Okay, parts of this suck. I know they suck. I'm so sorry. I really, really fought with this chapter. But thanks you so much to all you guys who have commented and read and given kudos. You guys are really, really awesome. I am very happy to have gotten out a chapter for you before the year ends.
On that note Happy New Year to everyone and I'll see you guys in 2019!
Disclaimer: I do not own Black Panther.
T'Challa walks in like he owns the room. His face doesn't give away any of his earlier irritation and Erik surmises that he's put it away already. The expression he shows the prisoner is neutral and terribly difficult to read and Erik grudgingly gives his cousin points for it.
The prisoner still has his arrogant demeanor but when contrasted sharply against T'Challa, he looks like a child at play. There is no doubt who the true power is in the room. Neither however, is there any doubt that this interrogation will be difficult.
Whoever he is, whatever else he is, their prisoner is a businessman and businessmen are notorious for being slippery sharks. Wordplay is their ballroom and they dance nearly every second of their lives. Power or not, their prisoner has got a lot of experience under his belt and Erik isn't quite sure that his cousin can match him.
Next to him princess has quieted, jaw set, muscles tensing almost unconsciously. Her eyes are fixed on the feed from the room and a thin display on the side of the video. Erik tilts his head into the glass to see better.
Oh. Princess is somehow monitoring the vitals of the prisoner in the room. T'Challa has his very own royal lie detector. Ain't that cute? He refocused on his own feed curious to see how T'Challa will start this interrogation.
"Kadon Teremis," he said, standing opposite the prisoner. "I would say you are ghost because of how you seem to exist only certain planes of the world. But there is so much darkness that can be traced back to you, you are more like a nightmare."
Their prisoner scoffs. "Progress is always a nightmare for those who oppose it."
T'Challa leans back a little and cocks his head. "I fail to see how killing people and exporting their organs is progress."
The prisoner laughs. "Not everyone has the ability to heal deadly wounds with the snap of a finger. I have developed a trade that caters to a niche market. I help those with particular needs. Just because the world doesn't approve of those needs does not mean they shouldn't be filled. Afterall what society deems acceptable is always a fickle thing."
"Death of innocents is never acceptable," T'Challa says and Erik can see that his cousin is pissed as all hell already.
"I make use of the resources available," Kadon Teremis says. "All those innocents, our donors, would have been nothing. They would have given nothing to the grand scheme of things. They are nothing, useful only for cultivating slums and spreading disease. Why if we hadn't taken them half of them would have been infected with HIV and died in a year or two. So why should we waste what they don't care a damn about? Instead of them living meaningless lives and dying just as meaninglessly, we gave them the chance to help others who would have made a better contribution to society."
"Erik," Shuri whispers. "Cousin."
Erik turns his head stiffly to her to find her looking at him in concern. She nodded to his hands and he realizes that his knuckles are white where he is gripping the edges of the tablet. He suspects that if it wasn't Wakanda make it would have been crushed by now.
"Son of a bitch," Erik spits but eases his grip on the tablet.
T'Challa dips his head ever so slightly and Erik realizes that he is agreeing with his assessment of the prisoner.
"Your logic," T'Challa pronounces gravely, "is a poor shield against the atrocities that you have committed."
"I'm not the one who watched while hundreds of people died when I had the chance to save them," Kadon says. "I used what would have been wasted and gave lives to people who would have died. Members of the community that contributed to life."
"Every person contributes to life," T'Challa says, "And it is not up to us to decide if life is wasted. But the truth, Kadon Teremis, is that you do not care for the lives you claim you save. You care only for profit, for money, for the luxury and power such money gives you."
The prisoner's eyes are cold. "And you don't? Let's not forget that you and your people kept medical advances that could save so much of the world away from everyone. Every little child who died of cancer, who needed a heart, a lung, a kidney, a liver. You killed them."
Erik finds himself waiting for the answer, waiting to see what his cousin will say. Because as much as a monster Teremis is, he has a point. Princess on the other hand is watching him. He gives her a side glare and she sighs but says nothing.
It's enough to make him mad all over again because she's not even trying to defend herself.
"I had a duty to protect my people first," T'Challa says softly. "We were not prepared to fight the world when they came for us. We were not settled enough in ourselves to continue to be who we were and be who we needed to be. We were not brave enough. We were not strong enough. And the world was not mature enough to take what good we would give them and not turn it into weaponry. For every child we would have saved, ten more would have killed by weapons built from our technology. As much I wish it, the world is not made up of only good people. Good intentions can have disastrous consequences. We could not, in good faith, allow those consequences rampage over an unsuspecting world. We are not innocent. I am aware we have taken far too long to share our resources with the world. But we are attempting to make amends for that now."
