Hello!

Late update on a Saturday night here in Australia, I would usually do it on my two hour peace when my youngest son goes down for his afternoon nap, but I may have stayed up late last night playing Elder Scrolls Online with my mate hehe... So I needed a nap too!

Anyway, been slacking in the writing department because I've also become a little bit engrossed in South Korean romcoms eheh...I'm a closet romantic, I know.

Thanks to all those that just joined the party recently.

Enjoy xo

Chapter 21

Everett woke up suddenly, looking around in surprise.

This was not his Busan office. The room appeared to be very high tech, the sound of upbeat music playing in the background, and soft chatter off to one side of the large room. He moved to sit up, feeling stiff, but strangely refreshed. The last thing he recalled was being shot in the back as he jumped in front of Nakia to protect her.

He turned his head to try and see his back, reaching back with his hand to see if he could feel the wound. Although his skin felt a little sensitive to the touch, he could feel no bandages, bullet wound or scarring, he was left very confused.

Carefully, he turned to stand up, gingerly at first, expecting his legs to be unused to taking his weight as he had obviously been lying on the table for quite a while. At least, if his bullet wounds recovery was any indication.

As his legs took his weight, he was quite surprised to find that they were fine, not struggling under his weight at all. He looked down in confusion, before looking back around the room again. He began to make his way towards the source of the music. The subdued talking he had heard earlier had ceased for the moment.

He saw a young woman sitting at a work table, her dark skin a contrast to the predominantly light colours of the lab, appearing to be fixing some contraption. She had to be no older than fifteen or sixteen, if her appearance was any indication. He looked around the room again, noting that it appeared to be a lab of some sort.

"All right," he finally said as he approached her. "Where am I?"

The girl jumped, looking at him in surprise and holding her hand to her chest. Her expression changed to one of annoyance. "Don't scare me like that, coloniser!"

Everett was taken aback by the term she used to address him. "W-What?" he stammered, trying to comprehend why she would say that. "My name is Everett."

"Yes, I know," she responded with a smirk, before looking back to her work. "Everett Ross, former Air Force pilot, and now CIA."

Everett considered the teen for a moment, slightly concerned at the knowing smirk she had on her face as she continued to work, as well as her knowledge of him. "Right..." he looked around again. "Okay, is this, Wakanda?"

"No," came another voice from behind him, making him jump. He turned around to see Banzai. "It's Kansas." She had changed out of her armour, and was now wearing a looser fitting, black jump suit with capped sleeves, her face flawless still, no signs of her injuries from Busan. He found it hard to believe this was the same woman that he had seen footage of taking on Sgt James Buchanan Barnes and for all intensive purposes, beaten in a fight. She appeared quite feminine, apart from the severe look on her face.

Her golden brown eyes shone under the bright lights of the lab as she moved towards the teen, glancing at him as she walked by. She was taller than him, looking down slightly as she strode past, and he caught the slightest wisp of a flowery perfume, recalling the same scent when she had covered him from the blast at the underworld casino in Korea. It was faint, not overpowering like something artificial as perfume often smelt like. It seemed like such an odd contrast to her actual persona and occupation.

She sat on a chair by the bench the teen was working on, the teen turning to her and holding up a device against the cheek that had been injured in Korea.

He furrowed his brow. "How long ago was Korea?" he asked. He felt himself starting to panic slightly. He didn't like not having information readily available to him, he liked to know what was happening.

"Yesterday," they both answered in unison, not looking at him, Banzai looking straight ahead, while the teen looked at the device in her hand.

He was stunned for a moment. It couldn't be possible. He scoffed lightly. "I don't think so. Bullet wounds don't just magically heal overnight," he argued, trying to feel his back again.

"Did you literally just say that, after seeing what I did to my face yesterday?" Banzai retorted, looking up at him critically.

The teen chuckled, straightening from analysing Banzai. "They do here. But not by magic, like Vielka, by technology."

"I'm not magic, Shuri," Banzai, or Vielka as the teen had called her, objected. "Science." She made quotation gestures with her fingers, earning a grin from the teen. He realised her accent wasn't American or English like he had assumed, but Australian. Looking at her, he still felt a vague familiarity from her. He couldn't quite place his finger on why, though.

"May as well be," the teen murmured with a sigh. "Does it still hurt?" she asked before poking Vielka's cheek.

The woman winced, before swatting away the teen's hand. "Ow! Yes! It does, thank you!"

"Oops, Sorry."

