IF EVERYONE IS EVIL IS EVERYTHING FINE OR WORSE

[dousing]

DARKEST TIMELINE MEME The darkest timeline is a phenomenon when there are multiple possibilities for a situation to turn out and progress forward. Each has a different outcome, but one of those possibilities. One of them is the darkest timeline. The timeline in which everything goes wrong and there's no turning back. The villain gets the weapon that will end the war instead of the heroes, you fuck up someone's food order and they turn out to be the health inspector, the cabin you picked has an axe murderer in it, you come back from a pizza run and the whole room is on fire and everyone has grown evil beards--wait, what? In any case, explore those here: it may not be the end! Maybe you just have to live with this shit forever because there's no way out. • Top level your character. • Include any details you might think are relevant about how you want your timeline to go. Or don't. As always, we're not the cops. • Reply to other people's top levels! • Have fun!

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[bottledblond]

With the serum allowed to do as it was meant to, Steve didn’t need a lot of tending to. They cleaned him up, checked to see if he needed stitches (and he did, but just one), dressed him in new clothing as if to make him feel less like an animal for the moment, and dropped him off to sleep in his fantastic new holding cell. Top notch. Location, location, location. He’d already memorized everything he could about it by the time that he was commanded away from the door and Bucky swaggered in with that little limp of his and the disconcerting look in his eyes from earlier.

Steve had lost all sense of time. He knew it was daylight, but the amount of time that had passed between going down in the plane, waking up in that other room, and now waking up here could have stretched from hours to weeks. It never occurred to him that it had been years between the first two occurrences and he wouldn’t have believed anyone that tried to tell him the truth of that.

He needed to eat. His body demanded it. But all Steve did was ignore the tray and the words and instead focused on Bucky himself.

Something told him that their scuffle before caused Bucky the pain, not from the fight itself but from whatever had happened after it.

“You all right?” A strange question. No one cared about the comfort of a weapon.

[missionreport]

And of course Rogers is being stubborn by not taking the tray. Considering the sizable file on the man, he probably shouldn't be surprised.

The Soldier does feel something that wants to be frustration. Every other recruit has wanted to be here, wants what HYDRA offers. They knew what was at stake and they had done everything to try to get a leg up over their competitors - bribes and threats and even seduction, which hadn't worked out for the most part. Not with him. Rogers, though. Rogers is still trying to have a conversation, doing exactly what he told him not to: seems like the two words "no fraternizing" isn't something he understands.

He'll have to strip that from him sooner than later.

The Winter Soldier sets the tray down on the table that's been bolted both to the wall and the floor. It's doubly reinforced after his handlers reviewed the fight's footage and he doubts either of them could budge that thing now even if their lives depended on it. No chance it could be moved or used as a weapon. Something that could be approval swells before he squashes it and turns back to stare at HYDRA's latest recruit.

"Why wouldn't I be?" The Winter Soldier doesn't care for the suppression chair, but he recognizes its purpose, accepts it just like the cryo that will be waiting for him after Rogers joins the fold. "I would eat, if I were you. If you want to keep breathing, you should show you're useful to the cause."

He's dimly aware of the idea that there might be factions in HYDRA that would love to kill Rogers and be done with it. It isn't his problem and until a rogue agent comes knocking, it isn't his recruit's problem either.

[bottledblond]

Steve sighed and headed towards the tray. "You look worse off than how I know I left you," he pointed out, looking over the contents of his breakfast. He didn't think it would be poisoned, that would serve no purpose. It wouldn't be drugged, though now he knew that HYDRA had the ability to drug him if they wanted to. His metabolism had somehow been accounted for. It was unnerving and something to remember for his escape, but now was not the time to spring out of the trap. He ate, slowly, eyes on Bucky.

He didn't know what to expect and that was probably by design. Steve was a smart guy. He knew what this was. The tactic was pretty well known in his day. Steve wasn't going to give up US secrets, though. For all he knew, they were still at war after all.

