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Chapter Two: The Devil Revealed

Nakia sits at the top of the mountain's cliff, where she and T'Challa would go to think. She has been here since dawn. She told herself that she wanted to see the rising of the sun, but truthfully, she felt lost and hoped that being in their place would help her to find peace within her new life as T'Challa's betroth. She thought that being involved in the outreach program, of Wakanda sharing its technology to help the world, would satisfy her. Yet, she still feels hollow and incomplete.

Perhaps it is knowing that she will have to give up being a warrior, a spy, that is the most upsetting part for her. How would it look for the queen of Wakanda to go on secret missions to fight crime? Moreover, T'Challa wouldn't permit her to do such a thing. The idea that she would even have to gain his permission was upsetting to her. Is she ready to be his wife? To give up her freedom to stand by him? She loves T'Challa, but she also loves her freedom.

Plus, there are things that they do not agree on, like allowing Erik and his wife to live. Nakia remembered her battle with the false king and he was merciless. Yet, T'Challa shows him mercy by entertaining the idea of conducting a trial. It was senseless to Nakia and she let her feelings be known to him. However, T'Challa's reasonable nature had convinced her that they needed to be better than their enemies and show mercy even though it hadn't been earned or deserved. She had agreed but she still didn't like it.

Seeing the placement of the sun, she could tell that it was almost 8 o'clock. She must get back to the palace before her presence is missed. The last thing she needed was T'Challa asking questions about where she had been. He has been worrying about her as of late. Though she thought that she has been keeping her reservations a secret; he was beginning to suspect that she was hiding something from him.

Standing to her feet she looks down the cliff's side. She becomes dizzy from the height, it is then that she realizes how close she is to the edge. She backs away slowly, but her feet are unsteady causing her to misstep. One of her heels hit a stone in the ground loosening it, triggering the untested soil of the cliff's edge to crumble beneath her feet. Nakia is unable to stop her descend as she tumbles down the mountainside. Surely, thinking that this was her end but unwilling to accept her fate she grabs at anything, including the jagged rocks that protrudes through the soil. Eventually, she grabs one firmly enough to cease her fall. Frantically, she holds onto it allowing her time to find solid footing.

Looking down, she sees that she had fallen quite some way. She then looks up and realizes that climbing up was not a viable option. It would take longer for her to climb upwards and she had sustained some serious cuts from the fall. Nakia doubted that she would fare well ascending in her current condition. She looks to both sides of herself. To her right, she sees what looks to be an indentation in the mountainside. Perhaps, there is some sort of platform where she could rest and take a breather so that she could figure out a way down the mountain. She carefully shimmies over to the spot and is surprised, it isn't a platform but a cave.

In all her time of sitting on top of the mountain, she has never known that there was a cave just beneath her. It was slightly hidden by shrubberies, that understandably would have look like overgrown vegetation from an aircraft passing by. She parts the brush to enter the cave. It is damp and cool inside, she enters. Her eyes slowly adjusting to the dim interior she soon sees something glowing fiery red towards the back of the cave.

Curious, Nakia approaches the source of the glow. Thinking at first that it may be fire, but quickly she put aside that thought because there's no heat radiating as she approaches. Behind a large rock, lays before her a red gem that was pulsating with a radiant glow. Nakia puzzled by the gem picks it up. It is warm to the touch. Turning it over to inspect it, her fingers glide over its edges. Not realizing how sharp the gem is a point on the gem slices one of her fingers. Her blood trickles from the cut onto the gem, suddenly the gem begins to vibrate violently. Dropping it, it lands onto the ground with a thud. She backs away and watches with increasing fear as it not only shakes but begins to spin wildly.

The gem begins to crack, and rays of bright red light shine through the cracks. Not knowing what else to do and unable to quickly abandon the site. She takes shelter behind a large boulder in the cave. An ear-piercing sound is coming from the gem, that sounds like a high-pitch buzzing noise. Nakia covers her ears trying to block out the sound. Then suddenly everything goes dead silent.

With her hands trembling from the commotion she lowers them. Slowly she raises her head to peak over the boulder, to see what happened. She is shocked to see a tall, red-skinned, figure, of what appears to be a man; standing before her with his back to her. As if he could feel her eyes on him, he turns, his glowing red-eyes nearly stop her heart from beating and she ducks down behind the boulder to hide.

"Now woman, there's no need to hide from me. I can sense your fear, but do not be afraid. I have no intention of harming my rescuer," His voice is deep and echoes oddly as he speaks. Nakia also notices that his accent is unlike any she has ever heard before, and that was saying a lot since she has traveled the world. If she had to place it, she would have guessed it as Arabic; or something like it. Yet, he spoke perfect English.

Weighing her options, she realizes that hiding was not only cowardly but futile. If he was going to attack her, she should be facing him and preparing for the assault. Finding the courage, she gets into her fighting stance and waits for him to advance. The creature is fully turned around and is now facing her. After seeing her in her stance he laughs heartily and shakes his head.

"Woman. Did I not tell you I am not going to harm you? Why do you insist on fighting me?"

"What the hell are you?"

"Tsk, tsk," He reprimands her for her careless words. "What am I? Not…who am I?" He was smiling as if he was thoroughly enjoying himself, at Nakia's expense.

Suddenly, feeling bolder by his arrogance she says, "I demand to know who and what you are. I am the future queen of Wakanda, and you will answer me!"

"Oh…a future queen. Interesting. He says and he crosses his arms over his chest. He then reaches up with his hand and began to stroke his goatee as he considers her command. He shrugs his shoulders as he appears to surrender to the idea of giving in to her stern request. "Who I am is not too difficult to answer. Though I have gone by many names, you can call me Mephisto," He says with a devilish grin. Nakia feels a sickening feeling within the pit of her stomach as his name seems to echo within the small confinement of the cave.

