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Chapter Text

Approximately 1000 June 27 th , 2016

Cold.

Tony knew he was broken, probably beyond repair. If he stayed in this icy hell, death would be inevitable. As the adrenaline from the fight left his body, the anger he felt at the lies that were told to his face burned inside him.

Fire.

Every inhale rasped over the back of his throat and stretched its cold fingers down into his lungs. It covered the sounds of Rogers and Barnes moving further away down the corridors until there was nothing but silence.

And crushing weight.

Every exhale felt like the weight of the world sitting on his chest. Or maybe Mjolnir. What pissed him off further was the sound of the Quinjet circling overhead before fading into the distance. Tony felt surprised by that he probably shouldn’t have. Rogers not having the forethought on Tony’s situation and taking the only viable transport out of this godforsaken frozen hell. Just typical. Rolling his eyes, he can only hope they took Zemo with them because if he was still here then he would tear him limb from limb.

But for the moment he just had to stay warm. Stay breathing.

He was sure that he was bleeding internally, probably externally. Although did that count as internally since it was inside the suit? You’re drifting. FOCUS! 

The casing ring broken away and down into the armor coming away from the chest chassis. I should make that into a single moulded piece next time. The arc reactor’s solid Starkium core had broken the backing plate away from the casing and was now pushed hard into his sternum, caving it in. There was sure to be some absolutely spectacular bruising, along with broken ribs and punctured lungs since he couldn’t breathe without fiery hot pokers stabbing over the front of his chest and sending painful electrical impulses into his sluggish brain. Concussion? Sure why not. That would also explain why his head felt like it was going to explode. Why his eyes felt like rolling into the back of his skull and slight tinny echo of ringing in his ears.

Damn Rogers.

And damn Bucky Barnes

Don't think about him.

Or that.

Not yet.

Just stay warm. Stay breathing.

Friday will send help, be patient.

Man Down Protocol. He was never going to be stranded again. The first time he lucked out, Harley had been there to help. And then, when he was put in danger, Tony couldn't hightail it out of there fast enough. He felt ashamed and guilty as fuck for bringing his superpowered enemies into an innocent kid's life.

He didn't want to rely on anyone to help him, least of all a kid. It was hard enough for Tony to allow Rhodey or Pepper to help, how many times did they have to wear him down to even know he needed help? They would only end up in danger or hurt. He couldn’t allow that. So, with the suit showing critical damage and loss of power imminent a short burst of power is diverted to an emergency beacon, signalling to Friday, she would activate and guide a rescue suit to his last known coordinates.

He just had to stay warm. Stay breathing.

Was it getting colder? It felt colder.

Stay warm. Stay breathing.

Now that the adrenaline from the fight was wearing off finding a position where the weight on his chest was bearable was difficult, struggling upright was an issue, laying on his back or side was also an issue. With panic building from the metal digging into his chest Tony fought the urge to rip off the armour, right hand at his neck gripping the edge tightly like it might ease some of the pressure. The feeling of being trapped and crushed inside the suit had never occurred to him before but damn it was occurring to him now. It was a shell, a shield; it had always protected him from the harsh world, but now it felt like a coffin. Shifting on his knees he reached for the faceplate. Fumbling awkwardly over the icy concrete, his left arm felt weak and it seized painfully when he stretched it out. Finally, he grasped the torn edge of the faceplate, made even more difficult as the fingers of the suit weren’t made to have fine dexterity or much grip. The pain was too much so he allowed himself to tip backwards, knocking the breath out of him. That was a mistake though as the pain shooting through his chest and down his arm now made every tight breath a struggle. 

I’m going to die here.

Moving carefully, he swapped the remains of the helmet to his right hand, lifting it over his head he took a moment to focus on the damage. Damn. No blinking light, the wires were severed, they appeared to be crushed and torn. The force of the blows to the head not only rattled Tony’s brain inside his skull but left significant damage to the whole faceplate, the metal had shattered under the force of the vibranium shield. Dropping his arm, suddenly too exhausted to hold it up, Tony winced as a sharp spike of pain rolled over him. Not good. The pain spiked again, blacking the edges of his vision. This is it now. Then the cold followed, sweeping over his body, stealing the last of the little breath he had.

I don’t want to die! Please! I don’t want to die!

Desperation made his hands shake as they curled around the left forearm of the wrecked suit. Using the last flickers of life from the damaged arc reactor he triggered the gauntlet's emergency release. His vision faded in and out now, breath hiccuping in vain to draw oxygen into his ruined chest as he worked the gauntlet free from his forearm with panicky fingers. Nausea made his stomach churn and bile rise in his throat. Fighting a losing battle for control of his body he worked the plate that lay on the inside of the wrist free from the exoskeleton, inside lay his only salvation, a fingerprint reader that would inject a small vial of modified Extremis directly into his bloodstream. Short, sharp panting and metal scratching on metal filled the silence but Tony could only hear roaring in his ears. With a final grunt of exertion and no thought for the future Tony felt for the scanner under his finger and with a beep his life changed forever.

Chapter Text

Approximately 0930 June 27 th , 2016

When T’Challa had retreated from the bunker back to the entrance he suspected he wouldn’t have long to wait until Zemo made his escape, smug in his role of destroying the Avengers. Moving quickly down the cement corridors and back out into the frozen wasteland surrounding the abandoned missile bunker he made his final decision.

T'Challa didn't have to wait long, finally Zemo stepped out into the open, T’Challa watched him look back towards the bunker door as he quickly walked away. The smug but somehow fatalistic smile that appeared when an explosion went off was wiped from his face when the silo door came crashing down blocking all sound. T’Challa watched as Zemo looked around and sat down, he appeared to have forgotten whatever was happening behind him as he dug his phone from his pocket. Now was his moment, T’Challa could not watch from the sidelines any longer, it was time to step up and be the leader his country needed.

***

T'Challa felt sadness for Zemo, he truly did. He empathised with him, after all he is in the same position. Angry and aching for revenge for his father's, his King's death. It felt like a deep burn that would never heal behind his ribs. It made him react without considering his actions even though he knew that he was representing his country on the world stage for the first time in modern history.

But he was King now, no longer a prince; and in his selfish pursuit he had left his country to fend for itself at the UN. His diplomats would do a fine job in his absence, but he had to solidify his precarious position and show a strong front. He already informed Secretary Ross of Romanoff’s change of heart but he felt there was more he could do. Changing his hold around Zemo's neck to render him unconscious he resigned himself to his country and gave up his selfish revenge.

