-Three Weeks Later, General POV-
"Are you ready?" Phoebe, one of the Stepford Cuckoos asks Luke who was securely tied in a metal chair and wearing a mutant inhibitory collar.
"Just get it over with," Luke said, already familiar with the next step after the last three weeks.
"You asked for it," Celeste said as she put a clean sock into his mouth. Then all three Cuckoos puts their hands up and their eyes glow white
After a few minutes, the telepathic pressure turned into an immense pain *AHH* he tries to scream, but to no avail, the sock makes sure he can't.
After 45 minutes of this Stepford Cuckoos finally managed to break his psychic defenses long enough to enter his mind.
-Scene Change: Luke's Mind-
Phoebe, Celeste, and Irma were standing in a white hallway.
"We finally broke his defenses"
"Yes sister, we did,"
"It was more challenging then I imagined"
"And yet his defenses are already repairing itself"
"What a terrifying mind"
"Now, where is that link"
There were a bunch of doors, each labeled differently. One of them had 'Family', the other had 'School', another had 'Friends', and one even had 'Marvel' label.
Cuckoos opened the first three doors mentioned above, they saw Luke celebrate his sister's birthday, getting his driver's license, and asking having his first beer with his friends.
The last door, Marvel, did not budge, so they left it behind. They continued walking and eventually saw a door labeled as 'The Lights'
"It must be here, right sisters?"
"Indeed, let's take a look if Miss Messiah is reallycontrolling her teammates"
When they opened the door, they could see all the memories Luke had with the Lights, the one they focused on was his first meeting with Hope.
In there, they found the psychic bond Hope created between her and Luke, and the bond indeed gave some low-level control over him.
"Oh my-my, sisters can you believe it?"
"Miss Frost was indeed right about her, a trouble maker"
"Sisters, Hope doesn't seem to be doing this consciously," Phoebe said
"Maybe, but it doesn't change anything, let's destroy it and get out of here, his defenses seem to be recovering, and I don't want to spend hours out of my beauty sleep trying to re-enter this Fort Knox of a mind," Celeste said
Then they all put their hands up and the link Hope created with Luke on their first meeting was destroyed.
As soon as they managed to destroy it, the defenses in Luke's mind got stronger than ever and forcefully expelled the Cuckoos.
-Scene Change: Outside World-
*AHH* Luke was screaming, his shirt was covered in sweat, and he was shaking.
Cuckoos were standing in front of him with their eyes glowing and hands raised until they all suddenly fell on their asses.
The pain Luke was feeling disappeared for a second only to return tenfold. He felt like he was passing out but barely managed to keep himself together.
However, after the pain ceded he felt better than ever.
He felt like he was himself again. *Grr, Grr, Grr* he tried to say something but the sock was making it impossible to understand him,
Phoebe got up and released him from his binds, as soon as she did he released the collar and crushed it "I'm guessing you girls finally removed it?"
"Indeed," Celeste said "And now," Irma said "Time for the first favor"
"Alright, I'm a man of my word. What is it?" Luke said, as he was expecting them to cash in those favors, just not this soon.
"Let Ms. Frost and Mr. Summers know what we found." They all said at the same time.
"That wasn't the deal, you will not reveal it to anyone," Luke said,
"And we won't"
"You will"
"That's not breaking the deal," they said at the same time
Luke shook his head "I should have worded it better… *sigh* Fine, I'll tell them within a week"
They share a look and nod their head "Acceptable" they all say at the same time
As Luke was leaving he shouted "This counts as two favors" and ran away, not waiting for them to argue.
-A Couple of Days Later, University of Sheffield, Dormrooms, UK-
Two guys and a girl were playing truth and dare.
One of the guys asks the girl "What is your freakiest sexual fantasy?"
"No way," the girl said
"So you want a dare then?" the redheaded guy asked
"I'm not going to snort chili powder" the girl refused
"You do not want to snort the chili." the black-haired boy said
The girl then said "Okay… Me, on a beach, middle of nowhere with someone I barely know."
