A/N - McKiwi_0819 now this is the right chapter for the picture 😂

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"Tessa!"

The two simultaneous yells had come from both Stephen and Marcus who were at the doors of the library. When it turned to look at them, both men stopped in their tracks at seeing her soulless eyes.

"What the hell?" Marcus breathed.

Stephen looked at him, "Now this might not have happened if you had told me sooner."

"This was always going to happen, protector." The Entity responded, "Because I would not be letting you try to fix anything when there is nothing to fix." The shard disappeared from Tessa's hands and a wicked smirk crossed her lips, "Well, Tessa, about them not attacking you...I can already tell they will now that they think they have outnumbered us. So, priorities are as follows: Doctor Strange over there wishes to and is the only one capable enough of attempting to remove me from you. Master Kent beside him is the reason we are like this. The librarian behind us means nothing now." The Entity turned to look at Wong, "If you wish to live another day, I suggest you run rather than fight."

Please, there doesn't need to be a fight. You don't have to do this.

"On the contrary I do. This is for us, Tessa, do not be mistaken."

"What's it doing?" Marcus hissed.

Stephen shook his head, "Talking with Tessa I presume." He paused then spoke up, "I'm not looking for a fight. All I want to do is help Tessa – we don't need to be violent to do that."

"Yet in your mind, removing me is how you help Tessa. I'm telling you it is not."

"Well, we don't know until we try." Stephen motioned with his hand and seconds later the Cloak of Levitation raced into the room, promptly putting itself on Stephen's shoulders, "I meant it when I said I wasn't looking for a fight. If you come quietly, all will be well."

"And this is precisely why I should have attacked you sooner."

Please, please don't do this.

"I am sorry, Tessa, but this is the only way to ensure our safety."

The space shard vanished, and instead black smoke-like energy began to gather around her hands, her fingers playing with it as she approached, head tilting to one side and then the other as she waited for the first attack. Strange made a motion with his hands, summoning the fiery Tao Mandalas shields on both of his hands, as did Marcus. Wong quietly conjured the Eldritch whip to attack her from behind.

"This is sweet, you know, how you think you will win this fight."

"Pretty overconfident there, aren't we?" Strange retorted.

"Hm. No. Just very aware of your plan."

The Entity threw its hands out to the sides, a plethora of shadowy whips slithering across the floor in every direction, reaching out for anything, furniture and foot alike. Strange levitated himself out of the way of this attack, just as Tessa pulled her hands, pulling desks, chairs, bookshelves and Marcus and Wong with it. The two men fell back, winded. It cast a glance upwards to Stephen who cast his own Eldritch whip at her.

His mouth fell agape when she caught it.

"You did not think you were the only one who could levitate, did you?"

Still holding the end of the fiery cord, her feet raised off the ground and she met him at the same height. Then, with sly smile, watched the look on his face wash over with horror as she turned the golden sparks to her own shadow whip. She pulled him with a strength no one thought she could possess and sent him flying across the library and into one of the few standing bookshelves.

Stop! Stop it, please.

"Hush, Tessa. It will be over in no time at all."

Marcus pushed himself off the ground and, while she was facing away from him, he used his sling ring, created a portal and leapt through, grabbing onto Tessa, and pulling her down with him onto one of the unturned desks with a thud. Marcus groaned but when he looked over at Tessa and saw her eyes closed. He smiled and scoffed. Wasn't so hard was –

In a split second, her knee landed on his chest and her hand wrapped around his throat, squeezing with inhumane strength as she summoned another space shard in her other hand.

"Murderer." The Entity hissed, "I have wanted to do this for so long. Twenty-two years, Master Marcus Kent, you will hide your secrets no longer."

No! Leave him be!

"Tell her what you did. She can hear you."

Loosening her grip from around his throat, she gave him the chance to speak.

"I – I'm so glad you took the chance to talk to me now." Marcus grinned.

Sensing a presence to her left, she looked, only to be met with a searing energy blast, conjured by Wong, that knocked her off Marcus and the table with a soft grunt. Before she could get back up, Strange was back on his own two feet and cast the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to bind her where she lay yet failed to notice that one of her hands were free. They didn't struggle which only made the doctor's brow wrinkle.

