"You might have warned the school ahead of time," Charles censured moments before the doorbell rang. Of course he felt her enter the school grounds.

Folding his arms, Erik inspected the chipped paint on the lowest corner of the doorframe. "Didn't think you'd need an army to escort her inside."

"It might have been preferable," Charles drawled. He took a heavy breath, readying a welcoming smile as heavy heels approached. Before the door could swing open he was wheeling forward with an extended hand. "Mrs. Maximoff, I presume. I'm Charles Xa –"

Crisp hazel eyes overlooked the professor as a brunette swept into the room. Time had favored little, but Erik knew her at once.

"Magda."

She didn't bother to correspond, save with an underlying frantic accusation. "Would you tell me where my son is?"

"Our son," Erik corrected.

Hazel eyes blazed, and Erik wondered where Peter had learned kindness. "You never had that right."

"I had every right," Erik contradicted. "Did you tell him I walked away? Or did you tell him how you left your daughter burning and ran because you couldn't stand a mutant being related to your son – "

"Don't you dare! Don't you dare bring Anya into this!" Magda's voice rose to a shout. "If you hadn't shown off with those dastardly freak shows none of this – "

"Now, wait – " Charles began.

"Is that what you told Peter?" Erik shouted. The grandfather clock crashed onto the floor. Charles pressed a hand against his brow. "Is that how you raised him; thinking his gift was an abomination?"

"I tried to protect him!" Magda retaliated. "After you killed the president, you think they would have allowed my children any chance of normalcy?"

"So you locked him away and made him believe he was a threat!" Erik surmised.

"Don't you even think of accusing me." She rose on tiptoe to match his height, fearless as lamps and bookends crashed around the study. "I gave everything to my children. If you had been there five minutes you would have known – "

"I had been there? If I had been there? Twenty-seven years you hid him away, and now you have the effrontery to –"

"If there had been any reason at all to trust you, Magneto," she spat the name as a curse, "I would have given you custody if you asked! But no, I get stuck hiding three brats because you convinced the world they were duplicitous monsters – "

"Enough!" He grabbed her by the arms and for an instant fear glimmered in her eyes.

Immediately Charles' voice rang in his mind, "Stand down!"

Erik's arms were flung to his sides and Magda fell back, staggering in open-mouthed bewilderment.

"I'm only going to say this once!" Charles growled. "You can visit Peter on peaceable terms, or you can leave the academy with your pride intact. I will not have another disaster in my halls."

Gritting his teeth, Erik forced politeness into a rigid, taciturn response. "We're finished."

"I'm through here," Magda said coolly. She gripped her purse strap; a familiar nervous habit.

"Don't start this again," Charles warned. Furiously Magda looked away.

"I'm only allowing this because Peter needs it," Charles continued. "If the two of you can't behave, Hank will be justly inclined to throw you out – that includes you, Erik."

"Try it," Erik challenged.

"Fine. You can pick up the parts for my clock on your way back to Poland."

It was a low blow, cruel and acerbic, and it diluted his temper like a splash from the roof.

"And you, Magda," Charles said coolly, "I doubt Wanda will be pleased to know you refused to see her brother because of an ancient feud."

Raising her chin, Magda tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Whenever you're ready, Professor Xavier. I'll behave."

Erik refused her the dignity of a glance. "We're through here."

"I'm sure," Charles said dubiously. He glanced between them and nodded. "Very well. But if you disturb Hank's patient, I won't be responsible for the results. Now then, if you will follow me..."

For the first time since Erik had known her, as she followed the professor into a school of mutants, Magda looked vulnerable and completely alone.

"If this was like Jean's episodes I'd say he'd be fine in a few hours," Hank explained as he escorted Charles inside. "Her mind is – infinite – in comparison, but – "

"The speed, yes," Charles agreed. At Magda's befuddled expression he clarified, "Peter's mind is extraordinarily fast. He's having a difficult time resolving the shock of a head injury, I expect."

He was numbing the blow for a worried mother, and in turn minimalizing Magneto's involvement. Compassionate without fault.

Magda didn't wait for further elucidation. "Peter…." A horrified murmur and she settled onto the bed beside him, drawing the still, silver head into her lap. Possession burned in Erik's chest and the radiator whistled mournfully.

