The Path of a Psychic
When the crime lord Vixen secretly usurped S.T.R.I.K.E., she hired Slaymaster to eliminate the Psi-Division before they could expose the takeover. The telepaths fled, but Slaymaster continued to pick them off; only a handful were left when Betsy sensed Brian’s return and called for his help. He defeated Slaymaster and the three surviving psychics (Betsy, Tom and Alison Double) moved into the holographically-hidden Braddock Manor. In short succession, this hideout was found by Captain U.K. and the Fury; as the last of these battled Brian and Captain U.K., Betsy foresaw a future where superhumans were imprisoned in concentration camps.
Soon, the United Kingdom became a fascist state ruled by the insane reality-warper Sir James Jaspers, AKA Mad Jim Jaspers, with S.T.R.I.K.E. “Beetle” squads rounding up those with powers. While Brian confronted Jaspers, the Beetles found the others’ hideout. Tom died trying to buy his friends time to escape; telepathically in Tom’s mind when he died, Betsy felt his death, was instantly traumatized and swiftly captured. Freed when the camps were torn down after Jaspers’ defeat, Betsy was nursed back to health by fellow camp inmate Victoria Bentley, who taught her to use her experiences to strengthen her powers.
When Kaptain Briton, Brian’s Earth-794 counterpart, tried to rape her, Betsy fried his mind, killing him. The same night, Mastermind informed the twins of their father’s non-terrestrial origins, and the Resources Control Executive (R.C.X.) asked them to house Warpies, children transformed by Jaspers’ warp, at the Manor. One of the R.C.X. agents was Matthew, now codenamed Gabriel. Betsy overruled Brian and let RCX and the Warpies move in. When Brian went overseas, Gabriel convinced Betsy to become the new Captain Britain, wearing Kaptain Briton’s modified costume. Working with Captain U.K., the duo became public sensations, but after several months Betsy went solo. Vixen lured her into a showdown with Slaymaster, who brutally beat her, then gouged her eyes out. Brian felt her pain, flew to her rescue and killed Slaymaster. Betsy refused R.C.X.’s offer of cybernetic eyes, preferring to rely on her psychic abilities; she and Gabriel became engaged, and went to Switzerland for Betsy to recuperate.
Betsy was then kidnapped from the Alps by insane extradimensional media mogul Mojo, brainwashed, given cybernetic eyes, and, as “Psylocke,” became the star of his new show “Wildways.” Brian and the New Mutants rescued her, after which Betsy moved to the X-Men’s mansion to recover, exactly where Roma (Merlyn’s daughter) needed her to be.
When the Marauders attacked the Morlocks, and Victor Creed, AKA Sabretooth, invaded the mansion, she used herself as bait to lead him away from the injured until Wolverine got there. Impressed by her bravery, Wolverine nominated her to join the X-Men, beside whom she met Mephisto, Victor von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom, the Fantastic Four, and Horde. The X-Men later battled Freedom Force and the Adversary in Dallas, and, in a televised battle, sacrificed themselves to allow Forge to bind the Adversary; Roma secretly restored them to life, and gave Betsy the Siege Perilous, which they could use if they ever wanted to start new lives. Stopping the cyborg Reavers’ murderous crime spree, the X-Men took over to the Reavers’ Australian Outback base, from where they took on the Brood Mutants, Genoshan Magistrates, M Squad, Mr. Jip and the Serpent Society, Emil Blonsky, AKA Abomination, Master Mold, Nimrod, Nanny, the Orphan Maker, Zaladane and the Savage Land Mutates. As they were about to depart the Savage Land, Betsy had a precognitive flash of the Reavers killing the team. To prevent this, she sent them through the Siege Perilous.
Betsy reappeared, amnesiac, on an island near China, where the Hand found her. Matsu'o Tsurayaba, their leader, saw a chance to save his brain-dead lover, Kwannon, and had Spiral’s Bodyshoppe swap their souls. Spiral sadistically blended their minds, leaving each with the same memories and telepathic powers. Tsurayaba brainwashed Psylocke and gave her to the Mandarin as his assassin, Lady Mandarin, until Wolverine restored her memories. Back with the X-Men, Betsy took on Cameron Hodge, Warskrulls, the Shadow King and cosmic cleaner Edifice Rex; she also informed Brian she was alive.