Everett stared at the bodyguard, and the teen, Shuri, before looking around the lab again. There was so much advanced technology; he was struggling to believe he was actually not in the future somewhere. He moved to look at some tech lying on a table.

"Don't touch anything, my brother will return soon," Shuri warned, as Vielka stood up. He glanced back to watch the pair. "Here, your new bracelets, with the improved face plate."

"Made with Vibranium this time?" Vielka asked, taking the bracelets and sliding them onto her wrists as Everett's eyebrows raised as he watched her putting the two silver bracelets on, which seemed more like silver cuffs to him, before he walked to the windows along the wall behind them and looked out. So, Klaue was telling the truth, the Wakandans did have more Vibranium.

"Yes, Gaia figured it out. It can be manually removed and magnetically attach to your right shoulder too, if necessary," Shuri replied with a nod.

He looked down out the window and could see trains running on platforms built into the walls. It looked like they were inside a mountain, and this was possibly a mine. This had to be the mountain of Vibranium that Klaue was rambling about in his interrogation. He stared as a train sped past down below.

He turned to look at Shuri. "These train things; that's magnetic levitation, right?"

Vielka and Shuri both turned to look at him with raised eyebrows, seemingly surprised at his question. Shuri moved towards the windows and looked down. "Obviously," she answered smugly.

"Obviously," Everett replied. "But I've never seen it this efficient. The light panels, what are they?"

"Sonic stabilisers," Shuri answered matter of factly.

"Sonic what?"

Shuri sighed, before continuing. "In its raw form, Vibranium is too dangerous to be transported at that speed," the teen explained. "So I developed a way to temporarily deactivate it."

Everett gawked at the train as it ran the track down below. "There's Vibranium on those trains?"

"There's Vibranium all around us," Shuri replied motioning back into the lab. She smirked. "That is how I healed you."

Everett stared at Shuri incredulously, before glancing at Vielka, who just looked at him with an emotionless expression; she was resting her head on her hand that was propped up by an elbow on the table. It was almost a feminine pose, aside from her expression. Everett considered what to say next when there was a trilling from Vielka and Shuri's wrists.

They both looked down, Vielka's expression darkening slightly as she glanced at Shuri.

"You, quiet," Vielka ordered, looking pointedly at Everett, moving to stand next to Shuri, before they both moved a bead from their wrists into the palm of their hand.

A projection of the tall Wakandan woman with the shaved head, whom he had met in Korea, appeared to hover over both of their hands. His eyes widened in awe at the display of advanced technology.

"Where is T'challa?" she demanded immediately, her expression conveying annoyance and her voice concerned. "His Kimoyo beads have been switched off."

"Well hello to you too," Vielka answered, seeming slightly perturbed at the Wakandan woman's tone. "I've not seen him since I left the lab earlier."

"And we are not joined at the hip, Okoye," Shuri added.

"What's wrong?" Vielka asked, the curiosity evident on her face.

"A man showed up at the border who claims to have killed Klaue."

"What?" Vielka and Shuri both exclaimed in surprise. Everett furrowed his brow, the news was concerning; as he had hoped to recapture Klaue and bring him to justice for Sokovia.

"W'Kabi is transporting him to the palace as we speak. We need to find your brother, and Vielka, you need to report to the council chamber, now."

"I'm on my way," Vielka replied, moving to walk away as Shuri stepped towards a screen and waved her hand in front of it.

An image of a dark man wearing combat fatigues with gold teeth appeared on the screen, and Everett recognised him. It had been a while since he had seen him, but there was no doubt who it was.

"An outsider?" Shuri asked Okoye.

"No, a Wakandan."

Vielka stopped in her tracks and looked from Okoye to Shuri and then the image in confusion.

"He's not Wakandan," Vielka and Everett said in unison. They looked at each other in surprise, Shuri also looking between them curiously.

Everett looked to Shuri. "He's one of ours."

oOOo

T'challa stood in front of a screen, Everett standing beside it as he briefed himself, Shuri, Nakia and Vielka.

"Erik Stevens. Graduated Annapolis age 19. Went to MIT for grad school. Joined the SEALs and went

straight to Afghanistan, where he wrapped up confirmed kills like it was a video game," Everett explained, pointing to the number of confirmed kills on the screen. It was triple digits. "Everyone started calling him Killmonger. He went on and joined a JSOC ghost unit. Now, these guys are serious. They will drop off the grid so they can commit assassinations and take down governments. He's never failed a mission."

