A Time of Reckoning

[magnetic_magpie]

Who: Magneto | magnetic_magpie & Castiel | ofthursday
When: July 15th, late morning.
Where: Sector 4, near Sector 8, not too far from the docks
Summary: Castiel warned Magneto to stay away from his friends. Magneto didn't bide that warning. Castiel isn't happy. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
Warnings: Violence.

Magneto had the image inducor on, and was walking along the industrial edge of Sector 4. He'd finished his work at Mercy's - or as much as he was willing to do, he wanted to be out and about right now, stretch his legs. Idly he 'kicked' a soda can around, no one paying mind to what appeared to be an older man with low level TK.

He was still slightly headachy and dehydrated from Friday, the only lingering effect of his hangover. He was distracted enough that he wasn't paying much attention to who was around, though for relaxed 'public' face he was showing, one schooled on Genosha for cameras, his shoulders were tensed, one hand fisted in his pocket, and the can was fairly thoroughly dented.

Comments

[ofthursday]

Castiel just watched that reaction, feeling some sense of satisfaction as it was finally something other than claims of innocence or technical truths. But his eyes just darkened, slightly, and he stepped forward, bristling. "I'm making an observation. An accurate one."

Everything Magneto has done since killing Crowley, and the act itself, have been cowardly as far as Castiel was concerned. And cowards were the most pathetic of all; more so than the selfish, the cruel. That was, at it's core, what Castiel found so offputting about Magneto ever since everything had happened; if he'd refused to apologize but taken responsibility, the simmering hatred wouldn't have been there, just initial anger and then moving forward. But running, hiding, throwing up excuses at every turn... That was exactly what Castiel found worst of all.

[magnetic_magpie]

Magneto had learned far too long ago to not let others see when he's hurt - and that means emotionally too. Anyone who can get a visible reaction out of him is someone he cares a very great deal about. But too often, hurt translated into anger.

He's never been that good at hiding anger.

His face darkened as Castiel stepped closer and spoke, his posture shifting to a tighter, more sideways one. "Does it make you feel better? To bully someone who isn't fighting back? Does it make you less angry?"

[ofthursday]

"Not at all." Castiel said, voice lowered, answering all the questions honestly at once. "But don't mistake the truth for bullying." It was just more of the same attitude that made him so angry; crying about someone being mean to him about a situation he caused.

"You shouldn't do something if you can't accept the consequences."

[magnetic_magpie]

"What do you call threatening someone who has not ability to defend themselves or fight back?" Because the only two options he had came down to using holy oil - which he didn't have, and wouldn't, under any circumstances use, or attempting to use Castiel's blade against him. Which, metal or not, was something he wouldn't do either. Because Castiel had trusted him enough to tell him about it.

He took a quarter step closer to Castiel, still keeping his posture tights and guarded. "What do you think I'm ducking, Castiel?"

[ofthursday]

"Do you truly believe I want anything to do with you? That I sought you out for my amusement?" Castiel hissed the questions, watching him approach the fraction, unafraid but cautious. He wasn't foolish enough to believe he couldn't be hurt, but he wasn't particularly concerned he would lose in an altercation between them.

"You are 'ducking' your culpability, and any and all repercussions for your actions. Not only that, but you seem to believe yourself justified in them." His eyes narrowed a fraction. "Despite your assurances, I have no reason to believe you won't later have reason to excuse harming someone else. I'm simply deciding how to deal with that risk." He wanted to just kill him, and see if maybe it would teach him a lesson to keep him away from his friends and family like he'd told him to, but that seemed harsh and somewhat pointless in this place. But Castiel wasn't the type for torture either, and that was what a beating would be when they were so unevenly matched.

While he still had his temper, he wouldn't act in such a way.

[magnetic_magpie]

"It's a small island but it's not that difficult to ignore someone. I manage with several." He didn't step forward any more, but he didn't back down either. "Nor am I going to refuse to respond to someone simply because you told them to. They aren't children. Chuck knows who I am, what I am, better than you. He has since before Lucifer put him in the hospital."

In other words - he had no intention of not speaking to people solely because Castiel told him not to. If they no longer wanted to speak to him? Then he would abide that.

One brow crawled up. " 'Any and all'? I'm speaking to you aren't I? I didn't run off crying to Michael or Lucifer the last time Crowley and I ended up on the same street - or the last time we did." In fact, had Lucifer not demanded answers, he wouldn't have told what happened to him at all. And he'd asked Lucifer to not retaliate against Crowley after their last encounter. "You don't have to believe me. You can check." He didn't answer whether or not he was justified. He had reasons. Whether they were justified or not wasn't the point, as far as he was concerned.

[ofthursday]

All Castiel could hear were more excuses, more comments and statements he could refute if he wanted to but really didn't care to. Only one thing actually stuck out among all of that, which was that Magneto wasn't going to stay away from the people Castiel cared about, which meant he was going to have to be constantly aware and on edge for what might happen. Even if Magneto himself didn't do anything, he was too attached with Lucifer, and Lucifer was dangerous.

