It had been a long battle. Phoenix was in Wakanda when Thanos came. While she had remained undetected and mostly out of the fighting, she still found herself accosted by his Outriders. The mindless way they attacked meant that her husband's spell had been kicked into overdrive. The downside was that even though it acted autonomously, it still drew on her inherent energy. By the time the battle was over, she was running on fumes. Exhausted, Phoenix made her way to where she had last seen Bucky. When she got there, a sudden shift in the wind caused her heart rate to spike. She picked up whatever speed she could and arrived just in time to witness something she would never forget.

"Steve?"

The unseen Phoenix and the Avengers watched as people all around them started turning to ash. Bucky was one of the first to disappear. The chimera had frozen in place as she watched him fall and disintegrate in front of her. She heard and felt confusion in the air and it was so thick, she found it hard to breathe. After a minute, the man she knew to be Steve Rogers sat beside the broken body of the android known as Vision. "Oh God," she heard him gasp as if from far away. Her eyes had stayed where Bucky had disappeared. No longer caring about staying hidden, Phoenix came out into the open, catching the remaining Avengers' attention. "The hell?" she heard the woman with blonde hair say. "Bucky?" she rasped. She pawed at the ash where he had fallen, his gun nearby. "No, no, no, no...please, no," she said.

Her wild violet eyes looked up at the Avengers. "Where is he? Where did Bucky go? Please!" she pleaded. Nerves already shot from the battle with Thanos, the Black Order, and the Outriders, several of the remaining Avengers got ready for a second fight but Steve held his arm out to make them stand down. He looked at the strange animal and recognized her from the stories Bucky had told him while they were flying to Siberia. "You knew Bucky?" he asked. "I know him. What happened? Why did all those humans suddenly turn to ash?" she asked, her tail flexing erratically. "We...don't know," Steve replied. "Thanos snapped his fingers. That's what he did," came the voice of Thor. He landed by Steve and slammed the head of Stormbreaker to the ground. Phoenix looked at him, eyes wide as saucers. "And they disappeared?" she said in a mere whisper. Thor just nodded.

Steve watched as the animal dropped her nose to the ash at her hooves. She was starting to panic from the way she pawed at it and the way her tail was moving was making his teammates nervous. "Calm down, Phoenix," he said, recalling Bucky had told him her name. That seemed to snap her out of it a bit and she met his gaze again. "Who was Bucky to you?" he asked. Swallowing hard, Phoenix tried to focus on the question. "He was...my friend," she decided on the truth. "Friend?" Steve asked. Bucky had told him about her but not the nature of their relationship. Phoenix shifted again. "I...I don't know what else to call him," she admitted. Was he a friend? All things considered, it was the best way to sum up their connection. Steve slowly knelt down and unhooked the shields T'Challa had given him to use. He just as slowly straightened up and raised his hands in a show of nonaggression.

Phoenix watched him approach with his hands up. She only had Bucky's word that Steve was a good soul who wouldn't hurt a fly unless he was in a fight. She allowed him to get close but she shifted away from his hands. "Please...don't touch me," she said in a whisper, eyeing his hands warily. Steve lowered his hands with a nod, confirming for himself what his best friend had talked about. How Phoenix was a creature who associated human hands with pain and only allowed those she trusted to touch her. "You need to keep it together before you hurt someone," he said. It was strange how he could make an order sound like a calm suggestion but it did nothing for her frayed nerves and the sudden sense that a part of her had been torn out.

Steve jumped back as the animal suddenly seized and blood started gushing from her mouth. Her violet eyes just stared into nothingness as more blood came from her nose, eyes, and even from between her scales. "Steve? What's happening?" Natasha asked, on edge. "No idea," the Captain replied. He swallowed before Phoenix looked up at him. His eyes widened when he saw the telltale look of emotional trauma. "I'm sorry," she gasped before more blood rushed out with a vengeance. Steve looked helplessly at Natasha, Bruce, and Thor. They were just as stunned as he was. One moment, Phoenix was telling them how she knew Bucky, and the next, she was bleeding out like a stuck pig. It was dawning on them that the strange creature was hemorrhaging.

