Natasha wanted me to stay in the car. She went into the hospital. I looked over to my left to see Loki standing across the street from the hospital. Is my father really gone? Why do I keep seeing him?
A bus blocked my view. When the bus passed, Loki disappeared. Maybe I am imagining that I see Loki. I really hope that I'm not crazy.
Natasha came back outside with Steve. I had to climb into the backseat. "Hey Stevie", I said. Steve looked towards the backseat and saw me.
"Hey Zee. Do you have any idea on how your mom found out S.H.I.E.L.D was compromised?" Steve asks.
"Don't blame her. She's just a kid testing out her powers", Natasha says as we drove off.
"Mom. I saw...him again", I said. "Are you sure I'm not going crazy?" Natasha didn't seem to know what I was talking about until I asked her if I'm going crazy.
"Zia, you're not going crazy", Natasha says.
"How am I not going crazy? He's dead", I argued.
"Who's dead?" Steve asks.
"Loki, I mean Papa is...gone", I said sadly. "We were actually having a better father-daughter relationship".
"I'm sorry about your loss, Zee", Steve says.
"Thank you, but I really really don't want to talk about it", I said. I looked out the window, looking at the sight passing us. The rest of the drive was silent.
_______________________________________
Me, Natasha and Steve arrived at the mall. The three of us had on hoodies. Me and Steve had on glasses. He wore a black Cap on his head.
(Like my pun?)
"First rule of being on the run is don't run, walk", Nat says.
"If I run in these shoes, they'll fall off", Steve says. I laughed a little bit.
We made our way to a computer room in the mall. "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 types into the computer.
"How much time will we have?" Steve asks.
"Uh...about 9 minutes from...now". Natasha plugs in the flash drive. Steve looks around to make sure there was no sign of any S.H.I.E.L.D agents. "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".
"Can you override it?"
"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me". Me and Steve looked at Natasha. "Slightly". Steve was still looking around, making sure no S.H.I.E.L.D agents were coming. I rolled my eyes at him. "I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D involved to track hostle malware so if we can't read the file maybe we could find out where it came from", Natasha explains.
"Can I help you guys with anything?" A worker asks.
"Oh no. Me and my husband were just finding some destinations for our daughter's birthday party", Natasha says as she puts her arms around me and Steve.
"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?" The worker asks.
I looked on the screen. Then, back at the worker. "New Jersey", I said with a fake smile. The worker nodded.
He looked at Steve like he just realized something. "I have the exact same glasses", the worker said.
"Wow, you two are practically twins", Natasha says unimpressed.
"Yeah I wish". I frowned. "Specimen. If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron".
The employee, Aaron walked away. "You said nine minutes, come on", Steve rushed Natasha. Natasha shushed him.
"Relax. Got it".
A location popped up on the screen. "You know it?" I asked.
"I used to. Let's go", Steve says. He pulls the flash drive out of the computer. We walked out of the computer room. "Standard Tac Team. Two behind, two across, two coming straight at us".
"Shut up and put your arm around me laugh at what I say. Zia, you too", Natasha demanded.
"What?" Steve questioned.
"Do it". Me and Steve did as she asked. The Tac team walked past us. We went down the escalator and saw Rumlow going up. I knew there was something about him!
Natasha turns to look at Steve. "Kiss me", she said. My eyes widened. I'm happy that I brought my camera. "Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable".
"Yeah, they do", I said as I turned the camera on on my phone. Natasha pulls Steve close and their lips touch. I took a quick picture. Rumlow looked away from us.
Steve and Nat pull apart. "You still uncomfortable?" Natasha asks.
"Not exactly the word I would use".
_______________________________________
During our drive to Wheaten, NJ, I was asleep in the car. When I woke up, we were at the location. We got out of the car. We were at an abandoned camp. When it was dark, we snuck into the camp. "This camp is where I was trained", Steve says.
"Change much?" I asked.
"A little".
