They aren't mine, they belong to Marvel, but I'm not
making any money off them so don't bug me about it. 
The story belongs to me.  The historical information
was taken from a variety of reliable sources, and is
correct as far as I know.  My apologies if I made a
mistake.
Continuity-wise, I'm not sure.  Somewhere in this whole
Genosha thing, I don't really know where.  It would
help if I had all the Magneto Rex series, but I only
have the first one so far.  Anyway, who cares. :-)



RED SKIES


Rogue looked out over the rooftops of Hammer Bay as the
sun sank into burning clouds, the orange fading into
red.  "Nice sunset," she said, lacking anything better
to say.

Magneto looked over at the clear, innocent face.  Even
the faint marks of stress and concern couldn't mask it,
behind the grown-up face and definitely adult body was
a little girl who still believed in fairytales.  What
was it about that little girl that irritated him so
much, wanted to make him shake her and make her see
that the world wasn't nice, never would be.  It didn't
*deserve* her faith, she was a fool to give it.  As
foolish as he was cruel for wanting to take it away. 
"I wish I could see it that way."  The look on her face
was confused, asking how anyone could see it as
something other than beautiful.  Magnus was overcome
with a sudden, desperate desire to be able to see
through her eyes.  To have the sunset turned into
pleasing stripes of colour by her innocence.  "Tell me
how you see it, what you see.  Why is it a nice
sunset?"

Rogue frowned.  "Ah see a sunset.  Pink and gold
clouds, orange run, red sky…"  She shrugged helplessly.
 "You can't say why something's beautiful, Magnus.  It
just… is.  Why isn't it?  How do *you* see it?"  She
watched in frustration as he turned away, looking back
at the somehow not pleasing atmospheric display.

"Does it matter?"

"Yes.  Ah want to know."  She stamped her foot angrily.
 "What *is*it with you?  You just can't let anybody
find out anythin' about you that might make you look
more human!"

"I'm not human."

"Yes you are, whether ya like it or not.  Now tell me
about th' sunset."  Rogue gripped his arm, eyes
glittering with frustration.

"I don't like red skies."  He shook her off,
irrationally angry.  "They reflect the innocent blood
we spill down here back at us, and all anyone ever says
it 'how pretty'."  She was giving him that odd look,
the one she used whenever she thought he was being
unstable, and it was usually followed by that
'soothing' voice which he hated.  He'd be irrational if
he damnwell wanted to.

"Magnus…"  Yes, it was the soothing voice, one which
would be better used on petulant children.

*I wish someone would just get her pregnant so she'd
have somone other than me to fuss over,* he thought
uncharitably.

"It's just because red has the longest wavelength of
visible light.  That's all."

"No.  The more pollution there is in the atmosphere,
the redder the sunset is."  As he watched it began to
fade into purple.  Red and purple, sunset colours.  His
colours.  "The sky burned red over Auschwitz, because
the ashes of innocent people filled the sky.  I should
know, I helped put them there."  He help up a hand to
stop the tumble of sympathetic, placating, useless
words.  "Don't.  I know it was not my fault, there was
nothing I could have done.  That is why it hurts."  He
sighed.  "One day… August I think, 1944… we burned
twenty four thousand bodies, they say.  I am not sure,
I only knew there were more than I could ever hope to
count.  Twenty four thousand people, and it still was
not enough.  There were always more bodies than we
could manage, the crematoriums could not work fast
enough."

Rogue watched in horror as he spoke, almost oblivious
to her presence.  She wanted to reach out, try to be
some comfort.  *But he won't thank me for it.  He'll
push me away like he does everyone else, he won't ever
let anyone think that he can't deal with his own pain,
even if it kills him.  He must be so lonely…*

Magnus continued, looking at the sky, lost in
recollections of a horror she could never even imagine.
 "And you had to keep working, as fast and as hard as
you could, because if you did not it would be your body
they were handling, not your friends and your family. 
Sooner or later many of the Sonderkommando came across
the body of someone they knew.  A family member, a
neighbour, someone they went to school with… and you
had to carry on, not be a person, just be a machine
with no feelings, because you didn't dare stop… and
then in the odd times when you were outside, you could
look up at that red sky and let yourself remember who
they were, and that they were gone.  A visible reminder
of the horror, the killing, the senseless cruelty…  And
as an angry young boy I swore that as soon as I was big
enough, and strong enough, I would make sure it never
happened again."

"And we're all workin' on it.  You, me, the X-Men,
everyone… Magnus, we all know what happened and we
aren't gonna sit by and let it happen again."  She had
to keep believing that, otherwise she'd go mad.

"You do not know.  You can not understand.  And down
there, Rogue, in that city, are dead and dying who I
cannot save.  But I will stop this pointless civil war.
 Go back and tell the UN *that*.  I will stop the
killing, no matter what the cost.  If they thought this
would break me…"  He looked at her once more, and Rogue
shivered at the coldness of that glare.   "I have
survived far worse."

_________________________________________________________
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