𝐒𝐈𝐗𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

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Maya looks at Steve, then Natasha

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Maya looks at Steve, then Natasha. She motions for them to leave the elevator, not wanting to walk into the dark first. Steve leads first, the other two women following suit. Maya brings her gun out, arming it in case something jumps out from the abyss.

The lights automatically turn on when they enter the room, revealing a platform stacked with old computers. They walk up to it and analyzing the equipment.

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient." She suddenly spots a flash drive port. She contemplates placing the drive in before she actually does, activating the computers. The words "INITIATE SYSTEM" was blinking in the monitor in front of the.

"Y-E-S, spells yes." Natasha smiles as the computer starts to crank up. "Shall we play a game?"

"No," Maya says unconcerned. Natasha sticks her tongue out in annoyance to Maya's reply. Suddenly an unrecognised voice fills the room.

"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Fury, Maya Amelia. Born, 1995." Maya spots the old moving camera above the monitor.

"What the hell?" Maya was utterly confused about what was happening. Natasha who had a more calm composure, stated "It's some kind of a recording."

"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." A picture of man shows on screen. Maya couldn't tell if she had seen him before, her head still fuddled.

"Do you know this thing?" Natasha asks.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years."

"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?" The screen glitches for a moment.

"Invited."

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha grew rapidly scared, though she hid that facade very well. Maya was already pacing around, wanting immediate answers.

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull."

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

"Prove it."

"Accessing archive." The computer glitches again, this time it was showing them old footage. A photo of the Red Skull and his HYDRA troops. "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 footage pans out to display Steve in his Captain America uniform, running through firing bullets. Maya watches, drinking in every detail of what Zola was saying.

"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 was changed."

Maya shakes her head, finding it difficult to believe whatever he was saying. She silently mumbles, "No. No."

"That's impossible, S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you."

The monitor on Maya's left turns on. It showed her pictures and videos of accidents and battlefields. It displayed a newspaper article about Howard and Maria Stark's car crash. Then it opened up to a report of Nick. A big black stamp across the paper read "DECEASED".

Maya starts shaking in rage and grips on her gun a little tighter than before. She kept shallow breaths through her nostrils, fire already erupting in her eyes.

"Accidents will happen. 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."

Not being to take in anymore poisonous words, Maya raises her gun and shoots at the screen. Steve turns towards her, angry tears and disbelief had already filled Maya's wide eyes. Her lips quivered as she lowers her gun.

"As I was saying," another monitor speaks. Steve was just as angry as the rest of them and impatiently asks what was on the drive.

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

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?"

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." Then, the doors to the elevator starts to close rapidly. Steve tries to stop it by throwing his shield in between but it was already too late. Maya and Natasha's phones rang.

Maya widens her eyes at the notification her phone displayed. Natasha calls out, erratically, "Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."

"Who fired it?" Maya drops her phone as her fingers start to tremble. "S.H.I.E.L.D."

Zola speaks again, "I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us, out of time."

Steve quickly gets to a frozen Maya and drags her away from the computers. He notices a small opening on the ground and picks up the metal door that enclosed it. He threw it aside, and as soon as Natasha jumps in, he follows suit, hugging Maya to his side. The girls squeezed together and Steve protects them with his shield.

The whole area tears apart in a ferocious explosion. Natasha who was a little out of the shield's protection had passed out from the fallen ceiling. Maya wakes up from her daze and lightly slaps herself for not being attentive to the situation. With all things due, she had just discovered that her home for the past 9 years was just another hideout for the enemy.

Steve pushes them out of the rubble. Maya stands on her own two feet, waiting for Steve to carry Natasha out of the opening. Sneakily, they escaped from the S.T.R.I.K.E team that was roaming the area, probably to find their dead bodies.

They ran into the woods, further and further away from the camp. They came out on the other side, onto an intersection. They walked for hours, until they stopped at a cheap motel. Maya ran around the parking lot, picking a suitable car for them to 'borrow'.

Without hesitating, she crashes the window of a grey SUV and unlocks the door, its alarm blaring off. Steve looks at her in horror, and then scopes the area for lookout. Maya hotwires the car and shuts the alarm as quickly as it rang. She starts the engine and lets Steve drive.

"Where did you learn how to steal a car?" Steve asks, putting on his seatbelt.

"I have a friend. He's a mechanic," she shrugs her shoulders. Maya blanks out thinking about what just happened. She still didn't want to believe it. But the truth was evident.

Her beloved S.H.I.E.L.D has been infiltrated.





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Author's Note

Poor Maya, I just want to hug her :(

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