SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME

The battle was over. It had been a wild ride. After Thanos was Snapped out of existence by Tony Stark, who died as a result, Steve Rogers had taken the Infinity Stones back to their proper places in time. He didn't return when he should have, which Bucky Barnes had known was going to happen. He and Sam Wilson then found Steve as an old man sitting nearby. Steve bequeathed his shield and mantle as Captain America to Sam. Bucky was fine with that. He knew that everything he had done as the Winter Soldier meant he wasn't worthy of either the shield or the mantle.

At the moment, Bucky was lying under a tree on Stark's property. He was alone. Everyone else respected his need for space. Pepper Potts, Stark's widow, allowed him to stay as long as he wanted. Bucky just meditated and internalized how much his life had changed over the past few decades. After returning the Stones, Steve had gotten the life he had wanted after the war. He had effectively been left behind but again, Bucky was fine with that and for the same reason as being passed over for the Captain America mantle. That didn't mean it didn't hurt. His heart was wounded and filled with regrets. His greatest was that he wasn't able to meet Stark on equal footing and apologize for murdering his parents as the Winter Soldier.

Closing his blue-grey eyes, Bucky's mind started drifting towards Phoenix, a chimera he had made contact with several times over the years. He had gotten the full story about what happened to her after the first Snap. Hearing that she had mourned him surprised him on some level. They had a bond, true, but he didn't think the bond was that strong. They were together in short bursts in 1944, 2014, 2016, and 2018. Did her status as an animal mean that the connection they had was much stronger on her end? He didn't rightfully know but he accepted it all the same. He just cherished the fact that she accepted him and his past without judgment. She believed in him to the same length as Steve, if not more. He thought back to when they reunited in Wakanda a few years ago. Both of them were undeniably happy to see each other. Bucky had been freed of his HYDRA programming and he no longer doubted the scorpion-tailed, horned horse was indeed a legitimately real creature.

He wished she would come back. According to Steve, she had phased out of reality not long after he had been dusted and hadn't been seen in the five years since. Steve had also told him she had been involved in the battle of Wakanda because she appeared before him and the survivors of the Snap when it was all over. Bucky had known she was there but he hadn't seen her since the fighting started. Cap told the White Wolf that Phoenix had been in a bad way when it was all said and done. She had started hemorrhaging from having her husband's spell active throughout the ordeal and Steve ventured a guess that losing him had exacerbated her condition. Bucky wanted to apologize but knew that she would never accept it. Because she would see no fault in him. Phoenix had told him once that a dog wouldn't judge him for his past or misdeeds as long as he showed kindness to it today. That was how she, a talking animal, saw the world. As far as Phoenix was concerned, Bucky was a good man who had been nothing but kind to her. She didn't even hold his actions against her as the Winter Soldier over him.

He felt something in the wind shift and his heart knew that she had arrived. He kept his eyes closed and a smile on his lips. His enhanced hearing picked up the sounds of footfalls belonging to something big. They got closer until they stopped. He opened his eyes and his smile grew wider as they met the violet eyes of his strange friend. Phoenix was looking down at him with a humanlike smile on her face. He reached up with his flesh hand to set it on her face. They said nothing but their eyes conveyed everything. Phoenix's violet eyes spoke of how joyous she was at seeing him alive and his blue-greys spoke volumes of how happy he was to see her. The chimera, who had been standing at his head, moved to his side. She turned around and lay down next to him, her head coming around to rest on his chest. Her eyes closed and Bucky let his hand run along her neck.

Phoenix knew the moment her Road reopened the way to this world that it had a reason. Bucky had somehow returned, as did the half of this universe that had been dusted by Thanos. She didn't know how she knew or why but she found she didn't care. All she did know and care about was that he had come back. Five years had passed in this world's time since she lost him. She had faded from this reality and returned home after everything went down. She spent the time coming to terms with everything and taking the words Steve Rogers had said to her to heart. She had told her husband, Seiryu High King, everything about her roundtrips to this world and he encouraged her by listening and providing wisdom. He suggested that it was possible the denizens who were dusted may have ended up in some other dimension so once she recovered enough, Phoenix left All World once more to find if that dimension existed. She found no trace of it at all and had all but given up hope.

