Warning: Suicide via cyanide pill. Might be a spoiler, but better to be forewarned.

A/N:

I'm gonna have to take a couple of months off from this fic. I'm doing Nanowrimo this year, and for some reason decided to take the challenge for an original piece and this fic, as in 50,000 words for both. I don't know what I was thinking - or whether I was even thinking at all - but I can't back out now. As you might have surmised, I'm a workaholic with no social life. No, this is not the fault of a pandemic. That is my default state.

In December, I have my exams to occupy me. Seventh semester; I've been warned that it's gonna be tough, pandemic be darned. Yay.

Hopefully, I'll have a bunch of buffer chapters when I return on January 3rd. Until then, my friends, good luck. Stay safe. Have a happy new year.

I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please leave your thoughts and comments down below; they keep me motivated.

… some Hunter may express

Wonder like ours, when thro' the wilderness

…

He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess

What powerful but unrecorded race

Once dwelt in that annihilated place.

- Ozymandias; Horace Smith

Sol 202 [Earth Date: August 17th, 2025] Communications Room

Prothean Ruins

Shuri shoves down a migraine prickling at the edges of her consciousness. The lamp's glow glints accusingly against the scattered shards of her gauntlets. She yanks off her goggles, rubs the spot where they'd pressed too hard against her skin.

"Well?" Akili asks impatiently.

She grits her teeth, reminding herself that they're all on edge and concessions must be made. "The technology seems familiar, somehow. My best guess is a variation of the sonic technology from Ulysses Klaue's prosthetic, which was capable of disabling T'Challa's suit. But this... is more widespread. And sustained."

"Which means?"

"As long as the marauders' device remains active, vibranium will be useless within the ruins."

There's a silence as that sinks in. They've all grown up with vibranium all around them - in their cities, in their technology, in the very ground beneath them. It is a borderline impossible concept she's asking them to imagine - a life without vibranium. Even their Kimoyo beads - ones they've had since their birth - are unresponsive.

She hadn't anticipated the world to adapt to Wakanda's presence, to take advantage of the fact that their entire technology is reliant on vibranium.

Far too reliant on vibranium.

What is a Wakandan without vibranium?

What is she without vibranium?

There's a pause. "Klaue can't be behind this; he's dead and his empire has fallen," Akili says. "Those weren't ordinary marauders. They knew enough about the facility and our movements to isolate and cripple us. We're still searching for the breach in our security."

Shuri stiffens, knowing exactly where Akili is taking this. "No," she says, quietly but firmly.

"Very convenient, is it not, Your Highness, that we were infiltrated just when Bruce Banner was absent?"

"I doubt they wanted to go up against the Hulk," she shoots back. "They probably waited for him to leave. He's not responsible, Akili."

"He was unhappy with our forced occupation of the ruins. He was outspoken about allowing outsiders inside our borders."

"As though he'd involve someone else when he could've stopped us easily enough!"

"How else do you explain their preparedness?"

"I'm not trying to!" Shuri presses her thumb into her temples. The Hatut Zeraze are spies, first and foremost - useful for the initial occupation, but sitting still for months on end as glorified bodyguards is a waste of their talents, and moreover, an insult.

She's always privately believed that - with the exception of Nakia - the rest of them crave conflict, yearn for the heat of adrenaline. In the absence of appropriate stimulus on Mars, they'd invented a threat in their vicinity - Bruce Banner.

"Regardless of whoever is responsible for this," Shuri grits out, " - we are trapped, with no defenses against an enemy that outnumbers us three to one. We're being hunted, and it won't be long before they find us. Perhaps we can concentrate on that instead of throwing blame around!"

There's a long silence.

"What do you suggest?"

She brushes past him to the primary comm console, brings up a few holograms. "We have two options - reinforcements, or retreat. I'd rather not give up just yet, so I'm trying to fine-tune our comm relay…" she trails off.

The global storm ravaging the planet in the past few months had thoroughly disrupted communications with Earth. It's a setback they'd anticipated, but not adequately prepared for, so she'd contented herself with just waiting it out.

Then why was she detecting traces of communication logs dated just a few weeks ago?

"Your Highness?"

The air around her seems to tremble, reminding her of the spherical device that had negated all her life's work in the span of a few seconds. The data's root structure had been erased, but Shuri digs a little deeper, her heart picking up speed as she realizes that the logic integrity of the logs remains viable.

She breaks through the encryption easily and brings up the reports.

They're from the Tribal Council of Elders.

Addressed to Akili.

A coup in S.P.E.A.R.

A collision in Niganda.

An invasion of the Circle.

There's a dull roaring in her ears, building in intensity. Her fists are clenched, her nails digging into her palms.

She remembers restructuring the Circle's security systems against her better judgement, before being sidetracked by strange anomalies on Mars. T'Challa had argued against it but had been overridden by the Council's almost unanimous decision to deploy a regiment of Hatut Zeraze to oust the Lowell outsiders from the alien ruins. Following that public disaster, her insistence on taking Bruce Banner hadn't earned her any favors.

