Well, hello, here we are...

So, been having fun trying to figure out how to work this next part of the story.

I've managed a few chapters, but I'll be taking my time to upload so that I'm certain I'm happy with them.

Thank you to livisabel2, PrewalShadeX, TakeOnTheStars, Ulquiorra-Schiffer-4, Wayward-Son123, Whydoitmc, Smuzzie, theWhiteDeath117, AssassinSasha15 for following/favouriting

And thanks to AnimeFreak71777, AliceCullen3, 19vanelkc, and FutureOlympian for the reviews...

And yes, I forgot to put this in my initial upload so I edited to put in my thank yous...don't judge me, I'm sick lol

Enjoy

xo

Part 2

Chapter 13

Covert

She watched as Shuri looked through the microscope, before looking at a hologram to her right, flicking her kimoyo beads and moving a second hologram up.

"Your eyes will go square if you keep staring at screens all day," Lex warned, yawning as she continued watching the teen.

"Wow, you're showing your age now," Shuri retorted, shooting a cheeky glance her way.

Lex narrowed her eyes at the young Wakandan, opting to ignore the jab at her age. It was true, after all.

The 120 year old leaned back in the lab chair she was sitting in, putting her feet up on a stool. It had come to be her go to spot, day by day. While T'challa was willing to house her, he didn't believe the people of Wakanda were ready to know she was there yet, so she was confined to the Wakanda Design Group building, under Shuri's care. Everyone was sworn to secrecy, from the scientists and engineers that worked there to the Dora Milaje that frequented the building whilst on guard duty. Shuri was still insistent on examining and testing her limits and abilities, and T'challa wasn't sure it was safe for her to leave the country yet.

It had been about four weeks since she had arrived in Wakanda with Bucky and Steve.

Bucky was now tucked away inside the depths of the facility, while Steve had left to breakout his friends and allies from a high security prison. They were currently on the run, as far as she was aware, opting to keep on the run rather than implicate Wakanda and risk her and Bucky's safety.

She felt a pang of sadness grip her chest as she thought about them, she had only known Steve for a couple of days, while Bucky she had known for nearly ten months, although the real Bucky she had only known for a few days. Still she missed having people by her that had even a remote inkling of what life was like for her, because they themselves were of similar ability and longevity as she was.

There was a beeping noise from her wrist and Lex groaned.

Shuri sat up quickly, touching a kimoyo bead and bringing up a new holographic screen to her left. "What were you thinking about? Your heart rate increased and the chemical mix was starting to trigger."

"Ugh, it's fine, Shuri, I'm not going to go homicidal," she mumbled, rolling her eyes, before fixing her gaze back on the girl. "Yet..." Lex grinned malevolently. Shuri looked at her pointedly. Lex knew that look all too well now. It was Shuri's look of frustration, and usually it was directed at her, but occasionally at her brother, T'challa.

"You know, if you would just answer my question when I ask, this would be over a lot faster," Shuri said pointedly, leaning on the table to look at Lex.

"Child, we both know you would get bored without me," Lex mused with another grin.

Shuri narrowed her eyes at her again, before grinning. "Probably." She looked at the hologram again. "I bet I could guess what you were thinking about by looking at where your heart rate went anyway."

"Really?"

"You were thinking about him," Shuri muttered, the slightest of smirks appearing on her face.

Lex looked at Shuri with a raised eyebrow. "I think of a lot of people, I'm 120 years old."

Shuri blinked. "It's still so hard for me to get my head around that."

"Imagine if you heard the rest."

"You'll tell me one day, won't you?" Shuri asked as she got back to work.

"You don't need the trauma, kid," Lex replied with another yawn as she saw T'challa enter the lab. "Your highness."

"Lex, have you taught my sister anything of respect yet?"

"Wrong tree, buddy," Lex scoffed, earning her a high five from Shuri.

T'challa looked bemused as he approached the table Shuri worked at. "Have you any new information?"

"Only that whatever chemical was added to the serum used on her, definitely wasn't used on Sergeant Barnes. I do not know why they would change it?"

"It could be any countless reasons, from what I can work out," Lex said, moving her communication Kimoyo bead forward and accessing the network. "I did some digging, his unit was captured in 1943 by HYDRA, Steve found him separated from the 107th when he freed them from capture in 1943, in a lab?" Lex moved her hands across the hologram screen in front of her lithely, T'challa and Shuri watching her curiously. "And then Bucky went missing in 1945 after a mission went bad somewhere in the Austrian alps when they were trying to capture Arnim Zola, and he was presumed dead... which we now know, was false."

"Do you think Zola had experimented on Barnes as early as 1943?" T'challa asked curiously.

"It's possible, if he knew about the original serum used on Lex and what happened, then perhaps he tried to adapt the original formula notes and was trying to refine it or mimic it on James," Shuri hypothesised. "And if he fell from the Alps, down a ravine, that's the only explanation as to how he could have possibly survived."

