WILD CHILD │ barnes ¹

twelve

𝐅𝐔𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐄

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Evgenia should've known that her freedom would be short lived. But she had clutched onto hope that maybe it would be different this time. Maybe she could actually live a different life than the one she had with HYDRA.

The 'borrowed' truck turns off the freeway and onto a barely paved road, the vehicle bopping up and down on the rocky path as Steve steers them into the Wheaton facility. Natalia, holding some kind of device that beeps continuously, gets out of the car first and stretches.

'This is it, the file came from these co-ordinates,' she says as Evgenia unbuckles the seatbelt and drags her doll out with her.

'So did I,' Steve says, memories lingering in his blue eyes, 'This camp was where I was trained.'

'Changed much?'

'A little.'

Natalia shakes her head, 'This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote this file must have used a router to throw people off. What is it?' She asks when Steve stares at the building for a little too long.

'Army regulations forbid storing munitions with 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place.'

Steve prepares to swing his shield back to break the lock but Natalia stops him in his place with a hand on his arm. She nods towards the child. 'Evgenia can do it,' she reaches for the doll that the child clutches.

Sure, she could do it. Evgenia feels for Steve's strength and for the tug in her stomach. She wields an arm and smashes the lock with her bare fists. It crashes to the ground in pieces as Steve stares at her in surprise.

'I certainly don't want to fight you again,' he states as he leads the redhead and the child down the steps into the pitch black facility. Then the lights appear with a rhythmic maroon click and the features of the room are highlighted. On the wall, a seal of an eagle - SHIELD's symbol decorates the walls and the floor if covered in dust and the chairs and desks are old and out of use. This SHIELD is different to what Evgenia has experienced.

'This is SHIELD,' she says.

'Maybe where it started,' comes Steve's reply.

The trio walk up to the wall, where photographs fill up the grey space. Natalia points at a man, 'That's Stark's father.'

Stark. Why was that name so familiar? She struggled but she couldn't remember.

'Howard,' says Steve, sadness and nostalgia etched' onto his face.

'And the girl,' Natalia nods towards the framed photograph of a pretty brunette with red lipstick.

The sadness turns into grief but Steve refuses to answer, instead choosing to turn away from it. Who was the woman and why did she make Steve sad?  Evgenia follows him towards where he stands, hands out of pockets, gesturing towards a dusty bookshelf.

'If you're already working in a secret office,' he leans forward to push the shelf. It slides open. 'Why do you need to hide the elevator?

They enter the elevator and Steve pressed a few buttons. When the doors finally open with a flaxen yellow ping! Natalia nudges a hesitant Evgenia into the strange, badly maintained storage room.

'This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient.'

They walk towards the main computers sitting on a desk, screens boxy and covered in dust. Natalia notices a USB port and retrieves the flashdrive from Steve, plugging it in. She wipes the screen clean.