The Same, Just Deadlier (Book 3)

1.5

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable." Was the only thing I said as we left.

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Steve had managed to steal a car, hot wiring it in the process. We drove for quite a while, neither of us said a word. I was the first to say something, wanting to clear the air. "Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" I joked with him. He looked at me for a quick second, then turned back to the road.

"Nazi Germany. And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash." Steve orders, swatting my feet. I chuckled, feeling some of the tension released as I took my feet off the dash. There were a couple more minutes of silence before I looked back up at Steve again.

"I'm sorry for what happened back there. Nat taught me that PDA makes people uncomfortable so then I kissed you, which was weird because you're like a brother to me and... I'm just sorry." I rambled to him. He quickly looked at me and then back at the road, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. I get why you did it. I think of you as a sister too. And I know it was weird for both of us, but it was what needed to happen in that moment." I smiled at Steve as he smiled back at me.

"Were we each other's first kisses since we came back?" I asked, chuckling. Steve shook his head, laughing as well.

"Yeah, I think so." Steve looked at me, watching as my smile turned into a frown. "You miss him a lot, don't you?" I looked out the window, sighing.

"More and more every day. I keep thinking of what would've happened if he didn't die. We would've gotten married, maybe had a few kids and hopefully lived a long and happy life." I sighed, remembering all the moments Bucky and I had where we would just sit around talking about our future. He wanted ten kids. I said I'd only give him two. We wanted a wedding in the same church my parents got married and we wanted to buy a house right next to Steve, so that we would never have to be too far away when we needed each other. I smiled to myself as I turned to Steve. "You would be in this car with someone else, that's for sure. Probably Natasha." I smirked as Steve rolled his eyes at me, pushing me with his hand.

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We pulled up to an old abandoned military base, where the signal had led us to. The two of us got out of the car and looked around. "This is it." Steve mumbled as I closed my door, going to stand next to him.

"The file came from these coordinates." I told him.

"So did I." we walked around trying to figure out where the signal came from. "This camp is where I was trained." Steve told me. I looked up at him and then looked around at the base.

"Has it changed much?" I asked him.

"A little." I noticed Steve getting lost in thought and probably memories as we walked around the camp. No where we went though seemed to be what we were looking for.

"This is a dead end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off." Steve noticed a building ahead of us. "What is it?" I ask him as we walk to the building.

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." Steve opens the lock with his shield and we enter inside. The room was dark so I felt up the wall, finding the light switch. When the lights turn on, I realize where we are. The first SHIELD HQ.

"This is SHIELD." I gape, looking around.

"Maybe where it started." We enter a room where they find old framed portraits of SHIELD founders. I see Howard and a small smile rises to my lips. When I look up, Steve is looking at the picture of Peggy.

Steve looks away, walking further down the room, to stop by a massive book shelf. "If you're already working in a secret office..." He pushes the bookshelf, revealing an elevator behind it. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?" I shrug as he leads me into the elevator. When we reach the bottom level, we see a room full of old computers.

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient." The only thing that stood out was a small flash drive port, which shouldn't have been there. I took the flash drive from my pocket and put it into the port, watching as the computer turns on.

"Initiate system?" The computer questions. I grab the keyboard and begin typing y-e-s. Suddenly, we hear a deeply accented voice begin to speak. "Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Williams, Clara. Born, 1919." An old camera above us analyzes us.

"It's like some kind of recording?" I shrug in confusion, looking back at Steve.

"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." The computer screen shows an old photo of a man. Steve recognized him, but I did not.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve told me, seeing my confused expression.

"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 replied to Steve's remark.

"How did you get here?" Steve asked it.

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value." I answered remembering what files Fury had let me read for research purposes.

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

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve told it, though at this point, I think anything could happen. HYDRA was more than just one person.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola said. "Accessing archive." The computer screen showed us old footage of Red Skull and the original SHIELD founders. "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, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed." I looked at Steve and then back at the computer.

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you." I told it. There's no way SHIELD hadn't seen this monstrosity in its midst.

"Accidents will happen." The computer started showing us footage of agents, the first being Howard and Maria. Suddenly, my skin went white as I stared at the screen. HYDRA killed Howard and Maria and made it look like an accident. HYDRA killed Tony's parents and my best friends. Then it showed a picture of Fury. They killed Fury. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum." I growl as I smash the computer screen. Hot tears ran down my face as I glare at the computer, watching Zola's face pop up onto another screen. "As I was saying..."

"What's on this drive?" Steve asks Zola.

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm." Despite the tears, I look at the computer.

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" I growl at the computer but Zola just chuckles.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Suddenly the doors starts to close. Steve tries to stop it by throwing his shield in between it but he's too late.