The End of Their Cause
"So… you finally arrived."
The old man's voice echoed through the tense silence as he emerged from the metallic haze. He wore an immaculate red suit, a solemn cape billowing behind him, and a strange helmet crowning his head, radiating authority.
Tony looked at him first, then at the monstrous giant with a turtle-like head standing motionless by his side.
"Well… looks like I came prepared for the costume party. Isn't that right, Rhodey?" he remarked sarcastically as his companion descended with a mechanical roar, stopping a few meters away with all weapons aimed forward.
"Wearing metal suits… it's so stupid," Magneto muttered before lazily raising a hand and closing his fingers.
Tony's armor vibrated with a dull groan as an invisible force clamped him midair. His visor flickered with warnings, but the alloy held firm.
"Metal control, right?" Tony replied with a barely contained smile. "Seems like this material's tougher than you can bend."
The reactor in his chest flared bright white before unleashing an incandescent blast. Magneto raised his other hand, and a steel plate shot up from the ground, blocking the impact in a shower of sparks.
A few meters away, Juggernaut buried both hands into the concrete, ripping out a massive chunk and hurling it straight at Rhodey. He answered with his shoulder cannon, pulverizing the projectile in a deafening burst. A wave of fire crossed the air in return.
Juggernaut lifted a streetlight, ready to swing, but at that instant a green shadow fell from the sky. Hulk landed like a meteor, slamming a fist that sent the colossus crashing through several industrial structures.
Fortunately, the battle was taking place on the outskirts, where no workers remained. Tony had made sure Jarvis issued an evacuation alert as soon as they located the enemy hideout.
Pyro watched in disbelief as the emerald giant arrived. Flames erupted in his hands, and he launched writhing torrents of fire. Hulk didn't even blink—he stared with utter disdain before swatting him into a wall. The impact boomed across the area. Maybe he was dead… or every bone was shattered.
Magneto clenched his jaw, and the steel stored in the warehouses began to twist and rise, aiming furiously at Hulk.
Tony fired a missile from his shoulder.
Magneto didn't even turn. He merely extended a finger and stopped the projectile in midair.
Tony smiled maliciously.
The missile's tip flashed red before detonating in an explosion that hurled the old man several meters back. His cape was scorched as he struggled to remain aloft.
Rhodey lunged to exploit the opening, but a man clad in leopard-patterned armor leaped out of the rubble, propelled by Juggernaut, who was rising again with a roar.
Before the attacker landed on Rhodey, Hulk charged Juggernaut again and slammed him down with enough force to shake the ground.
Rhodey wrestled as the savage man clung to his back, trying to rip out his reactor.
"Hey… looks like you could use a little help."
A calm voice rang out as a figure strode confidently into the chaos. His blue-and-white suit looked immaculate, a large "A" gleaming on his belt. Every step he took made the concrete vibrate.
But before he could say a word, a gunshot cracked through the air with the cold finality of an execution.
His head exploded in fragments that splattered across the asphalt. The body dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.
"Oops. Looks like Owen's here," Tony commented with feigned nonchalance. "I'd say you better surrender… he's not in the mood today."
At that moment, Magneto raised both arms in rage. All the surrounding steel rose in a metallic roar, aiming straight at Tony. For an instant, his grip wavered and Tony fell a few inches, freed. He fired a burst of repulsors at the old man.
"Pietro!"
Magneto's voice thundered through the factory. A silver flash erupted in the middle of the scene. A young man with white hair and glasses materialized as if time itself had frozen. His confident smile didn't fade as he watched Owen stride calmly among the corpses and rubble.
Owen slung the rifle across his back. His hands lifted, gripping two daggers connected by wires. He began to spin them with a deadly hum.
Pietro vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving only a swirl of dust.
Owen closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, his gaze was that of a predator.
The dagger sliced the air precisely as Pietro reappeared in front of him, surprised anyone could anticipate his speed. The speedster leapt back, dodging by mere inches the blade aimed for his throat.
Owen didn't hesitate. His other hand moved with clockwork precision, launching the second dagger in a lethal arc.
Pietro reacted instantly, dodging again, but his pupils widened as he realized Owen, though slower, could predict every trajectory.
In a single motion, Owen shifted his shoulder, and the rifle slid beneath his arm. The shot cracked through the night.
Pietro barely touched the ground when he lunged aside, dodging the bullet by a breath.
But Owen extended a hand and brushed his wrist.
Pietro felt the stab in his back before he understood what had happened.
His knees buckled. Time itself seemed to stop as Owen raised the rifle one last time and fired straight into his chest.
Pietro's body collapsed without a single sound.
"NOOO!"
Magneto's scream shook the factory. All the surrounding steel surged up in a roar, aiming at Owen in a rain of blades.
In that instant, Tony took advantage of the distraction and fired a blast of energy that struck Magneto in the side.
Owen, unmoved, lifted the rifle with the calm of an executioner. His icy stare was deadlier than any weapon.
The gun was already splintering after only three shots. It had been hastily built, without a gram of steel. The moment he learned Magneto might show up, he'd ordered it made.
