Back in the present, the team battled Doctor Doom, who had succeeded in his goal of stealing Wanda’s powers. In the ensuing melee, Doom blasted Cassie Lang and killed her. Iron Lad offered to jump to the past again and save Cassie, but Vision refused his offer. Iron Lad then annihilated Vision and disappeared, but not before Wiccan informed him that Iron Lad’s path to becoming his older self, Kang the Conqueror, was secured.
The Young Avengers disbanded and Wiccan fell into a state of deep depression. Hulkling proposed to him, which seemed to help, as did a ceremony where Captain America initiated all the Young Avengers as full-fledged Avengers.
The team re-formed after Wiccan accidentally brought a parasite called Mother into their dimension, posing as Teddy’s dead mother returned to life. This brought a young incarnation of Loki to the team, who was secretly manipulating both Mother and Wiccan, wanting to release Wiccan’s ultimate form, a terrifying beast called Demiurge.
To that end, Loki truly returned Teddy and Billy’s parents to life, but under the influence of Mother, then convinced Wiccan to lend his vast magic powers to Loki for ten minutes to save the day. Wiccan agreed, only for Loki to use Wiccan’s teleportation powers to flee.
Feeling guilty, Loki came back and helped the team escape Mother’s mind-controlled army, though as a consequence, Billy and Teddy couldn’t go anywhere near their resurrected parents ever again. The Young Avengers then decided to explore the universe instead, with the ultimate goal of returning and defeating Mother when they were ready.
The young mutant Prodigy joined the team during this period with a warning: Wiccan’s twin brother Speed had been kidnapped by someone who looked like Patriot. Their interdimensional chase led them to Mother’s dimension before the Young Avengers were ready, and in the ensuing chaos, Hulkling and Patriot were left behind. A massive spell cast by Billy brought in evil clones of the Young Avengers that distracted Mother and allowed their remaining teammates and the rest of the team to escape again, but Mother added the clones to her army.Wiccan quit the Young Avengers after that, convinced, through a manipulative suggestion of Loki’s, that Wiccan and Hulkling were only together because Wiccan’s magic made it so through inadvertent reality manipulation.
Mother managed to return to the Young Avengers’ dimension and threaten the world, prompting Wiccan to temporarily become his full-potential self, the Demiurge, to stop her once and for all.