chapter four
rebel just for kicks

        It's late at night and Sabrina is restless. 

Most nights, she makes a spector of herself, wandering the hallways until sleep finally claims her.  Other nights, she finds herself in the library, where Abiral would make her a cup of warm tea and she fell asleep with her head rested on the pages of the books.  Wong is usually awake at this time, and sometimes Sabrina sits on the armchair in the corner of his room and reads until she falls asleep.  Sabrina is an insomniac, has been one for as long as they can remember.  She envies those who can fall asleep easily.  Their heads must be clearer.  Their monsters must be hidden in their closets.

She finds it harder to stay in her bedroom at night these days.  There are too many things that remind her of that night and she finds herself in a vicious cycle of remembrance.  And then her thoughts begin to spiral and she finds it hard to breathe and everything seems to be collapsing in on itself.  Her bedroom used to be her sanctuary, but she isn't so sure now.  After all, what had been meant to be her safe space had been broken into as if it were nothing.   

Sabrina keeps her mind occupied on the nights when she can do nothing but stare at the ceiling stars that no longer glow in the dark.  Laying still has never been an option because eventually, Sabrina starts picking at past wounds and opening them up again.  She rips the stitches out of place and bleeds all over again because she is always caught in a Tonight, she finds herself gathering her textbooks and padding down the dark hallways to the library. 

They hover in the doorway for a few moments.  She knows that if she decides quickly, she has enough time to turn around and wander the halls some more.  Maybe, instead of the library, she should make her way to the rooftops.  They've always been serene under the starry night sky.  They haven't been back to the library since their outburst and they don't know how Wong will regard them.  Before she can turn on her heel and walk in the other direction, Wong looks up from where he sits behind the desk.  He smiles at her, and she knows now that nothing has changed between them.

"Can't sleep?" Wong asks.

Sabrina shakes her head.  "No.  Mind if I hang out here."

"Of course not," Wong replies.

Wong prepares tea for Sabrina as she spreads her books and papers across the nearest vacant table.  He sets it in front of her as she rests her head in the palms of her hands and stares down at the open pages before her.  It's his way of apologizing.  Wong loves silently—Wong does a lot silently, it's just how he is (and Sabrina wouldn't have it any other way).  His love is hidden in gestures like making her tea and teaching her Chinese and listening to music with her.  His way of loving is masked in questions like 'Have you eaten?' and 'How was your day?'.  Sabrina has learned to decipher his love through hidden messages.  After all, everybody loves differently.  It's what makes everybody so uniquely themself.

Sabrina is in the middle of attempting to teach herself algebra when Stephen enters the library.  His appearance comes as a relief to Sabrina who is in desperate need of a distraction.  Discarded sheets of lined paper already cover the surface of the table and Sabrina thinks that if she spends any more time trying to understand the math, she'll combust.  Stephen doesn't look how she had last seen him.  He's clean-shaven now and his hair is clipped neatly.  It's a nice change. 

"Holy shit, what happened to you?" She exclaims.

Stephen ignores her and turns his attention to Wong who greets him curtly.  "Stephen."

"Wong," Stephen greets with a nod.

"What do you want, Strange?" Wong asks.

"Books on Astral Projection."

Wong eyes him and shakes his head.  "You're not ready for that."

"Try me, Beyoncé."

Sabrina holds back a laugh as Wong stares at Stephen blankly.

Stephen lets out a sigh.  "Oh, come on.  You've heard of her.  She's a huge star, right?" 

Wong continues to stare silently.

"Do you ever laugh?"

More silence.

"Oh, come on, just give me the book."

"No."

Stephen attempts to protest, but Wong ends the argument with a single glare.  That is enough for Stephen to rescind for the time being.  But if Sabrina knows anything about Stephen Strange, it's that he will not back down easily.  Sure enough, Stephen remerges into the library moments later when Wong disappears deep within the labyrinth of shelves.  Sabrina watches with raised eyebrows as Stephen discreetly slides into the chair across from her and leans forward on his elbows, glancing around the seemingly empty chamber. 

