A metal-armed man was wandering a forest. It had been several months since things went down in Washinton D.C. SHIELD had fallen, taking HYDRA with it. It was all thanks to the man on the bridge. His mission. His...friend. Since then, the former Winter Soldier had taken to walking the earth. After things had gone down, he had been left adrift. The number of people giving him orders was down to zero. He had snuck into the Smithsonian, trying to figure out the confusing mess Captain America had left him with. He had gone there because they had a Captain America exhibit and something told him that he would also be there in it. He had, against his better judgment, lingered there for as long as he could so he could absorb all the information. He learned a lot but was still trying to reconcile it all. His name was James Buchanan Barnes. He was born on March 10, 1917. That almost made him smile. It meant he was 96 years old...somehow. Friends called him Bucky. And Captain America was indeed a friend from childhood. His real name was Steve Rogers.

For the time being, he wasn't sure if he believed any of it. The name James Buchanan Barnes didn't feel right to him for some reason. Like it belonged to some other man who just happened to look like him. So he opted to call himself Bucky. It was what Steve had called him. He was currently in Europe. Romania, in fact. He had a destination in mind but was taking the scenic route as it were. Less chance of someone recognizing him. Bucharest was his chance to disappear into a faceless crowd. He came to a river and decided to take a break. He sat down against a tree and sighed. Even though he knew he was the only human being around for miles, he was still on the look-out for threats. He wasn't sure he knew how to relax. Closing his blue-grey eyes, Bucky let the peaceful forest carry his mind away.

The peace was broken when he heard something coming through the underbrush on the other side of the river. Opening his eyes, Bucky scanned the trees to see what it was. His heart then caught in his throat as...something...stepped out to lower its head to the water. Something in his mind came clawing to the surface as he beheld the animal. Silver fur and multi-colored scales covered the animal's body, its head adorned with horns. Two curled down like the horns of a ram while the third terminated from the vertex. Topping off the ensemble was a scorpion tail. Bucky knew this animal somehow. Faded memories bubbled to the surface. Memories HYDRA couldn't fully erase. Hazy images of snowy mountains floated to the surface. Images of the animal came with them. It...she...had been real and she was standing right there. As if sensing she was being watched, the animal raised her head quickly and locked eyes with him.

Phoenix had been dropped a third time in this world. It hadn't been too long since her last visit. Only a few months. She was starting to question why her Road kept circling back here. Her first visit was in 1944 and her second was earlier in the current year. She decided to go among the humans when she was dropped back here this time and got caught up with what was going on. She had humanshifted and hid her hair to avoid arousing suspicion. Thanks to the experiments that made her, Phoenix's ability to humanshift was corrupted. When humanshifters in her world took a human form, their hair always took the color of their natural state. Had Phoenix been a full unicorn, her hair would've been silver and easier to pass off. As it were, her hair took on the colors over the plate scales on her back arranged in vertical stripes. That was harder to pass off. Even though she had seen crazier hairstyles in this world, Phoenix's entire deal was to pass through as unnoticed as possible.

Perusing the Internet (which she took a crash course in since this world had technology hers didn't), Phoenix came across the huge info dump about HYDRA. Most of it was encrypted but given her husband was a High King and encryption was very much a part of the various kingdoms' correspondence, she was able to decipher some of it. She learned about the Winter Soldier program and that answered a lot of questions she had about Bucky, a man she had met long ago and reunited with under strenuous circumstances a few months prior. She also came across some encrypted documents that answered the big question of why HYDRA had sent Bucky after her in the first place. As she had started to suspect, she had never evaded HYDRA's notice in the mid-'40s. They had been tracking her even back then. When she "fell off the map" after 1944, the scant file they had built on cryptids was sealed. When she came back the second time, via a time jump the Road orchestrated, her arrival had been noticed without her knowledge and she apparently went viral on the Internet. Many people believed her to be a hoax. Not HYDRA, apparently.

The file she found included the mission she had found herself the target of. Just as she thought, the Winter Soldier had been sent with orders to retrieve her telson. The plan was to milk her severed stinger for venom and it was decided they didn't need all of her, just her tail. The reason they sent Bucky in was because they had correctly assumed he was least likely to die trying to retrieve the telson. HYDRA didn't know she and Bucky had made contact back in 1944 so it was merely a "happy" accident that saw her getting gunned down by a man she had met decades ago in this world's time. Apparently, the men who had taken him back then were so focused on landing their ace that the physical evidence of her being there had gone unnoticed. Be that as it may, she also learned that Bucky had talked about her during the brutal conditioning they had put him through to mold him into the world's deadliest assassin. His case file had made a small note of it, theorizing she was a figment of his imagination as he tried to resist losing himself. She was, however, described in meticulous detail. It was no wonder that when she popped up in the modern age, HYDRA took notice and decided to use her to their advantage.

