Chapter 25: wake up and turn this world aroundNotes:
1) Aaaand we are coming to the end of the Wakanda arc! (In the next chapter tho). It's been enjoyable to write Peter having fun and bonding with Shuri. Anything that wasn't written may be included in the 'What If...?' series I'm planning.
2) There are like...2-3 more events that might happen before Infinity War. Idk, I'm working on the gap between September to March/April.
3) Enjoy the chapter and leave a kudos and comment!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Having changed into slightly more formal attire -simply meaning a short-sleeved shirt and trousers- he walked alongside Shuri as they made their way down a winding path through the gardens. T'Challa and Tony were at the front, talking about something related to vibranium and the medical industry, whereas Wanda and Vision were a few metres behind him.
Orange sunbeams tinged the trees, silhouetting the birds settling in the branches for the evening. The small stones that formed the winding pathway crunched under their shoes as they took in the scenery, the shrubbery becoming denser and controlling the direction they went until the flooring became sandstone in the same mosaic pattern as Shuri's lab.
A massive wall of shrubbery with white and violet flowers stood before them, a wooden door with curling iron details blocking the view on the other side. Butterflies danced from one flower to another, the complex pattern on their wings visible for a few seconds before each butterfly moved to another flower.
"Nervous?" Shuri asked, adjusting her white dress as they waited for Wanda and Vision to catch up before T'Challa opened the door.
"It's not as bad as before," he replied, his shoulders much more relaxed than a few hours ago when he had been meeting everyone. "Having a lightsaber fight really helped me get rid of some nerves."
"Did it look good on video?"
"It looked like a professional fight from the movies! You definitely took a page out of Darth Maul's book with the double-bladed lightsaber, didn't you?"
"Ah, definitely!" She exclaimed cheerfully as Wanda and Vision finally reached the end of the pathway they were all standing at, their hands intertwined in the domestic way he saw old couples in the street did.
He smiled at Wanda, secretly happy she was living the life she deserved after all the suffering she had been through in the other timeline.
Vision dying had been the final straw for her before everyone left her alone. Had Vision even had a funeral? He guessed they didn't since Tony and Natasha had died and everyone else had been scrambling to recover from the Blip.
(He had always thought the Blip was a weird name considering the Snap felt more appropriate for when everyone had died. The Blip was much better for when everyone had returned.)
She had been left to mourn Vision alone because she had known him the most. She'd had to kill him all for her sacrifice to mean nothing. Natasha, one of her few friends, had died and Clint had disappeared with his family soon after the funerals -not that he blamed him after the rumours of Ronin appearing had circulated post-Blip- and she'd had no one to support her.
At least he'd had most of his class and family Blip alongside him. There had been some form of normality even if 'normal' was a social construct. No one had known what to do when all of those who had died had suddenly returned and it had been all-out chaos.
Regardless, he'd still had a support circle to help him get through all the grief that came post-Blip. Wanda had been left alone with no one and deserved so much support but the world hadn't given it.
He would change that should something go awry.
"We ready to go?" Tony asked, barely batting an eye at how in-love Wanda and Vision looked as he glanced at his watch. They'd been told to arrive for around 7:30 and he guessed they were on time.
Wanda was wearing a simple but pretty crimson dress that complimented her loose hair and Vision wore a similar outfit to Tony except his shirt was blue instead of white.
He glanced at their wedding rings subconsciously only to realise symbols were engraved into the gold bands, though he couldn't fully make out what they were. Maybe he would ask her later to find out.
Wanda nodded, prompting T'Challa to push open the wooden door to reveal the most beautiful gardens he had seen in his life (bearing in mind he lived in an apartment in the middle of New York, there wasn't much of a chance to see much greenery unless he was swinging over the rooftop gardens.)
Bushes filled with carnelian and white flowers were carefully curated to leave a natural path leading to an outdoor dining area underneath wooden beams with opulent amethyst curling around wooden beams. Trees branched out enough that shadows caressed the edges of the dining area but did not reach any further so not to obstruct the sky and he had a hunch that they would be able to see the stars later.
"It's beautiful," Wanda said as they walked down the natural path -this one was formed from grass instead of sandstone- towards the dining area.
"The gardeners take pride in this area," Shuri stated as they all sat down, servers placing down glasses as soon as they had all settled.
"As they should, it's amazing."
Topics shifted over the course of dinner as multiple courses were served. He had chosen to have lemonade, well aware it would not be any of the processed stuff with excess like at home. Wakanda's lemonade was so much better and had a perfect balance of sweet-and-sourness. Hell, all of the food and drinks were perfect.
The starter was a light plantain soup with fonio and rosemary bread on the side and there were several mains that followed. Clay-cooked shrimp that had been finished over a wooden fire -definitely to give it the smoky flavour that haunted his mouth until the next meal- served with a butter garlic sauce and the most delicious rice he had ever tasted in his life.
