Originally published 2012-08-30 on AO3. Based off of feriowind's Poke-'Venger fanart series.

"I had a date."

When Steve turned around to face the man who just shattered his world, he could already feel a part of himself go numb, unable to accept that seventy years had gone by in the blink of an eye.

Not even the heat exuding of the Volcarona that landed by the man could pierce through the coldness Steve felt spreading in his heart.

Seventy years. A lifetime. Everyone he knew would be old or dead.

Most likely dead.

And here was Steve, alive and young and well.

"Captain?" the one-eyed man asked. He gestured to one of the shiny black cars surrounding them. "If you please...?"

Steve nodded a little dumbly, shivering in a way that had nothing to do with the cold as he approached the strange vehicle, ignoring the eyes of all the bystanders as he climbed into the car.

Inside the car, he sat in the middle of the back seat, huddled in on himself and steadfastly looking at his feet, refusing to look out the window to the alien world his hometown had become.

The man climbed in behind him, sitting across from Steve in a seat facing the back.

"What...what year is it?" Steve asked.

"It's 2012," the man said. "And again - sorry about all this."

Steve just nodded again, before slowly looking up at the man. "Who are you?"

"My name is Nick Fury," he said, as out of his eye Steve saw the gray window flash bright orange as the Volcarona flew past. The car started moving as Fury elaborated: "I'm the director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division - SHIELD. We're the successor organization to the Strategic Scientific Reserve."

Steve absorbed all this distantly, still trying to process his predicament, yet at the same time trying not to.

The drive was short and silent after that, and soon they were driving into, then under, the building Steve had just run from. They ended up in what looked like concrete bunker of a parking lot, pulled up to a set of incongruous glass doors set into one wall.

When Fury stepped out, Steve stayed in for just a moment longer, almost rocking back and forth, though not quite, as he put off stepping into the future for as long as possible.

"Cap?"

Steve swallowed and finally got out of the car, shivering as his bare feet touched the unforgiving concrete. Behind him, the car door shut with an ominous thud, and he heard the car move away, leaving Steve alone to face his new life.

A sudden wave of warmth washed over him, and Steve looked up to see the Volcarona fluttering over him.

"Um...thanks," Steve mumbled, wondering if the Volcarona was Fury's. Probably.

The Pokemon responded by diving down in front of Steve, flying slow and low to the ground. Director Fury gently pushed Steve in the same direction, and when Steve followed in the Fire Pokemon's exact path, the concrete floors were just a little warmer beneath his feet.

They headed back in about the same direction Steve had run through, and seven-decade gap aside, Steven felt distinctly self-conscious and out of place in his undershirt and khakis amongst all the stiff-suited agents and sharply groomed Pokemon. But he kept his head high and kept moving forward, following Fury and the Volcarona.

"Captain?" Director Fury asked. "How are you feeling? Really?"

"Seventy years," Steve said. "My friends, my- I need to find them."

"Well, you've already met one, actually."

Steve frowned at him in confusion, but the director didn't elaborate.

In a moment, they were just outside the larger room that had housed his fake recovery room, the Arcanine Steve had shoved aside earlier waiting for them. Steve knew he should apologize to it, but he was still trying to understand-

"You remember your old fighting partner?" Fury asked, gesturing to the Canine Pokemon.

Steve stepped forward with an even deeper frown as he saw nothing but the escape-blocking Arcanine from earlier...

...one with heartbreakingly familiar eyes.

"Sunny?" Steve asked in shock as he approached his majestic friend.

The great creature nodded, stepping forward carefully and into the better light bouncing of the fake New York. His fur was thick and dark, only slightly dulled with age, with something like a soul-deep weariness of the world in his eyes. Yet underneath that was all the dignity and determination Steve remembered, so strange in his evolved form, and yet so painfully familiar.

"Oh my god," Steve muttered. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for yelling at you and not recognizing you and..."

Steve fell forward to his knees, and might have fallen forward entirely had Growlithe - Arcanine now, god, seventy years - not already been right in front of him.

He clutched at the long fur and burrowed into it as he felt gigantic paws wrap around him.

It was in the shoulder of his aged and evolved friend that Steve released seven decades of missed tears as he murmured, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, god, I'm sorry, please, I - I..."

Steve heard a sharp whine and a deep huff that even in this new - old - form, Steve recognized as his friend letting him know, don't worry about it, in a way that they both knew meant Steve would.

"I'm sorry," Steve said. "I abandoned you, for so long..."

After that, he lost himself to body-wracking sobs as he started to really get the full extent of his loss. Peggy would have moved on by now, well beyond some soldier boy she met in the war, if she wasn't already dead - dead like several of his friends, if not most of them, doubtlessly were. And the New York he saw, the shape the same but everything else - the sounds, the smells, the people and even the Pokemon - so different, and this was what his hometown had become which meant Steve would never get to go home, not really.

Arcanine nuzzled his large snout against Steve's back, and Steve pulled himself even deeper into the thick fur, wanting to crawl inside all that comforting muscle mass and never come back out again.

"I'm sorry," Steve said again, which earned him yet another reproachful yip, to which Steve laughed as he pushed his face against the corner of Arcanine's jaw.

"Captain," Fury said. "We'll need to talk."

There were so many things they'd need to talk about, the least of which was everything, and the irrational yet overwhelming flash of panic made Steve whimper as he pushed even closer into Arcanine's warm body.

Steve felt a sudden vibration deep in his bones, and it took him a moment to realize it was Arcanine growling at Fury, low and primal as he wrapped his body even tighter around Steve in a protective embrace.

"...nevermind," Fury said. "Take your time.

Steve choked on a laugh as he heard the director retreat. "Just let us know when you're ready to face the world once more, Captain."

Then the sound of the heavy door shutting, and they were alone again.

"I'm sorry," Steve uselessly murmured again, clinging onto Arcanine as tightly as he could.

Though Arcanine's response had no words, Steve couldn't help but feel the small bark and whine was meant to say, I'm sorry, too.

The tears faded and the trembling subsided some, but the grief kept spilling forth and it was all Steve could do to hold on to his now-ancient friend as he finally fell to pieces.