The next few months saw battles against Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, Fenris, Mys-Tech (alongside new ally Dark Angel), and a Brood-infected Dan Ketch, AKA Ghost Rider. Visiting Brian, Betsy helped Excalibur fight Sat-Yr-9 and the now insane Jamie, whom Betsy struck comatose. Encounters followed with the Troll Associates, the Mutant Liberation Front, Stryfe (Cable’s clone), Arkady Rossovich, AKA Omega Red, and the Soul Skinner.
Kwannon soon arrived at the Mansion in Betsy’s original body, claiming to be the real Psylocke. Unable to discern which was truly Betsy, both stayed with the X-Men, maintaining an uneasy coexistence, with Kwannon taking the name Revanche. Learning she had the Legacy virus, Revanche had Matsu’o kill her, after which Betsy regained her soul’s missing piece.
Having become involved with her teammate Warren Worthington III, then called Archangel, the following months saw her fight the Phalanx, try to reach Jamie’s comatose mind, battle David Haller, AKA Legion, in Israel, and combat Gene Nation. When Sabretooth gutted Psylocke, Archangel, Wolverine, Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, and Gomurr the Ancient retrieved a magical liquid from the Crimson Dawn dimension that healed her and gave her new powers, but also marked her with a red tattoo over her left eye. Kuragari, Proctor of the Crimson Dawn, tried to claim Betsy as his bride, but was thwarted with Gomurr and Angel’s aid, freeing Betsy of the Dawn’s influence.
Subsequently she aided Ororo Munroe, AKA Storm, against the Shadow King, who tricked Psylocke into initiating a psychic shockwave that disabled all other telepaths, leaving him unchallenged on the astral plane. Her own astral form was destroyed, but her exposure to the Crimson Dawn gave her a new shadow form with temporarily enhanced powers, which she used to trap the Shadow King’s core. To keep him trapped she was forced to constantly focus her telepathy on him, effectively rendering herself powerless.
After attending Brian’s wedding, she was kidnapped to take part in the Coterie’s contest of champions. When En Sabah Nur, AKA Apocalypse, and his Horsemen sought to gather the Twelve, Psylocke used Cerebro to boost her powers, so that she could use them and still keep the Shadow King imprisoned, allowing her to free the brainwashed Wolverine.
Jean Grey’s attempt to help Betsy deal with the Shadow King somehow swapped their powers, leaving Betsy telekinetic. With her new abilities Betsy fought Belasco, the Neo, the Goth, and the Prime Sentinels, then aided her brother freeing Otherworld from Mastermind’s Warpie army.
After ending her relationship with Archangel, Betsy joined Storm’s X-Men team in the search for the clairvoyant Destiny and her diaries. In Valencia, Spain, they encountered the enigmatic Vargas, who killed Betsy. For a while, a copy of her psyche lived on inside her compatriot Rogue, who in the past had absorbed Betsy’s memories and powers, and this fragment continued to hold the Shadow King prisoner for a time, though he eventually escaped.
Eventually, Jamie awoke, his sanity mostly restored, and sensed the approaching threat of the cosmically powerful First Fallen. Learning of Betsy’s demise, an annoyed Jamie resurrected her, reaching back through time to stop her spirit passing into the afterlife—an event Betsy’s teammate Lucas Bishop, AKA Bishop, witnessed in a dream, and which shunted the Shadow King’s psyche, she had contained within her, sideways to another reality, Earth-6141. Intending her to be a weapon to use against the First Fallen, Jamie tightened up the “quantum strings” of Betsy’s body, rendering her mostly immune to external manipulation, whether it was telepathic or reality-warping, enhancing her telekinetic powers, and leaving her invisible to the First Fallen’s senses.
