Hey, friends! New update (and it's only been like a month) *gasp*
If you've watched TWS, you know shit's about to go down.
Hope you guys are having a great start to the new year!
Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel.
On we go...
The Violinist
Chapter 13
Night had fallen at the camp. Steve paced outside the truck as he tried to wrap his head around being back here where his Captain America days had begun.
"Changed much?" he heard Max's soft voice next to him. Glancing down, he saw her standing a few feet away. She looked like she had just woken up from another nap with her brown hair all ruffled and her eyes still half-closed. She was beautiful. In her hands was another pack of cheese cracker. It made Steve worry that he only had little pouches of food to keep Max going. He felt the heart-wrenching urge to keep her safe, and it drove him crazy that he was helpless at the moment.
"A little," he admitted, scanning his eyes over the buildings just past the fence.
He could see his former, smaller self running through the grass to keep up with the other troops.
"Pick up the pace, ladies! Let's go! Let's go! Double time! Come on Rogers, move it!" he could hear Sergeant Duffy yelling at them. He watched as his former self stops jogging and locks eyes with Steve as he was now standing beside Max. "Come on! Fall in! Rogers! I said fall in!"
His younger version ran off and Steve shook his head to clear his head. "What're you doing out here?" he asked Max.
"Nat thinks we should head in and see what we find," she explained just as the redhead jumped out of the truck.
"This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio," Natasha revealed as she walked closer. "Whoever wrote this file must have used a router to throw people off."
Something didn't sit right with Steve. With a sinking feeling in his gut, Steve goes into the backseat of the truck and pulls his shield out from under the seats. He straps it to his back and it makes him feel a little more secure. He wandered to the fence with the curious girls following behind him. Taking the chains locking the gate in his hands, Steve gave a swift twist and they fell to the ground broken.
Steve wasted no time heading towards one building that had been bugging him the whole time he had paced outside the truck.
"What is it?" Natasha asked as they tried to keep up with his fast steps.
"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks," he huffed and stopped outside a large stone building. They eyed the vacant place that hadn't been touched in decades. "This building is in the wrong place."
Taking the shield off of his back, Steve walked up to the lock and bashed it off. Steve entered first with Max close behind. The redhead guarded their backs as Steve searched for the lights and switched them on. Instantly, three pairs of eyes fell on the large emblem on the back wall.
"This is S.H.I.E.L.D.," Max breathed out, surprised.
"Maybe where it started," Steve replied. He lead them through the open area and into a smaller room. Framed pictures hung on the wall and Max recognized Howard Stark, Col. Chester Phillips and, lastly, Peggy Carter. Fury had given her an extensive education on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s history as she grew up and trained.
Max snuck a glance at Steve as he stared at her photo. She knew they had history and, to be honest, it bugged her. It wasn't clear if it was the hormones or if she carried something for him other than his child.
"There's Stark's father," Nat called off.
"Howard," Steve clarified.
Pointing at the picture of Peggy, Natasha questioned, "Who's the girl?"
There was an silent, awkward few seconds before Steve turned and walked away. Max gave Nat an apologetic look before following after him. The brunette found him standing in front of a massive bookshelf. He doesn't glance at her when she approached.
"If you're already working in a secret office…" he trailed off as he grabbed the edge of the shelf and pushed it to the side. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"
Steve and Max stepped into the elevator. As she turned, she noticed Natasha had joined them. The doors closed and they began descending. When they opened, the three of them were greeted with a huge room filled with computers that were decades old.
"This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient," Nat said, confused. She went in front of the other two and observed her surroundings, trying to find something out-of-place. Finally, she came across a USB port sitting on the central desk. Removing the flash drive from her pocket, she inserted it into one of the slots. Immediately the computers responded.
"Initiate system?" it asked.
"Y-E-S spells yes," she spoke as she typed the word in. The computer started booting up. "'Shall we play a game?'" she quoted and turned to the others to see if they got the reference. Max chuckled, but Steve made no sound. "It's from a movie."
"Yeah, I saw it," he said in a monotone voice.
Suddenly, a voice from the computer drew their attention, "Rogers, Steven. Born 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianova. Born 1984. Stirling, Maxine. Born 1992."
Their eyes catch sight of an old camera moving above them, analyzing them.
"It's some kind of recording," Natasha guessed.
"I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am," the voice said. Max tried to place the accent it had- German?
"Do you know this thing?" Nat inquired, looking at Steve.
Steve nodded. "Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years."
"First correction, I am Swiss," Zola snapped. "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."
"How did you get here?" Steve asked.
"Invited."
"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value," Max explained.
"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own," the scientist added.
