JASPER SITWELL STORMED into the room and got the attention of the agents. On the big screen, Captain America's and Freedom Fighter's pictures and profiles were displayed.

"Eyes here." He shouted. "Whatever your op is, bury it. This is Level One. Contact DOT. All traffic lights in the district go red. Shut all runways at BWI, IAD and Reagan. All security cameras in the city go through this monitor right here. Scan all open sources, phones, computers, PDAs. Whatever. If someone tweets about these guys, I want to know about it."

Sharon Carter, aka Agent 13, wanted to understand the situation better.

"With all due respect, if S.H.I.E.L.D. is conducting a manhunt for the Sons of Liberty we deserve to know why." She stated, mentioning the name the duo were often referred by.

"Because they lied to us." A voice echoed in the room. Secretary Alexander Pierce walked in and received their attention.

He continued. "Captain Rogers and Agent L/N have information regarding the death of Director Fury. They refused to share it. As difficult as this is to accept, they are fugitives from S.H.I.E.L.D."

The agents were in disbelief, and Pierce let them carry on with their work. He left the room and a colleague walked up to him moments later.

"Mr. Secretary."

"Please tell me you located them." He spoke sternly.

"No, sir. It's bad news." He replied. "Rogers's suit was recovered from a school gym. Same goes for L/N's, discarded in an alley."

Pierce shook his head. Their suits were the only way they could've tracked them. The hunt for the two soldiers was going to be more difficult than he thought.

"Keep searching. Captain Rogers is a kill or detain order. As for L/N...try to keep him alive."

The agent nodded. "Yes, sir."

• • •

THE YOUNG SOLDIER leaned against the wall of the hospital hallway, wearing sunglasses and a Washington Wizards hat to go with a gray sweater and black pants. He also had his batons hidden under his top in his waistband.

Another man wearing a navy hoodie walked up and stood beside him, looking ahead and not giving eye contact.

"Captain." Y/N muttered in greeting.

"Lieutenant."

"I see we find ourselves in a predicament."

"I'd say. They attacked you?"

"Yup. During questioning. You?"

"In the elevator."

Y/N nodded as he buried his hands into his sweater pockets.

"They wanted to know what Fury told me before he died."

"Pierce asked me that too. Did he say anything?"

He replied with a nod. "And he gave me something. I'll show you."

Steve followed Y/N through a door and down another hallway. The young man stopped in front of the vending machine he hid the drive in, but couldn't see it anymore.

"What?" He muttered in confusion.

Through the reflection of the glass, he saw Natasha appear behind him, chewing gum and blowing a bubble. Her sudden arrival also startled Rogers.

Y/N turned to face her, but the female agent didn't say a word and just stared at him. He suddenly pushed her into a room and had her against the wall. Steve followed and closed the door behind him.

"Where is it?" Y/N asked her.

"Safe." She replied.

"Try again."

"Where did you get it?"

So much had been going on the last 24 hours and Y/N was starting to get easily annoyed. The fact that S.H.I.E.L.D seemed to have backstabbed him also didn't help.

She smirked. "What's with you and grabbing me all of the time?"

Y/N pushed her more into the wall. "I don't have time for this."

"Fury gave it to you. Why?" She asked.

"What's on it?"

"I don't know."

Y/N tightened the grip on her shoulders.

"Stop lying to me."

"I only act like I know everything, Lieutenant."

Y/N shook his head and sighed.

Steve decided to give his two cents. "I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?"

She glanced at Rogers. "Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in..." She moved her eyes to the young agent "...so do you."

"I don't feel like asking again." Y/N shot back and gripped tighter.

"I know who killed Fury." Natasha said after a pause. The two soldiers listened as she began to explain.

"Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones that do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last 50 years."

"So he's a ghost story." Steve cut in.

"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran. Somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out. But the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer so he shot him straight through me."

She lifted her shirt to reveal a scar near her waistline.

