Fated Marks

Clint and Steve arrived about an hour after Thor, Bruce and Tony landed in DC. They were greeted by Agent Hill who told them to report straight to Fury’s office immediately.

They didn’t ask questions they just got in the elevator and headed straight up there. As soon as the elevator doors opened at the top floor of the Triskelion they could hear shouted. Steve and Clint turned to each other confused before running in.

“It’s not possible.” Fury said.

“Well how else do you think Adler managed to get Romanoff when she was on a classified mission?” Tony said.

“You ever think to ask whose base they were sent to check out?” Fury said.

“The briefing said it was an extremist group.” Steve said.

“We found that base by tracing a wire transfer made to one of Adler’s bank accounts.” Fury said.

“Adler’s been on the run for almost a month and this is the first we’re hearing of this?” Clint said annoyed.

“I didn’t feel the need to share confidential intel seeing as you were all to busy looking after your girlfriend.” Fury said.

“We’ve been after Adler for months.” Steve said, “You should have told us.”

“I didn’t trust that you all had been compromised. Your intern kept his identity a secret for over a year. How sure are you that she isn’t helping him right now?” Fury said.

“Hayley is not working for her brother. He wished to see her dead, and I’d watch my tone if I were you.” Thor said glaring daggers at fury.

“This is wrong.” Tony said looking at his phone.

“Stark…” Fury started.

“We also have a copy of Adler’s bank accounts on our server’s it’s actually one of the first things Hayley checked. This wire transfer wasn’t there.” Tony said bringing it up on the monitor mounted on the wall.

“Still think we’re the one’s compromised?” Tony retorted.

“Hill report to the office immediately.” Fury called into his com. “We have a fox in the henhouse.”

“How’s Hayley?” Steve asked.

“She’s… Hayley.” Bruce said.

“So she’s locked herself in the lab and is going through everything again?” Clint asked.

“Pretty much. Speaking of.” Tony said taking his phone out. “Said we were going to call her and she should be hear whatever’s about to be said.”

Hayley’s POV-

“Attempt failed.” Jarvis said.

“What the hell? That was a sure fire way to get into anything. This thing is more guarded than, Shield, the pentagon and the NSA combined.” I said.

“Miss Adam’s there is an incoming call from Mister Stark.” Jarvis said.

“Patch him through.” I said not looking up to the other screen as I looked through the diagnostic analysis I had Jarvis run on the firewall.

“Hales We’re all here.” Tony said.

“Patchy the Pirate give you any trouble?” I asked.

“Miss Adams.” Fury greeted. I looked up and saw that it was a video call before looking back down.

“Not much, shut him up when I showed him that his lead was actually planted by whoever the mole was.” Tony said.

“Didn’t they bother to check who was the last person to access the file and what changes they made before planning the mission?” I retorted.

“Apparently not.” Clint said.

“Are you okay?” Steve asked.

“I’m on a deadline so what do you have so far?” I asked.

“Oh wow you started a countdown.” Tony said looking at the holographic countdown I had set up.

“Can’t afford to lose track of time. So I suggest you don’t let anyone who was on that mission out of the building until they’ve been cleared. Also start checking everyone who had something to do with planning, whoever spotted that lead and from there go with anyone who Hadrian ever talked to in Shield. It doesn’t matter how small the interaction, even if it’s just small talk or him staring at someone’s ass check.” I said.

“Since when do you call the shots?” Fury said.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Hayley retorted.

“We’ll get on it.” Steve said. “You should try to get some rest.”

“I can sleep when we get Nat back until then I have work to do. Oh and Tony just a heads up Jarvis might be a bit glitch and slow for a while since I have him helping me hack into the stupid firewall Hadrian had on his phone.” I said.

“Why do you need Jarvis? I’ve seen you hack Shield, the CIA and the pentagon while cramming for finals in under ten minutes.” Tony said.

“Because I can’t get through the stupid firewall! I’ve tried everything.” I said frustrated. “I emptied out all the junk on the servers and have Jarvis running diagnostics to see if there’s some sort of back door or anything I may have missed but so far I’ve got nothing. It adapts to everything I throw at it faster than anything I’ve ever seen.”

“Are you sure there’s anything there?” Bruce asked.

“Considering that the first thing mom taught us to do when starting over was delete everything on our phones and computers before smashing them, and this thing is still up and running yeah I’d say there must be something pretty important on there.” I said.

“We’ll keep you updated if we find anything.” Steve said.

“And try not to overload Jarvis. Last time we had to reset half of the server farm.” Tony said and that’s when it hit me.

“That’s it!” I said. “Keep me updated.” I said before hanging up.

“Jarvis I’ve got a plan.” I said. “I need you to start by getting rid of any non essential data in your servers or if you can store them somewhere else and I’ll get them back in later.”

“Already done ma’am.” Jarvis said.

“Good now we need to start coding.” I said.

“For what purpose?” Jarvis asked.

“Hacking, it doesn’t matter if we’ve already used it and it doesn’t have to overly complicated it just have to be a lot of it and it has to go out at the same time.” I said.

