Peggy stood by herself over Steve's grave, everyone else had already started walking to the cars. The Commandos were talking by one of the cars, Philips and Stark were talking about something waiting for her to finish. She had been sitting in front of a radio waiting for a call to come in that the Hydra plane had landed somewhere but nothing ever did. It had been almost two weeks before Philips called of the search for the wreckage, Stark tried to convince him otherwise but Philips wanted to get things moving. The war had turned, Germany was falling and Hydra had all but vanished after the Red Skull's death. Unfortunately losing Steve and Bucky was the price that they had to pay to achieve that goal. She turned and started walking towards the others noting that most of the government officials and politicians had already pulled away and were heading to continue business as usual.
"I'm not giving up. I will find him" stated Howard to Philips as Peggy just started to walk away from the tombstone. Philips was shutting him down but Stark was ignoring him at this point, he couldn't stop him from spending his own money and resources to find Steve and Bucky. The two of them had saved the world and they deserved to come home. The fight with Hydra was over, they had time to do the right thing for the heroes that had saved them. He already arranged for local officials to give their ships and planes over to the search effort, luckily having money afforded him the ability to keep the search going without Philips help. Howard really felt for Peggy as she walked towards them, she lost him right after she got him. There was nothing he could say to make her feel better, no jokes could bring him back.
Dugan and the others were telling stories from their time with Steve and Bucky, nods and smiles as the happy memories flooded their minds. Dugan began to think about the future, going back to the Army seemed fine but it wouldn't be the same, working with Captain America had changed him, the world was larger than most people realized and now Dugan was a part of that world and he didn't want to leave it. He could see that the others were all thinking the same thing that he was.
Peggy reached Howard and Philips knowing that they had been talking about Steve but chose to stop when she got close. Philips waved the commandos over who wasted no time in joining the trio. "We did good work although it was a high price. That being said the world is still very full of threats. Hydra is gone for now but there is no way we got all of them or that what's left of them will give up. The world is going to need someone watching their back" he stated as everyone stood in front of him.
"So what are we going to do about it?" asked Dugan from behind Peggy and Howard.
"Simple we guard the world from threats that it can't handle, we become the world's Shield."
Steve groggily opened his eyes as the lights above him stirred him awake. "How did I get here?" he asked himself. He sat up and noticed that the room seemed mostly metallic. It reminded him of the Hydra base. The SSR must have found the crash and rescued him and were waiting for him to recover before they moved out. He stood up and tried to walk around the room only to have his legs give out on him as if they hadn't moved, it took him a minute to get his legs back as he moved towards a window. He looked out and could see people running around but more importantly he could see several dozen planes that he had never seen before. He looked around the large room beneath him and pondered his location, then the door whizzed open behind him. He turned to see a young blonde nurse who looked shocked to see him up and about. She muttered something before dropping a clipboard and running out of the room.
Steve moved towards the door as it opened and looked out noticing that two men with guns were coming his way and his instincts took over. He went back into the room and picked up a metal stool that was sitting on the ground. The first of the guards turned into the door and was met with the stool legs to his face knocking him back into the others. Steve jumped out and delivered a clean strike to the second guard's nose knocking him down with his friend. Steve sprinted from the scene heading towards where the guards had come from, he turned and headed down another hall. The halls looked similar to an aircraft carrier just like the one he had spent some time on their way to France. He spotted a door and headed through finding himself outside in the open air. He looked out and realized that he was indeed on an aircraft carrier with more of those planes on the deck. He was running towards the edge of the ship when he looked out on the horizon.
He was home, the Statue of Liberty stood in front of him and a city he didn't recognize sitting behind it. New York didn't look the same that it did, the buildings were taller they were close enough that he could see cars in the streets. "How could things change this much?" he asked himself not realizing that someone was right behind him.
"Overwhelming isn't it?" came a voice next to him. Steve turned defensively but noticed that the man was not doing anything particularly aggressive. "Calm down Cap. My name is Nick Fury, Director of Shield."
"What's Shield?" asked Steve feeling himself calming down.
"Things have changed a lot while you were asleep."
"I was sleeping?" Fury nodded in response. "For how long?"
Fury looked at his watch briefly "A little more than 70 years."