Caretaker - What If...?

Part 1

||1991||

Siberia was frigid and you hated being trapped inside of this cave of a place. But ever since HYDRA took you captive and forced you to be the Winter Soldier's caretaker, there wasn't much you could do about it. The soldier was here, so you were too. They called you in from your home in New York and said that they were going to need you. So you went, although you didn't have much of a choice. You helped to bring him out of Cryo freeze and supervised the wiping, which you hated. You knew that he didn't deserve any of what HYDRA does to him. At the end of every wiping, he knew you were his caretaker and that was it. He didn't remember any of your conversations from previous visits, but you would take advantage of it and talk about the topic again.

They sent the soldier on his mission and you waited for his return. He made it back safely and delivered the item to the colonel. You found out that it was a replica of the supersoldier serum that they had used on Captain America, and Howard Stark was the one that was transporting it. It hurt you to hear that Howard had died, but you had learned to accept the things that happened at your job and move on. HYDRA gave the serum to five of their deadliest agents that had even more kills than the Winter Soldier. They decided to test them against the soldier to see how much their skills had improved with the help of the serum.

You stood outside of the glass cells that the agents were training in. You watched nervously as the soldier struggled against the first to be tested. You could tell he was really trying hard, but no matter what he did, he just couldn't win. You pulled your left arm across your torso and held your right elbow and you began to nervously bite your right thumbnail. The soldier threw more punches but the other blocked every single one of them. He grabbed a hold of the soldier's metal arm and kicked him back. The soldier flew back against the glass behind him and fell to the ground. You gasped lightly. A doctor went over to the other and began to take his pulse, but the assassin grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground. The colonel placed himself behind the soldier and commanded him to get him out of there. You followed from outside the glass so that you could meet them. The soldier shut the cell door and the colonel left. You and the soldier began to walk to the room where you worked, without saying a word.