Meanwhile, Hulk was enjoying trading punches with Juggernaut. But when he saw Owen beneath the storm of steel, his fury erupted.
In a single movement, he seized Juggernaut by the leg and hurled him into the rain of girders, using him as a living shield.
Magneto turned in rage to repel Tony, but that instant of distraction was all Owen needed.
The final shot boomed in the night, straight into the heart of his enemy.
And then Owen leapt, twisting to dodge the steel raining down like a lethal storm, slipping past even the improvised shield that Juggernaut had failed to hold.
Magneto remained motionless in the air for a moment. He lowered his gaze, staring at the dark blood seeping from his chest around the bullet he hadn't managed to stop. A strange glint, a mix of defeat and defiance, flickered in his eyes as he slowly began to descend, as if gravity had finally claimed his body.
Rhodey at last managed to shake Sabretooth off, sending him sprawling into the center of the battlefield, growling with feral rage. The final bullet from Owen's rifle had shattered the weapon; the barrel fell in pieces at his feet.
Without missing a beat, Owen hurled one of his daggers. Sabretooth roared and swatted the blade aside with a swipe of his claws. But in that same second, Owen bent his legs and launched himself forward with such force that the concrete beneath him sank, leaving a crater.
He appeared in front of Sabretooth in the blink of an eye. The steel wires connecting the daggers snapped taut with a brutal crack, wrapping around the mutant's body.
Sabretooth barely opened his mouth to roar when Owen crossed his wrists.
The cables tightened at impossible speed. A clean slash split the mutant's chest—and most of all, his neck.
For a moment, a heavy silence fell.
"Rhodes. He has accelerated regeneration. Burn him," Owen ordered with a calm closer to an executioner's than a soldier's.
But then a shout echoed from the entrance of the factory.
"STOP!"
Everyone turned their gaze. Two guards emerged, dragging a hostage. They aimed their rifles at Nicolas's head, using him as a human shield.
Hulk watched the scene with a dangerous stillness. Then he turned to Juggernaut, who was slowly getting back on his feet, and smashed a fist into his skull, driving it into the pavement. Without pausing, he began to hammer him again and again, until the massive helmet cracked under his green fists.
"I said stop!" the guard yelled, his voice shaking.
Owen didn't even turn. He walked toward Magneto, who was kneeling on the ground, struggling to breathe as his torn cape soaked in blood. His tired, lifeless eyes slowly lifted to meet Owen's.
The guard pulled the trigger.
But Nicolas moved first. With reflexes none of them expected, he swung his arm back and drove an elbow into the soldier's hand, snapping his finger and jerking the aim. The bullet struck the other guard square in the head, dropping him instantly.
Nicolas ripped the weapon from the corpse, pivoted with fluid precision, and fired point-blank into the remaining man's temple. The echo of the shot rang through the factory walls.
With the gun still smoking, he took a step forward, his stare filled with contempt.
Owen never looked away from Magneto. He studied him for a moment, gauging the emptiness in his eyes.
"Any last words?" he asked in a low tone, closer to indifference than pity.
Magneto managed a mocking smile, though he could barely hold up his head. His gaze, however, said everything. He didn't need to speak.
Owen frowned. For an instant, something in that look gave him a dark premonition.
And then Magneto collapsed, lifeless.
"So these are the mutants," Tony said, walking among the corpses, his visor casting pale light over the bodies.
Hulk stepped closer, poking Nicolas with a finger to see if he was still in one piece.
"They're very weak," Owen muttered with irritation. Something didn't fit. The ease with which they had killed them all left a dull unease in his chest.
"What are you talking about? Maybe we're just too strong," Tony replied with a shrug.
"No. They're weak without strategy. It was too easy," Owen insisted, remembering Magneto's final smile. It hadn't been the look of a defeated man. It was something else… as if his death meant nothing, or worse, was part of a plan.
As he tried to piece it together, a cold emptiness settled inside him. He barely knew the details of these mutants, their histories, or where the hell they came from.
"What do we do with the bodies?" he finally asked, touching a hand to his ear, connecting to the base.
The general's voice came back with the cold finality of an order.
"Destroy them. I don't want any stupid investigations."
…
Meanwhile, in the X-Mansion, a heavy silence filled the main hall. A massive screen displayed, in real time, the deaths of their comrades. Some watched with stone faces. Others wore bitter smiles they couldn't suppress.
Only Professor Xavier held a gaze heavy with sadness, almost mourning.
They had also heard Owen's question—and the general's curt answer. When the words echoed through the speakers, everyone let out a restrained breath.
"Maybe this world isn't like ours," Beast said, his voice mixing wonder with relief. "If that's so… maybe it wouldn't be so terrible to stay."
"He's right. Here, the children wouldn't be hunted," Colossus added gravely.
"For now… we watch and wait," Charles said calmly, though his expression remained dark.
"What do you think Magneto was after, siding with the wrong people?" Jean asked, her gaze serious, her voice little more than a whisper.
The answer didn't come immediately. And the silence that followed was heavier than any word.