What follows is a brief summary of “The Downward Spiral” for those people who opted to skip the 2^nd fic in the series due to Hydra Trash Party/Noncon Content.  This won’t make much sense if you haven’t read the first fic in the series, “Dragging You Down.” 

HUGE SPOILER WARNINGS for “The Downward Spiral” – probably obvious but this is a nutshell breakdown of the entire fic.

There will still be brief rape mention in this document – mostly as a denotation of which chapters contain such content in the event that the reader decides to selectively read other chapters. 

RED TEXT denotes sexual content.  In this fic, that usually means heat-induced dubcon at best.  I’m breaking each chapter into bullet points to give an idea where in the chapters in question those situations occur.  Chapters without red text descriptions may still contain past rape mention or accusations.


 

·         Chapter 1:

o   Bucky wakes up in a Soviet military installation and, after briefly hoping that he’s been saved by Allies, he realizes that the worst case scenario has happened: General Aleksander Lukin is a head of Hydra, and they know precisely what he is.  While Lukin was not a supporter of Zola’s demon project, he is not one to waste a resource that has landed in his lap.  Worse yet, he’s lost an arm. 

o   As soon as the sedatives finish working their way through the system, Bucky is knocked into a heat due to his extensive injuries from the fall and Lukin orders the Hydra soldiers on hand to sate his needs.

·         Chapter 2:

o   Bucky wakes up in a prison cell to discover that he’s regrown his arm, but it’s different: twisted and demonic.

o   General Lukin comes down to speak with him and gloat

·         Chapter 3:

o   Bucky begins to observe his surroundings and begins to formulate a plan of escape, thanks to a couple literal tricks up his sleeve.

o   He manages to poison his guard and pick the lock of his cell and makes a break for it, but they were ready for his attempt.  He’s stopped with tranquilizer darts and returned to his cell. 

o   Lukin shows back up, explaining that they needed to test his capabilities.  He’s then beaten until he’s knocked into heat.  When he’s fed, his canine grow longer and shaper and he uses them against his attackers

·         Chapter 4:

o   After his insolence, he’s left in the dark in his cell.  He listens and observes his surroundings, timing his heat-cycle with marks on the wall, and fights back against the guards in the little ways he can find while he tries to figure out a bigger play.

o   The guards punish him by making him wait out his next heat until he’s going crazy from it before finally feeding him.

o   This time, he develops small horns, and he starts to formulate another plan of escape

·         Chapter 5:

o   Bucky makes a second attempt at escape by faking a heat to draw the guards into his cell.  When they come in, he attacks and makes a break for it.

o   He makes it outside the facility this time, only to discover he’s in the middle of nowhere in the freezing snow, and is gunned down with tranquilizers

o   Lukin speaks with him briefly after he is deposited back into his cell

o   Brief description of being fed again at the end of his chapter when his real heat hits

·         Chapter 6

o   Exposition-heavy chapter!  Someone new shows up to speak to Bucky in his cell.  His name is Elliott Fairbanks, and after offering him real food, he offers Bucky information: both on what has been going on in the outside world as well as some tidbits about Bucky’s demonic nature.  As it turns out, he is in possession of the red-bound Book that Zola had used in his creation that he had been searching for throughout the war. 

o   He also begins to explain what Hydra’s goal is, and what they can offer Bucky.  Bucky is told that while he cannot be turned back, there is a possibility at stabilizing his form.

·         Chapter 7

o   Fairbanks initiates a new ritual on Bucky that he says is taking a step towards stabilizing the process.  Bucky wakes up on a stone altar, shackled in place by manacles with runes engraved on them that sap his strength, and despite their thin links he is unable to break them.  The ritual is painful and involves slicing a pentagram into his left shoulder, Fairbanks pressing his own bloodied hand into the fresh wound

o   What it really does is bind Bucky to Fairbanks as his new master

o   When he wakes up, Fairbanks enters his cell and Bucky finds that he is unable to bring himself to hurt Fairbanks  - however he is still himself in his head and feels no additional loyalty to him.  The other downside of the binding – he must follow direct spoken commands. 

o   Fairbanks says that this was a necessary step before the ritual that will stabilize his form, which he promises will be soon.  However, he also instills new “standing orders” that prevent him from hurting anyone else – himself included.

