Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty

Epilogue

The soldier began the day like he did every day.

It was four in the morning, and wake up was at five. The habits of a lifetime, however, were hard to break. He spent the time doing hundreds of pushups, sit ups, and other calisthenics that were designed to maintain his fighting edge. It was a time of the day that he felt truly free, not needing to dwell on the past or the future, but to live in the now. The first hints of false dawn battled with the moonlight to provide enough illumination for him, but in truth he could have done this routine in the dark. It had been three months, and he had done this routine every morning. No matter now many months were ahead, he knew the routine would be waiting for him. When he finished the exercise, he looked out through the bars on his windows to see a fair view of the moonlit Kansas plains. Inside this small room was his world, but outside that window was Fort Leavenworth Kansas. It was equal parts army base and prison, just as he was equal parts soldier and prisoner.

The trial had not been a typical example of military justice: which was swift and efficient at the expense of being fair and just. The military was an institution that had embraced the reality that life was unfair and that its legal system should reflect reality. In this instance, that maxim had never been more true. The appointed Judge Advocate on his case was a disinterested holdover who was just waiting to finish the case so that he could resign his commission and pursue a career in the private sector. He insisted that was where the real money was. He made little effort to challenge the central point of the case - that Steve's recall to active duty had been not only unlawful but outrageous - yet busied himself with challenging minutia in the unsigned contract in an effort to apparently alienate the General who oversaw the proceedings and insure a more swift conviction. Under different circumstances, Steve would have been angry with the incompetent lawyer, but at the point in the proceedings when he was slapped with an official censure and an enforced continuance (so that he could actually build a case) he only felt pity for him.

The prosecutor, in contrast, seemed much more concerned about Steve's welfare, but expressed it to the point that it became embarrassing. After the first day in court, for example, he complained that no awards and decorations were displayed on the basic dress uniform that he had been provided for the proceedings. This had resulted in a tedious break in the proceedings where a team of researchers had needed to exhume his war record in order to determine what, if any, such awards he was entitled to. Some awards stressed credulity, as he had been wounded 21 times in the second world war and was therefore entitled to 21 purple hearts. With oak leaf clusters, this could be displayed, but there was a dispute regarding how many V devices for Valor to display. The resulting block of ribbons that they pinned to his chest kept him from being able to move his right arm freely and nearly broke in half when he saluted. He was as embarrassed by the ostentatious volume of his decorations as he was by the bureaucracy that had created them. The lawyer also argued that the Captain's rank was incorrect and that he would have fully qualified for both Major and Lieutenant Colonel based on both time in service and time in grade considerations. This digression only enraged the Judge further.

The resulting circus dragged on for months and became the most infamous military trial of all time, resulting in the eventual firing of the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the Army, and the Chief of Staff of the Army. The trial became a nightly point of contention on the cable news shows, with strange divisions that cracked Conservative/Liberal polarity into four camps all with different reasons for siding with either Cap or the Army. The foreign press was both baffled and terrified, but they could not look away from the resulting car crash. "Free the Captain" T-shirts in Germany became a cultural phenomenon in France and Germany, displaying Steve's face in a Che Guevara-like visage looking up to some unknown horizon. Sales estimates eclipsed 40 million euros. For a brief moment, it seemed as if a settlement was to be reached allowing the Steve to return to active duty in a limited role, but it required an only an admission of guilt for failure to report and no mention of the offense for which he had been arrested. The Administration sent a hatchet man to make certain that the Judge was made aware of what would happen to his star if he allowed that to transpire.

In the end, both the defender and prosecutor were disappointed by the news that Captain America had been convinced on all counts. The sentence was obscene: life without possibility of parole. The announcement had caused a riot in Washington DC that caused flames that could be seen on the horizon in Maryland. It had only been controlled, ironically, when the Avengers had been called in to control the chaos. Of all the people to display such outrage, there was one who conspicuously did not show it: Captain America himself. He was as good as his word, and accepted the judgment that had been passed down on him. In the statement he gave after the trial he let the nation know that he was proud to live in a country where he and those like him were not above the law. He said that it was of absolute importance to understand that the law was the leader and that the leader was not the law. He left it up to the people to decide if that was actually true. The Prosecutor committed suicide that night after finding out that his wife had taken his children and left him. The Defender had discovered that he had been blackballed by every private law firm in the United States and received only laugher on the line when he called the Public Defenders office. He eventually found a job as a notary public who catered to a slow trickle of business through a seedy little office in Queens.

As a commissioned officer, the only prison where confinement was permitted was this little fort in the Kansas plains. Life was difficult, there was no doubt, but he was accustomed to the strict military discipline that was expected of the prisoners. Both the guards and the prisoners treated him with an uncommon degree of deference. A few even expressed their admiration when a private moment presented itself. He had adjusted to this life quickly, becoming an inspiration to the other prisoners when assigned to a hard labor detail. Even the commanding general of the fort had lauded him both as a model prisoner and a positive influence in the lives of the men who were confined there. Many realized very quickly that not only had his conviction not changed who he was, but that his confinement never would.

