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agent-44mc · 1 month ago

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a mission of liberation. 1995. part one

Pairing: Winter Soldier x Red Guardian

Warnings: none, so far.

Summary: Four years after meeting the Winter Soldier, Alexi Shostakov finds himself face to face with the man he once knew. SHIELD assigns him the mission to find and liberate him.

Word Count: 1k

notes: I don’t know where exactly this is going, I usually don’t do this, but I’m so excited about this ship I had to do something. I'm shrugging right now but in a way that i definitely know instead of what the shrug implies. tee hee. because it's so clear they should fuck so it will happen, trust. also this is unedited. i don't have time for that.

edit: why didn’t any of you tell me I was spelling Alexei wrong? I am betrayed and hurt. next chapter postponed.

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┐

Alexi had a good life, doing what he loved. A nice house, a dog, a job that he loved more than anything in the world, students that maybe hated him, even a potential girlfriend. Everyone knew him to be a kind spirit, maybe annoying at times with his loud personality, but after he walks through the doors of his beautiful house, feeds his dog, eats his homemade all american meal, and lays down to sleep in his goose feather bed, he thinks of someone he misses so dearly.

Someone he knew as his best friend.

And it didn’t feel good to think about him , like Alexi would die for it to be. His chest eroded anytime his existence was uttered by his subconscious while his mind was at rest. His “good life” kept the thoughts of him at bay, but every night, the guilt only made it worse.

A smile shouldn’t haunt a man. Often, when the Red Guardian thought of the brutal brainwashing his lost friend had been subjected to, he couldn't help but think of his smile when he resisted it.

The worst part, somehow, was that he didn’t even know his name. Neither of them did- but at least “The Coney Island Hero” wasn’t subjected to remembering that someone had given him that nickname. Alexi was left to suffer that.

But there are many distractions from this- one being that he now leads a double life, working for SHIELD, doing hero-work, an umbrella term to describe anything from shutting down Nuclear Cold-War weapons and saving people from burning buildings- sometimes even cats. The bastardly things.

Until one day, on a mission, he saw someone he’d been dreaming about.

Alexi never went a day without seeing the shadow of The Coney Island Hero, which is why he almost brushed it aside, but then, he slapped him right in the face- which proved nothing. He was seeing The Winter Soldier now. The Shadow of The Coney Island Hero laid in him, even if he might not remember it.

There’s one who does though, and Alexi knew that this time, he wasn’t going to lose him. He was going to liberate him, in a true American fashion.

Brainwashing goes both ways. Alexi was going to brainwash the winter soldier back to the man he knew. The man that deserved to live a life free.

And for reasons unknown to him, there was something deeper stirring under the surface of this fundamental belief. Something… personal.

MISSION REPORT. 1995.

“Get that crying baby out of here, I’m trying to talk to the woman,” Alexi ordered, slamming a fist on Peggy’s desk with a scowl. “This is important, little girl!”

The baby mirrored his scowl. “I’m thwee,” she said, sticking out her tongue and holding her Dad’s hand a little tighter.

“You are a very cute baby, I cannot stay angry for long,” Alexi gave in, waving as she walked out, grinning ear to ear at the sight. “Goodbye baby.”

Silence wavered between them as Alexi smiled silently, staking in the sights of the stuffy brown office that overlooked the streets of New York City, various noises fading into white noise as he let himself drift away to another place. It was subconscious at this point.

Coney Island. He’d been there several times hoping to run into its hero.

He stayed there until a British accent woke him back up. “Alexi, you came here very passionate about something, would you like to… elaborate further on what you saw?”

“Uh, what?” Alexi stuttered, “oh, yes. The Winter Soldier. I saw him there, Agent Carter. I knew him, yes I knew him well. He liberated me.”

“The Winter Soldier? He’s a myth.. An urban legend. What makes you think you know him?” Peggy inquirered, grabbing her reading glasses from the desk in front of her, holding her files out far enough to see.

