Taylor sat cross-legged amongst the rubble of the globe room watching as Mordo paced the floor. Her elbow was propped on her knee and her chin was cradled in her hand. Her free hand was tapping out a rhythm on her leg as she tried to ignore her worries. Her eyes were rimmed in red and dried tear tracks stained her cheeks.

"You cannot sit there and tell me that you don't feel angry…betrayed…" Mordo hissed.

"I do, but I also understand why she did it." Taylor reached up rubbing her face, pressing the heel of her palms into her eyes.

"She broke the natural law!" Mordo whirled around on her.

"To protect us, to protect the world." Taylor said sharply, sitting up straight, tired of this argument they had been having since they returned to the sanctum. "She sacrificed so much, not for power or eternal life, but to save us from the real evil out there." It was strange fighting with Mordo, one of her oldest and closest friends, it hurt, but she refused to give up her beliefs. "Would you rather she stand aside and do nothing? To let Dormundu take the earth?"

"There is always a price!" Mordo starred down at her and she couldn't help but to wonder when they had started to take these different paths.

"Then I for one will gladly pay it, to keep the earth safe and its inhabitants safe, to keep this Universe safe, our Universe safe, I will do whatever I need to do." Taylor's voice was low, full of conviction.

"Then you are as foolish as she was." Mordo scoffed, his words hurting her.

"Perhaps I am." Taylor breathed out casting her eyes downward.

She placed her elbows on her knees clasping her hand together and resting her forehead on her joined hands not wanting to argue with him anymore. Mordo turned away from her, his fists clenched tightly at his sides, his whole being tense. She closed her eyes as she focused on her breathing, a few more tears slipping down from her eyes, then she felt it, a pull.

"Taylor." An all too familiar voice called to her and opening her eyes she found herself standing before the Ancient One on the astral plane.

"Ancient One." Taylor quickly pulled her into a hug.

"I suppose you're not angry with me then." She commented with a small smile.

"You were doing what you thought was necessary, I trust you, so I trust what you do." Taylor replied, but then she frowned as they pulled back from one another. "You're dying aren't you?"

"I am." She nodded solemnly.

"I will miss you." Taylor bowed her head.

"And I you." Ancient One smiled. "Mordo will need you now more than ever, you and Strange, he will not understand."

"Strange? You think he'll stay to help?" Taylor asked.

"I have faith in him." The Ancient One nodded. "You and Mordo were right, in the end we will need Dr. Strange."

"He's coming isn't he?" Taylor breathed out.

"He is." The Ancient One nodded. "But I feel that you are all ready to face him."

"I hope so." Taylor sighed.

"Taylor, in the search for your brother I may have discovered a lead." The Ancient One said causing Taylor's eyes to light up. "There is a man name Yondu that will be most helpful. Look for him on a planet called Contraxia in an establishment named the Iron Lotus."

"How do you know that?" Taylor asked.

"I have been searching for some time for you." She admitted clasping her hands behind her back.

"Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped." Taylor said, feeling annoyed at being left out of something as important as this.

"I did not wish to get your hopes up." Ancient One soothed her. "It has taken me a long time to find anything solid without leaving earth."

"Thank you." Taylor gripped the Ancient One's hands. "Thank you for taking me in, teaching me, and giving me a chance to find my brother."

"You are more than welcome Master Quill." Ancient One smiled softly. "Good bye Taylor."

"Good bye Ancient One." Taylor's eyes filled with tears.

Taylor's eye snapped back open in her reality and she stood to her feet running her hands through her hair as she gathered herself. Reaching behind herself over her shoulder she took out her spear in one flowing movement. She held it out in front of herself studying it as she thought back to when the Ancient One told her of her parentage and the lead on her brother. She ran her fingers over the blade thinking of all the things she had lost, what she may soon lose, and what she may find.

"What are you doing?" Mordo came over watching her as she moved the blade, spinning it softly. It always calmed her to do these simple movements, flowing in and out of each stance, elongating it as she controlled her breathing.

"Preparing for the battle." Taylor stopped her movements gripping her spear in both hands.

"It's useless." Mordo shook his head and Taylor looked at him with furrowed brows.

"How did this happen Mordo? We've never disagreed on anything like this before." Taylor said quietly. "Have we really changed so much?"

"We never disagreed because we use to both understand the limits of the natural law." Mordo said. "I haven't changed…you have. Time with the Avengers has softened you."

"Why?! Because they value life? Because they look for a different way?" Taylor shook her head. "Mordo we've become too stagnant, we need to change and evolve or what's the point?"

"We twist things out of their proper shape. Stealing power, perverting nature…" He shook his head. "This is what is wrong with us. This is what is wrong with the world."

