I don't know if I did the explination below very well.

So- sorry!


The moment that the limo pulled up to the palace, Shion practically peeled herself from Chad's side and flung herself out of the vehicle before it even stopped moving. Almost taking Nat out with her if the woman's startled yelp was anything to go by.

The kid turned briefly, maybe to check and make sure that she hadn't actually injured anyone in her haste to flee and visibly cringed before she ran off. Presumably to hide herself away somewhere from further humiliation and chastisement. At which point Bucky finally managed to find his voice and asked, "So she's really-"

"Yes."

"But she's fourteen!" He practically shouted in disbelief. Steve didn't seem to be handling the news of the kids pregnancy any better. He was sitting there with his arms crossed over his chest and a look of disappointment on his face before deciding to add his two cents to the conversation.

"I didn't take her for someone so...irresponsible."

Chad glared at the two and bared his teeth in an angry snarl before slowly biting out the words. "She. Isn't." From between clenched teeth.

"Then how the hell did she wind up in the family way if she isn't fucking irresponsible?!" Chad didn't feel the need to dignify Steve's stupid question with any kind of verble response.

He just glared at the man until his righteous anger slowly drained away right along with his poor fucking judgement of Ichigo's character. Contrary to what the man was currently thinking, Ichigo was as far from a slut as anyone could get. Most days she didn't even seem to realize that she was a female at all. Period.

The man looked positively ill by the time Chad finally looked away from him again.

Of course by this time the rest of them had managed to figure out at least part of the reason for the girl's odd, frantic behavior and were looking more than a little bit ill themselves. With the exception of T'Challa, Bucky, Nat and Clint. All of those people at that very moment looked a nice combination of both ill and murderous.

"Shit." Clint muttered in dismay as he scrubbed his face with his hands. Beside him, Nat merely quietly nodded her head in agreement.

"So what now?" Steve finally managed to ask around the odd lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. He felt badly for jumping to conclusions about the girl's character, especially when he hadn't had any of the facts on how she wound up in her condition.

"Like I said, she needs to choose someone to marry. It's... I get that an arranged marriage isn't ideal for her. But for the time being, when she can't fight to protect herself adequately- it's really the best way to go. Besides, if she has a husband, Soul Society will think twice about fucking with her. Even more so while in her condition."

"How do you know they'll think twice about coming after her?"

"Depending on who she chooses, that person will not only act as a father to her child, but can help provide protection that she may not be able to provide herself with later on. Besides, anyone that knows- really knows Ichigo, knows that she won't take any shit from anyone. Couple that with irrational pregnancy hormones and you have-"

"A recipe for disaster of epic proportions." Scott said weakly as Chad made a thoughtful humming sound and nodded.

Sighing T'Challa mulled over everything that he had heard so far before saying quietly, "We should speak of this at length once we are inside. Then we will plan accordingly."

Chad nodded again and waited until everyone was out of the vehicle before quietly following suit. He had a feeling that the talk he was about to have with everyone was going to be less than pleasant. Especially given how everyone was taking the news of Ichigo's condition.

He also couldn't seem to shake the growing sense of dread that Ichigo was going to nail his ass to the wall later for embarrassing her in front of these people.


A short time later, Chad found himself seated across from the king of Wakanda and his friends, anxiously drumming his fingertips on the table as he waited for everyone to get comfortable since they would likely be speaking for a while.

"So... How do you wish to begin this?" T'Challa asked as he regarded the young man curiously.

"I guess we can start this conversation by explaining a little bit about why this happened."

"Very well. Please enlighten us on how you're friend... Ichigo? Was it? Was assaulted in the first place. She doesn't seem the type of person who would allow such to happen in the first place."

"You aren't wrong about that. She usually takes such acts badly. And tends to treat the offender with extreme prejudice upon catching them. Anyways... I'm not sure exactly how much you know about her or her abilities but a while back she was very badly injured. She almost died before we could get her any sort of help. She was already in a weakened state before the final part of the battle took place. And because of that, her abilities were...on the fritz. So much so that she was practically a normal human by the end of things."

"To stop the person about to destroy this world and commit mass genocide on a global scale, she decided to sacrifice her power. And once the battle was over, all of her abilities- her strength, her ability to regenerate, every bodily function that basically kept her alive- was more or less gone. By the time she was taken to the hospital, she was in a coma. After which she slipped into a vegetative state. And we were told that she would probably never wake up again."

