Steve said nothing in response to Bucky's revelation. He knew about the hallucinations the Consortium planted in his head, forcing him to be a party in keeping his own memories at bay, but it stopped before he came here.

The man's face twisted into a picture of absolute hate.

"A US military tribunal found him not responsible for his actions," Steve said to him. Experience taught him arguing from facts wouldn't work, but he needed to make the attempt.

"Lies!" the man said, making no attempt to hide his British accent. "And I don't care. He pulled the trigger."

Bucky kept his face turned away. That moment a familiar whirring sound wafted through the air, causing him to turn around.

"Damn," he said. He picked up the knife and handed the gun to Steve, but as the other craft came closer, they relaxed. It was Arba, accompanied by three men in another hovercraft. Reinforcements. The craft landed, and she alighted her face stern.

"White Wolf! I suspected you and Captain Rogers would see through him," she said. "His odd behavior did not go unnoticed. I can assure you we followed close behind." She walked over to stare down at their captive.

"He gave a name I recognized. Chikumbutso came to the Palace with a large group of other young people. It was easy to lose track of him in a crowd of new recruits, which was no doubt part of his plan. He may be connected with the other events here, or he might be working on his own using this as a distraction to make his move, but it does not matter. He made several mistakes. You did not address the White Wolf with proper respect and the legitimate person with this name did say one thing I remembered. He said call me Chiku. What did you do to the real Chikumbutso?" She asked.

"He must pay!" The young man continued his tirade. "He killed my mother,"

Bucky opened his mouth to speak but Arba held up her hand. "Say nothing!" She commanded, her tone sharp, startling Steve. "You are aware of what we must do," She said, her voice turned soft in contrast.

Bucky obeyed but nodded in agreement, his eyes full of pain.

She turned her attention toward Steve. "One of our men, Abasi will take you straight to the Palace from here. The White Wolf must go with us, to the city," she said.

"No," Steve said, "I'm not leaving him. No." The fear, the images. Bucky disappearing again and again. Everything, all the memories flashed through his head

"Captain Rogers, I'm afraid you cannot accompany him, but he will be in good hands. It is our way. He will come to no harm. It will be as if you are there yourself."

"No!" Her voice took on a distant quality as if she were speaking from far away. Steve took a deep breath and prepared to stand his ground.

"Can I take a minute, to talk to him, to explain?" Bucky asked. Arba's eyes moved back and forth between the two before nodding in agreement. Bucky reached into his pack, pulled out the red water bottle, then jumped out of the craft and motioned for Steve to follow him. They walked a few hundred yards until they stopped inside the tree line, out of sight of the others. He pulled the silver device out of his pocket and handed it and the water bottle to Steve.

"Make sure T'Challa gets these," he said.

"You can give it to him yourself. I don't understand. Why are you going with them? And why I can't I come with you."

"For legal reasons," he began. "No choice. We have to follow the law. I said they treated me like a member of the family. A threat against me is a threat against T'Challa, or Shuri or anyone of his relatives. It's all because of a Civil conflict here, not long before I came and everything almost got shot straight to hell. That's why they're being extra vigilant about threats now. We're both to be kept out of the public eye until the trial."

"And what are they going to do with him?" Steve asked. "He's young, blinded by rage. I've seen this before.."

"He'll get a trial, and I can't interfere."

"The death penalty here…" Steve began.

Bucky nodded and sighed. "Rarely used. They might imprison him for a while and then deport him and arrange things so he'll never come here again. Meanwhile, you need to take what we found to the Palace, get the information to the scientists, see if they cook up something to help the others. I'm sorry, Steve, I realize this is hard for you but you can't let the way you feel about me impede you from being Captain America. You've got to go do your job and take care of the team."

He kissed Steve on the cheek and made his way back to the others. Steve stood still for a few moments, his emotions raging away like a forest fire inside him. He hated this. Bucky was right, but the images would not stop but he had to find some way to deal with them. Bucky would be safe, the others would take care of him and the team needed him. With a heavy heart, he followed him back to the group. Abasi stood at the helm of the hovercraft and waited while Bucky and the others removed his belongings. Steve climbed in. He forced his eyes straight ahead, then nodded to his pilot and their journey back home began.

The images rose up in living color but faded with the sound of his drive's voice. Abasai was considerate, chattering away about local spots of interest as they speed by. Steve knew he was using his small talk as a kind way to distract him and it worked. About halfway on their journey, he stopped the craft, parking it in a shady area so they could get out and walk around.

"What happened before Bucky came here?" Steve asked. "The Civil disturbance."

Abasai took a long drink before answering. "So recent, too painful, but since it is you asking, I will say the conflict divided the country in half, between T'Challa and his cousin. Political unrest, tribes taking sides, families at war with one another, and T'Challa survived two attempts on his life. If they succeeded, they would pick apart the Royal family one by one paving the way for this cousin to be the king, a disaster for Wakanda. The Security Council accused this cousin of breaking international law so T'Challa used that to remove him from the country. We are convinced the attack on the facility was an attempt on his life because it happened during one of his public appointments, but they did not count on the White Wolf. He did run away with the others, to save himself, but he stayed, saving our King, with his great strength, and that act made all the difference. With his cousin out of the country, T'Challa returned and adopted some of his less extreme positions. The dissident movement failed. By that one act, The White Wolf saved not only T'Challa, but Wakanda, and we avoided a war, so our debt to him is great and the penalty for anyone wishes him harm will be just as great."

"I see," Steve said. "He's said little about any of this."

"He is very humble," Abasai said. "And we must be on our way."

