4/28/18

Okay, so if any of you are like me, you were absolutely dead after watching Infinity War. Your soul was torn out of your body and your mind left processing what the hell just happened. You know it was probably one of the best films you've seen in your life, but Jesus Christ, man! What the hell was that?! How?! Why?! Who?! What?! What happens now?! I need to know NOW!

In case it wasn't obvious, I am writing this a day after watching the movie and am evidently still shook. I apologize for that.

So, what exactly is this? I'm hesitant to call it my speculation on what will happen next, because it sounds a tad pretentious, but that's probably the best descriptor. Only difference is that the Earth's Mightiest Heroes won't be the precise focus here. They'll be around and impact events(still debating how far to take this one), but for this fic, I've decided to focus it on the struggles of another survivor of Thanos' universe snap: Shuri, the sister of the Black Panther, King T'Challa, and the only one left to assume the throne of Wakanda. And, more broadly: how Earth deals with this finger snap long term. Yes, I know everything will probably get fixed by time travel stuff in Avengers 4 so that barely anyone remembers it, but like, this is legitimately an intriguing narrative dilemma to explore.

Also, apologies if I accidentally spoiled anyone. I take full responsibility for that.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy.

[Edit 6/6/18]: Fixed a few chronological inconsistencies with the narrative, since the events of Black Panther and Infinity War are supposed to be 2 years apart.

She was born with everything. A father who loved her. A mother who nurtured her. A brother who, for all his annoying quirks, had her back no matter what happened to either of them. And, as icing upon all that, a paradise in which she could grow to be whoever she wanted to be. A land in which starvation and destitution were abstractions with no substance within its borders. A land of limitless opportunity, supplied by the land and the material from within the mountain, but most of all supplied by the ingenuity and intelligence of its people. A land where the people lived happy under the rule of a long line of powerful, noble monarchs, each one dedicated to promoting the nation's welfare. And a land where she could be proud to call that monarch her father: King T'Chaka of the nation of Wakanda.

Everything she needed was right there at her fingertips from the moment she could crawl. Everything she wanted, she figured out how to build herself by age 5. Her father eventually granted her request to become a part of the Wakandan Design Group-and by age 14, she had proven herself its most exceptional mind. Every building, every vehicle, every new technological marvel-all of them were born out of her own brilliance. She loved it even more than her people loved her for it.

But, of course, paradise doesn't last forever.

It began when her father was killed. Caught in a bombing of the UN by a terrorist named Helmut Zemo, and left to die in her brother T'Challa's arms. All so that Zemo could pin the attack on a former Cold War operative named Bucky Barnes, the "Winter Soldier," and make him a global fugitive. All just one part in an elaborate plan to turn Earth's mightiest heroes, the Avengers, against each other. In the end, her father was murdered by a man who saw him as nothing but an aging old monarch whose death would do more than any of the great things he accomplished in life could ever hope to match. She still hated that man, that selfish colonizer who couldn't look beyond his own suffering to see the suffering he had inflicted on countless others over the loss of their loved ones.

But she survived. And she recovered, with the help of her mother, Ramonda, and T'Challa, whose rule as king seemed to bring hope for a promising future. Of course, that too became mired in disorder when N'Jadaka, under the name of "Erik Stevens" and the son of their uncle N'Jobu, returned and challenged T'Challa for the throne so that he could wage war on the outside world. The moment he threw T'Challa's broken, bleeding body off of the cliff...well. Suffice it to say that her brother appearing to be dying once was enough for one lifetime.

But in the end, after an arduous struggle, they saved T'Challa and righted N'Jadaka's wrongs. They gained new allies, winning over their old rivals among the Jabari tribe. And more importantly, they finally opened themselves up to the outside world, providing aid to disadvantaged groups throughout the world and opening up their borders. For centuries they had sealed themselves off from the world fearing an end to their paradise, only to find that those who had decided to enter only made it shine brighter. Working in the Wakandan International Outreach Center, she of course couldn't remain blind to the challenges ahead-many nations outright refused to accept aid from Wakanda even as their people were starving, but T'Challa had a way of...persuading some of them. Nothing quite like showing up in a bulletproof cat-suit to bring people to the negotiation table.

