Disclaimer: I do not own anything you may recognize
Thank you to everyone who has favorited, followed or reviewed this fic so far.
Thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer for scenes help once more, couldn't have done it without him. And thanks to Stand with Ward and Queen for a suggestion too.
Also *Spoilers for The Boys Season 3* I'm loving the Season so far, if it maintains this quality till the end, might become my favorite Season.
And they also introduced Soldier Boy, who is not a cringey evil parody of Captain America like I was expecting, and his backstory is way different too from my expectations. I find him quite compelling so far.
In this 'Heroes' series, he was a cringey evil parody of Cap, and was a popular superhero before Homelander but seemingly retired until Vought brought him back due to Homelander's plane disaster, but he was a different Soldier Boy from the previous one who did fight in WWII, and Vought tried to claim he's the same.
A combo of the comics and what I thought he'd be like in the show, so now consider my version of 'The Boys' an AU from the show.
Also, next episode is HEROGASM! Who gets it I wonder? We'll see.
*End spoilers*
Enjoy people.
Guest 1: Thanks for the review. Yeah, all of that stuff, and then his 2nd family's loss. I certainly wasn't prepared for that.
Guest 2: Thanks for the review. Well, hope not to disappoint.
Chapter 12- Trials Part 3
Erik moved through the tunnel, when a homeless man grabbed him and threw him into a phonebooth as he changed into a she, Raven, threatening him with a plastic needle to the throat if she sees even a screw move. He wondered how she found him, but he had taught Raven well.
Admitting he missed her, Raven rebuked that Erik tried to kill her, but he defended that it was so the rest of their kind lived. Despite her disbelief, Erik admitted they received a message from the future, her genes would be used to wipe them out, and he only did what he believed was necessary. Raven asked what was stopping her from killing him.
Freya's hands twisted, like she was trying to break Raven's neck from afar, but could not, even if she knew this was merely a projection of events that had already passed.
Erik admitted there was nothing stopping her, for they already had her DNA, though admitted it was his fault they had it. He revealed they had their weapon, and the means to take it further, it was time to so take it further and strike. Raven did not want war, only Trask.
"This is war." Erik wondered what happened to her since his absence, was she Raven, or Mystique? She pointed out Trask was the enemy, but he pointed out one man was not enough.
"It never was for you." Raven pointed out, until she disappeared in the crowd.
"It was for all of us", Raven in the present muttered, knowing how much she'd been influenced then.
Back in the US, a train was travelling with the Sentinel prototypes, exactly as Erik had hoped as he pulled himself aboard. Raising his hands, the rails of the train tracks were pulled up, following Erik's hands as he guided them to divide and disperse into thin slivers of metal, inside the Sentinel's themselves, penetrating and coursing through every part of the machinery, even the Mutant detector in their heads.
"He has mastered his control over all of it now", Illyria said to the rest of them. "Now their greatest weapon to destroy his kind…..is in his hands."
"And he's not gonna use it to do a parade", Jessica said grimly.
Back in Washington DC, returning to the Pentagon building, the very place he was imprisoned for so long, Erik walked through the security, wielding nothing more than two metal balls hovering in his palm, using them to knock out the guards in his way with ease, and open the vault to unveil its secrets.
A wing belonging to Angel, part of Havok's original suit to control his powers, and the Reichsmark coin. Erik took a moment to look at the bloody coin he used to kill Shaw, taking a moment remember where he came from, how events have led him there, then with one grasp...he took back his helmet, battle worn, almost stone-like in appearance, and became "Magneto" once more.
"Magneto has returned", Wonder Woman noted.
"Yeah", Maximoff sighed.
The day of the President's announcement to the Mutant threat, Erik landed in RFK stadium, a new suit with a cape, both red, with the chest covered in armored plating. The gloves were black and armored, the cape with arrow shaped insignias on the shoulders.
Long has it passed since he struggled to raise up a mere submarine, now, Erik spread his hands, the entire stadium rumbling it's entirety raised itself into air, with Magento at its center.
"His power has grown too much", Legolas said, eyes wide, everyone shocked by how much power and control he had on him now.
"Yes, he has mastered it all", Merlin agreed.
The stadium floated over numerous civilians as the White House came into view, with Erik reaching out his hand control to the Sentinels. His Sentinels.
The machines floated upwards, hovering over the crowds, and Magneto unleashed them upon the humans. The same guns that would have been unleashed on his people now unleashed upon theirs with Magnnto floating ever closer to the White House, until they finally saw his ring of metal, the stadium then dropping at his command, surrounding the president's house while Erik seamlessly controlled the Sentinels to act as sentries around the perimeter, with the Mutant himself walking forward to the famous building.
Erik heard the roar of the Beast, turning to both Hank and Logan looking over him before he turned to the Sentinel he controlled, ordering it to attack them both.
"Why was he attacking his own kind? I thought he was trying to protect them all!" Caroline asked in shock.
"What made him a great leader was what also set him apart. He could separate those that would follow him to those that would stand in his way. Remember, this is Erik's line of thought. He would sacrifice the few, to protect the entire population."
"And he already knew that Logan would survive anyway." Hank added.
Erik reached out his senses, searching for the shelter where the human President would cower in, and he finally did, before Master of Magnetism raised up his other hand, until hearing the snarling of the feral Mutant, the Wolverine.
"What will he do?" Cordelia asked.
"I don't think its anything good", Dave told her.
"Same feeling here", Paige agreed.
Stephen concluded grimly. "Whatever he needs to."
"And its not gonna be good for Logan and Hank", Spider-Man sighed.
Erik eyed the long-lived Mutant with annoyance, and respect, jerking his head to throw pieces of debris at the Wolverine, until he got too close, when Magneto threw a large piece of concrete with rebar into his back, sending the Canadian down. Without a hint of emotion, Erik's hand raised and controlled the rebar to stab and penetrate Logan's body all over, coursing, wrapping throughout. He had no metal inside him, but Magneto would put the metal in himself to further his agenda, no matter the lives it too.
Even his own kind.
"I am so sorry." Erik confessed to the speechless Logan, who can only watch in horror as the rebar drove through different parts of his own body.
