STATUS: available [ ] taken [×]
requested by dunbonnet

* MEANS IT CAN BE CHANGED

TITLE: Degree of Separation*
FANDOM: Marvel/MCU
LOVE INTEREST(s): T'Challa Udaku
TIMELINE: Pre-Civil War-Endgame*

CAST

maisie richardson-sellers as
AKHONA MLAMBO

DESCRIPTION

TO THE REST OF THE WORLD, WAKANDA WAS just another small African country. They were a small isolationist landlocked country surrounded by mountain ranges and a thick forest. Not many people knew all that much about them. But the people of Wakanda knew that they had something that was truly special and unique in the world.

VIBRANIUM. A NEARLY INDESTRUCTIBLE METAL with about as many uses as one could imagine using it for. They kept their precious metal a secret from the rest of the world, using it to advance their own society. And even when some managed to escape from the country, it was still mostly a mystery of where it truly came from.

KHWEZI MLAMBO DID NOT AGREE WITH his king about how they used Vibranium. He had seen the mines, the raw metal in it's truest element. He knew that there was much more than their most precious commodity than anyone else could see. But no one would give him the funds, space or even the permission to examine it and experiment with it. So he took matters into his own hands.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

› as I feel is a theme with me, sorry this took so long. I have no excuse, just that my brain hates me.

› please change the summary. I hate it. The title too, I couldn't think of anything.

› basically, Khwezi Mlambo is Akhona's uncle. Her father, Khanyiso, worked in one of the vibranium mines in some degree. Presumably, given that Akhona and T'Challa are friends, he's probably got a pretty high up position. 

› Not thinking anything of it, Khanyiso allowed his brother inside the mine he worked at. It wasn't like "yes, look at the vibranium" it was "oh hey, bro, I'll let you in to come and say hi" not knowing what would really happen

› Khwezi knew that there had to be more to vibranium than everyone thought. Sure, it's their precious and special metal from the gods,  but not just every metal can absorb and redirect kinetic energy, there has to be more to it. 

› Not to mention the fact that its radiation is what gave way to the Heart-Shaped Herb that creates the Blank Panther and could literally make people sick if they were exposed to it for too long, which is why they automated their mining process so quickly

› so Khwezi tried to get permission study the metal in all it's forms, to experiment on it and King T'Chaka, knowing what it could do to people if they were exposed for too long and seeing the already partially crazed look in his eyes, said no.

› this leads to Khwezi just kind of... snapping

› he uses his brother to access the mines and steal some vibranium. He takes it and brings it to the secret lab that he built somewhere private in the densely forested mountains and starts to experiment on it and study it

› but, unfortunately, the missing vibranium doesn't go unnoticed. This is vibranium in the heart of Wakanda, of course they realized that there was some missing

› Khanyiso put together on his own that it was probably his brother that did it given the timing of it all. He doesn't want to believe it, so invites his brother to his home and confronts him. Khwezi denies it at first, but eventually confesses. He tries to get his brother to join him, but when he says that he's going to turn him in, Khwezi just snaps again and kills him

› again unfortunately, Khanyiso's wife, Nonhle, stumbles onto the scene and not wanting to get caught, Khwezi kills her, too.

› while cleaning up, his niece, Akhona, comes home and sees the bodies. Khwezi, having calmed down some, doesn't want to kill his last remaining family member. Instead, he kidnaps her and takes her to his secret lab and decides that he will use her as his first test subject since he has her and knows that she's strong

› after a few days, the murder and abduction is revealed and given that it is connected to vibranium and the Prince's close friend, a lot of attention and resources are given to this

› in the secret lab, Khwezi slowly starts to devolve more and more as time goes on and the radiation gets to him. He abducts more people to experiment on, not all of who live through it

› the abductees have vibranium in its different stages and sometimes mixed with different things injected into their bloodstream or bone marrow to see if it could give them or unlock powers similar to the Heart-Shaped Herb. 

› some of them are even just left alone, exposed to the radiation. None of these experiments survived, though.

› of all the people that were experimented on, only five survived, including Akhona, and they're in varying stages of health.

› Akhona, the first experiment, appears to be the healthiest. She's had the most time to return to a relative stage of looking okay. Her powers are that she can partially absorb and disperse kinetic energy, meaning that, when she's struck, it works like the Black Panther suit and she can absorb the kinetic energy of the impact and put it into her next attack, giving it some extra kick. She can retain the energy, but if she retains too much, her body starts to burn up and retaining it for too long would kill her. When she concentrates, she can also absorb the energy that binds particles together causing matter to disintegrate. That's something that vibranium can actually do, by the way.

› Bhutana Mandela is one of the other survivors. He's not in the best shape, weak and exhausted. His powers are that he is physically stronger than the average human (at least on par with those who have consumed the Heart-Shaped Herb but probably stronger) and his skin is also a lot denser than the average human, meaning it is a lot harder to injure him. The drawback though is that using his strength takes a lot out of him and if he doesn't have sufficient energy or uses too much, he runs out of energy very very fast.

 › Vusumzi Buhle is another survivor. While looking to be in fairly good health, she has the most obvious lasting injury. Her powers are that she can now manipulate sounds as one of the properties of vibranium relates to sound absorption. The drawback, though I feel that's not the right way to phrase it I'm just trying to keep with the theme, is that the experiments that gave her the powers also rendered her deaf. She's probably the one I can most see not using her powers at all after they're rescued.

