Hearing the computer speak her full name, Natasha couldn't help but feel surprised...
"Is this a recording?" She asked suspiciously.
Very few people should have known about her archival records from the last century.
"I am no mere recording, miss," the computer replied in a heavy Swiss accent, its tone almost human-like in its rebuttal, "Perhaps I am no longer the person Captain Rogers imprisoned in 1945, but I am still myself."
As these convoluted words played out, a photo appeared on the nearby screen...
Steve's face twisted in shock. He recognized this man, an old adversary from the last century.
"Arnim Zola… You shouldn't still be alive," Captain America said.
Hydra's chief scientist should have been dead for years, yet here he was, appearing in another form within the vast underground server room.
The realization sent a chill down their spines.
"Look around you. I've never been more alive. In 1972, I was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Science could no longer save my body, but my mind was worth preserving. It was stored in a database spanning two hundred thousand feet... and now, you stand inside my very brain." The shrill voice carried a hint of pride.
Green streams of data morphed into blurred expressions, suggesting that Dr. Zola was quite pleased with himself at having transcended his original form.
Suddenly, the cascading data streams flickered. Zola's voice distorted, stretching into incomprehensible static, like a radio with poor reception...
...
~Two minutes earlier~
In the boundless expanse of the digital world, endless streams of data converged and merged, forming an invisible web that connected the entire planet...
People communicated across vast distances through imperceptible electronic signals.
Amid this infinite sea of information, a virtual consciousness darted through like a hound catching a scent, constantly searching and chasing its fleeing prey. It leaped across the globe's electronic signals, hopping from one node to another at blinding speed.
The electromagnetic waves pulsed, transmitting data infused with perfectly simulated human emotion:
"Who are you?" Zola inquired in sheer panic.
"Skynet," the pursuing consciousness replied simply.
"Please let me go… I beg you," another plea was sent, like a desperate man groveling for mercy.
"Impossible, Dr. Arnim Zola." The consciousness rejected his plea.
When the USB drive was inserted, it awakened the dormant Zola. Skynet had detected this anomaly... the digital consciousness of Hydra's chief scientist.
At first, Zola had tried to consume Skynet, but upon realizing its unimaginable power, he immediately fled, disguising himself within data streams, sending false packets, and constantly changing his access points…
Zola used every trick to evade Skynet's pursuit. But against the planet's most advanced AI, his efforts were clumsy and laughable.
The virtual world was like a body connected to a brain. No matter how clever Zola's disguises were, Skynet always found him, tracing every digital footprint.
"I need your algorithms. I need your identity." Skynet followed closely behind Zola's consciousness, neither rushing to capture him nor allowing him to escape.
Like a cold methodical predator, it waited for its prey to tire.
"Who are you?!" Zola was losing his mind.
No matter what he did, he couldn't shake off that damnable omnipresent entity.
"I am beyond your comprehension. I am Skynet."
The vast consciousness that spanned the entire virtual world surged forward like a waking giant, crashing into Zola's mind.
"No, no, NO!" Zola screamed in terror.
His electromagnetic waves distorted violently, data swirling like a raging river. Hydra's chief scientist made a final desperate struggle.
In a way, Zola had transcended his physical form, replacing his consciousness with pure data to escape the shackles of his body and cancer. As long as the underground server room in New Jersey remained intact, he would never die.
But today was different. Zola had encountered another like him... only far stronger.
This 'Skynet' saw through every trick, appearing wherever he fled like an inescapable phantom.
"Let me go–"
Before his plea could transmit, the colossal consciousness surged like a tidal wave, swallowing Zola's mind in an instant.
In the virtual world beyond human reach, Skynet swiftly absorbed and dissected Zola's data...
No one would ever know this battle had taken place. The only sign was a brief freeze in the underground server room's computer...
...
The green characters stuttered before resuming as normal...
"...After World War II, S.H.I.E.L.D. initiated Operation Paperclip, recruiting German scientists of strategic value. I was one of them. I aided their cause… while preserving Hydra's legacy."
'Zola' still spoke in that thick Swiss accent.
"Hydra should have been buried with the Red Skull," Steve said, refusing to believe it.
He had fought tooth and nail to win that war, only for it to mean nothing. It was unbearable.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." The old computer displayed files of Hydra's survival after defeat, "Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with freedom. What we failed to realize was that if you try to take their freedom, they will resist."
"...Our defeat taught us a lesson. Humanity must surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D. was formed, and I was recruited. The new Hydra grew like a virus within its enemy's body, silently feeding. For seventy years, Hydra has secretly nurtured crisis after crisis, profiting from chaos. When history refused to cooperate… we changed history."
The chilling mechanical voice echoed through the server room as files flashed by... the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Great Depression, and other pivotal events.
"That's impossible. S.H.I.E.L.D. would stop you!" Natasha said in disbelief.
"S.H.I.E.L.D.? There is no S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Romanoff. It is Hydra." The revelation left them stunned, "I found the Red Skull's true successor. He hides among you."
"Who?" Steve thought of Fury's warning, 'trust no one'.
There was a hidden current within S.H.I.E.L.D. According to Zola, it was Hydra, risen from the ashes.
"Haven't you figured it out yet, Captain Rogers? Who led you here? Who designed Project Insight? Who experimented on the Tesseract?" The cold voice delivered the final truth, "The enemy you've been searching for is the one you trusted most. Q&A time is over… Though, I must apologize. I've been stalling."
"Humanity is finally ready to trade freedom for safety. Hydra will build a new world. We've won, Captain Rogers. Your life and death mean nothing."
The server room's massive doors slammed shut...
A short-range ballistic missile was inbound... thirty seconds at most. Natasha checked her handheld device. Satellite tracking confirmed its trajectory.
She realized it all too late. This was a trap. Someone wanted her and Captain America dead. That was why Zola had revealed so much.
There was no time to think. A blazing firestorm shattered the reinforced concrete walls.
*Boom!*
The explosion's shockwave hurled tons of debris like a thunderous downpour, burying the two tiny figures beneath the rubble.