Chapter 109: J’Vis
A/N: The coup continues from JARVIS' pov.
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JARVIS watches as Erik Killmonger starts his coup. He watches through a million eyes as things begin to play out both in Wakanda itself, and elsewhere in the world with the War Dogs tasked with assassinating Prince T’Challa.
He’s ready to act when the Wakandan Royal Guards make their move on Shuri and her mother. But in the end, it proves unnecessary. The Dora Milaje General is stabbed in the gut, but Shuri herself remains unharmed, as does the Wakandan Queen. Together, the two royals drag a limping Okoye through the Palace to Shuri’s hidden laboratory.
JARVIS continues to watch on as Killmonger murders his uncle, taking his revenge on King T’Chaka. Truth be told, the AI feels no guilt over letting the aging man’s death happen. T’Chaka’s demise was a fall of his own making. It was six years ago that Tony Stark had delivered Ulysses Klaue to the Wakandans. Six years since he’d given them their biggest criminal on a silver platter, along with a warning about Killmonger.
T'Chaka, more than anyone, knew what reason his nephew had to want him dead. But he’d stuck his head in the sand and ignored the threat until it had finally come back to bite him in the ass. As JARVIS had told his Creator months ago, he would not save the Wakandan King from himself.
Truthfully, JARVIS had no intention of saving Wakanda at all. However, he also had no intention of letting Shuri die. That’s why he’s keeping a closer eye on her than anyone else. He watches as she grabs a device that’s shaped somewhat like an Arc Reactor off of one of her desks and hands it to Okoye. The Dora Milaje looks confused, even as Shuri’s mother is looking around the secret laboratory, baffled.
“Press it hard to your wound.”
Taking hold of the device, the General hesitates for only a moment before doing as she’s told. A gasp leaves Okoye’s lips as the device goes to work, prompting the Queen to look at her sharply and step over to her.
“General? Are you alright? Shuri, what is that device?”
Before Shuri can respond, Okoye answers.
“I am fine, my Queen. It is… this is miraculous. The pain has practically vanished.”
But Shuri shakes her head, quickly correcting the Dora Milaje’s misconception.
“It hasn’t healed you, Okoye. It’s stabilization, nothing more. You still need to see a doctor, but for the time being, that will keep you alive.”
With that said, Shuri quickly moves away from the Queen and General to another of her benches. JARVIS watches as she fiddles with another of her inventions… well, their inventions. This entire laboratory would not have been possible without his assistance. In the guise of J’Vis, he had helped Shuri create this place and he had worked on dozens of inventions with her, helping her with her designs.
He watches on as the Queen orders the General to reach out to her husband and tell them where they are so they might have reinforcements. And he watches on as Okoye’s husband, a man named W’Kabi, gives them up to Killmonger with barely a second of hesitation.
As Erik begins making his way through the Palace towards Shuri’s location, the Princess finally speaks to him, her voice soft and quiet, clearly intended for only JARVIS to pick up.
“J’Vis… are you there?”
“… I am here, Princess.”
“It’s him isn’t it? It’s Erik. He’s making his move and he’s managed to convince some traitors to turn on us and side with him, hasn’t he?”
She spits her cousin’s American Name with anticipated vitriol and venom. Glaring at nothing and everything, Shuri grits her teeth, even as JARVIS pings her in the affirmative.
He expects her to ask him for help. He’s even ready to give it to her. As he told his Creator months ago, he would not let harm come to Shuri. The Wakandan Princess had become a friend… a protégé, almost.
But rather than ask him for his assistance, Shuri just nods, letting out an explosive breath as she fiddles with her work and then slides the necklace over her head.
“Keep my mother safe, alright? I need to go and stop my cousin.”
Unfortunately for Shuri, her mother had begun approaching her from behind during that last bit.
“What? Shuri what are you talking about?”
Whipping around, eyes widening as she’s caught red-handed, Shuri looks like a deer in headlights for a moment… before rapidly finding her confidence and clenching her jaw as she curls her hands into fists at her sides.
“This is Erik, mother. He’s turned the Royal Guard against us. Father is probably already dead.”
Queen Ramonda rears back as if slapped at that. Then, she rallies quickly… perhaps too quickly. It would have been better for all parties involved if she’d shut down for a while there, JARVIS will later come to believe.
