Steve's Diary

June 12, 2016

Dear Diary,

We've all been glued to the televisions for weeks now. Mostly myself and Wanda.

It's been especially hard on her, though, because she thinks it's on her when it's really on me.

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I was listening to MSNBC on one of Stark's high tech computer TVs today all alone in one far away rooms at the new Avengers facility, just trying to get more information on what the world thought of us.

The screen read:

AVENGERS INDICTMENT? WORLD REACTION TO VIOLENCE

"Eleven Wakandans were among those killed during a confrontation between the Avengers and a group of mercenaries in Lagos, Nigeria last month," a female news anchor relayed. "The traditionally reclusive Wakandans were on an outreach mission in Lagos, when the attack occurred."

The screen switched and read:

KING T'CHAKA OF WAKANDA DEMANDS ACCOUNTABILITY FROM AVENGERS

"Our people's blood is spilled on foreign soil," he began. "Not only because of the actions of criminals, but by the indifference of those pledged to stop them. Victory at the expense of the innocent is no victory at all."

"The Wakandan king went on to s-" I shut the screen off. I couldn't listen to it anymore, it was too heartbreaking.

Though, immediately after doing so, I heard a similar story playing in a room nearby on someone else's TV.

"They are operating outside and above the international law. Because that's the reality, if we don't respond to acts like these..." I stood and made my way towards the sound. It was Wanda's room, so I stood in the doorway and picked up the remote from the nightstand on which she'd left it and listened a little more to what they were saying. "What legal authority does an enhanced individual like Wanda Maximoff have to operate in Nigeri-" I turned the TV off.

She glanced at me, then looked away. "It's my fault," she told me.

"That's not true," I replied, my arms crossed.

"Turn the TV back on," she requested. "They're being very specific."

"I should've clocked that bomb vest long before you had to deal with it," I admitted, leaving the doorway and approaching her. "Rumlow said 'Bucky'.... and all of a sudden I was a 16-year-old kid again, in Brooklyn." I sat down next to her. "And people died... It's on me."

"It's on both of us," she corrected me.

"This job," I started, shaking my head. "We try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn't mean everybody. But if we can't find a way to live with that, then next time... maybe nobody gets saved."

Vision, then, phased through the wall and took us both by surprise.

"Vis! We talked about this," she reprimanded him.

"Yes, but the door was open, so I assumed that-" he stopped himself. "Captain Rogers wished to know when Mr. Stark was arriving."

I nodded. "Thank you," I replied. "We'll be right down."

He pointed to his left. "I'll... use the door." And made his way there. "Oh, and apparently, he's brought a guest."

"We know who it is?" I asked.

"The Secretary of State," Vision answered before leaving us.

A few moments later, we met everyone else down at the conference room, along with Secretary Ross. We all sat along the long table as he stood, talking, before us.