Bucky is already busying himself in the kitchen when Pietro finally speaks up. He’s quiet at first, putting a kettle of water on the stove and turning up the heat. “You don’t need to know that, yet,” he answers, walking over and squatting down to reach his eye level. “You aren’t Hydra’s asset anymore. I’m not gonna let them do to you what they did to me. No one deserves that. These next few days are gonna be terrifying, but I need you to remember that I’m not gonna lie to you. I’m not gonna treat you like an object. You’re a person, no matter what your techs and handlers and superiors told you. Got that? No more drugs, no more wipes, no more training until you can’t even lift yourself off the floor.” Bucky reaches up, cupping his face to keep him from looking away. “I’m not your enemy, okay? I’m here to help you. Fight for you. Keep you safe.”
He blinks, and he doesn’t understand. The words bring static up in his mind, the static that covers out any point of true thought. Because how can he not be an Asset? He stares back at the Soldier, stares back at the man who took him from the labs. The labs, that were all he truly remembered, the labs, and the pain, the experiments, the things done for the betterment of Hydra. Pain, to make him a better Asset, a stronger Asset. Pain had been good, had been meant to help him. That was the point of all those times, strapped to the table, or dragged to the chair. He remember all that pain, and he remembered them telling him it was to make him better.
What was the point of all the pain, all the training and the drugs, if it wasn’t to make him a better asset?
“I am an Asset,” he says, because it’s one of the few things that he does know. Asset, asset, asset. “The soldier is superior Asset. Not enemy.” There’s something about that statement though, the moment that he says it, that feels wrong. Like there’s something in his mind saying no, no, don’t believe that. “Why would you lie?”
