Secrets and Lies

-- Joint Counter Terrorist Centre, Germany --

The Wakandans were gathered in one of the office rooms with Tony Stark across from them. Because of their involvement, the situation went very differently from the movies. This time, Rhoades did not get injured trying to stop Captain America and Barnes from escaping which meant that Tony was much calmer.

"So here's what happened and should happen. The Secret Warriors and the other guys are now under arrest. The tricky part is that since all of the former and half of the latter, tried to attack King J'Zaki, they should go to a Wakanda prison. There is also the issue of Wanda attacking Queen Ororo here and the other members of that rag-tag group assaulting the kid doing steroids.

But the issue is the death of Mr. Robbie Reyes. He was already disarmed when you took his magical spirit from him. After that, he should have been arrested but you killed him.

So we wanna make a deal with you. We will make the killing of Mr. Reyes legit if you release Wanda and the Secret Warriors to our custody. The other 4 can stay in a Wakandan prison for all I care."

J'Zaki looked over to Ororo for her approval. When he saw her nod, he turned to Tony and shrugged his shoulders.

"Deal. Please have them ready to be transported by tomorrow."

Tony knocked on the table and hummed in agreement. After seeing the king's rage, he thought it would be much harder to negotiate with him.

Tony left the Wakandans in the room to check out the situation with everyone else and make sure the deal could go through. When he left, Idie wanted to ask a question but Ororo held up her hand to stop her. She then pulled out her phone and called Shuri. Ororo made sure to put it on speaker so everyone could hear.

"Are we good, Little Sister?"

[Yep. The room is under our control. No spying devices are detected and the camera in the corner is playing the video I uploaded. You're free to speak.]

"Thanks. How was the other mission?"

[Worked out perfectly. T'Challa and the Dora Milaje were able to capture Zemo. He is on his way to Wakanda to face our mother's wrath.]

"Excuse me, my queen," Idie interrupted. "But what is this other mission? And who is Zemo?"

"Zemo is the man who killed my father," J'Zaki explained calmly from his seat

Nezhno and Idie were shocked to hear this. They had come to Germany to capture Barnes who was supposed to have killed the late king.

"But your majesty! I thought it was Barnes."

"Barnes is nothing more than a puppet to be used at the whims of others," Ororo explained. "Zemo disguised himself as Barnes and killed our king to frame him and stir up the Avengers. He then used some hypnotic trance that the Russians have been using on Barnes for years to force him to escape from prison."

J'Zaki was able to figure out the entire plot when he watched the psychological evaluation in the basement. He could not only see through Zemo's disguise but also when he read and translated the journal, he was able to put the pieces together. Barnes was nothing more than an innocent man being used to destroy the Avengers from within.

"Then why did we go through all of this?" was the question that Idie and Nezhno asked at the same time. Ororo and J'Zaki smiled.

"We are planning to open Wakanda's borders in the future. Expose the fact that we are very wealthy and technologically advanced. Help out other nations. But this will invite fear and envy. So we needed a show of power before we did."

And what was a better show of power than to battle with Earth's Mightiest Champions and come out on top? So while the Great Ring was proving Wakanda's power, T'Challa was sent to show the man Wakanda's wrath.

After having these matters explained to them, the pair understood that they were not suited for politics or strategy. They were glad to just be in positions where they had to punch people in the face pretty hard.

"One last question, my king. Why did you kill that man?"

"He was a dangerous variable. He is called the Spirit of Vengeance. How many innocent people do you think would request vengeance on us once we are exposed because we ignored our fellow man for all these years? Or because of the blood we have shed to protect the interests of Wakanda? In our eyes, we are free from crime. But in the eyes of others, it is harder to say. And I refused to take that chance."

Ghost Rider was definitely someone very dangerous and the worst part was that he answered to a higher power just like J'Zaki. And who knew when that higher power would turn its eyes on Wakanda. So J'Zaki decided to make the first move and take Ghost Rider away from the world.

And that was how the other members found out the truth of the matter. While the Avengers were fighting to stay together and not be arrested, the Wakandans were playing an entirely different game. But it would be years before Tony Stark would figure it out. That he had been played like a fiddle by a boy less than half his age.

(And ending chapter at around 900 words. Don't have much else to say and don't wanna drag this out. So yeah. That's the 2nd chapter today.)