"She's dead." Strange said walking into the room before Taylor could reply to Mordo. Her heart dropped even further at Stephen's announcement though she knew that the Ancient One had passed, hearing it spoken out loud just made it all the more real and final.

"You were right." Mordo lamented. "She wasn't who I thought she was."

"She was complicated." Strange admitted.

"Complicated?" Mordo echoed gesturing around them. "The Dark Dimension is volatile. Dangerous." Mordo snapped in frustration and despair. "What if it overtook her? She taught us it was forbidden, while she drew on its power to steal centuries of life."

"She did what she thought was right." Taylor repeated her earlier statement, collapsing and replacing her spear in its sheath on her back. "But above all that she was our teacher and now she is gone. She gave everything to protect this world. Think of all the things she gave up the friends she must have lost while she remained the same…" Taylor shook her head. "She must have lost so much, suffered greatly for the greater good, and that should be honored."

"The bill comes due." Mordo said tensely. "Don't you see? Her transgressions led the zealots to Dormammu. Kaecilius was her fault. And here we are, in the consequence of her deception. A world on fire."

"London Sanctum has fallen." Strange told him. "And New York has been attacked. Twice." He bit out his words trying to get through to Mordo. "You know where they're going next."

"Hong Kong." Taylor crossed her arms over her chest.

"You both told me once to fight as if my life depended on it, because one day, it might." Strange stood straight, his voice urgent. "Well, today is that day. I cannot defeat them alone."

"Then we better get going." Taylor looked expectantly over to Mordo who gave her a tight nod.

Strange opened a portal which they ran through into the war zone that was once Hong Kong. The streets were destroyed, fires had broken out everywhere, and screaming people ran for cover away from the center of destruction, the remnants of the Hong Kong Sanctum.

"The Sanctum has already fallen." Strange said as the dark dimension took form eating away at everything around it.

The Dark Dimension….Dormammu is coming." Mordo looked on fearfully. "It's too late." Kaecilius and three of his zealots walked through the destruction toward them. "Nothing can stop him."

"Not necessarily." Strange replied then moved his hands opening the eye, the green light pulsing from the relic.

"No." Kaecilius breathed out rushing at them, but he was too late as Stephen activated the spell freezing Kaecilius inches from stabbing him in the face then turning back time.

Everything around them worked backwards repairing itself. Strange pointed his hand quickly at Mordo and Taylor so they would not turn back with time. While Mordo looked horrified at what Stephen was doing Taylor was amazed.

"Spells working." Stephen told them as he took off running toward the Sanctum, Mordo and Taylor right behind him. "We got a second chance."

The zealots overcame the spell so that it no longer affected them. Kaecilius went straight for Strange knocking him to the ground. Strange recovered and the locked together in a struggle for the upper hand. Mordo and Taylor faced off against the zealots all the while they were all having to avoid the effects of time going in reverse. One of the zealots found herself trapped in a fish tank, another behind a reconstructed glass wall, and the last was hit back by some flying debris. Death itself was being repealed as those who had been killed by the destruction of the sanctum were given a second chance.

Mordo and Taylor watched from the top of the scaffolding they found themselves on as everything changed around them. The dark dimension was being sucked back and with it came a cloud of dust and dirt which covered the fight between Kaecilius and Strange. The masters jumped down into it in order to help Stephen.

They came out of the dust cloud just in time to see the cloak of levitation protect Stephen from Kaecilius who was sneaking up behind him. Mordo drew the staff of the living tribunal wrapping it around Kaecilius's leg flinging him into a reforming wall and Taylor took out the spear of Inlustris sending out a blast of ice holding him in place to allow the wall to reform around him.

"No!" Kaecilius yelled out until he was muffled, only his clenched fist visible. Whole building were be righted and debris flew up into the air returning from where it came. Under one pile they all made a grim discovery.

"Wong!" Taylor called out in horror.

He had been impaled on a piece of metal and it was a gruesome, but good sight to see him come up off the bar alive, his wound completely healed. Strange pointed his hand wrapped in green symbols at Wong breaking him from the rewind. Wong looked around in shock his eyes landing on Strange who rolled his eyes in return.

"I'm breaking the laws of nature, I know." Strange groused.

"Well, don't stop now." Wong gestured around them as everything was renewed.

"When the Sanctum is restored, they will attack again. We have to defend it." Strange told them. "Come on!"

They all ran for the sanctum that was rebuilding itself at the end of the street, fire and debris all being sucked back into it. Kaecilius broke free of the wall running up behind them then raising his hand in the air he brought it down on the ground sending a shockwave that knocked them off their feet. When Strange landed his spell broke and time froze with the sanctum was halfway destroyed still.

