78 Royal Meeting

After a while of looking, they finally found the storage area that they'd been looking for.

There were two guards standing outside the storage that had to be dealt with first.

"Can you take care of them without being detected?" Steve asked Natasha.

Instead of answering, Natasha looked over to Wanda, "What do you think?"

"I can do it," Wanda said with confidence as she started moving toward the guards with a red glow extending from her hands.

Both of the guards' eyes took a weak crimson hue and they were influenced by a mental suggestion that made them ignore Wanda's presence until she got close to them.

When she was finally close enough, the red glow intensified and both of them instantly collapsed.

Steve and Natasha walked to Wanda who was pushing open the door of the storage facility.

"It's locked," Wanda said as she stepped back. Nat and Steve also understood what she was about to do and stepped back from the door.

This time, Wanda tried something different, 'Silence'. She imbued her attack with the intent to silence the impact.

As the attack hit the door, Wanda's silent intent worked wonders as there was no sound of any impact and the door just flew open.

[How'd I do, Alex?] Wanda asked. She wanted validation.

[Amazingly. I couldn't be more proud of you…] He said.

Wanda didn't notice but there was a momentary complicated look directed toward her that originated from Steve. And his thoughts weren't clear from his expression.

Though Wanda missed it, Alex saw Steve's expression. And he assumed that Steve may have been apprehensive of Wanda's power for some reason. He could be wrong, but this was the most plausible thought process.

"Let's go…" Natasha said as she gestured to Steve before walking in.

They didn't find much useful stuff here other than Bucky's prosthetics and Steve's new Vibranium Bracers. After his shield was broken, T'Challa was generous enough to get him a replacement. And these bracers were very useful. They'd been made by Shuri and had the same property of storing kinetic energy before releasing it all in a burst that T'Challa's black panther suit had.

...

"So, what now?" Nat asked as she was walking out of the palace with Wanda, Steve, and Bucky.

"We should talk with Queen Ramonda, T'Challa's mother," Steve said.

"I don't think she's the queen anymore…" Nat commented.

"You get what I mean. I've never been a fan of this system anyway." Steve said.

Nat didn't plan to get into a political discussion with Steve so she decided to agree, "Any idea where?"

"There is a place that I have in mind…" He said.

There was a big reason that the castle was practically empty right now. T'Challa was being sent off and the ceremony was currently going on.

That's why there were such a small number of people here. And Steve was probably going to be leading them to either that ceremony or to a spot that had been previously agreed upon between him and the old Queen.

Steve started leading them through the castle to another exit area that further led to an underground cave-like structure.

He pushed open a mechanism to open a door and reveal a natural cave formation that had the slight smell of burnt leftovers.

"I don't think, T'Challa would be generous enough to give you so much information about his country… Especially the secret passages within his own home." Natasha saw how Steve was so familiar with his surroundings and commented.

"I've spent quite a while here. I explored the place." Steve said nonchalantly.

"It's called information gathering and infiltration, but whatever…" Bucky commented as he heard Steve's words.

"No no. We don't say that here." Steve said with a slightly joking tone.

The four of them bantered for a while until they reached another door.

This time, Steve had to lockpick the door since there wasn't any mechanism to open it and there was just a lock to open.

They expected to see the royal family's burial ground behind those walls, but they were surprised to see it opening up to what seemed like an underground plantation.

'The heart-shaped herbs…' Alex saw that it was the burned field of the heart-shaped herbs.

'They're already burned…' Alex thought regretfully. He wanted to get one of them to examine the properties and what it does to the human body. Those herbs could give the Black Panther superhuman attributes and senses.

"What is this place?" Wanda asked no one in particular as she saw the burnt field.

"No clue. But it was burned pretty recently. When I last came here, this plantation was filled with purple herbs that were shaped a bit like an actual heart. They seemed pretty interesting, but I didn't do anything since I didn't know whether they were monitored or not." Steve said.

