Their medical staff have set up an assembly of pallets and equipment not too far from the fighting line. One of the Jabari men, Idogbe, is the one to come up to them, and they see his deep dismay, though he quickly and professional moves to the charred skin, where they’ve managed to place M’yra’s kimoyo beads; at least he knows how they work and presumably what they're doing.
Yet she’s dazed, as she asks, “Have you see the Queen? She ran off faster than we could chase her, and didn’t respond to our calls.”
He shakes his head. “We can try to send a message of your injury. But I have no idea where she is right now. Sit down and let me see to that arm.” So all Ayo can do is return to where the other Dora Milaje are fighting.
There are seven of them now, plus an eighth who will almost certainly join them after this battle. Of them, Themba has most gotten their fighting moves down, wielding her staff and shield in perfect counterpoint to Teela and Feyistan. Aneka is doing her best, and trying to cover Okoye, who’s fighting despite a nasty bullet wound in her side. Sandile, who hasn’t trained with them at all yet, is fighting on her own a little way away from them. The Queen hasn’t come back.
There are now more foes down than up around them, but the ones still there don’t look like they’re going anywhere just yet. Ayo easily falls in with the trio, spearing two men in quick order, and she sees the fear in their opponents visibly increase. But then one of them manages to fire two bullets at Okoye too fast and too far apart for Aneka to deflect them both, and the second hits her in the ankle.
She was in mid-air, the thud when she hits the ground is louder than her tiny cry of pain. Instantly Ayo moves and is back to back with Aneka, who’s done better with her than with the other women, protecting their wounded leader, circling around her. For the first time, Ayo can anticipate where Aneka will be in the next moment, can gauge with the barest of glances how fast or slow she’s moving and time herself to it, until even their breath is in sync.
Across the battlefield, they can hear yells of triumph, clearly those of their side. Their own opponents do not retreat, but their steps falter.
Still, Ayo wants to get Okoye to the medics, and since she ran back here, their foes have clustered around them, even cutting them off from Sandile. “Time to end this,” she murmurs to Aneka; and she nods; she, too, has realized what they can now do without knocking themselves or their sisters out. Together they touch the points on their spears that can trigger the sonic blasts, the ones Okoye actually objected to, but Queen Shuri insisted, and now their commander yells an order, and the other four Dora Milaje throw themselves down.
She should be afraid they won’t press them at the exact same moment, but Ayo somehow knows they will. And they do, blasting their foes, who together all topple to the ground.
Moments later they’re all clustered around Okoye, who is determinedly drawing herself to her feet. She accepts their support, but nearly knocks them aside in her haste to get a look around. “Is the battle over? Where is our fool of a Queen?”
“Either chasing them out with M’Baku, or run to the medics if she’s heard about M’yra,” says Ayo. “Maybe he even got her to leave it to him and go there.” Which at least means Okoye herself will now hurry there without protest.
The medical area has grown in size by the time they get there, with the rest of the wounded and the medics having piled in. They hear Queen Shuri before they see her; she’s still in her suit from the necklace down, trying to simultaneously greet people and help treat injuries. It takes her a long moment to react when Okoye starts yelling, “My Queen! We cannot protect you if you run away from us! There was plenty of fight for the Black Panther on our side of the battlefield!”
She’d continue on, no doubt, if two different doctors weren’t running up, spotting her pair of bullet wounds, barraging her with questions. The Queen herself follows, kneeling to examine her general’s ankle herself.
Ayo leaves them to it to go take a look at M’yra. Aneka goes with her, and when she tentatively touches her hand, Ayo takes hold of it. Strange that here is where they first ended up holding hands.
They’ve managed to hook her up to one of the pallets with full monitoring, and there’s some pretty high-tech bandaging from her shoulder down. “That looks bad,” Aneka comments.
“It may not be as simple as giving me a new arm,” M’yra tells them. “Everything was very badly damaged, including the nerves. I’m afraid the Dora Milaje are down to seven again.”
“You are our sister no matter what,” Ayo tells her. “And there will still be much you can do.” It’s not much consolation, but it’s something.
M’yra smiles, and says, “But there is at least some good news. They’re saying the files Nakia brought back with her include information on all the countries behind this attack, and all their further plans. Any hope they had of beating Wakanda will soon be gone.”
“They never had one,” Aneka declares, and maybe she’s right. But now, Ayo thinks of what she saw happen two years ago, and her greatest fear is no longer what the outside world will do to Wakanda, but what Wakanda will do to the world. About that, however, she says nothing.