Even After Everything | Steve Rogers

Chapter 15

"So, thats my story. After I found out what I had done, I moved to Arizona, not wanting to be by the water for once. I created a last name so I fit in on Earth. I've always felt so guilty since, I haven't told anyone this but you and Fury, not even Tony. I couldn't live if more people knew that I did such an awful thing. That," I scoffed and looked out the window, "Well, I'm practically a monster aren't I?"

I sighed and looked down at my hands, not wanting to look at Steve. He probably didn't want to speak with me. We pulled into the old army base and Steve parked the car.

"Cora, we've all made mistakes. That doesn't make us monsters. You're a good person. You aren't defined by your mistakes, but what you do after to make up for them," Steve looked over to me and I met his bright blue eyes. He began to lean in, and I filled in most of the gap, our lips an inch apart. Steve began leaning in closer when a sudden beep from the GPS startled us. It told us we had arrived.

"Yea, I think we knew that," I muttered under my breath. We pulled apart, and both got out of the car.

"This is it," Steve said.

"The file came from these coordinates," I said, looking around, "I can't believe I'm back here, it's been so long. Come on, the base is over here," I nodded towards the building holding SHIELD.

"This camp is where I was trained."

"Has is changed much?" I asked.

"A little," he said sadly, and looked around nostalgically.

"We're you just having a flashback?" I asked, raising my eyebrows playfully.

Steve laughed, walking over to the door, and quickly broke the lock with his shield.

"This is SHIELD," I looked around the base, memories flooding in. We entered into a room with three portraits of Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, and Colonel Chester Phillips.

"Howard," Steve looked at his picture. He looked so young.

"Peggy," I whispered. Steve walked away silently to a book shelf against the back wall.

"If you're already working in a secret office..." he pushed a book shelf apart and it slid open to reveal an elevator door behind it, "Why do you need to hide the elevator?" We went down the elevator and arrived in a room with old computers.

"This, I don't remember," I walked out the elevator and began looking around the room, "This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient," I noticed a flash drive spot and slid the flash drive in it. As soon as it registered, it activated the computers in the room.

"Initiate system?" The computer asked.

"Y-E-S, spells yes," I typed into the computer. I smiled as the computer started to crank up, "Shall we play a game?" I looked to Steve, "It's from a movie that- "

"Yeah, I saw it," He smiled. Suddenly an accented voice started speaking.

"Dr. Arnim Zola: Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Wilder, Cora. Born, 415," an old camera looked around at us.

"It's some kind of a recording," I said out loud.

"I am not a recording. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am." The computer screen showed an old photo of Dr Arnim Zola.

"Do you know this thing?" I asked, looking over to Steve.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years."

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body, my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain," Zola said.