"All of that was insane."
"Really? Even though you already knew most of it..."
"Knowing and seeing it with your own eyes are very different things."
"I guess you're right."
After the party, Leonardo and Gwen quickly returned to their homes. Some people chose to stay at the Tower for diplomatic and political reasons, but neither Gwen nor Leonardo cared about any of that.
Leonardo could see the future. Why waste time debating paths he already knew? If the outcome ever bothered him, then he'd step in, but that wasn't the case this time. As for Gwen, while she was no longer the idealistic teenager who'd first stepped into the world of heroes, she still had no tolerance for political drama.
"What do you think will happen with Wakanda?"
"What do you mean?"
"You know," Gwen replied, "I like our country, but I'm not gonna pretend it's perfect. A place with super tech and the rarest mineral in the world, and it's still classified as underdeveloped. That can't end well."
Gwen was worried about the future. She had faced things far beyond street-level crime, but war was different. She wasn't afraid of losing, she was afraid of being part of it. Because in war, it's not just a few who fight: thousands enlist, many more die, and everyone is marked in some way.
"You don't have to worry about that. Everything will be resolved peacefully."
"Peacefully peacefully, or peacefully peacefully?"
Even though she repeated the same word far too many times for it to be grammatically sound, her expression said it all. Leonardo couldn't help but laugh.
He laughed until Gwen shot him a glare.
"Alright, relax. It'll be peaceful," he said, mimicking her expression to confirm it was the good kind of peaceful.
But just as Gwen was about to let her guard down, he added,
"Of course, there'll be some friction at first. But at least it won't escalate into full-scale war."
"That's still a problem!"
She sighed, resigned.
"Well, I guess it's better than nothing. Real peace is hard to achieve, especially when the problems come from within."
Leonardo noticed a change in her expression. There was sadness and guilt in her eyes, a shadow that caught him off guard.
"Something wrong?"
"It's just... watching that movie reminded me how dangerous all this is. How we could die at any moment."
Leonardo nodded silently. He didn't remind her that he's unfindable if he wants to be, or that you can't kill what you can't find.
"Do you regret the path you chose?"
"No!"
She shook her head instantly.
"It's just that... we died. Not just that, we were the first ones. When I saw that movie, I felt jealous, you know?"
"Jealous?"
"Yeah, I know it sounds dumb. They fought for years only to lose all hope, but when I saw Natasha die, I thought, 'At least she left something behind.' Her legacy stayed. I know that sounds selfish of me."
"It doesn't," Leonardo replied, placing a hand on her cheek. "You have a legacy too. You inspire people to be better. People who want to give up but think, 'She didn't. Why should I?'"
He paused.
"That's the strange thing about what we live through nowadays. It makes us feel small, like we don't matter compared to everything out there. But that's exactly why heroes exist, to prove that we do matter. That we can fight, that we have to. Even when everything is against us, even when it seems impossible, we try. And if they kept going, facing the impossible, why couldn't we deal with a simple problem?"
Gwen stayed silent for a moment. So did Leonardo. He didn't know where those words had come from. Maybe because, in his own way, he'd been someone who needed to hear them too. Maybe it was something he had always believed, from another life.
"I guess you're right."
Her voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Yeah. You're right," she repeated, now in her usual tone, "which... is a shame for you."
"A shame for me?"
"Yeah. You just made me realize you don't need to leave something physical behind to still live on after you're gone. The other way I was thinking of... included you."
Leonardo blinked before understanding what she meant.
"Well, it's always good to have a plan B," he replied, stepping closer with a smile.
---
Meanwhile, at Avengers Tower, Tony, Steve, Natasha, Vision, and Nick Fury, recently arrived after the party, were having a private conversation.
"Did you find it?"
"We have the coordinates, but our satellites aren't detecting anything. If there's really something there, their cloaking tech must be the most advanced we've seen since Laplace's."
The reason they found Wakanda so quickly, despite no satellite detecting a thing, was because the movie showed its location with complete accuracy. Sure, Wakanda would've been discovered sooner or later, and this was a more controlled way of doing it, but Leonardo had another reason for showing it that way.
Just imagine, a shot descending from the clouds, the camera lowering over nothing but trees, no matter how close it gets. But the moment it crosses the Wakandan shield, everything changes. A hidden, futuristic city bursts into view, in stark contrast with the surroundings. An epic scene.
And of course, it also saved Leonardo hours of work. He just had to draw trees and zoom in most of the time.
"We've got contact from field agents," Fury reported after checking his communicator.
"What did they find?" Tony asked, eager.
"Confirmed. There's a force field."
He immediately ordered that no one attempt to enter by force or take any hostile action.
"So it's true," Tony murmured, "an entire country with tech more advanced than anywhere else in the world."
"Don't be so sure," Fury cut in. "They've got the resources to develop it, sure, but they're still using spears and shields, like barbarians."
Steve stood up, eyes firm. He knew what Fury was getting at.
"How they use their resources is their business, because those resources belong to them."
"I know they do, Rogers, but that doesn't mean they're the only ones who could benefit from them."
"That's exactly what it means."
The air grew tense. But even Nick Fury, with all his authority, knew when to back down.
"Alright, Captain. I'm not stupid enough to start a war over this, but I can't say the same for the rest of the world."
Fury was set on getting vibranium. Not through force, of course, that would be inefficient, dangerous, and a waste. The value of vibranium wasn't just its rarity, but the knowledge Wakanda had gained through decades of research. Losing all that would be unforgivable.
Before leaving, he gave one last warning:
"SHIELD may not start a war over this, but not everyone will think the same."
Then, with a dry smile, he added,
"Protectors of world peace, huh? Looks like you've got a situation on your hands."
What he didn't know at that moment, was that avoiding conflict would be exactly what dragged them deeper into the political storm that was coming.
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