Author's note: Sorry for the long wait! Here it is though! Really intense chapter. It was alot of fun to write. Please let me know what you think of it. 😊 On with the story!
---------------------------------------------
I woke to someone softly shaking me awake.
"Renae? We're at the destination." I heard Steve say as he shook me. I yawned and stretched, then I got up and followed Steve out. Mando bounded up beside me as happy as ever. I looked around me as my mind groggily began to process things. It looked like an old military camp. Steve gazed around the camp his eyes slightly glazed over as if remembering something. Natasha and Steve started talking and walking unto the camp. I started to follow when I suddenly realized that Mando wasn't there.
"Mando?!" I called worriedly.
Steve and Natasha stopped when they heard me call for him.
"Go ahead guys. He probably just ran to the woods to go potty. I'll catch up with you." I said waving them inside.
They seemed hesitant but they finally went in. I whistled again and I heard nothing. Once more I called for him and I heard a faint barking in the distance. I walked a good ways when I noticed it starting to get dark outside. I clutched my satchel close to me and put my gun in my hand. I was not feeling comfortable with this situation. I whistled again and started to call softly "Here Mando! Come here boy!"
I heard a soft bark and headed towards the sound.
"Mando! Where are ya buddy?" I called then a hand clamped over my mouth and a deep gravely voice said
"Move and your dead."
---------------------------------------------
With Steve and Natasha.
---------------------------------------------
The old, dusty computer began to whir to life. A face appeared on the screen.
"Rogers, Steven." It said. "Born 1918."
The camera on the top of the screen slowly turned to Natasha.
"Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984."
"It sounds like a recording." Natasha commented.
"I am not a recording fräulein." The computer said ominously.
Steve's eyes widened in realization as the computer described who he was to the Captain so long ago.
"You know this guy?" Natasha asked disbelieving.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked with Red Skull." Steve said starting to walk around "He's been dead for years."
"First correction." The computer Zola stated. "I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive."
Natasha and Steve began to observe their surroundings as Zola continued to speak.
"In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however...that was worth saving. 100,000 ft of data banks , you are standing in my brain."
"How did you get here?" Steve asked.
"I got invited." Zola replied smugly.
Natasha's eyes flitted back and forth as she processed this "After World War Two S.H.I.E.L.D recruited German scientists with strategic value."
"They thought I could help the cause." Zola responded.
"Hydra died with Red Skull." Steve stated firmly.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola replied.
"Prove it." Steve challenged.
The screens on the computer began to flicker as Zola said
"Accessing Archive."
"Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom." Zola began with video clips of Hydra soldiers and Red Skull beginning to play. "What we did not realize was if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom voluntarily. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D was founded, and I was recruited. The new Hydra grew as a beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, Hydra has been secretly feeding crisis. When history did not cooperate, history was changed."
"That's impossible. S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you." Natasha retorted in shock.
"Accidents...will happen." Zola responded darkly as headlines of Howard Stark's death flashed on the screens and Nick Fury's death file. Then a new scene appeared. A man in a hospital bed. A young teenage girl sat beside him holding his hand and weeping. The man gave the girls hand a squeeze and said "I love you." Then the heart monitor flat lined. The girl screamed "Noooo!!! Please! No!"
As the nurses tried to pull her away she continued to scream and cry. As they tried to restart the mans heart, the girl gave another heart wrenching cry and a nurse that tried to calm her fell to the ground writhing in agony. The nurses quickly turned to their colleague to help her, as the girl just fell to the floor clutching her head.
"We destroy those who are a threat or turn them to follow us. If you were not smart enough to put it together my dear Captain, that last clip was of your dear friend Renae Genoa and her last moments with her father. She comes from a long line of people with a unique ability. We call them Empaths. They have the ability to cause you to feel any emotion they want you to. People follow them as leaders with little resistance.They are very motivating speakers. They can be used as a weapon to destroy or a tool to build. They can inflict great pain upon a victim if they do not follow the Empath's wishes by triggering pain and suffering and depression in the victims brains. Worst case scenario for the victim is insanity or suicide. Many Empaths do not know of their own powers. Many do not live very long, as they are able to inflict emotions upon others they often can easily absorb them. Many Empaths suffer from depression and anger issues. They bottle up the emotions they have deep inside of them. If they do not learn to control themselves and their powers they can end up killing others without meaning to, or going insane and destroying themselves. Examples of Empaths in the past are Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Queen Elizabeth the first, Joseph Stalin and a few others. Many held very high ranks as leaders. Some became drunk on power and ended up destroying themselves or having their own people turn on them. Others lived fairly successful lives and are honored as heroes. Renae Genoa despite being unknown to the world is the most powerful empath we have come across."
A picture of myself appeared on the screen before Steve and Natasha.
"Now Renae will become the mouth of Hydra. We will use her to spread the good work of Hydra and rally up more and more followers. If she will not comply...then just like her father she will be..." The picture of me on the screen turned blood red.
"Destroyed."
Steve and Natasha's eyes were glued to the screen in horror.
"As shown in the videos, Hydra has created a world so chaotic that humanity is ready to sacrifice their freedom to gain security. Once the purification process is complete, Hudra's new world order will arise." Steve was clenching and unclench inch his jaw trying to keep his anger at bay.
"We have won Captain." Zola chided.
Zola continued chattering but Steve had had enough. He swung his fist at the main screen effectively shattering it. It was silent for a few seconds when another monitor turned on and Zola appeared saying
" As I was saying."
Steve confronted Zola and held the flash drive up
"What's on this drive?!"
"Project Insight requires insight." Zola commented.
"So I have concocted an Algorithm."
"What kind of Algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha demanded quickly.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Zola replied.
Walls closed around the doors to Steve and Natasha's exit. Steve threw his shield but it bounced off just a millisecond too late to save them.
Natasha looked at her phone
"Steve we've got a bogey. A short ranged ballistic. Thirty seconds tops."
"Who fired it?" Steve demanded.
"S.H.I.E.L.D." She responded sadly.
"Im afraid I have been stalling Captain." Zola said tauntingly. "Hydra agents have captured Renae and are gone with her by now. Admit it...it's better this way. We are both of us, out of time."
Then the missile hit.