( note: some of these are built on the concept where I disagree with the implication that billy knew and didn't care about the hit on frank and his family pre-series. ask me about my theory about how it doesn't make sense given everything else they established lmao. my go-to concept for some of these is that he did know about the hit, but too late to do anything about it, but otherwise wildly disagreed with it )
winter soldier au
Operation Cerberus' higher ups needed a way to fund their not-totally-legal operation, and so turned to drug smuggling, and while they largely viewed Billy as a vaguely useful dog who was willing to do anything for the cut of money he was promised, they were still worried about what would happen if he went against orders after they killed Frank and his family. The American military had wanted their own version of the Winter Soldier program, and Billy was the perfect candidate: no family ties (at least, none after they killed the Castles), nobody that would look for him if he went missing. So once he'd worn out his usefulness, the Operation Cerberus commanders handed him over shortly before the hit on the Castle family, and the experimental program turned him into a brainwashed assassin codenamed Jigsaw.
reverse au
In which Frank Castle either dies, or never becomes the Punisher, and Billy does so in his stead. Overcome with guilt for failing to stop the hit on the Castle family, he goes on a crusade to kill everyone involved with the drug smuggling in Operation Cerberus, with the intent that he too will die at the end of his mission, to atone.
powers au
Because I'm a sucker for superpoers; au where he's had powers all along and just kept them hidden because the military would exploit that shit so fast?
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🎭 𝐀𝐔'𝐬
Operation Cerberus' higher ups needed a way to fund their not-totally-legal operation, and so turned to drug smuggling, and while they largely viewed Billy as a vaguely useful dog who was willing to do anything for the cut of money he was promised, they were still worried about what would happen if he went against orders after they killed Frank and his family. The American military had wanted their own version of the Winter Soldier program, and Billy was the perfect candidate: no family ties (at least, none after they killed the Castles), nobody that would look for him if he went missing. So once he'd worn out his usefulness, the Operation Cerberus commanders handed him over shortly before the hit on the Castle family, and the experimental program turned him into a brainwashed assassin codenamed Jigsaw.
In which Frank Castle either dies, or never becomes the Punisher, and Billy does so in his stead. Overcome with guilt for failing to stop the hit on the Castle family, he goes on a crusade to kill everyone involved with the drug smuggling in Operation Cerberus, with the intent that he too will die at the end of his mission, to atone.
Because I'm a sucker for superpoers; au where he's had powers all along and just kept them hidden because the military would exploit that shit so fast?