Author´s note:

Okay guys. I got inspired yesterday night when I watched the new X men movie. It´s great so go and watch it! And: if you have not yet seen the movie do not read this! It´s full of spoilers ;-)

All right, you have been warned.

Magneto has been my favourite character throughout the movie series and to see what happened to him in X3 was sooo sad. So... this is the beginning of a story of mine set directly after the third movie. Hope you enjoy and drop a line or two ;-)

Disclaimer:

None of the characters appearing in the X-Men movies belong to me. I just have some fun with them and try not to do them any harm. This is just for fun, not for profit.

Chapter one:

The man in the park

It was one of these days...one of these days when people would go out for a stroll in the sunlight or take their kids and family out into the green. One of these days when the sun was shining in such a manner that everybody who would look at such a scenery would not be able to do anything else but feel happy... feel that the world was all right and there was nothing that made bad thoughts or sadness reach you.

The park was just one of these places in the sunshine with people around, kids playing ball in some distance. Human families with their ordinary human kids and a happy and careless future ahead and ever so surely there were some of the other species around as well. Those who knew and hid it and those who had not yet discovered what they were... like maybe the little girl that was running after the shaggy black dog giggling full of joy ... the ordinary giggle of a kid that does not yet think of trouble, sadness and dangers that may lie ahead.

Happiness, carelessness, harmony was all around and with even a hand full of chirping, colourful birds in the trees that gave shadow to the few figures sitting on the benches around, the scenery bore an almost obscure image of normality. All these ordinary people sitting here, many of them old already, happy to enjoy some warmth of the sunrays, pleased to just sit there and talk or being consumed by a nice little game of chess, enjoying the simple company of the ones sitting across them, deeply in thought about which figure to move next.

He did no longer care to shoot glances at all those stupid and self-absorbed creatures. He did not even know whether he should hate them or simply ban them out of his thoughts. Ban all the laughter and happiness and just give in to his own self-pity. He would have hated them... all of them, old and young, all their stupid and ignorant attitudes towards those that did not fit into the scheme of their ordinary world... and yet he felt confused. It was hard and he almost hated himself for it. The words... those words were still echoing in his head... after he had stumbled away over the devastated end of the bridge and the ruins that had once been the laboratory buildings on Alcatraz. "One of them!" He heaved a heavy sigh, inaudible though it was even for the couple of old, withered men sitting closest to his table. "One of them!" No. These words were inside his head and nothing would ever change it or ban the words from his mind. What the Wolverine had said to him in that very night had been more of a strike than anything could have possibly been. He was no mutant any more. Everything he had been fighting against, each and every thought he had had over the years, all the hatred that had nurtured his heart had suddenly lost their basis. His old self was gone. Magneto did no longer exist he thought with sarcasm. All he was now was one of those old, stubborn and most ordinary men sitting in a park playing chess... only that nobody was there to spend some company.

Although he knew it was senseless, he slowly extended his right hand and let it hover over the small chess figure, one of the black ones. Although he knew that what he was doing resulted from either childish stupidity or simple unwillingness to accept the plain truth he focussed his mind on the metal the thing contained. It had never been hard for him to control metal... not in his adult years that was...but now... it had fallen from him. He did not even try hard to focus his mind, because he knew what he was doing was nothing but the stubborn attempt to wish back what was forever lost for him. He concentrated though and it made his heart jump with excitement to see that the small figure was actually moving. Ever so slightly but still... he blinked... and when he opened his eyes the effect was gone again. Maybe it had never been there. Magneto was dead. All he had left was Eric Lehnsherr, a broken, ordinary old man with a humour that was too sarcastic for most people to handle.

He felt his thoughts travel away from the figures before him although he tried to concentrate on anything but reality. He looked up, his cap shading his eyes from being blinded, looking again at the young girl and her dog. He was almost certain she could be a mutant. Something about her told it to him clearly although he had never been able to detect mutant abilities before they showed. The girl was careless, throwing a stick and the dog barked playfully and then ran after it. He looked at the two of them. What a peaceful scene it was. What an ordinary scene... an ordinary life.

