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"Daddy?" Hawk instinctively caught the red-haired little girl who had practically flown into his arms.
"Daddy??" Gwen's eyes went wide beside him.
"DADDY?" Felicia and Peter—standing nearby with Little Ben in Peter's arms—blurted out in shock. They exchanged glances, then turned back to stare at Hawk and the red-haired girl clinging to him with expressions of utter disbelief.
The little girl had thrown herself into Hawk's arms and now clung to him tightly.
And then—
She fell asleep. Just like that. Soft snoring followed.
"Uh..."
Hawk frowned. He glanced at the sleeping child in his arms, then looked up at Gwen—who was staring at him with dinner-plate eyes. "If I told you I have no idea what's happening, would you believe me?"
Gwen said nothing. She just watched him in silence.
...
One hour later.
S.H.I.E.L.D. New York Command.
Outside Sharon's office.
Felicia and Peter—Little Ben in Peter's arms—stood by the office window, expressions practically glowing with gossip as they peered inside.
Sharon walked over from down the hallway. Seeing the family of three huddled at her door, she couldn't help but chuckle.
"What are you guys—"
"Shh!"
Felicia immediately shushed her with a finger to her lips.
Sharon blinked. Then, following their lead, she crouched low and tiptoed to the window. She pressed herself against the glass and peered into her own office.
Inside.
Hawk was placing the deeply sleeping red-haired girl on the couch. He grabbed a nearby blanket and draped it over her, then turned to speak quietly with Gwen beside him.
"Why don't you go in?"
"Eavesdropping."
"Too scared."
Felicia, holding Little Ben, glanced at Peter.
Peter's expression was a mixture of curiosity and fear. "I can't beat Hawk in a fight."
Felicia rolled her eyes. She looked at Sharon and whispered, "Are the DNA results in? Is she Hawk's daughter?"
Sharon shook her head. "They're still running tests. These things take time."
S.H.I.E.L.D. did have advanced technology.
Plenty of it.
But even the most advanced tech had to respect basic scientific principles. DNA matching couldn't happen in the blink of an eye.
However—
"There's no record of this girl in any global facial recognition database."
"And when we checked the surveillance footage, we found something strange."
Sharon looked at Felicia and Peter. "According to New York's cameras, this girl appeared at 521A Palm Street about an hour and a half ago. She didn't knock—almost like she knew Hawk wasn't home—then walked all the way to Fifth Avenue."
Felicia frowned.
"What's strange about that?"
"We can't find how she got to Palm Street. The cameras weren't damaged or tampered with. One second she wasn't there. The next second, she was."
"Holy—"
Felicia sucked in a breath. She turned and looked through the window at the red-haired girl sleeping on the couch.
"Then how did she get there?"
"How would I know?"
Hawk glanced sideways at the sleeping girl on the couch, then looked at Gwen—who stood with her arms crossed—and shrugged.
Gwen blinked.
"Did you cheat on me?"
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"
Hawk looked at Gwen incredulously. "This girl looks three or four years old. What was I doing three or four years ago? Other people might not know, but you definitely do."
Three or four years ago, he'd been sixteen or seventeen.
Forget seventeen.
At sixteen, he'd been diligently working toward his daily ten thousand punches.
Cheating?
Cheating his ass. He hadn't even thought about dating back then.
And seventeen was even more ridiculous.
"From the moment you tracked me down at that waterfall, I became your prisoner."
"...That's actually true."
Gwen heard this. Memories of her epic solo trek through the rainforest to capture Hawk surfaced. The corners of her lips curved upward, her gaze softening.
From the moment she'd crossed that jungle alone and found Hawk, she'd successfully captured his heart. Made him her prisoner.
Gwen thought this to herself.
Just then.
The office door opened.
Sharon walked in with a calm expression. She handed Hawk a report. "Her precise age is three and a half. And the DNA results just came back. She is, in fact, your daughter."
Hawk took the report. Hearing Sharon's words, he exchanged a glance with Gwen.
Gwen took the report from his hands, flipped through it, then looked up at Sharon.
"That's impossible. Three years ago, Hawk was seventeen. Back then, he was either at school with me or not at school—also with me."
"Lab results don't lie."
Sharon's tone remained neutral, carefully devoid of any inflection. She looked at Hawk. "Also, this girl appeared out of thin air at 521A Palm Street two hours ago. Based on surveillance tracking, she walked straight to Fifth Avenue. Her objective was clear—she was looking for you. And she seemed to know exactly where you were."
