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The living room.
Anya wasn't on the sofa anymore. She was in the kitchen cooking, occasionally glancing over her shoulder at her brother and Natasha sitting in the living area.
Hawk glanced at Natasha, who stared at him without saying a word. He gave a quick laugh.
"You came looking for me. Here I am. Now what?"
"You..." Natasha shook herself from her daze. She frowned as she looked at him. "You look just like the Hawk I remember. Except you don't have the Mind Stone in your forehead."
Hawk smiled faintly. "And you look exactly like the Natasha I know."
"So, you really aren't from our universe?"
"Haha." Hawk laughed. He looked her in the eye and casually listed several top-secret missions they had done together.
Even after Anya explained things, Natasha still had a bit of doubt about the whole "one tree, two different flowers" idea. But when Hawk shared details only the real Hawk would know, her last bit of doubt disappeared.
In that exact moment, Natasha knew for a fact. "You really are Hawk."
"In the flesh," Hawk smiled, spreading his hands.
A moment later. Natasha asked one last question.
"So who's in the driver's seat? The Hawk who crossed over from the multiverse, or the Hawk from our universe?"
"Both."
"There has to be a primary."
"There isn't," Hawk said, shaking his head. "Imagine two streams joining together. When I came into this universe, they became one river. My past is mine, and his past is mine too. There's no first or second. We're the same person."
Natasha nodded thoughtfully. "Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
"So, will you help us?"
"No."
"..." Natasha went quiet. She stared at him after his blunt refusal. "But you just said—"
Hawk cut her off with a smile.
"I know what I said. I also know why you're here. My answer is still no. It's not that I don't want to help. I just can't."
"Why?"
"I have my reasons. And I can't tell you what they are. If I do, I lose my shot at the one thing I actually want."
"What do you want?"
Hawk smiled at Natasha. "Still can't say. All I can tell you is what I want isn't related to what you want. Our goals don't clash. I can't help you, and you can't help me."
He already knew what the Avengers were planning.
But he couldn't get involved.
If he entered the River of Time, the prime universe would notice him. His plan to sneak in through the Quantum Realm would fall apart.
He couldn't help them now, and he wouldn't be able to help them in a month. Even if he reached the Eighth Sense, he still couldn't go back in time with them.
Once again, his past was set. It couldn't be changed.
However, Hawk watched Natasha take in his answer. After a moment, he said, "I can give you one thing..."
Natasha looked up.
Hawk gave a small smile. "Stick to your plan. You'll get exactly what you're looking for."
Natasha stopped in surprise. Her eyes brightened. "Are you saying..."
"Shh." Hawk pressed a finger to his lips. "Just know it. Don't say it out loud. You might jinx it."
Natasha frowned at his mysterious look. She pressed her lips together and nodded firmly.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it."
Natasha stood up, ready to head back to the compound.
Hawk didn't invite her to stay for lunch. He stood up and walked her to the street.
Natasha opened the door to her sports car. Pausing before getting in, she looked back at him. "Can I ask one last question?"
Hawk shoved his hands in his pockets. "Shoot."
"You said both Hawks are you. So... who do you love more? Gwen, or Wanda?"
"..." Hawk's smile faded.
It's a universal truth: smiles don't really disappear, they just move to someone else's face.
Natasha smiled, said goodbye, and got into her car. The engine started, and the red sports car sped out of the Palm Street neighborhood and disappeared down the road.
Hawk stood by the curb, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. Then he looked up at the clouds.
He only had one goal right now.
He hoped he could unlock the Eighth Sense in this universe and finish his transformation. He really didn't want to move to another universe again.
As for Natasha's parting question?
That was a problem for future Hawk.
Hawk's goal hadn't changed. He waited for his golden Phoenix Micro-Universe to show up in this world, so he could finally reach the Eighth Sense.
As for everything else, he didn't want to talk about it or even think about it.
Hawk closed his eyes, took a moment to steady himself, then opened them again. Calm once more, he turned and walked back inside.
As soon as he walked through the door, Anya appeared right in front of him.
Her eyes were wide. She stared at him.
"So?"
"So what?"
"I'm actually pretty curious about Gwen and Wanda too."
"No, you aren't."
Hawk's eye twitched. He put his hand on his sister's head, turned her around, and nudged her toward the kitchen. She was technically five years older than him now.
"Keep being curious, and those steaks are going to burn."
"Shit!" Anya gasped, realizing she left the stove on. She sprinted toward the smoking frying pan.
Hawk poured himself a glass of wine, sat at the kitchen island, and watched her rush around. He smirked.
It felt like home again.
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While Hawk and Anya ate lunch, Natasha pulled into a burger joint three blocks away from the Avengers compound, following a text from Cap.
Steve and Scott were already there.
Tony wasn't.
Bruce Banner—now fully merged into Smart Hulk—walked into the diner. He greeted Natasha warmly and gave her a massive hug. "So, you went to see the multiversal Hawk. Was it him? The one from the universe I got dumped in?"
Bruce had always felt his multiversal trip was real, but it also felt like a hyper-realistic fever dream.
He remembered Thanos knocking him out. When he woke up, he was in Wakanda, and the Snap had already happened. He couldn't figure out how he was in two places at once: helping the multiversal Thor escape the Grandmaster and also helping their Thor escape the Grandmaster.
So... he just assumed it was a hallucination. Steve and Natasha had thought the same.
Until now.
Natasha sat down. Meeting Bruce's desperate, questioning gaze, she nodded.
"He specifically mentioned Gwen."
"So it wasn't a dream," Bruce muttered to himself, relief showing on his face.
Natasha looked across the table at Steve. "Cap. How did it go on your end?"
"Tony said no."
"Why?" Natasha had already guessed as much when Tony didn't show up, but hearing it confirmed still hurt.
Steve understood why Tony refused. As soon as Steve saw Morgan Stark, he knew. Tony had to choose between his family and the chaos of a war zone.
Tony chose his family.
But Steve didn't know that Tony hadn't turned them down out of fear. Secretly, Tony had already run simulations for every possible way to reverse the Blip.
Including... a time machine.
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Night fell
Hawk and Anya lounged at home on Palm Street, watching TV.
At the Avengers compound, Steve, Scott, Bruce, and Natasha were pulling an all-nighter, trying to piece together a time machine from scratch.
And out at the lake cabin.
Tony Stark—retired superhero turned stay-at-home dad—finished washing the dishes. He walked into the living room and stood in dead silence for a long minute.
"FRIDAY."
"Yes, boss."
"Pull up the time travel simulations."
"Right away, boss."
The holographic projection flared to life. It displayed the same model he had tweaked over a hundred times, always ending in catastrophic failure.
Tony thought about what Steve and Scott had said earlier today. He thought about the specific properties of Pym Particles. He went quiet.
"Just one more run."
"The last one..."
Even though he had already decided time travel was impossible, he couldn't let it go. He told FRIDAY to set up the model as a Möbius strip and add the Pym Particles variables.
And then—
The time-space GPS locked in.
It worked!
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