"I made it clear what I would do if you wouldn't abide by staying away from them." He finally said, quietly, not pleased that it was coming to this.

[magnetic_magpie]

Magneto truly wasn't concerned with what threat Lucifer might pose to Mary or Chuck through him - they had had their turf war over Chuck. Magneto had made his stance clear, he wasn't handing anyone over to Lucifer. He doubted Lucifer would pick a fight with Michael over Mary, and he and Chuck had a weird relationship anyway.

"You did." His voice was quiet as well, a stillness and a heaviness to it, reflected in his posture. Just waiting. As he'd been waiting for months. And he'd learned - and tried to remember, mostly succeeded in remembering, that if you where to threaten someone, that you had to mean it. It was why he so very rarely bluffed.

Because eventually, people grew tired of living in fear. They either stopped caring what the consequences would be or welcomed them as an end to the fear. And you either had to back down or become so hard, so cruel, that no one would dare challenge.

And he was tired of being afraid. He'd spent too many for his formative years terrorized to have much a taste for it now. If Castiel was going to kill him, fine. If not, then he'd survive whatever happened. As that resolved solidified in his mind, it spread with it a certain kind of peace and a difference in his posture. He took a slow breath, lifting his chin with the inhale, shoulders back, jaw set, shields shimmering then setting, braced, like a fighter planting his feet.

"So are you going to act, or continue to follow me around, threatening? Because the whole stalking and threatening routine? More 'torture' than anything I've done to anyone in decades."

[ofthursday]

If Magneto had ended with the first question, Castiel might've decided to back down, despite his temper. He wanted a fight, wanted to take out all his problems on the source of one of them, but he would have controlled his anger and left the other to one more chance.

But the last comment just snapped what fragile self-control he'd been carefully exerting. He'd been merciful by not killing Magneto and giving him the chances he had; if he wanted to act like it was worse than what the angel could and would do when pushed into it, then Castiel would just demonstrate how wrong he was and eliminate a threat all at once.

It was distasteful--he didn't like killing when he didn't have to--but he'd been left with little choice. Magneto had made it clear he wasn't going to stay away from the people Castiel cared about, and so what else was he supposed to do? Just let him continue on and then pretend to be shocked when the next terrible thing happened to one of his friends?

Castiel usually killed people fast. Nullifying a threat was just that, and nothing more, and he didn't draw it out. But he did that by using his sword, usually only needing one strike before it was over, and he knew he couldn't use the weapon in this case. There were several ways to kill someone or something quickly and with little pain, but they were also a lot of effort, and at the moment he was angry. Far too angry to be that careful.

Besides, a quick death probably wouldn't deter Magneto as soon as he returned anyway. There was next to no lesson there, and Castiel needed to make an impact once so he wouldn't have to again. That it would be more satisfying in his anger would just be a bonus.

He reached out with a sudden lash of telekinesis, to try to send the other right into the pavement.

[magnetic_magpie]

It never once occurred to him that Castiel might draw his blade. It never occurred to him any more that someone might try a metal weapon. Although he didn't truly believe Castiel would kill him either. Because there was always the chance he would come back and not remember - which would make him a bigger threat and give Lucifer or Michael a hold where others didn't, since they knew him well and he wouldn't know them.

Lucifer, he knew, was that manipulative. He'd taken steps, left himself letters, in case. But others didn't know that.

Still. The fight was welcome. Have it out, he'd shed some blood, Castiel some anger. Back home, they would then be able to move on. As he and Jubilee had.

And some part of him, some part he didn't understand or even acknowledge, welcomed it. The fight, the pain. He'd hurt someone he cared about, someone he cared about deeply, hurt him badly, and he deserved to hurt for it.

The lash caught him off guard but he was braced enough, used to flying, and telekinetic bursts in fights, that he didn't go down not totally - down on his knees, one forearm braced along the the ground to push up, pushing back with his own kinesis without much force behind it.

[ofthursday]

Castiel wasn't thinking about the consequences of killing him; about the potential loss of memories, about any of it. At the most, it crossed his mind that if Magneto died, he might not come back and Castiel would have one less thing to worry about.

It hurt, that it had come to this, but the ache was dull by this point. It wasn't the first time, the second; he'd lost count of how many friends he'd eventually ended up staring at across a battlefield. It was something he was used to, by now. Even the Winchesters had been his enemies before he'd returned to this place, and after his fight with Dean and after whenever Sam found out what happened before, who knew if they might be again.

Fighting was a way to channel his hurt as much as his anger, his restlessness and self-destructive urges that were often far stronger than he ever let on to anyone else, his need to do something and to have some sort of control over what his life had become.

He brushed off the bit of force sent toward him, shattering the near wall of a small building, throwing all the debris down on Magneto.

