Out Of Time

fifty-four

Iron Man flew back up to the penthouse deck, raising one hand at Loki while his another arm kept Y/N securely at his side.

"And there's one other person you pissed off," Tony stated. "His name was Phil."

Iron Man then fired at Loki, sending him back on his ass. The two then flew up to the roof, just in time to see the Tesseract's energy beam shoot into the sky. They watched as the beam formed a vortex, opening up another portal. An army then spilled from the open portal.

"Right. Army," Tony stated, landing on the roof. He set Y/N down and opened his face plate. "Are you okay?" His cover hand came up to wipe some of the blood on Y/N's cheek away.

"I-I think so... or at least... I will be... I hope..." Y/N answered quietly.

There was so much going on. Her mind didn't know what to focus on. Her dear friend had been killed by an Asgardian god, whom had also kidnapped her. The man she had feelings for was continually trying to save her, and she was letting him for some reason. The universe obviously wanted to her keep falling from things. Then there was the fact that she kept being told she could control the Tesseract, but had yet to put that to the test.

"That's not very reassuring," Tony said.

"What do you want from me, Tony? I was thrown off your ugly building!"

"I'm going to ignore that jab and go fight that army. While I'm busy doing that, you need to figure out a way to close the portal."

"Okay," Y/N nodded her head, shakily. Her eyes focused in on the Tesseract.

"Y/N," Tony shook her gently, getting her to look at him. "You're okay. I caught you. And you can do this. You can stop the portal."

"Yeah..."

"JARVIS is going to keep you connected through the comms. Just say if you need anything. I'll be here as fast as possible if you do."

"Okay. Tony, be safe. You can't die until I get to have my chance to get back at you for last year."

Tony smirked as his face plate closed. "Wouldn't plan on it."

He flew off and Y/N headed towards the contraption that the Tesseract was encased in. Dr. Selvig was there, knocked out after Tony had tried to stop the Tesseract.

"Okay," Y/N whispered to herself. "You just got to let it speak to you, I guess?" She groaned. "You couldn't have done anything else all those years ago to me? You really had to form a connection with me?"

Y/N paused, almost like she was waiting for the cube to actually respond to her. If it was going to respond to her, it needed to be louder than the chaos of the battle going on around the city.

"I know what you really are," she began again. "There's a stone inside of you, full of so much potential. Good and bad. And this... this is not good... you need to help me stop you."

Y/N held her left hand out, the already scarred one, towards the machine. She inched toward it, slowly. As she put her hand to the barrier, she cried out in pain. Y/N pulled her hand back quickly, but not before her fingers slipped through the barrier a little.

"Y/N?!" Steve called over the comms. "Is that you? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she answered. "Just trying to stop the Tesseract. Stark, is there anyway you can get JARVIS to tell me the readings on this thing?"

"The only thing I know Agent Rogers," JARVIS immediately started, "is that the barrier is pure energy and is unbreachable."

"Are you sure? Cause I got my fingers to slip through it."