Chapter 860

Since my parents died, I've never had a home of my own; at boarding school, I had to share a dorm with people I hated, and even after I finally left, I could only rent a place outside.

North Star covered her forehead with both hands, instinctively shielding her expression, and said: "I was once kicked out by my landlord after a power surge, wandering the streets of New York at night—my power gave me nothing but protection from the cold, and allowed me to sleep without having to fight other homeless people for a corner."

"Later, I joined the X-Men. I admit, it was a healthy place—everyone smiled at you, and even when conflicts arose, Professor X always tried to mediate until both sides were satisfied."

"But I just couldn't stay there. I just… couldn't… do you understand? Every minute I spent there filled me with anxiety; every conversation with anyone there made me suffer."

"Then I left the X-Men. No one understood me. Even after returning to the Brotherhood, things didn't improve. I didn't want to see Erik. I didn't want to see that look on his face…"

"Later, mutants left Earth and came to the Andromeda Galaxy. We claimed a beautiful floating island, and I began dreaming of having my own home there—a warm house, decorated exactly how I liked it…"

North Star gently pressed her fingers to her eyes and said: "To achieve that goal, I fell in love with that job—even though it was nothing special, even terribly dull."

"With Erik around, I didn't have to do anything. Every day was just repetitive hauling and assembling. I'd say what shape I wanted the building parts to be, and Erik would say no—never explained why, but it was always no."

North Star's breath trembled as she said: "Maybe he thought I was too much trouble, always giving him strange, weird ideas to disrupt his work—so he sent me back."

"I returned to my old rented apartment, and then he followed me. I knew what he wanted to do—I knew he wanted to scream at me for causing him trouble, for not going back to school, for not working properly…"

"I truly wish he'd vanish from my life and never appear again!" North Star bit her lip and said: "Yet every time, he just barges in and starts dictating how I should live…"

Shi Le looked at North Star and said: "You say being with the X-Men made you feel terrible. Can you explain why?"

"I don't know." North Star shook her head. "I just felt everything there was fake—and it made me angry…"

"The future of mutants, my future—I've been thinking about these questions since I could remember. But the people in the X-Men didn't seem to like discussing them. They focused on the present, believing that solutions would always appear when needed."

"But I know there are no more paths left. They're numbing themselves, slowly dying. I want to warn them—but I don't want to be the one to spoil their dreams. If they want one last beautiful dream before destruction, let them have it."

"Do you think you're more awake than they are?" Shi Le asked.

"I've just had more experiences." North Star lowered her head, staring at her fingers. "The children who got into that school all had parents who still cared for them enough to send them off. Even if parents abandoned them, Professor X still cared for them…"

"Until they didn't realize mutants' situation was the same as mine once was—we could be thrown out at any moment. They've always been trying every way to drive us out."

"Yet many among us shout that if we behave well, if we please our landlords, we can stay. Some say we should make laws to restrict both landlords and tenants. Others say we simply won't move—what can they do to us?"

Shi Le lightly tapped his pen on the desk and said: "In what you just said, you used 'you' and 'we.' Do you believe mutants and humans are two different species?"

"I know the mainstream view is that mutants evolved from humans, so we should be one race…" North Star shook her head. "But the truth is—we're different, and we're not suited to live together."

"This may sound harsh, but I'm truly tired of living among ants. I'm not insulting ordinary people—but how am I supposed to control my power, how am I supposed to concentrate, to ensure not a single bit of it leaks? One tiny loss of control means thousands of ordinary people die."

"Should I just do nothing every day, obsess over my power's spread, monitor every fluctuation of magnetism, just to protect ordinary lives? Or else face endless insults?"

"Even if they'd never wronged me, I still couldn't live like this!"

"Alright, Miss Loona, calm down." Shi Le soothed North Star, then said: "Let's break this into two issues: one, your feelings toward your father; two, your worries about mutants' future."

"Let's start with the first. Let's ignore your backstory—just focus on how you two interact now. According to your description, Magneto Erik has said only two sentences to you. Do you think that's normal?"

