Chapter 32: Discovering The Truth About S.H.I.E.L.D.

The elevator opened up into a dark room that when it slowly lit up they could see what looked to be a relatively large room with a couple of very old computer equipment and Luke knew they were about to meet Arnim Zola 2.0. As they walked more into the room they got a glimpse of the ancient technology and a bunch of monitors in the middle of the room.

Nat looked around in confusion. "There is no way the signal originated here, most of this technology is ancient"

Just as she said that, she noticed a piece of tech that didn't fit with the rest of the old technology. It was a USB device with multiple connections to place hard drives. Nat paused and then took out her drive and placed it in one of the slots, and secretly i used telekinesis and invisibility to place my drive in the last empty slot and kept my invisible aura on it.

The drive that Nat placed into the device was the one that she had originally given to Fury. When she placed it in the device, this caused the technology to start to activate and more lights to turn on. They saw that the room was a lot bigger than they thought, it was very big, reminiscent of a warehouse.

A camera that was on top of the main monitor activated and looked up at the group of three before. Green lettering appeared on the screen while speaking out in an electronic voice.

{Initiate System?}

Nat smiled and walked over to the keyboard and started typing while saying.

"Y- E-S spells yes."

As the system started to power up, Nat had a smirk on her face as she said.

"Shall we play a game?"

"Haha nice." Luke said which made the smirk linger on her face until she realized something.

She turned to Steve and said. "That was from this old movie that was really pop...."

"I know. I saw it." Steve said interrupting her. Obviously he wasn't in a joking mood.

Slowly a green electronic image started to appear on the screen and the camera turned to Steve.

{Rogers, Steven, born 1918.}

The camera then turned to Natasha.

{Romanoff Natalia Alianovna, Born 1984}

The camera lastly turned to Luke.

(Grey, Aaron, Luke, born 1982.}

"It's some kind of recording?" Nat asked Steve as his face seemed to beginning to understand something

{I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man i was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but i am.}

An image was shown on another screen and showed Zola.

After seeing the screen, Luke muttered under his breath, "Zola?"

Steve turned to look at him and Nat looked at them both before she asked.

"You guys know this thing?"

"Arnim Zola was a Swiss scientist, during World War II and was part of Hydra and worked closely with the Red Skull in creating the weapons using the Tesseract." Luke said which caused Steve to frown and he looked at him questioningly. 

Luke smirked and shrugged as he said "I read the reports of your historical exploits a little, you are the world's first superhero Afterall."

Steve nodded and then said to Nat "He's been dead for years"

{Correction, Captain, 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 200,000 feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain}

"How did you get here?" Steve asked.

{Invited}

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II, S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited German scientists with strategic value." Nat explained.

"Like the Manhatten Project but S.H.I.E.L.D." Luke added.

{They thought I could help their cause, I also helped my own}

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull." Steve said angrily.

{Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.}

"Prove it." Steve challenged.

{Accessing Archive}

Data Zola then began to have images flash across the screens in front of us as he continued.

{HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with it's own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist.}

Images of Steve as Captain America during the war began to flash 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 seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war, and when history did not cooperate, history was changed.}

"That's impossible. S.H.I.E.L.D. would've stopped you." Nat said

"S.H.I.E.L.D. should never have recruited him." I commented off-handedly.

{Accidents will happen.} Zola said as he showed images of Howard Stark alluding to his and his wife's deaths. And even a file photo of Fury's death.

{HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice it's freedom to gain it's security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA'S new world order will arise.}

Scenes of the Helicarrier's from Project Insight appeared on the screens.

{We won Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your life, a zero sum}

*SMASH*

Steve smashed the screen showing Data Zola's face in anger.

{As I was saying...} Data Zola said as he appeared on a different screen.

"What's on this drive?" Steve asked refering to the drive we had plugged into the machine.

{Project Insight requires Insight. So, I wrote an algorithm.}

"What kind of algorithm? what does it do?" Nat asked.

{The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately you shall be too dead to hear it} Data Zola said smugly as the door we entered in began to close and Steve threw his shield to try to stop it, but was too slow and we were locked inside.

"Well you're right about one thing, the answer certainly is fascinating. And you are not nearly as smart as you think you are." I interjected just as smugly.

{What do you mean?} Data Zola asked.

"That's easy. You see, my drive has been decrypting all your dirty little secrets during this time that you have been stalling and I have to say, I expected more. Your so called plan is as simple as one can expect from an organization such as yours. And I have no plans on us dying today, so long. Shut him down." I replied to Zola then said into my watch.

My command caused Data Zola to start to fizzle out.

"What did you mean by a that? You know their plan?" Steve asked

"Yes, but we don't have time for that do we Nat?" I asked.

"He's right Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops." Nat said.

"Who fired it?" Steve asked.

"S.H.I.E.L.D." Nat said.

"Who else could it have been?" I commented sarcastically.

Steve then went over to a grate in the floor and ripped it off the ground and brought Nat and I over to it and we all jumped down. Steve was just going to protect us with his shield but I stopped him.

"Don't worry, I got this. I know what I am about to do will cause you to have questions, but please just bear with me until all this is over." I said as a force field appeared around us.

Steve frowned but didn't say anything and just nodded as I then made us invisible. This was all just in time as the missile fired at us finally arrived. Before the missile hit, Data Zola was sprouting nonsense last words.

{Your resistance is irrelevant. Admit it, it is better this way, we are both of us, out of time} Data Zola finished as his screen finally turned off as the AI had done it's job.

After the dust settled, we all made our way away from the site of the explosion still invisible as we saw quinjets with their scanners active on their way to us. I would definitely have some questions to answer once we got to a safe place