Music is "Wicked Game" by Ursine Vulpine feat. Annaca (aka one of my favorite songs ever).

Picture is Steve and Bucky.

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CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Yibambe

{April 8, 2018 -- Present Day}

W A K A N D A

Seeing Shuri work her magic never gets old, but by the looks on the rest of the heroes' faces, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that thinks so. Bruce's eyes are wide in wonder as the Princess scans Vision, her hand hovering just above his forehead. When she pulls her hand up, a holographic schematic shows her the inner workings of the android.

"Wow," Bruce whispers.

Shuri is equally as intrigued, but not in a good way. "The structure is polymorphic."

"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially," Bruce explains.

"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?"

"Because...we didn't...think of it?"

Grant snickers from beside Shuri. "At least you're honest."

Shuri drops her hand with a semi-smug smile on her face. "I'm sure you did your best."

Eggsy stands with Galahad to my right. "Did anyone understand any of that?" he asks.

He looks at Galahad, but Galahad crosses his arms over his chest. "Don't look at me. I'm a secret agent, not a scientist."

"I thought you knew everything."

Galahad turns to his protégé with a smirk. "Fooled you, didn't I?"

"Can you do it?" Wanda asks softly.

The Wakandan Princess' face drops as she turns to Wanda. "Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She turns to T'Challa. "It will take time, brother."

"How long?" asks Steve.

"As long as you can give me."

Okoye's beaded bracelet sets off an alarm. When she presses the center bead, a hologram of the Earth appears with the noticeable addition of a circular vessel above it. "Something's entered the atmosphere," she tells us.

"Hold up," Eggsy says in awe. "Is that a freakin' space ship? Like, a proper bloody space ship?"

"That's what attacked New York," I inform. "That's what took Tony."

Not a moment later, Sam's voice sounds off in our coms. "Hey, Cap, we got a situation here."

I rush to the large windows of the building, able to see both Sam and Bucky from this angle, as well as what they're gazing up at. When I turn my eyes towards the heavens, a small gasp escapes my lips. The rest of the heroes join me just in time to see a large drop-ship fall out of the sky and collide with the massive barrier over the capital city of Wakanda.

"God, I love this place," Bucky states in awe.

"How about 'Thank God for that barrier,' otherwise you'd both be a treasured memory," I insist.

"Don't worry yet, Doll. There'll be plenty of time for that in a second."

"Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys," Rhodey chastises from somewhere in the air. "We got more incoming outside the dome."

More drop-ships cross the sky outside the barrier, true to Rhodey's warning. They fly across the horizon like meteors, burning and bright. They land outside the barrier, sending huge shock waves towards it. When they collide with it, the barrier dilutes the shock-waves with energy that rolls up the sides.

I turn to Steve, and he glances to T'Challa. We knew this was coming, but none of us are really prepared for it. When I woke up yesterday morning, I never thought, in my wildest dreams, I'd be on the battlefield today.

"It's too late," Vision states, sitting up on the operation table. "We need to destroy the Stone now."

Natasha turns towards him with a stern look. "Vision, get your ass back on the table."

"We will hold them off," T'Challa says assuredly, marching off with Okoye behind him.

Steve turns to the Scarlet Witch. "Wanda, as soon as that Stone's out of his head, you blow it to hell."

She nods. "I will."

"Evacuate the city. Engage all defenses. Get this man a shield, and get this woman a staff." King T'Challa points at Steve and I. "We are going to need you both most of all."

I turn to the Kingsman with a commanding tone in my voice. "You both are staying here to guard Vision and Shuri. If anything gets passed us, it's up to you to take it down."

Eggsy nods, looking just as serious as his older companion. "Right, Ma'am. We got this."

"We'll watch out for each other," Shuri agrees, already hard at work on Vision.

"What about Rose?"

"I'll find her and make sure she gets to a safe place," Grant promises me. "Then I'll come back here."

I bite my lip worriedly. Steve gesture for me to follow him, but I hesitate. Galahad steps towards me and places a firm hand on my shoulder. "I'll keep them all safe," he promises. "Now, go. Be a hero."

I nod, reassured, and press a kiss to Grant's cheek as I pass him. When Steve and I get to the door, one of the Kingsguard walks up to us with two weapons in hand. One is the familiar shape of a bowstaff, and the other is a new set of Wakandan shields. The bowstaff is similar to the one I had for many years, only pitch black and utterly sleek. There are several buttons in the center, ones I can only imagine what they do.

I take the bowstaff with thanks, and the Kingsguard shows Steve how to attach the retractable shields to his forearms.

Before he leaves, I ask the Kingsguard, "Do you have a blade on you?"

Though confused, the woman nods and pulls a six-inch, vibranium knife from her hip holster. She hands it to me, and I turn to Steve. "Cut my hair as short as you can get it."

He hesitates, eyes flickering to the long hair that's overdue for a haircut.

I push the blade into his hand. "I can't fight with hair down past my chest, Steve. Cut it as short as you can."

Steve nods, and I turn around. I feel his hand gather up my long, brown locks into a fist. A moment later, I feel the sharp knife cut through at the nape of my neck in a single, swift tug. When I turn back around, inches upon inches of my hair are still in his hand. My fingers grasp at the new length, finding it settling just over chin-length.

"Better?" he asks.

I nod, feeling the weight on my head dissolving away. "Much."

Steve discards the hair, and I return the blade to the Kingsguard. We take off running for the exit, finding Sam and Bucky there with Natasha and T'Challa. I squeeze Bucky's new, metal hand as we board one of the hovercraft that appears.

