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XXXIII. Aftermath

Chapter Thirty-Three
Soroya

Chaos. I thought I knew what that word meant, but I was wrong. I had never known true chaos until now. During 'the snap' as we have now nicknamed it, Shuri also dusted away. We found that out when we searched the palace for her. Both of the Wakandan royals were dead now, leaving only their mother behind.

After the initial shock of the event blew over, Steve came up to me and held my face in his hands, saying to me through his own tears: "We are going to find him. I promise you, we will find him."

I nodded to him. My voice was raw from crying and screaming, but I forced the words to come out anyways: "When you find that son of a bitch, you call me. I need to be there Steve. I have to be there when you capture him."

Steve agreed to this, and I knew he would keep that promise. He and the remaining Avengers flew back to their base in New York. They offered to have me come with them, but I said I needed to stay here for a little while. The queen mother was about as shattered as I was after hearing of the deaths of both her children. I remember she fell into my arms and cried for several hours. She refused to talk to anyone but me for a few days. She knew I was the only one who knew what she's was going through. The only one besides her who had lost everyone. I wished I could comfort her, but all I could do was cry there with her and mourn T'Challa and Shuri together.

The first night I couldn't sleep. I just wandered around numbingly until I came to Bucky's farm house. I laid in his bed and cried into his pillow, holding onto a shirt of his that had been lying on the floor. It still smelled like him.

The next morning I knew I had to find Khari. It didn't take long; he had been lying in Alex's room, clutching one of Alex's shirts to his chest. I crawled into the bed next to him and held him as both of us continued to sob. When we grew too exhausted to stay awake any longer, we both fell asleep for most of the next day. Okoye found us and told us that most of the council had lived. Since M'Baku and Ramonda were still alive, Wakanda was in safe hands. All that was left was to hold a funeral for the fallen king and princess.

The Avengers came back to Wakanda to honor T'Challa and Shuri. We also held a separate funeral for the warriors who had died during the battle. After the ceremony, Steve pulled me aside and told me what was going on outside the barrier. World leaders were dead, people were confused, crashed airplanes, explosions, riots. The world had erupted into chaos.

I went to Okoye and Khari after Steve told me that and asked them what they thought I should do. Okoye assured me that Wakanda would survive fine without me and that I should go help the others. She said when things settled here she would join me. Khari agreed to this, saying the rest of the world needs Soroya Roberts more than Wakanda did. I hugged them both tightly before I left on the jet to go back to New York with Steve and the other Avengers.

The flight back there was quiet. The whole time Steve held my hand tightly, knowing precisely how I was feeling right now. When we arrived at the Avengers base, I couldn't help but take a moment to gawk at it. Never in my life did I think I would be here.

They took me to a room that is filled with some of the most advanced technology I've ever seen. There's a hologram of the earth with the number of people who died during 'the snap', and pictures of the people in our lives who perished. I see a picture of Bucky and Alex amongst these photos and I have to look away.

Steve informed me that they're currently trying to track Thanos down, but are having little luck. The other thing they're trying to do is figure out what an item Nick Fury left behind does.