"What did you do?" is the first thing that flies out of Tony's mouth after bursting through the doors of the Sanctum Sanctorum. No formalities, no greetings. A startled looking Stephen Strange whips his gaze away from the book he's holding and gapes at him. A scrutinous look in his eyes.

"Good to see you too, Stark," he says, perplexity lacing his voice.

"What the hell did you do, Strange?" Tony barks again. He's too fed up for formalities. He's here for answers and he wants them now.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to be more specific. I do a lot of things every day, as I'm sure you're aware," Strange smirks, though his eyes still hold a sliver of irritated confusion.

"You were with Spider-Man the night the Statue of Liberty got defaced. Storm clouds, sky breaking open- ring any bells?"

Strange considers him for a moment, jaw working as his gaze narrows in hesitancy.

"What do you want to know?" he finally asks.

"What were you doing there?" Tony demands.

"I was merely an assistant. Spider-Man was in need of aid and I provided.

"Why?"

"Why does it matter? It was over a year ago."

"Answer the question wizard!"

Strange sighs then moves to place the book back on its shelf before turning to face him. "He broke the barrier between our dimensions."

"I'm sorry, he did what, now?" Tony chokes. Of all the possible explanations, that was not one that ever would have crossed his mind. What did it even mean to 'break the barrier between dimensions?' How was it even possible?

"The multiverse, Tony, is real, and Spider-Man disrupted it. I don't know why and I don't know how, but he did. He brought people here that didn't belong. That's why I had to step in. Quell the damage before it went too far, so to speak."

"And did you?"

"Seeing as how we're all still here: yes I did."

Tony feels as though he's just been slapped in the face.

The multiverse is real?

He supposed after everything else he's seen in his life, this really shouldn't come as too terrible a shock, but still, he can't seem to wrap his mind around the idea.

"How?"

"Why does it matter to you?"

"Because something's wrong with me, Strange, and I think you have something to do with it!" he snaps.

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard to explain. I just... ever since I woke up, something hasn't felt right. I have these dreams-dreams of memories-but they are incomplete. Like there is something important missing, but I can't put my finger on it. And every time I try to recollect it while waking, I can't. Strange, it feels like my memory is in fragments. And it doesn't stop there. I found pictures hanging on my walls that I don't remember putting there. And not only that, but they are empty; like someone erased the focal point from the scene all together."

"A memory spell," Strange whispers, his head lowered.

"A what?"

"Tony, do all of these missing memories revolve around a singular thing? A person or an event perhaps?"

"I think...I think they have to do with Spider-Man."

Strange stares at him, his features drawn together, serious and intense.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." He doesn't understand why he feels so confident in the answer. The distorted memories of Spider-Man may have been what clued him in on this whole ordeal, but they certainly didn't explain the picture situation. He's never hung up pictures of his fellow Avengers, so why would Spider-Man be the case for an exception? But even so, he's certain that there is some connection; that Spider-Man is in the middle of all this.
Strange nods a few times as he turns away from Tony with a frown. Tentatively, he begins to walk further into the Sanctum, his head bowed in deep thought. From the side of his face, Tony reads an expression of fear.

"Strange?" he calls, alarm filling voice.

The wizard paces back and forth across the tiled floors. When he speaks again, he does so carefully.

"I was never certain, but I always have thought-" he cuts off abruptly, shaking his head.

"Thought what?" Tony implores.

"I've experienced the same feelings you do when I think about that night. Like I was missing a salient part of the story. Something that would tie up the loose ends. I remember being there and closing the holes in our dimension, but I don't remember how I did it. Or why I even knew to come? Or how exactly Spider-Man caused the fissure in reality to begin with. I must have been involved. There is no way he could have done it on his own, without magic. However, what you're telling me about the empty pictures might give us a clue."

"How so?"

Strange returns his pointed gaze from the floor to Tony.

"First answer me this, is everything missing from the pictures or just one person?"

Tony thinks about the first photo he found-the one of him standing alone with a blank internship-the space next to him unoccupied.

Or was it?

