Thor pushed through the rubble, his heart pounding.
His friends lay scattered across the ruined street. Sif struggling to rise, her armor cracked and smoking. Volstagg barely conscious, sprawled against an overturned car. Fandral cradling his shattered arm. Hogun bleeding from a dozen wounds, his legendary stoicism finally cracked.
The Destroyer stood over them, its faceplate beginning to open.
"STOP!"
Thor's voice carried across the destruction, raw and desperate. He stepped into the street, placing himself between the Destroyer and his fallen companions.
"Brother!" he shouted at the metal giant, at Loki who watched through its eyes. "Please!"
The Destroyer paused. Its faceplate remained half-open, orange light building but not yet released.
"Leave," Sif gasped from behind him. "Thor, run—"
"I will not abandon you." Thor kept his eyes fixed on the Destroyer. "Loki! I know you can hear me. Whatever I have done to wrong you, whatever slight you believe I have committed, I am sorry. Truly sorry."
The Destroyer stood motionless.
"But these people are innocent," Thor continued, his voice cracking. "My friends. The mortals of this realm. They have done nothing to earn your wrath. Taking their lives will gain you nothing."
Behind him, Sif had managed to reach her feet, using her broken sword as a crutch. "Thor, we should retreat. Regroup. Find help—"
"No." Thor didn't turn. "Go. All of you. Get to safety."
"We will not leave you," Fandral protested, struggling upright despite his injuries. "We came to bring you home. We will not—"
"You must." Thor's voice was firm now, carrying the weight of command. "Asgard needs you. Someone must stop Loki's madness. Someone must protect our home." He finally glanced back at them, a sad smile crossing his face. "That duty falls to you now."
"Thor—" Sif started.
"Go. That is an order."
The words hung in the air. An order from their prince. Their friend.
Slowly, reluctantly, the Warriors Three and Sif began to withdraw. They joined Jane's group at the end of the street, ready to flee and summon the Bifrost.
But they didn't leave, though. They couldn't. Not yet.
They watched as Thor turned back to face the Destroyer.
The fallen prince of Asgard stood alone in the ruined street. No weapon. No armor. No power. Just a mortal man facing a weapon designed to kill gods.
"Brother," Thor said softly, "if you require a life to satisfy your anger... take mine. And end this."
The Destroyer's faceplate opened fully.
Orange fire gathered in its depths, building toward an inferno that would reduce Thor to ash.
Jane screamed his name.
Thor closed his eyes.
Father, he thought. I understand now. I am sorry I learned too late.
The fire didn't come.
Thor opened his eyes. The Destroyer's faceplate was closing.
A smile crossed his face. Perhaps Loki had heard him after all. Perhaps some part of his brother, buried beneath the jealousy and pain and centuries of feeling second-best, still loved him.
Perhaps–
The backhand came without warning.
The Destroyer's arm swung in a devastating arc, catching Thor full across the chest. The impact was catastrophic. Bones shattered. Organs ruptured. His mortal body crumpled like parchment in a storm.
Thor flew backward, tumbling across the debris-strewn street, and came to rest in a broken heap against the twisted remains of a lamppost.
He didn't move.
—
"THOR!"
Jane broke from the group, sprinting toward the fallen figure. Selvig tried to grab her arm, but she was already gone.
She skidded to her knees beside him, her hands hovering over his broken body, afraid to touch, afraid of what she'd feel.
"Thor? Thor, can you hear me?"
His eyes fluttered open. They were dimming already, the light fading.
"It's over," Thor wheezed, gripping Jane's hand with weak, trembling fingers. "It's... okay."
"No, no, no," Jane sobbed, pressing her hands against his chest as if she could hold his life in. "Stay with me. Please stay with me."
"You are... safe," Thor whispered.
His eyes closed.
His hand went limp.
His chest stopped moving.
Silence fell over the ruined street.
—
Sif stood frozen, unable to process what she was seeing. Fandral had gone pale. Volstagg's face was a mask of grief. Even Hogun's stoic expression had cracked.
"No," Darcy whispered. "No, no, no..."
Selvig pulled off his glasses, wiping his eyes. He'd known Thor for less than two days, but the loss hit him like a physical blow.
The Destroyer regarded the scene for a moment. Then, apparently satisfied that its mission was complete, it turned and began walking away.
Jane remained hunched over Thor's body, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
—
Rooftop Overlooking Main Street
Coulson lowered his binoculars. His face was gray.
"Is it over?" His voice sounded hollow, even to his own ears. "He's dead, isn't he?"
Arthur hadn't moved from his perch on the ledge. His expression was unreadable as he watched Jane weeping over Thor's still form.
"He's not dead."
Coulson stared at him. "I can see his body from here. He's not breathing. That thing crushed his chest like—"
"He's not dead," Arthur repeated quietly. "Not yet. And not for long."
