Photographing Life

Chapter One: A New Gift

Being born inside HYDRA was a lot more different from what you thought, they scrambled to keep the soldier out of the loop of things, struggled to keep him ignorant and away from the truth. You see, this soldier wasn't like the other one, he was no Winter Soldier. His name was Bones, he was made solely for the purpose of fulfilling the mission in Lagos for the STRIKE leader, Brock Rumlow. This soldier was made in the likeness of Rumlow, to keep any suspicions away. A nearly perfect clone, the only real difference was those razor sharp teeth that sat inside his mouth, sharpened to points by the tech team. They served their purpose, but the poor soldier was oddly transfixed by them, too obsessed with the power trip he received when he tore into hot, human flesh.

Tech team was in charge of this beast, was in charge of every aspect of his life, controlled when he ate, when he drank, when he slept, when he had activities to do. His life was a schedule. All too quickly Tech became invested in other things and started ignoring the schedule, started abusing the man trapped in the room on the lowest floor of the facility. Started to forget to feed, to forget to take him out and bathe him. Bones was lucky enough to even have a toilet in his cell. Was lucky enough to have a bed that would keep him at least comfortable as he rested. He started to eat inanimate objects, like the fluff from his pillow, or a piece of paper, just to calm his screaming stomach. It sure was a mess he was living in.

It wasn't uncommon for him to be nearly starved and severely dehydrated before they took care of him properly. Soon enough they discovered he'd been eating things he shouldn't is when they started to muzzle him permanently. The leather straps tight around his head and clinging to his face in a stiff and unnatural way. He thought this was normal, thought that people had their place in the world, had their roles to fulfill and carry out their life this way. That's what HYDRA taught him anyways. He thought he was living out his life the way it was meant to be. They told him that in his next life he would become a HYDRA agent, destined to take down SHIELD in one fell swoop. And Bones wholeheartedly believed it. He believed while he suffered now, he would gain so much in his next life. The agents obviously had their fun with him, had their giggles over the unfortunate soldier and his situation as their slave.

After days and weeks and months, sometimes Brock Rumlow himself would come visit his clone, whom he held dearly to his damaged heart. He wished he could provide more for Bones, wish he could be around the man more. What does wishing get you though? Nothing. So he tried not to dwell on that too long, tried not to think of Bones locked up in a cell without a proper handler...not thinking about it usually turned into thinking about it all the time. He thought it was stupid that he couldn't stop himself from wanting to take care of this clone that barely had any clue that he even was a clone, nothing more than someone to complete a mission for Rumlow. It was ridiculous and Brock couldn't believe he allowed himself to get sucked into this mess.

So what did he do? He tried to make life for Bones a little more tolerable. Tech team would be notified of Rumlow's visit days before he actually would show up, so they had time to clean Bones up, feed him properly for the next few days, and work on some maintenance with the soldier and his behaviors. They tried their best to avoid suspicion, but Brock had someone on the inside keeping an eye out for his little Bones. Even no matter how many times Brock said he didn't care about Bones, it was so damn obvious he did. It was crystal clear sometimes. Nearly every time Rumlow visited, he would get word from his buddy that the other tech around him were busying themselves with taking care of Bones so they could avoid Brock's wrath. Funny. Agents that didn't even know they had another agent in there with them spying on their every move. Classic story.

When Brock finally does come down, it's level after level of some stupid and fake security clearance shit. He's gotta scan his badge a dozen times it seems just to get down to the right level and the last hallway was a nightmare. There's a guard at the elevator, one at the first door, one at the door that looked like a vault door, and a third at the entrance to Bones' room, which was surrounded by bars like a prison cell. Whatever idiot designed his room was gonna get real hurt.