Following the series finale, 'Ascension', Magneto accepts Xavier's offer to teach a one-time class of the New Mutants. As he sees the kids being kids, he thinks about his own children and the mistakes he made in raising them.
Spoiler Warning: Minor spoilers for general 'X-Men: Evolution' canon, particularly the Apocalypse storyline in the last season. The story also borrows some from a short scene during the prophecy at the end of 'Ascension Part 2', with differences.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the places or, well, anything X-Men. Probably Marvel's, despite the insistence of some that they are the exclusive property of Stan Lee.
Cannonball was "it". Magneto knew that Cannonball was not his real name (it was Sam Guthrie, in fact) but nevertheless he was having trouble thinking of the boy, or any of the other students that were in the Danger Room with him, by anything other than his codename. For so long they had been, if not his enemies, then certainly rivals of sorts. He had known them by their powers, and now he was trying to know them as people instead. For that matter, it was nearly as hard coming to term with the fact that he himself was now no longer just Magneto, the mutant Master of Magnetism, but Erik Magnus Lehnsherr as well.
Cannonball… Sam… seemed to be having trouble catching anyone. His mutant power allowed him to move at great speeds, to shoot himself from a standing start like his namesake, and even lift off the ground like a rocket. The problem was that when he was using his power, he moved too fast to control. Changing direction was difficult, if not dangerous, and the others could dodge easily. Time to change the rules, Magneto told himself, and maybe give the boy a chance.
"Everybody! No powers!" There were slight groans from those students whose mutant powers lent themselves well to playing this game, particularly Iceman, or rather Bobby, whose ability to make ice slides that could take him around the room and up to the ceiling made him especially good at evading capture. But then… what was the fun in playing without some sort of twist, Magneto asked himself, and he stretched out with his hand and with his powers. A dozen metal disks moved into the playing area, arranging themselves as platforms around the room at various heights, and the players leapt on them with abandon, laughing as they dodged and weaved and leapt out of Sam's way as he got closer to catching them.
To his own great surprise, Magneto found he was laughing too as he watched them, hovering around near the top of the room for the best vantage point. Laughing wasn't something he was well known for, but he liked it. For the first time in what was probably his entire life, he was having fun. He'd never allowed himself to have fun before, but now those inhibitions were just gone. And the children, who had earned a collective nickname as the New Mutants for unknown reasons, were having fun too. Magneto wished that, at least once, he had taken this sort of time to play with his own children, Wanda and Pietro, but somehow it had never happened. He knew he hadn't been a very good father to them. His wife, whom he had loved dearly, had died in childbirth and he was a single parent to a pair of super-powered children that he had had no idea how to deal with. He'd made so many mistakes, putting his mission ahead of his family, sending Wanda to that awful school when her powers had got out of hand… He had been so wrapped up in his plans for mutant supremacy that he had seen them as powers and pawns and, to his shame, even obstacles in his path. Only too late had he realised that first and foremost, they were family. He deeply regretted those lost years and the distance that had grown between him and his offspring.
There was a girlish squeal as Sam finally managed to tag Magma (Amara) on the arm and she immediately took off after Wolfsbane (Rahne). Rahne's presence here was apparently something of an occasion. She'd been taken out of the Institute after mutants had been revealed to the public, and this was her first day back and the first lesson she had taken with her friends. The parents of another student, called Jubilee, still refused to let her return to the disappointment of staff and students alike. Making sure that no-one would fall and hurt themselves, Magneto used his powers of magnetism to rearrange the disks around the room and set them moving slowly in a spinning pattern. Sometimes the environment changed, after all. They'd have to get used to that.
Deciding that Rahne was too far away, Amara turned and hopped onto another platform and another, while Berserker (Ray) and Multiple (Jamie) and Iceman (Bobby) took off in new directions to avoid her.
Perhaps, mused Magneto as Amara and young Jamie ran in circles on the Danger Room floor, there was still a chance to set things right, as his friend Charles Xavier would have him believe. After all, these children, these New Mutants, accepted him readily enough. They had every right to hate him, because they were Xavier's students, and Xavier and Magneto had been at odds for years. Xavier believed that humans and mutants could live together in harmony, and it was a view that Magneto sometimes violently opposed. But then Magneto had witnessed true mutant supremacy in the actions of Apocalypse, whose anti-human outlook dwarfed Magneto's in terms of sheer scope and horror. Suddenly, Xavier did not seem so narrow-minded, his views did not seem so foolish, and Magneto, now Magnus Lehnsherr once again, had come to see the error of his ways.
Amara was sitting on top of Jamie now, pinning him on the ground, and everyone was laughing at Jamie's sour face. The door to the danger room opened, and the mutant Sunspot was standing in the doorway. What was his name again? Oh, yes.
"Roberto," said Magnus, floating down and landing with both feet on the floor, "nice of you to join us."
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Roberto was red in the face. He hadn't planned on being this late… he hadn't planned on being late at all, in fact he'd been looking forward to this session. Not only was Rahne back for the first time in what seemed years or longer, but having a lesson with Magneto was a once-in-a-lifetime chance and he wasn't going to pass it up. If he'd only remembered to set his alarm this morning he might even have been on time. He'd run the whole way as soon as he was ready, so as well as the embarrassment of walking in on his own and having everyone turn to look at him, he was also slightly out of breath. He briefly wondered why Amara was sitting on Jamie's back while he was lying in the middle of the room, but then Magneto started speaking.
"Roberto," said Magneto, lowering himself down in front of him, "nice of you to join us. Still, better late than never, and I think you're just in time for a new game. Anything goes with this one."
