Marvel: The Awakened One

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Wanda emerged through a storm of flying metal and billowing dust. A red suit woven entirely from Chaos Magic clung to her body. Her gaze first landed on the young Professor X, slumped on the altar floor, then on Hawk lying motionless beside him.

And Death was crouched at his side.

Scarlet energy filled the chamber as Wanda appeared on the altar. Her eyes blazed red as she stared at the figure dressed in black.

”It’s you,” Wanda said.

She recognized the entity from Earth-616, someone who had never been their enemy. Then she looked down at Hawk, crouched, and reached out to hold him.

”Hawk...”

”Don’t touch him if you want him to live,” Death said.

Death’s voice stopped Wanda just as her fingers were about to touch him. Death did not move to stop her.

Wanda froze, her gaze snapping back to Death.

”What happened to him?”

Death did not answer right away. She looked up at the River of Time above Hawk, and Wanda looked too.

When it first appeared, the River of Time shone with a brightness that hurt the eyes. Now its light had faded to a tired glow, and even that was vanishing.

”This is...”

”It’s his timeline,” Death said. ”Someone is erasing him from every timeline, all at once. When the last piece of him is gone, that’s the end.”

”Touching him will only make things worse.”

Wanda’s pupils contracted.

A crash shook the chamber. One corner of the pyramid broke apart as Magneto pulled away the structure with his power. He hovered outside the opening, wearing his red helmet and dark armor, with metal swirling around him.

Magneto had chosen to side with the X-Men again. The choice proved both surprising and expected. This time, no one had to appeal to his conscience or convince him at the last minute.

The instant the X-Men arrived, Mystique had shoved Pietro forward and shouted, ”Erik! He’s your son!”

Magneto hovered above the battlefield, held aloft by the Earth’s magnetic field. His gaze settled on Pietro, who had been forced into the open without a moment to prepare.

Pietro met Magneto’s stare.

”Yep, I’m your son,” Pietro blurted. ”And the guy Apocalypse just dragged into the pyramid? He’s... kind of your son-in-law.”

”...”

Magneto went still. Then Pietro mentioned their mother’s name, and the memories came rushing back.

A moment later, Wanda broke into the pyramid using Chaos Magic. Magneto quickly turned against Apocalypse’s forces. With a sweep of his hand, metal from the battlefield flew through the air and pinned Storm, Psylocke, and Angel.

Beast and Cyclops stayed outside to guard the entrance while Magneto, Mystique, Nightcrawler, and Jean Grey rushed inside.

”Daddy!”

The moment Jean entered, she saw Hawk lying on the altar and ran toward him, but Wanda stepped into her path.

”Xavier!”

”Professor!”

Mystique and Nightcrawler rushed to Professor X, who was still slumped on the metal floor. Charles hardly noticed them. He kept his attention on the man coming in behind them.

”Erik.”

”Charles.”

Magneto looked at his old friend, then turned to Wanda, who stood protectively over Hawk.

”Oh. I guess I left out an important part,” Pietro said, appearing beside him and lowering his voice. ”Technically, she is Wanda. She’s just not my sister. Or your daughter.”

Magneto turned and gave him a glare. Pietro quickly explained timelines, alternate realities, and the Multiverse.

Magneto listened in silence, frowning more with each sentence. Pietro might have been lazy, but he had learned some things in school.

”So this Wanda is Wanda, but she’s not my daughter?”

”Right.”

”But I have a daughter named Wanda, and she’s your sister?”

”Yep.”

”Where is she?”

”Back home in New York, helping Mom look after our little sister.”

Magneto’s expression stiffened. ”I have two daughters?”

”No. Nina is our sister, but she isn’t your daughter.”

”...”

Pietro shrugged. ”You left before Mom knew she was pregnant. Eventually, she found us a new dad.”

Magneto looked into Pietro’s innocent eyes and fell silent.

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Mystique watched as Professor X looked toward Hawk and Wanda. Wanda appeared to be talking to someone invisible.

”Xavier, what is she...”

”I don’t know.”

Charles had hardly taken his eyes off that spot since Death showed up. Even when Magneto arrived, he only gave his old friend a quick look.

”I feel like something’s standing there, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t sense it with my telepathy.”

Mystique blinked, surprised.

That was when Wanda realized everyone was watching her, but no one saw Death.

She frowned. ”They really can’t see you?”

Jean squinted at the empty space beside Hawk. ”Mom, who are you talking to?”

Even with her powers, she could only sense something strange there—a shadowy presence she could feel but not fully understand.

Death gave them a faint smile.

”I stand beside every soul,” Death said. ”I show myself to anyone near the end.”

Seeing her almost never meant anything good.

She was Death.

Suddenly, the River of Time above Hawk shook, sending a quiver through the air. Hawk’s body shuddered on the floor.

”Dad!” Jean cried.

Wanda grabbed Jean before she could reach him and pulled her back. She turned to Death, panic in her voice. ”What’s happening to him?”

”Apocalypse is attacking his timeline,” Death replied.

”At the gates of St. Paul’s Church in Queens.”

”At the Manhattan docks.”

”On Earth-616.”

”In the past.”

”In the future.”

”And in the present.”

Death met Wanda’s desperate look.

”He is dying everywhere at once. There is only one way to save him.”

Wanda stared at her. ”What is it?”

”You.”

”What?”

”He became vulnerable when he borrowed the Time Stone’s power. The moment his timeline contracted, it exposed countless openings across his entire existence. Closing them all by himself would be almost impossible.”

”Impossible...” Wanda murmured.

Then she suddenly understood.

”The fire born from the most impossible life.”

Death merely smiled.

Wanda looked up at the trembling River of Time as its light faded into darkness.

”I have to enter it.”

”Don’t...” Hawk groaned. His eyes stayed shut, but his left hand shot out and caught Wanda by the arm.

”Don’t go.”

Wanda looked at his shaking hand holding her arm, and finally everything made sense.

”When I asked why I ended up on Earth-616, you said I brought myself there.” Her gaze stiffened.

”YOU ALREADY KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!”

Hawk struggled to push his power into his own timeline, trying to enter it and save himself. At last, he opened his eyes and looked at her.

”This has already happened, hasn’t it?”

”...” He said nothing.

Wanda’s face softened.

”The fire born from the most impossible life. That was me.”

She turned back to Death.

”What happens if I enter his River of Time?”

”The current will pull you apart the instant you touch it,” Death answered. ”Your existence will split across his timeline, creating countless versions of you at every point in his life.”

Wanda didn’t show any fear. She looked at Death, then down at Hawk on the chilly metal floor.

”Maybe you were right. You’re not a good man, Hawk.” Her eyes eased. ”But you are our daughter’s father.”

Scarlet energy gathered around her as she rose into the air.

Death spoke one final time.

”Remember this. The part of his timeline containing his true body has already collapsed into an unchangeable past. Killing Apocalypse alone won’t be enough. Everything in that past must unfold exactly as it did...”

”...Change even one event, and you both die.”

The instant Death finished speaking, Wanda reached out and brushed her fingertips against Hawk’s River of Time.

...

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