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THE UNDERGROUND COMPOUND MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANY FRESH AIR TO ENTER. Olivia flung open the entrance to the compound, a fresh breathe of stale and musty air attacked her nostrils.
She was accompanied by the Winter Soldier, who staggered between steps, obviously dreading their return. He stretched his injured metal arm in agony. They walked down the corridor to the lab in silence, only thuds of their combat boots audible.
Their minds fledged between the truths and the lies. What happened on the bridge was more eventful than what they could have predicted.
Interesting, it seemed like they both knew Steve Rogers. Intimately.
"Stargazing. Mint ice cream. Neighbours complaints. Pizza on a cliff."
"Steven Grant Rogers." A distant voice in her head reminded. This made her bite her lip in consideration, even her subconscious knew.
For some reason, the flashbacks of how heartbroken he looked —the slouching shoulders and glossy eyes disturbed her more than it should have. The way his blue eyes kept flickering from Winter to her, made her feel... guilty.
What was she guilty about?
If it was solely based on Steve Rogers' words, none of this would affect her. But his reaction set off a few red flags in her head. It was raw, too real to be play pretend.
Unless Rumlow was lying, she concluded. She had friends while she was in SHIELD. Slippery bastard. But why? Family wouldn't lie to each other, Hydra would never deceit her right? Anger stirred inside of her and started to crawl its way up her throat. Her feet stopped at the entrance of Hydra's research lab.
There were Hydra agents stationed in every corner of the room, guns ready –a lot of paranoia. Hydra tend to get antsy whenever Winter returned from a mission, scared that he would remember after a prolonged time out of cyrofreeze.
And a Winter Soldier with memories was not something that Hydra would want to risk. They feared the Winter Soldier because they know what he was capable of. Ironically, Winter was programmed to fear Hydra instead —commanded to obey their cause.
Olivia heard rumors when Winter was first transformed. There would be uproars of fights and dead agents every other day and he refused to eat or drink. Every training session would end up in a pool of his own blood because his refusal to train. The hidden truth that Hydra never told new recruits was, the Winter Soldier would rather die than to be an asset for Hydra.
His mind battled against the brainwashing and wiping. But as time went on, the screams would stop. He would forget his name, rank and serial number. Barnes, James Buchanan Sergeant, 32557038.
He would start eating and drinking. He would stop being James Buchanan Barnes and be the fist of Hydra.
The Winter Soldier. He would be trained and excelled in every training, tests and missions given.