There's a quote she remembers from her youth, a throwaway line from her mother that she hadn't truly understood until now.

The War Dogs are to the Elders what the Dora Milaje are to the King.

"I wonder…," she asks conversationally, even though her voice has dropped a few degrees. "Were you ever going to tell me?"

She flicks the hologram towards him. She wonders what it says about her when she's not even a little bit surprised to see his first reaction is irritation, not guilt, certainly not regret. "Your Highness," he says condescendingly, " - I understand this might be upsetting, but this is hardly the time to…"

The storm's causing interference. A half-truth, allowing her to make her own conclusions. He's a spy, after all - trained in the art of deception.

"I'm discovering new layers to you, Akili. A liar, a traitor. You were so eager to blame Bruce. So desperate that I believe you. Was it because you were terrified I'd find out your culpability, your guilt?"

He frowns, taking a threatening step forward. "I never… "

She snaps. "The Circle was hijacked, Akili! Our people tortured and experimented on by a madman! Our miracles blighted, our treasures stolen!"

She jabs towards the door, towards the hangar that had borne witness to the quickest defeat in the history of Wakanda. Even Thanos hadn't been able to destroy them so easily. "That technology - I realize now why it is so familiar. It is based on my sonic stabilizers, which neutralize raw vibranium on the maglev trains!"

For the first time, he falters, blood draining from his features. "I... that's not possible."

"The Circle would've provided them access to Wakanda's servers! I suspect my patch job on rewiring S.P.E.A.R. security did not hold up as well as I thought!"

"I didn't know." He's shaking his head, stubborn even in the face of evidence. "I didn't... I thought. I was just following orders."

"A coward's excuse, Akili."

Nausea churns in her gut as she watches him, watches them all. Had Akili had been the only one in the know, or had they all been culpable in keeping this from her?

First, the vibranium fails her, and now her people do.

For the first time since she landed on Mars, she feels so very very alone.

A persistent, high-pitched alarm interrupts her descent into crippling insecurity.

It's the proximity alert for the main entrance to the ruins.

A spike of dread runs through her. Did the marauders call for reinforcements? She banishes the evidence of Akili's guilt, calls forth holograms depicting the layout of the facility.

Her breath stutters. Her mind blanks out.

Her fingers reach out, flying across the holographic keyboard.

"Bucky Barnes -," she cries, her voice edging on hysteria.

Sol 1 [Earth Date: August 17th, 2025] Prothean Ruins

" - where in Bast's green fields is the vibranium prosthetic I built you?! "

Isabelle winces as Princess Shuri's high-pitched voice bursts through their comms. The dim light of the alien hallway illuminates Barnes' relieved grin.

"Safe," he promises. "You okay, Princess?"

"I've been better. I've been worse. Not that I'm not glad to see you, but why are you here? "

"The King sent me, Your Highness."

There's a telling pause. " ... T'Challa? Not the Elders? "

"No," Barnes shows no indication that he's startled by the very charged question. "He was worried about the lack of communication. A lot's happened. A lot's changed."

"So I gather. We'll have that conversation later. For now, I need your help. We've got company, and they're the unfriendly kind. "

Isabelle exchanges a glance with Barnes. "We don't have any weapons."

There's a telling pause.

"You won't need them."

Sol 204 [Earth Date: August 17th, 2025] Eezo Core

Bucky stares at the massive glowing orb suspended by constructs in the spherical chamber. It pulses at regular intervals but seems stable for now. Shuri had given it a nickname - eezo, or element zero - and had immediately launched into a techno-jargon-babble that he'd tuned out before she'd finished a sentence.

Unlike Steve, he's no stranger to highly advanced tech - HYDRA had made sure he excelled in hacking almost any computer. Even though his methods had never advanced beyond brute-forcing his way through firewalls, it'd served him well enough all those years.

Wakanda had been a technological marvel, where tradition and culture blended seamlessly into science in a way that had seemed magical. But even the awe he'd felt at the scope of vibranium had dulled over the years.

Eezo brings him back to square one.

Well, he thinks ruefully, at least he's on the same page as everyone else. "So how's this going to help us?"

Shuri sighs heavily. "Perhaps a demonstration would help," she says, slipping behind a desk in an adjacent lab. She holds up a blue glowing canister. "Bucky, your arm, please?"

Bucky bemusedly detaches the prosthetic and hands it over. Collins inches closer. The Hatut Zeraze are conspicuously absent.

"No, hold it above this," she says, pointing to a rudimentary elementary circuit she's hastily assembled. "Do not move, and don't let go for anything. I can't be held responsible if anything happens."

He looks over in alarm, but Shuri is already fiddling with her Kimoyo beads. A hologram pops up, in the form of concentric circles. She places crooked fingers on it. "Ready?" she asks, but before she can answer, she turns it clockwise.

