Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
ALEX STILL COULDN'T SHAKE THE DISCOMFORT. The lingering feeling of being trapped pressed close like a damp cloth to the back of her neck. She hated it. Being sat on top of the Stark Tower probably wasn't helping either. The portal was still very much in need of closing or they faced losing their first battle.
Nat had since retrieved Loki's sceptre and Alex was helping Selvig make sense of the monitor attached to the Cube and the portal key.
"Right at the crown!" Selvig instructed with a gesture to where he was referring to. Nat hefted the sceptre and stepped closer to the humming machine. As she pushed the point of the golden sceptre through the forcefield, it became apparent that they could, definitively, close the portal.
"I can close it. Can anyone copy? I can shut the portal down," Nat called over the comms and both women waited for some kind of reply.
"Do it!" Steve barked.
"No, wait," Tony followed immediately after.
"Stark, these things are still coming."
"I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute." Alex's blood ran cold.
"A nuclear bomb?!"
"No, a nuclear fish. Yes, a nuclear bomb!"
"You know that's a one-way trip," Steve interjected gravely. Alex knew it too. That scared her more than anything.
Alex rushed to find him, to catch any glimpse of the familiar red and gold. Sure enough, fast on the approach, Tony was guiding the missile upwards. Nausea made itself known as Alex watched on in abject horror. As he flew by, Alex was hit by the strong breeze that followed. She fell back on to the gravel and shuffled backwards. With her head thrown back to look skywards, Alex squinted to follow the trail from the back of the missile.
"Ay, Dios Mio... Please let him be okay," she pleaded quietly as Tony climbed higher and higher. Closer to the mouth of the portal.
The resonating explosion of the nuke detonating took everyone by surprise. All around them, the Chitauri stopped and dropped to the floor. Lifeless. Defeated. But Alex couldn't celebrate yet. Not until she knew Tony was okay.
Everyone watched. Baited breaths. Pounding pulses in their ears. Desperate, silent pleas for him to be alright.
"Close it." Steve's order didn't quite sink in. Alex ripped her earpiece out and kept her gaze fixated on the portal. She prayed to every God, every deity she could recall.
If you're even out there, let him live.
Alex waited. And waited. Nat killed the portal. The cosmic hole in the sky started to close up. Then, with all traces of the portal gone, she spotted a falling shape. Red and gold. He wasn't flying. He wasn't even moving.
