Wow. It's been a ... long time since I last posted a story - about two years and three months since I last posted on this site at least.
But I've been inspired again, and this was the result.
It's still a work in progress, but I've got a comprehensive outline, and think it's probably going to end up being about seven to nine chapters long - I'm also going to try and stick to something of an updating schedule this time!
There are bits in here taken straight from the movie, but you should be able to spot those bits if you've seen it already. I may have watched it four times already - haven't loved a movie as much as this in ages!

Enough from me, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter One

The rest of the shift following the … accident … had been normal.
Too normal.
He bid his colleagues good night at the end of the work day, and headed home once again, knowing that he would never return to the place of work.

It was nearing dark when he made it back to his family, but he didn't loiter making his way into the house as he had become apt to do – instead making a beeline for his bedroom, passing Magda by without so much as a perfunctory kiss, causing her to follow him up the stairs.
She stared in disbelief as he collected a suitcase from beneath the bed, and started filling it with only the most basics of necessities.

"Henryk? What is going on?" She asked, more confused than concerned, as she watched him pack. His stuff, her stuff, a few of Nina's things that lived in their room.
He didn't pause, or even look at her as he spoke. "There was an … incident at work. A vat was going to fall on one of the men. I stopped it."
"Isn't that a good thing?" She asked, as she watched him search for the hidden forged passports and various currencies of cash he had collected over the years.
"No. It is not. If someone reported it… If someone were to come here, if you or Nina…" He stopped, and took a breath before continuing. "If something happened to either of you because of me, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."
"But you did a good thing. You saved that man." She tried to convince him, however futile she knew it to be – once Erik had an idea, it was near impossible to dissuade him.
"That's not the point. If I'm exposed, we're all exposed. We have to leave."
"But this is our home. Our daughter's home."
"We're her home." He turned to look at her for the first time. "I told you who I was the very first night I met you. I trusted you then, you need to trust me now. We can't stay here anymore."
She closed her eyes and nodded, accepting it, even if she didn't agree with him. "I'll get Nina."

Magda returned quickly. "She's not in her room, and I don't see her out back." There was a tremor of fear in her voice, even as she tried to hide it.
It's that this was an uncommon occurrence, there was barely a week that went by that Nina didn't escape the house to spend time with her 'friends', but this felt more ominous than usual.

They raced outside calling her name, hoping to find her by the well, or perhaps at the edge of the forest.
She would be happy. She would be safe.
And they would escape from this town, and live somewhere anew where they could continue being safe and happy together.
But Nina didn't reply, not even as they ventured into the trees.
Not even when they turned the corner, and saw her in the grip of the authorities he had evaded for so long.

They have Nina, a voice in his head stated, eerily calm.
They have my daughter, Magneto's voice in his head, his anger threatening to bubble to the surface.

But Magneto wasn't in charge, Erik was.
And these police officers weren't the unfeeling, uncaring humans who had opposed him in the past.
These were men he knew; men he would almost consider his friends.
And they had Nina.

Cautioning Magda to stay back, he made his way slowly forward.
"Nina. Are you alright?" He called in Polish.
"She's fine." The officer replied for her.
"Then let her go." Magda demanded from where she stood, no thoughts on her mind but her daughter.
"We will." He sounded resigned, as if he were truly sorry for what he was doing, but also as if he felt there were no other option. "We just wanted to have a talk."
"You're not wearing your badges." The sense of dread that had been growing since he saved that man only a few hours before exploded, and threatened to overwhelm him from inside.
"No metal." And all of Erik's worst fears were realised.

It didn't matter how long he'd been here, how friendly or close he had become with those who lived here. The moment they believed him to be a mutant, none of that mattered.
A small voice in his head pointed him out that they believed him to be a very dangerous mutant that had tried to kill the US President, and had succeeded in killing a lot of other people, and it wasn't mutants they were scared of as much as it was him.
He told that voice to shut up.

He tried to convince them that he was no threat, but he knew that they did not believe him.
When the officer held up the newspaper clipping, he knew there was no turning back.
"Is this you?" The man demanded. "Are you the one they call Magneto?"
It had been a long time since Erik had heard that name – and he turned to look at his wife.
But no words were needed, his silence was all the response required of the question.

"Take me in." His voice was close to begging; he hadn't felt this helpless in years. "Please, just let my daughter go."
There was a pause and for a terrible moment, Erik thought they were going to refuse, going to use Nina to 'stop him from making trouble'. But then the man nodded and Nina was allowed to walk forward.
Neither Magda nor Nina were the threat, and everyone present knew it.
"Go with your mother." He told her softly, hand brushing against her hair as they passed, not allowing himself to pause or he would do something that could only end in tragedy.

Magda tried to lead their daughter away, as the officers tied the rope around his wrists.
Not that the rope would stop him if he truly wanted to hurt someone.
Even if the officers had no metal on them – which was untrue, they may not be wearing their badges, but he could still feel the metal – he was still a dangerous man.
But he wouldn't attack. Not in front of his wife.
Definitely not in front of his daughter.

But Nina wouldn't leave – wouldn't allow herself to be led away from her father.
"Please." She yelled in desperate Polish. "Don't leave! I'm not going to let them take you!" Her voice carried easily, raw and painful, and she wanted her father.
Only the day before, he had promised never to leave her – and now he had to break that promise.

