Looking into the portal, he concentrated on what lay beyond. Dark stretches of space, distant stars and galaxies as well as a band of star dust and gasses. It would have been a very picturesque scene, if not for the thousands of Chitauri and their mothership between him and the vastness of space.
After a few more moments, he released the nuke and watched it fly towards the mothership.
"So-ry...s-r…" JARVIS' voice died in the background, the first step of what could very well be the end of Iron Man.
Eyes shifted slightly towards the pictures of Pepper and Kagome, before they flickered out as the suit shut down. His own eyes felt heavy, along with the rest of his body, and the lack of oxygen encouraged his exhaustion to overtake him. The last thing to run through his mind was a memory of Pepper and Kagome laughing together before all went black.
Kagome watched through angry tears at the portal, nails digging into the Tesseract as she saw the missile's explosion as it impacted with the large enemy ship. But there were no signs of her father returning.
"...close it."
Gritting her teeth, Kagome held still for a few seconds, but then obeyed Romanoff and pulled the cube out of the heart of the machine while her tears continued to fall.
Clutching the cursed object close to her chest, she watched the machine shut down and followed the light upwards until it sputtered out. The portal stayed open a few moments longer then began to close.
Blinking away tears, she sniffled as she watched the portal. But then something made her heart skip a beat. Raising a hand to block out the light of the sun, her breath hitched at what she was seeing. Hope filled her when she saw her father make it back through the portal before it closed completely.
AN: ... I now own 'The Hobbit' as a book! Most likely a mistake for many reasons, all more than likely sound and rational, but~ I bought it anyway. Read, enjoy, and review!