Undisclosed Location
His arrogance was gone. Never had he felt such all consuming pain. James hadn't known what was going to happen when the men pulled two iron paddles down and set them against his temples. He was sat in a chair, up on a platform. The wires hanging all around hadn't given him a hint of what was to come.
James didn't realize how it would feel to have every nerve in his body start to burn. He could feel the electricity travel down from his head and through his extremities, like a fire started and roared from his insides out. The pain inside his skull was rivaled only by the burning of hot metal against his shoulder, where they'd put this metal thing in place of his arm.
It ended at some point. It ended, only to start again… they’d wait.. A minute? An hour? He couldn’t tell. Finally though… it hadn’t started in enough time he could actually recognize his surroundings. Maybe when they were satisfied with their tests they stopped. Or, maybe it was because he'd lost all function or control over his body and everything that didn't sting was numb now.
He couldn't focus his thoughts long enough to identify that they were only checking his blood pressure and vitals. All he could find through the hazy pain was the smell of his own burning flesh. All he could feel was the numbness and the spasms that hit random parts of his body. He could only taste the foul stench around him in his throat.
For ten days it went this way.
He would have lost count except each day was marked with a word. Repeated over and over, explanation seared into his mind every time the current stopped and left his body twitching.
Longing.
"Are you not longing for zis pain to end? For simpler times? It can be, it can all go away."
Rusted.
"Without Hydra you would be nothing. You would have frozen to death. Bled out in zat ravine and rusted away."
Furnace.
"You will be forged in fire, dear soldier. As zis arm is forged in a furnace of flames. Both the peak of Hydra engineering.”
Daybreak.
"Oh yes, zis will end. The dawn of a new world is coming, and so is it for you. Your past is dead, only Hydra's fist will remain by daybreak!”
Seventeen.
"You were born in ze year Nineteen Hundred and Seventeen. This will be much like a birth too."
Benign.
"Stop fighting, Soldier. Your efforts are benign to us, there is no more threat. Only our cause, your cause."
Nine.
"Nine heads, cut off one and two more shall take its place!'
Homecoming.
"This is your true purpose. Erase all else from your mind. This is your true purpose, you will serve, and finally there will be a homecoming."
One.
"You will be our first Soldier, the first one of Hydra's new order. Isn't it ironic?"
Freight car.
"You fell, do you remember still? Was it terrifying? With your exit from that freight car of mine was the exit of your old self. Now you will be ready for compliance Soldier!"
Then... it all started again... and again... and again... until he lost track of the days. He lost track of everything in between each explanation and thee pain that came with it. It came again… and again, and again. Until he couldn’t feel, until he couldn’t breath, until he couldn’t think. There was nothing but his hoarse voice and those words roared over the burning until it stopped. Then it was only the numb and the words. Whichever… there were always those words.