Marvel: The Awakened One

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Ever since his last trip to Kamar-Taj and his visit to Westview to see Wanda, Hawk had made a habit of going back every Friday.

He had originally planned to visit once a month.

But Gwen had insisted that a month was too long, suggesting he go every week instead.

As she had pointed out:

Just because he had given the surname ’Chloe’ to Jean, Billy, and Tommy didn’t mean people wouldn’t figure out they were his kids.

Hawk was Phoenix, but he was also Chloe.

So…

Taking Gwen’s advice, Hawk headed to Westview every Friday to spend time with the twins and Jean.

As for Amy?

Since he had asked Sharon to escort her to Westview, he hadn’t seen her once.

What was there to say?

He figured he’d wait until he brought Anya back to life, and they could deal with it then.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. cloning facility was reporting excellent progress. If all went well, they’d be able to unseal the cryo-chamber and extract a viable sample of his sister’s DNA by the end of the month.

Hawk was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of his phone ringing. He saw Wanda’s name on the screen, raised an eyebrow, and looked at Gwen.

”Didn’t Friday just end yesterday?”

”…Maybe it’s an emergency.”

Gwen shook her head, reached over, and answered the call before he could even say a word. ”Morning, Wanda.”

Hawk listened to Gwen greet Wanda without a change in expression.

He was still slightly baffled by how Gwen and Wanda had developed this strange, ’more than friends, less than besties’ dynamic.

But after thinking about it for a month, he had firmly decided to stop trying to understand it.

Because women’s logic was a mystery he was never going to solve.

Just like how Gwen could become close friends with Wanda, the woman who had essentially fulfilled Gwen’s dream of being a mother.

And just like the Sorcerer Supreme, who had sworn up and down two months ago that she was retiring and going on a long vacation, only to turn around and say, ”I think I have a few good years left in me.”

Again.

The Ancient One might be the Sorcerer Supreme, but undeniably, she was also a woman.

So—

Don’t even try to understand it. Just accept it.

Wanda’s voice came through the speaker.

”Hey, Gwen. Is Hawk there? Something’s going on around Amy… there’s a presence I don’t know how to describe.”

”...”

Gwen opened her mouth to reply, then looked at the suddenly empty barstool across from her. She picked up the phone. ”He’s already there.”

In Westview, Wanda saw Hawk materialize in front of her the second the words left her mouth. She blinked and spoke into the phone.

”I see him.”

”Oh, hey, Christmas is next month. Want to go shopping in Times Square?”

”…Really? You wouldn’t mind?”

”Of course not,” Gwen said with a warm smile from the Palm Street house. ”I’ll let you know when.”

Wanda agreed.

A moment later.

Wanda hung up and looked at Hawk, who had walked over to the kitchen counter and was staring out the window at the house diagonally across the street.

Hawk unleashed his Seventh Sense, blanketing the entirety of Westview in an instant.

In that flash.

His perspective shifted to a ”God’s-eye view.” Looking down upon the town, his golden pupils isolated and analyzed every scent, every lingering trace of energy.

The next second.

His gaze locked onto a residual scent inside the house across the street—a strange, composite odor, two distinct signatures blended into one.

Vampire.

Angel.

A Blood Angel??

Andrew Chloe??

The name surfaced in Hawk’s mind.

But regardless of whether the scent belonged to Andrew Chloe, the owner was no longer inside the house.

The scent was incredibly elusive, almost designed to evade detection.

If the house hadn’t been sealed tight against the winter cold, and if he hadn’t personally encountered both vampires and angels, he probably wouldn’t have even registered it.

And—

If he had arrived even an hour later, the lingering trace would have dissipated completely.

Hawk processed the information, then shifted his gaze to the playground across the street, where Amy Chloe was currently pushing the three kids on the swings.

Just as he thought.

The residual scent wasn’t on Amy.

But one thing was certain.

That scent almost certainly belonged to Andrew Chloe.

The reason was simple.

Amy was happy. Today, she looked happier than she had in a long, long time.

So—

”Andrew Chloe.”

”Who?”

Wanda heard Hawk’s murmur and raised an eyebrow, then her eyes lit up with realization. ”The Mr. Chloe you told me to keep an eye out for? The one who might come back?”

Hawk pulled his gaze away from the window and nodded.

Ever since he’d learned that Andrew Chloe had somehow escaped those two winged zealots and fled to New York, he’d guessed that Andrew might try to find Amy.

So, the last time he was here, he’d given Wanda a heads-up to stay alert.

Admittedly.

Before she had encountered Agatha Harkness in the original timeline, Wanda’s control over her Chaos Magic had been raw and untamed.

But that was the original timeline.

Now, Wanda was raising three kids who carried his bloodline. So, Hawk had taken her on a little field trip to Kamar-Taj.