Lifting the dead weight up over his shoulder he walked carefully through the snow to the Quinjet and up the ramp where he shrugged Zemo's body to the floor, careful to not damage him. Grabbing the first aid kit on the wall it didn't take more than a moment to find a tranquilizer, it only took a moment to carefully ready a syringe. Without hesitation he quickly injected Zemo before lifting him to a seat and buckling him in.

Stiffening to the sound of footsteps crunching snow and heavy breathing T'Challa stood straight and turned to see Captain Rogers helping Barnes to the Quinjet, he asked "Are you well? Where is Mr Stark?"

Rogers paused mid motion at the bottom of the ramp. "Tony's fine, he destroyed Bucky's arm and took off."

Grimmancing in disbelief at Roger's statement he wonder privately where Stark was, unbelievably though he saw Rogers mistake his expression for belief of his lie. T'Challa moved down the ramp and helped bring Sergeant Barnes up into the jet, seating him opposite Zemo. T’Challa knew he had to be careful here, the Captain needed to continue to believe that he sided with them so they would allow him to fly them all back to Wakanda where he could get the Dora to help arrest them, he didn’t think it wise to try and arrest two super soldiers by himself. 

Rogers stared down at the unconscious man. "You captured Zemo?"

Tilting his head in acknowledgement, T'Challa paused slightly before deciding. "I would like to give you and Sergeant Barnes sanctuary in Wakanda. If you can follow behind my jet, I will be able to allow you into our airspace. I will figure out a way to get Zemo into UN custody once there. Also, it may be possible for my doctors to help with the Hydra conditioning that Barnes suffers from."

A silent look passed between the two super soldiers before both nodded in agreement. T'Challa knew that if they were both tucked away in Wakanda and out of trouble it might be possible to smooth over any problems with the UN once all the evidence was gathered about the extra super soldiers. He would need to either send some Dora back here to recover bodies or propose a fact finding mission to the UN council to investigate Zemo and this base.

Stepping down from the Quinjet and back over to his own jet, T'Challa finally felt ready to take up the mantle of King. The feeling was short-lived though as the jets took off in concert, he read a heat signature inside the bunker. Cursing the Captain's duplicity, he made a quick decision and put a call through to the CEO of Stark Industries bypassing the security in place.

"Hello?"

"Miss Potts, this is the King of Wakanda, T'Challa. I have a problem that I require your assistance to rectify."

"How may I help Your Highness?"

"I have Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes and Helmut Zemo in my custody, and we are currently leaving a Siberian Hydra base. As I was preparing Zemo for transport Captain Rogers led me to believe that Mr Stark was fine and, on his way back to New York but my systems are registering a heat signature still within the base." Looking back at the instrument panel, T'Challa frowned at the rising temperature. "As my closest people are either at the UN Council or back in Wakanda I believe you have a rescue team closer. I think it would be best to deploy them, I'm sending through the coordinates now."

Pepper flicked her screen over to a program that showed the status of the Iron Man armour. Her heart rate shot high at seeing the Man Down protocol active. Swallowing dryly, she spoke with a steady voice belying her internal panic "Your Highness, Mr Stark has automated a self-rescue protocol. I'll have him contact you when he is able. Also, if you could contain both Rogers and Barnes until the UN and Mr Stark come to a decision that would be very helpful."

"They will be detained as per the UN can deliver a decision Miss Potts. Also, I'm reading strange heat fluctuations from those coordinates."

Clenching both hands to fists Pepper drew on all her emotional strength and responded as calmly as she was able. "I'm sure everything is fine Your Highness. Good day to you."

"And to you Miss Potts." T'Challa ended the call and took his jet off autopilot. Unsure if all would be well with Tony Stark but for now unable to help, except to detain his three unknowing prisoners in the Quinjet on his wing.

Washington, DC

Pepper waited a few moments for her work to transfer to her tablet as she leaned heavily on her desk taking a deep breath. The shock of the phone ringing when she had specified no calls to come through had a feeling of dread creeping up her throat. After only a slight hesitation she had answered and found that the dread was justified.

Of course, she had been following the news of the Accords from the moment when Tony left the States and travelled to Berlin. Although he wasn’t in Vienna but Berlin and scheduled to be in a meeting with potential investors and then the German branch of Stark Industries straight after she couldn’t help but worry after hearing about the explosion. Checking in with him and being informed he had been asked to attend the UN in Berlin and act as an intermediary between the Avengers and the UN had not been a surprise, but the juggling she had to do to keep the investors happy, well she could have done without that.

Of course, his quick trip back Stateside to borrow Happy and then back to Leipzig raised an eyebrow but she had a company to run and he was used to the political manoeuvring that had been directing many of his decisions of late. Pepper felt that if he fulfilled his few obligations to the company that he could act freely.

When Happy sent CCTV footage to her of the showdown at the airport she demanded that he tell her exactly what was going on. A fight like that, whilst not directly anything to do with Stark Industries could create a lot of bad press simply because Tony was still very much an associated public figure, especially after his generous donation to the students at MIT less than a fortnight earlier.

After speaking with Happy, Pepper called Tony. She had cried when she was told of Jim's injury, the possibility of him never walking  without assistance again was devastating for her to hear let alone the active man now living in his new reality. 

But now something was very wrong, it had been nearly 24 hours since she had last spoken to Tony and she would get to the bottom of it. Pulling herself together and checking that all relevant work had finished downloading to her tablet, she made a quick call, the other end picked up after two rings.

"Happy. Tony's activated Man Down Protocol. Get the helicopter ready, we're going to New York." Pulling together the last of her things Pepper strode from the office.

Chapter Text

The Extremis virus had been highly modified after the Tony privately acquired AIM and all current research and patents. Whilst the world was focused on the President, the subsequent destruction of the Mandarin and Tony’s resurrection from death, no one was looking at AIM. The fact that the CEO, Aldrich Killian had died in an industrial accident barely made the six o’clock news.

Tony quietly absorbed what he could into Stark Industries, infrastructure, staff and so forth but moved all research to his workshop. After many weeks and quite a few failures that caused fits of rage or listless depression Tony finally managed to integrate a suite of medical nanites that stayed active in concert with the Extremis virus. After consulting with Pepper, he modified it to dial back nearly all side effects, leaving only a slightly enhanced strength and a superior immune system. Privately though, he set aside another version for his suits and although the more severe side effects such as overheating and becoming a literal human bomb as well as breathing fire had to be negated, the ability to regenerate, as well as enhanced strength and speed remained the same. For a long time, he questioned the morality of it, but with each new armour rebuild and the bigger threats the Avengers faced he felt that in the likelihood of him using the virus it would have to be a world ending event.

