You’re in a recovery room in New York City

Steve slowly blinked his eyes open. He heard…a voice. It wasn’t in the room though. No. It was…but something was off about it. It was…echoey…quiet…staticky.

A radio.

It was a voice on a radio that was taking.

And there were…cars, not in the room, but…outside. Maybe a window was open. But something seemed…off about them. The sound was…something was weird.

Steve looked around the room and saw a fan moving on the ceiling. He sat up slowly and examined everything. Windows. A door. Cars outside, but they still sounded…not normal. Maybe he was still disoriented?

But what happened? He remembered…Peggy…and…and he was crashing the plane in the Arctic. He did crash it, so why was he…wherever here was? Did he get found? Did Howard found him?

“We’ll send out rescue ships. We’ll
find you,” Peggy said.

“I don’t think there’s going to be
much left to find,” Steve said before going quiet for a minute. “Peggy?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m gonna need a rain check on that dance,” Steve said.

“All right. A week Saturday. The Stork Club,” Peggy said.

“Okay. You got it,” Steve said.

“8:00 on the dot. Don’t you dare be late,” Peggy said.

“I won’t. I still don’t know how to dance,” Steve said with a sad smile.

“I’ll show you. Just be there,” Peggy said.

Steve rubbed his eyes before the door opened. He tensed up before seeing a woman walking inside and closing the door behind her. Something was off. It looked like she was deliberately trying not to show the hallway. Weird.

“Good morning,” she said with a smile before checking the watch on her wrist. “Or should I say afternoon.”

“Where am I?” Steve asked.

“You’re in a recovery room in New York City,” she said.

“Where am I really?” Steve asked.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand,” she said hesitantly.

“The game, it’s from May 1941. I know because I was there,” Steve said as he sat up on the bed. “Who are you?”

“Captain Rogers,” she said anxiously.

“Who are you?” Steve asked again with an almost death glare.

Steve jumped back when two armed guards came into the room. He quickly charged at them, the woman moving out of the way as he kicked them both out the door.

Steve grabbed the gun from off of one of them. He crouched down when the shooting started and quickly shot back, killing the few men that were there.

Steve ran down the hallway and turned down a hallway that appeared silent. Super soldier hearing came in handy…some of the time. Other times, he got too disoriented.

One time, a grenade went off and he ended up losing his hearing for a few minutes. That sucked. It was also terrifying.

“Grenade! Get dow-” Steve yelled before the sound of an explosion went off.

Everything was happening too slow and too fast at the same time. He blinked and tried to see through the blurs, but the ringing in his ears was too loud.

“Ste…hey…”

“Bucky,” Steve mumbled as he looked at Bucky trying to get his attention.

“You…”

Steve stared at Bucky before the ringing stopped. But…so did everything else. What the…he couldn’t…he couldn’t…he couldn’t hear…anything. He…

Bucky was moving his mouth…but nothing was coming out. Nothing was…

“Can’t hear you…I can’t hear…” Steve said anxiously.

From what he could see through the blurriness, Bucky had gone pale. He grabbed Steve’s hand and put it on his heart.

Breathe. Right. Right. Just…just breathe. Like…like Bucky had him do…before the serum. Before the war. Before the serum. Before…when he had asthma.

Steve took a few breaths and focused on Bucky’s eyes staring back at him. Flashes were happening around him but he couldn’t focus on them. He couldn’t…only Bucky. Only on Bucky’s heart beating. Only on Bucky’s breathing.

Steve stayed like that for a few minutes before the sound slowly came back. It was quiet…but he could hear footsteps now. He could hear breathing. His own breathing and Bucky’s breathing.

“Steve?” Bucky asked quietly.

“I’m good, Buck…I’m…I can hear now,” Steve said, a sudden exhaustion in his voice.

“Thank god. Come on. Let’s get you the hell out of here,” Bucky said as he helped Steve off the ground. “Don’t go jumping on grenades again, dumbass.”

“It was gonna hit you,” Steve said.

“And you lost your hearing for a few minutes,” Bucky said sternly. “If it isn’t the consequences of your own actions.”

“Keep talking, Bucky. Please,” Steve said tiredly.

“I promise, Stevie. You won’t be hearing silence for a long time after that stunt,” Bucky said, Steve smiling.

Steve blinked his eyes and continued down the hallway. What the hell happened? The guards were…Hydra. He saw the logo on their suits. But Hydra was…well, Red Skull was gone. He hoped Hydra would follow, but apparently not.

Steve heard something and hid in the nearest room. He quickly glanced around and smiled when he saw his shield stashed there. Steve grabbed it and froze.

“What?” Steve asked himself quietly as he looked at his suit.

Steve stared at his suit, but it wasn’t blue. He barely would have recognized it if the giant red octopus hadn’t caught his attention.

Those bastards changed his suit from blue to black, and added their own twisted logo to it. What the fuck? He was gonna murder them. He turned his shield around and froze.

Steve wanted to throw up. They didn’t just change his suit, but the shield too. The color scheme was completely black now. And with a red octopus. He didn’t even want to wear the shield now, but he needed something. And the problem was, his suit was reinforced too. Which meant…

Steve didn’t even want to do this, but he changed out of the extremely thin clothes he was wearing and changed into his suit. He felt sick wearing Hydra’s logo. But he needed some level of protection. Howard had reinforced his suit when winter came, and he kept the suit the same because he learned that it was some level of bulletproof. And since he got shot at for a living, and tended to be the target of most of that shooting, he needed protection.