"Get out," Magda snapped. She wrapped an arm around Peter, claiming her own, and the pipes snapped.

"Erik!"

His legs froze under Charles' command. Bucking the pressure he snarled, "He's my son."

"She's his mother."

Stupefied, Erik swung to face the telepath. "You're giving him to her?"

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Charles moaned, "Erik, she raised him for twenty-seven years whereas you only became acquainted six months ago. Please, use logic for once."

Hazel eyes lit in triumph as Magda settled against the headboard. Suddenly tender, she carded her fingers through Peter's hair and rhythmically clasped his hand. One, two, three, four, five…. Erik could almost tune it with the flittering heartbeat. He wanted to ask her if this was how she calmed the kid after a sugar rush. He wanted to bolt her in Charles' study until Peter was safely tucked away in Poland.

He ground his feet, listening to the door hinges curl, and forced himself to do nothing.

"Sweetie, time to get up," Magda whispered, leaning in with a familiarity that curdled Erik's stomach. "Turn it all off now. It's just you and me."

"She's encountered this before," Charles murmured.

Little wonder, with a boy who had memorized Calculus because someone left a textbook in the basement. How often had Peter overloaded his mind since he first began to wonder?

How much Erik could have learned with him, if he had only known.

"Peter," Magda cajoled, "Turn it off. No more busy nonsense bouncing around in your head. Just focus on me. Can you hear me, sweetheart?"

A long, deliberate blink. Erik stepped forward and was hindered by Hank's grip.

Surreptitiously Charles raised a hand to his temple and communicated for both Erik and Magda to hear, "Peter, your mother is here."

Clarity in brown eyes lanced like a shower of falling glass. Like the drone of a teenager's persistence. "Whadja do, man? Whadja doooo?" Like the ripple of curiosity when Erik had first heard of a woman who had known a man who could control metal. Like the refined familiarity when he saw the boy standing beside Mystique. Like the scream that tormented his nights. Like the shy smile of a son who was finally recognized. Like the confidence of a child tucked in his father's arms. Like the veer of a car influenced by dread. Like the thrill of a father as his son was called up for first prize.

Like the shattering of a perfect dream, as Erik shook off the fantasy and woke to a drab, weary world.

"Mom?" Peter's voice cracked and he frowned, nearly cross-eyed with concentration. "I thought you were in Cleveland."

Magda laughed. Strange that Erik had forgotten her teasing wit. "Where on earth did you get that idea?"

"You were yelling…." Peter scowled. "Last time you did that Lorna's mom was dropping her off."

Steel jaded hazel eyes and Magda's jaw set. "We agreed never to discuss that again."

"Yeah, but…." Dark eyes blurred with confusion and Peter rubbed the bandage on his forehead. "Ow."

"Don't mind it, baby," Magda soothed, tugging his hand away. "Someone was just being stupid again."

Just being stupid? As though a threat to their child was a simple misdirection of the morning post. Erik focused on uprooting the floorboard nails by the cabinet.

"Does the bruise look awesome?" Peter mumbled, picking at the bandage again. "Dad chased that guy away. He's good at that. Did I tell you I punched En Sabah Nur? Dad chased him away, too. He didn't kill him, of course. That's 'cause I'm here."

"He's going to be fine," Hank huffed, rolling his eyes. He tucked the flashlight into his pocket, cast his notes on a nearby desk, and retreated to his laboratory.

Erik stared.

"He's quite the character, isn't he?" Charles considered. "A few distractions and he's good as new."

That wasn't possible. He wouldn't torment himself with fabricated hopes.

Quietly Erik turned to leave.

"You're coming home with me," he heard Magda say, and he almost flung the door aside to remind her that Peter was twenty-seven and plenty old enough to make his own decisions.

The kid would always be faster than his old man.

"You said you wanted me out of that basement twenty years ago," Peter objected.

