Healing
Healing - Chapter 6
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Healing
Title: Healing
Verse: X-Men movieverse
Timeline: post X-Men: The Last Stand
Author: AngelofSnow
Pairing: Eventual Rogue/Magneto
Rating: Eventual M.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Magneto. If I did, I would be really
happy because he’s very sexy. Obviously I don’t own the X-Men either.
Summary: The Cure is only temporary. While healing Rogue and
Magneto find each other and realize they have more in common than they
originally thought.
Soundtrack: I
recommend the song “Demons” by Guster it relates well to Magneto in this
chapter.
Chapter Six: Lobster
Magneto:
As he left
the remains of the lab on Alcatraz, Magneto walked across the remains of the
great
allow his mutants access to the island. Even in the dark it was a magnificent
red steel structure looming hundreds of feet in the air. The bridge was a
testament to human ingenuity and it’s destruction a testament to mutant
resolve. Still he balked at seeing the consequences of his actions, the mighty
bridge left in ruins, its cables snapped, the length stranded miles from its
original stanchions. At the time his actions had been necessary, yet he hated
viewing the aftermath. It would take years to salvage the bridge and rebuild
it. With the rising tension between mutants and humans would he even live to
see it span again across
Francisco
A year ago
he never would have questioned his ability to wage war against humans and win.
This doubt was new to him, a byproduct of being brought low by the Cure. The
Cure had done more than just strip him of his power for a time; it had stripped
him of his pride and dignity as well. And it had forever robbed him of his
over-confidence. He would be more cautious now. The Cure had been a humbling
and terrible lesson to learn, but it had been an important one. You can never
take your strength for granted. Even the
great Magneto was fallible. Erik smiled at that.
He reached
out with his powers to feel the silent hum of the massive metal in the bridge.
The bridge felt larger than before, heavier. Reaching as far as he could he
pulled the metal toward him but was unable to budge it at all. Gone were his
days when he could levitate the likes of the
or a fleet of cop cars. He wondered if those days would ever return. Reaching
out he managed to pull a 12in crow bar to him, but his aim was off and it
clattered to the ground several feet to the left of him. Oh, how the mighty have fallen…
Perhaps more
disturbing then the humiliation of the Cure was its ability to make him feel
human again. Not only had it made him feel human again; it had made him
that was causing. Through the decades he had devoted himself to the cause of
Mutant Liberation; his life had revolved around his work. All of his personal
interactions were business related. When he slept with Mystique and other
mutants through out the years; that too had been strictly business.
Now that he
had had to live among humans again, as one of them, he began to remember parts
of his youth, before the camps, when his family had lived simply in a small
flat in
As his powers returned and he fought to regain control of them, his mind
drifted back to when Charles Xavier had helped him the first time around. After
the death of his family, Charles was the only person Erik had allowed himself
to love. Their brief, volatile relationship and later falling out had caused
Erik to withdraw more and more from human society and become Magneto.
Just minutes ago when he had seen his
own struggle mirrored in the eyes of young Rogue, something in him had
compelled him to help her. He knew without the Cure’s ability to dull her
mutation she too would withdraw from those around her. She was already the most
isolated of the X-Men; that was obvious to even a causal observer. He knew he
could have left her there to search among the broken slabs of concrete, but he
hadn’t had the heart. Her white streak of hair only served as a visual reminder
that she had many things in common with him.
After he had deceived her into
believing he still had his powers with the hand cuffs, he shocked himself by
offering to teach her. He still wasn’t sure where that had come from, but he
ran with the idea, realizing the benefits of a trained Rogue to his cause.
young woman and he had wanted to show off his ability to block her powers. He
could relate to her struggle with her mutation. And it had been a number of
months since he had been with Mystique before her capture. The kiss had seemed
liked a smart idea at the time, but now he reflected that he had probably
scared the poor girl from ever training with him.
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Having obtained the sample he
needed of the Cure, Magneto made plans to leave
apartment, instead pre-paying the landlord for a year’s worth of rent in
advance. Logically, the reason he kept the apartment was to serve as another
hideout in case he was ever on the run in the
But privately he acknowledged that he kept the apartment full of wooden
furniture to remind him of his frailty. He would not make the mistake of hubris
again.
Plans to reunite the Brotherhood
began in earnest. Magneto made several stops on his trip back to his island
fortress, meeting with contacts in abandoned buildings and churches, tracking
down the whereabouts of his former allies by word of mouth. Not for the first
time Erik wished he had the mental ability to power Cerebro the way Charles
had.
The first
step had been to contact his most loyal mutants and convince them to return. At
first they had been skeptical and hesitant. He couldn’t blame them. He had used
them unceremoniously in the fight at
knowing they would be facing the Cure, and still giving them no protection. The
mutants had insisted on proof that he was still Magneto, that he was still a
class four mutant worthy of leading them. He had replied by levitating the girl
with super speed, Callisto, by her myriad piercings. It had taken every ounce
of strength he had and afterward he had thrown up from the effort but they
bought it all the same.
The first
thing Erik had done returning to his island fortress in
Living off the coast of
had its advantages, fresh lobster being the only one. He had eaten the meal
alone in his study, the metal door swinging open for him easily. A lesser man
would have cried as the door swung neatly back in place with the use of his
power, but Magneto contained himself. He was back, weakened, but back.
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Preview: Next
chapter we see how Rogue spends her limited time being able to touch and learn
why she cannot stay with X-Men.