Chapter 19: Tours

"Sit on that table here, please," Dr. Okapi said. He ushered towards a metal table in a glass-walled medical wing of Birnin Zana's expansive medical research lab. Long screens along each side of the room whirred with constantly updated data and communications. Small beeping sounds from various machinery prevented total silence from ever descending upon the large, high-vaulted facility.

Before Dr. Okapi, Winter Soldier One stood, his mask removed to reveal an impassive face. The man stood half a foot taller than the lean doctor beside him. The soldier's gaze met Dr. Okapi's without a flicker of awareness and the man remained standing. Dr. Okapi sighed and glanced behind him where the Asgardian prince stood leaning against a wall.

"Soldier, sit," Loki interjected with marked annoyance in his voice. He pushed himself off the wall behind the metal table and pointed. The man immediately sat.

"You are to listen to the doctor," Loki said with a slight huff. "I cannot remain here as your nursemaid."

Dr. Okapi rubbed at his dark brown eyes and pulled a series of devices from a cupboard. His low voice gave instructions to a series of assistants who flittered in and out of the room, as worker bees from a hive. They came back with boxes full of equipment and set up machinery around the room as per the doctor's instruction.

Dr. Okapi pulled a small scanner out of the pocket of his orange and grey lab coat and slowly an orange line of light moved across the soldier's body. A frenzied cacophony of high frequency beeps warred from each of the screens on the walls around them as he worked.

"You have said you have him under your mental control?" Dr. Okapi asked Loki, without removing his eyes from his scanner.

"Yes."

"Can you remove it so I can perform tests without your controls on him?"

"Yes," Loki said. "If you wish it."

He walked up to the unmoving soldier and stared at him with an imperious glare. Then Loki swung his fist into the man's forehead with so much force that the soldier flew off the table and into the wall behind him, creating a dent in the wall and a flurry of dust. The soldier did not rise again.

Dr. Okapi gave a startled cry and ran up to the soldier's unmoving body on the floor.

"Eh, eh, eh! Bwana, umefanya nini?" he said and rolled the soldier onto his back. He pulled out a pen-sized flashlight and shone it into the man's unresponsive eyes.

"Cognitive recalibration," Loki responded with a lackadaisical toss of his head. "I suggest you complete your tests before he returns to consciousness."

"Could you not remove your control another way?" Dr. Okapi asked through gritted teeth.

"Perhaps. However, I have never sought to discover another means and this is quite effective."

Dr. Okapi clicked under his breath in a way that clearly communicated his disapproval. He summoned two assistants over to lift the unconscious, and very heavy, soldier back onto the examination table.

"How long before you will finish your initial examination?" Loki asked, his eyes fixed on the orange characters filing across the black screen in front of him, instead of meeting the brown eyes of the doctor. Dr. Okapi removed a series of wires from a machine and motioned for his assistants to place them on the unconscious form on the table.

"Eh, it will not be too too long. Two hours? Four hours? I do not know."

"I will return in four hours," Loki said. "I suggest you do not let him wake unless you have him restrained."

Dr. Okapi nodded and Loki left them to their tasks.

Ooooooo

Loki sat on a secluded bench in the warm, humid morning sunlight. Dense foliage from the overhanging jackfruit trees gave him enough shade to keep him cool as he picked noncommittally at his meal with a fork. While incomparably better than the fare he survived off of in the SHIELD headquarters, it still felt foreign to him and tasted like Midgard. At this moment, he would easily have exchanged his meal for even the most meager of Asgardian soldier's rations simply to have something that reminded him of the home that was no longer his home.

He felt stifled in the growing warmth of the day, but he preferred the quiet isolation of the garden over the forced interaction he would likely stumble upon within the palace. Here, among the orange and yellow flowers surrounding him, he could hide away in the shadows and pick at his meal in peace.

He had not planned to free his army this quickly. They were useful as they were-firmly under his control and using their considerable powers for his purposes. If freed, it was highly possible they would choose not to serve him, or worse, fight for their old masters in opposition to him. However, he would allow them the opportunity to choose.

His dream the night before had compelled him to act now. A vision of himself with hazy blue eyes, kneeling at the boots of the Mad Titan, raising the scepter towards Thanos as an offering, had woken him out of his sleep with a tense jerk and torrent of sweat. Was it a memory or a threat?

Most likely, it was both.

