"Feel the sides of your waist." Shiller said, "On both the left and right, there is a protruding bone, which is the anterior superior iliac spine."
Clark involuntarily reached down to his own waist, just above the top of his legs and a little higher, where he could feel a hard bone jutting forward.
The term was a bit complex, Clark had never heard it before, but he knew that this matter might be related to that bone.
"The injury is located here," Shiller said, "below the fourth lumbar spine's spinous process, where there is no spinal cord, only the cauda equina."
Professional terms were plentiful, and Clark felt like he understood, but also not quite; he asked, "Does that make a difference?"
"The spinal cord is one solid mass," Shiller said, "The texture is similar to pudding that hasn't fully set, whereas the cauda equina is loose, like tangled weeds pinched together."
"If a bullet were to hit the spinal cord directly, it could indeed result in paralysis, but if it only enters the cauda equina, the number of affected nerves would be limited. Considering the angle at which the bullet entered, the damage is not that severe. It might cause the right leg to be inconvenient to move but wouldn't lead to outright paralysis."
Clark's mouth hung open in astonishment; he said, "Are you saying that Professor Xavier didn't become paralyzed because of this?"
"He never was paralyzed."
After Shiller finished speaking, his expression gradually became animated as he looked at Clark and said, "What do you think? Found any clues?"
Clark hesitated before speaking, "What's going on here? If Professor X isn't paralyzed because of this incident, then what caused it?"
"Maybe he was never paralyzed at all," Shiller said with a laugh, suggesting a ludicrous possibility, "He has been sitting in a wheelchair for decades just because Erik thought he wouldn't come."
"What?????"
There was an expression on Clark's face that could not simply be described as complex, with a premonitory sense of his worldview collapsing; it seemed he was desperately trying to stop Shiller from uttering any more mentally contaminating statements while also being intensely curious to listen.
"No, don't say any more," Clark's strong will triumphed over his curiosity, "I'll go ask him myself, I'll ask Erik."
Clark went up, then came back down with a stunned face.
"How did it go?" Shiller asked as he blew on the coffee in his hand.
"He said he knew," Clark said blankly, sitting on the sofa, "He said he knew Professor X had never been paralyzed."
"And then?"
"He said some things I can't qualify as human speech."
"What specifically?"
"I don't know, I really don't know," Clark shook his head, looking at Shiller as if he were clutching at straws, "It's not what I thought, right?"
"If you continue investigating, you'll also find that Charles once had an episode of losing control of his abilities," Shiller said as he fiddled with the handle of his cup, recalling the words Charles had spoken when they went ice fishing together.
"That could be said to be the starting point of their twisted fate, but in fact, that was no loss of control; it was intentional by Charles."
"Only by demonstrating his strength and posing a threat could he capture Erik's attention, and only by constantly drawing the other's attention could he hope to manipulate him."
"So the one who really went mad wasn't Erik, but Charles???" Clark said, incredulously.
"I've told you, there are only two outcomes to studying psychology: since Charles isn't dead, he must have gone mad."
Clark completely failed to understand. From the information he investigated and from what he witnessed, Erik always seemed to be the dominant partner in their relationship, even the invasive one, as he was always very irascible and intractable.
The facts also seemed to agree with this. The whole world thought that Magneto was causing trouble for mutants while Professor X was constantly cleaning up after him, dealing with the messes.
But the truth might be otherwise; the real manipulator could be Charles, who from the beginning had the upper hand.
"If you investigate Charles Xavier's early years, you will find that Charles and Professor X seem like two different people," Shiller said, "The early Charles was no saint; there were reports everywhere about his promiscuity and scandals."
Clark was genuinely unaware. Recalling the image in his mind of the old man in the wheelchair, he said, "He doesn't seem like that kind of person; he appears calm, stable, kind, a good teacher, and a good elder."
"He was never that person."
"But perhaps he grew as a person? Maybe some major event changed him..." Clark trailed off, unable to continue because if there had been a major event, it would've been the paralysis. But if he had never been paralyzed, could he really undergo such a complete transformation?
"Charles was never a saint, or rather, he might be the more seriously ill of the two, but his giftedness allowed him to weave a very perfect human disguise, much like me."
"Just like you…" Clark couldn't help but move further away again; he still remembered what had happened between Shiller and Batman.