For the last two years, everything seemed to be looking up…

Until he came.

Shuri doesn't remember exactly what happened. One minute, she was carefully extracting the Mind Stone from its connection to Vision. The next, some guy straight off of one of those ridiculous American metal band covers came in, killed her guards, and left only her and Zoye, one of the Dora Milaje, alive before Vision threw him out the window just as she slipped into unconsciousness.

When she came to, she didn't know how much time had passed-only that she needed to get up and make sure Vision and Zoye are okay. She did so, albeit groggily and with, she noticed, some slight cranial trauma. Probably to be expected after being punted down a spiral staircase, she thought absentmindedly. However, when her vision finally cleared up, Vision was nowhere to be seen. Is he still fighting off that death metal guy? It was a distinct possibility, except for the fact that the general din of battle seemed to have died down considerably. She couldn't tell whether they had won or lost. If they had won, based on what she had been told, it would provide an alternate explanation for Vision's absence: the Mind Stone had been destroyed, and him along with it, by that woman he was with. Wanda, she remembers, the only one with the power to destroy it. She seemed greatly concerned about her progress with removing the gem from his neural net, and had gathered that they were...close. She grimaced at the thought of what she must be going through, but the fact remained that she had to see what was going on.

After wandering around for a couple seconds, she came across Zoye, lying on the ground with a spear wound in her side and struggling to get up, and called out to her.

"Princess!" She replied as Shuri ran over to her. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," Shuri answered. "We need to get you to the medical wing immediately." The wound she had suffered was severe, but repairable, if they could get to a hospital bed in the next 40 minutes.

Zoye nodded at first and tried her best to rise, but as Shuri moved to lift her onto her shoulder, she began to feel a change come over her. As if every cell in her body had to struggle against a cosmic tidal wave merely to exist. She didn't know what had happened to cause it, or why only she seemed to be affected, but of one thing she was sure-she couldn't stay much longer.

"Princess..." she began, as calmly as she could manage. Out of all of her training, the one point most often drilled into her head was a simple mantra: if you ever find yourself gazing into the abyss, don't blink.

"It's okay, Zoye," Shuri replied with a grunt as she began to support her forward. "I've got you. You're going to be okay."

"It's too late for me," Zoye said simply. The wave was growing stronger. She could feel it-she only had seconds left. Before Shuri could fully respond, she turned herself around so that she could look into Shuri's eyes. She held her free hand tightly in her own, as if that alone could prove to her that Shuri too would not succumb to the same wave that was sweeping her away. She felt nothing unusual, and thus she said a silent prayer to Bast, to keep Shuri from suffering the same fate.

Shuri didn't know what to make of her sudden change. What is she saying? she thought, Her wounds can be healed. So why…? Before she finished the thought, she had her answer: a single speck of brown dust coming loose off of Zoye's uniform. That speck soon led to others-thousands, peeling off of Zoye's clothes and body like grains of sand being carried off in a wind that could not be perceived by human eyes. Before she could even process what was happening to her guard, Zoye shushed her.

"Do not worry, my Princess. Whatever happens, I know you will be able to face it," she paused for a second as Shuri struggled to comprehend what she was hearing. "You are so much stronger than you think you are."

Unfortunately, all that statement did was make her panic more.

"Zoye?! What do you mean-what's happening?!"

Before Shuri could press further, Zoye had already closed her eyes and tilted her head upward, content with the course of her life up to this point and sure that Wakanda would not in fact fall today. With a smile on her face, she let go, and fully disappeared into a cloud of dust.

"Zoye?!" Shuri cried out, beginning to frantically grab at her disintegrating body, only to find her hand wave through it and scatter the dust even further. "ZOYE!"

