Chapter Text
A week had passed and the bonded triad of Sorcerer Supremes were only just getting ready to face whatever was actually behind the seal. Levi fussed over them incessantly but refused to be left out of the coming ritual. All four of them, three men and one cloak, underwent intense spiritual purification with magical cleansing. Levi's cleansing was modified specifically so that it didn't hurt him while still doing the job. All three of them remembered Levi's loyalty and actions to protect them across the timelines so they reluctantly supported him when he demanded to be included in the ritual.
Their parents had, after Dormammu had properly explained the situation to the other two plus Frigga, taken a deliberate step back so that they were out of the way. The three parents and one grandparent had turned their attention on making sure the triad had what they needed whether it was time to set up, ingredients, artifacts, or helping hands. They also ensured that the triad was able to work without harassment of any sort. A fact that lead to several severe punishments being issued within the Order. The demands by various governments and officials for more information referencing the social media post and viral video were met with Frigga's implacable skill honed in the Royal Court of Asgard. If that failed to get them to back off then The Ancient One, Loki, and Dormammu dealt with them all in turn.
To say that the officials of the rest of the world became properly terrified of the Triad's parents and grandmother would be an understatement. The fact that they each expressed an unaccountable glee at being able to let loose in some very public venues might have contributed to that terror. Oblivious to the effect their family was having on everyone else the triad worked hard to set things up to fight whatever evil was on the other side of the seal.
It wasn't enough.
Stephen grimly fought to help hold the line of the ward keeping the thing contained as they tried to fix the break in the seal. They had been at this for three hours straight already and all of them were injured in some fashion. Tony's ribs would have to be checked and all of them had cuts that had added their blood to the formation they had laid down for the ritual. The shedding of their blood had actually helped them hold the line when whatever had been originally sealed had tried to break free in a rush.
"This isn't working," Tony snarled.
"It has to work," Wong snapped back as he deflected some sort of tentacle shaped spell form they had all learned was razor sharp.
"Then we change it up," Stephen said stubbornly. "The formation only requires that we stay as a triangle to brace the shield, not where we anchor it from."
With that said Stephen had the Cloak of Levitation take flight and positioned himself above the biggest breech. Both Tony and Wong swore viciously but moved in tandem to maintain the triangle they had formed at the start. Stephen held his personal shields as he better examined the breech, noting that it wasn't exactly cracks in a solid seal as one might have with fired clay but more along the lines of rips in strained fabric. The pressure was ready to rip the area wide open and the seal was a poorly done patch. What was actually holding it back was divine power, a command that reality itself was helping to enforce but that original command was naturally coming to its end within the next sixty years. A new command would need to be issued by the Creator or other measures taken to hold this thing back properly. They could only do a patch job and hope that it lasted just long enough for it to be handled.
Stephen took that knowledge and breathed as he remembered his practice sessions for surgery. He remembered using fruits, fabric, and even choice cuts of meat to practice his techniques to help save human lives in surgery and looked at the problem again. The seal was a rupturing dressing with less than ideal materials that they couldn't afford to take off. The breech was a wound in the very fabric of reality that had to be addressed or they wouldn't have any time to try fixing the cause of the wound.
"Surgery it is then. Jarvis, please note that I will likely be annotating as if this were surgery on a human for later transcribing for the archives in Kamar-Taj. Tony, Wong, I am going to have to focus on fixing this like an emergency surgery session with you both as drafted nurses. No one else here has the necessary experience to swap in and apply the combined techniques so please watch me for exhaustion. In this case it's a matter of getting it done piecemeal if necessary rather than tackling it all at once," Stephen reported over the comms Tony had insisted on in case they needed to get too far apart for normal speech.
"I don't like it but it's better than any of the ideas I've got," Tony grumbled.
"We will make you stop if you push too far," Wong ground out but didn't protest Stephen's assessment.
Stephen took that as a win and started setting up. He stated the date and the situation for the record Jarvis was going to be keeping, partly out of habit for the start of a surgery. He conjured the spell shaped tools he would need, rope thick "thread" of pure magic, sized to fit surgical needles, oversized forceps and surgical clamps to help hold things in place as he worked.