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"You refused to accept your failure."
"I thought wiping out half of life would allow the other half to thrive."
"But you proved me wrong. You showed me that's impossible."
"As long as a single person clings to the past, the future will never be accepted."
"Stubborn resistance is inevitable."
"So, thank you."
"I will use the stones you collected to create a new universe. One without resentment for what was lost. Only gratitude for what it has been given."
Thanos sat by himself on a huge piece of rubble, watching as the original Big Three came closer. He stood, put on his helmet and pulled his heavy double-edged Uru blade from the ground. Then he faced them.
"A grateful universe."
"Born out of blood..." Steve Rogers countered.
"They'll never know it. Because you won't be alive to tell them." Thanos locked eyes with Cap.
The spark ignited.
Thor let out a roar. Lightning flashed in his eyes and across his body as he charged forward with Stormbreaker.
Tony shot into the sky.
Steve ran across the ruins.
In seconds, all three crashed into the Mad Titan.
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High above, as he re-entered the atmosphere, Hawk watched the fight below.
But Hawk didn't head for the battlefield. The second he cleared the atmosphere, he teleported straight to the front porch of 521A Palm Street.
His sister, Anya, was already zipped up in tactical leather, strapping a weapons-heavy utility belt around her waist.
She was about to run to the Avengers compound when she nearly bumped right into Hawk.
Hawk arched an eyebrow, staring at his fully armed sister.
Anya froze, caught red-handed.
Click.
She quickly unbuckled the belt, hid it behind her back, and put on an innocent look. "Brother!"
"You're not going." Hawk smiled back, ignoring her bad acting. He stopped her before she could make an excuse.
Anya's smile vanished. "Why not? Cap and the others brought everyone back!"
"They did." Hawk looked out at Palm Street. People were coming out of their houses, dazed and confused after five years away. He nodded at her. "They succeeded. And?"
Anya pointed up at Sanctuary II, Thanos's massive warship looming over upstate New York. "We should go help them."
Hawk looked at her for a moment and laughed dryly. "You? Help? With how skinny you are, one Chitauri commander could break you in half."
Anya rolled her eyes. "I used to be a Hydra agent. An elite one, for the record."
"That was then. This is now." Hawk's voice was flat. "You have no business on that battlefield today. Go back inside."
Anya set her jaw. "I'm going to help."
"Excuse me?"
"I said, I'm going to help."
"Heh." Hawk chuckled.
Before he could say anything else, a strong wind wailed overhead. Hawk turned to look.
A Chitauri soldier, thrown through the sky by the Hulk, was now flying straight toward their front yard like a missile.
Anya stared at the incoming alien missile, her pupils shrinking to pinpricks. "Shit!"
"Not again."
As Hawk watched the alien flying toward his sister, a dark memory flashed in his mind: him crying helplessly next to Anya's body in 2008.
His eyes turned ice-cold. Two beams of Phoenix Fire erupted from his eyes.
BOOOOOOOOMM!!!
The Chitauri soldier vaporized in mid-air, raining harmless ash over the neighborhood.
Hawk came back to reality and looked at Anya, who stared at him in shock. "See? Battlefields don't care who they hit. Be good. We're staying home."
By the time Anya processed what happened, Hawk had already dragged her inside.
Click.
He threw the deadbolt.
Anya watched him. "Fine, I won't go. But you can."
"And then what?" Hawk walked to the living room bar, picked up a bottle of bourbon and a glass, and looked like he was about to have a drink.
Anya trotted over to the counter. "Are you going to help them?"
"You want the truth?" Hawk uncorked the bottle and looked at his sister's expectant eyes.
She nodded without hesitation. "Of course."
"I'm thinking about it." Hawk told the truth.
In this universe, Thanos was the one who killed him. Whenever Hawk remembered the Mad Titan choking him and taking the Mind Stone from his head, he felt a phantom headache.
But the moment he broke through the atmosphere to get his revenge, he felt someone watching him. As soon as his power showed in this universe, Gargaratus, the runaway Celestial he had chased here, noticed him.
