First of all I would like to thank Cat2fat900 for her review she posted in one of my other stories because it made me remember Magneto is not evil and has never been evil so I decided to do what know one has done for evolution Magneto or as far as I know any other x-men genre. How Magneto became Magneto? Why is he like he is.
Home and Happiness
"Magnus!" cried grandma Lehnser as she scanned the trees surrounding their encampment as he home fires burned.
Her grandson came out of the woods singing one of their songs, the songs that had been passed down through their people for hundreds of years. He was the joy of their family, he was a strapping boy even though he was only eleven years old he already looked thirteen or fourteen. He walked up to his grandmother and gave her a hug, he had not yet known a day of unhappiness in his life but all of that would soon change.
Magnus had lived his entire life as part of their travelling family, they were not always welcomed wherever they went ant people would spit at them and call them "Gypsy filth" but none of this bothered him, he was a good Jew, he prayed, he observed the rituals and obeyed the commandments so he did not care what others thought of his life. There were twelve different families in his travelling group.
He sat and ate that evening at the table in the woods with his Grandmother, Mother, Father, Uncle and young cousin who was like a little sister to him. His mother took her grandchildren into her arms and hugged the two before she sat down and began to tell them stories of Moses and Passover and stories of when her and their grandfather were young about the pixies and trolls that lived around the Germany wilderness they grew up in.
…
Young Magnus lay by the fire that night staring up at the stars, he loved to do this and wonder about everyone else who was looking at the stars on earth and in space. He was a bright child maybe even a genius and knew about many things, he knew trouble would come eventually, whilst his parents tried to hide the truth he had caught snippets of conversation and parts of newspaper reports another great war had started and those who ran Germany, Nazis disliked Jews and Gypsies. He didn't worry too much though as he drifted into sleep.
…
He awoke in the early morning as his mother screamed and fought against her attacker, his cousin was screaming, grandmother crying whilst his uncle and father yelled and the men yelled back "Get down…Achtung…Now…Please no…" the attackers and his families cries and shrieks blurred into one in the night as the struggle continued, it didn't take long as he was grabbed by the neck and thrown into the arms of his grandmother and the other members of the Caravan group.
"Those of you between the ages of 16 and fourteen shall be taken to work camps those who are left will be cleansed" said one of the soldiers as the others raised their guns to the line of old women and young children. His cousin was the first in the line to die, she was not however the first to die as the guard took aim, her father, Magnus's uncle Albert lashed out with his elbows to the guard and dived in front of his daughter the lead seared in his body and he convulsed, the blood ran slowly from his body, he had been shot in the stomach one of the slowest ways to die with the most pain but he kept his cries of pain in for a few seconds as he kissed his daughter on the forehead as she kneeled by his body "be brave your mother and I shall wait for you, we will be a family soon" seconds later he and his daughter had their lives ended.
Magnus was next, tears ran down his cheeks as he screamed for his parents but daren't move, there was a loud bang and his body fell limply into the trench that they had been using for a toilet. Those that were present could not have known but he was not dead the bullet had been slowed by his powers to such a speed it just grazed his skin, he himself did not even know of his powers, Magnus did not even know he survived till later that night.
He awoke in the pit crushed by the smell and the weight of the bodies that lay on top of him, he opened his eyes and could see only death, his grandmother's body now cold rested heavily upon him and he could hear the muffled laughter and song of the troops as they camped in his families camp site for the night, he pushed away his grandmothers body and cried, the weight pushed down on him as another body tumbled onto him. Magnus dug himself out of the trench of bodies and crawled slowly up the small embankment, he was covered in filth and excrement but what filled his mind were the bodies, he paused for a second to vomit before slowly stumbling to his feet and into the campsite.
The music died instantly as the soldiers looked at him, their half eaten meal on the table while those who had cooked it sat huddled and shackled nearby, several of the families held back his mother and father from rushing to him when they saw him. They would have died if they had tried to save him they knew that but he was their only son.
The German officer who led the soldiers looked at the boy who stood covered in excrement and his own vomit, fire reflected in his tear filed eyes and hatred was carved across his face. "Hans, I think this boy could pass for almost 16 do you?" a man who Magnus guessed was Hans nodded "I dare say any child who could survive being shot and was still able to dig themselves from the bodies of his family and friends would make an excellent worker."
…
The truck that carried them to the train station smelled like death but it didn't matter his mother and father held him close, so close he couldn't even cry if he wanted to but he didn't feel like crying something had changed. He did not want to cry, today he came of age, today he was a man even if he was forced into being one before he was ready. He fell asleep around 6am and woke up at around midday as the truck came to a stop, he was bundled from the truck roughly, he was joined by other trucks full of other prisoners. The rain beat down heavily turning the path to the train platforms into a muddy track, the groups were bundled down the track in a muddled line, Magnus's mother kept tight hold of his hand. In front of them people were being pushed in either direction to one of two trains, Magnus walked as the wet cold mud seeped into his rough shoes, he felt it beneath his toes and the feeling made him retch but he continued to walk the only other option was to die at the hands of the Nazis. His father was forced onto the first train and his mother followed after him, the guard grabbed Magnus and pushed him towards the other train, Magnus stopped in his tracks and turned to his mother who was being dragged screaming by his father to the other train, both were crying as now was Magnus. Magnus walked towards the other train but was stopped by a guard who grabbed him.
"Help me!" yelled the guard when he found he could not hold the boy back, several more guards rushed to help and even raised Magnus from the floor but could not move him, their feet slid in the mud towards the train as if pulled by some giant magnet, the gates which stood between Magnus and his family began to buckle and the hinges creaked as if they were being torn apart. One guard approached Magnus and slammed the but of his gun into his head causing the boy to pass into unconsciousness and collapse in the mud.
…
Magnus woke in the crowded train compartment, the people were jammed in like cattle several had killed themselves and lay limply around the cabin but no one avoided them as Magnus expected them too, they sat around the body as if happy for the space that the corpse gave them from anything living, they didn't want to think about living they felt their lives were over so why bother think about the living.
Magnus had not cried on the truck but had cried on the muddy track and he cried now but this time he knew why his family was gone everyone he knew he would never see them again, his mother and father were ill, they had been ill for a while and he knew they would not survive the coming winter in a work camp. He did not cry before because his family were there and he was a man but now he cried because he was a man, he had the worries of a man and lost the joy and innocence of childhood in the last night and now he knew he would never be free again he would die in the work camp. He smiled at a girl who was about 16 with long brown hair who caught his eye and she smiled back before turning back to her parents and continued their conversation.
Magnus lay on the floor and span a loose screw with his mind, he did not realise he was doing it, the screw just span one way for a couple of turns and then the other, he thought it was the movement of the train that was doing it, he thought it was a dream the last thing he was expecting was the trauma of that day had began him on the long road to mastering magnetism, nothing would have shown his change if it was not for his hair which overnight changed from its rich dark brown to brilliant white.
The train came to a stop in the morning and the Nazis opened the door ushering them onto the platform, snow covered the concrete and the fields which stretched into the distance, Magnus could see about a mile down a muddy track which led away from the platform his new home, a set of one storey buildings surrounded by wire fences which looked like an evil blotch on the beautiful winter wonderland, one shove from a guard was all he needed as he began to walk along the track towards his prison…
To Be Continued…
