Visions

-- Shuri --

Shuri woke up in her lab, looking around with a questioning gaze. She felt the table she was sitting on a looked around the room carefully.

"I would think that it didn't work but they wouldn't just leave me here all alone. The sky outside is purple which is strange. Plus, my lab hasn't had this setup since..."

"Since I last visited you in it," a voice called out from behind Shuri. Shuri turned around to see her father dressed in the same clothes her mother picked out for his funeral with his hands behind his back. The same posture he always had when he was about to lecture her.

"Baba," Shuri had tears welling up in her eyes.

T'Chaka smiled at his youngest.

"It has been a while, Shuri. You might need to get out of the lab more." The last time the father and daughter had seen each other face to face was 3 months before he died. T'Chaka was busy preparing to pass over the mantle of King of Wakanda while Shuri was locked in her lab with her experiments.

"Hmm. I wish I had. I would have given you a proper..."

"Do not think like that, my daughter." T'Chaka interrupted. "I could have just as easily entered this lab as you could have walked out. We both simply thought we had so much more time than we did."

Shuri nodded, the tears streaming down her face. There was so much she wanted to say to her father but she was so afraid that this wasn't really him. Just a figment of her imagination that she conjured to make herself feel better about his death.

Out of all the children, Shuri was the least spiritual. If J'Zaki was a heretic, then Shuri was an infidel. She did not believe in Bast, the other gods, or the Ancestral Plane. Instead, she viewed the world through the eyes of science. Which was why she found it so hard to accept that she was really speaking with her father.

"I have so much to say but we have so little time. So let me be brief Shuri. You have always been my favorite." T'Chaka dropped a major bomb. "Not because I do not love your brothers but because I have always wanted a daughter that I could spoil. That's why I let you have your own lab and lock yourself up for as long as you wanted or why I never cared that you didn't care for the old ways. I simply wanted you to be happy. Were you happy, my daughter?"

Shuri nodded. Her father had truly spoiled her with both the immaterial and material things in life. She had no complaints about anything that he did in regard to how he raised her.

T'Chaka laughed uproariously when he saw his daughter nod.

"Then as a father, I have nothing to regret. But I do have one last request for you."

Shuri wiped the tears from her face and nodded. "Anything, Baba."

"Please make watch over your brothers and cousin. We both know how headstrong those two can be and from what my brother tells me, your cousin is pretty much the same."

"Understood, Baba. I'll make sure that they do not bring shame to your name."

"Haha let them bring as much shame to my name as they want. Just do not let them bring tears to your mother's eyes by seeing her sons fighting one another."

T'Chaka looked out the window as his body started turning into motes of light. Soon, Shuri was left all alone. And then, even she had disappeared. For this was not where she belonged.

-- N'Jadaka --

N'Jadaka saw the front door of the apartment that he grew up in. He had seen this nightmare so many times that he was prepared for what came next. The man opened the front door and walked inside.

But instead of seeing the dead body of his father lying in a pool of blood like he had seen so many times before, he saw his father sitting at the table.

"Pops."

"Come, my son." N'Jobu beckoned N'Jadaka over. "Let us talk before we must separate from one another again."

N'Jadaka walked over and sat across from his father. He kept looking at the man, trying to figure out if what he was seeing was fake or not.

"You are still angry. Frustrated. But I don't understand why, N'Jabaka."

N'Jabaka slammed his hands on the table.

"You know why!" He glared at his father for pretending not to understand. "They took you away from me! For what? For selling some..."

"It was because I betrayed our nation!' N'Jobu also began yelling. "I sold out our people! I got innocent men and women killed! For what?!?! A little bit of money?! Because I was angry at my brother?!"

The father took some deep breaths and slowly began calming down. "Do not blame others for my mistake. The only person that took your father away from you was your own father."

N'Jobu leaned over the table and grabbed N'Jadaka by the back of his head and pulled him closer to him.

"Do better than me. Not just as a Prince of Wakanda but as a man. Live a life where you will not have any regrets. Or at the very least, live a life where the people you care about will not live their lives in misery because of you."

N'Jadaka didn't say anything. He couldn't think of anything to say. So he just sat there in silence with his father until the vision faded.

-- Ororo --

Ororo appeared at the front gate of a decent-sized village. She could easily recognize this place. It was where she called home for so many years before she came to Wakanda with her parents.

The young woman walked through the gates and straight through the town. The entire town was empty. While that would frighten most others, Ororo ignored it. She felt something calling to her.

At the center of the town was a large tree that had grown out of a massive stone. They had even checked below the rock and found that there were no roots under it. No one knew how it was possible except through the power of Gaea.

When she approached the tree, Ororo knelt before it and clasped her hands.

As soon as she kneeled, something started happening. The tree grew a face. Then arms started to emerge from the tree. And soon an entire woman exited the tree.

The woman had flawless dark skin that had never seen a blemish before. She also had brown hair and golden eyes.

"Lady Gaea."

The woman smiled down at the young woman. Her teeth were so white that they resembled fresh snow. "Ororo. Stand, child."

Ororo stood up and looked at the goddess before her. Even if she thought that she was attractive before, she knew that there was something lacking when she compared herself to the goddess before her that made her seem ugly in comparison.

"Lady Gaea, I..."

"I know," Gaea cut her off. "You are struggling with your position. You worship me but my children have declared a challenge to your fiance's people. But do not be concerned with this. I have longed stopped interfering in my children's affairs. If they wish to declare battle on another, they must be prepared for the consequences."

Ororo felt like a giant burden had been lifted off of her shoulders. She had been waiting to take the heart-shaped herb just to have this chance to speak with her goddess and seek guidance on this matter. But Gaea's next words shocked her.

"But you will not be able to participate in this battle either way. You carry a small life in you. Too small for you to notice now but by the time the battle comes around, it would be far too dangerous for that child if you were to participate. Advice the king of this when you return."

"Yes, Lady Gaea. I thank you for your guidance."

Gaea smiled at Ororo once more. The more she looked at the young woman, the more she liked her.

"It seems our time is up. But I will take the time to speak with you on a different occasion. For now, it is time for you to wake up."