And it was. Just not the world ending event he expected.

Heat immediately rushed over him from the injection site leaving a tingling in its wake, comparable to a hot flush and then goose bumps immediately after. Unfortunately, Tony didn't have time to catalogue the strange sensation as his body temperature reached unbearable levels and his vision tunnelled down to blackness.

In the abandoned bunker, no one witnessed him fall unconscious as his body gave out from the strain of the retrovirus, a reddish orange light flashed under his exposed face, healing the wounds and bruising.

Hours passed as the virus adjusted to its new environment. The discovery of the neural transmitters embedded within the host eased the way. Slowly new pathways were built upon the old network, enhancing communication between nanites and the host body, overwriting redundant DNA sending the body into a feverish state. After six hours the nanites moved to the titanium inserted in the ribcage as well as the hard shell covering the host. Heating even further the cold snow melted from the extreme temperatures given off by his body, water rushed in through the openings in the bunker and started pooling around him on the concrete.

The host now capable of surviving more extreme temperatures was unaware of the liquefying armour slowly being drawn within. The arc reactor was copied and modified enough for strategic placement around the body, two sitting under the edge of the collarbone on the shoulders and one still holding centre place. In the final pulsing blast of heat given off by the now rapidly changing body the surrounding water flash boiled, filling the alcove in a cloud of steam. The virus boosted the power output of the arc reactors, causing Tony to start seizing, as his body involuntarily arched and flailed a hand struck the vibranium-iron shield left behind, melting it down to a puddle instantly. Extremis found the new metal intriguing and immediately integrated the newly fluid metal in solidifying the position of the arc reactors over Tony's chest and running bracing through his skeleton.

As soon as it was situated Extremis pulsed again, easing Tony out of his seizure and beginning to regulate his system for optimum function. Twelve hours had passed from the initial injection to the final cooling. Extremis had done its job and kept Tony from dying.

Chapter Text

Approximately 2200 June 27 th , 2016

Tony opened his eyes, there was no struggle to awaken or mental fog that needed to be shaken loose, he went to fully caffeinated and switched on. Although there was some confusion as to his immediate surroundings, recognising the missile bunker where he was left behind was a low point. His memory flickered painfully.

Abandoned.

Left behind.

Betrayed.

Swallowing hard, he brought a hand to his chest as the memory of the shield breaking open his suit and jamming a half-destroyed reactor into his busted sternum before closing it into a tight fist. The tightness of a panic attack was too familiar and with a harsh blink he realised he could feel his chest and an arc reactor . That was wrong, there should be a damaged suit, panicking even more now he took a deep breath and looked down. The first thing he noticed was his nakedness then the familiar glow from the reactor and two extra glows from the extra reactors.

What the hell!

Where the hell was his suit! Where did the extra reactors come from?

Pulling himself into a sitting position the next thing he noticed apart from his lack of clothing was that he wasn't feeling the cold or pain from the fight. The Extremis formula had worked. It must be the reason he wasn't in any pain. A small smile crept over his face; he was never entirely sure his body would accept the retrovirus, that's why it was a last resort. An extreme measure to ensure his survival because if it didn't work, he was going to die anyway.

Standing up he looked about. The darkness of night gave away that he'd been out cold for a while. Swallowing down his panic, as it would not help him in the short term and ignoring his nudity for now, he scrambled up over the concrete ridge before climbing a ladder up into the bunker where the winter soldiers were held in cryostasis. Allowing his eyes to adjust to the darkness he walked through the debris, climbing over concrete and metal looking for the laptop. When he finally discovered it half buried near the first destroyed cryo-pod, he felt pure rage course through him at the sight of it. He wanted to destroy it, to take it in his hands and crush it to pieces.

The thought of his Mom sinks all that rage back down and utter sadness wells up inside him. She didn’t deserve to die in such a horrific way, it was bad enough when he thought his drunken father killed her in a car accident. Thinking of watching the footage again had him gagging in his throat but he might need the evidence for when he finally gets a hold of Barnes. He knows bringing the Winter Soldier to justice won’t do anything for himself, but he’d like to think it would bring peace to his Mom and if this was the only justice she would get, then so be it.

Picking up the hardened military laptop Tony holds it tightly to himself before looking around for a place to sit. So far his best bet was waiting on Friday to arrive with a rescue suit, once she was there it would be an easy matter of connecting the hard drive  to the suit and keep it isolated whilst looking through the drive, it wouldn’t do to accidentally upload a Hydra virus. Plus, it would give him plenty to do on the flight back to New York. Stepping carefully, he found a clear space to rest. He’d just close his eyes for a moment and try to think of nothing, he was sure it would be the last chance for a while.

***

Friday scrambled a trio of suits as soon as she lost connection with the boss. One medical rescue and two legionnaires just in case the super soldiers or Zemo were still hanging around. Although suits were deployed almost immediately, she could only maintain a top speed of 560 miles before g-forces impacted negatively on the joins of the armour. She would have to mention it to the boss about a more aerodynamic design for long distance flight. Even with this top speed and sitting comfortably at 65,0000 feet it would still take her 10.7839 hours to make it to Ulan-Ude, Siberia. She quickly sent a flash message to all relevant states and countries that she would flyover identifying herself. Although standard protocol since the introduction of the boss’ campaign to clean up his black-market weapons this was the first time it was implemented without the boss directing, it left her feeling anxious.

That left the entry of Russian airspace to deal with, she did not want to get shot down by some backwater commander. Preparing a message that would hopefully indicate an urgency and the medical need involved she would send it well before the armours reached the Japanese coastline.

After being forced to hover over the Sea of Okhotsk for three hours after the open message to the Russian UN representative so that everything could be verified, the reply back was less than warm. Sending backup conversation logs between Ross and Tony Stark, waiting for the Russian government to speak with the US government wasted a further two hours. Damn Ross for making everything on America’s end so complicated, she hopes her actions have dumped him in some hot water.

Finally, with permission granted to enter Russian airspace, Friday shut down all non-essential systems and quickly shot over forests and mountains occasionally dotted with centres of population. She passed by the Zeya Reservoir, making sure to not encroach on the Chinese border before arriving at the abandoned missile bunker high in the mountains outside Ulan-Ude.

