When the dust settled and the ground stopped shaking, it was Steve who was the first to reach Evelyn's unconscious body. She was laying limp in the corner of the room, her clothes were covered in white dust from debris, and blood was rapidly spilling from a gash on her head.

"Eva, Eva can you hear me?" Steve said softly, gently placing a hand against her head. He winced seeing the red sticky liquid that coated his fingertips.

"She needs help! Now!" Steve shouted at anyone who was listening. He wanted so badly to pick her up and rush her out of the room, but he didn't want to injure her further.

A medical team was quick to usher him out of the way before strapping Evelyn to a gurney and carrying her into the elevator. Steve rushed to follow them, but it was Fury who held him back.

"There's nothing you can do." He said, his voice raspy from the dust still in the air.

"She's my best friend, I'm not going to just let her go to the hospital alone."

"You can be with her soon, but we need to get this cube somewhere else before another disturbance happens like this one. I need you --"

"No." Steve cut Fury off firmly. "This is your fault, you were the one who harassed Eva to come look at this stupid cube and for what? She got five minutes with it before it blew her to hell. I'm not a S.H.I.E.L.D agent, I don't need to be here. And you've lost your mind if you think I'm going anywhere but by her side right now."

Nick fury and Steve Rogers stood toe to toe, both men glaring fiercely  at each other before Nick finally bowed down and stepped aside. Steve was quick to run into the now open elevator to hitch a ride to the top.

"They would make a cute couple." Clint said, stumbling to stand next to Fury. Natasha rolled her eyes beside him and Fury scoffed.

"They're just friends." Nick told him, kicking over a large rock that had landed beside him.

"Who's going to be the one to tell Tony that S.H.I.E.L.D just blew up his little sister?" Natasha asked, changing the subject.

Both Nick and Clint raised their eyebrows in her direction. "Oh Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me," Said Natasha, holding her hands up in surrender.

"We need to get the cube to the base in New Mexico, I'm leaving both Starks and Captain Rogers in your hands, Romanoff."

~

The tesseract has awakened. It is on a little world. A human World. They would wield its power.

Evelyn had no idea what she was seeing. She had no idea where she was. She could see figures of bodies, and constellations all around her. Large asteroids flew across the sky, and Evelyn truly wondered if she was on earth. She looked down at her own hands and gasped to see them glowing bright blue.

The cube. Her hands were the same distinct blue as the tesseract. Small wisps floated through her fingertips and up her arms, and her head ached something fierce.

Our ally knows its workings like they never will. He is ready to lead. And our force, our Chitauri, will follow.

She opened her mouth to call out to whomever was speaking, but nothing came out. She needed to know who was talking around her, but she could neither move nor speak.

She could feel the presence of thousands of bodies around her, and soon they began chanting at once. She needed to warn her friends, her family. But she was trapped. She was trapped in this unknown void unable to do anything but watch as the army around her descended upon what she hoped was not her home.

~

"When will she wake up?" Steve asked the doctor. He could see Evelyn through the glass window behind the doctor, she looked peaceful. Like she was sleeping. But Steve knew better.

"That's hard to say. She took quite a hit. But we got the bleeding to stop, and her brain waves are very active which is a good sign. But sometimes with head trauma it's best to just let the patients wake up on their own." The doctor told him.

"Can I go in?" Steve asked. The doctor nodded his head before rushing off to a room down the hall that had an alarm blaring from inside. Steve was quick in heading inside and taking a seat beside the bed.

He knew he should have talked Evelyn out of working with the tesseract, he knew it from the moment she said she agreed to help Fury. And now he felt guilty for not fighting her on it more. He hated the feeling of helplessness more than anything, he wanted to help. But he couldn't help her, not with this. Just like he couldn't help Bucky after he fell out of that train. He was starting to question his ability at keeping his friends safe.

He reached forward and clutched her hand gently in his. "I'm so sorry Eva." He whispered. Steve knew Evelyn had been through a lot of trauma in the last few years, some he was aware of and others were still a mystery to him, and this would just be another thing on her list of things that made Evelyn Starks life so complicated.

~

Tony was shuffling through files in his lab when he heard J.A.R.V.I.S announce he had a visitor.

"Ah, Agent Romanoff. How can I not be of service today?" Tony asked, his eyes unwavering from the papers in front of him. Natasha crossed her arms and stood impatiently in front of his desk. Her leather combat boots tapped loudly against the metal floor waiting for the eldest Stark to finally look at her.

"Jesus, Stark it was over a year ago, and I was on an assignment."Natasha exclaimed. "Besides, I'm here about Evelyn."

"Eva has no desire to join S.H.I.E.L.D." Tony said, still not looking up at the feisty red head. Natasha's eyebrows shot up, clearly Tony was unaware of how involved with S.H.I.E.L.D Evelyn truly was.

"She finally took Fury up on that offer to work with the tesseract." Natasha said. Tony stopped reading the file he was skimming to finally look over at the agent. "It didn't end well."

"Where is she?" Tony asked, tossing the file onto the work bench.

"Lennox Hill Memorial Hospital."Natasha answered. That was all Tony needed to hear before rushing past her, making his way to the basement level of Stark Tower where the parking garage was held.

~

"Hello? Eva?" Sam Wilson said into the phone, but it wasn't Evelyn on the other line, it was Nick Fury who had her cellphone.

"Who the hell is this?" Fury asked.

"Who the hell is this?" Sam echoed.

"Nicholas J. Fury."

"Okay, and why are you on Eva's phone?" Sam asked.

"Eva's in the hospital." Fury responded. "I just found her phone."

"What happened? Is she okay? What hospital?" Sam asked frantically.

Nick Fury rolled his eyes and wordlessly gave orders to the S.H.I.E.L.D agents around him, they were finally moving the tesseract to a more remote location, and he was making sure nothing important was left behind in the previous S.H.I.E.L.D base. He found Evelyn's cellphone in the rubble.

"Whoa, calm down there son! I don't even know who this is!" Fury argued into the phone, his natural instincts to protect Evelyn from everyone kicking in, especially now.

"This is Sam Wilson, I'm friends with Eva. Please tell me she's okay!" Sam was frantic on the phone.

Nick sighed hearing how upset the man on the phone was. "Look, I'm headed to the hospital now to see but I honestly don't know yet. I'll be giving her phone to either her brother or one of her other friends that are with her. I'll text you an update when I know something."

"Thank you." Sam sighed.

~

Tony was fuming when he stomped into the hospital. And when he saw Nick Fury, his anger increased exponentially. "Fury, you son of a bitch." Tony growled, seeing the man who inadvertently  put his little sister in the hospital.

"Look, Tony, I'm sorry." Fury said.

"You remember what I said when you came asking me to work on the tesseract ten years ago?" Tony asked. He was shorter than Fury by at least a foot, but that didn't put him any less intimidating. Fury nodded his head.

"I told you to stay away from her with this project. You and I both read the notes on the unpredictability of the tesseract and that's why I said no. I knew it was unstable years ago. Why it chose that exact moment with Eva standing beside it to become active, is a mystery to me but she still shouldn't have been there!"

"Look, I agree with --"

Tony cut Fury off quickly. "No you don't! If you agreed that she shouldn't have been there then you wouldn't have continuously pestered her about it, she wouldn't have had to ban you from where she works. She looks up to you like a father figure, Fury, you knew she would have eventually caved."

Fury sighed and bowed his head. He gently handed over Evelyn's cellphone to Tony. "I'm sorry." He whispered, before disappearing down the white sterile halls of the hospital.