Bucky walked into the house and looked to where Phoenix was sleeping in her true form. She had awoken when the plane touched down in Latvia and allowed Zemo to check on her gunshot wound. It was healing fairly well and quickly but Zemo re-bandaged the wound with medical tape and large gauze pads just to be safe. Sam expressed surprise that her healing ability was that potent. Phoenix kept largely quiet. Her eyes had a slightly haunted look to them but Bucky could tell it wasn't her getting shot that was causing it. She was clearly remembering something else. None of the men pushed her to talk and they helped her through the streets to the place where Zemo resided when visiting the country. Once there, Bucky left her in Sam's care and went for a walk. The Falcon helped Phoenix in and once the doors were closed, the first thing the chimera did was shift back to her actual form and lay down by the stained glass windows towards the back. Her head was down and she was asleep in minutes.
Zemo came out of the shower as Bucky came in. He followed the White Wolf's gaze to their unnatural companion. "She's been like that since we arrived. Even after all that, I still can't believe your princess is this very creature," the Baron said, moving to the kitchen island. Bucky moved towards Phoenix and knelt down, setting a hand on the green plate scale on her withers. "She needs to go back," he said. "To where?" asked Sam. "Where she came from. Her world. This is exactly what I was afraid of. Her getting injured on my watch. I'll be lucky if her pair-bond doesn't rip through to our dimension to kill me for letting this happen," Bucky responded. He looked over to see Sam and Zemo looking at him expectantly. He stayed quiet, not about to spill any more of her secrets.
"Phoenix getting shot wasn't your fault, Bucky. I watched it happen the same as you. That guy came out of nowhere, happened to turn and see a monster, and shot out of fear. I'm not saying Phoenix is a monster but that's what most people would see her as and they would react accordingly. She's anything but normal," Sam said. The White Wolf just stood up and went to lean on the counter. "If I may, Phoenix has made it pretty clear she has no intention of leaving you, James. At least not for the time being. I've gotten a good grasp of her personality by this point to know that if you start pushing her to leave, she won't take it very kindly and will actively go out of her way to defy you," Zemo spoke up. The two Avengers gave him a look. The Baron just shrugged before turning his gaze to the large animal. "Right now, we have a wounded animal on our hands. A wounded animal that is relatively docile but not above aggression. Most importantly, a wounded animal that can communicate like a person. That alone makes her more dangerous than she already is. I, for one, don't want to be on the wrong end of that tail of hers if she gets angry," he said.
"Dude's got a point, Bucky. I'd rather we leave any decisions about this up to her. She's way too human to be treated like any other mundane animal. She has a concept of choice. On the flip side, she's too much of an animal to be treated like a person. She might be docile, as Zemo put it, for now, but she might turn on us if she thinks we're a threat to her. I'm worried about her getting into a situation like this again but I'm not taking any chances in overstepping because I don't know her as well as you do. You also made her a promise. Don't renege on that," Sam added. Bucky took a deep breath before nodding in agreement. "Anyway, the Dora Milaje are here. They're after him but I managed to buy some time," he said, switching topics. As the men began discussing their next steps, none of them noticed a slight glow emanating from Phoenix's horns. Her ear flicked unseen as she started to dream.
She found herself back in Wakanda. It was dark out. The chimera was walking in the forest outside the city towards a fire. She paused out of sight, watching. She saw Bucky sitting in front of the fire, Ayo standing by him. He expressed fear that it wasn't going to work. That the words would turn him into the monster HYDRA made him. Ayo assured him she wouldn't let him harm anyone. She then started to recite the trigger words. Phoenix just stayed put, knowing the dream for what it was. It was among the many memories she had seen that night she reunited with Bucky in New York. She watched as each word caused him apparent physical pain as he remembered everything he ever did as the Winter Soldier. His fear was thick in the air. Ayo was reaching the end of the word chain when he started shedding tears. But Phoenix understood them. He knew then, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he was finally free. His joy was her heartbreak for everything he had ever suffered. Then her dreams took her back to her earliest memories, the root of her own traumatic beginning.
Phoenix slowly woke up to find herself alone. Slowly raising her head, the chimera stayed put, giving the opposite wall a thousand-yard stare. She eventually shifted into her false form and got up. She found a note from Bucky on the kitchen island and a smile teased the corners of her mouth. The first thing he wrote was how unsure he was if she could read, given what she was. Fortunately for him, Phoenix had been taught to read by her pair-bond. The note just said that he, Sam, and Zemo were out tracking down a woman connected to Karli Morgenthau, the leader of the Flag-Smashers. She was to stay put until they came back. The shifter set the note down before clutching her head. It was pounding and her chest hurt a bit. "No...no, I'm past all that. He's gone...he can't hurt me anymore," she heaved.