Everyone was in sheer shock at what Erik was capable of, even to his own allies.
"He just….did that to his ally", Clea said, jaw dropped.
"Didn't think this version of him would do that", Rogue confessed.
"Remember, we are seeing him change into the man he became", Peter reminded them.
"Dad…" Maximoff shook his head, understanding but also in denial. "Come on dad."
The X-Men of Earth-199999 were truly horrified that a man they began to feel sympathy for, could do this to one of their most beloved.
"Why're you doing this?" Storm whispered.
Spike realized sadly. "He truly has taken Shaw's place."
Raising the impaled Mutant, Magneto mocked the Wolverine until throwing him into the air, where he would crash into the Potomac River, weighed down by the rebar throughout his body, and drown.
"He would do anything for his people, even if it means he has to fight them." Gimli said to all in a moment of wisdom.
"There are few who have such strength." Aragorn admitted. Magneto's dedication to Mutants is absolute, and nothing would stop him from protecting them, not even other Mutants. It's scary to see that he would inflict pain to those that he knew, to protect those he didn't.
Returning to the White House, Erik pulled out the bunker containing the President and his staff, tearing it open so he may see the one responsible, before taking their guns and leaving them all defenceless. Their meagre threat averted; Erik rotated his wrists, turned the still rolling cameras to him, so the country, the world, may see him.
"You built these weapons to destroy us. Why? Because you are afraid of our gifts. Because we are different. Humanity has always feared that which is different. Well, I'm here to tell you, to tell the world, you're right to fear us! We are the future! We are the ones who will inherit this Earth! And anyone who stands in our way will suffer the same fate as these men you see before you! Today was meant to be a display of your power. Instead, I give you a glimpse of the devastation my race can unleash upon yours. Let this be a warning to the world. And to my mutant brothers and sisters out there, I say this: no more hiding. No more suffering. You have lived in the shadows in shame and fear for too long. Come out. Join me. Fight together in a brotherhood of our kind! A new tomorrow, that starts today!"
Tony tried to say something, then finally said to Steve. "I think…..I think I bought it."
"The way he said it, what he was trying to say, he had a way with it", Steve nodded, impressed by Erik's charisma and leadership skills even if he did not agree with his methods.
"Guy has got a lot of charisma", Stefan said, speaking for everyone.
They were all awed by the speech of Erik they'd just heard.
"I know, young or old, man got a way, like when he was old he said 'your cities will not be safe, your streets will not be safe, you will not be safe'", Wade turned to Gandalf, who watched, puzzled. "Your voice made that so threatening."
"If he gave that speech to me I'd be on his side", Peacemaker admitted.
"The Accords would have given him a huge base", Wanda noted what could have happened in that case.
"Yeah, well, wouldn't mind those government guys getting theirs from him", Natasha shrugged.
"He'd have led everyone well during the Vigilante Registration Act", Kal said as he watched with arms folded. "Though I don't agree with his methods."
"Yep, he'd have turned the protests into a revolution", Lois said.
"Wouldn't have minded government morons like Slade getting it", Ollie shrugged.
"As long as no one else is caught in the crossfire though", Chloe pointed out.
"He has suffered, now he does not want others like him to suffer for being different", Aragorn said.
"And he'd go to any lengths for it", Faith sighed.
"I can see why people would want to follow him", Angel had to agree.
"Not fully right or wrong, but he is a leader", Arthur said to all.
"And he just showed that all that he did until was just a flex", Piper pointed out. "He could do worse too."
"And if they try something, he might", Bonnie said grimly.
"Knowing them, they would", Spider-Man said sadly.
"Yeah, fearing what they don't understand", Superman noted.
Freya was in awe of him, completely speechless now.
"He…kind of convinced me", Isaiah admitted, though it was his own history with experimentation that affected his judgment, he'd admit.
Maximoff remembered the day that he saw the speech with his sisters, when he learned that Magneto was his father. "I wish you did not go down this path, dad."
What he's doing is bad, they know, and knew that it could lead to the horrid future that Logan was sent back from, but the speech itself is harrowing and understandable from Magneto's point of view, and they understand where he's coming from by seeing how it all began for him.
Steve said to all of them. "He's more powerful in his convictions than Thanos...and just as right as Thanos in his mind."
"And that's what makes him understandable", T'Challa realized.
"Yeah, still don't agree with him, but I understand him better now", Storm agreed.
The way he held their attention and sucked them in with this speech totally makes all the preaching from all the villains in they have encountered seem like nothing in comparison, including the Mad Titan himself.
The Doctor whispered in shock. "How a man can be so selfish, and selfless at the same time…I have no rational answer. It can only be love." Love for his own people.
Erik whispered as he saw the blindness of his past self. "All those years wasted fighting each other, Charles, to have a precious few of them back." He knew Charles can't hear him, but Logan did, and recognised that he regrets the mistakes of his past.
He never regretted fighting for Mutants, but he hates that he only made things worse for them.
Reliving his past mistakes, it's just as painful for him as the days of the first X-Men.
The President himself walked forward to confront Magneto, telling him to spare the rest of his staff. He commended the President, calling him heroic, but he had no intention to spare the rest of Erik's kind. "The future of our species begins now." Magneto declared as the hammers cocked back on the guns, until a lone Sentinel suddenly charged at Erik, and gave the President time to pull a plastic gun and fire, the bullet non-fatally going through Magneto's neck, the President shapeshifting into Mystique.
There were gasps of shock, as Pietro muttered. "Should have seen that coming."
"Oh no….." Maximoff cringed a bit.
"I was never going to kill him", Raven spoke to them all. "I wouldn't."
"Still, now that was a twist", Parker said.
"Definitely didn't expect that", Terry agreed.
Freya had the loudest gasp as she saw Erik hurt.
Peacemaker's hand covered his own neck, where Bloodsport shot him, both men sharing a look before turning back to the history of Earth-10005.
"Knew it. There's no way Nixon would be that brave." Willow quipped.
"Oh no, he ain't all that", Cordelia nodded in agreement.