Border lamb with a root that he definitely could not pronounce the name of -Shuri laughed at his attempt but called it a valiant try- and a massive fish that was literally a metre long surrounded by a rainbow of vegetables. The cucumber was sliced like ribbons and pomegranates were sprinkled along the dish and there were peppers stuffed with goats cheese and oregano sprinkled over it.
He had never seen so much food in his life! Somehow it all balanced out so that his stomach did not feel to heavy the end of the savoury courses and obviously he still had room to eat anything sweet.
Whilst Tony, T'Challa, Wanda and Vision discussed something that sounded a bit too close to public relations for his liking -because honestly, his public relations were a losing battle when JJJ kept slandering him and half of the people in the city did not trust him until they met him- he and Shuri talked about memes. Lots of them.
They had an ongoing challenge to see who could make the most Vines references over dinner and every meme about food was worth two points, so they had been rallying against each other as T'Challa looked at them exasperatedly and Tony chuckled at a few, albeit a bit confused sometimes.
When the two meat dishes had come out, he had immediately gone for the first Vine in his head.
"Fuck ya chicken strips," he had said quietly so only Shuri could hear him, causing her to burst out laughing and gain most of the attention. She had waved it off, her challenging gaze screaming to him that she would get him back.
She made her move as soon as all of the vegetarian dishes had come out with a lack of one distinct ingredient.
"It's a shame there's no fr e sh a voca do," she sighed in fake-disappointment as he nearly did a spit take, completely unprepared as he met Shuri's gaze and took in her triumphant smile.
"I almost can't believe you," he choked out.
"Well you should," she replied nonchalantly as she served herself some fish.
The evening continued peacefully as they moved onto talking about how the Mind stone would be removed from Vision's head, all the focus landing on Shuri as she described what would happen.
"The procedure should be painless for you," she started. "I built a machine with similar functions to a scalpel that will remove the Mind stone from your forehead. Given a few hours at most, I should be able to remove it. The question is where will it be stored?"
"Ah, that had already been sorted," T'Challa replied calmly as he finished his pepper. "Given the…unique circumstances, the Mind stone will be kept in the vibranium vaults. No one can access them aside from Shuri and I, and the vault will only be opened in an emergency."
He didn't know much about Wakanda but there was one thing practically boasted across the world: the vibranium vaults were the most secure places in the world. It made the DDOC vault pale in comparison – not that it was a hard feat since he had broken out of the DDOC vault.
The point was that no human or alien could break into the vibranium vaults without the aid of the Infinity Stones. As long as Thanos arrived without the Reality or Space stones then he wouldn't be able to get the Mind stone once it was sealed away.
"I'd like to be there during the procedure, if that's okay?" Wanda asked Shuri, concern laced through her tone.
"I don't mind who is there as long as there aren't too many people. Ideally we keep it to one person so that I can focus," Shuri replied.
He didn't say anything. He didn't know Vision well enough to actually have a good reason to watch the procedure; he would only be there to see the technology if anything. Tony had a closer connection to Vision but only because he had known him longer and he doubted T'Challa would stay either.
He would probably spend the afternoon exploring Wakanda with Tony if he didn't have anything else to do.
It turned out that they did go to explore the city while Vision had the Mind stone removed from his head.
He and Tony had donned their matching caps -his had spiderwebs on the underside of the cap and Tony's had mini Iron Man figures- to try and keep the sun off of their faces as they passed by various vibrant stalls selling all kinds of items.
The city itself was a masterpiece. All of the buildings were made from either white marble or stone and kept the area relatively cool. Some of the buildings that he guessed were important either had the Wakandan flag flying from them or had rich crimson and gold tapestries hanging from the top – though he didn't know why the buildings were important. Maybe they were banks or something?
One stall they passed sold woven rugs that he knew May would like, so he chose to buy one with black patterns on hay-coloured material which he had a hunch would be placed in the middle of the living room.
He also bought her a shawl because she liked to wear those in the evenings when the weather had cooled down from the disgustingly hot temperatures that hung around their apartment because air conditioning was too expensive sometimes.
Whilst he didn't shop often, it helped to keep his mind off of Vision's 'surgery'. Technically, all he should be feeling is relief. Vision wouldn't be killed in the final battle with Thanos therefore voiding Wanda being left alone to grieve; it would be a lot more difficult, if not impossible, for Thanos to get to the Mind stone without collecting the other Infinity stones.
They stood a much better chance of facing and winning against Thanos – speaking of which, he needed to ask Stephen if he could look into the future and see if the winning possibilities had increased to more than 1 out of whatever ridiculous number he had said before.
