With the threat of Proteus neutralized, the Exiles finally had time to breathe. Their first task was to lay their fallen to rest. Each of the deceased Exiles and Weapon X members entombed in the crystal walls of the Panopticon were returned to their home worlds, though they received some resistance from Weapon X’s Iron Man, who was still alive. Blink, however, planned to keep Mimic buried in the dessert world of the Crystal Palace, close to her, until Power Princess convinced her to visit Mimic’s home world and discuss his wishes with his family, the X-Men. Mimic’s X-men offered Blink a spot on their team, something she genuinely considered.
With their fallen put to rest, some of the Exiles took a much-needed break. Heather reunited with her husband James Hudson, Miguel checked in on his brother in 2099 and Sabretooth searched, unsuccessfully, for Wild Child in his home reality. The Timebreakers were opposed to this sabbatical, and urged the Exiles to return to their neglected mission of repairing damaged world. 
When the Exiles refused to listen, the aliens concocted a plan to remove them. They manipulated the team into thinking there was a threat on Heather’s world that needed their attention, luring the team there one by one until the trusting Longshot left the Panoptichron in their care. Now again in control of the Crystal Palace, the Timebreakers informed the Exiles, via the Timebroker interface, that they were fired, and left them on Heather’s world. [Exiles (1st series) #83-84]
Now abandoned on Heather’s world, the now “unemployed” Exiles had to make the most of their new lives, though they still searched for a way to contact the Timebreakers. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long, as two alternative versions of Wolverine came to them seeking their aid. As the Panoptichron had indicated the solution to repair a world was “Wolverine,” they had sent team after team of various Wolverines at the mission. Unfortunately, each Wolverine had fallen under control of the target, Brother Mutant, forcing the surviving Wolverine’s to convince the Timebreakers to seek the aid of the former Exiles. The Exiles agreed to return to the mission, helping defeat Brother Mutant and returning the Wolverines to their worlds. After recognizing that they lacked the ability to think and act intuitively, the Timebreakers came to an understanding with the Exiles; the Exiles would return to repairing damaged realities, and the Timebreakers would concede to their leadership. [Exiles (1st series) #85-86]
Their first mission returned to duty was an unusual one, as the Earth had already been destroyed. In this universe, the Exiles were tasked with saving a benevolent Galactus, the Restorer of Worlds, from an evil Silver Surfer, who has just destroyed the Earth. Galactus temporarily boosted Blinks powers to teleport them across the solar system, away from the Surfer, and Longshot demonstrated his psychometry ability for the first time, reading Galactus’ history with a touch. The Exiles allied with the Shi’ar to face down the Surfer, though Sabretooth realized his claws were 
next to useless in this fight, and was concerned about losing Blink to this suicide mission. Instead, he convinced Galactus to imbue him with the power cosmic, becoming a golden herald. With this newfound power, Creed bested the Silver Surfer easily, with aid from Longshot, before returning the power to Galactus. [Exiles (1st series) #87-88]
While searching through realities to repair, Heather stumbled across something shocking; on Earth-33629 there was a group of “Exiles” that matched the original team exactly and repaired the reality before they could. With no explanation for how this was possible, the team went to investigate. They found this mystery team of Exiles was led by an equally mysterious Timebroker, who revealed this was all part of a bet. The teams fought and the true Exiles were captured, but the other team’s Blink was convinced to investigate the Timebroker. It was revealed this Timebroker was in fact the Grandmaster from the first world the Exiles had saved, which had actually ruined one of his games. The Gamemaster searched through various alternate worlds until he found one with near exact copies of the Exiles and gathered them together into a team to lure the true Exiles to him. He and Earth-33629’s Grandmaster made a bet to see which team 
would win. However, with the game revealed, he casually killed everybody present. This angered the other Grandmaster and his follow Elders for breaking the bet, and they resurrected the teams and locked the rogue Grandmaster away. The Exiles left Earth-33629 confident in the knowledge this world had a new team of protectors. [Exiles Annual (1st series) #1]
