Under Pressure

Okay so that video of Natasha blowing up the UN was convincing, but she was also upstairs at the same time so that was suspect at best. “It wasn’t me,” Natasha says like that wasn’t already obvious.

“Yeah, I got that. But the reporters aren’t wrong in saying you could have easily orchestrated something like this- you already impersonated someone else perfectly when you dumped all that HYDRA information two years ago. That doesn’t inspire confidence in innocence,” he points out. This was going to be a total shit storm and he so wasn’t looking forward to it.

Natasha sighs and sits back in her seat. “Well this is bullshit. Think you can prove the video is doctored?” she asks but Tony shakes his head.

“Its not- I’d be able to tell not matter how good it looks. Makes watching movies a real pain in the ass. Regardless as far as I can prove that’s you, or someone who put on a really convincing Natasha Romanov face. Guess we need to find our guy. Or girl. Whomever, its equal opportunity for all. So uh, any enemies?” he asks and Natasha sinks further into her seat, clearly not impressed.

Its entirely possible that she would have answered but there’s another knock at his door. “FRI?” he asks, looking at the door. The AI doesn’t respond. “FRIDAY?” he prompts again and nothing. He frowns and grabs his phone, trying to access the cameras at the door more on a hunch than any real knowledge of who was behind it. He’s unsurprised to find the cameras out of operation.

“Looks like the king is here and all my tech is out. Good luck,” he tells Natasha and he makes his way to the door as Natasha picks up after herself and presumably makes a plan of escape.

Tony opens the door to find one pissed off looking guy behind it. Even if Tony had no warning about Natasha’s situation he’d be able to see T’Challa’s status on him. “Good morning, your highness,” he says in a cheery tone, getting an annoyed glare from the women behind him.

“I will only ask politely once- where is Natasha Romanov?” he asks.

He wouldn’t need context to know this guy meant business thanks to his tone because damn his words held power. “Probably going out my bathroom window as we speak,” he says, not in the business of lying, but knowing Natasha well enough to know she wasn’t in this Tower and hadn’t been for at least thirty seconds. And she probably didn’t go out wearing the same disguise as the one she wore coming in. To say she was savvy was an understatement.

T’Challa pushes him aside, walking into his house with no apparent regard for his privacy and he rolls his eyes but stays where he is thanks to the women that immediately take up residence at his side as the rest follow T’Challa into his house.

“Didn’t expect to come out to a shake down from Wakandan royalty. Hey your highness,” Bucky says, grinning at T’Challa and waving a little. Every woman in orange spins to face him in sync and Bucky raises an eyebrow, lifting his hands in the air. “Relax, I don’t care that you’re here. Its not like you’re raiding my house,” he points out and walks slowly over to Tony, dropping his hands and settling his flesh one against his lower back. The movement gets him several suspicious glares before they all seem to realize nothing unusual just happened and they all flurry back into action minus Tony’s guard.

He’s eying her up when Bucky leans down, “I wouldn’t if I were you. She’d eat you alive,” he whispers. She clearly hears and gives Tony a shrewd look and he sighs, accepting defeat at least at the moment.

T’Challa continues his search and as Tony suspected he finds nothing suspect so he walks back over to Tony, standing just too close for comfort while he glares down at him. “I asked nicely,” he says and Tony rolls his eyes.

“I’m not afraid of you,” he says.

Bucky gives a small snort, “you probably should be. He’s enhanced.”

Tony raises an eyebrow at that, wondering how he knew that and given T’Challa’s reaction it wasn’t something he pulled from his ass. T’Challa turns back to him though; lifting an eyebrow like this was his last chance to cooperate. “One- I actually have no idea where she’d go. Whatever I’d guess wouldn’t be where she went just because I’d guess there and she’s a master of disguise. I’d never be able to find her even with voice and camera recognition. She’s fooled my tech before, and sometime tells me she might be a challenge for yours too. Since you’re clearly on a higher level,” he mumbles more to himself than T’Challa. He’s offended but intrigued with that.

