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Post by Nina Lehnsherr on Oct 27, 2019 3:26:07 GMT
He agreed to walk with her, and Nina fell into step beside him, reaching for his hand, to hold it, while they walked. "Only about a million." SHe joked, but didn't look at him. Letting go of his hand, Nina pulled the sheelves of her shirt down and then folded her arms. "I'm not sure where to start." There was so much to ask and so much to say. Talk to him, her mother had told her.
Talking a deep breath, Nina moved to stand before him, stopping their walk after just a few steps. For this question she wanted to look at him. She wanted to see his face to know if it was true and how much. It was the hardest question she had to ever ask him, because she knew there was an dangerous and unwanted truth to it--just as she knew there wasn't. "I didn't lie. They didn't do any test on me, but . . . " The videos, the words they spoke about her father. Her fingers lifted to her cheek, touching the bruise as she thought about how the videos hurt more then it. "Is it true?" She asked, knowing she needed to be more specific, "They showed me videos of you. They said you did things. Killed people." Which was something she couldn't imagine him doing until today--after seeing him bring down the building she could imagine it.
And she hated having that in her head.
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Post by Erik Lehnsherr on Oct 27, 2019 3:38:42 GMT
Peace WAS NEVER AN OPTION A million. That sounded about right. He remained quiet as she seemed deep in thought. He could only imagine how many thoughts were running through her head. So when she stopped walking and turned to face him, so did he. She looked directly at him and he returned the gaze. The question she asked, was not an easy one. Every father surely wanted their child to see them as nothing but a good man. His desire to be a good man had been for her. For Magda. But his actions would not deem him such.
Even if he did not necessarily regret the killings . . . he knew they had been done in cold blood. And so, she asked him directly if he had killed people. Withholding his past was one thing, directly lying to his daughter was another. Besides, she had seen the building collapse, knowing the implications and what it meant for everyone inside. Growing momentarily distracted by the bruise she touched, his heart aching at the sight of any injury at her, he met her gaze once more to answer her question. A difficult answer, but one of the many he owed her. "Yes, it's true." He had killed people, many people. But, he knew what videos she spoke of.
"But I didn't assassinate President Kennedy," he told her. "It's, complicated." But that was a way to evade the topic, which he would not do. "He was a mutant, and I tried to stop the bullet. I was, apprehended and the bullet curved instead." Of the crime he imprisoned for, he had not committed. He wasn't sure why that was important in the grand scheme of things, but it had been one of the first things he had told Charles, and Magda. That whatever the public thought of him in that scenario, was untrue. Now, the stadium and threat towards the other President and men . . . that was an entirely different story. With an different outcome -- no thanks to him.
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Post by Nina Lehnsherr on Oct 27, 2019 3:52:46 GMT
"Yes, it's true." Nina's eyes scrunched up as she felt her tears come again. She wasn't sure what she had expected, but his admittance wasn't at the top of her list. Reaching a hand up she covered her face for a moment, before looking back up at him. Her mother had said listen with her heart open but it was hard! Her father had killed people, and for Nina she couldn't think of a worse act. She loved him still, and that only made it hurt more. "But I didn't assassinate President Kennedy," he told her, and explained what he meant. She nodded in a choppy way to show she understood, but she wasn't sure how to take all thing in. He hadn't killed the man he went to jail for killing--which normally would have made her angry at the injustice--but he had killed others.
He'd killed people. Terrorist they called him. He was in hiding out here. She felt glad that she honestly believed he loved her mother or she'd wonder if that had been a cover. Her parents were too in love for that to be a lie though. She inhaled a long and loud breath to try to steady herself. "Not him, but the others." She asked, and told at the same time. Maybe not Kennedy but he had killed others. "They called you a terrorist." She told him, not quite able to look him in the face right now. Her beloved father. So many secrets.
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Post by Erik Lehnsherr on Oct 27, 2019 17:40:37 GMT
Peace WAS NEVER AN OPTION Terrorist. How skewed the meaning of the word was in today's society. Was it not the persecuted who were being hunted by terrorists the true meaning of the word? He had seen the articles. Heard the news reports. They had deemed him one. A societal construct. Whatever threatened the existence of human kind and yet the irony, that they had created him to be such. It was humans that would lead to their extinction. "There are many in the world who hate mutants." Something he had tried to protect Nina from. Both he and Magda had, knowing what lengths humans would go to.