“That would overload the system.” Jarvis said.

“Exactly. The server would crash and have to reset. It’ll take a few minutes before the firewall would be fully up again and when that happens…” I said.

“It will be highly likely you’ll be able to access whatever files are being stored.” Jarvis said.

“Exactly. Get me the code for every Virus, Malware, and decryption algorithm you can possibly think of. We don’t know how many servers this thing is running on but judging by the reaction time it’s probably a lot.” I said as I started typing out code.

Once my fingers got on that keyboard I just started typing away. My fingers moved across the keyboard faster than I even thought I could move. I’m fairly sure I had just beat Tony’s 150 words per minute record.

“Miss Adams You phone has not stopped ringing in the past five minutes.” Jarvis said.

“Patch it through.” I said not looking away from the computer.

“Hales.” Clint said.

“Hey.” I said as I continued typing.

“Are you busy?” Clint asked.

“Kinda what’s up.” I said.

“I just… wanted to check on you.” He said. I don’t know if it was the waves of intense anxiety I could feel from his mark or something I heard in his voice but I finally looked up.

“I’m… I’m not going to stop until we get back.” I told Clint.

“No one is.” Clint said.

“This isn’t your fault.” I said.

“She’s my partner it’s my job to watch her six.” Clint said.

“Nat is a badass, super spy that knows at least ten ways how to kill a grown man with both hands tied behind her back. You were needed elsewhere and because you covered everyone else no one went home in a body bag. And because you weren’t there the person she trusts most in the world to bring her back still can.” I said.

“I’m not a spy.” Clint said. “And I’m not an interrogator. That’s her thing. Maybe this is how she felt when Loki brainwashed me.”

“You don’t have to be any of that you just have to be you. Clint Barton, Hawkeye, the most observant person I know. You see better from a distance then give yourself some space and stop blaming yourself. You couldn’t have known this was going to happen.” I said.

“Can you feel her?” Clint asked.

“Yeah, she’s a fighter.” I said. “She’s not giving up and neither are we.”

“Are you sure you’re okay alone?” Clint asked.

“I’m a big girl Clint, I can handle a few hours alone.” I said.

“I know, I’d just feel better if you were close by.” He said.

“It’s a temporary thing now go be a hero. I love you.” I said making him smile.

“Love you too.” He said quickly before hanging up.

I took a deep breath before putting my hand over Nat’s mark. I rubbed I a few times before going back to coding. It was a few hours later that I finally finished.

“Okay, Everything has to be sent out at the same time. As soon the server is back online we have to move fast.” I said. “Three two one send.” I said clicking on the send button.

“Okay we’re on standby. The bypass order is already typed out.” I said. “Just say when.”

“I shall send the bypass order the instant the server is back online.” Jarvis said.

“Thanks Buddy.” I said. I sat back on the futon and closed my eyes. I opened them immediately and tried to stay awake but my eyelids just felt so heavy. I just couldn’t keep them open.

I don’t know how long I was out for but it wasn’t until I there was a loud ringing in my ears that I jumped off the futon startled.

“Ah!” I gasped looking around startled.

“Tony, you just scared her.” I heard Steve say.

“Uh, sorry.” I said standing up and rubbing the sleep off my face. “Must’ve dozed off. How’s the search going?”

“We’ve eliminated half the Strike team, and all the communications officers that tracked the IP address. So it had to be planted from someone from the outside or another agent that wasn’t assigned.” Steve said.

“Uhuh.” I said before walking over to the computer to check on how things were going on my end. “Have you tried talking to anyone Hadrian may have been close to before he was recruited to Strike?”

“We would if we knew who he would talk to.” Clint said.

“Start with the IT department. Hadrian’s barely knows how to work a computer he probably had to stop by more often than… not” I said as I brought up what Jarvis had for me. “What the…”

“Hayley is everything alright?” Thor asked.

“Yeah just, I’m gonna have to call you back.” I said ending the call. Jarvis managed to get into the system but for some reason it wasn’t active. Instead it was like I had control of the entire system. There was a window open with a black background and green letters.

Initiate System?

The system should have rebooted on its own by now.

“Jarvis I need you to shut down all other access points in the lab. If anyone tries to back channel into your server lock them out. Any data we get out of it goes directly into a virtual black box just in case there’s any viruses in there.” I said.

“Of course ma’am all contingencies are in place.” Jarvis answered.

“Here goes nothing. Y-E-S, This really reminds me of that movie War games for some reason.” I said as the window changed to show some creepy green Etch A Sketch.

“Adler, Calliope Chauncey. Born, 1995.” A voice said.

“That is not creepy at all. Why use a firewall when you have a freaky recording.” I said.

“I am not a recording fraulein, and I am not an artificial intelligence either.” It said.

“And the creepy recording talks back.” I said getting the chills. “This is not what I was expecting.”

“I was once as real as you and your brother fraulein. I may no longer be the man your soulmate took captive in 1945 but my mind still prospers.” It said.