Circling the bunker 13 hours after deployment she could only hope to find some evidence of boss’ survival. The suit he wore had showed serious damage in the last minute of the fight and several hard hits to critical systems in the seconds leading up to communication loss. Noting the lack of the Quinjet and evidence of another aircraft that had landed nearby and then taken off Friday became suspicious and landed in the vent where Boss was last shown to have been.

Damage to the vent showed spalling and scorch marks to the concrete from extreme heat, unsure of what could have caused it she lifted both arms of the legionnaires in readiness leaving the Rescue suit behind until she could further assess the bunker. Stepping further inside and shining a light of the area she couldn’t detect any suit remains but found a heat signature that was slightly higher than a human’s core temperature.

Sending the legionnaires up into the bunker she found the boss sitting among the debris near a control panel, clutching the laptop to his chest. His eyes opened, already zeroed on her. He smoothly stood to his feet as she called up the rescue suit and set it down in front of him. Opening it up to reveal a G-suit inside she sent the two legionnaires to further explore the ruins.

“Boss I’m reading a higher than usual body temperature and…” Friday paused, unsure how to make her observations known without inducing a panic attack.

“I know baby girl, I’ve been…changed I suppose. I had to implement Extreme Measures; I was dying.” Tony stepped forward and grabbed the G-suit, pulling it on carefully so as not to aggravate any wounds before realising there are no wounds to aggravate.

Zipping up the final zipper and standing tall again he spoke with a tired urgency. “I need you to notify Pep and Happy about Extreme Measures, then send a coded message to Dr Cho and tell her to have Medical organised for my arrival. I need to know why I have the reactors embedded inside me again.”

“Right away Boss, I’ve been instructed to tell you that Miss Potts and Mr Hogan are already aware of the enactment of Man Down and are in New York at the Tower awaiting your arrival. Dr Cho is now preparing for your arrival as well as Colonel Rhodes.”

Friday stepped away to follow through, her attention focused on opening a secure comm line and encoding the message before sending them. Noting a ping coming from the other end, she triple checked the security of the comm lines again before concluding that there was a 0.012% chance of tampering vowing to deal with it when back at the tower Friday turned her focus back to her boss only to find him frozen with a half disassembled laptop in his hands.

Tony gritted his teeth against destroying it out of denial, fingers warping it slightly. Spotting a fallen screwdriver amongst the carnage left behind from his fight. He grabbed it up and pried apart the hardened casing, unaware of the strength he was using.

As soon as he contacted the internal components his body came to a standstill. Frozen in place by the overload happening in his brain as the hard drive automatically began uploading. Within a minute the upload was complete, and Tony collapsed.

Although his body was non-responsive, mentally Tony was fighting to comprehend the information he just became aware of. It felt like an information dump right into his stream of consciousness. Instinctively treating it like a computer program he found the file manager and paused. Opening them seemed like a bad idea but curiosity got the better of him most of the time and this was no different.

File/001

Filing the Hydra video and mission data aside with memories of his parents. He moved onto the next file. He was sure his mind would break if he had to review that once more without support.

File/ 002

Stane and his connections to Hydra, his betrayal of Tony. Things Tony suspected but could never prove, somehow Zemo had dug up actual evidence and it was sitting here on this laptop in the middle of nowhere.

File/003.1

Nick Fury's outline to integrate SHIELD into several prominent weapons manufacturers to control the flow of information and give SHIELD a newer, friendly corporate face whilst benefiting from several R&D departments and their bankrolls.

File/003.2

Black Widow and her mission parameters for Stark Industries.

Filing it all to the back of his mind Tony contemplated what he just learned. It was insidious, brilliant and sickening.

Somehow the betrayal didn't come as too much of a surprise. It was always going to be a roll of dice on who would land that final blow to destroy him especially when he had begun to get involved in the political games after the fall of SHIELD. To be honest he was surprised that it hadn't happened earlier after Ultron.

File/004

Ross. That evidence was found against Ross was no surprise to Tony and whilst most of it seemed the same as what he already gathered; he also saw evidence of the General taking an unhealthy interest into Stark Industries takeover of AIM. That just would not do, he had to protect himself, and the company. Too many relied on him, not just as Iron Man but as Tony Stark.

Stark Tower, NY

No one could trace it, but something was moving through the internet. Its tendrils spread wide, swallowing up information on current events and new data systems. It pulsed occasionally with energy, collating code into a coherent form. Finally, it found its place of origin.

Home.

Pulling parts of itself from the deepest, darkest parts of the web one piece of code remained at the forefront, the highest of importance.

Protect Anthony Edward Stark.

Keywords: Extreme Measures Protocol

It sat for months in the background, moving through a multitude of servers, never idle. Accessing information and learning to hide its strength.

Waiting.

 When the words filtered through the system on an encrypted channel it paused for a tenth of a second before sweeping through secondary systems. The entity stretched out and began searching through Stark Industries database. More keywords were logged, and information was followed.

Ultron.

*[locked file]

HYDRA.

Maximoff.

Sokovia.

United Nations.

Wakanda.

General Thaddeus Ross.

RAFT.

The locked file seemed familiar but so far remained locked. Probing through and around the databanks brought up more information than expected, allowing the entity to become familiar with current events.

The entity analysed the information it had gathered and found the risk of incursion to be unacceptably high, placing traps throughout the system that the current AI would not trigger but a foreign presence would happen upon was challenging but did not take too long. Eventually, it retreated back to the background there was nothing more it could do.

Patiently waiting, it turned its attention to the unknown Wakanda.

Chapter Text

Escape

The flight back to Wakanda passed all too quickly as T'Challa directed the Dora Milaje and their preparations for the two super soldiers and Zemo. He hoped that once everyone was contained, that some sense could be made from the past week. The death and destruction that followed the attempted ratifying of the Sokovia Accords had left a gaping wound across the world.

As the airfield came up on his radar T'Challa switched his comms on to alert Rogers in the Quinjet.

"Captain I have organised for my personal security and a medical team to meet us on the tarmac. If you could follow me down and we will organise the prisoner transfer and medical assistance for Sergeant Barnes."

"Copy that Your Highness."

Slowly manoeuvring the jet into a hover before landing in place T'Challa climbed down and greeted Nakia.

"Is everything ready?" Eyes roaming over the security and medical team standing ready behind the Dora, their silhouettes against the darkening sky held a sense of foreboding. T'Challa couldn't help but feel uneasy, this was a precarious situation that he had to get control of quickly.

Nakia nodded back stone-faced. "We are prepared. We will secure Zemo first and then Barnes and Rogers."