"Many who would see our kind dead." He knew there was a fine line between this conversation, and preaching the cause. He was not trying to recruit Nina. She was his daughter but he knew he needed to explain where he was coming from. "Mutants have been hunted, experimented on, killed for simply existing." A familiar scenario. He hadn't been able to fight against the threat in Auschwitz. But he would most certainly fight against the threat now. "I once vowed that I would never be helpless in the wake of persecution ever again. Something both your mother and I know all too well." Concentration camps. Nina may not know the gory details of what they went through, but she knew the limited history. But Magda's past, was also what made her understand his mindset. Understand the fight against humanity so that their kind wouldn't face extinction.
Nina was older now. Exposed to the harsh reality of the world they lived in. No matter how much he wanted to protect her from it, to shelter her from it, he couldn't. Not anymore. So he had to speak to her as such. "So yes, I have killed." His voice did not hold any pride in the words, but nor was he apologetic. "Society calls me a terrorist. But they are the ones who have spread the real terror among mutants." He had been long gone from that world, from the Brotherhood. His family came first and he would not change that. But . . . recent events, made him question if there was ever such a place they would be safe again. Or if fighting, would be their only option left.
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Post by Nina Lehnsherr on Nov 3, 2019 19:17:21 GMT
Nina felt her body grow cold as Papa admitted that he had killed people, and that they had called him a terrorist. It was true? He'd done all the things int he videos. She understood what he was saying about the others spreading fear but she had trouble seeing her father as one of the people doing it too. She had never seen him violent. She couldn't have imagined it had they not made her watch the videos. Her belly rolled and she felt a little sick while trying to imagine the man who sang her to sleep, and tickled her, and laughed every day . . . as the same man who gave that speech and tried to kill the people in the video. As the man who hunted other mutants in the video of Paris.
Turning she looked at the ground around her, thinking and trying to make sure she understood everything before looking back at him. "They showed me a video of you hunting and hunting another mutants." She told him, her voice confused and trying to understand. She wasn't angry, just lost. Her beloved father and hero, suddenly looked more human then he ever had. She was seeing more then the unflawed father she had seen him as in her youth, and she wanted to understand. To believe that his heart had been in the right place but he said he fought for mutants . . . why hurt them too?
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Post by Erik Lehnsherr on Nov 4, 2019 2:29:06 GMT
Peace WAS NEVER AN OPTION Hunting other mutants. The videos. He knew what she was referring to, and also knew that it was far deeper than just hunting mutants. There had been reasons, and deeper, personal feelings attached to it -- especially one. There had been a motivation that involved time travel and stopping a genocide that would wipe out the entire race, and humankind as well. But how did he explain all of that? How did he justify what he thought was the best thing to do at the time?
"It brought me no joy to do that," he told her, wanting her to know that it came out of necessity rather than any thrill he got from hunting and harming others. Especially mutants. "But there was a great deal at stake, and I believed at the time that in order to save the mutant race, a mutant had to die." It was not a lie, but it did not get into the technical details. "It had been a mistake." He knew that. They had gotten Mystique's blood as a result, and it didn't seem like much would stop the Sentinel program from going into effect.
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Post by Nina Lehnsherr on Nov 7, 2019 1:01:22 GMT
The cold was settling in to Nina's fingers as she tried to adjust to what her father was telling her. Hunting and hunting the other mutant had been needed? Killing one to save te mutant race? She didn't understand, but he had called it a mistake.
"And the stadium? You circled the American white house and tried to kill the people in charge? You said they were trying to hurt mutants, but I still don't understand why you . . . . Why you?" She asked, still willing to listen but having her eyes opened about her father. WHY him? Why had he done this. How had he gotten so deep into a fight?
This was the man who had raised her? Her mother said listen with an open heart. Her mother had stood by him then? How had she done that? She felt as if she was missing something. As if there was a a reason that her mind had trouble seeing. She had all the puzzle peaces but they didn't make a picture.
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Post by Erik Lehnsherr on Nov 9, 2019 1:27:06 GMT
Peace WAS NEVER AN OPTION Why him. It was a fair question and one he hardly ever went back to the roots of. Very few knew of his history; of his time spent in the concentration camps. Magda understood his actions because she had lived through the oppression and cruelty of others. But, how could he explain this to his daughter? He didn't want to tell her of the gory details, because while she knew that her parents had spent time in the concentration camps, they never went into detail about what they had endured. But now, Erik knew he would need to address it in order to explain his actions now. In order to tell his daughter why he was at the forefront in the fight for mutant rights. Both he and Magda had kept her from that world, but he'd always known it wouldn't last. He just wished she had not been harmed in the process.
