What The Light Touches | Natasha Romanoff

Chapter 21 || Shall We Play A Game?

A/N: Attendance! Roll Call! Whatever else you call it in school or whatnot. 

We come up to the old camp and find a secret building, then a secret room in the basement. It's all quickly sketching me out, to be completely honest.

A computer in front of us catches our attention. Nat pulls out the hard-drive and puts it in the USB port of the computer.

"Initiate System?"

"Y-E-S spells yes." She types away and smirks up at the monitor while it starts up.

"Shall we play a game?" She smirks over at me and chuckles, "It's from a–" "I know the movie, Doll. I'm not stupid."

"Could've fooled me," Her sarcasm only makes me want to kiss her again. I walk over to her and hold her waist in place while I press my body against her from behind. Quickly, she bites her lip and reaches behind her to grab me, tilting her head towards mine.

Placing a quick kiss on her lips, we jump apart when the computer talks.

"Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Alleged Crest, Kaden. Born, Unknown." Frowning, I glance around and find an old camera above us. Tapping Nat, I point up so she can find it, making her scoff.

"It's some kind of recording."

"I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am."

"Think we should call Steve or do you know this thing?"

Sighing, I stare at the picture of the man that appeared on the computer, recognizing the face. When I was here while Steve was, I knew of him...

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. But...I was under the impression that 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."

The software around us, even the cabinets, it's all so old, I am impressed that they even figured out how to work this kind of technology back then. All this stuff is outdated now. Think of your grandparents' old computers, giant plastic white back, dinosaur-age looking. Crap-looking.

How the hell did Arnim Zola get here?

"How the hell did you get here," I mutter and he spits back, "Invited."

Natasha frowns, gears moving in her head before they click, "It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own."

"Hydra died with the Red Skull," I argue when he shows the Hydra logo on the screen. No shot. Is he seriously trying to say Hydra still exists? Didn't Steve take them out?

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."

"Prove it," My voice goes deeper, angrier that this could be true.

"Accessing archive."

There's clicking noises and then videos appearing on another screen of Johann Schmidt, AKA Red Skull before he transformed into that red faced psychopath. That crazy motherfucker was asking for a whirlwind of pain. I'm just thankful Steve took care of it without needing me to expose myself to the world.

"HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D.. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."