Title: A Meeting of Minds
Series: Their Fond Pageant, Part One
Fandom: X-Men
Pairing: Magneto/Jean
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Author's Notes: I am not the biggest fan of X3, but it did introduce to me the idea of Magneto and Jean as a rather tortured and entirely wrong couple. So I'm playing with it. This story follows the movieverse timeline (though it may bring in some elements of both Magneto's and Jean's past that are not directly shown in the movies) and begins after Xavier's death, Erik has brought Jean to his secret lair.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Jean awoke with a start. Her eyes flicked rapidly side to side, taking in the rough walls, the bare floors, and the man sitting quietly in the near darkness.
"Erik."
"Welcome back, Jean." He spoke with quiet authority in an attempt to establish control early. She met his gaze a moment, then blinked away to peer about the room again.
"Where am I?" Her voice was low and she spoke with very little inflection.
"In my encampment. Well hidden from both the government and the X-men." He paused to watch her but the word drew no reaction. He continued, "You're quite safe, child."
Immediately she scowled and he knew he'd reached her. "I'm not a child."
"No. Of course not." He smiled. "Please forgive the conceits of an old man."
Her scowl turned into a knowing smile. "Don't try to fool a telepath, Erik. You don't think of yourself as old." He chuckled and stood. This is going to be fun. The thought was his but in his mind he heard the chuckle echoed in a woman's voice. She held his gaze as he walked across the room to sit by her side. He could feel her brushing his mind with her telepathy. He shied from the intimacy but knew in order to gain her confidence he must show her his trust. From his many years of friendship with Charles he knew how to lower the mental shields everyone commands without knowing it. Once this signal was given, the tentative brush turned into a connection stronger than any he'd shared with Xavier. She'd opened a direct two way mental communication between them.
He found himself reliving some of his earliest memories, they were spinning so quickly before him he couldn't identify the exact circumstances. His mother singing. His father cooking. A candle. A fence shaking. A billow of smoke curling into the sky. The flow of memory slowed and he found himself in Auschwitz, carrying the bodies of other children from the gas chamber to the fires. He felt Jean probing him, forcing him to relive the moment, together they felt his fear and pain coalesce into a dark and determined rage. A rage that fueled his survival. A rage that shaped his life. A rage that allowed the detachment required to carry the bodies of children who succumbed to the fear and pain; a rage that allowed the detachment required to sacrifice young Rogue, and others like her, to his plans; a rage that allowed the detachment required to leave Mystique behind. Satisfied, Jean returned to spinning through his memories.
He watched, somewhat less detached, as his younger self began anew after the war. Magda's smile. Rose petals falling. Anya's tiny hands reaching up to him. Then fire and Anya's screams. Darkness. Charles Xavier. Jean started with recognition, then confusion as if she'd forgotten she knew the man whose memories she was sharing. She watched Charles and Erik build their school together and the super computer beneath its walls. The years continued to fly by. Jean started again and now Erik smiled as she recognized herself walking down the stairs. She slowed the memory.
Erik had seen something in Jean instantly, he'd been drawn to the power she flaunted, the beauty she carried, he'd seen a power in her that spurned him on toward the man he eventually became, the one who couldn't stay working with Xavier in the school. Surprised by this revelation Jean allowed Erik to view the memory from her perspective. She'd paid little notice to him, far more interested in, and surprisingly frightened of, Xavier. But despite her focus on Charles she'd taken note of what he'd said about her. She'd tucked the memory deep within herself but he felt a warmth from her now. She realized he wasn't afraid of her.
The memories began to stir again and he watched as his relationship with Charles darkened until the confrontation that had left one man crippled and the other broken. Jean felt his regret deepen, felt the resurgent rage that allowed him to shut away his feelings as needed. Moments flickered by. Fashioning his helmet. Mystique's glowing eyes. Erik's flash of recognition while watching Jean speak before congress. Again she was interested in what he thought of her and surprised to find he was sad to see her. He barely recognized the fiery girl he'd met. Jean blinked as the memory stream continued. Jean's own memories began to overlap with his. Senator Kennedy's fear. The Statue of Liberty. Rogue's defiance. Logan's biting remark that Magneto should be in the machine in the girl's place. Erik noticed Jean hesitated when Logan appeared. Jean noticed Erik was affected by Logan's words. They both shied from the memory and shaken, Jean forced the stream onward furiously.
The memories were spinning by so quickly now Erik couldn't identify anything. Jean was no longer trying to share his memories, she was filtering through them, searching for something she couldn't remember herself but knew was important. She stopped suddenly when she saw herself, shining eyes and face twisted into a visage she barely recognized. She watched from Erik's perspective as Charles Xavier's atoms were dispersed in a blaze of light and power.
"NO!" The noise Jean made was barely a word, it was pure anguish. Erik was flung from her mind. The room was shaking around him as Jean's telekinesis escaped her control. He could feel echoes of her mind and tried to reestablish the mental connection but all he got for his efforts was an image of Logan holding Jean's face. Unable to think of anything better to do Erik mimicked the image.
"Jean. Jean! Look at me!" He grasped her face, pulled her gaze down until she was looking directly into his eyes. "Jean." Her eyes were wide with fear and loathing but he had her attention.
"I didn't mean to." Her voice was like a child's. He nodded.
"I know." As he spoke he realized the truth of his words. He understood better than anyone could the pain she was feeling, the self-hatred that was eating at her. He projected this revelation at her. Though he had no sense that she was receiving him telepathically he continued to send his words mentally as well as verbally. "I know, Jean. I understand. We can work through this together." He felt her mental touch again and allowed her access to his memory of Charles, his own despair that the man who when all was said and done he'd loved was gone. Time stood still and the room faded away again as their thoughts and feelings merged. Erik felt a tear slip from his eye, watched as its match fell down Jean's cheek, her expression a mirror of his anguish. Then he felt something shift, felt her access once again the rage that sat in his core and allowed him to play the monster when needed. She blinked once and the child disappeared, replaced by the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen. She was hardly recognizable as the woman he knew, she barely appeared human at all. Her eyes were alight with fire, her body glowed with an undefined power. He realized she was no longer simply in his mind. She was everywhere, within him and without. Something primal stirred in the air between them and without thought he let her go just long enough to pull her into a passionate embrace.
End Part One
Thank you to AngelofSnow for the beta!