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The Shield in the Stone

Summary:

Steve Rogers pulled the Shield out of the Stone and in turn, pulled the world into a new marvelous age.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: Beginning

Chapter Text

In all her years of life, all the empires she has seen rise and fall- The Ancient One had never seen so much corruption in one Kingdom

There’s absolutely no one you can trust, Nobles and Leaders have all forgotten their duties for selfish wants, and the people starving to death on the side of the road are completely ignored and shunned.

What was once a respected Kingdom has fallen so low they are as worthless as the leaves people trample on their way to the market. The Ancient One did her best to lead people on the paths to happiness. She searched through the different timelines searching for ways to bring this Kingdom off its knees. To stand proud as it once did! As it once did when the Kings and Queens heeded her warnings about droughts and devastation. Warnings about those who were wicked with vile intentions. With her warnings ignored, evil soon crept up in the kingdom. And look where they are now.

Something in The Ancient One wanted to abandon them. She hated herself for it but she could not help her angry feelings over being ignored. The thoughts in her mind came so easily that she could be smug-that she was right and deserved to feel so!

But then she remembers the youth. She remembers when a mother would calm her daughter and a father would help his son. She remembers how they would look at her, when she used her power for little, miniscule things; like stopping a small boy’s picture, that he made for his mother, from falling in the mud.

After all he worked so hard for it.

She kept them in her mind as she used her most powerful tool. The amulet. A strong force older than she was. A magic she was trained to use and control and above all else- be used for good.

And helping these people with kind hearts?

That was good.

So she looked. And looked. And alas she looked! She strained the Amulets power to its limits and she strained her mind. Her efforts were fruitless. Everyday more riots turned violent and people fought with each other over minimal things. There was more bloodshed. There was more tears over lost family members. More knives plunged into the backs of their friends and breaking their oaths to the people and to the king. The Ancient One started to grow doubtful. She was considering doing the one thing she had never done in her long life.

Give up.

Then one day, The Ancient one found a timeline truly… remarkable. So unusual and unique… could it actually work? I-It was fantastical! Magical! Amazing! She followed the line farther. Searching to see what had happened that caused this to be possible. What had made this day of searching different from the long, tired, useless days before. What had made this day worth it.

She was 26 years in the future when she saw it.

She saw someone who understood what freedom is. She understood why today was so different.

Because today… Steve Rogers was born.

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“You’re going to get caught if you keep doing that.” Chester Philips said. He took a sip from his glass. They had gone out to lunch that day.

“Doing what?” Dr. Abraham Erskine said innocently to his dear friend. An old army general, Mr Philips was. He’s not really what you would call old yet, but with all the corruption it was dangerous to keep holding his position in the kingdom.

“You know what.”

“I’m afraid that with all my magic I can’t read your mind.” Dr Erskine teased in his thick accent.

It was a quiet day, one of which Erskine would never take for granted. A quiet day without any mobs or fires was guaranteed to be a good day. The sky was blue and not tainted with smoke, the grass was green not trampled men fighting over a copper coin, and the shops were open with their windows repaired from the previous cruelty from thieves. Instead Dr. Erskine would take advantage of this and leave his house in the woods to see Chester philips.

Sneakily, Dr. Erskine twirled his fingers underneath his blue robe that only barely passed for normal. Immediately he made a flower bloom in a vibrant pink across the street at the old run down Dress Shop. A bit of color was already doing quite well to better the appearance- To make it stand out.

You see, that was another advantage of a quiet day… everyone is busy listening to the silence that they don’t always catch the magic happening beside them.

Magic was a practice Dr. Erskine is quite fluent in. He had taken lessons from The Ancient One and became one of the few people in this world with the gift.

A gift, sadly, people think they should take.

Society seemed to grow to hate magic. People hear squirrels outside and come up with ridiculous fantasies how The Ancient One is the reason the Old King fell. How she abandoned them all and hated humans. Bah! Although untrue it didn’t stop the people’s fear and the awful witch burnings in the square, accusations flying left and right, it didn’t even make sense because for one Dr. Erskine is a sorcerer.