She managed to grab onto a cluster of the dust and held it as tightly in her hands as she could manage, but this too began to slip out from between her fingers, and soon she was left on her knees in the hallway, the last of what remained of her guard floating away with the breeze. Soon after she retreated from where she had stood and grabbed her knees, beginning to rock herself slightly. It wasn't that she had never seen death-she had killed a man herself, during the Battle of Bashenga Mountain-but the way in which Zoye had simply stopped existing left her shivering all the same. Nevertheless, her message seemed to allude to some greater crisis, and thus Shuri managed to get herself up and return to the window overlooking the field, picking up her pulse gauntlets on the way.

She looked out onto a scene of total devastation. The screams carried all the way to the facility, as thousands of soldiers all over the plains disintegrated into dust. Jabari, the Border Tribe, Dora Milaje...it seemed hardly anyone was safe. She turned away, unable to watch the tragedy unfolding before her. This much death, done indiscriminately...it could only mean one thing:

He must have done it, she thought. Thanos. The alien conqueror who led the army of beasts sent to take the Mind Stone and add it to the rest of the Infinity Stones he was planning to gather. The man whose goal, as the outsider Banner understood it, was to attach the Infinity Stones onto a powerful weapon he held, some kind of gauntlet, in order to "wipe out half the universe." No one had explained the properties of any of the other stones to her, besides the one she had been tasked with removing, but she could think of no other explanation for what was causing this. But I'm not feeling anything, she thought to herself, touching her arm in order to be certain of its continuing form. Zoye...she clearly felt it. So since I'm not feeling it, that must mean that there are some who are not affected. And if his target was "half the universe," it must not have been geographic, but population-based! Which means…

She gasped as her eyes widened out of fear.

"Brother!" She cried out in panic, in spite of herself. She hurriedly put on her gauntlets and raced down the hallway to the nearest exit, all the while fumbling for her transmitter. By the time she had gotten to the lift down to the ground floor, she had managed to get it and attempted to contact her brother. After a few seconds, the device produced a low tone, indicating that his transmitter was not responding. She then proceeded to try reaching others even as she reached the ground floor and hurried out the door, all the while encountering no signs of life.

Her mother, Ramonda, did not respond. Neither did her likely soon to be sister-in-law, Nakia. She was about to try Okoye next when all of a sudden she saw her, along with M'Baku and some of the Avengers from before, standing in a clearing about 50 feet away. "Captain America" Steve Rogers was there, for one, as were the "Black Widow" Natasha Romanov, formerly "Hulk" Bruce Banner, the "War Machine" Colonel Rhodes, Thor, and some...raccoon, standing on its hind legs. They all looked particularly somber. She promptly stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of Okoye, just as Okoye noticed her and called out her name. The two covered the remaining distance in what felt like seconds, with M'Baku following close behind, and fiercely embraced, relieved that somebody they loved had survived this cataclysm.

"Oh, praise Bast!" Okoye cried out in relief, tears threatening to stream down her face.

"I thought for sure you too had been taken from us!" M'Baku added joyfully, which was surprising given his initial opposition to Shuri's role in Wakandan affairs.

Shuri was too overjoyed herself to fully process that last comment, but when she did, she paused. "W-what do you mean 'you too?'"

Okoye's smile faded, and she turned away. M'Baku hung his head and scowled in disgust, whether at the question or himself she couldn't tell. The raccoon seemed to want to say something, but was immediately shushed by Rogers.

"Okoye?" Shuri repeated, to no response. "M'Baku?" She tried, but still no response. Panic began to well up inside her by the time the Avengers had moved closer, evidently apprehensive about something. After a few seconds of apprehension, she voiced the source of her worry:

"Okoye...w-where is my brother?"

Okoye's efforts to suppress her own feelings failed her at the mention of T'Challa. She let out a small, strangled cry of anguish. As Okoye was clearly unable to clarify what had happened to him, Shuri desperately turned to M'Baku, rapidly advancing upon him. "M'Baku! M'Baku, where is my brother?! Where is T'Challa?!"