› Ekene Agu is another survivor. He appears to be in the worst shape physically. His powers relate to shapeshifting. He was exposed to a combination of just the radiation and the regular injections. This combo ended up with Ekene being able to shapeshift into a "demon form" which is how the people that were originally exposed to vibranium radiation were described when vibranium was first discovered. Unlike most of those people, he can shapeshift back, but it takes a large toll on his body to change and it is painful as well.

› Chiagozie Kalu is the final survivor. Though she looks weak but appears to otherwise be totally fine, she can't stop shaking. Her powers are that she can create and control vibrations that can manifest in different ways including destructive shockwaves, subtle frequency matching, and phasing herself and others through solid substances. Her drawback is that she is shaking at nearly all times and when they bring her back to the city, they discover that her vibrations are at risk of shattering her bones at all times and they have to design a suit that will dampen them and prevent this from happening.

› after at least a year and a half but probably closer to two years, Khwezi's secret lab is finally located and Wakandan soldiers, including the Black Panther, storm the lab. Given that they have no loyalty to Khwezi, his experiments do not even attempt to defend him and he is apprehended by the soldiers.

› Akhona and the others are released from their cages. T'Challa, relieved at seeing his friend, goes to hug her and this causes Akhona to unintentionally discharge some kinetic energy, sending T'Challa flying where he's knocked through a wall (it wasn't too sturdy to begin with) and he is knocked out.

› the soldiers arrest Akhona for this, or at the very least detain her, since he did just injure the Prince and all

› they're brought back to the capital and brought to a hospital, though Akhona is detained away from everyone else. She does need to be checked over, but she's also still kind of under arrest.

› when T'Challa wakes up and demands to see her and so the situation is explained to him, he immediately makes them release her as it wasn't her fault. No one holds anyone at fault as it she did technically attack the prince so they kind of had to.

› though T'Challa and Akhona were very close and nearly dating before she was abducted, they don't go right back to where they were, they can't

› Akhona has a lot of trauma and ptsd related to what she went through. She is not so great with being touched anymore, anyone poking her with a needle or anything like that immediately causes her to have a panic attack and breakdown, she can't do tight or small spaces anymore, she can't do the dark, either, as that is what her cell was like, and even too much straight white light is too much for her as that's what the experimentation room/table was like. 

› it'll take her a long while to be able to go back into a hospital or even into Shuri's lab without panicking

› though I can see Shuri changing the lighting to a bunch of different colours, or one different colour or even just toning it down so that she can visit or to help her adjust slowly

› both T'Challa and Shuri and also Nakia are great helps in her adjusting back to normal and helping her control her powers. They're all very patient with her and understanding.

› Shuri even creates her a necklace similar to the one on the Black Panther suit (as seen in the gif of Akhona) that helps her to control her abilities. The necklace can also absorb the kinetic energy so it can take some of the weight of Akhona and if she feels she's absorbing too much, she can just funnel some of it into the necklace

› given that her only family left is her criminal of an uncle who tortured her for over a year and a half, Akhona is kind of taken in by the Udaku's. At T'Challa's insistence

› same goes for the others. If they had no family to go to, the royal family would set them up somewhere and they'd have like regular check-ins and therapy and all of that. The same goes for Akhona except since she's practically family she's brought into the palace.

› I know you wanted Khwezi to die, but I thought it'd be more interesting if he had to stand trial and the survivors could testify against him. Of course, you can still have him die or be killed but I just think this would also be a cool plot point!

› after this and after some time where Akhona (and the others) get as close to back to their old lives as they can, Civil War happens

› Akhona travels with T'Challa and T'Chaka to the conference. T'Chaka was always like a second father to her, especially after what happened to her and she doesn't go many places with T'Challa or Nakia or Shuri by her side. And a chance to get out of Wakanda would probably be a nice change for her for a little while.

› the death of T'Chaka hits Akhona hard and she joins T'Challa in his quest for vengeance, so joins Team Iron Man. I could see her maybe disintegrating Zemo's gun instead of how T'Challa blocks the bullet or she absorbs the kinetic energy from the gun after he fires, which might cause it to not shoot but the choice is yours

› I imagine that Akhona would come to be close with Bucky after he's brought to Wakanda. They could bond over being kidnapped and having ptsd and all of that. I think they'd really understand each other.

› she'll be involved in Black Panther, of course. The apparent death of T'Challa will most definitely hit Akhona hard. She already lost T'Chaka (not that long ago even) and now to imagine losing her closest friend.... well she's distraught, to say the least

› she'll be involved in Infinity War as well, of course, and the Battle of Wakanda. And she'll be a snap victim, like T'Challa.

› since T'Challa and Akhona are a slow burn, I really don't know when exactly they'd get together. It would have to at least be by the time of Civil War, like that would be the earliest, so maybe after they capture Zemo and Akhona and T'Challa have a heart to heart about losing T'Chaka? Or maybe it's after he comes back to life in Black Panther? She thought she lost him so she can't stand not to tell him how she feels in case it happens again.

› and given that Endgame is the last thing we have revolving around T'Challa at the time of publishing, anything that happens afterwards is totally up to you!