A New Beginning

Chapter 22- One Way Trip

The weight of the Scepter in her hands was not very reassuring. Noelle swallowed as she shakily pointed it at the Force-Field in front of the Tesseract.

Dr. Selvig was opening his computer several feet to her right.

"Go ahead! Right at the crown!" he called, pointing. "If anyone can withstand its power, it's you."

Noelle closed her eyes as she went for it. The Force-field sparked several times upon contact, but she pushed harder. Using all her strength, she pushed.

The Scepter went in, and in her mind's eye, Noelle saw a way to close the portal.

"I can close it!" she shouted. She pushed one of the buttons on her earpiece. "Does anybody copy? I can close the portal!"

"Do it!" came Cap's voice over her earpiece.

"No! Wait!" came Tony's voice.

"Stark, these things are still coming!" Steve protested.

"I've got a nuke coming in. It's gonna blow in less than a minute."

"A nuke!?" Noelle temporarily forgot about shutting down the portal, as her anger took over.

Fury.

But doubt clouded her mind. Fury wasn't really that far gone into the whole "doing what must be done thing" that he would order a nuclear strike against innocent civilians was he? No, he couldn't be. He had still been a Jedi once. Someone else had to have ordered it.

"And I know just where to put it," she heard Tony say.

"Stark, you know that's a one way trip," Steve replied quietly.

Noelle swallowed, and gripped the Scepter tighter. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to feel the Force and find her strength in it.

It was going to be ok, she told herself.

The sound of the Iron Man speeding up past the Tower with the bomb in his arms awoke her from her trance.

He flew higher and higher, following the blue streak of energy from the sky that led to the open portal to space, until Noelle could see him no longer.

Stark and the missile had passed beyond Earth's borders.

Her jaw clenched, and she held her breath as she waited and waited for several moments.

"Come back, Stark," she whispered. "Please."

A loud explosion from up ahead caused her to jump. She almost lost hold of the Scepter. Down below, she heard crash after crash.

"The army!" Dr. Selvig exclaimed, peering over the edge of the Tower. "It's collapsing."

Noelle's head was spinning but she felt lighter– freer all the sudden. "We did it," she breathed.

"Close it! Close the portal," Dr. Selvig cried. "Quickly!"

"No! We have to wait for Stark!"

"But–"

"No."

Her eyes hadn't left the sky, hoping, waiting...

"Close it," came Cap's voice solemnly over her earpiece.

Her eyes drifted to Dr. Selvig, who nodded furiously.

Noelle wavered for a moment, but she knew they were both right. They couldn't leave it open forever. Something worse may come through. She glanced up at the sky one last time before plunging the end of the Scepter into the middle of the power source, connecting it with the Tesseract.