Wither - Rank 5 in the House of X's leadership, a Mutant with the ability to induce rapid decay and destruction in any biological object she touches, even ones with high levels of durability or regeneration. Named Chloe Ford, she was the best friend since preschool of Elixir, alter ego Jolyne Foley, the school nurse of Xavier's Institute. They got along, though Chloe always dreamt of being a supervillain (which is seen as a creepy trait for kids in this world, rather than just an eccentricity like it is in ours) while Jolyne wanted to be a superhero, often getting into arguments about which was a cooler thing to be when a person grows up - hero or villain. Their life was normal despite this split until they both manifested their mutations. Wither's mutation activated when she was busy playing with her friends and being overseen by a teacher one day, when her eyes turned red and began to split. Her teacher recognized this was a sign of her mutation, and tried to take her to a mutation doctor kindly. But when she touched her student's hand, it began wither, and fall apart, cracking and dissolving and eventually just becoming a mess of blood and mush, which soon spread to the entire rest of her body - skin, organs, flesh, and scattered pieces of bones all in a lovely pile, ill-fitting, stained clothing barely holding it together like a wet sack. Those surrounding her were terrified and shocked, and one of her fellow classmates punched her in horror, soon dissolving himself. When the dust cleared, everyone tried to comfort Wither, tell her that her mutation wasn't bad, and that she's not going to jail, and that it's okay to cry over such a sad thing. But deep underneath it all... Wither could only think that watching her teacher dissolve like that was thrilling, exciting, more exciting than she could imagine.

Wither returned to school, clothed in entirely inorganic materials and gaining sustenance through an IV drip of extremely basic nutrients, as any food she tried to eat understandably turned to rotted mush in her mouth. Her school was terrified of her now, but Elixir still wanted to be her friend and spend time with her. Elixir's own mutation had activated, but she wasn't sure what it did other than turn her skin gold and her hair black. She finally found out what it did when Elixir accidentally touched her - and she didn't decay. Indeed, Elixir could heal others and herself - later discovered to be just one usage of her overall Omega Level ability of organic manipulation. Wither's power was cancelled out by her own, and they could touch each other safely. Their bond grew throughout their childhood, still having their arguments - though Elixir's side was now much more serious, as Wither would be terrifying as a villain. Little did Elixir know that Wither's development as a villain had already begun - on the way home, she tried to look out for lost or stray animals in the woods, and if she found them, she'd go up and use her power on them, to get a smaller dose of that thrill she got when she awoke it. Their life continued as "normal," up until Elixir discovered she could use her power in another way - if she shifted her body to look black and have gold hair, she could manipulate biology in harmful ways, creating cancer or tumors or even decaying people like Wither can. Seeing this, Wither asked if they could be a supervillain team together, thinking it'd be cool to go around stealing and killing with powers like this. Elixir, terrified, pretended to agree, and set plans to attack a candy store at the mall. In reality, she was planning on giving her to the police once they got there.

When Wither arrived, the police were already waiting, and Wither was shocked, saddened, and most importantly, enraged. She surrendered to the police without much of a fight, and they took her into her car. However, they weren't quite aware of what was organic and what was not, and once inside the car, she decayed away the skin of the seat next to the one she was sitting in, and quietly took a piece of metal from inside the seat, hiding it up her sleeve. Once let out of the car, she ended up using it to cut her hand, sucking the blood from the hand into her mouth. When she got the chance, she spat the blood onto the police officers that had taken her, causing them to rapidly fall apart and decay - as the blood was part of her body. She fished their bodies for the keys to her cuffs, and ultimately unlocked them, running off into the night and using her mutation to fell several trees as she ran, impeding the other police's pursuit of her. Afterwards, she hid in the woods for much of her earlier life, as while she wanted to head back to her town and get revenge, she both didn't know the directions and had a feeling the police would be obsessively searching and guarding it. So instead she lived in the woods - eating the rotten remains of animals she hit with her mutation, as while they didn't taste good, they posed no risk to her health since any harmful pathogens would be destroyed by the inside of her body. This wasn't very good nutrition, however, so it left her extremely emaciated on average. Luckily, she never really got sick, and learned how to light a fire using a lighter she stole from a hiker she decayed after running into. While the police did try to search the woods, they ultimately couldn't find her - as her mutation left her with the scent of rot that all her victims carried, meaning when dogs searched for her, they almost always found her victims instead. She also never left fingerprints for obvious reasons.