Next, the team were put through a very stressful period when a series of realities were collapsing in a domino effect. The team were forced to complete a series of twenty or so missions one after the other over an exhausting period of three weeks. Due to this exhaustion, Blink was off her game and was electrocuted by Electro during a fight against the Sinister Six, taking her out of the next few missions. Spider-Man was a taken out on the next mission in a fight against the Serpent Society. Perhaps due to being undermanned, Morph was caught unawares in a fight with Emma Frost and she nearly undid Proteus’ brainwashing. Fortunately, she was stopped before she could release Proteus entirely, and the Exiles were able to redo the brainwashing. Additionally, during this time, Heather and Miguel realized that Proteus no longer held an aversion to metal, perhaps due to the same quirk or Morph’s physiology that meant his body didn’t burn out. This meant that, should Proteus ever regain his full memories, his one weakness was now gone. [Exiles (1st series) #89]
While Morph slept, undergoing more brainwashing, Heather ran a model of what would happen if Proteus was unleashed. Without weaknesses, the model determined Proteus would quickly become capable of destroying the multiverse. The team also discussed bringing back Nocturne, though Heather put a pin in that, partly due to issues with being able to get a solid read of her and her new team. Later, Power Princess decided to leave the Exiles and return to the Squadron Supreme. While she had initially rubbed the team the wrong way, they were sad to see her go nonetheless. There was no time to recruit a new teammate, though, as the Panoptichron flagged a priority world that needed attention. With Power Princess gone and Morph currently out of commission, the team was down to Blink, Spider-Man, Longshot and Sabretooth. Unfortunately, the quartet were immediately overwhelmed by the Hand, with only Sabretooth managing to escape back to the Crystal Palace. [Exiles (1st series) #90]
In-Between
- On Earth-616, Psylocke was resurrected by her brother Jamie, and undetectable by electronic equipment. Later, during a clash with the Shadow King, she vanished in a flash of light. [New Excalibur #8]
Chronology (Continued)
In need of backup, Heather used the Panoptichron’s systems to find the ideal candidate; Psylocke of Earth-616. Psylocke was promptly teleported to the Panoptichron but, unfortunately, she had a 
bad history with the Sabretooth of her world and immediately attacked Victor. The pair fought furiously until Morph and Heather could intervene. Together, they convinced Psylocke to join they cause and help rescue their teammates.
Meanwhile, on Earth-1720, Longshot, Blink and Spider-Man had all been captured and brainwashed by the Hand, which was led by the Invisible Woman and her lover Wolverine. The Hand and Hydra had nearly brought the world to its knees, save for a resistance front led by Reed Richards, and the world’s populous seemed to be all but gone. Creed, Psylocke and Morph connected with Richards and his crew, though were disappointed to learn that the mission was in fact to kill Reed Richards, or else his enemies would somehow escape to the multiverse. If the mission was not completed within 48 hours, the universe would be destroyed by Panoptrichron’s systems.
While they decided what to do, the team confronted their brainwashed teammates. Luckily, Longshot was able to shake free of his brainwashing and helped take down Blink and Spider-Man. During this scuffle, Psylocke went to complete the mission and kill Reed, though she was beaten there by Susan Richards, Wolverine and their top assassin Slaymaster. Slaymaster’s presence was particularly difficult for Psylocke, as her world’s version had severely beaten her and stolen her eyes. She and Slaymaster fought but their fight had no resolution and she was brutally stabbed by Wolverine, much to Slaymaster’s displeasure.
With just moments to spare before the universe was ended, Madame Hydra, Wolverine and Slaymaster escaped to the multiverse using Reed’s technology. As their mission had failed, and 
they hadn’t teleported out in time, the universe was erased alongside the Exiles, much to Heather’s horror… except it didn’t. Shortly after its destruction, the universe was reborn. As it turned out, this was all part of a ploy by Reed to drive Hydra off his world. With Hydra gone, Reed began to rebuild his world with the help of the Exiles. [Exiles (1st series) #90-94]
The Exiles soon found their way back to the Crystal Palace, only to find it abandoned, with no trace of Heather or the Timebreakers. Miguel soon got the system back up and running the Palace’s artificial intelligence explained the team had been gone for six months. Believing the team was dead, Heather spiraled into despair and alcoholism. Eventually, the Timebreakers gave up and left her. Soon after, Heather left too, returning to her home dimensions. When Morph and Blink went to inform Heather that they had survived, they were shocked and delighted to find she was heavily pregnant. Heather opted to remain on her world with her family, but Heather wished them the best of luck.
