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Hawk listened to Natasha's voice on the other end of the line, his eyebrow arching slightly.
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
Natasha, now back at SHIELD's Triskelion headquarters, spoke with certainty. "The scars on his body match the paper files from when we first arrested him. Every single one."
She paused, looking through the glass at Dr. Merrick, who was preparing for yet another round of testing.
"Are you sure you're not wrong about this?"
"Impossible."
Hawk smiled dryly. "He's got a problem. I guarantee it."
Like he'd said before—he didn't know why this Merrick had a soul. But his Sixth Sense was screaming at him. This Merrick was a clone.
Natasha heard the absolute conviction in Hawk's voice and didn't push back. "Alright. Director Hill is bringing in someone to run a DNA telomere length test on him."
If this Merrick really was compromised, that test would expose it.
Natural human DNA degraded over time. Accumulated mutations. Telomeres shortened with age.
But if this Dr. Merrick was a clone, the test would prove it.
Hawk wasn't stupid. He was a second-year law student at NYU.
And his fiancée Gwen studied biology.
So, After hearing SHIELD planned to run a telomere test on Merrick, Hawk thought for a moment. "Add a bone age scan while you're at it."
Dr. Merrick hadn't been missing that long.
If the man they'd captured was a clone, he'd have to be a rush job—pumped full of growth hormones to reach maturity fast.
And if he'd been artificially aged, his bones wouldn't lie. Just like tree rings—real growth versus fake growth could be distinguished.
Natasha acknowledged the suggestion and hung up.
Hawk ended the call as well.
He was already ninety percent certain the Merrick they'd captured was a clone.
What he couldn't figure out was where the clone's soul had come from.
Souls were the exclusive domain of dimensions that controlled the Laws of Life and Death. There was no way Mephisto had given it to him, right?
Mephisto was the stingiest bastard in existence. Hawk could believe the demon had cut some kind of deal with HYDRA.
But voluntarily handing over a soul? Not a chance in hell.
Hawk had practically had to start a war with the Gods just to force Mephisto to reluctantly return his sister's soul.
And Alexander Pierce's soul—
Unless you held a knife to Mephisto's throat, the old demon would never part with a single soul. Not even for his allies.
Most importantly, Hawk had been to Hell. If this soul had come from Mephisto, he would have sensed it.
But he hadn't detected even a trace of Hell's corruption on the soul inside Dr. Merrick.
It was strange.
Hawk pocketed his phone as he walked back toward the manor, his mind turning over the faint, pure scent he'd detected on Merrick's soul—something vaguely familiar that he couldn't quite place.
...
Soon.
When he stepped back into the main hall and his gaze landed on Caroline Fox—Gwen's cousin, sitting cross-legged on the sofa near the fireplace—the puzzle piece finally clicked into place.
Caroline carried a trace of that same scent.
Wait.
So did Damon, the vampire.
But the scent on Caroline and Damon was different from the one embedded in Merrick's soul. Theirs wasn't inherent—it was like they'd come into contact with someone who carried that scent naturally, and it had rubbed off on them.
Caroline's trace was stronger.
Damon's was faint.
That explained why Hawk hadn't made the connection when he'd encountered Damon, but it had clicked the moment he'd seen Caroline again.
Who did both Caroline and Damon know?
Hawk's mind rifled through the main cast of The Vampire Diaries as he made his way toward the living room at Gwen's beckoning.
He pulled out his phone and handed it back to Gwen.
Gwen took it, then looked at him.
"Is everything okay?"
"Yeah. Just an update on yesterday's situation. Final results aren't in yet."
Hawk smiled as he sat down on the sofa across from them, smoothly steering the conversation toward Caroline's college plans. "Caroline, have you decided on a school yet?"
Gwen laughed and glanced at Caroline beside her. "I was just asking her the same thing."
"And?"
"She said she hasn't decided yet."
