Since Nat joined us again I've been hella grateful. She has helped the awkward tension between Steve and I.

"So what happened while I was gone? I only ran into a couple of agents." Nat smiles obliviously.

"Um We..." I watch as Steve begins to casually steal a vehicle not too far away.

"You're blushing a shit ton Isabelle." Nat chuckles.

I give in, "Ok so I kissed him but I swear it was an impulse! Rumlow showed up so it was the only way to hide!"

"Damn you really did that huh?" Nat hysterically laughs after a shocked mouth gap. "That was your first kiss too!"

"Shut up! Shut up!" I say through gritted teeth as Steve pulls up. All she does is laugh as she enters the car. I go in the back to avoid the awkwardness.

"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Nat says after we drive out a little.

"Nazi Germany." Steve confirms, "And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash." Natasha immediately takes her feet off the dashboard.

"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, you're kind of answering it, you know?" Nat rambles.

Steve sighs willingly, "What?"

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" I choke at Nats words.

"Nat you bitch!" I cannot anymore with Nats balls. She hasn't rested with the two of us since New York. "It was nothing."

"That bad, huh?" Steve has a sad smile on his face.

"I didn't say that." I defend.

Steve grins, "Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying."

"No, I didn't." I huff.

"I just wondered how much practice you've had." Nat returns to the conversation, which seems way too casual now.

"You don't need practice." He's getting embarrassed which makes me laugh to myself. I could sigh with relief.

"Everybody needs practice." I participate.

"It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm ninety-five, I'm not dead." Steve jokes. I cringe.

"Nobody special, though?" Nat smirks as she looks back at me.

-

After a few conversations we arrive at the location. It's a military base but seems abandoned. A gloom falls as we look around, it seems far from alive now.

Steve finally speaks after a long silence, "This is it."

"The file came from these coordinates." I confirm.

"So did I." He has a rasp within his words that makes me ache. I lay a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. Through the years I've known him we've talked about his losses and his troubles. I know this is going to be hard on him. I wish I knew that this was where he trained. I could've prepared better. But we must move onward. I push back my sorrows as we try to pinpoint the area the signal identified with.

"This camp is where I was trained." Steve breaks the quiet ghost town atmosphere.

Nat questions with a raised eyebrow, "Changed much?"

"A little." He replies. He seems in a world of nostalgia, probably remembering a time he doesn't find too distant. But it truly is, which makes me frown.

"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." I tell irritatedly. We should leave. If this is useless then what's the point of it hurting Steve like this? I notice him pace, "What is it?"

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." Steve guides us forward interrupting my case. He seems to be onto something. Steve then smashes the lock with his shield and they enter inside. Lights blaze once we enter and S.H.I.E.L.D vibes hit our eyes.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D." Nat confirms for me.

"Maybe where it started." Steve thinks out loud. We enter a room where they find old framed portraits of Howard Stark, Peggy and others along the walls.

"There's Stark's father." Nat tells as we stare at the picture. As I look I see glimpses of Tony within the features. I am tempted to grab my phone and dial his number on the spot.

"Howard." Steve replies to Nat, as if he's claiming they were close. Which I know they were.

"Who's the girl?" Nat foolishly asks. Steve doesn't reply and turns away.

"Peggy." I whisper to Nat. Steve walks farther into the room. He stops in front of a bookshelf.

"If you're already working in a secret office..." He uses his unbelievable strength to push the bookshelf out of the way. An elevator is now seen from where the shelf was just standing, "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"

"Do we use it?" I question nervously. I am not so sure about this. But we enter it anyway. When the doors open there's old computers lined in the room. I get chills.

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient." Nat defends but curiously places the flash drive within one of the giant computers.

"Initiate system?" The computer requests.

"Y-E-S, spells yes." Natasha smiles as the old computer starts to wake after she types, "Shall we play a game?"

"It's from a movie that..." I try to explain but Steve interrupts.

"Yeah, I saw it." He says on edge. I become silent as we suddenly hear an accented voice speaking around us.

"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984." The computers camera stares at us as if it's scanning our faces, "Short, Isabelle. Born, 1997."

"It's some kind of a recording." Nat tells us this. I shiver at the computers words.

"I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am." The computer screen shows an old photo of a doctor, a scientist of some sort from Steve's time.

"Do you know this thing?" Nat is surprised.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve defends.

Dr. Arnim Zola huffs, "First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive." I look around the room at the computers in shock.

"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's cockiness is annoying now.

"How did you get here?" Steve is serious now, maybe feeling threatened.

"Invited." Replies the doctor cockily.

Nat explains, "It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D recruited German scientists with strategic value."

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." The scientist responds evilly.

"Hydra died with the Red Skull." Steve barked.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola says as if it is just that easy.

"Prove it." Steve growls. I feel his anger even through his strong stance.

Dr. Arnim Zola speaks again, "Accessing archive." The computer screen shows them old footage of Red Skull.

Zola continues, "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." Images and footage flicker information at a scary amount.

"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, S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you." I remark, though I am not as faithful in S.H.I.E.L.D, I know they are a strong group of people.

"Accidents will happen." Zola puts simply. We see Tony's family murdered, I gasp and look away. But Zola continues, "And accidents will never stop happening, you know all about this don't you Isabelle?"

I return my focus onto a screen that reminds me of my conspiracies about hydra, a dark room with flickers of light show my parents. They're fighting on a mission, when suddenly a figure turns up at the end of it. My parents are celebrating until the person approaches them. It kills them both horrifically, "No..."

"Oh have we waited for you, Isabelle Short. The pained face brings back memories." Zola comments.

"What are you talking about?" I question still shaking.

"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, Hydras new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum." Zola laughs.

"But what does that have to do with me? Answer my question." I press pathetically.

"Oh don't panic, Cold Shoulder. We just know you too well." In anger Steve suddenly smashes the computer screen, "As I was saying..." Zola tries to continue.

"What's on this drive?" Steve asks.

Zola responds, "Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm."

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" I question angrily.

"The answer to your questions are fascinating, indeed. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." The doors starts to close. Steve tries stops it by throwing his shield in between. But it's too late.

"We got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." Nat tells us.

"Who fired it?" I ask in the middle of the chaos.

"S.H.I.E.L.D." Nat says flatly but I know how surprised she actually is.

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time." Zola tells straightly. Steve notices a small opening. He throws the metal door aside. Just as the location we are at explodes he throws us all into the hole. Steve protects us with his shield. I squint my eyes until we manage to get out from under the rubble of the building we stood.