Chapter 78

Toni glanced over the report of the robbery one more time, unsure of what to make of it. She still hadn't been able to identify the two individuals who had been with Klaue, which meant one thing; either they were really good at keeping their identities a secret, or they'd been redacted.

And if there was a reason to keep their identities a secret, well it just made Toni all the more curious.

"Toni," Prince T'Challa said, as he answered her call. "I was surprised to find your request for a call."

"Well somethings are just better said verbally than over text," she said with a shrug. "I know you are busy, Your Highness, but there are some things I need to bring to your attention."

"Oh?" he said, looking intrigued. He was in his sister's lab, but the younger sibling was nowhere in sight.

"I know your country has a vested interest in the location of one Ulysses Klaue," she said, and he immediately sat up.

"Yes, he is something of a person of interest for Wakanda," T'Challa said. "He broke in and stole vibranium and killed several of our people. We would like to see him brought to justice for what he has done to our country."

"Then you should know that he recently resurfaced in London, England, after robbing the Museum of Great Britain," she told him. "He stole several artefacts and the crime resulted in the death of several security guards. One of the artifacts in question was an axe, which upon looking at their scans of the object identified it to be made out of vibranium."

"You think he may try and come back for more," he said, without revealing how he was feeling.

"I do," she said with a nod. "The black-market prices for vibranium is through the roof, and since your country is the single largest supply of it, I wanted to warn you. I'm sure you can take care of yourselves, however a warning never hurt."

"I appreciate it, Toni," he said with a nod. "I shall make sure our people have it handled. He will not enter our country a second time."

"There's something else," she warned him, "There was a man and a woman with him, and I couldn't identify them using normal means. Not without tapping into database such as the CIA's or NSA's. I'm going to ask JARVIS to scan those as well, but if they were with Klaue, well then they can't be anyone good."

"Please let us know if you find out anything further," Prince T'Challa told her, and she gave him a nod. "I appreciate the heads up, given what that man has done. I know several of our citizens would still wish to see his head on a pike for the pain he has caused our country."

"He has caused a great deal of hurt with his actions," Toni said, closing her eyes. Klaue had been involved with Ultron as well, selling what must have been all of his supply to the murder bot.

And now he wanted more.

Whatever he was planning to do with the Vibranium couldn't be good. And given he dealt exclusively out of the Black Market, she didn't really want to know what the buyers planned to do with the supply they acquired.

"T'Challa, it's time for your coronation!" Shuri said as she came into the lab, "What are you still doing here? Mother told you to get dressed hours ago."

"I was on a call with Toni Stark," he scowled at his sister.

"Well she can talk to me instead," Shuri shrugged, "I'm the better sibling anyways. Now go get yourself looking pretty. You don't want to keep Nakia waiting on you, do you? And Bast knows you need to look nicer than this if you want to have any hope of winning her back."

T'Challa blushed at that, and Toni was tempted to laugh at the sibling banter. Whoever this Nakia was, she certainly had the soon to be King of Wakanda on pins and needles.

"Thank you for your call," Prince T'Challa told her and she nodded.

"I'll let you know if I find anything else that may be of use to you. Until then, I wish you luck with your coronation ceremony.

"Yeah, yeah, he'll do just fine," Shuri said, as she stole the seat T'Challa had previously occupied, as she gestured for him to leave the room. "Now, I do have a little bit before the coronation ceremony, and I was wondering if I could talk to Peter and the Keeners until then. I have some plans that I'd like to go over with them."

She raised a brow, not wanting to know just what they were planning on getting up to.

"JARVIS can you transfer the call to the living room screen?" she asked, knowing where her children had gathered.

The call cut off from her monitor and she looked at the screen as JARVIS continued to search for the identities of the two individuals.


Toni had wanted to wait until she was in her second trimester before telling anyone that she was pregnant but given that with each passing day more and more of her family members were finding out the truth, she saw no reason to keep it from them any longer. So when she'd broached the idea to Steve, he'd kissed her tenderly and told her that he would want nothing more than to tell their friends about her pregnancy.

So she'd gathered them all for a party, not telling any of them why she was inviting them. Of course she was sure they had their suspicions, given that more than half her family was involved in some sort of government organization, and a decent amount of them already knew the truth of their own accords.

But still, she invited them all under the pretense of wanting to meet up with her family and friends and see them all. She'd even extended the invite to Clint's family, and sent one of the jets for them so they could make it to her party.

