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Athena was gently awakened by Steve. He had opened the door to her side of the car and carefully shook her shoulder until she opened her eyes.
Seeming a bit disoriented at the change of scenery and time, she got out.
"This is it?" Athena asked confused. She was looking sceptically at the old and abandoned military camp in front of them.
"The file came from these coordinates." Natasha said, walking to Athena.
The two women looked at the camp bathed in the eerie moonlight.
"So did I. This camp is where I was trained." Steve told them, walking past them and further into the abandoned camp. "Changed much?" Natasha asked.
"A little." Steve responded. Athena looked around and imagined how the place had looked back then in the 40's. In her head she imagined the barracks painted army green, people running around on the obstacle course, the Stars and Stripes swaying proudly in the wind from the now broken flagpole and of course pre-serum Steve in his much too big helmet and uniform, the small guy she'd seen on the few photos and videos that existed of him from back then.
Athena couldn't help but frown as she turned to Steve and noticed the faraway and nostalgic look in his eyes.
"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, who had wandered off, said. Steve and Athena both looked over at where she stood with her scanners, but Steve's eyes then drifted further to something behind her instead.
"What is it?" Athena looked at the building that he was now determinately heading for.
"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." Steve opened the lock by smashing it with his shield, all three entered.
It was dark inside, but Athena hesitantly moved her hands along the wall until she found a switch and flipped it.
As the old lights flickered on, Natasha huffed surprised.
"This is SHIELD." Steve and Athena looked over in her direction and noticed the huge SHIELD logo on the wall and the giant one on the round table too. "Maybe where it started?" Steve suggested. Athena cautiously moved further into the next room.
She studied every small detail of the room, only to find the most interesting thing to be three old framed portraits of Howard Stark, Peggy Carter and some third man. "There's Stark's father." Athena pointed out as her two companions walked in.
"Howard.." Steve said quietly. Athena wanted to take his hand and pull him into her tiny arms for a comforting hug, just like he'd done with her several times now, but she didn't, it was like her body was having a fight with itself. One side was eager to just hug him and felt fine about the kiss, the other screamed at her too keep her distance and that the kiss had been horribly wrong.
"Who's the girl?" Natasha's words made Athena snap her head up. She watched as Steve's jaw tensed and he turned and walked away.
"Cap is in quite the mood today huh." Nat asked rhetorically before she was about to walk away too, but then Athena spoke up.
"That's Peggy.. Peggy Carter." She mumbled. She could see Natasha inwardly flinching at the familiar name. Athena thought she heard Natasha scold herself with some colourful words before her eyes wandered back to Steve as he suddenly stopped walking and looked suspiciously at a giant bookcase.
"If you're already working in a secret office.. Why do you need to hide a door?" Both women looked at him confused. "What are you talking about?"
Steve shook his head at the simultaneously asked question as he began pushing the massive bookshelf. The bookshelf groaned before it slid open and correctly enough revealed a door behind it.
"That's not just a door, that's an elevator." Athena said curiously.
Natasha figured out the code with her smart little Shield computer, and soon, all three entered the elevator. Athena a bit more reluctant than the other two as she remembered the last time she was in an elevator with Steve.
The metal box groaned tiredly as it took them even further down, and when it stopped, Athena was the first to walk out.
She was in complete shock at what she saw when the lights switched on automatically.
Rows upon rows of old computers turned on before the three, and a desk with a couple screens stood before them.
"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient." Natasha said, reminding Athena why exactly they were here.
She walked closer, looking around the impressive machine, and as she did so, noticed a small flash drive port.
"This doesn't look too old." She said pointing at the small piece of technology.
Natasha quickly walked over and put in the flash drive which seemed to activate the ancient computer in the room.
"Initiate system?" The computer asked. Using the keyboard, Natasha replied,
"Y-E-S, spells yes." She smiled as the old computer started to crank up.
"Shall we play a game?" Athena couldn't help but grin at Natasha's reference. Back at her room in the organisation's headquarters she didn't have much, but she did have a computer, a tv and a lot of movies. They found it crucial that she knew of modern pop culture.
Steve didn't seem to find it funny at all however, so Natasha elaborated her joke.
"It's from a movie that-"
"Yeah, I saw it." Athena almost flinched at the tone, but decided to not get involved in their problems.
Suddenly they heard an accented voice speaking, and all looked around confused before their eyes fell to the computer screens.
"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. And.. oh, our dear Serpent. Athena.." They could see an old camera moving above them as it analysed them. It hesitated slightly when it landed on Athena.