“I’m gonna throw up,” Steve said to himself quietly before taking a few breaths.

Steve stared at the Hydra logo on his shield and his suit. He gagged before adjusting the grip on his gun. He put his ear to the door and didn’t hear anything. He slowly made his way out of the room and went down the hallway.

Steve tried to keep his breathing calm. How the hell did he get here? Did Hydra find him after he crashed the plane? Did Howard find him and they…what if Hydra killed Howard for him? He’d never forgive himself for that.

How long was he frozen though? He thought he died, but apparently not. Was it only a few days, or a hell of a lot longer? Was Peggy still around? Did she move on? Crap, he missed his dance. But that didn’t matter now since he needed to first escape this prison.

Steve heard faint noises from down the hallway and hid in the room closest to him. He sighed and froze.

Breathing.

Someone was behind him.

Steve tensed and quickly whipped around to see someone standing there. He was actually gonna throw up now. This wasn’t real…this wasn’t…

“Ready to comply,” Bucky said numbly.

“Bucky,” Steve whispered as his whole body felt like it fell to the ground. “Oh my…no…no…you…”

Steve stared at Bucky as his eyes watered. He quickly hugged Bucky and froze when he felt his friend tense at the touch. He slowly let go. He didn’t want to, but he remembered how much Bucky hated being touched…after…after Zola.

“Buck…Buck, it’s me. It’s Steve…Steve Rogers. It’s…” Steve said with a shaky voice.

Steve tried to multitask. He tried to listen to the hallway to hear if anyone was coming. He tried to get Bucky back to…god…what did they do to him?

Steve put his hands on Bucky’s face and stared at the metal arm. He was gonna…

Steve immediately turned and emptied his stomach into the corner of the room. Thankfully this room was relatively sound proof, so he hoped that no one heard him.

“God, what did they do to you?” Steve choked out as he wiped his mouth.

Steve looked at Bucky again, who was still in the same position as before. Standing there. Dead to the world. Numb. Whatever you wanna call it. He wasn’t even moving. Hell, it looked like he was barely even breathing.

“We need…we need to leave. Do you know any way out of here?” Steve asked.

“Yes, sir,” Bucky replied.

Steve wanted to throw up again. He was going to. But he forced himself to hold back the nausea. It was almost like…like he was…taking orders from him.

Whatever Hydra did to him…he’d kill them. He would slaughter them for hurting Bucky.

“Everyone here is bad,” Steve said hesitantly, not sure how to handle the situation. “Follow my orders, and mine only.”

“Yes, sir,” Bucky said with a nod.

Steve fought back another round of nausea before opening the door slightly. He listened. No one was around.

They walked out of the door.

“Which way?” Steve asked quickly.

Bucky pointed and walked down the hallway. Steve followed, him noting that Bucky wasn’t even walking normally. He was…like a soldier. Not that he wasn’t a soldier. But…this was different…

Steve clenched his fist before Bucky led him through the building. He got startled by gunshots and Bucky quickly shielded himself against Steve’s body.

Habit maybe. Or maybe Hydra…whatever they did to him…

Steve shook off the questions he had. He started shooting back, causing Bucky to pull out his own gun and started firing.

Mission: Protect handler. By any means necessary.

Steve noticed that Bucky had the gun now. He noted that Bucky didn’t even use it until now. If he had it before, in that cell, then why…why didn’t he try to escape? Whatever Hydra did…whatever they did to him…

Steve noticed that Bucky barely used any bullets but killed all the guards shooting at them. Bucky was a good shot but this was…cold…calculated.

Bucky continued down the hallway and towards a garage. Steve sighed when he saw a plane sitting there. He whipped his head around when he heard laughing behind him.

“Isn’t this a sight to see,” Zola said, Steve going pale when he realized it was Zola. “We wanted you, Captain, to be apart of Hydra. And look at that. You’re wearing the suit and everything. You’re wearing our logo. It’s almost like Christmas. It’s even better than Christmas actually.”

“What did you do?” Steve growled as Bucky kept the gun trained on Zola.

Bucky wasn’t shooting. It was almost like…like he was waiting for an order. Steve was gonna be sick, again.

“We found the Soldier in the ravine, missing an arm. Thanks to the serum I gave him in Austria, he survived. We rescued him and…well…made him better. He will be the new fist of Hydra,” Zola said. “And you, Captain, you already did what we wanted.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?” Steve asked with a glare.

“You became his handler,” Zola said, Steve gaining a confused look. “You told him what to do since you came into the room. That’s what we wanted. We wanted you to be his handler, the one who gives him orders, keeps him in line, initiates punishment when needed. He’s completely under your control. He’ll do whatever you want. Anything you want. How does it feel? You can make him do whatever you want, whether that’s for a mission or…more…personal wants.”

“Go to hell,” Steve said with a disgusted look. “How did I get here?”

“The tesseract,” Zola said, Steve gaining a confused look. “You were frozen when you…appeared here, while the soldier was training. We found you and…helped you recover. We thought you were dead, since you were cold and covered in ice. But you weren’t. The serum is quite impressive. Do you want to know what really broke your friend? It was us showing him a newspaper of you being dead, after crashing the plane. That’s what broke him. He was…hesitant to join us, but once he saw the newspaper…something broke inside of him. Then…he became the Winter Soldier. And now, he’s under your control. Whatever you went, he will do for yo-”

Before Zola could say anything more, Steve pulled the trigger on the gun in his hand. He started breathing heavily before turning to Bucky, who was still…that.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Steve said to Bucky, who nodded.