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

Chapter Seventy-Three: The Winter Soldier & The Constant - Traitor!

Because of the butterflies in your stomach, you know this is the time you need to do it. This is the time you need to send him out there with something he may need.

In one of the pockets of his combat trousers you always place a small plastic bag with money in; that way if he ever gets separated on a mission he can always get by until he reconnects with Hydra. This time you put in more money than you normally do. You also wrap the ten $20 bills and ten $50 bills around a small key and place them in the bag, then in the pocket. If you are wrong and they catch you they will kill you...but if you are right, then it may save his life.

You hear footsteps in the corridor and the door opens and for a moment you are relieved. It is him.

Then you see his eyes.

He is so cold, so angry. Over the years you thought you had known his every temper, known his hatred, but tonight it is more than that.

Tonight, you know it is the end.

You don't know what they have told him but you do know the wipe they had to do was extreme. You heard his screaming even in here. And they would not allow you to be present, you were told you are not allowed to even leave your quarters and a guard had been posted outside.

You do not know what you have done wrong, but you are sure you will soon find out and it is serious. Could they have found out about Rogers? About the bag?

The Winter Soldier comes into the room, turns and shuts the door, locking it, and then, looking at you he puts the key up on top of the wardrobe. Somewhere he knows you can't reach.

The smile he gives you is cold, thin-lipped, empty. There is nothing there for you. You swallow. You can see his programming has been hard, deep. His nose has bled at some point and there is a trickle of blood on his neck. There is hatred in his eyes.

*

They set up the usual layers. Reminding him he belongs to them. He must obey orders. They gave him details of his next mission but this time they didn't mention her in the normal way they do.

This time they programmed him with two missions. She is to be the first.

He still remembers her from the wipe, still knows who she is. After they had programmed him on the Project Insight mission, they started the Constant programme. First of all, they make him believe they have him sat at a table. They have sheafs of blank paper, photographs of people doctored to look like his Constant.

They sat at each end with him in between and fed him lies, showing him photographs of her with SHIELD operatives. They said they had proof of her treachery. They were softly spoken. Apologetic. Solicitous, even.

"We are so sorry. We had no idea until now. We know how much she means to you, we have always trusted her. She has let us down too. She has sold you out to SHIELD."

Photograph after photograph that he believed were real. Images of her with other men, sexual in nature, or worse. Then they showed him bank statements, records of logs where they had 'discovered' she left her route, where he thought, he believed, she was waiting for him after a mission. And now he believes she was with them, with SHIELD.

They tell him they have discovered she has been betraying him and Hydra for years. When he questioned why, they told him she had betrayed them all, that she had been feeding him lies, giving him drugs, even causing nightmares to make him think he recognised the blond-haired man on the bridge who is a top SHIELD operator. She had used her own version of programming him, using insinuations, putting hallucinogenics in his drinks, making him believe he was someone else. Someone who once had a past.