"Are you ready?" Steve asked as he entered the room. She turned to him, as she did a quick intake breath. He was wearing a tailored suit that she'd picked out for him and seeing it on his body, well, she wasn't all that sure she wanted to leave their room anymore.

"You look nice," she commented lightly, as he came over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Just nice?" he teased her. She was wearing a matte lipstick that wouldn't smudge, so she had no issues with leaning up and pressing her lips to his.

"Breath taking, really," she exhaled, as her arms circled his neck.

"You look rather stunning yourself," he said, looking down at her. She was wearing a royal blue dress with a lace covering the top of it. "Beautiful."

"I love you," she told him, meaning every word of it.

He smiled at her, and it was something she hadn't seen much of in the last week. She bushed his hair tenderly with her fingers.

"I love you too," he told her, as he leaned down and pressed another kiss to her lips. "I want you to know that I am happy about this, Toni. "I'm happy that we're having a baby together. I'm happy with the fact that we're raising Peter, and with our lives together. I don't want you to doubt that."

She nodded with understanding, "I know, Darling. I don't expect you to be happy that Bucky is in Wakanda. But it's what he needs right now. And I promise, we will bring him home again."

He didn't say anything at that, instead, he pulled his arms off her body and extended his arm out to her, "We should head downstairs," he said, and she slipped her arm through his. "We have quite a large crowd gathered tonight."

She followed him as they headed towards the elevator, and they made their way down to the party room that Pepper had graciously set up for them, insisting that it was the least she could do for them, causing Toni nearly to cry, as her friend laughed and told her that she'd been organizing parties for her for nearly two decades, and that she could handle it.

"Finally," Clint said as she exited the elevator with her husband, "I was beginning to wonder if you got lost."

Laura elbowed him and she grinned.

"In my own tower?" she raised a brow with a laugh, "Never, Brenton."

She glanced around the room, and saw her friends and family gathered around. She saw Ava, Harry, Uncle Daniel and Aunt Peggy. She saw Rhodey and Pepper and Happy. She saw Natasha, Sam, the Maximoffs. She saw Vision, the grandchild which despite their abnormal relationship, she cherished. And Peter, looking at them with a grin as he tried not to give anything away.

"So you might be wondering why we invited you all here today," Toni said, as she looked over them. "We wanted to have a little celebration, especially given that we rarely get to all get together and just relax like this. We all have highly busy lives, so I'm grateful that all of you were able to make some time and gather here today with us."

"Especially given that we've had a hectic few weeks recently," Steve said, and the room nodded in agreement. "But we wanted to share some exciting news with all of you."

"I'm pregnant," she said, as a grin filled her face.

"Oh Ducky, that's wonderful," Aunt Peggy said immediately as she came over and pulled her goddaughter into a hug. "I'm so happy for the both of you."

Uncle Daniel hugged her next, "I can't wait to meet the little one," he said. "I'm so proud of you Sweetheart."

"Wait, why don't you look surprised?" Harry asked, as he looked at his sister. He then glanced at Pepper, and Rhodey, then at Natasha, "You don't look surprised either. Did you all know?"

"I know my cousin," Ava said haughtily. "It wasn't hard to guess."

"You all knew but me?" Harry said pouting. "I thought I was your favourite, Toni. How come you didn't tell me."

"I didn't tell any of them," Toni shook her head, amused, "They all guessed. Except Rhodey who I suppose I told. But he's my Rhodey Bear."

Rhodey gave her a mocking exasperated look.

"It's okay," Ava patted him on the head, "I am the smarter one in the family. Don't beat yourself up too much. Now you know with the rest of the peasants."

"Who are you calling peasant?" Clint said, pretending to look outraged.

"I am happy for you, Toni," Vision said, and she smiled warmly at him as she clasped his arms.

"Thank you, Vision," she said.

"Do you know if it's going to be a boy or girl?" Laura asked her.

"We're waiting to find out," Steve said as he wrapped an arm around her. "But as long as they're healthy that's all that matters."

"You got yourself a good one there," Laura said, and she laughed.

"Oh I know," she said, as she leaned into him.

"Mom, can I show the Bartons my room?" Peter asked, and she nodded at her son as he led Lila and Cooper upstairs.

"Now that that's out of the way," she said to the room, "It's time to get this party started."

The room cheered, and she smiled widely as she looked over her friends and family who had all gathered here for her. To celebrate with her.

And she felt nothing but warmness for them all.


