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Marvel: The Awakened One

Chapter 332: [436] - An Alternate Ending Revealed · Nov 03, 2026

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Chapter List (414)

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301 Chapter 301: [405] - The Tools Rebel Against the Master 2026-11-03
302 Chapter 302: [406] - Coordinates Acquired 2026-11-03
303 Chapter 303: [407] - Thor’s Apology 2026-11-03
304 Chapter 304: [408] - The Return of the Spider 2026-11-03
305 Chapter 305: [409] - Gwen’s Whereabouts 2026-11-03
306 Chapter 306: [410] - Gwen and the Fantastic Four 2026-11-03
307 Chapter 307: [411] - The Cosmic Anomaly of Earth-828 2026-11-03
308 Chapter 308: [412] - The Phoenix Galaxy Shining in Universe-828 2026-11-03
309 Chapter 309: [413] - Burning a Galaxy to See You 2026-11-03
310 Chapter 310: [414] - The Fantastic Four Family 2026-11-03
311 Chapter 311: [415] - The Informant, Captain Marvel 2026-11-03
312 Chapter 312: [416] - That Bastard Zeus 2026-11-03
313 Chapter 313: [417] - Scarlet Chaos Magic 2026-11-03
314 Chapter 314: [418] - The Multiversal Pathway 2026-11-03
315 Chapter 315: [419] - Hawk in a Hurry 2026-11-03
316 Chapter 316: [420] - An Old Friend in a Strange Place 2026-11-03
317 Chapter 317: [421] - The Sister of Universe-616 2026-11-03
318 Chapter 318: [422] - The Variants Are Not Hawk, Hawk Is All of Them! 2026-11-03
319 Chapter 319: [423] - Reunions 2026-11-03
320 Chapter 320: [424] - Different Flowers on the Same Tree 2026-11-03
321 Chapter 321: [425] - Meeting the Celestial Tiamut Again 2026-11-03
322 Chapter 322: [426] - Iron Man, Cursed with Knowledge 2026-11-03
323 Chapter 323: [427] - Hawk Appoints a Chief Steward 2026-11-03
324 Chapter 324: [428] - Because You’re My Friend 2026-11-03
325 Chapter 325: [429] - A First Meeting With Death 2026-11-03
326 Chapter 326: [430] - Fixing Regrets 2026-11-03
327 Chapter 327: [431] - Death’s Amusement 2026-11-03
328 Chapter 328: [432] - ‘Running Away’ Isn’t in the Dictionary 2026-11-03
329 Chapter 329: [433] - Wanda Breaks Thanos 2026-11-03
330 Chapter 330: [434] - Thanos Dies, A Celestial Arrives 2026-11-03
331 Chapter 331: [435] - The Celestial Gargaratus, Dead 2026-11-03
332 Chapter 332: [436] - An Alternate Ending Revealed 2026-11-03
333 Chapter 333: [437] - You Call Me Sister, I Call Her Sister 2026-11-03
334 Chapter 334: [438] - The Celestials, Destined for Extinction 2026-11-03
335 Chapter 335: [439] - The Warden and the Guards 2026-11-03
336 Chapter 336: [440] - If They Step In, I Flip the Board 2026-11-03
337 Chapter 337: [441] - Let’s Go, Time to Go Home 2026-11-03
338 Chapter 338: [442] - Where There Is Kamar-Taj, There I Am 2026-11-03
339 Chapter 339: [443] - Hawk’s Personal Scientist 2026-11-03
340 Chapter 340: [444] - Hawk’s Home-Field Advantage 2026-11-03
341 Chapter 341: [445] - The Queen Is Away, the Golden Palace Stays Closed 2026-11-03
342 Chapter 342: [446] - The Universe Too Poor to Spawn Parallel Realities 2026-11-03
343 Chapter 343: [447] - The Low-End Universe 2026-11-03
344 Chapter 344: [448] - Mutants! 2026-11-03
345 Chapter 345: [449] - Finding the X-Mansion 2026-11-03
346 Chapter 346: [450] - Mutants and Sentinel Services 2026-11-03
347 Chapter 347: [451] - You Done Shooting? My Turn 2026-11-03
348 Chapter 348: [452] - Stryker Wants Hawk 2026-11-03
349 Chapter 349: [453] - Where It All Began 2026-11-03
350 Chapter 350: [454] - Disaster-Prone Quantico 2026-11-03

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Back in his native universe, Hawk kept his word. He slaughtered one incubating Celestial a month.

But it felt hollow... After Gargaratus escaped, there were no real Celestials left alive in that universe. Destroying unborn fetuses helped Hawk vent some anger, but it didn’t satisfy him.

Universe-616 was different.

Gargaratus wasn’t the only Celestial hiding in this reality.

’So, let’s see what happens if I destroy every incubating Celestial in this dimension. Let’s see if you still choose to hide.’

Hawk stood on Gargaratus’s severed head. He stared into the deep void, eyes flashing. He remembered that brief, fleeting glimpse of the unknown Celestial before it bolted.

Suddenly—

Golden light erupted. When it faded, the dead zone was empty. Only the colossal corpse of Gargaratus floated silently in the vacuum.

Hawk was gone.

The cosmic brawl had dragged on. In Earth time, the fight lasted seventy-two hours. Three straight days of carnage.

——————————

Back on Earth, the war was already over.

The Avengers were attending a funeral.

The good news was that it wasn’t for Natasha or Tony Stark.

The bad news was that the ones who died were T’Challa, King of Wakanda and the Black Panther, and Okoye, general of the Dora Milaje.

War is unpredictable. Until it ends, no one is guaranteed to survive—not Natasha, not Tony, and certainly not the Wakandan vanguard.