Magneto collapsed to his knees, clutching his neck wound while his control of the guns and the Sentinels was lost. Erik claimed she use to be a batter shot, but she assured him she was, as she kicked him, then smacked him with the gun, knocking the powerful Mutant out.
Freya flinched at every impact.
When Erik woke up, but under the control of Charles, he reached out his hand and removed the debris trapping the paraplegic telepath. Both men shared a look.
"If you let them have me, I'm as good as dead. You know that."
"I know."
Understanding passed between the two Mutant leaders.
"Goodbye, old friend."
"Goodbye, Erik."
And they meant it, they never expected to really see each other again. History itself has changed; the world has changed. There was no telling what would happen next, but it might not be a war as Magneto expected, but a process, of learning to coexist.
Mutants were part of the world, whether they followed Erik's philosophy, or Charles', depended on the people born of the X-gene. They could no longer influence them.
His hands raised on either side of him, Magneto floated away, believed to never be seen again, or at least, for years to come.
"After all of it, still friends", Bucky noted, as Charles smiled.
"He accepted what happened", Strange pointed out. "We all know Thanos wouldn't."
"No, he just fell more than he already had", Arwen agreed.
Logan asked Erik. "What happens to me after this?"
Erik assured him. "You are a survivor. You find your path again, eventually."
"So, how has the future changed now? With the Sentinels stopped?" Barry-Red asked.
Beast hoped. "We continue the dream of Charles Xavier. Teach the gifted. Educate them. Guide them to a brighter tomorrow."
"At least he acknowledged defeat and didn't put up a fight after that", Raiden told the rest.
"Yep, better than ruining it all in a fit of rage", Big Blue said.
"At the end of it, he did it all for his race", Tara said to them. "If this be the better path to their future, then he would not stand in its way."
"Logan did more good in one time travel trip than we did for years", Ray commented to the rest of the Legends, and he wasn't wrong either.
But then, everything changed.
The tears flowed from Erik's cheeks and Charles' as they recognized what is to come.
"What's wrong?" Rhodes asked Charles.
"This is not the end."
And so, they learn the horrible truth: Erik Lehnsherr's pain is not over.
Years later, Erik has transformed himself. Now living in Poland, working like any other man at a steel factory, Erik has given up his fight for Mutant supremacy, no longer committed to violence. The horn blew as Erik's face turned to look up, more weathered, weary, and beard grown.
"What the…..?" Tony trailed off.
"Is he…..?" Bloodsport trailed off too.
"I like the beard", Harley quipped, and smacked her lips.
"Looks like he accepted Charles' way", Detective realized.
"Didn't expect him to", Diana had to say.
"At least he has some happiness", Steve said to the rest.
"Yeah, he deserves it after everything", Superman agreed.
"Still, I do not feel the best", Gandalf told them, having some foreboding.
"Me neither", Merlin agreed.
"Sometimes, tragedy strikes when you're at your happiest", Willow said, a tear rolling down her cheek as she shared a look with Tara, both knowing what she spoke of.
"I know that….literally", Angel muttered.
Charles just watched and learnt how his old friend went about his life after giving in to his preaching of coexistence. He would bear the pain of what is to come again.
"He was happy", Maximoff said, a very slight smile on him.
"He just….gave it all up", Freya noted.
Like any other man, Erik walked out of the factory at quitting time, another worker patting him on the back, wishing him a good night, calling him "Henryk", Erik wishing Milosz well.
"Why would he give it all up now?" Colleen wondered.
Bucky revealed from experience, "He's tired of fighting." He himself has felt the exact same way.
"Ironic he works in a steel factory though", Elektra commented.
Scott nodded. "He could probably get eight hours work finished in only eight minutes."
"He had such pride with who he is, and he gave it up." Walker said, not judging the Mutant terrorist he only read about, but noting what he's seen with the very tortured man he and everyone else has come to learn of.
"Some things are more important than pride." Peter admitted.
Erik drove home, into his countryside house, shrugging off his bag and placing down his thermos, as a woman suddenly leapt onto his back. Smiling, Erik turned to her and kissed his wife.
"So not only is he normal now, he settled down too", Kal said, a slight smile on his face too.
"He does deserve it", Oliver agreed, but he knew something wasn't right yet.
Erik's smile was genuine.
Freya's heart, for irrational reasons, broke at the sight, feeling hollow, empty.
"He's happy", Mal told the rest.
"Good for him", Zoe nodded.
Clint, Blood, Thor, Isaiah, Mike, Gunn, Mack, Hunter, Fitz, Simmons and Lucifer though were wary. Grandmaster wouldn't show his story if it was a happy ending, and they all experienced enough to know that just because something looks good, doesn't mean it stays that way.
Erik's wife, Magda, asked if it was a good day, he replied sweetly it was "better now". He asked where Nina was, and they went outside to find a young girl, feeding a deer, with many more scattered around her, no sign of fear of her or her parents.
"He has a daughter..." Freya's heart broke a little more at seeing him with a family, but she was also happy that he was happy.
"He is happy", Wanda smiled.
"After so long", Pietro noted.
"A wife and a daughter", Tony could relate to that.
"Years of suffering, now he got some peace that he needed", Tara noted, though she'd some foreboding too.
"He needed it after all that happened to him", Spider-Man said.
"Yeah, he did", Willow nodded.
"Guess you got some redemption then", Klaus said to Erik, relating that to Hope and himself.
"He could move on after all", Diana muttered.
"At the end of it, he mastered his struggles", Superman noted.
"Yeah, he did it", Barry-Red agreed.
"He gave up his dream, for happiness", Peter smiled.
"Strong man to do it", Billy muttered.
"We'd all do the same, right?" River asked Charles, and he had no response for once.
Everyone watching from their worlds felt happy to see Erik this way too after all he'd endured to get to this point.
In a way, he's finally beaten Shaw, by letting go. By not being the monster he created.
"I had another sister..." Maximoff whispered sadly, looking away.
