Red, White & Blue | Bucky x Reader

Chapter Thirteen

When the doors open, darkness greets us, and I draw my hand forward, using my powers to light our way. However, as we step into the room, the lights click on, revealing the collection of old computer banks lining the walls. In the centre of the room, on a raised platform, is a long desk with multiple monitors and a keyboard.

"This can't be the data-point," Natasha states, glancing around the room. "This technology is ancient."

I wander around the room as I look around, slowly making my way onto the platform. Scanning the desk, I notice a flash drive port hooked up to one of the computers.

"Hey, Nat?" I call over my shoulder. "Can I see the flash drive?"

Curious, Natasha comes over to see what I've found, and slips the flash drive from her pocket, plugging it into the port. The room fills with the sound of fans and thrumming as the old computer banks come to life.

"Initiate system?" a computerized voice asks as the question types itself out on one of the monitors.

Natasha moves to the keyboard, typing as she answers. "Y-E-S, spells yes."

The sound in the room intensifies as the program boots up.

"'Shall we play a game?'" Natasha smirks, turning to us. "It's from a movie that was quite pop--"

"Yeah, I saw it," Steve interrupts.

The computer beeps, and a green, pixelated face appears on one of the monitors. An old camera pivots to analyze each one of us as an accented, all too familiar voice begins speaking. "Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Y/l/n, Y/n. Born, 1920... Ah, so my experiment is still alive... I wondered where they'd hidden you away."

"No, it can't be..." I whisper as realization sets in.

"It's some kind of recording," Natasha states, analyzing the computer.

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

At that moment, another monitor shows us an old photograph of Zola. Seeing his face, I take an involuntary step back as memories of my experimentation and torture flash before my eyes.

"Do you know this thing?" Natasha asks us.

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull," Steve explains. "He's been dead for years."

"He's the one that... that did this to me," I add, allowing my powers to dance around my fingers in demonstration.

"First correction, I am Swiss," Zola responds. "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 two hundred thousand feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain."

"How did you get here?" Steve demands.

"Invited," Zola answers.

"Operation Paperclip after the war," I explain further, regaining my composure. "The government recruited German scientists with strategic value. Colonel Phillips believed Zola could help us with our technological advancements, so he recruited him into SHIELD."

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

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull," Steve states.

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

"Prove it," Steve demands.

"Accessing archive," Zola says as footage and images flood the screens. "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."

"That's impossible," Natasha claims. "SHIELD would have stopped you."

"Accidents will happen," Zola continues, showing us that HYDRA orchestrated the death of Howard and Maria Stark to make it look like an accident, as well as the recent death of Fury. I look away from the screens, filled with guilt and regret for not being able to save my friends. "HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the 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—"

In anger, Steve punches the monitor, cutting Zola off mid-sentence as it shatters to pieces. I go completely still as the realization sets in. Everything we did to stop HYDRA during the war, our actions, our sacrifices, it was all for nothing.

The computer beeps as Zola's pixelized face appears on another monitor. "As I was saying..."

"What's on this drive?" Steve interjects.

"Project Insight requires insight," Zola explains. "So, I wrote an algorithm."

"What kind of algorithm?" I demand, anger boiling in my veins. "What does it do?"

"The answer to your question is fascinating," Zola claims. "Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

Suddenly, the elevator doors behind us begin to close, and Steve spins around, launching his shield in attempt to hold the doors open. He throws it too late, his shield bouncing back to him as the doors slam shut.

I surround the doors with my powers, trying to pry them apart, and the metal creaks as I bend it, creating a large enough gap for us to get through.

"We got a bogey," Natasha warns, pulling out her phone. "Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."

"Who fired it?" Steve asks her.

Natasha tilts her head. "SHIELD."

"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain," Zola apologizes as I grab the flash drive from the port on the desk. Realizing we don't have enough time to take the elevator to the surface, Steve grabs the grate of a foundation drain and throws it out of the way. "Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us, out of time."

The projectile hits the building as the three of us jump into the hole, the explosion enveloping the room and flames devouring everything in its path. Steve lifts his shield above our heads, and I form a bubble of energy around us as the building comes crashing down. We huddle together, fearing for our lives, as we wait for either the destruction to stop, or for us to die under the collapsing building.

When the dust finally settles, I carefully shift the rubble above, digging our way out of the debris. Steve follows close behind with Natasha at his side. Reaching the surface, I hear engines approaching, and I look up to see three quinjets in the distance, their spotlights shining over the rubble as the STRIKE team searches for our remains. We run in the opposite direction, disappearing into the dark.