A blue field of light erupts from the circuit. It pulses strangely and then, all of a sudden, the prosthetic feels lighter. "What the hell?" he says, holding the arm still but angling himself to see if parts of it have fallen off but no - the arm is whole.

Just weighing so little to be almost insubstantial.

Before he can marvel at it, she turns the circular hologram in the other direction.

His hand slams into the table as the weight of the prosthetic increases tenfold.

"Gravity," he breathes, reminded of Erich Paine's sandblasters.

She shuts down the experiment. "Mass, not gravity," she corrects, eyes brightening slightly. "When subjected to an electric current, eezo manipulates mass via dark energy. A positive current increases mass, a negative current reduces it."

Collins perks up from her corner, an eyebrow arched. "Dark energy? " There's something strange in her voice.

Shuri nods. "Electrified eezo creates a field, releasing massive amounts of dark energy, which is known to affect the mass content of space-time."

"I call it mass effect."

Roof

Prothean Ruins

Bucky wouldn't have contributed to this admittedly-insane plan if he'd known they would all collectively decide that he was the best person to carry out said plan.

The darkened, lightning-streaked Martian clouds have completely blotted out the sun, almost smothering him in torrential sand. He can barely see more than a few inches ahead of him, but he doesn't have to. The glow of the kinetic forcefield securing the circular hatch pierces through the murk, guiding his way across the roof.

His joke on not recommending death by fall into a canyon had held a deeper truth - he doesn't like falling at all, canyon or no. He has an irrational fear of it, even though the memory of the fall in the Alps is one that continues to elude him.

He's not sure whether he's resentful or grateful - because while he doesn't have nightmares about the fall as he does with all his other memories, terror still clings to his soul, just without context.

And now he's not just about to fall, but actively jump into a tube at least fifty-feet in depth, putting his faith in Shuri and Collins to time the plan perfectly. According to the schematics, the other end of the circular hatch opens directly above an alien starship, within which the marauders had stored the still-functioning vibranium EMP.

It's an excellent strategy - the platform on which the starship stands is much higher than the floor, and anyone who wanted to get to it had to climb a ladder in a clear view of the rest of the room. Unfortunately, the marauders hadn't banked on desperation and clear access provided by the hangar doors atop it.

The forcefield sealing the hatch dissipates the moment the countdown on his HUD reaches zero. He waits exactly eleven seconds, then jumps headfirst.

In the hangar, in those critical eleven seconds after the field dematerializes, Isabelle Collins tumbles out of cover and discharges a powerful Overload from her omni-tool, directly into the main control panel. It chains around the room, shattering glass and shorting out the lights, plunging the hangar into darkness.

Deliberate sabotage, a declaration of war, and a signal, all at once.

In the chaos that follows, no one notices a tiny figure dropping from one of the ceiling hatches.

On Collins' cue, Shuri's fingers fly across the console, releasing the digital clamps that she'd spent months perfecting in an attempt to permanently stabilize the malfunctioning eezo core. All her careful calculations and calibrations wrenched out in less than eleven seconds, forcing the core to its default state - complete and utter chaos.

Her mag-boots come online as the core pulses violently and the world turns upside-down.

The relentless pull of artificial gravity lasts a breathtakingly long second, before Shuri's 'decalibration' takes effect, yanking him behind the navel. Bucky jerks to a hard stop in mid-air, a foot away from having his head smashed in by the starship.

He tumbles through the air, glad he hadn't had anything to eat since before his departure in Wakanda. As the world pitches around him, he catches faint glimpses of Collins diving in between enraged opponents, the orange glow of her omni-tool arcing through the air.

That's a shame. He'd really been hoping the marauders wouldn't have mag-boots. Would've solved a lot of problems.

Well, at least they won't be able to use their guns.

His armored fingers reach out, attempting to find purchase on the smooth hull of the Prothean ship, before snagging into a narrow groove. He grunts as he pulls himself towards it, flips upright, his mag-boots snapping to the hull with a metallic thunk that goes thankfully unnoticed.

As he slides down onto the raised platform, he finds himself immeasurably grateful to Fury's insistence on replacing his vibranium arm. Bucky can't quite tell if it had been a suspicious prescience or simple paranoia, but suspects it's probably both. His borderline insightful manipulations had been legendary, even in HYDRA.

The airlock is forced open, leading directly into the interior of the ship. What strikes him immediately is how it's subtly off to his senses. Curved, organic surfaces, with ancient, alien consoles that he suspects, would've been glowing if the ship had still been alive.

It feels appropriate to call it a dead ship than a broken one.

The vibranium EMP is placed right in the middle of the command center. Even though it's the only obvious human construction in the entire ship, the white glow of it still sickens him.

"Hurry up, Barnes!" Collins grunts through his comms, her words punctuated by enraged shouts.