"Calm yourself, Shuri!" M'Baku said as he grabbed her by the arms in an attempt to hold her still. The look on her face as she feared the worst broke down the walls he had built up, and he himself had to take a shallow breath before he confirmed her greatest nightmare.

"Your brother...he's...he's gone, Shuri."

She didn't hear the rest from him or from Okoye-about how he had been wounded by Thanos when he went to retrieve the Mind Stone, how valiantly he had fought to protect Wakanda, or how he disintegrated into dust before Okoye's eyes after Thanos snapped his fingers and destroyed half of all life in the universe. The jumbled thoughts, regrets, and cries of anguish within her own head deafened the world around her, until she closed her eyes and would have collapsed to the ground if M'Baku hadn't caught her. She opened her mouth, but all that came out was one final scream. A scream of such concentrated pain and sorrow that it carried throughout the forest and across the plains. A scream that she held for 20 seconds before her lungs gave out and all that she could produce was a much longer series of racking sobs as M'Baku held her in his arms, himself having given up on restraining his own anguish. The other heroes merely hung their heads as the gravity of their own losses hit them all over again.

"The reports are coming in now."

Okoye's announcement brought the group out of the stupor they had been in ever since the populace had been told to return to the city and the heroes along with them. Shuri required a bit more nudging by M'Baku to get out of her own head. She wiped one last tear and sat up out of one of her chairs to look at the data on the holographic monitor in the center of the throne room, where they had chosen to regroup along with the tribal leaders hastily elected to replace those who had fallen.

"Today our computers and survey drones recorded a population of approximately 9 million, 6 million of which were natives and the rest immigrants from neighboring countries," Okoye began, for reference, before bringing up the current report on the monitor. "After Thanos'...attack occurred, the population was reduced to 2,478,600. 27.54% of the original figure." The room gulped in apprehension along with her at the reality of such devastating losses.

She continued, "Of this figure, only 45,654 are immigrants. Among the native population, 150 of the 3,000 women inducted into the Dora Milaje are still alive, as are 143 of the Jabari sent to fight Thanos, present company included." M'Baku hung his head in rage at the loss of so many good men. "And as we can see, the other four tribal leaders, including..." She pauses as she is forced to confirm this additional piece of information out loud, "W'Kabi, of the Border Tribe, were erased, as were many of the candidates who would have replaced them."

"Among the remaining population," Okoye said, "567,000 are of the Border Tribe, 700,000 of the River Tribe, 250,000 of the Jabari, and the remaining 915,649 of the Mining and Merchant Tribes." Seeing the pain on Shuri's face, Okoye was hesitant to confirm another of her fears, but knew that she had to in order to complete the briefing. She took a deep breath before concluding with the one last, terrible statistic.

"The Queen Mother Ramonda's guards have gotten back to us, and...confirmed that she, too, has been erased along with...with Nakia, the Queen in waiting." She paused as the gravity of what she had said sunk in for the others in attendance, including the Avengers. "Everyone in a position to succeed to the throne has perished. Everyone except-"

"Me," Shuri finished with a whisper, still grappling with everything that had happened to lead to that moment.

"Yes," Okoye confirmed solemnly. "You, Shuri, are now the heir apparent to the throne of Wakanda...and to the mantle of Black Panther."

The group was silent for a moment, still trying to comprehend what exactly was happening. Once everyone had gotten a grip on themselves, Shani, the appointed leader of the Border Tribe, only a few years older than Shuri herself, voiced the concern all of them shared.

"My Queen," she began, eliciting a slight twitch from Shuri as she was reminded of her new station and the terrible cost associated with it, "What are we going to do?"

Before Shuri could respond, Davu of the River Tribe stood. A frail man of about 65, he was selected purely through his relation to his cousin, the previous elder. Notoriously set in his ways, he immediately objected.

"This is outrageous! We have just suffered the greatest calamity in the history of our nation! And yet all of you are willing to turn what's left of Wakanda over to some arrogant child?!"

"You will be silent, Davu!" Okoye hissed. Shani looked at Davu in contempt. The conclusive proof that this man is a fool, she thought to herself, Is that he isn't shutting up when Okoye told him to. And indeed, he did not.

