Disclaimer: I do not own Avengers, Marvel's characters or content.

Those belong to Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Disney.

I only own my OC, Laura Watson.


So for those who have already began reading this yes this is a major rewrite of "The Wakandan Avenger"

I had to take a break from posting and I ended up not liking where the story was heading so I made some changes to the plot while still keeping to Laura's character.

My apologies to those that read it and its deletion.

But this story is back and I will post a new chapter every Sunday.


Apogee Award Show

Caesars Palace

Las Vegas, Nevada

Laura was sitting at one of the round tables of the convention center, next to Obadiah Stane.

She was wearing a floor length black dress with sleeves and she had her hair up in it's usual bun.

Everyone was watching a presentation on the screens on the stage.

"Tony Stark. Visionary. Genius. American patriot. Even from an early age, the son of legendary weapons developer Howard Stark quickly stole the spotlight with his brilliant and unique mind. At age four, he built his first circuit board. At age six, his first engine. And at 17, he graduated summa cum laude from MIT…" the voiceover was heard.

"I graduated summa cum laude when I was seventeen where's my award?" Laura joked to Obadiah who chuckled softly.

"Then, the passing of a titan. Howard Stark's lifelong friend and ally, Obadiah Stane, steps in to help fill the gap left by the legendary founder, until, at age 21, the prodigal son returns and is anointed the new CEO of Stark Industries. With the keys to the kingdom, Tony ushers in a new era for his father's legacy, creating smarter weapons, advanced robotics, satellite targeting. Today, Tony Stark has changed the face of the weapons industry by ensuring freedom and protecting America and her interests around the globe." the voiceover concluded and a spotlight shined on a man in an Air Force uniform at the podium.

"As liaison to Stark Industries, I've had the unique privilege of serving with a real patriot. He is my friend and he is my great mentor. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present this year's Apogee Award to Mr. Tony Stark. Tony?" he asked.

Laura looked around the room, not seeing him, and sighed.

"Are you kidding me right now?" she asked annoyed.

Obadiah gave her a sympathetic look and she frowned.

The twenty four year old downed her glass of bourbon, calming her nerves.

She grabbed her clutch, and walked between the tables and up to the stage.

"Thanks for the save." the man whispered to her.

"Yeah, Tony owes me for this." she whispered back angrily.

She gave the man her clutch, took the award, walked to the podium, and lowered the mic, getting everyone's attention.

"Thank you Colonel Rhodes. Wow, this is a beautiful award. Wow. As you can tell I am not Tony Stark." she joked, causing the crowd to laugh.

"Well… I'm Laura Watson and some of you may have seen me with Tony over the years. And as someone who knows him very well I'm sure he'd be up here right now going on and on how grateful and "honored" he'd be about receiving this very prestigious award." she charmed the crowd, earning a few chuckles.

"But the best thing about him is also the worst thing. He is always working. Thank you so much." she concluded and turned back to the man.

"I'm going to kill him. I don't even wanna be here." she hissed through her clenched teeth.

"Do you know where he is?" he asked. "It's Vegas, Rhodey. There's only one place Tony is!" she took her clutch back and the two marched off the stage.


They walked over to the floor and saw him at a craps and saw him at a table.

Laura rolled her eyes behind her glasses, seeing him surrounded by women and his body guard, Happy Hogan.

"You are unbelievable." Rhodey got his attention.

"Really Tony you forced me to go to your award ceremony only for you to not show up. I had to present for you and you know how much I hate public speaking." she said angrily.

"Oh, no! Did she rope you into this?" he asked while pointing at Laura.

"Nobody roped me into anything!" he replied.

"I told them you were "deeply honored" she said while air quoting "deeply honored"

"Of course I'd be deeply honored. And it's you, that's great. Nice dress by the way." he joked while pointing at it with amusement.

She crossed her arms over her chest, always feeling self-conscious in them thanks to her short height and small frame.

"Here." she handed him the award.

