The Death of Captain America Act 2 - The Burden of Dreams: Part 2

Doctor Faustus had seemingly brainwashed the Winter Soldier (James “Bucky” Barnes) into becoming loyal to the Red Skull. To test this, he orders Bucky to take a gun and shoot Sharon Carter, another thrall.[1] However, James turns the gun on Faustus even though he knows that they are blanks. What he didn’t expect was that the gun was rigged to stun him if he didn’t comply with orders. Faustus wonders why he didn’t just play along and gets nothing but insults about his weight. The Doctor laments that Barnes is just as irksome as Steve Rogers was and stomps him into unconsciousness.

As the Winter Soldier is being dragged by to his cell by operatives of Radically Ideas in Destruction. He promises Sharon that even the most difficult of patients will break eventually. As he boasts about the joy of making someone loyal to kill on command, Sharon struggles to regain control of her mind. However, a dark inner voice compels her to stop thinking and listen to Faustus.

Meanwhile, the Falcon (Sam Wilson) and Black Widow (Natasha Romanov) are trying to find Sharon Carter after she turned on them. Luckily, Sharon was followed by Redwing, Sam’s pet falcon, and through his mental link with the bird is led to where she was last seen. The trail leads to the sewers they have some time to talk. Sam is going through a lot since he just learned that his best friend was killed by his good friend. They soon come to the entrance of an underground hideout. The Widow suggests that if they want to get Sharon out alive, they’ll need to see what they’re dealing with before calling this in to SHIELD.

While aboard the SHIELD helicarrier, Tony Stark is conducting an investigation of his own. Suspecting that Sharon Carter was used to murder Captain America, he has had one of the agency’s top scientists to look into it. The doctor not only confirms Sharon’s finger prints were on the murder weapon. Not only that, by running DNA samples, the doctor has determined that Sharon is also pregnant.[2] Tony then orders all records of these results to be destroyed as he doesn’t want anyone to know about any of this.

Back underground, Doctor Faustus provides the Red Skull with a status report. The Skull is annoyed that Winter Soldier isn’t under their control. He tells Faustus that if he can’t break the prisoner within the time limit they’ll find a use for him in death. That’s when Faustus is warned that there has been a perimeter breach.

It’s at that same moment that the Falcon and Black Widow are discovering that this facility is run by the terror group known as Radically Advanced Ideas in Destruction, or RAID for short. Due to the severity of their threat, the Black Widow calls SHIELD for a full tactical back-up. They two then charge ahead in a full frontal assault while they wait for reinforcements arrive. Their attack sets off the alarms just as Winter Soldier wakes up in his cell and wonders how he’s going to get free. As Falcon and the Widow fight their way through the RAID soldiers, Faustus orders a full evacuation and the destruction of all evidence. He also tells them to bring him their prisoner.

When two RAID agents go to get the Winter Soldier, he is waiting for them to open the cell. Even though his arms are bound in a straitjacket laced with Adamantium, he manages to literally kick his way to freedom. He then follows after the fleeing troopers since they’ll probably lead him to where they have taken Sharon. Not far away, Faustus has his men load up his escape craft when he is informed that Winter Soldier escaped from his cell. Needing to get away, Faustus orders Sharon to go and take care of him. As she goes looking for James, she struggles with the mental control Faustus has on her. Growing more confused, she collapses to the ground as she fights with her own mind. However, when James finds her, the conditioning kicks back in and she blasts Bucky with a stun gun.

They load him onto the escape ship just as Falcon and the Widow arrive. Although Faustus launches his ship, Falcon tries to follow after them. As Faustus orders his men to find a way to lose their tail, Sharon is able to find a way to work around her mental conditioning. Before anyone can stop her, she opens the rear door of the ship and kicks Winter Soldier outside. As she anticipated, the Falcon breaks off his chase to save Bucky from falling to his death. Sam manages to catch James, but they both end up crashing through the skylight of an abandoned warehouse. This allows the ship to activate cloaks and get away. Faustus is impressed and wonders what sort of mental gymnastics that she had to go through to pull that off. She says she did it because it worked, pointing out that Faustus was just going to kill him anyway.

Back on the ground, the Black Widow finds Falcon and the Winter Soldier and is relieved that they are both relatively unharmed. That’s when their SHIELD back up arrives, which is just as well because regardless of what just went down, the Winter Soldier is under arrest.[4]

Recurring Characters

Winter Soldier, Sharon Carter, Falcon, Black Widow, Doctor Faustus, Red Skull/Aleksander Lukin, RAID, SHIELD

Continuity Notes

1. Doctor Faustus had been mentally conditioning Sharon since Captain America (vol. 5) #22. Under this conditioning she seemingly killed Captain America in issue #25. In reality, Steve Rogers has been time displaced as part of a complicated plot orchestrated by the Red Skull to steal his body as will be explained in Captain America: Reborn #1-5.

2. Sharon discovered that she was pregnant last issue. This came out of one night of magic with Captain America back in Captain America (vol. 5) #16.

3. Tony Stark has wanted Winter Soldier brought in since he stole Captain America’s shield in Captain America (vol. 5) #27.