POV - Steve Rogers

His dream was the same as always; the screams of man and beast across a field of black fire and blood red earth, the terror of a blinding light that ripped his body apart, a roaring wind ripped past him, pulling a blood stained mask from face, and the skull, a Red Skull hanging impossibly before him as his hands clutched at a sword.

When he woke, the thought himself still asleep for a long moment, his chest heaved and sweat ran down his neck. A moment more and he'd fully awaken to the warm stuffy darkness of the room and find Dacey's bare body beside him, her thigh flung across his, and feel the slow and deep breathing of her restfully sleeping. He smiled for a moment at the fresh memory of his wedding, and the bedding, and considered how lucky he was.

For a time he laid there and thought about the day ahead of him, about the long journey to Castle Black that lay before him, and he glanced at the window and the moonlight creeping through it. In a few hours he would go down for breakfast, maybe find any odd jobs around the Castle needed doing before he left, and thank people for blessing his new marriage. Maybe his past would leave him along for a while, and take the dreams with them.

Then he realized that the long, curved dagger raised above him was real and threw himself aside with a great husky roar. Dacey screamed as well, as the razor edge of the blade kissed her leg and left a trail of red as it plunged into the bed and let free an explosion of goose-down.

Thoughts too swift to notice with his still awaking mind made him ignore his greatsword next to the bed; the long weapon would be awkward in these cramped quarters. Instead he bounded towards his faithful round shield and came erect with a shoulder-roll. There was only one of them, he thought, but it wasn't a man. The way it moved, like rippling water, it looked more like a cloud of smoke. A shadow. Steve had seen many things, but something about this made his stones try to draw up into his belly as the faint window light made the figure taller.

A glint of metal in the figures hand caught his attention, and he raised the red, white and blue shield to block the impossible attack. Knives moved too fast to really see or block well, but he could feel the amazingly strong impact as the shade bounced off.

Steve looked over the edge of his dearest friend, and saw the creature tilt his head to one side in confusion. As if it had never expected anything to stop it.

All of this had happened in the space of a few seconds, and a now wide awake Dacey screamed out, "Guards! Help!"

The Shade ignored her as she struggled to get free of the tangled sheets. Instead it lunged once more at its target, its hands clutching the shield as Steve tried to bash the creature and instead twisting it free with the speed and strength he only knew one man to have in this world. The shield flew through the air and buried itself a quarter deep in the stone wall with a dull thud. The creature then stabbed again at a now defenseless man, ignoring the Super-Soldiers arms like they never existed and plunged his shadow-blade through Steves stomach.

Distant, like it was something happening miles away, he could hear Dacey roar with fury -fear- and watched as she lunged at the figure, his shield in her hand. The door to their room burst open, and light flooded across Steve's eyes before a black curtain quickly descended.