The roaring winds instantly subsided as soon as the portal closed. "WHAT IN THE GOD DAMN HELL WAS THAT?!" Howard exclaimed as soon as his feathers were...slightly less ruffled.

Alexis was surprised to see that Howard had followed them through the portal. "You move pretty fast for a giant talking duck," she commented.

"Only where some things are concerned, toots," Howard replied.

The rest of the group instantly tried to shake off the implied meanings behind Howard's statement.

"So anybody got any sort of idea where we've landed?" asked Rocket.

An orange beam of light burst into the area before anyone could answer the raccoon's question. The light circled around the group, then enveloped Strange in a column of light before exploding at the base of his neck with a blinding flash.

#

"I am so sorry, guys," Blair apologized. "I think that's the first time I've ever had to transport more people than just me and..." The shaman's apology was cut off by the sound of Bucky retching behind a nearby tree.

Beckett waved off Blair's pleadings. She held up a hand, encouraging the rest of the group to remain quiet while she extended her senses out as far as she could in every direction.

Jim followed the Guardian's lead. Seeing his Sentinel push his limits brought Blair's focus back to the business at hand. He put a hand on Jim's shoulder to ground his focus. "Keep your filters working," he whispered. "Ignore everything you know. Look for what..."

"I feel it," Beckett declared, her eyes snapping back open and allowing her focus to return to the group around her.

Jim nodded in solemn agreement. "That energy vacuum about a hundred clicks north of here?"

'Yep," Beckett replied. Her pale face and obvious shudder worried everyone in the clearing. "But it's the worst I've ever felt it."

Tripp's eyes went wide. "Worse than Strange's house?"

Beckett nodded. Her eyes warily turned toward Ward and Skye. "You two ready for this?"

"Have my uncles ever been wrong?" countered Skye. When she saw Ward start to open his mouth to argue the point, she put a finger over his lips to silence him before he could get a word out. "We're ready," Skye declared confidently.

"Anything else there?" asked Fallon.

Jim shook his head...until Beckett stopped him. "She just brought in an entire battalion of HYDRA soldiers," the Guardian announced.

Tripp's eyes widened. "Just?"

Jim immediately recognized the implications of Beckett's nod. "That means..."

"She knows we're here," Blair and Beckett agreed in unison.

#

Most of the group slowly staggered back up to their feet...with two exceptions. Alexis' attention was completely focused on the being that the light had targeted. "Doctor Strange?" she asked, crawling over to kneel down next to the unconscious sorcerer.

"He does not look like he can hear you, young one," Drax declared.

Howard waddled over to stare at the body. "Is he...?"

"He is alive," Quill declared.

The otherworldly voice that came out of the carrier shook both Howard and the Collector to the very core of their souls. "Whad'about him?" Howard asked nervously, pointing to Quill.

"He's fine," Rocket declared, blowing off the newcomers' concern. "That's just the way they talk."

The Collector's eyes widened at Rocket's use of the plural pronoun. "They? Who are 'they'?"

Rocket ignored the newcomer's question. "Strange's got his Stone now, right? Dat's what that was?" Quill didn't argue with the raccoon, so Rocket decided to press his luck. "So since he's gonna be out of service for a bit, can youget us outta here?"

Quill shook his head. "I cannot."

Rocket's eyes went wide as the group reacted with a collective expression of surprise. "You can't?! Whad'ya mean, you can't...?"

"I can't either," Alexis agreed, her eyes widening. "I just tried to get us out of here and...nothing."

Gamora took a second at their surroundings...this time with a growing dread. "If the power of an infinity stone is not enough to get us out of here," she mused, "then...by the gods, where are we?"

#

The Guardian and the Sentinel stopped at the edge of the tree line. The rest of the group stopped and lined up along the tree line beside them. "Looks okay to me," said Tripp.

Jim ignored the comment. "You got a fix on her yet?"

Beckett shook her head. "Too much interference from the fog. It's all I can sense."

"Would getting closer help?" asked Fallon.

"It would help us," Ward declared. "I don't know if Skye can reach her from here, but I know I can't."

Fallon turned to the one carrier on his team. "Canyou reach her from here?"

Skye shook her head. "Too much interference."

