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In the end, Hawk decided to bury Thanos.
He realized he'd misunderstood before. Gamora didn't want Thanos's body to be left out for anyone to mess with. She just wanted to give him a proper burial.
After all, whatever had happened between them, Thanos was still her adoptive father.
Nebula, on the other hand, looked like she was about to lose it. While Gamora still looked human, Nebula had been taken apart and rebuilt over and over, with Thanos replacing her body with cold metal himself.
So as Hawk handled the burial, Gamora and Nebula found a quiet place and started fighting each other. For them, this was their way of bonding as sisters.
Hawk paid no attention to the noise. He kept his promise, buried Thanos, and then used his telekinesis to lift an entire mountain peak and set it down over the grave. Thanos ended up with a tombstone as big as a mountain.
Star-Lord watched Hawk move a mountain like it was nothing and let out a low whistle. "Are all guys from Earth this freakin' strong?"
Hawk brushed the dust from his hands, admired his work for a moment, and turned to Peter Quill. "Want to find out? Go back and see for yourself."
"Never mind..." Star-Lord quickly gave up on that idea.
Earth was where his mom had died. For him, it was just a place full of bad memories. He had no reason to go back. Then Star-Lord's gaze dropped to the celestial-core pendant hanging around his neck. He looked at Hawk and said, "I think I know where I want to put this."
As he spoke, he glanced slyly at the distant dust cloud where Gamora and Nebula were still working out their family problems the hard way.
Hawk noticed the look and understood right away.
He smiled. "Not a bad idea."
"You think so?" Star-Lord looked at Hawk as though seeking validation from a fellow god.
Hawk chuckled. "Thanos might not be her biological father, but he still raised her. So yes. A son-in-law guarding his father-in-law's grave works just fine."
Honestly, it beat his own situation by a mile.
Helen, George, and the boys had disappeared with Gwen, swept away into some unknown parallel universe. Time had taken them all, leaving nothing behind.
But still—
'I will find her.'
Hawk's thoughts turned inward. His Cosmo now housed two new Infinity Stones.
The Power Stone.
The Reality Stone.
The Mind Stone.
The Space Stone.
Together, their light turned the golden background of his inner universe into black—the quiet black of deep space.
In that darkness, the Fire Phoenix stood out clearer than ever.
The Power Stone gave his Cosmo a big boost. The Space Stone made it start growing again, spreading out into the void. With both stones, his Cosmo was expanding even faster than before.
He hadn't seen that coming.
Not that he was complaining.
Or perhaps... was it just poison in a pretty cake?
He couldn't say for sure. But one thing was clear. He would treat it the same way he had treated Mephisto.
He'd eat the cake anyway.
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Just then, Star-Lord, still amused by Hawk's joke about the son-in-law guarding the grave, suddenly remembered something. "Hey, Hawk. Do you know a guy named Thor? He said he knows you."
Hawk arched an eyebrow and looked at Quill. "You ran into Thor?"
"Yeah." Star-Lord nodded and quickly explained how they had found Thor drifting through space, how arrogant the man had been, and how he had taken the backup ship, grabbed Rocket and Groot, and headed for Nidavellir.
"Is that an actual place?" Quill asked. "I always thought it was just a myth."
To most life in the universe, Nidavellir really was a myth.
It was the exclusive forge of the Chief God, Odin, and the domain of the gods' blacksmiths. It was also anchored to the World Tree, which meant that most beings in the primary universe had neither the authority nor the means to locate it.
The moment Hawk heard Thor's destination, he looked at Star-Lord. "If you plan to stay here, then stay."
"I have to go."
"Hey..."
Before Star-Lord could finish, Hawk vanished from sight.
Quill blinked and stared at the empty air.
"Gods. Chief Gods. Big deal. I can do that too."
Now that he wasn't just a demigod with a mortal's strength, but one as strong as a superhuman, Star-Lord shrugged at the empty space and muttered to himself for encouragement.
