Shard and her older brother Bishop were raised in the 21st Century, some eighty years into an alternate future, by their grandmother. In this timeline, the X-Men were betrayed by one of their own and killed, causing a disaster that caused the government to place a stylized 'M' tattoo over the left eyes of all mutants. After their grandmother died, Shard and Bishop took to the streets until the Xavier Security Enforcers (X.S.E.) approached them for membership. The X.S.E.'s purpose was to find and train young mutants and to protect the dream of human-mutant harmony created by Professor Xavier, much like the X-Men in the present. Bishop and Shard were the two youngest mutants to be promoted to be officers in the X.S.E., and Shard was the youngest commanding officer in the history of the X.S.E.
Some time after taking command of her own squad in the X.S.E., Shard fell victim to an ambush - set up by her criminal boyfriend Trevor Fitzroy - by the creatures known as Emplates. Turned into one of them, Shard was forced to kill mutants to sup their energy to survive. In a subsequent encounter with the X.S.E., Bishop was forced to kill his own sister rather than let her live as the monster she had become. Shard's essence was transferred into a holographic matrix projector that was worn on the wrist of her brother. When Bishop followed the Fitzroy through one of the criminal's time portals into the present, the holographic projector went with him.
Bishop, now stranded in the present and a member of the X-Men, programmed Shard's matrix into the Cerebro computer in the mansion that housed the X-Men. Now, wherever a holographic projector existed in the mansion, Shard would be able to appear. However, the matrix projector on Bishop's wrist still held Shard's essence, which was seemingly destroyed in a fight with another criminal from the future called Mountjoy.
Bishop took the broken projector to Forge, who used his mutant power over technological equipment to fix it. At the request of Shard, Wild Child stole the projector, allowing Shard to meet up with Storm and Bishop in Las Vegas. After an attack by the Hound, Shard's projector was stolen by Professor Stephens, who was working for the anti-mutant organization known as Humanity's Last Stand.
Placing Shard's essence in an energy containment chamber, Stephens attempted to discover how the device could be used to control Shard. During the assault on Stephens' lab by Bishop, Storm, and Wild Child, Shard destroyed the matrix projector, seemingly sacrificing herself. However, a reaction with the energy containment chamber and the projector reformed Shard's essence into a photon-based life form which could move and act without being restrained by holographic projectors. Shard also retained her photonic energy firing ability.
Shard returned to the government-sponsored X-Factor team, and, with the assistance of Forge, attempted to turn the team into the prototype for a revival of the X.S.E. in the present day. When Sabretooth attacked X-Factor during his escape, Shard accidentally merged with Polaris. In the future, the telepathic member of Xavier Underground Enforcers (X.U.E.), Fixx, who had once mind-linked with Shard when Shard had been a member of the X.S.E. splinter group, sensed that Shard was anchored in the past in human form. Using Shard as a tether, Fixx pulled the X.U.E. forward in time to the present.
The X.U.E. members eventually joined X-Factor, but the team soon broke up after the death of Havok and Greystone. Shard eventually found herself a victim of Trevor Fitzroy once more, when he kidnapped her to lure his arch-enemy Bishop into a trap. Bishop soon found himself in an alternate future - one in which Fitzroy was the all-powerful ruler and who held Shard captive.
After much psychological and physical torture at the hands of Fitzroy, who had renamed himself the Chronomancer, Shard aided her brother one final time when she allowed Bishop to completely absorb her photonic energy so that he might defeat Fitzroy.
