“Italian food,” Kitty Pryde said. 

Delilah rolled her eyes. An act that was almost second nature having spent so much time around the other girls at the school. “I know it's Italian food,” she said. “What the hell are these,” she said pointing at the yellow squares on the pizza. 

“Oh, those are pineapple,” Kitty said, taking a bite of the pizza. They were in the cafeteria of The School. At least that’s what everyone called the place, that or Xavier’s School, or some such name. Currently it was their lunch hour between classes. The cafeteria was packed with other students. Each wearing similar uniforms it was a sea of people, people Delilah knew well. “It’s good, try it.”

“Okay,” Delilah mumbled, tearing off a slice. It was surprisingly sweet, bringing a small smile to her lips as the other girls at the table giggled. In the past she would have been self-conscious about so many eyes on her, but she was used to it by that point. 

Having been at the school for about six months, Delilah spent all of her time there. Though her memories of the past hadn’t resurfaced, she was busy making new memories. Trying all the foods perfected over centuries in a lab was at the top of her list. An act Kitty was more than happy to help with. Along with meeting everyone at school she could, Delilah was busy learning about the wider world, watching movies, and getting to experience everything a normal teenager was supposed to at her age. At least that was what her friends told her. 

“I heard that Jimmy and Rachel were caught on the fifth floor,” Lucy said. She was a girl in their grade who liked to gossip. Though she was reluctant to allow Delilah into their group, Kitty had pushed all of them to accept her. 

“That’s old news,” Kitty said, waving her off. “I heard the next big couple is Anne and Drake.” Her eyes darted to Anne Marie who was sitting closer to the exit. Across from her was Bobby Drake, another one of their classmates.

“Anne is moving on from Weston?” Delilah asked, a little stunned. Her face flushed at the mention of his name. Memories of him flashing in her mind she always felt her stomach knot up at the thought of him. Though she had only known him for a few days, he had been there for her when she awoke, taught her a little about the world, then was zapped off to fight some aliens. 

“Well he’s probably dead. At least that's what I hear,” Emily said.

“No, he’s not,” Kitty said, more than a little offended. “That guy was a jackass, but he knew his stuff. I’ve seen him go head to head with Professor Logan.”

“Now that is someone that needs a girlfriend,” one of the girls said. 

“I volunteer,” Lucy said and the chatter continued. 

Delilah frowned, her thoughts stuck on Weston again. Unable to help it, her eyes drifting, she watched Anne from across the room. One of Weston’s special friends, Anne had mostly brown hair with two long streaks of white framing her face. She and Bobby were two of the few kids in the cafeteria not in the school uniform. Instead of the white shirt and black pants, they were wearing some leather outfit, denoting them as trainees for the X-Men. The elite group of fighting mutants that only the best of the best students got to be a part of. 

Delilah couldn’t help but be jealous of how happy and confident Anne looked, smiling as she talked to Bobby Drake. Though they were the same age, Anne felt more mature than other kids their age. She had been teleported to some other world, forced to fight in a tournament or die, and somehow she survived along with most all the other people taken in the middle of the night. Everyone but Weston.

She felt another sigh escape her, her stomach knotted up more somehow. A part of her knew the knot was worry. She had been forced to explain the mysterious pain to the school nurse on one of her first days in class. The nurse had looked at her like she was crazy, but told Delilah it was normal when you were worried about someone. 

When the rest of the people summoned to the Shi’ar planet came back a few weeks later, Delilah’s worry worsened somehow. Weston was left behind. The only boy she had really known, lost in the vastness of space while everyone else focused on their own escape. 

“Come on, let's go,” Kitty said, breaking her out of her thoughts. Delilah pushed her worry away and got up with the others. With some time between classes, they walked off the pizza as they headed outside. Though it was getting warmer out there was still a brisk breeze. The other girls pulled out jackets. Rather than deal with that, Delilah simply let her power out a little.

As she released her hold on the power, heat began to radiate off of her. Keeping herself warm, her skin began to glow a dull red. One of her many mutant skills had only begun to appear a few days after Weston disappeared. Out of the blue she started to read minds of those around her. Again after an awkward meeting with the school nurse she was told she was a mutant like the rest of those at the school. 

After many months Delilah had learned she could generate heat and flame, read minds, and had minor telekinesis. Skills that weren’t all that rare. To be honest she had used the telepathy more than a little to fit in more. When she did something unusual most people’s thoughts would tell her the more normal thing to do in certain situations, allowing her to change her acts to the typical. 