Betsy awoke where she had died, unaware of how she had survived, and was soon reunited with the X-Men, helping them against the Saurian Hauk’ka, Mojo and Spiral. Jamie continued to covertly observe his resurrected sister, allowing her to catch occasional glimpses of him. Betsy was reunited with Brian during the Scarlet Witch’s “House of M” reality storm; when the timeline was set right, the memories of their encounter took on a dreamlike state, prompting Betsy and several of the X-Men to visit London to check on Brian’s status. While there they battled Shadow X, Earth- 6141’s X-Men who had come to Earth-616 through a crack in reality caused by the recent warp; unaware their leader, a malign version of Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, was actually the Shadow King, Betsy helped capture them.
Back in the USA, Betsy and the X-Men failed to stop Shi’ar Death Commandos from slaughtering the Grey family, targeted for death because of their relationship to Jean Grey, but helped defeat them before they could kill Rachel Grey, AKA Marvel Girl. With the First Fallen’s servants, the Foursaken, about to make their move, Jamie revealed his part in Betsy’s resurrection to the X-Men, but was abducted by the Foursaken before he could fully inform them of the imminent threat; trying to rescue him, the X-Men were easily captured, except for Betsy, who found herself invisible to the Foursaken’s senses. Disrupting their attempt to give the First Fallen full access to Earth, Betsy and the X-Men were pulled into his realm, the Singing City, where Betsy’s immunity to his mental control allowed her to free the City’s residents, including the Foursaken, from his dominance. As a wrathful First Fallen turned on them, Jamie sent the X-Men home while he held the entity back, apparently sacrificing himself.
Before Betsy had time to come to terms with her elder brother’s death, the X-Men were called to aid Storm against Storm’s villainous uncle Colonel Shetani; following his defeat they attended Storm’s wedding to T’Challa, AKA Black Panther, in Wakanda. Returning to the U.K. to tell Brian of Jamie’s fate, Betsy learned that the Shadow Xavier had taken over the minds of his jailors in Crossmore Prison, and was demanding to see her. Accompanied by Excalibur, Betsy visited the prison, where Xavier revealed his true identity, and tried to take revenge, having Excalibur attack Brian so that Betsy could witness his death; however, immune to his control, Betsy telekinetically induced a stroke in Xavier’s body, freeing Excalibur. Before she could finish him off, Psylocke was interdimensionally teleported to the Crystal Palace, headquarters of the Exiles. The Exiles were heroes gathered from several realities to protect the Omniverse, including Earth-295’s Sabretooth, counterpart to Betsy’s old foe; Psylocke’s recruitment was apparently Roma’s doing, again moving a pawns to where it would be needed as part of a greater plan.
Her first mission with the Exiles brought Betsy face to face with Earth-1720’s Slaymaster, brutally reminding her of her reality’s Slaymaster blinding her; Slaymaster-1720 and his commander, Susan Storm, AKA Madame Hydra, escaped interdimensionally, and Slaymaster began murdering Betsy Braddock in each reality he visited; Psylocke sensed each death, and a part of each one’s soul merged with hers. Meanwhile, determined to confront her fear, Psylocke began rigorous training to prepare herself for their next encounter.
After battling the forces of Earth-187319’s Doctor Doom, Betsy returned to Earth-616 to let Brian know she was alive, arriving to find Excalibur celebrating their recent defeat of Bran Bardic, AKA Albion, and his Shadow Captains. Almost immediately both the Exiles and Excalibur were called to the defense of Otherworld, under attack by an army of Furys created by a resurrected Mad Jim Jaspers; though the heroes prevailed, Roma was apparently slain during the assault and the Corps, guardians assigned by Otherworld to protect many of the Omniverse’s realities, was devastated, leaving the Exiles as the Omniverse’s primary defenders until the Corps could be rebuilt.
Visiting Earth-80827 to stop a World War between Imperial France and the British Empire, Psylocke felt the death of her counterpart on that world, Lady Mandarin, at Slaymaster’s hand. Drawn to the murder scene, she met Lady Mandarin’s lover Ogun, who offered to train her, improving her fighting skills so she could kill Slaymaster and avenge his loss. She agreed, though Ogun also tried to brainwash her into becoming his new Lady Mandarin. When the Exiles subsequently encountered Madame Hydra’s forces on Earth-8325, despite severe wounds preventing her from using her telekinesis, Psylocke bested Slaymaster in combat, but refused to kill him; he was about to stab her in the back when Sabretooth intervened, and Slaymaster teleported away.
