You can read early chapters on my [P].[A].[T].[R].[E].[O].[N].
Link: [email protected]/Arson09
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Present Day
Captain Rogers
Steve arrived at the hospital later that evening after his narrow escape from the Triskelion. He immediately noticed that the USB drive Fury had entrusted to him was gone, missing from its hiding spot behind the vending machine.
That was when Natasha Romanoff appeared from the shadows. Steve lunged, jerking her into an adjacent room and demanding to know what she understood about the day's chaos—the *Lemurian Star*, the pirates Fury had supposedly hired, and the ambush.
"I only act like I know everything, Rogers," Natasha answered simply.
Though she did know about the man who killed Fury. She revealed that most of the intelligence community didn't even believe the man who attacked Fury existed; those who did called him "the Winter Soldier." She described him as a ghost—a legendary assassin she had encountered once before, leaving her with a scar and a haunting memory.
Now, they were en route to an Apple Store, hoping to bypass the encryption and access the valuable data on the USB. However, just as Fury had experienced, they found the files ghosted—locked behind a security protocol they couldn't break. Despite the dead end, they managed to trace the signal to the physical location where the program was originally authored.
Rumlow and his STRIKE team arrived shortly after, scouring the mall to intercept them. But with a calculated public display of affection—Natasha pulling Steve into a kiss to hide their faces—they managed to slip past the hunters and escape without further incident.
A few hours later:
Camp Lehigh, New Jersey.
"This camp is where I was trained," Steve said, observing the weathered environment.
"This is a dead end. Zero heat signatures, zero waves... not even radio. Whoever encrypted the file must have used a router to throw people off," Natasha clarified.
Steve looked toward an odd-looking building and started walking toward it.
"What is it?" Natasha asked.
"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks. This building is in the wrong place," Steve noted.
Sure enough, the building seemed to be the very place where SHIELD was founded. However, Steve noticed a distinct airflow coming through the gaps of a false wall.
"If you are already working in a secret office, why do you need to hide an elevator?" he mused as he slid the wall aside.
The elevator reached the bottom floor and hissed open. The room was illuminated by the malevolent red glow of molten metal, with a spotlight in the center of the room pointing toward an expensive-looking chair.
"Somebody's there," Natasha whispered from beside Steve, noticing a man reclining in the seat.
"Hey, Cap," the man spoke. He was wearing a sharp, two-piece black suit with a red tie. "You're a few hours earlier than I expected... but oh well, all's well that ends well, I guess."
"Park?" the Captain said, his jaw tight. *Was Ethan working for Pierce? Was he also involved in this conspiracy?*
Steve and Natasha shared a worried glance. Natasha, however, was more confused than apprehensive.
'Has Park been screwing with us since New York, playing the hero... unless he and Pierce are in on this together?' Natasha's brow furrowed. 'No! Definitely not. Park could kill every person in this country, all on his own if he really wanted to. There will be no need for all this commotion.'
Unlike the general public, Natasha being a high level Shield operative was acutely aware of Ethan's capabilities.
But Before she could fish for answers, a creak echoed from behind Ethan. They turned toward the source, and from the darkness stepped the Winter Soldier. She was certain of it; she could never forget those eyes.
"Bucky?" Steve muttered, taking a subconscious step back.
"Hey, Steve... long time no see, bud," the Winter Soldier replied. Natasha looked toward the Captain, her suspicions finally confirmed.
"Long time no see? How the hell are you alive? I saw...I saw you fall," Steve questioned, his voice cracking with emotion.
"Language," Ethan interjected. All three looked toward him as he simply raised his hands. "What? It's not every day you get to correct Captain America on his manners; you just have to take the chance when you see it."
"What happened here?" Natasha asked, her eyes scanning the room of molten computer parts and scorched circuitry.
"Oh..we are currently standing in the melted brain of an evil AI. To summarize, this is how it went down," Ethan spoke, and the scene shifted.
Two Hours Ago:
Two figures could be seen stepping out of the elevator into the same sprawling room. Ethan and Bucky made their way inside.
