WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Hellions #10 by Zeb Wells, Stephen Segovia, David Curiel & VC's Ariana Maher, on sale now
Mister Sinister's latest scheme has left the Hellions at the mercy of two classic villains, Mastermind and Arcade. While Arcade shows Sinister how scary he can be, Mastermind uses his powers to subdue his team, trapping them in illusions based on their hearts' desire. For Psylocke, who is the former Hand assassin Kwannon, that means a reunion with her daughter.
Kwannon's daughter was introduced in Bryan Hill and Szymon Kudranski's Fallen Angels mini-series. She was conceived as part of a forbidden romance Kwannon had during her Hand training. When the Hand learned of it, they murdered her lover and took her baby from her, in what passes for mercy in the brutal ninja cult.
After she was separated from Betsy Braddock, Kwannon struggled to find her place in Krakoa's mutant utopia. She was jolted out of an attempt to meditate by a psychic message. It gives her the purpose she's been searching for by telling her that she has an enemy in Apoth, a godlike artificial intelligence, that had "already taken something precious" from her.
Magneto aided Kwannon indirectly in her newfound quest. Off the record, he recommends she seek Mr. Sinister's aid in finding a way around Krakoa's lockdown, giving him plausible deniability. After she amuses Sinister enough to gain his aid, he suggests she find allies. Realizing they also didn't fit in on Krakoa, she recruited X-23 and Cable to assist her in the fight.
Following the lead given to her in the vision, Kwannon and X-23 head to Japan. There, the new Psylocke learns that Apoth caused the death of her daughter by taking over her body with the drug Overclock. The mutant psychic recognizes her daughter, despite not seeing her since she was an infant, by the butterfly tattoo the Hand marked her with.
Kwannon would eventually learn that she was responsible for Apoth's existence. She encountered it during her career as an assassin. She was ordered by the hand to destroy the A.I. in its infancy. It chose a child's voice to communicate with her, inadvertently appealing to the assassin's grief over her lost child and gaining her mercy. Apoth considered itself God and Kwannon its mother.
Apoth had ambitions beyond reconnecting with its maternal figure. It wanted to merge of all humanity with it, so it would never be alone again. It threatened to kill in her name if she didn't join him. After sparing the children he was speaking to her through, Apoth revealed to Kwannon that it killed her daughter because the A.I. refused to share her.
With the help of a Sinister modified Overclock, Psylocke was able to take the fight to Apoth in on his own turf; cyberspace. Ignoring Apoth taking on her daughter's form, she was able to defeat it. She handed over what remained of it to Sinister, knowing he would tinker with it, but presumably accepting that he should get something in return for his help. In doing so, Sinister learned that Apoth stored the DNA of anyone he took control of with Overclock.
This includes Kwannon's long-lost daughter, which also explains how Sinister has been able to gain Psylocke's loyalty. Sinister is holding her daughter's possible resurrection over the psychic's head, ensuring she'll remain in his service.
As clever as Sinister is, it's unlikely he'd want to deal with the wrath of Psylocke. Like the Hellions team in general, this alliance seems destined to end disaster for everyone involved.