Steve stood off in a corner as the party went on. He was ecstatic that he and his wife were having a baby, and looking over at her, as she glowed brightly while carrying his child, well he never loved her more.

But still, it was like there was a sinking feeling in his chest; one that he couldn't quite shake no matter how hard he tried to do so.

"Got something on your mind, Soldier?" he heard Peggy say as she came over to where he was.

"How do you always know when something is bothering me?" he asked her, dodging the question.

"I know you, Stark-Rogers. I've known you for a long time now," she said, raising a brow at him. "So why don't you tell me just what has you all tied up in knots?"

"I'm happy," he said forcefully. And she rolled her eyes at him. "I am. I have a beautiful wife, a son, and another child on the way. I have Sam, and the bots, and even JARVIS and FRIDAY. I have Vision. I have a wonderful family. And if you had told me when I was younger that I would ever have had any of this, I wouldn't have believed you. I never thought any woman would want me. I never thought I'd find someone as amazing as Toni."

"No one is doubting your love for her, Steve," Peggy said gently. "You can love her but still not be happy. It has no reflection of your life with her or raises any questions of if you love her. So why don't you tell me what's really bothering you?"

"How do you always know what to say?" he asked with a sigh.

"I have a husband and three children," she told him pointedly. "I'm used to listening to their feelings. So let me listen to yours now. What's wrong?"

"It just feels like no matter how hard I try, I'm always going to be letting Bucky down," he sighed heavily. "I don't like talking about it too much but before the serum, I was pretty sick. Everyone knows that. But most doctors didn't think I'd live very long. Each time I went to them they told me they didn't expect me to live past a certain age. And when that birthday came and passed they just pushed the date. My mother was constantly worried over me, trying to make sure I was okay because I was always sick. And all the others treated me like I was always on death's door. But Bucky was the first person to see past all of that. See past all my ailments and disabilities. He saw me. Every time I got into a fight or got mugged or got in any sort of trouble, he was always there for me. He was always saving me, from myself, from others, from everything. He was my brother, even though we weren't related."

She nodded with understanding.

"When he was captured, I wanted to pay that back. I wanted to save the man who'd spent most of his life saving me. Because he was my family and I wanted him to be safe. I wanted him to be able to come home. I couldn't stand the thought that he wasn't okay. I couldn't stand wondering about all the horrible things that could have been happening to him. It was why I asked you and Howard and the Commandos to help me. So I could save him."

"And you did," Peggy pointed out to him.

"And then he fell to what I thought was his death," Steve said bitterly. "But really he'd been in HYDRA's clutches for seventy years while I was frozen in the ice and could do nothing to save him."

"And you saved him again," she told him gently. "You got him free of HYDRA. And Toni and Ava helped him acclimate. You all cleared his name and brought him home."

"And then Zemo triggered him," Steve said tiredly. "He triggered him and now Bucky is on the run again. All of this, it feels like my fault. Like no matter how hard I try, no matter how much everyone claims I'm some sort of hero, I'm always failing him. I'll always be failing him. I can't save him, and I can't help him like he helped me. All those years ago he gave me a sense of security and belonging, and I can't even give him that."

"Steve, listen to me carefully," Peggy said, and he looked over at her. "You are not responsible for the tragedy that James Buchanan Barnes has gone through. You didn't force him to do those horrible things. That was HYDRA. It's on HYDRA. And you haven't failed him. What he went through was horrible, and there is no one fix solution to save him. It's going to take time and it's going to take science beyond either your or my comprehension. He doesn't blame you. And he is a fully-grown man. He wanted to stay in Wakanda to keep you safe. To keep Toni, Peter, and the baby safe. He's had such little freedom to make his own choices in the last several decades. Let him make this choice and let him come home when he's ready. Just because you aren't fighting people for him doesn't mean you're not being there for him."

He took in her words as he took a deep breath, "Thanks, Peggy."

"Do you feel a bit better?" she asked him gently.

"Yes," he sighed. "I don't think I'll ever not feel guilty for what happened, but you're right. This is his choice and I need to respect that. I can't control him or ask him to do what makes me happy. I may not be able to help Toni, Ava and Princess Shuri heal him, but I can be there for him."

"Now go enjoy your party," Peggy said with a nod. He hugged her gently as he went over to where Toni was laughing at one of Clint's awful jokes and she beamed as she saw him.

He may not be okay, not yet anyways, but he would be. He just needed some time.


Seeing the Black Panther in South Korea was not something that she'd been expecting to say in the least. She certainly did not expect to have Peter show her the clip of the prince, Okoye, and the legendary Nakia fighting against the arms dealer.

