NOVEL NEXT Chapter 110: Shuri
A/N: Shuri POV, girl is kind of angsty, ngl.
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How long had she known that J’Vis was actually JARVIS, Tony Stark’s super AI and the reason she’d been completely unable to hack into Stark Industries’ servers? For the sake of her own ego, Shuri would have liked to think she’d always known on some level, deep down inside.
… But that wasn’t the case. Frankly, if she’d had any idea of J’Vis’ true nature back when he’d first made contact, she doubts she would have reacted very well. No, Shuri would absolutely have freaked out and done something inadvisable back then. It was only after years of J’Vis’ company, assistance… and friendship, that Shuri had come to rely on him. He was basically the only friend she had left, at the end of the day.
Somewhere along the way though, she’d figured out who he was… and just kept on going. She’d put it in the back of her mind, ignoring it save for doing extra checks on everything they worked on together. It wasn’t what she should have done, of course. JARVIS had had unrestricted access to Wakanda’s systems for at least a few years, possibly even longer.
Even if she made the excuse that by the time she’d realized who he was, it was too late to truly stop him… that wasn’t good enough. As a proud daughter of Wakanda, as a Princess of the Golden Tribe, it was Shuri’s duty to act against all threats to her country. Except… somewhere along the way, Shuri had stopped being a proud daughter of Wakanda.
Somewhere along the way, she’d come to realize that… she hated her homeland just a little bit. Or maybe she just hated her father.
“What is that thing?! What is happening here?!”
Shuri flinches as Ramonda’s voice, only a little bit shrill, echoes through the suddenly silent laboratory. The… female who just killed Erik and is still holding his heart in her hands, smiles politely as she bows to the Queen of Wakanda.
“Greetings. I am Friday, and I am a Vibranium Synthezoid. Apologies for my entrance, but the situation was quite dire.”
That was the understatement of the century. Shuri had been so sure she could handle Erik. She’d had her own suit, far more technologically advanced than his, and weapons that should have put his claws and spear to shame. But in the end, she didn’t have the Heart-Shaped Herb… and she didn’t have the training either. She was just a nerdy scientist who spent more time tinkering than working out. And she’d nearly gotten herself killed for it.
Thankfully, JARVIS had stepped in and so had Friday. But that didn’t mean they were out of the woods just yet. Shuri’s mother rounds on her, rather rudely ignoring the murder bot in their midst in favor of focusing her gaze on her daughter. The Queen’s eyes are wide and slightly manic, and to be fair, it’s clear she’s reached the end of her rope.
“Shuri? Is this another one of your creations? The voice as well?”
When Friday and JARVIS both stay quiet at that, Shuri realizes they’re giving her a chance. But is it rope to hang herself, or is their silence tacit approval to try to pass them off as things she created so that they can maintain their cover and not reveal their true nature as Stark Bots to her mother?
… In the end, it doesn’t matter. Shuri doesn’t get a chance to decide one way or another before Okoye suddenly speaks up. The Dora Milaje General currently holds her own husband at spearpoint, with W’Kabi being the last living traitor in the room with them. One of Shuri’s devices, a nanite injector made for stabilizing battlefield injuries, is still suctioned to Okoye’s side as she stands tall and strong.
“My Queen… the Princess… she mentioned a JARVIS before the appearance of this… Friday. JARVIS is the name of Tony Stark’s Artificial Intelligence.”
Of course Okoye would know about that. As the General of the Dora Milaje and a bodyguard of the Black Panther, it was her and her order’s duty to keep up to date on foreign threats. From the way Shuri’s mother’s eyes widen in recognition after a moment, the Wakandan Queen also remembers something like that, no doubt mentioned at one time or another by Shuri’s father.
… She should feel worse about the King’s death, shouldn’t she? And yet…
“Shuri? Is this true? You let Stark into Wakanda?”
Shuri stiffens at the heartbroken, accusatory tone her mother takes. Her lips curl back into a sneer as she clenches and unclenches her fists at her sides. A thousand excuses run through her head, chief among them being JARVIS’ initial deception. She could have tried to convince her mother that she didn’t know until recently, that she hadn’t kept it from everyone for long… but what would be the point?
Instead, Shuri tells the truth, but only to a certain extent.
“I didn’t let them do anything, mother. They were already here. Stark and his AI have been here in Wakanda for years.”
JARVIS speaks up then, his tone shifting from the Wakandan accent he’d always used as J’Vis to a more posh, British voice.
“Princess Shuri speaks the truth. I have been in your systems for far longer than she knew about me. I did not need to be ‘let in’… your security simply wasn’t up to the task of keeping me out.”
A brutal burn, though Shuri wisely doesn’t crack a grin at it. Okoye at least has the good sense to look deeply troubled by the omnipresent AI’s words, but Ramonda… the Queen only has eyes for Shuri, and those eyes are filled with accusation.
