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Sharee had first approached him about his statements of a second coming invasion.
It had been nice to be believed and taken seriously. And once she saw the stone in Vision’s head and identified it, she had proclaimed the Infinity Stones as the reason why. She’d then had to explain what the Infinity Stones were, and what they did. Tony could completely see people wanting to be able to shape the universe to their own desires. That, of course, led to the question of how Sharee knew.
‘Thousands of years ago, the Soul Stone was also on Earth,’ she said. ‘It’s the only one that has any kind of consciousness that you or I would recognise. It decided to create a defence against those who wanted to gather it and the others. These people would be gifted with powers and would be reborn each time they died. Providing, of course, that they never abused the powers they were given.’ She shrugged. ‘Abuse it, lose it.’
‘And you’re one of them?’ Rhodey asked.
‘I am,’ Sharee said. ‘We’re called the Transcendent Souls. While hundreds of people were trialled over a period of several centuries, only twelve exist to this day.’
Then came the reason she hadn’t wanted Rogers involved in this conversation; why she only trusted Tony, Rhodey, and Vision with the information out of all the Avengers. Of course, she was fine with Pepper and Happy sitting in on the meetings too.
‘One of our number was a schoolteacher of Rogers’ in her previous life,’ Sharee said. ‘She told the rest of us that he fell into the same trap that most people do.’
‘Yeah, what’s that?’ Tony asked.
Sharee grinned. ‘Most people like to believe that they’re good guys. Even when what they’re doing is completely dickish, in their own worldview they are still the good guys.’ She leaned back in her chair. ‘Rogers was small, sickly, and weak, but he was also extremely aggressive. That’s why Barnes was his only friend.
‘A Napoleon Complex?’ Pepper asked.
‘As far as Ethne could tell, yes,’ Sharee said. ‘He felt inferior due to his unfortunate condition. The only thing he could claim over others, in his mind, was morality.’ She shook her head. ‘The thing about inferiority complexes, though, is that once you take away the thing that made the person feel inferior then they begin to swing the other way.’
Tony and Rhodey looked at each other.
‘And we’ve seen that,’ Sharee said. ‘We hacked in and listened to what he said over the speaker systems of the helicarriers during the fiasco in 2014. What we got from that was that he believed that good people win because they are good. For this reason, I think if we involved him in this discussion he wouldn’t take it seriously. He’d think that even if this invasion was coming that we would win the day because we are good.’
***
Tony spent more time working with the Transcendent Souls.
That included speaking to the UN about the matter, and getting talks started on what to do in the event of this impending invasion – with a solid reason for “why”, people were taking it completely seriously.
In the meantime, Vision had gone and spoken to Rogers. He’d come away from that exchange with full agreement to Sharee’s statement. Rogers honestly believed that good guys won battles because they were good. They were good and righteous so God was on their side and he brought them victory.
After that, Vision involved himself more in the plans. As he had one of the coveted items imbedded in his forehead, he ought to know how to defend against attacks to acquire it.
The Transcendent Souls, who had handled various Infinity Stones over the ages, began teaching him how to utilise the powers of the Mind Stone.
***
When the Accords had entered the discussions, Ethne had made a statement.
‘Rogers will rebel against them.’
The UN representative who’d been talking to them looked surprised. ‘Why?’
‘Because Rogers never liked following other peoples’ rules, especially when they interfered with what he wanted. Up until now, he’s been quite happy traipsing over to other countries, smashing shit up, and then swaggering out without so much as a by-your-leave. He won’t like people telling him that he can’t do that anymore.’
(She was right.)
***
Then Wakanda came out to negotiate in the Accords.
When Sharee heard this, she burst out laughing. When they went to Vienna, she took Jamil, another of the Transcendent Souls, with her. Jamil was currently from Tanzania. He looked highly amused himself. He’d in fact said to Tony, ‘I think somebody’s getting them nervous – probably you.’
‘Why do you say that?’ Tony asked.
‘Why else would they come out of isolation after all these years?’
Good question, so Tony went over to them, with Sharee and Jamil, and asked.
T’Chaka smiled lightly. ‘Our nation has been cut off from the rest of the world for too long. It’s time we came out into the wider world.’
‘Really?’ Sharee asked. ‘So why did you isolate yourselves in the first place?’
T’Chaka smiled lightly. ‘In order to protect our people from colonisation.’
Jamil had smirked and then said something in a language Tony had never heard before.
Sharee chuckled.
Tony looked at Jamil. ‘I suppose that was the Wakandan language?’
‘You suppose correctly.’ Jamil smirked. ‘I am a Transcendent Soul, King T’Chaka. When I die, I reincarnate and I can choose where I am reborn. One lifetime I got curious, as humans are wont to do, and I reincarnated into your nation.’ He folded his arms. ‘I know precisely what’s behind that force-field of yours. Wakanda was never in any danger from colonisation.’
‘I would agree,’ Sharee said. ‘Colonisation was performed by two methods. One: introducing diseases to native populations that they’d never seen before. Two: superior weapons. Your country has that neat little plant that accelerates healing and cures disease. I don’t think smallpox was going to kill you.’
T’Chaka and his son suddenly looked uncomfortable.
‘The second thing? Superior weapons?’ Jamil snorted in disdain. ‘The height of their technology was muskets. Hey, Sharee, how were muskets used again?’
‘Each only held one round.’ Sharee smirked. ‘You had to drop the musket down the barrel, then pour in the gunpowder. Then you had to compact the gunpowder around the musket ball with a certain kind of stick before you could fire it. Your musket ball would inevitably veer off from wherever you’d been aiming it. So...nothing compared to a semi-automatic machine gun.’
‘And you had those,’ Jamil said. ‘And I know for a fact you had those.’
‘Guns are primitive,’ Prince T’Challa muttered, somewhat childishly.
‘As opposed to spears, which everyone was using outside of Wakanda and getting slaughtered?’ Sharee shook her head and clicked her tongue. ‘No. If you had bothered to try, you could have driven the colonists out of Africa. You could have, but you didn’t. You chose the much easier method of hiding away and pretending to be poor and worthless. And now you choose to come out of isolation? Why?’
Jamil nodded and made a prediction. ‘When the world finds out just how advanced you are, everyone will be side-eyeing you.’