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CHAPTER THIRTY Carry On
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THE PROSPECT OF going to Wakanda had been far nicer when Mr. Stark was alive.
Cecelia was here, sitting on a metallic bed beside Shuri, letting her unwind the hasty wrappings that Peter had done for her only a few hours ago, and yet all she could see were Mr. Stark's glassy, lifeless eyes and the burns crawling their way up his body. She was promised a tour of Shuri's labs—and Shuri hated foreigners coming into her lab—but all she could think about was Mr. Stark's lab back at the compound, of F.R.I.D.A.Y and DUM-E and AC/DC piping through the speakers. She would soon take a walk through Wakanda's prosperous capital, Shuri and King T'Challa himself by her side, but her excitement was overshadowed by the thought of Mr. Stark snapping his fingers, of the unimaginable pain that must have wracked through him. In short, she couldn't bring herself to be happy. She could only feel that gaping hole of loss.
"Hey," Shuri whispered. "It looks like you have some loose bone fragments. You're probably going to have to get a bone graft, but my technology should make it a minimally invasive surgery. I'll have to make an incision here—" she traced a finger along her own wrist, demonstrating, "—and my nanotech can do the rest of the work. If you're still, it should only take a couple of minutes."
"Okay," Cecelia responded. She was still in her suit, even though it was splattered with Leviathan and Chitauri guts and broken in a few places. She'd shed her mask, though, not bothering to conceal her identity among her allies, and set her boots aside. Her feet were callused and bloodied from hours of fighting, and several of her toenails had broken off.
"You're all right with that? Some of you Americans can get freaked out with my advancements, insisting that they do things the 'natural way'. Like being knocked unconscious and cut open for a fractured ankle is natural. I mean, come on. Once, my brother brought in this agent who had just been shot in the chest, and with my tech, he was on his feet the next day. You can't get any better than that."
"Sounds good," Cecelia said. She wasn't really listening.
"Hey."
"Uh-huh."
"Cecelia."
Cecelia finally looked up, meeting a pair of concerned brown eyes. "Yeah?"
"Are you with me?"
"Yeah."
"Then what did I just say?"
"Something about loose bone fragments?"
"Okay, so you weren't listening. That's great. Now I have to explain it all again."
