A big 'Thank you' to Senema for betaing this chapter, it reads a lot better now. Any remaining mistakes are my own.

Chapter 5

Elijah came into the library, where Laura had made herself comfortable with a book, about an hour before sunset. Shana had offered Laura to look after Nathaniel and with Cooper and Lila outdoors exploring the surroundings, there was nobody Laura had to take care off. Laura really enjoyed having a little time to herself.

When Elijah entered the library, Laura put the book down and looked him up and down. "This is a very unusual look for you."

Elijah in black combat gear looked a lot more dangerous than in one of his suits. Until now Laura hadn't realized how much the suits, however expensive they are, helped Elijah with appearing unremarkable and non-threatening.

Elijah grinned. "As much as I would prefer to wear a suit, I want to be taken seriously."

Laura laughed out loud. "Oh, Elijah, I think not being taken seriously will never be a big problem for you."

"Before I leave, is there anything else you would like to discuss?" Elijah asked seriously after chuckling a little.

Laura got up and hugged Elijah. "No, just that you get my husband, Wanda and the others out of there and that everyone come back safe and sound."

Elijah hugged her back. "I will do my best!" He left the room.

Laura sat down again and picked up the book. Now came the worst part, namely the waiting for news. Laura sighed. Fortunately, she had a lot of practice waiting for her husband, when he was away for SHIELD or the Avengers.

Elijah went into the kitchen. The cook, who was preparing dinner, nodded at him. Elijah went into the pantry and closed the door behind him; he knew that the cook would now prevent anyone from entering it. He took two bags of blood from a refrigerator and drained them both. He didn't know exactly, how long they would be on the road and it was better for everyone if he wasn't hungry.

When Elijah left the pantry again, the cook wordlessly handed him a damp towel. Elijah took it and wiped his hands and mouth before handing it back to her. "Thank you."

Elijah went outside and slowly walked away from the house. As soon as he was out of sight, he began to run.

xxxxx

They landed in the clearing shortly after sunset, a good half an hour before the agreed time.

"Activate the environmental sensors!" T'Challa ordered his pilot.

"Yes, Your Highness", replied the man obediently. He checked the sensors. "There are no signs of human life."

"Good! Continue to keep an eye on the area and lower the aft hatch." T'Challa went to the back where four members of the Dora Milaje and Okoye were waiting for him. "Send them outside, Okoye, and let them set up a guard perimeter. I want an advance warning before our guest comes on board."

"Yes, Your Highness", Okoye replied calmly. T'Challa had told her about the conversations with Elijah. She would monitor this man closely and if he did anything suspicious, she would stop him immediately.

Natasha and Steve sat next to each other and prepared themselves for a longer wait due to their early arrival.

"Is that why you gave him a different arrival time?" asked Natasha amused.

T'Challa shrugged. "I just would like some advance warning."

"I looked at the blueprints he sent, they are very detailed. But I still wish we had pictures from inside the prison wing", Steve said.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and he'll bring some", said Natasha calmly. Steve looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What? It is not impossible. So far, Elijah has been supernaturally well prepared. He reminds me of you when it comes to strategic thinking." She hesitated. "Phil told me a few days after our meeting with him that he never met anyone else who came so close to Nick's shrewdness, he was very impressed by Elijah."

Steve looked thoughtful. He too had been very impressed with Elijah's abilities gather information and to plan this liberation, even if Steve not necessarily agreed with his methods. And his quick and selfless reaction, as he rescued Laura and the children, only spoke for him.

T'Challa sat down across from them and talked quietly with them while Okoye stood at the open hatch and watched the clearing vigilantly.

"I appreciate punctuality, it is the virtue of kings and shows respect", said a calm male voice suddenly and when everyone turned around in surprise, they saw a man standing in the open door. "I am Elijah!"

Okoye quickly got over her surprise and pointed a spearhead at the man's throat. "Not one step further!"

Elijah looked down at the spearhead and smiled. He didn't look particularly impressed or afraid but he obediently stood still.

"Okoye, lower your spear!" ordered T'Challa, who had also recovered from his surprise.