A snake of black smoke travelled across the ground, up Strange's leg and then torso. The Cloak even tried brushing it way to no avail until finally it reached his neck, curled around it and began to crush. The Crimson Bands dissipated effective immediately, as Stephen grabbed at the shadow around his neck, his face going red as the lack of oxygen brought him to his knees.

Marcus sat up on the table and watched this for a moment. He could help but if the Entity got rid of the sorcerer for him, then that would be much preferred. Stephen met Marcus's gaze and all the Master did was smirk. He tried pleading, gasping out his name in an attempt to give him a change of heart but nothing moved Master Kent enough to jump into action.

Wong saw the situation and yelled, "Marcus, help Stephen!"

"He'll be fine." He said coolly as he slipped off the table and conjured a portal, disappearing elsewhere.

"Marcus!"

Please, I can't bear this. You'll kill them if you don't stop!

"Child, killing them is rather the point."

The Entity pushed itself up as it broke the shadowy line, however, the black choking collar still remained as Stephen struggled on the floor, a shine in his eyes. The Entity watched sadistically, almost reverting back to its old self, delighting in the chaos it caused, and Tessa felt this.

You told me you wanted to change, that you didn't want to cause chaos anymore. Stop this, please!

Stephen, while struggling, noticed that the cold look melted to a more distressed one and he reached one of his arms out to the Entity that currently inhabited her.

"Tess – agh."

Don't let him die. Please. Don't let him die and I promise you...

"Promise me what? There is nothing you can promise me, Tessa."

And yet something about Tessa's plea seemed to speak to the Entity because, with a wave of its hand, the collar disappeared.

Stephen inhaled the air hungrily, coughing and spluttering as he did. There was some degree of mercy in the Entity brought about by Tessa now, he saw it. So that was his next plan of action – when he could talk somewhat again – he would address Tessa. The Cloak helped him sit up against one of the fallen bookshelves as he recovered.

When she turned, she saw Wong stood there with shields and Marcus gone from the table.

"Tessa, you – you can fight this. We know you are strong enough." Wong tried to reason with them.

"I give her the strength she has, librarian," The Entity corrected, "She feeds off me."

There were too many people running around and it was becoming mildly frustrating now. She threw her hands out, away from her chest, sending a blast of dark energy in the librarian's direction. While it did not breach his shield, the force was still enough to knock Wong off his feet and back into another fallen bookshelf of which he hit his head on, rendering him unconscious.

"One down, two to – "

"Argh!" Came Marcus's frustrated yell as he swung a fiery Eldritch sword at her.

Yet, the Entity had sensed it coming and had instantly dropped down, swiping her leg under his feet, swiftly tripping him up. The sword faded and Marcus winced. Standing back up, the Entity roughly placed her foot on the centre of his chest and again, conjured her space shard, pointing it at Marcus's neck. With her other hand, she made a motion that meant the dark sorcery she possessed formed a shadowy cage of protection around them – no one would interrupt their interrogation this time.

"I will not ask again. Tell her what you did."

"What do you want to hear? Argh!" He struggled under the weight of her foot, "I did kill Elijah, alright, I did!"

"Tell her why."

"He was going to tell Strange about..."

"Go on."

"About what happened."

Stephen stood now, staggering over to the shadow cage, still holding his throat as he neared. He would try to do something but seeing as Marcus had been kind enough not to help him either and because he too wanted to know what had truly happened, he waited. This, after all, may end up being the only chance he had to understand what went on all those years ago for this to happen today.

"Strange, what are you doing?" Marcus bellowed, "Help me!"

"He might have been more inclined if you helped him and told him the truth a little earlier." The Entity answered for the sorcerer, "Tell her what happened twenty-two years ago."

"I'm not saying. Guess you'll have to kill me."

"And that is what you want, is it not? Which is precisely why my methods of making you talk will not feature death of any kind, unfortunately for you."

"I won't talk."

Let me talk to him.

"Tessa, I do not think – "

Let me. Talk. To him.

Respecting her wishes, the Entity did as it was told. Stephen watched as the blackness retreated from Tessa's eyes to reveal those much-preferred bottle-green irises. Her eyes were heavy with pain. She still held the shard and the cage remained.

"Tessa?"

"Marcus, tell me what happened."

He was silent.

"Damn it! Tell me! I am sick and tired of hearing about lies and secrets that have been kept from me. Tell me the truth and do it now or I swear to God, I will let the Entity do what it pleases with you."