"Except one," Vielka piped up, stepping forward, eyeing off Everett. She was showing an emotion he hadn't seen from Vielka in awhile. She was nervous. She looked T'challa in the eye. "Me."

Everett's brow furrowed as he looked at her in confusion, looking like he might argue with her.

"What do you mean?" T'challa asked, cutting off Everett before he could begin and narrowing his eyes at her. He had never delved too deeply into Vielka's past, and much of it was covered up by governments all over the world, so of course, there was some things even he didn't know. He knew only of her time after being captured in the Middle East, he didn't know of what she had been made to do and by whom.

"They were sent after me, but I..." she murmured regretfully, her face becoming dark as she looked to the floor.

"Wait..." Everett narrowed his eyes at Vielka, staring at her for a moment, before a look of recognition passed over his face. "You're THAT Banzai? The Banzai?"

"That is not important right now," T'challa interjected before Vielka could respond, looking to Shuri. "Did he reveal anything of his identity?"

"He has a War Dog tattoo..." Shuri answered, appearing slightly confused. "But we have no record of him."

T'challa sighed, moving towards the image of the screen and considering what to do next. He recalled his conversation with Zuri, regarding the man he had seen in Busan that had shot at them, wearing his grandfather's ring on a necklace. "We need to go." He looked to the three Wakandan women and Vielka. "Come, we need to meet with the council."

In the council chamber, the four tribal Elders and the royal family gathered, the Dora Milaje standing guard in their positions around the room, while Vielka leaned against a wall in the shadows. While she attended council meetings, she stayed out of the proceedings out of respect for their traditions unless called upon specifically. She had argued immensely to be excluded from the council meetings, but for some reason, Ramonda had seen it pertinent she be included for security reasons. While he hadn't agreed it was necessary originally, nor had the elders of the council, he now realised the Queen Mother had encouraged the act to hasten her acceptance by the elders.

"Is this man Wakandan or not?" one of the elders demanded, looking around the room.

"Tell us what is going on," another elder demanded in Xhosa.

T'challa was quiet, considering his conversation with Zuri. He knew the truth of their intruder, but he didn't know what to do. He had already spoken to Nakia of it, and taken her counsel. He felt Shuri rest a reassuring hand on his arm, as the doors to the council chambers opened.

There, standing in the doorway was Killmonger, looking smug, as W'Kabi ushered him into the room, a calculating look on his old friend's face.

The man swaggered into the room, glancing from face to face of the elders before his eyes rested on T'challa again and he smirked.

T'challa looked to W'Kabi, and he could see distrust in his friends face as he looked back at him. He turned his gaze expectantly at Killmonger. "Speak."

"Speak," W'Kabi translated in English for Killmonger.

The intruder looked to T'challa, grinning malevolently. "I'm standing in your house, serving justice to a man who stole your Vibranium and murdered your people." He looked around at the elders. "Justice your king couldn't deliver."

T'challa stood, looking severely at Killmonger as he approached him, Okoye falling in behind him and swinging her spear threateningly, the other Dora also moving to flank. He stopped so his face was close to Killmonger's. "I don't care that you brought Klaue," T'challa retorted severely, keeping his voice low. "The only reason I don't kill you where you stand is because I know who you are. Now, what do you want?"

"I want the throne," Killmonger said, nodding towards it.

One of the elders scoffed and laughed. "My goodness," she murmured in Xhosa.

The other elders laughed, but T'challa didn't take his eyes off of Killmonger. He knew that Erik had a birth right to the throne; he had royal blood in his veins. His Uncle's blood. His Uncle, that his very own father, had killed.

Killmonger looked around the room at the elders severely. "Y'all sittin' up here comfortable. Must feel good. There's about two billion people, all over the world, that look just like us. But their lives are a lot harder. Wakanda has the tools to liberate 'em all."

One of the elders gave a questioning look to Killmonger. "And what tools are those?"

"Vibranium, your weapons."

"Our weapons will not be used to wage war on the world," T'challa rebuked. "It is not our way to be judge, jury and executioner for people who are not our own."

"Not your own?" Killmonger replied snidely. "But didn't life start right here on this continent? So ain't all people, your people?"

"I am not king of all people. I am king of Wakanda," T'challa retorted, his tolerance for his cousin shortening. "And it is my responsibility to make sure our people are safe, and that vibranium does not fall into the hands of a person like you."

Killmonger narrowed his eyes at T'challa. "Mmm..."

