CH 26

Capturing the Winter Soldier in 2009 was the first major event Tony had done since coming back in time that he didn't intend to do. Everything else he'd changed so far had all been according to plan. But perhaps it was a little silly to think that everything would always go as he planned it. Had Natasha faced down the Winter Soldier this early in the original timeline and Tony had simply never heard about it? Or had the changes he'd made led her to that car wreck outside of Odessa, dealing with HYDRA's legendary assassin? Tony honestly didn't know… nor did he care. Letting Natasha die this early simply wasn't in the cards. And once he'd beaten Barnes into unconsciousness, it wasn't like he could very well leave him there to be picked up by SHIELD or HYDRA.

Besides … just because Tony hadn ' t intended to kidnap Barnes this early, didn't mean that Tony wasn't prepared for dealing with HYDRA's secret weapon now that the time had come.

" Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign. Homecoming. One. Freight Car."

… "… Ready to comply."

Yes, Tony had dug deep into the brainwashing behind the creation of the Winter Soldier. After Siberia, he ' d even memorized the words that Zemo had used to bring Barnes under his control back at the UN. He'd never used them of course, but to be fair… he'd never had the chance. Until now.

Staring into the blank, brainwashed eyes of the assassin who killed his mom and dad, Tony can't help offering a crooked smile. After a moment, he sighs and runs a hand down his face.

"Right. Orders are simple, Soldier. Stay put. Sit tight. Obey nobody except for me, due no permanent harm without my say so. And if it ' ll help … try and remember. Try and remember who you were before."

"Orders received." He really should leave it at that. But Tony can't help rambling just a little bit.

"… Maybe we see if your programming breaks down the longer you aren't on ice. Unfortunately I don't have the technology to remove brainwashing completely… yet. And I' m pretty sure Wakanda doesn't either just yet. Their little generational genius is still under ten, after all."

Tony's crooked smile drops and he grows more solemn as he looks James Buchanan Barnes in his dead, vacant eyes.

"Not to worry. I'm over the whole 'wanting to kill you' thing. Have been for quite some time. Still pretty irritated over what you and Steve did to me in Siberia, but then… that wasn't really you, nor was it the Steve of this timeline. You' re just a weapon, Barnes. And now you're a weapon I'm locking away in a safe where my enemies can't get to it. I'm going to destroy HYDRA. And one day, we'll see about getting you back to normal."

With his piece said and it abundantly clear that Barnes isn't in any state to respond, Tony rises to his feet and heads for the door. He's set the Winter Soldier up in a nice little gilded cage. Its an inescapable prison, but also pretty well furnished. As he is now, the assassin won't be able to enjoy the creature comforts Tony is giving him, but Barnes started to break out of the conditioning once before. Maybe this time it would be even easier given the orders Tony had given him.

Ultimately though, it was out of Tony 's hands. Literally, because…

"Take care of him JARVIS. And alert me to any changes."

"Of course, Sir."

Tony couldn't trust himself to be Barnes' primary caretaker. Too much bad blood, even if he'd told himself again and again that he'd forgiven the other man for killing his parents. But JARVIS was the perfect intermediary. The AI could handle watching over Barnes alongside everything else he was already doing and he wouldn't be any more stretched thin as a result. It was the perfect imperfect solution to the mess Tony had made.

Well, it was a solution for HALF of the mess Tony had made.

"Status update on Romanoff, JARVIS?"

"There's been an interesting development there, Sir. You'll want to see this."

Tony watches what JARVIS sends him in silence. At the end, he huffs.

"There's no way she doesn't think this was me. Even if they don't know about the Arc Reactor, even if they don't know about how I escaped Afghanistan… it just has my fingers all over it. She definitely has suspicions if nothing else. The fact that she went into my planner and scheduled a meeting between the two of us for first thing after she gets back from her 'vacation' only proves it."

"I would tend to agree, sir."

Eyes narrowing, Tony tilts his head to the side.

"Then why not tell Fury? Why keep her suspicions so close to her chest?"

"… She is a spy, Sir. They tend to be paranoid by nature."

Tony raises an eyebrow.

"Oh? You think she saw through your charade, J?" "No Sir. All signs point to both Natasha Romanoff and Nick Fury being completely fooled. However, she may have other reasons for wanting to hide her thoughts from the Director of SHIELD."

That gets a bark of laughter from Tony.

" What, you think she ' s fallen in love with me or something?"

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