"Just one person," he answers. Strange nods a few times, and Tony can tell his mind is racing.

"Wiping someone's memory isn't always clean. There are bound to be loose ends somewhere, especially if more than one person is involved. Pictures are just one example. Magic can erase the person, but it won't always eliminate objects, hence why the image will disappear but the picture itself remains," Strange rambles, as if he's explaining it more to himself than to Tony.

"Wait, so you're saying someone magically wiped our memories?"

"Yes Stark, that is exactly what I'm saying."

"But why? Who would do that?"

"As to why, I don't know, but as to who... I can't say for certain, but I would venture a guess that it was me."

Tony stares at him in disbelief.

"You? But that doesn't make sense! Why would you erase your own memory?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, but if I was there, then I must have been involved."

Now Tony is pacing too, trying to sort through a muddle of thoughts exploding in his head.

Strange wiped, not only my memory, but his own too? But why? What would that have accomplished for him? And, also, why me? I was unconscious that entire time, so why go through the trouble to spell me too? Unless it's not just the two of us?

"How do we reverse it?" Tony utters.

"It's not that simple," Strange responds.

"Why not?" Tony cries desperately. "You're magic, right? Can't you just wave your hands and bibidi-babidi-boo this spell away?"

"That's not how it works, Stark," Strange snaps. "I can't undo a spell without knowing what it was in the first place."

"But you just said yourself that you cast a memory spell!"

He's getting worked up now. Venom laces his voice as anger and frustration threaten to overwhelm him.

"Sure, I predict, that is what happened, but even so, I can't do anything about it if I don't know who or what the spell targeted," Strange counters.

Tony scoffs and throws his hands in the air.

"So you're saying we can't do anything. Even with all those enchanted little tricks up your sleeves, it's impossible."

He looks the wizard dead in the eye, but only finds a defeated gaze wander back at him.

"I'm sorry Tony. There is nothing I can do."

Tony clenches his fists at his side and turns away.

"Then I'll find a way," he breathes.

"Tony-"

"I'm not giving up on this, Strange. I can't and I won't, so don't try to stop me."

"Stark, I get your upset, but it's pointless," Strange declares. "What's done is done. It's in the past now. There's no going back to change it."

His words bring Tony to a dead halt.

"It's in the past now."

The past. He'd been there before. After everyone had run out of hope that the ones they lost could ever be returned, they'd been able to go back and use time to their advantage. Why not do it again?

"Time," he demands, "what if we alter time?"

"I don't see what you're getting at?"

"The spell was cast a year ago, yeah, but what if one was to, say, go back to the time before it was cast. Would they become, like, magically immune to it?"

Strange's face morphs into a stern grimace.

"Are you seriously suggesting what I think you are?"

"Just hear me out-"

"We messed with the space-time continuum once and look what it almost caused!" he yells. "You almost died Stark! Do you really think it's smart to use that technology again?"

"I wouldn't be gone long. Just long enough to see if my memories return, that's it," Tony fights back.

"And what of our timeline? What if you cause a split? We can't risk sending the universe into chaos. That's what started this whole thing to begin with!"

"I'd be careful and I wouldn't change anything. It'd be in and out, plain and simple."

Strange furiously shakes his head.

"It's too dangerous, Tony. Look, I may not like it, but if I wiped my memory, I must have had a reason."

"But would it work? If we tried, would it work?"

"Stark-"

"Would. It. Work?"

There's a pause as they stare each other down. Tony's resolve is solid, unshakable. He's not going to back down; not when a solution might be so close. In front of him, Strange's features are hard and vexed, and Tony can tell that he is choosing his next words carefully.

"Yes," he caves. "Yes, it would work. But Stark, what you would be risking, you need to decide if it's really worth it."

Tony's thoughts immediately shift to Pepper and Morgan. His family. His life. He almost lost them once. Was this hunch really important enough to chance that fate again?

He could spend a lifetime trying to rationalize that one question, but in his heart he knows that he's already decided.

"I need to know, Strange, and I'll do whatever it takes."