That's when her Road circled back to this world. The year was now 2023. Her Road dropped her where she needed to be and it was then she sensed Bucky's presence in her heart. She followed the way until it led her to him. Joy filled her being at seeing him lying under a tree. She closed the distance and it was easy to tell that Bucky knew she was there. He didn't look at her until she stood over him. When their eyes met for the first time in five years, they both knew words were superfluous. He reached up to touch her and she allowed it. She moved to lie down next to him and got comfy with her head on his chest. She enjoyed the feeling of him brushing her neck and let the sounds of nature fill her ears. Her emotions started to run high. The only sign she gave was her ears slowly moving to pin themselves back.

"Steve told me what happened. I hope you know that nothing was your fault." Bucky's voice cut through her thoughts. "I know. That's not why I'm feeling horrible right now." Phoenix replied. She opened her eyes, feeling a couple of tears slide down. She lifted her head to look at him a bit easier. "I lost you, Bucky. Then you lost your friend again and I...feel that," she said, her voice growing quieter. Bucky sat up and scooted back so he could look at her easier. "I sometimes forget that you're entuned to the feelings of people, just like any companion animal. Your sapience makes it tougher to deal with because you can verbalize it, doesn't it?" he asked. Phoenix just broke eye contact. She could feel his resignation about everything that happened to him and she could feel his resolve. He was ready to face the future. She, however, was overtaken by the past. "I lost you..." she choked out.

Bucky wrapped his arms around her neck and rested his face against her coat. There had been several times in their previous encounters where she had given him strength. He wanted to return the favor. Judging from the story Steve had told him, Phoenix had been traumatized by seeing him turn to dust in front of her. Like the survivors, she couldn't understand why it happened. It had been five years since then but considering she was (for all intents and purposes) an inter-dimensional being, he had no idea if five years had passed in her homeworld. He held her firmly, willing some strength to the defeated creature.

After a bit, the chimera settled down. Bucky had moved to lean against the tree while Phoenix had her head in his lap. "Feel better?" he asked. "Yes. Much. Sorry about that," she replied. "Don't be sorry. I understand how traumatizing it must have been for you," Bucky said. Phoenix took a deep breath and let it out. "I don't cultivate bonds with other beings that easily because of what I am. So when those bonds do form, I get attached very quickly," she explained. That went without saying. She brought her head up to look at him out of a violet eye. "I can say for sure now that if I were less sapient, you would make a good master," she said. The old soldier just chuckled. "I can't see you being someone's pet. You're way too human. You're meant to run wild and free as well. But the idea is nice, though. I could see us as companions," he said.

His thumb started tracing a line down her cheek. "I'm not going to lie but if it weren't for a few snags, I'd ask you to stay with me," he mused. Phoenix just nibbled at his sleeve. "And I'm not going to lie either. I wouldn't mind staying," she agreed. She got to her hooves and lowered her head. Bucky got the message. She wanted him to take hold of her horns. He complied and let her pull him to his feet. "Nice arm, by the way," she said, eyeing the black and gold piece of Wakandan tech. "Vibranium. Stronger than my previous arm," he said with a grin. The two started to take a slow walk around the Stark property, a companionable silence falling between them. Bucky just watched as Phoenix would pause here and there to sniff something.

It was always during those moments of quiet that she acted the most like a horse. She'd randomly throw her head around and her tail would twitch from time to time. He started laughing as she started cantering in circles around him as he walked. Then he watched her run full tilt away from him before looping around again to blow past him. When she looped again to come his way, Bucky started to run himself. He was faster than the average person, thanks to the experiments he had been subjected to, but it didn't take long for Phoenix to catch up and outpace him. He slowed down to a stop as she circled back. She came to a stop in front of him and reared, letting out a bell-like call. Her hooves came down to the earth and she shook her head. "Showoff," Bucky said.

