BIOGRAPHY - Page 7
During all the recent activity, the X-Men discovered that Cyclops had secretly re-formed X-Force, now as a black-ops squad to permanently deal with problems before they became threats. Though Cyclops disbanded the team after the X-Men’s horrific reaction and Hope's return, Wolverine secretly set it back up again and drafted Psylocke into it. Sometime beforehand, she had rekindled her romance with Angel and was helping him deal with his re-emerged Archangel persona.
When Psylocke’s X-Force teammate Deadpool informed them that he had found evidence that Clan Akkaba was attempting to resurrect Apocalypse, the black ops team travelled to his last known location to find him. As they entered the Celestial temple, they were attacked by a new Horseman of War, who quickly twisted Psylocke’s and Wolverine’s minds. It was Fantomex, using his misdirection power, who defeated War by making him believe he was in love with Psylocke, a concept that literally shattered the emotionally-powered minotaur. The team rescued Deadpool and escaped the temple just as it teleported away. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #1]
Unbeknownst to Warren, Wolverine had been making Psylocke train in Danger Room sessions that forced her to confront and kill an out of control Archangel. When Warren found out, he was understandably alarmed that his girlfriend was seemingly preparing to kill him. She explained that because of recent events in her life she had been searching for something that truly made her happy and Warren was it. She declared she would help him deal with his duel persona and stand by him till the end.
The lovers didn’t get much time to relax, as the Celestial temple was soon located again, this time on the Moon. Using Fantomex’s sentient ship, the team travelled there but were ambushed by the new Horsemen. The first attack scattered X-Force as they figured out how to deal with their new foes. Psylocke was taken captive by War, who had reconstructed himself and still believed himself in love with her. Taken inside the base, the bull-faced War declared his love for Betsy and Psylocke played along until the right moment came to incapacitate him.
As the rest of her team gathered outside, Psylocke slipped through the temple and found the chamber where Apocalypse resided. However, to her surprise, she found that he was merely a young boy and not the millennia-old villain she expected. The rest of X-Force eventually bested the Horsemen and found Psylocke, only now she stood in protection of the young boy. An argument broke out on the ethics of killing a child, even though they knew what he could grow up to be. Psylocke won out and the team stood down, all except Fantomex who shot and killed the boy before anyone else could stop him. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #2-4]
As the team tried to deal with what Fantomex did, they became sidetracked in facing off against Lady Deathstrike and her Reavers. For Psylocke, this was personal, as this was the team that had hunted her through the Australian Outback years before and triggered a chain of events that would completely change her, mind and body. What worried her most wasn’t the fear of being hurt again but of how much she was looking forward to hurting them back. When she learned the Reavers wanted to bomb Utopia, she had no choice but to stop them in the most brutal way possible. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #5.1]
After battling a squad of Deathlok versions of X-Force, Psylocke continued her therapy with Warren in a bid to lock away the Archangel persona. Unfortunately for her, another old nemesis came back to haunt her in the form of the Shadow King. He lured the team to a military base where he intended on launching nuclear missiles at Utopia. Psylocke did an astral scout of the area and only realized whom she was up against when it was too late. The rest of the team, except for the telepathically-shielded Fantomex, were quickly taken over and so it was up to him to escape with Psylocke’s body before it could be killed.
On the astral plane, Psylocke and the Shadow King battled once more, with the psychic entity showing her some of her greatest fears in a bid to break her. He managed to work his way deep into her psyche until she came to her senses and broke free from his grasp. She jumped back into her body just before Wolverine could kill her and ran to find Angel, who was preparing to launch the missiles. She entered Angel’s mind in a bid to protect him but found the Shadow King was already in there. The villain found the place where Psylocke had locked the Archangel persona away and he freed the errant personality. Although Archangel destroyed the Shadow King’s astral form and stopped the missile launch, the damage was done and the personality was free once more. Archangel's control of his own mindscape enabled him to block Betsy's memory of the events, leaving her unaware of Archangel's freedom. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #8]
When Cyclops and Wolverine had a disagreement on the future of the X-Men, Wolverine decided to move back to Westchester to set up a school. He invited Psylocke along but she declined, stating that teaching was not for her but she would still continue with X-Force. Psylocke stayed on Utopia and became part of the X-Men’s security-recon team, defending the island from threats both internal and external. [X-Men Regenesis]
Warren became more distant from Psylocke and avoided their psychic therapy sessions. It all came to a head when a reporter obtained evidence of the existence of X-Force and the fact Warren had murdered a soldier that had been under the influence of the Shadow King. The Archangel persona took over and Psylocke had to personal stop him before he could kill any more people.
