Shadows of the Past

Part 50

(LOKI POV)
You and Thor make your way quickly to the conference room and arrive before the rest of the team. You place the box on the table and unpack the files into three piles, the escapees from the Raft, the scientists from Bulgaria and the unknown scientists. Thor takes his usual seat at the table but you pace anxiously around the room until the door swings open, about twenty minutes later.

"Seriously Reindeer Games, I know you aren't sleeping but do you have any idea what time it is?" Stark asks as he walks into the room, followed by Clint and Banner.

"I don't actually," you answer, barely phased by his tone.

Clint and Banner yawn as they take their seats but Stark takes a sip of coffee as he walks over to the files and flips open the top one. The door opens again a few minutes later Nat, Steve, Sam and Bucky walk into the room. You continue to pace, fidgeting with your fingers as you wish the rest of the team would hurry up. Finally Hill and Fury arrive and he doesn’t look happy.

“Who the hell called this meeting so late? It’s almost midnight,” he said in his usual annoyed tone as he closed the door behind him.

“I think I know where Y/N is,” you respond and everyone instantly looks more awake.

"What?" Clint says, sitting up quickly.

“How?” Steve asks.

Nat leans forward in her seat, “We haven’t had a solid lead in a week, how did you find her?"

"Honestly, I think Y/N figured it out," you tell them and they look at you confused.

You hand Steve the list of names, “I found this list hidden in her office. She has been tracking & researching these specific Hydra scientists for months, it looks like it goes back to our first mission in Bulgaria.”

“I remember her coming back from that mission convinced that base was part of something larger, not just the typical super solider serum,” Nat says, vaguely gesturing towards Bucky who rolls his eyes.

Stark looks up from the file he is reading, “This isn’t one of the scientists from Bulgaria. His file says he was stationed at a base in Germany and then Brazil before he was captured.”

“Right... but he is one of the scientists who escaped from the Raft with Sarah and Marc. All the ones in that pile are,” you point to one of the stacks.

“How could she have known who was going to be involved in the escape before it happened?” Bucky asked and you shrug. 

“Because she was tracking internal Hydra recruitment,” Hill says. 

“What?” you ask.

“She had come to me & Fury about a month after the Bulgaria mission with some of the names on this list. She also had uncovered a lead as to why Pierce was there. We told her to keep digging but not to tell anyone,” Hill explains.

“That was why these files were in her room, not in her office?” Steve asks.

Hill nods, “This was research project needed to be conducted as far under the radar as possible. We needed to make sure there was no trail, just in case SHIELD had been compromised by Hydra again.”

You can’t help wondering if Y/N didn’t trust you enough to tell you about this but you shake the thought from your head and ask, “What did she find out about Pierce?”

“She discovered that was where they brought Pierce’s body after Fury shot him,” Hill answers. 

Everyone sat in silence waiting for her to continue, “The head of the Hydra lab in Bulgaria is Dr. Anna Penka. She had been gathering scientists with various different backgrounds to join her project there over the last few years. The ones who escaped the Raft were on the list because they were the next ones Dr. Penka had tapped for recruitment. This pile, these are scientists who were formerly involved in the project... and have since gone missing.”

 “Gone missing?” Sam asked.

Fury nodded, “Our working theory was that they had failed in their new roles and were silenced.”

“If all of this revolves around the base in Bulgaria, we need to go there now,” you say urgently. “If they are willing to kill their own scientists to keep whatever this project is a secret, who knows what they are doing to Y/N?”

“But we flew the drones over that base already, there was nothing there,” Clint reminds you. 

“Clint’s right, the lab there had been abandoned for months. Probably since that mission. All the scans of the area show even the hospital closed down,” Tony agrees.

“We have to look again,” you say, not wanting to listen to them.

“Loki, I told you we already looked-” Tony says but you interrupt him.

“I don’t care!” you say loudly, not realizing you shook everything in the room when you slammed your fist on the table.

“Brother,” Thor says calmly and you take a deep breath before looking at him.

“I- I need to find her,” you talk only to Thor. “She has to be there, it doesn’t make sense for her to be anywhere else.”

“I know,” he agrees. “So we are going to look there again,” he says looking around the room at the rest of the team.

“Ok... first thing in the morning, I’ll send the drones over again. They can do another sweep, we can increase the search area,” Tony says.

“No,” you shake your head. “I don’t trust your drones, they couldn’t detect the Hydra agents hiding in the warehouse.”

“I told you, that was only because Hydra had gotten to one of the techs flying them,” he countered.

Before you could argue back Thor put his hand on your shoulder. “That may have been the case but I am with Loki on this. Nat, can you have the jet ready in the morning?” he asks.

She nods, “We can take off an hour after sunrise.”

“Good,” Thor responds.

You look up at Steve and Bucky as they come towards you. “Don’t think you’re going without us,” Steve says. 

“Thank you,” you tell them both. 

The rest of the team decides to turn in for the night, they will monitor your mission from the control room & continue to send out drones to the other Hydra bases. You, Thor, Steve, Bucky and Nat remain in the conference room for another hour discussing the plan for the next day. There is not much to go over since you do not know what you will find when you arrive. The plan mostly consists of hoping Y/N is there, killing anyone in your way and bringing her home.