Now that HYDRA was gone, Phoenix took refuge in the idea that most people didn't believe she existed despite her virality on the Internet. Anyone who came looking for her would be hard-pressed to find any evidence. Phoenix couldn't avoid detection as well as her mother's kind but she knew how to disappear. Which led her to her current location. She was somewhere in a country called Romania. Bucky was never far from her thoughts even now. Since HYDRA had been torn down, she wondered what happened to him.

Coming to a river, still mired in her thoughts, Phoenix brought her head down to drink. After a moment, she felt eyes on her and her head shot up to take in her surroundings. It didn't take long before she found the one watching her. She froze when she saw it was Bucky himself. "Speak of the devil and he shall appear," she thought. He seemed like a different man than the one who had shot her tail off and who she left with a damaged arm. He was looking at her in unabashed wonder. Not sure if she was in danger or not, Phoenix decided to cut her losses and put as much ground between them as possible. She had no idea if he was hunting her. But just as she made a move to turn and run, his voice made her pause.

"Don't go,"

The words had slipped out before Bucky could stop them. It was plain the animal recognized him in turn and the way she regarded him made him wonder if that was fear he saw. She had stopped midturn and looked at him again. "Who am I talking to?" she asked. So she could speak. Her question was an obvious lure. She was trying to decipher if it was him or the Winter Soldier speaking to her. "We met...a long time ago. I was in a ditch or something. My arm was lying nearby...and there you were. Like some angel decided to take on the form of a...monster? No. No, not a monster. Just...something not entirely real but is all the same," he replied, stumbling over his words a little.

A loud exhalation of air made him look up at the animal. She had turned back to face him head-on. "Are you Bucky? Or are you just trying to lull me into a false sense of security?" she asked. His eyes dropped a bit and his entire expression just screamed: "I don't know who I really am". His expression turned to wariness as it appeared the animal decided to join him on the opposite bank. He sat really still as she lowered her horned head to his face. He almost cracked a small smile when she nudged his face with her velvety nose but remained completely lax. She was using his scent to gauge his threat level. The nudge was clearly accidental. Everything about her made it seem she was hesitant about contact.

When she got out of his face and backed up a couple of steps, Bucky lifted his eyes to hers. It was rather strange but she seemed to be smiling very humanlike. "The last time we met, you shot my tail off. You didn't know me," she said. The man just looked down again. He had vague memories of that mission. Even though HYDRA had wiped him after his first meeting with Steve, it wasn't a deep wipe so his memories of that mission and the animal in front of him weren't completely stripped away. He didn't have to see her tilting her head at him. He could feel it. "I...know an apology isn't enough," he said. She brought her eyes down to his level again. "As if I could hold it against you, knowing what I know now," she said.

Phoenix moved her head out of reach when Bucky reached out. "Don't...," she said, her voice catching oddly. At his confused expression, she swallowed. "You already know deep down that I'm not natural by any real stretch. Did you ever ask yourself why?" she asked. He just tilted his head questioningly, which told her the thought never crossed his mind and he had just accepted her existence without question. But at the same time, he was starting to put two and two together. "You don't like being touched," he said. "I'll spare you all the details but I was created by an alchemist and experimented on when I was born. Many of those experiments ended in pain. I don't...like it when humans touch me. All you do is hurt," she explained.

Bucky's expression said it all. He wanted to assure her he would never hurt her but they both knew it would be a bald-faced lie. Even though his programming had been active at the time, the truth remained he had hurt her. Not only did he disarm her of her primary weapon but he had also wrangled her to the ground and held a gun to her head. What he couldn't seem to answer for himself was why she hadn't done more to throw him off back then. She was a huge, thousand-pound animal with the strength to match. Had the shock of seeing him for the first time in decades throw her off that much? Had the gun pointed at her skull kept her from trying any rash moves? "You must think I'm a monster," he finally said. Phoenix shook her head in disagreement. "No. I was created into a world where my kind isn't perceived kindly. I'm just one of the lucky few who managed to survive without losing myself to despair. You didn't have any more of a choice than I did," she said.