"There it is. That was easy. I'm so sorry." he apologized.

"Yeah, it's okay." Rhodey sighed.

"Whatever." she rolled her eyes, use to his behavior by now.

"Wow! Would you look at that? That's something else. I don't have any of those floating around. Uh, we're gonna let it ride! Give me a hand, will you? Give me a little something-something." he said while shoving his hand in front of her face.

"What! I'm not doing that. You know I hate this place. It smells like cheap beer, cigarettes and desperation." she said and eyed the blonde next to Tony.

"In more ways than one." she quipped and the woman glared at her.

"I'll be like this all night until you blow on the dice Laura you know me." he joked while smiling.

"Ugh." she groaned but blew on them.

"Okay. You, too." he held them in front of Rhodey's face.

"I don't blow on a man's dice." he said, unimpressed with the situation.

"Come on, honey bear." he joked.

"I don't blow on a man's dice." Rhodey knocked them out of his hand, causing them to roll.

"There it is. Lieutenant Colonel Rhodes rolls! And..."

"Two craps. Line away." the dealer announced.

"That's what happens." Rhodey shrugged his shoulders.

"As I said. Rigged." she said smugly.

"Worse things have happened. I think we're gonna be fine. Color me up, will ya?"


The three and Happy walked out and Rhodey hugged Laura.

"This is where I exit." he said as she hugged him back.

"All right." Tony shook his hand.

"Tomorrow, don't be late." Rhodey warned.

"Yeah, you can count on it." he reassured him.

"I'm serious!" Rhodey said while walking away.

"Seriously Tony this presentation is huge. It's your company after all." she reminded him sarcastically.

"I know. I know." he joked while putting his hands up mockingly.

They walked through the lobby and he handed the award to a guy dressed as Caesar.

"Render unto Caesar, that which is Caesar's. There you go." he said but Laura took it back from him.

They walked out into the night and towards his Rolls but a reporter rushed up to them.

"Mr. Stark! Excuse me, Mr. Stark! Christine Everhart, Vanity Fair magazine. Can I ask you a couple of questions?" she asked as other guards blocked her.

"She's cute." Happy whispered to him.

"She's alright." he whispered back.

"Don't encourage him Happy." Laura said annoyed.

"Hi." Christine introduced herself.

"Yeah. Okay." Tony nodded.

"It's okay?" Christine asked while bringing out a tape recorder.

"Go."

"You've been called the da Vinci of our time. What do you say to that?" she asked.

"Absolutely ridiculous. I don't paint." he joked and Laura snorted at the joked.

"And what do you say to your other nickname? "The Merchant of Death"?" she quoted.

"That's not bad." he shrugged his shoulders.

"Yeah, I wish I had cool nicknames like that." Laura crossed her arms, unimpressed with her.

"You do Watson." Tony joked.

"That doesn't count." she rolled her eyes.

"You do Ms. Watson. I'm surprised you haven't heard it. "The Goddess of Death." Christine said, trying to start something with her.

"I mean I deal with his nicknames all the time so I'll take it. "The Goddess of Death." she joked while nodding at Tony and in a mock scary voice.

Tony smirked and took off his sunglasses.

"Let me guess. Berkeley?" he asked.

"That would explain it." Laura insulted and he smiled.

"Brown, actually." Christine corrected, hearing her.

"Well, Ms. Brown. It's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we've got. I guarantee you, the day weapons are no longer needed to keep the peace, I'll start making bricks and beams for baby hospitals." he joked.

"You rehearse that much?" she asked unimpressed.

"Every night in front of the mirror before bedtime." he joked.

"I can see that." she replied.

"I'd like to show you first-hand." he said and Laura rolled her eyes once again.

"All I want is a serious answer." she tried again.

"Okay, here's serious. My old man had a philosophy, "Peace means having a bigger stick than the other guy."

"That's a great line coming from the guy selling the sticks." Christine argued.