With no way to cure him, the team turned to one of Apocalypse’s minions, Dark Beast, for a solution. He informed them that they needed a life seed to combat the effects of the death seed that Warren was corrupted by. The only one he knew of was in his home reality, so Psylocke and the team travelled to the Age of Apocalypse to retrieve it. Predictably, things did not go according to plan when they found the seed but that reality’s X-Men destroyed it by mistake. Thankfully, Psylocke recognized that the Sabretooth amongst their ranks was her ex-lover and teammate from the Exiles. Stranded by Dark Beast, the team had no choice but to go with the X-Men to figure out the next step. They discovered another life seed existed and so hatched a plan on how to get it and send X-Force home.
Ever since joining the team, Fantomex had been flirting with Psylocke but received very little affection in return. He continued his attempted romance but Psylocke continued to rebuff him. He decided to lay out a few home truths to her on her relationship with Warren and where it was really going. They got into a heated argument that resulted in a passionate kiss, which Psylocke broke off.
With the plan ready, one half of the group went and retrieved the life seed whilst Psylocke and the others located the alternate Gateway, who could teleport X-Force home. Once again, things didn’t go according to plan, as they were attacked by an evil version of Wolverine. X-Force made it back to their home reality with a life seed, thanks to the sacrifice of their alternate reality counterparts. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #10-13]
When they got back home, X-Force found they were too late and Dark Beast had freed Warren from his confinement. To make matters worse, the Archangel persona had completely taken over and he had gathered his Horsemen in anticipation of X-Force’s return. Psylocke was devastated at the turn of events as the realization that she would have to kill her lover took over. As the rest of her team were quickly dispatched, Psylocke’s Danger Room training paid off and she easily overcame her foes. However, just as she threw her katana through Archangel’s chest, she hesitated and gravely wounded him instead of ending his life. She managed to get her injured team into Fantomex’s ship and get them to safety. Just as it was taking off, though, she jumped out of it and joined Archangel, telling him she wasn’t giving up on him. Taken to another Clan Akkaba base under the North Pole, Psylocke continued to try and reach the Warren persona through Archangel. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #14]
As Archangel set about enacting his grand plan, Psylocke was held as a willing captive in the base. The other Horsemen tried to convince her that what was to come would be a necessary step but Psylocke remained steadfast and tried to escape, only to be subdued. In the meantime, Archangel had wiped out a town and fast-forwarded the area millions of years to create a new ecosystem. He intended on doing the same to the entire planet, but X-Force was hot on his heels. Since they had killed his Horseman of Death, a replacement was needed, so Archangel acquired a new death seed and set his sights on Psylocke to be his successor as the new Death. As he prepared Psylocke for the end, she still tried to get through to Warren and stop the madness. When Psylocke discovered what his ultimate goal was, she finally relented and tried to shoot Archangel. Once again, she was knocked out and, unable to fight back, the death seed was used on her and Psylocke became the new Horseman of Death.
With the aid of some X-Men from the Age of Apocalypse, the rest of X-Force stormed the Clan Akkaba base and took out Archangel’s Horsemen and other allies. Fantomex found Psylocke and tried to get through to her but she slit his throat for his troubles. That horrific action temporarily snapped Psylocke out of her brainwashing long enough for the alternate Jean Grey to enter her mind and purge it of the Death persona.
A side effect of this was that Psylocke’s telepathic abilities were fully unlocked, increasing the power and finesse of them. When she woke up, she discovered Fantomex had simply misdirected her early attack and he was alive and well. Psylocke ended up in a showdown with Archangel where she unleashed her full might on him and overwhelmed him. She ended up plunging the life seed into his torso, not only wiping the Archangel persona and the death seed’s effects away but also fatally injuring his body.
As Warren lay dying on the floor, Psylocke used her powers to enter his mind and create a world where the two of them lived a full and happy life together.
The heartbroken Psylocke was forced to leave her lover’s body as the whole base was collapsing around itself. As she ran out into the snow and met with X-Force, she was elated to see a Warren walk out of the carnage behind them. However her happiness was short-lived, as it became clear the life seed had completely wiped everything out of Warren’s mind and the man standing before her was essentially a complete stranger. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #15-18]