"As you know, you're mother and I were both in the concentration camps," he began to say, trying his best to keep his voice steady, composed, but speaking about it was not easy. It was something he'd long since buried, long since spoken about. "It was . . . " Horrible. Traumatizing. "We were . . . " Tortured. Killed. Erik's voice trailed off as flashes of the horrific sights and pain flashed through his mind, voice trailing off yet trying to pull himself back in the present. Not having realized his gaze had fallen to staring at nothing in front of him, looking past his daughter, his eyes returned to Nina's.
"People were tortured, experimented on, killed, for things beyond their control. For just existing." So much death. So much pain. "The world has repeated this cycle now, only, the people being hunted and persecuted, are mutants." People like him, like his daughter. Removing him from the equation, his daughter was innocent of all things and yet, she was still apprehended and treated like an animal. "I couldn't watch it happen again." He couldn't be idle, helpless, useless. "I did not know the extent of my powers when I was at the camps. I couldn't help those who were suffering." He couldn't save his own mother.
"But now, knowing the strength we all possess, it was a time to show others what mutants could do. And that we would fight back should society seek to eradicate us. To use us as test subjects. To . . . kill us." Because they feared them. They were the stronger race and humans feared that. "I wanted to be a part of creating a world where our kind did not have to live in constant fear. To break the cycle of genocide." Because, that was exactly where society was heading . . . point proven by Wolverine when he came from the future to tell them of the Sentinels. But right now, he wanted Nina to understand the emotional depth of his words, to answer as she had asked: why him.
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Post by Nina Lehnsherr on Nov 9, 2019 2:04:19 GMT
Nina watched her father, waiting for an answer to her question. "As you know, you're mother and I were both in the concentration camps," It was the last thing she expected him to say. Yes, she knew about her parent's time at the camps, and she'd learned history enough to know that it was horrible. Unspeaking things had been done in the idea of a master race. Yet in her protect little corner of the world, it seemed something that had happened 'in history' more then to her parents. "It was . . . We were . . . " He couldn't even look at her at first, as her father struggled for her words.
"People were tortured, experimented on, killed, for things beyond their control. For just existing." People. He'd gone from 'we were' to 'people were'. Nina was a smart girl. She took after her father like that, picking things up with ease. She could fill in the blanks of what that meant--they were. He was. tortured. experimented on. Saw others killed? Nina swallowed hard as she tried to imagine her father there, and struggled. Her normally s happy father in a place of death and darkness? His voice grew stronger, and Nina felt some of the turmoil of hearing her father's past there--but not enough. He spoke of it happening again, and this time to mutants. Her kind. His kind. "I wanted to be a part of creating a world where our kind did not have to live in constant fear. To break the cycle of genocide." She had to believe there was a better way to do it then this. That there was something besides fighting violence with violence, and fear with more fear.
Yet for now, Nina stepped forward and embraced her father. Hugged him to ease the hurt he had to be feeling right now. It was the most he'd ever said about his time there, and she knew that was hard on him. She wanted to help make it easier to talk about. She knew that they still had a lot to talk about, and that she was realizing her views were very different from her parents. She knew this conversation would hard, but before they could continue it, she wanted to hug her father. Wanted to make things better for him and what he suffered. "Is that what you meant when you said they took your mother away?" She asked in almost a whisper.
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Post by Erik Lehnsherr on Nov 9, 2019 2:46:52 GMT
Peace WAS NEVER AN OPTION Erik felt a . . . relief, when his daughter wrapped her arms around him, hugging him. He instantly returned the gesture, wrapping his own arms around her body, holding her close. He took advantage of their positions where she could not see his face, to close his eyes and work to emotionally regain his composure, fighting any tears that threatened to form. He needed to be strong for this conversation, for his daughter. So despite the slight moistening in his eyes, he managed to fight it back. Yet the mention of his mother . . . made it impossible, and he let that single tear fall over.
"Yes," he told her quietly, keeping his voice steady. "She was killed, as a means to force me to use my abilities." He knew Nina could figure out the how. Most weapons were made of metal, so he knew no further explanation was needed. Drawing his head back a little, he looked into his beautiful daughter's eyes. "The only way to stop oppression, is to fight against it." He firmly believed that. Because if they didn't, if they just allowed themselves to be hunted, if they were silent . . . then they would be killed. They would be wiped out, as the future revealed.