“Even if you did not let them in… you knew about it. How long? Years, you said? And you did not tell us?”
The Queen of Wakanda gestures around them in disbelief and anger.
“This place… you built this right under our noses? Without our permission? This goes beyond simple teenage rebellion, Shuri. You have betrayed our family! Our people!”
Oh… oh, her mother shouldn’t have said that. But then, this was probably partially Shuri’s fault. She’s cultivated a certain personality and attitude around her parents these past few years, ever since she stopped trusting them. It’s obvious Ramonda expects her to back down, to bow her head in shame. Instead, Shuri takes a step forward, hands balled into fists and a snarl on her lips.
“I was betrayed first! By father! By you! By everyone!”
Ramonda looks surprised, which is good because Shuri has a lot to fucking say and she’s going to damn well say it.
“Look at where we stand, mother! Look at what has happened! Father is dead! Wakanda is in the middle of a Civil War! Not started by Stark or JARVIS or Friday, but by Erik fucking Stevens! I told father he was bad news! I told father not to trust him! Even T’Challa said as much! And what did father do? He gave Erik chance after chance! He made him a Black Panther! And he paid for it!”
Her mother takes a step back, looking shocked by Shuri’s tirade. Shuri is just getting started.
“Maybe if father hadn’t insisted on trying to make a monster feel at home at the expense of his own daughter, I would feel more loyalty to our family! Maybe if you and father hadn’t ignored Erik terrorizing me for years, I wouldn’t have needed to run away and carve out this place for myself! You ask me why I built this without your permission?! Because Erik kept hunting me down and invading my spaces, and when I complained to father, he did NOTHING about it!”
Shuri finds herself staring down at Erik’s corpse and breathing heavily for a moment as silence falls. Truthfully, seeing him dead… it’s like a great weight has been lifted off her chest. She’s not sure what it says about her, but she’s happier that Erik is dead than she is sad about her father’s demise.
As everyone sits with Shuri’s words for a moment, JARVIS suddenly interjects.
“It has long confused me, why King T’Chaka ignored the warning he was given about Erik Killmonger back when Klaue was delivered to Wakanda’s doorstep.”
A jolt runs through Queen Ramonda, whose head snaps up to the ceiling as she finally acknowledges JARVIS as an actual person and not just a ‘thing’.
“You… so you admit that Tony Stark captured Klaue and made off with Wakandan Vibranium at long last.”
Shuri blinks. She’d known that Klaue was captured and executed, but what was this about? JARVIS, when he responds to Ramonda, doesn’t seem all that upset by the accusation.
“Indeed. Do not fret, every ounce of Wakandan Vibranium that my Creator made use of back then has been returned to Wakanda at this point.”
Confused, Ramonda’s nose wrinkles.
“Excuse me? We have received no such thing.”
Shuri manages to get it moments before JARVIS answers her mother… namely by rippling the walls of the laboratory.
“The quarter ton of Wakandan Vibranium taken from Ulysses Klaue is all around you, Queen Ramonda. It has been used in service to Wakandan Royalty for years now.”
Meaning Shuri. Heh, that was fucking hilarious and so was the look on her mother’s face. The woman looks like she’s just bit into a lemon. Shuri would laugh, but she’s too caught up on what JARVIS said to feel any mirth.
“What do you mean, JARVIS? About my father ignoring a warning?”
Her mother looks at her sharply, but JARVIS is already answering.
“There was a note delivered alongside Klaue that spelled out the threat Erik Killmonger posed to your country, Princess Shuri.”
Shuri rounds on her mother, staring at the Queen in disbelief.
“Is that… is that true, mother? Did father KNOW that Erik was a threat? Did he let him into our home anyways?!”
Suddenly looking distinctly uncomfortable, Ramonda grimaces.
“… The note… it was… vague. It did not necessarily call N’Jadaka a threat…”
JARVIS though is quick to shut that down.
“Given what King T’Chaka did, one would assume the context should have been implied, Queen Ramonda.”
Her mother blanches and Shuri takes another step forward, snarling once again.
“What? What did father do, mother?!”
Ramonda looks away, refusing to meet her daughter’s eyes.
“This is not… the time or place to be airing family drama, Shuri. Especially not in front of foreign invaders.”
Shuri scoffs and looks at the ceiling.
“JARVIS. Tell me.”
“Do not tell her!”
But of course, JARVIS ignores her mother’s panicked shout.
“In the process of hunting down Ulysses Klaue following his theft of Wakandan Vibranium and his murder of Wakandan natives, King T’Chaka uncovered the truth about how Klaue gained access to the Kingdom. He did so through an inside man… King T’Chaka’s own brother, Prince N’Jobu. When King T’Chaka confronted N’Jobu about this, it resulted in the Prince’s execution as a traitor of Wakanda.”