"That was sarcasm – "

"And it's so much more awesome here – they've got like fifty floors, and if I get bored there's one spot in the training room where you just add a little extra wax and everyone goes sliding and the professor doesn't catch me since it's mostly wiped away after Beast goes through, although he probably heard that so I'm in trouble now but he doesn't get mad – I don't think he knows how – except he did shout in my head once but that's because I was messing with Scott's goggles and I guess that's potentially hazardous material but I swear that's the only time I did it – and besides I just convinced Dad to listen to Pink Floyd which is really weird if you think about it seeing as he couldn't even figure out a Walkman but we're going to a concert next week and …. Owww…."

The tangle of words ended in a lightheaded speedster and a longsuffering Magda holding his head over a basin.

"Mind the concussion," Erik chastised on instinct.

Magda glanced up in perturb, and Peter groaned.

"Mom versus a dad," he complained.

"You were on your way out?" Charles mentioned with just a hint of cheek.

Erik glowered. "You think I'm leaving him alone with her?"

Somebody had to ground the kid whenever he raided gas stations.

Retreating from the sick room, Erik leaned against the wall and massaged the back of his neck.

He and the kid needed a long talk.

There would be words enough with Magda later.

"I don't want you taking responsibility for him." Magda's ire might have tapered, but twenty-seven years of bitterness lay between them. "What was I supposed to tell him when you nearly murdered the president – again?"

"Don't bring the past into this."

"He was seventeen," Magda emphasized. "He was too scared to leave the basement for months. You think this was easy for us? He was already ostracized without you putting his face on the police scanners."

"It was Charles who dragged him along and that was ten years ago," Erik said testily. "If Mystique's account is correct, you discouraged him from leaving the house for the last decade."

"I wanted him to lead his own life. He only came here because he saw you," Magda interjected.

Erik stilled.

"On the news," Magda huffed. "Big blue mutant? Four freaks trailing after him? I'm amazed he has any regard for you. You think that – "

"Magda," Erik said low in his throat. The window frames began to rattle.

"I'm not finished," she whispered, looking around as though Charles might overhear and intervene. "You think that because you're the mighty Magneto, then all mutants are destined to have a perfect life? He can't go to school. He can't even get a job at a factory because no one trusts a mutant too fast for the cameras. I've had police hammering on my door every week and he hasn't stolen so much as a comic book in ten years! Every public vandalism, petty theft, armed robbery or arson and they come after my son demanding an alibi. You wouldn't believe what they've accused him of! This school is the first good thing that's ever happened to him and you are not destroying his future again!"

She ran out of words, furiously dragging a hand across her eyes. She needn't have spoken.

For the first time since Erik had met her; for the first time since she ran while he held Anya's cooling body; for the first time since she denied him before a score of armed men:

For the first time in twenty-seven years, Magda lost control for the sake of a mutant. For her son.

"That's why I'm here," Erik said softly. Strange that at the height of her accusations he would feel compassion.

Magda scoffed, a broken cry, and Erik saw a woman who had lost her daughter. He wondered if his love would have shattered the same, had she survived Nina.

No. They were nothing alike.

Even so, he knew this pain.

"I am here for Peter," Erik assured just above a whisper. "Whatever happened in the past. Your past. Mine. We're here now. Both of us."

Magda threw back her head and laughed. "And what are we, Erik? A human and the mutant who threw the world into mass panic." Her voice twisted in shame. "He doesn't deserve that."

On instinct, without the persistence of Charles nagging in his head, he moved. Wrapping his arms around her as though she was Raven trying to discover herself. Ignoring the slap as though she was Angel, poor Angel, torn between the Brotherhood and those she had betrayed. Holding; reassuring; as though she was Peter, insecure and unnoticed for too long, wishing there was someone to tell him he was remarkable.

She fought him, and then cried. Long and harsh, cursing him and clinging to him and imploring him why.

Why her children couldn't be normal. Why the world would never heed them as a blessing. Why she was cursed to be alone. Why he had never chased her down, like he did when they were young and naïve, when she laughed and he pursued and together they believed in destiny.

He enfolded her and wished it was then, before the Brotherhood and Shaw and En Sabah Nur, and now, with a genius boy and a hopeful future and years of perspective behind them.

When Magda ran out of tears she lingered, and Erik remembered the nights when they would simply hold one another for hours. No words. No passion. Only comfort, soothing the memories of barbed fences and the stench of death.

His love had never understood such terrors. He had forgotten how much he craved Magda's companionship.