Thanos was dead. Ebony Maw caught an explosive arrow to the throat. Cull Obsidian, cornered by T’Challa and his guard, realized he was out of options.

He yelled. In a desperate move, Cull Obsidian grabbed the Black Panther and triggered an explosion.

The shockwave instantly vaporized Okoye and a dozen Dora Milaje, then wiped out the second and third lines as well.

When the dust cleared, Cull Obsidian had left behind a crater a kilometer wide and fifteen meters deep.

There were no bodies to bury.

But they died saving Earth, so the funeral took place on a newly cleared patch of land northwest of the Avengers compound.

The ceremony was somber. A monument for the Black Panther was set in the ground. After the service, Princess Shuri boarded a jet back to Wakanda, carrying only an urn of dirt.

Soon after, the team turned to their final task.

They had used the Infinity Stones to restore half the universe. Now they needed to return them to the exact places and times from which they were taken to avoid a temporal paradox.

Same teams as before.

Tony, Cap, and Bruce handled the Space, Time, and Mind Stones.

Thor and Rocket took the Reality Stone.

Rhodey and Quill took the Power Stone.

Nebula stayed behind for a simple reason: no one wanted her cybernetics to accidentally summon another Thanos.

More importantly, Rhodey wanted Quill to see what his dance routine looked like without any music.

Natasha partnered with Hope, the Wasp, for the Soul Stone.

Clint also sat this one out—not because he was benched like Nebula, but because he was injured and couldn’t physically join.

It wasn’t a battle wound. At first, the team was worried and kept asking what happened. Natasha stayed quiet, but when the questions didn’t stop, she finally explained.

——————————

Standing on the newly rebuilt quantum platform, the four teams faced each other. The first trip had felt like a suicide mission—do or die—with grim faces all around.

This time? Everyone was smiling.

”See you in a minute.”

”See you.”

The goodbyes were lighthearted. They tapped their quantum suits, and in a flash, the platform was empty.

A second later, they returned.

”Reality Stone is back,” Rocket announced. ”And you wouldn’t believe it. Thor cried again. Little baby Thor.”

”HEY!” Thor’s eyes were bloodshot. He lifted Rocket into the air, annoyed that his secret had lasted only two seconds.

”Soul Stone returned.” Hope took off her helmet. ”Wow. Deep space is beautiful. Maybe we should borrow Quill’s ship and take a vacation.”

She looked down at Scott, standing next to Hank Pym.

Scott caught the hint immediately. He flashed a grin and gave the perfect answer. They shared a smile.

”Power Stone returned,” Rhodey said with a smirk. ”So, Quill, did watching yourself dance make you want to crawl under a rock?”

”Don’t talk to me.” Quill’s face was stiff as he tried to forget the memory of his own singing. It was embarrassing.

Right on cue. Tony and Bruce phased onto the platform.

”Mind Stone is back.”

”Time Stone, returned.”

The team exchanged smiles, feeling accomplished. Then they noticed something was missing and stared at the empty space next to Tony.

”Wait.”

”Where’s Cap?”

”The console says he’s already back.”

Scott blinked. He ran over to the main monitor. He checked the GPS ping on Cap’s quantum tracker, then looked back up at the platform.

Just then.

Zzzzt!

Cap materialized on the pad, looking exactly as he did when he left.

”Space Stone returned.”

Cap stated the fact, then caught Tony giving him a weird look for the delay. ”Tony. I think my suit glitched. The data scrambled on the way back.”

Glitched?

Tony frowned. He took the quantum GPS from Cap, stepped off the pad, and plugged it into the main console.

A second later, the code used to stabilize the Mobius strip navigation appeared in the air.

Lines of dense, chaotic code filled the air. Unless you had a PhD in theoretical physics, it looked like gibberish. Tony narrowed his eyes.

Bruce leaned in and spotted the anomaly. ”Data isn’t missing. It’s bloated. Tony, look. The temporal signatures on these lines don’t match our timeline.”

Tony had already seen it. He isolated the rogue data blocks, ran a quick decryption, and compiled the code.

Fragments of video files rendered on the screen.

It looked like their mission. But slightly off.

The team watched the projection. It showed Natasha on Vormir. Sacrificing herself for the Soul Stone.

They immediately turned to look at the very much alive Natasha standing right next to them.

Natasha frowned at the screen. She felt the stares and let out a dry laugh.

”Hey. I’m right here. I’m fine.” She cleared her throat, walked over to the console, and queued up the next file.

This time, all eyes shifted to Tony.

Because on the screen...

”I am Iron Man.”

Snap.

The Infinity Stones flared. Thanos’s army crumbled to dust. But the cosmic feedback fried Tony alive.

Pepper Potts instinctively grabbed Tony’s hand, gripping it tight.

Tony glanced at his wife. He stared at his own death on the monitor. ”So this is an alternate timeline?”

Bruce frowned. ”But what triggered the split?”

Natasha watched Tony snap his fingers on the screen. Realization hit her.

”A timeline without Hawk.”

Hawk?

”...” The team looked at Natasha. They pictured the guy who casually seized control of the sky and butchered Thanos like a hog.

Natasha met their eyes and took a slow breath. ”I did die on Vormir. Hawk was there. He brought me back.”

Sharp intakes of breath filled the room.

A second later. Cap connected the dots. ”Wait. He was on Vormir? In the past?”

Natasha nodded.

Cap furrowed his brow.

Scott saw the stunned looks and shrugged. ”Guys, don’t forget. He’s from another universe. If he can jump realities, time travel is probably a walk in the park.”

Scott had a point. The team snapped out of it.

Right. This Hawk wasn’t the same person they remembered. He was a multiversal apex predator who had arrived from another universe.

Just then. Natasha’s gaze locked back onto the monitor.

”There are two more files here...”

”Play them.”

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