Author's note: the eye color of some characters is based on my best guess after examining multiple pictures. Heights of characters are based off of the actors, not what is stated in the X-Men comics, as sources on some characters varied. If you have a suggestion for a revision, please leave a review telling me about it, as I am open to criticism as long as it isn't rude. My OC's love interest isn't even introduced in this chapter (That's right, it isn't Charles or Erik)... hint, hint, this story is set over the course of multiple movies, beginning with X-Men: First Class. I apologize for having so much exposition in this chapter!
It was 1962, and I was in the middle of having sex when Erik and Charles knocked on the door of my home, my mansion. I've had about two millennia to amass my wealth, and I'd like to think I've done a good job. As a result, many men and women were willing to do just about anything to get in my favor, hoping to get things from me. At the time, I was enjoying myself with a dark-haired, bright-eyed young man who gazed longingly not at me but at the diamonds around my neck when he thought I wasn't watching. He had been fun, but I wasn't terribly disappointed when my butler, Richard, called through my bedroom door, "A Charles Xavier and an Erik Lehnsherr are here to speak with you, ma'am."
I looked up in interest. "Are they good-looking?" I call back to the butler, causing the young man on top of me to furrow his brows.
"They both seem to be specimens you would find attractive," My butler replied, and I could practically hear him rolling his eyes. I smiled. Two handsome men calling for me? Two is better than one, so...
I slipped out from under the gold-digging young man. "I will perhaps see you later, alright...?" I didn't ask him to remind me of his name, though I'd forgotten it. I didn't plan on seeing him later.
"But Zoe..." he protested, but I was already putting on a white silk robe and running a brush through my soft red hair. I opened the door, exposing the young man to Richard, though the butler didn't look at him.
"Escort him back to his car once he is dressed, please," I told Richard, and sauntered down to my foyer. One of the men was very tall, or at least above average in current standards. His hair was straight and brown, his eyes blue, his body muscular. The other... well, he was still tall to me, given my five-foot stature, but I thought he was a bit below average in modern times, maybe even noticeably short. He was slender, lanky, and if I didn't have anything nearby to compare him to I would have thought he was tall. He had dark, wavy hair and bright blue eyes. Light eyes and dark hair were my favorite, and both of these men had precisely those features. I smiled at them brightly.
"Hello, I'm Erik Lehnsherr," said the taller man, smiling back at me. Beside him, the short man, who must be Charles Xavier, was looking at me with a rather surprised expression, though what he was surprised by I wasn't sure.
"Charles Xavier," the shorter man introduced himself. He had a slight British accent. Adorable.
"My name is Zoe. It is a pleasure to make your aquaintances. Please, let me take you two into the parlor, we can get some drinks, get to know each other," I said, putting on my most charming expression, which has worked differently as my wiry frame, red hair, and green eyes have gone in and out of style over the centuries. Those days, my thin body was a shorter version of what society currently considered most attractive.
Charles seemed at a loss for words for some reason, and Erik looked at him for a moment, perhaps waiting for him to say something, and finally spoke into the silence. "I'm afraid we are rather short on time at the moment."
"Short on time? I have nothing but time, time and money. If you would like, perhaps I could loan you some. Time, that is, not money. I am not in the practice of loaning money, unless it is for a good cause," I said.
"Actually," Charles finally spoke up, "We came to ask if you would like a job."
"A job? Honey, I have all the income I need," I told him, starting to feel a bit irritated. I didn't do work. Over my lifetime, I had become a master of predicting good investments, and investing in one thing or another had made me extremely wealthy.
"It isn't exactly that kind of a job. Erik?" Charles said promptingly to his companion, and I suddenly felt a tugging around my neck. I looked down to see my diamond necklace pulling away from my throat, and it unclasped itself and flew to Erik's hand.
"Pretty," the tall man said, then tossed the jewelry back at me. I raised my hand to catch it, but it floated past my fingertips and settled itself back around my neck, and I heard it clasping itself again.