"What's up, Doc?" Sabrina greets.

"Sabrina, can you do me a favor?" Stephen whispers.

Sabrina perks up and grins.  "Yes.  Thank you so much for asking.  I really did not feel like doing this work right now."  Stephen watches with raised eyebrows as Sabrina slides her books off of the table, landing on the ground with a thud.  He glances around the library once more.  "What can I do for you?"

"I need you to distract Wong while I, ah, how should I put this—" Stephen starts.

"Steal books from the library?" Sabrina finishes.

Stephen considers this for a moment.  "I'd say it's more like borrowing without asking."

"So, stealing?" Sabrina insists.

"Is it really considered stealing if I plan to give them back?" Stephen reasons.

Sabrina contemplates this for a few moments before she shrugs.  "I guess not."

"So, you'll help me?" Stephen asks.

"Depends.  What's in it for me?" Sabrina answers with a smirk.  She leans back in her seat and crosses her arms over her chest, watching as Stephen freezes.  "I'm totally kidding.  Yeah, I'll help you."

Stephen disappears back into the shadows as Wong reemerges with a new book and earbuds, bopping his head to some an indiscernible rhythm.  Sabrina glances over to where Stephen stands, half-concealed in the shadows.  Catching her eye, he nods to her and she jumps into action, gathering her algebra textbook in her arms. 

"Wonnnggg," she calls, approaching his desk.  Just over Wong's shoulder, a small portal opens and she watches as Stephen's hand shoots out at takes a book from the shelf.  "I need help, I don't understand this at all."  Wong glances up at her as she slams the textbook down on the table in front of him.  A second portal opens, this time above his right shoulder.  Wong starts to turn, but Sabrina is quick to pull his attention back to her.  "Hey what are you listening to?  Oh, my god, are you finally listening to my music suggestions?  You agree, right?  Taylor Swift is a national treasure?  Speak Now is sooo your album.  Y'know?  Cause you, like, rarely speak.  Um, actually, you know what?  I think I'm gonna go to bed now.  Sweet dreams, Wong."

Stephen is waiting just outside of the library when Sabrina emerges with a stack of books in his arms.  Sabrina raises a hand to high-five him and Stephen returns the gesture, awkwardly shifting the books to one arm in the process.  She doesn't miss the tremors in his fingers. 

"Got 'em?" She asks.

"Yup," Steven nods.

"Awesome," They reply.  "We make a pretty great team, Doc."

"Yeah.  I guess we do."

✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.☆.*｡･ﾟ✫*

Sparring might just be Sabrina's least favorite part of the day.  Usually, she hides until training for the day is over.  Mordo and The Ancient One usually don't have the energy to search for her because if Sabrina does not want to be found, she will not be found.  Today, she finds herself sitting atop the stone wall that lines the courtyard and wrapping her scarred knuckles in white cloth.  The cloth keeps her bones aligned and her knuckles padded.  Once, before she had been taught to wrap her knuckles, she had broken right through her metacarpals.  She had worn a cast for weeks.  She knows that in the real world, there won't be time to protect her knuckles.  Nobody pulls punches in the real world, but the least that she can do now is prepare.

Sabrina stifles a yawn as she surveys the courtyard.  She hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night.  The Ancient One hovers on the opposite side of the courtyard, waving her fan as she surveys the two dueling students.  Mordo and Stephen prepare for their own sparring session a few feet away.  Stephen is adjusting the wrappings around his wrists while Mordo crouches on the ground, fastening the laces of his combat boots.  Sabrina can already feel the dread that seeps into her skin.  While The Ancient One seeks to refine her magic, Mordo seeks to refine her fighting.  If she runs now, she might be able to weasel her way out of sparring. 

"So, just how ancient is she?" Stephen wonders.

Mordo pauses and looks up at Stephen.  "No one knows how old The Ancient One is.  Just that she is Celtic and does not speak of her past."