"Soviet slug. No rifling. Bye-bye, bikinis."

"Yeah, no wonder we never go to the beach." Y/N joked.

She rolled her eyes. "Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried. Like you said, he's a ghost story."

Y/N thought for a moment. He was a ghost story, but Y/N somehow remembered the Winter Soldier and the Winter Soldier remembered him. He wanted to find out why, and then take him down for killing Fury.

He let go of Natasha.

"Well, let's find out what the ghost wants."

• • •

NATASHA WALKED ALONGSIDE Y/N through the mall. She knew where to use the USB drive in order to extract the information.

A/N: It's time to use your IMAGINATION! Pretend Steve is Y/N in these gifs.

Steve Rogers stayed in the car in the parking lot and laid low. The two agents expected the Captain to join them, but his reasoning was that people would notice Captain America unlike Black Widow or Freedom Fighter.

Y/N took it as a slight jab, but he wasn't wrong. Besides, the two have done undercover ops like these before. Well...Y/N was never a fugitive though.

"First rule of going on the run is don't run, walk." She coached

"I can't believe I'm still wearing sunglasses indoors." Y/N replied.

They made it to an Apple store and went to one of the computers. Y/N gazed at all of the technology in awe.

"Close your mouth, grandpa." She said as she inserted the drive into the laptop. "The drive has a Level Six homing program, so as soon as we boot up S.H.I.E.L.D will know exactly where we are."

"How much time will we have?" He asked.

"About nine minutes from...now."

A window popped up and displayed encrypted data from the Lumerian Star.

"Fury was right about that ship. Somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of Al. It keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands." She explained as she typed.

Y/N leaned over to check. "Can you override it?"

"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly."

"Beauty and brains." Y/N remarked. "Who knew?"

"You think I'm pretty?" She asked with eyes still glued to the screen.

"I'll say yes if you say I am."

"Yes, you are pretty...annoying."

He chuckled as she continued her work.

"I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that S.H.I.E.L.D developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from."

Suddenly, one of the employees walked up and greeted them with a beaming smile. "Can I help you guys with anything?"

Y/N was startled upon his arrival, but Natasha quickly hugged him from behind.

"Oh, no. My fiancé was just helping me with some honeymoon destinations." She said with a smile. Y/N decided to go along with the act.

"Yup. We're getting married."

"Congratulations. Where are you guys thinking about going?" The employee asked.

"Uh..." Y/N glanced at the laptop beside them, which showed the location of where the files came from. "New Jersey."

"Oh, okay." He replied, but paused for a moment as he studied Y/N's face. He hoped that his cover wasn't blown, he could've sworn his sunglasses and Wizards hat were good enough.

"I have the exact same sunglasses." The employee finally blurted out. "And I rep the red and blue too."

A chuckle was all Y/N could respond with.

"Wow, you two are practically twins." Natasha droned out as she continued typing on the laptop.

"Beal or Wall?" The man asked Y/N. Thankfully, he knew enough about modern day sports to understand.

"Wall, of course. Team can't function without their captain."

"Wise words." The employee replied. "If you guys need anything, I've been Aaron."

A/N: W in the chat for NoobMaster69.

"Thank you." Y/N bid farewell, then turned back towards Natasha.

"Took you as more of a baseball kind of guy." She remarked.

He ignored her remark. "You said nine minutes. Come on."

"Relax." She said, then finally finished. "Got it."

The screen displayed a location in Wheaton, New Jersey. Y/N recognized it.

"You know it?" She asked after noticing his expression.

"I think Rogers told me about it. Let's go." He answered before taking the USB back.

The two walked out of the store and made their way towards the escalator. Y/N noticed Rumlow's men within the crowd.

"Standard tac team. Two behind, two across, and two coming straight at us." He surveyed. "If they make us, I'll engage, you hit the south escalator to the metro."

The female agent had a better and less complicated idea.

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

"What?"

"Do it."