Unfortunately, her powers awakening hadn’t helped her with regaining her memories. Everything before a few months ago simply was not there. No matter what Professor Xavier or the other teachers tried, Delilah apparently didn’t exist before Weston found her. 

Her stomach still fluttering, she walked with the other girls around the school grounds. Interconnecting paths leading to the parking lots, random parks, and sculptures scattered around campus, they headed to the seaside like usual.

With summer quickly approaching it was getting nicer out. A lookout point set up with a plaque mounted on the brick wall dedicated to someone Professor X knew, they discussed spring break and the future summer break. Each of them had family they visited or talked of. Leaving Delilah out of the loop like usual.

The girls didn’t do it on purpose, but sometimes she couldn’t help feeling sad about not knowing who she really was. This school was everything she knew in the world. The people in it, her only family, whether they knew it or not. A frown permanently creasing her face she stared at the splashing water on the coast and let out more sighs, ready for something to happen. Some memory to come back to her, or some person to come find her. Someone from her past, anyone willing to take up the job. 

“What's that?” Kitty mumbled, her fear spiking. Her mind screamed danger, telling Delilah she had to see what Kitty was backing away from. 

Delilah followed her gaze, noticing a large vehicle in the sky. A metal hull, she had seen pictures of this sort of thing before. Mainly in the movies the other girls introduced her to, but nonetheless the same thing. 

“I think it’s called a UFO,” Delilah said with a smile. Happy with herself for at least remembering one acronym people used. 

“A wh-” Kitty stopped as the spaceship dropped to them. Before they could react, a white beam shot out from the base of the floating ship. The beam landed on Delilah and it all turned white. 

—

Delilah woke up slowly. As she moved, lights flickered on above her. The dim lights revealed a cold dark cell surrounding her. That was the only way to describe it. Four metal indistinguishable walls around her. A ceiling and hard metal floor, there was nothing she could do to discern which way was the exit from the small room. 

“Hello!” She yelled. “I’m Delilah!” She tried. First pleading, then angry, then more than a little confused. 

“Am I some long lost princess from an alien race?” She mumbled questioningly. Kitty had made her watch a movie about a girl that was secretly a princess. “Or is it those other aliens? The Face humping ones?” She mumbled as she paced in the cell over and over again. She didn’t have memories. Some of the movies she watched were real events, so it was hard to narrow down which aliens could want her.  

“Except spaceships are supposed to be fake in movies…but they’re real in real life, or else how did Professor X and the other humans kidnapped get back home? So does that mean…face humpers are real?” It was a scary concept. One that she spent a good hour imagining on what she could do to fight them. She had psychic powers, but would they help against weird scorpion alien things? 

Her worry didn’t stop until a small panel on a wall was raised and a tray of food was shoved inside her room. She saw a black tentacle shove the food inside, making her fear spike, but before she could react the panel was back in place and she heard the muffled thud of someone walking away. 

“Hey! Octopussy!” She yelled, fairly certain that was the name of an animal and Bond villain. But the sound of the other person’s retreat was too quiet to make out. Letting out a sigh she looked down at the food and frowned. It was what looked to be a block of cheese. 

“Probably trying to fatten me up,” she said as she picked up the tray. Her mouth beginning to water and stomach growl, she cursed, “Damn, Kitty. Making me get used to trying new things.” With a shrug she picked up the block and took a bite. 

To be honest she had had worse. Like a block of cheese and bread somehow mixed, she wondered if there was a pepperjack flavor. Her eyes marking where the panel had opened from, she wanted to try to yell more but was stopped as she heard more muffled talking. 

“Hello!” She heard from the room next to her. It was hard to make out but she definitely wasn’t hearing things this time. 

“Hello!?” Delilah said, running to the wall. As she got closer she pushed outward mentally. A few feet away was another mind, that of a scared boy. 

“Who are you?!” He yelled, but it sounded like a distant echo. Delilah knew she could probably talk to him telepathically, but the teachers at the school made sure to warn her of the dangers. Not everyone on Earth was a mutant. If people knew of their powers they could be burned at the stake as a witch or thrown in prison with those men that liked to force themselves on other men. Delilah had seen enough historical documentaries to know she didn’t want either.  

“Hi! I’m Delilah!” She opened with instead of a telepathic barrage. Waving in his general direction though they couldn’t see each other. 

