A/N—I own nothing. Everything belongs to Marvel.
"When Father told you that you were to be crowned, he said that I believed you ready..."
The fires snapped like whips at the ash-filled air, their flaming fingers scratching at the melting metal, their vivid fingernails leaving sooty claw marks on the sandy ground. Thor had never walked an empty battlefield before. There were no bodies. There was no blood. No one cried.
Before him, the armored destroyer loomed, its red eyes the burning pit of a volcano. There was no longer any green...
It was the fever that turned his eyes red.
He walked across the hot sand. The crunching of the hard grains hid the cracking of his heart.
"Brother..."
Little brother—"You had a SON!"—
"...whatever I have done to wrong you..."
"Father—"—"I don't want to lose my brother..."—"I did, I do, and I always will..."—
"...whatever I have done to lead you to this..."
The destruction shimmered ethereally behind the hazy air, the wavering fires, the tears in his eyes.
"...I am truly sorry..."—"It's not to say you won't make mistakes..."—"It's not to say you won't be rather idiotic at times..."—
"But these people are innocent."
And he realized that it was not just Jane and her friends, and the other people of Midgard. It was the Jotuns, who were not all bad, who had been generalized by the cruel actions of a few. And he realized that he had been as wrong then as his little brother was now.
"It's not to say you'll be perfect..."—
"Taking their lives will gain you nothing."
Something flickered in the eyes that Thor refused to release. No words were spoken, but Thor felt the accusation: "My love never gained me anything either. Nothing I gave was ever enough."
"So take mine and end this."
"But you're ready."
The eyes never turned green, and the blow sent Thor's mind reeling with rainbow colors.