When the first song played, it was simple and elegant, but still upbeat. In the state she was in, she couldn’t place exactly what the tiêu đề was. Kyra, however, found herself humming to the melody in her mind. In the blank room she’d placed herself in, she closed her eyes and rocked slightly. When she opened her eyes again, she was looking back on a scene that she hadn’t seen for years-- her induction onto the team.
"You are a very good fighter, fast, and strong. I believe that even without your powers bạn will be able to defeat any obstacles in your way. Just with the proper training. I say bạn should be inducted onto the team. Do we really need to vote?"
No one đã đưa ý kiến any different. "It's official then, kid," Superboy said.
"Welcome to the team!" Kid Flash announced.
Another song played and she recognized a somewhat melancholy tune with a soft beat in the back. No tiêu đề came to mind instantly, but she closed her eyes, and opened them to her sitting on the đi văng directly after her first mission. She was holding an iPod-- the iPod she’d first gotten from Bruce. She remembered the conversation that had preceded this meeting with Dick, and a thought echoed in her mind.
Bruce was going to be a great potential father.
The song’s beat suddenly dropped into a loud âm bass, tiếng bass, bass that made her smile. She knew this one-- Seven Nation Army Remix. Her eyes closed willingly and she opened it to watch herself be saved bởi Người dơi from... Batman. She didn’t actually remember this, but it looked like it could have happened during the starrotech incident she’d heard about. The thirteen năm old girl on the ground was bleeding heavily, but as Bruce picked her up, a feeling raced from his actions that made her grin.
He’d finally begun to think of her as a daughter.
The vision shifted along to the tiếp theo song, Awake and Alive, and she saw herself suiting up in the batcave with Delta, laughing and shoving at each other. Both of them were smiling, saying something about a challenge, and Kyra smiled as she heard the words:
"We'll always be sisters."
She noted the change to the tiếp theo song, which maybe could have been Think of Me from her yêu thích musical. She saw herself yelling at Jessica, who she hadn’t seen in years, and realized what this was. Jessica pulled out a gun and a streak of vàng accompanied the gunshot that seemed to ring out through the room. This, Kyra realized, was the start of it all.
I had a part of a phoenix in me. So when that bullet touched my skin, the vàng stunned the phoenix in me so much that it took it’s own shape and mind. It decided that whenever it got the chance it would push me down and use my body for what it needed, sort of like a host. I wouldn’t dare let it. Yet the thêm it brings itself out, the thêm training it receives in the real world, and the harder it is to contain.
The song changed to a remix of the song Lights, and she saw the thirteen năm old’s eyes snap open, glaring a brilliant vàng with flames etched into them. Even though it was nothing but a memory, Kyra swore she could feel the heat radiating off of Fin. Delta and Nat--well, Ryan-- both looked up worriedly at the girl now hovering above them, and Kyra looked down in shame, mouthing the words she’d once said.
“Fin’s gone,” she said, her voice deep with an intone no one would recognize if they knew her. “It’s just Phoenix now.”
Kyra only looked up to look back down again-- the song had long since echoed in her mind, tears stung as the words to her mother’s lullaby played. She sighed as the scene played out once more, knowing it all too well. Her first ending. All that one... that one... She looked up to watch, the tears of anger slipping down her face.
A shield surrounded them all, and they had to look away in order to avoid being blinded bởi the flash of white light. It was then that they realized the shield wasn’t for them, it was around her. And when they looked back, she was gone.
Weeks passed in the memories; two weeks, exactly. She watched as the team bustled about the cave as if everything was normal, but she could see their pain still etched into them. Shaking her head, she watched as Aisling headed out for a jog. The song played in the background, not bothering to make itself known.
They weren’t deathly devastated. Not anymore. The team had accepted Fin’s passing.
She followed the younger Aisling on the ‘jog’ to the clearing full of burnt cây stumps and ashes mixed with dirt. Aisling sat, playing in the dirt with a loose branch, drawing small figures. A rustle in the trees made them both turn to see a small girl come out of the bushes, and Kyra stood up, her smile growing. “My girl,” she whispered to herself.
