Laura, Nat and Steve are walking in a mall with hoodies with Laura's handle in her hoodie pocket with Nat between them. "First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk" Nat whispered to them.
"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall of" Steve replied.
"Running won't stop everyone from already knowing who I am" Laura said while looking around nervously as they entered an Apple store and Steve and Nat walk up to a mac book with Laura watching the entrance the next aisle over in front of them while scrolling through an iPad causally.
"The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up Shield will know exactly where we are" Nat told Steve.
"How much time do we have" Steve asked?
"Uh...about nine minutes from…" Nat said while plugging in the drive. "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" Nat continued as an Apple genius walked up to Laura.
"Hey, do you have any questions about the iPad" he asked?
"Uh… no I'm just waiting for my friends. I'm all set but thanks though" Laura said as he looked at her with an eyebrow raised.
"You know you sorta look like…" he told Laura who interrupted quickly.
"I know, Laura Watson. I get that a lot and the glasses don't help with that" Laura joked while pointing at her glasses smiling as the employee nodded.
"Well… if you need any help, I'm Aaron" Arron said smiling as he walked away as Laura breathed a sigh of relief.
"Can I help you with anything" Aaron asked Steve and Nat?
"Oh, no. My fiance was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations" Nat told him while grabbing Steve's shoulders.
"Right! We're getting married" Steve added quickly.
"Congratulations. Where do you guys thinking about going" he asked as they looked at the computer zoom in on an image of New Jersey?
"New Jersey" Steve answered.
"Oh…" the employee nodded as he looked at Steve. "I have the exact same glasses" he told Steve.
"Wow, you two are practically twins" Nat said sarcastically while typing into the mac book as the employee laughed.
"Yeah, I wish. Specimen. Uh...if you guys need anything, I'm Aaron" he said leaving as Rumlow and the team entered the mall and Laura and Steve gave each other a look as Laura nodded towards the exit.
"You said nine minutes, come on" Steve told Nat.
"Shh, relax. Got it" Nat said as Wheaton, New Jersey appeared on the screen.
"You know it" Nat asked?
"I used to. Let's go" Steve told her while nodding to Laura who nodded back walking towards them as Steve grabbed the drive and the three begin walking towards the exit with Laura looking around with her eyes next to Nat with Steve on the other side.
"Standard tac team. Two behind, two across, two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro" Nat told them as two agents approach them as Laura checked her Note 4 casually hiding her face in the hoodie from them.
"Shut up and put your arm around me, laugh at something on her phone" Nat told Steve while nodding at the phone as Laura brought it out in front of them.
"What" Steve asked?
"Do it" Nat hissed as Laura pointed at the screen laughing casually as the others did the same as one of the agents at the Apple store turned around.
"Negative at the source" Rollins said in the mic.
"Give me a floor rundown" Rumlow asked?
"Negative on three" an agent replied.
"Negative on two" another added.
"Snake the upper levels, work down to me" Rumlow said while going up an escalator as Nat and Steve are going down it with Laura right behind them as she quickly got down underneath the railing spotting Rumlow riding up scratching her ankle while looking down.
"Kiss me" Nat told Steve.
"What" Steve asked?
"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable" Nat explained.
"Yes, they do" Steve agreed as she quickly pulled Steve into a kiss as Rumlow looked away going past the three.
"You still uncomfortable" Nat asked? "It's not exactly the word I would use" Steve replied.
Steve hot wired a Chevy Silverado in the parking lot and the three are now driving to New Jersey with Laura in the back middle seat.
"Good thinking with the phone" Nat complimented Laura looking back at her who shrugged her shoulders.
"Your training comes in handy now and then and I figured my Stark Phone would stand out too much" Laura replied bringing it out.
"Speaking of standing out… that spear of yours what is it Vibranium" Steve asked?
"And where have you been hiding the past year" Nat added while looking back at her as Laura sighed not liking the interrogation.
"Look what I'm about to say stays in this truck. I'm serious. I was sworn secrecy" Laura told them seriously and both of them nodded.
