20.

Three months. It had been three months since they had last seen Anne.

Of course, with everything that had happened with Ultron, they had been busy and Steve had had a lot on his plate with training the new members to the Avengers program.

Now the new recruits were at SHIELD with Natasha. They weren't quite ready to participate in everything that they had built yet.

Nat was at SHIELD most of the time, now. Ever since Banner had disappeared. He had promised her they would leave together, but he didn't want her to keep that promise, so he left on his own. No one knew where he went.

Barton had retired to be with his family. The family nobody but Nat had known about. The wife and the two children, one more on the way, that he had said nothing about to anyone.

Clint had promised his wife that after the Ultron mission, that would be it for him. And he was determined on keeping that promise.

So he was gone as well as Banner, and with Thor having returned to Asgard, only he and Tony were left living in the Tower.

Steve sat back on the couch.

Everything he had been, everyone he had cared about... Everything had changed so much. He had hoped, more than believed that Anne would be his redemption. But now even she was lost to him.

Both the people he had loved the most and whom had loved him the most had become puppets to his enemies.

When he thought of the night Anne attacked him and the day that Bucky had fought him in the parking lot, he realized how much he was actually suffering.

Steve was usually the optimistic one, who never let anyone see the worst part of the situation.

But inside... It felt like everything was being torn to pieces, slowly and painfully.

Everyone thought he was adjusting to life there. He wasn't. He missed his home, his friends, the army camp, Peggy...

Steve shook his head. No. He couldn't remind himself of those days, it only made it all the more difficult to bear.

He had felt out of place there, though. It wasn't the world he had known and he hadn't even been sure he liked it that much.

Everything had changed with Anne. She had made the sorrow fade, ironically since she was suffering just as much as he was.

Hers was a different kind of pain though. She was TORMENTED. He was just extremely sad.

Steve had seen it in her eyes. The torment of a broken heart, the pain of losing a loved one, the confusion and anger of not knowing who she was or what she was supposed to do.

Yet, when her gaze set upon him, he could always see a glint of light, and that single look filled him with a warmth that he hadn't felt since 1945.

He needed her and she needed him.

Steve sighed once more and got up. It was useless to keep thinking about it. Sooner or later they would show up and that day it would either be his beginning, the beginning of a new life, a better one, or it would be his end.

Steve left early for his morning run. He never got up later than the break dawn, because he had always seen the sunrise during training on the army camp, so he didn't see why it should be any different then. Besides, it made him feel more at home.

But that morning, something was terribly wrong.

He had been running for ten minutes when he heard screams coming from the park.

The Captain started running faster until he reached the place where the screams had come from.

Now, though, the only thing he could see were people running for their lives, terrified, and a figure in the distance with a metal arm.

"Bucky?" He asked himself. No. It was impossible. The figure was more petite. Bucky was big, this person seemed small even. But it couldn't be Anne either. She didn't have a metal arm.

Steve caught up with the figure, that just stood there, waiting.

Her long red hair was now tied behind her back and her left arm had been replaced with a metal arm.

"Anne, what have they done to you?"The Captain asked himself.

Whomever had taken her arm would pay for it sooner or later.

The girl saw him and a cruel grin appeared on her face under her mask.

Apparently her little show had worked. It was luring him in.

All of a sudden, the park was empty. Only Anne and Steve remained, staring at one another.

She started walking towards him and in that precise moment, Steve again knew that he had already lost. He refused to fight her. He couldn't. He wasn't even going to try. He was done fighting. It was time to give up.

Nonetheless, before she reached him, he pulled out his phone and dialed Tony's number. Maybe he would get a hold of Thor.

Steve let the phone fall to the ground and stood still.

"Anne... This isn't you."

But the girl didn't seem to hear him.

She was angry. Why, he did not know. She didn't even wait and she attacked him.

Tony heard his phone ring.

"Jarvis, put the call on speaker..."

"Anne... This isn't you."

It was Steve. And Anne was there.

"Jarvis! Track down the call! NOW!"

In the meantime he suited up.

"Central Park, Sir."

When he got there, Anne was massacring Steve. It seemed as if she had no conscience or morals what so ever.

But what really surprised him though, was that Steve wasn't even reacting.

The Captain never ran away from a fight, and yet, now he was just letting her kill him.

"Hey! Freaky... Anne... Thing!"

The girl turned and had such rage in her eyes that Tony actually felt cold shivers run down his back.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size!"

Anne just stood there, waiting.

Tony tried blasting her, but she just moved to the side.

So he tried again and again until she finally started moving forward towards him, avoiding every shot.

What terrified him most was the cruel calm she was approaching him with.

Her look meant certainty of death.

"Jarvis, how much chance do I have of surviving?"

"Calculating, sir. There is a 99. 5% chance of failure. "

"So I have a 0.5% chance of survival?"

Tony started backing away.

"Yes, sir. May I suggest an immediate retreat, sir?"

He watched her. As soon as she was close, she took out a gun. A very big gun.

But nothing every came of it, because right in that moment, a hammer came flying and hit her right in the chest, knocking her out.

Thor, behind her, took back the hammer and went up to her and removed her mask.

"Did you... Did you just kill her?" Asked Tony sarcastic.

"No. She still lives. She has merely fallen unconscious. I shall take her to Asgard and attempt to repair any damage that has been done her. Tell the soldier that I shall return her to him."

Thor then proceeded to pick her up and fly straight to the sky while Tony went to retrieve the Captain.

He was barely breathing.

Stark picked him up and flew to the nearest hospital.