Chapter Text
T'Challa then stepped forward and bowed deeply. "Dr. Stark, please accept my most sincere apology. I have been a fool and allowed honeyed words to cloud my judgment. My country now owes you a great debt, and me even more so as a son. If you ever need any aid, in battle or otherwise, I hope you will rely on mine."
Tony reached out his arm and asked lightly, "How about a hand?"
The prince didn't even hesitate to catch the offered arm and used a surprising amount of strength to easily pull Tony to his feet. Then he quickly shrugged off his jacket and offered it to Tony.
Tony remembered suddenly that his suit was ruined, took the jacket with a grateful smile, and put it on before saying with a small smirk, "I'm familiar with bad first impressions, so don't sweat it. Just call me Tony and keep an open mind."
T'Challa smiled back at Tony. "Please call me T'Challa then."
Tony turned toward the king, his mind already on the next course of action. "It looks like you were the target here, T'Chaka."
The king looked thoughtful for a moment before he nodded, his voice deep and grave. "I agree. The timing was precise, and the location too convenient."
Tony looked out of the busted window, thinking aloud. "Maybe whoever did it hoped that with you dead, the accords would be thrown into chaos." Tony's eyes shifted to T'Challa, and another disturbing idea crossed his mind. "Or they wanted to motivate another piece on the board."
T'Challa frowned. "You believe whoever orchestrated the attack did so in order to cause me to act harshly and out of emotion?"
Tony sighed heavily. "It would fit, and sorry to say it, Simba, but as far as I saw, it would have worked too."
T'Challa blushed a little but didn't argue. The king looked worried. "Your theory is plausible, Tony. Still, the question remains of who is able to execute such a plan."
"James Barnes," a new voice supplied for the rest of the group.
Tony turned to see a man a little shorter than him in a grey suit and white hair walking up to them. Tony smiled in relief and said cheerfully, "Agent Ross, I'm glad to see you are on the case."
Ross gave Tony a small nod before informing him, "The camera outside caught sight of James Barnes, otherwise known as the Winter Soldier."
Tony frowned and said, "Wait a moment." Then he pulled out his phone, allowing a holographic screen to appear in the center of the group before asking Friday, "Fri, do me a favor and use our documented picture of Barnes for facial recognition."
The screen was filled with two pictures side by side. One from one of the security cameras in the helicarrier Steve and Barnes fought on during the fall of SHIELD and the other was the picture caught a few minutes ago.
All four of them watched as the program ran, and then Friday informed, "We have a ninety-three percent match, Boss."
T'Challa immediately started to glare at the image, while the king looked thoughtful and said calmly, "I have read of Mr. Barnes's condition. We must ask if the attack was a fruit of his desire or if someone else has used him once more."
Tony just kept scowling at the images. Ross noticed this and asked, "Dr. Stark, is there any problem?"
Tony looked at the agent and asked in a serious tone, "The Winter Soldier avoided detection for half a century; why would he be so careless now? It doesn't make sense."
Ross now was frowning himself while nodding. "You have a good point; why would a man who stayed a ghost for so long miss something so basic?"
Tony finally noticed something in the image and called out, "Friday, please try and compare the body types in both images."
The program ran again before Friday supplied the answer. "As you suspected, Boss, the Winter Soldier from the fall of SHIELD is taller and more muscular than the figure in the newer image."
Ross let out a breath and said, "So you were right; it wasn't Barnes. Someone was disguised as him, but why?"
"Perhaps they wanted to escape consequences and chose to frame someone who was already a known terrorist?" T'Challa offered an option.
Tony considered it for a moment before he shook his head. "No. This image... something's wrong about it. There is only one piece of evidence of the man, and it's from one of the most obvious places for a security camera. No, whoever this is wanted to be caught; he wanted us to blame Barnes... what could it lead to..." Tony suddenly began to look around the room. "Where is Natasha?"
Ross scowled at the mention of the spy and grumbled, "She left before I could even debrief her. Many said she ran out the moment the chaos began."
"Shit," was the only response Tony could give. It was only a question of time before Steve knew about this whole thing as well, and the moment he heard Barnes's name, all of this would turn into a shit show.
Tony turned to the king and said, "We don't know if the individual who tried to kill you will take another shot. If you will let me, I would like to take you to my tower, where I will make sure you are safe."
T'Chaka smiled at Tony. "We will accept your offer most gratefully, Tony."
Ross let out a sigh and said, "I still have to bring Barnes in for questioning; we have a lead on him and are prepared to take him in. I will retract the kill-on-sight order my superiors gave out."
Tony nodded before he led his two new guests out of the main hall.
Tony was sitting in the impressive Wakandan jet.
After all, he came using his armor, which could hardly be used to carry his two extra passengers. Tony considered renting an available private jet, even though those would take hours to reach the tower.
