Shuri’s pov
I woke up in my room. My head felt drowsy and heavy. I looked around the room. My curtains were closed. The memories of yesterday hit me like a train. I turned to my bedside table and looked at the time 6am. I bolted up out of my bed which was a mistake. I lose my footing and fell to the floor with a thump. I let out a groan and grabbed the bed for support as I got up.
I grab a towel and rub my face, I start walking towards the bathroom for a shower, rebraid my hair, and get in my clothes for the day.
As soon as I walk out of my room, I feel energised, and I begin to make my way to the lab to begin my work. It takes me 20 minutes to get to the lab from my room. As I push down on the door handle and push it I hit my face as it doesn’t open.
“Owww” I say as I rub my nose and try to open it again
“Griot?”
“Yes princess” he responds back to me
“Open the lab door please” I say impatiently
“I can not princess Override code 3574 has been activated”
“When?” I say aggravated
“Yesterday evening by Y/n”
I huff angrily “where is Y/n?”
“Y/n is is the dining hall”
I start to speed walk angrily towards the dinning hall to find Y/n. I push the double doors open and walk it my eyes scanning the room to find her only to find okoye and Riri and I walk over to them.
‘Okoye, Riri have you seen y/n?”
"Yes, look behind you," Okoye says, pointing behind me, and I quickly turn my body towards the door, where I see her waving farewell before rushing away. I began to sprint after her; she was faster than me, but I was closing the gap.
“ I should never have worn heels” I mumble to myself and continue running after her.
She turns the corner and I follow suit but as I turn the corner she’s gone. I look around only to see and hear nothing, I start to slowly walk down the hall looking back every so often.
“Where did you go?” I question myself quietly.
“Looking for me” I turn around swiftly and put my right leg back and my left leg forward, with hands held in the guard position, preparing for an attack only to see Y/n there.
I lower my stance and I look behind her then behind me “what the hell. Where did you just come from.” She points up and I glance up to see the open vents.
“How the hell did you get up there so fast” I question her shocked.
"You were pursuing me in heels, and Okoye trained me." She shrugs as if nothing is wrong.
I shake my head and return to the matter at hand, "Y/n you locked me out of the lab. "I'd like to be let back in." I say this while putting my hands on my hips to appear scary.
She raises her eyebrow and puts and arm around my shoulders " So evidently you haven't been out of the lab in a month possibly without meals. So you're not going back in until you take care of yourself," she says as she begins to walk away.
And I chased her down, saying, "hey, wait, I need to finish producing the heart-sharp herb because we're going to battle soon and it needs to be ready," as I stepped in front of her, stopping her from getting any farther.
"In four days, I'll let you into the lab. "During this time, I want you to eat, sleep, and shower," she says, holding my hands, "otherwise you won't be able to enter the lab," and I slap her in the shoulder.
“Fine.” I begin to walk away, but as I do so, I turn around and say, "I'll prove you wrong," as I point at her and turn the corner.
(Time skip)
——————————————————————————————
I have been out of the lab for more than a week now, but now I will be able to go back to work. I am sure that if you were a guard standing at a post, you would see a blur running past your post. This would be me sprinting to the lab.
I call y/n on my kimoyo beads as soon as I reach the front doors of the lab. When she doesn’t pick up I try 3 more times. I groan and lean my head against the wall behind me.
“She's probably doing this on purpose” I mumble.
“Now where’s the fun in that?” My head swiftly looks to my right to see her walking down the hall.
“Finally. By Bast your slow.”
“Your making me wanna keep you locked out of the lab” she says with a smirk when my eye’s widen.
“Im kidding” she say’s laughing. I turn my head to the lab door.
“For now” she mumbles and I choose to ignore the comment.
She opens the door and I bolt in scared she’ll close it on me I'm probably being paranoid but hey can never be to careful. I run over to the free space and throw my kimoyo bead to the side for the DNA hologram to appear. As it does Y/n walks next to me examining the DNA and does a little sarcastic bow.
“Oh so great black panther has come to join us” I hit her in the back of the head and she chuckles lightly.
“Are you going to take it.”
“Uh yes. I think I might.”
“My little sibling is all grown up” she says with a sniffle and wiping a fake tear from her eye and I roll my eyes.
“Griot print the heart shaped herb” I say as we start walking over to the printer.
“Of course princess” he starters printing the herb and it takes 14 seconds for it to be completely finished and it glows showing it was successful.
I cover my mouth the only thing passing my mind was you could of saved T’Challa.
Y/n pulls it out of the printer and looks at me with a nod “ get your ass on the table” she says doing a quick point at it as Riri comes over from her desk. She starts walking to the desk and crushing the herb till it becomes a liquid “Riri please make sure shuri is comfortably laying down with access to her chest” she says and I look at her gratefully.
Riri helps me lay down as y/n walks over to the bowl “ quick question why do you need access to her chest” Riri asks nervously.
“In case she goes through cardiac arrest” y/n mumbles something then she places her kimoyo beads on top of my chest and the beads trill showing that they are online.
“Just fyi I have no idea what I'm ment to do so I'm just gonna wing it so good luck” Y/n says with a thumbs up.
“Allow this heart-shaped herb to give you the strength of the black panther and take you to the ancestral plane.” She says almost questioning herself which to be honest is hilarious. She then grabs my head and I open my mouth and swallow the herb.
My heartbeat is in my ears, and the herb is making me squirm, and images of my mother flash through my mind. Until my heart stops and I find myself in a dark room, holding my breath. I look around and realise I'm in water. I start swimming to the surface, and when I get there, I realise I'm in the throne room, with a pink, purple, pure blue, and white sky, and multiple stars.
