Steve opened the cupboard doors and found a section filled with fresh white T-shirts, a few button-ups and pants, shoes, underwear and clean towels. There were also two of his combat suits. He opted to go with a pair of slacks and a white T-shirt.
He heard the door to his room click and walked out to investigate. Whoever it was had been in and out and left a trolley topped with several trays. Whatever was underneath the cloches smelled terrific.
He sat down at the table and finished off the generous three-course meal. He found some bottled water in the fridge and headed back to the bedroom. The relentless twinge of unease that was now a permanent fixture in his life was turning in the pit of his stomach as he lay on his back, staring at the ceiling.
What was so urgent that he had to come back to Wakanda so fast? His mind wandered first to Bucky, then to Wanda, who'd left straight after Steve had broken them all out of the Raft. She had felt a connection to Vision that she couldn't ignore and she'd left to go to him. He thought of Scott who disappeared and Clint who'd retired, again. His mind was racing, but his body eventually gave in to sleep.
He woke with a jolt from a spiralling nightmare of violence and faces; it was dark. He reached over and switched on the bedside lamp. His watch on the bedside table read 3:15 am. He'd been asleep for 7 hours.
A sigh rattled over his lips like an angry ghost as he sat up on the edge of the bed. His heart was racing in his chest. It seemed to be surrounded by a constant ache. He pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes to try and restore some clarity to his mind.
He got up and walked out of the halo of the bedside lamp and into the steam of light cutting the darkness on the far side of the large room. He'd left the bathroom door ajar after he'd showered. He needed to get some cold water on his face.
He pushed the door all the way open and walked over to where a large oval mirror hung in a golden frame over the basin, sitting on a dark grey marble top.
The man looking back at him looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. His eyes unyielding under his knitted brow. His jaw set. This was a version of himself that he did not know and he wasn't sure he wanted to. He ran his hand over his beard as if to check if it was real.
His eyes lost focus as he began to succumb to the memory seared into his mind.
"That shield doesn't belong to you. You don't deserve it. My father made that shield."
The words seemingly echoed around the bathroom. He could hear the Vibranium hitting the concrete as he limped away, half carrying Bucky. He didn't look back. He'd felt a rift open between Steve Rogers and Captain America. Tony was right. He had nearly killed his one friend to save his other. He had been well outside of the law with his choice to protect Bucky.
His eyes caught his own in the mirror as he came out of his reverie. He reached for the cold water tap and opened it, bending down and letting the water flow into his begging hands. He drenched his face with it a few times before closing the tap and leaning on his hands on either side of the basin, water dripping from his face.
I thought I was protecting him when really, I was only protecting myself - his thoughts reminded him.
He squeezed his eyes shut tighter. Running his hand down his face as if trying to strip off the resentment thick in his chest. He opened his eyes as another sigh broke free of his lungs. He was right not to sign the accords. He didn't regret that. He reached for the towel to his right and ran it down his face.
On the far side of the apartment, there was a measured knock on the door. He found the hope that it was the king finally calling, a welcome escape.
Without hesitation he strode out of the bathroom, tossing the towel over the bathroom door.
Okoye had a characteristic, stern look on her face. Her head was cleanly shaven. She was slightly older than Ayo; her face was harder with experience. She had a stack of golden rings around her neck. She was wearing her battle dress. Her shoulders covered with shining golden armour with a tight-fitting orange, red and yellow dress that hung full behind her, but allowed freedom of movement by being cut away in the front.
"Steve Rogers" she greeted him with a slight air of contempt.
"Ma'am."
"It's Okoye."
"Okoye, what can I do for you?"
Okoye raised an eyebrow infinitesimally.
"The king requests your presence."
"Okay, let me just get my jacket," Steve said, turning.
"I would recommend a combat suit." Interjected Okoye.
Steve glanced over his shoulder, his brow furrowing. "Understood."
He disappeared into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him and emerged a few minutes later, wearing one of his Captain America suits that he'd left in Wakanda when he departed six months ago.
The star was removed, and its absence created a more dishevelled, black, star-shaped patch over his heart. The rest of the suit was darkened, and it drowned the red, white and blue. He'd wet his hair and combed it back and was tugging on a glove as he crossed the lounge toward Okoye.
