"Longing."
"Rusted."
"Furnace."
"Daybreak."
"Seventeen."
"Benign."
"Nine."
"Homecoming."
"One."
"Freight car."

The phrase was complete and the man with a metal arm was stone-faced, awaiting his orders. "Good morning, Soldier. We have a mission for you," said his handler in Russian. "Ready to comply," the Winter Soldier replied.

Phoenix tore through the forest, breath coming in short bursts. She didn't know what was chasing her but the dark intent was palpable. Her Road had taken her back to the world she had left some time ago. It was the same, yet different, as if she had achieved a time jump. It made sense since the Road led her outside the dimensions of time and space when she was hopping from world to world. She had been back for about a month but for the past three days, she couldn't shake the feeling she was being followed. Every time she had checked, there was nothing there. If she was, it was yet another reminder of the things she lacked from her unicorn ancestry. Her mother's kind could pass completely unnoticed if they wished. A lot of humans in the Empire weren't even aware which forests were unicorn-controlled.

Phoenix didn't have that refined ability to pass unseen. Try as she might, being sighted had happened a lot on a number of worlds, including this one. That led to her current status: running from an unseen threat that finally made her fight-or-flight instinct kick in. She reached a clearing and was heading for the other side when a shot rang out. Startled, Phoenix's hooves hit a hidden hole and she was sent crashing to the ground. Tearing up grass and soil with her horns as she slid to a stop, the chimera just lay still. She breathed hard as she mentally checked for injuries like a broken leg but her reinforced bones and muscle had saved her again.

Slowly getting to her belly, she chanced a look at her tail. "Great. Bastard shot it off," she thought. Fortunately for her, her tail was shot off between the second and third segments, meaning regeneration wouldn't take too long. If it had been shot off any lower, then it would take longer. Plowing headfirst into the ground hurt her more than her tail getting shot off did. Her tail didn't have nerve endings past the root. Getting to her hooves and shaking her body free of dirt and grasses, Phoenix turned to face the direction she had come from. The sound of a motor roared through the forest, drawing closer. She had to quickly decide what she had to do. Her tail would take ten minutes to regenerate tops but until then, she was somewhat defenseless. She had her horns but her tail was her primary weapon. Standing her ground seemed like a good idea but considering she was in a world where guns were a thing, it wasn't particularly a safe idea. Still, the one who shot her had shot to disarm, not kill. Which usually meant someone was interested in her and her capabilities. Her tail, for instance, held potent venom from an unknown scorpion species that someone would find very useful.

If they were after her for her venom, they were in for a disappointment. Phoenix never allowed her own husband to analyze it to see what sort of scorpion had been used in the gene splicing and sequencing that led to her creation. She wasn't about to let some humans get their hands on it and weaponize it for their own use. The chimera looked around and found the severed remains of her tail close by. She quickly trotted over and raised a hoof. Just as she was about to bring it down on the telson, a motorcycle tore through the underbrush, carrying a man with a metal arm. He wore a mask and goggles, effectively hiding his identity. A rifle was strapped to his body. Phoenix froze for a split second but brought her hoof down hard just as her pursuer skidded to a halt. The telson was crushed like a grape, her venom useless now. All the while, she had never taken her eyes off the human who curled his metal fingers into a fist.

Clearly, he was enraged by what she had done. It was rolling off him in waves. The chimera took this time to study him. Aside from his face being hidden, his brown hair was down to his chin. He wore a leather top with dark fatigues. His metal arm looked like it was something Byakko High King had forged but the craftsmanship seemed...almost beyond even his skill level. Byakko was the best at what he did so anyone being able to outdo him in anything was someone impressive. The thing that gave the chimera pause was his scent. He smelled exactly like someone she had met long ago in this world's time. Every living thing had its own unique scent. Even two members of the same species had variations in their scents. They were like fingerprints, unique to a singular entity. She filed her observations away and had to figure out how to forestall further aggression until her tail regenerated. Every minute without it seemed to stretch to eternity.

