Erik

"Go home? Then what about them?" Namor jumped out again. Firefist being rescued at the last moment had already left him furious, and hearing Alex say something so irresponsible made him unable to hold back any longer. He burst into curses. "You selfish, cowardly bastard…"

"Calm down, think it over, and come back once you understand." Alex gave Namor an indifferent glance, left him behind, and immediately returned to the Howling Commandos’ camp with the others.

Looking at the empty surroundings, Namor’s face turned as red as pig liver with rage, even redder than the glaring pool of blood on the snow. "Alex, just you wait!"

At the camp, Steve looked at Alex hesitantly. Just as he was about to speak, Alex raised a hand to stop him. "Steve, that’s not how you lead a team. Blind tolerance will only make the team fall apart. Some people need to be put in their place."

With that, Alex left everyone behind and headed straight for his room.

At that moment, in a luxurious apartment in Germany, Red Devil stepped out of thin air with several people beside him.

After setting down the barely breathing Tin Man, Red Devil turned to Shaw and said coldly, "Shaw, we suffered heavy losses this time. You need to figure out how to explain this to Wang."

"As long as we get the thing, Wang definitely won’t blame us!" Shaw clenched his fists and said smugly. "Our man is already inside. Now we just wait for good news!"

At the Howling Commandos’ camp, Quicksilver watched Alex disappear through the doorway, then turned to Steve and the others beside him in confusion. "What do we do now?"

"Rest!" Nick swung his heavy machine gun onto his shoulder and walked toward his room. Logan and Natasha said nothing either, turning and leaving as well. Only Steve, lost in thought, and the utterly bewildered Quicksilver remained.

Back in his room, Alex saw Marx sitting obediently on the bed. A gentle smile immediately appeared on his face, and he quickly walked over and sat beside him. "Marx…"

The moment he called out the name, the child beside him interrupted him. His cold voice carried no emotion. "My name is Erik now. Erik Lehnsherr."

Alex paused slightly, then immediately corrected himself. "Erik, how did you end up with Sebastian Shaw?" Alex did not know why Erik had changed his name, but it clearly had not been a pleasant experience, so he wisely did not press further.

"He saved me, so I followed him." Erik turned to look at Alex, and a trace of life appeared on his gaunt, indifferent face. "Just like how you saved me back then."

"Erik, I didn’t mean to abandon you." Erik’s voice was calm, but Alex keenly sensed the resentment in his tone and hurriedly explained, "I went looking for you before, but unfortunately, you were already gone."

Erik stared at Alex for a long while, his gaze so indifferent that it was as if he were looking at a mass of air. Unable to bear that look, Alex guiltily shifted his eyes away.

The silence lasted for a long time, until Erik’s voice sounded once more.

"He’s dead!"

"What?" Alex came back to himself and looked at Erik in surprise.

"Jacob Eisenhart, my father." Erik’s voice remained calm, so calm that it did not sound like a child’s at all. "He didn’t die at their hands, but died…"

Alex froze. He remembered what the new tenant had told him when he had gone looking for Erik, and tears immediately began streaming down his face. He pulled Erik into his arms and kept saying, "I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…" At that moment, those were the only words Alex could use to express the guilt in his heart.

Erik’s expression finally shifted slightly. He lowered his eyes a little and watched Alex’s trembling body as two lines of tears involuntarily ran down his own face.

After a long while, the two finally stopped crying.

"What exactly happened? Tell me, Erik!" Alex gripped Erik’s shoulders tightly and asked in a low voice.

Erik looked up at Alex, hesitating slightly.

"Marx, tell me. What exactly happened?"

"After leaving London, Father brought me to a quiet village." Erik began speaking, a gentle smile appearing on his small face. "We planned to settle down there. They were all very friendly, and we lived happily for more than a month."

Suddenly, Erik’s face twisted viciously, and his voice filled with anger. "One day, they discovered my secret. They thought I was a wizard. They wanted to burn me alive!"

Alex listened quietly. His thoughts drifted to his mother, to the mother he had never met. Her experience had been similar to Erik’s, but fortunately, she had only been driven out of Chinatown, while Erik had faced the threat of being burned to death.

"We escaped, but they had no intention of letting us go." Erik’s expression returned to indifference. "To save me, Father died under their guns. Then he appeared, saved me, and took me away."

Alex fell into a long silence. He knew about the prejudice this world had always held toward mutants. It had created the moderate Professor X, who advocated peaceful coexistence with humans, and Magneto, the radical who insisted on eliminating humanity and establishing an order ruled by mutants.

But that had only been in movies. Alex had never truly realized or felt this discrimination, and not even his mother’s experience had made him face it squarely. Yet Erik’s experience truly moved him. Humanity’s attitude toward mutants had already become this extreme, to the point of taking lives!

At that moment, Alex suddenly realized that he had another responsibility on his shoulders. He wanted to change some things. Wrapping an arm around Erik’s shoulders, Alex said softly, "Erik, follow me. Everything will get better."

It would all begin with Magneto.

Erik still said nothing. He tilted his head up at Alex, and his icy, indifferent eyes wavered slightly.

"I promise, everything will get better." Alex swore solemnly. "No mutant will ever be bullied again."

Erik lowered his eyes and said quietly, "This was his scheme. He deliberately let you bring me back."

"What?" Alex froze.

"He’s looking for something. It’s on you." Erik spoke faster and faster, and his expression grew anxious. "He told me to pretend to submit and join you, then take the chance to kill all of you and bring the thing back."

"What thing?" Alex stared at Erik in shock, cold sweat continuously breaking out in his heart. Luckily, he had won Erik over, or the consequences would truly have been unimaginable.

"The Tesseract."

"What?!" Alex abruptly jumped up from the bed, wearing an utterly incredulous expression.

P.S. Scorpion is begging cutely for bookmarks, recommendations, and tips. Mwah!