You catch up on some lost sleep on the car ride to New Jersey. It's a four hour drive, so it doesn't give you much, but a little is better than nothing. You lay in the back seat of the car, while Steve drives with Natasha in the front seat. You wake up just before you pass the welcome to New Jersey sign. Laying silently as you listen in on their conversation. You didn't mean to pry, well maybe just a little.
"You're not going to tell her?" Natasha asks.
"Why should I.. she's happy, she moved on" he answers. "I was frozen in the ice for seventy years, she lived, she loved.. I can't expect her to just fall right back into love"
"She trusts you.. I've known her for six years now. Y/n never trusts anyone"
"She trusts you" Steve says. "And she loves him... I can't compete with her first love" he scoffs.
"Who said it's competition?" Natasha scoffs. "She adores you, she has the right to know"
"Let's talk about something else please" Steve sighs.
"Alright was that your first kiss with her since 1945?" Natasha asks. "You don't have to answer it, but by not answering it you're kinds answering it"
"She didn't tell you?" He asks, sounding slightly disappointed.
"Oh my god you've kissed" she says excitedly.
"Alright next question" he grins.
"When are you going to tell her?" Natasha smirks.
"Fine I'll ask one.." Steve scoffs. "Are you seeing someone?"
"Me?" She grins. "When would I have time to see someone?"
"I don't know.. I just think it's a tough life you and y/n are living.. that's no way to live your life"
"It's a good way not to die though.. that's what we do her an I.. we survive"
"She didn't want any of this" Steve sighs. "Y/n"
Natasha looks out over the road. "What did she want?" She asks.
"A normal life.. to grow old, start a family, fall in love.. get a life"
"Don't we all?"
Suddenly the car stops, forcing you to get up. You have teary eyes form listening in on their conversation. You wish you had just stayed asleep, but some part of you needed to hear that. The truth.
"We're here" you say opening the door.
They look at you, following behind you.
"Really it's here?" Natasha asks looking over an abandoned building, with a tall fence around it.
"I remember this place.. it's here" Steve answers.
"The file came from these coordinates" you say checking your phone. It's right inside.
There's tons of danger and stop signs handing around the fence. Someone clearly went through a lot of trouble closing this area off. As you look in over the Camp Leigh all the memories flood back to you. This was unbelievable.
You walk around for hours trying to find the exact location. Watching as the sun slowly goes down. This camp is enormous.. it was so difficult walking around it, knowing the first time you were here, it was Howard.
"So you two know this place?" Natasha asks, she had taken over the phone.
You look over at Steve, with saddened eyes.
"I was trained here.. y/n trained me here" he replies.
You could hear Colonel Phillips yells echoing around you. You could practically see the soldiers running rounds. Seeing how Steve struggled to follow up, but still did his very best.
"Are you okay?" Steve asks softly resting his hand on your shoulder.
"Yeah.. just a lot of memories" you sigh.
"I know" he assures you.
"This is a dead end" Natasha scoffs.. "zero heat signatures, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off" she says, handing you the phone back.
You snap back to reality, looking out over an empty dark training field.
"No.. I don't think so" you assure her. "It can't be a coincidence"
Steve stand silently looking down at the bunker.
"What?" You asks.
"Come on" he says walking towards it with quick pace.
"What it it?" Natasha asks.
"Army regulations.. but this building is in the wrong place" he explains.
Steve breaks the lock with his shield, using all his strength to open the doors. You walk down the stairs, where the last sunlight doesn't cover. It's completely dark. You walk around searching for a light switch, anything that still might be functional.
You find one, dusting it off. As the light slowly spreads, lighting up the room. Then you know exactly where this is.
"This is SHIELD" Natasha states, looking down at the end of the room.
"It was the first base we ever used for SHIELD operations" you explain.
"You've been down here before?" Steve questions.
"I worked here.." you add.
You walk around the room, opening up a door to your left. It leads to the main office. You exhale sharply. Seeing the images hanging on the wall.
"Starks father and you?" Natasha chuckles, confusedly.
"It's a long story.. he was my best friend" you sigh. You chose that photo of him, he looked so serious in it.
"Let's just go" Steve says.
It was like the two of you just walked into a Time Capsule stuck in the past you spent so many years trying to escape. It was unreal.
"Do you have any idea if there was any hidden doors or anything around here?" Natasha asks, as the three of you walk around.
"Maybe.. I didn't stay here long. To many memories." You admit
Steve looks around seeing how one of the shelves looks slightly dislocated. "Guess we'll see" he smiles.
Pulling it to the side, with all his force. Exposing a large door at the end of a hallway.
"Why hide the elevator?" Steve turns around to ask you.
"I don't know.. I've never been down there before.." you admit. "After we fished out the tesseract from the ocean, we stored it in the basement. But that wasn't really my arena" you add.
"Looks like SHIELD always had secrets" Steve scowls.
"It's password protected, any ideas?"
"Fourth of July" you say.
Steve looks to you in disbelief... it was his birthday.
Natasha types in the code, and quickly the elevator doors open up. Leading you deep down underneath the ground. You look in at the darkened room, you knew for a fact you'd never been down here.
The three of you slowly walk into the room. The light flickering on as you move longer into the room. At the end is an old computer, with one single chair. You all look at each other with the same confused look upon your faces.
"It's must be here we got the signal from" you say.
"This can't be here, the technology is ancient" Natasha chuckles.
You look around at the table. "Then what is this?" You ask, pointing to usb input. You take out the drive, plugging it in.
All the machines starts up slowly.
An electronic voice starts speaking.
"Initiate system?" It asks.
Natasha bends down typing in yes.
The computer powers up.
"Shall we play a game" she teases.