"You shot me," she said, plainly. That had the intended effect of startling the man. He didn't outwardly show it but it was plain in the way he subtly tightened his fist. "The monster speaks," he responded, his mask muffling his words a little. "Monster is a new one for me. I've been called a demon, an abomination, even beautiful. But if 'monster' means the same as 'chimera' to you, then it will be yet another title given to me," she said. The man reached up and pulled his goggles off, freeing some very familiar blue-grey eyes. "You know why I was tracking you," he said, more than asked. "Naturally. You aren't the first human who saw potential in the tail you shot off. I could be wrong but I think your intention was just to relieve me of my first line of defense and be on your merry way. As an entity, I don't mean much to you. Sorry, not sorry that I destroyed the thing you were stalking me for," came the response.

The Winter Soldier didn't show it but something about the monster was ringing a very distant bell as if he had seen her before. Her voice sounded familiar, too. He almost balked as fragments of memories came to him, as they were wont to do whenever he was pulled from cryo. Shaking his head, the Soldier forced himself to focus on the mission which had been to track the animal down, relieve her of her telson by any means necessary, and kill the animal if needed. Something about their standoff made something fester inside. His other targets begged for mercy if he got up close and personal for a mission. This beast didn't seem the slightest bit afraid of him. Feeling uncharacteristically angry, the Soldier tore his mask off and let it fall to the grass.

The animal's nonchalance turned to shock but he only noticed it as an afterthought. He ran at the animal, his superhuman speed giving him the element of surprise. He reached out with his metal hand and grasped one of her curled horns. He vaulted over her back, easily twisting her head enough that she fell to the ground. It was clear her surprise had made that feat easier to achieve. Horses followed their heads but when they were being attacked, they did whatever it took to stay on their hooves and not get dragged down. The animal started to resist but he pinned her neck down with his knee and pulled a handgun on her, pressing the barrel to her temple. She stopped resisting, her visible violet eye staring up at him as if she had seen a ghost.

Phoenix was less concerned about the gun to her head and more than a little shocked at who she was looking at. That and he was touching her. "It can't be...That was over 70 years ago by this world's reckoning. It's impossible," she gasped, trying to talk past the knee on her neck. The man pushed the barrel into her head a little, a nerve struck. "I don't know you," he said. "But I sure as hell know you," she snapped, trying to destabilize him so she could get back to a vertical base. The man wasn't having it though. "I don't know you," he said again. Phoenix's hooves dug into the earth slightly, feeling a crick in her neck starting to form because the curled horns prevented her head from resting completely on the ground.

"You don't remember me, do you? Long ago, you were broken on the earth. You had fallen from a train and came to rest on the snow. You lost your left arm in that fall. I came to you, healed whatever I could, and kept you warm through the night. The next morning, some men found you and took you away. What the hell did they do to you? How are you, a mere human, still alive and young after all this time?" she protested. The man paused as if giving weight to her words. Phoenix knew beyond the shadow of a doubt this man was James Buchanan Barnes. This was Bucky. It was the only explanation as to why their scents were identical. Something had happened to him 70 years ago when she allowed those men to take him away. Had she unwittingly delivered him to evil men when she left his side to avoid detection?

Questions were starting to fill her head but Phoenix had to focus. Whatever had been done to him, it was obvious he was just a weapon someone from the shadows was pointing at her. He was obviously acting on the orders of someone else. Nothing about this entire encounter made it seem he was acting alone or even of his own accord. He made it plain that he didn't know her anymore. His mission was to take possession of the tail she had destroyed. There was no conceivable way his handlers knew she had regenerative capabilities so the question became what was he waiting for? Search and destroy seemed a likely objective for him if he failed to secure her telson. She had crushed it in full view of him, proverbially flipping the bird at him and his handlers that she wasn't about to let her venom fall into their hands.

Regardless, Bucky seemed to be struggling with her words of familiarity with him. That hesitation was going to cost him because Phoenix could feel her new tail getting ready to rip out of the stump. She could get him off then if he didn't shoot her in the head first. She didn't know how fast her husband's spell could sense murderous intent and activate in the seconds it took for a bullet to fire. This was why she generally avoided worlds where guns existed. She calmed herself and let her eyes close, even as the barrel to her head remained in place.

