"Gabrielle was an introverted but strong girl," Professor X lowered his eyelids, picked up the wineglass from the coffee table, and reflected, "Although she was not old, out of respect for her, people revered her as Ms. Harrell."
"I was drawn to her not for the things she revealed but for the pain and torment hidden deep within her heart," he said.
Strange and Stark sat quietly opposite, listening. Although Professor X was a very kind old man, he rarely analyzed himself or talked about the past. If not for the recent problem with Legion, this part of history would have remained forever sealed.
"Gabrielle witnessed her father die in a massacre," Professor X sighed softly, "Just as recorded in history, the NAZI forces deported them to a certain place and killed them, while young Gabrielle could only watch helplessly."
"As she grew older, she left Germany and lived like a normal person, never telling anyone how much trauma that childhood experience had caused her. She endured, until she completely lost her sanity."
"I saw her pain and thus treated her. I must say, that was the biggest mistake of my youth, without a doubt."
"Uh, because a doctor and a patient shouldn't..." Stark ventured.
"Not that; we didn't have a formal doctor-patient relationship. The mistake I am referring to is not having a child with her out of love, but rather that the treatment method I adopted for her was too abrupt."
"You didn't just erase her memory, did you?" Strange asked.
"Worse than that. I deleted that memory and constructed a new one for her, changing her background to having her father die of illness and her mother taking her to Israel," Professor X said.
"But the biggest problem was that her mother had actually left her before her father's death. At the time, I had misplaced compassion; I thought she deserved to feel her parents' love like any other person, so I projected the image of my own mother into her mind, thinking it would make her feel better."
"After we separated, I still believed that to be true until one day I made the same mistake again and realized that it didn't solve any problems."
"Human thinking is full of gaps, often illogical, too abstract, but sometimes it's also excessively rigorous, with every remembered detail corroborating each other," he explained.
"This means that to fabricate one lie, you must create a hundred others to support it. You need to generate enough details and ensure they all match; if just one doesn't, people fall into an endless cycle of doubt, which can be even more terrible than psychological trauma."
"Because psychological trauma, no matter how severe, is recognized as something that happened in the past. But if trapped in doubt, people cannot distinguish past, present, or future, don't know where they are, or what is real. This can make them nearly incapable of caring for themselves," he continued.
"After witnessing the tragedy caused by that mistake I made afterwards, I wanted to find Ms. Harrell, but I wasn't on Earth then, and Lilandra was... well, I was afraid to face her."
"When I realized David existed and saw his condition, I knew that his mother had probably had a very negative effect on him. I think Gabrielle didn't do it on purpose, which suggests she might have lost control," he said.
"As David grew up, his mother began to lose control," the Time Manipulator sighed; "She started to question everything around her, especially doubting whether certain things were real."
"She constantly asked how they came to Israel, what they encountered on the way, who they saw, and whether they had indeed reached Israel, or if they were in Hell, unable to escape."
"When those around her couldn't give her answers, she started questioning David," the Time Manipulator looked down and pursed his lips, "David said he didn't know, he said he hadn't experienced it, he said the war was long over, but his mother didn't believe him."
Miles and Gwen Spiderman exchanged glances. Gwen Spiderman said, "Very typical symptoms of schizophrenia. Why is this happening?"
"David wanted to know too," said the Time Manipulator. "But he was born long after the war had ended; he knew he couldn't find the answers to these questions, yet he had to find a way in his mind to alleviate his mother's suffering."
"But the only solution he found was to give his mother answers, so I was born. In David's fantasy, he was a superpower user who could traverse time at will. He went back to the past, saw with his own eyes how his mother came from Germany to Israel, how she met his biological father by chance, and how she came to Barry and gave birth to him."
"So David's personality is actually a fantasy from a certain moment?" Gwen stepped forward and asked.
"Not entirely," the Time Manipulator shook his head and walked to the window, the Spider-Men following behind. Through the huge floor-to-ceiling window, they could see Max, who possesses plasma flame abilities, still wandering in the plaza below.
"It could also be a person who left a deep impression on him at some moment, a guardian conceived in an accident to protect himself, his association with an object, or even the only character he could remember from a vague dream," he continued.