The EMP is blindingly hot on approach. His visor automatically darkens to the lowest setting, but he's still forced to turn away. He reaches out with his prosthetic, eyes squeezed shut, and wraps metallic fingers around the sphere.

It's hot enough that his prosthetic starts glowing a deep red.

"Barnes!"

With a deep-throated yell, he yanks the sphere from its stand and smashes it against the floor.

The Kimoyo beads around Shuri's wrist begin to glow.

The core groans as she frantically re-enters the calibration codes, displeased by the necessity of the bipolar commands in such a short period of time, but holds.

The world rights itself.

Isabelle is just about to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers when a bright flash of light lights up the inside of Barnes' starship.

An invisible wave passes over them all. Her ears pop as the pressure drops; she no longer feels as though she'd be yanked off the surface of the planet. There's a noticeable shift in the air; a tangible sense of relief and revenge and rage, just before the doors open and the Hatut Zeraze yell their way through, vibranium weapons humming in response to their bloodlust.

She dives out of the way; gravity is back online and bullets will be working again. Besides, she has no interest in taking this away from the War Dogs, who had been less than thrilled to have been sidelined for most of the mission but had finally conceded to Shuri's cold, razor-sharp commands.

Their fury is one to behold, she thinks, as she peeks from cover. Her gaze flicks upwards, landing on Barnes, who's just emerging from the ship above her. He's crouching, his helmeted head tilted to somewhere past her.

She follows his gaze to a marauder, heavily armed and armored, squeezing through the narrow opening of a malfunctioning bulkhead. The exit is not in the schematics she'd memorized - which means Shuri hadn't explored it yet.

With a shout, she launches into a run, but Barnes had caught on much faster, having leaped down the ladder, already at pace with her. They sprint across the hangar, through the bulkhead, but the marauder has a head-start and is already much further down the dark corridor.

He also has an assault rifle.

Isabelle and Barnes throw themselves behind a pillar just as bullets rain down upon them. It feels like an endless barrage, but when the marauder shifts to reload, she primes her omni-tool and launches a Sabotage.

The panicked yell of the marauder as his weapon overheats and backfires is immensely satisfying.

Barnes shoots forward. The marauder tries to flee but Barnes' prosthetic blurs forward, grabbing onto his hardsuit and slamming him into the wall. "Who are you?" he snarls as Isabelle makes her way over. "Where did you come from?"

The marauder struggles in vain, but Barnes' palm pins him to the wall effortlessly.

Isabelle sidles up to him. "See, I've had a bad few weeks," she says conversationally. "He's had a bad few decades. I wouldn't test his patience. He might just decide to crush your rib cage in."

The marauder gasps as Barnes presses against his chestplate further, then chuckles. "Oh, I know exactly what you're capable of, Winter Soldier," he says hoarsely.

A chill runs down Isabelle's spine. She inches closer, and through the visor, she can make out his eyes.

Wide and bright with madness.

"Cut off one head… " he snarls and makes an odd motion with his mouth.

As though he's biting down on something.

"No!" Barnes shouts, shoving her aside so hard she tumbles to the floor. Her head snaps up to see him trying to pry open the helmet, but it's too late - the marauder's already started foaming at the mouth.

His eyes roll back and he starts jerking wildly, prompting Barnes to snarl and release him. It takes only seconds for the agent to expire, but for the both of them, it feels like decades - an echo of the time spent under the merciless Nazi thumb of an organization that never dies.

Isabelle meets his eyes and reads in them the words the agent had implied.

Two more shall take its place.

Sol 1 [Earth Date: August 17th, 2025] Common Area

Even though the facility had rovers, without the bridge there was no way out. With all the marauders dead or otherwise accounted for, there was no immediate danger, so they had brainstormed a plan to broadcast a general distress signal across any available channels.

A plan that turned out to be moot when Monica Rambeau and Bruce piloted a shuttle through the storm just a few hours later in a belated rescue attempt.

"The marauders came from Lowell City," she admits when they've all caught up. One of the Hatut Zeraze scowls and goes to say something, but snaps his mouth shut when Shuri glares. "Late arrivals; not part of the main expedition. Weren't vetted properly, but had some impressive credentials."

"From someone interesting?"

Monica meets her eyes. "Loads. Secretary Thaddeus Ross, few others. Not forged, from what I can tell."

"I look forward to seeing how this backfires on him," Shuri says dangerously.

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Isabelle shakes her head. "Ross' gotten out of worse scrapes. Who were they?"

"Scientists, engineers of some measure. Nothing too great. Didn't interact with anyone, didn't create trouble. Occasionally disappeared into the storm; I assume to find alternate underground entrances and to secretly map out the facility."

"Did they steal the weapons?"

Monica shakes her head, looking perturbed. "All colonists have them. We decided on that pretty early on. Lowell has the support of defense contractors supported by Henry Lawson …" the emphasis is so subtle, only Isabelle catches it, " - so it's strictly a last resort, to stave off any potential attacks. No one would've looked at them twice for that than any other reason."

