Summary: Conrad Lefkon muses over why Scarlet and Mahogany broke free of the Mysteron's control and the Mysteron's plans for Coral.
Notes: So… Err… I am not going to deny that this going to a bit of a dicey one, I not going into too much detail here but this story does take a crack at what Scarlet and Mahogany actually became after the Mysterons got them.
Trigger Warning for the planning of potential future abuse. Story is set in 2091

Mysts

There was always the question of why Captain Scarlet broke free from the Mysteron's control, when Captain Mahogany also managed to do the same, even more questions were asked… Lieutenant Coral technically should not have even been born, yet she exists happy and healthy… After nearly thirty years of study Spectrum was no closer in finding out why these things were the case.

I wonder what Colonel's White and Blue, Dr.'s Gold, Burgundy and, that new one, Fawn and as well as Destiny, would think if they ever found out that the only reason Paul and the Tracy boy managed to break free from Mysteron control was because a fluke of genetics, nothing more, Conrad Lefkon, aka the former Captain Black, thought darkly. A fluke I clearly wasn't born with, otherwise I would have gotten the hell out of dodge long ago.

Even though he was nothing more than Mysteron's favourite meat puppet at this point, it did have one, but rather useless – because it wasn't like the Mysterons were actually going to let him mention what he knew to Paul or Kallen - perk.

He had full access to the history of the Mysterons and the race that created them…

The Mysts were a race not that much different from human's in many respects, already more technologically advanced, than modern day humans before humans even existed, they lived their lives on a planet Mars that was not so different from the planet earth.

Lives that were shattered by their own creations – The Mysterons.

I also wonder what they would think if they knew that the Mysterons were nothing more than A.I.'s that got out of their master's control…

In a desperate effort to save what was left of their dying race, what was left of the Mysts fled to earth, and merged their DNA with the primitive neandertals to create homo sapiens – or the modern-day human race.

All humans had Myst DNA as part of their genetic makeup, but it really was a genetics lottery as to how much of their Myst genetics favoured them, and it was this favouritism that determined how easily the Mysterons could control their replicants.

Humans with very little Myst DNA, were very easily for the Mysterons to control, they became nothing more than meat puppets with memories but no personality.

Then you had humans like Conrad himself – that had enough Myst DNA to keep all their memories and personally, as well as the ability to influence the Mysterons control to a point, but the Mysterons were still able to control them with very little difficulty. It was a pretty fucked up relationship really, you have all the perks of being a Myst, except you have no free will and if the Mysteron controlling you died, you would die too.

Then you had humans like Paul…

Be it part of the Mysterons programming, or a fluke in general, but Mysterons were never able to take control of their masters, minds and bodies, so a human with strong Myst DNA was next to impossible for the Mysterons to control.

And Myst DNA was clearly strong in the Metcalfe and Tracy bloodlines, because both Scarlet and Mahogany broke free of Mysteron control, not long after their free will was challenged.

But having strong Myst DNA had another side effect on Scarlet and Mahogany's Mysteronizations, one that Conrad knew Paul hadn't properly realized – Paul still thought he was human with slightly altered DNA – but the truth was when the Mysterons rebuilt them, they rebuilt them as Mysts, with all of the previously repressed traits that made the Myst race unique.

The retro metabolism was the the most obvious trait to come though, as well as the slight telepathic ability – a trait which Conrad was pretty sure Paul didn't like exploring, but who knows the Tracy boy might with Coral - but there were other traits that Scarlet and Mahogany probably hadn't realized in full yet.

Conrad wondered if Paul realized that if he'd been born a Myst he could have lived to be two hundred years old, that Mysts aged three times slower - between the normal human ages of twenty to seventy - than normal humans, that he, if the Mysterons didn't manage to kill him first, was going to outlive all his current human friends and his wife by many years.

Paul's wife…

As much as he Conrad himself – not the Mysteron that was living rent free in his body – didn't want Destiny to be Mysteronized, part of him did wonder what would happen if she had been… Would she be a knowing slave, like he was, or a Myst, like Paul.

Part of the reason why Conrad, and the Mysterons in general, wondered this was because of the existence of Coral (Conrad doubted that was her real name, and it wasn't like Paul and Simone were ever going to tell him her real name either), Paul's daughter.

Coral was a true Myst, the first pure bred one born in century's – something that should have been impossible, unless Destiny had enough Myst DNA in her system to make it possible.

Although now that they had the Tracy boy, the humans could actually figure out how Mysts mate and reproduce naturally – if Mahogany is Coral's mate, that is. Female Mysts can be notoriously picky when it came to choosing mates and mating, and she is a pretty little thing…

Conrad sighed, the Mysterons had made it no secret that if they got their hands on Coral that they would force him to mate with her, as well as any female Mysts that they might accidently create for that matter – the Mysterons wanted playthings that they could control, and what better than the last remains of the race that created them – and what disturbed Conrad the most about the idea of forcing Coral, was the fact she was the child of his best friend and the woman he loved.

Now had he been a completely petty person, this would seem like the perfect opportunity to get back at Paul and Simone for getting together like they did… But at the same time, he couldn't blame them, had the roles been reversed, he probably would have found himself doing the same thing… Although, if Coral was to offer herself to me willingly, I would have no hesitation whatsoever, Conrad thought darkly. But that's the problem, isn't it? It's only because she's Paul's daughter, I want her to have the option to say no, had she been anyone else's child I probably would not even bother to even try to fight the Mysterons on this.

Mysts were different from humans as they only started reproducing once their bodies stopped growing at the age of twenty, this was also when they are considered adults in Myst society, after that a female Myst, will only become fertile on an average of four times a year until she reaches at least one hundred years old. If a Myst was to fall pregnant and carry the child to term, which lasted nine months – same as a human's, she would not be able to fall pregnant again until the child was three years old.

Which was why Myst females were picky, and tended to form strong mating bonds with their chosen male, if they wanted to have children, they had to be with a male for a long time to guarantee a pregnancy. Which in turn made the males ferociously protective of their women and young.

And Coral, if Conrad was doing his calculations properly, would have only just become an adult… Conrad sighed again, Scarlet and Mahogany better be keeping a close eye on her, because if they thought my fixation with Destiny was creepy, which was them using Destiny as a way to fuck with Spectrum and myself, they haven't seen what lengths they will go to, to get a female Myst.

Conrad snorted, Mahogany, there was no love lost between him and that boy, that was for sure, while the Mysteron in him could fuck with Scarlet for days, because he was an old friend of his, the same could not be said about Mahogany. The boy really did take offence to the attempt to use him as his family's assassin, and the couple of time he met the boy he was lucky to get out of it.

If Mahogany did turn out to be Coral's mate, then that would be perfect, he was looking forward to having a proper showdown with that boy, just to see the young upstart shatter, as he claimed Coral as his own.

Then maybe he and Paul would be angry enough to actually free him from this nightmare.

Notes: So, the idea of Mysterons being A.I.'s gone insane is not a new one, nor is the idea that the Mysterons are gaslighting the fuck out of the human race, for shits and giggles. This idea is more obvious in New Captain Scarlet – making Black your agent of destruction could be seen as poetic justice, so why was Scarlet the Mysterons first pick? The guy who didn't want them shot at?

So, in this take of the series, Paul, Kallen and Clara are not actually human, even though at this point they still think they are, they are basically members of the long dead race that actually created the Mysterons, which were accidently resurrected when the Mysterons Mysteronized Paul and Kallen, and because of this the Mysterons can't control them for long.