"What is this place?" Bucky asked, looking around the subterranean chamber.
"A supercomputer... probably the first one ever made to replicate the human brain," Ethan explained. He glanced at Bucky. "You might remember the man responsible—he was the one who gave you that arm."
"Arnim Zola," Bucky said, his eyes widening at the mention of his former cybernatic limb. He looked down at his left arm, which was no longer cold metal, but warm flesh and blood.
When he had woken up, It had regrown entirely—muscles, bones, nerves, veins, and arteries. That was the only way he could describe it.
Bucky looked back at the strange man who had claimed to be friends with Steve.
"What are we doing here exactly?" he asked.
"Well... technically, we're waiting for Captain Rogers to arrive," Ethan spoke as he began tweaking the hardware. Failing to understand the ancient mechanism, he grew visibly frustrated with the outdated tech.
"Ah, what the hell," Ethan declared. He produced a modern hard drive, the one he had received from Pierce himself, from his shadow and inserted it into the newly integrated USB port.
That seemed to have done the trick; the lights in the room illuminated, and the old reels of the supercomputer started rotating once again with a mechanical hum.
"Hey, it worked! See? I am a genius," Ethan declared, looking at Bucky proudly.
You didn't actually do anything, Bucky thought, deadpanning as he watched the display.
[INITIATE SYSTEM], the screen displaced.
Bucky looked towards Ethan, just then a distortion in space passed through him, as if a mirror, " That should do it," he heard Ethan mutter, as he typed, [ YES].
Ethan turned towards him, "Huh? What's that face for..." He began, but he was interrupted by the shifting screen of the main computer.
"Park... Ethan, Born 1995," a sophisticated German-Swiss voice emanated from the machine. The screen flickered, revealing the pixelated, green face of Arnim Zola. "Barnes... James, Born 1917."
"You are supposed to be dead, Herr Park. How did you survive?" Zola questioned.
Was Pierce mistaken? Or did he betray the Cause? Regardless, I must inform the others. Zola attempted to broadcast a signal outside of Camp Lehigh, but failed.
A jammer capable of blocking me...? No, this feels different.
"Trying to get a word out, are you, Dr. Zola?" Ethan asked. "It won't work. You see, we are in a separate dimension—the Mirror one, to be exact." As he finished, the room began to warp; a perfect reflection of the laboratory materialized across the ceiling.
"Neat trick," Bucky remarked, observing the folding environment.
Realizing he couldn't send an external signal, Zola wasted no time and attempted to activate the Winter Soldier.
"Zhelaniye. Rzhavyy," Zola began, reciting the trigger words. These commands had been etched into Bucky's mind under Zola's direct supervision through brutal Pavlovian conditioning.
"Ahhhhhhh! Stop!" Bucky screeched, clutching his head with both hands as if in physical agony.
"Semnadtsat'. Rassvet. Pech'," Zola continued nonetheless. Ethan watched from the periphery. He's fighting it better than I expected, he noted silently.
"Stop, dammit!" Bucky shouted, launching himself toward the main console. He punched the monitor with all his might, shattering the glass on impact.
However, the pixelated green face of Zola simply flickered onto a different terminal. "Devyat'. Dobroserdechnyy. Vozvrashcheniye na rodinu," Zola's voice persisted. These Russian commands were meticulously designed to induce a state of total, mindless compliance.
"Odin. Tovarnyy vagon," Zola finished.
A brief, heavy silence followed. Ethan maintained a neutral expression, one hand slightly raised.
It is still too soon for him to heal completely. Tora had released the suppressed memories the conditioning had buried, but the deep psychological scars left on Barnes's psyche would not be mended in a single day.
"Ready... to comply," Bucky forced out through gritted teeth. But just as he finished,
Kitsuna emerged from Ethan's shadow, and with a wave of Cursed energy...the winter Soldier stood frozen... immobilized.
"Thanks,Lady," Ethan spoke as Kitsuna dissolved back in his shadow, then he turned...glaring at Zola's pixelated visage."That wasn't very nice, "
"You? Speaking of Anständigkeit—of niceties—Herr Park? The sun must have emerged from the west today," Zola replied, his digital voice crackling with a cold, superior rasp.