I look back to the throne to see a figure “mother?” I question while starting to walk in-front of the throne only to see a male figure I get excited thinking it was T’Challa instead but in was wrong it was killmonger and I have a look of disbelief on my face.
“Lil cousin.”
“How.?”
How is never as important as why, right?” He questions using Namor’s line.
“You choose me.”
“Impossible I would never choose you.”
He starts to get up from the Thorne that he once sat on and walks towards me “you didn’t believe the ancestral plane was real. Did you.?”
“So why did you take it then?” he pushes again.
“You don't have to lie to me.”
“So I can be strong” I sugarcoat the truth.
"Strong to do what?, See. Were more alike than you think. I took it to avenge my a ancestors too.” He says while walking away from he and lifting his head a little.
“Im nothing like you.”
I start yelling about how he only took the herb for him self and that he was an unworthy king, and how he was afraid of being replaced.
“And before T’challa.”
“Don't mentions me and Y/n’s brother. You’re the reason why he’s dead.” As I speak and may voice rises fire starts to surround us representing my hatred and rage I had within me.
“You burnt the herb, left us with nothing. Left us with no protector. Then Namor almost killed Y/n. and then successfully killed our mother. Their blood in on your hand’s” my voice rises and the fire gets hotter.
“It was your mother who sacrificed her life to protect the young girl from being killed by the lost tribe. The fact is your father would have killed that girl, as well as your sister, if your mother hadn't been there" he says as he walks around me, looking at me as he speaks.
“So are you gonna be noble like your brother, or take care of business.? Like me.” He says stoping directly in front of me.
And before I knew it I jolted awake “your ok. Your ok. Just. Breath” she looks at me with questioning eyes, I understand what she was saying but I ignore it and get up from the table.
“I failed it didn’t work” I say punching the desk then rubbing my face and cracking my knuckles “they abounded me. I did everything I was supposed to. I recreated the herb.” I say my voice rising in distress.
I walk away and over to a mannequin and punch it in the middle for it to go flying back. I look down at my fist then back and them.
“Can I get some of that too?” Riri questions looking at Y/n.
“Not the time Riri” she whispers back.
Y/n looks at me “ I think your gonna need one hell of a suit Shuri.”
It wasn't long before I walked over to the desk that was displaying two black Panther masks. Both of them were black in colour, and I hovered my hand over the one I was interested in. As I glanced back up, I noticed a sand table across from me. When I walked over to it, two objects appeared in front of me. Among them was a helmet made of gold and black colours. Picking it up, I put it at eye level and held it there for a few seconds. There is something about the colours that make me think of Killmonger and T'challa when I see them. It seems ironic to me.
Riri provided me with her help in working on the suit, as well as Y/N's fashion advice when it came to this. As a result of the suit's complexity, it took over an hour to complete. Once completed we began by walking to one of the talons and then took off to one of the Jabari outposts. Once we're above one of their caves, I put on my full suit and jump out, doing a few back flips on the way down praying to bast that I don't make a fool of myself when I land.
When I land I pause for a dramatic effect and slowly turn around facing each tribe as soon and I turn back to M’Baku my helmet disappears revealing my face. M’Baku gets up from his seat and does a little arm wrestling in mid air, he begins to struggle after a couple of seconds once I pin his arm on my side he smiles and grins my arms and pulling above my head.
“The black panther lives!” He bellowing voice echos throughout the cave.
I look at Y/n who had walked in during the wrestle and she had a thumbs up and a prideful smile on my face and gives a head nudge to continue.
“Our queen has been murdered. Our capital destroyed. He believes we are vulnerable and have no protector. But this is the time we strike” I say determination evident in my voice.
The tribal elders exchange opinions with one another on the current situation, and how and where they would kill them and i share my thoughts about a distance location at sea. After a couple of seconds M’Baku speaks up after hearing their thoughts .
“Assuming we can kill this fishman, who has incredible strength and an army who could take out our strongest soldiers. We don't know what killing him may cause. Our strength invites challenge we knew this during the battle with thanos, challenge incites conflict. and conflict breeds catastrophe.” He says with warning.
"So you're saying that the people who died in the battle, as well as our queen, died in vain?” I look at Y/n’s disapproving face.
Before the matter can get worse I start to speak up “elders, y/n with your permission, I would like to speak with lord M’Baku alone.” They give an approved nod before leaving and y/n gives me a I-trust-you look and walks out after them.
“What are you afraid off” I question him.
“War” he points out.
“If he is a god to his people killing him will risk internal war and they might reciprocates by kill someone here again. What if its Y/n this time.”
“Namora would never allow that” I say in hopes that Y/n won’t be mad at me for sharing this information.
M’Baku looks at me with confusion written all over his face “why would she care?” He says tilting his head to the left.
And I internally curse and pray to bast that y/n won’t murdered me.
“They may or may not have had a romantic history and it may or may not is continuing” I say my voice getting weaker and looking behind him to see if y/n is listening and luckily she wasn’t.
“So Y/n has been dating one who is responsible for your mothers death and your ok with that!?” he says his voice booming and I give him a quick hand shake mouthing not here.
“ So since she is dating one of them how do we know that she won’t tell them our plans. There is no love and war Shuri and if it comes down to killing Y/n to protect you like I promised tour brother then I won’t hesitant to do so.”
I point at him in a warning manner “don't speak about my sister like that you will not harm her. I want Namor’s head and your going to help me get it.”
“Your mother the queen would not want this of you to let this vengeance consume you.”
I am queen! In case you have not noticed my mother is dead! So you take orders from me! get your army ready we leave at dawn” I say walking out of the room and back to the palace.