"What's happening to you?" Steve asked when she finally had a moment to breathe. Phoenix went to reply but she seized again, eyes widening. She collapsed with a heavy thud, her head bouncing off the ground. More blood spilled out from her jaws as her tail curled. "Steve, we need to figure out how to stop all that blood. Otherwise, this thing's going to bleed out and die here. I'm not sure if I buy what she said about Barnes but I don't want her to be another casualty if we can help it," Natasha said, striding forward. She knelt down, ignoring Phoenix's previous words about not wanting to be touched, and set a hand on her neck. She started to rhythmically stroke her in an attempt to calm her down. The animal's face was contorted in sorrow, fear, and disbelief as it had finally caught up with her that she had watched a friend turn to dust in front of her along with her deteriorating physical state.

Phoenix's tail twitched aimlessly. The Avengers managed to find a scientist who survived the Snap and they worked quickly to administer something to her. It took a while but eventually, the blood stopped coming and she was stabilized, if a little anemic. They were forced to leave her where she had collapsed because of her size but they all worked to clear the area of bloodstained leaves and ash and dug a rut for her horn. Natasha cleaned Phoenix herself and gave her a sedative. Her inherent magic kept it from working to its full potential but she felt calmer than she had before. Her breathing was slow as she started to internalize what had transpired.

Having been human enough to cry for a number of years, Phoenix just lay on her side and let the tears flow. It felt like hell. Her ear twitched backward when she heard someone coming her way, their steps slow and their intention to not startle her. "You okay?" came Steve's voice. Phoenix just inhaled deeply and let it out. She was afraid of her body going on the fritz again. The so-called Captain America sat down next to her and looked at her. She looked a bit shellshocked but otherwise normal. "Bucky told me about you. Would it hurt too much to talk about it? I want to know your side," Steve said. Taking another deep breath, Phoenix's hoof shifted towards her body but she didn't roll onto her belly.

"In 1944, I was in the mountains when I heard a...train, I think you humans call it...and looked up in time to see him falling. Something compelled me to find him. When I did, he was lying on his back, missing his left arm, and staring up at the sky as the snow fell. At the time, I didn't know how he survived that fall. I healed him as best I could and stayed with him through the night. I'd like to think I saved his life that day...but I would be lying. HYDRA had more to do with that than I did. The following morning, he was found by them. I had left his side before they discovered me there. Not a day goes by where I don't regret my decision to hide. If I had just done something to save him from his ultimate fate, I wouldn't have been the one who robbed him of his future," she began, her voice quiet and far away. Steve looked at her. "It wasn't your fault, Phoenix. You couldn't have known. I believe you did save him but I refuse to believe you robbed him of anything. It was all HYDRA. So how did you manage to make it to this century? Something tells me you didn't come the long way," he said.

"My Road goes between the dimensions of time and space when I hop worlds. When it circled back here again, it was 2014. I learned a few truths and I came to HYDRA's attention. They sent him after me. They were after my stinger. I was able to escape but not before he had me on the ground with a gun to my head," she replied. Steve looked at her, shocked, but she continued to look at nothing. "Do you blame him?" he asked instead. "No. The man who had me pinned down wasn't Bucky. Just a weapon someone was pointing at me from the shadows. My Road didn't take long to phase me out and it circled around to this world a third time. That time, we crossed paths in Romania. He was heading to Bucharest. I was walking in the opposite direction. We just talked after I ascertained that it was Bucky I was talking to and not the weapon that had taken me down months prior. Nothing really special. I ended up accompanying him to the edge of the forest and we parted ways there," she replied.