“She’s using your resources, its how we tracked her here,” he says and Tony snorts.

“Then get moving, she used my accounts as a distraction to keep you here while she makes an escape. A spy trick she taught me once,” he says when T’Challa tilts his head to the side, obviously wondering how Tony knew that when he couldn’t figure out where Natasha went. But knowing how a spy does spy things and how a spy actually thinks are two different things. One is practical, the other is psychological and Tony has never been good at the psychological.

The women around T’Challa move a little and he raises a hand, stopping the movement immediately as they fall back into their positions in sync. Tony had to admit that was impressive when none of them were looking at each other. “She was here,” he states more than asks.

“She didn’t do it,” Tony tells him and T’Challa laughs with no humor.

“You expect me to believe that?” he asks.

“Not without solid evidence to the contrary, which I’ll warn you I don’t have. Yet. But I know Natasha and I know enough about how she operates to know that she’d never implicate herself- what idiot would do that? That’s just common-” T’Challa cuts him off.

“And covering for a loved one is also common sense,” he tells him, leaning in just a little. Bucky’s hand presses further into his back, like the action was keeping him from doing something else with his hand. Tony is grateful for that, but he’s less than grateful for T’Challa’s implications.

“I would never do that,” he says with enough conviction that even the women around T’Challa look surprised. “There are lines you don’t cross and lying to people about who killed their parents is one of them, I have experience and if I actually thought she did it, or found evidence she did, you’d be the first to know. I don’t give a fuck how much I like her.”

T’Challa raises an eyebrow and steps back, saying something to the woman to his left in his native language. She gives Tony a once over and nods, mumbling something back to the king. “Okoye seems to think you are telling the truth, consider yourself lucky for that,” he says. “And if you find any evidence I expect to see it,” he tells Tony and with that he walks out, his guards on his heels.

When they leave Tony lets the tension in his body fade out and he sighs, “this is not my week,” he mumbles.

*

Bucky examines the plates on his arm while Steve paces. “You were gone all night, Bucky, and someone murdered the king of Wakanda. I was worried,” he says, stopping in front of him and looking down at Bucky. He was currently on the couch feeling small and confused because he genuinely had no idea where the time went.

“I guess replacing the panels took awhile,” he says softly.

“You guess? Bucky you were gone for almost fifteen hours, there is no way it took that long to replace some metal,” Steve says.

Well it did because that’s how long he was gone for roughly. Bucky wasn’t sure because he didn’t remember coming home either. The first thing he remembered was pouring tea in the kitchen. He doesn’t even like tea. “I think it’s more complicated than that,” he says softly, flinching a little when Steve gives him a look. “What? It’s a mess in there, I used to do maintenance myself and the panels are attached to some of the internal components. Replacing them would take awhile,” he says.

Steve finally deflates and he settles on the couch beside Bucky, wrapping an arm around him. “Sorry, I just worry. You disappeared once…” he murmurs, trailing off. Bucky curls into his side, placing his head on Steve’s chest.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he says gently and Steve’s arm tightens around his waist.

“Good,” he says softly in Bucky’s ear. “I don’t know what I’d do if you left again.” Bucky remains curled into Steve’s side as he tries to remember where his time went.

*

Finding a way to discredit legit video wasn’t easy, but trying to do it with the king of Wakanda up your ass was more difficult. His little sister, however, is delightful.

“Its so primitive!” she says, looking around his lab.

“Most of it is old stuff, that’s why,” he mumbles. “Did you run facial recognition though? I sent you more than enough pictures to be able to run accurate tests.”

Shuri stops craning her neck to see past Tony’s head into his lab and nods, “you sent pictures at angles I didn’t even know existed and I ran them all. You’re right- its not a match,” she says and he nods.

“I got that too, once I started searching odd angles. Whoever this was knows how to use prosthetics well.” Very well- they were almost good enough to fool Tony’s extensive efforts to run accurate programs.

