"From now on, Captain America and The Demon are fugitives." Alexander Pierce says as Agent 13 looks at him confused.
"I'm sorry, who?" She asked before he pulled up a picture.
"(Y/N) (L/N). He's an accomplice." He says as she nods slowly.
"Captain America has information about Director Fury's death, while (Y/N) was a main witness and possibly a suspect. Captain refused to come with us and give us info. (Y/N), on the other hand..." He said as he opened two videos, one from a building overlooking a highway and another from inside the vehicle you were in.
The video showed you headbutting the agent on your right as the one in the passenger's seat pointed his gun at you, you pushed it away as he shot the guy on your left, killing him.
You proceeded to kick the guy in the face and headbutted the agent on your right, again, now knocking him out.
You pulled down the seat behind you, reaching into the trunk and pulling out your sword and the bag separately.
You hit the guy in the passenger's seat with the sword handle effectively knocking him out as the driver is still driving but at high speeds, witnessing everything that's unfolding.
You pushed your body halfway out the window on the right side of the car, you stabbed the roof as you pulled yourself out of the backseats and then flung yourself through the passenger's side window.
Flying in you kicked the driver with both legs as he and the door fly off the car and onto the highway, you shortly after as well as the car swerved before rolling.
The building camera caught you running away from the scene.
"He left that in his wake. You see why he's a fugitive now?" Pierce asked as agent 13 nodded.
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.
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Steve, now in civilian clothes with a baseball cap on, approached a wending machine inside the hospital where Fury was operated on not an hour before.
He looked inside before seeing someone in the reflection of the glass.
Quickly turning around, he faced Natasha.
He pushed her into the closet room on the left as he was now kinda pissed.
"Where is it?" He asks.
"Safe." She responds as he narrows his eyes.
"Do better!" He says as she rolls her eyes.
"Where did you get it?" She asks as Steve takes a step back.
"Why would I tell you?"
"Fury gave it to you. Why?"
"What's on it?" He demanded as he approached her.
"I don't know." She said as he got up in her face.
"Stop lying!" Before things could escalate, a hand appeared in between them and pushed them apart.
"Now now, let's all be calm about this." Your voice resounded as both of them were surprised to see you there.
"How do you expect me to be calm? Fury is dead!" Steve said as you sighed.
"We don't have time to mourn, we're probably all being searched for around the city now." You said as Natasha nodded but Steve was having none of it.
"I bet you know what's going on. Considering you were with Fury in my apartment." Steve said as you shook your head.
"Not really. I got back from my mission and was in the car with Fury. But our car got blown up in the middle of the street." You said as you recalled grabbing Fury and holding him still so he doesn't get too hurt.
"As we got out of the wreckage, there he stood, the goddamn shooter." You scoffed as you remembered the shoulder length brown hair, the mouth-face mask and the piercing cold look in his eyes.
"I managed to fight him off, but I had to get Fury out of there. That's how we wound up at your place bud." You said as you patted Steve on the shoulder.
"Do you know who it was?" Steve asks now worried about the killer.
"I don't. But..." You said as you tried recalling other memories.
"I know who killed Fury." Natasha says surprising you both. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists, the ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years." Natasha says as you nod in understanding.
"So he's a ghost story?" Steve asks as she continues.
"Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me." She says as she pulls up her shirt to reveal a scar on the side of her stomach.
"Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-Bye bikinis." She says as you scoff.
"I wouldn't take you for a-" she glared at you before you could finish, so you moved back to the main topic.
"If I remember correctly, I met him once. Right before you guys recruited me." You said as you had their attention now.
"I was walking home from the store and someone brushed my shoulder. It felt weird, it was too hard to be muscle, too rough to be a normal arm. 'He must've been holding something.' I said to myself and I looked back at him. He had nothing on him, only his clothes and a hood! I would've never guessed it if I didn't see the small glint from the tips of his fingers when he turned to look at me. His arm is made of metal." You say as Steve looks dumbfounded.
"You need proof? Here." You say as you roll up your right sleeve up to your elbow, showing the big bruise on your forearm.
"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." Natasha says as she looks at the flash drive in her hand. "Like you said, he's a ghost story."
"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants." Steve says as you smile and Natasha nods.
.
.
.
