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The battlefield was already a chaotic meat grinder.
Normally, everyone would notice Hawk's arrival. But this time, it barely made a difference. No one even looked at him.
Nobody except Wanda, who was standing right behind him. And Thanos, who was staring right at him.
As soon as Hawk stepped onto the field, Wanda stared at him. Her face showed confusion, then sudden joy. Her eyes went blank for a moment as a strange haze passed over her, but it faded quickly. She kept staring, completely captivated.
Thanos was staring at him too. "Who the hell are you?"
"Phoenix."
Hawk stood with his hands in his pockets. He looked at the armored titan holding a huge double-edged blade. "Hawk Phoenix."
Thanos frowned. "I don't know you."
"But I know you. Another version of you, anyway."
"..." Thanos didn't bother responding.
The ground under his boots broke apart. He rushed forward in an instant, swinging his huge blade straight at Hawk's neck.
"Die!"
"Phoenix Fire!"
Boom!
The optic blast slammed into Thanos. He flew backward and crashed into a pile of earth and concrete with a loud noise. The pile collapsed, burying him under tons of rubble.
Across the battlefield, Ebony Maw—currently trying to rip the Nano Gauntlet away from the Avengers—snapped his head toward his master. Abandoning his target, he rode a current of debris and wind, rushing to dig Thanos out.
Hawk turned around.
Wanda was still standing there, staring a hole right through him. They locked eyes.
She wore a burgundy leather corset with metallic accents, the wind whipping her red hair across her face. Her eyes were clouded with disbelief and confusion.
She wasn't just surprised to see Hawk. She also seemed surprised by herself. Hawk had already experienced the same multiversal soul-merge when he arrived, so he wasn't surprised.
"That's a good look on you," Hawk said.
"..."
Wanda looked down without thinking. She noticed her new curves, and the realization hit her hard. She quickly looked up, eyes wide.
"Hawk?"
"Yeah."
Wanda sucked in a sharp breath. "What the hell is going on?"
Hawk smiled at how panicked she was.
Her shock made perfect sense. Because the Wanda standing in front of him wasn't just this universe's Wanda anymore. Hawk felt it the second he dropped into the timeline.
When he arrived, his Seventh Sense saw her body change right in front of him. It was basic biology. Besides good genetics, there are only two reasons a woman changes like that: surgery or childbirth.
So yes, the Wanda in front of him was still Wanda. But as soon as Hawk arrived, she became the Wanda who was the mother of his three children.
No wonder she was freaking out.
Hawk had felt the same shock when he absorbed his variant's memories and realized he had a past with her here. One moment, she was in her bedroom in Westview practicing Chaos Magic. Next, her vision blurred, and she was suddenly in a crater in upstate New York.
Even worse, a whole lifetime of new memories had just flooded her mind.
The small details didn't matter. What mattered was that as soon as she saw Hawk, a rush of intense, passionate memories about the two of them filled her mind.
Wanda's brow furrowed tightly. She glared at him.
"Did you do this?"
"No."
"Then—"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOMM!!
Before she could finish, the pile of rubble exploded. Thanos broke free, furious. He gripped his blade and shouted for his fleet to attack as he charged at Hawk and Wanda.
Hawk looked up. Sanctuary II and its fleet, brought through the quantum tunnel from 2014, blocked out the sun.
"Don't kill him yet," Hawk said.
"What?"
"I'm going to handle the ships in the sky first."
Hawk didn't wait for a response. He stepped forward and vanished into thin air.
A moment later, Thanos rushed forward.
"Die!"
Clang!
Wanda threw her hands up without thinking. A shield of Scarlet Chaos Magic appeared, stopping the huge blade just inches from her face.
Thanos roared, driving his entire weight down on the weapon, desperately trying to cleave the witch in half.
Wanda gritted her teeth and fought against the heavy force. She looked into Thanos's eyes.
Suddenly, a memory flashed in her mind. A memory from this universe's Wanda. She saw Hawk on his knees. She saw Thanos's massive fingers digging into his skull, violently ripping the Mind Stone from his forehead.