"And what of our traditional ways?! You would just blindly submit to a child who has not proven herself in ritual combat?! Who has not been sanctioned directly by the ancestors, through the vision of the heart shaped herb?! We are expected to bow before her in this time of crisis merely because of her bloodline?!"

"If you wish to know what the ancestors think of her as Queen," M'Baku stated with his usual calm yet cold demeanor, "I am more than willing to send you to them myself."

Davu gulped slightly as M'Baku got up, but even his impressive bulk seemed unable to silence him. "You would defend her, Jabari? Just 2 years ago, you were outraged at this insolent welp heading our technological development and scoffing our traditional ways! Yet now you would kill me so that this harlot would be queen?!"

Shuri was about to say something, but her comment was drowned out when everyone stood up and began shouting at Davu, forcing Shuri to cover her ears and sit back down. Okoye demanded that he be removed from the chamber while the other tribal leaders along with Captain Rogers tried to hold M'Baku back, lest he shatter Davu's skull. Romanov, Banner, Colonel Rhodes, and Thor were also eager to make their opinions known as to Shuri's worthiness and the appropriateness of Davu's comments, but it was the raccoon, who had identified himself as "Rocket" en route to the capital, who finally silenced the room the only way he knew how: a loud cry to shut up, followed by a series of plasma rifle bolts aimed straight at the ceiling.

The sheer noise brought everyone out of their argument and made Shuri look up. Satisfied that he had everyone's attention, Rocket took a breath and spoke up.

"Now, I don't know how y'all think things are supposed to be run in this backwater city-state of yours," he began. "But from what I overheard, this is supposed to be a monarchy. Near as I can tell, that chick over there is the monarch," he stated, pointing at Shuri. "And in every monarchy I've ever stolen from-I mean, visited," he paused to make sure nobody questioned his alteration before finishing, "When the monarch is about to say something, everybody else is supposed to shut up and listen, or face their wrath."

The group didn't quite know how to feel about this. The leaders didn't even know the raccoon could talk, let alone that he had such a crude temperament. The others had to contain their surprise and, in some cases, laughter that they were being chewed out by a talking raccoon. Unfortunately for all of them, he continued, "Usually by beheading them or just shooting them in the face, although some of them get creative. Heh, I remember this one planet I was on, Haras VII, where they'd attach a guy's limbs to tow cables on four different spacecraft, and then jump to lightspeed. Hohoho, man! I can't even imagine how far the mess-"

"Stop talking, please," Shuri spoke up calmly, yet firmly.

Rocket blinked. "Yes, your majesty," he replied immediately.

With his gruesome tale ended, Shuri got up.

"The raccoon is right," she said, addressing the crowd. "If I am to be queen of Wakanda, I cannot serve in such a position while letting my advisors fight my battles for me."

The rest of the room continued to be silent, save Rocket. "Hey, listen, I have a name, you know-!" he began before being immediately tapped in the shin by Romanov's foot.

"And as for you," she said as she turned her attention to Davu and began to pace towards him. "I can understand your apprehension. Transfers of power come with many uncertainties, and at a time like this, those uncertainties can be particularly frightening. However..." By this point she had reached him, and despite him being 3 inches taller than her, he still seemed to shrivel slightly before her gaze. "That is no excuse for the disrespect you have shown me, nor for the disrespect you have shown towards my trusted advisors."

Davu looked like he wanted to say something, but what little courage he had possessed appeared to have vanished under the cold steel of her eyes.

"If you truly believe that I am not fit to rule Wakanda, then by all means, select a champion and have them face me in combat," Shuri said calmly, with no particular malice to it as much as sheer determination. "Their name will be added to the list of the 6,521,400 people who have been lost this day. But unlike those 6 and a half million, they will have been lost for nothing. Nothing...save your own pride." After giving Davu ten seconds to retort and hearing nothing, Shuri finished, "And I don't intend to let anyone else die today."

