Three more months went by, and after learning a mutual need of control, Zira began to flourish. Her instructors all saw marked improvement, she was making friends, and her power was quickly becoming one to rival the rest of the school, including some of the masters. She started having sessions in the courtyards and the library outside of class helping the new students as they came on. Stephen grew more proud of her every day, feeling a particular burst the first day he saw her in the crimson uniform of the advanced students. He updated Charles regularly, and every report after the mountain incident was happier than the rest. Charles wasn't surprised that she was starting to tutor. She had been an assistant and a tutor in her academics in school, and was proven to be bright.

Zira was finally ready to study with him, and he wondered what she would say when he told her.

He found her, unsurprisingly, in the library, reading an old book in Sanskrit.

"Something I can help you with?" Zira asked without looking up.

"Sounds like you've been doing well," he commented as he approached.

"You've been checking up on me?"

"Charles keeps asking for updates. Your friends, too," Stephen said. "And yes, I'm interested as well. You're a promising student, one that I would very much like to see succeed." Zira looked up at him. Her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail and had loose strands hanging from her running her hands through it as she studied.

"Professor Xavier still asks about me?" she asked, surprised.

"He does. Believe it or not, he worries about you. He wishes he could have helped you more, and the fact that he wasn't able to upsets him," he answered. "Logan reads them as well, I would guess. At any rate, that's not why I'm here." Stephen took a seat across from her. "Your instructors say you are excelling and I think it is about time that you started studying with me as promised." Zira sat up a little bit and looked at him. In her head, she was conflicted. There was the part of her that was hungry for more knowledge. She was ready to move to advanced stuff and ready to jump forward. The other part of her was still resentful of Stephen and his role, in her mind, in her mothers death. After a minute of thought, she closed her book and made solid eye contact with him.

"Where do we start?" she asked. Stephen grinned.

"With astral projection," he replied. He got up, grabbed another book off the shelves, and handed it to her. "It's an advanced skill, but with the way you've been progressing, I think you could pick it up quickly. I also want to show you somewhere that you can practice without causing any damage to our dimension. Check with Wong and meet me in the upper study." He walked off, cloak billowing as he left. Zira looked at the book in her hand, looked at the back of her teacher and guardian, and couldn't help but smile. He was actually making good on his promise.

Wong was not surprised as she checked the book out. He merely stamped it and told her to not be late for her lesson. Stopping only to drop the book off in her room, she bolted to the specified room. Stephen was there, waiting for her.

"Changing the physical world is dangerous in every way, especially when you do it through a spell. Luckily, there is a dimension where you can cause all the change you want and there will be no danger to the physical dimension." He threw a hand to the center of the room, and a large break pattern, like cracks in glass, appeared out of nowhere. "Come on," Stephen said, and walked in. Zira hesitantly followed. Inside, it looked a lot like the physical world, but there were some warped parts, like mismatched pieces of a mirror. "Welcome to the mirror dimension," he said. "Here, the world can be warped into whatever you wish." He waved his hands, and the building itself moved. The roof started folding in on itself, and the floor tiles individually started moving. "This is a safe space for you to practice. Just make sure you never get caught in here without your sling ring, or spend too much time here. It's easy to go crazy."

"No one can hear us in here?" Zira asked as she looked around.

"Not unless they're in here with us," Stephen confirmed.

"Good, then we can talk." Zira conjured a mandala around her hand and leaped in the air, aiming to throw a punch at him. Stephen blocked it easily, his cloak pulling him out of her reach. "All of the other masters keep saying that I remind them of you," she said as she pressed her attack. "Why?"

"I struggled when I first got here," Stephen replied, dancing out of her way, occasionally blocking an attack with a mandala of his own. "You probably heard about my accident." Zira recalled the article on the internet she had read. Stephen had been driving his car way too fast, careened off the road, and in the crash, smashed his hands. Being a surgeon, his hands were his life. She also recalled the joy she had felt at seeing his career being over.

"What in the world made you crash?" she asked, switching tactics and conjuring a whip and trying to knock him off his feet, which he blocked and dodged easily as well.

"Audacity. I believed I was untouchable, invincible," he replied, throwing an attack of his own and grinning as she dodged. "I wasn't paying attention to the road and thought that others would get out of my way. It was also raining."

"Wow," Zira said, flipping out of the way of an attack. "You really were a dick."

"Yeah," Stephen agreed. "When I left for Kamar Taj, I had nothing. My hands were destroyed, as was my career and my life. I never really recovered either." He whipped off a glove, and Zira could clearly see the scars on his hands. She felt a pang of guilt at being happy that he was hurt. She didn't have much time to think as she had to jump out of the way of Stephens own whip.

"But...I don't have a physical limitation. How does that make me like you?" Zira asked, whipping her weapon towards him.

"You still have a limitation," Stephen pointed out. "You're stubborn, determined, and your problem was trying to control rather than working with the magic." Zira actually stopped when he said that.

He's right, she thought. He's stubborn, determined, and he had to surrender control. "AGH!" she cried out suddenly as Stephens whip wrapped around her legs and tripped her. She managed to catch herself and push back up and reconjour a whip, but when she did, she found a full mandala at her throat. Both of them were heaving for breath.

"You're more like me than you're ready to admit," he said. "But if I was able to come as far as I have with a physical limitation, imagine where you could be in another year or two." He cancelled his spell and backed up, and Zira did the same. "I'm not your enemy, Zira. I'm your teacher. Let me help you the best way I know how." Zira was still for a moment, contemplating. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that he really did care about her...and maybe he had changed.

"Alright," she finally said. "You're on...Master."