▌𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 ━︎━︎ 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐖𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐲 𝐀 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞? ▌

━︎━︎━︎━︎𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐎 𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐃 at the mall, entering the Apple store where Natasha was quick to use her hacking abilities in order to break into the hard drive. Steve and Olivia stood there behind Natasha, keeping her screen hidden just in case anyone glanced their way. That's when one of the worker's made their way towards the trio, a kind smile on his face.

"Can I help you guys with anything?"

Olivia smiled and quickly stepped into action, grabbing Natasha's hand and wrapping an arm around the woman's waist. "Oh, no. My fiancé and best friend were just helping me with some honeymoon destinations."

"Right." Steve nodded. "They're getting married."

"Congratulations." The worker smiled. "Where are you guys thinking about going?"

Olivia glanced towards the computer, watching as a location popped up before turning back to the man. "New Jersey."

"Oh." The man hummed, nodding his head. That's when he looked at Steve, opening his mouth as a realization seemed to pop in his head, making Steve immediately tense, only to force his shoulders to relax at his next words. "I have the exact same glasses."

"Wow, you two are practically twins." Natasha sarcastically commented from behind Olivia.

"Yeah, I wish." He motioned towards Steve. "Specimen. If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron."

"Thank you." Olivia sweetly smiled before watching the man walk away, her smile immediately dropping as she and Steve turned back towards the computer. "Who says 'I've been Aaron'? Am I the only one bothered by that?"

Steve looked at his watch. "You said nine minutes. Come on."

"Guess so." Olivia muttered.

"Relax." Natasha breathed before she smirked. "Got it." Steve frowned as he looked at the destination a little closer, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "You know it?"

"I used to. Let's go." Steve answered, taking the drive from the computer as the three quickly left the store, Rumlow's men appearing. "Standard tac team. Two behind, two across, and two coming straight at us. If they make us I'll engage, you and Liv hit the south escalator to the metro."

"Shut up and put your arm around me. Laugh at something I said." Natasha ordered.

"What?"

"Just do it." Olivia hissed. Steve quickly did as told whilst Olivia grabbed her phone, quickly pressing it to her ear as if she were on a phone call, watching from the corner of her eye as the two agents went right past them. They made it to the escalator, Olivia's eyes scanning the place when her eyes landed on Rumlow.

"Steve, play on your phone." Olivia was quick to order before turning around, grabbing onto Natasha and pulling the woman towards her as their lips connected. Natasha understood what she was getting at, whilst Steve just rose his eyebrows in surprise before doing as the wolf asked him to do. She pulled away when Rumlow went past them whilst Olivia smirked. "We should do that more often." She then turned on her heel and started walking down the rest of the way, Natasha standing there for a moment in shock before Steve nudged the woman's arm, making her get back to the task at hand.

They made it outside with Steve quickly stealing a truck, driving them towards the destination. Olivia softly slept in the backseat, whilst Natasha sat in the passengers seat, placing her feet on the dash.

"When did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha started.

"Nazi Germany." Steve answered her. "And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash."

Natasha smirked in amusement. "I have to ask you something." Steve glanced at her, silently telling her to go on. "Is there anyone special out there? Because I would've done the same thing Olivia did, and I have a feeling you haven't kissed anyone since 1945."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience."

"Well, that's alright. You just make something up."

"What, like you?" He asked.

Natasha shrugged. "I don't know. The truth is a matter or circumstance. It's not all things to people all the time. Neither am I."

"That's a tough way to live."

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

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone, when you don't really know who that someone is."

"Yeah." Natasha agreed before looking back at Steve. "Who do you want me to be?"

"How about a friend?" Steve suggested.

Natasha smiled slightly before saying, "Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers."

Steve looked at her before nodding his head and turning back towards the road. "Can I ask you something?" She nodded. "You and Liv. . . there seems to be something going on there that both of you are avoiding."

Natasha glanced towards the sleeping woman in the back, smiling sadly before looking at Steve. "She's been through a lot. It took me so long for her to even consider me a friend, I don't know how long it could take for me to convince her to be something more. Besides, that's not who we are."

"Does she think that?" Steve questioned.

