I was standing with the others early the next morning in the glass filled kitchen when Steve walked in, thrusting an ipad of sorts into Tony's arms as he came to stand in the group. "What's this?" The billionaire asked as he read the contents of whatever was open on the screen.
"A message. Ultron killed Strucker." Was Steve's simple reply and a wave of nausea washed over me at his words. Could I have saved him if I'd remembered he died? Would I have? He was not a good guy, by any means at all, but did I really have any right in this matter to start picking and choosing between who got to live and who didn't, when I had to power to stop any deaths at all? But... what would have happened if I'd remembered about this and informed the avengers that this was going to happen. Would they have just managed to get there in time and save Strucker, or would it have cost one of their lives, as it had never happened in the timeline? I couldn't keep up with all the new questions that had risen in my mind, instead deciding to just keep listening to the conversation.
"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene—just for us!" Tony was saying in his usual sarcastic demeanor.
"This is a smoke screen." Natasha cut in, getting straight to the point. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve deduced quickly. I almost smiled, realising that most of the time there was no need for me to even interfere in the chain of events, the avengers figuring it out before I could even start explaining it.
"I bet he did... yeah. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased." Natasha stated, making me curse myself—wondering why I hadn't ever bothered to remember such things happening. I would never, ever, in my life be able to watch a movie again, I realised. Not unless I wanted to be pausing it every half second, trying to cram every single detail of the plot into my brain, too scared I'd end up in another universe next and not have enough information.
"Not everything." Steve suddenly said, pulling me from my spiraling thoughts. Five minutes later we were all back in the room, going through a box of papers which had all the information we could need written down on them. They were most likely where the online data on Strucker that we had, had come from in the first place anyway.
"Wait," Tony called, making everyone look up at him as he pointing to one of the papers Bruce was looking through. "I know that guy." He grabbed the file, quickly reading through the first page. "From back in the day. He operates off of the African coast—black market arms. There-there are conventions, alright? You meet people there. I didn't sell him anything!" He added as Steve turned to look at him in confusion. "He was talking about finding something new... a game changer. It was all very... Ahab."
"What's this?" Thor asked, pointing to the multiple very up front and center tattoos the man had all over his face in the photos.
"Ah, its a tattoo. I don't think he had it back then." Tony replied, but Thor shook his head.
"No, those are tattoos, this is a brand." He placed one of his fingers on a red mark on the mans neck which I hadn't noticed before.
I watched in interest as Bruce scanned the symbol through the data base and nodded when something matched. "Oh yeah, its a word in African dialect meaning thief, apparently. Just in a much less friendly way." he said.
"What dialect?" Steve asked.
"W-wakanada? W-waknada?" Bruce tried, and I almost laughed.
"Wakanda." I said simply.
"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony started, looking at Steve.
"I thought your father said that he got the last of it." Steve replied, to which Bruce frowned.
YOU ARE READING
ACATALEPSY ➺ loki
Abenteuerelaina wasn't meant to be dead, yet here she was, six years in the past, living with parents who mourned a death that had never happened. her death. on top of that, she may now have the chance to save the lives of people who she'd spent years watchi...