"You're beautiful," came the surprising statement. Phoenix's eyes shot over to meet Bucky's. He still had a slight deadpan look on his face but it was only on the surface. Under it was a very tired, very old man. She had been called beautiful on many occasions. Her husband was often the one who said it. It was easy to believe when it was him saying it. Seiryu was very old and being a dragon meant he was extremely honest. When it came from others, it was harder to believe they were being genuine. She always decided to believe them when they said it, too. She hesitated when it came to Bucky. She wasn't sure why. This was the first time they met since 1944. The man who had held a gun to her head a few months ago...wasn't him.

Just like his plea for her to stay had slipped, so had the compliment. Bucky just expertly hid his own surprise and thinking about it led the conclusion that he spoke the truth. After everything he had lived through and done, this animal was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. She exuded an aura that made him feel unworthy to even be talking to her. He had a vague memory of when they met in 1944. She had implied unicorn ancestry and from what he could remember of fairy tales, unicorns generally had a distrust of men and preferred the company of pure girls. Those tales also mentioned the magical aura they put off. However, she had told a different story. She didn't like humans touching her because she had been subjected to pain every time they did.

The former Winter Soldier looked at her again. "What's your name?" he asked. "Phoenix," she replied. He slowly raised his flesh hand up to her. "I know you don't like being touched and I won't pressure you but...," he trailed off. He remembered wanting to touch her decades ago but couldn't because of his condition at the time. He wanted to see for himself that he was still capable of a gentle touch and to know without a doubt that she was a real creature. Back when HYDRA was beating him senseless, he hung onto the memories he had of them in the ravine and questioning if she had been real. Sure, she was standing there in front of him right now but he couldn't trust anything. He needed to physically touch her. He wanted to believe contact with her would heal his soul.

Phoenix tilted her head. Bucky just looked so thoroughly defeated and tired. Physically, he was still in his prime thanks to the countless years he spent frozen but his eyes were just like those of the Masters, the five beasts who ruled her world. Ancient and forever. Her husband was one of them. It was hard to wrap her mind around the fact that Bucky was in his late 90s chronologically because he didn't look it. By unicorn standards, he was still very young but humans had an average seventy to eighty-year lifespan and their youth was ridiculously fleeting. Thanks to everything that had been done to him, Bucky had been robbed in ways she couldn't fathom and he was sitting there looking lost. She contemplated his request.

He was looking for healing, she realized. She had been in this world long enough to know her mother's kind were myths. Unicorns never had existed here except in fairy tales. Some of them lined up with the truth, particularly how unicorns had healing powers. She wondered if Bucky assumed that touching her would help him somehow. She wasn't a unicorn but she was the closest thing he had to one. She had limited magic, including the healing arts. But even if she were fully unicorn, it was impossible to meet his request. "I can't heal you, Bucky. Not in the way you're looking for." she finally said. He visibly deflated and dropped his hand. She shifted on her hooves. She was comfortable with those she knew and trusted well touching her. Bucky hadn't earned that level of trust at all and through no fault of his own. She had made physical contact with him in their previous encounters of her own accord. It didn't count. Perhaps...she could make an exception. He had gone through so much torture, pain, and hardship that if she could do anything to ease his soul, she owed to him to help.

She also felt she had to make up for essentially abandoning him to his fate seventy years ago. If she had just intervened before those HYDRA rats took him away, he wouldn't have gone through the hell he had. Her heart broke. She wasn't really responsible for anything that had happened but she had made a choice that day in the mountains and robbed a young man of a normal life. She stamped a hoof to get his attention. "That metal arm of yours...can you promise it won't act of its own accord?" she asked.

Bucky looked up at her, puzzled by the strange question. "This arm is bionic, not cybernetic. There's nothing for anyone to hack, even remotely. I'm not sure how much my word is worth to you but I swear that any actions it takes are done at my will." he replied. Where did she get the idea that his arm was computerized? Hackable, even? Regardless, the answer seemed to satisfy the chimera but she was still wary. She closed the distance and to his surprise, bent her head down to nudge his flesh hand. Bucky wasn't sure what to do but after a moment, Phoenix had managed to work her nose into his hand and kept it there. "I can't heal you and this is difficult for me to do but I suppose...I can allow this," she said by way of explanation.

