(Originally published in "The Many Adventures of the Avengers and Friends")
"No, no, you're missing the point. There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top." - Tony Stark, "The Avengers"
Or is there?
Multiverses have the...
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°2023°
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Guards were always present in the Asgardian Imperial Palace. Hundreds of them always on standby in case of an emergency and to protect the Royal Family. Though, it's not every day that the guards had to defend the Royal Family from itself.
Bound in chains, just shy of twenty guards pulled Loki and Olivia forward in front of the Asgardian Throne they had so long ago coveted. Half of the guards kept Loki reigned in while the other half kept a keen watch on Olivia to his right. One nearby held the Casket of Ancient Winters in his hands, confiscated off of Loki when they arrived on Asgard. Not too far behind, Thor and Frigga followed as if in a death procession. In a way, it seemed, they were. As far as they were concerned, the Loki and Olivia they had known died long ago. In their places were spiteful, ruthless shells of themselves. Thor would probably never know how they had turned into the monsters before him.
But Frigga did. From day one, she knew something was wrong. Something they didn't fully understand. She consulted Heimdall often, the pair of them simply watching on for years and years. They put two and two together rather quickly, but not even Heimdall could identify the source. Some ancient and powerful being possibly. Frigga had always known, deep down, what was wrong. A mother never forgets her child's eyes.
Odin sat upon the throne, still in his battle armor. His one eye looked at Loki and Olivia coldly. His face stone, he held no sympathy for the pair. Their eyes said they hated him right back. No remorse, no kindness, nothing.
The procession stopped a few feet in front of the throne. Thor and Frigga stood off to the side to bear witness to what would happen next.
"I don't even know where to begin with you both. Have you no shame?" Odin started off.
"Oh, don't act so surprised, Odin. You never cared for either of us." Loki spat back, neglecting a proper form of address. Odin held back on mentioning it; there were far more serious things at hand.
"I cared enough to take you both in when you were orphaned and abandoned. Is this how you repay us?"
"And yet you never were a proper father to us. You never saw us as yours to care for. You were so focused on nurturing Thor that all you ever did for us was just that: Take us in. All you ever saw was the poor orphan girl who you didn't need to show care for and the abandoned Frost Giant who you could never see as a son, just a monster." Olivia snapped.
"What we did has no bearings on you or your family. I bet you didn't even care. In fact, you were glad we were gone. That we were someone else's problem. Under our rule, Midgard was prospering." Loki added.
"At the cost of millions of Midgardian lives!" Odin roared.
"Don't pretend like you care for the mortals now. You know what they really are: Dirty selfish rats who's lives mean nothing. So what if some had to die? It's nature. Mortals live and die in a constant cycle. It was our duty to give a sense of direction to their meaningless lives."
