Author's note: Upon the reveal that Captain America was now canonically a member of Hydra, many theories emerged to explain how the Star Spangled Man could have become part of a criminal and terrorist organisation that he had fought during his whole life. Following this trend, I came up with my personal theory of what a Captain America who is also an agent of Hydra could mean. Thus, this story was born.

Generally, this story accepts Captain America's comics' canon as its background.

1. Out of Time

You don't have to go. You can stay if you like. I can make you strong again. I can make you a hero again.¹

It was only a few days ago that Steve Rogers had had his physical youth restored, but the words still echoed in his ears. He had accepted his fate. He knew he was about to die, and he realised he could be proud of himself and happy in his final hour. He realised it was time. Time for him to finally know peace. And yet… Yet, the little girl had reached to him. You don't have to go. You can stay if you like. I can make you strong again. I can make you a hero again. She extended him her hand. And he reached for her. Peace and rest he threw aside. And for what? To protect that little girl? Because of Pleasant Hill? So Crossbones did not have the last word? Because he was greedy and wanted to live more? These questions pestered him as much as the little girl's words. Never before had he been so haunted by his own decision.

After having lived for quite some time in a body that matched his chronological age, Steve felt strange having a physical structure so inconsistent with his years. How could his body be unchanged, if his inner self had changed so much? And how could he also feel like he was still that sickly kid who accepted being turned into the first super soldier of America? Having lived a life surrounded by the extraordinary did not make it any easier for him to understand.

His mind went back to Pleasant Hill, a technological internment camp in disguise that deprived its inmates not only of their liberty, but also of their freedom. Steve's mind couldn't stop. If Maria Hill had managed to accomplish an abomination like Pleasant Hill, what had others been able to accomplish? On his aimless walk around Brooklyn, he asked himself how much had the world really changed.

Much like himself, the world had changed a lot since he was born. Yet, still much like himself, the world felt incredibly the same. The world was restless; as restless as it had been in his youth, right before the start of World War II. That restlessness soon led to a search for its culprits, and once culprits were indicated, hatred towards them came into being. Their segregation and internment followed.

It was easy to forget how much Pleasant Hill resembled the past; after all, its inmates were criminals. However, had any of those prisoners done what Maria Hill and S.H.I.E.L.D. had, the resemblance to days past would not be so easily forgotten.

Pleasant Hill wasn't the only sign of the world's restlessness, though. And fortunately, society at large had not learnt about Director Hill and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s actions. Right now, the present state of the country and the world were enough to occupy the minds of the people, who had already determined the culprits for the current state of affairs. Hatred was spreading at a remarkable fast and furious pace. Brother turned against brother, inside and outside national borders. Slowly, people started to willingly give up on their freedom; all in order to feel safe. To feel safe, not to actually be safe.

We the people of the United States; that was how the nation's founding charter started. Yet, who were those we? Who were those people? How could he not question these things, when he increasingly saw some people felling to be more people than their fellow men?

Black lives matter was written in red ink in one of the walls he had just passed. Back when that we the people of the United States was first written, African-Americans were not considered people; they were not part of those we. The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments had to pass almost a hundred years after the original we was put down into paper, so that African-Americans could be considered people. Nonetheless, racial segregation was granted by law, and waves of African-American Civil Rights Movements were needed to ensure that a large portion of the American population were seen as people. Yet, here he was, in the 21st century, when an African-American had been elected president twice, seeing black people march once more to show they were people, to show that their lives mattered.

He remembered another common phrase these days, Muslim lives matter. The First Amendment granted freedom of religion; nonetheless, he saw candidates to the presidency saying they would prohibit Muslims to enter the country, and American Muslims were being harassed for their beliefs. Superheroes were not excluded from this. Steve had more than once seen how the new Ms. Marvel, Kamala Khan, had been mistreated. Poor Kamala. On top of being a Muslim, she was a Muslim woman.

Women. How much latter they were granted the same civil rights that American men were granted for over a century! And here he stood, almost a century after the 19th Amendment allowed women to vote, and after waves of Women's Rights Movements, seeing women constantly mistreated and abused, considered to be less human than men. Regarding women, Steve had even been guilty of undermining their rights once. At least those of one woman, Sharon Carter. When Sharon and he first started their relationship, he wanted Sharon to give up her life as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. That was a long time ago, but he knew he had once been guilty of that; he couldn't let other men do what he had done, even if, just like him, they were only thinking about the safety of women. Women should be granted freedom to be able to grant themselves their own safety. No one was safer by being less free.

In these times of Patriot Acts, Superhuman Registration Acts, and their like, Steve couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave. Worse, he wondered if there had actually existed a land of the free and a home of the brave. Steve was becoming increasingly disappointed in his homeland and his fellow citizens, not to say in himself. He pondered if his own actions in favour of his country and the world at large had been of any use at all in making Earth a better place. If he were true to himself, he didn't actually believe they had. I can make you a hero again. Had he ever been so?

When Steve became physically young again, he accepted to once more be Captain America. He knew what that symbol meant, and how much bigger than himself, Steve Rogers, it was. Even though Sam Wilson was wielding the shield, and Steve would never take it away from his beloved friend, he accepted becoming a "second" Captain America. He believed that his country needed to be reminded of the ideals on which it was founded as a nation, and that the existence of more than one Captain America would serve this purpose. In his mind, that would make the American people feel like Captain America was more than just one man; he was all around, each American being a little bit of the Star Spangled Man her/himself. However, things did not go as Steve expected, and he caught himself questioning his actions; not only his recent ones.

In the few days since he had had his physical youth restored, many people were asking for Sam Wilson to give up on the Captain America identity, for the "real" Captain America was back. Others felt like Steve Rogers, a privileged, straight, white man, couldn't bear to see a black Captain America and was diminishing Sam Wilson so that he would give up the shield of his own accord. Steve sighed as he passed a graffiti in a wall where Sam and he were fighting. Accompanying the scene, there was a question: who do you stand with?

All he wanted was to keep "fighting the good fight", especially now, when the world seemed to be mostly made of bullies. But how could he keep doing that? He felt extremely displaced in time, feeling more hopeless and faithless than he had ever before. The weight of the years had just increased inside of him, and the fact that his body wasn't in harmony with his inner self made him feel a stranger inside his own physical shell.

That feeling was extremely uncomfortable to Steve, for he was given back physical youth and the ability to do that which he couldn't anymore. You don't have to go. You can stay if you like. I can make you strong again. I can make you a hero again. He might not know for sure why he reached to the girl, but he knew that by staying, by being strong again, it was his duty to put himself to good use. In a sense, this feeling was similar to the one he had had after participating in Project: Rebirth. However, back then his mind and soul were also young, and his heart made of hope and faith. Now, his inner self was tired and weary, and he struggled to find a way to act in a manner that would make the world a better place, safer and freer.

The heart of the world might have barely changed since the 1940s, but the Star Spangled Man couldn't act upon it in the manner he once had. Time passed, and his own time might have passed as well. As a church clock stroke another full hour, Steve realised he was out of time.

Author's note:

¹ Quote from Captain America: Sam Wilson, issue #7.