BISHOP

In Bishop’s future, the X-Men were legends who had been murdered by a traitor from inside the team, and a fragment of Jean Grey’s final distress call was all the evidence that survived. Bishop crossed time determined to unmask the traitor — and spent years pointing, wrongly, at Gambit, while the real culprit hid inside Professor Xavier himself: Onslaught, the psionic monster born from Xavier’s mind and Magneto’s rage.

When Onslaught finally moved against the distracted X-Men, he unleashed a single massive psionic blast at the whole team. Bishop recognised the moment from the history he had memorised, threw himself directly into its path, and used his energy-absorption power the way it was never meant to be used — as a shield for a dozen other people. He took the entire blast into himself and collapsed.

Onslaught himself supplied the measurement: the attack had carried enough force to kill a thousand mutants. Winded by his own effort and openly impressed, the villain spared the team for the moment, remarking that in another time and place he would have been proud. Bishop recovered — and, with the real traitor exposed, finally made his peace with the man he had accused for so long.