Shuddering a sigh, Magda finally pulled away. She rubbed her arms, pushing aside Erik's hand when he moved forward.

"Stop… I can't…. I…." Clarity was smudged in hazel and she dazedly shook her head. "Just stop," she whispered, shoving past him. She tripped on the threshold, almost dropping her purse. She didn't look back.

Erik stared into the empty hall for a long time.

"So she finally stopped bugging me about coming home," Peter said a few days later, after the bandage on his forehead had evolved into a 'cool but disgusting' scab. "I mean, she wanted me out of the house anyways and she's glad I finally got a job – I guess mail carrier is actually a vocation here; all this time I thought the professor was just getting me out of Hank's hair – or fur, I guess. Is it hair if it's blue? I told Mom that Wanda should check this place out, but I guess college and all – she doesn't have time. I could run her over here, though. I bet she and Jean would get along. They're both red-haired and prone to scaring people. Do you think Lorna would crush on Scott? Cause I'd hate that, but she really wants to visit sometime."

"How does he do it?" Erik murmured to Charles as the speedster rattled along, completely ignorant of the emptying ho-ho box as Kurt scarfed down his rival's spoils.

"I think he distracts Peter," Charles assessed, struggling to maintain a serious expression.

"Not the blue kid." Erik nodded his chin indicatively. "Him."

"How does he…?" Charles glanced over expectantly. Of course he already knew.

"Forget," Erik stated.

Smiling faintly, Charles suggested, "I don't think he can. All it takes is a willingness to forgive."

Sighing deeply, Erik leaned against the balcony railing and watched the kid realize his stolen treasures; an indignation which escalated into a furious chase down the side of the building and across the lawn.

"Do you want to know how he moves on so quickly?" Charles offered mischievously. "I could show you. It's quite fascinating."

I shouldn't intrude, Erik considered. He shrugged. "Why not."

"Mind you, it is rather dizzying," Charles warned, right before he touched his brow and Erik fell into a whirl of sounds and images.

Kurt I'm going to kill you those were mine why does he move so slow and I still can't catch him how does that even work I'm so spinning him around in a chair until he walks into a wall that was funny when Hank slipped I wonder why his fur is blue but his hair is brown it isn't fair that his hair is normal I wonder if he could teach me how to change my mutation like that I should get a popsicle Kurt owes me one now since he ate my snacks do I like grape or orange better or maybe it's cherry I need another stick for the mansion model anyways maybe I'll try all three I bet Dad would give me one too I wonder if he likes popsicles maybe he'd feed one to the dog why can't we get a dog maybe he hates them but he likes Tauntaun so maybe that's his dog and he doesn't like to share why can't the professor convince him that two dogs are better than one I bet they could totally rule the mansion kinda like ferrets hey that ugly blue dude was like a ferret I'm gonna punch his face out if I ever see him again kinda like Kurt right now you are so dead stay put for once and gimme back my ho-ho's…..

Erik heaved a breath and coughed, gasping when he was finally released. "A dog?" That's why the kid had been nagging him about a pizza parlor all this time?

Charles sniggered. "Would it be too dreadfully ironic if I told you that he wants a German Shepherd."

Erik calmly dented the footrest of his wheelchair.

Glaring halfheartedly, Charles told him, "I told you he has an uncanny mind."

"Uncanny," Erik repeated in bemusement.

"Try keeping him under control for twenty hours of the day," Charles deadpanned. "I know he was the one who waxed the training floors. He only sleeps fifteen minutes at a time. I can't possibly keep up."

"I don't envy your mutation," Erik stated.

"Sticking around then?" In private Charles questioned, "You do intend to stay, don't you? No matter what Magda says, what Peter needs right now is his father."

"Yeah," Erik agreed, rubbing one hand along the railing. He thought of impish brown eyes and hair like the soft chestnut of a sparrow's wings. Magda was right; he had endangered his children too much.

It was time for Magneto to rest among the legends.

Erik Lehnsherr had a legacy to protect.

.

.

.

Note: In anticipation of future questions, I will add that this is not the end of Magda's story. Reconciliation is never achieved overnight; she and Erik both need time to settle their grudges.