

They know. Master Emeka has a good heart. He wishes to do the right thing. I fear your Master Kent will think otherwise.

Stephen shrugged, still watching her cautiously, "Is there anything else you wanted to ask me...tell me?"

Tessa kept her own eye on him for a moment.

If he knows, he will kill us. We must eliminate him first –

"No!" She shouted in alarm suddenly at the thought that was crossing her mind and then he offered the protector a smile before speaking a little softer and shaking her head, "No. No, nothing else. I'm just very tired now and I'd like to retire to my room."

"I've just put you in a mystical deep sleep – "

He didn't read the warnings.

"But did you check the warnings after the spell?" She smiled sweetly, swinging her legs over the side of the healing room bed she had been placed in, "Mystical deep sleep is like...oversleeping and no one's ever refreshed after oversleeping."

Stephen blinked and his mouth formed a speechless line – a line that said he certainly wasn't expecting to be sassed by the woman he had just somewhat saved from a terribly destructive migraine. Did he deserve it though? Probably. And did it feel a little better not hearing it from Wong? Just a little bit.

"Uh..." Stephen's gaze had practically clouded over as he stood there struggling to piece a thought together, "Um..."

Now would be the perfect time to –

"No." She spoke in a barely audible whisper before standing.

"Hm?"

"I said I take that as a no then." She nodded as she approached him by the door, looking up at him with another sweet smile, "Might I recommend doing so in future?"

"Uh...yeah. No, you have a point." He nodded slowly.

And Tessa nodded again, "Thank you again, Master Strange."

"It's uh...Doctor..."

Pedant.

"Thank you again, Doctor Strange." With that, she left the healing room. In the corridor, she shook her head, sighing in relief, "Could've gone worse."

He still knows. Tonight, we should –

"Dear God, no." She spoke sternly, "We are not hurting anyone."

It's for our own safety.

"This conversation is over. Now shut up and give me some peace and quiet."

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

Life was going to hell for Marcus. Twenty-two years this secret had been kept and only now, when the new protector of their Sanctum came along, was everything starting to fall apart. Tessa was growing worse; he knew it and all because of that thing inside her. He should have stopped it from getting Tessa, he should have never continued that argument from all those years ago with Jackson. Wracked with guilt and grief, Marcus ran his shaking hands over his face. He should have kept quiet, he should have never lashed out at Strange. If he didn't then perhaps he would be less suspicious. A deep growl of vexation towards himself left his lips and he stomped at the floor, beating his hands on his room wall.

Looking after Tessa was supposed to help him cope with the guilt. She was his second chance. He removed his hands from the wall and paced over to his bed. Why couldn't the Ancient One have lived?

A timid knock at the door stole his thoughts.

"What?" He barked.

The door creaked open to reveal Master Emeka, "Came to see if you were okay."

Marcus scoffed, "Okay? Yes, Eli, I am totally okay despite the fact that Tessa could be dying and there's nothing anyone can apparently do to help her and Strange won't keep his nose out of business that isn't his to know - "

"He does know."

Marcus's head whipped back to scowl at Eli, "What did you say?"

Eli shuffled on his feet under the dark glare he had earned from his fellow Master, "At least...he knows a bit about Tessa's situation now; I'm going to explain the rest tonight."

Marcus said nothing. Just stared.

Eli continued, "Marcus, keeping all this between the two of us - it isn't right, it most certainly isn't helping Tessa and it isn't healthy for you. You said that you would tell Tessa about what really happened when she was old enough; she's twenty-eight now and she still doesn't know - "

"She doesn't need to know, neither does Strange." Marcus shook his head, "There wasn't a need to tell her when the Ancient One kept the Entity within her at bay."

A knot formed in the middle of Eli's brow, "The Ancient One is gone now and Tessa has every right to know what happened to her and what really happened to her father."

"She hardly remembers her father, what's the point in telling her?" Marcus's voice was low in tone.

Elijah's arms went limp and his mouth slackened as he looked at Marcus, "Are you hearing yourself? Marcus, I know you're not that cold?"

"Do you really?" His tone was like ice.

"Marcus, please," Elijah clasped his hands together as he stood before the Master, "Come with me to Strange. He'll be waiting. We can explain together and then the three of us can find a solution. He is clever and skilled enough to help us – "

"Don't you understand?" Master Kent shoved Elijah away, causing him to fall back onto the floor with a sullen thud, "He will kick me out and he will take my sorcery, he will tell Tessa and she will disown me, her own Uncle, her own family - he is not the Ancient One!"

Without a word, Elijah got back up and looked his friend in the eye with that quiet wrath again, "She was never your real niece in the first place. The Ancient One deemed you her guardian as punishment, so you could watch her grow up every day without her mother or her father, so that you could raise her knowing that it was not your place and that it was your fault that she was orphaned! This is all your fault Marcus now take some God-damned responsibility and try and redeem some part of yourself."

Master Kent's nostrils flared as he held a fiery gaze with the man before him.