“That’s not… even if that’s true, you cannot go out there and expect to fight him! N’Jadaka is a Black Panther. He has imbibed the Heart-Shaped Herb. Even with those trinkets you used before, you can’t possibly hope to beat them.”
Ah. Even JARVIS, an Artificial Intelligence who has never been human or a parent, could have told the Queen that that wasn’t the right thing to say to her daughter. Shuri bristles at her mother’s words, gnashing her teeth.
“Those… trinkets are my Vibranium Gauntlets, mother! They’re nanotech I designed to fit in bracelets hidden under my Kimoyo Beads, so I could have a method of self-defense at any time! If I hadn’t had them, Okoye would be dead and we would be Killmonger’s prisoners!”
Queen Ramonda opens her mouth to respond.
“Be that as it may-!”
Unfortunately, JARVIS is forced to interrupt her. He hadn’t wanted to reveal himself to the Wakandan Queen if it wasn’t going to prove necessary, but he also didn’t want Shuri to wind up blindsided.
“Shuri. You will not have the time to go to your cousin. He is already almost here.”
Everyone in the room goes wide-eyed at that. Shuri at the shock of hearing that Killmonger is almost upon them, and Ramonda and Okoye at hearing another voice fill the space.
“Who is that?! Show yourself!”
But JARVIS doesn’t get the chance to answer, because there’s a sudden banging on the hidden entrance to the laboratory. And that banging rapidly escalates into an explosion as Erik doesn’t bother waiting for someone to answer. Shuri has to yank her mother out of the way in time as the slab of door goes flying across the length of the lab and hits the far wall. Then… the Black Panther steps into the room, his claws still red with the blood of Shuri’s father.
Bereft of his mask, Erik Stevens grins as he looks around the laboratory, barely paying any attention to the women in the room.
“I knew you’d been holding out on me, cous. All this time, all these years playing dumb, making people underestimate you. But I always knew you were too smart for your own good.”
Behind Killmonger, his allies filter into the room. Okoye looks particularly pained at the sight of W’Kabi standing next to Erik, while at the same time Wakandan Royal Guards move to flank her and the female members of the Golden Tribe.
Grin widening, Erik spreads his arms apart, showing off his bloody Vibranium claws.
“Surrender and you won’t be harmed. So long as you work for me, you and your mama can live. Aren’t I a generous King?”
That, combined with the evidence of her husband’s death, is too much for Queen Ramonda. Shaking with grief and fury, the Wakandan woman snarls as she pulls herself from her daughter’s hands.
“You are no King! T’Challa’s claim to the throne will always supersede yours!”
Erik’s grin grows even more.
“Sure. Unless he’s dead too. Then… I’m next in line, aren’t I?”
Ramonda’s eyes widen in horror. JARVIS almost steps in to point out that T’Challa is not actually dead. In fact, he’s successfully fought off his assassins and is currently en route to Wakanda with the lion’s share of the Dora Milaje. Killmonger’s time frame for securing the country before his cousin return to dispute his rule is rapidly closing.
But JARVIS doesn’t speak. Instead, he waits. He expected Shuri to call for his aid now, but even here she doesn’t do so. Instead, without missing a beat… Shuri activates the Panther Habit she’s been painstakingly designing and crafting in secret for years now.
Unlike the Black Panther armor that Erik is wearing, Shuri’s is purely nanotechnology. Based in the necklace she’d looped over her head just a couple of minutes ago, the Vibranium nanites filter out and cover her body in mere moments, causing Erik’s allies as well as Ramonda and Okoye to all take a step back in shock.
Only Erik himself remains where he is, his eyes narrowing as he assesses the change in situation. Shuri, meanwhile, also deploys her Vibranium Gauntlets, the weapons that she’d used to mulch the skeletons of the Wakandan Royal Guards who’d stabbed Okoye and tried to capture her and her mother.
“Even if my father is dead. Even if my brother is dead. I will never let you rule Wakanda. Not while I still draw breath.”
There’s a calculating glint in his eyes for a moment… before a savage grin spreads across Killmonger’s face. Without hesitation, he pulls his Black Panther mask over his head and holds out a hand. One of the Royal Guards throws a Vibranium Spear into his outstretched palm, and suddenly the two members of the Golden Tribe are circling one another in the center of the laboratory.
“Full of surprises, little cous. But you are going to bow down to your new king. One way or another.”
