Marvel: The Awakened One

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Time shattered.

The instant Wanda’s fingertips brushed the River of Time that belonged to Hawk alone, it fractured before her eyes—or so it seemed. In reality, the moment she made contact, the river swallowed her whole.

An unimaginable torrent seized her, tearing her apart, replicating her endlessly, and flinging each version in a different direction through the raging currents of Hawk’s timeline.

She saw—

A snowy night outside Saint Paul’s Church in Queens, where a newborn Hawk wailed inside his swaddling clothes.

Times Square in September, where a teenage Hawk in cheap clothes knelt amid the ruins, clutching Anya’s lifeless body in despair.

Deep within Cunningham Falls Natural Area near Thurmont, Maryland, where a cold-eyed Hawk stood beneath a waterfall, driving his fists into the cascading water again and again.

Millions of moments and possibilities, spread across the breaks in Hawk’s timeline, rushed toward her all at once. She saw his past and future, as well as many different versions of him.

She also saw Apocalypse attacking every version of Hawk at every point in his existence.

In the next instant, the River of Time blazed at its brightest. Wanda vanished, and a million versions of her appeared at every point connected to Hawk’s life and soul.

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Outside Saint Paul’s Church in Queens.

A tired-looking Amy put two wrapped babies on the ground. Holding back tears, she turned and quickly walked away, stopping in a narrow alley. From there, she looked at the closed church doors, her face hard to read.

Then one of the bundles began to cry.

”Waaah—waaah—waaah!” (What the hell? Where the fuck am I?)

At the brink of death, the infant Hawk awakened memories of his past life. Sensing his tiny body and the freezing air, he quickly understood his situation and screamed at the top of his lungs for help.

Footsteps soon resounded from inside the church.

At that moment, a towering figure appeared at the far end of the street. Dark markings covered his face and head, big ridges lining his chin. Apocalypse surged toward the church with frightening speed.

A streak of red light shot forward, even faster.

Apocalypse’s expression twisted in shock.

Wanda’s face remained cold. She opened her right hand, condensed an orb of pure chaos magic, and drove it straight into his mouth before he could react.

His metallic blue skin flushed crimson. A sharp crack split the air as a jagged fissure tore across his body.

Then came silence.

Wanda steadied herself in the air with chaos magic. Apocalypse’s face froze between shock and opposition as his body crumbled into white ash, drifting toward the pavement and blending with the falling snow.

Wanda turned toward the church.

The doors opened. A kind-faced priest stared down at the two infants on the doorstep—one sleeping soundly, the other still wailing. After a stunned moment, he bent down and gathered them both into his arms.

Floating above the street, hidden by her power to change reality, Wanda watched silently. Her eyes moved to a figure standing quietly under a nearby streetlamp.

It was Hawk.

This was the version of Hawk who had already contracted his timeline and returned to this moment.

Hawk calmly watched the church.

Wanda watched him with the same focus.

When the big doors closed again, Hawk’s gaze drifted toward Amy standing inside the alley. Then he raised his head and looked into the sky.

But Wanda was already gone.

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September 10, 2009.

Times Square.

The green-skinned Hulk and the dark-red Abomination were tearing through the city in a devastating battle. Civilians screamed as they scrambled to escape the sudden war zone.

Hawk, who had only recently enrolled at Midtown High, had brought his sister Anya to Times Square at her request. They had wanted a decent meal and a small celebration. Now they were running through a panicked crowd, trying to survive.

The surging mass of people separated them. Just as they began shouting each other’s names, a deafening crash shook the street. The outer wall of a nearby building tore free, plummeting toward the fleeing crowd like a falling mountain.

Hawk stood directly beneath it.

”BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!”

The wall that should have crushed everything below suddenly split in two, as if hit by a huge force. With a loud crash, the two halves fell into the street on either side of him.

Hawk quickly shut his eyes. When nothing hit him, he opened them and quickly checked his body. Seeing he was okay, he immediately started looking through the smoke and dust for his sister.

Then he saw her.

Anya lay motionless among the rubble, her familiar figure unmistakable.

”Anya—!!”

Hawk’s eyes widened in horror!

High above the devastation, Wanda watched in silence.

This was the shortened timeline Hawk had already lived. What happened on this path had to stay the same. Nothing could be added, removed, or changed without risking the stability of his whole existence.

Wanda could not save Anya.

More importantly, she would not try to reverse a death that was already part of Hawk’s history.

After destroying the version of Apocalypse who tried to kill Hawk by bringing down the wall, Wanda closed her eyes. Inside her, a flame from an impossible life started to burn.

Red light spread across the timeline faster than anyone could see.

The breaks made when Hawk used the Time Stone to shorten his timeline started to burn. Under the impossible flame, they melted and merged back into his history, leaving no sign of the original damage.

At the same time, the bright fire spread through every part of Hawk’s River of Time. The branching breaks coming from his timeline were destroyed one by one, and Wanda disappeared inside the flames.

Or rather, she became part of the River of Time itself.

Her fusion extended far beyond Hawk’s Sacred Timeline. It reached into other universes as well, including Earth-616.

In that universe, Hawk’s death while holding only part of his soul had once been unavoidable. But if he died before that destined time—his death would no longer be fate. It would become an accident that could break time itself.

That was why Wanda had appeared in Earth-616.

Apocalypse was killing every version of Hawk across his timeline.

Wanda was killing every version of Apocalypse.

Millions of Apocalypses!!

Millions of Wandas!!

Their fight spread across every moment of Hawk’s life, but the flame of the impossible life burning inside Wanda was much stronger than anything Apocalypse could handle.

Under its burning light, Hawk’s River of Time started to reshape itself like iron being remade in a furnace. The many breaks left by his shortcut with the Time Stone were sealed as Wanda moved through every part of his timeline.

Apocalypse fell across every version of Hawk’s existence.

The entire conflict ended in the blink of an eye. Almost the moment Wanda entered the River of Time, the million versions of Apocalypse who had gone in before her died simultaneously.

Yet even with Apocalypse erased from Hawk’s Sacred Timeline, and even as the impossible flame continued burning away the remaining fractures, the timeline was still collapsing.

”This...” Wanda frowned.

”There are still fractures?”

She moved through Hawk’s Sacred Timeline, searching for whatever continued to tear it apart. Her gaze swept across his past, present, and future.

She found nothing.

Not a single trace of Apocalypse remained—yet Hawk’s timeline continued to crumble.

”Where is the problem?”

Her brows drew together as she scanned the Sacred Timeline again. Then something clicked in her mind.

Wanda merged back into the flow of time.

When she reappeared, she stood at the very beginning of Hawk’s life, at the moment Andrew Chloe was shot and police officers arrived at Amy Chloe’s home to deliver the news.

The front door opened.

Amy, who had been inside with Hawk and Anya, looked at the two officers standing on her doorstep with confusion.

”Amy Chloe?”

”That’s me. Can I help you?”

”I’m Officer Glenn Chris. This is Officer George Jefferson.”

”Mrs. Chloe, we’re sorry to inform you... Your husband...”

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