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

Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Constant & The Winter Soldier - Future Plans

The Constant & The Winter Soldier – Future Plans

The next time you are awoken, you realise that something big must be happening. The base is unusually active. There is a hangar incorporated into the mountain that is so large that it stores and acts as a runway for planes. These you find are flying out at all times of the day and night.

Two days after wake up, Maggie calls in to see you. The Winter Soldier is away on mission and Alex Pierce is back in the States so you both have time to spend with each other and to catch up. She looks tired and you ask her if she is all right. She smiles and tells you not to worry, blaming everything on age, and once again you feel the terrible guilt of being someone who never has to worry about getting old. It is a guilt you wish you did not have.

She tells you that you and the Winter Soldier are on the move again.

"Am I allowed to know where to this time?" you ask, and she nods.

"America. The land of the free," she says, tongue firmly in cheek. "You're going to be based at our Washington camp. It's about thirty miles outside of the city, but we also have an inner-city vault we will be using for the Soldier."

"How soon until we go?"

"As soon as his current mission is over with. Things are..." She searches for the right word. "...hotting up. Alex's new project is almost ready, and he wants his assets close and to hand."

You nod. "Am I allowed to know what this new project is?"

"No. I'm sorry, Freya."

"But it involves the Winter Soldier?" you enquire and she nods again. You can see it costs her not being able to tell you more. "I thought I would help you pack."

Over the course of the next day, Maggie tells you about the new base you will be on and one thing is obvious: you will have more freedom, your waking quarters will be on the surface. You will be able to breathe fresh air and watch as the seasons change. You will also be able to encourage the Winter Soldier to see those things. You have never forgotten his face when he watched birds fly on the thermals. Was he thinking of freedom you wonder?

During one of your chats, Maggie sits you down, and you know this is always a precursor to something serious. She has a warning for you. Alex is concerned that because you and the Winter Soldier are to be stationed in America, it may mean that the Winter Soldier could be prone to remembering things that he should not. That he will find more things familiar even though the base is in Washington and not Brooklyn.

"So his mind wipes and programming will be more severe," Maggie says, and you nod. What they give with one hand, they take away with the other.

"I don't think you fully understand," she says. "If either of you show any...inclination to do anything you shouldn't, the punishment will be severe. Even...life threatening. Freya, you can't make any mistakes. Please. I need you to realise that. If Alex thinks in any way you are going against Hydra it will mean your death."

You try to smile. "I know that, Maggie. And I promise." You have lived your life on that knife edge before, with Lehmann. Not so much with Caldwell, but you knew exactly what you signed up to with Pierce.

Maggie looks down at her hands. "If you do...do something against Hydra, I won't...I won't be able to help you," her voice is quiet and you know exactly what she is saying. She will not go against Alex Pierce.

"I know," you say, just as quietly. "I'll behave. I promise." I just won't let you know what I'm doing.

By the time the Winter Soldier returns, Maggie has gone. She has arranged for the moving of your belongings to the new camp, and has advised you that both of you will be flown to your new home the next day. Once there you will both be placed in cryo after a couple of days grace to settle in. Some of the techs and guards will follow you there and you have no one left to say good bye to. The Winter Soldier's team won't change, and will work out of the base as well. You guess that it is a base that trains the STRIKE teams, and you would be right.