Captain America Bucky Barnes Winter Soldier Steve Rogers Fan Fic - The Constant

Chapter Thirty-One: The Constant & The Winter Soldier - Programming

When he sees her again he will think of her as being nothing other than a whore.

To them she is a the fail-safe. She is the ticking clock.

The realisation of her importance abhorred Lehmann. It is always she whom the Winter Soldier remembers first when the programming begins to wear off. Instead of thinking of her as his whore he will start to remember who she really is and what she means to him. His attitude towards her will change; they have seen it happen even after the first wipe. A listening station is set up, and without the woman knowing they place listening devices in the Winter Soldier's quarters. This, Lehmann feels, is a must. A small team of men are selected to man it. Marinov is told and is disgusted but there is nothing he can do. He grows ever more disillusioned every day but he needs to keep his family safe.

Some of the programming will stay embedded for longer than other parts. It is not an exact science and they can never guarantee just how long something will remain. This warning will tell them exactly how much longer they have until his real memories begin to surface, and give them an idea of how long they have before they need to wipe him again. She is not aware of this; after all Lehmann knows her loyalty is to James Barnes and not to Hydra.

Layer Three

The next layer will be to reinforce who he must obey and who he serves. It is almost a repeat of layer one. This programming will be layered between each instruction until it is hammered in so deeply he will never stray from them. He will never forget who owns him. Who his masters are. Who holds the strings.

Layer Four

Another fail-safe to be ground into his mind. If he tries to access memories that are not allowed to him it will result in headaches. If he continues, then he will experience debilitating migraines. They tell him he must not to try to remember anything but his time here now at the base and details relevant to his current mission. They also instruct him that, once the mission is completed, he will be debriefed and at this time he will be instructed to forget most of the specific details of the mission he has returned from.

Layer Five

This is dependent on whether or not he has been bought out of cryo for a mission, for training, or for health reasons. That will decide on what is included in this layer.

This is as far as they go for today. He is in the room with them for six hours and when they have finished he can barely stand up, yet alone function. There were times during the programming when he was in such pain with the information being forced into his mind he would cry out. They believe in time his body and mind will become used to most of the pressure but there will always be a certain amount of pain, a certain amount of damage.

They allow him to rest for a while. His left ear and his nose are bleeding and his eyes are severely bloodshot but the serum is already working on fixing the damage. They will have him back in programming tomorrow to see what he has retained.

Eventually he is strong enough to walk on his own although his sense of direction and balance is out of sync. Two guards have to help him back to his quarters. He keeps shaking his head as if to clear it, but they can see he is still in pain. His ears are humming so badly he cannot even hear his own footsteps.

*

There is a knock on the door and you open it to find the guards holding the Winter Soldier. When he sees you he tries to stand by his own strength but he can't and he has to accept your help. His eyes look terrible; black bags under them, the whites bloodshot. There are smears of blood on his face and you realise both his tee shirt and trousers are sodden with it. You can see one of his ears has also bled. You were warned that this would be the case, but to see him injured again breaks your heart.