"My father helped defeat the Nazis. He worked on the Manhattan Project. A lot of people, including your professors at Brown, would call that being a hero." he countered.

"And a lot of people would also call that war profiteering." she argued back.

"Tell me, do you plan to report on the millions we've saved by advancing medical technology or kept from starvation with our intelli-crops? All those breakthroughs, military funding, honey." he finished confidentially.

"You ever lose an hour of sleep your whole life?" she asked unamused.

"I'd be prepared to lose a few with you." he hinted.

"And that's my cue to leave!" Laura exclaimed as a valet pulled up her car.

"Don't be late tomorrow!" she shouted back to Tony.

She tipped the valet a $100, got into her Mercedes with an MIT sticker in the back window and drove away.


Early the next morning, in Laura's apartment in suburban Los Angeles, California.

The alarm clock buzzer woke up a sleeping Laura.

She groaned while rolling over, seeing "4:00 A.M." on it and turned it off.

She reached for her glasses to put on and turned on her lamp on her end table, revealing the once dark bedroom.

Her room which had a two book shelves on the walls on side of her room.

The shelves being filled with everything from her old college textbooks to her favorite personal books.

In front of her king sized bed was her flat screen attached to her wall next to her dresser.

To her right was a walk in bathroom and closet.

Her apartment itself was spotless thanks to her being a neat and control freak.

According to Tony, anyway.

After showering, she put her shoulder length curly hair into its usual tight bun on top of her head.

It always being a hassle for her to control.

She put on a white blouse and a dark grey pant suit that covered her caramel colored skin.

She put on silver beaded earrings and her necklace on which looked like black pearls around her neck.

She of course new what they were made out of and who gave it to her.

She put on heels and inspected herself in her vanity mirror.

She had always worked hard to be taken seriously and being professional.

Being much younger than everyone else and being a woman in the weapons and tech industry.

After packing her overnight bags, poured herself a travel mug of coffee and walked out to her car in the parking lot.

She sank into the seat, allowing herself to enjoy the moment of silence.

Seeing the odometer turn over to 150,000 miles in front of her.

She bought the car when she moved out here and used it mainly to drive from Tony's house to Stark Industries.

Working for Tony over the years had taken over her life.

Not allowing much of a social life or life outside of work.

But she enjoyed it.

Being an engineer.

She drove up to the airport and saw Tony's large plane parked on the runway.

She saw Rhodey on top of the airplane steps and pulled up to them.

She grabbed her bags, strapped her large purse over her shoulder, grabbed her coffee and walked up to him.

"Morning." she mumbled.

"Good morning sleeping beauty." he joked.

She groaned and drank her coffee.

Ever since she moved out here from New York, Rhodey became the older brother she never had.

They were really close.

"So over under how late do you think Tony will be?" she asked him. "He better not be. We're on a tight schedule."


Two hours later.

The sun was rising as Laura told Rhodey what had happened after he left last night.

"And then he was like "I'd be prepared to loose a few with you." she joked in a mock scary voice and he smirked.

"You shouldn't be surprised. You know how he is." he reminded her.

"I know but still it shouldn't be that easy…" she shook her head in disappointment.

"So that's why he's late?" he asked.

"Yeah…" she sighed and began digging through her purse for her Blackberry.

"I'm calling Pepper."


Meanwhile, at Stark Mansion, Malibu, California.

After kicking out Christine, a woman with Strawberry blonde hair was walking down the stairs towards his workshop but her phone rang.

"Hi Laura I'm trying to kick him out right now." Pepper Potts said, knowing it was her and why she was calling.

"Use a fire house if you have to. My patience has run out." she joked and Pepper smiled.

"And Happy Birthday Pepper. Did you get my gift?" she asked and Pepper looked down to the bag she was carrying.

"Yes I did. Very thoughtful. Thank you Laura." she thanked her but Laura heard loud music in the background.

"He's in the shop? Isn't he?" she asked, knowing the answer.

"Yes." Pepper said as she turned down the music.

"Please don't turn down my music." Tony said while working on his hot rod.

"Put me on speaker Pepper." Laura asked.

She did so and placed her phone on the clipboard she was holding.

"Tony your flight was supposed to leave an hour and a half ago. Rhodey and I have been waiting for two hours Tony!" she said angrily.

"That's funny Watson. I thought with it being my plane and all, that it would just wait for me to get there." he joked.

"It's not just the plane. It isn't just you involved in this." she sighed, losing her patience.

"Tony, I need to speak to you about a couple things before I get you out of the door." Pepper interrupted their banter.

"I mean, doesn't it kind of defeat the whole purpose of having your own plane if it departs before you arrive?" Tony joked to Laura, ignoring her.

"Larry called. He's got another buyer for the Jackson Pollock in the wings. Do you want it? Yes or no." Pepper asked.

"Is it a good representation of his spring period?" he asked back.

"Um, no. The Springs was actually the neighborhood in East Hampton where he lived and worked." she clarified.

"Guys…" Laura tried getting them to focus.

"So?" he asked.

"Not "spring" like the season. I think it's a fair example. Um.. I think it's incredibly overpriced." she gave her opinion.

"Guys…" Laura sighed while pinching her nose.

"I need it. Buy it. Store it." he told Pepper.

"Okay. The MIT commencement speech..." she began but he interrupted her.

"Is in June. Please, don't harangue me about stuff that's way, way, down..." he dismissed.

"Well, they're haranguing me, so I'm gonna say yes." she ignored him.

"Deflect it and absorb it. Don't transmit it back to me." he added.

"I need you to sign this before you get on the plane." she tried giving him the clipboard.

"What are you trying to get rid of me for? What, you got plans?" he asked.

"As a matter of fact, I do." she confirmed.

"I don't like it when you have plans." he reminded her.

"I'm allowed to have plans on my birthday." she said sarcastically.

"It's your birthday?" he asked surprised.

"Yes." she nodded.

"I knew that. Already?" he asked surprised.

"Yeah. Isn't that strange? It's the same day as last year." she joked.

"Well, get yourself something nice from me." he offered "I already did." she replied.

"And?" he asked.

"Oh, it was very nice." she smiled.

"Yeah." he smiled back.

"Very tasteful. Thank you, Mr. Stark."

"You're welcome, Ms. Potts."

"Pepper I'm still on the phone!" Laura shouted.

Pepper gasped and nearly lost her phone but she caught it with her hands and turned off the speaker.

"Anyway… Happy Birthday. We're going out when I get back." she finally hanged up.

She looked over to Rhodey who had an eyebrow raised and she shrugged her shoulders.

"He's on the way and I swear to God you can cut the tension between them with a very dull knife." she said while making a cutting gesture with her hand.

"I blame you for that." he joked.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."


An hour later, Tony sped into the airport in his R8 and Happy followed him in the Rolls behind him.

Laura and Rhodey stared at him without amusement as the two got out.

"You're good. I thought I lost you back there." Tony told him.

"You did, sir. I had to cut across Mulholland." Happy said while grabbing his bags from the trunk.

"I got you. I got you." he laughed.

"What's wrong with you?" Rhodey asked angrily.

"We've been waiting for three hours Tony!" Laura exclaimed.

"I got caught doing a piece for Vanity Fair." he justified.

"More like doing Vanity Fair." she muttered.

"For three hours. For three hours you got us standing here." Rhodey repeated.

"Waiting on you now. Let's go. Come on. Wheels up! Rock and roll!"


As the plane flew its destination, Laura was sitting on the couch.

She had her laptop out with her headphones on.

She was tapping her foot nervously, going over the blueprints of the weapons system she and Tony would be presenting.

He and Rhodey were at the table.

"What you reading, platypus?" Tony asked Rhodey.

"Nothing." he said while reading the paper, ignoring him.

"Come on, sour patch." Tony continued.

"I'm not sour." he denied.