She sighs heavily, reminding Isabelle that it's been just as long a day for her. "Question is - what were they looking for?"

Sol 3 [Earth Date: August 19th, 2025] Vault

The vault is colossal and spiral-like, its overhanging walkways extending deep into the dimly lit darkness. Each level is labyrinthine in its design; one could easily get lost if not for the floor lighting marking ways to the exits.

And in the center of the spiral hovers an unquestionably alien artifact. Suspended by an unknown mechanism, it's huge and almost childlike in its simplicity - just a long, thin monolith, paneled, with a strip of blue light - presumably power indicator - running along the length of the device. Shrouded in a mysterious golden haze, it is protected by barrier curtains similar to the ones securing the hangar ceiling hatches.

Around the ring-like floor are various hastily put together terminals - distinctly human in design - directly linked to the monolith, which Shuri tells her is a massive databank. Somehow, over the course of several months, the marauders had infiltrated the facility, set up shop, and had managed to interface the monolith.

All of it, under the Hatut Zeraze's noses, who had focused all of their energy on distrusting Bruce instead.

Shuri is livid.

Isabelle leans over the railing as far as she dares, peering at where the green bleeds into the black. It's a hell of a long way down. She shivers as a sense of foreboding settles over her. It's not just vertigo; the entire damn place that's giving her the creeps.

"The marauders managed to upload some of the data before you stopped them," Rambeau says, sidling up to her. "I'd bet my left foot that Lawson just got access to a hell of a lot more alien data for his unstoppable army."

"You get anything?"

"More visual documentation," she says, grimacing. "Footage from skull implants. Apparently, the Protheans weren't just content with satellite surveillance on their... guinea pigs. They were directly observing the Cro-Magnons' perspective. "

There's a brief silence. Isabelle imagines having a chip inside her, recording her every move, perhaps even controlling her. She shivers. "Implant surveillance indicates they were waiting, watching for a reaction. To what?"

Rambeau straightens. "Lawson was trying to find a correlation between the Protheans and the Kree. The two species would've never met, but they… influenced humanity in similar ways." She doesn't meet Isabelle's eyes. "There's strong evidence that the Protheans might've been studying the effects of eezo - and variations thereof - on the human genetic makeup."

Isabelle stiffens. "Red sand."

"Or something much more stable and permanent. Their very own Terrigen Crystals."

She should be used to her past haunting her footsteps everywhere she goes. Coulson had attempted to help by circulating a cover story involving fledgling criminal triads on Mars accidentally whipping up the drug, but it hadn't stopped Isabelle from feeling the weight of her failure. "The starships were for first-hand observation and capture. This was a research center."

She turns to Rambeau. "Why? To fight a war they couldn't win, like the Kree?"

"You'd have to ask a fifty-thousand-year dead race."

"What makes you think they're dead ?"

"Because their interest in homo sapiens proper bordered on obsession." Rambeau's eyes are dark, shadowed. "I know one or two things about obsessions."

"There's very little that can truly pull you away from them."

Sol 5 [Earth Date: August 21st, 2025] Common Area

"Sam Wilson claimed the Circle was heading to Mars. Why? "

It's one of the last pieces of the puzzle nagging at her, the very first mention of Mars that she could remember. It'd been buried under the myriad of 'distractions', but she has finally cleared away all the clutter.

Shuri grimaces. "You saw those starships in the hangar? They're outfitted with eezo drive cores. From what I can tell, it's capable of generating FTL travel and artificial gravity."

Isabelle's eyes widen. In hindsight, it seems obvious. Eezo's existence is proof that reducing the mass of an entire starship to a point where velocities faster than the speed of light are utterly possible, avoiding pesky little things like time dilation. She's still bitter about Svartalfheim. "You wanted to retrofit the Circle with eezo drives, see if it worked. Where was it headed?"

"Charon, Pluto's moon. Some of the data we managed to translate mentions something big," Shuri continues. "Our deep space scans suggest that something's shifted, changed in the past few years. Nothing alarming, but still interesting."

Isabelle snaps her fingers. "And the stasis tech - just in case the drives malfunctioned but they still had the fuel to make the journey the long way around. Won't take them years to reach. Just hours."

"Minutes, actually," Shuri shrugs. "But Charon's gonna have to wait a bit. We have bigger concerns…"

She tells them about her suspicions on the vibranium EMP.

Isabelle hates to admit that it's a perfectly plausible theory. "The Circle's core needed to be offline before it could be replaced. All the defenses were down. Paine could've downloaded something then. I'm sorry, Your Highness."

She doesn't mention that F.R.I.D.A.Y. had similarly taken advantage of the situation. The fact that she hadn't done it out of malicious intent is cold comfort.