"It is also possible that Zola thought the chemical component was the reason I turned, too," Lex added, closing off the screen by moving her kimoyo bead back into place.

Shuri furrowed her brow then, looking thoughtfully at Lex. "Wait, when did captain Rogers undergo his change?"

Lex shrugged, and Shuri frowned at her, bringing up the information on her own hologram screen.

"1943... by Abraham Erskine," Shuri murmured. "You were injected in 1922, right?" Lex nodded. She watched Shuri touch the screen again, touching the scientists name. "Whoa..." Lex sat up straighter, it took a bit to make Shuri react like that, and T'challa's eyebrows raised too. Shuri swiped the screen to Lex's beads.

'Abraham Erskine tried to escape with his family to Switzerland in 1935, Hitler sent Johann Schmidt, the head of his SS research division HYDRA-Abteuilung to force Erskine to finish the formula.'

Lex considered the information for a moment. "Are you thinking that the doctor that worked on Rogers, worked on the serum used on me?"

"Perhaps the serum wasn't tested on another human, before it was utilised on you, then he refined it when he was taken to the US, after finding out what happened to you, before using it on Rogers?" T'challa suggested.

Lex grit her teeth. So was the 'good' doctor, not so good after all, to allow the testing on a sixteen year old? "Is there anything there about it being used on anyone else?"

Shuri nodded as she continued to read, before leaning forward and looking carefully at the screen. "Wait, he had some of his initial experimental formula that he was still testing on mice, stolen in 1921, that's got to be it!" Lex breathed a sigh of relief, she didn't want to believe that a man that had created Captain America, could have been the kind to agree to test such a thing on children. "It also says that while he was being held by the Nazis, before he could finish testing it, it was used by Johann Schmidt, aka Red Skull, against Erskine's wishes in 1940. It had adverse affects."

Lex watched as a video of the results rolled on the screen, grimacing.

"Do you think this is the same version that was used on Alexia?"

"I swear to god, T'challa, call me that one more time..." she threatened glaring at the Wakandan King. T'challa raised his hands in apology.

Shuri smirked at Lex, before continuing to answer his question. "It's possible, but I can only speculate, we really need to access the files by Erskine and see if he left any notes from before his capture in there."

Lex raised an eyebrow suggestively. "Know where they are?"

Shuri glanced at her brother nervously.

"I would not think that wise currently," T'challa replied.

"You need to think less then," Lex retorted with an eye roll. "You need information, I'll get it. No mess, no fuss."

"You're still one of the most wanted people in the world currently," Shuri pointed out.

"Trust me, I can become invisible when I want to. I did it for a hundred years, remember?"

T'challa and Shuri looked at each other, before T'challa continued. "I cannot support this," he said bluntly, before looking pointedly at his sister and leaving the room.

Lex pulled a face and watched him leave. It wasn't like she needed their permission, but she felt like perhaps it was best to have it. She looked back at Shuri who was grinning. "What?"

"Okay, so the old organisation that was holding the information you need to access is in New York. Damn, wish I could go with you."

"Wait... your brother..."

"Said he can't support it. That is his way of saying he doesn't want to know," Shuri said with a wink.

"Ah." Lex grinned as Shuri began searching through intel. "So who has the information."

"S.H.I.E.L.D."

Lex frowned, narrowing her eyes in confusion. "Uh... what?" Lex was well aware of the events in 2014, including Natasha dumping all the information about S.H.I.E.L.D and HYDRA onto the web, basically dismantling S.H.I.E.L.D and sending HYDRA into hiding, no doubt.

"They're still active, just behind the scenes. All their files should be in there," Shuri explained, bringing up the information.

"Okay, what am I looking for?"

"Anything on Erskine's rescue, by one Agent Peggy Carter," Shuri answered, bringing up images of both. A video played as a much older Peggy Carter spoke about the founding of the organisation called S.S.R, a precursor to S.H.I.E.L.D.

She looked at the woman in the images. She was pretty, in a classical sort of way, with a very iconic English voice that she could see sticking in your head. So that was the woman that Rogers had fallen in love with way back in the day. And now he was interested in her niece. Lex couldn't deny it, it was just a weird situation to her.

"Alright," Lex said, moving a Kimoyo bead on her wrist. "Let's do this."

Lex looked around the dingy hotel. She really didn't want to touch anything, god knows what had happened in the room. Luckily, she could go long periods without sleep, because there was no way she was touching that bed.

She flicked her short, black hair over her shoulder as she looked out the window, watching as the sun began to rise over the city. It was annoying, having to cut and colour her hair, but she was far more recognisable for her long, blonde locks now. So a drastic change had to be undertaken, and she was certain Shuri had enjoyed it way more than she had. She should have been used to it after a hundred plus years of altering her appearance to go with her constantly changing identity, but it always annoyed her.