Natasha, Steve and you entered a mall with civilian clothes. Steve wore a weird baseball cap with glasses which made you make fun of him. Natasha had a black and white striped shirt with a hood on, over which was a grey coat of sorts. You wore black jeans with a grey shirt, the bag with your sword on your back.
"First rule of going on the run: Don't run, walk." Natasha says to Steve.
"If I run in these shoes they're gonna fall off." Steve says which made you chuckle.
"You don't say. If I lift my leg up these pants will tear apart." You said looking down at the skinny-fit pants you were wearing.
You all enter an Apple store and go to one of the Mac laptops.
"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up S.H.I.E.L.D. will know exactly where we are." Natasha says as she holds the drive in her hand.
"How much time do we have?" Steve asks.
"Uh... About nine minutes from..." She says as she injects the drive. "...Now."
Natasha went through the files fast as you and Steve focused on looking out for anyone suspicious, moreso you than Steve. Several S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles were now approaching your location.
"Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI, it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands." Natasha says in a huff as you turn to her.
"Let me try." You ask as she looks at you confused before doing so.
Outside, Rumlow and his crew arrive in front of the mall.
Back in the store, you're typing and clicking at incredible speed, tricking the AI into thinking you're typing some commands but in reality trying to find rather where the program came from.
"You've got company." You heard your raven telepathically tell you as it looked over the S.H.I.E.L.D. cars outside. You nodded as you continued your work.
"Can I help you guys with anything?" Someone says as Steve and Natasha's heads snap up to look at who asked before looking at eachother then at the employee in front of them again.
"Oh no. Our son was just helping me and my husband with some vacation destinations." Natasha says as she puts her arm around Steve. You cringed physically and mentally as you were getting super close to getting the location.
"Right! My favourite son always knows how to pick the best ones!" Steve announces totally not sounding weird as he pats your back, this almost made you vomit everything you ate the past 3 days as you clicked away.
"That's awesome. Where did you guys think of going?" The employee asks as you finally find the location.
"New Jersey." You announced as you stood upright.
"Oh." The employee starts, looking for something to say. "I have the exact same shirt at home!" He exclaims pointing at the Jurrasic Park shirt you were wearing.
"Wow! You two are practically best friends." Natasha says sarcastically as you just wish you could be anywhere but here right now, the awkwardness is too much.
"Yeah, I wish. Anyway if you need me, the name's Aaron." The guy says before walking off, making you start breathing normally again.
"Husband? Son? Seriously?" You ask confused and embarrassed which made Steve huff and Natasha smirk. Outside of confusion in your voice, she heard something else.
Jealousy.
Oh she's gonna have fun.
"You said 9 minutes, let's go." Steve says as you pull out the drive and all of you leave the shop. Rumlow and his men were now in the mall searching for you.
"Two behind, two across, two coming straight at you." Your raven says as you looked ahead.
"Right." You whispered before speaking out loud."Two behind, two across, two coming straight at us. If they get us, I'll-" before you could finish Steve instead gets mixed in a crowd of people, getting out of sight of the agents.
You facepalm as you see the agents just walk by the crowd not noticing him.
Natasha suddenly pulls your arm around her and pushes herself into you. You look down at her in surprise as you can see the clear smirk on her face.
"Imagine Cap in a onesie." She whispered which made you snort and then burst out laughing.
Her plan worked, the agents passed you two and went in the Mac store and couldn't find you there.
Rumlow asked for all of the floors current situation and the response he got wasn't good. They didn't find you three anywhere. He decided it was time to move as he also started to search.
You and Natasha reunited with Steve as all of you went down the escalator, Nat, you then Steve.
As you were moving down the escalator Natasha, being in front of you and Steve, spots Rumlow going up it, her eyes darted around as she thought of what to do.
She glanced behind her at you and Steve before thinking of a convenient plan. She turned fully to you with a smirk, you looked at her questionably.
"Kiss me."
.
"..."
.
"What?" You did a double take on what she just said, confirming it wasn't your imagination. You could see she was serious about it, although you sensed a bit of mischief along with it.
"Public shows of affection make people uncomfortable." She says as you still held a baffled look on your face.
Spotting Rumlow at the other escalator, you realized that you had to do something about it, her plan being the first thing that could possibly work.
