As Daniel watched the portal above him finally close, he could hardly believe it. Natasha had warned him earlier that she planned to shut down the device powering the space-time gate, but some part of him had always felt the real danger hadn't yet arrived. Loki's absence only made that unease worse.
But now, the gate had vanished—sealed off completely.
Dark mist churned in the sky as the portal snapped shut. The connection between Earth and the Chitauri fleet was severed in an instant. All across the battlefield, Chitauri soldiers collapsed as if their spines had been yanked out of them.
Logically, once the command ship was gone, these bio-soldiers should've already been disconnected. But their shutdown was delayed, oddly synchronized with the gate closing. That told Daniel the command center hadn't been destroyed by a nuclear bomb as in other timelines. Instead, the gate had merely cut them off—probably from a ship somewhere in the farthest reaches of deep space.
Whatever connection they had relied on was lost, and their internal fail-safes triggered. One by one, the Chitauri fell motionless, lifeless.
Manhattan still burned. Smoke clouded the sky. People ran, some out of panic, others taking advantage of the chaos to loot. But the true battle was over.
Still, Daniel couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. The portal had closed, the invaders were neutralized, and Loki had never reappeared—not even near the space-time instrument. Stark, Thor, and Hulk had all stayed nearby, on alert.
Rain poured steadily from the sky. Daniel tapped into that elemental energy, using it to try and trace Loki. But the trickster had vanished.
Daniel had fought Loki up close. He knew the depth of the man's magic.
Descending slowly, Daniel landed atop Stark Tower. He saw Hulk, Natasha holding the scepter, Hawkeye, Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor all gathered around the space-time instrument.
Or more accurately, around the Tessaract embedded in its core.
Each of them looked at it with a complicated expression. It had nearly destroyed Earth.
For many there, the Tesseract was more than just a relic.
Thor had come from Asgard to make sure it didn't stay on Earth. But returning it wouldn't be easy. Earth's political leaders would push back. Still, they'd eventually cave. No one wanted to risk another invasion. No one wanted to be responsible if the cube opened a portal again.
Stark had a deep connection to it—his father found it frozen in the Arctic, and Stark's arc reactor tech was based on its energy signature.
Rogers had fallen into the ocean battling the Red Skull, who had used it in a bid for world domination.
Even Hulk's origin, indirectly, traced back to it. Banner's father had worked on an earlier version of the super soldier serum under General Ross, part of the same SHIELD Pegasus program that eventually birthed Captain Marvel.
Daniel felt conflicted. He had once touched it. While the Red Skull had been banished across the galaxy for years for doing the same, Daniel had only brushed against it and was exiled to Jotunheim.
Asgard had always held dominion over it. Odin, Heimdall—they never lost sight of it. Even now, with Odin slipping into god-sleep more often, they had Thor guarding it, waiting for the right moment to retrieve it.
Earth's leaders would protest, but in the end, they'd comply. The risk of keeping it here was just too great.
After all, the Chitauri fleet that had attacked Earth was just a small scouting unit—one among countless under Thanos. The real danger hadn't yet begun.
Yes, Earth had closed the gate, but they hadn't destroyed the Chitauri command ship. That meant they hadn't sent a message of deterrence out into the galaxy. Without that fear factor, Earth would remain a tempting target.
Still, Daniel saw an upside. The earlier Natasha closed the gate, the less damage Earth took. A few more minutes, and the devastation would've been exponentially worse.
Manhattan suffered casualties and destruction, but overall, it was manageable. Rebuilding wouldn't take decades. It would be hard, but possible.
To Daniel, these losses were light. But to the rest of the world, it was an earth-shattering event. Aliens had invaded. Humanity was no longer playing in its own backyard; it had entered the ruthless arena of cosmic warfare.
The invasion had lasted less than an hour. But now, without a clear show of power, more alien threats would eventually come. And next time, they might not have an Avengers team to stop it.
Still, Daniel's mind returned to the cube. As much as he knew it was being returned to Asgard, he couldn't help but wish for more time to study it. He suspected Stark and Banner felt the same.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Daniel turned to the others. "Has anyone seen Loki?"
The question snapped everyone's attention back to reality. The man who started this still hadn't been caught.
Stark, Thor, Hawkeye—they all looked around, confused. No one had seen Loki. With his level of magic, it was no surprise. If he didn't want to be found, he wouldn't be.
Then Natasha stood up. She still held the scepter, its blue light casting shadows on her face.
"I think… when I came up here, I saw him fly in that direction," she said, pointing southeast—toward New Jersey.
Everyone followed her gaze. No one noticed that the direction she pointed also aligned perfectly with the Tessaract. And when she raised the scepter, its tip neared the Tesseract—and there was a faint "ding."
That sound sent Daniel and Thor into high alert. Their senses spiked instantly, but it was already too late.
That familiar smirk crept across Natasha's face—the unmistakable grin of Loki.
A pulse of black-blue mist erupted from the Tesseract, swallowing Daniel, Thor, Hulk, and Stark before their lightning or energy could respond.
They vanished.
Hawkeye was the first to react. He launched an arrow straight at Loki, whose illusion was fading. But Loki held the scepter and was already several steps away, just out of reach.
Captain America hurled his shield, but Loki batted it away with ease.
He didn't hesitate. He had already moved to the rooftop's edge. As the shield ricocheted back toward him, he caught it mid-leap and launched himself off the side of Stark Tower.
He left Hawkeye behind—unconscious and slumped—on the rooftop.
You couldn't blame him. Everything had happened in seconds. The fake Natasha had reactivated the cube, teleported the four strongest Avengers, and vanished.
Rogers' instincts had kicked in, but there'd been no time to plan.
The real threat wasn't just the missing heroes—it was Loki, now fully in control of the Tesseract and scepter.
With the space-time gate at his fingertips, he could reopen it at any moment. And this time, there might not be anyone left to stop what comes next.