Chapter Text
With Knull’s defeat by the Phoenix force aided by her friend Rocket. Rocket built a teleporter to the white hot room. The white hot room was a nexus point of all realities that lies outside of the multiverse. According to Jean Grey it’s a nexus between all Phoenix hosts and the eternal flame of the Phoenix force. All that power within the white hot room must have burned all of Knull’s darkness into crisp.
After his defeat all of the heroes, anti heroes and straight up villains who had helped fight against Knull have gone to the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda to rest. It wasn’t a party like the recent hellfire gala before it was attacked by Ultron. Everyone was tired and all they wanted to do was cool down before a new problem shows up out of nowhere.
“So when the next big bad comes around what are going to do with our hunk of junk on a ship?” Rocket loudly complained to Starlord.
“Like I was saying Black Panther already promised us a new ship.” Peter smiled
“Does that mean I can have my staff back Peter?” Adam asked with concern.
“Yeah, Adam, I will give your staff back. I’ll even polish it for you if you want.” Starlord joked.
“Peter, there is no need for you to polish my staff. I can do that myself.” Adam stated plainly.
“Oh, come on Adam, it's not everyday a guy offers to polish someone’s staff for free.” Rocket laughed, making crude gestures with his hand.
“You know that’s not what he meant, Rocket.” Mantis could feel the embarrassment
coming off both her teammates.
“I am Groot.” Groot said in agreement.
“Oh, come on, it was funny.” Rocket protested. “Peter just has to make sure to get all the nooks and crannies of Adam’s staff when you go to polish it.” Rocket's comments made both Adam and Peter freeze in their tracks.
“You know what team? Let’s go out and hang out with the others.” Peter left his embarrassment trailing behind him.
“Flark yeah let’s go party!” Rocket and Groot left the room.
“How about you Adam?” Mantis asked.
“I’ll be by myself meditating. Our last battle has left me feeling drained.” Adam walked away, leaving Mantis to explore the place by herself. So she left to explore.
Mantis’s empathic abilities have been one her greatest strengths as a guardian only second to her martial prowess, from her ability to talk it out with others making enemies their allies, to helping her team communicate more easily. It seemed there was nothing she couldn’t do. Even when she feels people’s more private emotions.
Her powers can make crowded places very overwhelming to her but she has gotten used to it over the years.
She wandered around the space trying to find something fun to do.
Nothing caught her eye until she started to sense someone longing for something, she was too far to tell what it was for or who it was from. She followed it until she found the source. The source of all this longing reveals itself to be Luna Snow. It appeared like she was just staring off into the nothing.
“Hello there, Luna.” Mantis walked up behind her. Luna jumped in surprise.
“I didn’t see you there. Manta was it?”
“It’s actually Mantis, like the insect.” Mantis made an insect-like pose for emphasis.
“Oh, then what brought you here?”
“I’m an empath” Mantis pointed at her antennas. They weren’t the source of her abilities but most people thought they were. “and I was drawn to your feeling of longing.”
“What! The only thing I’m longing for is a break.” Luna lied through her teeth.
Matis put a hand on her shoulder. “It’s bold of you to lie to me because I can tell you long for.” Mantis pinned down the cause of Luna’s longing. “For her in a romantic way.” She pointed at Magik. Illyana was the mutant queen of limbo, she welded a blade made from her own soul. Mantis could sense a fire that burned bright inside Magik’s soul. Luna’s cool and calm personality could act as a good counterbalance to her.
Luna put her hands up in defeat. “You caught me alright, she saved me back when Ultron attacked the hellfire gala. I was injured and surrounded by like five Ultrons. I thought it was the end for me but, this monster then slices them in half. But she was like a pretty monster. Anyways she totally saved my life and I just really wanted to thank her.” She blissfully explained.
Mantis could feel both Luna’s longing and anxiety over Magik. She had nothing better to do this evening plus she loved a good love story.
“You should go and talk to her to thank her yourself!”
Luna froze, she may be able to sing and dance in front of a crowd of thousands of people but those were planned, practiced and choreographed. This was not like that at all and she barely knew where to start. Mantis put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
“Luna Snow, you are a confident woman. You should be able to Magik just fine. You should start by asking her about taste in music.” Mantis advised. Luna then felt a surge of confidence flow through her.
“Yeah, great idea thanks, Mantis.” Luna strutted over to Magik. Who was lending against the wall. Mantis watched on from the corner.
“Hi, do you remember me? I was the girl you saved back when Ultron attacked?”
“Yeah, you’re Luna Snow. the singer.” Magik seemed to barely acknowledge her.
“Well, I just wanted to thank you for saving me back there.” Luna tucked a hair behind her ear. “You probably hear that all the time though.”
“Not as much as you think I would.” Magik twirled the drink in her hands remembering all the times people have yelled at her for being a mutant, even when she was saving lives. Having someone thank her was a nice change of pace.
“Really I thought that being saved by dashing X-man was every young girl's dream.”
“No, You must have some pretty weird dreams.” She joked.
