HYDRA Brainwashing Base
Hong Fei drifted swiftly through the compound. The HYDRA operatives remained oblivious to his spectral presence as he passed. Moments later, he reached the facility's deepest chamber where Steve Rogers lay unconscious. Stripped of his Captain America uniform, the super-soldier wore only shorts, his body studded with electrodes and crisscrossed with wires.
Beads of sweat glistened on Steve's face and sculpted muscles, his skin still flushed from recent trauma. The evidence of suffering was unmistakable. Hong Fei extended his palm toward Steve's forehead and gave a subtle flick. A translucent soul-form separated from the physical body, passing through the metal restraint chair to hover before him.
Hong Fei grasped the dormant soul and transported it back to their safehouse. With a pulse of psychic energy, he roused the sleeping spirit. Steve's eyes snapped open—but the familiar warmth was gone, replaced by the Winter Soldier's characteristic dead-eyed stare.
Even in this disembodied state, Steve launched an immediate attack.
"Easy now," Hong Fei cautioned, immobilizing the soul with a gesture. His psychic influence worked swiftly, scrubbing away the brainwashing's residue. Gradually, clarity returned to Steve's gaze.
The super-soldier gasped as awareness flooded back. His spirit-form jerked upward involuntarily—until Hong Fei grabbed an ankle and yanked him earthward. Steve stared at his translucent hands in disbelief, then attempted to touch his chest. When his fingers passed straight through, his eyes widened in alarm.
"Hong? What's happened to me?"
"You're currently a soul."
Noticing Hong Fei's own ethereal form, Steve pointed between them.
"And you—?"
"Same condition."
Steve's voice rose in panic, "Are we dead?"
Hong Fei chuckled and gestured toward the window where their physical bodies stood.
"Take a look. Very much alive, both of us."
Steve floated over to examine the dormant forms, shoulders relaxing with visible relief.
"Thank God. You had me thinking HYDRA bagged us all."
"Not their caliber," Hong Fei scoffed. He summoned tendrils of golden energy from his physical form, weaving them into Steve's spirit. The luminescent strands solidified the apparition until Steve could finally touch his own arms.
"What is this power? I feel... stronger. Lighter."
"Light."
"Literal light energy?"
"Close enough."
"Can you heal people with it?"
Hong Fei blinked in surprise. Steve burst out laughing.
"Kidding! I've played video games, you know." Shaking his head, Hong Fei remarked, "You're adapting well to this century. Fits your rejuvenated body."
He phased back into his physical form.
They stood together at the window overlooking the rebuilding city.
"You've done good work here," Steve offered quietly. When Hong Fei didn't respond, he added, "It hurt. Bad."
A solemn nod.
"I'll make them pay."
"Soon."
"You want me to take Pierce's place."
"Yes."
"To fight darkness from within. Your own words."
Hong Fei's lips curved.
"Exactly. HYDRA's too vast, too entrenched for brute force alone."
"Understood. I won't fail you."
"I've left traces in your mind—residual patterns matching HYDRA's brainwashing. They'll think their programming took. You can adjust your state freely; they won't notice a thing."
"Alright. Then after Pierce dies, who will take over controlling me? You?"
"Not me. That would only make them vigilant. Gideon Malick will take over your control. When that time comes, he will definitely put you in Pierce's leader position, which can strengthen his voice within HYDRA."
Steve nodded slightly. A moment later, he looked curiously at Hong Fei and asked, "I feel like you've been very busy lately, as if you're anxiously arranging plans that were supposed to be implemented slowly." Hong Fei smiled, "You noticed."
And only he had noticed. Steve's smile faded slightly, "Can I know why?"
Hong Fei nodded, then let out a long sigh before saying, "You know, after I killed Carol, I slowly developed a premonition."
"What?"
"I will leave Earth."
"Isn't that something you already planned? I was even thinking of going out with you."
"No, it's different. I feel my plans might be disrupted again, and then I will be forced to leave Earth." Speaking up to this point, Hong Fei paused and added, "For a long time."
Steve immediately frowned tightly, a few traces of unease appearing on his face, "Is something going to happen? I know you occasionally have a precognitive-like ability regarding the future. You can tell me, and we will face it together."
Hong Fei immediately turned his head and gave him a bright smile. Having a friend like this, who would suddenly and unexpectedly move you from time to time, is really hard to handle.
"It's not like that. This time, it really is just a premonition. You know, when your strength reaches a certain level, I don't need to actively probe the future; the future will actively strip naked and lie in front of me, letting me..."
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Steve coughed violently, his face helpless. Hong Fei couldn't help but chuckle, then laughed out loud, "Hahaha, alright, alright. Let me rephrase that."
As he spoke, Hong Fei's body began to radiate light from the inside out. However, this time, the light that permeated outward did not extend straight out, but quickly converged and stopped after spilling from his body. Before long, his entire being looked as if it were purely gathered from light. With another thought, tiny, subtle light spots suddenly scattered from his light-gathered body. They were like dandelion seeds swaying in a gentle breeze, dancing lightly around Hong Fei and Steve.
Steve curiously reached out and gently touched these light spots. When his fingertips met the light spots, the light instantly and lightly submerged into his body. In an instant, he felt as if something had been added to his mind, but when he tried to think about it carefully, he couldn't identify it clearly.
"Did you feel it?" Hong Fei asked. Steve first nodded, then shook his head, "It seems like I felt something, but when I think about it carefully, it seems like there was nothing."
"The tiny light spots you see drifting outside right now, they can be information, images, or even a complete future. This information was originally drifting in the universe, sourced from the past of everything that has already happened in the world, possibilities intertwined, overlapping, and colliding. They will annihilate, and they will be reborn. When you are strong enough, your body acts like a huge magnetic field, constantly attracting them toward you."
"However, when you absorb these things, you might not necessarily get specific information. You might only be able to capture that key piece of information about yourself during an occasional flash of inspiration." Steve asked with great wonder, "So that's how you predicted the future?"
"It's just one possibility regarding the future."
"That's already amazing enough."
"Actually, we could determine this possibility just by analyzing existing intel, but there are too many variables. It's difficult to pinpoint which scenario is most likely."
"Do you think what you just described has a high chance of happening?"
"Extremely high."
Steve exhaled slowly.
"Now I get it. That explains why you've been reorganizing The Foundation's personnel, rapidly securing Fury's leftover bases and supplies, even sending me undercover in HYDRA."
"You could look at it that way."
Or not. Everything Steve mentioned had already been part of Hong Fei's original plans. The only difference was that after his premonition, he'd started deliberately accelerating all operations. He refused to let his people be caught unprepared when chaos eventually came. Whether Hong Fei stayed or left, he intended to maintain order in his earthly operations. For him, growth came through action—good or bad. Even if he departed someday, his people would continue moving forward at the established pace. That way, no matter where he went, the benefits would keep flowing back to him. Life thrived on movement. Power grew through constant motion.