Leave Me Lonely - A Donald Pierce/X-Men Story

Four

This chapter does mention suicide briefly. This is a warning incase that bothers anyone.

Spring 2028, Washington D.C.

The morning started like any other for Zoe. She woke up, went for a run, came back to shower and eat a light breakfast, then began the rest of her day. Arriving at the hospital ten minutes prior to her start time, she headed directly to the locker area and dumped her belongings inside. Then she began doing her rounds shading other doctors. It was all mundane and boring, but it gave her something to do. It gave her a new life and stable future. This was the outcome of her own wrong doings. "Hey girl, you want coffee?"

Zoe sat at a table in the break room for lunch, head in her hands, deep in thought. She looked up at the sound of her co-workers voice. "No. Thanks though."

As the nurse poured herself a cup, she took the seat across from her. "You okay?"

"Yes. I'm just exhausted." Zoe forced a smile onto her face and moved her hands into her lap. It was the truth. Zoe was psychically and mentally drained. Despite the fact she had been living like an average American, human for about ten years, sometimes it just got to be overwhelming. Mostly because she felt extremely alone. Sure, she had a fair share of friends from the hospital and school, but it just wasn't the same. She went from having a family and a place to call home, to absolutely nothing. No where to go for help. No one to understand her. No one in her new life knew the truth. It was a blessing and a curse.

After finishing the rest of her salad, she went about the rest of her day. When the clock came around to six pm, she called it a day and went back to her lavish apartment. She lived just east of Georgetown University, in the center of D.C. It was a very touristy and fast paced location, but Zoe liked it that way. It helped her feel normal and less lonely. None of these people knew her and she meant nothing to them, but somehow, their presence helped.

Money was gifted to her from a man she once looked to as a fatherly figure, Charles Xavier. There wasn't a thing Zoe wanted for money wise. But no amount could make up for his absence in her life. She'd rather have him have back than a one penny to her name.

From what Zoe could remember, she had known the professor most of her life. Her memories of her previous life before she became a mutant had been wiped from her mind. Zoe was a result of the German government wanting to turn average children into mutants to use as weapons. Yes, Transigen wasn't the first company with that idea. They're just the most successful. She was the first and last to come from their experimenting. Charles and the rest of his X-Men had shut the facility down and rescued her. She was only six years old.

As much as she tried to remember those previous six years, she couldn't. She never found her biological family in Germany. Not even a simple memory of them existed, but maybe it was better that way. Zoe saw herself as a monster. They would be disgusted with what she had become. They'd only wish her dead like the rest of the world.

Unlike the other students at Charles' school, Zoe was kept under the radar. She was never considered an "X-Men", and she certainly never went on trips with them. Charles managed to do everything to give her as normal of a life as possible and took her under his wing. It was him who helped her to control and understand all her abilities. Her power to control minds, use super strength, levitate objects, and change her psychical appearance.

After learning all she was capable of, Charles knew the world, especially the government, could never know. For all they were concerned, Zoe only had the ability to levitate objects. It was deemed the less threatening of them all by the other X-Men. But from all the secrecy, Zoe grew more ashamed of herself.