It's a blink and you'll miss it movement but his cousin's head tilts ever so subtly towards the camera that is feeding to Erik's tablet. Acknowledgement of his role in Wakanda's choice to show themselves to the world.
Erik notes it but he's not done thinking through T'Challa's answer. The king of Wakanda can be a gifted speaker when he is ready and Erik doesn't feel like falling for charisma and pretty words today.
On the other side of the glass Shuri is still, waiting for him to decide what he thinks.
"Not prepared to fight the world my black big toe!" Erik snaps.
Shuri chokes and then frantically smacks her chest to dislodge her horror.
Back in the room Teremis laughs. "Well spoken, King T'Challa. But your people's weapons are far advanced than anyone's. You could have defended yourselves just fine."
"When you and the organ trafficking bastard agree on a point, you should probably rethink your stance," Shuri tell him. Erik sneers at her and she smirks. Evidently princess has recovered. Erik would have rather she choked on her horror until she asphyxiated. He's never killed someone from a one-liner before.
"You mis-understand me," T'Challa says to his prisoner. His voice is so soft it's clearly a threat. "Wakanda has always had the means to protect itself. However, we did not wish to have the blood of the world on our hands. We are warriors but we do not seek out war."
"Huh," Erik huffs out a laugh. Damn but his cousin is good with words. It's times like this that Erik can see that he's been groomed to be a king and to handle the politics that invariably comes with the post. It's easy to see the man, or the black panther when you look at his cousin. It's far harder to see the politician that lies hidden in the mantle of King.
"You could almost make a girl forgive you for forgetting her birthday cuz."
Neither T'Challa's position or his expression changes but Erik get's the distinct impression that he really, really wants to sigh.
"He is not that good," Shuri tells him. "He forgot his first girlfriend's birthday and she dumped him."
T'Challa puts one hand behind his back where the prisoner can't see it and gives a pointed middle -finger to both of them. On the plus side, he looks almost regally militant standing with one hand behind his back.
"Aww and here I thought you were above that kind of thing, cuz. What happened to being a good man?"
"It dies when you are an older brother, N'Jadaka." Shuri tells him with mock seriousness.
T'Challa ignores them, speaking over their chatter to Teremis. "You on the other hand, you would kill innocents to line your own pockets and call it mercy." His words are a little pointed, clearly trying to get the peanut gallery to shut up.
Since it is a piece of shit they're interrogating, Erik quiets and knocks the glass to get Shuri to do the same. Princess gives him a look but settles down as well.
"But," continues T'Challa. "I am not here to discuss morality. I am here to find out why you targeted Wakanda. You could have just let your man be captured. A loss, but not one that could not be recovered from and such a course of action would leave you undiscovered. Yet you chose to kidnap me and expose yourself. Why? What have we done that has rated such interest from you?"
"You rate an interest from the whole world," Teremis replied.
"That fails to answer my question," T'Challa replies.
"I dislike when people poke into my business," Teremis says steadily, eyes narrowing.
"Then you off them," Erik says. "You don't kidnap them for a party, not when there's a good chance they can escape."
T'Challa doesn't respond to Erik, he can't but:
"I am not very conversant with the practice of criminals," T'Challa says. "But I do know that often when someone is a problem, criminals tend to get rid of them. They don't usually kidnap people who may have the resources to escape."
"You're welcome," Erik says.
"We knew that already," Shuri says dryly. Erik flips her off and she replies in kind.
"Your bullet proof suit makes that a little difficult," Teremis replies.
"Then we are back to where we first began," T'Challa replies. "You could have sacrificed the philanthropist and kept yourself a secret, rebuild your business out of our eye and continue undisturbed. But instead you chose to capture me, revealing weapons you had made specifically for the purpose, and exposing yourself. Even if we had not found you then, you know we would have gone looking for whoever had manufactured such weaponry. So why expose yourself? What did you have to gain from such a thing?"
"You're stomping on a lot of toes," Teremis said after a moment. "Capturing and killing you would open a lot of doors."
"Bullshit," Erik says.
"Lie!" Shuri pronounces at the same moment.
"My little sister can lie better than that," T'Challa says to his prisoner. "And she is a terrible liar."
"I am not!" Princess snaps offended. Erik snorts.
"You can't lie worth a damn princess."
"Try again," T'Challa encourages his prisoner.
Teremis clenches his jaw but says nothing.
"What do you have to gain by coming after Wakanda?" T'Challa repeats.
Still their prisoner says nothing.
"I will only ask one more time," T'Challa tells him.
