Chapter 79
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Note: This version of Xavier and Magneto are from the Xmen movies that began in 2000. The others seen are from the television series "the Gifted."
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Magneto had listened to "Joe's" advice regarding measures to take to ensure the safety of new refugees. But he was not going to base his plans on any one person's advice. He arranged for a meeting with his old friend Charles Xavier. He also invited others to this meeting. They included Caitlin Strucker and her husband Reed, Jace Turner, Blink, and Erg. In another world, Blink was the daughter of a different version of Magneto. Like her father, she did bad things that she felt were neccessary for the survival of mutant kind. Erg was the leader of the Morlocks, mutants who went to the sewars to escape humanity's persecutions. Reed Strucker was a mutant, who hid his identity for much of his life. Caitlin was his wife, the mother of their two mutant children. Caitlin had largely ignored the fight for mutant rights, until her children became targets, then she fought like hell. Jace's daughter was killed by mutants, after that he became part of the anti-mutant group the Purifiers. He had renounced them eventually, even tried to make amends with the Strucker family, but there was no changing the past.
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Magneto: Remind me why mr Turner is here.
Caitlin: We'll always have to deal with people like him, might help to know how they think.
Magneto: Fair enough. I've heard things about you, ms Strucker.
Erg: I assure you she's one of us.
Magneto: Perhaps. I've also heard you were an anti-abortion fanatic.
Caitlin: How?
Magneto: You blew up a facility that would have allowed pregnant women to know if their unborn children were mutants.
Caitlin: I didn't blow it up, I just destroyed the research. Look both pro-lifers and pro-choicers seemed to make some sense, I never really thought about where I stood. When they told me my pregnancy with my son was high risk, I just couldn't not have him. And, okay maybe I didn't want unborn children to be aborted because they were mutants.
Xavier: Perhaps we should get back to the issue at hand. How to protect new refugees.
Magneto: Not all mutants had special powers, some simply looked different. AMong my numbers, we had a rule. The strong were to protect the weak.
Erg: I had similar views.
Xavier: Except that you didn't always abide by them.
Magneto: In war, one must sometimes make difficult decisions.
Blink: That I understand. To stop a device and a man who could have destroyed all mutants, I blew up a plane, killing many civilians.
Jace: That's the kind of thinking, that turns ordinary people against your cause.
Magneto: He's actually right this time. Certain things might be neccessary, but one shouldn't underestimate the power of public opinion. We should consider all possible consequences before taking any such actions.
Xavier: Agreed. Chase Graves wishes to block new refugees from coming to Antarctica, I don't know how the Council will vote.
Magneto: We should not consider ourselves bound by this government, even an elected one.
Xavier: The irony is that even some of our current refugees are becoming fearful of new ones.
Erg: A lot of them are only concerned for their own peoples. I say we are all united by common enemies.
Jace: People outside Antarctica are just as scared. We keep building an army, they just get more scared.
Magneto: And we must therefore be ready with our own army.
Xavier: Both sides keep building up their armies, how long before war becomes inevitable?
Magneto: By all means Charles, if you can find a way to negotiate a peaceful solution that will placate enough people on both sides, go for it. I am not violent for the sake of violence. I am violent only when circumstances require it. I am fine with going before the United Nations with an olive branch in one hand, and a sword in the other. And I truley hope they will not make the olive branch fall from my hands.
