The energy ball exploded into the ground… but nothing happened, except from a strange shiver across the floor.
Maya and Mordo looked up in dismayed disbelief while Kaecilius and his followers slowly turned to stare at Stephen as the man floated down imperiously.
"The Mirror Dimension." Stephen stated, feeling quite proud of himself for his quick thinking in saving the New York Sanctum. "You can't affect the real world in here. Who's laughing now, asshole?"
Maya meanwhile was so horrified she couldn't even begin to speak; clearly Stephen had no idea. She would bemoan the fact that he had skipped so much in his quest to learn quickly one more time, but Maya was too genuinely afraid to be sarcastic or irritated.
The terror that gripped her only grew stronger when Kaecilius smirked and he answered, "I am."
"Stephen, RUN!" Maya screamed as she kicked at Kaecilius.
He was forced to release her and she leapt to her feet as Stephen came flying down at them; he swept past Kaecilius to join Mordo and Maya in racing out the door.
"I've got his sling ring." Stephen panted, showing the other two masters the golden ring he'd nicked from Kaecilius's pocket. "I mean, they can't escape, right?"
Mordo turned to stare at Stephen incredulously but Maya yelled, "Run!" as she saw Kaecilius and his Zealots approaching them.
She and Mordo took off, Stephen following hastily behind them although he was somewhat bewildered by their behaviour. His confusion was cleared as Maya yelled at him, "Their connection to the Dark Dimension makes them more powerful in the Mirror Dimension."
As if to prove her point, the roads and buildings, including cars and people, began to twist and turn. Stephen stared as a four-way street became a four-way dimension with cars on one street speeding along the road in the sky while another street had cars zooming up in a vertical line perpendicular to the road they were currently standing on.
As Stephen gaped at the continuously changing and spinning world around them, Mordo added despairingly, "They can't affect the real world, but they can still kill us. This wasn't cleverness. It was suicide."
They turned to see Kaecilius and the Zealots running toward them and Maya ordered, "Come on!"
They ran in the opposite direction from the Zealots, and Stephen attempted to create a portal back to reality - only for their entire street to suddenly spin on an axis. In the distance, buildings collapsed into each other while Stephe, Mordo and Maya went skidding down the now vertical incline that had been the road, unable to reach the portal anymore.
The trio slammed into a bus, where Maya scrambled to her feet as she spotted Kaecilius's group gaining on them.
"This way!" She shouted as she leapt off the bus. Her yellow sash whipped out to grasp onto a lamppost, and she swung herself onto a nearby building. The perpendicular line of the building meant that it was now flat to them and she raced up the side of the building as Mordo and Stephen joined her quickly with help from their own Relics. Maya began to conjure up a portal as soon as she was on the building, and beside her Stephen did the same. However, as they raced toward the portal, the building they were on suddenly began to swirl and bend until it was rolling like waves in the sea. The movement tossed the trio up and down as they lost their footing and then found it again.
Stephen's portal disappeared as he lost concentration while trying to remain upright. Maya's remained open but Kaecilius twisted the building further, splitting it in half and curling the tops on themselves. This caused Stephen, Mordo and Maya to fall off the side of the building as it tipped over completely and the men yelled as they fell.
Maya attempted to create another portal as they fell through the air but Kaecilius bent the entire city over, causing them to fall into freefall as buildings and roads curled away from them. The speed of their descent meant that opening and falling through a portal now would likely lead to death, even if Maya could get a portal open. She grimaced as they finally fast approached a spinning building that they might land on - the problem was, she had nothing to hold onto to slow her descent.
Stephen saw her dilemma and he quickly maneuvered himself to her side; grabbing Maya by the waist, Stephen pulled her into his arms as the cloak floated him safely onto the side of the building while Mordo's boots helped him descend safely as well.
"Thanks." Maya said distractedly as she got down from Stephen's arms and looked back in search of Kaecilius and his followers. Stephen meanwhile was staring at the complete maze of dimensions all around them as pieces of the city moved about in different directions, leaving them completely trapped.
"This was a mistake." He whispered.
Mordo glanced at Stephen incredulously just before the building beneath them tipped over once again and sent the trio flying into the air.
Stephen grabbed Maya hastily as they fell again at a distance approximately similar to where one might begin skydiving. She hung onto him, recognizing that she was likely dead if she let go. Beside them, Mordo used his boots to steady his descent just as they reached level with the next set of twisted buildings. A spinning building separated the trio as Mordo leapt to the left to avoid the building while Stephen pulled himself and Maya to the right.