"You follow her, even though you don't know?" Stephen wonders.

"I know she's steadfast but unpredictable," Mordo answers, "Merciless, but kind.  She made me what I am."

"She cares for us, and that's all we need to know," Sabrina pipes up.

"Trust your teacher..." Mordo jumps into his fighting stance, knees bent and arms extended, ready to parry an attack at any moment.  Stephen copies his moment on instinct.  Sabrina watches as they circle each other.  Like an animal circling its prey.  She senses that Mordo will go for the jugular.  He never pulls back on his punches.  Not even with Sabrina.  The world is not soft and Sabrina should not grow up believing that it is.  It will only make her more susceptible to scarring.  "...and don't lose your way."

"Like Kaecilius?" Stephen asks.

Sabrina flinches.

"That's right," Mordo agrees. 

The two men continue to circle for a few moments more and then Mordo springs into action, suddenly spinning and kicking.  Stephen jumps out of the way at the last possible moment and springs forward when Mordo lands, charging and catching the man around the waist.  They stand, locked in a deadly embrace, gripping each other's shoulders and forearms.

"You know him?" Stephen asks.

He lets out a grunt as Mordo suddenly turns him and places him in a chokehold with a forearm pressed tightly against his throat.  Stephen leans backward with his hands fastened around Mordo's forearm, attempting to pry it away from his throat. 

"When he first came to us, he'd lost everyone he had ever loved," Mordo tells Stephen as the man continues to struggle against his grip.  "He was a grieving, broken man, searching for answers in the Mystic Arts.  A brilliant student, but he was proud, headstrong.  He questioned The Ancient One, rejected her teaching."

Stephen lets out another grunt and drives his elbow back into Mordo's stomach.  The latter releases his grip on Stephen as he stumbles back, doubling over for a few moments as he regains his breath.  Stephen steps away from Mordo, rubbing his neck with one hand as he eyes the man cautiously.  They begin to circle each other once more, but the cycle has lost its deadliness. 

"He left Kamar-Taj," Mordo continues.  "His disciples followed him like sheep.  Seduced by false doctrines."

"He stole the forbidden ritual, right?" Stephen asks.

"Yes," Mordo confirms with a nod.

"What did it do?" Stephen wonders.

"No more questions," Mordo responds as he picks up The Staff of the Living Tribunal from where it rests in the nearby stand.  Sabrina leans forward and watches as Mordo flips the staff in the air.

"What's that?" Stephen asks, watching Mordo intently.

Mordo only points at Stephen with one end of the staff.  "That's a question."  He then rotates the staff in his hand so that it is parallel to the ground.  "This is a relic.  Some magic is too powerful to sustain, so we imbue objects with it, allowing them to take the strain that we can not.  This...is The Staff of the Living Tribunal."

Mordo grabs the opposite end of the staff with his other hand and extends it into a whip, cracking it against the ground just beside Stephen.  The man jumps back in alarm as the whip retracts back into the staff. 

"There are many relics," Mordo informs Stephen.  "The Wand of Watoomb, The Volting Boots of Valtoor..."

Sabrina watches as Mordo's boots cast a rune in the air before it fizzles out in a shower of sparks.

"Really just...roll off the tongue, don't they?" Stephen remarks.  Sabrina rolls her eyes, but Mordo lets out a small chuckle.  "When do I get my relic?"

"When you're ready," Mordo answers.

"I think I'm ready," Stephen replies.

"You're ready when the relic decides you're ready," Mordo replies with an amused grin.  "For now...conjure a weapon."

The fight ensues with Stephen blocking Mordo's jabs with a string of energy between his hands.  Sabrina kicks her feet against the wall as they block and dodge and jab.  The fight ends quickly because Stephen is not prepared for Mordo's vigor.  Mordo knows where to pack punches and Stephen does not.  Because Stephen is someone who saves people, not harms them.  Before, he had never needed to know how to pack a punch.  The fight ends with Stephen on the ground and Mordo standing over him, shouting about how one day, Stephen's life will depend on fighting.