Psylocke and Sabretooth became lovers soon afterwards, but when the Crystal Palace forewarned her that Slaymaster intended to kill her brother Brian, she returned to Earth-616 to stop him, and this time, psychically backed by the souls of the slain Betsys, she killed him.
Psylocke returned to the Exiles, but soon after was kidnapped back to Earth-616 by Spiral, whose mistress the Red Queen (a ghostly Madelyne Pryor) also procured Betsy’s dead British body, reviving it using the evil part of Psylocke’s essence as a test run for giving herself a new body the same way. However, when the X-Men attacked the Queen’s Sisterhood, Psylocke broke her restraints and reabsorbed her stolen lifeforce, killing her British body again. Some of her psychic abilities restored by the experience, Psylocke rejoined the X-Men.
Since M Day had such a negative impact on mutants, Betsy assisted the X-Club in traveling back through time to research a way to reverse it. She then helped the X-Men relocate to Utopia, an island for mutants in response to Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin’s mutant hunt. She then spent time in Japan where she couriered her original body for a proper burial. Though she was attacked in the cemetery by ninjas sent by Matsu’o, and took on a mission to take him out. It led to a confrontation with Wolverine, who protected Matsu’o, but he ultimately gave up fighting Psylocke and she ended Matsu’o’s life with her psychic knife.
Back on Utopia, she assisted mutants against many dangerous threats, including Predator X, Void, the New U-Men, Kevin McTaggert, AKA Proteus, and Bastion’s Human Council while protecting the Mutant Messiah Hope Summers, the first mutant born since M Day.
Psylocke soon joined the next iteration of X-Force in secrecy alongside Archangel, Deadpool and Fantomex. Psylocke and Archangel renewed their former relationship and she assisted him as he recovered from his dark Horseman persona, but Apocalypse was soon resurrected and X-Force was on the case. Their mission led them to the moon where Psylocke battled War, though Fantomex influenced War and he fell in love with Psylocke instead. This break in the battle allowed her to discover that Apocalypse had come back as a child and therefore, she couldn’t bring herself to kill him. Instead, she protected him from X-Force though she couldn’t prevent Fantomex from shooting Apocalypse to death.
She then found herself going up against the Reavers and assassinating one of their members, and facing the Shadow King again, but this time on the astral plane. The Shadow King influenced all of X-Force, reverting Archangel back to his dark persona and undoing all the work he and Psylocke had accomplished.
Thanks to Shadow King’s manipulation, Archangel’s latent Horseman protocol was engaged and he attempted to kill a reporter, so X-Force locked him up. With Henry McCoy, AKA Dark Beast’s help, they traveled to another universe, Earth-295, to obtain a counteracting Life Seed and revert Archangel to his former self. There, they allied with that world’s X-Men and Sabretooth, the latter of whom Psylocke had worked with before while on the Exiles. Returning to their reality with the Life Seed, Dark Beast had betrayed them by releasing Archangel. Archangel used a Death Seed to transform Psylocke into the Horseman of Death, but the X-Men from Earth-295 arrived and their team’s Jean Grey helped restore Psylocke back to normal. Psylocke was able to get the upper hand against Archangel, and on using the Life Seed against him, ended his life. Grey’s intervention had expanded Psylocke’s telepathy and she was able to create a happy illusion for Warren to ease his passing. Though the Life Seed ultimately restored him to life with no memories, and while she tried to regain what they had, she ultimately grieved what she lost.
During the schism between the X-Men’s Wolverine and Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops, Psylocke worked both sides, remaining as member of X-Force under Wolverine and joining Cyclops’ X-Tinction Team to investigate the Tabula Rasa, an alien environment.