Okoye reluctantly obeyed, and the man approached T'Challa without hesitation. "My Thanks! You are T'Challa?"

"You will use 'Your Highness' when you speak to him!" Okoye said gruffly, positioning herself between the intruder and T'Challa.

Elijah looked at her briefly, smirked, then ignored her completely and looked back at T'Challa. "You should call your guards back, T'Challa! We shouldn't be here for too long."

Steve put his hand to his mouth to hide his smile while Natasha grinned openly. It was entertaining to watch Okoye meet someone with an even more arrogant demeanour than her.

This wasn't the polite, reserved Elijah she'd met in New York. In his combat gear he looked tougher and a lot more dangerous than as in a suit but she noticed that he wasn't carrying any weapons, not even a knife.

T'Challa coughed, he had never seen Okoye so indignant and disconcerted before. "We should take off. Call the others back in."

Okoye huffed contemptuously and went into the cockpit. As soon as they were among themselves, she would have a serious word with her subordinates about their neglect of duty.

"Welcome on board, Elijah", T'Challa then greeted him politely.

"Thank you very much, T'Challa", Elijah replied just as politely before walking up to Natasha, who had now also gotten up.

"Natasha, it's good to see you again!" He held out his hand and after a moment, Natasha took it. In a repetition of their first meeting, Elijah leaned over her hand and kissed it. "Still charmed", he said with an amused grin and against her will Natasha smiled back.

Elijah let go of her hand and turned to Steve. "Captain Rogers, it's an honour to finally meet you. Clint told me good things about you." He held out his hand again and Steve took it immediately.

"I'm not entirely sure what to make of this encounter yet, but it promises already to be very interesting", Steve replied truthfully.

Elijah laughed in amusement. "You are as direct as everyone says, I like that!" He reached into a breast pocket and pulled out a USB stick. "Here are videos from the prison wing."

Natasha cackled and Steve glared at her.

Elijah ignored the interlude and his expression darkened. "The footage also includes images of Tony Stark betraying Clint's family." For a moment there was such a cold anger in Elijah's eyes that Steve felt a shiver down his spine. "It gives a very illuminating impression of Stark's inferior character."

In the meantime the Dora Milaje had come back on board and everyone gave Elijah resentful looks. They had no idea, how he got past them and weren't exactly looking forward to explaining this to Okoye.

The aft hatch closed and the ship took off.

Elijah sat down across from Steve and Natasha, who had a notebook on her lap. T'Challa sat on her other side and they watched the footage together.

Steve's jaw clenched as he saw the conditions in which his friends were being held. Especially the condition and treatment of Wanda angered him beyond measure. When he then saw Stark walking past Wanda, disinterested and heartless to her suffering, he gritted his teeth even more so as not to vent his anger. Stark had known all along where his friends were and what condition they were kept in, and he hadn't helped them?

However, even Steve could not contain himself anymore when he observed Stark's calculated and deliberate betrayal of Clint's family. "That traitorous bastard!"

Natasha said nothing but her eyes burned with anger. Stark hadn't done this for nothing. She would show him that she wasn't called the Black Widow for nothing and how she had earned her reputation in the espionage community.

T'Challa said nothing either but his eyes narrowed at Stark's treachery.

Okoye stood next to him. The Avengers might mean nothing to her and she found T'Challa's sudden interest in them irritating but this cold betrayal of a defenceless family angered her too.

"Oh, it gets even more interesting", Elijah said, satisfied with the reactions.

The transmission suddenly stopped.

"What just happened?" Steve asked bewildered.

"A jammer activated by Stark. I suspect he wanted to speak with Wilson to find out where you were going without anyone listening", Elijah replied disgusted. "I find it interesting that he only activated it after he betrayed Clint's family. But as soon as it came to hiding his own criminal acts and escaping the consequences of breaking the Accords, he used it."

Steve closed the notebook in disgust. As much as he tried to find excuses for Stark, that was too much, even for him. "It's a shame we're on the run. Until now I wanted to give Stark the benefit of the doubt but after seeing this…"

"Yes, I will so enjoy making him pay for it", Natasha agreed venomously.

