A/N: Hi guys! Wanted to answer one quick question from phnxgrl: Doctor Strange is going to be the last principal character to be added to the mega multi-verse in this story. While I reserve the right to spin off Guardian crossover stories with other characters in the future (such as Spider-Man), there are already too many characters in this story as it is. I have a *very* specific reason for bringing in Doctor Strange at this point...and most of you have probably already guessed what that reason is. (If you haven't figured it out, I'm going to spell it out in this chapter.) But there's just no other legitimate reason to bring anybody else into this story. I wanna wrap this one up (finally), not add more complexity. But for the remainder of Age of Miracles, our cast of principal characters is now set.

And on with the show!

#

Beckett and Esposito both seemed to be resisting the same urge to chuckle as they watched the blossoming bromance that was unfolding before them. Ryan, though, had different thoughts on the situation. "Stark has a wizard doppelgänger," he quipped. "Who woulda thought?"

The other two Guardians turned their attention away from the 'tour' and toward their friend. His brow furrowed at their reaction. "Oh come on," Ryan insisted. "You can't tell me you don't see any resemblance?"

Esposito's head turned quickly as he compared the physical features of the two men. "They do look a little alike," he shrugged.

"I don't see it," Stark agreed.

Ryan shook his head in half-disbelief as the group returned to the sitting room. Strange took a seat and invited his 'guests' to join him, starting with Castle. "So everything that's happened to you guys happened while I was in Tibet?" he asked Castle.

"It sounds like it," replied Castle.

"Amazing," Strange agreed, shaking his head. The doctor's smile quickly faded. "Which brings us to today. Or rather, last night." The grim expressions spreading around the room told Strange that everyone was accepting of the need to dispense with further pleasantries. "What has brought you to my little corner of the city?"

Esposito crossed the room, stopping only when he was directly in front of Strange's armchair. "Doctor," he explained, "we believe that you are in possession of a very powerful and dangerous stone. May I?"

Strange eyed Esposito's hand warily, fully understanding the implications of the handshake that was being offered to him. "You want to read me?"

"It would save us a lot of time," added Castle. "Unless you're familiar with the Infinity Stones?" The flash of recognition that ran across Strange's face told everyone what they needed to know. "You do know about the Infinity Stones?"

"I do," Strange admitted. "What do you know about them?"

Beckett ignored the question. "Is the stone here?"

Strange turned to Beckett, his defenses rising. "Why do you need to know that?"

Beckett ignored the question, closing her eyes and opening her senses to the building around her. "It's not here," she told Castle.

"No, it isn't," Strange declared. "Now tell me why you're looking for it."

Everyone in the room found that they were now frozen in place. Castle was the first one to escape from his magical bindings. "The stone is in danger, Stephen," he explained to Strange. "We're here to bring it to a...place where it can be better protected."

"Better protected than here?" asked Strange skeptically. "Did we both not live through the same attack last night?"

"We all did," Blair agreed as he escaped from his own bindings. "And you're one hell of a strong wizard, Doctor Strange, but that thing that was attacking you last night is much stronger. You wouldn't have lasted the night."

Strange sighed, lifting the spell as he relented on the argument. "I felt that as well," he agreed. "I was making preparations for my escape when you arrived."

The group's collective confusion only increased. "How were you going to escape?" asked Jim. "That thing had you completely surrounded."

Strange studied his old friend and his associates, carefully trying to assess whether or not the group could be trusted.

Ryan sensed the sorcerer's concerns. "Doctor, three of the stones are already in our possession," he explained. "I promise you, we can keep the stone safe."

Hearing the sincerity in Ryan's voice finally caused Strange to relent. "I was planning to escape back to Tibet," admitted Strange. "It's where I sent the stone." He led the group back up the stairs to the back of the Sanctum and turned away from the three high-definition picture windows to face the Guardians. "These aren't just picture windows," Strange explained. He turned a dial on the wall until the picture of the crashing waves changed to one of a dusty stone-walled room.

Castle immediately recognized what he was seeing. "It's a portal," he told the group.

Strange nodded. "I sent the stone through last night, just before that...entity surrounded the sanctum." He stepped aside and gestured an invitation to the group. "After you."

The group stepped through the portal, each person stumbling slightly at the height difference between the portal and the floor of the stone room. Once everyone had made their way across the threshold, Strange pointed to the pedestal in the center of the room. "Ladies and gentlemen," he announced, "I present the Eye of Agammoto."

