The moment Zira crossed the threshold of the Xavier School, she released her breath with a scream.

"MORDO!" A brief pause pointed her towards the sounds of fighting. They were upstairs near the dorms. She smacked the brooch on her tunic, calling forth her copy of the Cloak and racing towards the sound. When they came into view, she was secretly proud of what she saw.

Alpha squad, dressed in uniforms designed specifically for their mutations, were executing a planned guerilla style attack that she had helped develop. Jay was essentially helping his team pass through walls. Josh was hurling compressed balls of air, Sam and Sara were shooting lightning bolts, and May was throwing almost anything she could. This was designed to confuse the opponent until an opening came up that was good enough to exploit. Mordo, however, was not easily confused, and from the looks of things, they had been at it hard for a few minutes. Jay looked like he was getting worn out, and the rest of the team looked desperate.

"MORDO!" Zira called from the end of the hallway. All eyes fell upon this crimson-clad sorcerer, cloak copy glowing on her shoulders, the signature high collar illuminating her face. The Wand of Watoomb was practically humming in her hands. "You want a sorcerer? Come and get one!" Mordo, who had been closing in on Josh, actually started shaking when he saw her.

"That cloak," everyone heard him say. She had left it on on purpose. Since some part of him seemed to be obsessed with the current sorcerer supreme, Zira banked on the sight of something that even looked like it triggering that obsession and keeping all of his focus on her. "Strange." He started walking towards her. "Strange." Louder this time, picking up to a jog. "STRANGE!" he bellowed, running full pelt, the Boots of Valtorr carrying him into the air, Staff of the Living Tribunal humming to life as he swung it. At the last possible second, Zira conjured a shield and caught his attack. Mordo tried to fight through it, putting all of his body weight onto the shield. When he finally looked through it, he saw the silver-haired apprentice glaring back at him, her silver eyes a picture of fire and fury. With a shout, she pushed back, adding some extra power behind the shield and threw him off. Between her cloak copy and his boots, the battle took to the air. The rest of Alpha Squad, breathing hard, watched as their former teammate held her own against this nutjob, matching him blow for blow and leading him on a chase through the mansion. A few moments after the sorcerers were out of sight on a chase, the teams comm badges started going off. Everyone looked at each other, then Josh pushed his.

"Zira?"

"I'm bringing him to you," she said, her voice low. "Anything you can do to hold him down." Josh looked at the rest of the team, who nodded. As soon as they saw Zira round the corner, they created a hole for her, then sealed it. May threw everything she had into keeping Mordo still, the effort giving her a minor nosebleed. Jay made the floor melt and grow around his feet and hands, isolating his artifacts. Sam and Sara charged up their own version of stun batons and smacked him in the chest with them, causing a few crucial moments of paralyzation, and Josh created a moving cage very close to his body. In a coordinated effort, they brought Mordo down, Jay melting his feet into the floor. Once she was certain he was secure, Zira killed the cloak spell and hooked her weapon back on her belt.

"You attacked my home," she said, her voice a dangerous growl that reminded the team of Logan. "You attacked my friends. You've lost it, Mordo. These people aren't sorcerers. They're mutants. Their power is encoded in their DNA. Ripping it out would kill them."

"The bill always comes due," Mordo spat. "Natural law must prevail."

"Every molecule in my body wants to kill you," Zira snapped, taking his face roughly in her hand. "You almost cost me the only family I have left. However," she continued, removing her hand. "Someone I care about very much would not want me to kill you. So, I'm going to do the next best thing." Her silver eyes started glowing. Her hands waved in a complicated pattern, conjuring the portal spell she had created. She pushed it into his chest and internally breathed a sigh of relief when the knot of his connections to the multiverse showed before her. "You were right about one thing," she continued, looking carefully at the knot of magic before her. "I am a lot like Stephen Strange, and now I know why. I know why I'm different. I know who I am." She reached out, conjuring a glowing scalpel in her hand, and looked Mordo in the eye. She saw the amazement, awe, and fear as he looked back at her. With her free hand, she cast the spell to hide her silver eyes and hair, showing her green eyed form. "I am Zira Moran, Stephen Strange's daughter...and I'm putting an end to this." With a single, powerful swipe, she severed the knot by the tendrils and simultaneously cauterized them. Mordo let out a painful scream that lasted for almost a full 15 seconds. The veins of magic seemed to sputter and wave about like a loose hose as they tried to connect to their other ends. Zira quickly cauterized every last one of them. Then, Mordos body went limp. Zira ended the magic and nodded at the team, breathing heavily. They gently put him down and looked at Zira, who had returned to her natural state. Everyone looked at each other for a moment before coming together in one big hug. They all started crying, happy that they had survived.

"Zira, that was amazing!" Sara finally exclaimed. "Strange taught you how to do that?"

"A lot of it, yeah, but the surgery thing was something I developed...with some help," Zira answered, grinning at the look she knew would be on Isiomas face when Zira would tell her this story later.

"So...you got it under control then?" Josh asked. "You can come home?" The minute he said that, Zira's phone went off. She pulled it out and saw a calendar alert.

Year Trial Up

She just stared at it. It had really been a year. She had completely forgotten about the alert...or the bargain she had made.

Everything she had learned, the friends she had made, the discoveries, and the family she had found...She had done all of that in a year.

"Zira?" Josh asked. Zira put her phone back in her pocket and turned her attention to Mordo.

"Let's get him out of here. Dr. Strange is waiting outside," she said. May lifted him up as Zira conjured a portal.

Stephen was meditating, trying to keep himself calm as he waited for either Zira or her body to emerge from the mansion. Suddenly, a portal opened up to his right. His whole body stiffened and he conjured two Mandalas as he saw Mordo standing in the portal. Then, much to his surprise, Mordo toppled through and landed face first on the ground. Zira's friends followed through. Finally, ending the portal spell as she stepped through, his tired-looking, slightly-bruised, but very much living daughter. Stephen knelt down and examined Mordo first. He was surprised and relieved to find a pulse, but he was dazed and unresponsive.

"I couldn't kill him," Zira said, walking over to Stephen. "I just didn't have it in me."

"What did you do?" Stephen asked her, still examining Mordo.

"I severed every connection with every dimension that he had. That combat medic portal we created worked. It didn't even seem to cause him pain, so I-" Stephen got up and cut her off by pulling her into a tight hug. Zira froze for a moment, unaccustomed to this much affection from him. But after a moment, she hugged him back.

"I thought I was going to lose you," Stephen said softly, his voice cracking from emotion. "Killing someone does things to a person. Changes them."

"It might have been necessary," Zira pointed out, her voice slightly muffled from being pulled so close to him. Stephen pulled back, knelt down, and looked into her eyes, his own green ones brimming with tears. He grasped her shoulders and gave her a teary smile.

"But you figured out a way around it. You solved a problem with knowledge, logic, and the tools at your disposal. I'm so proud of you, Zira," he explained. Hearing that made Zira's heart jump into her throat. She had heard it from other instructors, and she knew that he had been proud of her accomplishments, but hearing Stephen say it out loud...it felt amazing. The silver-haired young woman burst into tears and threw her arms around her fathers neck. Stephen held her close again, and both of them started softly crying. When they finally broke apart, Zira looked at her former team. May and Sara were both in tears, Josh was smiling, and Sam and Jay both looked confused.

"Um...I'm glad that we saved everyone, but…" Jay began. Zira gave a choked laugh through her tears and smiled.

"It's a long story," she said.