“Mine detected that things weren’t right immediately, but I ran several more tests to be sure. Any idea who this could be?” Shuri asks and Tony shakes his head.

“I have no idea and Wakanda hasn’t spoken to the world in three hundred years or better. I doubt the king had enemies, at least not ones that would blow him up in the UN during what is, by all means, Avengers business,” he says. He sighs and leans back in his seat, rubbing his temples.

“Oh my god that robot is embarrassingly old- is this really the best America has to offer?” Shuri asks, looking over his head. Tony turns to find Dummy there spinning in circles and sighs.

“Leave him alone, he was built in the eighties so he’s an old man. And definitely not the best I have to offer, though what you have to offer is clearly better,” he says, raising an eyebrow at the stuff beyond Shuri’s head. She turns to look around her lab and shrugs.

“Sure it is. In your defense though you don’t have vibranium and that’s the main thing we use here,” she says. “But… the Avengers, maybe they were the target and my father got in the way.”

Wishful thinking and Tony knew it well so he doesn’t dismiss the far fetched idea immediately like he wants to. “There are easier ways to target them, why kill your father?” he asks, indulging her idea just enough to make her think. Once she did she’d see it had no merit.

“Maybe this wasn’t the whole plan,” she says, frowning as she thought about it.

“And how could this factor into a larger plan?” he asks.

Shuri opens her mouth to respond and then shuts it, deflating a little. “I don’t know,” she says softly, tears welling up in her eyes and tony sighs.

“Hey, shh, its okay. We’ve already figured some stuff out so that means we’re on the right track, we just haven’t got a motive yet. We’ll get there,” he assures her. She sniffs and wipes a tear off her face, shaking her head.

“Are you sure?” she asks and he nods.

“Whatever the purpose of this stunt is killing your father can’t have been the whole plan, not when your brother got sent on a wild goose chase after the wrong person while every media outlet reports on it. We’re missing something and we’re both damn smart- we’ll catch up to them, Shuri, I promise you that,” he says softly. It was whether or not they’d catch up in time to actually do anything about their latest villain of the week that concerned him.

Shuri nods and sits up straighter, “you’re right. We can do this, we’ll figure this out and I can tell T’Challa he’s looking for the wrong person. We’ve got at least a little information,” she says more to herself than Tony, obviously trying to reassure herself and Tony lets her. She needed it and he knew the feeling.

“Keep working on it,” he tells her, “between the two of us we’ll find something else and we can follow the trail,” he says. She nods, taking a moment to gather her confidence before she signs off and leaves him to his devices. He looks around his lab and wonders what Wakanda had if Shuri thought his lab was low tech. Maybe T’Challa would be nice enough to let him hang out in his sister’s lab for looking into the murder of his father once this was all over.

He’s considering the possibilities of vibranium when FRIDAY alerts him to someone at the door and he jumps, not expecting the AI’s interruption. He crawls out of his lab and to the door though, opening it and finding, of all people, Bucky behind it. Bucky grins down at him and Tony raises an eyebrow, “I wasn’t expecting you,” he says.

“It’s a pleasant surprise, I hope?” he asks, eyebrows going up.

Tony considers it for a long moment before smiling and moving aside for Bucky to enter, “yeah, yeah it is. How long do you have before your keeper starts leaving me voicemails asking where you are?” he asks.

Bucky snorts, “less than fifteen hours. He wasn’t impressed I was gone so long,” he tells Tony, laughing a little as he walks in.

“So I know- I got a grand total of fifteen calls by the time FRIDAY blocked his number for me. He’s got a bit of a tight leash on you, don’t you think?” Tony asks. He had no idea what his relationship with Steve was like but fifteen calls was a touch excessive given the guy he was worried about was a trained assassin who was more of a danger to those around him than the world was to him.

“Steve isn’t fond of giving up control, especially not to you,” Bucky says over his shoulder. “But I’m not here to talk about him, he’s dead boring and I want a little excitement in my life. Think you can spice up my life a little?” he asks, grinning.

