Rehabilitating Hydra (Marvel) (Patreon)

The concepts of good and evil, while nice, were absolutely not applicable to the real world. That was something Nick Fury had learned a long time ago. The world existed as several different shades of grey - good mixed in with bad - and it was incredibly messy. Sometimes the wrong thing had to be done for the right reasons. Fury saw those moments as the necessary evils that they were, but he knew that the Avengers wouldn’t feel the same. Some of them, particularly Captain Rogers, had incredibly strong moral drives and weren’t willing to make the dangerous plays that were necessary for the eventual peace they all hoped was coming. As such, he had made sure to keep quite a few secrets from the world’s mightiest heroes, and he was in the process of seeing to one of those secrets.

The SHIELD facility underneath Dallas had been assigned with a particular task, that of researching mind-altering substances and technologies. It was a brand new kind of warfare but one that their enemies had already brought to them, corrupting and converting various loyal SHIELD agents to the side of villainy.

As much as Fury loathed that Hydra were going to such lengths, he respected the tactics behind it and knew that they could do it just as well as the rival organisation. They had been lucky that the agents Hydra had corrupted had only had low level clearance; any security breaches had been relatively minor. It was only a matter of time before Hydra got more brazen though, and Fury wanted to beat them to the punch. That was why he’d ordered for the capture of a full Hydra undercover squadron and had them delivered to the Dallas base.

“This process… how successful have past tests been?” the SHIELD director asked, his attention fixed on the chief scientist attached to the project, Jorge Trevino. The other man was as loyal to SHIELD as Agent Coulson had been, so there was nobody Fury trusted with the project more. He was also of a similar mindset to Fury himself, understanding that sometimes lines had to be crossed in order to ensure the safety of all people.

“Results have varied,” the scientist responded, not even looking up from his clipboard where he was double checking through notes. “So far things have trended up. From our last ten subjects, seven adapted to the newly installed mindsets.”

“And the other three?” Fury challenged.

“Let’s just say it ended up messily,” Trevino replied with a grimace. Fury was more than capable of reading between the lines. Rewriting somebody’s brain functions was a dangerous process and it was no wonder that some subjects who underwent the process ended up degraded into an unresponsive state. These were the risks they had to take and Fury was long past the point of feeling sympathy for agents of Hydra, even if they were once good people who had just been led astray. He’d leave the mourning for people who weren’t busy waging a war against local terrorists.

The leader of the Hydra operatives they had captured was Graham Berkeley, a veteran who had become disillusioned with the United States and thus became easy prey for Hydra. Official records had him reported deceased as of 2017 but he was still very much alive and working for the enemy. Not for much longer, Fury remarked to himself. Should Trevino’s work prove successful, Berkeley would become an incredibly useful tool in the battle against Hydra.

Trevino’s method of hypnosis - because, put simply, that’s what it was - was through a combination of drugs that relaxed the brain and made it more susceptible to suggestion, and a screen that featured a number of flashing images and subliminal messages. It was a crude manner of influencing another man’s mind and almost laughable in how close it was to some depictions in old sci-fi movies, but it certainly built out the methods Hydra used which reportedly involved torture. Fury was willing to make some tough calls but he wasn’t about to cross that line, not when there were alternative routes to take.

The subject was seated in front of a giant screen that currently displayed only static, and was strapped down around his ankles, wrists, torso and forehead. Fury wasn’t exactly concerned with the man getting loose and doing any damage - they were all well equipped to deal with him - but the straps were more about getting him into the optimal position. That didn’t stop Berkeley from fighting back against the restraints, of course. Mercifully somebody had seen fit to gag him too, although he was also attempting to growl something (furious insults, no doubt) through his gag. Anger and disgust burned in his eyes; the good man who had once proudly served their country was lost after years of Hydra conditioning.