Mordo then turns to Sabrina, who waits patiently.  "Sabrina, are you ready?"

"No," Sabrina answers with a sigh.  "But nobody's going to ask in the real world."

"Good," Mordo replies.

She crosses the courtyard and Stephen picks himself off from the ground and takes one of the staffs in her hands.  She tosses it in the air, testing its weight, and lets out a heavy breath.  They don't know why they're so nervous.  Sabrina knows where to hit where it hurts, she knows how to pack a punch, and she knows never to pull back.  Mordo had made sure of that.  But that doesn't mean that she had ever wanted to know where to hit where it hurts the most.  Sabrina thinks that in the same way that Jonathan Pangborn had only ever wanted to walk again and left Kamar-Taj as soon as his legs were rendered operable once more, she doesn't want to use her magic any more than she has to. 

Masters of the Mystic Arts are trained to fight mystic threats to Earth, but Sabrina doesn't want that life.  She wants something more than just this.  She wants to be a normal kid.  She wants to go to school with other kids her age.  She wants to travel and see the world.  She wants to get a red F circled in the corner of an essay.  She wants to meet a boy or a girl and get her heart broken in two.  She wants to study abroad.  Get a degree.  Live in an apartment above New York City.  Have a pet dog and a pet cat and any other animal that she can squeeze into her makeshift family.  Sabrina doesn't want this.  Sabrina wants to be normal (even if normalcy is a concept that she holds like water in her hands).  That much she knows.

She and Mordo circle each other, waiting for an opening.  Sabrina strikes first because her impulses get the best of her.  Mordo knows this and is already anticipating the blow, blocking it with his own staff.  Using his momentary focus to her advantage, Sabrina swings up with her leg and catches him in the side.  Mordo stumbles back, momentarily stunned but is quick to regain his composure.  They circle each other again, a deadly dance in the center of the courtyard.  Mordo lunges first this time.  Sabrina blocks the blow and grits her teeth.

And it continues like this, the deadly dance.  Striking, blocking, and blowing.  See, the thing is, Sabrina does not give up.  Sabrina does not give up a fight.  Not even if her life depended on it.  When she's knocked onto the cold cobblestone ground, she pushes herself right back up because Sabrina does not lose fights.  And even if she wanted to give up, she knows that Mordo wouldn't let her.  He works her until her bones ache.  He works her until her knees buckle and her legs give way beneath her.  He works Sabrina harder now that her safety has already been breached once.  Sabrina knows that he does this out of his own love for her because nobody will go easy on her just because she is a kid.  Kaecilius and his followers are ruthless.  They will not exercise restraint just because she is a child.  They will kill her if they have the chance.

The fight ends with each of them pointing the end of their staff at each other's throats.  Sabrina is on one knee, panting and trembling slightly.  Mordo could finish her off in a single blow if he wanted to, but he seems satisfied for the time being.  He lowers his staff, but Sabrina has made this mistake before, but today she isn't about to fall into his trap.  The fight is over when Mordo says it is.  Using his momentary weakness to her advantage, she springs up and knocks him to the ground in one grand motion and lands, kneeling over him with a triumphant grin. 

Mordo chuckles.  "You've learned.  I'm impressed."

"Why thank you," Sabrina replies with a grin, "I learned from a master."

Then suddenly, before she can really register what's happening, her back is on the ground and now Mordo is the one on top. 

"But, you've still got more to learn," he says, standing up.  He offers a hand to Sabrina, who begrudgingly accepts it.  He pulls her up and Sabrina dusts off her hands.  "That's enough for today, I think.  You're free to go."

Yeah, Sabrina thinks as she turns away from Mordo, unfastening the bindings around her knuckles.  I want more than this.

author's note: i suck at writing combat and i'm sorry i'm sure this is like generally uninteresting.  i want to say things will get better but i don't want to make any false promises.  but this act is only 10 chapters plus an interlude.  i will say though that i am very excited for sabrina's new york era.