BIOGRAPHY Page 11
Afterwards, Warren refused to let Psylocke into his mind again, stating that he had found a way to control Archangel himself. Psylocke knew something was up and alerted Wolverine, but Warren soon vanished on a mission of his own. The Shadow King had set up video cameras around the nuclear base X-Force previously visited and it captured Warren’s murder of the soldier. 
The Shadow King then made sure the tape reached the hands of a reporter, Harper Simmons. Warren got a call from Simmons’ editor that he was about to be hit with a smear campaign and so he set off to sort the situation out. He caught up with Simmons’ editor and brutally murdered him before tracking Simmons down to his hotel room. He attacked Simmons but Wolverine burst through the door just in time and stopped another murder. The two teammates fought but Archangel won out and hunted the fleeing Simmons down. The Archangel persona was screaming for Simmons to die but Warren managed to push against it and stop himself long enough for Psylocke to arrive and knock him out. Psylocke erased Simmons’s memory of the evening and Warren was locked away in a cage in Cavern X.
The rest of X-Force deliberated what to do with him and ultimately decided to contact the best authority they knew on Apocalypse’s technology… Dark Beast. The evil genius told them that Warren was in an ascension phase to become the rightful heir of Apocalypse. The nature of Apocalypse as the chosen Celestial Gardener of the mutant race was that, if he ever fell, one of the Horsemen he transformed would ascend and become the next Gardener. The only way to stop it was to counteract the “Death Seed” energies coursing through his veins with that of a “Life Seed.” Unfortunately, there wasn’t due to be a life seed in this dimension for hundreds of years, but Dark Beast said he had one in his home reality of the Age of Apocalypse. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #10]
X-Force travelled to the Age of Apocalypse and they managed to secure a Life Seed, thanks to the sacrifice of the other world’s X-Men. However, during their struggles, Dark Beast escaped from them, returned to Earth-616 and freed Archangel from his cage. He saw Archangel’s ascension as a chance to turn this world into one like his home and took his new master to Apocalypse’s ship, which had relocated to the North Pole.
Archangel had completely taken over Warren’s mind now and he made it clear he was going to usher in a new era for mutants and humans. He met with Clan Akkaba, as well as his new Horsemen and Genocide, Apocalypse’s biological son. With his own formidable team at his bidding, he travelled back to Cavern X and waited for X-Force to return with the Life Seed. 
When they did, Archangel and his team easily managed to neutralize Wolverine, Deadpool and Fantomex but Psylocke proved to be a harder target to hit. He ordered her not to be hurt but, because of the show of mercy, she managed to get the drop on Archangel and throw her katana at him. At the last moment, though, she doubted herself and missed his heart by inches, sparing his life. Psylocke managed to get the rest of X-Force to safety but, as they were escaping, she chose to stay with Archangel in the hopes that she could get through to Warren’s personality deep inside him. Archangel took Psylocke and the Life Seed back to his base, where he continued his plans to force the world to evolve or die.
Archangel took Genocide to a small town in rural Montana and had him use his powers to obliterate it off the map. He then had a small portion of the Life Seed’s energies used on the scorched ground to bring life back to the area. Using a time-manipulating technology of Weapon Plus's "The World", a few square miles of the land had its time sped up at an incredible rate, to fast-forward the effects of the Life Seed. By the time they had finished, 130 million years had passed in the area and an entirely new eco-system was created. It had all been a test for a much bigger plan that included the entire planet. 
As Archangel and his team were inspecting the world they had created, X-Force found them and attacked. They managed to escape but the Horseman of Death was killed, prompting Archangel to look into replacing him. Archangel travelled to the Dreaming Celestial in San Francisco and the cosmic being presented him with a new Death Seed. In Archangel’s eyes, there was only one candidate who could fulfill the role of Death… Psylocke. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #13-15]
Despite having Psylocke at the base, Archangel entered into a sexual relationship with Ichisumi, his Horseman of Pestilence. He had transcended simple concepts such as love and to the observer he seemed emotionless and cold. When Genocide’s mother, former Horseman Famine, protested at Archangel’s use of her son, he killed her without so much as a second thought. The disgusted Psylocke noted that Archangel was sounding more like Apocalypse, something to which he seemed to agree with. The time came for Psylocke’s transformation into Death and, despite her trying to resist, Archangel used the Death Seed and turned her into his successor. For a brief moment the two embraced, as they finally saw the world from the same viewpoint, but X-Force attacked and Archangel’s plans started to unravel. Psylocke was kidnapped and, with the help of some X-Men from the Age of Apocalypse, the Death Seed’s effects were reversed. Archangel decided that it was time to enact the final stage in his plan and use the Life Seed to start the world anew.
When X-Force and the alternate X-Men confronted him, he cut them down with ease, killing some and gravely wounding others. He was shocked when a teenage version of Apocalypse, claiming to be a hero, came out of nowhere and attacked him. It turned out that Fantomex had cloned the young boy he shot weeks before and had been secretly saving him to help take down Archangel. Despite the surprise and the power of the child, Archangel beat the boy into submission. However, whilst he was distracted, Psylocke came up behind him and stabbed him in the gut with the Life Seed. The reaction was instantaneous, as the energies purged the Death Seed from his body and Warren’s personality was able to regain control. The process wasn’t over, though, as his body was being destroyed by the seed and there was no way to stop it. As he lay dying in Psylocke’s arms, she used her powers to show him a dream where they lived the rest of their lives together and died an old and happy couple. As his base collapsed around him, Warren died, ending the threat of Archangel once and for all.
His story wasn’t over, though, as the Life Seed hadn’t finished its work. While Warren’s mind passed on to the other side, his body was cleansed and healed, with a new blank mind being born into it. This new Angel stumbled out into the snowy landscape and found X-Force mourning their friend. Psylocke naturally ran to him and kissed him but quickly discovered that he had no memories of her or any part of his previous life. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #16-18]
The new Angel was almost child-like in his naivety and simplicity and Psylocke found it difficult to be around him. Wolverine decided to send him and Evan, the child-Apocalypse called Genesis, to the Jean Grey School to live. Beast and Shadowcat arrived to discover the full extent of X-Force’s actions and Angel greeted them as if he had never seen them before. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #19]