Psylocke and Fantomex were soon abducted from X-Force’s headquarters by the Captain Britain Corps on urgent business in Otherworld. Once there, Psylocke learned her brother Jamie was alive, and her brothers were united against her and her actions as an assassin. But they gave her the opportunity to reunite with her original body and her title Lady Britain when Otherworld needed her against invading forces from another dimension. Meanwhile, Fantomex was sentenced to death for slaying the child Apocalypse and injected with an anti-reality serum. Though Psylocke as Lady Britain saved him and they absconded to the Forest of Sorrows where Psylocke sacrificed her ability to feel sorrow so that Fantomex could be saved from the serum. They encountered an old enemy, the Skinless Man, who brutally attacked Fantomex, but Psylocke poisoned him, allowing their escape. They soon returned to help X-Force and her brothers battle the invaders. Psylocke realized that the leader of the invasion turned out to be an alternate future version of Jamie, and implored her brother Brian to take him out to save Otherworld’s people, but he refused. Psylocke took matters into her own hands by invading Brian’s mind and forcing him to do it though Brian realized it was necessary to save lives. In the aftermath, Psylocke and Fantomax started dating.
She then left X-Force but was soon taken by the Shadow King and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. She was rescued by Fantomax who lost his life in the process. Upon her return to X-Force’s base, Ultimaton killed Gateway and self-detonated, but Psylocke was able to mentally tap into Gateway’s teleportation powers and sent the surviving members of X-Force and herself to safety, or so she thought. Psylocke and X-force were instead sent to the future where they saw a version of herself, known as Magistrate Braddock, who allowed the telepathic killing of people before they committed criminal acts. There, an Apocalypse clone named Evan had become Apocalypse. She resolved to kill herself to prevent such a horrific future by stabbing herself in the stomach with her katana. Though the future X-Force saved her and she was returned to her time with X-Force.
In her time, the young Evan was threatened by the Brotherhood on Genosha, so Psylocke endeavored to protect him since she had previously failed the resurrected Apocalypse child. She worked closely with Wolverine, faced Shadow King again, and defeated the Brotherhood. Before departing with Evan and X-Force, Psylocke left her katana behind and vowed to never kill again.
She soon met her brother in Otherworld where they reconciled, but X-Force wasn’t done with her as Wolverine soon came looking for her aid. Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, and E.V.A. had recreated Fantomex but as three different clones due to Wade’s recklessness, resulting in a villain dubbed Weapon XIII, one female Fantomex known as Cluster, and the third Fantomex more closely aligned to the original. Psylocke and the-nearest-to-Fantomex clone embarked on a more private life, leaving X-Force behind.
During the conflict between the X-Men and the Avengers, Psylocke joined the X-Men in a face-off with Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil. But she ended up switching sides when the Phoenix Force possessed five of the heroes and went up against them alongside the Avengers.
She also helped Bishop against the Demon Bear that possessed his psyche, fighting the beast on the astral plane and containing it within her mind. She then faced her former oppressor, Spiral, and though she attacked first, Psylocke forgave Spiral instead. Returning the favor, Spiral saved her later, bringing their long conflict to a close.
She spent some time thieving in Paris with Fantomex but realized it was consuming their lives. Cluster tried to mend their lover’s quarrel, explaining that Fantomex was divided and that they were all in love with her. Psylocke and Cluster shared a passionate kiss and a romantic interlude. But Cluster and Fantomex were already in a relationship, and when Psylocke found out, she felt betrayed. Meanwhile she had to deal with the psychotic Weapon XIII, whom she defeated with the Demon Bear. Psylocke left the trio to join Wolverine’s Jean Grey School. Though due to her anger issues, she didn’t last long there as a teacher.
She soon joined X-Force to battle the Revenant Queen, an alternate future version of Cassandra Nova, who trapped Los Angeles in a psychic prison. While Nova attempted to liberate her captured Revenants, she also dangled a Betsy Revenant in front of her as a trade for her allyship. Psylocke used the Demon Bear to expel Nova from her inhabited body, leaving Nova to jump to the Betsy Revenant and leaving Psylocke no choice but to break her vow and kill Nova to put a stop to her machinations and free LA.
