BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
Jean helped Betsy to refine her telepathic abilities she regained from Kwannon. During the training session, Betsy confessed that, even though her flirtation with Scott was influenced by parts of Kwannon’s mind, she too found him attractive, but now she found a new love in another teammate, Archangel.[X-Men (2nd series) #39]
Warren and Betsy had become close when they realized that they had a lot in common: their rich upbringing (including inherited Hellfire Club memberships) and having their minds, lives and bodies being manipulated & transformed by villains. [X-Men (2nd series) #29, 32, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #319]
Later, as Sabretooth began his escape from his holding cell in the Xavier Mansion, Psylocke attempted to stop him but was critically wounded in the process. To save her life, her lover Angel, along with Wolverine, Gomurr the Ancient and Doctor Strange, journeyed into the dimension of the Crimson Dawn to retrieve some of the magical liquid to save Betsy’s life.
As a result of her exposure to the Crimson Dawn, Psylocke survived her mortal injury and suddenly had a red tattoo over her left eye. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #328-330]
Warren and Betsy took a leave of absence to have some time to heal, but the magical elixir changed Betsy more than what was at first visible. To alert the team of the unexpected regression of Archangel’s wings (from metal to feathers) she appeared in the mansion via her new ability to melt in and out of the shadows. Also, personality-wise, she grew colder and more distant. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #338]
Not before long, Psylocke was sought after by Kuragari, Proctor of the Crimson Dawn, who wanted to make Psylocke his bride. With the aid of Angel and Gomurr, Kuragari was defeated and Gomurr was named as the new Proctor of the Crimson Dawn. However, to free Psylocke of its evil influences, Warren needed to give away an unknown amount of his own lifeforce. Though helping out from time to time, the couple did not go on active X-Men duty again.[Psylocke and Archangel: Crimson Dawn #1-4]
When the X-Men received an urgent summons to travel to Africa, Storm asked Psylocke to shadow-teleport them there. Opposed by what appeared to be Ananasi, a trickster god, the X-Men really fought the Shadow King. On the astral plane, he tricked Psylocke into initiating a telepathic shockwave that disabled telepaths all over the world, leaving the Shadow King in command of the astral plane. Although her astral form was destroyed, Betsy emerged in a new "shadow form" that was a by-product of her exposure to the Crimson Dawn. Invisible to the Shadow King, Betsy was able to free the X-Men he had captured and then taunted the Shadow King until he over-extended himself by trying to corrupt every mind on the planet. Betsy was then able to contain the Shadow King’s core telepathically, but at a great cost. To ensure that the Shadow King would never be able to escape his prison inside her mind, Psylocke was forced to permanently focus her telepathic powers on keeping the Shadow King imprisoned, never to use her telepathy again. [X-Men (2nd series) #77-78]
When Jean learned of this condition during the Twelve crisis, she opted to help Betsy dealing with it; this yet undocumented experiment [set in the six month gap] misfired, resulting in a power-switch between the two women. Jean acquired all of Betsy’s telepathic potential, adding to her own, even the shadowy astral image, while Psylocke now possessed Jean’s telekinetic power.[X-Men (2nd series) #100]
Psylocke returned to active duty, but Warren had to deal with his family fortune and was still only a back-up member. Almost immediately after his joining the team, romantic tension developed between Thunderbird / Neal Shaara and Betsy. Their attraction developed to such degree that they did not even care to hide their flirtation in front of Warren ...
... till finally he called it quits, explaining the break-up with having reached a dead-end in their relationship.
Although she had not yet mastered fine-motor control of her new power, Betsy, who always loved the adventure, decided to accept Storm’s invitation and became part of the X-Men splinter group that searched for Destiny’s Diaries. [X-Men (2nd series) #103, 109]
After a short vacation, the X-Treme team started their search in Valencia, where one of Destiny’s houses was located. However, they were followed by a new villain named Vargas, who was eager to kill one of the team. He quickly defeated both Rogue and Beast, and Betsy took up the challenge.
Although she had the moves of a trained ninja and her telekinetic katana, Vargas killed Psylocke with unsettling ease. [X-Treme X-Men (1st series) #2-3]
Betsy’s deceased body has been taken to the family estate in England, but her spirit welcomed Bishop in one of Gateway‘s Aborigine dreamtime sequences, to help him figure out some hints of the future. Right as she prepared to depart to the afterlife, a glowing portal appeared behind her and Betsy’s spirit was sucked in by a skulled figure. [X-Treme X-Men (1st series) #4]