Stella Stark // ORIGINS [REWRITTING]

5.6 Wakanda

We rushed to the only computer that was still functioning in the tower.

Hills showed up with a picture of Striker's dead body lying in a grey cold cell, with the word "PEACE" written on the wall behind him with what appeared to be his blood.

"This is a smokescreen" Natasha affirmed. "Why sending a message when you just given a speech?"

"Striker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss," I answered.

"Ultron erased everything we had on Striker..." Nat grimly said.

"Not everything" Steve entered the room with a pile of old dusty boxes of documents and slammed them on the desk in front of us.

The living room was soon filled with boxes and the floor covered of old files. Everything SHIELD had on Struker and his associates. I was digging into documents from 1987 about a man called Ulysses Klaue. It seemed like he was in his forties or fifties. He was dirty and sweaty on the picture and was wearing a wore down greyish shirt and a grim smile on his face.

"Wait Stella, I know that guy" Dad took the file from my hands and examined it. "I met him a few years back at a convention, he was talking about a game-changer in the weapons industry" Thor spotted a symbol on the man's neck. "What is this?" he asked as he pointed out the drawing.
Bruce took one look at it and made a research on the computer. "It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief."
"What dialect?" Steve asked.
"Wakanada... Wakanda" Bruce stammered. I remember this country from grandpa's notebooks. He was making deals with Wakanda a long time ago. He was particularly fond of a certain metal... I peeked at Steve's shield and turned to my father.
"I don't understand I thought Grandpa had the last of it.." I whispered.
"What are you talking about?" Bruce, confused, stood up and walked near us to listen closely to our conversation. I looked at him and answer.

"Only the strongest metal on earth."

We didn't wait a minute and flew to the African west coast. Ultron was seeking for Vibranium and was planning to do something with it and whatever it was it couldn't be good.

We arrived only an hour later. A dozen of ships where on the coast. It was only after checking every one of them that we found the right one. We couldn't risk any "Hulk damages" so we decided to leave Bruce in the Quin Jet until an emergency showed up. Steve, Dad, Thor, and I will be on the ground, directly fighting Ultron and his army while Nat and Clint will try to catch the twins.

I went ahead and infiltrated the boat. Ultron and the Maximoff twins were already there, talking to Klaue.

Ultron, the twins and Klaue were in the ship, both on one side of the deck, surrounded by nucs and weapons. "Keep your friends rich and enemies richer and wait to find out which is which." Ultron's robotic voice resonated in the clammy and heavy air. Just like me, Klaue recognized this quote. It was the Stark trademark quote. He lifted his head and looked at the robot, perplexed."Stark... Tony Stark used to say that to me" and suddenly the anxious look on Klaue's face faded. He made the connexion between the robot and my father, he knew him, he thought he didn't have nothing to fear. "You're one of his" He pronounced his last words with a proud chest and a risen head. It didn't last very long when, with fury, Ultron rushed to him and sliced his right arm and kicked him down the stairs.

"Don't compare me to Stark!"

I crawled out of the shadows and walked towards the robotic man. "Oh buddy, you're talking about our father here... I know he's not the best but for his defense, he's not the worse either."

Dad flew down behind me and added "Seriously, Stella? You're going to break your old man's heart"

The silver hair boy advanced. He looked a little younger than I. He and his sister had big deep circles around their eyes from exhaustion. "ah the Stark family. Feeling good? In your environment?" He scoffed as he looked down at a shipment of nucs. "You two can still run away from this..." I said calmly to the twins."We don't have to do this" Steve added as he joined my side.

"Argh! America's favorite couple, Captain America, and Stella Stark! Pretending you can live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth but-"

With a loud throaty voice Thor interrupted him. "If you believe in peace, let's keep it""I think you confuse peace with quiet""Oh yeah?" I questioned. "What's the vibranium for, then?"

"Glad you ask. I was going to use this time to explain my evil plan" He struck a beam of energy at me, to fast for me to absorb it. Steve and dad charge Ultron while I stood back up but it took me some time to stop reeling.

A minute after the fight started, like we hadn't enough, Klaue's men started shooting us. We had to change plans, Thor and I left Steve and my father to try to contain the fires.

Ultron was flying away and Dad pursued him out from the boat. Barton and Nat were handling the twins in the different decks of the ship. I could dodge every bullet and after taking one in the arm I had to retreat in one of the corridors. I saw the worry in Steve's eyes, I nodded telling him I was going to be okay.

The corridor had greens undertones and a horrible smell of fuel and fish. I tried to look at my wound to do something about it. With the neons twitching I couldn(t see clearly but it looked like the bullet arrived just next to an artery. there was blood everywhere on the black fabric of my sleeve. I tore it and made a knot around my arm to stop the bleeding. It took me a moment to stand back up as I lost a certain quantity of blood. As I made my way back to the main deck I felt a presence behind me. I turned around and it went dark. I didn't hear the sound of gunshots or the grunts of the soldiers.

I opened my eyes. The room was flooded by the morning sun, a window next to me was slightly opened, letting a cold breeze touch my bare shoulders. "Good morning, beautiful" It was Steve, he looked rested and calm. I didn't recognize this room, nor the place but seeing Steve this happy made me forget everything. That was what I needed. As I looked into his blue eyes I felt whole. Everything seemed right in the world. He joined me to bed and soon a small kid came into the room. He jumped on us screaming "Mommy! Daddy!". I didn't recognize him? Who was he? I know I don't have a kid. I can't. I tried to speak but I realized my lips were glued together. I started panicking. I tried to ask to Steve but he kept smiling. It wasn't real? I couldn't remember how I got here? And suddenly, it went black again. I opened my eyes. I was still in this room but it was dark now. How did I get here, again? I pulled my hair back, trying to focus. As my fingers slide on my locks I felt something gooey on my scalp. I looked down at my hands, they were covered in blood. Was it my blood? I looked around only to see the corps of Steve and the kid around me. I started screaming and crying but no sounds came out."Stella! Stella" finally some noise. I didn't dare to open my eyes. "Stella!" the voice continued. I looked up at Barton. I was crawled up in the same corridor I was earlier. The fog in my ears faded and I could hear the gunshots again. Clint was standing in front of me, reaching his hand. "We need to go, now!"