Kai Romanoff

43

 

Steve drove as Kai sat in the back changing her high tops for her combat boots and putting on her leather jacket.
" When did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Nat asked suddenly.
" Nazi Germany." Steve said.
" Hmm." Nat hummed in reply.
" And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash." Steve told her.

Nat took her foot off.
" Okay I have a question for you. Which you do not have to answer. I feel like, if you don't answer it though, your kinda answering it-" Nat started.
" What?" Steve asked.
" Was that your first kiss since 1945?" Nat asked.
" That bad huh?" Steve asked.
" I didn't say that." Nat defended.
" Well it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying." Steve said.
" No-I was just wondering how much practice you've had." Nat told him.

" You don't need practice." Steve said.
" Everybody needs practice." Nat said.
" It was not my first kiss since 1945 I'm 95 not dead." Steve told her.
" But really what's the difference." Kai chimed in.
" Why don't you have your seatbelt on?" Steve asked looking back at her.
" Nobody special though?" Nat asked.
" Believe it or not it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience." Steve said.

" Well that's all right you. You just make something up." Nat said.
" What like you?" Steve asked.
" I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstance. It's not all things to all people, all the time. Neither am I." Nat explained.
" That's a tough way to live." Steve said.
" It's a good way not to die though. And a good way to keep Kai safe." Nat told him.
" You know it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is." Steve said.

" Yeah. Who do you want me to be?" Nat asked.
" How about a friend?" Steve asked.
" Well there's a chance you're in the wrong business Rogers." Nat said.
" What about me Steve? Who do you want me to be?" Kai fluttered her eyelashes teasingly.
" Someone who follows orders, didn't I tell you to put your seatbelt on?" Steve told her.
" But we're here already." Kai whined.

" The car has not stopped yet." Steve said.
Kai's jaw dropped and she looked at Nat. She just smiled and shrugged. Kai mumbled to herself as she sat back and buckled her seatbelt. As soon as it clicked Steve parked.
" Okay come on let's go." Steve said.
Nat smirked at Kai and opened her door.
" This is complete bullshit." Kai undid her seatbelt and got out.

They walked to a gate.
" This is it?" Steve asked.
" The file came from these coordinates." Nat said.
" So did I." Steve said.

                                       ¥¥¥

After hoping the fence they walked around trying to find the exact building the file came from.
" I was trained at this camp." Steve said.
" Change much?" Nat asked.
" A little." Steve said.
" Well this is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even a radio." Nat said.
Kai sighed.
" I know it's here. I'm not wrong about this." Kai said.

" It's not your fault Kai. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off. What is it?" Nat asked noticing his stare.
" Army regulations forbid storing munitions within 500 yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place." Steve explained as they walked towards the building.
He hit the lock with his shield and it broke. They opened they doors and they walked in. Kai switched on the lights and they saw the S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol painted on the far wall.

" This is S.H.I.E.L.D." Nat said.
" Maybe where it started." Steve said as they continued walking through the building.
They walked into another room and saw pictures hanging on the wall.
" There's Starks father." Nat said.
" Howard." Steve said.
" Who's the girl?" Kai asked.
Steve didn't say anything but just walked away. Nat and Kai gave each other a suspicious look.

They followed him to a wall.
" If your already working in a secret office. Why do you need to hide the elevator." Steve said as he pushed the fake wall to the side.
They walked towards the elevator and Kai scanned the key pad and found out the code. She typed it in and they got on the elevator. They rode it down the the bottom floor and stepped into a room with old computers and other out of date technology.

" This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient." Nat said.
" Yeah, except that for some reason." Kai said walking towards a usb plug in.
She plugged in the flash drive and the whole room lit up and all the machines started running.

The computer asked if they wanted to start the system. Nat typed yes.
" Shall we play a game?" Nat said.
" That was from a movie that was really-" Kai started to explain to Steve.
" Yeah I know I saw it." Steve told her.
" Well excuse me Mr. Modern." Kai said.

A grainy face appeared on the screen.
" Rogers, Steven, born 1918. Romanoff Natalia Alianovna, born 1984. Romanoff, Kai, Black, Lyra, born 1999." The robot said.
" It's some kind of recording." Nat said.
" 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." The computer said.

" You know this thing?" Nat asked.
" Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve explained.
" First correction I am Swiss. Second look around, 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 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain." He explained.
" How did you get here?" Steve asked.

" Invited." He said.
" It was Operation Paperclip after World War 2. S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientist with strategic value." Nat explained.
" They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Zola told them.
" HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve said.
" Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola recited.
" Prove it." Steve said.

" Accessing archive. HYDRA was founded in the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you try to take freedom they resist. 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. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history changed." Zola told them.

" That's impossible, S.H.I.E.L.D. would have stopped you." Kai said.
" Accidents will happen. 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." Zola told them.
Steve punched then computer screen shattering it.

" As I was saying-" Zola appeared on a smaller screen.
" What's on this drive?" Steve asked.
" Project insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm." Zola said.
" What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Nat asked.
" The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately you shall be too dead to hear it." Zola told them.

The doors closed and Nat looked at her phone.
" We got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." Nat said.
" Who fired it?" Steve asked.
" S.H.I.E.L.D." Nat said.
" I'm afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it it's better this way. We are both of us out of time." Zola said as Steve ripped up a vent in the ground and helped Kai and Nat in.

The building started collapsing in on them. Nat hugged Kai tight to her, Steve did the same to the both of the girls and held its shield above them. Kai closed her eyes and just hoped this wouldn't be how she died. Not that she was scared to die but no one would find them, and Harry would have never known what would happen to her. She couldn't let that happen.