With the Exiles numbers swelling, several members made the choice to retire. During her time with Excalibur, Nocturne had suffered a stroke and was still recovering. She and Thunderbird decided to retire to Heather’s world so they could make up for lost time while TJ recovered. Blink surprised everyone by deciding to join her two friends in retirement.
However, before she left, she and Sabretooth completed one last mission. There was one mission that felt particularly personal for Blink, as the Exiles failed to complete it while chasing Proteus across the multiverse. To make up for unknowingly allowing a quartet of heroes to die, who were 
meant to help lead a resistance against the Annihilation Wave, Blink and Creed helped young Quentin Quire recruit versions of these heroes from across the multiverse. Using the Timebroker interface, the pair lead Quire on a trip through Exiles memory lane, visiting worlds the team had visited, and ending with recruiting their old teammate Wild Child from the Age of Apocalypse. With that mission completed, Blink asked Sabretooth and Morph to look after each other, and then she, Thunderbird and Nocturne said their goodbyes. [Exiles (1st series) #100, Exiles: Days of Then and Now]
Sabretooth stepped into the role of leadership following Blink’s departure and had some challenges before him. With Roma’s memoires filling her mind, Sage was constantly flooded with visions that made it difficult for her to differentiate delusion from reality. To make matters worse, an errant split personality, Diana Fox, was starting to resurface. Meanwhile, Cat seemed closed off and disinterested in making friends, and the team were still in the dark on her past of how she came to the Palace. On a more personal front, Victor was starting to develop feelings for Betsy, but it seemed he had a romantic rival in Mystiq.
Not quite trustful of Cat or Sage yet, Victor opted to leave those two behind in the Panopticon with Morph, while he took Psylocke, Mystiq and Rogue to complete their next mission. The Crystal Palace was unclear on what the mission was but the group were quickly embroiled in a war between Atlantis and Wakanda. “Newbies” Rogue and Mystiq proved themselves during the mission, with both saving the Atlantean royal family on different occasions. Ultimately, the Exiles aided Atlantean King Namor, his wife Susan Storm and their family, escape into space before the Black Panther could seal the Earth in an impenetrable dome.
During this mission, first Rogue then the rest of the team had befriended the son of Namor and Sue Storm. Proving that in an infinite number of universes anything is possible, their son was 
named Remy, went the codename Gambit and had a southern accent. Once the team were in space, the Tallas was able to communicate the mission; recruit Gambit. With their mission complete, the Exiles plus Gambit, returned home. [New Exiles #1-4]
Meanwhile, back in the Crystal Palace, Morph, Cat and Sage were pulled into a medieval reality against their will. This seemed somehow linked to Cat, who was somehow, inexplicably transforming into alternate versions of herself. During all this, Sage continued to struggle to subdue her Diana Fox personality, who continue her attempts to seize control. The trio were roped into helping a prince defend a dragon he had fallen in love with from a deadly assassin named Venger. Ultimately, they saved the day and were retrieved by their fellow Exiles, though the mystery of how they got there still remained. [New Exiles #5-6]
During her time in the Crystal Palace, Cat had familiarized herself with the Palace’s systems, becoming more familiar than perhaps even Heather had been. Cat deduced that the team’s highest priority mission was to stop a world war breaking out between the British and French empires. Sabretooth deployed the Exiles but chose to remain with Cat, and named Psylocke as the mission leader, much to her surprise.
Unfortunately, soon after their arrival, Psylocke’s mind was seized by her counterpart from that world, Lady Mandarin. The Lady Mandarin had just been killed and her psyche jumped into 
Psylocke, merging their minds. A confused Psylocke flew to the scene of Lady Mandarin’s death and met her sensei, Ogun, from whom she learned that the Slaymaster from the Hydra world, her first mission, had been killing different versions of Betsy across the multiverse. Ogun offered to trained Betsy, who believed she was Lady Mandarin, and bring her to a level she could defeat Slaymaster, and she readily agreed.
Meanwhile, the other Exiles helped defend the British queen from a French invasion of Manhattan. During a fight with one of the French superhumans, Sage’s Diana Fox personality was unleashed once more, helping her defeat the foe.
With her training complete, Ogun sent Psylocke to meet the French emperor. However, Ogun betrayed her and had actually manipulated her mind, setting her up with trigger word that made her a slave for the Emperor. Fortunately, as she was currently two minds in one, only the Lady Mandarin personality was shut down and Psylocke was able to resist the mind control. Psylocke subdued the French emperor and forced him to call off his attack on the queen, completing the mission. [New Exiles #7-10]
While the Exiles completed their mission, Cat and Sabretooth watched on. Victor used this as an opportunity to get to know Cat better but she was too focused on her work and as always wasn’t interested in making friends. Cat came to the shocking conclusion that the multiverse was dying at an accelerated rate, but struggled to identify why. She kept her discovery to herself for the time being.