Alexi laughed. “You cannot fool me, Agent Carter. I know you know what you say isn’t true. You may be the supreme leader of SHIELD, but I was a supreme leader of the Red Room. I knew of the Winter Soldier. But then, I knew him. He didn’t know himself though.”

She looked at him through her glasses. “Alright, fine. He does exist. But you aren’t supposed to know that. It’s what we’d all like to keep a secret.” Peggy became somber, setting down her files. “What do you mean he didn’t know himself?”

“I mean,” Alexi began. “We bonded. He got us French fries, we had jokes, and I tried to help him remember what his name was. The best he could do was Coney Island. That means he was the hero, no?”

“The hero? I doubt he was ever a hero. I don’t know who-“

“But he doesn’t remember. He used to be someone! Someone who is no one wouldn’t remember Coney Island,” Alexi said in confidence, his eyes traveling to outside the window once more. “Even if he wasn’t, he deserves to live free.”

“You’re saying that the Winter Soldier was brainwashed?” Peggy asked, practically in disbelief as her soldiers squared, only slightly looking down at her feet when Alexi earnestly nodded his head.

She got up and walked around the room, seemingly deep in thought about something, in such a manor that made him twist his fingers anxiously in wait for whatever she was going to say next. Perhaps “you’re crazy, we’re taking your job and your money.” or worse, “there’s nothing we can do.”.

Finally, she said, “Alexi, I’m giving you a mission.”

Alexi shot up like lighting to his feet, turning around the face Peggy, who had her hands neatly clasped behind her back, a serious look of final determination on her aged face.

“Yes ma’am?” Alexi asked, his heart practically breaking through his ribs.

“Find and free The Winter Soldier.”

<> part 2 out now

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agent-44mc · 28 days ago

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A Mission of Liberation, 1995. Pt. 3

(art by @dany-blog1)

Pairing: Winter Soldier x Red Guardian

Warnings: sexual references.

Summary: Four years after meeting the Winter Soldier, Alexi Shostakov finds himself face to face with the man he once knew. SHIELD assigns him the mission to find and liberate him.

Word Count: 2k

notes: i get spicy. im no good at it. i advance the plot i think? i'm genuinely spitballing everything. it's terrifying.

unedited. shoutout to my readers on ao3.

follow the tag, #a mission of liberation if you're following the story along! :)

┌── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──┐

Alexei was never good with mornings, but after the dream he just had, he was having an even worse, more confusing morning.

Even mentioning “The Winter Soldier” was tough without his face erupting into a deep red blush that covered his entire face.

“And he is not a good friend…um,” he blubbered, the entire council looking at him with confused and critical looks, one of them even trying to cover her smile with her hand. “I mean, he is my friend, but my friend was brainwashed again.”

Bill pointed at the file that Alexei had in his hand, his eyebrows furrowed deeply into his face as he made several vague gestures that all amounted to “use the damn file that I spent all night making you dipshit!”, so, Alexei opened the file and noticed the sweat from his hands had soaked it in a perfect hand print.

“Um,” Alexei paused, wiping away his sweat with the sleeve of his thrifted suit. His palms were very sweaty when he woke up as well, but not from nervousness. No… it was… something else.

He gulped hard, trying to ignore the pounding in his ears that prevented him from reading the information on the file. The file kept saying “friend”. But now, it was confusing. Echoes of his dream blared through his head like microphone feedback.

“You know, as much as I like that red suit on you, I think it’d look much better on the floor.”

“My friend is not The Winter Soldier-” I think I want him- “My friend is who was under the flesh of a killer. Someone who remembered Coney Island. Who I like to believe is the coney island hero. I know he is someone.” someone I want in my bed.

“Alexei, are you alright?” one of the very serious people at the meeting table asked, noticing how sweaty and unsure he looked while reading off the file. “You look… flushed. Are you running a fever?”

