"And you never thought this information was important to share?" Blake snarled. Steve stiffened at her accusation and set his jaw.

"I didn't get a lot of time to figure things out before Loki decided to try and flatten New York," he shot back.

The second Christine's red alert went out, the lab filled with people. Natasha and Clint were currently standing over a holopad with Christine flipping through the screens in an attempt to locate the Dragon. Apparently there was a transponder attached to her shoes, but it was off the map. There was no sign of her anywhere.

Fury, Blake, and Hill focused their attention on the other mystery at hand.

"There's no reference to you having a wife in any of your files," Hill pointed out. Steve sighed and nodded.

"I don't know if she exists in any of your files. She was a specialized agent for the SSR. We kept her a secret during the war to ensure that she and her contacts were safe. After I…after the plane, I guess they figured it was easier just to keep her hidden."

Hill scrolled through something on her tablet. "Her maiden name? Aliases? Anything the SSR could have put her under?"

"Ada Kennedy. The Spitfire. Le fantôme. Colette Moreau. Olga Ivanovna Sokolova. There could be hundreds." Steve wrapped his fingers tightly around the pocket knife in his hand. Hill tapped the screen rapidly and then looked at Fury and Blake. Without a word, Hill left the room.

"It's like she disappeared in thin air," Christine reported. "We have nothing. All the cameras and lights on the street lost power at two eighteen. Power company and the city don't have an explanation for it. There was just a surge of power out of nowhere."

"She was last seen leaving Hell's Kitchen around eleven. Cameras followed her up until she turned onto her street and then nothing," Clint added. "That was a coordinated move."

"Do you think it was calculated on her end?" Blake asked.

Christine shook her head. "No. No, she was fine when I saw her hours earlier."

"She's a trained killer and spy, Murakami. She is trained to lie to you," Fury reminded her. "I know you two are buddy buddy, but we recruited her for a purpose. Pierce required us to put a contingency plan in place and it might be time to activate it."

"Absolutely not." Steve's own voice surprised him. Everyone turned to look at him and he stood to his full height. "I get that I don't know Dragon. I haven't been around to know what she's like, but I know my wife. I held her as she bled out. I checked and she had no pulse. I want to know why the Dragon looks exactly like her."

"The Dragon could just be some kind of doppelganger, Captain. It happens more than you think. You just came out of the ice after a traumatic experience and-" Christine began.

Steve scoffed and held up the pocket knife. "So why did she have this? Some kind of fluke? Ada wasn't just a spy. There's a reason behind all of this."

"He's not lying." Hill walked in with a large crate on a cart and a stack of folders on top. The files were practically bursting from the sheer amount of papers it was struggling to hold. "Secure storage. We moved these here when the Helicarrier was brought in for repairs. Director Carter herself coordinated these files and refused to let them be entered into an electronic system. They're under the name Colette Moreau."

Blake picked up the files and handed them to Christine who had left the desk and joined them. Steve carefully approached the crate, a sinking feeling in his chest. It was similar to the ones he had found the HYDRA guns in nearly a month ago. The lid came off easily in his hands, as if it had already been opened. He set the lid down next to the crate and inhaled sharply.

Her notebook with what he knew would be filled with nonsense, coded messages. He had asked her to teach her code to him and she simply smiled that knowing, teasing grin.

One of her pistols and another one of her knives. Her own compass. A few sheafs of paper. Her old satchel.

"This shouldn't…she got rid of this," Steve murmured as he picked up the gas mask. "We left it behind."

He flipped it over, realizing that it was the first time he was able to touch it. Ada was always so careful with it. Careful not to let him near it. She had once whispered to him that it was cursed. She wanted it gone. But it always followed her.

"Why would the SSR want to keep her hidden after the war?" Blake asked.

"Because she was the first Super Soldier. Her serum was less potent than Schmidt or me, but she had it."

"And you saw her die?"

Steve's silence was a good enough answer for them. Blake flipped Ada's file around to face them. "So why does her file say MIA?"

/

"I don't know what you want from me. I don't know who you work for. But I do know that I'm gonna rip your throat out with my teeth," the Dragon growled. She tilted her head up to avoid the hand that brushed against her chin. The person chuckled and stepped behind her, their hands coming down to rest against the sides of her face near her temples.

"Tsk tsk. You do love a good threat, huh?" the woman cooed.

"Whatever you want from me…whatever information…you're not getting it." Her muscles ached from lying in this position for so long. The thick metal chains around her arms and ankles provided no room to shift and that was clearly intentional. She bared her teeth in a daring smile. "Do your worst."

"Oh…dear Dragon, I don't want any information. There's nothing you can say that I already don't know. In fact, I probably know more than you."

"What is this, the fucking quiz bowl?" She stretched out her fingers and tried to ignite, but her mutation had tucked tail and fled. No matter how hard she tried, fire wouldn't appear.

"Cute. Tell me, Dragon, would you like to know who you really are?"

She screwed her eyes shut and steadied her breathing. There was no way. This was a lie, a ruse. Christine was probably tracking her location now.

"I'd rather get my innards clawed out by a sloth. Thanks."

Wrong answer.

Lightning erupted from the hands next to her head. The Dragon's vision whited out as her body seized up with pure fucking unadulturated pain. Someone was screaming and it took her a little too long to realize that it was her.

It stopped and she fell back against the table. She couldn't feel her toes. Hell, she couldn't feel her heart, it was beating so fast.

"Let's try that again," the voice hummed.

"Go….fuck…yourself," she panted.

The room illuminated with light once more as her screams pierced the air.