Darkness, boundless, vast, like a black sea. He tried to open his eyes, but he felt an undercurrent rolling around him. Infinite gravity came from directly below, tugging at his ankles as if to drag him into the endless abyss.

From time to time, the white light flashed in a hurry, taking away the fleeting images, like a slide turning the pages at double speed. Those are the fragments of memory, the fragments that have been sealed in the dust for a long time, and even the owner himself thought that they had been completely forgotten, but after a long time, they have been reawakened for some reason.

Shattered images poured over like a tidal wave bursting an embankment. He saw a handsome, tall young man, dressed in a crisp military uniform, with a righteous face, vowing to do his best to serve the motherland in the coming war; Then he saw the boy fall from a high-speed train in the mountains, his best friend shouting his name from the rooftop, but his voice was quickly swallowed up by the bitter mountain wind.

What followed became blurred, but it was certain that he was still alive. In the intermittent fragments of memory, he was found, dragged for miles through the snow. He was taken somewhere, strengthened and transformed. They emptied his brain as if formatting a hard drive. Then they instilled in him a whole new faith, a whole new content, and told him who he should serve allegiance.

Hydra.

For the past century, he has been frozen as his strongest weapon, freezing his cells and preventing him from aging, and he will only be released when the mission calls for it. He is like a sharp scalpel, and all those who block the development and interests of Hydra are his targets. Over the past century, he has removed countless obstacles and obliterated countless key targets for Hydra, and he has never missed a beat.

Until today.

The tingling sensation ran down the nerve fibers into the nerve centers of his brain, violently stimulating his brain like an electric current. The once-lost memory suddenly woke up under the violent stimulus, and a huge amount of information flowed back into his mind.

The human brain is like a hard drive, the data stored in it can be deleted and formatted, but it is not so easy to completely erase. Hydra didn't completely erase his personality and memories, they just stuffed these things into the depths of his subconscious and sealed them. And now, this part of the memory is resurfacing under the guidance of some external force.

He remembered.

His name is Bucky Barnes.

He is a member of the Roaring Commando Team and Captain America's best friend.

When the flashback ended, Bucky opened his eyes and his body bounced up instinctively.

He began to look at his surroundings with alarm. The white floor tiles, clean walls, and various high-precision instruments and equipment are running automatically in an unmanned state. The other half of the room not far away is covered with a plush white carpet and an eerie bookshelf, surrounded by a pile of mysterious ancient devices, which look a bit like an antique lover's collection.

Half a minute later, a young man entered the room. He looked like he was about twenty years old, casually wearing a T-shirt, his hair neatly groomed, his hands naturally in his trouser pockets, and his expression was calm and composed.

"Did you sleep well, Sergeant Barnes?" Michael asked.

Bucky frowned, "You know my name?" ”

"Of course I do. In fact, it was with my help that you remembered your name just now. ”

Bucky snapped into something: "My brainwashing." ”

"Lifted." Michael walked over to the coffee machine on the table on the left, pulled out a mug and took a cup of coffee, "To be honest, it wasn't as difficult as I expected. After all these years, Hydra's brainwashing methods are still the same...... Straight rough. Bury your memories and thoughts, then violently indoctrinate something new, and repeat the process regularly to make sure the effect doesn't diminish over time......"

He paused, unabashedly contemptuous: "It's not technical, and it's easy to crack." ”

He shook his mug at the superkiller in the room, "Want coffee?" ”

Bucky shook his head.

"Why are you doing that?" Puzzled, he asked, "Do you want me to give you my life?" ”

"It can't be said that there is no such idea at all. But if that's really my motivation, I don't need to go to great lengths to unwash your brainwash and awaken your personality. You've fallen under my hypnotic spell, and I have no less than a hundred ways to instill new ideas into you and turn you into my puppet. "But I didn't do it because you deserve it, Sergeant Barnes." ”

With a mug in one hand, he dragged a chair over and sat down in front of Bucky.

"I think you probably remember how many people you've killed for Hydra over the past century." "Stuffed into a completely different personality," he said, "without any choice but to die for his former enemies and attack the country to which he had sworn allegiance...... I can't pretend to understand your feelings, because I've honestly never had a similar experience. ”

Sergeant Barnes pursed his lips and did not respond.

"I know you hate them." Michael continued, "And you'll probably already know that I'm with Hydra...... It's a bit of a holiday. We're at war now, and I'm chopping off their heads one by one. ”

He leaned forward slightly.

"Alexander Pearce is dead, but Hydra has other leaders." "I'm going to get rid of them all and uproot them," he said. You should have seen what I could do, and you know I can do it. And before that, I'm offering you a chance, a job, and a chance to join me and get revenge on them. So the question now is, are you coming? ”

Bucky Barnes stared at him for a moment.

"If I said 'no,'" he said, "what would you do?" ”

Michael leaned back into the back of his seat.

"Then I can only express regret." He shrugged, "But I'll let you out and continue the project myself." But of course, I'm going to have to erase your memory and make sure you don't remember the conversation at all. But other than that, you're completely free. You can change to a new identity and start a completely different life, and you don't have to fight and kill again, and you don't have to be at the mercy of people – if that's what you want. ”

Sergeant Barnes narrowed his eyes and looked at him cautiously, as if trying to look through the young man's eyes to see how much truth he had said.

As Hydra has spared no effort to produce the most powerful killers, the Winter Soldier has naturally been trained in recognizing lies. He can accurately capture the various micro-expression changes on a person's face, and can judge whether the other party is lying or not based on various subtle changes in tone, eyes and limbs.

And all the details he captured were fed back with the same message – the young man was telling the truth 100 percent.

"You know, I'm not a hydra, and I'm not used to forcing people to do something." Michael said, "And what do you think, Sergeant Barnes?" ”

Bucky closed his eyes lightly. When he reopened his eyes, the confusion in his eyes had been abandoned, and the direction of progress had been redetermined.

He asked, "When are we going to start?" ”