The birds started to gather overhead, and Erik understood what was happening before the officers. For a few terrifying seconds, only he knew what was going on, as Nina made obvious use of her powers for the first time in her short life.
Yes, animals had been attracted to his small daughter her whole life, but he always tried to convince himself that it was just … a thing. That it didn't necessarily equate to his daughter being a mutant.
Because his powers may be a gift, but they were also a curse, and it was not a curse he ever wanted his daughter to suffer – especially so young.

Then the birds began to dive, began to aim at the men Nina (rightfully) believed were taking her Papa away, and even the slowest-witted of the men within the group could understand what was happening.
"She's one of them?" One of the men called, unable to completely hide the fear in his voice.
"Tell her to stop," they ordered Erik, even as they ducked further attacks from the kamikaze birds.
"She can't control it. She's scared of you." Erik's demeanour was calm, but inside he was desparate for Magda to remove Nina from the situation, to calm her down, to prevent any rash action on the part of the officers who didn't understand who involuntary this all was.

"Nina, please," Magda begged, crouching to her daughter's level on the other side of the clearing, and doing her best to calm her daughter down. Doing her best to keep everyone safe.

And then it happened so quickly.
Yet, at the same time, he watched it happen as though it was occurring in slow motion.

The bird dove, aiming for the (stupid, why are humans' always so stupid) police officer's eyes.
He loosed his (wooden tipped – no metal around Magneto) arrow involuntarily, and then no one could stop it.

Well.

Magda stopped it.

A deathly silence fell, even the birds seemed to quiet for a moment.
The rope fell from his hands as he ran across the clearing – no one able to stop him.
No one willing to stop him.

He caught her, he caught both of them, before they hit the floor of the forest. But there was so much blood.
Magda's blood covering her, and covering him, and covering … Nina.

Nina who had collapsed with her mother, but was somehow, somehow miraculously unharmed
Nina who was beginning to scream again – louder and wordlessly this time – as she understood what was happening.
But Nina who was whole and terrified and alive.
Nina who was alive.

Magda tried to smile, tried to raise her hand to her daughter for the last time.
But the effort was too large, as her eyes searched her husband's – hopes and dreams and wishes and plans disappearing within her, she took a final shuddering breath, and her limbs fell limply towards the ground.

There's more screaming – not from him, or from Nina – but from the officers, as they attempt to fend off the birds that were being controlled by his unknowing daughter, that were attacking more ferociously now, that were chasing down the men even as they attempted to run away from the scene – desperate to save their own lives.
Erik could remember doing something similar when he had watched his mother die, and he realised – more now than ever – that he and his daughter were more alike than he had ever known, in all the wrong ways.

He hears the men escape – the lucky ones at least, some are already unmoving on the ground – but he cannot bring himself to care.
These men – these humans – that he would have almost considered his friends only a few short hours ago, how quickly they would turn against you, he had forgotten. He would not forget again.
For Nina's sake, he would not forget again.

He doesn't know how long he sits on the floor, his girls cradled in his arms, Nina's screams tapering into juddering sobs, and the birds returning to whatever it is that birds do when they're not being controlled by a terrified six year old.
Minutes pass as lifetimes before he feels himself return within his head – he knows that it will not be too much longer before someone returns for him (for them).
And they need to be gone long before then.
Nina had to be safe by then.

He stands slowly and warily, so as not to re-startle his daughter – and not entirely trusting his legs to keep him upright, as he cradled Magda in his arms bridle style, with Nina holding the back of his shirt in a death grip – as if he too would fall dead if she let go for even a moment.
It takes almost twice as long to make it back to the house, compared to how long it took to find Nina originally.
But they still arrive home soon enough, Nina following her father up the stairs and allowing herself to be led to sit down in a chair, and release her father.

Laying Magda down on the bed, he pulls the covers over her.
With the arrow removed, and the blood stain obscured, she almost looks as if she could be asleep, were it not for the lack of breathing and the abnormal paleness her skin had already acquired.
He allows himself a moment to stand there motionless, before forcing himself into action.

There is not much more that needs to be done before they are able to leave, his movements quick despite the sedentary years that he had truly enjoyed here in Pruszków.
Magda's clothing can be removed from the suitcase, the few family photos they have can be added, three changes of clothes for Nina, and the doll she had owned since she was an infant.
Nina had followed her father into her room when he collected those final items, neither of them willing to let the other leave their eyesight for even a moment.

And then it's time to leave.
He presses a kiss to Magda's already cooling forehead, before removing her wedding rings – a memento to remember her by, for Nina to remember her by in years to come.
Nina's goodbye is next, tearful and gripping her mother close, but she eventually allows her father to lead her out of the house, and away from her mother for the last time in her life.

As they drive away from the farmhouse that had been the only home Nina had ever known, sadness didn't quite cover the emotion Erik felt bubbling within him, the feeling of his heart being ripped out and torn into pieces before getting thrown on the ground in front of him.

But they had to get away, had to get somewhere safe.
Because more people would be looking for him now – or soon at least – and not just local police officers, but agents of larger agencies that held a grudge against him (probably something to do with his not unimpressive death toll).

Nina sat in the seat next to him, drowning in a blanket and falling asleep following the exhaustion of the events of the previous hour – and he knew what his purpose had to be.
He had to keep her safe.
He would not allow her to befall the same fate as his wife.
He would burn the world to the ground before he let that happen.

Thanks for reading, and please review,

The next chapter will hopefully be up by Monday.

Mia