“What’s your name?”
The girl tilted her head to the side, reminding Aisling of a small Yorkshire Terrier. “Um... Mckenzie.”
She watched as the scene changed and a much older Kenzie stood over a quivering form, glowing brightly with anger. She remembered helping Kenzie with this back when she was still ‘dead.’ Kyra nodded once at her daughter’s voice mixed with her own, making a harmonious intone.
“You’ve hurt everyone, anyone I’ve dared to care for. You’ve broken me down and killed me. I’m not a killer at instinct, at heart, but bạn made me one.”
And a few giây later she watched as Kenzie hugged Devin while a new figure hugged Bruce, and the man đã đưa ý kiến three words that made her sigh in laughter.
“Welcome back, Infinity.”
The scene changed-- obviously this was very recently because she remembered doing this part very, very clearly, only watching, her anger growing.
“I’m nothing but a tool to bạn Bruce-- this whole team is just a tool! bạn use us to do your dirty work! Roy was right, we’re nothing to you! I’m nothing to you! And don’t bạn even dare try to calm me down right now because it is not going to work. Okay?! God, I’m just.. damnit Bruce! I can’t do this! Not with you! I’m always going to be stuck beneath you, always going to be stuck doing your stupid work as a stupid tool! So guess what?! bạn can go to hell! All of you! I quit!”
Anger turned to pangs of regret as she watched the others faces instead of Bruce’s. Everyone was shocked and upset as she đã đưa ý kiến the words:
“Override B13. Change name to Phoenix,”
The tiếp theo scene she definitely didn’t recognize, and was shocked to see the cave in ruins. A red-headed, black clad female stood near the younger, thirteen năm old. Fin turned to the other girl and screamed, Kyra watching intently.
“But the cave was our home!”
“Then bạn can remain here and make sure it’s real. But I’m not joking with you. This is what happens to you-- to us all in a couple years.”
Kyra held a hand to her mouth and she watched sadly. Her eyes went wide at the tiếp theo vision, her and Eric sitting in her closet back at the cave. “No,” she whispered. “Not this.... not the promise...”
But that’s exactly what it was-- the promise she’d made that had gotten her here. Shaking her head, she cried softly at Eric’s words.
“Don’t leave me, promise.”
“I...” she hiccuped. “I promise. I promise.”
Another scene with him and her, and she watched as she sat up in the cot, confused, as Eric leaned into her. Just before Eric kissed Fin, he murmured,
“It’s because I tình yêu you.”
Kyra sighed, finally releasing any doubt she’d ever had of waking up, and looked down at her finger. The ‘room’ returned, and surrounded bởi white. Tears streamed down her face. Fingering the ring he’d được trao her, she realized why she was going to wake up: because he did tình yêu her. And he would forgive her for this. Just before going back, she whispered to herself something soft that she’d once dreaded. But she understood her prophecy now, and she took it to heart.
“A burning torch, a column of flame
In everything but shape, voice and name
A hoa blooms the water floods
The dirt will mix in both for mud
While pure wind blows in longing breezes
For creator’s health the cold ice freezes
The blood of all will fill the mind
And one of them in not as kind
To save the world and make it last
The answer lies back through her past
A father’s care will act the same
As one whose eyes will hold no name
To everlast will soon take hold
When precious sapphires turn to gold
And with a final kissing breath
She gives a life, but seals her death
A silver touch, a winged one’s call
In her hands lie the future of all
A loving sister, a forgiving friend”
She opened her eyes and smiled up at the figures before her, laughing at their cheers and sobs of joy, even nodding once to Revenge and Fang, who nodded back. When Eric leaned over and kissed her, she held him in place, then broke apart, and looked straight into his eyes. And he somehow got the message. Together, they sung quietly,
“The bird begins at forever’s end.”

Well that took forever.