~ Support & Read 70 Advanced Chapters on Patreon!
❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁
Inside St. Mark's Church.
The priest accepted the check from Hawk, his face set in an expression of profound, sorrowful compassion.
"May the Lord bless you, Mr. Hawk Phoenix."
"Praise the Lord," Hawk replied, his own expression appropriately solemn. "The attacks of heretics will never break our faith in Him."
The priest's face grew heavy as he thought of the holy city-state that had been inexplicably wiped from the face of the Earth just yesterday.
"Amen."
"Amen."
Hawk echoed the sentiment, bowing his head alongside the priest in a moment of silence for the Vatican—the sovereign enclave he had personally erased from existence less than twenty-four hours ago.
A short distance away.
Standing in the cemetery with Gwen, Sharon Carter watched Hawk bow his head in prayer, the corner of her mouth twitching violently.
Seeing him now, offering a donation and observing a moment of silence for the destroyed Vatican, one might almost forget that this was the same unparalleled demon king who had stormed Heaven yesterday and casually obliterated the heart of the Catholic Church on his way back to Earth.
She didn't know the full extent of the carnage in Heaven.
But the Vatican…
Thinking of the sovereign state that had been erased without a trace in a fraction of a second, Sharon lowered her voice and leaned toward Gwen.
"Gwen, did you ask him what the Vatican did to piss him off?"
"I did."
Gwen kept her voice equally low. "After Mr. Chloe was taken, they kept his body locked up in the Vatican all these years."
Sharon and Gwen exchanged a look, both letting out a quiet sigh of relief.
"Good to know."
"Is there going to be a problem?"
"No."
Sharon shook her head. "The three Council members were a bit on edge, but as long as Hawk had a legitimate grievance, it's fine."
Everyone knew the score.
Hawk was overwhelmingly powerful, but ever since his debut at Quantico, he had always made a point of keeping his battles as far away from civilian populations as possible.
That was one of the main reasons the Security Council had opted for a policy of appeasement.
But yesterday.
Hawk had broken through the atmosphere and, with a single strike, completely leveled the Vatican in 0.001 seconds.
No, wait.
To be precise, he hadn't leveled it. He had left a thirty-foot-deep crater right where the Italian city-state used to be.
Within an hour of the incident, the news had circled the globe.
Fox News: WRATH OF GOD OR TERRORIST ATTACK? SOVEREIGN STATE EVAPORATES INSTANTLY!
CNN: VATICAN DESTROYED, POPE MISSING!
Reuters: UNEXPLAINED ATTACK DECIMATES VATICAN WITHIN ITALY, LEAVING THIRTY-FOOT CRATER!
The world was in an uproar.
The World Security Council had convened an emergency meeting to discuss the nature of the attack.
But the five major powers, who knew the truth, had immediately contacted S.H.I.E.L.D. Maria Hill had contacted Sharon, and Sharon had contacted Gwen…
The superpowers were terrified that this attack signaled the end of Hawk's self-imposed restraint—that the sleeping dragon had finally bared its fangs.
But…
Since the Vatican was harboring the stolen body of his father, Hawk was technically just acting in retaliation.
And that was enough for them.
"By the way, what about Heaven…?"
"Mephisto took it."
Gwen answered quietly.
She knew exactly what had happened. Hawk had given her the full play-by-play last night.
Tens of millions of heavenly beings.
Millions of angels...
Gone.
Heaven was completely gone.
But in a split-second decision, Gwen had chosen to tell Sharon that Mephisto had 'occupied' it.
She figured telling S.H.I.E.L.D. that Hawk had completely eradicated an entire dimension and every living soul within it might sound a little too bloodthirsty. It was better to use Mephisto as a buffer.
Besides, it was technically true.
Soon.
As the two women whispered, Hawk—having just donated a cool ten thousand dollars to the memory of the Vatican—said his goodbyes to the priest and walked into the cemetery.
He looked toward his sister Anya's final resting place.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Sharon had brought with her had already excavated the grave. They were just waiting for Hawk's signal to pull the casket up.
"Do it," Hawk said.
The agents worked quickly and efficiently. Using a rigging system, they hoisted the casket from the earth.
It was the new one Hawk had bought after he'd had her moved to St. Mark's. Pristine white with gold-trimmed detailing. It had cost him five thousand dollars.
Chump change.
Ever since he'd collected his 'war reparations' from Quantico, he'd been financially independent.
And these days?
Well. For some time now, the balance in his Stark Bank account simply never dropped below ten million dollars.
To put it simply: no matter how much he spent, even if he managed to blow the entire ten million in one day, the balance would automatically reset to ten million the next morning.
Who was doing it?
It didn't matter.
Just like Hawk turning a blind eye to Westview, some things were best left as unspoken agreements. There was no need to dig too deep.
As for why he had only donated ten thousand dollars when his account had effectively infinite funds? The answer was equally simple.
Ten thousand was exactly what they were worth.
But none of that mattered right now. The only thing that mattered was his sister's resurrection.
