BIOGRAPHY - Page 10
Psylocke went back to the Jean Grey School but chose not to participate in the academic side of things. She joined Storm once more when the ancient threat of Arkea reared its head and attacked the school. The sentient bacteria had possessed one of the X-Men, Omega Sentinel, and was using her to take over the world. Psylocke helped destroy her and save her teammate, after which Storm decided to keep the team going. [X-Men 4th series) #1-3]
When an explosion in the city of Alexandria claimed thousands of lives, Cable set up X-Force again in a bid to track down the culprit. In her time away from X-Force, Psylocke had come to realize that she was addicted to killing and so putting herself on a team like that was a way of feeding the addiction. By day, she would serve amongst the X-Men and fight the good fight but by night she would join X-Force and do what needed to be done. As the team began to investigate the Alexandria incident, their inquiries first led them to an unconscious mutant girl named Meme and then to a weapons dealer named Volga. Psylocke’s problems didn’t just stop at her adversaries; her teammates also caused her problems. She was angry to discover Fantomex was working with Cable and she now had to fend off his incessant advances once more. Also Marrow, whose personality was noticeably different and erratic, was grating on Psylocke. When the team raided one of Volga’s bases, she finally broke and knocked her team unconscious. She had been trying hard to suppress the urge to kill anyone who got in her way but she finally gave in and killed a room full of guards. After a few missteps, they eventually caught up with Volga but he proved to be more capable than they had predicted. He was eventually defeated but in the chaos a number of secrets had been revealed. Psylocke discovered that Meme, X-Force’s new team member, was actually Cable’s daughter Hope. Both Hope and the real Meme were unconscious in X-Force’s base but Hope had copied Meme’s powers and was now masquerading as the young girl. Psylocke urged Hope to tell the secret but the girl refused and so Psylocke continued the pretense. [X-Force (4th series) #1-6]
On the X-Men side of things, Psylocke continued serving on Storm’s team, helping defeat threats such as the newly reformed Sisterhood of Mutants, as well as a mysterious figure called the Future. She even reluctantly taught some of the students in the art of Danger Room warfare. [X-Men (4th series) #7-17]
When Cable was forced to clone himself every day and then destroy the clone at night, Psylocke saw an opportunity to have some no-strings-attached fun. While talking to one of the Cable-clones about his current predicament, she overtly flirted with him but he rebuffed her advances. [X-Force (4th series) #7] X-Force were still chasing leads on Volga and they ended up coming face to face with Peter Wisdom and his MI:13 team. Sparks flew between them at the start but they eventually teamed up to take down a threat of rogue super soldiers. [X-Force (4th series) #8-9]
Cable eventually came round to Psylocke’s way of thinking and they started a friends-with-benefits relationship. In the meantime, they continued to track Volga but things took a startling turn when Fantomex’s mind snapped and he attacked his own team. He had adapted Volga’s method of creating super soldiers and used it on himself, becoming nearly unstoppable in the process. Psylocke had given up trying to resist killing people and so she happily took the opportunity to put Fantomex down once and for all. Unfortunately, he was too powerful for her and he escaped, setting off on a worldwide killing spree of covert ops teams. X-Force finally caught up with him and, after a brutal fight, it was Hope that managed to purge him of the super soldier effects. It had been Fantomex’s ego that had triggered it all off and so Psylocke used her telepathy to make him aware of his flaws and give him some humility, the ultimate torture for him. Although the whole experience had made her face up to what she was, Psylocke chose to stay with X-Force and continue the work they did. [X-Force (4th series) #10-15]
The threats to the X-Men kept coming and Psylocke’s team was sent to the SWORD space station to deal with Deathbird who had suddenly appeared there. After unravelling a plot to steal Deathbird’s unborn baby the X-Men returned home but were then dragged into a situation in Nevada. A sinkhole had suddenly appeared in the ground and so Psylocke and the team went in to investigate its mysterious origin. They got more than they bargained for when they were attacked by some strange creatures living within it. Psylocke’s arm was severely hurt during the fight and despite her best efforts to subdue the pain with her power she fell unconscious. Her wound began to get infected and it was down to Rachel and Monet to get her out of the cave system so she could get medical attention. The two women managed to save Psylocke’s life and the team put an end to the threat, which turned out to be a feral form of Krakoa. [X-Men (4th series) #18-26]
Startling events began when it was discovered that the Terrigen mists, which give power to the Inhumans, were now toxic to mutants. The mists had been introduced to the atmosphere some months prior, floating around the planet in a cloud, inducing Terrigenesis to anyone with Inhuman genes exposed it. Mutants, on the other hand, contracted a disease labeled M-Pox which caused sickness, sterility and often death. While Storm moved the X-Mansion to Limbo as an X-Haven for mutants, Magneto approached Elizabeth about a more direct stance. Fear of mutantkind had only increased with M-Pox, with the superstition it might be contagious to normal humans. Mutants needed the X-Men as protectors, demonstrating a show of strength, not hiding away.