"Or what?" Teremis sneers. "You'll torture me? Somehow I think that you're beyond that sort of thing."
"Somehow," Erik snarls, trapped in his silver cage. "I don't."
Shuri twitches as she aborts some motion and Erik whips his attention to her.
"What don't like the truth princess?!"
"You are paying for the consequences of your actions," Shuri says. "We are allowing you to pay that price as humanely as we can. As anyone can."
"Should have let me die!" Erik snarled at her.
T'Challa exhales softly and Erik knows its for him.
"Shut up Cuz!"
T'Challa put both hands behind his back. To Teremis it looks like he's looming over him. But Erik can see that he has carefully encircled one wrist with the fingers of the other hand. It sparks of a memory of T'Challa gripping his wrist back in Shuri's lab, a memory of attempted reassurance instead of restraint.
Erik snarls wordlessly at him because he doesn't need his reassurance, he doesn't want his comfort. He doesn't want his freaking cage. He wants his life and his freedom and the freedom for his people.
"You agreed to help, N'Jadaka," Shuri murmurs. Erik slams his hand into the glass and she filches away. He takes satisfaction from her fear but reminds himself that it's a long game he has to play and if he plays nice, he can speed up the timeline.
In the meantime, T'Challa has continued the interrogation despite his attention being split. The only indication that he has been listening to two different conversations is the stiffness in which he holds himself.
"You are right in that we do not hold with torture," T'Challa replies. "But that does not mean we do not have our ways of extracting information."
Teremis laughed. "If it were so easy and so…acceptable to those who signed the Sokovia accords you would have done so by now. By the way, what do they think of your little jaunt?"
"You're asking the wrong question cuz," Erik says before T'Challa can reply. "It's not what he has to gain. It's what he has to lose if he didn't take you and Wakanda out of the equation."
"Let me worry about that," T'Challa says to their prisoner, refusing to let him lead the interrogation off course.
"He won't say anything brother," Shuri said. "Not if it really matters."
T'Challa stiffens ever so slightly and Erik knows that his naive cousin does not want to turn to those other measures he mentioned. Long game he reminds himself.
"Princess is right," Erik says, "You want to get that information out of him, you can't do it with a toothpick. You need sledgehammer to hammer that shit out of him."
"We don't do torture!" Shuri hissed at him. He ignored her.
"So be a freaking sledgehammer cuz or are you too nice for that?"
"How do you be a sledgehammer?!" Shuri asks throwing her hands up in the air.
Behind his back, T'Challa turns his palms up in a classic, 'I don't know' gesture.
Erik scoffs. "I guess they don't teach that in Wakandan warrior school."
"No apparently it's proprietary to government destabilization school," Shuri hisses at him.
Erik ignores her. For the first time he switches on his actual comm to T'Challa instead of speaking through Shuri's.
"Sledgehammer 101, cuz," he says. "Keep up and say exactly what I say, how I say it." He doesn't wait for T'Challa to agree. His cousin has been silent far too long anyway.
"Okay let's cut the bullshit," Erik says. "The only reason you're here is because you messed up and people like you don't mess up unless they're desperate. Which usually either means two things. They're trying to get something they need or they're trying to protect what they got."
He doesn't expect T'Challa not to hesitate and is surprised when his cousin speaks seconds after he does, rattling off everything Erik says while copying his tone.
He catches himself before he gives away his surprise and concentrates on what effect his words have on the prisoner. Shuri twists to put her back tot eh glass so that he hcan read the prisoner's vitals easier.
"Now a consummate businessman like you always knows when to play the market. And a criminal good enough to achieve ghost status in this day and age doesn't do business without backup plans. Which means you have multiple source lines for anything you need. You," he said pointedly, "don't need shit. So that leaves us with the other option. You're trying to protect whatever it is, is big enough to risk garnering the attention of Wakanda and capturing it's king."
"Vitals are rising," Shuri reported softly. The prisoner has shifted slightly and is glaring at T'Challa, jaw clenched tightly. But he's still refusing to speak.
"Fine," Erik says and listens to T'Challa copy him. "If you want to play, sure." He fixes his eyes on the prisoner through the tablet. "But I don't play." He glances at Shuri. "What do you have on him princess?"
With a flick of her fingers, the information appears on his tablet.
Back in the room, Teremis shrugs. "Is that supposed to scare me?"
"No," Erik says, the beginnings of a smile twitching on the corners of his mouth. "But even ghosts are born."
"What?" Teremis asks, frowning at T'Challa.
"Aww, mommy dearest is the last one you've got. You seem to take of care her."
