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"So... who is Gwen?"
Wanda barely finished the question before scarlet fire rolled through the room, burning away the lie of warmth and comfort.
For Hawk, Wanda's journey through his River of Time was over in a blink.
For Wanda, it was anything but. She'd been everywhere at once—past, present, future—threaded through every timeline that had ever touched Hawk's life.
The woman in front of him wasn't just Wanda Maximoff anymore.
Hawk met her gaze, the window framing her silhouette. He let the silence stretch before answering, voice dull.
"I don't know."
"You don't know?" Wanda tilted her head. "It's a simple question. Either Gwen is Gwen, or Gwen is Wanda."
Hawk just shook his head.
"Nothing involving time is simple."
"But this is your time."
"Yes. So let me ask you something. Which one is my past? The flawless River of Time we just forged together, or the broken one I created with the Time Stone?"
Wanda started to answer, then stopped herself.
Two different pasts.
Which past was real? Which was fake? And had Gwen always been her, or was that just another trick of time? Wanda went quiet, mind spinning.
Hawk watched her, then kept going. "If you want my best guess, it's probably the latter."
Wanda looked up at him.
"No matter how time shifts, whether the past changes the future or the future changes the past, one rule remains the same. Time needs a closed loop."
That was the rule. Timelines could twist and turn, but the loop always had to close. Leave a gap, and it would spread, split, and eventually rip everything apart.
Apocalypse had used those cracks to mess with Hawk's past.
"The current you entered my past and became Gwen Stacy. Jean was born, setting everything in motion and eventually bringing you and me together here. Then the future you, living as Gwen, told the Wanda of that time everything about me."
"And now, in the present, you've entered my River of Time and fused my history with your chaos magic, creating a new River."
Hawk paused.
"'I'm not asking you to be a good man. Just try to be a kind one.'" He repeated the words Gwen had always used whenever she tried to pull him back from the edge, then shook his head.
"Before today, I never got why Gwen was so sure I wasn't a good man. Honestly, I never bothered to care. Now it makes sense."
It was the same with their first meeting at Midtown High. Hawk had been stunned when Gwen appeared. His version of Spider-Man had been Tobey Maguire's, complete with the infamous black-suit attitude.
Gwen Stacy existed in that continuity, but she had not entered Peter Parker's life until his college years at Empire State University. Even when the Peter Parker of Hawk's universe had been replaced, the newcomer had been the Tom Holland version.
Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man had never existed there...
...Yet Gwen Stacy from The Amazing Spider-Man just showed up in his world, like she'd always been there. Back then, he blamed it on timelines colliding. Now he knew better.
Time had been closing its own loop.
Wanda didn't look away.
"You really aren't a good man."
"I know..." Hawk met her blue-green eyes, the kind that saw through every excuse he could come up with. "I kept telling myself I was in control. Truth is, I was just like everyone else. Thought I was steering the power, but it was steering me."
For years, Hawk only saw one path forward.
Become stronger.
Then become stronger again.
In the beginning, he had needed power to pull his sister Anya out of Hell. He had accomplished that.
Then what?
He kept chasing power, over and over. He'd spent so little time with Anya that she probably waited longer for him in his Underworld than she ever got to live with him. So what was he really doing?
The answer was painfully simple.
He'd been blind, thanks to power...
"Took landing in a universe like this to finally see it," Hawk said. "The ceiling's so low here, my power can't even find me.
"Bad news is, I lost my strength here. Good news is, once it stopped blinding me, I finally woke up and realized I'd been its slave."
As he spoke, the gold faded from his eyes, leaving only deep blue—quiet, like the cosmos under the sea.
Wanda studied him thoughtfully.
"So this is your latest excuse?"
"It's the truth..." Hawk let a faint smile slip. "But you're right. I'm not a good man. I'll try to be a kind one."
"And how do you plan to do that?" Wanda's mouth twitched at the corner.
"..." Hawk looked at her, serious.
"Next time, don't save me. Let me die."
Wanda gave him a skeptical look.
"You probably won't get the chance."
"Why?"
"You've already forgotten? I exist in every instant of your time now. Not only the past and present, but every corner of your endless future."
"...Oh."
Hawk let out a short, helpless laugh. Then another thought hit him.
"So how many children do we have in the future?"
Wanda answered without hesitation.
"Ten."
"That many?"
"I like children."
"So do I."
"No, you don't. You like daughters." Wanda punctured the lie without missing a beat. "You don't care nearly as much about the boys. Billy, Tommy, William... You barely dote on any of them."
Hawk laughed anyway. Wanda didn't crack a smile, so he just shrugged.
"Maybe I expect more from them."
Of course he spoiled his daughters. If he did it right, no kid with eight bucks and a bowl of noodles would ever talk one of them into running off. The boys were a different story. They had to be strong enough to carry the family.
Besides, his family had actual thrones to pass down. Once his Phoenix Universe finished manifesting, the gods under him would get their own seats. His sons would inherit those, so they needed to be raised for it.
Wanda gave a quiet laugh.
"Another excuse?"
"It isn't an excuse."
"It doesn't matter. Your parenting license was revoked years ago."
"You revoked it?"
"You surrendered it yourself. Did you forget?"
Wanda looked him directly in the eyes.
"You only have two methods of raising children. Either you take them along while you interfere with timelines until the God of Time comes to complain to me, or you line them up and make them drag mountains until they come crying to me. You lost your parenting rights all on your own."
Hawk looked at her, puzzled.
"The God of Time? The Ancient One?"
"Yes."
"You've met the Ancient One?" Hawk rubbed his chin. "I've been looking for her, but she never shows up."
Wanda shrugged.
"That's your fault."
"My fault?"
"Obviously." Wanda tilted her head as she studied him. "Who told you to make a habit of cheating?"
They stared at each other.
Hawk blinked, then let out a rueful laugh and nodded.
"Fair... Cheating became a bad habit. I got addicted."
If this universe hadn't been so weak that his power couldn't follow him, he'd probably still be stuck in that mountain, clueless about what went wrong. At least now he could see straight. Maybe losing his power was a blessing in disguise.
Hawk pushed the thought aside and looked at Wanda.
"Come on. Let's go home."
Wanda studied him curiously. "Your power still hasn't reached this universe. Which home are you talking about?"
Hawk almost answered out of habit, then caught himself and smiled at her.
"Your choice. Palm Street or Westview."
Wanda's curiosity flickered. "How long until your power reaches you?"
"A month..."
"Then we can stay with Quicksilver until—"
"...One month in our universe."
Wanda stopped. "How long is that here?"
"About ten years..." Even Hawk sounded exasperated saying it. "I can't help it. This universe's ceiling is too low. You can take Jean home first, though."
Hawk couldn't leave until his power crossed over and showed up in this universe. The real problem wasn't just that he was stuck here. Time moved too differently between this place and home.
Ten years here would pass in only a month there.
Maybe that was for the best.
"I can use the time to sort through everything in my head."
Wanda eyed him, openly suspicious.
"Ten years is a long time to sort through your thoughts. What could possibly be inside your head that takes that long?"
"You wouldn't believe me."
Hawk just smiled.
Their eyes met, and Wanda smiled back. "You do know that if I really wanted to know, I could simply look."
Hawk's smile grew wider.
"Now who's cheating??"
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