Y/N did as told and put an arm around Natasha. They lowered their heads and laughed as they passed by two agents. Y/N quickly looked back.

"Wow. That worked." He said.

"Leave the ideas to me from now on." She replied.

They made it to the escalator and began their descent. Natasha looked ahead and noticed Rumlow on the escalator beside them going up. She needed to act fast before he made them.

"Kiss me." She faced Y/N and abruptly said.

He raised a brow. "What?"

"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable."

"They...do?"

He didn't get an answer as Natasha quickly grabbed the side of his head and pulled him in for a kiss. Their lips locked for several seconds as Rumlow turned away from who he thought were strangers displaying affection.

As they neared the end of their descent, Natasha pulled away, leaving Y/N catching his breath and adjusting his collar.

"You still uncomfortable?" She asked as she walked ahead.

He cleared his throat and followed. "Quite the opposite, in fact."

• • •

THE CAR SPED down the road towards their destination. Steve was the driver as Natasha sat in the passenger's seat and Y/N sat in the back. There was an unusual amount of silence, which Rogers noticed.

"You two are awfully quiet." He began. "More so Y/N."

He had a point. The young man was often the talkative one.

"What happened back there?" He asked again.

"Nothing." Y/N said with a shrug and looked out the window.

Natasha chuckled. "No, we have to talk about it." She shifted her body and faced Y/N. "Look, you don't have to answer this. But if you don't it's kinda giving away the answer."

"What?" He asked.

"Was that your first kiss since the 60s?"

Y/N snickered as well. "Come on. I thought I did good."

"I'm not saying it was bad."

"It kinda sounds like it."

"I mean, there's room for improvement. Which is why I'm wondering if you had any practice."

"I don't need practice."

"Everybody needs practice."

Y/N sighed. "Fine. You win. Yes, that was my first one since..." Y/N couldn't recall an intimate time like that before he woke up. "...since before Vietnam I guess."

Meanwhile, Steve's brows furrowed as he was taking in the conversation and turned to them.

"Wait? You two kissed?"

"It was life or death, Rogers." Y/N said. "If you were in my shoes, you'd understand."

Steve simply shrugged.

"Let's switch over to you, Captain." The young man began. "Anybody special yet?"

"It's kinda hard to find someone with shared life experiences."

"If you're lucky, maybe you'll stumble upon a gal who was frozen in ice too."

Steve chuckled. "Very funny."

• • •

THE THREE FUGITIVES made it to Camp Lehigh, the birthplace of Captain America. The coordinates within the USB lead them there.

"This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio." Natasha said as she scanned the area. "Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."

Steve held his shield as he looked around. He then gazed towards a building ahead.

"What is it?" Y/N asked.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." He answered as he walked towards it. The two followed, and Rogers broke the door's lock with his shield.

They entered the building and walked downstairs. Y/N looked for a light switch, in which he turned it on upon finding it. Lights illuminated the room and they saw the S.H.I.E.L.D logo painted on the wall ahead.

"This is S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha said.

"Maybe where it started." Steve replied.

They continued walking and entered another room. Natasha noticed a photo on the wall. "And there's Stark's father."

"Howard." Steve added.

Natasha looked at the photo beside Stark's. "Who's the girl?"

Steve looked at it, but didn't answer and walked away. Natasha was going to follow, but noticed Y/N looking at the picture of the woman.

"What is it?" She asked.

Y/N couldn't form words as he gazed intently at the picture. It was like he'd seen her before, but couldn't figure out how.

"I...I don't know." He answered.

On the other side of the room, Steve pulled a bookshelf aside and uncovered a hidden door. He called out to them.

"You go. I'll...stay behind and make sure we're covered." Y/N gave an excuse. He wanted to be alone for a bit as he tried to gather his thoughts.

"Okay." Natasha nodded in understanding, then went to join Steve in investigating the room.

Y/N took time to himself as he looked at the pictures. After further observation, he even felt as if he recognized Howard Stark.

