Disclaimer: I Own Nothing
November 1943
Bucky jolted awake "Relax" came Dugan's voice. Bucky looked around and found himself in a dark dungeon inside a cell. He had been in various places since July, being dragged around by Hydra all over Europe. He was being held with Dugan and Jones but now he could see other men locked in the cell with them.
"Where are we now?" he asked taking in his environment.
"Somewhere in France" informed Dugan sitting up against the wall next to Bucky. Bucky looked around and couldn't find Gabe "Don't worry Gabe is being kept in another cell across the hall" Dugan explained as if reading Bucky's mind. "I think this is where we are staying this complex is huge. I managed to get a look while we were being dragged in, this place is a castle with a military installation built around it." Bucky stood up and looked around and found three more men in his cell. All of them were with the allies based on their uniforms.
"Bucky Barnes" he said introducing himself to the group.
An Asian man stepped forward and stuck out his hand "Jim Morita" he said as Bucky shook his hand.
Two others stepped forward from a dark corner, one of them was close to six foot eight inches and the other stood a hair over five foot tall. The tall one was had short hair with a goatee that was connected to his hair by a bushy set of side burns. The smaller one man stepped forward with longer hair and had a set of side burns as well "This is my brother Victor Creed" he said with a gruff voice pointing to the tall man "and I'm James Howlett."
Bucky nodded and walked over to the bars to see if he could talk to Gabe. Gabe came over to the bars across the small hall and looked at Bucky "I got two guys over here with me" he pointed to a man who was wearing a French uniform "That's Jacques Dernier, he was fighting with the French resistance until Hydra picked him up" explained Gabe. Dernier was average sized man with black hair and a small mustache growing over his top lip. Gabe then pointed to the other man who was slightly taller than average with a unkempt beard that was there because of his imprisonment "That's James Falsworth he was in the British army but was picked up by Hydra in North Africa back during the allied invasion" explained Gabe.
Bucky nodded "What is this place?" asked Bucky turning around.
Falsworth spoke up in his British accent "We are prisoners that will be used by that mad man Zola to be tests for his experiments" he explained. "Every few days they come and grab a few more people that don't come back and when they do they are different, they talk of the horrors that he does to them."
Zola toiled away in his lab on the other side of the castle, the latest batch of prisoners for his own super soldier program were all failing miserably. If their assassins had successfully brought him the sample from Erksine, now he was working with incomplete formulas and guesses. Schmitt had become increasingly annoyed with his lack of progress on the project but luckily his success with the Tesseract was keeping him in Schmitt's good graces. The bomb he had created for the assassin had worked perfectly and had sent the American super soldier program back to square one.
The Tesseract was everything that Schmitt had promised him it would be, in a few short months he already had weaponized the energy from the cube to replace ammunition in automatic weapons. He had created super engines for vehicles, power cells for miniature submarines and super planes that could travel faster than anything either the allies or the axis powers could produce. Unfortunately news had gotten around about Hydra and it's less than loyal actions, Hitler had ordered some of his men to come and check Hydra out and remove Schmitt if necessary. Zola was waiting for Schmitt to return with these men while he was working on a larger version of his Tesseract powered bomb.
The gates of the castle opened and Schmitt drove through with the inspectors, he was supposed to show them Hydra's progress with technological advancements. The two men Hitler had sent were what Schmitt called "true believers", they bought everything that Hitler was selling and they were loyal to a fault to the cause. They were both Hitler's vision of perfection personified, tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. Schmitt stopped at the part of the camp that held Hydra's armory. He led them to one of the Tesseract powered tanks that Zola had recently created a few days earlier. "These tanks have more firepower than ten of our Tiger tanks" informed Schmitt leading them through the area stopping to show various weapons that had been combined with the Tesseract.
"We have been ordered to see the artifact Schmitt" said one of the men growing impatient with the tour. Schmitt turned to look at them and nodded leading them towards the castle where the Tesseract was being studied by Zola.
Zola was surprised when one the Hydra soldiers came and told him to meet Schmitt in the war room where the two of them kept the Tesseract for safe keeping. Zola gathered his things and started walking to the war room.
Schmitt poured the inspectors some drinks while he was waiting for Zola to come "This castle was graciously given to us by the Von Strucker family" informed Schmitt buying time for Zola to arrive. "Their family joined Hydra shortly after its conception" he said offering the duo their drinks. The two inspectors were ignoring him wanting only to see the Tesseract which confirmed what he already thought. They were here to take the Tesseract from him and hand it over to Hitler and he could not let that happen. Zola arrived and entered the room to find the blue eyes of the inspectors looking at him "Dr. Zola please prepare our first experiment with the Tesseract" ordered Schmitt prompting a surprised look from Zola who began to prepare. "The potential for the Tesseract is infinite as you have already seen we have successfully taken the power source have used it to create super weapons."
"Including the one used in the unsanctioned attack in New York a few months ago" said one of the inspectors. Supposedly that attack is what put Hydra on the chopping block of the Third Reich and what precipitated this inspection.
"That attack was necessary to prevent the Americans from marching an army of super soldiers from marching into Berlin and tearing the Third Reich apart" informed Schmitt.
"Really?" said one of the inspectors stepping forward and getting in Schmitt's face "Because everyone else believes that the Red Skull was looking for revenge on the man who made him into the monster he is today." Schmitt was seething but kept his composure.
Zola finished his preparations "It is ready" he said stepping back from the controls of the first cannon he created the first week after getting the Tesseract.
Schmitt walked over and put up a metal target and then headed over to the controls of the cannon. "Gentlemen this is the future" he said firing a single blast that obliterated the metal target. The inspectors were impressed as they looked at the cannon carefully "This is Hydra's future" said Schmitt.
"You mean the future of Germany" corrected one of the inspectors.
Schmitt smiled "No" he turned the cannon and fired obliterating the inspector leaving just one who was franticly shouting at Schmitt in German "I meant the future of Hydra" he said as Hydra troops ran into the room and aimed their Tesseract weapons at the inspector.
"You are all traitors" the man shouted as Schmitt approached him slowly.
Schmitt knelt down in front of the man and smiled "You want to see the Red Skull?" he asked pulling up on his neck revealing that he was wearing a mask. Underneath was the real face of Johann Schmitt, he was bald with red skin, his nose was non-existent, his eyes burned with a fury and an evil that the inspector had never seen before. "I am the Red Skull and Hydra is mine, we are going to bring the world under control, I am the next step in human evolution. I will create a race of people in my image and they will dominate the planet" he stood and walked over to the cannon "Hail Hydra" he said firing and obliterating the inspector.