“Hi…” He said hesitantly. “Who are you?”

“I’m a prisoner too,” she said with a shrug.

“How long have you been here?” The boy asked. 

“Uhhh a few hours?” She asked. “Time moves slower on the inside, you know? At least, that’s what I hear. Do you have a name, or do I call you, new guy?” Delilah mentally thanked Kitty for making her watch the prison movies. So far there was a lot less rape than she expected. Which was a bonus.

“No I’m uh…Peter,” he said.

“Parker?” Delilah asked. She had heard about that boy with his own special powers. Apparently Anne was really annoyed with the whiny boy that went with them to the super bird alien tournament. 

“No, Quill,” he said.

“Gill?”

“No! Quill, like an old pen,” he said.

“Ohhh,” Delilah said like she knew what he was talking about. She got an image of a feather writing utensil from him and nodded as if she understood. “I don’t have a last name, but lately I’ve been thinking about Delilah Doe.” 

“You don’t have a last name?” Peter asked from the other cell. 

“Nope,” she said with a shrug as she turned around. Leaning against the wall closest to the other prisoner she began with, “I woke up in a vat of this liquid. At least I was told I did. Only six months ago now. Maybe I was born there, or maybe something more…” She began her story anew. Details changing with each telling and adding more explosions as Weston had taught her. No one liked a backstory without a little action, and she hated to disappoint. 

—

“Um a giraffe?” Delilah asked. 

“What the fuck,” the faceless boy asked. “That’s like the fifth question.” Delilah squinted her eyes, waiting for the accusation. A week in the cells together and the boy still hadn’t guessed she was really psychic. 

“I’m done playing twenty questions,” he huffed. They often played once a day as it was, so it wasn’t a huge loss. 

“Guess a num-” She offered but he cut her off. 

“No, you guess the number too damn quick,” he said. She felt rage from his cell, causing her to frown. She knew that rage, sometimes it hit her as well. Stuck in this small cell for days on end had worn at them mentally. 

Twice a day food was dropped off for them. Twice a day a toilet shot out of the wall. Then the other twenty four hours was spent between talking and sleeping. At least she thought of days as twenty four hours at least. She wasn’t sure if space worked on a different time slot. Either way, no faces seen, the only thing Delilah saw differently each day was a tentacled hand or humanoid one with purple skin. Nothing else, nothing more, nothing new. 

“Sorry,” she mumbled, unable to help herself. 

“No, it’s not your fault,” Peter said. “I just…miss my…” He trailed off again. Delilah knew he missed his mom. The boys mother had died only a few weeks ago. Forced to live with an uncle, he was taken in the middle of the night soon after she was. 

“At least we have each other,” she said brightly. 

“Yep, best of friends,” Peter said, his back to her as he hung his head. “I don’t even know what you look like.”

“I…” Delilah hesitated. A part of her knew she could probably send him some vision of her psychically, but she still didn’t fully trust the boy. He was in prison after all. Granted she was too, but she had no memories beyond a few months ago, for all she knew her true backstory was that of some intergalactic bounty runner or something. If you didn’t remember it, it could be whatever you want it to be, right? 

“Yeah,” was all she said in response. Peter’s mood fowl she left him to his thoughts as she thought about sleeping. The floor underneath her rather hard, she still laid down. Staring up at the dim lights she frowned. Having tried to pull them down to her telekinetically she wondered what Weston would do in this situation. He probably would have had some secret move to get him out. A fact that annoyed her greatly. 

Many of the movies she watched usually had women heroes. Somehow able to make everything turn out okay. They’d get beat up and run over, but keep going. Was she not like that? Or was that not real? She just didn’t know what to think anymore. 

Before long she was asleep with her thoughts. When she did wake up it was to the sound of Peter yelling.

“Help! Somebody in here!” He yelled for dear life. 

“What’s going on?” She yelled to his wall. 

“The room rocked a minute ago. Then I heard stuff hitting the outside of the spaceship,” Peter said. Delilah got excited. Extending her psychic sense out, she couldn’t feel anything else, but she did hear a rhythmic thudding on the outside of her cell. One second it was coming from one wall, the next it was on the opposite and further away. 

“This is my first space battle,” she said excitedly, unsure what to think. Her mind raced as she tried to imagine what was happening outside. The battle seemed to go on for a long time, then suddenly a mind was right next to her room. 