“So what kind of music do you like?”
“I like metal music. I partially like bands like Power Wolf and Rammstein.” Magik made the sign of the horn gesture. “Although the music you make is pretty catchy. I heard Blade is on his slaylist.”
“His slaylist?” Luna questioned
“It's a play list for when he slays.”
“Oh, A slaylist. I get it.” Luna's eyes darted around trying to think of something to say.
“So uuhh.. How did you get your sword?”
“I forged it in limbo, it’s made of soulfire. Which means it can’t melt your ice.” Magik showed off her blade.
“Wow! That is so fascinating. It's like it's made out of your own soul.”
“Basiclly, I made when I was trapped in Limbo as a young girl.”
“I’m so sorry that happened to you. That must have been so hard for you as a kid.” Luna tried to empathize with Illyana’s past plight.
“It was but, you can’t press an undo button to all the horrible things that have happened to you in your life. All you can really do is march forward.”
“That’s the truth, isn't it Magik?” Luna replied.
“You can call me Illyana.” She paused. “all my friends call me both Illyana and Magik.”
“Then you can call me Seol, Luna’s just a stage name.”
Mantis continued to watch the connection form between Luna and Magik. It seemed all Mantis needed to do was give Luna a little boost in confidence for Luna’s pop star charisma to do its work.
“So Seol are you planning to do anything else tonight?” Illyana said it so casually but it almost made Luna’s heart explode in her chest.
“Oh, I’m not doing anything. Did you want to do anything?”
“Yeah I was hoping we could do something.”
“Together, of course. What do you have in mind?” Luna smiled.
“I was hoping we could get some drinks at the bar.”
“Yeah, I could use something to take the edge off.”
Mantis sneaked behind the pair like a shadow. Standing in the corner of the bar. In most bars the queen of limbo and the famous pop star soul Seol Hee would stick out like a sore thumb but here they were surrounded by their fellow superpowered allies.
Bucky, Black Widow and Hawkeye sat at the bar as they swapped war stories. Thor and Loki were complaining about how weak the drinks were. Logan was bruting about his life at the bar as per usual.
Starlord sat down next to Mantis “hey what’s up.”
“I helped set up Luna and Magik on a date.”
“Luna Snow, The k-pop star!” Starlord turned.
“Peter, you don’t even like her music.”
“Mantis, you know how much her autograph can sell on Lotiara. And you know we need the money." Starlord said in a hush tone.
“Maybe we can get an autograph from Luna if the date goes well.” Mantis stated.
“So we’re just going to watch them like a pair of cucks.”
“You’re a cuck.” Mantis bit back.
“Fine, I'll go back and hang out with Adam.” Peter got and left in a huff.
Mantis continued to watch Luna and Magik hit it off. Luna blushed as Illyana wrapped her arm around her shoulder.
“I usually don’t get to have this much fun with someone. I hope I’ll be able to see you again.”
“It’s getting late.”
“Maybe I could walk you to your room.” She suggested.
“That would be nice.”
Mantis watched as they walked out the door. She stenched as she stood up. Magik was right it was getting late, best to let Luna and Magik have the rest of the night to themselves. Mantis was going to go to bed.
Heading to her and the guardian’s room she couldn’t help but to pick up on her friend’s emotions. Rocket was messing with his gadgets. Groot was observing the plant life outside. Peter was still thinking about finding Gramora and Drax.
“I’m Groot.” Groot waved at Mantis.
“Good evening” Mantis waved back at Groot. “I’ll be getting ready for bed soon.”
Adam walked out of the bathroom. Steam surrounded him, his golden skin and hair still dripping with water from his shower. “Showers open.”
Mantis’s antenna twitched as she sensed how quickly Adam grabbed Peter's attention.
“Wow.. way to make the rest of us insecure Adam.” Peter jested.
“Peter, don't speak about yourself like that.” Adam went off to his room.
“No wait Adam, I didn’t mean like that.” It was too late, Adam had already closed the door.
“I flarking understand what these naked flesh bags like about each other.” Rocket stated
Mantis was way too tired to deal with any of this so she just went and took her shower. Although she still wondered how Luna’s and Magik’s date was going. She hoped they were having a nice time together.
Magik couldn’t help but smile a little entranced by Soel’s charms. Luna met her gaze and rested her head on Magik’s shoulder. She breathed in the cool night air as she looked up at the stars in the sky.
“The stars look amazing tonight don’t they?”
“Sorry if I’m smiling like some kind of idiot.”
“Don’t apologize, I think your smile is cute.
Illyana grinned with a little blushed showing across her cheeks. “Thanks, your smile is also beautiful.”
When they finally got to Luna’s room there was a pause. Magik held Luna in her arms. Luna looked into Illyana’s blue eyes before then locked lips under the spotlight of the moon.
“I hope you have sweet dreams tonight.” Luna's heart skipped a beat as she pulled away.
“I hope I’ll see you in my dreams tonight. Good night Seol.” Magik
Luna layed in bed that night with a new song in her heart as she drifted away.