BIOGRAPHY - page 2
Despite all the pain they brought her, Moira was drowning in grief after the passing of her husband and son. For a time, she kept Kevin's original body vacuum-preserved on Muir Island. She theorized that Proteus's reality-altering abilities may have existed within his cellular structure, meaning Kevin could recreate himself through cloning. Moira considered initiating the process, feeling just how deeply she had wronged Kevin growing up, and hoping she could do better (that he could do better) if given a second chance. Luckily, Sean Cassidy was there to make Moira realize it was impossible to turn back the clock. He pointed out that if Proteus truly had the ability to return from the dead, why hadn't he already done so? Moira eventually accepted that Kevin may have found a peace in death that he never knew in life. She destroyed her cellular samples and removed the vacuum preservation around Kevin's body, allowing it to break down and disperse naturally. [Classic X-Men #36]
Not everyone was willing to respect Moira's decision. Several years later, Gideon of the Externals and Toad of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants concocted a scheme to resurrect Proteus for their own ends. Playing with human lives as if they were chess pieces, the villains made a wager over who would succeed. Toad contracted the scientific research firm Genetech to recreate a cellular matrix for Proteus using data acquired from Muir Island, intended to biologically resurrect Proteus and convince him to join the Brotherhood. Meanwhile, Gideon employed A.I.M. to reconsolidate Proteus's energy form after it was dispersed, hoping to mass produce the energy signature through hollow Life Model Decoys.
A.I.M. used the Alliance of Evil as muscle for a mercenary named Erika Benson, alias Harness. Erika was a mutant and so was her son, Gilbert, who she had an exceptionally abusive relationship with. Young Gilbert, aka Piecemeal, had the unique ability to identify particular energy signatures on command, and then soak up and store the energy within his body. Harness forced Piecemeal to seek out Proteus' energy signature, and they traveled the world with the Alliance to locate "hot spots" where the dispersed energy ended up after Edinburgh. Piecemeal reluctantly accumulated more and more of Proteus's energy, engorging himself as Harness demanded, despite the physical torment it caused him. Their activities drew the attention of X-Force, the New Warriors and Moira MacTaggert's Muir Islanders. In Edinburgh, Piecemeal reached critical mass as his body absorbed the last of Proteus's dispersed energy at the site of his death, while Harness held off the mutants and heroes. Moira's efforts to drain off the energy and save Gilbert were in vain and Proteus was reborn, his energy form exploding out from underneath Gilbert's flesh.
Gilbert and Kevin merged into a new Proteus gestalt mind, a dual personality that could now maintain a stabile energy form even without a host body. His allergy to metal was also a thing of the past. The various heroes were banished to a limbo dimension while Proteus considered his new godhood, transforming the reality of all of Edinburgh to suit his sense of aesthetics while holding his two mothers captive. Cyclops and the original X-Factor were called in to deal with the situation, but failed utterly and were banished to limbo as well. After a brief glimpse inside Proteus's mind, Jean Grey realized that Kevin was aware during his supposed death — although his energy form was too widely dispersed for his consciousness to manifest on the earthly plane, it continued to exist in the limbo where he banished the heroes. Proteus found peace in that limbo, shaping it into a mathematically perfect form using what remained of his powers, which he was now trying to reproduce in Edinburgh.
It was Cyclops who proposed the solution to their predicament. Proteus was too powerful to stop, much less kill, and so they needed to convince him that he was happier in his limbo than he ever could be on the physical plane. In short, they needed to convince Proteus to commit suicide. 
Despite the outcry from several heroes present, none of them could provide a better strategy for dealing with the reality-controlling mutant. When Proteus recalled them from limbo to find out how they enjoyed the experience, Cyclops and the others verbally confronted him. They led Proteus to the conclusion that he would never find happiness as he was, and that he would never be able to recreate the peace he felt in limbo while on Earth, despite all his power. Proteus tearfully accepted their arguments and voluntarily dispersed his energy lattice, restoring Edinburgh to normalcy and scattering his energies once again so that his mind would return to limbo. [Kings of Pain crossover]