At night, Erik began to sing as he tucked his daughter in. Nina asked where he learned that song, Erik revealed he learned it from his parents, as they learned from there's, and so on, and Nina will sing it to her children one day. asking what happened to her grandparents, vaguely Erik revealed they were taken from him when he was only a child, the numbers on his arm still visible, but said they are still with him, inside as he clutched his heart, and opened his daughter's locket to show their pictures.
Asking with the innocence of a child, Nina wondered if someone would take him away, but Erik promised, "Never." Turning off the lights, Erik kissed his child goodbye.
Maximoff felt saddened, a tear rolling down his cheek, he never got that treatment, that tender love, from his father, but was happy Erik got his peace.
"That was so….nice", Lois said.
"It was…..sweet and peaceful", Sara agreed with a smile.
"In spite of all the pain and suffering, he can display love", Hayley said, remembering how she spent similar moments with Hope all the time.
"Good dad", Clint agreed.
"I like this guy, he's a great dad", Scott said.
"Yeah, surprised me", Hope told him.
Freya couldn't help but feel jealousy, even if she wants nothing but happiness for Erik. He got to have a family that she herself never got the chance to.
Back at work, Erik was working a machine when the ground shook, the factory rumbling. Suddenly, a piece of equipment broke off from a ladle, knocking a man down. It would have crushed him, had Erik not reached out his hand and stopped it, moving it away from the man, saving him.
"Oh no." Caroline said.
"Don't think that'd go well", Damon muttered.
"But he saved a life, right?" Phoebe asked.
"Doesn't mean people won't be scared", Enzo pointed out.
"Like said before, people fear what they don't understand", Bonnie reminded.
"I've a bad feeling about this", Stephen agreed.
"And I think we should hold onto it", Constantine commented.
Erik quickly looked around, other workers eyeing what happened, but the Mutant went back to work, keep his head down for the rest of the day. He knew, though, his secret was out.
Charles buried his face in his hands, which people saw.
"You know what happens." Boromir realized.
Charles nodded, but he couldn't speak.
Magda said saving that man's life was a good thing, but Erik told her it wasn't the point, he was exposed, meaning they were exposed, they needed to go. She tried to dissuade him, this was their home, their daughter's home.
"We are her home." Erik said as he held her face in his hands. He lost his house before, but his parents, his mother, was his real home. Until she was taken away. Never again.
Erik had told Magda who he was, the first night they met, he trusted her then, and asks her to trust him. Magda kissed Erik and promised to get Nina, but when she called her, entered her room, their daughter was nowhere in sight.
A sick feeling entered the guts of everyone watching. No one spoke. No one even moved. Except Erik.
Just like when the story started, Erik's face turned red as the tears began to flow down.
"No...no...not again."
Logan, the only one who could hear and speak to him, can only watch what happened with dread.
Erik and Magda ran outside and called out, until a screeching turned them in the other direction had them running to its source. Moving through the woods, they found their daughter. In the hands of Polish officers
"No...please God no..." Parker muttered, terrified.
"Oh no…." Stefan trailed off.
"They got him", Angel sighed sadly.
"Damn it!" Spike snapped.
"Why…?" Buffy whispered.
Erik held his hand up for Magda to stay back, then asked Nina if she was alright, the officer holding her saying she was fine. Magda demanded they let her go, the leader said they would, after they had a word.
Erik looked between them all, noting they did not have their badges. No metal, was what one of them said, as they all wielded rope, poles, and bows and arrows, the lead man saying that others saw something at the factory, something they couldn't add up.
Erik asked that they put the weapons away, but the man holding Nina said that while "Henryk" was a good citizen, neighbor and worker, he wanted to believe that's who he is, but despite Magda's words that it is who Erik is, the officer said they don't really know him.
Erik insisted they did, "I am Henryk Gurzsky. Jakob, I've had dinner in your home."
The other officer denied, saying Erik was lying the whole time.
"Turned around faster than Barney did", Cordelia scoffed in disgust.
"They really judge based on powers", Connor agreed there.
"My father did the same", Arthur sighed, even more ashamed of the anti-magic stuff than before now. "Humanity cannot change, it seems."
Jakob spat he had a killer in his house, despite everything Erik did to truly accept a human life, to be a good man. The lead officer unveiled the newspaper, of that day in Washington D.C., when Erik had attacked the White House. He demanded to know was "Henryk" really Magneto.
There was no way he could deny it now, Erik knew. No way this fight could be won without ruining someone's life, his family's most importantly. Erik looked back at Magda and conveyed in his eyes what he would do, for a moment, his wife did nothing but look at him, she knew what he would do, and nodded her head.
Turning back to the officers, Erik offered to turn himself in, only if they let Nina go, and so they did, letting the girl return to her mother, her father taking her face in his hand one last time before the officer began to tie his hands behind his back.
"He did nothing wrong!" Freya screamed, and most of them felt the same about this.
"The sins of the past can rarely be washed away." Legolas said quietly.
But Nina did not want her father to go. She reached out to him like he did all those years go in the camps, reaching to his mother, now his daughter refused to let him go. She would not let them take him.
That's when it began, flocks of birds began to caw and hover above them in the trees, the sounds of wolves howling and other creatures of the forest lending their voices as Nina would not let her father go. Crying, she wouldn't let them take him.
"Her mutation…" Caroline trailed off.
"Animal empathy. They're reacting to her emotions." Kara realized.
The birds flew closer, and the officers grew worried, fearful watching the animals as Nina's cries grew louder. The leader demanded that she stop, but Erik told him she couldn't control it, she was scared of them, like he was of the Nazis when his own mother was ripped away from him.
Nina's eyes changed, and the birds swooped in and attacked. Ducking and swatting, the officers could do nothing but try to avoid the attack from above, Magda kneeled in front of her daughter, pleading that she stop.
That's when it happened.
An officer with an arrow drawn and pulled, released the bowstring by mistake, and the world slowed in the eyes of Erik Lehnsherr as the arrow flew through the air…
And pierced through his daughter and wife.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The cries of Erik were the loudest, and the most pained. The most painful moment his entire life played before his eyes once more.
Tony couldn't bear to see it, thinking about Pepper and Morgan, and tears rolled down his cheeks, as Kal, Lois, Ollie and Chloe were in tears as well at what they'd just seen.
