Steve Rogers, wearing a suit of armor containing the Cosmic Cube, tells the assembled heroes to stand down. He cautions them that he knows they think they're doing the right thing, but in reality they've already lost and its Rogers' time to rebuild the world. He wants to remake everything and eliminate the corruption and weakness he claims the heroes infected the world with. He offers them the chance to help him, but the heroes refuse. They attack Rogers, who immediately defeats them all with the Cosmic Cube.
Rogers then rewrites reality to be a HYDRA-controlled world. Newspaper articles reveal that in this altered history the Fantastic Four include Victor Von Doom instead of Reed Richards and work for HYDRA, the Avengers works for HYDRA, Charles "Professor X" Xavier and Erik "Magneto" Lenshir have been executed and the spider that bites Peter Parker was an experiment by Arnim Zola. Rogers also repairs all the damage wrought by the various battles HYDRA fought to rule the world. In the end, the world is his, and he stares out at it satisfied.
Rogers is then interrupted by Sam "Captain America" Wilson, who was not affected by the remaking of reality thanks to the Cosmic Cube shard he has. Wilson approaches Rogers as Scott "Ant-Man" Lang and Bucky "Winter Soldier" Barnes prepare for action. Wilson takes the knee in front of Rogers and gives him both the Cosmic Cube shard and the Captain America shield. Rogers inserts the shard into the Cosmic Cube within his armor, but then it suddenly vanishes. He turns to see Lang standing next to Wilson and mocking him, and moments later Barnes emerges from a rift created by the Cosmic Cube.
A flashback reveals that Wilson, Lang, Barnes, and the AI Tony Stark worked out that Rogers would come for the Cosmic Cube shard and decided to set a trap for him. Barnes pointed out that the Cosmic Cube is really just Kobik, who would be able to resurrect herself once the Cube shards were brought back together. Barnes also concluded that Kobik's memory of Rogers, the 'real' Rogers, is within the Cube too. If he could get to them, he said, he would be able to bring them forth. So Lang shrank himself and Barnes down to microscopic size, then launched both himself and Barnes into the Cosmic Cube as Rogers inserted the last shard into it. Lang then left while Barnes ventured deeper into the Cube looking for Kobik and the real Steve Rogers.
The real Rogers runs through Kobik's memory of the destroyed Pleasant Hill and finds her hiding under a table. Kobik sobs that she tried to make everyone happy by helping HYDRA since she thought HYDRA was wonderful, but now realizes she screwed up. She's terrified of the HYDRA-controlled Rogers and is hiding under a table hoping he won't find her, but the real Rogers tells her that you can't run or hide from fascists because they'll find you no matter what. All you can do is stand and fight them, and he offers to help her fight. They go outside and then hear Barnes calling to Rogers. Barnes appears above Rogers and reaches down to them, and Rogers takes his hand.
Back in the real world, the corrupted Rogers demands the Cube. Kobik then emerges from the Cube rift and undoes the fake Rogers' remaking of the world, resetting it to how it was just before Rogers changed it. Kobik then summons the real Captain America to fight the HYDRA one.
The two Rogers' battle and are perfectly matched. Barnes wants to help but Wilson says that the real Rogers has to finish the battle alone. People watch all over the world on televisions and Internet livestreams as the battle goes on. The real Rogers fails to make progress but keeps fighting because, according to narration, he knows that you have to stand and fight evil. The two split apart for a moment and then the HYDRA Rogers runs for Mjolnir, which the narration indicates he could pick up the first time because Elisa Sinclair had a Cosmic Cube shard and rewrote reality to do so. Now, though, the false Rogers tries to lift the hammer but cannot. The real Rogers, though, easily picks it up and knocks the fake Rogers out with one blow. He then gives the shield back to Sam Wilson and tosses the hammer to Jane Foster.
Kobik restores the world, though she leaves behind the wreckage wrought by HYDRA such as the ruins of Las Vegas, in order to remind the world not to allow fascists to gain power again. She then launches many of the heroes into the 'Vanishing Point', a nebulous realm which allows the new generation of heroes to meet their Legacy counterparts back in their heyday.
Later, construction crews continue repairing the damage that HYDRA caused, and the Inhuman internment camps are opened. Brian "Barf" McAllister is released and, after signing some paperwork in which he indemnifies the American government from everything HYDRA did to him, he returns home. He meets with his little brother Jason and they go to their house, which has been vandalized by anti-Inhuman bigots. However, after Brian wakes up the next morning, he finds that his little brother's class is helping to repair the damage. One of the students is holding an action figure which is of Sam Wilson as Captain America.
Tropes:
- Big Good: The real Steve Rogers.
- Bittersweet Ending: HYDRA is beaten and prevented from re-writing reality to rule the world, but the U.S has a lot of recovering to do, most of which is Las Vegas which Kobik doesn't restore to remind the people of Earth not to let fascists claim power again.
- Book Ends: The story begin with Brian being arrested for being an Inhuman during the rise of HYDRA's rule and ends with him being released with their fall.
- Mirror Match: The climax of the series is between a HYDRA Steve Rogers and the "true" Steve Rogers.
- Reset Button: Both averted and played straight. A Reset Button was used to undo the false Rogers' modification of reality, but not to undo the damage his regime had done before that.
- This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: During the fight of the Steve Rogers, Bucky tries to jump in. But Sam holds him back, telling him it's his fight to finish.
- Villain World: The false Rogers temporally turns the world into one, altering history so that HYDRA won World War II and that the heroes were created thanks to HYDRA.