Psylocke accepted Magneto's offer to serve as his partner and his conscience, keeping him on the side of the angels even when his instincts said make war on the Inhumans. Betsy also joined Magneto because he brought Archangel with him. The Angel created by the Lifeseed was seemingly gone, and the metal-winged Archangel had found Magneto in a near-fugue state, unresponsive to stimuli. Elizabeth hoped to work with Archangel, to find the good man inside him and encourage him back to the surface. In the meantime, though, Magneto also wanted Psylocke to direct Warren in battle. Archangel became a predator attack drone, summoned and guided by Psylocke's telepathy against their foes. With Monet St. Croix and a Sabretooth seeking redemption added to the roster, Magneto and Psylocke's core X-Men team was forged. Their early missions dealt with the Someday Corporation, taking advantage of desperate mutants trying to escape the Terrigen, and the vicious Dark Riders, targeting mutants as "unfit" in the wake of the M-Pox. [Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #1-5]
Elizabeth detected a flicker of consciousness in Archangel, a psychic bread crumb which led her and Magneto to Green Ridge, Colorado. There they were surprised to discover the Lifeseed version of Angel acting out of a faith revival movement. As Psylocke tried to reconcile how Angel and Archangel could both be active at once, they were confronted by Genocide and Clan Akkaba. Genocide had manipulated the naive Angel into "shedding his sins" by having his "evil" metal wings amputated. In fact, Akkaba was using the Celestial enhanced tissue of the wings to grow a Death Choir of Archangel clones to cleanse humanity. The Archangel associated with Magneto and Psylocke was merely one of those clones who had escaped the flock.
While dealing with these revelations, Elizabeth escaped from Akkaba only to run into Fantomex. Jean-Philippe had mostly recovered from his Volga strain period, in mind and body, but he had come to hate Elizabeth for destroying his EVA persona and crashing his ego. Magneto had been running Fantomex and Mystique as secret X-Men operatives without Psylocke's knowledge, l
eading to this unexpected and tense reunion. Fantomex briefly entertained the idea that Magneto summoned him to Green Ridge to assassinate Betsy, to keep her from calling out for her Archangel, choirmaster of Akkaba's Death-Flight. Jean-Philippe ultimately chose not to follow through on petty vengeance, but the relationship between he and Psylocke truly seemed damaged beyond repair.
Despite herself, Elizabeth did impulsively summon the Archangel when shocked by the Death-Flight. As the Angel clones descended on the innocents of Green Ridge, she tried to find Warren telepathically inside the minds of Archangel. There were only thought fragments, however, and Betsy came to realize the Lifeseed's Angel was more "Warren" than the Archangel she had been caring for. Angel submitted himself to the Archangel choirmaster, and the two of them merged, becoming Warren Worthington III again. The Death-Flight was cancelled, and Archangel returned to the X-Men with Psylocke and Magneto, although he was a changed man once more. [Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #6-10]
Magneto's secrets continued to drive a wedge between him and Psylocke. Betsy began feeling less and less like Erik's partner and more like his handler or pawn, depending on the day. When the Inhumans gained a powerful future profiler named Ulysses, Magneto labeled the boy a potential threat to mutantkind. Psylocke sided with Storm's X-Men against her own team to maintain peace between mutants and Inhumans. [Civil War II: X-Men #1-4] The lies kept coming 
as Psylocke had to learn from Monet that Magneto had also rejoined the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, working with the likes of Sebastian Shaw on matters that mutually benefited them. The X-Men and Hellfire Club joined forces against the Someday Corporation and the Sleepers being manipulated by Exodus. When it was all over, however, Psylocke decided to walk. She could no longer trust Magneto to be honest with her about his intentions or plotting. Instead, she left him with a warning that she would be watching and, if he stepped out of line, she would be there to make him answer for it. [Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #11-14]
Psylocke continued to operate as a mutant hero, but alone and on her terms. At least, so she told herself. Elizabeth had gathered considerable data from Magneto's War Room X before leaving, and pursued these solo missions. However, she remained paranoid about the idea that Magneto allowed her to access this data, and that even her abandoning the team was part of his overall scheming. [Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #15] War finally broke between the X-Men and the Inhumans as the Terrigen cloud threatened to saturate Earth's atmosphere and make it uninhabitable to mutants. While most of the X-Men fought merely to eliminate the cloud, however, 
Magneto joined with Emma Frost to take measures that would wipe out the Inhumans altogether. [IvX crossover] In the aftermath, Psylocke returned to War Room X to fulfill her promise and kill Magneto for having gone too far. The two former allies met in a brutal battle that destroyed their former headquarters. As powerful as Magneto was, however, Elizabeth Braddock was a trained killer. Her sword found his heart, and Psylocke left Magneto for dead, their alliance severed forever. [Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #19]
Psylocke remained on the fringes of the X-Men for a time after that. When Hydra took over America, the X-Mansion and main team were trapped in Manhattan with many of the heroes. A mutant nation called New Tian was established on the west coast in opposition to Hydra, and Psylocke was one of their ranking lieutenants until the status quo was restored. [Secret Empire #1] She also provided psi-training to the young Jean Grey, who feared the coming of the Phoenix Force. Elizabeth was an expert at solidifying her thoughts into psi-weapons and taught Jean the same skill. Of course, Psylocke's idea of training was to infiltrate a Hand stronghold and fight a bunch of ninjas, but you get what you pay for. [Jean Grey #5]