Scott was sobbing, Hope embracing him while tears stained her face too.
Buffy, Cordelia, Caroline, Bonnie and the Charmed Ones covered their mouths, Piper affected the most due to Leo and her babes, while Gandalf looked down sadly, a tear rolling down his cheek. The Middle-earth crew were in complete shock at what they'd witnessed, grieving for Erik's family.
"He lost them when he was at his happiest….." Willow was crying too now, knowing just what it was like. Tara wanted to comfort her but was crying herself.
Maximoff wept, he lost a sister he never knew he had. "Nina…."
Charles too cried for his brother. He followed Charles' idea of living together, no lines between races, no discrimination. For the first time in his life, Erik was happy.
Then it was all taken away by the species Charles tried to help as much as Mutants.
Erik pushed away from the officers to catch his wife and daughter before they fell. "Nina. Nina, Nina, no...No, please. Please!" He begged and pleaded and sobbed, praying that it wasn't true, they couldn't be dead. They were innocent! They did not deserve to suffer because of him.
"Please."
Even the officers themselves could only stare in shock. This wasn't meant to happen. They did not want to fight. They didn't want to kill anyone, let alone an innocent woman and child.
"Not my babies. Not my babies."
The hearts of the Multiverse broke.
They felt his pain as he held his wife and daughter. For a long time, people never knew the truth of Magneto, why he did what he did, why he hated humanity. Now they know. He's lost everything because of them.
All this because he saved a life. Betrayed only for doing the right thing. What he may have done before wasn't right, but neither was what happened to his wife and child.
Erik's life has been filled with nothing but pain and anger and all at the hands of humanity, so even though most disagreed with what he did, they understood exactly why he did it.
The present-day Erik was an uncontrollable sobbing mess from this, a far cry from the stoic man he usually was, but why wouldn't he sob after reliving one of the worst moments of his life?
In the viewing, his sobbing and sniffling ceased as he kissed his daughter's head, removing the locket from her neck. Hands shaking as the grief and the rage took over, Erik's hand opened, and the locket flew out, cutting through the necks of the dozens of officers that caused the death of his family. His innocent family.
The locket returned to his hand, bloodied, like the Reichsmark coin he used to kill Shaw. No matter how hard he tried, he could not escape his past, what he was. Erik clutched the locket in a shaking fist, eyes shut tight from pain before shouting to the sky, shouting at whatever higher power there was.
"IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT FROM ME?! IS THIS WHAT I AM?! Is this what I am?" Erik asked helplessly, shouting in rage, to devastated sadness, to depressed realization. Breaking down into tears, he held onto to his pieces of happiness as the warmth left their bodies.
It is what he's meant to be.
Then Freya's legs gave way under her, and now she was weeping uncontrollably.
Matthias fell down, bleeding, as a pregnant Freya cried over him, but he was gone, and she looked up to see Dahlia, who'd given him a death hex to kill him.
Freya drank Dahlia's strongest poison, hoping to kill both herself and her baby so the baby won't be born a slave to Dahlia.
Dahlia arrived. "I gave you everything! You dare to take what is mine?"
Freya fell down and passed out.
Later, Freya woke up, Dahlia next to her bedside.
"How can this be? How am I alive?"
"The spell that sealed our magic sleep guards us from all forms of harm." Freya got up in horror as Dahlia continued. "But the spell did not protect everyone."
Freya touched her now flat stomach, looking down at it in horror as she realized her baby was gone, and she was alive.
She started sobbing uncontrollably, falling to the bed. "My baby….."
Dahlia stroked her shoulders. "I will forgive you for this….eventually. But you can never forget, there is no escape from me, not even death."
Freya's siblings helped her stand again as they saw her weep, but they were in no better state than her.
Clint's back hit the wall and he slid down, Isaiah needed the wall to steady himself, Mike stumbled back from the horror, Hunter looked down, but Mack could not look away, both too shocked to give a reaction, they could not believe it, and Blood's eyes shut from the pain, while Fitz and Simmons both cried, and Gunn looked down in tears.
The Doctor and Song held hands, feeling nothing but grief over this, The Doctor knowing what it felt like, as he too had lost everything once.
The crew of the Serenity could not believe what happened, they knew the verse could be a terrible place, but this, what Erik just went through, it was not right, Book could not find the right words, for there was none.
Thor shed tears and rage, grief, sadness, shock, and sympathy for the Mutant man who lost too much.
Lucifer himself could not tear his eyes away, no matter how much he wanted to.
Freya suddenly got up in a rage and pounded his chest. "HOW COULD HE DO THAT TO ERIK? WHY DID HE DO THAT TO HIM? WHY? YOU'D KNOW, WOULDN'T YOU? TELL ME, WHY?"
Lucifer did not react, letting the oldest Mikaelson pound on his chest, until Klaus, Rebekah, Kol and Elijah pulled their sobbing and angry eldest sibling back, letting her break down.
Lucifer had no response himself, he knew the lives of humans and others in creation could be cruel, harsh, hopeless, but to actually see a man's life like this, Lucifer has never experienced it before.
And he hated it.
"Wha…what will he do?" Gunn asked at that point.
Clint finally looked up and said from experience. "He has nothing left to live for. He'll do whatever he can to make it right, make them pay, but it won't be enough."
Erik spent the night digging the grave, no powers beyond what a shovel could provide. For every clump of dirt thrown aside; another tear fell. He could not make it past the first feet before collapsing again, wailing his pain to a world that hated him.
Freya's mind echoed that wail.
At three feet deep, Erik collapsed in the whole, the tears flowing and face displaying his loss. Making it to six feet, he did nothing for several minutes but sit in the dirt, staring where his wife and daughter would lie for the rest of their existence.
Clint stared too, numb with grief for Erik.
Tony, Scott, Frank, Punisher and Castle were the same as Clint.
Erik had stopped sobbing, but was teary-eyed, face still glued to the screen, while Logan shed some tears for him too.