"Oh don't worry!" said Elijah with a chilling grin. "He will pay! I've already initiated a few things. Mr. Stark has a very uncomfortable couple of months and years ahead of him. I'll make his life hell! Nobody hurts my family or those I consider under my protection and gets away with it unscathed."

Steve, Natasha, T'Challa and Okoye felt the hair at the back of their necks stand up. All four suddenly felt in mortal danger but surely it couldn't be through this one man.

Elijah heard how the heartbeats of the humans abruptly accelerated but none of them smelled afraid, which, however, would have astonished him very much. "Perhaps we should discuss how we should proceed now", he calmly suggested.

Steve nodded. "Yes that is a good idea. Tell us everything you know!"

Elijah shared what he knew about the Raft's safety measures and procedures.

"How did you find out so much so quickly? I mean, I know what you can do, but it's still remarkable." Natasha was curious.

"As soon as the Sokovia Accords hit the news, I made inquiries as to where the Avengers would most likely be incarcerated if it came to that. It was absolutely clear to me that neither Captain Rogers nor Clint would sign the Sokovia Accords." Elijah shrugged. "I like to plan ahead for every eventuality."

Natasha was a little thoughtful. Somehow Elijah reminded her suddenly of Thor, because as exuberantly as Thor sometimes reacted, it was occasionally noticeable that he was over a thousand years old and then he showed a wisdom that matched his age.

Steve frowned. The longer he looked at Elijah, the more familiar he seemed to him. "Elijah, have we met before?"

"Not in this life, Captain", Elijah replied calmly. He wasn't surprised that he looked familiar to Rogers. Their meeting had been brief, but they had spoken to each other. "But my grandfather worked as a spy for the resistance in France and from photos I've seen we look very similar."

Steve's face lit up. "Oh, now I remember him, you even have his name."

"Yes, names are passed on in my family", said Elijah dryly. "I never got to know him, maybe someday you can tell me about your encounter."

"It would be an honour for me, he helped us a lot back then and saved many people from the Nazis." Steve smiled warmly at Elijah.

Natasha shifted restlessly, she had a feeling that Elijah had just lied to Steve. It reminded her again how gifted Elijah was as a liar, good enough that he could even deceive her. However, in this case she couldn't understand his reasons for lying.

Steve, Natasha and T'Challa exchanged ideas on how best to go about making the liberation go as smoothly as possible. Elijah listened attentively and made helpful comments on occasion but left most of the planning to the humans. He would only intervene if it became necessary.

Elijah was nevertheless always aware of his surroundings, so he knew that the bodyguard of T'Challa, Okoye, never let him out of sight, her distrust of him clearly visible.

And he could hear the conversation of the other female warriors. They weren't very flattering as they talked about him but he found their speculations and insults very creative and entertaining.

But finally he decided he had enough. If they were vampires, he would have corrected them long ago and taught them manners. Since they were humans, he decided to be a little more lenient.

"Unfortunately I have to disappoint you, my parents were married, maybe not happyly, but I was not born out of wedlock. What you are right about is that she was a witch and he was a bastard, even though those were more personal traits of theirs. And everything is fine with my intelligence or my stamina, thank you very much!"

Suddenly there was silence on the plane.

"What do you mean by that, Elijah?" T'Challa asked, confused.

"Your Dora Milaje talked about me", Elijah explained in a friendly manner.

"In English?" T'Challa asked in astonishment.

"No, in Xhosa", Elijah replied succinctly.

"You speak our language?" Okaye asked stunned.

Elijah smiled at her. "I understand many languages. But yes, I am fluent in Xhosa."

Okoye had to admit, this man was slowly starting to become more and more fascinating to her. For someone so young, he seemed very knowledgeable. "You don't carry a gun. Do you want to take the Raft unarmed?"

Elijah chuckled. "Guns are so vulgar and primitive, I don't use them. And besides I've already taken the Raft."

Okoye smiled slightly. This colonizer might be arrogant, but she liked his style and the fact that he didn't like guns spoke for him.