"I got the spear from a guy who's from Wakanda and I've been there for most of the past year when I haven't flown to New York and D.C. for Shield work and obviously to visit you guys" Laura told them.
"Wakanda what have you been doing there" Steve asked confused?
"Uh… well I'm Wakandan I was born in New York so I'm American as well as you both already know well and my family who you met Steve well those are my parents who adopted me, and Tony knows this already. Also, him and Rhodey know about the spear since I had to use it when we took down the Mandarin but only Tony knows I'm Wakandan since the situation is complicated…" Laura told them vaguely.
"And did you stab men in their wrists during all of that" Steve joked while smiling as Laura smiled back.
"No…, I mainly shot people with it and knocked them out stabbing was kinda a new thing, but we were sort of pinned against a wall and l mean literally pinned against a wall" Laura joked back as Steve smiled in the mirror looking back at her.
"Shoot? That thing fire's what…" Nat asked?
"You'll know what eventually I guess if I know where this is going" Laura answered awkwardly.
"And is your new suit is it safe" Nat asked?
"Yes, it is I can't say where it is but trust me it's safe Hydra can't get their hands on it" Laura reassured them.
A few minutes later down the road "Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car" Nat asked amused?
"Nazi Germany" Steve answered seriously.
"Mm" Nat nodded.
"And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash" Steve asked as Nat did so.
"Alright, I have a question for you, oh, which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it though, your kind of answering it, you know" Nat rambled?
"What" Steve asked with an eyebrow raised?
"Was that your first kiss since 1945" Nat asked as Laura snorted not expecting the bluntness as they looked at her?
"That bad, huh" Steve replied.
"I didn't say that. And speaking of kisses this mystery guy of yours who is he" Nat asked firmly while staring at her catching Laura off guard as she sighed. "Since we're spilling all of our deepest darkest secrets…" Laura joked as she looked between them as Steve smiled while looking in the mirror. "He's Prince T' Challa Udaku my parents and family have already met him, and we've been dating for almost two years now and he's the one who gave me the spear. There, happy now" Laura told them as Nat finally got her answer.
"I am thank you and no, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you've had" Nat said while looking over at Steve.
"You don't need practice" Steve countered.
"Everybody needs practice" Nat replied.
"It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm 95, I'm not dead" Steve told her.
"Nobody special though" Nat asked as Steve chuckled.
"Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience".
"Well, that's alright, you just make something up" Nat said while looking back at Laura who smiled back remembering how they met.
"What, like you" Steve asked?
"I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I" Nat answered.
"That's a tough way to live" Steve replied.
"It's a good way not to die, though" Nat countered.
"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is" Steve said.
"Yeah. Who do you want me to be" Nat asked? "How about a friend" Steve said while looking back at Laura and Nat laughed softly?
"Ok that's enough of this spilling secrets crap" Laura interrupted reaching for the touch screen between them as she began going through the radio stations as they drove towards their destination.
They drive up to an abandoned army base as Laura gets out and brings out her spear as the others hear it come out and look at her "What" Laura asked confused?
"Better be safe than sorry" Laura answered as Steve looked around carrying his shield.
"The file came from these coordinates" Nat said looking at the phone as Laura did as well.
"So, did I" Steve told them. Later that night the three were walking around the base cautiously and Laura still had her spear out looking around "Change much" Nat asked Steve?
"A little" Steve replied while thinking back to him training.
"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" Nat said as Steve and Laura noticed a building ahead of them as they walk over to it.
"What is it" Laura asked Steve?
"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place" Steve explained as he opened the lock with his shield and enter inside noticing the light seeing it's a Shield office.
"Shield" Laura asked Steve confused?
"This is Shield" Nat added.
"Maybe where it started" Steve suggested as they entered the room and looked at old photos of Howard Stark, Peggy and Chester Philips.
"There's Howard Stark" Laura said while pointing at him.
"Who's the girl" Nat asked as both him and Laura look at each other silently and don't reply. They turned away to walk further into the room walking up to a bookshelf.