But how?

The photo of the woman still bothered him. Just the mere sight of it sounded alarms within his head like if he was supposed to know.

He was there for a while and Y/N realized Steve and Natasha were still in the secret room the former uncovered. He thought it was a good time to regroup with them.

Entering the room, he saw the two by a console with a screen in front of them. It displayed a face formed out of green coding.

"What's all this?" He asked them.

The camera on the console turned to the young man, and the face within the screen began to talk.

"Carter. Y/N. Born 1945."

He stopped in between Natasha and Steve, who were barely processing Zola's revelation that HYDRA was within S.H.I.E.L.D and about his algorithm.

Y/N took in the computer's statement and furrowed a brow. "That's not my last name."

"It in fact is, junger Mann (young man)." Zola said. "I would know the origin of HYDRA's secret weapon."

Steve and Natasha darted their eyes at Y/N, who was expressing their same confusion.

"What the hell are you saying?" He looked at Steve. "Who the hell is this?"

"Armin Zola." He answered. "Or at least his consciousness."

Y/N knew about Zola and his work for HYDRA and the Red Skull. He gritted his teeth and looked at the computer again.

"You don't know me." He said in rebuttal to Zola's previous statement.

"Yes I would." He began. "As I was the one who originally ordered your capture in 1949."

Y/N's heart sank. "What?"

"It was a necessity. To retrieve the son of Margaret Carter and Steven Rogers for the sole purpose of strengthening our chances for the future." 

Steve turned his head towards Y/N, seeing how speechless he was as he stared down at the floor. The two of them had a lot to process.

Y/N's father was Captain America this whole time, and Steve had inadvertently found his and Peggy's lost son...who had been his coworker and close friend for the last couple years.

"But...you didn't succeed." Y/N said, remembering the other parents he had. "I still had a life."

"An unforeseen obstacle in our path." Zola said as he displayed pictures of the parents Y/N knew with an "X" crossing them out. He continued, "But we still got our hands on you in the end."

"What did you want with him?" Steve shouted.

"Being the child of the world's first super soldier presented him with unfathomable potential. Along with the New Fist of HYDRA, he would be our ultimate weapon. After experimentation, he was able to replicate the actions of his opponents and allies."

Zola paused for a moment as the three listened.

"HYDRA's nachahmen (mimic). Der Arbeitgeber (the Taskmaster)."

Y/N remembered the name the HYDRA agent called him yesterday. Taskmaster.

It was all true.

"You don't realize. But all this time, HYDRA had the so-called sons of liberty in the palm of their hand." He said mentioning Captain America and Freedom Fighter.

Natasha's device chimed alerting them of something.

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

"Who fired it?" Steve asked.

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

The doors were starting to close and Rogers threw his shield in an attempt to wedge it in between, but failed and it retreated back onto his arm.

"I am afraid I have been stalling, soldiers. Admit it. It's better this way." Zola said.

Natasha took back the drive as Y/N and Steve looked around the room for a way out. The younger man noticed a grate on the ground and ran towards it.

Zola continued. "We are, the three of us, out of time."

Y/N ripped off the grate and motioned the two inside.

The missile had hit the building just when Y/N grabbed Natasha and threw themselves inside. Steve followed and crouched on top of them, holding his shield up to protect his son and friend from falling debris.

Rogers grunted as he kept the vibranium disc up for what seemed to be forever. Once it was over, he pushed away a large block of debris off of them. Y/N groaned as he got up, but his eyes widened as he looked over and saw Natasha unconscious.

"Shit..." He breathed out and leaned over her. "Tasha? Natasha?" He tried waking her, but ultimately decided to carry her bridal style out from the rubble with Steve following.

They heard incoming aircrafts and the two soldiers knew it was S.H.I.E.L.D. Or from what they knew now: HYDRA.

"The car's this way. Come on." Steve said. Y/N nodded and quickly followed his father.