CONTROL.
005. | ❛she deserves to be happy.❜

Caroline looked out the window and read the blue sign that they just passed,

Welcome to

NEW JERSEY

The Garden State

Steve was focused on the road, his eyebrows furrowed. He quickly looked over to Caroline who was admiring all the things they were passing by.

"Keep your eyes on the road, loverboy," Natasha spoke from the back. Steve stared at Caroline one last time before turning his head back over to the road. Caroline rested her head against the door as she slowly closed her eyes.

Natasha put her feet on the car's seat, "Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" she asked quietly knowing that even the slightest noise would wake up Caroline.

"Nazi, Germany" Steve answered glancing at Natasha through the rear view window, he took a quick peek at Caroline, who was peacefully napping.

"And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the seat." Steve told her. Natasha smirked as she slowly took her feet down from the seat.

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, "Steve, I'm saying this as Caroline's friend, if you hurt her I'll personally make your life a nightmare."

"I would never hurt her.... After everything we've been through, she's the only thing that makes me happy." He breaks out into a smile.

"She's suffered through so much after the whole ice thing, and Caroline deserves to be happy. She deserves to be loved and contrary to popular belief, there are multiple ones, especially for a vampire. I don't know about you but all Caroline sees is a future with you. She's been doomed an eternity to live on this world and I want her to spend that eternity with you."

Steve's stomach fluttered at Natasha's comment, he loved her. After all they've been through, she was definitely the best thing that's happened to him.

Steve pulled up to an abandoned military base  where the signal led them. He turned off the engine and placed a kiss on Caroline's forehead.

Caroline awoke in a daze with a smile,"Are we here?"

Steve nodded in response, Caroline lifted her head from the window and jumped out closing the door behind her, Steve doing the same thing.

"This is it?" he asked, connecting his hands with Caroline

They walked up to the gate, "The file came from these coordinates," Natasha replied

"So did I," Steve said looking around and Caroline marveling at the place that she could place so many good memories to.

___________________

Later that night, the trio explored the place,"This camp is where I was trained," Steve looked at Caroline who was marveling over this. Everything brought back memories for the two, Steve's transformation and overall how Caroline fell for Steve.

"Changed much?" Natasha asked, looking around, pointing her flashlight in different directions.

"A little," Steve stopped walking . causing Caroline to do so. She gazed to what he was looking at: a flagpole. The famous flagpole. Then she watched him as he looked down and into the distance, like he was watching something or someone.

"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 putting the device away into her back pocket. Steve and Caroline looked over, but Steve spotted a building ahead of them.

"What is it?" Natasha asked him. He and Caroline started walking over to the building, Natasha following them.

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards from the barracks. This building is in the wrong place," Steve explained to them.

Caroline stepped over to Natasha as Steve hit the lock with his shield and they entered the building. They walked down the stairs before turning on the lights, revealing a SHIELD office, "This is SHIELD," Natasha states

"Where it started," Caroline told them remembering exactly what it entailed.

They walked into a room, the first thing they noticed were three portraits of Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, and Colonel Phillps, and Caroline. Steve stared at Caroline's picture while she loomed over his shoulder. The pair soon looked over to Peggy's in her glory,

"There's Stark's father."

"Howard," Steve said

"Who's the girl?" Natasha asked the two

"Peggy" Caroline answered for them. Both of them turned towards the bookshelves that were further down the room, stopping at the space between one of them, "If you're already working in a secret office..." he pushed open the bookshelf by the crack, to reveal an elevator, "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"

Natasha scanned the keypad with her phone, the blue light showing the fingerprints on the numbers 8, 5, 3, and 9. She punched in those numbers, the light at the top turning green as the elevator dinged open.

They all walked in, and the elevator went down to yet another dark room with dingy old computers. Natasha looked out in confusion. They all walked forward, with the elevator closing behind them. Once they took a few more steps in the lights turned on.

"This can't be the data point.. this technology is ancient," Natasha noticed a small flash drive in it, the computer activating as more lights turned on.

The computer speaks, the green words showing up on the screen, "INITIATE SYSTEM?"

Natasha walked up to the computer, speaking as she typed in the word, "YES", clicking enter at the end. She smiles as the computer starts to turn on,"Shall we play a game?" she asks in a funny voice, causing Caroline to laugh at the movie line.

"It's from a movie that-"

"Yeah, I saw it," Steve nods

The old cameras above the computer analyzes them as a static green face appears on the screen.

"Roger, Steven. Born 1918."  

"Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984"

"Kingsley, Caroline. Born, 1920"

Natasha furrows her eyebrows,"It's some kind of recording."

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

"You know this thing?" Caroline asked taking a step backwards.

Steve nodded,"Arnim Zola was a german scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." he explained to the two ladies.

"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."

"How did you get here?" Steve asked.

"Invited."

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic values." Natasha says

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

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull."

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

"Prove it," Caroline tells the computer

"Accessing archive."

On one of the screens, old footage of Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull, and Captain America plays.

"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, SHIELD would have stopped you," Natasha hissed.

"Accidents will happen."

The computer shows that HYDRA killed Howard and Maria, making it look like it was a car accident. It also shows the recent death of Nick Fury. But the next clip surprised her as the woman that Steve saw appeared, cutting to the woman assassinating people in cold blood. Newspapers reported on the mysterious woman, and it suddenly started to flow back into Caroline's mind. She remembered the woman looking from a nearby building back when she lived by herself before going to live with Tony. Almost as if she was watching Caroline, guarding her for protection.

"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."

Steve clenches his jaw as he is the one that's getting angrier.

"We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life; a zero sum."

Steve, who's had enough, punches the screen, th glass cracking. Dr.Zola's static face reappears onto a different screen.

"As I was saying..."

"What's on this drive?" Steve orders

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

"What kind of algorithm?" Caroline asks, " What does it do?"

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

Suddenly, the doors behind them start to close, and Steve tries throwing his shield to stop it, but it bounces off, flying back towards him.

Natasha pulls out her drive,"I got a bogey. Short- range ballistic. Thirty seconds, tops."

"Who fired it?" Steve asks

"SHIELD." Natasha replies, putting her phone away.

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain."

Natasha yanks the flash drive out of the port, running to the opening in the floor that Caroline ripped open.

"Admit it. It's better this way, We're both of us.... out of time."

Caroline jumps in with Natasha, Steve following right after. The place explodes, and rubbles start to fall on them. Steve covers them with his shield. After a few seconds the rumble stops falling, and Steve pushes off the piece of concrete with his shield.

Caroline tries to help a knocked out Natasha up and Steve tells her to follow as they got the hell out of there. Caroline climbs out spotting the quinjets in the sky. Steve follows behind, as Caroline holding Natasha, quickly run to the car.

She puts Natasha in the back, and Caroline and Steve get in the front, driving away as quickly as possible.