It was time to destroy the scepter and he needed his army firmly controlled before he could risk its destruction.

Loki was roused out of his musings by the sound of footsteps. He groaned inwardly and attempted to shield himself deeper in the shadows, but to no avail. Jane Foster rounded a bend on a path and made her way directly towards him.

"There you are," she said with a forced cheerfulness in her voice. "The guard at the door told me you went this way."

She gave him a slightly unsure expression and pulled a lock of brown hair behind her ear. She shifted her weight, her pale yellow dress swishing from side to side, as Loki let the moment grow longer and longer without acknowledging her presence.

"Dr. Foster," he responded when he deemed her discomfort adequate. "I trust you are well."

Despite the politeness of his words, he infused ice into his tone and he saw her shrink inwards slightly. Then, she pulled herself taller, threw her shoulders back, and faced him, determination plain on her features.

"Where were you?" she asked. "You missed all the tours of the city and the lab and everything. You just vanished."

"I'm pleased you missed the pleasure of my company, Lady Jane. I assure you, my time was well spent in other pursuits. I am certain I can learn what I need to in my own way."

She let out a frustrated huff and wrapped her arms around her chest.

"Is there something else you wish to ask me apart from my past whereabouts?" he asked, exchanging his icy tone for one of patronizing boredom.

"Yeah. I had some questions on the calculations you gave me. The technology I have access to here is beyond anything I could have possibly dreamed I'd be able to get my hands on. It's amazing! I think I'll be able to start making progress now. I need to figure out how some of the Asgardian data you gave me translates into the data and star charts I have access to in the lab here," she said. She waved her hands more rapidly in tandem with the growing excitement in her voice as she forgot her discomfort in her explanation of her current pursuits.

"I will come this afternoon," he said.

"Ok. That'd be great."

She stood in silence, carefully measuring him with her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but then appeared to change her mind, and closed it again.

"I'll see you then," she said and she disappeared back on the path she first came on.

ooooo

"No, Jane," Shuri said with a laugh. "That button will open up communication channels to the entire palace. I do not think you wish for every room in the palace to hear you record your notes."

Jane glared at the orange symbol as if it had personally insulted her and turned to sulk at the list of symbols on a digital tablet in front of her.

"But this says here….oh, there's a little thingy underneath the hoop. I missed that part," she said with a groan. She hung her head onto her hands and rubbed her forehead. "I'm a scientist, not a linguist. Isn't there some kind of magic button you can push that will translate all this to English?"

Shuri shook her head, leaving the dimpled smile on her face.

"Pole sana, daktari. Siwezi," she said.

Jane looked up and gave Shuri and exasperated glare. Shuri raised both her hands in mock apology and broke into giggles.

"Fine, fine. Let me try again. I press this button here and then that one over there?" she said, and gestured towards the glowing orange symbols on the wall panel in front of her.

"Indio! Unajua!" Shuri replied.

"Ugh! Shuri-come on. Don't make me learn this many languages at once. What did you say?"

"She said, 'yes, you know," Loki said from the doorway and he strode into the center of the lab. Both sets of eyes swung towards him in surprise and he hid his enjoyment of their reaction.

"You understand Kiswahili?" Jane said, brown eyes full of curiosity.

"I speak the All-Tongue," Loki replied. "I can understand all languages."

"All-Tongue? Wait-is that some kind of magical language? Cause if so, that is totally not fair."

"It is a form of communication that does not rely on signifiers but solely on the signified to relay communications. It encompasses all forms of verbal and symbolic communication and grammatical structures in a way that ensures what is communicated is understood in its entirety by all parties involved," he said. He turned to look at the tablet of symbols that Jane held in her hand and smirked at her when he saw her confusion. "I suppose you could describe it as a kind of magical language."

"Figures," she said with a groan. "Let me guess. You can read all these symbols, too."

"Of course," he replied with a haughty toss of his hand.

"I hate you," she said and threw her tablet down onto the table with more force than she meant to. "I've spent the last week studying these just so I can work the basic programs and still I'm messing them up."

Loki shrugged and turned to take in the various displays around the cavernous underground vault that they found themselves in. Every table, corner, wall, and shelf overflowed with some type of equipment or project or display of blueprints. Lab technicians in goggles and white coats wandered from counters to tables to shelves and back again, tools and materials in hand. The laboratory hummed with life and electricity and creativity and possibility.

