Mutant Rights AU - Background Article

[prefers_magneto]

Three years ago, the fame - or maybe infamy - of Xavier and Lehnsherr started with the now well-known outburst at a senate debate on mutant issues, including a possible 'mutant registration program' and the development and possible implementation of the controversial 'inhibitor collar'. They were not the only mutants to show up in the public gallery, but were the ones inclined to speak and already appeared to be prominent members of the mutant community when they took the floor as concerned citizens, Xavier looking kind and earnest, his companion sharp-featured and uncompromising, as the debate turned to the most effective way to implement a 'Mutant Control Act' that would require mutants to identify themselves.

Xavier started with a calm, reasoned argument against required registration and public identification of mutants; arguments based on asking the members to look at it from their point of view and consider what they would feel in the mutants' place. He urged them to see that a gross overreaction to the very existence of mutants wouldn't solve the fundamental problem of finding a way for humans and mutants to live together in peace and would only drive them further apart.

Lehnsherr stood at Xavier's shoulder, his cold, steely gaze watching the senators like a hawk. It was the first mention of the inhibitor collar that loosened his tongue, but when he spoke, it wasn't to the attendants, it was to Xavier.

"I told you they weren't interested in peace, Charles."

Xavier gave him an exasperated look that suggested this was an argument they'd had many times.

Lehnsherr wasn't surrendering in this instance, though. "Inhibitor Collars," he pressed. New evidence. "Registration, neutralization. They're lining us up to be exterminated from the planet like a cockroach infestation."

It was then that anyone watching might begin to realize that Lehnsherr was more fire than ice, despite outward appearances.

Senator Rogers scoffed. "Paranoid extremism. We're talking about controlling dangerous weapons on our streets, here. Nobody is talking about 'extermination'."

Lehnsherr's eyes went hard, but at the same time, he seemed to come into his element. "No one ever talks about it," he retorted without missing a beat. "They just do it." He waved to the public gallery above, humans and mutants alike. "And you just go about your lives until one day, when the night has fallen and the air is still, they come for you."

"Erik..." Xavier began to interject.

Lehnsherr only raised his voice a little and continued.

"It's only then that you realize that, while you were talking about petitions and committees, the extermination has already begun."

The gallery and the attendants erupted in a cacophony of both outrage and cries of support, but Lehnsherr continued, now clearly addressing the mutants specifically.

"Make no mistake, brothers and sisters: the humans will draw first blood. The only question is, when that day comes, will you stand up and fight or lie down and die?"

Xavier grabbed his arm, then. "Erik, what are you doing?" A low hiss of a question, but the microphone picked it up.

Lehnsherr answered at normal speaking volume, with absolutely no shame. "This is the truth of the situation, Charles. Let it take nobody by surprise."

The impromptu speech, the parallels to Lehnsherr's own past, the implied promise of a mutant response to any legislation they consider a threat has been broadcast and rebroadcast and quoted and analyzed many times since then, cementing Lehnsherr and Xavier as the faces of the Mutant Rights Movement: one compassionate but firm, one driven and severe. Two intelligent, charismatic men representing the mutant proposal for peace and the stark and looming 'or else' behind it.


Read the follow-up to this article: Behind Closed Doors