SHARD: Page 4 of 4

BIOGRAPHY - Page 4

Bishop had vanished during a mission in space with the X-Men, and so Shard was alone and without a support system in this time once X-Factor disbanded. She decided it was incumbent on her to settle scores with Trevor Fitzroy, the last remaining prisoner Bishop and Omega Squad chased back in time. Fitzroy had changed since Bishop and Shard last encountered him, though. Trevor started afresh by time traveling to a post-apocalyptic future where he honed his powers to become stronger than ever, conquering a series of fiefdoms and uniting them under the rule of his new identity, the Chronomancer. Once he had built up a network and power base, Fitzroy returned to the present with his un-living Chronotroopers to take revenge on his oldest foes. Shard was horrified when she discovered the discarded offal of Fitzroy’s human victims, used to fuel his powers. The Chronomancer used her as bait to lure out a returning Bishop, before bringing both of them into the new future of the Chronomancer’s world. [Bishop: The Last X-Man #1]

Bishop fell in among a group of mutant rebels against the Chronomancer, led by this reality’s incarnation of the Witness. Shard, however, was captured and held by Fitzroy in his dungeons. Drunk on power and madness, Trevor thought his new strength would allow him to rekindle the old flame between them. He drained Shard’s strength while also keeping her immobilized through a new application of his time power, slowly making her dependent on him. [Bishop: The Last X-Man #2, 7] When isolation alone failed to break her, Fitzroy began looking for something else he could offer Shard besides himself. The Chronomancer realized his new powers could essentially bring Shard back to life, “reversing time” around her spirit so that her photonic lifeform state reverting to true flesh and blood. After months of Fitzroy being her only human contact, Shard believed him at first when he said Bishop was dead, and she began to submit to his conversion. The entire transformation process was slow, and it also left Shard weaker than ever and highly susceptible to the Chronomancer’s influence. [Bishop: The Last X-Man #9-11]

By this point, Bishop had rallied the towns into a small army marching on Chronokeep. Fitzroy cared little for his keep, his regents, his adopted people or even his base of power. He had a plan to ascend into godhood by becoming one with the timestream, but he still clung to the human need to prove himself to Bishop and Shard, for different reasons. When Bishop broke into the dungeons looking for her, Shard was little more than a puppet thanks to Fitzroy’s relentless brainwashing tactics. She followed Fitzroy’s instructions and led Bishop to the Chronomancer. As Shard’s body slowly came back to life, Fitzroy immobilized Bishop and spirited him away so he could finally force Bishop into giving him the respect he thought he deserved. [Bishop: The Last X-Man #12]

Shard was chained again in the dungeon as the Chronomancer began his torture of Bishop. As listless and incoherent as she had become, Shard slowly started to realize how she had betrayed her brother. Bishop’s teammate Link came looking for him, and Shard passed on what she knew about Trevor’s plan to achieve godhood. Link took the information but felt Shard couldn’t be trusted enough to risk freeing her. [Bishop: The Last X-Man #13]

Fitzroy eventually gave up on extracting validation from Bishop and moved forward with constructing his portal of ascendancy. The tide turned in the battle for Chronokeep, and Bishop’s friends freed him to go forth and stop Fitzroy. Abandoned and forgotten in her cell, Shard’s mind cleared as the Chronomancer’s power became concentrated mostly at his portal. The guilt over betraying her brother to achieve flesh and blood was overwhelming for her, and Shard was determined to do anything to make it right. Stuck in transition, Shard’s body was still partially energy but she could no longer phase. And so, Shard took the extreme action of cutting off her own hand with a shard of glass in order to escape her manacle.

Bishop and the Chronomancer exhausted each other fighting by the portal, but Fitzroy got close enough to drain some of Bishop’s lifeforce, giving him what he needed to stumble towards the open portal. Shard arrived, bleeding out from her stump of an arm, and took stock of the situation. Neither Bishop nor Shard alone would be able to reach Fitzroy before he reached the portal. Together, however, they had a chance. Shard sacrificed herself to relax fully into an energy state, so her brother could absorb her photonic power. Revitalized by Shard’s energy, Bishop gained the strength to rise. Shard died providing the power Bishop needed to reach Fitzroy and prevent his mad plans of gaining relevance. [Bishop: The Last X-Man #14]