While you could think of other possible escape routes or something to hide, like jumping over the side, or laying down, right now the one she proposed was the most intriguing one.
"Right." you start, slipping your hand under her hood and on the side of her face and head, which made her smile. "But don't blame me if you like it too much." You say as you lean in, her doing the same.
Her breath hitched, your heartbeat sped up, a comforting feeling enveloped you both as your lips connected. It was... Different. She hadn't felt like this before. To you, it was a feeling you hadn't felt in a long time. You wanted to stay like that, and so did she.
Rumlow passed by as he looked at you two then away, embarrassed.
Steve pulled his baseball cap down and looked the other way from Rumlow, resulting in him just passing by all three of you.
He exhaled a sigh of a relief as he saw Rumlow reach the top of the escalator, confirming no other agents were on your tail.
Steve looked back at you two.
You were still kissing.
He grew a smirk as he moved down the stairs towards you.
"Let's go lovebirds." He said as you both pulled away with a gasp.
Natasha fixed her hair and hood slightly and you scratched your neck as you both moved down, following Steve.
.
.
.
You were all in a car heading towards New Jersey, Steve at the wheel and you two in the back, Steve's orders.
"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha asks as Steve scoffs.
"Nazi Germany."
"I wouldn't have taken you for a thug." You say as Steve chuckles.
"There's more than meets the eye." He responds as you roll your eyes.
"I have a question though." Natasha says as Steve looks up in the rearview mirror and you look to your left at her.
"For you (Y/N)." She says as you groan.
"If it's about the kiss- No, it wasn't my first." You said which made her laugh.
"You were pretty confident in yourself back there, I like it." She teased as you smirked in return.
"Well I actually had the skills to back it up." You say which made her smile in surprise.
"So, who's the lucky girl?" She asks as your smile fades slightly, unnoticed by her.
"I wouldn't exactly call her lucky." You mumbled but your smile quickly returned.
"Secret. You weren't half bad, though." You commented as she rolled her eyes.
"Don't get cocky now."
"Make me." You teased as she chuckled.
"Now I have a question." Steve remarks as you both look at him.
"You two in a secret relationship or something?" He asks which made you blush slightly in surprise. The question made Natasha's mouth open in slight surprise as she looked at you who was red in the face both from blushing and holding back a laugh, moreso the latter.
You looked back at her as you couldn't hold it anymore and bursted out laughing.
"Good one, Steve. Good one." You say, reaching out and patting him on the shoulder.
"No, I'm serious." He says as he steps a bit more on the paddle.
"Well, no. We aren't. Why would you even think that?" Natasha asks, crossing her arms as Steve sighs.
"I don't know. I guess you remind me of two certain people." He responds, remembering himself and Peggy.
"Well it ain't as simple as back then Cap, trust me." You say with a smile as Steve chuckles.
"And you'd know everything about that wouldn't you, Romeo?" He responds which made him and Natasha laugh as you sigh in embarrassment and look out the window again.
The night fell fast as you didn't take your eyes off the outside world, analysing everything you passed by, just in case. Your raven was resting for now so you had to make up for it.
"Hey." You heard as you look to your left.
"Get some sleep, I'll be the watch for tonight. Considering, you know." Steve says, refering to the wheel he was holding.
"Ah, alright, sure." You respond as you yawn.
Natasha was half asleep, her head would fall down slowly and she would snap it back up, before doing it again.
"Come on Nat, get some rest." You say as she didn't have to be told twice and instantly let her head fall onto your shoulder. You were surprised but smiled nonetheless, getting comfortable with your arm around her, you too, fell asleep.
Steve smiled looking at you two in the mirror.
.
.
.
You woke up slowly, not sweating, not breathing heavily, but slowly and... Peacefully.
Your eyes adjusted as you tried to sit up but couldn't.
You knew what this meant as you resolved yourself with fate and stayed still in the position, that being Natasha with both of her arms around you as if you're her teddy bear.
Steve was still driving as he was humming some song, enjoying the peace and quiet.
He suddenly came to a stop, parking the car as the stirring made Natasha wake up.
She looked up at you with her now fully awake eyes and smiled, you chuckled.
"You might be the most badass woman I know but you sure are a baby when you're asleep." You said with a smirk as she smiled bitterly and pinched your arm, earning an "ow" from you.