The countryside changed and before long they were skimming around the battlefield with the Palace looming ahead of them. The craft sat down without a bump. Steve got out and began to remove his belongings but Abasai stopped him, saying he would take care of things. Putting the communication device in his pocket and taking the water bottle with him, he entered through the doors to the Great Hall and heard someone call out his name. Sam.

"You made it back!" He said giving him a back-slapping hug. "Where's Bucky?"

"He's fine, but he has something he has to take care of," Steve said, not sure of how much he should say.

"Are you ok with that?" Sam asked, concern in his eyes.

"I have little choice," Steve replied.

"Sounds…mysterious," Sam said.

"I'll explain later. How's everyone here?"

"The same. Clint's done a halfway decent job of holding things together, keeping the kids in check. The Security Council is still bothering T'Challa and now they are upset about the broken drone they originally claimed wasn't theirs. Wanda is making progress with keeping the Virus from spreading, but it's slow. Vision is almost back to pre-Thanos Vision but they have to keep him isolated. Tony and Natasha and Rhodey, let's just say, rough going for them," he said. "The doctors have been looking after them, doing what they can."

"I might have something that can help them, but I have to see T'Challa first. Can you meet me back at my room in about an hour?"

"Sure thing. I'll be waiting."

A guard informed him T'Challa awaited him in the smaller conference room. Steve found him there, talking to a young man. A video image of the man called Chikumbutso hung in the air. The other man turned to face Steve and his appearance startled him.

"Captain Rogers, meet the real Chikumbutso," T'Challa said. "Yes, there is a resemblance."

"Did he hurt you?" Steve asked.

"No, but he locked me up in some empty quarters. He gave me food and water, but no means of escape," the young man said.

"Security is not foolproof anywhere, not even in Wakanda," T'Challa said. "And we discovered this person thought long and hard about this plan." He nodded to the young man, who left the room.

"So if he didn't hurt anyone, then the only thing you can charge him with is entering the country illegally?" Steve asked.

"Intending to cause harm to someone we have given the same status as a member of the Royal family is a serious offense. You understand I can say little about the trial for now although you must prepare yourself in case they call you as a witness."

"Will the trial be public?" Steve asked.

"We invite members of the public, from across all tribes and groups, chosen by a lottery to attend. It is our way," T'Challa said.

"I understand," Steve reflected on that for a moment and turned back to the image.

"His name is David Ward. A child when his mother died and this anger has been festering ever since." With a wave of the hand, T'Challa shut the image down. "We will take his mitigating circumstances into consideration, Captain."

"You'll be fair," Steve said. There was a finality to T'Challa's words. He would no longer discuss the trial.

"Now to the other matter. You arrived at the falls, and you made a discovery, much quicker than I anticipated," T'Challa said. He sat down and motioned for Steve to do the same. Steve laid his gifts out on the table in front of him.

"This is what Bucky told me." He recounted as much as he remembered about the day and night they spent by the falls.

"I've heard stories like that, of people being healed of their mental afflictions, but for others, it was a nightmare from which they could not recover. The results were, divisive. The place is forbidden, for obvious reasons, but since you discovered its secrets, that no longer matters. Please do not judge them. The concept came from a good place. The heart-shaped herb is enhanced by vibranium, might it be possible to do the same with other plants with purported healing properties? This took place during my grandmother's time. Much time and research devoted but…"

"Things didn't work out?" Steve asked.

"It was the source of debate among the scientific community. After discovering their experiments polluted the water, the project was abandoned and the falls declared off limits. We cannot have the public using the water as a means of self-medication or recreation, but no one renewed the project in a safer environment. I always said they gave up on too soon and wondered if perhaps it might in some way help your friends."

"It helped me," Steve said. "My memories are clear now. If the other guy is in there, he's fast asleep."

"Then I shall pass this information, and the sample you collected on to my scientists and tell them to renew the project and invite Doctor Banner to join them. This gives us hope. They will ask you a lot of questions."

"Yes," Steve said. T'Challa stood up as a polite signal Steve should leave. He started toward his quarters but discovered Sam waiting in the hallway.

"Your stuff is at my place," he said.

"What…?"

"Everyone knows Steve Rogers, Captain America, the stoic's stoic but I know you and what's happening. You're staying with me until Bucky comes back, or this crap sorts itself out and by crap, I mean the crap inside your head."

"But Thula.."

"She's with her family. Now come on," Sam said Steve almost resisted but gave in. He passed by the hallway by his own quarters where he left in such a hurry with Bucky a few days before but he turned his head away and refused to glance in that direction.

The layout of Sam's quarters matched his own, the same long mirror along one wall, the familiar western appliances, but everywhere sharp reminders that while he treated his own quarters like a hotel, used only when needed, Sam's had a more permanent feel. A picture of the Manhattan skyline, his family, a nice picture of Thula, in her uniform, holding a baby bird, another of the two of them together decorated the walls. Others sat on the top of a small table. Steve picked one up one of himself and his two friends, taken not long after he and Bucky cemented their relationship, but decided to keep things quiet for a while. Another picture of the three, but this one he didn't recognize. A stranger's eyes stared back at him.

"This is him," Steve said.

"If it's a problem, I can put it away," Sam said as he looked over his shoulder.

"No, I've seen him, in a video." He replaced the picture. " Sam, there's so much to tell you."

Sam opened his refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of beer. "No need to remind me, you can't get a buzz, but indulge me, ok? Now tell me all about everything."

Steve popped the top off the bottle and took a long drink. "They already had a plan in place. Right after the drone showed up. I don't know if I can tell you how we left, but it was a surprise…."

He took another drink, glad that Sam insisted on him coming here. He prepared himself for a long, long night.