Thinking about ways Rumlow and Rollins could get their hands on Bucky again because my mind is trash 💅
Mainly thinking about the government eventually getting fed up with Bucky's reformed good guy role and him sticking his nose in places it doesn't belong.
They decide he needs to be taken out of the equation. He's become a problem they're tired of dealing with.
And because it's the government, they've got their hands in all kind of shady shit. But they can't necessarily do anything to Bucky because he's too well known.
People talk and people are absolutely going to talk if the United States government starts going after Bucky Barnes.
Public opinion matters and if nothing else, can cause a lot of inconveniences.
This needs to be dealt with carefully.
They don't really want him in anyone else's hands either though, so they have to get creative.
So... who's had a good history of keeping Bucky in line?
Everyone involved in the triskelion incident had been dealt with harshly.
Mainly because the public had access to a lot of things they shouldn't have and the government couldn't look soft or weak on hydra of all things. Especially with so much info in the hands of the public.
So they tossed any remaining hydra away in a dark cell somewhere and wiped their hands of it.
The public is happy justice has been served.
The government is happy that people are moving on to other issues.
Everyone is fine with that.
But now they want Barnes out of the picture.
And the best way to do that? To ensure he doesn't show back up, and to keep their hands clean? Is to make a deal.
Because guess who survived the triskelion going down, was probably looking for revenge, and would be willing to make a deal for freedom?
Brock Rumlow and Jack Rollins.
They had worked with the soldier before.
Had a lot of luck with him too before Rogers got involved.
Some bumps here and there but that happens.
They always got him back in line.
So the government cuts them a deal.
We let you out, we look the other way, and you deal with Barnes.
We don't care if you kill him, or lock him away somewhere or whatever, just get him out of here.
And Rumlow and Rollins aren't going to say no to that.
They go free, they get free range to deal with the soldier as they see fit (and they have a lot they want to do) and they can go on to do whatever they want.
They both know Barnes isn't reformed or fixed or free.
He just got off his leash.
A pet dog can escape and play in the alley all it wants but at the end of the day it's still a pet.
It doesn't know how to be out in the world or free.
Eventually, it will be found, brought back home, and things will be adjusted so it doesn't get out again.
Enforcing a stricter obedience.
The conditioning might be broken, and the chair might be gone, but that much trauma doesn't just go away.
It's engraved in Barnes' bones.
It's habit and instinct after all that time.
Hydra burned themselves in his mind.
They're not going to kill him.
They're not going to lock him out somewhere and leave him there until he finally dies.
They're getting the soldier back.
Because he's still in there somewhere.
Barnes can play at being a person all he wants but they all know what he really is.
They'll get it out of him again.
They know the techniques hydra used. They know the processes and tools.
It might not be as refined as it was with hydra, the don't have the resources or tools, but they can mimic it well enough. DIY it, so to say.
It might end up being like sawing someone's arm off with a plastic knife but they're really not too concerned on this being a pleasant or quick experience for it.
In fact, they're going to go out of their way to make sure it isn't.
They'll get the soldier back.
Whatever they want or need to do.
Because he's also going to remember his place by the end of this.
He's never going to stray again because they're going to ensure whatever is left of Barnes gets destroyed.
Hydra got too lenient with him.
Put too much on the chair and yeah, it was necessary, but they forgot that at the end of the day some jobs are done best with bare hands.
His fear had mostly shifted from the people to the chair and it should always have been the people he was afraid of.
They don't need the chair to keep him in line, he'll be begging for it by the time they're done though, and he'll remember that soon enough.
It's easy to track him down, they don't know where Rogers fucked off to but no one has seen him in awhile and that's fine with them. One less problem to deal with.
Barnes doesn't notice them and they trained him better than this.
Jesus. Honestly, it's embarrassing.
The soldier never would have missed them.
But Barnes isn't a good as the soldier.
Doesn't have the single minded focus that made the soldier such a terrifying, deadly force.
That's okay though. They're going to fix that.
He goes ghost white and freezes when they finally make their move.
The door shuts behind him and the room is dark with only streetlights through the windows to cast a little light into the apartment.
So still it doesn't even look like he's breathing.
Shoulders up, jaw tight, eyes wide and locked on them.
Their teeth catch the light when they both leer, the rush of putting the soldier back in his place already coming back to them.
He exhales, heavy and an almost unnoticeable whine to it, but he doesn't run. Doesn't fight them. Doesn't call for help.
And yeah, they knew the soldier was still in there somewhere.
It takes a minute for him to follow him when they leave but he does. Stiff. Silent. Terrified. Obedient.
They don't need to force him.
His knew his only chance of them letting him go was if they died.
They wonder if he would have gone after them if he had known they were alive.
If the fear/conditioning/loyalty would have had him breaking them out.
Knowing that if they ever got out then he'd never be free.
Not when they know him better than he does. Not when they know his body and mind so intimately.
And hydra might have gotten lenient with the soldier but they hadn't.
He'd always know his place when he was with them.
Never had to try to think with that fried brain of his or worry about what was expected of him.
He would have fought other hydra agents. Wouldn't have even hesitated.
Because he knows his place.
He knows them showing up means playing pretend at being a person is over, and it's time to come back home.
💻 : Bucky Barnes disappears one summer night without a trace.
Street cams show him going to his apartment around 130am but he never appears on them again.
The remaining avengers and their allies look but find no clues.
The United States government calls it a great loss and make a show of putting efforts into finding him.
Eventually public interest moves on to the next issue and within a few months the only ones still looking for Barnes are conspiracy theorists online and the remaining avengers.
Some people think he killed himself, or that he started over with a new name somewhere.
Maybe he went to wherever Steve Rogers had gone, or maybe he was killed by someone looking for justice from his time as the winter soldier.
A handful of them, on the deeper and darker parts of the web, talk about the occasional report coming in of hydra activity.
Of killings and other crimes that looks awfully similar to one's committed by the winter soldier years ago.
That the government sure moved on from him quickly. That surely they should be more concerned about such a potential threat being in someone else's hands.
Once, just once, someone swears they saw Barnes with two other men.
Unfortunately, that person died in a tragic house fire before any addition details could be given.
No one has reported any sighting since.