Hawk's expression stayed calm. He nodded. "Yeah. She carries my essence."
Gwen heard this. She closed the report and looked at Hawk, thoroughly confused.
"I don't understand."
"She carries my essence—but not the essence of my current self. The essence of my future self."
"..."
Now it was Sharon's turn to look lost.
Gwen seemed to realize something. She looked at Hawk. "You're saying... time travel..."
Hawk made a sound of acknowledgment. He turned to look at the red-haired girl sleeping on the couch.
He'd actually confirmed back at the restaurant entrance that this girl truly carried his bloodline.
But that wasn't why he'd caught his breath.
The reason was that he'd sensed his own essence on her—essence he had left behind.
And this wasn't the kind of trace you'd leave just by glancing at someone from a distance. This required close, prolonged contact.
But Hawk could swear he'd never seen this girl before.
So the question became: How could his essence be on her when he'd never met her?
The answer was simple.
His future self.
His future self clearly understood the situation. But his present self was completely in the dark. That was why he hadn't worried about her being lost—and had brought her straight to S.H.I.E.L.D. instead.
Gwen looked at the red-haired girl sleeping peacefully on the couch. She frowned, then looked at Hawk as if something had occurred to her.
"Did you ever sell your... life essence?"
"What?"
"You know what I mean."
Gwen met Hawk's gaze and shrugged. "You sold blood back then. Did you ever sell... that?"
Hawk blinked. Then it clicked. His mouth twitched.
"No."
"You're sure?"
"I'm absolutely sure!"
Hawk met Gwen's suspicious gaze, his lips curving. "You know me. I don't like doing things myself."
Gwen paused. She felt Sharon standing right beside them—expression calm but eyes sharp and fixed on them both. Catching herself, she rolled her eyes at Hawk and quickly changed the subject.
"Then what's the deal with this girl?"
"Perhaps I can answer that."
A gentle voice came from outside. The next moment, the speaker pushed through the door.
Gwen looked toward the entrance, her eyes lighting up. She walked over and took the newcomer's arm. "Professor!"
The newcomer was a woman. Asian features.
An authority in the field of biology. Intelligence on par with Tony Stark. Widely regarded as one of the seven smartest people on the planet.
And also Gwen's mentor.
Helen Cho.
Hawk watched Dr. Cho enter and smiled, nodding in greeting. "Dr. Cho."
Helen Cho smiled back.
"Mr. Phoenix."
"Dr. Cho, you just said—" Sharon, standing to the side, quickly redirected the conversation.
Helen Cho walked to the couch and looked at the sleeping red-haired girl. Without any preamble, she turned to address all six people present—including Peter's family of three, who had followed her in from outside—and delivered her findings.
"I discovered evidence of editing in the foundational code of this girl's genome."
"Holy—!"
"Shit."
"Jesus Christ!"
The moment Helen Cho said this, Gwen, Peter, Felicia, and Sharon all sucked in sharp breaths.
Hawk didn't.
After all, he was a law student.
But—
He glanced at Sharon—who'd graduated from spy school but had gasped along with everyone else—with some curiosity.
"You understood what Dr. Cho meant?"
"Nope."
"...Then why'd you gasp?"
"Everyone else did."
Sharon answered with complete honesty. During her time as New York's top S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, she'd learned a few things about leadership.
For instance: Leaders didn't actually need to understand everything. They just needed their subordinates to think they did.
Gwen, after her sharp intake of breath, looked at Helen Cho.
"Professor—you're not talking about in vitro gametogenesis, are you?"
"Exactly."
Helen Cho nodded.
Hawk frowned and looked at Gwen. "Synthetic gamete... what does that mean?"
Gwen turned to Hawk. "It's a technology that extracts DNA information from blood, then artificially synthesizes gametes. Basically—as long as someone has your blood, they can synthesize your... little swimmers."
Hawk's eyebrow shot up.
The next second.
He looked again at the red-haired girl sleeping on the couch. Suddenly, he had a very good idea where she'd come from.
Three and a half years old. He'd been seventeen. Back then, only one organization had possessed his blood.
Hydra.
Just as this realization struck Hawk—
Without warning.
A soul pierced through time and space, entering Hawk's Underworld.
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~# 70 Advanced Chapters Available on my Patreon!
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