Carmine Jewels ║ Wanda Maximoff

Chapter 68 - Time To Work For A Living

After they promised to keep the secret from both Wanda and the rest of the team, Keira allowed herself to take a breath.

It wouldn't surprise her if all the muscles in her back had curled up into tight knots that would need an eternity of massages to unwind. As if she needed anything more on her already full plate of problems.

As she and Natasha walked side by side along the corridors, Keira couldn't help but look around in amazement. Sure, she had heard about Wakanda's advancements in technology, but somehow, the beauty of the Birnin Zana had never made it to her ears.

She was so busy with drinking in the sights that she nearly walked head-first into a pillar, had Natasha not dragged her to the side at the very last minute.

When they finally joined the rest of the team in the lab, Vision was already lying down on a table with Shuri hovering above him. The young princess appeared to be scanning his body with some sort of bracelet, and when she turned her hand around, a hologram of the Stone sprouted up from her palm.

"Whoa."

Shuri's eyes widened as she drank in the information from the hologram. "The structure is polymorphic." She noted, although she wasn't exactly impressed by the way it all had been attached individually.

"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially." Bruce nodded, almost sounding proud of how they had created Vision, skipping over the fact that they accidentally released a murderous AI in the process.

"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Shuri questioned with a half-smile as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Everybody turned to look at Bruce, who looked a bit taken aback by the comment. Even Vision glanced at him quizzically, causing the scientist to shuffle his feet uncomfortably.

"Because... we didn't think of it..?" Bruce admitted slowly. He was used to being the smartest in the room, but now he was the one being lectured, by a young woman at that. Had he and Tony thought of that, not only would the creation of Vision have gone so much faster, but it would've sped up this process as well.

"I'm sure you did your best." Shuri's smile only widened, although her tone wavered somewhere between sympathetic and reassuring.

Keira couldn't help but smirk. She already liked the young princess, her brain and sass were something she deeply appreciated. And to have someone that could outsmart Bruce, and probably Tony as well, was rare.

Wanda squeezed Keira's hand before looking at Shuri. "Can you do it?" Destroying the Stone was not something that she was looking forward to, but if it was separated from Vision, then it would be okay.

Shuri's smile faded. "Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She explained before turning to T'Challa with a determined look in her eyes. "It will take time, brother."

"How long?"

"As long as you can give me."

Well, at least there was a chance then. Keira sighed and shook her head before a sudden spike of pain surged through her brain, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut. From beside her, she could feel Wanda's worry rise, but before Keira had a chance to say something, an alarm sounded which caused everybody to look around uncomfortably. Forcing her eyes open again, she glanced over at Okoye, who held a hologram of the Earth in her hand.

"Something's entered the atmosphere." Okoye informed the room.

If Keira thought that her pain had gone by unnoticed, she was sadly mistaken. A firm grip around her wrist tugged her along to one of the big ceiling-to-floor windows that were overlooking the city.