Sinking down to the floor against the island and curling into a ball, Phoenix gave into her long-buried memories of everything her own creator ever did. Testing her abilities, removing sections of her tail to test her regeneration, outright ripping it off once to see if it would regrow from a stump, blood draws, forcing her to hit herself deliberately with her stinger to see her level of her immunity, and tested the durability of her scales after they hardened completely. There were others but at the end of the day, all his experiments began on a baby. A baby who had barely started to walk and didn't understand what was happening to her. Bucky's own experiences from the times she had taken on his burden (like in Romania, Wakanda, and New York), started getting jumbled with her own in Phoenix's head. His pain and his fear became hers. Her mind was racing. Her head was splitting. Then finally, the memories ended with Bucky's scream as he fell from the train, leading up to when they first met.
Her eyes snapped open, tears freely falling. The flames of her pair-bond's spell were wafting off her skin as they slowly pulled off her body to form a small, serpentine dragon. "Seiryu," she whispered. The flame dragon just touched his nose to hers. The message was plain. He had felt her pain across the dimensions and was influencing the spell he cast to reach her. "I can't leave yet, Seiryu. I can't leave him...please," she said quietly. The spell just let off a series of clicks. Phoenix wished her pair-bond could communicate with words through the spell but this was beyond what its purpose was. Verbal communication wasn't possible. Still, she understood. Her High King gave her his blessing to remain. The flames rubbed against her before flickering out. Phoenix's injury twinged as her magic continued to heal it. She set a hand on her shoulder and curled a little tighter. She had never been shot before, by a bullet or an arrow. Most injuries she had picked up over her long life were surface-level at most and didn't hurt like this.
Bucky, Sam, and Zemo came in to find Phoenix on the floor in her human form, back to them. The White Wolf picked up the pace and went over to her. "Phoenix?" he called, reaching her side. He knelt down and picked her up by the shoulders. Her violet eyes slowly opened and she looked up at his worried blue-greys. "Hey," she said, smiling a little. Sighing in relief, Bucky helped her sit up. "Don't scare me like that, Nix," he said. "Sorry," she said. "You doing alright?" asked Sam. "Better. Thanks," she responded. Her face fell but she shook her head when asked what was wrong. She looked at Bucky and tilted her head, scrutinizing him. "No," she said. "I didn't say anything," he said. "You were thinking it and the answer is no," she shot back. Zemo and Sam exchanged a look. Bucky just held his hands up. "Trust me, Sam talked me out of it. This is your call, not mine," he said. "Good, then we understand each other," Phoenix said.
Zemo approached and knelt down. He started pulling back the pad on her back to check on her progress. "Fascinating. The wound has healed. No evidence of you having been shot remains," he said, pulling it off. Phoenix pulled the pad on her chest off and checked it out for herself. Truly magnificent was the power to heal that coursed through her veins, thanks to her unicorn ancestry. "I was a bit destabilized. That's why I was on the ground. I'm still in a vulnerable state so please, give me space. You don't need to worry about me," she said, crawling away to sit against the wall. Bucky, Sam, and Zemo exchanged a look as her eyes started to softly glow again. They decided to leave her to it and convened near the couch to discuss their mission. Zemo revealed that a funeral for Karli's mother figure would be held that afternoon. They didn't have much time. Before heading out, Bucky went over to kneel in front of Phoenix. Her eyes were still glowing but she looked up at him. "We're heading back out. Stay here," he said. She just smiled and gave his wrist a squeeze. "Be careful, Bucky," she said.
After about an hour, Phoenix looked up to see Sam helping a dazed and injured Zemo into the place. "What happened?" she asked as they sat Zemo down. "John Walker happened, princess. Hit me on the head with that damn shield," the Baron muttered, lying down. Phoenix only spared her friend a glance before running a washcloth under the faucet and bringing it over. She laid it over Zemo's eyes, only for him to lift it a little and give her an odd look. She rolled her eyes before standing up. "Payback for helping me after I was shot. Don't make it weird," she said before returning to her place by the wall. Bucky walked in at that moment after Sam handed the Baron a glass of whiskey.