Back in the business of repairing realities, the Exiles (minus Psylocke who stayed behind on monitor duty) headed to Earth-187319. There, they immediately encountered a version of the Fantastic Four led by a seemingly heroic Victor Von Doom, and Blink was kidnapped by Von Doom’s foe, Reed Richards. Doom’s world seemed near utopian, but all was not as it seemed. Quietly, he had seized control of the world and released gene-altering gas to take away their passion and humor, making them more compliant. He used his resources to manipulate the Exiles, positioning Miguel fall in love with his agent Gwen Stacy and sending the Invisible Woman to seduce Sabretooth. Longshot and Morph, however, seemed resistant to Doom’s control and reconnected with Blink and Richards.
Meanwhile, in the Crystal Palace, Psylocke was visited in a vision by a mysterious, elderly husband and wife, who warned them the end of creation was coming. Upon awakening, Betsy found a confused teenage Kitty Pryde in the Panoptichron, named Cat. They had little time to solve this mystery, as Doom had studied Sabretooth’s Tallus and sent a paramilitary force to seize the Crystal Palace. The two put up a valiant fight against the soldiers, but were outmatched until the surprising intervention of Thunderbird, who had somehow awoken and freed himself form the crystal wall.
Back on Earth-187319, Doom’s forces, plus the manipulated Spider-Man and Sabretooth, attacked Reed and the Exiles. Spider-Man was particularly torn between the woman he believed 
he loved, Gwen, and his friends. Ultimately, the decision was made for them when Reed drove Doom to inadvertently kill everyone on Earth, breaking Miquel’s heart. To make matters worse, Reed blew up the Earth just as the Exiles were teleporting out, scattering them across the multiverse. [Exiles (1st series) # 95-98]
Each of the Exiles wound up on separate worlds. Sabretooth met a male version of Mystique, named Raphael, and defended him from some soldiers. Morph rescued thief Rogue from the Avengers in New Tokyo. Spider-Man nearly drowned but was rescued and nursed back to health by Mary Jane Watson. More importantly, she helped him heal his broken heart. Longshot luckily ended up back at the Crystal Palace and Blink wound up in a cabin that suspiciously looked like her own future. Before she could learn more, she was retrieved by the strange, old couple that had visited Betsy. They explained they were responsible for bring much of creation into being, but were looking for someone to take over for them. The couple helped Blink, Betsy, Cat and Thunderbird retrieve the rest of the Exiles. However, when they went to retrieve Miguel, they found he had fallen in love with Mary Jane and had opened a restaurant with her. They chose not to reveal themselves to him, instead leaving him to his happily ever after. [Exiles (1st series) #99]
Rogue and Raphael, who was going by Mystiq, were also recruited into the Exiles. Once things were settled down, Betsy took Thunderbird to Earth-616 to reunite with Nocturne. During her time on Psylocke’s world, Talia had joined the team of heroes known as Excalibur. The pair were ecstatic to see each other, but their reunion was short-lived, as Excalibur were ambushed by enemies of Captain Britain, who was badly injured, forcing Betsy and John to evacuate all of Excalibur to the Crystal Palace.
The Exiles soon learned that this recent attack on Captain Britain was not an isolated event; fellow 
reality defenders, the Captain Britain Corps, were being assaulted by the reality warper Jim Jaspers and an army of the Fury. Blink, Sabretooth, Morph, Thunderbird and Longshot rushed to the Corps’ aid. However, they were no match for Jaspers or the Fury, and the tide was ultimately turned by Captain Britain and his counterpart Albion.
Dazzler, Longshot’s wife, was also a member of Excalibur and was distraught to learn he no longer remembered her. However, Longshot started to gradually recover some memories of his wife during the fight, until he had enough to realize who she was and that he loved her. Meanwhile, the leader of the Corps Roma, was killed, but not before she downloader the entirety of her knowledge into Excalibur member Sage’s brain.
In the aftermath of the battle, there were some changes to the Exiles lineup. While her brother wanted her to return home, Betsy opted to remain with the Exiles. Longshot opted to return to Earth-616 to try to recover more memories with Dazzler and Nocturne re-joined the Exiles. Lastly, with Roma’s vast knowledge within her mind in need of protection, Sage opted to join the Exiles. [X-Men: Die by the Sword #1-5]