Once Asleep for Ten Years

Savage Land, Floating Temple. After a night of drunken revelry, Emma slowly woke, rubbing her bleary eyes. Feeling as though her head was about to split apart, she could not help frowning in pain. Three women lay sprawled beside her—Vivien Leigh and the other two.

Emma was no ordinary person and was in much better shape than the three women. She slowly sat up and looked around in surprise. "Who put us on the bed?" She remembered that the four of them had drunk themselves senseless in the main hall of the Floating Temple last night. Her last vague memory was of collapsing right there.

"Could it have been Little Logan?" The moment she started thinking, her head hurt unbearably. She stopped dwelling on it and rolled over, about to get out of bed.

Just as she was about to rise, Emma froze. Staring blankly at the person who had suddenly appeared before her, excitement gave way to disappointment. She shook her head and smiled bitterly. "Another dream!"

"Emma, you’re not dreaming." Looking at her, Alex grew emotional, his voice trembling.

That familiar voice, forever etched into her memories, rang out. Emma shuddered, and the bitterness on her face deepened. With a trace of self-mockery, she said, "I’m already sober, yet I’m still hearing things."

Hearing Emma’s words and seeing her expression, Alex could no longer hold back. Tears poured down his face like a bursting river. "Emma, I’m Alex. I’m back. I really came back!"

Emma shuddered again and slowly raised her head. She stared at Alex in utter disbelief, hesitant and afraid. Two streams of tears spilled from her eyes. "You… are you really… Alex?"

Alex nodded frantically through tears and snot, his guilt toward Emma and the others growing even heavier. How many decades did a person have in a lifetime? They had waited ten years for him. How long would it take him to repay them? Even a lifetime would not be enough.

Their voices woke Vivien Leigh and the other two women. Seeing Alex standing there so suddenly, they were just as hesitant and lost as Emma, unable to believe it. "Alex, is that really you?"

As they spoke, tears streamed down all their faces.

"I’m sorry! I’m sorry!" Alex repeated over and over as he opened his arms and pulled all four women into his embrace with all his strength, as though he wanted to knead them into his body.

After crying for a long while, the women finally stopped. Their eyes were red as they stared at Alex without blinking.

Audrey tightly hugged Alex around the waist, resting her little head against his chest and listening to his powerful heartbeat. She asked softly, "Big brother, where have you been these past ten years?!"

Hearing the faint reproach in Audrey’s voice, Alex felt even guiltier. Thinking of his own past ten years, he could only laugh bitterly. His voice was filled with anguish. "I’ve been sleeping all these ten years." When he woke from one sleep, ten years had already passed. For Alex, it was an unimaginable kind of pain.

Obviously, no one believed him. They all looked at him with reproachful expressions, thinking he was joking.

Seeing their expressions, Alex gave a bitter smile and told them about his experiences over the past ten years. Of course, others had told him these things. While he had been asleep, he knew nothing of what had happened outside.

When Alex finished, the four women all stared at him in shock. They could not imagine that he had truly slept for ten years!

Seeing the bitterness on Alex’s face, Emma was about to comfort him when intense sounds of fighting suddenly erupted outside, mixed with several angry shouts.

Emma frowned slightly. Thinking of the nonstop battles and harassment over the past ten years, she felt worried. "Could Sebastian Shaw and his people have sent someone to cause trouble again?"

"Sebastian Shaw? What happened?" Alex had only just returned and had no idea what had happened over the past decade.

Emma had no time to explain. She hurried toward the door, contacting the X-Men as she ran.

Not understanding what was happening, Alex could only follow Emma out of the room. Vivien Leigh and the other two naturally did not lag behind.

When they ran outside, they saw a man and a woman fighting. The woman was none other than Crystal, who had left Attilan with Alex. The man was unfamiliar, around twenty-five or twenty-six years old, though Alex found him vaguely familiar.

Seeing this, Alex knew there had to be some misunderstanding. He flashed between them, grabbing the young man’s arm with one hand while blocking the fist of earth and stone under Crystal’s control with the other. "Crystal, he’s one of us!"

Crystal glanced at Alex and snorted. With a casual wave, she dispersed the earthen fist she had formed. Without even looking at anyone else, she wrapped herself around Alex’s arm and complained coquettishly, "We’ve already wasted an entire night. When are you leaving to find my sister?"

"Who is she?" Women often had extraordinary intuition. Seeing Crystal clinging to Alex’s arm, Emma and the other three exchanged looks and stared at Alex darkly.

Alex already felt guilty toward the four women. The moment he saw their expressions, he immediately shook off Crystal and hurriedly explained, "She’s my cousin. She came out with me this time to look for her missing older sister."

Before the women could ask anything else, Alex turned to Crystal. "Crystal, why did you start fighting with someone for no reason?"

"It’s not my fault. This brat came charging in and started attacking me." Crystal glared at Alex, then pointed at the young man who had somehow moved to Emma’s side, shouting in displeasure.

Alex followed her gesture. He kept feeling that the young man looked familiar. Just as he was racking his brains, the young man spoke.

"Little Dad!"

Alex froze. He stared blankly at the young man, his face full of disbelief. "Little Logan?"

Little Logan nodded fiercely, then charged at Alex like a moth to a flame and hugged him tightly. "Little Dad, I missed you so much!"

Looking down at Little Logan, who had thrown himself into his arms, Alex was utterly stunned. Little Logan was only fifteen at most. How had he turned into a young man of twenty-five or twenty-six?

Then he remembered that Little Logan had looked eight or nine years old when he was only four. It made sense that he had grown into this. Besides, as Little Logan matured, he looked more and more like his father.

"Right, where’s Qiqi?" Seeing Little Logan, Alex could not help thinking of the Little Fire Dragon. Ever since he had brought Little Logan back, it had usually been the one taking Little Logan all over the world.

"Qiqi is at the front lines!" Little Logan turned to Emma, a trace of dejection on his sharply defined face. "I want to go to the front lines too, but Little Mom won’t let me."

Hearing that, Alex could not help recalling what Emma had said earlier: "Could Sebastian Shaw and his people have sent someone to cause trouble again?" Filled with questions, Alex turned toward Emma.

Just as he was about to speak, a huge crowd swarmed in from all directions. Murderous intent covered every face, and one person in the middle began cursing at the top of his lungs.

"Where did this little bastard come from? How dare he break into the temple!"