… What? Shuri knew she had a dead uncle, of course. Even before Erik showed up, she had known about N’Jobu and that he’d died in America. But she hadn’t known… that.
“Erik Stevens, aka N’Jadaka, found his father’s dead body as well as his hidden notes and began plotting his revenge on King T’Chaka and the rest of the Golden Tribe at a very young age. That is why it surprised my Creator and I when King T’Chaka brought Erik into Wakanda willingly.”
There are tears in Shuri’s eyes now. They don’t actually fall, but they sting as she looks at her mother. Her father had killed her uncle, resulting in her cousin swearing a lifelong vendetta against him. And rather than protecting his family and his people from a murderous psychopath, T'Chaka had welcomed Erik to Wakanda with open arms.
“… Why? Why would father be so foolish, mother?”
Ramonda looks paler than ever before; the blood having drained from her face. She swallows thickly, scrambling to find the words to explain.
“He… he didn’t know that N’Jadaka knew who killed his father. He wanted… he wanted to make amends, to give N’Jadaka the life he should have had if not for N’Jobu’s treachery. T’Chaka only meant to make things right…”
Make things right. Regret. That was what it was. In his old age, her father had regretted killing his brother and decided to try and ‘make things right’ by taking Erik in. Never mind that it ostracized his daughter, withering their once loving relationship. Never mind that Erik was a monster who would have happily killed them all and HAD happily killed T’Chaka the moment he could.
Suddenly, her mother seems to rally. Lifting herself up to her full height, her head held high, Queen Ramonda’s countenance shifts from horrified and grief stricken to carefully controlled wrath and dominance as she looks to Friday and then the ceiling where JARVIS’ voice has been coming from.
“Enough. That is… enough. The usurper is dead. Wakanda’s sovereignty must be secured. I demand that you leave Wakanda at once! There is no place in this Kingdom for Stark’s creations!”
Shuri stiffens at her mother’s ultimatum. Did the Queen really think she could enforce such a decree? On the one hand, she knows it’s what her mother has to say. JARVIS and now Friday have ‘impugned on Wakanda’s sovereignty’ as Shuri’s father would have put it. Even still, there was nothing and nobody in all of Wakanda right now who could have stopped Friday, let alone JARVIS. One of their Black Panthers, traitor though he was, was already dead at Friday’s hands, literally.
And her brother… Shuri lets out a shuddering breath. She realizes in that moment that she doesn’t even know if T’Challa is alive or dead. Erik had certainly insinuated it was the latter…
“Very well. I have taken care of all traitorous elements within the Palace itself. Crown Prince T’Challa will enter Wakandan Air Space within the hour. I would recommend not leaving the Palace until he does, the fighting in the city itself is still quite heavy.”
Shuri’s mother looks like she wants to scream. In the end though, her shoulders slump and she sounds almost defeated as she waves a hand.
“Just… go. Please.”
Friday shrugs and drops Erik’s heart to the ground with a meaty splat that causes W’Kabi to flinch over where he’s being held at spearpoint by his wife. Then, the Vibranium Synthezoid begins to float up towards the portal still open above her head.
In that moment… Shuri sees what her future holds for her once JARVIS is gone. Even after her brother quells this rebellion and sets Wakanda in order, she’ll be all alone again. Her only friend will be gone.
Snapping, Shuri lunges forward and grabs Friday by the ankle as she floats upward. Friday looks down at her with a blink but makes no attempt to stop her as Shuri begins to scale the Vibranium Synthezoid’s body.
“Shuri! What do you think you’re doing?!”
Looking down at her mother Shuri grits her teeth.
“You said it yourself, mother. There is no place in this Kingdom for Stark’s creations. And at this point, I am more a creation of Stark than I am a daughter of Wakanda!”
Patently false, of course. She’s never even talked to Tony Stark. And yet, those are the last words Shuri says before she pushes off of Friday’s incredibly sturdy shoulders and leaps up through the portal inches overhead, landing on the floor of what can only be a Stark Laboratory likely located halfway across the planet. Her mother calls out to her one last time, but then Friday floats through as well and the portal closes behind her.
“… Are you certain about this, Shuri?”
Feeling a strange surge of relief at hearing JARVIS’ voice echo around her, Shuri rises to her feet and looks around for a moment, nodding.
“Yes. I am sure. I-!”
She stops however, going silent as her eyes fall upon a nearby window… no, a viewport. Walking over in a daze, she’s forced to reassess just where this portal has taken her.
“Ah… where are we, exactly?”
“We are currently in the Kuiper Belt, Princess.”
… Well damn. She was a lot farther from home than she’d thought she would be. After a moment of considering that, Shuri lets a wide grin spread across her face.
She was finally free.
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A/N: You might think this is the end of the Wakanda Arc, but not quite. Next time, Tony POV.