"I am going to tell Strange what happened whether you come with me or not." Eli turned to head to the door.

Marcus watched Eli go for the door handle, his ragged breathing and tensing muscles already indicating to himself that he was about to do something he would regret again but he just couldn't stop it. The rage he felt, that bubbled and boiled within him, that warmed his body the way the fires of Hell would when he passed, that ran through his veins and made his ears pound, wasn't going unless he did one thing: stop Eli and stop him for good.

"No, Eli, no, you're not." He breathed, taking one step over to wrap his hand around his face, depriving him from air as he pulled him away from the door.

Elijah struggled; his voice reduced to mere muffled mumbling as his arms struggled to Marcus's hands away from his mouth. As Master Kent felt him get weaker, a wicked grin crossed his face as he manoeuvred his hands to hold the sides of his head. Master Emeka coughed and spluttered and wheezed, trying to beg him not to but there was a crack. And that crack had come from Elijah's neck to be precise.

Marcus let go with a soft gasp as the body of the young Master fell to the floor.

*  *  *  *  *

Night fell across New York like a curtain pulled shut but in a way that no one noticed it had happened so quickly.

Stephen checked his cracked watch once again. He could never part with such a sentimental gift and while difficult to read, he could still make out the time; it was getting late and Elijah still hadn't appeared. A thoughtful frown crossed Stephen's face as he stood from his chair and headed over to the bookshelves once again. He had read a large majority of them so, really, he was mindlessly looking to pass his time.

Wong very briefly glanced up from his desk at Stephen and sighed, "Perhaps Master Emeka is still with Master Kent? Perhaps he forgot?"

Stephen hummed in agreement although wasn't convinced. He looked like he truly wanted to explain what was happening so where could he be? Wong had a pensive look about him and carried a small pile of books to the shelves that Stephen was stood in front of.

"How was the young sorceress?"

"Hm?"

"How was Tessa?"

"Strange. No pun intended."

"Strange how?"

Stephen shook his head, "Said things that didn't quite make sense...when I mentioned her uncle her response, verbatim, was 'he's not her uncle'."

Wong quirked an eyebrow at this.

"And the last thing Elijah said to me was that there was something inside of her." Stephen swallowed, uneasy, "Any idea what that could be about?"

Wong shook his head, gravely concerned, "You'll need..." Wong disappeared around the other side of the bookshelf before returning with a different small pile of books, "Books on mystical beings." The librarian handed the pile to Stephen with a smile, "You're always asking for more books, so I assume you'll be ecstatic."

Not the books he was expecting though but books they were. Stephen nodded with a tight-lipped smile, "Thank you."

He looked around the library for a moment before heading towards the door, "I'm going to sleep, I can't wait up anymore. I'll find them in the morning." He nodded, looking around the library again before calling out, "C'mon Cloak, you too!"

The Cloak looked as though it had been hiding from Stephen like a small child playing hide and seek. It darted behind Wong and stayed there, rapidly moving itself away from the places the librarian looked for the cloak behind him. A hint of an amused smile formed across Stephen's face as it floated up to hide above the sorcerer instead. Wong finally cast a glance upwards, the right corner of his lips turned up at the side briefly as he cleared his throat to alert the Cloak that it had been found. Now, the red material drooped a little as it descended to an average height again and booped Wong on the nose, which earned a quiet chuckle from Stephen and a rather perplexed look from Wong, before hovering over to its Master.

"That Cloak is an odd one." Wong commented as Stephen opened the door with the Cloak floating through it rather than deciding to rest on his shoulders.

Stephen threw a knowing look back, "I think we all knew that when it chose me to be its master." He smiled before leaving the library completely, with Cloak giving a little wave of its red material before the door shut.

*  *  *  *  *  *

As Tessa slept that night, she began to recall more of her time with the Ancient One:

It was day. They were in Kamar-Taj – one of their special trips. Little Tessa didn't know the real name of the room they were in but she liked to think of it as the Tea Temple. She didn't know why but she and the Ancient One always drank tea with honey in this room a lot. Little Tessa sat cross-legged on one side of the table whilst the Ancient One knelt on the other side, making their tea.

"What are we going to do today?"

"First, drink tea."

"And then?"

The Ancient One smiled, "Meditate and train like we always do."

"And then?"

She looked up to hand the young girl her tea, "You ask me these same questions every time and every time I give you the same answers. I'm impressed you don't know by now, but I sense you ask for other reasons?"

Little Tessa looked at her tea, "I want to do something different."

"Your persistence is because you seek change?"

The girl nodded.

"What would you like to do instead?"

The young child thought for a moment before smiling, "Explore."

"And where would you like to explore?"

"Here. Outside Kamar-Taj."

The Ancient One smiled and gave a single nod, "Finish your tea. Then, we will explore."

Little Tessa tilted her head sweetly and offered a charming smile as she raised the small cup to her lips, blowing the steam away from the warm liquid. The Ancient One found her fondness for the child of two of her Masters grow immensely with the more time she spent with her. With her mother absent, the Ancient One hoped she could do her best to be a mothering figure to Tessa, teaching her as she once taught the girl's mother.