"What are you talking about? Are you going to heal him? Fight that thing now that—"
"Neither." Arthur's gaze shifted to the desert horizon, toward something Coulson couldn't see. "I'm going to watch a miracle."
Coulson's earpiece crackled before he could demand an explanation. An agent's voice, pitched high with disbelief:
"Sir! The artifact, the hammer, it's reacting! The readings are off the charts!"
Arthur smiled.
"Get ready, Agent Coulson," he said softly. "You're about to witness the rebirth of the God of Thunder."
—
S.H.I.E.L.D. Containment Site – Fifty Miles Away
Mjolnir began to shake.
The agents watching it scrambled backward as the hammer vibrated, then lifted from its crater. The earth cracked around it, breaking free from the ground that had held it immobile for two days.
And then it flew.
It rocketed into the sky so fast that the sonic boom shattered windows in the temporary structures. A streak of silver against the blue, trailing lightning in its wake, heading unerringly toward the town on the horizon.
Toward someone who had finally proven himself worthy.
—
Main Street
Jane was still crying when she heard it.
A distant rumble, like thunder from a cloudless sky.
She looked up, blinking through her tears, and saw a streak of silver cutting through the air. It moved impossibly fast, trailing lightning in its wake.
It was coming right toward them.
"Get back!" Selvig shouted, trying to pull Jane away.
But she couldn't move. She could only watch as the streak resolved into a shape, a hammer, a hammer flying directly toward Thor's outstretched hand.
The moment of contact was like the birth of a star.
Lightning exploded outward from Thor's body, arcing into the sky in great branching rivers of electricity. Windows shattered for blocks around. Car alarms screamed. The ground itself trembled.
Jane was thrown backward, temporarily blinded by the flash. The thunder that followed shook her bones, shook the buildings, shook the very foundations of the world.
When she could see again, Thor was standing.
But this wasn't the Thor she knew.
Gone was the mortal in borrowed jeans and a flannel shirt. Gone was the humbled prince who had learned to make breakfast and laugh at his own jokes.
In his place stood a god.
Gleaming armor covered his form, silver and bronze and ancient beyond measure. A red cape billowed behind him in a wind that existed for him alone. His eyes crackled with barely contained lightning, and Mjolnir hummed in his grip, the hammer and its master reunited at last.
Thor looked down at his hands. At the armor. At the power flowing through him once more.
Then he looked at the Destroyer, which had stopped its retreat and turned to face this new development.
A smile crossed Thor's face. Not the arrogant grin of the prince who had charged into Jotunheim seeking glory. Something different. Something earned.
"Brother," Thor said, his voice carrying the weight of thunder, "we are not finished."
—
The Destroyer's faceplate opened.
Thor was already moving.
He launched himself forward with the fury of a storm unleashed, crossing the distance in a single heartbeat. Mjolnir led the way, trailing lightning, and struck the metal giant square in the chest with the force of a thunderbolt.
The impact sent the Destroyer staggering backward.
For the first time since arriving on Earth, the construct had been moved against its will.
Thor didn't let up. He pressed forward, hammer striking again and again, each blow accompanied by a crack of thunder that echoed across the desert. The Destroyer tried to counter, swinging its massive arms, but Thor ducked and weaved with the grace of a warrior born.
The faceplate opened, orange fire building—
Thor flew above the blast, spinning in the air. He brought Mjolnir down on the Destroyer's head with both hands, channeling every ounce of his divine strength into the blow.
The metal dented.
For the first time, the Destroyer showed damage. A visible crater in its helm where Thor's hammer had struck.
The God of Thunder landed, circled, and attacked again. The Destroyer tried to track him, but he was too fast now, too precise. Every strike found its mark. Every blow drove the metal giant back another step.
On the rooftop, Coulson watched with his jaw hanging open.
"That's..." He couldn't find the words. "That's not possible."
"For a mortal, no," Arthur agreed. "But Thor isn't mortal anymore."
Lightning gathered in the sky above, responding to Thor's will. Dark clouds spiraled together, crackling with energy that seemed almost eager to be released.
Thor raised Mjolnir high.
A bolt of pure electricity slammed down from the heavens, channeling through the hammer and into the Destroyer's frame. The metal giant convulsed, sparks flying from every joint and seam.
It collapsed to one knee.
Thor landed before it, breathing hard but triumphant. He began to spin Mjolnir, faster and faster, the motion generating a vortex of wind and lightning that lifted the Destroyer off the ground.
The metal giant hung suspended in the maelstrom, powerless.
"Tell my brother," Thor growled, "that I am coming home. And I am bringing the storm with me."
He released the hammer.
Mjolnir struck the Destroyer square in the chest and kept going, carrying the metal giant with it. They rocketed skyward together, spinning into the heavens, climbing higher and higher until they were lost against the blue.
A moment later, a distant explosion lit up the upper atmosphere.
Mjolnir returned to Thor's outstretched hand a few seconds later, humming with satisfaction.
The Destroyer did not return at all.