Then, without hesitation, Killmonger throws himself forward. Shuri activates the Vibranium Gauntlets, trying to hit him and throw him back with the sonic shockwaves that they emit, but Erik is too fast for her, diving under the streams of energy and coming up with a spin kick that sweeps Shuri’s legs out from under her.
The Vibranium Spear comes down on Shuri’s body but can’t quite punch through, and Erik is forced to dart back as Shuri shoots off another sonic attack at him at near-point blank range. But that opening salvo… that proves to ultimately be a sign of the battle to come.
Shuri’s technology is nothing to scoff at… and JARVIS isn’t just saying that because he helped her design most of it. Her weapons and her armor are state of the art, the sort of thing that Wakanda itself would have had access to… if her father hadn’t ostracized her in favor of trying to build a relationship that was never going to succeed with her cousin.
There’s just one issue with all of that. For all that Shuri’s Panther Habit is vastly superior to Erik’s… Shuri herself is not. She’s wearing the armor, and she’s wielding Vibranium Weapons… but only one of them is an actual Black Panther. Only one of them has imbibed the Heart-Shaped Herb and become superhuman. And on top of that… Erik is a trained killer and Shuri literally hadn’t ever taken a life before today.
The fighting is… decidedly one-sided. Even with Shuri’s trump card, the Nanotech Panther Habit’s secret weapon… it’s not enough. The first time she builds enough of a kinetic charge to blast Erik back there’s definitely a tension that fills the air… but then Killmonger just gets up, no worse for wear, and laughs.
From there, he simply avoids imparting too much kinetic energy. Which means he ultimately goes for grapples over strikes and blows. Shuri finds herself on her back, Erik’s claws ripping the Vibranium Gauntlets off of her arms and then pulling the bracelets that could reconstitute them away as well. Then, he wraps his hands around her neck and begins to squeeze with all of his superhuman might.
Shuri scrabbles against Erik’s hands, trying to fight him off, but even if his suit isn’t made of nanites, it’s still Vibranium and he’s still an enhanced being. She can’t push him away, and both Romanda and Okoye are being held back at this point by Royal Guards. Neither can assist her.
JARVIS can, of course. Under normal circumstances, he would. He intended to, after all. But now… the situation has changed. It would be one thing to have spirited Shuri, her mother, and Okoye away from Wakanda for a time. It was another entirely to reveal himself to everyone now in this room. Could he really-
“-elp… h-help…”
Erik laughs as Shuri rasps out from around his hands.
“Ain’t nobody to help you here, cous. Submit or I’ll snap your pretty little neck. Don’t think I won’t.”
But Erik is wrong. And Shuri knows it.
“H-Help… JARVIS… h-help…”
Ah. In the end, that makes this decision very easy indeed, doesn’t it?
The next second, things become very hectic as a portal opens over Erik and Shuri and Friday comes crashing there feet first into the small of Erik’s back. Even with a super soldier’s constitution and a Vibranium Suit of Armor, having a Vibranium Synthezoid piledrive themselves into your back will do some damage.
As a scream of pain erupts from Erik’s mouth, his grip on his cousin loosens and Shuri is able to escape out from under him. At the same time, the walls of the hidden laboratory open up and the restrictive flanking circle that Killmonger’s allies have made around the room becomes their downfall as each and every one is sucked up by nanites before they even have the chance to scream.
The only one JARVIS leaves untouched is W’Kabi, mostly because Okoye reacts to the sudden turn of fortune by grabbing up her fallen weapon and holding her husband at spearpoint before he can even react.
As for Erik himself, Friday doesn’t pull her punches. Even as the Black Panther is spinning around to take in his new attacker, only to be surprised by her inhuman red and silver appearance, Friday just smiles… and proceeds to slam her forehead into his chin with enough force to send him further reeling.
Then, she phases her hands into his chest… and pulls. There’s a squelching noise as Friday rips out Erik Stevens’ heart, the organ still beating for a moment as she and it go tangible again once she’s dragged it from his body. The murderous Black Panther falters at the sight of his own heart in her grasp, staring briefly before collapsing to the ground, dead.
Silence reigns for a moment as everyone still alive is forced to come to terms with what just happened.
And then, as expected… bedlam.
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A/N: Well Shuri did her best, but in the end she had to pull in the big guns. And would you look at that, seems she knew exactly who J'Vis was after all. Wonder how long she's known for...
See you all tomorrow for the Shuri POV~