"So, this is the preferred throne room of the Princess of Wakanda," he asked, turning to address the petite woman besides Jane. "I hear tell that if someone wishes to find you, they look no further than this underground catacomb."

Shuri's eyes sparkled and she gave a slight bow. "I told Baba to let me move my bed to that corner there and he refused. He said he would never see me again if I were allowed to sleep here. A few times a day, my mother forces me to leave here to eat and sleep and see the sun. But, yes, most times you will find me here."

"Most impressive," Loki said in a flat tone which did not differentiate between sincerity and sarcasm. "I am indebted to you for your assistance in the research of Dr. Foster," he continued, now with greater earnestness.

"I am always happy for a new challenge and the opportunity to learn something new," Shuri said. "And everyone in Wakanda is happier when I am busy. I tend to cause problems for everyone else when I am idle."

"And why is that?" Loki asked, giving her a sideways glance as he turned a small face mask over in his hand.

Shuri shrugged. "I do not handle boredom very well and have been known to cause mischief when I am not occupied."

Loki gave her a more appraising glance and placed the mask back on the table he found it.

"I see," he said. He ran his fingers along one counter of wires and tools before pausing to read a blueprint for a new vibranium hovercraft design.

"Dr. Foster, you wished to ask me some questions?" he said, turning now to where Jane stood and watched him.

"Ummm, yeah," she said. She pulled a notebook and laptop out of a briefcase at her feet and rifled through a series of papers. She pulled a pen out from behind her ear.

"I have a series of questions for you," she said and held her pen ready for his answers.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Loki felt weary to his core. When he was not discussing neurology and Midgardian biology with Dr. Okapi, he was discussing physics and astronomy with Dr. Foster. When he was free from their constant questions, he found himself assailed with his own relentless internal questions. He found little sleep.

He would need to return to the SHIELD headquarters soon and make his rounds of his Midgardian representatives to ensure rebuilding continued on schedule. However, he did not want to dwell on so many tedious and mundane tasks now. He decided an exploration of the city would help clear his crowded mind and provide him a respite.

While Shuri and T'Challa both invited him to accompany them on errands into the capital, he did not wish to be ushered through the city as a foreign dignitary on the tails of their sovereigns. He politely refused and claimed disinterest again and again, despite their repeated attempts and, worse, their suggestions that he meet with their Dr. Njeri. He would not, if he could avoid it.

Now, he would see the great city of Birnin Zana with his eyes instead of with his magic. He did not wish to advertise his intentions and so he made his way through the shadows along the palace and through the gardens to the great wooden gates of the palace. He choose to slip over the wall instead of through the guarded gates and into the city below.

The sprawling metropolis lay nested in a valley guarded over by steep emerald mountains. The sun glistened off the river meandering through the city and pouring through the urban jungle. Towers of rock and metal stood sentry throughout the valley, reaching towards the shallow blue sky above, like upright spears in a pit. Below, rivers of people and vehicles crowded through the tan, cobbled roads. Trains hovered above the ground and zipped between stations with a quiet hum that reverberated the streets below.

Loki clung to the shadows between buildings, his cloak pulled high over his head, shrouding his figure and his face. He climbed a series of sandstone stairs decorated with geometric patterns and stood on a balcony overlooking the city.

The bustling city life of Birnin Zana swept through the street below like a clamorous river of polychromatic chaos. Brightly clad Wakandans milled around street corners, bustled between shops, and chatted happily with companions at sidewalk cafes. Vendors weighted down with baskets of food and trinkets shouted advertisements of their wares. Vehicles skittered between tethered cows, free range chickens, and the occasional Vervet monkey. The air around him hung heavy with the fragrances of dust and concrete, frying oil and spices, sweaty bodies and livestock.

He continued on down the road to where he came to a wide marketplace dotted with vibrant tents, blankets, tables, and more people than he could count. He pulled his gray cloak tighter around his face, entered the market, and began to look around. He glanced over piles of fruits and vegetables, fried fish, and livestock, shoes and shirts, and all manner of wooden stools and spoons and metal saucepans. He paused to watch an artist carving a piece of wood when he noticed a stillness descend upon the clamoring throng of people like the cessation of wind through forest leaves.

He glanced up and saw all eyes around him fixed upon him as the many eyes turned as one to stare at him. The silence was soon replaced by whispers.

