"But the vision T'Challa saw was two universes physically colliding," Tony countered. "That's not a butterfly effect; that's a head on collision. For that to happen, there has to be a physical link. Something that connects our reality to his."
"The method of his arrival," T'Challa concluded. "Whatever technology he used to cross over... it must have left a scar. A permanent wound in spacetime that is now, for some reason, growing."
"Okay," Aryan said, taking charge again, steering their brilliant deductions. "So, we now have a working hypothesis. A version of Steve Rogers from a parallel universe is living secretly on our Earth. The technology he used to get here is the 'seed' that will eventually grow into the incursion. And our mission is to find him and, presumably, deal with that technology."
He looked around the room. "The first question is the most obvious: Where is he?"
"Sharon," Aryan commanded. "I want you to initiate a deep level data search. Use Umbrella's full analytics suite."
"He'd need an identity," Bucky said. "Something that wouldn't draw attention."
"So we look for the patterns," Sharon said. "We'll run a cross reference of every male citizen currently between the ages of eighty five and ninety five against historical census data. Any individual whose records only begin after, say, 1950, gets flagged. We can then use biometric data from public records… driver's license photos, bank IDs… and have an algorithm compare their facial structures to the authenticated 1940s photographs of Captain Rogers, accounting for age progression."
"It's a needle in a haystack of billions," the Leader stated.
"We have a very big magnet," Tony shot back, his own fingers a blur as he worked in tandem with Sharon, granting JARVIS access to restricted government databases. "While she's doing that, T'Challa, Namor, You both control parts of the world that are off the grid. If a man like Steve Rogers wanted to truly disappear, he might have chosen your territories. A quiet life in a remote Wakandan village, or a secluded island..."
"I will have my Dora Milaje begin a discreet inquiry," T'Challa agreed.
"My patrols will scan for any unregistered surface dwellers in my domain," Namor stated.
For hours. The council chamber was a hum of activity. Data streams flowed across the main screen, faces and names flickering by in the millions.
T'Challa and Namor conferred with their kingdoms.
It was Wanda who noticed the emotional toll it was taking on Bucky. He stood silently in the corner, watching the old, black and white photos of Captain America flash on the screen, his expression a mixture of profound grief and a soul crushing guilt. This was his friend, the man who had died… or been lost… in the war he had survived. A man whose memory he had been forced to betray for seventy years.
She walked over to him. "Are you alright?" she asked.
"He's supposed to be in the ice," he murmured.
The idea of another Steve, walking the earth while he, Bucky, had been a monster... it was a paradox that was tearing him apart.
"This one isn't your Steve," Wanda said.
It was three hours into the search that Sharon's voice cut through the room. "I've got something."
Every head snapped in her direction.
She brought an image up on the main screen. It was an unassuming suburban house in Virginia. "Records show the house was purchased in 1953 by a 'Steven Grant.' The identity was created by SHIELD."
"Peggy," Tony breathed. "Peggy Carter would have had the power to create a perfect identity."
"Exactly," Sharon confirmed. "And this Steven Grant... he married Margaret 'Peggy' Carter in 1955. He worked as a history professor at a local university for thirty years. He's been living a completely unremarkable life in plain sight for over half a century."
She then pulled up a photo.
It was a driver's license picture. He had white hair, a wrinkled face... and the same eyes that stared out of every history book.
It was him.
A stunned silence filled the room. They had found him. A living Steve Rogers, hidden in a quiet Virginia suburb.
"He's been here the whole time," Tony said. "Living a life. With Peggy."
"The man out of time," T'Challa murmured.
Aryan stood up.
"Chancellor," Aryan said. "Lock down that entire neighborhood."
He then looked at his team. "We are going to pay a visit to Captain America."
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