Chapter 861: Starry Splendor (Part 3)

"Fear is the deepest and most difficult scar to eliminate in a person's soul, and what you are afraid of depends on what makes you feel fear by instinct for the first time."

"Seeing a black shadow darting across the wall quickly, people will feel fear, but the cause of fear is different. Some people are afraid of cockroaches, so when they see small black dots moving quickly, they associate them with cockroaches and feel afraid. Some people are afraid of ghosts, and when they see anything blurry but floating around, they feel afraid."

Schiller looked at Polaris and said: "Magneto Erik is likely the external manifestation of your fear, not the essence."

"To prove this to you, I need to ask you a few questions. First, has Magneto Erik ever truly hurt you? I mean, caused you substantial harm?"

Polaris was silent for a while and shook her head, saying: "No, he hasn't hurt me, at most he just controls the magnetic field around me."

"Alright, if there is no physical harm, then there must be mental harm. Before. Certain behaviors of his made you feel fear and caused mental trauma to you, especially his act of controlling the magnetic field around you, which might make normal people lose all sense of security. It can be said to be a kind of mental abuse."

"But we need to analyze the principle of his behavior. Do you feel that he made this move deliberately to abuse you?"

Polaris revealed an impatient expression and said: "Why don't you understand yet? He is a mental patient! He wouldn't do anything meaningless at all. If you go ask him this question now, he will only look at you with a contemptuous look and say 'What necessity do I have to abuse her?'"

"You hit the point again, Miss. He is not normal either, then what about you?"

"I..." Polaris paused.

"Don't rush to answer yet, Ms. Lorna. Let's recall another thing. Are your various abnormal behaviors toward him starting from the day you reunited with him, or starting from the time he told you the truth?"

"The day I reunited with him, he told me the truth." Polaris emphasized: "In order to make me join the Brotherhood,

"Then before this, have you never heard of the person Magneto?"

Polaris thought for a moment and said, "Of course I've heard of him. He is a very famous mutant, and his abilities are the same as mine. I have also looked into some information about him before..."

"At that time, did you feel fear?" Shiler asked.

Polaris shook her head and said, "I just found some old newspapers. They were all written about what kind of trouble he caused, and there were only a few pictures. What is there to be afraid of? On the contrary, I even thought he did a great job and it was very satisfying, unlike that bunch of people who only know how to negotiate."

"At that time, didn't you realize that he had the ability to kill you or control you?" Shiler asked again.

"But he didn't even know me at all! Back then, we were strangers. Why would he want to kill me?" Polaris spread her hands and said.

"Then after the relationship between the two of you became father and daughter, why would he want to kill you?" Shiler asked back.

"Your relationship didn't change from strangers to enemies, but from strangers to a closer father-daughter bond. During this time, he also never took any violent harm or control measures against you, and you also know he isn't a sadist. So why, on the contrary, do you feel that he might kill you at any moment?"

Polaris was silent for a moment, then said, "Yeah, he might not be trying to kill me on purpose, but what if one day... one day... he..."

Polaris's fingertips trembled slightly. Shiler stood up and poured her a glass of water. Polaris gulped the water down before saying, "You don't understand... you probably haven't seen it... you don't know how powerful he is. He can even... even..."

Polaris gripped the water glass in her hand tightly and said, "Even if he doesn't mean it, what if one day... he loses control? Or even if it's not losing control, just one day, he doesn't notice..."

"Do you see it now? Miss Lorna, what you are afraid of is precisely the fact that mutants can lose control at any time."

"You might not have noticed, but in your previous words, you kept saying that you couldn't pay attention to your power every single moment, and couldn't precisely control your power every time to protect the ordinary people around you."

"Such a line of reasoning means that you feel that as long as you are a little inattentive or have a moment of distraction, you might kill ordinary people. Even if you don't sympathize much with ordinary people, you are feeling fear because of this."

Shiler walked back to his seat and sat down. He said, "The source of this fear might be your own background. Back then, your power lost control, causing the plane to crash and killing your parents."

"Yes, Magneto found you in time and had Mastermind hypnotize you into forgetting this experience, but as the saying goes, memories can be forgotten, but the fear engraved in your instincts cannot."

"Your parents died because your power lost control, and you have no confidence at all in precisely mastering this power. You feel that any mutant's power will lose control, including Magneto Erik."

"Your power losing control killed your parents, and his power losing control could kill you, as well as everyone around you."

"Stop talking!" Polaris's tone trembled slightly. She said, "I control my power very well! I have never caused any trouble! I control it even better than the X-Men..."

"That is only because you have indeed put in far more energy than others to restrict your power." Shiler sighed and said, "Charles says you are gifted, but in reality, you have not displayed power commensurate with your talent."

"From the very beginning, you have been working hard to control your power, preferring that it not be so powerful, and it is best if it doesn't lose control. But in fact, other mutants follow their instincts; they don't precisely control every sliver of power like you do."

"You couldn't stay with the X-Men, and that might be the reason too. You discovered that others didn't restrain themselves like you did. You felt the same fear because you knew that there were many powerful mutants there, and once their power lost control, no one could save you."

"You aren't even willing to stay in any place with powerful mutants because you feel that the tragedy of your parents could repeat itself on you at any time."

"You don't live with those mutants, choosing to rent an apartment in New York, and even if you are kicked out by the landlord, you are unwilling to join those mutant organizations..."