“Woah, it worked,” a voice said from the other side. 

“I told you, idiot,” another voice answered. This voice was feminine and rather slow, as if too lazy to talk quickly. 

“Yeah, yeah,” the voice said. “Alright, who is in here?!” He yelled pounding on the wall food came from for Delilah.

“It’s me,” she squeaked, scared and excited to have something new happen. 

“Is your name Delilah?” The voice asked. 

“Uh, yes?!” Delilah said and asked, surprised a faceless alien was asking about her. Maybe she was wrong though, and the X-Men had actually come for her. 

“Perfect,” the male voice said. She heard something beep on the door and it slid up revealing a man. He was wearing a suit of armor. Black and very dark gray the armor looked like it molded to his body. The head the weirdest part, there was a tall visor that obscured his face from view.  “Lets get out of her little girlie,” he said. His voice projected out of the armor somehow. He reached out his hand and Delilah took it hesitantly. . 

“Wait, my uh, friend,” she said, pointing to the wall that had Peter there. 

“Human?” The stranger asked. The featureless helmet not showing any emotion as he looked in the direction of Peter. 

“Yeah, I’m human. Are you?” Peter’s muffled voice asked. 

“No idea,” the man said. Moving to his cell he flashed a keycard and the wall opened. Behind it was the person Delilah had pictured. He was skinny and tall, only about 17 years old, he had a buzzcut of brown hair. A little weak muscularly, he had a strong chin and a few zits on his face.

“Oh thank god,” Peter said. He stepped out of his room then eyed Delilah. His eyes widened, looking her up and down and smiling. Again that something spiked in his mind, one feeling Delilah had gotten used to at the school. She was pretty sure it was the thing called hormones Kitty warned her about. She gave the boy a disapproving look and turned to the man saving them. 

“Alright, quest complete,” he said with a fist bump. “How do I do it again, Tabi?” 

“It’s Matatabi you ignoramus,” a voice said. Suddenly a blue furred cat was on his shoulder. She looked like a miniature bobcat, with blue and black fur spiking up around her like flame. 

“Tabi!?” Delilah asked, her heart in her throat as she recognized the cat. 

“Oh, memory girl, right?” Tabi asked. “Yes, I see, you’re much like that bird woman. I’m assuming this idiot knew the whole time.” The cat eyed the man whose shoulder she was on. 

“Me?” The man with the metal armor asked. 

“Yes, you, do I call anyone else an idiot?” Tabi asked. Delilah wasn’t listening though. Instead her eyes looked at the taller man. He felt…familiar. But the man she knew as Weston wasn’t nearly as tall, nor did he have a metal face. 

“Weston?” She asked breathlessly. 

“So I’m told,” the man said, his voice metallic as if coming from a speaker. “Well, lets get out of here before the Andromeda bitches notice I’m-” As he said the words a black tentacled being began yelling at them in a weird language from down the hall. The man waved his hand and a black portal appeared.

“Hey, it worked again,” he said triumphantly. “Everyone through-” He ordered, pushing she and Peter into the expanse. Suddenly they were hitting the stainless steel floor of a different hallway. 

“Finally!” A woman’s voice yelled. “We have to go, Shippie is about out of it.” 

“Yeah, yeah,” Weston said. Pushing a button at his neck, the metal helmet disappeared revealing his face. It really was him. Older somehow, he looked stronger and more confident as he moved to sit in a large chair. 

“Weston, it’s really you,” Delilah said in a daze as she stood. 

“Yeah, yeah, sorry, lost my memories girlie,” he said, his eyes focused on a floating screen as he began to push floating buttons. “Might be hard to believe, but prior to a few months ago I didn’t exist and my hearty crew was barely surviving without me.”

“You didn’t even have a ship then,” a racoon said. He had a deep gravelly voice, his eyes locked on a screen that showed the ship that had kidnapped Delilah. Red and green lights were hitting the ship and they were firing back. Suddenly the ship they were on lurched and an alarm began to blare. 

“Weston!” A woman’s voice said.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Don’t panic.”

“That light literally says Panic!” The racoon said.

“And I’m telling it not to,” he said. “I’m at the helm and there is nothing to worry about.” From the dread that the others released, Delilah felt like that was something she very much should worry about. But that knot in her stomach had disappeared at seeing him. Alive and well, and apparently struck with her own memory sickness. Finally she could be at peace, knowing what Weston Walker had been up to for all these months.