She was travelling into the city soon, it was going to be a real test for her as she hadn't done any infiltration scenarios in many years.

In saying that, she was never going to forget that training either.

Flash back - 1916

'A young Alexia and her classmates lined up in the courtyard, a hunting knife in each of their hands. Some glanced nervously at each other, others looked straight ahead with grim determination.

A man was dragged into the centre of the courtyard, a bag over his head and a blind fold over that. The teacher, Ms V, placed a gun in his hand, before whispering in his ear. She quickly walked away.

Madame B, positioned behind a metal panel with a small window waved a red flag, and Alexia began to move. Slow, light but deliberate steps, considering every step she made before she even took it.

To her right, one of the older girls was moving faster than her, she had longer legs, but she was also careless. Alexia heard the slightest of scuffing of her heels on the concrete.

Heels, that was what they were being made to wear for covert and infiltration training. The belief was that if you could be silent in heels, you could be silent in anything. And, considering a woman's best weapon was her sexuality, being able to do anything in heels was considered a vital part of their training.

Alexia saw the man lifting the gun he held up, it was a standard six shooter. Six bullets, six students. She took another step, breathing slowly and silently, careful to avoid a leaf that had drifted into the compound.

Bang! The gun went off.

She was careful not to jump and held her breath, watching as one of the other girls, only a few years older than her, reached for her arm. She had been nicked by a bullet, pulling her hand away to find blood on her hand. Alexia could see her beginning to shake as she stood there, waiting to see if the man would fire in her direction again.

He turned his aim, his arm wavering in the air as he tried to ascertain if he had shot whatever it was that he had heard.

The oldest girl to Alexia's right who had been quite noisy to her ears, also stopped, as the gun passed over her path.

Alexia, however, didn't stop. She knew that if she did, any noises she might have been making would stick out in the man's head instead of being past over. She stepped slightly left to avoid uneven ground, right to avoid a stick.

The man's aim shifted directly to her left, but Alexia paid it off, continuing to move. She was quite short, and the man's aim appeared high, so perhaps he was hearing the leaves rustling outside the compound.

His aim moved again and fired.

The eldest girl fell to the ground. She didn't make a sound, but Alexia could see she was still alive, clinging to her stomach. They knew they weren't allowed to cry. It would be so much worse if they did.

Alexia slowed her steps as a breeze blew, this was the dangerous point, as the breeze picked up leaves and other debris and blew them into the courtyard.

Alexia saw one of the older girls continue walking and it made Alexia nervous. She knew she needed to get to the man first, she didn't want to be last. She dreaded to think what might happen if she was last.

She began walking again, carefully stepping over a large dip in the courtyard.

Bang! Alexia was shocked as a bullet passed to her left, hearing a sharp breath behind her. She turned her head slightly to see another girl had been shot, this time in the chest. Lex crouched quickly, in case the man had heard the girl's laboured breathing. The blood poured from the wound as she carefully slumped to the ground, trying to apply pressure to her own wound.

Alexia took a deep, silent breath and looked back to the front, the man's aim was now towards the older girl that was closest to him. She shifted her footsteps left, trying to go around the man.

Alexia took the opportunity to take some quick steps, still being careful not to be too heavy footed in her heels. She gained some ground as he brought the gun back in her direction. She slowed again, calculating the distance between her and him. It was barely three metres now.

The older girl was also close, and Alexia gripped her knife tightly. She needed this. The older girl must have been thinking the same thing, because she took a careless step while looking at Alexia, right onto a small leaf. Being that it was autumn, the leaf made a subtle crunch under foot, and the man began to move his aim towards her.

Alexia grinned, not quite believing her own luck, before starting to move quickly towards him, the knife raised high above her head.

Bang!

Alexia felt a sharp pain in her shoulder. The man had turned the gun quickly, firing in her direction. It hadn't stopped her though. She plunged the knife into his throat, twisting it sharply and pulling it back out.

She stood breathing heavily through the pain, willing herself not to show the emotions as the man bled all over the middle of the courtyard.

The older girl scowled at her, but was quick to snap to attention as Madame B appeared before them.

Alexia tried to stand up straight, but her shoulder hurt.

Madame B looked to the older girl, sneering at her, before walking towards Alexia. She straightened up a bit more. She had completed the task first, she was going to be fine.

There was a sharp pain across her cheek as Madame B slapped her roughly. She was stunned but didn't allow any emotion to show on her face. If she wanted to survive to have her revenge, she had to learn their skills to beat them.'

Lex felt a sharp pain in her shoulder as she was snapped from her stupor by the sound of a chiming sound. It was the alarm on her phone. It was time to go.

xo

Krayzee