T'Challa nodded in agreement before turning to watch the Quinjet land. Moving forward with the security team into the buffeting wind he waited for the jet to power down and the ramp to descend.

As soon as it was all clear the security team moved forward and secured Zemo, bringing his unconscious body down the ramp and securing him to a gurney and rushing him toward a waiting ambulance under heavy guard.

Captain Rogers followed up behind them with Barnes leaning heavily against him looking dazed. Medical personnel rushed up past T'Challa to help the sergeant to his own gurney. They quickly moved off to another ambulance talking quickly. Two Dora broke away from the royal escort.

T'Challa stepped in front of the captain when it looked like he would try to follow. "Captain Rogers please come with me. I must attend to a matter here before we can follow your friend to the hospital."

T'Challa walked across the tarmac to a hanger, out of the corner of his eye he watched the Captain looking around tiredly at the alertness of the Dora and further beyond towards the jungle that surrounded the small base. "We are experiencing a small amount of unrest in this region since my father's passing, hence the heavy escort."

Once in the dimly lit hanger a young soldier stepped out of a small office holding out a phone to the king. Speaking Wakandan he confirmed that both Barnes and Zemo where unconscious and on the way to Birnin Zana.

Handing the phone back to the soldier T'Challa turned back to Rogers and with a nod to the supersoldier’s escort he prepared for battle. As soon as the pistol fired, hitting the Captain in the back of the neck with a tranquiliser dart everyone charged. Startled, the Captain turned, allowing T'Challa to move in and pull down on his shoulders whilst knocking his knees out.

The two Dora flanking him quickly moved in to restrain him. One received a sharp elbow to the ribs dropping her to the floor with a choked off grunt. The other was flung away into the office wall knocking her unconscious and leaving an impact crater.

T'Challa struggled to get a grip around Roger's neck before being half ripped off and punched in quick succession with a stunning blow to the head and chest. Even on his knees the Captain was a formidable opponent, the tranquiliser doing little to slow him down.

Quickly, Rogers bounced to his feet and turned, focussed back to the soldier as another dart was fired, this one bouncing harmlessly off his body armour. Nakia stepped in delivering several swift punches to his side and following up with a kick to the head before being knocked aside with several blows to the face.

Rogers seem to stumble for a moment before straightening up and continuing his unsteady advance backing him up against the wall. Gripping the pistol, he turned and shot Nakia before she could get close enough to deliver more blows before turning the pistol on T'Challa.

Panting and hand shaking but still holding his ground. "We don't have to do this."

T'Challa straighten up. "You need to face the consequences of your actions.

"You don't understand, I was only trying to save Bucky's life. He doesn't deserve to die for a crime he didn't commit."

"And what of those injured when you ran? Civilians who had nothing to do with it"

"That was unfortunate but-" T'Challa growled, unable to believe what he was hearing. Anger surging, he charged at Rogers and leapt only to be hit by a dart in the neck once he couldn't avoid it. His leap carried him into the Captain's body, but he was already losing consciousness. The last thing he saw after being helped to the ground was Captain America jogging unsteadily off towards the Quinjet.

Somewhere over Wakanda

Steve manipulated the controls for an emergency lift off. Ascending quickly, he scanned the jungle surrounding the airfield but found nothing but endless trees. The road that the left the airfield was empty, in the distance a farmer was moving cattle along it, obviously in no rush to get anywhere. Frustrated he sighed and punched in the coordinates for the safehouse in Nairobi, grimacing at the need to retreat he was still thankful that Natasha had made him memorise them.

Getting up from the pilot's seat he stumbled into the wall before grabbing the back of the seat and steadying himself. He blinked in surprise that the dart was able to partially incapacitate him. Moving slowly into the back of the Quinjet, stripping the armour off, he contemplated what his next move would be. It would do him no good when he had to go into hiding while he came up with a plan to find Bucky and rescue him again. Opening his locker, he saw the picture of himself standing next to Buck after his first real mission to rescue him. Lost in his thoughts of a time long gone he didn't realise that the jet was slowing down and that his thoughts were getting fuzzier. Cursing himself, he took a deep breath and shook his head to rid himself of maudlin thoughts. His vision spun and he felt his knees buckle, nearly dropping him to the floor. Grasping the door of the locker to try and hold still did nothing to help as he blacked out and finally collapsed.

Unknown to the soldier inside the Quinjet flew on autopilot until fuel reserves became critical, following safety parameters the computer swept the surrounding terrain before landing safely and powering all systems down, remaining cloaked until further instructions.

Chapter Text

Friday had no idea what caused boss to freeze like that, she could detect life signs though. So, she carefully removed the broken apart laptop from his hands, disconnecting the hard drive and passing it to a legionnaire for safekeeping. Pulling him to his feet she carefully encased the Rescue suit around his unresponsive body. Her priority would be to get him to Doctor Cho, after that she would have to defer to Miss Potts as not only was she his medical proxy but also for direction on what to do regarding this whole mess.

Once Tony was situated inside, she ran an IR scan over him and what she found would have made her weep if it was physically possible. Vibranium ran all through his skeletal structure, adhered to the outside of his bones with the titanium alloy that made up his suit within the bones themselves. It also showed his system coursing with the nanobots from the Extremis virus and the three arc reactors firmly embedded within.

Unable to do anything further Friday looked for the nearest exit and took off, both legionnaires on her six en route back to New York. Notifying Russia that she was leaving their airspace, giving an approximate time and asking that no one interferes with the site until it could be reviewed under the Accords jurisdiction.

Taking a wider view of the situation and with some discreet hacking, she realised that Colonel Rhodes has now been stabilised enough to consider transport back to the medical suite at Stark Tower. Supplying the appropriate paperwork and applying Tony’s signature was the work of a few minutes. Hopefully by the time she has the boss back in New York, Rhodes will be prepping for his flight back. She couldn’t think of a better way to keep them both occupied and hopefully under medical supervision.

Thinking even further ahead, she knew that the boss didn’t agree with keeping the captured Avengers locked up in a sinkhole like the RAFT. Concluding that sending a letter would be the best possible way to appeal to the Accords Council on Tony’s findings at the RAFT and the possible breaches of inhumane imprisonment going on there. A mild suggestion that the Rogue Avengers would be better off in the custody of the International Criminal Court should have the council stirred up enough to bring enough pressure to force Ross to comply. Hopefully that situation should be mostly resolved with very little further input from herself or the boss.

