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Finally, after months of agonizing over how they were going to defeat Thanos and how they were going to bring everyone back, they were finally able to figure it out, put all the pieces together, and devise a plan to fix everything that went wrong before. And it was all thanks to a rat that re-activated the machine that allowed Scott Lang to transport himself through a time portal.
~*~*~
As Tony Stark's bots place each stone in their right place on the new gauntlet, Shuri wishes she could hold her daughter close, to keep herself grounded should they be unsuccessful.
But she's still hopeful, because she believes in her friends and she believes the gods wouldn't allow a monster like Thanos to succeed. However, she is still concerned for Dr. Banner’s well-being as he takes the gauntlet and fits it around his hand.
Bruce screams in agony from the sheer power surging through his body and struggles to connect his fingers together in order to snap them and bring everyone back.
And as everyone else in the room watches on, no one notices they are one person short.
Bruce’s fingers snap together, finally, bringing everyone back. An empowering wave of relief washes over Shuri once she realizes that her family is alive. However, those people who were killed in the snap will wake up in the same location they were when it happened a year ago.
Though despite Bruce's reassurance that it did work, there is still a second of disbelief, that maybe it didn't work. But then suddenly Clint’s phone begins to ring loudly throughout the room and they can all see his face as it twists from one of dispair into one of pure and utter joy as he smiles upon seeing his wife’s photo on the caller ID.
But the euphoria of their success is short-lived when they're attacked.
Shuri doesn’t remember feeling the blast, nor does she remember landing in a ditch among the ruins of the Avengers Compound in upstate New York. But she raises herself on wobbling arms and looks through the smoke and the dust to see Tony, Steve, and Thor all fighting against Thanos, who is miraculously back from the dead. It's three against one and the odds are still not in their favor.
Shuri’s ears ring from the explosion, but she pulls herself together, stands up, on what probably is a sprained ankle, and begins to realize that the constant buzzing in her ear is not her eardrums feeling the trauma of such a loud and sudden noise so close to her, but an S.O.S signal from her communication device.
Scott, Bruce, and the raccoon, Rocket, are in trouble and Shuri knows that no matter how much she wants to fight Thanos herself, she needs to get to her friends first because she knows that their only chance of winning is by fighting together.
The 29-year-old woman clicks the button on the Vibranium necklace around her neck and waits for the Black Panther suit to appear on her body.
Unlike her brother’s suit, which was sequenced in a royal purple, Shuri’s suit is sequenced in the same gold she used on the replacement metal arm that she made for Bucky all those years ago. It was one of the few homages she could keep in her husband’s memory after the snap.
The battle against Thanos rages on, and as she falls to her knees in the rubble and watches as Steve struggles to fight with every last breath in his body, Shuri is beginning to lose hope. Sure, they've brought everyone back, but at what cost? Now with Thanos here, from 2014, he has just as much power to defeat them again and even reverse the damage they fixed only moments ago.
Tears fall from her eyes, hopelessness settles on her shoulders and she wishes she could have at least seen her husband, brother, and son one last time before losing them again. But then her communication device, as well as the communication devices the other Avengers are wearing, spring to life with the static-filled voice of someone who was once thought to be dead.
“On your left.” The voice says and Shuri sees as Steve’s face erupts in a wide smile, knowing that now, they have help and they can finally turn things around for the better.
Shuri's eyes widen as she sees, to Steve's left, a large orange portal begins to form, in the background, Shuri can see her home of Wakanda, her home she hasn't seen in over 360 days because she's spent every waking moment of the past year in New York with Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Hellen Cho working on a way to reverse Thanos' snap and bring everyone back.
And from that beautiful background of Wakanda's green grasses and light blue skies comes a man walking to the left of Steve. That man is Sam Wilson.
Shuri watches as Sam and a fraction of Wakanda's army emerge from an orange portal beside Steve. The sight gives her hope and tears well up in her eyes once more.
