On the rooftop, Natasha had the scepter. She pushed the tip against the energy barrier protecting the portal generator. It went through, slowly. “I can close it,” she said, hoping she could be heard over the wash of electromagnetic energy from the barrier. “Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!”

“Do it!” Captain America replied immediately.

But as she leaned on the scepter to push it the rest of the way through to the Tesseract itself, Iron Man broke in. “No, wait!”

“Stark, these things are still coming!” Cap argued.

“I got a nuke coming in,” Tony answered. “It’s going to blow in less than a minute, and I know just where to put it.”

Natasha looked around. She couldn’t see Tony . . . No, there he was, far away to the south, the contrail of his boot thrusters leading away from the battle. A nuke, she thought. Fury wouldn’t have done that. The only people on Earth who would turn Manhattan into a radioactive crater — other than various terrorist groups and lunatic super villains — were the World Security Council. They had to be behind this.

She waited, holding the scepter in place. If anyone could pull this off, it would be Tony Stark . . . but Natasha wasn’t sure anyone could pull this off.

Tony caught the missile right after it went under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. He had to time everything perfectly or he would either miss the portal or not get to it in time. He rode the missile north, streaking over Battery Park, the Financial District, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Village . . . then he started trying to force it higher into the sky, away from its target location over Midtown Manhattan—and toward the hole in space created by the Tesseract.

The missile had a lot of momentum built up, and Tony’s Mark 7 suit was not operating at full capacity after the amount of energy he’d expended in the battle already. It was no easy task to get the missile angled up sharply enough to clear the tallest buildings in Midtown—especially Stark Tower. That was where the missile seemed to want to go. So, Tony thought, the World Security Council is jealous of me, too.

He got underneath the missile and angled it upward, straining against its stabilizers, which tried to keep it on course. But slowly he forced it up, and once he got its warhead pointed at an angle, pushing it into a steeper climb got easier. A little.

Steve Rogers’s voice broke his concentration. “Stark, you know that’s a one-way trip?”

Tony ignored him. If he talked to Steve, he was going to think too much about how Steve was probably right. “Save the rest for the turn, J,” he said to Jarvis once the missile was pointed in the right direction.

“Sir, shall I try Ms. Potts?” Jarvis asked.

“Might as well,” Tony said. She was probably busy with some congressional thing or other, but maybe he could leave her a message.

Tony and the missile passed within feet of the roof of Stark Tower, close enough that he could see the amazement on the faces of Natasha and Selvig. Then he fired extra lateral thrusters and aimed the missile straight up, adding his own thrust to the missile’s solid-fuel engine and blazing toward the portal. Pepper’s phone kept ringing, but she didn’t answer. The portal loomed ahead, with more Chitauri appearing through it all the time. As Tony got closer, he could see more clearly what was on the other side.

Empty space. Stars. And lots and lots of Chitauri.

This better work, he thought, and then he was through the portal.

Jarvis cut out as the wireless link to Stark Tower was broken. The call to Pepper failed. His thrusters flickered and began to go out. Tony let go of the missile and fell back toward the portal. His eyes were wide, filled with a sight no human had ever seen before.

Against a backdrop of alien stars, the Chitauri ship hung in space. It was bigger than anything he had ever seen, shaped like a rough X lying on its side. Any one of the legs of the X was larger than a dozen Helicarriers. Leviathans poured from it, and Chitauri flyers swarmed like dust. They would just keep coming, in their thousands and millions, if it wasn’t destroyed. What kind of a civilization could build something like that? Humans were centuries away from that kind of technology. Fury was right. When it came to threats from space, the human race was hilariously out-gunned. All they could do was hope that brains and willpower would even the odds.

The missile streaked on toward it, its timer ticking down. Tony watched. Even if this was the last thing he ever saw, part of him was glad that he had seen it. The universe was full of wonders. One day, Tony knew, the human race would make it out among the stars . . . but first they would have to stay alive long enough.

That meant defeating the Chitauri.

A tiny ball of fire bloomed in the center of the Chitauri ship. It grew and kept growing. In seconds, it had engulfed the Chitauri ship.

Tony closed his eyes.

On the streets of New York, the Chitauri fell to the ground as if they had been switched off. Every single one of them. Even the remaining Leviathans sagged and crashed to earth.

The Avengers looked up. On the roof of Stark Tower, Natasha said, “Come on, Stark.”

They saw the explosion through the portal, brilliant as a new sun. There was no way Tony could have survived that.

I was wrong about him, Steve thought. When the time came, he did make the sacrificial play. “Close it,” he said. There was nothing they could do for Tony now.

Natasha leaned in and touched the tip of Loki’s scepter to the Tesseract. The beam of energy holding the portal open winked out and the portal began to collapse. All the Avengers watched, knowing they had lost one of their own.

Then, at the last minute before the portal winked out of existence, the minuscule form of Iron Man fell through it back into the sky.

“Son of a gun,” Steve said.

Smiles spread across their faces. Tony was alive!

But soon they could tell something wasn’t right. “He’s not slowing down,” Thor said. He started to swing Mjolnir, to fly up and intercept Tony before he could hit the ground at a fatal velocity.

He never got the chance, though, because the Hulk came leaping into view. He caught Iron Man, and his momentum carried him all the way across to the building across the street. Using one hand to slow himself, he slid down the building’s facade to the street. When they came to rest, the Hulk dropped Iron Man on the ground and bent over him. Thor and Steve came running. “Is he breathing?” Steve asked.

Thor ripped the face mask off the Iron Man armor. Tony didn’t move. His miniature Arc Reactor was dark.

They stood for a long moment, realizing that they had lost him after all. The portal was collapsed. The Chitauri were gone or deactivated. Tony Stark had sacrificed himself to save humanity.

Then, just to be sure, the Hulk bent low and roared in Tony’s face.

The sound was earsplitting from down the block; Steve thought it must have been just about able to wake the dead up close. Tony gasped and his eyes shot open. “What?! What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me.”

The Hulk grunted. Steve cracked a smile. Even in a moment like this, Tony had to make a joke. “We won,” he said.

“All right,” Tony said. He had started to sit up, but now he lay back. “Yay. All right. Good job, guys. Let’s just not come in tomorrow. Let’s just take a day.”

He rested, getting his breath for a minute. Then he started talking again. “Have you ever tried shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t know what it is, but I wanna try it.”

“Shawarma,” Steve said. He had no idea what it was, either. For once, he and Tony were both in the dark about something. “Sure, why not.”

“We’re not finished yet,” Thor said.

“Oh, okay,” Tony said. “Then shawarma after.” 2DAfvlQJ/+bqv6/8UuJz9yXlPT+rthZEJA874LxNa1rpYOe+x+J6L6fCLVEr4+35