"You helped save my people. You don't need to apologize. The Wakandans owe your family a great debt, Agent Collins."

Something in her gut tightens. "I'm not keeping score."

"But we are." She sighs. "I'm sorry I never met your brother. From Bruce's descriptions, he'd have loved this."

He'd have been terrified of it, Isabelle doesn't correct. Terrified of the implications, of the knowledge, of the threat that the presence of an alien ruin right at their backyard would represent. She struggles to answer, but Shuri has already turned to Barnes, apparently waiting for a reply to a question Isabelle hadn't heard.

"His Majesty..." Barnes goes to say.

"Drop it, Bucky," Shuri scolds. "We're on Mars, inside an alien ruin, surrounded by physics-shattering tech. Formality doesn't belong here."

"Fair enough," he shrugs. "T'Challa's pulling some strings, laying the foundation for the possibility of exchanging - " he waves his hands around, " - all this with the world to improve international relations. He wants you to lead it."

Isabelle can't detect any guile on his face. So, Fury had been wrong about his motivations.

She ignores the voice which says - as were you.

Shuri slumps in relief. "I can't imagine the Elders were too pleased."

Something sour settles in his face. "They don't have much of a leg to stand on, not after the Circle. Definitely not after this monumental cock-up." His eyes flick to the Hatut Zeraze moving around listlessly. "T'Challa's not going to be pleased that there was a hostage situation even before the marauders invaded."

Shuri shrugs. "To be fair - I didn't want to leave. There's so much to learn here! But yes -," she looks over to Akili, face twisting in distaste, " - I suspect I'd have faced... resistance had I requested a vacation."

Barnes hums. "You got any ideas?"

"Oh, a few," she says, brightening. "Bruce and I've been talking for a while. He's asked to remain here to welcome the Lowell scientists - the legitimate ones, that is - back into the fold. And for myself, well…"

She grins.

"I expect my position at the Wakandan International Outreach will be very helpful."

Barnes corners her when she's least expecting it. "Rambeau mentioned Henry Lawson. What's he got to do with this?"

"None of your business." She pushes away from the wall she was leaning on. She really should be more careful, but she's exhausted and strung out and desperately wants a good, long soak in a swimming pool. Or maybe the Atlantic.

"I think I'm owed some quid pro quo here," he says, intercepting her route, " - considering I saved your life and didn't tell Shuri about you and the red sand."

Her eyes flash blue. "That doesn't even come close to making us even."

"The Soldier's dead," he bursts out. "The training remains, but Shuri made sure that I can't be brainwashed, ever. Doesn't matter what they try - the chair, triggers, signals - I'm immune to all of it. My mind is my own, Collins."

She's not sure if she hates him more or less now. Because, if he's right, it's Bucky Barnes she faces - James Buchanan Barnes, a Howling Commando whose stories she'd heard growing up - not a ghost assassin. And that's not a burden she's willing to carry. "I don't care. I see no difference between you and them."

"Funny," he says, an edge in his tone. "I was about to say the same thing."

Isabelle recoils.

They're at an impasse, neither willing to trust the other, even though both of them are standing at the precipice of a steep cliff, on the verge of plunging to their deaths. The veil between her conscious mind and the memories best left buried is too thin - she doesn't want anything to do with him.

But even in her darkest moments, she has known that he's never had a choice. While she has never had that excuse to fall back on.

She breaks off the staring contest, puts some necessary distance between them. Scrubs down her face harshly. "You spent time with Paine," she mutters. "Impressions?"

He frowns, but answers readily enough. "A man loyal to one thing only - science. He doesn't care who funds him - S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, anybody else... as long as he gets what he wants."

"Which is?"

"Übermensch."

She nods, the puzzle finally complete. The events of the past seven months run through her mind.

Erich Paine. Red sand. Henry Lawson, S.H.I.E.L.D., benefactor, New Dawn Foundation, eugenics. An unstoppable army.

Mars, eezo, vaults. HYDRA.

She takes a deep breath and tells him everything.

"You think Henry Lawson's HYDRA." He doesn't sound incredulous, just thoughtful.

She never thought gratitude could feel corrosive. "He knew things he couldn't have known otherwise." Ice trickles down her spine as a thought occurs to her. "How likely is it that it's just one cell that survived?"

"Does it matter? Just one cell is enough." He exhales explosively, looks off into the distance with a haunted expression. "We can't tell anyone about this. We don't know how far this goes - whether this is Operation Paperclip all over again."

"I've done this without backup once, Barnes - it didn't work out so well. This is bigger than the both of us." There's a pause as she debates whether to voice her thoughts, but then thinks - screw it.She's in the deep end anyway. "... Coulson's clear. He's always been."

He stares at her for a long moment. It's not as if he can stop her. But some part of her is curious for his reaction, or perhaps is just waiting for an excuse to beat him up again; she really can't tell.

"HYDRA was ecstatic when they found out he died in the Battle of New York."

