The Winter Soldier

HYDRA

(M/n:middle name)

For an elevator that's over a hundred years old, it worked better than I expected. once down to the basement level, the elevator doors open and the three of us walk through making the lights turn on as soon as we were in. The room was obviously dusty due to how long this place was abandoned but that didn't bother me much. Everything was in the exact place it was before the place closed down. "This can't be the data point, the technology is ancient." Natasha says. We both look around and I notice a USB port for a certain drive. "But this isn't." I point to the port and Natasha plugs the drive in and all the computers turn on.

The computer in the middle turns on with a question on the screen. "INITIATE SYSTEM?"  It asks. Natasha then leans over the dusty chair and types on the bulky keyboard.  "Y-E-S spells 'yes'." She mumbles and a loud humm comes from all around us. "Shall we play a game?" Natasha then turns to steve to explain the quote. "Its from a movie." "I know, I've seen it." Steve sighed. We then watch the computer spark to life creating a face in green. "Roger's, Steven, born 1918." It says in a German accent. I then watch the camera turn towards Natasha and I. "Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna, born 1984, Strange, Y/n, M/n, born 1993." (Or your birth year. I'm using 1993 becausethe reader is 21 in this.)

I was personally creeped out by this. How did this computer know who I was? "Ok Skynet..." I say under my breath. "Its some kind of recording." Natasha guesses but the computer quickly corrects her.  "I am not a recording, Fraeulein! I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945. But I am." He then turns on the smaller computer screen next to him showing us a picture  of the person he was. Steve instantly recognized him. "You know this thing?" Natasha asked.  "Armin Zola was a German scientist who worked for Red Skull. He's been dead for years." Steve tells us as he walks around the computer set up. "First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I recieved 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." Zola says as Steve comes back to his original place. "How did you end up here?" I ask. "Invited." The Swiss computer said. "It was Operation Paperclip after WWII. S.H.I.E.L.D  recruited German scientists with strategic value." Natasha explains.

Zola then goes on. "They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Steve then speaks up making me look at him. "HYDRA died with the Red Skull." He says. "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." I could hear the smirk in his electronic voice. "Prove it." I said. Zola then turned on all of the screens in front of us, leaving his face on the big screen.  "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." I watch each video that was displayed on the screens. "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." All the pieces were starting to fit together. HYDRA was inside SHIELD for as long as Steve was under the ice. I then see two images displaying the winter soldier. It almost made me think of Laura and if she was still alive.

Natasha walks up to the screen with the same reaction. "That's impossible.  S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you." She said. A picture of Howard Stark is then shown. "Accidents will happen." He then showed us a picture of Fury and I try to hold in my tears remembering as I watched him die back at the hospital. After the picture of Fury, Laura's picture was displayed with the word 'MIA' displayed over her. "HYDRA created a world 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." He said showing us the project insight ships. "We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life. A zero sum." Steve had enough of it and slammed his fist into the screen, cracking the glass.