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"A video?"
"Yeah."
Natasha nodded and went inside with Wanda. When Hawk came out from behind the bar, she quickly told him where the recording was from and how they got it.
Hawk frowned. "So Captain America from this timeline ran into another version of himself from a parallel world, one where I never showed up, while they were both traveling through time? And during that short moment, his suit picked up a video signal?"
Wanda looked at Natasha, her curiosity growing. "And in that other universe, you died, Tony died, and Cap went back in time to live with Peggy Carter?"
What a miserable universe...
Had everything really gone that badly?
Wanda barely had time to think before she realized the truth. If Hawk hadn't shown up, their universe would have ended just like Natasha said.
Natasha met Wanda's eyes and nodded. "We found four recordings. The first three were about me, Tony, and Cap. But the last one..."
She paused, took out her phone, unlocked it, and handed it to Wanda.
"It's about Jean."
"What?"
"Jean?"
Wanda looked down at the screen. As soon as the video started, she froze and her eyes went wide. Panic flashed across her face, and she quickly handed the phone to Hawk.
"Hawk, look."
Hawk said nothing. He accepted the phone and watched the recording.
A giant Celestial with six shining eyes appeared in the sky above Earth. Its huge body blocked out the sun and pushed the clouds aside. The video then showed 123 Westview, where six-year-old Jean floated helplessly in the air, held up by something unseen.
The moment the Celestial turned and disappeared, Jean vanished with it.
The recording ended.
Hawk tapped the screen and played it again.
Wanda watched him, growing more anxious, while Natasha stood quietly next to them. Natasha had never met Jean, but she recognized some of the people in the video who tried to stop the kidnapping.
Bruce Banner had visited Hawk's original universe. He'd been to Westview and knew Hawk's family. As soon as the Avengers saw the video at their base, they knew it was a crisis.
That's why Natasha brought the video straight to Hawk and Wanda.
When the video finished a second time, Hawk looked up from the screen and gave the phone back to Natasha. His face showed no emotion.
"Thank you."
Natasha took it without thinking.
Wanda stared at him. "It's fake, right?"
Hawk looked at her and shook his head.
He was sure the video was real.
First, the Celestials had done things like this before. Hawk couldn't tell if they actually thought things through or just had empty space between their six eyes.
How many times did they intend to provoke him?
Did they honestly believe he would not exterminate their species across the multiverse?
But they had already pushed him too far. By taking Gwen and breaking up his family, the Celestials had sealed their own fate.
In that way, what they did actually made sense.
Second, Jean being taken was the only thing that explained Captain America's strange time collision and the video from the other timeline.
Wanda saw how sure Hawk was, and her heart dropped. She looked at the Quantum Band sitting on the bar.
"No. I have to go back."
She rushed over, grabbed the band, and put it on her wrist.
Hawk turned toward her. "Going back now won't help."
"What?" Wanda stopped, her finger hovering over the button.
Hawk remained calm. "If I'm right, they took Jean to force me to the negotiating table."
"Negotiate?"
"Yeah."
Maybe Gargaratus had run back to the original universe and warned the other Celestials about Hawk. The others probably didn't believe him.
After all, Death had described Hawk's universe with one word.
Low-end.
From the Celestials' point of view, how dangerous could someone from a lower universe really be? They probably thought Hawk only beat Gargaratus because he used that universe's Infinity Stones.
Then Hawk proved them wrong...
He proved he could wipe out Celestials easily. He also showed he could destroy any planet that had one of their seeds.
Only then did they understand the threat he posed.
Instead of returning Gwen and cutting their losses, they traveled to Hawk's original universe, kidnapped his daughter, and planned to use her as leverage.
Their thinking was hard to follow. But since the Celestials were made by an Abstract Cosmic Being, maybe that made sense.
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"Relax."
Wanda stared at him. "Hmm?"
"Jean is fine."
Hawk saw how scared she was and spoke calmly. "Just like with Gwen, the worst they'll do is keep Jean away from us for a while. They can't kill her. They don't have the guts."
They had never dared to kill Gwen. In fact, they had been forced to ensure she remained unharmed.
That's what confused Hawk the most.
What did they expect to achieve by taking hostages??
Hawk didn't know the meaning of compromise, and the Celestials didn't have the courage to kill Gwen or Jean. Their hostages gave them no real power.
So what was the point of all this?
Hawk didn't get their reasoning, and he didn't care enough to figure it out.
He had planned to give the Celestials here the same one-month warning he gave in his own universe. But they had already made their choice.
Now it was his turn.
As he thought about this, Hawk looked up. He spotted the six-eyed Celestial that had just appeared in the solar system.
"He's here."
"Jean!" Wanda saw him look up and understood right away. She tensed up. "I'm coming with you."
Hawk gave her a skeptical look.
Before he could refuse, Wanda stared directly into his eyes.
"I'M COMING."
"Fine."
Hawk didn't argue. He stepped closer and put one arm around her waist.
A second later, they vanished.
Natasha was left alone in the living room. She started to say something, then stopped and let out a tired sigh. She walked outside and closed the door behind her.
When Anya heard the door close, she came out of her upstairs bedroom and looked down at the empty living room, confused.
Wait, where did everyone go?
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Hawk held Wanda close as his body turned into a streak of light and shot through the atmosphere. Power burst from his Cosmo, and the Golden Phoenix Armor formed around him instantly.
The armor's phoenix wings spread wide as he sped up, going faster than light. A moment later, they came out of warp above Jupiter.
Not far ahead, a six-eyed Celestial stood still in space. Its armor looked like it was covered in layers of red rust.
As Hawk and Wanda emerged from warp, she immediately saw Jean.
The little girl floated inside a stasis field right in front of the Celestial's huge head.
"Jean!"
"MOMMY! DADDY!"
Jean called out as soon as she saw them.
Under the golden visor, Hawk's face showed no emotion. His double-pupiled eyes locked onto the Celestial, as if he was already looking at a dead body.
"Your name."
"The Calculator. Erebus," The rusted Celestial's voice sounded like metal scraping against metal. "I calculate the trajectory of every universe and timeline to prevent anomalies."
Hawk listened to the introduction and smiled.
"Congratulations, Erebus. Thanks to what you and Gargaratus have done, the Celestials are now marked for extinction. Are you prepared to face my wrath?"
Erebus's six eyes flickered as Hawk spoke in a calm, emotionless voice. "The Celestials preserve the order of the multiverse."
"Do you?" Hawk tilted his head, sounding almost curious. "Did you calculate your species' trajectory before deciding to kidnap my daughter?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"You will not compromise." Streams of data flowed across Erebus's six optical sensors like lines of code across a monitor. "In every probability I calculated, the chance of you compromising was zero percent."
Hawk laughed. "If you already knew I wouldn't negotiate, why did you do it?"
The Calculator answered in the same lifeless monotone. "Because this was the only option."
"..." Hawk looked at Erebus, his mind racing through the options.
To Hawk, Erebus had looked at endless dead ends and picked one.
It was still a dead end.
Did the exact path matter?
Not to Hawk.
Erebus apparently disagreed.
Hawk looked straight into his six shining eyes. "Would you mind explaining before you die?"
"Because this will delay your transcendence."
"Delay me??"
"Yes. We cannot destroy you, but this course of action can stall your ascension."
"..."
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