"You think you are on the side of the mutants, but in fact, you stand closer to ordinary people. Like ordinary people, you are afraid of the uncontrollability of mutants."

Polaris's face was very pale at this moment. Every word of Shiler's made her heart tremble.

She tried her best to deny every word in his speech, but her reason was telling her that this psychiatrist was right.

Back then, when she had just started taking physics classes at the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Magneto had come once to show all the students the changes in the stars and the universe.

Polaris was very interested in the black hole in his hand and had tried to create one herself, but for some reason, she just couldn't succeed.

She remembered that what she was thinking in her mind at the time was: it doesn't matter if it doesn't succeed, as long as it doesn't explode.

But if you look at the style of the other students, if it explodes, it explodes; as long as it can succeed in the end, that's fine.

Shiler took a sip of water and said, "Professor Charles often says he thinks highly of you. Perhaps what he thinks highly of is not just your ability, but also your stance. And your father, Magneto, perhaps understands this point, which is why he wants you to return to the ordinary people."

"I want her to return to the ordinary people." Magneto rarely said a long sentence, and Charles didn't feel surprised. He nodded and said, "I know, Lorna often expresses that she hates ordinary people very much, but this actually stems from the fact that she has suffered from school bullying."

"But in fact, she is much less trouble than other mutants. Even Iceman and Havok have caused trouble in ordinary society, but Polaris never has. She seems to have always been worried about her powerful strength, even at the cost of sacrificing the intensity of her abilities to ensure the precision of her control."

"She has always been afraid." Magneto's voice was very low. He stood up, walked to the door, and said to Charles, "I only hope to teach her... that fear has never been useful."

After he left, Charles closed his eyes, sighed, and whispered, "So, you make yourself never feel fear, and you also make yourself never have other emotions—no fear, no anger, no sadness, and no love... naturally impeccable."

Charles gripped the arms of his chair tightly. The furrows on his skin were telling the story that he was no longer young.

Charles thought that for so many years, he had maintained a peaceful state of mind, wanting to solve the mutant issue peacefully.

But every time he felt endless anger and wanted to break his own principles, it was because of Erik.

It was not because his stance was different from his own, but because of what he had suffered and what he had sacrificed for mutants.

Charles took a deep breath, opened his eyes, and looked out the window. At this moment, falling leaves were rustling down, like a golden rain falling outside the window. The wind swirled the leaves. Charles knew this was just the final tranquility before the storm.

A golden ginkgo leaf fell from the window. Nick Fury withdrew his gaze. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and sat down. On both sides of the long table were agents with clean backgrounds, such as Coulson, Natasha, Hill, Mark, and Ward.

Nick's tone had never been this serious before. He said, "Today I received news from the military. At 6 PM this evening, I will head to a secret base to attend a secret meeting."

"The theme of the meeting is to sign a secret agreement, and the content of this agreement is... how to eliminate mutants."

Natasha opened her eyes slightly and said, "Are they crazy? The Solar System Construction Project is short of people everywhere, yet they want to eliminate mutants?"

"It is precisely because the Solar System Construction Project is short of people everywhere that they must eliminate mutants, because they don't want mutants to occupy too many positions in this project and exert too much influence."

"If your house is about to be renovated, would you let a tenant who once rented this house participate in it? To decide what the house should be renovated into, what style it should be decorated with? Or even let them personally adjust the water pipes and electrical wires?"

Coulson said somewhat anxiously, "But don't they have a new house in the Andromeda Galaxy? There's no need to..."

"But do you think mutants will leave voluntarily?" Nick looked at the tabletop in front of him and said, "The people organizing the meeting think they won't, and they feel that it is necessary for ordinary people to give them a hand."

"The Solar System Construction Project is progressing very quickly, but it will be a long time before humanity heads into space to obtain infinite resources. And in a situation where resources are still limited, the rich want to be richer. Do you understand what I mean?"

Nick's hands clenched. One could even see his knuckles turning white under his black skin. He said, "With the shadow of the Iron Curtain, they don't dare to exploit ordinary people blatantly, but eliminating and attacking mutants is something all ordinary people love to see. As long as they take the lead, ordinary people all over the world will cheer."

Nick pinched his fingers and said, "Shiler cut off their path of diverting domestic pressure by inciting international conflicts, forcing them to work together, but this doesn't mean that domestic pressure will disappear. We all know where the pressure comes from."

"They need to find another way to divert this pressure, and mutants are the best targets to operate on."

"They have always done this, haven't they?" Hill spoke up. "That so-called Sentinel robot, hasn't it appeared several times already? Our agents have caught its tail several times, unfortunately..."

Nick Fury's gaze gradually turned cold, as if he had remembered something. The aura he exuded made people remember that he was also a giant ship that had ridden the wind and waves and successfully reached the shore during that magnificent era.

The change in Nick's attitude made everyone look at him. He said:

"When I was young, I once saw the hope of humanity heading into space, but that hope was quickly shattered..."

"This time, it is the last chance. We have everything—the right time, the right place, and the right people. Therefore, we can only succeed; we cannot fail."

"I won't let them do this..." Nick lowered his head, closed his eyes, and said, "This means they absolutely won't be able to do it."

"Go, sound the alarm..." Nick's voice was as distant as if it had passed through an entire era.

He looked at the world map across from his seat. The patterns on it were so large, yet they seemed so small. He said:

"Get ready. Perhaps this is the final battle."