“Talk to me, Alexei. How do you think my arm would feel pinning you down on this mattress? Would you like that?” The Winter Soldier was shirtless, the scars from his arm glistening under a warm light. Alexei didn’t know where he was, but he knew that he had shaken his head yes without a second thought.

Has he always been this way?

“I’m fine- I just get… stage fright.”

Alexei let out guttural noises as The Winter Soldier tangled his metal fingers in his hair, pulling his head back and biting into his neck, using his other arm to grip his thigh. He liked it.

The room was silent as Alexei nearly fell off his balance, accidentally dropping the file as he tried to push the memory of quite possibly the most confusing dream anyone might ever have. What did it mean? Was it an allegory for a brutal fight that would soon befall them?

If that was the case, which it probably was, then why was it giving Alexei a hard-on during the most important moments of his life?

“We just need a testimonial, please. Nothing fancy,” a blonde woman said, rubbing her temples with black polished nails, nearly sinking into the table in front of her with exhaustion.

The person sitting next to her spoke up, a man in a suit a million times more expensive than Alexei’s. “Do you care about your friend? If I were you, I would be very focused and driven.” He spoke in a very deep but matter of fact voice.

When they thought Alexei wasn’t looking, the blonde whispered to him, very loudly, “remember the fucking baby we had to deal with three years back? I’d kill to relive that shitty disaster.” the man clearly tried not to laugh at her joke, but he was terrible at it.

“This is veryyyy funny. Let me tell you about The Red Room. You all have heard of it. Do you know who was there? Me. I was there. I saw it all. Everything. Do you ever have nightmares? I don’t- I’ve seen them all with my own two eyes. The Winter Soldier has been brainwashed,” he shouted, his strong russian accent grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. He usually tones it down, but this situation called to let it free. “They killed the soul of the man underneath, who had a family. A mother. How would you like it if someone took your child and made them kill innocent people everyday? You Americans must think brainwashing is sedation.. I’ve heard screams of people after they remembered. I didn’t know until after. So yes, this is important. I feel guilty. But most of all, I feel angry.”

After his bout of rage, one last echo of his dream flew through his head like a dart. “это мой хороший мальчик.”

“That’s my good boy.”

The room was deathly quiet as Alexei picked up the last pages of the file off the floor and threw it on the desk, looking around with shame for his outburst. Just like a child would do. Only more proof of his immaturity that had been the very thing he blew up for.

Finally, the silence broke. “Hi, Sandra Pope, I’d like to formally apologize for their arrogance. This is hard. And yes, we never knew that he was an unwilling killer or a victim of abuse. This case is important, and I’ll be sure we’ll all work very diligently and tenaciously,”said a tall, shiny dark skinned woman in a pencil skirt. “I think we’ll read the file and gather some questions. But I think it’s important to focus on the mission instead of the nitty gritty details until absolutely necessary, alright?”

Alexei took a seat at the table, doing his best to hide his very obvious faux pas. “When I first met him, he was on a mission to kill Howard Stark. I caused him to fail, because I am exceptional fighter, I don’t know why- but I know what he was after. The serum. That will lure him in. Would it be possible to set up a coup?”

“That is very valuable information, it must be easier to share whenever you aren’t being stared down by our most serious collection of Agents,” she smiled brightly. “Jackie, how about you get started on that?”

Jackie, the blond who had insulted him earlier, looked up in shock. “I… that’s not my expertise? Sorry, I’m not sure I can do that. I specialize in tactical force selection, not… coups.”

Sandra scrunched her chin. “Then it looks like you need to branch out to more areas of expertise; it’s always good to learn and grow past what we already know, isn’t that right? You always seem to think so, very publicly too,” she declared, not once making eye contact as she looked over Bill’s file.

Bill had a virtually unreadable expression after the entire ordeal, but seemed pleased that his file was finally being read.

“Fine,” Jackie said. “I will plan the coup. We’ll send in the Red Guardian. I also must apologize, Mr. Shostakov, you’ve formed a great basis for a genius plan. I look forward to our partnership going forward and joining you in saving whoever is behind the winter soldier.” Whatever she was saying, it was clearly ingenuine and dry.

