Cut Off One Head, Two More Will Take Its Place
As Bucky would come to learn, the thing in his head called herself Khione. She was a creature known as a Goa’uld; a symbiote who’s race terrorized humans across the galaxy. They used fear to overwhelm the people they enslaved, choosing to pose as ‘gods’ in order to obtain dominion over them.
There hadn’t been any need for the brainwashing techniques they’d used on him before, now Khione could do whatever she pleased in his body. She was formidable.
The Goa’uld didn’t do anything on their own, their natural form was too primitive to carry out any of their malevolent plans. It’s why they needed hosts. Humanity was just cattle to them, easily expendable and replaceable. Hydra’s mission was of a similar nature.
Hydra had been formed by many parties, but Khione had been the mastermind behind their current worldview. She’d pushed them onto a ‘noble’ quest to reform humanity in her image. She’d even assembled her own army, a group of enslaved humans- no- Jaffa dependent upon symbiotes for their very survival.
His heart ached for them, he was deeply aware of the atrocities his body was inciting as Khione ruled over him. Kya was an ever-loyal companion as second in command. She held great power among the Jaffa, he learned, as she was one of the few female First Primes to ever live.
She’d been responsible for getting Khione to Earth, stealing a ship to send them across the stars. Khione had established quite the base for herself here on Earth, but Bucky was unknowingly responsible for her former host’s death, and consequently, his own possession.
When Steve Rogers had decided to storm Hydra and rescue Bucky and the other Howlies, they’d levelled the factory where the Red Skull had been keeping them. Little did they know, Khione had also been there, and her host perished in the fires. Kya had kept her alive and vowed to restore her goddess to her former glory. Bucky had no idea that would involve him.
Alongside the parasite came a new name. ‘The Winter Soldier’. It was a name befitting his cruel fate.
Khione reaped terror throughout living history, casting humans away like mere trash. Bucky was heartbroken. When his life was his, he’d tried his very best to leave a good impression on the world.
He’d thought he’d follow the age-old rhetoric; Grow up, go to war, come back a hero and die of old age. Khione had other plans. She kept him alive in an undying torture, keeping him youthful as all those around him faded away.
★
The creature revelled in destruction, and Bucky had been front and centre to stoke the flames of war. Khione had created tensions between the Koreans and the Soviets and launched an all-out war in only a matter of weeks. After a year or so of reaping the extent of the battle from the safety of the shadows, Khione herself ventured onto the battlefield, dragging Bucky along with her.
By now, the Americans had gotten involved, and Bucky felt a swell of pride in his chest as he watched good men trying their hardest to combat the war Khione had sown. She’d snuck into the battle now and spilled blood for the thrill of it under the guise of helping the Soviets. Bucky was horrified. He’d tried his best to break free over the years, but Khione was just too strong.
I see you trying to break free, James. It is no use; these humans will slaughter themselves for me. For us. Why must you resist? Surely you welcome battle? You fought in a war yourself. I would know. I started it.
Bucky bites his tongue. Well he would have, if Khione wasn’t there. This isn’t right. He says to her. You can’t do this to these people, they’ve not done anything wrong.
No, my dear, they have not. And that is what makes it so glorious. She sneers.
He sees a lone soldier before them now, who looks stronger than any of the others. Khione takes them over to him, and she begins to fight. Bucky doesn’t know much about him, but it doesn’t take a genius to see that he’s also a super soldier. In time, he’d learn the man’s name.
Isaiah Bradley.
His feet stick in the mud as Khione hits him with debris. She’s enjoying this, Bucky feels. The soldier lands a few good blows on her, and to Bucky, he seems like the embodiment of a true hero. Someone willing to fight for what’s right.
“You fight as I do.” She calls out to the man. He jumps when he hears the echo in her voice.
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, boy. You ain’t on my side of this war, so I’m here to take you out.” Isaiah yells back and Bucky laughs at his conviction.
Khione was mad, he could tell. She was preparing to strike.
“You will regret not taking my side, Tau’ri. I can give you the status and rewards you desperately seek.” She retorts, and Bucky feels his face contort in anger. She was very good at manipulating other people, but Isaiah was stubborn.
Had they met in a different way, Bucky thought they could’ve been friends. He doesn’t know exactly what happens, but eventually Khione withdraws, the lower part of his silver arm having been destroyed in the fight.
★
Another decade passes slowly for Bucky, having grown tired of the bloodshed, relegated to only watch as his body wreaks havoc against these poor people. Khione had orchestrated countless ‘accidents’ over the years to eliminate those who didn’t fit in. Poor Bucky had had a front seat throughout all of it.
Her crimes even made global headlines beginning in 1963 in Dallas, Texas. Bucky didn’t know if he’d agreed with all of his policies, but JFK would never run for president again, Khione made sure of it.
That November afternoon in Dallas had been just cold enough to need a jacket, but that was far from Bucky’s mind now. Khione had him holed up in an old depository building, scoping the president’s route through the downtown streets. She had amassed quite the crowd for her killing of the president.
She’d let a tip filter down to some of her operatives in the FBI who’d passed the threat on to the CIA. It wouldn’t be long before the conspiracies flew. As Khione pulled the trigger, other agents moved to frame another man so that the Winter Soldier remained as ghostly as he’d been all this time. Some people outside Hydra speculated that he existed, but no one could’ve ever guessed Khione was in there, too.
★
Howard and Maria Stark had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Though he wasn’t overly friendly with Stark, that’d been Steve more than him, the man didn’t deserve what Khione had had him do.
Khione had orchestrated the whole thing with a Russian soldier, Colonel Karpov, in order to obtain an experimental variant of the super soldier serum. Stark had left the comforts of his home en route to the Pentagon to deliver the precious cargo.
Khione would unfortunately intercept them. Bucky saw himself shoot the tyres of their car and felt his breath hitch as they careened into a nearby tree. Stark was a good man, just trying to do the right thing. Khione didn’t like that.
They’d gotten off the bike now and moved towards the crash site. He saw something move in the corner of his eye. Howard was still alive, crawling out of the mangled wreck. He looked up at Bucky and for the first time in nearly 60 years, a spark of recognition flashed in his eyes.
“Sergeant Barnes?” He questioned hoarsely. Bucky wanted to cry out in protest. He wanted to stop himself from following through with what Khione was about to do but he couldn’t. His face twisted into a sick smile.
“Not quite,” Khione snarled as she grabbed the poor man by his lapels. Bucky screams from the corner of his mind Khione had shoved him into as she slams him into the ground in front of the car. “Tell me, Stark. You made this serum, did you not?”
“Please… my wife.” He responds looking back towards the car. Bucky freezes. He hadn’t seen her in the car with Stark. Khione groans at his pleas.
Enough of this drivel, James. He is of no use to me. She says in his head.
You can’t do this. He was my friend. He yells back, but she takes control once more.
Really? I don’t recall that he was. You were jealous of the fact he spent so much time with your precious Steve.
KEEP STEVE OUT OF THIS. Stark may’ve been an ass, but he doesn’t deserve this.
I have often found that those most deserving of this fate are the ones who have so much to live for.
Khione tightens her grip on Stark’s shirt now, punching his face with Bucky’s metal fist until nothing but a bloody pulp remains. Khione swiftly places him back into the car and strangles Maria to dispose of her only witness. They look towards a lonely camera on the dark country road and fire into the lens. The gunshot casing on the ground at his feet was the only sign they’d ever been there at all.