Captain America's funeral was simple.
There was no grand ceremony, no state funeral, only a few of those closest to him—Sam, Bucky, Rhodes, Natasha, Clint Barton, and Lin Xiao and Su Ying. Following Steve Rogers's final wishes, they cremated him and scattered his ashes in the river near the Brooklyn neighborhood where he had grown up.
"He said he wanted to go home." Sam stood by the river, watching the ashes dissolve into the current. "Back to where it all began."
Bucky said nothing. He simply watched the water in silence. This soldier, who had once been brainwashed, exploited, and stripped of everything, now wore a strange peace on his face. He had lost his last friend from his own era, but at last, he was also... free.
Lin Xiao stood a little farther away.
Su Ying held his hand, and he could feel the warmth of her palm. The morning breeze off the river carried moisture and the city's distinctive scents—gasoline, concrete, cooking fumes from a distant breakfast shop. A cargo vessel moved slowly across the water, its horn low and lingering.
"An era has ended," Su Ying said softly.
"Another has begun," Lin Xiao said. "And we have to make sure this one doesn't repeat the same mistakes."
Over the next two months, the world slowly rebuilt.
Thanos's snap had erased half of all life, only for everyone to return five years later. The upheaval caused by such a massive population shift far exceeded that of any war. Infrastructure had collapsed, supply chains had broken, and social order had to be rebuilt. Then there were the people who had returned—they had lost five years. Their loved ones might have died or remarried, their jobs had vanished, their property had been disposed of, and the entire world felt terrifyingly