》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

"The Jabariland offers their comfort, for your loss." M'Baku spoke gently to Shuri, doing a respectful bow. Still, Shuri stayed silent.

"You must mourn her in accordance to the rituals of your ancestors. Don't bury yourself in your technology," M'Baku said.

"Why are you here?'" Shuri turned her head to the right, looking at M'Baku.

"I promised your brother, that I will provide you with console, and protection. But I am in need of your advice today." M'Baku said.

"The tribal elders have approached me with a proposition. They wish to evacuate the city and set up camp, in Jabariland." M'Baku said, stepping forward.

"So now you are keen to hear from a child? Who scoffs at tradition." Shuri spoke, calling out M'Baku for what he said to Shuri a few years back when he challenged T'Challa.

"The world...the world has taken too much from you, for you to still be considered a child." Shuri glanced at him and back to the ground in her thoughts.

"It is in my peoples interest to know which way your mind is in."

"The elders are desperate. The city is vulnerable. If you are to provide for them. They will be in great debt to you," Shuri stated.

"And what of your heart?" M'Baku asked, patting his chest softly in gesture. "Which way is your heart leaning?"

"I just buried the last person who truly knew me. My heart was buried with her," Shuri said.

"And what of Makena?" M'Baku asked.

Shuri looked down at the mention of her girlfriend. She didn't even know where they stood anymore. "If she truly knew me, she would've stayed with me. I needed her, and she chose vengeance over me. That told me all I needed to know about where we stand," Shuri stated.

M'Baku nodded, giving a bow and she nodded before he walked away to leave her to her thoughts.

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

Riri sat down on a chair, her hand placed over Makena's. Shuri walked into the room and Riri stood up, moving her hand from Makena's. "Hey, uh, is she gonna wake up anytime soon?" Riri asked.

Shuri walked over to Makena's body and checked her vitals. "Griot, give me Makena's health chart," Shuri spoke.

"Yes, Princess."

The charts pulled up and it read that there was still 75% of vibranium in her system and with every minute, it reached closer to her heart. "I thought vibranium kills her. Shouldn't she be dead?" Riri asked in confusion.

Shuri nodded, "It's supposed to. She should be dead already. But, it's like her body is feeding off from the vibranium. I think when she gave into her full potential, vibranium no longer affected her." Shuri pulled up her DNA and furrowed her brows in confusion. The vibranium was almost, like spreading throughout her body, strengthing her cells.

"So what does that mean?" Riri asked.

"I think it's connecting with her DNA, it's saving her life." Shuri revealed, shocking herself. She had tried preparing herself for Makena's slow death but now, she had hope Makena would live.

"So she's gonna live?" Riri asked, with hopeful eyes.

"Yes, she will live. So then I can kill her again," Shuri mumbled.

Riri raised her brows, chuckling awkwardly, not knowing if Shuri was actually joking or not. "Wait, you're joking right?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

Shuri entered the lab, on the lower level where she had previously been trying to recreate the Heart-Shaped Herb for T'Challa. Shuri touched a dead leaf but stiffened, feeling another presence in the room. Shuri grabbed the pocket knife, turning it into a gun and turning it around, aiming at the person. (she used kenas pocket knife 🤭)

Makena raised her brows at the gun pointed at her as she leaned on the wall. A scar was visible on her throat. That's one thing that Makena hated, every cut, scratch, wound, etc, depending how deep it was would all heal but leave a scar. She hated her scars and was always insecure of them but Shuri loved them. Shuri was probably the only person in the world who could make her feel better about them.

Shuri sighed and lowered the gun, switching it back into a pocket knife. "Do you always point a gun at someone when you hear a noise?" Makena sighed not getting an answer. "I was wondering where that was," Makena mumbled. (the reference <3)

"When did you awake?" Shuri asked.

"Few minutes ago. Surprised I didn't wake up with the ancestors. I'm assuming you're the reason for that?" Makena questioned, staying in here spot. She could feel the anger coming from Shuri, and it was directed at her so she kept her distance.

"You assume wrong. I didn't do anything, the vibranium did." Shuri stated.

Makena hummed to herself, "Mhm, I thought she was lying when she said it wouldn't kill me. Apparently not. And I'm assuming you're not exactly happy with me at the moment."

