In the training room.
The barbell slipped from his grip and floated more than two meters high, startling Raven, who quickly sat up.
"If half your attention is on concealing your difference, you can't do what you're supposed to do well."
Magneto walked in slowly and said.
His words referred to Mystique's struggling appearance while lifting the barbell earlier.
"Your strength is more than this, why hide it?"
Mystique had blue skin, covered in fine scales, and unlike ordinary people, possessed a certain degree of physical enhancement.
A heavy barbell would be very strenuous for an ordinary person, but it shouldn't have been that way for her.
However, she had been distracted, maintaining the appearance of an ordinary person, concealing her original look, and unable to use her full strength.
Whoosh!
Magneto's eyes moved, and he released control of the barbell.
Whoosh!
The heavy 100kg barbell, with a whooshing sound, fell from mid-air.
Raven was forced to revert to her original blue skin and yellow eyes, no longer maintaining her human appearance, and steadily caught the barbell with no effort.
Indeed, just as Magneto had said, she had been distracted by hiding her true form.
But no one likes to be lectured by someone they don't know well, especially after Magneto's impolite actions, which were infuriating.
"I guess you can stand here and say all this to me.
Because you've never been abandoned as a monster, wandered from childhood, had children throw stones at you, yelling for you to get away, forever unable to be accepted by society as an anomaly."
She said with anger.
"You want society to accept you, but you don't even accept your true self."
Shaking his head gently, Magneto's tone was serious, and his face showed highly infectious confidence and a smile.
"If I were you, I would never hide my appearance. You should be proud. You were born different; you are a miracle, a pioneer."
"We Mutants are ahead of everyone, at the forefront of evolution. The current you is like Copernicus, who, after discovering the truth, feared being labeled a heretic and tried desperately to hide himself, blending in with the foolish common people."
Raven, who had experienced many sensitive things since childhood, could feel that Magneto wasn't just saying it casually; he truly believed it. If he were like her, would he really do that?
Was she wrong? She was a pioneer, yet she wanted to blend in with ordinary people who were lagging behind on the evolutionary path?
After Magneto finished speaking, he turned and left, leaving Mystique deep in thought and confusion.
"I've always only thought about concealing myself, never accepting myself. Was that wrong?"
She put down the barbell, her eyes filled with struggle.
Knock, knock, a knock sounded, and Ron leaned against the door, arms crossed.
"Ron!"
Raven exclaimed, because she was currently in her true form. She turned her head, wanting to change back, to become that beautiful girl with blonde hair and brown eyes again.
But thinking of the discrimination from her childhood, she inexplicably felt some sadness and anger, stopped her movement, and turned back to look at Ron.
"You saw it. This is actually my true form, ugly and strange, like a Beast, like a demon."
"I did see it. I also heard what he said just now."
Lowering his arms and slowly walking in, Ron offered no comfort, indicating that he had heard what Magneto had said to her.
"Do you think he's right? Was I wrong to hide myself all this time?"
But seeing that Ron's expression hadn't changed, showing no shock or disgust, Raven's emotions seemed to be comforted, and she asked with slight nervousness.
Confused, she now needed someone she trusted to help her decide and guide her out of this crossroads.
"In some sense, he's not wrong."
Ron chuckled.
This moment could be considered one of the key turning points in Mystique's life.
It was after hearing Magneto's words today that she refused Hank's serum, which was supposedly able to restore her appearance to that of a normal person, and thereafter always showed herself in her blue-skinned form.
"Is that so? You also think I was wrong."
Lowering her head, Raven murmured softly. Already wavering, she began to consider whether to face people with her true appearance from now on.
"No, you are not wrong."
He shook his head gently, believing Raven was also not wrong, and refuted.
"Anyone can preach grand principles, but very few can actually follow them.
People are often not as strong as they imagine."
How many people can achieve a saint-like state of mind in theory, with terrifying mental resilience, indifferent to honor or disgrace, indifferent to the strange looks from others, and live their lives calmly and self-sufficiently?
Magneto thought he could do it, but that was his assumption; he had never truly faced it.
"Copernicus was indeed a scientific pioneer, but after he concluded the heliocentric theory, he feared the consequences of this theory and did not publish it for thirty years, living well until he died of old age in his bed."
"In contrast, his student Bruno, after his death, vigorously propagated the heliocentric theory, was denounced as a heretic by the church, and was burned alive while people cheered and watched."
Speaking of the example Magneto had given earlier, Ron said earnestly.
"Raven, the new era has not yet arrived. People who are too far ahead will not be understood or accepted by people of the old era!"
People cannot be separated from society; people's choices must consider the progress of the times.
"I... I understand."
Nodding, Raven's eyes became firm after hearing this, and she hesitantly asked a question she was very concerned about.
"Ron, for you, how do I look now?"
"Do you want the truth?"