They moved ahead and finally reached another area in the plantation. It was a resting area where they could wait.

"Now we wait…" Steve said as he took a seat.

"You've already talked with the Queen and agreed with her on meeting her here, haven't you?" Natasha guessed.

"Yep." He agreed.

"You didn't randomly explore the castle, it was the Queen who informed you of this location." Nat looked at him with accusing eyes that had a hint of playfulness to them.

"Busted… But I could've broken in if I really wanted to." Steve wanted to protect his dignity as a spy.

"Sure you could," Nat agreed sardonically.

…

"Miss Romanoff, Miss Maximoff. I'm relieved to see you two here…" Ramonda was sitting with Shuri in front of Steve, Natasha, Wanda, and Bucky.

They'd come with 4 guards of the Dora Milage and there was a face that Alex recognized among them, it was Oyoke, T'Challa's personal guard. The Dora Milage was the royal family's most loyal supporters and they were the only ones that Ramonda and Shuri could trust in the current situation.

With Killmonger busy with stabilizing his regime, they had some room to maneuver in the dark and they were going to make full use of the opportunity.

The spot that they were currently in was one of the secret bunkers that could hide the royal family for a long period of time in case of an invasion. Everyone was currently outside the entrance and on the inside was a bunker with all the amenities for 5 people to live comfortably for decades without any issues.

"Greetings." Nat greeted her respectfully followed by Wanda. After that, Nat, Wanda, Ramonda, and Shuri went to a separate area so that they could talk about the political situation. Steve wasn't interested so he decided to stay back and brood while thinking about something.

The Dora Milage guards were a little creeped out by the two brooding guys that sat side by side.

In the other room.

"I'm going to get to the point. I know that you're here to help Steve. And now that your objective is completed, you would probably be going back. But I have a presumptuous request of you. And Mr. Rogers here has made quite an impression on the people here, so I feel that his acquaintances would also be trustworthy." She told Natasha while faintly gesturing to Steve who was in the other room.

"Could you first clarify the situation in Wakanda first? We don't have much information about the situation…" Nat wanted to fish for information from Ramonda. Steve had left all the discussion to her since she was a better diplomat. He didn't have the kind of patience that was needed to deal with politics.

"Of course, there shouldn't be any problem…" Ramonda continued with some perfunctory words that made the conversation delve into meaningless small talk.

'Fucking political bullshit. Just get to the point.' Alex was already bored by Ramonda's attitude. He just wanted her to give them the information and get things over with. The three other people in the room which included Shuri, Wanda, and Nat also felt the same way. Even after saying that she's going to get to the point, she's still playing politics.

After a few more minutes of perfunctory small talk, Ramonda finally got to the point.

"I'll start from the beginning of the chaotic situation…" Ramonda started retelling them the events that occurred after T'Challa brought Steve and Bucky to Wakanda.

Initially, they weren't very warmly welcomed, being seen as outsiders. But eventually, everyone warmed up to both of them. Though the situation got messy when it was time for T'Challa to officially take the mantle of king of Wakanda. All this time, he'd just been serving as the proxy for his father after T'Chaka's abrupt death.

T'Challa hadn't officially been crowned as the king of Wakanda. Once everything was stabilized, it was time for T'Challa's coronation. The coronation was basically a ritual that allows all 18 of the Wakandan tribes to challenge the to-be king of Wakanda so that there weren't any issues with his rule later and all of the tribes were convinced of the Black Panther.

At that time, the Jabari tribe came to challenge T'Challa, and their leader, M'Baku fought against him.

Though it was a difficult fight, T'Challa won.

Though that was when things turned around. Just after T'Challa won against M'Baku, there was another challenger. Though he wasn't from any of the other tribes. He was someone from the royal family itself.

A long-exiled cousin of T'Challa, N'Jadaka had come to challenge him for the throne. He called himself Eric Killmonger.

***

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