The Sapphire Legacy (Steve Rogers)

Chapter 3

- Wakanda -

Our quinjet quickly approaches the coordinates for Wakanda, passing though a force field. Nat skillfully lands it and we all step out. We are immediately greeted by King T'Challa and the Dora Milaje. "Seems like I'm always thanking you for something." Steve and T'Challa approach each other and share a handshake.

"King T'Challa." I bow my head slightly at him and he smiles at me, "Taylor."

"Uh, we don't do that here." I turn around and look at Bruce who is actually bowing while Rhodey is laughing at him. "Rhodes you're terrible." I laugh and roll my eyes at them. T'Challa smiles and looks back at Steve and I, standing hand in hand. "Follow me." He starts leading us towards his palace.

"How big of an assault can we expect?" He questions.

"Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault." Bruce chimes in. "You will have my King's Guard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..." T'Challa pauses and we see Bucky approaching, "...and a semi-stable, 100 year old man." Steve smiles at him and pulls Bucky into a hug. "Taylor." He pulls me into a hug next. "How've you been, Buck?" Bucky pulls away from me and rests his arm on my shoulders. "Not too bad, for the end of the world."

"Come, Shuri should have everything ready in the lab." T'Challa begins walking again and we all follow him closely into an elevator that takes us to his sister's lab. "Everyone, this is my sister Shuri." "Lovely to meet you all. Vision, please." She smiles at all of us and motions to a table. Wanda and Bruce help Vision over to the table and he lays down. Shuri immediately starts a scan on the stone and studies the hologram it produces, "the structure is polymorphic."

"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially."

"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?"

"Uh.." Bruce stares at her, "Because we didn't think of it?"

Shuri smiles at him, "I'm sure you did your best."

We all stare at them as they speak in scientific terms that none of us quite understand. "Well can you do it?" Wanda asks her. "Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She turns towards T'Challa, "It will take time brother."

"How long?" Steve wraps his arms around my neck from behind. "As long as you can give me." Steve nods at her and she begins working immediately. I turn around in Steve's arms and wrap my arms around his waist. He places a kiss on my forehead and then on my lips. "It's beautiful here, but I still miss Italy." He hums in agreement as we look out of the large window.

"My king, something's entered the atmosphere." Okoye states, looking at a device in her hand.

"Hey Cap, we got a situation here." Sam speaks up over the coms from where he, Bucky, Rhodey, and Nat are standing outside. Steve, Wanda, T'Challa, and I approach the window and see a large ship enter the Wakandan atmosphere and get bombarded by Wakanda defenses. But it's not enough. "It's too late...we need to destroy the stone." Vision sits up a little. "No, Shuri, get that stone out of his head." I look back at him and he gives me a pained look.

"We will hold them off." "T'Challa is right." Steve looks from Vision to Wanda, "as soon as that stone's out of his head, you blow it to hell." She nods at him and we quickly exit the building, joining Sam, Nat, Rhodey, and Bucky. We quickly board some carriers that carry us all out to the Wakandan battle field. Sam and Rhodey are flying while Bruce runs in the Hulkbuster suit. The carriers stop a ways away and we watch closely.

"We got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line guys." Sam says. We all exit the carriers and approach the Jabari soldiers that have joined us.