The Time Manipulator's gaze settled on Max, saying, "This man called Max was actually a victim David saw in a fire incident in Paris."
"At that time the house was fully ablaze, and this old man seemed too attached to his property, coming out last after most people had fled. Unfortunately, the flames had already consumed the foyer, and when he came out, he was already a fire man."
"David had never seen a human in this form; he didn't quite understand why the other had turned out this way. So he decided on his own that the other must be a superpower user with fire abilities, and so Max came to be."
"But actually, this name was not the true name of the old man; it belonged to a newsstand owner David knew before, who he thought bore some resemblance. Hence, that became Max's name," he explained.
"That's amazing," Miles exclaimed. "I also have some imaginary friends, but they only existed in my childhood's psychic battlefield. Why can his imaginary friends have superpowers?"
"That's David's Mutant Ability, the real David I'm talking about."
Gwen Spiderman immediately caught the implication and asked, "The real David, you mean to say there's a fake David?"
"The one who now claims to be David is not David at all," the Time Manipulator revealed a shocking secret, "The real David would never want all personalities to disappear like he does; we have never been a burden to him."
The Spider-Men felt they were getting closer to the truth, bombarding him with questions, but the Time Manipulator did not answer.
"If you want to know more, go find the Prophet. He answers all questions and knows everything."
After he spoke, the silhouette of the Time Manipulator disappeared, just as he had before.
The leading Shadow Spider-man sighed and said, "It seems we have no way of getting anything more out of him..."
Suddenly, with a whoosh, the Time Manipulator reappeared, his face showing the most significant expression of disbelief he had ever had—the shock was palpable.
"What is that thing???!!!"
Then he disappeared with a whoosh again, this time staying away slightly longer, but soon he reappeared, looking completely stunned.
"What's wrong with you?" Gwen asked with concern. She was genuinely worried something might have happened to the Time Manipulator, especially since he had just provided useful clues and they might need his help later on.
"There's something... odd in the time stream," said the Time Manipulator, looking flustered, "It looks like a black version of myself, but how is that possible? The time stream is not within the cosmos; no creature can live in it."
"Is it... dangerous?" Shadow Spider-man asked tentatively.
"I'm not sure." The Time Manipulator's gaze turned serious as he said, "It seems aggressive, but I didn't dare let it touch me. The time stream is full of perils, and if something goes wrong during transit, there's no telling where I might end up."
"So you don't have complete control over time?"
"No one can control time completely," the Time Manipulator said, "Some have just learned to adjust the flow of time and possess the ability to change its pace."
"All the time ability users you see control the same kind of time stream, so when their abilities affect you at the same time, only the command of the one with stronger time control will take effect."
"Priority principle?"
"Exactly." The Time Manipulator said, still puzzled, "But the time stream is not a space; it's something extremely abstract. Although we can travel through it, we cannot stay, and two time ability users won't encounter each other in it even if they use their powers simultaneously."
"So what do we do now?" Spider Man asked, "It sounds like a big problem."
"It will be a big problem because the time stream in David's Psychic Battlefield and the outside real world are interconnected."
"That means he might run off to the outside?"
"He might already be out there."
After a short pause, the Time Manipulator said, "You have to help me with something. I can't enter the time stream right now. You need to take me to another time-manipulating personality. In exchange, I can try to send you to the Prophet so that you won't have to defeat other personalities along the way."
The Spider-Men discussed briefly and agreed that even without an offer of a trade, they would have tried to help, as it sounded like a big problem—Nick was still working at the Time Management Bureau after all.
They set off quickly, and on the way, Miles, with a hint of curiosity, asked, "Which personality are you going to see?"
"Cole Norton," the Time Manipulator replied, walking briskly, "His appearance might be somewhat startling, so don't be too shocked when you see him."
Miles snorted, "We're not kids, we won't be easily startled."
20 minutes later, all the Spider-Men were left open-mouthed, staring at the massive figure that emerged into the yard. Calling it a personality was utterly wrong; the thing was a giant Dinosaur.
But what was even more outrageous was the Dinosaur chasing after him—it was even bigger, with a black head and upper body and a grey lower half. The color scheme reminded the Spider-Men of an old friend.