Rogers has been living as an outlaw in 1602 with no memory of how he got there or who he was before. He has built something resembling a life, leading a band of merry men through the forests with Bucky at his side, and he carries the easy authority of someone who defaults to looking after people regardless of the circumstances he finds himself in. When Carter tracks him down they find themselves in a scrap against the King's forces. Once clear, she asks him to help steal a Time Stone from a king's court. Steve being Steve, agrees without much deliberation. He is, in whatever century he lands in, fundamentally the same person.

The truth of what he is surfaces when Stark's device fires and the green light finds him. He remembers it then: the battle with Thanos, the Infinity Gauntlet, his shield connecting with the Time Stone and sending him spinning back through centuries. He is the Forerunner. His presence in 1602 is what has been tearing the universe apart, and the only way to stop it is to send him back. He knows what that means before Carter has to say it. He tells her they both know what needs to be done, that they never get their happy ending, and then he reaches out and presses her gauntlet himself rather than make her be the one to do it. He is gone before she can find another way, and the universe holds.