Tabitha survives the transition with more of the old team's experience than the final lineup might suggest. She comes through the Ship period, Asgard and Cable's early missions…

Tabitha survives the transition with more of the old team's experience than the final lineup might suggest. She comes through the Ship period, Asgard and Cable's early missions before the last wave of recruits arrives. By #100, she is one of the people who actually knows what the group has just lost. Her loudness remains part of the social mix. In #88, the interactions around her new dress and her argument with Rictor remind us that these kids still have ordinary embarrassments and attractions. A mysterious armed mentor has not stopped them from being teenagers around one another. Genosha makes that familiar personality vulnerable. Tabitha and Rictor escape captivity during X-Tinction Agenda, but getting out of a cell does not give them control of the situation. Their friends remain in danger, their powers have been suppressed, and the country around them is organized to keep mutants powerless. Finding Warlock's remains in #97 puts a terrible physical object inside that experience. There is no reassuring distance between the adventure and what it has cost. Tabitha has to carry the knowledge of a friend's death into whatever the team does next. Then Rictor leaves. Their disagreement in #98 over Rahne's situation shows that surviving the same events does not force two friends toward the same decision. He wants to go after her; Tabitha stays with the group. Her continued presence gives the final issues a particular texture. She has history with the missing people and familiarity with the remaining ones, but she also has to make room for newcomers. The jokes and attitude continue because they are part of how she moves through the world, including when that world has become much harder.