Psych - HIATUS

חֲמֵשׁ עֶשׂרֵה

Your eyes snap open. You start to push yourself off the ground, blinking rapidly, trying to clear your vision. As you wake up, you feel the scepter's power leave your mind. You sit up and lean against the nearest wall to look around. You are behind Tony's bar. There is shattered glass and debris all around you. You can still hear the warbling sound of the Tesseract, so the battle isn't over yet. You must not have been out for long. You grab the top of the bar and pull yourself up, leaning against the bar so that you don't have to put weight on your broken ankle. You limp across the bar, looking out the now smashed windows to see what is happening. Selvig wakes up and looks around, shocked by all the chaos.

You let go of the bar and start to limp towards the window. You stumble a few times, only barely managing to keep your balance. You are forced to put weight on your broken ankle, but you put as much as you can on your less injured ankle. It takes several minutes for you to get even halfway to the window. You suddenly see Natasha out the window, climbing up onto the balcony with the Tesseract. "Romanoff!"

Natasha sees you and runs to you once she's on the balcony. She runs through where the window is supposed to be to your side, putting your arm around her shoulder. You take your weight off of your broken ankle and lean against Natasha. "Stark said Loki put you under his spell. How did you come back?"

"Chitauri fired at Thor when he was standing in front of me. One of the shots hit the wall when I was leaning against it, shaking the wall. I hit my head hard," you explain. "What's going on out there?"

"The others are doing what they can to contain the violence and protect civilians. I'm up here to try to close the portal," she answers.

You nod. "Okay, help me over there, I'll do what I can." Natasha helps you limp through the window and to the Tesseract. You can move at such a greater speed now that you have help. Soon, you and Natasha are in front of Selvig as he looks down the side of the building.

"The scepter," Selvig says as you and Natasha get closer.

"Doctor-" Natasha starts.

"Loki's scepter. The energy. The Tesseract can't fight, but you can't protect against yourself," Selvig explains.

You and Natasha bend down in front of him, you still leaning against Natasha. "It's not your fault," you say.

"You didn't know what you were doing," Natasha adds.

"Actually, I think I did," Selvig replies. "I built in a safety to cut their power source."

Natasha's eyes widen in recognition. "Loki's scepter." You nod.

"It may be able to close the portal," Selvig says. He looks down at the balcony below you. "And I'm looking right at it."

Natasha helps you lean against the wall before running to go get the scepter. Selvig starts setting up a computer and hooking it up with the machine using the Tesseract to do whatever it is he needs it for to stop the machine. Soon, Natasha is back with the scepter. "Right at the crown," Selvig says, pointing to the center of the machine.

Natasha stands in front of you and pushes the scepter through the force field surrounding the Tesseract. It clearly takes a lot of effort. "I can close it. Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down." As you hear her speak, you remember your own earpiece and turn it back on. It must have turned itself off when you got knocked out.

"Do it!" Steve shouts.

"No, wait," Stark says immediately.

"Stark, these things are still coming," Steve argues.

"I got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it," Stark explains.

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip," Steve says solemnly.

Stark doesn't respond. A few moments later he streaks past you, directing the nuke into the portal above your head. You watch as he flies up and up and up until he's in the portal. Soon after, you watch as the Chitauri leviathans collapse on the surrounding buildings. You stare at the portal, waiting for Tony to fall through. You feel almost sick in your stomach as you wait, despite knowing Tony will survive. "Hurry up, Stark."

Natasha stares at the portal, waiting for Tony. "Come on, Stark."

"Close it," Steve says, his voice full of regret.

Natasha pushes the scepter through the force field even more, clearly struggling. "The force field is strengthening!" Selvig explains. "We need to hurry before it gets any stronger!"

You grab onto the closest ledge and use it to pull yourself up. Natasha is right in front of you, only one step away. You step over and put all of your weight against Natasha. By doing so you push Natasha's arms farther, which pushes the scepter in farther. Natasha is just able to direct the scepter's tip enough before it goes past the crown. The scepter touches the crown and the Tesseract shuts off. The beam of light connecting the Tesseract and the portal slowly disappears until there is no beam, and then the portal starts to shrink. And just before the portal closes entirely, Tony falls through.

"Sun of a gun," Steve says, relieved.

"His power's off," you say as you and Natasha readjust positions to help you walk. You, Natasha, and Selvig watch as Tony free falls. Again, you know that he'll survive, but you feel anxious watching him fall. Right when he's supposed to, Hulk grabs Tony and carries him to the ground. You can't see him on the ground.

"Does he survive?" Natasha asks.

"He better. Let's just say he's got a lot more to do."

A/N
Sorry, it's short and so was the last chapter. It just felt like a natural end to the chapter, if that makes sense. The last two chapters were supposed to be one, and there's more stuff that was supposed to happen after this, but it just felt more natural the way it is now. So that's what's happening.
Michelle