"What's on your mind kid?" Tony asked, jolting him out of his slightly anxious thoughts.
He turned to face Tony, caught off guard. "Huh?"
"Eloquent as always." He snorted at Tony's reply, shaking himself out of his stupor.
"It's not much," he replied, biting into his lamb wrap. They had picked up lunch before walking aimlessly around town and finding a small shady area between buildings with an incredible view of the surrounding rural settlements. He had hoisted himself onto the wall and comfortably sat there, content to eat his wrap and stare into space.
Unfortunately, staring into space had been a bit too conspicuous for Tony.
"You had started frowning like someone had made your drop your lunch." Tony jokingly swiped at his wrap and he instinctively moved it away, chuckling afterwards.
"I'm a bit worried about Vision," he admitted. "Shuri is literally the most intelligent person I know -no offence-" Tony shrugged, "-and the most capable person on the planet to remove the Mind stone from Vision's head. It's just…"
"The consequences of what will happen after?" He suggested.
"Yeah."
Tony sighed. "Think about it this way: it's increased our chances a lot more than before. If Thanos had come and Vision still had the Mind stone…it wouldn't have ended well for anyone." He nodded.
"I know. Ste- Strange's projection just showed us how high the stakes are if we don't prepare enough." He cursed internally at his slip-up, praying Tony wouldn't probe into it.
His stutter had faded away over time since he had become more comfortable with Tony but sometimes it liked to reappear. He could blame it on that if he could lie well enough. (He couldn't. Not in front of his friends and family.)
"I won't lie…that projection was horrendous." Tony grimaced. "But we'll do everything we can to stop that happening. I won't let anything happen to you."
(Tony, I'm sorry…I'm sorry.")
("I don't want to go.")
He simply nodded, unable to think of a response.
Vision was completely fine. Vibranium covered where the Mind stone used to be and he hadn't felt any pain throughout the removal.
Internally he sighed in relief as he watched T'Challa and Okoye disappear through the doorway to go place the Mind stone in the vibranium vaults, somewhat reassured that something had gone right for them.
Wanda had stayed by Vision's side the whole time apparently and had gone back with him to their guest room shortly after he and Tony had arrived and checked that he was okay.
All he had done was observe as Tony and Vision talked because technically he had nothing to do with this part. He was there because he had seen Stephen's projection and wanted to check that Vision was okay, nothing else.
Magic Man
Is it done?
Me
Yep :) Vision is fine – maybe a
bit worn out but the stone is
being stored rn
Magic Man
Good.
That was one stone kept somewhere safe. The Power stone was hopefully still protected on Xandar, the Reality stone was still in the Collector's collection and they weren't at a 'morally sound' enough time to steal it (according to Stephen).
The Time stone was still with Stephen, the Soul stone was on Vormir, the Space stone was on Asgard and the Mind stone was being stored in Wakanda.
He relaxed slightly, knowing he had pretty much done all he could for the time being even if it was from a background role. His main part would be when aliens started attacking Earth.
"Well," Shuri sighed, stretching before she turned whatever systems she had been using for the surgery. "That was very interesting. It's a shame I can't study the Mind stone."
"You wouldn't be the first to try," Tony replied.
"What? People had access to it before?" He asked.
"Of course. Scientists in Sokovia studied it and used it on test subjects."
"This is the scandal with SHIELD, isn't it?" Shuri remarked. "When there were HYDRA agents inside who took the Mind stone."
"…yes."
As Shuri and Tony carried on talking about the Mind stone's capabilities, he wondered how the HYDRA infiltration had begun. When had it begun? Natasha had leaked all of the files to expose any spies or something along the lines of that because it had been when he was around 13 and hadn't had much of an understanding of the world.
All he had known was that Ben and May's view of the Avengers and the government had become a lot more wary and distrusting, much like the rest of the public. Then Sokovia and the Accords debacle had happened and public views of the Avengers plummeted faster than a spaceship into the atmosphere.
To say the least, everything had been a mess and had kept on getting worse.
He couldn't change anything that had happened in the past summer but he could change most things with Thanos.
It wasn't as if he had done nothing; Wanda was on speaking terms with Tony since she was with Vision and Natasha had returned. Stephen was involved with things much earlier than before and they had various protections in place across the galaxy.
The next things would be to warn the Guardians of the Galaxy and Asgardians but he had no way of doing that without Stephen's help. Unless…could Ned open portals to different planets? How did magic work with spatial range?
He shelved away his thoughts somewhere in the back of his mind for later. He could ask about it later – he didn't want to get too ahead of himself.
Notes:
Are there any Americans in the comments? If so, does homecoming happen for every year group?
Anyone want a load of angst/whump? I was going to include some but then decided to keep things happy for a bit.