Gwen shook her head and turned to Caroline. "You've only got one semester left after this year. High school isn't the end—it's just the beginning. College isn't the end either. It's the starting line. And a good college determines where that starting line is."
Caroline smiled. "Gwen, you sound just like my mom."
She still hadn't looked at Hawk.
For some reason, she was scared of him. Even though they'd only been in the same room for less than two hours.
But she couldn't shake the feeling. She was terrified of him.
Gwen heard Caroline's teasing and shook her head, about to respond when the sound of the front door opening made both of them turn.
Two people entered.
One was a middle-aged woman in a police uniform who bore a striking resemblance to Helen.
The other was a younger woman, probably around Caroline's age.
The officer was Liz Fox.
Gwen's aunt. Caroline's mother.
As for the young woman—
Elena Gilbert.
The moment they walked in, Gwen and Caroline both turned to look.
The next second, Gwen stood up from the sofa, smiling brightly as she walked over and embraced her aunt. "Aunt Liz!"
Caroline, meanwhile, moved toward her friend Elena, concerned. "Elena, what's wrong?"
Elena visibly relaxed when she saw Caroline was alive and well.
Because just moments ago, Damon had stumbled back to town covered in blood, scaring the hell out of both Stefan and Elena, who had been on a date.
Damon told them a stranger had shown up at Caroline's grandfather's estate. And that stranger had beaten him within an inch of his life.
Stefan and Elena had assumed the werewolves were back and had rushed over to rescue Caroline.
On the way, they'd run into Sheriff Fox—Caroline's mother, Liz.
Elena had quickly improvised, saying they were just coming to visit Caroline.
And so, The two of them had entered together.
Stefan, meanwhile, stayed outside as backup. If there really were werewolves inside, sending him in would have been suicide.
But...
Nothing seemed wrong here.
Just some strangers she didn't recognize.
Was it him?
Elena's gaze landed on the man who had followed Gwen over, shaking hands with Liz under Gwen's introduction.
Gwen, she knew. Caroline's cousin from New York.
But this guy—Hawk...
Elena turned to Caroline.
"Who is he?"
"Hawk. My cousin's fiancé."
"Fiancé?"
Elena blinked, glancing at Hawk and Gwen before lowering her voice. "Isn't your cousin only twenty?"
Caroline nodded. "Yeah. She said they met when they were sixteen."
Elena's expression cleared.
"Childhood sweethearts."
"...I guess."
Caroline thought about it and nodded, though she still felt like Gwen's retelling of how she and Hawk had met, fallen in love, and gotten engaged had been... artistically enhanced.
But she had no proof.
Caroline shook off the thought and looked at Elena, who had shown up so suddenly. "By the way, Elena, why are you here?"
Elena snapped back to attention.
"Let's talk outside."
"Okay."
The two turned and headed for the door.
Hawk, standing beside Gwen as she chatted with Aunt Liz, caught the movement out of the corner of his eye but didn't pay it much mind.
His earlier confusion had already been answered.
Now he just needed to find an opportunity to confirm his theory.
No rush.
He was here to help Gwen visit her family. Not to work.
...
Outside the manor.
Stefan had been anxiously waiting by the car ever since Elena and Liz had gone inside. The moment he saw his girlfriend and Caroline emerge, relief washed over him.
Caroline, however, was completely confused.
"What's going on? Did Jules come back?"
"No."
Elena shook her head, then explained what had happened—Damon coming back badly wounded, saying the person who'd nearly killed him had come from the Fox estate.
Damon got hurt?
Caroline frowned. For some reason, she didn't feel worried. If anything, she felt... vindicated.
Damon was a piece of garbage, after all.
Ever since becoming a vampire, Caroline had regained the memories Damon had compelled away—memories of him using her as a blood bag and worse.
Still—
"Someone from our estate? That doesn't make sense. The only people there today are my cousin and her fian—"
Caroline stopped mid-sentence, her eyes widening as she turned to Elena.
"It was him?"
"..."
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