"He'll take that as a compliment. But… it's just gonna be you and him. I... I'm not getting involved in this."

"Collins ..."

"Paine... experimented on me." She struggles mentally, then gives in. "On us." It's hard to admit that they'd both been in the petri dish. "And Lawson... for some reason, he's singled out my family. Might have something to do with Terrigenesis. He has eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else."

It feels bitter admitting it, but there's also a part of her that's relieved she doesn't have to go up against HYDRA again. Sometimes she wonders if she'll ever be rid of them. "I might be able to sniff around under the radar, check for something fishy. But that's about it."

"... alright, copy. Tell Coulson. I'll be in touch." He turns to leave.

"… Barnes."

"Don't give me a reason to come after you," she warns.

His eyes widen slightly, and she knows he can tell what she means.

Don't let them take you. Don't let them turn you. Don't let them win.

He nods. "Same to you."

November 5th, 2025 Wakandan International Outreach Centre

Oakland, California

"The Elders aren't happy," T'Challa claims quietly, somehow poised and graceful even when sinking into the plush couch. The warm glow from the fireplace drapes across the royal lounge, driving away the cold that she still hasn't gotten used to.

"They think the United Nations spat at our generosity, that their reaction is somehow an indication that the outside world does not deserve our gifts, that they'll never appreciate them."

Shuri snorts as she refills her coffee mug, and adds some of her favorite flavored creamers. "It isn't a question of deserving," she retorts, her fingers curling around her mug. "That's not why we do this. They need us, and there might come a time when we need them."

"I agree with your every word, Shuri. And I apologize for not acting sooner."

She shakes her head. "You acted at exactly the right time, brother. You did what was right. Anything less, or anything more, and you would not be king. I know that. I just wish the Elders did too."

T'Challa shrugs. "I understand them, to an extent. The UN's reaction in Vienna years ago had been... humbling. The only reason I did not retreat was that we expected something of the sort."

They hadn't been naive enough to think the UN would immediately trust them. Not when Wakanda had hidden and watched from the shadows for a thousand years while the rest of the world burned, while her neighbors had suffered under the hands of the colonizers. So, they'd overprepared for a dangerous response from the UN, and had been doled a negative, but a manageable one.

Whereas back home, the Elders, in a futile attempt to plunge their country back into isolation, had made the situation worse. Their intentions might not have been malicious, but their actions had still cost Wakanda dearly.

"This time, it'll be better," she says fiercely. "It has to be."

Her brother smiles. "It already is better, Shuri."

It's the perfect strategy, she thinks. Exposing the Prothean ruins to the entire world had been a gamble, yes, but one that had paid off. International courts are still battling over who owned the ruins, and they'll continue to do so for a long while to come, she suspects.

But that's T'Challa's domain - and he's playing his role perfectly, playing the leaders of the other nations like a fiddle, distracting them while she performs her magic.

She's gathered experts from all over the globe; renowned and obscure, men and women and those in between and those that are neither, Africans and Americans and Chinese and Indians and Japanese, linguists and analysts and computer engineers and astrophysicists, people from everywhere and people from nowhere - and coordinated them into a global effort to access and translate the information found in the ruins.

It's an enormous project, a massive undertaking the likes of which has never been seen before. She hadn't expected the sheer strength of the community - how with each addition, their collective processing strength expands exponentially, like a hive mind. But unlike a hive mind, they're all individuals from all walks of life, with unique experiences that bring them all together to solve one monumentally breathtaking problem.

It's awe-inspiring.

She's privileged to be a part of this.

T'Challa's eyes flick sideways to the other occupant of her sofa. He smiles gently. "You have been strangely quiet, Mother."

Shuri turns, linking fingers with the Queen Mother of Wakanda, looking even more regal than T'Challa in her white cylindrical headdress. She's beaming, her eyes sparkling with joy as she looks at them. Ramonda shakes her head.

"I have nothing to say. I am surrounded by my children, watching them grow into beautiful, wise people, ushering Wakanda, and the world to a new era, to a new way of life. I could not ask for anything more. I am grateful and thankful and honored to witness this."

Shuri blinks back sudden tears. T'Challa's eyes are suspiciously shiny.

"I think I can speak for your father when I say - you both have made us so very proud."

"So very proud."

MCU Context

Vibranium EMP

I really wanted to explore the concept of Wakandans without vibranium. Shuri, for all her intelligence, seems to be an expert in vibranium, and only in vibranium. Even with Vision, with the whole 'reprogram synapses to work collectively' thing was more about vibranium than the Mind Stone. At least, that's my headcanon.

I wanted to see what Shuri would do if vibranium just failed all around her. Obviously, I couldn't do this in Wakanda, because everything works on vibranium there, and their whole culture would collapse without it. I didn't have time to really get into her psyche the way I wanted, but I'm happy with where this ended up, regardless.