Beckett recognized the energy signature that she now associated with the Infinity Stones. That's it, she told Castle through their mind-link, that's the stone Jane sent us here to get.

I'll go get Mister Quill, thought Castle.

Strange's eyes widened almost imperceptibly when Castle disappeared. "Where did Rick go?"

"We couldn't risk bringing the carrier with us until we knew the stone was here," Beckett explained. "So Rick went to go get him."

"The carrier is a person?!" asked Strange, stunned by the concept. Beckett nodded as Castle and Quill arrived.

The effect on the Eye was instantaneous. The amulet floated into the air, thrashing about as the stone fought to get free of its casing.

Quill watched the battle with an ever-growing knot in his stomach. "Is...is that what's supposed to happen?"

"I had a similar thought," Strange agreed, his gaze never leaving the Eye.

The stone broke free of the amulet before anyone had a chance to answer the question, and a moment later the stone flew around Quill, embedded itself in the base of his neck...

And Quill disappeared.

Strange stared at the spot where Quill had once stood, his emotions warring between stunned disbelief and blind rage. "Rick," he asked and warned Castle, "where did the Eye go?"

Castle could only shrug helplessly. "I have no idea," he admitted.

The response did nothing to cut Strange's growing anger. "You have no idea? You...have..."

Quill re-appeared six feet above the ground and crashed to the floor, collapsing in a heap from the impact. "Jeez doc," he groaned as he rolled over and slowly sat up, "you couldn't have given me coordinates that were a little closer to the ground?"

Strange frowned, confused by the question. "I didn't..."

A glowing green-eyed glare met Strange's comment. "I wasn't talking to you," Quill growled.

The carrier was radiating a grounded confidence that was confusing Ryan. "Quill?" asked the Guardian. "You okay?"

Quill nodded. "But we gotta get back to the warehouse asap. If we don't get the last two stones within the next three days all of this will have been for nothing."

#

Raina felt like she couldn't remember a time when she had not been consumed by a blind rage. Black tendrils of fog swirled around the penthouse apartment, threatening to break through the floor-to-ceiling windows any second. There was only one thing stopping the curling, snarling evil from shattering the glass and spreading its way across New York City.

Having another target upon which to wreak its vengeance.

Whitehall fell to his knees, pinned down by two tendrils that were pressing on his shoulders like a thousand-pound yoke. "Mistress..." he gritted out through clenched teeth.

A tendril wrapped around Whitehall's jaw and forced its way into his mouth. "Silence!" Raina exclaimed. "Explain to me how the Guardians allowed yet *another* one of the stones to slip through your pathetic little fingers..."

Whitehall grunted, fighting against his bindings in a futile attempt to answer Raina's demand. She glared into the HYDRA operative's pleading eyes, chasing the tendrils away with a wave of her hand. Whitehall convulsed, coughing up blood and black ooze as he fought for gulping breaths of air. "For...forgive me, mistress..."

The tendrils shoved their way back into Whitehall's mouth. "Your...whining is starting to annoy me," Raina sneered.

Whitehall whimpered into the gag.

Raina paced the room, furiously working through her options. Finally she realized that only one option remained. She pulled the tendrils out of Whitehall's mouth. "I don't care if you have to have every single HYDRA agent comb through every inch of dirt on this miserable backwater of a planet, you *will* find me these...Guardians. Or your life will be forfeit by the end of the week."

The fog disappeared, leaving Whitehall alone in the room, curled up in a fetal position...groaning, whimpering, and coughing up blood. "As you wish, my mistress," he whispered. "I swear it shall be done."

#

Strange let out a low whistle at the instant change in his surroundings. "Quite the gift you've got there, Rick," he commented.

Castle smiled, enjoying bringing his school friend onto his turf. "Come meet the rest of the team," he invited Strange.

The team filed into the already half-filled conference room. Fallon's attention fixated on the stranger in the room within seconds of his entrance. In deference to the way that stranger entered the room, though, Fallon opted for a more polite greeting. "Mark Fallon," he declared, introducting himself with an outstretched hand.

"Doctor Stephen Strange," Strange replied, introducing himself as he shook Fallon's hand. "I'm..."

"He is one of us."

#

A/N #2: Yes, I hinted at yet another possible 'gap story' in this chapter. If you're interested in hearing it let me know in the comments. :-)