Once the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents had carefully set the casket down, Hawk walked over to it. He didn't ask them to open it. He just placed his hand gently on the lid and took a deep breath. "I'm taking you home, Anya."
He turned to Sharon and nodded.
Sharon understood. She signaled the agents assigned to transport the casket to the cloning facility.
The agents stepped forward in silence, hoisted the casket onto their shoulders, and began the solemn walk out of the cemetery.
A black transport van was already waiting by the curb.
Once the casket was loaded, the van sped off, heading for the nearest private airfield.
A dedicated S.H.I.E.L.D. jet was waiting on the tarmac. As soon as the cargo was secured, it would take off for the cloning facility, where a medical team was already prepped and waiting to extract the DNA and begin the cloning protocol.
Technically, Hawk could have just grabbed the casket and teleported straight to the facility in Tahiti in a single second.
He had considered it.
But he had more pressing matters to attend to.
Like—
His sister had missed too many Christmases already. He wanted her there with him for this one.
But Christmas was less than a month away. Even if the cloning facility pushed their timeline to the absolute limit, there was no way they'd be finished in time.
Cloning took time.
So…
Hawk was going to speed time up.
After making sure Sharon was in the van to guarantee the casket's safe arrival, Hawk took Gwen and teleported to the snow-capped peaks of Kamar-Taj.
He was here to ask the Ancient One—who was currently postponing her retirement—for a third favor: to borrow the Eye of Agamotto.
Just as she had the first two times, the Ancient One seemed entirely unsurprised by his arrival.
She sent Wong, the librarian, to retrieve the Eye of Agamotto, while she poured tea for Hawk and Gwen, who were sitting across from her.
"Once this year is over, it will finally be time for me to step down," the Ancient One said, her tone serene.
"..."
Hawk paused, his teacup halfway to his mouth. He looked at the smiling Sorcerer Supreme. "You couldn't postpone it just a little longer?"
Gwen sat quietly beside him, sipping her tea, but her ears were perked up, listening intently to the exchange.
The Ancient One's smile didn't waver.
"I suppose I could."
"..."
Hawk stared at her, completely exasperated.
The Ancient One's expression remained perfectly placid. "The past cannot be changed. What is destined to happen will happen. But nothing says it cannot be delayed. The universe is a chaotic place, after all. Right now, Mephisto is parked just outside Earth's atmosphere, devouring the Heaven Dimension. Even if someone were foolish enough to summon Dormammu right now, Dormammu wouldn't dare answer the call."
Dormammu was the ruler of the Dark Dimension.
Mephisto was the ruler of the Hell Dimension. And crucially, Mephisto was currently camped out right next to Earth, feasting on Heaven.
While Dormammu and Mephisto weren't exactly enemies, if Dormammu showed up on Earth right now, Mephisto might assume he was trying to steal his hard-earned meal and attack him on sight.
Especially since Mephisto had currently expanded the borders of his Hell Dimension to their absolute maximum.
It was a blatant warning to every other dimensional entity in existence:
Come and take it if you think you're hard enough. I'll kill anyone who tries.
So…
Until Mephisto finished digesting Heaven, Dormammu wouldn't dare approach. And the Ancient One's destined demise could only be postponed.
After all, the script said: Dormammu arrives, the Sorcerer Supreme falls.
They couldn't just skip a beat.
Hawk looked at her. "I can tell Mephisto to eat slower."
Having the Ancient One around made borrowing the Time Stone a lot easier.
Compared to Doctor Strange, who carried himself with a certain arrogant detachment, Hawk much preferred the Sorcerer Supreme, with whom he had established a very productive working relationship.
More importantly.
He just didn't like Doctor Strange. It wasn't hate, but he disliked him enough to prefer avoiding him entirely.
So, if the Ancient One was willing to delay her retirement, he was all for it.
As for the supposed danger of disrupting the timeline?
Heh.
He had already completely derailed the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Why would he care about the rest?
Besides.
Since his debut, he had barely interacted with the main cast of Marvel heroes, and his involvement in their storylines was practically non-existent.
The most he ever did was tag along with Gwen to the Avengers Tower for some juice after they returned from busting a Hydra base.
Yes.
Juice.
He wouldn't be twenty-one until after the New Year. What else was he going to drink at a party?
In a word:
The Marvel plotline was not his problem.
But!
The Ancient One smiled at Hawk's offer and shook her head.
"Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is a pattern."
"The first delay was caused by the power struggle between Yahweh and Mephisto. Dormammu feared that if he entered the fray, a clash between Heaven and Hell could catch the Dark Dimension in the crossfire."
"So, my retirement was postponed."
"The second delay is because Mephisto is currently consuming the Heaven Dimension. In this climate, anyone who approaches will be treated as a hostile threat."
"But Mephisto's feast cannot last forever."
"So—"
"When Mephisto finishes consuming Heaven, my time in this universe will finally come to an end."
"..."
❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁
~# 70 Advanced Chapters Available on my Patreon!
https://p-atreon.com/dragonnx
(Just remove the hyphen to access Patreon normally.)