·         Chapter 8

o   After more time in his cell, his guards come in to harass him – taking advantage of the fact that Bucky can no longer fight back.  Fairbanks shows up, stopping them, and escorts Bucky out of his cell. 

o   He takes him into a private bath chamber and allows him use of the room for a period of time before taking him back to the ritual room – where he says his form will be stabilized.  He provides General Lukin with some materials, and leaves them alone

·         Chapter 9 (Warning for the whole chapter )

o   Fairbanks didn’t lie – per se.  The ritual is indeed to stabilize Bucky’s form – by completing his transformation.  Lukin makes this evident to Bucky after placing him in a magical circle he is unable to step out of  and smearing him with salve.

o   The steps of the ritual drive Bucky into a heat-like lust, his body consuming what little stored energy it had to begin the changes.  The process is long and involved, requiring Bucky to absorb all the energy in one setting that his body needs to complete his changes – Lukin takes the opportunity to humiliate him, forcing him to consent to what is being done – to transforming before letting him continue to feed.  In his state, Bucky gives in.

·         Chapter 10

o   Bucky wakes up after having passed out/blanked out near the end of the ritual to assess the damage.  He’s thicker-built, his horns have grown longer, claws tip the rest of his fingers and toes, he has pointed ears, and he’s grown wings.  For a moment, he lets himself bask in the amazement of that fact – a glimmer of the boy infatuated with science fiction and fantasy can’t help but be in awe of that fact.   

o   He also realizes he’s been moved to a new room – a normal barracks room high up in the facility, with runes inscribed along the floor outside the door to keep him contained.

o   Fairbanks arrives shortly thereafter to see the changes for himself and to speak with him.  Fairbanks tries to tempt Bucky again into working with him, and they argue before Fairbanks leaves him to think on his situation.

·         Chapter 11

o   Escape attempt!

o   Bucky can’t exit the door, but he is able to pull the bars off the window with his enhanced strength and puts his new wings to a hard test.  He climbs out and jumps – and after nearly crashing he catches the wind and takes off.  For a few glorious minutes, it is exhilarating despite the bitter cold. 

o   And then he feels a pull like he’s been given an order that forces him to return to the compound.  He learns the hard way that his master is able to summon him to him – and Hydra learns that his new wings are effective – Bucky doesn’t think the fact they left him alone without orders to stay put was a coincidence.  Fairbanks also reveals another “benefit” of being his master – with an order of pain, the scar on his arm where he was bound to him flares with intense pain.

o   Fairbanks leaves him with Lukin and a few guards who test his new healing capabilities now that his transformation has completed/punish him for his escape attempt – damaging him and leaving him to heal until he’s driven into heat.

·         Chapter 12

o   Fairbanks wakes him up, comforting him after having been left in his freezing cell all night with a broken window.  His spirit already nearly crushed, unable to get away, unable to fight back, Fairbanks takes away Bucky’s biggest hope he’s been clinging to: Steve.  He shows him a newspaper article describing the Death of Captain America.  The news hits Bucky hard.  Fairbanks offers to let Bucky join him in a different, warmer room, but Bucky shoves him away to deal with the news alone in the cold.

·         Chapter 13

o   Lukin takes advantage of Bucky being alone and despondent to run him through some tests of his healing abilities and drug resistance.  Bucky doesn’t fight him as he is strapped to a table and doses of tranquilizers are tested on him along with the hardness of the scaling on his arm and healing speed when he’s well-fed. 

o   Bucky notes distantly that Lukin has taken the Red Book and is referencing it/scrawling some notes in the margins before Fairbanks storms in, furious, and snatches the book back from him, unhooking Bucky from the IVs.  Fairbanks escorts the bleary Bucky out of the room and promises him a bath.

·         Chapter 14

o   Bucky is taken to the bathroom again and Fairbanks lets him ride out the remains of the drugs in his system and thaw in the tub

o   However, when he’s summoned to Fairbanks afterwards, he is called into his bedchamber.  After another offer of a place in Hydra by Fairbanks’s side, Fairbanks shows Bucky what it can be like: a warm bath, good food, bed to sleep in, and “feeding when you aren’t driven half-mad with hunger, with your pleasure in mind”.

·         Chapter 15

o   Bucky wakes up the next morning feeling disgusted at himself for what happened last night – despite not having really had a choice, Fairbanks had made it seem like he had chosen between being with him and continuing to be harshly used by the guards. 

o   Fairbanks brings him breakfast, making him feel even worse about himself.

o   Then he’s given another reward: Fairbanks shows him an ability that having completed his changes has unlocked: the ability to guise his demonic features and appear human.

·         Chapter 16

o   Training Montage: Bucky is put through a rigorous several months of training in weapons, hand to hand combat, endurance, stealth, and a variety of others that puts boot camp to shame.   

o   A slice of a day in the life is shown that culminates with Fairbanks summoning Bucky to his room partway through the day

o   It ends with a test at the completion of his training: he is handed a gun and ordered to shoot a prisoner; Bucky is unable to resist following a direct order from his master, and it is deemed he’s ready for operation.

