Disclaimer:
I do not own Captain America the First Avenger or any of its characters, especially not the Red Skull. They are all property of Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures.

Summary:
Johann Schmidt, aka the Red Skull, finds himself lost and alone on a dead world following his last conflict with Captain America aboard the Valkyrie. Watch his downward spiral into madness as he comes to realize everything he believed in is a lie. And what new and terrible thing emerges from that revelation. Rated PG-13 for Madness and Violence.

The air howled like a great beast as the plane plummeted back to Earth. Its pilot crawled down a support column towards the instrument panel, desperate to regain control before it splashed down in the arctic waters and they were all killed. Finally, he hauled himself forward and flicked the appropriate switches to activate the autopilot function. Gravity re-asserted itself as he slammed onto the ground by the control chair, and the Valkyrie levelled itself out and began to climb back to its cruising altitude.

Clawing his way back up the console, the Red Skull whipped out his sidearm and turned to face his enemy. Modified from a simple P08 Luger, it had enough destructive force to vaporize the insufferable Steven Rogers and wipe him clean out of existence.

All his plans lay in ruins, most of his forces had been routed, even the Valkyrie was coming apart at the seams. But it could all be salvaged, and the victory he'd envisioned could still come to pass, if only he could rid himself of one stubborn super soldier.

"You could have had the power of the Gods!"

The wind howled through the broken canopy as Johann Schmidt roared his words, punctuating them with laser fire. And still the damned Captain would not fall. His body would not break, his ideals would not corrode. Schmidt hated him as he had never hated anyone before, an intense rage like a physical force pounding right alongside his heart.

"Instead you wear a flag on your chest and think you fight a battle of nations!" he continued, taking aim.

Captain America made his move, ducking behind another column, and he followed him with Tesseract-fueled gun bursts, trying to drive him into the open. He had lost his shield. One clear shot, and it would all be over. Another blast, sheering through the side of the column, but again failing to connect with his target.

"I have seen the future, Captain! There are no flags!"

"Not my future!"

There! The Captain was already in motion, trying to reclaim his precious shield. The Red Skull opened fire, but he wasn't fast enough, and his shot bounced off the special metal, dispersing harmlessly. He may as well have thrown water at the Captain. Seconds later, a disc of red, white and blue slammed into his gut, sending him crashing into the Tesseracts storage container. He felt the impact like a battering ram in his gut, but the Valkyrie's engine all but shattered from it. Lightning crackled along its frame as Godly power tried to find an output.

"What have you done?! No!"

The Red Skull scrambled to his feet, instinctively reached for the Tesseract, picking it up in his gloved hand to keep it protectively close, away from his enemy. He would not let the Captain win again. He had forgotten the warning of the old man, that whomever took hold of the Cube would burn. But even when he did finally recall, he could not put it down. It was beautiful: a source of limitless and unbridled power, locked in such a tiny, perfect cube.

Lightning erupted from it, coalescing all around him, but he felt nothing but unbridled joy as the air overhead lit up with a vision of the galaxy, stars and nebulas swirling overhead in a multitude of colors. The Cube was the key to changing not only this world, but all worlds. The realms of the Gods themselves were open to him, waiting to be stepped into.

Suddenly the Tesseract convulsed in his hand, pulsing with energy. It poured out in greater and greater quantities, even as the Red Skull gaped in disbelief. He watched as his hand began to disintegrate, piece by piece being swallowed up by the maelstrom of cosmic light. The raw, unbridled power washed over him as he gave a mighty roar of defiance. He could not lose control now. He was too close!

His destiny was within reach!

"NNNNNNAAAAAAHHHHHHUUUUUUGGGGGGHH!"

A bright flash of white... and then Johann Schmidt knew no more.

Pain.

Blinding pain. In his head. Throughout his body. Every single bone ached, every single nerve was on fire. His scarlet skin felt hot to the touch, as if he'd been through a blazing inferno. The Red Skull had not felt this sort of raw agony since the day he'd taken Erskine's super soldier serum and burned.

The worst was the aching in the back of his head, his brain throbbing in his skull. His eyes, already shut, squeezed tightly as he tried to will the sensation away. The pain faded slowly. It did not die away entirely, but it would suffice for now. Slowly, he sat up, but he could not believe his eyes.

"What? What happened? Where am I?" he rasped.

He lay in the midst of a misty wasteland unlike any he had ever seen or heard of. Beneath him the ground was solid enough, but rocky and bare. Only the occasional tree broke through the ground, but they were all dead and blackened, any bark having long since petrified. No fresh vegetation had grown here in ages from the looks of it, this land was lifeless as a graveyard. In the distance, he vaguely made out a passing riverbank, but the mist prevented him from seeing too many details, shrouding them in mystery. All in all, he had no idea where he was. Even the sky overhead was unfamiliar and alien, a dull, glazy amber tint trapped in a perpetual dusk.

And given how he'd arrived... could he have been...?

But no, he certainly didn't feel dead. He still drew breath, he felt his heart beat underneath his ribcage. The aching of his head, the pain, felt truly substantial as anything else he'd ever felt in his life. No, he felt alive.

