Hawk listened to Natasha's voice on the phone, his eyebrows furrowing slightly.
"Is it confirmed?"
"Yes."
Natasha, already back at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Three Feathers Headquarters, spoke up: "The scars on him match perfectly with the paper records from our first arrest."
At this point.
Natasha glanced through the glass at Dr. Merrick, still inside preparing for the tests, and pondered.
"Could it be that you're mistaken?"
"Impossible."
Hawk chuckled: "There's definitely something wrong with him."
It's still the same.
Although he wasn't sure why the found Merrick had a soul, his Sixth Sense told him this Merrick was also a clone.
Natasha, hearing Hawk's decisive response, didn't press further: "Alright, Director Hill plans to have someone test Merrick's DNA telomere length."
If this Merrick indeed has issues, then this test will surely reveal it.
Because the DNA of natural persons gets damaged over time and accumulates mutations, resulting in shorter telomeres.
But if Dr. Merrick is also a clone, this test will surely produce results.
Hawk isn't foolish; he's at least a sophomore law student at New York University School of Law.
His fiancée Gwen also studies biology.
So...
After hearing that S.H.I.E.L.D planned to perform the DNA telomere test on Merrick, Hawk thought for a moment: "Add a penetrating bone age test."
Dr. Merrick hasn't been missing for long.
If the Merrick they've caught is a clone, it must have been rapidly developed with hormones from the real Dr. Merrick.
Since it's accelerated growth, its bone age shouldn't lie, much like tree rings, where real and fake rings can be distinguished.
Hearing Hawk's request, Natasha agreed and hung up the phone.
Hawk hung up as well.
He was basically 90% certain that the captured Dr. Merrick was a clone.
Hawk just couldn't understand where the soul of the Merrick clone came from.
After all, souls are only possessed by those who control the dimensions of Life and Death Law, and it couldn't possibly have been given by Mephisto.
That's impossible.
Considering how stingy Mephisto is, believing he teamed up with Hydra is something Hawk accepts.
But the idea that Mephisto would casually give away a soul is something Hawk absolutely refuses to believe.
When he asked Mephisto for his sister's soul, it almost forced him to start a divine war to get Mephisto to reluctantly hand it over.
And Alexander Pierce's soul...
In short, unless you're holding a knife to Mephisto's throat, the old demon won't agree to compromise; otherwise, you wouldn't dream of getting any soul from him, even if you're his ally.
The most important point.
Hawk had been to Hell, so if this soul was from Mephisto, he would sense it too.
Yet he couldn't detect any Hell-like aura from the soul of this 90% clone Dr. Merrick.
Thus...
It was very strange.
As Hawk recalled the pure scent he sensed from Dr. Merrick's soul, he felt it becoming familiar, and he tucked his phone away, walking into the manor's main building.
Soon enough.
When he entered the main building again, his gaze fell on Gwen's cousin Caroline, sitting cross-legged by the fireplace chatting, and the confusion in his heart over the familiarity of the scent on Dr. Merrick's soul finally found an answer.
Gwen's cousin Caroline carried a hint of that scent.
Wrong.
And the Vampire Damon.
But this scent on Dr. Merrick's soul differed; neither Caroline's nor Damon's soul possessed it naturally. It seemed more like they came into contact with souls carrying that scent and were stained.
Caroline's scent was relatively strong.
While Damon's was lighter.
This was why Hawk hadn't realized it when he first saw Damon but suddenly became aware when he saw Caroline again.
So...
Who could be the person both Caroline and Damon knew?
Hawk subtly recalled the main characters from 'The Vampire Diaries,' as he walked over to the living room at Gwen's beckoning.
He took out his phone and handed it back to Gwen.
Gwen reached out to take it and looked at Hawk.
"Come back by Christmas Eve."
"Don't worry."
"Just yesterday's matter, calling to tell me the results, but the final outcome isn't ready yet."
Hawk replied with a smile, then shifted the topic to Caroline's university choices for next year's graduation: "Caroline, have you chosen your university?"
Upon hearing this, Gwen chuckled, glanced at Caroline beside her, and spoke to Hawk: "I was just asking her the same thing."