"HYDRA died with the Red Skull," Steve scoffed.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."
"Prove it," Steve antagonized.
"Accessing archive," Zola announced. The computer screen showed them footage of Johann Schmidt in his craze before shifting to the founding people of S.H.I.E.L.D. "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. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."
"That's impossible," Natasha fought and shook her head. "S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you."
"Accidents happened." Max could practically hear Zola smirking. A video started played on the screen again. This time it was newer, better quality. Max recognized it the second the familiar architecture of the building came into view. That building had haunted her nightmares her entire life. A man came on, his jawline strong and his short brown hair shifted in the wind.
Max stopped breathing. Steve must have heard her heart rate change because he got closer to her. Her eyes were glued to the screen.
Another man entered. His hair was strikingly blond, like Draco Malfoy. A jagged scar ran from the left side of his nose, down his cheek and jaw, and disappeared into the collar of his jacket.
"Ready to make this decent?"
"Hell yeah. We get this done and we can go home early," the brunette cheered.
"It's your girl's birthday, right?" blondy asked.
The first guy nodded. "Technically today since it's just past midnight. I'd like to be home before she wakes up."
The other guy smirked. "Then let's get this done. You go down first."
They threw rope over the side of the skyscraper, attached their harnesses and made sure everything was secure. The brunette climbed over the ledge and got his footing on the side of the building. Once he was sure of himself, he slowly began to work his way down.
Max tried to close her eyes for the last half of the clip. She knew what was about to happen, but she couldn't stop herself from watching. No matter how many times she had seen this, she always had to watch it through before her eyes would shut.
She felt Steve's hand slide into her own, the faint tingling of sparks alerting her, but she didn't pull her focus to him. Instead, she squeezed his hand as tight as she could and kept watching.
"It's pretty fucking windy today!" the brunette yelled.
"You got this! They don't call you The Spider for nothing!" the blond hollered back. The sound of gusting wind was the only thing that could be heard during the men's silence. Max's eyes caught the glint of a knife being pulled out of the blond's belt, the shine of the cold metal sent chills down Max's spine.
This is it, she thought to herself as she waited for the final moment. He's about to die.
The blond sauntered to the edge of the building and peered over the side, probably seeing how far the other man had gone. He checked quickly before walking back to where the ropes were secure.
He raised the knife.
Max felt a tear fall down her cheek.
The blade sliced through the rope like butter.
Her grip on Steve's hand loosened.
A blood-curdling scream rang through the air as the man fell from the side of the building.
The screen went black.
"Such a tragedy, really," Zola chortled.
Steve pulled Max closer to him. "Who was that?"
"A shame he never made it home for his daughter's birthday, right Maxine?" the madman asked jokingly. "Thomas Stirling was known for his unsurmounted climbing abilities. Too bad his position as Nicholas Fury's best friend got him killed."
"How dare you show that to her! That was her father!" Nat lost her head. She was calm and collected ninety-nine percent of the time, unless someone was attacking Max.
Ignoring the outburst, Zola continued, "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." Letting go of Max, Steve rushed forward and smashed the computer screen. Unfortunately, a nearby one turned on. "As I was saying…"
"What's on the drive?" the Super Soldier interrupted.
"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm," the computer answered.
"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha stepped up.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it," Zola laughed.
The sound of the doors closing behind them pushed Steve and Natasha into combat mode. Steve hurtled his shield at the door, trying to wedge it between the doors to stop them from shutting, but he was too late. Max stood by watching it unfold before her, too stuck in her own head after witnessing her father's death.
"Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. Thirty seconds tops," Nat informed him.
Max watched the panic set in on his face. "Who fired it?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D."
Steve started searching the room for any place safe and structured enough to protect them during the blast. Max still couldn't move. If Fury had been here, he would have been disappointed in her lack of resolve in a high-risk situation.
"I'm afraid i have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time," the man chuckled at his twisted joke.
Max watched as Natasha ran to Steve and disappeared inside the floor. She could see him shouting at her to move, but she remained with her feet frozen in place. Finally, he ditched shouting at her and ran full-speed towards her. His arms wrapped around her and he sprinted back. A whistling filled the air and Max knew the missile was about to hit.
Just in the nick of time, Steve threw themselves into the hole and thrust his shield over them. The whole place exploded around them. Debris and dust filled the air, chunks of the structure fell hard and fast on them. Steve grunted with the force of the weight falling on him, but he held strong.
It was a few minutes before everything fell silent.
Silence fell and Steve let the tension fall from his tired limbs. He slung his shield onto his back and looked over at the girls. To his horror, he saw Maxi laying in Nat's lap unconscious. A small line of blood trickled down her forehead.