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Post by Nina Lehnsherr on Nov 10, 2019 0:13:23 GMT
He hugged her back, and Nina closed her eyes to hold him toward her. Wanting to ease the pain as he talked about his mother. She couldn't imagine loosing her mother, and in such a manner that shaped your whole life. Having her killed to make you do something. When he pulled away she looked up at him, looking into his eyes and trying to see if he was ok, after telling her more about his life then she had ever heard from that time period.
He told her they had to fight. "I know," she told him, but knew that her idea of fighting wasn't what he thought it would be. For Nina, fighting was educating, and helping the world understand and see these things as her mother did--wonderful and cool things! How much they could do to make the world a better place. How this would happen to more and more people as the generations went on. For her father, it was something else. "But I don't think it has to be with violence." Nina's voice was soft, and almost quite as she said it.
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Post by Erik Lehnsherr on Nov 10, 2019 0:29:03 GMT
Peace WAS NEVER AN OPTION Her words played over in his mind, speaking of how it did not have to be with violence. She sounded so much like him: Charles. Believing in peaceful resolutions. Believing in being the better man. But, Erik's experiences had taught him otherwise. And experience, was the best teacher. Even as Charles lived in peace, how many attacks had occurred at his school? How many mutants taken? Peace was not an option for their kind. Things were not getting better with time. If anything, they were getting worse.
"I tried peace, Nina," he told her quietly. His life with her and Magda a clear example of that. "And look what happened." She was brutally kidnapped, he was apprehended. And it was quite evident, they had no intention of letting her go after he'd given himself in. So yes, experience taught him differently. The future, taught them differently. Where another genocide would claim so many lives. "Believe me when I say, I wish I could be proven wrong." He wanted Nina to know that. That he didn't enjoy the violence. But it was necessary. And everything he did, was out of necessity to provide a better future for mutant kind.
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Post by Nina Lehnsherr on Nov 17, 2019 3:36:40 GMT
Nina pulled back from the hug but left her hands on his arms, while she tried to take in his words. She believed them, but she didn't believe in them. She knew he wanted peace, and that he wished there was another way--yet she knew in her heart that there was. These people were but a handful in the world. Some snakes were poisonous but they didn't hate and kill all snakes because of it. Most were good. Afraid but good.
She had been raised to believe in the good, and she had to keep believing in it. That humans were like her mother, and would not all be this way. "I know you have seen more hate and fear then anyone," She knew that he had been taken as a kid and put int he camps. She hadn't known it was like it was until just now, but she also knew that he had been arrested before for things he hadn't done. "But there are still good people. I have to believe the kids I grew up with would stand up for me even if they knew about me. We can make a difference by helping remove the fear people see. Like we my animals friends. Violence will only give them more to fear, Papa." Her words were soft, not an argument but explaining her point of view, and asking him to see it differently. She loved him, and trusted him more then anyone. She simply didn't agree with him.
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Post by Erik Lehnsherr on Nov 17, 2019 20:43:01 GMT
Peace WAS NEVER AN OPTION She sounded so much like him. Like Charles. This was perhaps the first time Erik feared losing his daughter. Not in the physical sense, but in the way that their differing views on humanity and achieving equality for mutants may cause a rift between them. It was a fear he held. For he knew it was not naivety that caused her to say this, but rather, innocence. Because it was how they raised her. They had protected her from others hatred; kept her from being exposed. But time and time again, seemed to prove that no matter what, they were endangered. And unless one went through the actual terrors of oppression . . . they may never understand.
"Your mother and I protected you from the world, Nina," he began to say. "So I understand and admire your want to see the good in people." It was how they raised her; it was how Magda was as well. But Magda had lived the horrors of persecution. She knew what direction the world was heading in, yet again. "But the truth that we tried so hard to protect you from, is far darker than that." Her being kidnapped was a prime example. "Humans fear us, and what we can do. They strike first, and we must strike back. Otherwise, our kind will die. So many have and no matter how many humans you want to see the good in, there are very few that will stand up for us. So if we do not, then no one will." The future was filled with genocide. They may have altered it, but Magneto doubted it would be the last of its kind. "Inaction is acceptance." Because if they weren't acting, then they were accepting what the humans were doing to them. "And we can not accept what is happening to our people." Mutants all over the world, suffering. This time, it had hit far too close to home with them taking his daughter. And he knew, there was no going back now to the life of the Gurzsky's.
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