This story requires a bit of explanation.
For years I have been obsessed with villains, antiheros, and noble antagonists. Recently a spate of good fiction featuring Berg Katse, the villain from "Gatchaman", has reawakened my interest in that character, around the same time as fan fiction featuring Magneto, a villain/antagonist/antihero from "X-Men", has reawakened my interest in that character. There are certain similarities:
Berg Katse is a tall, fair-haired Germanic mutant who likes to dress in purple and red and has tried to conquer the world.
Magneto is a tall, fair-haired Germanic mutant who likes to dress in purple and red and has tried to conquer the world. :-)
Okay, there are big differences between them, too. But I wondered how they would react if they met each other. Thus, "Raison d'etre."
The first section is written from Magneto's POV and therefore is a bit more accessible to the Marvel fans, who I presume don't know Gatch. I am going to try to balance things and write Katse's POV so that the Gatch fans will find the story equally understandable, so that you don't need to know both fandoms.
In continuity, this story violates no Gatchaman canon as it takes place after Berg Katse falls to hes death. In Marvel time, this takes place between UXM #275 and XM #1. Gatch fans, if you are not Katse fans, this may not be the story for you as aside from Berg Katse no Gatchaman characters appear. Marvel fans, if you are not Magneto fans, other characters do appear but not in this section, and mostly this story is about Magneto, so you might want to skip.
Gatch acknowledgements:
I owe a debt to Cal, Ennien, and Legion for their post-G-I redemption of Katse fanfics. I've had numerous such ideas myself, so I'm not stealing from you guys, but you inspired me to actually write something down. :-)
X-Men acknowledgements:
Chris Delaney, Chris Campbell, Rivka Jacobs and others have influenced aspects of this story or written things that inspired me to write. Thanks, guys. Keep the fanfic and the FAQs coming.
Each section will be separately rated, because at the moment I'm not sure what the plot is going to ask me to do.
Raison d'etre Section 1 PG-13
Raison d'etre Section 2 PG-13