"Oh, yes," M'Baku smirked. "I heard the stories. The child who scoffs at tradition turns out to be Bast's chosen one… The gods do love irony, don't they?"
...
In Wakanda, everybody knows the story of how the panther goddess Bast helped a warrior shaman unite the five tribes and become king. Centuries later, Bast appears again, this time to help Princess Shuri unite the whole world against Thanos the Mad Titan, through a team of remarkable women. That will be the story of A-Force.
A/N: Hello again! This is my second story in the Secret Sisterhood Trilogy. For those who don't know, Shuri here is a bit older than she is in the canon. She was born in 1994, and T'Challa in 1984. It will not be Black Panther compliant, because Ultron is never created in this trilogy, and therefore Civil War never happens. But Erik Killmonger will still make an appearance, with his canon backstory. I will use other scenes from the movie as well, but not necessarily in a chronological order. There are also some references to Agents of SHIELD, but it's fine if you don't watch the show.
Because the first story in the trilogy was an OC-centric one, and some people simply don't want to read that sort of fics, I tried to make sure this one can be read as a standalone for those who want a fanfiction about Wakanda. The same OCs will still appear, but here they are only side characters. Still, I really hope you'll give The Heiress a chance as well, even if you don't like OC stories. Although it's mostly told from the OC's POV, it's a plot-driven story, and I'm quite proud of it. Anyway, that's all. I hope you enjoy!
Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.
—Maya Angelou
Everyone in Wakanda was bilingual. They spoke Xhosa, because it was the language of their ancestors. And they spoke English, because it was essential to follow what was going on around the rest of the world. Still, very few Wakandans could learn how to read and write both in Xhosa and English at the age of three. That was how King T'Chaka and Queen Ramonda had discovered that their daughter was a genius. At least that was what Shuri had been told.
After that, the lessons had started. Not that she complained. Although she was only six, it was usually her tutors who struggled to keep up with Shuri, not the other way around. Besides, she could see her brother's lessons were much more exhausting. Shuri didn't envy him. He was preparing to become the next King of Wakanda and Black Panther some day. While Shuri was free to be whoever she wanted, T'Challa was learning how to be a leader, a politician, and a warrior. He had very little time to play. But when he did, he would make sure he would spend that time with his little sister.
They had built this treehouse together, for example. It was located in the forest, and sometimes T'Challa would try to scare her, saying there were lions, tigers, and other predators lurking around, and there might even be Jabari warriors who wanted to kidnap them. But Shuri knew there were no wild animals here. They were still too close to the civilization to be in that sort of danger. As for the Jabari, they would never leave their mountains.
Her brother had fallen asleep. There were no clouds in the sky tonight, so she was trying to find the constellations she had learned earlier today. But suddenly, Shuri spotted something far more interesting than the stars. In the distance, there was a huge beast staring at her, a black panther with glowing purple eyes.
Shuri gasped. Like every Wakandan, she knew the stories. This was the panther goddess in the legends!
"Brother, wake up!" She shook him awake.
T'Challa shot up immediately. "Shuri? What is going on?"
"Bast! Bast is here!"
"Bast? L—like the goddess?"
"Yes! Come, see for yourself!"
He scrambled to his feet and looked out the small window. Thankfully, Bast was still there, looking at them.
T'Challa sighed. "Is this another prank?"
Alright, she loved pulling pranks on him, but how could she possibly pull a prank like this? "What? Are you blind, brother?"
"Shuri, there is nothing over there! It is just the mountains. Come on, let's go back to sleep." He yawned lazily, curled up on the bedroll, and closed his eyes. Shuri did the same, only she had no intention of actually falling asleep.
So, he couldn't see her… The panther goddess had chosen to appear only to Shuri.
Once she was confident that he was fast asleep, Shuri stood up and looked out again. Yes, Bast was still there, waiting. Waiting for her, no doubt. Carefully, she climbed down from the treehouse, and began to run as fast as she could. She was afraid that Bast would get tired of waiting, and disappear.
The forest was starting to get thicker, but she didn't care. Bast would protect her.
What did she want from her, though? According to the legends, when Bast had appeared to the warrior shaman, Bashenga, and guided him to the Heart-Shaped Herb, the five tribes were at war. Bashenga had then united the tribes, become the first king and Black Panther. As far as Shuri knew, Bast had never appeared to anyone again after that. She didn't have to. Wakanda had been thriving since King Bashenga's reign. They were the most technologically advanced nation ever. Her father always said as long as they kept this secret from the rest of the world, they would be safe.
Deep down, Shuri believed this was wrong, though even she wasn't sure why. Her parents always said no matter how smart she was, she was too young to understand how the world really worked. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her, and she began running even faster. Maybe this was why Bast was here. To help her understand how the world really worked.
Shuri came face to face with the sacred beast in a small clearing. She stopped abruptly, and went down to one knee to revere the goddess of her people. In response, she regarded the princess with a nod, then turned around and darted off. She was even bigger than Shuri had thought, slightly larger than a Royal Talon Flyer, but her intangible form allowed her to roam the dense forest freely. Shuri went after her.
Bast was patient. Despite her small legs, Shuri wasn't having any trouble keeping up with her. At some point, she realized she would no longer be able to find her way back to the treehouse, but it didn't frighten her. She just kept running.
The panther goddess led her into a cave. Unlike King Bashenga, Shuri didn't find anything inside the cave, though. There was just darkness… and stars. Thousands of them. All of a sudden, Shuri realized this was a view from a spaceship. A dark, grim, scary spaceship, but it was definitely a spaceship!
