The battlefield was chaos incarnate—realities folding, gods clashing, armies bleeding into one another. The heroes fought with fury, but Thanos and Darkseid's gambit had tilted the scales. And in that pressure, cracks began to form… not just in the world, but within the heroes themselves.
Doctor Strange staggered, his hands trembling as he tried to hold the wards together. Every spell felt like holding back an ocean with a bucket. In his mind, he saw it—dozens of futures spiraling into darkness, universes collapsing, all roads ending in annihilation. The rift wasn't just feeding on chaos. It was devouring every possibility.
Batman noticed Strange's hesitation. "Strange—focus!" he barked. But the sorcerer's eyes burned with despair. "Don't you see? We can't win this war. The only path left… is surrender."
The words froze the air. Surrender—to Thanos and Darkseid?
"No," Wonder Woman said fiercely, slamming her blade through another wave of undead. "We do not yield. We fight."But Strange shook his head, voice cracking. "Fight? Every spell I cast weakens the barriers of reality itself. If I keep resisting, the multiverse dies faster. If I give them what they want—control—there might still be something left to save."
And then he made the choice.
With a surge of crimson magic, Strange twisted his portals, not at the enemy, but at his own allies. Spider-Man barely leapt aside as a spell tore through the ground where he stood. Thor reeled as another portal yanked him off balance. Superman's heat vision clashed against Strange's shields, exploding in a blinding flare.
"Stephen… what have you done?" Tony whispered through broken comms.
Doctor Strange floated above the battlefield, cloak billowing, face haunted but resolute. "I betray you not out of malice… but necessity. If one must be damned to save the rest, let it be me."
And with that, the Sorcerer Supreme turned his power against his allies—ally to no one, servant of survival alone.
The betrayal had begun.