He ended up finishing everything given to him, not going so far as to lick his fingers or anything, but he did find the meal to be satisfying.

"So what comes next? More orders you know I won't listen to? Questions you know I won't answer? I want to make this easy on you, Buck, because I know you don't believe me right now, but I'm going to get us out of here." A smile touched petal pink lips. Despite his injuries from the last time he was awake, Steve managed to continue to look like everything was fine with him. That spoke more to his character than his body. Breaking his body would be easy. But his mind?

Well that was where the Soldier came in, right? Anyone could have been used to break Stece Rogers down but no one would be able to crack him like the guy he cared for most on this world.

[missionreport]

"Late night briefing. You aren't cleared for it."

And he won't be cleared to sit and watch and learn about that part of HYDRA's asset program until he's proven he's loyal. Not just loyal, but completely, undeniably dedicated to the mission. One look at this man and the Winter Soldier can tell he isn't handler material. Too many questions. His eyes rove and pry. Seems personally invested in this "Buck", whatever that's supposed to mean.

It occurs to the Asset, in a moment of private weakness he'll betray himself in his report to his handlers, that he might have his work cut out for him. Killing people is easy. Bombing a diplomat's car is easy. It's in and out. This, though...

At least Rogers finally gets the hint that he should eat. It's something of a staring contest, awkward, no joking between two old buddies catching up on their reunion: his trainee stares and he stares back, doesn't flick his eyes around or sit down and kick his heels up as he tries to get comfortable. The Asset doesn't return the brief smile, doesn't have that snap of recognition flood his face even though he's heard his name several times now.

He waits until Rogers finishes eating before he speaks up again.

"No, you won't. I won't come with you." Not willingly, anyway. It's the first time he's faced another super soldier which means that there could be a margin for error, an unknown variable that he can feel prickle the back of his neck, raise the fine hairs along his arm. As much as the Asset doesn't want to, he's forced to admit there's a slim chance he could escape. "You're taking this. Wash it down with your water."

The Winter Soldier reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small vial of pills. Leaning over and placing them on the table, he straightens, the movement still slightly stiff. The pills look deceptively harmless, as if he's just offering Steve an Aspirin for last night.

[bottledblond]

Bucky wouldn't come willing yet. Steve was petty sure he could work on the other man enough that it would not always be the case. He just needed time and that time would have to be bought through a lot of patience and perseverance. Luckily, Steve had both in spades.

He rubbed his hands together over the tray to make sure that they weren't to dirty and was waiting to be attacked or given some sort of ridiculous order when Bucky spoke again.

The blond's eyebrow shot up. "You've got to know that I won't do that, pal." Not even if Bucky assured him it was harmless and not even if he knew it was nearly impossible to poison of sicken him.

He had thought it impossible to drug him, though, until just a little bit ago and now he wasn't taking chances.

"Though I'd sure appreciate you telling me what it is anyway." His body stiffened, readying itself for whatever onslaught Bucky would think it necessary to lay upon him for disobeying. Their relationship had never been so complicated before. Far from it. Since the day they met until the day they lose each other, their friendship had always been assured.

Perhaps more than that.

But Steve wasn't about to dredge up old, God-forsaken feelings right now.

godmoded a bit, let me know if I should change anything!

[missionreport]

"Minor sedative," the Winter Soldier says and if Roger's bracing himself to be force-fed the pills, he's exactly right. "It wasn't a question whether or not you wanted to take them."

He hadn't lied: they've been tested on himself, perfected, and he knows for a fact that these pills aren't anywhere close enough to floor an asset and drop him drooling on the floor. It's enough to take any hostile, undesirable edges off, to make the trainee more open to suggestion, to reason, but also capable of functioning. Granted, it hasn't been used before on a super soldier like Rogers here, with a different serum burning through his system. He assumes that's one of the points of the exercise, why he's been locked in and why they have the camera in the corner of the room.