"She really shocked the hell out of us all when she finally woke up-" Chad said with a little laugh, "But then Ichigo has always had a knack for redefining the word, 'miracle'."

"Despite waking up, she didn't have her power anymore. Apparently what she sacrificed before was just a small portion of it at that time. In fact we believed it was completely gone. It was shortly after she was released from the hospital that she was..." He frowned but didn't speak further for a moment before then saying slowly, "Anyways... It must be why her abilities rebounded so quickly. I can't imagine how terrified she must have been. She's always been a protector- Of the world, the people and all other things in it- she's fiercely protective of anything with a pulse, really. And equally just as protective of those we know without pulses. So finding herself in such a position must have been a real blow to her as both a girl and a protector."

"What happened to the guy that did it? Was he caught?" Nat asked. Already silently making plans to 'confiscate' a plane and go look for the sorry bastard. Clint must have known what she was planning, because he reached out absently and took hold of her hand and gave it a small squeeze to let her know that all she had to do was say the word and he would go with her.

Chad let out a dark sounding laugh before saying, "Yeah. The bastard was caught alright. Ichgo must have just re awakened her abilities at the time because the authorities back home are still picking up pieces of the fucker."

Someone let out a low whistle of astonishment. Clint maybe?

"She killed him?"

"I'm not entirely sure that she meant too," Chad said warily. He knew Ichigo had a little bit of a temper, but she had been training herself since she gained her...more potent abilities on how to react to certain scenarios in real life so that she wouldn't accidentally use her power to harm another, weaker person. It was something that his friend prided herself on. Well, used to pride herself on anyways. "Each of us have certain ethics and a code of conduct that we tend to follow and enforce on ourselves because we aren't totally normal and many of us have friends and family who are."

"At the time of her abilities re awakening, she must have been under a lot of stress and suffered a huge trauma from what had happened. Her control would have been shit because of her terror. I can't exactly say that I feel terribly bad about the guy being blown to bits," Chad said with a slight shrug of his large shoulders. "If I had known what had happened sooner- I would have killed him myself. He wouldn't have gone quickly either. I tend to get really pissed when one of my friends is messed with."

"That is something I'm sure that we can appreciate," T'Challa said diplomatically before then asking, "In the car before, you spoke about your friend being dissected. Would you please explain?"

"Basically the long and short of it is this, Ichigo is one of the most powerful beings in the known world. She can literally break worlds. And rip apart reality as we know it, if she so desires. The people that we work with are incredibly narrow minded. They hand down execution orders as easily as they breathe. And because Ichigo is as powerful as she is, they can't afford to lose her power or strength."

"Think about it for a moment. They see her as one of the single most destructive weapons in all of the known world. They already try to order her around because of it. However because she was born human, she doesn't like to listen to them and they can't touch her for it. And they don't like that."

"She'll be much less inclined to work for them if she has a kid and husband to worry about. Which means that they won't be able to call her to their aid the next time something big happens. A husband and kid will mean less control over her and her future. Less fighting their battles and almost dying because of their crappy decisions and more staying home to take care of the family."

"And that scares them?"

"It flat out terrifies them. Because she's beaten so many of their enemies, and cleaned up so many of their stupid mistakes that they rely on her far too much. And they know it. So when they find out about her being pregnant, they'll either lock her up in a lab and dissect her to learn if they can reproduce her power in others or they'll kill her to take the kid and raise it as a weapon if it shows even the slightest bit of power akin to her own."

T'Challa breathed deeply for a moment as he mulled over the giant's words before asking. "And it necessary for her to marry at her age?"

"Like I said, marrying will add an extra measure of protection for her and the kid. Kisuke, a scientist from back home that helped to train her and stuff. He's a really clever guy. He thinks that at some point during her pregnancy, the baby will begin syphoning her power into itself. If it does, she could suffer all kinds of health problems and other issues. Some of her old scars from former battles may reopen, she could wind up in another coma, she won't be as strong or able bodied as she is now. And if she were to get into a fight..."

"Say no more," T'Challa said as it dawned on him just how bad the girl's situation could quickly become. Was this why Stark sent her here? He wondered briefly. "We will help you any way that we can."

"Thank you. I am...definitely going to need it." Chad said.