LAYLA MILLER: Page 4 of 4

When the girls of X-Factor decided to take a road trip, Layla claimed that she got car sick easily and couldn’t join. Instead, she hung back and started practicing golf on the roof top where Jamie found her to ask for advice on a case. She revealed that she knew that the victim didn’t commit suicide but not who killed him. This was because Jamie apparently never ended up solving the case but discovered that the victim was illiterate and therefore could not have written the suicide note found. She explained to him that, even though she just told him, he still needed to go find this information himself by questioning the victim’s high school English teacher, otherwise she would never find out in the future from Jamie. Despite his exasperation, Jamie still acquiesced to her proposition of sex before he headed out. [X-Factor (1st series) #237-238]

Layla’s future knowledge could often be a burden and was not always as easy to interpret as it seemed. This became especially true ever since she had changed the future by reviving Guido. Her not knowing exactly what was going to happen was a new experience and she hated it, even if she realized this must be how everyone else lived all of the time. On a day that she was to go to a bookstore to buy a gift for Jamie, she knew that, if she was not there in 23 minutes, a teenage girl was going to die. Rushing out to the bookstore a bit early, she quickly realized that events were different than they were in her memories. The cause came from a fight that Guido was having downtown with a villain, which resulted in the city’s power going out. This situation changed her destiny in that the cab that was supposed to take her to the bookstore was now stuck in gridlock due to the traffic lights being down. She instead must run her way over to the spot, while seeing multiple possible futures cascading out of her decisions. Finally, she reached the building where she originally saw the girl and climbed up to the roof to talk her out of committing suicide. However, the girl’s location was different and Layla’s sudden appearance caused her to trip over the ledge. Luckily, Layla was able to jump down and use her personal force field to save them both, shocking the girl into realizing she wanted to live after all. In her happiness, Layla still saw two possibilities for her future but this woman was integral to a more favorable outcome. In that future, the now grown woman had developed an operating procedure that saved Jamie’s life when diagnosed with a terrible disease, as opposed to the other more grim future of Jamie’s death. Layla would continue working towards preventing the latter timeline. [X-Factor (1st series) #240]

X-Factor’s next mission involved helping Rahne find her missing son. However, multiple alternate dimension entities, as well as former teammate Darwin, were attempting to track the boy down and kill him for some kind of vague reasons of protecting the future. Layla tipped off Guido that Rahne had returned too early, leading to him and Monet rushing to Central Park to help Jamie and Havok fight off these dimensional travelers. These events led to the departure of both Guido and Rahne from the team. Next, she helped Polaris calm down when she was attacking her fellow teammates over the reason her adopted parents died. When Layla admitted that she knew the truth but that Polaris needed to learn it on her own, she agreed. However, when Polaris later discovered it was her own powers manifesting as a child that caused her parents’ plane to crash and kill them, it was too much for her mind to handle. An enraged Havok accused Layla and the team of plotting revenge against Lorna. Thus, Layla revealed that the unlocked memories were the truth and he now needed to help the woman he loved. [X-Factor (1st series) #241-243]

Continuing to nudge her teammates in the directions they needed to go without directly telling them their fates, Layla agreed to Terry's request for assistance in holding a séance to summon the goddess Morrigan. Terry wished to ask her a boon to help heal Polaris’ mind but the cost was Terry taking the Morrigan’s place as a goddess. Transformed, the new Morrigan returned to the séance circle with a scream and healed the fractured mind of Polaris. Before departing, she visited Jamie to tell him that she could finally move on from loving him as he had moved on with Layla, but she would return to this realm to aid him if he prayed to her. An enraged Madrox confronted Havok on his failing leadership skills and, before Layla could admit that she assisted Terry in summoning the Morrigan, Havok selflessly took responsibility for helping Terry instead. He did this to preserve the relationship between her and Madrox, for which Layla was grateful. Havok then realized that his place was no longer with X-Factor, now that Jamie had returned from the dead, and left the team and his girlfriend Lorna behind. Soon after, while eating ice cream, Madrox randomly proposed to Layla to get married, which she casually accepted. [X-Factor (1st series) #244-245]