And she wasn't alone. When she turned around, she found three women behind her. They were talking among themselves. None of them seemed to be aware of Shuri's presence. It was as if she was invisible to them. Two of them were white. Shuri had only seen white people in the old American movies her father watched. And now, two white women were standing before her. One was blonde, and had beautiful blue eyes. She was whispering something in a language Shuri didn't understand. The other's skin was equally pale, but she had dark brown eyes and hair. She was tinkering with a strange contraption that stood in the middle of the room.
"We're running out of time!" the only black woman in the room cried. Interesting. Her accent was Wakandan.
"Come on, Sigyn," the dark-haired white woman urged the blonde one. She sounded like an American.
"It's almost done," Sigyn said, and in a flash of green light, the American turned into her teenage self. What kind of technology that was?
There was a pounding on the door. They all gasped in fear.
"I'll buy you some time," the Wakandan offered.
"Shuri, don't…"
Only then, little Shuri realized this was her future self. Like the American—at least before Sigyn's magic had changed her—she looked like she was in her thirties, while Sigyn seemed a bit younger than both.
"There's no other way. Besides, we're all going to sacrifice ourselves. This is what we signed up for. If you don't go back in time now, all this will be for nothing."
"Still, my death is going to be much quicker, compared to yours. It's not fair."
"I died when Thanos killed my brother anyway. I have nothing to fear."
Shuri's heart jumped in her chest. T'Challa… Was T'Challa dead?
"And I died when he made me kill Loki," Sigyn added.
"Good luck, my friend." Shuri hugged the American.
The real Shuri burst into sobs. She was no longer paying attention to what was happening around her. "Please," she begged Bast, but she was nowhere to be seen now. "Please, get me out of here! I am scared! Baba? T'Challa? Where are you? Help me!"
No one answered her prayers.
…
When Shuri woke up, she was crying in T'Challa's arms. "Brother! You are safe!"
He frowned in confusion. "Why would I not be safe?"
"How did you find me?"
"You were sleeping right here, Shuri."
She sat up and looked around. The day had broken, probably only a few minutes ago. They were under the treehouse. Bast must have taken her back to her brother. She studied his face for a moment, trying to decide whether she should tell him the truth or not.
There had to be no lies in the family. This was one of the first lessons their father had taught them. "Lies weaken the family," he would say. Besides, if her own brother didn't believe her, who else would?
"It wasn't a prank," she blurted out.
"What?"
"It wasn't a prank. I saw Bast last night. After you fell asleep, I went after her." She then proceeded to tell him about the cave, and the vision she had seen. But T'Challa only laughed when she was finished.
"I don't know why you decided to sleep on the forest ground, but you just had a nightmare, little sister. You were crying in your sleep, and saying those names. Sigyn, Loki, Thanos…"
"No! I am telling you, it was real!" She was starting to get angry now. She had thought T'Challa would believe her.
Her frustration seemed to entertain T'Challa. He grinned. "Then how did you find your way back to the treehouse?"
She shrugged. Indeed, she had no explanation for that.
He got on his feet, and took Shuri's hand. "Let's go home, little sister. Don't worry, I won't let anyone hurt you."
…
Her parents' reaction was the same as T'Challa's when Shuri repeated the story to them. They told her it was just a nightmare. But later that day, her father came to see Shuri in her room. He seemed thoughtful. There was a thick, worn book in his hand. He put this book on the desk, then pulled a chair to sit, and made Shuri sit on his lap.
"You have always been such a curious child, my dear."
"Is it a bad thing?" He had made it sound like it was.
"Sometimes. I knew you were fascinated by Western culture, but since when you have been interested in Norse mythology, Shuri?"
"Norse mythology?" She vaguely recalled the Vikings, people lived in the North of Europe. A cold, harsh land… Things she had learned in her history and geography lessons. She would love to see the aurora one day. The colorful lights caused by the Earth's magnetic field leading the charged particles from the Sun to the North and South Poles, and the atmosphere lighting them up. But other than that, she had never been particularly interested in that part of the world. What was her father talking about?
His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You wouldn't lie to me, would you?"
"Never."
"Of course. Forgive me." He smiled, and stroked her hair. "Perhaps you don't even remember reading about it, considering how much you read…"
"Baba, I don't understand…"
He took the book, and opened a page he must have marked earlier. "'Sigyn' is not an uncommon name in Nordic countries. But originally, it is the name of a Norse goddess. And in those stories, she is also the wife of a Norse god, Loki."
She gasped. This was proof. Proof that what she had seen last night wasn't a nightmare. "What about… Thanos? Is he in this book as well?"
"No. There is no mention of a Thanos in Norse mythology. But, well… You have a vast imagination."
"You don't believe me…"
He thought for a moment before speaking. "You are my daughter, Shuri. I want to protect you. Like I said, curiosity can be a dangerous thing. When it turns into obsession. Forget about your nightmare, forget about that cave, forget about the treehouse."
"But the treehouse—"
"It is gone now." His voice was soft, but firm.
Tears brimmed in her eyes. "What?"
"My dear child, T'Challa is too old to play with you, don't you see it? He is sixteen now, almost a grown man."
"But he likes playing with me!"
"He loves you so much that he cannot refuse you when you ask him."
Slowly, he stood up, and crossed to the window, probably to watch the sunset. The sunsets in Wakanda were beautiful, and Shuri's room had a lovely view. "You and T'Challa both have a great destiny ahead of you. I know it," he said at last, stroked Shuri's cheek, and left.
With the back of her hand, Shuri wiped the tears away, and looked at her desk. Her father had left the book here. She sat at her desk for a while, thinking about the vision Bast had shown her.
She wasn't a shaman. She couldn't speak with spirits, or interpret visions. She was a scientist. Or, she would be, one day. But then, Bast could have chosen to appear to Zuri, or one of the other shamans and their children, right? She had appeared to Shuri instead. Maybe this time, what she needed wasn't a warrior shaman, but a scientist princess.