"I aim to please," she replied, with a snarky edge to her voice. She leaned into the hand he set on her head. "How long do you have?" Bucky asked, his voice taking on a sad, wistful edge. "Until I phase out of this world? I can stay as long as I want. Trust me, Bucky, I won't leave you until the time is right," Phoenix assured him. The man leaned his forehead to her face and sighed. The chimera nickered a bit before pulling away a little. "You do realize I could come back anytime, right? When we say goodbye this time, it won't be forever," she assured him. The White Wolf cracked a grin before brushing his hair aside. "You always appear when I need you the most, you know? My memory is still a little hazy but I remember you from long ago...after the fall. You came to me, kept me warm, healed what you could. Then years later when I was ordered to hunt you down, even then, I still needed you. It gave whatever was left of me something to latch on." he explained. Phoenix let her head tilt, taking in his words.

Bucky flexed his vibranium hand. He felt more at ease with it than he had with his previous arm. This one, he wasn't afraid of hurting anyone with it. "Then you came to me while I was in Romania. I was lost, scared, sad. You eased my fears when you let me touch you, even though it came at great discomfort to you. I don't know what happened to make you fear human touch but you healed me so much by trusting me at a time when I didn't trust myself. You really are an angel. I keep heaping a lot of my problems on that strong back of yours, Phoenix. I am really sorry. I owe you a debt I can never repay," he said.

"I may be a chimera but I'm still a beast of burden. I don't mind carrying the weight. You don't owe me anything. I care about you and that is a priceless thing," she said, gently hitting his arm with a horn. Bucky smiled before he moved to run his hands on the plate scales along her back. "Have you ever been ridden?" he ventured. "Once. And I didn't have much of a choice. I had to get a friend out of a jam," Phoenix explained, thinking back to a particular world she had been legitimately trapped in. A friend of hers from that world had gotten into trouble with their mutual enemies and she had to bail him out by letting him on her back. "Think I could give it a shot?" Bucky asked. The chimera rolled her eyes. "Not a chance," she said. The soldier just nodded before leaning on her back. "Fair enough. Thought it was worth a shot," he said. Phoenix brought her head around to give him an incredulous look. "Do you even know how to ride?" she asked. "Nope," came the reply.

"You mean to tell me that if I allowed you on my back...you wouldn't have known what to do?" she asked. Bucky shot her a grin. She then started to laugh. "James Buchanan Barnes, you are something else," she said. "You know you love me," he fired back. Phoenix used her tail to jab him, opting to hit his vibranium arm. Less chance of accidentally stabbing him with her stinger. Even a dry hit would hurt like hell. "I suppose I do," she said. She walked over to the edge of the lake and looked out across it. Her entire posture spoke of a pensive mood. She heard Bucky sit down nearby and the telltale sound of a knife on wood.

A good half-hour had passed as Bucky whittled a wood block. He was calm and contemplating that perhaps it was time for Phoenix to go back wherever she came from. Granted, she said she wouldn't until she was sure he was okay. Bucky knew that she couldn't stay with him for the rest of his life. She had a home and someone waiting for her there. So he decided to make the most of their time together and really get to know her. "Hey, Phoenix?" he asked, getting her attention. "What is it?" she replied. "I've been meaning to ask you a question. Which you don't have to answer because it's generally considered rude to ask a woman her age. How old are you exactly? I know horses can live up to around 30 years but I can't shake this feeling you're older than that," he said. Phoenix smiled as she turned back to face the lake. "Good thing I'm not actually a woman then but even if I was, I wouldn't see anything wrong with being asked my age. I was born in 1869. I think it's safe to say I have my mother's kind's longevity," she replied easily.

Bucky raised his eyebrows in surprise. She was 154 years old? That kind of went without saying, given her overall appearance. The mention of her mother and her mother's kind had been bugging him for a while. "That's another thing. You keep referring to a mother and giving me the impression she's somehow different than you. I remember you telling me you were created through alchemy," he said. Phoenix's eyes closed but the corners of her mouth were pulled back in a humanlike smile. He locked eyes with her when she looked at him. "Remember when I told you I was also the only one of my kind who was born, not grown in a test tube?" she asked. When he nodded, she shook her body out. "There you go. The DNA that makes up the bulk of my body came from a unicorn, as you know. The same mare whose DNA provided the base genome ended up carrying me to term. It's all pretty technical and the circumstances that led to it all are not my story to tell. Let's just say it was...traumatic for my mother. She never had a choice. She didn't get to raise me either. My creator took me away not long after I was born and turned her loose," she explained.

