Marvel: The Awakened One

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Hawk was dying.

This wasn’t an exaggeration. It was simply the truth.

Apocalypse had broken into Hawk’s River of Time through its many wounds. The mutant hid in every moment tied to Hawk’s life and soul, killing him across history. Hawk hadn’t vanished yet because he had compressed his timeline into a single point, making it unstable and harder for Apocalypse to erase him all at once.

Still, it was only a matter of time before he died.

Hawk, slumped against a metal pillar, explained everything as if he were just talking about the weather.

Charles stared at him in disbelief and dragged his legs across the cold floor until he managed to sit up. ”You have no way to stop him?”

”No.”

”...” Charles opened his mouth, but no words came. He remembered watching the fight between Hawk and Apocalypse, seeing every moment while trapped in his own mind. ”But you didn’t seem concerned when he entered your timeline.”

Hawk gave him a faint smile. ”What was I supposed to do? Cry? Drop to my knees and beg him for mercy?”

Charles fell silent.

”Besides, if I die, I die. It’s not that serious.”

This wouldn’t be Hawk’s first death. In his fight with Malekith the Accursed at Stonehenge, the Dark Elf had killed him. Hawk had partly arranged that himself, but death was still death. He had already faced the empty, terrifying void beyond life, so dying again didn’t scare him.

Charles could only stare at his serene expression.

Hawk went quiet and focused on the pain inside him. Apocalypse had promised to make every breath he’d ever taken hurt, and he was keeping that promise. As another wave of pain tore through his past, Apocalypse’s last words resounded in Hawk’s mind.

But my soul will achieve true immortality...

Hawk tensed, took a deep breath, and fixated on an empty section of the chamber, as if expecting someone to be there.

”Death. Come out. Apocalypse already gave you away.”

Charles blinked at Hawk’s sudden outburst. For a moment, he wondered if Hawk had lost his mind. Then his telepathy sensed something so strange that his whole body went stiff.

He turned toward the space Hawk was watching.

Time in that part of the chamber seemed to slow and grow heavy. Through Charles’s psychic senses, he felt the space itself begin to die.

When the last bit of life faded from that spot, a woman appeared in silence, as if she had always been there.

Charles couldn’t see her with his physical eyes, but Hawk could.

She wore a flowing robe woven from the laws of mortality. Her pale face was cold and perfect, but when the light shifted, her features became the hollow shape of a skull. White flames burned in her empty eyes, the fire of countless lost souls.

She was the embodiment of every death in the Marvel Multiverse—one of the five great cosmic beings.

Lady Death.

As soon as her bare foot touched the metal floor, a faint chime echoed through the chamber. Charles felt it deep in his soul.

A pitch-black throne appeared behind her. Death sat on it with effortless grace as Hawk watched. Pale flames shimmered in her eyes as she met his gaze.

”Hello, Hawk, we meet again,” she said, her voice cold as ice and strangely captivating.

”...”

Still leaning against the pillar, Hawk let out a dry laugh. He glanced at his broken River of Time, then back at her. ”Apocalypse. You woke him up?”

”I did.”

Death smiled warmly and rested her arm on the throne. ”When I learned you had come to this universe, I set up a special surprise for you. So? Were you surprised?”

Charles stared at the empty space in front of him. He still couldn’t see the woman, but the heavy aura coming from that spot left no doubt that someone was there.

Death? What does he mean by Death?

”Flattered,” Hawk replied.

”Are you?” Death rested her chin on her hand, watching him with an amused smile. ”I don’t believe you. I think you knew I was behind this for a while.”

Hawk shook his head. ”Not that long. I only figured it out after I got here and saw Apocalypse.”

”How?”

”Your aura.”

”Your energy is sealed.”

”True.” Hawk met her burning gaze. ”Your scent is still hard to forget.”

Death laughed. ”If you knew I set the trap, why did you walk into it?”

”An old friend invited me. It would have been rude not to show up.”

As soon as Hawk finished speaking, his face twisted in pain. A new wave of agony tore through him, even worse than before. He clenched his teeth and held back a scream.