"Oh, you bloody, liar. Tell us the dirty truth."
"It's true! What about you?"
"Okay get this: I want to have sex with a mutant."
"Oh, Luke…" the black-haired boy (different Luke)
"I want to make love with a mutant… as a mutant" redhead said
"Oh, you're insane." the black-haired boy said
"I dunno. At least the first part, anyway. That cyclops guy, he's kinda cute" the girl said
"Firstly: That is 300% freakier than your beach thing. Secondly: Guys like Cyclops are the exceptions. There is a book called Posterity with portraits of 500 mutants you must see before you die, each of them uglier than the one before. They go to bed normal, wake up as the ugliest being imaginable, can you imagine that. They live as a lump of mucus, being hunted and hated and laughed at for the rest of their days. And at the very best they become a fetish object for guys like you. That's being a mutant."
"Okay, we get it, Mr. Serious. Your turn. What is your freakiest sexual fantasy?" Luke said
"I'll take the dare," the black-haired boy said and then his face started melting
"Zeeshan[1]!" the girl screamed
"You okay, Zee?" Luke asked
"Yeah, I'm… fine" then he saw his face-melting "AHAHAH" he started screaming only for the redheaded Luke to take a picture "I've got to get this for Posterity. They'll need it for your entry in that book. Yeah?"
Luke uploads it online, Zeeshan could not take their ridicule anymore, he went to the kitchen got a knife, and then enters the bathroom.
-Black Bird, Luke POV-
I have been feeling better and better ever since the connection between me and Hope was severed. I still had to tell Miss Frost about it and complete the favors for Stephen Cuckoos, but who cares I finally free for the first time since coming to this World.
Despite being free of her hold, I was still going to missions with Hope's team, at least for now.
And now we had a new mission, a new light to stabilize.
But for some reason, everyone in the Bird, bar me and Kitty started holding their heads and screaming.
Laurie told us to fasten our seatbelts and flew out of the Black Bird. I had never seen her this worried before.
"Hope what happened?" I asked
"The Light, the new Light is in danger." was all she said.
Soon we made it there, but by then the new Light was already dead.
Ms. Pryde showed a youtube video of the mutant kid with the melting face, Hope wanted to attack the boy who posted it but was held back by Ms. Pryde.
As we were leaving Hope said, "We have to be better."
Yet, despite seeing a young mutant getting humiliated and commit suicide, I felt good.
Because this proved to me that the psychic bond between Hope and I, was truly gone.
-The Next Day, Emma Frost's Office, General POV-
*knock*knock*
"Come in," Emma Frost said, she couldn't read the mind of whoever was outside, which meant it could only be a handful of people
The one who opened the door was Luke, a teenage boy who was part of Hope's team.
After a few seconds of him ogling her body with his eyes, Emma asked
"How may I help you, Mr. Long?" she asks
"Sorry Ms. Frost, I'm just here because I owed the Cuckoos a favor and they wished for me to tell you and Mr. Summers something important," Luke said
"Please, take a seat," Emma said as she sent a telepathic message to Scott. Luke sat down on the chair she was pointing. "Headmaster will join us shortly."
Cyclops walks in, dressed as a high school principal with sunglasses
"What is it you wish to tell us, Mr. Long?" Cyclops asks
"I don't really 'wish' to tell either of you this. But I made a promise to the triplets and I want to keep it." Luke said.
"I see… So what is it they wish you to tell us?" Emma asks this time
"You already know that the Lights, the Post-M-Day mutants, need to be touched by Hope to stabilize, but that is not all, she also creates a psychic bond between them that allows her to have low-level control over them. You can easily remove it, Ms. Frost. Although, it would be painful for them" Luke said
Cyclops and Emma shared a look and then Cyclops spoke "Did you tell this to anyone else?"