Afterall Park had hunted HYDRA forces across planet with a passion.
"Hmm..Just for the record, you are the dead Nazi robot here," Park spoke, clearly exasperated.
"Robot? Kindisch. Please, I am not so primitive. As for being dead—look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. German science could not save my flesh, but my mind? That was a treasure worth preserving—stored on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are currently standing inside my Gehirn—my brain."
"Ah...I must say, I am actually impressed. The number of people who would go to the lengths you have gone for their goals... they could be counted on one hand," Ethan spoke at length, and he truly was impressed.
Everyone else in Hydra seemed to want something for themselves—some craved power, while others were only in it for the money. Zola, on the other hand, desired only the resurgence of Hydra itself.
"You surrendered your very humanity for your cause. How many people can claim such a feat," Ethan finished.
"Are you consoling me, Sorcerer?" Zola spoke, his voice crackling with a cold, superior rasp. "You think that just because you have found me on the backfoot, Hydra can be defeated? *Nein... Nein!* You cut off one head, and two more shall take its place. We are Hydra. We are *unendlich*—without end." As he finished the main screen shifted.
[SELF-DESTRUCT PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
[SELF-DESTRUCT IN TEN SECONDS.]
[10... 9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1]
As the countdown finished, the two hundred thousand feet of data banks began humming with surge of power, overloading upon themselves.
*BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.*
Simultaneously, the data banks on all sides of the room started to implode.
"It... is done..." Zola's voice flickered through heavy distortion. "Best-case... scenario... both of you die... here... in a fiery explosion... but even in the case you survive... you will get nothing out of me..."
*BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.*
There was silence for a moment, with Park standing calmly in front of Zola as explosions erupted around them, until the corner of Ethan's mouth curved upward.
"Hahahah..." he began laughing.
Comically, Bucky had just regained consciousness, and the first thing he saw was Ethan Park cackling as the world detonated around them.
"I didn't think you were capable of going this far, Arnim Zola!" Ethan shouted over the thunderous, simultaneous explosions.
"Tell me..." Zola spoke, his voice increasingly distorted. "Why do you hunt us so relentlessly?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Ethan questioned back, looking directly into the terminal's flickering eye.
"Subject 3030... Seth... your elder twin," Zola replied. "Hydra High Command had a similar theory."
At the mention of Seth, Ethan's gaze sharpened. "Yes... nobody should be allowed to take youth away from young people. Nobody." As he finished, his shadow shifted as **Nue Reversal**, the giant worm Jormungandr, utilized its **Sand Release** to encase both Ethan and Bucky in a spherical sand defense wall against the incoming inferno.
*BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.*
The scene cuts back to the Captain and Natasha.
Bucky shook his head with a faint, weary smile and moved toward Steve. "He said he was your friend; honestly, I didn't believe him," Bucky said, gesturing toward Ethan with his thumb. "You have weird friends, Steve."
"I can hear you, you know," Ethan called out from across the room.
"He also said you would be here." Bucky stepped closer, and he and Steve collapsed into a long-overdue hug.
After a few seconds, "*Clap. Clap.* Enough bromance, you two," Ethan said, standing up. "It was past time you knew the truth, Captain."
Steve gritted his teeth. "How did Zola even get here?"
"Invited," Ethan answered, casting a pointed look toward Natasha.
"Operation Paperclip. S.H.I.E.L.D. had its own version of it," Romanoff replied.
"Recruiting enemy scientists after the war... only Zola proved to be parasitic. S.H.I.E.L.D. always did have a unique ability to fuck themselves up," Ethan spoke without thinking. He immediately caught himself as he looked toward the Captain.
"Don't say it. Don't you dare say it."
"Language," Steve let out a bitter, weary laugh.
"God fucking dammit,"
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A/N: So how was the chapter?
I recently watched season 5 of Stranger Things, I am thinking of adding Stranger Things in this Fic, How many of you have watched it?