I smiled, quickly comprehending what I had seen. The tall man, Erik, had powers. "Telekinesis?" I guessed.
"Magnetic manipulation," He told me, smiling.
"Magnokinesis," I corrected him, making him raise his eyebrows in surprise. Erik's abilities weren't like mine, but then, I hadn't met anyone who could do quite what I could, though I had met many other people who were different, like I was, and like Erik apparently was as well.
I heard Charles' voice, but I didn't see his lips move. "Yes, we are like you. We're mutants."
"A telepath! Lovely, I have not met a telepath in quite a while," I said aloud, brightly. Erik looked surprised, likely by my saying that I had met telepaths before. Perhaps that was what had startled Charles. Or perhaps it was the fact that my first thoughts upon meeting him and Erik were about how attractive they were. "Now, mutants, you said? That is a good term, I had not really thought of using that before. Of course, I am not a scientist, I would not know if people like myself had a mutation or not, though I did suspect that powers were genetic."
"We do, actually, have a mutation," Charles said, and seemed about to continue, likely going to go on a scientific rant, but Erik cut him off with a pointed look.
"You said you've known... other telepaths?" Erik asked me.
"Oh yes, I have met many sorts of, of mutants," I told him cheerfully.
"Was one of those telepaths a woman who could turn into diamond?" The tall man questioned me, sounding suddenly serious.
"Turn into diamond? That is an ability I have not heard of before, I am afraid. Besides, the last telepath I met who was a woman died, I would say, fifty years ago? Before the First World War."
Erik stared at me in utter shock at my implying that I was over fifty years old.
"Charles Xavier, did you and your friend come here to recruit me, for this job that you have not described, without you telling him any specifics about me?" Charles smiled apologetically at my inquiry. "Do not worry, Erik, I will tell you all about myself," I told the tall man, smirking, "I have been alive for about two thousand years. I am not sure exactly my age, because calendars have changed and now there is BC and AD, and I honestly sort of lost track. It was not terribly important."
Erik stared at me for a moment. "How?" He finally asked, his blue eyes looking at me piercingly.
"I do not age, all my wounds heal, and I never get sick. I can also project those abilities on to others, while touching them, to some extent, though to others I can manipulative their age as I see fit," I explained. I got the feeling that Charles had already rummaged through my mind enough to know all of that and more, but he didn't assist me in explaining it to Erik.
Erik looked rather bewildered. "I thought mutants were... recent..." he muttered.
"No, no! If it was recent, there would not be so many of us already across the world, right? If it was recent, that would mean that people all over the world just simultaneously got a mutation of the same... is it the same gene, Charles?" I asked.
"Yes, I call it the X-Gene, it's on the twenty-third chromosome," Charles said.
"Now, the two of you are pretty enough to make me do just about anything," I smirked at the two men, "But what exactly is this job?"
"There's a mutant who wants to start a Third World War. He wants the non-mutants to kill each other off, so mutants can take over, and he wants to set off a lot of nukes, under the theory that radiation will make mutants stronger. He has three other mutants that follow him," Erik told me, "and he killed my mother."
I felt my flirtatious mood falling away like a brick thrown over a cliff, replaced by deep empathy as I saw the pain in his eyes, a pain reflected by an almost physical pain, a tightening in my chest. In my long life, for everyone I had loved, there had been a time when they were injured, and I couldn't get there in time to help them. I had lost dozens of loved ones, and each one had hurt me horribly. I knew intimately the pain he had felt. "I am so very sorry for your loss," I told him, looking deeply into his blue eyes. He looked taken aback, but I stepped forward before he could move away, and wrapped my arms around him in a hug. The top of my head didn't reach his shoulders, but he abruptly bent over, burying his face in my neck. I stroked his hair, and I felt a dampness against my throat as he began to weep. "I know, my heart. I know," I whispered to him, feeling a tear slide down my own cheek as I thought of my own loved ones.
