Chapter 24: Mayhem

With the Vibranium secured, I brought Erik back to his hotel room. I told him I would meet him there in the evening. He didn´t seem all that enthusiastic about having to trust me, but he knew I held all the cards in my hands.

I took a portal back to the ship and got on rigging some of Klaue´s explosives on board to make the whole thing go up in a ball of flames.

I worked mechanically, strictly following Ree´s instructions. Once or twice my thoughts crept away from me when I stepped into puddles of blood or nearly stumbled over someone´s severed head.

I tried not to think about it.

When I was finished with distributing the bombs evenly throughout the ship, I started the timer and took to the sky.

With Hades on my head, just to be careful, I watched as Klaue´s base of operation blew up. I winced at how loud it was.

I remained there for a few minutes, just watching.

I entered Erik´s room through the door this time. I sighed and sat down on the cheap armchair in the corner.

Erik was sitting cross-legged on the bed, cleaning his weapons. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"You look like shit.", he said bluntly, eyes returning to the arsenal laid out before him.

"Yeah, how about we don´t talk about it.", I countered weakly.

Erik shrugged.

"No skin off of my back. Just don´t start getting the jitters now."

"I won´t."

"Good."

He looked up again.

"You up for going out to eat? I have a real appetite for Pizza right now."

I hummed.

"Sure, food is always a good distraction."

"Salmon pizza, hm? I prefer the classics. Doesn´t hold up to NYC pizza though."

"Meh."

"Meh? What do you mean, meh?!"

"I mean this pizza at least doesn´t taste like a heart attack in my early fifties. No matter how, apparently, the water there is great for baking or something, it´s just not my taste."

"… I knew you brits had fucked up taste buds, but this takes the cake."

"You did get the memo about me being part alien, right? I don´t think it has anything to do with being British."

"See?! Now you are making my point for me, your opinion doesn´t count!"

After arguing back and forth, we decided it was best if Erik visibly arrived by plane. Dropping him off on Wakanda´s border with a portal would have raised too many questions right away.

I was afraid knowledge of my involvement might make T`Chaka too cautious.

But before we could act on any plans, I still had some bombshells to drop. Erik might have not been the most trusted of allies, he still deserved the truth though.

"So, what did you want to talk about?", Erik asked as he sat down across from me, a cup of hot chocolate already in front of him.

He took the cup with an amused look, held it up to his nose to take sniff and carefully sipped it.

"Not bad. Still don´t understand why we have to have this conversation here though.", he commented and gestured at my apartment with the cup in his hand.

"Because it is private and soundproof.", I answered, absentmindedly wondering if it had been a bad idea to give the slightly volatile ex-soldier a hot beverage before delivering emotionally distressing news.

Ah, well.

"I wanted to make sure to give you all the info about your father´s death before we get to Wakanda.", I began.

Instantly, Erik turned serious. If before he had been a bit impatient with finally getting to go to Wakanda, now it didn´t even cross his mind, that much was clear.

"First I need to know how much you found out.", I said. "Then I can probably fill some gaps."

Erik´s story was short. Wakanda was thorough in their cover up. He had hunted clues about Wakanda for years, but the evidence of his father´s murder was scarce.

I nodded as I thought on how to put this.

"I don´t know a lot either. I did watch - well, a kind of memory from that night though. The details are a bit hazy but bear with me. Your father was on a war dog assignment. Secretly, he tried to get Vibranium out of Wakanda. I don´t know his plans, if I had to guess, they were probably similar to yours. It was his intel that made Klaue´s theft successful.

What he didn´t know was that another war dog was working right beside him. He ratted him out. When N`Jobu was confronted with that betrayal of trust, he attacked. T`Chaka killed him to save the other Wakandan."

I didn´t look at Erik when I finished the story. Instead, I watched the rain platter against the window. I imagined the weather changes from Italy to New York came across as quite fitting for my companion.

"I don´t think knowing the why changes a lot when it comes to T`Chaka´s faults though. And I can´t bring myself to say that it was self-defense either. Or defense of another's life for that matter. T`Chaka was the Black Panther at that point in time. He was faster, stronger, had better reflexes and a nearly invulnerable armor. But he still had to kill his brother to stop him? Yeah right.", I scoffed.

Oh the wonders of plot holes. And another of T`Chaka´s inadequacies. Just like leaving the young N`Jadaka behind.

I vaguely remembered there being some kind of excuse for that. Something like "we had to keep up the lie". What lie? Taking the young prince before he could see his dead father would have prevented much of his suspicion. Would it have been conspicuous if the boy disappeared? Maybe.

But I severely doubted the police in the 80ies would have cared much about a young black boy going missing in one of the poorer neighborhoods, as cruel as that sounded.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Erik stand up and begin pacing in an attempt to control his rage.

