Winter's War || The Winter Soldier

Chapter Seventeen: A Zero Sum

Music is "California Dreamin'" by Sia.

Picture is a still from Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A Zero Sum

{April 4, 2014 -- Present Day}

"Rogers, Steven Grant: born 1919." The camera on the computer moves towards me. "Barnes, Emma Jane: born 1918 as Holmes, Emma Jane." It continues to move towards Natasha. "Romanova, Natalia Alianovna: born 1984."

"It's some kind of recording," Natasha says, trying to come to terms with what we're hearing and seeing.

But the face in the computer refuses to be mistaken as such. "I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain and Lady took me prisoner in 1945, but I am." The second, smaller screen shows us a black and white photograph of one of the people I most despised.

My struggle to breathe properly, as well as Steve's look of confusion, causes Natasha to ask the obvious question. "You know this thing?"

"Know him?" I scoff, giving an angry smile. "He's the reason my husband fell from a train. He's the reason Bucky died." I glower at the photograph of the mad scientist, wanting now more than anything to burn this building to the ground. "I regret a lot about my life, but one of my biggest regrets is what I didn't do. I regret not killing that man when I had the chance."

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull," Steve tells Natasha as he circles the large computer set-up. I can't tell what he's searching for. Natasha and I remain stagnant. "He's been dead for years."

"First correction: I am Swiss!" the unbearable voice of computerized Zola chimes in. "Second: look around you. I have never been more alive."

I shake my head, trying to keep my anger suppressed. "I spat on your grave in 1972," I shout at it. "You were dead."

"In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis," Zola replies. "Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving on 200,000 feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."

"How did you get here?" Steve inquires, re-joining my side.

"Invited," Zola replies all too happily.

Natasha's husky voice brings back old memories of the late 40s and early 50s. "It was Operation: Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value."

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

"The root of HYDRA died with the Red Skull," Steve defends. "And what didn't die, Lady Justice took care of." I appreciate Steve referring to what I did in the 20th century as Lady Justice rather than who I am today or who I was before.

The green face of Zola turns to the symbol of HYDRA. "Cut off one head," the symbol splits in half, "two more shall take its place."

Steve's grip on his shield tightens. "Prove it."

The other smaller screens spring to life as Zola searches for Steve's requested proof. "Accessing archive. HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom." Images of Johann Schmidt and his crazed army cover the screens. Then come videos of World War II, both with Steve and I and without. "What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist."