Diplomacy hadn't really been a part of her job until recently. Natasha had always been an active field agent, a spy, a girl of action. Sharon had been the Carter who liked this kind of thing, but Sharon was still spending her free time hunting the Winter Soldier. Plus, this wasn't exactly a SHIELD mission, Natasha was here on behalf of the Avengers. Thaddeus Ross seemed to have it out for them. Tony thinks it might have something to do with them taking in Banner, it wasn't a secret that Ross hated the Hulk with a passion. Her mother seemed to think Ross wanted control over them for himself, and he was trying to maneuver the Avengers Initiative away from SHIELD. Ross' argument was that SHIELD gave the Avengers too much free rage, that Fury had allowed this group of enhanced people to become their own independent entity with no accountability. Natasha was there to argue the counter point with their allies, to reassure the U.N. that the Avengers did have accountability, and that the kind of government oversight that Ross wanted would hinder their ability to help protect the world as a whole. Thankfully, as it stood at the moment, more countries felt it would be dangerous for one country or a single cluster of allied countries, to have control over the Avengers.
"You spoke quite well during this morning's meetings, Ms. Carter." A voice says as it approaches Natasha.
Natasha turns to see a handsome and dignified young man around her age walking over to her and she smiles. "Thank you, Your Highness. That's kind of your to say. I'm rather new to this whole diplomacy thing."
"Yes, I don't suppose either of us are comfortable in the spotlight." Prince T'Challa of Wakanda replies as he scans the room, taking in the people around them.
"Until the Battle of New York a big part of my job was being unseen." Natasha admits as she too watches the room. "So yes, I'm not very comfortable out in the open just yet."
T'Challa hums softly and nods. "For quite some time you operated under the name Natalia Romanoff, yes?"
Natasha nods. Since the take down of the new HYDRA Natasha's true identity had spread through SHIELD like wildfire, and after Sokovia when she was called to testify in front of Congress, her real name had been made public. "Natalia Romanoff was an alias I used when I joined SHIELD, the agency founded and run until her retirement, by my mother. There was never any malice or manipulative reasons behind it, I simply wanted to fail or succeed on my own merits."
"I understand completely, Ms. Cater." T'Challa replies with a warm smile and true understanding in his eyes. "My father and your mother do cast very large and looming shadows."
"Ah but shadows are not always bad things, my son." King T'Chaka says as he joins them. "They offer shade and protection, and they can be quite strategic to those who know how to use them properly. Panthers, for example, will often stalk prey from the shadows, as do spiders." The older man smiles a huge warm smile at Natasha. "It is wonderful to see you once again Ms. Carter."
T'Challa greets his father warmly, with great affection and admiration, his smile pure and bright.
Natasha nods her head respectfully. "Your Majesty, the honor is truly mine." Then she looks at him, a bit confused. "Have we met before? Forgive me, Your Majesty, I don't remember."
"No, I suppose you would not." T'Chaka replies. "You were very small, as was my son, when Director Carter and I last met in London."
"You know my mother?" Natasha wasn't sure why she was surprised. Her mother knew all kinds of world leaders, hell she had tea with Ruth Bader Ginsburg once a month, but Wakanda wasn't exactly known for having any kind of ties to the outside world.
"Margaret Carter is an honored friend and ally." T'Chaka nods, and then, if it were possible, his smile gets bigger and brighter. "Why don't you join T'Challa and I for lunch, Ms. Carter, and I will tell you about how I met the most remarkable Agent Carter during the war."
Natasha easily returned the King's smile. "I would love to, Your Majesty, thank you, and please call me Natasha."
T'Chaka offered her his arm which she took easily and began his story as they walked. "It all started with vile men named Zemo and Zola who wanted a Wakandan artifact."
She never got tired of hearing stories about her mother, and it thrilled Natasha to know she hadn't heard them all yet. Lunch with the Wakandan King and Crown Prince turned out to be the best part of the whole summit. Even if T'Chaka did insist on embarrassing both of them by telling them of the trouble they caused as small children while he and her mother had been meeting in London. As they all began to gather in the main assembly hall Natasha couldn't help but laugh softly as she and T'Challa walked in together. "I really don't remember any of that."
"Hopefully I will make a more lasting impression on you this time." T'Challa chuckled.
"You already have." Natasha smiled. A soft chime filled the room before a string of announcements in various languages announced that the formal session was about to start, and everyone should please take their seats.
"Well," T'Challa says. "The future calls."
Natasha nods, they say their goodbyes and she heads to her seat to listen to the speeches. The first person up is King T'Chaka. As the King speaks it becomes even more clear how he and her mother could have formed a mutual bond of respect. She would very much like to see them together, and wondered about the possibilities of setting something up. Perhaps something in London, and she and T'Challa could retry their failed attempt to liberate the koi from the hotel's lobby. Natasha thought perhaps she could recall something of the playful incident when T'Challa yelled out something about getting down and a bomb. She reacts on instinct, shielding those around her with her own body, forgetting or ignoring the fact that she's in a skirt and suit jacket, not her uniform. She feels the impact of the blast rattle her bones. When it's over she works crowd control, getting everyone out of the area safely. As she works she catches sight of T'Challa and his father and her heart breaks for him.
She looks for him in the aftermath and finds him sitting alone on a bench, bloody and looking lost. She isn't sure what to say as she sits on the bench beside his. What would she want to hear if it were her? She shudders, her stomach twisting up painfully at the thought. "I'm so very sorry."
He turns and looks at her and for a few very long moments nothing is said between them. Then he looks away. "In my culture, death is not an end, it's more of a stepping off point."
She listens. She can tell he takes no comfort from what he is explaining to her. Natasha also sees a look in his eyes that had not been there before. A look she has seen in her own eyes. The look that Fury had seen when she found out the truth about her Uncle Howard and Aunt Maria's deaths. T'Challa didn't want comfort or compassion at that moment, he wanted vengeance. When they find out who's responsible, she can't blame him, but she does blame herself.
"Damnit." She swears, and nearly throws her phone with the security message still on screen. "I knew I should have gone after him myself."
"You know who this man is?" T'Challa demanded.
"The Winter Soldier, a man once called James Barnes, but now he's just a weapon." Natasha told him. "One used to kill two members of my family years ago. When I found out, damnit, I should have handled this the way I wanted too in the first place, but we thought we could get him before he acted again. T'Challa, I am truly sorry."
"This is not your fault." T'Challa reassured her. He would have said more but her phone began to ring. "Take your phone call, Natasha. This is all over the world's news. I am quite sure that your mothers are quite worried about your well being."
Natasha hestated, but he was right. Her mothers would be freaking out so she stepped away to answer her phone.
"Black Widows are deadly, yes," T'Challa said to himself as Natasha walked away. "But they do not hunt their prey the way a panther does. I will make this Winter Soldier pay for what he has taken from us both, my new friend."
Sharon was not the person Natasha had been expecting. "Sharon?"
"Are you alright?" Was Sharon's panicked reply, though only Natasha and the ones closest to her would know that her voice sounded off.
"Everything is going to hurt like hell tomorrow, but nothing is broken and no blood shed, so I'm golden." Natasha answered. "What's going on?"
"They have it all wrong, Nat." Sharon replies. "I'm sending you coordinates. Get here fast."
When Natasha turned back towards where T'Challa was, he was gone. She frowned as she nodded as if Sharon could see her. "I'm on my way."
Bucharest. Well, at least it wasn't a country that started with the letter B. Natasha didn't have much luck in those. Hopefully she had better luck in cities. Making her way to where she was supposed to meet Sharon she was surprised to find herself in an abandoned industrial workshop. This wasn't normally Sharon's style. If things weren't in such chaos right now she would have been amused at how their roles had seemingly reversed. Sharon was out getting dirty in the field hunting down the bad guy, while she was the one in a tailored power suit playing nicely with others. Drawing her weapon Natasha headed inside and began creeping around looking for her cousin. Hearing a notice she tensed up and softly said, "Cantaloupe."
"Pineapple." Came the reply.
Natasha instantly relaxed just as Sharon stepped out of hiding. She would have smiled at her cousin but was taken by surprise by the men coming out of hiding with her. Sam Wilson wasn't too big of a surprise. Natasha had known since Tony's party that the two were canoodling as her Ma would say. But Steve; Steve was a huge surprise, one that pissed Natasha off a little.
"Cantaloupe and pineapple?" Sam asks, grinning at the ladies. "What is that, some kind of spy code?"
Sharon smiled at Sam and shrugged a bit. "Sort of, but more like our own spy-cousins code. I hate cantaloupe, and Nat hates pineapple."
"And now we're going to need new codewords." Natasha grumbled as she frowned at the trio. "Sharon, what the hell is going on?"
"They are blaming Bucky for the bombing at the U.N. summit." Sharon began, as she waved Natasha closer. "But it wasn't him, it couldn't have been him."
Natasha shot a look at Steve as if he had somehow corrupted her cousin. Then again, with the way Sharon had smiled at Sam, maybe it hadn't been Steve who corrupted her. And maybe whatever was happening between Sharon and Sam was more than just a hookup. "They have evidence, Sharon. Surveillance footage. I've seen it myself."
"I know, but it's fake." Sharon tried to explain.
"The footage of him murdering Howard and Maria Stark wasn't fake." Natasha said bitterly. "How can you be so sure this time it is?"
Sharon had been leading Natasha to a back room. Sliding open the heavy metal door she showed her cousin why. "Because Sam and I found Bucky three days before the bombing. Steve helped us apprehend him," Bucky Barnes sat on a stool, his head lolling around on his shoulders like he was half out of it, and his metal arm held in a vice press. "And he's been here with us ever since, half conscious and contained."
There he was, the monster who murdered her aunt and uncle, the man who took Tony's parents away from him, who killed the man her mother loved like a brother. A flawed man who Natasha loved with all her heart, and his wife whom she had adored, murdered with cold brutality. Steve was strong, agile even, but his reflexes and speed were no match for the Black Widow's. Before anyone in the room could react Natasha stood in front of Bucky with the barrel of her gun pressed to his forehead. "Do you even remember them?"
"Natasha!" Sharon and Steve both called out.
Bucky looked up at her, blinked slowly, and then said, "I remember them all." He stared at her for a long moment and then added, "I remember you too kiska."
"Natasha." Sharon said softly, waving Steve away from her. "He's himself right now. He's Bucky Barnes, not the Winter Soldier."
"How can you be so sure?" Natasha demanded as she looked down into Bucky's eyes. They did seem different, less vacant and hollow, more sad and haunted. "He's really good at being manipulative, I should know, so am I."
"I wasn't manipulating you in Liechtenstein or Singapore." Bucky tells her. "We had different goals in Liechtenstein and Singapore. You weren't part of the mission, so I didn't have to play you. What we did I wanted."
Natasha stiffened, his words invoking uncomfortable memories.
"He has Bucky's memories, Nat." Steve told her as he watched her carefully just in case he needed to stop her, letting his shield hang from his fingertips ready to be thrown at a moment's notice because all he would get was a single fleeting moment.
"Yeah," Sam said. "Apparently Steve's mother's name was Sarah, he wore newspapers in his shoes, and he was in love with your mom."
Bucky blinked, a look of some undefinable emotion crossing his face. "Steve only ever loved one girl, Peggy Carter."
"Natasha Carter, nice to meet you." Natasha said sarcastically, her index finger quivering on the trigger.
Bucky dared to take his eyes off the quietly raging redhead to look at Steve. "There's a whole gaggle of Carters now?"
"Just the three." Steve replies. "Well, four if you count Peggy's wife."
"Peggy's what now?" Bucky blinks.
"Nattie." Sharon said gently, using Natasha's childhood nickname when she saw her cousin's anger rise as Bucky and Steve bantered as if she weren't holding a gun to Bucky's head. Sharon could already read Natasha's mind, feel her anger over the nerve of them chatting like old friends while she was once again faced with their family's loss. "You know I've spent a lot of my career studying what they did to my Dad. You know part of the reason why I joined SHIELD was to help me understand it, and to make sure nothing like that ever happened to anyone else's dad. James Barnes and the Winter Soldier might share the same body, but they are not the same person. If you decide to pull the trigger right now in this moment, you will be killing James Barnes, the man who fought with the Howlies, and Steve, and Aunt Peggy. The man from the stories they told us as kids, remember?"
Seconds pass, but each tick feels like an eternity before Natasha finally speaks. "He's been here with you the entire time?"
"Yes." Sharon answers, her tone of voice letting Natasha know it was the truth.
Natasha's hand twitches around the grip of her gun, but she does step back slowly and lowers it, and then slides it back into it's holster.
"Thank you." Steve says softly as he looks at his friend with grateful eyes.
"There are people after Barens, not just the authorities." Natasha says stiffly, firmly, as she retreats into her training and ignores Steve's gratitude. "Steve, take Wilson and get Barnes someplace safe. Sharon and I will head back to Vienna and see what we can find out about who would be setting him up."
"What about Stark?" Steve asks, needing to know if he will have to face off against his friend over this.
Natasha stood there staring at Bucky for several long moments, her mind replaying what she'd just done, and then she made a very hard call. "We leave him out of this for now."
Steve visibly relaxed. "Thank you, Nat."
Shifting her gaze from Barnes to Steve, Nat replied, "I hope he's worth what we're risking, Rogers, what you're risking."
Of course things couldn't go to plan. Not that they actually had much of a plan outside of hiding Bucky and trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Natasha and Sharon had barely made it back to Vienna when one of Sharon's contacts informed them that the guys had gotten into a powered up street fight with someone who turned out to be T'Challa. To say Natasha was frustrated would be an understatement. She and Sharon head to Berlin, neither looking forward to trying to get things settled with the CIA. The other American intelligence agencies weren't known for liking SHIELD much, feeling that they were at a disadvantage because they had certain governmental restrictions SHIELD didn't. When they arrived they were taken to Everett Ross, who Sharon had had dealings with before so Natasha gladly stepped aside to allow her cousin to argue with Ross.
After giving Steve an ear full, "You had one job, Rogers!"
"It's not my fault, Nat." Steve replied. "T'Challa was gunning for Bucky."
Natasha went to find T'Challa. She found him sitting alone in a room and paused outside the doorway for a moment. She could understand how he felt, if someone were to murder her mothers she would burn the world down making sure that person paid for taking them away from her. She could understand because the pain of loss burned in her chest over her godfather and her aunt. "Not exactly how I thought I'd be seeing you again, Your Highness."
"Natasha." T'Challa stood as Natasha walked in.
"I saw some of the footage of your fight with the fellas, impressive, and your suit is amazing." Natasha said as she walked over to sit on the arm of the chair across from where T'Challa had been sitting.
"The Black Panther has been Wakanda's protector for generations." T'Challa told her. "It is passed down from warrior to warrior. My father passed it down to me many years ago when he felt he was no longer able to serve our people in that way, and now he passes on much heavier responsibilities. The first of which will be to bring his murderer to justice."
"Barnes is being set up." Natasha told him. "We don't know why or by who, but Barnes isn't responsible for the bombing, T'Challa."
T'Challa glared at her but his voice remained calm. "You said this monster killed people you loved, why do you now defend him?"
"I also said Barnes was being used as a weapon." Natasha replied. "James Barnes was captured during the war, experimented on, and brainwashed. It's not easy for me to keep that in mind when I see him, because when I see him, I see the man in the photographs and video who bashes my godfather's head in and crushes my aunt's throat." Natasha pauses for a moment, hands clenched and jaw tight. "I have to constantly remind myself that the Winter Soldier and James Barnes are two seperate people."
T'Challa continued to glare. He wasn't buying this. "That sounds like a badly made up excuse to…"
"I'm not making excuses for him, T'Challa." Natasha said firmly. "Believe me, it's taking a lot for me not to put him down like a rabid dog."
"That is not the first time you have said that." T'Challa replied as he looked into her blue-green eyes. "What is stopping you from doing what you feel is right? Why fight it?"
"My Uncle Michael." Natasha admits. T'Challa doesn't reply but his expression asks for more, so she sighs softly and explains. "My mother's older brother was also taken and experimented on during the war. He was the first iteration of what would later become the Winter Soldier." She tells him Michael's story, including how he was incarcerated for his crimes, and that after he finished his time and treatment he was able to live out a normal life. "So, I'm conflicted. On one hand the Winter Soldier killed my godfather and my aunt, but on the other, why shouldn't James Barnes get the same second chance my uncle got."
"I can see the conflict in your eyes, Natasha." T'Challa said softly, but there is also steel in his voice as he continues, "But I do not have such conflict. Without proper evidence to back up your claims of a set up, I have no reason to believe James Barnes is not the one who murdered my father, and he will face justice. As soon as Ross finishes his evaluation I will be taking Barnes back to Wananda with me."
"I'm afraid that won't be happening, Your Highness." Ross says as he walks into the room. "Whatever favors you tried to call in, well, they weren't enough to supersede hers."
Natasha didn't have time to school the surprised look on her face but she did manage to stop herself from saying mum, opting for the more professional, "Director Carter, what are you doing here?"
"Throwing her weight around and getting what she wants as usual." Ross replied.
"Are you quite sure you're not related to Thaddeus Ross, Agent Ross?" Peggy asked the small man beside her. "You both have such lovely dispositions to work with." Her words were biting and her glare hard. "Now that you have shown me to Prince T'Challa, you may be on your way Agent Ross, I expect my Avengers to be released and the prisoner prepared for transport within the hour."
"What is going on?" T'Challa demanded as he looked between Peggy and Ross.
Natasha blinked. "You're Avengers?"
"Director Carter here has been made the liaison for the Avengers by order of the U.N." Ross explained. He looked at T'Challa as he added, "It was one of the last things your father did before the bombing."
"You are dismissed Agent Ross." Peggy ordered. She glared the man down until he finally left the room and bit back a muttered remark about him being an annoying little hobbit of a man. Then she turned to T'Challa and Natasha with a much softer expression. "Prince T'Challa, I wish we were meeting again after so long under better circumstances."
"As do I Director Carter." T'Challa replies. "Before his death at the hands of the man you wish to whisk away, my father regaled Natasha and I with stories of your relationship to him and the people of Wakanda. You were an honored and trusted ally."
"Were?" Peggy repeated. "I hope I can prove I still am, Your Highness. Which is why I've come to ask you to join us, to see for yourself that we are not trying to sweep anything under the rug so to speak."
Before T'Challa has a chance to respond the whole building goes dark. The three of them move quickly to the central command room where Sharon, Ross, and again to Natasha's surprise Tony were. She groaned silently, because now she would have to face Tony at some point when he wanted to know why she hadn't called him about Barnes.
"Anthony, what's going on?" Peggy demanded.
"Massive EMP bomb is my best guess." Tony replies. "This whole sector of the damn city is out."
"Where are Rogers and Wilson?" Peggy asks next.
"They went to check on Bucky's containment." Sharon replied.
Peggy nodded, "Sharon, Natasha, with me. Anthony, you know what I need."
"To teach your kid not to leave important people out of the loop?" Tony says as he jumps to his feet.
"Can we do this later?" Natasha barks at him and then asks, "Why aren't you putting on the suit?"
"She wouldn't let me bring a suit." Tony huffed while indicating Peggy. "This was supposed to be a teachable moment in diplomacy."
Sharon, like Natasha, has a vast variety of emotions passing through her eyes. Surprise, disbelief, confusion, and most of all excitement. They'd never really gotten the chance to work with Peggy in this way before, and both girls were more than ready to do so, and to truly show Peggy what they could do in the field.
As soon as Barnes shows up Natasha can tell something is different about him. His posture, the blank look on his face, the emptiness in his eyes. She isn't looking at James Barnes, she's staring down the Winter Soldier again. How? What happened to trigger the weapon? What was going on? She watches as Tony blasts him from a hand repulsor he'd hidden in his watch. Then she watches Tony fight as she and Sharon close in, and she's impressed and really glad she'd forced him into combat lessons with her. But the Winter Soldier just took down a whole unit of CIA agents, Tony wasn't a match for him. So that left herself and Sharon. The two younger Carters tag teamed him, working in perfect sync. Natasha went low, Sharon went high. Natasha tangled with him face to face, and Sharon came up from behind with a chair. It was like watching a pair of figure skaters or ballroom dancers.
Tony knew to stay out of it, but the newcomer didn't so when T'Challa tried to get involved he stopped him. "Hold back Hello Kitty, you really don't want to get in their way." He could tell the other man was going to protest, physically if he had too, so Tony pointed to the third floor where Peggy stood with what looked like a sniper rifle. "Seriously man, let the Carters do what Carters do best."
Natasha and Sharon fought hard against the Winter Soldier but were about to get their asses handed to them when Peggy's voice finally came over their comms. "Stand clear darlings." They let themselves be thrown into tables, and the Winter Soldier made a run for it. Peggy fired. A small round device the size of a dime attached to the back of the Winter Soldier's neck and with a press of a button held in Peggy's hand it released a debilitating wave of energy that paralized the man before knocking him out cold. "Anthony, restarits."
"Yes ma'am." Tony replies as he moves to follow Peggy's orders.
T'Challa decided to take Peggy up on her offer and go with her and the Avengers when they leave Berlin with Barnes. On the flight back to the compound, he speaks with Peggy alone while Sharon and Natasha watch from a distance.
"I'll be damned." Natasha says with a shake of her head. "She actually found a way to come out of retirement without going back to SHIELD."
"Who won the pool?" Sharon asked.
Natasha laughed. "We'll have to check when we get back but I think my Ma."
Peggy was aware that her children were staring at her, thunderstruck by her reemergence, but her focus was on her discussion with T'Challa. "It was actually a Wakandan scientist that deprogrammed my brother. When your father heard that I was looking for someone who could undo what HYDRA did to Michael, he sent one of his best to help, despite the fact that Michael had stolen from Wakanda. That's probably where the hint of vibranium in Bucky's arm you decided comes from. I remain grateful to T'Chaka to this day for helping my brother." She gave T'Challa a warm but sad smile before indicating the two young women watching them. "You obviously know the redhead is my daughter, but the blonde, Sharon, is my niece. She's Michael's daughter, and if not for your father's aide, she might not be here."
"You have given me much to think about, Director Carter." T'Challa replies before excusing himself from her presence.
They use the same kind of containment pod SHIELD created to hold the Hulk to hold Bucky. When she was alerted that he was awake Peggy went down to see him for herself. He was sitting on the floor when she walked up to the cell, and for a moment she wondered who would be looking back at her when he looked up, Bucky or the Winter Soldier. "James?"
Slowly Bucky raised his head to look at her. "Yeah, Peg, it's me. How did you shut it down?"
"Rather nasty electro-shock to your nervous system. Anthony describes it as a sort of forced reboot." Peggy answers. "How do you feel?"
"Twitchy." Bucky replies as he flexes the fingers of his human hand, and then his mechanical one.
"I'm sorry, James." Peggy says softly.
Bucky shakes his head. "Compared to what I've gone through, that tickled."
"I'm sorry you had to go through any of that at all." Peggy replied with a shake of her own head. "I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner, James."
He looked up at her and into her eyes as he said, "You didn't know to look, Peg, and even if you had, you would have never found me. Don't blame yourself."
"We have you back now." Peggy said after a long pause. "We're going to help you, James. I promise." She holds up the red book with the black star on the cover. "Is everything we need to know about what they did to you in here?"
Pushing to his feet he walked towards her, stopping just in front of the glass. He stares at the book, and then at her and nods. "Yeah."
Peggy nods. "Then I will give it to Steve for safekeeping until we can figure this all out."
"You have bigger things to worry about." Bucky tells her. "There are others, not as successful as me, but just as dangerous. If the little shit who activated the soldier read all of that book, not just my trigger words, he could cause a lot of trouble."
Bucky tells her where to go and Peggy orders the plane to change it's course.
On their way there they discover who the little shit Bucky mentioned was thanks to Natasha and Sharon, who'd placed data trackers in Vienna and Berlin. The actual CIA profiler had been found dead, and video revealed the man Bucky identified as the man who triggered him.
"Zemo?" Tony asks as he works to prove the tape of Bucky at the bombing was really Zemo. "Isn't that the stuff I got drunk on in college?"
Peggy frowns. "You were underage while in college, Anthony."
Tony groans softly. "Witty banter is going to be hard with you lurking over my shoulder, Aunt Peg."
"Get used to it my boy." Peggy replies as she put her hand on his shoulder. "The world governments wanted the Avengers to have accountability, the Avengers wanted to maintain their autonomy, I'm the compromise. Unless of course you want to go back to rethinking those accords Secretary Ross was batting around for approval?"
"No thanks." Tony replies. "I can't stomach working for jackasses."
"We appreciate you stepping in, Peggy." Steve reassures her.
Peggy gives him a warm smile and then says, "Then let's make sure this mission is done properly, so we don't give anyone a reason to second guess this arrangement."
Helmut Zemo, a Sokovian who lost his family in the Ultron attack, and the son of the Zemo from T'Chaka's story about meeting Peggy, wanted to destroy the Avengers from the inside out. He had hoped to turn them against one another, but he had no way of knowing that Natasha had already discovered the truth about Howard and Maria Stark's deaths, so when he showed Tony the tape in the solviet bunker Bucky led them too, it didn't have the desired effect on him. Enraged that his plan failed Zemo released the six other Winter Soldiers that had been on ice in the bunker, and although they were not as good as Bucky, there were still six of them. While the Avengers fought, Zemo tried to escape, only to be captured by Black Panther. Who, at that moment, thought of Natasha's strength, his father's wisdom and compassion, and Director Carter's advice about remembering that vengeance and justice were not the same thing. Zemo is arrested and will stand trial for all the innocent deaths he caused.
"The scientist you mentioned, Director Carter." T'Challa says as he stands in the Avengers compound with Peggy, Steve, Sharon and Bucky. "He is retired now, but still active and has many students who are familiar with his work. Perhaps he could help Mr. Barnes as he once did your brother."
"Thank you, Your Highness." Peggy smiles warmly as she takes the prince's offered hand.
Sharon and Steve agree to go with Bucky to Wakanda where he'll get the help he needs. T'Challa invites Peggy as well, but she has to turn him down for now. There was a lot she needed to see too now that she was officially the Averngers' den mother, but she told him she would very much like to take him up on his offer later. "I haven't seen Wakanda since the war. I would very much love to see it again."
"Then someday soon you and your wife must be my honored guests." The young king to be replies warmly.
"Why didn't you call and tell me about Barnes?" Tony asks Natasha as they stand on the balcony overlooking the grounds. His arm is in a sling because taking on six overpowered killer popsicles was harder than one might think, but over all most of them walked away just fine while the soldiers were all finally put out of their misery. Unlike Bucky, none of the others had retained their humanity, and destroying them was the kind thing to do.
"Because when I walked into that room and found myself face to face with him I put a gun to his head." Natasha answered honestly. "I had pressure on the trigger, Tony. Half a breath in or out and I'd have pulled it all the way." She paused for a moment, letting herself deal with what she'd almost done. "I'm the level headed one out of the two of us, Tony, and Sharon had to talk me down. I don't think we could have talked you down."
"Yeah." Tony replies after a long stretch of silence, both cousins lost in their own thoughts and emotions. "You're probably right."