The two eloped to Las Vegas and were quickly married. The next morning, the happy couple woke to a knock on their door, to which Jamie pulled out a gun under his pillow. He was not taking any chances, given his knowledge that in at least one reality they were both killed by a woman on their wedding night. However, it was just the local police, looking for assistance on a recent murder case. Apparently, the Abraham Lincoln dressed wedding officiant that married them the night before was killed soon after performing their nuptials. Layla used deductive reasoning, rather than future knowledge, to ascertain that this was not the first Lincoln to be murdered and tricked the detective into admitting so by guessing that he was having extramarital affairs. Once the police left, Layla was disappointed that Jamie was too distracted by this new case to perform his husbandly duties. When he asked if she thought they had made a mistake, she replied probably but she would rather make a mistake with him than play it safe with anyone else. Upon examining the spot where Abe was murdered, the pair found some dead flesh that Layla claimed she could use to perform a locator spell. She managed to convey the murderer’s location to Jamie over the phone. Unfortunately, while still in a magic trance, she tripped over a chair and was hit on the head by the cleaning staff opening the door. Having lost consciousness, she had to hear from Jamie later about his confrontation with an undead Robert E. Lee trying to kill another Lincoln at a Civil War reenactment. [X-Factor (1st series) #247]

When the newlyweds arrived back to New York, they were debating whether they should tell their teammates about their marriage. They took up the offer of a ride from a cab driver but failed to notice the sinister eyes and comments made by the man as he started to drive. They finally caught on when they saw he had driven them to the Bronx and the driver started muttering about the “fall of X-Factor.” Layla used her force field to blast them out of the car and, when confronted, the demon admitted he worked for the Warders, who were seeking revenge on X-Factor, now all gathered at this spot. Jamie asked Layla if she knew that the Bronx would turn into a giant volcano and she remarked that this was supposed to happen in Manhattan in six more months. She didn’t mention it because she didn’t want to worry him. In the meantime, the demons attacked them fruitlessly as they were protected by her force field. Jamie managed to create an army of himself and found the rest of X-Factor in time to convey Layla’s instructions of needing to kill every last demon to sever their connection with Earth. He also told them that they had gotten married and were registered at the Disney Store. The team managed to rally and defeat all of the demons and seal the breach to the underworld but they realized this was just the beginning. [X-Factor (1st series) #248-249]

Despite closing the volcano, a half dozen Hell Lords escaped and began the Hell on Earth War. Their goal was a predetermined agreement between them all that the one to kill the seven millionth person born on Earth could claim total dominion over all of Hell. This unlucky individual happened to be Wolfsbane’s son Tier, who showed up with his mother while being pursued by former teammate Darwin. He had been hunting Tier in an effort to prevent the war but couldn’t bring himself to pull the trigger when facing down his former team. Guido also returned and appeared to be working for Mephisto’s daughter Jezebel, while still holding a personal grudge against Monet for their failed relationship. The combined might of the Hell Lords arrival decimated X-Factor’s headquarters but the team was saved by the force field of Layla. However, the underworld god Pluto easily shattered the field and caused Layla to collapse from the feedback. The team tried their best to defend Tier but it was only the sudden assistance of Jezebel that led to them temporarily escaping. They met up with Darwin and Monet, where Darwin revealed to Layla that Monet was dying and Layla admitted she already knew. The team was then found and attacked by Pluto, who seemingly incinerated Jamie in front of Layla’s eyes. Then it was found that Tier had the ability to attack and kill the Hell Lords when he viciously attacked Pluto. The team quickly teleported away while Layla screamed about the missing Jamie, who had been transformed into a demon under the Hell Lords control. [X-Factor (1st series) #250-252]

Although Layla insisted that they go back for Jamie, the rest of team felt there next move had to be more practical, so instead they decided to take the fight to the Hell Lords, using Tier as a weapon. Layla continued arguing with Monet and after a confrontation with Hell Lord Satana, Layla confided in Monet that she was dying after her battle caused bleeding in her brain, accounting for her weakened state. Monet reluctantly accepted this news but asked for Layla to keep it from the others. The team returned to the war and were about to be overrun by Mephisto’s forces, if not for the reappearance of Jezebel to order the demons to leave. She had Guido in tow, carrying the demon Jamie. Layla immediately recognized him but was forced to defend herself with her force field when Madrox leapt to attack, manifesting multiple copies of himself. While the team dealt with the Jamie demons, Guido and Monet got in a personal brawl. Meanwhile, Jezebel tried to grab Tier to use for her own plans but was stopped by the force field of Layla, who was determined to protect the boy and his desire to not be turned into a weapon. Despite Jezebel’s best efforts, she failed to get through before Mephisto suddenly announced the war was over. He had bested all of the other Lords and would now rule over Hell and Earth.

