A boy runs through the ruins of Genosha and comes to a stop when Magneto stands before him. He was looking for him, the boy pants. They’ve come for him! They look up to see the SHIELD heli-carriers.
Magneto orders the boy to warn the others. They should take cover. Until he’s finished. Shouldn’t he hide too? the boy asks. Go! Magneto shouts.
Magneto recalls the last time Genosha was besieged, he was ill-prepared, nursing injuries from another battle. He takes some Mutant Growth Hormone and tells himself what happens here is necessary. Inevitable.
Flashback:
He recalls cowering helplessly in his destroyed home while the Sentinels devastated Genosha. He barely had the power to keep the ceiling from collapsing. Cursing Wolverine, he fashioned leg braces from the metal, determined to make his legs work.
He stumbled to the entrance to see people running from the Sentinels. He stood there helplessly, realizing they were taking it all.
People recognized him and decided to get him to a bunker despite his protests. They wanted him to live and avenge them.
Present:
His power crackles. He already knows how this encounter will end but he will control how this day will be remembered.
The SHIELD vessels land and the agents led by Agent Haines fan out. She orders the ground units with her, the raptors to reconnoiter. She wants the counter magnetism fields up and running. They activate the fields when they encounter an unidentified object. A huge part of the Sentinel statue is fired at the raptors.
The raptors announce that they have suffered casualties and Magneto is heading the ground troops’ way. Haines angrily realizes he is powered up. Something the informant didn’t tell them. She authorizes immediate and extreme force. Take him out before—
The ground moves and a metal mesh net rises, trapping most of them, tightening around them. Haines orders them to turn on their anti-magnet cloaks. They do and repel the net. They are exhausted.
Magneto floats above them, announcing he knew they would meet. He addresses Haines by name. But he never would have guesses they’d be foolish enough to come here. Hunting him… attacking him. He can almost forgive such acts, but here and now… it is an affront to the memory of those who died here.
Flashback:
Genosha was destroyed and a dejected Magneto stepped out of the bunker, walking around aimlessly. He heard a voice. A man crushed and impaled by a girder shouts his name. He didn’t abandon them! He came back to save Genosha!
Magneto kneels next to him and tells him he cannot save Genosha anymore than he can save him. He covers the man’s mouth. He is so sorry. There is nothing he can do for any of them. Genosha is dead - And so is he.
Present:
The SHIELD agents aim at him and Haines announces he is under arrest. She tells him to give himself up. They will not give him another warning.
She does realize that, the last time they met, the last time he bested them, he had a fraction of the power he now possesses? Magneto remarks.
She brings a heli-carrier to his airspace, she puts dozens of agents on his ground, but where was SHIELD when Genosha was razed? Where were they when the Red Skull turned this place into a murder camp? Where were they when his people died?
He drops the giant Sentinel hand in front of them, scattering the agents.
Bastard! Haines hisses and fires. Magneto easily deflects the bullets with a piece of metal. He asks where SHIELD was when the mutants needed them most. He aims a piece of ground to bury Haines, then wonders where was he?
He brings it down in front of her. Why has he returned to Genosha? he wonders. Is he planting the seeds of a new nation? Is he forming a new Brotherhood? If Charles were here, he might laugh. He might ask if he planned on opening a school. Is he declaring war on humanity again? He’s not sure he knows himself. Whatever this is, the future begins with what he does next.
Magneto raises his hands and surrenders.