"Hey, what's with her." Tony pointed at Laura, ignoring them.

"Good morning, Mr. Stark." a flight attendant walked up to them.

"She's working Tony. She takes her job seriously. And you don't. But you don't have too." he replied.

"Hot towel?" the flight attendant offered and the two took one.

"You don't respect yourself, so I know you don't respect me." Rhodey accused.

"I respect you." he reassured him.

"I'm just your babysitter when she isn't doing it." he pointed back at Laura who was taking a bottle of water from another attendant.

"Hey! Heat up the sake, will you? Thanks for reminding me." Tony asked the attendant.

"No, I'm not talking... We're not drinking. We're working right now." Rhodey said annoyed.

Tony got up and walked down the aisle towards Laura.

"Laura! Laura!" he shouted.

She didn't hear him as she was still looking down at her laptop.

He sat down next to her and took her headphones off.

"Hey what the hell?" she asked with annoyance.

"Your go deaf playing music that loud." he joked.

"You're the one to talk." she reminded him.

He held her headphones up to here classical music coming out of them.

"God you're such a nerd." he smirked.

"It's Bach and I find it relaxing." she crossed her arms.

"You're stressing out to much. Here." he took a shot glass from one of the attendants and gave it to her.

She took it and looked down at the clear liquid.

"What is this, Sake?" she asked confused.

"You can't have sashimi without sake." he joked.

"Tony this presentation is a big deal. I'm not doing it hungover." she denied.

"It would be irresponsible not to drink. I'm just talking about a nightcap." he reassured her.

"Hot sake?" the attendant offered.

"Yes, two more please." he asked.

"I'm not drinking. I don't want any." Rhodey said firmly.


A few minutes later.

The three were sitting and drinking on the couch.

After downing her sake, Laura had another glass of bourbon in her hand.

The music was blasting loudly as the three talked.

"That's what I'm talking about. When I get up in the morning and I'm putting on my uniform, you know what I recognize? I see in that mirror that every person that's got this uniform on got my back!" Rhodey told him.

"Hey, you know what? I'm not like you. I'm not cut out…" he began but Laura interrupted him.

"Tony it's your company!" she exclaimed.

"Can you excuse me if I'm a bit distracted here?" he asked her.

"No you can't be because…" she rambled as the plane flew towards Afghanistan.


At Bagram Air Base, the plane landed and Laura and Tony were walking down the steps.

"General." Tony greeted.

"Welcome, Ms. Watson. Mr. Stark. We look forward to your weapons presentation." the general shook his hand.

"Thanks."

"Thank you general. We're honored to be here." Laura shook his hand.

"Never drinking sake again." she muttered under her breath, a bit hungover.


In Kunar Province, Laura and Tony were giving their presentation on a mountainside that overlooked a valley.

Rhodey and a group of generals were watching on.

"Is it better to be feared or respected?" Tony asked Laura.

"Why not both Tony?" she asked back.

"Yes Laura. Why not both. Is it too much to ask for both? With that in mind, I humbly present the crown jewel of Stark Industries' Freedom Line." he nodded at the missile system in front of them.

"It's the first missile system to incorporate our proprietary repulsor technology." Laura said proudly.

"They say the best weapon is one you never have to fire. I respectfully disagree. I prefer the weapon you only have to fire once. That's how Dad did it. That's how America does it. And it's worked out pretty well so far. Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves." the camera guidance system on the missile aimed it towards the mountains on the other side of the valley and the rocket fired.

It fired thousands of feet over the valley floor and high into the clouds.

"For your consideration…" he began.

"The Jericho!" Laura finished.

Tony held out his arms as the missile broke off into dozens of pieces and them along with the shell collided into the mountains.

That exploded the entire cliffside, sending a shockwave across the valley floor.

That knocked the hats off the generals and Laura smiled.

"I'll be throwing one of these in with every purchase of 500 million or more. To peace!" Tony said while taking a glass from a cooler.