She soon joined Uncanny X-Force and banded together with Cable’s X-Force to find missing teammates Bishop, Hope, and Cable who had been captured by Stryfe, Cable’s evil clone. The two teams built a telepathic amplifier that enabled Psylocke to search the globe for the missing trio. They found Spiral and by accessing her memories were able to save their teammates from Stryfe. Uncanny X-Force disbanded but Psylocke saw an opportunity to join Cable’s team and while with them, she realized she was an addict. Despite her vow, she was addicted to killing. The now whole Fantomex was also on the team, which caused some friction that came to a head when he couldn’t handle rejection. He used the arms dealer Volga’s tech to upgrade his body, allowing him to get the upper hand against Psylocke, but Domino intervened in the fight. Though the intervention didn’t stop Fantomex from continuing to harass her. She finally used her psychic knife against him, slicing his ego down to size, but left him alive.
When Terrigen Mists were unleashed on Earth, the atmosphere became harmful to Mutants, kicking off a war with the Inhumans and Mutants. Archangel was affected and fell from the sky, something which Magneto witnessed. He rushed to recruit Psylocke into his new team of X-Men to stem the threat of extinction. Psylocke joined Magneto in a mission to track down a wingless Warren, who was manipulated by Genocide, the son of Apocalypse, and who was harvesting Warren’s wings to create an army of Archangel clones that will raze the Earth. Psylocke summoned Warren’s Dark Angel persona to their aid, unwittingly triggering the Death-Flight, a host of twisted angels. While Magneto and his team fought the Death-Flight, Psylocke entered Archangel to reach Warren but as they were two separate beings now, the mission seemed fruitless. While she was psychically connected to him, Fantomex, who had also joined Magneto’s fight, nearly took her life but realized petty vengeance was not worth it. Soon after, Warren gave himself to the Dark Angel persona and they combined to become Archangel, now restored with some humanity and who swore off violence.
Afterward, Psylocke didn’t trust Magneto since he had added Fantomex and Mystique to his new secret X-Men team. The friction between them resulted in an argument that started with Magneto’s judgment over the Inhuman Ulysses, whom he saw to be a threat to Mutants. Psylocke disagreed and joined Storm’s X-Men as a result. Psylocke also realized she was merely a pawn in Magneto’s schemes, especially not knowing about Fantomex and Mystique’s involvement and that Magneto was part of the Hellfire CLub. When the Inhuman War was over, Psylocke used a psychic sword to kill Magneto, and left the X-Men thinking that she wasn’t what mutantkind needed. Though, little did Psylocke know but Magneto was restored to life thanks to Joshua Foley, AKA Elixir.
Psylocke soon faced the Shadow King, who attacked all psychics across the world but resisted and psychically called for help from nearby X-Men. Bishop, Angel, Rogue, Remy LeBeau, AKA Gambit, heard the call and others joined as well, including Fantomex, Mystique, and Old Man Logan. They freed her but only to find out that the Shadow King had trapped Charles Xavier on the astral plane, while possessing people and using them for his maniacal ends. Psylocke felt the only option was to use Angel’s Dark Angel persona to contain the Shadow King’s slaves while the X-Men battled the Shadow King on the astral plane, which resulted in his seeming death. Charles was liberated but came back in Fantomex’s body and started going by “X”.
Psylocke searched for Fantomex on the astral plane and when she found him, he told her that Xavier was the better, more noble man. But Shadow King’s effect had freed a trapped Proteus, who attacked Psylocke and merged with her. Thankfully, Psylocke had Angel to ground her and they worked with the X-Men to prevent Proteus from merging the astral plane with the real world. Psylocke worked with X to telepathically destroy Proteus but soon discovered that the Shadow King lived on, hidden in X’s mind. Psylocke led the X-Men against the Shadow King once more. X then taught Psylocke how to connect with all other psychics across the globe to repair the affected astral plane, while X finally killed the Shadow King and ended the threat. He then gave each of the X-Men gifts, including the gift of forgetting that X returned, save Psylocke, who would keep him honest and keep an eye on him should the Shadow King ever make his presence known. He departed Psylocke no longer as Xavier, but as X with a new dream.