Good.

The Asset comes at Rogers. Just like the last time, he leads with his left arm, the metal plates glinting silver as he moves and moves fast. He gets his hand around his throat, squeezing with a relentlessly inhuman pressure. Less air means less fight. Steve had responded well to the oxygen denial treatment yesterday, which means that it's round two today. He throws his weight forward, bending Steve's spine and forcing him back with his own weight until he's practically straddling the man. It's a better position, makes it harder for Steve to lash out and kick him: he can buck under him all he wants, but the Soldier is confident that he'll have better control of his recruit this time.

He reaches back during this for the vial, popping the lid one-handed. He shakes out the vial into Roger's gasping mouth and claps his hand over it before he can spit them out.

"Swallow," he says, leaning over Steve, his hair falling in a dark, tangled curtain around his face. "I'll let you breathe once you do."

You're good!

[bottledblond]

The word 'breathe,' spoken in the same husky voice with the same sort of heat against his temple, was a familiar one. There had been many a times during an asthma attack when Bucky had done something very similar to him before, dragging him bodily, gasping, into a hot water bath to try and get the steam to open his lungs, or lighting an asthma cigarette with shaking hands to press the butt to his lips...

Or in the dead of winter when there wasn't enough heat to warm the water and no cigarette rations left, Bucky would just hold him and hope that it would be enough to see Steve through the worst of it.

Memories like these were never bittersweet. They were just bitter. He'd wasted so much of his last few months with Bucky running off to war, losing touch because of his performances in the USO and not looking for him after he fell from the train.

Now he was here, having the man that used to help him to breathe deny him that very thing. Steve did buck, twisting his long body to try and get a knee up to knock the other man off of him. It didn't work. In the end, he had a choice to make but it wasn't much of one at all.

He could let himself go unconscious and have the pills dissolve on his tongue anyway, or he could just swallow and stay awake.

So he did. He swallowed. There were frustrated tears in his eyes but he did what would be best for the situation.

With the bills down his throat, he tried to vocalize that fact to Bucky, growling and trying to pry the fingers from his face. That lasted all of three seconds. The sedatives were fast acting and Steve felt his head full with cotton and his eyes go fuzzy. It was like being drunk, well. Tipsy. And not wholly unpleasant. His fingers stayed hooked around Bucky's fingers but he stopped trying to pull them away.

[missionreport]

If he hadn't gotten the jump on his recruit, there's a chance Rogers would've been strong enough to peel his fingers away from his face. Oxygen denial leeches away his strength and makes the possibility of Rogers snapping the bones of his fingers a non-threat. Good to know that it's this effective. Maybe he'll continue to use this method if his recruit decides to be stubborn again about taking the pills.

Most men in his place would've learned their lesson, their place in HYDRA. It's become more than obvious that "Captain America" isn't most men.

Steve Rogers seems like he'll need more monitoring, more one-on-one than anyone else who's been lucky enough to make it this far in the recruitment process.

It's with a dispassionate expression, bordering on a mask, that the Winter Soldier watches as the pills take hold. Seems like the calculations with the dosage apply to him as well, despite the differences in their super soldier serums. Roger's grunts fade as the struggling loses focus, that blue sharpness behind his eyes turning glassy. His face slackens as everything should be softening at the edges: in the grand scheme of things, the drug tests weren't that bad compared to what else HYDRA liked to test and the ASset remembers some of his own experiences being on the receiving end of that drug. It had been...pleasurable. All things considered. It definitely beat the suppression arc, the animal terror deep in his guts at being herded back to cryo.

It's only once he's as sure as he can be Rogers isn't faking that the Soldier loosens his bruising grip around his jaw, fingers opening so he can finally suck air into his aching lungs.

"You're to take those once in the morning and once at night," he says, as if he wasn't practically straddling his recruit, Roger's back bent at an agonizing angle. "Understood?"