Diana and the rest of the team busted through a wall astride a defected German tank, flanked by Wehrmacht soldiers with their armbands and ranks stripped off. The first thing she saw when they broke through the wall was Steve, standing over the limp body of Adolf Hitler.
Like a flash, Diana hopped off the tank and dashed toward the two. She pulled the lasso of Hestia off her hip, and wrapped it tightly around the dictator's arms and chest.
"Reveal your true form!" She commanded. It has to be him. She thought desperately. His spell is broken, how else would these men have turned on his orders so quickly?
The man stirred, groggily.
*Reveal yourself, Ares!" She shouted into the dictator's face.
"...Vat?" He asked, not understanding the question.
It can't be.
Steve put a gloved hand gently on her shoulder. "Diana..." He said softly.
"No, no." She said, her throat going dry. "It can't be. They turned on him when the spell was broken."
"Diana, they started turning on him before I knocked him out." Steve said.
Diana fell to her knees, and looked up at Steve with tears brimming in her eyes.
"Then why did the ones at the camps do what they did?!" She demanded. "Why did they kill everyone? The children, the innocent, the helpless?"
Steve swallowed a hard lump in his throat. "Because..." He began as he knelt beside her. "Because some people aren't just good. Gods or no gods, with or without a cause... Sometimes it's just them."
Diana sniffed. "Maybe my mother was right." She said, dismayed. "Maybe this world doesn't deserve us."
Steve pulled her into a close embrace. "Maybe not. But it's never been about what the world deserves. It's about what's right. What's good. We've done a lot of good. Those people we saved will never forget what you did for them." Steve said, warmly. "And I'll never forget what you mean to me."
"Command, we're coming up on Berlin, over."
"Roger that, Trinity. Have you made visual contact with the Reichstag and Führerbunker yet? Over."
"Uh, affirmative, command. We might need to call off the bombing run, over."
"Trinity, what are you seeing, over?"
"Command, they're flying the stars and stripes, over."
"Hot damn! They did it!"
The Howling Commandos waved to the scout planes as they blazed past the Führerbunker. Adolf Hitler looked up at the American flag flying above his fortress with disdain, but as he was tied up at the feet of the Commandos and his own former subordinates, he could do nothing about it.
December Twenty-fifth, nineteen forty-five went down in history as Victory Day. It was the day the German army declared unconditional surrender to allied forces.
December twenty-sixth, the Red Guardian captured Benito Mussolini mid flight from Italy.
December twenty-seventh, the Howling Commandos and One-Hundred and Seventh flew back to Metropolis for the victory parade.
December Twenty-eighth. Steve had never seen Metropolis so filled with activity in his entire life. People cheered from every window, and showered the armed forces with confetti and ticker tape. Everyone in the city, no, not even just the state or the country, but the world was cheering for them. Most of all, they were cheering for him.
The atmosphere was intoxicating. It was as if the very air was charged with electricity.
When the parade reached Times Square, the roar reached a deafening din. The crowds bulged at the barricades and roared themselves hoarse. It was all President Truman could do to get them to quiet down long enough for him to address the assembly.
"My fellow Americans, supreme Allied Commander General Eisenhower, and allied representatives from across the globe." The president said as he gestured to the crowd to calm down. "Today, we mark the end of a conflict that, just over four years ago, came to America's shores by way of the Hapanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the Axis forces declared war upon this great nation, and we responded in kind. Though the war in the Pacific was won many months ago, technological innovations on the European front extended the conflict for our brave Armed Forces and Allies. Now, I turn the podium over to the commander of the Special Operations Unit that helped end the war, Colonel Nicholas J. Fury!" The President gestured to the colonel as he stood from his chair.
Fury, as everyone except Steve and Diana were, was dressed in his dress browns. He shook the President's hand with a wide grin, and took the podium, stopping only to adjust the microphones up to match his height.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'll keep this short and sweet. Many brave men and women have served in this great nation's armed forces. Few have risen above and beyond the call of duty like the members of the Howling Commandos. Not least of all, their leader, the man who helped put an end to the war, the man who marched into the heart of Axis territory against all odds to save hundreds of lives, the man who punched Adolf Hitler in the face! Everyone, please give a warm Metropolis welcome to a man I know as Steve Rogers, but you probably know better by a different name. Put your hands together for Captain America!"
Steve stood from his seat, and shook Fury's hand with a humble smile, and walked up to the podium.
"Ahem." Steve cleared his throat, and looked across the expectant crowd. "That sure is a lot to live up to, huh?" He asked, rhetorically. "Honestly, I've never thought of myself like that. I'm nobody special, I'm just like each and every one of you. I'm just a kid from Brooklyn. Just a guy a kind old man thought had the potential to do good things, someone who was given a chance to be all he could be. Like many before me, I took that chance. After that, it seemed like fate put me where I needed to be, when I needed to be there. I just did what I had to do. I don't think I'm really any more important than anyone else who's served in this Army. Maybe I wear a different uniform in battle, but at the end of the day, I bleed red like everyone else does. No war is won by any one man. Without the contributions and sacrifices of our brave soldiers and allies, nothing I did would have mattered.
"Without the support of many, I probably wouldn't have gotten nearly as far as I have. Not least of all, my best friend, Sergeant James Barnes, without whose sacrifice I would not be standing here today. I just want to thank everyone who helped me along the way. Colonel Fury, Howard Stark, the Howling Commandos, Bucky, and Doctor Abraham Erskine. Without your help, I don't know what would've happened. Thank you, god bless you, and god bless the United States of America!"
The crowd and members of the military and government on stage erupted into raucous applause.
The Howling Commandos rose to stand by Steve, and President Truman shook every single one of their hands. The photographers from the Gotham Times and Daily Planet snapped pictures of every waking second, it seemed. One of them, Jameson, Steve thought his name was, snapped a picture of Steve and Diana at the head of the Howling Commandos.
"Cap!" He shouted over the din. "Can we get a shot of just you and Diana?"
The two exchanged a look, and a smile.
"Sure!" Diana replied.
The others gave them some space, and the photographer snapped a few, fairly standard pictures of the two of them.
"Alright, now let loose. Do something crazy!" He said. "Whatever you feel like!"
The two of them exchanged a long, meaningful stare. Then, Steve put one arm around Diana's waist and the other around her shoulders, and Diana clasped his head in both of her hands, and they kissed deeply, passionately, as if they weren't standing in front of thousands of people and the President of the United States. The world melted away for what felt like an eternity, but the snap of the camera brought them back to reality. As the broke off the kiss, they opened their eyes, and stared deeply into each other. Finally, Steve broke the silence. "Will you marry me?" He asked in a low whisper.
Diana's smile grew wider. "Absolutely." She said.
December thirty-first, nineteen forty-five. Steve and Diana had a military wedding, probably the highest profile wedding in American history. They said their vows just before the clock struck midnight on the new year, and kissed as the bell tolling the hour rang out.