He was looking in the mirror at the end of the workout session, quietly splashing a little bit of water on his face, when he heard the laughter.

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen." The all too familiar voice gloated.

Captain America turned to see what was perhaps the last thing he ever expected. On the other side of his bars, half cloaked in darkness, was a chuckling figure in three different tones of purple. Through the bars his metallic blue face leered in an expression of amusement and triumph.

Kang the Conqueror.

"How very far you had to fall." the time traveler said before clucking his tongue.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Steve growled.

"Now how's that for gratitude?" Kang admonished him "Do you know how much difficulty I went to in order to make certain that I was here at just this moment? Do you know how many things needed to happen in order for this moment to happen?"

Cap slowly approached the bars.

"Every man thinks that they are the master of their own destiny." Kang chuckled "But they don't realize that they are just like a straw in the river that is time, swept along by currents beyond their control. The one who put you here, Richmond, is no different. His namesake in another world battled a man not unlike me, and perhaps were he paying attention he might have learned a thing or two in that other world. It was all to easy to manipulate him. Too easy to harden his heart through manipulation of events. It pleased me to bring about your downfall through him, because you have no idea what will come next. I do, though. The best thing about being from the future is always being a step ahead."

"So you are here to gloat?" Steve said, inching ever closer.

"Gloat?" Kang said, clasping his palm to his chest melodramatically. "Oh, perish the thought. I am simply here to offer you aid in your darkest hour."

Steve's eyes narrowed.

"You don't believe me?" Kang laughed "Don't you know who I am? I have helped you before, as Rama-Tut and as Immortus. When it has pleased me to do so I have done you many favors. Your reaction to me has ever been vastly dependant upon what clothes I choose to wear."

Steve inched closer and his adversary did not seem to notice.

"You don't know the power that sits in the palm of my hand." Kang said as that very palm began to glow.

Steve saw within that glow images that were forever burned into his head, and Kangs words to go with them.

"Would you like to see your mother and father again? I can save them, you know. One word to your mother that you were alive would be all it would take. Your father's disease would be alleviated with the most primitive treatments of my time. If I can do that for him… why not for Sara? Bucky? Just say the word and he never reaches that plane. Perhaps you would like for your beloved Rachel pulled from the jaws of certain death by a last moment miracle. Easily arranged. All the altruistic outcomes that you could ever want are easily achievable. Second chances are a dime a dozen to one such as I. You can live the life you want, have the love you need, never even have to be Captain America. I can do anything that you can imagine, endless possibilities..."

His hand snapped into a fist, killing the light of the idyllic images

"All you have to do… is beg." Kang finished through his sadistic smile.

An iron grip clamped on his wrist and pulled his arm though the cage, yanking the conqueror's arm until his metal mask clanked against the bars.

"Go to hell, Kang." Steve snarled.

The sound of breaking bone echoed throughout the prison, followed by a blood curdling scream.

"Didn't see that coming, did you?" Steve growled as he released the arm and let him fall to the cement floor.

"Arrrggggggghhhhh!" Kang howled, scrambling to get on his feet. All down the corridor murmurs filled the hallway as awakening prisoners ran to their bars to see what the disturbance was.

The time traveling despot cradled one arm to his side and held up another that was crackling with blue lighting.

"You will pay for that, primitive, you will…"

He saw Captain America standing tall and proud even in his prison uniform, staring directly at him with blue eyes that held not the slightest hint of fear.

The blue lighting slowly faded from his gauntlet.

"No." Kang said with a pained cackle "Oh no. That's what you want, and I won't give it to you. This is not the end for you. You will have years to suffer, years to regret, and when you finally succumb I shall be there. Oh yes. I will be there Captain, and you will beg. Oh… beg and plead beg and PLEAD!"

"Don't count on it, Kang." Steve said.

"You will… oh yes… you will…" Kang laughed as he began to fade away "You will beg… and I will refuse."

At the end there was nothing visible but Kang's disembodied mouth like the Cheshire Cat.

"Time is on my side… yes it is…"

The prison guards ran to the bars, seeing nothing where something was only moments before, and looked at Steve with a look of total bafflement.

"It was nothing, boys." Cap assured them "Just a sad little man who can't help but live in the past because he can't face the future."

As the guards turned to leave, whispering to each other, Steve turned and looked in the mirror. Life had not turned out the way that he expected it to, but he would curse neither God or fate for that. He had made his decisions and been true to himself. No man on earth could do any more than that. Looking in the mirror, he knew who he was. He was not defined by any costume or uniform. He was not defined as an Invader or a Avenger, a costumed hero or a crime fighter. He was Captain Steven Rogers. He was a soldier. His nation had turned its back on him more than once, but he loved it and would serve it still. He had not accepted defeat, and would never quit. No matter what situation he found himself in he would serve as an example and an inspiration. He was only a man, but also a symbol of liberty, and would forever be its sentinel… ever watchful. The powerful believed that they had imprisoned him, but they could not imprison liberty.

