Layla Miller hated being a pawn.
That's all she was, in the grand scheme of things. She didn't need all of the knowledge of the future that had been downloaded into her head to tell her that much. She was a tiny playing piece on the board, inconsequential unless she happened to be in the right place at the right time.
The others thought she was special. An annoyance, yes. A mystery, yes. A little kid, yes. But special. She knew things. They thought that was her gift. They thought that she was a rook, or a bishop, or a knight. She wasn't all-powerful, they knew she had her weaknesses, but they thought she could still hold her own against the opposing side.
They didn't understand.
Layla didn't have a choice. She knew what was supposed to happen, and she knew what she had to do to keep the timeline moving in the right direction. If she messed up, if she changed things, if she wasn't in the right place at the exact right time- anything could happen. The future she was destined to have, the one she remembered in her nightmares, might never come to be.
And if that happened, what else might change?
Her entire life was a paradox. All it took was one tiny string unraveling to destroy everything that had been accomplished already. She had to be careful. She had to do what was expected of her, moving one small step at a time, always in the right direction. If she didn't, her entire world might change. All it took was one small misstep to place the king in check, and once that happened it was often all but impossible to undo the mistakes that led there in the first place.
Layla hadn't asked to be pulled into this game. She hadn't asked for the ability to control life and death. She hadn't asked for her future self to travel back in time and give her memories of what was to come. She hadn't asked for the Scarlet Witch's actions to push into the middle of the superheroes' world.
She was a pawn. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Then again, even a pawn could become a queen. All it had to do was persevere, to make it to the other side of the board without being caught by the opponent. It took luck, and it took skill, and it took time, but Layla had seen the future. For better or for worse, she was going to have all the time in the world.
Layla's mouth twitched, turning up a tiny bit at the corner. It wasn't quite a smile, and it wasn't quite a scowl, but it was entirely her. She knew what the future held, and she knew what it would take for her to make it across the playing field without losing everything. Still, she was tired of being a pawn.
Maybe it was time for her to think about being the queen.
Check.