For Sinistral

[wearingthestars]

Option 1: (From the start of things)

For a time Billy held onto the hope that rescue would come. His friends were out there somewhere…unless the Warden had gotten to them. Or the Skrulls. Or one of countless other threats… But the Cube was run by SHIELD. The Warden might be unhinged, but surely he couldn’t just be black bagged out of existence by his own country.

To hear the Warden talk, Billy’s mutant status all but made him disposable, a plaything not protected by any of the laws and rights a human was granted.

He didn’t know what had happened to Teddy. He hoped selfishly that he was in a similar situation-another of the Warden’s toys- so that one day they might escape and be reunited. There were other days he thought it was better to believe he was dead and free of the mad man.

The Warden had made many different alterations to the devices he’d skewered through his ears, some of which Billy had yet to learn, but he was painfully familiar with the ear-piercing tone it emitted if he tried to remove them. It had brought him to his knees more than once before he accepted, he couldn’t tear the things out fast enough to escape it.

He could set it off whenever he liked, like a shock collar to correct behavior, or simply to amuse himself. Of late it had been put to use in the boy’s training. The Warden had adjusted the device so that he could remotely adjust brief instances where he could hear his own voice. Then it was a matter of getting him to speak the desired spell, which was where the tone was use liberally to compel him. And then again to silence him should he try to deviate and use the magic against them.

Pierce allowed the Warden control of the project up until these basic safeguards had been perfected, at which point the boy was swiftly removed and relocated. There was too much potential in that sort of weapon for him to be one of the Warden’s playthings. But he’d need to be trained up before he could be any use to HYDRA. An unreliable tool was no good to anyone. And there was no tool more reliable than the Asset.
If they needed to rewrite the boy in the end Pierce had no qualms trying, though the Asset was the only subject that had ever really come out of it some what intact. Pierce would rather avoid breaking a potential weapon before he even got to use it. And they could always show off just how the Asset was made to comply if the boy proved difficult. Pierce wasn’t particularly moved by the sight, but he’d seen hardened agents pale faced with witnessing the procedure, no doubt it would be a handy threat to keep in their back pocket.

And so Billy found himself faced with the Soldier. He spun around with a guilty expression, clearly having been examining the holding room for any sort of escape, and the sight of the man made him tense, unable to mask his worry.

“…Where are we?” he asked, voice off in a strange way, a little too loud and hollow, Billy unable to hear himself to modulate in anyway, and still not entirely used to the sensation despite how long it had been.

Option2: (Somewhere after they have at least the start of a bond)

The boy’s eyes were rimmed with red, and he looked up as the Asset was let in with an expression of relief that he likely couldn’t remember the last time he had seen even if he hadn’t been freshly wiped. And mixed with it was guilt, sure he was responsible for what had happened. For those horrible screams…

He was pointedly still, but his body tensed like he wanted to run to him, eyes flicking towards the cameras that watched over them and them back to the floor with a frown.

“…Do you remember?” he asked tentatively. Remember him? Remember what happened? Remember their training? It could have meant any number of things.