Marvel: I Awake the Little Cosmos-Chapter 523 - 491: The Past Alters the Future, the Future Alters the Past (Second Update!!)
So!
Who is Gwen?
With Wanda’s words, the flames ignited by the impossible life transformed into a Scarlet fire that suffused the entire room.
In the last second, the room full of a warm baby crib gradually returned from illusion to reality as the Scarlet fire burned, reverting to the haunted house style consistent with the outside world.
Even from Hawk’s own perspective, Wanda entering his Time Galaxy was just a moment in time.
But that wasn’t the case.
At least in Wanda’s perception, she exists in Hawk’s past, present, and future. Similarly, she exists on every timeline where Hawk’s life and soul reside.
So—
The Wanda appearing before Hawk now isn’t Wanda Maximoff.
It’s—
Scarlet Witch Wanda!
With Hawk turning his back on the window, he faced his own Wanda, and after listening to her question, he remained silent for a moment before speaking calmly.
"I don’t know."
"You don’t know?"
Listening to Hawk’s answer, Wanda slightly turned her head: "This is a very simple question; either Gwen is Gwen or Gwen is Wanda."
Hawk shook his head with an indescribable expression.
"When it comes to time-related matters, it is never simple."
"But it’s your time."
"Yes, then can you tell me whether my past lives in the brand new impeccable river of time that you and I created together or in the Time Galaxy created by the Time Gemstone?"
"..."
Wanda subconsciously opened her mouth, but when the words got to her lips, she stopped herself as thoughts turned, choosing to swallow the words.
Two entirely different pasts.
Which is true?
Which is false?
Also...
Is the Gwen in Hawk’s life truly her?
Wanda thought to herself.
Hawk looked at the silent Wanda, speaking in a still calm voice: "If you insist I make a guess, it’s probably the latter."
Wanda raised her eyes to look at Hawk.
Hawk’s face was calm: "No matter how time changes, whether the past alters the future or the future alters the past, what remains unchanged is that time needs a closed loop."
This is the fundamental law of time.
Time must have a closed loop, any gap in the timeline could lead to its rupture and collapse.
Just like Apocalypse, isn’t he exploiting the temporal loophole in Hawk’s timeline to meddle within Hawk’s time?
"Now you have returned to my past, becoming Gwen Stacy, and the birth of daughter Jean led me to meet you here, knowing that your future self shared everything about me with that Wanda as Gwen Stacy."
"And now here you are, merging my Time Galaxy with your Crimson Chaos to form a new river of time."
"I don’t demand you become a good person, but try to be a kind one."
Hawk spoke calmly, recounting the words Gwen always advised him with, before shaking his head: "Actually before this, I didn’t know why Gwen was so sure I wasn’t a good person. I never paid attention before, but now, I know the reason."
Just like the time he enrolled at Midtown High School and first met Gwen, he was somewhat astonished.
The reason was simple.
His version of Spider-Man is the Bully Maguire version, where Gwen Stacy does exist, but it was during the Imperial University days.
Even if he experienced an exchange with Peter in this universe, it was the Tom Holland version of Spider-Man that was exchanged.
The Amazing Spider-Man has never existed.
Yet, unexpectedly, Gwen Stacy from The Amazing Spider-Man appeared here.
Back then, shocked, Hawk attributed it all to the fusion of time and space.
Now it seems—
It’s just time closing its loop!
Wanda, hearing this, gazed into Hawk’s eyes that seemed to hold a galaxy of stars, speaking also in a calm voice.
"Indeed, you aren’t a good person."
"I know."
Facing Wanda’s blue-green eyes that seemed exceptionally clear and transparent, as if they could read minds, Hawk said, "Even though I always claim I control the power, actually, like everyone else, I deceive myself thinking I control the power, when it’s really the power controlling me."
In the time gone by, Hawk’s eyes were fixated solely on becoming stronger.
His initial desire was purely to possess enough power to rescue his sister Anya from Hell.
And what then?
Anya was rescued.
And then?
He continued walking down the path to more power, the time spent with Anya was even less than the time she spent in his Netherworld.
So—
What exactly is he doing?
In a word.
He too was blinded by power.
"Only upon arriving in this universe, where it’s so inferior that my powers can’t even penetrate through."
