Three days later.
Vought Media's publicity machine was operating at full power.
Every giant screen in Times Square, YouTube, and prime-time slots on major television networks around the world were looping a carefully edited (fake) documentary—
Winter: The Forgotten Sacrifice.
There was none of the Winter Soldier's cold-blooded killing in the video.
Only the tragic scene from World War II, where the handsome and dashing Bucky Barnes fell off a cliff while protecting Captain America.
The documentary opened with black-and-white footage from World War II.
Young, handsome Bucky Barnes fell from a cliff in the freezing wind. The tragic score was enough to bring tears to anyone's eyes.
Then, the scene shifted.
Through the blurred perspective of secret surveillance footage, it showed "images" of him suffering "brutal torture" in a Hydra base. (Since Bucky's acting was rather poor, Hollywood's top stunt actors had filmed it instead, with flawless special-effects makeup.)
The narrator explained in a deep, weathered voice:
"He did not die... he merely fell into hell."
"Seventy years of torment, brainwashing, and modification."
"Hydra tried to destroy his will. They tried to turn him into a weapon."
"But he never truly surrendered."
Onscreen, Bucky was strapped to an electric chair, his face covered in blood as he cursed Hydra viciously. Even when the shocks left drool streaming from his mouth and twisted his expression, his gaze remained stubborn and resolute.
"Deep within his subconscious, that boy from Brooklyn had always been fighting back."
Then the footage cut to the moment Steve and Bucky reunited and recognized each other at the Erie Hydroelectric Station.
"Even when his body was controlled, he never forgot his brother."
"He was a victim, and a survivor. He carried his pain, but chose to stand up and use that cursed arm to crush his enemies'