"I don't have a weapon." He said to her in Captain mode, pushing the empty feeling on his arm away in his mind.
"You will be provided with everything you need." Replied Okoye.
They walked to the elevator, Steve eyeing an annoyed looking Okoye. She hit the button to go down and crossed her arms tightly across her chest - this was the first clue she'd let him find that connected his feeling of unease with what he was walking toward.
"Captain Rogers!" T'Challa greeted him from across the cavernous room they were crossing towards him.
"You are, most welcome!"
His throne was in the centre of the room, facing the doorway they had just come through. Pillars of gold rose to the high ceiling around the room; words shone from halfway up in Wakandan. Between the posts, the high walls were all clad in grey marble, with a glass floor beneath their feet, revealing a spiral staircase.
On either side of the throne, extending forward, sat three people on either side of the king where he stood in front of his throne. He was geared up in his Black Panther suit, and his eyes glanced up from the screen of a tablet in his hands.
"Your Highness." Steve nodded with a small smile.
Okoye left his side and went to take her place with the Dora Milaje. Steve noticed that where Okoye's battle dress was gold, Ayo's and the other Dora Milaje's was silver. Ayo handed Okoye her spear as she said something to her.
"It would seem, that I am in need of your help" mused the king.
"I thought you'd never ask" grinned Steve.
As Steve walked up to T'Challa, the king touched the screen he was holding to enlarge video footage of what looked like an archaeological excavation. People were crouching over a large rectangular object that they'd started to dig a shallow trench around.
Some of the people were brushing sand and dust from one of the short sides closest to the camera and was beginning to reveal what looked like runes.
Steve's brow furrowed "What am I looking at?"
"This is a recent discovery made by the same group of archaeologists that discovered Homo Naledi - the skeleton of a new species of early human - a few years ago. They found this not far from where they found the fossil, at the Cradle of Humankind in South Africa."
T'Challa closed the video and opened another. This one showed the rectangular object to be nearly entirely excavated.
"My man on the ground tells me carbon dating of the object makes it roughly ten thousand years old. The runes are unlike anything ever discovered on earth." Explained T'Challa.
The video showed footage from about chest height that Steve assumed was from a hidden camera. The object appeared to be made of slate and was covered from top to bottom with long reams of strange characters. It reached eye height on the footage. Steve judged it to be a little over five feet high.
"That, however, is not the strangest part" muttered the king as Steve's frown deepened.
T'Challa opened the third video. It was dark and quiet on the site. The spy ran a device just above the surface of the object. The phone-sized screen showed what looked like an X-ray feed.
At first, there was a mess of something scrunched up, almost like sheets. As he continued along the surface of the object, what looked like the bones of a human foot came into view. The spy paused for a second, before moving up along the leg bones. The hands of the skeleton were resting on its chest. Just as the frame started moving away from the hands, Steve could swear he saw a twitch. The spy saw it too, doubling back to where he thought the twitch had been. A long minute passed, but nothing happened. There was a sound - someone was coming. The video cut off.
T'Challa scrubbed the timeline back on the video to just before where the twitch had been and let it replay. Sure enough, there it was, a definite twitch.
Steve's eyebrows shot into his hair with his hand coming up almost to his face before it dropped back down again. He'd taken a step back in disbelief.
Both hands came up to rest on his hips. After a moment's composure, he looked at T'Challa.
"So whoever is in there, is still alive?"
"I do not know how it could be possible, but it would appear so." Answered the king.
Steve smiled a wry smile. "It can't be that hard to believe." He stated matter-of-factly. "If they hadn't found me in the ice when they did, who knows how long I would have been frozen like that. It could easily have been ten thousand years."
The words drove into T'Challa's mind.
"Fair enough." He conceded, before continuing:
"We need to retrieve the box and its contents and bring it back here. I fear, that if whatever is inside has less than good intentions, it could get very dangerous, very fast. I doubt that our friends in South Africa are equipped for such a thing."
Steve gave a quick nod in agreement.
"You will fly with me. We will take my Dora Milaje, Nakia and Shuri with a medical team."
Steve looked over to where the group of people had already assembled.
"We must go, now," said T'challa.