Unfortunately, their path was blocked by a metal fire escape and Stephen slid them across it as the metal frame spun to be perpendicular to their descent. Their sliding took them right over the edge of the fire escape and Stephen gasped as they fell into free fall once more. But now they were in a city maze, and while it was a constantly changing maze it provided Maya with more options at last. Her sash whipped up, catching a lamppost and she pulled herself and Stephen onto a metal walkway… just before the walkway collapsed in the middle to create a hole that Stephen fell through.
"Stephen!" Maya yelled as he landed on a walkway beneath her.
"Maya!" Stephen called just as the hole he had fallen through closed to prevent Maya from following him. Realizing he needed to keep moving if he was to stand a chance at surviving, Stephen ran along the walkway.
Above him, Maya meanwhile turned to face the Zealots as they arrived beside her while Kaecilius raced on to head off Stephen. Stephen ran across his constantly moving walkway, leaping from the metal to a piece of a fire escape that floated into his path before jumping onto a building and then back onto a different fire escape.
Maya meanwhile was doing something similar as she leapt from surface to surface while fighting the two Zealots who came at her. She was the better dueler but they controlled the environment of their fight; each time Maya came close to killing one of them, the ground she was standing on would open up or ripple and she was forced to find new stable ground.
Her path eventually took her parallel to the one Stephen was on, and Maya's heart dropped when she saw Kaecilius gaining on Stephen. Kaecilius seemed to have a personal vendetta against Stephen; that or he was avoiding her, as Maya fought to get to him or to protect Stephen only to find herself constantly getting pulled away by the moving city.
"Stephen!" Maya shouted as Kaecilius at last successfully leapt at Stephen and tackled him onto the ground.
Maya kicked away the Zealot who tried to lunge at her before spinning around in a low kick to knock the other off her feet. Using their momentary distraction, she leapt into free fall away from the building she had been on and down toward where Kaecilius was slowly choking Stephen as he snatched back his sling ring.
Her sash helped Maya as it caught at parts of the moving city, breaking her speed as she fell and she landed behind Kaecilius just as he had created a glass shard to stab Stephen, whose vision was blurring by this point from the lack of oxygen.
The older man whirled around when he heard Maya's arrival and he barely defended himself as she launched at him with her Tao Mandala fans. Stephen coughed, breathing heavily as the black spots in his eyes slowly cleared. He heard grunts and Maya's cries beside him and Stephen lifted his head just in time to see Kaecilius block Maya's fan before he grabbed Maya by the face. Before she could recover, he was slamming her back on the ground at the same time that he kicked her legs out from beneath her.
"No!" Stephen yelled, fear gripping him as Maya stilled momentarily, stunned by the blow although she was still conscious. "Maya!"
Kaecilius smiled victoriously as he lifted his long magical glass shard.
"NO!" Stephen yelled, one hand reaching toward Maya and his heart hammering as terror gripped him.
But just as Kaecilius swung the shard down on Maya, the floor suddenly pulled her away and to safety, unharmed.
Stephen started as he too was pulled along as the ground rearranged itself completely from the floating chaos the Zealots had created. Stephen hurriedly knelt beside Maya, examining her worriedly while Mordo, looking out of breath but no worse for wear, came flying toward them on a piece of concrete that fit into the space next to Stephen's and Maya's.
"Maya?" He called concernedly but she waved him aside as she sat up with a groan.
"I'm fine. What's going on?" She asked as they all looked around at the pieces of concrete that were floating down around them to fit perfectly against the other pieces.
Stephen also looked around just in time to see the Ancient One floating down on her own slab of concrete that fitted perfectly against the other pieces of stone that she was manipulating; and eventually, Stephen found himself standing at the edge of a floating circle of stone, made up of different parts of New York streets. On either side of him and his companions, the Ancient One and Kaecilius with his Zealots stood facing one another.
But where Stephen had been focused on the ring that had been created, Maya and Mordo's eyes were fixed on the Ancient One - specifically, on the small but brilliantly red marking that blazed in the centre of her forehead. A mark that matched the ones the Zealots bore.
"Ama." Maya gasped while Mordo whispered in horror, "It's true. She does draw power from the Dark Dimension."
The Ancient One's eyes flickered over to them briefly when they spoke, and her expression faltered just a little bit with guilt. But then her remorse was gone, repressed, and she returned her attention to the man standing menacingly across the circle from her.
"Kaecilius."