Natasha didn't answer, and instead she glanced back towards the wolf again, wondering what the answer to Steve's question really was. Natasha knew that he was right, that there was something there that she nor Olivia had discussed. But the feeling of Olivia's lips against her, made her heart flutter, and that was a feeling Natasha was not used to.

They pulled up to an abandoned military base and Steve looked at it as memories flew through his head. "This is it," he confirmed.

"The file came from these coordinates," Natasha nodded.

"So did I." Steve sighed before he opened the door and both of them got out. Steve looked at Natasha and nodded towards the back. "Wake her up." He walked toward the gate as Natasha opened up the back door.

     She lightly shook Olivia who just groaned in response. Natasha chuckled as she looked at the sleeping girl. "Come on. We're here." Olivia huffed as she rolled on her back and opened her eyes. She looked at the redhead and smiled tiredly at her. Natasha smiled back at her and Olivia sat up and ran a hand through her hair. She climbed out and Natasha grabbed her hand pulling her out of the car.

Olivia looked at the place they were at as they entered the military base, glancing at Steve as he spoke. "This camp is where I was trained."

"Change much?" Olivia quizzed.

"A little."

"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." Natasha said, looking at her phone. She noticed Steve looking at a building. "What is it?"

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place," he spoke as they headed towards what looked like a storage building. Steve hits the lock with his shield causing it to break. They walk in and Olivia cuts on the lights and they notice it's a SHIELD building.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D." Olivia spoke in awe, walking further into the building with the other two not far behind.

"Maybe where it started," Steve answered. They entered a room that had three portraits on the wall and Olivia only recognized two out of three. Howard Stark, and Peggy Carter. Olivia looked at Steve giving him a sad smile.

"Who's the girl?" Natasha asked. Steve didn't respond, turning away and walking farther into the room. He stops in front of a bookshelf. "If you're already working in a secret office. . ." he then pushes the bookshelf aside, "why do you need to hide the elevator?"

They go down the elevator and it opens to a hidden room. Olivia steps in and the lights cut on. In the room there are a lot of old computers and tapes. "There is absolutely no way this is the data-point, this technology is ancient," Olivia shook her head, examining the place. She then noticed a USB port and she walked over to it. She looked towards Natasha, nodding towards the port to which Natasha walked over to it, inserting the drive.

"Initiate system?" The computer spoke.

"Y-E-S spells yes" Natasha smiles as the computer starts to work . " 'Shall we play a game?'" Natasha smirked, before glancing towards Steve. "It's from this movie―︎"

"I know, I saw it." Steve answered, nodding towards Olivia who smirked in amusement, having been the one to show the man the movie. She jumped when the computer suddenly started talking.

"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Jade, Olivia. Born 1983." The voice had an accent to it. They looked to see the computer showing a persons face.

"It's some kind of recording." Natasha says looking at the computer with a frown.

"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."

"You know this thing?" Olivia asked as she looked at the computer before glancing towards Steve.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist that worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years," Steve answered her, but he too was clearly confused.

"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 two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."

Olivia gagged before saying, "That's comforting."

"How did you get in here?" Steve asked.

"Invited."

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha explains, looking between Steve and Olivia.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." The computer told them.

"HYDRA died along with the Red Skull." Steve started, taking a step forward.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place."

"Prove it." Steve snapped.

"Accessing File." a picture of the Red Skull popped up before he continued, "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, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. 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." Natasha said, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Accidents will happen." The screen the showed the deaths of Maria and Howard Stark, their file saying 'DECEASED' over it, the same thing with Fury. "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."

Steve then punches the screen but Swiss appears on a tinier one. "As I was saying. . ."

"What's on the drive?" Steve urged, taking another step toward the computer.

"Project insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm," Swiss told them.

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Olivia frowned slightly.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." The doors start to close and Steve throws his shield at it but it doesn't make it in time.

"Guys, we have a bogey. Short range ballistics. 30 seconds tops." Natasha quickly stated, looking at her phone then looking at the other two.

"Who launched it?" Olivia asked from behind Natasha as she still looked around in interest.

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

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us. . . out of time." Steve sees a grate and runs over to it, Natasha and Olivia following. He opens it Nat jumping in and then Olivia follows her, just as the place blows. Steve tried to protect them from the fallen debris but a big chunk of it hit Olivia in the head knocking her out cold.