Jamie acted first. One moment, Amara was sitting just on one small boy, and then next she was sitting on a whole pile of identical Jamies. Some of them scrabbled away, and those still trapped underneath her just faded away, and Amara landed on the ground with a bump and an "Oop!" Roberto watched Rahne as she giggled at the antics. Cute, red-headed Rahne. He'd missed her since she'd been gone. She was easy to talk to, if annoying.
Everyone was in full uniform, so Roberto was suddenly thankful he'd thought of that in his rush to get here. Even Magneto was wearing his usual red armour and cape, though without the helmet that made him look dark and menacing. He was smiling. Magneto without his helmet even looked… friendly. The elder mutant waved his arm and the handful of floating disks cleared the room. He reached out again and a small coppery ball, just larger than a fist, shot into view and hung suspended some inches above his outstretched palm.
"The game," said Magneto, "is very simple. Catch the ball. Go!" And even as he spoke the last word, the ball spun off and danced in loops about the room. Magneto was limiting its speed but nothing else, and he had no qualms about suddenly changing its direction if someone got close. More than once Sam Guthrie aimed for where he thought it would be and charged, only to discover that it had stopped entirely and waited for him to crash into the far wall before moving off again. Jamie tried to surround the orb with his duplicates, but it was slippery and he couldn't contain it. Blasts from Bobby and Amara and Ray did nothing to slow it down. Rahne, fast as she was in her wolf-girl form, could not catch it either, especially when it flew up out of reach. Roberto just watched it for a while. He was neither agile nor fast (though he was working on both), but maybe he could help… He walked over to Rahne.
"Hey, Rahne, you want a boost?" She glanced sidelong at him.
"Can you do that?" He shrugged, and smirked.
"I think I've got just enough stored power for that, yeah." Her eyes shone with anticipation, and she stepped away for a run-up while he hunkered down and held his clasped hands out in front of him. Timing was everything, he thought as she ran at him, building speed. He could store solar energy for later use, but unless he was in direct sunlight it burned out quickly when he did use it. They'd have just one chance at this, and Roberto eyed the ball, just as Rahne herself was doing.
She shifted into full wolf form as she leapt onto his clenched fists, first her forelegs then back legs, and Roberto let the solar energy fill him. Just for a moment he felt the power surge and relished it, felt the corona surround him that made him look like he was an obsidian statue caught aflame, and he pushed up with all his might even as Rahne pounced. She somersaulted in the air, turning back to her human form as she did so, and enveloped the copper sphere against her chest and wrapped her arms around it.
At the top of the arc she started to fall again, but Bobby was ready and one of his ice slides cushioned her fall. Everyone gathered around as she slid down a gentle slope to a stop, the copper ball now inert in her arms. Once on her feet, she held it in the air with one hand and called out "I got it, I got it! I won!" Even Magneto laughed at her exuberance.
Rahne ran a victory lap around the Danger Room, half as a human and half as a red wolf clutching the ball in her jaws. And when she was done, she ran up to Roberto and kissed him on the cheek, whispering "Thank you".
And suddenly, Roberto was red in the face all over again.
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"I saw your session with the children this morning," said Charles Xavier later in the day. "You seem to fit into the role of teacher quite comfortably, Magnus." It was like old times again, with Xavier and Magneto friends again and conversing as equals. Magnus nodded.
"It was an invigorating experience," he agreed. "You do good work here, Charles."
"I am glad you think so. It means a lot to me. You know… there is always room for you here, at the Institute. Good teachers are always welcome, and the children seem to like you."
"They are young and innocent. They forgive quickly. I fear that some of the older students may not feel the same."
"Perhaps not at first, but give them a chance and forgiveness may come in time. Or are you thinking more about certain other young mutants? Ones who might be staying at a boarding house elsewhere in Bayville?" Magnus raised an eyebrow and smirked at his wheelchair-bound companion.
"Reading my mind, Charles?"
"No, Magnus, I hardly need telepathy to see that you worry for your children. What of Wanda and Pietro now?"
"They are back with their friends in the Brotherhood boarding house. It is… good that they have people they can rely on."
"You know that is not what I meant." Magnus sighed.
"I do not know. I have done many reprehensible things in my life, and none that I regret more than the way I dealt with my family. How do I begin to make amends for the things I did to them?"
"I am not sure there is an easy answer to that question, Magnus. Perhaps choosing to seek amends is itself a beginning."
"Tell me about the girl. Why did her parents send her back to school here? Surely they know nothing has changed."
"Wolfsbane? I don't know for certain. Perhaps there has been a problem at home that they couldn't deal with, or maybe we impressed them during our battle against Apocalypse. Perhaps, with her first year of High School fast approaching, they simply decided that she needed a good education. You could stay and become an educator yourself. Teaching the young ones might give you some insight about how to seek your reconciliation with Wanda and Pietro. If nothing else, being here will keep you close to them."
"Thank you for the offer, Charles, but I am not ready. There are powerful people looking for me, and my presence here could only endanger your students. It would be best for all concerned if I simply disappeared for a while. I need some time to myself, to contemplate matters."
"I understand, and you have my blessing. The position will still be there when you are finally ready to return."
"Thank you. I will keep it in mind. And I will arrange some means by which you can contact me, should the need arise." He held out his hand, which Charles took in a firm handshake.
"Take care, my friend."
"And you. I hope to see you again someday soon."
"I'm sure you will, Magnus. I'm sure you will."
This story is inspired by the potential future that Xavier witnessed at the end of 'Ascension Part 2', but you may notice that there are subtle differences. Most importantly, Jubilee is not present. Prophecy isn't completely reliable at the best of times, especially when you witness it second-hand.