After all, the Ancient One’s clock hadn’t run out yet.

Hawk figured that while the Ancient One was still kicking around, he might as well put her expertise to use and have her teach Wanda how to actually control her Chaos Magic.

Agatha Harkness might be a powerful witch.

But the Ancient One was definitely stronger.

Hawk hadn’t kept track of the lessons after that. It wasn’t until yesterday, when he was leaving Kamar-Taj, that he realized the Ancient One was still there.

Yeah...

Because the Ancient One had explicitly told him she didn’t want him interfering with her retirement plans, Hawk had completely stayed out of the whole ’Sorcerer Supreme succession’ business.

And the result?

He dropped by Kamar-Taj yesterday morning, only to find out she’d postponed her retirement because she felt she ’had a few good years left in her.’

But he digressed.

The point was!

After two months of hands-on tutoring from the Ancient One, this Wanda was leaps and bounds ahead of the Wanda who had been locked in that underwater Hydra base.

The Wanda standing here now could have dismantled Strucker’s entire underwater facility by herself.

In short, even if Wanda wasn’t actively paying attention, her Chaos Magic would alert her the moment any unknown energy entered her vicinity.

”I caught a whiff of it this morning around six-thirty, when Amy came over to pick up Jean for breakfast. It’s a very... distinct scent.”

”But I didn’t put it together right away.”

”It wasn’t until just now, when she came back to take the kids to the playground, that it clicked and I called you.”

Wanda explained her thought process. She had the raw power, but her combat experience was practically zero. ”I didn’t sense any malice from the scent, but... it doesn’t feel human.”

Hawk let out a short laugh.

”Blood Angel.”

”Blood Angel??”

”A hybrid... Vampire and Angel.”

Hawk looked at Wanda and gave her the abbreviated version of the story: how twenty years ago, Andrew Chloe had been murdered, his body smuggled to Europe, somehow resurrected as a ’Blood Angel,’ and had recently escaped from his angelic captors.

He hadn’t mentioned it the last time he was here.

At the time, he hadn’t been sure if Andrew Chloe would even be able to find Amy, let alone track her to Westview.

Wanda listened to the story, a strange, complicated expression on her face as she looked at him.

”So you and... Yahweh...”

”It’s a brutal world out there, Wanda. The strong survive, the weak perish.”

Hawk met her gaze with a calm, easy smile. ”He started it. I’m just defending myself.”

It was the truth!

Even the most bleeding-heart hero in the Marvel Universe couldn’t deny that Hawk was only an orphan because of Yahweh’s underhanded schemes.

So…

Hawk took one last look out the window at Amy and the three kids in the playground, then turned back to Wanda. ”I’m going to head out.”

Wanda blinked in surprise.

”You’re not going to ask Amy?”

”No need.”

Hawk shook his head. ”If he shows up again, I’ll know.”

The scent was incredibly good at hiding.

But that was only when he wasn’t actively looking for it. Now, his Seventh Sense was fully deployed, cast like an invisible net over all of New York City and Westview.

The moment that scent appeared again, the moment it touched his net, his Seventh Sense would trigger and instantly lock onto his location.

But right now, it was useless.

He had just scanned the entire area. The scent was completely gone from both Westview and New York City.

But that was fine.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Hawk’s intuition told him that if Andrew Chloe had already made contact with Amy, he’d likely be back tonight.

And sure enough.

His intuition was correct.

It didn’t even take until nightfall. Late that afternoon, as Hawk and Gwen were leaving Helen’s apartment and getting into their car, Wanda called again.

”She bought a car?”

”Yeah. A gray, used Chevy.”

Wanda was standing in her guest room, looking out the window as Amy pulled the car into her garage. ”And Pietro said he saw her taking out ten thousand in cash at the bank in town on her way back.”

Wanda knew about the car because Amy had driven it home.

She knew about the cash because Pietro, who was always zipping around town, had seen her and mentioned it when he got back.

Gwen relayed Wanda’s report to Hawk, who was focused on the road.

Hawk just nodded.

Gwen finished her conversation with Wanda, hung up, and then a thought seemed to strike her. She turned in her seat to look at him. ”You don’t think Amy’s planning to elope with Andrew, do you?”

Hawk, hearing the question, accidentally jerked the steering wheel. He quickly used telekinesis to right the car, then shot Gwen a look of utter disbelief.

Seriously?

Elope?

What are they, teenagers?

Gwen blinked innocently.

”That’s how it happens on TV. When the woman suddenly gets a car and a bunch of cash, she’s either running away from the mob, or she’s eloping.”

”Uh...”

Hawk met her gaze, which seemed to be sparking with the thrill of gossip, and decided the best course of action was silence.

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