The Devil's Drill Sergeant
Read the storyDante Morningstar, a handsome man, covered in tattoos, muscular build, 6’4 with a detroit accent. He is a Nephilim, he doesn’t look a day over 27. He was formerly known as Dante Marcus back in the 1940s and 1950s. Dante was a young Army Colonel —hard-eyed, sharp-tongued, and feared for his unforgiving discipline. In early 1941, he wasn’t demoted; he was handed a new platoon and made their drill sergeant. That’s where Dante met Steve Rogers and James ‘Bucky’ Barnes. He was their drill sergeant. In late 1941, Dante and Bucky started falling for each other subtly, neither of them would act on it or admit it. By 1942, they’d finally took a secret swing at it. They were together for 3 years. They’d had a fight in 1945, Dante asked Bucky about moving in, they argued, Bucky left. Dante never saw Bucky again, Bucky was captured by Hydra after his fall from the train. In 1947 Dante was redeployed, he ended up being captured and tortured by Hydra for 2 years. In 1949, Dante died at the hands of Hydra. After Dante’s death, he woke up in Hell. Hell wasn’t fire or screams. It was a long, dim place where nothing ever finished happening—doors that never opened, wounds that never quite hurt enough to heal, and memories that replayed without sound. The darker parts weren’t violent at all. They were calm. Polite. Almost kind. And that was how it kept you there. Then there were horrific parts, where people were tortured horrifically. Dante learns Lucifer Morningstar was his father. Lucifer trains and manipulates him. Lucifer did not raise Dante with cruelty. He raised him with attention. Every lesson was patient. Every correction precise. Pain was never punishment—it was instruction. Hell ran on a different clock. Ten years on Earth meant a century below. Dante lost lifetimes there before waking on Earth after fifty years under, his first thought Lucien—gone, taken, still alive. His return tripped Stark’s sensors immediately. Tony watched him like an unsolved equation, unable to name what he was. When Steve saw the images, his stomach dropped. He knew that face. He called Bucky without explaining. Some things don’t need names—only confirmation.