"My name is Doctor Stephen Strange," the mystery man said as he approached YN with an outstretched hand. "I've recently become the protector of the New York Sanctum. . ."

YN ignored his hand as her angry glare bored into him. "You've told me your name. That answers one question. I'm waiting for an explanation about the Eye. I can't believe that the Ancient One would trust it to just anyone."

Dropping his hand awkwardly, his brows knit together as a look of sadness came over his handsome face. "I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but the Ancient One died about a year ago."

YN felt as though the floor had dropped out from underneath her. The Ancient One was dead? How? "I don't understand – she was immortal."

She could see the dilemma play out across his features as he tried to decide how much of the story he wanted to share. With every micro-expression that crossed his face, she became more and more enraged.

"Kaecilius turned his back on the mystic arts and tried to open a portal to allow the Dark Dimension to consume our universe. The Ancient One died trying to stop him. This will be hard to believe, but she had been drawing power from the Dark Dimension for centuries to ensure her immortality." Strange stopped for a moment and took a breath before continuing. "I borrowed the Eye to help those of us who survived Kaecilius' attack to defeat Dormammu in Hong Kong. . ."

"By borrowed, you mean stole," YN clarified with a huff. "Let me guess, Mordo didn't take too kindly to you manipulating time, regardless of the end result."

Strange gave her an astonished look. "You know Mordo well."

"Yes, I do," she said with a sigh. "He's a magnificent sorcerer, but I'm not surprised that he's turned his back on the mystic arts." She paused for a moment as she thought about her former mentor before another question arose. "Wait. How do you know about me if the Ancient One is dead?"

A smile spread across Strange's face. "Wong told me about you."

YN closed her eyes and shook her head. Wong had been one of her best friends while she was at Kamar-Taj. "How is Wong?"

"He's well," Strange said, finally feeling like he was making a little headway with YN. Wong had offered to come with him, but he'd convinced him to stay in the New York Sanctum just in case Mordo tried something while Strange was in Upstate New York.

"I hate to interrupt this little walk down memory lane," Tony said with his usual aplomb. "But I believe you said something about this Mordo character being a threat to all of us."

Strange turned back to Tony and nodded his head. "Mordo wants to rid the world of magic because he thinks that there are too many sorcerers. I've seen the Dark Dimension, so I understand that evil exists within the multiverse, and it's my belief that we need as many sorcerers as we can get to keep us safe."

YN began to shake her head. "If you're here to try to talk me into using magic again, you've wasted your time. I left that part of my life behind me when I left Kamar-Taj, and I have no intentions of. . ."

"We need someone who knows Mordo," Strange said, interrupting her. "So many of us died during Kaecilius' attack, and you're the only one who knows him well enough to try to reason with him. If you don't want to use magic again, that's fine. I just need you with me when he tries to take over the New York Sanctum."

"I can do that," YN said with a nod. "My bag is already packed. I assume you have a sling ring, so we can leave at once."

"You're not going alone," Nat interjected with a look of astonishment on her face.

"This isn't your fight," YN said as she looked at everyone in the room. "I always knew my past would come back to haunt me – I just never dreamed it would be like this. You guys have no idea what the mystic arts are really like, and I can't ask you to fight a battle that you're ill-equipped to handle."

"We fought the Chitauri," Tony said as he gave YN a hard stare. "We fought Ultron. We just recently fought ourselves. We weren't equipped to handle any of those situations and yet I think we did okay."

YN couldn't deny his logic, but she knew that protesting further would only lead to another argument. She didn't want the Avengers anywhere near her old life, but it was for selfish reasons. She didn't like people knowing too much about her, and mixing her old life with her new one was just asking for trouble. Finally accepting that she would never talk them out of joining her and Strange, she nodded.

"Field trip," Tony announced with a clap of his hands as he shooed everyone out of the conference room. "Don't forget to pack your sunscreen and make sure you know who your battle buddy is – can't have anyone getting left behind out there."

YN and Nat shared a look that was both exasperation and relief that they were finally home again. Nat subtly nodded her head toward the kitchen and YN followed her out of the conference room, leaving Steve and Bucky to deal with Strange.

"What was that with you and Barnes?" Nat asked as she grabbed a couple bottles of water from the refrigerator.

"I honestly don't know," YN said with a shake of her head. "One second he was questioning my reasons for siding against Tony and the next he was acting like my boyfriend." She took the bottle from Nat and unscrewed the lid before tilting it up and taking a drink. "I know Steve said he was a ladies' man back in the day, but I didn't think his memories were all that great, and why would he hit on a woman he knew was in love with someone else?"

Nat gave YN a long look before finally deciding to tell her the truth. "There's something you don't know."

The tone of Nat's voice had the hairs on the back of YN's neck standing up. "What?"

The blonde shot a quick glance toward the conference room to make sure Steve and Bucky were out of earshot before divulging her secret. "Steve and I spent a lot of time talking on the flight here. Turns out the Winter Soldier was responsible for the deaths of Tony's parents."

YN took a few moments to process this new information. "I can only imagine how Tony took that news. You don't think Barnes only did it to get a rise out of Tony?"

"I don't know," Nat said shrugging her shoulders. "Steve said that Barnes was having a hard time dealing with the things he was forced to do while HYDRA had control of him. He told me that the final battle between the three of them was pretty brutal – you did notice that Barnes has a new arm. Turns out Tony blasted the other one right off his shoulder."