"You don't tell anyone about this." She whispers threateningly as you nod and she sits up and stretches her arms. Finally, you were free.
Steve got out of the car, quickly followed by you and Natasha as you found yourself on some sort of training ground.
"You know this place?" You asked as you moved next to him.
"Yeah, this is where I came from." He said as you realized this must be where he trained while in the army.
"Changed much?" Natasha asked as Steve took a step forward.
"A little."
You three approached a building, nobody in sight.
"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." Natasha says as you see Steve looking ahead at a building.
"What's up?" You ask as Steve glanced at you.
"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." He says as you three approached the building, Steve breaking the lock with his shield.
You left your raven, who rested enough, nearby outside as you three entered.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha says in a low voice at the three of you enter a bunker of sorts.
"Where it started, I'm guessing." You said as you three moved along the halls.
On the walls, you see old framed photos of different people.
"There's Stark's father." Natasha said as she pointed at the picture.
"Howard." Steve said.
"Who's this?" You asked, pointing at a picture of a woman.
Steve didn't say anything as he went down the hall, you huffed before following.
Something caught your eye, a glimpse of a small iron stuck out in the corner of your eye as you looked at it intently, Steve caught on as well.
"If you're already working in a secret office..." he said, moving the bookshelf you were looking at to reveal an elevator behind it. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?" He finished as you shrugged and Natasha used some device to open the elevator, all of you went in and it took you to a weird room.
The room had old looking computers and wires, definitely not of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient." Natasha says as she notices a port in which she inserts the flash drive.
"Initiate system?" The computer asked as you and Steve looked puzzled.
"Y-E-S spells yes." She smiles. "Shall we play a game?" She said which made Steve look at her. "It's from a movie that..."
"Yes, I saw it." Steve says which made you sigh.
Before anything else could be said, a screen flashed to life and started speaking.
"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984." The screen says as an old camera pans over the two before turning to you.
"(L/N), (Y/N). Originally Born, 1986." It said as you narrowed your eyes.
"It's some kind of recording." Natasha said before you stepped forward.
"No, this is something else." You said as the screen flashed.
"Correct you are, slayer. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am." The screen showed a picture of a man.
"Do you know this thing?" Natasha asks as Steve nods.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." He says but the screen quickly speaks again.
"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." He says as you look around the room, weirded out.
"How did you get here?" Steve asks.
"Invited."
"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha confirmed as you approached some other computers and looked over them.
"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." He responded.
"Hydra died with Red Skull." Steve angrily said as Zola scoffed.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." He says.
"Prove it." Steve insists.
"Accessing archive." He said before the screens showed footage of Red Skull and the forming of S.H.I.E.L.D.
"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." He said as Natasha and Steve were at a loss for words, you slowly took the words in as you moved back to the two.
"However, we weren't alone. There was a fellow, a... Well he wasn't a man, wasn't a human even. Who supported us, supported Hydra decades before the war. We had similar beliefs, and he was powerful. Very powerful in fact. We knew he wasn't trustworthy but it would've been better to have him as an ally than an enemy. That is, until someone killed him. There is only one person left alive in this world who knows more about him than Hydra does." He said as the camera moved and looked at you, who looked at the computer screens, showing a blurry picture of the man from your dream, the fedora on his head as he looked at the camera fiercely.
"What does this mean?" Steve asks as you sigh.
"You're telling me that he... Supported you? That old bloodthirsty, self centered prick? Don't make me laugh." You said as the screen flashed a bit.
"Oh, I'm telling everything but lies. He has indeed supported the Hydra. Until your pack of sword wielding wretches came and killed him." Zola said as you clenched your fist as he continued.
"What are you even doing here? You should've been long dead anyway, how you ended up all the way back then is none of my concern, but you got back somehow. That is fascinating and infuriating. You should've died along with them. The Sengoku and Taisho Periods happened a long time ago, after all. Your grave along with the rest of those worthless scum would've been a sight to see." He said as you grab your sword and pulled it out.
"You say another word, you piece of metal junk, and I will cut every single wire and cable in this goddamn bunker. Another. Fucking. Word." You said, pointing the sword at the camera.
"Hoo Hoo, scary, you slayers are." He says as you remain unflinching.