“Zola,” I said remembering the name of one of the men responsible for Steve’s nightmares. The reason I’d never get to meet Bucky besides the obvious reason of him not living to be almost a hundred.

“You have heard of me yes?” It said gleefully.

“German Scientist, worked under the Red Skull, had a nasty habit of performing experiments on prisoners of war.” I said. “You died in the seventies.”

“All true except that I am actually Swiss.” It said. “And while my body may have died science found a way to preserve my mind. Stored in two hundred thousand feet of data banks.”

“I’m guessing you weren’t just a candidate for Project paperclip, you were actually recruited which is how you even had access to the technology you’d need to convert your mind into data that could be stored and processed like this.” I said.

“You are smarter than expected Fraulein, they thought I could help their cause, I helped my own.” Zola answered.

“And what cause was that because in case that part of your brain didn’t get stored, Steve took down the Red Skull and Hydra along with him.” I said.

“Cut off one head two more shall take it’s place.” Zola said and the chills started running down my spine. I’ve heard those words before, except they didn’t hold any meaning back then the way they do now.

“That’s not possible.” I said.

“But it is.” Zola said. “Accessing Archive.”

I moved my hands back and signed to Jarvis to copy whatever it showed me.

The screen changed to show a photo of some nazi officer before it changed to show a photo of some American Colonel, Tony’s dad, and a young Peggy Carter.

“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.” Zola said.

“No, that’s not possible. Hadrian, Hanson, Taylor and maybe a few other agents but the entire organization? Someone would have noticed.” I said hoping this was all some sort of hallucination brought on by extreme sleep deprivation.

“Accidents will happen.” Zola retorted showing an old newspaper clipping announcing the assassination of JFK and a photo taken showing the Winter soldier taking the shot before switching to another announcing the death of Tony’s parents.

“The Winter Soldier. He’s exactly the same now as he was then.” I said.

“Hydra’s greatest weapon. He will help us bring our new order to life just like he has for the last seventy years.” Zola said.

“Seventy? The first recorded sighting was fifty years ago.” I said.

“It took some time to break the soldiers minds and put it back together. It was not a perfect reconstruction, requires routine maintenance but he gets the job done.” Zola said before the screen changed to show a recording.

The Winter soldier was being dragged in by some guards. He was fighting back and he was winning. He punched and kicked. One of the soldiers managed to land a hit on his face making his mask come off. He growled before lunging at the soldier. He looked up and that’s when I got a good look at his face.

“Bucky?” I said recognizing him from the photos Steve had around his apartment.

“Sergeant Barnes did not perish as the captain so foolishly thought. The Russian sector found him a few days after he fell at the bottom of the ravine. The wild dogs hunted him. Hydra saved him.” Zola said.

“You brainwashed him.” I said tearing up.

“We liberated his mind from the confines of misconception.” Zola said as the video continued playing.

“Restrain him, get him in the chair! He needs to be reprogrammed.” One of the Scientists hiding behind the armed soldiers said.

“Ah!” He shouted as Bucky lunged for him before one of the guards managed to sneak up on him and hit him behind the head. That disoriented him enough for the guards to grab him and restrain him on the chair. He immediately struggled and fought against eth restraints. They shoved something into his mouth before the attachments on the chair started moving. They moved onto the side of his face and onto his skull before there was a buzzing sound and he screamed.

“AHHHH!!!” he screamed.

“No.” I cried choking back a sob. This is what Hanson referred to putting his brain in a blender. It was a twisted version of electro shock therapy. Somehow he had survived seventy years of that hell. Who knows how many times they had put him through that. “You’re monsters.”

“HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once Project insight is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. Any threat to our vision present or future will be taken out.” Zola said.

“How?” I asked.

“We have the algorithm to select our targets, Shield will give us the means to take out any threats.” Zola said displaying a rough blue print of some sort of flying ship with some pretty big guns. “It is a shame you will not get to see it Fraulein, but by then you shall be to dead to see it. Farewell.”

With that the screen went black.

“All data files were successfully saved Miss Adams.” Jarvis said but I couldn’t move.

My soulmate got taken by my psycho older brother who also happens to work for Nazis making him also a Nazi. The super secret intelligence Agency that keeps the world safe is actually said Nazis who have been plotting to take over the world for over seventy years and have been using my brainwashed soulmate, who I thought had been dead for seventy years, to do their dirty work.

Hadrian didn’t just have one of my soulmates hostage, he had two of them and I only had a little over thirty hours to figure out how to save them both.

“Miss Adams you appear to be in distress.” Jarvis said.

“I’m not in distress Jarvis, I’m so screwed.” I said having a hard time catching my breath.

“It would be best for you to slow your heart rate, if you continue to Hyperventilate you will lose consciousness.” Jarvis said.

“I.. I don’t…. I don’t know what to do.” I cried.

“A mild sedative would be the recommended course of treatment.” Jarvis said.

“I can’t sleep I need to… something.” I said as I collapsed on the ground. The last thing I heard was the sound of my phone ringing as everything went dark.