Renege // The Avengers

two.

Somewhere in an old run down gym stood the man out of time built up with lent up anger and depression. He stands there pounding on a punching bag and with every swing it's like a memory he's trying to repress and get rid of.

He runs through a forest dodging mortars, gunfire, and the tesseract energy firearms.

"There's not enough time! I gotta put her in the water!"

Steve's rage continued and keeps building as he pounds in the punching bag. In a rhythm he only seem to know.

He places the compass, a beautiful picture of Carmen in it on the plane in his sight. It all came to soon. He had to crash the plane and end his life to save everyone he loved.

Steve closes his eyes and goes at the bag harder. Carmen Erskine. The names were like a foreign ghosts on his lips. A name he couldn't find himself to say out loud the whole month he had been awake.

"You won't be alone. I promise" her beautiful lips full of German beauty filled his senses and a rush of relief went over him as her warm palm kept his warm as well.

Steve's eyes snap open and he punches the bag so hard as the last memory flies through his mind. He doesn't think he could physically stop at this point.

"Well why dance with so many others when um, when-" she struggled with her english and Steve set a hand on top of hers.

"Take your time" she nodded and tried to place her words together.

"When you can dance, with the, person you'll be spending the rest-.. of your life with"

With that the bag tears open and flies off the chain spilling out the sand. He stands there breathing hard as he looks at it. 70 years of repressed feeling and all it had done was consume him for the last month. What he didn't know was it consumed Carmen for the last 70 years. Within moments Steve is already moving to grab a new bag to put up.

"Trouble sleeping?" he turns to see Fury as he hung up the new bag.

"I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill" sarcasm and annoyance flooded his tone.

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world" Steve rolled his eyes out of view of Fury. How could he celebrate? Everyone he loved and cared for was dead or refused to see him. He stopped punching and moved to remove the tape off his hands and sit down.

"I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost" Fury had secretly looked up to Steve the same way he did Carmen. He saw where she learned her strength from.

"We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently" Steve turned to look at Fury.

"You here with a mission? You know I thought the Director was supposed to bring those" Steve still angry at the cowardness of Carmen. She's a supposed leader but couldn't even face him when she had 70 years to prepare.

"Well I'm co-director and Director Erskine is currently in the hospital recovering from a bad gunshot wound so here I am. Recruiting you for a mission she needs done" Steve's heart dropped and guilt flew over him. He wondered if she was okay but shook it off.

"Trying to get me back in the world?" he asked him and Fury chuckled slightly.

"Trying to save it" he handed Steve a file and Steve didn't hesitate to open it.

"Hydra's secret weapon" he recognized it immediately .

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs" Nick explained and Steve nodded his head looking at the file more.

"Who took it from you?" he asked and Nick sighed as he went to explain.

"He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know" Steve thought to the fact he was still alive, the girl he loved refused to see him, his friends had died.

"At this point I doubt anything would surprise me" Nick chuckled at him again.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong. There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment" Nick told him and Steve stood and picked up a punching bag to exit the gym.

"Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?" Steve didn't turn to look back at the man as he continued walking.

"You should have left it in the ocean" Nick had simply ignored the comment and left the building. He was done for the day but he had one last personal mission to conquer.

"Oh look at you" Carmen chuckled lightly as he entered the medical floor in S.H.I.E.L.D.. She ended up needed a quick surgery to put things back together but she looked better now than she did in a while.

"Hey just because I'm a badass on the battlefield doesn't mean I don't like being pampered" he laughed freely like he only did with her. She was the only one here who truly knew him and he knew he could trust her.

"Well this pampered badass needs to be back for work tomorrow. I have the whole mission finished out but we still need someone to lead it" she chuckled lightly because she knew what he was trying to avoid telling her. She knew he was right in doing so but she still wasn't ready.

"You recruited him didn't you?" Nicks head fell slightly and she smiled.

"When did you see him?" he looked up to meet her sad hazel eyes. The only time they looked so rough was when he was mentioned.

"About an hour before I got here" it felt so unreal to her. That he was alive. She had watched though monitors as he slept but she could never bring herself to walk into the room. She knew that it seemed unfair. She had 70 years to prepare herself but the thing is she didn't know she had to prepare. It took forever to accept his death and now she had to accept he was alive again.

"He was a good choice" Fury smiled and grabbed her hand.

"Get better. I need someone to start yelling at me again. By tommorow" he started to stand and point at her. She laughed lightly and nodded.

"I'll be there"