Snake in the Grass | Avengers

3 | Two Soldiers

I spent hours going over all my briefings on Rogers as an extra step of preparation. It only made me dread the assignment all the more, but I needed the information fresh in my mind. He's only been out of the ice for a few months, the war was yesterday for him.

His parents died at an early age for him so it could be a sore spot, but I was betting his former army buddy would be a better pressure point. There were many details published throughout the decades of their friendship even before they were drafted.

The details around his death were somewhat kept from public knowledge, but with some extra digging I discovered it was during a raid on Hydra. He must hold them highly responsible for the death of his friend. It could be useful.

First, I needed to earn his trust. He was useless to me until then.

Fury already had a surveillance detail on him, so his location was no secret. We arrived at a gym in the city and I began to feel nervous. It was easy to hate someone dead, but now, my enemy was here. Alive and well.

I could do this. It was just an enormously large bitter pill I have swallow.

I pulled the hood over my head and stuck my hands in my jacket. The building was empty besides us but felt more comfortable being hidden. The sound of fists pounding against a punching bag echoed closer. I watched curiously as we turned the corner.

There he was, in the flesh. He didn't acknowledge us at first. I stayed silently behind Fury. I still needed to get on his good side, so saying as little as possible right now seemed like the right way to go.

"Trouble sleeping?" Fury asked, making us known. I noticed another bag across the room on the floor leaking sand. He's emotional, that's good.

"I've slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill." he paused before attacking the bag once again. Fury took a few steps into the room, but I stayed back.

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world." Fury said continuing his approach.

He stopped again and looked at him. It was barely a glance but his eyes flickered to me for a second before he turned away.

"When I went under, the world was at war," He said, unraveling the cloth around his fists. "I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

"We made some mistakes along the way." Fury nodded. "Some, very recently."

"Are you here with a mission, sir?" he asked, looking at the folders in Fury's hands.

"I am." He admitted.

"Trying to get me back in the world?" he questioned.

"Trying to save it."

Fury opened the top file and held it out to him. It caught his attention right away, the picture of the tesseract. "Hydra's secret weapon..."

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you." Fury explained. "He thought what we think. The tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

He closed the folder with a sigh and handed it back to Fury. "Who took it from you?" he was quick.

"He's called Loki," Fury says. "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."

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." he picked up his bag. You'd be very wrong, I thought to myself.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong." Fury challenged. He crossed the room and picked up one of the extra punching bags, tossing it over his shoulder. "There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment."