The President arrives at the secret lab where Captain America lies dying. Cap’s will has kept him alive longer than they had predicted but no one knows who he has chosen….
In Afghanistan, as Cap encourages Corporal Jimmy Newman to scale the cliff to find help for his trapped men, he continues to relate his story: over the last few months he found his powers beginning to fail him at several critical moments. Examining doctors came to the same conclusion: the Super-Soldier Serum had outlived its effectiveness and Cap was reverting to his original metabolism. But the weariness of his ongoing fight for freedom was wearing him down; he was not only regressing but his body was heading for total collapse. Unable to be healed, Cap became part of the remote-viewing experiment (outlined in issue #3) and is now calling on Jimmy…to ask him to replace him. Jimmy will not have the enhanced abilities but he does have something as powerful: courage, honor, the ability to sacrifice. [Meanwhile, in the lab, an assassin seizes the opportunity to target the President.] When Jimmy staggers at the enormity of the task, Cap assures him he will not be alone: a multitude of like-minded people will join in the fight, firefighters, police, teachers, construction workers, scientists, doctors—anyone dedicated to making life better for others. Since being thawed from the ice, Cap has noticed that society is becoming more selfish but he would gladly sacrifice his life to make people understand they can all be heroes…that anyone can be Captain America. At this point that assassin strikes, attempting to stab the President with a screwdriver. The dying Cap leaps up and blocks the killer with his body, buying time for a Secret Service Agent to shoot the assailant. Cap then collapses to the floor and dies. In Afghanistan, Jimmy realizes that Cap is no longer with him, and he musters the strength to mount the cliff—where he sees insurgents preparing to fire on the rest of his company. Suddenly filled with the spirit of Captain America, he leaps on the enemy and subdues them. He then shows his comrades how to rescue the men trapped in the cave, remarking that there is a little of Captain America in all of us. Cap’s spirit now knows that if enough people act this way, he will never truly die.