"Who is this?"

"How did he arrive here?"

"Does the King know?"

"Are we betrayed?"

"We cannot let it escape."

A small child pulled at his mother's dress and began to cry. "Mama, what kind of thing is that?" the child shouted, fear coloring his voice as he pointed at Loki and hid behind his mother's dress.

The whispers around him morphed into pointing fingers and shouts. He turned to leave but found his way blocked. The people nearest to him remained unmoved, as if a rabid ice hound had suddenly appeared in their market and they were unsure whether to shoot him or cage him or flee. He found the shouts surrounding him from all sides as people strained to see if their eyes deceived them or if he was really present among them.

Bodies inched closer to him, anger and fear written on their faces, hands grabbing whatever makeshift weapons they could grab. He gave a scan of his surroundings to determine his best route for escape and found none. His eyes now sought out possible weapons he could forge out of the materials available to him. Without his magic, he could not rely on illusion for his escape. He would need to fight. His fingers twitched with nervous energy and he reached out for a nearby tree to find a branch he could wrench off.

His attention soon turned back to the crowd which gave way to allow a path through them. The tall, frowning red and gold figure of the General walked straight towards him and the crowd around them breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"It is the General. He will not live," they whispered to themselves and stared, their eyes tainted with a mixture of curiosity, hatred, and fear.

General Okoye and four other Dora Milaje soldiers surrounded Loki. The General glared at the crowd and they backed up under the weight of her stare.

"Mgeni, if you do not wish to return to the prisons, I suggest you come with me," she said in a harsh whisper not meant to be overheard by those around them.

Loki nodded and followed the General without protest as she turned to lead him back through the street. The other women flanked him on each side and kept wary eyes on the street. Okoye led them to a doorway which, when she scanned her hand upon it, opened to a tunnel beneath the city. The dimly lit, musty tunnel led them directly back into the palace grounds.

As they emerged into the sunlit gardens surrounding the palace, she turned her fierce glare onto him.

"You are either a fool or you have a wish for death," she spat. "Have you listened to nothing Njeri has told you? You will never enter the city unaccompanied again or I will not hesitate to throw you out of our borders or into our prisons. Now, wait on that bench and do not move from there. The King wishes to speak to you."

Loki's frown deepened at her commanding tone and he chafed at being so instructed and restrained. However, he did sit where she bade him to and he waited.

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Author's notes:

Guest on 11/27: On my "treachery of Bollywood and not Wakaliwood": hah! Yes. I did commit treachery-but it wasn't without an excessive amount of forethought! Here's my reasoning behind why Shuri has Bollywood posters in her bedroom as opposed to "Wakaliwood" or "Wollywood" or "Wakandawood":

1.) Undoubtedly, Wakanda has the technology to have a stinkin awesome film industry, but it does not mean that they would choose to. Remember-super secret society that doesn't want a lot of attention. A well-developed media would not necessarily be helpful for that. Film documentation of Birnin Zana and the technology within Wakanda could easily get outside of Wakanda and into the wrong hands. It is possible they have a vibrant internal film industry but even then, they don't have a huge population (I'm thinking between 15-20 million and at least half of that is rural) to support it. Not saying it's not a possibility, but I think it safer and more likely that they have a greater emphasis on live performance as the preferred form of art as opposed to film.

2.) Let's say Wakanda does have a vibrant internal film industry… Shuri is hardly representative of all of Wakanda. She is not normal and she likes being eccentric. I would expect her taste in media to reflect that. And Bollywood-with all the colors, music, dance, flavor-just strikes me as very Shuri. She may enjoy her Wakandawood films as well, but I could easily see her obsessing over something entirely "other" simply because that's her personality (or my interpretation of her personality). This is also why she has "Lugaflow" posters as well...I'm sure Wakanda has a vibrant music industry...but Shuri likes what she likes and doesn't care about what anybody else thinks. (Okoye, on the other hand, I could see watching other movies from around the world simply to then critique how inferior they are to Wakanda's and being totally all "Wakandawood all the way".)

Guest: Star: Thanks for your reviews! All will be revealed in time. ;)

Translations:

Bwana, umefanya nini: Sir, what have you done?

Mgeni: visitor/outsider/stranger

Pole sana, daktari. Siwezi: Very sorry, doctor. I'm not able.

Indio! Unajua!: Yes, you know.

Baba: Father