Into the Ring

Chapter Fifteen-Wakanda

*Jo's POV*

"So, my mind was scrambled before, I remember that. You unscrambled it, but now it's scrambled with my own memories. Did I get that right?" I do my best to condense what Shuri's telling me and repeat it back to her. For meeting someone for the first time, we get along pretty well. Can't remember the last time I was around a girl near my own age anyway. Is that sad? It seems sad. She shrugs and nods.

"Basically, yes." She confirms and I huff from my seat on the floating bed. Which is awesome, by the way. "You do know those two from earlier. I think when your mind shut down it locked all of them up somewhere. Since they were around you all the time, they were contributing the most to your overload. Unintentionally, of course." She explains and I nod. That makes a little sense.

"And I punched him in the face," I say regretfully, but remember the pain just his touch brought me. "Maybe I should apologize." I start, but Shuri shakes her head.

"Right now, your presence with them without knowledge of them might hurt more than help." She tells me, brown eyes bright and intelligent just as they were rumored to be. Her hair is piled on top of her head and while she's moved all around me, she's careful not to touch me. Going on how touch hurts right now, I'm immensely grateful for the conscious movement. And, despite my weaker abilities, there seems to be something in her eyes when she looks at me. For now, I'm letting it slide. I have enough on my plate.

Frustration builds in me. "But there's not even a flicker of recognition there. Emotion, memory, nothing." I tell her and her lips press together for a moment.

"It will probably take time. There are approximately four million years of memory storage in your brain, so it'll take a while for you to dig stuff up again." She says in a light tone to try and alleviate my worry. I nod.

"Right, that shouldn't take long." I sigh before doing my best to smile at her. "Thank you for going through this with me," I tell her genuinely and she grins. As a princess, I'm sure she has better things to do than to help the random girl in her lab. She straightens out multiple tools strewn across the work table as she responds.

"No problem. My brother actually told me after meeting you that we'd probably get along. I've wanted to meet you for a while now." She tells me and I perk up. It's not every day you hear a King and Princess have been talking about you. And despite my aversion to fairytales, it's still pretty cool. "There aren't a lot of girls here my age that..."

"Understand what it is to have a purpose that calls to you night and day?" I interrupt, but her shoulders relax at knowing I understand.

"Exactly."

I think back to that day and remember the confident yet humble man. "I remember the King," I state victoriously and wade through a little more muck to the memory. "I wanted to meet you that day, but...something came up." Shuri nods.

"See, you're already improving." She encourages and I smirk at the sweet attempt. A little, but it's better than nothing. Her eyes scan me before she seems to make a decision and waves to me. "Come with me. You need a distraction in order for your brain to realize it's no longer in danger. Besides, you should also eat and put on something you won't die from heat stroke in." She laughs and I find myself laughing quietly with her, but stop when I hear a gasp behind us. A young man with shaggy brown waves approaches looking rather rumpled. His brown eyes meet mine and emotion hits me like a wave. It pushes me under the surface of my mind. "You know him too," Shuri tells me and I struggle to hear her.

"There's...something there." And it feels important, but it's just out of my reach. "How do I know him? Who is he?" I ask with my hands on my temples.