This new development prompted Tier to ask Layla to lower the force field and request to be taken to Mephisto’s stronghold to stop him. It was also discovered that Jezebel did not have the power to remove the demonic curse from Jamie and Monet had died in battle from her previous wounds against a confused and regretful Guido. While the rest of the team went to confront Mephisto, Layla stayed behind to watch over the hurt but still frenzied original Jamie, whom she kept contained in a force field. Layla admitted that she was disturbed that even she didn’t know how this war would end. However, it did end soon after when Guido prevented Tier from killing Mephisto by stabbing the young boy in the back and becoming the ruler of Hell himself. With his new power, he restored New York to normal and returned Monet to life. [X-Factor (1st series) #253-256]

After the Hell on Earth War, the team split up to pursue individual goals. Layla had traveled to Morocco where she had an inkling that she would find the missing, still demonically possessed Jamie. A young boy and his uncle had captured Jamie, believing he was a Djinn whose power could be harnessed to open a portal and bring back the boy’s dead mother. After Layla found the two, she explained that Jamie was not a Djinn and they would not be able to open a portal. However, it was soon proven when the uncle succeeded that, while she knew a lot, she didn’t know everything. In the version of the future she knew, Jamie was not a demon and therefore this was uncharted territory. The uncle gave Jamie an amulet that belonged to his sister and asked him to jump into the portal and bring her back. The demon complied, much to Layla’s frustration, as this maybe meant that she had lost her husband. However, Jamie soon returned with a demonically warped version of the boy’s mother. This monstrosity was approached by her son, only to be picked up and horrifically dissolved before Layla could save him. All she could do was defend herself from the creature with her force field, which amounted to nothing to a creature as ethereal as this demon. Just before Layla was about to be torn asunder, Jamie grabbed the creature and punched it back through the closing portal. The shocked uncle helped disguise Jamie so that the pair could leave and head back home. Layla reflected back on the boy who wanted his mother back so much that he died for it but failed to register how closely it paralleled her own situation. [X-Factor (1st series) #257]

Returning from Morocco, Layla decided to hide Jamie in the basement of his childhood farmhouse. While there, another rare surprise for Layla was in store when she realized that she was pregnant two years earlier than she anticipated. Before she could lament too long about having to face this alone, an apparition of Damian Tryp appeared before her. He attempted to blackmail Layla into helping him stop an alternate reality version of himself from eradicating Tryp from this reality. He threatened to call the police for their trespassing on the farm, only to then recognize his existence was being erased, at which point he promptly vanished. When she took lunch to the chained Jamie, the enraged demon snapped his bindings and nearly killed the defenseless Layla. She was only saved when she screamed that she was pregnant with his child. This stopped Jamie and caused him to return to the basement on his own.

Shaken, Layla hastily ran inside when she saw that Tryp had managed to alert the police after all. When the officers knocked on the front door, she told them to get off the property as the house belonged to her husband’s parents. When the officer tried to arrest her, her force field knocked him back but her confidence faded when another policeman pulled out a heavy ordinance energy gun. While she did her best to block the beam, it overpowered and broke her force field gauntlet, knocking her down and allowing her to be handcuffed. However, a literal Deus Ex Machina arrived in the form of Jamie, using the last remnants of his humanity to pray to the Morrigan for help. She arrived to help cure him of his affliction and even dispatched the officers and their gun. One of the officers was still determined to bring Layla into the station but was stopped by a half dozen human Madrox dupes, ordering the police to unhand his wife and get off his property. Back inside, the Morrigan caught the happy couple up on their teammates adventures and asked if they wanted to reassemble X-Factor. However, the pair just wanted to live a quiet life on the farm and raise their incoming baby. They would leave saving the world to other people for now. [X-Factor (1st series) #262]