I looked around the place. It was so old, so ancient, like Steve. This is a dead end. "Zero heat signatures, Zero waves. Not even Radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off", Natasha says. "What it?"
"Army regulation forbid storing unitions within five hundred yards of the barracks", Steve says as the three of us walked towards what looked like a shed.
There was a lock on the door. Steve broke it with his shield. We went inside and walked down some stairs.
I turned on the light switch. The whole room lit up. On one of the walls, there was a S.H.I.E.L.D logo.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D", I said.
"Maybe where it started".
We opened a door which leads to another room. In the room, we see pictures of people from the old days.
"There's Stark's father", Natasha says.
I looked at the picture of Howard Stark, the father of my best friend, Tony Stark. "So that's where Moron gets his looks from".
Natasha nodded at my compliment. "Who's the girl?" Natasha asks.
I looked at the picture of a women. I looked up at Steve. Is this the women that Steve fell in love with?
Steve walks away, ignoring Nat's question. I followed him, trying to find something in the room that can help us. Me and Steve found a bookshelf. It sounded like air was coming out of it.
"If you're already working in a secret office...", Steve opens the bookshelf, revealing that it's a secret door. "...why do you need to hide the elevator?"
"This is going to be one hell of an adventure", I said.
Natasha used her phone to decode the numbers for the lock pad. 8539. I typed it in. The elevator opened.
We went down the elevator. The door opened, but the room was dark. Me, Steve and Natasha went inside the room. The elevator closed, leaving us in darkness. The lights came on by themselves.
There was some old computer equipment. "This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient", Natasha says.
"Steve level ancient or....?"
Steve glares at me which only made me laugh. Natasha found a place to insert the flash drive. Everything around us came to life.
"Initiate System?" The computer asks in a robotic voice. Natasha types "Yes" into the computer.
"Shall we play a game?" Natasha asks. "It's from a movie-".
"I know. I saw it", Steve says.
"Rogers, Steven. Born 1918", The computer says. The camera on the top of the computer starts moving. It faced Natasha. "Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984". The camera moves toward me. I looked at it with a glare as I tilted my head to the side a little bit. "Lokidottir, Zia Romanoff. Born 1998".
Something I didn't know because of the whole losing my memory when I was 5.
"What the hell...", I mumbled.
"It's some kind of recording".
"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...". On a smaller computer, it shows a man.
"You know this thing, Steve?" I asked.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years", Steve explains.
"First correction, I am swiss", the computer said.
"Yeah, well we don't care", I said.
"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, was worth saving, on 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain". I looked down at the ground. Then back at the computer.
"Why do scientists have to be so weird?" I muttered under my breath.
"How did you get here?" Steve asks.
"Invited".
"It was operation paperclip after World War 2. S.H.E.I.L.D recruited German scientist with strategic value", Natasha explains.
"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own".
"HYDRA died with the Red Skull", Steve says.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take it's place", The computer says.
"Prove it", I said.
"Accessing archive. 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".
My eyes widened. How was this possible? This whole time, Me and Natasha have been working for HYDRA?
"For 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed", The computer spoke.
"No. No, that's impossible. S.H.E.I.L.D would have stopped you", I said.
"Accidents will happen. HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice it's freedom to gain its security. Once a 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".
Steve punches the computer screen. Zola's face disappears, but reappears on another computer screen. "As I was say...", The computer says.
"What's on this drive?" I asked.
"Project insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm".
"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha asks.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you'll be too dead to hear it", The computer says.
Behind us, a door closes, blocking the elevator. Steve throws his sheild at it. "Steve. Zia. We got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds top", Natasha says.
"Who fired it?" Steve asks.
"S.H.I.E.L.D".
"Or HYDRA", I said.
"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain", the computer says. Natasha takes the flash drive, but the computer keeps talking. Steve finds an opening in the floor. The three of us go in. The place explodes. Rubble falls onto us, but Steve shields us with his shield.