The redhead was dusty and scraped up, but seemingly unharmed. She ran a hand through Max's brown locks, searching for the cut.
"Nat," Steve called to her, his voice cracking.
"It's just a little scrape. I think she fainted from exhaustion and the stress of all this," she replied without looking over at him. "We've gotta move."
He nodded, not caring that she couldn't see it, and moved to pick up Max. He lifted her into his arms as if she weighed nothing, rejoicing in the sound of two heartbeats-one thrumming faster than the other.
The Strike team would be hot on their trail now that the missile had leveled this place. Whoever was leading the undercover HYDRA attacks within S.H.I.E.L.D. would want confirmation of their deaths following the explosion.
Knowing what they do now regarding the hostile takeover, Steve had to really consider who his real friends were, and who was secretly against him. And where was the safest place to hideout until they could come up with a plan.
Lucky for him, he knew exactly where to go.
Alexander Pierce stood in the kitchen of his multi-million dollar mansion. He paused when a shadowy figure sat at his dining table; the Winter Soldier.
"I'm going to go, Mr. Pierce. You need anything before I leave?" his housekeeper hollered from the hallway. He was thankful she wasn't in sight of the kitchen where the assassin was reclined.
"No, uh...It's fine, Renata, you can go home."
"Okay. Night-night."
"Good night," he responded, his eyes frozen on the man before him. The door shut letting him know that Renata was gone. "Want some milk?"
The soldier stayed quiet.
"The timetable has moved. Our window is limited. Three targets. Rogers and Romanoff are Level Six. Stirling is Level Eight. They already cost me Zola. I want confirmed death in ten hours," he ordered and took a sip from the glass of milk he poured. Just then, he heard the door click open and someone enter.
"Sorry, Mr. Pierce, I-I forgot my phone," Renata walked around the corner and locked eyes with the Winter Soldier. Her eyes blew wide in horror.
"Oh, Renata. I wish you would have knocked," he sighed.
A gunshot rang through the house.
Steve was relieved when he heard the heavy breathing of his new friend getting closer to them. They had sat in the backyard of Sam Wilson's suburban house for over an hour waiting for the man to return. He sat on the back porch with Max sleeping in his lap. Her soft breaths ghosted across his neck and calmed his racing mind.
Natasha knocked on the door when the kitchen light flicked on. A few seconds later, the back door slid open revealing a sweaty Sam.
"Hey, man," Sam greeted when he saw Steve on the ground.
"I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low," Steve confessed.
"Everyone we know is trying to kill us," Nat added.
Sam took a moment to take it all in. "Not everyone," he smiled and stepped aside so they could enter.
As soon as the door closed, Steve immediately felt slightly safer than he had in the past two days. Sam directed him to the guest room where he laid Maxi down. The absence of her in his arms left him with a twisted feeling in his gut; a feeling that was new to him. Having her in the line of fire was leaving his nerves more rattled than they had ever been.
Sam left them alone for a bit to settle in. Nat made a b-line for the shower to get all the dirty and debris off of her. Steve took off his shoes and slipped onto the bed next to Max. He grabbed a tissue from the box on the nightstand and dabbed at the blood in her forehead. Some of it came off but the rest would have to be washed off in the shower.
He pushed some hair out of her face and watched as she rolled towards him. Steve froze and waited for her to get settled. With everything that's been going on, and will be going on soon, he knew she needed as much rest as she could get. After a couple seconds, she rested her head on his thigh and had thrown an arm over his legs. Her hand clenched, fisting a handful of his jeans inside. His heart warmed with her closeness.
Natasha emerged from the adjoining bathroom with a towel scrunching through her wet hair. Her eyes landed on Steve and Max, and the corner of her mouth upturned.
"You okay?" Steve asked.
"Yeah."
He could hear the sadness lacing her voice. "What's going on?"
She shook her head and sat on the edge of the bed. The weight of the past few days could be seen in the way her shoulders slumped.
"When I first joined S.H.I.E.L.D., I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the K.G.B. for HYDRA. I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but...I guess I can't tell the difference anymore," she sighed.
"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business," he lightly joked. A faint smile crossed her face.
"I owe you."
"It's okay," he assured her.
"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your life, and you be honest with me, would you trust me to do it?" she questioned, unsure.
"I would now," he replied. "And I'm always honest."
Chuckling, Nat said, "Well, you seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing."
"Well, I guess I just like to know who I'm fighting."
Sam rounded the corner and leaned against the door jam. "I made breakfast. If you guys...eat that sort of thing."
Woo! Let me know what you think.
Thank you so much for reading :)
Until next time -KAITi-