His phone rang and he answered it, revealing Obie on the video chat.

"Tony." he greeted in bed.

"Obie, what are you doing up?" he asked.

"I couldn't sleep till I found out how it went. How'd it go?" Obie asked.

"It went really well Obie. We aced it." Laura said while walking up behind him.

"Never doubted you for a second. I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" he asked them.

"Why aren't you wearing those pajamas I got you?" Tony joked and Laura giggled.

"Good night, Tony." he hanged up. He got into a Humvee and slammed the door in Laura's face.

"I'm sorry this is the fun-vee." he stated.

She frowned as Rhodey walked up to them.

"The Hum-Drum-Vee is back there." he waved her off.

"Hey, Tony. Nice job." he complimented.

"See you back at base."

"Well I'm going to go and join the "Hum Drum Vee. I'll see you later." Laura said while hugging Rhodey.

"Alright. Stay safe." he said while hugging her back.

"You too."


As the convoy of Humvee's drove along a dirt road on the valley floor, Laura was in the "Hum-Drum-Vee" with three other soldiers.

She was telling a tale about Tony at his expense, causing all of them to laugh.

"C'mon there's no way that's true." the driver joked.

"Trust me I wish it didn't." she smirked.

"Yeah but I remember that..." the soldier next to her began but the Humvee in the front was suddenly hit by an RPG.

The fiery explosion caused the driver to slam on the breaks.

Laura jerked her head up but armor piercing rounds began hitting the side of the Humvee.

"Contact left!" the driver shouted.

"What's going on?" Laura asked while beginning to panic.

The soldiers were grabbing their rifles while she ducked for cover underneath the window.

The driver opened the door to return fire but was shot instantly.

"Holy shit!" Laura screamed.

"John stay with Watson!" the other soldier ordered.

"Stay down!" he ducked her head.

"Yeah…" she managed to nod.

The other soldier got out but was also gunned down.

Laura went wide eyed as John opened the door.

"Wait don't leave me behind!" she begged while grabbing his wrists.

Multiple bullets pierced through the Humvee, killing John, and striking her shoulder.

"Ah! Ow! Ah!" she cried out in pain while it struck through her bullet proof vest.

Her ears were ringing loudly as she heard the echoes around her.

She was disorientated while she crawled over the seats and onto John's body, losing a heel in the process.

She groaned while she struggled to breath and the pool of blood drained from her wound down her back.

Another RPG struck the Humvee she crawled out of, causing it to flip above her head.

She cowered underneath it and it crashed right next to her and landed upside down.

Ash and sot covered her face and she began to crawl away with her arms.

Bullets flew above her head closely but one struck her spine.

"Shit!" she swore.

She took her shaking arm down to her waist and reached up her suit to feel the wound.

She coughed out blood and the light began to close in from the severe pain.

She laid her head on the sandy ground and closed her eyes to accept her fate.


Unknown to her, two people in Wakanda were watching a news report of the attack.

King T'Chaka and Prince T'Challa were watching it from a holographic in the throne room.

Headshots of Laura and Tony appeared next to the reporter and T'Chaka gasped.

He paused it and went wide eyed.

"What is it baba?" T'Challa asked, seeing the look on his face.

"That woman…" he said while zooming in on Laura's face.

"She looks like… but that's impossible. They didn't have a child." he said in shock.

"Who?" T'Challa asked and he whispered the names in his ear.

"She does look like her." he nodded in agreement.

T'Chaka frowned, seeing her necklace.

"She has her necklace." he realized.

"Does she know what it's made out of?" T'Challa asked.

"I don't think so. But we should monitor the situation with care." he suggested.

"That's it? We're not going to rescue her? She is one of ours." T'Challa asked.

"No. She does not know about Wakanda. If her necklace reappears somewhere else we will take the necessary actions but she is most likely dead, T'Challa." he clasped his shoulder and walked out.

He watched him walk out but frowned and closed the holographic, agreeing with his father and King.