In the World Tree, within the Divine Realm, Thor stood before the Golden Phoenix Palace with a deep furrow in his brow. Next to him, Rocket Raccoon's fur stood on end as he craned his neck to look up at the palace, which looked like it was made of solid gold. His jaw dropped.
Then he suddenly got an idea.
Rocket rushed over to the fancy railing, checked that it really was pure, shiny gold, and opened his mouth to take a bite.
At that exact moment, a voice sounded behind him. "A cop needs evidence to make an arrest. I don't, Rocket. If even a single fleck of gold goes missing from my palace, I'll throw you straight into my Underworld."
"I am Groot. (I didn't steal anything.)" Groot, who had been next to Rocket and had quietly stretched out a small branch to see if he could loosen a gold brick, quickly pulled it back. He turned to Hawk, who had just appeared behind them, and hurried to defend himself.
Hearing Hawk's voice, Thor pulled his gaze away from the palace and turned around.
Then Hawk stared at Thor's face, pointed at his own right eye, and asked curiously, "What happened to your eye?"
"I lost it."
"Hela stabbed it out?"
"Yes."
Hawk chuckled and shook his head. "I told you to focus on mastering your power instead of drinking all day, but you didn't listen. If you had unlocked your true potential earlier, your sister would never have been able to blind you."
Thor's expression remained flat. "She wasn't my full sister."
"She wasn't?"
"Half-sister. Same father."
"Ah. Right..." Hawk nodded as though that cleared everything up, then smiled. "So what brings you to Nidavellir?"
Thor remained deadpan. "To forge a weapon."
"For what??"
"To kill Thanos."
"Don't bother." Hawk gave him a smile. "Thanos is already dead."
Thor's serious look finally broke.
Then, in the next instant, Hawk raised his right hand and pointed toward Vanaheim. "You also went to the wrong house. This one belongs to me now. Your home is over there, in Vanaheim. And by the way, Odin, Frigga, and Loki are all waiting for you."
Thor completely lost his cool. His one eye went wide as he stared at Hawk in shock.
Hawk's tone stayed calm.
"Want to go check?"
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Thor did not hesitate.
With a deafening crack of thunder, he launched himself into the air on a bolt of lightning and vanished from Hawk's sight in an instant.
"Heh." Hawk watched him go, shaking his head. His smirk widened. He didn't even bother turning around before speaking. "Stop."
Rocket and Groot, who had been tiptoeing away with absurdly exaggerated stealth while Hawk was talking to Thor, froze where they stood.
Then...
"Hey!" Rocket spun around with a massive fake grin plastered across his furry face. "Hawk! This place is amazing. Really stunning. Way better than the Sovereign Race's palace."
"I am Groot! (Yes, it's very pretty.)"
Hawk looked at the raccoon and the tree, his face giving nothing away.
"This is a Divine Realm."
"Right, right, a Divine Realm! The Sovereign palace doesn't even come close."
"I am Groot!" Rocket and Groot hurriedly corrected themselves.
Hawk laughed.
Seeing that, Rocket and Groot laughed too, though much more nervously.
A moment later, Hawk's smile faded. "Kayla!"
Gurgle!
At Hawk's command, his personal honor guard materialized out of a swirl of crimson mist. Kayla, captain of the Blood Elves, appeared alongside a dozen female Blood Elves. "My Lord!"
"We have guests who traveled a long way to see us. It would be rude not to show them a good time... Take these two friends on a thorough tour of the Eight Prisons of the Underworld."
"Yes, my Lord."
Rocket's fur instantly bristled. "I AIN'T GOING."
Hawk's grin turned bright. "You really should. If you have the nerve to bite my railing today, you'll have the nerve to try killing me tomorrow."
Rocket just stared, dumbfounded. He pointed at himself, jaw hanging open. "Me? Kill you?"
"You can either choose to tour my prisons and come back, or choose to stay there permanently in my..."
"Tour!" Before Hawk could finish, Rocket snapped back to his senses, grabbed Groot, and spun around on the spot.
Kayla gave Hawk a quick bow, then disappeared with her two very unwilling guests.
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