Smiles Can Be Deceiving | Avengers x Cheshire!reader

Armin Zola~ Chapter 51

"Well it's alright, you just make something up!" Nat replies.

"What? Like you?"

"I dunno, the truth is matter of circumstance. It's not all things, to all people, all the time."

"It's a tough way to live." He replies.

"It's a good way not to die though."

"Hey guys, um, so first of all, I'm trying to take a cat nap, second of all, I don't ship Stasha, could you please shut up, or do I gots to bite y'alls tongues?"

~Time Skip~

Finally, we find ourselves at the old Army base in New Jersey. We stand in front of an old, seemingly glitching monitor. Suddenly, the green glitch marks form something similar to a face, as 'it', whatever it is, speaks.

"Rogers, Steven. Born 1918." I look around as it says this.

"Hehe, your old." I comment, making him give me a side glare.

"Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born 1984."

"You didn't tell me your full name!" I gasp in fake offence.

"L/n, Y/n Cheshire. Born unknown."

"Hehe, try me bitch." I laugh smugly.

"It's some kind of recording..." Natasha, or should I say, Natalia, comments.

"I am not a recording, fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945. But, I am."

"You am, what? Common! Don't leave me hangin' bro!" I yell, to which Natasha hits my arm, telling me to quiet it down before she turns her attention back to Steve.

"You know this thing?" She 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 200,000 feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain." EW! I don't want to stand in someone's brain! And two, who knew they could do this kinda stuff in the 70s.

"How did you get here?" Steve asked.

"Invited." What the hell does that mean?!

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha explains.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own."

"Hydra died with the Red Skull." Steve interjects.

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

"Prove it."

"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."

"Well of course they resist! How would you like it if you are walking on a street, you have freedom to walk that street, and someone comes along and tries to restrain you and put you on a horizontal escalator so you can only go one direction, wouldn't you resist!" I exclaim.

"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 70 years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed.

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

"Accidents will happen." It said as it showed us an old newspaper reporting Tony's parent's deaths. "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." And just like that, Steve had snapped and punched the computer, breaking it. But, the face only appeared on another monitor.

"As I was saying..."

"What's on the drive, little computer man?" I ask.

"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." The doors from which we entered it began to close. In an effort to keep them open, Steve threw his shield to attempt to be a wedge between the two doors, but was unfortunately, too late. He caught the shield with a huff.

"Guys, we got a bogey." Natasha says, catching our attention. "Short range ballistic."

"What does that mean?!" I panic loudly.

"30 seconds tops." Nat adds, ignoring my question.

"Who fired it?" Steve asked.

"S.H.I.E.L.D." She answered.

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

"Nope! Just you!" I exclaim before turning intangible and running through the closed door with ease, knowing that both Nat and Steve would live, and planning to heal any of their wounds. I had panicked, which was the reason I left my companions.