The walls were shaking. The alarms were deafening. The metal doors had locked us in, and the world around us seemed to be crumbling at the edges. I could feel the weight of the building shifting, as if it were slowly being torn apart. Zola's words echoed in my mind like a cruel reminder—you're too late.
But we couldn't be too late. We couldn't let Hydra win. Not now, not after everything we'd been through. This was it. The final confrontation. Hydra's last stand.
"Steve!" I shouted, my voice barely cutting through the din of alarms. The room around us was beginning to collapse, debris falling from the ceiling, sparks flying from short-circuited panels. "We need to get to Zola before he activates whatever backup plan he's got!"
Steve nodded, his shield raised in front of him, ready for anything. "We don't have much time, Bucky. We need to move fast."
I clenched my fists. Zola had thought he could outsmart us, thought he had everything under control, but the more he talked, the more I realized something crucial—he was underestimating us. We weren't just fighting Hydra. We were fighting everything that Hydra stood for. And this time, there was no way in hell we were going to let them win.
I motioned to Steve, and we moved as one. The sound of crashing metal and shattering glass echoed through the room as we barreled forward, our movements instinctive. Every step brought us closer to the central control room where Zola had made his last stand.
As we ran down the narrow hallways, the floors cracked underfoot, a reminder of the danger we were in. But we couldn't afford to hesitate. There was no room for doubt. We had to stop Zola, and we had to do it now.
We reached the central control room in record time, but when we burst through the doors, we were met with an empty chamber—except for one thing: a massive screen at the far wall, displaying a countdown timer that was ticking down rapidly. A message flashed on the screen: Initiating Final Hydra Protocol. Self-destruct in 10 minutes.
I froze for a split second. A self-destruct?
Steve didn't hesitate. "We have to stop that timer."
But as we moved toward the console, the ground beneath us shook again, more violently this time. A blast of air rushed past us, and the walls cracked open, sending a cascade of debris tumbling into the room. I instinctively grabbed Steve and pulled him out of the way, but the explosion still sent us both flying toward the back wall. My body collided with the cold metal, and I gasped as the breath was knocked out of me.
"Get up, Bucky!" Steve shouted, already back on his feet, his shield raised to protect us from more debris.
I pushed myself up, ignoring the sharp pain in my side. Zola had set the place to implode on us. He had activated a failsafe—a last-ditch effort to destroy everything he'd built if it was going to fall. It was the only thing that made sense now. He'd rigged it all to go down in flames, taking us with it.
I steadied myself and nodded at Steve. "We need to find the control room's main override. If we don't stop this, it's all over."
We moved quickly, dodging falling pieces of metal and flickering sparks as the room continued to collapse. The countdown timer was still ticking down, the numbers flashing ominously as each second passed.
"Steve, you take the left side, I'll cover the right!" I shouted, adrenaline coursing through me. We split up, scanning the room for any hint of a control panel or a way to shut down the system.
As I moved along the right side, my eyes fell on something that made my heart race—a large panel with a glowing red button and a security code lock. It had to be the manual override. I quickly knelt beside it, ignoring the chaos around me, and began to work on cracking the code. The seconds were ticking by far too fast.
The sound of approaching footsteps reached my ears, and I immediately spun around, every muscle in my body tensed. Hydra soldiers. A squad of them. They must have been sent to ensure we didn't escape.
I gritted my teeth, standing up and facing them, my mind racing for a way out of this. There was no time to fight. We needed to stop the self-destruct and get out of here before the whole place collapsed on us.
But as the Hydra soldiers closed in, Steve's voice rang out. "Bucky! Cover me!"
I glanced over just in time to see Steve charging forward, his shield smashing into one of the soldiers, sending him flying across the room. He moved with precision, his every strike calculated and devastating, and I didn't need to think twice before joining him.
I drew my knife and ran forward, throwing it expertly into the chest of the nearest soldier. The impact sent him crumpling to the ground, and I didn't waste a second before turning to the next one. A punch here, a kick there—fast, efficient, and brutal. Hydra's soldiers were well-trained, but they weren't a match for us. Not when we were working together.
While Steve fought off the remaining soldiers, I turned back to the panel, desperate to finish what I had started. My fingers flew across the keys, inputting every possible combination I could think of. The countdown timer was still ticking down, and I could feel my heartbeat racing along with it.
"Come on, come on," I muttered to myself. "You can do this."
Just as the last Hydra soldier fell to the ground with a thud, I heard a mechanical click, and the panel in front of me flashed green.
"Got it!" I shouted.
The countdown on the screen stopped, and the room fell into a deafening silence. The timer had frozen at 00:03 seconds—just in time.
Steve let out a relieved breath, walking over to me as he wiped the sweat from his brow. "That was too close."
I nodded, still catching my breath. "Yeah, but we stopped it. We stopped Zola's final move."
Steve looked around the room at the wreckage. "But it's not over yet, Bucky. We've still got to deal with Hydra. We can't just let them rebuild and rise again."
I nodded grimly. "No. This is just the beginning."
I could feel the weight of everything we had been through pressing on me. The mission wasn't finished. Hydra had nearly won, but we'd stopped them. For now. And I knew, deep down, that as long as Hydra existed, we would be fighting them for the rest of our lives.
"We'll take them down," Steve said, his voice unwavering.
"Together," I added, my voice steady.
And as we walked out of the control room, I knew that whatever came next, we'd face it side by side. We weren't just fighting Hydra anymore—we were fighting for the future. And this time, we weren't going to stop until they were wiped from existence once and for all.