Psylocke soon joined a team of X-Women to confront Magneto in Madripoor since they suspected him of taking Wolverine’s body from his grave. On their way, they were attacked by Viper’s Femme Fatales and their member, Sapphire Styx, psychically absorbed Psylocke’s soul, leaving her body lifeless. Stuck in Styx’ mind, Betsy fought for freedom with the help of a piece of Wolverine’s soul, which Styx had absorbed prior. Betsy ultimately destroyed Styx and using the leftover soul power reformed her original body and finally herself, no longer associated with Kwannon.
Betsy soon joined the X-Men and grew closer with Angel though he suddenly disappeared while they attempted to control a riot started by Jamie Madrox, AKA Multiple Man, who was being controlled by David Haller, AKA Legion. She helped put Legion to sleep with Jean Grey but beforehand they learned that Legion was attempting to stop the mutant Nate Grey, AKA X-Man, and his Horsemen of Salvation, from warping reality. Psylocke soon found out that Angel was under Grey’s control and did the unthinkable: she released Archangel from Warren’s mind, which destroyed their relationship. But they teamed up to save their teammates from being made pawns and Psylocke linked other telepaths to rupture Grey’s psychic defenses.
It worked but it allowed him to create another reality, where he brought all the X-Men, altering their memories and fulfilling Xavier’s dream of a world where mutants were no longer hated and feared.
In Grey’s reality, Psylocke was part of the police force Department X that arrested mutants who went against the grain and manufactured disasters for the X-Men to focus their attention on. Though she was charged with arresting mutants for unsanctioned intimate relationships and wiping their memories of love, she began to have feelings for Fred Dukes, AKA the Blob, and began questioning Department X. She soon released all the memories to their owners, ending her relationship with Department X. Grey eventually returned everyone to their world.
She soon lived with her family at the Braddock Academy but ultimately moved to Krakoa, the sovereign island-nation state for Mutants. She gave up the identity as Psylocke since Kwannon had also returned to her original body, thanks to Krakoa’s new form of resurrecting mutants. Their resurrection protocol meant many other long dead mutants were returning to the fold, like Betsy’s brother Jamie. Betsy and her brother Brian were soon called to Otherworld to manage a crisis involving Morgan le Fay. When Morgan possessed Brian, he used the last of his strength to bestow upon Betsy the mantle of Captain Britain.
Officially recognized as the new Captain Britain by the British Crown, Betsy reformed Excalibur with Rogue, Gambit, Jubilation Lee, AKA Jubilee, Julio Richter, AKA Rictor, Apocalypse, who was now going by “A”, to defend Britain, and all of Earth, from mystical threads, like Morgan le Fay who was laying siege to Otherworld to claim it as her own. Captain Britain’s first mission for Excalibur was to protect Britain from a wave of monsters invading from Otherworld and complete the ritual to access Otherworld. They ultimately defeat Morgan le Fay and free Brian from her clutches. Apocalypse moved for Jamie Braddock to take the throne while Betsy pleaded with her brother to bring back Brian, which he did. Betsy thought Brian would take his title and role back but he didn't, having lost himself to Morgan.
Betsy then sought to plant a Krakoan gate in Otherworld so that she and Excalibur could travel more easily back and forth. But their actions drew the ire of the Omniversal Majestrix, Opal Luna Saturnyne, AKA Saturnyne, and an attack outside her Starlight Citadel, injuring Shogo, Jubilee’s son, and Rictor went through an incomplete gate. Betsy approached the Citadel demanding to be seen and Saturnyne expressed that she preferred her brother Brian as Captain Britain. As a way to prevent conflict in Otherworld, Saturnyne soon coordinated a tournament that required ten swords from Krakoa and Arakko. Betsy was chosen as a Swordbearer of Krakoa and as such she and her brothers attempted to retrieve her sword from the Starlight Citadel, but Saturnyne was displeased and still preferred Brian over Betsy as Captain. The twins pretended to fight over the mantle of Captain Britain, ultimately tricking Saturnyne who made the Starlight Sword for Brian. Betsy stole it and entered the tournament where she faced Arakki Isca the Unbeaten. But Saturnyne cast a spell that shattered Betsy to pieces mid-battle. Saturnyne hoped to use the pieces to reassemble the Captain Britain Corps, but to her disdain, the Corps consisted of Betsy Braddocks from across the multiverse.