It did not explain his current situation, but it gave him something to hold on to, and right now he seized it in his hands and held it close.

Taking stock of the situation, he found he was still dressed in his flight uniform, which was undamaged. The holster for his luger was empty, he'd dropped it during the fight. Nor was the Tesseract anywhere in sight. It too must have been dropped back on the Valkyrie, in which case by now it was probably in the hands of the Allies. Stark would probably find a way to weaponize it just as Zola had. The tide of the War would undoubtedly turn in the favor of the enemy...

Things to worry about later, he reminded himself.

Right now he was alone, weaponless and helpless. He needed to find out where he was. Grimly, he pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the way his legs wobbled.

Tugging open the front of his flight uniform, he pulled out the handheld communicator he'd brought for his mission, thankful it hadn't been damaged in the fight with Captain America. Drawing out the long antennae and adjusting the frequency, he scanned the airwaves for Hydra transmissions.

"Hailing Hydra... is anyone receiving me...?"

Only static greeted him, try though he might to find a signal.

"Repeat, this is the Supreme Head of Hydra. Contacting Hydra Headquarters. Respond...!"

Yet more static. He adjusted the frequency, reluctantly checking for other signals. Neither the Allies nor the Axis Powers would let him go free, he would be far too valuable as a prisoner or war criminal for that. None the less, the attempts to contact them were equally futile, resulting only in more static.

Finally, disgusted, threw down the receiver hard enough to smash it into a dozen pieces on the rocky ground. Wherever he was, he was definitely on his own.

Every part of the blasted landscape looked identical, and the sky offered no clues to guide him. Settling on a particular direction out of random choice, he took off marching. If nothing else, the land held a slight slope, and he headed in the direction that seemed to curve vaguely uphill. Perhaps once above the layer of fog he could find landmarks to identify his position.

As with the belief he was still alive, he held no proof his assumptions were true. But they were all he had now, so he clung to them tightly.

He marched for a long time, passing by numerous blackened trees and rocky outcroppings, but little else. Not even a single bird flew in the dark sky overhead. His head continued to throb, and his limbs felt weaker than he liked, but he soldiered on by sheer force of will.

His flight suit helped to keep him reasonably warm, for the mists were chilly as the Switzerland fortress where Hydra's final base had been. Though his stomach ached for lack of food, he knew he could press on for days, perhaps even weeks thanks to Erskine's serum. The pain was good, it helped him to keep his mind focused.

He could also go whole days without rest or sleep, though this was harder to manage the longer he went without sustenance as well. With no way of marking the time in the sky, no sun or moon to speak of, he could have been walking for minutes, hours, or even days. He may have even blacked out once or twice, only to find his body had continued walking on while his mind had faded from the waking world.

Rivers zig-zagged the landscape, flowing in the opposite direction that he walked. Perhaps he'd find their source if he continued on far enough. Though his throat was parched and his body craved liquid, he knew better than to try to drink from the tainted flow of water. Even from a dozen yards away he could smell the foul air rising up from them. Likely, they were poisonous. The sky overhead never changed, there was no dawn here, in this Realm of the Dead in which he walked.

No dawn, no day, no night. Only eternal dusk, and the strange alien sky of misplaced stars overhead.

For all he knew, if he kept walking long enough, he'd see his own boot prints in the ground in front of him, find he'd walked in a full circle. Or he'd keep walking right over the edge of eternity and into nothingness. Even so, he kept moving forward, if for no other reason than he had nothing better to do with his time. There was quite literally nothing else he could do but press on.

Finally, however, he could go no further. There was no point. Perhaps he was dead, and this was his Hell. A most ignoble fate for one such as he, the found and head of Hydra. He might have welcomed the pitchforks and blazing coals that others rattled on about day and night instead of this vast empty wasteland.

Slumping against the petrified wood of a nearby tree, he sighed, all the breath leaving his body as his consciousness starting to fade...

"Weak..."

"Broken..."

"Pathetic..."

Instantly he was alert, head snapping up, climbing unsteadily to his feet. The Red Skull's eyes darted in every direction trying to find the source of the whispers he'd heard. Nothing could be seen, though with the damned fog so thick in every direction, it was impossible to say for certain. Shadows and shapes seemed to be moving, but always on the periphery of his vision. Nothing stayed solid long enough to confirm it was there. He listened again, but no more sounds came. It was quiet as a tomb. Even so, he could not help but feel a nameless dread creep over him. There was something out here, in the mist.

Something watching him.

Authors Notes:
Captain America is easily one of my favorite heroes, which naturally makes the Red Skull one of my favorite villains. At first I was a bit puzzled why, but then I realized I identified a lot with not just one, but both of them. Maybe moreso than I probably should, especially in the latter's case.

This is a rare story I hope is proven wrong, because it means he'll be back. Until then it's something to tide over fans of the truly evil founder of Hydra.

I will address the recent revelations that the Infinity Stone could have killed the Red Skull as they tend to do to mortals who touch them.

I'll leave his present location a mystery to be revealed in later chapters, but suffice to say I'm drawing descriptive influence from a lot of different portrayals in Marvel media and Norse Mythology. I'm sure more than a few of you have figured it out by now, from that hint if nothing else.