I saw Charles staring at me and Erik, his own eyes wet, and I remembered that as a telepath, he could feel every one of my losses, and I smiled at him apologetically. Erik collected himself, straightening up. "So, will you join us, Zoe?" Erik said stiffly.
"I would be honored," I told him gently, "How long do I have to pack?"
"How long do you need?" Charles asked.
"Not long," I replied, then called up to my butler, "Richard! Pack my essentials, then take a vacation. I will not be back for at least a few days."
"Yes, ma'am," I heard his voice call back to me, and I turned back to Charles and Erik.
"While we wait, tell me about these four mutants," I told the two blue-eyed men, and they began to inform me of a man who had been a Nazi scientist going by the name Klaus Schmidt, now known as Sebastian Shaw. His right hand woman, Emma Frost, didn't have any ice related powers, contrary to her name, but was a telepath who could turn into diamond. His two other followers were a man known as Riptide who could produce cyclones, and a man called Azazel who, besides looking like a devil, with blood-red skin and a pointed tail, could teleport.
In a few minutes, my butler and a maid brought down two brown leather suitcases, Richard with a gold and green silk dress and a lace bra and panties draped over his arm, carrying a pair of gold and leather sandals, as well as some gold and emerald jewelry.
"Thank you, Richard," I told him, smiling, and dropped my robe.
"Jesus!" Charles exclaimed as I bared myself, averting his eyes, but I saw him peeking at me, while Erik looked at the ceiling.
I slipped into my undergarments, the dress, and the sandals, and unclasped my diamond necklace and handed it to Richard. He tucked it into the breast pocket of his suit and pulled out a pair of gold and emerald earrings, with a matching necklace and armband. The gold and emerald jewelry pieces were my favorite, as the emeralds matched my own green eyes, and I preferred gold to silver. Gold had been much more popular than silver when I had been young.
Richard next stepped behind me, brushed my hair, and pulled it out of my face, pinning it back with a gold and emerald hairpin. "You are a saint, Richard," I told him, and he smiled at me. "Now," I said to Charles and Erik, "Did you two bring a car or should I have Richard bring out one of my Cadillacs?"
"We have a vehicle of transportation already," Erik replied, and I took my suitcases from Richard, and was starting to hoist them onto my shoulder when Erik said, "Let me," and the large leather bags floated into the air. I noticed that the suitcases were suspended by their buckles, as they hovered next to me.
"Are you ready, then?" Charles questioned, although he could probably determine that the answer was yes from looking into my mind.
"That should be all, right, Richard?" The butler agreed, so I followed the two men outside to a large black car in which yet another brown-haired individual waited, this one a woman with brown eyes. A man in a suit and sunglasses was in the driver's seat, and the woman was shotgun. Erik waved a hand and the doors to the back seat opened, as did the trunk of the car, which he closed after placing my luggage inside. I sat in the middle, forcing Charles and Erik to sit on either side of me, though neither looked terribly disappointed at the arrangement.
During the drive, I noticed Charles glancing at Moira multiple times, but also at me. Men had a tendency to glance at me, after all, and I noticed the driver and Erik doing it as well. We drove to a large building with guards outside. Armed guards, none of them with physical mutations. In fact, they looked like they were guarding a secret. Perhaps a secret agency.
"Welcome," said Charles, grandly, "To Division X."
"Is this... the CIA? Or a CIA building?" I asked in surprise, looking first at the building, then at Charles, then at Erik.
"Did we not tell you about that? My apologies," said Charles, smiling, his blue eyes twinkling, "Yes, we are working with the CIA right now."
"I am surprised that they are open to working with anyone like us," I chuckled. Non-mutants, especially those in positions of power, had historically been less than excited to work alongside mutants.
"Moira," Charles nodded to the woman in the front passenger seat, "Discovered Shaw, and came to me for help when her superiors wouldn't listen to her. My friend Raven and I convinced them to hear us out."