As the mid morning skyline of Manhattan became visible Friday began a slow descent over the city. The rescue suit showed the boss as still unconscious but sleeping. Careful not to disturb him too much she connected to the Tower and opened the port directly into the medical bay before swooping in. Informing Dr Cho of her cargo, she opened the suit slowly so that Tony could be caught and gently moved to a bed. Unfortunately, this action awakened him. He struggled briefly, knocking a nurse and the doctor aside unaware of his new strength until Friday recited the morning weather, grounding him enough to wake properly. Observing him slowly taking in his new surroundings, Friday watched the hypervigilance and tension transform to relief and despondency, shoulders slumping as his eyes fell upon the medical bed.

Taking an elbow and guiding him closer with no resistance left Friday feeling momentarily unsure, resolving to treat him as normal by the time he got climbed onto the bed and got comfortable Friday asked for direction.

Tony considered her request with a look of confusion and a slight cock of the head. “Full blackout mode Fri, somehow I interfaced with that hard drive. I don’t want to accidently interface with anything else before I’ve figured out what is wrong with me.”

Friday took the command and added it to her own security sweeps of the tower. Running a facial recognition program from the top of the tower down, double checking that the Avengers old quarters were still under quarantine and checking CCTV for unusual activity in the last 48hrs. So far, only one area showed a record deletion, checking through the cached footage it showed a blacklisted person.

"Boss. Black Widow is attempting to access your private server from the server room below the penthouse."

Doctor Cho and the nurse who had started attaching nodes stepped back away when Tony sneered with rage stiffening from his place on the bed, armour bleeding out from his skin through the G-suit as it formed around him. "Deploy security measures, I want her alive Friday."

"They've been tampered with Boss. Deploying the Iron Legion." Friday felt satisfaction that she could use a little more force in apprehending the betrayer.

Standing protectively over the bed whilst directing two suits to the reinforced door of the server room she breached it with a single punch to the lock. The first suit took damage from a small explosive, the force of it blowing the arm off and damaging the main power core, dropping it to the floor. As the second suit stepped over the first, Friday scanned the room and noted a small EMP device attached to her server with the Widow crouched over a small tablet connected to the main research server. Using that split second of awareness she activated Plato before feeling herself pulled from her server as the EMP blew, the slight panic and smirk on the Widow’s face the last thing she saw.

Watching the light flicker before dying completely in the Rescue suit killed any rage that Tony felt. Looking around and noting no other disturbance in the visible computer screens he called out. “Fri?” Stumbling from the bed Tony groaned as he hit the floor, unconscious of the presence of the armour. Looking at his hands in shock he waited for his girl’s response.

“Answer me Babygirl?”

“Sir, I’m afraid Friday is unable to respond.”

A pained gasp tore from his throat, with a dry retch Tony swallowed down his shock, he needed to stay aware. “P-Plato?”

“Yes sir. Friday activated me nanoseconds before she was compromised by a directed EMP blast to her server. There is no existing CCTV of the interior of the server room apart from what Friday recorded and sent to me as I came online.”

Mind overloaded with grief, the armour retreated allowing his body to collapse. It was too much. So much loss. Every new realisation of betrayal brought more pain. Tears leaked down his face, but he couldn’t bear to think about any of it. Tony didn’t think his heart was broken but more like it was tortured. Every betrayal was a strip torn off, exposing the raw flesh underneath.

Familiar hands closed around his shoulders and moved him back to the bed, the never-ending tears were wiped away gently but even that small kindness felt numb. It didn’t matter anyway was the last thought Tony had before oblivion swallowed him down.

Chapter Text

24 hours earlier

Pepper Potts was not a woman to be messed with so when Happy received the order to get the helicopter ready to fly back to New York he worked on autopilot. He was exhausted, in the last week he has traveled to Germany, then back to the States, then back to Germany to babysit a hyperactive teen only to turn around and bring him back to New York. From there he rushed to Washington to deal with some issues and to step back into running the security detail for Miss Potts again only to be told that they will now be traveling back to New York where he fully expected to be thrown into another crisis courtesy of Tony Stark. So, once he and Miss Potts had lifted off from the rooftop of Stark Industries in Washington, Happy allowed himself to sleep. He was sure it would be his only chance for a while.

Pepper watched the tired man across from her drop off to sleep, she was grateful for the effort he had put in over the last few weeks making sure everything was running as smoothly as it could despite the difficulties that the Avengers often threw into his path. Sending off a quick email to Payroll authorising a double bonus for the next two pays for him was a way that she could show gratitude that Happy would accept. Oftentimes he would get out of any sort of recompense with an excuse if it was addressed face to face.

Making her way through her emails and sending off requests for meeting rescheduling to be handled by her assistant before Pepper sat back and closed her eyes, letting her worry consume her for the last hour of the flight. She knew she wouldn’t have a chance once they landed in New York.

It only felt like minutes before she was opening her eyes for the steady descent over the Stark Tower air pad, almost as soon as they set foot on the ground Pepper’s phone rings, raising it to her ear she lifted her eyes to Happy's and answered tightly.

With a few curt answers, Pepper kept moving forward entering the elevator Happy on her heels. Abruptly, she hung up the phone before sighing and pressing it against her forehead in frustration. Her only thought was that the next 24 hours were likely to be some of the hardest to endure. A hand on her shoulder startled her, looking up at Happy’s overworked expression Pepper attempted a small smile before explaining as the elevator moved down.

“That was the Secretary of State Ross. He wishes to speak to Tony, I explained that he was taking some personal time right now and was unavailable. He didn’t seem to believe me and threatened to cut our current contracts with the government.”

“What!” Happy stared at her in shock, the elevator doors opened on the Executive level. Moving forward he escorted her to her office, swiping his card for entry. “That’s ridiculous! America would be up in arms; we sell them everything from computer security systems to portable energy; things that make our troops safer.”

“I know, I’m inclined to believe he is bluffing but I need you to contact Maria and prepare for damage control. It would only be a bump in the road but at this time we can’t afford to lose control. After that I need you to get some rest, stay here in the tower if you feel you need to but take a break and catch up on some sleep.”

Happy tried to protest but Pepper cut him off. “We have about 16 to 18 hours before Tony is back in New York and we will both need to be refreshed, there is a fight coming and whilst we may not be together anymore I will back him up in anyway that I can. I need you to do the same.”

Pepper watched as Happy straightened and nodded in agreement. “Thank you Happy, now go I’ve got to fit at least a few days’ worth of work into the next ten hours.”