YN's eyes grew large as she tried to imagine the amount of pain and rage that Tony must have felt to have done something so extreme. "Tony has to realize that it wasn't Barnes that killed his parents. Howard and Maria were killed by HYDRA – the Soldier was just the tool they used."

"You and I can see it that way," Nat argued, "but you know how Tony is, especially when it comes to his mother."

"So, if Barnes wasn't trying to goad Tony, then why did he do it?"

Nat shook her head as she finished off her bottle of water. "If I had to harbor a guess, I'd say he was trying to offer you some support. He'd seen how Tony had hurt Steve, and he'd deduced from our conversations that Tony has hurt you. . ." Nat stopped for a moment and pointed an accusatory finger in her face when YN started to protest. "Don't try to deny it. Tony knows how you feel about him, and he's used that to manipulate you more times than I care to count."

YN let out a sigh and looked up at the ceiling to keep the tears from forming in her eyes. She knew Nat was right and that's what bothered her the most. She'd knowingly let Tony manipulate her into doing things that she would never agree to had it been anyone else that had been doing the asking. He'd broken her heart time and time again, but maybe now was the time for her to stand up for herself and stop the cycle.

"Barnes might be a good friend to have, but you need to realize that by aligning yourself with him, you're alienating yourself from Tony," Nat warned.

With a steely resolve in her eyes, YN said, "Maybe it's time I started worrying about myself and let Tony figure things out on his own."

With a look of pride in her eyes, Nat wrapped and arm around YN and steered her back toward the conference room. "It's about damn time."

When the rest of the team reconvened in the conference room, it was apparent that there was still a line drawn in the sand separating them from one another. YN and Nat had converged on one side of the table with Steve and Bucky while Tony, Vision, and Rhodey occupied the opposite side. YN saw Tony take notice before shooting her a disappointed glare. Before, a look like that would have had her going out of her way to get back into his good graces, but now it did nothing but fuel her anger.

"So what's the plan?" Tony asked Strange.

Strange's mangled fingers played over the sling ring on his left hand as he started to lay out his strategy. "We've gotten word that Mordo has gained a following of like-minded believers and will be making a play on the New York Sanctum soon. I'd like to have all of you in place to help contain the collateral damage with my other sorcerers while YN and I try to talk him down."

"Do you really think he'll listen to me?" YN asked. "He was highly disappointed in me when I left Kamar-Taj."

"To be honest, I don't," Strange said with a shrug. "I'm hoping that just the sight of you will disorient him enough that I can gain the upper hand on him."

Rhodey was the only one brave enough to ask the question they were all thinking. "Do you plan to take him alive?"

Strange pursed his lips for a moment before answering. "I'd like to, yes, but that will depend on Mordo."

YN sat back in her chair and contemplated Strange's words. She'd seen so many people die over the years – some of them friends and other enemies – but each one had taken a toll on her. The thought of Mordo dying was disturbing, but even the Ancient One had warned that his rigid-ness would bring about his own demise someday. "Mordo won't be made to see reason – it's just not in him. I don't want to kill him, but Strange is right. The Masters of the Mystic Arts protect this world in ways none of you can imagine. If Mordo succeeds in ridding the world of sorcerers, then the Earth will be at risk from anyone or anything that would want to do humankind harm."

"Then it's agreed," Tony said as he began to stand. "Mordo has to be stopped, and we're the ones who are going to do it."

"There's not that many of us, Tony," Steve said as he sat with his chin on his hand.

Tony gave Steve a dismissive look. "Got it covered. I'll call the kid once we're back in the city."

"You are not bringing that kid into this, Tony," Rhodey warned with a stern look.

"That kid saved all of our asses a few months ago," Tony reminded his best friend. "He's young, but he's got spunk."

"We're talking about the spider-kid, right?" Steve asked. "The one you brought to Germany last year?"

"Yeah, that's the one," Tony said with a smirk. "Not your biggest fan, Cap, but then again, you can't win 'em all."

"I don't know what worries me more," Nat said with a smug look aimed at Tony, "the fact that he's a kid, or that he hero worships you."

"I hate to break up this rousing family squabble, but we should probably be going if we have any chance of actually stopping Mordo," Strange interrupted, sarcasm dripping off his words.

"Strange is right," YN said as she rose from her seat and walked toward the sorcerer.

"The jet's this way," Tony said in confusion as he pointed toward the door.

YN gave him a smirk as she nodded toward Strange. "We won't be needing the jet today."

Strange held up his left hand as he began to move his other one in a circular motion. An arc of orange sparks erupted out of thin air and rapidly grew large enough for them all to walk through.

Tony narrowed his eyes as he began to walk around the portal. "So this is how you were able to appear out of thin air on my front lawn. Fascinating."

YN had never been inside of the New York Sanctum, but she instantly recognized the wide staircase in the front hall from pictures she'd seen in Kamar-Taj. With a smile of nostalgia, she swept past the astonished members of her team and stepped back into a world she never thought she'd see again.

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Author's Note: Thank you for reading Part 4 of this story! I hope you enjoyed it! Tensions are still running high between our heroes. Do you think the team is ever going to get over what happened with the Sokovia Accords? What do you think is going to happen once Mordo shows up? I look forward to your comments and please consider voting if you enjoyed this part!