SENTINEL ↝ MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE [1] [ON HOLD]

[0]

1961

                  

The manila folder lay open on the table, its contents spread out across the wooden surface. The top of the folder was stamped with ink reading Project Sentinel, the test results and various photographs that had been previously hidden inside documenting a child through his early developmental years, up until he became the teenager that sat at the table, eyes scanning the words on the pages while the two adults behind him continued to discuss their important matters.

Fifteen-year-old James Rogers was no stranger to the whispers that went on between his mother, Margaret Carter, and a close friend and colleague of hers, Howard Stark. The feats the young boy had been able to pull off that even adults twice his age would never be able to accomplish meant a life of solitude for the young boy, with the exception of the odd occasion here and there where Howard would take him out for a "night on the town" where, just for a night, James was able to pretend he was just another kid from Brooklyn.

As he listened to his mother and Howard speak, James's eyes wandered over to the manila folder next to his, one with much less intel filling its contents, the black stamped letters reading The Winter Soldier, something the three of them knew next to nothing about, and it made him all the more dangerous. For years, Peggy and Howard tried everything in their power to track down whatever they could about the unnamed assassin, but all they managed to find were mere whispers of his whereabouts before the trail would go cold, another whisper popping up a couple of years later on the other side of the world for them to follow. They were never quite sure how he managed to vanish from the face of the earth in that time, until Howard cracked the code on the technology used, even creating a chamber of their own to be used by the Sentinel.

"James," Howard finally spoke up, pulling the young boy's attention. "Are you ready?"

James rose from the table slowly, taking in his surroundings one last time before nodding in Howard's direction. "Yes, sir."

"Remember," Peggy reminded her son. "You don't have to do this."

"We both know I do, Mom." James replied. "You need a weapon of your own to be able to take him out if we can find him. This assassin, he's no normal soldier. He's like me, he's like-"

The words fell flat on James's tongue before he could use the word for the father James lost when Captain Steve Rogers crashed a ship into the middle of the Atlantic to save millions, before he was even born, not that Steve and Peggy had even known then that their son was on the way. The world thought Captain America to be their first and only super soldier, not knowing that, while he was certainly the first, he was in no way the last.

James hadn't fully inherited all of what the serum had done to his father in 1943, though the speed and strength possessed by the fifteen year old was enough to make any other soldier look like a toddler. While he'd been raised in the private eye as the only other living super soldier, training to one day become the symbol his father had been, little did they know another was living below the surface, though as a symbol of fear, not of peace.

"He'd be so proud of you, you know." Peggy said, blinking back a tear as she smoothed out her son's shirt, and Howard stepped forward, shaking James's hand.

"We'll see you soon." Howard promised him. "The world may not know the sacrifices you're making today, but they'll never be able to thank you enough for them."

James stepped backwards into the cryogenic chamber, looking up at his surroundings as the glass doorway shut with the press of a button, locking him in place. His eyes met Howard's and he nodded quickly, before giving himself a chance to back out. He knew he was making the right decision, and could only hope that he'd be able to find the Winter Soldier soon, before it was too late.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye for James, nearly seven years had gone by the first time in the chamber. Flights to Paris in 1968 turned to trains to Moscow in 1983 as the years blended together, the only thing on James's mind was following the trail of the Winter Soldier before it inevitably went cold a few months later, and he was left to go back into the chamber until Peggy and Howard caught word that the trail had once again returned.

James had a few close calls over the years, though he was never quite close enough to take the super soldier assassin down, leading the young boy to blame himself for his slip-ups. Especially after, in the winter of 1991, Howard and his wife Maria both met their fate at the hands of the Winter Soldier himself, leaving Project Sentinel down a leader, and what seemed to be back at square one. James was awake out of the cryogenic chamber long enough to bid Howard and Maria goodbye at their funeral, standing behind their only son, Tony, before going back in that night, assuming that, like always, he'd be woken up a few years later to pick up where he'd left off.

What James didn't know, lying asleep in the chamber, was the horrors the world began to face in 1995, when the first signs of alien life became known during the return of Carol Danvers from a planet galaxies away. Tracking down possible alien threats, coupled with the decline of Peggy's health after a diagnosis of Alzheimer's left Peggy's niece, Sharon Carter, in charge of Project Sentinel, to one day wake up the boy out of time when the world would need him most, although for the time being, the Winter Soldier was the least of their problems.

When the chamber was finally opened again in 2016, the blonde woman staring back at him wasn't the mother he'd been expecting, but rather a cousin he hadn't known existed the last time he'd been awake.

"Private Rogers," the woman greeted the boy solemnly. "My name is Sharon Carter. I'm afraid I have some horrible news to share concerning your mother."

James had hardly spoken when he was loaded up into the car with Sharon, heading for the house Peggy had lived in for the last few years of her life. He hadn't said a word when he followed her inside, pictures adorning the walls of James, Steve, and a few other relatives he couldn't put names to. He could only follow, speechless, as he walked into the room to see his mother lying in bed, her eyes landing on the boy as she gave him a soft smile.

To James, it had only been mere moments since he'd last seen his mother, but to Peggy, she hadn't seen her son in nearly twenty-five years. What little color had been left in her hair the last time he'd seen her had completely faded away to gray, her skin now weathered with age, as well as the disease that had completely wracked through her body.

"My boy," Peggy spoke softly, and James took a seat in the chair next to his mother's bed, taking her frail hand in his. "It's been so long."

"Hi Mom," James finally spoke, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill as he softly rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. "Sorry it took me so long to get here."

"Nonsense." she said. "You've worked so hard these past years, and I'm so proud of you."

"I'll get him, Mom." James said. "One day, I promise you I will."

"You look so much like your father." Peggy said, watching her son with adoring eyes. "I love you, James."

"I love you too."

James stayed awake through the night, even after Peggy took her final breaths in her sleep. He stayed awake during the whispers of the other relatives in the house as they made the funeral arrangements, simply sitting by his mother's side. It had only been mere months ago to him that he was sitting in front of the folders, listening to Peggy and Howard make the arrangements for him to track down a soldier that, fifty-five years later to the rest of the world, he still hadn't managed to find.

He may not have been going back into the cryogenic chamber, but he knew, one way or another, he'd find the Winter Soldier.

James looked up at the creaking sound of the bedroom door being pushed open, stopping suddenly in his tracks at the figure meeting his eyes. While he'd expected one of Sharon's siblings, the eyes that stared back at him were nearly identical to his own, belonging to someone he'd only ever seen in photographs, and for the last seventy years had believed to be dead.

"You must be James," the man said, crossing the room to where James stood and shaking his hand, staring at the boy in awe. "My name's Steve. I guess we've got a lot to talk about."