Chapter Text
“I Yield.”
Immediately all of the strength left her body. She was left feeling drained. The combination of anger and that visceral need for vengeance that had been propelling her forward was gone, leaving her with just the adrenaline that had nowhere to go.
Namor lay still on the beach, choking on air. His breath coming in small and short pants. His eyes were closed, and he muttered something with the small amount of air left in his lungs “water,” Shuri didn’t waste time and began dragging him towards the shore by the arm.
Namor groans as she pulls him forward, his back having taken the worst of the damage. The sand that rubs on his back must feel like glass shards opening the wounds further. She considers flipping him over but before she can put her thought into action, he stops her “its… ok… water… please…” so she continues her walk, one hand pulling his arm the other clutching at her abdomen. She tries to walk faster but her every step hurts from the fight and having a spear go through her body. Somehow, she is still standing, she can feel the suit applying pressure to stop the bleeding, and her own body attempting to heal itself.
She makes it to the water and feels the water touch her feet. She turns and starts to pull Namor by his armpits into the water, pulling until they get to water that is waist deep. Then she removes her kimoyo beads, placing them on his chest before she pushes him below the water. His eyes close, but she feels him take a deep breath beneath her hands. She can hardly believe that they were fighting till death moments before. Looking at him like this Namor looks so serene, the light of the sun reflects on the body of water, casting strange shadows over his body. Shuri is struck with the thought that this man truly is beautiful. She looks up to the horizon as she counts every rise and fall of his chest.
There is no trace of their fight out here. In the beach there is pieces of burning debris from the fallen ship, but here? It is just her, Namor, the water and the Horizon as the Sun begins to set. Shuri closes her eyes and tilts her head back as a warm wind blows around her head. She lets herself enjoy the feel of the evening sun on her face and body.
After some time, Shuri feels Namor shift beneath her hands, she opens her eyes and looks down at him to find him staring up at her. She lightens up the pressure of her hands to allow him to float up but continues to hold the kimoyo beads to his chest. He speaks up first “Thank you.” He speaks low but his voice does not sound as raspy or weak anymore.
He looks better, his breathing feels more regular, no longer coming in the gasping breaths it was in the beginning. She looks him over and sees that some of his minor cuts have begun to close. She reaches a hand to his chin, tilting his face so that she can inspect the wound there. The claw marks run from his temple till they almost reach his jaw, but it does not look like it reached bone. That was good, it should heal faster then. Shuri’s continued inspection led her to see that the bleeding from Namor’s scratched face had ceased. She was not sure when he was still under the water, but now that his face was above it, she was confident. “You got me pretty good,” Namor said when she let go of his chin.
“Touché.” she touched the wound on her abdomen. “Your wounds are already healing, doesn’t look like this one reached bone.” She traced along the wound of his face and saw with amazement as it began to close. “Its closing already, might not even leave a scar.” She looked down at his ankle. “But I’m not so sure about your wing.”
“It will heal. I have not lived for so long being so weak. Though you are the first to best me so completely.”
Shuri sighed and looked up at the sky, thinking about what to do next.
‘Show them who you are.’ Her mother’s voice still rang in her head.
At that moment so many emotions were coursing through her. Anger, hate and a need for vengeance. But her mom was right she could not let it consume her. There was still a part of her brain that tried to reason that it was a hallucination, but hallucination or not she couldn't let herself become so consumed that she forgot who she was. She almost did. At that moment with Namor at her feet, spear in hand she realized just how similar they were. They were both fighting to avenge mothers that were gone, to protect their people.
She remembered the beauty of the Talokan city he showed her. She remembered that glorious underwater city and its people that had thrived against all odds. Against all who attacked and wanted its people wiped from the planet or enslaved. Looking into his eyes while he lay at her feet, she thought of all the actions that took them to this point. She couldn’t say she wouldn’t do the same thing and seek vengeance if she was in his shoes. Afterall that’s exactly what she had done, fought for vengeance.
Wakanda had never been colonized, it was able to escape most of the effects of imperialism completely. But Talokan was another story. Talokan had been affected by the colonizer’s weaponized smallpox illness. It would have killed them all if not for the Shaman that found the vibranium enriched flower that changed their biology and allowed them to breathe underwater. And although they survived and recreated their civilization underwater, they had only been around for 500 years. Compared to most countries it was an eternity but compared to Wakanda’s 10k years it was just a passing thought. And these events would have been recent memories to Namor who had lived through the direct aftermath himself. They would have heard direct accounts of their people before they were forced to the ocean. Who was to say Wakanda wouldn’t have done the same if in the same shoes? If a threat was at their doorstep, wouldn’t she defend her own people the same way? Wakanda was isolated for ten thousand years, they had to kill many people before the cloaking was developed that hid them from the rest of the world. All done in order to keep their country free of threats. They had to be cruel in order to enjoy their peace.
So, could she really judge their righteous anger? No, she couldn’t, she might not agree with their methods, but their anger was justified. Shuri knew their fear was reasonable too. Recently, France and a few other nations sent coordinated attacks on a couple of Wakanda research centers.
But Shuri knew in her heart that a war on a global scale with the surface wasn’t a solution. It would put her people at risk, as well as civilians and innocents. The truth was that she didn’t have a solution. Not a good one. She would look for one and, in the meantime, she would serve as a protector to both Wakanda and Talokan. She would ally herself to them and pledge to protect and fight with them.
All this time Shuri was lost in her thoughts, Namor lay beneath her in the water. Shuri continued to feel the rise and fall of his chest as it stabilized and slowly grew stronger. Shuri looked down and saw that Namor’s wounds were all closing now, the redness reduced and the scratches on his face almost completely closed.
Shuri takes the kimoyo beads and applies them to her own abdomen, keeping one hand on Namor’s chest to steady herself. She thinks about the actions that lead to today, as the kimoyo beads get to work, synchronizing with her suit and what it was already doing.
"All this over a scientist huh." She feels her wound as she laughs weakly. Namor blinks up at her but says nothing." She didn't build it on purpose, you know? She said it was some sort of class assignment. She had no idea it was stolen by the United States government." Wait. What branch of United States government would have done that? What were they planning?
"It doesn't matter how they got it. It presents a weakness to us."
"Now we will fill that weakness. I won't let anything happen." She promised. She put the thoughts of political plotting on the back burner for now. For now, there were people still fighting.
"Are you feeling better?" Namor asks her when he meets her eyes.
"Better than you."
"Funny." Shuri carries her mother’s murderer. Lifting him out of the water. Her arm wrapped around his waist and his around her shoulder. They leaned on each other like that and made it back towards the sounds of fighting.