Sorry for the LONG wait for this chapter! Same old, same old you hear from every author who takes forever to update. Busy. No time for writing. School. Personal Stuff. Life in general. But I don't make a habit to continue this! (: Winter Break is next week and I plan to update again soon. Thanks again for the waiting, you're all sooo amazing!
Natasha and Steve wandered through the identical hallways that seem to be never ending with each new turn. They keep their weapons held high up, their bodies tense and ridge. Nothing is said between the two, but then again nothing needs to be said, as they try to find a way out of Hydra's building. It's unknown to them how much time they have before any one notices their disappearance. Considering no alarm has sounded as of yet, it can be safe to say that they have a few minutes before anyone comes looking for them.
Natasha glances up at Steve speaking silently with her eyes as she nods her head once towards a door on their left. With one nod from him, they slip in quickly and lock the door behind them. "Wow," Natasha whispers under her breath catching Steve's attention instantly. He turns around to see what has the spy's attention, but even he's taken back by the sight in front of him.
Surrounding them at the moment was large computers and data bases filled with information. But it wasn't the information that interested the SHIELD agents; it was the type of computer staring at them. Large computers, operated by ancient machinery, began to spring to life making Steve and Natasha take a step back in shock. Steve easily recognized the type of technology staring at him. It was from his early days, before he was trapped in the ice. Seeing it now only brought back so many memories, whereas Natasha saw just junk that was outdated and useless. That was until she saw a new USB plug in sitting at the table waiting to be used.
A beep from the inside of her dress catches the agents' attention taking Steve out of his small trance. Reaching down Natasha hiked up her dress mid-thigh to reveal a flesh colored chip attached to her ankle. She disengaged it from her thigh and brought it up to her face. "What is it?" Steve asked taking a few steps closer to her.
"This cant be." She muttered to herself.
"What?" Steve asked sternly looking over her shoulder.
"This is where Hydra's main source of energy comes from." She whispers looking back up at the technology around her. She takes a step forward towards the large computer in the middle of the room and points the chip directly at it. As she predicted, the chip began to give out a signal alarm alerted Natasha of the large energy presence in the room. "But this can't be right, this technology's ancient."
Again Natasha's eyes land on the USB plug in and she wanders over to it placing the chip back on her thigh. She runs a finger over it before reaching inside her hair and pulling out a flash drive. "Where did you get that?" Steve questions right behind her.
"Fury; he said to not trust anyone. I don't know what's in it because it's blocked. I tried to get into numerous of times, but never succeeded. The person who invented this was slightly smarter than me." Natasha glanced over her shoulder at Steve before looking back at the plug in. "Slightly." She muttered more to herself then Steve. "Maybe, there isn't actually a code on here, but a message."
"What kind of message?"
Natasha shrugged, "Let's find out." She hesitantly plugged in the flash drive and almost instantly words appear on the large screen.
Initiate System?
The SHIELD agents share a glance before Natasha leaned over and typed, "Y-E-S spells yes." She spoke aloud before pressing enter. Green static appeared on the screen seconds later and the large camera on top began to move. It targeted Steve first before snapping a picture.
It began talking soon after, "Rogers, Steven. Born 1918." A German voice spoke before the camera moved over to Natasha. It flashed a second later. "Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984."
The green static soon turned into a blurred face of a man, a man who looked oddly familiar to Steve. Natasha eyebrows furrowed, "It's not kind of recording." She spoke softly.
And she rose an eyebrow when the computer spoke back to her, "I am not a recording. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prison in 1945. But I am…"
The screen next to the large one turned on and a very clear photo of the man appeared. Steve took a step forward, realization dawning on him. Natasha looked at Steve, "You know this man?" she asked utterly confused. But Steve on the other hand was in the middle of facing many memories that were suddenly thrown at him just at the sight of the scientist's face. He looked around the entire room before walking around the large computer searching desperately for something, anything to tell him that this isn't real.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve spoke emotionlessly.
The computer replied back slightly offended, "First correction I am Swish. 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 bank. You are standing in my brain."