"Do you know who that war dog was?", he asked with a strained voice.

"I don´t know his name, but he is a shaman now. I should be able to point him out when I see him."

Forest Whitaker was quite memorable after all.

Erik nodded.

"Alright. Alright", he said quietly, more to himself than to me.

Then he raised his head and looked at me. Oh, he was mad as fuck.

"I´m more than ready for Wakanda."

Yes, and Wakanda sure isn´t ready for you.

I stayed a few meters behind Eric as he dragged Klaue´s corpse in a black bodybag down the ramp and onto Wakandan soil. The scene reminded me eerily of the one in the movie. Some details were different, but many stayed the same.

Again, Erik was greeted by the leader of the border tribe W´Kabi. Well, "greeted" was a very friendly word for it. Even if I hadn´t been worried about my appearance tipping T`Chaka off, I wasn´t sure they wouldn´t have tried to attack me, had I been visible.

It took Klaue´s corpse, Erik´s war dog tattoo and his father´s ring for W´Kabi to look somewhat convinced. He seemed appreciative of his parents´ killer having been caught and killed, but he was also not as dissatisfied with the Wakandan leadership as he had been in canon.

Still, Erik convinced him to take him to the council chamber.

At the same time that he entered one of the Wakandan hovercrafts, I took off in a different direction.

"Remember, the first clue that they try to get rid of you discreetly, I pull you out.", I told Erik over our comms.

I received an affirmative over his little inlayed console. He couldn´t talk openly, so he had three buttons instead. A yes, a no and an emergency signal. It also transmitted his location to me constantly.

I wouldn´t dare do this without Ree running interference. Wakanda was too paranoid for anything else.

That paranoia was also what made our caution necessary. History had shown that T`Chaka was willing and able to kill family if he thought it best. And he had way less of a connection with Erik than he had with the brother he grew up with.

For everything to go as planned, we were betting on T`Chaka´s guilt overriding his wits.

While Erik was attending his family reunion, I would be exploring the city.

I took my time as I flew through the place I had only ever seen on a screen before. Wakanda truly was a beautiful place. The mix of traditional and technical elements right next to each other gave it a special feeling. No matter where I looked, there were no beggars, nothing that could be identified as slums or the poorer part of town.

It did feel like a utopia.

When I flew lower, I could hear the bustling crowds on the market streets and the laughter of children. I followed the sound and came to a beautiful little park with jungle gyms and playpens. But then, one of the kids playing around jumped down from the top of the highest jungle gym and floated to the ground on fairy like wings.

A mutant.

No one screamed, no one was surprised. Clearly this was a normal occurrence.

My thoughts racing, I flew off. This time I stayed nearer to the street level and kept an eye out on the people around me for a different reason.

Sure enough, in a flight lasting only ten or so minutes, I spotted at least a dozen mutants. Some were made obvious, their easy to spot physical mutations giving them away. With others I recognized them only because they were using similar tricks and equipment to the kids at Xavier´s school. Cuts in certain places on their clothing, unusual accessories, etc.

Again, I felt a roaring anger rise up my spine and light my whole body on fire.

I hadn´t thought about it much but of course Wakanda had to have mutants too. T`Chaka´s hypocrisy was making me sick.

What would he do about the mutants in his own country when they would be required to be registered? Claim they didn´t exist?

That was likely the case. As Wakandans they would never leave this place anyway and even if other nations didn´t believe that there were no Wakandan mutants, they would let it go.

Did these Wakandan mutants know about what was going on? Were they ok with it? Were they just so removed from the rest of the world that they didn´t care?

I had to admit that I had been second-guessing myself after the massacre on Klaue´s ship.

Ree´s count of the crew members came out to about 130 people. I stood by what I told Erik, those people chose their paths in life and would likely never turn back, but still.

130 human lives.

I hadn´t taken all of them myself but it was beyond question that all of these people would still be alive if I hadn´t acted.

For someone whose experience with killing amounted to crushing one scientist and fighting a bunch of aliens, the shift of these last few days and weeks since I killed Magento was bizarre.

But my doubts took backseat to my rage again. This was something that Wakanda had done to themselves. I was just there to facilitate it.

Having had enough of the city, I turned to the surrounding landscape instead. I went out to search for the waterfalls where the traditional duel would take place.

While I looked, I turned on Erik´s mic as chatter in the background. Judging by the jingling and footsteps I could hear, they still had him put in chains and weren´t at the throne hall yet.

I had spotted multiply possible location for the ceremonial place when the frequency of voices went up.

Only after I had decided on the most likely spot did I turn the audio up and had Ree translate.

And just at the right time.

