NADiA'S POiNT OF ViEW

I sit up when the truck comes to a stop, "We're a long ways from Kanas..." I mumble with a smile and Nat shakes her head, not looking up from the tracking device. I open the truck door and jump down from it, Steve walks up to the gate and shakes it, "I got it," I lift my hand and twist my fingers into a fist.

The lock falls into dust. "You learn that up there too?" Steve asks with a smile and I nod.

"I've got some tricks up my sleeve Rogers..." He pushes the gates open and Nat bumps my shoulder as she walks past me.

"So sleep puts you in a good mood? I'm gonna make note of that." I shake my head with a smile.

"This place is giving me the heebie-jeebies guys..." My voice is low as I whisper at them.

LATER

"This camp is where I was trained," Steve says and Natasha nods, I run my hand along the wall of the brown building.

"Changed much?" Nat asks and I push an illusion of myself onto the roof, my actual body staying down on the ground.

"A bit." I watch as Steve seems to see something I cannot and I want to see it.

"Just imagine that you're pushing yourself out of your body, feel the connection snap from soul to body. Feel the skull blocking you from entering her mind, break those walls down, imagine them crumbling," Frigga's voice reminds me in my brain as I do just that.

I gasp a little when I see a much smaller Steve running past us with a group of soldiers. "Pick up the pace, ladies! Let's go! Let's go! Come on Rogers, move it!" A man with a helmet yells and small Steve stares at now Steve, "Come on! Fall in! Rogers! I said fall in!" It feels so real, the sun beating down as the smaller Steve runs back with the other guys.

Nat's voice pushes my mind into my own and causes the illusion of me to be thrown back into my body as well. I fall into the wall and they take no notice. "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." She's staring at the tracking device angrily as I push off the wall.

"Didn't see that hobbit hole in your vision Cap," He sends a weird look my way. Probably shouldn't have said that... great Nadia, you have just let two more people know you can now read minds! Good job, idiot!

"What is it?" Natasha asks as I follow them toward the building. "It- it's in the wrong place." He mumbles more to himself.

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." With no warning, he slams his shield down on the lock and it falls to the ground. He pushes the door open and Nat turns on the lights. It's an office with the S.H.I.E.L.D logo on the wall.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D," Nat states.

"Maybe where it started?" I question as Steve walks into a room and I wander inside it, I look at the books on the shelf. They're dusty and smell like cigars.

"Who's the girl?" Nat asks and I look over at the photos. A woman with a smile on her painted lips is staring at the duo, along with the man from Steve's memory, and Howard Stark.

Tony's dad. Steve ignores Natasha's question and stops in front of the bookshelf as I'm pushing a book back in, I hear something click and jump back but nothing happens. "If you're already working in a secret office-" He pushes the bookshelf further and it slides open, revealing an elevator. "Why do you need to hide the elevator?" I'm a bit apprehensive about getting in the elevator as Steve and Nat just hop on in like it's a normal elevator.

And not some ancient one that could stop in the middle of the ground and we die of asphyxiation.

When the elevator opens a large room is filled with what looks to be data banks, there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of them. "This can't be it, this technology is ancient..." Natasha walks onto the platform as I look around the room. I want to know where we can escape if needed.

Natasha begins messing with the computer as I send an illusion of myself to the other side of the room, I press my hand on the wall. "Some type of metal..." I mumble and walk the length of the wall until I hear my name, I release the illusion and shake my arms when I'm back in my own body.

"Oakley, Nadezhda Felis. Date of birth, unknown. Not entirely human, alien even. Adopted at birth because her mother die-" My fist smashes the screen before it can finish.

"My name is Nadia!" I've known about the longer version of my name for a while now, my middle name is something I hadn't known. Something Charles never told me.

"It's got to be some kind of recording," Natasha mumbles as the face appears on another of the numerous monitors. I scowl at the face as the camera moves.

"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." On the screen shows a picture of a man with round glasses.

"You know this thing?" I ask bitterly, my fists balled with leftover anger. I hated anyone mentioning my mother or my unknown dad. It wasn't their business.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for ages." Steve answers and Nat nods as the same heavily accented voice emits from the computer.

"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. You are standing in my brain." I cringe at the thought.

Like if he were an actual human, that would be disgusting... "How did you even get here?" Steve's voice is confused, Natasha's arms are flat at her sides.

"I was invited." I raise an eyebrow,

"Operation Paperclip, after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D recruited German scientists with value." Nat explains but it doesn't dispell my confusion.

Why would they hire the enemy? "They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." How?

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve's voice is hard and cold, like ice, ironically enough.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." The man in the computer sounds cynical.

"Prove it." I spit out and Steve sends me a look, I shrug.

"Accessing archive." On the screen flashes a video.

There is a man with the same people in the photos upstairs. "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." The voice explains as images flash on the screen, nearly too fast to take in.

"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." He sounds satisfied with himself.

Almost as if he had it all. "S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you," Natasha states with a determined look.

"Accidents will happen." On the screen are Howard and Maria Stark, being massacred. Its made to look like a car accident and next up shows Nick dying. A man with a metal arm is killing them, once he's done he rides off on a motorcycle. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic 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." The face on the screen seems to be smiling as I stare at the image of dead Nick in awe.

"We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero-sum." Steve smashes another one of the screens.

"What's on the drive Zola?!" Steve yells and the computer ignores his anger.

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm." He states simply as the image of Nick fades away.

"What does it do?" I ask with irritation boiling in my voice.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." I hear the sound of the elevator doors begin to shut and try to grab them with the purple mist but it refuses to work.

"Don't try too hard, if you push. It'll push back, just let it flow." Wanda's voice reminds me.

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

Nat's voice is nervous, "Who fired it?" I see her gulp as I try to get the purple to work with me.

"S.H.I.E.L.D," My eyes widen as I see the purple begin to emit from my hands.

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. Where both of us... are out of time." The voice mumbles.

As Steve throws aside the metal grate I push Nat with the mist down inside and Steve grabs me. When the explosion sounds my vision goes black.