"But, it's literally impossible, S.H.I.E.L.D. would've stopped you." Natasha says confused.
"Accidents will happen." He responded as the screen showed the deaths of Tony's parents which was made to look like a car accident, along with the death of Fury. However another video played, it showed another couple who got killed and it also seemed like a car crash.
"No... No you didn't." You said in disbelief.
"Oh, why yes we did." He responded, if he could smile, he would be smiling right now.
"You..." You sheathed your sword as you looked at the screen.
"There's no way..." You said as Natasha and Steve looked at you worried.
The screen was showing your parents' death.
"The (L/N) family was quite a nuisance to us, we had to get rid of some of them. Why do you think your uncle has such strong and capable bodyguards? He knew that the car accident wasn't an accident, he knew all along." Zola said as you sighed.
"You really..." You started.
"... Really believe I'm gonna flip out because of that?" You ask as the screen remained silent.
"I've gotten over their deaths, I've lived for a long time you know. I've seen many people die. Like you said, I should've been dead with them. So showing me this is doing nothing but giving me closure." You responded as the screen spoke once more.
"It doesn't matter how you feel right now. 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, Widow, slayer. Your deaths amount to the same as your lives; a zero sum." Zola said as Steve smashes the monitor, another one flashing in it's place.
"As I was saying..."
"What's on this drive?" Steve demands.
"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm." He says as Natasha nods.
"What kind of algorithm?" She asks, however this time, Zola took on a more... Happier tone.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Zola says as the doors start closing, Steve threw his shield but was too late as you ran and reached the doors just as they closed, pulling to no avail.
"You've got a missile coming!" You heard your raven as it disappeared, fading back to it's own world. It was a summon after all.
"Guys, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." Natasha says as you begin to walk back towards them, tossing Steve his shield.
"Who fired it?" Steve asked.
"S.H.I.E.L.D."
"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us... out of time."
Steve notices a small opening in the ground and throws the metal off of it, he motioned you to follow as he took Natasha and jumped in.
Running towards it and jumping, you heard and saw the explosion go off as you fell down after them, the rubble and debris following.
.
.
.
Steve's eyes open as he sees he and Natasha aren't covered in rubble, but both were a bit hurt.
He looked around and saw you, standing up, or trying to.
You had your back pushed up against the rubble, holding it in place as to not fall on all of you, using all of your strength as your legs would slip a bit before pushing again.
"(Y/N)!" Steve said as he went to you.
"Take her and go!" You tell him as you groan from the pain and strain.
"No, I won't leave you here!" He says but you coughed.
"D-Don't worry, I've got this." You tell him but he doesn't listen as he tries to look for a solution.
"Hey, it's f-fine. Meet me back at the car." You told him as he reluctantly nodded, still not convinced but he had no choice, helping Natasha up as they both made their way out, he having her arm around his shoulder.
She slowly came to her senses as she looked at Steve and then around, realising what's happening.
"Hey where... Where is..." She tried saying in between gasps of air but Steve stops her as he sees the car enter his field of view.
"He'll be here soon... I hope..." He responded as he helped her move more.
Back at the rubble pit, you were struggling to maintain your position as the weight was too much, pushing you and making your feet slide on the ground.
You breathed in fast gasps of air as you looked around for something, anything.
You saw a sheet of metal on the ground a bit away from you.
You constructed a plan which wasn't too smart, but was the only thing you had right now.
Breathing in you prepared your legs as you pushed yourself off of the rubble which immediately proceeded to rain down onto the area as you jumped away and rolled onto the sheet of metal, pulling it with you as you put it over yourself, the rubble going on and around it.
The sheet began getting heavier and heavier as you were struggling to hold it from the weight of the rubble.
When you felt the rumbling stop, you strained and harshly pushed the metal off as you heard a loud thud when it landed on the side.
Laying there breathing heavily, you quickly stood up and ran off, getting to Steve who just helped Natasha lean on the car.
"(Y/N)! You're here! Let's go!" He says as he gets in the car. You help Natasha get in as you jumped in after her, Steve stomping on the gas and flooring it out of there.
___________________________________________
That's it for this one, hope you liked it, it was a bit shorter but it catches the premise. Next one should be a lot better. As always criticism is accepted and see ya later.
-Shadow Mob out.