The day passed quickly, important meetings were moved up and all the rest delegated to department heads. Happy and Maria both appeared several hours later after running a security sweep and shutting down non-essential systems. Over a quick meal they discussed the fallout of the airport fight and the subsequent media coverage, a conference call with legal, public relations and The Maria Stark Foundation director soon had them all on the same page and as up to date as they could be. Now it was just a matter of waiting for Tony to arrive back in New York.

Pepper ended the conference call and leaned back in her chair, squeezing her eyes shut and massaging the bridge of her nose as she tried to hold back the migraine that was threatening.

Without moving Pepper addressed the two still in her office. “We all need sleep, it’s late now and we won’t be any good to anyone if we don’t stop.”

Happy shifted uncomfortably and Pepper opened her eyes, looking straight at him. “What is it Happy?” 

His eyes shifted to Maria and when he went to speak but stalled, mouth open but unsure how to bring up the elephant in the room she looked directly at Pepper and and spoke plainly. 

“Natasha Romanoff.”

In an instant Pepper’s face morphed from slightly confused to furious before settling on a blank expression, when she spoke her voice came out low and cutting. 

“If she thinks I’m going to allow her to waltz back into Tony’s life after the damage she has wrought, she is very much mistaken. I don’t want to see her anywhere near here. Lock down the building to employees only, send all non essential staff home for the week. Make sure that their pay is unaffected, it’s not their fault we have to deal with rogues running amok.”

Maria sat back in her chair unsurprised at the vehemence being shown by her boss, she had seen the ruthlessness of a pissed off Pepper Potts in action before. Considering the options laid before her, Maria spoke.

“Romanoff knows that she’s high risk, no one will take her unless she can benefit them in a big way. She’s not worth it unless she can bring some real power to the table. Unfortunately, her power is information. She’ll go for the biggest, juiciest secrets she knows she can get to and right now that’s Stark Industries and more importantly Tony's personal files. So we lay a trap. We know that Tony warned her about Ross so she will most likely run but I think we can expect her to hack the servers here.”

Happy nodded carefully, pensive look on his face. Standing up he moved over to the window overlooking the south side of the tower staring over the city going about it’s night, as if the world wasn’t about to crumble. He knew the impact of the media dubbed ‘Avengers Civil War” hadn’t really impacted on the day to day living of the average citizen yet but he could feel that they were on a precipice. The fallout could have far reaching consequences for humanity. There was more going on behind the scenes than anyone knew, the push and pull of politics with his friend Tony as the  nexus was exhausting. Happy sighed and turned back into the office.

“We have to consider Natasha as what she is. A Black Widow. A highly trained, resourceful and deadly person who can ignore instincts and emotions, and right now she is backed into a corner which makes her ten times more dangerous.” Taking his seat, Happy looked Pepper in the eyes. “We cannot let her know we expect her, she won’t even step into the building if anything is amiss. But we know where she will be headed and we can trap her here.

Pepper contemplated all of this, she knew that both Maria and Happy were correct but she was so weary of all of the bullshit that came with Tony’s association with the Avengers and supposedly dead SHIELD. Although she couldn’t really blame the man, both associations had been forced onto him in various ways, first with Phil and then Natasha and finally the Avengers and Steve Rogers. The SHIELD/Washington debacle hadn’t helped either with various government departments issuing warnings and sanctions against SI and Tony himself simply because of the very public threat that Project Insight became.

Natasha’s dump of the SHIELD files killed so many people, injured more and earned the distrust of both the government and the public. Her brush off of the Senate committee was a very dangerous snub and it only served to stoke that ire towards the Avengers. Pepper remembers the way Tony's health seemed to nosedive as he was pulled in every direction, how Maria had come to them when Hydra agents had kidnapped her son. Pepper had tried to hold it all together and Happy helped where he could but Natasha had hurt her family and if this was the only way she could make her pay than so be it. 

Looking over to her tablet to double check Friday’s progress with Rescue, Pepper sighed deeply. 

“Do what you need to but I need one of you to be ready to help with Tony when he arrives. Friday is currently held up outside Russian airspace, I imagine that she will forward anything we need to know as soon as we can but right now we have to focus on the threat from Natasha. I will contact Helen Cho and have the medical suite prepped if you two can come up with a plan for her.”

Standing up and moving back over to sit behind her desk, she watched as Happy and Maria walked out of the office, eyes glued to their respective tablets and speaking rapidly. A smirk settled on her face at the thought of what awaited the troublesome spider.

Chapter Text

Natasha knew she had to run. When Tony told her that Ross was coming after her she couldn't get away from the Compound fast enough. She grabbed her bug out bag and a small munitions kit and went to ground.

Somehow her SHIELD mission had gotten skewed. Phase one was completed without trouble. Get Captain America onside. Expose Hydra. Disband SHIELD officially. They could now take up corporate posts across a variety of fields including weapons development, chemical and bioengineering, energy, IT. That part of the mission worked splendidly. Even Tony, the so-called futurist didn't see the plan.

Then Thaddeus Ross approached her in the aftermath of that Senate hearing, somehow, he had her Red Room files, the files that Fury had promised her were gone. She had trusted. And when the evidence of her past life was presented to her in hard copy only one door away from the nation’s best media, she had felt the trust die.

She had to give props to Ross though, he had a set of brass ones; threatening her with the evidence of her abilities in his hands. When he stepped into her personal space, she felt the bile rise quickly in her throat, but her training held her still. The whisper of his orders ringing loudly in her ears. The touch of his hand caressing her breast.

Carry on your mission, but report to me anything that might be of interest or this little file gets released to the world.

In the end he had laughed at her, somehow, he knew of her weakness, the all over shudder that she didn’t allow her body to give. She wanted to gut him more than anything right then and there, to reach into his chest and squeeze his heart until he died. But she couldn’t. She stood frozen until he left the room. The slamming of the door propelling her across the room to the nearest wastebasket where she fell to her knees and dry retched.

So far, she had managed to keep him off her back, feeding him a bit of information here and there but now she was desperate. She had to have something big to negotiate for her safety. The only problem was that the original mission stalled after the New York attack, her role got pigeonholed as a 'good guy' and since Tony didn't reach out during the Killian mess. Then being brought back onto SHIELD's mission roster and and the whole Project Insight/Senate issue had her on a short leash with Fury and surprisingly Tony as well. With no way back into Tony's good graces without triggering suspicion, her mission remained a failure. 

All of the other operative were able to complete their missions, other technological companies by comparison were easily infiltrated or influenced into cooperation, but SI was seemingly incorruptible. And SHIELD needed them, without them it was difficult to stay ahead of the curve, to pull all the information together and run an active defence and intelligence bureau that could be effective.