Fortunately, King T'Chaka was nice enough to suggest the use of his private jet. Tony gladly agreed. He doubted their jet would make great time getting to the US either, but at the very least it would save them the time to find and prepare a private jet.
Tony was shocked when he saw the jet. The tech... the design... Tony was reluctant to admit it, but the jet looked even superior to his own.
T'Challa smirked at Tony's reaction and commented offhandedly that they would reach New York in a couple of hours. Which shocked Tony again. His armor could make this time, but his jet would have taken twice that time.
The Prince took the pilot seat while he and the king settled on opposite seats inside the sleek, black jet.
Tony kept his calm and composed face as he said casually, "Can't say I expected this kind of tech from a supposed third-world country."
T'Chaka chuckled. "Ah yes, I intended to ask for a meeting with you regardless of your appearance at the event today."
Tony raised an eyebrow and said with a small smirk, "I'm sure that would've been an enlightening conversation, judging by what I see around me now."
"If you hadn't chosen to attend today, I wouldn't be in a position to ask for said meeting," the older man commented calmly, then he smiled kindly. "Seeing we have the time now, why shouldn't we have the conversation?"
Tony leaned back in his seat, his eyes alight with intrigue. "Oh? I'm all ears."
T'Chaka chuckled before he began speaking. "As you can see, our country is much more than the world has been told. For generations, our leaders have hidden our existence from the rest of the world in order to protect the source of our progress."
"Vibranium," Tony said, stating the obvious conclusion. "I guess you have much more than what Howard bought all those years ago."
"There was a mountain of it, to be precise," the king informed Tony. And for a moment, Tony's mind wandered away with ideas of what he could achieve with those amounts of the precious metal. He was shaken back to reality by the old voice of the man across from him. "We have used this resource to advance our nation into the most advanced one on earth, hidden by a force field covering it."
Suddenly a lot of things fell into place in Tony's mind. But now was not the time to dwell on it.
T'Chaka then smiled like only a proud father could, a pride which carried in his voice too. "My daughter is the current head scientist of Wakanda, and she is developing quite remarkable tech. I believe a conversation between the two of you would be quite an interesting thing to see."
Tony smiled back at the king. "She sounds like an awesome girl. But I have to ask—your country has been closed off from the world for a very long time, and for a good reason according to what you say, so what put so much effort into the accords?"
The old man's smile faded away, replaced by wariness. "The accords were supposed to show the world Wakanda's willingness to join the rest of the world. It should have been a first act to put our country's politics on the stage. While many of our citizens are unsure about my choice in this matter, I look into the future, one..."
"Where Vibranium will no longer be available," Tony finished for the struggling king. "All natural sources are finite, and after centuries of mining it exclusively, you are running low on it. Soon you will need global trade to survive."
It looked like T'Chaka grew a decade in a moment as he nodded. "Precisely."
Tony hummed while thinking for a long moment. His fingers began dancing on the arm of his seat as he began thinking aloud. "I can help you start forming some international relationships, beginning with SI. I think there is a lot your country can learn from my company and vice versa... though it will mean disclosing the true nature of Wakanda, even if not to the world, then to the company."
The small smile returned to the older man's face. "Thank you, Tony; I will greatly appreciate any help you may provide us. Let me deal with the consequences for my country. Speaking of which..."
Before T'Chaka could finish the sentence, Friday's voice filled the jet. "Boss, you have an urgent call from Ms. Maximoff and Mr. Barton."
T'Challa tensed in his pilot seat and asked carefully, "How did you get into our system?"
Friday's voice was smug as she replied, "Your system might be more advanced than most, but I'm Boss's daughter; nothing is better than me."
Both Tony and T'Chaka chuckled. The older man smiled and said, "It seems you have your own child to be proud of."
Tony smiled at the first camera he could see and said sincerely, "There is no one like my baby girl. But I thought we spoke about hacking strangers' systems without permission."
"Sorry, Boss," Friday apologized sheepishly before returning to her usual tone. "I will pass the call through the jet's system."
And before anyone could question her, a panel moved on his seat and a holographic screen appeared before him. On it, he could see the faces of Pietro, Wanda, and Clint.
Tony raised an eyebrow at the group. "Do I want to know what's so urgent that all of you are together calling me?"
Pietro, the least stressed-looking of the trio, was the one to answer in a casual tone. "Me and Wanda wanted a break and decided to pay a visit to your god-children."
"They are... AGH," Tony began protesting before giving up. "I doubt you are calling me for some fun family time."
Clint's voice was as stiff as his body seemed to be. "Nat just called, asked me to pick someone up before meeting Steve at the compound."
Tony frowned, but before he could say anything, Wanda spoke. "She called me afterwards. Told me to wait at the compound for Steve's orders and be prepared to go on a mission."
Tony's eyebrows jumped to his hairline as he asked no one in particular, "What the hell are you playing at, Widow?"