Besides his Shuri stirs like she'll say something but Erik puts up a finger to shut her up. She scowls at him but obeys.
"I thought you people didn't do torture," Teremis says but his voice definitely has an edge in it.
"We don't," Erik bares his teeth at the screen and is surprised when T'Challa does the same because he's pretty sure that his cousin is not looking at any feeds to his cage at the moment.
"But you thought for a second that we would though. That's cool. Nice to know even psychopaths still has some love for mommy dearest. Warms my heart really."
"What's your point?!" snaps Teremis.
"That you're not such a cold son of a bitch that you think you are," Erik snaps back at him. "I know men like you. You all think you got steel balls handing on the end of a steel spine but you all got soft spots. You all got weakness that I can find and drill into you."
He's leaning forward even though he isn't in the room. On screen T'Challa leans forward hands pressing so carefully onto the tabletop, the expression of carefully control power is like a hit in the face. His cousin is painfully close to Teremis and the man is tense and coiled and afraid.
From the flicker of confusion and the ways his eyes are darting gently sided to side, he doesn't even know why he is afraid. It's all instinct. He's caged in a room with something very dangerous and he's only now realizing it.
"It's not going to happen today," Erik whispers. "You're gonna hold out for a bit. A week, maybe two. And then it starts."
"What starts?" Teremis asks.
"The torture," Erik says.
"You don't…." starts Teremis.
"Oh we ain't gonna lay a hand on you," Erik says with a smile that is oth sunny and utterly razor sharp. "But in a week or two, we're going to know how you tick. I am going to know every insecurity you ever had. I'm going to know your deepest fears. I'm going to know your greatest regrets. I'm going to know what drives you, what passions keep you alight, what gives you satisfaction. And then, then I'm going to take each and every one of those things, twist 'em and drive 'em back into your skull."
Teremis starts to sputter a reply but Erik, T'Challa, doesn't let him get far.
"I will break you on the back of your insecurities, I will cut you open with the blade of your regrets, I will burn your passions in front of your eyes until you scream in the fires and drown you in the satisfaction of dying in your worst fears. You'll be nothing but a voiceless wisp in a silver cage, screaming for death and I won't give it to you. By the time I am done with you ghost, you'd wish you were corporeal enough so that I could rip out your heart in my bare hands. You think that you can handle what's coming? You can't. You think you're big and bad? You don't even scratch the surface. You know nothing of monsters and less of determination. And the best part? The best part is that in the end you'll want what I want. You won't have realized that any of it happened until you wake up one morning and you're just a shattered corpse held together by duct tape. So protect your business, I'll shatter your mind and then I'll take what I want."
T'Challa is less that three inches away from Teremis and he has copied Erik straight down to the bones. Teremis is staring at him with undisguised fear because Erik hadn't been playing. He knew that they'd break him and he knew that there was no way he could hold up against it.
Without another word, T'Challa whirls and leaves the room leaving him alone with his fears.
Back in his cell Erik lets out a shaky breath. His muscles are bunched hard under his t-shirt and his jaw is clenched, veins standing out. It's freaking ironic, he thinks, that the hammer he hit Teremis with is perilously close to the one that his cousins are using on him. Well ain't that bitchin'?
Movement makes him whirl towards the glass and he lashes out. He misses Shuri's fingers by mere millimeters as she pulls her hand out of the cell from where she'd been pressing her fingers on his arm to ground him. He pushes his hand through the circle but she jerks back and he snarls at her as he misses her again.
"Shuri? Erik?" T'Challa calls through the comms.
Erik ignores him, locking eyes with Shuri. Her jaw is clenched but she holds his gaze. The guards have their spears aimed at him as he grins lazily at her, arm still dangling through the opening she'd made in the glass.
"'Sup princess?"
"Put you arm back in Erik," Shuri said. "Or I'll close the glass and you'll lose the arm."
Erik scoff but pulls his arm back in. The glass seals over and Shuri takes the circular contraption from off the glass.
"Shuri?! N'Jadaka?!"
"We're fine brother," Shuri says eyes still locked into his, body still coiled for a fight.
"Yeah we're good cuz," Erik tells him smirking at Shuri.
"I'll meet you in the conference room," Shuri tells T'Challa still not taking her eyes of, of him. Then she turns and leaves.
"See you later princess!" he calls after her.
I hope despite the sucky bits you guys enjoyed this chapter though!
Okay so a bunch of random things: I was absent through the month of November at least, due to Nanowrimo. I did make my 50,000 word goal though so yay! I hope you guys had a good Christmas or Hanukkah. Once more wishing you guys all the best for 2019! And if you haven't seen Into the Spiderverse yet you should probably go do that.