Revamped!
[The next chapter of this will be published in a few hours]. [2019: Me with the revamps].
Chapter Eighteen: The Contingency Plan
Five Years Ago
Little did I know that those contingency plans would change my life for better or for worse…
"Wait outside, darling, we'll only be a moment," Father says.
Nodding, I walk to the side as he and my mother follow a man wearing an eyepatch. I met him. He's Director Fury of SHIELD, a government agency in the United States.
I walk down the hallway, passing by agents who talk on headsets or type on holographic keyboards. My head darts around rapidly because there's always something new to look at.
It's my first time in America and everything is foreign to me.
Nothing about this place or country is like my home at all. And that's what makes it so interesting.
I stop at a window and look outside at the city skyline. Before I could try and wrap my head around what's before my eyes, I hear other children's voices. I turn around and see a group of teenagers here. They look out of place but make their way over to me.
Till death do us part…
-o-
As I mentioned many times before, the heir to Wakanda has many tasks to complete before they could even have a chance at the mantle. Many thought I was still in the last task of picking a prince and they're not exactly wrong. They don't know that I actually have two tasks left. The prince is one and the other is a recently added secret task that I loathe.
The Contingency Plan.
A year before I was born, when Wakanda first found out about The Battle of New York, the country had to reconfigure its security protocols. That's a plan separate from The Contingency Plan. The Battle of New York had aliens fighting against heroes who stood out from the civilians and military. They were a team of six extraordinary beings who were different from one another. There were gods, beasts, enhanced humans, superior intellects, and assassins who only evolved into more as of today.
The Contingency Plan was created by the Council for my father to work on. They knew that The Avengers were affiliated with SHIELD. Not only did they make my father create attack patterns specifically designed to counteract The Avengers should they turn on us, but he had to work on making Wakanda's image public through SHIELD.
It's a little mucky but it's rational.
Each Avenger has at least three backups in case the first plan fails. My father worked against his resistance so he could finish it because The Avengers became his friends later on. He even needed one against me, my mother, and himself. He didn't want to do it for the two people in the world he loves the most but knew deep down that he had a country to protect.
The Contingency Plan is a secret containing secrets whose contents only my father knows. Of course, my mother knows as well as do I, but we're only aware of its existence. I didn't even know about it until my father told me to start working on mine for the next generation.
Around my birth, The Avengers also got married and had kids of their own. They all live in New York and, when I seldom visit America, I spend my free time with them. They're the next generation which means that they're the targets of the next contingency plan. I'm the heiress to Wakanda and I can't do this.
When my father introduced this to me, I declined it immediately. I disagree with the idea of secretly plotting against my friends. I told my father that I wouldn't go through with it but he ordered me to do it so I could no longer refuse.
I knew from birth what duties were expected of me in my public and private life, which is why I was always so eager to go to America. There, I felt as normal as I could be because there's nothing mundane about being the Princess of Wakanda. I had no duties there. I could just be a normal girl.
And now the worlds are colliding.
-o-
"Father," I ask, approaching him in his office.
He holds up a finger, asking for a minute. I nod. He turns around and finishes whatever he's working on. I look down at his desk and tap my nails against it, looking at the endless papers on his desk although he's working on a holographic document. It amazes me how my father has the mental, physical, and emotional strength to do all this. Forget what he said about Mother balancing him out - they're both perfect individuals who only complement each other more.
"What is it, my dear?" Father asks.
I look up at him. "It's about The Contingency Plan. I know that you, the elders, and the advisors have been wanting me to finish before I choose a suitor, but I don't want to do it."
He sighs. "Neither did I, darling."
"Father, they're my friends."
"As The Avengers are mine."
I smile a little. "Yes, but this whole concept is radical, don't you think that?"
"Iqadi, I had this conversation many years ago and they told me the same thing I will tell you. You have to consider all the factors at stake here. If our friends turn us for whatever reason, we have to be ready at all costs. Even if something possessed our minds to turn against our people. Any world leader would agree. I bet Thor has one for Asgard. It's either a sacrifice of a few people or a few thousand, which would you pick?"
He looks at me to answer his question and I don't say a word about it. He already knows my answer and it's not fair that he played that card against me.
"I don't think you - "
"Iqadi!" He yells.
I stand down and stare at him in shock. Quickly angered, Father slowly simmers down and puts his hands to his temple. My eyes never leave him and he knows that even if he isn't looking at me. I hold the urge to shake and make my hands into fists behind my back. I take a step closer and he stops me.
"Your mother was pregnant with you when I was against making the plan," he says, smiling a little. "We have longed for a child and you were finally on your way. The world was just invaded by aliens, I didn't want to create something to protect my kingdom, and I was going to have a baby."
I laugh a little. I guess he and all the other Avengers really had their timing intact when it came to producing offspring.
"The world was changing," my father continues, "more threats were coming in from beyond our planet. Sure, we had the meteor that crashed in the land that provided us with vibranium but not all things from space are beneficial. Your mother was so excited to finally have a baby coming and it made me happy looking at her glow brighter than ever. I needed to make sure that you were protected, no matter what the cost was. It would kill me if anything were to happen to you."
I take a deep breath, trying to balance my emotions. Father looks up at me from his desk and I remain neutral to it all.
"You'll understand, Iqadi," he tells me soothingly.
"I don't want to," I reply.
Father looks at me with an unreadable expression in his eyes before dismissing me.
-o-
After that conversation with my father, I never asked him about The Contingency Plan because I knew he wouldn't respond the way I would like him to. Whether his reason for that is because he wanted me to be autonomous in this project or he couldn't bear to speak about the horrors in his plan; he wouldn't disclose even the slightest detail.
I can respect him for that, I truly can, but this is when I really need him and his support because I have nobody else who can empathize with me.
The only issue is that he and everyone else who knows about The Contingency Plan thinks that I already started. And now that I'm getting closer to picking my prince, I have to start them.
-o-
After many sleepless nights and playing with the weather to prevent myself from pulling out locks of my hair with my own two hands, I eventually forced myself into starting that dreadful plan. I ran through each strategy using simulations and cried when they all succeeded, screaming into my pillow so nobody would hear me.
Seeing blurred holograms of their faces falling victim to my strategies will forever be engrained in my mind.
How could I have ever created such a thing? Does this make me a monster or a good queen? Is there a difference at this point?
The only thought that got me through the whole process was that if my father didn't have to touch his plans for almost two decades in counting, why would I ever have to think about it? I can only hope the same happens to me.
It's fine. Everything is fine.
I can hide these plans in the deepest crevices in the vibranium mines. I can forget they exist.
But there's always going to be that twinge of what-if which gives me a new idea.
This is my contingency plan. I have the freedom to create whatever I want as long as it works, which it already does. Maybe my contingency plan can have a contingency plan of its own - an antidote if you must.
That's it! Nobody has access to this plan unless the apocalypse is starting so nobody will know it's there.
And I can sleep at night again.
The only issue is that I have no idea where to start with one let alone the rest…
[Okay, so The Contingency Plan is also another important point for Project: New Generation but don't worry about it for now]. [2019: And important for SHIELD Academy!]