In the viewing, Erik regained enough strength to climb and held out his hand to call forth every piece of metal he could acquire, bending, contorting, mending what he could to make a coffin big enough for two.
No one, no one can imagine what it feels like themselves to bury the only good things to ever happen in their lives.
Gently, Erik carried the bodies of two of the three women in his life that he loved more than anything, and set them inside, Magda holding on to Nina, as she would for the rest of her days. He opened his daughter's small, soft, and cold hand to place her locket of his parents in her palm, and closed it tightly shut.
Stepping back and looking down at his family for the last time, Erik sealed the metal coffin shut, moving his hand to the grave as it followed, and lowered it down, to their final resting place, another hand moving the pile of dirt with a sheet of metal to bury them.
This was their home. They should stay here.
"No parent should have to bury their child." Gandalf whispered the words of the late King Theoden while he wept tears of greater sadness than he ever thought possible.
If he could die of a broken heart, he would, as would the poor Erik Lehnsherr.
Maximoff was crying now, over losing Nina, whom he'd never known, and also for what his dad had gone through.
Jean put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him, but it didn't work.
The strength left Erik and he fell to his knees, tears stained his face, and his eyes were red, but he had no more tears left in him.
All that's left, as the sun rose on a new day, was a broken man who had lost his reason to live.
Earth-199999
Dawn, Fred, Xander, Giles, Leo, Henry, Coop, Elena, Alaric and Jeremy were all in tears from what they'd seen too.
"He lost everything", Fred whispered sadly.
"Yeah", Leo held Wyatt and Chris tighter, hoping nothing like this happened to them and Piper.
Alaric remembered how he'd felt when Jo and seemingly his twin children had died. Now Josie and Lizzie were alive, under the care of a babysitter, but he remembered hot it had felt.
The doors of the steel factory opened themselves to reveal Erik, entering, wearing the t-shirt that still had his family's blood on it, before every way out of the building was shut and locked. None would escape. His facial expression showed a man who had lost everything, and he has. There was nothing left to be taken.
The machines of the factory all of sudden died, useless as the workers all turned to each other, looking for an answer, until Milosz, Erik's friend, noticed the man himself, steeling himself for what he had to do.
"He saved one of them, but they couldn't keep their mouth shut and cost him his family." Wanda snarled.
"My sister…..I lost my sister because of this…" Maximoff had tears for the sister he never knew.
In every part of his life that was shown, Erik had a reason for being enraged: the death of his mother, the death of his team, and the death of his wife and daughter.
Quill could really understand him, he lost his mom, adopted father, then Gamora. At least he got Gamora back, the rest, all gone. The only one Erik really had left was Charles, and Maximoff, not that he knew about his own son though.
"Sorry man", Quill muttered to Erik.
Erik addressed his co-workers, men who he has worked with for years, some he called friends, others he had dinner with their families. It all meant nothing now.
"Some of you spoke to the police, about what you believe you witnessed here yesterday. You want to know my powers? Know who I am? See what I can do? I'll show you. Think of the person you love most in your life. Your wife. Mother." One more tear fell from Erik's eyes, but it did not stop him. "Daughter...Now that person will know what it is to lose someone they love, and live with that pain...Forever."
Milosz, begged. "Henryk, please. Don't do this."
"My name isn't Henryk…My name is Magneto."
Everyone was taken decades back to when Erik freed Emma. He had spoken that name with the utmost confidence, that's who he really was, and he was proud of it.
But now, it's a broken realization, this is what he's meant to be, someone who could not have a family, or have any sense of happiness.
He wasn't a good man anymore, not a son, husband, or father.
All he had left, was the monster Shaw had created.
"He has nothing left, except his hate now", Arwen summed it up sadly.
"Erik lost it all, and decided this is all he can be now", Tara sighed, sharing a look with Willow, who'd the same experience once.
"No matter how good a boy you are - God doesn't want you!" Darla's words echoed in Angel's head, and now it was the same for Erik.
"He doesn't deserve this", Steve shook his head with tears. "He doesn't."
The factory shook under Magneto's power, he was ready to bring it down, all of it, on top of them. Him included if need be. It stopped when rumbling behind him made Erik pause, purple light illuminating his back, and turned to a strange party of four. A young woman with white hair, a man with metal wings, and a woman with purple highlights and a sword.
"The hell?" Cisco asked.
"Apocalypse." Charles growled the name.
"What is he?" Bonnie inquired.
"The world's first Mutant, in our Universe at least. Shaw and Magneto, they fought for Mutant supremacy, but En Sabah Nur, he fought to rule the world, shape it so only the strong may inhabit it. He didn't care for anything unless, not even other Mutants, only himself."
"We did not either", Illyria referred to herself and other Old Ones. "Now I see what it is like."
"He sounds like something all right", Parker said with a gulp.
"Yeah, its terrifying", Kal had to agree.
"He is worse than even Shaw", Oliver noted.
"Yep, noticed that", Phoebe commented.
"His power is great, and he has intentions for Erik", Aragorn told them all.
"Looks like it", Balthazar sighed.
"And based on the description, nothing good", Blaze commented.
"Let's hope it turns out well", Spider-Man hoped.
"Yeah, Erik doesn't deserve this", Peter agreed, seeing just how much the man kept losing.
"How is it we never dealt with him?" Natasha asked Charles.
"Our timeline changed thanks to Logan changing history. Mutants were looked to by some as saviors, and people sought more answers. Hence, they sought out, discovered, and awakened Apocalypse. On your Earth, he may still be buried."
"What can he do?" Steve asked the important question.
"Almost anything. Telekinesis, teleportation, matter manipulation, regeneration, power augmentation, his true power though came from his technology and his ability to transfer his consciousness to another body. That's how he managed to obtain all those abilities. He took them. Nearly took my body as well."
That made them all really horrified, as Tony whispered to Steve. "I'm hoping no one wakes him up in ours."
"The consequences would be…devastating", Terminator said.
"Who the fuck are you?"
Despite the seriousness in the air, some couldn't help but snort.
Even Freya had to snort a little through her tears at that.
