Arguments, like war and death, were among the few constants in Magneto’s life. He’d had his fair share: with Charles, with the twins… with you.

Oh, especially with you.

He was used to it. He had given the speech to you more times than he could count. He knew your every retort, every deflection. But this was different. This time, it was your existence in question. And he would not stand for it.

Everyone knew his fury, his vengeance. But few understood that what burned just as fiercely as his fight for Mutantkind… was his love for those he held dear. For his family. His children. For Magda. For Charles. For you.

The multiverse was not a concept unfamiliar to him. He had long understood that the same grief and loss haunted every version of himself. But what he never expected nor imagined, was that in all of the multiverse, in every timeline and every reality, it was only in this one that you existed.

Just one.

Countless counterparts of his lived without you, without the light and warmth you brought. The thought was unimaginable.

His emotions were already balanced on a razor’s edge, but hearing you question your own existence? That tipped him. His eyes stormed with fury, a shield against the pain that pumped through his veins.

How could you think you were a mistake? That your very being wasn’t meant to be? How dare you believe your presence had made his life harder? How could you think even for a moment, that he wouldn’t willingly endure every agony known to man, just to have you in it?

“I care nothing for what the universe wills!” The words burst from him like thunder and blades. “Let it try to unmake me a thousand times over—”

The magnetic field surged, lightning-like, tearing from his body. Asteroid M groaned and buckled under the force, shattering into fragments around the two of you.

“I. Will. Endure.”

He hissed the words, floating with you in the wreckage, the dark void of space wrapping around you, lit only by the distant stars. His hands gripped your shoulders, part to shield, part to anchor.

For a moment, everything quieted down. As if he had trapped you in a galaxy of your own, gravity centred around him, shards of metal orbiting the two of you.

Finally, he spoke again.

“No force, no timeline, no divine whim shall dictate your worth or your right to exist.” Each word sent ripples through the magnetic field, as if reality itself echoed his voice. “You live in my heart. In my world. You exist to me. And that, is enough.”

He knew it wasn’t fair to snap at you. You needed comfort, not fire. Reassurance, not rage. But the ache in his chest roared, and his voice only hardened. “Let reality fracture. Let the stars burn cold. You exist because I will it so!”

Why can’t you see? He almost wanted to laugh. It wasn’t enough what the world had taken from him; it had to break his most precious, cherished one, too. If only rage and pain were enough to reassemble the shattered pieces of his heart, so he could love you as you deserved, and make you whole again.

But they weren’t.

His grasp was painfully tight, as if he could somehow brand his truth into you. A thousand words fought for space in his mind. I am glad you came into my life. I am glad we met. I am glad you are in this fight for our kind, with me or against me.

But none of them came.

So instead, he repeated, with the unyielding determination of a man who’d reshape history, challenge the universe, and face down gods…

“You exist to me.”