STEVE HAD hot-wired a car and they were now passing the Welcome to New Jersey sign. Lana looked at him intently as her legs were propped on the dashboard.

She had never taken a good look at him before. His baby blue eyes were focused on the road and his golden hair reflected the sun in some places making it look lighter. His hands gripped the steering wheel tightly and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" she asked.

"Nazi Germany," she hummed, "And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash."

She raised her eyebrow at him and took her feet off, "All right I have a question for you, 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."

"What?"

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" Lana smirked as she asked.

"That bad, huh?"

"I didn't say that."

"Well, it kinda sounds like that's what you're saying."

"No, I didn't. I just wondered, how much practice you've had."

"You don't need practice."

"Everybody needs practice."

"It was not my first kiss since 1945," Steve finalised, "I'm 95, I'm not dead." Lana, for some reason, felt jealousy spike in her body before she pushed it down.

"Nobody special, though?" she asked.

Steve chucked, "Believe it or not it's kinda hard to find someone with shared life experience."

"Well that's all right you just make something up."

"What, like you?"

"I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstance. It's not all things to all people, all the time. And neither am I."

"That's a tough way to live," Steve's eyes flickered to her before going back to the road.

"It's a good way not to die, though," Lana responded.

"You know, it's kinda hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is," They looked at each other.

"Yeah," she muttered, "Who do you want me to be?"

"Not sure. A friend?"

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business Rogers," Lana said. Steve sighed and looked forward and kept driving.

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They pulled up to an old army base and Lana stepped out of the car holding a special phone.

"This is it," Steve said.

"The file came from these coordinates," she slipped it into her back pocket.

"So did I," Steve muttered looking at a sign on the fence.

They walked around as it got dark and Lana was holding the phone up.

"This camp is where I was trained."

"Change much?"

"A little." Steve fell into silence as he seemed to reminisce.

"This is a dead-end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves not even radio," Lana spoke, "Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off," she noticed Steve's gaze towards something else, "What is it?"

He started walking and she jogged to catch up, "Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building's in the wrong place."

He used his shield to break the lock and they walked down some stairs. Lana switched on a light and everything lit up, "This is S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Maybe where it started," Steve said as they walked forward.

Steve opened a door and it led them to what looked like an archive room. Steve looked at some pictures on the wall, "There's Stark's father."

"Howard," Steve spoke his eyes on another frame.

"Who's the girl?" Steve didn't answer but instead walked away. She followed him as he came to a stop in front of a shelf.

He looked up, "If you're already working in a secret office," he pulled at the selves and they opened into a passageway, "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"

They walked up to it and Lana held the phone against the keypad. It loaded and numbers, were shown. She typed them into the keypad and the elevator dinged.

The two entered and the elevator started going down. It dinged once more as the doors opened. Before them, was a completely dark room. They walked in and it started to be illuminated. Lana walked onto the platform in the middle and looked confused. It had a bunch of old computers on it, "This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient."

She looked around and frowned when she saw a new looking port on the desk with scuffs in the dust. She took the drive out of her pocket and stuck it in. The room got brighter as more lights turned on allowing them to see the room was bigger than they originally thought.

Things powered up and started whirring. Lana jumped as an electronic voice started speaking Initiate system?

Lana walked forward and started typing, "Y-E-S spells yes." It made a whirring noise as she smirked, "Shall we play a game?" she looked at Steve, "It's from a movie that was really..."

Steve cut her off, "I know, I saw it." The computers started beeping and a distorted voice spoke.

"Rogers, Steven born 1918. Romanoff, Svetlana Tatiana, born 1988."

"It's some kind of recording," Lana muttered.

"I am not a recording, Fraeulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me, prisoner, in 1945. But I am."

They looked at a picture that was on the screen next to it and Steve looked stunned, "You know this thing?" Lana asked.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years," Steve said walking around the back of the computers.

"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 200,00 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain," Zola said.

"How did you get here?" Steve asked standing next to her again.

"Invited."

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value," Lana spoke up remembering what she had read.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own."

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull," Steve declared.

The screen showed an image of the HYDRA symbol, "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."

"Prove it," Steve demanded.

"Accessing archive. HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realise is that if you try to take that freedom, they resist." A video of Steve fighting some men came up, "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."

The two heroes looked horrified at this revelation, "For 70 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," Lana denied.

"Accidents will happen," An article about Howard and Maria Stark's death came up and then a file about Fury came with deceased stamped on the front, "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once a 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."

Steve punched the monitor causing it to shatter it powered down and Zola's electronic face came back on another, "As I was saying."

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

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm."

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Lana interrogated.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." The elevator door started closing and Steve threw his shield to stop it but it was too late and it closed. He caught it as Lana took out her phone as it beeped.

"Steve we got a bogey. Short-range ballistic, 30 seconds tops."

"Who fired it?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D."

"I'm afraid I have been stalling Captain," Lana took the drive, "Admit it. It's better this way," Steve ripped the grate out of the floor and Lana went over to him, "We are both out of time."

The building exploded as Lana jumped into the floor, Steve flowing her covering them with his shield. Rubble fell on the two and Steve groaned from the weight.

Steve pushed against his shield and the rubble let up allowing them to be free. Steve looked over at Lana who had passed out and lifted her up bridal style. He heard the jets coming and started running to avoid their lights.