Death watched him struggle, and her amusement faded. ”Apocalypse is erasing you from every moment you’ve ever existed in.”

”Apocalypse?” Hawk gasped. When the pain finally eased, he lifted his head and looked at her. ”You’re the one erasing me.”

Death said nothing.

”So why? What did I do?”

”To teach you a lesson.”

”A lesson?” Hawk frowned. ”This is about Mephisto?”

Death waved her hand, dismissing the idea. ”There are countless Hell Lords who keep the order of death for me. Mephisto is more useful than most, but I would never go this far for him.”

Hawk felt dizzy for a moment, then he smiled.

”Agatha?”

Agatha Harkness.

She was the ancient witch from the Salem coven. Hawk had found her while looking for a way to travel between universes. He decided she couldn’t help him and left her, and she later became Wanda’s mentor.

But Agatha possessed another connection.

She and Lady Death had a child together.

Agatha Harkness, a witch from Earth, had somehow had a child with one of the five great cosmic beings in the Marvel Multiverse.

At the sound of her name, Death smiled without answering.

That told him everything he needed to know.

”I knew it.” Hawk shook his head with a laugh. ”The Agatha from my universe isn’t exactly your Agatha.”

”Didn’t you avenge the version of yourself from Universe-616?” Death asked.

Hawk paused. That argument was difficult to refute.

”I didn’t kill her.”

”You imprisoned her.”

”S.H.I.E.L.D. imprisoned her.”

”You delivered her to them.”

Hawk stared at Death for a moment before giving up. ”Fine.”

He realized arguing details with a cosmic being was pointless.

”When I return home, Agatha is going to die.”

Death gave a gentle smile. ”If you return... You’re already close to death, Hawk. Soon, your soul will be mine.”

”Did you forget my divine authority?”

”I remember it perfectly.” Death’s smile didn’t change. ”But Apocalypse is killing every version of you that ever existed. When there’s no Hawk left anywhere in your timeline, what will you have left to come back from?”

Hawk stayed silent. The warmth left his eyes.

”So we aren’t friends. We’re enemies.”

”That depends.”

”On what?”

”If you die, we are enemies. If you survive, we are friends.”

Hawk laughed, despite everything that had happened.

Another wave of pain hit him.

The pain tore through him, leaving him unable to move. His thoughts spun, and he could no longer hold himself up. Hawk slid down the pillar and landed on his back, eyes squeezed shut and his face contorted in pain.

When he opened his eyes again, his forehead was covered in cold sweat.

Death rose from her throne. She crossed the chamber and knelt beside him, graceful even as she looked down at a dying man. She glanced at the River of Time near the pyramid’s ceiling for a moment, then looked back at Hawk.

”Tsk. Now I understand why that old bastard Eternity has never bothered to attack you. He already knows you can never truly transcend.”

Her voice remained cold and alluring, but every word was openly mocking.

”Your collapsed timeline is riddled with holes. Even if you escaped the multiverse, Eternity could enter through those wounds whenever he wished.”

Hawk stayed silent while Death leaned in closer.

”You used the Time Stone belonging to your native universe to compress your River of Time. In doing so, you left Eternity a doorway into your existence. You should be thanking me. Had I not exposed this flaw, he would have used it to destroy you whenever it suited him.”

Hawk was nearly gone as Death calmly listed every weakness in the power he had spent years building.

Then the pyramid shook.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A huge impact hit the reinforced outer wall.

Once.

Twice.

A third time.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Outside the pyramid, Wanda floated in the air, now completely the Scarlet Witch. Crimson Chaos Magic poured from her hands, striking the metal structure like heavy artillery.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A large part of the pyramid collapsed inward.

Wanda’s eyes glowed bright crimson. She didn’t hesitate. As soon as the opening appeared, she flew through it and rushed into the chamber.

Death turned to face her, amusement flickering in the pale flames of her eyes. Then she looked down at Hawk.

”Look. Here she comes.” Death’s smile widened as Wanda descended into the pyramid, surrounded by a sea of Chaos Magic.

”She brings the most impossible possibility.”

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