The new Corps stood at the ready, while Betsy’s spirit bounced from one reality to another. Corps member Elspeth Braddock, AKA Captain Britain, of Earth-13059 retrieved Betsy’s spirit, though they needed Excalibur to complete the process of returning Betsy to herself. However, she was possessed by the mutant psychic entity Alice MacAllister, AKA Malice. Kwannon, AKA Psylocke—the assassin whose body Betsy used to inhabit—offered to help track Betsy’s spirit down. She searched in Otherworld’s kingdom of Avalon and using their connection she allowed Betsy to take up residence in her body. Betsy, being a mutant, was soon resurrected. The pair, feeling empathy for Malice, tracked the entity to Krakoa with the intention of giving her a second chance. They fought and slayed Malice telepathically, and by employing Krakoa’s methods of resurrection, gave her back her original body with a fresh start.
Captain Britain was soon no longer welcomed or recognized as a British representative, so Rictor helped reshape the Braddock Lighthouse into the Braddock Isle, separate from Great Britain. Betsy began diplomatic duties, which Saturnyne accepted albeit reluctantly. One was to check in on Merlyn, whose recent antagonistic behavior was suspect. Betsy was captured by him but escaped and returned to Braddock Isle where she aligned with Doctor Doom to locate a missing Castle le Fay. They found it shrunk down to size in Mad Jim Jasper’s Crooked Market. There, Excalibur and Doom were attacked by mutant-killing Furies. Betsy connected these hostile acts to Merlyn, who with King Arthur, led an attack against the Starlight Citadel. Besty and Excalibur battled Merlyn’s forces over the rights of mutants to remain in Otherworld.
S.T.R.I.K.E. teammates and the Captain British Corps joined Betsy and Excalibur against Merlyn, but it wasn’t enough. Merlyn took Betsy’s Captain Britain’s powers and though able to hold her own in a fight against Arthur, she and Saturnyne fled to Avalon, leaving the kingdom under Merlyn’s control. Despite falling into an interdimensional rift, the pair escaped unscathed. Morgan le Fay helped Coven Akkaba destroy Braddock Isle and the gateway from Otherworld to Earth, but Captain Britain used the Starlight Sword to return and fight.
She and her Corps survive in secret in the Lavender Keep in Roma’s floating kingdom where they saved and protected mutants fleeing the danger of Merlyn’s forces. Captain Britain asked Roma for an army to go up against Merlyn, but she received a quest instead to find the Siege Perilous but it required getting info from the Horseman of Death. From Death, they learned that the Siege Perilous was connected to Mercator. Excalibur was soon attacked by Merlyn’s forces that ended with Gambit’s death, but it allowed Betsy to access Mercator and once influenced by the Siege Perilous, she faced her fears in an illusion. Rachel Summers helped the Knights of X overcome the magical item and when Braddock was freed from the illusion, she and Rachel shared a most passionate kiss. The leader of Mercator, Mr. M, made himself known and explained that Mercator was the Siege Perilous itself, as Merlyn’s forces closed in. Betsy used the Siege Perilous to bring Gambit back and create a path between Otherworld and Krakoa so she could bring in an army of Krakoan mutants and together, they defeated Merlyn’s forces. At the Citadel, Betsy then had Merlyn executed for his criminal acts.
Betsy then led the Captain Britain Corps with Rachel by her side, and became the Champion for the Multiverse. She soon faced many challenges, like a bad reputation with the British thanks to Morgan’s machinations, Corps members being hunted by Furies, and an attack on her brother Brian and Meggan. But with the assistance of Rachel, Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, and the Avengers, Morgan and her Furies were defeated.