Bucky just nodded in understanding. He could think of several scenarios she was implying but only one came to mind as the most likely. It was rather strange to assign the scenario to animals. After all, animals were bound by their biology and Nature's call. When breeding cycles began, that was all there was to it. Phoenix and those like her had the concept of choice, just like humans. Her mother had no choice in anything that had been done to her and had a deeper understanding of trauma. She was, by definition, a victim. Bucky was struck with the realization that Phoenix was the same. He knew that being dusted in front of her was traumatizing for her but it hit him like a Mach truck that her trauma was felt at a human level. Lesser animals could feel emotional trauma but they didn't understand it on the same level as people. Phoenix was so human that she could.

This realization brought up a question. "Does she hate you?" he asked, bluntly. Phoenix shook her head in the negative. "When we met for the first time since my birth, she was nothing but kind to me. Told me it was better she had given birth to me instead of...," she trailed off. She looked at Bucky who, judging from the look on his face, wasn't buying it completely. As if she were downplaying any resentment her mother had for her. "Look, the alternative would've been much worse. For every equine on the Continent. It would've resulted in an entire species making a return after the centuries it took the Masters and others to eradicate them. My mother makes it no secret that she'd never live with herself if she was the one who helped bring that species back. And where would that leave Tempest, her best friend? My birth does signal a great change in her Nation when she's gone but trust me, she told me when she first saw me at birth, she felt nothing but a mother's love. I'm a chimera, sure, but I'm still her foal. She doesn't have it in her to hate. She's gone through too much." she explained.

Bucky figured he probably should've known better. Phoenix and those like her were very human to an extent but they still operated on a different scale. Her mother was a victim but apparently, one who was genuinely grateful her foal was a chimera instead of the mystery species that Phoenix didn't name. He decided to steer the direction away a bit. "So your mother's a unicorn and I suppose that means you'll live a long time," he said. "Yes. They have a 300-year lifespan on average. I wasn't sure I would've gotten that longevity as a chimera but given how long I've lived already, it seems to be the case," she responded. "How long do chimeras live anyway? Do they all look like you?" he asked. "I'm the only one who looks like me. To my knowledge at least. Chimeras are a genetic circus of different traits and combinations. Because we're created illegally, there's no way to know how many of us there are but many end up dying young," she explained.

Bucky inferred that her kind was likely depressive, if not completely suicidal. "We're hunted as well. We're not looked at favorably but we do have poachers who find us good sport. Many of my kind were also lost to the Masters' own claws way back when they were raiding labs and destroying chimeric embryos. Then there were chimeras who were lost to Sudden Genetic Collapse," Phoenix said as if reading his mind. The thought made him angry. From everything she had told him, chimeras were living animals cast a bad lot in life and were punished for the deeds of their creators. None of them asked to be made. It was hard enough thinking the animals had to deal with mental health issues like depression and suicidal thoughts but knowing they were being poached for sport, it made his blood boil. Even the Masters were involved in the killing. He inferred that Sudden Genetic Collapse probably had to do with the genetic structure of a chimera failing on a catastrophic level. It hit him then that chimeras were just like him. Just as they never asked to be made, he never asked for his seventy years as the world's longest serving POW and brainwashed into an assassin.

Bucky was on his feet and closing the distance between himself and Phoenix. He took her curled horns in his hands and pushed his forehead to her face. The chimera just snorted horselike but didn't pull back. "You live in a cruel world, you know? Something as beautiful as you should never be hunted or condemned for being what you are. And this sentiment extends to the rest of your kind," he said. He heard her shift her weight from one side to the other but she kept her face to his. "Life is cruel, Bucky, but it's a blessing all the same. I've walked the earth for over a hundred years. I managed to survive and find a reason to live. I made it my mission to help my kind the same way my husband helped me. My kind is now a protected species and we have a territory to call our own," she said.

