Chapter Text
“i thought you said you dealt with her tails,” the princess hissed, glaring at okoye. she, alongside the other dora warriors, drew her weapon, vibranium spears appearing from their minimised forms and scaring the everliving christ out of pretty much everyone in the room.
“i did,” okoye hissed back, “this must be a new one.” she decided, and riri could not let that happen. she couldn’t let the hood get to any of her friends or family, no matter how disappointed they may be in her.
fuck it, she couldn’t let the hood get to the princess of wakanda.
riri shot to her feet, scrambling past her mother and pushing her out of the way as the people in the room - mainly the wakandan warriors - yelled at her to not open the door.
she un-clicked the lock and yanked the door open, bracing herself for the dark eyes of the hood, only to see -
“joe?” she gawked when she saw the man before her. “you shaved?” she let slip before anything else. it took half a second for her brain to catch up to her mouth. “wait, how’d you get out of prison? what-?”
joe, it seemed, wasn’t willing to let her have another moment of air-time, because before she knew it, joe was decking her in the face and she went fucking flying.
riri would have sworn joe broke her nose because jesus fuck, it hurt, and the force of the hit sent her hurtling over the goddamn kitchen counter, back smacking against the kitchen counter before she went toppling to the floor, knocking into okoye and taking her down as she went.
the woman swore in another language, and riri would have done the same but holy fucking shit did she hurt. pain had erupted in her face, heat pooling underneath her skin as she began to taste the blood from her (probably) broken nose and busted lip.
“oh, shoot, sorry about your friend - hey guys, sorry about that. if you could just hand her over here, that would be great.” she heard joe say as okoye scrambled to her feet, zelma, her auntie and the princess all moving to her side.
“who the hell are you?” okoye demanded, spear at the ready to completely skewer the man. the other dora milaje warriors also looked incredibly menacing, but riri couldn’t actually tell. pain had immediately started throbbing against her forehead, and she was experiencing some pretty fucking bad aches and pains from being flung across the kitchen like a damn ragdoll.
“that’s really none of your concern, now can you please just hand her over so we can finish this?” joe replied breezily, seeming entirely unconcerned about having some of the most deadly warriors all poised to murder him. “there’s a pretty long line of people who want her dead, so it’d really be easier for everyone if you just gave her up.” he continued, sounding far too confident.
i was blackmailing him like a week ago, she thought through the pain, swatting away the stray hands that were racing for her face as she pushed herself up to a sitting position. what the hell did he do?
“wakanda is not in the business of turning over innocents,” the princess replied, and riri glared up at the woman, who was crouching next to her and looking over at joe. riri cast him a quick glance, only to find him touching the tip of one of the dora’s spears, electricity crackling from his hand to the weapon.
what did he do?
“and that is entirely respectable, but riri is definitely not one of those innocents, so, if you could just,” joe made a gesture towards the dora for them to move, and it was friendly in nature but in the context of this scenario, it scared riri shitless.
“what’s goin’ on? baby, does this have to do with the CIA thing again?” her mother asked, stuck on the other side of the kitchen. riri exhaled heavily through her mouth, afraid that breathing out her nose would just encourage the faucet of blood that leaked from it and also hurt like hell.
“no, ma, this is about the man i murdered.” she replied shortly, pushing the princess and zelma away as she forced herself to her feet. it hurt, it hurt so, so much, but it didn’t matter in that moment. the pain was overwhelming and ever-present, but she couldn't focus on that now. she could worry about the bruises and the possibly broken bones and the cuts later - if there was a later for her, that was.
“murdered?” her mother echoed, but riri payed her no mind. her eyes were fixed on joe, who was staring right back at her, completely ignoring the dora who stood between them.
“and the whole being a traitorous snake thing, but yeah. also that.” joe shrugged, as if talking about john’s death was the easiest thing in the world. “parker really wants your head for that, by the way, you’re actually lucky it’s me here and not him.” he informed her, casual, like they were talking about the weather or some shit.
“that isn’t as comforting as you think,” she heard zelma mutter from her side. riri wanted to push zelma away, she was far too close for comfort, but riri did not have the energy for that right now.
“look,”, she started, swallowing down a mouthful of her own blood, “can you either get this over with or get the hell out? i do not have the energy to deal with this -” she pointed at joe, “- right now, so couldn’t you just like, kill me or be on your way?” she asked, shaking her head.
riri hated admitting defeat but she was just so… done.
“you asked.” joe replied breezily, and before riri could blink, currents of lightning were coursing through the room, striking out at every metal object within the vicinity, and joe had launched himself over the counter after her, completely blindsiding the dora and tackled her into the livingroom table with - you guessed it - another hit to the face.
this one sent sparks of electricity skittering across her body, burning her where his fist made impact and scorching the bruises and cuts already on her face.
riri broke the table as she landed on it, but joe didn’t give her a chance to recover. with superhuman strength, he reached for her throat and lifted her up, lightning crackling between his fingers and across her skin, burning his handprint into her throat as the lightbulb above her burst in a spray of electricity and glass.
just like that, riri couldn’t breathe again. oxygen failed to pass through into her lungs and instead of the sinking feeling she’d been suffocated by when she had drowned, the cold that had crept into all her limbs and numbed out her existence, this suffocation was hot.
it burned.
riri couldn’t stop the scream that escaped her lips, hands flailing uselessly as she tried to grab on to joe’s wrist, a futile attempt to get him to let go. she could see the biomechanical enhancements all over his arms, like the ones she’d spotted on his head, how they surged with the electricity that was currently shorting out the power in her mother’s home and, coincidentally, shortening her lifespan.
her scream broke off when she ran out of air, and she was left dangling helplessly, gasping for air that wasn’t coming, when all of a sudden joe’s hand went slack and she went plummeting back down to the broken livingroom table.
after managing to gasp a couple mouthfuls of air, riri looked up to see what had happened to joe - only to see the man completely stock-still, as though someone had taken a remote and hit his ‘pause’ button.
there weren’t any spears pierced through his abdomen or his extremities, so riri was left alone with one thought:
why didn’t he kill her?