It rang.

The ringing that always disturbed him at the most inopportune times.

He remembered this during the war.

All these shells, tanks, grenades, explosions and gunfire were happening all around them.

Seriously, he had no idea how he slept at night even before he was under the ice.

With a painful cough, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes forced himself to sit up.

He took in the situation and, so to speak, needed only one word to express how dire things had become.

"Fake."

He sat in the middle of what can only be described as a war-torn street in Hong Kong.

Buildings were either damaged or crumbling.

Multiple crashed and wrecked cars were scattered around, along with even more bodies.

He grunted, feeling his body protesting, and forced himself to stand, standing there helplessly, witnessing the destruction of the Hong Kong Temple.

"No..." he whispered, taking a staggering step forward.

His body was covered in scratches and bruises, and his clothes were torn.

He and Wang arrived at the Hong Kong Sanctuary earlier in the day, and within hours, they found that the rak ghosts were everywhere.

They sneaked into the temple from underground, so he, the king and several other magicians present quickly dealt with the Rak ghosts they saw.

But their victory did not last.

They all knew it was only a matter of time before Caecilius and his Zealots or Moore and his army of Rak'ghosts arrived.

Therefore, they need to prepare for the inevitable battle.

“King,” Bucky said, coughing as he felt the mucus in his throat. “King? Anyone? Is anyone still alive?

He received no response, only heard horrified screams in the distance.

The World War II veteran tried to stabilize his erratic heart rate, but he felt pain in his chest with every breath.

Bucky fell to his knees, coughing up more dirt and blood.

He rubbed his chest and frowned as he felt the damage from Caecilius's final blow, probably a broken rib.

"Magic," he muttered to himself as he heard a rumbling implosion.

Looking up, Buggy's eyes widened as he saw something appear in the ruins of the Hong Kong Temple.

"What is that?" he asked himself with his eyes wide open in horror.

Some kind of crack opened up in the sky, revealing some kind of indigo portal to a world, no, a seemingly endless universe with what looked like planets connected together.

There were other bodies floating around in that dark eternity, but whatever it was, it was heading toward Earth.

It took Bucky only a few minutes to piece together what he was seeing.

"Dark Dimension," Barnes whispered, growing more and more frightened.

He flinched, falling to his knees as he felt a wave of tiring pain wash over him.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it," the Winter Soldier muttered to himself as he faced what he saw as the inevitable end of the world alone.

At this point, the centenarian is really questioning how his life had come to this point.

The “exciting” part of his life, so to speak, was when he first signed up for the war in the 40s.

But he never imagined, in his wildest dreams, that he would be standing here, nearly seventy years later, part of a group of true sorcerers who defended the world from the likes of Dormammu.

Speaking of which, even if the Hong Kong Temple fell, where are the other magicians?

Kamar-Taj was mostly sealed off as several sorcerers came from there and told them that the Sorcerer Supreme had defeated the invading army of the Rakki.

Whatever power was here…if they were lucky, they were surely dead, or at least unconscious or badly injured.

But there is the New York Sanctuary.

what happened there?

Is anyone else there?

Now that he had heard what might happen, he could only—

“Bucky!

Barnes took it all in as he heard his name called by a voice he knew all too well.

He turned around just in time to be embraced by Celeste Mohn, who hugged him with all her might.

"Mohn," he gasped in pain, joy, and relief. "You are—"

He was interrupted by his girlfriend's fierce and loving kiss, and he responded for a moment until the rest of his body reminded him of his current state.

“Mm.” Bucky pushed her away gently. “Baby, I can’t even tell you how happy I am to have you here, but my body is about to—”

"With the Force."

He didn't need to be aware of what she was staring at now, of the others who had arrived, of what was happening in the sky.

"We are too late," Mordo whispered in horror.

Buggy gritted his teeth and looked back at the oncoming storm. "Dormammu is coming."

