In the alternate reality the New Mutants accidentally visited in New Mutants (1st series) #48, Sentinels had exterminated most of the world's mutants and super-heroes, and scorched the surface of the Earth in the process. Lila was one of only a few mutants who remained on the planet. Along with her lover Cannonball and their ally Moonstar, Lila devoted herself to rescuing any mutants she could find and transporting them to her Dyson Sphere across the galaxy. The Sentinels eventually took Lila captive and tried to use her as bait to lure in the remaining New Mutants, but, against all odds, the New Mutants bested the Sentinels and saved Lila. She transported the last of the mutants to the Dyson Sphere and abandoned their doomed planet for good.
In the dreary alternate world known as the Age of Apocalypse, in which mutants reigned supreme and treated baseline humans like cattle, Lila Cheney spent most of her adult life with no idea she was a mutant. As a child, when she had first used her powers, her psyche couldn't handle it, and her mind shut her powers out and made her forget the incident. Her mutant signature did attract the attention of the High Lord Apocalypse, though, who took her captive, although Magneto eventually liberated her. As an adult, she became a rock star and became romantically involved with Gambit of the X-Ternals, becoming the liaison between his gang of thieving mutants and the humans they tried to help. When she went to work for Gambit, she brought along her bodyguard, Guido Carosella, oblivious to his undying love for her. When that reality's X-Men tried to revert the universe to its rightful state, they requested the X-Ternals' help in stealing the nexus of reality, the M'Kraan Crystal—primarily because they needed Lila to transport them across the universe to get it. With her powers reactivated, Lila teleported Gambit and the X-Ternals to the crystal, where they battled its protectors, fought their way into the crystal itself and extracted a shard. Upon returning to Earth, however, they were betrayed by Guido, who tried to turn Gambit over to Apocalypse in exchange for freedom for Lila and himself. Guido was unable to go through with it and saved Lila and Gambit from certain death, although they lost the M'Kraan shard to Apocalypse in the process.
Ten to fifteen years into the future, in the reality depicted in X-Men: The End, Lila settled down with Cannonball after he retired from the X-Men. They had three children together.