"Tessa, you have to understand – "

"I have a right to know what happened. Don't you dare deny me the truth now." She let the space shard break gently through the skin of his shoulder.

Marcus roared, "What the hell do you think you're doing, Tessa?!"

"Getting the truth! God help you if you don't."

"I don't know what that thing – "

"It's called an Entity."

"I don't know what that thing has said to you, but it is lying!"

"No!" She roared back at him, "You are a liar, Marcus, and I am giving you a chance."

"Tessa," Stephen called to her softly, hoarsely, "Tessa, can you get rid of the shard? You don't want to hurt anyone."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't but I won't know what I'll want to do until he tells me the damn truth."

Marcus scoffed, "You know already, don't you? That thing's told you already."

"I want to hear you say it." She hissed, tears burning her eyes, "Tell me what you did."

Marcus knew that he had no chance anymore. This was it, the end of his secret. Looking up at those two tearful eyes did break him in a way. He had cared for her since she was six years old and he still saw that little girl in her. Betrayal and disgust manifested itself in those salty tears.

"I loved your mother."

"She didn't love you."

"That's what you think. Thea and I loved each other and then your father sent her away."

"He never sent her away." Tessa shook her head, "She chose to go. Because of you. And what did you do? Tell me about that night."

"I got angry."

"And we know you have quite the temper."

"I did my best not to show it around you, Tessa. I loved - love you like a daughter."

"But you weren't my father, Marcus, you weren't even my real Godfather!" The tears spilled, "What happened that night?"

"I was angry, so I went to see him. That thing that's inside of you was there. I didn't care. I still argued with your father."

"And then?"

"And I got violent."

"Was he violent first?"

"No. He only...defended against my attacks."

"And how many times did he ask you to stop?"

"I...I can't remember..."

"Twelve. Times. Twelve. And you just carried on, didn't you? What did you do to him?"

"I – "

"What. Did you do. To him?"

"I stabbed him, Tessa. I am sorry – "

"Don't you dare! You are not sorry. If you were, you would have never covered it up and you would have told me much sooner. What happened after that?"

"You...you came into the room. You saw your father and you started crying. I took one look at that thing and knew I could get away with blaming it on that."

"But who found you?"

"Elijah and the Ancient One."

"You could never hide anything from her." She smiled, "So tell me why, tell me why she kept your secret? Why did she keep it when she could have kicked you out sooner?"

"To take care of you. I had orphaned you, so she passed you on to me."

The blackness consumed Tessa's eyes again, and the Entity spoke the words that the Ancient One had spoken to him long ago, "When you take in this girl, you protect her with your life, and you will look at her and you will remember what you did. Every picture she ever draws with you and her, remember that you were never meant to be in those pictures at all. On the nights she cries for her mother and father, you remind yourself why they are not there. Every birthday she has that her parents miss, remember it was because of you."

Tears were brought to Marcus's eyes now, "Tessa, please, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry, forgive me, please."

"She feels nothing for you anymore, Marcus." The Entity smiled, "But I can give you what you wanted at the start."

She raised the space shard.

"Tessa, no, please!" The master begged.

"Goodbye, Marcus."

And as she brought the shard down, a golden whip shot through the bars of the shadow cage, stopping the shard in its path and consequently shattered it. The Entity looked to the side to see Strange still stood there – she had forgotten about him.

"No one else dies today, Entity." Stephen gave a sure shake of his head, "Tessa, I know you can hear me, and I know you're upset, but you have to be better than him. Just because you have the Entity, doesn't make killing someone any easier."

"I can make her forget."

"But she will still know he is absent. And it will take one word from either myself or another sorcerer to make her remember again."

The Entity held a steady gaze with the sorcerer before approaching the side of the cage he was stood at. Again, tilting her head she looked at him intensely, hostility radiating from her. The Cloak pulled Stephen back slightly and for once, he didn't object as Tessa simply walked through the smoke, yet left the cage still standing.

"Then I guess I will have to deal with you first, Doctor Strange." Shadowy energy glowed in her hands once again, "Any last words?"

"Not really because I don't plan on dying today." He floated upwards and past her, trying to gain some distance, "Come on, Tessa, I know you're in there somewhere. Help me!"