Essentially, the primary reason why no one intervened in the four years of mutual torment between Shiller and Batman was that Shiller appeared to be a good teacher, a world-renowned psychologist, with a perfectly human mask.
"So, is this the same?" Clark furrowed his brow deeply and said, "So, whether it's a sudden surge in power or paralysis, they are both Charles' tricks with Erik? Then why didn't Erik… Oh, I see, he actually couldn't…"
As he spoke, Clark stood up and rushed upstairs, then came down again with a stunned look on his face.
"What did he say?"
"He said he knows, he said he's aware it's all Charles' game, and he also said he knows how the two of them got to where they are today, and how he became what he is today."
Once more, Clark sat rigidly on the couch, his super brain nearly smoking as he couldn't figure out what was happening.
"You could completely compare him to Batman and me, I mean, my other personality trait and Batman."
"The difference, though, is that Charles doesn't want to save Erik; he only wants to drag him down, so they will always be confidants, never alone, and he succeeded."
"If I hadn't pushed Bruce onto another path, perhaps we would have ended up like that too, manipulator and manipulated, indebted and being owed, dragging on until we had countless old and unresolved accounts, unable to be discussed separately in the public eye. How could that not be considered a lifelong confidant?"
Clark fell silent and then said, "This is too morbid."
"Do you think Erik is completely innocent then? Has he not enjoyed any warmth while indulging in it? And knowing he might drown, did he not struggle at all?"
"Is it really worth it?"
"It's very hard for an outsider to judge if it's worth it because you've neither lost nor gained, had cravings fulfilled, been abandoned and then reclaimed; you haven't had that kind of pressure, so you can never understand, many people in the world don't care about health, they just want pleasure."
"They know full well what damage some morbid relationships will cause them, just like the cigarettes and alcohol they can never quit, but it comforts them, allowing them to relax for a while in their long, hopeless lives. Why not?"
Shiller looked into Clark's eyes and said, "If you can understand their basic need to eat, then you also need to understand that they are not just low-level creatures who only want food. Human emotional needs are far greater than those of beasts, they might even give up the last straw in their hands for feelings."
"They are fragile and insane; because of their fragility, they are insane. Fragility has caused them to lose too much, so they desperately want to take back and make up for it, and it's not strange to see them forsake their lives for it."
"Then why did you push Bruce onto another path, Professor?"
"I am not a professor, but from the standpoint of a bystander, maybe because someone once pushed me onto another path."
"Who?... Your parents?"
"No, my doctor."
Shiller smiled and said to Clark, "You see, that's how this world is, it treats people the way they treat it, and people treat others the way society treats them."
"In this world, not only you are like a mirror; we too reflect all of our experiences and education to the society around us and other people. These connections are the sturdiest pillars in an anthill."
"But good reflects good, and bad reflects bad," Clark said. "If Charles could do what you did, then Magneto wouldn't have…"
"Good or bad isn't important," Shiller said. "What's important is the connection bred by this reflection. As long as a person has such a connection with society and other people, they can never leave this tiny piece of the world. Even if they become so powerful as to leave the ants behind, they must return here in the end."
"Some are born lonely, more like a star that has fallen out of the constellation, as they can't form a stable connection due to their vast differences from the human race, a weak species."
"But as long as one person reflects them, good or bad, whether pushing them onto another path or dragging them down, as long as there is a connection, then this person can become the channel through which they connect with the world."
"They will no longer be alone, no longer float idly above the anthill watching the stars turn, but can participate, experiencing the hustle and bustle of civilization from an empathetic view."
Clark saw Magneto walk out the door and stand by it, listening quietly to Shiller's words.
"For such powerful individuals, how to live doesn't matter; the strong connection with those reflecting them ensures they will deepen their tie with society step by step, until they are no longer alone."
"Rather than for the hustle and bustle, it's for the very people who have tried hard for them, for the connection itself, that how they live becomes unimportant. "
"So they won't be self-pitying or suffering, nor do they need others to try to make corrections."
"In the end, after all is said and done, grand goals and ideals are forgotten, all endeavors are for those who once had a connection with them to then mirror others, establishing their own new connections."
"From being the one answering the questions to the one setting them, that's the rule of how this world operates. We have come this far by these connections, and I think the exam paper of my other self is almost complete, but some people... seem to still be contemplating their questions."
Shiller and Clark turned their heads together, only to see Magneto's retreating figure as he turned away.