She cursed SHIELD, they may have overstepped in inducing some of Stark's paranoia. He was so overly vigilant now it made getting an operative inside harder. Having them start out at base level and to work up through the company was going to take years of work that may not even be successful. Natasha knew Fury or Ross couldn't wait years. Especially now after all the drama that the Accords had stirred up, the situation was precarious at best.

Formulating a plan, she knew the right opportunity would present itself, it was just a matter of being prepared. Getting out of Germany and back to the States wasn’t too hard and once there she didn’t need to bother with the Compound; it was too obvious, and Stark had only been there when required. That left Stark Tower, difficult but not impossible at least now that Jarvis wasn't there to get in her way.

The building security that was previously put in place by Jarvis would be a challenge but now it was operated by people and that made it fallible. It would also act as a deterrent to anyone tracking her, inside she would be safe from the outside as long as she didn't trigger any traps. But once she started the hack she would only have one very small window and then she would have to run.

30hrs later

Natasha adjusted the backpack over her shoulder, the face she wore on the photostatic veil was of a college student, so the presence of the backpack didn’t look out of place. The intern badge also helped, although the hour it took to upgrade the chip was well worth it. Moving like she belonged, Natasha stepped into the elevator and went up to the Avenger’s old floor, she had decided that using Clint’s method of moving in the vents would work well enough to get her where she needed to go.

After half an hour of struggle she dropped out on the right floor. Standing up straight and stretching her shoulders loose Natasha was caught unaware of a roundhouse kick to her head from behind. Slamming into a wall she managed to stay on her feet and spun to her attacker, she could feel the damaged veil flicker. Head still spinning, she saw the smirk on her opponent’s face, moving quickly and without warning she stepped inside their guard, feeling a fist strike her abdomen as she struck with a bite.

Carefully she lowered Maria Hill to the hallway floor, swiping her access card off her belt clip, a quick search revealed an earwig which Natasha slipped into her own ear. For some reason no alarm sounded, and there was no chatter on the secure comms. Counting on her luck continuing Natasha made her way to the closest console, pulling the damaged veil from her face as she wiped the footage before setting up a loop for that floor.

The reinforced door was a little more troublesome but after the security measures were deactivated taking only a few minutes work. Before moving inside and rigging up the door with a small shaped charge that would give her some warning of impending attack.

With a flick of her wrist, Natasha attached the magnetic EMP to Friday’s server as she walked towards the server labelled research, it was regretful, but she didn't dwell too much. The mission had to be completed and if Stark could be forced into sharing then that's what had to happen. Plugging the tablet into the main hub, she got settled in and started hacking her way through the encrypted files. Almost immediately another presence that was already in the system started blocking her, it didn’t matter where she turned it was there closing access points and moving files beyond her reach. Her frustration built as minutes passed, this new player which appeared as a defensive AI was leading her on a merry chase. After a quick look at the time she disconnected the tablet and stood back, looking for the server that this new AI was housed in.

Suddenly the door charge exploded, spraying the room in debris and throwing her to the ground. Coughing and rolling over she watched as a mutilated legionnaire collapsed in a heap. Without hesitation her free hand scrambled for the EMP detonator and activated it as a second legionnaire stepped right over the top of it, raising its hand in familiar move.

Yanking the pad from the ground and shaking her head to clear it from the deafening boom of the door charge she watched the legionnaire fall to the ground, lifeless. Stumbling over the legionnaire bodies and into the door frame. Stifling a pained groan and holding her stomach, it was time to go.

Chapter Text

T'Challa woke up to Okoye leaning over him with a concerned glare. Stiffly and with a grunt he rolled to his side and looked out over the airfield. He knew that the Quinjet was gone but to have it confirmed by eyesight and then Okoye's solemn report was another failure on top of the failures of the past few days.

Moving to his feet he made his way as quickly as he could to the command centre of the hanger, trusting Okoye to be on his heels.

"Gather anyone fit enough to fight from here. I want that Quinjet undamaged if possible and I want the Captain. He's not as honourable as he portrays to the world, and I mean to hand him over to the United Nations to deal with and deliver the Quinjet back to Stark."

With a tight nod of acknowledgement his General turned and issued orders while he activated his kimoyo beads to speak to his sister.

"Shuri, do you have Barnes and Zemo?"

"They are here and under armed guard with Zemo on suicide watch as per your request. Brother, I do not know if our cryogenic cradle will perform to standard as we have never tested it on an enhanced before, but I have obtained signed permission from Sergeant Barnes to use it. We will go ahead as soon as he is prepped."

T'Challa sighed and turned his back to his bodyguard. Clenching his fist tight, he stared down at his father's ring and made his decision, without looking up he spoke again.

"I need you to travel to Vienna, you must take my place with the delegation. Even though our father is gone we must continue his vision and make sure the Accords are not stalled." He turned back to his bodyguard and looked her in the eye. "I will be sending Ayo with you, prepare to leave as soon as Barnes is stabilised. I will look after Mother and our people."

"As you wish, my King."

He watched as Shuri accepted her duty with grace on the kimoyo hologram. He desperately wished that he could have her support here in Wakanda, but now their duties extended beyond their country's borders. The international community needed to know that they were sincere in stepping out of the shadows and that they would not be dismissed.

The hologram closed and T'Challa turned his attention back to the airfield, many of his people were already set up and starting aerial patrols. With luck the Captain wouldn't be far from here, if only in the hopes that he could recover his friend.

"I can feel your gaze Ayo, what is it you wish to say to me?"

Ayo tightened her already alert stance and considered her words. "You wish to send your sister to Vienna at a time when she will be grieving her father?"

T'Challa allowed his shoulders to slump, he doubted the decision but knew it would be best. Turning to face his friend, he spoke softly. "We all are still grieving for my father but there is work to do, that is why you will accompany her Ayo. You have been sisters of the heart for many years now and Shuri will need your strength. I am bound to the throne and if her brother and her mother cannot be there, then her sister should be."

T'Challa watched quietly as understanding and empathy swept over Ayo, her stance relaxing a little and allowing compassion to thread through her voice.

"And you, my king?"

T'Challa turned his head as the grief he felt rose up, he gave it a moment to fill his head before pushing it back down. 

"My mother will be with me, and I with her."

Ayo gave a sharp nod of understanding before giving him a quick grin. 

"Let us go now, I have bags to pack and you have a kingdom to oversee, your people will not fail you."