“Okay. Let’s start now,” Alexei smiled. “No time to waste, right?”

Despite the angered but obnoxiously composed face of his new reluctant colleague, they made the plan to trap the Winter Soldier right there, for 4 hours, only briefly stopping for other meetings. But there was one problem that they all quietly elected to ignore for the time.

Getting Howard Stark to repeat what almost got him killed. And properly leaking the information.

Clearly, someone in The Red Guardian’s circle somehow knew exactly where he’d be, but also, in The Winter Soldier’s, someone knew exactly where Howard Stark would be. Howard would need to be dropping hints about the coup and hope that it gets to the ears of whoever leaked it the first time.

The mole couldn’t have been someone in the lab, because they’d know how to make the serum.

This coup would be their only chance. There’s only so many times Howard… Wait.

“What if he makes multiple shipments to one place? They’ll figure it out and assume that they can raid the location- then we will ambush,” Alexei blurted, the idea on his train of thought too good to forget, as he often did that more times than he’d like to admit.

“They’ll line up the dates Howard Stark isn’t seen… and they’ll most likely note his license plate, no doubt it’s being tracked,” Jackie shot back, raising an almost invisible blonde eyebrow as she threw down a file on the desk, biting her fingernails as she thought it over.

Sandra cleared her throat, catching the attention of the two tired Agent’s. “Yes, but you’re forgetting, we need Howard Stark on board for this or else it won’t work. Someone in his inner circle had to have leaked his whereabouts, and without their knowledge…”

“Plan goes boom, hope goes down harder,” Alexei finished, leaning back in his black office chair, slightly rocking back and forth, a single strand of his brown hair falling in front of his eyes. “So, who wants to do the recruitment? I don’t want to talk to capitalist pig. I am no longer communist of course, but…”

“He’s a piece of greedy shit who profits from genocide? Yeah, trust me, I know,” Jackie said, lowering her voice to a whisper. “He makes me want to go full marx, just for personal spite.”

Someone snored louder than a chainsaw in the corner of the messy room.

Everyone turned to look at Bill Foster, who was slightly drooling, a drip of slimy saliva slowly traveling down his chin as Sandra stifled a giggle. “Guess we know who should make the recruitment then, huh? Since we all know how terribly adamant he is on perfection…” She noted.

“Let me awaken the beast from his peaceful slumbers a payback for… something he probably did to me before but I have forgotten and sworn to get revenge for. I just have a feeling,” Alexei volunteered, a big smile plastered on his face as he walked up to the chair where Bill was sleeping unpeacefully.

He paced around him, his fingers under his chin as he tried to think of a clever way to wake him up. Frantically, he grabbed his shoulder and yelled, “I think I want to be communist again- would you be okay with that or do I have to move back to Russia?”

The next day, they all waited by the phone while coming up with alternate plans if Howard Stark didn’t agree. None of them quite amounted to the near perfect one they had devised that would be terribly tragic. Everyone knew the odds were low.

They’d practically already moved on from the mere mention of it while Bill met with him at his home in New York city to propose the very dangerous and risky plan to him.

An explosion of turbulent emotions filled the room as the phone rang, making everyone's hearts leap from their chest.

A mission like this, challenging and very rewarding, was one that everyone sought out- to fail so quickly would be a disgrace. But Alexei didn’t care about bragging rights or anything else of the sort, he just cared about getting back his… his friend.

Sandra looked around the room with a grieved look veiling her sharp features, wiping her hands on her pencil skirt before picking up the phone. “Hello, this is Sandra Pope, who is this?” Pause. Surprise. “Howard Stark?”

Alexei felt his feet go cold. Howard’s answer is a matter of life or death for not only future victims, but also The Winter Soldier. He only had to pray that Bill stressed that enough as he awaited the answer while cursing his hopeful heart.

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