"Bad news, I lost my powers here."
"Good news, my powers can no longer blind me, clearing my mind, making me realize I had unknowingly become a slave to power."
Hawk’s golden eyes seemed to gradually revert from gold back to their original deep blue resembling an ocean-like deep-space cosmos appearance.
Wanda watched Hawk calmly, her eyes seemingly pondering, fixed on Hawk.
"So, is this some novel excuse?"
"It’s the truth."
Hawk faintly smiled: "But you’re right, I’m definitely not a good person, yet I will try my best to be kind."
Listening to Hawk’s words, Wanda’s lips slightly curved as if thinking about something: "Then how do you plan to do that?"
Hawk looked at Wanda seriously: "Don’t save me next time, let me die."
Wanda raised an eyebrow.
"Then you probably won’t have a chance."
"Why?"
"You forgot, I exist in every moment of your time, not just the past, not just the present, but in the endless future, I exist in every corner of your time."
"...Alright."
Hawk chuckled at her words, then seemed to think of something and looked at Wanda: "So how many kids do we have in the future."
Wanda didn’t hesitate.
"Ten."
"So many?"
"I like kids."
"I do too."
"No, you don’t like them, you only like daughters, not boys."
Wanda decisively exposed Hawk’s lie: "Whether it’s Billy, Tommy, or William, you don’t really care for them."
Hawk chuckled and shrugged, looking at Wanda’s serious face, which didn’t seem to be joking: "That might be because I have high expectations for them."
Of course, he spoiled his daughter because if he pampered her enough, in the future, a scoundrel won’t come along and trick her away for a cheap meal.
Boys certainly need to be taken seriously.
Because boys need to hold down the fort, and from a certain perspective, his family indeed has a throne to inherit in the future.
Once his Phoenix Cosmos materializes, various divine positions belonging to him will also come into existence, so boys who will inherit these positions need to be educated sternly.
Wanda chuckled at his words.
"So, you’re finding excuses again?"
"I’m not."
"But it doesn’t matter, because your educational rights are gone."
"You stripped my educational rights?"
"You gave them away yourself, don’t you remember?"
Wanda looked seriously at Hawk: "When you take care of the kids, you only swing to two extremes: either you take them to meddle with the timeline, causing the God of Time to come complaining to me, or you gather the kids to drag mountains and run, causing them to come crying to me, so you lost your educational rights yourself."
Hawk raised an eyebrow.
"The God of Time? The Ancient One?"
"Yes."
"You met The Ancient One?"
Hawk stroked his chin: "I’ve always wanted to find The Ancient One, but he never appeared."
Wanda shrugged.
"That’s your problem."
"Me?"
"Of course."
Wanda tilted her head, glancing at Hawk: "Who made cheating a habit for you."
They locked eyes.
Hawk blinked, then shook his head with a bitter smile, and nodded again: "Yes, cheating is a bad habit, I was addicted to it before." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂
Once again.
If this cosmos wasn’t too low-end, making his power unable to come in, he might still be lost here without realizing where he went wrong.
Thankfully, he was clear-headed now.
Perhaps this is misfortune intertwined with fortune, fortune intertwined with misfortune.
Hawk thought to himself, then looked at Wanda again: "Let’s go home."
Wanda raised an eyebrow.
"Your power is still on the way, so which home to go to?"
"Go to..."
Hawk started instinctively but then shook his head with a smile, looked at Wanda: "You decide, Palm Street, West View Town."
Wanda was somewhat curious.
"How long until your power arrives here?"
"A month."
"Then go to Quicksilver..."
"A month in our cosmos."
"...What, translated to time here?"
"About ten years."
After revealing this answer, Hawk also shook his head speechlessly: "No choice, this cosmos is too low-end, but you can take Jean back first."
He must wait for his power projection to come before going back.
Not only because he’s here now.
More importantly, because the time flow here is too different from that of the main cosmos.
Just right.
"I can use this time to reorganize my inner self."
"Then you need plenty of time, so what’s in your heart that needs about ten years to sort out?
"You absolutely can’t imagine."
Hawk smiled slightly at Wanda.
They locked eyes.
Wanda smiled too.
"You know if I want to know, I’ll definitely find out, right?"
"Now look who’s cheating between us."
"..."
