However, when his mutant power to break down the molecular structure of whatever he touches with his left hand manifested, his parents turned him over to a genetics lab to save their own reputation.
After being chased by bounty hunters in Saigon, Xi'an left the Lawless and returned to the US, with a more refined demeanor and a new purpose, to create his own version of the X-Men to help fight for genetic equality.
They find her and gain knowledge on the Driver, her next contact within the railroad, but are then sidetracked to El Paso, where Krystalin has uncovered evidence of an "Archangel"-like mutant.
They discover a hidden base where Master Zhao, the leader of the last known iteration of the X-Men, has kidnapped Krys and Xi'an's former Lawless teammate Victor Ten Eagles.
Over the years, Zhao has made himself mentally unstable with drugs to preserve and enhance his psychic abilities, and plans to brainwash Xi'an's team into his own X-Men.
In order to defeat Zhao, Xi'an returns to his more amoral personality, knocking the former mutant leader into a coma with a psychic backlash.
Xi'an joins the Theatre, returning to El Paso to steal the bodies of Zhao and his failed attempt at genetically creating X-Men with powers similar to the originals, One-Eyed Jack, Psycho K and Wingspan.
New X-Man and former Theatre of Pain slave La Lunatica uses her mutant ability to bring to the surface all of Xi'an's past and present misdeeds, finally balancing his turbulent psyche, reverting him to his calm and moral self.
[9] Xi'an then travels with the X-Men to the mutant City-State of Halo City, where he leaves the team to open a clinic and heal people with his powers.
[12] In the finale one-shot of the 2099 continuity, Manifest Destiny, Xi'an is a leading figure at the Savage Land refuge, now named the Xavier Colony.