Bucky slowly got to his feet, his hand still on her velvety nose. He remembered petting horses before. It was almost shocking just how normal she felt. He was expecting her to be unimaginably soft to the touch. To her credit, Phoenix allowed the cold metal of his bionic hand to make contact with her as well. He couldn't feel textures with that hand. Still, it had such fine-tuned motor control that he could do anything with it a normal hand could and he kept it hidden so no one was the wiser. He wordlessly looked to her for permission. He wanted to feel her scales. She just sighed, closing her eyes. Bucky ran his flesh hand across her fur before going for the scales. Her fur didn't feel any different from that of a horse's. He didn't know why but he felt a touch disappointed. Guess he had gotten his expectations up too high. His hand came to rest on one of the plate scales on her back. It was smooth and the color of blood. He ignored the flashbacks the color elicited. He marveled at how her scales blended seamlessly into each other and her fur.

The gold, hexagonal ones on her shoulders were also smooth. Bucky made a point to avoid touching her tail. It was in rest position but he had a vague memory of it in action. Normal humans couldn't see a scorpion tail strike but he could. His enhanced senses had allowed him to see hers snapping and sending his gun flying. He was rightfully wary of it. Supersized and attached to an animal it had no business being attached to, it was still the part of an arachnid smart people avoided. He instead turned his attention to her horn complex. She didn't say anything as his fingers felt them. They were thick and almost blocky in appearance. A far cry from the horns of a sheep and the traditional depictions of unicorns. They were sheathed in silver and the flat planes were as smooth as her scales. Her mane, he noticed, was cropped short like a zebra's. He then settled for absently running his hand along her neck.

Against her better judgment, Phoenix allowed herself to relax. It was usually around this time that she'd shy away from someone's hands but the way Bucky ran his flesh hand against her neck reminded her of her husband. He was gentle but at the same time, he didn't think her fragile. Some of her friends in other worlds sometimes touched her delicately as if she were made of glass. They knew her backstory and it somehow lodged in their minds that she was easily broken. Bucky was different. He didn't touch her as if she would break. He was just petting her as he would a horse. There was something therapeutic about it as well. She didn't even protest when he wordlessly managed to get her to lie down so he could sit again.

Her violet eyes slowly closed and continued to let him stroke her neck and face. Her mind started drifting away, thinking of home. She wondered what her husband was doing at this moment. His job as High King of the East and World Master kept him busy most days but she knew he worried about her. He would be fine without her regardless. She was prone to wander the plains outside the Eastern Range anyway, sometimes being away for days at a time. Then there was the fact he had been alone to an extent for his entire existence. She vaguely felt her head moving until it rested against Bucky's chest, vaguely noting he paused for a moment in confusion. She didn't move but she made sure she didn't press too hard. Horns weren't the most comfortable of physical traits, being hard bone. Her horns were even harder, sheathed in metal-like alicorn, the material covering the horns of her mother's kind.

"You remind me of him," she said, as her head came to rest on his lap.

Phoenix leaning her head to his chest and later to his lap made Bucky feel funny. He had expected her to reach the end of her tolerance for being touched but she seemed to retreat into his strokes as if she needed them. When she spoke, he jolted a little. "Remind you of who?" he asked. "My husband." came the response. If she were looking at him, she would've seen the look of confusion on his face. However, it seemed she sense the shift in his demeanor and sighed. "Where I come from, marriage isn't just the province of humans. So yes, I have a husband. Of course, to your ears, that sounds pretty fantastical so perhaps 'mate' or 'pair-bond' is a better choice," she explained. She was starting to feel drowsy. The rhythmic motions of a hand on her neck were making her sleepy.

"Would he...be okay with this? Me touching you?" came the hesitant question. "He's very old. Older than you are, actually. And he's far beyond possessiveness. Dragons either feel very strongly or not at all but possessiveness is something they never feel. He wouldn't mind. He's lived his entire life without me and he'll live on long after I'm gone. You remind me of him because of your eyes. They reveal your age and your exhaustion, just like his. I guess this is why my tolerance hasn't run out," she explained. Bucky wasn't sure which seemed more like complete hogwash, the fact she was (by human standards) married or the fact her mate was a dragon. Where in the world had she come from? "How old are we talking about?" he asked instead. "Six thousand years old. He's lived since our world came into being and he'll live to see the end of it. The details are dense and I don't want to overwhelm you with information that's best left unsaid," she replied.

