mrsbuckybarnes:

the winter soldier project: stasis

a comprehensive mental evaluation of codename: winter soldier was conducted over the course of the past week. diagnoses are varied, but most in dept. x science team believe that his mental state is becoming unstable. in the three years since he was awakened from stasis, it appears his mind is seeking to fill in the holes in his memory, or possibly rebelling against the implanted programming he received originally. the subject has recently begun to exhibit more than unusual curiosity, even to the point of questioning orders from superiors, and once in the past month, he attacked a fellow operative, nearly killing him. on interrogation, he could not explain his actions.

one theory is that just as he has reflex-memories, which allow him to be such an effective operative, he may also have a deeply buried sense of who he was, or at least of what kind of person he was. as such, this deeply buried idea may be causing him mental stress and triggering turmoil in his thoughts. another theory, which is more disturbing, is that he may actually be remembering his previous life, though in small pieces only. it is therefore our recommendation that codename: winter soldier be kept in stasis between missions, and that he undergo mental implantation at every awakening. we believe this will correct his instability issues, so he can continue to be of use to department x.

after the russians trained bucky to be their winter soldier, they allowed him to live and train agents, particularly natasha romanova and others from the red room academy. sometime in the 50s, they began to notice cracks in his conditioning (questioning orders, yelling at commanding officers in english, for example) and started putting him away between missions “like christmas decorations stashed in the attic.” these suspended periods of stasis means he has aged only a few years since the closing days of world war two, which explains why he is still young and vital in the modern day.