30 years later

"Good morning!" said Phoenix happily as she cooked pancakes in a pan. Poe slowly sat down at the table, his hair was now grey and his moustache a lot longer. He even wore glasses.

Phoenix placed a stack of two pancakes down in front of Poe. "Thank you Phoenix," he said, his voice was old and frail.

"Guess what Poe!" she said cheerfully.

"What is it?" he said slowly.

"It has been exactly thirty years since the day you found me," Phoenix brought over a book of photos and sat down next to him. Poe opened the book and flicked through the photos. He smiled at them but then frowned, flicking through them faster.

"What is it?" Phoenix asked with concern.

"Over thirty years…" he held out two photos, one was taken yesterday and the other was taken when Phoenix had finished martial arts completely, four days after they met. "You look like you have only aged a year,"

They looked down at the photos. The only difference between the two pictures of Phoenix was that in the new photo, her hair was shoulder length and in two pony tails.

"You should be at least 55 years old now…" Poe said disturbed.

"But… What does this mean?" she asked, for the first time in a long time she was scared. She held the charm of her necklace in her fist, that's what she did when she was nervous.

"I don't know," Poe said sadly, "perhaps-"

"Shhh!" Phoenix shushed him urgently.

Shocked, Poe said, "Excuse-"

"Shhh!" she shushed again, "Helicopters," she whispered. She looked out the window and in the distance there was a helicopter, too far away for an normal person to hear.

"Poe, they have SHIELD written on the side of the helicopters!" she looked back at Poe. His face had gone pale with fear. "Poe?"

"They've found me…" he said, wide eyed.

"Who's they? And what is shield?" she asked frantically.

"I never told you the whole truth, Phoenix," he admitted as Phoenix ran around closing curtains and locking doors.

"Then tell me now," she said, propping a chair against the door.

"You better sit down…" he said solemnly

"I'm a bit busy right now, just tell me," she said putting out the fire.

"The truth is, when I found you, I was a spy for the Chinese government. I did some bad things here in America, and I made my way up the most wanted list," Poe said carefully. Phoenix had stopped and was staring at him, wide eyed.

"That's why I could teach you 14 languages, 20 forms of martial arts, first aid techniques, sword fighting, fire arms, hacking techniques, bomb diffusions and all that," Poe continued.

"So these people are coming to arrest you?" she said caringly and Poe nodded almost crying. "Well let's go then!"

She grabbed a loaded pistol from under the sink and led the old man through the back door. They ran, but not very fast. Poe couldn't run with his tired old legs and Phoenix couldn't leave him behind, he was her first and only friend. He was almost her father.

There was a deafening bang, bang, bang. Poe fell to the ground. He had been shot in both his legs.

"No!" Phoenix screamed. She turned to face his shooter. There were ten men in bulletproof vests with machine guns all pointing at her. Tears of anger ran down her face. She lifted the pistol. She fired and it hit one of them right between the eyes. He fell limply to the ground.

Then they fired at her. They hit her shoulder. It felt like barb wire was being pulled through her, but that didn't matter. She fired and hit someone right between the eyes again, even though she could barely see through her tears.

She got shot again, this time, through the knee. Somehow her shoulder had healed but she lost balance and fell to the ground. She shot another one down and they shot back through her other shoulder. She screamed in pain.

Something was pulling on her shirt, it was Poe.

"Poe?" she whimpered. He was slowly bleeding to death.

"Don't die for me, Phoenix," he barely whispered, "Run". Tears running down her face. The men were getting closer, too close. A ball of fiery anger was building inside her. It grew and grew, and then suddenly she felt the tip of a gun to the back of her head. That anger exploded.

A fiery shockwave blew every man at least ten feet back. The explosion had left a huge scorch mark, flattened trees and fiery wings burning from her back. They were beautiful, like Phoenix wings.

Poe died in her arms and she shut his eyes. She would have liked to have buried him but more people would be here soon. She had to leave now. Phoenix stood and tested her new found wings. She could fly a little but she needed practiced. Ten men were scattered on the ground around her not moving. She walked past them, realising her supremacy. Then one grabbed her ankle.

She bent down and lifted him by the collar, he began sweating from the heat of her fiery wings. He looked into her eyes, they seemed on fire.

"Who are you?" she said threateningly.

"Agent Colson," he swallowed nervously, "Who are you?"

She smiled sadly, "Honestly, I don't know. But you can call me Phoenix," she dropped him to the ground and walked away.

Just before she went into the forest, she let go of her anger and energy. The fire wings disappeared and her eyes were blue again. Her back still burned where the phoenix markings were glowing. She walked through the forest calmly and quietly. The air was cool and moist and smelled of pine.

She thought of Poe. He was old and tired. Part of Phoenix thought he wanted to die, but she didn't want to believe that. She came out of the other side to a highway. She hid behind a tree when three shield trucks went past. When she came out of the forest completely, something strange happened. A random storm swirled above her.

Suddenly, a huge burst of light came crashing down next to her. When the light faded, there was a man standing in a red cape.

"Hello Abilene," the man said almost apologetically.

"Oh, fuck off!" she said wearily.

"Excuse me?" He said confused.

"You heard me; I have had a shit day. I don't need to be abducted by aliens or whatever you are too!" she said angrily.

"I know you are grieving but-" He tried again

"No!" she said sternly.

"Maybe another time then?" the strange man suggested, slightly confused.

"Ok then," she turned to leave in the other direction but the man grabbed her around the waste and pulled her into the circle.

"Just kidding," he laughed and they were zapped away.