"Then we need to clear a path to get you two over there," Fallon declared. The clicking sound of loading told Fallon that his support team had gotten the message. "Merlin, chase away as much of the fog as you can. The rest of us will take care of the HYDRA agents."

Blair shielded each of the soldiers before they took off as fast as their gifts could carry them.

Beckett arrived first, pulling her sword out of the scabbard she wore between her shoulder blades. Bullets riccocheted off of Blair's shield as she quickly cut down a half dozen HYDRA agents who were completely unprepared to fight against anything but a gun.

By the time Ellison, Fallon, Steve and Bucky caught up to the Guardian, she had already made a solid dent in the number of enemies that they were facing. "Did you plan to leave any for us?" Fallon teased.

A HYDRA agent tackled Beckett from behind. She rolled him over with a grunt before using her sword to slit the agent's throat. "Plenty to go around, boys."

The third wave of the attack came in with guns blazing. The former SHIELD agents focused on the outer edges of the opposition; they picked off as many of the long-range shooters as they could...mostly to reduce the distractions for the group's most powerful line of attack.

#

The group's attention was drawn to the groan coming from the slowly waking being at their feet. "Thank God!" exclaimed Rocket. "Maybe he can tell us what the hell is going on here."

Alexis noticed how strange seemed to be distracted. "Doctor? What is it?"

"The Ātmā pat'thara," Strange declared, each word straining with breathless amazement. "The Keeper of Souls. I...I can feelit."

"So you can controlthe stone now?" asked Gamora. "Like the others?"

Strange shook his head. 'No, that's just it. The stone isn't in my head."

"But you just said..."

"I know what I said, Alexis," Strange insisted, cutting off the younger wizard. "I don't feel the soul keeper inside my head. Because it's not in my head."

Alexis frowned. "I still don't follow..."

"The stone isn't in my head," declared Strange. "It's all around us. I think we are inside the stone."

#

Blair charged toward the mansion with his hands stretched out in front of him. A white light sparked to life a bare inch in front of his open palms; with every inch he traveled, the light grew in size and intensity. The shaman's focus was on one sole thing:

To drive back as much of the darkness as possible.

Ward and Skye followed behind Blair. Even though it took every ounce of their physical strength to keep up with the young wizard, Ward couldn't help but be awestruck by what he was witnessing. I know I should be used to seeing stuff like this...

You never get used to this, Skye replied through their bond. At least I haven't...

By the time they reached the mansion, the HYDRA battalion was nothing more than collection of broken and bleeding bodies scattered across the front lawn. Skye opened a mind-link between the members of the group. She's still here, Skye told the group. I can still sense it...

Blair nodded in agreement. I created a containment spell and focused it on the house. She can't get away from us right this second but I can't guarantee how long the spell will last.

Which makes it even more important that we find her right away, Fallon agreed.

"Or I could just come to you."

The group turned to see Raina leaning on the frame of the mansion's open front door. "Hello Raina," Skye greeted her coolly.

"Skye," Raina replied in kind. "Long time no see." She stopped at the doorframe, raised a hand to push against the 'invisible' barrier...and walked straight through it. Her chuckle caused hairs to stand on end. "Did you really think that that sad little energy field was going to stop me?"

"No," answered Ward. "But this will."

Raina stopped mid-stride. Her leg moved together as her hands pushed against a second wall...and found it to be an immovable and slowly shrinking force. "Impressive," declared Raina. The word was tinged by a mix of false confidence and a growing terror.

Ward ignored the comment and continued to tighten the barrier around Raina...whose eyes widened in a growing panic. When her shoulders shrugged up to her ears in the compressed space, her neck tilted up at a grotesque and unnatural angle. Raina's jaw dropped open in a silent scream. Black tendrils of smoke poured out of her eyes, nose and mouth in what felt like a neverending stream. Ward stretched the column high into the sky, racing the fog as it tried to fly above Raina to an airborne escape.

Finally, when the column seemed destined to create a bridge between the earth and the moon...the last of the smoke seemed to leave Raina's body.

Ready? Ward asked his soulmate.

Skye nodded.

#

A/N: Earlier I said that Doctor Strange was the last main character I was going to add to this crazy little multiverse. The muse had other ideas. I really should just stop making these types of announcements, shouldn't I? ;-)