Eventually, once she was 11 years old in 2005, she was found by a gang lead by a younger man named Gambit, a bunch of mutant convicts that were trying to live their life on the range, free from society's rules. She happily joined after explaining her power, feeling like this was an ideal chance for her to finally achieve her dream. And so Gambit took Wither with him, and even gave her the codename Wither (her original idea was named Lord Deathtouch, which he considered a bit on the nose), fully integrating her into his gang. They worked together for many years, Wither proving to be an effectively lethal member of the team as well as a great way to intimidate enemies into giving up secrets or frighten foes into forking over possessions, due to how agonizing death at her hands is. When Rogue was brought into the Wild Cards in 2010, she thought Rogue's power was seriously sick, and that she could be a great villain because of this. This clashed with fellow member Sunflame, who instead thought her powers would be better suited as an advocate for Mutant rights and liberator from oppression. The two differed in how they viewed the Wildcards - Wither seeing them as convicts just looking to get what they want, and Sunflame seeing them as mutants that were unfairly oppressed for their mutations. Gambit never took a side, instead telling Rogue to do whatever her heart tells her to do, and after the collapse of the Wildcards and her adoption by Mystique, Rogue came to integrate both sides of the argument, cultivated further by Mystique.

When the X-Men attacked the Wild Card base in their search for answers (as they had collaborated with the House of X, delivering them certain items they sought after but could not risk going after themselves), Wither got a massive slash across her face from Wolverine that she still resents and wants revenge for to this day. After Gambit's death and the base's overall destruction when Nitro lost control of his powers, she was scattered along with the rest of them, fleeing to Europe by taking a boat hostage all by herself, before eventually, years later, being discovered by the House of X, who valued her lethality as well as her passion for destruction and cruelty. Her main role in the House of X is to serve not only as an enforcer, but as a recruiter of disenfranchised mutants, due to her skill in figuring out ways for Mutants to use their powers for evil. This, combined with how scary she is, means they're unlikely to want to leave once they've joined. She also often operates as a marauder, but still has a leadership role due to personal friendships with Amaranth and Sage, and the power her presence wields over other members of the House.

In 2010, she's a lot more green when it comes to active villainy, and a lot less cool, befitting a teenager. She's prone to boasting when she shouldn't, getting angry at the drop of a hat, underestimating her enemies, and thinking her mutation is beyond all reproach and near-perfect. She's also a very toxic friend influence not only on Rogue, but also on many of the other members of the Wild Cards. She's prone to making bad jokes and going on monologues about herself and her power, often leading her enemies to realize what they're dealing with right away. She genuinely considers the other Wild Cards friends, and respected Gambit, even if she hated how he was kind of a softie. Despite her lack of expertise, she was still a powerful villain and had, even at this point, figured out a way to weaponize her blood, albeit in the form of syringes rather than a spraying device. In addition, it was her time during the Wild Cards that shaped a lot of her personal interests, such as industrial music, classic horror movies, and cheap pizza, which to her becomes extremely "delicious" when rotted by her powers. Her greatest flaw during this time was that she saw her friends as just sideshows and herself as the main attraction, and as such wasn't very good with teamwork.

In 2020, she's become much more serious as a villain, but still has a humorous and cruel side. She's no longer prone to monologuing, at least not until after she's already decayed at least one enemy, and has come to see herself as just one part of a greater whole, even enthusiastically referring to Sage as her leader. She's also a little less hostile to other groups, being rather chill during diplomatic meetings with the Brotherhood (especially due to Rogue's presence) and even other groups like the Morlocks (though she still likes scaring those shut-ins for fun). Her skills when it comes to intimidation have vastly improved, helped at least a little by her scarred face and more imposing uniform. She acts like a cool big sister figure to Amaranth, and has a great personal friendship with Sage, often working directly together when on missions. She also has a tendency to try and recruit her enemies mid battle, which, while not exactly effective, does shake up their expectations of a combat and has had a few successes over the years. Her friendship with Rogue is still intact, and she still hates Elixir, relishing whenever they're able to face each other, or at least when she has a chance to try and kill one of these precious gifted youngsters she cares so much about. She has a complex about looking cool in battle, and often gets angry when her custom coat is genuinely damaged, since it's not cheap to get an inorganic coat that looks like that.

In 2010, she wears a striped white and black synthetic T-shirt, a pleather biker jacket with a crumbling skull design on the back, pleather jeans, a belt made of metal plates, and spiked boots. In 2020, she instead wears a heavy coat with X-styled buckles all along it, and an effect that makes it seem rotted and decayed despite being made of a synthetic material. It has a large, torn hood that she often wears, giving her a creepy look in combat. Underneath this coat she wears a black kevlar-like vest on top of a shirt very similar to Sage's, just styled after black bandages with red outlines which recede when necessary rather than black and gray hexagons. On her legs she wears a slick black set of pants, but this is countered by her boots, which go up to her knees and are styled to look decayed similar to her coat, and have red X-patterned shoelaces. With her coat on, the shoes stop just a little below the coat does. She wears a black, segmented plastic-like belt with red X designs on each segment. In addition, she has a mechanical device attached to her arms that siphon blood to s safe degree to propel at enemies. In 2010, her black hair is short, wild, and freaky looking, standing up on her head. In 2020, it's instead long and droopy, regularly seeming moist or wet, and overall just looking like a mess. Her face in 2010 is somewhat chapped, but overall looks pretty normal, if a little demented. In 2020, it has much more chapped lips, as well as bags under the eyes, and three massive scars from one of wolverine's claws being dragged across the face horizontally. Her eyes are glowing red and cracked, looking almost like they're falling apart.