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*****
"It belongs to Asgard!"
Thor's eyes widened as he glared at Fini. Ever since seeing the state Loki was in, a fire had been smoldering in his chest, even if he rationally understood that Loki had brought this upon himself.
"But it belongs to me now."
Fini didn't deny the history, but he didn't back down either. While the Tesseract had indeed been left on Earth by Asgardians, that didn't mean it remained their property in perpetuity.
The scene fell into a tense stalemate.
Fortunately, Nick Fury didn't jump in to claim it as S.H.I.E.L.D. property. At this moment, he was weighing the Tesseract problem—or more accurately, deciding who to side with.
While Asgard stood behind Thor, Fini was no simple variable. Fury remembered clearly that his first real intel on Asgard had come from Fini; the boy knew more about the Realm Eternal than the Director himself did. Yet, Fini still dared to beat Loki into a pulp and defy Thor's demands.
To Fury, this suggested one of two things: either Fini was an impulsive brat who hadn't thought things through, or he was so confident in his ability to oppose Asgard that he simply didn't care.
Given Fini's track record, Fury banked on the latter. To this day, he hadn't truly grasped the ceiling of Fini's power.
He also considered the consequences of either man holding the cube. This incident proved the Tesseract wasn't safe. While it promised infinite energy, it also invited infinite disaster. Inwardly, Fury hoped Thor would take it—not out of friendship, but purely for the safety of Earth.
But was there no benefit to keeping it?
Of course there was. If the Tesseract were useless, Project PEGASUS wouldn't have lasted this long. If Earth had the power to protect it—if that woman were still on the planet—Fury would never have dreamt of handing it over.
Could Fini protect the cube? Could he protect the world?
Fury couldn't be sure. Fini was too mysterious, too impossible to control. If he added the Tesseract to his arsenal and decided to rule the world one day, who would stop him? Fury always viewed people through a lens of extreme skepticism; even with Captain America, he pondered how to take him down should he ever turn rogue.
Weighing the pros and cons, he still felt the Tesseract was better off leaving Earth. However, he didn't speak up immediately. Fini had just helped save the world from an alien invasion; turning against him now to help an outsider might draw Fini's ire.
As the silence stretched, the air grew heavy. Thor's grip on Mjolnir tightened, while Fini knit his brows, still not fully recovered from the battle.
Realizing he had to break the ice, Fury spoke up. "I think we should sit down and talk this through properly."
Fini and Thor turned to look at him simultaneously.
Having faced several setbacks recently, Thor was indeed more mature than before. He knew that many things couldn't be solved through combat alone. He took a deep breath, loosened his grip on his hammer, and looked at Fini again.
"The Tesseract is a treasure of immense value. Since Loki knew it was here, other powers in the universe will know too. It is truly dangerous for it to remain on Midgard!"
Fini looked down at the cube in his hand, his resolve unshaken. "I doubt many in the universe understand these better than I do. I know exactly what I'm doing."
"And what exactly do you plan to do with it?"
Before Thor could respond, Fury interjected. He wanted to know what was worth the risk of offending Asgard. Fini, of course, wasn't about to say it was food for a Blue-Eyes White Dragon. He simply looked at Fury and left him with a riddle:
"Take a guess."
"..."
Fury fought to stay calm, repeatedly reminding himself that he couldn't beat Fini and that the kid could likely poke him to death with one finger. He suppressed the urge to swing at him.
"Midgard lacks the power to protect it," Thor said gravely. He had no selfish motives; he didn't need the cube for himself. He simply didn't want this place destroyed and felt the cube was a lightning rod for trouble.
"You don't get the final say on that!"
Fini let out a short laugh. "Please don't underestimate the strength of Earth. There are few places in the universe capable of protecting the Tesseract; fortunately, I believe Earth is one of them."
The atmosphere turned brittle again. Thor had grown, but as Fini had suspected, a brief exile wasn't enough to fully overwrite his stubborn nature.
Just as it seemed they might come to blows, Thor's expression suddenly shifted, as if he were hearing a voice from afar. "How can this be? This is too dangerous!" he blurted out.
After a moment, Thor chose to retreat. He looked at Fini with a deep frown. "The cube can stay with you, but you must keep it safe!"
"Will do," Fini nodded matter-of-factly, guessing that Heimdall or Odin had sent Thor a message.
"You will surely bring disaster to this world!" Thor added, still unable to let his frustration go.
"Don't worry, Earth has plenty of disasters even without me," Fini replied flippantly. Then, deciding to return the favor, he added, "I think you should worry more about your own Asgard."
"Asgard is the strongest of the Nine Realms!"
Thor's face flushed with pride, a natural sense of superiority that didn't bother Fini but definitely annoyed Nick Fury.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," Fini glanced at him. The Convergence—the alignment of the realms that happened every five thousand years—was approaching, which meant the Dark Elves and the Reality Stone would soon surface.
Fini was far more interested in the Reality Stone than the Tesseract or the Scepter. He knew his dealings with Asgard were far from over.
With the ownership of the Tesseract settled, Thor was eager to leave. Though he had briefly considered visiting his girlfriend, one look at Loki's mangled face made him abandon the idea.
Nick Fury had originally intended to interrogate Loki, but seeing the god's pathetic state, he couldn't bring himself to ask. He simply watched as Thor led Loki to the rooftop of Stark Tower.
The group gathered to watch. Aside from Captain America, who was off looking for Hulk, everyone was curious to see how Thor would get home. Fini watched silently as well. He knew Asgard had deep roots; even with the Bifrost destroyed, they had various ways to move Thor between the Nine Realms.
(End of Chapter)