“Oh I’m serious. Someone sees you waving your fingers about, they’re going to try and throw you in jail.” Chester said.

“I don’t believe magic is against the law.”

“Like people care about the law anymore.”

He had a point. Dr. Erskine stopped his fun and looked at Chester Seriously. A beat passed. “It won’t be like this forever.”

“Your magic amulet prophecies tell you that?” Dr. Erskine didn’t take offense to the slight mock in his voice.

“No. I just have Faith.” The Sorcerer said

“I always suspected you were crazy.” Chester said. “Now I know.” Dr. Erskine smiled.

“Well a little crazy is good, no?”

“We’ll see- What in Katepano is that?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Dr. Erskine saw the familiar orange sparks circling in the air in the middle of the square. That could only mean one thing. But this thing could either be very good,

Or very, very, bad.

His fears were dashed away as he saw the smile of his mentor and friend walk through the ring. Her yellow robes trailing behind her as she tread forwards.

“Hello Abraham.” The Ancient One said “It’s good to see you. It’s been too long and -are those grey hairs?” she teased.

“At least I have hair.” He shot right back. She feigned offence.

Dr Erskine turned a little more serious. “Has-Has something happened? In the timelines?”

“Something has-”

“Excuse me what in all of Thaumazo is happening?” Oh yes that’s right. Chester.

The Ancient One spoke first. “I’m afraid you two are going to have to schedule this for another day. Which is a shame because it is a dreadfully beautiful day.” she said looking around at the peace- and also at the gasping Dress Shop Owner who saw the whole thing.

“I need your help Abraham.” She said. “If this future is going to work, we’re going to have to make sacrifices. Take risks.”

“You’re always taking risks. Even if you’re sitting on your bottom doing nothing -you’re simply risking your intelligence.”

The Sorceress smiled. “Hmm we should be off now.” Dr. Erskine followed her almost bumping into her when she stopped suddenly.

“Honestly Abraham, if you’re going to do one you might as well just do them all.” ah. She saw the flower. She raised her hands and orange runes floated above them in patterned shapes. The whole square transformed into a lush and green forest. Flowers dotting the windows of shops and the bushes and ferns turned healthy and plump.

“You always have to show me up, don’t you?” they left leaving Mr. Philips with a shocked face.

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“That… is quite… the future…” Dr. Erskine breathed out.

“And that’s only the parts I can show you.” The Ancient one still smiled. In fact the smile seemed glued to her face by now.

“This future is very…”

“Extravagant? Mystical? Phenomenal?”

“I was just going to say ‘big’.”

“Will you help me?” a simple question. But the Ancient One did anything but simple.

Dr Erskine tapped his fingers on the table nervously. So many moving parts, so many things could go wrong. And from what she told him there was quite a bit of it that was out of their hands. All they could do was set up the pieces. He looked around the rather furnished cave. It has been almost 3 years since he had last been here and The Ancient one had gone into hiding from that Tyrant on the throne. He looked at the grand curtains and stone walls. If you didn’t know better you probably would have thought you were in a castle. Good thing Erskine knew better.

The Ancient one showed him the pieces of the Future that he was ‘allowed’ to know. He would have been offended if he didn’t know how delicate time was and understood that all information has a time and a place. He saw a few important figures in the future. Lady Peggy Carter and Sir Howard Stark.

When he asked The Ancient One why he didn’t know these people already he was quite astonished when he learned that all of this would take place 26 years in the future.

By then he might have to admit he’s old!

Erkine also saw some things concerning. The Ancient One wasn’t lying when she said they would have to sacrifice.

“What do you need?”

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It was tax day. A bad day for almost everyone. Even the sheriffs and officers who went about to each house griped. No one knew what the actual price was. Greedy officers would make it up and pick fights with those who disagreed. No matter what the price was, it was always too high. If you had a bit of wealth you didn’t keep it longer than a day. At night is when the thieves and rascals would come.

It was chaos.