But when Hawk swept the entire Milky Way with his Seventh Sense, he couldn't find a single trace of Gargaratus.
Right now, Hawk was out in the open, while Gargaratus was hiding.
Bottom line: Hawk never fought a war blind.
He explained everything to Anya. As he spoke, her face changed. At first, she looked amazed to have an all-powerful brother, but then she grew skeptical and finally gave him a look that said she saw right through him.
Hawk noticed the shift. "What is it?"
"Brother..."
"Yeah?"
"You're not hesitating because of this Celestial Gargaratus."
"Then why am I hesitating?"
"Wanda!"
"..." Hawk paused mid-sip.
Anya crossed her arms and leaned on the counter, sounding completely sure. "You're thinking about what you'll say to her when you show up and she sees you."
Hawk looked at her and laughed quietly. He set his glass down, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and gave her a small smirk. "When I was a kid, I always wanted two sisters. One sweet and pretty, the other sharp and clever. Looks like my dream came true."
Anya smiled and spread her hands. "I'm obviously the sharp and clever one."
"Right." Hawk nodded. "So, my sharp and clever sister. Since you figured it out, give me some advice."
Anya turned dead serious. "If it were me, I'd just go."
"And then..."
"What do you mean, 'and then'?" Anya blinked, looking genuinely confused. "What does the Hawk of this universe have to do with the you from the multiverse?"
Hawk froze. Then, a smile broke across his face.
Anya smiled back. Just as she opened her mouth to ask for a reward for her great advice,
Flick!
"Ow!" Anya yelped, slapping both hands over her forehead. She stared tearfully at her brother, who had just ruthlessly flicked her.
"Hey! You asked for my advice!"
"I did. And I'm thrilled you gave it to me. But I really hate your advice."
"Why?"
"Because 'running away' isn't in my dictionary."
Hawk downed the rest of his bourbon in one gulp and adjusted his cuffs. He looked at her. "Stay home. Clean the house. Wait for me to get back. I'm still breathing. It's not time for my little sister to step onto the battlefield yet."
With that, he looked up.
BOOOOMM!!!
Anya flinched and closed her eyes tightly as glass shattered and metal crashed around her. When she opened her eyes, the whole bar area looked like a tornado had hit it.
She opened her mouth, caught between crying and laughing.
He did it on purpose. He wrecked the room just to give her something to clean up, making sure she couldn't sneak away to join the fight.
Wait. No.
"He just doesn't want me to watch him run into Wanda."
Realization dawned on Anya. Her eyes darted around. Whoosh. She spun on her heel and sprinted upstairs. Digging through the attic, she found a dusty military crate, kicked it open, and pulled out a military-grade surveillance drone.
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Meanwhile.
At the ruined Avengers compound, the battle was raging.
Thanos surprised them, but he didn't take advantage of the ambush. When the Dusted heroes returned, coming through Doctor Strange's huge network of portals with the Wakandan army, the battle shifted. The fight quickly turned into a bloodbath.
Thanos glared at the endless sea of superheroes and Wakandan soldiers flooding the battlefield. He sneered, gripping his double-edged blade tight, preparing to charge.
The next second.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!
A blast of Scarlet Chaos Magic slammed into the dirt. Wanda Maximoff dropped from the sky, fully resurrected and seething with uncontrollable rage.
Her eyes burned with crimson energy. She stared daggers into the fully armored titan.
"YOU TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME."
"I don't even know who you are..." Thanos felt the chaotic, fearsome power emanating from her body and blurted out a response instinctively.
God as his witness, he was the Thanos from 2014, pulled from the past before he sent Loki and the Chitauri to attack Earth. The glimpses of the future he saw from Nebula's memory, including his own decapitation, never showed this woman.
So Thanos stared at the furious witch running at him as if he had killed her husband, and he truly meant it. "I don't even know who you are."
"You will—"
"What about me?"
"..."
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