Police Department, Sharon investigates and infiltrates a white supremacist terrorist organization known as the National Force. During one of the National Force's battles with street criminals in Harlem, the National Guard is sent in. Under the effects of a mind-altering gas, Sharon apparently activates a self-destruct device in her National Force uniform and dies. Rogers is shown the event on videotape. It is later revealed that Sharon's death was faked so she could go on a top secret mission for S.H.I.E.L.D. The mission did not go well, and Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Executive Director, believed her to have been killed in action; Captain America was not informed of the true circumstances of her "death". Return Sharon is not dead, but has been left behind in enemy territory, a captive of the dictator Tap-Kwai. Escaping, she spends several years working as a mercenary, until she encounters a group of Neo-Nazi extremists known as the Kubecult. Learning that they plan to use the Cosmic Cube to return Adolf Hitler to life, Sharon joins forces with the villainous Red Skull to stop them, but they also need Captain America. At this point, Rogers is suffering health problems: the Super-Soldier serum that gave him his abilities is breaking down, and he has fallen into a coma. The Red Skull is currently occupying a cloned body of Rogers himself, and a transfusion of the Skull's blood, which contains an uncontaminated Super-Soldier formula, restores and revives Rogers. Rogers is shocked to find Sharon alive. Over the course of the mission to topple the cult he learns that her years out in the cold have made her grimmer and more ruthless, and the two of them do not renew their relationship when Sharon rejoins S.H.I.E.L.D. A romantic tension still exists: Sharon teases him about his naïveté, such as when he lets a family of squatters stay in his apartment. The two battle the Red Skull, who possesses a cosmic cube that can do whatever he wishes. Sharon and Captain America argue about killing the Skull, with Sharon urging Rogers to use an energy-based shield that she has given him. Sharon tries and fails to kill the Red Skull, but he is soon defeated through trickery. The energy shield is lost in the time-stream. Soon afterwards, Sharon assists Captain America in several cases where patriotic Americans go on violent rampages under the influence of a supernatural entity named Nightmare,