Creed had his own secrets, however, and had been searching for Madame Hydra, Wolverine and Slaymaster across the multiverse. He discovered they had been travelling realities recruiting warriors and Slaymaster had be slaughtering the Psylocke on every world they visited. In a compulsive move, Victor teleported to the world they were using as a based-on operations and attempted to take them down one by one. Unfortunately, as he confronted Wolverine, he was 
intercepted by Slaymaster and badly injured. Fortunately, Cat came to his rescue and, proving she was more than just a techie, took the lead on helping escape the group, using high level spy skills. These skills were learned during her unrevealed history as a member of Emma Frost’s elite strike squad. When Wolverine finally tracked them down, Cat was the one to take him on, and brutally took him down with her phasing powers. She kept his claws as a trophy and the pair escaped back to the Panoptichron. [New Exiles #11-12]
In a surprising move, Sabretooth tasked Morph with leading the next mission, while he stayed behind once more. The team visited a version of New York that was in the process of being ravaged by five superhuman villains. There they were surprised to meet Valeria Richards, the daughter of Reed Richards and Madame Hydra, who had travelled across realities to join the Exiles. While they were reluctant to let her join, they did work with her to take down the five villains attacking the city.
Unfortunately, the true power behind the villains was a god-like entity known as the Mad Maker, who snatched up the Exiles and took him to his world. The attack had the unforeseen outcome of causing Morph to relapse into his Proteus personality. After some confusion, Proteus realized that the original Morph still existed within his mind, and had not been assimilated like his other hosts of the past. The two souls reached an accord, as Proteus recognized that (through Morph) he had finally found a place where he belonged, and Morph's compassion and empathy had affected him 
more than he realized. Working together, Morph and Proteus defeated the Maker and saved the Exiles. They began acting as a symbiotic mind, both personas seamlessly transitioning between one another while interacting with others. With the mission complete, the Exiles said goodbye to a disappointed Valeria, telling her they would find her once they had defeated her mother. [New Exiles Annual #1]
Cat’s body transformation issues resurfaced. She continued uncontrollably transforming into alternate versions of herself at an escalating rate. Sage theorized that Cat was merging with the Panoptichron and the pair grew closer together after Cat revealed she could see the phantom visions that had been attacking Sage. Cat believed this was likely because she was not locked into any single dimension, and broke down and confessed to Sage she had learned the multiverse was dying.
Sage’s errant Diana Fox personality attempted one last desperate attempt to seize control of her body but the pair were attacked by a horde of phantoms. Sage learned that the phantoms were not hallucinations of Roma’s memories at all but were actually in fact sent by Roma’s father Merlyn to steal those memories. Sage and Diana reached an understanding and merged to defeat Merlyn and his phantoms. This transformation went further than two personalities merging as Sage also merged with the Crystal Palace itself, taking the place of Cat.
At the same time, the rest of the Exiles, save Sabretooth, were completing their mission. On a world of islands, shared by humans and Surians, the team were tasked with protecting Cal’syee Neramani from the forces of her sister Lilandra, who had stolen her throne. They allied with the Daughters of the Dragon and the Sons of Iron to face down Lilandra’s forces. Rogue in particular formed a bond with a Saurian Knight of Iron named Colyn during the fight, even revealing the full of extent of her power, something she hadn’t done for her teammates.
Things grew more complicated with the surprise appearance of Madame Hydra, Susan Storm, who sought revenge on Cat for killing her lover, Wolverine. In a surprising move, Cat phased into 
Mytiq’s body, allowing the pair to merge and combine their strengths. Madame Hydra gave her a run for her money, but Cat’s mastery of her phasing abilities allowed her to pass through the villains’ shields and into her body to remove her aorta and kill her instantly. Unfortunately, the strain of the fight was too much for Cat, and she died in Mystiq’s arms soon after.
With Madame Hydra present, it came as no surprise to Psylocke when she was ambushed by Slaymaster. Unfortunately, the assassin still managed to stab Betsy in the back. Despite this mortal wound, she fought back against Slaymaster relentlessly and managed to bring the assassin down. When he begged for mercy, Psylocke relented and stated she wasn’t a killer. Slaymaster was less honorable than Psylocke, however, and attempted to murder her, but Sabretooth teleported from the Crystal Palace and intervened. His plans foiled, Slaymaster teleported away into the multiverse, though it was unlikely that this was the last the Exiles had seen of him.
With the mission complete, Rogue chose to stay behind on this world as she’d fallen in love with the Saurian Colyn. Surprisingly, Morph also opted to remain on this world to help Neramani build a new Shi’ar Empire and a stronger alliance with Earth.
