Traceur

•11•

Steve's POV.
I never had the moment to warn Natasha about Levi. As soon as I finished reading the message, Levi looked into the review mirror, eyeing me sinisterly. I feel my heart start cracking in my chest.

Two years.

It's been two years.

Has she been the enemy all along?

Did I trust the enemy? Think of the enemy as my own daughter?

Is that why she left for two days?

Of course, now that I think about it, it makes sense. She disappeared, left her phone here so that we couldn't track her. Natasha told me there seemed to be some weird virus or something in her phone....maybe HYDRA was with her all along. Yes, HYDRA. I've seen the emblems on the backs of the TAC team's vests. I know who they work for.

Who she works for.

I notice she has a phone, so I fiddle with the weird 'Bluetooth' option on my phone, and click 'Airdrop'. I remember Levi teaching me about all of this; her patient voice fading into memories of hours spent on a couch with my newly bought phone between the two of us. Was she HYDRA then?

I Airdrop a simple message.

'How long?'

Her phone pings, and she laughs, sounding a bit confused. "Sorry, must've been...Marian," she lies, fumbling with the phone. Obviously, while she's a good actor, she's nervous, which dims down her acting skills quite a bit.

Levi pulls out her phone, and, after turning it on, reads the message and glances back at me, anger written in her eyes.

"What's up with you two?" Natasha asks, and Levi sends me a warning glance. I don't really know how well she can fight- I feel like I've never known her at all right now, to be honest- and instead of telling the truth, I reply with a lie.

"She just doesn't want me making fun of her for having a boyfriend," I tease, and Levi's shoulders loosen a bit.

"You need to watch what you say," she replies with fake-sneakiness, but her meaning is clear.

'I could kill you in a second if you tell her.'

Luckily, Natasha plays along, chuckling lightly. "Is that where you went last night?" She teases, and I nearly vomit at the thought, even though I was the one to come up with the idea of her having a boyfriend.

Eugh. You know what, never mind. If she ever has a boyfriend, I'm keeping them twenty feet away from each other all the time.

And then I remember that I might not have that experience, especially with my newfound knowledge about her working for HYDRA.

"You know me," Levi replies sarcastically, "staying...at people's homes for the night...is what I do best."

I furrow my brow. Normally, Levi has nothing against saying crude things. Actually, she loves it. So why is she acting like she doesn't even know what Natasha's talking about?

Natasha looks concerned too, but seems to brush it off.

"Well fellas," she huffs, pulling around a tight corner on a random backroad, "you might wanna get some sleep. It might take us a few hours to get there."

...

A Few Hours Later
I blink awake as Levi claps me on the shoulder, her top half leaning across the console to reach into two backseat.

"Get up, soldier," she huffs, eyes darkened. I notice that Natasha's already a few yards away from us, tinkering with something. I take my chance and lean towards Levi, eyes narrowed.

"How long?" I repeat, and her shell of a self smirks at me.

"Forever," she responds, making my head pound, and I feel faint. She scoffs, probably because I paled. I can't really tell, since I can't see my own face, but I feel pale. She leans in, her mouth just centimeters away from my ear.

"Hail HYDRA."

She then slides easily out of her truck, plopping onto the dusty ground and sauntering away. Just as Levi usually walks, but there's something wrong with it. Like she's forcing herself to walk that way. Something is definitely wrong with her.

I catch up with her and Natasha, and Natasha looks up from her device.

"The file came form these coordinates," she confirms, and I sigh, my eyes scanning the empty training grounds.

"So did I. This camp is where I was trained."

"Changed much?" Levi asks, and I clench my jaw a bit.

"A little."

I blink, and all of a sudden, I'm back in the '40s, watching my former, sickly self run past me as I tried to catch up with the rest of the soldiers. Nowadays, I would be able to pass them with ease, but not back then.

"Come on!" Sergeant Duffy yells. "Fall in! Rogers! I said fall in!"

I watch nostalgically as my former self hurries to catch up, and then I blink again, back in present-time.

"This is a dead end," Natasha grumbles. "Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote this file must've used a router to throw people off."

I look up, scanning the camp, my eyes locking on to a misplaced building. I stark walking towards it, with Levi and Nat following me.

"What is it?" Nat asks, and I huff.

"Army regulations forbid story ammunition within five hundred feet of the barracks," I rehearse, heading up to the doors. "This building is in the wrong place."

I slam my shield against the lock, and it breaks, the doors drifting open. I stalk inside, looking around.

"This is SHIELD," Nat notices as the lights turn on, and Levi narrows her eyes at the SHIELD logo.

"Maybe where it started," she mutters, eyes searching the old, dusty pictures of Howard Stark, Peggy, and Col. Chester Phillips. "Howard," she grumbles, something sounding like smugness lacing her tone. I glare at her, my eyes tracing over the gentle details of Peggy's youthful face. I still feel the flutter in my chest when I see her.

"Who's the girl?" Nat asks, eyes flitting from me to Peggy. I don't reply, choosing instead to walk away towards the oddly massive bookshelf. It's obviously hiding something, and I pause next to it.

"If you're already working in a secret office," I begin, pushing the bookshelf out of the way, revealing an elevator. "...why do you need to hide the elevator?"

We step inside, and click the 'down' arrow. I'm reminded of the last time I was in an elevator, as the metal container shudders, still descending. The last time I was in an elevator...well, it just wasn't pretty.

The doors creak open to reveal a room chock-full of old computers and databanks.

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient," Nat growls in frustration. Her eyes suddenly light up, focused on a flash drive port next to one of the computers. We head towards the port, Levi straying a distance behind us. I try to keep her out of my blind spots, not wanted to have a knife suddenly shoved down my throat.

Natasha plugs the flash drive in, and the ancient computer brightens, a question displayed on the screen.

'Initiate system?'

"Y-E-S spells 'yes'," Nat says, typing in the letters. She turns to me, a smirk playing on her face. "Shall we play a game?"