"If you're already working in a secret office…" Steve began while he pushed the bookshelf as it slides open and they walked down into a room looking at old computers covered in dust and cobwebs.
"This can't be the data point, this technology is ancient" Nat said as Laura pointed towards the port drive in the center of the set up getting her attention as they walked up to it and Nat plugged it in activating the computer. "Initiate system" the computer asked as Nat typed into the keyboard typing in Y-E-S. "Shall we play a game" Nat said smiling giving Laura a knowing look who smiled back as Steve looked at them.
"It's from the movie…" Laura began but Steve interrupted quickly.
"Yeah I know what it is you put it on my list remember" Steve said annoyed as a voice interrupted them getting their attention.
"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Kosha Watson, Laura. Born, 1982" the voice with the German accent announced as Laura went wide eyed and in shock as it stated her father's surname she never mentioned as the three saw the camera pointing at them.
"It's some kind of a recording" Nat said confused.
"I am not a recording, Fräulein" it said loudly getting their attention.
"It can't be it knew my biological dad's last name…" Laura said still in shock struggling with her words as Nat and Steve looked at her concerned.
"She is correct I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am" the voice said as they saw an image of a man appear green on the screen as Laura looked on wide eyed.
"Do you know who this is" Laura asked Steve staring at it?
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years" Steve told them.
"First correction, I am Swiss. 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 banks. You are standing in my brain" Zola told them.
"So, what like an artificial intelligence" Laura asked staring at the face?
"I am not an A.I. I am Armin Zola" Zola stated loudly!
"How did you get here" Steve asked?
"Invited" Zola answered. It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value" Nat told them as Laura nodded. "They did the same with the Manhattan Project" she added as Zola nodded. "They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own" Zola told them.
"Hydra died with the Red Skull" Steve replied.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place" Zola answered.
"Prove it" Steve asked?
"Accessing archive" Zola said as the screen shows them old footage Johann Schmidt/Red Skull, and 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 to them.
"That's impossible Shield would've stopped you" Nat told Zola firmly.
"Accidents will happen" Zola said as the computer screen shows them Hydra had killed Howard and Maria Stark making it look like a car accident along with the recent death of Fury. "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" Zola said smugly as Steve threw his shield angrily at the center screen cracking it, but Zola appeared on another one. "As I was saying..." Zola said but Steve interrupted
"What's on this drive"?
"Project Insight requires insight. So, I wrote an algorithm" Zola told them. "The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it" Zola said as the door began closing as Steve threw his shield and Laura shot at the hinges on the corners quickly destroying them but it was too late as she looked around quickly for an exit.
"Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops" Nat said looking on the screen of the missile approaching them.
"Who fired it" Steve asked? "Shield" Nat answered quickly.
"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time" Zola said smugly as Laura shot the monitor angrily destroying it while pointing at the metal door on the ground with her spear getting Steve's attention. They ran over with the missile approaching the base as Steve lifted the metal door aside getting Laura and Nat in front of him covering for them with his Shield as the base blew up above them with Steve and Laura screaming. "Why are people always shooting missiles at me" Laura yelled over the explosion and collapsing rubble while panicking! After the rubble stopped collapsing Steve got her and Nat out underground as Rumlow and the strike team arrived at the destroyed base. "Call in the asset" he asked in his mic with a bandaged up wrist from Laura's spear.
Late that night at Pierce's house Pierce is in his kitchen. "I'm going to go, Mr. Pierce. You need anything before I leave" the maid asked walking out?
"No. Uh...it's fine, Renata, you can go home" Pierce told her.
"Good night" Pierce yelled while walking over to the Winter soldier sitting on his chair drinking some milk.
"Want some milk" he asked as the solider didn't respond.
"Our window is limited. Three targets, Level Six" Pierce told him. "They already cost me Zola. I want confirmed death in ten hours" Pierce told him as Renata interrupted them from the kitchen. "Sorry, Mr. Pierce, I... I forgot my phone" Renata said as she saw the Winter soldier. "Oh, Renata. I wish you would have knocked" Pierce said while shooting her with his gun killing her.