"It has to be some kind of a recording?" Natasha spoke first.
"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 showed an old green digital and distorted photo of a man with round glasses.
Steve tensed up.
"Do you know this thing?" Natasha asked Steve seeming slightly disturbed.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve replied perplexed.
"He is Swiss." Athena said looking at the screen.
"Very good Athena. I am Swiss. Second correction, 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." Athena's eyes shone with curiosity as she wandered to one of the huge shelves of computers. She found it fascinating that such advanced technology had been made back then.
But she already knew.
She had been taught the entire history of the organisation through torturous rote learning.
"How did you get here?" Steve questioned the doctor.
"Invited." Zola replied simply. Natasha nodded and looked thoughtful for a second, but Athena was the one who spoke up. "Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."
"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." If a distorted computer image could ever look smug, this was it, Athena thought as she returned to her spot in front of the screens. "HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve stated angrily.
Natasha noticed Athena flinch away at the sound of the organisation's name.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Athena found herself mouthing the words as the computer said them. The words, carved into her brain like a painful and ugly tattoo.
A parasite living deep within her, seemed to awaken by those words.
"Prove it." She heard Steve say through gritted teeth.
"Accessing archive." It was still Zola's voice, but it was more computerised than the other he had just spoken with.
The computer screen showed the three some old footage of Johann Schmidt/Red Skull, and something about 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." Zola explained proudly after the video had stopped.
"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you." Natasha said, almost as if she didn't want to believe the facts and evidence presented to her.
The computer image of Dr Arnim Zola smiled almost evilly. "Accidents will happen." He stated innocently.
The computer screen then showed the three an article of Howard and Maria Stark's fatal car accident, and a file that proofed Hydra had only made it look like a car accident, along with a file stating that the recent death of Fury also had been written into reports as an accident.
"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." As the last words left Zola's digital mouth, Steve smashed the computer screen in pure rage. Athena flinched at his actions. Her tongue stressfully finding her cracked molar tooth.
"As I was saying.." The three agents whipped their heads at a screen to the left as it switched on and Zola's voice spoke up again.
"What's on this drive?" Steve hissed angrily.
"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm." Zola explained.
"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha asked puzzled.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Suddenly the doors started to close behind them, Steve tried to jam it by throwing his shield in between it, but he was too late.
"Guys, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." Natasha informed the two others panicked. "Who fired it?" Steve asked.
"S.H.I.E.L.D." The assassin said with a hint of surprise and hopelessness in her voice.
"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're, both of us, out of time. Hail Hydra-" Athena, who had been standing by in silence from Zola's words, now woke up from her daze and used her super soldier strength in a outburst of anger to smash all of the computers.
Hail Hydra.
Her head felt like exploding, as if it could burst like a bubble at any given moment. It was like the smallest thing could have pushed her over the edge right there and then. She didn't know what edge, but she was afraid to find out.
Hail Hydra.
In a second after Athena's outburst, everything went completely quiet.
Then chaos erupted as the missile hit it's target.
Steve had noticed a small opening on the ground before. He'd thrown the metal door aside and just as the place exploded he'd thrown himself and Natasha into the hole, protecting them with his shield.
He hadn't been able to save them all. He yelled for Athena several times, but the girl had been standing still in those last seconds before the missile hit. It was like she didn't even hear him.
Steve looked down at Natasha as the dust settled around them. The red head had unshed tears in her eyes and a gash in her forehead.
"Tell me you saw her get to safety." Natasha almost whispered, her voice hoarse. Steve didn't reply -which to Natasha was answer enough- as he got up, pulling her with him.
In an uncomfortable and heavy silence the two began searching for their friend between the rubble and larger pieces and remnants of building.
"I FOUND HER! ROGERS! SHE'S HERE!" Natasha's yell was a mixture of relief and dread and Steve quickly made his way over. "Where?"
"Her heat signature is coming from under there!" Natasha pointed at a huge piece of building and Steve's heart leapt uncomfortably in his chest as he began moving the rubble.
Natasha watched hopelessly as Steve dug and threw one huge part of building after the other until he stopped and jumped down. "Can you see her?" Natasha asked anxiously.
"I've got her." Steve sounded relieved which instantly calmed Natasha a bit. She wasn't really that close with Athena, but the young woman had made quite an impact on her. "How bad is it?" Natasha was instantly by his side as he carried Athena out of the hole.
The girl was limp and paler than usual, but besides that, she looked alright.
"She's going to be okay." Steve said as he listened to the girl's heart beating softly in her chest. "—Let's get out of here before the STRIKE agents come to search for us."
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