"Do you still wish for me to answer your second, or was it your initial question? I know that you have asked it at least twice," He takes two steps forward. Though Nakia didn't want to show any fear she steps back not wanting him any closer. Mephisto frowns and doesn't advance any further.

"What the hell are you?" Nakia demands again. Refusing to heed his warning.

"Ah yes, back to your original and most pressing question. What the hell am I indeed," He says. His demeanor is casual, but his tone is menacing. "Again, are you sure that you truly wish to know? I would hate to ruin our budding relationship with such a morbid topic, such as my origins."

Nakia only nods her head. Insisting that she did want to know what he was. Though, deep inside she felt that his warning was genuine. Yet, Nakia couldn't back down.

When he sees the determination within her eyes, he recedes his plan to avoid answering her question. He stands proudly before her, seemly stretching his already tall form to look even more gigantic. Nakia swallows hard as he begins to speak, "I am Mephisto, the immortal. An angel to few, but a demon to most. Some have even regarded me as the devil himself. Nevertheless, my dear Nakia; please call me by the name I have already presented to you."

"Name?" Nakia breathes out, then she quickly gets back into her fighting stance; because she is alarmed by something that he said. "How do you know my name?"

"You told me," He quickly replies with his trademark grin.

"Liar! I never gave you my name."

"Clever girl and so brave. It is true you never said your name aloud, but I have learned all I desire to know about you from your blood."

"My blood?"

"Ah, yes when you pricked your finger on that gem that held me captive, your essence transferred into myself. By the way…if you aren't ready to be a wife just say no, but you are afraid that he will not wait for you forever, aren't you?"

Nakia is taken aback. Truly he was a demon, or perhaps as he suggested the devil himself. Did my blood awaken him? She thinks to herself.

"Of course, it did woman. I just told you that." He answers her question that she had said internally to herself as if she had said it aloud. Frighten, Nakia makes a mad dash to the opening of the cave, but halfway there she becomes frozen mid tracks. It felt as if all the muscles in her body spasmed at the same time. Clenching and unclenching but never allowing for her to move. The only part of her that was working normally are her eyes. She could see Mephisto approaching out of her peripheral from her left. He rests his abnormally warm hand onto her shoulder. Though his touch was unwelcomed, Nakia found it to be soothing to the area where his hand rested. The muscle stops spasming and began to relax.

"Nakia, I tried to warn you that you shouldn't ask questions when you aren't prepared to hear the answers. Plus, you are reacting out of fear. You know very well as I do that you cannot just run away. The mountainside is dangerous, you will fall to your death. What kind of friend would I be if I allowed for that to happen?"

Nakia tries to speak, but her lips feel as though they have been welded shut. All she could manage are mere mumbles.

"Nakia, this is the time that you are to listen. I have allowed you to talk and that hasn't gone well. There are things that both of us need. I will help you, and you, in turn, will assist me. Now, I don't want you to have to decide everything all at once. I will give you some time to think things over. It is important to me that you want this as badly as I do. Otherwise, it takes some of the enjoyment out of it for me if you resist me," He explains as he touches Nakia's cheek with the back of his hand.

If she could have turned away from his touch, she would have but she remains frozen stiff. He leans inwards and she can feel his warm breath on her neck. He breathes in her scent and she closes her eyes as tears began to pour from them. She had no idea what he was planning on doing to her and was too fearful to imagine the possible plans he had for her.

"You smell marvelous darling," He whispers the compliment into her ear. "Our time together is nearly over, but I will come for you. For now, sleep." Upon his command, Nakia succumbs to a dark slumber. She awakes to find herself in her room at the palace. She looks frantically around for Mephisto, but she is completely alone. She then looks at herself. She is clean and is in her nightdress. Her cuts and bruises from her time on the mountainside has vanished.

Perhaps, it was all just a horrible nightmare. Maybe her anxiety about her pending marriage to T'Challa had manifested into night terrors. She had almost convinced herself that it was all just a figment of her imagination when she felt a burning sensation on her left shoulder. She quickly gets out of bed and runs to a mirror. The reflection she saw in the mirror was alarming; on her shoulder, she has been burned. Even more concerning, is that the shape is like that of a handprint. With fear running through her she is forced to acknowledge that she wasn't dreaming. She had really met the devil in the flesh.

Suddenly she hears knocking on her door. "Who is it?" She asks, a bit more forcibly than she meant to, half fearing that it was Him. However, when T'Challa replies she is overjoyed that it was his comforting voice on the other side. Then she catches another glimpse of the branding that Mephisto had left upon her body and realizes that she must cover it.

She throws on her robe and ties it tightly. As she approaches the door, she hears a low chuckle from behind her. She turns quickly to see if anyone is there, but she finds no one. Fearful to be alone she hurries to the door to let T'Challa into the room. She opens the door and T'Challa's face falls as he views the distressed look on her face. Not wanting to explain anything she rushes him and hugs him, he holds her tightly within his arms.

"Nakia are you alright?" He asks, his voice full of concern.

"Yes, yes. I just had a nightmare," She lies. How could she explain what she had experienced? She couldn't, all she could think to do was to deny it ever happened, even to herself. For what could she do if indeed the devil has come for her?

A/N: Alright that was Nakia's spotlight chapter for everyone who wanted to see other characters get some shine. Plus, Mephisto is a character from the comics that I think has what it takes to be a truth challenge for our cast of characters. Hope you all enjoyed it! Thank you for reading. ~Concrete Lily.