After one last nervous gulp, Davu angrily walked out of the chamber, Shuri holding up a hand to make sure no one accosted him on his way out. She sensed that the River Tribe would soon be reconsidering its choice for the leadership of their tribe.

When the door had been slammed and a moment had passed with no further rebuttals, Shuri moved to where she could stand facing the throne. My throne, she realized, momentarily breaking out of the character she had hoped to convey to her subjects. Once she assumed it again, she lifted her chin up with as much authority as she could muster, keeping her back turned so as to hide any signs of worry on her features.

"Obviously our first priority should be towards restoring our own economic stability. Bringing the Golden City back to full operational capacity."

The group nodded in agreement.

"Okoye, I would like you to begin relocating civilians to the capital immediately. We need to rebuild our workforce...and frankly, in the days to come, I'd feel much better having my people under this energy dome than outside of it."

Okoye nodded. "Understood, my Queen. It will be done."

She nodded in turn before proceeding. "M'Baku, I am entrusting you with the task of keeping the peace. In a crisis like this, a lot of people are going to be panicking, and some may be driven to violence. We need someone to ensure that no one else dies today. I can think of no one better suited to that task."

Rocket once again spoke up, "Well, I mean-" but immediately shut up when Black Widow kicked him again. Shuri continued.

"Shani, you must assemble the remaining warriors of the Border Tribe and send them to patrol the border. If our neighbors have suffered similar losses, they will likely find our immense resources more appealing than ever, and won't as easily balk when faced with our defenses."

"Understood, my Queen."

"And the rest of you should work to assist M'Baku and Okoye in their efforts."

The other two tribal leaders, Bahati of the Merchant Tribe and Hasani of the Mining Tribe, nodded. "Understood, my Queen," they said in unison.

Once she was finished, she turned her body towards the group.

"Now, if there are no further comments, there is an urgent matter I must attend to." She waved to the Avengers, who stood up prepared to accompany her, and was about to walk down the hallway when M'Baku interjected.

"My Queen," he began, "There is something to be said for upholding tradition."

Shuri raised an eyebrow and tilted her head slightly. "In what way?"

"Regarding the heart shaped herb."

Shuri's eyes went wide for a second before returning to normal. "It's been 2 years since the garden was burned, M'Baku, and we've been searching for another ever since. I think we need to face the fact that the last herb to exist went with...with T'Challa."

"Perhaps," he responded, "But continuing to search for it may prove fruitful. I have a feeling those who share Davu's outlook will be more acceptive of your rule if you consumed the herb."

"I cannot waste what resources we have left pandering to a bunch of closed-minded idiots with sticks up their asses," Shuri said, a good helping of her old sass returning in spite of all that had happened. M'Baku couldn't help but smile slightly upon seeing it, even as she continued. "For now, all attempts to search for a replacement herb are to be put on hold until we have recovered."

He nodded, and gave her the time-honored Wakandan salute, bringing his arms up to his chest in an x shape before bringing them down to his sides. Nevertheless, he couldn't shake the sense that retrieving the herb was important.

Shuri responded in kind, prompting everyone else to do so as well, in support of the new Queen of Wakanda. The Avengers fell in line behind her as she walked out of the throne room.

When they were certain she was gone and the doors were closed, the tribal council was left to talk amongst themselves. Hasani voiced the concern they all shared.

"Do the rest of you truly believe she is ready for this?"

The others looked at each other before giving their responses.

"She fought valiantly in the struggle to reclaim Wakanda, and she has proven herself to be one of the most exceptional minds on Earth," Okoye stated, matter-of-factly. "She has my full confidence."

Shani and Bahati nodded in agreement, as did M'Baku before he spoke up as well.

"It is true that I had doubts as to her abilities before. But since then, I have gained an immense respect for T'Challa. If he were here now, I am confident that he would be satisfied with Shuri's ability to lead us. It is on that confidence that I base my support for her."

Hasani nodded solemnly.

"Then I suppose I must place my faith in Bast that you are all correct. For if not...we are surely doomed."