The Entity didn't hesitate in following him up and into the air. She forced both her hands out, sending a shadowy blast towards Strange. He dodged the first, but a second blast caught him off guard and he spun backwards. Two smoky whips flew from each of her hands, both going for each of his hands to prevent him from spell casting.

"Tessa, I know you can stop this!"

"She is not listening. You will have to try harder than that, protector." The Entity sneered.

Tugging on the whips, she had Stephen fly straight towards her, only to land a winding kick to his chest. He grunted at the rough impact and was thrown straight at the ground. When he looked up, he saw a space shard fly right at him and he yelled in protest, covering his face, only to discover that the shard was never meant for him. The cloak struggled beneath him, pinned to the wooden floor with the shard, and when he looked up to see her ready another shard, he rolled and moved to stand and sprint away without his cloak.

Discarding the other shard, she moved to send another blast of dark energy, just as Stephen raced up the few steps. It caught the sorcerer in the back, flipping him into a roll and landing him with a thump in front of the library doors. Stephen blinked hard and groaned as he sat himself up against the wall.

The Entity lowered itself by him and crouched to look at him on the same level.

"I would say you fought well but...you did not succeed."

The Entity formed a penultimate space shard, one for Stephen and the final one would be for Marcus. The tip of the blade reached his neck.

"No." He croaked, "You don't - you don't need to do this. Tessa, pl - please, you know I've only been trying to help."

"Your help will result in our death. We do not want that."

"You don't – you don't know that."

"You will want to eliminate me. I know you fear me, and I know those who fear the things they do not understand attack them."

"I can help both of you. Please," He took a breath, "Don't do - this. You don't need to. Tessa!"

"Hush, sorcerer, the death will be quick."

She drew the blade back, ready to pierce him, to end this battle for both the sake of life and causing wanted death. Stephen shut his eyes, attempting to ready himself for the fatal blow...

No.

But it never came. After a moment, he cracked open his eye to see the blade millimetres from his chest. His dull green eyes flicked up, only to look into two bright yet tormented glass-green eyes before him.

"Entity, I know you're scared, I can feel it." She spoke quietly but the shard was still held against his chest, alerting him to the fact that she didn't have full control yet, "You don't want to die, I understand. You are afraid that Doctor Strange here will attempt to remove you from me and in doing so will either kill us both or will just kill you. The former is more likely given how long we've been stuck together." She wasn't just addressing the Entity, he realised but himself too, "You have protected me for a long time from things I wasn't ready to know about, you've protected me from it for too long, but I know now. I know about you now. And I can feel what you feel, and I know you can feel what I feel too. You know I don't want this. I know you are afraid, but I swear on my own life, on our life, that I will protect you as you have protected me. We can coexist. We can make this work. But we can't do that if you hurt people. You said you wanted to change so right now I am offering you a choice: kill him and you revert back to causing chaos and death and destruction and we will be ostracised or spare his life, and we can have a chance at making things better."

Tessa looked from the tip of the blade to Stephen's gaze. Both held their breath as they waited for a decision to be made. She gulped as they waited, more intently looking at the blade and willing it to go. Seconds passed...then slowly the space shard retracted.

We will do things your way.

Tessa sighed with relief, "Thank you."

The shadowy cage around Marcus disappeared, the space shard that held the Cloak in place faded too and she looked behind her at the chaos and then back at Stephen.

"Are you okay?" She asked.

He nodded, "Are you?"

"Yeah...I'm – No." She scoffed softly and shook her head, "Nothing about what happened this morning is okay."

"Thank you for..."

"Yeah, I know. You should know though," She paused, tears of anguish gathering in her eyes again, "You should know that I really wanted to do it. What he did...I can't forgive that."

"You don't have to." Stephen reassured her.

He moved to stand, albeit shakily and then offered her a hand up too. She took it, gratefully, and heaved herself up too but stumbled weakly, drained from the fighting and the switching. Stephen held her up, looking at her anxiously. Tessa blinked a couple of times, but her world spun.

"I..."

"Tessa? You good?"

Her head tried to shake to say no but her knees went and so did she, luckily to be caught by Stephen.

"Hey, Tess?"

The sorceress was out cold, utterly exhausted by the events that had happened. Stephen moved to gently lay her back down on the floor while he checked on Wong and Marcus – only Master Kent was nowhere to be seen.