Finis

Afterword:

Thank you all for reading Captain America, Sentinel of Liberty. There is a legion of you that I must thank who supported me through the long and tough writing process that resulted in this story. This story belongs as much to all of you as it does to me. This was an important story for me to write and I have been blown away by the response to it. It is the first Fanfiction I have written and I am so glad that many people have said that they have enjoyed it. I have refrained from using too many authors notes throughout so that I could just stick them all in here at the end where people could chose to either read them or not. I will start out by saying that this was a hard story to write. Captain America as a character might be one of the hardest characters to write in comic books for the simple reason that you have to be very careful with what he does and says. He represents the country, not just a certain segment of it or a certain ideology. At the same time he is still a man rooted in a particular time and place that has ingrained beliefs that cannot be denied or just whitewashed over. If any of the beliefs that Cap espoused offended anybody than I am terribly sorry. As I was writing him I could not help trying to get into his head. He is a white Anglo-Saxon male protestant from New York City that came of age in the great depression. He has a heavy military background and fought in the second world war. These, I thought, were very formative experiences that would have a gigantic impact on who he was. At the same time I cannot deny that some of my own complex feelings about my country and the current situation of the nation were expressed in this work, and again if any of this offended anyone I am sorry. I am an American Soldier who is currently fighting what many believe to be a global war on terrorism (as terrifying as that sounds). I will not deny that the only thing that I truly know is that there IS a war and I AM fighting it. Like the Captain I am a prisoner of my own time, place, and upbringing. I tend to believe that history is the one that gets to decide what a war is about, and history is written by the victors. How many children growing up today believe that the American civil war was about civil rights, or freeing the slaves, instead of about economic disagreements? Upon reflection, money truly is the root of all evil.

In my search for Steve Rogers I had to take a lot of things into consideration. He is a character with a history that has been chronicled by hundreds of writers over the course of more than 65 years. Yet there are only a handful of writers who bothered to look very far beneath the surface. It is almost like people have been afraid of what they would find there. Many writers have been very timid writing Cap, not wanting to get any dirt on him. The few exceptions to the rule have been exceptional ones. Roger Stern, Mark Gruenwald, and J.M. Dematteis come to mind as the ones that were most interested in who this guy was as opposed to just what he could do. Bob Harris and Roy Thomas (for all their other notable failings) showed the interest but not the capacity. Peter David seems to use him as the butt of jokes a lot, yet at the same time shows a reverence for him that I find amusing. So I owe the writings of these gentlemen a huge round of thanks for any accolades that this story has received. I encourage anybody that is interested to pick up the writings of these gentlemen. In truth, this writing is mostly a way for me to reconcile who I understood STEVE ROGERS to be with the CAPTAIN AMERICA that is appearing in comics today. The redefined, dark and gritty Cap that everybody seemed to want for a while.

The decision to root the story in a definite period of time (during and shortly after the 2004 elections) is something that you can't really do in comic books. I decided to do it to make it seem more grounded in reality. Current events seemed to move the story along nicely as I could bottle a little bit of zeitgeist and pour it here and there. For those of you who realize (as I do) how absurd it is to put something as fantastic as Super Heroes and Villains in a normal-earth geopolitical situation and yet believe that they would remain powerless to affect things on the global stage... I thank you for suspending your disbelief. In exploring how the media and politicians would react to a personage such as Captain America it really helped me work out my own feelings about those institutions in my nation. For those of you who are offended by my portrayals of Steve's more "human" moments: Mistakes, foibles, failures and all... I apologize once again. In exploring Steve Rogers I could not deny his humanity, with all the good and the bad parts that humanity entails.

Let me list my good intentions here: I intended this story to be a perfect PG 13 action story with some dramatic elements. I intended for it to have 12 chapters (kinda like a 12 issue limited series) with a very defined arc. I intended to cameo a variety of heroes and villains more to show their thoughts and feelings for Cap than to do run of the mill hero stuff. I intended to have no arch nemesis or vast plot against him. I intended for the story to be more or less romance free. I intended for the focus of the story to be Cap's formative years during the Depression and World War two. I can actually see the point in my story where the road I built with good intentions led me into hell. How could I realistically show Steve's personal relationships without touching on his romances? How could I explore his war years by glossing over the horrors of war that he experienced? How could I do this entire story avoiding politics altogether? Moreover, who can resist a shadowy villain behind the scenes pulling the strings? After all, with all the things that seemed to be going bad for Cap it had to be SOMEBODY'S fault and I would be damned if it was going to be the Red Skull again.

I just hope that I didn't "Jump the Shark" too much.

In closing, I wrote most of this story during what little spare time I had during a combat tour in Iraq. I finish it now during a combat tour in Afghanistan. I wrote it in canon (or what I understood canon to be) without the benefit of access to any comic books or comic book news other than what I could learn from random buzz during my limited time on the internet. I know that I made mistakes here and there but I hope that these slip ups didn't take away any of your enjoyment of this story. Just like Cap… I'm only human. Thank you all again for reading this story and for posting your reviews.

I will forever be grateful.

SSGT David Shrauger

Sept 7th, 2008