Thor and Loki sat on the steps of the palace, surrounded by the collapsed ruins of the great hall. They waited in silence for the battle that would decide Asgard's fate to reach its end.
Thor, covered in dust and disheveled, winced as he gently wiped the blood from his face. To fall twice to Hela was a bitter draught to swallow.
He gazed out over the still, silent Asgard, and a quiet nostalgia crept into his single eye. Gentle memories drifted across his mind...
"Father once said that only one of us could be king," Thor murmured, leaning against a fallen pillar.
He remembered the tales Odin had told them as children, of the great war against the Frost Giants of Jotunheim.
"He also said we were both born to rule." A sardonic smile twisted Loki's lips. It was those words that had given him unrealistic hope, "It took me a long time to understand that he didn't mean I was meant for the throne of Asgard. He meant I would rule Jotunheim as the rightful heir of Laufey."
Thor fell silent for a long moment before speaking again, his voice soft, "No matter what else, we are still brothers. Asgard is our home..."
He could not stand by and watch Hela rule Asgard, nor could he bear to see Ragnarok descend. Every burden now rested on his shoulders, and the weight of it was crushing.
"Why can't we simply accept the truth, Brother?" Loki's face filled with a profound self-mockery.
He too had once proclaimed himself a god and sought to rule the Nine Realms with the Mad Titan's power, only for cruel reality to deliver a resounding slap to his face.
"Asgard is no longer the protector of the Nine Realms. Midgard has overtaken us! Even if you defeat Hela, even if you avert Ragnarok... how will you stand against Sean? He drove back Thanos. Even Odin acknowledged the Sentinel's power. Earth's expeditionary forces have built a lunar base and seized Knowhere. If Asgard refuses to align itself with them... how long do you think this fragile peace will last?" For all his scheming, Loki's vision was far-reaching. He could see the true crisis Asgard would face in the years ahead.
"Wake up, Brother. Whether in the Nine Realms or the wider cosmos, peace is built upon power. Asgard has no other choice. If you truly wish to be a good king... then accept this." Loki's tone was uncharacteristically earnest, his handsome face touched by a rare melancholy.
"I will," Thor pondered for a moment, making this difficult decision in his heart, "If Hela emerges the victor... go to Odin's vault and cast Surtur's crown into the Eternal Flame to summon the Flame Giant."
Sean's warship was anchored beyond Asgard, ready to evacuate the surviving civilians. If Hela proved too powerful to stop, then Surtur would destroy this realm, just as Ragnarok foretold.
"Don't be so pessimistic. I hardly think Sean will lose to Hela." Loki shrugged off the concern.
He knew exactly how powerful five Infinity Stones could be. Even Thanos had trembled before that force. Elders of the Universe like the Grandmaster fell over themselves to welcome Sean with smiles, and the Nova Corps went to great lengths to win him over.
All of this spoke of his power from every angle...
As the first light of dawn rose from the sea and washed over Asgard, Sean appeared at the palace with Hela at his side: "Negotiations are concluded, everyone."
The cold-faced Goddess of Death seemed utterly drained, as though a great battle had left her so weary, that she could scarcely walk.
"Now then, let us sit down and discuss the future of Asgard." Sean flexed his right hand.
The Time Stone on the golden Gauntlet pulsed with a soft emerald glow, and the light flowed over the wreckage like water. In the span of a breath, the toppled palace restored itself to its pristine state.
He turned to Thor, Loki, and Hela. What followed would be a council of three, to choose a true king for Asgard.
~~~
Sean remained on Asgard for a week...
The transfer of a crown was always freighted with ancient and cumbersome customs, which, even if no one liked, had to be strictly followed.
When the twilight of Ragnarok had faded into legend, Sean, as Odin's chosen proxy and the voice of Midgard, personally crowned Thor in the great hall of the palace. The son of the All-Father ascended the throne as his father had always wished, witnessed by the people of Asgard.
At that moment, the cheers of the crowd were deafening, the applause rumbling like thunder...
Yet the coronation did not end there. Two other candidates were crowned that day. One was Odin's adopted son, the lawful ruler of Jotunheim, who would claim his birthright as King of the Frost Giants with the generous support of both Asgard and Earth.
The last to be crowned was their elder sister, Hela, the Goddess of Death.
At Sean's proposal, the fanatic who had hungered only for war and conquest was named Queen of the Asgardian-Earth Expeditionary Army. The two civilizations would soon assemble a pioneering legion to push beyond the Nine Realms and plant their flags among the stars, and Hela was unquestionably the finest candidate to lead it.
Through sheer, overwhelming strength, Sean set the foundation for the tripartite rule of the Nine Realms: Thor's Asgard, Loki's Jotunheim, and Hela's Expeditionary Legion... three powers united as one.
Thus aligned, the Nine Realms would erupt onto the galactic stage with meteoric force. That was precisely what Sean wanted to see. Only by rising together could they shake the entrenched Three Empires and claim a seat at the highest table of the cosmos...
.
.
.
"Nebula brought Gamora back?" The moment Sean returned to Earth, the news reached him.
With the final stone so close, that he could almost taste it, he had no patience for the Unified Government's upcoming symposium on 'Human Migration and Cosmic Expansion'... He departed for Knowhere immediately.
The Space Stone flared, tearing open a rift. Sean materialized inside the Umbrella Corporation building to find Gamora in restraints and Nebula standing by, her mission complete.
The two adopted daughters of Thanos... One had become his operative; the other had broken free of the Black Order and wandered the galaxy with Star-Lord's ragtag group, forming an odd sort of mercenary crew.
"I won't tell you where the Soul Stone is." Gamora declared her defiance the moment she laid eyes on him.
In her view, Sean and Thanos were cut from the same cloth. Only, the former's methods were marginally gentler.
"I know you control Ronan. The war between the Kree Empire and Xandar was orchestrated by you from the shadows." She had been there with Quill the day the Death Fleet invaded Knowhere. She had seen Sean defeat the Accuser with her own eyes and bend him to his will.
"You know quite a lot." Sean said lightly. He raised the golden Gauntlet, and the Mind Stone pulsed softly. He slipped directly into Gamora's mind, rifling through her memories, "I've never been fond of forcing people. Since you refuse to speak... I'll simply see for myself."
Within moments, he had extracted the coordinates of Vormir, the planet where the Soul Stone lay hidden.
"Watch over your sister. Once I have the final stone, she can go find Peter Quill. Let's hope the great Star-Lord doesn't end up like his father; swallowed whole by Galactus." Sean nodded, satisfied.
A ripple of cerulean light shimmered into being. With the exact coordinates of Vormir now in hand, the Space Stone could open the way...