Stepping out of the cell and into an observation room, Fury watched as Trevino injected the drugs into their prisoner’s neck. The Hydra operative’s struggling slowed and finally stopped as the drugs took hold and forced him into a subdued state. Trevino then joined Fury in the observation room and activated the screen, starting a series of images that had all been specifically chosen to help the reconfiguration of their subject’s mind. “How long is this going to take?” Fury asked, averting his eyes from the events corruing in the room. It was enough to give him a headache.

“Two hours, maybe three,” the scientist replied, still monitoring the subject closely. “I can page you when he’s ready, if you’ve got other places you need to be.”

Fury snorted. “I’m the director of SHIELD. I’ve always got other places I need to be.”

x

Graham Berkeley’s psyche had become a fractured and dangerous landscape in a short space of time. He hadn’t been a full believer when he’d originally joined Hydra’s ranks, he’d just been angry at the world that had turned its back on him, but over the years he became further and further indoctrinated. Now all of that was being challenged by the invasive work of SHIELD scientists who were attempting to rip apart his brain and then stitch it back together in a manner more to their liking.

Although he had done his best to keep his eyes closed and ignore the flashing images on the screen, there was no way for Graham to shut his ears off and as such he was forced to endure the strange track that seemed to be projected from all four walls, the floor and the ceiling. It wasn’t so much music but rather a series of electronic beeps played at ear-splitting volume. Playing faintly behind those noises was a voice: deep and commanding, repeating the same few words until they rung through crystal clear in Graham’s mind.

OBEY. PROTECT. SERVE.

Slowly but surely the Hydra operative’s resilience was worn away. All of the rage that had led him into the lair of Hydra was siphoned out of him and that gap was filled with those three words: obey, protect, serve. They weren’t just being played through the soundtrack but also continually appeared on the screen, subliminally sliced between clips of SHIELD agents at work. There were even clips of Captain America - a person Graham had once despised for his intense patriotism, and now instead found himself admiring. 

OBEY. PROTECT. SERVE.

Graham was left to wonder why he had ever let himself get swept up in Hydra. How could he have helped try to enforce such an evil regime on innocent people? How could he have betrayed his great nation and the various heroes who protected it? It was as if Graham didn’t even know himself anymore. There was nothing he prized more in life than freedom from oppression and yet he had been actively fighting against those very things? No, that didn’t make sense. Hydra must have brainwashed him!

OBEY. PROTECT. SERVE.

There was absolutely no question about it: Hydra was evil and needed to be destroyed. They had already manipulated Graham, removing his free will, and that meant they had surely done it to more people. He owed it to free them from such a tyrannical regime! He was loyal to SHIELD. He would obey his commanders, protect the innocent and serve his country. He was a good soldier, he’d never been more certain of anything in his life.

x

“You have news for me?” Fury was straight to the point as he entered Trevino’s lab. There were about a dozen other things demanding his attention at that time, but he was eager to see what had come of Trevino’s experiment.

Upon his entry, the third man in the room rose to his feet and snapped to attention: Berkeley. Trevino said nothing, only indicated towards the other man and smiled. Fury stepped forward, inspecting the Hydra operative closely with his one eye. He had a good read for people and he could already tell that there was something different about the man. “How are you feeling, soldier?” he asked, still staying cautious. His gun was never too far from his grasp in any situation, this one included, but considering Trevino hadn’t felt the need to have the man in restraints, he was optimistic.

“Ready to obey, protect and serve, sir!” Berkeley declared proudly, albeit with a slight robotic edge to his voice. “If I may, sir, I want to get Hydra back for what they did to me. To my mind.”

Fury spared a quick glance at Trevino, who shrugged a shoulder. “At ease, soldier,” the SHIELD director advised the subject, before stepping closer to the scientist. “I’ve got five more Hydra agents locked up in this facility. I’ll have them sent to you soon.” He glanced back over his shoulder at the dutiful soldier waiting for his next order. “It looks like we’ll have our ranks back to full strength in no time at all.”

They were playing a dangerous game, Fury knew that, but as long as the Avengers never found out, everything would be fine. Hydra needed to be stopped and if this was what was necessary to do that then so be it. SHIELD would win the war no matter what it took.