ex-HYDRA.
There are some people who are different. Even people who are part of the machine. There are people who believe in doing the right thing enough to tear themselves down when they realize they're part of the problem. Maybe you met one of them. I couldn't tell you. But I did.
It's hard to say. There are things I remember about myself and things I put together from what I read in my own goddamn SHIELD file, and I'm not sure which is which. The old stuff comes back easier than the new stuff, but none of it's clear. I don't know why that is. But I'll tell you what I know.
Far as I can tell? It was about the kid. Everything I ever done since i met him was. I spent the better part of 28 years trying to keep him out of trouble. Didn't start when I got the draft, or he joined the army. Finishing the fights he started. I may have taken my first life in the army, but it was a near thing, sometimes. Weren't his fault, though. I've probably always been this way. I was a fucked up, angry kid. And you don't grow up half-homeless and orphaned in Brooklyn during the great depression without some scars to show for it. But he was my bright spot. And if one of us was gonna get our knuckles bloodied, it was better me than him.
World doesn't have a lot of good people in it. Sometimes the fucked up people have to get a little more fucked up to let them stay good.