The Soldier was still trying to puzzle out why her words were striking nerves left, right, and center. He was then distracted by something that sounded an awful lot like tearing flesh. Twisting his head around, he had no time to react when a newly formed tail shot out from the stump. However, instead of hitting him with it, the creature somehow managed to hook his waist with her stinger and he was sent careening away. Considering her tail was many times bigger and stronger than a scorpion's, it was rather easy. The animal was on her hooves in the seconds his weight left her. She stood with her tail full-masted and daring him to try something when he recovered. "How did...," he spat, taking aim with his gun.

"Don't try it. I could hit you with a dry sting faster than you can pull that trigger. It won't kill you but you'll hurt for a long time from the bruise I leave behind. I don't want to hurt you but I will if you give me a reason to. If the appearance of a new tail surprised you, then regeneration was something your handlers didn't count on," she replied. They just stared each other down as dark clouds started to roll in. He still hadn't completed one of his objectives. The animal was standing there with a new tail at full mast and giving him no quarter to try again. His handgun wasn't strong enough to cut through the chitin and she wasn't bluffing about her striking speed. Even if he wanted to reach for his sniper rifle, he'd be flat on his back before he knew what hit him.

Phoenix could feel the weather turning. A storm was coming and she still held her ground against Bucky. She didn't bother calling him by name. He had forgotten her and it was likely his own identity was another casualty of whatever happened to him since she saw him last. Were she more optimistic, she would've given weight to the idea that he thought he dreamed her up when they first met. As it were, the lack of recognition was the clincher that he was either amnesiac or someone did something to his brain. Even if he believed he dreamed her up, coming across her again would've triggered recognition regardless. Deja vu, at the very least. But looking at his eyes, there was nothing at all. There was also the matter of him looking the way he did seventy years prior. It just was impossible for humans to retain their youth this long. Phoenix wanted answers but she wasn't going to get them from Bucky.

She knew this. What she didn't know was how she was going to get out of this mess. She couldn't turn her back on him. That was the opening he was waiting for so he could get a clean shot. If she allowed that, he would certainly shoot to kill her this time. His handlers were clearly after her telson and the venom it contained. Now that he had seen her spontaneously regenerate a new one, he would be apt to try again. Thunder rolled across the sky and the chimera took a deep breath. "You're not going to let me walk away, are you?" she asked. "You're my mission. If I have to kill you to complete it, I will," he said, his voice still cold.

Phoenix just deflated. She wasn't equipped to handle a threat like this. She couldn't even help him. Her anger grew at his handlers. Someone didn't just get a whole new personality overnight. Whatever his handlers did to him, she longed to make them pay. The fact she was getting this protective over a human still baffled her but in the end, it didn't matter. She had failed to protect Bucky Barnes all those years ago by not heeding what her gut had said when those men found him in the ravine. It was in the nature of unicorns to protect. Phoenix wasn't even a unicorn. She just had the body of one. She had spent her entire life avoiding humans and other animals because of what she was. A science experiment.

Bucky was like her now, an abomination of a different sort. Where she had been spliced together on the genetic level and left to develop from the embryonic stage on up, he had been torn apart and remade into something else. She had no idea what he had been like prior to when she found him at the bottom of that ravine but there was no way he had been the cold-hearted killer standing in front of her now. Her tail slowly started to lower. He was clearly confused by the time it reached half-mast and came to rest position. "I'm sorry I let you down, James. I should've done more to protect you back then," she said.

The Soldier felt anger at the pity he heard in the animal's voice. And the name she called him...James? Was that his name? For as long as he could remember, he never had a name. Winter Soldier was a title, something his handlers called him in order to strike fear into the hearts of the paranoid because his existence was difficult to prove. Having his mind wiped before every mission didn't help matters. His anger finally broke the dam of self-control that had been beaten into him. That monster dared to imply she knew him? Protect him from what? She was just a beast! What did she know about anything?!

He raised his gun with a yell and pulled the trigger. To his surprise, a sudden burst of blue flames shot out from around the animal's body and the bullet ricocheted off it as if it were a shield. The Soldier only had a few seconds to watch as the flames took the form of a serpentine dragon, which roared and came at him at blinding speeds. The Soldier was sent flying off his feet with even more force than the creature's tail alone had done. He landed hard on his back and slid about a foot or two before coming to stop. Groaning and in shock from the blow, the Soldier watched as the chimera closed the distance slowly. The spectral flame dragon was audibly hissing but it didn't lash out again. She herself was right in the middle of the specter as if she were the source.