"I owe him. He's the reason the two of us were able to meet," Bucky said, pulling back a bit and letting his hands drop from her horns. Phoenix picked up something else in his words. "Bucky?" she questioned. He just held up a hand with his eyes closed and a smile on his lips. "Don't you think it's time for you to go back?" he asked, opening his eyes to look at her. Understanding passed over the animal's face. "You knew I was holding my Road at bay, didn't you?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"End of the line, sweetheart. But I do believe what you said. That this isn't the end if we don't want it to be. That you'll come back to me if things line up. When you go, you don't have to worry about me. Spending this time with you helped me orient myself. Just as you keep moving forward, so will I. I never have to worry about losing you," Bucky said. He tapped a finger on her chest where her heart was. "I'll always be right there. You...," he paused, bringing his hand back to rest on his chest. "Will be right here. We're friends. Part of me wishes we had met in better circumstances and that we had more time. But we both know where you belong. This isn't your world and you have someone waiting for you," he finished.

Phoenix closed her eyes in resignation. It was true that she had been holding off the Road's influence but it was also true that she had been sent back to this world see Bucky at least one final time. There were no guarantees with the Road. She hadn't lied when she said they could meet again anytime but there was no telling if her hooves would ever come this way again. Bucky was someone added to the long list of friends she had made on the various worlds she had traveled to. He meant as much to her as anyone she met. He knew it, too, and it was likely that he accepted this could be their last meeting entirely.

The chimera let her eyes close before she decided to share one last secret before letting the Road take her away. Her horns started to glow as her body shifted into that of her human false form. The gasp of surprise from Bucky met her ears as she opened her eyes when the change was finished. To her amusement, Bucky was slackjawed as he beheld her false form for the first time. She just grinned before closing the gap. Taking his face in her hands as he had done countless times, Phoenix pulled his head down to lay a kiss on his forehead. It was almost motherly in execution. When she pulled back, she kept her hands on his face and brushed his hair aside. His flesh hand slowly raised to set itself over one of hers. "So this is the ability you declined to share a long time ago? The fact you can turn into a beautiful dame?" he asked. Phoenix just jerked her head towards the ground with a light smile on her face.

Bucky followed her lead and looked down. The sunshine threw their shadows long and his blue-grey eyes widened a fraction when he saw that Phoenix's shadow was still that of her true form. "Where I come from, creatures of a magical bent can transform into humans. Our shadows show the world what we really are. This isn't the real me, though. It's just a form I can take," she explained. Bucky let his eyes meet hers again. He was still flabbergasted that she had this trick up her sleeve. His mouth started running. "You know...if this was the real you and if you weren't already spoken for, I wouldn't mind taking you out," he said before a goofy grin split his face. Phoenix just laughed before bringing her forehead up to meet his. "I'm way too old for you, honey," she said playfully. That was a bit funny and true. If they wanted to get technical, there was a gap of almost fifty years between them.

Bucky chuckled before pulling one of her hands off and, getting in touch with the man he had been back in the '40s, planted a gentlemanly kiss on it. "Goodbye, Phoenix. If we never cross paths again, it's been an honor to have known you," he said. Phoenix stroked his face with the other hand. "The honor was mine, Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes," she responded. They leaned their foreheads together again, eyes closed, before he felt her phase out of reality. When he opened his eyes to empty air, Bucky looked up at the sky. He shoved his hands into his pockets and started walking back to the house. Pepper came out to meet him. He paused, a bit wary because he wasn't sure how to interact with the widow of the man whose parents died at his hand.

Pepper came down the stairs and held something out to him. It was a candid photo of him and Phoenix when they were lying under the tree. The White Wolf looked at her questioningly. "I figured you'd like to carry a reminder of your friend," she said as an explanation. "Thank you," he said, looking at the picture again. Pepper gave his flesh arm a tiny squeeze before she went back inside. With a small smile, the old soldier started walking, slipping the picture into a pocket.