I know that there's already been three post Psi-War Psylocke fics
(longer, better and more in depth), but I couldn't help myself :)  We
haven't been shown how Psylocke has dealt with her loss, while we get to
see Jean moping in UXM 359.  
Disclaimer:  Marvel owns it all.

Sacrifice
by Northlight

	Sacrifice.

	That's what being an X-Man is all about.

	We take one man's dream as our own. We fight for it.  We suffer for it.
We die for it.  And now, I have willingly given up a part of myself --
leaving my mind empty and aching with loss.

	I saved the world from being consumed by the Shadow King's darkness.  I
took him down, binding him with the power of my mind.

	A mind that is now as unremarkable as any other in this world.

	'I'll keep warm at night knowing that you're trapped within the shadows
of the Psi-Plane' I told him as the monster's last anguished cry faded. 
Brave words, and as the feeling of pride in my defeat of the Shadow King
flowed through me, I almost believed that.

	But I don't sleep anymore.

	I try to tell myself that I've survived worse.  I've been used.  I've
suffered.  And I've always prevailed.  This is just another glitch in my
life, something that I can struggle through and come out on the other
side, slightly scarred but ready to move forward.

	But it's hard to move forwards when the knowledge that my mind will
forever be closed in haunts my thoughts.  I know that wherever the
future will bring me, it won't include the feel of my mind against
another's.

	Did I really believe that I was strong enough to do this?

	I hurts enough living with the silence in my mind, and knowing that I
could reach into myself and open the door to my powers makes it all that
much harder.

	I live with loss and temptation battling my sense of what is right.

	I could take all of this pain away with a simple thought.  

	Open the door, let it all back in.

	Not that I will.

	Of course I won't.

~End~