Phoenix's senses were on alert and they were proven right when Walker and Hoskins walked in. Surreptitiously moving to put the island between her and the humans, she kept her silence. She sensed the presence of others closing in but felt no threat to her own safety. The Dora Milaje, led by Okoye's lieutenant Ayo, walked in. The Dora noticed the shifter standing out of the way and cocked an eyebrow. "I see the Horned Beast has indeed returned," Ayo noted, giving Phoenix a respectful nod. "How did you know? And how do you know her?" Sam asked. "I was in Wakanda just before Bucky came out of cryosleep. I made the acquaintance of his hosts, King T'Challa and the Dora Milaje, and earned their respect in kind. Horned Beast was a name they gave me since they don't have a word for my species in their tongue. As for how they knew me for what I am, well, my shadow's not exactly hidden," Phoenix explained.
She caught Walker's gaze and stared him down. Something seemed off about him but she made it clear to him she was staying out of the conflict she knew was coming. And come it did. The new Captain America overstepped and it turned into a brawl. Zemo just moved to stand with her. "Your loyalty seems...conditional," he noted when Sam and Bucky got involved. "I know when I'm outmatched, Zemo. Survival comes first and I really don't need to be involved. Besides, the Dora Milaje aren't here to kill anyone. That would change things where I'm concerned," she said, keeping her eye on the action.
The fight was over when Ayo hit various pressure points on Bucky's vibranium arm. It crashed the floor and Bucky looked at her with a mix of fear and surprise. Phoenix instinctively squared herself, ready to intervene. But Ayo did nothing more than stare at the White Wolf with disappointment in her eyes. "Bast damn you, James," she hissed. She went to where Zemo had disappeared during the fight, something even Phoenix had missed. "He's gone," she said before telling her fellow Dora to leave the shield she had taken off Walker. She then looked over to meet Phoenix's violet gaze. "And you, Horned Beast...you would continue to follow this man?" she asked, nodding her head in Bucky's direction. The chimera shifted back into her true form and clopped a hoof to the floor. She slowly curled her tail to half-mast.
"I'll tell you what I told him. I will continue to follow him until he gives me a reason not to. I haven't found a reason to stop yet. So yes, I will continue to follow him. That said, you and I both know that my only stake in this conflict is making sure Bucky is safe. Especially after my failure to protect him decades ago. He may have forgiven me but I haven't," she explained. Ayo tilted her head. "I sometimes wonder if you're worthy of respect or pity," she mused. The chimera just closed her eyes and shifted. "Humans with the know-how create my species from scratch just because they can, ethics be damned. Others would hunt us for sport. Still others don't see us as living creatures. Just abominations to be stamped out. Bucky and Sam are among the very few in my life who show me respect and friendship. I know all of Wakanda who know me...you and your fellow Dora Milaje and your King...you only look on me with pity. As for the matter at hand, it's not my place to judge the actions of a species I barely understand," Phoenix responded.
Ayo considered her words for a moment before nodding her head in respect. "My disappointment is in James, Horned Beast. You have done nothing the Dora Milaje can hold you in contempt for. I can only pray that Bast grants you wisdom in this path you have to chosen to walk at the White Wolf's side," she said before the Wakandans left. Bucky leaned down and picked up his arm. "Did you know they could do that?" Sam asked as the White Wolf reattached his arm. "No," came the response. Bucky swung his arm down to recalibrate it. The men then looked at their companion. She met their eyes before looking over to where John Walker was sitting. Hoskins was standing in front of him. "They weren't even super-soldiers," was all Walker said before he shot a look at Phoenix.
"Zemo was standing right there with you and you didn't see him sneak away?" he said, getting to his feet to confront her. Bucky and Sam moved to intercept him but a gigantic scorpion tail shot between them to hover just over Walker's heart. In the space of those few seconds, Phoenix had jumped back to her true form and was snorting aggressively. Her head was held in a charger's position. "Don't test me, Walker. You, of all people, should remember that I'm the most dangerous thing in this room right now. My venom is a lethal cocktail of necrotoxins and cardiotoxins. The necrotoxins eat away at the injection site while the cardiotoxins wreak havoc on your heart until it stops. If I were inclined to, I could kill you almost instantly. Don't push your luck," she warned. Walker just glared before wisely choosing to stand down. He and Hoskins then left.
Phoenix brought her tail back to rest position before swinging her head over to look at her friends. "Remind me never to piss you off," Sam said with a shaky laugh before he and Bucky went to check the bathroom where Zemo had disappeared. "I can't believe he pulled an El Chapo," Sam said in disbelief. "I can," Bucky sighed. Turning to the chimera, he went up and set a hand on her chin. "Thank you. For staying out of it," he said. "The Dora Milaje are beyond my skill. And I knew they wouldn't kill you," was all Phoenix said before shifting into her human form. "We better split," Sam said. The other two agreed and they made tracks.