He could continue his line of questioning or, Tony guesses, he might as well see if Bucky found finding out who actually killed the king of Wakanda in any capacity exciting.

*

James sits with Tony under an arm casually, running his fingers lightly up and down Tony’s forearm as he looks over the video he had. So far the only evidence he had for this not being Natasha was a video that didn’t quite match up with her face. “Have you looked into any organizations that are likely to be behind this like HYDRA or AIM? It might be easier to start from suspicious activity from terrorist groups that are likely to target to Avengers,” he says.

Tony frowns, “all their activity is suspicious in some way, how would I know how to separate regular suspicious from suspicious in this context?” he asks. It was a good question for someone who didn’t know what to look for but James knew HYDRA well and AIM wasn’t that different- he’d know it when he saw it.

“Dates, times, locations, strange conversations- they’d all line up with this event. It’s… hard to explain. I can do it if you want,” he tells Tony. “Plus we have to figure out why the king of Wakanda was targeted,” he adds.

“Yeah. Shuri thinks the actual target was the Avengers, which would make sense if it wasn’t Natasha who was framed. I mean Rhodey, Sam, Clint; even Vision would have made more reasonable targets. Natasha has a history we need to consider- there’s a lot to her story that no one knows and there are hundreds of reasons why she could be the only target. As for how the king fits in, I have no idea. I think it was just bad luck on his part,” he says but Bucky shakes his head.

“I don’t know much about Wakanda but I’ve gathered enough knowledge to know that their technology is advanced at least as much as yours and they’re easy to piss off. That makes them useful,” he says more to himself than Tony. It would be brilliant really, use Wakanda to take out the Avengers without ever having to do anything yourself. T’Challa had already been after Natasha and quickly jumped on Tony, quick with subtle threats of destruction and harm.

As far as a blunt weapon to target the Avengers Wakanda made themselves easy to target if for no other reason than their impulsive king. He had good reason, but he wasn’t looking beyond his own pain and James suspected whoever this was knew that would happen. He doubted, however, that their perpetrator knew Tony would have a personal reason to not lie to T’Challa about Natasha killing his father, or that they would end up teaming up rather than tearing each other apart. Or more accurately T’Challa tearing Tony apart.

Tony frowns and pulls away, “you think whoever is behind this is using Wakanda as a weapon?” he asks.

James shrugs, “or an easy distraction, yeah. Wakanda has been isolated in world politics longer than it hasn’t- killing the king had to be intentional. If it were me I’d take full advantage of a nation that wouldn’t take kindly to an attack- look at the way T’Challa reacted. He went after Natasha right away and had no qualms about using you to get to her either. Seems to me like an efficient way to take out the Avengers,” he says.

“I don’t know. Seems a bit convoluted- this person would have to know that T’Challa would react they way he was intended to,” Tony says.

Not necessarily true, James thinks, but he doesn’t tell Tony that outright. “Its not so convoluted- death makes humans selfish and isolation makes them suspicious. You reacted to Steve the exact same way T’Challa reacted to Natasha when he didn’t tell you I killed your parents. Lashing out at what hurts them is just how people work,” he points out.

Tony flinches hard at that, pulling away for a moment before taking a few deep breaths. “You remember?” he asks.

James nods, feeling the blood rush out of his features. Whatever that looked like it has an affect on Tony, who leans forward a little, closer to him. “I remember everything,” he says softly. “I wish I didn’t.” But only Bucky got that luxury.

*

T’Challa and Shuri look at each other, considering the conversation they just heard. “Do you think we’re being used in someone’s game to destroy the Avengers?” she asks eventually and T’Challa frowns, unsure what to think. It would make sense, yes, but it was a gamble.

“I don’t know,” he says eventually. “But if we are that stops now.” He is not a pawn to be played in someone else’s game and he refused to allow himself to become one. Whoever this was they were going to pay, and they would pay on T’Challa’s own terms.