Now down three members, the remainder of the team returned home and were shocked to find 
Sage had merged with the Crystal Palace. Sage demonstrated surprising control over the Panoptichron, creating living ecosystems within the strange realm that had never been seen before. Soon after, the Exiles gained a surprising new member in Valeria Richards, who used her incredible intellect to find her way to way the Crystal Palace. Sabretooth reluctantly allowed her to join after she convinced him her father was hesitantly onboard. Soon after, Morph returned to the fold, admitting that he and Neramani as started a relationship but he missed the Exiles too much.
Unfortunately, it seemed difficult for the Exiles to get any stability in their roster. Not long after Morph returned, Gambit was called back to his home world, as his father Namor had been killed. Remy chose to take his rightful place on the throne and, with the Exiles aid, he freed the Earth from Wakanda’s oppression. However, his newfound responsibilities meant he had to remain behind on his world.
With a brief respite from missions, the Exiles spent some quality time on the Panoptichron’s beach, where they bonded and contemplated their future. During this time, Betsy and Victor finally gave in to their attraction to each other. They kissed and made love on the beach. [New Exiles #14-18]
Betsy had unfinished business in the form of Slaymaster. She could now sense when each version of herself was killed by the assassin and she put all her efforts into training to take the man down. When she had a vision of Slaymaster killing her brother Brian, she rushed to her world to stop the killer for good. The pair fought furiously, though Slaymaster always seemed to have the upper hand, until Betsy manifested the memories of all her slain counterparts and finally took down the killer for good. After a brief reunion with her brother, Betsy returned to her companions in the Crystal Palace. [X-Men: Sword of the Braddocks #1]
At some point, all of the Exiles were inextricably absorbed into the Crystal Palace. The only 
exception was Morph, as the Panoptichron absorbed Proteus, leaving him free. For the first time in a long time, Morph was wholly himself, and thoroughly confused. He thought how he needed help and Blink, Nocturne and Heather all appeared within the Crystal Palace. They couldn’t figure out how to remove their fellow Exiles from the walls of the Crystal Palace, though they deduced it was due to increases exposure to the eye of time. The Tallus directed them to gather new Exiles and they did as instructed, snatching heroes from realities seconds before their deaths, though they chose to keep them in the dark about the true origin of the Exiles. Morph took the role of Timebroker for this new team, with Blink joining the team under the guise of a new recruit. [Exiles (2nd series) #6]
[Note: Rogue and Gambit were depicted entombed in the crystal wall with the rest of the Exiles, though they had both left the team by this point. Either they returned to the Exiles at some point or their connection to the Crystal Palace was strong enough to pull them in].
After
- The second team of Exiles later discovered the truth about the first team of Exiles. Together they unlocked the “mind” of the Panoptichron, a female Kang who had been absorbed millennia ago. Kang explained there had been numerous iterations of the Exiles and extended time in the Crystal Palace resulted in being absorbed into the collective mind. [Exiles (2nd series) #6]
- Blink served with the new team of Exiles for several missions until they discovered the truth. Nocturne subbed in for her while she set out to create yet another team of Exiles. [Exiles (2nd series) #1-6]
- Blink later retired from Exiles life on Earth #616, though she was drawn into saving realities once more when the Time Eater threatened reality. [Exiles (3rd series) #1-12]
- Nocturne continued with the Exiles, but eventually retired to a world where she was named queen of an Arabian kingdom, [Exiles (3rd series) #10]
- Morph continued completing missions with his fellow Exiles, though was tragically killed by an evil version of Xavier after being saved by Blink’s latest iteration of the Exiles. [Exiles (3rd series) #7]
- Sabretooth was eventually released from the crystal wall and completed some missions for the Exiles, facing the threat of the Time Eater. He then retired home to the Age of Apocalypse, though his world had been conquered by Weapon Omega. Unfortunately, he was eventually killed when the entire reality was consumed by the Celestial Exterminators. [Exiles (3rd series) #5, X-Termination Crossover]
- Sage was released from the Crystal Palace and made her way into the multiverse. She eventually connected with another team of reality travelling X-Men, led by Dazzler from her world. Later, she made her way back to her native reality. [X-Treme X-Men (2nd series) #5-13]
- Psylocke was yanked out of the multiverse, back to Earth #616, by the disembodied spirit of Madelyn Pryor. She rejoined the X-men and later formed a clandestine black ops version of X-Force. During this time, she briefly reconnected with Sabretooth, during a mission to the Age of Apocalypse. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #508-511, Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #10-13]
- Proteus next appeared back on Earth #616, seemingly reverted from his House of M personality back to his original self, his memory of his time with the Exiles forgotten. Proteus clashed with the X-Men on Muir Island, but his essence was scattered once again. [X-Men Legacy (1st series) #231-233]
- Heather, Thunderbird, Mystiq, Rogue, Gambit and Valeria have not appeared again.