·         Chapter 17

o   Bucky is prepped for his first Mission: given an American Pilot’s uniform and given a specific set of instructions and orders.  He is flown to Berlin, where, when their plane is in a holding pattern over the airport, he flies down, shooting down another plane of a specific model before returning to his ride, unseen.

o   However, he finds loopholes in his orders.  He catches a glimpse of the coordinates of the Siberian base in the cockpit and leaves the number scrawled on the tarmac of the airport – hoping that the memo gets to the right people. 

o   He downs a plane as ordered, only a few feet off the ground from its landing – successfully shooting down the plane without causing any casualties. 

·         Chapter 18

o   A few weeks later, Bucky wakes to alarm claxons going off in the Siberian facility.  Fairbanks orders him to safely escort him to the hangar on base – and to kill any opposition en-route.  As it turns out, someone got his message and the base is under attack by American Marines. 

o   However, Bucky is forced to fight them – and is brutally effective at it, despite shouting and pleading for them to run. 

o   Lukin has stayed at the facility and finds Bucky after the deed is done and he’s shaking from the horrors he had to commit.  Lukin has interrogated one of the Marines, and discovered what brought them to the facility.  He locks Bucky up with the unconscious prisoner

·         Chapter 19

o   Still reeling from the bloodbath, Bucky also realizes that he was injured in the attack, and Lukin’s intent in leaving them locked up together

o   The prisoner, Lieutenant Anthony Prewitt eventually wakes and is baffled to discover his cellmate is the famous – and presumed dead – war-hero Bucky Barnes. They speak for a bit until…

o   Bucky’s heat from his injuries inevitably hits.  Despite trying to fight it, both of them are overpowered by his pheromones.

o   Prewitt is horrified afterwards, Bucky feels even worse, and Lukin shows up, forcing Bucky to kill Prewitt and orders him to put on glyphed manacles. 

o   Fairbanks arrives back on base, furious with the way Lukin handled things in his absence, and talks about taking Bucky back with him to the US when Lukin kills Fairbanks in front of Bucky.   For a moment, Bucky feels the bond severed and fights his captors with rekindled fury.  But in the glyphs, he is hamstrung, and overpowered after taking down a few guards.  Using the book, Lukin then binds Bucky to himself and seals him away in a cryo chamber until he has further researched and developed a better method of wielding him.

·         Chapter 20

o   Bucky wakes up years later.  He’s in a new facility (the old one having been compromised) and Lukin is there with a new face – one Dr. Fenhoff, who has developed a machine to burn the insolence out of his mind.  The Chair wipes Bucky’s memories, but leaves him with full access to his skills.   Fenhoff theorizes that if the treatment isn’t permanent, it should still take the mind much longer than the body to heal – and that subsequent smaller treatments in the chair can specifically target regenerating pathways to keep old memories from resurfacing while preserving newer information.

o   The process, however, is incredibly painful – and much too intense for mortal men.  Afterwards, Lukin feeds him a lie about being  demon summoned into the body of a soldier who gave his life to serve the good cause of Hydra.   Lukin asks him if he remembers anything of the old person in the body, and continues to ask him that each morning.

o   He is trained, his capabilities and skills tested and updated with new weapons.

o   There is brief mention of him being fed, without an understanding of why that’s a bad thing

o   After about a week, a number surfaces to his mind he was supposed to remember – he shares this information with Lukin, expecting to be rewarded.  Instead, he is shoved back into Cryo – answering Lukin’s question about how long between procedures before the mind begins to regenerate neural pathways. 

·         Chapter 21

o   A glimpse into new standard operating procedures for the Asset.

o   The Asset is woken from Cryo, wiped, and prepped for a mission – his first since Fenhoff’s “Winter Soldier” technique was used on him.  He is taken to a fancy hotel in Stalingrad where he is to go undercover and seduce a member of the Communist Party.

o   He successfully uses his pheromones and skillset to be invited back to the man’s room where he goes down on him, knocking him out and injects him with something to keep him out

o   He then goes to the next room to murder a woman found there, leaving evidence to pin the blame on the official.

·         Chapter 22

o   It is recommended that this chapter be read as it is formatted entirely in inter-office memos, mission reports, emails, and other communications between members of Hydra and The Asset’s masters over the intermediate years between The Downward Spiral and Lifting You Up. 

o   It includes mentions to this universe’s infamous “December 16, 1991” mission, what happens with the Asset once Steve wakes up from the ice, and some of Pierce’s motivations for pulling the asset out of storage for “one last mission”.