By this time Steve had circled around full coming to stand beside Natasha. "How did you get here?" He demanded.
"In fighting alongside SHIELD."
Steve looked to Natasha for confirmation, "This operation in paperclip after world war 2, SHIELD recruited German scientist with strategic value." She muttered as she thought back on information from long ago.
"Thought I could help the cause." Zola replied smugly. "I also helped my own."
Steve took a step forward and Natasha looked over at him, "Hydra died with the Red Skull."
Zola growled, "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."
"Prove it." Steve challenged.
Machinery on the other side of the room began to whirl and turn like ones already operating. "Accessing archives." Zola spoke as another screen began to show images. Johann Schmidt is the first thing he sees. "Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom." Steve and Natasha took a step in the computer's direction as more images and videos appeared. "What we did not realize was if you tried 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. It wasn't long after that Hydra joined Red Room, we were there Natalia when you were taken." Natasha head whips around to face the scientist mid glance around the room. "We were the ones who took you and made you who you are today. Without Hydra, you would be nothing. Neither would you Captain. For seventy years, Hydra has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war and when history did not cooperate, history was changed." An image of a gun shooting a president in the head showed next after videos of war.
Natasha stared incredulously at the computer, "That's impossible SHIELD would've stopped you."
"Accidents will happen." An old news article popped up with the words 'Howard and Maria Stark Die in Car Accident.' A large exit is crossed over Howard's picture along with big, red letters that said DECEASED. At this point Natasha and Steve couldn't even pretend to hide their shock and they stared gaping at the computer in front of them, eyes wide.
"Stark." Steve muttered to himself.
"Hydra created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifices its freedom to gain its security. Once securitization is complete, Hydra's new world order will arise. We won Captain." Steve jaw's tightens and his hands clench into fist. Rage fills inside him when a new, unpublished article of him appears. 'Rogers Disappeared: The HERO who SACRIFICED everything.' "Your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero sum." Steve reacts before his mind and he whirls around- Natasha already seeing what's going to happen as she bends down to avoid his hit- punching the large computer with Zola's blurred face. The screen cracks at his knuckles and his temple begins to scream in pain. Steve groans stumbling back into Natasha. She catches him easily and steadies him on his face, but keeping an arm around his torso. But unfortunately, the blow to the screen didn't shut Zola up. He just went to the next screen, "As I was saying-"
"-What's on this drive?" Steve demanded fiercely moving away from Natasha and up to the USB.
"Insight requires insight." Zola merely replies. "So I wrote an algorithm.
Now Natasha moves forward eagerly, "What kind of algorithm? What does it do?"
"The answer to your question is fascinating," Zola says mockingly, "Unfortunately you'll be too unconscious to hear it."
The door behind them yanks open and guards fill in immediately, guns raised at the two. Natasha pulls Steve behind her protectively before holding up her own gun, Steve following suit. But it's no use, there's too many and there outnumbered by a hundred. Natasha and Steve are pinned down almost instantly, the guns being ripped from them as they're pressed painfully into the floor. Natasha groans in pain and Steve cries out when someone touches his temple. "Don't hurt him!" Natasha growls moving to get to Steve only to be brought back down.
The Captain moves his attention back to the computer, "You tricked us." He accused.
"I'm afraid I have been stalling Captain. I guess that means we are both of us… out of time."
Steve world turns black, the last thing he sees is Natasha being pulled away.
.
.
.
"Sir we have a hit," Maria speaks urgently as she barges into the room, the Avengers hot on her trail. "A Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel generator, in Stalingrad, Russia."
Fury looks up from the person he was just talking to. "Good, because we have just located the suspect."
"Who?" Bruce demands, his eyes turning slightly green.
Fury nods to the person in front of him and the Avengers follow his gaze. The person sitting in the chair, looking very smug, wears a heavy smirk and gazes up at the Avengers condescendingly. His arms and legs are shackled to the ground and chair preventing him from moving, but his inability to move doesn't seem to damper his mood as his green eyes land on Bruce and his smirk grows.
"Hello Avengers, nice to see you again."
…
Loki.