A dream come true

Is it HYDRA

"kid, you listening?"

'shit.'

I freeze thinking of the possibility of HYDRA being involved. My eyes looking at floor and mouth slightly gaped thinking of all the endless scenarios. Not good ones. Doc notices the shocked expression on my face while Mr. Stark sees a hint of fear behind that shock.

"kid?" Mr. Stark gently shakes my shoulder a little bit and calls me back to reality. I flinch slightly and blink before looking at Mr. Stark who was looking at me worriedly then turn my attention to doc who had a confused look on his face. I quickly regain my composure and sit straight before this situation gets any more awkward.

"s-sorry, I dozed off for a min. what was that?"

"are you okay?" doc asks me.

"yeah, what would happen to me?" I answer trying to smile.

"we were asking if you know anyone capable of using a similar energy source to the cube."

'should I tell them?'

"......no. no, I don't know anyone." I shake my head trying to dodge the question.

Doc had a little doubt about my sudden change in behavior but didn't push it further. Mr. Stark knew something was wrong but he decided to drop the subject. For now. He had understood it very much by now that the girl was most of time dozed off to somewhere. something would always be in her mind, she would often have a sad look thinking about her world, but this was the first time he saw that look of extreme fear. He decided to ask about it later after doc is gone.

"alright then, let's continue." Doc said before going back to the files.

We continued our work for one more hour, trying to trace the sources of the radiation. So far things weren't going as we expected. It was harder than we thought, and my mind kept going back to HYDRA.

Then we decided to call it a day and continue from tomorrow. Mr. Stark convinced doc to stay over his house until these files are tracked. It was almost midnight, not that I was anywhere close to sleepy. My sleep schedule is really messes up. A part of me was surprised how I worked this much without getting tired or feeling irritated, I can't even concentrate in studying for more than 10 minutes and get all fed up. I guess you don't feel tired if you do something you love, well you do but you don't feel like abandoning it halfway.

After saying my goodbye I go back to my room and take a quick shower with hot water. I just lay on my bed, staring at ceiling, trying not to think about HYDRA. I close my eyes and take a long deep breath but the negative thoughts won't leave. I open my eyes in annoyance and sit back straight as my gaze finds my desk. I'll do something I usually do when I'm stresses or sad, keeping myself occupied with tasks so I won't have time to be sad. As I was about to get up I hear a knock on my door.

"it's open."

The door opens revealing Mr. Stark. He enters the room and closes the door,

"why aren't you asleep yet?" he asks walking towards me.

"wasn't sleepy."

"you should sleep early."

"you're also awake." I say smirking.

"that's different." He says before sitting besides me. He doesn't look at me first, thinking something as if finding the right words to come up with until he finally speaks,

"you...alright?"

"what would happen to me?"

"that time downstairs, you kinda dozed off...what was that about?"

"I always doze off, you know that."

He signs before continuing again,

"there was something else to it, wasn't it?"

"t-there was? W-what else?"

"you tell me."

"there's nothing else."

"you know you can tell me everything, right?"

I look at the floor, trying to think of some way to answer. Half of me wanted to not speak about it, but the other half wanted to say it.

"I-I was just trying to remember any detail I may have missed. Nothing else."

Mr. Stark signs and slightly nod, I could see some disappointment in his eyes. he really thinks I trust him with everything, and I do. But exposing HYDRA before it's time would mess up the timeline. But that disappointed look in his eyes is stinging my heart. I have seen that plenty of time before, on my parents. I regret doing that everytime I think about it. I couldn't see it again, not on him. if I share the info just because of this reason, it would be selfish of me, but I can't see that look on him.

"well, if that's it then alright" Mr. Stark said, dropping the topic. But he knew there was something I didn't tell him. he was hopping I would be honest about it and tell him, but he didn't want to push it. He was about to get up and leave but I stopped him.

"w-wait, Mr. Stark. ..." he stopped and sat back down, looking at me, waiting for me continue, "....actually th-there is something else."

He signs in relief before giving me his full attention,

'if HYDRA is behind this, then they're already doing something they're not supposed to in the main timeline.'

"no one is supposed to know about it this early but.....i think I know who might be behind this."

"you do?"

"i-it might be HYDRA?"

"HYDRA?" he asks with wide eyes, he was seriously taken back. But how could it be HYDRA? They are no more.

" I-I know what you're thinking. But they aren't dead. And the cube could be in their possession when I came here."

He doesn't say anything at first, he takes his time to take everything in. he starts thinking about the infinite possibilities if what I was saying was right. But also something wasn't clicking in it's place.

"but the cube had been in SHIELD's possession this whole time. Was Fury lying?"

"the thing is....SHIELD is HYDRA. This whole time HYDRA had been hiding behind SHIELD's name."

"s-so Fury a-"

"he doesn't know. Him, agent Hill, or Mr. Coulson, Natasha. half of SHIELD's agents don't even know they are indirectly working for HYDRA."

"....son of a bitch."

"I'm not 100% sure it's HYDRA who did it. It's just....they are the only one I know about who could pull it considering doc's theory of the radiation being similar to the Tesseract."

Mr. Stark was deep in thoughts, now it all makes sense. He could easily connect the dots, it doesn't take an extreme smart person to understand this all. today was a very long day for him. things just keeps getting messy. if HYDRA is behind this and it's actually SHIELD then it could be a big trouble. his biggest concern was the girl. she was in extreme danger here. if HYDRA will get to know about her then god knows what could happen.

"we have to tell Banner. Well, sleep for the night, we'll talk about it tomorrow." Mr. Stark says patting my back and gets up before any disgusting negative outcome would get in this mind.

I nod and he leaves the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

'did I do the right thing?'

Before I could overthink again, I look at my desk and sit on my chair and continue my drawing. Tomorrow is gonna be a long day.