Bucky had no choice but to accept she was telling the truth. She was a talking animal but still an animal. Animals had no reason to lie or deceive. Even if they could, Phoenix didn't seem the type. She didn't seem to pick up on it but Bucky could read her easily. Almost too easily. She had come through a lot herself and it hit him that the reason he was so invested in her was because they were kindred spirits. Her suffering was something he could only guess at. He only had her admission of being experimented on. Silence fell between them. Bucky was no longer aware his hand was still stroking the soft fur of the creature. From that point, time slipped by.

Bucky woke up first. He wasn't even aware of when he fell asleep. A look at the sky revealed that the sun hadn't broken the horizon just yet. He was on his side and his arm was draped across Phoenix's neck. She was sleeping on her own side and he noted that she had dug a rut into the soil so she could sleep easier. For some reason, he remembered reading stories from the first World War when horse calvaries were still a thing. Many soldiers slept that way with their horses. Feeling a little awkward, Bucky slowly took his arm off and sat up. When was the last time he had slept that soundly? He didn't even have any nightmares. A quick look at Phoenix's horns gave him an idea. They were glowing slightly. He figured she had somehow used magic to calm his mind and prevent the usual night terrors.

Running a hand over his face, Bucky stretched a bit before standing up. He gently nudged Phoenix with a shoe. "Hey, wake up," he said. The animal snorted as she woke up before rolling onto her belly. She seemed a bit dazed and out of sorts. "You okay?" he asked, a spark of concern. "I'm fine. Sometimes, I tend to forget where I am when I'm not home. It's fine," she said. Getting to her hooves, she shook her body out and flexed her tail. She looked around the forest before looking at her companion. "Where were you heading?" she asked. "Bucharest," he replied. He reached out and was mildly surprised when she didn't shy away. "Will you come with me?" he asked. Phoenix looked over at him, weighing his words. "As far as the forest goes. I won't go beyond the edge. As much as it aggravates me, I haven't gone as unnoticed as I would've liked. I don't want to draw any more attention to myself than I already have," she replied. Bucky just nodded in acquiescence. He felt disappointed she couldn't stay with him. Even though they had been together for less than a day, he found he liked the companionship she brought.

It reminded him of something he had read in passing when he was making his way across Europe. Animals had ways of making people feel better. Phoenix was less of an animal and more of an equal now. She was easy to talk to and she didn't judge him. He wondered if it was because animals themselves didn't judge humans too harshly. They were privy to certain truths and weren't as easily manipulated into preconceived notions. He said nothing of his thoughts and just started walking, jumping across the river with ease. Phoenix joined him on the other side, her head swinging as she walked. She seemed lost in thought so he was content to leave her to it. The silence was companionable and he needed to focus on his surroundings anyway.

When they reached the edge of the forest, the two paused. "This is where we part ways. For now. My Road's dumped me here three times now and I think I've learned why," Phoenix said. The former Winter Soldier looked at her. She met his gaze and gave that strangely human smile. "You and I, Bucky, have now forged a connection," she said. The corners of the man's lips twitched slightly into a ghost of a smile. He looked down at his metal hand. "Does this mean...you forgive me?" he asked. "Far as I'm concerned, there's nothing to forgive. Unlike humans, I'm not so quick to judge. It's on you to decide if I forgive you or not," she replied. They looked at the city in the distance. Bucky started for it but he paused, turning back. "Will I see you again?" he asked. Phoenix just buzzed her lips like a horse. "That depends on if my Road circles around again. It's already led me here three times. I won't be surprised if it does so again," she responded.

Seemingly satisfied with that answer, Bucky started off. Phoenix watched him go. After he had put some distance between them, she suddenly seized and blood started gushing from her mouth. She hacked a bit and smiled bitterly. "He didn't even wonder why he slept so well. He doesn't need to know that I took on his burdens, if only for a night. I regret nothing." she said to herself. She hacked again as more blood came from her mouth, followed by her nose. It just poured out like a waterfall. She wasn't in any real danger. Physically, she was perfectly fine. The blood didn't have any source internally. She was just glad this waited until Bucky had left her side. If he had witnessed her suddenly vomiting blood, he wouldn't have left her and she'd have to come clean about what she had done to grant him a little comfort. Phoenix just had to ride it out a bit. "We are, both of us...broken," were her last thoughts as she faded from view.