Winter Soldier: Fade to Red

Sparring Match

"Untangle your web," the voice in the room said after Nikolai entered.

Once again, with such a simple phrase, Nikolai's mind disassembled. Like a sandcastle caught in a wave, it dissolved and washed away in the surf. Every memory of the marketplace faded into oblivion, replaced by what existed before.

Nikolai turned and walked out of the decrepit household, his clothes changed and his hair and face hidden beneath a hat. By the time he returned to his apartment, the hypnotic command to completely forget went into full effect.

But then, like a zap within his brain, something happened. A glitch. A bug.

Memories, fragmented and conflicting, began to filter in like sun rays through a filthy window. Dropping to his knees, Nikolai began to thrash about. His mind, so overflown with such an assortment of broken recollections, produced an overwhelming sort of agony.

Traveling to Sokovia, mission in mind.

Captured, tortured, interrogated.

Returning to Russia, no recollection in between.

Chunks of meandering through life, separated by phone call-initiated blackouts.

Nikolai slapped the floor, his palms stinging from the frustrating impact.

"What is happening to me?" Nikolai whispered between ragged breaths.

The doorknob wiggled in the distance and Nikolai's confusion receded as Wolf Spider emerged.

Bucky's intuition was correct. After casing the area near the market and moving away from the heavy police presence, he came upon a row of condemned houses. Lying in wait, he watched until a discreetly outfitted figure emerged from behind one of the houses and walked purposelessly away. Bucky followed the figure until he reached a modern but modest apartment building more centrally located within the city. After waiting outside beneath a row of trees for a short while, Bucky spied Wolf Spider briefly through a window and knew the time to act was now.

Bucky slowly opened the door to the apartment and raised his sidearm. A narrow, dimly-lit hallway greeted him and he quickly moved in. As he darted down the hall, he took measure of his surroundings. Mapping the place out in his mind as he went, he kept his well-trained senses honed in. The place was small and sparsely outfitted; barely any places to hide. Bucky maintained his defensive stance, his entire body ready. Decades of acting as the Winter Soldier had ingrained this sharp, almost surgical approach to operations.

But this wasn't like other operations. He knew it deep down. This was different because the man he was pursuing was experiencing the very same circumstances he'd once experienced. He could still recall those hazy, tense moments on the run in Bucharest. With only Steve as his lifeline. Steve, his former lover and forever friend. Being on the other side this time, he was lucky to be able to understand both sides now. Nikolai was likely scared of his own mind, unable to trust when he was in control and when he wasn't. He knew that when their paths crossed, he would fight. And he completely understood this. But he had to do this. Otherwise it was death that waited for Nikolai.

The Winter Guard. He hadn't encountered any of them yet aside from Yelena, but if they were anything like the detailed intelligence she'd supplied him with, he wasn't sure he exactly wanted to. An android based on Vision and a mutant with the ability to control dark energy would be tough to deal with under even the best of circumstances. And though the Russian super soldier was aligned with Yelena, Bucky knew that it wouldn't matter if they were forced to fight.