Witness

Origin

As a resident of Earth-1191, the alternate reality which also Bishop hails from, LeBeau saw the devastation of the X-Men during 1996 at the hands of a being only know as The X-Traitor. He apparently was the only one to survive and was referred to as “The Witness.” As time went by, the Witness made a fortune, and he bought a huge technology corporation known as Stark, later renamed Fujikawa. His interests shifted between the X.S.E. (Xavier’s Security Enforcers), the mutant police force which Bishop was a member of, and alien technology that he could add to his corporation.

Creation

The Witness was created by Scott Lobdell and first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men issue 287 (1992).

Major Story Arcs

Building a Future

While Fujikawa was researching solid holographic technology in order to replicate the ill or deceased members of X.S.E. Shard, Bishop’s sister came to the conclusion that Bishop himself should test it, but it failed. Shard and the members of Fujikawa ran a test and discovered that the holograms could only operate at 100% by assimilating the brain of the member it tried to replicate, however the assimilation was still in its experimental stages and any test could kill the agent. Shard once again stepped into the project claiming that it could all go more smoothly if the Witness was willing to share the Shi'ar technology he possessed; however, the Fujikawa representative, Lycadeon spoke up and said the Witness would share nothing with them. During a confrontation with a clan of Emplates, pseudo-vampire that feed on the bone marrow of mutants, Shard was attacked and was dying from infection. Desperate, Bishop turned to the one man who could save her, the Witness, and under Shard's request he downloaded her brainwaves into the hologram technology, making a replica of her.

It turned out that the Witness knew all along that this was going to happen and told Bishop that now he owed him and requested that Bishop quit the X.S.E. and serve him for a year. It was then revealed that this was not the first time the two of them spent time together as the Witness said he was glad to have the young man return to his fold, as it was then explained that the young Bishop was raised as child by the Witness until his grandmother came to pick him up, or likely take away the child from Remy’s clutches. It is revealed to us that the Witness took interest in Bishop because he knew that one day the boy would travel to the past and help stop the X-Men from being destroyed by Onslaught, help restore the original timeline after it changed into the Age of Apocalypse, and even of the boy’s future confrontation with the Chronomancer (Trevor Fitzroy, who conquered Earth-9910).

The strangest thing was that when his grandmother actually showed up it was none other then the elderly Storm, who along with an unknown man only know as Hancock, raised both Shard and Bishop. To this day it is unknown if Storm was Bishop’s grandmother or had simply taken it upon herself to raise the child. The other members of X.S.E. were not too happy with the Witness for taking Bishop from them but their leader, Hecate, personally asked Bishop to find out all he could about the Witness but even after a year he was unable to find anything, as it was the Witness himself who told him “I am LeBeau and more than LeBeau. I am in jail; I am a jail. One strange man, me.” Bishop was unable to answer any of the questions the X.S.E. had for him about the Witness because he himself never answered anything, as Bishop asked countless times who betrayed the X-Men, and the Witness responded with silence.

The Time Trip

Bishop would follow his greatest nemesis, Trevor Fitzroy, to the present era as he freed a large number of mutant criminals and transported them there. There he was to meet up with the the X-Men, the heroes that shaped his childhood and the man that he was now. The team badly needed members, and they quickly added Bishop to their ranks. However, Bishop met Gambit, who had a Cajun accent and shady personality similar to the Witness and even shared the man's surname. He came to the conclusion that Gambit was the Witness and that one day he would betray the X-Men and be known as the X-Traitor, and that was why he survived and why the Witness never talked of who was the traitor. Time would tell that Gambit was not the traitor, but rather Charles Xavier under the influence of Magneto’s psyche, who would become the being Onslaught. After the X-Men, Avengers and Cable defeated the being, Bishop doubted the entire story of the Witness but still harbored a deep-rooted suspicion of his teammate, Gambit.

The Jewel that made History

When Gambit was sent on a quest for a time-hopping jewel that landed in the 616 reality, he discovered that the Witness threw the Momentary Princess, that would become the time-hopping jewel that would transverse many realities and time eras, this time Gambit wondered if he would become the aged mutant and travel the barriers of time itself.

Reinventing an Earth

The Witness next crossed paths with Bishop again when Trevor Fitzroy had drained the life of countless people and was transported far into the future of an alternate earth.

Earth-9910 was decimated by the Sentinels and in the last moment Magneto tapped into the Earth's electromagnetic field from outer space sending a wave that canceled all technology, automatically canceling the Sentinels and any of their robotic hounds. Exhausted from this amazing feat Magneto died peacefully knowing he had sent his Earth into a better future. As the new era approached in this Earth's attempt to rebuild itself from nothing, Trevor arrived with futuristic technology that none of them had ever seen and set himself up as evil tyrant the Chronomancer. Due to the low technology of the land many hidden races surfaced into the now medieval era, among them were the giants. The giants believed that one day a chosen one would arrive to liberate them from the Chronomancer. The Witness saw all these events and neglected Bishop who questioned him on the nature of his prophecies. The Witness responded they were not prophecies but were happening at the exact moment and he used his powers to send Bishop to the future of the Chronomancer.

Once Bishop arrived he meet a band of rebels; Link, Scorch, Jinx and the giant Nom. The mutants shared their knowledge and it was through this discovery that each of them had been brought up by the Witness himself. The Witness revealed himself as a Time Traveler who journeyed through many time lines, confronting other time travelers, chrono entities and befriending other time travelers. Encouraging all them to fight Fitzroy's influence over this earth, Bishop agreed and formed the X-Faces with the other rebels. Discovering the arrival of Bishop and of another time-traveler, Fitzroy sent his troops to destroy the hideout of Bishop but before this could occur the Witness informed Bishop of a place called Dunduine. As Fitzroy’s troops arrived the Witness single handily held them back by draining their kinetic energy leaving them immobile and then created a tremendous kinetic explosion which Bishop believe to have killed him. To Bishop's tremendous surprise upon his arrival in Dunduine with the other X-Faces he discovered the Witness was still alive and under the care of the powerful Clan Hellfire.

The leader of Clan Hellfire, Sammara Shaw, owed her's and the clan's existence to the Witness who prevented the Sentinels from destroying them and shielded their technology from Magneto’s electromagnetic wave in order so they would provide refuge for him in the future. Again having manipulated time and situations to his benefit, Fitzroy grew tired of the Witness's intervention and sent his troops to attack Clan Hellfire in order to kill the all-powerful time-traveler. Once again the Witness went out to confront them and proved himself more then a match for them while the X-Faces destroyed them. Bishop personally asked the Witness to come and defeat Fitzroy but he declined and opted to stay with Clan Hellfire. As Bishop talked with the Witness he said he was right for never trusting him but admitted that the Witness had a strange way of manipulating others into protecting those he cared about and to prevent any more bloodshed. Finally Bishop referred to him as “Gambit” a name the Witness didn’t deny owning and responded with the classic “mon ami” to Bishop. When Bishop defeated Fitzroy and was returning from the Earth-9910 his body became the vessel for an ancient energy parasite, Le Bete Noir. Defender of all good things.