Marvel: The Awakened One

Hawk wasn’t the only person who had wondered where Charles Xavier’s loyalties truly lay.

Wanda had always wanted an answer too.

She had never asked before because Jean was safe with Charles. No matter what Wanda thought of his ideas, she felt grateful that he had looked after her daughter. Questioning his loyalties would have seemed disrespectful.

That consideration had ended the moment Charles came to her home and rang the doorbell.

If anyone else had come asking the Phoenix family to forgive those who nearly killed Hawk, Wanda would have gotten rid of them immediately.

Charles was still alive only because he was Charles.

Hawk believed in returning kindness with kindness and vengeance with vengeance. The whole Phoenix family lived by that rule.

Now that Charles had used up their goodwill, Wanda didn’t care about his dignity anymore. He was the one who let it go first.

”Whose side are you on?” Wanda asked. ”Humanity’s or the mutants’?”

Charles’s face changed at the direct question.

”My position has always been peace, Mrs. Phoenix.”

”Peace for whom? Humans?”

”No.” Charles regarded her gravely. ”I have always sought peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants.”

Wanda smiled.

”Are you sure? Agents hunted mutants across the world, and I don’t remember you stepping forward to stop them.”

She looked at Magneto, then turned back to Charles.

”But whenever he tried using force to secure peace for mutantkind, you were always there to help humanity stop him.”

”Violence cannot bring peace, Mrs. Phoenix.”

Wanda stared at him. ”And your answer is what, exactly? Stand aside while humans keep murdering mutants, preach nonviolence, and hope they eventually get bored?”

The smile vanished from her face.

”Come onto my property again and I won’t be nearly this patient. If you want this world left in one piece, get the hell out.”

Wanda waved her hand, ending the conversation.

”BANG!”

The front door slammed in Charles’s face.

He sat motionless in his wheelchair, staring at the closed door.

”Not everyone is as easy to talk to as I am, Charles,” Magneto said, standing next to him.

Charles looked up at his old friend.

”Washington cannot be allowed to collapse. If Washington falls into chaos, the entire federal government follows. Once that happens, the rest of the world won’t be far behind.”

”The world seems fine to me.” Magneto looked at Charles, suspicion growing. ”Washington has lost a lot of people, but the government is still here. I don’t see civilization falling apart.”

It was the same argument Charles had used to stop him before.

Charles had convinced Magneto that throwing the country into chaos wouldn’t improve life for mutants. A show of force would be enough. Once Washington understood the threat mutantkind posed, its leaders would supposedly reconsider how they treated them.

Magneto had been naive enough to believe him.

The result spoke for itself.

”Humanity needed countless generations to learn how to stand upright and walk,” Charles reasoned. ”They simply need more time.”

Magneto nodded slowly.

”How many more mutants are supposed to die while we wait for humans to learn how to think? How many lives will it take before they figure out how to live beside us?”

Charles didn’t answer.

”Or was Wanda right?” Magneto continued. ”Has your loyalty always belonged to humanity instead of mutantkind?”

Charles met his gaze.

”In my eyes, humans and mutants are equal.”

”Your actions say otherwise. Whenever I fight for mutant rights, you intervene to stop me. Whenever humans slaughter mutants, you look the other way.”

Magneto gave a humorless laugh and turned away.

”I’m done with this. Even if I wanted to interfere, you’ve seen for yourself that I can’t.”

He walked down Palm Street.

”I’m leaving, Charles. You should go home too. Perhaps this time, humanity will finally use that extra time you’re always giving them to think about how they should treat us.”

Magneto kept walking until Charles could no longer see him.

Charles turned back toward the closed door.

He had two choices:

He could go back to the school and stay out of it. Or he could continue, gambling the entire planet one more time.

When he had to choose between humanity and mutants, Charles picked humanity. But now, with the choice between Washington and the whole world, he hesitated.

Then he remembered Hawk.

Jean had said that Washington’s attack had left her father trapped between life and death, with no guarantee that he would awaken.

Charles understood what that was like.

When the Sentinel killed him at Quantico, he had briefly passed through the boundary between life and death before transferring his consciousness into his brother’s body.

If he could awaken Hawk, perhaps Hawk would persuade his family to reconsider.

Once the idea occurred to Charles, he acted on it.

He returned to Xavier’s School and descended into the underground chamber housing Cerebro. After placing the helmet over his head, Charles closed his eyes and reached outward with his mind.

His consciousness swept across the distance to Palm Street.

”WHOOSH!”

He found Jean and Wanda inside the house. In the backyard, he saw Hawk sitting cross-legged beneath the parasol tree.

Charles didn’t hesitate.

His consciousness entered Hawk’s mindscape, searching for some way to awaken him before Wanda’s twenty-four-hour deadline expired.

His vision grew blurry.

When it cleared, Charles found himself floating inside a universe.

Stars stretched endlessly around him. The vastness of the cosmos was overwhelming, and the cries of unseen phoenixes resounded through the gold and crimson light.

Charles stared around him in disbelief.

This was nothing like the place between life and death he had known before. The two places were not even close.

For a moment, Charles wondered whether he had entered the wrong mind.

Then he saw Hawk.

At the center of the cosmic sea, where it felt like the heart of a vast Phoenix was beating, Hawk sat meditating.

Charles had just started to wonder how to reach him when the universe shifted.

Suddenly, he was standing in a meadow of thick grass. Hawk sat under a parasol tree not far away.

Charles approached him.

”Hawk Phoenix.”

”Professor X.” Hawk opened his eyes and looked at Charles without any sign of surprise.

”Mr. Phoenix. I’ve come to help you escape.” Charles stopped in front of him.

”Help me?” Hawk said.

”Yes. You’re trapped between life and death. Follow me, and I can lead you out.”

”...” Hawk rose from beneath the tree and stretched.

”BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!”

The mindscape shattered.

Stars collapsed, and the entire cosmic sea folded in on itself. Everything Charles could see crumbled until the universe had been compressed into two singularities burning with gold-and-crimson fire.

The singularities flew into Hawk’s eyes. Each iris now held a second overlapping pupil wreathed in Phoenix flame.

Charles stared at him.

”This...”

”I could’ve left whenever I wanted,” Hawk explained with a smile.

”Then why are you still here?”

”I wanted to see if my real enemies would take the bait.”

Hawk had been waiting for the Celestials.

Ikaris had been nothing more than a weapon they created. A Celestial itself had never entered the fight.

Hawk thought that pretending to fall between life and death would draw one of them out. After retracing his steps, he decided to stay in his mind and wait.

But no Celestial had taken the bait.

Instead, Professor X had.

Hawk looked at the uninvited guest in his mind and smiled slowly.

”So, Professor—you risked your life coming here because you want me to spare the people in Washington?”

Charles fell silent.

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