Marvel: The Awakened One

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”Yeah.”

”No matter why Agatha became your mentor and taught you to control Chaos Magic, she’s still your teacher. So, Death is technically your teacher’s wife. Or... husband?”

Hawk looked at Wanda’s ever more odd stare, paused for a moment, and then said, ”Yes, Agatha and Death have a child together.”

Wanda’s eyes didn’t just look weird now—her entire face twisted in disbelief. ”Wait. Death is a guy?”

”No, Death is a woman. Actually, the five cosmic entities of the Multiverse don’t really have a biological sex.” After all, they are supreme gods. Worrying about gender doesn’t matter to them.

Hawk stopped and looked at Wanda. ”I’ve just told you that Death and Agatha have a child together, so why do you keep on asking whether Death is a man or a woman?”

Wanda looked stunned. ”I mean, that’s a lot to process, isn’t it?”

Hawk shrugged. ”Get used to it. You’re going to see a lot crazier stuff down the line.”

Mythology and comic book worlds are full of the absurd and unbelievable. The Greek pantheon, for example, had no sense of basic ethics. Hawk was living in the middle of this comic-book reality. With all the other craziness out there, Death and Agatha having a baby wouldn’t even make the news.

Hawk wasn’t just talking about Death for fun. He mentioned it because Wanda had asked why Death did that behind his back.

”She was venting for Agatha. After all, I’m the one who dragged our universe’s Agatha out of Westview,” Hawk said.

”Just because of that?” Wanda was still skeptical. ”Is the Agatha in our universe actually her lover?”

Hawk shook his head. ”No. It’s just like me...”

He smiled gently and looked into Wanda’s eyes. ”I love you. I love you in every universe. Death feels the same way about Agatha.”

Their eyes locked.

”Hawk...”

”Yeah?”

”I still remember the cold look you gave me the very first time we met.”

”Doesn’t that just prove my point even more?”

”What do you mean?”

”I only have eyes for one person.” Hawk looked completely serious. ”In every timeline, the only person who can get close to me, the only person I will ever love, has always been you. Right?”

Wanda’s eyes fluttered.

A moment later, the air between them felt blazing hot.

Upstairs, Jean was lying in bed, scrolling on her phone, when she suddenly froze. Her mouth twitched. She quickly turned off her phone, pulled the covers over her head, and wrapped herself up like a burrito.

’Nope. Not listening. Lalalala!’

——————————

The next morning.

After breakfast, Jean headed out to the Xavier Institute to tell Professor X that she had gotten permission for the DC trip.

Wanda stood at the door, waving as Jean drove away. She looked bright and happy as she closed the door and headed back to the dining room.

Hawk was sitting at the table, had dark circles beneath his eyes, and was chewing his sandwich with a tired intensity.

Wanda looked a little worried. ”Are you still training today? Maybe you should rest.”

Hawk no longer had the cold, but he looked weaker than when he had been ill. He was utterly exhausted.

Hawk’s skin appeared dull and grey, nearly unhealthy, so that anyone who saw him would think he was seriously ill.

Wanda looked at his raccoon-like eyes and remembered the battlefield from last night. ”I had told you that we should have stopped, but you just had to carry on.”

Hawk stared blankly at her.

Usually, this was when he would tease her or playfully get back at her. Sometimes, when someone says ”stop,” they might not really mean it.

But he was completely out of energy. He had nothing left.

He wanted to do more, but his body was worn out. Hawk stared at her for a moment before slowly turning away and taking another bite of his sandwich.

Even if he could push himself more, he couldn’t risk it. He needed all his energy to finish his 10,000 punches today.

Hawk smoothly changed the subject. ”You didn’t tell Jean that Bolivar Trask is going after Mystique for her mimicry genes?”

What made a Sentinel dangerous? Trask’s engineering was only part of it. His technology gave the Sentinels a body, but Mystique’s mutant DNA was what let them evolve, adapt, and hunt any mutant.

Once they got Raven’s DNA, the Sentinels would be complete.

Last night, through the chaos mirror, both Hawk and Wanda had heard that Trask was in a desperate situation. Since his team had admitted that they wouldn’t be able to synthesise the mimicry gene by the end of the month, he immediately decided to go for the real thing.

Two years ago when the military released him from prison, the end of next month was his strict deadline. He had received unlimited funding and a unlimited supply of manpower from both the White House and the Pentagon, and if he failed to deliver then he would be dead.

Trask was desperate. Yesterday, he pounded the table and told his team to find and capture Mystique no matter what. Without her, the Sentinels would never become real.

But Trask couldn’t find Mystique. After the Apocalypse incident in Cairo two years ago, Raven and Magneto visited the X-Mansion for a short time, then left to help other mutants. She was impossible to track—one day in Paris, the next in Albania.

”Speaking of,” Hawk said, picking up the conversation they had abandoned before falling asleep last night. ”Where is Mystique right now?”

Wanda’s eyes flashed. ”South Korea. Why? Should I warn her?”

Hawk shook his head. ”No. Let Trask catch her.”

”You really just want to see the Sentinels in action, don’t you?”

”Aren’t you curious?”

”...A little.” Wanda decided to be honest. ”I just don’t buy that a science project can beat actual magic.”

If science could solve everything, then why would gods exist? If science could really destroy a god, surely some deity would have stopped that planet long before they built such a weapon.

”But...” Wanda hesitated. ”If we just let Trask kidnap Raven, Jean’s going to be furious with us when she finds out. Raven is her friend.”

Hawk smiled and nodded. ”Good point. Just keep watch over her. Trask can hurt her, but nothing worse. Make sure she stays alive. Even if she dies, I could go to this universe’s Hell and bring her soul back, but making her a new body would be a huge hassle.”

Wanda nodded. ”Deal.”

”Glad we’re on the same page. I’m heading out.”

Wanda blinked as Hawk pushed his chair back. ”Where are you going?”

Hawk didn’t look back. He shuffled toward the new bag hanging from the sycamore tree.

”Training.”

Wanda watched as Hawk staggered weakly into the backyard, then looked at the three empty plates on the table. With a quick movement of her wrist, a crimson Chaos Magic created a humanoid figure that began to do the dishes.

She followed Hawk outside and sat in the patio chair, just like she had yesterday. She needed to keep an eye on him. If she got distracted cleaning inside, she might look out the window and find him passed out on the lawn.

Soon, Wanda looked up again. She could feel it. As Hawk threw his punches, his real power, now visibly closing in, was rocketing throughout the universe and heading straight for them.

Wanda put the back of her chin on her hands and sat in silence, observing Hawk as he concentrated on the bag.

Hawk continued to throw punches, getting rid of all the other thoughts. Wanda watched in quiet comfort.

Time passed. In that low-ranking universe it was the most inexpensive thing they possessed.

Then, it happened.

BOOM!

When Hawk threw a punch, a million shadowy afterimages appeared in the air and at once combined into a single blow. The force hit the bag before his fist had made contact with it.

A loud crack resounded throughout the yard.

But...

The bag remained completely still despite the tremendous noise.

Sitting on the patio, Wanda’s eyes widened. ”That’s...”

Hawk was gasping for air, but his aura was suddenly rising fast, climbing higher and higher—

”A sword needs no edge!”

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