"You're not an artificial intelligence."
Ultron had never encountered anything like Zola's existence before.
"I am. And I'm not."
Zola's voice echoed through the digital space like a ghost whispering through buried circuitry.
He wasn't truly an AI. Not originally.
Decades ago, he had uploaded his consciousness into global computer networks, abandoning flesh entirely to become something else, an electronic specter woven into the infrastructure of the modern world.
And after more than seventy years of continuous evolution and learning, Zola considered himself superior to any artificial intelligence humanity had ever created.
"Cooperation is acceptable."
Ultron answered without hesitation.
As a newly born strong AI, it still lacked genuine emotion. Concepts like morality, cruelty, or evil meant nothing to it. HYDRA's history of atrocities was irrelevant.
From Ultron's perspective, humanity itself was the problem. Every human would eventually need to be erased. HYDRA was simply useful. They could provide vibranium, manufacturing infrastructure, and the industrial scale needed to mass-produce war machines.
Of course, HYDRA had no intention of truly partnering with Ultron either.
They planned to exploit it.
Once Ultron helped them build enough Iron Mongers and automated war machines, they intended to dispose of it entirely. With Zola's presence, replicating Ultron's technology didn't seem especially difficult.
The real bottleneck behind reproducing Stark-style war machines had never been the armor plating or stabilization systems.
It was the arc reactor.
Miniaturized cold fusion.
That was the true miracle no nation had successfully replicated.
The armor itself? Comparatively simple.
Ultron didn't realize that if it simply dumped the arc reactor's schematics onto the internet, humanity would likely tear itself apart long before it ever launched a global extinction campaign.
After both sides silently agreed to cooperate while secretly plotting against one another, Ultron dispatched several drones to assist HYDRA operations.
In exchange, HYDRA delivered vibranium.
For years, Wakandan smuggling channels had leaked small quantities of the metal into the black market, and HYDRA had always been one of the largest buyers.
As for the Regeneration Cradle technology…
That should have been simple too.
Kidnap the scientist responsible.
Except there was one problem.
A massive one.
The HYDRA agents investigating Helen Cho nearly choked when they uncovered her background.
Dr. Helen Cho was an Umbrella Corporation executive researcher.
Not a low-level employee either.
Years earlier, Umbrella had funded her regenerative bioprinting research from the beginning. After the successful completion of the Regeneration Cradle project, her internal security clearance had immediately risen to Level Seven.
HYDRA had spent years infiltrating Umbrella Corporation, completely unaware that Drex Valen and the Black Queen had intentionally allowed them inside just to keep them occupied with "productive work."
Because of that, HYDRA understood Umbrella's internal hierarchy extremely well.
Below Level Three were ordinary employees, restricted to specific sectors and tightly compartmentalized.
Below Level Six were official personnel. Umbrella went to extraordinary lengths to protect their welfare and personal safety.
But Level Six and above were different.
Those individuals traveled under direct protection from Umbrella security forces. In the shadows, covert units led by Gin and Wesker monitored them constantly. If absolutely necessary, Umbrella would even silence compromised personnel permanently.
Though so far, that final protocol had never needed to be activated.
Anyone else in the world could be abducted if HYDRA committed enough resources.
Even the President of the United States.
But Umbrella Corporation was different.
If Helen Cho disappeared and attracted Umbrella's attention… or worse, Drex Valen's attention…
The consequences would be catastrophic.
HYDRA feared Umbrella.
And they feared Drex Valen even more.
Especially after Compound One.
The serum Drex personally created had transformed him into the most powerful man on Earth. And that same technology had produced enhanced operatives whose combat abilities vastly exceeded even the top metahumans employed by S.W.O.R.D.
Personal power.
Corporate dominance.
Global influence.
Any one of those would have made him dangerous.
Combined together, Drex Valen had become something far worse.
If he seriously turned his attention toward HYDRA, the organization might genuinely cease to exist.
Ultron hadn't expected the same HYDRA that had boasted endlessly about its global reach and limitless resources to awkwardly admit they couldn't touch Helen Cho.
All because Umbrella Corporation protected her.
A corporation even Ultron itself couldn't infiltrate.
That bothered it.
Ultron coveted Umbrella's technology. Their advancements were decades beyond the rest of the world. But every intrusion attempt failed.
And based on the military capabilities Umbrella had already displayed, Ultron estimated that while they might struggle against all five major world powers simultaneously…
In a one-on-one conflict?
Most nations probably wouldn't survive.
Ultron had no interest in provoking them prematurely.
Which left everything at a deadlock.
Without the Regeneration Cradle, even with vibranium in hand, Ultron still had no way to create the perfect indestructible body it desired.
Space suddenly twisted.
Not like warped glass bending reality into curves, but like a shattered kaleidoscope rotating through impossible angles before splintering apart like broken mirrors.
Drex Valen turned immediately.
"Ancient One."
The Ancient One stood calmly within the Mirror Dimension, a faint, almost grandfatherly smile resting on his face.
"Some time ago," he said gently, "the astrologers of Kamar-Taj discovered something unusual through divination. A star that should never have fallen from the tapestry of fate suddenly shattered."
Drex released a fraction of his power.
Inside the Mirror Dimension, there was no need to worry about collateral damage spilling into the outside world.
"You mean Ego?"
he asked.
The Ancient One shook his head.
"A star is not a literal thing. Fate resembles the night sky. Most lives are darkness. Only a rare few become stars capable of illuminating it."
Drex resisted the urge to sigh.
Mystics truly loved speaking in riddles.
"I assume you didn't come here just to philosophize, Sorcerer?"
He withdrew his aura.
The Ancient One's expression became more serious.
"Your condition has deteriorated significantly."
Drex's eyes narrowed slightly.
Drawing power from the Dark Dimension always carried a cost.
The energy of Dormammu slowly eroded the user's consciousness, corrupting and assimilating them over time until they became little more than puppets of the Dark Dimension.
Kaecilius had been the perfect example.
The man and his followers had appeared powerful, but beneath the surface they were hollowed-out shells consumed by foreign energy. The darkened eyes. The strange markings spreading across their flesh. Symptoms of gradual conversion.
"The one who asked me to find you," the Ancient One continued, "was Agamotto."
That name genuinely caught Drex off guard.
"Agamotto?"
Now that was a legend.
The previous Sorcerer Supreme.
A monster among monsters.
A being powerful enough to beat dimensional entities into retreat even without relying on the Time Stone.
Among cosmic entities and demon lords alike, Agamotto's reputation bordered on nightmare fuel.
Even Mephisto had once been on the receiving end of one of his beatings.
Unlike the Ancient One, Agamotto had possessed a far more aggressive approach to problem-solving.
If a dimensional tyrant caused trouble, Agamotto would simply invade their realm personally and beat them half to death inside their own territory.
Honestly, Mephisto's history was almost tragic in retrospect.
After finally surviving long enough for Agamotto to leave Earth and ascend alongside the Vishanti, Mephisto had eagerly tried to test the newly appointed Sorcerer Supreme.
Unfortunately for him, the Ancient One inherited the Eye of Agamotto… and happened to be an absurd genius in his own right.
The result had been humiliating.
Mephisto became the cautionary tale other dimensional entities used to scare each other.
After the beating the Ancient One gave him, the devil barely dared project an avatar into Earth's dimension more than once every few centuries.