"Is there nothing we can do?" Ghost Rider asked immediately. "If New York is still standing, why did Dormammu come?"

Mordo shook his head. "Its defenses have been breached twice, weakening its shields. Too late. Nothing can stop them now."

Rather than falling victim to the harsh reality before them, Doctor Strange glanced down at the object that still hung around his neck, his mind racing with thoughts.

"uncertain."

He quickly brought his ring and pinky fingers together and connected them to his thumb, with his middle fingers also touching and his index fingers pointing upwards. Doctor Strange then crossed his hands before slowly pulling them apart.

This action unlocked the Eye of Agamotto, its metal casing shifting to reveal the glowing green gem within. He concentrated on forming a connection, spinning his right arm forward to form an ethereal gauntlet of magical runes. Extending his left hand towards it, a complex magic circle appeared just as Kaecilius was about to strike him down.

In an instant, everything came to a halt.

Turning his hand in a counter-clockwise direction, everything began to move backwards. The destruction around the city began to repair itself in real time. Many people who were on the verge of death were being reborn. This disaster was being completely reversed.

Seeing that he had succeeded, Doctor Strange turned his arm towards his companions, freeing them from the effects of the time dilation reversal.

“What the hell am I seeing?” Bucky asked, surprised by what was going on around him.

"The spell worked." Doctor Strange began running towards the Hong Kong Sanctuary. "We have a second chance."

The others run after him, though Bucky struggles as Celeste helps him.

“Hey!” Bucky almost yelled. “What’s going on?!”

"Time has gone backwards, Buck," Ghost Rider said flatly, rushing forward to catch up with Doctor Strange and Mordo.

The Winter Soldier could only watch as all the damage he had seen was erased before his eyes.

"Wait, you thought you could—"

“Not now, Bucky,” Celeste said, running forward, leaving her boyfriend behind.

The man didn't even bother to make any complaints about it as he was still absorbed in the amazing sight of time running backwards before his eyes.

As he is knocked back by a reversing pedestrian, Bucky sees that Kaecilius and his Zealots have somehow emerged from the time spell.

"guys!"

The four mystics looked back and saw Caecilius and his zealots free of the time spell and heading straight for them.

"How did they do that?" Celeste asked in shock.

"They draw their power from the Dark Dimension, remember?" Mordo said. "Beyond time."

"That's bullshit," Ghost Rider said.

"Tell us about it," Doctor Strange muttered.

Ghost Rider shook his head and stepped forward, albeit a little awkwardly, but all the pieces returned to their original shape before it fell apart.

"I'll buy you some time," Ghost Rider said, flames engulfing his head. "Continue the spell."

As Ghost Rider went to engage one of the Zealots, another Zealot came up and surrounded him, causing Celeste to leap up and meet his dimensional shard with her lightsaber.

The final Zealot, Kaecilius, managed to sneak attack Doctor Strange and Mordo, though the latter was quick to react and kicked him away.

But he was persistent and went straight to Doctor Strange.

The fanatical leader kicked Doctor Strange in the chest, knocking him back. After recovering, the former doctor had to quickly defend himself and block a series of attacks. After grabbing his opponent's arm, the two magicians were soon thrown back as several barrels hit them. Soon, their backs collided with an adjacent building that was being repaired from a previous explosion.

As the flames quickly died down, Doctor Strange felt the hem of his robes being yanked hard before he was thrown out into the street.

Doctor Strange had to quickly avoid being hit by several moving cars. His head jerked to the side and Kaecilius punched him in the jaw.

Mordo fights a pair of zealots, kicking one of them into the street. As she falls, she is suddenly hit on the head by a manhole cover, and then a large stream of water drags her into a gourmet restaurant. Before she can fully escape, glass quickly traps her, encasing her in a fish tank.

More and more of the ruins are repairing themselves, and people are moving back to where they came from. In a way, it seems to be becoming ironic because a nearby construction lot is being put back in place.

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