Apocalypse walked forward, but Erik warned him to stay back, and not stop him from killing the workers. The first Mutant tilted his head, before looking at the humans, eyes glowing white, and the men yelped as they were buried in the ground, all that's left were limbs sticking out, and twitching.
All of them recoiled as Cordelia muttered. "He just….he just killed them all."
"Just like that", Paige noted, jaw dropped.
"And he'd no reason either", Batman sighed.
"He did it just because he could", Spike muttered. "Bloody hell!"
"This guy is a nightmare", Catwoman said with folded arms.
"I'm not here for them. I'm here for you." Apocalypse walked back to his Horsemen, generating another portal, and turned back to Erik. "Come and see."
"What's he gonna do now?" Enzo wondered.
"Bloke is clearly not at his best, would make for some manipulation I think", Constantine realized.
"Had a feeling that'd happen", John Constantine of Earth-167 muttered.
The portal brought them to Auschwitz, the same place where Erik lost his mother, and Shaw turned him into a weapon.
"He brought him there?" Boromir asked, voicing everyone's shock. "The place where he lost his mother?"
"I think he has some sort of plan here", Zatanna noted.
"Yep, manipulation tactic", Zatarra agreed.
"The grief and rage Erik feels will be compounded by being here", Jones pointed out.
"And that's just what baldy would want", Bart finished in realization. "Damn!"
"He got my dad…" Maximoff said sadly, knowing what would happen now, but still knowing it'd be hard to watch.
Erik just lost his family, now he's brought back to the place where countless atrocities were dealt to him, and his people.
"That's a new kind of torture." Lucifer admitted.
Earth-1
Even Maze at home could barely handle how cruel Erik's life has been, and she lives for torture.
"This is…" she had no words.
Erik looked around, realizing where they were, where his powers were born, and his people were slaughtered, Apocalypse said. The ruined gate, the screams of a boy calling to his mother, and her cries trying to get to him was all Erik could see and hear as the scene all those years ago replayed in his mind.
"You shouldn't have brought me here."
"Why? Are you afraid to be here? You can't escape it, Erik." Apocalypse told him as he got closer.
"Who are you?"
"Elohim, Shen, Ra - I've been called many names over many lifetimes. I am born of death. I was there to spark and fan the flame of man's awakening. To spin the wheel of civilization. And when the forest would grow rank and needed clearing for new growth, I was there to set it ablaze."
"Did he just call himself after other Deities?" Loki asked at that point. "We've met some of those."
"Elohim is another name for God in Hebrew", Willow, a Jew, pointed out.
"And 'Shen' is Chinese for Deity", Strange told them, knowing of it.
"So in this world, he claims to be all of these", Stephen noted, shaking his head.
"Based on his powers, I can see why he'd be mistaken for that", Clea muttered.
"Ra is the Supreme Egyptian God", Faith told the rest, staring at Marc's still dead and unmoving corpse, as he'd told her about the Egyptian lore once.
Charles explained to them. "He was born nearly ten thousand years ago. In that time, he could have only been seen as a God."
Erik didn't believe him. "Where were you, when my mother and father were slaughtered in this place?"
"Asleep. Trapped in darkness." Apocalypse lowered his head in apology, or so he would have it seem. "I was not there for you, my son. But I am here now. You don't know your own strength, but I do." Apocalypse reached over and took Erik's hand into his own, placing it down to the ground. "Reach down. Feel the metal in the ground. Reach. As deep as you can." Apocalypse stepped back. "You'll find you have the power to move the very Earth itself."
The Earth began to rumble, the gravel shaking, the magnetic fields of the planet beginning to shape to his will as flashes of his life played in his mind. Him screaming as a boy, his mother, Nina, Magda, their deaths, played one after another.
Erik stood with the Earth in his hand, the magnetic fields at his command as the particles orbiting the centre beneath his palm in loops, like a magnet. Then it began, the concentration camp began to come apart, everything within the magnetic fields or even the slightest traces of metal floating upwards as the place that caused so much pain and death became no more, unleashing as much devastation onto Auschwitz that Erik felt as Apocalypse watched him with pride.
"Everything they've built will fall! And from the ashes of their world, we'll build a better one!"
Apocalypse's voice changed, bearing the souls of the many lives he had taken for their power. The other Horsemen of Apocalypse watched in shock and fear as the entirety of Auschwitz was dismantled in front of them, the greatest display of power they have ever seen on this Earth, as the images of his daughter and wife changed to Erik's destruction of Shaw's lab, and like that day, the new Horseman of War roared.
"RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
It was pure pent-up emotion. Sadness, depression, hatred, saudade, melancholy, pain, heartache, happiness, and sorrow all combined into a giant burst of emotional sensationalized force forced out in a greater show of power than he ever realized he had.
Auschwitz, was no more.
"Huh…..?" Willow trailed off, reminded of her Dark Willow phase, this was just as bad now.
"He is more powerful than ever", Beast noted.
"Grief gave way to rage, rage gave way to strength", Nightcrawler pointed out.
"And now he is in nothing but pain", Barry-Red said sadly.
Magneto was now more powerful than ever.
Some shuddered since before, Magneto had the power to control the world, now he had the power to destroy it.
"Once more, he has been played by evil", Gandalf noted sadly. "Due to how he felt."
But while Shaw did it to the child Erik, and shaping his beliefs, Apocalypse used his darkest moment, staring at the abyss, and pushed him forward into it, and used him. Emotionally manipulating him, even going so far as to call him "son", like Shaw.
"He's more powerful than our Magneto ever was." Storm muttered.
"And more damaged than we ever thought." Kitty sighed.
Magneto now stood with his fellow Horseman; Apocalypse having crafted an armor suitable for his Horseman of War. It was predominantly red with an elaborate design and looked almost metal in appearance, blending the colors red, silver, and black, but had a silver chest piece. It had large red shoulder pads and long side pieces that ran down the thighs and had long dark metal gauntlets that secured the elbows.
"While I don't like where this is headed, will say that the suit looks impressive." Cisco spoke in a dulled down tone than he would usually be if he saw such an armor.
Erik shut his eyes as he sensed the familiar feeling of someone in his mind while Apocalypse adorned Angel with his new armor.