Apparently, Layla remained on the farm all the while, elsewhere, Jamie died from exposure to the Terrigen mists and was eventually resurrected. Soon thereafter, Jamie returned to be with his wife and baby son Davey and was on hand to answer the door for Wolverine, who was there to talk to Layla about finding Cyclops. She admitted that she no longer knew things anymore but suggested that he search for Blindfold in the Morlock tunnels. Despite a lovely offer from Logan to accompany him into the disgusting sewers, she was content to remain at the farm raising her son. However, after Logan left, she nudged Jamie into the idea of meeting up with the remnants of the X-Men as it would get him out of the house and out of her way for a while. When he admitted that he was never much of an X-Man, she countered that he was never much of a husband either but it never stopped him from pretending. When Jamie did end up joining the X-Men, Layla would later accompany him at the funeral for their former X-Factor teammate Wolfsbane, who had been killed in a hate crime. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #11, 17]

In the age of Krakoa, Jamie continued to live up to his bad reputation as a husband. Madrox was a one man hierarchy of corporate structure at X-Corp, jointly run by former X-Factor teammate Monet as well as Warren Worthington. Madrox had seemingly mastered multi-tasking and efficiency among his dupes but even then tried to dodge a call from his wife. Layla fruitlessly tried to entice Jamie to come home with hints that Davey appeared on the verge of taking his first steps. Jamie explained that they were launching a big tech product today and just to keep the boy occupied with cartoons until he got home later. Layla venomously replied that she would keep their son seated until his father had time for him. After hanging up, one of Jamie’s dupes offered to go home and spend time with the family, to which Jamie Prime agreed but made him promise to come back for reabsorption. Unfortunately, or perhaps karmically, that dupe was later incinerated before Madrox could reabsorb the happy memories of him and Layla watching Davey’s first steps. Jamie had a change of heart after he died saving X-Corp’s base and, upon resurrection, his family was waiting for him. Jamie decided to take a few days off from work to spend time with Layla and his son. [X-Corp #3, 5]

Jamie’s newfound dedication to his family seemed genuine and Layla was pleased that Jamie Prime and not one of his dupes was putting in the effort to have a family picnic at the beach. He claimed that he was making his dupes be more self-sufficient at the lab so that he could work part time. Before they were able to spend too much time together, a swarm of alien creatures started surfacing along the beach and attacking Jamie’s swimming dupes. Layla jumped to action with an energy pistol, providing cover fire and called Monet for back-up. With the arrival of Monet and Warren, Layla and Jamie were able to help dispose of the swarm. This event proved that, even if she had lately been concentrating on being a mother, Layla was still as capable as ever to back up her friends. [X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #21]

At the previous Hellfire Gala, Jaime had managed to impress Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four enough with his new scientific accumen that the Richards family accepted an invitation to a  dinner at the Madrox's house. Reed arrived with his wife Susan and best friend Ben but sans the other half dozen members of the family to the slight annoyance of Layla who had prepared for a larger gathering. However she couldn't stay mad when she learned that the children had all been transported a year into the future. So when a rogue Madrox duplicate, space pirate Captain Mad Rocks, working with Fantastic Four villain Blastaar kidnapped "his" son Davey from the party, Susan and Layla shared a moment of understanding over being separated from their children.

The two families took a Krakoan ship into space to retrieve Davey and Layla manned the ship's blaster cannons when they came upon Mad Rock's fleet. Everyone except Susan was captured and while the men were being tortured, Layla was held in a bedroom. Mad Rocks brought Davey in to see her and Layla argued with him about how a Jaime that ran away from his responsibilities could never take care of a child. This Jaime represented all of the parts of their marriage that didn't seem to be working and Layla was more than willing to blast him with a spell she learned from Dr. Doom. After Susan managed to save the rest of the family by summoning the Imperial Guard, everyone was able to return home. The whole ordeal proved to Layla that her husband had matured drastically from the old days and her bonds with her family were now stronger than ever. [X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #92-95]