Phoenix stopped when she stood over Bucky. He was looking at her with a mix of rage, confusion, and surprisingly, fear. Even as he was, he still knew and understood when he was overpowered. She was very lucky that her husband's spell activated in time to keep her safe. It wasn't a spell she had control over. It just activated when she was in a situation she couldn't get herself out of. Bucky had shot to kill and the spell sprang to life to preserve her. She saw his hand move to bring the gun up to fire again and she snapped her tail. It struck the weapon and sent it from his hand. He then made a grab with his left hand but Phoenix was faster. She brought her hoof down as hard as she could against the metal, feeling it cave a little under her weight. His yell of pain was all the proof she needed to know that his metal arm was somehow connected to his nervous system. So he felt everything done to it.

Now that she had the upper hand, the spell surrounding her body dissipated. The rain chose that moment to start falling. It was plain Bucky had nothing left at this point. Her husband's magic had done a number on him and then she had crushed his metal forearm. The damage wasn't terrible. A couple of the metal segments would have to be replaced and whatever wiring was under it would probably have to be recalibrated but he would live. Phoenix lied down next to him and rested her head on his chest, just as she did years ago. A part of her held onto the vain hope that the young soldier she had appeared to in the ravine was still somewhere in the monster he had become. He stared at her. His confusion was such that you could cut it with a knife. "I don't know what they did to you but if I ever find out who your handlers are, I will kill them. I know what it's like to be an experiment. No more fighting," she said, pinning him with her gaze.

He subconsciously licked his lips but didn't speak. Whatever was going through his head was clearly warring with some long-forgotten memories. Phoenix couldn't stick around for too long, lest something triggered him and he tried to take her on again. Getting to her hooves, the chimera let the spectral flames of her husband's spell envelope her and her Road opened. She was gone by the time Bucky scrambled to his feet.

A resounding slap echoed in the mind wipe chamber. The Soldier didn't react to it beyond bringing his head back to face ahead. He just sat in the chair, shirtless, as his handler spoke in furious Russian to a colleague. "Mission report," he then snapped at the Soldier. "The target crushed the telson I had shot off before I could reach it. I tried a shoot-to-kill approach next but the abomination somehow managed to conjure...magic that prevented me from taking her out," he responded in a deadpan. "Magic?" his handler asked, incredulous but intrigued all the same. "Yes. Like blue flames taking the shape of a dragon. My bullet ricocheted off as if the flames formed a barrier around her," the Soldier said.

"If not for HYDRA's work with the Tesseract, I would've found this laughable," his handler spoke to his colleague. "There's something else. This creature can regenerate her tail. As ordered, I shot to disarm her but after ten minutes, it grew back instantaneously. Destroying the telson was deliberate on her part. She had gone out of her way to make sure I didn't secure it. She's not only intelligent but sapient as well. She's not normal, her alien appearance notwithstanding," the Soldier spoke up."Most interesting, Soldier. I take it she's also the reason your left forearm is damaged?" the handler asked."Yes," was all he said. "Perhaps your mission wasn't a complete failure. You managed to gather some useful intel. Once your wrist components are repaired, we'll likely send you back out after her. The mission will be Capture Alive," the other man said. The Soldier just took a breath but didn't reply. Going after that animal a second time would require back-up, especially since it was to capture her alive. Even then, he didn't know if she was even still around. She had vanished into thin air in front of him.

He wisely chose to leave out the conversation he had with her. Normally, his targets didn't have the chance to talk to him. He knew it was so they couldn't get into his head. Yet, she had. He had given her an inch in spite of his training and she had taken a mile. Why did she claim to know him? He had never seen her before. An animal that looked like that wouldn't be forgotten so easily, even with the mind wipes. He heard his handler instruct his colleagues to get him prepped for cryo. The engineer responsible for the metal arm's upkeep had to be called in from Russia so the Soldier was to be put on ice until his wrist was repaired. He dutifully went to the cryo chamber and closed his eyes, ready to be put under. Just before unconsciousness took him, a stray thought dashed to the animal he had been sent to relieve the tail from. She was...beautiful.