Chapter Text
A breeze—warmed by the rising sun—gently meandered through the kitchen, catching the yellow curtains hung at the side of the window, making them twirl and dance. The distinct sounds of crashing waves and sea birds echoed in, and the air was fresh in her nose. It was a morning like any other; one more wonderful day to spend with T’Challa, and yet another filled with pain, for she was without the presence of his namesake.
Noise. An equal in loudness to that of an elephant’s stomping, could be heard approaching, gradually ruining the sense of calm she had so gleefully cultivated from the new dawn. Her son was an utter monster in the mornings. Of course, it was his son that rampages through the house at the first sign of sunlight. Only the King T'Challa could have helped create such a boy.
“TOUSSAINT! STOP RUNNING!” she screamed as her little supposed bundle of joy flew down the stairs and almost sped face-first into a wall.
“SORRY, MAMAN!” was all she got in return.
As she turned to lecture her child on the importance of walking inside the house, she froze. Bzz. Bzzzz. Bzz. Her usually silent emergency kimoyo beads, left on a high shelf to be out of Toussiant’s reach, were ringing. Someone was calling her, but the only one who had access to call them was...
Her thoughts stilled. This, this was not good.
She turned on the heel of her foot, facing that loveable and fury inducing face she called her spawn.
“Toussaint, go play outside.” She pointed to the back door with a blank look on her face.
“But—” he started, quickly looking out at the sand-covered beach and back to her with a helpless look on his face.
“Now, Prince T’Challa.”
The boy balked at his mother, and it was understandable. Nakia almost never used his formal title. He seemed to come to the conclusion that this was important and nodded. Toussaint turned, and his feet padded lightly as he slipped his feet into sandals and made his way out. The second the door closed, she picked up the bracelet and answered the call.
“My queen, what happened?”
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Queen Ramonda had received a brief signal from Shuri’s earrings, and using that, it hadn’t taken the former War Dog long to find the entrance in an underwater cave. She allowed her suit to cover her face and dove into the water. It was cold, but no match for the heating systems installed. Once far enough in, she pressed a bead to equip the one-person vessel Shuri had designed, it would help with maneuverability and stamina. She might have to fight her way in and it would help no one but her enemies if she was tired from a long swim down.
She sank deeper below the waves, past lurking creatures, and waving seaweed. The light from the sun was getting gradually weaker, and it was a relief when she found an entrance. Arriving in the, thankfully, not water filled cave, she kept close the wall with one hand on her sonic gun. The air was dank and stale, droplets of water trickled down the sides she was pressed against, and every noise made her flinch. It was also unexpectedly bright, some sort of unknown artificial lights illuminated the corridors in blue.
As she crept deeper, checking all entrances for signs of Shuri or the American scientist she was captured alongside, Nakia heard murmured sounds of English. She sped up slightly and rounded a corner to find the young Riri Williams worriedly pacing before a hand-woven hammock, clutching something in one hand. Nakia looked first to ensure that there were no fish people present and ran up to the girl, grabbing her arm to turn Riri towards her.
“Quickly now, where is Princess Shuri?”
The girl startled and seemed to fumble with her words for a moment before blurting out,
“I don’t know! The blue people came and gave her some jade dress and then I was stuck here all alone with one of them until Shuri ran in again and told me to give this to her mother!”
With that, Riri huffed and opened her hand to show Nakia a small bead, black with a slight shine and some white symbol, not unlike those on the kimoyo bracelets.
“You’re here to rescue us right? What do we do now?”
Just as Nakia opened her mouth to respond, a faint sound of footsteps and people talking in a foreign language echoed down the hall. As the sounds got nearer, she covered Riri’s mouth and quickly moved them to the wall. Nakia herself was right beside the doorway, gun in hand. A few tense seconds passed until the noises distinctly started to move farther away. They stayed there, silent and unmoving until nothing could be heard anymore. Nakia turned towards Riri.
“We must leave, now. It is better to get you out than both of us caught. I’ll leave a weapon for Shuri disguised as a bead on her jacket. She’ll be fine without anymore of our interference. I must get you and that bead to Wakanda.”
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They had made it out. Riri was driving the vessel and Nakia was holding onto the outside of it, getting dragged along. In the silence of the ocean, she let tears well up in her eyes, ones that she had been biting back in a show of bravery ever since she learnt that she would have to leave Shuri there. What was she going to tell Toussaint?
Her son has been hearing about his udadobawo for years, to the point of requesting her stories be told just as frequently at bedtime as those of his utata. He had always looked up to her as a hero and now his mother had just left her to fend for herself with those who had kidnapped her. A tear slipped down her cheek and her ribs started to hurt from holding in sobs. She glanced up at the young girl she had just captured back.
Get it together Nakia, you’re not done yet.