Bella teleported the critically injured Barbara and the still-groggy Heather to Los Angeles and brought them straight to Sadako.
Barbara's wounds were severe. Even with Sadako's healing, a full recovery would take considerable time.
Bella didn't linger in Los Angeles, nor did she go back to settle the score with the Yellow-Eyed Demon. Wong had appeared without warning, and the message he carried changed her priorities: the Ancient One had returned.
The demon's sudden appearance, on top of the angel who had surfaced last year, filled Bella with a growing sense of urgency. An era of upheaval was bearing down on them, and the window for her to learn and grow was shrinking fast. She desperately needed the Ancient One's guidance. So she followed Wong back to Kamar-Taj without hesitation.
"Hmm? Miss Bella, your complexion seems..."
The Ancient One hadn't even finished her sentence before Bella cut her off.
This wretched day had left her in a foul mood. At this point, everyone from the Sorcerer Supreme to Hell's own demons, from classmates and close friends down to the guy selling ice cream on the street corner, could tell she looked awful. They'd all been very concerned, all very eager to recommend that she exercise some restraint. She really, truly did not want to continue this topic.
"...Um, well, I'm fine, really. Welcome back, Master. You must be tired from your travels."
The Ancient One produced her folding fan and fanned herself twice with practiced elegance. "Tired? Hardly. I just went to visit some old friends. But enough about me. Tell me about your adventures."
And so, for a good long while, the Ancient One listened as Bella recounted her time in Vanaheim.
From Hobbit cuisine to the Balrog. From the Three Elven Rings to Smaug.
Bella left nothing out, organizing her account with meticulous care.
The cultures of each race, their proverbs, the grandeur of the landscapes. She suspected the Ancient One already knew most of this, but she narrated it all from her own perspective anyway: every person she'd met, every sight she'd seen.
She even told her about giving up the Time Stone, about abandoning the idea of searching the timeline for a substitute.
The Ancient One folded her fan shut and tapped it lightly against her palm. "Every use of power carries a price. The Eye of Agamotto is extraordinarily potent, and though we see no obvious cost when we wield it, becoming so reliant on an artifact that we neglect our own abilities is itself a form of payment." A pause. "Miss Bella, the fact that you understand restraint tells me you've learned something valuable from this experience. I'm pleased."
Bella's expression turned strange. Reading between the lines, she had a sneaking suspicion the Ancient One had just circled all the way back around to teasing her about that kind of restraint... but she couldn't quite be sure.
"Right. Well, there's also this other matter. A friend of mine seems to have attracted a demon's attention..."
She laid out the situation with the Yellow-Eyed Demon. "Master, I don't think this is as simple as it looks. Last year it was an angel; this year a demon. Is our Earth about to become...?"
The Ancient One set her fan down on the table, picked up a cup of tea, and sipped it with unhurried elegance.
She didn't give Bella the answer she wanted to hear. Instead, she addressed the root of the matter. "By my reckoning, the latest Millennium War between Heaven and Hell is about to begin."
Millennium War. The term was blunt, almost trite, but it was entirely new to Bella. "Then we should stop them! Make them find some Outer Plane to fight in. Why does their war have to use Earth as a battlefield? Angels come to seek 'enlightenment' among humans; demons pin my friend to the ceiling and set her on fire. We should drive them all out. Earth is not their battleground!"
The Ancient One set down her teacup and waved a hand. Wong withdrew from the room, pulling the door shut behind him.
"Heaven and Hell are both sick of this war that flares up every thousand years or so. The demon lords find it tedious; the archangels find it infuriating. Some of my old friends have spoken to me about their intentions, asking me not to interfere too much." A dry laugh. "Miss Bella, your master may look reasonably healthy, but the truth is that I'm old. Very old. Every time magic flows through my body, the pain is... excruciating."
Bella wanted to say, Let me help. We'll fight the angels and demons together. But the words died before they reached her lips. She swallowed them back. She didn't have that kind of hero complex. Fight for humanity? Easy to say. Impossible to do.
Angels and demons were not made of clay. Against two extradimensional superpowers waging a cross-planar war, what leverage did a third party sitting on the battlefield even have?
"But we just... do nothing? We just stand by and watch?" She couldn't help asking.
The Ancient One said nothing. Bella braced her hands on the table and answered her own question. "Yeah. We can't stop it. We simply can't."
The despair hit fast, and it passed just as quickly. She was willing to help others when it was within her power. But if something exceeded her reach, then all she could offer was an apology. She was not God, and she couldn't save everyone. Especially when God's own children and creations were the ones about to turn Earth into a war zone. What exactly was she supposed to do?
"Regarding this war, Master, do you have any advice for me?"
The Ancient One considered for a moment. "If the archangels take the field personally, even I cannot stand against them. Focus on your own affairs. They won't come looking for trouble with you. If you stumble across something in your daily life that you feel like dealing with, deal with it. If you'd rather not, that's fine too. Kamar-Taj still carries a measure of deterrence. As long as you..."
She looked Bella squarely in the eyes. "As long as you don't disrupt the bigger picture, there won't be a problem. Killing a few demons, banishing a few angels, those are minor matters. Find your own footing in this upheaval. I'm afraid I can't offer much more than that."
Bella left Kamar-Taj and returned to Stanford, where the news of Sam Winchester's leave of absence was waiting for her.
Sam wasn't as close to her as Barbara or Heather, but he was still a friend. She'd entertained thoughts of changing his future. As Lucifer's destined vessel, Sam's life was nothing but one trial after another. But the Ancient One's words had extinguished that idea. Meddling in something so central to the bigger picture was suicide, plain and simple.
Saving Barbara had been a minor affair; the other side could turn a blind eye, and both parties would maintain a tacit understanding, enough to muddle through.
But if she directly intervened in the fates of Sam and Dean Winchester, it would be Michael and Lucifer coming to have a chat about terms.
At the end of the day, the problem was that Earth was still too weak. Hell and Heaven were going to use Earth as their battlefield, and they didn't need to ask permission.
Give it ten more years, though. See if the angels and demons still dared to pull this kind of stunt. By then, New York City alone would have seventy thousand superheroes.
The conviction hardened inside her: arm the people through the Continental. In this era where angels and demons flew unchecked and superheroes had yet to rise, ordinary people needed weapons to protect themselves. Give her a little more time, and this Mentor of the Brotherhood would put an AT4 in the hands of every household in New York. All in the name of freedom.