Work Text:
1.
The Winter Soldiers were not to be separated. Everyone involved with the program knew that. There had been several attempts to do so in the past, and it had always ended the same way; after some time between three and twelve hours, Alpha becomes restless and aggressive, and Beta becomes catatonic.
This was the last idea for making it possible to split the two.
The two soldiers were put into separate rooms, fresh off a wipe (they still resisted getting into that chair unless the other was in eyesight, after a previous attempt to sever the two). When each of them came to, they would be presented with an operative that looked like the other. If things went according to plan, they would accept the lookalike and that agent would be given handler privileges.
Not only did it not go according to plan, the resulting fires took five hours to put out.
It was decided that, for the continued success of the program, it would have to be added to the official handling manual: the Winter Soldiers were never to be separated.
--------------
2.
The entire operation was a shitshow. It had spiraled out of control so quickly that the senior agent had made the executive decision to retreat and regroup.
Beta arrived at the extraction point fifty-six minutes after the order was broadcast. Impressive considering the distance.
Alpha did not show.
Ninety minutes after Alpha should have arrived, Beta became unresponsive. The perfect target for frustrated (frightened) agents.
Alpha arrived at the extraction point twelve minutes before the predetermined time, moderately damaged and sans comm unit, but with all objectives completed.
Alpha arrived to the sight of the agents spit roasting Beta, who was completely catatonic.
A retrieval request was sent out from the safehouse's system at exactly the expected time.
The retrieval team arrived and requested a containment team and a crime scene clean up team.
---------------
3.
The building chosen for Beta's sniper nest was condemned. It was not the first condemned building chosen for such a task, but this one looked like a stiff breeze could collapse it.
It was also Beta's first solo mission since the rule was put into place that they not be separated.
Still, the individual renting them insisted that stealth was to be maintained, and the target could be eliminated before the three hours had passed.
(Alpha was waiting at the safehouse just in case, whether to be deployed as backup or to greet Beta upon mission completion)
Beta deployed to the chosen building as instructed, even as his instincts told him to find a different nest.
He got up four of the five stories before the floor caved in. And in, and in. Then he hit the first floor hard enough to cave in the rest of the building.
Fuckin' knew it, he had time to think, before the searing agony of his left arm stole coherent thought.
Alpha was deployed. Stealth was a moot point. He would retrieve Beta, his temporary handler knew, if Beta was in a state to be retrieved. If not, Alpha was unusable without Beta anyway, and he'd face the consequences of wrecking their owner's best weapon.
Beta was retrieved, unconscious and sans one left arm. Alpha was in a state best described as feral, and had to be redirected after he had attempted to bring Beta to a civilian hospital.
The idiot in charge of the mission was removed from his own left arm in retaliation. Alpha finally understood schadenfreude.
------------------
4.
Alpha was dead, Beta was sure. Not even he could survive an explosive at that range.
Their handler came. Beta was unresponsive as he was brought back to base.
There was something he almost remembered. He had to do something, in the event Alpha died. An order?
No, a promise.
Until the end of the line. Not a moment further.
Both of the Winter Soldiers had been equipped with a cyanide capsule, standard issue. Beta doubted that their current owners knew - it predated most of what was in their file, and these ones were much more keen on keeping them alive than keeping the little intel they were given secret.
Well, may as well go out with style.
All of the technicians squawked and fluttered around like birds as Beta crunched down on the poison.
Beta woke up in Medical, which was a disappointment. Less of a disappointment was the bed next to his, where Alpha was laying face down, back covered in bandages, but hooked up to a heart monitor beeping a steady if slow heartbeat.
-----------------
5.
Whoever planned this mission needed a remedial course on their handling. Each of the Winter Soldiers had a specific skill set. Alpha was frontal assault, a distraction for Beta. He was not a goddamn spy. He "doesn't have a subtle bone in his body.''
Alpha is supposed to cover the north entrance as Beta sneaks in through the south, herding their target out the east into the waiting arms of whoever it is that rented the Winter Soldiers for fucking sheepdog duty. The problem becomes immediately apparent when the target moves to leave through the north entrance, and Alpha pulls out a gun.
Civilians scatter. To be fair, the target does run towards the east entrance, and all the panic means that he disappears without anyone noticing - because of the six foot man holding a gun in broad daylight.
The soldiers were supposed to meet up and wait for the retrieval team at a nearby intersection.
Instead, Alpha is forced to steal a car, and speed off to the nearest safehouse to avoid local law enforcement, or more likely, federal law enforcement.
Alpha only has to wait ten minutes for retrieval. He left the stolen car in front of the safehouse.
Everything in the safehouse, including him, is packed up hastily. Documents are left behind that expose the existence of 1) the Winter Soldier program 2) a small branch of the organization that owns them.
Alpha is not looking forward to the punishment that Beta will endure for this. It has always been more effective to punish the other for each of their mistakes.
------------------
+1
Beta had been sent out six hours ago to steal what data he could from some billionaire inventor or whatever. Hacking was unsuccessful. It required him to sneak into the building to get access.
Alpha paced. Bad things always happen when circumstances separate the two. It had even become a superstition for some handlers.
Finally, word got to Alpha; Beta was captured. The phrasing caused uncomfortable echoes.
Alpha's tactical gear was passed through the slot in the door, and he was told that he would be working with the STRIKE team with acting handler Agent Rumlow.
Yeah, fuck them, Alpha thought. He would personally set a torch to anyone to get Beta back, handlers included.
Turns out, he was screwed from the start. The "Avengers" had been prepared for him. Alpha still took six tranq shots to the head before he went down.
After being unconscious for maybe forty minutes, he awoke to find himself stripped of all his gear in probably the most reinforced room he'd ever been kept in.
Each punch only slightly dented the metal of the door, but it was still progress. He could do this all day, if need be.
Alpha got the feeling he used to be called stubborn a lot.