"Not really in the mood" you chuckle nervously.
"Rogers, Steven, born 1918, y/n, Jones, birthdate unknown. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovia, born 1984"
"This has to be some kind of recording" Natasha scowls.
"Then how does it know we're here" you say.
"I am not a recording fraeulein. I may not be the man I once was, when the captain and agent took me prisoner in 1945. But I am"
An image pops up on the screen beside you. That face, you'd recognize that anywhere.
"You two know this thing?" She asks.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the red skull." Steve explains.
"He's been dead for years" you add.
There's a loud buzzing sound, making you flinch slightly.
"First correction I am Swiss. Second look around you. I've never been more alive. " he says.
You look around seeing his face popped up on every screen. You instantly feel discomfort. This was honestly a nightmare.
"In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science failed me, it couldn't save me. My mind however was worth saving. On two hundredth thousand feet of databanks.." Zola explains. "You are standing in my Brain"
"Tell us what you want!" Steve demands.
"I want nothing Rogers, nothing but to see your world burn" he answers.
His voice although robotic, sends a deep fear through your body.
"HYDRA died with red skull" Steve exclaims.
"Cut off one head, and two more shall take its place"
The hydra logo displays on the screen, splitting into two, then four. Then eight.
"Prove it" you scoff.
"Access archives"
On one of the small screen a video pops up. Showing Schmidt. Then it switches to a clip of hundreds of soldiers, wearing the HYDRA logo.
"HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own fredom"
You keep you eyes focused on the video, every once in a while looking over at Natasha and Steve. The new Clip shows soldiers shooting into the masses, death and destruction everywhere.
"What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom they resist.."
Then Steve pops up on the screen, walking by his fellow soldiers. He looks sadly down at you, his hand gracing ever so lightly against yours.
"That's taught us much, humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly."
Multiple clips of war, death, chaos runs over the screen. People screaming in terror, running from their life.
"After the war SHIELD was founded because of your belief y/n Jones.. luckily you were busy working in the field. And I was recruited"
A picture of you and Howard flashes on the screen. Your big bright smile, with your hand around him.
"And the new HYDRA grew"
The flashing red HYDRA mark replacing the image of you.
"A beautiful parasite inside of SHIELD, and for seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war"
Then it turns back to the disturbing traffic videos. People bleeding, mass shootings.. complete destruction. You close your eyes unable to look at it, grabbing Steve's hand.
"When history did not cooperate. History was changed"
"No!" You shout. "SHIELD would have stopped you"
"Accidents will happen"
Then you see it the news paper.
Howard and Maria stark die I car accident.
HYDRA murdered them in cold blood... All because Howard figured out about them..
Then a file shows up, a picture of Nick with the word deceased written over him.
"HYDRA created a world so chaotic, that humanity is finally ready to surrender its freedom. To gain security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will rise"
"Stop it!" You yell.
"We won Agent.. Captain, your death amounts to the same as your life.. a zero sum"
You yell as you punch the screen shattering it.
The three of you are left speechless, looking at the black screen, seeing your own shocked faces mirrors back at you. This was not happening, you shut Hydra off at the core, this was not possible. All you could think of was revenge. HYDRA murdered Howard and his wife. And now the winter soldier murdered Nick.
"As I was saying" he speaks again, appearing on another screens
"What's on that drive?" Steve asks demandingly.
"Project insight requires that you have insight. So I wrote an algorithm"
"What kind of algorithm.. what's it for?" Natasha asks.
"The answer to your question is fascinating"
"Then tell us" you hiss.
"Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it"
A gate closes behind you, locking you down in the basement. Steve quickly throws his shield. But it's to late. The doors are shut closed.
Your phone starts beeping in your pocket. You take it out. "We have a problem.." you say. "It's a missile incoming."
"How long?" Natasha asks.
"28 seconds"
"Who fired it!" Steve asks.
"SHIELD" you sigh.
"I'm afraid I have been stalling, Captain." Zola says.
You quickly grab the drive, putting it safely in your pocket again.
"Admit it..it's better this way"
Steve looks around in panic, when he spots a ventilation system beneath you.
"We are, all three of us, out of time.. Hail HYDRA"
Steve pulls the grid up from the ground, waving for you and Natasha to jump in. You barely get down before a loud explosion hits the building. Destroying everything in its way. Steve pulls you down, covering over the three of you with his shield. You hold onto him for dear life. Barely breathing.
Large bricks and stones fall around you, all you can hear is the loud ringing in your ears. As you feel the bricks slowly weighing you down. Steve grunts in pain, trying to hold his arm steady.
A few seconds later the debris settles, and the ringing in your ears wears off. But everything around you is pitch black. All you can hear is the sound of Steve groaning, and grunting.
When he finally manages to get the large pieces of stone off of you. He crawls up on the main floor, pulling you up and then Natasha who is knocked out cold, he Carries her in his arms. While you follow behind him slowly. Your mind all confused from the large impact.
You cough violently, as the dust had filled your lungs. Feeling how the open flames burn your skin.
You hear a loud noise, but you can't tell whether it's your mind playing tricks with you, or something is actually coming. Then in the horizon you see headlights from planes closing in on you. You can barely manage to get one word out, instead you pull Steves arm. You seek shelter behind a large piece of the main floor. Covering your mouth.
Twelve agents walk around heavily armed searching for you in the wrecks left behind. Your heart is beating in your throat. Rumlow shines a light your way, you rest your head on Steve's chest, feeling how his heart beats ten times faster.
"All clear here" Rumlow shouts. "Call in the asset"
You take your shot, quietly masking your way out of the wrecks. Steve puts Natasha in the backseat, before driving off as quickly as he can. Not looking back.