"Jenny! Jenny, let´s go." The voice of a woman, most obviously the kid´s mother was echoing across the lawn. The girl turned her head, saw who was calling for her and got to her feet. "But Mum... Rusty won´t.."

The woman just gave a little laugh. "Don´t even try it, Jenny. You know we´re late already. Rusty." The last word was directed at the black dog. "C´mon here, boy."

The animal barked again and ran towards the woman. The girl had gotten up by now and had walked over to the path leading to the exit, her mother not turning her head to look at the little one.

Eric was not sitting far from them and in this moment he felt angry with himself for having let himself getting carried away into watching those ordinary people. He looked in front of him again, his head popped on his left elbow. He felt the girl´s gaze on him, yet he did not react to it. Children were curious at times and he ignored it. Still, his stubbornness was not rewarded. From the corner of his eye she saw her tilting her head to one side and then starting towards him. Her mother, still busy with the dog, paid no attention.

He looked up slightly, trying to give the cheeky little thing his most evil glare when the girl climbed to sit on the bench opposite of him. He could tell she was younger than he had thought. 7... maybe even only 6 years old and she was eyeing him with a friendliness and curiosity he had never been regarded with by anybody in the last years. For her, he was just an old man. Still he kept ignoring her presence though he sighed inwardly at the realisation this little creature would not care about this at all.

"You can´t play this game alone." she said with some bewilderment as if telling an even younger kid about something she had found out to be totally stupid.

"Really?" he grumbled as an answer already angry with himself to have given in to saying something at all.

"Yeah." she said and was now eyeing him like she thought he was a weird old guy to think so. "My dad told me how to play this. I know it´s a game for two people, but you are sitting here along."

He gave her another stern look although he felt his stare must have somewhat lessened. "Maybe I am just waiting for someone." he answered in a voice more friendly than he had ever intended.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe." she answered. Then she looked at the field. "I would like to play" she then said and he just raised an eyebrow to indicate his surprise and bewilderment. Looking at her again he was suddenly sure she was no mutant, but an ordinary homo sapiens... like you are one, the nasty voice in the back of his head told him.

"Well I do not think an old man like I am one would be a good company to play chess with, young lady." he said and managed a smile. He had not smiled in this way for a long time and to his surprise realised the warmth that it set free in his chest.

"But I am good at it." she said, her eyes glowing in the very way only children´s eyes do. "I am better than my dad already..."

"Jenny!" She turned around when she heard her mother´s voice. "Come on, honey, we have to go home." She smiled at her daughter and walked towards her, the dog by her side. "I´m sorry, I did not see she had come here" she said apologetically. "I hope she did not bother you. She can be like this a lot." The mother added, brushing a strand of her brown hair away from her face.

Eric had been looking at the chess game again and now raised his eyes again to meet hers, his eyes showing from under the cap´s rim. "Oh, no. No offence taken, my dear" he answered being almost furious at himself sounding just like one of the fools around him.

"Well, I..." she started again, but when looking into his face, her eyes hardened. For a second or two she regarded him with a strange mix of curiosity and thought as if she was trying to think about something... he knew what it was... he could tell it from the way she looked at him... and from the fact that she was grabbing her daughter by the hand, ushering her away surely more unconsciously than intended. Still, there remained some doubt in her gaze before she turned away. He knew what she had thought and he did not need to be a telepath for this. She had thought that she knew this face. She had seen him... he had been on TV no long time ago. But she was unable to connect the face of Magneto to the face of an ordinary, weak, old man sitting in a park playing chess. She had not recognised him, he was sure of this. She gave him no more look when she, her daughter and the dog walked away.

Yes. He thought to himself sarcastically. Magneto was dead.