My Very Own Winter Soldier.

Proloque

Washington DC - Five months ago:

CHELSEY

I am busy cooking when the story of the bombing of the United Nations building in Vienna comes on the news. I am an assistant mission coordinator at SHIELD, so I know that the bombing is big news. Things had been really crazy at SHIELD, with the Avengers being divided about whether to sign the Sokovia Accords or not. Half the team wanted to sign, while the other half said no.

Putting the stove off, I move to my small sitting room to follow the news report.

According to sources, the Winter Soldier was seen near the building just before the bomb went off, and several people died in the bombing, including King T'Chaka from Wakanda.

I only know what Steve told me in confidence about the Winter Soldier. Two years ago, during a fight with Steve, his mask came off, and it was then that Steve discovered that it was his belief-to-be-long-dead childhood friend, James Buchanon Barnes, or as Steve calls him, Bucky.

The two of them both ended up fighting in the Second World War.

Steve apparently had health issues and only ended up in the army because some researcher was interested in giving him the super soldier serum. It worked, and Steve became Captain America. He was never supposed to actually fight in the war, but after he found out that Sergeant Barnes' unit was captured by German forces, he went looking for his friend.

He found him and the rest of Sergeant Barnes' unit who survived, and after they returned, they formed the Howling Commandos, an elite team tasked to take down HYDRA, the Nazi-German deep science division.

During one of their missions, Sergeant Barnes fell of a train into a ravine and was believed to have been killed.

It turned out that he survived the fall.

According to HYDRA files of Sergeant Barnes that were given to Steve two years ago, he survived the fall thanks to the Infinity Formula, a variant of the super soldier serum the Germans gave him when he was captured by them in 1942/43.

After his fall, he was found by Russians, who later, together with HYDRA, used him to spy on and eliminate whoever stood in the way of HYDRA. During the fall, he also lost his left arm and was given a cybernetic arm by HYDRA. When they didn't need him, he was placed in cryogenic stasis to insure his longevity, often for years at a time.

Apparently, he was also exposed to electroconvulsive shock therapy, which wasn't only extremely painful but also erased his memory of the past. This was done before every mission to make sure he stayed compliant.

Although he is not a super soldier, his arm and the Infinity Formula give him superhuman strength, enhanced speed, agility, reflexes, stamina, and resilience to injury. He is also a master in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, a skilled marksman, and skilled in the use of military weapons and knives.

Most people in the intelligence community apparently did not even believe that he really existed until two years ago. According to Steve, he has been credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years. Steve at the time believed that he was brainwashed by the Russians and HYDRA and that the Bucky he knew would never do the things the Winter Soldier has been credited with.

After the fiasco with Project Insight two years ago, the Winter Soldier disappeared again, and Steve and Sam had been looking for him ever since. Well, it looked like they found him.

Few people actually knew what the Winter Soldier looked like, and the ones that did apparently did not survive to tell the tale. There were few pictures of him and they were either very old or very grainy. He seemed to be a ghost. I only saw two photos of him, thanks to Steve.

In the most recent photo of him, he was dressed all in black with the sleeve of his left arm removed, exposing his metal arm. He had shoulder-length brown hair that covered part of his face. The only part of his face I could see was his forehead.

His eyes were covered with black goggles, and the part below his eyes was covered with a black mask. He looked very sinister, and it was no wonder that his name inspired fear in the people that knew about him.

The other picture of him was a very old one. It was of a very young, good-looking soldier while he was serving in World War II. I only saw it because Steve and I were talking about Sergeant Barnes one evening. I never saw the actual file because it was considered confidential.

I believe that he was Steve's childhood friend, but I don't know what to think about the brainwashing theory, and if it is true, could he actually be saved again?

I just know this bombing is going to divide the Avengers even more.