"What's Warren doing there?" Iceman now wondered.
"Instead of hiding his powers, Warren wanted to embrace them, and it made his father throw him out. From then on, he's made his living off using his powers for his own gains, including fighting in an underground Mutant fight club." Charles explained.
"It's how I met Kurt." Mystique added. "Our Kurt."
"I was taken from my circus to fight. An Angel vs a Demon, they called it." Kurt revealed.
"I am sorry", Nightcrawler said to his doppelganger, all of them showing sympathy to Kurt.
It wasn't his fault he looked like that, he was in real life a gentle and innocent soul.
Magneto questioned if he was really there, after all this time. "Charles?"
"Hello, old friend." Charles sighed as he went deeper and felt what Erik felt. "I'm sorry. I am so sorry! I feel. And your loss."
But his words did not reach to Erik, he was gone, so was Henryk, they were dead. "You think because you can see into my head…you know how it feels? You're looking in the wrong place, Charles."
"What happened to them was terribly wrong." Once more, Charles felt not only Erik's pain, but his own at the loss of his friend's wife, and innocent young daughter. "But come back to us. I can help you."
"Help me?"
"Think of your wife, think of your daughter. What would they have wanted?
"They would have wanted to live." Magneto growled at the mention of his family.
No one can speak, because there was nothing to be said, they felt for Erik. He lost the people most important to him, again.
"I tried your way, Charles. I tried to be like them. Live like them. But it always ends the same way. They took everything away from me. Now…" Magneto turned toward Apocalypse, "we'll take everything from them."
"He gave in to hate…..again", Banner noted, looking away.
"Everything was taken from him", Aragorn reminded him.
"And so, he has nothing left", Kal agreed.
"To him, he feels like he has no choice", Steve sighed.
"Yeah, he lost what was most important to him", Willow looked at Tara, both holding each other, "and in his hanger, lashed out at the world."
Apocalypse looked toward Magneto, and felt a change in his Horseman, another presence. It amazed him. "Extraordinary." Warren asked what he saw, and Apocalypse smiled. "The answer." Using Magneto's mind as the link, Apocalypse's eyes glowed. "Thank you for letting me in."
"This is when…"
"What?" Stefan asked.
"He used me. He overpowered me and took control of me and Cerebro to connect to government officials…and disarmed the world of its most powerful weapons."
Those words made all in attendance freeze, the most powerful telepath in the world, taken over, to do something they only ever had nightmares about.
Using Charles, Apocalypse connected to every country with a nuclear arsenal, whether they be on land or underwater, the First Mutant had them all under his thrall. America, Russia, China, England, Israel, India, all of their nukes in the air, and heading up, into Space.
"Always the same. And now all this. No more stones. No more spears. No more slings. No more swords. No more weapons! No more systems! No more! No more superpowers... So much faith in their tools…and their machines. You can fire your arrows from the Tower of Babel, but you can never! Strike! GOOOOOOD!"
Everyone was watching in fear at what the God-like First Mutant is capable of.
"The ego in this guy…." Loki finally said, reminded of himself and Thanos.
"He has the power to back it up though", Sif pointed out to him.
"I know."
"And he has powerful allies now, one of whom he manipulated", Superman noted.
"Two", Ororo held up her hand in shame. "I was manipulated too, until I saw sense."
"It happens", Arthur assured her.
Apocalypse then teleported himself and his Horsemen underneath the X-mansion, in the hall outside the now destroyed Cerebro, the unconscious Charles and the stunned X-Men, Raven, and Moira.
Then Magneto called the telepath to them with Apocalypse readying another portal, but Alex ran after them.
"This is…" Scott Summers looked at Hank, who nodded sadly.
Apocalypse's portal brought them to Cairo, just before Alex' energy blast could hit them.
"Fastest man in the Multiverse…and I couldn't save him, I'm sorry." Maximoff said to Scott Summers sincerely in apology, and he simply nodded, accepting.
Freya remembered when she'd betrayed Kol by killing Davina, and how she'd considered turning the others against Klaus.
Now Erik had done something similar by joining Apocalypse in his grief.
Charles awoke to find Erik and the other Horsemen atop rocks with Apocalypse himself looking down at the telepath, laying on the ground, his wheelchair gone.
"Is it just me, or do they look like they're about to drop a rock album?" Tony asked.
Charles was shocked to find Apocalypse was blocking him, and the God-like Mutant revealed he could shield minds, one of the many powers he's taken over the years, but entering one's mind like Charles can, take control, he calls it a gift, and he saw what was to come.
Asking would they really take part in the death and destruction, Magneto responded emotionlessly. "It's all I've ever known."
"No, it isn't. You just forgotten."
"No, Charles, I remember. Your way doesn't work."
"I've shown him a better way. A better world." Apocalypse told him.
But Charles saw through what he did. "No, you've just tapped into his rage and pain. That's all you've done." He looked back at the man he considered a brother and expressed with his eyes the truth, pleading him to listen. "I told you from the moment I met you, there is more to you, Erik. There is good in you, too."
Magneto too spoke with his eyes, and they were dead, cold, as if he died, and he did. "Whatever it is you think you saw in me, Charles…I buried it, with my family."
"So did I", Frank muttered sadly.
"Yeah, Frank Castle died". Punisher agreed there.
"Its all we've left", Castle shook his head.
"Why didn't I tell him sooner?" Maximoff wondered again.
Logan said to Erik. "And I thought my rage made me lose focus."
"I had nothing left but rage, Logan. It did not take much to turn back into what I was."
"You can't honestly believe that."
"At the time, I did."
And there was some more to come still.
Really thought I'd end Magneto with this one, but I couldn't, sorry about that, but next one shall definitely finish it as we've to only do Apocalypse and a scene or two from my 'Of Speedster and Forces'.
Then its Logan with…..5 films! Oh shit! Well, that'll be fun to do I think.
And this is the closest to a X-Men watch-it fic from me too, LOL!
Thanks a lot to Brainstorm Sorcerer for his help again. Hope all enjoyed and see you all next time with another chapter.