"And the result?"
"She said she hasn't decided yet."
Gwen shook her head and then turned to Caroline beside her: "After this year, you only have one semester left. High school is not the end of our lives; university is not the end either, but a beginning. A good university decides your future starting point."
Caroline replied with a laugh: "Gwen, your tone is like my mom."
She didn't look at Hawk.
For some reason, she felt somewhat afraid of Hawk, despite it being less than two hours since they started.
But she felt genuinely scared of Hawk.
Gwen listened to Caroline's teasing and shook her head. Just as she was about to speak, someone else came in from outside.
To be precise, it was two people.
A middle-aged female sheriff dressed in a police uniform, looking quite similar to Helen.
The other was a young woman about Caroline's age.
The sheriff was called Liz Fox.
She is Gwen's aunt, Caroline's mother.
As for that young woman.
Elena Gilbert!
As the two walked in, Gwen and Caroline, who had been talking in the living room, turned their heads to look over.
The next second.
Gwen got up from the sofa, happily walked over, and hugged her aunt Liz Fox: "Aunt!"
At this moment, Caroline had also reached her friend Elena's side, thinking something had happened: "Elena, what's wrong?"
Elena breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Caroline was still alive.
Because just now, Damon, covered in blood, had run back, startling Stefan and her during their date.
Damon told the two that a stranger had come to Caroline's grandfather's house, and he was injured by that stranger.
After listening, Stefan and Elena thought it was a werewolf attacking again and wanted to rescue Caroline immediately.
When the two were on their way, they encountered Sheriff Fox, who is Caroline's mother Liz.
Elena reacted quickly, saying that she was here to find Caroline.
And so.
The two came in together.
As for Stefan, he stayed outside for backup in case there really was a werewolf inside; going in would put Stefan in danger.
But...
It didn't seem like there was anything wrong here.
There was just a completely unfamiliar stranger.
Was it him?
Elena's gaze fell on the man who had followed them from the couch and was shaking Liz's hand, introduced by Gwen—Hawk.
She knew Gwen, who was Caroline's cousin in New York City.
But this man named Hawk...
Elena looked over to her friend Caroline.
"He is..."
"Hawk, my cousin's fiancé."
"Fiancé?"
Elena heard this, glanced at Hawk and Gwen beside them, and lowered her voice: "Isn't your cousin only twenty years old?"
Caroline nodded: "Yes, my cousin said they met when they were sixteen."
Elena understood.
"Childhood friends."
"...Sort of."
Caroline thought for a moment and agreed, even though she felt that her cousin's story of how she and Hawk met and fell in love seemed a bit embellished.
But she had no proof.
Caroline thought, then looked at Elena, who had suddenly come to find her: "By the way, Elena, you came here because..."
Elena also came back to her senses.
"Let's talk outside."
"Okay."
The two then turned and walked outside.
Meanwhile, Hawk, who was beside Gwen, chatting with her and Aunt Liz, glanced at Caroline and the girl named Elena as they turned to go outside, but didn't pay much attention.
However, his previous confusion had been resolved.
Next, he would find an opportunity to verify his guess.
There was no rush for this.
He was here to accompany Gwen to meet relatives, not to handle personal matters.
Outside the manor.
Stefan, who had been anxiously waiting by the car ever since his girlfriend Elena went inside with Liz, was relieved to see his girlfriend and Caroline coming out of the manor.
Only Caroline was puzzled.
"What happened? Has Julius attacked again?"
"No."
Elena shook her head and looked at Caroline, recounting Damon's story of being seriously injured and returning home. Then she said to Caroline, "Damon said the guy who almost killed him came from Fox Manor."
Damon got injured?
Caroline frowned. For some reason, she wasn't worried; instead, she felt a sense of schadenfreude.
After all, Damon was a scoundrel.
Since Caroline became a vampire, she had recovered the memories of being used by Damon under compulsion.
But...
"Coming out of our manor? Impossible, it was just my cousin and her fiancé..."
Caroline paused mid-sentence, blinked, and looked at Elena.
"Is it him?"
"..."