[magnetic_magpie]

Most people who paid attention - which didn't, in fact, include Magneto himself - knew that Magneto held very deep self-destructive urges, knew his life was marked with cycles of violence and loss with extremely brief periods of peace - and that Magneto himself was more often than not the cause of the violence. It was often accident - borne of a slip of temper or an oversight made in arrogance, or some intergroup spat which spiralled out of control by him 'trusting' or placing in power those he knew he couldn't. There were many reasons for it, including simply not having the slightest clue what to do with peace and his powers giving him a sort of built in instability in his moods, but the results where the same. And those who had known him longest wouldn't be surprised.

The debris hit, causing minor scrapes and bruises. He simply pushed at Castiel with his own power, a stinging slap of electricity aimed at his hands.

[ofthursday]

The slap of electricity didn't hurt him, at least not in a way he registered as pain, the sensation just annoying and somewhat insulting. The least Magneto could do was actually fight back and Castiel slammed another wave of telekinesis into him, only pushed back a few unnoticed feet by the rest of the force.

[magnetic_magpie]

He wasn't hurt badly enough to actually fight back, not knowing what Castiel's brothers would do if he hurt Castiel.

Outside a sparing match, he wasn't sure he was willing to, regardless. That wasn't something he'd lied to Michael about.

The second wave hits, hard, making him wheeze, and he braced his feet against the pavement and pushed himself up. He grabbed at Castiel's shoes - many people didn't know most shoes had a metal stabilizing shank in them - and tugged. A fraction of power, he could yank speedsters off their feet this way, but he wasn't trying to. Just push Castiel off balance.

[ofthursday]

In contrast to normal, in a fight Castiel was poised, balanced, graceful. He didn't seem so awkward in his vessel as he usually did, and it was for that reason that he indeed was only thrown off balance by the tug instead of hitting the ground like he normally would have.

[magnetic_magpie]

Absent mindedly Magneto brushed some of the debris dust from his cheek, breathing softly, but shallow. He was alert, but outwardly calm. Violence, fighting, was such a common occurrence back home that he wasn't surprised or even alarmed.

"You're honestly convinced I'm a threat aren't you? Yet all you do is bluff."

[ofthursday]

"Because I'm tired of having to kill people." Castiel hissed back, suddenly; he hadn't meant to say it, but it was honest. He was tired of it, and he'd given Magneto a chance to just back down and leave his friends alone, and they could have both gone on without anyone having to get hurt. But now he'd been backed into a corner again, and somehow that he'd been trying to grant mercy and do the right thing had ended up just being used as an insult.

[magnetic_magpie]

"Yes and I enjoy it so much." It was snarled, more honest than he'd really been with anyone about how much it bothered him, the body count he'd racked up, some number in the nearly in the double-digits millions that he was directly responsible for and he didn't honestly have a clue now many more - at least twice that number, maybe three or four. But the anger made him careless, a wave of power, raw, staticy, and hot with heat and radiation, shoving the words at Castiel.

[ofthursday]

"Then stop doing it." Castiel's words were growled, echoing faintly in his anger. He felt the wave of power but disregarded it entirely, healing instantly the burns that rose from it, and he tossed a nearby wooden picnic bench at Magneto in a casual wave of a hand.

[magnetic_magpie]

He wasn't expecting the bench, wasn't paying much attention to it because wood was larger quiet on his senses, and so it hit fairly hard, finally knocking him to the ground.

"I've rarely raised my hand to anyone here. Those I have?" He stops to swallow, and take a couple shallow breaths to prevent coughing. "Haven't really been worth a fuss."

[ofthursday]

Castiel barely registered that comment before it just sent him flat out into a blind rage, because how dare here. If Magneto didn't care about Crowley, that was fine, but all that comment did was serve to prove he didn't care about Castiel either.

The angel just slammed telekinetic force forward, aiming for organs but nothing more precise than that. He was too angry to focus.

[magnetic_magpie]

Magneto has been in fights. Violence is pretty much a weekly, if not daily at times, factor in his life. He'd learned long ago to never cry out, never show pain, show injury, show weakness.

But something hurts, a throbbing pain that made him cry out sharply. It was reaction that caused him to push back at Castiel aiming to knock him over without thinking about it.

Had he thought about how that comment would have sounded he probably wouldn't have said it - because he does care about Castiel.

[ofthursday]

The retaliation actually took him by surprise, which indeed lead to him being knocked down. It didn't really hurt, though, and the bruising he took from hitting the ground resolved in an instant with his healing; he was back on his feet in a moment and advancing forward, lashing out once again.

[magnetic_magpie]

The retaliation almost took him from surprise, his eyes widening a little. But he doesn't have time to react, the next lash hitting him in the abdomen and chest, liver and spleen bleeding, the spleen injury adding a sharp, stabbing pain to the other throbbing, ribs fracturing but not displacing. He raised an arm, hand glowing brightly, almost like sunlight and pushing against Castiel, aiming to holding away.

[ofthursday]

Castiel actually stopped advancing, frowning and considering the light shining from Magneto's hand in what might almost be curiosity. But he didn't strike again just yet, some of his control over his temper coming back.