"And if I may," Vielka's voice broke through the murmurs, Killmonger's attention turning to her as she stepped forward from the shadows of the throne room. "Weapons aren't the answer; you of all people should know that."

Killmonger sneered, a look of recognition crossing his face. "That's rich coming from you. A weapon, a killer."

"Not of my own choosing," she replied quietly.

"Really? You could have fooled me," he retorted. "How many of my men did you kill?"

"How many of those men tried to kill me?"

oOOo

The room was quiet for a moment as she and Killmonger glared at each other. Vielka recalled every moment of the JSOC's assault on her hideout, including each face of the men she had killed. He was one of the few she had ever let escape back then. It had been the last time she had killed indiscriminately, albeit, to save herself. She could feel the eyes of the Elders and some of the Dora Milaje glancing between her and Killmonger, distrust in their eyes, but she ignored them.

"So, you won't help the people, but you'll help this woman, this outsider?" Killmonger demanded, finally looking back at T'challa.

"She works for us," Shuri retorted. "She is a protector of the Black Panther."

"The hell does he need a protector for? Is he weak?"

Ramonda stood up, looking at Killmonger with an annoyed look on her face. "Son, we have entertained this charlatan for too long. Reject his request."

"Oh, I ain't requesting nothing," Killmonger mocked, looking at Ramonda. "Ask who I am?"

It was Shuri who answered. "You are Erik Stevens. An American black operative. A mercenary named Killmonger. That's who you are."

Killmonger grinned malevolently at Shuri, and Vielka was immediately on edge. "That's not my name, princess." He looked back to T'challa. "Ask me, King."

"No."

"Ask me!" Killmonger demanded angrily.

T'challa looked at him warningly, before turning and waving a hand in the air. "Take him away."

As the guards moved to detain him, one of the elders finally caved to curiosity, looking to Killmonger. "Who are you?"

"I am N'Jadaka, son of Prince N'Jobu!" Killmonger shouted in Xhosa, fighting against the guards.

There was a stunned silence in the room, and Vielka cocked her head to one side, slightly confused. Apparently, by the looks of several others inside that room, she wasn't the only one. She looked from Killmonger to the Queen Mother, who seemed frozen with shock.

"Son of N'Jobu?" an elder breathed, shock residing on her face.

"I found my daddy with Panther claws in his chest!" Killmonger shouted at T'challa now. "You ain't the son of a king. You a son of a murderer." Vielka stared at Killmonger for a moment, before looking at T'challa. She was stunned by what she saw on T'challa's face. He knew. He knew all of this already.

"You're lying!" Ramonda hissed angrily. "Lies!"

W'Kabi stepped forward, Okoye looking at her beloved in shock as he held up a chain with a ring threaded onto it. It was identical to the one T'challa wore. "I'm afraid not, Queen Mother."

One of the elders gasped. "What?"

"The descendant of N'Jobu," another elder murmured as Ramonda held her hand out for the ring. W'Kabi stepped forward and handed it to her, as Okoye stared incredulously at W'Kabi, the look of betrayal written on her severe features.

"Hey Auntie," Killmonger mocked, looking malevolently at Ramonda. He glanced sideways at Vielka, as she narrowed her eyes at his condescending tone. He grinned and formed his lips as if to blow a kiss. She glared, gritting her teeth. He turned back to look at the elders and T'challa. "I'm exercising my blood right to challenge for the mantles of king..." he grinned malevolently and looked over to Vielka. "And Black Panther."

She grit her teeth. The thought of serving under this man had her on edge. She could just imagine what he might do if he took the mantle. She looked to T'challa, seeing him glaring at Killmonger.

"Do not do this, T'Challa," Ramonda begged.

"As the son of N'Jobu, he is within his rights," the Border Tribe elder reasoned, earning a glare from the Queen Mother.

"He has no rights here!" she retorted angrily.

"The challenge would take weeks to prepare!"The River tribe elder objected.

"Weeks? I don't need weeks. Whole country ain't gotta be there. I just need HIM and someone to get me outta these chains."

Vielka watched as T'challa moved and sat in his throne again, staring at the ring taken from Killmonger, that he now held in his hand.

"T'challa." Ramonda looked to her son in concern. "What do you know of this?"

Vielka's eyes drifted to T'challa's face, seeing him considering Killmonger. She didn't need to hear him say it. She sighed and shook her head, closing her eyes.

"I accept your challenge."

xo

Krayzee