A/N: Hey guys! Here's the next chapter! I hope you like it. Please leave me a review!

An hour later the car pulled out of the base. Archie drove, and Fitz sat in the passenger seat next to him, three more men behind them. It was a small squad, but with only one target in their recovery mission, Dr. Nast thought five men were all that was needed. Especially with Fitz being one of those men.

The site Erin Brown was being kept in was a little less than an hour away from the HYDRA base. It was one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s smallest holding facilities, with ten members considered too unstable to be left unguarded but not problematic enough to be put in regular prisons. They hadn't committed serious crimes; not before they had been captured, at least.

Since S.H.I.E.L.D. had collapsed, smaller sites like this had been given limited attention. Director Coulson had spread his forces as effectively as he could given his lack of manpower, so this base was supposed to have only one or two guards in addition to the care specialists.

When they pulled up to the site Fitz turned to look at the men seated behind him. "Our mission is to retrieve Dr. Erin Hunter. Avoid casualties, but do not let yourself be caught."

Archie turned to look at them as well. "Make it quick, and follow Fitz's lead."

The men nodded their understanding, and Fitz got out of the car, adjusting the weapons on his back. The men lined up behind him, and on his signal approached the underground site at a jog. A woman appeared from the doorway of the facility, holding a gun and aiming it towards them.

"Stop!" she yelled.

"Go!" Fitz said.

They closed the distance between themselves and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent quickly, before she could shoot. When they got closer and she saw Fitz, her eyes widened and her grip on the gun faltered.

Fitz didn't hesitate, taking his shield off of his back and knocking it against her. The agent fell to the ground with a groan, her eyes fluttering.

"Make sure she doesn't follow us." Fitz said to one of his men. Then he walked into the facility.

It was dark in the holding facility. It had been built underground to avoid detection; Dr. Nast had told Fitz there used to be extremely high-priority people kept there, but not anymore.

Immediately after entering and going down the stairs was a sparsely lit corridor. The second guard was stationed in the middle of it, and by the time Fitz got down the stairs he was face to face with him. The guard raised his weapon and thrust it down, but Fitz blocked it with his shield and grabbed the blunt object. Another bash from his shield took care of that guard, and Fitz walked confidently down the corridor.

The rooms they passed were only just able to be called rooms instead of cells. They had the same beds as prisons, and thick metal doors that only opened with a key. There was a small shelf in every room, some of which had books on them. And almost every room had a tv.

They found her room in the middle of the second corridor, the one that veered off to the right. Fitz waited while the man he had sent to retrieve a key got it out and unlocked the door, and then he stepped inside. "Dr. Brown?" he asked.

A woman with long, extremely frizzy brown hair looked up, seated on the bed. Her gaze seemed unfocused. "Meal time?" she asked.

"We're here to take you away. To see Dr. Nast."

"Nast?" Understanding flooded her gaze as she looked at Fitz. "I see."

"We need to leave." Fitz said.

"It's about time." She said. "These people wouldn't let me do any of my experiments."

Fitz walked out first, her following, with his men on both sides of her and behind. They were rounding the corner to the original corridor when they saw the young man in a lab coat. Fitz felt the men behind him tense, but Fitz just walked forward, casting the man a look as he got closer. "Don't try it." He said darkly.

Fitz and his men walked past, and when Fitz looked back the man was gone. He stored his shield over his back again. He'd barely needed to use it.

They got into the car and Archie started driving. "That was quick." Archie said.

"I could've done it alone." Fitz said. "I don't know why Doc made me wait so long for such an easy mission."

"He'll be glad to hear how well you did." Archie said.

"We got Dr. Brown."

"Hey, try to smile. Maybe it was easy, but it was your first job. You did good, kid."

A smile tugged at Fitz's lips.

"There you go."

"So obviously you don't work with S.H.I.E.L.D." Dr. Brown said as they walked back into the base. "Are you HYDRA?"

"Yes, Erin."

She looked towards the voice and smiled. "Nast."

"I thought you'd been locked up too long, old friend." He said, walking over and embracing her. "It's good to see you."

"You've changed." She said.

"You haven't." he said with a smile. "Come, we should talk." He put an arm around her shoulders and started steering her towards the meeting room. "Well done, Fitz." He called over his shoulder. "We'll talk later."

About a week after Fitz had been taken, Coulson called a team meeting. He said he'd found something important, and to come to the op center immediately.

Jemma had been sitting in the lab, looking at that scrap of metal for the hundredth time when she got the message. She wasn't even seriously studying it. Her thoughts were roaming. Skye had been across the room, looking at a computer with unseeing eyes. She had been lost in thought too.

When they heard Coulson call the meeting, life seemed to flow back into them. Their eyes met and both stood. "Do you think…?" Skye asked.

"There's one way to find out." Jemma said.

They raced to the op center as quickly as they could. They were the first ones there.

"Have you found Fitz?" Jemma asked immediately.

"No." Coulson said.

Jemma looked at Skye and saw the disappointment she felt reflected in the other girl's eyes.

"Don't lose hope." Coulson said to them. "I haven't."

Then he was quiet, until everyone else was gathered around them. "I still have no idea where Fitz is, or why he was taken." He announced. "HYDRA has been quiet about that."

"Wouldn't they want to gloat about capturing someone from your team?" Bobbi asked.

"You'd think, but maybe they've gotten smarter." May said.

"Maybe it's not HYDRA at all." Hunter said.

"No, it has to be HYDRA." Skye said. "I saw the uniform of the guy who tried to take me."

"It's HYDRA." Coulson said decisively. "We don't have any news directly relating to Fitz." He continued.

Jemma looked at him carefully. "Directly?"

"There's been some activity in some of our smaller holding facilities. Three, to be exact. In each facility one person was taken."

"What kind of people are kept there?" Trip asked.

"Dangerous people." Coulson said. "It's not a prison exactly, but the occupants' ideas or actions made S.H.I.E.L.D. set them apart from society, to protect other people. Most of the occupants are intelligent but radical."

"So S.H.I.E.L.D. locked up some crazies, and now they're being taken out." Skye said. "You said something really important was happening."

"The released occupants shouldn't pose too much of a threat. The reason their break-outs are important is the people responsible for them." Coulson clicked a remote and an image appeared in front of him. "The third facility they hit was the biggest, so it had security footage on the outside."

Stunned silence fell as everyone studied the picture.

"Is that…"

"It can't be."

"Coulson, what is that?" Skye asked.

Coulson spoke grimly, his gaze locked on the picture of a strong man dressed all in black, the HYDRA logo emblazoned on his chest and a shield over his back. "It seems like HYDRA's made a super soldier."

Fitz made another break-out trip that day, and one more in the early hours of the following day. Dr. Nast now had an effective team of scientists behind him, working on projects Fitz didn't need to know about.

Now that his colleagues had been freed, Dr. Nast said Fitz could have bigger jobs, retrieving multiple people and pieces of technology.

They needed to start expanding their HYDRA (the real one), and that meant more agents. So Fitz's next mission was a large breakout of one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most guarded prisons. Doc figured that these people would be easy to convert to HYDRA. Some of them had even been HYDRA, and since Whitehall hadn't even tried to break them out, their loyalties could transfer to Dr. Nast without much difficulty.

This was the mission where Fitz would make a name for himself. Dr. Nast told him he would be spotted. He would be caught on camera, and the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. would hear of what he had done.

Fitz would stand tall in front of those cameras, HYDRA skull burning on his chest and shield. He would send the message to S.H.I.E.L.D. and Whitehall that their time was running out.

The new HYDRA was growing.