"How do you know?"

"If you weren't then your fist wouldn't be clenched and you wouldn't be radiating anger," Makena shrugged knowingly.

"Why did you leave me?" Makena stayed silent and Shuri grew frustrated. "I needed you, and you left me! You knew you could die and you left anyways!" Shuri exclaimed, finally breaking her composure.

A tear fell from Kena's eye and Shuri scoffed. "No, you don't get to cry! My mother died in front of me and you did nothing! You didn't hold me, comfort me, be there for me when I needed you most. You chose to be selfish and go fight Namor! And guess what Makena? You almost died! And if you died I would have nothing left!" Shuri cried.

"You think I wanted to leave you?! I had no choice!" Makena argued.

"You always have a choice!" Shuri scoffed angrily.

"Oh so you'd rather me let him get away with that?! I had the opportunity and I took it. I failed, yes but I made my choice to protect what I love! My entire life's purpose is protecting what I love under any circumstance! I loved her too! She was the closest thing I had to a mother. My entire life is nothing without you so I rather die fighting for you than you die fighting for me!"

Makena walked over and Shuri stayed put, not backing up like Makena would've expected. "That's not your decision to make, Makena! You're not the only one allowed to make sacrifices in this relationship."

"You're right, but I have nothing to lose, Shuri. I have no family, the world would be fine if I was gone. But Wakanda needs you." Makena said, leaning back on the table.

"You would lose me. Am I not enough to make you stay?" Shuri's voice cracked.

Makena licked her lips and shook her head, "You would be fine without me, Shuri."

Shuri looked at Makena in disbelief, "Are you kidding me? You can't just make an assumption like that."

"Why not? Huh? Why not? You've already prepared yourself for when I die," Makena stated.

Shuri looked away, not aware Makena knew that. "Hey, you can't judge me for that. With the shit you pull all the time, I needed to be prepared. And what you pulled with Namor proved exactly why. But just because I tried to prepare myself does not mean that I wouldn't absolutely break if I lost you." Shuri defended.

They both staying in silence for a few seconds until Makena chose to speak. "I'm sorry. Okay. I'm sorry I left, I should've stayed."

"Yeah, you should've."

"Look, I don't wanna make excuses. But you have no idea what happened to me when I passed out," Makena said.

"So tell me. I can't understand you if you don't share these details with me."

Makena ran a hand over her hair before speaking. "I woke up in the Ancestral Plane. But it wasn't Wakanda's. It was the Egyptian Ancestral Plane. I saw my- I saw Zenna."

"Zenna? As in your mother, Zenna?" Shuri asked and Makena nodded softly.

"Apparently I was sent there to get her guidance. She told me I started war with Talokan and I had to be the one to finish it. To be honest I'm not even sure that's true anymore. I had my chance and I screwed it up." Makena sighed, biting the inside of her cheek.

"You can't blame yourself for that." Shuri mumbled.

"But I can. If I never killed that woman then none of this would've happened. We could've come up with a peaceful resolution. But I let my vengeance, and my heart get in the way of what was really important. Protecting Wakanda, like T'Challa asked me to." Makena spoke, looking down as she mentioned T'Challa.

Shuri had no clue what T'Challa had said to Makena weeks before he passed away. Makena refused to tell her anything he said.

"But you did protect Wakanda. You saved me, as the Princess of Wakanda, you saved the future of our nation. You may have killed her but you killed her for Wakanda, and for me. I'm sorry for not understanding that sooner. All you wanted to do was protect me and I called you selfish for it." Shuri wiped her tears with a sniffle.

Makena walked forward and took Shuri's hands in hers. "Hey, no, look at me. You had every right to say that. I should've stayed with you. You're my girlfriend and you should've been my main priority. That's on me. I promise you that I will never choose vengeance over you again."

Shuri smiled softly, leaning her forehead against Makena's. "You can totally read my mind right now can't you?" Shuri mused.

"Maybe, but I don't have much control over it." Makena chuckled.

"So you know what I'm thinking?" Shuri asked.

Makena nodded, pulling up Shuri's hand and looking at the bracelet around Shuri's wrist. "You sure this is gonna work?" Makena asked.

