The Story of Adelaida Barnes | MCU

ix. everyone we know is trying to kill us

Addi put a piece of gum in her mouth. She needed to act more like a teenager and not a secret agent. "If they make us, I'll engage, you two hit the south escalator to the metro." Steve said, not even glancing back at Addi. She saw some agents walking towards them so she pulled out her phone, acting like a moody teenager. She noticed Steve put his arm around Natasha and then the two started laughing. Addi rolled her eyes, pretending to be disgusted, when in reality, she thought it was adorable. The three got on an escalator and noticed Rumlow coming up on the other one.

Natasha turned around. "Kiss me." She said to Steve. Addi's eyes widened. "What?" Steve asked. "Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable." "Yes, they do." Steve and Addi said in unison. Natasha grabbed the back of Steve's neck and kissed him. Addi gave them a disgusted look and looked back down at her phone. Inside, she was screaming. "You still uncomfortable?" Natasha asked Steve as she pulled away and started walking down the escalator. "It's not exactly the word I would use." Steve said, following behind. Addi followed behind him, smirking at their backs.

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Steve drove down the freeway into New Jersey in a stolen truck. "Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha asked with her feet propped up on the dash. "Nazi Germany." He responded. "And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash." She took her feet down. "Alright, I have a question for you, which you do not have to answer. I feel like, if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know." Natasha said. "What?" "Was that your first kiss since nineteen forty five?" Addi burst out laughing in the back seat.

"That bad, huh?" "I didn't say that." Addi raised an eyebrow at the obvious flirting. She caught their eyes in the rearview mirror and wiggled her eyebrows at them. They both gave her a look. "Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying." "No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you've had." Natasha said, trying to defend herself. 'Sounds like jealousy to me.' Addi thought to herself. "You don't need practice." "Everybody needs practice." Addi rolled her eyes and leaned back on the seat. "It was not my first kiss since nineteen forty five. I'm ninety five, not dead." "Wait, Steve, who did you kiss? Yourself, in the mirror?" Addi asked and he just glared at her. "Nobody special, though?" Natasha asked him. "Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience."

"Well, that's alright. You just make something up." "What, like you?" "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." Natasha said. "That's a tough way to live." "It's a good way not to die, though." "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?" She asked him. "His wife." Addi said. "Adelaida!" Both Natasha and Steve exclaimed. "What? You know it's true." She said, leaning back. "How about a friend?" He asked. "Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers."

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The group eventually pulled up to an old military base. They got out of the truck and Steve asked "This is it?" "The file came from these coordinates." Natasha said. "So did I." Steve said. The trio entered the base. "This camp is where I was trained." "Change much?" Addi asked. "A little." Steve responded. "This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves, not even radio." Natasha said. "Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off." Steve looked over to a bunker. "What is it?" Natasha and Addi asked.

"Army regulations forbid storing munitions within five hundred yards of the barracks." Steve said as he let them towards it. "This building is in the wrong place." He used his shield to cut the locks on the door. They entered and went down the stairs. Thankfully, the lights still worked when Natasha turned them on. "This is SHIELD." Addi commented. "Maybe where it started." Steve said. He opened a door and on the wall were pictures of the three founders. "And there's Stark's father." Natasha said and Addi froze. Her eyes then drifted to the picture of Peggy Carter.

She was Sharon's aunt, and Steve's girlfriend before he went under. She could see why Steve liked her. She was gorgeous. Steve walked away and the two girls followed him. "If you're already working in a secret office, why do you need to hide the elevator?" He asked, pushing a shelf out of the way. Natasha used her phone to figure out the passcode, and then they went down.

Addi stayed slightly behind Steve as they entered the dark room. She activated her powers for some light. They approached a giant computer, and the lights turned on. Addi lowered her hands. "This can't be the data point. This technology is ancient." Natasha said. But there was a USB port on the table. Natasha plugged the flash drive in, and more lights turned on. Natasha powered up the system. "Shall we play a game?" She asked. "It's from a movie that was really-" Steve cut her off. "I know, I saw it." A hologram appeared on the old computer screen.

"Rogers, Steven, born nineteen eighteen. Romanova, Natalia Alianovna, born nineteen forty eight. Romanova-Barnes, Adelaida Natalia, born nineteen sixty four." The hologram spoke. "It's some kind of recording." Natasha said. Addi was freaking out. Steve couldn't find out, at least, he couldn't find out from a hologram and not her. He ignored it, though. "I am not a recording. Fraeulein." The machine spoke. Addi shuffled closer to Steve, and he wrapped an arm around her, protectively.

"I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in nineteen forty five. But I am." "You know this thing?" Addi asked, looking up at him. "Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve said, letting go of Addi and walking around the computer. "First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In nineteen seventy two, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving, on two hundred thousand feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain." "I have a bad feeling about this." Addi said to her mom, who nodded.

"How did you get here?" Steve asked. "Invited." "It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha said. "They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." "HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve said. "Cut off one head, two shall take its place. Why don't you just ask your daughter next to you?" Addi was confused when he said daughter, but couldn't meet Steve's eye. "Prove it." He said. "Accessing archive. 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 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." Steve punched the computer. Another one turned on. "As I was saying..." "What's on this drive?" Steve asked. "Project Insight requires insight. So, I wrote an algorithm." "What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Natasha asked.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it." The doors to the room closed. Steve threw his shield at them. "Steve, we got a bogey." Natasha said. "Short rage ballistic. Thirty seconds tops." "Who fired it?" Addi asked. "SHIELD." Natasha responded. "I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it. It's better this way. We are, both of us, out of time." The machine said. Steve hauled open a vent and gestured for the girls to follow him. The place was blown up just as the trio jumped in.

Steve held his shield above them and Addi created a force field. Everything crashed down on top of them. Steve pushed some stone out of the way and then picked up Natasha as Addi led the way. The two started running. There was only one place they knew they could go. They found another car and Steve quickly hijacked it after placing Natasha in the backseat. Addi hopped in the front and they quickly drove off to Washington.

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Steve knocked on the door. The shade opened up. They saw Sam looking out the window. He opened the door. "Hey, man." He said to Steve. "I'm sorry about this. We need a place to lay low." Steve said. "Everyone we know is trying to kill us." Natasha said. Sam looked at the three. He moved out of the way and said "Not everyone."