[Alex considers this. It feels almost true. But there's a niggling wrongness at the edges of the hypothetical that make him think . . . probably not.]

It's hard enough to believe in people, [is what he says eventually, revealing a burden that doesn't feel like one until abruptly it very much does.] It seems like a lot to ask, that I should believe in anything more.

I wish I could. It's just not in me.

[The brand of faith he clings to is inspired by human beings, or mutants, or being analogous thereto. He believes that no one is without hope, without potential. But God? No. Probably never again.]