In an instant, a sharp pain shot through her mind. The power of Chaos Magic filled her eyes, turning them a glowing red.
And then...
Thanos noticed the change. He looked shocked as he watched the small woman stand up and push his huge blade back with telekinetic force.
Crack!
The Uru blade broke apart. The pieces flew out, and the force made Thanos stumble back. He stared at his broken weapon in shock.
"What?"
"..." Her eyes burning with chaos, Wanda opened her right hand and aimed it at the titan.
Instantly, a heavy red magic surrounded Thanos. He was lifted off the ground, unable to move, hanging in the air. Under the force of her Chaos Magic, his armor started to crack and break apart.
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High above the atmosphere.
Hawk pulled his gaze away from the ground and looked straight at the massive Chitauri armada.
He pulled his right arm back. And threw a single punch.
"Lightspeed Plasma Punch!"
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The punch landed before the light even appeared. Sanctuary II took the hit directly. A huge hole opened in the center of the ship. The explosion's light burst through the hull, followed by a loud shockwave that shook the sky.
As soon as the mothership exploded, the whole Chitauri army fighting the Wakandans stopped moving. The lights in their eyes went out, and they fell to the ground.
It was a well-known flaw. The Chitauri were basically a drone army slaved to a central command hub on the mothership. Kill the ship, and the ground troops disconnect.
With the ground forces suddenly out of commission, the Avengers finally had a second to breathe. They looked up at the brilliant explosion tearing the sky in half.
And they saw him. Hovering miles above the battlefield, bathed in golden light.
"Hawk!" Natasha looked up, a massive grin spreading across her dirt-streaked face.
The other Avengers snapped their heads up.
"Look!"
"Who is that?"
"Hawk."
"Hawk came back too?"
"That's not the Hawk we know."
"Wait, what the hell is he doing?"
The team watched in awe. Hawk pulled his fist back and turned into a streak of golden light, punching through a cruiser on the right and then a destroyer on the left.
Suddenly, as Hawk appeared on the other side of the armada, the whole line of warships, ready to fire, exploded one after another.
And just like that, there wasn't a single ship left in Thanos's armada.
"HOLY—"
"JESUS CHRIST!"
"SHIT, MOVE!"
"INCOMING!"
The Avengers, amazed by the display of power, suddenly noticed burning alien metal falling toward them. Panic hit, and they dove for cover as the wreckage came down.
Hovering in the thermosphere, Hawk looked down at the surviving remnants of Thanos's army—the Outriders and Black Order commanders still fighting the Avengers and the Wakandans.
He thought about it for a second. He wasn't going to interfere.
The Avengers probably wouldn't die. As for the Wakandans, if they did, it didn't matter to him.
Bottom line: he had already taken out the main threats. All that was left were the weaker enemies. If the Avengers couldn't handle them, maybe they shouldn't be a team.
Hawk dropped out of the sky, landing quietly right next to Wanda. He looked up at Thanos, who was currently suspended in the air.
One word: Brutal.
In the original timeline, if Thanos hadn't ordered his ship to attack, Wanda would have defeated him by herself. Tony Stark wouldn't have needed to snap. But the original story required a sacrifice.
But this wasn't the original script.
Now, Thanos had no fleet to help him. He had to face Wanda's full power alone.
With no orbital strike to stop her, and Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian busy with the Avengers, Wanda had completely defeated Thanos. Her Chaos Magic had stripped away his armor.
And that wasn't even the worst part.
All four of his limbs had been twisted into mangled shapes.
The Scarlet Witch was terrifying.
Seeing Thanos in such a bad state, even Hawk felt a little sorry for him. He glanced at Wanda, who was focused on hurting the alien warlord.
Hawk reached out and casually wrapped his hand around her wrist.
"That's enough."
The red magic in Wanda's eyes faded right away. She stared blankly at Hawk. Thanos crashed into the dirt. Wanda's eyes quickly focused again.
The next second, she snapped out of her trance. The memories of two different lives came together inside her. She hugged Hawk and buried her face in his chest.
"Hawk!"
"I thought I'd never see you again."
"..."
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