Once they had drank their tea, the Ancient One did as she said and took young Tessa to explore the city of Nepal. They visited shops and browsed all sorts of interesting items: traditional clothes, art, instruments, food; they ate delicious Nepali food; spoke with local people; played with stray dogs in the street (and almost adopted one but the Ancient One knew that the dog would be safer on the Nepal streets than in Kamar-Taj) and viewed the breath-taking sights from some of the other temples – and during that last activity was when things started to go wrong.

Tessa sat down suddenly in the middle of the Temple they were in, holding and shaking her head.

The Ancient One crouched before her, "What's the matter, little one? Is your head hurting again?"

"They won't be quiet – they – they don't like it!"

"Don't like what, Tessa?"

"Something here, they don't like it!"

The Ancient One looked around at the other people there who were too distracted by the views to care about what they were doing. She looked back down at little Tessa again.

"It's okay, little one, I'll take you away from here." She reached out, ready to pick the girl up.

But Tessa scrambled away from her in a panic, crying out, standing only to turn and run away, now holding her hands over her ears, "Be quiet! I don't like it!"

"Tessa!" The Ancient One's eyes widened as the young girl sprinted from her. She stood in shock for a moment, just watching her go until the alarm caught up with her mind, "Tessa! Wait! Do not stray so far!"

The Ancient One sped after the little girl who found herself going down a darkened hallway that opened up into a grand hall with a great menacing-looking statue in it. The little girl stopped dead in the room and cried.

"Why can I still hear you? Stop it, stop it, stop it! Be quiet!"

And then the Ancient One caught up, just as little Tessa screamed in heart-breaking agony and threw her arms out, releasing a wave of shadowy energy, knocking everyone, including the Ancient One, back and had also consequently damaged the statue. The statue crumbled and began to fracture at the base more until it tilted towards her. The Ancient One sat up in a daze but saw the danger that was about to befall the young girl.

"Tessa, move!" She cried.

But the girl stood there still, shaking her head as the statue began to fall more and more, finally losing its grip on the base and it fell. With a mighty cry, the girl pushed her hands up and away from her head suddenly, lines of black smoke seemingly grabbing the broken statue.

"I have called to you, brother." To others, the voice appeared to come from nowhere while the Ancient One could sense it came from the statue, "You have done what others should not, Entity, bonding with another being. Let me join you. Imagine the power – "

"No." The Entity spoke using Tessa's voice once again, "You will not harm this child. Go back to the prison you reside in. You are no brother of mine." And with that the young girl, controlled by the Entity, used her dark powers to push the statue back up.

"Wait! Do not send me back!"

"You have no place here. Be gone."

The statue was lowered back onto the base and again the shadowy aura lashed out at the base but this time, instead of destroy, it repaired. The cracks were reversed, and the prison of the other voice was made secure once again. The little girl panted for a moment, looking around at all the shocked faces, confused herself as to what had just happened. She dropped to floor, unconscious.

The Ancient One herself had watched, mouth agape and eyes wide as she witnessed a feat of magical strength that no child should have ever been able to manage, possessed or not. She crawled over to the young girl, checking her pulse and breathing in the fear that a surge of energy like that could have overwhelmed her so much so it could have killed her. But her heart beat strong and her breathing was normal - she was simply exhausted. The Ancient One sighed in relief but her heart felt heavy.

She glanced around quickly as she knelt by Tessa's side, ensuring no one was gravely hurt before putting her yellow hood up and picking the girl up. She carried her out, creating a portal in the hallway as she went, taking them back to the safety of Kamar-Taj.

Once laid in a bed to rest, the Ancient One summoned the presence of the Entity to the forefront of the child's mind again.

"What happened today?"

"I felt another presence. I tried to shut it out but not before it felt the presence of the girl. So, it called the girl to it instead. I told her not to listen but she could not ignore it."

"But I repressed you, Entity, how did you awaken?"

"The voice of the other woke me, Ancient One."

"And who is the other?"

"I sense another Entity, one trapped here a millennia ago. It has not changed, and its intentions are dark. I have put the girl in danger by bonding with her for the other wishes to bond with me and use her body as a vessel. Her consciousness would not survive."

The Ancient One rubbed her hands over her eyes, "You protected her today. I owe you thanks."

"I have grown with her for a year. She is...part of me as I am of her."

"You are fond of her too?"

"Yes."

She nodded.

"Send me to sleep now, Ancient One, or she will be in pain when she wakes."

"She will be okay?"

"Yes."

"Okay." The Ancient One raised her thumb to the little Tessa's forehead.

"Wait." The Entity paused, "For her own safety, never bring the child here again. I sense the other still feels our presence in such close proximity."

"I will take her back to her home Sanctum while she sleeps."

"Thank you."

"Thank you, Entity." The Ancient One raised her hand again and placed it on Tessa's forehead, "Sleep now..."