"I am N´Jadaka, son of Prince N´Jobu.", Erik roared. "I found my daddy with Panther claws in his chest! You ain´t a king. You a murderer."

I could hear how he had longed to scream these accusations out for years. From the background came voices of disbelief, the queen one of the loudest. She was clearly outraged at what she assumed to be outrageous lies.

Just then, a voice closer to the mic spoke up.

"I´m afraid not, my Queen."

Another jingling, the sound of metal to metal, and the court broke out in whispers. It took me moment to guess that Erik must have given W´Kabi his ring to present it to the room.

Erik called out a cheeky: "Hey Auntie. Cousin."

And then continued more seriously:

"I´m exercising my blood right to challenge for the mantles of king and Black Panther."

And with that I gave up on making out anything in particular. The council broke out into heated debates immediately, each arguing slightly different perspectives.

But they were all broken off by someone who had remained quiet until that moment.

"Enough!", T´Chaka shouted and silence returned to the hall.

"I accept your challenge- ", he continued calmly.

"But Baba! You can´t –", a destressed someone who I presumed to be T´Challa interrupted.

"I can and I will!", T´Chaka decided forcefully.

"I accept your challenge. Under conditions. There will be one duel, between me and you. Should you win, you will win the crown and the mantle of Black Panther."

"Baba!", a second outcry came from the prince.

"No son, please, this family has already spilled too much blood. No more.", T´Chaka pleaded with his son. The force in his voice was gone, replaced by tiredness.

The queen was keeping conspicuously silent. I was sure there was quite the argument in the king´s future. If he still had one.

"The challenge will take weeks to prepare –", T´Chaka started out, only to be interrupted again.

"Weeks? I don´t need weeks. The only ones that need to be there are me and you, king.", Erik screamed. He spat the last word out like it was a rotten frog on his tongue.

"And get me out of these chains."

"Very well. The challenge shall take place tomorrow at noon. Until then you will be taken to a temporary guest chamber to prepare."

Not paying attention anymore, I grinned. It went better than I had expected. T`Chaka trying to talk his son out of fighting Erik was truly the best-case scenario.

Not because I feared that Erik would lose. Quite the opposite, really. In the movie it was quite obvious that Erik was the better fighter between the two cousins. Which was why it was so stupid that he refused resuming the duel with T´Challa in the film after T´Challa comes back from the dead. It gave the Dora Milaje cause to turn against him. And for no good reason.

In the end, Erik was only beaten when both the fighters were empowered by the herb and in armor, clashing in an environment T`Challa was intimately familiar with.

Anyway.

With T´Challa alive, he would serve as his cousin´s keeper. If Erik got truly out of hand for some reason or other, I could be sure T´Challa would step in, his sense of duty winning over any promises he may make to his father.

Go me!

I did a flip in the air in celebration before I continued my exploration. This time my goal was to find the most beautiful spot for a sunset. They were supposed to be breathtaking here after all.

I was hovering in the air, the silent and invisible spectator to the preparations for the ritual below as the sun reached its zenith.

Wakanda´s different tribes took their spaces on the rocky cliffs after the water flow of the river above was artificially stopped. There were many empty spots, most likely due to the short notice, but those that were there, were visibly distraught. Despite the reveal of the king´s crimes yesterday they would be mourning his loss.

It was remarkable how few held out hope for T´Chaka to win. But then again, the king had made his intention clear when he asked for no more royal blood to be spilled.

As I watched the shaman coming out, I recalled the conversation I had with Erik the night before. I warned him that the shaman who led the ceremonial duel would most likely be the person who had betrayed his father and that he may use that fact to plead for T´Chaka´s life. He seemed enraged but I reminded him that he had all the time in the world to deal with that man and to not lose his cool or drop his guard around the shaman. I could only hope he would listen.

Brutally killing him in front of the royal family and the council had not done anything for him in canon.

Finally, everyone important had assembled. Of course, Erik made an entrance by arriving last.

Despite my confidence in him, as the start of the duel drew closer I found myself tensing up.

This was the first time I was on the "villain´s side" after all. I had read fanfictions that pushed the idea of some sort of plot driven fate, somewhere where the protagonist will always have to fight against an ominous force to succeed.

I never particularly liked that trope; it just seemed a bit lazy to me. Now I liked it even less. I didn´t enjoy the idea of Erik dying by slipping or something, just so that "the good guys" could win.

I barely registered the king´s last appeals to Erik, as useless as they were.

Erik just smiled angrily and launched into an explanation of how he had trained for years, just for this moment. How he had killed hundreds. How many of those lives could have been spared if Wakanda had taken an interest in changing the world.

He made his point by shedding his upper body garments and showing the scars that signified the number of lives he had taken.