Before Shuri could answer, Makena had touched the bracelet and immediately froze, her eyes turning fully purple. Seconds later Makena blinked, coming back and Shuri looked at her in concern. "What just happened?" Shuri asked.

"I had a vision."

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

"Your mother protected me like I was one of her own. The least that I can do is try to return the favor." Riri said. Shuri leaned on one of the lab tables as Makena was on her way to the lab. She was coming from the other lab, having helping Shuri work on recreating the Heart-Shaped Herb.

Shuri stood up, "We need to find a way to weaken, Namor."

"Even weakened he's still gon' be a problem." Riri replied.

"The Black Panther has never failed to protect Wakanda."

"I thought the Black Panther was gone."

"My brother is dead. But it doesn't mean the Black Panther is gone."

The elevator opened and Makena walked out, they both turned to look at her. "Still not gonna tell me what you seen?" Shuri asked.

Riri scrunched her brows in confusion, "What am I missing?"

"She had a vision about what happens. And she refuses to tell me anything about it," Shuri huffed.

"If I tell you what happens, it won't happen," Makena stated and Shuri sighed. Makena used her beads to pull up a life-size screening of Namor.

"Why doesn't he look like them?" Riri asked.

"His physiology is completely different. None of them fly or have pointed ears like him." Shuri explained and Makena nodded in confirmation as she stood on the left of Riri with her arms crossed over her chest. She wore a crop top with some cargo pants that tucked into her platform boots, and her hair tied up.

"The women that were guarding us, they had water over their mouths and on their necks. He didn't have that," Riri said.

"They're are several organisms that don't need gils to extract oxygen from the water so, it's like a uh jellyfish. It just absorbs the oxygen through, from his skin. It's a process called diffusion." Shuri mumbled in realization.

"In that attack before he took out your plane, he jumped back into the water. What if that's what makes him strong?" Riri suggested.

Makena nodded, understanding what she was suggesting. "Yeah, when I fought him it's like he wasn't even trying to fight me back. He just kept blocking my hits and trying to get me down long enough to get to the water." Makena said.

"He's breathing air and getting oxygen from the water on his skin. If we can find a way to dry his ass out, he won't be as strong." Riri said, looking to Makena for confirmation and she nodded.

"Yo that's it. Griot, we need to convert the Royal Tylon fighter into a pure vaporization chamber." Shuri spoke.

"Is that even possible?" Riri asked.

"Yes. You're going to help us trap him." Shuri said.

Makena smiled to herself and walked over to her desk and pulled out a briefcase. "Riri, come here," Makena gestured over.

Shuri and Riri walked out as Makena pulled up a suit design. "Yo, that's awesome. Did you make this already?" Riri asked.

Makena smiled, "Nah, it's just a design I've been working on since I seen that little YouTube channel a while back. You need to make it. Change whatever you want to however you prefer it. It's just inspiration." Makena shrugged, shutting the case and handing it to Riri.

"Wow, thank you, this helps me a lot. What are you gonna be workin' on?" Riri asked with a smile.

Makena sighed, "Well according to the Princess, she wants me to study my own powers." Shuri smiled, "Unless you want to train with Ayo then I suggest you learn how to control yourself." Shuri said with a sheepish smile.

"Still don't see how that's necessary but whatever you say Princess," Makena sighed with a sarcastic smile.

"Mhm. Shouldn't you go change into something more lab appropriate?" Shuri questioned with a teasing smirk.

"What do you mean? I think I look great." Makena argued, looking down at her abs with a smile.

"Unless you want to ruin that outfit you should go change," Shuri said.

Makena sighed and rolled her eyes, "Okay fine. You win. I'll be right back." Makena mumbled.

Shuri and Riri watched as she walked up the stairs, most likely headed to the rooftop.

"How old were you went you built your first machine?" Shuri asked.

"Three. My step dad was a car mechanic, he wanted to build airplanes. He gave me these tools and let me just work it out." Riri answered.

"So who taught you how to do all that you do?" Riri asked Shuri.

"My big brother."

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《

a.n: ngl almost broke the gfs up right there...

i need a ship name for riri and kena now ngl just for fun obvs

how abt rikena? mariri?

ugh school is killing me but im trying to finish up my riri book so it can be posted after i finish this one🤞

》* 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ • 。* 。° 。* 。 • ˚《