"Still think that's creepy as hell," Steve said as he watched the Plutonian depart the atmosphere from his platform. He hadn't had much experience on the ships before they'd grounded him back on earth as the face of the Earth Defense Team. He moved a pawn two squares forward on the chess board to open up the game. Better than that damn Monopoly game Ward liked so much.

"A bright future, with a town's worth of people going off to see the stars?" Ward said, taking a drink of beer and blocking the pawn. The beer was cheap and it didn't work anymore, but Ward still drank it. Steve thought that was weird.

"They have laid our lives out for us to the utter end of time, shall we stagger on beneath their heavy load?" Steve sang. He put his knight out to guard his pawn.

"We gotta get you some references that aren't from your barber shop quartet," Ward said before taking his bishop out. "They've got free housing, free food, eternal life. What's not to like?"

"Osiris is a company town," Steve said, "People might not remember what that means, but I do." Some corporate busybody, breathing down your neck. Company script that only paid the bill at the company store. No home you could ever own, nothing that could ever be yours. And the bosses calling it benevolence and concern. He took another move. "The Plutonian is literally a company ghost town-ship. It's creepy, is what I'm saying."

Ward shrugged before taking his move. "Creepy, but it's going to mean a big improvement on quality of life here on earth. And again, immortality."

Steve shook his head. Ward didn't get it. Ms. Wizard had publicized the presence of a soul in the body and in the upload, so it wasn't like there was ambiguity - There was an afterlife, that was just a fact. Maybe Ward didn't believe it would be good - But Steve did. He believed in the power of a providence that was concerned for mankind. That his mother, his father, and Bucky were all receiving a reward fitting for their sacrifice. People didn't shuffle off the mortal coil to nothingness or darkness. They went somewhere and that somewhere was a more just and decent place. That was what the scriptures said, that was what Steve believed.

Instead of arguing about it, Steve held up his hand and heated it up again to see the glove peel off, the components scrambling down onto his arm in a tiny wave before emerging back up again as he let it cool down. They were both outfitted in case of an emergency call. "Trent really is a genius." He took another move.

"See! You can say something nice about him," Ward took a pawn.

"Zola was a genius too." There didn't need to be more of an argument than that, as far as Steve was concerned. Steve pinned his bishop in with a pawn.

Ward frowned and then decided to yield on the topic. "Well, did you hear about the new revolutions going on in the Middle East?" He took a knight.

"I did," Steve said, taking the bishop with a pawn. "And look, like Twain said, 'I am always on the side of the revolutionists,' but this new guy, I don't know - He seems like he's the same as the old guy. And Global Defense Team members have got to stop leaking their support to the press, we're not supposed to take sides in domestic political conflicts. Especially not in democratic elections."

"Ouch," Ward said. Ward had leaked to the public that he didn't like his brother much, which had served to torpedo Christian's chances in Massachusetts. "Going straight at me like that."

"Look, when I signed up, military officers were bragging about never voting. I don't believe in that, We shouldn't be fighting for freedom abroad and then ignoring it at home, but soldiers should watch what they say. I get what happened with your brother, please don't think I don't understand, I read your file," that was all they ever said about Christian or Ward's mother. I read your file. But it made a big difference in how Steve approached this with Ward. "Christian not being in government, that's good. The ends, I agree with. But if it looks like we're leaning on civilians, if it looks like our loyalties are with or against this or that person and not with the people who we're supposed to protect, we've lost sight of the job."

"If our loyalties are with the people, why would we let them get led around by conmen and gangsters?"

If Steve hadn't known Ward's personal stake in it, he might get annoyed. But for a guy whose abusive brother had literally sat in the Senate, Steve could understand the skepticism. "Who says we're not the ones being led around by the conmen and gangsters?"

"Uh." Ward said, almost dumbfounded at the question. "Us?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "Not the most reliable source. And who says we're not the conmen and gangsters?"

Ward shook his head at that, "You? Literally Captain America, a gangster or a conman?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Well, I certainly don't think I am and neither do most people who've met me." Steve said, staring at the chess board while he gathered his thoughts. "But does anybody think they are? People in Hydra believed Red Skull was such a hero, they'd take cyanide pills. Maybe what I think is best for everybody isn't. Maybe how I think the world should work isn't how it does or isn't how it could or isn't how it should. What makes me, or anybody, more qualified to make that judgment than anybody else?"

"You are very idealistic," Ward said as a matter of concession. "Me, I'd be great if I were in charge. The perfect mix of realism and morality, President for Life Grant Ward."

"You're not perfect either, blockhead," Steve said, letting out a short laugh. It was good Ward was joking around. "Anyway, if the people are going to get what they need, they need to be the ones telling their government what does and doesn't work for them."

"What if they're wrong?"

"People are wrong about what does and doesn't work for them all the time. But most people, you know, they grow up. They become more mature. They discover some things don't work - They discover some things do. Back in '45, we were still trying out social security - Today, people live to be eighty years old and almost none of them have to live in this country in poverty. People figured it out. We figured out that people shouldn't be judged by, what was it that preacher said, 'by the color of their skin but the content of their character.' It took some doing. It took some fighting. But even if people aren't doing it now, they've figured out they should be doing it now, and that's a long way from where we were back then."

"His name is Martin Luther King," Ward said, smirking like Steve had walked into a trap. "We killed him. And he was insanely unpopular when he died. The people can afford only dead heroes."

"I'm not saying it was a big group hug, I watched dogs tear into those men in Selma. I'm just saying… people learn, not just individually but collectively. If people have the right to speak, to get together, to deliberate, they learn. The world today is different - I think it's forgotten some things that it could stand to remember. That life is about giving to something bigger than yourself, that we have to demand liberty and justice for ourselves, to be proud of your country and where you come from, and that the guy standing next to you on the line in the factory or the trench needs you and you need him. Ok, I'm starting to sound like a grumpy old man. But when I was in the army, Peggy barely got a spot in the SSR. Most people couldn't imagine a beautiful woman in the army, heck, I couldn't. I learned better, but it wasn't just me - When she retired, she was the head of SHIELD. She deserved it and now all sorts of women work for SHIELD. It didn't come easy. Freedom never does. But people taught and fought and proved and, eventually, people listened."

"Seems unfair to make people wait. Shouldn't we make it happen today, if we can? Cut through all that struggle and argument and give people what's best for them?"

"When I was a kid, they said that about the eugenic programs. I was a sickly kid with a lot wrong with me, so I always knew they were talking about me and people like me. I didn't like it. But a lot of people did. We learned the hard way how it played out in Europe. Now people don't talk about culling the unfit any more. Lots of people, smart, well meaning people believed in eugenics. But they were wrong. How do we know we're right?"

"So, if the Red Skull was elected president today you'd just be okay with that?"

"Look, we all have our limits," Steve said, staring at the now mostly cleared chess board and moving a piece. "Check. There are some things you have to stand up against, no matter what. You have to look back at the world and say, 'No, you move.' But I'll admit that I'm not qualified to make that decision for anybody else. I can only do what I think is right and ask others to do the same."

Ward moved his king back into a corner, his only real option at this point. "So, what, everybody just has to decide for themselves? Isn't that a little risky?"

"That's freedom, it isn't easy, never is." Steve said, advancing his bishop forward. "My point is, overturning elections, as a general rule, is a bad idea. So's sticking a knife in a guy's heart. Sometimes, there needs to be open heart surgery - But that's for desperate cases. Not for every time the guy you don't like, don't agree with, or think is wrong wins an election. Checkmate."

Steve extended his hand over the board and Ward shook it, a thoughtful look on his face.