With that T´Chaka seemed to resign himself to his fate.

The fight began.

The old king had a shield in one hand, a short spike in the other. Erik had the same spike and a sword.

The differences became very clear, very quick.

T´Chaka still moved like an experienced warrior, having fulfilled the role of Black Panther for years. But his body just couldn´t keep up anymore.

He was largely on the defensive, having trouble keeping up with parrying and blocking his opponent´s strikes.

Erik was faster, more nimble and sturdier. His only weakness was his anger.

More than once did let his emotions guide him into moves that opened up his guard. But T´Chaka didn´t take advantage of the openings, partially because he lacked the stamina to counterattack and keep himself out of harm´s way, and because, I think, his heart wasn´t in it.

The king had resigned himself to lose. His pride just wouldn´t let him go without a fight, not in front of his kids.

Both T´Challa and Shuri were standing on the sidelines, screaming their hearts out for their father to win. Next to them, queen Ramonda just looked on silently, grief etched into her face. In the end, she knew her husband better than anyone.

It took a good minute for Erik to draw blood. After that, it was quickly over.

The first hit slashed open the king´s left leg when he couldn´t evade in time.

Erik´s next barrage of hits came quick and hard. Having to rely heavily on his shield now, T´Chaka took more and more small hits until Erik managed to push the king´s shield hand to the side where a second strike at it catapulted it out T´Chaka´s hold.

The fight was basically over at that point.

With a kick from Erik the king skidded a good five meters over the ground. With a groan T´Chaka weakly pushed himself above the water as Erik approached him slowly.

"This is your king?", Erik called out to the Wakandans present.

"That is no king. A murderer. A weakling. A coward. But no king."

At hearing his cousin mock his father and seeing him on the ground, defeated, T´Challa had to be held back by the Dora Milaje and his mother. With tears in his eyes the prince snarled at the people stopping him.

I wondered if they had already given him the mixture that took away the herb´s powers, or if he held back instinctively against the royal guard and his family. They should not have been able to restrict him like that.

Meanwhile, T´Chaka laid gasping on the ground, his back to the steep drop behind him. Erik walked up to him slowly, a wide, cruel grin stretching across his face. One that only the king and I could fully see.

Erik stopped in front of the fallen leader of Wakanda and leaned down to say something. I couldn´t hear it. I was too far away. I could imagine what he was saying, however.

Then, with a swift strike, Erik decapitated his uncle. And won the duel.

I shook my head, a slight smile spreading on my face despite my unease at having had a hand in forcing two people to watch their father die in front of them.

He did it.

As the trembling shaman approached the victorious warrior with the necklace that would name him king, I flew down.

I landed slightly behind them, turning visible just after the necklace was turned over. Immediately, the Dora Milaje aimed their spears at me and the confused shouting started.

What I did not expect was who spoke up first.

"Bluelight.", T´Challa called out, every fiber of his being drenched in grief and anger. "No matter your morals, this a matter of Wakanda. I don´t know how you entered here, but do not interfere."

I looked at the prince, stunned into speechlessness for a moment. Very noble. Utterly foolish too.

I laughed to nearly everyone´s surprise.

"And why would I want to do such a thing.", I said and turned to my ally.

"Does that mean I can call you N´Jadaka now?"

N´Jadaka grinned at me.

"Well, it´s King N´Jadaka, actually. But I think I can make an exception for you."

I held out a hand and he grasped it, pulling me into half-hug to pat me on the back.

The look on everyone´s face was priceless.

Truly, revenge tasted sweet. And I did warn you that I had a sweet tooth.

AN: And another one! The next one will have to wait a week though…

Did I put in that coffee scene only so that I could have it pay off with the revenge=sweet and sweet tooth thing? Why yes, I did indeed.

Also, kind of funny how my least favorite dialogue is the one I took directly from the movie. I just doesn´t hit the same when Michael B. Jordan isn´t the one delivering it. Looks kind of stupid on paper, honestly.

Just want to point something out again, the perspective of the story is highly biased. Which means, things that are presented as facts, aren´t. Some stuff is kinda true, some is outright false.

Examples!

1, noticed how I write "king", "prince" and "queen" until the very end where it says "King"? Did that because of Al´s disdain towards monarchies. King N´Jadaka is the first one he is personally invested in. (I don´t actually expect anyone to spot that. It´s more a thing for my personal enjoyment.)

2, when Al says that Killmonger had no good reason to not fight T´Challa traditionally, that is false! By that point in time Killmonger had already burned down the herb garden. So, when the ceremony would have had him drink the stuff that gets rid of the herb, he would have been kind of fucked. Al doesn´t remember that.

Anyway, what did´ya think?