She didn't move when she felt Steve's hand come to rest on her neck. "Were you there when he woke up?" came the question. "Yes. I stuck around for a while. Then this whole thing with Thanos happened. I just never imagined it was possible for people to disappear like that. I never...lost anyone like that. And it scares me," came the response. "You really cared about him. Loved him as a friend even," Steve said. Phoenix closed her eyes, choosing not to respond. She wasn't sure that was accurate. She had claimed Bucky as a friend but that was all she could think of to call him. As for Steve saying she loved him like one, perhaps that was true. They were only in each other's company for short bursts but a bond had been forged between them regardless. Phoenix was wild. She had no master but she supposed that if she were less sapient, she would've come to regard and love Bucky as such.

"I'm curious about why you suddenly started hemorrhaging earlier. Was that because of what happened to Bucky?" Steve then asked. "No...that was going to happen regardless. During the battle, my husband's spell was in a near-constant state of release. It draws on my energy to work even though I have no direct control over it. The fact those Outriders had a swarm mentality meant that I was going to be in over my head no matter what, so the spell fired off and just kept burning. By the time it was all over, my body was weakened to the point where it started to fall apart. Rest easy. As we speak, my inherent magic is already healing me. It would take more than that to kill me. I'm just glad...he didn't have to see me like that," she said.

Sighing, Phoenix decided to go all the way and admit something. "It happened to me once before, for a different reason, when Bucky and I met in Romania. We ended up falling asleep in the woods overnight and I decided to take on his burdens. I wanted him to have at least one night of peaceful sleep. The connection we forged allowed me to draw on his inner turmoil and demons. I didn't start hemorrhaging a little until he was on his way to the city when we parted ways at the forest's edge. It wasn't nearly as bad that time around. It was worth it, though. I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I know...what it's like to live in a world that hates you. I just...wanted him to know he wasn't alone. That someone cared about him," she explained. Her eyes slid shut as Steve looked at her sadly. Silence fell between her and the Captain. His hand was mindlessly running down her neck and she found she didn't mind. It was funny considering she had met Steve literally that day. Her horns started to glow as she decided to dive deep within herself. Bucky was gone but a trace of him remained.

Deep inside her soul, Phoenix found herself face to face with the Winter Soldier as she remembered him. She just tilted her head as the masked man regarded her in kind. "I don't want to see you. You're just a weapon," she said. Her tail snapped, her stinger hitting the Soldier dead center. The Soldier's eyes widened in shock at the blow before his visage shattered like glass, revealing Bucky as she saw him in Romania. "No...I don't want you either," she said, sadly. She snapped her tail again and that version of Bucky also shattered. Before her stood the one she had met long ago. He wore his Howling Commandos uniform, hair short with a shadow coming in on his face. Unlike when they first met, he was still whole in body. He had his hands shoved in his pockets as he regarded the chimera. He then pulled his hands out and reached out invitingly. Phoenix just closed the distance at her own pace and let his hands take her head, leaning his forehead to hers. "I'm sorry...," she said. Deep down, she knew she had to leave this world behind and return home. She needed her husband. She needed Seiryu.

Steve looked down when he noticed something was off. Phoenix's body was starting to phase out. She opened her eyes and rolled them up to look at him. "Don't be afraid. My Road is calling me home again. I'm sorry to leave you like this and I'm sorry about him," she said. Steve just smiled a little and pat her neck. "Just keep moving forward," he said. Phoenix gave a shaky laugh. "Says the man who won't do the same. I can read you. Before I go, I do have a question," she said. "What's that?" the Captain asked. "Why are you here with me and not off on your own to mourn him?" she asked. Steve looked to the horizon. That was a good question. "I guess...I didn't want you to be alone," he replied. The chimera sighed and her eyes drifted closed. "Thank you. I can't promise I'll come this way again...but I hope the future is kinder," she said. With those final words, Phoenix phased out of that reality and found herself between dimensions. She just started walking her Road, heart heavy, and wondering if she'd ever see that world again.