North Star stared at Shi Le. Her expression seemed to say: "What's abnormal about that?"

"I mean, by normal human standards—would this be how a father and daughter reunite after a long separation?"

"I never saw him as my father. And I think he never saw me as his daughter." North Star turned her head away.

"We need to clarify the causality: Did you not see him as your father, and he not see you as his daughter, leading to how you interact? Or did your interaction style cause you to stop seeing him as your father, and him to stop seeing you as his daughter?"

Shi Le's words were convoluted. North Star fell silent for a moment, then said: "I don't know. Ever since I met him, it's always been like this."

"Alright. I won't call him your father. I won't even call him your friend. Just say he's a stranger. If we happened to meet in some apartment, would our conversation be like this?"

"He's just not normal!" North Star continued Shi Le's line. "I've met many people in my life—no one's ever been like him. He just glares every day, expects you to read his eyes, refuses to say a single extra word about anything!"

"You hit the point, Miss." Shi Le smiled. "He's not normal. What about you?"

North Star opened her mouth to reply, but Shi Le spoke first: "When someone you somewhat know suddenly appears, your first reaction is resistance, your second is aggression, your third is deliberately provoking him. Don't you think your behavior is problematic?"

North Star bit her lip and shook her head. "I've always been like this. I never thought there was anything wrong…"

Shi Le nodded. "The problem I mean isn't that you're insane or mentally unstable. It's that you haven't recognized that the emotions driving these behaviors are flawed."

"Resistance, aggression, and overreactions usually appear when people feel fear. What drives your behavior isn't hatred or resentment toward Magneto—it's fear."

"I…" North Star started to protest, then suddenly fell silent. The sound of keys clattering to the floor last night echoed in her ears.

"Clatter." A keychain fell to the ground, then rose and hovered before Charles. Magneto spoke: "That's it. She's afraid of me."

Charles frowned. "Loona isn't timid. She's not like some children who fear battle or injury. She's always been bold, fiercely strong. Why is she afraid of you?"

Magneto stared silently at Charles, as if waiting for an answer. Charles thought for a moment and said: "Fear often leaves lasting scars after a violent shock."

"You may not have frightened her this time. Or perhaps not even after she grew up and reunited with you."

Magneto frowned. Charles said to him: "Think carefully. When you first met little Loona, what did you say? What did you do?"

Magneto's expression grew distant in memory, merging with North Star's thoughtful face. At the same moment, in the surging tide of memory, both found the tiny fragment.

The blue sky and sea merged into one, waves crashing endlessly on the shore—each surge like an Impressionist brushstroke, wild yet exquisitely precise.

On a cliff not far from the shore, wreckage smoked heavily. Two small shadows approached the cliff. The young Magneto descended.

Looking at the wreckage, he faintly heard a child's sobs inside. He raised his hand—all plane fragments flew into the air, revealing Loona Dai En hidden beneath.

She was very young then, sitting amid the ruins like a broken doll.

At that moment, Magneto's gaze pierced time and space, looking again at young North Star. He realized: in the tear-filled eyes of little Loona, the look she gave him was not gratitude or relief—but deep fear.

"Back then, I didn't even know what a mutant was…" North Star bit her lip hard. "A strange man in a black robe and helmet dropped from the sky—and cleared away everything around me…"

"He walked toward me… walked toward me… like a monster!"

North Star's body began trembling. One hand gripped the table's edge tightly. "He locked all the magnetic fields nearby—I had nowhere to run. I couldn't move. Couldn't even speak…"

"Just like last night—he controlled all the magnetic fields around me. I couldn't fight him. I could only beg him to stay away…"

North Star clenched her fists so hard her knuckles turned white. "I screamed—because I knew, besides screaming for him to get away, I couldn't do anything else…"

"Stop recalling, Miss Loona." Shi Le sighed. "Relax. We need to discuss the origin of this fear."

"What origin?" North Star's face had gone pale. "Because of that tyrannical monster and his overwhelming power…"

To his surprise, Shi Le shook his head.

"No. You're not afraid of Magneto. You're afraid of mutants—and their unstoppable, ever-unstable power."