Then, from the corner of her eyes, Shuri watches as another portal begins forming beside her and another behind her and dozens more all around her and Steve and the other avengers already on the battle field.
The sight brings tears to her eyes.
Then from one of the portals, she sees T’Challa, Nakia, and Bucky step out together, each of them armed and ready to aid in the fight against Thanos.
It's a miracle they were able to be given this second chance of fighting at all, so they aren't going to let victory slip through their fingers again.
“Avengers!” Steve calls out to masses of fighters who have come to help from all corners of the universe. “Assemble.”
The battle rages on and Shuri fights side by side with her family who has just returned from the dead and her friends whose she's gotten to know more these past 12 months.
But despite them all being here, despite them fighting together, it still seems to be no use and everything they have done, everything they have sacrificed has been all for nothing.
That is until Carol Dancers shows up to take out Thanos' army and ships and that's when the fight for control of the gauntlet begins.
It's like a game of hot potato and then Tony's protégé gets a hold of it and keeps it tucked in his body for protection, swinging across the wreckage to get to his mentor. Once Shuri catches up with the younger hero, she and the other women ban together to fight against the aliens to get the gauntlet to Tony.
But then Thanos steals it again and Shuri can't bare to watch them lose again, so she closes her eyes and waits for the inevitable.
But the inevitable never happens, instead Tony takes the stones back and snaps his fingers. The smell of burning skin fills the air as does the dust of Thanos' army. Tony collapses but he's still breathing and his wife quickly goes to his side to make sure he's okay while Shuri watches as Thanos and his army is finally defeated. They have been snapped away and those who were snapped a year ago, are finally home.
Shuri sees Bucky out in the distance, just a quick sprint away and she takes off running, jumps high in the air and pounces her husband, throwing her arms around his shoulders and sobbing into the crook of his neck.
"Hey, it's okay Shuri, I'm back now. We're all back." Bucky says softly, stroking her hair gently to help soothe her.
"I missed you so much." Shuri cries.
"I missed you too." Bucky tells her.
Shuri hugs her husband tight then gets engulfed in a hug from her brother, who thanks her for looking after Wakanda with Okoye and compliments her on her suit.
Shuri hugs Nakia next then M'Baku, and the joy of victory causes the hugging to become contagious between everyone remaining on the battle field. Thankfully, no more lives were lost.
Shuri kisses Tony on the cheek, thanking him before he's taken to the nearest hospital for the second degree burns traveling up the right side of his body. And once the reunions have ended she and the other Wakandans return home through the same portal they came in.
Shuri runs up the step of the palace towards the room where her mother and daughter were when her son was killed in the snap last year. Realistically she knows that they must have moved in the time between coming back and Shuri and Bucky returning home after the fight. But she checks anyway.
Shuri's already in tears when she sees her mother holding Iwobi tightly in her arms. Iwobi seems a little dazed from the hugging but is otherwise okay.
But then Iwobi sees her in the doorway and his beautiful eyes light up.
"Mama!" He exclaimes, wiggling his way out of his grandmother's arms and towards Shuri.
Shuri's arms immediately wrap around Iwobi, lifting her son in her arms and hugging him tight.
"Baby I've missed you." She sobs, kissing him all over his face, and from the corner of her eyes she can see her daughter running towards her.
"Mama, Daddy's back!" Kalani exclaims and Shuri can hear Bucky laugh as he lifts their daughter into his arms, kissing her as well and squeezing her tight, causing a happy cry to errupt from her tiny body.
Shuri hugs her son, crying all over his hair, and holds him like he's going to disappear again. It's irrational, but the fear is still there. She lost her son once, she won't let it happen again.
"You did it honey." Shuri's mother says, reaching out to hug her and Iwobi and then pulls Bucky and Kalani into the hug as well. "You brought them back."
And Shuri cries, in relief, in pain, and in joy, because they did it. They fought back and won and they were finally reunited as a family once again.