The man in the sunglasses drove us up to the compound, and we walked in, eventually finding ourselves in a room with a third brown-haired, light-eyed man, though this one has green eyes, not blue like Erik and Charles, and he was taller than Erik, and wore glasses. Also in the room was a blonde woman, pretty, with blue eyes, ever-so-slightly taller than Charles.
"Hank McCoy, Raven, this is Zoe," Charles introduced me, and I shook both of the new strangers' hands.
"It is nice to meet you, Hank, Raven, although I have heard almost nothing about you," I smiled at Raven and Hank, "You must both tell me more about yourselves. What are your powers, or your, your mutations?"
I saw a ripple of blue scales flash over Raven's skin, and suddenly I was looking at myself. "I can shapeshift," Raven said with my voice, as I stared at myself, or rather, her.
"Well, hello, gorgeous!" I said to her, laughing, as I regained my composure. Erik grinned, Hank laughed, and Charles rolled his eyes and smiled. "I apologize for being so surprised, but no matter how many shapeshifters I meet, and I meet one every century or so, seeing my face on someone else is always disconcerting." Hank and Raven both looked quite startled by my statement of having been alive for multiple centuries and having seen multiple shapeshifters, but I kept speaking before they could question me. "Is the blonde your natural form?"
"No," she said, and looked at Charles awkwardly for a second before another ripple of blue scales passed over her body. This time, she transformed into a woman, a nude blue woman, covered in scales. Her eyes were yellow, and her hair was stiff and dark red. It looked as if she had dipped her hair in blood and let it dry, then set it with hairspray. Her body and facial structure, though, were beautiful.
"Now I can truly say, hello, gorgeous," I told her, smiling, and took her hand and kissed it.
"Hello. Thank you," she said, smiling and looking surprised. Her blue scales rippled once more and she transformed back into a clothed, normal-skinned, blue-eyed blonde. I now noticed that her facial structure and the shape of her body in this form were the same as that of her natural form.
Hank cleared his throat, and I saw that he had removed his shoes and socks, to reveal a pair of large, prehensile feet. To be honest, in my incredibly lengthy life, I had never seen anything quite like it without a full-body mutation, and I let out an excited noise.
"Fascinating!" I exclaimed, "I have never seen a mutation like that before, not without the whole body being mutated as well! You are a rarity, and I, for one, treasure rarities," I gave him an eager hug, grinning, "Prehensile feet, that is amazing."
"Amazingly freakish," he muttered, blushing slightly as I hugged him.
"You're blushing now, Hank," Charles said suddenly, his voice sounding amused, "But earlier when Erik and I came to meet her, she greeted us in nothing but a silk robe. And then changed into this right in front of us."
Hank blushed harder, probably imagining it, and stepped away from me as I chuckled throatily. "I, uh," Hank stuttered then trailed off.
"Oh, you think that was something?" I laughed. "When Charles and Erik knocked on my door, I was getting laid."
"You were what?" Erik exclaimed, while Raven burst out laughing.
"I interrupted it for you, Erik," I winked at him, "And you, Charles. I hope it was worth it," I smirked at the two of them, and Hank bent down and started to put his shoes and socks back on. "If I have not slept with at least one of you men, or another mutant, if you are recruiting more, by the end of this week, I shall be sorely disappointed," I announced, jokingly. Hank blushed harder, but Charles laughed, knowing I wasn't serious, and Erik smiled. Raven gave me a strange look, and I thought she might be feeling jealous of me, possessive of one or more of these three men, but I wasn't sure which. They were all quite attractive, especially Erik, at least in the eyes of modern society.
Speaking of attraction, Charles definitely liked Moira quite a bit, and based on the way Hank looked at Raven, the two mutants with the most visible mutations had at least a one-way attraction, if not a mutual one.
We talked for another couple of hours, and then I changed into a suitably serious, black outfit, and started to explore the building. It doesn't take two millennia to figure out that if you act like you belong, and you do it convincingly enough, others will believe that you belong. Sadly, in a CIA building, that method didn't work quite as well as I had hoped. The people who were actually real agents asked me to show them a badge that I, unfortunately, did not have.