"Have you personally seen the old Professor watching mutants move toward extinction…"
Looking at the sad face of Professor X's sub-personality, Raymond already had a rough idea of his experiences.
The reason he asked this was because he had noticed that the sub-personalities he gained before—even if they came from the same world—were not always from the same period in time.
The Akainu sub-personality and the Kuro sub-personality were the best examples.
Kuro's sub-personality came from a time before the Straw Hat Pirates defeated him, while Akainu's sub-personality came from a time when he had already become Fleet Admiral of the Navy. Those two time periods were at least three or four years apart.
That was also why Kuro, when he first heard Akainu's name, instinctively addressed him as an Admiral.
In the X-Men: Days of Future Past world, there were actually three versions of the Professor—one was the young Professor, one was the old Professor after a life of hardship, and the last was the elderly Professor whose fate had been changed by Wolverine.
The Professor X sub-personality in front of him was clearly the tragic older version whose fate had not been altered.
"Just call me by my name, no need to be so formal," Raymond interrupted.
"Alright." Professor X's sub-personality nodded and went on. "I have a question. I'm not sure if it's okay to ask. If it's not, you can pretend I never asked…"
"Go ahead," Raymond signaled for him to continue.
"I know we all came into being because of you… but I want to know—those 'past memories' we have, are they real or fake?"
Professor X's sub-personality looked a bit lost as he spoke, with a touch of unease. "Or… are they all just things we imagined?"
Raymond was silent for a moment.
He could feel that when Professor X's sub-personality asked this question, the many other sub-personalities in his mind were still doing whatever they had been doing, appearing unchanged.
But since he hadn't deliberately cut off the shared senses between himself and them, they all heard his conversation with Professor X's sub-personality.
Once the question was asked, their attention was clearly drawn to it.
Even the Jiro sub-personality, who looked like an old man, and the usually unserious John Constantine sub-personality were no exceptions.
Obviously, Professor X was not the first to have such doubts.
But he was the first to directly ask Raymond this question.
The others had never asked—some maybe because they truly didn't care, but most likely because they felt it was too sensitive to bring up.
After all, they were all technically the same person, but Raymond, as the main personality, held the power of life and death.
Even if he couldn't erase them completely, he could lock them away in his mind forever, cutting off all contact and never letting them out again.
That was no different from erasing them.
Because of this, they might try to negotiate with him without crossing his bottom line, but they would never touch those truly sensitive topics.
What Professor X's sub-personality had just asked was exactly one of those very sensitive topics.
Something some of them might have thought about asking, but never dared to speak aloud.
Right now, all the sub-personalities were waiting to see how Raymond would respond.
They might not have asked this question themselves for many reasons, but now that Professor X's sub-personality had stepped up to ask it, none of them minded listening to the answer together.
Even the ones who didn't care much about the matter were watching just for the fun of it.
"Before I answer your question, I want to show you something…" Raymond suddenly stood up and walked to the door. "Wait here for me. I'll be right back."
Professor X's sub-personality nodded slightly.
A few minutes later, Raymond returned to the room—this time bringing someone with him.
It was none other than Sage, who had recently tried to use a "honey trap" on him, only to be countered in return.
"Calling me straight into your room is easy to misunderstand. What are you really trying to do?" Sage muttered softly before even entering.
"You'll know soon enough." Raymond stepped in after Sage, then shut the door.
When Sage saw that there was another "Raymond" already inside, her face instantly showed shock.
"He's…" she was stunned.
The Professor X sub-personality sitting in the chair immediately recognized her—clearly, there was someone identical to her in his world too.
This left him briefly confused.
"Dr. Raymond, what exactly are you trying to do, and what is going on here?" Sage's tone was now tinged with irritation.
After her initial shock, she realized that this "Raymond" in the room might be another form conjured by Raymond's abilities.
Such an ability wasn't rare; even some low-level mutants could do it.
She had already seen Raymond use many different abilities, so even if he showed a few more, she wouldn't be too surprised.
"Professor, her memories should have what you want. See for yourself." Raymond smiled.
Professor? Memories?… Sage caught those key words.
She didn't yet understand what Raymond was planning, nor the relationship between the "Raymond" in the chair and the one behind her.
But she did understand—Raymond was letting the "Raymond" in the chair look into her memories!
That was absolutely unacceptable!
Her heart jumped, and she immediately tried to escape.
But she was a moment too late…
The "Raymond" in the chair hesitated slightly, then gave her an apologetic look. "Forgive me, Tessa."
With those words, the world before her suddenly went dark!
When her vision cleared again, she found herself in a grayish-white space.
Around her was a semi-transparent, milky-white barrier that kept her enclosed.
Outside the barrier sat a bald old man in a wheelchair, looking at her with a complicated expression.
"It's been a long time, Tessa…" he said in a sighing tone.
"Professor?" Sage froze.
Because this man in the wheelchair was none other than Professor X—the one who had sent her to infiltrate the Hellfire Club!
"She's dead?" Raymond's familiar voice rang out, jolting Sage back to her senses.
She saw that behind the wheelchair, Raymond was standing with his hands on its back, speaking to this "Professor X."
"No! You're not the Professor!"
Raymond's sudden appearance reminded Sage that she had been pulled here from his room.
Everything in front of her was most likely the work of that other "Raymond" sitting in the chair!
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