The man himself just stared back at her defiantly, and he started in a low but accusing voice, "I came to you, broken, lost, bleeding."
The Ancient One matched Kaecilius's pace as he started to walk along the edges of the circle she had created, maintaining the distance between them while he continued scathingly.
"I trusted you to be my teacher, and you fed me lies."
"I tried to protect you." She refuted and Kaecilius scoffed.
"From the truth?"
"From yourself." The Ancient One answered softly.
Kaecilius sneered at her concerned, which he was certain was feigned.
"I have a new teacher now." Kaecilius taunted, his gaze moving momentarily to Maya.
She stiffened beside Stephen, who placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. Kaecilius seemed to find that funny and a smirk curved his lips before his attention returned to the Ancient One as she insisted gently, "Dormammu deceives you. You have no idea of what he truly is. His eternal life is not paradise, but torment."
Kaecilius's smirk became more pronounced in response to the Ancient One's words.
"Liar." He whispered before he drew forth the glass weapon he and his Zealots favoured and together, the three strode toward the Ancient One.
The Ancient One's lips thinned but she drew her hands behind her back as she accepted their challenge. The Zealots attacked first, swinging at her with their weapons but the Ancient One easily dodged them before kicking the man down and sending him spinning toward the edge of the circle. Her hands came up again to shield herself with her Tao Mandala fans as Kaecilius and the female Zealot attempted to attack her back, and the Ancient One swiftly retaliated in a series of fast and short slashes.
Stephen watched, half-stunned and half-mesmerized by the sheer power and intricacy of the battle before him as Kaecilius managed to block the attacks but the dark-haired woman with him fell to the Ancient One's powerful attack. Kaecilius himself ended up on his back in his attempts to defend himself but he quickly rolled back up onto his knees where he slammed his fist into the ground. The stones rolled like a wave at the Ancient One but she just reared back as though riding the wave which froze midway… and then it came crashing back the way it had come as the Ancient One bent forward and slammed her own hand into the ground.
The tidal shock of the rolling stones sent Kaecilius flying back where he rolled himself barely back up onto his knees. The Ancient One meanwhile turned to block the male Zealot and she twirled them around until her fan was at the other man's neck when she spotted Kaecilius running at her again. She raised her fan to instead block his attack as he slashed down at her with his weapon… and then she gasped.
Maya let out a shocked gasp of her own as she and the others all stared at the glass shard that pierced the Ancient One's stomach. "No."
Kaecilius smirked viciously as he pulled back the glass shard where he had stabbed it right through his Zealot and into the Ancient One; his Zealot collapsed instantly, dead, while the Ancient One buckled - and Kaecilius kicked her savagely in the chest and right through the gateway that he had conjured.
"AMA!"
Maya threw two Eldritch war fans at Kaecilius; he dodged the first but not the second and he snarled in pain as it cut deeply into his hand and almost took off his pinky. Maya didn't see as she'd already taken off after her mother with Mordo and Stephen right behind her.
The portal closed just as the trio made it through, but they barely noticed - nor did they really notice that they were falling from the height of the tallest building in New York straight down toward the ground, now back in the real world. All Maya and Mordo saw was the yellow-clad unconscious figure falling toward the rapidly approaching pavement.
The Ancient One was in no position to draw any power to stop her fall and the others were still too far to reach her. Maya stretched out her hand regardless while her sash whipped out to try to catch the other falling woman. But it was too late.
The sash never even reached the Ancient One before she crashed right through a glass overhang and smacked into the pavement with a sickening thud amidst the shower of broken glass. People screamed nearby as they stared at the woman who had suddenly fallen from the sky onto the pavement, and gasps and cries filled the air when the shock fully sank in.
In the air, Maya sobbed as Stephen's arms wrapped around her, his cloak quickly stopping their fall before they too could meet their demise on the pavement. Mordo's boots stopped his own fall while Stephen landed himself and Maya down at the back of the growing crowd. No-one noticed their arrival, too focused on the figure on the ground, and no-one thought twice as Maya and Stephen, followed by Mordo, pushed their way through the crowd to get to the Ancient One where she lay bleeding in a heap on the ground.
"Ama?" Maya whimpered as she knelt down hastily beside the woman, heedless of the glass on the ground that cut her. Stephen was beside her, checking vitals and trying to find a pulse while he shouted for someone to call an ambulance. She paid him no attention.
"Ama? Ama?!"
There was no response and Maya screamed, tears falling down her face, "Ama!"