"Get up, Strange. Get up and fight!" Mordo ordered as they all struggled to their feet preparing to face off against Kaecilius and his zealots.

"We will finish this." Taylor snarled spinning her spear, the tip glowing a scorching white.

"You can't fight the inevitable." Kaecilius approached them looking up at the dark dimension. "Isn't it beautiful? A world beyond time. Beyond death. Beyond time..."

"Beyond time." Stephen echoed, a plan forming in his head.

"Strange!" Mordo snapped. Strange scrambled up flying off into the dark dimension leaving them all behind.

"He's gone." Kaecilius gloated as they looked up in strained grief. "Stephen Strange has left to surrender to his power."

"I don't understand you." Taylor whirled around on Kaecilius who looked at her with a raised brow, looking amused at her outburst. "What is all of this getting you? You'll never have your family back, this won't bring them back."

"Eternal life free from death." Kaecilius answered, but Taylor just shook her head at him.

"That's an eternal life without your family with no hope of ever seeing them in the hereafter. You'll be stuck forever the same never changing always grieving." Taylor's brows furrowed. "That's not eternal life, that's eternal damnation."

"You don't know what you're talking about." He formed his shard weapon.

"I don't know? I don't know what it's like to lose my family?" Taylor scoffed humorlessly. "You know what your problem is?" Taylor snarled, her confusion at his reasoning changing to annoyed frustrated at the end of her rope anger. "You never loved your family, they are nothing but an excuse for you so you feel justified about doing all of this…" She gestured to the remnants of the destruction he had brought down on the city. "…and it's a pitiful excuse for what you really want…" Taylor gripped her spear, the spear head pulsing in time with her heart beat. "…power."

Kaecilius charged at her with an angered yell, Taylor meeting him halfway with her spear raised. They clashed together their weapons locking as the struggled to force the other one back. They fought furiously together, years of training coming into practice as they attacked one another with everything they had.

Taylor fainted left allowing Kaecilius to fall forward, but he recovered quickly bringing his weapon up stabbing her in the thigh causing her to scream out in pain. Gritting her teeth in pain she brought her spear up hitting him square in the jaw forcing him to stumble back. Taylor leaned on her spear to hold her up as Kaecilius pressed his hand to his jaw waving his followers back wanting to take care of Taylor himself for her slight against him. Instead he sent them after Mordo and Wong to hold them back from helping.

He went to attack her again, but paused as he sensed Strange levitating down behind him. Kaecilius knew right away that something was not right by the smug look on Strange's face. His followers came to his side, also seeming to sense something amiss.

"What have you done?" Kaecilius demanded.

"I made a bargain." Strange walked past him over to Taylor, Mordo and Wong joining them.

"What is this?" The Zealots looked down at their hands, their skin crumbling away to reveal a strange grey skin underneath.

"Well, it's, uh...it's everything you ever wanted. Eternal life as part of the One." Strange smirked at them as the change took over their whole bodies, their eyes forming into one glowing purple eye. "You're not going to like it." The Zealots were taken up into the air into the dark dimension as their transformations were completed. "I think he really should have stolen the whole book, because the warnings...the warnings come after the spells."

"Oh, that's funny." Wong laughed heartily. Strange was surprised having never heard him laugh before, Taylor was amused by their reactions, and Mordo…he wasn't amused at all, his face was set like stone. Strange shrugged as he reactivated the eye and finished fixing everything, the sanctum as well as Hong Kong was once again whole, and time resumed its natural progression.

"We did it." Taylor breathed out in relief, leaning on Strange for support. He had wrapped her arm around his neck and Wong had taken her spear. They all started to walk away to the sanctum, but Mordo stopped them with his words.

"Yes. Yes, we did it." Mordo said bitterly. "By also violating the natural laws."

"Look around you." Strange said, tired from the fight. Taylor looked to Mordo in concern, an icy dread filling her stomach. "It's over."

"You still think there will be no consequences, Strange? No price to pay?" Mordo glared at them in righteous indignation. "We broke our rules, just like her. The bill comes due. Always. A reckoning." Mordo leveled his gaze on Taylor hoping she would see reason, but her eyes hardened and she shook her head. He knew what she thought, how she felt, and he knew she did not agree with him. "I will follow this path no longer."

He turned from them walking away without a backwards look and Taylor could not find it in herself to go after him. Whatever they had before was gone, their chance had passed them by and she knew it was never coming back. Stephen glanced down at Taylor whose eyes were filled with tears, Wong coming up placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Taylor, I'm sorry…" Strange said gently, but she shook her head.

"He's made his choice and I've made mine." Taylor looked away and gestured with her head toward the sanctum. "Let's go home."