For mass effect fans, I've found that Wakandans' excessive reliance on vibranium eerily mirrors the way the entire galaxy is balanced on eezo and the mass effect phenomenon. I couldn't help but capitulate on the parallels.

I especially loved the fact that the EMP was repurposed from her own technology.

Monica Rambeau and Shuri

Rambeau seemed to have a unique insight into aliens, having encountered, or at least heard of two species in her youth, and being exposed to even more, then, eventually, ending up as an alien experiment herself. I like to think there's no one better to discover the motives of a new (really old) alien species.

Shuri's already an expert at manipulating and figuring out the properties of a mysterious mineral/element, despite her youth. So she discovers mass effect physics and how to work eezo.

I loved the thematic connotations of this - each playing to their own strengths. We'll learn what they've discovered in the upcoming chapters.

UN Vienna Reaction

The movie, Black Panther, ended with T'Challa exposing the truth about Wakanda and vibranium. In my headcanon, it didn't go well. Even realistically, it's gonna take a lot of work for the UN to trust them again.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Context

Element Zero and Gravitonium

Fans of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. might have noticed that eezo shares a lot of properties with another element that made an appearance in the show - gravitonium.

It's why I clearly stated the difference - eezo manipulates mass; gravitonium, as the name suggests, manipulates gravity. There's a huge difference. Mass is an inherent property of any matter, while gravity is a force of attraction between objects that have mass. Without mass, there's no gravity.

I'm probably oversimplifying it but I think this is the main reason why eezo is more powerful. It can affect mass and gravity, while gravitonium is limited only to gravity.

But yeah, very very similar properties. I was debating on whether to make them the same thing, but decided not to, in the end.

The most important reason was dark energy. Eezo releases dark energy when subjected to electric current, while gravitonium has nothing to do with dark energy.

And, as mentioned earlier, dark energy plays a huge, huge role in this fic.

Mass Effect Context

Sol

Sol is a solar day on Mars, which is slightly different from a regular twenty-four-hour Earth-day. I've added the Earth-dates in an attempt to resolve this confusion.

You might've noticed that the Sol dates are different for Shuri and Collins. That's because Shuri was there first; she's been there for months - her counter is different to Collins, who's been there for hours, maybe days.

Stock of Armaments

In canon, most human colonists choose to keep weapons in their home - especially in places where military presence isn't all that active - in order to stave off pirate attacks until support arrives.

Element Zero, Dark Energy and Mass Manipulation

I hope, with the extensive information provided here, it's clear why the red sand worked the way it did on the baseline humans - manipulation of mass is basically what telekinesis is all about, isn't it?

Vaults

Canon has mentioned the presence of loads of vaults filled with data troves and relics that have never been studied. I filled in some of the gaps in that concept.

Protheans and Kree

I couldn't help compare Protheans and the Kree. I mean, Henry Lawson certainly picked up on the fact that both alien species, separated by 50,000 years, decided to experiment on early humans. The Kree got Inhumans, and the Protheans, well… we'll see later what it is that they were doing, and why.

Scientific and Political Upheaval

Canonically, the discovery of Prothean ruins on Mars sent the whole world into a tizzy. Courts did argue a lot about who actually owned the ruins, and this part was very interesting to me, because both Wakanda and the Peak were claiming they found it first, and no one can prove it. Wakanda monopolized the ruins, scientists - ostensibly from Lowell City - stole the data, and now everyone is forced to walk across this political landmine.

Also in canon, the scientists came forward, banding together to translate the data. Pooling their knowledge, they did it within a year of discovery, propelling humanity's technology light-years into the future, both literally and figuratively.

I loved that T'Challa and Shuri as representatives of those two spheres. Each playing to their own strengths, just like I did with Shuri and Rambeau. Shuri's idea of sharing technology works well with the Wakandan International Outreach Center first mentioned in Black Panther's epilogue. Her role? The head of science and information exchange. Sure it was meant to share vibranium, but in this crossover-universe that I'm creating, why not eezo too?

General Context

Übermensch

Übermensch is basically the philosophy of the super-man (not the DC character). The perfect paradigm of humanity. Physical, physiological, emotional, moral. Absolute perfection in all aspects. Erich Paine and Henry Lawson are trying to achieve this through science.

A/N:

I'm going to miss Chadwick Boseman something fierce.

I spent a lot of time perfecting that epilogue between T'Challa, Shuri, and Queen Mother Ramonda.

T'Challa was a magnificent king, but the thing that captured me the most about him in the movies is how fiercely he loves his family. It is the quiet moments I'll miss the most - the teasing with Shuri, the respect and love he has for his mother, the conversations with his father - both in Vienna and the Astral Plane.

It's why I decided to make that epilogue soft, a family piece, instead of taking the noble king road. I wanted that sense of family, of home, of quiet pride in their accomplishments. The sense of future. I wanted it all to be positive and warm.

I hope I've done him justice.