To say it had made the news was an understatement.

His identity remained intact, but she was sure it was only a matter of time before the pieces were slowly put into place. It just took one journalist who also placed the Black Panther at Vienna. And one who connected the Dora Milaje who were with the Black Panther to the Wakandian Guard.

And from what she knew of the smaller country, they most certainly would not want to come out to the world in any manner, but definitely not this one in particular. The King of what was thought to be a third world country was revealed to be an enhanced hero to his people, with a stash of vibranium larger than what the world knew of them? Well it was hardly the kind of headlines that they wanted to be making.

"So South Korea, huh?" she asked as the call went through.

"We had intel," King T'Challa said with a sigh, "That he would be dealing the vibranium from the axe there. We were going to finally bring him in for justice."

"And it didn't go your way," she said, already knowing what had happened.

"We didn't expect the CIA to be there," he said with a slight scowl as he looked over to an offscreen man.

"We didn't expect the Black Panther to turn up and ruin our mission either," Everett Ross said, as he walked into the field of the camera. "So don't go blaming it on us. Plus we had him custody. Then he was broken out of our facility."

"Let me guess, by a young couple in their late twenties?" she asked, despite already knowing the answer.

"Erik Killmonger," Ross told them. "Former US Military Black Ops who went off the grid to work for a CIA Joint Special Operations Command. He committed assassinations of several prominent individuals for the US Government."

"And now he's working with Klaue," Toni said with a sigh. "But why? What could the two of them possibly have in common?"

"That is the question of the hour," Ross said, as he winced in pain. She noticed the bandaged around his torso.

"What happened?" she asked, concerned. Ross was one of the members of the Accords Council that didn't completely drive her insane with administrative and boring calls regularly. And well, his handling of Thaddeus Ross after everything the man had done had certainly earned him more points in her book for his competence level. So she had a vested interest in keeping him around.

"Got shot," Ross said, still sounding shocked, "Right in the back. Imagine my surprise when I was brought back here and all fixed up, without any lasting damage, and learning that this country had a lot more secrets than the rest of the world knew about."

"Shocking, isn't it?" she asked him, knowing how he felt, "Shuri is a talented young woman. If it weren't for her then Rhodey would have been a lot worse off. Their country is truly an engineering marvel."

"Indeed it is," Ross said with a nod, as he looked around the room.

"There's something on your mind," she said, noting T'Challa had been extremely quiet for the last few minutes, and she wondered just what it was that he was thinking about.

He raised his hand to the screen, "This ring, it was my father's," he said as he twisted it around. "It's a ring for the Royal family of Wakanda. One only our family has. And since I'm the oldest child, when he passed it went to me."

"It's lovely," she said, not quite understanding just where he was going with his tale.

"No one else in our country possesses them. It would be inconceivable, given that it is a family heirloom. There is no other way for anyone to have one made, not without us learning about it," he told her. "And yet, that man was wearing it around his neck."

"He was wearing your ring?" she said, a bit surprised, "Are you sure it wasn't just one that was similar?"

"There are no rings similar to this one," he said with a shake of his head. "No, I'm certain. I only got a brief glance of it, but this ring is one my father wore his entire life. I knew what it was the second I saw it. He had a ring that matched the Royal Ring. And no matter how hard I try to make sense of it, I just cannot put together an answer that makes any sense."

"Is it that it doesn't make sense, or you're unwilling to accept it as a possible outcome?" she asked, gently.

Because simply put, when you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

If this Erik Killmonger had a Royal Ring that no one other than Royals could possess, then most likely, he acquired it from some Wakandian Royal.

If not King T'Chaka, then through other means.

But the question then, was what did it mean?

Because people who wore things around their neck often did so because it held great value for them. So clearly this ring was significant. So it was most likely not because of a trophy he'd taken off one of his victims. Which made it more personal.

However, glancing at T'Challa on the screen, she knew he was turning over his own theories in his head, and despite her fairly decent idea of what was happening.

"I think I need to go talk to some people," T'Challa said with a sigh, "There are a few that may have the answers I'm looking for, even if I'm not all that certain I want to know the truth."

"I wish you luck," she said with a nod, and he ended the call then.

She hoped for his sake, that the answers he got weren't the ones she were speculating about in her mind. Especially for a new King, if there was another contender for the throne, especially one with such warfare behind him, well, she wasn't all that sure it would end well.