"I like the new look," he smiles softly, trying to give a compliment in the middle of a war.

"I missed my short hair, like I had in the forties," I reply. "Much easier to fight in." I nod to his left arm. "I like the new arm. Shuri?"

Bucky clenches his dark vibranium fist and nods. "Love that kid."

Hundreds of Wakandan soldiers board with us. Natasha takes the head of our craft, and Sam flies overhead. Steve and T'Challa board the craft adjacent to us.

When the hovercraft starts to move out towards the barrier, Natasha clicks her com and contacts Bruce. "How we looking, Bruce?"

"Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it," Bruce replies over the link. Overhead, the Hunkbuster suit leaps and bounds, the driver I can only assume being Bruce Banner himself. He seems to be learning on the go, from the terrible choreography and balance to the way he screams and shouts.

"Wow, this is amazing, man! It's like being the Hulk without actually--!" Bruce trips on a rock and face-plants into the ground with a grunt, earning a not-so-impressed look from Okoye as her craft passes. "I'm okay. I'm okay."

Sam swoops overhead with Rhodey in the War Machine suit following closely. "I've got two heat signatures breaking through the tree-line."

They fly past us as the hovercraft come to a stop behind several enormous formations of Wakandan troops. Some are the Dora Milaje and Kingsguard I've seen before, but others are from the Jabari Tribe led by M'Baku. M'Baku starts their chant as we exit the vehicle. I march beside Natasha and Bucky up to Steve and T'Challa.

"Thank you for standing with us," T'Challa greets.

M'Baku replies something in his native tongue, but from the look on his face, he's glad to be here. He turns to me with a sly smile. "How is that boy of yours, Emma Barnes?"

"He's with the Princess," I reply with a nod.

M'Baku chuckles lowly, turning back to the fight at hand. "He amuses me, that one. I am glad to have him protecting Shuri."

"My sister can protect herself," T'Challa responds. He steps forward with Steve and Natasha flanking him. I remain behind with Bucky as he loads his gun in preparation for a fight.

"Maybe we'll get lucky and they will just leave," I suggest, eyes glued to the two aliens that approach the barrier to chat with the three Avengers.

"Since when do we ever get that lucky?" Bucky responds.

I fall silent and listen to the open-link our friends have left for us. The conversation goes about as well as I expect, but I listen still.

"Where's your other friend?" Natasha asks the female, referring to the male she was with at the train station in Scotland.

"You will pay for his life with yours," she responds. "Thanos will have that Stone."

"That's not gonna happen," Steve practically growls.

T'Challa speaks louder, like a King. "You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood."

"We have blood to spare."

The female alien grunts and thrusts her blade upwards. As she does, the geometric-shaped ships cause the ground to rumble. The tops of the drop-ships rise, slowly, giving Steve, Natasha, and T'Challa enough time to dash back to us.

"They surrender?" Bucky asks sarcastically.

"Not exactly."

The drop-ships stop moving, revealing the armies of alien creatures amassed inside. Like dark shadows, they tear through the African forests. Wherever they go, fire and destruction follows. When they approach the barrier, I see that they're slightly larger than human, with six appendages.

As they break through the tree-line, I hear T'Challa shout a word from the front of his soldiers. "Yibambe!" As he does, the Wakandans mirror his chant by repeating the same word. T'Challa shouts it again, and they echo back.

"What does that mean?" I ask Natasha, who speaks more languages than everyone except for maybe me.

"Hold fast."

The female alien drops her blade, and Thanos' armies charge the space between the trees and the barrier. They tear at each other if one of them gets in the way, already bloodied and bruised from their fights against their own kind. They have no eyes and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. The sounds they make as they tear up the ground are horrifying to say the least.

"What the hell?" Bucky curses.

"You got that right," I reply.

"Looks like we pissed her off."

The aliens snarl loudly as they crash into the barrier. Though they can't get through, they try desperately to change that. After a moment, some of their arms break through, only to be severed by the shield regaining strength. One of them gets his torso through, but he's soon cut in half.

Okoye speaks with shock and horror. "They're killing themselves."

The alien creatures continue to press until some of them survive the trip through the barrier. As they charge, the Border Trip at the front of the army use their enhanced Basotho blankets to create a secondary shield. More Border Tribe members fire highly advanced weaponry at the creatures, hoping to take them down from afar. Bucky slips between two Border Tribe warriors to fire his assault riffle. Bruce fires blasts from the palms of the Hulkbuster suit. Overhead, Rhodey and Sam engage the creatures with missiles and bullets.

"You see the teeth on those things?" Sam shouts.

"All right. Back up, Sam. You're gonna get your wings singed."

Rhodey drops a payload at the edge of the barrier, creating a cascade of fire and explosions on the creatures trying to get through. They continue to press forward, some of them getting smart enough to round the barrier.

"Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us, there's nothing between them and Vision."

"Not to mention the parts of the city outside the barrier," I add.

"Then we better keep 'em in front of us," Steve agrees.

Okoye asks, "How do we do that?"

T'Challa turns to her with serious eyes. "We open the barrier." He presses a finger to his ear to contact the palace. "On my signal, open northwest section seventeen."

"Requesting confirmation, My King. You said open the barrier?"

"On my signal."

"This will be the end of Wakanda," M'baku mutters.

Okoye stands firm in her position between T'Challa and M'Baku. I reach down to take Bucky's metal hand in mine, squeezing it tightly. Natasha places her hand on Steve's forearm, and Steve turns to look over at her.

"Then it will be the noblest ending in history."

END CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: Yibambe.