Phoenix Fire (Book 2 in the Winter's Series)

Chapter Twenty: Ashes to Ashes

I immediately turn my attention to Bucky who's back is littered with bullet wounds. I sink to my knees over his prone body.

"Oh no no no no no." I weep and reach out to touch him. My flames don't burn his skin, they caress it. I watch in amazement as his wounds close as the fire licks at his skin. He begins to stir and I turn him over and cradle him to me. "You're going to be okay. You're going to be okay." I repeat as I rock the both of us. I look to the wall where my once cream colored wings hang, now devoid of color. The tips begin to crumble and turn to ash. I bite my lip and hold in my sobs and turn away from the scene to help Bucky sit up.

"Eden, are you okay?" He asks, unaware of the events that happened after he fell. I nod my head slowly before shaking it in the end. He wraps his arms around me and pulls my naked body into his chest. I feel him pick up and blood soaked hand. "You didn't... Eden.."

"I couldn't bear to watch you die. Losing you is more painful than losing a part of myself. You're my partner, my friend."

"Eden..." He says as he sits up, taking off his bullet hole riddled black jacket and places it around my shoulders.

"Just get me out of here, please." I say weakly. He stands up and turns to pick me. He gingerly lifts my up behind my knees and below my shoulder blades. I wrap my arms around his neck to stabilize myself. Bucky carries me out of the basement, leaving a trail of blood droplets behind. There's a deep pain in my chest, like a hole. A hole I can't fill even if I could try. He set's me down and I drop the back of the jacket so that he can take a look at my back.

"This is going to hurt, a lot. I have to push the bones back in so that you can heal." He says with his hand positioned over my shoulder blades. I nod slowly, welcoming the pain. At first it's just pressure, but as the pressure builds it turns to ricocheting pain. I hold in my screams and fight the tears building in my eyes. I feel so lost, a huge part of my identity is gone. I'm not sure who I am without my wings. So much has happened since I got them, I don't know if I can go back to who I was before the experiments. "Are you okay?"

"You keep asking me that..." I say pulling the jacket back up around my shoulders.

"You keep dodging it."

"I know. I'm not- I'm not okay. I don't know... I don't know if I will be okay. I don't know who I am anymore. With my wings I felt secure, safe. I felt like I mattered but now...What am I without my wings?"

"My partner." He says simply.

"What good am I to you now?" A scraping sound draws my attention away from Bucky and to the heavy metal grate covering the hidden entrance into Giovanni's Villa. Who else could have possibly known about it? I stand up and stumble forward to inspect the suspicious activity. As I near it, something wisps past me in a blur. The blur stops and turns around to face me, the silhouette says 'female' but her features are unreadable. Her molecular makeup is in a constant state of movement on such a scale that her features are obscured.

The shifting subsides and a girl not much younger than myself stands before me. She seems so familiar I just don't know from where.

"Agent Nova?" She asks curtly.

"Yes?" I answer in a deep state of confusion.

"I'm 13, we've met before."

"You don't look 13, you look much older than 13."

"Not my age, you idiot. My name, 13."

"I don't know you."

"Yes you do, I took you down in the arena." The arena? Right, my training after the experiments. I do remember her, I called her blur.

"Blur? What are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"13. I was sent to find you which was easy considering the wreckage. It screams 'out of control'."

"Well that's rude."

"I'm not here to be nice. You should come with me, there are people who want to meet you. Your brother being one of them."

"You must be mistaken, I don't have a brother."

"Yes you do."

"No offense, but I would know if I had a brother." She lets out a frustrated sigh and rolls her eyes.

"Obviously not but I don't have all day, bring your friend if you must just stop talking and follow me. Your voice annoys the hell out of me." She says before promptly turning and jumping down the hole she flashed out of. I glance back to Bucky and he shrugs his shoulders before walking forward and pausing next to me.

"This could be the answer you are searching for. What's the harm in at least trying? I've got your back if things go sideways." He says watching me carefully. I hug my arms into myself debating whether or not to jump down into the tunnel.

My feet hit the damp cold concrete and the sound ricochets off of the tunnel walls. Blur stands with her back against the wall and her arms crossed.

"Took you long enough. Follow me." She says popping off from the wall and walking down the dark tunnel. 

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If you're wondering what the hell is going on? Well in regards to 13, she has been written into my first book Winters Wings as I was editing and re-configuring my approach to the plot of that story and the ones after. She's introduced in Chapter two of Winter's Wings. If you wanna get a recap of how they met, you can find it on Chapter Two: Training. I kind of tweaked a lot of the story in it's beginning parts as to Eden's origin story which is what the Prologue is about in Winter's Wings. 

Also THE END.... just kidding... kind of...