With Russell on Earth, any crisis could be resolved.
The time had come.
She slowly brought her hands together before her, her fingers weaving a complex Mudra of layered Geometric Structures.
The pattern took shape beneath her fingertips, like an ancient rune being carved stroke by stroke, bearing some ultimate truth.
Her lips moved slightly. Her voice was faint, like a whisper from the end of time scattering in the wind.
"Kaecilius."
As his name left her lips, an orange portal opened before The Ancient One.
She stepped through the layered Spatial Folds between Dimensions and arrived precisely near a figure hiding in Earth's shadows after escaping the Dark Dimension.
"I know you're hiding here."
The Ancient One's voice echoed through the air, unhurried as an ancient stream finding a new course.
"Come out."
Deep in the gap between Dimensions, Kaecilius stiffened inside his crude hideout, concealed beneath layers of masking spells, as though an outside force had suddenly struck him.
The Ancient One's composed figure was reflected in his eyes, where dark green flames had replaced human pupils.
His fingers curled behind his back, nails digging shallow, slowly bleeding marks into his palms.
Ever since he had watched Dormammu fall under the combined assault of The Ancient One, Russell, and the others, he had been hiding.
From Kamar-Taj's pursuit, from the judgment of the magical world, from The Ancient One's constant awareness spanning Earth's entire magical defense system.
To be safe, he had hidden himself in the deepest reaches between Dimensions, in corners forgotten by time and space, beyond even Kamar-Taj's usual surveillance.
He breathed carefully, moved carefully, and drew on every trace of dark magic carefully, like a hibernating insect waiting to be awakened.
But The Ancient One had found him anyway.
Or perhaps she had known where