"I did not. But from your expressions, I can see you two already knew about this or at least suspected it." Luke said, "So why on Jack Kirby's green Earth you didn't tell us or at least removed it?"
Gravity inside the room tripled, Cyclops was showing clear signs of discomfort and Emma turned to her diamond form. "Mister Long- Luke calm down" she tried to say, but it was to no avail.
"I will calm down when you tell me why you let The Lights, including me, be a slave to a girl with messiah complex?" Luke said as he increased the gravity to 4g. Cyclops couldn't stand up anymore, while Emma looked slightly uncomfortable
Emma tried to punch Luke, but Luke lifted his finger, and Emma became immobilized in air, and Cyclops joined her "Now I'm going to give you one chance to tell me the truth. If I feel like you lied to me or not telling the whole thing I will increase the gravity in this room to 1000g,"
"You are not a murder Mr. Long, you would not do that" Emma tried to say, only for her 5,000 $ chair to be compressed into a makeshift dagger, pointing at her lover's throat.
"I wasn't a mutant either, but people change. Now talk…"
"We both realized it was unusual how depended all of you were to Hope, we initially thought it was because she saved you, but then we realized the connection ran deeper than that. I had Emma check this connection to better understand what was going on, she found out removing it would be deadly for the Lights, except for you that is, she couldn't get into your mind to check if you could survive the process. We then observed you all and found out this connection was helping all of you adapt to your lives as mutants, both in your training and in your missions, so we let it go, at least until we found a safe way to remove it." Cyclops explained
"Who else knew? Did Rogue or Pryde knew?" Luke asked
"No, neither of them knew anything about this," Cyclops said
"Who Else Knew?" Luke asked again,
"Doctor Nemesis was observing all of you, reporting your progress to me," Cyclops revealed
"Anyone else?" Luke asked one more time, the dagger was now pointing at Cyclops' throat
"No, that is everyone,"
"I see…" Luke lets them go, as soon as he did Cyclops looked ready to fire an optic blast, "That will not be necessary Mr. Summers, I believe every word you just said. While I do not condone your inaction towards our predicament, I can understand your view. For what it's worth I'm sorry for threatening your lives."
"*sigh* We are X-Men, Mr. Long, if we did not forgive people threatening our lives we wouldn't have anyone to call a friend," Cyclops said
"And Ms. Frost, I'm sorry about your office," Luke said, gesturing to the half-destroyed office
"I will forgive you this one time due to the unusual circumstances, but if something like this ever were to happen again, you will be serving detention until you are 50," she said half-jokingly
"Hehe, thanks, I guess, but before I leave I should warn you that some of the other Lights do not enjoy Hope's influence over them. They feel threatened by her."
"I see… Will you be leaving the island?" Cyclops asks "You don't have to if you are worried about that"
"Don't have anywhere else to be," Luke said as he left the half-destroyed office
After Luke left Cyclops looks at Emma "Do you think he will tell the other Lights?"
"From what he told us, some of them already know. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say Laurie and Kenji know about it."
"Laurie is a kind girl, and Kenji hasn't shown much aggression ever since Tokyo incident. Do you think either of them would threaten Hope's safety?"
"Hard to tell, everyone has a breaking point. Either of them could decide to just get rid of Hope and end her influence at any time. But the biggest problem to Hope's safety would be Lucas," Emma said
"Do you think Luke will be a threat to her?" Cyclops said
"I don't doubt it, that girl has a way of demanding people," Emma said
"*sigh* Get Nemesis to help you in finding a way to get rid of those psychic bonds, safely. Also, make sure Cuckoos do not tell anyone about this bond. We can't have anyone finding out about the Mutant Messiah having control over the next generation of mutants. It will only create more panic against mutants."
"Already taken care of, darling," she said, as she telepathically talked with the girls.
Characters:
Zeeshan [1]: He was meant to be the Eight Light, but he killed himself after his friends tormented him due to his melting/liquid face.