A fight had broken out it the center of the entire kingdom. Two men were going at it, no one knew why or who had started it. It didn’t really matter. More people got roped in and soon it was an all out brawl. In the midst of the confusion a small boy was separated from his mother and newly adopted baby. The boy was no more than 5. He and his mother had had quite a lot of emotional days. Just a few days ago, a family friend named Sarah had passed away after giving birth to her son. The father of the baby had died in an accident just a month before. The little boy’s mother didn’t hesitate to take the responsibility and raise Sarah’s son along with her own.

But he couldn’t find her. He only let go of her hand for a moment and immediately she was gone. The fight was escalating, things were starting to be thrown and the little boy wasn’t very fast. His legs were still short! He hid behind a cart, trying to wait until it was safe again.

“Momma! Momma!” the little boy was crying now and nobody was stopping to comfort the poor child.

Suddenly the fighting stopped. Gasps and shouts rang out, people were pointing… pointing at something! slowly the boy got up from where he was hiding and turned around to see what had been his salvation.

It was so huge that even over all of the strong grown up men, the little boy could still see the gigantic stone platform, looking like it was crafted by royal workers. It looked at least 8 feet tall! The little boy saw a stone staircase magically appear leading up to the top of the pillar.

The little boy ran forward, his curiosity pulled him towards it like he was attached to a rope. It was then he saw the metal, red and blue, striped shield. The sun bounced off the metal giving it a radiant look. In the middle was white shining star.

That must be a shield fit for a king.

“What’s it say?!” a young man said. The boy realized there were words on the side of the stone. He couldn’t read though and was thankful when somebody shouted it out.

““Whosoever can lift and be this shield...A shield for peace and a shield for the people...Shall be the next Great King of Katepano...And restore the Kingdom to its former glory!?”

“The next king?!”

“What about the now King!?”

“Should we tell the Royals?”

“Of course not! They would have us hanged for treason!”

More people started to shout, everyone’s opinion being broadcast loud and clear. The little boy backed away, afraid that they would start fighting again.

“All Right, that’s enough!” a haughty man said, he had an open collared shirt exposing the rippling muscles and hairy chest. The man was tan, probably because of many hours working out in the sun and in the fields. The same man was walking up the stairs, a hop in his step. “Honestly I would expect peasants would know how to treat their next king!” he put his large hands on the shield and the uproar began again.

“Oh please!”

“Like John would ever be king!”

“Stop making a fool of yourself!”

The comments only seemed to spur the man, apparently named John, on.

“Well there’s only one way to find out!” he said and grabbed the harness of the shield. The audience held their breath as they watched the man grip the shield and finally gave a mighty tug.

The shield didn’t budge.

“W-What?” the man said. “What is this!?” the man tugged and pulled until he was red in the face and out of breath. The people laughed and laughed happy to see the egotistical man be put in his place. A few more men made their way up the stairs, hoping to give it a shot as well. The little boy watched with wide eyes as they all nearly cut their fingers and hands trying to get the shield to budge. They even tried to pull the shield together. Ten men tried with all their strength but it made no difference.

“Why won’t this blasted shield budge!?”

“I think it’s pretty obvious to me,” an older lady yelled haughtily and the crowd silenced to hear her, then she sang in a mocking voice. “You’re not worthy!” she laughed.

People yelled angry at her and there were those who agreed. The little boy just thought the tumultuous noise was starting to hurt his small head. He tugged at his ears.

“James!?” the little boy heard his mother call him. He turned to find his mother he seemed to have lost ages ago. “James Buchanan Barnes, where are you!?”

“Momma! Momma, I’m here!” The little boy spotted his mother and ran through the crowd to hug her tightly. She was looking very frazzled with her messy hair and splotchy eyes. She was holding his new little brother closely.

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re ok…” his mother said whilst hugging them both. “But if you ever run away from me again, so help me I will-!”

“Momma, what are they doing over there?” James pointed at the struggling men who seemed they were now considering attaching a rope to the shield.

“...I don’t know dear.” his mother said with an indescribable look in her eyes.

“I really don’t know.”